The Apostle Paul faced daunting obstacles throughout his ministry, including death threats, brutal beatings, shipwreck, and imprisonment. How did he persevere in praying and preaching so fervently when opposition and severe trials hounded him every step of the way? Today on Truth for Life Weekend, Alister Beg explores the key to Paul's persistence. What I would like to do, having been entrusted with the responsibility of tackling Paul and his perseverance, is essentially. Begin for us.
What is the theme of the conference? Taken here from this particular section of Second Corinthians, where he says, "We do not lose heart." Immediately he mentions it in verse one, and to that he returns again in verse sixteen. And as we begin in this way, we recognise the fact that Paul is—he gives us his life story, as it were—never disguises any of this stuff from us. There is no sense in which he is representing himself as something other than he so clearly is. And it is a quite wonderful thing that, by the time he's writing his final letter, at least as we have it, his swan song in Second Timothy, he's able to say to Timothy and to all the readers of Second Timothy, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have kept the faith." Now there was no sense of bravado in that.
Paul recognized, as he wrote to the Philippians, that God had begun a good work in his life, and he was bringing it to completion, and he would bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. And when we review the story of Paul's life, we realize that his perseverance takes place in the face of daunting obstacles and severe trials. And it's important for us immediately to acknowledge the fact that Paul here is not an example to us of a peculiar personality, although he surely was that. Nor is he an example to us of somebody who is able to just establish the grit and determination of someone who wants to see it through. Although clearly he is able to do that.
He is not here as an example of someone whose perseverance is on account of a decision of his will, but rather, as in the case of every chosen saint of God, as a result of God's will. And so, for example, in the Westminster Confession, where it tackles the issue of the perseverance of the saints, it reminds us as follows: the perseverance of the saints, including Paul, does not depend upon their own free will, but on all the unchangeableness of the decree of election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father. On the efficacy of the merit of the intercession of Jesus Christ, on the continuing presence of the Spirit, and the seed of God within them, and on the nature of the covenant of grace, these are grounds of the certainty and infallibility of their perseverance.
So Paul would have been quite happy to sing along with us. The work which his goodness began, the arm of his strength will complete. And when he writes to the Colossians, he gives us that wonderful juxtaposition between the work of God within him and his own endeavours. When he says, "I toil, struggling with all his energy, that he powerfully works within me." With that, by way of introduction, what I'd like to do is move through the acts of the apostles as quickly as is sensible. And then move to the epistles.
I do this because this is what I did for myself when I realized that this was my assignment. I sat up one morning early in my bed, and securing for myself a little citadel of my own that I make with pillows to keep my wife out of things to protect her from the light of my iPad. I just read through the Acts of the Apostles, and I said to myself, "Now let's just see." How often and how quickly we find ourselves confronted by Paul and the indication of his perseverance, and of course. In the in the Acts of the Apostles, it's just a wonderful adventure. It's full of imprisonments and beatings and riots, escapes, resurrections, shipwrecks, trials, and all manner of stuff.
And at the very heart of it all, so often, is this gentleman, Saul of Tarsus, Paul the Apostle.
Now, let's begin in Acts chapter nine. You can follow with me. Or you can trust me, and then check later and see whether your trust was valid or not. Acts—it's always good to check and make sure that the person who's speaking from the Bible, that stuff is actually in the Bible.
So Acts chapter nine. Acts chapter nine. We're not going to deal with his experience of conversion, his great encounter there, but we pick it up from the time that he's been baptized. He arose, verse eighteen, and was baptized. And taking food, he was strengthened.
And then we're told that for some days he was with the disciples at Damascus, and immediately he proclaimed Jesus. And then we're told that he had to overcome the fact that the people there were fearful as to his motives. Verse twenty one: Has he not come here for this purpose to bring us bound before the chief priests? And so we're told that the Jews then plotted to kill him. And he made a quite interesting exit from the city by being lowered down the wall in a basket.
So I was just pause for a moment and say, imagine that he's being interviewed by Christianity today. Saul of Tarsus has apparently become a Christian. How have these early days been going for you, Paul?
Well, I'd have to say that they've been interesting. I was under threat of death from the Jews, but I had a wonderful ride down the wall in a basket, and that's that's that's where we are as of now.
Well, how about Jerusalem? Turn over the page, and there. You are in verse twenty-six, and he went to join the disciples, and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.
So he said to himself, "I'm done with this Christian stuff. What a miserable bunch of people these are!" And he went on his way from there. No, mercifully, Barnabas takes him up and brings him into the company. And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists. And once again, verse twenty-nine, they were all seeking to kill him, and they send him off to Tarsus.
Well, we can fast forward to chapter thirteen, which will be an encouragement, I'm sure, in Antioch, in Pisidia. The Jews there, we're told, were fooled. With jealousy, the whole Sabbath, the whole on the Sabbath, the whole city had gathered, verse forty-four, to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy. And as you read on through that, they then, in verse fifty, incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, and they stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district.
And Paul, shook the dust from his feet, as did Barnabas, against them, and went on to Iconium.
Well, surely by the time they get to Iconium, things will be looking up. Verse five. When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to mistreat them and to stone them, they learned of it and decided to go to Lystra.
So let's just pause for a moment and acknowledge this has not been going swimmingly well, has it? This is this is not exactly a walk in the park.
Now here is this newly converted man. Who is devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ, and as he proceeds to these various places, he is confronted by distinct and determined opposition. It is almost unassailable, and no matter where he seems to go, it continues to follow him. In verse nineteen here of chapter fourteen, the Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having infiltrated and persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city. The people supposing that he was dead, but they gathered around him, and he was raised up, and he entered the city.
That's quite persevering, isn't it? And on the next day, he went on with Barnabas to Derby. He didn't say, you know, I think I'm going to have to go off to the Mediterranean coast here for a little while. I'm sure someone has a nice cottage that I could go and stay in. It would have been legitimate, I'm sure, but he doesn't do it.
When they had preached the gospel there and made many disciples, they went back to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 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. Do you assure you really want to go back, Paul? I mean, why would you go back?
Well, we should go back. Why? To strengthen their souls, never mind the souls, Paul. What about your face? What about all those stones?
Well, we must encourage them to continue in the faith. We should go back and let them know that it is through many tribulations that they will enter the kingdom of God. Let's go to chapter sixteen, Philippi. The Macedonian call, the conversion of Lydia, the problem of the fortune tellers, and then their imprisonment. Verse twenty.
And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, "These men are Jews; they're disturbing our city." The crowd join in. Verse twenty-two in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them. What a nice group! These are the magistrates. These are the people supposed to sit behind the bench and behave themselves.
They were so energized by it. They said, "Let's rip the clothes off their backs." And they gave order to beat them with rods. And verse twenty-three, when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison. The verb is important there. They threw them into the prison.
They ordered the jailer to keep them safely in that place. We'll perhaps come back to the impact of that later on, but we can fast forward again. Go to Ephesus, and there in Ephesus, you see this persevering preacher. Verse eight: He entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading about the kingdom of God. This is no short-term mission project on his part.
He is absolutely convinced. And absolutely clear, and he is continuing to do what he has been set to do. Things emerge as Luke records them for us, and by the time you get down to verse ten, he has relocated to the lecture hall of Tyrannus, where once again you will notice he continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. Into chapter twenty, in his farewell to Ephesus, and as he parts from them, verse twenty-two, he says, "Now I want you to know that I'm 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. That's what I know." I don't know much, but I do know this: that it is now part of my journey to be confronted by the immensity of this challenge, and by the peculiar, horrible way in which I am physically treated.
But look at verse twenty-four. But I do not count my life. Of any value, nor as precious to myself.
Now we're beginning to get some kind of insight here, aren't we? If only I may finish my course. That sounds like perseverance, doesn't it? In order that I may finish my course, and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus. I'm not a volunteer.
I'm a conscript. And that ministry is to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
Now, that I think is one of the key sections in all of Acts in terms of Paul in relationship to this subject, and and hopefully that will become apparent to us at least by Wednesday lunchtime. If only I may finish my course. And the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the grace of God.
Now I'm going to leave you to to follow on with that by yourselves. But let me just point out to you, verse 27. He says, "I did not shrink from declaring to you the counsel of God." Verse 31. I did not cease, night or day, to admonish everyone with tears. Verse thirty five, I have shown you that by working hard in this way, we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus.
How He Himself said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." You see this. You see this sort of compelling dimension of the Apostle. Where elsewhere, where he says, "It is the love of Christ that compels us, constrains us," and you see this working itself out in him. I didn't shrink. I didn't cease.
I've shown you that by working hard. I think about this. By the time he writes to Timothy in his final letter to him, he says, "You know, it is the hardworking farmer who will be the first to receive a share of the crops. It is the athlete who competes according to the rules. It is the soldier who submits to his commanding officer." And so he says, "Study to show yourself a workman who doesn't need to be ashamed." And here he is providing, by his own personal testimony, the reality of what it means to be working for the Lord Jesus.
I could not work my soul to save; for this, my Lord has done. But I can work like any slave for love of God's own Son. Acts chapter twenty-eight. You'll be encouraged because. There isn't an Acts twenty nine, Acts chapter twenty eight, at least not in the Bible.
Acts chapter twenty eight. Just one thing to notice: He's now in Rome, verse twenty. For this reason, I've asked to see you and speak with you, since it is because of the hope of Israel that I am wearing this chain. Here's his badge of office. He's not—he's not talking about a thing that you wear around your neck that says you're the mayor of Rome.
No, he says this is—it is because of the hope of Israel, the Messiah, that I am wearing this chain. It's similar to how he ends Galatians, isn't it? He says I don't really want to have a lot of trouble from any of you folks that I'm writing to. How does he finish that? He doesn't say because you know who I am, don't you?
I am the I am the great persevering apostle Paul. No, he says, don't let's have any trouble for any of you because I bear in my body the marks of Jesus. His badge of office is the fact that as you track through his ministry with him, he has fought the fight, he has kept the faith, he has finished the race.
Now, in the Acts, you have that if you like by way of summary. When we turn to the epistles and to one in particular from which we have just read, then we view this if you like by way of testimony.
So as you read through Acts in the narrative, you have this picture of his perseverance in summary form. When you come to his own writing in his own letters, we're able to tackle it as it were by way of testimony. Or if you like, then we have Paul in his own words.
Now I'm not going to roam around the epistles, and I want really to be in chapter four, but I need to begin for a moment in two Corinthians chapter one. And in chapter one, he states things very clearly. Incidentally, I think Second Corinthians is is arguably the most personal letter of Paul. I think when you read the letters, Paul reveals his feelings at least as much, if not more, in Second Corinthians than he does in any of the rest of his letters. You may want just to check that on your own, but I think you'll find that that's possibly the case.
And the picture that we're given of Paul is not one of somebody who is able to run roughshod over the concerns of others. It's not of somebody who is unaffected by the damaged relationships that have taken place within the Corinthian context as a result of misunderstandings. In fact, it's quite the opposite of that. He's very, very clear. He Is not able to simply say none of this really is a concern to me.
None of this really matters to me. You see, there in verse eight of chapter one, he says, "We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia." Why? What was it like?
Well, he says, "Let me tell you. We were so utterly burdened, beyond our strength, that we despaired of life itself." That's a pretty straightforward statement, isn't it? I mean, you've had a bad Sunday or two, and so have I. But that is quite remarkable. We we have been completely burdened beyond our strength.
The language he uses is strong language, and we need to note that because we'll come back to it later in the week. But it was seemed to be even beyond our strength, so that we despaired of life itself. We felt that we had received the sentence of death.
Well, that was actually quite good, because it helped us to understand how dependent we are on God.
So that we don't have the sense of Paul being able, on account of the peculiar gifts that he's been given, because of the. Privileges in ministry that he's enjoyed, that he is somehow now, by this stage of the game, inured from these things. You know, it's other people can deal with that stuff. Other people can handle the burdens. You know, he's not saying, you know, I'm the one that writes the letters.
I'm the one that speaks at the conferences. No, he says the fact of the matter is that together we felt so under the burden of it. Because he was engaged in it, because he cared about it. There's an anecdote concerning a young psychiatrist and an older psychiatrist that just pops into my mind, and now that I've mentioned it to you, I have to tell it to you. But I may regret that, but there's nothing I can do about it now.
So. The young psychiatrist is in a building with a number of physicians, and and he is he is listening to the people's woes and concerns and complaints and everything day after day. And he emerges from his business in in the day just a complete wreck. His tie is all gone. His shirt is half unbuttoned.
His hair is all over the place. And as he gets on the lift on the elevator at night, he he gets on the lift almost routinely with a. With an older psychiatrist who is very well put together, his hair is nice, and his suit seems to be just perfect, and his collar and so on. And the fellow looks at this fellow every day, and he sees him, and he thinks, "How?" And so he says, "I'm going to ask this fellow one day, you know, how he does this." I mean, he comes out of his practice looking like a million dollars, and I look like I got run over by a tractor. And so eventually, he finds himself one day.
In the the lift by by himself with the man, and he says, "Sir, I've noticed this about you. You're always leaving in the evening, and and you seem completely unruffled." He said, "You know, how do you how do you listen to all of that stuff?" And the man said, "Who listens? Who listens? It's an anecdote." Do we listen? Do we actually get under the burden of the thing?
We're listening to a message called "We Do Not Lose Heart" on Truth for Life Weekend with Alistair Begg. We'll hear more about persisting in gospel ministry next weekend. For all that the apostle Paul endured and accomplished, his letters never indicated a desire to retire from praying or preaching the word of God. You see, you may retire from your career, but we never retire from serving Jesus. In fact, our later years can become some of our most joyous years of ministry.
That's the message of a book we are recommending today, called "Not Old, Not Young, Not Done." Following Jesus in your fifties and sixties, in this book you'll discover how you can invest in your loved ones, your church, sharing the gospel with others who do not yet know the saving power of Jesus. During this season of life, to find out more about the book, not old, not young, not done, visit our website at truthforlife dot org. I'm Bob Lapine. Thanks for studying the Bible with us. You ever compare yourself to others in ministry and worry that you're just not good enough to serve God?
Well, next weekend we'll find out why your sense of insufficiency could actually be a plus and not a minus. The Bible teaching of Aleister Beg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.
