A Time for Leaving

A Time for Leaving

“There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

Where is God when trouble comes? The better question is, in relation, where are you? God, as we have come to realize in our study of Acts, never leaves, never looks away, never disregards, and never forgets. He is, at all times, ever by the side of those whose lives are recorded for us in Scripture. Always at work, ever patient, and ready for us to turn more towards Him. Why then are not the lives of those comprising the early Church filled with smashing successes, riches, niceties, and ease? We instead see persecution, punishment, violence, misfortune, injustice, and death. And in the midst of these calamities? Fellowship, discipleship, endurance, healing, hope, unshakable faith, obedience, and God. Their behavior during such suffering not only serves as an ever-timely reminder of how we should bear up under stresses ourselves but also remains proof of God’s insurmountable strength and faithfulness. The focus of our study this week, Acts 20-22 puts on a clinic for the proper Christian response to hardship.

“And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships 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.” (Acts 20:22-24) It’s worth emphasizing every single word of Paul’s statement there. He is following the guidance of the Holy Spirit. He knows that danger awaits him, and he presses on regardless, without care or concern for his own safety, to complete the one job given to him by Jesus. There is no worried hesitation, no cautious re-consideration. He knows he is walking into doom and does so hurriedly! “For he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of Pentecost.” (Acts 20:16b). Any concern for his wellbeing he has completely entrusted to God. And if he is to go to his own death, he knows it is by God’s design and that the result will only be a reward in Paradise. This is not an easy mindset to gain, but it is a marvelous one to behold and a challenging one to aspire to.

Keep in mind as well, that Paul’s was not some robotic endeavor. He was not a condemned man whose hollow steps rang on deaf ears as he numbly approached his fate. He continued to be a man on a mission, passionately preaching the grace of God and salvation through Jesus and His fulfillment of prophecy. It’s clear in the response of those to whom he spoke. “When Paul had finished speaking, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him. What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.” (Acts 20:36-38). We later hear how touched Paul is by this behavior. “Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” (Acts 21:13). “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21) Paul proves here, these are not merely aspirational words, but a living creed. Paul even then was not finished providing guidance though, and he carefully instructed the Ephesian elders to continue on in his coming absence. He encouraged them to keep watch over themselves and to guard against the enemies that would come, both from outside the church and from within it. Leaving Miletus for Jerusalem saw these traveling companions meet with believers in Tyre and Caesarea. At both locations, the believers there implored Paul not to continue on to Jerusalem. He persevered unabated.

About one week after arriving in Jerusalem, a crowd was stirred up against Paul, and it led to his arrest. But our discussion veered far from this turn of events, and we’ll pick up the thread of Paul’s troubles in next week’s study as we learn the power of our testimony. We focused on the tribulations that we face in our own lives. Loss, pain, loneliness, hurt, betrayal, and despair colored the balance of our time on Tuesday. And it is important to grapple with why. It is fashionable in many church circles to hear bromides about God ‘not giving you more than you can handle.’ Most of this philosophy seems to be derived from 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians here is pretty explicitly about not falling into the temptation that befell Israelites past. In fact verse 14 spells it out clearly, “Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.” All of which is to say, the notion that there are burdens out there that you can bear up underneath if you have enough gumption or “backbone” is a bitter misunderstanding of Scripture. It has more in common with other vacuous platitudes, such as, ‘God loves a working man’ or ‘cleanliness is next to godliness.’ The point being that there exist burdens that can crush you, obstacles you cannot overcome, and tribulations that will overtake you. What we must learn from Paul is that these are burdens you never have to face alone. Alexis pointed out that we can reach the point where we can no longer rely on ourselves. Paul makes the point clearer in his second letter to the people of Corinth, “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9)

Death is the ultimate insurmountable obstacle, and there are a number of our group far too acquainted with its indelible sting. But we would all do well to see Paul’s emphasis here. There is one way (and only one way) to overcome the unscalable impediment that is death. What Paul is also bringing to our attention is that God, who raises the dead, is capable of dealing with the most universal element of existence. Therefore, He is more than capable of handling any other issue, problem, ailment, or crisis. We were concerned with the question of where God is in a crisis. And it is correct to say that He is in the middle of the suffering along with us. But we must also understand that He is also standing with us on the other side of it as well, simultaneously! He knows our footsteps and is with us on every one of them down our path. As we struggle, He is there with us, and He is also there after the victory. There is a nihilistic quote from the book (and movie) Fight Club. “On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.” What this empty philosophy leaves out, however, is God’s thumb on the scale. On the long timeline of every believer, our lives in Heaven eclipse even a lifetime of suffering on Earth. On the scale of eternity, even a century of woe is a drop in the bucket, barely remembered. Never forget the promise of Jesus. “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:1-3) This promise was the affirmation of Paul’s life, the inspiration during his harshest moments, and the fuel that drove him forward when all others pleaded for him to stay.

If Paul had given up, we would not be reading his letters still today. Never sell God short because of your own weakness. Paul pushed through to discover that when you let God step in, then all things are possible. But Paul was not interested in the possible on his steady march toward Jerusalem. He was certain of what awaited him, hostility, imprisonment, and quite likely death. Obedience requires humility. If there was only one word to sum up the difference between Saul, the zealous persecutor, and Paul the persecuted apostle, humility may very well do the trick. To approach this example, we too must lay down our daily concerns, our worries, our anxieties, our despair, our pain, our hurt, our loneliness, our aching, and every disquieting and distressing thing at the feet of the Father. Lay down the burdens you struggle to bear at the pierced feet of the Savior. Arise, or more accurately, be lifted up, by the very hands that knit you together in your mother’s womb. Humbly submit yourselves to His will and calling. There is a time and a season for all things under Heaven. We must sow the seed of the Gospel because the harvest draws nearer. We must be torn down to be rebuilt. We must weep to know the true joy of laughter. There is a time to live and a time for us all (prayerfully eons and eons away) to see death. But those are all the times that must exist under Heaven. And our bitter cup of death has been taken already by Another. Those rules apply to this world but remember. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33). There was a time for Paul to leave and even our circle cannot remain unbroken forever. And in the midst of the struggles this side of Eternity, you may have reason to ask, in the darkest and most formidable moments, just where exactly is God? “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)

Jordan Williamson