Out of the Abundance of the Heart
- Mark Lauterbach
- Jul 5, 2008
- Series: Home page
Jesus said that we can hear words that we speak and from them get a window into the heart. Complaining words reveal a heart of discontent. Angry words reveal a heart of rebellion toward God.
In Acts 22-23 we find the words of Paul's detractors. They are angry. They are full of murder. Why? The people who speak for Paul's death are religious and moral people. They are not thugs. But they want him dead. How can this be?
It is because their hearts are not submissive to God -- they use religion and morality to cover their real condition. They do not seek to please God; they seek to please themselves and show off to others. That is true with all religious and moral practice in all the religions of the world. It is self-serving, not God serving. That is the teaching of Jesus and the New Testament. All are under sin, even the good.
Paul preached a Gospel that told them their goodness was really badness disguised. They were hypocrites. The proof of the Gospel is their response -- they wanted to kill the messenger. They thought they were zealous for God, but is the devil who is a murderer, not God.
Paul's words in the passage reveal something quite different. He tells them he had hated the Gospel too -- but he was arrested by Jesus on the road to Damascus. God acted upon him. He had no power to change himself -- but Jesus did. Paul was transformed.
The proof of that is that in the spur of the moment, with the mob calling for his death, he turns to them and speaks of Christ the Savior. That is supernatural. To bless those who persecute us can only be done in the power of the Spirit. Only a man who has no fear of death and no reputation to defend, who knows he is beloved of God, who knows it is all of grace -- only that kind of man would preach the Gospel to his enemies.
At Grace Church in San Diego we believe that the same heart of sin is present in us all -- and the same power of Christ changes and forgives us.