Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Nearly four years ago, on December 30, 2018, I preached from the passage we’re going to study today.

It was my last sermon from the pulpit of FBC Diana, and the futures of this church, my family, and my pastoral ministry were foggy.

All of us who were here then knew that I was leaving for at least five months, and we all knew that FBC Diana was set to keep functioning without me, with many church members stepping up to various responsibilities.

But what might happen during those five months, and where we all might be afterward was quite unclear.

Bob Reeves, Scott Trochim, and Russ Holland all volunteered to teach on a rotating basis through 1 Peter during our Wednesday night inductive studies.

Barry Ward and Cody Howard (a good friend who has become dear to many of us) both volunteered to preach through Ephesians, each preaching about half the time.

Pastoring or shepherding was still happening in early 2019, but I wasn’t doing any of it.

And, looking back now, I think some church members began to tangibly understand the responsibility we all have to disciple one another.

As I stood up here for what I thought might be my last Sunday at FBC Diana, I tried to put into words the heavy burden of pastoring.

I said then what I still believe is true now, and these truths are still a heavy burden.

I believe that Christ is the Savior of sinners and the head of His Church.

I believe that God’s word alone is powerful to save, to renew, to regenerate, and to nourish Christ’s people in the world.

I believe it is every pastor’s responsibility to explain and to help church members apply God’s authoritative and life-giving words.

And I believe that Christ Himself will hold me (and all pastors) accountable for every word we say and every word we avoid.

Brothers and sisters, I believe these truths, and I believe that we shall all give an account for how we live, for how we act as church members, and for how we speak as Christians.

We must all live with that final day in mind, and may God help us to live more faithfully every day, out of love for Christ and out of love for one another… not seeking to build our own kingdom, but happily serving as citizens of Christ’s everlasting kingdom… under His good authority.

But even though there is a burden to carry throughout the Christian life, even a unique pastoral burden for those who make it their duty to care for souls, the burden is light because Christ helps us bear it.

More than that, Christ even sometimes gives is glimpses at the fruit of our labor and the labor of others around us.

Such joys are hard to put into words… the joys of seeing sinners converted, seeing saints mature, and seeing Christians grow.

Many of you know these joys.

Nearly four years ago, many of you know that we were a different church then… not only in the sense that we had some members who are no longer here and others who have joined us since… but we were a different church in the sense that today we are (generally) more united, more invested, and increasingly healthier and growing.

Our membership numbers and budget aren’t moving much these days (up or down), but I can see evidence of God’s powerful work.

God is producing spiritual fruit in our lives… love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control… or to put all of this in more observable terms, a greater percentage of our church members are quietly serving one another in tangible ways, more of us are stepping out of our comfort zone and having gospel conversations, more of us are feeling responsible to reach out to absentee members, to hurting members, to weaker members, to wayward members, and even to rebellious members.

There is so much we still have yet to do, so much I believe God will do in and through us, and we will always have need of returning to the basics… to re-centering our focus upon (1) the message of the gospel, (2) the authority and power of the Scriptures, (3) the trustworthiness of Christ, (4) the goal of Christian living, and (5) the glorious hope that lies before those of us who repent and believe.

Reflecting on our present and our past, I think Acts 20:17-38 has much to teach us today.

As you might recall from last week, the Apostle Paul was on his way to Jerusalem (Acts 19:21), and he was stopping by various churches he’d planted in order to edify them and to tell them all goodbye.

Let’s see what we might learn from our text today… What did Paul say to the leaders of a church he planned never to see again… until the resurrection?

Acts 20:17–38 (ESV)

17 Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him.

18 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, 19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; 20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, 21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

22 And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.

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. 25 And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again.

26 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, 27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

28 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.

29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.

31 Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears.

32 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.

33 I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel.

34 You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me.

35 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.’”

36 And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all.

37 And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, 38 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.

Main Idea:

Local churches will always face the challenge of false doctrine and false Christians, and one of the main remedies which God has established is the ministry of pastoring.

Sermon

1.

The Context (v17, 36-38)

In Acts 20:17-38, we’ve read the words from the Apostle Paul as he was departing from the leaders of a local church in the town of Ephesus.

Paul had ministered among the Ephesians for about three years during an earlier visit, and he had seen much fruit there.

In fact, the whole town was turned upside-down by the spread of the gospel.

Some of you will remember that Ephesus was the center for worship of the goddess Artemis (Greek) or Diana (Roman).

As many people were converted to Christianity, the massive pagan temple was receiving fewer sacrificial offerings, and the idol-makers were going out of business (Acts 19).

Paul narrowly escaped an angry mob, which wanted to stop his preaching mouth and to maintain the apparent stability of their paganism, and then Paul left Ephesus to further his missionary activity in a different area – Macedonia.

Now, in Acts 20:17, we’re picking up on Paul’s return journey to Jerusalem.

I emphasized last week that Paul was taking time to stop by various churches in different towns along the way.

Paul had been “encouraging” (Acts 20:1-3) churches in Berea, Thessalonica, Philippi and Corinth; and the bulk of our passage last week was Paul’s encouraging or edifying ministry among the church in Troas.

After Paul’s time in Troas, Acts 20:13-16 is basically a detailed travel log, and Luke told us that that Paul wanted to avoid spending too much time “in Asia,” so he arranged to “sail past Ephesus” (v16).

Paul still wanted to edify or do spiritual good for the church in Ephesus, however, so (we’re told in v17), he “called the elders of the church to come to him” at the port town of Miletus.

Last week, I also said that I wasn’t sure if Paul knew he was leaving Troas for the last time, but there is no question that Paul knew that’s what was happening with the Ephesian elders at Miletus.

Luke says, in v37, “there was much weeping on the part of all… being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again.”

In v22-25, Paul seems to indicate that he’d gotten a special revelation from God that he was to “go to Jerusalem” (v22) in order to “finish” his “course” and complete “the ministry” that he’d “received from the Lord Jesus” (v24).

Somehow, Paul knew that this would include “imprisonment and afflictions,” and probably even the end of his “life” (v23-24).

That’s the context, then.

Paul was leaving the Ephesian church behind, and he was never coming back.

This church he loved, a church he’d served for years, and a church he would send Timothy back to pastor (5-10 years later).

A few years after his departure, Paul wrote a masterful letter to the church in Ephesus; and Paul wrote two letters to Timothy to instruct him in his pastoral leadership in Ephesus.

But what did Paul say to these Ephesian elders at their last face-to-face meeting?

2.

An Apostolic Ministry (v18-26, 33-35)

Most of what Paul said was a reminder of his own Apostolic ministry among them.

As an Apostle, Paul had a unique ministry that could not be repeated.

New Testament Apostles were eleven of the twelve disciples who had been named throughout the Gospels, and Matthias (number 12) took Judas’s place in Acts 1.

The Apostle Peter gave us the qualifications for who could be an Apostle, and he named all twelve of the Apostles at the beginning of Acts (Acts 1:13, 21-26).

The number 12 is not coincidental, and it’s no mistake that these are named (along with Christ) as the foundation of the New Testament Church (Eph.

2:19-21).

That said, Paul was even unique among the Apostles.

He referred to himself as an Apostle “untimely born” (1 Cor.

15:8).

You see, Paul’s conversion to Christ included a special commission from the risen Jesus to be an Apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15-16).

There’s a sense in which Paul was the 13th Apostle, and all of the Apostles were men who were specially commissioned by Christ to be His authoritative spokesmen in the world.

I’m trying to make it clear that the Apostles (Paul included) had a unique ministry that cannot and will not ever be repeated.

There are no divinely commissioned Apostles in the world today.

Today, we have the prophets and the Apostles in the text of Scripture.

The Apostles established what Christians are to believe and what Christians are to do by writing it down as God “carried” them “along” (2 Pet.

1:21).

We continue the Apostolic witness, then, not in our personal words from God, but in the revealed words of the Bible.

In a similar way, the Apostles also established a pattern of local church leadership.

We’ve already seen how Paul and Barnabas appointed elders in the churches they planted (Acts 14:23), and the Apostles themselves modeled the sort of leadership and pastoral care they intended elders to keep on doing after they were gone.

This is not to say that elders are to do all that the Apostles did, but it is to say that elders are to do what the Apostles told elders to do… and the Apostles practiced what they preached with regard to pastoral leadership.

Let’s observe three ways Paul modeled good pastoring in Ephesus…

First, Paul “lived among” the Ephesian Christians (v18), “serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials” (v19).

Now, again, Paul faced challenges unlike the ones that most Christians (pastors or otherwise) will face, but he did model what it looks like to pastor through difficult circumstances.

He wasn’t an isolated minister, who merely descended from his study on Sunday mornings in order to preach.

No, he “lived among” those he served and loved (v18).

He did it with “humility,” and he did it through “tears” and “trials” (v19).

Friends, good pastors are not clergy, in the sense of being some special class of Christian.

Apostles, more than anyone, had the right to claim some special class, but even Paul counted himself as one of them.

So too, pastors are church members.

Pastors sin, pastors make mistakes, and pastors get tired, discouraged, spread thin, and broken-hearted.

Pastors go through economic recessions, pastors endure public shame, and pastors have all the same basic life-experiences as all other Christians… Their loved ones die, their children sometimes rebel against Christ, and their marriages go through seasons of more or less joy.

Brothers and sisters, expect much from your pastors, but don’t expect them to be super humans.

Expect them to be faithful, and pray for their faithfulness.