Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: I love Paul's attitude. It should be ours. "Behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there."

Kurt: Pastor Brett Meador and the meaning of literally stepping out in faith.

Brett Meador: I love how Paul says, "I'm going without knowing." Sometimes the Lord requires you to do something and you don't really know all the details. In fact, sometimes the Lord steers you in a direction like, "Okay, Lord, I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm going." Going without knowing is common in ministry and serving the Lord.

Kurt: The rioting experienced in Acts chapter 19 had convinced Paul to move on from Ephesus. So, he set sail for Macedonia. Though discipling believers along the way is what Paul is described doing, Pastor Brett Meador can't help but notice his life clearly preached as well. More of his verse-by-verse account of Paul's final missionary journey coming up in today's word.

Brett Meador: Acts 20, great chapter we have in front of us here, especially if you're one who's in the ministry. But if you're a Christian and you believe in Jesus, you're all in the ministry. Congratulations, I might add. We're all here to understand that we're in the ministry.

But it's true that Paul was a minister's minister. I love this. This is Paul's missionary's journey we've been studying, and this is the third one here in Acts chapter 20. We start off with verses one through five, saying goodbye to all these people he's poured time, energy, and effort into them, and there's kind of this sad farewell journey. So, that's verses one through five.

But now we have a farewell dinner in verses six through 12. It says there in verse six, "And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days, where we abode seven days. And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued his speech until midnight. And there were many lights in the upper chamber where they were gathered together."

So, we have a farewell journey and then a farewell dinner, number two. What's this dinner? Well, Paul's teaching after dinner and he goes until midnight. Why is he teaching so long? Probably because it's the last time he's going to see these guys and they're more than willing to hang out with Paul and hear his last sermons and teaching.

By the way, remember this is what they did in the early church. In Acts 2:42, they continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine—that's teaching—fellowship one with another, koinonia, the breaking of bread, and in prayers. That's what the church did steadfastly.

We're seeing that sort of here before we even think about Acts 2:42. But the church in large can continue in so many other things than these four things that are listed and actually get off course. If the greater church gets too into things that are not really part of the basic four and they miss the basic four—the apostle's doctrine, teaching, koinonia or fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers—those are the big four. A church needs to make sure those are a part of their church life.

Now, it says there in verse eight, in the room there that they were in, the upper chamber, upstairs, they were gathered together. It's kind of interesting because it mentions the lighting situation. Does God care about lighting? A lot of people say churches are so into their lighting and stuff and you do have a biblical case for lighting right here. It says verse eight, "And there were many lights in the upper chamber where they were gathered together."

Why did they say that there were so many lamps in there? Maybe just to tell us the mood, but probably to tell us why the next verse happens. Have you ever been into a really well-lit room with candles, all the lights off but lots of candles? It sucks the oxygen out of the room. That's the problem. I wonder if that's part of why this happens. Maybe this is why that's explained here in verse eight, because verse nine says, "And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep."

His name, by the way, means "fortunate," of all things. "Being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with a sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead." That's a tough sermon right there. I mean, the guy's snoring in the window and falls down three levels to hit the ground and he dies.

It says in verse 10, "And Paul went down"—to the ground level—"and fell on him, and embracing him said, 'Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him.'" Now, some people say, well, he wasn't completely dead. He just got the wind knocked out of him or something like that. No, the Bible says he was dead. Then Paul comes and talks kind of like Jesus. Remember Jesus would say, "Lazarus is sleeping"? Well, he was dead and Jesus would raise him from the dead.

So Eutychus is dead. Paul's on top of him. He says he's dead, but he's not dead-dead, if you're a *Princess Bride* fan. Anyway, this farewell dinner has become quite an event. Nice dinner, nice communion time, nice preaching of Paul, and then suddenly a guy dies falling out the window.

But notice what happens here. It says in verse 11, "When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed." So, Paul goes back to more preaching after this guy's raised from the dead. Have you ever noticed what's the first thing dead people that are risen—what's the first thing they want? Food. Amen.

What's that all about? Well, if we go back to our spiritual example there, the spiritually dead, have you ever noticed how a person who is spiritually dead and then is born again, how they get really hungry for the Word? They have an appetite for the Word of God. I think that's something we have to remember too. As churches, a lot of times they evangelize, but they don't then feed them with the Word of God.

What's the best discipleship program? That's debated. Man, there's podcasts on discipleship and books that have been written about discipleship. Here's the thing. I've been a part of just about every kind of discipleship you can imagine. I've discipled people in prison. I've discipled people in other countries, as kind of short-term mission in Africa and Honduras and the South Pacific and really around lots of places in the world. I've been able to teach and share the Bible and disciple. I've done a lot of one-on-one discipleship in my younger years particularly.

All those are possibilities. But I'm kind of convinced that the Lord might have a church or a ministry, or you personally, do discipleship in any way, shape, or form. I think there's different forms of discipleship. Be careful not to dismiss those various forms of discipleship. People say, "This is the way it has to look," and I've seen good discipleship come in various forms.

Can I just tell you for me personally, the most effective discipleship I've been a part of? For my own personal discipleship but also in my own personal ministry, I've seen it in two ways, and that is simply Bible study. I think discipleship can be one-on-one, but it really can be just teaching the Bible.

I think Paul is discipling this little group in Troas and he's sharing the Word with them in a group, and there's a discipleship that's going on there. You say, how could you disciple all those 1,500, 2,000 people on a Wednesday night Bible study? How could you do that? Well, I believe as we go through the Bible, it's the Holy Spirit discipling us through the Word.

How was I discipled? My mentor pastor that I got to grow up with, he spent several meetings with me over the years, but mostly it was watching him and the elders around me ministering, how guys ministered. Then also I'm so thankful for the discipling in the Word, Wednesday night Bible study that I got from the time I was 10 years old until the time I was 30 before I started the church here. I was discipled for 20 years, going through the Bible twice with my pastor. That was super discipling. I'm really thankful for that.

Well, it says because of all that, they were there even until the morning, the break of day, and then he leaves. Verse 12, I love this, it says, "And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted." That means they were a lot comforted, which is kind of cool. Can you imagine seeing the dead guy rise from the ground and seeing Paul go away, going, "Wow, what a night"? Communion, Paul's preaching, Eutychus dies, he raises him from the dead, and there's Paul walking off into the sunrise in the morning. What a scene. I love that.

So, we've had number one, a farewell journey, number two, a farewell dinner, and now we get to the crux of this chapter, a farewell message. That's verses 13 through 38 to the end here. But what we're going to see is basically Paul's going now from where the Eutychus, Mr. Fortunate, died and was raised again. We're going to see him go from Troas. Now he's going to go below Ephesus, down to Miletus. He does make a few stops we know from other passages in the Bible, which is kind of interesting if you kind of watch where he hops around. But basically, Acts kind of gets us to where he gets to Miletus. This is where Paul's going to send word to the elders at the church of Ephesus.

Let's read. It says in verse 13, "And he went before to ship, and sailed unto Assos, there intending to take in Paul: for so had he appointed, minding himself to go afoot. And when he met with us at Assos, we took him in, and came to Mitylene. And we sailed thence, and came the next day over against Chios; and the next day we arrived at Samos." If you've ever been to the Greek Islands, these names sound familiar: Paros, this is also where John would be in Patmos. It's all in the same vicinity of these islands where Paul's bouncing around here.

So, it says they went to Cos, the next day verse 15 arrived at Samos, and tarried at Trogyllium; and the next day we came to Miletus. So, this is him hopping around to different places. Again, traveling a long journey. "For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus, because he would not spend the time in Asia: for he hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost." So, Paul's got a goal. He wants to get to Jerusalem by the day of Pentecost.

Verse 17, "And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called for the elders of the church. And when they were come to him, he said unto them, 'Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews: and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.'"

Who's he talking to? These are the elders. One of the things you need to remember in the church, there are offices. For you to be a real church, you need to have these offices. Now, sometimes one guy can be several of these offices. I'll show you what I mean. But if you are like a home fellowship group, you need to make sure you have elders, bishops, pastors, and deacons. I think those are the offices that are very clearly part of the church.

Evangelists are not really part of the church as much as they travel around preaching the gospel, but they also are part of the ministry for sure. But elder speaks of the mature man who's not a woman. The Bible says an elder is a man, husband of one wife, and he's also a blameless guy, doesn't have everything accusing him of a bunch of stuff. It doesn't mean he's perfect. He can make mistakes, but he has to be correctable and stuff like that.

So an elder, then you have the bishop. The bishop is also an elder. In fact, pastor, bishop, elder—you can almost use those words interchangeably in the person. They can be one guy. When I first started Athey Creek, I was kind of the pastor-elder-bishop at first, the first 10 minutes. As soon as I got men that could help come alongside of me and lead, we got elders and we got bishops. We don't call them bishops because it sounds like we're playing chess.

But bishop is the word episkopos, and the bishop is a governing elder or a ruling elder. The elder elder is given to the ministry of prayer and the Word, Acts chapter six. But the bishop is one who's decision-making through prayer and it can be a team of guys. They also are men, the bishops in the Bible, not given to women.

Pastor also given to men, interchangeable with the elder, but the word pastor means feeder of the flock. So, usually, the pastor is teaching and preaching, caring for, shepherding the congregation. Then there's the deacon. Now, that can be a male or female. We see deaconess, the word in the feminine in the New Testament.

Elder, bishop, pastor, deacon. It always cracks me up these home churches that say, "We're just not going to have a pastor because we're sick of people that try to take the leadership." But somebody surfaces. I guarantee somebody along the way will take it and be in charge because that's the way it goes.

But the Bible actually spells out who those leaders should be, male or female, given roles and responsibilities. I know there's a lot of churches that totally disagree with the Bible when it comes to women in ministry. I'm just going to say it that way. It's amazing to watch people tiptoe around the scriptures and say, "Well, that's not for today." Once you open that door—that "not for today" door—then the whole New Testament gets thrown out. Suddenly, you've got all kinds of problems theologically. God gave out the roles. He's God and you're not. We want to become God when we say we don't like the way the Bible puts it, so we're going to figure out some fancy theology to dance around having women in ministry. Don't do that.

Now, the reason I go into all that is because these are the elders. These are guys that are volunteer, not professional clergy. These are guys that are elders of each house, as we've found. But notice at the very end, verse 21, he says, "testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward sin?" No, repentance toward God. Isn't that something? We want to repent against sin, but repent toward God. That's an interesting thing. And faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. That's really the gospel that Paul is preaching there. Paul says, "You know how I did this."

But now back to this farewell message, we see verse 22. "And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me." I love how Paul says, "I'm going without knowing." Sometimes the Lord requires you to do something and you don't really know all the details. In fact, I have found that most of the time you don't know all the details. Sometimes the Lord steers you in a direction like, "Okay, Lord, I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm going." Knowing without going is common in ministry and serving the Lord.

You might not know why you're in high school right now and "Why do I have to go to this class, biology, and listen to this teacher?" But you're going without knowing. God has you there for a reason, if you're a high school student or a college student. Or if you're in the job, you're going to work without knowing really what the Lord's going to do, but you need to be open because that's the way the Lord works.

It says the Holy Ghost says that from every city Paul would go to, there are people by the spirit saying, "You're not going to do well if you go to Jerusalem." He says, "I'm going without knowing," and then these guys are saying that bonds and afflictions, verse 23, are going to be waiting for him there. Does that bother Paul, that bonds and afflictions are going to come? Check out what he says, verse 24. "But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God."

I love Paul's attitude. It should be ours. We should be unafraid, not worried about our lives. Paul, do you get a sense that Paul really could care less about his life? Like, I don't count my life dear to myself. He's already been whipped and beaten and bruised, shipwrecked, all these things we talked about earlier. Man, this guy gets knocked around day after day and he's like, "Yeah, whatever. I don't count my life dear to myself."

I had a funny buddy, Pete. He sounded like a hick, but he's kind of really smart. He's just a skinny, skinny little guy. He was over in Israel, in Jerusalem. He was always witnessing and he was always really bold in his witness. He talked real slow like this with a Southern drawl. Anyway, there was this group of guys walking in Jerusalem and they were these monsters. Like, what are these, the Philistines? These huge guys that are giants. They're muscular. They're wearing sweat outfits. They're marching.

Peter walks up and says, "Do you brothers know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior?" And the guys circled around him, said, "What are you talking about?" One guy grabbed him by the neck and said, "If you say the name of Jesus one more time, I'm going to snap your little neck." Pete said, "Well, like Paul, I do not count my life dear to myself, so I'm going to tell you about Jesus."

He was sure he was going to die. Pete told me later, "I was sure I was going to die." Because that guy said, "If you say the name of Jesus one more time, I'm going to snap your neck." He says, "Well, I'm going to tell you about Jesus." And the guys all started laughing. Peter's like, "What's so funny? I thought you were going to snap my neck." He said, "Don't you know who we are? We're the Power Team. We're the Power Team. We're Christian guys. We love Jesus." Now, this was back in the 80s, if you remember the Power Team. They're the guys that rip phone books and lift 800-pound bench presses and stuff. They were these huge guys that would go and do feats of strength to share the gospel.

It's pretty funny because how many of you have ever been in that place where literally your life is on the line? Paul's was all the time. That was his attitude. I wonder if persecution does come, you and I better start gearing up to have that mindset. We don't count our lives dear to ourselves. It's going to be so easy to cave in our culture. I wonder if our culture even has it. Even like World War II generation to go and fight the battles of World War II—that was a whole they call that the greatest generation because man, they went headfirst into some pretty radical battles. Do we even have that fortitude to do that kind of thing today? I don't know.

But I hope as Christians, we're like Paul. But I love what he does. He has that same mindset. "I'm just going to share the good news." He's testifying of the gospel of God and the grace of God. That's what we should be all about.

Verse 25, "And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more." See, there it is. Paul's—this is why we call this the farewell message, especially to these elders of Ephesus. Then he says in verse 26, "Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God."

Remember Paul spent more than two years in Ephesus sharing the whole scripture with all those people. He could say, man, I'm pure from the blood of all men. I'm not guilty. I did my best to share and it's up to those people to receive and hear the gospel. God is not really as interested, I think, in our success rate as he is: are we faithful? Are we faithfully preaching and sharing? Paul could say, man, I have faithfully shared and I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole, all the counsel of God. And that's again why we go through the Bible, verse by verse, so that we can make sure and get all of the counsel of God. It's all right here and we need to do that.

Now, it goes on and says in verse 28, "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers." Now, mark the word overseer. Remember the episkopos word I was talking about? That's the elder that's a governing elder. That's the word used there. The word overseer—or whatever word's in your newer translation there—it's episkopos. It might say bishop, but it's really that word: a governing, overseeing, administrative kind of elder there.

He says, "Take heed to the yourselves, and to all the flock, which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood." Now, this is interesting because how much of the Word did Paul share with them? All. He didn't shy away from sharing the Word.

There's a reason he wanted them to kind of carry that on. He said that "You need to be overseers and feed"—that's the word pastor, by the way, shepherd—"the church of God." So part of being an overseer is to make sure the sheep are being fed. One of the balls that's being dropped in so many churches: we're not really feeding with the meat of the Word of God and we need to do that.

But the episkopos, the elder, the overseer of the church, that's what this guy was supposed to make sure was happening. I'm so thankful for our—we have elders, deacons, episkoposes, which we call governing elders. I'm so thankful we have a good group of leaders, amazing guys and gals, really. They're leaders in our church that are really important. But how are we as leadership supposed to view the church? Jesus sets the highest level of care when he says, "You need to care for them and remember I purchased that flock of sheep with my own blood." Gulp.

See, as leaders, I remind our team of that all the time. Don't forget it. Jesus purchased all those people with his own blood. That's what it says here. God, which hath purchased this church with his own blood.

Kurt: Pastor Brett Meador pausing in a verse-by-verse study of Acts chapter 20 with Paul's emphasis for church leaders to be dedicated and godly toward their flock, considering the cost—the lifeblood of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus. There's more to come in today's word next time as well, and I invite you to stay right there as Pastor Brett will join me here in a moment. 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.

Well, Pastor Brett is with me now. You know, there are a lot of Christians who may be reluctant about sharing their faith, but when they do, perhaps they come across as being judgmental. Or on the other hand, they might be weak-kneed about confronting a subject that may be controversial in today's culture. Pastor Brett, how can we share God's truth with someone in a way that is bold, but doing it with love?

Brett Meador: Big challenge, Kurt, I'll tell you. I think our culture has sort of redefined some things that make this confusing. They think that a word of correction or a word of disagreement means hate. But actually, what we see in the scripture is the most loving words that can be said often come in the form of correction or disagreement.

Jesus was the embodiment of love, and yet he spoke of a lot of things that he was opposed to. That's something we have to remember. It's been said rightly: people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. I think that's why Jesus was able to say sharp words that were brutal, because he also presented himself as just the epitome of love.

That's what I want for myself. That's what I want for our congregation: to be able to speak the truth, but to speak it in love. Instead of starting with "You're wrong," a lot of times I'll just say, "Here's what the Lord's revealed to me and he's shown me in his Word." Sometimes you can soften the word of correction, but I still think we need to speak it and speak it clearly, speak it humbly, remembering that we're sinners also saved by grace. Keeping all that in mind, boldness doesn't necessarily mean loud; it just means faithful. I think love really matters. No matter what we say, it has to be said in love.

Kurt: That's really good, Pastor Brett. It's doing what Jesus did: speaking the truth, but with love and grace. Thank you for that. Well, if you'd like more information about this Today's Word Radio program or Pastor Brett Meador, just go to todayswordradio.com. Well, next time, Pastor Brett notes the way the Apostle Paul gave of his life, his work, and his ministry truly remains an example for the church today. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.