A Gospel to Die For – Acts 20:22-24

I think that I have told you before that Miss Denny was one of my two favorite high school teachers,

Although I doubt that we could ever have been friends,

even if there hadn’t been that teacher/pupil relationship and that she was old.

There were just too many differences between us.

The most important of which was that I was a brand-new Christian, and she was very definitely not.

I liked and respected Miss Denny because she was an excellent teacher and she demanded perfection.

Rumor had it that she once was an aspiring opera singer, but she ruined her larynx through over-practice.

As a result she had one of the strangest voices that I ever heard; one which demanded close attention.

I don’t know if you had a Miss Denny in your life, but if you did, you knew that you couldn’t submit a paper to her with a sentence which ended in a preposition, unless it was enclosed in quotation marks.

Every once in a while I hear something like: “Such and such is to die for.”

This has become proverbial; it has become a modern cliche.

But that statement decimates one of the cardinal rules of English as taught by Miss Denny.

“Such and such” might be something “FOR WHICH to die,” but it is NOT “to die FOR.”

An exception to that rule might have been allowed if you were quoting someone else.

For example, if two teenage girls, were talking about a ridiculous pair of high heeled shoes,

and one of them said, “I found some shoes to die for.”

If you put that statement in quotation marks and said that it came from lips of a blond, teenage girl, Miss Denny might allow it.

Otherwise your paper just fell from a B+ to a B- over one mis-spent preposition.

The title of this morning’s message is: “A GOSPEL TO DIE FOR.”

One of the OLDFIELD rules of grammar is that –

for effect – it is permissible to break the rules of grammar.

Paul was rushing toward Jerusalem, hoping to be there in time for Pentecost.

He had with him a company of especially chosen men, carrying bags of gold and silver to help relieve the suffering of the saints in the churches of Judah.

In addition to this, Paul apparently had a desire to preach to the throngs of Jews who would be visiting Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks.

But in church after church, as he made his way east, people were telling him that he was going to be arrested and afflicted when he got there.

He replied, “What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

And here he said, “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself,

so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry,

which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.”

Clearly, the gospel of the grace of God was something for which Paul was willing to die.

For some reason, I don’t think that those silly little teenage girls are really willing to die for a pair of shoes,

although I suppose that is a possibility.

No one should be willing to die for a pair of shoes, and no one should be murdered for shoes,

but I understand that this does happen.

There should be relatively few things in this world for which we should give our lives.

We SHOULD be willing to give our lives for our FAMILY – our loved ones.

And there are certain PRINCIPLES for which we should be willing to die, but not even all principles are more important than life.

Some would say that we should be willing to die for “God and country,”

but if by that statement is meant the government of the country,

I’m not sure that I can agree with him.

I’m not sure that there is any human government worthy of death.

But of course, the word “country” can mean a lot more than just “government.”

For a couple of weeks I have been mulling over the idea of “friendship.”

For example: what constitutes a genuine friend?

Most of our lives are filled with acquaintances; people with whom we can laugh, talk, quarrel and enjoy.

But the Bible says that “a friend sticketh CLOSER than a brother.”

We have a lot of Christian brothers, but that doesn’t necessarily make them true friends.

I’m not sure that we can ever know who our friends are until we are in the most dire of straights.

I’m not sure that we can really know who our friends are until they are asked to give up their lives for us.

WE should be willing to give up our lives for our loved ones, including our friends,

and for the Lord, who is the closest friend that we shall ever have.

We should be willing to die for only those things which transcend the earthly and the temporal.

Paul, under the direction of the Spirit, was willing to die for the sake of the gospel of the grace of God.

Have you ever thought about the relationship between the gospel and death?

Obviously, the Gospel is all about the death of Christ.

There are a lot of things in this world which are purported to be “the gospel.”

For example, there are people who think that the word “gospel” refers to “truth.”

And so when they are sharing some ugly piece of gossip, they might say, “This is the gospel.”

But although the gospel is the truth, not all truth is the gospel.

“Gospel” means “good news” or “good tidings,” and comes to us from two Old English words.

It is the Greek word “euaggelion” ( yoo-ang-ghel’-ee-on ).

That means that evangelism is the sharing of the “good news.”

But just because someone, calling himself an “evangelist,” claims to bring the gospel, it is not necessarily the gospel of the GRACE of God.

The Book of Galatians is an explanation and defense of the gospel which Paul preached.

Please turn to the first chapter, and notice how that letter begins:

“Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;)

And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia:

Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ,

Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:

To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another;

but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”

The province of Galatia, after the evangelism of Paul, had been inundated with people who claimed to be correcting the message of the Apostle.

Essentially, they insisted that before Gentiles could become Christians, they had to become Jews.

They were saying that their faith in Christ alone was not sufficient to either make them Christians or to prove them to be Christians.

They had to observe the rites and ceremonies which Moses had proscribed to the nation of Israel.

These people had been kriss-crossing the country claiming to preach the gospel, and some of Paul’s friends were given them ear.

But Paul rebuked them with the words:

“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another.”

“Those who trouble you, may call their message the gospel, but it is not THE gospel.

It is another gospel which is not really a gospel at all.”

The world is filled with men’s theories about forgiveness and the deliverance from sin – it is filled with gospels.

But when they are not the “gospel of the grace of God,” they are not the gospel at all.

A gospel which says that you must be baptized in order to enjoy forgiveness, is a false gospel – a lie.

Any gospel which demands that you become the member of some church or party, is not really the gospel.

A gospel which says that the Virgin Mary is the co-executrix of salvation is not the true gospel.

The evangelist who adds faith in anything else besides Christ is not preaching the gospel.

And the evangelist who leaves repentance from his message is not preaching the gospel either.

A gospel which is not rooted and founded in genuine grace is not a genuine gospel.

Twenty-eight times the New Testament refers to “the gospel of . . . “

The most common are “the gospel of the kingdom,” “the gospel of God,” and the “gospel of Christ.”

It speaks about “the gospel of peace” and “the gospel of your salvation.”

And here it is called “THE GOSPEL OF THE GRACE OF GOD.”

Tying those six things together makes for a wonderful study of that gospel.

They tell us that the gospel comes from and belongs to God the Father and God the Son.

The gospel is the theme of the Kingdom of God and it results in peace with God.

But out of these six, I think that the most instructive and descriptive is: “the gospel of the GRACE of God.”

Any good news which is not saturated with grace is not as good as it gets.

There is a series of television ads which make me laugh, over and over again.

One of the most recent begins with an underwater picture of salmon swimming upstream to spawn.

There is a bit of commentary about the life-cycle of the salmon as we watch these fish jumping up and over a small waterfall.

Then the commentary says that it’s difficult for the salmon to fulfill it’s destiny, and the screen shows a hungry bear catching and eating one of them.

And the ad concludes, “But I have GOOD NEWS: I saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to . . .”

Nothing more clearly demonstrates that there is “good news,” and there is “the gospel.”

There is no grace whatsoever in any of those insurance ads,

and where there is no grace, it is not the good news that people really need to hear.

True grace is an act of unmerited favor.

In the Biblical sense, it is the act of God, whereby he blesses worthless and wicked sinners.

He mercifully chooses not to judge and punish them for their sins,

But rather He chooses to bestow upon them the gifts and blessings which only His Son deserves.

And this grace comes from no other source and no other reason than His own heart.

When the omniscient God looks upon mankind, His holiness and justice forces Him to see us as we are.

Twice in the Book of Psalms we read:

“The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.

They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”

The grace of God causes the Lord to step over our wickedness, but it doesn’t ignore that wickedness.

Out of grace, God the Son, the Lord Jesus, chose to bear the judgment that our wickedness deserves.

And it was grace which motivated God to send His only begotten Son into the world, “that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

It was because of grace that “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.”

It was through grace that “Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.”

“Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:.”

Ephesians 1: – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.”

Ephesians 2: – “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

The gospel of GRACE is all about the sacrifice which Christ Jesus made on the cross to provide a way for sinners like you and me to be delivered from eternal damnation.

The gospel of GRACE is all about the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It was grace on the Father’s part and it was grace on the part of the Son.

Grace is the unmerited favor of God.

So the GOSPEL of grace is the good news about the unmerited favor of God.

The GOSPEL of grace is the good news that Jesus died on the cross as a substitute for perishing sinners.

The second way that the gospel of grace touches on death, is that it is not about OUR death.

“The wages of sin is death, but the” gracious “gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Sinners deserve to die, and justice demands that they die the second death – eternal death.

But the grace of God means that Christ died that second death as their substitute.

By the grace of God, those sinners whom Jesus saves will not and cannot die be cast into the Lake of Fire which is the second death.

“But,” someone says, “even Christians die.”

Yes, unless the Lord returns and disrupts the usual pattern, as he did with Elijah and Enoch, even people to whom the Lord has been gracious will die.

“It is appointed unto men once to die and after this the judgment.”

But it’s at that judgment where the grace of God is most applicable.

To borrow a verse which is actually talking about a slightly different judgment:

“Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

The gospel of grace is the good new about Jesus’ death on the cross, so that YOU might not have to die the second death.

In fact, you don’t have to DO anything.

You don’t have to be BAPTIZED in order to benefit in God’s saving grace.

As Paul said in Romans 11, if salvation is “by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.”

There is no SACRAMENT that you can or must take in order to obtain God’s grace.

Despite its definition, a sacrament and God’s grace are mutually exclusive; you can’t have both.

The gospel of grace is the good news that you don’t have to do anything to receive the blessings of grace.

Salvation is all about grace – God’s unmerited favor.

God is not impressed by people’s repentance and faith and therefore chooses to save them.

God graciously saves and regenerates sinners and THEN they repent and put their faith in Christ.

Christ didn’t graciously die to make the salvation of the world a possibility.

He didn’t leave salvation up to the spiritually dead sinner.

Christ died on the cross as the substitute for those whom he intended to save.

The gospel is the good news about grace – the absolutely free and unmerited favor of God.

And where the gospel is preached and received,

the sinners that God saves will be identified by their repentance and faith.

And this was the gospel for which Paul was prepared to die.

“What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

“But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.”

Paul was prepared to die for this gospel of Grace, because he was a recipient of that grace.

As we saw in Acts 9, Paul was not looking for Christ, and he wasn’t expecting salvation at the time of his salvation..

In fact he probably didn’t think that he even needed the grace of God.

But the Lord graciously interposed His will and the man who had been a hater of Christ was given a new heart.

He was born again; regenerated by the grace and power of God.

He was not saved because he repented; he repented because he was made spiritually live.

He was not saved because he trusted Christ; he hated Christ until the moment that he was regenerated.

But he trusted the Christ who had saved his soul.

Here in Acts 20 Paul was “testifying” to the gospel of the grace of God.

He was “bearing witness” to something about which he had personal knowledge and experience.

He was willing to die for the salvation which Christ died to give him.

And he was willing to die for the gospel which would keep others from dying the second death.

Where there is no repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, there is no salvation.

It was absolutely necessary that Paul, or someone, come to Ephesus and to preach that which was most profitable to them.

They had to be EXHORTED to repent and trust Christ.

And if it put Paul in danger of losing his life, then that was something which he was willing to do.

Paul was a Jew, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, and in some ways he never lost his love for his country-men.

I believe that Paul would have suffered just about anything to see his brethren trust Christ.

“Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.”

“I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,

That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.

For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.”

So he was determined to visit Jerusalem during the upcoming Pentecost.

He felt that he was a debtor both to the Greeks, to the Barbarians, and to the Jews; both to the wise, and to the unwise.

He ready to preach the gospel to those that were at Rome, at Ephesus and at Jerusalem.

Because he was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ:

“For it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”

As far as Paul was concerned,

if in the course of preaching the gospel of God’s grace to the people of Jerusalem,

one of those sinners picked up a stone and accurately threw it,

breaking open his skull, that gospel was worthy of that small sacrifice.

But that was Paul.

What about you?

First and foremost, I am thinking about your personal relationship to the salvation in the gospel.

Is eternal life and your escape from sin, worthy of your repentance and faith?

Are you trusting Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, and as your personal substitute for salvation?