How Did Paul Know He Was About To Die?

Tom:

This is our Understanding the Scriptures segment, we are in the Book of Acts, we are in Acts chapter 20.And Dave, I believe we left off at verse 25:“And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.”Boy, Dave, in those two verses we’ve got a lot to talk about, but let’s start with, “Shall see my face no more.”It seems to indicate here that either he’s not coming back, or he’s going to go to be with the Lord.If it’s the case that he’s going to be with the Lord, do you think that’s implying that, because it has implications for the Rapture and imminency, doesn’t it?

Dave:

Right.No, absolutely, he says, I know that after my departing—get down a little farther—grievous wolves will enter in.Now he doesn’t mean when I leave this town, he means, I’m leaving this world, and you have the same thought in 2 Timothy chapter 4: “I have fought a good fight, kept the faith, finished the course:Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day:”So, he says to Timothy: “I know that the time of my departure is at hand.”He means he’s leaving, and I don’t know if we’ve talked about this, probably be years ago if we have, but Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians, turn there very quickly. 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 9:“For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death:”Now, what does he mean by that?Well, it says it’s appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment.Well then, Paul says, the apostles were appointed unto death, the last ones appointed to death.What’s he talking about?Well Tom, I hope that you and I are not going to die, I hope the Rapture will occur, that is true of every other Christian except the apostles, they had to die.Why did they have to die?Well, Paul is saying he’s going to die, he’s leaving, and you get the same thing in Philippians chapter 1, “I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better, but nevertheless to remain in the flesh, it’s more needful for you.To the Romans he says:“I want to come to Rome to see you so I can impart some spiritual gift.”But that’s coming to an end, he’s leaving this scene.Why?Because, very important, I think, to understand, you know, we’ve got suicide bombers that are going on all the time now, Shiites are killing Sunnis and Sunnis, you know, blowing themselves up.Oh, these are great martyrs, isn’t that wonderful, they have such a love of Muhammad and Islam and the Qur’an, and so forth, they are willing to die.Well, they have a motive in dying, they think they are going to get to paradise for doing that, which is foolishness, but anyway—

Tom:

Plus their families are cashing in on it.

Dave:

Yeah, what kind of a God gives you paradise for killing people?But what about the apostles?They all died as martyrs.What was so unique about them?They didn’t die just out of love and loyalty to Christ, they died as witnesses to facts, so that not one of the apostles said, “Don’t kill me, don’t kill me, I’ll tell you the truth—we made the whole thing up, we stole His body, we hid it in Peter’s basement—I mean, He didn’t really rise from the dead—don’t kill me, I’ll tell you the truth!”Well, one of them would have—I think it was Ingersol, a famous atheist in the 1800’s, he said, “Nobody is fool enough to die for what he knows is a lie.”Why would you die for what you know is a lie, you’re gone, what’s the point!So, Simon Greenleaf, remember, co-founder of the Harvard Graduate School of Law, one of the world’s leading experts, at least at that time, and they still cite Simon Greenleaf, the Supreme Court will still cite Simon Greenleaf.

Tom:

In terms of evidence.

Dave:

Right, expert on evidence, Greenleaf on Evidence, you study in law school.How do you know what evidence to introduce, what testimony, and how are you going to handle this and so forth.This Greenleaf said, This kind of testimony will stand up in any court of law.You’ve got 11 guys, because Judas was a traitor and he’s gone, betrayer, but you’ve got 11 men, and they are saying He did rise from the dead—we’ve seen Him.He did walk on water, we saw it, even had Peter come out and start toward Him.He did feed 5,000 with a few loaves and fishes.He did raise dead people.Not one of them said, Oh no, we made the whole thing up, don’t kill me, don’t kill me, I’ll tell you the truth.No, they all went to their grave testifying to the facts, and that is what is unique about the apostles, and that is powerful testimony that no one can gainsay, you can’t deny this!When you’ve got 11 guys, they are all willing to die for what they know is the truth, well, it must be the truth.

Tom:

Dave, in Verse 27, just to move on, Acts:20:27For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
See All..., “For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.”We’ve quoted time and time and time again, 2 Peter:1:3According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
See All..., “According to His divine power He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness” all things.

Dave:

Right.Well, you see, that’s the problem we have today.Didn’t Robert Schuller write, The Possibility Thinker’s Bible, or—

Tom:

Right.

Dave:

—Norman Vincent Peale, you’ve got to always be positive, don’t be correcting people.Paul tells Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 3:16, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable, (or to be used for) doctrine, reproof, correction, for instruction in righteousness.”Well now wait a minute.There’s a lot more to the Bible than just saying, Well, God will give you what you want, and there’s more to the Bible than saying, Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.That’snot the whole counsel of God, and Paul says, I didn’t hold back anything that you needed, okay.I gave you the whole thing. I didn’t just try to tickle your ears and be positive, you know, and make you feel good about yourself.So he says, I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God, and I’m taking you to record.In other words, you can put this on the record, I am free, I’m pure of the blood of all men, because I didn’t hold anything back.Well, the implication, Tom, would be, you’ve got a pastor and he’s holding things back, or you’ve got—I hate to mention it, I love Rick Warren, but how many months now, it’s more than two years, he’s had a column in the Ladies Home Journal, never once gave them the gospel, I would say he’s guilty of holding back something that they needed, that they need.And Paul says, You can’t make that accusation of me, I held nothing back, I laid it out, I gave you the whole counsel of scripture of God.Now, of course he’s talking about the Old Testament. So, that’s a very, very important verse, and I think this is one of the reasons why, a little later on when we get to that verse, he says, “After my departing grievous wolves are going to enter in.”If the apostasy is going to start when I am gone, when the apostles are gone, it’s down hill from there.I think this is what the Bible teaches.We’ve had some little ups moves, some revivals, but I think that’s what he means.

Tom:

Well, Dave, and when we look at this verse, “For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God” we mentioned in the earlier segment, our first segment, Satan’s game plan, his major strategy, his major scheme, his major device is, Yea, hath God said?It’s to undermine this very thing.And as we have been observing the church, you certainly, you know, couple of decades more than I have, but in my own thirty years of looking at what’s going on in the church— I became a Christian about thirty-two years ago.

Dave:

I’m a couple of decades older but I’m twice as old in the Lord.

Tom:

Right, but my point here is that what we’re seeing today is the sufficiency of God’s Word has gone by the board, it’sno longer sufficient for all things so that’s opened the door to everything, yet Paul says here, I’ve not shunned to declare to you all the counsel of God, all that we need for life in God.