The Word Made Plain

Announcer (Male): Welcome to the Word Made Plain with senior pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching a study in the book of Acts. Please open your bibles to Acts chapter 20 verses 25 through 28.

Tony Clark: All right, let’s dive into the Word of God together. Turn with me in your bibles to the book of Acts, chapter 20. We’re going to be looking at verses 25 to 28 as we continue our verse-by-verse study of the Word of God. We’re in the book of Acts on Sunday mornings, and you know we’re in 1st Samuel on Wednesdays. It’s been so good going back through the book of 1st Samuel. Last week, we looked at chapter 13, the character flaws of Saul, and how God just spoke to us through that. It’s just been so good going through the Word of God.

Father, thank you again that you have been so gracious and kind to us, to give us your Word and to guide us through this life. We need you this morning to speak into our hearts, give us ears to hear, a heart to understand, and a will to want to obey your Word. Help us, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Acts chapter 20, looking at verses 25 to 28. The title of this message is "Your Last Words, Part 1." There is a book called *The Last Words of Saints and Sinners*. It records the last words people have said just before they died. You’ll be amazed at the things that are on the hearts of people just before they are about to leave this earth.

Even though Paul had a few more years before he actually died, these are the last words to the people he is addressing here. What’s on his heart? What does he say to them? This is the subject of these verses. Now, by way of background, the last time we were together, we sat in on the first pastors' leaders conference Paul was having with the elders from the city of Ephesus.

He told them in verse 19 to make sure that they were serving the Lord and not people. Do this with humility. He told them that they would shed many tears when they served God’s people, and they would experience many trials as well. He told them in verse 20 not to hold back anything in serving God’s people, teaching them publicly and privately from house to house.

He told them how God showed him that he would experience some difficult times in Jerusalem. But he said in verse 24, "None of these things move me, nor do I count my life dear to myself," so that he could finish the ministry God had given him with joy. Now we pick up the story in verse 25. He says, "And indeed, now I know that you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, will see my face no more."

I want to draw your attention to the phrase "see my face no more." Paul knew that he would not see them again, so he pours out his heart to them. I believe that this is how we should treat each day like it is our last, that those in our lives will see our faces no more. Do you want to know why? Because one day it will be our last.

This means that we should love our spouses and our children like it’s our last. We should teach the children in the children’s ministry and the teens in the teen church like it is our last time and they will see your face no more. I am to teach you God’s Word like it is my last time and you will see my face no more. I say this because tragedy can strike and we’re gone into eternity.

Every day there is something scrolling on my news feed or something on the news about some tragedy somewhere in this city. I’m sure they didn’t wake up saying, "This is my last day." But every time we wake up, it could be someone’s last day. Tragedy can strike any of us, and therefore we should always be mindful of eternity every day. So often we are so mindful of that which is temporary that we lose sight of that which is eternal.

And here is the thing that Paul is trying to get them to see. This is why he said what he said in verse 26: "Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men." This statement refers to Ezekiel chapter 3 and verse 18, where God told Ezekiel, "I have given you a message to tell my people so they can believe in me and walk in my ways. If you don’t tell them, Ezekiel, their blood will be upon your hands."

So here is Paul picking up on this principle by saying, "I am innocent of the blood of all men." In other words, my hands don’t have blood on them concerning you. This is a word to us as parents. Do you have blood on your hands as parents? Are we innocent or guilty when it comes to teaching our children about the things of God?

I keep saying this, and I think somebody really needs to hear it because this is probably the third week that I’ve mentioned some form of what I’m about to say. Please don't think that you're going to put it all on us at the church to teach your children. No, we're only a supplement to what you are doing. We have them maybe one hour on a Sunday, and that's if you don't have anything else pressing.

That's if nothing else is going on, if the kid doesn't have something going on, or your finger hurts, or you stub your toe. Whatever. And you didn't come to church. We maybe have them one time on a Sunday, maybe. That's if you come. The rest of the time, you have those children and the school system. You have them the rest of the time.

So what should we teach our children if that's the case? Verse 27 says, "For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God." Paul tells them that he had not shunned to declare to them the whole counsel of God. The Greek word for shunned is *hupostello*. I mentioned that word before. It's the same Greek word used in verse 20 for "held back." Once again, it means to keep back, hold back, shrink, or cower.

Please don't shrink back or hold back from teaching people God's Word out of fear it might offend somebody. Don't shrink back because you don't know how to teach God's people the Word of God because you feel inadequate. Don't shrink back because of that. You know what you need to do? You need to learn. You can learn anything else. You learn those manuals on your job and all that kind of stuff.

You can learn how to teach the Word of God. You can easily be like the blind man in John chapter 9. He said, "All I know is I was blind, but now I see." If that’s all you know, then you teach it. When I first got saved and the Lord was first working in my life, all I knew was I was blind but now I see, and I tried to teach people about that. I wasn't very good at it, but as time went on, I learned how to get better.

Here's the thing. No matter what you're shrinking back or holding back or cowering from, those are not valid excuses for keeping blood from being on your hands. That's what I'm trying to get us to see. No matter what you say is your excuse—I'm inadequate, I don't know God's Word, I can't teach it—those are invalid excuses. Meaning those things won't keep the blood of your families from being on your hands, fathers and single parents. It won't keep that blood. That blood will still be there.

This is why I believe that we as Christians should know the Bible from cover to cover. We should at least read the Bible through once a year. I just think that that's Christianity 101. One of the questions that comes all the time is, "I'm a Christian, but I don't read the Bible." I don't get that. I don't understand that kind of Christianity. How can you not read about the one who loves you so?

How can you not read about the one who paid the ultimate price for you? I don't get this "I'm a Christian, but I don't read the Bible." My head just blew right off. I had such a desire and an earnestness to devour, not just read, devour the Word of God when I first got saved. I wanted to get to know him because the more you know him, the more you love him. I wanted to do just that.

It's real simple. It’s not rocket science, even though we have a rocket scientist at our church, but it's not that. All you've got to do is, let's say you read two chapters in the Old Testament in the morning and two chapters of the New Testament in the evening. At the end of one year, you would have read through the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice, just by reading two little chapters in the morning and two little chapters in the evening.

I just think that this is basic 101 Christianity, that we all should just read through the Bible. My wife tells me all the time, "Everybody's not like you." I understand. I can only use me as an example. Who else can I use as an example? I can only use me. This is simple stuff. As we read through the Bible once a year, I was thinking about as our church were reading through Proverbs as we're going through our fasting and praying in January.

And we’re reading through the book of Proverbs. It’s been good just to see you all posting that wisdom. For some of you, this is going to be the first book of the Bible you ever read through. That hit me the other day, and I just said, "Wow." If you're a new Christian, I understand. I'm like, "Okay, all right, good." Amen. That's one book you read; there are 65 others. But for some of you, you've been claiming to be a Christian for years.

I say this because how are you going to teach people the whole counsel of God when you don't know it yourself? When my children were young, I read them the children's Bible through, you heard me say this many times, at least 8 to 10 times. And as they got older, we graduated to the adult Bible. I taught them Bible verses. I mentioned this last week. Around the time my daughter was five years old, she had around 50 scriptures memorized.

I taught them at least three sets of ABC scriptures. Tony Jr. knew Psalm 23 at two years old. He was like a little sideshow for us. "Okay, Tony, go ahead and quote Psalm 23." "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters." There you go. And I was like this at two years old. Don't tell me they can't learn.

They can learn those silly little cartoons that you have them watching. They can learn all those silly little songs. I'm seeing them on videos of two-year-olds dropping it like it's hot and all this kind of stuff, fooling around. They can learn. They can learn this Word. I'm innocent of the blood of my children, for I have not shunned, held back, shrunk back, or cowered back from giving them the whole counsel of God. I don't have the blood of my children on my hands. I taught them God's Word. I did my job.

But what about you? I'm innocent of the blood of this church. Because in 1999, I'll never forget the day, we were in the old building off of Route 17 at the time. We were in York County. I had just finished teaching the Old Testament book of Malachi, which is the last book of the Old Testament. I looked at the people of our church at that time and I quoted this verse. I said I'm innocent of the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.

Now, before condemnation sets in, you can be forgiven. You can get the blood of your families, the blood of your children off of your hands by just confessing you've sinned against God. You've blown it. 1st John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." You can get that blood washed off with the blood of Jesus.

He can forgive you for fooling around and not declaring to your children the whole counsel of God. Another reason why we need to give people the whole counsel of God is because he is the ultimate Counselor. Isaiah 9:6 says Jesus shall be called Wonderful Counselor. Jesus said in Hebrews 10:7, "In the volume of the book it is written of me." Also in John 5:39, Jesus says, "Search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; these are they which testify of me."

In other words, the scriptures, all 31,104 verses, testify of Jesus. So as we give people the Word of God—I talked about this when we had our question and answer period on Wednesday night a few Wednesdays ago—as we teach the whole counsel of God and all of the scriptures are about Jesus, who is our Wonderful Counselor, then our Wonderful Counselor is counseling and ministering to his people.

This is why our church doesn't have a huge counseling load. Because as I teach you verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book from Genesis through Revelation, our Wonderful Counselor Jesus Christ is counseling you through all of your issues, your shortcomings, and your problems you're facing. This is such a good thing because this way you become dependent upon the Lord and not dependent upon us.

There's too much codependency that's going on in the church. The people codependent on the pastor, the pastor codependent on the people. There's too much of that mess going on. You need to be dependent upon the Lord. Let me tell you something. The mess you all got yourselves into, I can't help you. I'm going to tell you now. I can't help you. Only God can help some of you. You've got some stuff you've done.

Only God can help you all. Only God. So this is why we teach you God's Word so the Wonderful Counselor Jesus Christ can counsel you through your issues, through your problems that only he can deal with. It's beyond us. "Well, we need to go to the professional." You can go to a professional all you want, lay on anybody's couch. They aren't going to get you out of your mess either. Only God can help you. Only he can restore your soul.

Isn't that what David told us in Psalm 23? "He restores my soul." The "he," that personal pronoun, goes back to "the Lord is my shepherd" in verse 1. It makes it very clear he can restore your soul; we can't. Man cannot. Definitely a philosophy rooted in Freud cannot. Are you kidding me? Freud was a pervert if you really look at the history, and the whole psychological base is based upon Freud and Maslow and all those other guys. They can't help you with the mess you're in. No human can help you. Only God can.

So this is good that you're dependent upon the Lord and not upon us. This will cause your children to start looking to the Lord. When they are away from you, it will be the Lord and his Word that will keep them. This is key. The things you hear from your kids now that they're adults, the tomfoolery and shenanigans that they were involved in in school growing up. Before our kids left, we prayed for them before they left to go to school.

It was just madness, half asleep and praying, "Oh Lord, protect them, keep them, Lord." And now we hear it's a nice little joke the kids are laughing about. "Remember when we did this?" and we're sitting there as parents. We can't believe that they actually did those things. So it is going to be the Word of God and God that keeps them when you teach them the whole counsel of God.

Yes, we can teach them the Word of God, but here's the most important point: we must live it ourselves. This is key. Look at verse 28. It says, "Therefore take heed to yourselves and to the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood." Paul told these Ephesian elders that they had to take heed to themselves first.

Now, the Greek word for "take heed" is *prosecho*, and it means to be cautious about, to beware, or to heed. So be cautious and beware to take heed to ourselves first. This is not about being selfish. You know how people say, "Well, I've got to look out for me now." No, this is not about that. This is about being an example for people to follow.

We can teach our children all of the Bible verses we want, but don't miss this. We can erase them when we aren't living it ourselves as parents, as friends, as coworkers. You can teach them the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation, but you will erase their memory of those scriptures when you aren't living it yourself. And the way that your children will help you is they will begin to quote those verses back when you're fooling around.

"Well, didn't Jesus say you should love your wife? That wasn't very loving, Dad, what you just said to Mom." They used to tell me stuff like that. "Oh, shut up. Who taught you those scriptures?" But they were right. They were right. This means that we must be cultivating a daily personal devotional life with Jesus by reading, praying, studying, and living out the whole counsel of God that we're trying to teach others.

1st Timothy 4:12 says, "Let no one despise your youth, but be an example of the believer in word, in conduct, in faith, love, spirit, and purity." I was trying my best right before service, I was trying my best not to get too bogged down, but I just couldn't read that verse and not dig a little deeper into what's really being said. It says "let no man despise." *Kataphroneo* is the Greek word. It's not on the screen; I just got this this morning.

*Kataphroneo* is a great Greek word. It means not only not to despise, but it means to look down upon, to think little of. So let no one despise or think little of your youth. You know how adults somewhat look down on young people. "You don't know what you're talking about, young whippersnapper." What Paul is saying—because Timothy was a young pastor of the church of Ephesus—he said you're young, but don't give them a reason to look down on your youth, to think little of you because you're young.

This is why for me, I was taught old school. I was taught by a friend of mine who was older than me, who was in ministry a little bit longer than me, and I was taught a side of ministry that's still part of me today. I was taught the seriousness of the ministry, the seriousness of the call. That's why I don't play silly games. "Let's dunk the pastor." No, you ain't dunking no pastor.

You get into the tank when you throw the ball and hit the panel, he goes splashing. No, I don't play those games. I don't run around picnics with water balloons for you to throw. I don't do that stuff. Because when I was in ministry, I was called into ministry, I was saved at 19, I was called at 20. So I was young, and I was at an older church where everybody was almost 60 and above, and I didn't want to give them a reason to despise, to think little of my youth. When I came across this, I understood.

So let no man despise or look upon your youth, but be an example. *Tupos* is the Greek word, not Tupac. *Tupos*. It means a mark or an impression. It means an imprint. So be an imprint of the believers in word, that means be an example in word or in your speech. Be an example of the believer in your speech. People should say to you what they said to Peter: "Your speech betrays you." The way you talk, you show that you’re a believer.

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