Paul's Farewell to the Ephesian Elders

Introduction

Good Morning! My name is Danny Watton and I am your service pastor. I want to start off by thanking you for being here this morning.

It is always a blessing to me to come together as the body of Christ and lift our hands up in worship to the ONE TRUE GOD who is the sole reason for life. He truly is the One who gives me hope and strength to wake up everyday and to preach the Gospel to the world who so desperately needs Him.

My prayer for everyone sitting here today is that the truth of the Gospel penetrates your heart and gives you an unwavering understanding of who God is what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross. And with that understanding of the truth live that out daily in every aspect of your lives.

I am continually blessed that we have been parked in Acts and seeing all the treasures that this book has to offer. I know for me personally I have grown stronger as a Christian and it has renewed my love for proclaiming the Gospel to everyone and has shown me the desperate need for what is at stake for those who reject Him.

Last week you heard Chaplain Lichlyter preached on about Paul questioned some disciples on whether or not they had received the Holy Spirit. And they main take away was that are we well equipped to know how people receive the Holy Spirit and can we discern false doctrine. Do we know Scripture well enough to see it and preach against it.

And this week we are going to continue in . We are going to look at what Paul has to say to the Ephesian elders about the last three years of Pauls ministry to them, about present conditions and their future responsibilities as elders.

But first lets pray for Gods blessing to give us clarity for His message.

Pray!!!

ESV

Paul Speaks to the Ephesian Elders

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.

Walk Through of The Passage

Paul Speaks to the Ephesian Elders

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

At this time Paul was trying to get back home to Jerusalem because he wanted to get there for Pentecost. But we see that he had a lay over in Miletus. And because he had this layover he sent for the Ephesian elders. He did not plan to stop in Ephesus because he knew it would take to long to say good bye to all his friends.

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,

Paul was telling the elders that they knew Paul and how he lived among them. Even from the first day he stepped foot into Asia. He does this to review the last three years he had spent with them

19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews;

We have gotten to know Paul through the books of Acts and we have seen this to be true. He has had to flee from his attackers and he has been beaten and imprisoned. But he did this in humility, with tears. But he remained faithful to declaring the truth of the Gospel despite the trails that he encounter.

20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house,

The elders that came to see him were probably the same overseers from each house church where Paul both preached and taught in.

21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

This ends Paul talking about his last three years in ministry with them but now he transitions to the present circumstances that

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.

Paul was expecting to run into opposition when he got to Jerusalem and we see that he knew that trouble awaited him when he wrote

“I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints.”

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.

Paul recognizes that his life is not about building his kingdom on earth and because of that this life he is living on earth is for one reason only. To proclaim the good news of the Gospel. We know this because in Philippians Paul says

“to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

In verse 25 Paul tells them that they would not see his face again. He didn’t mean that he wouldn’t see any of them again but rather he would not see them as a group again.

We all know how that is as we PCS from base to base. When we say good bye to our friends and co-workers we will never see anyone in that same context again and not all together. We may see individuals as we PCS to other bases or on TDY’s or deployments but fellowship like that would not happen again all together.

Paul continues in verse 26

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.

Paul is saying that he was faithful by proclaiming and preaching the Gospel to them and even though he was opposed by many people and through spiritual warfare that he did not shrink away from speaking the full truthfulness of the Gospel.

As Paul concludes this farewell gives them future ministry responsibilities and encouragement.

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.’”

Paul first tells the elders that before they could provide for the flock that they had to take care of their own spiritual needs first.

This makes sense. As many of you have done, I have traveled a lot on planes. I have traveled by myself and I have traveled with my whole family. When I am by myself, I don’t really have to worry to much about myself in the event something goes wrong. I will follow their policies and get through it best I can. But it’s a lot different when I am traveling with my family because I have to make sure that they are well taken care of if something happens. As the flight attendant tells me and my wife that we have to put on our oxygen mask first before we put them on your kids. Why do they say this, They say this because if we as overseers/parents do not put our masks on first we could lose consciousness and be of no value to my kids because I am helpless to help them.

This was what Paul was telling the elders. If they are not prepared to be spiritually strong in their own lives then they would not be prepared, as Paul had been, to speak against the false teachers that would come in the future. So he told them to be on guard and remember that Paul fought against false teaching and fought to preach the Gospel telling them of good doctrine and he did this with tears. Paul then committed then to God and then the Word of His grace because he wanted them to love God first and be strengthened and encouraged by His Word because that is the inheritance worth living and dying for. Paul ends saying that he not once wanted their material possessions but always believed that it was better to give than to receive.

Then we see a beautiful goodbye. And Paul prayed for them

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.

Application for the Church

So why does this Matter! Why do we look to Paul’s Farewell to the Ephesian Elders as good and profitable to us today as a church.

This matters because this shows us what we are to look like as Christians in ministry.

You might be sitting there and saying “ Danny, I am not in ministry” I go to work, I have a family and I come to church on Sundays. That might be all true but I think you are missing the bigger picture.

My fear is that we don’t understand the importance of who we are in the church and as Christians. I fear that we don’t know the charge Christ has given us and the severe implications that has on how we know God and where we place our identities.

Christian.....Do you view the Great Commission which Christ commanded us to do as something that you participate in once a week or do you view it as your full time life mission? Are the activities in your life supporting your role as a Christ follower or is your role as a Christ follower just another checklist to be completed when ever you find the time? If you have the time?

You see Paul is telling us that it is our job as the church to be doing a couple of important things. And if we as a church fail to do this, then who will? Certainly no one outside the church is going to proclaim the Gospel.

But Paul tells us that we need to be preaching the Gospel which is profitable for everyone and to do it truthfully and humbly.

Let’s look at verse 20.

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.

So Paul points out to the church as a whole that we need to be preaching the truth. Paul was worried about this because as we saw in verse 30 that men would arise from within to distort the truth.

So how do we as a church know the truth?

First! By knowing who God is. How do we do that?

You do this by reading HIs Word. Truth only seeps into your life is through the Word of God. You also do this by getting deeply involved in Christian community not only with your brother and sisters in the church…but also in your own families.

Meaning it is not enough just to come into the chapel once a week and . You need to be living the Word, Breathing the Word…fully immersed into the Word. This is so important because this is the only way you are going to know who God really is. You can see His personality, His love, His nature. You can see that He is a God who loves and how from the foundations of the earth He was with us and that He had a plan for us so we would not perish but live with Him for eternity.

And Second, If we know who God is then we can know who we are.

I talk to so many Christians that are confused about who they are and because they don’t know this truth then they put there identity somewhere other than Christ.

Its so easy to put our identities in our careers, our role in our families or the horrible mistakes that we have made in the past.

I found myself quickly realizing this was a problem for me once I left Law Enforcement. I would say all the time that my identity was not being a police officer and that my identity was as a Christian first. But once I left Law Enforcement I found out how wrong I was. I absolutely had my identity planted in the wrong place.

But I began working through that my identity was solely in Jesus and His plan for my life.

If you are here today and you are a Christian then I can tell you with 100% certainty that the truth of who you are is Jesus. You are loved, You are saved and you are made in the image and likeness of the God who created you.

The danger in not knowing who you are in Christ can leave you open for Satan to tell you lies of where your identity should be. And when you loose that one thing then you can be empty and lost.

Conclusion

If we can know who God is and who we are then preaching the truth to others will be easier. We can stand firm in the truth that we as a church and as Christians are here to Love God, Love people and tell people about what Christ did on the cross. If we can know the truth of Who God is and who we are we can discern false teachers and preach against them. If we know who God is and Who we are in Christ then we live every moment of every day showing people who Jesus is by action word and by love. We need to wake up as a church and realize the severity of the future that awaits people who don’t come to Christ. We want them to know Jesus for every beautiful thing that He is. Let’s go out as a church and proclaim the good news to every inch of this base and city.

Pray with me!