Welcome to this podcast from Harvest Community Church of Huntersville, North Carolina, where our vision is to make disciples who make disciples. I'm your host, Liz Steffanini. We're going to continue in our series through the book of Acts. It's amazing. Seems like a long time and we've been in it for a while, but now we're coming down. We're really going to, over the next few weeks, Lord willing, really see it all come to a conclusion. And in fact, over the next few weeks, we'll start actually taking a little bit larger chunks and Lord willing, we will finish Acts before Christmas. Let me ask you a question as we began this morning. Have you ever heard of a man named Robert Ballard? He had a quest in his life and that was related to the Titanic. Of course, you know the Titanic story. You know that It sunk on April 15th, 1912. It was the largest and most luxurious ship at the time and thought to be the most technologically advanced and the safest, right? And then it sunk and it was in the waters of the North Atlantic. And for years and years, Robert Ballard was one of many, I think, who had a quest to find the sunken Titanic. And indeed, on September 1st, 1985, about 350 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, they did locate the sunken ship. Listen to his description. of the first sighting of the probe light more than two miles below the ocean's surface. He said, my first direct view of the Titanic lasted less than two minutes, but the stark sight of her immense black hole towering above the ocean floor will remain forever ingrained in my memory. My lifelong dream was to find this great ship, and during the past 13 years, the quest for her has dominated my life. For 13 years, this man gave his life to find a ship that had sunk. And it dominated his life, he said. I think we all are moved by people who have passion, by people who are out to do something, aiming to accomplish something. And that was Robert Ballard. And it reminds me of the Apostle Paul. Today is we're going to come and focus mainly on Acts chapter 20. We are going to see what the quest was that Paul's life was focused on. It wasn't just 13 years. This was Paul's life, and we're gonna look at it, and we'll read more as we go along, but I wanna start with verses 22 to 24 of Acts 20, because in many ways, this encapsules the heart of the passage and the heart of the message. Paul says, 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 prisons and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me. My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace. Now let me set the stage here. As Paul was making his way back to Jerusalem near the end of his final missionary journey, the ship stopped at a town near Ephesus and this gave Paul an opportunity to call for the elders of the church of Ephesus so he could leave with them Poignant speech about his life and ministry now last week We were in chapter 19 of Acts Corey was speaking He explained what was going on in Acts 19 and he alluded at after Paul was ministering there in Ephesus Which was near the beginning of his what we call the third missionary journey in Ephesus There was a riot the silversmiths caused a riot that was near the beginning Now today as we bleed over into Acts 20, we're gonna get near the end of the third missionary journey and these parting words that Paul gives to the church leaders in the city of Ephesus. Now, Nathan, thank you for mentioning the maps. We're gonna bring the maps back again today. So you can see, I wanna give you a visual image. I hope it's helpful. I know sometimes the maps are hard to follow, but for me, it's helpful to get a general idea of where they're going. You can see Asia there, In Acts 19, that blue arrow is pointing to the city of Ephesus. That's what we looked at last week, Paul's ministry in Ephesus. After that, he went back over into Macedonia, the part that's in orange there. That was Acts chapter 20, the beginning, the first six verses. We're not gonna read all the verses. We're just gonna give you an overview of what was happening there. And he went back into Macedonia, and these were some of the cities he revisited once again. He went up to Philippi and to Thessalonica and some of those cities, and down to Corinth. He got down into Greece. It was a KI, but it's Greece. And then he actually went He retraced the steps rather than getting on the boat and sailing back He retraced the steps back up in towards Philippi and we've come to verse 7 of Acts chapter 20 They did sail over to a city called Troas Now from Troas Paul had a desire And this red arrow shows you what his desire was. He wanted to be done with those churches. Not necessarily that he wanted to be done. He wanted to go to Jerusalem. And we haven't introduced Jerusalem yet in this series. Everything started up at Antioch. All of the ministries, all of the three missionary journeys started out of Antioch. But now Paul has this incredible desire to go to Jerusalem and he's trying to get there before Pentecost. That's the way he wanted it to be. But watch what happens. The arrow didn't go all the way to Jerusalem. It stopped at a little city called Miletus, a little town that was a coastal town. Not sure why it stopped there, but Paul wasn't in charge of that ship. So he disembarked like everybody else. And it turns out Miletus was only 30 miles away from Ephesus. So Ephesus in Asia, where he had years of ministry, and yet the last time he was in Ephesus, it was a big riot. So maybe Paul didn't feel like it was safe to go back to Ephesus again, or he didn't want to be distracted from going away from Jerusalem. Whatever his thinking was, here's what he did. He called for the church elders in that city of Ephesus to come visit him. And in that moment, as they came about 30 miles away, when they came to see him, He gives them this incredible speech about his life. This is the, there are many, many speeches and acts. This is the only speech and acts that's given to Christians. All the speeches and acts fall into one of two other categories. They're either evangelistic, they're presenting the gospel to unbelievers, or they're kind of like legal defenses, how Paul gives his defense. We're gonna see some of those over the next few chapters, how he's defending himself before Roman governors and so forth. But this is the only one That's given to Christians and this is what we are going to look at today Paul was an apostle with a capital a there are no more apostles with capitals a But there are a lot of apostles with a lowercase a If you're a follower of Jesus You are an apostle With a lowercase a make sure you it's lowercase because the capital a apostles They saw jesus they walked with jesus. They were witnesses to his resurrection and he put his miraculous power on them There were only a few of those and they're done in the history of the church. They're the foundation of the church But the word apostle means sent by god. It means messenger So what we're gonna do today the way I'm gonna analyze this passage for us is I'm gonna build off this word Apostle in fact we've come up with an acrostic and There are characteristics I'm calling it of a great messenger if you're a follower of Jesus Christ and you are apostle with lowercase a. So apostle Amy, apostle Rick, apostle Jennifer, apostle Walt, et cetera, apostle Bruce, and all of you who are followers of Jesus. I hope you watch and listen to God's word today and say, I want that to be true of me. Well, let's let's see what these characteristics are as we look through it. What's the first characteristic? Well, we're not going to start with a. We lined it up, but we couldn't get it exactly in that particular order. Let's start with the S. Paul served with integrity and humility, verse 18 and 19, he says in verse 18. You know how I lived the whole time I was with you. You know how I lived the whole time I was with you. From the first day I came into the province of Asia, listen to this quote by a Christian leader. Evangelical Christians today are like a defeated army, naked before our enemies and unable to fight back because they have made a frightening discovery. The church is lacking in integrity. That was written in 1998 by a Christian leader named Warren Wiersbe. How much more true could it be today in 2021? If I get hit by a bus today, and I'm hoping that doesn't happen, I hope that the next pastor of Harvest will be this kind of man. Somebody who can say, you know how I lives among you the whole time I was with you. You know, we don't have perfect leaders here. Our elders and pastors and ministry leaders here are not perfect, but I am so thankful to be able to say that they are leaders of integrity. God doesn't ask for perfection. He doesn't demand perfection to be in leadership. But what he does demand is integrity and a walk with God. And I don't think there's anything more important to be able to be said of a Christian leader that he could stand up and say, you know. You know how I live the whole time among you. That's what Paul is saying here. Verse 19, I serve the Lord with great humility. So Paul served with integrity and humility. It's almost certain that Paul's opponents were contending that he was a troublemaker, that he was proud, that he was insincere, that he was superficial. I mean, hey, look everywhere Paul went, what happened? People either got saved or they rioted. I mean, Paul, the wake of Paul was trouble. And so his opponents no doubt were criticizing him. It's Paul's fault that all these things were happening. And Paul looks at these Ephesian elders and says, you know, I served with integrity. I served with humility. So this, this is not Paul patting himself on the back. He's just, defending himself to the church leaders. So they would recognize that. Now, how could Paul serve in any other way really when the one he was following was Jesus who was humble. And that's why Paul will write, for instance, in Philippians, when he's talking to the Philippian church, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, he existed forever in the nature of God, did not consider this existing in a manner with God something to be grasped. But what did he do? He humbled himself. He took on the nature of a servant and becoming like a man found in the appearance of a man, what did he do? He obeyed God even to the point of death on a cross. This is what Paul said, I served with integrity. I served with humility. Secondly, the T, can you find that on your sheet? I don't mean to confuse you by not going in order. If you need help, just raise your hand and somebody will show you where that is. T, he was tender and compassionate. towards God's people. Again, in verse 19, I serve the Lord with great humility and with tears. I think somebody needs to write a book, maybe they have, Real Men Cry. I mean, Paul was a real man. He was a tough guy. He was the guy who would be, like, beaten and stoned and they thought he was dead, and then he would go back to the very same city. So Paul was no sissy, I can guarantee you that. But he served the Lord with great humility and with tears. There was tenderness. There was compassion. And then in verse 28 to 31, he gives his charge to those elders and notice the pastoral heart and the heart that he wants those elders to have towards God's people. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy spirit has made you overseers be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. Verse 29, I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and not spare the flock. Even from your own number, men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard. Remember that for three years, I never stopped warning each of you night and day with, what's the next word? Tears. Now I commit you to God and the word of his grace. which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. So elders of harvest, pastors of harvest, ministry leaders of harvest by application, the most prominent application is for elders, but it also applies to anybody that's shepherding people. Let's just say that shepherding people is not always easy. Why? Because you're shepherding sheep. Oh, those nice, sweet little sheep that look so fluffy who love to get dirty and roll in the dirt and get parasites on them and ticks and diseases and wander away and not listen to anybody and have the spindly little skinny legs and can't defend themselves from the wolves, their sheep. And Paul is saying, hey, elders, shepherd people. Not because they're easy to shepherd, or because they always smell good. Why do we shepherd people? Because they belong to God. He bought them with his blood. And Paul says, notice how Paul includes the whole Trinity God, the father, God, the son, and God, the Holy spirit in verse 28. Uh, let me, let me go back to verse 28 there. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock, which the Holy spirit has made you overseers be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. God, the father is his church. God, the son, Jesus, he bought it with his blood and God, the Holy spirit, he appoints overseers for it. Notice Paul's advice to these shepherds keep watch yourselves never think you're above any sin always be on guard Watch your flock watch out for cults for heresy for post-modernists for other spiritual enemies Watch out for those from within the flock that would distort the truth Satan loves to subvert from within So the primary role of shepherds is not decision-making. Sometimes we have to do things that are policy-oriented and legal and all that kind of stuff. The primary function of a shepherd is spiritual protection of the flock. And this is what Paul modeled. He was tender and compassionate towards God's people. P. He preached God's Word without hesitation. In verse 20 to 27, notice as we keep walking through the passage, that's... how we've ordered these letters. I'm just going right straight through the verses in the passage. He preached publicly in house to house. Verse 20, you know that I've not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you, but have taught you publicly and from house to house. What did he preach? Verse 21, I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith Our Lord Jesus that is the message of the gospel repentance and faith Jesus died for your sins and it's not enough to just Except that intellectually you must repent why because we're walking in the wrong direction in our lives without God Repentance is a coming. It's a change of mind. It's like I'm walking in the wrong direction I change my mind and I'm willing to turn that's the repentance part and the faith part is I turn to Jesus and I receive him I put my faith in him it's like heads and tails on a quarter and One coin, salvation. Two sides, repentance and faith. This is the gospel. Have you done that? Have you put your faith in Jesus Christ? Have you repented? Have you acknowledged your sin and your need for Christ? then put your faith in Jesus. That's where it starts. This was Paul's message. And he didn't proclaim a few things. He proclaimed everything that God told him to proclaim. Verse 25, now I know that none of among None of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again Therefore I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you for I have not Hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God So again Paul was tender and and compassionate, but that didn't keep him from telling them the truth. I'm going to preach the whole counsel of God. He was thorough in the topics he covered. God's grace, God's kingdom, the necessity for repentance and faith, everything that was profitable for the hearers, God's complete plan of salvation. He was thorough in his target audience. He didn't have just one audience. He spoke to all. He was innocent of the blood of all. He spoke to Jews. He spoke to Gentiles. He was thorough in his methods. He spoke publicly in the synagogues. He spoke privately in the homes. As John Scott summarizes it, he shared all possible truth. with all possible people in all possible ways. He taught the whole gospel to the whole city with his whole strength. And what did he do it with? He did it with the Word of God. And he will write to us later. He will write to Timothy later. about the power of this word and why it's so important to be preaching the word, not just preaching ideas, not just preaching truth, but preaching the word of God. He says to Timothy, as for you, continue in what you have learned and become convinced of because you know those from whom you have learned it and how from infancy you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise. for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Paul preached God's word without hesitation. Paul was led by the Spirit, verse 22. He says, and now Compelled by the spirit. I am going to Jerusalem Not knowing what will happen to me there. Remember the map remember the big red arrow. That's all right. I'm finally going there And why are you going there Paul? You're gonna run into trouble You don't know what's gonna happen to you Paul. You might be arrested. You might be imprisoned You might be executed people might ambush you. Why would you go there? I'm going there because I am compelled by the Spirit. I am led by the Spirit. Paul could say that about his life and ministry. He didn't make this grand plan in advance, necessarily. He was led by the Holy Spirit. I'm not gonna say a whole lot about this because, Lord willing, next week, as we continue in these passages, we're gonna dive into what that looked like for Paul to be led by the spirit. But suffice it to say today that Paul had a compulsion, he had a desire, and he attributed it to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Let's look at the A. Paul was abandoned to God's will. Abandoned to God's will. Now the word abandoned, we tend to think of abandoned as somebody who's alone and desperate and desolate. But I needed an A, so I had to use that word. No, there is a meaning of abandoned. There is a definition of abandoned that includes the idea that you are so completely devoted to something, that you, it can be said that you're abandoned to it. I am abandoned to this. Now it's an older way of saying, but it, it's an a and it fits. So I think I was hopefully led by the spirit on that one. Look at these verses. 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. My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me. The task of testifying to the good news of God's grace. That's a powerful verse. I consider my life worth nothing to me. What is your life? What do you consider your life worth? This isn't a bad self image that Paul has. That's not what he's saying. He's saying the preservation of my human life, like living for myself, like making myself feel good and attain things, I consider that nothing. I'm interested in one thing. I'm interested in one thing. I want to finish the task that God gave me. And the task for Paul was to testify to the good news of God's grace. He was an apostle with a capital A, but you as an apostle and I as an apostle with a lower A. We're also given that same task, to testify to the good news of God's grace. You know, Paul, when, speaking of the Philippians, when he's in jail, in Philippi, or he's not in jail in Philippi. He writes the so-called prison letters, Philippians, Colossians, Ephesians. He writes to the Philippians from a state of being imprisoned, and he doesn't know what seizure verdict is gonna happen, and this is later in his life, which we'll get to. At that point, he doesn't know. Is Caesar gonna release him and let him go? Or is Caesar gonna say, no, you're guilty and off with the head. And he's like, you know what? I'm torn. Philippians 1, I'm torn because part of me really, really wants to stay here because it's better for you, but part of me wants to depart, not just depart prison, but depart this life and go to heaven and to be with Christ. Why? For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. That's what drove Paul. That's what motivated him. For me, living is Christ. Living is serving Christ and knowing Christ and loving Christ and making disciples for Christ. That's what living is all about. And this is why we say that Paul was abandoned to God's will. The more I think about it, the more I like that letter A and that word abandoned. Paul's instinct was not survival. That was not what Paul was interested in. You know, we can focus so much on survival. In his book, The Colors of Hope, Richard Dahlstrom describes what he calls the safety first mentality. And I admit, I probably have been on the safety first mentality for a lot of my life. According to this perspective, the key to living well is living safely. So he writes, lock your doors at night, get an alarm system, save 10% and make sure your investment is insured. Take your vitamins, minerals, omegas-3 and St. John's wort. Eat a lot of soluble fibers. Exercise. Get eight hours of sleep. Go to church regularly, being certain to drive carefully both on the way there and on the way home. It's best if your car is biggest because then you're the safest. Don't go on mission trips to places where you might contract staph infection, malaria, intestinal parasites, or face a terrorist plot. Risky hobbies? Forget it. Read books instead. Eat organic. Get a colonoscopy. There, that should do it. Now you're safe, right? Well, not really. Pistol Pete Marovitch, extraordinary athlete and specimen of fine health, died at the age of 40 while shooting hoops. He didn't smoke or drink. Meanwhile, the oldest woman on record, Jean Calment, who died at the age of 122, stopped smoking at 117 because her eyesight was so bad she could no longer clearly see enough to light her cigarettes. By the way, I'm not promoting today the idea that you should smoke cigarettes. But listen to what he says. The safety first posture is wrong on several levels. First and most significantly, the good life is never defined by Jesus in terms of either length or comfort. To the contrary, Jesus says that those who seek to save their life will lose it. And those who lose their lives, spilling them out generously in service to others because of love for God and humanity will find them. Amen. That's the apostle Paul. He was abandoned to God's will. He was abandoned to God's will. Now, what's your life abandoned to? Teenagers and adults? Is it wanting to be the most popular student at school? Is it having the most fun? Is it climbing the corporate ladder? Is it developing as much financial security as possible? Or is your life abandoned to do God's will, to testify to the grace of God? James Calvert was a missionary, a missionary pioneer to the cannibals in the Fiji islands. And they took them there. He's a traveling there. The captain of the ship tried to dissuade him from going. He said, if you go there, You're going to lose your life and the life of everybody who goes with you. And Calvert looked at him and said, Sir, we died before we came. We died before we came. D.O. Moody said, The world is yet to see. What God can do in and through a man who is totally devoted to him, I will do my best to be that man. This is Paul, abandoned, to God's will. Well, E., Paul was an example of hard work and generosity. He says in verse 3, I have not coveted anyone's silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. In everything I did, I showed you by this kind of hard work we must help the weak. Remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. And this speaks of financial integrity. Paul had moral integrity and he had financial integrity. He was an example of hard work. He was an example of generosity. And some of you might be wondering, what is that O? He was on his knees. for and with people. Paul was on his knees. Verse 36, when Paul had finished speaking, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. That wasn't the only time Paul did that. Did it a lot. Paul prayed with people. Paul prayed for people. You read his letters. Constantly he's saying I always pray for you. I always thank God for you. I'm always remembering you in my prayers and And here's what he's doing. He's he's doing it. He's kneeling down With these people not as a ritual but But because prayer mattered and prayer with people and for people mattered and verse 37, they all wept. And as they embraced and kissed him, what grieved them most was his statement. They would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship. So here it is. This is the apostle. This is what a messenger of Christ is abandoned to God's will, preaching God's word without hesitation on your knees. with and for people, serving with integrity and humility, tender and compassionate towards God's people, led by the Spirit, and an example of hard work and generosity. When God builds His church, what kind of people does He use? He uses people who are abandoned to do His will. Will you be that kind of person? I have a little chart across the bottom of your outline sheet there. It's got the full words, but they wouldn't all fit horizontally here. But it kind of gives a spectrum. On the one side is rejection. Some people just reject Christ, reject God in their life. And then other people are exploring. They're moving across the spectrum some. And then there are, let's say, cultural followers, cultural Christians who Maybe go to church and maybe pretty good and do this and that but they're just really kind of following as a cultural reason But then there are people who are really growing in Christ and they're serious about it. And then there are people who are abandoned to do God's will What could happen what could happen in the 30-mile radius around us and throughout the world if every single person at harvest is What would happen if all of our fellow sister churches up and down this corridor, if every believer was just abandoned to God's will and not to success or money or politics or comfort, but to God's will, oh, what God could do. Must be abandoned to God's will. Philippians, Paul wrote, and this is an important little qualification as I'm starting to wrap it up. I want to know Christ. Yes, to know the power of His resurrection and the participation in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I've already attained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on, now watch this, to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. So we're looking at Paul, but Paul's not ultimately our hero here. Jesus took hold of Paul and took hold of Paul so that Paul would take hold of him. If you're a Christian, God, through Jesus, death on the cross, has taken hold of you, and hopefully you'll say this with Paul. He said, brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Let me close with this. We're a non-denominational church. We're led and governed by, within, internally through the elders of this church. So we're not part of a denomination. Some denominations, it's not wrong, we're just not part of a denomination. Some denominations, they have appointments. So like leaders in the denomination will appoint a pastor to go to a certain church. And one particular seminary prof heard about one of the seminary students who was going to graduate and he was going to be appointed to a certain spot, but the student was complaining about it. Oh, that doesn't fit my gifts there. And he was saying this to another student and she in reply said, you know, the world's a better place because Michelangelo did not say I don't do ceilings. And this led Leonard Sweet to start thinking about this. And he wrote these words that I close with. The world's a better place because a German monk named Martin Luther did not say, I don't do doors. The world's a better place because an Oxford Don named John Wesley didn't say, I don't do preaching in fields. The world's a better place because Moses didn't say, I don't do pharaohs or mass migrations. The world's a better place because Noah didn't say I don't do arcs and animals. The world's a better place because Rahab didn't say I don't do enemy spies. The world's a better place because Ruth didn't say I don't do mothers-in-law. The world's a better place because Samuel didn't say I don't do mornings. The world's a better place because David didn't say I don't do giants. The world's a better place because Peter didn't say I don't do Gentiles. The world's a better place because John didn't say, I don't do deserts. The world's a better place because Mary didn't say, I don't do virgin verse. The world's a better place because Paul didn't say, I don't do correspondence. The world's a better place because Mary Magdalene didn't say, I don't do feet. The world's a better place because Jesus didn't say, I don't do crosses. And the world will be a better place only if you and I don't say, I don't do blank. When God built his church, he uses people who are abandoned to do his will. Thanks again for joining us today from Harvest Community Church. This podcast is also available on our website HarvestCharlotte.com. 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