Acts 20:17-38 Last Words

Acts 20:17-38 and Paul’s Last Words to the Ephesian Elders

Last week we saw Paul traveling on his way to Jerusalem and he was stopping and encouraging churches along the way. So the main message last week was about encouragement, how we need encouragement ourselves, but then we also need to encourage others.

And have you had an opportunity, have you been seeking opportunities to encourage others this week? I want you to kind of continue that forward and just keep looking for opportunities to encourage others, to build them up and strengthen them, to give courage to them we talked about last week.

So Paul was traveling around and doing that and we picked that up this week with Luke taking the time to zero in on, he's traveling back to Jerusalem for Pentecost and on the way he stops in this little town, we left him in the town of Miletus last week.

So he's there chewing on lettuce, not really, that was a bad pun, that was really bad. But he's there and he is 30 miles south of Ephesus, a place where he started a church. Now it said in the text he didn't stop in Ephesus because he knew it was going to take a bunch of his time, but he sends for the leadership in our very first verse, the leadership of that church in Ephesus comes down and meets with him and we're going to see one long sermon from Paul, thinking in his mind that these are the last words he's going to share with these people.

So this is kind of last words to the leadership of a church that he got started. There is no question that Paul was a man with a fiery personality, but his passion for the truth did not get in the way of his compassion for people and we're going to see an emotional appeal to them.

We're going to see him connecting with them in a significant way. He's going to speak to them from the heart, recalling the past with them and pointing the way that he ministered to them, encouraging them to follow his example.

And then he's also, in the text and in his message, he's going to look to the future with deep concern, giving them caution, saying, I kind of see where things might go with this church, and I'm not going to be present anymore with you, and so in my absence I'm concerned, so pay attention and watch for wolves that might come among you.

And he uses the illustration of a shepherd and a flock and wolves trying to destroy the church. He even indirectly addresses a concern that he sees in their lives about covetousness and the love of money.

So we're going to see kind of a lot of things and it has the potential to be kind of like a fire hose message, so kind of, you're going to want to kind of put your seatbelts on for this one because it's going to, I'm going to preach it like Paul preached it, I mean this is his text, his sermon, I get to borrow it and kind of explain it to you.

And so if you were sitting in the crowd of leaders in Ephesus, they're listening to him, you're going to hear the same message that they heard, so he lets them have it. But what we have in our text is the practical expression of the love of Paul for the Ephesian church and the great respect that they had for Paul, and we're going to see how that all panned out.

It's a beautiful picture of a healthy relationship in the church, and as we read this text and come to worship this morning, we need ultimately to ask God to prepare our hearts for what he would say to us here, where we live in West Michigan in 2011.

So I want you to open your Bibles please to Acts chapter 20, and we're going to be reading 17 -38, and that's page 796 in the Bible that's in the seat back in front of you, so if you want to take that Bible out, you can find it on 796, it's a bit of a big chunk, so hang in there, I think that sometimes reading a big chunk helps us to get the flow of the text.

If you don't own a Bible, you can take that one with you by the way, we want everybody to have a copy of the scriptures. So I'll follow along as I read Acts 20, 17 -38. 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 affliction await me.

But I do not count my life of any value, nor is precious to myself. If only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord, 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 of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

Pay attention, 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. Let's pray. Father as we come to a text where Paul is literally in a historical context giving a sermon and speaking these words to the leadership of a church. Father I ask that you would impress on our hearts that you would open us up to see what it is that you desire for us to change here in our lives and where we live.

But Father if this is just an exercise in us trying to change our behavior or an exercise in us trying to become better people and in our own strength, Father that's futile and that's worthless and that's senseless and we can't accomplish that.

Because we need a remedy for our souls. We need, we have a problem, we have a sickness and an illness that cannot be taken care of on our own strength. And so Father as we come to you I ask that you would help us to offer up praise and worship to you out of hearts that are glad first and foremost because Jesus Christ paid the price for us.

He is the remedy. He is the one who has, is necessary for salvation. And then from that position that we would go out and live and follow even the model of Paul in this text, an amazing model about certain things that we ought to change.

So Father as we come before you in worship I ask that you would settle our hearts. All of the busyness and all the difficulty of this past week that we would be able to push those things aside. Even the blessings that you've given us can get in the way.

So Father I ask that you would help us to push those things out and to help our minds and our hearts focus on you as we sing these songs out of glad hearts. If you're not there turn in your Bibles to Acts 20.

Just to remind you where we're at. Acts 20, 17 through 38, page 796. Feel free to get up and get coffee. There's some donuts left back there. So don't make me eat those throughout the week. So make sure you get rid of those.

Paul’s Farewell and the Shape of His Ministry

I want to start off just by setting the tone and the flavor for where we're at here. I've already mentioned that these are in essence the last words of Paul. Not the last words that we know of him but the last words that at least a select group.

So what we have is him actually saying what he thought he wanted to say to a group of people. Now imagine that you had the chance to speak with a group of people that you loved for the very last time.

So you've got them. They're a captive audience. They're there and they're listening and you're pretty sure that this is the last chance that you're going to get to talk with them. What kind of things do you say to them?

Think about that. Put yourself in those shoes. What kind of stuff do you want to cover with them? For those who are in Christ, you might want to proclaim the gospel. But in this context, these are the leaders of a church.

So we're pretty sure that Paul knew that they were followers of Jesus Christ. So he's not going to re-proclaim the gospel to them. He knows that they're in the faith. So he's going to give them some encouragement and some things.

But what do you say? Do you tell them hang in there? Do you give them cautions? You know, beware of this or watch out for this. Or some words of wisdom of the life that you've experienced. Or what about commendations?

Maybe you want to leave them with something positive. Like something you've seen in their life that's good and you want that to be uplifting. What direction do you point them? That's the challenge that faced Paul as he meets with the elders, the leaders in Ephesus.

He was convinced that this was the last chance he was going to have to speak with them.

Consider that.

Like what would be your last words? Paul begins by reminiscing with them. He's going to say, let's look back at the past and some of the good times and some of the things that we've done together. He says in verse 18, You yourselves know how I lived among you.

When I first met you, when I came in among you, when I first came to Ephesus, you know how I lived. Notice he's not talking about the content of his message. He's not talking about what he spoke to them.

He's talking about the way that he spoke to them. The things that he did. The MO with which he operated. The way that he did things. It's like Paul says, obviously you know because you were there, but let's think about these things.

Let me draw your attention to my methods. And there's two primary things that really stand out as character traits that ultimately characterize the way that he worked there. And if you would like to know how you ought to be ministering to one another in the body of Christ, then this would be a good place to pull out a pen and start to take notes because that's what Paul is going to be declaring to us, is how he worked.

The first thing that we see in verse 19, he says, let's back up to verse 18 where it first starts. You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord.

Serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews. But first and foremost, he says, I want you to know that the very first, the priority, the first thing was that I served the Lord.

It's very significant that the way, the method that Paul applied first to his ministry is that when he's talking about how to to these people was the mindset of ministry to God and not to people. He says, I served the Lord when I was in your midst.

Well, was he serving them or was he serving God? Do you see kind of the dilemma there? Would I tell you not to serve people? No, you should be serving people, but you should be serving God in your service to people.

And he identified that first and foremost, he was a servant to God. And that's very, very important because it can be so easy to begin with good intentions and then get off track by serving people. Have any of you ever tried that before?

Have any of you been around long enough? I'm assuming everybody in this room has been around long enough to figure out that this adage actually works. You can't please everyone.

Any of you?

Now, you've heard that before, but how many of you have experienced that? You've been out and trying to please everyone and you've come to that knowledge that that's true, not because your mom told you, not because a pastor told you, but you figured it out on your own.

Raise your hand. Okay, that's pretty much all of us. You can't please everyone, right? And you've got this group of people over here that think this way of you and want you to do this. And you've got this people over here that want you to do this and they don't agree with each other.

And how many of you know that riding the fence can totally pull you in half? Okay, there comes a point in life where you can't ride the fence and you're going to join this group or you're going to join this group and or they're just going to tear you.

Especially when people, a group of this people are together with a group of this people and you're there. That's, that gets pretty ugly pretty fast, especially if they think you're on their side and they think you're on their side and ah, that gets really ugly pretty fast.

I've seen that firsthand how the shifting standards of trying to please everyone can cause a person to become double-minded and unstable and just tear apart ministry. Paul therefore sought to please one in ministry.

Do you see how, we could be arguing semantics here but it's really, really valuable and really important. The way that you go about ministry, thinking about who am I serving matters. If you're just trying to serve and please people, that is going to be a long and hard road.

Unsuccessful at best. Serving God, that is the way that he ministered among them. But so he's serving the Lord and he's got that mindset but Paul served in humility, tears and trials, he says. That Paul served in humility shows that he was not in ministry for his own glory.

He wasn't in it so that everybody looked at Paul and said, wow, great job, Paul, you're awesome. He served with humility. But also Paul served with tears. This shows that he approached others with an open heart.

How many of you know that you don't cry about things you don't care about? Have you experienced that? Okay, you cry about things that matter. Paul was a minister who stuck his neck out on the chopping block.

Not necessarily a great professional because how many of you know, tears are not very professional? You know what I'm saying? But he ministered among them with tears, engaging his heart in them. Some older pastors have advised me at times, keep your distance, don't get engaged, don't get too engaged because your heart will get broken.

Whoa, isn't that what it means to be in relationship with others is putting it out there? Do you see what I'm saying? I mean, you are always at risk when you're in genuine relationship with another human being.

How many of you know you're always at risk for heartbreak, right? So that's what it means to minister. If we are really the church, recast, if we are the church to one another, then it means putting our necks out there for one another.

And putting your heart in somebody else's hands, that's a scary thing, isn't it? So both be a good steward of each other's hearts, but also be willing to lay that out there and being genuine like Paul was here.

He's ministering in tears. That shows where his heart was in ministry. It was not disconnected or task oriented as many people think, but he served people. He served God through serving people. And that he served with trials shows that he was willing to endure personal loss for the sake of serving the Lord.

So he served in trials, particularly those he highlights that the Jews were plotting against him and he faced some pretty hard things. But the second thing, so that's the first thing. He served the Lord over and above just mentally serving people.

But the second thing is his boldness. Look at verse 20. He says, how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house. Paul says, the second thing that was my MO when I was with you, Ephesians, is that I did not shrink back from declaring anything profitable.

He was bold in proclaiming the truth. His boldness included public teaching, teaching in homes. He eagerly testified to all. He says, both Jews and Greeks I called to turn from their own way of life and turn to God.

Ultimately, when you see Jews and Greeks there, you're talking about the religious people who thought that they had it together and God loved them because they were religious. Some of you come from that background.

Some of you are like the Greeks who were just worshiping everything. The next fad that came along, they were gonna worship it and follow it. And so you look at your upbringing and you know where you're at on that spectrum.

From being a religious zealot who was raised in a family.

Probably with a lot of rules.

And I'm good and I'm better than everybody else because of this, or a family where everything goes. Wherever you were raised and whatever you grabbed a hold of growing up, we need to repent of that life and come to Christ.

So that even ultimately he's calling the very religious Jews to repentance and to faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord, the text says. Now, I would call Paul a great example in ministry. Paul takes those ministering in the church and he says, serve others as if you are serving the Lord and declare the truth without shrinking back or in other words, be bold.

Two very, very good things for us to consider and to think about from this text. But now from verse 22 through 35, Paul is gonna look to the future. So he's taking a look back and said here, let's think about the way that I ministered with implications that you ought to model the way that he ministered.

But now, verses 22 through 35, future thoughts towards these leaders and in 22 through 25, he starts off just by speaking his own immediate future saying in verse 22 that he's going to Jerusalem as a slave to the Holy Spirit.

The word constrained, if you're looking at the text, verse 22, and now behold, I'm going to Jerusalem constrained by the Spirit. The word constrained means I'm in chains. I'm shackled by the Spirit. He was going to Jerusalem somehow because the Spirit was guiding him and directing him.

We don't have exactly how that happened. If he had a vision, a dream, whatever, the Spirit's driving him towards Jerusalem and with the thought in the back of his mind, he's thinking he's going there to his demise.

He knows he's supposed to go to Jerusalem, but he doesn't know what's going to befall him there in the specifics, but he has an inkling. He has some thoughts. If you look at verse 23, I don't know what will happen to me there at the end of 22 and then the start of 23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and affliction await me.

The Holy Spirit is telling him, presumably through prophets, he's going to actually encounter in a couple of chapters, he's going to encounter a prophet in Caesarea who's going to outright declare you're going to be bound in chains when you go to Jerusalem.

Don't go to Jerusalem because if you go there, you're going to be bound in physical chains and arrested. He knows that. I mean, wherever I travel, as I'm traveling and I'm on my way to Pentecost in Jerusalem, people just keep coming out of the blue, out of the woodwork and just saying, you're going to be arrested and there's going to be affliction awaiting.

How many of you would love that? That would just be really encouraging. I mean, that ministry of encouragement, he's traveling around encouraging others and they're saying, dude, it's not going to go well for you.

This is not going to, it's not, I've foreseen the future and this is not going to go down well.

I don't know.

Would you want to know? Would you want to know? Or I mean, well, it all depends on your personality,.

Right?

Some of us in the room would just prefer to kind of be like, I want to know if I'm going to get arrested next week. Just let it happen or, you know, I'm going to, but the fact of the matter is that Paul knows that he is going to get arrested, makes this, the speech all the more important because he knows that he's giving his last words.

Do you see the value in that? If he doesn't know this is the end, then he might just be like chewing the fat and talking about the football game yesterday.

Or whatever,.

But he's taking this seriously and this is pretty significant because he knows that this is the end of the line for him and he's pretty sure about that. So he's being, he's pretty sure that this is not going to go well for him.

He keeps hearing this from town to town and I'm not sure if I would want to know or not. You decide that for yourself. He gives them this parting speech because he's certain as verse 25 tells us, and now behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again.

There's the statement that lets us know that he knows that this is the end of the line, but it's important to note Paul's bravery and this is kind of convicting to me. He's not just under the impression that he's going to go back to Jerusalem for Pentecost and head up to Antioch, give a report to his missions board, the sending church that sent him out, talk with them, and then retire.

And retire to a nice little villa on the Mediterranean Sea where he can have hummus all he wants and grape leaves. How many of you like Middle Eastern food? Man, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

Love that stuff. And it's not like he's just going to retire there off the coast of the Mediterranean, you know, where the warm breeze is blowing. And I probably won't make it back to Ephesus again because I'm just going to be in retirement golfing and having a good time.

That's not what his impression is. Because look at what he goes on to say in 24 and 25. But I do not account my life of any value. Wait a minute, Paul. Why are you talking about what your life is worth here?

Why are you talking about the value? You just said we're not going to see you.

Stop it, Paul.

Stop talking about it. Because what's he saying? I'm going to die.

He sees this.

He knows this. He's seeing the end of the line. And he's not talking about retirement, you know, and having a nice place off to the side or whatever and going around and visiting the grandkids or whatever.

He's talking about this being the end. And it's convicting to me to just see how serious he is about this. He says in verse 24, I do not account my life of any value. It is not precious to myself. How many of us can say that?

I don't count my life as valuable. Clinging to this life. Now, not that you think of yourself. We're not talking about your self-worth or, you know, things like that. I mean, self-esteem was not known to Paul at that time.

That's not what we're dealing with here. We're dealing with this notion of clinging to life as if this is ultimate and the end. But then I just got to hold on to this life and stay alive as long as I can.

So can you say that? Can we say that? And that's a tough statement. But the conviction gets deeper. Because not only does Paul say, I don't count my life as precious, but let me tell you what is precious to me.

And then, so then he comes at it from the other angle. And actually, we get a double conviction in this. Because Paul says, I don't count my life as precious. But what is precious to me is that I finish the course.

That is the race that God has called me to. And the ministry that he has. Getting the ministry out that he has called me to. You see, the ministry, the New Testament assumes that everyone receives a race and a ministry that they are called to complete.

The picture of life is like this race. For Paul, he had been called specifically to be a witness of the Gospel of the grace of God. You see that there in the text? That that's literally what his calling and his race was.

To witness the Gospel specifically to Gentiles. That's what he's been out doing. And he's like, if I fulfill that, if I complete the task that God has called me to, that's what satisfies me. And if that means dying early, so be it.

Man, that's a hard thing for us to take on. As much as we value our own lives, he's saying, I don't count it as anything. What I count as valuable is that I finish what God has set me here on planet Earth to accomplish.

And I want to be able to say that. You can consider his life worthless, worthwhile rather, if it was used up finishing the course and ministry that he's called to. And verse 25 indicates he fully expects his life to end short.

How well do you know your race? How well do you know the course that is planned out for you? And I'm not talking about knowing the future here. I'm talking about how well do you know what you've been made to do?

We are not all held to the same ministry. Not all are called to be elders. Not all are called to be preachers. Not all are called to be evangelists. Not all are called to make coffee on Sunday morning or to be greeters or to work in the finances or all different kinds of aspects, right?

So we're not all called to the same race, but how well do you know your race? Running a race without knowing the course would be pretty difficult, don't you think? How many of you have run a, any of you, how many of you in here have run an actual race at some point?

5K, marathon, half marathon, something like that. Okay, how many of you, when you get up to the starting line, and those of you who haven't run, I still think you can kind of imagine this. You get up to the starting line, the gun goes.

How far do you have to run? Now, I've never been the front. I've never been in the front of the race,.

So I don't have that problem,.

Because what do you do if you're in the back of the pack? You follow, okay? So, but how many of you, if you were in that race, and the gun sounds, and how far would you have to run before you realized you weren't on course, and nobody knew where they were going?

It would probably be right around the time that you hit whatever distance you were going, and there was no finish line there. You know, so you're in a 5K race, and you get to 3 .1 miles, and there's nothing there.

You know what I'm saying? It's just kind of like, what just happened here? And everybody is, you just keep running? What do you do? Turn around and go back? I guess this is a 10K. Knowing the course is important, but what I, now hear me carefully.

Get your pens ready on this one, because this is really, really significant. I am not talking about finding some secret calling that God has revealed to you in a secret way. That is not what I'm talking about.

Like, God has some secret course,.

And your goal in life is to figure out what that course is. Because how many of you know, God doesn't always tell you the future? Okay, some people in scripture had specific, unique callings, right? How many burning bush experiences were in the Bible?

Raise your hand and tell me how many with your hand. One, one burning bush in history. What, would we expect that? Like, we expect that for ourselves? What about Paul? Now, Paul had a unique calling, didn't he?

I mean, that's even what he's kind of referring to here. He knew his course in a way that I don't expect us to. Are you hearing what I'm saying? There's something other, there's something other than this.

And when I'm, so when I'm talking about, when I'm talking about finding your course, finding your race, is I'm talking about a practical assessment. A practical evaluation of your gifts, your talents, the resources and abilities that God has given to you in serving God with those things.

Now, hear me out here. Because some people might disagree with this. And you can come and talk with me if you disagree with this afterwards. I believe that as a follower of Jesus Christ, you can stumble upon your calling.

Now, that kind of flies in the face of everything that tells you to live intentionally. I want you to live intentionally. I want you to be honoring God, honoring God with your lives. But I believe that you can practically stumble upon your calling by faithfully doing the things that align with God's Word and going out and using your talents.

As if by focusing on His glory and delighting in Him, you wake up one day and realize that you are on the course, running the race. Are you hearing what I'm saying? That you might, by being faithful, by delighting yourself in the Lord and then using the gifts and talents and abilities, you wake up one day and you're like,.

This is it.

I love this. Let me just tell you, that's been my personal experience. If you came to me 10 years ago, and my wife can validate this, if you had come to me 10 years ago and said, Don, you're going to be the pastor of a church, I couldn't have handled that.

That would have just broke me down right there. I'd have been like, no way, you've got the wrong person. That's not going to happen, let alone being a preaching pastor. You're nuts. You're crazy. And yet, God has worked in many, many circumstances in my life to bring me to the place where here we are, Recast, and this is awesome and I love it and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

And I'm just delighted in that. Was I ready? If God had come to me 10 years ago and said that, I was not ready for that information. That would have just blown my mind. No way, no how. And so what is it that God isn't necessarily telling you right now that He has in store for you and all you are called to do right now is walk in faithfulness, step by step, obeying God's word.

Not some secret, not wasting a lot of time trying to figure out some secret calling that God has for you.

Are you getting this?

Are you hearing what I'm saying? Because we can waste a lot of time sitting back watching TV hoping that God interrupts with the next commercial to tell us where to go and what to do instead of doing something with the gifts, talents, abilities that He has given us.

Paul gets kind of solemn here. These are last words and he starts using even some solemn terminology like therefore I testify to you this day. He says you're not going to see me again and so I'm going to testify to you.

A formal court type of word. And he is ultimately witnessing his own innocence regarding the eternal demise of anyone in Ephesus. Crazy. He's not saying I'm innocent of murder as he refers to blood which you can kind of see that if it was literal, but he's being figurative.

I'm innocent of the blood of all. In context, it's obvious that he is assured that he has adequately declared the whole counsel of God to everyone in Ephesus. When verse 26 and 27 are placed together, what happens in my life is conviction.

Okay, look at this. Therefore I testify to you this day that I'm innocent of the blood of all of you for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. I would love to be able to say as I approach the end of my life, I did not shrink back in fear from declaring the whole plan, the whole counsel, the whole will.

Those are interchangeable words in Greek. Plan, counsel, will of God to all. That at the judgment, that at the judgment, nobody could step up and say, Don, why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you tell me?

We worked as cashiers at Sam's Club for a year and a half and you never opened your mouth.

Why?

Didn't you care about me? And I'm not trying to be melodramatic. I'm trying to just lay it out there in the way that it really is. How significant is our interaction with other people who have a soul?

It's real stuff. Why didn't you tell me? You were my neighbor for five years. You barely even came over. You knew this stuff. You knew this was real, that there was going to be a judgment like this and you didn't say a word.

Did you love me?

Why didn't you care?

Can you imagine?

But Paul says, I'm innocent of all that. Like, we can tend to elevate some of these biblical characters beyond proportion. They're no longer human. They're superhuman, all of this stuff. And so we don't pray to Paul.

We don't ask him for extra grace. We don't see him as any different. He's made of the same stuff as you and I. You wouldn't want to follow exactly everything that Paul did in his ministry and in his life.

He was a sinner just like you and me. But how many of you know that there are some things about Paul that we could all stand to emulate? We could all stand to mimic his life. And this is one of those.

Man, he is just watertight on this. If he's being honest and not just outright lying to us, he's saying, there was nobody in Ephesus. There was nobody in Ephesus that I feel guilty about. There's nobody on my conscience that I should have shared the gospel with.