The Pilgrim’s Progress is a Christian allegory written by John Bunyan and published in February, 1678. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of English literature, has been translated into more than 200 languages, and has never been out of print. It should be required reading for Christians who are on the spiritual path in a world of temptations.
Pilgrim’s Progress is an allegory of a Christian’s journey (here represented by a character called ‘Christian’) from the “City of Destruction” to the “Celestial City”. Along the way he visits such locations as the Slough of Despond, Vanity Fair, the Doubting Castle, and the Valley of the Shadow of Death. The story follows Christian’s journey through the pleasures and perils of the Christian life.
It is true! There are many pleasures and perils in every Christian’s life. Think about your life as a Christian for a minute! What have been your pleasures? What have been your perils?
Today’s text marks the beginning of the last section of the book of Acts. We have seen the church begin on the day of Pentecost and spread all across the world. Paul has completed three missionary journeys and it about to embark upon the final journey of his life. Unlike Christian in the Pilgrim’s Progress, Paul’s final journey begins in Jerusalem and will end in Rome. He is a prisoner for the rest of the book and the story traces his progress along the way.
When Luke wrote this final section of the book of Acts, he, like John Bunyan, intended his readers to learn to how to live the Christian life from following the actions of the lead character. So, as we follow the story of The Prisoner’s Progress this morning, I hope we will all learn some lessons about living the Christian life!
1.) Take every opportunity to testify about the gospel (21:37-22:2)
The Roman soldiers rescued Paul from the clutches of the Jewish mob that had brutally beaten him in the Temple courts. If they hadn’t come along, the mob surely would have murdered him. By the time the soldiers had carried him up the steps of the barracks, Paul had regained enough of his composure to ask the commander for permission to speak to the crowd.
The commander was impressed by Paul’s ability to speak Greek and inquired about his identity; the commander assumed that Paul was the notorious Egyptian terrorist who led an unsuccessful revolt against Rome and had escaped. Paul denied this claim and affirmed his identity as a Jew from the well-known Greek city of Tarsus. When the commander was convinced that Paul was a cultured man and posed no political threat, he allowed Paul to address the crowd.
So, Paul stood at the top of the steps of the military barracks and motioned for the crowd to be quiet. Even though blood was still running down his face from the blows this crowd inflicted upon him, he addressed them with respect by calling them “Fathers and brothers” and using the Aramaic language. When the mob heard him speak in their common language they became very quiet and were willing to listen to him.
This scene is very typical of Paul and the other apostles’ ministry. They took every opportunity, even when there were suffering pain or persecution, to testify about the gospel of Jesus Christ. This was still an extremely dangerous situation, but Paul saw an opportunity to tell people about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and he took it.
In this scene, Paul provides us with a powerful example of how to do ministry today. Like him, we should take every opportunity we have to testify abut the gospel of Jesus Christ. Most of us will never experience a beating or the danger that Paul did, yet we are so slow and shy about sharing the gospel. I believe that if we were really sensitive to our situations we would see that we have opportunities to testify about Jesus Christ every day. Whether it is with family or friends, coworkers or classmates, I hope we will see and take the opportunities God gives us to be his witnesses. And like Paul, I hope that we will learn that in every pain or persecution we have an opportunity to proclaim Christ. In every trial and tribulation, we have an opportunity to testify about Christ. In every danger we have an opportunity to declare Christ.
Take a minute ad think with me: Did you have any opportunities to testify about Christ this past week? Think deeply now! Did you take the opportunity or did you let it slip through your fingers? What will we do this week? I do hope that we will follow Paul’s example and take every opportunity to testify about Jesus!
2.) Conversion story is a powerful form of Testimony (3-21)
Now some of you may be saying to yourselves, “Okay! Okay! I get it! I would like to take those opportunities to testify about Christ, but I don’t know how.” Well, I’m glad you were wondering about that because Paul also provides an example for how we can testify about Christ. After the crowd becomes quiet and is ready to listen Paul testifies about Christ by telling them how he went from being a persecutor of Christians to a propagator of the Christian faith.
Paul was born in Tarsus but was raised in Jerusalem. He was taught by the Rabbi Gamaliel, the greatest in all of Israel at the time and he earned the ancient equivalent of a Ph.D. from Harvard. He was a member of the Pharisees and lived strictly according to the Mosaic Law. He was as zealous for God as anyone else and showed it by persecuting the followers of the Christian way. He was personally responsible for the imprisonment and death of many Christians.
One day when he was on his way to Damascus to persecute more Christians, he was blinded by a bright light and Jesus appeared to him in a vision. Paul put his faith in Jesus, converted to Christianity, and was called into the ministry. He was specifically called to take the gospel to the Gentiles.
Just like Paul, we all have a conversion story that is a powerful witness for the gospel. We all have people, places & events, and the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit in our stories, but they are different for each of us. The people, places, and events in your conversion story are different from the people, places, and events in my conversion story. The way the Holy Spirit brought you to faith is different from the way he brought me to faith.
Before you protest too much in your own mind, let me correct a common misconception; I have heard far too many people say, “Well, my conversion story isn’t very good!” That is ridiculous! Don’t ever let me catch you saying something like that! Every conversion story is equally good and God uses every one of them. If your story involves some kind of deliverance from a heinous sin or addiction, great! If your story involves some kind of dramatic transformation, wonderful! If you have grown up in a Christian home and can’t remember a time when you didn’t believe, fantastic! If your story involves some long gradual uneventful process where you don’t know exactly when you really believed, awesome! All of these are powerful stories that God will use to bring others to faith; then, your story will become a part of someone else’s.
I have heard many people say, “I wish my conversion story was like Paul’s!” Really? Are you sure? The vision of Jesus sounds cool, but how about living with the guilt of knowing that you murdered other Christians? How about receiving a rebuke directly from Jesus? How about not being able to see anything for three days, having to be led around by someone else’s hand? You might want to think about just being content with your own conversion story.
How do we testify about Jesus Christ? Well, there are many ways to do it, but telling our conversion story is one of the most powerful ways. Paul shares his conversion story three times just in the book of Acts. How about us? Are we sharing our conversion stories? They are powerful ways of testifying for Christ!
3.) Unfortunately, sometimes Tradition Trumps the True Gospel (22)
Yes, conversion story is a powerful form of testimony, but I don’t want anyone to think that revival is going to start every time you tell your story. Sometimes you will see positive results, but other times your story will be met with apathy or even hostility. How did the crowd respond to Paul’s conversion story? Not very well! Look at verse 22!
As soon as Paul told the crowd that God had sent him to share the gospel with the Gentiles, they immediately stopped listening, raised their voices, and started shouting, “Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!” They threw off their cloaks and threw dust in the air as a protest to Paul’s story. These actions express their frustration and prejudice with Paul using the word “Gentile”. This is a classic case of tradition trumping the true gospel. Even though the Old Testament is filled with passages describing Israel’s responsibility to be “a light to the Gentiles,” it had become their tradition to cast Gentiles off as filthy, dirty, second-class citizens that God didn’t care about. They were so steeped in their own tradition that they could not recognize Jesus as the Messiah or the truth of the gospel. Although they were supposed to be light bearers, they themselves had yet to embrace the true light.
Unfortunately, much of the world lives in the same darkness today. Their commitment to religious tradition has blinded them to the truth of the gospel. Many people want their religious rituals but they have very little interest in following Jesus Christ. They sing their hymns on Sunday morning but they take God’s name in vain and curse others the rest of the week. They like to share their prayer requests publicly on Sunday morning, but little time is spent seeking God privately through the week. We keep our churches neat and clean on the outside, but our souls are caked and cluttered with sin on the inside. Why is it that so many people love religion, but so few really love Jesus?
I hope that none of us sitting here this morning will ever let religious traditions or rituals blind us from the gospel or become obstacles to us in following Jesus. I hope that none of us will ever respond to the gospel the way the crowd did in our passage. If you have been walking in darkness, I hope that you will embrace the light of Jesus Christ!
4.) God does not want us to suffer unnecessarily (23-29)
As the crowd erupted with hostility, the commander realized that nothing constructive was going to take place, so he ordered that Paul be brought inside the barracks. He had already had trouble getting the truth out of the crowd in regard to what Paul had done to arouse such a riot, therefore he assumed that Paul would need some incentive to speak the truth. He ordered Paul to be stretched out and flogged while he was being questioned. This flogging was probably the traditional brutal Roman scourging with whip that had pieces of bone or metal on the tip of the leather. It was intended to break the skin and induce a tremendous amount of blood flow. It was the same type of punishment that was inflicted upon Jesus before his crucifixion.
Just as the centurion was about to snap the whip across Paul’s bare back, Paul asked him a rather interesting question: “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?” Paul knew his legal rights and invoked them in this situation. It was against Roman law to flog a Roman citizen without being found guilty in a trial.
When the commander found out that Paul was a Roman citizen he became frightened because he already violated the la by ordering the flogging. Paul turned the tables on him and when he realized that Paul had been born a Roman citizen (something that he could not even claim for himself) he quickly changed his tune and backed off. Paul avoided a brutal flogging by invoking his legal right. Even though Paul was willing to suffer death for Christ’s sake, he did not take on unnecessary suffering.
In this scene Paul provides us with a proper Christian attitude toward suffering. Like Paul, if God calls us to martyrdom, we should be willing to die for Christ, but we do not have to take on unnecessary suffering. Some Christians throughout church history have glorified suffering so much that they have denied it in unhealthy ways. Even today some Christians have a martyr’s mindset about everything they face in life, but this is not the way of the Apostle Paul or New Testament Christianity.
There are plenty of sufferings that God sends us that are completely beyond our control. He calls us to perseverance and endurance to form our character and make us rely on him, but if there is something we can do to alleviate our suffering, by all means, do it! If you are being illegally treated because of your Christian principles, protest it! If you are sick, go to the doctor! If you are in an abusive relationship, get out of it. God does not want us to silently bear this pain when there is something that can be done about it! God didn’t want Paul to sit back and endure an illegal lashing unnecessarily and neither does he want us to endure suffering unnecessarily.
Let us take every opportunity to testify about the gospel! Remember that our conversion stories are powerful testimonies! Unfortunately, sometimes people’s attachment to tradition clouds their view of the gospel! And let us endure suffering for Christ, but not unnecessary suffering!