Questions For You

 I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents.  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.

I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.  However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.  For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.

 This is an excerpt from the Book of Acts, chapter 20 where Paul the apostle addresses the leaders of the church at Ephesus before he goes to Jerusalem.  He knows that he will be met with severe opposition there.  And indeed he was beaten by a Jewish mob and arrested by the Romans.  That incident led to his being sent to Rome In an appeal to the Caesar and his imprisonment for at least two years.

But I want you to put yourself in Paul’s place if you can, as you read what he said to the Ephesians.  Paul saw, heard, and communed with the risen Jesus Christ.  He was very well-versed in the prophecies of the Jewish scriptures regarding the coming of a Messiah.  He was able to perform miracles of healing and exorcism, and felt the power of the Holy Spirit in his life.

What he tells the Ephesian leaders is a succinct summary of his years of ministry.  He says he has served in ministry with humility, tears, and intense opposition.  Yet he continued to teach both publicly as well as more privately in small groups and even one-on-one.

This was Paul’s life.  This was his work.  This is how he spent his days…his time.  Paul was driven to, as he says, “proclaim to you the whole will of God.”

I asked you to put yourself in Paul’s place if you could as I reviewed for you his words to the Ephesian leaders.  I know we’ve not experienced the manifestations of Jesus Christ as Paul did.  I know we have not experienced a conversion quite like Paul did with the blinding light, the blindness, the healing, and all that came with those things.  Our conversion experiences are probably more, shall I say, conventional than Paul’s.

I had to personally wonder if I could come even close to having the mind of Paul that I see in his words to the Ephesian leaders.  I know I don’t have the same talents, abilities, and opportunities to teach as Paul did.  I can’t heal and exorcise demons.  I haven’t physically heard the words of a risen Jesus as he spoke to me.  I’m not a circuit-riding preacher.  But I do have a ministry.  And I have to wonder just how much I have encouraged others to “turn to God in repentance.”  I have to wonder just how much I have testified “to the good news of God’s grace.”  I have to wonder if I have unhesitatingly proclaimed “the whole will of God.”

And I have to wonder how many tears I have shed in humility, and if I really consider my life worth nothing to me, but rather desire to “finish the race and complete the task that the Lord Jesus has given me.”

I know I’ve asked a lot of questions…and I’m wondering if I dare answer them truthfully.  Putting oneself in the sandals of Paul the Apostle provokes a contemplation not often done.  It also evokes a certain terror, knowing his experiences with opposition, pain, suffering, and prison.

Our culture, I think, tends to make us lazy.  We tend to become lukewarm in our faith.  We don’t see the need to bother our neighbor, our relative, or our friend with the good news.  We become satisfied with life as it is, assuming it will always be.

Paul was a man driven.  A man on a mission.  A man who knew the eternal importance of what he was doing.  A man who had given himself totally over to the work of God.

Eternal reality demands that we look honestly at the life of Paul, and the lives of those others who have given and are giving their lives over to the Lord.  How do we measure up?  What are some things we need to shed from our lives?  What are some things we need to clothe ourselves with?  How can we better fulfill our responsibility to serve our Lord and Savior?

May we all, with prayer and guidance from the Spirit of God, seek to serve our Lord as He would have us do in the days that remain for each of us.