WWUTT 1122 Paul Summons the Elders of Ephesus?

Paul’s Final Charge to the Ephesian Elders in Acts 20

In Acts chapter 20, the Apostle Paul delivered his final message to the Ephesian elders before going to Jerusalem. This little sermon that we have here most closely resembles the way Paul wrote his letters 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 .utt .com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you Becky. We are on Paul's third missionary journey, which we're reading about in Acts chapter 20. Today we're reading Paul's last message to the Ephesian elders. This is Acts 20 verses 17 through 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 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 this speech that Paul gives here to the elders at Ephesus, which goes from verses 18 through, well, he finishes up around verse 35. This is really the first time in the book of Acts that we've seen anything that is similar to what Paul writes in his letters.

We know that Paul has written letters up to this point in the narrative. He's written to the Thessalonians, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, his letter to the Romans. Some of those later letters, like Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, those haven't been written yet because he's not yet been imprisoned.

Paul’s Ministry as an Example for the Elders

And then there's also his letters to Timothy and to Titus and Philemon. But we haven't seen anything in Acts yet that is similar to what Paul has written to the churches that looks like his epistles. We've certainly seen some gospel sermons and we've seen some apologetic sermons, but we haven't seen a letter in the book of Acts.

And the Jerusalem Council would be an exception. But that wasn't Paul's letter that was agreed upon by the apostles and delivered by Paul. But he wasn't the writer of that letter. He was one of the administrators of that letter.

Whereas here with the elders in Ephesus, this is Paul speaking with those elders. And notice that he's talking here with the elders. He's not addressing the entire church. He's sent for the Ephesian elders to come to him at Miletus, and he's talking to them, which is why when we read the letters in the epistles, I think that we need to follow that same pattern.

I think that those letters, though they are addressing churches most definitely, and though those letters would have been read to the entire congregation and assembly, they were first read by the elders.

We don't often talk about that whenever we read those letters, but that's who read them first. So you take, for example, Paul's letter to the Romans, which is where we're going next when we get done with Acts.

But he wrote to the Romans and the first ones to receive and read that letter would have been the elders. They're reading this letter from an apostle. They're convicted by it and they know and understand we've got to read this to our people.

And so it was the elders or one of the elders, probably the first among many who would have been the pastor. Somebody would have been kind of like the head elder would have stood before the congregation and read that letter to the entire church so they could all hear it read so they could understand the word of Christ that had been delivered to them through an apostle.

Oftentimes, when we see the church, when we have the church being addressed here, it doesn't necessarily mean the entire body of the church together. It could also mean or only mean the elders who then take that message to the church.

But they're the administrators. There's they are the shepherds of the word of God to God's people. And so it comes to them first and then to the rest of the church. I encounter this all the time where I will run into a person, even somebody who sat under my teaching for years, who will be of this belief that I, as a member of the church, am every bit as authoritative in this body as the elder himself.

That is not true. That is that's incredibly proud for a person to take on that persona. I had a conversation with somebody who was even a member of my own family who was upset that her pastor was not letting her do the Bible study that she wanted to do.

She had this Bible study all laid out. She had even come up with a plan and had presented the plan to her pastor and said, I want to do this Bible study. And he rejected it. And she was even upset that he rejected it outright.

And my I don't remember the details of it. But if memory serves, it was from a teacher. It was written by a person that was like, no, you can't be teaching this person in our church. So I'm hearing this and I'm going, I understand why the elder has rejected this or your pastor has rejected this because of the author that's on it.

But but but her defense was, am I not filled with the Holy Spirit? Am I not just as capable of of discerning and knowing and being able to teach these things as my pastor is? Don't I know what is good for these people and for this body?

And I tried in the most loving way that I could to tell her, no, you're not. I mean, this is stated clearly in first Corinthians 12, that each person is gifted differently with a measure of the Holy Spirit.

And we all have to submit to the respective givings of that spirit to the people of God for their for we are one body with many parts. And some parts have a calling to do one thing. And some parts have a calling to do another thing.

And there's no one part of the body that's greater than another. But because we're different, there are going to be different gifting. So, yes, we're all the same in the body of Christ. There's no one in the kingdom of God that is more important than any other person.

But God has nevertheless gifted respective persons with respective tasks. And that begins with the shepherds and the teachers in the church that stated plainly in Ephesians 4, 11, that God gave first the apostles and the prophets, the evangelist, the shepherds and the teachers to prepare the saints for the work of ministry.

Every other gifting of the Holy Spirit that comes to the body must first submit to those authoritative offices that God has ordained, the prophets and the apostles. We all submit to those offices because they are the offices that had given us the Bible.

The prophets wrote the Old Testament. The apostles gave us the New Testament. The evangelists, those that have gone out and shared the gospel, we submitted to that office since that was how we came to the faith in the first place, because an evangelist came to us preaching the gospel.

And it was our hearing the gospel, submitting to it, in obedience to Christ, repenting of sin and coming to faith in him that we have been cleansed from all unrighteousness. We have been delivered from our slavery and our lostness in the darkness of this world.

And we have been transferred to his kingdom of light and made a citizen of his kingdom, part of the people of God now through that. And this was the work of the evangelist. And then you have the shepherds and the teachers who are the pastor and elders and other teachers in your church to equip the saints for the work of ministry.

So most definitely there are offices that God has appointed your pastor in your church. God has put him there and he is ordained for that purpose by God. He is a gift to your church. And do you have to submit to his authority?

Yes, you do. First Peter chapter five, verse five says that we are all to submit to our elders. By the way, folks, I even submit to my elders because I am part of a church that is a plurality eldership.

So therefore, there are elders that I submit to. Even a pastor must submit to his elders. That's what we've been called to do. And so that is an office that the people of the church need to respect for God has created it and appointed the men to those offices who are going to therefore be the administrators of the work of the word of God, teaching the word of God, shepherding the people in an understanding of that word and a keeping of that word and following that word.

Do you have the same Holy Spirit that your pastor does? Absolutely, you do. Furthermore, you have the same Holy Spirit the apostles do. You have the same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. According to what's said to us in Romans chapter eight, the same power that raised Christ from the dead is the power of the Holy Spirit that lives within you.

But the scripture also tells us Romans 12, three, that the Holy Spirit has appointed certain giftings to certain people, a certain measure of faith, as it's stated there in Romans 12, three, as he wills.

And so your pastor is called to something and has a responsibility that you don't have. And if he, in his wisdom and discernment, sees in you something that you need to change or do or not do, then you should respect that and you should listen to that.

I still say that you hold according to the command that's given in First Thessalonians five to test all things. But your elder has been appointed for the task of shepherding the people of God. And so you still must, even as you're testing the things that he would say to you, you still must do that in respectful submission to that office, as has been appointed by God.

Everyone in the church does not share the same authority. Don't misinterpret, you know, Matthew 18, 15 through 20, where it talks about disciplinary processes and things like that, that that passage does not exist in a vacuum.

There are other passages in the Bible that even talk about discipline that we still must obey. There is a different way to discipline elders than there's a way to discipline the rest of the people in the church, according to what we read in First Timothy five.

Anyway, that's just an example. But all of this to say that Paul is addressing these elders here. It is something that he means for the entire church to know. Of course he does, because it was written down in the book of Acts and is now read to the churches.

So he does mean for the church to know this, but it begins with the elders. The letters that were delivered to the church went to the elders. When Paul wrote to Timothy, he was writing to a man whom he had appointed to eldership to be the pastor of the church in Ephesus, first and second Timothy.

But these letters were not exclusively for Timothy. They were going to be for the entire church. Same with Titus and same with Philemon. These were the recipients of those letters. These were the primary caretakers of the instructions that were being given, but it would still be delivered from them also to the entire church.

In this case, Paul is talking with the Ephesian elders. Now, there is a structure to this particular sermon, just like any of Paul's letters follow a particular structure. So does this message that he gives to these elders.

This is Shepkon, by the way. Paul's summoning the Ephesian elders to come to him at Miletus. This is like the first shepherd's conference where he's called for those elders so that he might instruct those elders.

And here is the basic outline of this message, this sermon that he gives to those elders. So first of all, in verses 18 through 21, where he starts here in verse 18, he is talking with them about his own ministry as an example for them.

So as you continue this ministry, this work in Ephesus, look at what I've done and follow this pattern of my ministry to you and my ministry to all of the churches. The second part of his message comes in verses 22 through 27.

And this is where he speaks of the things that he is going to do in the future. Now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem constrained by the spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there. So, again, he knew this from the time that he was with them in Ephesus.

So he's even recapping for them some things that he knew while he was with them. He knew the Holy Spirit was sending him to Jerusalem, but he didn't know what was going to happen to him there. So in saying it in that way, he's even encouraging them, here's how you can pray for me because of the work that is yet to be done and what I am going to do when I go back to Jerusalem.

Paul is not saying his goodbye as though he's retiring from the ministry. He's not stepping away from it. He's got more to do. But he's telling them, here's what the spirit is doing with me next. That's part two.

Then the third part of his message comes in verses 28 through 31. He warns of coming heresies. He says to them, there are fierce wolves that are even going to rise up among you and would devour the sheep if they were able to.

You must guard against this. I don't know if this was even a warning to the Ephesian elders themselves that Satan is trying to do a work on you and you must cling to God, to the counsel of his word, to the sound teaching of Christ.

You must cling to that so that you will not be led astray and devoured by the wolves in the service of Satan. So he warns about false teachers. And this is characteristic of all of Paul's letters, by the way.

He warns of false teachers in every single letter. I think Philemon is the only one where he doesn't. But even in that particular case, he's telling Philemon what to do, lest he would become disqualified in living out the gospel and how he shows his love to his brother Onesimus.

So, yes, we have this confrontation of false teaching in every one of Paul's letters. He is even warning the Ephesian elders of this here. That's part three of his message. And then the fourth part is he once again comes back to himself as an example.

He encourages them in a proper understanding of how they are to live and to behave among one another, among their own congregants, and how they are not to put faith and trust in material goods, but to earn a living for themselves, not obligate somebody else to have to care for them, just as Paul did when he was with them.

He worked with his own hands and made a living for himself. And so he's telling the Ephesian elders, do your own work. You still have work to do and work hard for the kingdom of God. And once again, Paul using himself as an example for them to follow.

We have instructions for us in scriptures to follow the examples that is set before us by our elders as well. Hebrews 13, 7. Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith in verse 17.

Obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

I have said to members of my own congregation, you are welcome to disagree with me. I hope you bring the word when you do. Just don't let it settle into division. Don't let your disagreement with me come to dividing from one another, but let it be something healthy that would drive us to the word of God and maturing in that word rather than digging in our heels and sticking to our guns and proclaiming ourselves to be right over the other one.

Paul said to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 11, 1, be imitators of me as I am of Christ. And 1 Thessalonians 5, starting in verse 12, we ask you brothers to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work.

Be at peace among yourselves. These calls to respect the elders, to submit to them and follow the teaching and their example in their way of life for Christian behavior. Paul was an example. He sets himself as an example.

And again, it's not as an example because, hey, look at me and how great I am. It's to point back to Christ again. 1 Corinthians 11, 1, be imitators of me as I am of Christ. Now, we haven't really gotten to the body of this message yet that Paul shares with the Ephesian elders, and that's what we'll look at tomorrow.

This was almost like an introduction to an epistle here, because like I said, this is the one section we have in Acts that most closely resembles the way that Paul wrote his letters. And so, yeah, we've done we've just done an introduction to Paul's final address to the elders in Ephesus.

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 we'll come back to this sermon again tomorrow.

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Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study, When We Understand the Text.