They arrest him to put him in jail, and the clerk of court says: you don't have a case - he has not blasphemed our god, not even once. Where have we been guilty of that? Let's just be real. Where have we been guilty, that in trying to make Christianity look better to other people, we've downed other people's beliefs?
We spend more time talking about why other people are wrong, instead of demonstrating the power of God in our lives; and all the time people are looking at our lives going: yeah, but you're mean to your husband; yeah, you withdraw from your wife; at work you have no integrity - you leave early and charge your employer full time; you have an anger problem.
We spend all this time talking about why everybody else is wrong; and in the meantime, people are looking at our life, and they see no power.
Paul said nothing against their goddess; he demonstrated the power of God. He did not speak against anybody else; He simply showed what Jesus looked like, lived out.
We love to announce with no demonstration, we love: JESUS IS THE WAY! Turn or burn! You'll go to hell if you don't get this right. My doctrine is right, yours is wrong! No man comes to the Father except by Him! We're in, you're out!
We always announce, and then demonstrate; but Jesus did it the other way - He demonstrated, and then He announced. There's one exception where He did it backwards, one exception, and it almost caused a riot, and so He fixed it very quickly. Remember the guy who was paralysed, and his friends picked him up on his mat and lowered him in, so they lowered him down. Jesus announced before He demonstrated (it might have been a slip-up).
He said: “oh, your sins are forgiven” - so He announces, before He demonstrates. So here's a paralysed guy there, and Jesus is calling him clean; and the whole room erupts, remember? YOU CAN'T CALL HIM CLEAN! He's paralysed! Look at that! You can't do that!
Jesus goes: oh yeah, I forgot - we should demonstrate first. What's easier to do: to say your sins are forgiven; or to say get up and walk? Obviously it's easier to announce, than to demonstrate, because who really knows? He says: so that you may know, that I am who I say I am - get up and walk - and then in the demonstration, no one could say anything.
As leaders in God's biggest idea, I can tell you this: that the most effective way for you to minister, is to demonstrate, and then announce.
What would the life of our church be like, if we demonstrated and then announced? Let me give you some illustrations of what it would be like if we helped the poor first, then we announced that we're about the kingdom of God?
What would happen if we healed the sick, and then we announced? What would happen if we showed loving kindness, and then announced? What would happen if, as a group of people, we got a reputation in this whole city, for being the most loving group of people that's ever come into this place, and then we announced?
What if we became patient and less stressed, and then we announced? What if we demonstrated peace in our hearts, and then announced? What if we demonstrated loving families, and then announced? What if we demonstrated genuine care for others, and then announced?
What's your story? What's your demonstration?
In Deuteronomy 26 it says (it's giving instructions on how to give a first-fruits offering) - every year when you give a first fruits offering, you're to put it in a basket, raise it high, put it in the hands of your priest, and then you are to proclaim in a loud voice: “my father is a wandering Aramean” - which just is Hebrew for: “my father was a homeless refugee, a slave”.
In other words, God built it into their culture to remember where they came from; because if we don't remember where we came from, we stand the risk of being proud, and looking down on people who haven't got through what we've already gotten through.
“My father was a wandering Aramean”.
How many of us need to remember: I used to have an anger problem, and God healed me from that, so I have no right to look down on somebody else, who's just going through the same thing I did? My father is a wandering Aramean.