1047. Help the Weak Through Sacrificial Sacrifice

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. We're in a study series from Acts chapter 20 from Seminary Chapel, and today's speaker is Andrew Medick, one of the faculty in the School of Religion. The passage that we come to brings to a conclusion Paul's exhortation to these Ephesian elders that he's been speaking with.

And according to verse 38, Paul believes that this is the last time that he will see these men alive. And so he kind of, you know, bears his heart to these men. He exhorts them. He talks to them about their ministry, and they're continuing the ministry that he began there in the church in Ephesus. And then in our passage today in verses 33 through 35, he lays out another topic that he feels is very important for them to consider as men in the ministry. But what is surprising is that in verse 32, he's already given the benediction. If you look at verse 32, he says there, I commend you to God, to the word of his grace, and he goes on. He's already sort of wrapped up his exhortation to these men before he addresses the topic that we're looking at today in verses 33 through 35.

It's almost like he kind of tacks it onto the end, almost as an afterthought. And it would be kind of like if I finished the message today and prayed and dismissed everyone, and we all started filing out the doors over here, and all of a sudden I flipped the mic back on and said, hold on. Everybody come back. Sit back down. I forgot to say something. And, you know, those of you who know me well know that my memory is like a bucket without a bottom, and so that very well may happen. But if it did happen, what would be going through your head as you're coming back in the door and as you're sitting back down? You're probably thinking, whatever he forgot to say, whatever he called us back to say, I sure hope it's really good, because I was already on the way to lunch.

I was already waiting for Hebrew at 12 or whatever. And so you can see that the way that Paul tacks this on the end sort of elevates the importance of it, and he's poured out his heart to these men. He's given them his final exhortations. He's brought everything to a climax in the benediction in verse 32, and then he remembers that he hasn't yet said anything to them about this topic. So what is it that Paul is so concerned about? Well, let's read through verses 33 through 35 and take a look at that. He says in verse 33, I've coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel, yea, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered under my necessities and to them that were with me. I have showed you all things, how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said it is more blessed to give than to receive.

So what's he talking about here? He's talking about money, right? He's talking about material things. And of all the topics to bring up at the culmination of an exhortation to people in ministry, he brings up the topic of money. Now whether he actually forgot, like in my little illustration, or whether he intentionally saved this topic for the end, either way it highlights it as something that was very important to Paul in his speech to these men. And so we're considering it today because nothing's changed in 2,000 years, right? People today still struggle with their relationship to material things.

They still struggle to understand that. You think about it all through Scripture. Christ says things like that it's easier for a rich man to go through the eye of a needle than for, or sorry, easier for the camel to go through the eye of the needle than for the rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Solomon writes how he got everything and he still found himself empty and he found it to be vanity. Paul says that the love of money could move you to any kind of evil is the idea in that passage.

It's a root of any kind of evil. In Hebrews we're told that we need to be content and not be covetous. Christ exhorted us to not serve two masters. We can either serve money or we can serve God.

And sometimes money is a positive thing in Scripture but almost always in Scripture it's presented as a negative thing, as a rival to God, as something that we struggle with, that we struggle to understand what to do with and how to rightly use. But who is Paul talking to in this passage? He's not talking to Christian people in general. Look at verse 17. Who is he talking to? The elders of the Ephesian church, right?

Now hold on a second. You mean to tell me that people in ministry still struggle with their relationship to material things? I thought that being a pastor exempted you from this, right? No, Paul goes on and he tacks this onto the end of his message to these men because he apparently feels that men in ministry still can struggle with this particular thing. And he in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 makes a qualification for an elder that a man is not seeking material things and seeking money. So apparently men in ministry do struggle. And we can revise the problem that we're looking at this morning to this, that people in ministry struggle with their relationship to material things. And perhaps few things in the Scriptures could be more important for someone in ministry to consider than how they relate to their money. We can all think probably of people who were in ministry and now they're not because they got entangled in the things of this world.

My grandparents lived up near Charlotte for a number of years up until this past summer. And every time we would go to visit them we would drive past a church on the left-hand side and the pastor of that church is in jail for embezzlement. Very large church, large ministry, I don't know much about it but I do know he's in jail for embezzlement.

And so this is a sober topic that we're thinking about today. And in this passage Paul addresses I think two specific ways that people in ministry struggle with their relationship to material things. In the first place they can struggle with the danger of ministry for personal gain.

Paul says in verse 33 that he did not covet any man silver or gold or apparel. Now in the Old Testament Isaiah 56, Jeremiah 6 and 8, Micah 3, these prophets had to rebuke and denounce the false prophets because of their love of money and the fact that they were ministering for money. Paul says in Titus 1 that false teachers minister for the sake of sordid gain. In 2 Peter 2, Peter warns about the greed of false teachers.

And it seems like this is what James is warning about in James chapter 2. Remember that scenario where the rich man comes into the church? Oh brother, so glad you're here. Come have a good seat at the front. Then the poor man comes in. What do you do to the poor man? We got a seat for you back there in the back, back where the person runs the PowerPoint, that kind of thing.

Why would you do that? Why would you treat people that way unless you were hoping that the rich man might give you or give to the church some of his money, right? It seems like that's what James is driving at. And in contrast to that, Paul says no, no, as a true minister of the Gospel, I didn't covet what other people had. I wasn't ministering for what I could get out of it.

Instead he goes on in verse 34 and he diligently worked to provide for himself. He says you know, and he's appealing to their knowledge, he says you know that these hands ministered to my necessities. So it's like probably when he was talking he was holding up his hands saying, hey, see these hands?

Think really hard. Where have you seen these hands before? Yeah, that's right, you saw them working hard in order to provide for myself. And he's using his hands to call back their memory of what he had done in their presence. And in Paul's day, working with your hands was something that a lot of people did. It wasn't uncommon, but it was certainly something that a higher society person would never consider doing. And so it was something that Paul did out of humility.

Now we need to stop and address the obvious question, right? Should we, like Paul, refuse to be supported by God's people and support ourselves, right? Those who are going out into full-time ministry, is that what you should take away from this passage?

Well Christ in Luke 10 and Paul in 1 Corinthians 9 and 1 Timothy 5 both taught that those who preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel. And so because of that, Paul sometimes did accept gifts. Like in 2 Corinthians 11, he took gifts from another church. In Philippians 4 he took gifts from another church.

And it's actually an act of service and worship to God for his people to give of their increase to support the shepherd that God's placed over them. And so for that reason, Paul's letters actually encourage us to give financially in 1 Corinthians 9 and in Galatians 6. And we should support ministers in that way. So it's clear that ministers should live of the Gospel, right? That's established in Scripture. But there's a difference, and I think we all realize the difference, between living for the Gospel and living of the Gospel and living for money. There's a difference between living of the Gospel and living for money. And so I think we can sum up the principle here in this passage for our own ministry in this way, that we should beware of the danger of ministry for personal gain. And that's what Paul is warning us about. It's right for God's people to support us in our ministry, but we must not minister for that gain.

It's a matter of our heart and where our heart is to be found. But the emphasis of this passage is on the second danger that I think is possibly more real in the lives of people in this room today than the first. There may be someone here who is going into ministry for personal gain.

I kind of doubt that there's very many, if any, in this room there. But the second danger is one that I think is probably something that we can all identify with a little bit more, and that's the danger of neglecting to minister materially. You see, ministry, not for what you can get, isn't enough.

You have to also give of what the Lord has blessed you with. And Paul sets the example. In verse 34 he says, not only that his hands ministered to himself, but also to those that were with him. And he isn't just giving his own actions here, kind of holding himself up as, hey, check me out. He's actually laying on us a responsibility to do the same thing because he goes on in verse 35 and says that he showed to these men all things, how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak. And so this isn't just Paul.

This is actually an example that we should follow as well. The verb to labor there speaks of physical toil. It speaks of hard work. It speaks of sacrifice, of being willing to deprive yourself for the good of others. And he juxtaposes that with the idea of the weak.

So here's someone who's not able to labor. Paul is able to labor and so he labors in order to support that other person. And then he goes on to quote something that Christ said. Now it's not recorded in the Gospels.

Don't go looking for a cross reference. But it's something that Christ evidently said and many people remembered and so Paul could call it back to mind. That it's more blessed to give than to receive. And I want to raise the question this morning, why did Paul admonish us to remember? Why did he admonish us to remember? It's not a trick question. Because if we don't give diligence to remember, we will forget, right?

Yeah, we will forget. And so if you're not ministering materially, our problem is not that we don't understand how to do it. This isn't rocket science.

You take what God's given to you and you use it to be a blessing to others. It's not hard. And I've got news for you. If you look in this passage, there's actually no great exegetical points to be made by studying the Greek.

Now I teach Greek so that pains me to say that. Like you've got no idea how much that pains me to say that. But there's actually no hidden key here.

There's no secret formula. If we're not doing it, it's simply because we've forgotten to do it. If we're not doing it, it's simply because we've neglected to do it. So have we forgotten?

Have we neglected to do this? And I'd like to suggest this morning that as a movement, fundamentalism has struggled to remember to do this. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Social Gospel stormed the world. And as you know, it replaced the idea of sin with social oppression as being the greatest need that man has and from which Christ saves us. And fundamentalists reacted to that by contending that the mission of the Church was to evangelize the lost, not to minister socially to people's needs.

And so consequently, the Social Gospel primarily took root in the theologically liberal camp. And the fundamentalists were right in their stance and in the position that they took. But some felt that in taking that position, they overreacted and started to forget to minister materially. And so you had books being written like The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism by Carl Henry in 1947.

What was he saying that we were uneasy about? About forgetting to minister socially because we had taken such a stance on the priority of the Gospel. And so in the 1960s, when the New Evangelicals rethought their stance towards liberalism, the question of the Church's social responsibility was again put on the table and was a part of the agenda. There was a push to accept both evangelism and social action as together comprising the whole mission of the Church. The movement was known generally as Holism because it argued that people should minister to the whole of man, not just his spirit and soul, but also his body. And the debate really has polarized evangelicals. Holists say that evangelism and social action are equal partners in the Church's mission. A chief proponent, John Stott, writes that each is in itself an authentic expression of love and neither needs the other to justify it. On the other hand, Prioritists hold that although believers should minister to the whole of man, evangelism is the primary mission of the Church.

Now, two disclaimers. I didn't bring up that history today to try to solve the debate. You all are going to take Theology of Missions and solve that with Kevin Oberlin. The Scripture is clear that when it comes to the mission of the Church that our priority is to proclaim the Gospel and to build people up into churches of disciples. And I also realize that the history that I've recounted pertains primarily to the Church's responsibility towards the lost, while our passage is about, it seems, more about a pastor's responsibility to his flock. But I do bring up that history merely to say that in reaction to the liberal social Gospel and the New Evangelical Holism, even though fundamentalists took a scriptural stand on these issues, it is sometimes really easy for fundamentalists to swing the pendulum in the other direction and to forget to minister materially.

We have this kind of unconscious aversion to it. We feel a little bit self-conscious, like we're almost wrong if we minister materially to other people. And so I want to raise the question, is the Gospel proclamation, now it's primary, I get that, but is Gospel proclamation an excuse for neglecting to minister materially? Well, who's Paul talking to in this passage? The Ephesian elders, right? So what I want to do is just read through Paul's ministry in Acts 19 in Ephesus. And you don't have to turn there, just listen.

I'm going to skim through and kind of hit the highlights for time. But listen to what Paul did when he went to Ephesus. He goes into the synagogue in verse 8. He speaks boldly for the space of three months. He disputes and persuades the things concerning the kingdom of God. Talk about a good topic to preach on. And then when divers were hardened and believed not, they spake evil before the multitude, he departs, he separates the disciples, and he disputes daily in the school of Tyrrhenius.

That goes on for two years. So that everybody who dwells in Asia hears the word of Christ. Pretty amazing ministry. And God wrought special miracles by the hand of Paul.

People were bringing handkerchiefs and aprons. People were being healed. Evil spirits were being cast out. Somebody else tries to cast out an evil spirit. The man in whom the evil spirit was in leaped on them, overcame them, prevailed them.

They fled out of the house naked and wounded. And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus. Fear fell upon them all. And the name of Jesus was magnified.

And many believed. They confessed. They showed their deeds. They bring their books together.

They counted 50,000 pieces of silver. Verse 20, so mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. Talk about an amazing ministry. Talk about revival and fire falling from heaven. And in the middle of all that, Paul considers it so important to be able to minister to people materially that he stops and he works with his hands.

And at the time it was so insignificant that Luke didn't even bother to record it. You look at the two times that Paul ministered in Ephesus in Acts and Luke says nothing about Paul's working with his hands. But when Paul is talking to these men about the ministry and when he's admonishing them how they should be like Christ in their ministry, he feels that ministering with one's hands so that you can give materially to others is so important that he actually makes it the culmination of his exhortation to those men. So we have a responsibility.

Just three quick points of application. We have a responsibility. This is not an optional part of ministry. This is not a minor matter. A life lived sacrificially giving to others is required of those in ministry.

And you might ask, well, why is this so important? Why did Paul make such a big deal out of this? Well, I think in the passage he gives three things that happened as a result of his ministry. In the first place his ministry was authenticated. He's holding himself up as an example of true ministry and he does this throughout his writings repeatedly where his ministry was under attack and he says, look, I didn't take any money from you guys. And he authenticates his ministry by what he did in front of them. And so as ministers we need to teach our people how to give to God's work.

But in some instances it may be a better idea to forego asking for money from your people for a time. I was out on just witnessing several weeks ago, like two weeks ago, and we're talking to a man and he just informed us that he would never come to church because in his mind church was big business. And he had watched his mother struggle financially because this church required heavy contributions from her.

And nobody can smell a false motive faster than the sheep. If you go to a place like that where people have been burned, it may be better to not make your first sermon to them all about giving. It may be better and you may authenticate your ministry by supporting yourself for a while, like Paul did, rather than asking for contributions to support yourself. In the second place, not only was Paul's ministry authenticated but people were moved to follow his example. At least that was what he was asking of these men. He says to them, there are you yourselves, no. He's pointing out what they knew to be true about his ministry and he says, I showed you. And he was demonstrating in front of them what a ministry should look like.

And people will be moved to follow your example. But in the third place, you'll be specially favored by God. And he recalls that saying of Christ that we'll be blessed. And in the scriptures to be blessed is not just to be happy, it's to be in a position that's specially favored by God so that you're flourishing in your spiritual life. And so Paul lays this responsibility on us. And right now we're in seminary but we can cultivate a heart and a practice that really delights and loves giving to others. And you say, well, yeah, but I'm in seminary. I don't have much to give, right?

I get that. But remember the widow who cast in the two mites and Christ said that she gave more than the people who cast in actually more? And the reason was that she gave of her need. And so what God looks at isn't necessarily how much you give but how much is left after you give. So while you're in seminary may be the ideal time to lay up treasure in heaven because you have so little.

If you give, you're actually giving in God's sight a great deal. I remember when I was a hall leader I was talking with my dormsuit and he was going to be married soon. So he had gone to another dormsuit and said, hey, can I look at your budget? And it'll help me as I sort of establish our budget, you know, because the other dormsuit was married.

And he said that when he looked at that other man's budget a significant part of his income was designated for giving. Now this is a married man who's a dormsuit at Bob Jones University. He's in seminary and he has a kid.

He didn't have much money, I can guarantee you, but he had set apart a significant part of his income to be a blessing to others. And there's one thing that you can do, this is where your dating advice comes in, there's one thing that you can do right now in seminary to make sure that you have this kind of ministry one day and that's to marry somebody who gets this. My wife's here in the front row and if you all want to come up and meet her afterwards she's a treasure and I think you would be blessed, particularly the ladies in the seminary, to get to know her. But I'm very thankful for a wife who gets this. And one of the things that we found to be really helpful was something that someone challenged us to do before we were ever married. So I've intentionally not made a lot of specific application today because doing this passage looks different in everybody's life and ministry.

But here's something very practical that may be helpful. We were challenged to start a gospel account. And you say, what's a gospel account? Well, you still give your percentage to the Lord's work, to the church, to your local church, but above and beyond that then you talk together and you decide on a percentage that you're going to set aside in a separate account that's for God's work. It's a gospel account. And the genius of that is that then when a need comes along, the money is already God's.

You've already set it aside for him, you've never spent it on yourself, and it just helps you to be a little bit more free in giving to other people. And so we've done that. We've been able to support people on mission trips and projects in the Lord's work and things like this. And it just really helps your heart to be able to do this and not to forget to minister materially.

So we have a responsibility, but we also have an example. Christ came as the Son of Man not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. And we know the grace of our Lord Jesus that though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor so that we through his poverty might be made rich. And specifically that passage is using riches as an analogy for righteousness and justification, but there's also a reality there that he had everything in glory. And he came to people in abject poverty in order that they might then enjoy that glory with the Father. So we have an example. But lastly, we have enablement as well. And this to me was one of the most blessed parts of studying this passage.

So if you get nothing else out of the message today, hopefully what we consider now the final thought will be a blessing to you. In verse 33, what specific sin did Paul tell us he had victory over? Look down at verse 33. What specific sin had he found victory over? The sin of covetousness, right? And as we've seen, not being a covetous man was a qualification that he gave for ministry.

Had he not resisted this sin and had he not or had he pursued his own personal gain, he would have disqualified himself for ministry. But where else in the New Testament has Paul talked to us about his struggle with coveting? Going through your New Testament, where has Paul talked to us about his struggle with coveting? Take your mind over to Romans chapter 7, right? Where Paul is writing there about our struggle and our flesh's struggle to obey the law of God. And as he thinks about that struggle in his life and he thinks about all of the sins that he struggled with and he wants one to use as an example, he chooses coveting.

I don't know, perhaps he struggled with coveting more than anything else. And the function of Romans 7 in the book is to move the reader to utter despair over his own inability to keep the law of God in his flesh. And in doing that, Paul sets the reader up for Romans 8 and the gift of the Spirit as the only enablement that we have for obeying the law of God. And so when Paul testifies before these men that he had victory over the sin of coveting, he's testifying to the grace of God in his life through God's Spirit, enabling him to have victory over this sin and not to take himself out of the ministry. And I don't know about you, but when I see people who were in the ministry and they became entangled with the things of this world, it makes me afraid. Because I know my own heart and I know that my heart is bent towards that and I'm afraid that having preached to others, I myself might be a castaway. And left to ourselves there's really not a one of us that would not completely ruin our ministries.

If not in this temptation, then in another. But when Christ left to go back to the Father, look at what he said to us. He says there, if you love me, keep my commandments. Now he's leaving behind men to continue his ministry and he says, if you love me, keep my commandments. And that's the struggle we're talking about. Keeping God's law, obeying God.

And he goes on to talk about the enablement for that. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him. And he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you. So has he come to you?

Do you know Christ? If you do, then you have his promise that he has come to you in the person of his Spirit to enable you to not ruin your ministry. And when you look at Acts 20, what did Paul do right after he finished these words? He knelt down and he prayed. And Matthew Henry suggests that perhaps he was praying through the things that he had just laid on these men to do. And he was asking for the Spirit's enablement in them to do those things. So what is it this morning that you look into your heart and you see and you fear because you know that it could take you out of the ministry?

I remember when I was in Cambodia sitting on a porch with six or eight guys and we were praying and just taking our fears to the Lord and leaving them at Jesus' feet. And this one young man prayed and he said, God, I'm so afraid that I'm going to fall into immorality and disqualify myself for the ministry. Is that your fear today? Are you afraid of falling into covetousness and disqualifying yourself for the ministry? Are you afraid of what your anger will do to your ministry? Are you afraid for your ministry because of your pride?

Well, take heart. Jesus has come to you in the person of his Spirit and he's your helper and he'll be with you forever. And he is the only hope that you have of not disqualifying yourself for the ministry.

It's not found in yourself. God's Spirit dwelling in you is the only hope that we have. So let's pray.

Let's talk to God about this and take it to him. Father, we thank you for the gift of your Spirit. Lord, we thank you for the promise that he'll come to us, that you won't leave us as orphans. Pray that you would help us to go out today and in the power of your Spirit to remember that it is more blessed to give than to receive. And Lord, that we would shape our lives and our ministries as those who are postured to sacrifice in order that we might give to others and to be a blessing to them and to share with them a little of what you've given to us. And we ask for the help of your Spirit in these things, acknowledging that we need him. And we ask for these things in Christ's name. Amen. You've been listening to a sermon preached by Andrew Minnich, a faculty member in the School of Religion at Bob Jones University. Thanks again for listening. We look forward to the next time as we study God's Word together on The Daily Platform.