Acts 20:22-24 Common English Bible
22 Now, compelled by the Spirit, I’m going to Jerusalem. I don’t know what will happen to me there. 23 What I do know is that the Holy Spirit testifies to me from city to city that prisons and troubles await me. 24 But nothing, not even my life, is more important than my completing my mission. This is nothing other than the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus: to testify about the good news of God’s grace.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Compelled to Count My Life as Nothing?
Acts 20:24 Amplified Bible
24 But I do not consider my life as something of value or dear to me, so that I may [with joy] finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify faithfully of the good news of God’s [precious, undeserved] grace [which makes us free of the guilt of sin and grants us eternal life].
What an incredible 180 degree we are witnessing with Paul!
Earlier in Acts 9, Luke wrote that a young Pharisee named Saul had made it his only life’s mission to utterly eradicate all those who believed in Jesus as God.
Now, here in Acts 20:22-24 we read where he now counts his only life mission to be his freely going into harm’s way – not to arrest anyone, but, at all costs, up to and including his own arrest, even his own death, to be a faithful and true and overly joyful minister and preacher and a teacher of the Gospel of Christ.
As many times as I have studied this passage, for the first time I find myself as being in genuine awe of Paul’s transformation – 180 degree change is awesome.
Have you thought about what can hold people back from a deep sense of awe?
We could answer that question in a general way by saying that sin is what keeps us from enjoying a deeply compelling , full life of ministry and mission with God. But have you also wondered about how compelling, how subtle sin can be?
Sometimes we don’t realize how much our sinful tendencies can deceive us.
For example, I’ve noticed one thing that has a strong hold on many, many people, myself included: individualism. If you live in the West, you know that this frequently shows up in a phrase like “Do whatever makes you happy.”
I’m all for being happy, but what happens when that “happy” is taken too far?
We end up putting ourselves first in everything we do.
One of the hardest addictions to recover from is the selfie life.
Paul taught that he counted his life as nothing in comparison to what he had gained by following Jesus.
His deep sense of awe was grounded in setting aside his own plans, dreams, and desires so he could devote 100% of himself to God’s greater purpose for his life.
Paul was not consumed with creature comforts or conveniences, and he found contentment in focusing on the life Jesus had in store for him.
The greatest battle we might be drawn into fighting in developing, maturing our faith can be against holding back from giving Jesus everything in our life.
For Paul, this was not masochism—some strange hatred of happiness, health, or physical life.
So what, then, did Paul mean by declaring his life valueless? Simply this: that he did not regard his life as so precious a possession as to be held on to at all costs.
People will too often say, “Well, as long as you’ve got your health, that’s all that matters!”
But that is not all that matters! Our bodies are passing away.
We’re crumbling even as we live and breathe.
We may have our health today, but a day will come when we do or will not.
Unless we’re able to say with Paul, “To live is Christ,” we cannot legitimately affirm with him, “and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).
The only way that death can be gain is if Christ is everything.
And if Christ is everything, as Paul says He is, then we can declare with him,
My life is not ultimate. I don’t need to protect it as the most precious thing I have. I want to spend it for the most precious person I know.
What mattered most to Paul was that he finished his life trusting Christ and carried out to the best of his abilities the ministry Christ had given him.
He felt a compelling resolve to complete the task of testifying to “the gospel of the grace of God” everywhere he could reach.
There’s a God sized task!
There’s a God sized purpose, significance, an agenda, a God sized calling!
And this is a task that has been entrusted to all of us—the Great Commission to let everyone we meet to learn, to know the good news of God’s amazing grace.
In today’s context, how are any of us, like Paul, to live a life of urgency so that you might keep going until the end?
You must run your race with all your might, with the finish line in view.
Don’t look for an opportunity to bow out or slow down before the final lap is over. Run with all of your strength and run right through the tape, gripped by Christ’s compelling love, energized by God’s Spirit, and guided by God’s word.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Praying,
Psalm 23
A Psalm of David.
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul:
he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 