13 But going ahead to the ship, we set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul aboard there, for so he had arranged, intending himself to go by land. 14 And when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and went to Mitylene. 15 And sailing from there we came the following day opposite Chios; the next day we touched at Samos; and1 the day after that we went to Miletus. 16 For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he might not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hastening to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.
Paul Speaks to the Ephesian Elders
17 Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. 18 And when they came to him, he said to them:
“You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, 19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; 20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, 21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.222 And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by3 the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. 24 But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. 25 And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. 26 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, 27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. 28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God,4 which he obtained with his own blood.529 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. 32 And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. 33 I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. 34 You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. 35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
36 And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. 37 And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him,
Footnotes
[1]20:15Some manuscripts add after remaining at Trogyllium [2]20:21Some manuscripts omit Christ [3]20:22Or bound in [4]20:28Some manuscripts of the Lord [5]20:28Or with the blood of his Own
13 But going ahead to the ship, we set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul aboard there, for so he had arranged, intending himself to go by land. 14 And when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and went to Mitylene. 15 And sailing from there we came the following day opposite Chios; the next day we touched at Samos; and1 the day after that we went to Miletus. 16 For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he might not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hastening to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.
Paul Speaks to the Ephesian Elders
17 Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. 18 And when they came to him, he said to them:
“You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, 19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; 20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, 21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.222 And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by3 the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. 24 But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. 25 And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. 26 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, 27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. 28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God,4 which he obtained with his own blood.529 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. 32 And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. 33 I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. 34 You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. 35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
36 And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. 37 And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him,
Footnotes
[1]20:15Some manuscripts add after remaining at Trogyllium [2]20:21Some manuscripts omit Christ [3]20:22Or bound in [4]20:28Some manuscripts of the Lord [5]20:28Or with the blood of his Own
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Joel Brooks:
Alright. So let me go ahead and get this out of the way. I am wearing Birkenstocks. I you are all gonna think it. You're all gonna wonder.
Joel Brooks:
And, yes. So, we'll just we'll just say I'm having some issues with, one of my one of my feet, and I didn't want to wear a boot, and I just thought this was a lot more fashionable to, to wear some Birks for you. You know, I do have an image to keep up. And the black socks were my idea. Before we open up, also my throat's going, I'm gonna sound like a boy going through puberty.
Joel Brooks:
Before we turn to Acts 20, I wanna talk a little bit about the trip we took to Turkey. So many, of you have been asking about the trip. It's good to be back from that, And, and rather than just having a ton of individual conversations saying the same thing, I I thought I would just take a few minutes to let you know a little bit about that trip, and to say that certainly your prayers were answered. So once again, Turkey is well, it holds the largest unreached people group, in the world percentage wise. And so most of the people that we encountered have never once in their lives met a Christian.
Joel Brooks:
Never one. And it just let that sink in. That that we were going to be the very first people that they met who actually believed in Jesus. And so, our job there was to simply walk around Istanbul meeting people and telling them about Jesus. And there was huge obstacles to this because it's a lot different than walking around in Avondale doing that.
Joel Brooks:
We're here when you're in the Bible Belt, let's say on a scale of 0 to 10, and a unbeliever is a 0, and a Christian is a 10. Well you're walking around and you're talking to zeros or to ones. But in a Muslim culture, it's really a negative 10. They have no knowledge whatsoever of Christ. And, even the terms we use, we might say the same words, but they might mean different things.
Joel Brooks:
And and of course, we are a sin and a forgiveness kind of culture, and they are an honor and a shame culture. And so even talking about forgiveness or sin doesn't really register, there in Turkey. And so there were a lot of obstacles with that. But we did find over and over again that the Lord did open up hearts and prepare people for us to come. And, and we might have somebody, since this is their first time ever meeting a Christian, if we can move them from a negative 10 to a negative 2, we were coming back and high fiving people going negative 2.
Joel Brooks:
That's right. You know, we moved somebody, up the scale. But there were times we actually got to move the scale a little bit further. And people were ready to, to read the Gospels, to hear more about Jesus. One of my favorite opportunities I had to share was, we're we're somewhere in Istanbul and, somebody from Greenpeace, Turkey came up to me.
Joel Brooks:
And he said, can I talk to you? And I said, boy, may you ever. Alright. You know, come talk. And he and he spells out all his Greenpeace pitch.
Joel Brooks:
And afterwards, I said, sir, let me see if I got this right. You believe that this world is kinda falling apart through to the evil actions of man? Yes. And he's like, yes. So there's something really wrong with man destroying this once perfect place.
Joel Brooks:
He's like, yes. And you want to save the world? And he goes, yes. And he goes, Will you sign up for Greenpeace? I was like, No.
Joel Brooks:
But I'm with you on the condition of this world, but I don't wanna offer you a band aid, I wanna offer you a cure. And the ability to just have conversations like that, we pray bore fruit. I've also, I've received a lot of questions from you about what was it like to take a family? Because it wasn't just Lauren and me. We brought all 3 of our daughters on that trip.
Joel Brooks:
And we thought and prayed a lot about that before signing up for the trip and decided we would do that. It would be good for them. We thought it'd be good for the church. We have a daughter in high school, in middle school, and elementary school. And so they would experience that all through that lens.
Joel Brooks:
And I don't wanna sugarcoat this for you. Taking children, across the ocean to a Muslim country and to Istanbul, a city that has 20,000,000 people twice the size of New York City, with your kids is a challenge. It's a hard thing to do. After Lorna and I were talking a lot about it, we decided we really should do this. But even early on, there were a lot of obstacles.
Joel Brooks:
I mean, some of y'all, it's hard to get your children to church. You know? Or try packing to go to the beach. Now just amplify that by maybe a 100 or so and think of, like, packing them to get them over to Istanbul. Also, in the days leading up to us, leaving, a doctor discovered a mass in, one of Lauren's breasts, and that just threw us for a loop right there.
Joel Brooks:
And it really was not until, 2 or 3 hours before we left that we actually got the good news. That that was not anything we had to worry about. And so we we were just feeling all these anxieties and these attacks and everything leading on to it. But then the Lord exceeded our expectations. When we got there, we decided to treat our children essentially as a piece of luggage.
Joel Brooks:
Alright? Meaning we were just gonna hold on to them at all times. Alright? And so, and so we did that for the 1st day. And we Lauren and I were able to have great conversations with people, but it was just Lauren and I having great conversations with people.
Joel Brooks:
Holding our children like luggage. And, and so we we talked to our kids and we said, would would you prefer, like, if you weren't in our shadow? And they were all like, yes. Yes. We would prefer that.
Joel Brooks:
And so we we decided first to, to release Caroline. And, we actually released her, our 16 year old daughter to another continent because Istanbul is both Europe and Asia, and she went over to the Europe side. And, and so we Oh, you went to the Asia side. See, I didn't even know where I was. She's more responsible than I am.
Joel Brooks:
And so we released her there and we were able to hear back. She was with a small team just how the Lord used her and blessed her in a way that we wouldn't have never seen if she had been with us. And so, there is significant growth there. The next day I I asked Natalie, would you kinda like to go off on your own? Natalie's 13.
Joel Brooks:
And she's like, yes. I was like, well, how about I at least stay in the same proximity as you, but I'll pair you off with with somebody else. And I I got to see her just on her own. She just she just walked up to these college students who were playing guitar. She's 13 years old.
Joel Brooks:
She walks up to them. I see her grab the guitar and she just starts playing before them. And I'm thinking, oh my gosh. She's like, you know, singing praise songs to Jesus and all this and I come up and she's teaching them Ed Sheeran perfect. You know, it's just baby steps, building bridges, I mean, I knew where she was going.
Joel Brooks:
You wanna know who's really perfect? She was getting to Jesus. But after that, I began thinking we need to release her and so we partnered her up with somebody else and actually we we sent her away. And so now it was Lauren, me and Georgia. And, Georgia's 10, so we did not send her away.
Joel Brooks:
I didn't want DHR calling me and anything like that. So Georgia was essentially our piece of luggage that we kept close to us this entire time. But I wanna say that the Lord still not only taught, but actually used Georgia. Once again, exceeded my expectations for what the Lord was gonna do with children. There was a time, it was just Lauren, me, Georgia, and our translator, a girl named Aika, who, who came from, was it Kyrgyzstan?
Joel Brooks:
And she was a former Muslim. She came to know Jesus and when she did so, her family disowned her. Her family basically said you were dead to me. And then persecution really started hitting after that. So not only did her family, forsake her, but then she was in a neighborhood that had many extremist radical Muslims there who began making threats on her life.
Joel Brooks:
And she's telling us this, and, our our daughter I could I could share this because she's in Club 56 and she's not here, but, she started getting misty eyed. And she just goes, Ika, can I read you something? And Ika goes, yes. And she, she turned to Matthew chapter 5, and she said, Jesus said, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God. I tell you what, like, Ika's crying, we're crying.
Joel Brooks:
I was like, I didn't know that was it. I mean, there's times we've wondered if anything's in there. And like, and then, you know, like, and then the Spirit of God just kinda raises that. And so, it was a tremendous time of growth for our children that they likely would not have experienced here, while at the same time being a tremendous challenge. I wanna just be very, sober minded about that.
Joel Brooks:
If you're a parent and you're wondering whether you should take their kid your kids on a mission trip or not, I would encourage you to pray about it and, and lean towards doing that. I think the Lord will surprise you. And if you're worried about how you fund or pay for that, we we have got means in which we can help you out in that process. Alright. So let's turn to Acts.
Joel Brooks:
Acts chapter 20. This section of scripture is significant for us because this is the only speech of any length, the only significant speech that we have in the book of acts that is directed towards Christians. Everything else is directed towards unbelievers, but here, Paul is directing this for Christians. Paul is on his way to go to Jerusalem, but as he is passing nearby Ephesus, he sends word to the Ephesian elders, his dear friends, and he says, can you meet me? And so they meet him and this is his farewell address to them.
Joel Brooks:
He is never going to see them again. So this is his farewell speech and it is a powerful, heartfelt, moving speech that's really a summation of Paul's life. And so I want us to read this in its entirety. So we'll begin actually in verse 17. I I'm I will just say it kills me not to read the story earlier about Eutychus falling asleep while listening to Paul's sermon and falling and dying, because there's so many applications that you could pull from that.
Joel Brooks:
That that basically, that's for my edification and it's a warning for you. So verse 17. Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. And when they came to him, he said to them, you yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot, set foot in Asia. Serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews.
Joel Brooks:
How I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house. Testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now behold, I'm going to Jerusalem constrained by the Spirit not knowing what will happen to me there, Except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value nor is precious to myself if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And now behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again.
Joel Brooks:
Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention to yourself and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. To care for the church of God which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.
Joel Brooks:
And from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away to the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for 3 years I did not cease, neither day to admonish everyone with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me.
Joel Brooks:
In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way, we must help the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all prayed with them all. And there was much weeping on the part of all. They embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken that they would not see his face again.
Joel Brooks:
And they accompanied him to the ship. This is the word of the Lord. It is to God. Will you pray with me? Lord, we do pray the words of Paul we just read that that we would commend ourselves to you and to the word of your grace, which we know is able to build us up.
Joel Brooks:
So, god, we ask that through your spirit, you would indeed build us up. Lord, I pray that we would consider it all joy to lay down our lives in service of you. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:
Amen. There's 2 of you. I I love the books. I love the movies. But the movies have a hard time capturing something.
Joel Brooks:
They have a hard time capturing the the sense of length or time that those epic journeys took, for the fellowship of the ring. They they just couldn't capture it in a book that you can read in, you know, just a few hours, or like me, a few weeks. The movies are long, but they're not as long as obviously the months and the years that take place during them. And so it's really hard to get that sense of time. Acts is the same way.
Joel Brooks:
Yes, we've been going through the book of acts for a while, but you can actually sit down and just read it in 2 hours. And when you do so, you really lose a sense of the time that has taken place as Paul seems to be staying here a few days, he's here a few weeks, he's here a few years, and like Where are we at really in Paul's life? And so let me tell you, it is now at this point in Paul's life, it has been 30 years since Jesus rose from the dead and ascended. 30 years ago, this happened. 30 years is a long time.
Joel Brooks:
That's when George h Bush just became president. There was not email 30 years ago. There was not the world wide web 30 years ago. That's a long time. There's lots of change that happens during that span of time.
Joel Brooks:
It's been 24 years since Paul's conversion, since he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. And Paul is a much different man now at this point of his life than he was when he first met Jesus 24 years ago. But you lose that sense of time when years just go by and just sentences. But by this point in Paul's life, he has aged. He's been on the run constantly for 20 years now.
Joel Brooks:
He has been beaten up so many times. We know this, by this point in his life, Paul has been flogged 5 times. That is a 195 lashes. He's been beaten with rods or picture those like police batons. He's been beaten with rods 3 times.
Joel Brooks:
He's been stoned to the point where they thought he was dead. Perhaps he was dead and the Lord raised him up, but they dragged what they thought to be his lifeless body outside the city. This is a man who has never never known peace. He's always been on the move or or on the run. Often he went without food, he went without sleep, And above all this, he had the daily pressure of the concern for all the churches.
Joel Brooks:
He also had to make a living and so he kept working as a tent maker. So when you picture Paul here, at this stage in his life, don't picture anyone like me. Or or any other pastor that you know of, picture a walking scar. Picture a man who's either bald at this point or his his hair would have completely gone gray. A person whose back muscles have been torn to shreds so many times that the scar tissue would have certainly kept him awake at night.
Joel Brooks:
It would have hurt to walk, to sit, to lay down. This was a man in constant pain. I actually think that's one of the reasons that the physician, Luke, he was so welcome to join Paul in his journeys is that Paul needed someone to take care of him in his pain. When you picture Paul's face, picture a man who would have certainly borne tremendous scars. You're not you're not beaten with rods or you're not stoned and you don't have tremendous scars or missing teeth.
Joel Brooks:
He would have probably been missing most if not all of his teeth at this point. This is a man who for the last 20 years has been at war. When Jesus called him, Jesus said, I will show you how much you must suffer for my name's sake. Any of y'all glad that is not how Jesus called you? Yeah.
Joel Brooks:
And they call you. You know, besides this forgiveness and eternal life, just just one little thing. I'm going to show you how much you must suffer for my name's sake. And Paul suffered. He suffered unlike any other Christian in history.
Joel Brooks:
This was a man who, he he told the Corinthians he despaired at times even of his life. He told the Philippians, he said, if I could just die, if I were to die, that would be such gain. Such gain. For me to live as Christ and to die is gain. But I count all things as loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things.
Joel Brooks:
He'd later tell the Galatians, I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. So, this man This is the man, the image that I want you to have when you when you hear these words. It's the man that you need to picture as he gathers together that that small assembly of Ephesian elders and he gives them basically a summation of his life. I want you to have that image in your mind when you hear the words, my life is of no account to me. No account if only I may finish the race and complete the task that the Lord Jesus has given me.
Joel Brooks:
I guarantee you that that message coming from that man had to hit those elders like a bat in the chest. It would have certainly taken their breath away. Now, this this entire speech that Paul does here is really a summary of his life. He's basically saying that this is a summary of my life, this is who I am, and this is what I think makes a good life. And so we need to listen very carefully to Paul's words.
Joel Brooks:
And there's a lot of things you could pull out here, but I'm just gonna pull out 3 things. Three summaries of Paul's life. Three things that he believed that is important in our Christian walk. The first is this, faithfulness. Faithfulness to God and his calling on your life.
Joel Brooks:
Actually, I think you could summarize verse 24 as just Paul saying, I just wanna be faithful to the end in doing what Jesus has tasked me with. There's nothing more important for us, people. Hear me. There's nothing more important than for you to figure out God's calling on your life, and then to be faithful to do it. That's what a successful life is.
Joel Brooks:
You are not however, I wanna hear me say this, you are not however responsible to do what God has called another person to do or God's calling on another person's life. We don't look horizontally. We simply look towards the Lord in this and we must be faithful to what God has called us to do. If we look sideways, we could begin to be so burdened because we see so many things that need to be done, but God knows you cannot do everything. You do not have endless time.
Joel Brooks:
You do not have endless energy. You cannot be everywhere. God remembers your frame and he knows that you are dust. So figure out your calling, not anyone else's. A few years ago, I said something that I'd kinda caught me off guard as to how much it would resonate with people, but people have consistently brought this up.
Joel Brooks:
I mentioned that when Jesus when Jesus was walking here on this earth, I said, we love to focus on the miracles, rightly so, but remember, Jesus did not heal everyone. He didn't heal everyone. There were times He went in and He healed entire villages. And then there were times he walked past entire villages. There were times that He healed many sick people and then there were times He walked by lots of sick people and He would just heal one.
Joel Brooks:
Sometimes walking by the spirit meant walking by hurting people for Jesus. You hear that? Sometimes walking by the spirit meant walking by hurting people for Jesus. And for us, Jesus was perfectly God and he was perfectly human, and in his human body, there were limitations. He could not be everywhere at once.
Joel Brooks:
We're not God. We can't do everything. But what God has called us to do, give it your all and be faithful. Now, I want you to notice that in this summary of Paul's life, he does not at all talk about success or failure in what he's supposed to be doing or what he's done. He only talks about faithfulness.
Joel Brooks:
He doesn't say, hey guys, remember all the baptisms I've done. Remember all the conversions that I had. Remember all the churches that I've planted. All of that language of success and failure are completely missing here. He only brings up faithfulness.
Joel Brooks:
The words success and the word failure are terms that belong to our master, not us. Faithfulness is the word that belongs to God's stewards, which is us. So we don't use the word success or failure. That is completely dependent upon the Lord. We use the language of faithfulness.
Joel Brooks:
Just to be faithful with the task God has given us. And that had to be liberating for Paul. As much success as we think Paul had, what if he looked at Peter and compared his ministry to Peter's? Peter would preach and 1,000 would come to know Jesus. Often, Paul would preach and he get a handful of people going, you wanna get coffee afterwards?
Joel Brooks:
I'd like to discuss this more with you. He wasn't nearly the preacher that Peter was, but he was a herald nonetheless. He was just supposed to be responsible with the task God has given him. So, if God calls you to go and share the gospel with your neighbor, and I'm 99.9% sure he has, their salvation doesn't depend on you. The success or failure of it does not depend on you.
Joel Brooks:
But the faithfulness for you to go and share is on you. Be faithful. Second thing we see here is Paul brings that Paul brings up as a summary of his life is that he did not shrink from telling the truth. Paul mentions this twice actually. In verse 20, he says that he did not shrink from declaring anything that was profitable.
Joel Brooks:
In verse 27, he says that, He did not shrink from declaring the whole counsel of God. Although it wasn't easy, although many times it was gonna get him into trouble, Paul was gonna tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. All the time. And let the chips fall where they may. He did not shrink ever from proclaiming the hard scriptures.
Joel Brooks:
That the culture just said, you really believe that? He absolutely stepped up and said, I will not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. He did not shrink from having the hard conversations. I love that word shrink. It's it's so so vivid in my mind because I have shrunk at times where I know that there's there's a setting and a place where God wants me to rise up and step into that moment and say something and I have shrunk before.
Joel Brooks:
But Paul says he's guiltless. He did not shrink. Hear me. We are heralds of the gospel. This is what Paul is talking about here.
Joel Brooks:
Heralds of the gospel. And that is liberating to us because a herald does not have to come up with a message. A herald is given a message. It's not up to you to try to come up with something. It's not up to you to try to alter something.
Joel Brooks:
A herald is simply given a message and then as faithfully as they can, dispense it. We are heralds of the gospel that we have been given. The final thing that Paul wants to be remembered by here is that he was a man who was bound or constrained by the spirit of God. Look at verse 22. And now behold, I am going to Jerusalem constrained by the spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there.
Joel Brooks:
You might have a footnote that also says, or bound in the spirit. Now if you read through acts, once again it only takes a couple of hours, and if you read through in one sitting, you're going to notice a progression, with Paul concerning the Spirit of God. So when Paul met the Lord on the road to Damascus in Acts chapter 9, he was filled with the spirit of God. He was filled when he was converted. Later, he was sent out by the spirit of God in Acts 13.
Joel Brooks:
He was sent out to be a missionary when the church gathered together through that time of fasting and prayer and they said, set aside for me Paul and Barnabas. And he was sent out by the spirit. He was then empowered by the spirit to do such miracles like striking Elymas the magician blind. And then in Acts 16, he was led by the spirit. In which the spirit of God prohibited him from going one place and steered him away from another place and then led him to Macedonia.
Joel Brooks:
And so now, he's constrained by the spirit or bound to the spirit. So do you see the progression that we have here in Acts? Paul is first filled, then he is sent, then he is led, then he is empowered, and now he is bound. Bound to the spirit of God. To bind yourself to to someone means that you have joined your will completely with theirs.
Joel Brooks:
So so my wife has bound herself to me, and I have bound myself to her through the covenant of marriage. When my wife said her vows, she said, you know, your joys will be my joys. Your sorrows will be my sorrows. Your community, your friends, your people will be my people. And she's bound herself.
Joel Brooks:
And it was a joyful joyful union. Yes. When we look at the equation, we think we both inherited or we both by binding to one another, we we now got more sorrows, more troubles, but we also got infinitely more joys, and we've seen more fruit. This is what it means to bind yourself to someone. And so Paul is bound to the spirit and that means that he will go and do whatever the spirit calls him to do and and wherever the spirit leads.
Joel Brooks:
I mean, look what Paul is Look what he says in verse 23. Or let's go back 22 when he says, I am constrained by the spirit not knowing what will happen to me there. Except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. And so the spirit of God opens up, you know, door number 1 here and says, here's imprisonment and, and here's afflictions. And and Paul says, well, if that's where you're going spirit, I'm bound to you.
Joel Brooks:
I don't even need to look at door number 2. That's the only thing he knows is that it will hurt to follow the spirit to be bound to him, but Paul joyfully does so. To be bound to the spirit of God means your answer is yes. Even when you don't know the question, you don't know the circumstance, and you don't know the result. Your answer is already yes.
Joel Brooks:
Now what brought Paul to this place in his life where he could dare say these things? That he's bound to the spirit or that he doesn't take any account of his own life? How did he get here? We're tempted to say, well, maybe it was just like he was so sure of he was going to heaven when he dies. He could just give it all in this life.
Joel Brooks:
But I don't think it was the certainty of heaven for Paul. Because Paul was certain of heaven pre conversion. When Paul was zealous in his faith there, and he was persecuting Christians, the guy absolutely, 100% believed he was going to Heaven. I don't think that's what brought Paul to this point. I think it's simply that Paul had an encounter with the living Jesus and it changed everything for him.
Joel Brooks:
That road to Damascus, I mean, yes, it struck him blind, but everything else he began to see in perfect clarity. When I was in seminary, I had to take Greek. I say had to because I had to. Foreign languages are not easy for me. English isn't easy for me.
Joel Brooks:
I met actually people, in Istanbul who spoke better English than I did. One person I said, do you speak English? And they said, do you mean doctor Seuss or Jane Austin? I was like, okay. So I had to take Greek, when I was in seminary and I, after 3 semesters, I understood Greek for exactly or approximately, I guess, 30 seconds.
Joel Brooks:
Because I remember vividly those 30 seconds. I'm studying for my final and I've been putting weeks into this. And if you know anything about Greek, there's a reason they say it's all Greek to me. It's because it's really hard and it's endless charts that you have to memorize. About different participle endings, you know, different preposition endings, all this stuff.
Joel Brooks:
And for one brief moment, all of the charts came together in my mind. Now I remembered, I was at the halls of Beeson and and it it all came together and I said, nobody talk to me. Like, nobody I got it. I understand Greek. And I just had to make it from there to my desk.
Joel Brooks:
And that was my only goal. I had to make it there to desk, take the exam. And so I'm walking and I'm just trying to hold this all together, and after 30 seconds, I I felt it coming apart. And I actually began screaming, no. No.
Joel Brooks:
Like it's leaving me. But for 30 seconds, I had it. But I did not have it when I sat down. I think there's times like that in our Christian life where we're given this incredible clarity. Where the reality of the resurrection is not just a theory, but the spirit of God presses it into us.
Joel Brooks:
And all of a sudden we're given amazing clarity as to how we are to live our lives in light of the resurrected Jesus. And when that clarity hits, we realize the way I spend money has to change. The way I spend my time has to change. The way I work with my family, I love my family has to change. We realize everything we have to live in light of that reality.
Joel Brooks:
And it comes crystal clear for us in those moments and a lot of times they're unplanned, but the spirit of God presses in. I'm real. You will live forever. Make the most in this life. Follow me.
Joel Brooks:
Bind yourself to me. What do we do in those moments? I've gotta confess that often, when those things hit, I get scared. And I look for a distraction. And it's not easy.
Joel Brooks:
I mean, it's it's not hard to just kind of, you know, I'm gonna check some emails now. I'm gonna do this. And we don't allow the spirit of God to keep pressing in. I confess that to you. Hear me, when the when the spirit of God is upon you and he is pressing into you the reality, not the theory, but the reality of the resurrection in your life and how all of these implications come from that, Press in.
Joel Brooks:
Don't fade away. Pray with me. Lord Jesus, we want to count our lives as nothing. And when we say we wanna do that, we know it's it's not sorrow or despair that we're embracing, but it's an incredible joy through your spirit. And so, spirit of God, we do ask that you would press into us the reality of the resurrection of Jesus and that our entire lives would be lived in light of that reality.
Joel Brooks:
Don't let us run from that. Don't let us distract ourselves from that, but may we press into that reality. May we bind ourselves to you, Spirit, all for the glory of Jesus. We pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.