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Going--With or Without us
08/29/2004
Scripture: Acts 28:31
Track 14 of 14 in the Being with Him Compels Us to Go for Him series


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Sermon for Sunday, August 29, 2004
"Going--With or Without Us"
"Being With Him Compels Us to Go for Him"
(Acts 28:31)
C. Sackett

I received the monthly newsletter from TCM International, the organization that I teach for in the summer. It came this last week and the cover story is a friend of some of the students that I've had the privilege of teaching. He's a preacher in one of those former Soviet Union nations. I can't pronounce the name of it, but, it ends with "stan", if that helps. Wasn't just a few weeks ago that he was murdered. Come to find out, it was actually a hit imposed upon him by some Muslims who were upset at the fact that the church was growing in their particular region.

When they went to interview the wife, she had so clearly determined in her own heart that she was going to forgive whoever it was that did this to her husband, that she ended up becoming a suspect because they couldn't imagine that she wasn't involved in something like that if, in fact, she was willing to overlook the death of her husband. Over the course of the next several days while they're investigating and trying to get some information together they actually caught the gunman at the border trying to escape the country. He fessed up to what had happened. He names the people who were in the city where the man was killed who were behind him being hired to kill him. And the effect was so profound, that the police, several of them, are now attending the church service in worship.

You cannot hinder the word of God from doing its job. There is no way that you can stop God's word. It will not be bound up by anything. Now you can stop us. You can hinder God's people but you cannot hinder his word.

There's an interesting phrase that shows up over and over again in the book of Acts. I just want to highlight some of the places where it occurs. Back in Acts 8. Now unfortunately the New International Version does not always translate this word exactly the same way but you'll sense the feel for it fairly quickly. If you come to Acts 8:36, the story of Philip and the eunuch. The eunuch says, "Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?" The phrase is, what keeps me from or what hinders me from being baptized? In Acts 10:47 Peter with Cornelius and as he's experiencing this invasion of the Holy Spirit Peter says in Acts 10:47 "Can anyone keep these people (that's the word, can anyone hinder these people, can anyone prevent these people) from being baptized with water? If you come over to Acts 11 where Peter recounts this story, he says in Acts 11:17 last part of the verse, "who was I to think that I could oppose God?" or who am I to think I could hinder God. If you come to Acts 16:6 you see this word occur again. This is Paul's missionary journey and he's traveling throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching in those regions (having been hindered by the Spirit). That's the term. We see it in two other places in Acts. Acts 24:23 This is Paul's arrest. Felix ordered the centurion to keep Paul under guard but to give him some freedom and permit his friends to take care of his needs. The NIV has flip-flopped that into a positive statement rather than to saying to permit his friends, it's not to hinder his friends from helping him. It's that word hinder again. One other place, Acts 27:43 right near the end. This is after the shipwreck. . . . . .the centurion wanted to spare Paul's life and kept them from carrying out their plan. He hindered them from going on with their plans. This word carries with it the idea that some things can be prevented. Some things can be opposed. Some things can be hindered.

Now you add one single letter to the front of that word and it becomes the word unhindered. Look at Acts 28:30-31 the last two verses, the very text we're going to look at this morning. Luke says in Acts 28:30 For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the word. It actually is the very last word on the scroll. The final word that Luke uses in this gospel is this word. Unhindered

You can stop some things. You cannot stop the word of God. That's the message that Luke would have us clearly understand coming out of this book. Think about this in light of what we've read in Scripture.

Look back at Isaiah 55. If you've got your Old Testaments with you.

Isaiah 55:10-11 Isaiah 55:10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, As sure as the rain does its' job, he says.

Look at Isaiah 55:11 . . . .so is my word that goes out from my mouth; It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

Isaiah clearly teaches us this fundamental principle, that God's word accomplishes what it's supposed to accomplish. You put it out there and like rain waters the seed and seed produces fruit, you put Scripture out there in the lives of people and it will do its job. It will accomplish its purpose. That's how this book of Acts begins. It actually begins in the closing scenes of Luke's gospel when Jesus says to the disciples, you go to Jerusalem. You wait there. I will send a word from heaven. You will be empowered and things will happen. The gospel will be preached beginning in Jerusalem.

You come to Acts 1:8 and what does he say. . . . .you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. . . . .the ends of the earth. Acts 8:4 they went everywhere doing what? Preaching the word! Acts 11 some people ended up in Antioch. What did they do? They spread the gospel. Those are the words of Scripture. And that word remains true. You cannot bind God's word. You cannot hinder Scripture. He will accomplish what he wants to accomplish. Unfortunately in the book of Acts there are some ill intentioned enemies who try to hinder Scripture.

Every time you turn around there's a Jewish audience trying to stop Paul from preaching. He's trying to prevent. . . .they're trying to prevent him from getting the work done. They chase him out of town. They follow him from city to city. They ultimately get him arrested where he stays in prison for four years, waiting. You see it happen when the state intervenes and there's an attempt to stop Scripture by stopping Paul, just lock him up.

It happens when, Satan himself, tries to interfere through various ways sending, for example, a demon-possessed girl along to be the broadcaster of the gospel. And Paul says, NOPE, CAN'T DO THAT!

Prison cannot stop Scripture from working. Paul's there for four years and you and you know what happens, the full palace guard hears the word.

Martin Niemueller(??) was a WWII submarine captain enshrined in German museums for the work he did in the North Atlantic. He was also a German Lutheran preacher who in the 1930's began to become suspicious of this new leader that was surfacing in Germany and he became one of those leading spokesmen for the confessing church in Germany that was outspoken against Hitler. He spent years in Dachau and other prison camps because of his belief that this was wrong and had to be stopped. Niemueller was first put under house arrest. He ultimately ended up in prison camp because under house arrest he kept converting all of his guards.

You cannot bind Scripture. You may stop our spokesmen. You may silence our voices but you will never stop Scripture from working. You cannot bind it. Satan himself, cannot prevent God's word from accomplishing what its meant to accomplish. You sometimes feel imprisoned? Sometimes feel like you lack confidence? That maybe you're not the spokesman you need to be?

Colossians 2 makes it very clear. Pray! Seek a word from God that gives you the clarity to speak a word for Him. Paul even says in that prison epistle, Pray for me! That God would open a door for his word.

When you read the book of Acts, one of the very first things that happens in Acts 4 is after they have been arrested, what does the church do? The church gathers in Acts 4: 32ff and does what? They pray for boldness and the text says, and suddenly the whole place was shaken and they spoke with boldness.

You can't hinder Scripture. God's word will not be bound. And while some ill intentioned enemies may try, they will never succeed. Unfortunately in the book of Acts there are also some well-meaning friends who tend to interfere in the gospel. There's not a thing wrong with those legalistic people in Jerusalem who want the church to incorporate the law. What I mean by that is they weren't trying to do something as scoundrels. They were trying to help. They really, honestly believed that down in the core of their being that in order to really be Christian, you first had to be Jewish. They were well intentioned in their attempts to get people to see things their way. But as it turned out the church council decided,, that's not what we need. We need the freedom of the gospel.

That young lady who was possessed by a demon in Philippi was probably well-meaning as she announced the gospel and yet, Paul said we cannot have a demon being a spokesman for God.

There are other well-intentioned people like Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 who try to do what appears to be something good but it misfires in the process. But even at that, the church and Scripture go forth.

When I read the book of Colossians for example, I come to the end of Colossians there's this interesting list of people who are identified as Paul's companions. Colossians 4:10 My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas (You have received instructions about him; if he comes to you welcome him.) Jesus, who is called Justus, also sends greetings. These are the only Jews among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have proved a comfort to me. Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis. Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings. Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.

Notice in Colossians 4:13 Demas. Then walk over to the last book that Paul wrote

2Timothy 4 Paul also begins to talk about some of his friends. He says, Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Demas, one of these friends and co-workers during Paul's prison ministry. . . ah, imprisonment in Colossians 4 ends up being distracted by the world and leaving.

Even the friends of the gospel sometimes find themselves distracted, maybe even antagonistic. In fact, if you read the first chapter of Philippians what you discover is that there are people preaching the gospel almost to spite Paul. And the bottom line for Paul is, as long as the gospel gets preached, that's all that matters. Because you cannot bind the gospel. You can't silence it.

If that's true, then one of the things that has to happen is faithful people like you and me begin to open our hearts and our mouths and we begin to speak. If you look at this text in Acts 28 Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul's ambition, his ministry was to teach and to preach and he gathered around him people who would teach and preach because they understood the word cannot be hindered.

And so even under persecution in Acts 8, they went everywhere preaching the word and when they traveled from place to place like Antioch, they spoke the word. You know that's the call on us, to take the gospel with us wherever we go. That's what we're trying to accomplish in this place.

Let me just show you a brief video of one place we're hoping to take the gospel.

VIDEO

If some of those faces look familiar, it's because some of those faces have been sitting with you in pews on Sundays. Edmund has been working diligently at Redmon & Lee in our community and you're going to be hearing more about that in an attempt to draw you into that kind of ministry. And if God somehow speaks to you, that you would like to participate in that experience, then you need to step up and say yes, I want to help take this unhindered gospel even in our own community. Neighbors and friends who need to hear this word that can do something to change their life.

Two things show up in this text. He preached the kingdom and he taught about Jesus. You can count on that happening here. Preaching the kingdom, announcing from this spot and other places in our lives that God is, indeed, in control and he rules, and teaching, trying to help people become more like Jesus.

So for example, if I don't forget, like I did in two our of three services last week, you'll hear me say sometime today, ladies. . . . .today's the last day to sign up for Fall Bible studies. Be a great time for you to plug in.

And if I don't forget to make this announcement, coming up this week there is an open house in our building that talks about our children's ministries and how we disciple young people. You could come and find out how to teach your children about Jesus. You might even discover that there are bridge communities in which you could plug in, that you might hear the gospel clearly and grow in your faith. You might discover that during first hour, second hour, third hour, there are adult classes that you could plug into that would allow you to get into Scripture. Shape your life. You might hear an announcement occasionally about a Wednesday night Bible study that comes along every Spring and every Fall where you'd have a chance to plug in and hear this teaching about Jesus.

My friends there is absolutely nothing that can hinder the word of God from doing its job. They may stop our voices. They will never stop his word.

I want to read you a story I ran into this week. It was told by Ken Taylor..back in the 1930's in Stavropol, Russia, Stalin ordered that all the Bibles be confiscated and all Christian believers sent to prison. Ironically, most of the Bibles were not destroyed. Most of the Christians died as enemies of the state. In early 1990's, as you know, the USSR and other communist nations fell. A team from co-mission went to Stavropol in 1994. They had requested Bibles to be shipped there so that they could distribute them. For whatever reason the Bibles didn't arrive. But somebody knew about this warehouse full of confiscated Bibles and they managed to get permission to actually get those Bibles and distribute them instead of the ones that were being sent.

They hired some local young people to go in and get the Bibles and help get them ready for distribution. Here's where the story continues. One young man, a hostile agnostic, came only for the day's wages but not long after they'd started, he disappeared. He was found in the corner of the warehouse weeping, a Bible in his hands. Intending to steal it for himself, he had picked up his own grandmother's Bible off the shelf. Her signature was on the front page. Today that same young Russian is being transformed by the Bible that cost his grandmother her life.

You cannot bind God's word. You may silence his people. You will never silence Him.

Father, . . . . . . .than to preach your word. We want nothing less than to preach your word. We want to do it in a way that the world has a chance to hear clearly what you have to say. And so we pray for boldness that your word might go forth from this place unhindered, that it will as you have promised, all through Scripture, do its work in our lives and in the lives of the people who hear it. Thank you for your powerful, powerful word, written and living. May Jesus be honored. We pray in his name.

Amen

I don't know what it is that may be hindering Scripture in your life. Maybe it's sin. Maybe there's just something going on in your life that you just have yet to come to grips with and you don't want to give it up. That can stop God from accomplishing his task. Maybe you're just stubborn. You just don't want to give up cause you know that if you really, seriously, give Christ your life there are things that are gonna have to change and you just don't want to do that. Maybe it's just misunderstanding, you just don't know what to do. We can help you with that if you're open to being taught. Maybe, and I use this word in the best sense, maybe it's just ignorance. By that I mean, you just don't know. You're. . . . .you're where I was when I first went to church that first day. You don't have a clue what's going on. We can help you with that too.

I don't know what might hinder his word from working in you but you do. We're trying to offer you a chance to do something about that. I also don't know what keeps you, what hinders you from doing his work, letting his work and word go through you. Fear? Lack of boldness? Lack of confidence that he'll do what he says? Lack of maturity? We can fix those things you know. We can help with that.

But it all starts with your commitment to let him do in you whatever it is that he wants to do to submit to him and his word and to allow him to work in and through his word in you. But please, leave here this morning knowing this. If the world silenced every voice in this room, it would not have silenced his word. Because he will work with or without us, but the joy is, being allowed to partner with him and allowing to work in us.

Would you stand and let this song voice your commitment?