God's Unstoppable Mission, Part 8: Paul's Mission Strategy in Ephesus

When the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples and after encouraging them said goodbye and set out for Macedonia.

He traveled through that area speaking many words of encouragement to the people and finally arrived in Greece where he stayed three months.

Because the Jews made a plot against him just as he was about to sail for Syria, he decided to go back through Macedonia.

He was accompanied by Silpeter, son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy also, and Pyrrhus and Trofimus from the province of Asia.

These men went on ahead and waited for us at Trofimus.

But we sailed from Philippi after the Feast of Unleavened Bread and five days later joined the others at Trofimus where we stayed seven days.

On the first day of the week we came together to break bread.

Paul spoke to the people and because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight.

There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting.

Seated in a window was a young man called Eticus who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on.

When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead.

Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him.

Don't be alarmed, he said.

He's alive.

Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate.

After talking until daylight, he left.

The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.

We went on ahead to the ship and sailed for Assos where we were going to take Paul aboard.

He had made this arrangement because he was going there on foot.

When he met us at Assos, we took him aboard and went on to Mithon.

The next day we set sail from there and arrived off Pierce.

After that, we crossed over to Samus and on the following day, arrived at Miletus.

Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the province of Asia,

for he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem, if possible by the day of Pentecost.

From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church.

When they arrived, he said to them,

You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia.

I served the Lord with great humility and with tears,

although I was severely tested by the plots of the Jews.

You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you,

but I have taught you publicly and from house to house.

I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance

and have faith in our Lord Jesus.

And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem,

not knowing what will happen to me there.

I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.

However, I consider my life worth nothing to me,

if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me,

the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.

Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again.

Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men,

for I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.

Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.

Be shepherds of the church of God which he had bought with his own blood.

I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.

Even from your own number, men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.

So be on your guard.

Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you, night and day with tears.

Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

I have not coveted anyone's silver or gold or clothing.

You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions.

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak.

For remembering the words of the Lord Jesus himself said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.

When he had said this, he knelt down with all of them and prayed.

They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him.

What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again.

Then they accompanied him to the ship.

This is the word of the Lord.

Well, if you have your Bibles open in the book of Acts, chapter 20,

Acts 20 · chapter mention

we're going to have our last look in the book of Acts, looking at Paul's missionary journeys.

Next week, heading on up to Easter, we're going to think about why did Jesus suffer and die,

thinking about answers that we have for that from the book of Hebrews.

But we're going to focus our attention this evening, particularly on what Paul says to the elders in Ephesus.

In a sense, we're going to review Paul's mission strategy that he shares with the elders in Ephesus.

So for the last few weeks, we've been on something of a whistle-stop tour of Paul's mission.

We've seen him in Asia.

We've seen him in Europe.

We've seen him proclaiming wherever he goes, Jesus Christ is Lord.

We've seen lots of opposition, but we've also seen lots of people from different backgrounds,

different cultures coming to faith, being established in church, and the church has been growing.

For those of us who've been around, it's been exciting.

It's been encouraging.

It's been a good way, I think, for us to start the first few months of this year to remind ourselves of who our God is.

But as we come to an end, I guess there's a temptation to think, well, that was then.

This is now.

That was Paul.

That was Paul the apostle.

That's not me.

There can be that temptation to think, well, those are wonderful stories, but they're relegated to the pages of history.

Do you know one of the good news things that comes through the book of Acts is the reminder time and again that this is not all on Paul.

It's Jesus who is building his church.

It's God's power that we see demonstrated through Paul and through others in the Christian community.

And it's the same spirit that's at work in Paul that is ours as a church.

And so I want us to leave Paul's missionary journeys taking heart that this is our God, the God who builds his church.

But here we are.

Last week we were in Ephesus 9, chapter 19.

We see Paul establishing the church.

We saw a riot.

And now here we find a return to meet with the elders of Ephesus where Paul both reviews what he's done and he also looks forward.

There's one more chance for us to draw some principles for ourselves from Paul's missionary journeys.

So we've got a sermon with five points this evening, which sounds fairly intimidating, but I'll draw your attention to the story of Eutychus.

Paul says it's okay to preach till midnight.

So let's just bed ourselves in and let's get ready to hear some of these principles from Paul.

The first principle, mission, God's mission requires humble service.

Look with me again at verse 18.

The elders of Ephesus are summoned to meet with Paul.

And when they arrived, he said to them, you know how I lived.

The whole time I was with you from the first day I came into the province of Asia, I served the Lord with great humility and with tears, although I was severely tested by the plots of the Jews.

His attitude, his pattern from the beginning for the two and a half years that he was with them and through his mission was to serve with humility.

He endured suffering.

He endured opposition as he served among them.

He tells them in verse 33 to verse 35 that he took no pay in all the time that he was with them.

He didn't want anyone to be able to speak badly of him and say, oh, this guy, Paul, he's just preaching to make a name for himself and to get rich and famous.

Rather, he worked and in so doing provided an example of serving the weak and the poor with how he used his resources.

And when we look across these chapters of Acts, we discover here is Paul who serves the church.

Here is Paul who serves the community.

Sometimes that's through making tents and making tents well to the glory of God.

Sometimes it's teaching.

Sometimes it's evangelism.

But the question for us is this.

What's the key to this humble service?

How is he able to keep going serving the church while he faces so much threat and opposition?

Notice what he says in verse 19.

I serve the Lord.

As he served the church, as he served the city, as he served people, he was conscious that he was serving Jesus.

That here he is loving others, but at the same time he's pursuing the glory of Jesus in all aspects of his mission.

And that example of Jesus, the humble servant, enables him to humbly serve.

One of the things that I get to do as a representative of presbytery is I get to interview potential ministry candidates.

And somebody handed this piece of information on to me or this piece of advice when you're looking at potential leaders in any church context.

Do they pass the chair stacking test?

Very important test.

Is somebody willing to show up early, to get stuck in, willing to stay late and to pack up?

I worked in a co-op supermarket in Sky for about seven years.

Most of the time I was on the day shift, but I spent one summer on the night shift.

Very different world when you're locked in for seven or eight hours at night.

Still serving the public during that time, but my service was unseen and unnoticed.

As Christians, maybe a lot of the service we do is the equivalent of night shift ministry.

We're doing stuff that isn't necessarily upfront public notice.

So the question for us is, do I serve others for the glory of God even when no one else is watching?

We're called, like Paul, to love our family, our neighbors, our community for the sake of Jesus.

And so as we reflect, would we pass the chair stacking test as we think about humble service?

What we see of Paul is that he lived as an imitator of Jesus.

Jesus, the one who humbled himself, left the glory of heaven to come down to live among us,

ultimately to humble himself, to suffer and die for us, taking our place, bearing our sin and our shame.

For the sake of gospel mission, do we embody that kind of humble service ourselves?

So that's the first principle. Mission requires humble service.

The next thing we learn from Paul is that mission requires teaching.

Now we saw last week in Acts chapter 19 when Paul arrived in Ephesus, he did his usual thing.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

He began in the synagogue, teaching the Jews that the Messiah they were waiting for had come,

and his name was Jesus. He spent three months in the synagogue before they drove him out,

and then he spent two years teaching in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.

And what we discover as Paul addresses the Ephesian elders is that as he taught them during that time,

he gave them depth and he gave them breath.

You look at verse 20.

You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you.

Verse 27.

For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.

Paul knows this about this young church.

They need to know the Bible.

They need to have confidence of God's truth.

They need to understand and appreciate the gospel and how it's the center of the Christian life.

So he doesn't teach superficially.

He is aiming for maturity.

He is laying a foundation.

He's providing them essential truth that they can then pass on to others.

And what we see too is a quote from John Stott was that Paul was thorough.

He shared all possible truth with all possible people in all possible ways.

We see that in verse 20.

He shared all possible truth.

He didn't hesitate to teach anything that would be helpful.

We see he does it with all possible people.

He's declaring it to both Jews and Greeks.

And he's doing it in all possible ways.

He's doing it publicly.

He's doing it privately.

Sometimes he's preaching.

Other times he's debating.

Sometimes he's lecturing.

Other times he's having in-depth conversations.

Paul was a teacher.

He knew that people needed the truth about God if they were to be saved and if they were to grow in holiness.

It takes us to that wonderful story of Eutychus.

Paul knows when he goes to Troas, he's got one night and a bit with these people.

So what does he do?

He teaches.

He teaches till midnight.

Poor Eutychus is struggling, understandably perhaps.

He falls asleep and he dies.

Three story drop.

He's dead.

What happens, Paul pauses just long enough to raise him from the dead, to share the Lord's Supper with the church,

and then to get going again for perhaps another five or six hours.

God's truth matters.

It's not that Paul is long-winded and he likes the sound of his own voice.

He understood that truth matters in a church.

There was a special focus in Paul's ministry.

Verse 24, he said his task, end of verse 24, his task was testifying to the gospel of God's grace.

What did he declare in verse 21?

He declared to Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.

He's testifying about the gospel of God's grace, God's free and loving gift of salvation made available through the finished work of the Lord Jesus.

So he spent a lot of time teaching from the Old Testament to show that Jesus is the promised one,

that Jesus fulfills all those rich promises that we find in the Bible.

So whether we're thinking about the promise made at the time when Adam and Eve fell into sin,

that one would come and he would crush the head of the serpent,

Paul would say, this one is Jesus.

He has come and he has gone to the cross to defeat the power of Satan and sin and death for his people.

He would have drawn their attention to the promise made to Abraham,

one of your descendants will bring blessing to the nation.

Jesus is that blessing.

He would have looked at David, the great king,

the one who hopes were centered on that one from his family would be the redeemer, the great king.

That God promised.

And again, see, that's Jesus.

The one who has now taken the throne of heaven and rules and reigns forever.

That Paul was demonstrating to the people that Jesus has come as a gift of God's grace,

as the only way to be saved.

And because of that, people needed to repent of sin,

to change their allegiance to allegiance and loyalty to God,

to doing battle against sin,

to having faith in Jesus alone,

depending on him to save them from sin,

and depending on him so that we might have a just verdict,

a righteous verdict when we stand before God.

And so Paul is a teacher,

and as a teacher, he focuses attention on Jesus as God's promise

and the gospel of God's grace.

And he wants them to become mature.

Our youngest nephew, who's now maybe three or four months old,

he started on solids this week.

Too much celebration from his parents.

Life gets much easier when babies are on solids.

But also, I guess it's a sign,

here is a child who's growing healthy,

who's growing up.

Something to celebrate.

In our own lives, are we growing spiritually?

Are we receiving from God in his word?

What is the place of the Bible in our day-to-day life

and Christian experience?

Are we growing in maturity?

And bearing in mind the fact that Paul was a teacher,

and recognizing that we're not Paul the Apostle,

but understanding that we are messengers,

are we talking to others about Jesus,

about how he's central to our hope?

Are we looking for ways to share our story

to point others to Jesus as Lord?

Because mission requires teaching.

We have a heart to play in that.

The next principle that we see

is that mission requires devotion to Jesus.

So verses 22 to 24 are significant.

Paul is looking ahead,

led by the Spirit,

to consider his future prospects.

And what it seems from a human point of view

is that his future looks fairly bleak.

Verse 23,

I only know that in every city

the Holy Spirit warns me

that prison and hardships are facing me.

But for him,

he doesn't seem too concerned about that.

His only concern seems to be

about being faithful to the Lord Jesus.

Verse 24, he says,

Amazing word.

He wants every day

to be on this race of faith,

to be living in faith and obedience,

anticipating that prize

of eternal salvation with Christ

that's laid up in heaven for him.

That's his goal.

That's what drives him day by day.

And he wants to complete the task

that he's been given.

He's called as an apostle

to bring the good news of God's salvation

through Jesus to the Gentile world.

That's his unique calling.

And he wants to give himself

totally, wholeheartedly to that task.

We see Paul willing to be an instrument

in the Redeemer's hand.

He wants to live his life

directing others towards God's grace

and love demonstrated

in the sending of Jesus, his son,

to be the savior of the world.

This is the same Paul

who when he was writing to the Philippians

said, for me to live is Christ

and to die is gain.

When we look at his example,

we understand that those are not

just nice sounding words.

He absolutely meant it.

He was devoted to Jesus as Lord.

I find it interesting sometimes

to read the stories of the training regimes

of some of Britain's top athletes,

whether that's long distance runners

or whether that's boxers.

it's really fascinating to listen

to their sacrifice.

Time away from family,

maybe months at a time,

altitude training,

long hours,

enduring agony,

and why?

For the glory of an Olympic medal.

For the prospect of winning

or retaining a world championship.

And they will go through anything,

it seems,

in order to win that prize.

Now, by contrast,

a couple of weeks ago,

my friend sent me a message saying,

hey, the Sky Half Marathon

is on this June.

I hear it sounds like a nice race.

Would you like to join me?

It took me maybe five seconds

to consider the cost

and say, absolutely not.

I was not willing to count

that particular cost.

I'm not even sure

that I could have done it anyway.

But here's the question for us.

When it comes to following Jesus,

when it comes to serving Jesus,

which are we?

Are we the willing to do anything

or are we the couch potato person?

Paul's example,

the desire of God for us,

is that we would be wholly devoted

to the Lord Jesus.

And that would be reflected

in our priorities

and our values

and how we live

and how we serve.

Am I willing,

are you willing to suffer

in mission

for Jesus' sake

and in response

to God's grace

to what?

To the suffering of Jesus

for us.

And I was reminded of

the words of the missionary

Jim Elliott

who gave his life

seeking to bring

the gospel

to tribespeople.

He is no fool

who gives

what he cannot keep

to gain

what he cannot lose.

Mission requires

devotion

to the Lord Jesus.

And we also see

from Paul's life

and mission

that mission requires

the local church.

All the way through

the book of Acts,

we discover

that Paul worked quickly

to establish churches

and to establish elders

within those churches.

So here,

having spent

two and a half years

in Ephesus,

there's clearly

a church has been planted,

elders have been appointed,

and now he calls

these elders

to speak with him.

Paul was leaving,

but they would remain.

So what is his message

to the elders

and to them

as the local church?

And his message is this,

keep watch,

be on guard.

three different aspects

to that.

First of all,

at the beginning

of verse 28,

he says,

keep watch over yourselves.

To the church leadership

in particular,

he's saying,

you need personal holiness.

You need to be devoted

to the truth.

You need to be sharing

and living out the gospel

in your own experience.

Reminded me of the words

of Robert Murray McShane

where he said,

my people's greatest need

is my personal holiness.

So they're called

to keep watch

over themselves.

They're also called

to keep watch

over the church.

Continuing in verse 28,

keep watch

over yourselves

and all the flock

of which the Holy Spirit

has made you overseers,

be shepherds

of the church of God

which he bought

with his own blood.

Now,

Paul says something amazing

about the church there.

He's saying to the leaders,

remember you're shepherds

but ultimately

you're under shepherds.

What does he say

about the church?

He says,

the Holy Spirit

has appointed them

as overseers.

The church

doesn't belong to them.

It belongs to God,

the Father

and the church

has been bought

by the blood

of Jesus Christ.

This is a flock

with infinite value.

This is a flock

who ultimately

are being shepherded

by Father,

Son and Spirit.

The local church

matters to God

and the local church

matters in mission.

Therefore,

it's important

that they also

keep watch

and guard

against false teaching

and false teachers.

Verse 29,

I know that

after I leave,

savage wolves

will come in among you

and will not

spare the flock.

Even from your own number,

men will arise

and distort the truth

in order to draw away

disciples after them.

So be on your guard.

Internal dangers,

external dangers.

And they're called

to defend the truth,

to protect the sheep

from lies

and against

spiritual attack.

The local church

matters.

Eldership

in a local church

matters.

Let me encourage you

to pray

for your elders.

They are shepherds

looking to

feed you

from God's word,

looking to

protect you

by presenting

gospel truth.

They are

a gift

of God

for the church

in order to guide

and strengthen

and help

grow.

So pray

for your elders.

But remember

too

that mission

is not a solo

project.

Mission

is something

that the church

does.

I love

the list

of verse 4,

chapter 20,

verse 4,

apart from the fact

that the names

are not that

straightforward.

What we see,

and we see this

so often,

when Paul is on

mission,

he doesn't go

by himself.

He has

others who

he's training up

to work

alongside him.

He has others

to support him,

people with

different gifts,

but they're all

engaged on

mission together.

Paul was

careful to

establish local

churches because

they were outposts

from which the

good news could

then spread in

communities and

cities and

regions.

So the local

church matters

for God's

mission.

And so we

need to pray

that for us

as a local

church and

for the local

churches that

you belong to

if you're

visiting,

that those

churches would

be defended

and guarded

in the truth

against lies

and against

opposition

and spiritual

attack.

And just to

think a little

bit more about

the place of

the church

and mission,

remember the

words of

Jesus.

He said it

to his

disciples by

extension to

us.

He said,

they will

know you

are Christians

by your

love.

Now he

doesn't mean

as an

individual goes

out and

loves others.

There he

means they

will know

you are

Christians by

the way that

you have

love one

with another

by your

shared love.

And so one

of the things

that we need

to think

through is

how can you

and I,

how can we

as a local

church,

how can we

make that

love more

visible to the

people who don't

come into

church,

to the

people who

we live

with,

to the

people who

are around

about us

and who

we work

with.

Our

shared love

is part

of our

mission.

So mission

requires the

local church.

And the

last principle,

a hugely

important principle,

is that mission

requires God's

grace.

In verse 25,

Paul says,

now I know

that none of

you among

whom I have

gone about

preaching the

kingdom will

ever see

me again.

Paul would

never see

the church

that he

planted ever

again.

How can he

be okay with

that?

How can he

not be

stressed out

wondering,

how is this

church going

to do

without me?

Verse 32

is the answer.

Here's what he

says to the

Ephesian elders,

now I commit

you to God

and to the

word of his

grace which

can build

you up

and give

you an

inheritance

among all

those who

are sanctified.

God's grace

is the key.

God's grace

begins the

church.

God's grace

will sustain

the church.

So what Paul

does, knowing

he's never

going to see

them again,

is he commits

this church

to God,

their true

shepherd,

trusting,

again to quote

from Philippians,

that he who

began a good

work in you

would carry

it on to

completion.

Paul knows

the power

of God's

grace.

He knows

that it's

grace that

saves a

person.

He knows

that it's

grace at

work in a

person's life

that sanctifies,

makes clean,

makes more like

Jesus a

person.

And he knows

that it's

grace that

secures a

person's final

inheritance.

In other words,

he knows that

grace is the

A to Z of

Christian life

and so he

commits the

church to

the God of

grace and

to his

word.

So his

whole mission

rested on

this truck.

This is

God's work.

Jesus is the

one who will

continue to

build his

church.

Even if I'm

not here,

I can trust

that God

will continue

what he

has begun.

That's not

an easy

thing.

Before being

here, I

spent four

years in

international

student

ministry and

that was

one of the

really difficult

things.

You spend

maybe a

year with

people,

introducing

them to

Christianity,

teaching them

the gospel,

seeing some

of them

respond in

faith, but

then you

send them

home.

And a lot

of the

times, not

having a

clue how

things would

go with

them, it's

really hard

to commit

people to

God's care.

We want to

see how

they're getting

on, but

that's not

always the

case.

And Paul's

lesson to

this church

is I

might go,

but God

is still

with you

and that's

what matters.

God's

word of

grace belongs

to you and

that's what's

going to

sustain you.

He trusted

that

implicitly.

Small

picture of

that.

Toddlers on

a Friday

happens in

that hall.

And it's

nice to see

there's certain

patterns and

traditions that

go along with

the toddlers.

So come

five to

eleven, it's

time to

pack up,

tables and

chairs go

away, the

toys go

away, and

all the

kids help

with that.

The thing

that they've

started to

do that's

new is

they've

started to

help.

We turn

the sofas

around so

that people

can play

with their

kids, not

to sit on

the floor.

So the

kids, come

the end of

the time,

have taken

to helping

to lift

the sofa.

Now if

you've

ever tried

to lift,

they're

fairly hefty,

those sofas.

So you can

see them,

they're working

and being

involved in

this project,

but here's

the good

news, success

in sofa

lifting is

not down

to them.

They're

playing their

part, but

they are not

ultimately the

source of

strength.

And you

know, that's

the comfort

for us in

mission.

It's God's

mission, it's

God's strength,

it's God's

grace, it's

not on us.

God is

pleased to use

us and that's

wonderful, and

we should be

encouraged by

that, but

ultimately it

relies on his

grace and

power.

not our

ability.

So we

leave Paul's

missionary

journeys

remembering

that this

same God

that built

his church

then is the

same God

who continues

to build

his church

now, and

there's an

invitation for

all of us

to do our

part to

get on

board.

together.

So let's

talk to each