Paul's attempts to appease the Jewish believers in Jerusalem backfire, as a riot breaks out on the Temple Mount and he has to be rescued by a Roman commander and over 200 soldiers. We'll also dig a little deeper into one of the central issues of the Christian life - our identity in Christ.
Transcription (automatically-generated):
Paul completed his third missionary journey when he arrived in Jerusalem. But he was greeted by news that a rumour had been spread among the church there that he was traveling the Roman Empire, teaching Hebrew Christians to abandon their Jewish customs and heritage. This was a lie. Instead of telling their congregants not to Gossip and Slander Paul, the elders of the Jerusalem church proposed a different solution, a pair of acts by Paul that would show these rumours were false.
First, Paul would go to the temple to be ritually purified, something required under the Law for Jews who had been in gentile lands before they could enter the inner courts of the temple. Second, Paul would then accompany four men from the Jerusalem church. Who were finishing their Nazarite vows. And this too would take place at the temple. And Paul would pay for the financial offerings.
These four men were acquired to make at the end of their vows. And that's where we jump in in verse 26. So the next day, Paul took the men, having purified himself along with them, and entered the temple, announcing the completion of the purification days, when the offering would be made for each of them. So Paul graciously and humbly agrees to follow the plan proposed by the Jerusalem elders. The process of purification required Paul to visit the temple.
On the third and 7th days of the week-long Ritual. And so they get the process started. And in the next verse, we jump to the 7th day when they were at the temple to complete their rituals. It says in verse 27, when the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw him in the temple. You'll recall from earlier chapters that as Paul traveled across Asia, he was regularly opposed by a group of Jewish men from the province who stalked his movements, stirring up trouble against him almost everywhere he went.
These men happened to be in Jerusalem for this feast of Pentecost. And they now cross paths with Paul, their nemesis, at the temple, where they immediately begin trying to stir up a mob against him. It says they stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, shouting, fellow Israelites, help. This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people, our law and this place. Their charges are identical to the rumors that had spread in the Jerusalem church.
With an additional likely spontaneous charge that Paul had been blaspheming the temple by claiming it no longer mattered. And this tells us that these men were almost certainly the source of the rumors plaguing the Jerusalem church. They had likely arrived in the city before Paul and his company. And got to work spreading falsehoods about him throughout the city. The accusations are also strikingly similar to those leveled against Stephen, the first martyr in Acts 6, both Stephen and Jesus himself were also accused of speaking against the temple.
And in both cases, those accusations helped lead to their deaths. It was a deadly serious charge, and those accusing Paul were likely hoping for a similar outcome here. And we detailed their accusations against Paul in last week's study, so we won't go through them again. Here. These wicked men continue shouting to the crowd, trying to incite a riot against Paul, claiming, what's more, he also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.
For they had previously seen Trophimus, the Ephesian, in the city with him, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. Trophimus was from Ephesus. That these men recognized him, tells us they were likely from Ephesus, too. Since Paul had spent three years ministering in that city, the men would have recognized Paul immediately. Trophimus had accompanied Paul on this journey.
He was an uncircumcised gentile, meaning he was not allowed in certain areas of the Temple Mount, such as the area where Paul and the four brothers from the Jerusalem church were going through their purification rituals. If a gentile was discovered in one of those restricted Jews-only areas of the temple, they were considered to be desecrating it and would be arrested and then immediately executed. In fact, it was the only offense for which the ruling Romans permitted the Jews to judge and execute an offender, even if the offender was a Roman citizen. An inscription from the time discovered on the Temple Mount in 1935 solemnly warns, "No gentile shall enter within the partition and barrier surrounding the temple, and whoever is caught shall be responsible to himself for his subsequent death." But Trophimus wasn't with Paul at this moment, and Paul would never endanger the life of his friends so foolishly.
These men had simply seen Paul walking around the city earlier with Trophimus and assumed that he had brought him into a Jews-only area of the temple. And if Paul really was bringing a Gentile into a forbidden area of the temple, why weren't these men grabbing that man and having him execute it? Because it wasn't about that. It was about Paul, says in verse 30. The whole city was stirred up and the people rushed together.
They seized Paul, dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut. News traveled fast in Jerusalem, especially during a feast when the city was packed. The scheme against Paul seemed to work, as a nationalistic and religious frenzy grabbed hold of the crowd, turning them into a murderous mob. They grabbed Paul and dragged him out of the temple, intending to beat him to death. They were so enraged, they couldn't even be bothered to wait until Paul was out of the city and they could stone him as they had Stephen.
They wanted to kill him ASAP. They dragged Paul out of the temple so as not to desecrate it by killing a man there. And the temple guards close the gates behind them to ensure events don't spill back onto temple grounds. Paul has been walking in Jesus's footsteps. The false accusations, the murderous mob, much of it parallels events leading up to Jesus' arrest trials and crucifixion.
And tragically, decades later, Israel is just as hard-hearted as she was when she was visited by her messiah. I believe this was essentially Israel's final chance to receive the gospel until Christ returns. Just over a decade after Paul is rejected here in Jerusalem, the city, including the temple, would be leveled by the Romans. Under Titus Vespasianus, thousands of Jews would be slaughtered and the survivors would be scattered across the earth in the event known as the diaspora. This would all take place in AD 70, just as Jesus predicted in Luke's gospel, where we read, as some were talking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God.
He that's Jesus said, these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left on another that will not be thrown down. Israel's rejection of Paul in Jerusalem is a big deal in terms of her mega narrative. Paul would have died in Jerusalem there and then had God not providentially intervened. We read in verse 31, as they were trying to kill him, word went up to the commander of the regiment that all Jerusalem was in chaos. Now, the regiment spoken of here was stationed at the Antonia fortress, which you may recall, was next to the Temple Mount.
Let's put the photo up on the screen there. This is a photo of a model of first-century Jerusalem. You can see the Temple Mount in the lower left of the image, and you can see the towers of the Antonia fortress in the middle, right next to it. Just leave it up there for a minute. Now, remember, this was a time of strong nationalism, with insurrection attempts occurring regularly.
Additionally, all tensions would have been raised to a boiling point during feast times because the city would be overflowing with devout Jews, creating a powder keg that could spark a riot at any moment. The regiment stationed at the Antonia fortress would have been ready to respond rapidly during this feast of Pentecost and would have had soldiers stationed on the towers of the fortress, always looking down on the Temple Mount, and they would have seen events unfolding and immediately sent word to their commander. In Acts 22:26, Luke tells us his name was Claudius Lysias. He would have overseen a cohort of a thousand soldiers and been the ranking Roman official when the governor was away from the city, which he often was because his official residence was in Caesarea, it was Lysias' job to maintain order in Jerusalem by any means necessary. Verse 32.
Taking along soldiers and centurions, he immediately ran down to them, to the mob. Seeing the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. So Lysias takes over 200 soldiers with him in a massive show of force, indicating to the mob that their lives would be in jeopardy if they didn't break up this riot. It worked, and it saved Paul's life. Then the commander approached, took him into custody, and ordered him to be bound with two chains.
He asked the crowd who he, Paul, was and what he had done. It was apparent to Lysias that Paul was at the center of whatever this riot was about. So he looks for answers by asking the crowd, what's going on? As Paul is bound between two soldiers with two chains. Agabus's prophecy, delivered earlier in this chapter, is fulfilled.
Verse 34. Some in the crowd were shouting one thing and some another. Since he, Lysias, was not able to get reliable information because of the uproar, he ordered him to be taken into the barracks. Lysias planned to question Paul in private and if necessary, use torture to extract a confession. When Paul got to the steps of the fortress, he had to be carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd, for the mass of people followed yelling, get rid of him.
Just as a couple of decades earlier, the mob in Jerusalem had cried, take him away. Take him away. Crucify him. When Jesus was presented to them by Pontius Pilate, the crowd wanted Paul dead. And incredibly, this was far from the first time he had been in this type of situation.
The soldiers actually had to lift Paul over their heads and crowdsurf him into the barracks because the Jews were still so full of bloodlust, they were swarming the soldiers on the steps, and so nobody could move. So they have to lift Paul up and pass him back, essentially to get him into the fortress. The Jerusalem elders' plan to have Paul show everyone he was still a devout jew who endorsed the law, failed spectacularly. Paul tried to appease his Jewish brethren by going into the temple to be purified, and instead a riot broke out, and he was accused of defiling the temple. Verse 37.
As he was about to be brought into the barracks, Paul said to the commander, am I allowed to say something to you? He replied, you know how to speak Greek? Since the riot had broken out, Paul had remained silent throughout all the upheaval. Now he addresses Lysias in Koine Greek, the language of the cultured and educated of the day. Lysias is surprised because he assumed he was dealing with a common criminal of some sort.
Historians tell us that Paul's mastery of Koine Greek is unparalleled in the historical record. In other words, nobody in history used Koine Greek better than Paul. Nobody had a better grasp of the language than him. He was a master orator and author. And so Lysias asks Paul, aren't you the Egyptian who started a revolt some time ago and led 4000 men of the assassins into the wilderness?
So there's this case of mistaken identity going on between Paul and Lysias. The commander. That Paul spoke Koine Greek made Lysias think Paul was not a local, as they generally spoke in Aramaic. However, the Greek language was common in Egypt, leading Lysias to ask Paul if he was the Egyptian. The Jewish historian Josephus wrote of a false prophet who came to Jerusalem from Egypt at the time of the Roman governor Felix.
Around the middle of the first century, he gathered thousands of followers who became known as the assassins. Yeah, it's kind of awesome. And it gets even more kind of awesome if you're a dude. They were zealously nationalistic, targeting Romans for assassination. But more often they're Jewish collaborators.
Any jew who would dare to work with the Romans. Kind of like Matthew did when he was a tax collector. This is the part that's kind of awesome. Not that I condone violence. Okay.
They would seek crowded situations where they could stab and assassinate their victims and then melt away in the crowd or actually be brazen enough to join those mourning the death that had just happened to escape detection. As you might guess, they were especially active during feast times when the city of Jerusalem would be packed. Around AD 54, the Egyptian gathered his assassins on the Mount of Olives just outside Jerusalem and told them they were going to take the city. He predicted that the city's walls would magically fall down at his command and the Romans would be driven out. Before he could act on his ridiculous prediction, the Romans got word and attacked them.
400 were killed, 200 were captured, and the rest vanished, including the Egyptian, who was never seen again. The people of Jerusalem had actually opposed the Egyptian, believing him incapable of toppling the Romans. Meaning his actions would only result in pain and suffering for the city's residents. When the Romans inevitably and terribly retaliated against the populace for the attempted insurrection. All of this is why Lysias suspects Paul may be the Egyptian and may have been caught attempting an assassination on the Temple Mount.
That's what he thinks is going on. Paul said, I'm a Jewish man from Tarsus of Cilicia, a citizen of an important city. Now I ask you, let me speak to the people. Tarsus was a city well known for its culture, boasting a university that rivalled the ones in Athens and Alexandria, which explains Paul's mastery of Koine Greek. At this time, one's place of birth had a significant impact on one's honor and dignity.
Having revealed himself as a cultured man born in a noble city rather than a common criminal or the Egyptian, Paul courageously asks Lysias for permission to address the crowd. If you haven't figured it out yet, Paul is. He's just fearless. In Ephesus, there was an entire amphitheater of men who wanted to kill him, and his thought process was, what a great opportunity to preach the gospel. And once again, Paul decides that having all these men who want to kill him in one place in a large crowd is a fantastic evangelistic opportunity.
We know Paul desperately loved his ethnic brethren and would have paid any price to see them saved. And perhaps at this moment, he was thinking, this is the opportunity I've been waiting for, a chance to address my countrymen in the holy city of Jerusalem with the attention of the entire city on me. Perhaps God has orchestrated this moment that I've so longed for. Perhaps this is the moment. Verse 40.
After he, Lysias, had given permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned with his hand to the people again. He may have had some Italian heritage. When there was a great hush, he addressed them in Aramaic or possibly Hebrew. A few minutes ago, Paul was just a body being seized by two different groups, almost killed by one and about to be tortured by the other. But now both parties fall silent and the spotlight falls upon Paul as he prepares to take center stage and address the crowd under the supervision of the Roman soldiers.
It seems that everywhere Paul went, there was either a riot or a revival, sometimes both. And next week, BJ is going to pick up the text of our study there. I want to use the rest of our time together to talk a little bit more about an issue that came up in last week's study, our identity in Christ. And it's such a big subject, I was intimidated by sharing a little bit more about it because it really would he an eight-week study series. Because this issue of our identity in Christ is the central issue of the Christian life.
It's the central issue of everything. It's the central issue of marriage, family, work, your thought life, self-esteem, mental health. Everything comes down to this issue of our identity in Christ. We talked about how the Jewish Christians were having a hard time embracing their identity as Christians above their identity as Jews. We talked about how when we come to Christ, he must become our predominant identity.
We can't put anything in front of the word Christian, be it our ethnic, national, or cultural identity. We're just Christians because Christ is the most important thing about us and the thing we all have in common. Paul told the Corinthians that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away and see the new has come. Anyone who is in Christ is not who they once were.
They are something. They are someone new. The spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, has come into that person's life, taken up residency in them, making them something new. The idea that there's no way to really tell who's saved and who isn't is quite simply nonsense. It's nonsense.
The Bible doesn't describe the changes brought about by salvation as subtle. It likens them to the difference between life and death and being made a new creation. The idea that it's a subtle difference between a corpse and a living person is nonsense. The idea that being a new creation is a subtle change is nonsense. There is always evidence when someone has been made new by Christ, even immediately.
Peter wrote about the church, those who have been made new by Christ. And he said, you are a chosen race, in other words, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Identity is defined as the collective aspect of the set of characteristics by which a thing is definitively recognizable or known.
So our new identity in Christ should be recognizable both to ourselves and to others. A further definition of identity is the quality or condition of being the same as something else. With our identity in Christ, our lives should show that we share qualities with Christ, albeit in significantly inferior ways. The name Christians literally means followers of Christ. We're trying to be identified with him.
We're trying to be like him. Our identity is what gives us a sense of belonging. I'll always remember talking to a cop I knew a few years back who worked in Surrey and I was shocked when he told me that almost all of the young men he encountered who were involved with gangs came from affluent backgrounds. They came from wealthy families. They weren't getting involved with crime to make a living or try and get out of poverty.
They just wanted to be part of the gang life. They wanted a tribe, they wanted a family. This is how cults and terrorist organizations recruit. They offer an identity and a community to someone who is desperately seeking answers to questions like, who am I? And who are my people?
People find answers to this question in all kinds of places. They join a gym, they become a vegan, they join a protest movement, they frequent a bar. The draw to find a social identity is incredibly strong. I remember a few years back, there was this phenomenon that exploded out of nowhere as tens of thousands of teenage girls suddenly developed ticks, as in the twitching movement, not the bugs. And parents didn't know what to do.
This was happening to teenage girls with no medical history to suggest this. And the parents were obviously deeply concerned. And then stories started coming out about a few psychologists and psychiatrists who suspected it was a case of girls seeing it on social media, seeing the attention it was getting on social media intrinsically, just automatically recognizing that it provided a sense of identity and connection with a larger community. And their subconscious began manifesting the symptoms psychosomatically. And these psychologists began telling their parents, just try removing your child's access to social media.
Just try that. And within a few months, girls began getting cured just like that. And now you hear nothing about it because we've moved on to new trends that are affecting people psychosomatically. But it's driven by this intrinsic subconscious desire we have for an identity and a sense of belonging. I've watched, over the last several years, depression and anxiety and mental health issues become trendy.
I see people who post about their depression and anxiety every day because it has become the single most defining thing about them. They've made it their whole identity. I've watched it happen with the trance and sexual identity movement. Anything that gives people instant access to a social identity and a community is going to be appealing to many people because so many people are seeking that. And it's one reason for the massive uptick in gender dysphoria among children.
I mean, think about it. They go to schools where they are taught information that creates uncertainty, where there was once certainty. And they're told, if you will embrace a new, non-orthodox gender identity, then we will all celebrate you. You'll become popular, you'll become part of a privileged class. That sounds pretty appealing to children who are desperate to fit in and feel loved and are still very much trying to figure out who they are.
And they're confused, just like every child and teenager is. Then those children grow up and graduate, and they find that the world outside of the school system doesn't celebrate them that same way anymore. And all they can do is get angry about it because they were seeking an identity. And the one they chose didn't end up providing what they hoped it would. It's a satanic deception.
He offers you an identity, a sense of belonging and community, but it always comes with a terrible price because he's never seeking to help you. The word tells us he comes to steal, kill, and destroy. In contrast, Jesus declared that he came, that we might have life and have it in abundance. And so Jesus created the church to be the community for those who love him. And if we love Christ, we will find the most incredible community among the people of God who also love Christ.
That's one reason we have membership. We want to ask people questions like, do you really love Christ? Do you want to obey him with your whole life? Because a community only really works when people are on the same page, pursuing the same goals, sharing the same values. It's like speaking a different language.
When one person is like, Christ is everything to me, and the other person supposedly part of their community is. I mean, he's definitely a factor in my life. I wouldn't say he's everything, though. It just doesn't work. If we love Christ, we will find the most incredible community among the people of God who also love Christ.
And often our discontent with the community of Christ stems from the fact that what we really want is to fit in with the world. And we find that the church doesn't offer the same kinds of affirmations that the world does. The church can't offer the approval of the world. In fact, not even Jesus can offer you the approval of the world. James wrote this.
Don't you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be a friend of the world becomes the enemy of God. When Christ is our identity, we will find fulfillment in living with community, living in community with those who share that identity, the identity of Christ. The people of God love being with the people of God. And some of us are trying to gain the approval of the world and the approval of God.
You'll never find fulfillment trying to live with 1ft in the world and 1ft in the kingdom. You'll be miserable because you'll have too much of Christ to enjoy the world, and too much of the world to enjoy Christ. You must choose, and you must choose Christ. So would you write this down? When our identity is in Christ, we will desire community with others who share that identity.
In other words, the church. When our identity is in Christ, we will desire community with others who share that identity. Jewish Christians in Paul's day had found their identity for centuries in being Jewish. As I mentioned last week, it was both their religion and their ethnicity, and their religion specified laws and customs and rituals and feasts that they were to take part in. When Christ fulfilled the law and created the church, he created a new family, a new community.
And what made you part of this new family was that you had to be born again. You had turned from everything else and turned toward Christ. His spirit had come into your life, making you a new creation. And this was hard for many Jewish Christians to swallow because the shift was massive. Because instead of your identity being based on your ethnicity or the things you did, it was now based on Christ and what he did.
The concept Christians must embrace is that Christ has done infinitely more on our behalf than we could ever do for ourselves. And that's hard for many of us. It's hard because most of us, especially men, are wired to take pride in our achievements. We find fulfillment in our accomplishments. Do you know what demographic commits suicide most frequently and by a huge amount?
It's not even close. It's not teen girls. Overwhelmingly. It's middle-aged men who have lost their jobs and are down on their luck because working and earning money was what gave them their sense of identity and worth. When they lost that, they completely lost themselves.
They had no idea who they were. They felt worthless because their work was their whole identity. If I can't work, if I can't provide, if I can't generate income, then what am I? When life isn't working out for Christians, they are still robed in the righteousness of Christ. The Holy Spirit doesn't leave when you lose your job.
Christians are still being made more like Christ every day. There is still an unshakable, unalterable future of unspeakable goodness awaiting every Christian in eternity. And there is still the peace, joy, and rest, and hope of Christ available at all times. These most important truths remain in place regardless of our circumstances. And the Christian is called to find their meaning and purpose in these things.
But it's hard when we're used to finding our self-esteem in what we do. The Jewish Christians, in truth, have been finding their self-esteem in what they did for centuries. I'm a good person because I obey the law of Moses. I have worth because I do things that other people don't do. Christianity says, Christ has done it all on your behalf.
So what are we supposed to do? Boast about what Christ has done. Find our meaning of self and our sense of assurance in what Christ has done. Yes, exactly that. Paul wrote, brothers and sisters, consider your calling.
Not many were wise from a human perspective. Not many of you were powerful, not many of noble birth. Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. And God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world, what is viewed as nothing to bring to nothing what is viewed as something so that no.
1 may boast in his presence. It is from him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom from God for us, our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption in order that, as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. Christ has secured my eternity. This life is a vapor. But eternity is just that, eternity.
And when I begin to rest in that reality, I begin to see what this life is for. This life is for bringing glory to God. He has done more for me than I could ever put into words. And how I live this life is my opportunity to say thank you to him. For the Christian, this life is not about satisfying our ego or our insecurities.
It's about saying thank you to Jesus for all that he's done for us. So make a note of this. When our identity is in Christ, his achievements bring us greater satisfaction than our own. When our identity is in Christ, his achievements bring us greater satisfaction than our own. And when we live that way, we find ourselves living by a completely different set of metrics to the world.
We start viewing success very differently. As we find our identity in Christ, we become increasingly freed from the snare of comparison that has trapped the world. Because my flesh is not only tempted to find meaning in what I do, it's tempted to find meaning in how I compare to you. Using this world's metrics, my flesh doesn't think, what kind of housing do I need? My flesh thinks, what kind of housing does everybody else have?
My flesh doesn't think, what kind of travel mug do I need? My flesh thinks, what kind of travel mug does everybody else have? And then my flesh decides that what I really need is a Stanley travel mug that holds 120 gallons of water. It's the comparison trap. But Christ says you have a heavenly Father who knows what you need and he'll provide it for you.
Your job is to stay focused on me, living for me, and becoming more like me. The call of Christ is the call to disconnect from the world and the comparison trap, and instead fix your eyes on Jesus, trusting your heavenly Father to determine your needs. This was hard for the Jewish Christians, as it is for us, because we want to compare ourselves to others. We want to. Yet in the kingdom of God, the only person we're called to compare ourselves to is Christ.
We don't want to do that because we all fall so far short of him. And yet, if we do begin to compare ourselves to Christ, the most amazing things begin to happen. Our pride and our arrogance and our ego begin to starve. Because it becomes much more difficult to feel superior to others. We begin to recognize our own sinfulness, which is extensive, and that makes it harder to be focused on the faults of others.
We begin to see Christ more clearly and grow in our appreciation of just how wonderful and glorious and good and holy he is. We understand how amazing it is that he loves us and slowly begin to realize that he must actually not love us because of anything we do. Because I'm not that good and I don't do anything that great. He must actually just love me because I belong to him and there's nothing I can do to earn his love. We start to become content with what we have because we're no longer looking at what the person on our right or our left has.
In fact, we start viewing what we have as a blessing, which actually enables us to enjoy it more. So write this down. When our identity is in Christ, we compare ourselves to him rather than to others. When our identity is in Christ, we compare ourselves to him rather than to others. Jesus told his disciples, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.
And this was a wrestle, even for me personally. When we moved here around twelve years ago to start a church, the timing was perfect. We were in South Florida. We owned a house. And when the market had bottomed out in the 2008 crash, we were ready to pounce.
We were about to buy six-bedroom house, acre and a half-enclosed pool, two living rooms, $285,000 house - would be a million dollars right now. We knew it would set us up for the rest of our lives. There's our retirement taken care of. And then the Lord said, come and move here. Had to sell our house, knew there's no way we'd be able to afford one here.
I don't know if you've noticed, the market hasn't gone down in the last twelve years. And that's hard, because there's something in me as a guy who just views that as a benchmark of success. And there's days for me, it just kills me, kills me that I don't own a house, my flesh feels like a failure as a provider for my family. And then I have to take a step back and say, yeah, that's not all coincidence. And I know that some of these things are, but God has a way through working through all kinds of things.
And that's a way for God to put his finger on something in my life and say, what's this? What's this? Until I begin to talk to him about it and find out that too much of my identity is wrapped up in this thing, rather than allowing my heavenly Father to determine what I need.
The Jewish Christians were used to living with their own kind, other ethnic Jews. Suddenly, in the church, anybody could become part of the family of God. What? You see, we naturally want to be in charge of our relationships. We want to choose who we have relationships with, what kind of relationship it is, and how long we stay in that relationship.
If it's not working for me, I want to leave. And that's because of our natural tendency to find our identity, in part through our relationships. I belong to this group, I'm a friend of these people. I'm this person's boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife. And when we find our identity in our relationships, we give those relationships tremendous power over us.
If we lose them, we lose part of our identity. If we're no longer affirmed in that relationship, then our self-esteem takes a massive hit. And so what we do is we make compromises to keep those relationships intact. If we're in them for the wrong reasons, we make compromises in order to keep getting that affirmation, because we're getting it from the relationship instead of the Lord. The problem is that most people are in relationships for those same reasons.
They're also finding their identity, in large part, in their relationships. In most relationships, people are using one another. Everybody's in it for what they can get out of it. When that reaches intense levels, you get dynamics like codependency, where we come to rely on our boyfriend or girlfriend or husband and wife to provide our sense of identity and self-worth and purpose. And yes, that creates exactly as much pressure on the other person as it sounds like it does.
It creates a horribly toxic relationship and Christ's version of relationships is infinitely better. He says, find your identity in me. Find your worth in me by learning about how much I love you. Find your peace and your joy and your purpose in me. And when we do that, and only when we do that, can the selfish motivations that drive most of our relationships begin to lessen.
And only then can we begin to start loving people, because Christ loves them. Agape is the Greek word for the highest form of love that exists. Greek has multiple different words for different types of love, which is great, because all we have is love. Gas is I love Cheetos and love, as in I love my wife. We have the same word.
And the Greeks were like, maybe we need a different word for loving Cheetos and loving your wife, which was a really, really great idea. But the Greek word for the highest form of love is agape. It's a love that is first and foremost concerned with the good of its target. When the Bible says that God is love, it's speaking about agape. And it's how God desires us to love one another, to protect us from finding our identity in our relationships.
The Lord also gives us parameters for our relationships. One of them is that the word tells us not to enter a romantic relationship with someone who's not a believer. Why? It's real simple. It's because their highest goal in life is not pleasing Christ.
It's not, as Amos 33 says, can two walk together unless they are agreed? In other words, how are you going to walk through life with someone if you don't even agree about where you're going? If you don't even agree about what the purpose of life is, either you'll end up far apart, separated, or you'll end up compromising on your destination. And when it comes to believers dating non-believers, that's what usually happens. The believer compromises on the destination.
The believer compromises on obeying Christ. And that happens for two reasons. Number one, it's not that complicated. We love sin first, reason we love sin. Second, it seems like the easiest way to affirm our identity is a person who has worth and a person who is desirable.
So if I have to trade obeying Christ and going where he says I'm to go, but in exchange from this person, I can get affirmation and feel desirable. I'll take that trade. That's why we do that. But Christ says, find your self-worth in me. Find your identity in me.
Which is why the best relationship is not two people coming together and saying, you complete me. It's two people being made complete as individuals in Christ and then coming together to love and serve one another. Then they're free to enjoy each other without burdening one another by saying, just remember, all my self-esteem is wrapped up in you. All my sense of identity is wrapped up in you. So don't disappoint me.
Don't fail to affirm me every freaking day. Not a good situation. Make a note of this. When our identity is in Christ, he governs our relationships. When our identity is in Christ, he governs our relationships.
He governs when we get into relationships. He governs when we stay in relationships. He governs when we leave. He governs how we love. He governs all of these things.
When we are in Christ. I'm going to ask the worship team to come up. As we close today, I want to do a simple check-in with all of us. I just hit on a couple of issues, but this issue of identity in Christ, man, it covers the gamut, every area of our lives. And so I want to check in with a simple question for you.
Are you finding your identity in Christ? Are you finding your identity in Christ? Or are you finding it in your work, your relationships, your kids, your possessions, your achievements? Something else? If you're a Christian, take communion in this coming time of worship.
And remember that when Christ died for you, he assigned you the highest value possible because he valued you at the price of his own life. Nothing you can do and nothing anyone else can do for you can add anything to increase the value that Christ has already placed on your life. You're as valuable as you could be. That's the truth. So let's ask the Holy Spirit to move that truth from our heads to our hearts and to help us understand, to help us grasp that reality in a way that saturates our whole lives and frees us from chasing affirmation down other avenues that are only destined to disappoint.
And if you're not a Christian, I want to invite you to become one. Christ died for you too. He's valued you that highly, too. And if you want to receive him into your life as lord and savior, the king over your life, ask him to come into your life and do that and be that, and he will. And then come up to BJ or myself after the service and let us know.
We just want to talk with you a little bit more about what it means to follow Jesus and help you take your next steps in doing that. So with that, would you bow your head and close your eyes? Let's pray together. Jesus, thank you so much for your word. And thank you for everything that you offer us in yourself.
You don't just offer us salvation, solving our eternal problem of sin, but, Lord, you offer us wholeness in this life right now. You offer us freedom and release from all the empty avenues that the world is chasing. And you say, just come to me. I'll give you the affirmation. I'll give you purpose.
I'll give you peace. I'll give you satisfaction. I'll fill you with my spirit.
And so, Lord, we know that and we hear that, and we understand that in our minds. But, Lord, we need your help. We need your spirit to grasp that with our hearts and our souls. And so, Holy Spirit, please, please do that work in us. Help us to understand just some of what we have in Christ, the riches that we have in Christ.
Help us to not go through our lives failing to appropriate and walk in the abundant life that you have for us and where we don't know how to grab ahold of it. Please help us. Please just help us. By your spirit and father, we ask that you would right now put your finger on any spot in our hearts where we're finding our identity in something other than you. Put your finger right on it in a way where we can't even fight back or pretend that it's not true.
Do that, and then help us to give it away to you, to cast all our cares upon you because you care for us. And Jesus, please, as we pray regularly, take the throne as our king, as our identity, as our everything, and be glorified in our lives so that our lives can have the highest purpose possible, which is magnifying you. So please work in us. Jesus, we love you. We're so thankful for all you've done for us.
It's in your name we pray. Amen.