Would your life be any different if death weren’t a part of the equation? If you knew that you had unlimited time and resources would that change things? Today Shawn introduces us about a man that had this all figured out and his knowledge didn’t change his daily routine one bit.

<p>Would your life be any different if death weren’t a part of the equation? If you knew that you had unlimited time and resources would that change things? Today Shawn introduces us about a man that had this all figured out and his knowledge didn’t change his daily routine one bit.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Voice Of Prophecy

Shawn Boonstra

Deathbed Reading

What do you think your life would be like if death just wasn't part of the equation?

If you knew that you had unlimited time and resources, how would that change things?

How would your life change if you just weren't afraid of death?

Today, on The Voice of Prophecy, I'll introduce you to a man who had this all figured out.

Even the knowledge that he was going to die soon didn't change his daily routine 1 little bit.

I'm your host, Sean Boonstra, and today we're going to look at 2 different biblical passages that describe the final moments of a man's life.

1 of them was written by an outside observer, and the other written by the man himself as he finds himself coming up against life's finish line.

And I think you're going to find this really important because at some point, the same thing will happen to you.

You're going to arrive at this moment you've always known was coming.

Figuratively speaking, you will round third base and head for home plate.

Unless of course you happen to be the 1 person in the last 2, 000 years who doesn't.

The man I'm talking about, the guy I'm going to examine, is the man who wrote most of the New Testament, a notable and unlikely convert to the Christian religion.

And of course, that was later changed to Paul, and you know him as the Apostle Paul, easily 1 of the most recognizable names in Christian history.

What I'm going to do today is look at the closing chapters of his life from 2 different perspectives.

1 of those was written by Luke, who describes the very moment Paul gets the news that he's going to die soon.

The other 1 was written by Paul himself, as he describes his own attitude towards death in a moving letter addressed to his young apprentice.

Now both of these accounts come from the days, weeks, months leading up to the final moment when Paul is taken out of the city of Rome to a place now known as the Abbey of the 3 Fountains and they cut off his head.

Just like some of these brave and virtually anonymous Christians who have been slaughtered in the Middle East right now by ISIS.

Now personally, I have always suspected that the Romans probably wished they could crucify Paul if they could.

I don't have historical data for it, I just suspect it, because Paul had created a little civil unrest in a few places where he went, like the riot in Ephesus.

And the Romans were always a little sensitive about people who had the potential to launch a groundswell movement against the empire.

Anybody who threatened the peace of the Roman Empire, the Pax Romana.

Those kinds of people were often treated to a few days dying slowly on a cross.

So I've always suspected they might have wanted to crucify Paul, but they couldn't because he was a Roman citizen.

They had to cut off his head and that happened just outside the city of Rome, in a place you can still visit today, the Abbey of the 3 Fountains.

Now there's a church building there today, and it's been there for centuries.

And inside they've got this gruesome mural that shows Paul's head getting chopped off.

And in the floor of the church there are 3 holes.

And above each hole is a picture of Paul's severed head.

And they've designed it so it looks like Paul's head is still rolling downhill towards the front of the church.

Now those holes are there because there's this ancient legend that Paul's head, when they cut it off, bounced down the hillside.

And it bounced 3 times, and every time it touched the ground, a spring of water miraculously came up from the dirt.

And in the holes you can still see the 3 springs, or the 3 fountains.

Now, historically speaking, it probably is the place where Paul met his final end, where the great persecutor of Christians is ultimately martyred for his own Christian faith.

Now here's what I find fascinating about this whole story.

It's the fact that Paul knew for sure that he was going to die.

He knew that if he went to the city of Jerusalem, if he went there to preach, they would arrest him.

And I guess it's his sheer determination to stick with his God-given mission that inspires me.

I mean, he's stuck with it no matter what.

And Paul's martyrdom gives us 1 of the most eloquent, 1 of the most moving passages in the New Testament.

The book of Acts records a prophet by the name of Agabus who shows up at a meeting where Paul is speaking and he warns Paul, nothing good will come of your trip to Jerusalem.

Let me read it to you from this passage in the book of Acts because I think this is easily as magnificent as anything Shakespeare wrote about his fictitious characters.

It's easily as inspiring as anything Plato wrote about the death of Socrates.

You find it in Acts chapter 21, And I'll start reading in verse 10.

And as we stayed many days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.

Now Agabus's name actually means locust, which seems really appropriate for a guy who's coming to deliver some bad news.

It says, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.

And when he had come to us, he took Paul's belt, bound his own hands and feet, and said, thus says the Holy Spirit, so shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles." I love the drama that a biblical prophet brings to a story.

Here's this guy who walks into the room and he takes Paul's belt.

Now I don't know if the belt was laying at the side of the room with the coats or if somehow he had to talk Paul into giving it to him, but he takes Paul's belt and he ties up his own hands and he says In front of all the believers, the man who owns this belt is going to be arrested and given to the Romans if he goes to Jerusalem.

Now if this had happened here in 21st century North America, I'd probably be tempted to take the prophecy with a grain of salt, Because over the years I've met all sorts of wingnuts and crackerjacks who say they have a message from God.

But what usually ends up happening with modern-day prophets is that their so-called message from God is usually used to justify some kind of unbiblical practice.

So they might say something like, the spirit told me to leave my wife, or the spirit told me I don't have to live in harmony with God's moral law.

Most of the time in the modern age you can write off the words of a man or woman who says, the spirit told me this or that, because they're usually just making it up.

But you still can't get around the fact that in the New Testament there is this description of an authentic gift of prophecy that's still with us until Jesus returns.

You'll find that gift in every single list of spiritual gifts.

So if you believe the Bible, you have to concede that the real gift of prophecy is at least possible.

And back in the first century, they didn't blink an eye.

They listened to Agabus because he was already well-known, probably.

He was probably known to be the real deal, someone with the authentic gift.

And they assumed that the Holy Spirit was real and working through this man.

Now, what I want you to listen to carefully is Paul's reaction to the prophetic message.

But just before that, I have to take a quick break, and then I'll come right back and I'll pick up where we left off in Acts chapter 21.

So don't you go away, I'll be right back.

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And welcome back to the Voice of prophecy.

I'm your host, Sean Boonstra, and just before the break we were looking at a dire prediction made by an ancient prophet to the apostle Paul, just before Paul goes to Jerusalem.

If you go, he says, they're going to arrest you and give you to the Romans.

And we were partway into the story as you find it in Acts chapter 21, so I want to pick up in verse 12 now, because it's really 1 of the most poetic passages anywhere in the Bible.

Now, when we heard these things, both we and those from that place pleaded with him, that's Paul, not to go up to Jerusalem.

Verse 13, then Paul answered, What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart?

For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." Now I want you to let that sink in for a minute.

Paul realizes he's going to die, or at least that it's a real possibility.

But he is so laser-focused on his mission that even the threat of death doesn't slow him down.

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Deathbed Reading

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