Acts: The Results of Obedience? | Pastor Clay Barton

Paul’s road to Damascus changed everything. Christ met a man who hated Christians, turned him around, and sent him out with the good news of the risen Jesus. Paul planted churches, raised up leaders, collected help for suffering believers, and kept telling people that Jesus is the promised Messiah. The Jewish leaders in Jerusalem did not just reject that claim. They wanted Paul dead because he told them they had missed the Messiah, killed Him on a cross, and could not keep Him in a tomb.

Acts 25 finds Paul still in Roman custody at Caesarea after two years. Festus arrives, and the same old thing starts again. The Jewish leaders ask for Paul to be brought to Jerusalem, while they secretly plan an ambush to kill him on the road. Festus keeps the hearing in Caesarea, where the accusations remain serious but unproven. Paul answers plainly that he has broken no law against the Jews, the temple, or Caesar.

Paul’s appeal to Caesar protects him from being handed over to men who want him dead, but it also moves him toward the very place God had promised he would go. God had told Paul to take courage because he would testify in Rome just as he had testified in Jerusalem. The prison cell, the tribunals, the Roman soldiers, and the threats all look like problems. God’s promise remains greater than every one of them.

God’s promises are greater than problems because hardship can make the mind forget what God has already said. Paul’s life could look like a train wreck: beatings, riots, conspiracies, jail cells, and another possible trip toward death. Yet God repeatedly shows up, sometimes even through Roman soldiers who rescue Paul from angry mobs. God also gives Paul access to governors, kings, queens, Jewish leaders, and Roman tribunals that might never have heard the gospel otherwise.

Faithfulness is not measured by outcomes. Paul appears to have little to show for two years in custody if success is measured by visible conversions and easy circumstances. But Paul is not called to make growth happen. Paul plants, Apollos waters, and God gives the growth. Christ calls His people to surrender, pick up the cross, die to self, love neighbors, love enemies, pray without quitting, and obey even when the results remain out of sight. God owns the outcome; His servants are called to work heartily for the Lord.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. God’s promises outlast present problems. God’s word does not become less true when circumstances become more painful. Paul’s confinement looked like a setback, yet Christ had already promised that Rome was ahead. Hardship may be real and heavy, but it does not get the final word over God’s purposes. [59:40]
• 2. Faithfulness is not measured by outcomes. Visible results can be a bad scoreboard for obedience. Paul’s years in custody could look unproductive, but his calling was never to control conversions, freedom, or public approval. Christ measures His servants by faithfulness to what He has commanded. [60:59]
• 3. God gives the growth. The planter and the waterer have real work to do, but neither can make a dead heart alive. God alone brings spiritual growth, which humbles successful labor and steadies labor that seems unnoticed. Obedience becomes freer when the burden of producing results is left with God. [65:40]
• 4. Christ calls believers to obedient love. The call of Christ reaches into prayer, patience, mercy, relationships, and ordinary neighbors next door. Love for enemies and grace toward difficult people are not optional extras for the unusually mature Christian. Obedience keeps going because Christ has already loved His people first.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [33:00] - Nothing Can Separate Us
• [35:18] - Setting the Stage in Acts
• [36:31] - Paul Returns to Jerusalem
• [39:34] - Christianity on Trial
• [42:12] - Two Years in Caesarea
• [46:01] - The Plot to Kill Paul
• [47:23] - Paul Appeals to Caesar
• [51:52] - Festus Brings Paul Before Agrippa
• [54:31] - God’s Promises Are Greater
• [60:59] - Faithfulness, Not Outcomes
• [65:40] - God Gives the Growth

Bible Reading

Acts 25:1-12

1. Now three days after Festus had arrived in the province, he went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea. [45:56]

2. And the chief priests and the principal men of the Jews laid out their case against Paul, [46:01]

3. and they urged him, asking as a favor against Paul, that he summon him to Jerusalem, because they were planning an ambush to kill him on the way. [46:06]

4. Festus replied that Paul was being kept at Caesarea and that he himself intended to go there shortly. [47:01]

5. “So,” said he, “let the men of authority among you go down with me, and if there is anything wrong about the man, let them bring charges against him.” [47:15]

6. After he stayed among them not more than eight or ten days, he went down to Caesarea. And the next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought. [47:26]

7. When he had arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many and serious charges against him that they could not prove. [47:35]

8. Paul argued in his defense, “Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I committed any offense.” [47:44]

9. But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, “Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem and there be tried on these charges before me?” [47:53]

10. But Paul said, “I am standing before Caesar’s tribunal, where I ought to be tried. To the Jews I have done no wrong, as you yourself know very well. [48:02]

11. If then I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything for which I deserve to die, I do not seek to escape death. But if there is nothing to their charges against me, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar.” [48:12]

12. Then Festus, when he had conferred with his council, answered, “To Caesar you have appealed; to Caesar you shall go.” [48:28]

Acts 23:11

The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.” [39:24]

1 Corinthians 3:5-9

5. What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. [01:05:59]

6. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. [01:06:02]

7. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. [01:06:07]

8. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. [01:06:16]

9. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. [01:06:19]

Romans 8:31-39

31. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? [33:05]

32. He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? [33:10]

33. Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. [33:20]

34. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. [33:25]

35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? [33:35]

36. As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” [33:45]

37. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. [33:51]

38. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, [33:58]

39. nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. [34:01]

Observation questions

1. What do the Jewish leaders ask Festus to do with Paul, and what is their hidden plan for him?
2. What is notable about the charges against Paul in Caesarea, and how does Paul answer those charges? [47:35]
3. What does Paul’s appeal to Caesar accomplish in the immediate situation, and how does it connect with Jesus’ earlier promise that Paul would testify in Rome? [48:25]
4. In 1 Corinthians 3:5-9, what work do Paul and Apollos do, and what work belongs to God alone? [01:06:02]

Interpretation questions

1. Paul uses his Roman right to appeal to Caesar instead of agreeing to be tried in Jerusalem. How does this show both wise action and trust in God’s promise to bring him to Rome?
2. Romans 8 does not deny tribulation, distress, persecution, danger, or death. What does Paul mean when he says that none of these things can separate believers from Christ’s love? [33:35]
3. Paul’s imprisonment could look unproductive if success is judged only by visible conversions or an easy life. Why is that a poor measure of faithfulness? [01:00:59]
4. If God gives the growth, what responsibility still belongs to Christians who plant and water through prayer, witness, service, and love? [01:06:07]

Application questions

1. What hard circumstance is most likely to take over your thoughts right now? Which promise of God—His presence, His love, His faithfulness, or His purpose—do you need to keep in front of you this week? [59:40]
2. Is there an area where you have quietly assumed, “If I obey God, this situation should get easier”? How might Paul’s years in custody correct that expectation? [01:01:14]
3. Think of someone for whom you have prayed, served, invited, encouraged, or shared Christ with, but you have not seen the result you hoped for. What would faithful love look like toward that person this week while leaving the outcome with God? [01:04:08]
4. Paul continued to testify about Jesus before hostile leaders, Roman officials, and Jewish authorities. Where has God placed you around people who may not share your faith, and what simple, truthful way could you point to Christ there? [59:00]
5. Loving neighbors includes actual people nearby, and loving enemies includes people who may not treat us well. Who is one difficult person in your life, and what could grace, patience, or prayer look like in a specific interaction this week? [01:03:39]
6. When you feel discouraged because your work, ministry, parenting, witness, or prayers seem unnoticed, what would it look like to keep planting and watering rather than trying to control the growth? [01:05:40]
7. Paul’s life showed that God could use even confinement, opposition, and powerful unbelieving authorities for His purposes. Can you identify one difficult setting in your life where God may be giving you an opportunity to display Christlike patience or speak of His hope? [58:24]