When The Shepherd Leaves | Acts 20:17-38

Paul stands on a beach in Miletus and says goodbye to the elders he loves, knowing he will never see their faces again. It is the only place in Acts where we get to listen in as Paul talks to a church he planted. And what he hands them on the way out isn't a strategy, a building, or another leader — he commends them to God and to the word of His grace. The church was never yours to hold. Jesus bought it with His own blood, and He is still building it by the word of His grace.

If your faith has ever been tied to a person on a platform — a pastor who left, a friend who moved, a leader who fell — this one is for you. Grace isn't the sentimental part of the sentence. It's the load-bearing wall.

Scripture: Acts 20:17-38
Series: Living by the Spirit, Following the Way

The Way Church KC is a community of misfits & saints in the Rosedale neighborhood of Kansas City following the Way of Jesus & pushing back darkness — together. Join us Sundays or learn more at thewaykc.church.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome to Sermons from the Way Church KC, the community of listening saints in Kansas City, following the way of Jesus and pushing back to darkness together.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Good morning. Alright, it's time to read the scripture this morning. So if you would, if you can, stand with me in reverence for God's word as we read. 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 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 count my life of any value, nor 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 to you this day that I am innocent of all the of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole council 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 own blood. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. And now I commend you to God and 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. I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all, and there was much weeping on the part of all. They embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again, and they accompanied him to the ship. That is the reading of God's word. You may be seated.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Thank you, Teresa. Um, welcome everyone to the Way Church KC. If we have not met yet, my name is Zach. I have the privilege of being the pastor here. And we are a two and a half-year-old church plant who exists to follow the way of Jesus and push back darkness together. Um we've been walking verse by verse through the book of Acts. And so we've been here for uh about a year and a month-ish, a year and two months, something like that. Since last summer, we've been in Acts. Um, and we'll be in it most of the rest of the year until we get into the Advent season. Um but it's been a sweet, sweet time of looking at the early church and seeing how they lived by the Spirit and followed the way of Jesus. Um, what we see in today's text is a gospel goodbye. Like that. That's what is happening as Paul uh brings the Ephesian elders to come and join him in Miletus. And um, as a church, we've had a handful of gospel goodbyes or gospel sculators um up until this point. Last summer there were a lot of those, you know, people that were, hey, moving back home to be by family, moving back to western Kansas, um, moving somewhere for school. And I say all this because we have a gospel sculator today. And so that's kind of we're gonna divert from our usual kind of uh rhythm, um, and we're gonna take some time to uh pray with and for Julie. So Julie is going back to Georgia where her family is to go to school, um, and she's been um a critical, vital part of this church. So, Julie, if you want you and Kenya want to come up. I have I've asked Kenya to to lift up a prayer for Julie. Um, Roman or Ashton, if you guys want to come up as well. And then um, yeah, everybody else, extend a hand, um, intercede for and on behalf of Julie as she goes.

SPEAKER_03 6:12

Um Yes, Jesus, thank you. We come before you today, and we're so grateful for this church, for this family, for this community. We thank you because you place everybody here according to your will, and you bring people through these doors that uh need you and want you and are searching for you. Thank you for this place of restoration and worship. Thank you for Zach and for Chelsea and for uh all the leadership of this church that just make sure this is a place where Jesus is glorified first and foremost. And we thank you because this was a place where we are able to come every Sunday and learn more of you and feel you and let the Holy Spirit uh fill our hearts. Uh and uh I thank you for Julie. I thank you because she uh is moving to a different uh part of her life, a new season. Thank you because you are going before her. Thank you because you've known the path she was going to take before she took it, Lord. I thank you because you have set a table for her wherever she goes, Lord, that you will be there to sit with her. God, I ask that as she goes back to school and she goes to this new place and change can be scary and it can be sad and it can be exciting, Lord. I ask that wherever she goes and whatever she does, it would be to glorify you. It would be to bring glory to your name, God, that every person that comes into contact with her would first see the radiance of you and her face and that they would know through the way she speaks, through the way she moves, through the way she loves, that Jesus is King, that He is glorified, that He is worthy of everything. And I ask for her heart, Lord, that you would keep it, that you would keep it safe and secure for her minds, Lord, that you would just be in everything with her in the quiet moments, in the loud moments, and that you would meet her where she is when there's difficulty and when there's uh there's hardship, Lord, and there's trials and tribulations, that you would be there with her, that you would meet her at the in the bottom of the ditch, or you would meet her at her highest highs, God, that you like you have these last five ten years, God. And we pray for her family that you would also strengthen them as she says goodbyes, Lord, that you wouldn't harden her heart, but that you would continue to just bring so much joy. And she would see the beauty and the glory of how you've grown her these last couple years, and thank you. We bless her and we send her off with so much love and so much joy, and we say see you later, because we know we'll see her again here. And we pray in Jesus' name.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

Amen, amen. Thank you, Kenya. Julie, my encouragement to you is that you don't give up on the local church because the word says that Christ will build his church, that it's not a leader or somebody on a platform that will build his church, but it's Christ that will build his church. And so my encouragement for you is that you look for a local church to be a part of right when you get home, right when you get back to Georgia, and that you find a community like you found here, and friends like Kenya and Jordy and everybody that you have surrounding you. So don't give up on the local church. She's imperfect, but she is good, and Christ is building his church. So, gospel goodbyes. Yeah, that's where we're going in today's text. It's not like, hey, we planned this for uh to be in Acts 20 verses 17 through 38 on Julie's last Sunday on the day that we have a gospel goodbye. It's just like that's how God works at times. Um, we're gonna dig right in. Um, if you have your Bible, you can go ahead and open it up to Acts chapter 20, verses 17 through 38. If you don't have a Bible, we'd love to give one to you right outside of the sanctuary doors. We have Bibles for you to have, for you to keep, for you to mark up, all that fun stuff. Um, let's let's prepare ourselves, let's open our hearts, let's open our Bibles, and let's hear what God has to say. So here's where we are in the story. Paul, he's on a beach. He remembered last week he sailed right past Ephesus on purpose because he is racing to get to Jerusalem by Pentecost. And he knows that if he sets foot in Ephesus, that he'll likely get pulled into that church that he planted for weeks. And so where he lands is about 35 miles down the coast in a small port town called Miletus, and he sends somebody back on the road with a message bring me the elders of the Ephesian church. And I want us to really, like right off the rip, to take notice of what makes this passage different from the other passages we've looked up at in Acts. It's actually pretty cool because this right here, this is the only part of Acts where we see Paul talking to Christians. Every other portion of Acts, uh, Paul's talking to unbelievers, be that in the synagogue, be it uh preaching to a crowd of unbelievers, be it standing in front of philosophers in Athens, or maybe it's the mob in Jerusalem, or a Roman governor, or a king. This right here, though, is the only time in the book of Acts that Paul gives his message to Christians. This is the only time in Acts in this series that we'll get to stand in the room with the Apostle Paul and that we'll get to listen as he talks to a church that he loves, a church that he planted in the midst of so much spiritual darkness. And what it is is a goodbye. It is a gospel goodbye. Twice in this passage, Paul tells them that they will never see his face again. Julie, we will see your face again. But Paul tells his audience that they will never see his face again. And Luke, the author, Luke, he writes it almost like a last will and testament. The kind of man, the kind of thing that a man says when he knows that it's the last thing that he gets to say. And maybe you've thought about that before. It's like, hey, this might be the last time I'm talking to this person. Maybe it's as you are, you know, with somebody at the hospital as they're about to pass on into eternity, or maybe it's the last time that you talk to a loved one, whatever it may be, it's like you you think, you consider, you ponder, what is what is the last thing that I'm gonna share with this person? What's the last thing? And so the question underneath this whole passage is a question that a lot of us have lived. What holds a church together when the person who is holding it together is gone? What holds a church together when the person is holding it together is gone? That's what's happening here with the church at Ephesus. And underneath that is one question that I think is even more personal. What holds your faith together when the human being who made faith feel real walks out the door? And I think that if we're honest, this is a lot of uh the issues, if you will, that we see in the Western evangelical church. You have platforms, you have leaders who are idolized, and that's not the way of the scriptures. And what we learn today is that's not the way that the early church was built. And as I was preparing this message this week, I really like considered this and thought back to my time as like a sixth grade middle school student. I um, you know, I would say like I peripherally grew up in the church, right? Like I we would show up to church a handful of days, but not always. But I did go to youth group up until sixth grade. And, you know, I had this youth pastor, his name was Matt Newman. He was a huge Green Bay Packers fan. Um he preached really good messages. Um, but really what made him different in my life is like I didn't have um much like fatherly advice to look to. I didn't have like a real good um like I didn't want for anything, but at times at home it was like things were rough, things were chaotic. There was alcoholism, there were all these things. And so I was looking for that that person in my life to look up to. And I found that in Matt Newman. And he was the reason that I showed up. He was calm and was peace in a life that was chaotic at home and strife at home. And he always, like I still remember this, he always greeted everyone with a really big hug. He was a hugger, Ashton. You know, like that was his thing. Everybody knew that he was a hugger. That's what me and Roman and Ash talk about, like being a hugger or a handshaker or a you know, dapper, whatever it may be. Matt Newman was a hugger. And then, the middle of the summer of sixth grade, he left. Not for any bad reasons. He didn't have any sinful fall. He took a job at a large church in Arkansas. Like, that's a good reason. Progressing in ministry, that was a good reason for him to move on. But what happened for me is I stopped going. I didn't have to go to youth group to hang out with friends, I could do that right in my neighborhood. Um and I don't even think that I consciously like made a decision, hey, I'm not going back to youth group. There was no dramatic moment where I shook my fist at God in anger. I just kind of stopped going. And I think what what it reveals is that the person that I had actually been following had walked out the door, and then therefore I couldn't come up with a reason to stay. Now, you know, at 2026, many, many years later, here's what I could not have told you back then. And nobody had ever told me this. Like I thought in my head, incorrectly, that the church rose and fell on one single man on a platform. I thought that my faith was tied to a person, a worldly person instead of to a Lord. And now that I know that Christ is Lord, he is the person that my faith is tied to and not a platform or a person. And nobody, I don't think I'd ever read like this portion of Acts. And so hold that story in the back of your minds because we'll come back to it. Um, here's our big idea this morning. Here is where we're going. The church was never yours to hold. The church was never yours to hold. Jesus bought it with his blood and builds it by the word of his grace. The church was never yours to hold. Jesus bought it by his blood and holds it together by the word of his grace. There's three movements that we see in today's text, and we're gonna look closely at each. They are first, a life poured out, secondly, a flock worth guarding, and then thirdly, a grace that holds them. Let's pray, and then we will dig in. Heavenly Father, we love you, we praise you. God, I come to you today and confess that I need you, that I am weak, that I am weary, that I am totally imperfect, and need your grace and need your mercy and need you to speak through me today, Lord. Lord, would you open our hearts? Would you open our minds? Would you open our ears to the words that you have for us today? Would your your truth from your scriptures come alive for us today? Would you write a new song on our hearts, Lord? Thank you, Jesus, for coming, living, dying on the cross for our sins. We love you and we praise you. It's in Jesus' mighty name we pray. And all God's people said, Amen, amen. So point number one this morning is a life poured out. A life poured out. So right off the rip, we see how Paul opens up. He says, 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. So he doesn't like, hey, here's my resume, here's my credentials, here's all the churches I've planted. That's not what he's doing. He doesn't remind them that he is an apostle of Christ, or he doesn't remind them, like, hey, I'm gonna end up writing half the New Testament. No. He says, You yourselves know how I lived among you. You yourselves know how I lived among you. So what he's saying is, like, hey, my life, you can watch it. He's saying, hey, I measure up from all sides. I'm not only preaching about this gospel, the gospel is lived out in my life. For three years, these men in the church at Ephesus had a front row seat to how Paul had handled money, to how he had handled conflict, to how he had handled exhaustion, to how he had handled being hated and having you know stones thrown against him. And he can point at all of it and say, you were there. You know. And I think like maybe that's the the answer to the question that you, Kenya, that you asked Chelsea and I on Friday. Like, I've been like pondering that, you know. So when Kenya first began coming here, she said she wondered, I hope this is okay. Like, how do you how does she how can she know whether what I'm saying is true, whether, like, hey, I'm living this out at home, right? I'm living this out in my life. And the reality is like you just have to observe, right? And what I know is like I don't, I often do not measure up, like I often, I'm still sinful, I still fall short. Chelsea and I argue, like, I'm imperfect, but I'm real, I I I think we're gonna be real, we're gonna be raw, we're gonna say, hey, we need a perfect savior. And that's what I think Paul's saying. Like, hey, you've seen me. I've, you know, although he's imperfect, he sought to live as Christ lived. And so he's pointing to the proof, saying, You were there, you know. And church, I think that that's like a pretty wild sentence to be able to say. And I also think it's the only kind of ministry that is worth anything, right? And then Paul he gives three words for what those years looked like humility, tears, and trials. Humility, tears, and trials. And let's sit on those tears for a second. Because Luke is doing something on purpose. Paul mentions crying three times in this passage. Verse 19, he served with tears. Verse 31, he warns them with tears. And verse 37, everybody in the room is weeping. And so Luke wants you to see a leader who cried. Luke wants you to see a pastor who cried. And I think that we got a version of Christianity where you got leaders floating around, acting like they got it all together, that it's basically a brand and a platform, that it's polished, that it's confident, that it's unbothered, that it's always winning, that it's pushed the mission forward no matter what. But what we see in Acts is that is not this. No, this is a man who loved people so much that tears poured out of his face. And as the tears poured out of his face, the Ephesian elders, their tears matched his, to where at the end of this passage they're all on their knees weeping. Verse 20, we see that Paul he taught them in public and from house to house. That's the pulpit in the kitchen table, if you will. He didn't pick one. He wasn't like, hey, he wasn't only preaching the gospel on a church service on a Sunday. No, he was shepherding people in his day to day life. Life as he made tents and as he was in the synagogue and as he broke bread around the table. And I think it takes both. Like a church is not built only on Sundays, and a church is also not built only in private conversations. It takes both. It takes the table and the pulpit. Then we get to verse 21. It's his entire, it's Paul's entire ministry that's like compressed, condensed down into 10 words: repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. That's the gospel. Turn and trust. That's it. Turn and trust in the Lord Jesus. This is what he preached to deeply religious Jewish men who had memorized the Torah, and this is what he preached to the Greek pagans who had a shrine to Artemis in their living rooms. Same message, different rooms. Turn from what you've been running to and trust the one who died for you. And that's the same truth for us today. Turn from the idols in which we're relying on and trust in the Lord Jesus. Turn and trust. And I think that if you're here this morning and you are not yet following Jesus, you're trying to figure out what Christianity actually asks of you. Well, this is the whole thing. Turn and trust. Verses 22 and 23. 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 imprisonments and afflictions await me. And we we looked at this last week. We walked this road, so I'm not going to camp out here long. But what we see, Paul is bound by the Spirit. He is constrained by the Spirit. He's not wandering toward Jerusalem. He's like, hey, this is where Apple Maps is taking me. No, like it's the Holy Spirit that is literally taking him to Jerusalem by Pentecost, by the date of Pentecost. He doesn't know exactly what the details are that are coming. But he does know that it's imprisonment and afflictions. Imprisonment and afflictions. And if I just knew, if I knew that, those broad details, like I probably wouldn't go into a place. But the Holy Spirit is compelling him to go there. Then he says this sentence that we shouldn't be able to shake from our minds and our hearts this week. Verse 24. But I do not account my life of any value, nor as 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. So let's slow down here for a second. Let's really slow down because there is a way that we can hear this verse and get it wrong. And I want to make sure that none of us hear it wrong. Like let's hear it for what the text actually says. Paul is not saying that his life is worthless. He's not standing there on this beach and my lead is hating himself. He's not saying, I don't matter, I am nothing, throw me away. He's saying that his life has been spent on something that is worth spending it on. He's saying that the gospel of Jesus Christ is worth it. He's saying that whatever it costs him from here, that it the math is still math in, that it still makes sense, that no matter what, his life is of no value because preaching Christ is the most important thing in his life. That's why he can say that. And there's a world of difference between I don't matter and Christ is all that matters, right? His value, his identity, his hope comes from the Lord Jesus, not from himself, not from his own acumen, not from anything that is of himself. And I think that the they can look the same, right? They can look similar, but they're very different. The first one is the enemy talking, I believe. The second one is freedom. So Paul keeps running in the same direction. He is, his eyes are locked on where he is heading. With Jesus toward suffering, toward affliction. He says, if only I may finish my course. And you see this sort of language in uh many of the epistles that Paul writes, like this language and this illustration of being a runner, with being headed in the same direction, with finishing the race. So, Paul, he's not asking whether he had a good life. He's asking whether he had a finished one, whether he completed the course that the Lord had set before him. That's that's the imagery of being a runner. And it's not about coming in first place, it's not about breaking the tape, it's about crossing the finish line at all. I think of when Roman, Joshua, and I ran a 5K recently. I'm not like much of a runner. There's probably some people in here that run like half marathons and marathons, and that's cool. I'm not that. Like for me, um, with this 5K that we did, um, Joshua, who's in where's he in Dallas or Colorado at this point? Colorado now. He was in Dallas, now he's in Colorado. Um, he convinced Roman and I to run in this 5K to sign up for it. And for me, and maybe Roman as well, the purpose was just to finish the race. I knew that I wasn't gonna have a good time. I just wanted to finish the race and not walk at all. And I, Lord willing, accomplished it. Um, and now we have this little way KC running club that anyone's welcome to join as a sidebar. But that's how I feel like this, what Paul's illustrating. It's not about getting there first, it's about finishing the course. I have a pastor friend down in Wichita. He was talking about like spiritual growth, about walking with Jesus. And he said, walking with Jesus is all about direction, it's not about speed. It's not about speed. So the question that we should ask ourselves this morning is are we heading in the same direction? Are we heading on the Christword path? Are we taking the Christword journey? So a few questions for us to ponder. What have you, what is your life actually being poured into right now? If it were to end today, what would it have been spent on? Would you be able to say that I finished my course? And the second question, like that, is there anybody who is close enough to you who you've welcomed into your life, who you've given permission to speak into your life, who would be able to say, I know how you lived among us. I know how you lived among us. Because let's be real, you just come on Sundays and you don't have anybody that's truly knows you and is known by you, then you can be whoever you want in here. But if you let people in and let them see who you truly are, they can say, Hey, you know how I lived among you. You you measured up from all sides. So Paul, he has shown them how he lived. Now he has to tell them what is coming next. And this is where it's like his voice changes, the tone of this message changes because a man who is leaving has to say the hard things while he still can. That gets us to point number two a flock worth guarding. A flock worth guarding. Verse 25, Paul says, 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 the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole council 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 own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to dr to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease, night or day, to admonish everyone with tears. So a few things that we should take notice of. First, that that phrase, innocent of the blood of all, it comes straight out of Ezekiel 33. God tells Ezekiel that he is a watchman on the wall. If you see the sword coming and you blow the trumpet, the blood is on them. But if you see the sword coming and you keep your mouth shut, the blood is on you. So what Paul's saying is, hey, he's faithfully preached the gospel. He's faithfully held to and preached the truth. He's standing there saying, I blew the trumpet, I told you everything, I preached the full counsel of God. Not the popular parts, right? Not just the stuff that's easy to digest, not just the preaching that is easy, all of it. And if if I can be real with you, like that's why I convictionally believe in preaching verse by verse through books of the Bible, instead of like, hey, picking topical messages. Because at my core, if I pick, I'll skip, right? Like I'll pick I'll skip, I'll try to skip over the hard stuff, the stuff that's not as palatable for us to digest. I'll pick the stuff, I'll pick over and skip over the stuff that makes me uncomfortable and makes you uncomfortable, and what we will inevitably end up with is a version of God that we designed.

unknown 32:15

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

And may that never be the case in this house. May we be a people who are formed by this book. Then let's pay special and close attention to verse 28. Everything in this passage has been building to the next verse. And I want us to really hear it. Paul says, 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 own blood. So there's four things that are packed into this one verse. And any one of them could be their own sermon. First, let's look at the words he uses. In verse 17, he called them elders. Here in verse 28, he calls them overseers, and then he tells them to shepherd. Just as a quick aside, these are three different words elder, overseer, pastor. Not three different offices in what I believe. This is one office that's described from three angles. Elders speak to speaks to seasoned wisdom. Overseer speaks to watchfulness. Somebody has eyes on this. Shepherding speaks to tenderness, to caring for, to actually caring for the flock. So it's the same men doing one job. And second, let's notice the order. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock. There's this idea that it's yourself that comes first. You cannot guard somebody else's soul while you are neglecting your own. You cannot pour from an empty cup. The third thing we see, the Holy Spirit had made them overseers. These Ephesian leaders, elders, they were not appointed, they didn't, hey, just claim the platform themselves. They didn't say, hey, I'm an elder now. No, it was it was the Holy Spirit that made them overseers, that called them to this work of leading the church at Ephesus. Which means, which should show us that leadership in the church is never something that we treat as like a possession, right? It's something that we steward. And that goes for everyone, whether you're on our staff team, whether you are leading a ministry team, whatever it may be, it's not yours, it's something you steward. Does that make sense?

unknown 34:44

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 34:46

What we're doing, well, when I say it's something we steward, what that means is we are holding something that belongs to someone else, right? It belongs to Christ. It doesn't belong to us. And the same goes for this church. This this church doesn't belong to me, it doesn't belong to Roman, it doesn't belong to Ashen. It is Christ's church, and Christ will build his church. And the fourth thing we see in this passage is it's this the church of God which he obtained with his own blood. Let's stop there. Whose blood? Christ's blood, his own blood. Paul, he looks at this little group of house churches in a pagan city of Ephesus, people who who two years ago, remember, we just looked at this passage a few weeks ago. Two years ago, they were buying magic scrolls and bowing to Artemis. And he says that that is what God paid for with the blood of his son Jesus Christ. So why is the flock worth guarding? It's not because the church at Ephesus is impressive. There's nothing impressive about him. It's because of what it cost. It's because of what it cost. The flock was worth guarding because of what it cost. And church, can I just say that that is true of this room as well? The reason that the way KC matters is not because of our worship, not because Ashton is an anointed worship leader. It's not because of, you know, Roman leading a killer youth group and having a blast at super summer this week, right? It's not because of that. The reason why this church matters in this little neighborhood in Kansas City, Kansas, is because Jesus bled and died for it. Jesus bled and died for us. Yes, it belongs to him. Verses 29 through 31. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. There's two threats here, and the second one is worse than the first. Wolves, they come in from the outside. Paul expects that, but then he says something that had to land like a punch to the room. Some of them are going to come from among your own selves. That's out of the circle that he's talking to, right? He's saying, hey, some of you that are here on the beach at Miletus, praying with me, weeping with me, are going to deceive the flock. I just can't, I just try to imagine that. And like, you know, one dude's like, oh, it's not gonna be me, it's gonna be Tom over here, you know. It's like, no, it it we should be willing to look at ourselves and say, hey, that could be me apart from the Lord Jesus. Men who will start speaking twisted things left to our own devices. And the the context of this, this isn't lies exactly, it's twisted things, truth with a blend of falsity. Which is, I think, always how it works, because a flat-out lie is easy to spot, right? But what is hard to spot is somebody using all the right words with the meaning slightly bent. And then building a following based upon that slight bend. And notice the goal of that. It's to draw away the disciples after them. After them, not after Jesus, after them. And so we should ask ourselves, what is, who or what is forming us? What who are the voices that we are consuming, that we are taking in? And I think that in our current cultural moment, a lot of the voices that are discipling us, that are forming us, are voices that are on a screen. Some of them are excellent, right? They're great communicators. But I want us to take notice of something. I'm not saying, like, hey, don't ever listen to a sermon on YouTube or don't ever listen to that clip on TikTok. I'm not saying that. I'm saying pay attention to whether or not they have a flock. Nobody. A lot of times, that person is not sitting with people in the hospital room, right? They're not sitting knee to knee with someone shepherding them when they're in their darkest hour, right? And that, to me, is the the one of the biggest pieces of shepherding, of walking with people, of being an overseer of a church. They gotta have the and they gotta be accountable to others, right?

unknown 39:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 39:49

So I'm not saying don't take it in, but I'm saying seek discernment from the Spirit on whether it is of the Lord and whether he is speaking through them to you. You don't gotta go throw your phone into the ocean. No, I'm telling what Paul told them. Be alert. Be alert. Know who is actually shepherding you. Because I think the fact of the matter is, is a voice with no flock has no reason to care about your soul. And remember, if you will, where is this happening? This is happening in Ephesus, the city that already knew how to chase spiritual power on its own terms, apart from a relationship with Jesus Christ. And remember, two years ago they had a bonfire and burned 50,000 pieces of silver worth of magic books. So these people here in Ephesus, they were not naive. They had already been sold something once. The wolves already know their market. They already know who they're bringing stuff to. So the question that I want you to ask yourself is are you under anyone's care? Do the people responsible for watching your soul actually know your name and your struggle? Or are you just aimlessly floating by? I'm not saying it's gotta be this church. I'm saying you need to have some sort of church where you are sitting under and being cared for by a leader, by a pastor, by a shepherd. And the second, the converse of that is a question to challenge you with if you lead anything around here. Maybe it's worship ministry, maybe it's kids' ministry, maybe it's the tech booth, maybe it's um the lawn, um, the maintenance, the cleaning, whatever it is, any sort of ministry, recovery ministry, whatever it is. If you lead anything around you, are you paying attention to yourself first? Are you pouring from a cup that is full? May this never be a house where it's full of people who are burnt out, but full of people who have full cups and are pouring from that.

unknown 42:07

Overflowing.

SPEAKER_01 42:09

Overflowing, yes, ma'am. Now, last part of this passage, it comes the hardest part of this whole passage. Paul actually has to let go. And watch what he puts in their hands. Point number three, a grace that holds them. A grace that holds them. Um verses 32 through 38, and we'll land the plane here. The text reads And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who were sanctified. I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who are with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we might must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all, and there was much weeping on the part of all. They embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because the word because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again, and they accompanied him to the ship. So Paul he's told them, he's shown them how he lived, he has warned them what is coming, and now he has to actually let go. This is the gospel goodbye right here. Watch what he hands them. He commends them to God and to the word of his grace, which is what builds them up and what their inheritance is among those who are sanctified, being made more and more like Christ. And so, so, church, this is the answer to that middle school story I told you. This is the verse that I'd never read. Paul, he does not leave them a you know, one, two, three clear succession plan. He doesn't leave them a Building or a strategy or a brand or hey, this is the five-year vision for how this middle school ministry is going to continue and flourish. He doesn't even leave them another apostle in Ephesus. No, he commends them to God and to the word of his grace. And he says, that is enough. That is enough. And let's not let this word of grace go soft on us here. The word able, it's a powerful word. It means that the grace has the strength to do this. It's not us that has the strength, it is grace that has the strength. Grace is not the sentimental part of this sentence, it's the powerful part of this sentence. Grace is the load-bearing wall, if you will. And when Paul's ship pulls out of that harbor at Miletus, the thing holding the Ephesian church together is the grace of God and the Word of God. That's it. That is it. And the grace of God and the Word of God, they held the church. They were the low-bearing wall because they are finite. We, church, as humans, are finite. We will fail, we will move, we will get sick, we will die. And that's not me being cynical. No, that's just what human beings do, right? We fail. We are imperfect. But the grace of God does not do that. Then at the end of the section, Paul he holds up his hands. Think of those hands, those actual, callous, tent-making hands. Paul, he had worked a job so that nobody in Ephesus could ever say that he preached the gospel for the money, for his own gain. And so that the weak among them would actually get taken care of. And then he quotes Jesus: it is more blessed to give than to receive. And that just tells us something beautiful about the early church. They remembered things that Jesus said. They were still passing his words around like treasure. And that's one of the ones that survived. And then verse 36 and 38, and Ash, and you can come up and begin to close us in worship. And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And there was much weeping on the part of all. They embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all, because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship. He kneels down in the sand and they all pray. They pray together. And I think as we read the book of Acts, like it's not a sentimental book, right? It is a book of seeing the Spirit move in power and churches being planted and radical mass conversions, revivals happening in these cities, riots and shipwrecks and prison breaks. But then we have this scene here where Paul and the Ephesian elders are weeping on a beach. They're hanging on to the neck of a man that they will never see again. They're walking him all the way to the boat because they cannot stand to let go one second earlier. And I think that that's what the gospel does to people who were strangers just three years earlier. And here's where Jesus Christ is in this text. Because everything that Paul says on that beach, Jesus says better. Paul says, I am innocent of the blood of all. But Jesus Christ, he says the opposite. He says that he took the blood of all upon himself. Paul, he obtains nothing on that beach. He was a man with tent-making calluses and a prison sentence awaiting him. But Christ, he obtains the church with his own blood. Paul kneels in the sand and commends them to God. Jesus knelt in a garden and said, Not my will, Father, but yours. And then he commended his own spirit into his father's hands so that he could hold you in his. Paul says, You will not see my face again. But Jesus says, I am with you always to the end of the age. Paul is the shepherd who had to leave. Jesus is the chief shepherd who never will. And that line, it is more blessed to give than to receive. The deepest sermon ever preached. The deepest sermon ever preached on it wasn't one that was preached with words. He, he being Jesus, was rich, and for your sake he became poor, so that you, through his poverty, might become rich. That is that sentence lived out in the gospel of Christ. So then Paul's ship pulled out of that harbor, and those men very likely never saw his face again. And the church at Ephesus, it did not fall apart. Which brings us back to that story of 12-year-old me. I walked away from the church in middle school because I'm the man I was following had taken a job and walk in, walked away. And for a long time, like I thought that made me weak. That made me like, hey, I'm, you know, living in sin, or like I never really believed, but I don't necessarily think that anymore. I think I just didn't know what verse 28 said. No one at that point in time had ever told me that the church does not belong to the leader, to the pastor. No. No one had told me that the church belongs to God, that it is bought with his own blood. No one had ever told me that I was commended to the word of his grace, grace that is able to build me up whether or not any particular human being is still standing in the room. And I think that if I had known that, I don't think I would have left. And God in his sovereignty and his providence, like took me on the path he did where I walked in the wilderness and walked in darkness for years, show that it's a part of my testimony. But, you know, I can consider those what ifs, and you can as well. So with that, like hear this. If nobody's ever said it to you, I think many people have, you know, walked through pain of ministry or pain of church or church hurt, as they say. And some of you are sitting here today, one disappointment away from doing it again. And the reason that your faith can survive a leader who falls, or a leader who's going to let you down, is not because of that person, it's because of the grace of the Lord and the grace of his word. And if you're here this morning and you've never trusted Jesus at all, I want you to look at verse 28 just one more time this morning. The church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. That is what he thought you were worth. Not the cleaned up version of yourself, not the, hey, everything's all good and great, and you got your Sunday best on. No. The you that was in the muck and the mire, the you that was lost in sin, the you that is so imperfect. Jesus bought that person with his own blood. The you that is lost in addiction, Jesus bought that person with his own blood. The you that is struggling in your marriage, Jesus bought that person with his blood. He didn't wait for you to get your life together. No, he came down into the mess. And so we repent, repentance toward God, turning and trusting, like we said. Turning and trusting in Jesus. That's the whole invitation, and it's open to all right now. And as we close, what I want us to do is like let's let's have a moment, let's have some time for response. I know it's like warmer in here than usual, but like let's respond to the Lord. Maybe it's just hot up here, Lana. I don't know. So let's what I want us to do, like, I don't really have it like all like planned out. This is what it's gonna look like. Let's do for each other what Paul did on that beach. Let's commend one another to God and to the word of his grace. And so, with that, I want you to answer two questions within yourself. First, who is guarding your soul? And second, whose soul are you guarding? And if you cannot answer either one of those, it's not like, hey, shame and guilt. No, it's an invitation to take that step. Hey, brother, hey, sister, I need you to guard my soul. Or, hey, brother or sister, I'm guard, I got your six. I'm watching yours. So our leaders will be around, the altar is open. Let's let's take a step of courage and faith and come to the altar. I know that I need that today because I am weak and weary and burdened today and have fallen short time and time again, and I need the Lord Jesus. So I'm gonna be here at the front, seeking the Lord, commending one another to the Lord. And with that, what we're doing, we're saying out loud, these are my people, I am theirs, and we're gonna watch out for each other. Because the church is safe even when the shepherd leaves, or even when somebody leaves that's your best friend at church, because the church belongs to the one who bought it, and that one is Christ, and he bought it with his blood, and he is still building it by his grace. So, Ashton, you can close this in worship. I'll pray. The altar is open. Heavenly Father, we love you, we praise you, we thank you for this day. We commend one another to grace in the word of the Lord. Lord, will we see you for who you truly are as the one who is building his church, the one who bought his bride with a price, Lord, and that loves her and will die for her, Lord. Will we live that out today? Thank you, Jesus, for living and dying on the cross for our sins, and then three days later rising from the grave. I praise you, Jesus, that you are now seated at the right hand of God, interceding on our behalf right here in this moment. So, Lord, bring us near to you. Draw near to us as we draw near to you. We love you and praise you. It's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 55:06

Thanks for listening. Join us Sundays at 10 30 a.m. in the Rosedale neighborhood of Kansas City. Or find us anytime at the wakeac.church