Bible Guys Classics: Acts 20

All right, Well today, Jeff, we are actually back in

the Book of Acts, chapter number twenty, because the Book

of Romans has come to an end.

That's right, So we're going to pick up Paul is

continuing on in his travels and he goes to jail.

Is what's coming up next? Yeah, it's a tough one.

But he's going to meet with the leadership in the

Church of Ephesus first, So that's.

What we're talking about. He's Chris and I'm Jeff. We're

the Bible guys.

So, Jeff, we did miss you when Wesley stood in.

I know he did a great job.

But Kyle did a great job while you were gone.

I mean, we've missed each other quite a bit.

Yeah, we actually have.

Yeah, Yeah, it's going to be back together this week.

And so today I look forward to asking you this

because you're here next to me, which is what made

Jeff happy this week.

Oh this is a playoff of the most famous segment

We've got.

Ye Chris, which by the week, By the way, somebody

in our church lobby came up to me, like just

on Sunday, which would have been a couple of days ago,

and said, hey, I have a question so what And

they said, why don't you ever ask what made Chris happy?

And I said, that's a great question.

That is a good question. That's not for you today,

that's for me today.

I get happy.

Are you trying to push in on my question? I'm

just trying to Hey, let's do what made Jeff mad

this week?

Hey? Actually I thought we were just having a good conversation.

Okay, okay, I thought you're trying to steal. I thought

you're trying to ago.

Are we all ready to fight? So? What made Jeff

happy this week?

What made Jeff happy this week?

Uh?

You know what?

So we just celebrated Valentine's Day? Yeah, and uh so

my wife she said, hey, I've got a plan for

Valentine's Day.

It's going to be a lot of fun. And I

was like, okay, this is great.

So that made me happy that she she made a plan,

because usually I'm the one that's trying to figure out

what to do for Valentine that's fun. But she put

together and she bought tickets and took us to the

Detroit Symphony and the Detroit Symphony was screening The Princess

Bride while they played the New orchestral soundtrack to it.

So Princess Bride was the soundtrack to the movie. The

Princess Bride was two guys. It was only two people,

a guitar and piano. That's the keys, that's all the

whole movie. But they went back and redid the entire thing,

full orchestral soundtrack, and it was brilliant. So the orchestra

hall was packed and we sat and they played the movie.

Of course, the conductor comes out and he takes his

As soon as he steps up on the conductor thing,

everybody's cheer and he bows and then he whips out

his his baton and he points out to the crowd

and he says, my name is a Ningo Montoya.

You kill my father.

Yeah, So it's either you love or hate the Princess Bride.

Yeah yeah.

And then he's from Australia.

So then he said, apparently the only thing is according

to this movie they come from Australia, is iye be

came Potter and criminals.

Populated by criminals.

Remember, So that show either you love or hate the

Princess Bride. And my wife and I our sense of

humor is we love the Princess Bride. So it was

funny sitting there, probably three thousand people in the orchestra

hall and everybody's quoting lines and laughing, and it was

so much fun. It was just a delight. We had

so much fun together doing that.

No more rhymes and I mean it, anybody want a peanut?

It's so great.

Yeah, So that that was what really that maybe be

happy this week were.

Hey, I know this isn't the Chris Happy segment, but

my wife also planned, which is unusual.

Wow.

Yeah, yeah, because my wife does.

We lucked out. We've got the best wives in the world.

Yes, yeah, And normally she doesn't plan these days, but

we're actually, uh, she planned a weekend actually that starts tomorrow.

We're going to Saganau overnight and we're seeing John Christ

the Christian car Yeah yeah, huh, and then we're coming back.

So that'll be fun good for you.

Yeah, really cool.

So Paul has completed his third missionary journey yep, and

he went back. In that third journey, he went back

through a bunch of the cities that he'd already been

too before, and he writes the Book of Romans that

we read and a couple of the other ones there

and then now he's in prison, getting ready to go

to prison.

So here's what happens.

Says he was preparing to sail back to Syria when

he discovered a plot by some Jews against his life,

so he decided to return through Macedonia. Oh, by the way,

we're reading in Acts chapter twenty first three. Yeah, it

says several men were traveling with him, and they were Soapeter,

son of Pirus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundas from Thessalonika,

Gayas from Derby, Timothy and Titikus and Trophimus from the

province of Asia. They went on ahead and waited for

us at Troes. When it says us, that's Luke and Paul.

So Luke, that's right. Luke is the writer of the

book of Acts. So all these other guys went out ahead,

and Luke and Paul are the us there. So these

other guys went out ahead and waited for us at Troas.

After the passover ended, we boarded a ship at Philippi

in Macedonia. Five days later joined them in troy As,

where we stayed a week. On the first day of

the week, we gathered in the local believers to share

in the Lord's supper. Paul was preaching to them, and

since he was leaving the next day, he kept talking

until midnight. I thought you preached long the upstairs. The

upstairs room where we met was lighted with many flickering lamps.

As Paul spoke on and on, a young man named Euticus,

sitting in the window sill, became very drowsy. Finally he

fell sound asleep and dropped three stories to his death below.

Paul went down, bent over him and took him into

his arms. So have you ever had people die while

you were preaching?

Uh?

I don't think so many of us feel that way.

I was literally trying to answer that question.

So don't worry, he said, he's alive. Then they all

went back upstairs, sharing the Lord' supper and ate together.

Paul continued talking to them until dawn, and then he left. Meanwhile,

the young man was taken home unhurt, and everyone was

greatly relieved. Paul went by land to Azos, where he

had arranged for us to join him, and while we

traveled by ship, he joined us there and we sailed

together to Middelean. The next day, we sailed past the

island of Kios. The following day we crossed to the

island of Samos, and a day later we arrived at Malaydis.

He's telling this because he's being accurate with the travel pattern,

that all of his readers would have known these places, right.

That's why he's saying this. He's not just claiming that, hey,

we went on a journey. He's being specific on purpose.

Paul had decided to sail on past Ephesus for he

didn't want to spend any more time in the province

of Asia. He was hurrying to get to Jerusalem if possible,

in time for the festival Pentecost. But when we landed

at Malayedis, he sent a message to the elders of

the church at Ephesus asking them to come and meet him.

And when they arrived, he declared, You know that from

the day I set foot in the province of Asia

until now, I've done the Lord's work humbly and with

many tears. I've endured the trials that came to me

from the plots of the Jews. I never shrank back

from telling you what you needed to hear, either publicly

or in your homes. I've had one such for Jews

and Greeks alike, the necessity of repenting from sin and

turning to God, and of having faith in our Lord Jesus.

And now I'm bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem.

I don't know what awaits me, except that the Holy

Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and

suffering lie ahead. But my life is worth nothing to

me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned

me by the Lord Jesus, the work of telling others

the good news about the wonderful grace of God. And

now I know that none of you to whom I

have preached the kingdom will ever see me again. I

declare today that I've been faithful. If anyone suffers eternal death,

it's not my fault, for I didn't shrink from declaring

all that God wants you to know. So guard yourselves

and God's people, feed and shepherd God's flock, his church

purchased with his own blood, over which the Holy Spirit

has appointed you as elders. I know that false teachers,

like vicious wolves will come in among you after I leave,

not sparing the flock. Even some men from your own

group will rise up and distort the truth in order

to draw a following watch out. Remember the three years

I was with you, my constant waf and care over

you night and day, and my many tears for you.

And now I entrust you to God and the message

of his grace that is able to build you up

and give you an inheritance with all those he set

apart for himself. I've never coveted anyone's silver or gold

or fine clothes. You know that these hands of mine

have worked to supply my own needs and even the

needs of those who are with me. And I have

a constant example. I have been a constant example of

how you can help those in need by working hard.

You should remember the words of Lord Jesus, it's more

blessed to give than to receive. When he had finished speaking,

he knelt and prayed with them, and they all cried

as they embraced and kissed him goodbye, And they were sad,

most of all because he had said they would never

see him again. Then they escorted him down to the ship.

There it is, there you go. It was a long chapter.

Yeah, it's a nice story, yeah right, but yeah, it's

a long long chunk there.

So the very first thing we have to camp on.

Is this guy who follows three stories.

Down that's the best and dies.

Yes, So think about this. You're making a joke about

like people falling asleep and dying when people preach. But

you know, I'm sure when Paul was in the city,

they probably could not get enough of him. So wherever

Paul was, whenever he started to speak, it's not like, well,

we're going to go home after an hour, because you know,

North Americans in the twenty first century retired if you

go beyond sixty minutes, right, it's like, no, Paul's here,

He's not always going to be here. So who knows.

It doesn't say how long a sermon was.

He could have went to midnight.

It went to midnight, right, it could have been eight hours. Yeah, right,

And so we have to understand, like the idea of

him falling asleep wasn't like somebody falling asleep when I preach.

Right, that's right, good job.

I had a one time when I first came to Heritage,

we were meeting in a high school, and before I

came to Heritage, I had only ever spoken in front

of adults six times total. Six well, and four of

the six times. The pastors I was working for at

the time went good thing hearing me position because God

didn't gift you to speak, right, I just did that

bad of a job. Yeah, yeah, I was just a

bad public speaker. So then Heritage hires me after me

only speaking one time, well two times. I spoke one

time on a Sunday morning, one time in a midweek thing,

and it was the best I could do. But I

wasn't a very good speaker. I still am not a

great speaker. But I think you're good. The well, there's

so many people I'm like, man if I could speak

like them, you know what I mean?

I love that.

So people who knew me but did not know you,

who visited Heritage, their biggest concern was, you know, is

I like Chris already? Because I know him and I

like him, But am I gonna like Jeff? And I'm

telling you just about everybody I've ever talked to, he said,

I heard Jeff, and oh good thing, he's great.

Oh good great, Because I mean, I wasn't saying that

to get a compliment.

You know, I wasn't very good at speaking, and so.

I think you've changed in the last how many years

sixteen years.

Sixteen years, yeah, so it'll be seventeen in just a

couple weeks. So anyways, I was speaking, and I'd only

been here maybe a year, year and a half. The

room started feeling, you know, and so the church kept

growing and we had a lot of people in the gym,

and all of a sudden, this lady, I'm thinking while

I'm speaking, I was just aware this message I was

preaching wasn't the best message I'd given in a while. Right,

I'd been working really really hard trying to figure out

how to communicate better, and I was just thinking, man, Jeff,

this one's just not hitting. And while that thought was

going through my head, this old lady just fell over,

fell over. And I started laughing, thinking I killed this

woman while I'm preaching. She's like ninety years old. She

just went over.

So let's get this straight. None of your woman falls.

Over while I'm preaching.

And while I'm thinking this is a really horrible message,

and you laugh.

I laughed out loud.

It was like goodness, and so the U and I

wasn't like ahha, I would just say, you gotta be

kidding me, right right, And so I was like, uh,

sure's I think we need some help, and you know,

we have a great safety team. And our safety team

rushes In had several firefighters. They come in smelling salts.

Immediately she wakes up, they pick up her chair, right

on the chair, they.

Took her out. It was great. And so just a few.

Seconds later they flashed on the screen in the back

that she was fine. She just it was a little

too warm in the room and she passed out.

She was dehydrated.

So once we knew she was well, I said, hey, everybody,

I just got a message that you know, the lady

that fell over, she passed out, she was dehydrated, and

so thank goodness, and I said, you know, I was thinking,

what all you were thinking, and that was this is

one of the worst message you ever heard.

And she just passed out when it happened.

That's funny, it was.

It was terrible. So anyways, this guy.

I did have on East sorry tostray, but I did

have on Easter Sunday one time, which is a pretty

big crowd.

So the room's completely that's like the super Bowl of

of the year.

This guy. This guy was in probably like the fifth row,

about seven chairs towards the middle, so it wasn't on

the end, and he actually has like an epilepsy episode.

Oh yeah.

So they literally had to wheeled down a wheelchair all

the way down to the front in front of everybody.

There's like a thousand people in the room, and they

had to carry this guy, lift him uput in the

wheelchair and take it all the way out. In retrospect,

what I should have done in the middle of my

message was stop and acknowledge what was happening, right, and

just say like, hey, what's happening. Can we get a word?

Hey everybody, he's fine, he just needs to go out

and whatever, and let's leybe do a quick word a

prayer for you. So what we did for her, we

prayed for that lady and go back and here's but

here's what I did. I ignored it and kept on speaking.

So I just thought because I didn't understand, I didn't

comprehend what was happening, right, I just knew something was happening.

Stuff's happening all the time while you're speaking and you're

having to filter it out or you can't.

Yeah, yeah, it happens to me out time.

But people later on said, dude, you just kept on

going and just ignored that person.

Well, I I we did. We stopped and prayed for

that lady. And then I said later on, when I

was saying that, you know, she was well I thought,

I said, I was thinking, this is such a bad message.

I literally bored her to death.

Right, And I thought that somebody who was in a

wheelchair just needed to go to the bathroom.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I didn't know what was happening. Yep,

So that's not what happened here. No, this guy dies

and then Paul, you know, raises him back to life,

which is kind of an interesting thing.

And well, I mean, don't breeze past that. Yeah, right,

Paul brings a man back to life. That those are

like Jesus powers, right, which is amazing.

Well, Jesus said that his followers would do the same

things he did, and even greater things, right, so it

makes sense that that, you know, miracles would happen like that.

So you know, they're sharing in the Lord's Supper, which

is always important. They're doing all these things together, and

then Paul calls the elders of the church together and

there's there's a little teaching here. I think, if you indulge.

Me, for just a second.

So he says, Paul decides to sail on past Ephesus.

When he lands there, in verse seventeen, it says he

sent a message to the elders. Not the elder, but

the elders. So there's a plurality of leadership in Ephesus.

And then if you go down a little further, if

you go down to verse twenty eight, he said he's

talking to those elders, and he says, so guard yourselves

and God's people feed in shepherd God's flock. That's the shepherd.

That's where we get the word pastor from pointment is

the Greek word there shepherd God's flock, his church purchased

with his blood, over which the Holy Spirit has appointed

you as elders. That word, quite honestly is overseers. There

So even though the NLT translated as elders, which isn't inappropriate.

Which by the way, my NLT, because I think there's

different versions here, yep, it says the Holy Spirit has

appointed you as leaders.

Yes, that word leader is episcopas it's bishop is what

that word is. So if you've ever heard the word bishop,

so really, what he's done is he's called the elders together.

He says, care for the people like pastors, provide good

leadership like a bishop. He's talking to the same group

of guys, right, the same leaders. And so where we

have I think in our need as humans to create

infrastructure and bureaucracy, we have bishops, and we have elders,

and we have pastors, and we have all these things.

About what Paula saying is, yes, that's right. What Paula

saying is the leaders of the church have these three functions.

As an elder, you need to be wise, you need

to be mature in the faith. You need to be

capable of giving good godly guidance.

That's what an elder. The value of the elder is,

he says, be.

A pastor to them, watch out for them, protect them,

feed them, care for them, and then be a good

leader an overseer.

Right.

And that's the delicacy, quite honestly, of being a well

balanced leader in the church is you need spiritual maturity,

you need spiritual care, be able to pride, spiritual care

with spiritual authority. Right, those three things go together. And

he's talking to a plurality of leaders, because I don't

think any one leader can do all those things super well.

No, I agree, right.

I agree, And uh, you know, it's actually really important

for us to understand that that it does take a

group of appointed people.

Yeah.

Uh, and and other parts of the scripture they talk

about the qualifications of elders, and it's really the same

qualification for pastors, right, So it's an elder should should

have a good, good character, be the wife or be

the husband of one wife, and it goes down the

line of them sort of behaving a certain way, pursuing God,

having wisdom, and and and really it's the same qualification

that every pastor should have. So this plurality of of

of leaders should be the ones that govern the church.

So in our church, heritage church, and I'm not saying

this is the only way, but for us, we have

a group of elders that provide you know, spiritual wisdom

in the in the provisional leadership of the church. Within

that group, there are a significant number whose spiritual gifts

lean towards pastoral care, counseling, care ministry, you know, leadership,

that kind of thing. And then within that group, we

also have a group of overseers, these bishop types that

are providing management of the organization because we have very

large organizations, thousands and thousands of people, and so there

are some who are gifted with hands on care type ministry.

There are others who have supernatural spiritual gifts. The Bible

says of leadership and organization and that kind of stuff,

and so what we try to do is build a

plurality of leadership that then can give advice to because

ultimately Paul is saying, listen, i was the leader when

I was here, but now I'm not going to be here,

and you guys as a plural group need to be

able to lead this ministry well. And so you know

there is often the apostolic leader or the primary leader,

then there's a clustering around that leader. But Paul was

able to leave and that church was able to thrive

for hundreds of years not because of Paul, but because

of the leadership that was there and that they had

balance in these areas. And I think that that's incredibly important.

The more significant the vision is God gives you for ministry,

the more balanced that your ministry needs to be in

having wise counsel, pastoral care, and good leadership right, and

those three things go together, so and the church thrived

because of it. So I think anytime I talk to

young church planters or anybody, I'm always encouraging them.

You need to build the whole thing. You're the pall, sure, right,

but dude.

It's not going to be strong and healthy unless you

build some spiritual age and maturity around you. That you

have some pastoral care built into this, providing care for

the people and protection and good leadership. And that it's

not fair to make one pastor have to have all

those things.

It's not reasonable.

Yeah, And that's the reason why a lot of churches crumble.

Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, because the way the ministry gets

too heavy. And by the way, I would say, I

don't believe that all those guys were being paid, And

in fact, Paul goes on and says, I wasn't getting paid, right, right,

So it's not that you have to be a professional

elder or a professional overseer or a professional pastor. If

God's given you those gifts, use those gifts in your church.

You might be you might be a roofer, and God's

given you the ability to hang shingles so you can

fund the ministry you're doing. Paul was a tent maker,

and God gave him the ability to make tents so

he could fund the ministry of leading that church episode.

You know, it's interesting because I've heard people in the past.

In fact, one guy used to work on staff with

me at a church that I was previously at, and

he ended up leaving Detroit Detroit area move somewhere else,

and then somehow used you know, was able to come

back and reference Paul and said, well, you know, because

Paul didn't get paid. He said, I have the belief

that no pastor should ever may yeah, it should make

any type of living or salary off of that. And

I just said, I said, you do realize that Paul

had different reasons and motivations.

Well, Paul said pastors should be paid, right, He says that, so,

I mean you got to read everything. The Bible is

its own best commentary.

Right.

So, just because Paul didn't take a salary, Paul said

that pastors are worthy of especially those who teach the Word,

are worthy of double honor.

That's right.

And that honor is not only speaking, He's talking that

whole passage is talking in the context of compensation, right,

And so Paul was saying that you know, Peter deserved it.

He said that even when.

He was telling the Corinthians that he didn't take money,

he was talking was the Galatians. He was saying Peter did.

And that's perfectly fine. He deserved it, right, And so

what you'd have to be doing is saying that Paul

was right and Peter was wrong.

Yeah, right, it's correct, that's correct. But also what I

was going to say is that Paul also mentioned that

the reason why he didn't is he didn't want to

give anybody any excuse because, after all, everybody was skeptical

of Saul right right back when he was sawd Yes,

you know, if he would have taken money, they would

have said, well, we know why he's doing this, right,

because so he went out of his way overboard, took

the extra step, went the extra mile to make sure

that nobody had any excuse to speak against them and

his motives, which is why, and he's made that clear abundantly.

He mentions that the Thessalonians took care of him, so

he did take compensations sometimes, right, But people get obsessed

about the couple of times when he chose not to

take compensation, right, right, that's convenient.

It's convenient, right.

The Bible's its own best commentary. If you're going to

use Paul as proof of something, you better know everything

Paul said right right.

And to your point his interaction with Peter about that topic.

Yes, that's right.

So anyways, that that's another issue. But then he goes

out and he's encouraging them Verse thirty one.

Watch out.

He's remembered that for three years I was protecting you,

but now you guys need to protect And there's an

expectation that believers grow in their faith to the point

that you can protect your family spiritually, you can yourself spiritually.

And that's what this is I think he's talking about.

So he says, I'm intrusting to you this message now.

And that's how the gospel has spread for two thousand years,

is that the leaders that came before us have entrusted

us with the gospel, and now we have to be

handing it off to the next generation.

So that's great. Just as a reminder to our readers,

we're going to be finishing up the Book of Acts

next week. We're in Acts twenty one starting on Monday.

Yep.

And after all, this whole entire study was a chronological

walk through the Book of Acts, breaking off where Paul

would have written, for instance, Romans, which we just read

and spent time in and came back.

So that's right.

So we gets pretty crazy for Paul here in the

next couple chapters

It does, and so hopefully we'll see you then the

next time on the Bible, guys,