Finding Spiritual Sanity in an insane world part 2
Acts 18: 18 So Paul still remained [e]a good while. Then he took leave of the brethren and sailed for Syria, and Priscilla and Aquila were with him. He had his hair cut off at Cenchrea, for he had taken a vow. 19 And he came to Ephesus, and left them there; but he himself entered the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. 20 When they asked him to stay a longer time with them, he did not consent, 21 but took leave of them, saying, “I[f] must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem; but I will return again to you, God willing.” And he sailed from Ephesus.
22 And when he had landed at Caesarea, and [g]gone up and greeted the church, he went down to Antioch. 23 After he had spent some time there, he departed and went over the region of Galatia and Phrygia [h]in order, strengthening all the disciples.
Finding Spiritual Sanity in an insane world
https://thewashingtonstandard.com/7-examples-of-the-complete-utter-insanity-of-our-society/
Reading the news has become like going to a freak show. You never know what you are going to see each day, but it is almost certainly going to be nutty.
We truly have become an “idiocracy”
#3 One of the hottest new social media trends is to show off the fact that your body is inhabited by multiple “beings”…
Several TikTok and YouTube accounts of such broken people, who refer to themselves as a “host” or “system” of multiple beings, have millions of online followers. They exhibit their various personalities for online notoriety in the guise of “educating” and “promoting awareness.”
One TikToker who says she has DID explains in a Q&A about her personalities, “I can’t force anyone [inside me] to come out but I can communicate very well within the system and ask someone to come out, but sometimes it’s very involuntary.”
#5 After denying a transgender student the ability to use a particular bathroom, a school board in Virginia has been forced to pay out over 1.3 million dollars…
A Virginia school board will pay more than $1.3 million to the American Civil Liberties Union after losing a court battle involving a transgender student who sued the school over its bathroom policy.
According to the Virginian-Pilot, the Gloucester County School Board on Thursday agreed to pay the ACLU the full amount of costs and fees associated with its representation of one of its former students, Gavin Grimm, marking the end of a lengthy six-year legal fight.
As word of this case spreads around, schools all over the nation will be deathly afraid to ever tell anyone what bathrooms they can or cannot use.
Nobody will want to be the next victim to get hit with a million dollar lawsuit, and it probably won’t be too long before the “boys” and “girls” signs on school bathrooms disappear entirely.
#6 When I was growing up, the American flag was proudly displayed in our classrooms and we said the Pledge of Allegiance every day.
But today the American flag is being taken down in classrooms all over America, and one public school teacher in California is urging her students to pledge allegiance to a new flag…
A Southern California public school teacher was caught admitting to encouraging her students to pledge allegiance to the LGBT pride flag as an alternative to the American flag, bragging of the indoctrination on her own TikTok account.
The teacher, identified as Kristin Pitzen of Newport Mesa School District in Orange County, recounts taking down the American flag, an then pointing to the LGBT flag as an alternative.
“We do have a flag in the class that you can pledge allegiance to,” said Pitzen when a student asked about the American flag that she had removed from the classroom “because of COVID.”
These may be exceptions, but even things happening in my own school, which is pretty conservative, would be alarming to many of you.
Paul’s world was not that much different; value systems, cultures, cults, deviancy, government regulation.
He had to live his life with a central focus, making disciples, following Christ, not being discouraged, maintaining his sanity. And we can see how he did it by analyzing his habits.
These are the points I got from our Scripture passage;
Disciples should celebrate the small things, surround yourself with fellow travelers, distinguish between Scripture and tradition, keep working, remember that God is in control; not you, focus on present disciples
prayer
I. Celebrate the small things
We are admonished to “think on good things.”
18 So Paul still remained [e]a good while.
Encouraging passages
Proverbs 4:18 The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.
A second key to preserving Spiritual sanity is to surround yourself with fellow travelers.
II. Surround yourself with fellow travelers
Fellow travelers are those who are on the same Christian spiritual journey that you are.
Then he took leave of the brethren and sailed for Syria, and Priscilla and Aquila were with him.
1 Corinthians 16:19 The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Priscilla greet you heartily in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 Two are better than one, Because they have a good reward for their labor. 10 For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For he has no one to help him up.
Genesis 2:18 18 And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone;
Celebrate, value coworkers…
III. Distinguish between Scripture and Traditions
Paul knew the difference.
18 So Paul still remained [e]a good while. Then he took leave of the brethren and sailed for Syria, and Priscilla and Aquila were with him. He had his hair cut off at Cenchrea, for he had taken a vow.
So, what did they do in this vow?
Numbers 6: Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When either a man or woman [a]consecrates an offering to take the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the LORD, 3 he shall separate himself from wine and similar drink; he shall drink neither vinegar made from wine nor vinegar made from similar drink; neither shall he drink any grape juice, nor eat fresh grapes or raisins. 4 All the days of his [b]separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, from seed to skin.
5 ‘All the days of the vow of his separation no razor shall come upon his head; until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to the LORD, he shall be holy. Then he shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. 6 All the days that he separates himself to the LORD he shall not go near a dead body. 7 He shall not [c]make himself unclean even for his father or his mother, for his brother or his sister, when they die, because his separation to God is on his head. 8 All the days of his separation he shall be holy to the LORD.
13 ‘Now this is the law of the Nazirite: When the days of his separation are fulfilled, he shall be brought to the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 14 And he shall present his offering to the LORD: one male lamb in its first year without blemish as a burnt offering, one ewe lamb in its first year without blemish as a sin offering, one ram without blemish as a peace offering, 15 a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and their grain offering with their drink offerings.
18 Then the Nazirite shall shave his consecrated head at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and shall take the hair from his consecrated head and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace offering.
19 ‘And the priest shall take the boiled shoulder of the ram, one unleavened cake from the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and put them upon the hands of the Nazirite after he has shaved his consecrated hair, 20 and the priest shall wave them as a wave offering before the LORD; they are holy for the priest, together with the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the heave offering. After that the Nazirite may drink wine.’
They were totally dedicating themselves to God and separating from pleasure for a time. The wine and grapes symbolized the festive part of life that they were separating from. And not cutting the hair was an outward sign to others that you were consecrated to God. They see your long hair and are reminded not to tempt you by offering you wine or grapes.
So how long did they do this? The Mishna, Jewish rules, regulations, prescribed that a Nazirite vow could be 30 days, 60 days or 100 days. And after that, you cut your hair, took it to the temple and burned it along with a sacrifice.
So, Paul makes this vow, at some point leaves Corinth, arrives in Cenchrea, and by this time his 30 day vow time is over, so he cuts his hair. And now he has to take that hair on a 1500 mile trip to get to the temple.
So, Paul took a Nazarite vow. Why did he do that? Well, as I said before, this vow was usually taken when someone wanted to express gratitude to God for a special blessing or a special deliverance. Had Paul experienced a special blessing or deliverance? Well just before we are told of this vow, we read about how Paul was taken to court, accused, and then exonerated by Gallio. And out of that he was blessed with a prolonged time of ministry in Corinth.
But what is the point for us preacher? Your point was that a disciple needs to be able to distinguish between tradition and Scripture. And let me further say that a disciple has to distinguish between legalism and grace.
But why is Paul doing this? Isn’t this Old Testament law? Yes it is, and it was Jewish tradition. Are we supposed to take Nazarite vows? No. the Nazarite vow was a special time of separating yourself to God’s service. As believers, with the Holy Spirit, that is all the time. Paul wrote this later.
2 Corinthians 6:16-18
16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you[a] are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.” 17 Therefore “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.” 18 “I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the LORD Almighty.”
So, we don’t need vows of separation from external things.
Romans 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
Galatians 5:4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
But there is a second reason we don’t apply the Nazarite vow to ourselves.
No. Remember, as I said last week, we have to interpret the book of Acts differently, because it is historic narrative. I said then, just because something happens in the Bible, doesn’t mean that it is supposed to happen in our lives. We go to doctrinal books for that. And those doctrines and instructions are often illustrated in historic books like Acts.
Paul is taking this vow, because he feels a great deal of gratitude and thanks toward God because of the momentary improvement of his circumstance. And so he is expressing his thanks to God in the most extreme way that a Jew could; by taking a Nazarite vow.
But make no mistake, Paul knew the difference between the Old Testament law, and New Testament grace. He knew the difference between holding to traditions and following Scripture.
And if we are going to find Spiritual sanity in an insane world, we need to know what is Scripture and what is tradition.
We can’t get caught up with traditions, not Scripture.
I remember going to Bible studies where somebody taught that you needed to have a daily devotional time, and it needed to be in the morning. I used to feel so guilty, because I couldn’t do it. I’d get up early. I’d read my Bible half-asleep. I don’t wake up for a good hour after I get out of bed.
There have been many legalistic things in the past that have caused a lot of needless hand-wringing.
We are going to continue with this next week.
Sometimes we can give the impression in church that following Christ is stressful, and overwhelming. Every week we come to hear the preacher tell us one more thing that we are not doing that we should be doing.
But Jesus said, “Matthew 11:29-30 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am [a]gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
As I’ve thought about my own Christian walk as I get older, the thing that has helped me most is establishing boundaries and routines. Boundaries are self-imposed barriers, rules for yourself, that, if followed, will keep you from stepping over into the areas of your greatest temptations.
Routines are rituals that you incorporate into your life that call you upward. For example, we pray before meals. But if you want to build up your prayer life, you can set other times as “times of prayer.” Our Director of Missions sets an alarm on his phone for a certain time each day, to remind him to pray for certain people.
And that’s really what a lot of this is. Ways to stay sane, to grow as a disciple, is not usually accomplished with great big monumental events, but with small incremental changes.
Celebrate, value coworkers, Distinguish between Scripture and Traditions
IV. Keep working
Regardless of results
19 And he came to Ephesus, and left them there; but he himself entered the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.
So, remember the story, Paul left Corinth taking Aquila and Priscilla with him as coworkers. He is headed to Jerusalem with a bag of his own hair that he cut in Cenchrea. Remember that he took a Nazarite vow as a way of expressing his gratitude to God for the peaceful ministry he had for a year and a half in Corinth. Now he gets to Ephesus. Ephesus is a port city, so this may have just been a layover until the journey could continue by sea to Syria. In any case, he doesn’t stay in town long. This is his first ministry in this city. But he isn’t planning on hanging around long, because he has to complete his Nazarite vow, and get back to Jerusalem in time for “the feast.” Possibly the feast of Pentecost. Here’s what it says.
20 When they asked him (who? The people he met in the synagogue of Ephesus) to stay a longer time with them, he did not consent, 21 but took leave of them, saying, “I[f] must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem;
Now, why does he need to get back to Jerusalem? Possibly because he intends to complete his Nazarite vow by burning his hair, along with a sacrifice.
So, he arrives in this port city for a short stop. It says that he leaves Priscilla and Aquila then he himself enters the synagogue. My question was, “Why didn’t Aquila and Priscilla go to the synagogue with him?” Well, we know that they, like Paul are leather workers, tentmakers. And it seems that the plan is for them to stay in Ephesus for a while. We find in verse 26 that they acquire or have a home there. We find out later that they open their home to be the meeting place for the church. So, it may be that they already had connections, or even property in Ephesus, and that upon arrival, they had some business to attend to, or some people to meet.
Well, I told you at the start that this point was about maintaining your sanity by the principle; “keep working.” Well, where do we find that principle in this story? Right here. Think about it. Paul, Aquila and Priscilla arrive by boat to Ephesus. Aquila and Priscilla leave. There’s not even an indication that he will be spending any more significant time with them. He leaves them. “We’ll see you if we see you.” He’s not planning on staying long. This is a short layover. Maybe they are staying overnight, to leave early the next morning. And, it seems from the text that he planned on returning to the region, after going to Jerusalem, very quickly. So, Paul is alone. If it were me, do you know what I’d do? Sounds like nap time to me. Maybe get a little reading and study done. Take a breather. Aquila and Priscilla say, “Paul we need to go check on the house, connect with our relatives, or business associates. Hey, why don’t you come with?” But, reading between the lines, Paul says, “No, I’ve got more important work to do. What does Paul do?
“he himself entered the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.”
He decided that even if he only had a day or two, he needed to keep up the work. He keeps on doing what he has always done. He arrives in a town where the gospel hasn’t been preached before. He goes to the synagogue and strikes up a conversation about Jesus as the Promised Messiah. I find it amazing that he did this at this time. He could have easily said, “Well, I’m leaving pretty quick, Priscilla and Aquila are not with me right now, so anything I do is just going to be a loose end here in Ephesus. Maybe I’ll wait to get started upon my return.” No, he uses his time to keep plugging away.
Ephesians 5:15-17 See then that you walk [a]circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
And it’s good that he did. This is probably the start of the Ephesian church. And the Ephesian church becomes a very important one as the years pass. Paul writes a letter later to them that is rich in doctrine.
Christ Himself directs a message to them, along with 6 other churches, in the vision of the Revelation. Christ says of the Ephesian church,
“To the angel[a] of the church in Ephesus write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.
They become a prominent church. Which brings me to a point about the Christian life.
We’ve just got to keep plugging along, for the work’s sake, for spiritual sanity.
We can get discouraged by the lack of results.
Paul said to Timothy,
2 Timothy 4:5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord and not for people,
Just keep swimming…
Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity, planning, knowledge, or wisdom in Sheol where you are going.
The Scripture tells us in a number of places, in our words, “put your nose to the grindstone.” “Make hay while the sun is shining.” In other words, stay busy about the Lord’s work. Take advantage of the time you have because we are not guaranteed tomorrow. But Paul’s story here is so encouraging. Because in this brief moment. This decision to go to the synagogue, we find the beginning of a great 1st century church. This is one of Paul’s great success stories. And it begins with just one day’s conversations in the synagogue.
That’s encouraging
We can get very discouraged about the impact of our lives. We can invest ourselves into some people, or some projects, and year after year, we seem to see no fruit. It’s disheartening. But, don’t be down about it. Keep working. Keep doing the work. Because there are also times when we may even just do something right in an off-handed sort of way. We just said a word to someone. We just helped a stranger. We made a small decision to change our routine toward more Godly things. And, boom, God takes some little thing you did, and the Ephesian church is born.
I guess that takes us back a little bit to; “don’t despise the day of small things.”
Celebrate, value coworkers, Distinguish between Scripture and Traditions, Keep working
V. Remember that God is in control, not you.
20 When they asked him to stay a longer time with them, he did not consent, 21 but took leave of them, saying, “I[f] must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem; but I will return again to you, God willing.” And he sailed from Ephesus.
So, what happened? Paul goes to the synagogue alone, strikes up some conversations with some local Jewish people, and they are receptive to hearing more about Christ. In fact, they hear that he is leaving, and they ask him to stay.
Now isn’t that putting the shoe on the other foot? Normally Paul gets asked to leave by the Jews of a community. These are asking him to stay. But he won’t stay. He intends to get to Jerusalem for the feast. He says,
“I[f] must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem;”
Now, I had questions about Paul at this moment. I wondered if this was the right decision, to leave Ephesus, a spiritually hungry people, to fulfill a “burn my hair” vow back in Jerusalem. It seems out of character for Paul. It’s like he’s clinging to some archaic Jewish law. What does it matter if he completes this vow? Isn’t it more important to nurture the budding faith of these Jewish Ephesians?
Well, we need to keep some things in mind here before we jump to judge Paul. First, Scripture doesn’t condemn him for this. And if the Bible doesn’t condemn him, who am I to. Second, remember that Paul is a human being. He can make the wrong call sometimes. And he is not only a Christian, he is a Jew. And the Jewish Christians of this time were in transition. They had been Jews their whole lives, living up to Jewish traditions and laws. You have to forgive a man if he doesn’t live up to his Christian freedom right away. And third, he did leave Aquila and Priscilla there. Verse 19 says he left them there. And we know they become key leaders in that church. So, he is not leaving the town with no Spiritual guidance.
But what is the discipleship, the sanity point we are getting to? It comes in the next statement he makes to them.
“I[f] must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem; but I will return again to you, God willing.”
He says, “Don’t worry, I’ll be back…God willing.” He didn’t want to make any promises that he couldn’t keep. He didn’t know day by day, hour by hour what would happen to him. He could be shipwrecked and drowned. He could be arrested in Jerusalem or secretly assassinated. He didn’t know. And so, he lived his life aware of the fact that God was in control, not him.
If we are going to be effective and sane, we have to live like that.
We can make plans. We can try to make good decisions. We can think about the future.
James 4:13-16 13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.”whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
We have a different mindset than the world. We understand that Jesus is the King of Kings, and we submit to His plans.
And we just as well do that. The people of the world just as well should do that, because whether they acknowledge it or not, God runs this world.
Proverbs 19:21 There are many plans in a man’s heart, Nevertheless the LORD’s counsel—that will stand.
sanity
I think Christians inflict a lot of pain on themselves by having the opposite attitude. Instead of saying, “If the Lord wills, I’ll do such and such.” We say, “This is what I will…Lord why didn’t you bless it?” That’s a recipe for insanity. Depression Why? Because I don’t know God’s plans for my life, how long it will be, what I’ll die of, my financial future. And as long as I have this fantasy, that I am in control, I will continue to be disappointed, or worse, thrown into confusion. So, considering that God has a plan for you, if you lay out all your plans. What do you think the odds are that my plans will be different than God’s plans? Pretty high. So, yes, I plan, I work toward goals, but I always keep in mind that I am not in control, so it’s all subject to change.
As Paul says, if the Lord wills…he was able.
Celebrate, value coworkers, Distinguish between Scripture and Traditions, Keep working, Remember that God is in control, not you.
VI. Continue discipling your disciples/ invest in your spiritual success
When living out this life, we often are always looking for a new conquest. Especially in this land of opportunity. And it is easy to neglect our previous conquests while searching for new ones. You encounter a hiccup, so you set that goal aside.
Any of you ever do this? When I was in college, I would be taking the classes I needed for my degree. But no matter what the classes were, I was often bored with the class I was presently enrolled in. So, I’d sit in this psychology class and read something else during the professor’s lecture. And do you know what I was often reading? A textbook from a class I was in the previous semester, say Spanish. And guess what, I made a “C” in Spanish, why? Because instead of using my Spanish class time to work on, oh, I don’t know, Spanish, I was bored with it, so I worked on an old Algebra textbook.
We can get into some bad habits. The bad habit of planting new flowers in our yard, instead of tending the flowers we planted last year. We can start a new woodworking project, despite the fact that we have a dozen projects that we haven’t completed. Am I speaking to anybody here?
Well let’s look at Paul in order to clarify this further.
21 but took leave of them, saying, “I[f] must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem; but I will return again to you, God willing.” And he sailed from Ephesus.
Paul leaves Ephesus on his way back to Jerusalem for the feast.
22 And when he had landed at Caesarea,
Caesarea is in Israel. He’s back in Israel. Now look at what he does.
22 And when he had landed at Caesarea, and [g]gone up to Jerusalem
Some translations put to Jerusalem in italics. That means that those words aren’t in the original text. The English translators put them there to clarify what happened. “To Jerusalem” is implied. He has been intending to go to Jerusalem for the feast. Now he arrived on the coast of Israel, and he then “goes up” and greets the church. Caesarea is 43 feet above sea level. By the way, when the Bible talks about going to Jerusalem, it always says that you “go up” to Jerusalem. 2556 feet above sea level. Mt. Herman is a little over 2000 feet above sea level.
So, he goes to Jerusalem. We can assume he burned his hair as a part of his vow, and he greeted the church—the Jerusalem church.
Now what’s the point?
and greeted the church, he went down to Antioch. 23 After he had spent some time there, he departed and went over the region of Galatia and Phrygia [h]in order, strengthening all the disciples.
The names of these places may not mean anything to you. But if you will look at a map of Paul’s 3 missionary journey’s you will notice something. Paul goes back and covers the same territory again and again. It tells us here that he went back to Antioch, the first church that sent he and Barnabus, he goes back to Galatia and Phrygia, the places where he established churches before. Why does he do that, “strengthening all the disciples.” We sometimes get the impression about Paul that he was always blazing new trails, that he never went to the same place twice. That’s not true. He circles back to Israel 3 times, and visits the established churches to make sure they are strong and healthy.
Why is that important for us? Because to be effective, in fact to stay sane in a crazy world, we need to give our lives to things that will leave a legacy to the next generation. And that is accomplished by not only starting something, but by continuing to build on what you started. Finish what you start. It’s been said by a few wise people that many people start well, few people finish well. I think that’s because we don’t go back and cultivate the garden we’ve already planted. We’re always looking for the new thing.
Let me tell you what that means to me. I need to build on established relationships as my first priority. Foundations laid.
Luke 14:28-29 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— 29 lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,
Good and godly
Your family is your first spiritual priority. We can easily say, “I messed that up.” “I’d rather move on to new places.”
Preachers can be the worst with this principle, especially strongly evangelistic ones. They want to get out and “get them saved and baptized.” But they don’t want to train them further, so we end up with a church full of spiritual babies.
Conflict, cut ties, trail of unsuccessful churches
“It is better to train ten people than to do the work of ten people. But it is harder.”
Moody.
And the thing is, in terms of sanity, the man that jumps from one new thing to another, and doesn’t tend to the old things he’s started, will look back on his life, and often see a bunch of dead plants, and that doesn’t give peace, it causes despair.
But if you plant just ten plants, and continue to nurture and cultivate them, it’s easy to look at that labor with a sense of peace.
Celebrate, value coworkers, Distinguish between Scripture and Traditions, Keep working, Remember that God is in control, not you. Continue discipling your disciples/ invest in your spiritual successes
You will have the blessing.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (John 14:27)
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