Scripture: Acts 20:17-27
This is Part 2 of a two-part sermon series whose purpose is to introduce you to me. As I said last week, I want to do so by sharing with you two scripture passages that have served as “theme verses” or “life verses” for me… scriptures that have guided my life and ministry since around 2016 or ’17. Last week, we talked about the first scripture, Matthew 13:44-46, and today we’ll talk about the second, Acts 20:26-27.
Let me begin by telling you a personal story from back in the early-’90s, when I was in college my first time around. I took a philosophy class at Georgia Tech. Near the end of the term, the professor was handing out course evaluations. Remember those? It gave students the opportunity to grade the professor and provide anonymous feedback on what they really thought about the class and the professor.
As this professor was handing out evaluation forms, he said—out of the blue—“Often when I receive evaluations from students, they complain that I’m anti-Christian. I’m always surprised by this criticism. I love Christianity; I couldn’t be more sympathetic with it. I mean, I don’t believe it’s true—not literally. I consider Jesus’ teachings true in the same way that the teachings, for example, of the Buddha are true.
“But I don’t believe that Jesus was literally resurrected.”
Well, at least he got to the heart of the matter. He rightly understood that if Jesus was literally resurrected—the way that all of us Christians say that he was—then all bets are off. If Jesus was literally resurrected, then even this very skeptical professor would have to concede that Jesus was no mere “teacher”; if Jesus was literally resurrected, this professor couldn’t afford to be so nonchalant in his attitude toward Jesus; if Jesus was literally resurrected, then that proves he is the Son of God, the Messiah, the world’s Savior… And we better do whatever we can to be in a right relationship with him! Right?
Anyway… this professor said, “I don’t believe that Jesus was literally resurrected.” Then he turned his attention to the 30 or 40 students in his class and said, “But after all, how many of you believe in the literal resurrection of Jesus?” And his tone suggested that believing in the literal resurrection would be about the dumbest thing anyone could believe!
Well… Here was a “gift-wrapped” opportunity for me to obey Jesus when he gives us the Great Commission to “make disciples of all nations” and to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to be his witness “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth”—which included this classroom in midtown Atlanta back in the early ’90s. Right?
Because I understood full well, as a young Christian man back then, that if Jesus was literally resurrected, we should want to fulfill his Great Commission and to be his witnesses.
I understood it as a twenty year-old sitting in this professors’s philosophy class.
Indeed, I understood the necessity and the urgency of witnessing when I first came to faith in Christ way back in 1984, in eighth grade—which I told you about last week. I knew that our Lord did not intend for us to keep this good news to ourselves! We share it with others!
So even when I was a teenager, I didn’t keep it to myself! I talked to friends and classmates about Jesus… about what I personally experienced! It didn’t take a great knowledge of scripture. I could speak from personal experience. “Jesus did this for me, and let me tell you about it.” It was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. And if this “great thing” were about anyone or anything other than Jesus, of course we would share it with others!
So I was on fire for Jesus! My four closest friends came to faith; and three of them were baptized, in part, because the Holy Spirit was working through my witness.
But my parents, unfortunately, didn’t understand what had gotten into their son… or I should say, “who” had gotten into me… because it was the Holy Spirit!
As I told you last week, at that time my parents were only nominally Christian. The good news is that each of them either came to faith, or came back to faith, before they died. But to say the least, they did not understand what had gotten into their son! And they were worried… here I was, going to church all the time… reading the Bible all the time… listening to Christian music all the time… talking so much about Jesus… even at high school—among friends and classmates. This was crazy to them! Being a Christian was fine, of course… Religion had its place, they believed, on Sunday mornings… But the idea that Christ is worth everything, that he should be at the center of our lives, that we ought to live our lives for him…they did not understand at all… Not back then! We argued constantly about it constantly.
But it was my willingness to open my mouth and talk about my faith that bothered them the most!
But my parents were so bothered that, finally, they went to talk to my youth pastor, a dear departed saint named Bill Bullard… I didn’t find out about the meeting until the next day, when Bill took me aside after a Wednesday night Bible study… He said he needed to talk to me. I thought for sure I was in trouble. He took me out on the front lawn of the church.
Bill put his arm around me and said, “So, your parents came by to meet with me yesterday. They don’t want you to know about it. But they’re concerned that you’re becoming a fanatic”—and I’m like, “Yeah, that’s the word they keep using when we argue about it!”
Bill said, “So they asked me to talk to you about it, so that’s what I’m doing now.”
He then turned to look me in the eyes… He said, “Brent… Don’t change a thing.” Don’t change a thing.
Of course at that point I burst into tears. Fortunately there weren’t any of my fellow youth around to see me!
But he said, Don’t change a thing. Those are four of the most encouraging words that anyone has ever spoken to me! Especially considering I was a teenager at the time! Like most teenagers, I already worried constantly that something was wrong with me, that I didn’t fit in.
“Don’t change a thing”… Great words…
But guess what? I did change… I lost that fire… Remember in Revelation when Jesus commends the church at Ephesus before telling them, “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” 1
That was me! It took several years, but I lost “the love I had at first”… that love I had for Jesus.
Because… remember that philosophy professor I told you about earlier? Guess what happened when he asked the class, “How many of you believe in the literal resurrection?”
What happened is this: I looked around this classroom of 30 or 40 students, at least some of whom, very likely, were Christians like me. Yet no one spoke up! No one said a word!
Including a certain future Methodist pastor named Brent…
I’m ashamed. And of course I’ve repented. In fact, I’ve replayed that episode in my head about once a month for 33 years… and I feel confident I would have handled it differently! I only wish I could go back in time.Because who knows who needed to hear my witness that day? Who knows… perhaps my words would have made a difference in someone’s life… for eternity? Who knows if that would have emboldened other Christians in the class that day to speak up and be bold witnesses?
But do you see what happened in that moment? I did what the apostle Paul—twice in today’s scripture, in verses 20 and 27—says that he did notdo. Unlike Paul, I shrunk. In other words, I got scared… and that fear prevented me from speaking!
Paul never did that!
In today’s scripture, Paul is speaking to elders in the church at Ephesus, where Paul had spent three years pastoring their church. In Acts chapter 20 Paul is saying goodbye to them. He knows he will never see them again. He’s on his way to Jerusalem, where trouble awaits him… and he knows it. When you read the rest of the Book of Acts, you’ll see that Paul gets arrested in Jerusalem… nearly killed. But he gets sent to nearby Caesarea, where he spends two years in prison awaiting trial.
He doesn’t know all that’s going to happen to him in the future, but he’s pretty sure he’ll never see the Ephesians again, so he gives a farewell speech, at first summarizing the three years he spent with them there. That’s the part of the speech that today’s scripture covers.
As I said earlier, I want to focus on verses 26 and 27, which became the second couple of theme verses for my life: “Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink”—there’s the at word—“I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.”
What does Paul mean by that?
First notice in verse 26: “I am innocent of the blood of all.”
We use the same figure of speech today. We say, “He has ‘blood on his hands.’” Meaning what? That person has done something to contribute someone else’s death… or even, failed to do something to prevent someone’s death.
And of course we know from earlier in the Book of Acts that, in this sense, Paul does have blood on his hands. Before his conversion in Acts chapter 9, he was a persecutor of the early church. He had authority from religious leaders in Jerusalem to arrest Christians, to imprison them, to beat them, and in some cases to have them executed. This wasn’t vigilante justice, by the way; he was operating under the law, he was administering capital punishment, but still… It was evil… In his letters, Paul is very candid about having “blood on his hands.” And this is why he expresses amazement that God chose him—the “foremost of sinners,”2 he says—to be an apostle. “But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience, as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.” In other words, Paul says, God will use his example to say to other sinners, “If God can save even someone like me, just think! That means he can save someone like you, too!”
But in verse 26, when Paul says he’s “innocent of the blood of all,” he’s talking about his life after he became a Christian. And what he’s now saying, in so many words, is something like this: If there was someone who was living in Ephesus during the three years that I spent there who doesn’t know Christ… who hasn’t heard or responded to the gospel, and whose sins are therefore unforgiven… and who, unless they repent and believe in Christ, are bound for hell… that won’t be because of anything that Paul himself failed to do. Because he knows that he did everything he possibly could to proclaim and explain from scripture the gospel of Jesus Christ! “The whole counsel of God” means the gospel of Jesus Christ as found in the Old and New Testaments.
Paul’s point, in other words, is that he never shrunk from his duty… never shrunk from his calling… he never shrunk from his commission—what you and I call our Great Commission—to do all he can to bring every man, woman, and child into a saving relationship with God through Jesus Christ!
And by the way, when Paul says this, he knows for sure that these elders at the church in Ephesus would not be able to contradict him! He knows that no one standing there listening would be able to speak up and say, “Well, Paul, there was that one time when you were scared of that philosophy professor and were too afraid to speak up. Remember?”
No… Just read about the trouble that Paul faced in Ephesus in Acts chapter 19… Or when he recounts his experience in Ephesus to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 1:8: “For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers [and sisters], of the affliction we experienced in Asia”—“Asia” refers to Ephesus. He writes, “For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.” Or how about earlier in 1 Corinthians 15:32, when he says that he “fought with beasts at Ephesus.”
Paul risked his life there, time and again. He did not shrink. He is blameless… He is without guilt when it comes to proclaiming and teaching the gospel. He did all he could.
Paul did not shrink!
Brothers and sisters, you need to know… for as long as God allows me to be your pastor… that I aim to be able to say the same thing one day—both to you and to our Lord when I stand before him in Final Judgment—“I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring the whole counsel of God.”
Because the stakes are too high for the work that God has called all of us to do here! We all have friends, neighbors, family members, coworkers, fellows students—people we know and love—who—for the sake of their souls, for the sake of their eternal destinies, need to say yes to Jesus and his plan of salvation!
Because… according to Paul, according to Jesus, according to the entire Bible, according to “the whole counsel of God”… nothing less than heaven and hell hang in the balance of the work that this new Five Forks Methodist Church does…
Recall, in 1 Corinthians, that Paulsaid that he “fought the beasts at Ephesus”…
Listen, for about nineteen years of my career, it sometimes felt as if I were fighting “beasts,” too, except I was doing it in the United Methodist Church; sadly, these beasts were often disguised as pastors and bishops and church leaders, who often taught something that was not the gospel… that was not faithful to God’s Word… that was not within the bounds of the “whole counsel of God”…
That’s why in good conscience I had to leave the UMC… That’s why, in good conscience, you left too…
This church made the painful, difficult, yet necessary decision to be more faithful to God and his Word when you established Five Forks Methodist Church…
And when you made that decision, did you know that there was someone who didn’t like that at all? Did you know that you made an enemy—or, I should say, you made an enemy that you already had work much harder in his efforts to harm you and this church. Because believe it or not, you have an enemy who absolutely hates that Five Forks Methodist Church exists!
You know who that enemy is… The devil.
And when God’s people at this or any church make painful, difficult, but necessary decisions to be more faithful to God—whatever those decisions may be—our Enemy fights harder! As Peter says, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” So what do we do? We “put on the whole armor of God” and fight, “for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” 3
And guess what? As we fight this good fight, we can be confident that “he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.”4 And that as we “resist the devil, he will flee from us.”5 And that as we resist the devil, “no weapon that is fashioned against us shall succeed…”6 “For God knows the plans he has for us, and they are plans for welfare and not for evil, to give us a future and a hope.”7
O.K., I have to say one more thing to say about our recent history… as former United Methodists… because it relates to what today’s scripture says.
Because… if you’re like me… you’ve probably heard what some of our critics in the UMC have said about Methodists like us… those of us who, in good conscience, had to leave the UMC and become part of this new Global Methodist Church. And of course I’m not referring to anyone around here—certainly no one at your previous church… because I don’t know anyone around here! I only know you, and I don’t even know you very well yet!
But critics in the old UMC said to Methodists like us, “Sure, you may be perfectly orthodox in your doctrines… and in your beliefs about scripture… and in your understanding, for instance, of the definition of marriage and sexual ethics…
“But,” our critics said, “you don’t love people enough.”
Is that true?
Before we answer, I want us to hear the testimony of someone who is not a Christian. In fact, he’s a rather outspoken skeptic… an atheist… He is, in fact, the magician and comedian named Penn Jillette, one-half of the comedy magic duo Penn and Teller. They’re on TV a lot. They used to come on David Letterman all the time. But like I said, Jillette is an outspoken atheist. He doesn’t believe in God, much less the truth of Jesus Christ and his gospel.
Years ago, on his blog, he posted a video of himself describing an experience he had that night after his and his partner’s performance in Las Vegas. He said that one of his fans identified himself as a Christian. This man told him that he was a fan, that he enjoyed the show, and that he wanted to give him something. Then he gave Jillette the gift of a Bible. And Jillette held this Bible up for his viewers to see. The man said to Jillette, “Listen, I know you’re not a Christian, but I want to give you this Bible and encourage you to read it. Because Jesus means everything to me, and I want you to know him, too. This book will tell you how you can know him and have eternal life. Please read it.”
And you can see in the video that Jillette—this hardened skeptic—was deeply moved by this gift; tears were welling up in his eyes as he described what this man did.
Are you surprised?
Then, in this video, Jillette said this: “I have no respect for Christians who don’t proselytize”—i.e., Christians who don’t witness, who don’t tell others about Jesus. He said, “How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? I mean, if I believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming to hit you, and you didn’t believe it, and that truck was bearing down on you, there’s a certain point where I tackle you. And [eternal life] is more important than that!
While I might quibble here and there with Jillette’s verbiage about “hating people”… It’s not hate so much as fear that keeps us from witnessing… Like when I was afraid of speaking up in that philosophy class.
But he is right to some extent… whether or not we witness does come down to love…
Remember Jesus’ words: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”8 With this in mind, I want us to consider what Paul says about people that he loves in Romans chapter 9:
But in chapter 9, verse 3, Paul says these startling words: “For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers [and sisters], my kinsmen according to the flesh.”
What is Paul saying? He’s saying that if it were possible—and of course it’s not possible, as he well knows—but if it were, he would himself wish to be damned—he would be willing to suffer hell and eternal separation from God—if it meant salvation for his fellow Jews. Paul, contrary to a stubbornly widespread modern prejudice, is not anti-Semitic. He would not only be willing to die for his fellow Jews, but even to go to hell for them, if by doing so he could save them! Yes, he’s the apostle to the Gentiles, but he loves his own people enough to be willing go to hell for them!
That is love!
And this expression of love only makes sense if Paul understands how high the stakes are when it comes believing in Christ or rejecting him… Paul’s words only make sense if he understands that everyone in the world, both Jew and Gentile—must receive the gospel of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.
And we who are part of this new Five Forks Methodist Church are going to be people who love…
Amen?
[Talk about the “word cloud” in the entrance: prayer… [pray for the lost] grace… [is anyone too big a sinner to be a recipient of God’s grace?] inviting… [we’re going to invite people to come experience Christ here!] family… [We want everyone to become part of God’s family through faith in Christ] friendly… [A true friend is willing to tell other friends about Jesus, even it’s scary] welcoming [Is there anyone in this community that isn’t welcome to worship here? I hope not!] spirit-filled [Acts 1:8]]
You get the idea…
We will love people enough to do all we can, by all the means we can, in all the ways we can, in all the places we can, at all the times we can, for all the people we can, as long as ever we can… to share with them the good news of Jesus Christ and his gift of eternal life.
This is our most urgent mission…
Amen?