02.27.2022 SER I commend you to God and His grace!

Have you ever had to place your little one in someone else’s care? For most young families today, it is a normal occurrence. Every day parents entrust their children to the care of others in early childhood learning centers and schools like ours, while they are at work. We entrust our children to the care of a baby-sitter for an evening out. Or when you take a child to the hospital you place them into the hands of those who care for them, trusting that they have our children’s best interests at heart.

Acts 20:32, our memory verse for this week, is our focus for today’s message. Acts 20:32, I invite you to read it along with me.

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.

📷Time will not allow us to fully parse, digest and enjoy the blessings of this all-important promise of our faith-life, but in order to get the most from this Word of God, let’s start by understanding the context.

Paul is in Miletus, which is in Asia Minor, but He doesn’t plan to stay much longer. Verse 22,

Acts 20:22 (NIV) 22 "And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.

📷For better or for worse, Paul, compelled by the Spirit, will take the Gospel to the Jews in Jerusalem, to the very same leaders who nailed Jesus to the cross. Verse 24,

Acts 20:24 (NIV) 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.

Before leaving for Jerusalem, Paul sends for the elders of Ephesus, to come to Miletus, to say good-bye, to inform them of his intentions, and to give them a final word.

Acts 20:25 ESV

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

His words are not happily received.

(Don’t read) Acts 20:38 (NIV) 38 What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again.

Before Paul gives them leave, he provides the shepherd’s final words of concern for his flock,

Acts 20:29-31 (NIV) 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.

That’s the background, let’s focus on Paul’s last words to them:

Acts 20:32 (ESV)

32 And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace,

The WORD, Commend, in English, παρατίθεμαι paratithemai, in Greek is defined by My logos bible dictionary, to entrust v. — to put into the care or protection of someone.

It is an uncommon word in the New Testament. You will find the word 8 times in all. Three times where the meaning and the context are identical. In the first verse, Paul and Barnabas commend the elders in Lystra, Iconium and Pisidian Antioch to the care and protection of the LORD of the church.

Acts 14:23 (ESV) 23 And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed παρατίθεμαι paratithemai them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

The second one, is our focus verse, where Paul commends the leaders of the churches in Asia Minor to God and the Word of His grace.

(DON’T read) Acts 20:32 (ESV) 32 And now I commend παρατίθεμαι paratithemai 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.

AND the third one, is from the Gospel of Luke, on Good Friday, Jesus is on the cross, about to take His final breath, before He dies.

Luke 23:46 (ESV) 46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit παρατίθεμαι paratithemai my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.

Jesus commends, entrusts himself to the care or protection of His Father, and then, He dies.

From Good Friday, make one very important observation. Being commended to the Father and to the word of His grace, doesn’t remove the issues of a broken, sinful, and evil world. Christ still died while commending himself in the hands of His Father in heaven. BUT He died nonetheless. Being commended to God and the Word of His grace is the ultimate place to be until we reach the ultimate, final goal of the Christian life, eternal life in heaven.

A funny thing happened to me around 16 years ago when I had an exploratory procedure that required anesthesia. As my attending nurse wheeled me into the room for the procedure, I made the sign of the cross upon her, commending her to God’s care, on my behalf. She looked at me and said, "That won't work on me." Surprised by her answer, I asked, “I am sorry. I don't I understand.” She said, "I am a Wiccan, a witch. That won't work on me." In defiance, I made the sign of the cross upon her again! Now, looking back, I consider myself blessed to have survived, given the fact I commended myself under anesthesia to the care of someone who believed and practiced witchcraft! All I can say today is, Thanks be to God!

We commend ourselves to the care of others in temporal matters all the time. When you go into the hospital for surgery, you entrust yourself to the care of the physician, anesthesiologist, the attending WICCAN nurse. You trust they have your best interests at heart.

When you step on an airplane, you place yourself into the care of the hands of those who fly the plane, trusting they have yours and their best interests at heart.

When Paul commends the Christians in Asia to God’s care it isn’t a casual, provision-less gesture. He commends them to God and to the logos, the Word, of His grace, THE GOSPEL. Paul believed that

Romans 1:16 (ESV) “…the gospel…is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Paul does not commend them to the Law of MOSES. He commends them tothe Word of his grace. The same grace Paul writes about to the Christians in Ephesus,

Ephesians 2:8 (ESV)

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

Grace is not something you do. Keeping the LAW of God is something you do. You follow its rules, you obey God’s commands because you are required to maintain your relationship with God under the LAW. But Grace is a gift God gives.

Paul commends them to the WORD of His grace, which is able to build them up, build you up. His Word of grace is what strengthens our faith in the Gospel.

2 Timothy 2:1 ESV

1 You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus,

When the law of God brings you to your knees, the Word of His grace lifts you up. When the law of God condemns you for every sin, the WORD of His grace frees you from them all. Or have you forgotten?

Romans 8:1 ESV

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

As Paul commends them to God and the WORD of His grace, he does so because He knows the character of God, His unchanging nature regarding His gifts. Because,

the word of his grace…is able to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. Acts 20:32 (ESV)

It is through the Gospel, the Word of His grace, that we receive our inheritance. An inheritance is any piece of property that passes by law to an heir on the death of the owner. (Logos Bible Software)

Need I remind you of what Christ did for you on Good Friday when He died for you?

Hebrews 9:14-15 (NIV) 14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! 15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance--now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

WE are now heirs with an inheritance,

1 Peter 1:4 (ESV) “…an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,

Guess whose hands you are in right now? You are in the hands of the Crucified and Risen Christ. When you die in whose hands do you want to be? Your own, the sinful world’s, the evil one, in the ONE loved you more than His own life, whose hands has were nailed to the cross, the ONE who didn’t stay dead, but ROSE victorious from the grave. Thank God, you don’t have to choose. He chose for you.

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.

May the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, unto everlasting life. I invite you stand with me, boldly declaring together our faith.