Elders from Ephesus - Part II

Good morning. We're going to be stepping our way into this passage, Acts of the Apostles, chapter 20, verses 25 through 38, that Jim just read for us here. One of the things I think is valuable for us to do is to try to place ourselves into the mindset that the Apostle Paul has here. these are people whom he dearly loves so far as we have any record he spent the longest with them that he did with any of the various churches and as he says right in this message to the elders from Ephesus. He spent three years with them, and they were not just academic years. These were words said with great passion. And one of the things that I think is also kind of momentous, and we'll see it come out boldly in this passage, is he's going to tell them, he's already been talking to them, that's last week's passage, But he's going to tell them, and we're going to see at the beginning of the passage and at the end, this is the last time I will see your face.

And I tried to, in various ways, imagine and put myself into what would that be like? And I'm sure there are ways in which I cannot personally think of a parallel. But I'll tell you about one that was hugely significant for me. When I was in high school, there was a fellow that I met early on in high school. His name was Bill. I began, weeks after meeting Bill, to loathe the man, young the way he was. I hated him. That continued through high school and got even worse. It continued on for decades. And it even caused struggles for me through the rest of life. Even raising my kids began to be difficult because of that. But I didn't know how to let go of it.

Eight years ago, he contacted me. He said, Vern, I'd like to have a friendship with you. And if you don't want that, I'll understand. But he said, I've come to know Christ. Immediately, I had to let it all go. He became my dear brother, and we shared back and forth, you know, sending things, mailing things back and forth, calling on the phone, sometimes as many as two times a day. We would talk to one another. Well, finally in September 2012, I actually got to see him face to face. But what I didn't know was that was the last time I'd see him.

In January 2014, he called me up and he said, Vern, I'm going home to meet my father. He says, the doctors had given me two years. Well, he didn't have two years. He didn't have four months. His wife called me up about four months later and said, I want you to know, because I know that you and he had a special relationship. And he's gone home. I said, yeah, I found out, but thank you for calling. By the way, November of that year, she went home.

But it was one of those things I looked at. It was very, very significant for me. And so think of that. Think of that story that I told you. And you can probably think of other instances where you've seen somebody for the last time. And he is telling these blessed and precious believers, brothers in the Lord, these elders from Ephesus, he's telling them, I'm going to see you for the last time.

And it's going to be one of those touching moments. Yes, tears. embracing all those things. It's Paul's longest address to Christians, as we presented last week, that's recorded in the book of Acts. He may have spoken longer at other times, but this is what's recorded for us in our benefit. He spoke also to men.

These were the elders from Ephesus. Every indication we have from the New Testament is that elders were and are to be men. And so this is a message especially to men. Does it have much for those who are not men or those who are not yet grown men? Most certainly. But there is a definite expression there. As we pointed out last week, God from the very outset made them male and female, Genesis chapter 1. And so the distinction is not just incidental. It's not just a biological accident. but it is instead something that has huge significance.

So let's take a look at what Paul said to them, starting with verse 25. So Acts 20, 25. He says, And now, behold, I know that all of you among whom I went about preaching the kingdom will no longer see my face." So he tells them this news. Apparently, so far as we can tell, he's breaking the news to them then. And he happens to know, because he knows as an apostle, things that wouldn't ordinarily be revealed to people. I told you a story about myself and my friend Bill. I didn't know it was going to be the last time, but Paul here does, and that would be a big difference.

One of the other words that would be good to bring forward is the word among. It's a word that shows up here, it shows up later in the passage, and it's one that is used also by the Apostle Peter as he writes to the elders in 1 Peter 5, 1 through 4. This word among is important. Paul was among them, he was not aloof, he was not separate. He says, and I went about preaching the kingdom.

You will no longer see my face. He didn't start off by telling them this at the beginning of the passage as we saw last week, but he tells them now in this passage, both at the beginning here in this verse and towards the very end. We're going to see it again. And what we know from the rest of the book of Acts and from the rest of the epistles This was in fact the case. He never did see them again, at least not here on earth.

He says he went about preaching the kingdom. Between the Gospels and the Book of Acts, and actually as we've looked at previously, starting in Genesis and going on to the Book of Revelation, there are two Gospels. One is the Gospel of the Kingdom. This is particularly used as a phrase of John the Baptist and Jesus early in his earthly ministry with Israel. He presented himself as Israel's Messiah, and that continued to be preached on throughout the Book of Acts. There's also the Gospel of Substitution. This is the one where Christ died for us in our place. Christ died for our sins. He was buried. He rose again.

That was preached to the whole world and is to be preached to the whole world. So here you summarize it the the preaching of the kingdom both Gospels were preached to the very end of the book of Acts We'll see in the last verses Acts 28 30 and 31 Both of these Gospels are presented the gospel of the kingdom and the gospel of Christ Who died for our sins and was buried and rose again? Here's Acts 20 26 and 27 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men for I did not shrink from declaring you the whole purpose of God He says here the blood of all men this is an expression that shows up as we note here earlier in the book of Acts twice and shows up here in this passage and The idea is that there is a responsibility to pass on the truth, and therefore he fulfilled the responsibility and did not have this great responsibility on his hands. He had in fact fulfilled it, and so it was not laid upon him. That's what this expression is all about. He had carried on his responsibility to them regarding themselves and the lives of all the others by sharing salvation and then telling them, as we'll see here shortly, the whole purpose of God to the believers in Ephesus. He did so, as we see, at every opportunity. Here's Acts 20, 26 and 27.

It says, For I did not shrink And as we look at that, what is this? Did not shrink. Didn't mean he got littler, right? So it did not shrink. He did not pull back from. He did not hesitate as he presented the gospel. The flip side of that is courage. The positive statement of that is courage. He'll use it here. He's actually going to use it later on in the passage as well. He expressed courage. He did not withdraw from the responsibility to present this.

The whole purpose of God, what we see in this word purpose, expressed sometimes as purposed in the past tense, it means to plan and intend. Everything God planned and intended as revealed in the Word of God and as revealed to Paul the Apostle, He expressed to them. He spelled out everything, right?

One of the other things we see as we look at Acts 20, 28-30 is this. It says, Be on the guard for yourselves and for all the flock. And then that's in verse 28. In verse 31 he says, Therefore be on the alert. So this particular passage has a starting, be on guard, and then be on the alert.

It sounds almost like a military stationing. You are on guard, you are to be on the alert, don't drop the ball at any point. Just think of the military responsibility that someone would well understand if they were in this culture. What would it mean? It would mean that they would understand that they are supposed to be on the alert and on guard and not fail in that.

So he has a double charge, and that's not two charges that show up on your credit card, right? This double charge is instead to be on guard and be on the alert, and he puts that as an emphasis at the beginning and towards the end of the middle of this passage here.

Between those charges he warned them of savage wolves from among their own selves. This is going to be shocking news for them. They're looking, wait a minute, I've got these fellow shepherds here, wolves from among us. This is a pretty intense warning. Imagine the intensity that they're starting to get from this. Imagine what Paul is thinking. After my departure, this is what's going to happen. I'm telling you. I'm warning you.

So the actions in verses 28 and 31 are based upon God's preparation. That's one of the things that becomes clear from this passage. It's accomplished by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has made you overseers. It's accomplished by Christ on the cross and by the Apostle Paul. So let's look at that.

Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock. And he refers several times in this passage to the church body as the flock. Among which, here's that word among coming again, The believers are to have the shepherds among them. Even the Apostle Paul was among those to whom he ministered, not aloof, not apart, not separate.

The Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Now, one of the things to look at here, we go through as a church and we say, well, this person's an elder and this person is not, and we make that designation. but an elder is one whom the Holy Spirit has prepared. An elder, also called an overseer, also called a shepherd. The Holy Spirit is the one who does the preparation. All we do as a church body is recognize the Holy Spirit's preparation.

And one more thing, shepherd the church of God. The word shepherd we've tended in our culture to make as a pastor. The Latin form of that is to pastor. We use that often as a title. Do you know how many times the New Testament makes shepherd a title for elders and shepherds and overseers? How many times? Zip.

What's very interesting is outside of probably James, In the church in Jerusalem, we don't know for sure the name of any elder in the entire New Testament. Why? Interestingly enough, the only shepherd who gets shepherd as a title is Christ. Isn't that amazing? Christ.

Hebrews chapter 13, 1 Peter chapter 2, 1 Peter chapter 5. Christ gets the title shepherd every time. The elders get the title shepherd, pastor, whatever. Zip. Nothing. But there is the verb, the action. Here it says, shepherd the church of God which you purchased with His own blood. 1 Peter 5 verses 1-4. Guess what Peter does? He writes to the elders and guess what he does here? Just like you see here.

Shepherd is a verb. That tells us one thing, God's a whole lot more interested in action from shepherds than titles. People come up with some amazing titles for people that are supposed to be pastors. I've even heard one, the right reverend perbendery, whatever that means. But God's interested in action, not titles.

Notice again in verse 29, again reference to the flock, but then We're going to see something very important here. The flock which he purchased with his own blood. Whose church is it? You ever hear about, oh, the pastor here, that's his church, or that's his? No. Whose church is it? It's Christ's church. He bought it. He bought it. Nobody has to say, oh, that's my church as if I owned it or had some big... No. Christ is the one who purchased the church, the flock, with His own blood.

And notice in verse 30, the warning, these who are wolves, men, will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. Church division. Church split. You ever hear that? We talked about it in the elective right before this. One of the things we said, church splits happen because people are not walking in the Spirit, at least some of them.

Here he says, it will even be from among the elders that that will take place. But notice that at 31, he says, I admonished each one with tears. And he says over a period of three years. He doesn't just simply do a data dump. Okay, here's all the information, right? It's one of the things that can easily happen at a church. It can easily happen. People go off to Bible college and seminary and they get the data dump and they pass the test and they may even graduate with honors.

That's not what this is about. He passed it along to them and he said, I admonish with tears. Why? He was not dispassionate about it. He was not cold and heartless doing a data dump. This isn't plugging your USB port. But rather, admonish one another with tears.

Why? Because the content counts. Because eternity matters. Here's Acts 20, 32, "...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 who are sanctified." He commends them to God and to the word of His grace. Notice he doesn't say, I commended you to the Bible college program. I commend you to the seminary degree. I commend you to all the electives they have at Holly Hills. It's not the program, okay? It's not just the data dump. But this is personal, okay?

I commend you to God and the Word of His grace. He's the one who matters, the one who counts, and it's His Word. People in the church body may be commissioned with sharing it, may be commissioned in teaching it and passing it along. And I'm glad for what we do here. But we must always keep in mind it's the Word of His grace. And by the way, it's grace too. They're able to do what?

To build up the body of Christ toward the eternal inheritance for us all. God and the Word of His grace has an ability. That ability comes from Him and through His Word, and it's got to be the Word of His grace. Anything less than the word of His grace, and it doesn't get there. It says, all those who are sanctified. You know, that word sanctified is written in such a way that it means sanctified and it's already done. It's a done deal. God accomplished it. Here's the next thing here.

Acts 20, 33, and 35, I have coveted no one's silver or gold or clothes. You yourselves know that these hands minister to my own needs and to the men who are with me. In everything I showed you by working hard in this manner, you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that He Himself said is more blessed to give than to receive. One of the things we see here at the outset, the first half of that passage, Paul was not a taker.

He was definitely not being a burden to the church there at Ephesus. Could he have done so? Yes, he could. He could have said, look, I'm an apostle, I'm busy, you know, you guys need to help out. But instead, he made sure that he was not a burden. And one of the other things that it means, he served as an example, being an elder, Certainly being an apostle, but being an elder means working hard and hard work.

1 Timothy 5 talks about those elders who work hard. And so if you want an easier route, this is not the one to pick. Paul summed up the ministry of the elders to the body of Christ. It is one, it is God-centered. He ministered the word and they are to do the same. He says, it consists of helping the weak and is about giving and not about receiving.

One of the things that happened when I first came here is there was a back and forth between me and some of the others who were selecting who would come here next. And they all of a sudden realized, well, we haven't talked to Vern about money. And one of the things Art Lauther said back at the time, he says, well, the right guy will not ask about money until the end. And that's the way it happened. In the end, it's not about receiving, it's about giving. Here's Acts 20, 36 through 38.

And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all, and they began to weep aloud, and they embraced Paul and repeatedly kissed him. grieving especially over the word which he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they were accompanying him to the ship. All the words that he had said, I'm sure, hit home pretty heavy.

But what really struck them are these words, this is the last time I'm going to see you. So they prayed, they wept, they embraced, they kissed, and they grieved. Oh, we're not going to see this blessed man. This man who has invested not just his time, but his heart for us.

Paul realized this was all with great eternal consequence, and he had conveyed that to them as well. And now they were praying and laying everything in God's lap. So that's why they wept and they embraced and they kissed one another. And these are men. Men grieved they'd be seeing Paul at these moments for the last time until they all saw the Lord face to face. Last week we covered five principles for men. These are here restated. And so the first one goes like this. As Paul came with humility, the ultimate example was and is Christ. That's what Christ's life looks like in God's man.

We underscored that in the culture, humility was looked upon as a character defect. He had to teach humility. Increasingly, our own culture is headed that direction. Humility is having less and less of a basis And people are pursuing their own public image, and even churches are marketing the pastor and doing that. Instead, humility is the example, which starts with Christ Himself. This is what Christ's life looks like in a man. The next, God's man learns Christ Himself, not just about Christ.

It isn't just a matter of, oh, I have a lot of biblical knowledge. I've got a lot of data. I heard one fellow say, oh, I just look at the Gospels and look at all the red letters. It's what Christ said that counts, right? And so they put all the emphasis there, not understanding, wait a minute, it's all inspired, right? Every bit of it.

But it isn't just learning about Christ, it's learning Him personally. That's what, in fact, the Apostle Paul is going to write to the church at Ephesus. The study is going to see later on in Ephesians 4. Learning Christ directly, not just about Him. The only way to learn Christ personally and directly is to personally discover, starting from God's Word, who I am in Christ and who Christ is in me.

One of the reasons that I just was immediately struck with something I had not been able to deal with for decades, who came to be a dear friend, Bill, is I said, this guy, this guy has been forgiven by the Lord. How dare I not do the same? This guy has discovered Christ in him and he in Christ.

God's man learn and expresses God's top priorities. What's important to the Lord? That is then lived out and others understand looking at the life of God's man. That's what's important to him. God's man learns and expresses God's top priorities. Do we know it all right away? Most certainly not. But as we learn it, it gets expressed. And finally, on this set of principles, God's man learns his own limitations, so learns to depend upon Christ for adequacy in life. Learning one's own limitations is exceedingly important.

Why? Because we're not cut out, men, and women, we're not cut out for what God has called us to. We aren't. We are designed and intended by God to be adequate only in Him. Only with His adequacy. Ever feel inadequate and insufficient? Good. That's exactly what the Lord wants us to be. Here are the second set new for this Sunday. Primary principles for men, so two of two, right?

You'll either have Christ as your first love, your life, or your leader, or you're going to be a loser. Ooh, strong words. Decades later, the Apostle John was instructed to write messages to the seven churches, and the first of those was the church at Ephesus. And he says, you've got this, and you've got this, and you've got this, and you've got this, but guess what you've lost? You've lost your first love. Your first love. Your first love, your life, as Paul wrote to the church in Colossae, Christ who is your life, and your leader, right? Or are you going to be a loser? What do I mean by that?

Do we actually believe that in the end God is going to reward greater than the world and the flesh and the devil will promise us falsely? Do we believe God will reward us greater than what the world, the flesh and the devil promise falsely? That's what I mean by a loser. We lose out.

As a matter of fact, the Lord Himself had John Wright talk about, He wants to reward us fully and to the max. That's how the Lord is motivated. The reward, the reward is something we should look upon keeping. We don't want to lose that reward. It's not losing your salvation, it's losing reward, a capacity to glorify the Lord.

Next, you've been entrusted by God Himself with leading and being an example of and by the life of Christ who lives in you. That's what we men have been called to, no matter what role we've been called to specifically. Each of us have been entrusted with different things as men who are a part of the church body, as men who are leading in our marriages, as men who are leading in our families. Leading and being an example of the life of Christ who lives in you.

Nancy once asked our boys, and I think it's a very appropriate question, and I think as a guy, this is a very good question to answer. She once said, can you tell when I'm walking in the spirit and when I'm not? Good question. Very good question. And our kids, in fact, should see and know and understand that.

Next, expect aggressive, sly, and or stealthy opposition from our spiritual enemies. Anybody who figures they're going to go through the life as a believer without opposition is fooling themselves. You will have opposition, and especially if you seek to have a life fellowship and dependence upon the Lord. You will have opposition. And sometimes it will come across very overt. Sometimes it will be very shockingly in your face.

And the world's gotten very good at that. But the world's also gotten very good at something else. The stealth attack. The one you weren't expecting. the one that comes completely out of the blue and by surprise. And the world's gotten very good at that.

Both of those come by these little devices that all of us get connected to, right? So we have these little device distractions thrown at us, sometimes very overtly, sometimes covertly. But it will come just the same, and we need to learn to expect it. We also need to learn to reject it. Expect it. Don't be surprised. Don't be shocked. But learn to reject it.

Why? Because God's got something far, far better that He has in mind for us. Be on guard and on the alert. It's either all courage in Christ or Adam's cowardly character. See that? We will get things thrown at us from all kinds of angles. Sometimes things will hit us covertly. Sometimes it will come at us overtly. But regardless of how it comes, we're to be on the alert for it. It's either all courage in Christ, no shrinking, or Adam's cowardly character, and there's only those two. And guess what? God does not say, pick one. Just pick one, I don't care, just pick one. No. Guess which one you're to pick.

And it comes not because we make the right choice, but because we realize All courage in Christ is the only thing that makes any sense, because it's the only thing that's going to last forever. Do you realize that every promise that the world, the flesh, and the devil make are terminal? It's all going to go... Every promise that the world, the flesh, and the devil make, and they make it sound good, every time it's terminal, none of it will get past heaven's gates.

None. So for us men, especially, does this apply to women? Most certainly. But for us men especially, all courage in Christ or Adam's cowardly character is going to be one of the two. One of the fakes, one of the sly things will be to try to make those look grayscale. It's not. It's not. It's not shades. I can't mix and match. That might work for interior decorating. It does not work, spiritually speaking.

Finally, faith is expressed by courage in Christ. Faith is expressed by courage in Christ, by believing what God has revealed in His Word. That's it. There is no plan B. There is no other option or alternative. Faith doesn't look like anything else. Faith is courage in Christ. Do I feel like I'm up to whatever the task is? Well, of course not! Good! I'm in deep trouble if I think I'm up to it. But is Christ up to anything that God puts in front of me? Absolutely. All courage in Christ are Adam's cowardly character. Faith looks like courage in Christ. And it's the only thing that faith looks like. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you that you have given us great, amazing, phenomenal guidance here. We thank you that you have laid these things out, not so we can just pack our head full of data, but in fact so that this gets lived out among us, as we saw in this passage, especially to the men. That it touches on where we live every day. It touches on the places that you have given us as a stewardship with our marriages, with our families, within the church. And we know that the adequacy only comes from you. And in that, in you, Learning you, we can take great courage. Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name, Amen.