Today’s passage is Acts 21:27-36 and it’ll help us to see the bigger picture by reading it and then going back to talk about this Arrested Development.

Acts 21:27 When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, 28 shouting, “Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple area and defiled this holy place.” 29 (They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple area.) 30 The whole city was aroused, and the people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul, they dragged him from the temple, and immediately the gates were shut. 31 While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32 He at once took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd. When the rioters saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. 33 The commander came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. Then he asked who he was and what he had done. 34 Some in the crowd shouted one thing and some another, and since the commander could not get at the truth because of the uproar, he ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks. 35 When Paul reached the steps, the violence of the mob was so great he had to be carried by the soldiers. 36 The crowd that followed kept shouting, “Away with him!”

No sooner did Paul say last week v 13 Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus” than God began the process of bringing it about. Paul would not die in Jerusalem though. He’d die years later somewhere in Gentile territory…as a martyr.

But for now, his ministry would experience Arrested Development.  A slowing in the growth and maturity of Paul’s ministry there as bearing positive fruit for the Gospel.

At this point, Paul’s ministry highlights something else: that the Gospel cuts both ways.

It inspires faith…and it exposes the faithless.

People these days would rather view the Bible as being nothing but good and loving and God has no wrath and everyone gets along swimmingly without God until we need Him when we can pray and He’s there for us. Jesus loves you just as you are and won’t ask you to change a thing!

But the Gospel inspires faith and exposes the faithless, just like when Jesus explained why He spoke in parables saying, Mark 4:11 He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables 12 so that, “‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!'” Or as Paul would later write to the Romans 12:19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Sometimes God gives us good preaching and good teaching to grow our Christian maturity, but wait. The truth is that sometimes it’s to further drive the nail in the coffin, so to speak.

It reveals and seals the hardness of someone’s heart.

That’s why Moses went back all those times to Pharaoh. God was using those 10 plagues to seal as hard…the hard heart of Pharaoh.

So too, here with Paul, he’s showing up in Jerusalem preaching and next week he’ll retell his conversion story…and all the while you can hear the nails going into the coffin lid of those who this week are rioting and arresting Paul.  A few may yet be saved, but overall, there’s a change.  The Gospel is exposing and sealing their unbelief.

Paul had, at the suggestion of the Jerusalem brothers (James and all the elders) had participated in the purification rites as evidence of his purity as a Jew and his adherence to the Law. It was nice in theory, but failed in practice because today we read,

Acts 21:27 When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, 28 shouting, “Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple area and defiled this holy place.” 29 (They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple area.)

People assumed that Paul had done something offensive and in-their-faces because it’s what they wanted to believe. They wanted to believe the rumor that Paul was teaching against the Law of Moses just like Paul (Saul) had done with Stephen. And you know what? Paul’s going along with those purification rites last week meant nothing to them.

They saw what they wanted to see. Paul is a problem.

They believed what they wanted to believe.

Paul is teaching lies.

If you stop and think about it, human nature is no different today. If you look at the sphere of politics, people believe what they want to believe. Illegal immigration: a problem or an opportunity? Planned Parenthood funding: a problem or a societal good? The refugees flooding Europe and coming here too: the infiltration, influx and takeover of the West by Islamic young men of fighting age and a real problem or a vastly needed help for a totally humanitarian cause? The list goes on and on and we’d hear it over and over again in the debates if we focused on issues instead of who-said-what-to-whom and who has a face only a mother could love.

How about in the Church? People believe what they want to believe and they will go to churches (or avoid going to churches) in order to hear their own beliefs affirmed. Do you know people who will stop going to a church because they don’t want to hear some stupid pro-life, born-again message? Maybe they don’t want to ruin their Sunday by going to hear some hypocrite preaching at them? Or do you know people who will stop going to a church because there is some woman who is the Bible teacher there? I do. It happens all the time. Over more than just women, too. Way too many people choose churches that preach what they want to hear. And the Bible foretells that: 2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

• Creation: is it as the Bible talks about as a miracle or something science refutes?
• Sexual immorality: a sin or just another way the Bible is out of touch with modernity?
• Marriage: between a man and a woman or is the Bible stuck back in a less enlightened era?
• Pro-life: biblical…or just another way Christian zealots are trying to strip women of their rights and for men to exert their dominance by keeping women barefoot, pregnant and wearing denim jumpers?

Human nature doesn’t respond to facts as well as one would like to think.

To justify our own position, we question the source. We look for a consensus among people we trust to believe and affirm what we already believe. We look at who supports it and make judgment calls based on superficial things: gender, color of skin, style of hair, size of nose, where someone went to school, how much money they make, where they work, etc. We are moved less by facts than by opinion—we’re preoccupied with photos and sound bytes; we’re sold on spin; and get a hodge-podge of half-truths that someone else wants us to believe. Oh, we probably suspect it’s all staged, but it’s ok because we already believe it too.

Do you know people…maybe on Facebook, in school, at work, over email or at family gatherings…that you know you have to avoid because they never let inconvenient facts get in the way of their asserting what they believe? Oftentimes in a loud and angry way. I’ve been unfriended on Facebook by such people.

But it doesn’t mean we should stop seeking and speaking the truth!

What did this mean for Paul? He wasn’t about to abandon the truth. Persecution was bound to happen. Agabus the prophet last week confirmed that this would be the result of Paul’s truth-telling.

30 The whole city was aroused, and the people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul, they dragged him from the temple, and immediately the gates were shut.

Throw the bum out. Get that infidel out of the temple. Shut him out and shut him down!

31 While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32 He at once took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd. When the rioters saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

The only thing the “Men of Israel” feared more than good and convincing preaching by a passionate and powerful Christian like Paul…was the Roman authority which had the power to shut the Temple down politically and cut their income stream off significantly. The “Men of Israel” stopped beating Paul to keep from being shut down themselves by those they feared more.

Which, think about it: If they feared God more than the authorities and if they were right, why didn’t they fight to keep on beating Paul, that “infidel”? If God’s honor was at stake? That’s what ISIS does. They kill people who don’t follow their religious teachings. Apparently the authorities–in Iraq and Syria–aren’t keen to get in the way of their religious teachings with the result of having their severed heads on a pole as a warning.

Maybe when people hold to a convenient idea based upon only half-truths, their actions reveal something deeper than their words: whether they truly consider it a hill to die on. I’d like to think that God’s character (His authority, His holiness and His sovereignty) would be a hill to die on. Worth being imprisoned for. And a person would be willing to die to protect the right to believe it. Paul was willing to be bound and to die for what he believed. Why not the “Men of Israel”…if they truly believed…?

33 The commander came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. Then he asked who he was and what he had done.

My, how things have changed! If that’d happened in the US… in that order, the commander would be on trial in many US cities. Arresting the guy being beaten by a mob, putting chains on him, and then asking what he’d done. Yikes. That commander would probably be put away for life.

But it kept the crowd from killing Paul so it was actually a good development. Even if it was arrested development for Paul’s evangelistic ministry.

34 Some in the crowd shouted one thing and some another, and since the commander could not get at the truth because of the uproar, he ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks.

The commander asked who he was and what he was doing…but then who answers? The crowd was doing a shout-out like Cash Cab’s evil twin. The commander and Paul didn’t even place a call and suddenly everyone else is shouting out answers. Paul gets hauled off to the prison barracks and is willing to go there of his own accord. But…

35 When Paul reached the steps, the violence of the mob was so great he had to be carried by the soldiers. 36 The crowd that followed kept shouting, “Away with him!”

Might as well have been “Crucify him!”

That’s what this same belief-set did to Jesus. People believe what they want to believe. If you can’t shut’em up, and you can’t shut’em down…then shut’em out. Away with him!

Have you ever been shut out?

I have.  Frequently.  One of the reasons I’ve been so grateful to be here among you during the past year is that I’m shut out a lot. It’s not easy being female in my profession.

Ironically, I’ve had a whole bunch of people reading through my old sermons online during the past year. I told my husband about that the other day and his first question was “Is someone plagiarizing them? Stealing your sermons and preaching them as if they’re his?” I said, “It’s quite probable.” Then he said, “It’s terrible that this is my first thought.” My response floored him: I said that I’m used to it. It’s been happening a long time, ever since my words have gone on the Internet 20 + years ago and even before I was a Christian. If some man teaches or preaches what I wrote, maybe not word for word, but close enough that it quacks like a duck…but if lives are changed, then you know what? I’m happy about it. Why? Because there are people out there that would shut out my physical person who would yet welcome every word of the message I preach.

I’d rather have them get the message. The message is that important.

The message saves. The message that Jesus is the Messiah, He is our Savior, there is no heaven without Him, there is no eternal life if He’s not the source of it, there is no forgiveness apart from Him, and also the uncomfortable Gospel truth that Jesus doesn’t save everyone. He wants to save everyone, but some have such hard hearts that they don’t want it. They only believe what they want to believe. They have the real arrested development—never getting out of their man-centered mindset; never willing to trust Christ with their lives; never willing to lay down their pride and admit that they can’t save themselves; and never knowing the freedom that happens when we admit we aren’t gods and the universe doesn’t spin around us.

Paul’s ministry—as an arrested development from a freedom standpoint—was not arrested development from a message standpoint.

His message of the Gospel truth was a hill to die on and it’s from prison that Paul would write some of the letters we have recorded as our NT. From here forward, Paul is not a free man with any regularity. He’s most often a prisoner, sometimes under house arrest, and one can only imagine that he would develop much of his understanding of the “bondage of sin” theology from his various times in custody.

The letter to the Philippians is one such prison letter. Philippians 3:4b If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. 7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ– the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.

For Paul, the arrested development in today’s passage—his being arrested and losing his freedom—opened another development with eternal significance. It is through his letters in our written record–the Bible—that Truth rolls on like a mighty river, true justice rolls on in Christ. Paul’s view was a good one. For he said in his prison letter to the Philippians 1:21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Far from arrested development, that view is the hallmark of Christian maturity.

In today’s passage Paul has been arrested. It’s not a bad development from a Kingdom of God perspective. It inspires faith and exposes the faithless. It inspires pressing on in spite of persecution. It inspires us to live by faith and not by what the world already believes and wants to sell us on. It inspires us to gain that vision heavenward that puts life’s trials in perspective. Not arrested development at all. Rather, it is God’s plan and a hill to die on. To live is Christ…and to die is gain.

In Acts 21:27-36, there is a development.  Paul is arrested on the same charges he’d made against Stephen before Paul saw the Light.  Far from arrested development, the message would go on through the Apostle Paul’s prison letters.

What’s the difference between fatalism and an honest expression of “The Lord’s will be done”?

What is the difference between a sad state of resignation and a confident trust in Christ?

Where does one gain wisdom and discernment to sort through the mixed ideas of well-meaning Christians and develop the obedience for one’s walk with Christ?

In today’s passage of Scripture (Acts 21:1-26), we see the answer revealed in the life of Paul. I have linked to the entire passage, but would like to focus on but a few verses in this devotional (since I’m away from the pulpit this week… and also explains why there will be no audio version to go along with today’s passage).

Paul is on his third missionary journey and is in the midst of his return trip to Jerusalem. He’d wanted to be there already (had he been able to sail straight to Syria from Greece), but circumstances and that little plot against his life made it impossible for him to be there by the Passover. The best he could hope for, taking that inland route with a few short boat trips, was for him to arrive by Pentecost.

Good-bye Macedonia. Good-bye Ephesian elders. Now say good-bye to Tyre and Caesarea. Paul is compelled by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. It was bound to happen.

Bound to happen but all kinds of obstacles stand between now and then. Obstacles of well-meaning Christians.

Have you ever been plodding along in your walk with Christ and a well-meaning brother or sister in Christ questions whether you’re going about it properly?

In Paul’s missionary journey, he was bound for Jerusalem.  Was it bound to happen? Not if well-meaning disciples had any say in it! Here are the disciples in Tyre.

Acts 21:4 Finding the disciples there, we stayed with them seven days. Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.

“Through the Spirit”…what does that mean? Paul was “compelled by the Spirit” to go! How could these well-meaning Christians urge Paul “through the Spirit” not to go. Does this mean that the Holy Spirit was giving Paul mixed messages?

Obstacle to obedience #1—the mixed message from well-meaning Christians

The Holy Spirit is not divided against Himself. The easiest reconciliation of these two thoughts (go and don’t go) is that Paul…through the Spirit…was compelled to go to Jerusalem (Acts 20:22) even though…through the Spirit…he’d been warned that he would face persecution there (Acts 20:23). Flip sides of the same good coin. The Gospel cuts both ways. And the servant of Christ will be persecuted. John 15:20 “Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.”

The disciples in Tyre had (probably through a prophetic gift) discerned that there would be trouble in Jerusalem for Paul and therefore assumed God wasn’t in it since Paul’s ministry on earth would end. But Paul had the further revelation of an inner compelling that overrode matters just like when Jesus was compelled to go to Jerusalem and face the Cross. Peter’s understanding of Kingdom matters elicited one statement (below) whereas his incomplete understanding and good desire of love to protect Jesus prompted the second. Compare these two statements about the same individual, Peter:

Matthew 16:17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

Matthew 16:23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

Six verses separate Peter’s godly wisdom from his brazen obstacle to Christ’s obedience.  Same type of deal here with Paul.

The disciples in Tyre didn’t want anything to interfere with Paul’s good and fruitful ministry. Why would God send Paul to where his ministry would end? (Answer: for the same reason He sent Jesus to finish His work in a place of persecution. God always sees the bigger picture and doesn’t always communicate it widely ahead of time. Jesus knew He was compelled. Paul knew he was compelled and in each case, that was enough.)

But this is not fatalism.

And the difference is there’s choice…and quite simply where you place your trust.

If compelled by the Spirit, but trusting in man for your life, you’ll always be disappointed and at the mercy of your opponents. If compelled by the Spirit and trusting in God for your life, it’s the honest expression of “The Lord’s will be done.”

It was bound to happen because Paul was in step with the Spirit…both in the compelling and in the understanding of the dangers ahead. The Holy Spirit doesn’t suck you in with goodies and then trap you in persecution like luring a mouse into a mousetrap.

The Holy Spirit prompts obedience to accepting both the good and the persecution by appealing to faith.

10 After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.'” 12 When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” 14 When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”

Here’s a second prophetic word about the upcoming persecution of Paul. Luke includes himself among those who urged Paul not to go up to Jerusalem.

Obstacle to obedience #2—the mixed emotions of well-meaning Christians

Ironically, the two commandments that are the greatest can be at conflict with one another in the faith of a disciple of Christ. Matthew 22:37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Like confusing messages that originate in the mind, mixed emotions can tug both ways at the heart. Conflicting emotions are another obstacle to living a life that exhibits a total confident trust in Christ. Paul loved Jesus and wanted to follow Him. Paul loved the disciples, too!  So when they urged him not to go, he asked,

Why are you weeping and breaking my heart?”

When the love of God pulls you to sacrifice yourself…and the love of neighbor pulls you in another direction, it does break a person’s heart. It makes it really hard to follow God. But Paul passed the test. It was bound to happen, just as Agabus had predicted through his “enacted prophecy” which was along the lines of the ministries of Jeremiah, and Isaiah and Ezekiel.

In the movie, Chariots of Fire, Eric Liddell loves his sister Jenny and the mission. But he loved God more and God brought him to a tough place of decision-making. Out of love for God and honoring God’s gift of excelling as a runner, in the movie, Eric asks his sister to understand and let him run his race for the glory of God before he returns to the mission field in China. The tugging at his heart—love of sister versus love of God—made it hard for him to run unfettered. He needed her to understand that he was compelled. But then the decision not to run in the 100 meter race, but instead to honor God because it was the Sabbath, was something well-meaning Christians did not understand.  In many cases, he was pummeled in the press since some thought it would do God better by his running and proving his love for his teammates, his king, and his country.  Well-meaning Christians can be obstacles to whole-hearted obedience. The mission field was ahead, but that would be after Eric would win the Olympic 400 meter race, become internationally known and then go to occupied China where he would die for the Gospel. Arguably his ministry had eternal significance beyond running and rugby.  He died having been more widely known for his decision not to run on the Sabbath than he would have been known for any Sunday qualifying heat which would have been celebrated for a moment at the cost of his devotion to God.

Paul, in our passage, was compelled and well-meaning Christians didn’t understand but eventually relented, “The Lord’s will be done.”

17 When we arrived at Jerusalem, the brothers received us warmly. 18 The next day Paul and the rest of us went to see James, and all the elders were present. 19 Paul greeted them and reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. 20 When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to Paul: “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law. 21 They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs.

Obstacle to obedience #3—the mixed report of well-meaning Christians

The brothers heard all that Paul said had happened and they praised God. But in the next breath, they point out that the Jewish believers were still thinking of the Messiah as basically belonging to the Jews and the Law was still the rule. This whole Gentile ministry of Paul’s was kind of problematic from the standpoint of the average Jewish Christian who was trying to get along and stay alive in Jerusalem. So the brothers pressed Paul to demonstrate his affinity with the Jewish Christians by participating in a vow of four men by funding their purification rites. It was symbolic of obedience to the Law and did no harm to the ministry of Paul since he, like Christ, affirmed that the Law was not abolished.  It was fulfilled. In preserving the unity of Christians, God honored Paul’s heart and it did not compromise anything along the way. It was just an unnecessary step had the brothers in Jerusalem (well-meaning though they were) taught the people the full truth of what Paul had been doing.

Instead, well-meaning Christians engaged in perpetuating a rumor and offered a solution that wasn’t one in reality. The Jewish Jews wouldn’t be convinced by this plan of action… and the Jewish Christians weren’t educated on the finer points of theology. The Men of Israel (the Jewish Jews) will persecute Paul in next week’s passage and the Jewish Christians will be nowhere to be seen. Dealing with the mixed report could have been a distraction for Paul’s obedience.  Had Paul not been discerning, it could have been an obstacle.  The brothers should have dealt with the mixed report by teaching the full truth to the Jewish Christians and inspiring their obedience, even in the face of persecution.

So what about you?

What do you do when you get mixed messages from others about what God is calling you to do? Do you dig into the Scriptures and devote yourself to prayer or do you just talk a lot with your Christian friends to get their opinion?

What do you do when love for God seems to be calling you to a different place than what might be love on a strictly human level? What informs your decision about what to do? Who do you listen to?

When you see the “divine conveyor-belt” of the Spirit taking you to a place that is bound to happen, how you react? Do you try to jump off because of mixed messages, mixed emotions, and mixed reports…or do you respond in faith?  Is your confidence in Christ?

A focus on man will always lead you to fatalism and sad resignation at the “divine conveyor-belt” of life…bound to happen as one’s fate. But a focus on God and a healthy discernment will always lead you to “The Lord’s will be done” and a deep faith in Christ. For Paul and for Jesus before him, something being bound to happen can be celebrated as Paul did: “I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

Paul was ready to be bound and bound for death.   If it’s bound to happen, let it be bound to happen… by faith!

There are a few things in life guaranteed to make me cry. One of them is a good good-bye.

In the movie, The Wizard of Oz, the wizard is in a hot-air balloon floating off to Kansas without Dorothy and Toto. He cries out that he can’t come back because he doesn’t know how it works. Dorothy is left crying there in Oz, perhaps ready to strangle Toto for chasing a cat and preventing her going home in the balloon. She’s crying because it was supposed to be good-bye, but it didn’t end up being good-bye. The balloon and the wizard said good-bye to her. Dorothy is left there…crying. Then Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, shows up.

• Dorothy: Oh, will you help me? Can you help me?
• Glinda: You don’t need to be helped any longer. You’ve always had the power to go back to Kansas.
• Dorothy: I have?
• Scarecrow: Then why didn’t you tell her before?

The next thing might have been for Glinda to be honest and say that, well, there wouldn’t have been a book or a movie if she could have gone back right away. No Academy Awards. No film debut of color. Nothin’. But instead Glinda says, “She wouldn’t have believed me. She had to learn it for herself.” Which is probably a bunch of bunk. Dorothy would have caught on right away once clicking those ruby slippers and having that hallucinogenic swirling going on all around her.

And then, there wouldn’t have been that good-bye scene, sure to make me bawl every time.

• Dorothy: It’s going to be so hard to say Good-bye. I love you all too.
•                  Good-bye, Tinman. Oh, don’t cry! You’ll rust so dreadfully. Here’s your oil can.
• Tin Woodsman: Now I know I’ve got a heart, ’cause it’s breaking…
• Dorothy: Good-bye, Lion. I know it isn’t right, but I’m going to miss the way you used to holler for help before you found your courage.
• Cowardly Lion: I never would’ve found it if it hadn’t been for you…
• Dorothy: [to Scarecrow] I think I’m going to miss you most of all.

And the Scarecrow, having a brain, wisely said nothing.

Paul, in today’s passage, probably wasn’t handing out oil cans to keep people from rusting, but a few hearts were breaking and a few people’s courage was failing. This farewell address would address all of that.

It was a good good-bye.

It was typical of farewell addresses of its time, but is also remarkable in what it teaches us about Paul, about ministry, about faith in Christ, of a life well-lived, and of the value of a good good-bye.

John Steinbeck, in The Winter of Our Discontent, writes “Farewell has a sweet sound of reluctance. Good-by is short and final, a word with teeth sharp to bite through the string that ties past to the future.”

Which sounds remarkably negative. But it not need to be seen as anything more than Good-bye being the hand letting go of the back of the bicycle so the youngster can pedal and experience all the freedom of riding wherever his feet and mind and daylight can take him. The training wheels are gone and Paul’s hand is off the back of the Ephesians elders’ bicycle, so to speak. Good-bye sets everyone free to do God’s will.

I think I’ll read the whole passage for us today and then go back and point out what we learn from this farewell address. To see what God wants us to know about the good Good-bye.

Acts 20:13 We went on ahead to the ship and sailed for Assos, where we were going to take Paul aboard. He had made this arrangement because he was going there on foot. 14 When he met us at Assos, we took him aboard and went on to Mitylene. 15 The next day we set sail from there and arrived off Kios. The day after that we crossed over to Samos, and on the following day arrived at Miletus.  16 Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the province of Asia, for he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of Pentecost.

17 From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church. 18 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. 19 I served the Lord with great humility and with tears, although I was severely tested by the plots of the Jews.  20 You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. 21 I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.

22 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.  24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me– the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.  25 “Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. 26 Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. 27 For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.  28 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. 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. 32 “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.  33 I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. 34 You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. 35 In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'”

36 When he had said this, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. 37 They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him. 38 What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.

Paul knew he was supposed to go to Jerusalem. He was “compelled by the Spirit”. Much like Christ knew He was going to go to Jerusalem and face the Cross. Paul’s ministry was coming to an end. The Good-bye in Miletus where Paul tells the Ephesian elders he won’t be coming back has a beautiful similarity to Luke 9:51 “As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.”

Compelled. It’s time. It’s time for good-bye.

Just like our observance of Communion today will be a reminder of Jesus’ saying–at His Last Supper–His final good-bye.

All good ministries end.

And new ministries begin.

Seasons in the life of the Church.

Jesus knew the Church would not born if it weren’t for His death. He was eagerly looking forward to being reunited with His Father in heaven after the satisfaction of His finishing well. Finishing well by dying for human sin on the Cross.

Paul, likewise, is eagerly looking forward to heaven after the satisfaction of a job well done. Paul’s mission was different. A job well done was to have finished the task God gave him of introducing the Gospel to the entire Gentile world.

This good-bye Paul says here is a good one. It has several features. It speaks of:

• A life worth imitating v 18 “You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. 19 I served the Lord with great humility and with tears, although I was severely tested by the plots of the Jews.
• A Gospel worth proclaiming 20 You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. 21 I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.
• An obedience worth pursuing 22 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me– the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.
• A warning worth noting 28 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. 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. 32 “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. ” A warning finishing with a word of hope. God can protect you, preserve you, and give you an inheritance if you stay the course, persevere, and do what is right!  Press on!!
• An example worth following 33 I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. 34 You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. 35 In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'”
• A prayer worth remembering 36 When he had said this, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. 37 They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him. 38 What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.

After the Last Supper, Jesus and His disciples sang a hymn and everything was ending with a good Good-bye. It just didn’t seem so to the disciples at the time. Especially as Jesus tells them they’ll all scatter and Jesus gets arrested. It was Good-bye.

The character Peter Pan is often quoted as saying, “Never say good-bye because good-bye means going away and going away means forgetting.”  Fortunately that’s fiction.

Good-bye may mean going away, but it doesn’t need to mean forgetting. Because, in our case, we have the Bible to tell us about the life of Christ and the ministry of Paul. It’s written.  It’s a forever reminding. The good-bye is just part of it all.

J.D. Salinger’s character Holden Caulfield says in The Catcher in the Rye,

Only, I wasn’t watching the game too much. What I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind of good-bye. I mean I’ve left schools and places I didn’t even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don’t care if it’s a sad good-bye or a bad good-bye, but when I leave a place I like to know I’m leaving it. If you don’t, you feel even worse.

You feel worse because it strips things of their meaning when something meant so-much-of-nothing that you didn’t care it was gone.

In a good-bye, one recognizes something’s importance, its value…it celebrates a milestone, marks the moment as having been significant somehow. It leaves one without regrets at never having had the opportunity to say good-bye or to know it was important.

In the movie Field of Dreams, that yes I quote a lot, Dr. Archibald (Moonlight) Graham states this profundity:

It was like coming this close to your dreams… and then watch them brush past you like strangers in a crowd. You know we just don’t recognize the most significant moments of our lives while they’re happening. Back then I thought, well, there’ll be other days. I didn’t realize that that was the only day.

A good good-bye sets significance to a moment. It’s how you’ll be remembered if people never see your face again.  For Paul and the Ephesian elders, their last memory was praying together.

People will remember how you left, the manner and disposition of it…even more than the fact of your leaving.

So what about you? When you have the opportunity to choose a good good-bye or a bad one, which do you choose? When leaving the house in the morning and you say good-bye, see-ya-later-alligator to those at home? When you say good-bye at the bus that takes your kids to school or when you drop them off? Easy? To have a good good-bye? Not always. We all have our days.

OK, how about when let go from a job? Will you take the opportunity to launch and poison the watering hole? Leave in a flame of emails or a burst of anger telling everyone exactly what you think? Or will you choose to be remembered for something good? When leaving the hospital while your spouse or a child is stuck there overnight? What will you say to your loved one, the nurses and the doctors, and the person at the visitor’s desk? How about when selling a house? When moving away from neighbors? When leaving a family reunion or your table and your server after dinner at a restaurant? What will be their lasting memory of you, if they never see you again?  When leaving a ministry or a church because God has called you elsewhere? Even in Paul’s case like going to Jerusalem knowing that his life is nearing the end.

Paul sets the tone for remembering well by this farewell address. It’s a good good-bye. He reminds the Ephesian elders and us that it’s okay to weep on earth at the parting of friends, but in Christ and in heaven there will be a beautiful reunion for those who follow Jesus and by His forgiveness have eternal life. But moreover to strengthen us for today, we have a written record. So that good-bye may mean leaving but it doesn’t mean forgetting. No oil cans required even if there is a bit of weeping and a few broken hearts. Good-bye can be good even with tears because it’s a mark of love. And it’s a good good-bye.

A good-bye to mark

• A life worth imitating
• A Gospel worth proclaiming
• An obedience worth pursuing
• A warning worth noting because it can protect you
• An example worth following
• A prayer worth remembering

People will often remember the manner and disposition of your leaving even more than the fact of it.  Lasting impressions are created with a good-bye.  Make sure yours is a good good-bye.

In his farewell address to the Ephesian elders (Acts 20:13-38) , the Apostle Paul shows us the fine art of the good good-bye.

Meghan Trainor has a song that says “It’s all ‘bout the bass, ‘bout the bass, no treble” which really isn’t about music at all…but for Paul, it wasn’t all about his body or what was music to his ears. It was all about encouragement. Today’s passage, Acts 20:1-12 is all about encouragement.

Some of you might think that I decide what I’m going to preach about by reading the newspaper and preaching it. I’m not all about the “base” things of life, but I do notice that the world is full of “treble” and people out there are in a world of hurt.

If the Gospel can’t speak to today, seriously…what good is it?

If the Gospel was only helpful, useful, and applicable to when Jesus walked the earth and the expiration date was, say, September 6^th, 100 AD, why should we even bother studying it, reading it, or trying to make sense of our lives by applying it?

The Gospel is ageless and timeless and applies no matter what age in which we live. Because it’s all about what God has done and the encouragement we can have in Christ. The world appears to have lost hope and is sorely in need of that kind of encouragement.

Paul was an expert at that.   At encouraging others. He was not only a teacher and a preacher, but he had exhortation—encouragement—down to a science.

Think about it: People like being around encouragers.

What about you? If you had 2 hours to spend and had a choice between sitting with someone who was known as an encourager or someone who paraded their problems and whined a lot, who would you rather spend time with? What would be the end result of that 2 hours? How would you feel at the end? How would the other person feel?

What kind of person are you? Are you one who encourages or is your outlook one big downer for people around you? Is it all about that “base”…and nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen?

Well, Paul was an encourager and he made friends in the Gospel every bit as easily as he made enemies wherever he went on account of that same Gospel message. It was his encouraging–his exhortation–that produced both friends and enemies. The Gospel indeed cuts both ways.

When we last left off with Paul, he’d been in Ephesus for nearly 3 years of peaceful ministry. He grew to love the Ephesian people and they grew to love him. It was Paul’s effectiveness at both preaching and encouraging that led to the notorious riot and now, a change of course. Paul needed to move on.

Which leads us to today:

Acts 20:1 When the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples and, after encouraging them, said good-by and set out for Macedonia.

Paul met with the disciples and encouraged them to stay the course, fight the good fight, and to run the race with perseverance. The riot was yesterday’s news and need not be a discouragement. Fight the good fight! To be able to say at the end of one’s days what Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Not everyone views life that way. I mentioned that some of you may think I preach the newspaper headlines. There was a bit of a contrast this past week and I’m still chewing on that thought and trying to decide what I think of it.

One item was the KY court clerk who went to jail rather than to violate her deeply held religious beliefs about marriage. She’d been employed there, had taken her oath while a deputy clerk 27 years ago. She was elected last year and installed in January, before the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage back in June. She’s presently in jail (**see note at the end) while the issue of religious freedoms and gay marriage press to new frontiers. She believes she’s doing what Martin Luther King, Jr. did in writing from the prison in Birmingham. She took a stand for the Gospel and is paying the price in jail, a place that the judge in the case says she’ll stay until she changes her mind and fulfills her oath…one taken when the law was one she could pledge to and was elected to uphold. But now the law has changed. Not by a vote. Not even by her state. She’s saying she will sacrifice her freedom for God’s view of marriage, not that she’s personally lived it. But her divorces were before she was a Christian and came to know grace. The encouragement of the Gospel. She won’t sacrifice her faith to gain her freedom. I wonder if I’d step down from my post and look for other work or whether I’d engage in civil disobedience like she is. I can see it both ways. Both would be sacrifices and I do applaud her standing up for God. I would like to believe that I’d do the same. Principles based in Scripture are worth fighting for. Jesus is worth fighting for. Witness is certainly greater by civil disobedience than by stepping down. And I do believe her struggles highlight freedom of religious expression in all areas of one’s life and the Courts will be revisiting this issue for a long time.

But I said there was a contrast in the news. The other news story is about all the thousands of migrants and refugees flooding Europe out of the Middle East, particularly Syria. They are coming in every which way. Across the sea, over land, from the north, south, east, and west. Everyone’s hearts can be moved by the photo of the toddler who drowned along with his mother on the coast of Turkey trying to flee war-torn areas of the world. They found this little boy’s body on the beach at Bodrum, roughly 100 miles south of Ephesus. I wondered if Paul had walked there in his journeys. Scripture places Paul very near there, although centuries earlier.

The boy was buried back in Syria where he was from. His body and his grieving father remind us that fleeing also carries risk and the willingness to embrace that risk is a reminder of a degree of hopelessness that cries out for encouragement.

I can understand women and children fleeing war-torn regions. The world can open its arms to women and children as refugees…coming to a safe haven until their own country returns to a stable peace-loving situation. It’s been a long time since Syria has known that kind of peace. Syria has been in turmoil since it became an independent state and it’s doubtful that any of the people fleeing know what peace and hope feel like in their homeland. They need encouragement of the Gospel kind.

I cannot judge what I don’t know simply because I don’t understand or can’t relate from here in the safety of the United States.

But the picture that continues to haunt me is the one on the front of the bulletin this week (at right). There isn’t a woman or child to be seen. It isn’t dramatic like the picture of the toddler. These are all young men, what one might call fighting age, some of whom are hiding their faces from the camera. Why? Perhaps they had no one back home to encourage them to fight the good fight. To do what they could to make their own land a free one in which their principles would be held in honor. I find it haunting because it’s a picture of hopelessness and men who need encouragement to do what is right.  (**see note at the end)

But what form does that encouragement take? I don’t know what to make of that. I see the man facing the camera with the shirt that says Property of the __ight Club. Fight club? The will to fight—to press on in the cause of freedom—seems to have been a casualty of the death of hope. Flight Club? Night Club? I don’t know what his shirt says. But I can say that the Gospel could inspire a man to stand and fight for Jesus against an evil world. The Gospel can also inspire a man to seek a peaceful way out. That’s what the Iraqi Christians are doing. They are fleeing their homeland to be peacemakers so far as it depends on them. But it’s a sacrifice. Everyone could use a little encouragement.

I can say that the Gospel could prompt someone to flee—not to reside in another country with the hope of a better life there—but to do what Paul did. Plant churches while passing through–churches that could encourage people in the midst of difficult circumstances. Paul fled for his life, not to pick up an easier life for himself down the road, but to let people know it’s all about encouragement in Christ.  He went back through Macedonia to encourage the churches he’d already planted.

2 He traveled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece, 3 where he stayed three months. Because the Jews made a plot against him just as he was about to sail for Syria, he decided to go back through Macedonia. 4 He was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy also, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia. 5 These men went on ahead and waited for us at Troas. 6 But we sailed from Philippi after the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and five days later joined the others at Troas, where we stayed seven days.

Maybe the Jews who were going to Passover in Jerusalem were going to be on that same boat to Syria and they were the ones who didn’t like Paul. But Paul took this all in stride. If he can’t go by boat, he’ll walk it. Fleeing, in a sense, back through Macedonia and he’d spend Passover where he was on his journey, near Philippi. He’d have to wait until Pentecost to make it to Jerusalem. There’s sacrifice in fleeing and there’s sacrifice in fighting and wisdom knows when which one is called for. In either case, one needs encouragement.

Paul was encouraging people throughout that time using many words and by his example. Everyone could use encouragement and for Paul, it was all about encouragement in Christ.

7 On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight.

This is a fascinating story. Luke is back with the group now because the passage has resumed the word “we.” We sailed from Philippi and we came together. Luke’s account of this first-hand event is filled with detail.

8 There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting.

The oil lamps to light the room after dark would have left a lingering heaviness in the air from the smoke and oil. They were upstairs.

9 Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on.

It wasn’t like Paul was a boring preacher and therefore Eutychus nodded off. Eutychus would have been in the window to have fresh air in a room without much circulation. A young man would likely have had a job and come after work.

Our passage continues: When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead.

Luke, as you’ll recall was a physician. He would probably have known that a fall from a third story window would have left a person with critical injuries if they even lived to tell about it. Eutychus was picked up dead. Luke would have known whether he was dead or alive and just unconscious.

Do you remember the story a while back of Peter raising Tabitha from the dead? And Jesus raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead? Well, here Paul will do the last of 8 raising of the dead instances recorded in the Bible. Eutychus will be the last we’ll see until Jesus returns.

It isn’t like the country funeral where the casket was on a wheeled cart as people were following it to the grave site. The cemetery was atop a big hill and the mourners all followed it up to the top. Somewhere along the way, the rope gave out and the cart and the coffin flew down the hill. Crossed the crossroads as horses and pedestrians leaped out of the way. It plowed past city hall, across the town square, and smashed the glass at the pharmacy all the way to the desk where the dead man popped up and in a congested voice asked the pharmacist whether he had anything to stop this “coffin.”

For Paul, this was different. He was going to actually raise the dead…like Elijah.

10 Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive!” 11 Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. 12 The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.

Encouragement comes in many forms. Words spoken, a life lived, standing for something godly in the face of evil. Paul stood for the Gospel and its power was evident in Paul’s life. That probably encouraged Paul, too. I work hard to keep myself encouraged. I have a bulletin board at home with all kinds of encouraging words on it.

• A thank you note from a woman telling me how God had encouraged her through my words. The card says Matthew 17:20 He replied, ” I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” She wrote thanking me for sending something to her. She wrote “God is so amazing! He knew I needed this.”
• A little pop-open Advent card from the Salvation Army thanking me for my support.. Isaiah 40:29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. (With the note below saying, When I am tempted to give up, God is there to encourage me.
• A collection of leadership quotes by Theodore Roosevelt including “A leader will always prefer to be faithful than famous.” And “Heroes need heroes.” The Apostle Paul is one of my heroes.
• And a 2010 calendar from Dr. D. James Kennedy forever posted as the month of March on my bulletin board. “Proverbs 29:2 When the righteous increase, the people rejoice” and a reminder of the biblical foundations of America and a photo of the US Capitol Building.

An odd collection to be sure. I have a whole bag of things in the closet I look through to keep myself encouraged. Because when it’s all about encouragement, we know it happens in many different ways but the result is always the same: people are comforted, inspired, and given courage to continue on…whether to fight…or have the wisdom to flee…and know when each is called for.

The Gospel is special in the way it encourages.

It points to freedom in Christ. To love beyond all measure.

To hope.

And to peace.

The world needs the Gospel to turn a picture of hopelessness and refugees into a picture of hope and family.

That’s what Paul spread wherever he went. May we do likewise.

What encouragement do you need today?

Who do you know whom you can encourage? Maybe when we go out into the neighborhood next Sunday, we can be a source of encouragement to those facing all kinds of life situations here in Racine. Most all of us can use external encouragement. Knowing people are praying for us. Knowing someone cares. Knowing the Gospel is as close as the person who is willing to share it.

That’s what Paul models for us today in a variety of ways. You see, it’s all about encouragement.

===

**note at the end: 

As I post this, the court clerk, Kim Davis, has been freed from jail.  The government is still deciding what to do in her situation.  And regarding the refugees, it is being reported that many of the young men–without families to support–are looking for a better life elsewhere than fighting to bring about that situation in their homeland.  Some are using the refugee crisis as an opportunity to expand the reach of radical Islam and are hiding among the refugees which is why some of the richest Gulf States are refusing to shelter any refugees.  The saga continues…

Yet the Gospel still encourages and God still reigns.

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:14 )

We could all use a little encouragement and for the Apostle Paul, it was all about encouragement–of the Gospel kind.  In Acts 20:1-12, we see the Apostle Paul in action.

Today’s passage of Scripture is all of chapter 19 and there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on here. Last week in the adventures of the early disciples known as the Book of Acts, the Apostle Paul had just finished up his second missionary journey and checked back in at Antioch which was kind of like his home base. In the meantime, we saw ministry continuing with Aquila, Priscilla, and a very learned but equally humble Apollos whose education was furthered, completed, and his ministry empowered by good Christian friends back in Ephesus and Achaia.

Paul has finished checking in and now while Apollos heads over to Corinth, Paul travels along the interior road checking in with churches he’d planted along the way and arrives at Ephesus…again. God made it possible for Paul to return. Ephesus would be a special place for Paul.

What types of places are special to you?

What makes them special?

Warren and I were just out in Oregon for our nephew’s wedding. Oregon is special to Warren because that’s where his whole family is now. But NJ has always been special because it’s where his family grew up. He learned to fish and hike trails in NJ, but he furthered his understanding of fishing and hiking in Oregon. Deep sea fishing instead of river fishing or lake fishing. He likes fishing so Oregon and NJ are special places to him.

Some places might be special because of the scenery like the beach we visit in Florida or my childhood vacations in Hayward or as a young mom, our camping vacations in the Big Horn National Forest. Special places maybe because of things that happened there. A guy I sat next to on the plane was former NFL—a guard for the Oakland Raiders. He said they lost to the Packers that year but he showed me his AFC championship ring and every person he talked to on the plane he began by asking them where they went to high school. High School was obviously more special to him than it is to me. I want to forget I ever went to high school.

Maybe places are special because of the people we love being there: kids, parents, or good friends.

Well, Ephesus was a special place for the Apostle Paul. His heart was bonded to the Ephesian believers and their hearts to his. But Ephesus was also a special place because of several major events that happened during 27 months of relatively peaceful ministry that Paul had there.

Ephesus was also a powerful place. It was a strategic center that had few equals in the world. It was home to the Temple of Artemis (Diana) which is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Ephesus was critical for trade given its important location as both land and sea trade routes. It ranked with Rome, Corinth, Antioch and Alexandria as an urban jewel because of its population and wealth, maybe declining a bit by the time of Paul, but important still.

And special because for Paul, what Ephesus represented was the opportunity to preach to multitudes in one place and have the effects noticed throughout the province of Asia. It did for Paul’s ministry what Peter’s speech at Pentecost did for the Jews. To those gathered, they witnessed God’s power and heard the Gospel truth and carried this to the farthest reaches of the Roman Empire.

Yes, Ephesus was special. But it was also a difficult place for ministry because that’s how it often is when a city is rich, powerful, and influential. It was also difficult because of the prominent temple of Artemis and the strong grip of the occult on the minds and hearts of those residing there and those traveling through. In fact, an entire industry had been built around the temple of Artemis of the Ephesians. She was kind of a fertility god and the silversmiths there were kind of like a unionized workforce, a guild producing silver shrines for tourism. They were organized and vocal…and very protective of their income stream.

Let’s look at a few vignettes of this special place called Ephesus and make a couple of points regarding our ministry today. Beginning in Acts 19:1-7

Acts 19:1 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2 and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?” “John’s baptism,” they replied. 4 Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all.

The first vignette tells of some disciples who believed but had only a partial understanding of the Gospel. Paul completed their instruction by pinning their faith to Jesus Christ and baptizing them into His Name. They received the Holy Spirit and it was kind of a Gentile Pentecost…interestingly about 12 men in all, a picture of completion.

What can we learn from this vignette? We all start somewhere. No one arrives from the womb with complete Bible knowledge. We all start somewhere and it’s not a sign of shame or stupidity to have incomplete faith. But it is important that we don’t become content with incomplete faith and rob ourselves of the power of the Spirit-filled life. Repentance of John’s baptism is where it starts, but in Christ Jesus, forgiveness is here and personal. The Holy Spirit is the same evidence here among the Gentiles as He was at Pentecost among the Jews and God-fearers present at that time. Were Peter and the other disciples believers before the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost? Sure! But the Holy Spirit sealed it, just like here. We all start somewhere.

A second vignette is found in 19:8-12

8 Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. 9 But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. 10 This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. 11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.

What can we learn from this vignette about God doing miracles through Paul? When dealing with the occult, those involved in witchcraft, and those in pagan religions—animistic ones that worship created things and believe there’s a spirit under every rock—miracles can be helpful. Miracles can reach these folks in a way that speaks especially to them.

I knew a guy in MN who had been rescued out of the occult and he lived out the careful caution we see in Paul. We don’t engage in the occult to reach them, but some people’s Christian gifting in the area of faith healing or other miracles will be a bridgehead to launch a ministry. Paul did this for 2 years so that everyone would hear the word of God. If Paul had done miracles and left, then the Gospel would have been sacrificed though Paul would have gained a fanatical following. Yes, God did miracles through Paul, but only as a means of bringing people along to hear the Gospel that saves. Paul did not engage in the occult.

13 Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” 16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. 17 When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. 18 Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. 19 A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. 20 In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.

In this third vignette, we hear the strange story of the seven sons of Sceva. They were driving out evil spirits as Jews, but not as Christians. When they encountered the demon-possessed, they’d invoke the name of Jesus. One day, we’re told that the evil spirit answered them instead of coming out of the man. This story is creepy and really strange. The sons were beaten up and fled naked and bleeding after the guy who was possessed was used by the evil spirits to beat up these seven sons. People involved in the occult heard about it, the name of Jesus was honored and many believed, confessed their sins, and burned their magic scrolls.

What can we take home from this third vignette? The spiritual realm is nothing to mess with. We don’t dabble, play, or horse around with spiritual evil. It will not end well for the person doing this as seven sons can tell you. As Christians, we don’t drive out evil under our own power, but it is Christ in us whom the spirits know is God…and only our status as followers of Christ giving us the armor of God that Paul speaks of in Ephesians 6 to protect us.

Don’t you find it interesting that (1) the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power (remember our cycle: Pure Church, Powerful Church, Growing Church) in such a context, but also (2) that many of the Apostle Paul’s writings about spiritual evil and the spiritual realm’s power and Christ’s superior power…are found in Paul’s letters to the Ephesians? Paul’s time there was formative both in his theology and in his wrestling with how to maintain godly ministry when facing a world filled with the occult.

One more thing we can take home from this story is that we’re unequal to the battle against spiritual evil on our own, but we’re better prepared to stand firm when we’re grounded in the Word of God. Study your Bible. It’s your best defense in a world going to hell in a hand basket.

A fourth vignette involves a riot that would be forever fixed in the mind of Paul. Cultures and economies and how they work would help Paul’s understanding of how to contextualize the Gospel, submit to authorities even pagan ones, and yet, how never to compromise the Gospel.

21 After all this had happened, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. “After I have been there,” he said, “I must visit Rome also.” 22 He sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he stayed in the province of Asia a little longer. 23 About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way. 24 A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in no little business for the craftsmen. 25 He called them together, along with the workmen in related trades, and said: “Men, you know we receive a good income from this business. 26 And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that man-made gods are no gods at all. 27 There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited, and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty.” 28 When they heard this, they were furious and began shouting: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” 29 Soon the whole city was in an uproar. The people seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia, and rushed as one man into the theater. 30 Paul wanted to appear before the crowd, but the disciples would not let him. 31 Even some of the officials of the province, friends of Paul, sent him a message begging him not to venture into the theater. 32 The assembly was in confusion: Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there. 33 The Jews pushed Alexander to the front, and some of the crowd shouted instructions to him. He motioned for silence in order to make a defense before the people. 34 But when they realized he was a Jew, they all shouted in unison for about two hours: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

When peoples’ businesses are threatened by Christianity, the business leaders lash out. This competing god of Money cannot be overlooked. It had been Paul’s powerful preaching, his saying that gods of silver and gold are manmade and not real gods, that threatened the very livelihood of those manufacturing shrines and souvenirs. Their whole tourism industry was built around the temple of Artemis of the Ephesians! If worship stopped there, if the prostitution stopped there, if the tourism stopped there, if the silver smiths stopped their work, the whole economy of Ephesus could collapse as lose its status as a center of culture and trade. It wouldn’t be too good financially for any of the people who profited from it. So they rioted. They formed a mob and went into the streets. Picture the riots in Detroit in 1967 or the 1992 riots in LA after the Rodney King verdict. Picture Ferguson and Baltimore. In Ephesus—an urban center of major trade and economics—these riots, for their day at least, might have looked like chants in the streets “Death to America” and burning US flags and torching American leaders in effigy.

Paul had wanted to appear before the crowd—what an opportunity to preach! But his fellow disciples and some people of influence who were friends of Paul wisely kept him hidden so that he could live to preach another day and write a chunk of the NT.

What can we take home from this riot? Well, we must be aware, as Christians, that our faith may put our business dealings and our economic futures in jeopardy. Chick-fil-A is facing this at the Denver airport. In the US, bakers of cakes, pizza shops, Little Sisters of the Poor, Hobby Lobby, wedding photographers, and a high profile court clerk in KY are all conscientious objectors to worldly things on account of their faith. We may pay a heavy economic toll, but it is a reality we must navigate with wisdom. We must hold to the truth anyway and trust God to get us through it. Money is a deceptive competing god. Very powerful! Economics, when tied to the government’s role in our lives, is something so powerful that it ought not to be underestimated in its pull on our lives.

Interestingly this riot vignette continues:

35 The city clerk quieted the crowd and said: “Men of Ephesus, doesn’t all the world know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image, which fell from heaven? 36 Therefore, since these facts are undeniable, you ought to be quiet and not do anything rash. 37 You have brought these men here, though they have neither robbed temples nor blasphemed our goddess. 38 If, then, Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a grievance against anybody, the courts are open and there are proconsuls. They can press charges. 39 If there is anything further you want to bring up, it must be settled in a legal assembly. 40 As it is, we are in danger of being charged with rioting because of today’s events. In that case we would not be able to account for this commotion, since there is no reason for it.” 41 After he had said this, he dismissed the assembly.

The city clerk—who would be like a government representative—was looking out for Ephesus. These were changing times when local control was being usurped by an increasingly powerful centralized command-and-control center in the Roman Empire. The local official didn’t want word to get out that riots were ongoing because it might involve bringing in the feds, so to speak, and losing their autonomy. So this clerk appeals to their heritage and encourages them to avoid doing anything rash. The courts are open. It can be handled legally. There’s no reason to riot because these Christians (and even the Jews who wished to distance themselves from the Christians) aren’t doing anything that can’t be accommodated by the courts.

Luke went to great effort to demonstrate that Christians don’t need to fear rioters or authorities. In fact, Paul in his letter to the Romans (chapter 13) would state that very thing. Even legal challenges wouldn’t keep God’s work from moving forward. It lasted in Ephesus, from the time of Paul until the Greco-Turkish War of 1921-22 ended in the signing of Treaty of Lausanne. A population exchange was formalized in which the Christian population of Greeks, Armenians, and Nestorians were expelled from their native homeland to Greece and the Greek Muslims were transferred to Turkey, whose land now would include Ephesus.

Yet, Ephesus would be a special place to Paul. It would continue to be important to Christianity–Ephesus is one of the 7 Churches of Revelation formed during this 3^rd missionary journey of Paul. Yes, Ephesus would be special because it represented the ongoing evangelization of all Asia during 27 months of relatively peaceful ministry. The Ephesian believers would grow to love Paul with a deep, abiding love as we’ll see shortly in our study of Acts and he would have a special heart for them. In this chapter of Acts we see why Ephesus was special. A lasting ministry detailing things we rarely see from Paul. Miracles. Dealing with the occult. A huge riot not as an opportunity lost, but recorded by Luke and ministering to us in a lasting way. The Gospel spread widely and grew in power. Yes, for all these reasons, Ephesus would be a very special place.

Ephesus was a special place for the Apostle Paul.  In several vignettes from Acts 19, we see some reasons why it was such a special place and we’ll learn some applications for us today.