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God’s Word for You

Acts 20:22-24 The tetanus of sin

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, December 7, 2020

22 “Now, see: bound by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, although I do not know what will happen to me there, 23 except that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that chains and trouble are waiting for me. 24 But I don’t consider my life of any value or as precious to me as finishing my race and the ministry the Lord Jesus gave me, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”

When my dad’s paint store burned in 1983, we were cleaning up the ruins when I stepped on a nail that went right through my foot. As my brother took me to the doctor, he kept warning me: “You’re going to have to get a tetanus shot. It’s going to hurt. But you have to get it.” This is what the Holy Spirit was doing with Paul: “You have to go to Jerusalem. You’re going to get hurt there, but you have to go.” This was because the rest of Paul’s ministry required a trip to Rome, to the heart of the empire. And for Paul, getting to Rome meant beginning with pain.

In verse 24, what Paul means is that his life, though dear to him, is not as important as his ministry, his assignment from Christ to go and preach. He understands that it might cost him his life. The Holy Spirit was warning him about this again and again. But we need to remember that we are not Paul. No one should jump up and say, “I’m going to rush into danger because I feel as if I have a calling from the Lord!” No, Paul really did have a divine call, a mission given to him by the Holy Spirit, who said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (Acts 13:2). Now that same Spirit was warning him in order to give him time to prepare for the trouble to come. This is a little like the praying that Jesus did privately before his suffering, especially in the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives (Matthew 26:36-42; Mark 14:32-40; Luke 22:40-44)

We need to recognize something else in verse 24, and that’s Paul’s use of “gospel” as the full teaching about Jesus and the grace of God. Generally, when we hear the word “Gospel” we think of the good news about Jesus and the forgiveness of our sins. But sometimes this word is used in a broader sense that includes the teaching of the law and of the darkness of our shame, and this can be confusing to Christians. Here, Paul equates the word “Gospel” with “the ministry the Lord Jesus gave me,” that is, bringing people to repentance and to faith. In other words, “Gospel” in this case means preaching both law and gospel. Jesus summarized his whole doctrine in the same words. He said, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name” (Luke 24:46-47). Our Lutheran Confessions acknowledge this: “Likewise, Paul calls his entire teaching the ‘Gospel’ (Acts 20:24) and summarizes it under these heads: repentance to God and faith in Christ” (Formula of Concord, SD 5:4). And again, “When the word ‘Gospel’  means the entire doctrine of Christ which he proclaimed personally in his teaching ministry and which his apostles also set forth (Mark 1:15, Acts 20:24), then it is correct to say or write that the Gospel is a proclamation both of repentance and of forgiveness of sins” (Epitome 5:6).

Maybe the best way to grasp this is that without the law and the knowledge of our sins, the good news about Jesus wouldn’t mean very much. Why should I care that I got a tetanus shot without understanding how serious tetanus can be? The infection, which enters through deep cuts and punctures (exactly what happened to me when I was 21) can be painful, can make breathing hard or almost impossible, and can eventually be fatal. The tetanus of sin is an infection that hinders our spiritual lives and if untreated, will certainly mean eternal death and agony in hell. So while I’m glad to have had medicine that kept me alive, I’m even gladder for the medicine of Jesus’ blood, which rescued me from something worse than physical death. His blood shed on the cross means my eternal life. And that’s the gospel truth.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

Pastor Tim Smith
About Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.

 

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