October 5, 2026 - The Way: Acts 9:20-31

Welcome to the Fort St.

John Alliance Church Sermon Podcast.

I'm Aaron Peters, the Executive Ministry Director.

For so far you've joined us today, our desire is to become a community of people who practice the way of Jesus together and through the empowering of the Holy Spirit, live on mission to meet the social and spiritual needs of the world around us.

Each week we gather as a community to worship, learn from God's Word, and be encouraged in our walk with Christ.

In this podcast, you'll hear the latest message from our Sunday service.

Whether you're listening from right here in Fort St.

John or from afar, our prayer is that God will speak to your heart and strengthen your faith.

Let's lean in together as we hear today's sermon.

Um, I'm Kylie, and I'll be reading Acts 9, 20 to 31.

At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.

All those who heard him were astonished and asked, Isn't he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name?

And hasn't he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?

Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.

After many days had gone by, they there was a conspiracy among the Jews to kill him.

But Saul learned of their plan day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him.

But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.

When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple.

But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles.

He told them how Saul and his journey had seen the Lord, and that the Lord had spoken to him.

And how in Damascus he had prepared fearlessly in the name of Jesus.

So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord.

He talked and debated with the Helen and Jesus, but they tried to kill him.

They took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

Then the church throughout Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened, living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit.

This is the word of the Lord.

Maybe she didn't.

Well, good morning, everybody.

Sorry, I'm just sharing a pulpit here, so give me a moment.

Just um as a reminder, um, in two weeks, the team that's going to the Middle East is headed out, which, if you were to ask them, is creeping up way too quickly.

So I see I see those faces.

And um, but man, we are so excited for you guys to go.

Uh there is a project that we've actually been uh supporting over the last year.

Uh you uh uh a couple weeks ago, the team actually they shared about this in a video uh that we watched here on Sunday morning.

Uh we've been raising for a uh tool shed that actually is in one of the camps there that actually caught fire.

Uh and so they lost you know everything in it.

Uh and so over the last year or so we've been raising or you know, we've been looking to raise around uh$50,000 in order for this to be to be met.

And so it's a great way for us as a church just to love them well over there.

And um we are currently about$8,300 almost there.

So that's how much more we need, which is fantastic, which is really great.

So, church, well done in all of the ways in which you give.

It's incredible.

Um I wonder if Jesus might just be encouraging us just to push to the finish line here and just you know, kind of get over that hump.

So uh I want to encourage you to uh prayerfully think about if the Lord is inviting you to give to this, if you haven't already, or if you already have, to say what more might He be inviting me into in this next season, okay?

Uh you can do that um even just uh through the office, uh through the machine out there, you know, whatever it might be.

Um but we would love to see this met um as the team goes.

Uh so this is just a great way for us to love them over there.

Um if you have your Bible, go ahead and turn into Acts chapter 9.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

We're gonna be in verse uh 20 there.

And as we get there, uh I've got a question for you.

Have you ever been halfway through a project and realized that you don't have the tool that you need to finish it?

How many have ever been in that position?

Okay, so as I've shared before, I'm not overly handy, like that's just not me.

So I don't have a lot of like readily available tools.

This is not what I'm thinking about, it's not on my radar.

Usually, if I don't know what I'm doing, I call my father-in-law who's really handy and he's really quick to come and help.

And so that's just kind of how it's been.

But every now and then I still say, I can do this.

Like, this is possible.

Um, a number of years ago, uh, we were putting together, it was a bookshelf in our home.

And and you know, for my wife and I, Christy, we have a pretty good system when it comes to how we build these sort of things.

Christy reads all the instructions, she holds them, and I just do whatever she tells me to do.

That uh has worked really well over the years.

It's better for everyone that I don't hold that.

Uh it gets really frustrating.

Um, and honestly, you know, as we were building this bookshelf, though, things were going really great, right?

The frame was together, the shelves were in.

It actually looked like a bookshelf, which I was I was impressed.

This is this is coming.

Um, and then we get to the back panel, right?

This kind of like thin cardboard paneling that has to go on the back.

Um and I realized we needed a hammer for these tiny finishing nails that have to go all around the side.

Um, except our hammer wasn't there.

I'd taken it to work earlier uh that week because I was doing something at work because I'm so handy everywhere I go.

Um so, you know, right?

So, like when you don't have a hammer, then what do you do in that moment, right?

Because you gotta get this finished, and you know, we could just decide just to leave it and you know pick it up a day later.

But we start asking the question most of us ask, what else could I use that that could put in little finishing nails?

And so we look around the house, and somehow the best option that we came up with was a work boot.

That was the best option that we had.

And I mean, you know, it has a thick sole, it's got some weight to it, it's hammer-like-ish.

Am I right?

You know, this could work.

It did not work.

I was sitting there with my hand inside this boot, pounding these tiny finishing nails, like denting up the bookshelf on the other side, missing because it's so big and clunky, I can't even tell what I'm doing.

They're barely moving too as they're going in.

Like, I'm just making a mess of the back of this bookshelf.

Thankfully, it goes against the wall, right?

Nobody sees it, but it just doesn't look great.

And so, what should have taken just a few minutes took us forever.

Right?

Like, took well over an hour just to get these little nails in.

Rather than me driving to work and coming back, which would have taken 10 minutes, like that's all it would have taken.

But and I know that that sounds really ridiculous, right?

That we would spend that much time, right?

But like the boot isn't a hammer, right?

Like it's not a hammer, it's just not gonna do what it does.

And I know that might sound obvious, but the boot wasn't the problem, though, right?

The boot is doing what the boot does, it's being a boot.

That's what it knows how to be, right?

It's actually doing a great job being in a boot.

It understands that.

The problem was I was trying to use it for something it was never made for, it was never intended to be made as a hammer.

Nobody who actually built the boot thought, man, I wonder if there'll be a guy one day years from now that's going to use this as a hammer.

No one thought that.

It was made with purpose in mind.

And we've been made with purpose in mind.

We've been made for something specific.

Searching for meaning is something that consumes us, actually, as people.

One in three people have looked on the internet over their lifetime and asked the question, what is the meaning of life?

Asking that constantly.

It's one of the top questions that's asked that matters most to the human heart.

And there's some answers that we find online that's all dependent on where you're sitting, might be helpful or inhelpful.

Life is just about embracing chaos around you, right?

So just enjoy the moment that you find yourself in.

That's one way to look at it.

Or the idea that existence comes before essence.

So, in other words, you have to self-identify what your purpose is, right?

Like once you're born, then you decide what life is about.

Or life is about virtue and duty.

Just accept that what you can't actually do or control, and just do good where you can, right?

That's an option.

Or the idea that there's no meaning at all, or that everything is meaningless.

We're nothing more than just a cosmic snap of the fingers, and that's it, with no reason or explanation, with so many possible worldviews, so many ways to look at life.

And in some ways, it's like using a boot for a hammer.

We can end up feeling ineffective and frustrated when we're not doing what we ought to be doing.

But what if before the foundation of the world God put purpose on your heart?

What if he built you for that?

What if he made you in a specific way, that there is a way to live life that leads to the full, that you and I were made for something so much bigger than ourselves, so much wider and larger that you and I can possibly imagine.

That the God who made you, who formed you in your mother's womb, who knows every single one of your days before one of them was written down in his book, made you with purpose in mind.

It's bigger than what we think.

Paul says this in Ephesians 2, for we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Do you get that?

Before.

In advance, long before.

This morning we are just, I mean, we are in part, I'm not even sure anymore in our series on the way, taking this slow walk to the book of Acts.

And so this morning we are picking up where we left off last week, where Saul, someone who was far from God, is chased down by Jesus and is radically changed.

And so as we pick up this story, my prayer today, my hope for you and I is that we would see that we are not just people who have received good news, but we are people who have been entrusted with good news.

You have been given an entrustment.

Something that you were meant to steward well, something you were meant to put into practice, and that my prayer would be that our hearts would start to break for the things that breaks God's, that we would begin to share that good news that we have been entrusted with.

And so this morning we're gonna start here in verse 20.

And so, just to give a recap, Saul has been this man whose entire life and agenda has been to dismantle the church.

And so he's encountered Jesus on this road and had his eyes open to the truth.

And Jesus sends this other man to this, I mean, I pray for Saul, and so we are left with the idea that Jesus is still in the business of rescuing people, people who are far from God, people who feel like they have nothing to offer, people who feel like they have done so much.

How could God ever use me?

God is in the business today of rescuing souls, of rescuing people, of inviting them in to the kingdom, to the life that he has for them.

And so, Paul, rather, uh one day, Paul, um uh so uh uh Saul finds himself resting in this city.

And then it says in verse 20, once he began to preach in all the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God, all those who heard him were astonished and asked, Isn't he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on his name?

And hasn't he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?

Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ.

Damascus is the city which is now in modern day uh Syria.

It has lots of culture, lots of, I mean yeah, commerce, there's so much that goes on.

It is a bustling hub.

And the whole reason why Saul is going there is because of the Jewish, just it it's a it's a it's a larger sense of community there with so many of them there.

There's roughly 40 to 50, I would uh about 50 um um uh synagogues right there in the city itself.

It would have been this logical place for the church to go to once they are scattered there.

But remember, Saul's whole reason for being has changed now, right?

He's not there for the same purposes.

He has been saved, he has been changed, he has encountered Jesus, and everything that he was about is now been flipped upside down, and so much so that Saul actually has some time in between Damascus and going off.

In fact, he does something a little bit different.

He says this in uh Galatians 1.

But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his son in me, so that I might preach him among the Gentiles.

It says this I did not consult any man, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was.

But I immediately went into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.

Then after three years, right?

So just imagine this for a moment.

He spent three years before he preached in the desert.

I went up to the city of Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him for 15 days.

Saul has his own wilderness experience before he starts to preach.

He goes to the desert to be with Jesus.

The disciples had there three years with Jesus, and now it is Saul's turn to spend three years under Jesus, to learn from him, to be with him, to find himself in the quiet place, that desolate place that we see all throughout scripture, where people encounter God, where they learn who they are, where they develop themselves.

They say, This is who I am in Christ.

And so Jesus modeled this way so often, we learned about this a few weeks ago, that when we go off to be with him, we are formed to be more like him, formed in our identity.

Saul is learning from Jesus and is becoming who God intends him to be.

He sees that as utterly important.

And so there is this natural tie between formation and mission.

He goes off to be formed and then he comes back set ablaze for mission, set ablaze to preach.

And so this is why as a church we keep talking about being with Jesus and becoming like Jesus.

This is so important, right?

As we spend time with him and as we are formed by him, we begin to care about the people he cares about.

It begins to shift the way that we see the world around us.

Being with Jesus shapes the way that we live among our neighbors, those we work with, those in our homes, those who don't yet know him.

It begins to change who we are, and so Paul has been changed, right?

You know, Saul has been changed.

He has been radically formed.

He spends three years, and so he starts preaching and soul understands the hang-up about Jesus that the people have there in Israel.

When they thought of the Messiah, they think of someone who's gonna come back and be the king right now.

He's gonna sit on the throne, he's gonna rule an earthly kingdom.

But for Jesus to claim to be the Messiah and want nothing to do with an earthly kingdom just didn't add up to them.

They just couldn't understand.

Why would he be the Messiah then if he doesn't want to fix the hearing right now?

Right?

Like, why doesn't he want to sit on that throne and still be Messiah?

Saul understands his audience, though.

He gets it.

He knows how to share the gospel in a way that makes sense to the people listening.

We see this later, all the way in, I think he's in Athens, where before he says anything while he's there in that city, he spends time in the marketplace, it says, just moving around, getting to know the culture, learning about them, understanding who they are as people, and then gets up to preach.

Then gets up and says, Hey, did you know this is who God actually is?

In light of who you think God might be, this is who God is.

And he's doing the same thing here with the nation of Israel.

And so what he's doing is really clear.

Jesus is the Messiah.

He is the one that they have been waiting for.

He's explaining this to them in a way that they can understand, in a way that makes sense.

And I think that there's something here for us, though.

You see, the message of the gospel doesn't change.

It never changes, it will never change ever.

It is always the same yesterday, today, forever.

But how we communicate the gospel, how you share it with those around you, matters.

That actually shifts over time because the world changes over time.

How we contextualize it matters deeply.

We need to know the people in front of us because sometimes we can swing the truth like so wildly that at times we actually hurt people around us.

We don't make it easy on them.

We can swing it around so carelessly and wonder why nobody's listening.

Why isn't anybody listening to the good news when we swing it so violently at times?

And so the message stays the same, but how we share it, how we contextualize it, how we put it in today's language, how we make it make sense for the culture around us, that has always mattered and will continually matter.

How you share the gospel with those around you, how you understand the world around you, matters as to how you bring good news.

And so when Saul comes to know Jesus, this was far more about a right, this was far more than just simply a just, I mean a flash of light.

His encounter with Jesus led him into the desert to be with Jesus, to grow in understanding, to learn his way.

And now here he is, the man who was once trying to pull apart the church, is now declaring that Jesus is the way.

This radical change.

He is not the same person.

His just, I mean, what he encountered with Jesus didn't just change what he believed, but it changed what he was living for.

Do you see that?

He's living for something completely different than what he was doing previously.

Radically different.

This was surrender.

This was him laying down his life.

Saul's old life is being reordered around the lordship and kingship of Jesus.

He's sitting under him as the head of everything.

In fact, the change is so dramatic that people barely recognize him anymore.

It says that in the text.

We don't even know who this guy is.

Wasn't this the guy that used to go around?

He looks so different than who he used to be.

Years ago, I remember sitting in a class that was in Bible college, and I had a professor say something that stuck with me.

It's possible to have Jesus as your savior, but not your functional Lord.

Right?

Did you know that?

It is possible for you to say, Jesus has saved me, but he's not in charge of my life.

He doesn't have say over everything.

That's possible.

In other words, Jesus can be your friend without really being your king.

You can love what Jesus says without actually reordering your life around anything he says.

Right?

You can love everything about Jesus and yet still not have him as king that he might change your life in such a way that reorders everything.

But when Jesus saves Saul and says, You will be my instrument, it is an invitation to reorder and surrender, to lay down everything that you have, to say, Jesus, everything in my life that I think is important, everything that I want to be about, all the things in my heart that that, you know, all the things that I think really matter the most, I'm gonna lay down for your sake.

I'm gonna surrender them.

I'm gonna do what you want instead of what I want.

And the same is true for us as it was for Saul.

The invitation to practice the way of Jesus is an invitation for you and I to reorder your life around Jesus.

And everything, not just the big things that we see here on Sunday morning, it's the little things that nobody sees.

It's the little moments in your day, it's the time in the car, it's the time at work, it's the time at home, it's the time in the evening where no one is watching what you're doing on your phone.

It is reordering everything that you do in the big ways and the little ways around the kingship of Jesus.

It's laying down all your desires, your dreams, your plans, and it's saying, Jesus, it is all yours.

You can use them if you want to.

Verse 23, this is what it says.

After many days had gone by, the Jews can they uh uh conspired to kill him, but Saul learned of their plan.

Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him.

But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.

Saul's preaching has become dangerous, right?

So dangerous, so offensive that now his life is at risk.

Imagine living your life in such a way that was so offensive to others it puts you at risk.

It's such a dramatic shift in the way that he used to be the one to chase and hunt down others.

Now he's being the one lowered through this hole in a giant 30-foot wall.

So he didn't have to go through the main gate.

Now he's the one being hunted.

Just a complete radical shift.

Just imagine where he was previously to where he is now.

Saul's time in Arabia was preparing him for this, was getting him ready to suffer, as Christ said, You will suffer, Saul, on my behalf.

Jesus actually.

Says this little too to Ananias to teach Saul, right?

That I will teach Saul to suffer for my name, meaning Saul will carry his cross.

Saul will go forth with the good news of the gospel, knowing he will pay for it.

He will pay for it.

He will understand that the way that the good news about Jesus is shared is through pain and suffering and going into hard places.

The gospel has never advanced without going into hard places.

Did you know that?

We today know the Lord because someone years and years and years ago decided to go into difficult spaces, decided to go into hard places, decided to find themselves preaching to the unreached.

It's one of the reasons that I love so much being a part of the Alliance Canada.

We weren't founded as a, I mean, a church denomination the way we were today.

We were founded as a missions organization.

Did you know that?

It was a bunch of people who got together outside of all the other churches and said, we care about bringing the good news of Jesus to everybody around us, to the unreached places of the world, like-minded people who wanted to bring that good news.

In fact, when we move towards what we currently are as a church structure all across Canada, down the United States, all these things, when we look back at our history, it's easy to say we've moved away from mission, actually.

We've moved away from mission.

It's only been in probably the last 20, 30 years or so that there's been this real sense within the Alliance Canada to come back to where we were founded on.

Going into hard, unreached spaces, finding ourselves preaching the gospel to those who need it the most.

It's so easy though, just to leave mission to other people, though, isn't it?

Right?

We all know somebody who's good at this, don't we?

Right?

Who's really, really good at sharing their faith with others, at being willing to go to hard places.

And we just say to ourselves, man, I'm so glad that that's for them.

I'm so glad that they do that work.

And I am too, don't get me wrong.

I love that there are people all in this room.

Many of you are passionate to share the good news of Jesus, not only here, but other places in the world.

Right?

We see somebody who's clearly gifted in that way, and we are just content, though, to let them do it.

For some of us, our experience of Jesus has been what he can do for me, and less about what he can do for others.

And I say this with all the love that I can.

Some of us live like the mission of Jesus that what he gave us when he said, Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations.

Some of us live like that's optional.

Some of us live like that's optional.

We we actually may not think it, you may not say it in this room, but the way that we live would say otherwise.

There's a quote from a lady by the name of Beverly Gaventa, she says this, we are not saved in order to savor the experience, but in order to witness.

You are not saved just to savor the experience of Jesus.

As much as it is a beautiful thing, you were saved to witness, to be a witness.

Think about this for a moment.

If you had to explain to someone else, Christian or non-Christian, what it means to follow Jesus, how much of that explanation would include being on mission?

How much of that would you share?

Sharing the good news of Jesus and maybe even taking it one step further, if we followed you around for the next year of your life, would we see that definition lived out?

If there was a camera on you and you explained to somebody, it's all about mission.

If we followed you around, how much of that would we see?

So hear my heart.

I don't want anyone here to feel guilty or ashamed or anything like that.

But, church, you and I need to understand we were not saved just to savor Jesus for ourselves and just as if we shut the back doors there and everything's good because one day we're gonna go to heaven.

That is not the gospel message.

I'm sorry if you've heard otherwise.

You were saved to witness.

You were saved to bring the good news to the people who need it the most.

There are people all around us that are hurting and dying, and they are desperate for good news, and we have it.

We have it.

We weren't saved just to live moral lives or just to show up to church on Sunday or just to read your Bible.

Well, all those things are good and right.

Jesus did not raise you to new life just so you can coast to the grave.

That is not the gospel.

It's not how he said it.

Whatever or whoever sits on the throne of your heart will dictate what is most important to you, will decide the direction of your life and what you are all about.

Just think about the times we're living in.

This is according to uh Ycleff uh uh uh uh uh ministries.

There are over 7,000 unreached groups in the world today, making up just over 3.5 billion people.

Yet the stats show that 70% of us are unaware that there are still people that haven't heard the gospel.

Only 29% of us believe that reaching those people are is urgent, and only 17% of us can say that they have heard and know what Jesus' great commission is.

These are stats in the church.

And in case you and I have forgotten, here is the great commission.

This is what Jesus says to us.

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.

And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.

And then he doubles down on this in Acts 1 before he leaves and ascends to heaven.

The very last thing that he says.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Here's a great way to think about this.

We talked about this very early on at the beginning of Acts.

Christ's last command must be our first concern.

His last command must be our first concern.

Practicing the way of Jesus, being with Jesus, becoming like Jesus and doing as he did, if that is not leading you towards a deeper love for sharing the gospel, a deeper love for those who are lost.

If that is not moving you more towards mission, if your strategy to become more and more like Christ is not having you more on fire for mission, something is off there in your practice.

Something's off in your practice.

Because, church, you were made for mission, you were made for witness, you were made for purpose, you were not made just to show up here on Sunday and go home.

You were made for so much more than that.

A quote from uh Charles Spurgeon says it this way: if there be any one point in which the Christian church ought to keep its fervor at a white heat, it is concerning missions.

If there be anything about which we cannot tolerate lukewarmness, it is the matter of sending the gospel to a dying world.

Does any of that stir your heart at all?

Right?

Like this is something that we own together.

Right?

Like we have to keep this at a white hot heat.

That our lives should radically reflect a desire to bring good news to the world around us.

And so Saul makes it all the way to the city of Jerusalem.

He meets the disciples, they're nervous as they would be, right?

Because they don't know this guy.

All they've heard about him is that he's dangerous, and so they're on edge.

But just, you know, finally, just I mean, at Barnabas, though, he just I mean, it speaks up for him.

He says, This guy is the real deal.

I have heard him preach.

He is changed and transformed from the inside out.

What he is doing is what we want to see.

And he just picks up where he left off when he gets to the city of Jerusalem.

And it says this in verse 28.

So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord.

He talked and debated with Jews, but they tried to kill him.

It says when the brothers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

This is a boat ride way up north to go back to where he's from to preach to people who are far from Jesus.

Notice something here about Saul before he heads north by boat to reach Gentile people, he can't help himself for where he is.

He sees opportunity in front of him for the gospel.

He just keeps preaching, sharing Jesus to the people that he knows, to the people that are his people, the people that he loves, to the group of people that God has placed him in.

Right?

Now understand something.

Do we need to get people on the other side of the world to share the gospel?

Absolutely.

We need to send people all over the world to share Jesus in hard, difficult places.

And did you know that Canada is only 8% of us identify as Christian going to a Protestant evangelical church?

We are increasingly secular.

This is one of the hardest mission fields in the world.

In fact, there are different, I mean countries like Mexico and I think Japan send missionaries over here now.

Did you know that?

It used to be the opposite.

We are increasingly secular.

It is increasingly difficult, increasingly hard, and you have been uniquely and strategically placed for such a time as this.

You have been put here with purpose that you might be a witness to the goodness and the grace and the mercy of Jesus, to the people that you see all the time.

As we live in this increasingly secular culture, Jesus says the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

He said, I need people who are willing to go into the field, who are willing to go.

When Jesus said, go and make just, I mean, of disciples, he doesn't mean just go to the other side of the world.

What he means in that context is wherever you find yourself, make disciples.

If you find yourself in this city, make disciples where you are.

If you find yourself on the other side of the world, make disciples where you are.

That's the strategy.

You have been strategically placed and uniquely called to give witness to Jesus to the people that you live with, people you work with, your neighbors, other people in your class.

We could all for a moment think to ourselves, who comes to mind that does not know Jesus yet?

We all know at least somebody.

If you don't know at least somebody, expand your circle.

You ought to know at least one person that does not know Jesus.

You ought to know at least one.

Right?

So, but just for a moment, think about that.

Who comes to mind for you?

Who comes to mind for you?

Who's the person that you pray over?

Who's the person that you see every day at work?

Who's the person that you see at school?

Who's the person that lives next to you who doesn't know Jesus yet?

You know, maybe the first step is that you just might start to pray for them.

They that instead your heart just might start to break the way that God's heart breaks for them, to make room for conversation, to be willing to share what Jesus has done for you.

And don't get me wrong, I know that that's scary.

I get it, I've been there.

It's terrifying, but this is who we are called to be.

Jesus is with you as you are sharing.

Did you know that?

He says that at the end of what he says, you know, go into all the world, make disciples.

He says at the very end, as you're doing that, and I will be with you.

It's in the context of discipleship, it's in the context of sharing the good news.

Trust that he will not leave you there.

Jesus is calling you to surrender what you want and to do what he wants.

And so Luke finishes the story in verse 31.

Then the church, all throughout uh Judea, Galilee, and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace.

It was strengthened and encouraged by the Holy Spirit.

It grew in numbers, not living in the fear of man, but living in the fear of the Lord.

You see, when we risk, when we sacrifice, when we put Jesus' last command first and live out our purpose when we surrender and reorder our lives and think missionally, even in the midst of being scattered and displaced people, like we see in the early church, they lived in this holy reverence and obedience to no matter what we do, God comes first.

His mission comes first.

Everything that he wants comes first.

That following his way and risking for the kingdom then leads to peace, strength, and encouragement.

Did you see that tie?

That being on mission leads to this inner strength that can only come from Christ.

There's a story about a guy named uh uh uh uh excuse me, um uh uh I can do this.

There's a story about a guy named Um uh uh uh uh Sadhu Sundar Singh.

He actually reminds me a lot of Saul.

He actually grew up in India in the late 1800s in a Sikh uh in a Sikh um uh uh uh home.

And when he was young, he wanted absolutely nothing to do with Christianity.

He was actually hostile towards it, but then he had this encounter with Jesus that just completely changed his life.

And his family didn't understand it at first.

They they hoped that it was just a phase, something that would just pass by who he was, that eventually he would move on from it.

But when they realized that this was real, that he'd actually decided to follow Jesus, they rejected him.

Right?

Just imagine your family pushing you outside.

He was poisoned by them and eventually sent away from his home.

And somehow he ends up at the home of a pastor incredibly sick, and a doctor comes to see him and basically says, There's nothing that we can do.

He's not gonna make it.

And I just love what happens next because he's lying there thinking he might actually die.

He has this realization.

He says, I don't believe Jesus rescued me just for my story to end here.

There were people who still needed to hear about Jesus, so he prayed, and against all expectations, he recovered from being sick.

And from that point on, he basically gave his life to telling people about Jesus.

He traveled all over India, often barefoot, sharing the gospel wherever he went.

His feet would get so torn up from the journey that they would bleed.

And eventually people started calling him the apostle of bleeding feet.

But I think the part of his story that gets me is just so simple.

He realized that he had been saved, not just for himself, but for more than that, to tell others.

Jesus hadn't rescued him from something, he'd rescued him for something.

And I wonder if sometimes we forget that.

That he hasn't rescued you simply from something, but for something, for a higher purpose, for a higher calling.

We can think about knowing Christ as this incredibly personal thing, and of course it is Jesus finds us, Jesus gives us new life, he's wiped our sin clean.

But then he invites us in to do what he's doing.

He invites us in.

There's a quote from a man by the name of Henry Martin.

He says it's the spirit of Christ, it's the spirit of missions.

And the nearer we get to him, the more intensely missionary we become.

And so the question that I have for us this morning, we're gonna move down here to the table in just a moment, we're gonna finish our service this way, but who are you becoming?

What kind of person are you becoming?

Are you becoming the kind of person that increasingly finds themselves more passionate to share Jesus with others?

Or is life just about the comfort?

Is it just about coming here every Sunday?

Is it just about ghosting to the grave, if I dare say it that way?

Or is Jesus inviting you and do you sense this stirring in your heart that you were made for more than that?

You were made for more than that.

What is driving your heart?

Does it break for the world around you?

Here's what I want to do here.

I'm gonna move down here, but I'm gonna read for us out of Romans 9.

And so Paul, Saul, but now Paul in this verse here loves his people deeply, cares about them more than you could ever possibly know, that you and I could even know.

And he says this, he is in such anguish for the people around him, for his own people that he knows to know Jesus.

This is what he says in Romans 9.

I speak the truth in Christ.

I'm not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit.

And he says, This I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people.

Those of my own race, the people of Israel, theirs is the adoption to sonship, theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, all the temple worship and the promises, theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised.

Amen.

His heart breaks, breaks for people to come to know Jesus.

He would say, I would rather be cut off if it meant they knew Christ.

How many of us, including myself, can say that?

That we would be willing to go without so that others can experience Jesus, so that they might know him the way that you and I know him.

And this is why this matters to Paul.

You see, Paul is so convinced that Jesus is the only way.

He has experienced Jesus, he's experienced the goodness of the cross, he's experienced that love and the grace and the mercy that was poured out, that his sins were nailed to that cross.

And that he's being invited into new life, that the old Saul is gone.

And now he wants nothing more than just to tell others in anguish about the goodness of Jesus.

And so this morning, before we end here today, we're gonna finish with the table.

We're gonna come to this moment where we take the bread, where we take the cup, to remember what Jesus has done for us.

I'm gonna invite those who've been asked to serve just to come forward here and those up top there as well.

Paul later in his letter to Corinth writes to the church and he's telling them about this table, the importance that we come and that we remember what Jesus has done.

He says, For I give to you what I receive from the Lord.

For on the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread and broke it.

And he said, This is my body which has been broken for you, do this in remembrance of me.

And on the same night he took the cup and he offered it and he shared it around for everyone to drink.

He said, This is my blood which has been poured out for your sake.

Do this in remembrance of me.

For every time that you eat this bread and drink this cup, you remember that the Lord's going to come back.

This should spur us on to mission because when we come to this table, we recognize what Jesus has done for us, that we might then go and tell others about the mercy that we've received, that we did not earn, that you could never earn, that was freely given to you.

Jesus loves you more than you could ever imagine, and he loves those around you more than you could ever imagine, and they need to hear it.

And so this morning, as we come to the table, I want just the weight of the cross to sink in for a second.

That it was supposed to be you and me.

That Jesus took on the death that we were supposed to die, he took on the punishment that you and I deserved for our sin.

And Jesus said, I will take that.

I will take that.

Okay, so here's what we're gonna do.

In just a few moments here, we're gonna actually have you just stay seated and it's gonna come to you where you are.

If you're here this morning and you are all in on Jesus, if you say, Man, Jesus, I am for you, and I just want to remember this morning what you have done for me.

This table is for you.

If you're here this morning and you're just kind of not sure about faith yet, you're just listening in, you're just kind of leaning in, you can allow these elements just to simply go by, or there's no sense of pressure here for you to take anything at all.

But rather, this table is for those who say, Jesus, you are king over my life.

So I just want to gently invite you into that this morning.

And as you take these elements, that you just might sit and linger and remember what Jesus has done for you.

Remember the cost of your new life in Christ came at his death and that three days later he rose from the grave, that you and I might have a new life to the full.

So I'm gonna pray and then I'm gonna pass out these elements here.

So, Lord Jesus, thank you this morning that you have invited us into mission, that that Lord, we are not saved just to merely savor you, as good as it is, just to look upon you, just to be in awe of you, to sit at your feet, to learn from you, to worship you as good as those things are.

Jesus, thank you that you do not leave us there, that you then encourage us to go, that we might share the good news of who you are wherever we find ourselves.

Jesus, I recognize that in a room this size, there could be many of us here today that just feel a sense of weight.

Jesus, I pray for a holy weight to fall on each one, though.

A holy sense of burden.

That when we see the world around us, when we see our neighbors, when we see our coworkers, we wouldn't just see people we work with, we wouldn't just see people we live next to, we wouldn't see people that we just simply sit beside in class, but we would look on them with your eyes, that our hearts would break, that we would long, that we would have this longing to share you with them, no matter what cost that it might come to us.

So, Jesus, I pray this morning that as we come to the table, that our hearts might be reordered in such a way that we would put aside all of our longing and desire for the things that we want.

We might look to the cross for what you have done, and we would step in to what you invite us into.

So, Lord Jesus, we love you and we just give you these next few moments now.

And we ask these things in your name.

Amen.

Just encourage you here as these elements are coming around, just to hold tight to them and we're gonna take them all together.