NOT DISOBEDIENT TO THE HEAVENLY VISION Acts 26.1-23

Sadhu Sundar Singh is one of the greatest saints India has given the world. He was born in 1889 into a wealthy and illustrious family. When he became a Christian, he renounced status and comfort. He put on the saffron robe of a holy man or sadhu, and became an itinerant evangelist. He travelled far and deep into the Himalayan mountains and preached the gospel to remote villages there.

Once he was asked. "What is the hardest thing in life?" To answer the question, he told this story.

One day he was travelling in the mountains with a Buddhist monk. Snow was falling and the fierce winds bit through their clothes. The monk said, "We must get to the monastery before the sun sets, or we will surely freeze to death."

As they struggled on their journey, they heard a cry coming from below them. They looked over the edge of the mountain path, and saw that a man had fallen off. He was lying on a ledge, injured and calling for help.

The monk said, "We cannot stop to help. It is Fate that has brought him to this. We must hurry on, or we will face the same Fate."

Sadhu Sundar Singh thought differently. "God would not have brought us here if he did not want us to help the man." So he climbed down the slope as the monk went on this way. With great effort, he put the injured man on his shoulders and made his way up the slope, back to the mountain path.

The sun was fast setting as he continued on his journey. Finally he saw the lights of the monastery. Hurrying forward, he kicked against something in the snow. He looked and saw the monk who had fallen and frozen to death.

Sadhu Sundar Singh made it to the monastery. When he finally put the injured man down, he realised that he was actually perspiring. The efforts he had exerted in carrying the man had kept him alive.

So to answer the question put to him, "What is the hardest thing in life?" Sadhu Sundar Singh answered, "The hardest thing in life is to have no burden to carry."

What an irony, but how true!


PAUL IN PRISON

Today we will see that this was also true in the life of the apostle Paul. Last week, we saw him mobbed by the Jews in Jerusalem, and rescued by the Romans. From Acts 22 to Acts 26, we will see Paul standing and speaking before different audiences:


Acts 22: before the angry mob
Acts 23: before Ananias the High Priest, and the Jewish Council
Acts 24: before Governor Felix and wife Drusilla
Acts 25: before Governor Festus
Acts 26: before King Agrippa and his wife Bernice

These accounts cover five chapters of Acts, and span more than two years of Paul's life. Having lost his freedom, he spent those years in prison, first in Jerusalem, then in Caesarea, a Roman military outpost. The authorities kept Paul in prison for two reasons as we are told in Acts 24.26-27:

He [Felix] hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him: wherefore he sent for him the oftener, and communed with him. 27 But after two years Porcius Festus came into Felix' room: and Felix, willing to shew the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound.

One, Paul was kept in prison in the hope that a bribe would be paid for his release. Felix was hoping for money from either Paul's family or Paul's friends. The money never came, and I believe, it was because Paul did not approve of it.

Two, Paul was kept in prison to please the Jews. Some of them wanted him dead. Since he was alive, keeping him in prison was the next best thing. Felix was not only greedy for money; he was also greedy for popularity.

Put yourself in Paul's position, and imagine how you would feel. You are held without a proper trial. Each time you are given an opportunity to defend yourself, the verdict is inconclusive. You are neither convicted nor acquitted. The weeks stretch into months, the months into years.

Such injustice and uncertainty would have broken the spirit of many men, but not Paul.

Today we look at Acts 26, where we have the account of Paul before King Agrippa-after two years in prison. Paul's testimony before the king may be divided into 3 parts:

1. Paul's past as a Pharisee and Persecutor (26.2-11)
2. Paul's call as an Apostle (26.12-18)
3. Paul's life as a whole (26.19-23)

As we go through the text, I want to highlight one verse, Acts 26.19: Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision...

I would like to take liberty to recount Paul's testimony in 3 parts:

1. Paul's past: disobedient
2. Paul's call: obedient
3. Paul's life: not disobedient

Let's look at these one by one. I will be spending most of my time on the last: "not disobedient."


PAUL'S PAST

Firstly, Paul's past. "My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews; 5 Which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee (Acts 26.4-5).

ESV My manner of life from my youth, spent from the beginning among ?my own nation and in Jerusalem, is known by all the Jews. 5 They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that ?according to the strictest ?party of our ?religion I have lived as ?a Pharisee.

The point that Paul is making to King Agrippa is that he was raised a devout Jew. A Pharisee is one who has devoted his life to the study of the Law of Moses. In addition, he has devoted his life to the observance of the Law of Moses.

It was as a Pharisee that he was convinced that the new movement by the followers of Jesus of Nazareth was wrong. He became the Chief Persecutor of the Christians.

ESV I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of ?Jesus of Nazareth. 10 ?And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority ?from the chief priests, but ?when they were put to death I cast my vote against them. 11 And ?I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them ?blaspheme, and ?in raging fury against them I ?persecuted them even to foreign cities (Acts 26-9-11).

Paul was not aware of it at that time, but he was acting contrary to the will of God. His life then was a life of defiance against Jesus, destruction against his followers. It was clearly a life of disobedience as far as God was concerned.

We may not have gone as far as Paul went-in his religious zeal as a Pharisee or a persecutor, but all of us before we came to believe in Jesus, are guilty of lives of disobedience. This is how the Bible describes us:

Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience... (Eph 2.2)

Yes, we are called children of disobedience. Though outwardly we may appear morally upright and religiously zealous (as Paul did), inwardly we are spiritually bankrupt.

That was Paul's past: a life of disobedience to God.

Then Paul speaks about his conversion, the turning point of his life. 12 Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, 13 At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me. 14 And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 15 And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. (Acts 26.12-15).


PAUL'S CALL

Three times in Acts we have the account of Paul's conversion (Acts 9, 22, and 26). It shows how important the event is to the book of Acts. Luke the author of Acts wants us to know that. The event not only turned one person's life around; it turned the world upside down as a result of this one man.

In the Acts 22 account, Paul asked two questions: "Who art thou, Lord?" and "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" (Acts 9.5-6). One question deals with the identity of Jesus, the other the purpose of life. Those are the two most important questions anyone can ask. Who is Jesus? What is God's purpose for our life on earth?

In the answers to these questions, Paul experienced a conversion and received a commission. The commission was for Paul to go to the Gentiles, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins..." (Acts 26.18).

From a life of disobedience, Paul begins his life of obedience, as he told Agrippa: Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision... (Acts 26.19). Paul acted promptly to obey the Lord. Starting from where he was in Damascus, he continued in Jerusalem, and before long to the other parts of the Roman Empire.

When Paul spoke these words before King Agrippa, some 25 years had passed since his conversion. So when he said, "I was not disobedient" it was a reference not only to what he did immediately after his conversion, and what he had done ever since.

This is what I would like to focus on today: how Paul stayed true to the vision given to him, how he never wavered from the course, how he did not allow his obedience to lapse into disobedience.

Firstly, let me say something about the word "vision". In ordinary usage, it refers to what our eyes see. So if I say my vision is bad, it means I need a pair of glasses-I cannot see properly.

Vision in its biblical sense means more than that.

Vision is used today to describe an important requirement of leadership. So we say: a leader must have a vision. He must be able to see where he is going and where he is taking the people with him. He must see more than what others see, what others cannot see. Thus we speak of visionary leaders or visionary leadership.

Again, the biblical meaning of vision is more than that.

Vision in the Bible always has a personal dimension to it. In cases where people see visions, it is often given to them by God. So here we have Jesus appearing to Paul, and Paul seeing Jesus in a vision. It is not the product of human making. That is why Paul says it was a vision from heaven or a heavenly vision.

We don't sit around a table and formulate a vision. It has to come from the Lord. Usually it comes to an individual, and is then shared with others. Do we have such visions today?

I am sure God still speaks to individuals through visions, though I do not think that is the regular way God communicates with us. I have read or heard testimonies of people living in Islamic countries seeing visions of Jesus. Perhaps, in those places where people have few opportunities to hear the gospel, God works through supernatural means.

Today God speaks primarily through his Word, the Scriptures. In it is all that is sufficient for our salvation and our Christian life. When we read his Word or listen to it being taught, the Holy Spirit opens our spiritual eyes and help us see the truths out of the Word.

There will be times in our lives where God speaks to us in a special way to show us who he is, and what he wants us to do. Sometimes, it is at a moment of crisis, like a near-death experience when we almost lose our life in an accident or illness.

Sometimes, it is when we are seeking God at a time of need, such as when we are faced with an important and critical decision-one that would change our life. God may reassure us of his presence and show us what he wants us to do.

Knowing who God is, and what he wants us to do, need not be in a dramatic experience like Paul's-it could be a gradual understanding of our life purpose on earth.

I do believe that, if we faithfully feed on God's Word, and walk in dependence upon the Holy Spirit, God will show us who he is and what he wants us to do with our life. This we may call our vision from heaven.

The question is: Have we been obedient?


PAUL'S OBEDIENCE

Note how Paul puts it: "I was not disobedient"-in English, we call this the double negative. Why didn't he just use the positive, "I was obedient"? Sometimes we use the double negative for emphasis. E.g. Instead of saying, "I understood your position" we say, "I did not misunderstand your position."

In this case, I believe the point Paul is underlining is that he could have been disobedient but he was not. It is easy to hear something from God and not do it. Or to do something for the Lord for a while, and then stop doing it.

Paul was not disobedient, when he first met Jesus, and 25 years later when he stood before Agrippa. Two and a half decades had passed since he saw the vision and receive his commission-and he has not drifted, shifted, or wavered.

How can we, like Paul, stay true to what God has called us to do? Let suggest 3 things.

Firstly, Paul took ownership of that vision. Yes, it came from God, but when it was given, it belonged to Paul.

The Chinese have a proverb, "There is no one to sweep the common hall." Similarly, the Africans say, "It is the owner of the farm who drives off the leopard, not another man."

Only when we have a sense of ownership of something do we feel responsible for it. The common hall is owned by no one, and no one bothers to sweep it. On the contrary, the farm is owned by someone, and he will be the one to chase away the leopard.

Or, as we put it: Everybody's business is nobody's business.

For Paul, the vision given to him was his. Look at the way it was given. Paul was travelling with a group of people when Jesus appeared to him.

In Acts 9.7, we are told that the people heard some sound, but they did not see anyone. "And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man."

In Acts 22.9, we are told that the people saw a bright light, but did not understand the voice speaking to Paul. "And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me."

Only Paul saw Jesus; only Paul heard Jesus. At that time, his name was still Saul, and Jesus spoke to him personally, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" (9.4; 22.7; 26.14). Note the double use of the name: Saul, Saul. Jesus spoke to Saul directly and personally.

Does the Lord still speak to us directly and personally today? Yes, I believe he does, through the reading of his Word, or the preaching of his Word. Have you noticed how a verse or a passage of Scriptures sometimes jumps out at you? You may have read it before but this time, it speaks to you in a fresh way, in a powerful way.

You need to mark it in your Bible, take ownership of it, remember it, obey it. That is the first secret of Paul's unwavering obedience to the heavenly vision. He owned the vision.

DEATH AND REBIRTH OF VISION

Secondly, ownership of the vision is only the beginning. What happens when we begin to obey what God calls us to do? We would have thought that if we are doing God's will, everything will be smooth and easy.

Far from it! In fact the first thing we often face when we start to obey God and what he calls us to do is: Failure. Yes, failure.

Look at Paul. After receiving his commission, Paul immediately seeks to fulfill it. He goes to the synagogues in Damascus and starts preaching that Jesus is the Son of God.

And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.... And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him: 24 But their laying await was known of Saul. And they watched the gates day and night to kill him. 25 Then the disciples took him by night, and let him down by the wall in a basket (Acts 9.20-25).

That was not the end of Paul's problems. He goes to Jerusalem to meet up with the Christians there. ?When he came to Jerusalem, he was trying to associate with the disciples; ??but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple.
(Acts 9.26, NASB).

In Damascus, the Jews plotted to kill Paul; in Jerusalem, the Christians banded to shun Paul. What should he do?

Paul persevered and continued to preach Christ. His life was in danger, and finally the Christians convinced of the genuineness of his conversion decided to protect him. They took him to the seaport, put him on a ship, and send him back to his hometown in Tarsus.

...they [the Jews] were attempting to put him to death. But when ??the brethren learned of it, they brought him down to ??Caesarea and ??sent him away to ??Tarsus. So ??the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria ??enjoyed peace... (Acts 9.30-31).

Note how the departure of Paul from that area is connected with the peace upon the church. As we come to the end of Acts 9, Paul's attempt to preach the gospel in obedience to the heavenly vision ended with him being shipped home.

From Galatians 1.17-18, it seems that Paul spent 3 years in the deserts of Arabia and Syria. This reminds us of Moses who tried to do something for God in Egypt but had to flee to Midian where he spent 40 years in the wilderness.

What happened to Paul's heavenly vision? Has it been extinguished, exterminated?

No, it has gone into incubation. We use the word to refer to a hen sitting on her eggs to hatch them. The dictionary gives the meaning of "to incubate" as "to brood or ponder over, to foster the development of."

I would like to define "incubation" as "the period between first birth and second birth." A chick is born when an egg is laid. But it is not really born until the egg is hatched.

In the same way, a butterfly is born when a caterpillar comes out of an egg. But it is not really born until the butterfly comes out of the pupa or chrysalis.


INCUBATION OF VISION

Paul's vision from heaven went through a similar process. It was born, incubated, and then born again. I believe that often when God gives us a vision of what he wants us to do, we go through that process.

Moses experienced it, so did Abraham. When God told him that he was going to have descendants as many as the stars in the sky, Abraham waited for it to happen. That vision was incubated for many years, before he had Isaac-right into his old age.

Yes, when we obey God, the first we may face is failure. I can share from my years of ministry examples of how we failed in what we want to do for God before we succeeded.

As pastor of Mount Carmel in the 1970s, we made a decision to find a permanent base for our church. Till then, we have been meeting in a rented shophouse. Our first tender for a parcel of URA land in Pasir Panjang was unsuccessful. We thought we stood a good chance of getting it but were proven wrong. It was given to a Buddhist association.

Our second attempt to apply for conversion of use for a piece of residential property also met with failure. Not only did the authorities turn down our request, the lawyers for the owners of the property forfeited our deposit-due to a technicality in our agreement.

We were devastated. In fact, the elder in charge of the building project told me that he was so exhausted that he didn't know if he could continue. We have lost a tender, we have lost an opportunity, and we have lost our option money.

During that time, the vision of a place and building of our own almost died. Thank the Lord, we got back our option money minus legal fees, then went on to our third attempt for an HDB site in Clementi West Coast-this time we succeeded, and God gave us a piece of land that is bigger than the two other properties combined.

Why did God make it so hard for us? If we are doing his will, shouldn't things run smoothly-with no costs, no obstacles, no disappointments?

I believe that God often let our vision die before he brings it back to life. Moses gave up trying to help his people, but God called him to go back to Egypt. Abraham gave up trying to have a son, before God gave him one. Paul spent years in the wilderness before he came back to fulfill the heavenly vision.

We have seen two things about the fulfilling of God's vision. Firstly, we have to take ownership of it. Secondly, we need to allow for its incubation.


PAUL'S ACCOUNTABILITY

Finally, Paul was able to stay true to the vision because he knew accountability. A vision is not a thing. In the biblical sense, there is always God behind it. God gives us a desire, a dream, a calling, a vision-however you call it. Because it comes from him, you are responsible to him for making it come true.

When Paul says, "I was not disobedient," he was thinking of the One who has given him the vision, the Lord Jesus. You don't obey a vision; you obey the One who gives it.

Remember Paul's questions, "Who are you, Lord?" and "What do you want me to do?" The moment he heard the answers, Paul knew he was no longer his own. He belonged no longer to himself or anyone but the Lord Jesus.

Next week, when Pastor Eddy preaches from Acts 27, you will hear Paul's declaration, "For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve..." (Acts 27.23).

Paul no longer belongs to himself. He belongs to God; he is no longer master but servant. As servant, he has to obey his master.

Some of us may find this talk about obedience discomforting. We are brought up in a culture that teaches us to assert our rights, to be the master of our own destiny, to fight for what we deserve.

There may be a place for this in the world, but in the kingdom of God, we have no rights. We have no rights to salvation, we have no rights to God's grace, we have no rights to God's mercy.

When the Lord gives us a vision, we are held accountable to obey him and fulfill the vision. This morning, I am not sure what God has given to you as a vision or picture of what you can do for him.

Perhaps, your vision is that of a family raised to love and serve God. Your vision may be a vocation in which you honour God and touch the lives of people around you. Your vision may be a church where hurting people can find healing, and hopeless people can find hope.

Hold on to that vision. Sometimes it may seem like a burden. The prophets of the Old Testament understood this. Nahum and Habakkuk begin their books with these words (KJV):

"The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see."

"The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite."

To the prophets it was a burden they had to carry and discharge. There will be times when we wish we don't have to carry the burden. But remember the words of Sadhu Sundar Singh, "The hardest thing is life is to have no burden to carry."

When we carry no burden, have no vision, discharge no responsibility, we will die. Let me close with an illustration I remember this past week that was such an encouragement to me.


DON'T GIVE UP

Florence Chadwick was a swimmer. In 1952, she attempted to swim the cold waters between Catalina Island and the California coast. She swam through foggy weather and choppy sea for 15 hours. Her muscles began to cramp, and her resolve weakened. She begged to be taken out of the water, but her mother, riding in a boat alongside, urged her not to give up.

She kept trying but grew exhausted and stopped swimming. She was lifted out of the water into the boat. The paddled for a few more minutes. Just then the mist cleared, and they saw ahead of them the shore-it was only half a mile away.

At an interview, Florence Chadwick said, "All I could see was the fog. If I could have seen the shore, I could have made it." (Max Lucado, Facing the Giants, page 70).

So I speak to myself and I speak to all of us today: don't give up, the going may be tough, but God knows exactly how much we can take. Don't look at the fog or the mist, but look beyond it to the shore. It may be just a short distance away.

May we be able to say with Paul, "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision."