For our Scripture reading earlier this service, we read the first 14 verses of Acts chapter 21.  Paul said in verse 13 of that same chapter, “For I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”  I am curious as to what you think when you read verses like this one?  You might say, “Paul, you’re crazy.”  Or do you think he is too religious?  "A little religion is good for a man, but this is dangerous", you might say.  Do you think he is too zealous?  "There is no need to be so dramatic!"  Do you wonder why Paul makes such a big deal about dying for Christ?  Some of you might not think there is anything worth dying to gain.   You do not understand why Paul is ready to die for Christ’s name.  It is these same people who do not understand Paul’s readiness for sacrifice who sit and stare around in wonder and shock when America is attacked because it is viewed as a Christian nation.   You see them grab the banner of “God bless America” and they wave it around like a charm against bad luck.  This can not happen in America, they say.  September 11th happened once in New York.  It happens every day in nations around the world.  Every day men like Paul, who are ready to die for the name of Christ, are killed because they believe that Christ is more precious than life.  
    Listen to one article from the National Review, August 2, 2002, “In Indonesia, some 200,000 deaths resulted from jihad violence in East Timor.  Christians have been pursued, and massacred, and their churches burned down by jihadists in the Moluccas and other Indonesian islands.  The death toll in these violent attacks is over 10,000, while an additional 8,000 Christians have been forcibly converted to Islam, including many who were circumcised” (Bat Yeor, National Review , "Culture of Hate", August 2, 2002.)
    Earlier this year, in another article about Indonesia, this was written, “International Christian Concern, interviewed a woman with a horribly disfigured face who had been attacked in Duma, a Moluccan village on the island of Halmahera [in Indonesia].  ‘When I saw the jihad warriors approaching,’ . . . ‘I cried out, “Lord help me.”  Then the jihad warrior came up to me and said, “I’ll show you how God helps you,” and then placed the pistol in my mouth and pulled the trigger…The Islamist group [Laskar Jihad] is involved in importing warriors into various trouble spots around the Indonesian islands.  They have already made Ambon, an island in the southern Moluccas, a living hell for Christians…Eighty-seven percent (174 million) of Indonesia’s 201 million people are Muslim—the largest Muslim population of any country in the world” (Julia Duin, National Review , "Christians in Indonesia", January 2, 2002).
    The great commission will not be completed until the gospel goes forth into nations like Indonesia who do not want to hear it.  Yet God says, “I have children in those countries, go get them!”  When God saves those who are in Indonesia, they are not saved because they like our Sunday School programs, or the hymns we sing, or the order of worship in our bulletins, or the catchy slogans on our church signs, or the food that we gather around to eat.  They will be saved because they see Christians who know with confidence that Christ is more precious than anything they lose when they die.  They will be saved when they see that there is something worth dying for because there is an all-satisfying God who will be their delight forever and ever.
    I know from the outset, this sermon is against everything that the American mind craves.  I know many of you are going to brush off everything that is said, but maybe some of you will run to the cross.  It is my yearning for you that you would give up this desire to be comfortable in this nation of worldly pleasures.  We are not called as Christians to live peaceful lives.  We are called to suffer, to show to pagans that this life is not what we hope in.  This house with a two-car garage and a garbage disposal is not my hope.  I am passing through this world of suffering to go to eternal joy and happiness.  My life with Christ, after death, is my hope.  So, this sermon is intended to show you from the life of Paul how to place your hope, joy and satisfaction in Christ and not in this world.  

     Acts 20:18-32 NASB  And when they had come to him, he said to them, "You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time,  (19)  serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews;  (20)  how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house,  (21)  solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.  (22)  "And now, behold, bound by the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there,  (23)  except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me.  (24)  "But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.  (25)  "And now, behold, I know that all of you, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, will no longer see my face.  (26)  "Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men.  (27)  "For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.  (28)  "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.  (29)  "I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;  (30)  and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.  (31)  "Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each 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.

 Acts 20:24 NASB  "But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.

“But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself ,”  Paul’s Appraisal
“so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus,” Paul’s Completion
“to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God ”, Paul’s Testimony

Paul’s Appraisal

“But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself,”

Why does he not value his life?

     In the context, Paul is addressing the unseen future.  He is about to go to Jerusalem, the city in which he put Christian after Christian to death.  With all that he is, he knows that it is more vital for the Jews in Jerusalem to see him, the former Pharisee that persecuted the church beside them, ready to die for the name of Jesus Christ rather than for him to live in peace among his brethren.  They have to see what he is counting on!  They must see what he holds as precious.  There is more to life than self-condemning piety.  There is a precious Savior that is worth more than anything that I have to pay with my life. 
     In the Greek, “any account” carries the idea of value.  Some people say that life is precious and priceless.  But, Paul says it is not precious to him.  He does not treasure it.  Many of you treasure your life.  You cling to it, you covet it, you hide it away.  Many of you do everything possible for your own life and happiness.  You put away in the 401k, you gather vehicles, you try to get the biggest house with the most rooms.  And it is you treasuring your life in your heart.  You can not bear the idea of losing it.  It is your idol and you worship it and ask God to bless it.  Our lives are worth nothing to us.

You can not hold your life.

     James 4:14 NASB  “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”  Have you tried to catch a wisp of smoke?  The more you grab for it, the more it dissipates.  So it is with our lives.  This is why Paul does not consider his life of any account.  Do you measure riches on pieces of ice that melt away when you handle them?  Even the ignorant knows that it is what you can keep that is worth keeping.  Paul says, why would I value that which is merely passing away?  In fact, it is the act of cherishing your life that keeps you from keeping it. 

You can lose it.

     Paul knows that if he values his life, he will lose it.  Jesus says in Mark 8:34-37 NASB  "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.  (35)  "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it.  (36)  "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?  (37)  "For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”  Do you want to live?  Then lose your life for Christ’s sake.  Dedicate yourself to the gospel today.  Exchange your feeble worldly happiness in chocolate, jobs, sex, television, movies, family, and friends for the eternal satisfaction and happiness that can never be taken from you.  Many men in this world give all of their soul for greatness in the world and they die and go straight to hell.  They never knew that there is something of more value that anything you can lose when you die.  “When Cortez landed at Vera Cruz in 1519 to begin his dramatic conquest of Mexico with a pocket-sized force of 700 men, he purposely set fire to his fleet of 11 ships.  His men on the shore watched their only means of retreat sinking to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.  With no means of retreat, there was only one direction in which to move—forward into the Mexican interior to meet whatever might come their way.”  Paul was counted his life loss because he knew what was coming his way.

What does he value?

Christ

     Philippians 3:7-8 NASB  “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  (8)  More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.”  Paul has realized that knowing Christ has more surpassing value than anything on this earth and in this life.  Nothing is more precious that Christ.  He is the satisfaction of every reward longing soul.  And in Him, is the happiness that will satisfy our souls for ever.  We glory in Him, we see His glory and rejoice in Him and it completes us.  And this is what he gains when he dies, Christ.  Compared to Christ, Paul says everything else is rubbish or dung as it is in the Greek.  Whatever you desire in this world, it is dung compared to gaining Christ.  There is nothing greater.  There is nothing that is worth more.  There is nothing that has more value.  There is nothing more satisfying.  This is why Paul’s life has no value, he gains Christ when he dies.  He says it like this earlier in Philippians “Philippians 1:20-21 NASB  according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.  (21)  For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”  So, no matter what happens to Paul life, there is not shame for him, because of what he gets when he dies.  He exalts Christ by cherishing him in his body while he is alive and magnifies him by counting him more precious than anything he loses when he dies.  It is not wrong to have desires of happiness.  But, our own happiness and desires are too weak.  We have Jesus Christ, the eternal water that will satisfy our souls for ever, yet we want to drink the sour, putrid, milk of this world.  Go to the fountain, go to Christ.

What does Paul receive in Christ?

Eternal Happiness

     When you gain Christ you gain happiness.  Psalms 16:11 NASB  “You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.”  In the presence of the Lord there is pleasures forever.  In heaven, there will be no shortage of pleasures in Christ.  We will have an infinite amount of time to enjoy infinite pleasures in Christ while bringing glory to Him by enjoying Him because these pleasures are in God.  Psalms 34:8 NASB  “O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!”  When we taste and see the Lord is good, we delight in Him, and that becomes the desire of our heart, more of Jesus Christ.  Lord just give more of yourself, I beg you.  Let us be men and women who are addicted to Jesus Christ and not to tobacco or alcohol.  Psalms 37:4 NASB  Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.
    Paul is not a fool.  He has gained everything by losing his life.  He is not morbid, but passionate and full of life in Jesus Christ.  We are not fools for trading what we can not keep for what we can not lose, fullness of joy in Christ Jesus forever.  An eternity of glorifying God by Him being our one desire and passion, is what we gain when we lose our life.  So, will you deny your selves pieces of lint, so that you may receive the Fort Knox of God’s rewards?  The reason that Paul wants to lose His life is because he wants to be so wrapped up in Jesus Christ he does not know where Jesus starts and Paul begins.  He can never love God like he ought when he loves his life more than God.  Many of you enjoy food more than you enjoy God and you ask Him to bless you as you consume that food and you blaspheme in eating it.  God is to be seen and savored more than anything in this world.  

Paul’s Completion   

   
Paul says that there are two reasons why he counts his life as loss. 

His Course

This word for course, dromos, is the same word used when talking about the ‘circuit or orbit of the sun, moon, earth or stars.  It is fixed and on a tract.  This is God’s course for us.  We have nothing to do about the course for our lives.  It carries the same idea of a racecourse or a place for running.  If you are running in a race, the course has been laid.  This is Paul expressing his need to finish the race.  You do not gain anything if you do not finish the race.  2 Timothy 4:7 NASB  “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.”  This is his struggling to remain faithful to the faith.  This is his ‘working out of his salvation with fear and trembling’ because ‘God was at work in Him both to will and to work for His good pleasure’ (Php 2.12,13 cf.).  This was Paul working out his confidence that the one who began a good work in Him would perfect until it was complete (Php 1.6 cf.).  This was him putting to death the deeds of the flesh so that he might live (Ro 8.13 cf.).  Paul was fighting his flesh with all that he had with the Spirit and the Word of God because he knew that those who did not put to death the deeds of the flesh would not live.  Paul can not put to death the deeds of the flesh if he loves his life, because his life would be one of fleshly deeds.  The deeds of the flesh are what  the natural man yearns and aches for.  Paul says that he must finish his course, therefore, he does not count his life as precious.  He focuses on the prize, the end of the course which is Jesus Christ. 
    Many of you are not focused on the prize.  You take for granted that your course is going to take you to heaven.  You use Jesus Christ like a ticket out of hell.  What do you with a ticket.  You put it in your pocket and then you throw it away when you get there.  Christ is not the ticket, he is the prize.  He is the end of the course.  Be like the apostle Paul, throw away everything that you get the prize.  Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.  Put to death the deeds of the flesh with the Spirit.  When your mind starts to wander into sin, grab it!  Attack it, take under obedience to the Lord Jesus.  When your anger is about to cause you to sin, attack it, make war on your sin.  This is where meditation and memorization is your attack weapon.  Never let the Scripture, the promises of God, leave your mouth or your mind.  Flee to the cross.  If you do not put to death the deeds of the flesh, you will go to hell.  Go to the cross.  Do not suppose that you are just going to wake up one day in Heaven.  Christ says that violent men enter heaven and take it by force, therefore, take it!  Trust in the promises of Romans 8:29-30 NASB  “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;  (30)  and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”  All of those who are foreknown are glorified.  Do not lock these promises away and never love them.  Cherish them, for the end of our course is our glorification as Christ like beings.  Therefore, we trust every moment of every day that it is God’s grace that will get us to heaven through faith.  And, but the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the flesh so that we make our calling and election true.  Glorious promises like these need to spur us to fight sin and flee to the cross when we fail.  Romans 8:17 NASB  “and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”  We suffer so that we might be glorified.

His Ministry , which is, 

Paul’s Testimony

    Paul says the second reason that he counts his life as loss is that he might fulfill his ministry.  He can not finish his ministry if he is concerned about losing his life.  The reason Paul knows what he is getting when he dies is not so that he can prepare for it by living in luxury on earth.  Every act of giving, caring, teaching, exhorting, rebuking must come from heart of one who does believe his life is precious.  How can you give when you want everything that you have for yourself?  How can you care when you only care about your own life?  How can you teach, when you will not be taught the truth of Scriptures?  How can you exhort and rebuke when you treasure your own life more than Christ?  When you live a life that is loss, everyone else is more important than you.  You realize that your happiness is not rooted in this world because you have no stake in it.  When you realize that Christ is your all in this life—not food, or cars, or wives, or children, or friends—then there is nothing left but to suffer through this life until you complete your course and it enables you to suffer for men.
Paul knows about his course’s conclusion so that way he might suffer well in his ministry.  2 Timothy 2:10 NASB  “For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.”  Paul says that the reason he endures all the things that he endures is that God’s children might be saved.  2 Corinthians 11:23-28 NASB  Are they servants of Christ?--I speak as if insane--I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death.  (24)  Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes.  (25)  Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep.  (26)  I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren;  (27)  I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.  (28)  Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.”  Paul is not suffering because he enjoys it.  He is suffering so that men and women would see that his hope is not in this world. 
    No pagan could look at the apostle Paul and say, “You are just like me, you are hoping to make it rich by having a good job.”  He looked at the penniless, beaten, joyous, spirit-filled Paul and said, “What is your hope in?”  1 Peter 3:15 NASB  “but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence”  The reason no one asks us what about the hope that is in us is because they see no difference.  They see no suffering.  We think we suffer when we have to share one car in a family.  Brethren, suffer for the gospel!  Be satisfied in Christ!  Unbelievers need to see you suffer because you believe that you gain when you die.  Paul Brand tells about his ‘Pilgrimage in Mission’, “I was born in 1914 in the mountains of South India, and my first home was a little wooden bungalow built by my father, who had been a carpenter before he became a missionary, and who taught carpentry to the uneducated men of the hill tribes.  He used timber sawn from the forests of our Kolli Malai./My sister and I shared our parents’ love for the mountain people whom they had come to serve, and our playmates were the boys and girls of the villages.  Mother and Dad and Connie and I were the only people who spoke English in the whole mountain range where we lived.  Our parents used to invite us children to share in their prayers, so we knew their hopes and their fears, their prayer and their tears in the early years when they were experiencing opposition from the local Hindu priests./We shared with them the sense of wonder and excitement when the chief enemy of the Gospel, the priest in the nearest village, became a Christian on his deathbed and asked us to adopt his motherless baby daughter and bring her up as a Christian.  He confessed that though he had tried to serve the people of his village and to prevent them from becoming Christians, now when he himself was fatally ill, all the village people ran away, fearing to catch his infection, and only the Christian missionaries came to his house to help him.  The little baby became my sister, and the villagers started coming to the church that my father had built and became followers of the Jesus Christ that their priest had warned them against” (Paul Brand, Internation Bulletin of Missionary Research)
    You can not approach a dying man with the gospel, if you are too concerned about losing your life.  So what if they caught the sickness from the dying priest, they gain when they die!  The last days of the gospel must be met by men who are solemn with the truth of Christianity and are willing to stake their life and eternity on it.
    The reason Paul says a ‘solemn testimony’ because you do not joke around with suffering.  With the soul’s eternal resting place on the line, how can you joke.  You can not joke and suffer at the same time.  When you suffer to see the gospel reach your family, it will be serious to you.  The reason the world does not take our testimony seriously is because it looks to much like their lives.  We go to work, we go home, we sit in front of the TV and then we go to bed.  The only difference is that we come to church, some times.  Live lives of suffering.  Do not be concerned with enjoying your retirement.  Be concerned with the gospel reaching this neighborhood and reaching Indonesia.  Many of you are hoarding property and material objects when they could be sold to send a missionary to Indonesia.  Can you go without, knowing that you will gain when you die?
    Are you willing to go yourself?  Or, are you to wrapped up in your life to care about the gospel being lived out in the lives of your children.  The reason that we do not see the children having any desire for the gospel is because their parents are teaching what they hope in.  Why should I place my hope in the gospel, when it does not even meet my parents’ needs, they think.  We must learn to go without.  We must learn to suffer. Do you believe Romans 8.28?  Romans 8:28 NASB  “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”  If God is working all things to your good, why can you not give up everything for Him.  Do something radical for the gospel.  Instead of believing everything works to our good, we grumble and we pout.  This is not the testimony that the world needs to see.  The worlds needs to see conquering Christians who do not hope in the world.  They need to see Christians who believe that “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8.18). 
    It is sad that the world sees Christians and they think there is nothing to them because they are just like the world.  1 Corinthians 15:19 NASB  “If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.”  Many of you are living this life so that if you are wrong about Christ, you will have enjoyed life on earth.  If I am wrong, and Christ is not God, then I still satisfied my desires on earth.  That is just like the world.  Paul says that he will pitied most if he is wrong.  He has given his all to Christ.  Can we say the same?  Wge are in the last mile, our course is almost done.  We are two seconds away from eternity.  Let us live these last two seconds so that the world sees that our hope is not in this world.  Let them see that if our car breaks down, our hope is in Christ.  If our wife leaves us, our hope is in Christ.  If my child dies in Indonesia spreading the gospel, our hope is in Christ and we rejoice that the child has gained Christ!  If we die in Indonesia, we gain!  Brothers let us gain!  We gain the entire universe when we die.  Everything in heaven is there for our eternal enjoyment and we are only a mile away.  Life is our journey to receive a great inheritance. 
    John Newton tells a story of a man that is on his way to claim his ten million dollar inheritance in New York.  A mile away, the man’s carriage breaks its wheel.  The man, who will gain ten million dollars when he reaches the city, is forced to walk the rest of the way as a beggar.  What a fool would he be if he spent the entire mile grumbling to himself, “My carriage is broken, my carriage is broken, my carriage is broken.”