Um Hey, we're gonna see a going-away party today. Right, you move and people and friends come and you have cake and balloons and stuff.
Well, we'll see the people and friends, but we won't see any of that other stuff. It's gonna be very intensely personal. Yeah, stay with us for a wonderfully tender scene. Today, One more than ink.
Well, yes, indeed, this is more than ink. I'm sitting right across the table from Dorothy. And I'm looking at Jim. Yeah, and we are just having a lovely time as we read our way through Acts. And we're approaching the end of Paul's third missionary journey.
Third missionary journey. That's the last fully detailed one we have in the book of Acts. But we come to a really tender moment today. Yeah, it's sweet.
Well, the reason I'm pausing is because I had quite an emotional reaction to it earlier today when I was reading it. And so we'll talk about that when we get there. Yeah, okay.
Well, then let's just do it. I mean, to recap how we got here, at the end of Paul's third missionary journey, he's on a tear to get back to Jerusalem by Pentecost. And so we picked him up last time in the bottom, bottom, bottom of Greece. And he's walked his way all the way around the Aegean Sea. He's taken some boats on the western end of Turkey.
And he deliberately passes by Ephesus, knowing that if he stops in Ephesus, because he's spent so long there, it won't be a short stay. He won't be able to get away.
So he goes just past the port of Ephesus, and he goes to the next port and then sends word back to the people that he spent so long with in Ephesus to come and meet him at Miletus. And so they do. It's about 35-mile walk. And so they come and meet him. And then we left it right there because now they're going to get together.
And Paul is going to, Luke writes down for us what Paul said to them as they met together in this wonderfully tender, tender last meeting of these people in Ephesus and Paul as he's on his way out of town.
Well, and I realized. Also, earlier today, that this is the long, this is a long speech by Paul that's only directed at believers. Right. In Acts, all the other messages are directed at unbelievers. Right, right.
So, this has a lot more in common with his letters in terms of what he says. Exactly. He warns them and how he loves them. Yeah, it just struck me. Yeah, so this is a nice view of Paul not as an evangelist, but as kind of a discipler and a pastor.
He really is pastoring. Yeah, so it's with these leaders. That's what makes it such a tender look.
So Luke wrote it down so we could read it.
So we're going to do that today.
So we're starting in in chapter 20 and verse 17 in the small town of Miletus.
Okay.
So 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, okay, wait, how far? They would have walked, presumably. How far is that? It's about 35 miles.
So a couple days to walk there? Yeah, day and a half. Yeah. Yeah. So he would have sent for them a day and a half and then waited a day and a half until they came.
Right, right.
Which he figured was less time than he would have had to spend had he gone to Ephesus. Yeah, exactly. It's kind of an interesting equation. Last time he was in Ephesus, it was two plus years. Right.
Okay.
So here's what he says 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. Yeah, that's where we need to start.
So that's his opening line, basically talking about the past, his past history with them, and the fact that his emphasis while he was with them, like I said before, was not evangelistic. It was actually as a pastor, as a discipler, is building the word into people's lives. And he says what we really love in verse 20 was that he didn't shrink from declaring anything that was profitable.
So his last visit to Ephesus was an exhaustive teaching on everything he could think of and answering any questions he was posed. And it says he. Did this in public? It's probably the school of Tyrannus. Right.
And in private, house to house. House to house, could be house churches, and not just to Jews, but also to Greeks.
So, I mean, he was a busy guy.
Well, he was settled there for a couple of years, right? But it's interesting to me that in this talk, he also emphasizes in just a couple of verses more, again, that he didn't shrink from anything in declaring to them the whole counsel of God, right? He didn't pick and choose or just preach the salvation message or preach the convenient stuff. Right, he went in depth. He went in depth and talked to them about everything from Genesis to where he was.
Well, you know, and Paul's texts that he used was the Old Testament. Right. And so clearly he pointed out who the Messiah was in the Old Testament, being Jesus, and so much more.
So, and in parallel, if you read his different letters, the Corinthian letter, which he writes contemporaneous to this, both of them, they're really communicating this same kind of thing. They took two or three years talking about them. You know, it made me think as I read this about his counsel to Timothy. You know, Timothy, I think he's with them right now. I'm not exactly sure.
I can't remember. I think Timothy is in this group because there was a list of seven of them. I think Timothy is in the group. Later on, Paul will write a couple letters to Timothy. And these are really training letters for younger Timothy to become a pastor, to do what Paul's doing here.
And he says the same thing to Timothy about preaching the word.
So I went back and looked at it, and it's in 2 Timothy. And he says, I charge you, Timothy, in the presence of God and of Jesus Christ, who is the judge of the living and the dead. And he goes on, he says in verse 2, preach the word. Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season.
Reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people won't endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they'll accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. And will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
So he's counseling Timothy there. What he's really, what he says, I have just done this in Ephesus, right? I have taught you everything I can think of, and it's been confronted. I've been reproving, I've been rebuking, I've been exhorting, knowing that actually there's a temptation, like he says to Timothy, to wander off into myths, which can be tremendously corrosive to faith in Jesus. Yeah, but wandering off into the sparkly.
Sparkly interesting stuff, the squirrel distractions, right? Oh, this is great to talk about this. And then it gets you off into the realm of presupposing something or embroidering on what we have as truth. Or hearing what you want to hear rather than what God, in his exhaustive scriptures, says you need to hear.
Well, and we know that a good storyteller or a charismatic teacher of wild tales will gather a huge audience. People are intrigued by that. I mean, we live in the age of conspiracy theories. Right. Christian conspiracy theories, right, are not uncommon.
And so people are drawn to that stuff. Yeah, that's where I like the phrase he used with Timothy. Itching ears. Itching ears. He could have been writing about the age in which we live.
Exactly. That's exactly right. But what I love here, though, before we move on in the passage, is he says he testified both to Jews and to Greeks of two things, repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Right. Right?
Because repentance toward God is the first part of the gospel, right? That's the gospel of John the Baptist. Repent. The kingdom at hand is near, right? The king is coming.
But the second part is essential. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way into relationship or into repentance, into the kingdom of God.
So I just, hmm, that just struck me. Those go hand in hand. They do. It's not one or the other. It's both together.
No, and in fact, like you said, the first one, repentance was the prime thrust of John the Baptist. We've got a problem. We need to repent of that. But then the solution is what Christ does for us. And we get into that program.
We benefit from that through faith.
So he's got it right there. That's exactly the case. First, you have to admit the fact that you got a problem and that you need a Savior. Jesus presents himself as that savior and by faith.
Okay, so that is the same gospel, whether Jew or Greek. Right, it's the same message for everyone, no matter where they are coming from. Repent toward God, who is the creator of all men, right, as Paul had preached in Athens, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the one whom God provided as our salvation. And, you know, I'll just underscore the obvious: Jews don't have a special edge when it comes to salvation this way. You know, if they're not willing to admit sin and repentance and not willing to admit that Jesus is indeed the Son of God and died on our behalf, just being a Jew doesn't do much for you.
But most Christians err thinking that they have some kind of special edge. And so one of the things that they fly off doing is they try and recreate the Jewish experience and the Christian experience. And then, you know, there's no reason for that. Yeah. Yeah, that may be a conversation for another time.
Okay, let's go to verse 22.
So now he looks to the future. He just reminds him what he's done while he was there.
Now 22, looking forward. And now, behold, I'm 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 affliction. Afflictions await me.
Okay, wait a minute.
So he has called the Ephesian elders, the leaders and shepherds of that church together so he can speak this personally into their ear. He didn't write them a letter. He said, I want to be looking you in the eyeball when I tell you. Goodbye. Right?
That's really kind of what he's doing. I am going to Jerusalem. And that sounds to me like an echo of that point when some of the gospel writers record that from that point on, Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem. It's very similar. He knew it was time and he had his eyes on the goal.
Right. And he knew there was going to be conflict there. Right. And that constrained by the Spirit. That's a pretty strong word.
Yeah. That's he had this powerful impression. He had to get to Jerusalem. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, and yeah, I can't add anything to that.
Well, but he tells them, you know, the Holy Spirit's been testifying to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.
Well, you know, was that simply because imprisonment and afflictions met him? No, most places he went, or is it because there was something over and above that the Spirit was indicating to him? Because if you remember back to Paul's conversion back in Acts 9, Ananias had said to him, The Lord had said to Ananias, now tell Paul, let him know how much he will suffer for my name. Right. So Paul knew from the get-go his call was a hard one.
Right. And it may not be totally documented, but from this point on until he gets to Jerusalem, there's going to be more than one city with someone coming to him saying, don't go there because it's going to be violent. And so yeah, we're going to read those. Yeah. And yeah, most of them next week, actually.
So it's a fascinating thing. Paul knows what he's getting into. Yeah, he does. He says in 24, he says, but I don't account my life of any value nor as precious to myself. If only I may finish my course in the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus.
So, I mean, it's fascinating to me that he says, you know, all of that, I see that's coming, but that's not the issue. The issue isn't preserving my own health or my own comfort. The issue is finishing my course. Like, like he says in 1 Corinthians 9, where he says, you know, everyone, every runners run a race, right? And only one person receives a prize.
So get serious and run like you're going to win the prize.
So that's what he's saying right here. I just want to finish my course in this. To testify to the gospel of the grace of God, the good news of the grace of God in Jesus Christ by faith. Right. Right.
Not to testify to be a good Jew, keep the law. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So that's his stated purpose. That is his course to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
Yeah, which I think is just fantastic. I mean, that's what he wants to finish. Wow, you know, he did it. He did it because the entire Western world was opened up to the gospel because of the commitment of Paul to keep going.
Well, and remember last time I think it was, we were reading, it says that all of all of Asia was reached. And this is how, because these people that he's talking to right here, these Ephesian elders, are going to spread out through all of Asia and spread the gospel. Yeah. Okay, so back to the speech. 25.
So verse 25. And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I've gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again.
Now, you can almost hear the gasp in the crowd at this point. They're like, wait, what? We're looking at you right now. You're telling us you're going away and you're never coming back. Again, that sounds to me like Jesus.
It sounds very much like Jesus. Right on that last night before the cross, he said to them, I'm going. You're not going to see me again, but I will come back. You will see me again. You won't see me, and then you will see me.
But he's telling them ahead of time so they'll believe when it happens. That's Jesus. But here's Paul says, You know, you're not going to see me again. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I'm innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. There it is.
Let's stop. Yeah, there it is.
So, what is that phrase that he says, I'm innocent of the blood of all? Why does he say that? Oh, well, because if he If he kept back certain portions of the gospel of grace, you know, that he talked about before, people could be ignorant and not find salvation. You know, what if he left out the point that Jesus died for you and just covered basically the John the Baptist stuff? You just need to repent and be more easily led astray.
Right, right.
So he's responsible as a pastor, as a shepherd, right? He's responsible for them to understand the full grace of God. And so what he's saying is that I've done that.
So, so I, you know, I'm not complicit in anyone's guilt here. I did as much as I could.
Well, and you have all the information you need. Right. Right. You have everything that God has to say to you regarding the gospel. Yeah, yeah.
And I like, too, that when he says back in 25, you know, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the word will see my face again. And, you know, he sees his time with them as principally about talking about proclaiming the kingdom again, the word in that sense. And he could have said, you know, when I was with you doing miracles, remember all that kind of stuff? Or demons actually recognize my name. You know, he doesn't mention that.
He says, you know, my point with you was to proclaim the kingdom. And now here he's saying, and I'm guiltless. You know, I'm innocent of the blood of all. I've told you everything I can possibly think about. Not holding anything back.
Not holding anything back. The whole counsel of God. And by the way, I might just add that that's kind of the backbones behind what we do at church is we, you know, we look at whole passages of scripture, we get into a book and we read it because we want the whole council, we want the whole book to be able to pick and choose. Yeah, and there's an opposite way that a lot of people end up presenting gospel on Sunday mornings or stuff like that, where they say, here's an idea of something I want to talk about. And then I'll go through and pick out a few verses that.
Illustrate that. We do the opposite. We say, no, let's take the word and let's expose it. That's called expository teeth. Let's expose it so that people get the broad swath of the entire thing.
So that's really the philosophy behind why we, like what we're doing right now, is we start into a book and we just read it all the way through. We just go all the way through. That's the whole council approach. But as you go, you connect the dots into other places, back into the Old Testament, forward into the letters in the New Testament, so that we gain a sense of the connection. Yeah.
Yeah. So then he goes on in 28, and he says, So, you know, 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.
Now, this is a great kind of shepherd and sheep kind of metaphor he's using right here.
Well, and it's not just a metaphor, he says it's straight in 28. But he says, you know, pay careful attention, not only to the flock, but to yourselves. Which is an interesting thing. You know, you're prone to wandering away in error.
So watch out. Watch out. You know, there's dangerous things going on, which is exactly what you tell a shepherd. Watch out because behind you, you might be getting hunted by a wolf.
So, and then he also emphasizes the fact that these sheep are not Paul's sheep or Apollo's sheep. These are God's sheep that were purchased by the blood of Jesus.
So, these are someone else's flock. He just takes care of them as overseers.
Well, and as he's speaking to these overseers, he's telling them and reminding them: hey, you didn't self-elect to this. Right. The Holy Spirit. Who oversees the church, who gives growth, who regenerates the believer? The Holy Spirit has made you overseers, right?
You're in this position because of gifting and call and care for his own sheep.
So, you know, it's a boy, he has hit on a lot of fronts here that are really important for people in spiritual leadership to understand. Yeah, and I especially like the part about being careful about yourself. Yes. I mean, that's just a big deal because you can take down a whole flock of people by taking down a leader. Yeah, and so leaders are prime targets for satanic attack for that very reason.
They're great leverage points for Satan.
Well, and we've talked about this, you and I, in private before, that in the age we live in, it's very easy for Christian leaders who are very skilled teachers or skilled communicators to rise to a level of fame that was unknown in a previous generation because of the internet, right? But and many people have access to their teaching, to their preaching, and to the electric attraction of their word without any knowledge of their personal lives. You never know what they're like in the office, what they're like at home. You don't know any of their family or what they're like in their normal life. And so that's where we see this kind of.
Inattention to themselves creeping in, right? You start believing your own press reports and, hey, I'm so great and I just got to have the next great message. I don't have to necessarily live a life that matches that. Right. But Paul is urging them, first of all, pay attention to yourself.
To yourself. And it gets more pointed in 29.
So I'll just read on from there. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And get this, from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them.
So the threats are external and internal, which is why he mentions, you know, keep attention to yourselves. And I like it. He calls them twisted things. Twisted, you twist two things together. The twisted things here is the idea of taking a little bit of truth and twisting it a little bit of error.
And most people will see the truth part and think this is safe and miss the falsehood. Right. And they'll be led away. They'll be drawn away. And so he says that is a real issue.
There are fierce wolves that are stalking the flock. and you.
So he says in 31.
So therefore be alert. Be alert. That's what you would say to a shepherd. Say to a shepherd. Remembering that for three years, I didn't seize night or day to admonish everyone with tears.
Oh, with tears. Hey, that's serious business. He's wholly engaged. Right. And he's not just a teacher.
He's a caring pastor when he says that. Yeah. And then he pushes on and sort of closes a little bit. He says, Now I commend you to God into the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. That sounds like his letters.
Sounds just like his greetings and his benedictions. That's his benedictions, like right there. I commend you to God into the word of his grace. The word of his grace, right there, it is the core of the gospel. The grace of God, the gift of God.
The gift of God, what you get that you cannot deserve or pay back.
So let's move on and finish this. In 33, he just recounts again: look, I coveted no one's silver, gold, or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands, you know, his own hands, ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. And in all things, I've 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's more blessed to give than to receive.
Wow. That's the end of his discussion with him as recorded by Luke.
Well, so, you know, we don't actually, I couldn't find in any of the Gospels where Jesus said that. He's blessed to give that to receive. It's unrecorded.
So, you know, at the end of John's Gospel, he says many more things that Jesus said and did. We couldn't write them all down. What I wrote for you is enough, right?
So this is probably came to Paul by the testimony of somebody who heard Jesus say it. Yeah, that's exactly right. That's exactly right. And we recognize the truth of it, and it sounds like Jesus. Yeah, and it's very famous in a secular sense, too.
People quote this all the time. Right. Yeah. Yeah. But this comes to Paul through a method and a route different than the written gospels.
Right. Quite clearly, and for us as well.
So, are we ready to read on to the end of this part?
So, verse 36: 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'd spoken that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship. Very emotional.
Very tearful. It is. I actually came to tears when I was reading this earlier today, just thinking about saying a final goodbye to people you love in whom you have invested a huge part of your life, and done life with them and experienced a wide variety of crazy things, as we alluded to before, the miracles and the riots and the demons being cast out and the book burnings and all those things. How emotional this is, but Paul has just made sure that they were left standing on their feet, knowing who they are, who God is, what their message is about, and grounded in the word. Yep.
Yep. And I find it interesting, too. It's a minor thing, but in 36 it says he knelt down. Paul knelt down. And normally you would see this going away as Paul standing up and holding his arms out and blessing them or something else.
No, very humbly he kneels down and recognizes what a great thing God has done here and not him. He does not take a posture of celebrity. He kneels down and prays with them all, weeping, kissing, embracing, all of them knowing this is the last time they'll see him. Wow. I mean, just a very touching thing for this man who has invested two to three years in their lives personally at great sacrifice.
Well, so they believe him. This is a goodbye. Yeah. Right. And so they walk right down to the edge of the water and see him on the ship.
You know, you can see them standing on the shore. Waving goodbye. Yeah, that was not an unusual thing to go down to the ship and wave goodbye. And that's exactly what happens here. Yeah, so very tearful end, very emotional end to the people in Ephesus, the town that he probably spent the most time in in all of his travels.
A great investment. And as a result of that, many churches were established in that western part of Turkey today in Asia Minor. And in fact, you can read about those churches in the seven letters of the churches in the beginning of Revelation. And Ephesus is one of them. Ephesus is one of them.
Yeah, so if you want to find out how did things turn out in Ephesus after this, then read chapter two of Ephesus. It's where... You mean Revelation. A Revelation. Yeah, Revelation.
And there is no. And the letter to the Ephesians is a good read, too. But it's fascinating because interestingly enough, Jesus commends them for doing a lot of the things that Paul said to do here. But he also says, but you know, you're lacking one thing. And I'm not going to tell you what that is.
Go check it out and see. But they were very dutiful to what Paul had called them to do right here. And it seems like that's exactly what they did. Yeah. So read Revelation 2.
This is the connection we're talking about. We're talking about expository teaching. Go through the whole passages, but then make connections. And Ephesus shows up in one of those seven churches in Revelation 2.
Well, and also here, because we're talking about the elders of that church in Ephesus, sit with a few minutes and read the whole letter to the Ephesians. Yeah. Right. And read his very specific instructions. Half of it is great, deep doctrine, and half of it is real practical.
And this is what that looks like as you walk it out. Right. And you'll find some, you'll find, it'll sound really familiar since we've just read this. Right. You'll see, this sounds like the voice of Paul.
Sounds like Paul. Yeah. So he's clearly writing to people he loves. Exactly. Exactly.
So that's one of the great parts of Bible study. And we've, you know, we don't haven't talked too much about Bible study techniques for a while, but being able to cross-connect these things, like you just read this whole narrative of being with the Ephesian elders.
Well, go around and look where else Ephesus is mentioned and start making these connections, you know, on the Letters in Revelation 2. I mean, that's a really good place to do it. And other places as well. And the book of Ephesians, which is written to these same people. And you'll make a whole bunch of aha connections that you wouldn't have had if you just stayed right here and didn't venture out and look for more connections.
That's one of the funnest parts of Bible study. Yep. Well, and the reason we haven't talked a lot about Bible study techniques is because we're in this account place, right? This is a some of the Bible study techniques that we normally would use apply more to doctrinal teaching than they do to This kind of narrative. Which really call out for more connections, for clarity.
Yeah. So, well, we're out of time. We are. And next time, as we come back, we're going to be leaving, and it'll be sorrowful again. But he's off as he brushes his way back to the business.
So I'm Jim. And I'm Dorothy. And so, again, climb on the boat with us here on More Think. There are many more episodes of this broadcast to be found at our website, morethanink.org. And while you are there, take a moment to drop us a note.
Wow, what a warm scene to close off this passage. It's so sweet to see them kneeling together and praying for one another as they say goodbye. Very heartwarming. We'll see you here next time. Are you ready?
I guess. Here we go. Beef. This has been a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City.
