Acts 20:24 (Dr. Owen Nease; onease@gmail.com) On Saturday, Nov 1st, Brittany Maynard died at her home in Portland, Oregon at the age of 29. The death of anyone, especially a 29 year old, causes us to pause and face our own mortality, but this woman s death has played a different role in our society. She was suffering from a severe, terminal brain cancer, and knowing the suffering that awaited the final days of her life, she had chosen, as part of a larger Death with Dignity movement, to end her life by taking prescribed drugs according to the Oregon state laws. She publicized her impending death through Facebook, YouTube videos, and an interview with People magazine. In addition, her story went viral on the internet and many people have weighed in about her decision, some supporting her, some not. I want to be clear about something upfront. Our response to her situation must not be judgmental or condescending. We respond with humble sympathy and brokenness about her suffering and the loss her family is facing. In fact, I'm leery to even use her story as a topic for this sermon, because I don't want it to seem like we're taking advantage of her. We never use people; we are called to love and serve and point to the hope of Christ. We mourn with her family; we hate the effects of suffering in her life; and we avoid simplistic answers that demean her life or the life of anyone else for that matter. Events like this, though, start discussions we need to have in the church. If we can't talk about these issues here, and ask what God's Word says, then we have truly become irrelevant.
We've been going through Acts a chapter at a time, and this week we have Acts 20 with the story of Paul traveling from Ephesus to Jerusalem to take a collection of money to the church there. He left Ephesus, traveled through Macedonia, which is the area where Corinth and Athens were located, then he worked his way back up to Troas which we learned about in Acts 16. From Troas, he would head southeast and travel across the sea to Jerusalem. It says in Acts 20:16 that Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the province of Asia, because he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of Pentecost. Why was he in a hurry? Well, have you noticed that some people take up a little more of your time than others? Someone comes by your office or stops by your house and you think, uh-oh, this is gonna take a while. We live in a hurried culture, where you don t stay long at someone s house. (Couples even have secret clues to get out of situations early if necessary.) But in Paul s day, and frankly in much of the world today, it took a lot of time to visit someone. You were expected to stay for hours, or even a couple of days. Paul was in a hurry to get to Jerusalem, so he knew he couldn t stop in Ephesus because he had a lot of friends there and it would take too long to visit them. Instead, Paul invited the elders, the leaders of the church at Ephesus, to meet him at Miletus. And beginning in verse 18 he gives this incredible farewell speech. Farewell speeches are powerful, because you don t have much time--you ll probably never see the people again--so you say what counts. Essentially, that's what Brittany Maynard was doing with her YouTube videos--giving farewell speeches to tell people what was really important to her.
There are so many components in Paul's speech we could pursue this morning, and I hope you are hungry for God s Word, hungry to know how we wants to speak to you through this speech. After the Saints beat the 49ers this afternoon, and you get a nap, I hope you'll pick up your Bible or open up your phone and read this full speech in Acts 20. As I was reading it this week, before I even knew about this girl's death and what was happening on social media, one verse jumped out--verse 24. Here's what Paul says in that verse: "However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the good news of God s grace." What is Paul saying here? Not that life is worthless or that he has a low self-esteem and feels like his life is worthless. Just the opposite, he finds his life so valuable that to use it for any other purpose than finishing the race would be a waste. Galatians 2:20 " I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." 2 Corinthians 5:15 "Christ died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised." Paul wasn't living life for what he could get out of it. He wasn't searching for purpose in life. He had a purpose and his life was only worthwhile if he lived it completely for that purpose.
What's the purpose? To finish the race, to complete the task. In 2 Timothy 4:7 (2 Timothy is probably Paul's last letter), Paul used this same phrase- that he has finished the race. I like Paul because he seems to have liked athletic language. Now, let me be clear, I like sports, but I'm not a big runner, especially long distance running. I mainly run when my kids are chasing me. In college, I was trying to stay in shape and run some. Our college was just down the road from another, rival college. One day I was out running, heading down the road toward my apartment. I heard some people coming up behind and it was the ladies cross country team from the rival college. So, now I'm being chased by a pack of fast girls. This is either my worst nightmare or a dream come true. So I only have a couple of options at this point--pretend like my run is over and pull over for some stretching, fake an injury and see if I can get some sympathy and maybe a phone number (don't worry--i wasn't dating Amanda at this point), or run the fastest, uphill 1/2 mile in history. I panicked and took off running as fast as I could. I barely made it to my apartment when they were about to pass me. When we run, we run with a purpose, to accomplish something. I had a purpose--it was to reach my apartment before those girls caught me. What's the purpose for Paul? He says it's about finishing the face, which means completing the task, the ministry, the Lord had given him. What's this task? Testifying to the Gospel of God's Grace. Testifying comes from the same word used at the beginning of Acts, in Acts 1:8, that we will be God's witnesses. So, we are called to this task, to this ministry.
Testify about what? Paul says it's the Gospel--the Good News--of God's grace. Grace is a word that means gift. It means God has given us what we could never earn; He has done for us what we could never do on our own. We are all broken by sin. We have all sinned and turned against God's plan, we have all rebelled against a holy God, and we live in a world broken by that sin. But in God's grace, He doesn't leave us there. He doesn't leave us with the darkness. He is gracious and good to make possible new life, eternal life. This life comes through His Son Jesus, who defeated sin on the cross and defeated death through the resurrection, so that all you trust in Him--who hope on Him--will have new and eternal life. Paul was so overwhelmed by this reality in his life that he said his life was worth nothing if he didn't spend his whole life telling people about the good news of Jesus. Paul had experienced God's grace; he found it to be incredibly good news for all people; and he gave his life to this task, this race. Now, what does this have to do with Brittany Maynard and the Death with Dignity movement? Many of her comments and much of the Death with Dignity movement revolve around a person's autonomy. In other words, we can make whatever decisions we want with our lives, whenever we want, especially if the decisions bring happiness and express how we feel. It's about showing we are in control. Now, it's certainly true that God created us as individuals, not puppets. But the danger comes in saying, my life is my own, I will do with it what I want and make the decisions I want, including choosing the day on which it ends.
You see, the way we view life--where it comes from, why it exists- -will have everything to do with how we live our days and how we'll approach death. So, how do we deal with these things as Christians? How does Acts 20 prepare us to think about life and death? 1) From the very beginning, we realize that life--this body, this person--comes from God. God is the one who gives life, who shapes our lives. Psalms 139:13-16 "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them." 2) And if life, including our bodies, comes from God, then we are responsible for how we handle that life. We were created in God's image and we are to live for God. Colossians 1:16 "All things were created through him and for him."
3) More than that, God didn't just give us our life. He also saved us from destroying our lives. When we were in sin and deserving of death and separation from Him, God sent His Son to take on the power and penalty of our sin and to give us new life. Romans 5:8 "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." 2 Corinthians 5:15 "Christ died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised." So, we are given this life; our life has been redeemed and rescued by God's grace; and with Paul, we say that our life is worth nothing if we don't complete the race God has given us. 4) But here's the rub, the race isn't always easy. In fact, it's often very hard. It contains suffering, there are valleys, there is darkness, and staring us in the face the whole time is death, the final enemy of the race. We will face suffering, we will face death, but we don't fear the effects of suffering and death. In fact, the way we approach death communicates clearly to the world around us what we think about how God is at work in our lives. It is not about death with dignity, but death with victory. 1 Corinthians 15:54-57 Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Philippians 1:21 " For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." If I live, I live for Christ; if I die, I gain even more. The only thing that isn't an option is wasting this life. Because how could I waste what Christ bought for me. It's not even my life to waste; I would be wasting the life of Christ. 1 Corinthians 6:20 "You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." 5) And when this life is finished, we know that death will be completely destroyed and the pain and darkness of sin will be gone. Suffering and death are real and painful now, but they are not final and they do not dominate our future. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 " So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." Revelation 21:4 " He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. " God gives life, He redeems life, He sustains us in the midst of suffering, He has already defeated sin and death, and one day we will experience the fullness of this victory.
So, what are some things we can take away this morning: 1) Let me say first that if life isn't from God or God isn't gracious by defeating sin and death through Jesus, then very little of what we have said matters. We all approach life from a particular perspective, a worldview. Brittany Maynard didn't claim to speak as a Christian--she spoke about putting out good energy, about seizing the day, about paying it forward. As we said at the beginning, we look on her suffering with sympathy, we mourn with her family, and it remains true that in the end we must each consider how we're going to face life and death. My prayer is that God's Word, studied and pursued in the Body of Christ, guided by His Spirit, will be our foundation for dealing with these questions. 2) Here's a second thing we can take away, and it might get lost in the mix, but this discussion has a huge impact on how we treat handicapped persons and the elderly. As Christians, we don't value life because of what someone can accomplish or because of their ability to face life with the least suffering possible. We live in a world that so values accomplishments and health, that if we're sick or injured or unable to accomplish the things we want, then the value of our life is diminished. But this flies in the face of what it means to be created in God's image and what it means that Jesus suffered and died for us. As Christians, we must repent over the ways in which we've viewed and treated handicapped persons and the elderly, especially. Those who are weakest and most vulnerable deserve our greatest love and we need to be there to walk together with them in thick and thin, including facing questions of suffering and death.
The implications of this are huge- How do we care for the couple facing the impending birth of a child already diagnosed with serious difficulties? What do we say to the wife sitting alongside her husband in the final days of life when he's facing suffering? What do we say to the person battling terrible depression or other mental illnesses? These situations are hard; we go back to those foundations we discussed earlier- life is from God and for God; life has value because it comes from Him and He has been gracious to us through Christ; suffering may be part of the road, but death and darkness are ultimately defeated; how we approach the purpose of our life and how we handle suffering and death will show the world what we think is most important. 3) What about the issue of suicide? There is some question about whether we should even label Brittany Maynard's death as a suicide, so I'm not implying that here, but the discussion in the media this past week has taken us back to the issue of suicide. I'm guessing that practically everyone of us here has been impacted closely by suicide. So, how do we deal with this topic? Well, for starters we must be open and honest with each another. The pain that results from suicide is so complex, so widereaching, that we must mourn with and walk alongside one another. We can't suffer alone in those dark moments. If you have faced suicide recently in your family, you can find some helpful direction from Rick Warren's family--rick Warren is the pastor of a large church in California, and his son committed suicide this past year. Rick and his wife Kay have grieved openly and honestly about this horror in their family and have some important guidance for families facing this.
You can find a lot of their help in the sermon series on grief that Warren preached after returning to his church following the suicide (http://www.saddlebackresources.com/025000_how-to- Get-Through-What-Youre-Going-Through--C3408.aspx). Also, Frank Paige who is one of the leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention has written a book called "Melissa" that details how his family has dealt with the suicide of one of their children. Both of these are great resources to seek out for yourself or friends. This morning I just want to say two quick things about suicide: 1) If you are facing depression or are dealing with darkness that is driving you to the edge, please know you're not alone. The Church has not always done a good job of being a safe place to battle with hard things, but we need to struggle with these things together. Don't push your problems to the side and say, "I just need to try harder." We must come together around our need for God's grace. 2) Suicide is not a sin that automatically keeps a person from heaven. We have to remember that we don't go to heaven or not because our last action on earth was a good or bad one. And we don't go to heaven because a religious person came to us at a certain point before our death. Our hope for Heaven is trusting in Jesus for salvation. We are made right with God through Jesus, and then we work out that salvation as we grow in holiness. If a person has truly trusted in Jesus and the final action of their life is murder or adultery or stealing, this doesn't change the person's standing before God in Christ. Our actions should show that we've been changed, that we're growing in our faith, but sometimes it's the case that a particular sin, even a very damaging one, is the last earthly action.
There is a key difference here between the Catholic Church and Protestant churches. The Catholic church changed it's approach with Vatican II in the mid-1960's to no longer treat suicide as a grave, almost completely condemning sin; but even from the newer Catholic perspective, someone who commits suicide has hope for Heaven because of God making possible repentance after death and we are to pray for the person after death. This is very different from what we believe about salvation. Scripture nowhere points to repentance after death and our prayers for the dead won't change their standing before God. What matters is what happens before death, and this leads into the final point. 4) We must face the reality of death and what happens after death. Hebrews 9:27-28 " And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him." My prayer is that you will experience the hope and salvation God has made possible through Jesus. We all face death, we all face judgment, don't wait to turn to Him. And as we turn to Him and experience His incredible grace and love, it will impact how we live every day, how we go to school, go to work, interact with family, deal with suffering, deal with life transitions, face death--it will impact everything. Don't give your life to anything less--to anything less exciting, less important, less sustaining--than finishing to the very end the race God has set before you.
As we close this morning, I want you to consider another person who hasn't received as much coverage as Brittany Maynard. Ethan Hallmark died September 26th at the age of 13. He lived in Midlothian, TX; he loved baseball, he has 3 siblings, and he wanted to be a doctor. Ethan was originally diagnosed with cancer at the age of 9, achieved remission multiple times, but finally died from the tumors just a few weeks ago. You can see Ethan's story on the I Am Second website (http://www.iamsecond.com/seconds/ethan-hallmark/). What you will find is someone who impacted his friends, his classmates, his community with his faith. Before his death he said, "Keep putting your faith in God and always remember he is with you even in the depths of suffering. He's good." and My biggest fear isn t dying. My biggest fear is that others will blame God for my death and not believe in Him. I don t want people angry at God or even blaming Him. I mean, there is so much more than just this life. Just because He didn t heal me on earth doesn t mean He won t heal me in Heaven. Ethan wasn't attempting to put out good energy or pay it forward; he was a teenage boy pointing people to Jesus as the perfect foundation for life and death. "I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, the task of testifying to the Gospel of God's grace."