Finishing the Race

SERMON: 2017-09-10--ac17179--finishing-the-race-part-1 SOURCE DURATION: 00:39:57.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.95 APPROVED: false REASON: Candidate 28 concludes the prayer/benediction (sermon content). Candidate 29 is a blank audio segment, indicating the transition away from spoken sermon material. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: none ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: no ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: none Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- I want to continue this morning our series of studies in the book of Acts, reading this morning from Acts chapter 20, the verses 17 through 24. Before I do that, let me again point out the context here by means of this particular map. Paul, as you will recall, is on his third missionary journey. He's on his way back to Jerusalem. He is backtracking from Corinth. The last time we looked at the book of Acts, he was in Troas, and that's the place where the young lad Eutychus fell out of the window and was raised back to life by the apostle Paul. Now, as the story goes on, the rest of his party traveled by boat to the city of Asos, but Paul traveled by land, and then he joined the boat. They traveled to Mytilene, to Chios, to Samos, and then he disembarks at a place called Meletus, and that's where we pick up the story because now he invites the elders from Ephesus to join him there for his farewell presentation. So that's where we pick up the story then in Acts chapter 20, beginning at verse 17. From Meletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church. When they arrived, 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 Isaiah. I served the Lord with great humility and with tears, although I was severely tested by the plots of the Jews. 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. I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus. And now, compelled by the Spirit, I'm going to Jerusalem not knowing what will happen to me there. 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. If only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, the task of testifying to the gospel of grace. If only, he says, I may finish the race and complete the task." Join me in prayer as we talk about that for a bit this morning. Father, we're so grateful that we stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us. And we're so grateful that historically there have been men and women who are so passionately committed to you, that obedience to your will exceeded even the desire for safety and well-being in their own lives. We confess, Lord, we live in a culture that is dedicated to comfort. We live in a culture where even the church oftentimes measures things by how good it feels or how much we like it as opposed to what is the purposes of God and what advances his kingdom. Thank you for Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was said before him endured suffering and shame and today is seated at the right hand of God in glory. May that faith stir our hearts, Lord, and may we always be sensitive to the call of your Holy Spirit through your word. And may we individually and corporately, as we stand at the start of a new season as a church, be found faithful to the end so that when we ultimately stand before you on that final day, we may hear these gracious words, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over little. I will put you over much." Lord, stir faith, stir hope, stir love. Bless the words that I speak this morning. Give them to me as I need them and help each of us, Lord, not only to hear but also to be doers of the word. For we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. The story before us this morning reminds me of nothing as much as the observation that Luke makes in his gospel concerning the Lord Jesus towards the end of his earthly ministry. Here's what Luke writes in Luke chapter 9, verse 51. As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set his face towards Jerusalem. He resolutely set his face towards Jerusalem. Now Jerusalem, you must remember, is the place where Jesus would be betrayed by Judas. It's the place where he would be falsely accused, falsely found guilty, and ultimately be put to death. He knew that was going to happen. And yet the Bible says in Luke's gospel, he resolutely set his face to Jerusalem. And the reason for that of course was that he was more interested in doing the will of God than in preserving his own will. We find that happening later on in the Garden of Gethsemane when he agonizes with the prospect of taking upon himself all the sins of the world and he cries out to the father, "If possible, take this cup away from me. But if not, nevertheless, not my will but yours be done." Well, we find the same thing happening here with the Apostle Paul. He knows what's going to happen to him in broad generalities when he goes to Jerusalem, and yet he is determined to go there. Listen again to how the Bible puts it here in Acts chapter 20, the verses that we have read, "And now compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 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. If only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace. Though he knows trouble awaits him, his face is steadfastly, resolutely set towards Jerusalem." And the reason is the will of God is more important than his own safety and his own well-being. And as we start looking at this particular passage this morning, there are I think three lessons or three things in the story that I want for us to note. I don't think we'll get much beyond point number one this morning, but let's make a start on it and see what we can learn from this passage. The first thing I want us to note is that Paul's decision to go to Jerusalem is motivated by the Holy Spirit. And now, compelled by the Spirit, I'm going to Jerusalem not knowing what will happen to me there. Compelled by the Spirit is how the NIV translates the Greek phrase which is really bound in the Spirit. And what that means I think is that there is an inner pressure in Paul that says, "I don't know fully what's going to happen to me. I know trouble is awaiting me. I don't know what that trouble looks like. But I'm not free to change my mind. I am compelled to go there." Now commentators differ as to the meaning of bound in the Spirit. Greek doesn't have capital letters and so in our English Bible it's a capital S to indicate the Holy Spirit. But commentators differ. There are some commentators who think the meaning is Paul was bound in his own spirit. That is to say he had this inner compulsion to do this particular thing and he was driven in that way. Others think no, that doesn't adequately fit the context. The context is clearly beyond just his own spirit and he is compelled by the Spirit of God. And that's why the NIV translates it in the way that it does. I suspect both are true. I think there is something inside Paul that says, "I gotta go to Jerusalem. Can't get away from it. I'm driven to go there. It's intense. Don't know what's going to happen to me." Part of that is his own spirit but the Holy Spirit living in him drives him and compels him to accomplish the purposes of God in going to Jerusalem. And there's an important lesson in all of this for us, I think, and that is the fact that under the terms of the New Covenant, God's people aren't merely instructed or propelled from the outside. We are compelled from the inside by the promptings of the Holy Spirit. See, that's one of the differences between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. In the Old Covenant, the average believer had two means of being instructed in the ways of God, the law or the prophets. The law said, "This is how I want you to live." The prophet would come along and say, "Yes, this is indeed how I want you to live." Under the New Covenant, we not only have the law, we not only have others who can tell us how it is that we ought to live, but under the New Covenant, we have the Holy Spirit who now lives in us, who is the Spirit of Jesus, and he directs us from the inside out. That, I take it, is the significance of that incident on the Mount of Transfiguration. Perhaps you will remember the story. Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up on the mountain. Remember the story? And he is transfigured before them. The Lord shows them the coming glory of the Lord Jesus, and with Jesus, there appears who? Moses and Elijah. Do you remember the story? Liven up a little bit here so we can have some back and forth stuff. Remember what Peter said when he put his foot in his mouth? Peter said, "Let me build three tents." Remember that? One for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. What was he saying? What he was saying was he wanted to hold on to the law, he wanted to hold on to the prophets, and he wanted to hold on to Jesus. What did God the Father say from heaven? "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him." In other words, God is replacing the law and the prophets, important as they are, they're being fulfilled in the person of Jesus. Let me say again that under the terms of the new covenant, we have privileges that very few of the Old Testament saints experienced. That is to say, God lives in us by His Spirit, and through His Spirit, working with our whole being, motivates and propels us to step out in obedience to God and to become what He wants us to be. I so remember that one of the first Bible promises the Lord led me to when he first became real in my own life many years ago in college. The passage was Isaiah chapter 30, the verse 20 and 21, and it reads like this, "Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity in the water of affliction," I had no idea back then what that meant, "your teachers will be hidden no more. With your own eyes, you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, 'This is the way. Walk in it.'" This is the way, walk in it. I believe that points to the new covenant of when Christ comes to live in us by His Holy Spirit, and He propels us from the inside out, giving us a new heart to love God above all and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Jeremiah chapter 31, the verses 33 and 34, verses quoted a number of times in the book of Hebrews, similarly puts it into words like this when he says, "This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the Lord. Now notice, "I will put my law in their," where? "Mines and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor or a man his brother saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me. From the least of them to the greatest," declares the Lord. Let me say it again. What marks you and me as a new covenant believer is a privilege that was shared only by prophets, priests, and kings in the Old Testament, not by the average believer. The Holy Spirit comes to live within us and through the mysterious workings of the Holy Spirit compels, strong word, but drives, leads us into the things of God. And while many times in the Christian life you and I, you know, we're just sort of trucking along and we make our decisions, hopefully we make them preferably but not necessarily overwhelmed by the sense of God's presence. We just do as best we know what to do in a given situation. I think you'd agree with me. There are times in your life where the Holy Spirit comes along and you cannot get rid of him. Isn't that right? You get this conviction that you must do a certain thing or not do a certain thing and you try to pretend it isn't there but you're compelled, you're bound in the Spirit. A lot of you, you may remember the story that I have previously told about the time when I decided to buy my first car. It was my last year in college. I was living off campus and I was getting to that age where all of a sudden all my friends were getting married. Have you ever had that in your life? You're just all happily single and then all of a sudden, you know, they started being picked off one after the other and you say to yourself, well, you know, I better get this show on the road. But I had no prospects and I had no car. And how are you going to date when you live off campus when you don't have a car? Besides what woman wants you if you don't have a car back in those days, right? So I said I need a car and I did. So in those days, newspapers still had classified ads. That was before GG and all this other online stuff and auto traders. And I found this gorgeous '67 Oldsmobile for I think $1700. I said that's my car. And I talked to him and I put money down on it. Because immediately, new in the back of my mind, the Holy Spirit was going like this. And I was saying, this doesn't sound very reverent, but I was saying, I don't care what you're saying. I'm saying this. And so I was determined I was going to help my love life long by getting this car. And the Lord was saying, I'll show you who's boss around here. Take a long story short, for the first time in our family's financial history, I couldn't get the money together to buy that car. The bank at school wouldn't pay for it because I wasn't working. And I told them my father would pay for it. And they said, no deal. The bank back home wouldn't pay for it because they said he's not in the country and we're not going to pay for his car or his love life. So there I sat, lost my down payment, lost the car. And I remember being both relieved and unhappy all at the same time because obviously the Lord was bigger than I was. And it became one of those, do you ever have that where afterwards you look back and those kinds of things and you say to yourself, well maybe next time I should listen to what the Holy Spirit is trying to tell me becomes a very foundational lesson of Christian discipleship. Now I won't go into the detail, but roll the clock forward. The interesting thing is within a less than a year, I got both my car and the girl that I have now been married to. As you heard last week for 46 years, but that's a whole other story and I won't tell you how that came to be. You can live in suspense. Compelled by the Spirit is how the NIV describes Paul's situation here. Now here's what I want us to note about this. Paul's decision to go to Jerusalem compelled by the Holy Spirit motivates him even in the face of objections by his friends and his associates. Have you noticed in the text in verse 20 and 23 he says, "I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me." Now how does he know this? Well clearly every place where he goes there is a prophetic voice coming forward that says to him, "Paul, you're going to get yourself into trouble if you go to Jerusalem." And the clearest example of that follows in the next chapter where we have a prophet called Agabus. Perhaps you remember the story. Paul now has completed his journey or almost completed his journey back to Jerusalem. He's not quite there yet, but he is at Caesarea. He's back in the land of Israel. He's at Caesarea staying at the house of Philip the Evangelist. And the Bible says a prophet by the name of Agabus comes down from Jerusalem. And it's always come down from Jerusalem because Jerusalem is at a higher elevation. And here is what Agabus says to Paul in verse 10 and 11 of chapter 21. "After we had been there a number of days a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea coming over to us. He took Paul's belt, tied his own hands and feet with it, and said, 'The Holy Spirit says in this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.'" Now notice he's not telling Paul not to go, but he is warning him about what's going to happen to him. Now if you were one of Paul's friends and associates, how would you interpret that prophetic word? You'd say, "Paul, don't be an idiot. Don't go." And so the text goes on, verse 12, 13 and 14. When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. And then Paul answered, "Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." And when he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, "The Lord's will be done." Paul was determined to go even when his closest friends and closest associates, in the light of that prophetic warning, said to him, "Paul, the Lord must be telling you, do not go." And he says, "I'm going anyway because I'm ready to die for Jesus." Three quick lessons that come out of that, and then we'll be done for this morning. Lesson number one, sometimes we just have to do what we have to do. Sometimes when you're compelled by the Holy Spirit, you have to obey even if people around you would disagree. Again, some of you have heard me tell the story. When I was in college, my friends and I ran into a group of reorganized Latter-day Saints, that's a branch group of the Mormon Church, who experienced fantastic spiritual encounters with God. In fact, they were experiencing the very things that we were seeking in the Lord. And I remember how big the struggle was in my heart. What if what they're saying is true? What if what they're saying about the Book of Mormon and the Book of the Doctrine and Covenants is true? What, and this was the big question in my mind, what will my father think if I tell him I'm no longer studying for the ministry in the Christian Church, but I'm going to be a Mormon? Can you imagine that? Now, it's a long story how that all unfolded and thank God I didn't have to go in that direction. But I remember thinking, would I do what the Lord wants me, what I feel the Lord would want me to do over the objections of people that are closest to me? Because remember, my father had wanted to be a preacher. My mother had wanted to be a physician. My brother Hank, who is just now retired as a physician, carried my mother's calling and anointing, and I believe that I have carried my father's calling and anointing. So that was a very difficult decision to make. And I want to be very careful in how I say this because I know there are way too many of God's people who in the name of God excuse all kinds of idiotic and crazy behavior the Lord told me when half the time it was the bad pizza from the night before. That having been said, this story illustrates that there are times in your life when you hear the voice of God and God is inviting you to step out in obedience, even sometimes over the objections of those who are closest to you. Don't abuse that. Don't think you're smarter than everybody else and that you don't need to listen to other people. But understand there are those times when that call comes to your life and you have to decide who are you going to listen to. But secondly, to balance that off, we need to discern the motives of those who disagree or those who oppose. Whenever you step out to do the will of God, anybody who is in league with the flesh, the devil or the world, sooner or later, will oppose what you want to do and where you want to go. That is the nature of the Christian life. Sometimes, as I'll show you in a moment, those will be the closest people to you. Doesn't mean you can just write them off. It does mean you need to discern what are the reasons for the opposition. And this story is a fascinating study in that because why are Luke, because he's part of this group now, his fellow coworkers and the fellow believers here in Ephesus so hung up on his going to Jerusalem? Is it because they don't want him to obey God? Of course not. They're committed to obeying God and they're committed for Paul to obey God. But you see, their flesh gets in the way. Their relationship is getting in the way. They love the man. They don't want to see him suffer. They don't want to see him go to prison. They don't want to see him be in trouble. And so that natural affection says to them, "Paul, you've heard the prophetic word. God is giving you this prophetic word so that you don't go. Don't be foolish. Listen to what we're saying." Right? And Paul is saying, "I'm going to go anyway." And what it illustrates is that sometimes our opposition to obedience to the Lord is most intense from those who are closest to us and who love us the most. Isn't that true? You may recall the Lord Jesus in Matthew's gospel that goes through a very similar experience with Peter. Matthew chapter 16, we have the Lord Jesus saying to his disciples that he's going to go to Jerusalem and he's going to be betrayed and he's going to die and he's going to be raised on the third day, that resurrection part they never heard because they had no framework to put that into. And what did Peter do? Well, he took him aside according to Matthew 16 verse 22 and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord," he said, "this shall never happen to you." Remember Jesus's response? It wasn't very nice. Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me. You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." Sometimes your greatest opposition to doing the will of God in your life will come from those who love you the dearest. And that's why Jesus says in Luke chapter 14, "Unless you hate father and mother and brother and sister, you cannot be my disciple." Doesn't mean you cannot have good relationships with your family members, but family members think they own you, think they control you, they love you, they don't want to see you get hurt. And if the will of God is leading you out of their ideas of safety, their pain is going to express itself in trying to discourage you. I have a nephew, his name is Bert, studied to be a lawyer, became a crown attorney, prosecutor in the province of PEI, had a great job making good money. When the Holy Spirit began to stir in his wife's heart, calling them to the mission field with the Wycliffe Bible translators, they've been here, most of you know who they are, Bert and Wilma. And I remember not only their agony in coming to grips with this, but his father's agony in the decision that they were working on making because his son went from a great position with a great income to having to be at the mercy of faith givers and the uncertainty of the future. And I remember how long it took for his father to even remotely come to be at peace with that decision. We have to weigh the opposition. Not all opposition comes out of the flesh. There may be opposition that comes to you that says, you know, you're not ready for this. You're not mature enough. You don't have the character. You don't have a thousand and one reasons why what you think the Lord is calling you to do, you may not be called to do. And there's a good place to be said for submitting to the authority that God places over you. But you have to weigh it out. Is this because I'm being loved and because people want what's best for me in the kingdom of God? Or is this happening as it is in this particular story because, well, we don't want to see you hurt. We don't want to lose you. And we don't want to be without you. Am I making any sense here? We have to weigh the cost. One final point. We must release each other to the Lord. Remember again, how does the story end? When he that is Paul would not be dissuaded, that is to say he wouldn't give up his plans to go to Jerusalem, we gave up and said, the Lord's will be done. At the end of the day, God is sovereign. And at the end of the day, having done what we can to persuade somebody about a given course of action, there comes a place where we have to do hands off and say, I commend you to the Lord and I will trust the Lord to look after you, whatever that looks like. And that's not only true when people are stepping out in obedience to the Lord, that's even true when people willfully and rebelliously want to walk away from the Lord. Because you recall in the story of the prodigal son, when the son said, give me the share of my inheritance, the father didn't stand there and try to hold him back, even though his heart was breaking, but he let him go. Why? Because ultimately love has to be freely chosen and cannot be forced. You've all heard the expression, if you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it's yours. If not, it was never meant to be. That takes faith. That takes faith for your children. That takes faith for your spouse. That takes faith for your friends. That takes faith in the context of Christian community. Ultimately, the Lord's will be done. And if people are going to come back, they're going to come back because they choose to come back of their own free will. You cannot force them, even when they are in rebellion as sometimes they are, let alone when they step out in obedience to the Lord. When they step out in obedience to the Lord, you will discover again and again that God is faithful and true and that he provides for his own. I believe my nephew Bert and his wife Wilma are close to retiring from Wycliffe translators now. I'm not 100% sure of that, but I can tell you the Lord has faithfully sustained them and their three children as they have ministered for many years now in the nation of Cameroon. Mike and Marianne will give you the same kind of testimony. That's how the kingdom works. Going to leave it at that. Next week, Lord willing, we'll come back to a second point here. I'll just very quickly introduce it and then be done. Paul wants to finish well. He goes on to say, "If only 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. If only I may finish the race, complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace." We won't get into it, but notice two things that finishing well means for Paul. Finishing the race, completing the task. I leave you with this this morning. Number one, can you think back to areas in your own life where you have felt the Holy Spirit speak to you? Places where maybe you were obedient, maybe you were not. God is big enough to handle both, but think back to those moments when you sense God speaking. What kind of lessons did you learn? Is he speaking anything to you today about what it is that he's inviting you to do? If you're not sure what it is, then share it with somebody who is mature in the Lord that can bounce it off you to see if that's really the Lord or just your own imagination. And then ask yourself the question, what does running the race look like? And what does completing my task look like? Lord willing, we'll come back to that next week. Stand with me. Let's close in prayer. So much, Lord, that you teach us from your word and so much that we can learn from the people that have gone before us. And I for one thank you for the Apostle Paul, his earnest desire, as did Jesus before him to set his face towards Jerusalem. And I pray, Lord, for my own life and for the lives of all of us here that we may finish well, run the race, complete our task, and be faithful to you, not just in good times, but in bad times also. Help us to listen to what you say through your word, what you say through your prophets, and also what you say through the Holy Spirit. And may we, unified as one body under the head of the Lord Jesus, be your hands and your feet proclaiming the good news of Jesus and watching the kingdom of God come with glory and with power. Give us willing hearts, O God. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:39:51.370; remove through 00:39:57.000] [ [CUT]BLANK_AUDIO] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:39:57.000; resume after this marked segment]