Paul's Faithfulness to Death

Call to Worship

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Sermon

This morning we’ll be finishing off the book of Acts. We’ll be examining the last part of Paul’s life, and seeing what we can learn from it. Last week we were in chapter 20, and Paul had been trying to get to Jerusalem to make an offering and to present the gentile Christians from across the empire to the church there. And Paul on his way to Jerusalem had stopped in the city of Troas where he was preaching and a young man named Eutychus fell out of the window. And from that passage we talked about comfort and why and how we get comfort from Jesus. This morning we’ll be picking up in chapter 20, and then we’ll also be taking a look at the last 3 verses in Acts.

We’ll be starting in verse 18 of chapter 20, and the context to this section, Paul has left Eutychus and others in Troas and is about to set sail from the continent of Asia back to Jerusalem and he’s leaving from the city of Miletus, but Paul understands that this will be the last time he’s in that area, he knows that in all likelihood he will be either killed or arrested in Jerusalem and so he sends for the leaders of the church in Ephesus, which was about 70km away from where he was leaving from, to come and see him because that was the church he had spent the most amount of time in, and one of the churches that he felt the deepest pastoral connection to. And so he sends for the elders of the Ephesian church and this is what he says

Acts 20:18–24 ESV

And when they came to him, he said to them: “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

Here, Paul makes it clear that he knows what’s going to happen, he will face many trials and he knows he’s almost at the end of his life, and so he’s reflecting back on his life and ministry and looking forward at what is to come and Paul understands his mission. He knows that his life only exists to bring glory to God, and to advance the gospel. It’s his purpose, his mission, his life goal, and he knows that without them his life is meaningless. With them life is incredibly hard, something that we’ll see about him in a minute, but without them life has no meaning.

And so Paul gives this reflection, and then he leaves and goes to Jerusalem. And in Jerusalem Paul does meet what he thought he might, a large crowd of Jews starts a riot, they drag Paul out of the temple, and start trying to kill him, and he likely would have been killed had a tribune and several Roman soldiers not come to his aid and taken him from the crowds and instead put him in prison. But before they get there, as they’re taking Paul away from the crowd, Paul turns to the crowd and he gives his testimony.

He tells them how he was born and raised a jew, and became a Pharisee. How he killed and persecuted Christians, and was on his way to kill more Christians in Damascus before he was stopped on the road, and Jesus spoke to him, and his life was changed. And then how God sent him as a missionary to the Gentiles.

And what Paul is doing by sharing his testimony is giving the gospel to those standing there, who want to kill them, because that’s the legacy that Paul had, a man who was not afraid to give a personal testionial version of the gospel even as people were trying to kill him. And I think what we can learn from Paul in that, is that testimony’s are an important way of sharing the gospel. The gospel is personal, if we’ve truly been saved then each of us have a testimony of how we became a follower of Jesus, and how his love and grace and power has saved us, changed us, and made us grow. And when we share that with others, our stories have the ability to bring the good news of salvation to others, because they can see how it’s affected us. And Paul often used his tesimony as a means of sharing the gospel of Jesus.

After Paul was arrested in Jerusalem he was sent to a prison in Caesarea where he stayed and had to defend himself to the governor Felix, and in his defense he shares his testimony again, but this time slightly differently, and he talks about some of his ministry that he had been a part of, and I think what’s interesting about that as that each of us have different parts of our tesimony if we’ve been a Christian for any length at all. We can talk about how we became a Christian, but we can also share different parts of our story about how God gave us comfort and peace in a particularly difficult time, or how he prospered our service to Him and did more with it than we ever thought could be done. Each of us can tell different parts of our story, and I think similarly in Paul’s case he used different parts of his story to talk to different people at different times because he understood what would be relevant to the people he was talking to.

After Paul goes before Felix, he goes also before a man named Festus, and after Festus, the King Agrippa. And in front of King Agrippa, Paul once again for a third time in six chapters, shares his testimony. And he tells Agrippa about his transformation after meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus and how that led to many years doing ministry.

And after being in prison for several years, under Felix, Festus, and Agrippa, Paul appeals to Caesar, which means that because he is a Roman citizen under arrest, instead of being on trial in front of a Jewish court, or a a smaller court like the three men he was in prison under, Paul is able to be sent to Rome to face trial under Caesar. And the reason that he does this is so that he can present the same case, and give his testimony to Caesar, hoping that if the gospel is known by the Emperor it will be spread even more quickly and will spread across the Empire, and so Paul gives up his freedom, and more than likely his life in order to be sent to the Emperor to be on trial and to share the gospel.

And it’s interesting that Paul appealed to Caesar, because it guarantees that he stays in custody and prison for several more years, when he really could have gone free. In fact, King Agrippa and Festus are talking after Paul had appealed to Caesar, and they say this.

Acts 26:31-32 “And when they had withdrawn, they said to one another, “This man is doing nothing to deserve death or imprisonment.” And Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.””

So Paul willingly gives up his freedom and life, in order to try and advance the gospel, and the mission of the Kingdom of God. Paul makes a sacrifice play as it were, knowing that the end for him is not going to be good, but for him the end result of sharing the gospel is worth it.

And so Paul is sent on a ship to Rome to be brought before Caesar, and as they sail to Rome, they’re in a shipwreck, and they’re stuck on the island of Malta for a little while, before they can finally make it to Rome, and so Paul finally makes it to Rome and he’s put under house arrest and this is how Acts ends.

Acts 28:30–31 ESV

He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

We’re never told if he finally got to Caesar, we’re not told if he got out of house arrest and made another trip anywhere, we don’t know how long it was before he was martyred. We’re just left with these two verses, and in a way it feels really anti-climactic, like we should have the story finished, we want to know what happened to Paul. And yet, it’s here that we miss the point, that what we need to understand is that the book of Acts was never about Paul, it wasn’t about Peter, or Stephen, or James, or any of the disciples. The book of Acts is meant to point us to the gospels, to show hwat it means for Chrisitians to really take their faith seriously, to live lives 100% devoted to Christ.

Paul wrote several of his letters during his time in house arrest, and we believe that the book of Philippians is among those, and in it Paul writes this: Philippians 1:21 “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

Paul understood that the story was never about him, Acts wasn’t, and even his life wasn’t. Often times we think, either consciously or sub-consciously that our lives are about us. We seek to do whatever is going to make life easier for us, we seek our own freedoms and ease of life, and entertainment above anything else, and in the end we forget that our lives are not our own. We get so trapped up in what’s going on around us, and we forget that we’re a part of something so much bigger than we could possibly imagine, a story that stretches across all of time, and affects every person who has ever existed, and it’s all wrapped up in the gospel, and it’s advancement, as every last thing in life ties back into Jesus’s death and resurrection, because that’s what brings life changing, saving power. And Paul understood that, and he allowed it to shape his entire life.

It’s how he chose to live, by welcoming everyone he knew to come and hear the good news of the kingdom of God and the life chaning resurrecting power of Jesus Christ. For him to live was to proclaim Christ, and to die was to finally see Him. As Paul reached the end of his life he said: Acts 20:24

Acts 20:24 NLT

But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.

For Paul, losing his life was better than wasting it. His life in his eyes was worth nothing unless he used it to finish the work assigned to him, the proclamation of the good news about the grace of God.

I remember hearing a pastor talk one time about when their father was on his death bed. And his father had also been a pastor for many years and had brought many people to Jesus, and as his father was on his death bed the pastor asked him, “Dad what do you want?”, and his father’s response was, “just let me lead one more to Jesus”.

When we think about our lives, one of the questions we have to ask is what is going to be our legacy? What about us will carry on once we’ve passed? Will anyone be able to say, yeah that person led me to Christ, or yeah, that person really discipled me, they’re the reason I was able to grow in my faith. I know that there are people that have passed that I can say that about, and there are other people I never really met like my great grandparents that I can see the legacy that they left because it lives on in my grandparents and in my parents and aunts and uncles, and in those that have known all of them. I think that the best thing that someone could be able to truthfully say when they reach the end of their life is: I didn’t waste it. I didn’t waste my life because I used it to share the gospel, advance the kingdom of heaven, and bring glory to God. If someone can say that, then I fully believe that that is a life well lived.

It’s what the legacy and testimony was of the apostle Paul, and I wonder if it will be our legacy’s too?

The pastor John Piper, has talked a lot about this concept of not wasting one’s life, and in a sermon on the same passage we read at the beginning of this sermon he talked about how not to waste one’s life. And he gives five pictures of what it means to live a life like that. A life where you’d rather lose your life than waste it. One that’s wholly devoted to serving and bringing glory to God even unto death.

Here are the five things that he said it looks like.

First, “It is like being mastered by a Person and a power not your own.” In the passage we started by reading Paul said this: Acts 20:22 “And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there”. Paul did not live as if he were his own, he said he was constrained by the Spirit, literally bound by the Spirit. He lived a life surrendered to God. God was the one who had control over where he went, what he did, what he said, how he lived. A life devoted to God, won’t have us at the wheel, instead we willingly give control over our lives and the outcome of our lives to God, who will lead us and prosper what we seek to accompish for His kingdom.

Second when we’d rather lose our life than waste it, we live a life where we are “content not to know what tomorrow will bring.” Paul went to Jerusalem and he didn’t know what was going to happen to him there, he had a strong feeling that it wouldn’t be good, but he pressed on content to not know what lay ahead but to trust in the God that did know what lay ahead. If our lives are devoted to God then we need to be content not knowing what tomorrow will bring. This one in particular, I find difficult, I often want to know what’s the next thing in my life, where will we be in 5 years, how do I get to that point from where I am, those sorts of questions, and I often find that I’m not as content as I should be. And yet from Paul we see someone who learned to be content in all circumstances, and I think that when we’re more afraid of wasting our lives than losing them, then we will be content in hardship because we know that we have something far better to look forward to.

The third thing that Piper mentions is that not only do we need to be content when we don’t know the future, but we also need to have “the courage not to stop running when the racecourse leads through suffering.” Paul was content not knowing exactly what lay ahead in Jerusalem, but the parts he did know told of certain suffering, trials, and tribulations. In this life we will indeed suffer, but we have a choice, we can choose to turn away from the problems of life, ignore them and just hope they go away, but I think we all know that in the end that won’t be a life well lived. Or we can choose to have courage, to face the hardships that life throws at us, and to persevere, endure, and even rejoice in them because we are aware that they by no means measure up to the weight of glory waiting in heaven for those who are faithful to the end.

Fourth, a life not wasted is one lived “to make much of the greatness and the glory of the grace of God in Jesus Christ as our supreme treasure.” Paul wrote that he counted his life as nothing unless he was able to share of the grace of Jesus. We ought to live in the same way, each of our lives look different, we have different experiences, and personalities, and God uses each person differently, but we all still have the same goal, every Christian ought to have the same goal, which is to use our lives to make much of the glory of God. To hold and cherish Him above all things, and to trudge through this life in a way that makes it clear that our whole life belongs to bringing Him glory.

Fifth, and lastly, I’m just going to read what Piper said on this one because I thought that it was too good not to. He said, to think as someone who is not wasting your live is to think “I will not live for the American Dream, neither as a college student, nor as a mid-lifer nor as a seventy-something. I am going to Jerusalem.” In verse 22 Paul said “And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem.” Picture how a conversation with some of the Ephesian elders could have gone.

“But Paul, you’re getting old. How ’bout a little cottage on the Aegean Sea? You’ve already done more in your ministry than most people could do in five lifetimes. It’s time to rest. Let the last twenty years of your life be travel and golf, shuffleboard and putzing around the garage and digging in the garden. Let Timothy have a chance. He’s young. Don’t go to Jerusalem. Agabus the prophet has told you, they are going to bind your hands and feet and hand you over to the Gentiles. And whatever you do, don’t go to Rome. And get out of your head the crazy plan of going to Spain at your age. You could get yourself killed. It isn’t American! It’s not the American Dream of ‘the sunset years.’”

These are Piper’s words, He continues: “You might wonder why I would mention the tragic waste of the so-called sunset years… [we, he’s talking about American but it applies to Canada as well] are spending billions of dollars to make the wasting of the end of your earthly life look so attractive you will build your whole career around it. Don’t misunderstand. [It’s absolutely] fine [to] retire. But there is no such thing as retirement from ministry in the Bible.

Proverbs 4:18 ESV

But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.

The Christian life is not moving toward night, but toward noon. There are no sunset years for the Christian. Till you die, there is a race to be run and a ministry to be finished. Or, if not, there is a life to be wasted. And it is better to lose your life than to waste it.

What John Piper is talking about here is the lie that we’ve been sold at all ages and stages in our culture, that laziness is what we should all crave. That entertainment and relaxation and doing nothing once you retire is the end goal, we build our lives around trying to get to a point where we do nothing but entertain ourselves, and yet that’s not what’s laid out for us in scripture. Instead we’re called like the apostle Paul was to press on until the end of our lives, to not shy away from hardships, but to embrace them as we seek with everything in us to fight to the very end for the gospel, to not give up or grow tired or weary or complacent, but instead to at all times be seeking first the kingdom of God, and looking for all opportunities to share the gospel.

That’s what the book of Acts is all about, the disciples of Jesus seeking to push on for the sake of the gospel beyond whatever gets thrown at them, and we can learn a lot from them as we seek in every way we can to join that same cause, to push forward even to the very end. To not be afraid to lose our lives for the gospel, but only to be afraid that we wasted it. Like Paul said: Acts 20:24 “But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.”

2nd Timothy was likely the last letter that Paul wrote, and this is about as close as we have to Paul’s last words:

2 Timothy 4:6–8 NLT

As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing.

Paul stayed faithful, he pressed on to the very end knowing that no hardship or trial or struggle on earth weighed anything in comparisson to what was waiting for him. And so Paul didn’t get caught up in the false dreams offered to us but instead held fast to the truth, surrendering his whole life as an offering to God. And we are called to do the same, to be faithful to the very end, to look back at our lives and be able to say, we didn’t waste it, instead we gave everything that we had for the sake of Christ. As Paul himself said, Philippians 1:21 “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” That’s the mindset that we need, if we live it’s to proclaim Christ, if we die it’s all the better for get to be with him. Let us press on seeking to grow closer in step with Him day by day.

And let us pray for the strength, and courage and endurance necessary to run the race set before us.

Benediction

1 Peter 5:6–10 ESV

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.