Because those in Corinth, they were the ones who needed to wake up. But the church in Ephesus, they had it all together. Why did they need to wake up? Why did they need to redeem the time?
But the Lord knew that times would be coming upon them because of their faithfulness. They needed to be awake for what was ahead of them. And if we look further at the history of Ephesus, we know that they faced some great challenges. They were faithful at times, but the last thing written of Ephesus is that the Lord really instructs them and chastises them for leaving their first love.
And if Ephesus was in a place where Paul could share his whole heart, share his great vision of what God desired to accomplish—if Ephesus needed this message—how much more do we, in the days we are living in, need this message? This is a very specific message for us.
We are being told this, and we are being challenged to walk wisely, because it says the days are evil. It is interesting: if you look at this little phrase, “the days are evil,” it is not even using the general Greek word for evil.
It is using a very specific word for evil that says there is something actively being attacked. There is something that the enemy is focusing upon, something that is under attack.
Brothers and sisters, as we desire to be those standing for the testimony of Jesus in this hour, we recognize that there is a great battle and a great attack over the testimony of Jesus. This is why the apostle is encouraging us to wake up, to walk wisely, and to make the most of the opportunities we have because of these evil days.
He is calling us to walk wisely so that we can understand the days and the time, the will of God for what we are living in during these days. We know God desires to have a people prepared. He desires to have a people conformed to the image of His Son.
Only as we walk wisely, only as we really come under His Lordship, His guidance, and His discipling, will we be those brought into that place of being conformed to the image of God. He is encouraging us not to be distracted because of all the evil around us, but to be those standing for the testimony of Jesus.
When we look at this little phrase, “redeeming the time,” it is a familiar phrase. Most of us, when we saw the brochure, were familiar with this phrase: “Redeem the time.”
But as we look at this word redeem, it means to rescue, to buy up, to save something that was lost. When we think about the times we are living in, the enemy is out there really trying to rob us of so much. But the Lord wants us to be faithful unto Him, that we would redeem, that we would buy up, that we would seize this opportunity so that it is not lost.
Even as we look at this word time, this is not time used for our watches. There is a Greek word, chronos, from which we get chronology or chronometer and all those things. It means the measuring of minutes.
When I was with Pete Marwick back in those days, he used to teach a course on time management. This is not about time management. This is about something far greater. This is about taking advantage of the opportunity we are living in.
Because this word that speaks of time here is speaking of an opportunity, some specific season that you have been brought into, a specific opportunity that has come across our path, and that we would make the most of it. Today we call it living in the moment, being in the zone. But we would be awake to the time we are living in and the opportunity that is in front of us.
Most of us, as young people, dreamed of those opportunities. If you were a sports fan, or if you were into music, or if you were into science, you had a dream of some opportunity.
My dream was that I would be at Yankee Stadium, at bat in the bottom of the ninth inning against Sandy Koufax, and I would hit a home run. You know, that was my seizing the opportunity.
Unfortunately, the Yankees did not have anybody seize the opportunity this week, so I am not distracted at all. I am free, and we can just enjoy this weekend. I feel sorry for all you Dodgers and Mets fans. You are sitting around here, sweating and all, trying to act like you do not care, but we know better.
But as we see that there are opportunities the Lord brings across our path, we want to be those who are awake and alert, seizing them. We want to be quickened, because when we look around, the church is in a weakened condition. The world is in such a crumbling condition, and the Lord is calling us to seize these opportunities.
Now, this does not necessarily have to be great things, because we know we are living in the day of small things. So often we overlook the small things. We look to be faithful in the great big things, but day by day, He is calling us to really take advantage of these little opportunities that we have, to redeem the time for His sake and for the kingdom’s sake.
Now, as we are together this weekend, the brothers who planned this conference would like to use the lives of four brothers from the New Testament, to look at their lives and see how they redeemed the time—how they made the most of the opportunities brought across their path.
Our brother Stephen will be sharing on the apostle John. Brother Dana will be considering the apostle Peter. David will be considering Timothy. My responsibility this evening is to consider Paul.
We would like to look at Paul’s life tonight—not looking so much at his teaching, but really at his life. But actually, if you stop and think, his life was a teaching. His life was a testimony. His teaching came out of life, and his life reflected his teaching.
So, in many ways, we cannot separate these dear ones’ lives from their teaching, because what they shared was a living message from their heart. But I will be focusing more upon the activities of Paul’s life and not so much upon his doctrinal teaching.
We are thankful that he had such a full life. If we look throughout the book of Acts, we see Paul being used in many wonderful ways. We also see many personal touches and testimonies from the various letters and epistles that he wrote.
We are thankful that at the end of his life he could testify, “I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.” What a wonderful testimony.
If we turn to the last epistle that Paul wrote, 2 Timothy, we see him concluding with a great testimony of one who was able to redeem the time, one who had been through many things and had many experiences.
As he came to the end of his life, he was able to write in 2 Timothy 4:6-8. Think of these verses in light of one who made the most of every opportunity.
I am already being poured out as a drink offering,
and the time of my departure has come.
I have fought the good fight,
I have finished the course,
I have kept the faith;
in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day;
and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.
That word time there is the same Greek word as in our theme verse from Ephesians. The opportunity of my departure has come. He was going to seize even the moment of his departure and make the most of it.
What a testimony of one who redeemed the time, one who made the most of all the opportunities. There were many opportunities and many events within Paul’s life. We are just going to touch on a few of them tonight. May the Holy Spirit instruct us, stimulate us, and encourage us in the days we are living in.
We know that we are first introduced to Saul in Acts 7. He was a witness to the stoning of Stephen, and he says later that he was approving of that.
But praise God, this one who was a persecutor of the church, one who was so driven to wipe out the Way and wipe out the testimony of Jesus, had an encounter with the living God in Acts 9. He was knocked off his high horse.
Acts 9 speaks of his marvelous conversion. At that moment, Paul was caught and captured by that heavenly vision. He was no longer living for himself, but was living for Him who had loved him, the One who had died for him.
From this moment on, Paul was constrained by the love of Christ. He saw that Christ was the all in all. He saw that Christ had a purpose for His people. He saw that Christ desired not only Paul but each one of us to be conformed to the image of Christ, and that the bride would be made ready.
Paul was a captured one. From this moment on, he was a man of singular vision. He had many different thoughts, but there was a singular vision that governed his life. Everything he did was guided and directed by this vision.
Now, oftentimes when we talk about this matter of the heavenly vision, we think of it as some ethereal thing. Stella and I had the privilege of being with some saints in California, and there was a young mother we were having dinner with one night. She was a young mother with four kids.
She was testifying and sharing with us how she had seen how very practical this heavenly vision was. They were considering getting another house, and she was saying, “Mac and Stella, look. All my friends, they can move to any city. They can buy any house. They can live in any neighborhood.”
“But when we start looking around for a house, when we start looking around for where to live, what governs us is: Are we close to the saints? Is our house going to be able to accommodate a Bible study?”
She was saying how all of a sudden this matter of the heavenly vision was very practical to her—Christ desiring to have ones prepared and ready. It is nothing ethereal. It is something very living and real. It was real within Paul’s life, and He desires it to be real within our lives too.
We see this reality expressed in Paul as he went through this experience. We know that after Paul was saved, he went out to the quiet desert place in Arabia. Why was this?
I think he simply went away so that he would be away from man, away from everything, and could enter into this precious time with the Lord. Paul’s whole life had been turned upside down.
Paul knew the whole Old Testament, and as he reconsidered everything in the light of what he had seen on that road to Damascus, he had a very similar experience to those disciples walking on the road to Emmaus at the end of the Gospel of Luke.
As they were walking on the road to Emmaus and Christ appeared, they testified of how Christ, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, explained to them concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.
Paul went back through all those historical books, through the books of prophecy and the Psalms, and all of a sudden he saw only one thing: he saw Christ.
He started looking at the tabernacle, and he saw Christ. He started looking at the temple, and he saw Christ. He started going back through the prophet Isaiah, and he saw the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. It was opened to him in a new way, and he was captured by it.
As he spent that time there, Paul was able to see and enter into the reality of who Christ was. In a similar way, Job testified at the end of his experience:
I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear;
but now mine eye seeth Thee.
This is what Paul had heard of. He knew about the Lord, but now he had seen Him, and he was captured by Him. This eye-opening experience brought Paul into a foundational lesson within his whole life: the necessity of having an intimate relationship with the Lord.
It was an intimacy that came into Paul—the days and nights that he could spend in fellowship with the Lord. You know, it is sad: I use the word intimacy, and the world today has tried to steal that word and make it sound evil and dirty. But there is a beauty to this word.
God is calling us into this intimate, close, personal relationship where we can share one with another, share the riches of Christ, share all of who He is. He desires to reveal Himself. He revealed Himself to Paul.
One of the ways He revealed Himself to Paul—and oftentimes we overlook this—was to say, “Paul, the past has concluded. Yes, you were a persecutor of the church. You were slaughtering believers. You were throwing them in jail. But look, Paul, that is the past. That is under the blood.”
What a lesson that is for us. How often do we say, “I cannot do this because of what I did”? No. What Paul did never left his mind. Throughout his letters, he speaks of how he persecuted believers and what he did to them. But he also knew the great forgiveness of God—the concluding of the past and pressing on.
He came into this place of intimate fellowship with the Lord so that there was nothing between them. As he spoke of his past, it testified of the grace of God.
Brothers and sisters, do not let the enemy use our past to rob us in any way of what He has called us to do in this hour. The blood of the Lamb speaks louder than anything any of us have ever done.
Paul entered into the reality of this as he had intimate fellowship with the Lord. He saw the preciousness of what he had been brought into. He testifies for all of us in 1 Corinthians that, because God is faithful, we have been called into this place of fellowship—the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
What a glorious place we have been called into. We see this lived out in Paul’s life. If you reread the book of Acts, you see this fellowship, this intimate relationship, leading him, guiding him, and directing him throughout the book of Acts.
It all came back to something we would call simple: a simple daily, personal relationship with the Lord. He had that living relationship, and that was the very foundation of all of Paul’s life.
Through that relationship, we see Paul being led. We know that as the Lord birthed a church there in Antioch, Barnabas was there. Through the Holy Spirit, Barnabas went and got Paul and brought him there.
Paul had been set apart for some time, and Barnabas brought him there. We know they were sharing with all the saints, encouraging and teaching the brethren. But what was the real secret? What was the core issue and the basis for serving and teaching the brethren?
If you look at Acts 13:2, it says something that I do not think was an unusual event. I believe it was part of their daily life together.
While they were ministering to the Lord, and fasting, the Holy Spirit said,
“Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.”
They were before the Lord, ministering to Him. They were in a place of fellowship through prayer and fasting. They were in the presence of the Lord, and there the Lord spoke to them.
Their service came out of that place of intimate, sweet fellowship with the Lord. Out of that place, the Lord said, “Set apart for Me Paul and Barnabas.” We know how they were sent out. It came about because they were in this place of intimate fellowship.
Do we want to be those who are redeeming the time we are living in? We need to enter in afresh to this fundamental, foundational secret: the absolute necessity of daily, personal, intimate, fresh fellowship with the Lord.
We know it is tragic today, but too many of us substitute a knowledge of Him for a relationship with Him. We can subtly substitute our knowledge of the Lord for a relationship with Him.
We know so much about Him. In the days we are living in, we want quick answers. We want easy answers. Maybe we came to this conference to find five easy steps to redeem the time.
But the Lord, in a wonderful way, is calling us to come into that relationship with Him. We know so much about Him. There are so many books, so many websites, so many blogs, and so many apps. You have a question, you just hit an app. Everything gets answered for us easily and quickly, just like this.
The age and pace of life, the pace of this world—we are in a hurry. We need the answer now. We need it instantly. But how we need to learn the secret of redeeming the time daily and simply: drawing apart unto Him in the presence of the Lord.
We need to draw apart into this place of intimacy with Him, stopping everything else. However practically this works out in your life, there needs to be a settling down, a personal time with Him.
It is a time in which not only can we offer our prayer and thanksgiving to Him, but we are in a place to hear Him, because fellowship is a two-way street. We share, and He shares.
So often, are we in a place where we can listen? The noise of the world can make it so hard to listen. When we talk about redeeming the time, buying up the time, yes, it will cost us something. But we want to seize those moments so that they are not lost.
So we see how this matter of intimate relationship that Paul had was his first and primary lesson on redeeming the time. Now there is a second lesson, a second characteristic we see in Paul.
Not only did he have this intimate relationship with the Lord, but he also had an insatiable desire for the Lord. He had this intimate relationship, but he also had an insatiable desire for the Lord.
He wanted to know more of Him. He wanted to experience more of Him. He desired to know more of the greatness of the Lord, the fullness of the Lord, and the majesty of the Lord. He desired that the brethren would know this also.
He was always encouraging the brethren to press on for much more. He was thanking them for all they had done and all they knew of the Lord, but urging them: press on, that you could excel even more in knowing Him. There is so much more for all of us to enter into.
This was Paul’s insatiable desire. It was never satisfied. He wanted to know Christ more and more, in a fuller and deeper way.
Look at his testimony in Philippians 3. For the sake of time, we are not going to read all the verses, but Philippians 3 is a marvelous testimony of Paul’s insatiable desire.
Before the Lord captured him, Paul was a man of the world. He had everything going for him. He had his religious heritage. He was a Jew, a purebred Jew. He was not one of these Hellenistic half-breeds; he was a thoroughbred.
He was a Pharisee. He had been in the Sanhedrin. He had been trained by Gamaliel. He was of the tribe of Benjamin, even named after King Saul. What a heritage he had. He had everything going for him.
Also, if you look within the Roman Empire, he was born a citizen. He was educated. He had everything going for him that way also. Because he grew up in Tarsus, he was exposed to all the Greek culture. Paul was a man of the world.
Many say that if the Lord had not captured Paul, we would probably be reading about him in some other aspect of history. Paul literally had the whole world before him. He was a man of the age.
But praise God, the Lord came in and captured him. Once he saw that he was captured, what was his attitude? In Philippians 3:7, speaking of this great heritage, he says:
But whatever things were gain to me,
those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
More than that, I count all things to be loss
in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things,
and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ.
That is one who has an intimate relationship. That is one who has an insatiable desire, because he had simply seen Christ. He saw who He was, and he was captured by His beauty.
I love that hymn: “Jesus, Lord, I’m captured by Thy beauty.” Paul was captured by the beauty of the Lord. This was created within him. It was not a natural desire, but there was a desire. The Spirit of God within Paul was wanting Paul to know in a fuller and greater way.
Later, in Philippians 3:13-14, you sense that he is not satisfied with all he has seen. We have to remember that as he is writing this letter to the church in Philippi, he has already been on the missionary journeys recorded throughout the book of Acts. He has written Romans. He has written Corinthians. What a pedigree he has there.
But he is still pressing on. He is not settling down and becoming complacent. In verse 13, he says:
Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet;
but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind
and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
I press on toward the goal for the prize
of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
What a testimony. It is sad, because at times you meet a brother or sister and the air about them says, “I have laid hold of it. I got it. You got a question? I got the answer.” It just reeks of self.
I am glad nobody like that is here, so I am safe to use that example tonight. But as we look at Paul, we see that he keeps going.
Paul was putting everything else behind him. He was not trying to be poetic here; he was sharing his life. The gospel of Jesus Christ had captured him in such a way. God’s purpose had captured him in such a way. That heavenly vision had captured him in such a way that everything else was counted as rubbish.
Have we counted our jobs as rubbish? Have we counted our education as rubbish? Have we counted our religious pedigree as rubbish? Have we counted our Chinese heritage as rubbish? Have we counted our American heritage as rubbish? It is all for Christ.
Paul, who had a far greater heritage and more to boast about than any of us ever will, put it all behind him. He said, “There is one thing: I am pressing on that I might know Him.”
In the days we are living in, with this evil and the battle going on around us, there is only one way that we will survive and be able to make it through: forgetting about all this stuff and pressing on to know Him in a fuller and greater way.
This is what God is after. This is the testimony of Jesus in a very practical way in our lives—not ethereal, but very practical every day: captured by Him, living for Him. This is what He is after.
Paul would testify, “For me to live is Christ.” After this point, Paul did not care how the Lord used him. Maybe it was a small situation; maybe it was a big situation. Maybe it was a good situation; maybe it was a bad situation. Maybe he was going to suffer persecution. Maybe he was going to be treated badly.
Paul did not care anymore. He just had a desire to please the Lord and to honor the Lord. Nothing else mattered. Sometimes it was in small situations, but praise God, he was faithful.
We have been reading in Philippians. Think back to the beginning of the church in Philippi. Paul had this great ministry in Asia, and because he was in a place of intimate relationship and fellowship with the Lord, he could hear the Lord’s voice saying, “I do not want you sharing anymore here. I want you to go over to Europe.”
Paul responded. He did not understand. He did not know why, but he knew Who. He knew the Lord was leading him, and he went over there faithfully.
Then he arrived in Philippi, and there was not even a synagogue there. There were not even ten Jewish men. But he went down by the river and found a few women who were praying. Praise God, Paul was faithful right there.
He did not say, “Well, there are not enough people here.” It is sad today: if you look around Christianity, some people will not come and speak unless you guarantee so many people or so much money. Praise God, Paul was not driven by this.
There were a few women down by a river praying, and he was willing to go and share. Praise God, Lydia and her household were saved. We know later the slave girl was delivered, and the jailer and his household were saved. But Paul was faithful in what we would naturally call a small thing. It was a great thing in the economy of God.
From a personal testimony, speaking for us from Richmond, many years ago—over forty-five years ago—there was a handful of sisters who were praying.
They were not by the river, but they were pretty close. The river was about a half mile away, about three blocks off River Road, so they got close to the river. But these sisters were praying.
Thank the Lord, it was a faithful brother who was willing to come and travel the distance, to be there and share with the few sisters. Totally unseen in the economy of this world, but a great moment in the sight of God.
That is how the assembly in Richmond started: because of our brother’s faithfulness and willingness to come to a small handful of sisters and be faithful with what God had put in his hand to do. We are thankful for those sisters who prayed at the birth of that testimony.
This is redeeming the time. This is making the most of the opportunity. Do we see the opportunities we have? This is why I believe Ephesians says, “Wake up.”
Are we awake to these opportunities within our assemblies? Are we awake to these opportunities within our neighborhoods? Are we awake to these opportunities within our schools, within our workplaces, and when we are commuting?
Are we so tuned out of everything that we are not awake when someone comes across our path? Oh, would we make the most of the opportunities, that those opportunities would be redeemed and not lost?
Someone crosses our path. It is that moment, that time we have set apart, and we do not want it to be lost. We want to make the most of it, whatever and however God is using that.
Today, in the world we are living in, we confuse bigness with greatness. We confuse glitz and glamour with glory. Paul never got confused by this. There was a faithfulness in being faithful with the things that God had put upon him.
It is tragic how often we measure things by the outward. We ask, “How big was this? What size was this? What kind of glitzy glamour show did they have?” No. God is looking inside. He is looking at the heart. This is what He is looking at.
We are thankful that at times Paul had opportunities to share in large situations. In Acts 13, he was in another Antioch, called Pisidian Antioch. They shared in the synagogue, and everybody was so excited that the next week they gathered the whole city together to allow him to share.
As he declared the gospel to the whole city, praise God, many were touched there. Paul’s insatiable desire brought about faithfulness, whether it was a so-called small thing or a big thing. He was seizing the moment and the opportunity.
I remember years ago, in a work situation, one of my partners died. Thank the Lord, he came to know the Lord through his sickness and everything. His wife asked if I would share the eulogy at the funeral.
This is one of those situations, as a Christian, that you dream of. It is one of those opportunities you look for, because you have all your coworkers there, all your clients there, and all your peers there.
I worked in healthcare, so we had all of the hospital administration and finance people, all the other CPAs from around. There were three or four hundred people in this church building.
By God’s grace, I was able to share how this one had come to know the Lord, to testify, and to share the gospel. Afterwards, a young man from another office came and talked to me.
He said, “Mac, I appreciated what you shared. I am so glad to know that you are a Christian. I always knew that you were a good man, but I never knew you were a Christian.”
Now, he meant that very positively. But when he said, “I knew you were a good man. I did not know you were a Christian,” it pierced. It was like an arrow penetrating.
Because I saw how unfaithful I had been in the daily issues of life. It is one thing to be able to get up at a certain moment and share something, but I saw how I had neglected and missed so many opportunities in my daily place of work and daily life to be able to share the gospel.
Do we want to be known, young people, as you are at school? Brothers and sisters, as we are at work, do we simply want to be known as good people? Or do we want to be known as Christians?
Let us make the most of these opportunities that the Lord brings across our path, to really see what He has called us into and the opportunities we have.
We are thankful that Paul’s circumstances did not always turn out so well. Think back to Philippi. After he shared the gospel and people were getting saved, there was an uproar, and he ended up being thrown in jail.
But what was he doing in jail? They were singing hymns and praising the Lord. Then this earthquake came.
It would have been very normal and natural for Paul to be afraid in the earthquake and to worry about taking care of himself. But Paul saw the moment. He did not want even the opportunity of that earthquake to be lost for the sake of the gospel going forth.
When that jailer came out and was ready to kill himself, Paul shared, “We are in here. We are okay.” The jailer and his whole household were saved. Paul saw an opportunity there. He was not focused upon his own self and his own safety.
Do we see these opportunities in life to redeem the time for the Lord’s sake?
Later on, Paul was taken captive when he went back to Jerusalem. He was arrested there, but he was faithful in many things. He testified before the Sanhedrin. He testified before Felix. He testified before Agrippa. All those wonderful testimonies.
He ended up being sent to Rome. As he was on his way to Rome, through the shipwreck and all that happened in Malta, he had an opportunity to testify there. He got bitten by a snake, and they thought he was going to die. He seized the moment to share the gospel.
Paul was not thinking about himself. He was captured by One, and he had this insatiable desire that people would know the Lord. So he was always using these moments and opportunities.
Even while he was in Rome, if you read again in Philippians, what was Paul doing as he was chained to that Roman guard? He was declaring the gospel to the whole Praetorian guard. He had a captive audience, and he took advantage of it.
He also wrote Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. Unless he had told us, we would never have thought that these letters had been written from prison, particularly Philippians, which is such a joyful letter.
Paul was in prison, but in his spirit he was free.
It reminded me of a poem by Madame Guyon. Some of you may have heard the poem before. She wrote it while she was in prison. The title is “A Little Bird I Am.”
I am not going to read the whole poem for the sake of time, but she is equating her prison with that of a bird being in a cage.
A little bird I am,
Shut from the fields of air;
And in my cage I sit and sing
To Him who placed me there.My cage confines me round;
Abroad I cannot fly;
But though my wing is closely bound,
My heart’s at liberty.My prison walls cannot control
The flight, the freedom of the bound.
Oh, it is good to soar
These bolts and bars above,
To Him whose purpose I adore,
Whose providence I love;
And in Thy mighty will to find
The joy, the freedom of the mind.
She was making the most of the opportunity. Many looked upon her naturally: she was in prison, in one of the worst prisons in the world. But she was free.
Paul, when he was in Rome, was free. Are any of us in prisons? Sometimes we find ourselves in a job and say, “Oh, this is a prison.” Some people think of their marriage as a prison. Take note.
Sometimes we are in a school situation and feel like a professor is holding us all prisoner. But praise God, we can be free and redeem that situation and use it for the glory of God. We do not have to come under it; we can be living above it.
This is what Paul’s insatiable desire led him to. He was always redeeming the time, regardless of the circumstances—whether he was received well or rejected.
He went into Corinth in Acts 18. The Jews rejected him, so he went to the Gentiles and spent a year and a half there declaring the word of God.
Later, in Acts 19, he goes to Ephesus. Again, he is rejected, and through all of his trials he moves and goes over to teach in the school of Tyrannus. He testifies that all who lived in Asia heard the word of God. He also says that he was able to declare the whole counsel, the whole purpose of God to them.
He was rejected, yes, but he kept seeing opportunity and he moved on. He was not controlled by his circumstances; he was controlled by the Lord.
In this, we see how Paul had such a heart for the Lord and such a heart for the brethren. How was this insatiable desire of Paul manifest to the brethren? How did they really enter in and see this?
We get a glimpse of this in Paul’s letter to those in Thessalonica. Turn to 1 Thessalonians 2. We see here one of the great secrets in Paul’s life and one of the great lessons that we need to learn in the days we are living in.
In 1 Thessalonians 2:8, Paul testifies:
Having thus a fond affection for you,
we were well pleased to impart to you
not only the gospel of God,
but also our own lives,
because ye had become very dear to us.
He was not only imparting the gospel of God, but he was imparting his own life. As we said, Paul’s message was his life, and his life was his message.
He preached the gospel, praise God, but he did not stop there. He imparted himself. He gave himself to these dear ones.
Today, we can focus so much on the message. Do not misunderstand me: the message is important. But is that all that God is looking for? Is He just looking for someone to come in, share a message—three messages here, boom, boom, boom—and away you go?
What is His real desire? What was Paul’s secret? He had this burden and desire for the brethren to come into the relationship that he had with the Lord. He was imparting his life.
The life of the messenger validates the message. Paul had the life to back up that message. He was not shrinking back. He was not just sharing theories and doctrines. He was sharing life with them.
Through this relationship, he was giving his life to them. It was very personal and very intimate.
In the same verses in 1 Thessalonians 2, how does Paul describe himself? In 1 Thessalonians 2:7, he says:
We proved to be gentle among you,
as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children.
There were times and opportunities Paul found himself in where he needed to be gentle, where he needed to be tender. There was a situation in which he needed to come alongside in a comforting, tender way.
Because he had intimate fellowship with the Lord, he would respond. We see how our Lord Jesus, at times, showed the tenderness of His heart.
I love this verse because, if you are playing a trivia game, you can ask, “Who was one of the greatest mothers in the New Testament?” Paul qualifies. It is a trick question now, so that may be the only thing you remember tonight. But Paul had that motherly heart.
How many can relate in your own life? You have gone through an experience, and someone just came up to you in the tenderness of Christ. Maybe they put their arm around you, and there was just a reassurance there.
We need those. Mothering is not just for babies. Us big babies, we all need to be mothered at times. Would there be more mothers within the family of God today?
This is how Paul saw that insatiable desire poured out through him in this way.
But a few verses later, we see him describing himself in another way. If we come down to verse 11, he says:
Just as ye know how we dealt with each one of you,
as a father with his own children,
exhorting you, and encouraging you, and imploring you.
There were times when Paul was this gentle, tender mother. But there were other times when he was exhorting, correcting, encouraging, and imploring as a father would. There needed to be a little firmer hand.
Sometimes we need somebody to get in our face and straighten us out. You remember how Paul got in Peter’s face and said, “Peter, you are a hypocrite.” He got right in his face. Sometimes we need a little stern fatherly love.
But we need the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us. It is not our natural way of doing it. It is being led by the Spirit of God to show us.
As Paul was in this place of intimate relationship with the Lord, when he had the opportunity to be that tender mother, he went that way. When the opportunity called him to be the father, he went that way.
But it was all motherly love and fatherly love, with one purpose in view: that Christ would grow and that they would see Christ in a fuller and greater way.
In Galatians 4:19, Paul cries out in a similar way to these dear ones:
My little children, of whom I am again in travail
until Christ be formed in you.
He was always pressing on, desiring each one of them to experience more and more of Christ. This came out of the intimacy of this relationship and the insatiable desire that they would be conformed unto the image of Christ.
Oh, how Paul was so jealous in this way. This is what we need in this hour.
When Paul was writing to those in Ephesus and speaking about the gifts to the church, he speaks of teachers and shepherds. If you look in the Greek, they are grouped together: teachers and shepherds.
We talked a little earlier about how many messengers we have. Praise God for that, but we need those teachers. We need the message, but we also need that shepherding. We need that coming alongside.
We have to have shepherds who care, teachers who are not only teaching but then following the teaching. They are coming alongside and caring for the sheep, laying their lives down for the sheep. This is what Paul was doing.
It is wonderful how Paul never took advantage of the sheep. He even worked for himself so that he would not take advantage of anybody. But every opportunity he had, he would take advantage of the opportunity; he would not take advantage of the sheep.
If you read these letters—Philippians, Thessalonians, Galatians—they are very personal, intimate letters. I used to jump on people for saying, “How many books are there in the New Testament?” These are not books. These are letters.
They are personal, intimate letters that Paul is writing out of a heart of love, because he is jealous that Christ would be formed within these dear ones, that they would be able to stand for the testimony of Jesus.
We see in his letters all the relationships he had. Just go through Romans 16, Colossians 4, and 2 Timothy 4. All these ones he is asking about, telling this person, “How are they doing? She is as a mother to me. She is a dear sister.” Oh, how precious.
Paul was a man in Christ, but he was not above the brethren. He was with them. He was walking with the brethren through the battles and trials of life that they were in. This is what we need.
We see, too, how Paul cared so much that the testimony would be carried on. He saw and observed younger ones, and he was encouraging them. I am going to stop there because David will be sharing on Timothy. He will take care of all that.
But because of this insatiable desire, Paul was able to redeem the time.
There is a third overall lesson. Not only did Paul have this intimate relationship with the Lord, and not only did he have this insatiable desire for the Lord, but Paul knew of the infallibility of the Lord.
Paul knew that regardless of the faithfulness or unfaithfulness of the brethren, the Lord was always with him. The Lord would never fail him. The Lord would never leave him. The Lord would never forsake him. He knew this.
This was a settled thing within his heart, and it enabled Paul to go all the way through.
Sadly and tragically, some whom Paul nurtured, cared for, labored with, and laid down his life for turned against him. There was one named Demas who, in Philemon and Colossians, is referred to as a fellow worker. But in 2 Timothy 4, it says Demas loved this present world and deserted us.
But Paul was able to press on. In 2 Timothy 1, he says, “All who are in Asia turned away from me.” Later in that same letter, he says, “At my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me.”
But Paul knew of the infallibility of God. He knew of a Lord who would never leave him or forsake him. He was able to write in Romans, “If God is for us, who is against us?”
He was able to say in 2 Timothy, “I know whom I have believed.” These were settled issues. Because he had this settled within him, no matter what happened to him, it did not hinder him. It did not throw him off course. It did not stop him from pressing on and redeeming the opportunities he had.
If we turn back to 2 Timothy 4, to start bringing this to an end, we see one of Paul’s secrets—how he was able to continue all the way through despite the various battles and the many ways people turned away from him.
When it speaks of people turning away from him, they were not merely rejecting him as a person. Many of them were turning away from his teaching, from what he had labored with them in, what he had taught them, and what he had shown them in the reality of his life.
They were turning away for various reasons. But he pressed on, and he was able to write at the end that he had fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith. How was he able to write that despite the way everybody was treating him?
We look later in 2 Timothy 4:16-17. We see Paul’s testimony to the Infallible One.
At my first defense no one took my part, but all forsook me:
may it not be laid to their account.
But the Lord stood by me, and strengthened me;
that through me the message might be fully proclaimed,
and that all the Gentiles might hear:
and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
Look at his gracious mercy: “May it not be counted against them.” But then look at verse 17, that great but: “But the Lord stood with me.” That is the Infallible One.
The Lord stood with him. The Lord strengthened him so that through him the proclamation might be fully accomplished, that all the Gentiles might hear. He was delivered out of the lion’s mouth.
Praise God. Everybody—man—was deserting him. But in the midst of the battle, the Infallible One stood with him. The Infallible One was there to strengthen him, and the Infallible One was there to keep him.
It is interesting how Paul, with this insatiable desire, says that through the proclamation it could be fully accomplished. There was a fullness there. When God strengthens us for His service and power, there is a fullness.
There is a fullness in the proclamation, that all the Gentiles might hear—not just a part. When God comes in in a mighty way and grabs hold of us and uses us, there is a fullness in what God does.
We are in that place of hearing His voice. We are thankful that Paul knew of this infallibility, and this infallibility enabled Paul to redeem the time. If you look upon his whole life, we see him time after time as one who was redeeming the time.
Now, as we wrap it up here, we said that Paul’s life was his teaching, and really, his life validated his whole message. You cannot separate the man and the message.
If you look back at our theme verse that we started with, we see that we are to redeem the time, but it is with purpose: so that we will understand what the will of God is, so that we will be equipped to stand in the midst of these evil days for the testimony of Jesus.
Paul knew what the will of God was, and he was jealous that each and every believer would know what the will of God was. He pressed himself as he pressed others. He had this great insatiable desire that we would be conformed to the image of Christ.
He was jealous. He was agonizing, as it says in Galatians, that Christ would be formed in them.
When you stop and look at the great transformation that occurred within Paul’s life, in his past, his soul—his mind, will, and emotions—was governed by his own self-life. His desires, his will, his emotions, whatever he wanted to do: that was the life of Saul.
But now, as we look at this man in the Gospels and at the end of his life, we see how this intimate relationship with the Lord brought his emotions under the control of the Spirit. He was conformed in that aspect to the image of Christ.
We see how this insatiable desire for the Lord and His purpose brought his will under the control of the Spirit. He was conformed to the image of Christ.
And we see, by his knowing the Lord’s infallibility, that his mind was brought under the control of the Spirit, conformed to the image of Christ.
Paul had experienced what Peter calls the salvation of his soul. His soul was no longer under the dominion of his old self-life. His soul was now under the dominion of the Spirit.
Because he took advantage of the opportunities that God put before him, he redeemed the time. He redeemed every opportunity. Because of that, he was able to say, “For me to live is Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
These were living words. They were not just theories and teachings to Paul, but they were his very life. We see a man awake to the Holy Spirit. We see a man awake to the various situations, making the most of every opportunity he had.
Now, we are not here to try to copy Paul’s life, but we can learn from it. Just as Paul allowed the Lord to teach him, may the Lord teach us.
May we allow His Spirit to work within us, that our minds, our wills, and our emotions would be under the dominion of the Spirit, serving His purpose, doing His will, and not living for ourselves, but living for Him.
May we be a generation that is redeeming the time, and may we be a generation that is truly hastening the coming of the Lord.
Lord, we are so thankful for Your living word. Lord, as we look at Paul’s life, we are thankful how these words leap off the pages.
We do not just see a historical picture, but we see a man living in Christ. We see a new man.
Lord, we are thankful that just as You took Paul, You can take each one of us. Paul simply made himself available to You. He took You at Your word.
Lord, we want to make ourselves available to You. We want to make ourselves a living sacrifice unto You, that You can conform us to Your image.
In that place of being under Thy headship and Thy dominion, we would be awake. We would not be sleeping. We would be awake to the days and times we are living in and really make the most of every opportunity we have.
That Your will would be accomplished upon this earth as it is in heaven. In Thy name we pray. Amen.