Acts 20:17-38 - What is Gospel leadership?

Jake teaching Lincoln firearm safety.

Lincoln was sad that he wasn’t allowed to shoot with us.

Talked with Tammy, she agreed to let him shoot Jake’s .22.

Jake immediately started teaching him firearms safety.

Always keep the muzzle down range, or pointed at the ground

It’s not a toy

Finger off the trigger.

Jake pounded these points into his head before giving him any ammunition.

Lincoln had to confirm the rules.

Not a toy

Always down range

Booger hook off the bang switch

Lincoln stepped up, fired his shots

When he gave the gun back to Jake, you saw the life that had come back in him.

That was a blast. He had the biggest smile on his face, and they told me that’s all he talked about when he went to bed.

That would’ve never happened if Jake never took time to teach Lincoln.

That would’ve never happened if Randy and Lori never taught Jake.

They took the time and taught Jake how to safely handle firearms

Now Jake took what he learned and shared it with Lincoln.

Every Christian in the room that has repented of their sins and believed in Jesus only did so because someone else told them the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Someone was intentional about telling you about Jesus.

It wasn’t an accident.

Every Christian in the room is growing to lead someone to Jesus.

My job as a pastor is to disciple and to train you to lead someone toward Jesus.

Discipleship is helping someone else grow closer to Jesus.

Every Christian has been called to bring people to Jesus and build the church.

Every believer in the room should be inviting and pursuing people to come to Jesus.

But what does it look like? What does it mean to be a gospel-centered leader?

Big Idea: Gospel-centered leadership (life)

Context

Paul is passing through the area on his way to Jerusalem (v. 16)

He had decided to pass by Ephesus because he’s trying to get to Jerusalem stat.

Every tried to avoid a conversation because you knew you had some place to be and this was going to be no short conversation?

Paul calls the Ephesian elders to a quick retreat near the sea so that he could give them some endearing words and speed off to Jerusalem.

Stand to read

Acts 20:17–21 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.

Leader: This is God’s Word.

Everyone: Thanks be to God.

Explanation

He begins by reminding them of his time with them.

Paul spent around three years with them

He loved the Ephesians.

He lived with them and knew them deeply

Paul reminds them that his loving, serving, pastoring them was a service to the Lord (v. 19-20)

Paul served with humility.

This is because Paul has a right grasp of the gospel.

He remembers who he was when Jesus saved him.

Paul was actively murdering Christians and blaspheming Jesus’ name.

The gospel humbled Paul with thankfulness.

Paul understood that because of his sin, he deserved to go to hell.

But God called Paul and saved him by His grace.

God’s grace ought to humble us before God because we know we don’t deserve it!

Paul served through trials.

Paul was really good at getting beat up

Everywhere he went, he usually had things thrown at him.

Paul counted it a joy to suffer for the sake of Christ!

Paul modeled to them what it looks like to depend on the Lord in trials with humility.

It would not stop him from pointing them to the goodness of God through Jesus!

Paul modeled and proclaimed repentance and faith in Jesus (v. 21)

As believers in Jesus,

We rely on the gospel even in suffering.

There are people watching how we reaction and respond.

There are very few things stronger than a believer who can take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’.

“We need more believers who can take a beating a give a blessing.”

You get to know a person’s character when you see them in conflict or struggle.

You get to see what they truly believe.

Dorie Peelman, 40 year old

Unchurched, received a cancer diagnosis

I don’t know what else to do, I might as well go to church.

Her sons, Eyan and Evan, started coming with her.

They started building relationships

She sent them to church camp with me where they heard the gospel.

She brought her husband, Greg, and her daughter, Emily.

They heard the gospel.

Right before she passed away:

“I think God gave me cancer to save my family.”

We may not understand the trials and sufferings but we can trust that even when we can’t see it, He’s working.

We must trust the Lord through sufferings and trials, recognizing that it’s by His grace alone that He saved us.

Not because of anything we deserve

Solely because of the love of God poured out on sinners.

When we endure trials with a resolute trust in the Lord, heads are going to turn.

People will wonder of the hope that is in us, just by the way we trust Jesus in trials.

Transition

Paul calls their attention from remembering to current events.

The trials aren’t going to stop here.

Acts 20:22–23 ESV

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.

He doesn’t know what’s going to happen

Only that he has beat downs and jail time waiting him.

Jerusalem was going to involve suffering, but Paul is here for it.

Paul relies on the gospel.

How is he this resolute? The dude seems untouchable?

Acts 20:24 ESV

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.

Paul realized something that many of our lives goes against.

We want stuff. Materials.

Big house. Flashy cars. Stuff to show.

Every material thing you now treasure is the future contents of a good yard sale or the dump.

For Paul, the goal of life is not to have a long life, but a full life.

A life lived for the glory of Jesus.

Jesus is Paul’s delight.

Paul suffers well because imprisonment just means that he gets to share the gospel with the guards.

Being on trial gives Paul the opportunity to share the gospel before kings and high ranking officials in society!

All that Paul wants is for the name and glory of Jesus to be proclaimed and celebrated in the world.

“If that means I die, then I die. Until then, I’m going to seize every opportunity to make much of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

This is a different kind of life than we’re use to.

Nothing matters more to Paul than the gospel.

Not even his life.

He realizes that this life is short and fleeting

But the life that Paul is going to have with Jesus is one of eternal value.

This body pales in comparison to the one we’ll have in heaven!

The enjoyments we love now are so small compared to having Jesus, the giver of all these good things!

We’ve gotten it backwards and we worship the gifts.

Paul so loved the Lord that Jesus was his treasure.

When Jesus is our treasure, trials and sufferings aren’t fatal.

They’re temporary.

This gives us an unstoppable hope.

Church, if we are to lead people to Jesus,

We treasure the gospel over anything else.

The gospel had the power to save us.

We recognize that we cannot save anyone.

The gospel has the power to save.

There is no greater news.

Gospel presentation

The God of the universe

The true and living God

Did not leave us in the dark.

We sinned against God.

We deserved hell

We deserved God’s wrath

Instead, God gave us His Son.

Jesus took on flesh and lived perfectly according to God’s will

Jesus took our sins to the cross

Jesus died for those sins to be forgiven.

Jesus died so that we can become the children of God.

God raised Jesus from the grave

To give us eternal life in Him

To give us every spiritual blessings through Him!

Then, God gave us His Holy Spirit!

Now, when we repent of our sins and believe the gospel, the Holy Spirit lives inside of us and gives us the very presence of God.

There is NOTHING better than that.

God could not have been more kind.

God’s grace is available to all who would believe in Christ.

Not a Christian, repent of your sin and turn to Jesus.

You can have this treasure that’s greater than gold!

You can have Jesus today.

Please come up to me and let me know, “I want to know Jesus.”

Transition

In light of these things, Paul gives them specific warnings

Acts 20:28–30 ESV

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.

Watch yourselves

Lives/doctrine

Watch the flock

Jesus died for those people.

Take care of them seriously.

What for false teachers

Outside influencers (v. 29)

Inside influencers (v. 30)

He calls them to stay alert. Pay attention

Remember what Paul did - Day and night.

Paul was always pointing people to Jesus!

Paul’s love of the gospel of Jesus drove him toward people.

They saw the gospel flow in every facet of Paul’s life.

Now, he’s calling them to do the same.

Acts 20:32 ESV

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.

He’s calling them to make disciples!

Take care of themselves, one another, and the church.

On what basis? What confidence?

Our own understanding, wisdom, and ability?

No!

He was empowered by the gospel alone!

The gospel, the Word of God:

Is able to build us up

Give us the inheritance

In God’s Word, we have all that we need to invite someone to follow Jesus.

When we’re faithful with the message of the gospel

“God sent His Son to save sinners”

God is going to save people from their sins!

Church, like Paul,

The gospel drives us to lost people

Those of us who have been saved by Jesus should be moved to compassion toward those who do night believe

Empowered to work hard for God’s glory

People’s eternal lives are at stake here.

Why was Jake so urgent teach Lincoln gun safety last week?

Lincoln had never handled a firearm.

He won’t be fearful around firearms

He knows how to handle it appropriately

He is able to keep himself and others safe.

All because the one Randy/Lori taught, taught someone else.

There are people you know who don’t have a relationship with Jesus.

The gospel should drive you to those people.

Invite them to church.

You may not know how to share the gospel

Bring them here, and they will hear the gospel.

Take the Next Step

Identify someone who models the gospel.

Follow them as they follow Jesus.

Seek to spend time learning from them

Praying

Bible

Invite and find someone to follow Jesus with you.

We want to lead the city of Lawrenceburg toward life in Jesus.

It starts with you.