Pressing on Toward the Finish

Right now, find your message notes as we wrap up the series. We've been in for the last month called "An Unexpected Journey," and if you're joining us in venue or online, welcome. We're so glad you're with us here as well. But we've been following the Apostle Paul's epic ocean journey that's related in the book of Acts, and today we're gonna see what the last leg of that journey teaches us about pressing on toward the finish.

There's a saying that goes like this... "Life is all about the journey." Hear that before? "Life is all about the journey, man." Well, there's an element of truth to all that, but life is also about the destination. Don't get me wrong. I want to enjoy the journey, each step of it, but I also want to arrive at my intended destination safe and sound, don't you? Yeah.

Well, let me give you a fun example of this. There's a guy here that lives locally named Ron Fugelseth. He made an incredible video that's a great video for Father's Day, one of the best I've ever seen. Ron's wife, Christie, was my son's kindergarten teacher here at Twin Lakes Christian School, and they have a son named Jaden, and Jaden has a special relationship with one of those little Thomas the Tank Engine toys, a little locomotive named Stanley, and it's kind of like Calvin is to Hobbes. That's Jaden to Stanley, which made it all the more dramatic when Ron came to Jaden one day and said, "Hey, how about we send Stanley to space?" I mean, really? Quite an adventure, wouldn't you think?

Well, Jaden has no idea how his dad is going to pull this off, but he must be thinking, "Well, he's my dad, so what's there to worry about?" Well, you might have seen this because it went completely viral on YouTube, but even if you have, it's worth watching again here, especially on Father's Day. Enjoy this.

How awesome is that? I mean, that is such a cool father-son moment, and I have to admit, the first time I watched that, my response was like, "Man, I've never done anything remotely that cool with any of my boys." Such a loser. But that's not the point. Neither is the response when I showed this at a men's retreat recently because as soon as the lights came up, there's a guy standing in the back room with his hand up like this. I wasn't expecting a Q&A to follow the video, but I say, "Yes, sir, do you have a question?" He says, "Uh, yeah, did he get FAA approval for that?" Glad you got caught up in the wonder of it all.

So, yes, just in case you're being tortured by the very same question, he got FAA approval, and for the record, Stanley's facial expressions weren't actually real. Everything else was, though, and all this to say, what a cool metaphor for what we've been seeing in Paul's journey. Because no matter where the journey takes him, no matter how scary it gets, the Father is always in control.

Today we're going to see how God brings Paul in for a safe landing with his arrival at Rome. Last week we saw how after being tossed around on the ocean for two weeks, Paul's ship runs aground on a sandbar, and they're right in the surf zone. So the waves -- huge storm waves are crashing over the back of the ship. It's coming apart. Passengers who can't swim literally ride planks and pieces of the ship to the beach, and all 27 of them survive. It's spectacular. But now what? I mean, on one hand, they have to be thrilled that they're all alive, but on the other hand, they've got no food, no means of transportation. They don't even know where they are. They're wet, cold, beat up. Oh, and one more thing. This turns out to be Paul's fourth shipwreck. No joke. Number four. He writes in 2 Corinthians 11 that he had been through three shipwrecks. Well, that was before this episode of his life.

So Paul's got to be thinking to himself, you know, "Is there something about me? Am I cursed?" I mean, if I was one of Paul's friends and we had to go somewhere, you know, on a ship, I'd say, "Paul, you need to get your own boat, okay? We are not traveling together." It reminds me of that guy named Roy Sullivan. He just passed away a few years ago. Holds the record for being struck by lightning seven times in his life. You can see the hole in his hat that he's holding onto right there. But every time there was a thunderstorm, you have to imagine his friends and family, they just, like, scatter, right? Like, "Get away from the human lightning rod!" And after four shipwrecks -- I mean, would you want to go on a ship with Paul? Not me.

And he's just as human as you are, or I am. It's got to be pretty hard to pick yourself up and press on. Every time you take two steps forward, you end up getting knocked three steps back. It's no wonder that Paul writes about weakness more than any other author in the New Testament by far. There's not even a close comparison. It's no coincidence that Paul is the one that God will say, "My power is perfected in weakness," because Paul had a lot of firsthand experience with weakness. But he also had a lot of firsthand experience with receiving strength. And we're going to get a glimpse of that today.

My prayer is that you will receive strength for the journey that you're on, strength to press on, and what God does for Paul, he will do for us. And so this is completely applicable for us. This is stuff that's going to serve you guys well over the course of your summer at Hammer and here, because you will need strength for that journey, I guarantee you.

So let's look at three ways that God strengthens us. And the first goes like this. "I will receive strength to press on when God brings purpose out of my pain." Write that down. Purpose out of my pain. I'm going to camp out on this first point the longest because Paul's entire journey has basically been one painful experience after the next. But when you can see a larger purpose being achieved, it will actually strengthen you.

Now, watch how God does this, picking up the story at the beginning of Acts 28. If you want to find that in your Bibles, that would be great. Acts 28, starting at verse 1. "Once safely on shore, we found out that the island was called Malta. The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold." This picture on the screen is what is called St. Paul's Bay in current-day Malta. It's where he's obviously believed to have landed. And Malta was named by Phoenician sailors. It means refuge, a place of refuge. And the islanders, apparently they want to kind of keep up this reputation because they're so hospitable, they even build this huge bonfire for Paul and all his shipmates. And so, so far, so good.

Then, ever willing to be of help in verse 3, "Paul gathered a pile of brushwood, and as he put it on the fire, a viper driven out by the heat fastened itself on his hand." And you're like, "Are you serious?" Paul has like two minutes to enjoy the warmth of this fire and then this snake, you know, woken up by the warmth, latches onto his hand. And I love how Luke describes this in such clinical terms. He's a doctor, and you kind of do this when you're not the one being bitten, you know? He even uses a medical term in Greek to describe how the snake fastened itself. If it was Luke's hand, you could be sure that the language would be a lot more colorful.

My boys both have snakes, and most of the time they're very docile, but when it comes to feeding time, the snakes get a little bit -- they get kind of amped up and aggressive. And my son, Luke's snake, it's only about a foot and a half long, totally harmless, but it still just creeps me out when that little thing's like striking, thinking that my finger is a mouse or something like that. And here's Paul, poor guy, after all he's been through with a snake fastened to his hand, pumping venom into him, verses 4 through 5. "When the islander saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, 'This man must be a murderer, for though he escaped from the sea, the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live.' But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects." Now, how studly is that, guys? Just shakes it off into the fire like no big deal.

He's like, "Hey, man, I've been through four shipwrecks. This lousy snake isn't going to ruin my day." And I imagine Paul, in this moment, he kind of reminds me of Clint Eastwood, like in those spaghetti westerns. I remember one of those movies, "Outlaw Josie Wales." I saw this when I was like 13 years old, and Clint Eastwood, he's in a saloon and he spits tobacco juice and it hits a cockroach going across the floor. I thought that was the coolest thing in the world, almost took up, you know, chewing tobacco after that. But I imagine Paul just kind of going, "Spits on the snake as it hits the flames." And he's like, "Now, where were we?"

Verse 6. "The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead, but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their mind and said, 'He was a god.' In one minute they think he's a murderer, the next, he's a god." But this is the kind of superstition that these islanders were operating under. And it's actually quite oppressive because you're always worried about when karma is going to take you out to the woodshed, you know what I mean? And all your mistakes are just going to pile on top of you. You know, what goes around comes around, everybody gets what they deserve, period. You having a tough time? Well, too bad it's your fault. That's not what the Bible says.

The Bible says that we live in a world broken and corrupted by sin, which means that bad things happen to everyone. Everyone. And sometimes Christians can fall into the same kind of superstition where you're going through a trial in life and you start thinking, well, you know, God must be mad at me. This must be payback for that thing that I did in my past. Well, if that's true, God must have been furious at Paul because look at his life and all his sufferings. Bad things happen to everyone because we live in a broken world, but we also have a God who loves us, a God of grace who Jesus said is kind even to the wicked and the ungrateful.

So not only do bad things happen to everyone, well, good things happen to everyone too, even bad people, including us. Because we didn't deserve God's grace, we certainly didn't deserve Jesus to come and die for our sins. That's why it's called grace. Watch how God uses this because he takes the pain of the shipwreck and the pain of the snake bite and he positions Paul to share, to begin sharing about his goodness and his grace and the hope of Jesus to the people on Malta because he immediately makes Paul a sensation, doesn't he? He gives him an instant audience.

And if that's not enough, look what God does next. Verses 7 through 9. There was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius, the chief official of the island. He welcomed us to his home and showed us generous hospitality for three days. His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him and after prayer placed his hands on him and healed him. When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured. So here it is. Through their pain, through Paul's pain, through the pain of the people, God brings them together and gives Paul this amazing ministry where he's praying for people and people are getting healed.

And all along you have to believe that Paul is telling them about Jesus because if Paul is about anything, he just lives and breathes the message of Jesus Christ. So I imagine Paul is saying to them, "You know, I actually can't heal you, but let me tell you about the one who does." Who is Paul? See where it says, "The rest of the sick on the island came and were cured." The word "cured" there is the word that we get our word "therapy" from. And it has the implication of taking care of someone over the course of time, ministering to their needs, serving them. So I imagine Paul and Eris Starkis -- we heard about him the first week, a fellow missionary -- they're praying for people. They're attending to their needs. They're spending time with them. And I have to think that Dr. Luke is there applying his medical skills as well, and God gives them tremendous success.

And why would God do that? Well, because these guys aren't going to be on Malta very long. God's going to make the most of this opportunity. Who knows how long it's going to be until another Christian leader arrives at their shores. And if Paul's journey had been one big, smooth ride, none of this would happen. They never would have even set foot on Malta, but God leverages their pain. But there's a key step in all of this, because if God is going to bring purpose out of my pain, I've got to be willing to serve. I've got to be willing to serve because Paul and his companions, they didn't retreat to some cave after their shipwreck. They plunged into service, and that's where the joy was. That's where the payoff happened.

I mean, can you imagine them at the end of the day, they've seen people healed, they're sharing about Jesus, they look at each other and say, "Wow, imagine if we had never been shipwrecked on this island." All these people who've never heard of Jesus, all these people that had these needs, these hurts in their lives, none of this would have happened. And not to minimize the real-life pains that we all experience. But I'll give you an example of how God redeems our pain. When we were in Japan, here this last spring, had the opportunity to go there, and we met a missionary couple, Mark and Mary Esther Penner, a lovely couple, and Mark and Mary Esther have a son who has severe disabilities. He's been in a wheelchair his entire life.

But out of their pain, Mary Esther started a ministry called Wheelchairs of Hope. So along with my wife, Laura, our kids, Jessica Bristol, our junior high pastor, and a 16-year-old girl in this church, Rachel Perez, we -- part of our service was to spend a day at Wheelchairs of Hope, and we're working on these wheelchairs. They're old and donated, and we're just making them sparkle as best we can, just tricking them out so that they're just beautiful, and then they get wrapped up and shipped into areas of Asia where people have no hope of ever receiving a wheelchair except for something like this. Totally out of reach, people who would otherwise drag themselves on the ground for their entire life are fitted with a wheelchair and it transforms their lives, and not only that, the people you see on the screen here right now, there's about 50 Japanese people from around the Tokyo area. Some would drive an hour and a half to come and volunteer. Most of them didn't go to church. Most of them were Christians, but they were being introduced to the way of Jesus through this spectacular ministry.

Now, that doesn't take away Mark and Mary Esther's pain, but that same pain has motivated them to reach out to other people, and now thousands of lives are being touched and blessed because of their willingness to serve, and this gives them no small amount of strength. Same thing's true for us. Rick Warren put it this way. Now, listen, this is great. He says, "Other people are going to find healing in your wounds. Your greatest life messages and your most effective ministry will come out of your deepest hurts." And I'm sure that with the tragic loss of their son just two months ago, Rick and his wife Kay are living these words more than ever before. But I'm also confident that God is strengthening them, attending to their needs in a way that only God can do and that amazing things will come out of this, and that they, like each of us, will be strengthened in this way, and they'll also be strengthened when God brings encouragement in unexpected places, encouragement in unexpected places.

And if you've ever been shipwrecked in life, you know what this looks like. Because Paul and his companions, they never expected to end up on Malta. But storm, shipwreck, and snake bite notwithstanding, it turned out to be one of the largest blessings in Paul's entire life and ministry. Right here, this is one of the highlights in the book of Acts, this time they spend on Malta. So continuing at verse 10, "They honored us in many ways, and when we were ready to sail, they furnished us with the supplies we needed." Now, Luke doesn't tell us how they honored him. He just says they honored us in many ways. Like, man, they just pulled out all the stops, everything they could do. They did.

And I think I might have had a little taste of this a couple years ago. Some of you might know a man who used to be in this church named Ben Morata. Ben is a pastor from the Philippines, and he's actually gone back to the Philippines to pastor a church that he planted there several years ago. Pastor Ben is one of the warmest individuals you will ever meet in life, and he never lacks for energy, even though now he's 85 or older. But when Ben turned 80 years old, I was invited to go to his birthday party, and it was on a Saturday night on a busy weekend, I thought to myself, "Well, I'll just stop by for 30, 40 minutes and make an appearance, say hello, wish Ben a happy birthday."

Well, I don't know a whole lot about Filipino culture, but I know this much. They really know how to throw a party. Amen, indeed, man. They spent the first 30 or 40 minutes just welcoming me. I mean, it's incredible. The hospitality was something like I never experienced. Ben takes me around personally, introduces me to every single person there like, "I'm the guest of honor. It's his 80th birthday." Then he grabs a plate and he takes me over to the table, and this is amazing because there's different kinds of fish, chicken, beef, and an entire pig. I mean, there's seriously like 15 different entrees, and I'm trying to get a sample of each one of the things because it's just -- it's amazing.

And I get over by the pig, and Ben saddles up next to me and goes, "Oh, Pastor Mark, we have a very special part of the pig for you." Yeah, don't get ahead of me. And I'm looking at the shoulder, it looks kind of like carnitas or pulled pork or something like that, and in this Filipino woman, she swoops in and she cuts this little slice of skin off the back, right off the very back, and it's just kind of a piece of skin with a layer of fat on the other side, and lays it on my plate, and I'm thinking to myself, "Oh, you've honored me far too much." "I am not worthy of this." It's Ben's birthday, after all, but while in Rome, you know, you eat what you're offered, and I have to say, that was one of the most delicious skin slices that I've ever tasted. No, seriously, it was quite amazing.

I don't know, three and a half hours later, I'm leaving. Ben is loading me up with food and gifts. He's like, "Here, this is for Laura. Here, this is for your kids. Oh, they'll probably want to eat this too." It was incredible. I never felt like such an honored guest in my life. It wasn't even my party. It was crazy. And that's pretty much how Paul leaves Malta honored, fully furnished. He has everything he needs as well as the others. But the encouragement doesn't stop there, picking up at verse 11. "After three months we put out to sea. We put in at Syracuse and stayed there three days. From there we set sail and arrived at Regium. The next day, the south wind came up, and on the following day we reached Putioli. There we found some brothers and sisters who invited us to spend a week with them."

So they reached Putioli, which, by the way, if Laura and I have another son, we're going to name them Putioli. But it looks as they go there and they find some Christians there. They didn't even know about these people. They just find them, and those Christians invite them to stay with them for a week. And who knows what they did, but probably looked like a birthday party at Pastor Ben's house. It was just this incredible week. And it's totally unexpected. But deeply encouraging. And then Luke says verse 14, "And so we came to Rome." Yay. They finally made it. "The brothers and sisters there had heard that we were coming, and they traveled as far as the forum of Apias and the three taverns to meet us. At the sight of these people, Paul thanked God and was encouraged. I bet he was."

Now, I want you to check out this map of Paul's journey. We saw this the first week, but they start over there on the right side at Caesarea, and they work their way, you know, right to left on our map here, or towards the west. And they have very difficult travel as they go along the coast there of Asia Minor, and then they make it finally to Fair Haven's at Crete just barely, and then they try to go a little bit further to Phoenix, and that's when the storm catches them, blows them into the central Mediterranean for two whole weeks, they end up on Malta, which is 474 miles away from Fair Haven's. That's a distance from San Francisco to Tijuana, and after three months, three lovely months on Malta, it's like they practically sail downhill to Italy.

They make excellent time, no mishaps, and when they get to the forum of Apias, a welcome party starts to form. Now, the forum of Apias is 43 mile walk from Rome. These people came 43 miles on foot. Three taverns is a 33-mile walk, and who would think that a prisoner like Paul, who's a nobody in this world, enters Rome with his own parade, like a conquering hero. I mean, no wonder he's encouraged. But again, there's a key step because if God is going to bring encouragement in unexpected places, I've got to be willing to go to some of those places. I've got to be willing to step out where God leads me, whether it's across the street to reach out to a neighbor or across the globe. The adventure doesn't begin until I go outside my regular route.

And I'll admit, I'm a homebody. Left to my own devices, my radius would be about between here and Corralitas. That's about as far as I would venture. But I have to say, that trip to Japan, that was one of the highlights of this year. I mean, it was -- there were so many amazing moments. And then a week after we get back, again, uncharacteristic of me, we're back for five days. Jack, my son, and I are down to Mexico for another week, and we're down there with the middle schoolers from Tulane Christian School and from Baymont and all the parents, and we're going to spend a week there working at an orphanage, and down there, I get to hear my son, Jack, share his faith in Spanish on two occasions to complete strangers.

And to appreciate how profoundly encouraging this was to me, you have to understand that I never assumed that just because I'm a pastor, my children would just automatically embrace Jesus. In fact, I have to confess that I even had a fear when I became a father that my career in ministry would be detrimental to their faith because I've seen it happen. It's not that far-fetched where pastors' kids say, "No, thanks to church," because, you know, they get to see the underbelly of church. They see the good, the bad, and the ugly. But thanks in part, in large part, to the amazing environment you all create here, my kids feel blessed. And when they feel blessed, their mom and dad feel blessed and encouraged as well. So thank you.

But to hear my son talk about his relationship with Jesus, not mine, his, I tell you, as a father, it doesn't get any better than that, pastor or not. That's just a huge gift. But when we take these little steps of faith and go where God sends us, we always end up receiving so much more than we can ever give, which brings us to the final point because you and I will receive strength to press on when God brings eternal rewards out of momentary trials.

If Paul's goal in life had been comfort, if it had been wealth, if it had been pleasure, then I guess we'd have to say that Paul's life was an abject factor because he enjoyed very little of any of those things. But Paul lived for something much bigger than all that, much more enduring. And you see the payoff here in the final verses of his story. When we got to Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself with a soldier to guard him. Now, these soldiers were literally chained to Paul. Paul would have a chain around his waist that would connect to a guard, and these guards would be on a four-hour rotation.

So every 24-hour period, Paul is chained to six different guards, and I don't know how the rotation worked, but you have to imagine over the course of the week, Paul might encounter a dozen, two dozen different guards that have chained duty with Paul. And what do you think, or rather who do you think, Paul would spend his time talking about to these guys? Can't you just hear him going, "Hey, son, ever been in a storm, so to speak, where you felt lost and adrift and scared? Let me tell you about what God did for me," and off he would go.

Final snapshot Luke gives of Paul's life is right at the very end of Acts 28, verses 30 and 31. "For two whole years, Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance." Now, listen, you don't have to be the apostle Paul, you don't have to be a pastor, you don't have to be a Bible teacher to simply tell people what Jesus has done in your life. I mean, just be willing to tell what he's done for you.

And Jesus says, "You'll be my witness," right? Well, witnesses, they just tell what they've seen. You know, it doesn't have to be elaborate, it doesn't have to be creative. In fact, in a court of law, a creative witness is not exactly what you want. You just want someone who will tell it like they see it. You can start by telling people how Jesus has brought purpose out of your pain. You can tell people how God has brought encouragement out of unexpected places. But if God is going to bring these eternal rewards out of our momentary trials, we're going to have a sense that he's doing that. We've got to be willing to do this last step, which is we need to be willing to tell people about what Jesus is doing in our lives.

And you're not going to see all the difference that it makes, but you will see some. Because every so often, God is going to give you a glimpse of the impact that you're making. And we get a little glimpse of that with Paul here. He gives a little bit of an epilogue, so to speak, because while Paul is in Rome, he writes a number of the letters that we have in our New Testament while he's in Rome there, chained to a guard. And one of them is the book of Philippians. And look what he says in chapter 1, verse 12 of Philippians. He says, "Now, I want you to know, brothers and sisters," and he's reflecting on all that's transpired, "I want you to know that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel." I mean, it's just like God to take all that and use it for his good, his eternal purposes.

Later in Philippians, amen and deed, he says this, "All God's people here," he's talking about fellow believers. "All God's people here send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar's household." Well, wow, it turns out that those guards and perhaps their family members, members of Caesar's own family, they're listening to those stories that Paul is telling about, you know, high seas and hardship and the hope that's found in Jesus Christ. It's all being told by Paul, who despite his chains, taught about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

Pretty amazing finish to Paul's unexpected journey, wouldn't you say? Well, whatever journey you're in right now, as a father, a mother, a spouse, a student, a person in their career working day in and day out trying to make ends meet, whatever area of life you're in, every journey has highs, great moments, and they have lows where we grieve and we wonder and we struggle. But wherever you are, remember, it's not just about the journey, it's about the destination. There's a finish that's in front of all of us.

And with this in mind, I'll leave you with this last story. Today, John Aquari is a father of six, so happy Father's Day, John Aquari. But back in 1968, he was a marathon runner chosen by his native country of Tanzania to run in the Olympics, which were held in Mexico City that year. During the race, there was some jockeying for position between the runners and Aquari tripped and badly injured his knee. It might have even dislocated. It's bloodied, he's in pain, but he refuses to give up. In fact, officials were about to hold the medal ceremony when they said Aquari was laboring to finish the race, and so the cameras pull away from the medal ceremony and they put their cameras on Aquari and it's dark and many people have left the stadium, but he refuses to quit, pressed on all the way to the finish, and when he crosses the finish line, reporters stick their microphones in his face and they say, "Why didn't you quit?"

And this is what he said, "My country didn't send me to Mexico City to start the race, they sent me to finish." What great words. They sent me to finish. Wherever you're at this morning, whether you feel bloodied and battered or you feel light on your feet and you're just loving every moment, remember this. Jesus doesn't enter our life just to start us in the race. He is going to see us all the way to the finish. So may you experience the strength that he offers, even when you find yourself in an unexpected journey. Would you pray with me?

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your goodness and your grace. And Lord, on this day that we honor all the dads, Lord, we also want to honor you. Thank you for being our good and loving Father who allows us to go places that we wouldn't take ourselves. And yet, Lord, you're with us every step of the way, and not only that, but in each moment each hardship, each joy, you're conforming us to be more and more like your son, Jesus Christ. You're raising your children in the ways of faith and godliness. You're training us in righteousness. And sometimes it's hard.

So, Lord, I pray for those who feel weak and weary this morning, who need to have a fresh dose of hope. Lord, I pray that by your Holy Spirit, by the power of your word, that, Lord, you would lift us up, that you would dust us off. And no matter how we started the race, whether we've tripped and fall over and over again, and we feel horrible about that, help us to remember your forgiveness. Help us to remember that, Lord, you put us in this race to finish it, and you will see us through. Give us the confidence, the courage, the boldness to press on and know that you will meet us and strengthen us every step of the way. Thank you, God, for your goodness and your grace. We pray this in the matchless name of Jesus Christ. And all God's people said, Amen.