Download acts 20 – paul: integrity

ACTS 20 – PAUL: INTEGRITY
Big idea
o Paul calls Christians to love and serve one another with the gospel, even
when that is tough – because other Christians belong to God and are
precious to him.
-------------------------------If I asked you who were the most important people in your life, I wonder how you’d
answer?
Who are the people you care about the most in your life?
For a lot of us, the answer is going to involve family members
o If you have children, they are precious to you
o If you’re married, you might answer with your husband or your wife
o It might be your parents or your grandparents
For others, you might be closer to friends than to family members.
But how do we know that someone is precious to us?
I think one very important answer is –
How much are we prepared to make sacrifices for them? More than that –
how much are we prepared to suffer for them?
We know we care about someone, if we’re willing to make sacrifices for them.
A few years ago, I shared a flat with a friend who was engaged to be married.
About four months before the wedding, he decided that he really wanted to impress
his bride-to-be on their wedding night
He wanted to be at the peak of physical fitness for her – so he bought himself a
machine designed to flatten his stomach and give him what is known in the trade as ‘a
six-pack’…
To be honest, I was dubious that my friend would stick to this – he was someone who
loved his bed, and I couldn’t see him getting up early every morning to do his
stomach exercises.
But I was wrong!
My bedroom was directly below his – and every morning I would hear him get
out of bed and do his exercises, right up until the wedding.
The exercises were pretty exhausting, apparently – but he stuck with them!
His future wife was precious to him – and so he felt she was worth a bit of effort and
even pain, to show her on their wedding night how much he loved her!
I remember talking to another friend of mine who had just become a father.
He told me that when he first saw his baby daughter in the hospital, he said he was
amazed at the realisation that he would do absolutely anything to keep her safe –
That suddenly, this little girl was the most precious thing in the world to him,
and he would do anything to care for her and to protect her.
He knew his baby daughter was precious to him – because he was willing to make
sacrifices for her, and even to suffer to keep her safe.
The people who are precious to us are people we are willing to work hard for – make
sacrifices for – even to suffer for.
And I want us to see this morning from Acts chapter 20 –
That is how the apostle Paul felt about other Christians! That is how the
apostle Paul felt about the church!
In Acts 20, Paul is nearing the end of his third missionary journey.
He is on his way to Jerusalem, where he has been warned he will be arrested
and imprisoned.
The rest of the book of Acts will record his long journey to Rome, to stand
trial before the Roman emperor Caesar.
So here in Acts 20 is one of the last times we get to read about Paul as a free man.
This chapter is also the only recorded speech of Paul’s in the whole of the book of
Acts where he is talking primarily to Christians.
The emphasis of Acts, as we’ve seen over the past weeks, is on the spread of the
Christian message across the known world
So that Luke records primarily the early Christians attempts to present Jesus
Christ to people who don’t yet know him – whether Jew or Gentile.
But here in Acts 20, Paul is saying goodbye to a group of church leaders with whom
he had spent three years of his life
And he has important things to say to them about how they can keep trusting
in Christ and keep caring for the believers under their care, long after Paul himself is
gone.
This chapter is an important insight into how Paul feels about the Christians in
Ephesus – into how precious they are to him!
Paul was a missionary and an evangelist – perhaps the greatest missionary and
evangelist that the world has ever seen
But he was also a pastor! He was also someone who cared deeply for people
after they had come to faith – he was someone who cared deeply for other Christians!
Sometimes we can think of evangelism and love for other Christians as two quite
separate things, that require different gifts
And the New Testament is clear that some people are uniquely gifted by God
as evangelists – while others are gifted by God as pastors and teachers, in caring for
and teaching believers
(see Paul’s own description of the gifts God has given to his church in
Ephesians chapter 4).
However, I think we need to learn from Paul that healthy Christians have a balance
between a love for the lost, for unbelievers – and a love for believers, for other
Christians, for the church!
(By ‘the church’, I mean other Christians, rather than a building or an institution.
I sometimes think it’s a great thing that we meet in a school on Sunday
mornings, so that we are not led to thinking that our life as a church is dependent on a
special building or a ‘holy space’…)
The church was precious to Paul! Other Christians were precious to Paul!
Just look at his New Testament letters alongside this chapter to see that.
Paul loved the people who came to trust in Jesus through his work – and in Acts 20 he
tells the Ephesian church leaders that he was willing to suffer in order to teach, train
and protect them!
Part of his desire to see unbelievers come to faith in Christ was that they would come
to belong to God’s church, God’s people –
Paul saw that as a good thing! A precious thing!
Paul saw the church as something that should attract people to Jesus Christ –
So he urges the Ephesian elders here to care for God’s church – to care for
and protect the Christians God has placed under them –
So that they will continue to trust in Jesus – and so that they will attract others
to Jesus as well!
Acts 20 shows us that the church – other Christians – were precious to Paul!
The question for those of us who are Christians here today as we look at this passage
is:
How precious are other Christians to you?
How precious is God’s church to you?
Are you willing to serve other Christians – even when that will involve hard work and
some struggle and suffering?
Do you think other Christians – more specifically, do you think the other Christians at
Magdalen Road – are worth suffering for?
Do you think that our life together as a church – as a group of people who trust in
Jesus Christ – is a precious thing
And something we would love the people around us who don’t know Jesus to
share in?
There have been times in my own life I have really treasured meeting with other
Christians.
Times when I can say with real sincerity that Sunday and the opportunity to
meet together with other believers was the high-point of my week!
There have been other times when I have struggled to care for the Christians around
me at all
When meeting together has been a ritual – a chore, even – when I’ve struggled
to remember why I bothered with church –
And I certainly didn’t see church as something that would attract others to
trust in Jesus!
I don’t know which of those positions better describes how you feel today.
Either way, we can learn from Paul’s words here about the church.
Paul was convinced that the Christian church was the hope for the world!
That was why he took his own responsibilities to care for the church so
seriously
That’s why he urged the Ephesian elders to learn from him
And that’s why he is also speaking to us today, if we will listen!
We can learn from a great evangelist like Paul that evangelism is not just about
sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with people, and then leaving them to it –
It is about welcoming people into community with others who have been
rescued by Jesus –
and it’s about loving and serving one another, as Jesus Christ loved and
served us!
So in this chapter, we’re going to see that, according to Paul:
o The church is worth serving and suffering for
o The church is worth protecting
o The church is worth working hard for
And why?
Because the church – other Christians – belong to God!
Other Christians have been bought by God and they are precious to him!
And they need to be precious to us, too!
Now as we look briefly at these verses, we need to acknowledge that Paul is talking as
a Christian leader to Christian leaders here.
So, as one of the church leaders, I’m asking you to look at this chapter and hold us as
a leadership to account!
How do we measure up to Paul’s model?
What lessons do we need to learn from Paul here?
But that doesn’t let the rest of us off the hook!
Every Christian needs to hear his words – because every Christian has a responsibility
to love and serve others in the church!
In some sense, most of us are in some position of Christian leadership
o Whether it’s Christian parents with children
o Whether it’s as a homegroup leader – or a youth leader – or a Junior church
teacher…
And even without the title of ‘leader’, the attitudes Paul models here are attitudes that
should mould all our relationships with one another as a church.
So – let’s look at some of these attitudes now.
Read vv.18-21
o The church is worth serving and suffering for (vv.17-27)
Throughout this chapter, Paul uses himself as an example of the attitudes he wants to
see in the Ephesian elders – and the attitudes we want to learn from.
Paul was a fallen human being like us – but God was able to use him to serve his
church
And God is able to use us too!
A striking thing to see in v,18 is that Paul is convinced that the Ephesian elders have
seen his way of life and service of other Christians ‘from the first day I came into the
province of Asia’.
Paul’s service has been transparent – it has been there for all to see!
So he can urge others to follow his example of service with integrity!
This is a huge challenge for us!
Elsewhere in his letters, Paul can say to the Corinthian Christians – ‘Follow
my example, as I follow the example of Christ.’ (1 Corinthians 11:1)
Could we say the same?
So often, I point out to others my weakness – my sin – my selfishness
I fail to serve the Christians around me so much, that to urge others to follow
my example just feels wrong!
But behind that seeming humility on my part, do I lack faith that God really can
change me and use me as an example of Christ’s grace to others?
We saw last term in our series in Luke that the world around us is not impressed by
fine-sounding words –
It is impressed instead by how we live! By whether or not our daily attitudes
are like those of Jesus Christ!
And the same can be said of the way we serve and care for one another as Christians!
Of course we are still sinners – of course we will never attain full Christ-like-ness
until the new creation –
But that shouldn’t stop us from following Christ’s example with prayer and
often faltering steps today!
Paul could point to himself here with integrity
He knew that he had tried to live in the way he describes – so he has some
authority to urge the Ephesian Christians to follow his example!
Today, we should pray and work towards a similar integrity in our love and care for
one another as a church!
Now, even as Paul urges the elders to serve and care for the Christians placed in their
care, he is honest with them:
Love and care for other Christians will not always be easy! It will involve
pain and tears!
Read v.19
‘Humility and tears’ – both sound noble, don’t they?
Both can be painful in reality!
We need to ask ourselves the questions in our dealings with one another:
Do I humble myself before the Lord? Do I recognise my need of him always?
Any form of Christian service can lead to pride
When someone thanks us for helping them –
When we begin to see our love for other Christians grow –
As we work towards and pray towards the sort of integrity Paul had here –
We need to acknowledge at every step in our love and service of other Christians that
we could do nothing without God’s Holy Spirit working in us!
That our hearts would all be cold and selfish without the transforming work of
the Spirit in making us more Christ-like!
Do I humble myself before others?
The way we view one another matters!
We can all be so quick to spot pride in others – and we are all so blind to
seeing it in ourselves!
Pride is one of the most besetting sins of all!
The moment we think we’ve beaten it – we’ve fallen victim to it!
How can we deal with our pride? How can we gain a truer, humbler sense of
ourselves?
Paul gives us the key in vv.20-21
We need to be hear the gospel of Jesus Christ again and again – and to see
our true selves through it!
Read vv.20-21.
The gospel humbles all of us!
The gospel is not just for unbelievers –
Christians need to hear the gospel every single day – because then we will
recognise that there is no place for pride in our service of one another!
The only reason any of us can stand before God and begin to serve him –
is our repentance, our turning away from our old life that rejected God –
and our faith in our Lord Jesus!
We have not earned God’s love – it is a gift to any human being who puts their faith
in Jesus and what he has done for us.
And we do not earn a greater portion of God’s love through our service of one
another.
We can only serve Christ – because Christ first loved us and called us into his
service!
Hearing the gospel every single day is the cure we all need to our pride, as we seek to
serve one another!
Alongside his humility, Paul tells the elders here that he also served the Lord ‘with
tears’. (v.19)
Even as Paul demonstrates his great love for other Christians – even as he
demonstrates in this speech just how precious other Christians are to him
He is never sentimental!
We can all believe at times that other Christians are precious to us
When those other Christians are kind to us!
When those other Christians support us!
When those other Christians encourage us!
But Paul’s love for and service of other Christians isn’t dependent on those things!
He served the Lord at Ephesus, even ‘with tears’ – even when that was hard –
even when he himself felt hard-pressed – when he himself was struggling.
Christian love is never sentimental – because God’s love is not sentimental!
God’s love is physical – God’s love is a broken body on a cross, rejected,
bleeding and dying.
And we need to learn from that!
What do you look for in a church?
Good teaching? – great worship? – a commitment to evangelism? – good support
networks?
All these things are good – necessary, even!
But do we also see church as a place to serve others?
Do we see church as a group of people who we can serve alongside and suffer with –
People to cry with, as you grapple with the gospel of grace yourself – and as
you share that gospel with others?
And let’s be clear – there are huge benefits for us in serving one another!
Paul isn’t calling on us to grit our teeth and prepare ourselves for a life made up
completely of woe and suffering
It is by serving others that we worship Christ and grow in our love and
knowledge of him!
But Paul is also clear in v.24
The Christian life is a ‘race’! and it takes endurance to run it!
Read v.24.
The race Paul describes is not a sprint, but a marathon – and the question he asks of
himself is a question we need to ask of ourselves again and again:
How can I ‘testify to the gospel of God’s grace’ today?
How can I help those around me see God’s grace and what he has done through Jesus
more clearly today – through what I do and what I say?
That’s what Paul lived for! For others to see more of God’s grace!
Imagine if it was what we lived for as a church!
Imagine if we could all say:
‘The reason I live is for others to see God’s grace at work in me – and to
experience God’s grace for themselves!’
If that is what we are living for, then we will be committed both to
o Evangelism
o And love for other Christians!
Because the best thing we can do for anyone – Christian or non-Christian – is to help
them see more of God’s grace each day of their lives!
Paul goes on in vv.28-31 to tell the Ephesian elders that
o The church is worth protecting (vv.28-31)
The picture he uses here is a well-known one, where the church is a flock of sheep
and their enemies are ‘savage wolves’.
Read vv.29-30.
Paul is clear here – Christians cannot afford to be naïve.
Christian will have enemies – and their enemies will be intent on ‘destroying
the flock’!
Sometimes those enemies will clearly come from outside the church –
At other times – and perhaps more worryingly – these enemies will come
‘even from your own number’ (v.30).
Paul therefore urges the Ephesian elders to protect their churches –
Both from their enemies
And from their own hearts!
That warning is equally true for today.
Even Christian leaders are capable of becoming ‘savage wolves’, if they do not ‘keep
watch over themselves’ (v.28)
So I want to encourage you all this morning –
Don’t believe everything I or anyone else says up here on a Sunday morning!
Test what you hear against God’s word – and if you think the church leadership is in
danger of misunderstanding things, then please – tell us!
Church leaders need to keep a watch on themselves –
and one of the greatest gifts any Christian leader has to do that is the
Christians they teach!
If we all carefully listen to what is taught on Sundays and through the week –
if we test it against Scripture –
and if we correct our leaders if they’re going wrong –
then we will be obeying Paul’s command here in v.28!
If that’s true of Christian leaders, it’s true of all of us!
We all need to test our hearts against Scripture
So we can protect ourselves against false teaching and false living –
And so we can protect one another against that too!
v.28 tells us to ‘Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock…’
watch yourself – so you can help others!
It’s like the safety demonstration on an aeroplane
In those demonstrations, passengers are told that if the air pressure fails in the
cabin, they need to put their own oxygen mask on first, before they try to help others
on with theirs.
If you try to help someone else put on their masks before you can breathe clearly
yourself, then you risk both of you losing consciousness!
And it’s the same with false teaching!
The atmosphere we all breathe in every day is hostile to God and hostile to the life he
brings!
We need our oxygen masks on if we are to help one another!
We need the breath of God at work in us, giving us life from his word and by
his Spirit!
Before we can teach or encourage others, we need to keep a watch on ourselves!
Then we can help one another if we’re beginning to get things wrong in our
understanding of God –
If we’re beginning to lose faith – or to resent God – or to find some unhelpful
teaching attractive…
We need to be committed to protecting others from the dangers of drifting away from
God – and from the ‘savage wolves’ that seek to devour us!
A question we need to ask ourselves:
Do I care enough for people to challenge them if I think they’re drifting away
from God?
Do I care enough to talk to them and urge them to keep trusting in the God of
grace?
That may well be painful at the time – few of us enjoy challenging others
But if someone is drifting from the living God, then it is part of our love for
them to talk to them about and to protect them from a life without Christ!
For Paul, other Christians are worth protecting!
As Paul comes to the end of his speech to the Ephesian elders, he is clear with them:
serving other Christians can be hard work!
o The church is worth working hard for (vv.32-35)
vv.33-35 demonstrate again Paul’s integrity, this time with money.
A key part of keeping a watch on ourselves is watching how we spend our money –
and what our attitude is towards money.
Will we trust in money, above trusting in God?
Will we work harder at earning money for ourselves and our families, rather than
working hard to serve and care for one another with the gospel of God’s grace?
These are big questions that Paul leaves with the Ephesian elders – and with us today!
But before we finish, I want us to look at v.32.
Throughout this speech, Paul has emphasised service – struggle – suffering – hard
work
He wants the Ephesian elders to be prepared for all of this!
Loving and serving other Christians will never be easy!
Other Christians are still sinners – we are still sinners!
And Christians have enemies, both physical and spiritual, who are out to trip
us up and devour us!
But Paul knows that if that is all we hear from this speech, we will lose heart
No-one will ever want to be a Christian leader!
And no-one will ever feel up to the task of serving and protecting and caring
for fellow-Christians!
That’s why v.32 is so important!
Read aloud.
o The church is in God’s hands (v.32)
How could Paul leave the Ephesian Christians in such a hostile and difficult world?
Ans: - he was able to entrust them to God and to the word of his grace!
Paul didn’t have to stay at Ephesus – and he didn’t have to live these Christians’ lives
for them to keep them safe!
Instead, Paul was able to entrust them to the living God!
And Paul was able to leave them with the word of his grace!
Paul knows that God is good – God is gracious – and that God can be trusted with the
Ephesians!
If the church leaders at Ephesus genuinely seek to serve and care for the Christians in
their care – then they can entrust those Christians to God, in the knowledge that he
will do what is right!
Behind all their efforts will stand the God of grace –
And the Ephesian elders needed to hear this!
We need to hear this too!
Even as we seek to serve and care for one another as a group of Christians, we need to
accept that we cannot live other people’s lives for them!
This is vital for us to understand – for our own health and sanity!
Christian parents need to hear this.
There will be times when you will see your children making mistakes – and
you will desperately want to protect them from that!
But there comes a point when what you need to do is entrust them to the God of grace
– and take a step back!
There is no point making ourselves ill by trying to convince people to trust in Christ
Instead, we need to share God’s grace with them – and entrust them into God’s
hands!
The same applies to homegroup leaders – Junior church teachers – youth leaders
The same applies to all of us!
As we care for one another, there will be times when we will be tempted to try and
live someone’s life for them.
We need to listen to Paul here.
He loved the Ephesian elders – he loved the Ephesian church –
But he also knew that ultimately, all he could do for them was testify to the
word of God’s grace – and entrust them to God!
God is in control – we are not!
And God is far more gracious than we can possibly imagine!
He can be trusted with our loved ones – and we are called to entrust them to him!
That is vital for us to hear
For our service of one another!
For our evangelism!
For our own health!
So – the church was precious to Paul!
Other Christians were precious to Paul!
He tells the Ephesian elders that other Christians are worth suffering for and working
hard for!
He tells them that other Christians are worth serving and protecting!
But as we finish, I want to ask the question:
What is the key to Paul’s perspective?
Just why is Paul willing to serve and suffer and protect and work hard for
other Christians?
Why does Paul say that other Christians are worth that effort – and why does he urge
the Ephesian elders – and us! – to adopt his attitude?
The answer comes at the end of v.28.
‘be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.’
o God thought the church was worth the death of his Son!
Other Christians at Magdalen Road are precious to God – they belong to him!
And he has shown just how precious, by sending his Son to die for them!
When you are struggling to love another Christian – when you are struggling to see
why you should serve other Christians that you find difficult:
Listen to Paul’s words here – and learn from his perspective!
When you think about a Christian who you struggle with, picture them in your mind
and think:
God thinks this person is worth the death of his Son!
This person is so precious to God – that God sent Jesus to the cross for them!
It matters to God who we see one another and treat one another –
Because as Christians, we are a group of people for whom Christ died!
And for us to treat someone with contempt – or to resent someone – who God
thought was worth dying for, is to be on very dangerous ground!
We’re about to take the Lord’s Supper together.
In the New Testament, this was a time when Christians would meet together – and if
they had a grudge or a sinful attitude towards a fellow-believer, they were called on to
confess that sin before God and to ask God to forgive them, as they took bread and
wine and remembered
not only the price God paid for them –
but the price God was willing to pay for their fellow-believers as well – even
the ones they struggled with!
I’m going to invite us to do that in a moment.
But before we do that, let’s just recognise that the reason other Christians are worth
suffering for and serving and protecting and working hard for –
Is because Jesus Christ thinks they are worth dying for!
You are not your own – you were bought at a price
And so was every other Christian in this room.
Let’s remember that as we seek to serve one another –
to care for one another –
and to help one another understand more richly the depth of God’s grace
towards us.
Other believers are precious to God – and they should be precious to us as well!