Well, I invite you to turn this morning in your Bibles to Acts chapter 20, Acts chapter 20, our continuing our study in the book of Acts, and we come, as last time we looked at this passage of Eutychus falling out of the window as the gospel was preached, and how it took us to the resurrection of Christ. We've been seeing over and over again how important the ministry of the Word is, how the apostles, even when they faced the greatest enemy of death, went right back to the ministry of the Word and the sacrament. That's what we've been looking at, their commitment to it. And now we have Paul's plea to hold on to it. That's essentially what this is. It's the greatest plea in the book of Acts. I think it's the only, thinking about it here, address to a Christian church that we have like this. Everything have been sermons really out in the public platform. Here we have him gathering the leadership around and instructing them. So let's give our attention this morning to Acts chapter 20, beginning at verse 17. Now from Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. 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, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews how I did not shrink from declaring to anything that was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance towards God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and now behold I'm going to Jerusalem constrained by the spirit not knowing what will happen to me there except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value nor is precious to myself. If only I may finish my course and the ministry that I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And now behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again therefore i testify to you this day that i'm innocent of the blood of all for i did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of god 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 i know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you not sparing the flock and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away disciples after them. Therefore, be alert. Remember that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. 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. I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all these things, I've 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's more blessed to give than to receive. And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And there was much weeping on the part of all. They embraced Paul and kissed him, 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. And there is the reading of God's word. Well, I have titled my message this morning the most underrated speech in Christian history because the very things that are expressed here, the very things that are laid out for you here in defending the gospel and in protecting the sheep in doing all of these things these are the most these are the things that people despise most today about christianity this is what's hard about this um the warfare that's here uh described for us and the the battle arms that leadership is supposed to take against all kinds of falsehood and all kinds of false ideas and nothing about it in our day everything about it in our day would be characterized as not being nice being arrogant this is the challenge of this particular passage under the banner of love no one whatever no one really ever disagrees much with anyone anymore we're tired of fighting we're tired of the two things that we always say religion and politics we're just tired of all the division i mean it i get it it is just wearisome it weighs on all of us it's hard to even think about are you kidding we still have to continue in this this is the sense of this and the struggle of this in our culture where the devil has brought every kind of divide under the sun that he can possibly do among peoples, among groups, among ethnicities, among races, among sexes, everything. It's all in front of us. Every kind of division we know. But it still doesn't remove the responsibility of what's here. John Stott is absolutely correct when he says, our neglect in the church today to refute error is the single great reason for all the theological confusion. I totally agree with that. Our neglect to combat error and to just be nice is the reason it's a mess. This is what he's saying. And I fully, fully agree that unity is achieved through vigilance. Unity is achieved through people who really care about the truth. and that's why the church is so divided we've had a bunch of people who've said let's just not fight everybody should get along and we should never say anybody's wrong that's our day this is the challenge of this but here we see a um a pastor's heart don't we paul will never see these people again on earth the next time he sees them is in glory and you start to think well what is on his mind as he leaves did they just have a picnic and have a good time pull the jumpy things out what did they what did they do what was what was his burden he had labored there three years he had worked hard there three years preaching it wasn't just coming to church once a week in 20 minutes and hearing a message he was preaching all the time. These people were so hungry for the word. These people were starving for the gospel. So when you come to Paul and he has one last moment, one last burden with these Ephesian elders, what do you think he's going to say? What do you expect him to say? Well, we can all summarize. They can be summarized here that Paul was calling the church very clearly, as the New Testament does, to contend earnestly for the faith, the deposit of the truth that's been handed to us, to guard, to watch, to protect the flock, to be willing to lose your life for it, to be willing to die for the truth of the gospel so that the sheep would be saved. And this gives us, what I love about this particularly today, which I think we really need in the church today, is it really does give us a window into what the faithful ministry of the church looks like and what we should be striving for. That's why this is important today. There really shouldn't be confusion as to what is a faithful ministry and what is not. And here it's really laid out for us. Here you have the greatest passage that helps us to understand that, to appreciate that. So we're looking at Paul's address this morning to the Ephesian elders where he provides them here a testimony first of how he behaved among them. He then expresses his concern for what would happen when he leaves them and then he gives them a charge, you'll notice here, in how to keep Christ's flock in his absence. So this is very important. His testimony, his concern, and his charge. That's the outline that I'm working with. If you're taking notes, I'm still trying to get better at that and I hope you're still taking notes. In verse 13, you'll notice here, Luke is providing us a fast overview of Paul's travels from Troas as we looked at last time where he was when Eutychus fell out the window to Miletus here. And the sense you get is that Luke is rushing, just as Paul is rushing over all of these details, because Luke wants us to feel it is Paul's desire to get to Jerusalem. He wants to be there on the day of Pentecost. We'll come back to that, why that's important. That's coming. We're in Jerusalem next. So he arrives at Miletus wanting to sell past Ephesus to derive in Jerusalem, but something is really heavy on his mind. Something is really concerning him. Here's a pastor. This is a really good passage to study a pastor and then to realize yourself as you're studying the Apostle Paul how much you fell as a pastor and have to confess because this is one guy who is all up at night worried about the churches. Remember he said that? Of all the things that I take, all the beatings, all the shipwrecks, all the hardships, all the lashes, 40 minus one from the Jews. There's one thing that burdens me most. It is my anxiety always for the church, the churches. Constantly carrying this, constantly worried about the churches in the right way, concerned for them. So you'll notice here that here he is thinking about Ephesus. Ephesus was a strategic church. Ephesus was an important church. And you'll remember all the problems that were in Ephesus. Remember all the problems that were in Ephesus. This was one church full of many challenges in a culture that was so outwardly godless and so outwardly demonic. You'll remember the idolatry. Yes, Athens had its problems with idolatry, but you sure got a sense when you walked into Ephesus of the presence of the occult. You sure got a sense of how dark it was there. amulets were everywhere. Remember the problems of Alexander Demetrius and all of these guys who were selling these things, making great money off these things, and Paul had wrecked their whole ministry in Ephesus. So this was a major blow to the industry in Ephesus that was an idolatrous industry, and it had caused an entire riot. I was talking recently with Steve Baugh, who is, this is his field. This is his study. He's probably written the best commentary on Ephesians. And we were talking about Ephesus, and he said something that I thought was so interesting. He said that, yes, you're right about this, that really what was going on there was not something so much that we do in American culture, but it's changing. And he says, you'll notice there they were really tapping into the demonic realm, inviting the demonic realm, going into the demonic realm and inviting its power. And I thought that was such an interesting statement seeing that we're not so different anymore. I mean, I was just reading that the well-known Jay-Z, who I hate even mentioning his name from the pulpit, but just said, Satan is our true Lord. Only idiots believe in Jesus. these are our music giants these are satan's preachers in the culture understand that he's got preachers they got big platforms and make a lot of money they are coming after christians they are coming next after christian schools do you know that it's all over all of us sitting here are about to be tested and you'll be tested as to what you did all these years sitting here. Where are you? It's coming. Can't you see it? It's coming. Your persecution's coming. God had strategically placed a church there in this key city of opposition that was crucial for the fulfillment of the gospel to go out to the ends of the earth. so in the midst of all of this darkness the gospel was prevailing but how was the gospel prevailing this is what paul's having us think about how is this gospel going to be kept they have labored they've given themselves but they know their time's short we're already getting a sense paul knows his days are numbered and the gospel has to go on and that gospel has been carried to you all the way in 2019 but what was it that carried the gospel what was it that preserve the gospel in a culture like that and what will in a culture like ours well paul what he does here is of immense importance for the church of all ages immense importance he is at meletus and he calls for the ephesian elders he is so set on jerusalem he says before i go i've got to get them in front of me i've got to talk to them you'll notice here that they're also called shepherds. They're also called overseers. You know that when the churches were established in the New Testament, the command of the apostles was to establish elders in every city in the churches. So this is the model that we have. We believe strongly in the model, the three-office view of pastor, elder, and deacon. Here we're focused here on this leadership and the elders and the pastors. In Ephesus, you'll notice here they were to be shepherds of the flock and Paul is concerned of how that shepherding would go in his absence. So this is an important moment here. What Paul essentially does is begin with his own testimony. And this makes us a little bit uncomfortable because we're oftentimes, the Lord puts people in our lives who are great blessings to us, who are mentors to us. I've had many along the way and none of them have ever come along and said, hey, imitate me. But the New Testament is showing us with the apostles that they would commonly say this. You need to look at the examples of godly leaders that are in front of you and imitate them. Look at those whom God has put in your life. Look at those whom the Spirit has worked in and study them and imitate what they're doing. And Paul is motivating the Ephesian elders to look at him and carry forward the baton as it's being handed off in the ministry that they would do the same as he did so here we are paul says a bunch of things here about himself that are very important doesn't he it's his testimony it's a beautiful testimony look what he says there you yourselves know how i lived among you the whole time from the first day that i set foot in asia serving the lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me among through the plots of the jews that i lived a certain way with all humility i wasn't out coveting silver and gold i wasn't out trying to get rich he's saying that was not why i went in the ministry and why anyone would would think that you get rich going into this it does happen i saw i saw a guy bought a plane i don't know how that happened it was a two million dollar plane but it happened i don't account my life of any value listen to the statement 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. You know, in Ephesians, I'm sorry, in Philippians 3, he says that I have counted everything as lost for Christ. You ever thought what he lost? I'll tell you what he lost for the truth. Status. In our day, book writing contracts. his notoriety all of his the great theologians of the day rejected him and trashed him everywhere he had no popularity it was all gone he probably lost the family inheritance it was all gone there was nothing left that this man had for the gospel and he gave it all away for the gospel i counted all his laws all that for the excellency of the knowledge of christ and to give that truth everything this is such a challenge for us today because we're all trying to go into this especially leadership and those who are pastors we all face the temptation we want to name for ourselves we want to be writers we want to be known paul counted it all loss It was never about Him. It was never about His name. And we're awestruck in the Reformed world with our stars. We treat them like gods. Notice what He says. You know I would have died for all this. You know I believe this so much, I'd die for it. My life modeled that. That I would lose my life for the sake of the Gospel. When in Philippians, at the beginning, he gave his entire perspective on life and in death, he made an amazing statement. You know, it really would be far better to be with the Lord. There's a test, right? If I had a choice, I'd go now. But you know what? Necessity is laid upon me to remain here in the body because it's more necessary for you. Now, I think we all should emulate that. I'm here for you. I'm not here for me. And then you realize, I fail. We all fail. I haven't been good at this. That's what I'm striving for and that's what we should strive for. This is how the church is built. This is how the gospel goes forward. This is how we're called to love. I'm willing to go through all the suffering and pain not knowing right now what's held out for me the only thing the Holy Spirit has told me is that wherever I go chains await me persecution suffering awaits me how'd you like that calling that's a pastor's heart it really is when we fail this is this is what we're striving for as leaders this is what we're striving for as leaders in Christ's church so here we're looking at this and then we're thinking you know in light of our day and the challenges of ministry and all the scandals we've seen for material home that we have to fight. We have to fight. That the ministry is not about what this life is. It's not about getting a good home, getting a good retirement, having a comfortable life. Because when we're pursuing that as leaders, then we're going to be less willing to contend for the truth. That's the issue. When you speak the truth, you put yourself at risk. It's hard. I would never say anyone should speak the truth as a jerk. But when you speak the truth, you're putting yourself at risk in love. So this is what we're looking at here, and that's exactly what he says. Listen, I did not shrink the whole time. I did not shrink back from declaring to you anything that was profitable. I gave the law and the gospel is what he's saying. And teaching you in public and from house to house, I testify to this day. I am innocent. This is Ezekiel. He's done his job. I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. If it was in the book, I said it. If it was inspired by God throughout the scriptures, I said it. If it was given to me by the Holy Spirit in the spoken word out of the apostolic mouth, I said it. It's one of my favorite verses for the ministry, really. It's the Lord saying when Samuel began his prophetic ministry that the Lord let none of his words fall to the ground. That word in Jeremiah's heart was like a burning fire he had to speak. This is the heart of the servant to say what the truth is with a good conscience. When you speak the truth, you put yourself at risk. If you want to ask and say, well, we shouldn't be so black and white, tell John the Baptist that. Hey, you can't have your brother's wife cost head on a platter. But he gained everything. You understand why it's important? It's because it's easy every week to come together in the body of Christ and give you just what itching ears want to hear. That's what we would love to do. Make everyone feel good and happy. I often thought when Jesus was preaching in John 6, He had so offended the whole crowd, He turns around and He says to His disciples, did I offend you? Are you offended? Why would He say that? Because His words were so penetrating to the heart. They were dividing, as the Word does. Joints and marrow. They were pulling people. They would not let neutrality be. Jesus had a greater goal. It has led to the problem in Christian ministry today that so many don't give any warnings anymore. We've even in some ways counted warnings as legalistic. Everyone will love you if your ministry is about petting the sheep. But if you're willing to fight for the truth and contend for the truth in love, you put yourself at risk. Every martyr who has ever been martyred for the faith did it because they spoke the truth. Went through it because they spoke the truth. Jesus died on the cross the whole way saying, are you mad at me? Do you want to kill me? Because I spoke the truth. See, Paul says thirdly, that it wasn't just speaking the truth for truth's sake, it was speaking the truth with a goal. Do you see it? Why are we doing it? Because we are testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm keeping the goal of what we're doing. We're leading people to repentance. We're leading people to turn away from themselves and be saved, to come to Jesus and be saved. That's the goal of all of this. This was the goal of preaching. This was the goal of the ministry. This was the goal of what they were doing. And Paul knew that if there was never any speaking of the truth in this way, you'd make a lot of people comfortable on their way to hell. You'd make a lot of people comfortable on their way to hell. Now this is the overview of the testimony. This is important. It's the aspiration that we should have in going into the ministry, the motivations and what we want to be, what we want to strive to be. but i want you to notice here now that the question of why he's rehearsing this now he is he's laying before them the great concern what is the great concern look what he says in verse 9 i know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you not sparing the flock and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away disciples after them that is the alert that is the trumpet what what is satan actively and always working to do is send in wolves they work hard from the outside and then they worm their way in and work from the inside when jesus was dealing with wolves and was jesus that that passage in john chapter 9 and 10 where one of his sheep was just beat to a pulp by the pharisees who were the wolves it was really interesting what jesus did right after that he said something that i think is so helpful in this context that truly truly i say to you i am the door of the sheep all who came before me are thieves and robbers but the sheep did not listen to them i am the door if anyone enters by me he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture listen to this the thief comes only to steal to kill and to destroy destroy what you to steal you to kill you and to destroy you he was such a shepherd he is such a shepherd he's the head of the church and he says i'm the good shepherd that laid down my life for the sheep there's one goal in all attacks that go on today and everything that you if you have to filter through all the stuff happening in society you have to filter through all the challenges in the church there is one thing that is constantly happening and one thing that you have to be aware with your three sworn enemies the devil the world and the flesh there's one thing that is desperately trying to happen in your life that the devil is trying to do you know what it is pull you away from Jesus. That is always going on. He's working to do it. To pull you out of the church. To pull you into a sinful lifestyle. To pull you away from the truth. To wreck your life and to destroy you. Understand that? Understand that's always happening. Well, Paul is rehearsing this great concern they are actively there's always an active undermining and working to pull you away and the gospel is all about reconciling you to god the gospel is all about bringing you to faith and helping you through this life and giving you salvation and wolves hate it wolves want nothing to do with it wolves don't believe it here's the greatest challenges they come in from among us you know that's happening it most certainly if it happened in ephesus it can happen right here people who don't believe this and people who are undermining it so what is the charge what is he saying in this last point here notice verse 28 this is the crucial text here where he says 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 there's the calling you know look at my example this is what i understood was the great calling when i went into the ministry that we are entrusted a great responsibility it's the it's the care of the church and and he's working from the the two twin responsibilities that he would tell timothy for any pastor any elder any any shepherd any servant in the kingdom the two twin responsibilities where watch your doctrine and watch your life. That's what he's working from. Remember 1 Timothy 4. Guard yourselves. What? Train yourselves for godliness. For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of every value in every way. As holds the promise for the present life and also for the life to come, the saying is trustworthy and deserving of all acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive because we have our hopes set on the living God who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Guard the flock, he says. How do you guard the flock? What's the second way? There's two ways here. Guard your lives and do what? He says it. Until I come, this is 1 Timothy 4 again, devote yourselves to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. This is the weapon. Don't neglect the gift you have which was given to you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things. Immerse yourself in them so that they may see your progress. So in other words, as you are growing in the Word, as you are giving yourself to know the Scriptures, to understand the Scriptures, to grow in the Scriptures, it's going to have an effect on the congregation. I wonder if this is one of our great challenges here. You talk with people, as I've talked with some, who go to Africa, and they look at the Word of God being distributed in Africa right now. You should see the hunger. These people are starving for it. They want it. And you should look at their elders. They're in it. They're proclaiming it. They're reading it. It's all they want to talk about. It's all they have. That's the other problem for us. We have everything to distract us from it. You have to love the Scriptures. You have to know the Scriptures. This whole book of Acts has been pushing us to digest the Word, to hunger for the Word, to know the Word, to eat the Word, to digest it and dispense it. I've shared with you before, I'll do it again, that growing up, you know, it was my own hard heart against the Word. But I have to say that much of the gatherings in church just seemed to be doing it for all the reasons that were wrong. They're just there. When I went up to college, I saw this church that had come out, going through Romans, they're going up, and they hit chapter 9, and they said, what is this? They didn't even know there was this thing called reform, the thing that we get bothered with. What is this? The pastor in the whole church becomes an OPC church. And as I was up there in college, I sat in the midst of a little revival or gathered around the Word every week. People were hungry. People were growing. There was talk after church about the Scriptures. There was a fellowship that was created because of that, a bond of love that was beautiful. And I would say that when that bond and that hunger is not there, It creates a staleness in the life of a church and a difficulty to get into it. We've got to have the Scriptures and our leadership so hungry for it, we're dispensing it. This is what Paul is saying here. We're saying this is how you fight the wolves. This is how you fight. This is how you keep the church. This is how the church is preserved. It's through a love of the Scriptures and a knowledge of the Scriptures and a teaching of the Scriptures. So, this is the great care for the flock. Watch your lives, guard yourselves and guard your doctrine. Know the truth, love the truth. But the greatest motivation here is what? This is what I love about it. The greatest motivation is that Jesus died for His church. You see it? His blood purchased real people. They were already purchased. that they've already been bought and you are caring for his sheep. You are caring for those who he has loved and died for. Speaking to the elder. It is the nature, listen to me, it is the nature of a shepherd to fight wolves. Do you understand that? Can you imagine a shepherd who sees the wolf coming and says, it's okay. It's okay. As he rips up the flock. John Stott, again, says, this emphasis is so unpopular today. We are frequently told to be positive in our teaching and never negative. But those who say this, here it comes down to, have not read the New Testament. There's the issue. And having read it, or having read it, disagree with it. If when false teaching arises, Christian leaders sit idle by and do nothing or turn the tail and flee they will earn the terrible epithet of hirelings who care nothing for christ's flock then too it will be said of believers as it was said of israel that they were scattered because there was no shepherd and they became food for all the wild animals amen you know this is this is what the lord is saying here i love my church you see the gospel here i love my church and i care so much about my church i'm fighting for them don't you think you should you know the moving scene here is at the end they all gather around paul they're looking at the servant and they just break out into weeping and crying, hugging. You can just imagine this affectionate moment. Paul says, I'm not seeing you again in this life. This is it. You just lost a pastor. You're not seeing him again in this life. Christian tradition has it that Paul was beheaded in Rome in the mid-60s. He did lose his life, if that's correct, for the gospel, and I have no doubt to believe he did. What a baton he handed. what a baton that has been given to us. I pray that in this place, by God's grace and his help, because who's sufficient for this in and of ourselves? We know that. This is why prayer is so important. That we as leaders, that me as a pastor, pray for us, that we would care for the flock with right and proper zeal. Christ has promised to rule his people through under shepherds. through leaders. May we remember what this is all about. It is about the salvation of people. It is about the deliverance of people out of the clutches of hell and darkness. Wherever the truth is, and I close with this statement, wherever the truth is loved, wherever the truth is valued, wherever the gospel is defended, right there in that place, no matter what everyone else says around. There, the Holy Spirit is saving a great many people. Amen. Jesus, thank You for such a wonderful defense of Your flock. Thank You for Your precious gospel. Thank You for Your concern for Your church. Thank You that You stood up to all the falsehood and then demonstrated the ultimate sacrifice of love to lay down your life for your sheep whom you care a lot about. We confess, O Lord, that we often as leaders stumble, that we struggle, that we look at the example of the apostle and realize that we have been worldly in our pursuits at times, loving the things of the world and not the things of the Word, that we have forgotten what this is all about and we've often treated the church like the good old boys club or the Lions club, not realizing the intense spiritual warfare that is going on in which we're called to oversee the flock. We ask for forgiveness, Lord. And ask for Your help by Your Spirit in strengthening us to guard ourselves and to guard our lives and to love Your Word, to defend the Gospel, to preach the Gospel, and that a great many people would be delivered. Thank You for this flock that loves Your truth, that gathers around it every week. Help us, Lord, to have a hunger and thirst for righteousness and for Your Word more and more? And would it create a fellowship that is beautiful? A fellowship that exhibits real joy and happiness for what's been given to us? A fellowship that others see and say, what in the world is happening in that place? Only You can do that by Your Spirit. Help us, O Father, and give us Your grace to be a church that is a light in this dark world. And of course, we pray this for every church that bears the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. In whose name we pray, amen.