A Life Worth Living

“A LIFE WORTH LIVING”

ACTS 20:17-24

From Acts 1 through the final chapter, Acts reveals why the church was born and why the church exists today: to tell the good news of Jesus Christ. The believers experienced hardship and persecution, but they did not give up. Their purpose was more important than their suffering. For these 1st century believers, it was a life worth living.

During the 19th century Crimean War, the Russian Army was dealt arms by Alfred Nobel who gained fame for his invention of dynamite. He made a fortune from its sale, building a legacy as a war profiteer.

When Alfred’s brother passed away in 1888, a French newspaper mistakenly wrote Alfred had died. The false report stated: “Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.” The newspaper tagged Nobel as “The Merchant of Death”.

Having read his own obituary, Alfred set out to change his legacy. One year before his death at the age of 62, he changed his will, giving 94% of his fortune (worth around $270 million, today) as prizes for the best work in the promotion of peace. They were called the Nobel Peace Prizes.

If you were able to hit the rewind button on the story of your life, would you be pleased with how people will remember you? I suspect many of us would want to change our legacy as did Alfred Nobel. Such was the life of Paul.

Paul had been known as a persecutor of Christians, an enemy of the church. But his life was radically transformed by a personal encounter with Jesus Christ on a dusty road. Paul received forgiveness for his sin and chose to follow Jesus as his Savior. From that moment on, Paul was on a mission from God, to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. The moment you experience the salvation by grace through Christ, God puts you on a mission to tell the Good News of Jesus Christ.

As Paul nears the end of his ministry, he calls together the elders of the church in Ephesus to say good-bye. SCRIPTURE The most important thing of Paul’s life was to complete his mission of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace. If he failed to do so, then he considered his life worth nothing. A life worth living seeks to point others to Christ.

According to Thom Rainer, “Nine out of ten Christians will die without having ever shared their faith.” That means nine out of ten Christians die having lived their lives as a waste. Paul says such a life is not worth living. What is the most important thing in your life? Are you committed to being a messenger of the good news about God’s grace to other people?

The last words spoken by Christ before He went back to heaven were: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8) “This is what I want you to do until I come back!” It is a life worth living.

Following His resurrection, Jesus said: Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; teaching them to obey all I have commanded you. And lo I am with you, even to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:19-20)

Go and make disciples of all nations. A disciple is a follower, a student. Jesus is saying we are to find others and encourage them to follow Jesus just as we do. Christ’s followers are to go into all the world, to all nations (all people groups – no one is to be left out) with the mission of making disciples.

Jesus does not have in mind political boundaries, but those people groups who live among us in Big Spring. Our planet contains seven continents: North America, South America, Africa Asia, Europe, Australia, and Antarctica. Within the past ten days, I have had conversation with individuals from six of those seven continents. In a town of 25,000 people, six of seven continents are residents. God is placing people groups in our neighborhoods!

We do not sit around and wait for the world to come to us; we go. We actively participate in telling the Good News about Jesus to others with the purpose they too will become followers of Jesus. The early church prayed and sent missionaries like Paul and Barnabas, Silas and Luke. The people who stayed home prayed for and provided financial support for those who went, but it became a cooperative effort to fulfill the Great Commission.

If we are not praying for, and financially supporting, missionaries we are missing a big part of the mission. Yes, share the good news about Jesus here at home; but also get involved in sharing it around the world by supporting those whom God has called and gifted to go around the world.