Truth Is Worth Dying For
A WORD WORTH DYING FOR IN A WORLD WITH NOTHING TO LIVE FOR
Too few people have something of substance to live for today.
But in Jesus, we have something worth even dying for.
“You don’t know what to give your life to daily until you know what you would be willing to die for ultimately.”
→ The Gospel
PAUL’S PASSION
Luke is intentional about skipping huge time periods and places we learn much more about in Paul’s own epistles.
His point is to compare Paul to Jesus in his final passion week.
Just as Jesus set His face to Jerusalem, Paul is set on getting to Rome where he will be killed for the Gospel.
Acts 20:1, 3
“After the uproar ceased, Paul…departed for Macedonia. There he spent three months, and when a plot was made against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia.”
Acts 20:19–23
Serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials…
“I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.”
Jesus died for you.
Paul is modeling his life after the Lord Jesus.
EXPECT OPPOSITION WHEN YOU LIVE ON MISSION
Acts 9:16
“I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.”
THE SUFFERING OF PAUL IN ACTS
9:23–25 → Murder plot; escapes Damascus.
9:29–30 → Murder plot; flees Jerusalem.
13:45 → Opposed and maligned.
13:50 → Persecuted and expelled.
14:2, 5 → Plot to stone him.
14:19 → Stoned; left for dead.
16:16–24 → Beaten and imprisoned.
17:5–10 → Driven from Thessalonica.
17:13–14 → Driven from Berea.
18:12 → Hauled before court.
19:23–41 → Riot in Ephesus.
20:1–3 → Murder plot in Greece.
21:27–40 → Beaten by Jerusalem mob.
21:33–36 → Arrested by Rome.
23:2 → Struck by high priest.
23:6–10 → Mob nearly tears Paul apart.
23:12–22 → Forty-man murder plot.
25:1–5 → Ambush plotted.
27:42 → Soldiers plan to kill him.
Acts 14:22
“Strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”
Paul had people planning how to kill him and nearly doing so several times.
Craig S. Keener, Acts, 496: “that Paul is repeatedly warned of plots in time to escape them…suggests divine protection”
William Tyndale
Tyndale was plotted against by Henry Phillips, who ingratiated himself to Tyndale as a supporter in Antwerp and ultimately handed him over to authorities.
He was imprisoned in Vilvoorde Castle near Brussels until he was strangled and his body burned alive as a heretic.
The powers don’t plot against you if you’re not making any impact.
Paul is making a difference.
→ Are you making any dent in the darkness?
You might not consider Jesus that weighty because you’re not spending much in His Word.
You might not be in the fight because you’re not in the Scriptures.
EUTYCHUS RAISED FROM THE DEAD
Acts 20:7–12
“On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered. And a young man named Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer. And being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. But Paul went down and bent over him, and taking him in his arms, said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.” And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while, until daybreak, and so departed. And they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted.”
Consider how long they were willing to spend learning about the Word.
This is one of Paul’s many “sleepless nights.”
2 Corinthians 6:5
“Beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger”
2 Corinthians 11:27
“In toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.”
MANY LAMPS
Acts 20:8
“There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered.”
Luke was an eyewitness to this miracle.
We too are witnesses that should share what we have seen God do in our lives and in the lives of those around us!
This was a LARGE gathering.
Lots of people gathered to hear the Word.
Why?
They were drawn to the simple, straightforward teaching of God’s Word.
It was a true awakening.
WILDFIRES OF AWAKENING ARE FUELED BY THE WOOD OF GOD’S WORD
If you want to see awakening burn hotter in the West Valley, we need to add the fuel of God’s Word to the West Valley.
The fastest path to revival in this nation:
Train people in biblical literacy.
Show them Jesus’ power and supremacy in the Word.
Build them up in the Word.
Then release those red-hot Bible-carrying believers into the Word.
If we set the West Valley on fire with the Scriptures, this whole generation could be set ablaze for Jesus.
GOD’S WORD BRINGS LIFE NOT DEATH
Acts 20:11–12
“…taking him in his arms, said, ‘Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.’”
And they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted.
HOW DO I BECOME SOMEONE ON FIRE FROM GOD’S WORD FOR LIFE?
Paul answers this exact question in his final words to his leaders as he departs from Ephesus.
Acts 20:25
“And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again.”
01. TEACH IT THOROUGHLY
Acts 20:18, 20–21
“You yourselves know…how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
02. TESTIFY FEARLESSLY
Acts 20:24–25
“But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”
2 Timothy 4:7
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
03. FIGHT LIES FEROCIOUSLY
Acts 20:29–30
“I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.”
Your Heart
Your Wife
Your Kids
The Culture
Your Group
04. LIVE TRUTH AUTHENTICALLY
Acts 20:28
“Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.”
Acts 20:31–33
“Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. [32] And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. [33] I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel.”
Authentic means really “from the hand of the author.”
We do REPENTENCE / it makes you AUTHENTIC.