The Key To A Courageous Ministry And Life - [Acts 20:17-24]

Bethlehem Bible Church

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May 3, 2009

00:00: Good morning, it's wonderful to be here with you. I am alive and well, and I know that it's been three years, almost three years anyway, since the wreck happened.
00:14: But it's interesting, on furlough, when we're meeting brothers and sisters who we've only seen before that time, the first thought is, well, how are you doing?
00:24: You're alive. How are the kids? And I'm happy to report that the Lord has granted a wonderful recovery.
00:31: And through your prayers, and through the prayers of many brothers and sisters, we have had a wonderful recovery.
00:37: We're healthy, and we're happy to be back in India, serving the Lord. Because he is gracious, and good, and kind.
00:45: You know, sometimes, and this is one of the lessons I learned through the whole process of recovery, and all the surgeries, several, a couple of surgeries, and so on, you know, we praise the
01:01: Lord when we hear that the recovery is good, right? And the surgery went well. And I think, and I thought, and I've thought this before, but you think it more when you're lying in the hospital bed,
01:11: I think. What if I had become a quadriplegic? What if, perhaps,
01:17: I had died, and my wife and children had to continue on without their husband and father?
01:25: Would I praise the Lord? I would, of course, because I'd be in heaven.
01:30: But would we praise the Lord? Is he good, and loving, and kind? Yes, of course he is.
01:38: He is good all the time. Everything he does is right. God causes all things, all things, to work together for good.
01:49: For those who love God, those who are called according to his purpose. And so we praise the Lord, right? Yes. We praise the
01:56: Lord when he gives, when he takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't thank him for the things we appreciate and the good things he gives.
02:06: And so that's what we can do this morning. Thank you for your prayers on behalf of Andrea and the kids.
02:13: Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your support, for your partnership in the gospel ministry in India.
02:21: The Lord is doing wonderful things. I'm going to talk about that tonight in the evening. So please be sure to be here.
02:26: I'm going to show you some pictures, I guess, up here or somewhere, of the men, our graduates, our people who are discipling, and loving, and shepherding in the church.
02:41: The Lord is working through his word in wonderful ways to build people up and to see people be saved.
02:47: And so praise the Lord for that again tonight. So I won't talk about that this morning.
02:53: But just say again, thank you so much for your prayers for us. It's been, it was a rough time. It was a difficult time, of course.
03:02: I don't know, some of you don't know, perhaps, what happened. I don't know. Some of you, a lot of you are new.
03:08: Three years ago, my wife and three kids, as we were returning from furlough, from driving from the city of Bombay, where we fly into, to Pune, where we live and work, we were involved in a very serious car wreck.
03:24: Our driver, somehow, we don't know how because we don't remember, ran into the back of a stationary truck, something like a dump truck, at high speed.
03:34: And I was in the front seat, and my head hit the dashboard and the windshield, apparently.
03:43: And my femur was broken, and I had a pretty serious skull fracture, brain damage, and so on.
03:49: My wife had a serious concussion. The kids, thankfully, were spared any serious injury, very serious injury.
03:57: And so we thank the Lord for that. But it was very serious. We were very close to death, at least
04:04: I was. And Andrea had some pretty serious effects from her concussion.
04:11: After that, subsequent to that, after they patched me up and the critical time was over, they sent me back to the
04:17: US to have surgery to repair the eye socket. Before, as I was getting ready to have that surgery, they found blood clots.
04:27: I'm just kind of giving you the bird's eye view of this. They found blood clots from my femur fracture that causes blood clots in my lower leg that had traveled up into my lungs.
04:37: And so I had blood clots in the lungs. And that's a very serious thing. They say, we need to treat that before you have the surgery.
04:44: So another three months later, I was able to have a surgery to rebuild it.
04:49: So the Lord, after that, pretty much, we were healed. Three weeks ago, I did have one more surgery.
04:55: But that was just to kind of repair the deviations that was in my forehead and to try to raise that eyelid.
05:04: And I know some of you, perhaps many of you, were praying for that. So thank you for that. The Lord gave a successful result for that.
05:12: But in that whole experience, the Lord taught us many things. He reinforced,
05:19: I would say, is the way I have understood it. He reinforced to myself and Andrea many things that we knew from the scriptures that we had thought about versus that we had memorized, truths that we knew to be true.
05:38: But the Lord used that experience by His grace and His great wisdom to impress those truths into our lives.
05:47: That's the way the Lord works, isn't it? He sometimes chooses to bring hard things into our lives to bring us closer to Him, to teach us things, to show us things in living color that we might not otherwise understand.
06:07: And you know, the temptation in those times is to become discouraged, to ask the big question, what?
06:14: Why? Why, Lord, would you bring this into my life? You know, a whole year out of ministry, the pain, the suffering, the difficulty for our families, why, why, why?
06:28: And you know, I'm convinced, even though we don't understand all the whys, and the Lord impressed this upon us as well, that the ultimate why is
06:38: His glory. And not just His glory, but the glory of His grace worked out in the lives of His children.
06:47: And it's been wonderful to see His grace, His empowering grace,
06:53: His grace and good gifts of the ministry of the body, the prayers, the giving, and then the ability for us to proclaim
07:03: His greatness as a result of how He has worked. It's the glory of His grace, the glory of His goodness that is the ultimate answer to that question, to the why.
07:15: And we have a choice in the midst of those hard times, in the midst of the suffering, right? We have choices to make.
07:21: How are we going to respond? Are we going to persevere? Are we going to trust His grace and His power and His goodness and His sovereignty?
07:30: Or are we going to push the why question so far that we dishonor His name?
07:38: Have you ever been in a hard time, a time of suffering? Perhaps suffering for the Lord and for the gospel, or perhaps just suffering in general because of things that are outside of your control, financially, personally, health concerns, perhaps mockery and shame because of your testimony for Christ?
07:59: How do you respond? How can you prepare to respond in a right way?
08:07: I want us to look at a passage this morning that is really an example for us of a man who persevered, a man who had the right attitude, a man who understood what it means to suffer and to suffer in such a way that God would be glorified, in such a way that the gospel through his life would run, would advance, would do its work, even regardless of what happened in his life.
08:38: And we can learn from his life how to suffer and the key to suffering.
08:44: And that's what I have entitled this lesson this morning is the key to a courageous ministry. The key to a courageous ministry, but I would add also in parentheses perhaps, or maybe not in parentheses, the key to a courageous ministry and life.
09:02: Who's that man? I think we've all guessed it. It's the apostle Paul. So turn in your
09:07: Bibles to Acts chapter 20 and we're just going to learn from Paul's lips, his own lips, what is the key to persevering, to glorifying the
09:19: Lord, even in the midst of difficult times. And I believe that in a small way, perhaps we've learned a little bit more about this key through by God's grace, through the experiences he's brought us through.
09:32: And each one of us needs to learn and is learning through the struggles and the difficulties of life.
09:39: About this key. And we're going to look at it in three stages. First of all, the challenges to a courageous ministry.
09:48: We're looking at Acts chapter 20, verses 17 to 24. The challenges to a courageous ministry, the characteristics of a courageous ministry, and finally the key at the end.
10:03: And so let's read through this text and then we'll meditate on it and apply it to our lives.
10:08: Acts chapter 20, verses 17 through 24.
10:15: From Miletus, he sent to Ephesus, this is Paul we're talking about, and called to him the elders of the church.
10:23: And when they had come to him, he said to them, you yourselves know from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how
10:30: I was with you the whole time. Serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the
10:40: Jews. How I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you publicly and from house to house, solemnly testifying to both
10:53: Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
10:59: And now behold, bound by the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem.
11:05: Not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city saying that bonds and afflictions await me.
11:17: But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself so that I may finish my course and the ministry which
11:24: I received from the Lord Jesus to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.
11:34: Let's pray together and then we'll look at the text. Father, we love
11:40: You. You have done wonderful things. You are wonderful by Your very nature.
11:48: You are so loving and gracious and merciful to us. Lord, we give You praise this morning.
11:55: Lord, not only are You transcendent and all -powerful, but You have come down to us to love us, to pick us up out of our sin, to forgive us of all of our sins, to lay them on Your Son, to crush
12:13: Him so that we could live. Father, we praise You for Your wonderful salvation.
12:18: Lord, we are Your children. You've given us that privilege to know You, to be called
12:24: Your very own, Your special people, to declare Your glorious greatness to this world.
12:30: And Lord, that's what we want to do. We want to be that witness. We want to be that shining light.
12:35: But first, Lord, we need to love You supremely. So Lord, help us this morning to refine, to purify our loves, to focus our devotion and heart to You, just like Paul did, just as we see his focus on You and Your grace.
13:00: So Lord, just pray that You, by Your Spirit now, teach us through Your Word. We pray in Jesus' name.
13:12: What was the key to Paul's courageous ministry in his life? Paul was an amazing man.
13:18: You look at his life, you read through the book of Acts, you read through the letters he wrote, you look at the way he dealt with people, the way he loved
13:26: Timothy, like we saw yesterday in the men's meeting, right? Those of you men who were there.
13:32: The way he loved the churches, the way he gave himself. Why did he do that? How could he do that?
13:38: That's what I want us to think about this morning, to be challenged by this morning. Was Paul a great man?
13:44: Of course he was. But he was great because of the grace of God in his life.
13:51: He was great because of what God had done in him. Paul was a murderer. Paul was a religious hypocrite, but for the grace of God.
14:04: And the grace of God transformed his life. You know,
14:09: Paul, and this is the key, I'm telling you right now, this is horrible homiletical skill right here, but I'm doing it, right?
14:16: I'm telling you the whole key, but we'll see it in the text. Paul was addicted.
14:22: Paul was addicted to the grace of God. It consumed him.
14:30: It was everything. It was his life. It was the beginning. It was the middle. It was the end. It's what he lived for.
14:36: It's what he dreamed about. It's what he loved. He was consumed. He was addicted by the grace of God.
14:46: That was the key. And what I want to challenge you this morning is, are you addicted to the grace of God like Paul was?
14:55: As we see him expressing and living out in his life this morning in Acts chapter 20.
15:01: Does it consume you? Is it number one? Or better yet, is it everything to you?
15:11: Is it the beginning? Is it the middle? Is it the end? Is it what you live for? Because brothers and sisters, this is the key that we see in Paul's life this morning that we can follow after him.
15:22: This is the key to living a courageous life for the glory of God. To be able to persevere, to minister, to serve, to be bold in the face of horrific suffering and difficulty and fear and pain.
15:41: We must be addicted to the grace of God. Now let's see how that all works out. The first point we wanted to see is the challenges to courageous ministry.
15:50: And we're gonna see that in verses 18 and 19. What were the things that Paul suffered? What were the things that he was facing even at the time previous in his life, but also at the time that he was speaking this to the
16:02: Ephesian elders? Now, before we get to that, just notice verse 17. We don't want to skip over that. Notice he was on his way by ship to Jerusalem.
16:11: This is where Paul was going. And they stop in Miletus, which is on the
16:16: West Coast of Asia Minor. It was a fairly significant port for trade and so on at the mouth of a river.
16:25: And so the ship stops there for several days to load, unload in the trade business. And so Paul redeems the time.
16:32: He says, I'm going to call the Ephesian elders. They were about 30 miles or so away.
16:38: He calls them. They come to him because he wants to speak to them. He wants to love them.
16:44: He wants to minister to them. He wants to encourage them. He's pretty sure he's going to die pretty soon and he won't see them again.
16:53: And so he wants to give them a parting greeting and exhortation and just a love on them for a while.
16:59: And so he calls them to himself and they arrived perhaps two, three days after he gets there. And then he begins to speak to them.
17:07: And this is what he says. And he begins to recount to them. He says, do you remember what my ministry was like?
17:13: Do you remember even when I came to you and planted the church in Ephesus and discipled you and set up elders?
17:19: Paul was there for several years, loving and ministering and planting the church. And he says, do you remember what it was like?
17:27: He's reminding them of this to strengthen them. Look at what he says there. What were the hardships that he faced?
17:34: And we'll point out three things here. And when they had come to him, he said to them, you yourselves know from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how
17:46: I was with you the whole time. He was with them, loving them, ministering to them, very personal ministry.
17:54: And then notice what was the nature of this service, the challenges that he faced. He says, you remember this
18:00: Ephesians, serving the Lord with all humility, that's number one, and with tears, that's second, and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the
18:13: Jews. What was the thing that was to stick in the minds of the Ephesian elders?
18:19: He says, you remember, you saw it. I was with you the whole time. You saw my life. You know what happened. What characterized my life and ministry at that time?
18:27: Number one, what was it? Humility, tears, and trials, opposition from the
18:37: Jews. Now let's just take those one by one and understand them. Humility literally means lowliness of mind.
18:44: Lowliness of, we could say, of the heart, of the soul, lowness. I mean, literally, lowness.
18:51: That word can be used that way. Of course, Paul's using it spiritually, mentally, emotionally.
18:57: He says, my life, my ministry was characterized by that. It was low. It was brokenness.
19:07: It was heartache in my soul on the inside, and he begins by focusing on the heart, but then the second characteristic or the second challenge he mentions there is tears, and this is, of course, moving now to the outside.
19:22: He says, it wasn't just characterized by my heart, my soul, my mind being low and humble and lowly and perhaps beaten down, we could say, but also by tears, and why does he say tears?
19:35: Well, that's the outward expression of emotional pain, right? I was hurting.
19:41: You don't cry unless you're crying for joy, which happens occasionally, but that's not what Paul's talking about here. He's talking about pain, emotional pain, perhaps physical pain sometimes.
19:52: Paul did experience that oftentimes. He was beaten many times, but emotional heartache, a wrenching of the heart, which produces tears, and Paul says that was what was characterizing the ministry, and you knew that.
20:09: You saw that. What was the cause of those things? Of the heartache, of the tears, of the sorrow?
20:16: Well, it was the third point, and that is the opposition. Look at it again in your Bibles. And with trials which came upon me through the plots of the
20:29: Jews, the trials, the hardships, the difficulties that were brought about by other people who were opposing his ministry.
20:40: Now, why was Paul opposed by the Jews? Paul himself was a Jew. Paul had been a leading
20:45: Jew, highly trained, a leader, a dynamic, zealous man for Judaism, right?
20:52: But he did what? He turned on them. And we talked about this again yesterday morning a little bit.
20:59: He turned on the Jews. When God saved him, when he met the Lord Jesus on the road, he was born again.
21:07: He immediately began preaching the gospel of Christ and showing from the
21:12: Scriptures, proving from the Scriptures how Jesus is the Messiah. And of course, what were his
21:18: Jewish colleagues thinking? Well, he's gone crazy. He's mad. He's insane.
21:26: Kind of like people thought, or at least our unbelieving family thought when we went to India right after September 11.
21:32: You're crazy. You're insane. What are you thinking? You're gonna get on an airplane and fly halfway across the world? You remember what those days were like, right?
21:40: And we had to say, okay, we're gonna trust the Lord. He is in control.
21:45: We're gonna be wise, but we're gonna move ahead. But this is what the Jews were thinking.
21:51: How can you do this? He's gone crazy. And so they brought all kinds of persecution and heartache and beatings and opposition to Paul.
22:02: I want us to look at some passages of Scripture in the book of Acts, just so we get a feel, a taste for the kind of opposition
22:08: Paul faced. Turn to Acts chapter nine. Acts chapter nine, verse 20 and following.
22:16: We're gonna go quickly through a bunch of verses just to get a feel for what
22:21: Paul is meaning when he says here, my ministry was characterized by the challenges of opposition.
22:27: Nine, Acts 9, 20. Follow along as I read. And immediately, now start just there in verse 19.
22:35: Now for several days, he was with the disciples who were at Damascus. Verse 20, and immediately he began to proclaim
22:41: Jesus in the synagogues. This is, of course, immediately after his salvation, saying he is the son of God.
22:51: And all those hearing him continued to be amazed. And we're saying, is this not he who was in Jerusalem destroying those who called on this name?
23:01: And who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests? But Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding the
23:10: Jews who lived at Damascus. Uh -oh. By proving that Jesus is the
23:15: Christ. When many days had elapsed, the Jews plotted together to do away with him.
23:22: But their plot became known to Saul. They were also watching the gates day and night so that they might put him to death.
23:30: But his disciples took him by night and led him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a large basket.
23:37: So days, perhaps weeks after he's born again and begins preaching Christ, there are death threats and strategies to kill him.
23:44: Turn over to Acts 13. And this is, of course, all at the hands of the Jews. Acts 13, verse 42 through 45.
23:56: As Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people kept begging that these things might be spoken to them the next
24:02: Sabbath. Now, when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and of the
24:10: God -fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, were urging them to continue in the grace of God.
24:19: The next Sabbath, nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with what?
24:28: With jealousy. And they began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and they were blaspheming.
24:35: So how are the Jews opposing Paul now? They're jealous. Their power base is going away. He's getting the crowds.
24:42: And so what do they do? They blaspheme God and they're contradicting
24:48: Paul while they're arguing, bringing up arguments against him. So that was part of the opposition of the
24:53: Jews. Look down at verse 49 and 50. And the word of the Lord was being spread through the whole region.
25:01: But the Jews incited the devout women of prominence and the leading men of the city and instigated a persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district.
25:12: So now we have political moves, right? Power plays. You get the town leaders to hate
25:20: Paul also. And so now we have a power base to fight against him. Just a few verses over to chapter 14, verse two.
25:33: But the Jews who disbelieved stirred up the minds of the Gentiles and then bittered them against the brethren. Jump down to verse four.
25:41: But the people of the city were divided and some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles and when an attempt was made by both the
25:48: Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers to mistreat and to stone them, they became aware of it and fled to the cities of Lyconia, Lystra, and Derbe and the surrounding region.
26:02: And there they what? Continued to preach the gospel. So what did the
26:08: Jews do now? They incited a plan by the people to go into stone
26:13: Paul. Verse 19, but Jews came to Antioch and Iconium and having won over the crowds, they stoned
26:23: Paul. Finally, they got it done. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead.
26:31: They stoned him. People don't survive that normally, right? They thought he had died.
26:38: Drag him out, he's unconscious, lay him there on the side of the road and go home.
26:49: Acts 25, lastly, and there's a lot more we could look at, but just get a sense of when
26:55: Paul says, by the plots of the Jews, there is humility and lowliness and brokenness and tears.
27:01: This is what he's talking about. Acts 25, verses one, two, and three.
27:07: Festus then, having arrived in the province, three days later, went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea.
27:13: And the chief priests and the leading men of the Jews brought charges against Paul and they were urging him, requesting a concession against Paul that they might have him brought to Jerusalem.
27:24: And then look at this. At the same time, setting an ambush to kill him on the way.
27:31: These are the plots of the Jews. We wanna bring him to court, right? Yeah, send him up.
27:38: And then we're gonna set our thugs on the road and we'll just kill him on the way. Paul faced difficulty.
27:45: He faced opposition. He faced heartache, emotionally, personally, from his countrymen, threatening his life.
27:57: Let's just briefly get a whole summary of it in a very familiar passage, 1 Corinthians 11.
28:07: Sorry, I believe that should be 2 Corinthians 11. 2
28:13: Corinthians 11, verses 23 to 31. And you've heard this before, but I think it will just kind of summarize this point we're trying to make.
28:23: 2 Corinthians 11, verse 23. Are they servants of Christ?
28:31: The false teachers. I speak as if insane. I more so, in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, and notice all of these kinds of difficulty, beaten times without number, often in danger of death.
28:45: Five times I received from the Jews 39 lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods.
28:52: Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I've spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the
29:02: Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren.
29:09: I've been in labor and hardship through many sleepless nights, and hunger and thirst, often without food, and cold and exposure.
29:17: Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of the concern for all the churches.
29:24: Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern?
29:31: If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness. The God and Father of the
29:37: Lord Jesus, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.
29:45: How can you have that kind of attitude? If you had even the possibility, and I had even the possibility of facing one of those things, what would
29:54: I do? What would you do? Well, those were
30:00: Bible times. We live in 21st century New England, right? No, no, there's got to be a different way.
30:12: And Paul's attitude was what? I'm going to press ahead. These are the challenges to my ministry, but you know what?
30:19: God, who is blessed forever. How could he say that? How could he live that way?
30:24: How could he have that kind of courageous ministry and life? Either he was insane, or he knows something that the rest of us don't know very well.
30:36: And that is the power, the greatness, the glory of the grace of God worked out in my life and proclaimed in this world.
30:49: These were the challenges that Paul was facing. We each have challenges, right? Nothing near what
30:55: Paul experienced, but we have challenges from outside, from inside, for spiritual reasons, because of opposition, for random chance reasons, right?
31:09: You might say. These were the challenges Paul faced. Now let's look at his ministry in the midst of these kinds of challenges, in the face of these kinds of challenges.
31:20: How did he live? How did he move forward? What were his strategies? Well, that's what we see in the second point here, the characteristics of courageous ministry.
31:30: These characteristics are what characterized Paul's ministry. And look at it there in verse 20.
31:41: He says this. You know how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable.
31:50: Now we're gonna break it down here, but this is the first point we need to understand. I did not shrink.
31:56: That's the key to the characteristics of his life and ministry. I did not shrink.
32:04: That's what we do, isn't it, brothers and sisters? We shrink. We shrink back. We hesitate.
32:11: We're afraid. We run at the even possibility of a suffering.
32:17: Right? Oftentimes. Because we're not addicted to the grace of God. But Paul says here,
32:25: I did not shrink. It's wonderful. Let's look at the things, the outworking of is not shrinking.
32:36: We can say it that way. Right? I did not shrink from, and there's four things we can notice here, from declaring to you anything that was profitable.
32:48: What characterized the ministry of Paul in the face of beatings, of shipwreck, of plots from the
32:54: Jews, of being deserted by his friends and fellow ministers, of having his nose being thumbed at by other preachers when he was in prison, as we see in Philippians chapter one.
33:07: He says, I did not shrink from real practical truth, teaching what was beneficial, what's gonna produce growth in people's lives.
33:19: That's what he is saying there in that first part of the verse, from declaring to you anything that was profitable. I just kept going.
33:26: I kept focused on the goal, and that is helping people to know Christ and giving them tools to grow in their relationship with him.
33:35: He was concerned about real practical truth. Did he retreat? Did he become philosophical and say, well, we don't wanna step on any people's toes.
33:47: We don't wanna ruffle any feathers here. Let's discuss this. Let's have a dialogue.
33:53: No, he says, I was concrete. I was real. I was hardcore. I was just as what the scriptures say. This is how you live.
33:59: This is how you must live. There's only one way. He was undeterred.
34:06: He moved ahead in real practical truth. Second thing we can see is that he was relentless.
34:13: This is what characterized his ministry. Did you see it there? How I did not shrink from declaring to you anything. I didn't hold back anything.
34:22: That was profitable. Notice what else he says. Where did he teach? Teaching you where?
34:30: Publicly and from house to house. Now, if I was having death threats and being threatened of being beaten and stoned, where would
34:40: I preach? Or what would you think? Well, let's at least go into the church, right?
34:47: Yeah, we need to provide opportunity for ministry, right? No, that wasn't Paul's attitude. He says,
34:54: I just continued. I was preaching publicly. I don't care. I'm gonna preach it on the street corner.
35:02: I'm not gonna hold back. I'm not gonna be quiet. I'm not gonna say, well, let's go talk in Starbucks.
35:10: No, publicly and from house to house, everywhere. He was relentless. He didn't stop. He didn't hesitate.
35:21: Solemnly testifying to both, in verse 21. Who? Jews and Greeks. Who were persecuting him?
35:29: The Jews. Why? Because they were stealing the power base. They were stealing the crowds.
35:34: Well, I'm the apostle of the Gentiles. So, you know, hey, we're gonna go to the
35:40: Gentiles. He was relentless. He wouldn't stop.
35:48: He wouldn't look at his life and say, there's gotta be a better way. No, he was practical.
35:54: He was real. He was relentless. You know, just think for a moment.
35:59: And this is by way of application. Think for a moment, what would have been lost if he had shrinked back? What if he decided not to teach?
36:07: What if he decided not to teach publicly? You know, the church would not have grown as quickly, at least not through Paul.
36:17: People wouldn't have been discipled, built up. We wouldn't have had the beautiful, wonderful example of the grace of God working in the life of Paul.
36:26: The ministry would have been hindered. The glory of God would have been hindered in respect to Paul's life.
36:32: You know, we don't think about that, do we, very often? When we're facing trials and we're facing suffering?
36:38: But it's true. God has placed his name on your forehead, on you. He's put a sign around your neck saying, this is my child.
36:47: And the decision you make and the decision I make, especially in times of suffering and persecution and fear and hardship, will determine whether or not
36:57: God is glorified. Whether or not that treasure of the glory of his grace worked out in your life and your life is going to excel and grow and shine for his glory.
37:12: God will be glorified, no doubt about it. But will he be glorified in you? And will he be glorified in this town, in this city, in this area, through you?
37:22: That depends on how you respond. We don't think about that. What do we think about in times of suffering?
37:29: Me. My money, my things, my reputation.
37:37: My comfort, right? Sadly, because of the flesh, because we still struggle with sin, because we don't love the glorious grace of our
37:46: Lord as much as we should, we think about ourselves.
37:53: Well, that's not what we see happening in Paul's ministry here. His ministry in life is not characterized by that.
38:00: Look down in verse 21. There's another focus we can see here, a characteristic. His ministry in the face of opposition and difficulty was characterized by gospel -centeredness.
38:10: Do you see it there? Solemnly testifying in the face of opposition to both Jews and Greeks of what?
38:17: Repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He preached the gospel. Just like he said to the
38:23: Corinthians, right? When I came to you, I didn't use fancy language. I didn't try to impress like you guys try to do.
38:29: I just preached Christ and him crucified. Why? So the glory and your understanding of the power wouldn't be in me.
38:38: Your faith wouldn't be in me, but in the power of God to change lives and the
38:43: Holy Spirit to regenerate. He was gospel -centered.
38:50: He kept the main thing, the main thing. He wasn't distracted. He wasn't put down a rabbit trail, writing a book on how to feel good about yourself and have good times in ministry and how
39:01: God will give you blessings. And no, no, no, no, I'm gonna preach Christ and faith.
39:09: And then finally, and this is the glorious part and we're coming to the good part here at the end.
39:16: Verse 22, his ministry was characterized by, and this is brothers and sisters what we wanna have.
39:22: His ministry and life was characterized by unconquerable fearlessness. Unconquerable fearlessness.
39:33: And brothers and sisters, this is what will make us stand out in the world. As shining lights for his glory.
39:40: Look at it there in verse 22. And now behold, bound by the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.
39:51: Except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city saying that bonds and afflictions await me.
40:01: Just think about that for a minute. He's on his way to Jerusalem and there's something he doesn't know.
40:07: And there's something he does know. Specifically, he doesn't know what? Well, he doesn't really know anything specifically.
40:14: I don't know what's gonna happen in Jerusalem. Just like you and me, right?
40:20: I know I'm going to Los Angeles, but, and I have my plans, but I don't know specifically what's gonna happen.
40:27: I know I'm driving from Bombay to Puna, but I don't know specifically what's gonna happen on the way.
40:34: That there's gonna be, I'm gonna have a massive cranial fracture. I don't know, right?
40:42: So Paul says, there's some things I don't know. But this is what I do know. I do know something generally, and the
40:49: Lord has made this clear to me. Generally, I know that I'm gonna be imprisoned and I'm going to suffer hardship.
40:56: That much I know. But what am
41:04: I gonna do? Well, I'm on my way, I'm still going. I'm bound by the Spirit. I have to go.
41:11: This is the ministry the Lord has called me to. Even though bonds and affliction await me,
41:16: I'm happily on my way. I just wanted to have a little pit stop with you men to encourage you and pray with you.
41:22: And I probably won't see you again, except in heaven. So praise the Lord. I'm going.
41:30: Weeping and crying and embracing him and saying, Paul, we love you. But just notice, the thing
41:36: I want you to notice here, his unconquerable fearlessness. How did he face life? With all that history, with all the beatings and the imprisonment and the threats and the fears and the worries and the pain and the heartache and the uncertainty.
41:49: And now the Lord is saying by his Spirit, you're gonna have more of that. In Jerusalem, a few days, maybe a week from now.
41:59: I'm going. Man, how could he face life with that kind of thing?
42:05: You know, the principle, brothers and sisters, the truth is no different for you and me. He had the right perspective.
42:16: He had the right estimation of the grace of God working out in his life.
42:23: And not only in his life, in this world. Do you have that kind of courage? Do you have that kind of perspective?
42:30: Do you want to? Do you want to rise above the struggles and the issues and the fears and the worries and live life boldly for the glory of God?
42:44: Well, here is the key. It's available to each one of us, brothers and sisters, who are believers in Christ.
42:51: And we see it now in verse 24. And you probably already know it because we read it and we're looking at it, but here is the key.
42:57: But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself so that I may finish my course and the ministry which
43:05: I received from the Lord Jesus to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.
43:14: Just two things I want to point out here and challenge us with as we close. Notice, first of all, Paul's estimation of his life.
43:22: This is the key. But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself.
43:36: Here's the key. Do you want it or not? What is your estimation of your life and everything in it?
43:49: Brothers and sisters, it's a hard thing to die to yourself. But by the grace of God, you have died to yourself.
43:58: And now we need to die daily to ourselves to pick up the cross and follow our
44:04: Lord because this was the attitude he had. The glory of his Father, the glory of our
44:10: Father is the most important thing. Who are you?
44:16: That's the question we need to ask ourselves this morning. What do you own or whose things do you own?
44:23: Why do you exist? I can't help but think of Galatians 2 .20, a very familiar verse. You could probably quote it to me.
44:29: I have been crucified with Christ. Listen to this. I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer
44:35: I who live. But Christ lives in me. And the life which
44:41: I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.
44:47: Let me ask you this. What is death to a dead person? Is a dead person afraid of dying?
44:58: No. Brothers and sisters, I no longer live.
45:07: What life do I live then? It's Christ. It's His life living in me. I am dead to myself.
45:14: Is that how you live? By the grace of God, I have died. Praise the Lord. And I'm alive now to Him for His glory, for His purposes.
45:23: And everything I am and everything I have is simply to shine forth His glory.
45:30: Are you dead? Are you dead this morning? Have you been made alive by the grace of God?
45:39: And if so, is that consuming you? Is that everything you are?
45:44: Is that everything you live for? Is it everything you long for in this life? To shine forth the glory of His grace.
45:54: And that's what it is, right? Why? What's the purpose of this estimation of His life when we just saw it?
46:02: So that, here's the purpose, so that I may finish my course. What course? That is, and the ministry which
46:10: I received from the Lord Jesus to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.
46:20: That's who I am. That's what I live for. That's the key, brothers and sisters. We need to, by the grace of God, realign our perspective this morning.
46:34: Do you have the same perspective as Paul did? You've been bought with a price. You are not your own.
46:40: It's the glorious grace of the Lord. Will you live for it?
46:46: Will you submit everything to that singular purpose in your life? Do you count your life as dear to yourself?
46:58: Brothers and sisters, let me encourage you. Let me exhort you. That is the greatest life to live.
47:05: That is what you were created for. That's what you were recreated for. To shine forth his glorious grace.
47:13: Make that the all in all. Will you this morning, let's pray. Father, we are small.
47:20: We are easily distracted. We know that's true. We live it every day.
47:26: We struggle with it. We want to die to ourselves. We want to live for you. But Lord, the flesh is there.
47:34: We are limited in our understanding and in our capacity. Lord, help us, we pray. Help us to have the same estimation that Paul did.
47:46: That you want each one of us to have. And that is that we are dead. And my life is nothing.
47:54: And every tool, every resource, every dollar, every relationship
48:01: I have, Lord, I want it to bring you glory. Lord, give us wisdom now.
48:08: To know, to see, to understand, to perceive our own hearts. So that you be glorified in us, we pray in Jesus' name.