Jeremy Duncan: That's a pretty interesting wrinkle to this moment. Right? That Paul's not just contemplating his death, which he is. He's not just saying goodbye to friends for good, which he is. He's not even just handing off responsibility for a community that he helped to create, which he is.
Any one of those would make this a pretty compelling moment. This is also about Paul reformulating his theology in real time. We find ourselves today right now, in the middle of a series called Soapbox Sunday. And that was just sort of our playful little way of letting some of our teaching team talk about perhaps some of the ideas that have been rolling around in their minds over the last couple months and years. And so far, it's been a lot of fun to hear from Scott and Yelena.
Yelena talking about home and Scott talking about a thought filled life. I mean, that is great material anyway, so thanks to those guys. Today, I'm gonna take a little bit of a different angle on this soapbox because I actually want to return to a series of conversations we had together in the spring heading into the summer. If you remember, we spent a couple months, eight weeks right after Easter working our way through the book of Acts. Now that's a long time, a longer series, but there was still not nearly enough time to cover everything that happens in that book.
And so as we got to the end of that series, I found myself with a bit of a dilemma. There was really two ideas, two stories I wanted to cover. I just didn't have time to fit them both in. And so if you recall, we ended in chapter 19 with a fascinating, at least I thought, poignant story about how often it's our economic interests that really drive a lot of our angst. If you missed that one, fine.
If you can't remember it, that's cool too. You can always jump back in the archives, pick up the last week of our story of acts series. But now, because I've been offered a little freedom on this soapbox today, I figured I would go back to pick up that sermon that I missed from the book of acts. So this is about the end of one story and the beginning of another. First, though, let's pray.
God of every beginning and every ending, thank you for the people who have carried this story of faith before us, for those who trusted you enough to begin something new, and for those who trusted you enough to eventually hand it over to someone else. Teach us to hold whatever you have given us with gratitude, but never so tightly that we become afraid for it to change. Where we confuse faithfulness with control, Give us courage to let go. And where the future feels perhaps uncertain, remind us that our uncertainty has never meant your absence. Where we find ourselves responsible for what comes next, give a wisdom, humility, imagination to participate faithfully in whatever you're doing near us, around us.
And as we return to the story of Paul today, to the closing chapter of Acts, would you help us not simply to hear what happened then, but perhaps your spirit still inviting us to trust today, to grow, to release, to begin all over again. In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray. Amen. Today, we are back in the book of Acts, and we're talking about endings, and we're talking about beginnings. But to cover that, we will talk about growing up and saying goodbye, letting go, and holding on.
First, the fall is coming. Right? That means school is on its way, already here for some of us, I hear. But for our family, this is a big year because my daughter is entering into grade one. Now, my son is entering grade eight, so he's getting nearer to his own big transition, high school in a couple years.
Anyone with advice. I am all ears these days. He just turned 13, so pray for us. My daughter, who is six years old right now, she is very excited about moving from kindergarten to grade one, though. Full day is very exciting.
All she talks about is growing up. And we have this gag in our house where I tell her, just stay a little girl for me. And she says, no. I'm gonna be an adult soon. And I say, well, can't you just stay my little girl?
And she says, no. I mean to get bigger and bigger and bigger until I'm bigger than you, daddy. This week, I pushed my luck a little bit farther. I said, no. You can't grow up.
You have to stay little forever. And she said, well, you're not the boss of me. And I can't tell you how many times I said exactly those words to my parents growing up. I can't tell you how many times I was set straight by my mom as I was growing up from that misconception. But, of course, in this case, my boss status is largely irrelevant.
There is, of course, absolutely nothing I can do to enforce my expressed desire. She is growing up in front of me every day regardless. Now don't get me wrong. That is a beautiful and a wonderful and bittersweet part of being a parent, but she is, of course, also correct. There is very few things I actually control, and this is not one of them.
And today, this is that kind of story for Paul. Let's start by reminding ourselves where Paul was when we saw him last. If you recall, he had gone to Ephesus, and he started preaching about Jesus. And this was impacting the local trade in shrines and idols that were sold at the Temple Of Artemis largely because Paul was, like, straight up telling people, you shouldn't buy those things, which, of course, riled up the vendors, who then riled up the crowds. And, an impromptu mob threatened the safety of some of Paul's companions.
Now, thankfully, state officials intervened, common sense prevailed, everyone calmed down and went home, and Paul used that opportunity to get the heck out of town. Pretty interesting story, actually. Pretty sophisticated story, really. I mean, on its surface, it's a story about quote unquote idols. But by the end, what you realize is actually this is a story about how it's not just idols of wood and stone that drive us nearly as much as idols of bank accounts and purchasing power that really push us.
Human nature, not really changed all that much in two thousand years. Regardless, once that mob disperses, at the very start of chapter 20, we read this, that when the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the other disciples, and after encouraging them said, peace out. That's a paraphrase, but that's the idea here. He's had enough of this town. He's moving on to other places.
See you later. So from there, Paul continues doing his missionary thing. He's traveling around Macedonia, But eventually, he decides it's time for him to go back to Jerusalem. Now, little primer here on the geography of the early church. Jerusalem is where it all starts.
Right? Like, that's where Jesus is crucified. It's where Jesus rises. That's where Pentecost blows the doors off the early church. But, also where things stagnate a little bit, the disciples in Jerusalem are not the ones who are out there starting Jesus communities all over.
They're more focused on drawing people toward their church in Jerusalem. It's actually Antioch in the East where it's almost this sort of afterthought of a church that emerges, but that's where Paul really gets connected. That's where he finds his footing, and that's where, the the root of the beginning of all of these other churches like Ephesus that that we now associate with the early Jesus movement, that's where all they come from. Well, now Paul decides it's time for him to go back to Jerusalem. And so this is what we read in chapter 20.
This is verse 16, by the way. Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the province of Asia, like understandable given what happened last time. But he's also in a hurry to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of Pentecost. So from Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of that church to come and see him there. 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 Asia, I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of all my Jewish opponents. I mean, it goes on here a bit, but jumping to verse 22. And now compelled by the spirit, I am going back to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me. I only know that everywhere I go, the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships seem to be facing me. Verse 25, I also know that none of you, whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again.
A little dramatic. And Paul finished speaking. He knelt down with all them, and they prayed. They wept as they embraced him, and they kissed him. But what grieved them the most was his statement, they would never see him again.
And then they accompanied him to his ship. Now this whole section is kind of unremarkable. It's it's a big transition point between two other stories. Setting aside, of course, Paul's somewhat dramatic statement about no one will ever see him again. There's some really important stuff going on here though.
First of all, just as Paul in Antioch and Ephesus and all these other churches that have exploded in the second half of the book of Acts mark a transition from the original disciples to now an expanding story of Jesus in the church era. This moment here between Paul and the leaders of Ephesus marks a transition from the first to now the second generation of believers. Remember, Paul has helped start a church here in Ephesus, also helped start a riot in Ephesus, but also founded and grounded a pretty healthy community here. A community that he cares very deeply about, but importantly, a community that he is now handing the responsibility for over to that community for its own future. And understand, like, that is a surprisingly hard thing for a founder of anything to do.
Now granted, Paul's convinced he's not coming back. So in some sense, that makes the transition more involuntary rather than chosen, but still, there is an imagination for church here that is inherently forward facing. Paul might not want to hand over responsibility, but he also doesn't seem to run from that or fear it. Remember, over the course of Acts, Paul has helped start churches in at least Antioch, Pisidium, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Corinth, and Ephesus. And at this point, there are also churches in at least Colossi, Laodicea, Hierapolis, and Rome that Paul didn't start himself, but definitely had a hand in influencing and coaching.
And now here he is preparing to leave Macedonia to return to Jerusalem, saying goodbye to friends and acknowledging, perhaps even realizing for the first time that everything he had a hand in creating is going to outlast him. Now that might sound obvious in hindsight. Right? Like, of course, the churches outlast their founders. That's kind of the point.
Until you remember, Paul actually spent a lot of his ministry expecting Jesus to return within his lifetime. In first Thessalonians, for example, chapter four, he writes about we who are alive, those of us who are left until the coming of the Lord. Or over in first Corinthians 15, he talks about how we'll all be changed, but not all of us are gonna die. That's because he's expecting Jesus to return at least within his foreseeable lifetime, which means Paul didn't start churches expecting to ever hand them off. He assumed he would get to see these stories through to Christ's return.
That's a pretty interesting wrinkle to this moment. Right? That Paul's not just contemplating his death, which he is. He's not just saying goodbye to friends for good, which he is. He's not even just handing off responsibility for a community that he helped to create, which he is.
Any one of those would make this a pretty compelling moment. This is also about Paul reformulating his theology in real time. And by the way, good for him. Like, honestly, has anyone here in this room made it this far into your journey of faith without having to reformulate at least some beliefs at some point along the way? For the record, if you haven't spoiler, sorry.
It's coming. Because faith is not about getting it right and camping out forever. In practice, faith is largely about finding our way forward in spite of ourselves. And look if Paul was figuring out, at least some of his theology in real time as he moved to the book of Acts, as he was writing what would become the basis for a lot of our New Testament, then maybe we can find a little bit more grace for ourselves when we stumble our way forward. But all of that also means this is the point in the book of Acts where the question starts to shift from what will Paul do next to now what will happen when Paul is gone.
And if that dilemma feels familiar, it's possibly because that's where the book of Acts started. Right? All the way back in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost with the disciples asking the same thing about their risen and now ascended Lord. What are we gonna do without Jesus? Well, now here's Paul rushing to get back to Jerusalem before Pentecost, having just told his friends they're gonna have to figure out what to do without him.
Now, I wanna be careful here. I'm not trying to insinuate that Paul is as important to Christianity as Jesus. I think that's actually a mistake we as Christians have made at times over the years. But what I'm pointing to and what I think the narrative of acts is signaling, not all that subtly, I might add, is that transition and change and trust and the handing over of responsibility, that is never complete. Because church is never a fixed point.
It's always evolving. It's always being handed to someone new. That's the nature of everything that's alive, including our communities. We bump into each other, and we impact each other. We learn, and we grow together.
We welcome people in, and sometimes we say goodbye. And at its best, all of that can be beautiful because that exchange is what enables a community to transcend the individual contributions that any of us make. It sort of allows church to honestly sometimes actually become something almost divine in itself. A living, breathing expression of the body of Christ in the world that is so much bigger than any one person. And that is certainly something that Paul knew, in theory at least.
Right? Like, taught about this beautifully. He illustrates it in Corinthians when he talks about the church as a body, all of these different parts, all playing their part, every single one of us necessary for community to thrive. And yet, the realization that he wasn't going to get to be a part of the next chapter, I I bet that didn't come easily for Paul. Not because he couldn't see that it was good or necessary, but because to actually let go and to say, look, I'm not coming back to acknowledge this is yours now.
Take it and run with it. I don't think that's easy for any of us to do. Now, thankfully, the test for any of us isn't about what's easy. It's about whether we rise to meet the moment. And here, Paul does that wonderfully.
In fact, I think in some ways, he's a model for the kind of leader that doesn't hold on too long. What's fascinating though slash terrifying about this is that even that is really just the beginning of this lesson for Paul. Since Paul gathers his friends, and he says, look. The story is yours now. Take it and run with it.
I trust you that they cry and they pray, and they probably recounted a few stories and reminisced over good times. Maybe even that one time they started a mob in Ephesus. Then Paul gets on a boat, And, all of a sudden, any illusions Paul was still caring about who was in control, all of that gets pretty dramatically ripped away from him in short order. I'm gonna speed run a few chapters here. But if you have time, go and read Acts 21 to 26 this week.
There's a lot happens here. But Paul gets on this ship. He decides he's going to Jerusalem. As soon as he gets off the boat, he's warned. He's like, this is not a good idea.
You should not be here. And lo and behold, a chapter later, he gets arrested and almost killed by another angry mob. He tries to explain himself to them near the end of the chapter, but that goes badly as well, and so he gets hauled before the Sanhedrin, a religious court in chapter 22. Now unsurprisingly, that goes poorly well when he gets punched in the face in court in chapter 23. An assassination plot develops out of the melee.
40 men in the room promise they're not gonna eat anything until they can off him. And so a Roman commander in Jerusalem, a guy named Claudius Lysias, steps in. He ships Paul off to Caesarea with a military escort in the middle of the night so the governor there can hear his case before anyone can get to him. Chapter 24, we find this governor. The procurator of Judea is his official title.
He's a man named Felix, but Felix does not take a shine to Paul either, so he leaves him sitting in jail for two years waiting for trial. Finally, a new procurator is appointed. Festus is this guy's name, and he reopens the case in chapter 25. Thing is, the religious courts want Paul returned to them in Jerusalem for trial. And so Paul, a Roman citizen, appeals to Caesar.
Well, Festus is not sure what to do about this, so he brings in king Agrippa, who's a descendant of king Herod. Now Agrippa is a client king under Rome. He doesn't have any real power, but he is a lot more familiar with Jewish custom and law than Festus is. So Festus says, look. Here's the deal.
It's a dispute over some dead Jewish teacher, and Paul is convinced he's alive. And Agrippa replies, well, that's not really illegal. So you can probably just let him go, but you know they're gonna go after him if you do. Do you really wanna deal with all that? Besides, he already appealed to Caesar, and he is a Roman citizen after all.
Why don't you just ship him back to Rome? Make it their problem. And so Paul is now handed over to a centurion of the imperial regiment, a man named Julius, and in Acts 27 verse one, it was decided that he would set sail for Italy. Now what I want you to pay attention to here is that when we picked up with Paul in chapter 20 today, we saw him making peace with the fact the story isn't his anymore. And we watched him hand over responsibility to the church in Ephesus so they could chart their own course without him.
My argument is that was probably hard for Paul. What we're seeing now is that perhaps that decision on the shores of Macedonia was about a lot more than just his friends in Ephesus. Because letting go of control of what comes after you is one thing. Letting go of control of what happens to you, that is something else entirely. You see, for me, this final act of acts seems to be about this slow, rolling, progressive realization that this guy who is used to being in control of, honestly, like a lot of things, has very few shots left to call.
And sure, maybe he saw that coming. I mean, he told his friends he wouldn't be back, But I'm not sure even Paul understood exactly what this story would look like. For most of the second half of the book of Acts, Paul is a force of nature. Like, he's the initiator. He's the driving energy behind the story.
And I don't mean that in the sense that he doesn't listen for the spirit of God. He obviously does. But within that guiding, the narrative is generally Paul chooses a city. Paul preaches in that city. Paul leaves when things go sideways in that city, and Paul decides what city he's going to next.
Paul even decides when he's gonna hand things over to the church he's planted. But at the end of that story, it was still Paul deciding to get on the boat and go to Jerusalem. Now here we are years later in Acts 27, and Paul hasn't made a decision for himself in years. It is now decided that they would sail for Italy. Not Paul decided.
No longer the holy spirit led. No. After years of sitting in a Caesarean jail waiting for trial, it's now a Roman centurion named Julius under the orders of a Roman governor named Festus at the advice of a puppet king named Agrippa, that's who decides when and where Paul goes. And all of them making a mess of it. Like, right after this, Paul's like, guys, I've been praying.
This is a bad idea. We we should not set sail right now. And they ignore him, and they sail straight into a storm, and the ship breaks apart on the rocks. And all of a sudden, Paul is responding to a crisis that finally is not of his own making. Here's the thing.
There's an incredibly important difference between control and agency in our lives. And for me, the last act of acts is kind of all about Paul losing control. He's acknowledging. He's not gonna see these churches through to the end. He's accepting the story is not gonna unfold on his terms.
He's even realizing here in his final shipwreck moments that he has no control over weather or direction or even when to set sail anymore. And yet even here, Paul still gets to decide how he will show up in that moment. Because, in fact, it's Paul who told them not to set sail in the first place who calms the sailors. And it's Paul who is a captive himself who keeps all the prisoners together. And it's Paul who hasn't been able to make a decision for himself in years who makes sure everyone reaches shore safely.
It's even Paul who, being treated like cargo, now secures welcome and negotiates somewhere for everyone to stay while they wait for months on end for another ship to come and rescue them. And for me, as someone who likes to at least feel like I'm in control of a lot of things in my life, I find it strangely comforting to be reminded that our ability to control everything is not the same thing as our ability to decide how we will show up when life happens to us anyway. That's what I mean by agency. Paul is still Paul. Even when you strip all of his leadership and control away from him.
He's lost control of a lot of things in these last few chapters, but somehow, he has not lost control of his heart. And I think that's worth carrying with us. Because here's the truth. There's a lot of things in all of our lives that are beyond our control right now, probably more than we even admit to ourselves. And sure, that's trade negotiations and referendums and lake names, but also it's our kids growing up, whether we want them to or not.
It's people coming into and sometimes out of our lives in ways that maybe we didn't expect. It's communities that we love deeply, changing and growing, and sometimes even creating new expressions that get handed to someone else to carry forward. And I think there is a maturity in Paul and maybe in us that only fully expresses itself once that kind of lesson is properly metabolized. A wisdom that is earned. And perhaps even best on display in letters like Philippians that Paul wrote during this Roman imprisonment that he finds his way shipped toward.
And for us? Perhaps best expressed in a posture that no longer holds everything so tightly that nothing can change. And now slowly finds itself trusting God just enough to loosen our grip and yet still choose courage and grace and hope for who we will become and how we will show up in whatever season comes next because that is worth leaning into. Let's pray. God, there are lots of things that you have handed to each of us to control, and it's with great humility that we hold those things asking for wisdom and grace and courage as we do.
But we also hold them with an open hand, trusting that even in the moments we don't think we have control, you have gifted us responsibility and courage to be the people that you have created us to be. And so we ask, we pray that your spirit would be near to each of us so that we would groan, we would step forward, we would continue to live with the grace and peace of Christ, And that in every moment, whether it feels under our thumb or whether it feels like it is pressing down on us, we would continue to live with character, with peace, with the path of Christ laid out in front of us to follow. And in that, we might actually find our way back to you. In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray. Amen.
Hey, Jeremy here, and thanks for listening to our podcast. If you're intrigued by the work that we're doing here at Commons, you can head to our website, commons.church, for more information. You can find us on all of the socials CommonsChurch. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel where we are posting content regularly for the community. You can also join our Discord server.
Head to commons.churchdiscord for the invite, and there you will find the community having all kinds of conversations about how we can encourage each other to follow the way of Jesus. We would love to hear from you. Anyway, thanks for tuning in. Have a great week. We'll talk to you soon.