1156. Graced for a Ministry That Gives

Welcome to The Daily Platform, sponsored by Bob Jones University. Today, Dr. Robert Vincent, associate pastor at Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina, begins a seminary chapel series entitled, A Ministry Worth Pursuing, from Acts chapter 20. If you'll look with me at Acts 20, and we won't read the entirety of the passage, but we'll jump toward the end, and if you'll read with me, in verse 32, and then 34 and 35. Paul is speaking, and he says, And now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. And then, verse 34, Ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto mine necessities, and to them that were with me.

I have showed you all things, how that so laboring you 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. Lentsky translates those final words, Blessed, it is rather to be giving than to be taking. And those words, I want to be the focus for us this morning, and sort of as a lens through which we would view the entirety of the passage that proceeds. One of the obvious things about this sentence and where it falls is that these are concluding words. Paul concludes, A lengthy address, the lengthiest of its kind in the New Testament with these words. And these are not just concluding words, but they are summary words. Words summarizing not just all that Paul has said in the moment, but all that Paul has displayed for these Ephesian elders and for the whole church at Ephesus during the three years that he labored with them. And it would be legitimate to say that it summarizes the whole scope of Paul's ministry following his conversion until the Lord took him home to glory. These are summary words.

But they seem also to be memorable words. Paul in verse 27 stresses that it was his ambition to teach to the church at Ephesus the whole counsel or purpose of God. And in that expanse of teaching, there is this summary statement, a statement that seems worthy of extracting out of that hole, and it sort of rises like a majestic peak and serves as the backdrop for all of the other teaching, illustrating the other teaching that Paul presented to them. It seems that Paul likely did not just use this statement here one time, but that it was something that he repeated and purposefully emphasized with them, almost as it were like a ministry mantra that he set before them, verbalized to them, and visualized through his ministry. And another observation that may surprise us given that we see these words here in the book of Acts is that these are Christ's words. We have these words nowhere else in Scripture. We have no page in the Gospels that shows Christ speaking these words in this way. But Paul attributes these words to Christ. And it may be that Christ gave them to Paul in some form of later revelation. It may be that Christ said them during his earthly ministry and that Paul has heard them orally, and he has remembered them for their significance. Or it may be that Paul himself is putting together content of Jesus' teaching in a pithy, portable summary kind of a statement, because this statement does actually summarize Jesus' teaching.

Not necessarily all of it, but much of it. Jesus taught about giving. He taught of the importance of giving in the blessing of giving, that to the degree that you give will be given to you.

And the measure you measure out, it will be measured out to you in return. The illustration of the widow's might, that giving little actually could be giving much. And she, in that moment, was much more blessed than those who had more but gave comparably less. Jesus would teach in real life that giving could touch some very personal levels.

It's for this that a man would lay down his life, even for friends. Giving summarizes so much of the dimensions of Jesus' teaching, and he told his followers, you cannot serve me in material things. You can't be living a life that I call you to give while you're living to receive and take. And this statement includes the word blessed, which was no foreign word in Jesus' vocabulary. At least 16 different times in Jesus' teaching, nine times famously at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus repeats, blessed.

His kingdom citizens can be blessed. That was the burden of Jesus' heart, that those who follow him, who serve in his kingdom, would come to have life, and that they would have a life that flourishes, a life that is abundant, a blessed life. Jesus taught that often and wanted his followers to imbibe of it deeply. And in these six Greek words, there are a lot of truths that we could attempt to unpack, and we won't try to unpack all of them, but I think we can make a brief observation that these two activities, giving and receiving, summarize nearly all of life. It would be legitimate to say that we could look at our lives through the lens of these words and very little would fall outside. This involves our relationship to things. It involves our relationship to God, our relationship to people. These words involve how we deal with others with ourselves, how we give of ourselves or reserve ourselves in ministry to each other.

It governs how we work with the things that we own. Giving and receiving encompass so much, if not all, of life. And this passage would assure us, I think, that there's a scriptural way to do both. It is not sinful to receive. Other passages of scripture, Paul explains how he is learning to receive and to be content in receiving what God needs out for him. He recounts other passages where he has been greatly blessed by receiving from the hands and the giving of other people. There's a scriptural way to receive.

It's not wrong to receive. And there is a scriptural way to give, and we won't belabor that at this point, but I think this passage would nudge us to that conclusion. But what this passage does set before us, I think, most vividly is a comparison. And that when you put the two side by side, there's a sense in which it would be right to say it is more blessed to give than to receive. Paul must have meditated on that expression frequently.

He must have thought of it often. It seems to have governed his life. Why is it that one might be more blessed to give than to receive? The passage doesn't say.

I think it leaves us to really think on that. But perhaps at the very bottom, when we give and when we give generously, it is at those times that as believers we most reflect God. We most reflect the heart of a giving God. We most display that we have been graced, that we have received much, and out of that abundance, we then dispense and share with others. Well, and what Paul sets before us here in this passage, it is an amazing display of someone who has internalized this truth and learned to flesh it out, not just in all of life, but especially in a ministry context.

And that's what makes it, I think, such a potent passage for us as we consider together a ministry worth pursuing. In Paul's life, what form did this truth end up taking? What did his selfless giving look like? Well, one of the verses in the passage, if you look at verse 24, it gives us a little hint.

None of these things move me, neither count I my life, dear unto myself. Paul understood that to give in a way that's pleasing to God would mean a life of self-denial. And this is true not only in this passage. We find Paul actually speaking to this in many other places throughout his letters. In 2 Corinthians that he wrote while he was here ministering to those at the church at Ephesus, he was able to say to them, I will most gladly spend and be spent for you, though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. What he would later write to Timothy, that he is ready to pour himself out as a drink offering. And what he wrote in the first letter to the church at Corinth, that he had learned what it meant to die daily.

Paul understood a life of self-denial in ministry, particularly as it relates to his capacity to give himself generously in ministry to others. So specifically, what did Paul's forms of giving look like? We'll look at verses 34 and 35, verses that we read. He says, Yea, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities and to them that were with me.

And in verse 35, the second line, I've showed you all things, how that's so laboring, okay, conveying hard work. I mean, here is Paul ministering with his hands. He did that, we know, in some cases to minister for his own physical necessities. And then here he is on the ministry side, and he's also laboring hard.

You would not look at Paul and see laziness at all etched into his character. Whether he was tending to physical matters, whether he was tending to spiritual matters, Paul is working hard. He's exerting himself physically in ministry, knowing that while he was here, laboring as intensively as he did.

It's at this time that Paul is also full of the cares of other churches. While he's at Ephesus ministering in this way, he's writing Romans. He's writing 1 Corinthians.

He's writing 2 Corinthians. His longest letters come, also, out of this same recipe of ministry service. So, first thing we note about Paul is that ministry for him was self-denying physical exertion, not just about material matters, but even in spiritual ministry.

And when you look at Paul, when you see him working hard, it doesn't appear to be drudgery to him. It's voluntary. It is tedious. It's inconvenient.

It's long. It's sacrificial. In verse 34, we have another little clue that's open to us about the nature of Paul's generosity in ministry. And there's just this little window that, with these hands, have ministered unto my necessities and unto them who are with me. Now, it may be that Paul, with his hands, performed spiritual ministry with some of these people. Or it may be that, with his hands, as he was tent-making and procuring funds or revenue to support the ministry, that those funds that then came in, Paul used those, in part, on other people.

That seems to be what's actually going on. So, it's not just hard work, but there's a sharing of financial resources acquired through hard work. And then, there's a sharing of his time. Look at verse 31. Paul says, Therefore, watch and remember that by the space of three years I cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears. Three years. That's a long time.

Think how long you're in seminary. Paul is giving three years of his life. And it's not just three years. It's three years every day, night and day. Paul is giving of himself by giving his time to these people.

And it's not just time. It's emotion. You see the words with which verse 31 ends. It's unceasing, night and day, with tears. This isn't the first mention of tears, if you look back up at verse 19. Serving the Lord with all humility of mind and with many tears. Who would have thought that Paul was the weeping prophet of the New Testament? In verse 19, it seems that when he's ministering publicly, he's doing so with tears.

In verse 31, you see him ministering and he's warning everyone, as if that's individual ministry. And it's with tears. Paul ministers with tears.

He's giving of himself emotionally. And if you look down in verse 36, it's the only time prayer is mentioned in the passage and it's actually at the end of Paul's address. But when he's done, he prays together with these men.

They're weeping, kissing each other, hearts full of sorrow at the parting. And though this is the only mention of prayer in this passage, we know that Paul prayed continually in ministry. He prayed continually for those to whom he ministered and he prayed with those for whom he ministered. He prayed the kind of prayers for the church at Ephesus that we find in his letter. He prayed that they would be strengthened with might by God's spirit and their inner man, that Christ would dwell in their hearts by faith, that they would be able to comprehend what is incomprehensible humanly, the love of Christ.

And there was, in addition to all of this, there was what we know Paul for the most, and that was his verbal ministry. In verse 20, he kept back nothing that was profitable. He was testifying, verse 21, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 24, he was testifying of the gospel, of the grace of God. Verse 25, he's been preaching the kingdom of God. Verse 27, he's not recoiled from declaring to them all the counsel of God. Paul is verbalizing ministry to these people.

And in doing so, he's speaking to them of things that are important to God. Paul, amazingly, gives of himself at times when it's even to his own injury. If you look up in verse 19 again, he says, serving the Lord with all humility of mind and many tears, and in these two things and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews. There were spiritual pressures that Paul was willing to endure, spiritual struggles that he was willing to endure because he so generously ministered. There were physical threats that he was willing to endure because he so generously ministered.

And if you look down at verse 23, he wasn't finished. His generous ministry toward the church seemed to suggest that much more affliction was still awaiting Paul, but yet he continued to give generously in ministry. Verse 35 gives us, I think, a beautiful picture, maybe a word that Paul would have used to describe the whole character of his ministry, and it's the word support.

It is picturesque, and it has the idea of laying a hold on one in order to hold them up. And think of Paul in his mind, all that he's doing, all the hard work, all the giving of himself, and it's propping and holding and supporting and edifying. That's the driving consideration that determines the form and the length and the emotion necessary for ministry. In terms of motivation, no doubt, Paul was thinking of these people, not as projects, but he was thinking of them in terms that he shares with us and Thessalonians, that they are his hope and joy, the crown of exaltation at the appearing or in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming. Now to whom does Paul give?

We could very quickly, I think, move through this list. Verse 34 tells us that he served himself, but he didn't do so selfishly. He served himself so that others would be free to serve others, so that he would not be a drain on others' resources. We know in the passage he also served the elders. We don't know how large this company was, but he served them. He served them while he was with them, and he served them so affectionately, so tenderly, that when he calls them to meet with him, he's not in Ephesus.

They come some 25 to maybe 30 miles to meet him for this final encounter, to hear a final word from Paul. He served the people. Verse 20 tells us that he did so house to house. Verse 21 tells us that it was Jew and Gentile. Verse 34, Paul tells us that he served those who were with him, so they were co-laborers, and Paul's ministry went out to them as they served together.

And verse 35 tells us that they served the weak. And when you put all of that together, what's apparent is the Apostle Paul treats everybody like his neighbor. It doesn't matter where they're coming from. It doesn't matter where they're going.

It doesn't matter who else has passed them by. Paul wants to know, has God providentially put them in my path, and has he prepared me to meet their need? Paul treats all of these like his neighbor.

And verse 19 gives us, I think, what is sort of an umbrella over all of that. Paul is not just serving people. Paul is serving the Lord. The two great commands, the greatest command, Paul loves his God with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength, and it's what enables him and fuels him in his ministry to those before him. Now, what needs did Paul seek to address in his ministry? And I think the words that are used in verse 34, you have this word, necessities.

In verse 35, you have this word, weak. And both of those words in our New Testaments can be used for both physical and spiritual needs. And it may well be that Paul spent a good bit of his time ministering to physical needs. We know he healed a demon-possessed girl. And that was a spiritual deliverance with physical ramifications.

And he may have performed many such miracles there at Ephesus. But what seems to be Paul's primary concern is spiritually-minded ministry, ministry to the inner man, not divorced from physical need, but wedded to it, and maybe even supreme over it. Paul is attempting to meet the spiritual needs, and he's attempting to meet the spiritual needs of people who are called weak, people who are weak in faith, people without strength, people who need building up. Paul is seeing these needs and serving them through his ministry. Some of these people may have been skeptical of Paul's message until they watched him serve them. But Paul is serving the weak. And this is characteristic of Paul. In fact, Paul calls us to have this to be characteristic of us. In Galatians, he tells us, you learn to bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

You learn to work and labor with your hands so that you can have to give to him who needs. In Romans 15, 1, now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. In 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 14, Paul says, we urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Paul is modeling this kind of ministry. Now, in conclusion, I think there are three observations.

There are probably many more, but there are three observations that I would like to make. And one of them is this, that this counsel that Paul is giving, I believe, is given as a very specific antidote to anyone who might be tempted to become a false teacher. Okay, look at verses 29 and 30. Paul says, for I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. Listen to how the New Testament characterizes the motives of false teachers. They are hirelings, whose God is their belly, who spread views for shameful gain, who suppose that godliness is a way of making profit, and they love the wages of unrighteousness. Those men are not living by it is more blessed to give than to receive. They've forgotten those words. Remembering these words, this counsel, is an antidote to slipping into wrong motivations that might lead us then to become false teachers with false messages that lead people away.

And a second observation would be this. Paul in 2 Corinthians calls himself a minister of the new covenant. Ministers of the new covenant have the privilege of imitating the mediator of the new covenant. For a moment, just stop and consider this statement, it is more blessed to give than to receive, and imagine Jesus speaking this word. Imagine him saying it often. Imagine him reminding his disciples of it. Those disciples who observed him daily, they remembered that he said, I did not come to be served, but to serve. That equality with God was not something he was going to grasp at.

You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. Ultimately, we know he laid down his life. Greater love has no man than this. This statement, we could hang right over the life and ministry of Christ, and it's no wonder it seems to capture his spirit. He's a man of sorrows, acquainted with griefs, but he's blessed, and he loves to give, and he does so endlessly until the Lord takes him back to heaven.

It is a ministry mantra for Jesus himself, and it explains his joy, the joy that he was then able to give to his disciples. The final observation would just be one that I alluded to earlier, that when we, I think fully imbibe of Paul's counsel here, it does give us a glimpse into the character of God himself. God presents himself to us as a giver. When we come to him for wisdom, he loves to give lavishly. He gave us his son. Even today, he has given us his spirit, who energizes us and quickens us, convicts us.

That's a gift from God at the request of his son, and it is that same God who today gives us all things richly to enjoy, and he's the giver of every good and perfect gift. And when we learn to serve in ministry in a way that displays the heart of God, God is pleased, because he sees in us things that remind him of his son, the same kind of disposition displayed by his son in whom he was well pleased. I'm Steve Pettit, president of Bob Jones University. Thank you for listening to The Daily Platform. Please come visit our beautiful campus in Greenville, South Carolina, and see how God is working in the lives of our students. For more information about Bob Jones University, visit www.bju.edu or call 1-800-HELP.