Key points

1. A truth worth dying for in a world with nothing to live for.

   1. 1

      1Evangelism is dragging an unseen spiritual war into the present by convincing people to move sides.

      Pastor Nolan frames evangelism as more than a nice activity: it is pulling the unseen cosmic war between darkness and light into visible reality. He illustrates this with Dietrich Bonhoeffer's secret seminary, rowed out on a river across from a Nazi airfield, as a picture of the intensity the church is actually engaged in.

      More

      Hear it in the message · 23:59

      1 illustration

2. Acts 20:1-3 (ESV)

   Acts 20:1-3

3. Acts 20:19–23 (ESV)

   Acts 20:19-23

4. “It is, therefore, recorded that Paul was beheaded in Rome itself…" - Eusebius of Caesarea

5. Expect opposition when you live on mission.

   1. 2

      2You should expect opposition when you live on mission.

      Paul's own life shows this: a persecutor-turned-preacher who faced a death plot in Macedonia, was stoned in Lystra and got back up to preach again, and was eventually beheaded in Rome according to the historian Eusebius. Pastor Nolan also tells the story of William Tyndale, betrayed and executed for translating the Bible into English, to show that real opposition has always followed real mission.

      More

      Hear it in the message · 28:03Acts 20:1-3
   2. 3

      3The Spirit warned Paul of imprisonment and affliction, not comfort, as he pressed on in mission.

      Working through Acts 20:19-23, Pastor Nolan points out the Spirit didn't promise Paul ease but testified to chains and afflictions in every city, and Paul went anyway, constrained by the Spirit. He contrasts this with Christians today who call minor inconveniences persecution when they aren't actually on mission at all.

      More

      Hear it in the message · 29:01Acts 20:19-23

      1 quote
   3. 4

      4Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.

      Citing Paul's own teaching to the disciples, Pastor Nolan says suffering is tied directly to being dangerous for the darkness, not a sign something has gone wrong. He warns against mistaking everyday frustration for spiritual warfare while ignoring the real cost of actually sharing faith.

      More

      Hear it in the message · 32:22Acts 14:22

      2 illustrations
   4. 5

      5To get better at the mission of God, you need to grow in the Word of God.

      Pastor Nolan cites research that those most in their Bibles are statistically the ones who share their faith best, then moves into the Eutychus story in Acts 20:7-12 to show Paul pouring hours of teaching into the Ephesian church because he knew it might be his last time with them.

      More

      Hear it in the message · 36:45Acts 20:7-12
   5. 6

      6The 'many lamps' and the eyewitness 'we' in the text show the Bible's credibility and the gathered hunger for the Word.

      Pastor Nolan notes Luke, a credentialed physician, wrote as an eyewitness ('we'), and the detail of many lamps shows both a crowd gathered for Paul's long teaching and the room's innocence in Eutychus's fall. He draws out that no major revival in history has ever happened apart from a hunger for Scripture.

      More

      Hear it in the message · 40:41Acts 20:8

6. Acts 9:16 (ESV)

   Acts 9:16

7. ‭‭Acts‬ ‭14‬:‭22‬ (ESV)

8. strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.

9. Acts 20:7–12 (ESV)

   Acts 20:7-12

10. Acts 20:8 (ESV)

    Acts 20:8

11. Wildfires of awakening are fueled by the wood of God's word.

    1. 7

       7Wildfires of revival are always fueled by the wood of God's Word.

       Pastor Nolan points to the Jesus Movement at Calvary Chapel, where 25,000 young people gathered weekly not for a dynamic personality (pastor Chuck Smith was plain-spoken and slow) but for verse-by-verse Bible teaching. He applies this personally, saying hearts, marriages, kids, and even a nation are changed by immersion in Scripture, drawing on his own testimony of being saved as a teenager through hearing the Bible taught.

       More

       Hear it in the message · 44:39

       1 quote · 1 illustration · 1 story from life
    2. 8

       8God doubly emphasizes that Eutychus was taken away 'alive' because His Word brings life, not death.

       Pastor Nolan explains the miracle in Acts 20:11-12 is not an accident but a sign pointing to a deeper truth: the world brings death, but God's Word brings life to all who hear and believe it, to families, to the region, and to generations who would retell the story.

       More

       Hear it in the message · 49:45Acts 20:11-12

       3 quotes · 1 illustration · 1 story from life

12. Acts 20:11–12 (ESV)

    Acts 20:11-12

13. Today is the right time. Fight for one more

Application