Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: Paul was no stranger to trouble. One of the things I want to make sure you understand: the more you take up this calling that I'm telling you that you have, you do your ministry and try to serve the Lord, don't be shocked if you go through trials and temptations. It goes with the territory.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador reminds us along with persecution is God's promise of eternal fruit. Satan is not going to be really happy if you are serving the Lord with all humility of mind and just doing this ministry the Lord's called you to.

Paul faithfully proclaimed faith in Jesus Christ, giving us a powerful example of selfless Christian service. In Acts chapter 20, he reflects on his ministry among the Ephesians, serving with humility and perseverance, never holding back from teaching them what they needed to hear. Pastor Brett Meador considers the passage in today's word, a helpful teaching for us as well.

Brett Meador: One of the things that we've been studying in the book of Acts is we've been watching Paul the Apostle, and he's ministering. He's going from town to town, loving on people, preaching the gospel. He's going through all kinds of troubles and trials, but he's there because he's wanting to share the good news. That's one of the main ministries you all have, is to share the gospel. That is repentance—that we repent of our sin—and to believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of God, who died on the cross for the sins of the world. That's your number one ministry.

And Paul says something that's going to be super important for you and me because Paul's going to give a little lesson on how to minister to people. This is a treasure trove for anybody who wants to be a good minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's here in Acts chapter 20 verses 17 through 21. Let's take a look. It's our goal to look at Paul's seven attributes of his character, of his ministry, seven things of how to minister and then also we end with what you're supposed to minister. It's all right here in these few verses.

The first thing that Paul says, he says, "You know what manner I've been with you," verse 19, "serving the Lord." Stop right there. This is giant. Number one on your list, if you're taking down notes, number one: serving the Lord. I was fortunate enough as a young minister to have a mentor come to me and say, "Brett, whatever you do, don't serve the people, don't serve the church, don't serve this, that, or the other thing. Your job is to serve the Lord."

Paul, this is huge. I can't stress this enough. Serving the Lord. Now, the word serving here is the Greek word "douleuo", which is a verb, an action word, but it comes from the noun "doulos". You say, "What's that?" Well, "douleuo" is the verb. It means the act of serving. So Paul says, "You know how I came? I was serving you."

But I want you to know that root word "douleuo" comes from the noun that we read like when Paul says in Romans 1:1, "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle." The word servant there is where that original word "doulos" is. And that's an interesting word. It means literally a slave.

And most of the time it just means a slave. But the word "doulos" in the New Testament also has another thing that's kind of cool about it. You could be a slave by choice. That's why we call a bondman or a man of servile condition. The bondslave is different than just a regular old slave. A bondslave is a slave by choice.

Now, you might say, "Who in their right mind would want to?" Well, this happened all the time in Bible times. If you were an Amalekite and you attacked Jerusalem and you're the only one alive, and so a person takes you into their home and you're a slave, if they treat you kindly for six years and almost make you like part of the family and win you over, there were many instances where that person would say, "Man, I don't want to go anywhere. I want to be part of this family the rest of my life and I'll work for this family."

There were many instances where that person would say, "Man, I don't want to go anywhere. I want to be part of this family the rest of my life and I'll work for this family." So they would take the person, put their earlobe on the doorjamb, and they'd put a nail through the earlobe. And then they would put a ring in the ear of that person that would mark them as a "doulos", a bondservant by choice.

And they would stay with that family by choice. And the reason this is so important is because when Paul uses this word "serving the Lord", it's the same real word as this slave by choice. Throughout the New Testament, the word bondservant, "doulos", slave, servant, is applied metaphorically to someone who's absolutely devoted to Jesus Christ.

It's interesting. Paul, all these guys use the "doulos" word. "I am a doulos." Paul used it, Timothy, James, Peter, and Jude all said, "We are a doulos of Christ" and describing themselves as a bondservant of Christ. So this is what Paul's saying. Now, this is really huge because when you're serving the Lord, you have to realize I'm a slave by choice.

Paul, the perfect example, he was a "doulos". "I am a slave of Christ." And then he goes on and it really goes in hand with the second thing. So, number one, you need to have that serving the Lord, not serving a congregation or people, having that humble servant. But it goes right into the next thing. Number two, he says "serving the Lord with all humility of mind".

There's a difference between having humility externally, but really true humility that's in your mind and heart. That means having an accurate assessment of oneself, that you're humble, that you know you're a sinner. Serving the Lord with humility of mind. Humility is a tricky topic, isn't it? Because once you have humility, you've lost it. "I think I'm humble now. Ha, ha." Oh.

Humility is a tricky topic, isn't it? Because once you have humility, you've lost it. "I think I'm humble now. Ha, ha." Oh. As soon as you have humility, it's gone. So humility of mind, it's not humility in your actions as much as it's humility in your words, in your mind. It's a real genuine humility. It's an accurate assessment of oneself. Our culture is against this, by the way. Your elementary school tells you you're a good person, you're smart enough, you're good enough, you need to build your self-esteem. No, the Bible says no, no, no.

The Bible says no man ever hated his own flesh. We all love and nurture it and cherish it because we care all about ourselves. But the Bible says think on the things of others, prefer others before yourself. Humility of mind means truly esteeming others better than oneself. Philippians 2:3 says humility of mind does not find fault in other people, but realizes you're the one with the fault, you're the one with the sins. Instead, the humility of mind finds fruit and whatever they can approve what's excellent in others.

I'm not talking about not calling out sin and lovingly speaking truthful things. I'm just saying you don't fault-find. Are you a fault-finder or a sin-sniffer? I hope you're not that because that's not this humility of mind. You need to pick out the beam that's in your own eye before you pick out the speck in your brother's eye, Jesus said.

There needs to be a real humility of understanding that, man, I'm a wretched, miserable sinner. This is really important to understand that. I love it. So far we have number one, serving the Lord. Number two, with humility of mind. Number three, with many tears. This is Paul explaining his ministry and how he came to the people of Ephesus. He came with many tears.

He came with many tears. Why? Was he crying because they beat him up so much? No. He was weeping over the city because he was heartbroken for a pagan city. Ephesus was a giant city. It was a beautiful, wealthy city. It's the first archaeological dig where they've found a giant bank vault.

Why did they have a giant bank vault in Ephesus? Because people traveled from all over the world with tons of money so that they could worship the goddess Diana, which brought so much money to the town. They were just stinking rich there in Ephesus. But Paul comes into Ephesus and he's heartbroken seeing the paganism and the ugly sinfulness of Ephesus.

And he had a tearful entry. He says, "You know how I came to you? I came with you serving the Lord, humility of mind, but I was shedding tears for you guys." What do you do? Do you shed tears or do you scream, "You're a bunch of idiots"? One thing I've really been saddened by, see, there's this thing as Christians: yes, we need to stand on what is true. You can try to be loving to everybody, but if you don't have truth, it's not real love.

One thing I've really been saddened by, see, there's this thing as Christians: yes, we need to stand on what is true. You can try to be loving to everybody, but if you don't have truth, it's not real love. So I get there's another side of this coin. But I also see that a lot of so-called Christians—maybe they are, maybe they aren't, I don't know—but how we've become so politicized with ideologies. "You're wrong, I'm right," and there's a real hatred and vitriol toward people that disagree with you in your worldview.

Question: did the Ephesian people agree with Paul's worldview? Not even close. The Ephesians hated Paul's worldview and they wanted to kill Paul. But Paul saw those people and he didn't say, "You guys are on the wrong side of the aisle. You guys are a bunch of idiots." What's our heart? So we're talking about Paul walking into Ephesus with tears flowing. How did Jesus come to Jerusalem?

He came with tears flowing. That's what Jesus did. It says there in Luke chapter 19 verse 41 when Jesus was come near, he beheld the city of Jerusalem and wept over it. He didn't say, "Jerusalem tards." Because you're an ordained minister, you can't afford to go around calling people names. You need to go around with a heart that's broken for the unsaved, and so do I.

Churches need to do that. It's tricky because we're being yelled at and screamed at so badly we feel like we have license to yell and scream at other people. But that's not what we're called to do. Many tears, that's important. Jesus wept. Jeremiah wept. That's why they thought Jesus was Jeremiah, I think, because Jesus wept over Jerusalem.

Remember Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus. There's everybody weeping and why was Jesus weeping? He knew he was about to raise Lazarus from the dead. He even told the disciples that. He knew he was going to—like he should have walked up, "This is going to be awesome, you guys." Everybody's like—he's like, "No, no, no, it's awesome. Wait, wait, just wait." He didn't do that.

Jesus just stood there and wept. Why did Jesus weep at the tomb of Lazarus? You know, I think it could be because he's going to bring him back to life. He's like, "Oh, poor Lazarus, he's already in heaven. I got to bring him back. Oh, man, poor—sorry, Lazarus. Lazarus, come forth." No, it could be that.

I think maybe if you kind of compare scripture with scripture, the Bible tells us we're supposed to weep with those that weep. And I think that's what Jesus is really doing there. He walks up to the tomb of Lazarus, everybody's weeping, Mary and Martha are weeping, and Jesus is hurting because they're hurting. And he's got a tearful ministry.

God forbid you have a tearless ministry, that you don't have any compassion. That's the idea. So: serving the Lord, humility of mind, many tears. Number four, "with temptations", it says there, "and temptations which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews". So the Jews were his biggest enemies. The more he preached, the more the Jews hated him.

And I think your ESV says "trials", right? Newer translation says "there are many trials". Well, which one is it, trials or temptations? The answer's yes. Because the Greek word for this talks about trials and temptations kind of in a one-thought thing. In other words, you're going through such trials you're tempted to bail, you're tempted to give up, you're tempted to not do what you're doing because of the trials you're going through.

Had Paul gone through some trials thus far in his ministry? Was he ever let down in ministry? We've seen him. By the end of this story, we're going to see Paul bitten by a viper, crashed and shipwrecked many times. He's going to have whippings with a flagellum on his back over and over again. He's going to be chained and beaten and put in a dungeon.

Poor Paul, like he's got a tough day at the office every single day. He says, "I've been through a lot of trials." And the temptation part of it, tempted to just bail. It'd be easier for me to go sit on the beach over in Caesarea Maritima and just chill out. But Paul, he says, "I came to you serving the Lord with humility of mind and many tears but also lots of trials."

Paul was no stranger to trouble. And one of the things I want to make sure you understand: the more you take up this calling that I'm telling you that you have, that you're an ordained minister, is don't be shocked, the more you do your ministry and try to serve the Lord, don't be shocked if you go through trials and temptations. It goes with the territory.

Satan is not going to be really happy if you are serving the Lord with all humility of mind and just doing this ministry the Lord's called you to. And by the way, don't you love God's promises in his word? I love his promises. Here's a wonderful promise. Here's a great promise of the Lord. This is a promise of the scripture: "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."

Stick that one to your mirror. Oh, we love to put the one on the mirror, we're memorizing, "My God shall supply all of his needs according to his riches in glory." All your needs according to—like we love those promises, supplying and strengthening, and the Lord will build you up and "I'll never leave you or forsake you." Oh, those are good. But this is also a promise. If you live godly in Christ Jesus, you're going to suffer persecution.

And Paul said, "Man, I've been through that." Well then, Brett, why should I be a minister if I'm going to go through trials? Because it's not about you going through trials, it's about bringing forth eternal fruit that's going to last for all of eternity. This is boot camp. Life here on this earth is boot camp. And as a servant of the Lord, we should tire ourselves out serving Christ.

Even if it means trials and troubles and tribulation, and really and not shy away from that. Paul says it's going to happen. I came to you with trials. Do you think these elders later on are going to face trials? Well, we already saw that, by the way, if you remember. So don't be afraid of the trials. The Lord will strengthen you in those trials, but that's part of the deal.

You know, Paul kept his eyes on the prize. He didn't get his eyes on, "Wow, they beat me up over here." Talk about being let down in ministry. Remember in Acts chapter 9 right around verse 25? They were going to kill Paul in Lystra. So they take Paul and put him in a basket and they throw him over the side of the wall and start lowering with a rope in a basket on the side of the wall.

Talk about being let down in ministry. I mean, I wonder what was going through Paul's mind. He's in the basket. He thought he went in to—"I'm going to be a preacher of the gospel to the Gentiles. It's going to be awesome and many shall become saved." Now he finds himself in a basket and I wonder what he's thinking as they're at nighttime as he's just being let down literally in a basket.

I wonder if he thought, "I'm giving it up, man. I'm done with—I'm in a basket. I used to be a Pharisee of all Pharisees. People used to respect me. Now I'm lowering in a basket. Talk about a basket case." I mean, that's what I'd be thinking if I were in a basket being lowered. "I'm a basket case. Look at me." But that didn't stop Paul. Paul would eventually go back into that city and preach the gospel.

That's what you and I—Paul's a great example. So, we got number one, serving the Lord. Number two, with humility of mind. Number three, many tears, with temptations, number four. And then he says, "And I have kept back," verse 20, "kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and taught you publicly". See, this keeping back nothing means that he told them everything.

Everything they needed to hear. Sharing everything, keeping nothing back even if it hurts, even if the people didn't want to hear it, Paul would still share it. Now, how could he do this? How could Paul share the hard things? Sometimes in ministry you need to tell people things that they don't want to hear. That happens to me all the time. Some of you maybe notice it, some of you maybe don't.

A couple weeks ago, a guy got up right over here and walked out as you guys were sitting there listening to the sermon. I'm going to go, "Oh, God bless you, my brother." Did I say, "Loser"? No. My heart breaks, my heart breaks for that guy. But sometimes in ministry, you need to tell people things they don't want to hear. But how do you do that rightfully?

I think you have to first of all serve the Lord. You care about what the Lord thinks. With humility of mind, with many tears, which speaks of compassion and love. So when we talk about the difficult subjects, hopefully the people you're ministering to know it's coming from a heart of compassion and love. I pray for that for me. I don't think I always do that as well as I should.

I try to let people know, man, I'm trying to share you with the word. It's not my opinion. This is what the Bible says. But you also have to speak with power and authority. Like it's a tricky thing, but that's what we're called to do. Hold nothing back. The idea here is love. Preaching with love. And by the way, if you're a mom or dad and you have a ministry at home, this is a big one. Number five.

Don't hold things back. Too many parents want to be their kids' buddy. "Oh, you're my little buddy," and you don't tell them, "No, you need to go this way, not that way," or "Stop doing this, start doing that." You still need to be the parent. That's true with ministry. Some churches you'll never hear about the reality of hell and God's wrath and that he's righteous and he requires righteousness. It's amazing how many churches won't tell them the whole scriptures.

That's why Paul says I've kept nothing—look at verse 27 of this same chapter. He says later on to these elders, "For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." That's the whole Bible. That's why Athey Creek goes verse by verse. And I'm always amazed when people are offended because they walk out, "I don't like what Brett said."

Well, hopefully what I'm saying is really not just me. Hopefully it's actually what we're reading right here in our Bible. That's why we go through the Bible. Because what I say doesn't matter, but what the Bible says. If you've got a problem with what I'm saying, hopefully it's actually you're aware that you actually have a problem with what the Bible is saying. I'm always amazed how people try—they don't want to admit they're against God.

Rather, it's so much more comfortable saying, "I don't like Brett, he's a jerk." That's easy because that's true. The Bible is actually right and God's holy word. So we got to give the whole thing. Now I'm going to pack two into one more, so I have seven altogether. Number six and seven: he says "I have showed you and have taught you".

I put those as separate because they should be separate, but they do kind of go together. If you try to do number seven without number six, you will fail. You have to show first. Notice the order. Paul says, "Man, I didn't hold anything back from the word," but notice that "I have showed you and have taught you". So teaching is important. By the way, if you're a disciple of Christ, a follower, an ordained minister, you have to teach but you also have to show.

Brett, I don't want to do what you're doing in front of a crowd. No, I'm talking about one on one. You need to teach your coworker, the person that goes to school with you. You need to teach them the things that God says in his word. You may not sit on a stool and teach or behind a pulpit or whatever, but when you're talking at lunchtime with your buddy, that's an opportunity to teach. But you know what? You'll be undermined if you don't show first.

I remember my dad fired a guy once. We were on a church project. My dad reluctantly started building a church building. He normally would build bridges, dams, giant schools and buildings. But he took a job to build a church. There were a bunch of church guys that wanted to get hired and stuff. But my dad, you know, he kind of ran the job.

But I remember this one guy. He would walk around with his nail bags and he was supposed to be one of the workers. But he would just go around fellowshipping with guys and he was real lazy. And everybody knew, "That's the guy that doesn't get any work done." But he'd walk around singing praise songs on the job and he'd go around saying, "Do you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior?" and all that stuff.

But he never got anything done. Everybody knew him to be the laziest guy on the job. Eventually my dad just said, "You can collect your check at the end of the day and down the road, dude." "But I'm a Christian, how could you do that?" And my dad would say, "It's because you're a Christian you should have been a good worker. You're supposed to give honor to your employers and you're supposed to show before you tell."

Like my dad saw this guy was the worst testimony of what a Christian looks like that he ever did see. My dad would say the guy that was the hardest working guy on the job, the guy that knew how to do stuff, was skilled and talented—now once that guy, after work, people want to know what he thinks about stuff in life because he's first showed that he's legit before he was tried to teach anything.

Be careful, Christian. If you're called to Christ, you want to show in your life. If you're there cussing and partying down and at the water cooler telling dirty jokes and then you're like, "But do you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior?" That'll just make people think, "What? You're not showing, but you're trying to tell." Paul said, "I have both showed and I have taught you."

So if you're messing around with sin, don't be shocked if your ministry becomes really not as valid. We're all sinners, but I'm talking about just taking and not even being convicted in your own heart of sin. By the way, this is true—a big one for parents: if you want your kids to be spiritual and deep, you need to be spiritual and deep. If you don't want your kids smoking weed, you shouldn't be smoking weed.

If you want your kids to love Jesus, you need to love Jesus. And you know what? Your kids will only be willing to go as deep as you're willing to go, mom and dad. This list here is giant. Sadly, a lot of you that are in this ministry, whether you know it or not, you're still wanting to just learn stuff and you're not even teaching anybody anything.

It reminds me of when the author of Hebrews—possibly Paul, I think it might have been Paul—Hebrews 5:12, he says kind of with an exasperation, "For the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God." Like Christianity 101. "And you've become such that have need of milk and not of strong meat."

Whoever wrote this is saying, "You're like a breastfeeding baby when you should be going down to Ruth's Chris and having a ribeye with the bone in." Now this is a life verse for me; I love the ribeye steak illustration. That's great. If you're a vegan, you're not having the milk and you should be having your tofu. No, I'm just kidding. The Bible doesn't say that.

What the point is this: that when you should be teaching—that is instructing others, here's what the Bible says—you're still drinking the milk. How do you fix that? Study the word. Be students of scripture. Go into the Bible and learn so that you can go and share. And so you can first show and then you can teach. This list is huge and powerful.

I would say memorize it. You could memorize this 17 through 21. So, Brett, if I do all these things: serving the Lord, humility of mind, many tears, temptations, keep back nothing, showing and then telling, what am I doing? What's the job description? That's verse 21. Paul said I did all of that stuff to—verse 21—testify.

Testify both to the Jews and to the Greeks. That's anyone with a pulse. That's anyone in the world. And I'm going to do that, teach, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what you and I should be about, too. That's the gospel. We have to teach repentance. That's to acknowledge your sin before God and then have faith in Christ Jesus.

That's to believe that Jesus died on the cross, rose from the grave, and will forgive you for your sins if you accept and believe Jesus Christ you'll be saved, forgiven, and you get to go to heaven. This is what we should do all these things for the purpose of preaching the gospel. May that be true here in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador closing with some great encouragement from today's word, for all who are students of the scripture to be effective witnesses unto the Lord. And he'll be back to close our message in prayer so I hope you'll stick around for that. But first, Brett Meador is the senior pastor of Athey Creek Church just outside of Portland, Oregon.

Each episode of Today's Word Radio serves to enrich your understanding of God's word and support your ongoing spiritual journey. If you've missed any portion of our time today, you'll find all of Pastor Brett's messages online at todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com.

I also want to mention that if you'd like to share your story of how God has changed your life through these verse-by-verse daily studies, you can email us at info@todayswordradio.com. That's info@todayswordradio.com. Well, with just enough time to close in prayer, here again is Pastor Brett Meador.

Brett Meador: Lord, I pray blessing upon these your people as we go. May this word settle in our hearts and I pray that we'd not just be hearers, but doers of your word. Lord, if there be anyone here who's not repented of their sins, would you just stir their hearts that they might accept and believe and be saved? So we go our way rejoicing in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador at the close of our program here on today's word. And that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will examine the Apostle Paul completing his third missionary journey, encouraging believers and instructing the elders on things concerning the church. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.