Timothy, I #3 Ch. 3-4 — Chuck Missler

The Pastoral Epistles and Leadership

Well, we are studying the pastoral epistles. We're in 1 Timothy and we're in chapters 3 and 4 tonight. Paul wrote three epistles, first and second letters to Timothy and also to Titus, that are known as the pastoral epistles.

And many of us probably have a tendency to give them short shrift, skip over, because that all those instructions are about how you organize churches and what you have to, what you should do, what you should be to be qualified as a pastor.

Let me ask you a question, it's a trick question, be careful. How many of you are in a full-time ministry here? Praise God, okay, good for you. So these pastoral epistles have to do with all of us. It's interesting how, we'll be conscious in the next couple of chapters, we're going to talk about leadership.

It's interesting how everything, anything, rises or falls as a function of its leadership. That's true of your family, that's true of your churches, yes, and it's true of our nation. That's all I'm going to say about that, aren't you glad?

Qualifications and Responsibilities of Elders

We're in 1 Timothy chapter 3, first seven verses are about pastors. Paul says, this is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. This idea, this is a true saying, or this is a trustworthy statement.

Paul says that five different times in the pastoral epistles. It's just his way of emphasis, actually. But we're going to encounter a number of terms, the term bishop, the term pastor, the term elder.

Frankly, in the New Testament, they're really used as synonyms. That comes as a surprise to many, because obviously in the early church, those terms evolved to mean something very specific. But the word bishop actually means overseer, one that oversees the ministry, both in terms of presiding over it and also teaching it and so forth.

And the word elder, Presbyterian, from which we get the word Presbyterian, the denomination, but the word elder simply means old man. He's an elder, you know, what did you expect? And then of course the term pastor really means shepherd.

But all the greats of the early church had, you can find passages, virtually, where each one of these is used of those. You'll never find Paul spoken of as a bishop, which should give us pause. And it's interesting, J. Vernon McGee points out that none of them ever allowed themselves to be called reverend, because that, you know what that actually means?

The word reverend means terrible, that which incites terror. And it's a name which applies only to God. Only God is reverend. I mentioned that in passing, so, and you have to yield to the custom of our time, and people have that label, fine, because it communicates the well-being of the ministry.

I'm not here to, you know, disparage that. I'm just asking you, please don't ever call me reverend unless you're mad at me. Now Paul founded a number of churches, but he never spoke of himself as a bishop.

In the early church, the bishops never had authority over other bishops. That's something that evolved in later history. And there also, in 1 Timothy 5, we'll discover, and elsewhere, there usually was a plurality of elders serving in a particular assembly, not just one.

We have a tendency to have one senior pastor, sort of runs things, maybe a few assistants, but, and that's a style of organization that's common today, but in the early church it was really a plurality of elders over the ecclesia or the assembly.

Integrity as the Essential Leadership Qualification

And now, one of the things that fascinated a number of the commentators, John MacArthur and others have pointed out, what is the most important quality of the leadership? Intelligence? Personality? Vision?

Administrative skills? Decisiveness? Courage? I go on with a long list. All of those can be very useful, obviously, but there's one quality that's absolutely indispensable. It's called integrity. Integrity in leadership.

Leadership in general, not just pastors, but especially for a moral leader or an ethical leader. Integrity. I mention that because we sort of take that for granted, and that's tragic because it's not to be taken for granted today.

It's a fact rather rare. And I'm going to sound a little cynical, perhaps, and I'll throw this out just as a challenge. Having a 30-year executive career in many industries, the auto industry, the semiconductor industry, the computer industry, I won't go through the whole list.

My biggest shock, going from that world into a full-time industry, is the lack of integrity that you very often encounter at a higher frequency and in more surprising ways than I did in the secular rough-and-tumble world of the auto industry or of the semiconductor industry.

Those are tough terms, but there is an ethic within the trade which you quickly learn that works, and there's an integrity, a predictableness, a character to it. Anyway, let's go to verse 2. Paul continues, and he's writing this letter from Macedonia.

Timothy is the pastor at Ephesus. Paul had spent a lot of time at Ephesus. Ephesus had some special problems anyway, and Timothy's having a tough time dealing with some of them. So this letter is counsel to Paul's protégé, and he continues then about what the requirements are for a bishop or an overseer.

And for our purposes in the Spiritist letter, that's like an elder, as we would think of an elder in a church. Bishop then must be blameless. The husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality.

I like that part. Make a note of that. And apt to teach. It's interesting. There are some relatively successful pastors that are not particularly teachers, but that's unusual, because the pastor or the bishop or the elder or whatever should be a teacher, including in a lot of other things.

But in this list here, and by the way, we're going to go through 16 of these things. I'll try to go quickly. Blameless. That means nothing to take hold upon, above reproach. Now make no mistake, if you're in a position of leadership or hold an office anywhere, count on the fact that you're going to get blamed for things.

You see, all you can do is endeavor not to deserve them. You just want to strive to try to assure that they're not justified or true. But you count on the fact that that's probably one of the grieves of office, of whatever you're doing, is that you know you'll be blamed for things and often quite unjustly.

But what it's talking about here, being blameless. In other words, above reproach is what it's talking about. A husband of one wife. Now, sorry girls, but all the adjectives here, all the adjectives in this passage are masculine.

By the way, husband of one wife, I do not believe this is alluding to being remarried after the wife's death. Genesis 2 .18, 1 Timothy 4 .3, we'll touch on some of these things. Some hold that Paul was not married.

There's some evidence of that in some of his letters, and yet most scholars believe that he was, he had been married, but that his first wife died. He could not have been a member of the Sanhedrin, which there's some evidence to believe that he was, without having been married.

So Paul's estranged, and sometimes we, as he makes some of his comments, it's clear that he wasn't married then. I mean, how could you be married to someone who spent most of his ministry in prison? He's in the can all the time.

But Paul was a type A. But the general scholastic view is that she probably passed away, and he didn't remarry, probably for no other reason than the pace at which he conducted his career as an apostle for Jesus Christ.

But incidentally, as an aside, the Bible does not forbid remarriage after divorce. Matthew 5 and 19, our Lord permits remarriage when a divorce is caused by adultery, and Paul gave us a second occasion when the unbelieving spouse initiates the divorce, 1 Corinthians 7, verse 15.

But in this list here, it all says one has to be vigilant. The term actually means temperate or sober. And temperate in all things, we'll find out in the second letter that Timothy has emphasized. The way the NIV deals with that, keep your head in all situations.

Good advice. The word sober really just refers to, not talking about alcoholic practices, dealing with a serious attitude, being earnest about your work, knowing the real value of things. Sober in that sense.

Of good behavior, the word actually means orderly. It's the same Greek word that was translated modest with respect to women's apparel in the previous chapter. And given to hospitality, the Greek term actually means loving the stranger.

Loving the stranger. We can relate to that. It's pretty straightforward. Apt to teach is also in this list. By the way, many scholars believe that the term pastors and teachers in Ephesians 4, verse 11, grammatically it implies they're both the same person.

That's why you'll hear the term pastor-teacher. Some argue, and I can't rebut it, that there are pastors and there are teachers. Pastors are often thought of in terms of the administrative head and specialist teachers helping them or something.

That's certainly a pattern that seems to be prevalent. But the scriptural view tends to be that the pastor is also apt to teach. And he's automatically a teacher. In fact, he's not only a teacher, but he should be a continual student in the Word.

The Christian Life Begins Beyond Conversion

When we're talking about pastors here, we have a tendency to think, well, those guys. No, no, all of us. Yes, we have some pastors among us, but that's not as addressed to every one of us. Because every one of us should be, in a sense, a shepherd of our family, of a whole Bible study, or whatever.

It's tragic, in a sense, that we so emphasize evangelism. Not that we shouldn't evangelize. Don't misquote me or misunderstand me. But we tend to regard a commitment to Jesus Christ as the climax. We have our city-wide canvas with brochures.

We bring in special speakers and have a crusade or whatever or a special series in the church to get people to make their decision for Christ. And we have the call-out. And 5 ,000 people auditorium and several hundred or whatever come down and make a decision.

And we celebrate that. And that's great, but it's misleading. It's not the climax. It's the beginning. It's the beginning. I often ask an audience, how many of you are saved? And most of the hands will go up.

And they'll say, good, what have you done with it? The question is, the real issue is not life after death. It's life after birth. What have you done? The Lord has called you. What has begun, He finishes.

If you've really saved, if you've really been made that decision, it will show up in your attitudes, conduct, and following. Now, to teach and to preach is the primary task of elders. And there's a whole series of verses, several dozen of them.

They'll be listed in the notes. I won't take you through that now. And Timothy had clearly had a gift for teaching, as will be evident in chapter 4, and also in the second letter, chapter 1. Then verse 3, the other requirement of the elder or the bishop is not given to wine.

Temperance, Self-Control, and Financial Integrity

No striker, not greedy or filthy looker, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous. This not given to a wine has caused a lot of controversy. What the word in the Greek means, it describes a person who sits long with a cup and thus drinks to excess.

That's the exegesis of the passage, what the word language really means. Paul advised Timothy to use a little wine for health reasons. That'll come up in chapter 5. That tells you something. That means they were not abstainers.

In the Passover ritual, they do put some water with their wine, and some people have built a career on that. If you read the rabbinical writings, you discover that the rabbis speculate, why do we put water in the wine at Passover?

And there's all kinds of commentaries and conjectures as to why they think they do that. The answer's the New Testament. When he hung on the cross, what happened? Water in the blood, right? And it's all prefigured in the Passover, interestingly enough.

But getting back to this other issue, you can't make a case that total abstinence was required of believers in the scripture. However, some of the Corinthian church guys got drunk after the love feast that was associated with the Lord's Supper.

Paul deals with that in his first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 11. There are many Christians that do include table wine with their meals, but they usually do it in private, if at all, in view of the admonitions in Romans 14.

Because the conduct that is encouraged among Christians is not to let another brother stumble. And there are people that prefer, like maybe better advised to be totally abstinent from wine. So many abstain this in public to avoid stumbling a brother, and that's to be commended.

So there's nothing wrong with abstaining from wine in private. The argument can be defended for someone that enjoys a gourmet meal, which in many cases would be relatively incomplete without some appropriate accompaniment.

But again, it's in moderation and it's probably in private rather than so you don't cause someone to stumble. And by the way, J. Bernard McGee argues this aggressively too, that the scripture does not teach total abstinence.

And yet at the same time, total abstinences can be encouraged for lots of other reasons. That's why in many, many churches you have the strange situation that you have of the Lord's Supper with grape juice.

You can't defend that in terms of the original Lord's Supper because the sacramental wines in the Jewish community are well understood. And that was, of course, obviously what was used that evening. But to avoid stumbling and to avoid the issue, most churches duck that issue, and that's fine.

One can make too much of some of these things. Not a striker is one of the requirements. That is not contentious, not looking for a fight. See, when a leader is wronged, he must have no thought of retaliation.

I wish I could step up to that. There are several people, if I meet, I'm going to have a lot to repent of right afterwards. And that's a weakness. That's wrong. I'm saying that a little flippantly in my tongue and my cheek in part.

I hope it isn't my cheek. I mean, that's just kidding around. Not greedy of filthy lucre. 1 Peter 5 .2 talks about pastors should not pursue money for money's own sake. And remember, it's not money that's evil, it's the love of money that's evil.

Money becomes one of the first pieces of idolatry. It's very easy to worship money. And that's a trap. But we'll talk more about money when we get to Chapter 6. And we'll also talk, then, but I'll mention it now just to keep us in focus here.

Giving Under the Lord's Direction

One of the things that's useful, I think, is to think of a portfolio concept of your life and especially of your giving. What do I mean by a portfolio concept? If you're a professional manager managing assets, say a portfolio of stocks or whatever securities for others, either public or for a special client, what you want to do, what you try to do, is conduct your decisions and your commitments in such a way that at the end of the period, either the quarter, the year, whatever, you want to be able to have made those decisions that put you in good stead then.

If the market's down, you want to lose less than most people. If the market's doing well, you want to earn more than other people. But the point is, whatever it is, if you're a decision theorist, you're going to use the savage principle, minimax the regret.

But I won't get into all that here. What you really want to do is you want to put yourself in your mind's eye at the end of the period and try to make those decisions that will put you in the best stead at the end of the period.

It's interesting how this applies to your giving. Because you don't give, necessarily, where there's need. There's more needs around than you can possibly address. I mean, there's no end to that. So where do you give?

Well, where you want to give is where the Lord wants you to give. You want to be in those actions that the Lord is in. There are lots of, quote, worthwhile things around that the Lord isn't necessarily in.

So as you pick those, the ones you want to pick are the ones at the end of the day where He'll say, a good and faithful servant. There are a lot of ministries around. The Lord would like to shut down if His supporters would let Him.

I first got this insight, I was sitting on a board of a prominent Christian ministry and they were constantly, in part, one of the board situations, there was always somebody there with some project from some ministry where they needed some help.

I was fascinated as I learned that the really sharp guys would ask questions. They had no doubt about it being needful. What they were trying to find out is, is the Lord in this project or not? They wanted to invest where they knew the Lord was in it.

I didn't telegraph that because then everybody would, you know, position themselves. But I found out over some time, that was really what they were doing. They wanted to put their commitments where there was evidence that the Lord was really in this project.

And I thought that's very interesting. What a neat way to conduct their lives, is to prioritize in terms of what the Lord would have us do. Moving on, the next of these attributes was patient. Gentle is actually a better translation.

Not a brawler, be a peacemaker, not a troublemaker. This is all in verse 3. Not covetous. By the way, you can covet things other than money that can be just as deadly. Popularity. The size or outreach of your ministry.

Denominational advancement. You can make the list, rungs on a ladder, what have you. Verse 4. One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. I won't ask for a show of hands how many qualify.

Ruleth means preside over, is like a loving shepherd. 1 Peter 5 deals with that. Verse 5. For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? See the church is also part of our family, the family of God, the household of God.

Verse 6. Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he shall fall into condemnation of the devil. The word not a novice, the word actually means one newly planted. An immaturity can include vulnerability to pride.

And that, of course, would lead to serious stumbling. And that's one of the arguments against bringing some shining star along too fast. You can destroy him doing that. Scripture says pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before stumbling.

Proverbs 16, 18. Verse 7. Moreover, he must have a good report of them that are without. That is the unsaved. The kind of elder you really want is one that has a good reputation in the secular world. He's respected in his community, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

What do you mean by good report? Does he pay his bills on time? Does he have a good reputation among those with whom he does business? Does he manifest a wholesome character in his ethics? I'm constantly bewildered why it is and this is well known within the business community, why it is that there are men that have outstanding ethics.

They might be cheating on their wife for all I know but in business, when they give you their commitment, you can count on it. They're strong. And if there's a Christian in business, everybody gets nervous.

And that's not a little cynical sideshow that if you talk among seasoned businessmen, Christian businessmen, they'll tell you that it's tragic but somehow a top tier financial executive will be slow to give a commitment but once given, you can bank on it.

You can bank on oral contracts. You deal with a Christian and you make a commitment in a meeting and a week or two later, you meanwhile have banked on that and started to write checks or whatever and you meet him later and he says, you know, I've been praying about that.

The Lord's led me to go down path X rather than path Y. Well now wait a minute. We agree. You know, I mean, you see, it starts to unravel. And they're well-intentioned. This isn't malicious people. I've always felt there's a lack of training or a lack of something.

But it is a tragic issue. I can't say it's the majority of situations but it's certainly too prevalent, more prevalent than it should be. We're starting now to talk about deacons. Now the word deacon simply means servant.

Deacons, Service, and Doctrinal Soundness

And in the New Testament sense, there wasn't a distinction between deacons and the rest. But because of Acts 6 and some other things, deacons have come to denote a second tier, people who would help serve under the elders in most churches.

The word deacons is a translation of the Greek word diakonos which means servant. The usage of the word is usually traced from Acts 6 where a number were designated as assistants to the apostles. But by the way, Paul and Apollos were called deacons.

So it wasn't like it was an office or a rank. It was just a role of being a servant. But in modern church concepts, deacons are not given the authority of the elders, yet they still must meet certain qualifications according to Paul.

And he goes through this. Grave, worthy of respect, worth imitating. Not double-tongued, that is does not gossip. Not a sycophant, he's forthright. Not given to much wine, the same as before. Not greedy of filthy lucre, reliable to handle money.

Verse 9, holding the mystery of faith in a pure conscience. It means he's doctrinally sound. Now the word mystery, you should understand we use the term mystery in English a little differently than the Greek does.

Mysterion, the Greek word, what it really means, it's truth once hidden but now revealed. It's sort of like if I disclosed to you a password that you didn't know before. That's a mystery. It implies it was hidden before but now you know it.

The concept of mystery here doesn't mean it continues to be hidden. So we use the term mystery, it's still a mystery, unsolved. We sort of think of an unsolved mystery as sort of the term. That's not the way it's used in the Greek.

There are a series of mysteries in the scripture. You can dig them out. The mystery of incarnation, 1 Timothy 3. The mystery of indwelling in the believers, Colossians 1. The mystery of unity between Jews and Gentiles in the church, Ephesians 1 and 3.

The mystery of the saving gospel, Colossians 4. The mystery of iniquity is prominent in 2 Thessalonians 2. And the mystery of the harpazo or the rapture in 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians 4. Verse 9 says a deacon should have should be holding a mystery of faith in a pure conscience.

He should be sound in doctrine. And sin is still sin. It's interesting how the society continually tries to redefine sin. Well those ideas are out of date now because of. You can label that almost all the commandments have some variation of that.

Extant in our culture. No, sin is still sin. Despite society's attempts to redefine God's laws. What defines sin is God and God has not changed His mind. Now a deacon who does not know his Bible is an obstacle to growth in the local assembly.

Just because he's a popular businessman, a generous contributor, whatever, it doesn't mean he's qualified to be a deacon in the assembly, in the ecclesia. Verse 10, let these also be proved and let them use the office of deacon being found blameless.

This is really an application of Matthew 25 where the Lord says thou has been faithful over a few things I'll make thee ruler of other. The whole idea of a deacon is he should have some experience before in that role and that role presumably will qualify him to be an elder.

That's the concept I think. Joseph was a servant for 13 years in Egypt before he became prime minister of the largest empire at that time. Moses cared for sheep for 40 years before being called. And Joshua was Moses' servant before becoming his successor.

And David tended sheep when Samuel called him to be anointed as king of Israel. So that's the pattern all through the scripture. An untested Christian is an unprepared Christian. I don't know how many of you are pilots but there is a concept among flyers that you really don't know what kind of a pilot you are until you've made a real forced landing.

Not a practice one on training a real forced landing. Everybody does sooner or later and once you do that you know how, up until then you don't know how you're going to react under a real emergency. You're up there and something goes wrong.

It's not a test now. It's not the instructor playing a game. What do you do? Do you panic? Or do you coolly go through the proper procedures and recover? You won't know no matter how you train. You won't know until one happens.

Just thought I'd share that with you. Next time you fly you can ask your pilot. Verse 11, even so must their wives be grave not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. Wives of course are all of our most precious assets.

And I think I've used this line here before but I have to use it again. I've been married to a 20 year old for 40 years. One of the great blessings I enjoy is my wife. She's my counselor. What a wonderful asset.

Says they should be grave or serious not slanderers. Now the word slanderers here is an interesting word. It's diabolos. It's one of the titles of Satan. Diabolical. It comes from that Greek root. Because Satan, one of his titles is the slanderer.

Verse 12, let the deacons be husbands of one wife ruling their children in their own house as well. Just as before. Verse 13, and they that have used the office of deacon well purchased to themselves a good degree and great boldness in faith which is in Christ Jesus.

The word degree is actually a military term in the Greek. It's a rank or rung in a ladder. By the way another observation, elders were called out from their local assemblies. They were not imported from other places.

Kind of interesting. That was the basic concept in the early church. Now verse 14 we start talking about believers in general. Up until now we've talked about ranks within the assembly. These things I write unto thee says hoping to come unto thee shortly.

The Household of God and the Mystery of Christ

Verse 15, but if I tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God which is the church of the living God. The pillar and ground of the truth. It says house of God.

It's actually, household would be a better translation. We are born again into a family. I want to point out something to you. Many people miss this. Let's turn to John chapter 1. John's gospel opens so eloquently.

We're all familiar with that. How it opens up. In the beginning was the word. The word was with God. The word was God. The same was the beginning with God. Then he gets down to verse 11. He says and he came unto his own.

Speaking of Jesus Christ of course. He came unto his own. His own received him not. But as many as received him to them gave he the power to become the sons of God. Even to them that believe on his name.

It's very interesting if you do a very careful study of that term sons of God. You'll discover that in the Bible it's generally used of a direct creation of God. A direct creation of God. In the Old Testament Baniha Elohim is, son of Elohim, is a term used only of angels.

Only of angels. Never of believers. There, in the Old Testament. Angels are direct creations of God. Adam was a direct creation of God. As exemplified in the genealogy in Luke. He was a son of God. His children were sons of him.

Not of God. There's a subtlety there. And when you're sensitive to that subtlety that term is reserved for a direct creation of God. You come to this verse with that insight. Recognizing we're dealing with 66 books that are at integrated message.

Holy Spirit uses words very precisely. It says, but as many as received him to them gave he the power to become the sons of God. That's what chapter 3 will be all about. The born again. Actually born into his forever family.

Very, very exciting issue. 1 Peter 1 deals with all that too. Now, see the body must be fed. A church does not grow by addition. It grows by nutrition. And on the word of God of course. And of course the word church is ecclesia in the Greek.

Really means assembly. But what it refers to are the political assemblies in the Greek cities. In Acts 19 it shows up. Where business was transacted by qualified citizens. That's what ecclesia was. It's where the business was transacted by qualified citizens.

The term actually means those called out. And it was used as a commercial term in the Greek. But of course in the New Testament it's used with maybe one exception. It's used what you and I think of as the mystical church.

So this whole letter is where Paul is trying to teach Timothy how to conduct himself as a leader in the local assembly. So the best counsel for all of that is of course in these 3 letters. The first of which we're in the middle of.

He used the term pillar. You have to understand in Ephesus was the famous one of the 7 wonders of the world was the Temple of Diana. Great Temple of Diana. Had 127 pillars that each of them were a gift of a king.

They were made of marble, studded with jewels and covered with gold. Incredible things. So the idea of a pillar was very conscious to anyone in Ephesus. The pillar, he speaks of the ground or bulwark.

As you look at what he said there in verse 15, the church is to be both a pillar holding it up and a bulwark of the truth. He's speaking idiomatically of course. To make sure it doesn't fall. Now, it's interesting in Isaiah 59 we have a similar phrase.

Judgment is turned away backward and justice standeth far off for truth is fallen in the street and equity cannot enter. That's the dire circumstances heralded by Isaiah in chapter 59. Judgment is turned away backward and justice standeth far off for truth is fallen in the street and equity cannot enter.

Does that describe our nation? Is there justice in our nation? Boy, you go through any of the major trials in the last five years. The guilty go free, the innocent get condemned, and the highest office of the land are above the law.

Why? Whose fault is it? I believe Paul would lay the responsibility at the feet of the silent pulpits in America. I think the decay of our nation is derived from the failure of the pulpits in this country.

Verse 16, and without controversy great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

Now, you may have noticed that verse has six verbs in it. They all happen to be in the third person singular aorist, but the point is the uniformity and the rhythm and the parallelism in that verse causes most scholars to infer, we don't know this for sure, that this was actually a quote from a hymn of the early church because of the way it's structured.

One of the earliest creeds in any case, but it sounds like it's been organized like a hymn. He was revealed in the flesh, was vindicated in the spirit, beheld by the angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

It's a whole, just a proclamation of the resurrection of our Redeemer. Someone has pointed out that Jesus after his resurrection was only touched by loving hands and only seen by loving eyes. Ooh, that gets to me.

I like that. Anyway, that's good. We can make chapter four. I thought we might. Let's jump into chapter four. How to be a man of God, in effect. Now, one of the things, Timothy's at Ephesus and Paul is writing to him from Macedonia.

Paul's Charge to the Ephesian Elders

I think it's useful for us to go back and recall an event the last time that Paul visited the elders of Ephesus. He actually didn't go to Ephesus. He went nearby, had them meet him at the harbor, and he gave them, the elders at Ephesus, a farewell address.

We find that in Acts chapter 20. Let's start about verse 17. From Miletus he sent unto Ephesus called the elders of the church. That's from Miletus. He's calling the elders over to Miletus, which isn't that far away, but that's where the port put in.

That's where he could make it. And when they were come to him, he said to him, verse 18, You know, from the first day that I came to Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears and trials, which befell me by the lying and weight of the Jews, and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shown you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ.

And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there. I've been warned not to, but he's going anyway. Verse 23, Accept that the Holy Spirit witnesses in every city, saying that the bonds and afflictions await me.

In other words, Paul's been warned every place he goes, the Holy Spirit's telling him, don't go. Paul went anyway. That tells something about Paul. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear to myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.