This Was Your Life

Well, there are two different men here, two different portraits. Galil had prestige. He had wealth. He had connections.

He was on the first name, on a first name basis with the emperors. But from the perspective of time, we would all say this morning, in effect, he had nothing. He was passionate about the wrong things. He ignored the right things.

At this moment, ladies and gentlemen, Galil missed life. How would your life look as a reality TV show? Would it be worth watching? Would it be wholesome and God-honoring?

What would it reveal to others about you? It might be that it's time for God to rewrite your life's script. We're going to explore how that happens today. This is wisdom for the heart. This current series through the last chapters of Acts is from our Vintage Wisdom Archives.

Stephen Davey first delivered this series back in 1998. We're airing it again now as we examine the important events of the early church and its leaders. Today's message is called This Was Your Life. Peter Lynch, a former Fidelity Magellan fund manager, seven years ago uttered this quote that's become very famous. Nobody on his death bed ever said, I wish I'd spent more time at the office.

Right? You've heard that. Ever since his statement, anticipating one's dying sentiment has become a popular pastime. So this reporter asked, experienced executives and business people over 50 years of age, looking back, if you could change one thing, what would it be? What have you learned about life? Faith Wohl, one of DuPont's first women senior executives whose children are now grown said, quote, I wish I had gone to my daughter's sixth grade field day. Jay Michael Cook, a CEO said, I wish I had understood the importance of that Thursday afternoon soccer game.

But it was a given that you dedicated yourself to your job. First and foremost, Randall Tobias, a chairman and CEO of a major corporations said, quote, I can't remember or I can remember some blurry choices when my children were young when I may not have attended a play or a game because I had some conflicting business commitment. It's ironic, however, that 25 years later, I can remember the event I missed with my family and friends. But I can't remember the business activity that I did in its place. In fact, in some cases, I have to stop and remember where I was working at the time. Can you imagine coming to the end of your life and realizing that what you should have been concerned about you weren't?

What you should have done you didn't. What you were passionate about as your primary passion ends up in the light of your life as being less than truly significant. That's exactly what occurred in the life of a man who seemed to have it made. He appears briefly in the Book of Acts, and yet he teaches us the same profound lesson that we need to relearn and relearn again.

It's possible to make a living and miss life worth living. If you have your Bibles, our study through the Book of Acts brings us this morning to Chapter 18. If you were with us in our last discussion, we traveled with Paul to this pagan, immoral city.

We called it Sin City, the Sin City of Corinth. It was here, you remember, where Paul almost threw in the towel, discouraged, fearful. And maybe you remember the promise of the Lord that came to him in that night vision. Let's refresh our memory by starting again with verse 9. And the Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent. And we talked a little bit about the original construction that made it very clear that Paul was afraid. God is saying, stop being afraid. And he was contemplating being quiet.

He is saying, do not be silent. Verse 10, for I am with you and no man will attack you in order to harm you, at least in this city. For I have many people in this city. And he settled there a year and six months teaching the Word of God among them. Now, only two other times did Paul ever settle in a city like this and teach. So this is a remarkable turn of events for the apostle. He came to Corinth. He will write them later in his first epistle to the Corinthians and tell them, I came to you in much fear and trembling and weakness. Now, this ungodly city becomes the launching pad of a major campaign and one of the most effective churches in this part of Europe that we will read about with all their problems and all their troubles.

Still a dynamic church. Now, verse 12. But while the Leo was pro consul of IKEA, the Jews, with one accord, rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat, saying, This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law. But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gileo said to the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong or a vicious crime, oh, Jews, it would be reasonable for me to put up with you. But if there are questions about words and names and your own law, look after it yourselves. I am unwilling to be a judge of these matters.

And he drove them away from the judgment seat, and they all took hold of Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and began beating him in front of the judgment seat. And Gileo was not concerned about any of these things. Stop.

Whether Gileo knew it or not, at this moment he is an indifferent bystander regarding issues of life or death, heaven or hell, forgiveness or guilt, hope or despair. Maybe you've seen or read that advertisement that says, Image is what? Everything. And in our American culture, image is everything. Character is less than nothing.

The American culture today was no different than Roman culture then. Image was everything. And if image was everything, then Gileo had everything. He was the son of a prominent lawyer named Lucius Seneca. Gileo's two brothers would become well known. One of them took his father's name and was simply known as this philosopher's statesman, also in fact the tutor of Nero, just by the name that we know him, Seneca. He had another brother that was a famous poet named Mellas. These three young men were destined for greatness. And by Roman standards, all three of them achieved it. On May 1, 52 AD, Gileo is appointed by the emperor to be the highest political leader in Corinth.

This is an impressive commercial center. This is an impressive political appointment. This will look good on his resume, this two year term in Corinth. I'll go in, I'll pay my dues, I'll clock in, I'll do the things I'm supposed to do, and then it'll be bigger and better things for great Gileo. But what I want to point out to you here before we go any further is that Gileo may have been in a position of leadership, but in reality he was a follower. Two reasons why. Number one, Gileo was indifferent about opinions outside his politically correct environment.

Let me explain what I mean. In Gileo's day, Jews were unimportant. In fact, if you look back at verse two of the same chapter, Claudius, the emperor of Rome, has already kicked all of the Jews out of Rome. He was tired of the debating, the uprising, the trouble, and obviously there were troubles related to this Christ. In fact, one Roman historian talks about the uprisings in Rome because of this man Christos. And so he kicks all of the Jews out of Rome.

In this day, the general consensus, the general politically correct opinion was Jews were less than citizens. They were troublemakers. Ignore them. You could do without them.

Try to get them out of your life. Look back at the contempt with which Gileo treats them. Look back at verse 14. If it were a matter of wrong or of a vicious crime, O Jews, it would be reasonable for me to put up with you.

You hear it? In other words, you men are wasting my time. I am an important judge. I have more important things to do.

And if Claudius thinks that you're not worth his trouble in Rome, you're not worth my trouble in Corinth. Just because a person has a title or position of leadership doesn't necessarily mean that he or she is leading. They may simply be following the status quo. I read a humorous story a few weeks ago about a group of local political leaders who received an invitation to have a private dinner as guests of Calvin Coolidge. They were really thrilled and went to the White House and they were in a waiting area. And while they were out in the waiting area, they were a little nervous about manners and they wanted to win his respect. And so they were afraid that they would, you know, do something wrong there at the table. You ever been there? You've been there, you know, and more utensils in front of your plate than beside it.

And you're not sure what to do. So you just kind of watch, starve, but watch until the time comes. Well, they were concerned about doing the wrong thing. So they decided out on the waiting room that what they do is they go and be seated and just watch Calvin Coolidge and do what he did. So they eventually were ushered in and seated at this elaborately decorated table, this private dinner meeting. And coffee was served. Calvin Coolidge promptly poured his coffee into his saucer. The guests did likewise. He then added sugar and cream. They did the same thing.

Then Calvin Coolidge leaned over and gave his coffee to the cat. George Gallup polled several hundred Americans and found that when placed in a situation where they had to either follow the crowd or be different, the vast majority followed the crowd. Even when they were involved in a situation they either slightly disagreed with or didn't understand, the vast majority of them never asked why. What's the status quo here? You don't ask and everybody knows Jews are a waste of time.

I don't have time to put up with you. What's the status quo today? Have you ever thought about any different issue?

Just think of issues. What's the status quo opinion? And what does the Scripture say?

Last Lord's Day we took time to remember, as many evangelicals did in our country, the blight and the plight of abortion. Status quo today of the unborn? They are non-persons.

Well let me ask you some questions and then you just confront the status quo. There's a preacher and his wife. They're very, very poor. They already have 14 children. She finds out she is pregnant with her 15th child. They are living in tremendous poverty. Considering their poverty and the excessive world population, what would you recommend? Abortion?

And you've just taken the life of John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church. Here's a scenario. The father is sick. The woman, the mother, has tuberculosis. They have had four children. The first one is blind. The second one has already died. The third one is deaf.

And the fourth one has tuberculosis. She finds she is pregnant again. Given the extreme situation and this precedent for children that will be sick and if not die be permanently disabled, what would you, what would the status quo say? No doubt, abort.

Then you have taken the life of Beethoven. A 13-year-old black girl is raped by a white man. She is pregnant as a result. If you were the parents and you listened to the status quo of today, what would you do? Abort.

You've just taken the life of Ethel Waters, the great black singer who sang often for Billy Graham. In this scenario, a teenage girl gets pregnant. She isn't married. Although she is engaged, her fiancé is not the father of the baby and he is very angry without parental support and they are very poor.

What would you do? If you said abort, you have just taken the life of the Lord Jesus. The status quo has the power of drowning out the scriptures. And you have to be the kind of person that says, why?

No. Galeo, that little Jewish man, you know, has been roughed up and brought in before you. He's a nobody.

Don't even let him talk. And these people, what are they worried about? Verse 15, they're arguing over words and names and their own law.

They're not worth your time. It's interesting to me, by the way, that Galeo uses three different terms to talk about what he's not interested in, which lets us know a lot about him. He says, first of all, that he's not interested in words. The Greek word lagos, lagoi here, could have been a reference perhaps to the statement by Christianity that Jesus Christ was the lagos, the word. In fact, John chapter one, verse one, the word was with God. The word was the lagos was God.

Maybe that's the debate that he is referencing here. He says, I'm also not interested in names. Could this have been a reference to the name, the name that was causing such trouble and debate in the synagogue, the name that was was creating these uprisings, the name that Acts chapter four had already told us is the only name whereby we must be saved.

Could this be the name? I'm not interested in that name. He also mentions his disinterest in the law, the Torah. Could it be a reference here to that broiling debate over the fact that Paul is declaring that there has come one who has fulfilled this Torah, this law, and is now the blameless, spotless lamb who's died for the sins of the world? Well, anybody who is somebody is not interested in this.

The second thing Galia was indifferent about was anything outside the perimeter of his own life, an interest. Look at verse 17, and they all took hold of sostenes. I think that they all here is a reference to the courtroom police or the lictors and began beating him in front of the Bema seat, the judgment seat. In other words, Galia told them all to leave off with you and sostenes, the leader of the synagogue felt that his responsibility to stay behind and argue the case.

And so the lictors began beating him because he won't leave. And now notice, and Galia was not concerned about any of these things. You know, isn't this the ultimate proof that you're somebody when you never have to bother with anything you don't want to bother with or anybody you don't want to bother with?

When the world revolves around you, you've arrived. Galia, you are someone. This was your life, Galia.

Can you imagine knowing now what he knows? Can you imagine realizing throughout all of eternity that you had Paul, the chief ambassador of Jesus Christ standing before you and you recall forever and ever that you didn't even let him speak. You recognize the fact that you had all the right connections, but standing before you was the one who could give you a connection through the gospel to God Almighty.

And you were too important to listen at this moment, ladies and gentlemen, Galio missed life. Now, by way of sharp contrast, the lens of scripture refocuses on Paul. And while Galia was an indifferent bystander, we're now shown a man who is an impassioned, who is an impassioned believer. And I want to make three observations quickly about this man, this man Paul. Number one, he was concerned about his personal commitment to Jesus Christ. Now we've seen him in the courtroom.

He's ready to speak. He's ready to defend his cause, not just himself, the honor of Christ. In fact, the fact that he remains in Corinth verse 18 says many days longer indicates his willingness to be different from his Jewish nationality, his Jewish heritage, his willingness to be unloved and misunderstood, to speak the truth, to stand for Christ. He was personally committed to Christ. Notice verse 18 and Paul, having remained many days longer, took leave of the brethren and put out to sea for Syria and with him were Priscilla and Aquila. Now notice in Cancria, he had his hair cut for he was keeping a vow. Leads me to my second observation.

Here it is. Paul was concerned about his private relationship with Christ. And in Luke here just kind of quietly slips in a personal note.

Did you catch that? He says in Cancria, he had his hair cut for he was keeping a vow. He doesn't give us Paul's reasons for his vow. He doesn't say how long the vow lasted. He doesn't tell us why it was at Cancria that he visits a small town barbershop.

Nothing. He only wants us to know. And the only thing I can think of is that he is contrasting Paul to Galio.

He wants us to know that Paul has a personal, private, deep relationship with Jesus Christ. Now we do know that this vow, since it involved the cutting of hair, was a Nazarite vow. It could be kept for life, as was supposed to be the case in Samson's life, in the life of John the Baptist.

Or it could be kept for a period of 30 days. The hair would be grown long and then cut. Then the cut hair would be offered as an offering of thanksgiving in Jerusalem. And this is where Paul is headed. Now since the Nazarite vow was purely voluntary, Paul was not violating or abandoning grace for law when he undertook it. And I find it interesting that Luke doesn't give us any details about this vow.

Why did it? The truth is, if Luke had told us all those details, you know what we'd be doing? We'd all be trying to copy Paul's vow, wouldn't we? I mean, the truly spiritual people would be the people who had taken the vow of Paul. Have you kept the vow of Paul?

Oh, three times a year. Special retreats for all Pauline vow keepers this weekend, you know. Thank God he didn't give us all the details why. The Lord wants us to imitate the passion of Paul, his deep passion, but not necessarily his devotional plan. Now verse 19, and they came to Ephesus and and he left them there. Now he himself entered the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. And when they asked him to stay for a longer time, he did not consent.

But taking leave of them and saying, I will return to you again. If God wills, he set sail from Ephesus. Observation number three is Paul's public obedience to Christ. Personal commitment, private devotion, and now public obedience.

He's just been invited to stay and to rest in this hospitable town with these believers. It's an easier ministry, but no, I need to move on. And by the way, you ought to underline in your Bibles that great expression, if God wills.

I think we need to learn to think that way more than we do. Everything is under the control of a sovereign God. And if a sovereign God that I am obeying wills for me to be back in Ephesus at some later date, I am convinced I will be back there. Now you talk about confidence and assurance. How do you have that kind of assurance?

If God wills, I'll be back. Well, it takes a person who is personally committed to Christ, privately devoted to Christ, and willing to publicly obey Christ that then has the vantage point to say, I am following God, and if it is the will of God for me to sail back to Ephesus, I know I will be back. Well, there are two different men here, two different portraits. Galil had prestige. He had wealth. He had connections. He was on the first name, on a first name basis with the emperors. But from the perspective of time, we would all say this morning, in effect, he had nothing. He was passionate about the wrong things. He ignored the right things.

He missed life. About 10 years after this courtroom scene, Galil will be summoned to Rome by the half-crazed Nero. He will be accused of being a conspirator of the throne, and he and his brother Seneca and his brother Melas will be forced to take their own lives by drinking poison.

I found it interesting in reading the historical account that after Seneca died, he was the first that Galil petitioned the emperor asking to have his life spared, and the emperor ignored him. I found it ironic that the man who allowed no time for talk of Christ in his courtroom will on this day be given no time in the courtroom of Nero. And of Paul? Who in Paul's day would want to read about Paul's life? Paul had given up prestige.

He'd walked away from his connections with powerful men like Gamaliel and the Sanhedrin, and he had forfeited the potential of personal wealth and comfort. But from the perspective of time, we would say that Paul had everything. He was passionate about the right things. And you know what we're doing today? We're reading about or studying his life. What will history say about you, my friend?

Or me? This was your life. Now fill in the blanks. Let me put it another way.

One question from these two portraits. Is there anything about your life worth writing down? I'm not talking about significant achievement.

We've spent the whole session talking about the other things. Not talking about how much you own or have or what's behind your name and a title or where you plug in, what you're known for. Talking about your personal commitment to Christ, your private devotion to Christ and your public obedience to Christ. This was your life.

Could you say that of you? One 60 plus year old gentleman wrote, I have learned that sometimes life gives you a second chance. Well, I don't know about life, but I know that God does third and fourth and fifth, six today, even his mercy was new and fresh. And for those of you who know Christ by faith, maybe today is another chance, another clarion call, another invitation to begin a personal commitment to him, a private devotion with him and a public obedience to him.

The old poem says, only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. Today is your opportunity to examine your life and consider these things that Stephen has mentioned. Thanks for joining us today here on wisdom for the hearts, the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davey. I encourage you to install our app to your phone so that you can quickly and easily access all of our Bible based resources. That app contains the audio and the transcript of each of these daily Bible messages. We also make available the archive of Stephen's complete Bible teaching ministry with the full length sermons arranged by book of the Bible. You can follow along in our daily Bible reading plan and more.

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