Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 862 | Jase’s Biggest Struggle with Missy & Phil Jolts Awake with an Epiphany

Episode Date: April 1, 2024

Phil awakes with a thought that sets his brain on fire, and Jase accidentally reveals the biggest struggle he faces with Missy every single day. Zach is still scarred by the antics of his Robertson cousins as kids, but this time the torment was psychological. Al guesses that Paul had to reexamine every single Scripture he knew through the lens of Jesus after his conversion. The guys discuss the culture clash between Jews and Gentiles in the ancient world and the difficulties that Paul had in rectifying and uniting the two peoples under God.  In this episode: Acts 9; Acts 26; Ephesians 3, verse 6 -- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? What struck me this morning when I woke up? I had an epiphany. And what surprised me the most is how far these guys has brought, or how much they brought to the table about Jesus showing up, dying. being buried and raised from the dead, the work of John the Baptist preparing all of this. And in those days, Acts 1.15 is my point. It was just a small group of them. There was a small group.

They went upstairs, you know, and Peter was there. In those days, Peter stood up among the believers. Now, just listen to this. and look what they pulled off in the last 2,000 years. And those, because it was like, you know, you get over and you're looking, all this when you're getting at Acts chapter 13, we have a message of encouragement for their people, you know. Paul motioned with his hand, men of Israel, you Gentiles who worship God,

listen to me. This is the same group. there ain't by 130 of them. I mean, a group number about 120 started this. And I just, as being 2,000 years later, I just looked at that and thought to myself, I said, I tell you, that is some story that so few men would have carried that on

and from all walks of life. but it's remarkable how far they've gone if you look from what we're reading about in Acts chapter one and following and how they pull this off about the kingdom of God is amazing I mean with all the people that was coming after them the government that was killing them and they pulled it off and they're just 120 I I mean, it's amazing. To me, that's a shocker that we just don't kind of... Well, God was with them.

I mean, that's the bottom line. I mean, even in where we're at in Acts 10, you start seeing things in the unseen world. Yeah, it's like a map that was pre-destined to be a guidepost. I mean, for everything. I literally for everything. Well, it was a map, and then you had to be a map. the power of God.

I mean, them being eyewitnesses don't have the rest of it. Yeah, the power of the resurrection. Yeah. They're having conversations with angels. There's miraculous things going on. People are speaking languages they hadn't studied. Yeah.

That's what the bulk of the movement, that's what was driving it. I'm telling you. You get people seeing supernatural things, which, you know, Missy and I was talking having the same conversation because she was like, you know, I mean, why do you think he just chose a nation and said, let's just do it through that? And I said, well, that's a good question, babe, because we've been to Israel.

Being your woman was on the same line there. Yes, yeah. We weren't talking about the podcast. It just came up. And I said, you know, when you think about it, though, the passion that, you know, the people of Israel have, and especially for God, I said, I think in God's wisdom, somehow he knew between the passion of the people

and the dynamic there, something would happen that would ripple throughout all future generations where Jesus coming through there would be a hot button subject. And even today, the last poll I saw, there's over 2 billion people who acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God in some form. I mean, it was 120 in Acts 1.

I tell you. Two billion today. But that's the numbers side. But think about the time side, because you're talking about two millennium, your 2,000 years. Yeah. That's 20 centuries. So, you know, the mark of anything is how long it lasts once the original people,

people are gone. And we could say that about anything. You know, you look at something that was a fad and lasted for 20, 30, 40 years. And we think, man, that's pretty amazing. What about something that last 20th century, 2000 years? It's a big deal. I mean, that's huge. When I woke up this morning, that's what struck me. I said, how in the world for the first out of the bed? I've got a, I've got a question real quick. All right. I got a weird feeling y'all started without me. well Phil started without everyone look you were included in these numbers that fell in the place you're one of the ones that fell in the place I mean I had technical difficulties and I went over there to fix everything I got back and I and until the last probably eight seconds I thought we were just talking before the podcast and I realized we are actually recording I don't know well Phil started look look we said we're not we're not rolling he started again and finally I'll said go ahead and roll because Phil's We're rolling.

We'll find Zach. Okay. Well, I mean, I'm just, I've looked at the depth of it all and the numbers that I'm now seeing worldwide. And you get to thinking, it started with 120 people sitting up there in that time of year. I mean, there was nothing, what you call it, cell phones, this and that and ways that really go across the world. They did it without that. It makes that prophecy of Daniel ring all the more loudly when you think about in those days, when that rock comes down and it hits that statue and crumbles the whole thing.

In those days, God will set up a kingdom that can't be shaken nor destroyed. And so we're talking about 120 people. And then now, I mean, that prophecy comes to life of what he, the kingdom he set up right there in this moment, in this area, this part of history, you know, is expanding. powerful powerful yeah but i'm saying i think we're underestimating a new king had been exalted to a place where he could not be killed the place is not even the right word but there's no word yeah yeah but we have a person who's come back from the dead yeah the holy spirit of god has been poured out was getting me this morning i woke up but they're hung up on the 120 it could have been you know one if if you have like

times through history, a lot of times through history, Jay's, it was one. You remember we talked about one of the past podcast you brought up Elijah. And he thought, he literally thought, because it was so bad that he was the only one. He told God, he said, it's over. Just go ahead and take me because I'm the last one. And I said, no, I still got a few thousand out there that you don't know about, which tells me the importance of this is not only to your point, dad, it's a great thought, is here we are, years later, we're four guys who are still plugging into this same power and spreading it by whatever means we can't. And so we're using the internet and the things that have been discovered over that same period of time. But the message is exactly the same as it was 2,000 years ago. The same thing that changed their lives is changed in our life. It's amazing. Yeah. Well, you think about the book of Acts is we talked about this earlier what jason said on the side comment when we weren't on the show what should the book of acts be famous for jace you said the holy spirit and i don't think we could underestimate when we talk about the power of the spirit living in people i mean that that's a game

changer and you can't like we had this conversation at our house church that i you can't manufacture these movements like you like you can for a minute but i mean they all fade away they die out but a but a movement that's born of the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, that kind of movement, you cannot stop it because it's the most authentic and real thing that you could ever comprehend or imagine. And so when you go to a passage like Galatians 5 where he talks about the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, genital and self-control. And you read that, you think, man, we're going to conjure these things up in our lives. That's not what the scripture says.

That's all fruit of the spirit. It's the spirit living in us that's, that's transformed. us, and I think it was happening here in the first century under the most, they were being persecuted. You would think that the powers that were against them would stamp out this band of misfits, but there was something so real, so tangible, so authentic, so powerful that was in them that it could not be stopped by human, by human will. It could not be stopped. No, you're right. That's really good.

And again, we still rock on. which is the beauty of it. So we were in, we've been in Acts chapter 9, kind of just continuing Luke's narrative of the gospel story from Luke, and then over into this, as dad woke up thinking about this explosion, that happens as a result of this kingdom.

And in the last podcast, I think it was the last podcast, we, Jay, you read from Acts 22, Paul's retelling of this his conversion story, which we've been reading about in Acts Chapter 9, of when he was struck down the road to Damascus. And there were a lot of interesting things about that. And actually, in that setting, it's sort of, there's been a kickstart here to, Paul is on a, he's on a, he's on a runaway course with politics, with Roman rule,

with all of it. because we read about he was unjustly treated as a Roman citizen. So he appeals, kind of like under the American system where you're not supposed to do that to a Roman system, a Roman citizen when they were, you know, all these things happened to him in Jerusalem. And so now he's going to wind up in Rome, which of course for the spreading of the gospel, this has a lot of implications. And so I wanted today to pick up from that and read the last time that he tells his story. story, and that's over in Acts chapter 26 at the end of the book, because it sort of continues to advance how Paul is telling a story, but also now spreading this idea, not just from the Jews, but also to the Gentiles from his perspective and also to authority.

I mean, because he's going to wind up before first. It's like a pro-consult. It's like a, you know, a governor who then brings in a king. So, I mean, we're talking about the only thing left is the emperor, which is where Paul says he's headed, is to be able to make his case. You'll probably appreciate what I'm fixing to save because if you just look at it, the movement in the book of Acts coming out of Jesus being on the earth 33 years, I tend to say, good night, we won. But then it occurred to him. I said, no, we're winning. It's not that you won.

It's not over yet. But, I mean, for it to still be here and the power behind it, there would have to be a God. Yeah, that's why you shouldn't view Jesus as in the past tense. That's right. That's right. Think about it. That's my point. That's right.

He didn't view himself. I mean, his nickname was I am. Yeah. No, that's pretty good. That means it's ongoing past, prison, and future. Yep. Let's take her first break. That cold open, that cold open is what you call a little more heated.

That was a hot take. You don't, yeah. It ain't a cold open. We're not going to have that argument again. All right, let me read this. So I'm at Acts 26, and Paul is now, we're kind of at the end of the book and the end of the journey. So we're jumping way ahead. But the reason this is important, back to our original narrative, is this is what Paul does when he's describing his role.

And so he goes before this king, Agrippa, and there's a lot of setup, you know, to get you there. But I want to go through all that stuff. But just know this. He's making his case of who he is and why he is what he is. And so in verse, he starts in verse two. and then he basically tells about why he's a Jew, what the Jews stand for, which, you know, he's just kind of bringing a grip up to speed. And then he tells about everything he did to persecute the church, which we've already read.

So I want to speed it up to verse 12. He says, on one of these journeys, which was to persecute the church, I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priest. about noon, O King, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. And you can imagine what this king is thinking, as he's sitting and listening to this, we all fell to the ground. And I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, which I think that's the first time we've heard that. He describes that. It was in actually that Jewish dialect.

Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? it is hard for you to kick against the goads. Then I ask, who are you, Lord? I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. The Lord replied. And then I think this next section, it kind of condenses everything that happened over those three days because in the other two versions,

he doesn't say it exactly the same way, but he kind of condenses it all for the king. Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God so that they may receive forgiveness of sins

and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. And so then he goes on the scripture. exactly what happened to him after that. But it's interesting because it's the same message. He kind of condenses it down everything he learns, you know, when he goes back to Anonis and all that. But he's still making this case that this is his purpose is to share. And what's interesting is Agrippa has no idea of this,

but this is part of Paul's plan is to be able to share the good news in settings like this so that these people will know. because we all know that the powers in the gospel. So even in the process of him going through this, he's now spreading the gospel to people that otherwise, when would the king ever be able to sit down to hear the gospel, except this man who's in chains is sharing it with him, which I find fascinating.

Yeah, I started back reading just trying to figure out how we got here, you know. It's a lot like what happened to Jesus. They didn't know what to do with him. He's causing a rush. They're like, we'll get, you know, bring in the king of the Jews and let, you know, let him figure out what to do with them. There's, the Roman custom was not to just execute somebody without at least hearing him out. And Paul's just being heads, he's not getting off of that there's a God, he's alive, and he's exalted and you can do nothing to me, which I'm sure is. just infuriating all people in power.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Because it, I think it seems silly to them. And that empire is no longer here. No, but you think about it, what an empire, what is it, 400, whatever years, the Roman Empire, was just a beast? Yeah. And God works his will in amongst that, one of the great. powers of all time.

I'm telling you. And to turn that on its head through a carpenter from Nazareth. But it just really shows you, you know, the courage that those first eyewitnesses had, which granted, they were having, I mean, you know, he had a conversation with Jesus audibly. So. Yeah, exactly. And so, look, so Jay says this up perfect to go back to Acts chapter 9. And because we looked at his conversion and the retelling of, we still hadn't read the text that actually what happens next for him.

And so let's go back to that in Acts chapter 9, starting in verse 19 because, you know, he's been to Anonize. He can see now, although something like scales fell from his eyes, which doesn't sound good. some people have surmised that could be his thorn in the flesh that he talks about in 2nd Corinthians could have been vision problems because there's another at the end of another book he talks about not being able to see very well we don't know but he gets baptized he takes some food he regains his string now it says in the rest of verse 19 Saul spent several days with the disciples in damascus and and what we're about to read by the way we already kind of set up when we read Galatians 1, this is going to be spread out over some time.

So Luke is condensing it into the story, but just when you're reading this, think that some years are going by and some of the retelling of this. So we don't want you to get lost in that like, oh, by the way, it was only three days in Damascus. This was spread out over time. At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the son of God, all those who heard him were astonished and asked, Isn't he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on his name? And hasn't he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priest?

Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ. If you think about it, it's sort of like Zach, an atheist that gets converted. Yeah. And they have the best arguments because that's what they were. And so once they see the light and once they see the right way, they become some of your best apologists for the cause and for the Christ is because they've been arguing the other side for a long time. And I think that's kind of what happens to Saul here. Yeah, so inside baseball, you know, they get a, it's funny. We had a, our little house church, which is out of our other kind of the bigger church that meets on Sunday.

but we've had quite a bit of, I would say, a new age, Buddhist kind of Eastern religion and folks have come in, and several have come to Christ and been baptized. And so Wednesday night, I would say in our little small group of about 15 people, there were six people, four of which are brand new Christians, but coming out of that world. and then two of which are like asking questions. And it was incredible to hear them talk about why, you know,

the ones that have received Christ's invitation to come to the kingdom. Like why? And what was their motivation? And I just sat back and was listening to them talking. I was like, man, like their vantage point is just different than mine. I mean, I didn't come out of that world. And so I could just see God using them in the space that they understood and knew so well, and not just they knew it so well, it was a space that at the end of the day

left them empty and left them full of holes. And they even told this one story how they had had this meeting on top of this mountain. I just thought this was hilarious that this was the imagery here. They had planned the meeting with all these intellectuals to go and meet on top of this mountain, and they were going to figure out how to fix the world. And so they brought in, like, all these intellectual people from all over the world who had or like top of their field in kind of the new age game they get up there on the mountain they have all like they have it catered they've got all the the places for people to sleep and whatnot and the whole thing descended into just complete chaos they were all fighting with one another i thought man i said that you know what that's in the bible it's the tower of babble and and they and they all started laughing said but it really was like we got up there to figure out the problems of the world and we couldn't even get along ourselves it was the most chaotic thing in the world and so the promise that that worldview had given them, they got to the end of it.

They're like, it was a lie. It wasn't true. And that's why they started to look for God in the kingdom of God. Well, God actually revealed himself to these people. And then now they're, you know, walking with him. It's just so incredible to see that thing because I could see the other people that I could probably never really have a conversation with on that level. But everything they were talking about was resonating.

And they were like, yep, you can just see the lights going off. And I think that's what's happening here with Paul. Well, I think it's, you know, Phil shared what he woke up thinking about. You know, what I thought this morning, after the usual, where am I, what happened, can these bones live? After those thoughts. Why is my backer? That's Ezekiel 37. It's one of the funniest things.

I think we had that illustration in Bible school. Oh, yeah. Some guy got up and all these instructors were real old, you know. And he said, you know, us as students here, you know, we wake up thinking, boy, another day. And he's like, all these instructors, they wake up quoting Ezekiel 37, Can these bones live? It was kind of a slant. It was a zinger.

Yeah. So everybody was laughing except the instructors. They were like, not good. Hey. But I thought about this Galatians 3, because look, we've mentioned this several times when we keep going back to it. It's probably one of the most quoted verses in the world about there's neither Jew or Greek, slave nor free, male or female, but you're all one in Christ Jesus. But to kind of Zach's point and talking about, you know, let's just figure out what we can do for the world, have a World Summit figured out. When I thought about that, we always look at that at what, you know, what Jesus brings together.

But when you think about those three individual things as like three legs to a stool, it's hard to get along with somebody who's not from your culture or the idea of it, whether it's a language barrier or just differences. Well, then you have a man and a woman. Just think about that relationship. You know, it's hard to navigate that. You know, as a man, I'm just personally speaking here. I mean, my wife is an amazing woman, but just day to day in small talk,

it's just not an easy thing to know what exactly she's talking about, you know? I mean, I struggle with that. I just said, amazing what God's, you know, grace. You got a caveat that. Yeah. We're laughing. But we're laughing because we get it. I mean, I'm saying, and then think slave free.

I mean, we immediately go to what happened, you know, on the Civil War. But back, there's always been this social class of people in charge and then people working for them. But just think of those three legs from a society standpoint. It's a, it's a mirror image of how hard. it is to get along with people you know zack saying it turned into chaos i mean just just those three dynamic think about unemployment in our world today and there's a lot of reasons for that but it's because this when somebody says i've made it and and now i'm your boss and you know you're my slave you must do what i say well that that's going to be very difficult to navigate

from a different culture, it's just going to be very difficult to navigate. Someone from another sex, it's just going to be difficult to navigate, which is why it breaks down in society. I mean, just think about that. If men have trouble relating at all with women, if we all did that, well, it would break down the family dynamic. You break down the family dynamic. What's going to happen to the culture?

Same in business. Same in race relations. So really when you see the problems of this world and you read that statement and realize why God did miracles, which we're fixed to read to, because without those miracles in the power of God and the angelic presence and God speaking to individuals, Saul was never coming around. He was convinced that he was right and they were wrong. And then, you know, this is all a heading to get to getting along with Gentile. which you think that word is so, it's not 2024 word. Because I remember,

being young in the faith, I was like, what are they talking about Gentile? They're like, you're a Gentile. I'm like, really? What exactly is that?

What do you say about me? You're not from Israel. I was like, well, what is that? You were offended at first, probably when you heard that. Well,

I just thought, what kind of word is that? that? What does that mean? You know, it was like when you got, you all remember when we were kids, y'all used to say, y'all would tease me and all the other younger cousins. You would say we had epidermis. And then you would say we had garments. I don't know if y'all remember that. You got garments on your back. And y'all would taunt us and we had epidermis, which we didn't know what that meant, the skin. But at the time, I thought it was some kind of deal. It would freak me out as a little

three-year-old, four-year-old kid, you know, or garments on your back. And I, what, my back, but it's your clothes. That explains why you're so paranoid, Zach. Maybe that's it. But I mean, but we hear that word Gentile today. We don't really, this is anybody that's not but Israel. So this will be the rest of the world. So it's like Israel and then the rest of the world, you know.

Well, the only way you would get a handle on that is if you move to some little community over in Israel and especially who practiced Judaism and then it's tried to fit in. Can you imagine me trying to fit in there? You know, I'd probably get stone for catching those catfish out of that lake. Yeah. And, you know, and not knowing all the cultural rule, it would just be very difficult to assimilate to that. Even if I had the best intention. And then if you throw in, oh, and I'm going to marry a woman, you know, who's a part of this culture if I was single.

and then, you know, I have some job or whatever where some, you know, one of a person from Israel is telling me what to do. I mean, it would just almost be impossible. It would be not, it would be something I just wouldn't want to perceive. And then when you throw in the passion and belief and there's a God who's orchestrated this, it's just, it's difficult. Well, you start to see what, you start to see what Paul was up against. the significance of his ministry and said then when you moved the book of Ephesians for example, I say for example, because I actually think it's, I mean, we know this from Romans too, but listen to the language Paul says in the very, in Ephesians 3, for this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ

Jesus, this and this on behalf of you Gentiles, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, how this mystery was made. made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insights into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men and other generations, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. He said, what is he talking about? What is the mystery?

Wow, that's interesting. Whatever it is, it's been revealed in recent days to the holy prophets and the holy apostles. He says this in verse 6. This is the mystery. So the mystery is this, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promised in Christ Jesus through the gospel. He said, man, that verse right there sums up the mission of Paul. And I think it also, when we understand that that's what his goal was, we can go back now and read all of Paul's letters through this main. and it does help clarify a lot of theological debates, in my opinion, it helps clarify a ton

of theological debates around the Apostle Paul's writings when you understand what is he taught about. What's the mystery? The mystery is the inclusion of the Gentiles into the covenant promise that God made to Israel. I mean, that is the thing, right? I think you're exactly right, Zach. And the narrative that Luke concludes, just these little few verses here, one of the commentaries that I was reading, he made a really interesting point.

He said, did you notice how in Saul's case, it starts out with something pretty easy for him, and that's debating with other Jews, which you think about it. He was certainly good at that because he just had come out of this whole thing. But look what happens next. Watch the difficulty factor that puts him basically as an outcast for everybody. So this goes from easy to difficult to impossible. Look at verse 23. After many days had gone by, the Jews conspired to kill.

kill so. So now of a sudden, he's getting the same treatment that he was doling out. But he learned of their plan day and night, they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him. So now we've got intrigue. It's like a movie. But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.

So, I mean, we're literally talking about clandestine, you know, getting out of harm's way events. And so, and again, this is spread out over time, but then it picks up again. He says when he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. And now we've just moved ahead several years in terms of. Yeah, because he's got, I think this is worthy of note. I mean, he doesn't have any friends.

Nobody. He doesn't have any friends on either side. And so it's like he can't, I mean, this has got to be a lonely place for him, you know, to think about, but he's being obedient to God. And I thought, man, to your point earlier, he was so equipped in some regard to be the minister to the Jews. But he says in Acts 9 that he came, he said, but the Lord said to him, go for he is my chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles.

And so you see that he's actually, the first grouping in that text is the Gentiles and the kings and the children of Israel. But Gentiles is first. And I think that that you think, man, that's not the guy I would. choose, I might choose him to bring the gospel to the Jews because he understands it so well. But that's not what he does here. Primarily, his role is for the Gentiles. And I think that makes sense of Paul's argument in 1st Corinthians chapter 1 and 2.

And he talks about this. He says, I didn't come with wise and persuasive words. Why not? Lest the cross be entity of its power. I don't want your faith to rely on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. even on the baptism part. Paul's like, I'm glad I didn't baptize any of you. So you see, Paul understood, probably because of this, like he went through this,

he understood that success in the kingdom is not a result of your ability. It's a result of the Holy Spirit working in you. So Paul's always pointing back, I don't want your, do not put your faith in men. Don't put your faith in us. Lest the cross-beat into the power, I'm going to come to you with a demonstration of the spirit's power. That's what's going to convert you. That's what's going to lead you to cry.

Not me, but the Holy Spirit. He's constantly pointing back to who God is. And I think that we could take a lesson from that, by the way. I'm sorry, I jumped in there on you, Al, but I just thought that was worthy of note. No, I think you're right. And how many times to your earlier point, Zach, does he defend himself as an apostle, as a true apostle? And yet in the same vein, say, I'm not worthy. I mean, I'm terrible.

You know, I put the church under persecution. I'm awful, but God did call me. I mean, he does have a tasker. So you see him almost in every letter, especially Corinthian letters, saying, look, I'm here because I'm supposed to be here, but I really don't deserve to be here. And I think it's these early years, because as we mentioned earlier in Galatians 1, this is spread out. What we're reading here in Acts is spread out over 14 years.

That's how long it takes to break him down. That's why the one thing, though, he's stressing. What's causing all this? I mean, they're trying to kill him. When you look back at the text in verse 20, he was preaching that Jesus is, not was, is the son of God. And he's proving in verse 22, somehow he's proving that Jesus is the Christ. And then you read the next verse, well, the Jews conspired to kill him. I mean, he's challenging their power, their culture, how they view all of life by just that one declaration.

That's over. Yeah, it was a good run. It was a good run. I was in the, I was with you. That's over. I was going to ask the question, why, like, why plot to kill? What did he say that upset them so much? And it turns out.

Two choices right there. And it's the same principle. He is the Christ and he is the Son of God right now. So you see, the pattern is, the pattern is Jesus. What did Jesus say? What was it that he said that got him killed? It was basically this thing's coming to an end. And how do you know it?

Because I'm here. I'm God. I'm the son of God. Stephen, same thing. And now Paul, the pattern is here. See,

here we have in 2024. That's over. No, you proclaim, you proclaim Jesus. This is, this is what, this is what's coming your way.

And on some level, this is what the battle is. This is, this is it, you know. But imagine this is, so you're one of the, you have spent all of your young life.

You're a very smart man. And that's evident from the, letters we read that Paul wrote to all the churches. You spent your whole life studying the Old Testament scriptures, the prophets, all of it. Because look, Paul knew all this deeply. And yet, you never connected it to the Messiah in Jesus because you felt like this was all a farce until that same one struck you down and said, I am the one. So now, imagine during this period of time, the three years he's in Arabia, all this time. Now you're going back and look at all those passages and all those prophecies and you're like, it really was him. It really did point to Jesus.

So when he says, Jay said he proved he was the Christ, I'm convinced all those pastures, everything that Jesus talked about himself, now Paul got it. And so it made him, it was, you know, what's the old say of the immovable force meets the irresistible object or whatever it is. The idea here is this this man was in perfect position to now proclaim this because he got it at a cellular level because of everything he had done up to this point. Which is hard to separate this. You know, you can't separate Jesus from the kingdom. And you can't separate because the kingdom, like what is the kingdom? I mean, I've tried to think about how do you answer this?

Willard says it's the, it's the effective range of God's will, where what God wants done is done. It's the rule and the reign of God and it's under Christ. And so, like, Christ's kingdom is where Christ rules and where Christ reigns. And you think, man, like, I can't separate that from him because the kingdom is only the kingdom because of the king. There's no such thing as a kingdom without a, you know, a king. And so when you, this is, you can't separate this because this whole concept we're talking about here, particularly with the inclusion of the Gentiles, it's not just the inclusion of the Gentiles that's upsetting them. To Jason's point, it's a declaration that, hey, boys, it was a good, what did you say, Jason? It was a good ride.

It was a good run. But that's over. And over as in it was part of the plan to bring Jesus and. fulfill it. Because you look at all those little things culturally, it all was a shadow, you know, the fact that you couldn't keep the law, that you're having to do these sacrifices, which to the common man, when you start talking about that, you know, our eyes glaze over. You read the book of Leviticus, you're like, what is, what, what, what is this all about? But it was pointing to there, there's consequences for making bad choices and doing things that are not right.

There's consequences. And so do your sacrifices, which seems really drastic in our culture that you would kill some little lamb because you've made a bunch of mistakes in the past year. But it was all, it all makes sense when you realize, no, there's a lot of decisions I make. But there's really no way to ratify. There's no way to make all this right. And in walks Jesus and fulfills all this, even from temple worship and trying to have some kind of relationship with the living God, which seemed just impossible, which is why they didn't do it.

And it wasn't that God wasn't right. They just said, we're not doing this. But they would look at themselves, I think, When you look at what you just said, Jason, you look at the impossibility of being righteous before this God, right? I mean, because that is our position. I mean, if we're being honest, if we think nobody's good. Bible teaches that, but we also know that intuitively. And I was thinking of this analogy because I was working on this animation project concept,

and it was going to be kind of like these little short videos that would like Prager You or Bible Project, but more about kind of worldview stuff. And I was, so I just wrote up this script of this cartoon character and he's got a spade in his hand, like a little shovel, a little handheld shovel. And every time that he tries to make meaning out of the world, instead of looking up to the transcendent God, he looks at himself. You know, believe in yourself, you know, look within. And he digs a hole out of himself to find meaning in the world. And he just keeps doing that over and over after all these questions and problems of life come up. And in the end, you look at this cartoon character.

And he looks like Swiss cheese. He's just got holes all in him because he's had to dig inside of himself. And I thought, man, this is what, this is this, this, this is the, this is the dichotomy of these two kingdoms that, that's happening here. One kingdom is, it begins with man and ends with man. Well, that's a problem because man is finite. Every one of us is finite. If I'm looking within myself and I listen to the culture, believe in yourself and whatever all that means, I hope that's not my hope. Because if I believe in myself, number one, I'm flawed.

number two, I'm finite. And I'm digging inside myself to make meaning of the world. There's only so much I can dig out. And I'm going to be like that Swiss cheese man and collapse. Or the other is, the other kingdom is that we'd look to the author of reality, the sustainer of reality. We put our little kingdom under his kingdom and then we submit to who he is. And that's the kingdom that Christ is bringing. And that's why I think it's so offensive is because when you've built these structures

that give you some level of comfort, it's not real comfort. because it's built on sinking sand. It's built on a finite foundation of yourself. But when you build those kind of foundations and those kind of structures on that kind of foundation, rather, like when someone comes in with something that says, yeah, that whole system, like, you've missed it. The whole thing was pointing to me.

I am the author of reality. You can try to build your tower, you're never reaching heaven. But heaven comes down. It was what was in that movie about Phil's life. That was the gospel scene where Phil receives the gospel. What was the message there? You're climbing up trying to prove yourself, but that's not the gospel.

The gospel is that God comes down to you. And then you receive an invitation into the kingdom. You don't work your way up in your kingdom to meet God. That's not going to happen. And that is offensive. You know, that's either going to be met with, I'm offended, and I'm going to be hostile and I'm going to try to kill you, or it's going to be met with, I'm going to fall on my face before this living God, and I'm going to surrender and submit.

Those are your options. That's what this message does. Well, that was my point about bringing up the Galatians 3. How are you going to get along with people without Jesus? Either if you're from a different country, people are going to, some people are going to tend to view you as a whatever you want to say, a rat, you know, because you're different and they view you as inferior. So how are you going to challenge authority and power, which gets into the slave and free? because they're going to view you as a as a gna you know if you have no jeez if you have no way of having a conversation where jesus's principles and character comes in there you're you're

never going to measure up to them people you're never going to be able to challenge people in power or people from a different country and then you get to the husband wife or man male female well how are you going to do it without jesus i mean i just past week i spent an hour of my life talking to a guy trying to help help him in a seemingly failed marriage but and i was like i kept getting back to jesus and and he was like well you keep bringing that up for i mean it's this woman geez it was all about the woman because she wasn't there but i was trying to help him and i thought, well, the only weapon I have is Jesus is the son of God. That's the only platform I can see where this is fixable or recoverable. But it was just like talking to a wall. You know, it was like,

well, what's they going to do with anything? I thought, because that's the only shot you got. This is, it's over. So what you described, that's the blindness, that spiritual blindness. And then you got all these symptoms and problems you're dealing. with, but you don't understand at the core of where it begins. So let me tie a bow on this and read this last section so we can move on on the next podcast. So basically Saul is a man on an island. The Jews are rejected him now.

They want to kill him. He's not one of them. The people he is now who are his brothers and sisters, they don't trust him. So he's got nobody except in verse 27. Again, this is kind of spread out. We'll see this again in Acts 11 and Acts 13. but Barnabas, a member of the old son of encouragement, we read about earlier back in Acts 5, Acts 4, He took him and brought him to the apostles.

He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him. And how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. Don't you love that? God always provides somebody to provide some comfort and stand with you. And that's what happens with Barnabas. So Saul stayed with them, moved about freely in Jerusalem. So now we've jumped ahead a few years, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. He talked and debated with the Grecian Jews, but they tried to kill him.

Everybody's wanted to kill him. When the brothers learned of this, they took him down to Sessaria and then off to Tarsus. So he winds up taking a journey home. And now we're just given a general thing of where we are. Verse 31. Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened and encouraged by the Holy Spirit. It grew in numbers living in the fear of the Lord. So Luke is kind of tying off this section of his description of Saul's conversion.

And now he's going to go back and start picking it up from Peter's perspective. So it's almost like you're just watching a movie, you know, where you got like a storyline going here and all of a a sudden we ship back over. Meanwhile, here's what's going on. So on our next podcast, we're going to pick that up. And we start off with two pretty amazing miracles that Peter is going to perform, which is going to set up the actual now preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles in full and in earnest that we'll get to in Chapter 10. So that kind of ties it off. Saul, a man with no one became a man who ministered to everyone, which turned out to be a big blessing. So we'll catch you up on this and talk more about it next time on Unashamed.

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