Acts 20:13-31

“Bon Voyage?”

August 5, 2007

Associate Pastor Doug Forsberg

I haven’t told too many people this, but I start two weeks of vacation and travel tomorrow.  Those I have told have asked about our plans, and when I’ve told them our plans, they’ve all said, “You’re going to need a vacation from your vacation when you get back.”  Why do we leave the friendly confines of our own homes to rest and relax?

A few years ago, we were on a plane and as we leveled off at cruising altitude the pilot announced how pleased he was that we were flying with his airline and how he’d try to make our flight as smooth as possible.  Then he said, “It looks like we’ll have you in Detroit by 10:15.”  Suddenly, the lady across the aisle from me exclaimed, “Detroit?  I’m going to San Francisco!”  After confirming with those sitting around her that the plane was indeed bound for Detroit, she pressed the button for the flight attendant.  A kind woman came back to where we were sitting and assured this passenger that the plane was going to Detroit.  This poor passenger kept saying, “But I’m going to San Francisco.”  It turns out that this woman did indeed have a ticket to San Francisco, but it was on another airline!  Talk about needing a rest!

Acts 20 is a sort of travel diary of the beginning stages of Paul’s journey from Greece to Jerusalem.  Now Paul was not traveling on a vacation; he was on a mission.  Last week we looked at the first twelve verses of the chapter and saw how Paul made his way to Troas and then led a worship service, not unlike our own, that focused on the preaching of God’s Word and the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.  Verses 13-31, our text for today, focus on the next stage of Paul’s journey and his farewell speech to the elders of the Ephesian church.  Paul spent three years ministering with these leaders in the city of Ephesus, so his farewell is poignant, offering all of those involved the opportunity to wish one another God’s peace.

As we look at this account this morning, I want to focus our attention on verse 24, for within this one verse we will find much that challenges us to live faithful lives and to live them well.  In verse 24 Paul says, “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.”  As we study this verse, we discover both the priority that faith in Christ has in our lives and a pattern for mission and ministry.

I came to know and follow Jesus at a summer camp in Pennsylvania.  Within my heart, this camp is as near to the Kingdom and as much like heaven as any place on earth.  One of the lessons I learned at this camp was expressed through an image I won’t forget.  At the main campfire a huge cross hangs in the air.  Hanging from the cross where the beams meet is a pair of sneakers. 

Now as a kid, I went to this camp for 8 or 9 years, and for many of those years I figured that someone got into big trouble for throwing their shoes up onto the cross.  Then, as I got a bit older I figured out that the camp would have removed those shoes if they didn’t want them there, and I started to think about why those shoes were on that cross.  Finally, I asked the camp director about this, and he told me that the shoes were on the cross to remind us that as Christians we take the cross with us wherever we go.  It doesn’t just stay at the camp or in our church or in our homes.  Instead, the cross and our faith in Jesus go with us everywhere.

Imagine if all of us actually carried around a cross to signify our faith in Christ.  If we did that everyone would know that we follow Jesus, we wouldn’t have to say a word.  Imagine too if there were places that we just left our cross at the door so as not to cause ourselves any discomfort or embarrassment.  How easy it can be to check the cross at the door when we go into work or to the club or to school or to a party or when we’re on vacation.  Sometimes its not convenient to carry the cross.  It’s easier to set it aside for a time, bearing it only in those places where it is comfortable to do so.

That cross at camp serves as a constant reminder that we cannot set the cross aside if we claim to follow Jesus.  My sense of what Paul is saying to the Ephesian elders in verse 24 is not unlike the image of the cross with shoes hanging from it.  Paul’s words are somewhat difficult to translate.  We heard them read this morning to say, “I consider my life worth nothing to me.”  Another translation is, “I do not count my life of any value to myself.”

What does Paul mean by using these words?  Clearly, he does not mean that his life has no value or that he would rather be dead.  The breath of life is too precious a gift for Paul to say that it has no worth.  Instead, he is speaking of the priorities of his life.  Paul’s priority in life was to live out the calling given to him by Jesus.  His life finds its meaning, value, and worth in his living out these words of Jesus, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” (Mark 8:34-35)

Jesus met Paul on the road to Damascus and made him an apostle, one charged with announcing the good news to the world.  Paul took this charge to heart and his whole life was shaped by this mission of testifying to God’s grace in Jesus Christ.  This was no easy mission for Paul; he encountered so many obstacles and much opposition from the enemies of Christ.  I don’t know exactly how he did it, but it is clear that Paul made following Jesus the priority of his life.  Perhaps he gives us a hint as to how he accomplished this in Philippians 3:13-14: “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, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

One of the difficulties in holding up Paul as an example to you this morning is that Paul received a specific calling from Jesus that only Paul could accomplish.  Paul is an example to us of a faithful person who set his priorities in the same way that we should set our own.  Neither you nor I are called to preach the gospel to Jew and Gentile throughout the Roman Empire.  We aren’t called to be Paul; we’re called to be ourselves.  We’re called to faithfulness in those places God has put us, carrying our cross and following Jesus in our day to day lives, in the routine business that makes up our days.

So it is that mothers and fathers follow Jesus in their parenting, students follow Jesus in their schooling, teachers follow Jesus in their teaching, workers follow Jesus in their vocations, and retired individuals follow Jesus in their retirement: the people of God daily bearing the cross and making Jesus our priority.  We can only do this if we follow Paul’s example and forget what is behind, forget all the ways we have failed, forget all the obstacles that have come our way, forget our priorities and then strain toward what is ahead.

At one time or another, all of us have failed to carry the cross and lose our lives only to find them again.  Thanks be to God that his grace extends even to our failures as disciples.  If you need to repent for leaving the cross out of some areas of your life do so, then make following Jesus a priority and move forward seeking to be faithful.  Paul spoke of this active living of our faith as a race.  Run the race as one who intends to win.  Run the race as one who gets to the finish line and hears these wonderful words, “Well done good and faithful servant.”

I began by speaking of travel; and one of the reasons I did so is that traveling is one of the few times in our lives when we lose the ability to control what happens around us, especially if we get on the wrong airplane.  We cannot control the destination of our baggage, we cannot control a flight cancellation, we cannot control a backup on the Tappen Zee Bridge; we cannot even control the weather that shapes our travel.  When we travel, we no longer get to choose all of the priorities in our lives.

The life of faith is not all together different, except that instead of letting go of a little bit of control, we relinquish our authority over our own lives and place ourselves in the hands of Jesus, following where he leads.  Paul was willing to lose his life for the sake of the gospel; he was willing to put Jesus’ mission for him first.  Will we do the same?

Jesus has invited us to come to this table set before us.  On this table we will find bread and the cup.  This bread and cup remind us that Jesus was willing to lay aside his life for the greater mission of saving the lives of those who couldn’t save themselves, people like you and me.  If our friend, our brother, our Savior and our Lord was willing to lay down his life, won’t his followers be willing to do the same?

Lord, may it be that we consider our lives to be worth nothing.

May it be that in losing our lives we find them in you.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.