Acts 20:13-38 (Week 35 - Life in the Spirit)

Well, I hope that you brought your Bible today, or you have a device with a Bible app on it, because we are going to dive into God's word together and ask Him to reveal the truth that's found here and show us how it applies to our lives. And so, if you do have your Bible, I want to invite you to turn to Acts chapter 20. We've been going verse by verse, all the way through the book of Acts. We're in Acts, chapter 20, and we will be starting in verse 13 in just a moment. As we continue to make our way through chapter 20, we know that Paul, according to Luke, having told us this, that is, he is on his third missionary journey. He's been on two other complete missionary journeys. He's in the middle of his third missionary journey, and when we say journey, I mean it's definitely been that John Eldridge, in his book Wild at Heart, talks about this desire, this desire that God has given us as men to live a life of adventure, this longing for a life of risk and discovery, and to live out a story that really does matter. I think that pretty much sums up what these three missionary journeys have been about for the Apostle Paul. I mean, by the time this third one concludes, combined with the other two, it will have been up to a 10 year period that he's been traveling around telling people about Jesus. He will have logged in over 10,000 miles over three missionary journeys. He shared Jesus with both Jews and Gentiles, and men and women, many of them putting their faith and trust in Jesus for salvation, and then being baptized to show that their sins have been forgiven and that they are no longer who they once were. Paul has planted churches during this time, he has established leaders at those churches, he has discipled believers, he's written letters back to many of those churches, and he's been used by Jesus to even heal people and do miraculous things to make their lives better and their families' lives better, but it has not come without a cost, Paul has suffered greatly on these missionary journeys, as people have persecuted him for teaching and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, but in spite, in spite of knowing that more suffering is coming, Paul continued this journey, this adventure, because in his mind it was so worth it. People were coming to know Jesus and having their lives transformed and changed, just like his had been transformed and changed on the road to Damascus. And so, as Luke continues here in Acts chapter 20, he's telling us about this third missionary journey, and we learned last week that they were in Troas, and he had been up all night encouraging the church there at Troas, and now beginning in verse 13, Luke gives us travel plans, and the things that they did after they visited Troas. Verse 13 says, are they not showing up on the screen? Maybe that'll work. If not, you've got this one right here. There we go. Almost all right. We went on ahead to the ship and sailed for Asos, where we were going to take Paul aboard. He had made this arrangement because he was going there on foot. Luke says when he met us at Asos, we took him aboard and went to Mitylene, and the next day we set sail from there and arrived at Chios. The day after that, we crossed over Samos, and on the following day arrived at Miletus. Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the province of Asia, for he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the end or the day of Pentecost. From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church, and so you see travel plans and what all God was up to. This is a short little map showing us where He was in Troas. We know that Antioch, we've looked at some of these maps before, is way over here, and Paul's made it through this missionary journey, traveling to all of these churches that he had planted, and all the way over here into Corinth.

In these areas, they've been back here, Paul went on foot, they went around and picked him up, and now they're all the way down here in Miletus, and you can see Ephesus is not very far, and you may remember earlier in Acts we learned about Paul spending three years with the church at Ephesus with all of those people who had said yes to Jesus there, and here's the thing, if you've spent three. Years with people sharing the good news about Jesus and doing life together. Then you've built a lot of relationships with these people. I mean, these are people that he loves, these are friends, these are brothers in Christ. And what we're about to see is that Paul doesn't think that he's ever going to see them again. And so he's on his way here, and he's going to be going back to Jerusalem, and he says, I spent three years with these guys, I don't think I'm ever going to get to see them again. And so he sent for these leaders, these elders of the church there to come, and so what he's about to say to them are kind of like his, his last words, right? I mean, he doesn't think he's ever going to see them. These are the last words he's ever going to speak to them. And if you're speaking, you have a chance to talk to someone who you love, and you know when you care about, and you spent time with, then you're thinking about the most important things that you could declare to them in this moment. And so, let's see what Paul said. Verse 18 says, when they arrived, when the elders from the church at Ephesus arrived at Miletus, where Paul was. Paul, he said to them, You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. I served the Lord with great humility and with tears, and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents. We talked about this being an adventure, these journeys being an adventure, and in the risk of that is involved, and all that comes with that. And we even see Paul as he begins to take them back to the time that he was with them at the very beginning, and the term that he used here is that of a bond servant. What it literally means is that Paul's saying, I was a slave to the Lord. A bond servant is a, is a voluntary slave, like Paul had put his faith and trust in Jesus, all of his sins had been forgiven, the Holy Spirit came to dwell in him, he'd been transformed and changed, and now he says, I'm yours, work in and through me, use me for whatever it is, take me on whatever adventure you want to take me on, write whatever story you're writing, and do it in and through me, I'm the bond servant, I'm a slave of yours, going wherever you say to go, and only being empowered by you, you, and so he humbled himself before the Lord to be able to do that, and while he was with them, I mean, there were tears that were shed, because when you are serving and you're in ministry and seeing people's lives transformed and changed, and the hard things that they're going through, and the hard things that you're going through, there's emotions that are involved, these are real relationships that Paul was in with other people that he cared about, and we see the suffering that he experienced on these journeys. There were severe testing, and there were trials that he went through, and people were plotting and scheming opponents of his. Going, you cannot share this message about Jesus, or else, and so we see that he suffered in a great way as he was even taking his first few steps and spending all of this time with him. There he goes on and says, You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you, but have taught you publicly, and from house to house.

You may remember in Acts chapter 19, when Paul was run out of the synagogue by these Jewish opponents, where he was teaching about Jesus, that he went and taught in the lecture hall of Tyrannus for about two years, and we're told that from that time publicly Paul taught, and people came from different areas of Asia, and then took the gospel back into other areas, but not only did he teach publicly, but from house to house. There were there were several house churches in Ephesus. There were so many people that had come to know Jesus that they didn't all fit in one house, and so there were many different house churches, and many of the elders that were here were probably the leader of each one was a leader of those house churches that were there, and so Paul reminds them of that, and that he was teaching these things, and then he declares to them the thing that was most important about what he was teaching. Verse 21 says, I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus. So again, he reminds them of his time with them, and that he had been teaching them, and he says, If these are my last words, I need to remind you of the truth, the most important thing that I was sharing to you and those who are around, and that it is this, that we must turn to God in repentance and have faith in the Lord Jesus. It's grace. This is the church at Ephesus. You have a letter in your. Bible called Ephesians, that's written to the church at Ephesus. He's meeting with them now, but one of the things that's going to happen is Paul's going to go back to Jerusalem, and eventually he's going to get arrested, and he's going to end up being in jail in Rome, and he's going to write this letter back to the church at Ephesus, and one of the things that he wrote in Ephesians two verses eight and nine is that it is by grace that you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works. Paul, standing before them now, thinking this is the last thing that he's going to say, and he's reminding them of this gift, this grace that is offered only by our God, the Creator, through Jesus Christ, and that there's no works that you can do to earn it. Earlier, Paul, not Paul, but Peter, and then we're describing in Acts chapter four that salvation is found in no one else, for there's no other name under which people can be saved, and so in a minute we're going to see Paul address them, and their charge is going to be to watch out for false teaching, and so before we even get there, we've got to know what the true teaching was. He's got to put that before them, and then he's going to say watch out for other things, because if there's anything that people are declaring other than this right here, it is a false gospel. We turn to God, and we receive His free gift of salvation by putting our faith and trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and to have eternal life now and forever. And so, Paul, I mean, yeah, Paul has just finished kind of telling them and reminding them of some of the things that they talked about during those three years that he was there, and then when we get to verse 22 and he says, and now, meaning there's a shift, right, so he was talking about things prior, reminding them of what went on, but now let me fill you in on what's going on, and so now compelled by the Spirit, Paul says I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know this, that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me, and so the Holy Spirit doesn't tell him everything that's going to happen to him, but he does at least make him aware that he is going to suffer, and Paul is no stranger to suffering.

We already kind of talked about this a little bit, but another place that we see all that Paul went through as when he wrote the letter to the second or the second letter to the Corinthians, and I told you last week that it was on this missionary journey, this third one, that Paul wrote that letter during this time, and so on this journey Paul writes this, and he talks about some of the things that he's experienced on his other two journeys and the things that he has experienced on this one, and I want to show you just quickly what the Apostle Paul says in that letter to the Second Corinthians to describe what he was going through, because it makes what he is about to say even that much more incredible. So, beginning in verse 23 of chapter 11 of Second Corinthians, Paul says, I have been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the 40 lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, and once I was pelted with stones three times. I was shipwrecked, and I spent a night and a day in the open sea. I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea, and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled, and have often gone without sleep. I have known hunger and thirst, and have often gone without food. I have been cold and naked. Do you see how much the Apostle Paul has suffered on these missionary journeys, and the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 20, as Paul is talking to the leaders, the elders at Ephesus is saying the Holy Spirit is warning me that there's more hardships, more suffering that is coming, and look at what Paul says in response to that. Again, he said, I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, and my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task. The Lord Jesus has given me the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace. Somebody ought to give that an amen. I mean, that's incredible. That is absolutely incredible. I mean, the Holy Spirit warns him that prison and hardships and more suffering is coming out of all the things that he's already experienced, and I mean, listen, this is the opportunity the Holy Spirit's made him aware that it's coming. Now is his chance to do whatever he can to avoid it. Thanks for the warning. So now I've been on two, I've almost completed a third 10 years, logged in 10,000 miles, telling everyone about Jesus. I've already suffered all of these things anyway. Maybe it's just time to retire. Maybe it's time to go prop my feet up onto the beach, do some deep sea fishing, play some golf, enjoy the rest of my days in comfort and in pleasure. The Apostle Paul says, if I did that, if I did that, I would consider my life worth nothing, because what would I accomplish then? That is absolutely incredible. Paul's saying that that is not the journey that Jesus has for me. He's made it clear what my role in the kingdom is, the task He's given me of testifying to the good news of God's grace. And if I don't finish that if I don't finish that task and finish that race, then what's the point? What's the point? I would miss out on the adventure, I'd miss out on the risk, I would miss out on the story that God, the God of the universe, is actually riding through me. What's the point? My life would be worth nothing. Paul says, "What's better? I mean, what's better? Me avoiding suffering and getting a life of comfort and in peace, and all that, or, or suffering, but knowing that other people are going to come to know Jesus and have their lives impacted for all of eternity. This is what he's saying here, and of course, this isn't just for Paul. I mean, he's using this personal language, right?

Complete the task that the Lord Jesus has given me. This is his task, but guess what? If the Holy Spirit lives in you, Jesus lives in you through the Holy Spirit, then you have been given a task as well, I've been given a task too, and it may not be the same exact thing and way that it's gonna play out in Paul's life here, it's different for each one of us, but we have ours as well, he's inviting us on this adventure, this risk, and to write his story in and through us and to participate with him in it and finishing that race and completing that task that he accomplishes through us is our only aim if we want our lives to count for something that really matters and This is what the Apostle Paul's response is to knowing that the Spirit says you're going to suffer greatly, so be it if more people come to know Jesus. Paul says verse 25 Paul goes on and says, Now I know, now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again, and so this is where we see that he doesn't think he's ever going to see them, these are his last words. Therefore, I declare to you today, Paul says that I am innocent, I'm innocent of the blood of any of you, for I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Listen, up until that point, the whole will of God was a mystery. Before Paul, Paul's writing the New Testament, he's writing it right now on these journeys. Right before Jesus showed up, the Paul would write in Colossians that it was a mystery what God was up to. It wasn't just about the law, it was about God working in and through the Jewish people and giving them the law to show their need for a savior that He was going to send through them, and now that that's come, He's proclaiming the whole will of God, that this is what God was up to in the Old Covenant, in the Old Testament, and through them Jesus came, He fulfilled that, and here's how that applies to you and plays out in your lives, and so he's finishing writing the whole will of God and making it known to them. Therefore, he's able to declare, I'm innocent, like I'm doing my part, I'm sharing with you, but now it's up to you to respond, and if you don't respond, then that's on you, Paul is saying, and. Same thing is certainly true of each one of us, might even be some of you who have heard the grace of God. You've heard this whole thing about Jesus, but you haven't responded to it. You just keep putting it off and say, well, that's for another day, or that's for another time, or I'm not really ready for that. And Paul's saying to those people who are in those kind of shoes? Listen, that's not on me, that's on you. Are you going to be willing to open up and respond to what God's been revealing to you in this way? So now he's kind of updated them on reminding them what happened during that time. He's with him. Here's what's happening now, and now is where we turn, as I mentioned earlier, to that shift of focusing on them and charging them with what to do in response to that verse 28 Paul says, "Keep watch over yourselves in all of the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, be shepherds of the Church of God, which He bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, Paul says savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock, even from your own number. Men will arise, Paul says, and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them, so be on your guard. Paul says, remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. Paul spent three years saying, listen, there are people coming, be on your guard, people are coming. Here's the gospel, here's the truth, here's the good news.

It is turned to God in repentance and faith in Jesus Christ for your salvation, that are some that are going to be coming, and so your number one job, he says, is to watch out and to guard the truth of the gospel of grace. This is your number one job, he says, because there's some people who are going to come and they're going to promote law, they're going to promote works-based salvation, they're going to promote works-based sanctification, and Paul says be on your guard and defend the gospel of grace at all costs, declare the gospel of free grace to everyone. So this is their charge, like, like, what do we do if we're never going to see you again, Paul? This, this is your number one job: guard and defend the gospel of grace. And next, he kind of ends up showing them why, as he's leaving them. Well, look at what he says in verse 32 He says, and now I commit you to God and to the word of His grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I mean, Paul knows that he's leaving, he's been their discipler and their shepherd and the one coming in and providing and checking and all this stuff, and now Paul's not gonna - we're not going to see Paul anymore. What are we going to do? He says, "Well, I'll tell you what you're going to do. I commit you to God and to the word of His grace. Why? Because it's His grace that's going to build you up. It's His grace that's going to give you an inheritance. It's His grace that you're already sanctified and set apart, and being sanctified into who He already sanctified you into. It's all done in and through His grace. That's what you're going to do. I commit you to God, and you trust in His grace to continue to receive from Him, because He's the one that saved you, and he's the one that's going to build you up and grow you into the image of Jesus. He is the one who's, you are going to have your inheritance among all the saints, even if you get persecuted and they were to kill you, you're going to be with Jesus. Verse 33 I have not coveted anyone's silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know these hands of mine. He's talking about the time he was with them again. Have supplied in my own needs and the needs of my companions in everything I did. I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. This is the way that Paul had spent his life. I mean, ever since God had transformed and changed his life on the road to Damascus, he made himself a bond servant. I'm available to you, take me on the adventure, the life, write the story in and through me, and he learned that as the Lord used him to give of himself to others, that it is more blessed to be a part of that in giving and pouring your life out for others than it is to receive a life of comfort. And luxury and all the things that come with it, and that's the paradox for each and every one of us.

We think that the more we give to God, the more we're giving up of all the blessings and the big things and the fun things that we're going to be a part of, and what we learn is that it's so much more, we're so much more blessed, there's so much more in making ourselves available and saying not my life, Lord, but yours, and how you want to use it to be poured out to serve other people, and we experience all of his blessings so much more than whatever we were doing in the past when it was all about us, and we were receiving over and over again, and Paul finishes up and says, or Luke tells us that when Paul had finished speaking, he knelt down with all of them and prayed, and they all wept as they embraced him and kissed him, and what grieved them the most was his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship. When you see the way that Luke describes what happened, as, as Paul was leaving, I mean, you can't help but see the, the emotion there. I mean, they wept, they didn't just cry, I mean, they, they wept, and they, they embraced. I mean, that, that is not the kind of thing that you would expect to see and experience if it's the Apostle Paul, and I'm the mighty Apostle Paul, and I'm way up here, and you little peasants are way down here, and who are not apostles in there, no, no, you don't have that kind of relationship whenever you have some hierarchical leadership structure. In other words, we see that they're doing ministry, they're doing life together. These are people that are involved in life with him, so much so that there's there's weeping and there's embracing. They were friends, they loved each other, they cared about each other, they were doing life together, they were doing ministry together. That's the kind of emotion that comes out whenever you're sharing those kind of things. They shared this common mission, this task together of testifying to the good news of God's grace. And when you're in those kind of relationships, not not surface level relationships based on little hobbies and things that you kind of do, but there's a shared mission that you are on together. There's emotion, there's weeping, there's embracing that comes with those kind of relationships. Johnny was up here talking about Father's Day and men's ministry and the things that come with that, and and a big part of what the Lord is using Johnny to do is helping guys to to step into the adventure, to step into the risk, to step into the story that God is wanting to write in and through them, and I've been able to be a part of some of those things, and those experiences where men have been together and just wrestling, wrestling with God's grace, the things that are going on in their lives, the mission, the task, the adventure that they feel in their their heart in some way, and the story that God's writing through them, and and in those moments there's there's weeping, there's grown men weeping, there's grown men embracing each other in this way that we're seeing here. Why? Because there's a common shared mission of this adventure, and the risks that's involved in a story that's something that's so much bigger than themselves that they're sharing in, and there's encouragement, and there's support, and you know that you're in it together. This is the kind of thing that Paul's experiencing here. You don't, you don't experience those kind of things when you're out playing around the golf with your buddies. You don't experience those kind of things when you're out on the boat and you're kind of fishing with your guys. You don't experience those things who are sitting around having coffee at Whataburger every morning with people talking about whatever's happening on Fox News.

People are not weeping, they're not embracing each other in those moments, but when men are together and they're around each other with that shared mission and the life and the adventure and the risk that's going on and working through the grace and what God is doing in their lives, the emotions come out because it's important, it's meaningful, it's the most meaningful and purposeful thing you will ever experience, and so that is what Paul is talking about. It's what he's experiencing here. What does this mean for you today? For some of you. It means that you need to say yes to Jesus. Apostle Paul said, "I'm innocent of the blood that's on you from here on out. I've shared the gospel, you know it. Now it's your turn to respond. It's if you're going to face the judgment involved with that by not receiving it, then that's on you. And some of you may be here today, you've heard the good news, you've heard about Jesus, and what it is that He's done, but, but you've never yet taken that step of faith, and that's how this applies to you. He brought you here today to show you through this that the only way that you're really going to experience adventure, and in mission, in, in purpose, and all the things that we're talking about here is when you say yes to Jesus through having your sins forgiven and entering into a relationship with the one who is life and leads this way in and through you on the race that He set before you, so for some of you that's how it applies to you. For those of you who have said yes to Jesus. Maybe the way this applies to you is this: finish the race that God has marked out for you, not the one for the Apostle Paul, but the one for you. Finish the race, Paul referred to the race God had marked out for him, but we all have one, men and women. He gives us all a role to play in God's kingdom. He gives us all an adventure to live and to be on with Him. But many of us have made our lives all about our own comfort, our own pleasure over and above what Jesus is doing in and through us to make impact on our spouses and our kids and our grandkids and our friends and our neighbors and our coworkers and anyone really, and so maybe today God is either showing you for the first time or reminding you that he has marked out a race for you. Remember, Paul says, and this is this is for all of us. May we all be able to say, I consider my life worth nothing to me. My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, and maybe some of you are at the point you're going, "It's too late for me. I have made a mess of this. I've been a terrible father, I've not been there for them, I've not shown up, I've been a terrible husband, I've been a terrible friend and neighbor, I mean, it's just, it's just too late. It is not too late. It is not too late. You remember the words that Paul said to the Ephesian elders. He said, I commit you to God and the word of His grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. God's grace covers it all. No matter where you've been, what it is that you've done all the way up to this point. Jesus has already taken to the cross. He's already died for all of those things. He's been raised from the dead. That stuff is buried and long gone. And today is a new day. And you can say before Him, I consider my life worth nothing. Starting today, my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, which will be accomplished through His grace as He does the work of sending me out on the race, the adventure, as He writes the story that he's writing to make impact in this world and all throughout eternity that he's doing in and through me. Let's pray together.