Acts - Week 12 (20:17-27)

This is ERC Sundays, the messages at Emmaus Rd.

Church in DeWitt, Iowa. ERC is a Church of people

striving to grow in Jesus and make him known to others through

our faith, words and actions. Find out more about our church

at emmausrdonline.org. Here's this week's message.

We are in the book of Acts still.

We're taking all summer to work through Luke's account of the

early church, the multiplying church.

We're jumping ahead a little bit in our journey from where we

were last, and in some ways we're coming to an end.

It's been revealed to Paul that he needs to, he needs to return

to Jerusalem. The Spirit has revealed to him

that there are some groups of these churches that he's poured

into and built relationships with and grown the church for

years. The Spirit has revealed to him

that he's not going to see some of these churches, some of these

people ever again. This is this is his last time.

And we're going to take a look at a story of his parting words,

his last sermon to the elders of the church in Ephesus.

This was a church that he spent about three years with growing

and building up. If you're familiar with Timothy,

the the one that Paul built up, Timothy was a part of this

church in Ephesus, a young leader there that Paul after his

time in Ephesus left Timothy in charge and said, it's it's now

to you to build up elders to care for this church that we've

grown and started together. And now Paul on his final

journey on his way back to Jerusalem, takes a moment to he

doesn't make it all the way to Ephesus.

He's actually in a a seaside city and he actually sends word

for the elders of Ephesus to meet him here so he can see them

one last time before before he journeys back.

So that's kind of the setup for where we're at.

We're in Acts chapter 20. We're going to read verses 17

Acts 20 · chapter mention

through 24 in Jesus name. Now from my leases.

He sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come

to him. When they came to him, he said

to them, You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole

time, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the

Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that

happened to me through the plots of the Jews.

How I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that

was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to

house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance

toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

And now behold, I'm going to Jerusalem, constrained by the

Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that

the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment

and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of

any value, nor 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.

And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have

gone about proclaiming the Kingdom will see my face again.

Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of all,

of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you

the whole counsel of God. This is the word of our Lord.

This is a smaller snippet of a larger sermon that really the

point of it. Paul's tasking these elders,

these leaders of this young church on the things that

matter, on what will be ultimately his legacy.

But more importantly, and we'll, we'll get to it as we as we read

in between the lines, he's not leaving his legacy.

He's leaving a legacy of Jesus Christ.

In his example of following Jesus Christ, he's showing the

leaders of this church how one lives as a caretaker, as a

shepherd, as a leader of God's people, but he is not leaving

them with a message of all right, go forth and make

yourself a bunch of Paul's go and become like me.

He's saying in my example, in my example of pointing you to

Christ, my legacy is one that leaves people, leaves leaders in

charge of the church who will do the same.

That will not lead people to themselves, but will lead them

to Christ. Most of the time in Acts, even

even in some of the letters, the Paulian letters that we have in

the New Testament, we see Paul as as the evangelist, as the

proclaimer and, and yes, right, rightly so.

A lot of our Christology is informed by the spirit inspired

words that Paul penned in the New Testament.

Here he's charging the leaders and shepherds as their leader in

shepherd, as ones who are mature, as ones who know Many of

these things should be familiar to them and should be reminders.

He first calls attention to himself in verse 18.

You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time,

serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with

trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews.

They've witnessed it. They've seen his work amidst

affliction, amidst imprisonment. He's testifying, he's saying,

I've, I've had one of the self-serving moments, right?

No one's more humble than me. But he's not pointing to his

humility. He needs this humility.

He needs that humble posture in order to serve the Lord.

If he doesn't set himself and his own pride aside first, he

can't serve the Lord and and have him be the first and

greatest thing in his life. If if Paul's life is still the

greatest thing in his life. So he clues them in on what they

must do to continue properly serving the church and serving

God with all humility, not, not pressed back against the tears,

against the trials. He kind of gives them the full

picture of this Is it the life that I've lived?

This is what you signed up for. Now this is what it's going to

be. But serve the Lord, not for

yourself. Serve Him in all humility,

preserving you through the tears and trials and the plots of my

enemies. How I did not shrink from

declaring to you anything that was profitable subtext for their

faith and teaching you in public and from house to house.

He highlights to them how this wasn't this wasn't a Country

Club. We've done we've proclaimed

Jesus out in the streets. Yes, we've taken time in the

shelter of households and we've built close knit community and

we've done this together, but also we haven't shrunk away from

declaring this out in the public, out in the streets,

testifying to both Jews and Greeks, any people that we come

across. This is how I've done it and

this is how you are now to continue the ministry that Jesus

Christ has started in me and in this early church.

This is how the church multiplies with boldness in fear

of threat and persecution, with boldness in face of social

awkwardness. Or these people aren't like me,

or these people aren't from here.

No, not he didn't make any qualifications for yeah, you can

leave those people out because they're different from you.

You can leave those people out because they might not want to

hear about this Jesus and they might hate you for that.

No, he says. They're going to hate you for it

and you still need to proclaim it.

They're not going to like you for it.

You're going to have tears and trials amidst friends and

family, but that isn't more important than testifying to the

goodness of God's grace. So he says, I'm going to

Jerusalem constrained by the Spirit.

This is that no longer a slave to fear but slave to Christ sort

of mentality. He he doesn't have a choice.

He's so sold out for Jesus. He's so sold out for the mission

of the gospel that he is compelled.

There is no other choice or way for him to go and he even

acknowledges. I don't know how this is going

to pan out. We're we're that's so

countercultural to to our thinking or even to societal

thinking. We want to know how something's

going to end up, whether it's a relationship that we enter into

a a business endeavor, heck, even going out for a meal, like

to some degree, we want to know that what we order is going to

be good, right? Like or or.

We'd rather not order it. We want that certainty, but

there's no room for faith in that.

He's not fearful of the unknown because he knows the one who is

beside and before him, the only thing he does know.

Verse 23 is that the Holy Spirit testifies to Him, testifies to

me in every city, that imprisonment and afflictions

await me. He's leaning on this power in

the face of afflictions, in the face of imprisonment.

I know that there is a greater sustainer, preserver and power

with me, so I need not fear. I need not fear the things that

might assault or assail me or that are unknown because as we

talked about last week, God is not unknown to him.

He knows the Spirit who walks beside him.

He knows the work of Jesus Christ that keeps him safe and

secure. So he need not fear even amidst

the unknown. And all of this informs this

next sentence that he says. And this again sounds radical

and wild for any of us to actually declare in this moment.

But this is the example that Paul is setting.

I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to

myself. How many of us in this room

wholeheartedly agree with that statement can declare those same

words from Paul? I've already been selfish today.

I've I've put things for me above a lot of other things

already today. My life means a lot to me.

And we need to rewire that thinking.

Paul declares I don't account my life of any value.

The only thing I do value 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.

There's a little irony in these verses because as he's

testifying as he has this strength and he and then this

counter cultural thinking to not have himself above all things,

Christians, people of God, unbelievers in this room.

There's a part of this ministry. There's a part of your ministry

in your personal faith with God, in your family, with your

friends, with your coworkers, whoever it might be.

At some point in there you need to continually testify to the

gospel of God's grace to yourself.

You need to remind yourself of the goodness of God's grace for

you to strengthen you with that message to bring to others.

And as you do that, as you remind yourself of God's

strength and God's goodness and God's plan.

I think that's how Paul arrives on this.

My life is not of any value. His eyes are so set and fixed on

the gospel of grace that as as the Hemness wrote, the things of

earth grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

That's how we do it, through the power, through the words in the

Bible here, testifying and reminding ourselves.

Because we forget, right? We're so easily swayed by

passing moments by minor annoyances.

Church, we need to combat those with the goodness of God.

The person that cut you off in traffic or the the coffee order

that wasn't exactly how you wanted it at Starbucks.

Those aren't the things that we should be focusing on in our

day. They should not be the things

that unfix our eyes from Jesus. We need to remind and remember

and testify to ourselves this gospel of God's grace so it

equips, encourages, and strengthens us to do the same

for others. Then Paul acknowledges, This is

it. These are my last words.

Behold, I know that none of you, among whom I have gone about

proclaiming the Kingdom, will see my face again.

This is it, this is the end. This is what you got.

This is what I'm leaving you with.

So therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of

the blood of all. But I did not shrink from

declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

This is a really critical passage to understand because as

we share our faith with others, as, as Christians who share our

faith with others, even me right now, if there are those of you

in this room that I'm talking to who don't believe the things

that I'm saying up here, I feel as I evangelize, as I preach, I

feel a semblance of responsibility for your

salvation. I feel responsible to say these

things correctly, to articulate them in a way that you can

understand and ultimately in a way that changes your life.

Paul is stating I've done that. I've given you the whole gospel.

I've done it in a way that you can understand, that is true to

God's Word and God's meaning, and it's not on me.

I was faithful to proclaim this gospel.

It is now for you to know. And he says I did.

I did not shrink from declaring you the whole counsel of God.

There are there are parts in his letters.

If you read parts of the New Testament, all comes out

swinging for some of these young churches that have strayed from

the ways of God. He beats them up.

He lets them know where they've gone wrong and how they need to

come back to the things that are true and the things that are

real. Paul saying, I did not shrink

from declaring to you the whole counsel of God, not just the

grace ever abounds and God is love.

No, there's, there's some law in there.

There are some precepts and some designs and some commands from

God that are in there for your good.

And I didn't, I didn't pull back from those.

I didn't, I didn't leave those out.

So you guys would like me. So you guys would love me and

just and just think that I'm lovey dovey Care Bear Paul all

the time. Chris and I aspire for that each

week too. I know we're not here to beat

you up, but we're also not here to give you a pep talk.

We're here to proclaim what we've been brought to believe

about the absolute truth of the Word of God, and it is not our

place to edit or select parts of it that make the whole thing

seem great. Paul's even admitted a couple

times in this passage. You saw me work through the

tears and trials. You saw me work in the

imprisonments. I've said to you, Paul is

saying, I've, I've said to you, this isn't a life of luxury.

This isn't a life of comfort. This is a life for Christ.

And he ultimately rests on the very end of this sermon.

And now I commend to you God and to the word of his grace.

I now commend you to God. 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. A couple weeks ago I had a jar

up here. If you were here, maybe you've

seen the analogy before. An empty jar, three big rocks in

it. I asked if it was full.

Some of you said it was full, and then I proceeded to pour

some smaller rocks, some sand and some water in there and

filled it up, saying that it wasn't really full with just the

three big rocks in there. At the end of this sermon, Paul,

who wasn't married, didn't have immediate family, had cast aside

the life as as a Jewish enforcer and person of high standing,

persecuting the church. He was in power in society, an

important person and a powerful person.

Paul didn't really have any of the things that I think we're

taught to to desire for or or are markers of a successful

life. Get married, have children, get

a good job, have a good emergency fund and rainy day in

retirement for yourself and you did it.

Mission accomplished. None of those things are bad.

I'm saying that that we have constraints in life that yes,

OK, need to care well for my wife, need to care well for my

children. It's good to have a job and a

calling and responsibility, sure.

But for Paul, he had God, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the

word of his grace. Those were the three big things

in his jar and his jar was full. But those three things, Paul's

telling the elders, these are the things that I have anchored

and founded my life and calling and ministry on for the sake of

Jesus. And they are more than enough

for all of your life, even to the point I'm leaving you.

I'm never going to see you again.

But I commend you to God and to His Word because in those things

you are secure in His care. Those things are enough for me

to be confident in leaving you, because ultimately you're in

God's hands now, which are far more capable than mine.

I'm going to share something that I hope is encouraging to

you church. It's not violating

confidentiality. I don't think elders, you can.

I can maybe be in trouble later, but I think it's fine.

I don't think it's anything specific that shouldn't be

shared. We had an elder board meeting

yesterday. We meet once a month as

Shepherds, leaders, those tasked with encouraging and building up

this church. And we've been working on some

questions for the future, for our vision, for our mission, and

just making sure that our culture as a church is aligned

with those things because we can, we can say some things, we

can put some words out there, but if they're not reflected by

the church that people experience when they interact

with us or when they come in these doors, culture always

wins, right? More so than the word.

So do the words that we're saying, do they match up with

the actions that the family, the community that is here?

Can we reconcile those things and make sure that they are

aligned? And in this discussion, in

answering questions of, of what we want or what we're not going

to compromise or, or what needs to be first and foremost, what's

going to continue to sustain God's church here at ERC.

The first thing that was on the hearts and minds of your elders

is the question, how do we make sure that the people who call

our church home are in the word of God?

Not Were there 400 people at the pool party?

How did Coffee with Moms in the Park go?

If there were there 30 people there, should we scrap that?

How did family fun night go? What did we do at Youth group on

Wednesday? All those things filter out of

the Word of God. But the thing first and foremost

for the shepherds who care for your church here are, is, are

our people in God's Word? And how do we make sure that we

are encouraging them to be founded in that?

Those two things are Christology and ecclesiology.

Christology, what we believe about Christ, has to be founded

in the word. If it's founded anywhere else,

it's not really about Christ. Ecclesiology is the belief of of

what we do as a church and what we believe about Christ should

inform what we do as a church. So in these things, Paul compels

the elders in Ephesus. You're in the care of God.

You're in the care of his word, which is able to build you up

and give you the inheritance among all those who are

sanctified. 2000 years. I don't think the message has

changed, at least not here. Chris and I aren't here to make

a Church of Christmas and maths, not even here to make a church

full of Paul's striving to follow in the example of Paul in

pursuing Jesus Christ. We do that best when we're in

His Word. So for you church, what does

that look like? How excited are you daily to

dive into these pages? It is able to build you up, to

give you a sanctified inheritance.

Even without me, even without Chris, even without any of the

other people in this room, if you had nothing but the Spirit

and a Bible in your hands, you have everything.

I'm not saying those other things are bad.

I'm not saying they detract from our life, but let's not let our

eyes get jealous. Let's not let our eyes be taken

off the prize. Then even when the rest of the

jar looks empty, with our God, with His Word and His Spirit,

there might be gaps. There might be spaces in there,

but that life is full. Amen.

Thanks for listening to ERC Sundays.

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