GYC 2012 Acts: The Revolution Continues

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

GYC 2012 Evening Devotional

David Shin

If I Had a Thousand Lives to Live

Even a Glimpse

The Highest Honor

This message was presented at the GYC 2012 conference in Seattle, Washington.

For other resources like this, visit us online at www.gycweb.org.

I'd like to invite you to bow your heads with me as we pray this evening.

Our Father in heaven, we thank you that you have chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, the weak things.

And tonight, Father, we pray for your help.

We pray for your Holy Spirit to be poured out upon us here tonight.

We pray that Jesus would be seen, that Christ would be uplifted, that all of us would be drawn to the character of Jesus Christ, that we might become changed, transformed, reformed, that we would recognize that the world is changed by you changing me.

Tonight I'd like to invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians… Actually 2 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 22 through 27.

Second Corinthians chapter 11, verses 22 through 27.

I'll be reading from the New King James Version, you can follow along in whatever version you have.

Paul here is listing some of the sufferings and some of the challenges that he's had in ministry.

And he starts out in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 22 by saying, are they Hebrews?

In stripes, above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often.

From the Jews, 5 times I've received 40 stripes minus 1.

A night and a day I have been in the deep, in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.

Paul is arguably the most influential apostle of the New Testament.

He wrote 13 out of the 27 books of the New Testament.

The majority of the second half of the book of Acts is devoted to Paul's missionary labors.

If anyone embodied the spirit of revolution in the New Testament, it was the Apostle Paul.

If it was anyone that was possessed of the mission, the gospel commission to take the gospel to the world in his generation, it was Paul.

He could write later with his own pen that the gospel had gone to every creature under heaven.

It has been said that Paul's influence on Christian thinking arguably has been more significant than any other New Testament author.

Yet we read here in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 22 through 27 that this revolutionary apostle paid a high personal price.

Let's not romanticize revolution here tonight.

Revolution is always born in personal sacrifice.

Not that there's any merit in sacrifice, not that we're saved through sacrifice, But sacrifice is a result of being a follower of Jesus Christ.

Revolutions always come at great personal cost.

It's easy to talk about and tough to live, and today in Christianity there is presented a crossless Christ for a crossless Christian.

It's estimated that he traveled over 10, 000 miles in the book of Acts on his missionary journeys.

Over 4, 000 of those miles probably on foot.

Here was an individual that was motivated to take the gospel to the world and as we have just read here tonight, the Apostle Paul whipped 5 times, beaten with rods 3 times, shipwrecked 3 times, Robbed, beaten by Jews and Gentiles, sleepless nights, hunger, thirst, cold, nakedness, ultimately martyrdom.

And here our question tonight as we begin our study in Scripture.

What possessed an individual to ultimately give up his life for the sake of the cause of Christ.

What was it in Paul's psyche and thinking that drove him, that propelled him, that compelled him to keep on moving, even though there was difficulty, odds beyond measure that we cannot even imagine.

You remember in the book of Acts that John Mark came with Paul and Silas.

He was a young adult, a young person, and he couldn't handle it.

The cost was too great, and he had to leave.

That later became a subject of great contention between Paul and Silas.

Silas actually wanted to give him a second chance and Paul said no.

Later on he would recognize the ministry of John Mark, but Paul was an individual that was driven, that was compelled, that was motivated.

What was it that drove the Apostle Paul to such lengths to give everything that he had to take the gospel to the world?

I as a minister of the gospel have many times in my own personal reflection had to think about my motivations for service.

And I'll be honest with you that in my own introspection, the deeper I go into my own soul, I recognize that there are many times selfish motivations.

I find that it's possible to do the right things for the wrong reasons.

And here we see an unprecedented individual that literally was instrumental by the grace of God in changing the landscape of Christianity and taking the gospel beyond the borders of Judaism to the entire world in his generation?

What was it that drove the Apostle Paul to such lengths?

What impelled him to take the gospel to the world regardless of the cost?

What was the motivation in the book of Acts?

With this question in mind, I'd like to invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews.

Hebrews chapter 12, we're given insight into the mind of the Apostle Paul.

The Apostle Paul, Hebrews Chapter 12, verses 1, 2, and 3.

Therefore, since we are Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, Let us lay aside every weight and sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

I'd like to spend a little bit of time in this passage, and it begins in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1, with the words, therefore.

Now whenever you're studying the Bible and you come across the word, therefore, the word therefore is a concluding statement or concluding word.

You have the premise and then you have, therefore, 1 of my favorite subjects in school was geometry.

I didn't care so much for algebra, but I loved geometry.

Some of you may remember that from from your high school days And we would write down these proofs and we would list the reasons, the premise, and then we would come down to the end and there were those 3 dots therefore conclusion.

The word therefore, this is Paul's punchline.

This is his application of what he's trying to convey to the Hebrews.

So we have to go to what is before the word therefore.

The chapter before Hebrews 12 is Hebrews chapter 11.

I'm not going to read through the entirety of Hebrews chapter 11, but I just want to highlight a few verses that have kind of stuck out at me.

So, let's go to Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1.

I promise I won't read the entire chapter.

Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Verse 4, by faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying to his gifts, and through it being dead still speaks." Verse 13, these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.

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GYC 2012 Evening Devotional

Even a Glimpse

Transcript

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