24th August 2025

New Testament Heroes 19 – 03/08/25 – Martin Mowat

Readings: Acts 18:1-11 & Acts 20:17-27

Today we’re going to complete our series about New Testament heroes, because, believe it or not, we’ve been in it, on and off, since the beginning of January and it’s time for something different. 

But we can’t possibly drop the series without talking at all about the biggest hero of them all.  

We have seen some truly amazing and courageous men and women as we have worked through the book of Acts.  Last time we had got as far as chapter 12, which leaves a mere 16 chapters for us to cover today, so forgive me if I’m a few minutes longer this morning.

Today’s hero is, of course, the Apostle Paul. Up until this point, he has been somewhat in Peter’s shadow, but now he comes to the fore.

Remember that from a religious point of view he was HIGHLY trained, EXTREMELY qualified and VERY Jewish.  So when Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus, that day, he had to do a 180° about-turn in his understanding, his thinking, his personal behaviour, and his relationships with others.  

As you probably remember from Scripture lessons at school, he undertook three majormissionary journeys, traveling nearly 15000 kms in 14 years. I can vividly remember the canvas maps that my Scripture teacher used to hang over the black board.

His willingness to travel such distances in order to preach about Christ was absolutely key in establishing Christianity throughout the Mediterranean region.

But we’re not talking about comfortable car journeys, bus journeys, train journeys, or even journeys on horseback. We’re talking about journeys on foot, carrying everything he might need on the way. Occasionally there were journeys by boat – crude wooden vessels with no mod-cons, no stabilisers, no engines, no electric winches to haul in the heavy sails, no air conditioning, no soft bunk beds, no gas cookers. 

There would have been very few people in those days who would have travelled anything like as far as he did. These three journeys took him to non-Jewish communities in Asia Minor, Grece, Macedonia, and Cyprus, Judea and Syria. More than 50 different towns are mentioned in Acts, of which he visited quite a few multiple times.

On those journeys he met with local leaders, he preached in synagogues and in open spaces, he taught from house to house as we have just heard, he attended prayer meetings, and I expect he would have comforted and counselled dozens of individuals. I have simply no idea how many churches he started, or how many pastors, elders and deacons he appointed.

His healing ministry was extensive and he raised at least one person from the dead – a young man called Eutychus who fell asleep during his massage and fell out of an upstairs window in Troas, in the north west corner of modern day Turkey.  

His teaching was extensive and uncompromising, so much so that 

on numerous occasions it got him into trouble with the Jewish authorities. He was maligned, there were several plots to kill him, he was struck, beaten, stoned at least twice, forced to leave places, ship wrecked, and much, much more. 

Perhaps it was because people didn’t want change, some people just don’t like it, and that’s a medical fact, apparently.

But that was only part of the problem

“My idea” syndrome was another - ….

Control was another

Security was another

Ego, another, as our good friend David was saying a few weeks ago.

What changes ?

But in all fairness, maybe also they had a genuine concern that this really was false doctrine, clearly dangerous both individually and corporately. But if they had their eyes and ears open, surely they would have seen God’s hand in it all.

This was ultimately why, when he went back to Jerusalem at the end of his third missionary journey, AGAINST the strong advice of all his missionary colleagues, the Jewish authorities stirred up a major riot and got him arrested by the Romans and eventually carted off to Rome in chains.  You can read that dramatic account in chapters 21 & 22.

There, he lived under house arrest for some time.  In fact, the Bible doesn’t tell us how long that was for, but historical sources indicate about 2 years.  Nor does the Bible tell us how he died, but again, tradition holds that he was beheaded in Rome and thus died as a martyr for his faith. 

Let me conclude our series on New Testament heroes by saying that as I re-read those last 16 chapters of Acts, the Holy Spirit highlighted TWO very similar sentences to me, they were in our two readings. 

The first was when the Jews in Corinth opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, ‘Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it.From now on I will go to the Gentiles.’ 

Similarly in Ephesus, as he was about to embark on his fateful return to Jerusalem, he said “Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again.  Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you.  For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.”

He wasn’t talking about being innocent of murdering people, he was saying that if any of them still didn’t believe after all his preaching and teaching, it wasn’t for any lack on his part. 

Paul declared in Romans 1:16: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation.” This is not a time for embarrassment; he was saying it’s a time to speak and share our faith plainly. 

Paul was passionate about people’s souls, to the point where he felt responsible for them.  That is the true heart of a missionary.  

Should it be ours too, I wonder ? ? ? ? 

An email that I received ten days ago from Waverly Abbey, home of 24/7 prayer and of Lectio 365, reminded me that across the UK, “church attendance among 18–24-year-olds has quadrupled, Bible sales are soaring and worship nights are overflowing. Many are calling it a quiet revival among the rising generation.

I’ve mentioned that before and so has Sue.  

This is not business as usual,” said the email “but a God-given window of opportunity.”  

Even more recently, there has been an article in The Times saying that young people are no longer satisfied with Atheism, Darwinism, Secularism, and the like. Those things just don’t deliver. They want something more meaningful, and they’re finding it in church. Evangelical Christianity in France is even hitting the headlines in Le Monde.

I’ve said this before too, I know, but in our world today, people have all sorts of very genuine and pressing needs. They need peace, they need food, they need water, they need health care, they need freedom from addiction, they need safe shelter, and desperately. 

But MORE than any of those things, whether they are aware of it or not, they need Jesus. They need to hear his gospel message.

And for that to happen they need missionaries and evangelists, people like our super-hero Paul, who put their own needs, their own comfort, their own personal safety to one side in order to reach people with the gospel.

That is why this church supports missionary organisations rather than ordinary charities. That’s where most of the money that you put in the collection bag goes.

I haven’t taught about tithing, although it’s Biblical. Maybe I should. Maybe one day I will.  But today let me just say this, before you decide how much money to put in the offering bag in just a few moments, and then EVERY WEEK from now on, please, please, remember that your giving will enable those who haven’t yet had a chance to hear the best news in the World, to do so – the news that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.