"Paul Bids Farewell" | Acts 20:17-28 | Sunday Morning Worship Service

Have you ever wondered what Paul said when he gave a speech to a Christian audience?

And if you have ever wondered about that, you should be interested in Acts chapter 20, because this is the only recording that we have of Paul delivering a message to a Christian audience.

Acts 20 · chapter mention

If you'd like to follow along with me, we're in Acts chapter 20, beginning in verse 17.

Acts 20 · chapter mention

That's on page 929 of the Bible in front of you, if you want to take a look.

Acts chapter 20, verse 17.

Acts 20:17

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 the Jews and to the Greeks of repentance towards 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 imprisonments and afflictions await me.

But I do not account my life as of any value as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I receive 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 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.

These are the true words of God.

Acts 20 has long been a meaningful passage to me, and this was made more so in 2025, when 68 of us from Emmanuel had the great good fortune to walk in the steps of Paul in Greece and Turkey.

We walked in the steps, or maybe more accurately, I can say we glided in his wake because we arrived in Ephesus by ship and set sail southward from there, bypassing Miletus on our way to Rhodes, just as Paul was.

Though I'm sure our ship was larger and more luxurious than Paul could ever imagine, I thought of him and those Ephesian elders on the Miletus shore when I snapped this picture of the Turkish coast.

In 2026, this passage has assumed added poignancy.

Paul revealed to them in verse 25 that none of you will see my face again.

And so this speech takes on an air of finality as Paul bids farewell to his beloved friends and co-workers.

Well, barring something unforeseen, this message will also be my final message to you as a pastor from this pulpit.

As I will be retiring before the end of the year after 21 years as the pastor here of Mission and Outreach, and 47 years of vocational Christian ministry, 10 of those invested as a missionary in Africa.

So what did Paul want these church leaders to know?

What did he want them to do?

Three things, and this will be our outline this morning.

In the first few verses of this passage, he reminds them of his character.

And from that he moves on to talking about his commitment to the ministry entrusted to him.

It was a ministry of testifying of repentance towards faith in God and the Lord Jesus Christ, as he says in verse 21, and declaring the whole counsel of God, as verse 27 notes.

From this foundation, he gives them a charge to pay, to pay close attention to their lives and the flock entrusted to them.

Parting words can be weighty and important.

This isn't always true.

You can go online and read the final declarations of any number of public figures, some of them inspiring, some of them mundane, like I told you I was sick.

Like that one.

And we can be thankful that he did, because character and commitment and the charge to minister are as vital today as they were when they were penned 21 centuries ago.

Well, as soon as these elders arrived from Ephesus, perhaps it was three or four days after Paul had summoned them, the first order of business was to remind them of his character.

Paul had been consistent.

He notes that in verse 18 when he says, From the first day I stepped foot in Asia, and for the whole time I was here, you have seen how I have lived.

Paul had integrity.

He wasn't one way yesterday in a different way today.

He didn't say one thing and do another.

Pastor Jesse has been leading us through Matthew.

Jesus over and over denounces the hypocrisy of the religious leaders, and hypocrisy can be so deadly.

Maybe, just maybe, within three years or so, we will get to Matthew chapter 23.

Matthew 23 · chapter mention

And in there, Jesus said, Jesus, uh Jesse, you heard that here first.

Jesus condemns hypocrisy plainly.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

You are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanliness, so you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Paul had plenty of detractors, enemies who would have loved to undermine his ministry, and that would have been easy if his walk did not match his talk.

But as he does with the Corinthians and the Thessalonians and the Galatians, Paul reminds the Ephesians here that his character had been consistent.

Friends, it's really true that actions speak louder than words.

If your neighbors, uh co-workers, they can pretty easily spot uh hypocrisy if you're engaging in it, and it will it will blunt any attempt to share your hope, share the gospel with them.

If your children sense that what they're hearing here on Sunday mornings doesn't really line up with what they're living Monday through Saturday, they will be much more inclined to walk away from Christianity.

Please don't let that happen.

Paul exhibited a consistent character and also a humble character.

Verse 19 says, I was serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials.

Paul was a minister who indeed experienced a great amount of suffering and uh and trials, uh, suffering, beatings, riots, imprisonments, shipwrecks.

Even before he was converted, the Lord promised, I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.

Paul linked to humility and suffering in uh 2 Corinthians chapter 12 when he asked the Lord to remove his thorn in the flesh, and the Lord answered, No.

2 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

Paul learned from that experience that even in adversity and weakness, God's grace is sufficient.

And so he says, I will boast about my weaknesses because when I am weak, then I am strong.

Humility actually became his source of strength as a leader.

In his insightful little book on humility, which I would recommend to you, Andrew Murray rightly points out that pride is at the root of all sin and evil.

Remember that uh Lucifer's first sin was the sin of pride.

And so he says that humility opens our hearts to God's purpose, and it is pride that closes it off.

And this is why humility is foundational to every other aspect of a godly character.

In my years as a missionary, as a as an elder, as a pastor, I have seen a few leaders come and go.

Um, and uh no character trait, no skill is anywhere near as important as humility is a predictor of their success.

God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

And so yours and my ministry effectiveness is greatly determined by how we answer the simple question: are you humble?

Are you?

Paul's character was humble and it was consistent.

And it was also marked by faithfulness.

I did not shrink back, he says in verse 20.

In case they missed it, he says it again in verse 27.

I did not shrink.

When you shrink back, you're avoiding something out of a fearful concern.

But Paul would have none of this.

I taught you publicly and from house to house, he reminds them, and my core message was that everybody, Jew and Greek alike, needed to repent and place their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Of course, it was this exclusive declaration of the gospel that got him into such trouble with the Jewish officials and set off riots across the Eastern Empire, but Paul would not shrink back.

He told the Ephesians that he had been given a ministry by the grace of God to preach to the Gentiles.

It was a stewardship entrusted to him, he told the Corinthians.

And it is required of a steward that they be found faithful.

Paul was faithful.

It was a mark of his character.

Over the years, I, and I'm sure every minister of the gospel face the temptation to shrink back.

In missions, this often manifests itself as we try to implement the evangelistic aspects of our short-term teams.

So we go with a desire to share the hope that is within us, but also to demonstrate the love of Christ through uh through some compassionate uh work that helps the community.

And uh the compassionate side is never a problem.

I've learned that the world will happily receive all the soup and socks and diapers that the church has to offer.

Uh if uh if a youth team wants to repair a widow's steps, if uh they want to paint a community building, no problems.

But when you start declaring that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, when you say that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father but through him, well then they start to shrink back.

Um, this is uh why we've had to be selective over the years to send teams to places that are willing to receive both the uh tangible assistance and the biblical exhortations that our teams have to give.

And we've also from time to time needed to move away from organizations that have left the proclamation of the gospel out of what they conceive to be their core mission.

This is one way we're able to stay faithful to the ministry that we have been entrusted with.

It's worthwhile asking yourself, friend, what tempts me to shrink back?

Uh, here in America, we don't face the persecution that believers do in some countries.

And yet there's a level of it here.

95% of Christians in Pakistan, for instance, are illiterate.

Most of them have been beaten and bullied, and they're out of school by the third or fourth grade.

Uh, and as uh illiterate infidels, many can only eventually find work as street sweepers or latrine cleaners.

Would you shrink back to avoid your children growing up into that fate?

As I hear him describe it, I think, I might, I might do that.

If you hear a work colleague ridiculing Christian beliefs, do you shrink back from letting people in your office know that you're a follower of Christ?

Are you hesitant to share your faith because people might laugh at you or dismiss your attempt?

Ask the Lord to give you the faithfulness to not shrink back from living and speaking the gospel, even when it's tested.

Uh, Paul certainly did not, and we should not either.

As he bids farewell here then to his beloved co-workers, Paul not only reminds them of his consistent, his humble, his faithful character, but he also wants them, secondly, to know about his commitment to the work that's ahead of him.

It was a commitment, no matter what.

Behold, I'm going to Jerusalem, he tells them in verse 22.

He is constrained by the Spirit to do so.

This word means being forced as if bound by chains.

And ironically, chains and imprisonment are what Paul is going to face in Jerusalem and in cities after that.

Some are, some wonder about this.

How could the Spirit both be compelling him to go and warning him about what he's going to face there?

But you know, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth.

And both of these things can be true at the same time, and in fact they were.

At a later stop on this journey toward Jerusalem, a prophet wrapped his hands and feet with his belt and declared that Paul would be bound in like fashion and delivered over to the Gentiles.

And when they heard this, the believers in Caesarea just begged him not to go up.

But remember that Paul was constrained by the Spirit.

He felt he had to go up.

Paul answered them, What are you doing weeping and breaking my heart?

For I am ready not only to be imprisoned, but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.

We can really see Paul's commitment in fulfilling his ministry when we when we read this, don't we?

His commitment was to keep going no matter what.

Do you remember why Paul is going up to Jerusalem?

Luke tells us he's hurrying there to arrive before Pentecost.

Pentecost was a major Jewish feast, and so there would have been many people in town that perhaps Paul wanted to see.

It's also the birth date of the church.

Maybe they were going to have a 20-year birthday party, I don't know.

But he was hurrying, and so he bypassed a more lengthy visit to Ephesus itself.

His main purpose was to deliver a sizable monetary gift that had been collected from the churches in Macedonia and Greece, those are Gentile churches, significantly, to bring back to Jerusalem, which was a Jewish background church.

I find this remarkable that beyond the monetary relief, really what Paul's burden was for was the unity of Jew and Gentile within this new entity, which was the church.

And he says this clearly in Ephesians chapter 2 you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

The blood of Christ extends even to the Gentiles, and all of us had better say amen to that, because most of us are in that category.

He himself is our peace who has made us both one and had broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility, that he might create in himself one new man in place of two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

So the church is the place where Jew meets Gentile, where these walls of division, uh religiously, socially, culturally, get broken down, and the church becomes one new entity.

And for Paul, the symbolism of bringing this money in from the Gentile churches to the Jewish Mother Church was such an important thing that he was uh willing uh to go there at great risk.

He knows he's gonna be facing opposition from these radical Judaizers who were in Jerusalem.

He had been the head of that group, if you remember back.

Friends, this is what commitment looks like.

Verse 24 is really the heart of this passage.

But 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 receive from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

Such a powerful and profound verse.

The value of my life, he says, is not in my ambitions, it's not in my accomplishments, it's not even in my self-preservation.

My life's value is in sprinting across the finish line, fully engaged in the ministry that the Lord entrusted to me.

He didn't know whether that finish line would be the next month in Jerusalem or maybe a decade ahead in Rome.

He didn't know that.

But he knew that when it did happen, he would be about the business of faithfully fulfilling his commitment to the work God had given him.

He didn't have personal ambitions, he just wanted to serve the Lord.

And this is just how Jesus lived, didn't it?

Not with personal ambitions, but with a desire to please the Father.

John 5, he says, whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.

Jesus once asked what I consider to be the most profound question ever posed.

He said, What does it profit a person to gain the whole world but forfeit their soul?

Think about what that whole world looks like: riches, pleasures, children, grandchildren, wisdom, honor, influence.

It's just unimaginable, really.

But without Jesus, without his forgiveness and imputed righteousness, uh, it profits you nothing.

As one of my professors said during doctoral courses, he says, without Jesus, friends, your PhD is nothing but a post hole digger.

Amen.

Remember that one.

Without salvation in Christ, we're on track to become the wealthy man in Luke chapter 16.

Luke 16 · chapter mention

I read Luke 16 in my devotions yesterday.

And the wealthy man there is in Hades, just begging Abraham to send Lazarus to dip his finger in water and to cool his thirst for just a moment.

His riches, his earthly accomplishments just didn't matter at all.

And Paul is aware of this.

He told the Philippians, whatever gain I had, and he did have substantial credentials, I have counted them as loss or as rubbish for the sake of Christ.

He told the Galatians, I have been crucified with Christ.

And it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and the life I live now in the flesh.

I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

And here in Acts 20, he tells the Ephesians, 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 have received from the Lord Jesus.

The threats, the challenge that Paul faced were far greater than anything that I have faced.

But after 47 years of vocational ministry, I have tried to live in alignment with this biblical perspective, and I don't think retirement is going to do much to change that.

The last I checked, the Great Commission has still not quite been fulfilled, and so there still is some work to do.

It's provided nice jobs.

Job security for the last 21 years, but there's still a lot to do, and I know that I'll be involved in it.

Since my earliest days as a pastor here, I have displayed Acts 20, 24 in the missions office.

It's worn and faded, it's above the door there.

You can't read it very well.

But its significant is not diminished.

I think of it when I'm meeting clandestinely as I do from time to time with believers who have suffered much and have great commitment in maintaining their Christian faith: Indians, Pakistanis, North Koreans.

It always comes to mind when I'm flying somewhere for the gospel.

Like last week when a team of us were ministering in Japan, life just seems kind of fragile at 36,000 feet over the icy North Pacific.

And you realize, you know, if there happened to be a major malfunction, I would not be walking away from this plane.

But you know, preserving my life isn't really what matters.

What matters is that the mission be fulfilled.

That's how Paul lived.

How about you?

How do you measure your commitments when put up against the plumb line of Paul's commitment?

I think if you're like me, it it probably looks something like this.

You know, you push and you're pushing, you just can't get that darn thing straight.

And that's actually true of us, isn't it?

We push, we push, we fall short.

But Jesus commanded us, beloved, to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and he promised that if we did that, all these things will be added to us.

I have uh entrepreneurial impulses, I would say.

My children mock me, but uh, but it's true.

I I actually invented pan pizza years before Pizza Hut rolled it out.

Uh I did, right in a in a pizza shop.

Uh I anticipated the Peapod grocery delivery system years before Giant picked it up and started sending their trucks through our neighborhoods.

Well, Pizza Hut and Giant have made their millions off it, and I never made a nickel.

But uh, and I always suspected that this was somehow related to being consecrated and enjoyed and uh and consecrated and ordained for vocational ministry.

You know, my responsibility was to seek him first, and his promise is to add the things that I and my family need to live.

And he has fulfilled, friends, this promise in marvelous ways.

He has provided for us, and he's used you, he's used this church that generously provides for its pastors and staff.

And so, if this is my last message from this pulpit, I want you to know how grateful I am.

And I know I speak for the others on the pastors and the and the staff here as well, that uh that we are well provided for, and God has used you and met our needs as we have sought Him first.

Michelle and I are grateful for all the ways you have blessed our church.

She's here on the front row.

Thank you, Michelle.

Think for a moment about all these things that are added: clothing, food, education, a home, a career, promotions, retirement income.

Yay! I'm looking forward to that.

But what are these for you?

Accomplishments that you have gotten by sweat and savvy and determination?

Yes, it's true that skills and hard work matter.

But are you like King Nebuchadnezzar, who once declared, Is this not great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?

His pride did not serve him well, if you remember the story.

God knocked him down several pegs as soon as the proud words left his mouth.

Hopefully you're not like that, and you can honestly pray, Lord, I have sought you first.

In my marriage, my family, my career.

Thank you for the gains I enjoy, and I receive them as gifts from your hand.

Paul reminds them of his consistent, humble, faithful character.

He reveals to them the extent of his commitment to fulfilling his ministry.

These are implicit examples for the elders to remember and to follow.

And now, in closing his farewell speech, he has a charge for them, a direct exhortation.

Verse 28 says, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock.

Pay careful attention.

This is well translated.

The Greek contains the military sense of being in a constant state of readiness, of being on the alert, of keeping on a lookout, and so it's a present imperative, so it's something that we always need to be doing.

Initially, they are to look after themselves.

This is similar to what Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 4.

Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching.

Persist in this, for in so doing, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Elders are to live above the reproaches of the church and the world, even.

And this requires a daily, constant effort of confessing sin and striving to live a sanctified life in the power of the Holy Spirit.

If you're not an elder, don't think this lets you off the hook.

Keeping a close watch on yourself is something all believers are called to do.

In his letter to the entire Ephesian church, not just the elders, Paul urged them to walk in a manner worthy of the calling which you have received.

All humility and gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love.

We are not naturally gentle, humble, loving, patient people.

We are.

But as we confess this and look to the Lord daily, his spirit produces in us that wonderful fruit.

The love, the joy, the peace, the patience, the self-control that reflect the character of Christ.

So initially, the charge is to look after yourselves and our walk, because to not do this invites the hypocrisy that would destroy our ministries.

But then the charge expands.

Pay attention to your flock.

Church leaders are to see their congregations as flocks and their work as that of shepherding.

When he says, care for the church of God, the verb actually means to shepherd.

And so the charge to shepherd the church of God as a flock.

Sheep get hungry.

What are we giving them to eat?

Which ones are wounded and in need in need of a healing bomb?

Brother Arlen, your prayer for those was so meaningful.

Bid ago, thank you.

Who's tired and must be carried for a season?

Has anyone wandered and needs to be pulled back?

This one is so important that you're to leave the 99 and to go after the one.

What enemies are lurking that could harm or destroy the flock?

In the verses immediately following this one, Paul says that there's going to be hungry wolves that come in among you.

Oh my! That's not very good in a sheep pen.

False teachers will even arise in your midst.

Those are even more difficult to detect.

Shepherds must protect their flock from threats like this.

Again, if you think this does not apply because you're not an elder, I'm sorry, but this charge is for you.

Do you have children?

You are their shepherd.

Are you meeting with anyone to explain the gospel or to help build up their faith?

If you're not, you should be.

And if you are, then you are their shepherd.

Each of us has a unique circle of relationships, and we're responsible to witness and minister in these circles.

The things that shepherds give to their flocks are the things that you should be providing for the people that God has entrusted to you.

Paul's closing thought in this passage is a reminder of who's the church, who the church really belongs to.

And he says that is the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

It's not Paul's church, even though he planted it.

Churches don't belong to the members or the elders or the pastors.

It's not Jesse Johnson's church or Steve Hawley's church, though they have blessed this church in uncountable ways.

This is Emmanuel.

This is the God with us church.

Bible's our middle name.

I always recoil inwardly when I hear people say, I go to, I go to Bill Jones's church.

I go to, I'm a member of uh Pastor Smith's church.

It's not their church.

Emmanuel's missions department does not belong to me, though I have served and shaped it.

It is God's mission, and we are stewards who have been entrusted to take his gospel to all the nations.

We've been given much, and so much of us is required.

If you could boil this uh message down to a sentence, it would be 1 Corinthians 11, 1, where Paul says, follow me as I follow Christ.

And some of you are thinking, well, why didn't you just say that a half hour ago, Pastor?

I would have been first in the restaurant line.

Follow me as I follow Christ.

That's what he's really saying to these Ephesians on the shores of Miletus.

His life served as a roadmap to them.

Wouldn't it have been challenging to be aware of how Paul was living his life?

But it's a roadmap to us as well.

It shows what it takes to actually live out the Christian faith.

It takes character, a consistent, humble, faithful character with no hypocrisy or pride or shrinking back.

It takes commitment, a determination to fulfill the ministry entrusted to us regardless of the personal cost.

And it takes becoming a shepherd, carefully watching over our own lives and those of the people God has placed within our orbits.

Well, these elders actually did take up the mantle, the gauntlet that Paul laid down, and they went back, and Ephesus continued as a church of great importance in Asia Minor, even if Paul never set foot there again.

Emmanuel has seen a large number of uh retirements and departures in the last uh months and years.

Uh, but as I said, this is Emmanuel, the God with us church.

As you continue to follow Christ and stay true to his word, the years ahead will be blessed and fruitful beyond anything you could ask or imagine.

Pray with me, please.

Part of the glory, Lord, that we have been singing about today is your glory as the head of the church.

Lord, this is your church, not just this building, of course, but the hearts of those who have bowed and paid you allegiance, the ones who have accepted your gift of pardon and forgiveness and restoration and spiritual life.

Lord, you have glorified yourself in this church and the church for centuries, and we are so glad of that.

We lift up your name, Lord God.

We're thankful for how you direct this church.

We're thankful for the example of the Apostle Paul.

We do say, Lord, that we are willing to follow him as he followed you.

His example, the example the Lord Jesus set when he was in our midst.

Strengthen us by your Spirit, Lord God, that we might be courageous, that we might be consistent and humble and faithful and follow you with our whole hearts.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

If you have any questions about what you heard today, or you want more information about what it means to follow Christ, please go to our church website, ibc.church.

If you live in the Washington, D.C.

area, we'd love to see you at one of our own worship services at Emmanuel Bible.

Now may the Lord bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly, serve the Lord faithfully, and share the gospel boldly.