Hey. You're listening to Cut for Time, a podcast from Faith Church located on the North side of Indianapolis. My name is Claire Kingsley. Each week, I'll sit down with one of our preaching pastors to discuss their Sunday sermon. Cut for time is a look behind the scenes of sermon preparation and they'll share with us a few things that we didn't hear from the sermon on Sunday.

Thanks for listening. Good morning, Jeff. Hey. Morning, Claire. How are you?

I'm good. Yes. How are you? Good. You know, I've just I've been noticing lately, I think a number of people mentioned, it's just been like a glorious fall.

I mean, the weather has been pretty nice, but the trees are just absolutely gorgeous. It's just it's been making me really, I don't know, just even driving around very worshipful and thankful. Like, not only that God creates all this beauty, but that he's made us in a way to experience it and and remind us of what an amazing, powerful, creative, beautiful, glorious God we know. And it was just, you know, it makes me think of those scriptures talking about, you know, the heavens declare the glory of God. The, the earth shows his handiwork.

And, I'm just like, wow. Yeah. Yeah. I totally agree. I said the same thing to somebody yesterday at school drop off.

She's like, how are you? And I'm like, honestly, I am enjoying just being present in this season right now. Like, the physical season of fall, it has just been so good this year, and, yeah, super thankful for that. And it's fun to do it with kids. You know?

It's just different. And so Addie knows my very favorite tree in our neighborhood. And so anytime we go past it, she's like, your favorite tree. It's amazing. And then we will go, thanks, god.

And it's like Yeah. I just wanna soak it in forever. It's so good. I in fact, I think I just I hadn't thought of it that way, but I just discovered 1, like, 3 blocks from church the other day on 91st Street going west. There is I don't know if it's a maple or what, but it is just like the most amazing gold color.

Like, the entire 20 foot tall tree is just this riot of beautiful fall colors. I I love it. Yeah. Yeah. It's so delightful.

Okay. Well, why don't you kick off our cut for time content, giving us that overview from your sermon on Sunday? You started preaching from chapter 20. Yeah. Acts 20.

Yeah. So I I was thinking and talking with Tom Waltz, even after church on Sunday, and we had sort of opposite challenges. So the week before, Tom Waltz had this long passage, like 20 verses, and there's all this action and so many things to dig into. And, the beginning of chapter 20 is just this short, almost like another kind of summary passage that Luke gives us, which becomes I think they're meant to become an opportunity for us to look backwards, remember where we've been, and he's sort of updating more implicitly this time, I think, of what God's been doing behind the scenes through all the trials and twists and turns that he's been taking Paul through. So in in Acts chapter 20, it's coming right off of this riot in Ephesus.

The town is in an uproar because people are coming to faith in Jesus and it's challenging, the the surrounding culture in their sense of security and identity and prosperity, which is kinda cool because that's sort of what the gospel does. Right? Like it it upends those things and redirects them. And so Paul once again kinda has to flee town in a hurry, and his plan, was to go back to Jerusalem a really long way by going back through Macedonia and Greece visiting the churches that he'd planted. But even as he's doing that, he's finally then getting ready to head back to Jerusalem, hopes to be there for the the Passover, the feast of unleavened bread, which would have been the celebration of Easter resurrection.

But then there's another plot to kill him, and so that redirects Paul again to go spend more time with the churches in Macedonia. And there's just what came out to me was just this reminder of all the twists and turns that God is working in Paul's life, and yet in this short little passage, there's the evidence of how God's at work growing Paul and how God is growing the church through all the twists and turns. And and that's what we talked about. And I think it's meant to be an encouragement for us in our lives, that that God is growing us through all the twists and turns, and he's growing his church because there's this list of people. Right?

It's like, why would Luke include that? Well, it's significant because it's reflecting how God has been at work through all all of these places that are mentioned where these new companions of Paul are coming from. Almost all of them are places that again Paul had to flee for his life and there was an angry crowd. And yet these people are the evidence that God has been working and growing his church and bringing together people from all over the Roman Empire, all over the known world. And so in the middle of all the twists and turns in ways that Paul probably couldn't make sense of at the time, God's been doing something.

And and that's such an encouragement for us, I think, that that God is at work in our lives and all the things that it's really hard for us to make sense of right now to grow us and to reach other people who are growing to know Jesus through us. Mhmm. Mhmm. Some just like a text observation that I made on Sunday, this is not brilliant. Okay?

I'm not saying, like okay. It's actually embarrassing because I asked Nathan, whispered to him. I'm like, oh, this is interesting in verse 6. All of a sudden, like, as Luke is, like, talking about all these people and names, then he goes, but we sailed away from Philippi. And then later says, in 5 days, we reached.

And I was like, wait. How often does Luke include himself? Like, I think it was it just felt really startling to, like, insert himself. It just was like, wait. We switched to 1st person.

Like, you know what I mean? I'm like, he's a part of this right now. And I'm like, how often? And then Nathan's like, oh, it just he's a part of the 2nd and third journey. He does it.

Like, it's not the only place he does that. And I'm like, okay. So not that cool of an observation. But No. I think No.

It is actually. Oh, okay. Yeah. But it just makes me think, okay. Even if, if he's not the point Luke's not the point of being a part of it, but he's observed these things.

So not only are we going through trials or twists and turns, but, people are witnessing them in our lives. And Luke, being a witness, is calling out, this is what I've seen. And so how often do we also just need to be that person who can call it out for another? So, like, maybe we can't see it ourselves. We're like, I don't know what the point of that is in my life, but somebody can see it from the outside perspective and be like, hey.

I do see what God is doing in your life. And just that reminder to be, like, not just the person navigating the hardship, but being the witness to someone else navigating hardship and being able to, like, to point out the, just like the way you see God using that in their lives could be, like, worth it. You know? That's really good, Claire. I I like that.

I yeah. I mean, you're no. You made that's a really good observation because it happens several times throughout the book of acts. It's happened before, and it's happening here again where, Luke is in a sense kind of in the background. He's the narrator, and sometimes there's this we traveled here and did this, which is, you know, we're obviously meant to understand that Luke is including himself, but he's not, like, really pointing to himself either.

And I think it's another, like, maybe there's even another theme going on here of, the places and the players change, but the message and the mission continues forward. And and it's awesome when we get to be a part of it, but the mission's also going forward whether Luke's traveling with Paul or not. You know, we started out with a a focus on obviously the risen Jesus, but Peter is really kind of the main actor. And then now for the last number of chapters, Paul has sort of been the main actor. And Luke and Barnabas and Silas and these other guys are sort of coming in and out of the story at different points.

And and I think you could say there's sort of a a meta theme of, that idea that the the message, and pointing people towards Jesus is what matters. And and our stories collide and intersect and weave through other people's stories here and there. And, you know, so we're not the central person even in our own story of our own lives. Jesus is the central actor, and we have a role to play that's gonna take us in different places. And the the big thing is, okay, am I, am I allowing God to use me in the way that he wants to in the place that he has me right now?

And yeah. So right now, Luke has rejoined with Paul, and he's gonna travel with him for most of the rest of the book of Acts. But again, God's been working without Luke there, and God's gonna continue to work after the end of the book of Acts when Paul passes off the scene. So yeah. That's no.

That's a really cool observation. A lot of commentators spend a lot of time, like, highlighting which are the we sections and where does Luke show up and where does he not show up and what did he hear that he's passing on versus what he's reporting firsthand. And Right. Yeah. Yeah.

So there's there's probably even something going on in the background here where Luke has now joined this party, and I'm sure there would have been conversations from Luke reporting to Paul what Luke has seen God doing that Paul didn't know about directly as an encouragement to Paul. Exactly. And I we can do that practically in people's lives today. Right? Yeah.

For sure. Yes. Great. So, Jeff, I have a texted in question to throw at you. Alright?

Awesome. So when we encounter a twist or turn during our journey, how do we know if it's a trial to persevere through or god closing a door? Man, that is a great question. And, I'm gonna, punt a little on this one and and do the sort of well, you don't we don't really know. And and I I don't I'm not sure that maybe we're even meant to figure that out so much as I think the real question we're supposed to ask in those moments is, okay.

What does god want me to do given where I am and what's in front of me? Like, it shouldn't change the way you navigate it regardless of, like, whether it's this or this. You should navigate it. Right. Okay.

Yeah. Exactly. I yeah. I mean, at a practical level, of course, that we have to try and prayerfully consider like do I keep banging on this door or do I say okay the door's closed and I need to go somewhere else. I mean even gosh, I mean it goes in so many directions like health challenges.

Right? Like, do I continue to try and seek treatment for this? Or do I just accept that this is what my life is and God's gonna give me the grace to endure? Do I pray for healing? Do I pray for grace to persevere?

And I think we can pursue both those things prayerfully and most of all ask God to help me be available to have him live through me and reflect him and his character and priorities Mhmm. Whether I consider it's a trial to endure or, you know, a a redirection of my life in a different way. Yeah. That's where maybe one of the best answers to that is that's why we need other believers in our lives and why we need the community of God's people. Because like you said, we need brothers and sisters who can help us see things that we can't see or just a process through it.

Like, hey. Here's what I'm thinking. Here's what I'm agonizing over. Here's what I can't seem to make sense of. Do do you think I should keep, you know, trying to push this forward in this direction?

Or is God saying, like, that's not what I have for you? And, because on the one hand, we're called to persevere and we're told to expect trials, and and we're gonna have difficulty in following Jesus, and yet, you know, there's also wisdom around not just trying to force something to happen because we think it's supposed to happen a certain way. Yeah. And and how do you sort out like I mean, we've talked about this, you know, any number of times in different sermons and conversations. It's like, am I suffering because I'm a Christian or am I suffering just because I'm being foolish and offensive?

Right? Like, how do I right? Like, I need people to help me discern that. Like, I'm trying to reach people this way. It was like, well, maybe they're not responding because of the way you're going about it and you may need to redirect that.

Or maybe it's just, you know, God wants you to continue to persevere or maybe it's slowing down and trying a different approach. Or, yeah, when do you shake the dust off your feet and go somewhere else versus, staying in and keeping at it? Yeah. I I don't know that I don't think there's any, like, neat answer to that at all. I think it's prayer.

It's, wisdom. It's input from other godly people. It's, growing in an awareness of, like, our own gifts and calling and, who god's made us to be. And and yet at the same time, that's, you know, I I'm even cautious about that. Right?

Because, so much of kind of our Western American mindset is I'm gonna find my perfect thing and, you know, find my bliss and doing the thing that my heart wants to do. And sometimes the thing God's calling us to do is just hard and stretching so that we have to rely on him. Yeah. So I think the best thing that we can do is pray, talk to God about it, and especially talk to other wise, godly believers. Yeah.

Talk to pastor Jeff about it. No. I said wise, godly believers though. That that's why we need community. That that's part of what our community groups and, you know, friends and mentoring at Faith Church and other context can help us.

Mhmm. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. Alright.

So to finish out our time, Jeff, you said that maybe because you had these verses, the challenge of these verses is it was, like, a lot of good summary, but you didn't have maybe as much to cut, but you did have something that you wanted to, give to us as we look forward to the passages ahead of us Yeah. Before us. Yeah. I ran across some interesting observations in some, some of the commentaries. Paul leaves Ephesus.

He's traveled from place to place. He's finally gonna get to Jerusalem. Paul has, you know, said his intent is to go to Jerusalem, and several commentators have pointed out, you know, it's hard to resist the conclusion that Luke is seeing a parallel between Jesus' journey to Jerusalem and Paul's journey to Jerusalem. Paul so so as we're heading into these next chapters, chapter 20, chapter 21, look for some of the parallels of, Paul traveling to Jerusalem with a with a group of disciples, opposition by religious leaders, there's gonna be successive predictions of his suffering, including being handed over to the Gentiles. There's gonna be Paul's declaring his willingness to lay down his life, this effort this assertion that he's absolutely committed to complete the ministry the Father's given to it, and he's not gonna be deterred from it, and and his surrendering himself to the will of the father.

So look for those things and and pay attention. And and I don't think Paul is saying, I don't think Luke is saying, like, oh, yeah. Paul is like the second Jesus or anything. I think he's saying as a faithful follower of Jesus, there are gonna be patterns in our lives that are reflecting the pattern of Jesus life. If if he tells us to be his disciples, we're gonna take up a cross and follow him.

A cross of self denial, a cross of surrendering our wills to do the will of the father, there's probably gonna be a patterning in our lives, like Paul is picturing for us here, like Luke is picturing in Paul's life. And so we shouldn't be surprised by that. We shouldn't be surprised by opposition. We shouldn't be surprised by, needing to to have a commitment to pursue God's will and and the mission that he has for us as as his people in the place where he takes us. And it and it may not literally mean obviously going to Jerusalem and suffering at the hands of the religious leaders.

But, yeah, that this that's something interesting to to pay attention in these next couple of chapters, as we see, Paul turn his face towards Jerusalem, and look for the echoes of Jesus' own journey to Jerusalem. Okay. Thanks, Jeff. We appreciate that. And you're, helping us discover some of those things on our own as we study the next few weeks.

We've got about a month left in acts before we transition to Advent. Yeah. So, yeah, it's good to keep that in mind as we look look forward. Thank you. Yeah.

You know, I you you look through these sections and you can hear Paul saying, imitate me as I imitate Jesus. And and I think broadly he meant he means there in terms of, you know, setting aside our own selfish ambitions, trying to live a life that's pleasing to the father and loving and serving others and making Jesus known to people. But even in some of the specifics, I think Paul sees himself as patterning his life after Jesus in even some of those details. So it's yeah. It's just it's a interesting parallel there.

Okay. Thank you. We appreciate your time, Jeff. Yeah. Thank you, Claire.

It's been good. Thanks for listening to this week's episode of cut for time. If you wish to submit questions to our pastors following their sermon, you can email them to podcast at faith, live it out.org or text them into our faith church texting number, and we'll do our best to cover it in the week's episode. If this conversation blessed you in any way, we encourage you to share with others. Thanks for listening.

We'll be back again next week.