Danger Ahead

The Dangers of Sleeping in Church

We continue in our sermon series on the early church. Last week I was remote. We took Mary for college for a weekend at Liberty. We swung in and worshipped at Thomas Road Baptist, the church that Liberty was born from. The preacher was coming out of Acts on Sunday, so we felt right at home.

Last week we looked at Paul’s passion. He is relentless in telling people about Jesus. We’ve talked before about how he had a physical ailment that would have easily prevented someone from traveling to spread the Gospel. Paul does not come up with excuses to preach and teach. God is his priority and so he will do what God has commanded him to. Last week we looked at how they were gathered on a Sunday, the very first instance of worship being done on a Sunday, at least the first recorded instance. They start in the morning and they keep going. People are crammed in and Paul is giving great instructions. As the day goes on, the air gets stuffy. We like to be comfortable, right? We like to be so comfortable, that we don’t like to be crammed next to someone in a pew, right? Anyway, the people are in there, it’s hot and stuffy, and Eutychus decides that he is going to stay. He is uncomfortable, but he decides he is going to hang out at the service, he is just going to seek fresher air. He gets up into the window and while he is up there, he falls asleep and falls down dead. It was not like he was dead, he was dead. So Paul stops and rushes to him and declares that there is still life in him. Eutychus jumps back on and what do they do? They continue worshipping! They don’t stop. Paul just keeps going. He doesn’t look at the crowd and say, “Wow, guys, that was a close one. I wasn’t expecting that. I guess it is getting late, so You know what guys, I think we’ve had enough, so let’s all go home and get some rest.” That thought doesn’t even cross his mind.

Paul is driven by his passion to preach and teach about Jesus. Even before Paul was converted Paul had passion. He was passionate about killing Christians. He wanted to destroy Christianity, so much that he was on a murderous rampage against them. When Paul is converted and God tells Ananias to meet with Paul so he can baptize him, Ananias asks that God not make him because of the terrible things Paul has done to the Christians. Acts 9:15–16 “But the Lord said to him, “Go, for this man is my chosen instrument to take my name to Gentiles, kings, and Israelites. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”” Paul had passion for God.

Jesus was driven by His passion to do the Father’s will so that He endured a terrible and agonizing death so that we could be forgiven. So the question is, do we have that same kind of passion? That’s one of those questions that we can only answer for ourselves. We know what motivates us and we know how far we are willing to go. Can you imagine what the world would look like if every Christian had the same passion as what Paul does?

Today we are going to wrap up Acts chapter 20. Then next week we will jump into Romans. We are continuing to work through the early church chronologically through Acts and the epistles, so that is the next one.

If you have your Bibles, please turn them to Acts 20:17-38

Acts 20:17–38 CSB

Now from Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and summoned the elders of the church. When they came to him, he said to them, “You know, from the first day I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, serving the Lord with all humility, with tears, and during the trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews. You know that I did not hesitate to proclaim anything to you that was profitable and to teach you publicly and from house to house. I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus. “And now I am on my way to Jerusalem, compelled by the Spirit, not knowing what I will encounter there, except that in every town the Holy Spirit warns me that chains and afflictions are waiting for me. But I consider my life of no value to myself; my purpose is to finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of God’s grace. “And now I know that none of you, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, will ever see me again. Therefore I declare to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, because I did not avoid declaring to you the whole plan of God. Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Men will rise up even from your own number and distort the truth to lure the disciples into following them. Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for three years I never stopped warning each one of you with tears. “And now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all who are sanctified. I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that I worked with my own hands to support myself and those who are with me. In every way I’ve shown you that it is necessary to help the weak by laboring like this and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, because he said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” After he said this, he knelt down and prayed with all of them. There were many tears shed by everyone. They embraced Paul and kissed him, grieving most of all over his statement that they would never see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.

Paul meets with his friends, with the understanding that he is headed into danger. He does not know what is waiting for him in Jerusalem, but he knows that it will be chains. We just read earlier that God said Paul would have to suffer for God. So far he has avoided death, but problems are coming. He knows it.

He reminds them that he brought them the Gospel despite the persecution and threats he was facing. He was told that he needed to shut up about Jesus, but Paul continued to do it anyway. Paul was not going to be silenced. So he continued throughout Asia, teaching them everything that was profitable and explaining the way to salvation. He took the word to both Jew and Gentile. He was doing exactly what God had called him to. He went from home to home, preaching and teaching. He showed people the way and many came, but then there were others that did not.

In a great sense of irony, he is now going to Jerusalem where he was once hailed a hero. Remember, when we first me Paul, he had been given special permission to go and drag Christians out of Damascus and bring them to Jerusalem for trial. Now he is hated by the Jews in Jerusalem because he now tells the truth. The truth will get us into trouble, won’t it? Some people don’t like the truth. One thing I am starting to notice about the world today is that many people are not concerned about the truth, they just want to be right, even if they are wrong. Anyone else notice that? Paul is telling the truth of Jesus and now he has lost his status as hero. He is now public enemy number one. Why is he going to Jerusalem? Well, he’s trying to get back before Pentecost.

The main reason is that the Holy Spirit is moving him on. The spirit has shown him his ministry in Ephesus is concluded. Now it is time to get moving to Jerusalem, despite the fact that chains await him. This is why Paul assumes he will not make it back to see them ever again. It is reminiscent of Jesus’s final journey to Jerusalem. Remember that Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, had died in Bethany. Jesus gets the word and after three days he sets out with the disciples. The disciples know what is in store for Jesus. They know that if He goes, then this will be His last trip ever, so they do what they can, trying to convince Jesus not to go, but Jesus is going to go anyway. Their friend Lazarus is asleep and He is going to go wake them up. Thomas knows the danger ahead, but he looks at the other disciples and says in John 11:16 “Then Thomas (called “Twin”) said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go too so that we may die with him.”” It is not a matter of whether there is danger ahead. It is a matter of whether they will go with God.

Will we follow God wherever He leads?

When God calls us to do something, to get out of our comfort zone to preach the Gospel and tell people about Jesus will we do it? Or will we shrink back in fear, not wanting to find ourselves in any danger? One reason the church exists today is that there were missionaries that were willing to put themselves in harms way to teach people about Jesus. Adoniram Judson is one of those missionaries. He was led by the Spirit to go to Burma, where he did. He took is wife with him. He was then taken to prison where his wife was the one person that was bringing him his food. See, that’s one thing that we don’t understand about overseas prison. Overseas, for the most part, prisoners are not taken care of by the system. instead, family members are expected to bring prisoners their food and clean clothes. He and his wife went. Eventually he was released from prison, his wife died, and he kept at preaching and teaching. Why? Because that is what God had called him to do. He did not let the fear of what man might do to him overcome him. Instead, he trusted in the LORD’s power. 2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and sound judgment.” God did not save us so that we would be fearful. He made us so that we would serve Him and follow His directions. Sometimes God is going to call us to something that we do not feel qualified to do. Or He is going to direct us to do something that could put us in danger with our friends, peers, or some other human entity. When that happens what do we do? Do we follow like Paul or do we run away?

Sometimes God is going to call us to do something that does not make sense. It might even seem dangerous. But if God has called us to do it, then the best thing we can do is follow through. We can remember that God is omniscient. He already knows how it is going to play out. So we can trust in God and His plan. God’s direction is always best, even if it seems dangerous. Proverbs 3:5 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding;”

Why is Paul able to follow God’s direction to go to Jerusalem even though he knows that hard times await him? it’s because he has his focus on Jesus and is not worried about anything else. His priority is doing what God tells him to. So he goes into the expected danger trusting in God and keeping his eyes focused on him.

When we focus on Jesus, the things of this world aren’t as scary. A long time ago, we looked at the instance of Jesus walking across the water at the lake of Galilee. I have been to this lake. I have seen where the disciples would have put out to sea and where Jesus would have started walking out to meet them. The lake isn’t gigantic, but it made sense for them to take a boat and go across since the shortest distance between two points is a line. The day before, Jesus had spend the day teaching the gathered crowd. He also feeds the 5,000 men that are there along with the women and children that were gathered. At the end of the long day, they get in the boat while Jesus dismisses the crowd. After Jesus is done dismissing the crowd, He goes to find some solitude and pray. He gets done and sees the disciples are very far ahead of Him. So Jesus walks out to meet them. When they see Jesus, they are terrified. Jesus tells them not to be afraid since it is just Him. Peter wants verification, though. He tells Jesus that if it really is Him, then tell him to come and walk out on the water with Him. Jesus tells him to come and wouldn’t you know it, Peter stays upright. He does not sink into the drink, but he remains standing walking out to Jesus. As long as Peter keeps his focus on Jesus, he remains up. As soon as he takes his eyes off of Jesus, though, he sinks. He sinks and he cries out and Jesus pulls him back up to his feet. Matthew 14:31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand, caught hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?

As believers, we can let go of our fear and boldly go where God is telling us to go. We can do the work He has called us to do. There is no need to fear, even if there is danger ahead.

I think one problem that the universal church has run into is that it forgot about danger. Instead, it got comfortable, assuming that the work of mission and bringing people to Christ was someone else’s responsibility. I think that is why we are in such a state of decline these days because the thought was, “Well, we will keep our faith quiet, nobody needs to hear about it. After all, it is a private matter.” Yes it is a private matter, but how can we be believers if we are just going along with the world? How can we say we are believers if we expect governments to implement Christian rules. There is a lot of talk on both sides of the aisle about some level of Christian nationalism and the fact of the matter is that there is nowhere in the Bible where God tells us to expect the government to do the work of the church. It’s simply not in there. If we are looking for another entity to do the work of the church, then we are in a lot of trouble. Paul doesn’t have a governing authority that is favorable to him and his beliefs, but he still preaches. He puts himself in harms way and that is how the church was built. By people going into the world and doing the work God called them to. Did you know that the first hospitals were born out of churches? Christian physicians came together and formed hospitals to care for the wounded Christians, Jews, and Muslims during the crusades. What’s more is they even had a special halal menu for the Muslim patients. The public education system was born out of Sunday School. Crazy as it may sound, back in the long ago, kids had to go to work Monday through Saturday. So churches began hosting Sunday school where the children were not taught stories from the Bible, but they were taught how to read, write, and how to do math. The church was stepping in and filling a need. It wasn’t sitting back expecting another organization to do it.

So what happened? Well, eventually these things got turned over to secular leaders so that leaves no wonder why the organizations became secular. God didn’t call the secular organizations to serve Him and do His will, He called the church to do that.

As Paul is getting ready to exit, he explains that he has no guilt for their blood anymore. He has told them about Jesus and done what he can to get them to cross that bridge and join the faithful. Do we look at our relationships like that? Do we have friends that do not know the Gospel, but we keep our mouths shut when we talk to them about things of the faith? I sure hope not. Paul knows that these guys would not know Jesus if he hadn’t said anything and then he would be guilty. He would have prevented them from coming to Christ. We see a similar statement in the book of Ezekiel. God tells Ezekiel that he is going to be the watchman. What does the watchman do? He warns everyone of danger. He is the one that tells folks right off the bat if the enemy is approaching. Ezekiel 3:17–19 ““Son of man, I have made you a watchman over the house of Israel. When you hear a word from my mouth, give them a warning from me. If I say to the wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ but you do not warn him—you don’t speak out to warn him about his wicked way in order to save his life—that wicked person will die for his iniquity. Yet I will hold you responsible for his blood. But if you warn a wicked person and he does not turn from his wickedness or his wicked way, he will die for his iniquity, but you will have rescued yourself.” Pretty scary when God puts it that way. If we fail to give warning, then the person suffers and we are guilty of their blood. If we do give warning, but the person does not repent, then we are not held responsible.

A long time ago, I got Combat Systems Coordinator qualified. It was the first ever tactical watch that I stood. I spent weeks poring over the capabilities and limitations of the ship and learning all about the attack capabilities of our adversaries. I was responsible for 250 nautical miles around the ship. I had to track surface contacts, air contacts, and ballistic missiles. It was a crazy watch, especially out in the SAG. I remember when I first got qualified, my buddy Dale, the fire control master chief came down and looked at me and said, “you see all of this in here, that belongs to you. If someone fires at us and you miss it and everyone dies, it is all your fault.” I think about that a lot when I read Ezekiel. See, I couldn’t blame someone else if I made a mistake. I couldn’t. It was my responsibility. I think that for too long, the church has tried to put the responsibility on someone else to call the lost.

The days are evil. There is no middle ground. It is either good or evil, there is no in between. So what can we do as the church do to counter that evil? What can we do as individuals do to counter that evil? The world is sick and it is getting sicker. It desperately needs Jesus. So what are we going to do? Wait for someone else to act or go and do it ourselves?