I. The Cross as Our Banner 00:00
…open our eyes again this morning. Open our eyes to the reality of your love for each of us and the truth of your kingdom that you wish to speak to us. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
So at the end of the Christian year we get an opportunity to celebrate Christ as King. And when the people who were putting together our services thousands of years ago were thinking about what Gospel lesson exemplifies the kingship, the lordship, of Christ, they chose the one where he was crucified. I wanted that to be a really impactful sentence. They chose the one where he was lifted up: his true coronation. And everything we do is in light of that revelation, that Jesus’ crucifixion was also his crowning as the King of eternity, of life, of everything.
And so as we talk today, as we wrap up the Acts of the Apostles, you have to remember that the early church went out with the cross as their banner. And not the watered-down jewelry that you got on Confirmation Sunday, or the beautiful earrings that you like to wear. No, they walked with the crucifixion as their banner, meaning the tortured, suffering Messiah they served as King and Lord. And so I just want to remind us, as we come to the close of this Christian calendar year and as we wrap up Acts: the true heart of the ability of the Christian word to become what it became, the message of Christianity, was this scandal at its heart, that our Lord would die as one of us, and as a criminal be crucified, that we might have life with him. So keep that in mind as we talk through this, because I’m going to talk about the vision that they had, and the vision was always under the cross of Christ.
II. Skiing Down Everest 02:01
I came across this video a couple of weeks ago, and you’ll see the tie-in in a second. Just go on this journey with me. This guy was going to be climbing Mount Everest. This is the subtitle, and it’s got this picture of Mount Everest: he’s climbing without supplemental oxygen. So normally you can bring oxygen to help yourself, because there’s only about a 23% oxygen level compared to sea level when you get to the top. So roughly a quarter of what we normally enjoy. And your body is not made for that. In fact, if you’re up there for longer than 16 to 20 hours without oxygen, you will die. That’s just the way it is. Before they had the supplemental oxygen, the goal was to get to the top and get back before you died.
And so this guy’s like, “I’m going to do that.” And I’m like, “Okay, that’s cool enough. I get it. You’re going to climb the tallest mountain. You’re going to do it the hard way.” But he also wanted to do something else. He wanted to carry up his ski gear and then ski back down Mount Everest, which no one has done before, which no one has thought to do before. It’s like, how did you come to this idea?
And I was puzzled for a minute as I was watching this. And then 35 minutes later I finished the video, and it was so amazingly awesome. I was just compelled. I had to see this guy. And the whole time he is just panting. I mean, there’s no catching your breath. At any moment he could fall over. At one point he takes a tumble on his skis, and you don’t know if he’s getting up. You know that the rescue workers are there, and you know that somebody’s following with a helicopter. And at any point he could say, “Okay, I’m done. I would like my oxygen now.” At any point he could give up the suffering.
But he had a vision. He had a mission. And he was going to succeed. Not because it was easy, but because he was so committed to the vision that he would not, gasping for breath, ask for that extra oxygen. So as I was contemplating this, I was like, why are we so compelled as humans to do these crazy things? And it just brought me to the central idea, phrased by Nietzsche as: when you have the right why, you’ll endure almost any how. When you have the right vision, the right motivation, even the cross can be endured.
III. A Big Vision and a Bigger God 04:41
Now, that’s part of it. We also have to acknowledge the fact that only Jesus actually lives the Christian life, and he is living through us. And so when we see their dedication, and the fact that they’re praying and blessing and forgiving the people who are stoning them to death, we can remember that it’s the Holy Spirit in them that is empowering them to do this. There’s this trend online that I feel like I have to talk against at every stage, which is that if you work hard enough, you will be good enough. You see it everywhere: “If you just work hard enough, then you will be good enough.”
And so, at the same time as I say we need a big vision to motivate us to go the way that the early church was motivated to go on their journey, I want to also say that we need a big vision, but we need a bigger God. Because it’s not about us. It’s about Jesus in us. Okay, so that’s context.
IV. Water in the Desert 05:18
And if you think of the early church and you think about what they did: this impossibility, that this little sect of Judaism, in this little backwards town of Jerusalem (a capital that was so despised by the Romans that in AD 70 they just leveled it completely and destroyed it; it was not an important center of the world at that time)… They were a subjugated people. And these little fishermen and tax collectors, and one of them was a physician of some kind, these types of people ended up founding the church that is now the most active faith in the world, for all of history. Our calendar is based on the Christian church.
This impossibility happened because they had the proper why. They were like people wandering in a desert of spiritual emptiness who had found the river of life, the water of life. And that’s the reason that they were motivated to be Christians the way they were. Because, I don’t know if you guys know this, but it actually was not common as a Jew to try and convert other people to your faith. Still to this day the Jews are like, “Yeah, you do your thing. We’ve got our thing. And our God’s the God of all the universe, but you don’t need to be one of us. Just be a good person.” They went from that to, “You have to know who Jesus is, and I will tell you, even though there’s a possibility you’re going to go tell the centurion to arrest me and kill me.” They went to this evangelical approach that says, “You need this.”
And what I’m arguing is that the vision was this: they had found the water of life in the midst of the desert, and they looked around them and everybody was dying, and they said, “The river’s right here! You have to come. You have to meet Jesus.” And they had that as a driving force. And all of Acts shows how that message spreads throughout the entire known world. That’s the arc of Acts: the message that the river of the water of life has been found. “Come drink. Come be made alive. Meet Jesus.” This is now going to the entire world.
V. Paul's Journey to Rome 07:28
And so that’s why we wrap up with Paul ending up in Rome. Last week we talked about the journey that Paul went on. He’s having much success in Asia. You think about Ephesians and Ephesus. He’s having all this success. But God has compelled him. He’s like, “I need to go back to Jerusalem.” Even though everybody along the way… it even says in the Spirit they warned him: “Hey, you’re going to be captured, beaten, and imprisoned if you go to Jerusalem.” They say, “We’ve got a prophetic word.” He goes, “That’s the Holy Spirit. Sign me up. I’m going.” He knew he must go.
And then he had another vision, which was that he needed to end up in Rome. Why Rome? Because Rome at the time was the center of the whole world. All roads lead to Rome. And so if the message arrived at Rome, then it had the possibility of being spread to the corners of the globe. And truly, we have the benefit of hindsight: that’s what happened. Rome ended up becoming the center of the new church. Now, if you’re Orthodox, don’t kill me. There’s Constantinople; there are multiple centers. But it was the beginning. There’s a reason why the Roman Catholic Church is called Roman: because it became the center of the life of the church.
And so when you look at all of these things, we can look at it and be like, “Duh, of course, that’s how God would do it.” But at the time, everyone around Paul said, “What are you doing? You’re going to prison. You’re going to be most likely executed. Why would you do this?” And so I want to keep that in mind, because of course he did it because he had a bigger vision.
This whole sermon is to lead us to the idea that we actually need a bigger vision. As Archbishop Adler used to preach from this very pulpit, he said, “Don’t get caught in the little story. There’s a much bigger story that you are called to be a part of”: his story, or, as we like to now call it, history. We are making history, his story. I’m playing with the word there, but it makes sense.
VI. Shipwrecked and Snakebitten 09:24
Okay, so he’s on his way, and everything’s going wrong, just like everybody told him that it would. He’s getting arrested. He’s getting beaten. Every time, the governor’s like, “This guy doesn’t seem that bad.” The Jews are like, “Well, if you let him go, we’ll kill him.” And so the governor’s like, “I think you should stay in jail.”
And then he goes on the boat, and the boat gets shipwrecked on an island. And it’s like, what is going on? Not only that: the boat is shipwrecked, and miraculously everybody survives. He gets a vision. He tells the guy, “Everybody’s going to survive” (Acts 27.22–26). The guards are like, “Let’s kill the prisoners, because if any of them escape, it’s our heads.” “So, let’s not do that.” And Paul convinces them to actually untie the prisoners (Acts 27.42–43). This is a miracle in itself.
And then everybody survives. They end up on the island. They’re building a fire. Paul puts a stick in the fire, because he’s a helpful guy, and a snake bites his hand. And everybody that is from that island’s like, “Oh yeah, he’s dead. Let’s watch and see what happens. It’s over. This is God’s judgment on him. Obviously. He survives a storm just to get the most deadly viper bite on his hand.” So they’re watching. Nothing happens. They’re like, “This guy’s a god!” (Acts 28.3–6) Like, what is happening here?
So this is the way. And what’s so funny about Paul is that he’s so on mission. He’s like, “I’m going to Rome. I’m not worried about this.” In fact, when he tells the centurion, “A shipwreck’s going to happen; everybody’s going to be okay,” he says it’s “because I’m supposed to get to Rome, so God told me we’re all going to be fine.” He is so on mission that every time he gets redirected, he just keeps going. He’s like, “I trust that God’s got this.”
And that’s what a big vision will do: empowered by the Holy Spirit, guided by the Holy Spirit, encouraged by the Holy Spirit. A big vision means that when you get bit by a deadly viper, but you’re not done with your mission, you don’t have to worry about it. Now, some people will be like, “That’s why they have those snake wranglers in those churches.” Obviously that’s not what I’m talking about. What I mean is that there will be things you face in this life that should kill you, but by the power of God you will be set free, and you will be miraculously saved for your mission. The enemy prowls around seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet 5.8). But we have a big God, and [the enemy] has no power under the blood of Christ. You don’t have to be afraid. You can just be on mission. You can just go to where God’s calling you.
VII. The End of the Beginning 11:48
And so he arrives in Rome. And at this point nobody knows what to do with him, because the governors and King Agrippa, all these people who have processed him through the jail system over the past two and a half years, none of them could come up with any reason why he should be in jail. But he said, “I appeal to Caesar” (Acts 25.11). So they’re like, “Well, we’ve got to send you to Caesar, but we don’t know what to tell him, because you didn’t do anything.”
So they entrust him to a centurion. Rome is big, and so there’s no reason to bring him straight to Caesar. And the centurion just puts him up in a house and says, “Look, I don’t think you did anything wrong. I was just with you in this whole shipwreck situation. You just get comfortable. You can have as many people coming over as you want. You just have to fund it. You just have to pay for your food and stuff.” And so he’s under house arrest, but at the same time he’s able to talk with everyone the same way he would have if he was free. In fact, he got a free ride right to where he wanted to go.
Sometimes in our life there’s a situation that feels like the end of our world, and God’s like, “No, this is your ticket to where you need to be.” So just be aware, as you’re praying against all the oppression that’s coming at you. Sometimes you need to instead just pray, “Lord, I trust you, even in the midst of this,” and just see where he leads you.
So, if you’re following all of this, what does Paul always do when he shows up in a city? If you’ve been paying attention to Acts, you probably have heard this. He first starts with the leaders of the Jews. He says, “I want my brothers, my Jewish brothers (I was a Pharisee with you guys), I want you guys to hear that our faith has been fulfilled in the person of Jesus.” So he has them over to his little house-arrest situation. And as always happens, some people believe, and some people don’t, and some people don’t know what to do in the middle. He tells them about who Jesus is. He expounds the holy Scriptures to them. We know that Paul is one of the most genius expounders of Scripture in the history of the world. And yet ultimately the Jewish religious leaders reject his message, although some come over and become a part of what’s called the Way, Christianity at the time.
And so he says, “Guys, this has happened over and over again, and that’s why I’m going to talk to the Gentiles” (Acts 28.28). And then anybody who was on the fence is like, “Okay, we’re done with you, because you are betraying us by going to the Gentiles.” So this is the situation in which Paul finds himself in Rome.
So then what’s he going to do? Well, he’s going to start preaching out of his house. It says (and these are the last two verses in Acts, chapter 28), the end of the beginning:
30 He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, 31 proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. Acts 28.30–31
So everyone at every city from Ephesus to Jerusalem said, “Don’t do it. They’re going to arrest you and beat you up.” And the result was he was able to proclaim the kingdom of God, and teach about Jesus with all boldness, with no hindrance, in the most important city in the world. That’s the result of all the schemes of the people who were coming against him. We have no excuse, when things come our way, not to press into trust of God. Don’t ditch out when things get hard. Press in. He has something for you. It might even be that you will change the world, truly.
Okay, that’s a big vision. He had a vision. He was going to change the world from Rome. He’s doing it for two years. Now, what happens? Okay, we have to answer the “what happens” at the end of Acts, because this is it. So what happens next? What Luke is saying is: the word of God started here. Remember, we started back when Jesus was ascending, and Pentecost. And then it ended up that the most important preacher of the Gospel ends up in the center of the world, the known world, preaching the Gospel, that it may go forth to all the corners of the earth. That’s the bookend of Acts.
What we believe happens after that, by church tradition and all the evidence we have, is that the emperor just lets him go. He’s like, “Okay, I don’t know what to do with you, so go do your thing.” And he ministered for a time, came back to Rome, and ended up being executed by the later emperor. Which is just so appropriately how God worked at this time: through unbelievable difficulty and tragedy and oppression, the whole world became transformed by this Christian message, because Paul had the same type of vision Jesus had, the one that would endure execution at the hands of an evil government for the sake of Christ.
VIII. It Has Served to Advance the Gospel 17:30
In fact, while he’s sitting in Rome doing this, he’s actually writing the letter to the Philippians. And we know that because he mentions what he’s doing in the letter to the Philippians. So we’re going to visit there in a second. But in the letter to the Philippians he says, “Honestly, if they kill me, good: I get to be with Jesus. If they don’t, good, because I get to serve you more” (Phil 1.21–24). That’s the mindset that Paul had, because his vision went beyond his lifetime. His vision was caught up in eternity.
Talk about being in the bigger story. I say you get caught in the little story: “Yeah, I was mad at my car the other day.” Paul says, “You get caught in the little story: you were afraid of dying.” That’s the small story. What do you mean? The big story is that for all of eternity Paul’s words and Paul’s ministry have echoed to the salvation of billions of souls, because he wasn’t afraid of death. He had a bigger vision.
Remember the Mount Everest guy? A little different, but the same concept. He wasn’t afraid that he was putting his body at the risk of death, because he had a bigger vision. And think about it: his vision was like this big compared to Paul’s. It was just a simple, “Nobody’s done it before, and it’s really cool looking.” And it’s very compelling, and more power to him. But our vision is the salvation of the whole world. That’s what we walk under. Like when you go to work and you say hi to your manager that maybe you don’t like so much, or maybe you love him, I don’t know. But whatever situation you’re in, your vision for your life is the salvation of the whole world. We’ll draw the connection here.
So in Philippians, Paul’s in jail, preaching to Rome and writing the New Testament, which is exactly where he wants to be. And so he opens with a pastoral greeting. He has that amazing verse that everybody should just write on their mirror or something. What does it say?
6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Phil 1.6
Paul’s faith is at a high point right now, because he was told he was going to die all the way along, and now he’s sitting in Rome, where he was called to be. He sees how God led him all the way there, and he’s like, “Guys, I can tell you from experience that God has this plan in hand. He will complete the work he started in you.”
Some of you have had those periods where you’ve walked away from the faith, where you’ve walked away from the church, where you felt alone and out in the broken places. Maybe you still feel that way in certain parts of your heart. My promise to you this morning is that God began a work in you. I know that because you’re here. And God will bring it to completion. Hold on. Press in. It’s only for your good and the salvation of the whole world. Pretty big vision.
Okay, so he’s in Philippians, and then he knows that these people who love him have actually been worried about him. They’re like, “Where did he go? What’s going on? I heard he’s arrested in Rome.” You know how the gossip chain goes: “Did you hear what happened to Paul? Those people locked him up, and now he can’t do any more ministry.” That’s what they’re thinking. And so he says, “By the way…” (and this is a little aside for him):
12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. 14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Phil 1.12–14
How incredible is that? And so we get this window into his time in captivity. This is the type of words that he’s saying. He’s like, “No, it’s really good. Every single guard that has ever come into contact with me has heard the Gospel. And others are now preaching the Gospel to other people with boldness, because they see that I’m willing to be in prison for it.” Once again, how many times do we complain to God about our situation? And sometimes (not always, but sometimes) he’s like, “I put you there. I worked really hard to get you to that spot.” It’s all about trust. It’s all about pressing in. It’s all about a bigger vision.
IX. The Ministry of Reconciliation 21:39
Paul was on mission at this time. Now, I’m pulling from earlier, when he’s saying goodbye to all these people, and they’re saying, “Paul, don’t go. You’re going to get arrested and die, and we’ll never see you again.” He goes, “You probably won’t see me again. You’re probably right. But here are some words to encourage you.” And he says, in Acts 20:24:
24 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. Acts 20.24
That’s everything I’ve just been saying. He was on mission. “My life is not valuable in comparison with my mission.” That’s what he’s saying. “I will lay down my life for my mission,” just like Jesus did, just like the martyrs did, just like he eventually did in his life. That’s the type of vision we need.
At the men’s retreat, my brother-in-law Justin actually spoke on being on mission. He gave us this great word about missional clarity and missional priority. And all the men were like, “Yeah, clarity, priority, mission. Yeah, we got it.” But then he proceeded to point out how we needed to get our act in order. We needed to properly order ourselves, that we might accomplish the things that have been given to us by God.
And so I’m going to share what the mission is. I don’t know if you guys know this, but we say it every Sunday: “God was in Christ Jesus reconciling the world to himself, not counting men’s sins against them.” We don’t always say the fullness of that verse, just because of the way that we’ve phrased that passage. But the very next thing it says, after “not counting their sins against them,” is “entrusting to us the ministry of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, and God is making his appeal through us” (2 Cor 5.19–20).
So you’re wondering, what’s the mission? What’s the vision? What did I say about the early church? They found water in a desert, and everyone around them was dying. And so they were motivated to go out and share with them the water, the bread of life, the Jesus who had changed them and saved them and transformed them. All of that: that’s us. We’re reconciling the world to God.
That counts for when you’re talking to people. That counts for when you’re fixing your car so that you can drive it to work. That counts for when you’re putting your house in order. A lot of us are decorating for Christmas, or maybe we’re waiting till Thanksgiving, as is proper, and then we’re decorating for Christmas. But we’re putting everything in order. (And I know I lost half of you about there.) But we’re putting everything in order to reconcile the world to God. We’re making things beautiful because God made things beautiful. If you look at this church, how many hours of craftsmanship and artisanship have been poured into this place, because we want it to reflect the beauty that God has entrusted us with? Because we want to participate with the master artist, reconciling the world to himself. That’s what we are doing. That’s our mission. If you needed your mission and your vision, that’s it.
Now, are you willing to die for it? Because that’s the call of Jesus. He says, “Take up your cross and follow me” (Matt 16.24). He doesn’t mean put a gold cross around your neck. He means die for my mission. But more importantly, he means live for my mission. Most of us don’t have to die for his mission, at least not physically. But all of us have to live for his mission. That’s the call. We are reconciling the world to God.
X. A Word for Saint Michael's 25:33
I was journaling the other day, and I felt like God shared with me, for us, Saint Michael’s, right now, a word about vision. He said:
“I am doing a work at Saint Michael’s for the generations. This work will build into the vision for Saint Michael’s. It’s not just to make a strong church.” (We can get caught doing that, as best we can. It’s important, but it’s not just that.) “It is to transform Southern California. San Clemente is just the beginning. As Saint Michael’s has had an international reach, it will have a local impact in this season. The school, church plants, cultural influence: all of those things will come and grow. In order for this to happen, the people will need to go all in on the vision. Acts was not about a people who used the church to build their comfortable lives. Acts was about people who found water in the desert and wanted to save the people around them from dying. Come and see. The vision is not about what you can imagine. It’s about what I can do.”
So I just share that with you to say that this is a time, if you’ve been feeling stretched, if you’ve been feeling at the end of your rope, if you’ve been feeling like what you’re doing is not satisfying: you’re being called up. You’re being called higher. You’re being called to the next thing that God has for you. He is so good that he won’t even let you stay where you’re at. He will continue to pursue your benefit, for his glory and your good.
And so I leave you this morning with Paul’s words, as he left those people and said, “I will never see you again. This is my vision. My life is not even of value compared with the mission I’m on.” He said:
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 20.32
Amen.