Span-14 Paul on Mar's Hill — Art Katz

The Apostolic Faith and Its Coming Fulfillment

The word that needs to be restored to our understanding and to our affection. The neglect of this word is generous to ordinary Christianity. It's an ultimate word and requires an ultimate fulfillment.

I don't think that it has been seen on the earth in modern times. And yet the age will not end without it. It is the apostolic faith that results in apostolic glory, that exhibits apostolic power to men who are in apostolic talent.

It is our call. And we have been forwardly speaking to this. A beautiful picture is the Apostle Paul himself in Acts chapter 17. We all know what happened there. Paul was in flight from persecution and he was sent there by his brethren.

In the city of Athens, waiting for his colleagues to catch up with him. While he waited, his spirit was stirred within him when he saw the city given over to apostolate. You need to understand why this chapter is so beautiful.

It is unrehearsed and unprecedented. It's a man finding himself where he didn't intend to be. And while he's waiting, he seems upset emotionally. That touches the issue of eternity. What will we exhibit when something comes upon us unawares?

What will we demonstrate in an unprepared moment? It's really going to be the issue of the Church of the Last Days. Things will come upon us with utter surprise. A great sadness that we could not have expected.

How we act in that moment. What we exhibit in that moment. Is what in fact we are. Everything till that moment is preparation. It all began with the Spirit of God stirring the spirit of the apostate. He was grieved in the man when he saw the whole city given over to apostate.

Has that been our reaction in this chapter? Is there a city more idolatrous than New York? More full of false idols? False values? The world is going insane. Football players and baseball players making $7 million a year a season.

It shatters your mind. It destroys all value. Nobody thinks about it. That's what they love to think. The way the world is. Paul would never have accepted that. It's a world living in a lie. It's values stink and are corrupt.

Millions are sucked up into these idols. Fame and wealth. Success. But the end thereof is eternal.

Idolatry in Religious Institutions

Therefore he disputed in the synagogue with the Jews. Verse 17.

Can you understand the logic of that? How do you go from being tamed over idolatry to disputing with Jews in the synagogue? What has the one thing to do with the other? Everything. Why can't you see it?

The synagogue is an idolatry. Whether it's Jewish or Gentile. Whatever the name over the building. If it doesn't require an ultimate devotion to the Lord, it's an idolatry. If it doesn't require an ultimate devotion to the Lord, it's an idolatry.

It's a self-serving religious business. To accommodate the emotional and spiritual needs of men. Without requiring their total submission to the Lord. That's idolatry. And it's in the synagogues everywhere.

And in the churches. Why having to grieve? All the more when it's performed in Jesus' own name. He disputed in the synagogue with the Jews. With the devout persons in the marketplace. And they brought him up to myself.

To hear what this babbler would say. To hear what this babbler would say. Where the philosophers met every day. Seeking to come to the knowledge of the truth, but never succeeding. Pilots, if you know this word.

Making a profession of being lovers of the truth. But never coming to the knowledge of it. A posture opposing an act. I don't see it this way, brother. But God does. Do you know what apostolic means? To see as God sees.

And to act out of that seeing. No matter what the consequence is to yourself. Paul was brought up to Mars Hill, the ultimate place of confrontation. With the most powerful and the prestigious thinkers of his age.

A simple Hebrew apostle. He wasn't wearing silk garments. Nor a fashionable earring. His hair wasn't in the latest style. The fact of the matter is he wasn't even a man of that generation. Or of that culture.

Or of that style. He was beyond those things. He was an eternal man. Above the values of every generation. The citizen of heaven. Would he be intimidated? All those great Greek buildings. All these temples to the Greek gods.

All these aristocratic philosophers with their great learning. And he was a contemptible Hebrew. A man beyond time and generation. An eternal man. A heavenly man. An apostolic man. We are moving towards such a confrontation again.

Not so much in terms of a single Paul. But a church that has come to an apostolic character. Beyond time, beyond culture, beyond fashion, beyond style. Beyond culture, style, and knowledge. People who communicate something eternal.

Because that's where their citizenship is. In heaven. Every man who heard Paul that day will stand accountable for God before God eternally. They may have thought he was a joke. Oh look how quaint, a Hebrew preacher.

We can afford to hear his novelty. Let's hear what this babbler says. They'll pay for that hearing forever. To hear Paul once is to be eternally accountable. Is that true for your speaking? You may have to take the eating out of your ear.

Or whatever it is that roots you in this generation. What you have in your life... This is an important word. It's the birth of a cultural Christianity. A Pentecostalism with a Latin accent. Something higher.

Is God's intention for you. Something much more ultimate. Much more sacrificial. Much more eternal in it's consequence. And Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said. As I walked by I saw your monuments and it said an inscription to the unknown God.

Paul’s Mars Hill Proclamation

He whom you ignorantly worship I declare unto you. I see in all things you're too superstitious. What he's saying is you're a bunch of phonies. You profess to be concerned for truth. But you like the unknown God to remain unknown.

It gives you a certain air of spirituality. But I'm not going to let you get away with it. Him whom you ignorantly worship I declare unto you. That's boldness. That's apostolic authority. That's apostolic absoluteness.

It's uncompromising. It's disrespectful of every other view. But one view. The view that saves for eternity. He said you guys talk about what the purpose of life is? You're philosophers? I'll tell you what it is.

I'll tell you in one statement. God has made of one blood all nations of men. Una sola sangre. And he's established the bounds of their habitation. For one purpose only. That they might seek after God if happily they might be fond of him.

Stick your heart out. This is the purpose of human existence. That's why God has given nations of political systems and economies. Not that they should become idols in themselves. They're given only as a secondary.

To sustain the physical life. That the purpose for that life may be fulfilled. That men might find God. He says that's a narrow view. That's a narrow view. But it happens to be God's. Can you express that as boldly as Paul?

And will those who hear you be convicted by your statement? Will they believe you? Can you persuade them? Are you living as if you believe that that is the single purpose for human existence? That's the bottom line.

Is there a lifestyle that is consistent with what we say we believe? That even those who don't know how we live behind our shut doors and our shades and curtains, the truth of it is conveyed by our faces and by our voices.

Repentance, Resurrection, and the Coming Judgment

Paul said you can continue playing your games if you want. But God is commanding all men everywhere now to repent. He's winked in times past, but he's not winking now. He's commanding all men everywhere to repent.

I wonder if they were laughing under their breath at that point. Who does this guy think he is? What is he trying to suggest? I'm a philosopher. I'm occupied with noble pursuits. For what shall I repent?

But there's something about Paul that cannot be laughed away. He said God has commanded a day in which he will judge all men by that man whom he has raised from the dead. Paul speaks about resurrection as easily as breathing.

His voice didn't change. He didn't start now sounding religious. The same consistent man with the same voice and the same truth. Resurrection and judgment is not a religious category. It's the foundational truth of all life.

We're moving toward an end. A climax in history. And there's a God coming who will judge. Those who have blasphemed him. Those who have ignored and rejected him. Those who have played their religious and philosophical games.

He will judge all men. Is there anything more foolish than Paul in confrontation with the philosophers? Is there anything weaker? This pathetic biblical view spoken to men who are foolish. The glory that was Greece.

And Paul is not intimidated by that. For he has seen a greater glory than Athens. He's seen the city of God whose builder and maker is God. For God has reserved a city for them. Who confess that they are pilgrims and strangers and sojourners in this world.

Two realities in conflict. Which is the true one? That which the world applauds and honors? Or the single weak voice of a foolish Hebrew messenger? Would you be willing to share his reproach? You're stupid.

Are you trying to say that the whole purpose of life is to find God? What do you mean the world's going to come to an end? That God's going to judge all men? The world is getting better and better. Clinton has just been elected.

And we're going to improve. Why do you speak this doomsday message as if there's an end? That's foolishness. Or is it the truth of God? So they said, well, we'll hear this babbler again. And they never did.

The Messenger Must Embody the Message

And some walked away with disgust. But a few pleaded unto Paul and believed. For the man was his message. I've had only one experience like this. Someone pleaded unto me and believed. A Jewish woman, a professor.

A Jewish woman doing yoga exercises. Talking about idols. And throwing her back out. Seven excruciating years of unspeakable pain. And no doctor has been able to help her. And a Christian friend brings her to me.

And my first word to her was this. What must your Jewish pride have been that God required this to reduce you to seeing me? What pride of God did you have that God sent you this pain? I didn't think I had any Jewish pride.

But she was beginning to hear things as God sees them. And that alone is proof. And that alone will save. Do you speak the word that God puts in your mouth? Even if it offends your hearer? Insults them?

Alienates them from you? Don't you want to be liked? Don't you need to be liked? To be approved by men? You're not apostolic. You need to be approved by God. And that's all. So I invited this Jewish woman to come to hear me that night at a meeting.

She said, I can't sit, Mr. Cash. She said, I've got such a terrible back condition. Fifteen minutes is the maximum I can sit. I said, let me pray for you that you can sit. So she came, I prayed for her, she sat in the front row.

And what a terrible meeting it was. The worst kind of meeting you would ever invite a Jew. When we all get to heaven, what a wonderful day that will be. Everything calculated to offend Jewish sensibility.

I wished that the floor would open and swallow me. I felt uncomfortable in that environment, and I'm a believer. It was time for me to speak. And I didn't have any message. Hot and feverish like I am right now.

Out of it physically, out of it physically, my mind unclear. I could only trust God. And open my mouth. And speak out of the wealth of God's healing and what he has positioned and formed in me through the crucible of faith over the years.

The meeting was over. There was another meeting an hour or two later. And we're sitting in the hallway on the steps of the school building. She said, I'm a Jewish woman. I can't believe in virgin birth.

I'm a professor. I'm an intellectual. I can't believe in resurrection from the dead. But she took my hand. She said, but if you can believe, she said, I believe too. And she cleaved unto me and believed.

And wouldn't let me leave that night until I had baptized her. That woman is fighting a rare disease today. She got it in the Philippines in Manila. Working on the garbage dump with the lowest dregs of Filipino society.

A Jewish believer giving herself a Christ's sake. Because she could cleave unto me and believe. Because she could cleave unto me and believe. The man is his message. Dear children, we're coming to an hour when correct doctrine is not enough.

Apostolic Character and the Last-Days Church

The false church will agree to the truth of the resurrection. As a doctrine. But where are that people that live in its power? Who have no confidence in the flesh. Who are not the reflection of their generation or its culture or its style.

Timeless and eternal men. Foolish in the eyes of the world. But powerful in the sight of God. God is calling you to Mars Hill. Right here in New York City. And he's calling you to it together. Not individual apostolic heroes and heroines.

An apostolic people. With an apostolic mindset. With apostolic seeing. Apostolic obedience. Apostolic authority. Apostolic boldness. For any man who goes up to such a hill as Paul ascended. Need not think that he's going to automatically come down.

Are you willing for such a final confrontation? That is the purpose of our faith. And are your services and your activities moving you from faith to faith? Or fixing you at some level of superficiality and immaturity?

Desire the ultimate thing in God. That the word of God in our mouth is true. That knowing the terror of God, we can persuade men. These are the last days. And we are living in them as if we really believe that.

It's a way of suffering. And a way of glory. It's not for the ordinary religionist. But those who reveal the glory of God in their generation. That those who meet, see, and hear them will be without excuse.

You're willing to be enrolled in that school? Fitted for that preparation? Together? This is more than Pentecostalism with a Latin flavor. To pray for that for you. I bewildered some of my Jewish brothers yesterday in Brooklyn.

Are you Jewish, they said? I said, what do you think? Well, you have a strange look in your face, they said. You look like those brainwashed Jews. You know what he really meant? You have eternity in your face.

You're in another place. You see beyond this age. You're seeing into the ages. It's not a Jewishness I understand. But it convicts me. We have a call, children. A call. Beyond any ability in ourselves.

That he is sufficient. How do you know that, Art? Well, look how I preached to you today. There wasn't five cents worth of me sitting there, 20 minutes ago. There wasn't five cents worth. It wasn't enough to pick up with a blotter.

There was nothing left of me. Tired, hot, feverish. Weak. Sick. But that's not what you heard. You heard strength. Conviction. Authority. Very God himself. But the genius of what is an apostle is the resurrected Christ.

Christ in Us and the Prayer for Apostolic Witness

And those who can say, for me to live is Christ. For me to speak is Christ. For me to witness on Mars Hill is Christ. None of this self-conscious religious stuff. It's beyond self-consciousness. It's beyond self.

Christ in us. The hope of glory. Let's pray. Amen. Hallelujah. Lord, I bless these children. I take authority over the power of culture. Over the power of idols. The power of materialism. The power of success.

The power of sensuality. I loose them in Jesus' name. From every false idol of this world. I loose them for God. For things that are timeless. Eternal. Recruit from these children today. Apostolic men and women.

Whose life is no longer their own. They don't care if people reject them. They don't need the approval of men. They have the approval of God. They have the boldness of God. They have the courage of God.

They have the wisdom of God. They have the love of God. Christ is all in all. And they have emptied themselves of every lesser thing. Out with the earrings. Out with the hairstyles. Out with the fancy clothing.

Everything in which we sought to find a basis for pride. The acceptance of men. Out. Beyond time, beyond culture, beyond style. The eternal and apostolic people of God. For Jesus' sake. In His name we pray.

Separation from the World and Apostolic Simplicity

The earring that I have mentioned is symbolic. But the thing to which it points is not. Does the world have a hook in you? Its values. Its false values. Does it compromise your testimony? Keep you from an absoluteness in God.

Pull it out and throw it away. It's not worth it. God's call is to separation. Unto Him. Have you conceded that call? I invite you to do it. Stand up here and come out. And want to live apostolically.

And want to be a separated people. And want to know the authority of God. And the power of God. When they turn their back on every other thing. The spirit of the world. And all of its compromise. Lord, we're willing to strip ourselves.

To the bone. We are what we are in you. We are what we are in you. You make us and form us. You give us your perceptions. Your views. Your reality. Your truth. And we can proclaim it without fear. For the end of the age is at hand.

And we look to our eternal inheritance. The reward that shall not fade away. For which reason we're willing now to bear everything. Every reproach of men. Let them call us babbler. Let them call us stupid.

Narrow minded. Yet will we set forth the uncompromising truth. That not one will stand before you with excuse. For if they have encountered us, they have encountered God. Lord, bless these children. Take everything that they're offering up to you.

Their love of fashion, their love of style. They're willing to simplify their lives. They're willing for apostolic simplicity. For a lifestyle consistent with the faith. For we might know the spirit of power.

For we forsake the spirit of the world. Put your seal on everyone. Seal everyone. They're laying their lives on the line. You might call them to hills from which they'll not come down. They'll be brought down.

Bloodied, beaten and dead. Because they were obedient to God. Without any thought for themselves. Release these children. These apostolic men and women. Into this city. Into its Jewish neighborhood. Jewish homes.

Jewish businesses. Let the simplicity of Christ. The fragrance of Christ. The high priest and the apostle of our confession. Be manifest in every such place. Where they are. Give us a fresh resolution today.

The most holy faith. Once and for all given the sense. Nothing else. Nothing less. No matter what the cost. The most holy faith. The apostolic faith. Once and for all. For Jesus' sake. Amen. Drink up the spirit of God.

Receive the spirit of prayer. The spirit of wisdom and of power. The spirit of wisdom and of knowledge. The spirit of the fear of the Lord. That you might be his messenger. For Jesus' sake.

Sealed with the Faithful Witnesses

Put a divine seal on this moment.

Record this scene in heaven. And let the invisible cloud of witnesses that were everywhere around this room this afternoon rejoice for this moment. For we consciously identify with them. Of whom the world was not worthy.

We share their faith. And we're willing to suffer their ends. You are not yet complete with us. Steal us together with them. In the most holy faith. Once and for all. In Jesus' name.