Missions Paul

Compelled by the Spirit

Acts 20:22 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.”

In some ways this is beautiful language and yet we soon realise the high price Paul has to pay. He is compelled, meaning he is bound and in chains not to the attack of an enemy, but to the Spirit. The Spirit is holding him and leading him, maybe at times dragging him to Jerusalem.
Have you ever wondered in that constricting place where you want to break free from but cannot, that it is the Spirit? You may weep and complain but the Spirit is leading you forward like a prisoner in chains. “I am in chains for Christ” (Phil 1:13); “I am an ambassador in chains” (Eph 6:20); “I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal” (2 Tim 2:9). These were physical chains as he was held under Roman guard. But the reason Paul could survive these chains was because long before this he recognised he was chained to the Spirit.
A person can survive anywhere if they know the Spirit has led them or is leading them to it. This is not the same as compulsion. A Harvard Business Review in 2011 actually led with the title “Whatever you feel compelled to do, don’t.’ It went on to talk about the short-sighted destructive choices that we make out of reactions and not forethought leading to people asking us, “What were you thinking when you did that?!”
Paul wasn’t reacting or being short-sighted. Paul was a prisoner to the Spirit who was leading him to the city of Jerusalem. “Why Paul? Why are you going there? Why don’t you turn around and get out of there as fast as you can? It could be dangerous. You don’t know what will happen to you.” Maybe Paul heard all of those voices. Those self-preservation voices still exist today. Many have left their posts at that critical point of feeling compelled by the Spirit. Many are not where they used to be. Many have not been effective for the kingdom. Many have abandoned relationships and pressed self-destructive buttons because they just couldn’t cope anymore in their situation and circumstance. Paul wasn’t one of these and though I sympathise fully with these strong consuming feelings, I fight not to be one of those either.
Today, go forward again, maybe one step at a time, it may not be easy and you may not know what the future holds, but compelled by the Spirit you are putting the kingdom of God first. His glory is what you seek, the love for others and the love for God is so much more important than your love for yourself, you are compelled, by the Spirit.

Can you be bothered with the gospel?
Acts 20:21 “I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.”
Paul in his farewell speech to the Ephesian elders says that he has preached to all. He preached to the Jews in their synagogue and then to the Greeks in the hall of Tyrannus.
He met people in their setting, in their comfort zones and preached the gospel to them.
There is no one who does not need the gospel.
Religious people need the gospel as much as unreligious people.
Paul found a way and he adapted his gospel presentation to his hearers. That took forward planning and learning.
Just because someone calls themselves Christian doesn’t mean they do not need the gospel. In Pakistan if you are a Christian it means you are not a Muslim. There are many Christians in Pakistan who need the gospel. It is the same in the UK.
The question we need to ask ourselves is this: how would I begin to take the gospel to:
Atheists, Baha’is, Buddhists, Christians, Hindu’s, Muslims, Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, Jews, Pagans, Rastafarians, Sikhs, Spiritualists, Taiosts or the Unitarianists. I am sure the list can continue.
Where do they meet?
How do they worship and if they don’t then how do they express their philosophy?
What do they believe or what do they not believe about what you believe?
Final question! … Can you be bothered?

Vision 2020: No hesitation!
Acts 20:20 “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”.
Elims General Superintendent, Chris Cartwright, recently announced Vision 2020. “The Holy Spirit has brought us to a chairos moment, a fresh season of spirit empowered mission. Imagine Elim’s future together making disciples, planting and growing churches, developing leaders and reaching nations. Join us on a 3-year adventure of mission to bring transformation to communities and nations. One movement, one mission.”
This has given a fresh impetus to move forward and for my leadership it has fuelled the vision to go into new nations. I have just come back from an amazing trip in Pakistan where Elim has now officially been launched. We are church planting in 3 provinces and have a leadership school there. From this nation we will be able to launch into Afghanistan, Iran and China. The countries in this region are not easy ones for the gospel and what I witnessed this last week I definitely see Pakistan as part of the Suffering Church. But we have to advance with no hesitation remembering that we overcome the enemy with “the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” (Revelation 12:11)
Hesitation happens when we think of ourselves or of others that love us. Hesitation happens when we think of what we might lose. But if we have given everything up for Christ, if we have laid down our life then we don’t have a life to lose. Hesitation holds the cause lightly. But when the cause of Christ is all and everything then hesitation cannot breathe.
David Brainerd, missionary to the native Indians in North America: “Consumed with passion for the pagan Indians, I cared not when or how I lived or what hardships I endured so that I could gain souls for Christ. While I was asleep I dreamt of such things and when I awakened the first thing I thought of was winning souls to Christ.”
Our Lord “resolutely set out for Jerusalem.” Luke 9:51
Jesus knew the time. There was no hesitation.
The opportunity to utilise your life, to offer your talents, to give love, to breathe out joy, to make some ones day, to worship God, to go into all the world is NOW. Open your eyes to see the clock face. It is time to rise up and be that man and woman.
Every week people are leaving churches to live a life empty of the power of God, of His anointing, of His fruit. Elsewhere on every continent in the world there are people who have no sense of love. There are millions of people who are very close to God but might as well be millions of miles away because they reject Jesus Christ, the Son of God. These millions are nice people, they are ignorant, they are deceived and they are blind. Once enlightened oh how thankful they are! I have seen it and it is convincing and it destroys any hesitation! We have to go and we have to send, we have to pray and we have to give.
I returned from Pakistan with a need in my heart for a church planter who along with his family have been beaten badly and face constant persecution and if people knew the truth about his conversion he would lose his life. I came back with a promise to meet their need and as I drove home from the airport I received news that a donor’s regular gift which actually matches the need, is having to withdraw. Whatever the circumstance for that donor I have sympathy with I am sure. But this is not the time to withdraw, to back down, this is the time to advance with prayer, giving and going. This is not the time to play safe, to count our coins, to worry about whether we are getting the best interest, to feather our nests on earth. This is the time to empty our nests. The world needs Jesus!
Where is the Church? The problem is not a western problem. The Church in Pakistan is in need of a new culture of leadership. There are many that have been spoiled by western mission. We need the Church to rise and be the body of Christ. But it is true all over the world. There are Christians where Christ cannot be seen; Leaders with no one following them; Pastors scattering not gathering; Evangelists not winning people; Intercessors not weeping; Missionaries who have lost their mission.
The day is short, the hour is late and people’s lives are being wasted, our enemy is deceiving, hurting and killing people’s destiny. A lost eternity is real.
No one knows who actually quoted this but here is the truth:
“Upon the plains of hesitation are the bleached bones of countless millions, who on the threshold of victory sat down to wait. And in waiting they died.”
How can we hesitate? How can we turn back? How can we not go? How can we think of ourselves more than the gospel?
There must be no hesitation either to pray, to give or to go. No hesitation because this is Vision 2020. The Acts 20:20 vision “I have not hesitated”.

Learn tears

Acts 20:19 “I served the Lord with great humility and with tears, although I was severely tested by the plots of the Jews.”

I remember sitting with a leader on a journey who was passing on his leadership ability to me.
He told me of his many fights with people and how he had won the arguments. I could see how people wanted to be like him for his rhetorical skills, his dogged determination to deal with any slight confrontation and his strength of character for any situation.
But I wondered if he ever wept.
What broke his heart?
I need to learn to ask that question of leaders that inspire me: “What makes you cry?”
Good leaders weep.
Later (v31) Paul says he wept night and day for people.
In doing his Father’s will Jesus offered up loud cries and tears (Heb 5)
So how do we learn tears? By serving with great humility:-
A gentleness towards others.
A desire for the best in others.
A willingness to wash the feet of others.
A commitment to carry the cross for others.
A satisfaction to lose the fight in order to win the war.

There is no humility without tears.

Are you known?
Acts 20: 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.”

Paul is with his beloved Ephesian elders. It is his farewell speech. This is a tearful moment as Paul pours out his heart one last time to them. He starts by saying, “You know me ..”
There were many evangelists, healers, teachers who had similar itinerary ministries and yet were more interested in making a living rather than the real interests of those they were serving. Paul is making sure that after he has gone he is not lumped in the category of some of these professional ministers and also that the leaders don’t fall into this category either. He is saying ‘I’m different’. More than that, “You know I’m different”
v18 You know.
v20 You know.
v34 You yourselves know.
It’s not what we think about ourselves that is important, but what is known by others. Do they know you are different?
It is reminiscent of 1 Thessalonians 2, where because he had to be smuggled out of the city and had not returned, people began to say he was insincere towards them.
v1 “You know brothers ..”
v2 “as you know ..”
v5 “You know we never ..”
v9 “Surely you remember ..”
v10 “You are witnesses..”
v11 “For you know ..”
Are you confident in what people know of you?
You know you are not perfect, you know of the sins in your life, but what people know of you because they have spent time with you is honourable and good. You are different to others.

The final call
Acts 20:17 “From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church.”
So instead of going to Ephesus, he called the elders of Ephesus to come to him.
This talk to the leaders of the Ephesian church that we are going to read over the next few days is very different to the other messages Paul has given. Firstly it is a Christian audience all the other messages were evangelistic in nature. It is as if he is speaking one of his letters because of the tone of the content. He is describing to them what it looks like to follow Jesus. This group of leaders he had given 18 months of his life, the longest he had stayed in one place on his travels. He loves them intensely. He has served them vigorously. He intends to leave this area permanently and after Rome move into Spain, taking the gospel into other parts of the world and he knows that he will never see these friends again. This is an intense moving moment.
If today was the last day you were going to see someone, what would you tell them?
So go ahead, tell them, for this is the day that you have.

Desiring Pentecost
Acts 20: 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.”
Paul didn’t want to offend the Ephesians. This was not a slight against them. But he knew that if he stayed they would want him more than a few days. He had been with them for around 3 years, there were many connections and they would want his wisdom and his teaching. Jerusalem was calling in his heart. This was his desire, his team were carrying the offering he had collected and he wanted to give it to the church there. But there is one fact Luke points out that maybe indicates Pauls desire to be in Jerusalem, “if possible, by the day of Pentecost.”
It would have been 25 years since that Pentecost outpouring. It was still fresh in the minds of that generation. Many eye-witnesses were still alive. This event was continually referred to. Maybe they longed for another Pentecost. Probably they prayed for further outpourings.
How about you?
Do you want to be in that place for Pentecost? Do you want more Pentecosts?

The places that need the gospel
Acts 20: 15 “The next day we set sail from there and arrived off Chios. The day after that we crossed over to Samos, and on the following day arrived at Miletus.”
Paul’s third missionary journey meant he visited these places that we can often just read over very quickly but at the time were known as important places.
Assos is known today as Behram and is a small coastal city in Turkey. Its history is that of philosophy. Aristotle, after he left Athens, came to the city and opened a school of philosophy in 348 B.C. Paul wanted to stay and teach as much as he could in this city.
Mitylene is the capital city of a well-known island for us because of the intake of refugees, Lesbos, a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea. It is the birthplace of the ancient Greek poet Sappho, she was born in 650BC and wrote about love and women. Mitylene became the home for many architects, poets, and philosophers of Rome.
Chios claims to be the birthplace of Homer. It was certainly the birthplace of eminent Greek politicians and writers.
Samos is a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, separated from Turkey by the mile-wide Mycale Strait. It was the birthplace of mathematician Pythagoras and philosopher Epicurus.
Miletus before 500 BC was the greatest Greek city in the east having great commercial importance and yet having a history known only for war.
Philosophy, poetry, politics, knowledge, study and learning, commerce and war. Paul journeyed through them all. He stood in each place with the gospel in his heart ready to engage with whatever world he faced. The gospel is not soft nor is it weak. The gospel can stand against the most challenging and questioning of the pillars of society. In fact these pillars can speak of and herald the gospel. On their own through their wisdom they express their frustration at finding answers, the answer. The gospel heals their pain, the gospel satisfies the equation and the gospel brings the meaning of this life.
As gospel-carriers, missionaries in our world, let us study and then engage with these same pillars and more and not be afraid to speak the gospel to them.

The journey
Acts 20: 14 “When he met us at Assos, we took him aboard and went on to Mitylene.”
Most people spend their whole lives in the same area, street or even house than those like me who have lived away from home for nearly 10 years.
One of my favourite places in the world is a small island of 25 square miles with approximately 65,000 people living there, the island of Guernsey. For someone like me who has moved geographically so much in life that I could do a PhD in moving, the fact that some people on that island have not visited other areas of the 25 square miles is a fact that I cannot grasp!

Yet everyone understands that though we may or may not be a nomad all of us know the phrases, “this is where I’ve come from” and “where I’m heading next” as speaking of a journey of life that we are on. If the journey was described as a book it would contain many chapters with a variety of activity of twists and turns.

And so, we move into verses that will speak of Assos and Mitylene and in the next few days will include Chios, Samos and Miletus.
It would be easy to skip these verses and possibly miss the reason why they are written and something very helpful to the first century and 21st century reader.
To the Jewish mind as they read of Pauls travels and the journey of the Gospel they would also be thinking of another journey parallel to this: the travel story of the Israelites coming out of Egypt into the Promised Land.
To those from a Gentile life they would know all too well of the 2 great travel stories of the ancient world, “The Odyssey” and the “Ilyiad”. Homer wrote a story of Odysseus who returned home from the Trojan war travelling from one place to the next with all of lifes ups and downs. The other, Ilyiad, is a similar war journey of personal battle and struggle.
Here is Paul, the new hero, on a journey.
And the story connects with the reader, with you and me, who even 2 centuries later are on a similar journey of life.
Let us not hold back, but let us explore. Don’t wait for confirmation to move, just move. Why not? You have more than 25 square miles to explore. There is a whole world out there. Does God want me to go on a mission trip? Read the Bible … YES! Does God want me to cross the boundaries of where you live, to meet new people, to experience new things? Read the Bible … YES!
One day this journey will end on earth so live that journey today!

Walk alone
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.”
Paul decides to walk alone. He made arrangements … to be alone.
Luke had written in his first book, the gospel, how Jesus ‘often’ made sure he was alone (5:16).
Paul needed time to think and pray perhaps or to be away from the voices of people for many reasons. Whatever the reason, he arranged that he would walk on his own.
Where do you go to be alone?
Maybe for you being alone is easier than for others because you live alone. But it is quite amazing how we manage to fill our lives with noise and with the help of social media it can be that we find ourselves never truly alone.
But Paul walking alone is also a picture of his journey of life and all of our journeys. Yes we take people with us and we should but our walk is one of faith and we walk it alone. The resolve to keep going and to live unselfishly comes from the mining of our own hearts each day. Thankful for the encouragement that is shown towards us and yet our paths are unique to us and one day we will stand before our Saviour alone and He will reward us for the journey we took.

― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
“I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.”
Friends, your long walk has not ended and today you walk on foot alone and you do it because you love God and you love others and you want to make a difference.
In order for you to continue there are times when being with people is not helpful to the cause. So come away, be alone, gather your thoughts, plot your cause and listen to Him who never leaves you.