SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: So glad to have you join us in worship of our great God and Savior this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Please take your Bible or your device one more time and open it to Acts chapter 20.
SPEAKER_01: If you are our guest this morning, I want to welcome you.
SPEAKER_01: We have been working our way for almost a year now through the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_01: And we find ourselves almost to the end of Acts chapter 20.
SPEAKER_01: I am being incredibly gracious to you.
SPEAKER_01: Because the passage that Webb read for us beginning in Acts 20, verse 28, through the end of the chapter, I could pretty much preach one sermon on every verse.
SPEAKER_01: I won't put you through that.
SPEAKER_01: No amens?
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we should do that, Webb.
SPEAKER_01: Plan that.
SPEAKER_01: One sermon on every verse.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, Nick?
SPEAKER_01: All right, all right.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Start on 28.
SPEAKER_01: Well, 28 is my favorite part of this, but before we get to that, church tradition states that some apostles appointed a man by the name of Polycarp to be pastor of the church in ancient Smyrna, a city that is now part of Ismir, Turkey.
SPEAKER_01: Probably over 90 years old, perhaps close to a hundred, Polycarp was arrested by Roman authorities and brought before a tribunal to be charged for being a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't know the story of Polycarp, I encourage you to find it and read it in its entirety.
SPEAKER_01: But because he was an old man, the Roman proconsul sought out some way to be gracious and merciful to this old man standing before him.
SPEAKER_01: Gave him multiple opportunities to renounce his faith, to turn away from Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, the proconsul encouraged Polycarp to swear allegiance to Caesar rather than to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And in a statement that is now famous in church history, Polycarp responded, Eighty and six years I have served him, and he has never done me wrong.
SPEAKER_01: How then can I blaspheme my king and savior?
SPEAKER_01: I think Polycarp could have sung with us all that God ordains is right.
SPEAKER_01: They were going to tie him to the post before they burned him alive.
SPEAKER_01: But Polycarp said no.
SPEAKER_01: He stood of his own free will in the flames until he was consumed.
SPEAKER_01: Polycarp was burned alive as a display, as he displayed the kind of faithfulness to God that his predecessor, the Apostle Paul, displayed in his own life.
SPEAKER_01: We see that expressed here in Acts chapter 20, especially in the middle portion that we studied last week, where in verse 19 he served the Lord with all humility and with tears and trials that came upon him from the plots of the Jews.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't shrink from declaring anything, no matter where he went, no matter what community he was chased out of, no matter how long he was in prison, no matter how many lashes he received, Paul was faithful to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Approximately 50 years later, Polycarp displayed the same kind of faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: In the final segment of Acts chapter 20, here beginning in verse 28, the Apostle Paul passes on this challenge of faithfulness, particularly to the elders of the church in Ephesus, and then by extension to the church in Ephesus, and then by extension beyond that to the entire church, the rest of church history.
SPEAKER_01: So as the gospel of God's grace inspired Paul's life, and as it inspired Polycarp's life, God's grace must also guide faithful leaders and churches.
SPEAKER_01: And I think we see three characteristics of faithful churches and faithful church leaders in this last segment of Acts chapter 20.
SPEAKER_01: The first of those is really found in verse 28.
SPEAKER_01: Many of these can all be encapsulated in verse 28 alone.
SPEAKER_01: But we're going to walk through this and highlight three characteristics of faithful churches and church leaders from these final words of the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_01: So we see that when a church is faithful to the word of God's grace, it exists in humble submission to God.
SPEAKER_01: That's the first characteristic of a faithful church that we find here.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see the Trinitarian nature there?
SPEAKER_01: Holy Spirit, God the Father, and God the Son shedding his own blood.
SPEAKER_01: The church exists in humble submission to God.
SPEAKER_01: And that submission has certain qualities, certain characteristics that go along with it.
SPEAKER_01: The first one that we see here is that it requires a specific attitude.
SPEAKER_01: No, that's not the right one.
SPEAKER_01: That's not where I wanted to start.
SPEAKER_01: Knowledge is where I wanted to start.
SPEAKER_01: Oh well.
SPEAKER_01: You get two for the price of one now.
SPEAKER_01: The church exists in humble submission to God, but that submission requires a specific knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: What is the knowledge that humble submission to God requires?
SPEAKER_01: Well, very simply, it's that the church is his.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's not hardly the most astounding thing you'll hear today.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it will be.
SPEAKER_01: Let's put it differently.
SPEAKER_01: Faith Evangelical Free Church is not our church.
SPEAKER_01: It's his.
SPEAKER_01: Humble submission to the word of God's grace requires the knowledge that the church is his.
SPEAKER_01: Possession of the church and any local church, whether it's universal or local, rests in the one who obtained it.
SPEAKER_01: We see this all throughout the New Testament, don't we?
SPEAKER_01: In John chapter 21, verse 15 or 16, Jesus said, We are his sheep.
SPEAKER_01: Earlier in the Gospel of John, he said, all of his sheep hear his voice.
SPEAKER_01: Throughout the New Testament, the church at Corinth and other churches, they are called the church of God.
SPEAKER_01: The church belongs to him.
SPEAKER_01: That's why in 1 Timothy 3, verse 5, young Timothy, probably as he's pastoring the church in ancient Ephesus, was told that elders are to care for the church of God.
SPEAKER_01: Humble submission to God requires the specific knowledge that it belongs to him.
SPEAKER_01: So that means, in one sense, we can relax.
SPEAKER_01: It's not ours.
SPEAKER_01: Christ will take care of his own church.
SPEAKER_01: He promised that he would build his church.
SPEAKER_01: That means we can relax in one sense.
SPEAKER_01: But in another sense, it means that we need to be more diligent because he has called his people together in local assemblies across the world to pursue him and his kingdom work together.
SPEAKER_01: That requires many different people coming together in the unity of heart, mind, and soul that can only come by first grasping that this assembly is his, not ours.
SPEAKER_01: So that knowledge is then followed up by a specific kind of attitude.
SPEAKER_01: It's an attitude that the scriptures rule, not my preferences.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's not my church, but we are his church.
SPEAKER_01: It's his word that rules.
SPEAKER_01: Now we all have particular tastes, right?
SPEAKER_01: And they sometimes change as we age.
SPEAKER_01: Pepsi or Coke?
SPEAKER_01: Should we take a vote?
SPEAKER_01: Lowell's gonna say no, Mountain Dew.
SPEAKER_01: Casual or formal?
SPEAKER_01: Old school or avant-garde?
SPEAKER_01: King James Version.
SPEAKER_01: Legacy Standard Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Short and quick sermons.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how to read that.
SPEAKER_01: Feel good or worshipful?
SPEAKER_01: Entertaining or instructive?
SPEAKER_01: Organ?
SPEAKER_01: Orchestra?
SPEAKER_01: Band.
SPEAKER_01: Some would say, ah, I'm good with all those.
SPEAKER_01: I can be flexible.
SPEAKER_01: Now preferences are not evil unless they are desires for something sinful and unholy.
SPEAKER_01: It's okay to like one thing over another, to prefer those.
SPEAKER_01: But preferences are individual, aren't they?
SPEAKER_01: It varies from person to person, from individual to individual, from context to context.
SPEAKER_01: But the difficulty is that when we take one, two, three, four hundred individual preferences and we bring them all into a single assembly, that preference begins to rub up against other preferences, and pretty soon it's no, this is my church.
SPEAKER_01: I've been here longer.
SPEAKER_01: Get out of my seat, that's where I always sit, kind of thing.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Now, on a positive side, those preferences can become collective preferences if enough people sharing the same preferences come together.
SPEAKER_01: But the church universal is made up of people from all nations, all groups, all languages that are naturally going to have different backgrounds and different preferences.
SPEAKER_01: Now, local churches can be assemblies of people who gather around a preference.
SPEAKER_01: Some churches have an evangelistic or an outreach preference.
SPEAKER_01: Some have a worship style preference.
SPEAKER_01: Some gather around holding to a creed.
SPEAKER_01: And a creed is something like a doctrinal statement.
SPEAKER_01: Creeds can sometimes shift between preferences and convictions.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes they can serve more like a doctrinal statement than a mere preference.
SPEAKER_01: But we also have local churches that gather around doctrinal convictions and choose to leave the preferences in the background as much as possible.
SPEAKER_01: And some churches form out of preference to a particular leader.
SPEAKER_01: Here we find the Apostle Paul subtly instructing the Ephesian elders that what they think, what they feel, what they desire, what they prefer must be subject to the word of God's grace.
SPEAKER_01: That must be the attitude.
SPEAKER_01: Forming a church around my preferences is not an acceptable attitude because the church belongs to whom?
SPEAKER_01: God, not me.
SPEAKER_01: And that means it's his preferences that rule, not mine.
SPEAKER_01: Preferences are one of those really sticky things, aren't they?
SPEAKER_01: Let me just kind of take a rabbit trail here for a minute.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to see how easy it is for us to take a step towards preferences.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe I've not stirred the pot very much yet, so let's start that process.
SPEAKER_01: The Evangelical Free Church, the which we are a part, has historically been an association of churches that unites on the essentials of the faith and allows a measure of love and graciousness regarding non-essential aspects of the faith.
SPEAKER_01: So each church, then, each church that associates with the evangelical free church is bound by the agreed upon essentials of the faith and is free to determine for itself what non-essentials are vital for them.
SPEAKER_01: Now, do you see how that takes a small step towards elevating their preferences?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you don't.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine some concentric circles, a bullseye, right?
SPEAKER_01: Center of the bullseye, then you've got a circle around it and a circle around it.
SPEAKER_01: In the middle, the bullseye, we have the essentials of the faith.
SPEAKER_01: So for argument's sake, let's put the Evangelical Free Church of America statement of faith right at the center of the bullseye.
SPEAKER_01: These are, as best we can discern, the non-negotiables of the faith.
SPEAKER_01: Things like the person of Christ, the doctrine of Scripture, those kinds of things.
SPEAKER_01: Scripture is clear about them, and to be a member church of this association, a church must agree with those essentials.
SPEAKER_01: Now, outside of that center are significant non-essentials.
SPEAKER_01: Let's say we put another controversial one there: baptism.
SPEAKER_01: Baptism is not a part of the Evangelical Free Church of America doctrinal statement.
SPEAKER_01: But most would assert that it is a substantial part of faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It's a biblical teaching.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said in the Great Commission, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them.
SPEAKER_01: So it's a significant part.
SPEAKER_01: But some churches view it as more essential than others.
SPEAKER_01: Some require it as membership in a local church, some require it even to be able to serve in vacation Bible school.
SPEAKER_01: But our association, the EFCA, collectively says that's in this outer circle.
SPEAKER_01: It's not one of the essentials, it's one of the non-essentials.
SPEAKER_01: Now, a non-essential is a doctrine or a truth that's expressed or implied by Scripture that doesn't rise to the level of importance or significance in that association doctrinal statement.
SPEAKER_01: So the EFCA says that the place of baptism is not an essential, it's in this next ring perhaps.
SPEAKER_01: So the place of baptism in any local church, whatever place it serves, whatever function it has in the local church, whatever mode of baptism is preferred, is a church-by-church determination, which means they say it's your preference.
SPEAKER_01: It's not one of the core things, but a church in our association, as long as they agree to the core thing, they can have a preference out here within reason.
SPEAKER_01: And then each concentric circle out from that, the more leeway, more latitude there is.
SPEAKER_01: But the place of those non-essentials is in part defined by our application of biblical truth to the Christian life and how the church functions.
SPEAKER_01: Nearly every evangelical church would say that baptism is an integral part of the Christian life and it's a central part of church functioning.
SPEAKER_01: But not every church would apply the scriptures in the same way and say, oh no, yeah, you have to be baptized to be a member, or you have to be baptized to serve, or you have to be baptized in this way.
SPEAKER_01: Because it rests heavily, the decision of how you how you prefer baptism rests on application of biblical truth.
SPEAKER_01: And application is very varied.
SPEAKER_01: So the more that you work into that, the more preference enters in.
SPEAKER_01: Many elements of theology and especially church function are tied to the application of biblical truths.
SPEAKER_01: But when we elevate application and preference higher than scripture establishes, we begin to present the attitude of this is my church and this is how we do it.
SPEAKER_01: Try to tie this back in.
SPEAKER_01: A helpful guide might be to imagine Jesus asking us any number of questions.
SPEAKER_01: The brightness of the light.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine him asking, oh remind me again.
SPEAKER_01: When did I say anything about that?
SPEAKER_01: Can you remind me where I wrote that?
SPEAKER_01: I I'm just not remembering.
SPEAKER_01: If we can't do that, if it's difficult to do that, we get closer to the place of application, and the more we get to application, the more preference can enter in.
SPEAKER_01: So this submission requires a specific awe.
SPEAKER_01: Our attitude must be that we are Christ's church and we submit to Christ through the scriptures because we are awed that he obtained us with his own blood.
SPEAKER_01: Nick, I'm going to get close to one sermon on verse 28.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't that just blow your mind?
SPEAKER_01: He obtained us individually, brings us together, assembles us together, and so corporately we are together obtained by his blood.
SPEAKER_01: We are his.
SPEAKER_01: We belong to him.
SPEAKER_01: This is a key text for the reality of the incarnation.
SPEAKER_01: Some people are troubled by this statement.
SPEAKER_01: They just get their philosophical minds all in a quandary, wondering, how could God have blood?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we answer that in evangelical circles very simply, right?
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 1, Philippians chapter 1, God became flesh.
SPEAKER_01: God took on flesh and dwelt among us.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, as Hebrews chapter 9, verse 12 says, because Jesus, the God, eternal God, became man in time and place, he could then enter once for all into the holy places, not by means of blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
SPEAKER_01: So the writer to the Hebrews emphasized that it was Jesus' blood, it was his own blood, but that it accomplished what only a divine being could accomplish, an eternal blood.
SPEAKER_01: Eternal redemption.
SPEAKER_01: This is an orientation for every church.
SPEAKER_01: Paul is leaving these elders for the last time.
SPEAKER_01: They won't see him again.
SPEAKER_01: And as he leaves them, he orients their direction to the price of their redemption.
SPEAKER_01: As Peter said, we were not obtained with perishable things like silver or gold.
SPEAKER_01: But of the priceless blood of a pure lamb without sin.
SPEAKER_01: A proper awe sets our attitudes in the right place and reinforces the proper knowledge needed to function as part of Christ's church.
SPEAKER_01: And if a faithful church exists in humble submission to God, we must ask if we, Faith Evangelical Free Church, are faithful.
SPEAKER_01: Is Faith Evangelical Free Church in humble submission to God?
SPEAKER_01: How do we begin to answer that question?
SPEAKER_01: It begins, I think, not with not with the whole, but with you.
SPEAKER_01: Individually.
SPEAKER_01: Not with the whole, but with the parts.
SPEAKER_01: Are we a collection of people who individually believe that we are the Lord's sheep?
SPEAKER_01: That he has called us by name and we have heard his voice and have followed him.
SPEAKER_01: Do we believe individually that we are his and I'm not my own?
SPEAKER_01: That our lives are not our own but belong to him.
SPEAKER_01: That we exist and we assemble together for him.
SPEAKER_01: A faithful church expresses humility and submitting to God.
SPEAKER_01: A faithful church also expresses, secondly, caring leadership.
SPEAKER_01: Caring leadership.
SPEAKER_01: Again, the Apostle Paul is speaking here to the elders from the church at Ephesus.
SPEAKER_01: And he gives them instruction.
SPEAKER_01: Pay careful attention.
SPEAKER_01: Be alert.
SPEAKER_01: He gives us some details about this caring leadership.
SPEAKER_01: First is that it entails oversight.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 17, the Apostle Paul called the elders elders.
SPEAKER_01: Now he calls them in verse 28 overseers.
SPEAKER_01: The New Testament uses three primary terms for this group of church leaders: elders, overseers, and another is shepherd.
SPEAKER_01: So shepherd refers to the work, the function that the elders play in the local church.
SPEAKER_01: Elder is, if it has any particular meaning, it's it kind of speaks to maturity in both age and spirituality.
SPEAKER_01: The third term is overseer.
SPEAKER_01: And overseer was first Latinized into a familiar word to you, bishop.
SPEAKER_01: But that term doesn't help us understand what oversight means.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to give you a new word to plug into your brain.
SPEAKER_01: Oversight means guardian.
SPEAKER_01: Overseer means guardian.
SPEAKER_01: It's a term of responsibility and authority that we find reflected in the concept, modern concept, of the word guardian.
SPEAKER_01: Because a guardian possesses the responsibility and the authority to oversee another.
SPEAKER_01: They guard what's been given to them.
SPEAKER_01: We might say they supervise in the sense of a supervisor who administers someone or something.
SPEAKER_01: This is why Titus chapter 1, verse 7, calls overseers stewards of God's house.
SPEAKER_01: They take what's been entrusted to them and they steward it, they direct it, they use it, they guide it, they oversee it.
SPEAKER_01: So these elders oversee the church in Ephesus.
SPEAKER_01: Every faithful local church has this group of men who function as overseers of God's flock.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe there's a small number, maybe there's a larger number.
SPEAKER_01: They guard the doctrine of the church, they administer its functioning, and they ensure that it continues in the apostolic teaching.
SPEAKER_01: So a church is like sheep without shepherds if they have no elders.
SPEAKER_01: A faithful assembly of believers has a group of men who express caring oversight.
SPEAKER_01: But that care is not just oversight, it's also protection.
SPEAKER_01: Notice that the Apostle Paul warns about wolves.
SPEAKER_01: And not just the warm, cuddly kind of wolf, but fierce wolves.
SPEAKER_01: The kind that are going to rip and tear into pieces.
SPEAKER_01: These wolves are enemies of God's sheep who are intent on devouring the sheep.
SPEAKER_01: They don't have any genuine care for the great shepherd, nor do they have genuine love for the great shepherd's sheep.
SPEAKER_01: So the Apostle Paul, as the church planter here, has served for at least three years as the protector of the sheep.
SPEAKER_01: But the next stage of his life is going to prevent him from doing that.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, the responsibility of protecting the flock from the wolves now falls to elders who oversee and shepherd the flock wherever it gathers.
SPEAKER_01: So, what do these wolves do?
SPEAKER_01: And what do they look like?
SPEAKER_01: Well, they look, feel, and smell like normal people.
SPEAKER_01: And worse, they look, smell, and feel like everyday Christians.
SPEAKER_01: There may be nothing overtly suspicious about them.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes they come from the outside and work their way into the assembly of the sheep.
SPEAKER_01: But other times, Paul warns they're going to rise up from among you, from within.
SPEAKER_01: And so the elders are not to be alert for what wolves look like.
SPEAKER_01: Because they're going to look normal.
SPEAKER_01: They are to be attentive for what wolves do.
SPEAKER_01: Specifically, they speak twisted things that draw disciples of Jesus away from the good shepherd and the apostolic teaching to other interesting things.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, the elders are watchful for twisted teaching and people who draw disciples away from the flock.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Paul tells Timothy that an overseer must hold firm to the trustworthy word is taught, so that he may be able to give sound instruction in good doctrine and healthy doctrine and rebuke those who contradict it.
SPEAKER_01: I love to go backpacking in the Rocky Mountains.
SPEAKER_01: My body doesn't like it much anymore.
SPEAKER_01: It's the same kind of picture here.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he calls on these elders to be vigilant.
SPEAKER_01: Care requires vigilance.
SPEAKER_01: He says, be alert, be watchful.
SPEAKER_01: A faithful church has caring elders who guard against scripture twisting and the sly work of separating believers.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever watched one of those movies or videos that that shows a predator going after an animal in a herd?
SPEAKER_01: Instinctively, they notice the weak, the slow, the sick.
SPEAKER_01: And instinctively, like a good sheepdog, they know how to just separate that weak, slow, or sick one from the herd until they can take them down.
SPEAKER_01: Elders are vigilant watchers of the sheep to protect them from being drawn away.
SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, in our individualistic Western world, too often the sheep don't want to be protected.
SPEAKER_01: They take warnings and directions from vigilant overseers as domineering.
SPEAKER_01: They refuse to listen.
SPEAKER_01: No, we're all sinful people, right?
SPEAKER_01: Hopefully we don't need to be reminded of that.
SPEAKER_01: We are all sinful people, and so we we hear things that might be directed towards us, and our pride rises up again in us and reacts against, no, I no, I'm not going to go there.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to hear that.
SPEAKER_01: At the same time, sometimes the care of elders can be domineering.
SPEAKER_01: However, a faithful elder, a faithful church has elders whose care is not continually given over to sin, but is by and large continually vigilant, continually caring.
SPEAKER_01: And so oversight, protection, and vigilance are part of God's faithful responsibility to the overseers that He's given to the church.
SPEAKER_01: And notice back in verse 28 how the Holy Spirit appoints these overseers.
SPEAKER_01: We love in our congregational churches to have this sense of authority in the congregation.
SPEAKER_01: Strip that from your mind.
SPEAKER_01: Whose church is it?
SPEAKER_01: God's church.
SPEAKER_01: He orchestrates what happens.
SPEAKER_01: Look what Paul says to these elders.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 28 The Holy Spirit has made you overseers.
SPEAKER_01: So the Holy Spirit has decided there are there are certain overseers that he's given to the church who need to be faithful in their responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: They are part of God's gift to his church.
SPEAKER_01: But it's also what God gives the church for their safety, for their direction.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean the elders can't err.
SPEAKER_01: Or err, if you prefer.
SPEAKER_01: But that's where Abraham came from.
SPEAKER_01: That's different.
SPEAKER_01: A faithful church cares for the sheep.
SPEAKER_01: A faithful church also expects growth.
SPEAKER_01: It expects growth.
SPEAKER_01: And now I commend you, verse 32, to God and to the word of his grace.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just stop there and point you back to earlier in this chapter.
SPEAKER_01: Where the Apostle Paul directed these elders to remember him in verse 24 that he received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
SPEAKER_01: And now he adds that that is in the scriptures, it is the word of his grace.
SPEAKER_01: That's what's surrounding all of this.
SPEAKER_01: He's telling these elders, I'm leaving.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what a faithful church looks like, and it looks like growth.
SPEAKER_01: Now, unfortunately, in our world, we view growth primarily in a singular way.
SPEAKER_01: How many people are in the pews?
SPEAKER_01: How many seats are filled up?
SPEAKER_01: That's not what he's talking about here.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the kind of growth that is here.
SPEAKER_01: First and foremost, this growth is about maturity.
SPEAKER_01: A faithful church will display growth in maturity.
SPEAKER_01: So the elders, and by extension, the church in Ephesus, is to put into effect the word of God's grace, which is able to build you up.
SPEAKER_01: Able to build up is a phrase used throughout the Bible to refer to God's building up of his people.
SPEAKER_01: This is God's work.
SPEAKER_01: We participate in it.
SPEAKER_01: We come alongside and say, Lord, fill me with your spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Use me as part of your work.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, in the context of the book of Acts, this is the Lord Jesus Christ, the risen and ascended Jesus, working.
SPEAKER_01: The Gospels were just the beginning of his work.
SPEAKER_01: Acts is the rest of his work, continuing on till today.
SPEAKER_01: He uses his people to accomplish that, and he gives them the word of his grace, the scriptures, which is able to build you up.
SPEAKER_01: Scripture is the means of building up.
SPEAKER_01: His people are built up then into a new house, a new temple, if you will.
SPEAKER_01: So Paul's going to leave.
SPEAKER_01: But God's people will continue to have his word.
SPEAKER_01: They will continue to have the words of Christ, and that word builds God's people up.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, fellowship is important.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, sitting down around a table and having a meal together is important.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, worship is integral to the Christian life.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, we are to make disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, yes, all of these things, but immersion in the scriptures, the word of his grace is the primary means God uses to build us up in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Not only does the word of God's grace build us up to live in this world as his temple, but it demonstrates the security that comes with that grace.
SPEAKER_01: It is able to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
SPEAKER_01: Are sanctified is probably better translated, have been sanctified.
SPEAKER_01: It's a work that God has done in the past that has continuing effects and will keep having continuing effects.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, you belong to this group, and God has made you into his house.
SPEAKER_01: He has built you up, he is building you up, he has guaranteed you the inheritance, he has given you the down payment of that inheritance by his spirit because you are part of this group called the sanctified, the set apart ones.
SPEAKER_01: So scripture then forms a faithful church.
SPEAKER_01: Scripture leads a faithful church.
SPEAKER_01: Scripture matures a faithful church.
SPEAKER_01: And Scripture secures a faithful church.
SPEAKER_01: And all of that is supplied by God's grace.
SPEAKER_01: This begins in Acts chapter 20 with a handful of Gentile elders.
SPEAKER_01: These elders will return to Ephesus from Paul and pass on what Paul taught them.
SPEAKER_01: These elders and these young churches would surely miss the Apostle Paul's presence and his leadership, but he reminds them you have something more sure, as Peter would say to the churches in the same general region.
SPEAKER_01: You have something more sure.
SPEAKER_01: The prophetic word, which is able to build you up.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, faithful churches today are no different.
SPEAKER_01: We have been given all we need for life and godliness.
SPEAKER_01: A faithful church and faithful church leaders will display that growth in the word of God's grace.
SPEAKER_01: But a faithful church continues that growth through imitation.
SPEAKER_01: It seems a little odd in verse 33 that the Apostle Paul makes what seems to be almost a 180-degree turn, just going in a completely different direction.
SPEAKER_01: I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel.
SPEAKER_01: And then he moves into a reminder of how he worked bivocationally to support himself.
SPEAKER_01: You can look at any number of commentators and they will wrestle with the question of what's he doing here?
SPEAKER_01: Why is he doing it?
SPEAKER_01: And personally, I don't see what the trouble is.
SPEAKER_01: Because he tells us in verse 35.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'm showing you an example.
SPEAKER_01: He first led these elders to see how they ought to be impacted by the word of God's grace.
SPEAKER_01: Now he leads them to see how they ought to be impacted by him, by his life, by his example, as God's grace has transformed him.
SPEAKER_01: So what had they been shown?
SPEAKER_01: And what can we see from the Apostle Paul?
SPEAKER_01: I think we can see at least three things.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, don't covet.
SPEAKER_01: Following Christ is not a path to riches or glory, but to suffering and death.
SPEAKER_01: That's what taking up one's cross is all about.
SPEAKER_01: It may be the Lord's will that some receive wealth for the benefit of others and to support the Lord's work, but following Jesus means we keep our eyes on him, not on others or what others possess.
SPEAKER_01: Don't covet.
SPEAKER_01: By Paul's example in bivocational ministry, he says, don't be a leech.
SPEAKER_01: It's proper, Paul told the Corinthian church, for a servant of the gospel to receive his income from the Lord's work.
SPEAKER_01: But Paul and those with him chose not to do that.
SPEAKER_01: And they did that for a reason.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't want to present any kind of stumbling block to anybody who would come to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The lesson then is to prioritize the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Don't leech off of others.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Paul said to the Thessalonian church, if a man won't work, don't let him eat.
SPEAKER_01: Pretty simple.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not willing to work, you can't come to the smorgasboard of the potluck.
SPEAKER_01: Following Jesus is not a life of ease, it's a life of commitment to following Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Paul said to his churches, imitate me as I imitate Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And that was a pattern given to the Ephesian elders and all leaders since.
SPEAKER_01: It's a pattern that marks faithful churches.
SPEAKER_01: But there's one last thing.
SPEAKER_01: This kind of faithful growth displays affection.
SPEAKER_01: This is a key element when you put all of this together where these elders are supposed to lead with oversight, with authority, with responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: They're supposed to correct, they're supposed to protect, they're supposed to be vigilant.
SPEAKER_01: They do all of that in a way that demonstrates that they care.
SPEAKER_01: And that can be hard sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: Notice what happens here in verses 36, 37, and 38.
SPEAKER_01: They prayed together.
SPEAKER_01: They wept together.
SPEAKER_01: And they grieved together.
SPEAKER_01: A church that grows through a commitment to the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: A church that matures in the faith.
SPEAKER_01: And a church that lives that out together with a focus on the Word of God's grace will show affection for one another.
SPEAKER_01: Affection, if it isn't shown, is probably because some sheep are pulling away from the flock and are living a life of their own.
SPEAKER_01: We're not talking about perfection here.
SPEAKER_01: We're not going to achieve that.
SPEAKER_01: These Ephesian elders were still sinful men who had much growing up to do themselves.
SPEAKER_01: In their various contexts, churches struggle to determine what it looks like in their context and their culture to follow Christ.
SPEAKER_01: All churches, all leaders are going to struggle from time to time.
SPEAKER_01: All sheep will struggle from time to time.
SPEAKER_01: But faithful churches, faithful believers, faithful leaders will return to that which drew them to Christ in the first place.
SPEAKER_01: The word of his grace.
SPEAKER_01: So this text is an encouragement.
SPEAKER_01: It's a last and lasting encouragement from Paul to these elders, and we ought to hear it that way.
SPEAKER_01: He's telling them be encouraged, be faithful.
SPEAKER_01: Hear it that way.
SPEAKER_01: But it's also a warning that faithfulness is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01: As we've done a time or two in our study of Acts, we've looked at other texts.
SPEAKER_01: So when Paul was in Philippi, we looked at how what he said to the Philippians in that book corresponded to his time in Philippi.
SPEAKER_01: Same thing in Ephesus.
SPEAKER_01: But there's one about Ephesus that we've not yet considered, and that's found in Revelation chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: Approximately 50 years later than this writing.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's leaving.
SPEAKER_01: They're not going to see his face again.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, they'll receive his letter.
SPEAKER_01: They will have Timothy there to lead them, at least for some time.
SPEAKER_01: It seems that the Apostle John was there in the latter years of his life.
SPEAKER_01: They have this encouragement, they have this instruction to pursue faithfulness, but hear the words of the Lord Jesus Christ to them in Revelation chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I know your works.
SPEAKER_01: I know your toil and your patient endurance.
SPEAKER_01: I know that you cannot bear with those who are evil.
SPEAKER_01: These are good things, right?
SPEAKER_01: How we would want Christ to say them about us.
SPEAKER_01: I know that you have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not and have found them to be false.
SPEAKER_01: They've been vigilant.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: I know you are enduring patiently.
SPEAKER_01: I know how you are bearing up for my name's sake.
SPEAKER_01: I know that you've not grown weary.
SPEAKER_01: This is fantastic.
SPEAKER_01: We would love to have Christ say these things of us.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-oh.
SPEAKER_01: But I have this against you.
SPEAKER_01: That you have abandoned the love that you had at first.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent.
SPEAKER_01: Ouch.
SPEAKER_01: That tells us, brothers and sisters in Christ, that even believers in Christ need to repent.
SPEAKER_01: That not everything that we do is necessarily right and good and positive.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't necessarily mean that our hearts will always be in the right place.
SPEAKER_01: He says, repent and do the works that you did at first.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't repent, I may have to come and remove the lampstand from its place.
SPEAKER_01: That means to shut down the church in Ephesus.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said to the church in Ephesus some 50 to 60 years later than Acts 20 that while they remained faithful in many things, they were not faithful any longer in what mattered most.
SPEAKER_01: In a steadfast love for Christ and the word of his grace.
SPEAKER_01: This faithful love is so basic that Jesus said he might have to shut the church down.
SPEAKER_01: So we should be encouraged by Paul's last and lasting encouragement in Acts 20.
SPEAKER_01: We should be encouraged to look to Christ and look to the word of his grace, to remain faithful, steadfast in our following of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But we should also be warned that our love for Christ and the word of his grace needs continual fanning into flame.
SPEAKER_01: Because our hearts can grow cold.
SPEAKER_01: That these words are Paul's last face-to-face words with the elders from Ephesus, suggest to us that they form a part of the worldwide focus for churches and elders.
SPEAKER_01: We hear the apostolic order to pursue faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: A faithfulness that comes not by numbers, not by converts, not by outreach length, but by faithfulness and attentiveness to the word of God's grace, which leads us to pursue and proclaim his grace today and forever.
SPEAKER_01: Would you pray with me?
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, cause us to be faithful.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, we get so distracted.
SPEAKER_01: There's so many things in this world that tempt us, that turn our eyes from you.
SPEAKER_01: That make us want to elevate ourselves and our preferences and our desires over even you.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, forgive us, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Restore us to the joy of your salvation so that we might be awed by you.
SPEAKER_01: Help us to see you more clearly, to love you more deeply, so that we might follow you more faithfully.
SPEAKER_01: And others would see and hear and know that we are your disciples.
SPEAKER_01: To the praise of your eternal glory and grace.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.