Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: Grace. I love the word grace. That's how we're saved. Ephesians 2:8. You're saved by grace through faith, not of yourselves. It is a gift from God. Not of your works. So this is him saying you are set apart by grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador with a reminder: the undeserved favor of God is a gift. The word "sanctified" means set apart. If you've become a Christian, you've been set apart for being saved by His grace and you get to go to heaven. This is what Paul is saying.

Paul's devotion to the Lord was clearly demonstrated in his dedication to believers he would meet. In fact, Pastor Brett Meador notes the way Paul gave of his life, his work, and his ministry truly remains an example for the church today for spreading the good news of the saving grace of God. Let's continue another verse-by-verse study in today's word of Acts chapter 20.

Brett Meador: This is Paul's missionary journeys 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, effort into them. 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 twelve.

It says there in verse six, "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. They're more than willing to hang out with Paul and hear his last sermons and teachings.

By the way, remember this is what they did at the early church. In Acts 2:42, they continued steadfastly in the apostles' 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.

So we've had number one: a farewell journey. Number two: a farewell dinner. Now we get to the crux of this chapter: a farewell message. That's verses 13 through 38 to the end here. We're going to see him go from Troas. Now he's going to go below Ephesus down 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 we went before to ship and sailed to 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.

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, 'You know from the first day that I came into you 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 showed 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. 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 and you're 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. 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's people by the Spirit saying, "You're not going to do well if you go to Jerusalem." And he says, "I'm going to go without knowing." And then these guys 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. 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."

How many of you have ever been in that place where literally your life is on the line? Paul's was all the time and 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, but I hope as Christians, we're like Paul.

I love what he does. He has that mindset: "I'm just going to share the good news." And he's testifying of the gospel of God and the grace of God. We should be all about that. 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. And then he says in verse 26, "Wherefore, I take you to a 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. 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.

It 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 episcopos word I was talking about? That's the elder that's a governing elder. That's the word used there.

He says, "Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock which the Holy Ghost has 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 and there's a reason he wanted them to 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. 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 is we're not really feeding with the meat of the Word of God, and we need to do that.

The episcopos, 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, episcoposes, 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.

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. As leaders, I remind our team of that all the time. Don't forget, Jesus purchased all those people with His own blood.

So we want to always remember that. By the way, if you're one who loves to bash the church, you're bashing the people that Jesus bought with His own blood. When I stand before God, I don't want to have to answer, "Why were you so bashing of the people that I shed My blood for?" Be careful with that.

I find it interesting where people, Christians on social media, love bashing the church or making fun of people in the church and things they do. I'll admit, church people do crazy stuff. But worldly people do crazier stuff. Hello! People are crazy. Worldly, secular, Christian—fill in all the blanks. People are crazy.

But it's easy to come down on the church of Jesus Christ. But someday, I think you'll have to answer for that if you're one who loves to pick apart the church of Jesus Christ. You got to love them because Christ purchased the church with His own blood. Have you ever had something that was really valuable because of the blood, sweat, and tears you put into it?

Maybe it was a house you built, or maybe it was a business you started from the beginning and you have kind of a love for that business because you poured into it. How much more does God care about His church? That's something we need to remember. Well, back to what we're talking about. Now there's a list here I want you to look at as we switch to Paul's message.

One of the things I want you to see is a list of three things, if you would. First of all, the past, and I want to show you that in verse 19 through 21. He's talking about how he in the past served—served the Lord with humility of mind, many tears, temptations. That's the past.

Then Paul dwells on the present, and I wanted to show you that. Verses 22 through 27 that we just read, where he said, "This is what I'm doing. I'm going to Jerusalem. I'm getting a lot of warnings not to go there, but here's where I'm going, here's what I'm doing." That's the present.

But now we go into the future of what they're supposed to do. That's where we picked it up here in verse 28. The future, verses 28 through 31, is where he's giving them instruction. "Here's how you should operate without me, in my absence. Remember, I'm not going to see you anymore. So elders, this is the final message, and don't forget these things."

The future, verses 28 through 31. Let's keep reading. He says (verse 29), after saying care for the flock which the Lord made you overseers, "For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. Therefore, watch and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn everyone night and day with tears."

Now, this is interesting because this idea of "grievous wolves" in verse 29—how do you know a wolf among the flock? Real simple: by what he eats. What is its prey? I'm not talking P-R-A-Y. What's a wolf? And question: Do we have wolves in sheep's clothing today in the church of Jesus Christ? Oh, they're countless.

This has become a rampant problem. But we're actually told here, Paul's giving the Ephesus elders, "Here's how you do it." This is not just to the elders of Ephesus. This is to the elders, pastors, bishops—what are we supposed to do? Let's review that. He says, "I know after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock."

So what do you do? "Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things." There's people that were once walking with Paul and his ministry that are now going perverse. We've seen churches in our local city here who ten years ago I would have said, "Man, go there and fellowship, get the teaching of the Word."

But as time went by, they got caught up in wokeism and started putting *White Fragility* on their front website, saying, "This is what you have to read," which is so against the gospel. *White Fragility* is such a—there's no redemption. Like if you—basically, if you're white, you are a racist and there's no redemption there. It's really sad. It's not biblical at all.

And yet churches have gone off the rails and sadly a lot of those churches, a lot of sheep have been led astray. Paul says, "Don't let these wolves come in." But you need to be careful and watch and warn. He says, "Out of your own selves will draw men away."

Therefore (verse 31), watch and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn—that means Paul was warning of false teaching and false prophets and false wolves—over and over, night and day, with tears. That's the part that's hard. You got to do it with compassion. That's (remember he said) with many tears there in verse 19. He's compassionate toward the sheep. Thus, he's defending the sheep. That's important.

You got to care about the sheep. And now (verse 32), "Brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified." So this idea of those: be cautious about false teachers.

By the way, can I remind you about the false teacher things? This is Paul talking 2,000 years ago, but do you remember we were warned also that it'd get worse? Do you remember what 1 Timothy Paul said in one of his last books? 1 Timothy 4, he said, "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times," that's the last days, "some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron."

So this is something that Paul was saying: "Timothy, you got to watch. This is going to happen as we get closer to the end." He also warned the Thessalonians: "Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come," the day of the Lord, "except there come a falling away first, and that a man of sin may be revealed, the son of perdition."

That's the Antichrist. So what happens before the Antichrist comes? By the way, the Antichrist comes during the tribulation period. That's in the future. But before that happens, there's going to be a massive falling away. That word "falling away"—interesting Greek word is apostasia, where we get our word "a massive apostasy."

A falling away, defection from the truth, apostasy, to forsake. That's what Paul says in the last days before the Antichrist comes, there's going to be an apostasia. I think we're seeing that. Some of the statistics about churches and pastors—it's sad to see the falling away. But what we're supposed to watch and warn them with tears and what have you.

Then in verse 32, he says, "But we are not going to be taken that way." But he says, "I commend you to God"—not the wolves—is what he's saying. "And to the word of his grace, which"—what is able to build you up? The word of his grace. What is his grace? Undeserved, unearned favor that God wants to give you just for free.

Grace. I love the word grace. That's how we're saved. Ephesians 2:8: "You're saved by grace through faith, not of yourselves. It is a gift from God. Not of your works, lest any man should boast." So this is him saying you are set apart by the grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.

The word "sanctified" means set apart. If you've become a Christian, you've been set apart for being saved by His grace and you get to go to heaven in the kingdom of God for all of eternity. This is what Paul is saying. And that's how they're truly built up and encouraged, edified.

He says in verse 33, "I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel." He's making sure that it's not about Paul getting all rich and wealthy and blinged out. I've not coveted that. Yet they did pay him to travel and to survive and do what he was doing, and to have meals and clothes and stuff like that.

Verse 34: "Yea, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. I have showed you all things, how that so laboring you ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

So Paul gave of his life, his work, his ministry. They helped those that were hurting and this is such a key part of the ministry that we see there. We try to do all of those things. We want to minister to the necessities of the church. It's so cool when we are able to do that.

We have a lot of single moms that struggle and we get to help them. We have people that are in poverty. One thing we do at Athey Creek, we don't like to let our left hand know what our right hand's doing, so we don't boast on our website of all the people that we help, the poor.

And yet we get hit for that all the time: "I notice there's nothing on your website about you guys helping the poor. You're just a wealthy church bash, bash, bash, bash." We're not going to toot our little horn. That's what Pharisees did. Pharisees went around doing "toot, toot, toot" when they gave money to the poor.

But there's people in our church that have really been in need and there's people outside of our church that's been in need. We help people around the world. We've helped people in Africa and in Honduras. We've helped churches build churches. We've helped in South Pacific, Santo Vanuatu.

A large percentage of our tithes and offerings goes to missional trying to reach people that are unsaved, that need help, that are in poverty. We spend a lot on that. Not boasting, just trying to say kind of what Paul's saying here: "I have not coveted a man's silver or gold. Yea, you know what these hands have done."

We've tried to minister, and Jesus was right: it is more blessed to give than receive. By the way, verse 35: some of your Bibles put that in red letters. My Bible doesn't do that, but it is the red letters of Christ there, when Jesus said that. What chapter and verse of the gospel did he say that?

This is the only place we know that he said that, but because Paul said under the inspiration of the Spirit that Jesus said this, we know that he did. Now, we end here in verse 36. It says, "And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down and prayed with them all. And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him."

"Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him to the ship." What a scene. Paul says, "I'm out. Love you guys." And they all pile on him and kiss his neck and say, "Oh, Paul, we're going to miss you and we're so sad you're never going to see us again."

And they all walked him right to the plank of the ship as Paul was getting up on the ship. What a scene this is. And this is cool. Question: How did these elders at Ephesus do? Well, we don't know for sure how these elders did.

But we know how Ephesus did. It would not be that long, 25 years later, where Jesus would write to the elders of Ephesus, the messengers of the church at Ephesus. Remember there in Revelation chapter 2, verse 1, Jesus said to the elder—the pastor—the church at Ephesus, "Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, thou hast left your first love."

Do you remember the good things that were told there? It says, "You have tried those which were false teachers." And this is what Paul was warning them. Paul warned them about the false teachers here in chapter 20 of Acts and by the Revelation challenge that Jesus gave, they're still testing.

Did you know the Ephesian church literally would give guys written tests to see if they knew the theology well enough to be considered a pastor or preacher or teacher? But sadly, historically, there was at least seven, for sure seven, guys that came out of Ephesus that became false teachers.

Do you remember Hymenaeus? 1 Timothy 1:20. Alexander, 1 Timothy 1:20. Phygellus, 2 Timothy 1:15. Hermogenes, 2 Timothy 1:15. Philetus, 2 Timothy 2:17. And Diotrephes, 3 John verse 9. These are all guys that were false teachers that came out of Ephesus.

The reason I say that is Paul gave it his best shot, and we can give it our best shot, but there's still going to be people that will depart from the faith. And sadly, Ephesus had that problem. And their big lack was that they left their first love for the Lord. Sometimes I've noticed the people that are sharpest on theology are weakest on love—loving God and loving others.

And maybe that's what happened at Ephesus. They were into their theology, but not so much in loving God. So God says, "You have left your first love for Me." And maybe for others as well. Be careful, you who love Bible study. I'm glad you're here and this is a good time to be here, but don't let love lack. You can get your theology down, but your theology without love is like a big clanging gong, 1 Corinthians chapter 13 says. May the Lord give us ears to hear what the Spirit says to the church in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador here on today's word. And that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will examine how the Apostle Paul's determination to travel to Jerusalem set him on a path toward imprisonment and possible death. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.