Life Lessons with Dr. Steve Schell

67 - Distracted

Discovering God’s call is only the first step in a life of service. Enduring in that call is the second and most difficult step. Staying focused and continuing to do what God called us to do never goes unchallenged. The enemy never ignores a fruitful ministry, but will use every method at his disposal to try to stop it. If a person refuses to give in to moral failure, the devil will try to get them to believe heresy. If they refuse to believe heresy, he will try to lure them with riches. If they refuse the deceitfulness of riches, he will raise up people to persecute them, and if they endure persecution, then he will use one of the cruelest weapons of all, he will attack those they love. Love makes a person vulnerable to worry. We worry when those we love are struggling. So if he can’t stop us, he’ll try to distract us. He’ll use misunderstandings, betrayals, or the agony of watching loved ones walking away from God to torment us. He’ll try to exhaust us by tormenting us in the hope that he can drain our energy away from the work we’re called to do.

This is exactly what the devil was trying to do to Paul. He hadn’t been able to turn him away from his call. None of his methods had worked, so he used one church in particular, to try to distract him. And in some measure it worked (2Co 2:12, 13). Today we’ll cover only two verses in Acts. But if we look beyond the brief statements Luke makes here, and take into consideration the information Paul gives us elsewhere, we’ll discover that during those years in Ephesus, Paul was enduring an enormous amount of unseen pain. He was deeply worried about the church in Corinth.

As we watch what happened to Paul, many of us will realize we, too, have had much of our energy drained away by worry over those we love. The good news is Paul wasn’t defeated by this. In fact, his patient love for that church ultimately gave God time to win the hearts of many of those whom the enemy had tried to deceive. Yes, we’ll see the devil attack Paul, but we’ll also see Paul triumph. 

66 - The Real World

The real world has an ugly side to it. Just ask a policeman or an emergency room nurse. Beneath the surface of our society there’s a lot of suffering. People are capable of doing amazing things to themselves and others. And the same is true of the real spiritual world. It, too, has an ugly side. Many people don’t want to see that side, it frightens them. But pretending it’s not there doesn’t change reality, it just leaves us vulnerable to attack and unable to protect ourselves.

The passage we’re studying today talks about evil spirits. It shows us the power they can have over a human being, but it also shows us the power of the name of Jesus Christ. We need to be bold enough to realize that the forces we’re watching at work in ancient Ephesus are still part of our world today, whether we like it or not, whether we believe it or not. Somewhere over the course of history, Christianity became spiritually powerless and very “scientific.” The church in the west followed our culture into a deep skepticism about the existence of a spiritual world. Even if we held onto a generic belief in God, the idea of angels or demons, or the devil himself, became something we associated with primitive, pre-scientific superstition. We thought of ourselves as enlightened, informed, increasingly in control of our own destiny. With the emergence of modern medicine and psychology, our need for God’s help grew smaller and smaller. If He wasn’t “dead,” He was at least unnecessary.

But reality tends to be stubborn. It doesn’t cease to function just because we ignore it. Sooner or later we bump into it and are forced to acknowledge its existence. And the real world has a spiritual dimension just as certainly as it has a physical one. Not only does God exist, but so do angels and demons. They’re as real as you and I. So, today, let’s see the world the way Jesus and Paul saw it… and let’s discover the authority Jesus’ name has over that world.

65 - Ministering God's Power

Passages like this are both thrilling and frustrating. It thrills us to see God’s power work through an individual to this degree, but it can also frustrate us. When we recognize what is possible, some of us are painfully reminded of what didn’t happen. It confronts us with the question: Am I moving in all the power God has made available to me? And for some, that brings up feelings of guilt and shame, and even anger.

For reasons I don’t fully understand, many Christians are committed to the idea that miracles, like these we see being performed through Paul, don’t happen anymore. They believe that at some point in time God stopped doing such miracles, so when they read passages like this they feel a great admiration for what God did during that early stage of church history, but feel no responsibility to try to do similar things today.

There is another group of Christians who will tend to skip over a passage like this, not because they don’t believe it or think such things are still possible, but because it stirs up deep emotions they don’t want to feel. Seeing miracles happen for others only reminds them of miracles that didn’t happen for them or someone they love. It raises the painful question of “why?” And there are also those who’ve grown quietly cautious. In the past they allowed their expectations to be raised to a high level only to end up disappointed and embarrassed. They didn’t become angry or unbelieving, just confused and tired of trying.

Knowing these things, and sometimes feeling the same emotions, I wanted to politely skip past these verses and move on. But I felt that displeased the Lord. Instead, He wanted us to look deeply at how He used Paul in Ephesus, so He could release us from confusion and condemnation, and teach us how to embrace more of His power, without ending up frustrated.

64 - Teaching the Word

There is nothing that replaces the hearing or reading of the Word of God. There are a number of important spiritual disciplines, all of which need to be part of our lives, but nothing has a greater impact than a daily encounter with the Bible. The temptations of our flesh are strong, and our own mind keeps trying to lead us astray, so without constant correction, without being confronted again and again by the way God thinks, we unconsciously drift back into unbelief, entertain temptation, and return to loving the world. Someone once said, “When we pray, we talk to God, but when we read the Word, He talks to us.” Though I admit the Bible isn’t the only way God talks to us, it is undoubtedly the most trustworthy way. When I try to hear God directly, my own thoughts can at times deceive me, but the plain truths and commands in the Bible never change, and are never wrong. Whenever I test the Bible by actually doing what it says, it always works.

And the Bible contains within itself a strange authority, one that’s hard to explain. If a person will pick it up and read it honestly, sooner or later they sense it’s speaking to them. How many committed atheists have tried to read it to prove to themselves it is filled with superstitious lies, only to find themselves convicted of their rebellion to a God who loves them and fearing a God who will someday bring them to judgment. It simply isn’t a silly, religious book. That’s why every vile form of human government outlaws the Bible. How often has it been labeled a dangerous book? Because it is! It’s a force to be dealt with.

I believe the primary reason our society is failing, families are failing, individuals are failing, and many Christians are failing is because people are not interacting daily with the Word of God. They are “leaning on their own understanding” (Pr 3:5) and therefore God is not guiding them. Today, we’re going to let Apollos be an example to us once again. Last week we saw his passionate love for God, but this week we’ll see his passionate commitment to study and teach the Word of God.

63 - Seeking God's Face

There are those who believe in God and those who love God. Everyone who loves Him, believes in Him, but not everyone who believes in Him, loves Him. This is because God is real. He’s a person with a distinct personality. You’ll often hear people say things like this: “I can’t believe in a God who would…” In other words, they don’t like the God they see in the Bible, and they refuse to follow a god they can’t modify until He comes up to their high standards. One distinguishing fact about people who talk like this is that they have never personally met God. It’s all theory and philosophy, because people who’ve actually met Him talk differently. They speak about Him as if He’s a person, and He’s there watching, somewhere in the room. And to be honest there’s a bit of fear left in them because He was much bigger than they originally thought. Actually, He was downright intimidating. It was obvious He had come down to their level to talk with them. In that moment, it never even crossed their mind to tell Him ways they felt He needed to change.

There are people who are looking for salvation and there are people who are looking for God. There are people who want to make sure they’ll go to heaven when they die, and people who long to be close to Him now. If you think about it, those are two wildly different motives. One is raw self-interest: “What do I have to do so God will let me into heaven?” The other is a hunger for relationship. Like a lover who feels lonely and empty apart from the one they love, this person never seems to get enough of God. They’re always pursuing Him, wanting more. They aren’t focused on His gifts or blessings, though those things seem to come along naturally for people like this, instead they’re focused on His presence. They want to sense that He’s close, they want to talk to Him. One person said it this way: “Some people seek God’s hand, others seek His face.” I would submit to you that Apollos was a man who was pursuing God, he was seeking His face.

62 - Overcoming Fear

By every appearance, the very thing Paul dreaded was happening. How many times had gangs of angry men surrounded him and dragged him to the police. In one situation after another government officials had conveniently sided with the mob. And here he was again being taken through the streets of Corinth to stand in front of the new Roman proconsul. It all felt horribly familiar. Would he be stripped and beaten publicly and then thrown into a filthy jail cell as he had in Philippi (Ac 16:19-24)? Or would the mob be allowed to take him out and stone him as they had in Lystra (Ac 14:19, 20)? But there was one thing that made this moment different from all the others. A year and a half earlier Paul had seen a vision of Jesus who told him not to be afraid, so when fear tried to surge up within Paul, he had a promise he could cling to. 

The real enemy
The real enemy is fear. Most of the bad decisions we make are made in an effort to protect ourselves from something we fear. Fear weakens us, it breaks down our defenses, and actually seems to draw to us the very thing we’re trying to flee. You might say fear is a form of faith in reverse. When we’re afraid, we’re actively believing that bad things will happen. Fear’s almost like an odor or a magnetic field. If left unchallenged, sooner or later we tend to get the very thing we feared.

The culture we live in is full of fear. If you listen to the way people talk you’ll hear it. They say, “You know what worries me is…,” or “I’m really frightened for…” Our news is full of horrible scenarios about what might happen. Books, films and music constantly envision coming catastrophes, and for that matter, so do religious materials. The effect all this has on us is to make us want to withdraw and hide. We can’t dream of great things or step out into bold, new ventures because we’re waiting for something bad to happen. And living in fear leaves people tired, sad and angry. Frightened people build walls. We limit our own possibilities, we reduce our own potential, because in our mind what we fear is as real as if it had already happened. It’s as real as if we had already seen it. So, we think of ourselves as being realistic, not fearful; as wise, not reactionary. And fearful thinking becomes a habit which gets more deeply ingrained in us as the years go by, until we’re not even aware it’s there.

61 - Releasing Ministry

When Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia they brought with them a financial gift from the church in Philippi. Apparently, a man named Epaphroditus actually carried the money, and then stayed in Corinth for awhile to assist Paul. He was sent home after surviving a life-threatening illness (Php 2:25-30). The effect this gift had on Paul was not to change what he was doing, but to release him to do it more. Luke says, “Paul began devoting himself completely to the Word…” (v5). He had been working six days a week making tents in order to support himself and then, in what must have been a very weary condition, he would reason in the synagogue on the Sabbath. No one had to pay Paul to minister. He did what he did with or without support, but the gift from the Philippians released him to focus all his energy and time on doing what he was called to do.

60 - Alone and Afraid

Paul was a human being with strengths and weaknesses. He was incredibly brave. At times he seemed fearless in preaching the gospel. As we read through the Book of Acts we’ve often watched him pursued by angry mobs, and he didn’t always escape. On occasion they caught him and stoned or beat him badly. Yet he always seemed to get up and march off to the next city. So it might be hard for us to accept the fact that this great apostle could have moments when he too felt overwhelmed, when the pressure of it all grew too much for him, when he felt alone and afraid. But this was the condition he was in when he arrived in Corinth. So when he began to preach there, and that predictable pattern of anger began to emerge, when the threat of violence grew stronger by the day, he faithfully kept preaching, even though he wanted to run away. It almost hurts to say it, but he didn’t want to be hit again. He had been hit so hard, so often, it had begun to take its toll. But in that season of weakness Jesus didn’t scold Paul, He completely understood how he felt, He’d felt the same way. So He took care of him. He brought people who would stand beside him so he wouldn’t be alone. He prompted believers who loved him to send a timely gift, and above all He spoke to him. And that loneliness and fear left. Luke beautifully captures the change in Paul when he says, “and he sat down a year and six months, teaching among them the Word of God” (literal). He was at peace and able to finish his assignment.

There are, undoubtedly, people among us today who, like Paul, have not stopped serving the Lord, but inside feel alone and afraid. So as we watch the way Jesus kindly and patiently cares for Paul, his weakness actually encourages us. If this great apostle can struggle this deeply, then surely we can too. And if Jesus will come and minister to him, then He’ll come and minister to us, too. Paul’s weakness becomes an invitation from the Lord to admit our own weakness, and receive His care

59 - Athens and Jerusalem

The culture around us is changing. What used to be “Jerusalem,” a society whose beliefs and morals were rooted in the Bible is becoming “Athens,” a society which is ignorant of God and the Bible, and looks for help elsewhere. It’s important that we understand this change and recognize where it has occurred, because God speaks to “Jerusalem” one way, but to “Athens” another. When He confronts “Jerusalem,” He speaks very directly, because these are people who know His Word and at some point in their history promised to serve Him. When it comes to spiritual matters, they’re not ignorant, when they sin it’s rebellion. But He speaks differently to “Athens.” It’s not filled with people who know God and have made a covenant with Him. Though they also do sinful things, their deeds are not done in direct rebellion to God. They don’t know Him (Mt 11:20-24).

Today, as we watch Paul preach in Athens, he models a very important lesson for us. He shows us how to reach people who are ignorant of spiritual realities and who live in a world of self-made philosophies. As he passed through that city, he became deeply grieved at the demonic bondage which held those people in its grip. He knew they were deceived, and that knowledge stirred him to action. Luke says as he walked through the city and saw all those idols, he became very upset, yet notice how he responded. He didn’t march into the marketplace and angrily rant at the crowds about their sin. He began to look for people to lead to Christ, because he was confident that even in that deeply confused place there would be individuals whom God had been drawing to Himself and who were ready to hear the truth.

58 - Lifelong Learners

Learning is hard work. Anyone who’s gone to school knows that. Using our brains is like exercising a muscle; it grows tired when it’s overworked and weak when it’s left idle. The school system in our country requires us to study until we reach a certain age, and many people will keep on studying for a few years after that in order to get a better job. But sadly, in the minds of some, once they’re through with school, the season for pushing their brains to learn new ideas comes to an end. The assumption is, we’ve had a lot of information poured into our minds during our school years, and after graduation we enter the season of life when we draw on that pool of information whenever we need it. The problem with that approach, of course, is that our memories decay over time, and if we don’t keep using the knowledge we learned, we soon forget most of it. We may have gotten an “A” on the final, but six months later we can barely remember half of what we once knew.

You might think spiritual knowledge is different from this, but it’s not. We quickly discover that as soon as we stop going forward in our knowledge of God and His Word, we start sliding backward. It seems there is no plateau; it’s either uphill or downhill. In spiritual matters, just like any other area of life, it takes self-discipline and hard work to keep going uphill, which is why some people stopped learning a long time ago. Growing spiritually simply required more than they wanted to give.

But there are others who have the necessary attitudes and inner motivation to keep growing. In fact, some people are still growing when they die. That kind of individual never puts limits on themselves. They don’t decide they’ve outgrown the season for learning. And in every case they’re not mentally lazy. They’re willing to put in the time and energy to investigate a matter. They’re always reading something; they’re always stretching spiritually to walk at a deeper level with God (Php 3:12-14). You might suspect that someone like that was motivated by pride, but they never are. Proud people decide they already know way more than they need to, and stop growing early. In order for someone to keep growing for a lifetime, they must be willing to work hard year after year, decade after decade; and people only do that for one reason: They’re driven! And I think the only force that can drive someone for a lifetime is love. Not even hate has such power. A person can fall so deeply in love with something or someone that they never feel they know enough or have drawn close enough. And there are people who love God like that. Paul met some of them in the city of Berea.