"Paul’s Farewell Sermon A Life Redeemed” Series

In Jesus Holy Name November 6, 2022

Text: Acts 20:22,27-28 Redeemer Lutheran

“Paul’s Farewell Sermon”

“Life Redeemed”

When it comes to Christianity, there are two things the people of the world cannot understand. First, they cannot understand the Resurrection. It is a miracle which baffles the mind. Secular man cannot deal with it. Second, because they can’t deal with the Resurrection, they do not understand the teachings of Jesus and His promise of forgiveness for broken ethics and the gift of eternal life.

But in the words of Paul: “What we believe is both true and reasonable. This resurrection event was not done in the corner.” The evidence is there for all to see. The empty tomb is still empty. No one has ever found the bones of Jesus. No one ever will. Therefore Paul said: “I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.” (V 21) The Resurrection of Jesus Christ stands as the best-attested fact in all human history.

Regarding “facts: In 1951, during the golden age of television, Jack Webb brought a show to television from the radio entitled Dragnet. At the beginning of every show the announcer would come on and say, "The story you are about to see is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent."

Those who remember the program can recall how Webb's character, Sergeant Joe Friday, walked without swinging his arms and spoke in a monotone voice. When investigating a crime he would question witnesses, victims, and perpetrators as he searched for, 'Just the facts, ma'am, just the facts."

Dragnet did well in the ratings throughout its run during the 1950s. In 1967, the program was revived, and although ratings were all right, the public didn't seem quite as interested in getting 'the facts, just the facts.

It’s election time. Whom do you trust? Truthful facts are needed about candidates, about propositions. All we want are just the facts. Just the facts. We live in a cynical age…We don't trust. We don’t trust our politicians to tell us the whole truth. We think they give us bits of the truth, or partial truths, or truth with a spin on it? So this morning, let me ask you: whom do you trust?

Today, more and more police find themselves having to justify their actions before doubting community members. Growing numbers of individuals have come to believe college professors and teachers, once accepted as the ultimate purveyors of wisdom and truth, are now promoting their own agendas. Can your student trust His/her professor, his/her teacher. What are the facts that bear truth?

In Acts chapter 20 Paul asked all the leaders of the various house churches to come to Ephesus. In his farewell sermon he gave a warning that false teachers will come and “distort the truth” regarding the resurrection of Jesus. “Be on your Guard”. Luke writes: “He preached until midnight.”

Candles in the room slowly took all the oxygen out of the room. People were dozing off, one young man fell 3 stories out of a window, to his death. Paul rushes down stairs, throws his body and arms around the young man and brings him back to life. They all go back up stairs and Paul preaches from midnight till morning.

My friends that is a long sermon.

Paul reminds them that he is compelled by the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem. He knows prison awaits him. Yet he will go. He is urging the new Christians to remain loyal to Jesus even in the midst of persecution. They are to live a life worthy of their calling, practicing the values of Jesus in a secular culture of Rome.

Then, in his encouragement and warning to the “shepherds of the flocks” I believe that in verse 28 Paul speaks one of the most radical theological truths, often overlooked. “Keep watch over the flock which God bought with His own blood.” Paul did not use the name Jesus. It is a shocking phrase. It caused me to pause and reflect. So how can Paul use this phrase? Why not, “The flock which Jesus bought with His own blood.” It is not an accident that Paul chose the word “God”. He has honed in on a the deep theological truth of the doctrine, “Trinity”.

First God’s essential being is immortal, therefore God the Creator can not die, so He became a man in order to do so. The author of Hebrews writes: “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy Him who holds the power of death. That is the devil.” (Heb. 2:14) He became a man, as Paul writes in Philippians… “Jesus Christ, who being in the very nature of God,…made himself nothing…being made in human likeness, He humbled Himself to be come obedient to death even death on a cross…” The person who died was not the Father but the Son. This is the mystery of the doctrine of the Trinity. This is the mystery of God’s divine plan to save humanity.