WWUTT 1123 Testifying of Repentance Toward God?

The Apostle Paul met with the Ephesian elders for the last time, and said to them,

Follow the example that I gave to you, and share in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his gospel, when we understand the text.

You're listening to When We Understand The Text, committed to the sound teaching of the word of God. Find videos and more at our website, www .tt

.com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We're back in our study in the book of Acts, chapter 20, and we've been reading

Paul's message to the Ephesian elders at Miletus. So we're going to pick up there again, verse 17 through verse 38.

Now from Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. And when they came to him, he said to them,

You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the

Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the

Jews, how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our

Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the

Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.

But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself. If only

I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again.

Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them.

Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears.

And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me.

In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way, we must help the weak and remember the words of the

Lord Jesus, how he himself said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.

And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all, and there was much weeping on the part of all.

They embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all, because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again.

And they accompanied him to the ship. So as I mentioned yesterday, yesterday, laster day was kind of where I was, where my tongue got tied around my teeth there.

So I said that there's an outline that this message that Paul delivers to the

Ephesian elders follows. And the message that he gave to them was likely longer than this.

This is the way that Luke has summarized it in Acts chapter 20. And I also made the joke yesterday.

This is the first Shepkon. It's the shepherd's conference. Paul's summoning all the elders to him that he may encourage them in the word of the

Lord, which they are to take back to the church and teach it. So here's our basic outline here.

What we're looking at today, especially, is going to be verses 18 through 21, where Paul holds out his own ministry to these elders as an example for them to follow.

And I also drew this to 1 Corinthians 11, 1, the imitators of me as I am of Christ.

Part two comes in verses 22 through 27, where Paul informs them about what

God is going to do with him next. He doesn't know what's going to happen to himself when he goes to Jerusalem. But this thing he knows, verse 23, is that imprisonments and afflictions await me wherever I go.

So he knows this is not going to be a pleasure cruise. There is going to be long suffering for the gospel of Christ.

And this is still part of that example that Paul sets before the Ephesian elders. Paul shares in the sufferings of Christ, and so these elders likewise share in his sufferings, but rejoice and be glad in those sufferings that they endure, something

Paul said to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 1. Then part three of this particular message is in verses 28 through 31.

And this is where he warns about false teachers. Some people would be dragged away by these false teachers, these wolves, that would arise even from among you.

So it's not like an attack that comes from outside the church. He's even warning of attacks that happen in the church, especially of those attacks.

And then the fourth part is he encourages them to be hard workers for the faith.

And this again is following in his example, which he sets forth at the beginning of the message and comes back to it again at the very end.

So we look today here at verses 18 through... Oh, we'll see how far we get here.

But keep in mind, Paul is at Miletus. He's not in Ephesus. He went a little further south from there to Miletus.

Part of the reason... Some have said that the reason why Paul did that is because he wanted to avoid any skirmishes or conflicts going on in Ephesus.

Because remember when he left there, the people were kind of rising up against him and almost rioted. I don't really think that's the reason why

Paul didn't go to Ephesus. Because things had calmed down, the Holy Spirit was going to protect him. I think that the reason why he didn't return to Ephesus and instead he went to Miletus was so that the

Ephesians would not expect him to stay. Remember the first time he was in Ephesus, he went into the synagogue and spoke and the people begged him to stay.

And he said, well, I've got some other things I've got to do first. If it is the Spirit's will, I will come back to you.

And it was the Spirit's will that he would come back through Asia over to Ephesus, all part of the beginning of his third missionary journey.

And then he stayed in Ephesus for three years by what he says here in this message to them.

So they begged for him to stay the first time they met him. He stayed with them a long while the second time he came to them and again had endeared himself to this church more so than he had to any other.

So in summoning the elders to come to him at Miletus, it's so they would come to him in the mindset of knowing he's not coming back to Ephesus.

He's already south of Ephesus. He's already bypassed us, gone down to Miletus. He means to go back to Jerusalem.

So this is to set in their hearts an understanding that he's not staying. He's not coming back.

And in fact, even says to them when they get to him, this is the last time you're even going to see my face.

So that's one of the reasons why he did this at Miletus, so that it would, even in his own heart, he would not be tempted to remain there at Ephesus, but continue to work that the

Spirit was impressing on him, constrained by the Spirit, as he says in verse 22.

And so it's here in Miletus that he delivers this message to him and says, you yourselves know how

I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia.

Even when he was with them the first time, they saw him as a hard worker, a hard worker for the faith, hard worker in his everyday life, serving the

Lord with all humility. It is not proud for a person to say that they're humble.

Moses did it. He called himself the meekest man on earth. He was the one that wrote that down. Of course, it's the word of God.

The word of the Lord came to him to say that. Paul says it here, that he has served them with all humility.

It's okay to say that, but you can certainly, you know, we always think of it as being a paradox or ironic or that it cancels itself out.

If somebody ever has to say of themselves, I'm a humble guy. Well, now you've just become proud because you've exalted yourself as humble.

There is a humble way to say that. You can say to somebody, especially a pastor saying to his congregation,

I've been humble with you all. In humility have I done these things with you so that I might set an example before you to follow.

It's okay to say that, but it needs to be done in a humble way. If you're going to talk about humility, you need to do it in humility.

Same thing with love. When a pastor is talking about love, he needs to do that in a loving way.

When he's having to rebuke somebody for doing something wrong, then you rebuke in a loving way.

So you can talk about love, and you could even talk about love in a hateful way, right? So when you're rebuking someone for being in sin or error or following false teaching, it's a loving thing to rebuke them.

Proverbs 12 .1 says, It's the fool who hates wisdom and instruction or being corrected.

So to issue correction is a loving thing to do. But I think we all know that can be done in an unloving way.

It can be done in a very spiteful way. The words that are being said might be right.

They might be true, but they're not being delivered in love. This is unfortunately a lot of those discernment ministries that are out there.

I think that discernment is important. I think that somebody can use a gift of discernment in a valuable way, that you can have a discernment ministry.

I don't discount all discernment ministries, but a large majority of them out there, especially when it comes to the online thing that they do, are done in a very unloving manner, very spiteful in their words.

They are not thinking of this in love for the bettering of the building up of the body of Christ, because that's what 1

Corinthians 12 says the gift of discernment is supposed to do. It's supposed to be a service to the church for building up the body of Christ, not for puffing the chest of the person who has discernment.

That can be done as well. The Holy Spirit can gift you with something that you then use in an unspiritual way, and you grieve the

Holy Spirit when you do that. That's exactly what Paul talked about with the Ephesians. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. So right after 1

Corinthians 12, you have chapter 13, where Paul says, if I could speak in the tongues of angels, and knew all of knowledge, but I did not have love,

I am nothing. So we can have those gifts of the Spirit, and then not exercise them in a holy way, and therefore we would be grieving the

Holy Spirit. We would be dividing the body of Christ instead of serving the body of Christ with the gifts that he has given to us.

And so you have some of those discernment ministries out there that instead of approaching the church in a loving way, or alerting people to these things for the betterment of Christ's body, they do it in such a way that they become puffed up with conceit, and they have this unhealthy craving for controversy.

Paul warned about this in 1 Timothy 6. They love the controversy instead of the church, and they quarrel over words.

So instead of now being discerning about those things that are important, they start nitpicking at stuff, looking at everything with a microscope, not exercising grace at all.

And they produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction.

That's what then results from this, when a person does not approach the gift of discernment with love in their hearts, with a love for the church, which is the reason why they are warning the church about these false teachings.

Paul is exercising discernment here in the thing that he is saying to the Ephesian elders, but he is doing this, of course, in love.

I mean, we even see his tears, and he reminds them of his tears. Verse 19, serving the

Lord with all humility, not overbearing on them, but correcting opponents with gentleness, an instruction he gave to Timothy, in 2

Timothy 2 .25, he served the Lord with all humility and with tears.

They saw his brokenheartedness over those who had gone astray, and even those who had tried to devour the flock of God.

In Philippians 3, I think of these words that he said to the Philippians, starting in verse 17, he says,

Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example that you have in us.

For many of whom I have often told you, and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.

Their end is destruction. Their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things.

And I hope the example that I've given you, even through this broadcast, I hope the example that I've given you when

I've had to warn you about false teachers has not been from a proud heart, that it's not been from somebody thumping his chest and saying, hey, you need to listen to me because I know better than you, but that you would hear even reflected in my voice when

I have to warn you about these things of the grief that I have over those that wish to bring harm upon the church of God through their false teachings and divisions and the things of this world that they have embraced and adopted and tried to bring into theology that has thus created false teaching that harms the body of Christ.

It devours Christians. It spreads like gangrene instead of spreading in the love of Christ.

I hope you've heard that even in my deliverance, that I've done this in a right manner and not in a proud manner.

Something that I always want to be sure that I have in my teaching, especially when it comes to warning against false teachers.

I want to be sure the gospel is always there and I'm not just assuming it because if all

I'm talking about is just the false teacher, then the risk, the likelihood that's coming from my flesh is that I'm just wanting to dog on this person and beat them up and make myself look smarter than they are.

There's always that risk. There's that temptation in my flesh to do that. But if the gospel is always out front, if it's always front and center, then that keeps even in my mind and even in my heart, the focus is on exalting

Christ. It's not exalting myself. It's not putting another person down. It is praising

God and loving his word and holding that word out and saying this is what it is that we need to follow.

Notice how what this teacher is saying is different than what Jesus said, what the word of God says.

So if we love God's word and we're holding that forth and we cherish that in our hearts, it's by the word that we are able to discern who those true teachers are and who those false teachers are.

Even through this broadcast when I have talked about false teachers, I likewise have choked up and my eyes have been filled with tears as the apostle

Paul has talked about that even with the Philippians. And so he says that here with the Ephesian elders also.

I've served the Lord with humility and with tears and with trials. You've seen me go through trial and hardship and endure.

And again, Paul is setting himself forward to them as an example. You've seen me go through tough stuff and I've endured the things that happened to me through the plot of the

Jews. And yet I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house.

Like there was nobody I was afraid of here. As Paul said in Galatians 1 .11, he said, am

I out to please men or please Christ? If I was out to please men that I would not be a servant of Christ.

And so the fact that he went through trials and he was persecuted and yet continued to speak in public and go door to door just demonstrated that his service was to Christ and he was not afraid of what man would do to him.

He testified both to Jews and the Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our

Lord Jesus Christ. That's kind of like the bedrock of the gospel there as he's saying that we're all called to repentance and we're all called to follow

Christ. These were the very first words that Jesus preached. Matthew 4 .17 where he said, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

The message of repentance to come and follow Jesus began with repentance that you must turn from your sin.

You're all heading in that direction. You're heading toward destruction. You must turn around, follow

Jesus who is the way to eternal life. That message, that gospel message begins with repentance toward God.

Repent of your sin and your unholiness. Look to God and his holiness. Be imitators of Christ.

Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus. That's the call of the gospel and Paul delivered that to everybody both to Jews and to Greeks.

The message of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. That's part one of Paul's message to these

Ephesian elders. Setting forth himself as an example and remember he is an example that points to Christ.

I think also the words of Peter in 1 Peter 2 .21 where he says, for to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps.

He committed no sin. Neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled he did not revile in return.

When he suffered he did not threaten but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

Paul shares in the sufferings of Christ and has likewise used himself as an example. When I was reviled I did not revile in return.

I continued entrusting myself to him who judges justly. You saw my service in your presence my humility before God.

The tears, the trials that happened to me and so Paul is setting forth before them. As you continue this ministry that was started here in Ephesus imitate me for I am an imitator of Christ.

And that's part one of this message to the elders. So God willing when we get to Monday next week we'll be on parts 2, 3 and 4 as we finish up Paul's final address to the elders of Ephesus.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father we thank you so much for examples that have been given to us that we have men who have delivered to us the gospel of Christ that we might know the call to repent of sin and the way of this world and to follow

Christ and the way of his kingdom. Jesus said in Matthew 6 seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and then all the things that we need will be added to us as well.

So let that be our focus. Let that be our faith focusing upon Christ who is the author and the perfecter of our faith.

And it's our focus on Christ and our enduring in trials that we are filled with hope for the future.

We do not despair the things that happen to us in this world even though people break our hearts even though there are things struggles, sufferings we're going to go through and our eyes fill with tears over the evil that we see and even endure in this life.

Nevertheless, we put our trust in Christ for he is the eternal one. He is the one who delivers us from this fallen world that is continuing to go to destruction and delivers us into his eternal kingdom.

Your will is perfect. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And we pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday Gabe will be going through a

New Testament study. Then on Thursday we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday we take questions from the listeners and viewers.

Tomorrow we'll pick up on an Old Testament study When We Understand the Text. When We Understand the