You're listening to audio from Faith Church, located on the north side of Indianapolis. If you'd like to check out more information about our church and ministry, you can find us at faithchurchindy.com. Now, here's the teaching. Good morning. Welcome everyone.

I'm Jeff, one of the pastors here at Faith. We are continuing in our series in the book of acts, which is kind of a theological history of the church, the first followers of Jesus, and the story of how God works through his people to spread the good news of Jesus to the ends of the earth. We are coming sort of towards the end of what we could call the 3rd missionary journey of the Apostle Paul. Back in the beginning or middle of Acts 18, Paul had started out in Antioch, kind of his home base in Syria, and went up the coast into the key city of Ephesus on the western edge of modern day Turkey, strengthening churches along the way. And he spent 2 years in Ephesus, teaching and working and and seeing people come to faith.

But now once again, an uproar has been generated, and Paul has to flee town just ahead of an angry crowd. And that's where we come in our passage today to the beginning of acts chapter 20. Have you ever been in a situation where you wondered, how did I get here? Because that can mean a couple of things. It can be a positive thing.

It can be a negative thing. Right? My wife, Amelia's parents, for their 50th anniversary, decided that, instead of spending money to rent a banquet hall and eat rubber chicken with a 100 people, they would help fund a family trip to spend a week at a villa in Tuscany in Italy. Pretty nice deal for us. Right?

So Amelia and I took advantage of the trip to, go a few days early with our 4 kids to roam and see the sites for the children, a trip that kinda makes you go, wow. How did I end up here? Well, 4 kids and a small church pastor salary met, we stayed in kind of an old smaller hotel near the train terminal. And, Rome, in June can be hot and uncomfortable, and it was. And, when the kids discovered that the hotel did not have air conditioning, they began to wonder if Italy was a third world country.

And then when we started going on public transportation to visit some of the sites and museums and discovered that, Italians don't necessarily bathe or use deodorant as much as Americans. They were convinced that was a third world country. And I'm sure they were asking, how did we end up here? Because they told us that and asked things like, when can we go home? Well, we'd heard from friends that one of the best ways to see the Colosseum was to book a guided tour in advance.

You miss all the lines, you get all the details about the history and the architecture. Now this was not an inexpensive, trip. It was, I think, about 80 or €90 per person. So for the 6 of us, we had, like, 6 or $700 invested in this. And I had printed out the map beforehand of how to get from our hotel to the Colosseum, which was only about 8, 10 blocks away.

But it was a lot of windy twisting streets. We didn't have, data on our phones in Europe, and so it was going off one of those little printed tourist maps, and it looked pretty straightforward. We go around this church and then we head on this little street, and not long into the journey, I look around with that feeling kind of like Gandalf in the minds of Maria in, The Fellowship of the Ring. I have no knowledge of this place. It's not what your wife wants to hear.

When we're supposed to be the Colosseum in 20 minutes, and there's 6 or $700 of tickets riding on the line, and she's wondering how did I end up here with this guy in charge of the tour? Well, we had to make some u turns and go back and backtrack a little bit and start over again. And we got there in plenty of time, and and the Colosseum tour all worked out great. But it has a bit of an echo, that experience of wondering, how did I get here and what is going on with what's happening in this passage that we're looking at today? And I think one of the things that God wants us to see is this, that God grows his people through all the twists and turns.

God grows his people through all those twists and turns and detours and backtracking that that we don't want. Right? Because we have an objective, and we know what we're trying to accomplish. And I would really like a clear straight path. A map that's easy to follow, that shows me exactly where I'm supposed to go, what I'm gonna encounter on the way, so I can plan in advance, and I know what I need to know, and it'll make everything will make sense, right, because I'll see this landmark and then this thing, and, and I'm looking for that, and, and it all fits together, right?

And I'd like to be able to choose the people that I go on that journey with. Now, I don't know if you've noticed, but God almost never does it that way. Right? We start out with a plan, maybe an idea, maybe a hope, and we think things will go one way and almost invariably, God does something different with what He brings into our lives. Now, we here at faith tend to, have this really positive habit of spending time digging deeply into the text of God's word.

And that's fantastic. But one of the possible downsides of that is that we end up losing a little bit of the the flow and the energy and the pace of what's happening. 2 weeks ago, when we're in the middle of acts 19, God's spirit is moving so powerfully. Sick people are being healed. Demons are being cast out, and some Jewish exorcists wanna get in on the deal and think that they can cast out people using Jesus' name as like a magic charm, but, it it backfires on them.

And this leads though to more people coming to faith in Jesus so much so that it starts to hurt the trade, the business of the silversmiths who made the idols for the worship of Artemis in the city. And last week, Tom Waltz did a fantastic job taking us through this long, exciting, you know, energizing narrative in the end of chapter 19, where, Paul had said he's intending to go back to Jerusalem for the feast of the unleavened bread. He's gonna go back through Macedonia and and Greece and visit the churches there. But before he can do that, the silversmith gets everyone in the city wound up about the threat that these Christians are posing to their business and to their identity and their prosperity as the center of Artemis worship. The whole city ends up in an uproar in the theater, and Paul, once again, has to flee for his life.

But God grows us through the twists and the turns. And that's where we come in the beginning of chapter 20 in this passage. If you haven't already, you can turn in, one your phone, whatever you use to access your Bible, your Acts scripture journal. It's, page 1104 of the black Bibles in front of you. Acts chapter 20.

So after this upward cease, verse 1, Paul sent for the disciples and after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia. And when he'd gone through those regions and given them much encouragement, he came to Greece where he spent 3 months. So Paul starts again on the western coast of Turkey. He heads up across the top of the Aegean. He goes into Macedonia, Northern Greece, and and he's visiting, the young churches that he's planted there in places like Thessalonica and and Philippi and Berea, and then he heads down to Greece or Ikea, your version may say.

Probably ended up in Corinth. And then he plans to head back to Jerusalem, but just as he's about to set sail in verse 3, a plot was made against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, and so he decided to return through Macedonia. So he's he's down in central Greece, and he's getting ready to sail, quick trip to Jerusalem to be with his friends, his brothers and sisters, the community of god's people to celebrate the Passover, to celebrate Jesus' resurrection. Sounds like a perfectly great thing. A perfectly good thing to desire, except God says no.

And Paul must have been wondering, I would be wondering at least, God, why? Why? In 2nd Corinthians, when when he writes again to this church in Corinth, he shares some of what following Jesus has been like for him. Five times I received from the Jews 40 lashes minus 1. Three times, I was beaten with rods.

Once, I was pelted with stones. Three times, I was shipwrecked. I spent a day and a night in the open sea. I've been constantly on the move. I've been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in the country, at sea, in danger from false believers.

Did Paul ever wonder like we do sometimes, God, when is it gonna get normal? When is it just gonna go smooth and make sense and and and not be so crazy and unpredictable? And yet through all those trials, through all the twists and turns, god is growing Paul and growing other people through him. See, because of this plot to kill him, Paul has to adjust his plans to sail back directly to Jerusalem. And instead, he goes back through Macedonia and ends up celebrating the Festival of Unleavened Bread or the Passover with the believers there.

And he spends 3 months encouraging them, building into them, spending extended time in Macedonia, teaching them and and praying with them and training them. Paul had had been intending to go that way on his departure from Ephesus, but, you know, this plot interrupted everything, which rushed him out of town. But now the exact opposite is happening because now there's another plot against his life, and now everything is slowed down. And yet out of that, the believers in Macedonia get the benefit of Paul being there with them for an extended period of time. That's why he decides in the end of verse 3 to return through Macedonia.

Well, if if god's not gonna let me head back to Jerusalem to be where I want with the people I want, I guess I can take this, and God will do something with it. Everything that we're gonna see here now through the end of chapter 21 happens because of another set of twists and turns that God is orchestrating. Everything that we're gonna be looking at in the coming weeks, this lengthy farewell to the elders in Ephesus, the the the tearful reunions and and, messages of wisdom and encouragement and direction, final visits between Paul and and the people that he's invested in. All of this happens because god interrupts Paul's plans and sends him on a twisting, turning journey to something he hadn't intended. God does that.

He'll he'll bring good out of the unexpected, unwanted directions that our lives take. Some of you may have heard of or be familiar with Joni Erickson Tada. She recently celebrated, 75th birthday. When she was a teenager in the 19 sixties, she was an athletic young woman and was out swimming in Chesapeake Bay, took a dive into what she did not know was shallow water, and bent her neck backwards, and became paralyzed in her teenage years from the neck down. She'd been a follower of Jesus, but this has sent her into a season of anger, and withdrawal, and bitterness, until finally through people praying for her, and meeting with her, encouraging her, she she began to realize her life hadn't ended.

It was just different. She learned how to paint by holding a toothbrush in her mouth, and started speaking about what God was doing in her life. And that led her to starting a ministry to support, the rights of disabled persons, and a ministry speaking around the world to share the good news of Jesus, and the hope that he has brought into her life from that wheelchair. To the point where now after being paralyzed for almost 60 years of her life, Johnny has said repeatedly, I thank God for my wheelchair. Because it's been the place that He has given me to minister to people and to see people that I wouldn't have seen.

Have you been able to look back at your life and see how you've grown through some of the twists and turns that God has brought to you? Because if you can, that can give you encouragement in the uncertain, difficult, confusing place that he may have you in right now. If he's been able to take the the twists and turns to grow you, to strengthen you, to encourage you, that means that what you're in right now as a place that you may not wanna be, hopefully, you'll get to a point down the road where you can look back and say, okay. I didn't want that. I didn't choose it, but, god, I'm gonna trust it that you could use that.

Because if you have been able to see that, you can probably see how god has used what he's taken you through to encourage and strengthen and build up other people through what you've gone through, just like Paul is able to do here. Sometimes you have to look back to actually make sense of where you are now Because you might not be able to make sense of where you are right now, but seeing how God has been faithful in the past, how he's grown you through the twists and the turns can help you with the place you're in right now. See, we have the benefit of hindsight over Paul's life. Right? We get the story of what God ended up doing through all this.

Look back at his trials and his travels and and see what God did through. Do you ever wonder if it made sense to Paul at the time though? God, I I I just wanted to go to Jerusalem and and worship you with the church there to celebrate Jesus' resurrection. Why is that not the thing? There's an encouragement here to us in the things that don't make sense, that that seemed like no good can come from it, that God can actually grow me and grow others through the twists and turns of my life.

But then God also grows His church through the twists and the turns. So this journey that Paul is on starts in Ephesus on the West Coast of Turkey. We said he travels up to Macedonia, down through Greece, probably ending up in Corinth. At this point, he's traveled, probably about a 1000 miles, mostly on foot on this missionary journey that has now extended to about 4 years since he first left Antioch just a chapter and a half ago. Looking back in the middle of chapter 19, remember Paul has said, I I really wanna get back to Jerusalem.

I wanna build up the churches, but but I wanna get back there and and celebrate the Passover. And and just as he's about to do that, this plot comes up that keeps him not only from being where he wanted to be, but from being with the people that he wanted to be with. But look at what God does instead. He provides a community for Paul in the place of the one that he couldn't be with. And that's this list of these people in verses 45.

So Peter the Berean, and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus, and Secundus, and Gaius of Derby, and Timothy, and of the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus. Now why does Luke include these people here? I think it's meant to show us remind us, encourage us to look backwards to the the places that these people have come from because it's significant in what God has been doing. Aristarchus and Secundus from Thesalonica. You remember in in Thessalonica, Paul preached in the synagogue, some Jews and some Gentiles became believers, but an angry mob starts a riot and drives him out of the city by force.

They have to flee for their lives to Berea, where they probably met this so pater. Now in Berea, the the text tells us the Jews were more noble or or more thoughtful. They they were more intent to have open hearts to search the scriptures and see if what Paul said was true about Jesus. And many of them come to faith in Christ. But when the people in Thessalonica hear about it, guess what they do?

They go to Berea, stir up the mob, and once again, he has to flee. And then Gaius from Derby and Timothy, all the way back in chapter 13. Paul and Barnabas had fled from angry crowds in Iconium and from people who tried to worship them as gods in Lystra and ended up in Derby where they're able to start a new church in in central modern day Turkey. And then Tychicus, Tychicus, and Trophimus from Asia. Asia was a large province in about the western one third of Asia Minor that included Ephesus, the city that Paul has just left.

What is the point of all this? This group represents almost all of Paul's missionary work for the last 10 years. That's what we're supposed to see here. Paul has traveled over much of the eastern half of the Roman Empire, and and as he has shared the good news of Jesus, many people have opposed him, but many people have also responded. And god has helped him plant churches, little communities of Jesus followers, congregations that have now grown to the point where they have leaders that they can send to partner in the work that god is doing through Paul.

And almost every one of these friends and coworkers represent cities where Paul faced opposition, threats, and danger. The places that are mentioned here were the twists and the turns in Paul's journey that god is working in to grow his church. The seeds that Paul planted of the good news of Jesus have grown up, and and now there's there's fruit from them. I I think there's several things here to to notice. There there's a message here about the growth and the unity of the church.

I mean, think about this. This movement that started in Palestine is now drawing together Christian leaders from Asia minor, from both sides of the Aegean Sea, from Northern and Southern Greece, and yet there's this sense that they understand they all belong to 1 church, and they're all united on one mission. And and they're showing the the evidence that God is actually at work as he's speaking and working through us. All of these people were in one sense, the the targets, the recipients of Paul's missionary work, and now they become the agents, the sharers of that work. It's amazing.

These are people who were lost and didn't had no hope in the world, and now they're becoming the people that are passing the message of Jesus on. And it shows us the mission mindedness of these early Christian communities. They gave up some of their best local leadership to to the wider work of god's message going around the world as they knew it. I encourage you all again to come after this service to the mezzanine, to the lunch, to hear Kathy Small and some of her story. And Kathy came here to Faith Church, 40 or more almost 40 years ago, who's been a missionary vocational missionary now for 30 years, but she started in Venezuela, then went to Peru, and now is in Guatemala.

And I can guarantee you that Kathy would say, I did not expect my life to go in that direction at all. Right? Like, from Indianapolis to Venezuela to Peru to Guatemala, and every one of those transitions was a difficult goodbye. It it many of them were ones that she wouldn't have necessarily chosen herself. And yet now, she can look back and see the impact that that her following Jesus has had in equipping followers of Christ and church leaders in Central America in ways that she could never have imagined 35 years ago, an impact that she never would have had in Indianapolis.

But that work doesn't happen alone. Right? That the work that Kathy does, the impact that she's having is because of the people here in another churches who support her. That means as as we partner with Kathy and others, we get to be part like these men of taking God's message and his work to people in places that we may never get to meet ourselves. 35 years ago, I would not have dreamed that I would be a pastor in Indianapolis, But I also couldn't have imagined the impact that that God, by his grace, would have through me in people's lives in Missouri and Indiana and Italy and Lebanon and and other places around the world.

You know, it's been said, you go faster if you go alone, but you go farther if you grow go together. You go faster if you go alone, but you go farther if you go together. And God brings us together to take the message of Jesus as far as possible, and we get to be a part of that work. And the interesting thing is from these guys here in acts chapter 20, and sometimes the companions we need are not the ones we would choose for ourselves. And like we can look around at each other in the church, myself included, and go like, I wouldn't have chosen him to be up there, or I wouldn't have chosen you, or I'd rather have that person on my team, or I'm not sure what part of the body of Christ you are.

But God puts us together for the sake of taking the message of Jesus and impacting all the places where he sends us. Paul has been with Barnabas, remember? And then they had a falling out over John Mark, and now he's been traveling with Silas and Luke, and and now there's another group of people traveling with him. And I think that's also telling us that the names and the locations change, but the mission keeps going forward. Somebody handed you the message of Jesus, the good news of His sacrificial death, and His resurrection, and His new life.

And if you've responded to it, you now are part of the mission to take that out and hand it off to someone else who will then hand it off to other people. And the names and the locations will change, but we're part of the mission together, and we need each other to carry that mission out. That's what's happening here. My job is to trust God in all the twists and the turns that he brings in my life and all the people that I can impact along the way, just like Paul is modeling for us here, wherever he has me in the journey. Now, if you're like me, you probably had seasons maybe throughout your year of questioning your purpose or your calling or what God is doing because it's hard, because it just doesn't make any sense.

It might be natural for for Paul to consider, am am I on the right track here? I mean, I thought this was the thing you wanted me to do. I thought you wanted me to go over here, but it just doors keep slamming, and yet all along the way, in all those twists and turns, god has been working. And these guys here in verses 45, they're the evidence that god has been working in all the crazy, difficult, dangerous facing opposition, stuff that Paul never would have anticipated or planned or asked for. God's been working, and, oh, that is such an encouragement for us in, in all the crazy, difficult twists and turns that your life has taken and, and all the things that you're maybe in right now that it's hard to make sense of.

These guys are the evidence and the confirmation that God is at work in all those twists and turns to grow us and to grow His church. God reaches us to reach others. So maybe just a couple of questions for us to to think about as we close. Am I a person who is like Paul here, enabling, equipping, encouraging others to stay on track with Jesus and look for the people that that we can be reaching wherever God has us. To not worry so much, about the the details of all the things that God is doing, but to say, okay.

Wherever he has me, he has me there for a reason, and there are people that I can reach through that. And who are the people in your life who are encouraging and strengthening and and cheering you on to keep following Jesus and be used by Him where He has you, because we all need that. That's part of the reason He brings us together, to be the people for one another, who cheer each other on, who support each other, who are praying for each other, and who are saying, man, I don't know what God is doing in that thing in your life, but I know it's not an accident. And He's gonna do something in that weird twisty turning difficult painful thing that you wouldn't have chosen. If you've lived long very much at all, your life is full of lots of twists and turns, and u turns, and dead ends, and closed doors, and things that don't make sense.

It can be easy to question whether God knows what He's doing. This is Paul's word to us. God's word to us, He does, and we can trust Him. Not just because we're following the pattern of Paul, but we're following the pattern of Jesus who came and left all the glory and all the beauty and all the worship of heaven to enter into all the crazy broken mess of our world. One of the interesting things to look at if you go through the gospels is notice how much of Jesus' ministry happened out of being interrupted in the middle of doing something else, and what ends up happening as a result.

Jesus is constantly being interrupted, and having His plans that to go over here get stopped, and then this suddenly becomes the thing that He's doing, the person he needs to engage with. That's what our lives are. God grows His people through all the twists and turns, and we can trust Him in that. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the, encouragement of this message to us, about our own lives and about how you're at work in all of it.

And, Jesus, I pray that nobody hears this as downplaying or making light of the very real painful difficulties that some of us are going through grief and loss and questioning. Thank you that you invite us to bring those questions to you and and trust you in them. And thank you for the hope that you are at work in us and through us to do good in all the questions and the twists and the turns. Strengthen us, encourage us, grow us in good ways, Jesus, and all the unknowns, and use us where you have us to show more people Jesus. We pray in his name.

Amen.