Purpose, Commitment, Duty August 6th, 2023
Holy God, your Word is bread for our journey. Send us your Spirit so that we may know your wisdom and live it out for the sake of Christ, your Living Word. Amen.
In this morning’s passage from chapter 20 of the book of Acts we hear the Apostle Paul's farewell speech to the elders of the church in Ephesus. He had spent three years with them, teaching them the gospel of God's grace and preparing them for the challenges ahead. He knew that he would not see them again, and he wanted to leave them with some final words of encouragement and advice.
So, what would you say to people you love who you are never going to see again? I’ve often thought about that in the case of many of our ancestors who left Scotland in the 1800’s, to come to the New World, knowing that they would never again see the loved ones they were leaving behind. And for most of them this wasn’t an adventure they were setting off on. It was out of desperation. In many cases they had been evicted by the landowners from the land they were farming and so had no place to live and no way to make a living. Moving to a foreign land and starting over from scratch was their last hope. Hard times, indeed.
And, while Paul wasn’t leaving Ephesus out of desperation, it still was a difficult time for him. As he told the elders, “‘You yourselves know how I lived among you the entire time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears, enduring the trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews. I did not shrink from doing anything helpful, proclaiming the message to you and teaching you publicly and from house to house.’” But now the Holy Spirit was directing him to travel to Jerusalem and he had to follow his command. And so, he has one last time to address those leaders of the church with whom he worked so closely the past three years.
The ship Paul was sailing on had stopped in a port called Miletus and so he had a period of time there, as he waited for it to set sail again. Paul took the opportunity to contact the elders of the church in Ephesus, which was around thirty miles from where he was, and asked them to come and see him.
When they arrived and Paul addressed them, his words show him to be a faithful servant of God and a loving shepherd of God's people. Paul reminds them of his message of salvation through the Grace of God and of his mission to spread this Good News as far as he could. Paul's speech is a model for us as we seek to live a life worth living for Christ. It shows us what it means to serve God with humility; to preach the whole word of God without shrinking back; to testify to the gospel of grace with boldness; to finish our course with joy; and to care for the church of God with love and compassion.
And what we can see from Paul is that he had three anchors which kept him firmly in place as he served the Lord. His love of God gave him a sense of purpose, a sense of commitment, and a sense of duty. I believe these same three anchors can keep you and I in place in our lives as well, so let’s have a look at each of them.
Let’s start with Paul having a sense of purpose. I don’t believe a person can get along without a purpose in life, a reason to get out of bed every morning. In both our day to day lives and as we serve the Lord it is necessary to set some goals. This sense of purpose seems to be missing in the lives of unbelievers and of some believers today because they don’t know who they are, why they’re here, or where they’re going and many wander aimlessly with no real purpose in life. This causes many to feel lost and directionless, even apathy, often passing months or years, struggling with the meaning of life and their place in it.
As humans who God has created, we need to have some goals. We need to make some plans. We need to dream of the future! Dream of our future both in the here and now but also for the days to come, eternity in the presence of our Lord. And while we’re waiting for that day, we need something bigger than our own wants or our own desires to live for because if we don’t, then life will be meaningless, at best.
This is how Paul explained his purpose to those elders, “And now, as a captive to the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and persecutions are waiting for me.” Paul was commanded by the Holy Spirit to travel to Jerusalem, not knowing what would happen to him there. But he had been warned by the Spirit that there would be many trials along the way. Paul understood that if he was going to follow through on his purpose there would be no way to avoid such troubles. In the Bible, as in those early times, God warns us that we will have struggles. It is a part of our lives that God uses to strengthen us. Later Paul would write these words of warning to his fellow missionary and protégé, Timothy, “Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” (2 Timothy 3:12) And it’s no different for us, as believers in Christ, there’s no way to avoid problems but there is a way to be spiritually ready for them.
Secondly, Paul had a high level of commitment. There must be a sense of commitment to our relationship with Christ and to his church. In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul says “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” (Romans 12:1) Paul’s courage and perseverance in the face of the trials that awaited him in Jerusalem would have silenced and stopped many, but not Paul. Paul didn’t consider self-preservation his primary motivation. He was a man of humility, who was willing to put the interests of others ahead of his own. He took time to spiritually feed himself daily, but he was determined to fulfill his calling, which was the proclamation of the good news of the grace of God in the person of Jesus Christ.
Paul is completely committed to serving the Lord, willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish God’s will in his life. No matter what takes place, he will finish the course God has laid out for him; he will accomplish the ministry God has given him. And that's exactly what we must do if we’re going to grow the Church of Christ. We must be fully devoted to Christ ourselves, committed to completing the task he has given us, even though it will cost us.
Paul was committed to “serving the Lord with all humility and with tears, enduring the trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews.” He served the Lord by loving the Lord’s people. As he would later write to the members of the church in Corinth, “For I wrote to you out of much distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.” (2 Corinthians 2:4)
Thirdly, and finally, he had a sense of duty. Paul says, “And now, as a captive to the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and persecutions are waiting for me. But I do not count my life of any value to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news of God’s grace.” The Holy Spirit has warned Paul that wherever he goes he will face persecution, but that doesn’t deter Paul. He knows that he has been commanded by the Spirit to spread the Gospel from town to town and he is determined to carry out his mission, no matter what trials he must face. Paul was willing to face the dangers he would meet in Jerusalem and was ready to surrender his life for the Gospel of Jesus to reach the world.
In the letters he wrote Paul often stated his readiness to suffer, even to die, for Christ. In Paul’s second letter to Timothy he wrote, “As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:6-7) The race that Paul was running was the ministry which he had received from Jesus and was his testimony as to the gospel of God’s grace. The heart of Paul’s message is the good news of God’s grace. That is the only message that can save people.
So, let’s ask ourselves, how can we follow Paul's example in our own lives and ministries? How can we be faithful witnesses of God's grace in a hostile world? How can we entrust ourselves and our future to God and his word? Paul preached the Gospel. Paul preached the message of the Bible, and that's what we must do, if we want to multiply fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ, if we want to make disciples who love God and people, and if we want others to have eternal life. We must open our hearts and the Bible and share it every chance we get.
Like Paul we need to have a sense of purpose, a sense of commitment and a sense of duty. We must be always in love and concern for others, and in steadfastness in trials. We should be growing in understanding and applying all of God’s word to our lives and then sharing what we are learning with others.
Let us Pray:
Heavenly Father, we thank you for wonderful insights into the ministry that we gain from the life of Paul. Help us to understand that we too have the same Holy Spirit dwelling in us that was in him, enabling us to reach out to others with purpose, commitment, and duty, sharing the message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Amen