Acts 20:17-38

Happy New Year’s Eve day!

 

    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 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 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, remembering the words 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.

 

Paul sets us a sobering example. He doesn’t know what awaits him in Jerusalem, but he’s in such a hurry to get there that he bypasses Ephesus for time’s sake. At the same time, Paul is so certain that he will never again see the Ephesian church that he pauses long enough to call their leaders to him.

 

Paul summarizes his ministry for the Ephesian leaders, along with his intentions to follow God’s leading to Jerusalem (vv. 18-23). He has been faithful. But Paul is not telling them that he has been faithful in some final effort to get them to honor and revere him. Paul sees a very real possibility that his life and ministry are coming to a close, and he trusts God enough to embrace that possibility (v. 24).

 

So Paul’s summary of his ministry was a part of passing the torch of responsibility for God’s church to the Ephesian leadership (vv. 25-31). As Paul describes the difficulties he’s endured and the efforts he’s taken to build up the church in the truth of the Gospel, he reminds the Ephesian leaders that the church they are to protect and build up is amazingly precious! The church is so precious that Paul was willing to give his life to build it and protect it! The church is so precious that the Ephesian leaders must also guard it carefully.

 

Paul sums up the ministry he expects of himself and of the Ephesian leaders with Jesus’ words: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (v. 35). With these words Paul entrusts the Ephesian church leaders to God and to the message of God’s grace. God and the glorious gospel message will build up the church and bring them into heaven, where all are set apart to God (v. 32). Nothing on earth compares to this hope!

 

Paul and the Ephesians cared deeply for one another, and the Ephesians were enormously distressed at the thought that Paul would never see them again (vv. 36-38). For Paul to bypass the city of Ephesus on his way to Jerusalem must have been absolutely necessary; he loved them too much to have bypassed them without good reason. But his love for the Ephesians—and his respect for them—is evident. He entrusted them with caring for the church, certainly in Ephesus and probably throughout the province of Asia (v. 18). And the church is a priceless treasure, worth sacrificing leaders’ lives to build and guard.

 

Father, help me to love the church this profoundly. Help me to build up Your church lovingly, carefully, extravagantly, sacrificially. In everything I do, may Your church benefit. May I depend fully on You and on the message of Your grace, and may I teach others to depend fully on You, too.