If you would take out your Bibles and turn to Acts chapter 20. That can be found on page 929 in the Bibles located in the pew in front of you. Acts chapter 20.
John Calvin said about the apostle Paul that “God’s grace was seen in his life not only in such a cruel wolf being turned into a sheep, but also in his assuming the character of a shepherd.” And that’s actually something of what we see in these verses in Acts chapter 20. This is Paul’s only major speech in the book of Acts with the audience of Christians, and in it he is assuming the role of a shepherd as he encourages the elders from Ephesus to watch out for the flock, to care for the sheep, because fierce wolves will come in and threaten to scatter them and to destroy them. That had once been Paul, you know. He was the one who had ravaged the church. He was the one who was breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. But now, at this part of his life, we find that his focus is one, sacrificing his own life for the sake of the ministry that he had received from the Lord Jesus Christ, and two, protecting the church of God which the Lord Jesus had obtained with His own blood. That cruel wolf, the apostle Paul, that cruel wolf, by the grace of God, was not only turned into a sheep but he had assumed the character of a shepherd.
And there are two sides to that picture. There is, on the one hand, something to offer up and there’s something to hold onto. There is something to guard and there is something to give away. We could even say it like this – there is something conservative and there is something liberal. And you know what these verses have to say to us when we think about the priorities of the church, when we think about the priorities of our own lives. Well there are two things. This is our outline for tonight. Number one, Paul’s conservative message. And number two, Paul’s liberal values. His conservative message and his liberal values. Now you’re asking, “How could those two things go together?” Well let’s look at Acts chapter 20, verses 17 to 38 to find out. Before we do, let’s pray and ask for His help and blessing.
Father, we give You thanks for Your Word. We give You thanks for the way it challenges us. Thank You for the way in which all Scripture is breathed out by You and is useful for teaching, correcting, rebuking and training in righteousness. And so we ask that You would do that work in our lives tonight by the work of the Holy Spirit. Help us to see and to hear not just from Paul but to see and to hear from Jesus our Savior tonight. Speak Lord, for Your servants listen. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Acts 20, verse 17:
“Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. And when they came to him, he said to them:
‘You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’’
And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.”
The grass withers and the flowers fall but the Word of our God endures forever.
First, Paul’s conservative message. You’ll notice that much of Paul’s message in these verses is about his message. And he’s saying that he had gone through some really hard things, that there had been tears and there had been trials and there had been plots of the Jews, and he’s about to go through still more difficult things. Verse 22, he says, “I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.” You know, Paul had a strange way of boasting. Most of us try to magnify our strengths and hide our vulnerabilities, but Paul boasted in the things that demonstrated his weakness. And he would say in various places, like he did to the Corinthians, that he boasted in how he faced danger from his own people, he faced danger from the Gentiles, danger from false brothers and trial and in hardship and through many a sleepless night. But the one thing, the one thing that was a constant wherever he went and whatever he was up against, he always preached the message about Jesus.
And there’s a word that appears a couple of times in these verses. It’s the Greek word, “hupostello.” “Hupostello,” and it means “to draw back” or “to withhold.” But you see, Paul, he was one who was sent out. He was sent out with a message. He was an apostle. That comes from the word “apostello.” “Apostello” means “to send out on a mission or a task.” And what Paul says to the Ephesian elders here in this passage is that when he was “apostello,” he did not “hupostello.” You see, when he was sent out with a message about Jesus, he did not shrink back when trouble came, even when it was the message that was the cause of all of his problems. In verse 20 he says, “I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable.” Verse 27, “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.”
You may have heard the story before about what Eugene Peterson’s son told him when he came home from college one weekend. He told his dad something of what he had been learning in his creative writing class. He said, “You know, dad, novelists only write one book. They only write one book. They find their voice, their book, and they write it over and over again.” He said, “William Faulkner only wrote one book. Earnest Hemingway only wrote one book. They just did it in a multitude of different ways.” And then a few days later, one Sunday afternoon after listening to his father’s sermon, he said, “Do you remember what I told you about how novelists only write one book?” He said, “You only preach one sermon, and that was your sermon.” And the older Peterson was offended at first. He had preached through all of the Bible, he had preached thousands of different passages in a multitude of ways, applying them all over to the needs of the congregation, but really what his son was saying is that he had one message. One message, and that message was told over and over again in a variety of different ways.
Paul is like that. And you can see how he even describes the message in a multitude of different terms just in this passage before us. He says in verse 20, he calls it, “that which was profitable.” In verse 21, it was “repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” That was the message. Verse 24, it’s “the gospel of the grace of God.” It’s “the proclamation of the kingdom,” verse 25. It is “the whole counsel of God,” verse 27. And what Paul did was he declared it, he taught it, he testified, he proclaimed, he admonished with tears, and when he preached, he preached to everyone. He preached both to Jews and to Gentiles. He preached everywhere. He went from public and then from house to house and he preached everything. He preached the whole counsel of God the whole time he was with these brothers in Ephesus. And he did not let pressure or intimidation stop him from making this message known. And that is because, verse 32, “It is God and the Word of His grace that is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”
Do you believe that? Do you believe that? Do you believe that this message has first priority, even when, especially when it’s unpopular? Do you believe that the testimony about Jesus Christ is worth holding on to even when it clashes with the beliefs and the opinions of those who are closest to you, to your friends and your family members? Do you believe that when you get busy with life, when you get distracted by trials, that really, really the only thing that will strengthen you, that will hold you up, that will give you hope is the Gospel? It’s the Gospel of the grace of God. Paul knows, Paul knows that when facing opposition as a follower of Jesus it would be very easy to take the easy way out. It would be very easy to preach a message of forgiveness without repentance. It would be easy to appeal to listeners with something that is popular, with something that is entertaining, with something that is therapeutic. Or it would be easy simply to shrink back altogether and to abandon the faith once delivered.
And here, what he’s doing is he’s placing a hedge. He’s placing a hedge around the Gospel to preserve it. And he’s saying, “This is the way. Walk in it.” It’s like that old saying from Princeton Seminary, in the days when it was faithful to the Scripture. One of the Hodges said that, “I am not afraid to say that a new idea never originated from this seminary.” It’s the reformation idea. It’s a call to that reformation idea of always reforming, always going back to, always holding onto the Word of God no matter what. The first thing to say as far as the priorities go is this – hold onto the Word. Keep it. Treasure it. Preach it.
But there’s something else to hold onto as well. And what Paul says is that they also need to hold onto the flock. Paul tells these leaders from the church in Ephesus to keep up their duty of pastoral care. Verse 28, he says, “Pay attention to yourselves and to all the flock.” He charges them to be alert to the dangers of fierce wolves who will come in, men who come and speak twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. You know, most of Paul’s speech here in this section is a testimony about his life. And he also mixes in some prospect of where he’s headed in the future, but this part, verses 28 to 31, this part is a command. And this is Paul’s urgent warning to these men and it carries all the more weight, all the more gravity because this is the last time he thinks he will see them. The last time that he will speak to them face to face. These are his last words. He says, “Watch out. Be careful. Stay alert.”
These verses made me think back to the very beginning of seminary. It was, I believe, the first class – Introduction to Ministry. Basically, Seminary 101. And in that class we learned about several New Testament words that define what ministry in the church should look like. Three of those words are found in this passage. It’s “poimaine,” “episcopas,” and “presbuteros.” These are what we find here, presbyters. They’re elders in the church in Ephesus. They have been set apart by the Holy Spirit as “episcopoi” or overseers. And what they are to do, verse 28 says, is they are “to care.” Literally that word is “to shepherd,” “poimaino,” the church of God. You see, these men had been set apart as leaders because of their godly character and wisdom. They were set apart not to oversee the operations of an institution. That’s not what they were overseers of. They were set apart to oversee people, to watch out for them, to be on the lookout for dangerous intruders, to be on the lookout for dangerous ideas. And to do all that they can do in order to care for the souls of the congregation they serve. And their job responsibility, their calling is a composite of these three words – elder, overseer and shepherd.
There’s a scene in The Pilgrim’s Progress, it’s toward the end, and the two main characters, Christian and Hopeful, they come to some mountains and it says, “Now there were on the tops of these mountains shepherds feeding their flocks and they stood by the highwayside.” And the shepherds’ names Bunyan gives to these four shepherds were, “Knowledge, Experience, Watchful and Sincere.” And they were there to comfort the weary travelers. They were there to warn them of danger. They were there to help them get home. And what Alexander White in his lessons on the characters in Pilgrim’s Progress, he says about a shepherd, he says, “Every true shepherd watches for the souls of his people.” He says, “A shepherd may be a great scholar. A shepherd may be a profound theologian. He may be an able church leader. He may be an authority on ecclesiastical law. He may be a skillful and successful debater in church courts. He may even be a great pulpit orator. But, but he is not a true and faithful shepherd unless he watches for the souls of men.” An elder is an overseer who is a shepherd, who cares for the church of God. These are two things in this passage, two things that are non-negotiables. These are unchanging basics for the health and the wellbeing of the church. Number one is the ministry of the Word, and number two is the ministry of pastoral care.
And they go together, don’t they? And what Paul is saying is to keep a watch on the flock by keeping a watch on the Word. And three are all kinds of messages out there, aren’t there? There are all kinds of things that can distract us and lead us astray. They are everywhere; they are all the time. I would bet that there are some of you that have gotten a distracting ding or buzz just in the time that you have been sitting here tonight with some sort of notification, some sort of message that is calling out for your attention. What Paul’s message is to these Ephesian elders, he’s saying that what’s really worth conserving, what’s really worth preserving and protecting at all costs is the church of God and the Word of God. That’s his conservative message.
But he also says there are some things that are not worth holding onto. There are some things that are better to give away. And that brings us to Paul’s liberal values. And you know the English writer, Samuel Johnson, he’s famous for having said a bunch of things but one of the things he said is that, “When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” In other words, the imminent prospect of death has a way of clarifying what is really and truly important, doesn’t it? Well for Paul, the threat of imprisonment and the threat of death on the horizon had a way of clarifying for him what he valued most and it wasn’t his own life. And he talks about his tears, he talks about the trials that had happened to him throughout his ministry in verse 19. He talks about the imprisonment and the afflictions that are coming to him in the days to come. And then he says in verse 24, “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself” – only that he would run the race with endurance, only that he would finish the course that was set before him.
You see, Paul had an upside down way of thinking about his life and his stuff. We could say he had a beatitudes way of looking at everything. “Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn, for the meek. Blessed are those who suffer, who are persecuted for righteousness sake.” You see, Paul understood that. He understood that blessing comes not in the usual way of thinking about the good life but in its opposite. And the way to enjoy his life was not to hold onto it, but to let it go; not to save it up but to give it away. And to that he adds another beatitude, doesn’t he? He adds a beatitude that we do not find in the sermon on the mount, but it’s a beatitude that comes from the lips of Jesus nonetheless. Verse 35, “Remember the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, who He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” More blessed to give than to receive. That’s a red letter verse in some of your Bibles, isn’t it? Those are the words of Jesus. And they are actually written just like Jesus’ beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5. Literally this verse says, “Blessed it is rather to give than to receive.” He’s saying, “Happy, happy is the man who gives rather than receives. Happy, joyful, satisfied are those people who make it their practice to be generous rather than to be safe, those who share their possessions liberally rather than hold onto them too closely.”
Now I’ve told you the story before about my friend Peggy Blake who died about a month ago. We had a Bible study several years ago over at Jackson Manor Apartments in Midtown and Peggy came faithfully. She participated in the group on a regular basis. And one day, one night she came with an envelope, and in the envelope she had her tithe that she wanted me to bring back to the church. And at first, I didn’t want to take it because she didn’t have very much. I think there was a time in her life where she had been homeless for a stretch. She needed that money more than the church needed the money. And then, I remembered Paul’s words in the letter to the Philippians where he was talking about giving. And he says, “Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increased to your credit.” And you see, for me to have refused her gift would have been denying her the fruit that comes with such a gift. It would have been denying her the fruit like the fruit of generosity and gratitude and an increased trust in the Lord. It would have been denying her a heart that is more focused on spiritual needs than on earthly needs. It would have been denying a life that is storing up treasure in heaven rather than storing up treasure on earth. That’s what Paul means when he tells the elders in Ephesus that, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
We know that when trouble comes, when tight times come in our own lives, that’s what Paul is saying. He’s saying trouble is going to come to them, both from outside and from inside. When those things happen, it’s natural for us to want to protect ourselves and to protect our things and to look inwardly, to turn inward. But we can’t forget to help the weak is what Paul says in verse 35. We cannot forget to have a heart that is attuned to those who are in great need. And in these verses Paul shows us the way. He held his own life loosely and he held his possessions loosely too in order for him to care for others. He valued, you see, a spirit of liberality, generosity, sacrificial giving. That was Paul’s life. He showed us the way. But really he was just showing us the way of Jesus and he was following the way of Jesus Himself.
Jesus, who not only said that, “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” but Jesus also said, “I am the Good Shepherd and I lay down my life for the sheep.” And Jesus said, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his own soul?” And you remember that Jesus said to His disciples, like to Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me? Feed My lambs. Do you love Me? Tend My sheep.” And for a third time, “Do you love Me? Feed My sheep.” And at the end of the sermon on the mount, Jesus closed His sermon with those words, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them, he will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rains fell and the floods came but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock.”
You see, when Paul is addressing these elders in Ephesus this is the church he is talking about. The church of God which He obtained with His own blood. That’s you. And what Jesus did by shedding His own blood was for you and to make you His own. This is too important to neglect. It’s too important to neglect ourselves in the lives of others around us. This is the beauty of the Gospel that is at stake here in these verses. It is the glory of the name of Jesus that is on the line. Keep the Word. Tend the sheep. Help the weak. And give your life. That’s countercultural. And on the one hand it’s conservative, and on the other hand it’s liberal. But that’s the way of faith and that’s the way of faithfulness in the kingdom of God. May He make us that way as well.
Let’s pray.Father, we thank You for this message, this speech from Paul to the elders in Ephesus. We marvel at his own example that he provided for us, but we marvel most at the example of what Your grace had done in his life to direct us not just to Paul but to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Himself. We want to be more like Christ, to hear His Word, to do it, to tend the flock, to give of our own possessions and to give even our own lives if You were to call us to do so, and in doing so that we would find what truly blessing is. Help us by Your grace and by the power of the Holy Spirit to walk in faithfulness and to honor and glorify You in all that we do. And we pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.