As They Rush Onward (Acts 26:9-11)
After I stepped down from the pulpit in Virginia, Tammy and I were in a Bible class taught by one of our elders. Danny said that he was thankful to see so many churches in the Bible Belt, and he said that he was grateful to see people go to church. He didn’t care where they went; he was just glad they went.
I raised my hand and said, “Danny, it is not a good thing all these churches are around. They are leading people to hell, and you cannot call leading people to hell a good thing!”
You, too, have dealt with folks who didn’t know the difference between the church and denominations. Maybe your children, when they didn’t know any better, wanted to go to a fun-looking Vacation Bible School. Perhaps a friend invited you to go worship with him. Someone at work may have constantly referred to herself as a Christian. Your neighbor may play in the band at church.
But you know the truth. There is only one church: Jesus said, “On this rock I will build my church” (Matt 16:18); church is singular, not plural. “There is one body” (Eph 4:4). There is only one way to worship: “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (Jn 4:24). There is only one way to be saved: Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6).
Once in his life, Paul mistook error for truth; in his defense before Agrippa, the apostle detailed his life in error. Before his conversion, Paul was rushing onward, and today “Many devout people obliviously rush toward hell.”
Scripture (Acts 26:9-11)
verse 9:
Paul’s faith—his conviction— was that he should do many things in opposing Jesus. His conviction wasn’t grounded in truth but his own thoughts.
verse 10:
“And I did so in Jerusalem.” Paul’s conviction caused him to act. He had authority from the chief priests to cast Christians in prison.
Paul voted to sentence Christians to death. This could mean a couple things. One: Paul was a member of the Sanhedrin and literally voted to condemn Christians; or Two: Paul simply agreed with the verdict.
verse 11:
Paul sought to get Christians to blaspheme; he didn’t say he was successful. In his fury, Paul traveled long distances to persecute Christians; this was a committed man.
Application
Paul was once a highly religious man on his way to hell. He believed he loved the Lord, but he was obliviously rushing toward hell. He sought to do what Yahweh demanded, but he was obliviously rushing toward hell.
“Many devout people obliviously rush toward hell.” This morning, look at Paul and see how “Many devout people obliviously rush toward hell.”
Many devout people obliviously rush toward hell because of SELF.
“I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things.” Paul put himself over God; Paul believed he knew better than what God had revealed in the Old Testament.
Those in error believe they know better than God does. Think about that sad refrain from Judges: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Jud 21:25). “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” (Prov 14:12).
Many folks want a church that will cater to them. What church has the best kids’ program? What church has the most entertaining worship? What church won’t condemn my sin? What church will be most enjoyable? Searching for a church becomes about SELF and not the Savior!
Many devout people obliviously rush toward hell because of SLANT.
“I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth.” Paul’s SLANT on Scripture was his idea and not truth. The Hebrew Scriptures made clear Jesus is the Christ; Jesus himself said: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (Jn 5:39). But Paul had his own SLANT that said Jesus wasn’t the Christ.
Why did Paul have his own SLANT? “I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief” (1 Tim 1:13). Paul was ignorant of the Scriptures. When the Sadducees tried to trick Jesus about marriage in the resurrection, he told them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God” (Matt 22:29).
Aren’t our friends and neighbors and family in denominations wrong because they do not know the Scriptures? How many of them, like Paul, have marvelous hearts but those souls have been twisted by perverting preachers? How many of them worship in error because they don’t know any better? How many teach a plan of salvation contrary to Jesus because they don’t know the truth?
To them, their SLANT is the truth.
Many devout people obliviously rush toward hell because of STUNT.
Paul pulled a STUNT. In other words, Paul acted: “I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And I did so.”
After his conversion, Paul said of his fellow Jews: “I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness” (Rom 10:2-3). The Jews in Paul’s day were pulling a STUNT; they were zealously doing what they thought God wanted, but they were in error.
Don’t Paul’s words say much about the STUNT being pulled in our own day? How many of our friends, our neighbors, and our family have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge? How many worship in error? How many believe they are headed for heaven when they aren’t? How many believe they love God when their own actions betray them?
Conclusion
“Many devout people obliviously rush toward hell.” You could be one of the devout people rushing toward hell: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt 7:21). Are you doing the will of Jesus’s Father in heaven?
This sermon was originally preached by Dr. Justin Imel, Sr., at Church of Christ Deer Park in Deer Park, Texas.