When I read this passage, I am struck with the power of love. I am not talking about love in the biblical sense of love as an action – in the sense that we are called to love God and love people in the same way we have been loved by Christ at the cross of Calvary – I am talking about love in the sense of what we deeply love, desire, want, obsess over, or long for.

Think about this. What do you love the most in this life? What do you desire or want the most in this life? What do you long for or dream about or obsess over the most? What you obsess over, what you think about, what dominates your thoughts the most, is what you love and want more than anything else.

And if you are having a hard time figuring out what you love the most, try evaluating your words, behaviors, and thoughts. Your words, behaviors, and thoughts will tell you a lot about what you love, desire, want, long for, dream about, or obsess over, the most.

This is why Matthew records Jesus’ conversation with some religious folks (in 12:33 – 40) when he says, “A tree is identified by its fruit. If a tree is good, its fruit will be good. If a tree is bad, its fruit will be bad. You brood of snakes! How could evil men like you speak what is good and right? For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak. The words you say will either acquit you or condemn you.” One day some teachers of religious law and Pharisees came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign to prove your authority.” But Jesus replied, “Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.”

These religious folks in Matthew seriously do not get it! Right after Jesus explains that their words reveal the unregenerated condition of their hearts, they come to him using words that while sounding religiously ok, only further prove that they are unregenerated enemies of God; they do not love God, they love themselves and the love of self is something so powerful that it can completely blind even the smartest of us!

Is there any chance that you are sitting here today, completely blinded by your love for something other than Jesus? Once again, when I read the passage in front of us today, I am struck by the power of love. Because, in this passage, I see a group of law-loving people who would have murdered a gospel-loving preacher if it had not been for the intervention of a power-loving public official. Those who love the law will always oppose those who love the gospel of grace and those who love power and acceptance will always straddle the fence between legalism and freedom. Look at the text with me…

1“Brothers and fathers, hear the defense that I now make before you.” 2And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet. And he said: 3“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day. 4I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, 5as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness. From them I received letters to the brothers, and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished. 6“As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me. 7And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ 8And I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.’ 9Now those who were with me saw the light but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me. 10And I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Rise, and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do.’ 11And since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and came into Damascus. 12“And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, 13came to me, and standing by me said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight.’ And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him. 14And he said, ‘The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth; 15for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. 16And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’ 17“When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance 18and saw him saying to me, ‘Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’ 19And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. 20And when the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him.’ 21And he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’” 22Up to this word they listened to him. Then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.” 23And as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, 24the tribune ordered him to be brought to the barracks, saying that he should be examined by flogging, to find out why they were shouting against him like this. 25But when they had stretched him out for the whips, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned?” 26When the centurion heard this, he went to the tribune and said to him, “What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman citizen.” 27So the tribune came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” And he said, “Yes.” 28The tribune answered, “I bought this citizenship for a large sum.” Paul said, “But I am a citizen by birth.” 29So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him immediately, and the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him.

RECAP HOW WE GOT HERE…

You may remember how we got here today. In our last chunk of text, Acts 21:17 – 40, the apostle Paul arrived in Jerusalem; he spent some time with the leaders of the church and they updated him on the current state of the church in Jerusalem – it was effectively full of “law-loving” Jewish believers (21:20); he was warned about the many rumors floating around about his supposed “love for lawlessness” (21:21); he was given instructions about how to proceed with ministering in this hostile context; he was promptly seized by a mob of murderous Jews; and he was eventually handed over to the Roman officials where he asked permission to make a defense in front of the people.

Paul is not watering down the gospel one bit; he is contextualizing the gospel in a hostile environment, and he is about to give a defense for the gospel in front of a “law-loving”murderous mob while in the custody of a “power-loving” public official. The questions we were challenged with last week were: “How do we water down the gospel and what can we do to contextualize the gospel?”

The obvious implication of these questions is that we must first become people who love the gospel; people who actually love Jesus more than anything else. We must love the gospel more than anything else, more than comfort, power, control, acceptance, fame, fortune, performance, or pleasure. We must become people who love the gospel of Jesus crucified, risen, and returning, more than anything else. We must become people who love the gospel enough to die for the one who died for our sins; we need to get a deathwish as I preached a few weeks ago. This truth leads one commentator, considering our text today, to say…

“A godly line of men and women have sought to testify to Christ when facing the possibility of death. They have done so because they have not been afraid of death. They have loved Jesus Christ more than they have loved staying in this world.”2 

Sounds very reminiscent of the hard words I preached two weeks ago. People with a proper, Gospel centered deathwish, are so acquainted with death – because they are actively dying to their sin daily – that they run towards the opportunity to suffer and to even die for Jesus because they live their lives at the foot of a bloody cross where their savior died in their place. Do you live at the foot of a bloody cross?

WHAT ABOUT THE TEXT IN FRONT OF US TODAY?

I have already alluded to the fact that this text reveals three kinds of people based upon what they love the most: We have law-loving people (the Jews), power/acceptance-loving people (the Roman officials), and gospel-loving people (the apostle Paul).

In this text, Paul makes his first defense (of many) against the accusations and threats of death that were leveled against him by the law-loving Jews while in the custody of power/acceptance-loving Roman officials. And I am reminded (as are some commentators)3 of 1 Peter 3:15 – 17 as Paul gently and respectfully and with a clean conscience, gives a defense (or an apologetic answer) for the hope that he has in Christ Jesus to those who are slandering him and threatening to make him suffer.

#1: PAUL’S TESTIMONY (VSS. 1 – 21). In verses 1 – 21, Paul basically gives his testimony beginning with a description of his nationality, education, and religion (vss. 1 – 3). He describes his misguided, sin-filled, religious zeal that motivated his severe persecution of Christians (vss. 4 – 5). He describes how the crucified, risen, and returning Jesus saved him from his life of sinful rebellion on the road to Damascus when Jesus knocked him off his high horse of sin-filled religious performance (vss. 6 – 20). Finally, he wraps things up with a final statement about how God called him to minister to the Gentiles in the very temple he was just thrown out of (vs. 21).

Paul is so in love with Jesus that he really does not defend himself as much as he defends the one who died to save him from the penalty of his sin. I whole heartedly agree with one commentator who says that “Paul loved Jesus with all his heart and soul. The love of Christ controlled him (2 Cor. 5:14). He stood with his back to the cross and faced his enemy down. He reasoned that since Christ was God and had died for him, no sacrifice was too great for the apostle to make.”4 Can the same be said of you and me? Do you really love Jesus?

#2: THE RESPONSE OF THE JEWS AND ROMANS (VSS. 22 – 29). In verses 22 – 29,Luke records the responses of the law-loving Jews and the power/acceptance-loving Roman officials. The law-loving Jews are mad because Paul would dare to include the Gentiles as recipients of God’s love; how dare he proclaim that God would love those filthy outsiders – the Gentiles?

When Paul eventually uses his Roman citizenship to avoid unnecessary beatings, the power/acceptance-loving Roman officials show their hand in what they love the most when Luke records that “they withdrew from him immediately, and the tribune (Roman official) also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him” (vs. 29).

These Roman officials loved their power, and they loved being accepted into the biggest worldwide gang the earth had ever known; their power and acceptance was in jeopardy because Roman citizens were not to be treated as common criminals (they were not to be beaten or tortured) without a fair trial.

What we fear always indicates what we love the most. These men feared the loss of power and acceptance unlike the apostle Paul who knew that all power belongs to God (Rom. 13) and that he was fully accepted for all eternity by the One who mattered most, who gave his life as a ransom for sinners (Matt. 20:28).

APPLICATION (BELIEVE AND OBEY)…

So, what about you? Is there any chance that you are sitting here today, completely blinded by your love for something other than Jesus? We have seen how this passage describes a group of law-loving people who would have murdered a gospel-loving preacher if it had not been for the intervention of a power-loving public official.

We have been reminded that those who love the law will always oppose those who love the gospel of grace and those who love power and acceptance will always straddle the fence between legalism and freedom. Remember, your words, behaviors, thoughts, and your fears will tell you a lot about what you love, desire, want, long for, dream about, or obsess over, the most.

Once again, what do you love the most in this life? What do you desire or want the most in this life? What do you long for or dream about or obsess over the most? What you obsess over, what you think about, what dominates your thoughts the most, is what you love and want more than anything else.

Maybe you cannot stop thinking about that raise you want at work. Maybe you obsess over that next accomplishment or achievement. Maybe your thoughts are dominated by dreams of meeting the right person, having children, and starting a family. Maybe you are consumed with a critical mind that cannot stop criticizing and grading everyone around you. Maybe you are super obsessed with getting your performance down to a “t”. Maybe your thought life is dominated by your love for sex, pleasure, or escape through addictions.

Or maybe you cannot stop thinking about how to gain acceptance from your spouse, your children, or some friend group. Maybe you are so enamored with being in a church full of rugged outcasts that you have forgotten about loving the process of repentance and becoming more like Christ. Or maybe you are so stuck on making everyone around you fit into your picture of holiness that you forgot about your own need to walk in open repentance too.

All these things and more, are ways that we sinfully rebel against God as we actively love something or someone more than his crucified, risen, and returning Son, Jesus. If the western church found itself in Paul’s predicament today, I am afraid that she would resort to constitutional, historical, national, religious arguments thinking that she was preaching the gospel while watering down or believing a different gospel.

Do you understand just how sinful and rebellious you really are when your life proves that you love all the things, I just listed more than you love Jesus? Do you really understand just how repugnant your sins – culturally acceptable or not – really are? Do you really understand the cost of your rebellion against God? There is no gospel without a clear understanding of the guilt of our sin against a holy and righteous God who gave his one and only Son to die in our place so that we could be made right, washed clean, and set free to worshipful repentance from sin.

Whether your flavor of sin is laced with legalism or licentiousness, your sin still stinks no matter how much perfume you put on it. Pigs do not get prettier just because we put lipstick on them, and dead bodies do not jump out of their sin-filled graves by human might. And dead people do not smell better just because you put flowers in their caskets. Think with me about some of the sins you may be guilty of:

  1. THE SIN OF PERFORMANCE. Maybe you do not struggle with looking at porn every day, but you do look down your nose at people who have not grown up yet. You do not love Jesus; you are far too busy loving the fact that your outward performance does not look as bad as the guy or the gal next to you.
  2. THE SIN OF TRAUMA ATTENTION. Maybe you do not have it all together on the outside yet, but you sit in judgement against those who have not experienced the hardship you have endured. You do not love Jesus either; you are far too busy loving the attention your PTSD earns you.
  3. THE SIN OF SUPERIORITY. Maybe you have not experienced the brokenness of emotional, psychological, or physical handicaps that others have experienced, but you have an awesome ability to think your way through things with a critical mindset that brings a sense of stability and security to your life while you criticize everyone and everything around you. You do not love Jesus either; you are far too busy loving that sense of superiority you feel even though you do a great job covering up that sense of superiority on the outside.
  4. THE SIN OF BEING THE OUTCAST. Maybe you are filled with pride or joy because you finally found a church that celebrates Jesus saving the outcast while you pay very little attention to the cross you are called to carry that bids you to die to your sin on the daily. You do not love Jesus either; you are far too busy loving a sense of belonging more than the pursuit of becoming like Jesus.

CONCLUSION…

If you do not think that everything, I just said in those last four points is contextually supported by our passage today… go back and do a study of Paul’s life and ministry. Paul had plenty of reasons to boast in his performance, to revel in his PTSD, to look down his nose with superiority, and to celebrate belonging over becoming.

And yet, his life and ministry were not characterized by these things because he truly loved Jesus. He loved Jesus because in the crucified, risen, and returning Christ, he met a Savior whose perfect body and life was broken, and bloodied, and murdered on behalf of people who loved their performance, their status in life, their superiority, and their sense of acceptance by worldly accounts more than they loved him. Jesus loved so deeply that he gave his life for people who did not just resist loving him but actively waged war against him as he died in their place – in our place!

This is the power of love, that God, who loved the world so much, would give his one and only Son to die in the place of law-loving, and power/acceptance-loving people so that by the regenerating work of the Spirit, these people could be saved and set free from their legalism and their licentiousness to love Jesus to the death.

This is the power of love that Jesus would die for his enemies so that we could become a family that is absolutely obsessed with the power of love to the point of dying to ourselves so that the world might know Jesus too. The question is: Is this you; do you love Jesus more than anything else?

1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references in this paper are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).

2 Derek W. H. Thomas, Acts, (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R Publishing, 2011), 635 – 636.

3 Ibid., 623.

4 Ibid., 619.