WWUTT 1128 How These Hands Ministered?

If we become lazy then it's really easy for us to give in to temptation or even be led astray by false teaching.

So we must be diligent in the Word of Christ that we may persevere when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text studying God's Word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

Thank you for subscribing and if this is ministered to you please let others know about our program. Here once again is

Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you Becky we come back to our study of the book of Acts. We've been in chapter 20 where the

Apostle Paul is addressing the Ephesian elders before his departure to Jerusalem.

Picking up where we left off yesterday I will reread verse 32 and go to the end of the chapter.

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 our

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 yesterday we were looking at Paul's warning to the Ephesian elders regarding the potential for false teachers to come into their midst and said some of these false teachers will come even from among you.

Back in verse 28 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 and really at the that verse right there is at the heart of this entire address.

These are men who have been entrusted with tending the sheep so you must keep watch on yourselves do not disqualify yourselves and your ministry for it will have massive ramifications on the entire church that you have been entrusted to to shepherd.

I have never seen anything harm a church more than when a pastor either falls into grave disqualifying sin or has started to adopt and teach something false or even heretical.

There there are there's nothing more damaging to a church than these things. Divisive pastors, sinful pastors, heretical pastors and so right here at the very heart of this address he says pay careful attention to yourselves.

Do not think that just because you're a pastor you are above any kind of temptation.

There are men that I thought I would never see stumble in the way that they have but one of the things that has demonstrated to me is that I'm not invincible.

I can just as easily fall into temptation and if it were not for the grace of God I would have fallen into worse things than I've ever done or committed.

If it were not for the grace of God sustaining my faith preserving me in Christ I would deny

Christ just as surely and as readily as Peter did and so we must understand the words of James.

James 4 6 he gives more grace therefore it says

God opposes the proud but it gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God.

Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

We draw near to God through the reading of his word and it is his word that is also going to protect us from any kind of false teaching or the temptations of this world or any other scheme that the devil might use to try to lead us astray.

Hence why Paul gives this instruction. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock.

Don't let yourself be disqualified. Look out for one another. You see somebody stumbling towards sin or beginning to adopt some kind of false teaching.

Get out there and defend the sheep. 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.

And then once again Paul saying 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.

In 2nd Peter chapter 3 Peter said that there are some difficult things that Paul wrote in his letters with which the the unstable will twist to their own destruction as they do the rest of the scriptures.

Which we go back to the reference that I made yesterday in 2nd Timothy 2 15. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved a worker who has no need to be ashamed rightly handling the word of truth.

So therefore Paul says in verse 31 be alert remembering that for three years

I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears and making a reference to his tears

Paul is showing how much he has personally cared for these persons. He's not reciting a script he's not standing up giving canned responses same sort of a thing that he said the rest of the time and so now he's bored and tired with saying these same things over and over again.

The the passion the heart that the emotion that is behind what it is that he says has been demonstrated to them an example for them to follow this is not merely some profession

Paul cared for the people that he spoke to and so likewise these overseers needed to do the same in their ministry and now

Paul says the the verse that I started with 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.

Jesus said in John 17 as he prayed to the Father sanctify them in your truth your word is truth so there he says that here

I commend you to God and to the word of his grace draw near to God draw near through his word it is able to build you up it is by faith in his word that you gain the inheritance among all those who are sanctified

Paul had instructed Timothy to to pursue righteousness love and peace along with those of a pure heart so with other brothers and sisters in the

Lord build each other up together and he says the same thing to these elders as well that you may gain an inheritance among those who are sanctified as I've heard

Tim Challey say I've repeated it here many times before sanctification is a community project so this is something that we do with one another as Jesus has instructed us to love each other you can't do that without one another so we have to have each other to grow and mature in love we need the church you have to go to church you cannot grow in love with your brothers and sisters in Christ if you are not meeting regularly knowing each other personally challenging one another knowing one another's lives letting others in church is not just kind of an extra thing that you do with everything else you got going on in your life you actually need to be more personally acquainted with people in your church than you are even at your own place of employment though you will probably spend more time at your job than you will spend at your church these are your brothers and sisters in Christ whom you will spend eternity with and so in preparation for that that we look out for one another looking toward eternity don't you want that person that you're attending church with to make it to the very end as Paul had said earlier that I I do not account 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 Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God so we share the gospel with unbelievers but we also look out for our fellow believers that they would remain on the way of righteousness to the place of deliverance and the glory of God so Paul instructing these overseers to remain in that as well you are sanctified by the word stay away from false teaching keep a watch on yourselves you do that by a holding fast to the word of Christ verse 33

I coveted no one silver or gold or apparel so I read verse 32 again today even though that kind of went with a section that we looked at yesterday but Paul saying

I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among those who are sanctified he's pointing them toward eternal things here be focused on the eternal do not believe that you can find satisfaction or sufficiency in things that are of this world the sufficiency is in the word of Christ not in material possessions so therefore as we're focusing on those things that are eternal

Paul says I had no longing for the things of this world I coveted no one silver or gold or apparel this also speaks to the genuineness of his ministry he was not doing it to gain any sort of material or earthly reward now fame and popularity can go right along with that I know that that fame is not necessarily tangible it seems like a lot of us have social media accounts and we we cling to those likes we love those retweets right we love it when somebody screenshots something that we said and shares it with everybody else we feel like we've accomplished something kind of sit back in our chair and like hey

I'm popular today you didn't gain anything by that materially like your life is not somehow better just because someone clicked the little heart on Facebook or Twitter is it a heart on Facebook I think it's just a like thumbs up right

I'm very seldom on Facebook so I don't know anyway but but that's like social media currency if we can get those likes or those retweets or those shares or the comments or whatnot we we feel like we're getting something we're earning something from that even though you've really just benefited

Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or YouTube you've really not materially benefited yourself in that way it's even sillier to be clinging to the likes than it is that maybe you can make a profession out of it you know

I mean if you're gonna spend that much time on something at least have something to be able to show for it but even that even even desiring the fame and the popularity is coveting things that are earthly it's coveting something that man can give you that has no lasting or eternal value you're stuck on your phone screen all the time you're just sitting on your couch with your head down it doesn't really accomplish anything the world is passing you by time with your family and your kids all of that is being lost in the attention that you're giving your phone or your computer so there are ways that we can covet things that even aren't material that are not silver or gold or apparel but Paul here is saying that his ministry is qualified in the sense that he did not covet anything in order to gain from what it was that he was doing in sharing the gospel you yourselves know he says verse 34 that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me so going back to the point that I made before about being too stuck in our electronics and longing for that popularity that we can find on social media keep yourself busy in other ways not with the thumbs or the index finger on your phone screen but apply yourself to spending time with your family or or building meaningful relationships with people in your life there's nothing inherently wrong with social media

I spend a lot of time on it obviously I make videos that post on YouTube and YouTube is considered social media so there are ways in which it's beneficial we can use it as a medium to share the gospel to stay connected with other people to inform persons keep our church in touch with one another even social media can be useful for that but more often than not we're getting really addicted to it we're spending way more time on it than we should how can we counter that well we need to have a mind that is more focused on Christ than on ourselves because a lot of times that social media is just an ego feed but especially being in the

Word of Christ and apply your hands to things do things that involve cooperation with other people or spending time with someone that you may through these things that you're doing that you're you're actively and deliberately intentionally participating in you're you're building a relationship through this by doing it with somebody else so Paul is saying here these hands ministered to my necessities he used his own hands to provide for himself to set an example for those

Ephesian elders just as Paul had talked about setting an example for the

Thessalonians as well this is probably most commonly cited here in 2nd

Thessalonians where Paul said that hey I had the right to take from you

I was an apostle I could have said hey here I am to preach to you so you have to provide for my way of living but he says 2nd

Thessalonians 3 7 you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us because we were not idle when we were with you nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it but with toil and labor we worked night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you it was not because we do not have the right but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate for even when we were with you we would give you this command if anyone is not willing to work let him not eat so working laboring making a living building constructing being productive these things are command they are a command from God that we are to work it we can get into slothfulness sin wasting a lot of time when we are so involved in social media and staring at a screen for a long time and hey

I can just as easily fall into that as anybody else remember the words that Paul wrote to the

Ephesians this is a letter that's gonna come later of course after Paul is in prison in Rome he writes a letter to the

Ephesian Church and Ephesians 515 he says look carefully then how you walk not as unwise but as wise making the best use of the time because the days are evil therefore do not be foolish but understand what the will of the

Lord is and how do you know what the will of the Lord is you know by reading the

Bible this is the revealed will of God Paul goes on in Ephesians 5 verse 18 to say do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery but be filled with the spirit and once again he says here don't be satisfied with earthly things that dull your mind that that titillate the flesh for a little while but but eventually that feelings gonna wear off and you're gonna need more of it don't be dependent upon those earthly things but focus on eternal things be filled with the spirit which is always satisfying and not just for the moment but even for eternity so we come back to the address that he makes here in Acts chapter 20 verse 34 you yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who are 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 the principle there of course being that we receive more eternally from God if we give to others rather than what we receive on this earth which eternally is not going to amount to much so it is better to give than to receive also to the

Ephesians in Paul's letter to them Ephesians chapter 4 verse 28 he says let the thief no longer steal but rather let him labor doing honest work with his own hands so that he may have something to share with anyone in need we must consider the needs of others and give of ourselves to them as we encourage and strengthen one another and build each other up in the

Lord I have shown you that by working hard we must help the weak and remember the words of the

Lord Jesus and so having concluded with this as Paul is talking to these elders we have these last three verses here verses 36 through 38 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 and they embraced

Paul and they 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 this side of heaven he would not come back to be in the presence of these

Ephesian elders again but they would certainly hear from him again with the letter that he would write to them this that of course being the letter to the

Ephesians that we have in scripture one of the most encouraging letters that we have probably second only to Philippians which which is very full of all kinds of joy and rejoicing and praise but the letter to the

Ephesians is definitely very encouraging as well and the mention of the

Ephesian Church comes up again as well in the book of Revelation we see how quickly a church can backslide or fall into unbiblical and careless practices based on the rebuke that's given to the

Ephesian Church in Revelation chapter 2 it's in fact the the first church that's addressed in the seven churches the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 & 3

Jesus said to them I know your works your toil and your patient endurance and how you cannot bear with those who are evil but if tested those who call themselves apostles and are not and found them to be false you might think hey they consider the words of Paul about wolves false teachers coming in not sparing the flock and so they tested those false teachers and found them to be false at Jesus says

I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake and you have not grown weary but I have this against you you have abandoned the love you had at first now many have tried to speculate what this love is that Jesus is talking about but I think that Phil Johnson had it right on a couple of years ago at the

Shepherds Conference when he says the love that they that they must have at first is the love for Christ pure and simple yes we must love one another certainly but the love for Christ must be there and it is possible even to hate false teachers and endure patiently bearing up for the name of Christ not growing weary in the faith and yet not have love for Christ it's it's just doing religion but not having that close relationship with Christ and all these religious things that you do all the

Christian ease that you can say and the facade that you can put on but if the love for Christ is not there then

Jesus would say even of you I have this against you remember therefore from where you have fallen repent and do the works you did at first if not

I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent even though you love true teaching even though you are patiently enduring awaiting the day of Christ yet you could have your lampstand removed for a church that does not have a true love of Christ in their midst in their hearts yet this you have

Jesus goes on to say verse 6 you hate the work of the Nicolaitans which

I also hate he who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches to the one who conquers

I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God so may we also remember that statement made to the

Ephesian church that we would continue to hold fast and cling to Christ until that day when we enter into his presence and hear him say well done good and faithful servant now great is your reward pray for one another and Paul said also to the

Ephesians in Ephesians 6 pray at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end keep alert with all perseverance making supplication for all the

Saints and also for me that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which

I am an ambassador in chains that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak and may we look out for one another praying for each other as we continue this walk of faith in this life

Lord Jesus come quickly in his name we pray amen you've been listening to when we understand the text of 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