Jesus is My Force to Be Reckoned With | Week 2
- October 28, 2024
Pastor Tom explored what it means for Jesus to be our “force to be reckoned with,” a strength that guides and empowers us beyond what we can do alone. Jesus is our ultimate advocate, fighting our battles even when we are powerless to fight them ourselves.
He began with the story of Paul, a powerful example of what it looks like to surrender everything for Christ. Paul, once wealthy and influential, encountered Jesus and turned his life upside down to follow Him. But with that choice came hardship. In Philippi, a Roman colony steeped in idol worship, Paul’s arrival marked the first introduction of the Gospel to Europe. There, he found an ally in Lydia, a wealthy woman who used her resources to support Paul’s ministry. However, as Paul preached, he encountered resistance—including a possessed woman whose healing by Paul turned the townspeople against him. They threw Paul in jail for disrupting their livelihood.
Even in prison, Paul’s faith did not waver. Instead of despair, he began to sing hymns, filling the dark cell with praise. Miraculously, an earthquake broke open the prison doors, offering Paul a path to freedom. Yet he stayed, leading his jailer to salvation through this act of kindness and courage. Pastor Tom encouraged us to ask ourselves: Are we willing to praise Jesus, even when trapped in our own prisons, to trust that His power can break down any wall?
Pastor Tom also pointed to how Jesus sought out sinners and the broken. In the book of Mark, Jesus declared that He came not for the “healthy,” but for the sick—the humble, those who knew they needed help. The message emphasized that Jesus isn’t looking for perfection but for those willing to recognize their need for His power.
The sermon continued with powerful stories of individuals who embodied this “force to be reckoned with,” including NFL legend Mike Singletary. Known for his unstoppable force on the football field, Singletary overcame opponents with unmatched strength and later became an ordained minister. Today, he shares that his confidence comes from knowing that Christ is his foundation.
Finally, Pastor Tom shared the story of Irena Sendler, a social worker who saved over 2,500 children during the Holocaust. Risking her life, she found ways to smuggle children out of Warsaw under Nazi occupation. Irena was eventually caught and narrowly escaped execution, later being able to reunite with some of the children she saved. Her courage, driven by the Holy Spirit, demonstrated what it means to be an unstoppable force for good, even in the face of overwhelming evil.
In closing, Pastor Tom reminded us that the power of Jesus is a force beyond compare. Just as Paul, Mike Singletary, and Irena Sendler experienced, we, too, can stand strong in the face of life’s challenges, knowing that Jesus, the ultimate force to be reckoned with, is on our side.
13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
10 Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Acts 16
Timothy Joins Paul and Silas
16 Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was Jewish and a believer but whose father was a Greek. 2 The believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. 3 Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. 4 As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.
Paul’s Vision of the Man of Macedonia
6 Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. 7 When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. 8 So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. 9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
Lydia’s Conversion in Philippi
11 From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day we went on to Neapolis. 12 From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district[a] of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.
13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. 14 One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.
Paul and Silas in Prison
16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
19 When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. 20 They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21 by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”
22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”
29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.
35 When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.” 36 The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.”
37 But Paul said to the officers: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.”
38 The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed. 39 They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city. 40 After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them. Then they left.
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