OCT 30 2016

Sea Change Church · Adam Stadtmiller · October 30, 2016
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

It's a severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents. 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. I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus. And now, compelled by the Spirit, I'm going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.

I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me prison and hardship are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me. My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace. Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again.

Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you, for I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come among you and will not spare the flock.

Even from your own number, men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard. Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. Now I commit you to God and the word of his grace, which can build up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

Word of the Lord. Packers? Packers? Who likes the Packers? Well, seriously, in San Diego. It just speaks like cold. Hey, good to have you. Let's beat Denver today, right? Make it to the playoff, yeah? The donkeys? Your youth pastor is a donkey fan. Harry, he's a donkey fan. Is there any other donkey fans in here? Just a few. Go Denver! Woo! Woo! Just kidding.

Just kidding. All right, we can start. The Broncos. It's the Broncos. Is it Broncos? I always thought it was donkeys. Are you sure, Carol? It's not donkeys? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. I'm so sorry. I appreciate you outing yourself there. That was awesome. Don't start the tape yet. Let's start the tape from here. To all of our friends in Denver listening on the podcast, we want to say, welcome to you.

Paul. Yes, yes. I grew up in diapers at a Chargers stadium game. So, hey, the Paul is, we are moving into Paul's, the conclusion of Paul's missionary journeys. Now, we're going to skip a few chapters because I did a series on generosity. One of the things as a pastor I want to do is not have all the understanding of the text that we're going through be dependent on my study.

Hopefully, we're doing, playing a game of tennis back and forth. And I'm going to come to the net and I'm going to volley back to you chapters 18 and 19. So, this week, you can read through those this week or next week and kind of see how Paul finishes this journey through Asia Minor and into Greece and Macedonia. There's a lot of the similar things that are happening.

He's preaching the gospel. He's enduring hardships. All these different things are happening on these journeys as he goes through them. And then a lot of great stuff, too. In chapter 19, he raises a man from the dead who falls out a window because his preaching is so boring that he falls out of the window. He's gone on for eight hours. It's true.

That's exactly what happened. The scripture says it. Because Paul was preaching such a boring message, it was eight hours long. He was speaking all night. I mean, the guy had no problem wanting to hear himself. And he said some good stuff, though. He comes in for a conclusion here. And he's leaving. And you see these really sorrowful goodbyes. It's really powerful to watch the relationship that Paul had with the churches that he cared for.

How he cried tears over them. He cared desperately about these churches. And the Holy Spirit began to tell him that you must go to Jerusalem. And he did not know what was going to happen to him. But he knew that he would be meeting chains and suffering. The Holy Spirit had spoken to him about that. You can read about these different times as you go through those chapters this week.

He makes his way to Jerusalem. And we know that he's going to be arrested in Jerusalem. And realizes halfway through a trial that he has an opportunity to come before Caesar himself. And all of a sudden, Paul leverages his Roman citizenship and says, I appeal to Caesar. That meant that he also could appeal to a death sentence. But he would get an audience with the leader of the Roman world, which was the free world or unfree world at that time.

And so this is what happens. This is where we're going. I'm going to try to finish Acts by the end of the year. Because next year, we're going to be going into a series on being rooted in Christ. And then following, in the spring, I'm going to be starting a series on King David. And looking at the lives of King David, one of my favorite, through the book of Kings.

And 1 and 2 Samuel. And then also looking at the other kings, Solomon and Saul. So that's where we're going. So we're here now with Paul giving a summary of the things that have happened. And it's really powerful. Paul is such an ambassador of Christ. He's such a caring servant. He is the man when it comes to, or the woman, when it comes to caring for the flock of God.

He is meeting the needs of them. And so he is coming to the summation of this. And so Paul, if you look in your notes, we're going to look at a context right here. And the context for today's message is this. Paul has spent years now building churches through Asia Minor. Now, Paul's eyes a greater prize. Not yet, because he doesn't know quite yet.

But just know that this will happen when he gets to Jerusalem. That is sharing the gospel with the leader of the known world. This is what happens with Paul. He gets an opportunity through suffering to go and stand before Caesar himself. So that's the context of where we're going to be. And we're heading into where Paul ends up, as you know, being killed in Rome for his faith.

Him and Peter were both killed in Rome. And he's killed for his faith. And I want to get to a really intriguing thing in the book of Acts. Is that the death of Paul is not mentioned. And I'm just going to tease that and leave it out there. Why do you think it is that Paul's death is not mentioned? Such a powerful man of God. Such a powerful person in the scripture.

And we get to the end of the story and you never find out what happens. We'll talk about that as we move towards it. One of the things I want to look in the context here. And the question I felt that I was really supposed to ask today to you as we look at this. Is what are you building? It says that Paul has spent, in the context, years building churches throughout Asia.

And it says that he's building things that are of worth. I want to say, what are you building? When you think about your life, are the things that you are building, or another way to say it, what are you chasing after? And in the end, will it be like chasing, as it says in the book of Ecclesiastes, chasing after the wind. More things, more platform, larger platforms, more pride, more people knowing who you are, more fame.

These are the kind of things that Ecclesiastes says is chasing after the wind. Or are you building things that last and things that matter? Are you building into your family? I know that I have about 8,000 to 10,000, depending on how long my children allow me, tuck-ins in the life of each of my children as a parent. Counted them up. And I realized that every time where if you're on the computer and the kid said, tuck me in, and you say, oh, you know, honey, can you go tuck the kid in?

That is one of those that clicks off the list. Those are an important time for us for connection, where we go and I connect with my kids. And so we intentionally build into that. Every week we have a family night where our entire family goes out. We leave the phones at home and we go, we do puzzles and games, we go out to eat. That's just our family night.

We have a small group for our family. Then we also have a date night. Every Thursday night, Carrie and I go out and we have our own date night. I've been doing it for 19 years. We've probably missed 30. Unless someone's sick, we don't miss that date night. Building into a relationship that I believe is going to last, not as her husband, but as things that we do are going to last into eternity.

That we build relationships with our neighbors. Those things are going to matter. We build relationships. We build the church. Building a church is something that is going to last. The things that are happening on this campus during the week. Once again, let me ask, what are you building? What are you chasing after? And does it have any eternal worth?

Because when we get to the end of our days, God is going to look at the things that we did. And there's going to be a list. There's going to be a handful of things that are like gold. That are going to travel with us into eternity. In 1 Corinthians, it says the things that you do, faith, in love, in hope, will what? They will never die. They will never cease.

They will continue on. But there's going to be a whole list of other things that we're chasing after, that we're stressed about, that's going to be like this. It just didn't matter. It'll be forgotten. I want to ask, what are you building? And looking at Paul, Paul is building a life that matters. We have a friend in our congregation. He spends his entire working life now going and giving eyesight to the orphans, the blind, to people that have cataracts around the world.

One of our people that is here that goes down and does that. I would say that those are the kind of things that build eternal worth. What is important? And you know what I've learned quickly is how quickly you are forgotten when it comes to fame. You know, you ask people, okay, who won, you know, whether, who's the MVP of the Super Bowl, 1993.

People aren't going to be able to tell you. But in that day, it mattered so much. It chased our whole life to have that moment. You know, what are the things that we're going after? Paul spent his whole life building into things that matter. And so I thought it was a powerful question today. What are you building and what are you pivoting life upon?

Today's main course is this. Look in your notes. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me. Now, we'll talk about that in a moment because it's a powerful statement. Anybody, did anybody, when that was read, did that kind of hook your soul? Did anybody kind of see that as Drea read through it? I know when I read through this text, I thought, really?

Your life was worth nothing? Like, what do you mean by that? I consider my life worth nothing to me. In verse 24, my only aim, only aim is to finish the race and to complete the task the Lord has given me. The task of testifying to the good news of God's grace. When Paul talks about his life meaning nothing, he doesn't mean that life in God, life in Christ means nothing.

I would say that he would affirm that the life he was living was full of God's riches, that he loved his life. He loved the life that was orchestrated by the Spirit. And so the Spirit life that he led, the life that was directed by looking vertically before he lived horizontally. Let me say that again. Look vertically before you live horizontally.

Because when we do that, we begin to let the Spirit control our mind. The mind of the Spirit controls the flesh. And all of a sudden, we begin to walk in a kingdom-bringing way. And so Paul greatly valued that type of life. What he didn't value was a life that chased after things that didn't matter. Things that had no value. Paul was constantly wanting to live with a kingdom currency.

The kingdom currency of love. The kingdom currency of hope, of evangelism, of the word of God, of worship, of caring for others. Of just enjoying a day. Of being out at the beach and enjoying God's creation. Enjoying the creation of people. I would say one of the things the enemy wants you to do is to dislike people. To make people the enemy when they are the highest order of God's creation.

Are you enjoying people? I was in Ralph's the other day. And it was crowded. And I speak about Ralph's a lot. But I was there. And they're getting their organic game on now. Which I really appreciate. Because you can get some really good organic food there. This is not an advertisement for Ralph's. And I'm in there. And I'm frustrated. Because I told you they've changed it from like 15 items to 15, about 15 items.

Which I think, come on, make it black and white, guys. I'm more of an Old Testament guy when it comes to that. And I was upset. And I'm like, oh, that guy just jumped in. You could tell they were hustling their little cart to get in front of me. And like, you know, if you move faster, then you look like a jerk. So I slowed down. Let him go in front of me.

And I just felt myself like getting this antipathy towards God's highest creation. People. Just because I wasn't getting in line. And I thought, the Lord said to me, can you enjoy my creation of people? And all of a sudden, I just switched my mind and my soul at that point. And I started talking to the person in front of me. I had the best time.

It's all perspective. C.S. Lewis says that if you were to see the way that God sees people in their righteous, under the blood of Christ form, that you would be tempted to bow down and worship those people as angelic beings. Because when God sees them in their Christ righteousness, they are so glorious, like you will be when you get to heaven through the blood of Christ, that it would just blow you away.

To see people the way that Jesus saw them. Jesus sees beyond the foibles. Jesus sees beyond the sin. And he sees the creation of God. And so we see that here, that Paul is loving his life. Now, interesting in this idea, but when Paul says he doesn't consider his life worth anything, he's not talking like the group of bands and singers that came out through the 1990s.

And here's what I mean. In the 1990s, and mostly white Americans, youth, began singing songs about their lack of self-worth. I've been really interested because I've been wanting to write a paper on it. As you look through, Beck came out with a song that says, I'm a loser, baby. So why don't you what? Kill me. I'm a loser, baby. So why don't you kill me?

You look at, you know, probably the leader of that entire way of thinking was Kurt Cobain. Read the songs. Watch him. It was a life of worthlessness. He just began to sing about these things, about, you know, the song Teen Spirit. You listen to that. There was this thing in the 1990s where definitely white America and kids began to have this life.

Many of them were coming out of a life of privilege, but their thought was that they were worthless, that they were no good. Look at, you know, Alanis Morissette, Sublime. Listen to these different, the lyrics of these songs, and you will see that something happened with teens. Then all of a sudden you see things like Columbine. You see a shift in the self-worth of a subculture of people.

I've been really interested in that. Paul's not talking about that kind of self-worth. Paul is saying his life, that he would be chasing after the things that don't matter, means nothing to him. And so I ask you to put your life in the balance. Is your life and the things that you want of more value than perhaps the life that God wants to offer?

And so this is what Paul is talking about. We're going to consume the word right now looking at a few verses. I really want to focus on the idea of this life that we're living and the blood of Jesus. Let me just get to that. Because Paul, in this passage, talks about two things. He talks about life a lot. And there's a connection between life and blood in the scripture.

It's a theological understanding. It's really difficult, but it's also easy to understand. And it's something as a follower of Christ you need to understand. What's this whole thing about the blood? Like the blood seems weird to me. Like it always has. Like, you know, if you think about Christianity, it's based on our sins being atoned for because Jesus actually shed blood on a cross.

Have you gotten that? Like that seemed, does that seem weird to you? Like that's weird. It's, it's, it's, it. Can we just say it? Can we just be honest? That's a weird thing. Like we look at other religions sometimes. We're like, that's so weird. That's so weird. I'm like, we worship a guy that was stripped down naked on a cross and believe we're going to heaven because of his blood.

Like that seems weird to me. Okay. I don't mean to throw you off, but let's just be honest that those are hard things to understand. And Christ, the scripture says, is a stumbling block for this reason. But it's something that the Jews understand because the Jews entire system of atonement, atonement means that your sins are washed away, that you become perfect in the eyes of God as a basic understanding, came through the shedding of innocent blood.

That when mankind sinned, that their blood became stained with guilt and that all of a sudden you've heard the term blood guilt, that actually the blood has a spiritual component now. You've heard the term of don't, the shedding of what? Innocent blood, blood guilt. There's so many metaphors for blood. And here's the basic understanding. That when mankind was living in the garden with God, completely before God, their blood had no, the spiritual component of their blood, because God attaches in the scripture, the life with blood.

It was innocent. When man sinned, the actual blood has a DNA now of guilt. Now, I'm not saying real DNA, but spiritually it has a guilt of sin on the blood. And so we'll see that as we look through this. Look at Psalm 105, 29. When it talks about the, excuse me, I'm sorry, that's not in your words. That was from earlier. Excuse me. So it says that blood is a symbol of life and death.

Go to your notes again. Eternal life versus, when we look at this idea of, hang on for a second. Can I pray for a second? This is a super important text. And I knew I was going to have a hard time sharing it. Hang on for a second. Lord Jesus, I want to share this understanding of the blood of Jesus and what you're doing and what you mean and the life of your blood.

And we just lift you and we thank you. And we just lift you up and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Turn your notes over if you would. It says in the notes, Andrew Murray said this. It will become clear that there is no single scriptural idea from Genesis to Revelation more constantly and more prominent kept in view than expressed by the words, the blood.

When Jesus died on the cross, he gave us a way through the shedding of innocent blood on the cross. That before then, because when man sinned, man lost his ability to stand before God as righteous. That judgment is judged upon the blood. That through sin, our blood became stained. Just like leukemia causes blood to become, I would say, dirty would be the word.

Through leukemia. It hurts our blood. Sin is found in the blood. And so in order to be righteous before God, we had to have a transaction that was spiritual in the blood. And the Bible speaks about this transaction. And so until Jesus came, there had to be an offering of innocent blood. And so the Jews and God's system allowed for the shed blood of animals.

And he was saying, I am going to allow this innocent blood to stand as a propitiation for your sin until Jesus comes. Because when Jesus is born, not of man, but by the Holy Spirit, he was put into the carrier that is Mary. And then his blood did not have the stain of sin upon it, although ours does. And so when Jesus comes, he dies on the cross living a perfect life.

And through his blood, there now is a way to stand before God. Because God put life in the blood. And so the way that that is activated for us as believers today is through this. Through a thing called faith. That when we have faith, that all of a sudden, when we have faith, that God activates this ability to stand before him righteously. And so I want to say this, that sin and life and righteousness are found in the blood.

And we see this in the scripture. And so if we look back at verse 24, let me read it again. Paul says, however, I consider my life worth nothing to me. My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, testifying to the good news of God's grace. And that grace is this, is that Jesus died on the cross. And through his innocent blood, we now can believe in that blood.

And when we stand before God, it cleanses our blood. Now this is why it's important for you as a believer. It's because today, through faith, when you accept Christ, there is a transaction where the blood that has a stain of guilt upon it no longer exists in your body. That your body now has, is seen by God, a transaction happens where your blood becomes righteous before the Father.

That when God sees you now, that is no longer there. So even when you sin, even when you sin, you are still seen as innocent. Because Jesus died for the sins that you have committed, and the sins what? You will commit. And so now, through the shed blood of Jesus, when you ask Jesus through faith, all of a sudden your blood is cleansed. It is cleansed through the life of God, through what Jesus did.

And so when you sin, you still are completely righteous before God. Does that make sense? That we still want to ask forgiveness for the sins that we committed, but it isn't like your blood becomes tainted back and forth when you sin and then ask forgiveness. You are constantly now righteous before God. This is the message that Paul is sharing.

That salvation only comes through God himself. That salvation only becomes through the blood of Christ. Look in your notes again, if you would, and turn to the back. This is important because if we go to verse 26, verse 26 says this. And Paul is speaking here about blood. Therefore, I declare to you that I am innocent of the blood of any of you.

That's a really interesting statement. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Now the question is this. What does Paul mean when he says that he's innocent of blood? That's really interesting. Because Paul is saying that he is held accountable for what he shares or if he does not share. That he is not accountable. And so that you can see here that blood once again is showing in the balance people's, how God views them in judgment.

This is not the first time that Paul has said this. Acts 18, 6. But when they opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest. And he said to them, your blood be what? On your own heads. For I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles. Paul is pointing out this. That the final judgment as the Jews understood it comes through the shedding of innocent blood.

And it has reconciled them to God. I mean Passover is a dynamic symbol of this. Passover is a sin that shows that life and death are in the blood. That every person who has not asked Jesus to cleanse them from their sin. To have their basically, as the scripture would say, their blood cleansed. Stands with blood guilt. If you go before God with blood guilt on you.

The scripture says that you will stand eternally condemned. But if you stand before God with the blood of Christ that has made your blood righteous through faith. Then we will spend eternity with God. That is the message and the hope of the Bible. Paul is pointing out to the final judgment that understood the shedding of blood is what reconciled to God.

And we see that in the Passover. Why? Leviticus 17.11. I think this probably explains it better than anything. For the life of a creature is in the blood. I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar. It is the blood that makes atonement for one's life. Let me read that again. Because that sums up exactly this understanding of the blood.

It says this. For the life of a creature is in the blood. So your very life. God puts life in your blood. And I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar. For it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life. Look at Hebrews 9.15. How much more then will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered him unblemished to God, cleanse our conscience from the acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God.

Once again. How much more then will the what? The blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God. Blood is the key to living in victory. Revelations 12.11. Look at this. They triumphed over the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives as much to shrink away from death.

That's a powerful statement. Read it again. They triumphed over him. That's the enemy. That's Satan. By what? The blood of the Lamb. And by the word of their testimony, that they would not love their lives so much as to shrink back from death. I want to say this is important because Paul was saying he is willing to shed blood and not consider his life worth anything in regard to the things that he wants to pursue.

And that there is power in the blood of Jesus. As we sang that song today, there is power in the blood. The blood of Jesus, the life that flowed through his very veins, the life, is available to us today. And the scripture says that we can call upon that blood. That there is a spiritual transaction that happens within ourselves. I want to say here, I guess what I wanted to get to was this.

And just so you know, I reprinted my notes, and I erased a third of them halfway through, and I realized when I was standing up here, a third of my notes were gone. So, all sweating, all struggling. Thanks, Carol. I'll be here all week. Try the veal pal at Scalapini. Here's the deal. And if you can just walk out with this, we've got a base hit today.

That if people do not, in faith, believe that Jesus died on the cross and through faith activate the cleansing of their blood, which holds guilt, because the Bible says that blood holds guilt, they'll stand before the Father with blood guilt. And if you stand before the Father with blood guilt, you are eternally condemned. That's what the scripture says.

And so Paul's entire life was built on eternal things. And the eternal things that it was built on was trying to let people know through tears and through the shedding of his own blood that they can be saved from that blood guilt. That their lives can stand before God. It's life and death. And as I was walking around the campus this week and seeing the thousands of people on the beach and yesterday realizing the amount of people that are walking with the guilt of sin and shame that is in our blood.

The scripture says it's in our blood. We can be freed from that. And when we're freed from that, we live a life of power. All of a sudden the guilt and the shame is removed. Now the enemy wants to continue to have you experience that guilt and shame. But the love of God and the grace of God sent his son so that he can remove that guilt. It actually physically, spiritually removes it through faith in Christ.

And so that is what we want to build. I want to challenge you as a church. We want to keep on building into people. We want to keep on building the message of Jesus Christ. The message of the gospel that people might be saved through the shed blood of Jesus on the cross. Amen? Amen. Get the worship team up here quick and get me some CPR.