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0:20 Troaz, the coast of Asia Minor, and this is around A.D. 0:24 49. 0:25 And if you look up the shoreline just a little bit, you'll see the ruins of Troy. 0:29 About 400 years earlier, a young king landed there with his army and stopped in order to honor the tomb of his hero, Achilles. 0:37 This was Alexander the Great's first move when he touched land. 0:41 Now, we see there is a tent maker that is sleeping in Troas. 0:45 He's short on money, but not on experiences. 0:47 He's experienced just about every form of actual persecution that a man can face in a lifetime, and he's done it in a very short period of time. 0:54 And he also had a vision. 0:56 Acts 16 9 says this a man of Macedonia was standing there urging him and saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us. 1:05 Macedonia. 1:06 So you don't need to be too much of a history buff to recognize that that is Alexander's homeland. 1:11 Alexander came out of Macedonia in order to take on the world. 1:15 And now Macedonia is begging for help. 1:18 And all week this week, we are contrasting the story of Alexander the Great and his self-absorbed focus with historical figures from the Bible and the glory they sought out for God. 1:27 Now let's go back to Paul here. 1:29 So at this moment, Paul is in Alexander's backyard. 1:32 So Philippi was named after Alexander the Great's father, Philip II of Macedon. 1:37 Thessalonica was named for Alexander's half-sister. 1:40 And now let's look at Athens. 1:42 The poem that we read from the Roman poet Lucan on Monday says Alexander looked at fallen Athens and looked away. 1:50 And now Paul walked into Athens and preached Christ. 1:54 I mean, these men literally took the same exact roads to the same exact places, but for the exact opposite reasons. 2:02 They had opposing missions. 2:04 Alexander came to take, but Paul came to give. 2:09 But that wasn't always Paul's focus, right? 2:11 I mean, we have to remember how he started. 2:13 He wasn't always Paul the Apostle. 2:15 He was previously Saul of Tarsus. 2:17 He came from the right tribe. 2:18 He had the right upbringing. 2:20 He had the right training. 2:22 He was the Pharisee of Pharisees, right? 2:24 He persecuted the Christians. 2:26 He was a rising star in his world. 2:28 And of course, he is converted, and his focus, mission, and life changes considerably, right? 2:35 So much so that by the time he was writing this letter to the church in Philippi, he was able to say this in Philippians 3, verses 7 and 8. 2:43 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 2:48 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. 2:53 For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. 3:00 And again, let's just think about where he sent that letter. 3:03 He sent it to Philippi. 3:05 This was King Philip's city, and Paul essentially tells the people of that city that everything he had ever achieved or accomplished in life was garbage compared to Christ. 3:16 And guys, you really don't want to miss this. 3:18 Paul was a very ambitious man, but his ambition wasn't pointed at worldly things at this point in his life. 3:25 I mean, go to Romans 15 20, and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel not where Christ has already been named. 3:32 So Paul wanted to reach Spain, which was the western edge of the known world at the time. 3:38 And Lucan says that Alexander dreamed of the edge of the earth. 3:42 So Paul had the same dream, but Alexander wanted his name, his renown, and his kingdom to stretch across the earth. 3:50 Whereas Paul wanted every ear to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. 3:56 And this came at a huge cost to Paul the Apostle, right? 4:00 I mean, in his own words in 2 Corinthians 11, he says this, starting in verse 24 five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 4:08 Three times I was beaten with rods. 4:10 Once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I was adrift at sea, on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship, through 4:27 many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, and cold and exposure. 4:31 And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. 4:38 And in Philippi, the first city in Macedonia, Paul was beaten with rods and thrown into prison. 4:44 I mean, that's where we get the story described in Acts 16, where he and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God while they were shackled. 4:51 And in worldly terms, there wasn't a happy ending for Paul. 4:54 He was executed in Rome under Nero. 4:57 And here's something that I didn't know until recently, and perhaps you didn't know either. 5:00 Lucan, the poet that wrote Alexander's epitaph that I read on Monday, died under the same emperor during that same period of time. 5:08 Nero ordered Lucan's death in 65 AD when he was just 25 years old. 5:12 And again, we really need to go back to the formative years of Alexander's and Paul's lives. 5:17 They were both set up for a tremendous amount of worldly success. 5:21 They were born to the right people, they were raised in the right houses, and they were given the right opportunities. 5:26 Both of them started down the path of worldly glory. 5:30 Alexander made it to the edge of the earth, whatever that meant for him, only to turn around and see all the places he had conquered in disarray. 5:38 And he died of typhoid after an epic drinking contest. 5:41 I mean, not exactly a glorious finish that he was looking for. 5:44 And Paul was on a trajectory of tremendous influence, wealth, and power, but he had to run in with the risen Christ. 5:50 And it changed everything. 5:52 Even after encountering Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul could have made a different decision, right? 5:59 He could have still chosen worldly possessions and titles, but he gave it all up. 6:03 He got to a point where he counted all of those things as rubbish. 6:08 And I guess the gut check question for all of you is this if you were given the same options and setup, would you go the way of Alexander or would you go the way of Paul? 6:18 I mean, you really got to investigate that inside yourself and you have to do it honestly. 6:22 Because as you've heard Joby say over and over, there's no either-or with Jesus. 6:28 He can't be your savior and then not your Lord. 6:31 He has to be both. 6:33 And in order to be your savior and Lord, he requires everything.