Spirit-Led: Sent by the Spirit

Hey, it's good to be back. It's good to be with you. We got to go to a great church while I was away, but they're not here, so I missed you guys. I want to say a big thank you to Russ and Kyler and Micah, who did a fantastic job while we were out. And God has blessed us with some great elders and staff here.

Thank you, guys. Thank you to Jess and the rest of the staff for holding down the fort. No one called me with big fires or anything. It was just a nice time to turn off the brain and change of pace, but it's hard to believe, but 11 weeks ago, we set out on this journey to answer three questions. Who's the Holy Spirit?

What does the Holy Spirit do? And how do you walk in the Holy Spirit? And we just looked at the Bible and said, what does the Bible say about all of this? And through this, we've seen that the Holy Spirit isn't just kind of a vague force or religious feeling. The Holy Spirit is not just for special varsity level or super Christians.

The Holy Spirit is God. And he is the active, present, personal God, the one who is with us. And in those of us who believe. The Holy Spirit convicts and comforts and teaches and empowers and sanctifies and guides and forms us over time, more and more and more into the likeness of Jesus. And throughout this whole series, we've been practicing this little framework, Notice, listen and obey.

And we've been praying a list of Holy Spirit prayers together as a church. Noticing where the Spirit might be working, listening to how the Spirit might be leading us, and stepping out in obedience to the things that he has asked us. Ultimately, this is the simplest form of what it means to walk in the Spirit, to notice, listen and obey. Is there more to it? Absolutely.

But it's at least that. Well, then we moved into the Book of Acts. We started watching these moments from the Book of Acts where the Holy Spirit is interacting with real people in a real time, in a real place. And asked, what can we learn from this? Everyday people experiencing the Holy Spirit stepping out in obedience.

Just like Jason, just like his story. And we've shared stories like Jason's stories. Ordinary people trying to notice, listen and obey in everyday life. Quick aside, week three, I was going to cover the gifts of the Spirit. If you remember, we ran out of time and I promised that I would add that at the end of the series.

So, as promised, next week we. We're gonna do a whole week just on the gifts of the Spirit. So if you get really excited about that. If you got lots of questions about that. If you don't even care, you should show up anyway.

Cause it's gonna be a really important message about the gifts of the Spirit. But after all of this, after all of this, I've been convicted while I've been away with this thing that I think is a looming giant elephant in the room for many of us, maybe over these last few months, you've really been trying. You've been praying the prayers. You've listened more intentionally. You tried to pay attention.

You've stepped out in obedience in the areas that you sense God is asking you to step out. But somewhere underneath all that trying, you're still left with this nagging problem. It didn't seem to work.

And when we say it didn't work, we're measuring that off of a kind of scorecard that we all have. Whether we recognize it or not. We all have this tendency to measure this whole Holy Spirit thing. Whether it worked by whether life got easier during the last 11 weeks. Whether we're happier over the last 11 weeks than we were 11 weeks ago.

Whether things got calmer and clearer. Whether something unmistakably awesome and supernatural happened in our lives.

Whether the temptation we've battled for years suddenly disappeared because we trusted that the Holy Spirit was going to empower us to do it.

Because we're physical people living in a physical world. And we've been taught that things that are real, you can touch them and you can see them. And you can say, this is the metric on how I know that the Holy Spirit worked in my life. That there. That was the spirit.

I'm 100% sure. And sometimes God gives us that. But what about when he doesn't?

When life still feels heavy. Where things got harder during the last 11 weeks. You tried to notice and listen, but you didn't hear anything. Or you did listen. And there was that one time where God was so convicting and you knew you were supposed to step into this conversation.

And the whole thing just blew up and fell apart. It went terribly.

Or you surrendered that sin. You believed that the Holy Spirit was going to empower you to run away from this thing. And you fell right back in the pit. And we start to wonder, did I do this wrong? Maybe.

Maybe when everyone else seems to be getting this. But maybe I didn't. Maybe it's because I don't have enough faith. Maybe it's because I'm not spiritual enough. Maybe.

Maybe the Spirit just doesn't want to work in my Life in the way that he seems to be working in other people's lives. And before we know it, this whole series that was intended to draw us closer to the Holy Spirit actually gave us more questions and more problems and pulled us further away from the Holy Spirit. And so today, as we close our time in the Book of Acts, I want us to notice something. I want us to notice that Acts is not just story after story after story of breakthrough and power and miracles and amazing things happening. The Book of Acts is not just up and to the right, so to speak, just like your life and my life, it's much messier than that.

There's confusion and suffering and doubt and sin and difficulty. Even for the heroes of the faith, the ones that we could say, without a doubt they were walking in the Spirit. The Book of Acts doesn't just tell neat stories that all end with and they all lived happily ever after. And to me personally, this gives me hope. To me personally, this grows my faith in the content of what's in the Book of Acts.

Wow. That ringtone was, answer your phone.

That's it. You got to leave forever now. But because Acts is messy, it encourages my heart in my messiness, its content encourages me and makes me believe all the more that maybe God is still working, even in the mess. But before we dig in, let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this church.

Thank you for all that you're doing in our lives. Whether they are messy or clean, whether they are shiny and wonderful or the hardest they've ever been.

Lord, would you teach us through your word today? Would you use me as your mouthpiece? And would you make my words like seeds of eternal significance planted in rich soil that will grow into a mighty harvest for your kingdom. We pray all this in Jesus name. Amen.

Well, as the Book of Acts opens, just before Jesus ascends into heaven, he meets with his disciples and he says, wait. And what are they waiting for? They're waiting for the promised coming of the Holy Spirit. And so they wait. And as they wait, they don't just sit on their hands.

They wait actively. They pray and wait. And 10 days later, just as promised, the Holy Spirit comes on the day of Pentecost and powerfully comes on 120 believers who suddenly start proclaiming the GOSP in languages they don't know.

It's amazing. And from there, 3,000 people give their lives to faith and become Christians. They're baptized. It's incredible. But at the same time that this amazing narrative is happening, there's a parallel Narrative that's unfolding, too.

It's a much darker story. It's the story of a guy named Saul of Tarsus, the guy who becomes later Paul that we know from the Bible. Saul is brilliant. He's zealous. He's deeply religious.

He's highly trained in scriptures. He's absolutely convinced that this Jesus movement is a huge, dangerous problem. And as the influence of Jesus is growing, so is the influence of Saul among the religious leaders. And like the other Pharisees, he's a master in the Old Testament scriptures. He's devoted to keeping the law.

He believes that the Messiah is coming, but he doesn't believe that Jesus is the Messiah. And like several other Pharisees, he believes that the reason the Messiah has not come yet is because there's sin in the camp. And the way that you solve this is by making everyone follow more rules and do it better, and then God will be kind enough to send the Messiah. Saul is all in on this, and he sees it as his mission to cleanse Israel so the Messiah can come. Well, the Pharisees, they thought they had dealt with this whole Jesus movement.

Kill the movement by killing the leader. Cut off the head and the snake dies. Right? But then come rumors of resurrection, then Pentecost, then 3,000, then 5,000. And all these people are followers of what becomes known as the Way.

Well, soon after that, it's exploding everywhere. Well, that's bad news for the Pharisees. It's bad news for Saul. It looks like great news for Team Jesus. Right?

The Spirit's moving, the church is growing. Everything Jesus said would happen is happening. And then a bold follower of Jesus, a guy named Stephen, steps out onto the scene, and he's empowered by the Holy Spirit. He's doing miraculous things, and he's preaching the Gospel with incredible power and wisdom. Acts 6.

8 says. And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. Again, this is exactly what Jesus said you were waiting for. But the religious leaders are really not fans of Stephen's sermon. They don't like his preaching.

And so they're gathering up a whole gang of religious leaders to argue with him. But it's awesome. Acts 6. 9. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.

Come on, man. That's good stuff. The Holy Spirit is in Stephen. The Way is winning. But the Pharisees are embarrassed, and they do not like this.

And so they stir up a mob and they surround Stephen, and they put their cloaks down at the Feet of Saul, who is there and approves of it. And they pick up stones and they pelt Stephen with stones until he dies. What?

What? No. No. Jesus. You said wait.

The Holy Spirit's coming. You will be powerful witnesses. The Holy Spirit will come on you. Stephen does exactly what Jesus told him to do, and he's dead.

Maybe. Maybe this whole Holy Spirit thing isn't working.

Something's wrong here. If the Spirit is real and Stephen had the power of the Holy Spirit, how can he be dead?

And then things get worse. Acts 8:1. On that day, a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church.

Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison. Clearly, this Holy Spirit thing doesn't work.

This can't be the plan. There's no way. This is the plan. But don't miss this. Here's.

Here's the very next verse. Those who had been scattered preached the Word wherever they went. And impossibly, God somehow actually uses the death of Stephen and the persecution of the church to scatter the Gospel into places it never would have gone. And suddenly, the Gospel is exploding. And while we know the rest of the story, imagine what it would have been like to be a follower of the Way.

And now you are running for your life, and you don't know if you're the only ones left, but the Holy Spirit stirred up in you this. I must proclaim the Gospel, because there's no Facebook group for the Way. You can't text each other and say, how's it going over there? All you know is your life is at risk and you must proclaim the Gospel. And the church exponentially explodes.

But Saul sets out to chase down all of these people, wherever they are. But God steps in this time. Acts 9:1. Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, saul. Saul, why do you persecute me? Who are you, Lord? Saul asked.

I'm Jesus, whom you're persecuting, he replied. Now get up and go into the city, and you'll be told what you must do. This sounds a lot more like the plan. The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless. They heard the sound but did not see anyone.

Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes, he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days, he was blind and did not eat or drink. That's what I'm talking about. He's getting his right.

Okay, God is working, all right. This guy's getting punished. Perfect. From there, God calls a guy named Ananias, a plain old normal guy, and he tells Ananias, Ananias is doing what we've been asking. He's praying, he's noticing, he's listening.

He's stepping out in obedience. And God says, I. I want you to go, and I want you to go find Saul and I want you to give him a message. And Ananias is like, that's a really bad plan, God. Did you not, like, did you miss the whole part where they stone Stephen? They're throwing people in jail.

Like, this is a bad idea, God. This is. What's God's response? Acts 9:15. But the Lord said to Ananias, God, and I want him to say, and you get to beat Saul.

It'll be great. But he says, this man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. This can't be right. God's going to use Saul as his chosen instrument to proclaim his name to the Jews and the kings and even to the Gentiles. Why would he use the bad guy?

Stephen dies, the good guy dies, and now Saul is the chosen instrument. But here's the next sentence, and this sets the stage for everything that comes next. Verse 16. I will show him, Saul, how much he must suffer for my name. God's chosen instrument.

A guy who becomes an absolute hero of the faith. A guy that God is going to use to literally change the world. And for him to follow God, he is called to suffer much. This flies in the face of our narrative that walking in the Spirit means that everything just gets shinier and bright, better and easier. Even with this message, Saul is immediately and completely converted, and he bursts out of the gate into ministry.

Verse 20. At once, he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the son of God. All those who heard him were astonished and asked, isn't he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who called on this name Jesus? And hasn't he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests. Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.

This is awesome, man. What a testimony. Maybe God was working the whole time. This is a great idea. God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is able to transform the greatest enemy of the church from persecutor to preacher.

This will work. And if you know the rest of Paul's story and the impact that his life makes on the world and for the kingdom, you know that he goes on to be maybe the single greatest missionary the world has ever seen. And he writes almost half the books of the New Testament. Okay, maybe the whole Stephen thing was just a blip. That wasn't the guy that God chose.

We got a real miraculous conversion, this time with a real heavy hitter. And if I'm writing this story from here, everything is up and to the right. It's going to be awesome. Saul goes on to explain the Gospel. Across the world, billions come to faith.

And after a really wonderful ministry, his 401k does awesome. He does so well. He retires down in Naples with a sweet boat and a huge house right on the water. And after he has everything that he's ever wanted, and after he lives a rich life, he dies. But it's great.

They put this statue up and every year millions of people come to this station statue, and just the sight of it turns them to Jesus. Billions and billions come to faith. That's not how God writes stories.

Here's what happens next. Acts 9:23. After many days had gone by, there was a conspiracy among the Jews to kill him.

But Saul learned their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him. But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall. God's chosen instrument.

Paul's converted. He's walking in the spirit. He's completely changed his direction. He's doing exactly what God asked him to do. And the result is people want to kill him.

Church if anybody gets an A for walking in the spirit, surely it's Saul who becomes Paul. And yet, Paul's story is not a story of a man who follows. And then everything gets easy. It's not a story of a man who listens to the Holy Spirit. And then every door flies open and every relationship gets healed.

Every enemy disappears. And every next step is so, so crystal clear that he knows exactly what he's doing. It's a story of a man who is filled with the Spirit. Sent by Jesus, faithful to the gospel, and still struggles and suffers. And not just once.

Over and over and over, the rest of Paul's life is going to feel like this weird back and forth between breakthrough and hardship. Here's what we can't miss when we zoom all the way out. Paul's life is incredible. It's unbelievable. There's no question when you zoom out that God chose him, saved him, filled him, guided him, empowered him, and used him to change the world.

But if we pause Paul's story on one of the hard days, we can easily be left with the conclusion it didn't work. And so I want to quickly fly through the next 30 years of Paul's life to see over and over that our conclusion about God's faithfulness cannot be built on a moment. Just because the moment is hard doesn't mean that God is absent.

Just because things looked really great but then took a really hard left turn doesn't mean the Spirit's not leading. Just because it looks like a setback doesn't mean the Gospel has stopped moving. So Paul escapes the plot to kill him. That's awesome, right? It's good.

Looks like God took care of him. But then he goes to Jerusalem and all he wants to do is come and find the other disciples and go spend time with them and do ministry together. But the problem is none of them trust him. None of them believe that he's actually been converted. And so they keep him at arm's length and they don't let him do ministry.

But God then sends Barnabas. Barnabas vouches for Saul and Saul is received. The others begin to trust him and Saul does incredible and ministry. He's boldly proclaiming the gospel in Jerusalem. Pause the story here, man.

God's good. God is good. He's faithful. I knew it. I knew he was up to something good.

I knew it, right? But after he debates with some Greek speaking Jews, he upsets him so much they want to kill him. So the believers send him back home to Tarsus where he seems to do nothing for the kingdom for multiple years.

Wait a second. If you pause the story here, it looks like God wasn't using that Paul. I knew it. I knew it. That guy, I never trusted him.

I knew God wasn't using him. I knew it. And for eight to ten years, Paul disappears from the main storyline. Eight to ten years. Years of waiting.

Years of being hidden. Years that from the outside it sure looked like nothing was happening. But eventually Barnabas comes to find. And then for an entire year he and Saul preach in Antioch and they teach the church there. And Antioch becomes one of the most important churches in all of church history.

It becomes the central launch pad for the gospel to go to the nations. In Acts 13, the church there in Antioch, they're worshiping and praying. And apparently the Holy Spirit just comes in this big loud voice and he says, set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them. Awesome. I knew it.

Told you God was up to something with this Saul guy. I liked him from the beginning. I knew it was a good plan. Barnabas and Saul are sent out on a missionary journey and they are going to preach to the nations. I called it.

Pause the story here. It's awesome. God is faithful. God's so good. Oh, he's so good.

But immediately there's opposition in Cyprus. They're trying to share the gospel with a Roman official. And a sorcerer named Elymas comes and he disrupts the whole thing. He's trying to turn him away from faith. But Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, confronts him.

The whole pro council believes. Then they go to a place called Pisidian, Antioch. And Paul preaches. And people are so excited about what Paul says, they go to tell everybody. And the next week, on the day, on the Sabbath day, almost the entire city comes to hear about Jesus.

Can you imagine, man? God is so good. God is so good. But then jealousy rises up. Opposition starts.

Persecution breaks out. Paul and Barnabas are driven physically out of the region. Pause the story here. Maybe God wasn't with them.

Maybe God wasn't with them. They were doing something God didn't want them to do. Clearly. Then they go to a place called Iconium and it says a great number of Jews and Greeks believe, praise God. He's so good.

But then there's yet another plot to kill them. But then the Holy Spirit empowers Paul to heal a guy who had been lame from birth. Man. Awesome. I knew it.

I knew God was up to something. And then it gets really bad. Acts 14:19. Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the bot or outside the city, thinking he was dead.

This is bad. Bad. But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day, he and Barnabas left for Derbe. Is this good?

Is this bad? Well, here's the very next verse. They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Pause here, man. Awesome.

God is so good. But Paul and Barnabas have such a disagreement that they cannot get along. They split up. But God uses even this to keep the gospel moving. And then in Acts 16, Paul and his companions, they just want to go to Asia.

They're excited. They want to preach the gospel. They want to go to Asia. And the Holy Spirit, the Bible just says, keeps them from preaching there. What then?

They're like, well, we'll go to Bithynia. But the Spirit does not allow them. I knew it. This is punishment. This is punishment for that whole Barnabas thing.

I knew it. I knew it. I told you. God was never using him to begin with.

Maybe God's done with Paul. Maybe this whole thing is just a lie. Paul's just trying to preach the gospel, though. He's just trying to do what Jesus has called him to do. And the Spirit says, no, but sometimes a closed door isn't a punishment.

A closed door is. So we'll stop looking at that door, and we'll turn around and look for another one. And God has other plans. And that's exactly what happens. Right after these closed doors, Paul receives a vision from God.

It's a guy from Macedonia. I don't know how he knows he's from Macedonia. Maybe he says, FC Macedonia. I don't know. And this guy says, come over and help us.

Super cool. Last summer, we were in Europe and at a ministry school there, and I met a guy from Macedonia that's preaching the gospel there. I didn't know. I've never met anybody from Macedonia. It worked, apparently.

So the Gospel crosses into Macedonia. They arrive in Philippi, and this influential, wealthy woman named Lydia hears the message. The Lord opens her her heart, and she and her whole household are baptized. And she starts funding ministry and blessing the work. Then Paul casts a spirit out of an enslaved girl who has been exploited for profit.

Like, this is a good day. This is a good day. But when the people making money off of this slave girl realize their income is gone, they drag Paul and Silas before the authorities. Paul and Silas are stripped naked, beaten with rods, thrown into prison, and locked in stocks. What?

Where's God? Paul went to Macedonia because you told him to go to Macedonia. He's being obedient, walking in the Spirit, and now he's bleeding in a prison cell.

But at midnight, Paul and Silas are praying and singing hymns to God through their fat lips and black eyes. And an earthquake shakes the prison. The doors open. The jailer thinks his life is over, because surely the prisoners are gonna run away. Paul says, no, no, no, no.

We're all still here. Don't harm yourself. The prisoner's so moved by what? Or the jailer is so moved by what's happening, he says, what must I do to be saved? Come on, man.

That's cool. And then Paul tells him about Jesus. And he and his whole household are baptized. It's a good day. So is Macedonia good or bad?

It depends on where you pause the story.

Paul keeps going, experiences difficulty and success, struggle and blessing, beating and imprisonment, trials and incredible miracles. By Acts 20 and 21, Paul is heading back to Jerusalem. And the Holy Spirit keeps making it so clear to him that heading to Jerusalem means hardship and imprisonment are coming. But Paul's faith is so confident. This is what he says.

Acts 20:24. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me. My only aim is, 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.

After all he's been through. That's Paul's scorecard. Not comfort or ease or self promotion or protection. Not everything working out the way that he hoped. His scorecard, faithfulness to Jesus and to never stop being a witness for the Gospel.

Eventually, Paul is arrested. And after a series of trials in front of different political leaders, he appeals to the highest court, which is Caesar. As a Roman citizen, he has this right. Which means Paul is headed to Rome. Rome's the center of the empire.

Rome is the place where power and influence live. Maybe this is it. Maybe now Paul is finally going to get the big platform. Maybe now he's going to walk into Rome like the Roman Billy Graham.

But on the way to Rome, they're sailing and a terrible storm comes. For days they can't even see stars or the sun. And they throw cargo overboard. And things are very bad. And Luke says they finally give up all hope of being saved.

Pause the story right there. All's lost. What a tragic ending. But God makes a way. They survive being shipwrecked.

They have incredible stories there. Go read them for yourself. We don't have time to get into those today. But they eventually make it to Rome. But Paul doesn't get hired as the megachurch pastor of First Christian Church of Rome.

God doesn't give him anything that looks like a platform or influence or a main stage. As soon as he gets there, he's placed under house arrest and his movement is completely restricted.

But Paul doesn't live like God's done. Paul doesn't give up. Paul does what Paul always does, whether he's shipwrecked or beaten or in a synagogue or in jail or standing before governors and kings. No matter what the situation, he finds himself. He preaches the Gospel, and now under house arrest.

It's no different. And here's how the book of Acts ends. Last two verses. Paul's still under house arrest. For two whole years, Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him.

He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

During this time is when Paul writes the letters that are now in our Bible as the books of Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon. At the end of the book of Philippians, Paul gives us a glimpse of his faith. And he pens these famous words, these words on coffee cups and T shirts that have so much more depth and color when you know his story. Philippians 4:12. Paul says, I know what it is to be in need.

I know what it is to have plenty. I've learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

So did this whole walking in the spirit thing work out for Paul? It depends on your scorecard, and it depends on where you pause the story.

Paul's scorecard, faithfulness to Jesus and never stop being a witness of the Gospel.

Paul's life shows us that walking in the spirit is messy. It's not simple, it's messy. And Paul's life shows us that the Spirit led life is the life of being transformed into the likeness of Christ over time and allowing that likeness to reverberate out in every direction wherever we find ourselves, no matter the circumstances, and trusting God for the rest of the history tells us that Paul was finally executed by Caesar. But hidden in his closing remarks at the end of the book of Philippians, something that we could so easily miss, we see that God was working all the way through. Philippians 4:21.

He writes this letter to the church of Philippi, and he says, the brothers and sisters who are with me send greetings. All God's people here send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar's household.

What do you do when you're under house arrest and Caesar wants to kill you? You tell everyone within arm's distance about Jesus.

Caesar kills him. But Paul brings life to those who are in his household.

So church, whatever season you're in right now, open door or closed door, good or hard crowd or opposition, freedom or struggle. Don't pause the story too soon.

Don't pause the story too soon.

Keep walking in the spirit. Even when you don't know what God's up to, even when it looks like all is lost, even when it looks like there is no path out of this thing, even when everything breaks the rules and it doesn't make sense and it couldn't be, possibly, possibly be the plan. Don't pause the story too soon. Church God's never done.

You know one of the things that make Paul's story similar to Jesus story?

This gets me every time I think about it.

No one zero people, no one was standing at the foot of the cross, looking at the tattered body of Christ and thinking, this is a great plan, this is a good plan. I called it. God was doing this. And man, this is going to be good. Just wait three, three days, it's going to be good.

No. Everyone said, it's all lost. We've been duped, we lost.

God's not on the throne. Everything we thought was true is not true. And yet three days later, Jesus is resurrected. The day of Pentecost comes and, and Paul's life is changed forever, which changed our lives forever. Because if Paul's life wasn't changed, we're not sitting here right now.

But the thing that made Jesus life different than Paul's life is Jesus knew all the details of what was coming and he went anyway.