The Unwavering, Uncompromising, and Unstoppable Paul

It is a delight to introduce to you our speaker for today, Niko Sotir. Niko's here with his family. Let's see if I can say him right. Marta, his wife, and their children, Nikolas, Ana Greta, and Abi. Okay, I got the thumbs up on that. Good.

Good. I met Nico in Romania several years ago. You remember we were involved with Dave and Dave and Triam and we'd go over and spend about two weeks, a little bit around three weeks in Romania with Triam. and that was we would have this program of meeting twice a year for four years with these particular students. And we did that for several years. And somewhere in that, I don't remember exactly what year, the first year we went was 2003.

And then somewhere in there, I met Niku. Niku was one of our translators. And, in fact, he translated a lot of the lectures that I did. And that's how I got to know him pretty well. Our most memorable time together, our most memorable incident was we had spent the whole day lecturing. And we were at this camp in the southern part of Romania.

And I think I said to Niku, man, I could use a Coke right now. And there were no Cokes on the place. And the closest place was miles away. And I said, OK, you drive, I'll buy. And so off we went to get a Coke, and on the way there in the dark, we almost hit a horse. And I'll never forget that night or that horse.

Now, what Tri-Am intended to do was to teach in places like Romania, and then after being there for a while, hand it off so that the Romanians could run that, right? They would do it. We'd back out. And so the guy who got tapped for that was or who decided to take it on. I don't know how it went. But Niku basically took that on and founded IBET, which I can't pronounce in Romanian, but which comes out in English as the Biblical Institute for Theological Education.

And I've had the opportunity of, I think I've been there once, right, to teach? Yeah, I've been there once to teach an I-bet, and I loved it. I loved it. Would love to do it again. Nick is also the founding pastor of Logos Church near Bucharest, and he also pastors there as well. So, Nick, come and bring the word of God to us.

We're anticipating God's blessings. Cope with sugar. Because at that point there was no Diet Coke in Romania. And I don't know if the horse had any coke, but it was wild. So when people in your congregation want to be heard, they need to wear a tie. That's what Miss Becca says.

I don't wear a tie today. And I'm bringing the word of God. So how about that? Do you think we live easy times or hard times? Like if you think of the timeline of history, you know, just have a huge line of history, 6,000, 6,000 and a half, I don't know, how many years you think. Do you think we live hard times or easy times?

So most of you think that we live hard times because you didn't answer. Do you think Israel lived hard times or easy times? Israel as a nation. Tricky, huh? They had an amazing God, which was their king. They had a king.

So before you finish the book of Moses, you know, Moses wrote a book. We have five of Moses, but he actually wrote only one. Nehemiah says the book of Moses, you know, which is five books for us. At the end of that book, God said, and I am your king and you do not want me. You want king like all the other nations have. at the end of the book of Moses, God tells them he's going to give them a king like all the other nations have because they didn't want him as king.

And King Jesus came. It was not King the Father, but it was King Jesus that came and he died killed by Israel who did not want God Yahweh as king and they did not want to have Jesus as king. and you open Acts a letter written to Theophilus Luke wrote to as a medic doctor but as one that knew Jesus and he wrote and said this in the introduction of his letter. That after his resurrection, after he suffered, and after he died and his resurrection, Jesus spent some time, about 40 days, and talked to his disciples about the kingdom of God.

Right in the introduction. But the disciples, the one that saw the king, the one that saw the resurrection, the one that saw all of that, the one that heard Jesus the king talking about the kingdom of God, they said, so when are you going to give this kingdom to Israel? they were interested in another kingdom the kingdom of israel and jesus i don't know if he should have rebuked them or not but you go all the way to the end of acts 28 and there's somebody else there it's not jesus it's somebody that almost looked the way he wrote his uh his letter almost want you to see there's a huge connection between his first letter Luke and second letter Acts between Jesus and Paul And right at the end of the letter he says And Paul rented a place On his own expenses So he paid for that In the heart of the empire Rome He had the door open So if you're like passing on the street, you could see the door open. It was the door open.

And Luke says, and he was preaching about the kingdom of God. So Jesus talks about the kingdom of God. Paul talks about the kingdom of God. That's how it starts. That's how it ends. it's about the kingdom of God but Israel doesn't get it I wonder if we get it because the king established his kingdom and 1 Corinthians 15 it says that at one point the kingdom of Jesus Jesus will give the kingdom to the Father.

So if you look at this timeline, and it's a very interesting timeline of history, you see God being the king, you see Jesus being the king, you see God being the king again. You are very confused. I know that. What this has to do with hard times and easy times. You think first century was a hard time or easy time? How many times in your Bible reading, you know, you started reading and you said to yourself, I wish I lived in first century.

I bet many of you did that because I did that. or, you know, probably some of you say, I wish I was an Amish, but I get that. A lot of us would love to live during that time, and I understand that. You know, have preachers like Paul, not like Nico and Tim or Andrew. But those are very hard times. and the church in the first century, it was a church that went through a lot of things.

Just when you read Acts, you know, starting with the kingdom of God and finishing with the kingdom of God, but all the timeline of Acts is just amazing. You have two Herods, Herod I and Herod the second. the second you have a lot you know you have different scissors you have Caligula Caligula that said I'm gonna build a huge statue I'm gonna put it in the temple and I'm gonna have all the Jewish people worship that statue and he died and Claudius came and Claudius said I don't want to see any Jewish people in Rome and he he had all of them leave Rome though he he he was okay in general cloud use but after that Nero came after Claudius And by the way when Paul had that door open in the heart of Rome Nero was ruling And the guys that came after him destroyed Jerusalem completely. So the times of the church, the church of Christ, the bride of Christ, the first one, the beginning of it, it was hard.

At moments, they were persecuted by the Jewish people. Very persecuted. A lot of them died. you know just think about Stephen think about James yeah it was Agrippa the first that said I'm going to have James killed and after that he wanted to kill Peter but he had James dying he was the first apostle that died and he was not replaced and when the church was not persecuted by the Jewish people, they started being persecuted by the Romans.

Till the 3rd century when Christianity became the religion of the empire. which is very interesting. Hard times. We live in times we open our Bibles, we touch our Bibles with our hands, and we almost have no idea of the timeline of our Bibles. No idea. No idea. We don't know anything about the centuries before Christ, though we know a little bit of the Old Testament.

But after that, between 3rd century BC and 1st century after Christ, we know almost nothing behind the scenes. We just know the Bible. And it's good we know the Bible. It's very good we know the Bible. But I wonder if we actually really know the Bible. And when I say that, I don't say it for you.

I say it for myself. Because, see, in Acts when people were dying, you had James dying, you have Peter at the middle of the book. You know how Peter disappears from Acts? Luke says this, and he went out and he went to another place. And we hear nothing of Peter. of Peter he went to another place you know and that means Rome, he went in Rome because after we read 2 Peter and he talks about Babylon and he died in Rome that's what history says but people go and leave from the books of Acts but we see something happening and Luke says and the word of God was increasing and the word of God was multiplying and the word of God was conquering and the word of God was spreading so it's interesting even in first century though you had Paul and you had Peter and you had Stephen you have all those guys What matters was the word of God that was spreading, and together with that was the kingdom of Jesus that was filling the earth and conquering an empire.

Let's open to Acts 20. in Acts 20 we have we are in the middle of a story Paul Saul of Tarsus in his last journey he receives the word from God for another journey. His last journey to Jerusalem. And he didn't know what's going to happen. He knew it's going to be a lot of afflictions and a lot of sufferings. But he knew because he read Daniel that the kingdom of Jesus is going to conquer the empire.

So he knew that the word of God is going to conquer Rome. And we see that at the end of Acts that it happened. And he calls not the church of Antioch. You would have expected for him to do that. Antioch was the church that sent him. If you read Acts 13, it was the church that put him aside.

It's the parallel church of the church of Jerusalem. So Acts, you have chapter 2, the church of Jerusalem. And after that, in Acts 13, you have the church of the Gentiles, Antioch. And they're parallel to each other in the writing of Luke. And Paul is we don know if it a prophet or a teacher because the church in Jerusalem had apostles and elders the church in Antioch had prophets and teachers at least that what Luke says if you careful to the reading of the new testament you're going to see this so Paul was there and he was sent with Barnabas so you would expect in chapter 20 for him maybe to ask the elders or the teachers or the people of Antioch to speak to him but he's asking the elders of Ephesus it was the closest city to Miletus that's where he stopped on the way to Jerusalem it's the last discussion that Paul has with a church beside the letters that he writes.

Because starting from here all the way to the end of the book, we're going to have Paul talking to leaders of Rome and leaders of administrators of Judea. Agrippa II. And when he gets to Rome, he's not calling for the elders of Rome. He calls for the leaders of the synagogues in Rome. But here in chapter 20, he calls for the elders of the church in Ephesus.

Chapter 20, verse 17. Let's read. Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. And when they came to him, he said to them, You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house like Jehovah's Witnesses testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

And now, behold, I'm going to Jerusalem constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await for me. But I'll go. but I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself if I only might finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of grace of God and now behold I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

Pay careful attention to yourself and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. To care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them.

Therefore, be alert. remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears and now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified I coveted no one's silvers or gold or appeal. You yourself know that these hands ministered to my necessity and to those who work with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help that we can remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Amen. And when he said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. and there was much weeping on the part of all. They embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship. Amen. Hard times.

Interesting times. And you have words like this. Do you believe them? Do you believe that Paul actually stayed dead at night for three years? Do you believe that he went to the grave? from door to door and he taught them. Do you believe that he did not care for the gold and silver and for the appeal of what people had, so that's the world?

He did not care for that. What he cared for was for the blood of Christ that was given for the church and for the preaching of the kingdom. That was the only thing he cared for. Actually, the only reason he wanted to leave was because of the bride of christ and that the kingdom of god will go to rome that was the only way that was the only reason he lived do you believe that was or or paul is just you know he's just bragging here like you know like so many other people are bragging.

And he's kind of like, I don't know, is he lying? Can this actually happen? Somebody to live this way? Yes. I don't think it's a lie. I don't think it's a lie.

Do you know when Luke is introducing Paul in his narrative? Acts 7. You know what happens there? A bunch of leaders of the Jewish people hear Stephen saying, and I see the heavens open and I see the throne and I see Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father standing that means he is king and Stephen saw that with his own eyes you know what the leader said? you are a liar and the narrative text says this and they took him outside of the city and they killed him why?

Because he saw the glory of God. The glory of God that was where? On the Ezekiel's temple. When Ezekiel saw that the glory of God left that temple, the glory left. And John 1 says that the glory of God came on Jesus. Back to this earth.

Not on a temple anymore. Not on a building. It was on a person. And when the leaders of Israel heard about the glory of God standing right there as the king, they took him, the guy that saw the glory, outside of the temple and killed. And Luke says, and Saul of Tarsus was there. He saw Stephen.

He saw Stephen. He saw this man that was unwavering, uncompromising, unstoppable. For Stephen, the fact that he died outside of the city was a miracle. He loved it. Because the next moment he opened his eyes, he embraced that glory of God. He's King Jesus.

He embraced it. And that's why you cannot stop somebody like this. But was Stephen the one that had an impact on Paul to write something like this? What we read in chapter 20? Was Stephen? Probably not.

Probably not. Paul was probably unwavering. uncompromising and unstoppable because he saw the glory of God on the face of Jesus Christ. He saw somebody else that when he came showing us the glory of God he was uncompromising he was unwavering and he was unstoppable And that's King Jesus. That's King Jesus. But let's look at this text a little bit carefully.

Why was Paul unwavering? Why was he unwavering? Why? No matter what came. No matter what came at this guy. You cannot move him.

He was on a solid foundation and he knew that foundation and you cannot move him. There was no wave that could put him down. He was stable on that rock. And he gives us the answer here. Because he saw the value. He knew the church cost God's own blood.

God's own blood. He knew the value. He saw the value. He knew the truth. Look at verse 27. He taught this whole council.

To teach the council, you have to know the whole council. He knew the whole council. And verse 32, he trusted that grace. the grace that he knew were the ones that were solid foundation for him and you could not move him. You know, how many people like Stephen do you know? How many people like Paul do you know? That no matter what you will do to them, they're going to be unwavering.

No matter what you going to say about them they going to be unwavering No matter what they going to be unwavering Okay, let's make this even more personal. Do you consider yourself an unwavering Christian? You said you live good times. you think bad times if they will come you're going to be unwavering if persecution is going to start July the 1st in America are you going to be unwavering how many people do you know that are unwavering.

Maybe it's because there are very few people that actually value the blood of Christ that paid for His bride. If you see the value of the church of Christ, you're going to be unwavering. if you see the value of the Word of God and you'll be able to die and have your own blood spread because of the value of the Word of God, you're going to be unwavering. If you can understand that every good thing that happens in your life, everything that happens in your life is by the grace of God, you're going to be unwavering.

So, back to my question. Why am I not unwavering? Why do I go with any wave that comes? Why do I, I'm not stable? It's because I don't value the bride of Christ. It's because I do not see the value of the whole counsel of God.

And I do not embrace this grace of God that is just so precious. and I look at myself and I look at what I can do I look at my strength and all those people like me are just going to be unstable when something happens they're just going to go I pray you're not going to be one of those and you're going to look at this man alive that said, I do not count my life dear unto myself. But what matters for me is the kingdom of Jesus. It's His bride.

That's what matters for me. You know, we are a bunch of people here. Imagine if all of us would believe this, would really believe this. The first thing will happen, lunch will not be enough for all of us because we all will stay to eat lunch together. Each one of us. To be around a meal with the bride of Christ.

What can be more wonderful than that? And after that, some of you haven't been in Sunday school class. They're like, wow, this bride of Christ is amazing. Let's go out and have more people coming and knowing the kingdom of God so they can be part of this bride. Jesus paid so others can be saved. Amen.

If we believe that, we go. my father used to say deeds not words and he was right we have to prove it you know belief is always shown in deeds that's what James says I will show you my faith with what I'm doing so brothers and sisters if you want to be unwavering people have to look at us and see that we value his bride. We will die at any moment for the whole counsel of God. And that the grace of God is so precious to us.

But he was not just unwavering. he was uncompromising and that's a big word I don't know about you but many many many times I step back and I've been compromising you know what's the easiest way to compromise in your family you come here at church brother Tim invites you to preach so you open the word and you know you talk and you you know people will be like wow that's a saint of God but you go back home and the children look at you and say is that the guy that actually preached today because he doesn't look like he lives it or believes it The easiest way to compromise the truth is to do it by the way you live. And Paul what he said he did it He did not compromise any single word What he said, he said, I've been teaching all of this, and I've been showing to you all of this from house to house. I was in your midst.

You've seen my example. Everything I've said, I lived it out. he saw Stephen doing that he saw Jesus doing that though he did not see Jesus because he was not one of the apostles that saw Jesus but he kind of saw Jesus in a different way and again how are we with compromising the truth if we know the truth. You know, if you don't know the truth, what can you compromise about?

But if we know the Word of God, and I bet if I will ask any of you today, you're going to start sharing about the Word of God and you're going to say a lot of things. And we are very educated, very educated. I pray that we'll be more educated in the way we live than the way we talk and I pray that our kids are going to see our example and our neighbors are going to see what we say we are Christians Christians do you know that America and some of the best Baptists start going to Eastern Orthodoxy.

Did you know that? I just got an email from a pastor, from a guy that was a Baptist for 41 years. And he said, I know a bunch of pastors around my area and all of us are becoming Eastern Orthodox from Mississippi. and he said I'm tired of all the Baptists and everything that I've been teaching and learning and all of that I finally found the truth the way there are a lot of Baptists that go to Eastern Orthodox in America I don't know if you knew that if you didn't know that, you know it now it's sad it made my heart so sad but maybe this a guy like this that wrote this email and so many other guys did not have really people in their lives that show them what it means to be uncompromising and actually knowing the truth of God why do I say this if you are a believer and you say you are a believer and that you know the truth that has to be shown in your life people have to see that starting with your family and after that your neighbors and co-workers and everybody around you they have to see that and you as a body as a community have to be a testimony to this village and to this city and everything around it they have to see that a bunch of believers true Christians true followers of Christ are meeting there and are living in our city amen I hope you pray together with me that God will do something in our midst.

Unstoppable. Paul was unstoppable. You know, this message is filled in Acts 20 with so many intense words. He told those leaders that from their midst are going to raise some that are going to be a treat to the Church of Christ, to the disciples, he said. imeneo imeneo and alexander were two of those and we find them in in first and second timothy when paul said to timothy and i will come and i will kick those two guys out and they were leaders in the church but they're not believers they're not christians they're not followers of Christ.

And this situation that Paul knew that is coming and he saw coming still did not make him unstoppable and to me is amazing because when I look at situations like this it makes me feel like I just want to quit. I just want to give up. When I see an email like this somebody saying I just went to Eastern Orthodoxy, it made me feel like I just want to stop.

But Paul was unstoppable. He was just unstoppable. He went all the way to Rome and he died there. But before dying there, he opened a door in the capital and everybody will come and hear about the kingdom of God Are we unstoppable as a community of believers Are we unstoppable as ones that say we follow Christ? Are we like this? Maybe you think this message is more like a devotion.

And maybe it was like a devotion. But I went back to this Acts 20 many, many, many, many, many times in my last years. And I thought to myself, how can somebody like me, don't look at Paul like saying, you know, he was an apostle and that's why he could say all of this. he had the same spirit you and me have it's the same spirit of god amen i mean it's the same spirit of god it's not like he was more special than you are and he had a he had a different spirit than you have he belonged to another bride of christ than you are no we all have share the same identity but he lived the way he lived because he believed in in what he he received from the Lord.

He believed it. And he lived it out. And he knew he's a citizen of heaven. He was not a citizen of the Roman Empire. No, he was a citizen of heaven and his eyes were on King Jesus. And he knew that this rock that started is going to fill the earth.

And that's why he opened the door to his house and said anybody that wants to come and hear about the kingdom of God can come. Because he was like this. And you know why? And it goes back to what I said in the beginning. It's because he knew Jesus was like this. Unwavering, uncompromising, and unstoppable.

He knew Jesus. He knew Jesus. When you know the King, you're gonna live like the King. I mean just think about when Jesus was in Getsemane in the garden and he said Father your will be done not my will and he died and the Father received that perfect obedience of Jesus the cross and he was unstoppable because that's what made him king the father received that sacrifice perfect sacrifice and made Jesus king and you are part of his kingdom and you are part of his bride and you are part of this of this amazing reality.

And that's how you're going to live. That's how I'm going to live. We're going to go out and no matter what comes, it's not going to move us. We go out and no matter what comes, we're not going to compromise and we're going to stick to the truth of God and we're going to love it and we're going to embrace it, and we're going to be ready to die for it, no matter who the president of the U.S. is going to be.

We'll do it. And nobody's going to stop us, because we know the kingdom of God is going to win, because the king won. But, you know, maybe you look at me today, and you don't understand what I'm saying. And it's because you don't know King Jesus. You don't know King Jesus. You need to know King Jesus today.

You have to understand this amazing news that he died and he was made king in the resurrection. so you can be part of an amazing body, His bride, that He paid for it. And when you're part of this, your life is going to totally be different, a radical difference. So I pray this morning that the Lord will speak to your heart and the Spirit will ask you all those questions. and if you're not a believer this will be the day of your salvation this will be the day that you're going to put your knee before the King Jesus and say you are King King Jesus do whatever you want with my life but if you know King Jesus and you don't live the way you should you know that the grace of God is powerful it's not just a favor It's powerful.

The grace of God can make you unwavering, uncompromising, and unstoppable. And I really pray that if you are a believer, God will just make this grace of his. powerful in your life. Lee, it's going to be needed. You're going to be needed, brother. Three more buildings are going to be needed here. And actually, not here.

You're going to start something else in another village and something else in another city because the Church of Christ is beautiful. I pray that we'll believe messages like this, devotions like this. And I pray that we'll see King Jesus is King Jesus. Hey, we should not worry about anything that happens around us. no matter what kind of times we live we should not worry and we should be totally decisive in our attitude and totally decisive in our action to be unstoppable Father Father thank you so much for showing for sending your son to show us what unwavering uncompromising and unstoppable means.

And he showed us by his example, but mostly he showed us through his death. And it's an irony because we think that death stopped him. And that's what the world believed. But that was just the beginning. of a miracle. Father, it was our perfect plan to have a king like we have. Thank you for making him our king through the resurrection.

Thank you for giving your son a kingdom thank you for putting all the enemies under his feet Thank you for planning to put death itself under his feet his wonderful feet. Lord, forgive us that we act like cowards, like slaves like people that are of this world when we have such a wonderful king help us to not make this world about us and what we can accomplish here with houses and homes and money and silver and apparel. But help us, Lord, to see your kingdom expanded.

Thank you for working towards that. Thank you for using this wonderful bride from here from LaRue Thank you for bringing Tim to Romania Lord thank you for giving us so many examples like Stephen like Paul guys that lived stable and unwavered and unstoppable And we've seen it. It's possible. help us to believe that and help us to trust on your spirit that he can do that in our lives and in our midst and in our families and in our communities thank you for being so patient with us thank you for loving us so much thank you for giving us a wonderful king help us Lord to live for His glory, for Your glory, and for the good of more and more and more people.

In His name, in the wonderful name of King Jesus, Father, I pray, through Your wonderful Helper, Your Spirit, His Spirit, I pray. Amen. Thank you.