The Acts of the Apostles

Transcription

1 The Acts of the Apostles NT507 LESSON 17 of 24 Darrell L. Bock, Ph.D Research Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas As we resume our study of Acts in the middle of chapter 19 (19:21), we have already seen Paul minister in Ephesus and also deal with the sons of Sceva, a Jewish exorcist. Now the attention turns to the reaction of Paul s presence in changing the way in which people view religion, that is, broad religion, pagan religion, and the impact that that produces on the ministry. What we have in chapter 19 is a continued theme of the reaction to Paul, only now the reaction is primarily coming from Gentiles who sense that their pagan religion is under threat and who also are reacting because of the commerce associated with that religion being under threat. In fact, in the midst of this story it s hard to tell what is more important, their concern for the gods or the concern with the commerce associated with the gods. And so Paul experiences a type of mob violence here that really shows that all the violent reaction this is another theme that Luke has been consistently showing all the violent reaction that has taken place to the presence of Christians does not come on the side of the Christians but it comes on the side of those who are responding to the Christians. In fact, in mentioning the issue of economic gain and what s economically at stake, Luke makes another spiritual point, and that is whether money ends up being more important than truth in the midst of this discussion. There s another part to the picture and that is that Christians presence naturally has a moral impact on the community. There s no campaign here, but just through the basic change in lifestyle, the fundamental change in lifestyle that is a part of the Christian situation, there emerge changes which impact the society. And so we also see the kind of grip that idolatry has on the community in the pagan context. Now as we resume the story then in 19:21, it begins this way, Now after these things had been accomplished, Paul resolved in the spirit to go through Macedonia and Achaia and then go to Jerusalem. This setting the face to Jerusalem mentioned in verse 21 reminds one very much of the central section of Luke s gospel 1 of 14

2 where Jesus set his face to Jerusalem. [Paul] said, After I have gone there, I must also see Rome. And so Paul is already committed to the fact that he is going to go to the capital of the empire. He sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia while he stayed in the province of Asia a little longer. So this time he sends his helpers ahead of him to prepare for his travels, whereas previously, earlier in Acts, he had left them behind to stabilize things in one of the cities in which he had ministered. About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way. And remember the Way is the phrase that Luke consistently uses through Acts to describe the Christian movement. It s Luke s almost favorite way to describe the Christian movement, because the name Christian, of course, is coming from outsiders. A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in no little business for the craftsmen. He called them together, along with the workmen in related trades, and said: Men, you know we receive a good income from this business. And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and practically the whole province of Asia. Now just getting that far you can see that the lead issue is the fact that the silversmith s trade, the idol trade, is impacted by the fact that many Gentiles are coming to Christ; and of course they re ceasing to worship the idols and buy idols and participate in that commerce. So money comes up as the issue right at the very beginning. But notice the charge in verse 26. It s important because it becomes part of the issue. It is the charge that Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people in Ephesus and in the province of Asia. He s been very successful, and in the view of Demetrius this is a defection of sorts, a religious defection that s going on, leading the people astray. The explanation at the end of 26 is this: He says that man-made gods are no gods at all. Now of course Paul isn t the only one saying this. This has a rich tradition in Judaism. There are famous passages in the prophet Isaiah where Isaiah makes the point almost mockingly about the creation of idols that are made by hand and then bowed down to, and how silly that is. Nonetheless, that s part of what Paul is bringing with him. There is danger not only that our trade will lose it s good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited, and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty. Now Demetrius has got to be given credit 2 of 14

3 here for being very honest about what s going on and that is that the pagan gods are at threat, that Christianity risks overtaking paganism so strongly that paganism will move off the scene. This is one of several scenes in Acts where someone on the opponent s side, if you will, tells what the stakes are. Remember Caiaphas, the Jewish rabbi, earlier on in Acts 5 said: If this is from man it will self-destruct, in effect, but if it s from God you re not going to be able to stop it, because you can t oppose God. And here the silversmith says there s a risk that the goddess Artemis will be overcome. Now it s important to appreciate how important Artemis was to Ephesus. There was a huge temple to Artemis, who is considered the mistress of the wild beasts and also was viewed as a goddess of fertility, in Ephesus; and it not only produced this trade in idols that we see, but many people made pilgrimages to this location, to this place of worship. Her temple was about four times the size of the Parthenon. And just to give you some feel for what that size was her temple had pillars of 60 feet high. The shrine s dimensions were 165 feet by 345 feet, which is just a little larger than a football field. If you stuck a football field from end to end, its length, that temple would cover that whole area. And it would be about twice the width of a football field. So this is a large area. In fact, the temple itself was built on a platform that itself was 240 feet by 420 feet, an even bigger area. So this was a huge complex. This is, I don t know if there s anything quite like it in the modern world, but it would be like walking into a big convention center space, something like that. That s how much area was occupied by this temple; and there were all kinds of activities going on all around it. So this was a major commercial venture, drawing both tourist traffic and also religious traffic, religious purchase of idols associated with it. And Demetrius, being a good pagan idol maker union boy, if I can put it in those kinds of terms, didn t want the union to break up. He didn t want them to lose the support and the monetary backing of the business that they had generated. Verse 28: When they heard this they were furious and began shouting, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! Soon the whole city was in an uproar. So he did work them up to the point where they were wondering what was going on. And what we have in this chapter is an illustration of the commitment and hold that idolatry does have on many people, and the worship of false gods. And one can easily see how the remarks of Paul in Romans 1 end up being the case here. They worship the creation rather than the Creator. 3 of 14

4 Well the people are in an uproar, and it says, The people seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul s traveling companions from Macedonia, and rushed as one man into the theater. Paul wanted to appear before the crowd, but the disciples would not let him. They were afraid it was too dangerous. Even some of the officials of the province, friends of Paul, sent him a message begging him not to venture into the theater. The assembly was in confusion: Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there. So it really is a case of mob violence and chaos, and Luke is very clear in describing it in those kinds of terms because he wants to give the impression of how unruly the situation was and really how without logic the situation was. Verse 33: The Jews pushed Alexander to the front, and some of the crowd shouted instructions to him. He motioned for silence in order to make a defense before the people. Now the figure of Alexander, exactly what his origins are, is not entirely clear. He s introduced into the story, and apparently he is a Jew that is going to try and explain that the problem is not a Jewish problem per se, but that someone else is causing it. But he s introduced suddenly and without much explanation, and so it s really not entirely clear what his background is, and only from the background can we deduce what his role is. Anyway he motions for silence, and when they realized he was a Jew, they all shouted in unison for about two hours: Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! Now part of the reason for the confusion, and this is a literary touch I think, is the fact that the Gentiles were very confused about the relationship between Judaism and Christianity. They viewed Paul as a spokesman for Judaism, and even the Jews within Judaism were basically trying to make it clear that they were distinct, that Christians were distinct from Judaism. But of course the apostles themselves were arguing that if one were a good Jew, if one believed the promise of the Old Testament, they would become a Christian. And of course to someone on the outside, this is all very confusing. So when Alexander got up to speak to make it clear that this wasn t a Jewish teaching, this was a Christian teaching at least that s apparently what he seemed to be getting up [to say] the crowd reacted thinking that Paul was on the same side as Alexander. And they began praising the name of Artemis to make clear to Alexander, and to Paul for that matter, you know where their support was, where the city s support was. But the literary confusion is a reflection of the real confusion in the minds of the people, and it s a confusion that actually runs through the entire book. What is the relationship 4 of 14

5 of Christianity to Judaism? What should a good Jew do, and where does Christianity fit? And the real emphasis of Acts is to argue that Christianity is not really different from Judaism, but that Christianity is the natural extension of Judaism; and as the natural extension of Judaism, the message of Christians should be responded to and believed both by Jews and Gentiles who have now been graciously included by God s grace. Verse 35: Now the city clerk gets up to speak. In other words, the crowd having yelled now for about two hours, Great is Artemis! and not giving Alexander a chance to make his defense and introduce the issue of the distinction, now the town clerk is going to get up and speak, because he is nervous about the situation that s being created. And the town clerk would be the scribe. He would be a bureaucrat in the city, a keeper of records, someone who worked in city hall, and someone who would be nervous about what the perception of Ephesus would be in the empire if there were chaos in the streets. Anyway, The city clerk quieted the crowd and said: Men of Ephesus, doesn t all the world know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image, which fell from heaven? This is an illusion to teaching related to where Artemis came from and why the city ended up having this temple here, and so it s clear the city sees its identity is wrapped up in the goddess. In fact, I think if Ephesus were around today, as you drive up and you see the little sign that says Ephesus, you know, and then the population sign, and then they do their little slogan like a lot of cities do, the slogan would probably be, you know, Home of the Goddess Artemis something like that. That would be the feel of the city in terms of its identity. Therefore [verse 36], since these facts are undeniable, you ought to be quiet and not do anything rash. The city has its identity and there s no need to get all upset, is basically what he s saying. You have brought these men here, though they have neither robbed temples nor blasphemed our goddess. This is an even more interesting remark; basically the city clerk says they re innocent. If, then, Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a grievance against anybody, the courts are open and there are proconsuls. They can press charges. In other words, we don t need mob violence. If there is anything further you want to bring up, it must be settled in a legal assembly. As it is, we are in danger of being charged with rioting because of today s events. In that case we would not be able to account for this commotion, since there is no reason for it. And after he had said this he dismissed the assembly. 5 of 14

6 So here s the warning from the city magistrate basically saying there s no reason for this riot. If there is a reason, there s a way to deal with it. That s through formal charges, not through mob violence. Mob violence is not the way to deal with these Christians and the issues that they raise. The courts are; and that s the appropriate way to do it. And if we re not careful, we re going to be known as creating the problem, and in creating the problem we re going to create a problem for ourselves. And that seems to speak to the crowd, and so they dismiss. But what we have here is the introduction of a theme that the proper way to handle Paul and the others, if there is a problem, is not through mob violence but through the courts. And that s precisely what s going to happen in the rest of the book. In the rest of the book, Paul is going to go through a series of trials in the courts to determine once and for all what his relationship is to the legal questions that are involved here. And with that chapter 19 ends, and we get a situation where everything calms down. The term here in verse 40 for rioting I want to note this before we close out the chapter is the idea of the report of causing a revolt or sedition. So the magistrate here is really serious when he breaks this thing up. The risk is that the Ephesians will be seen as being in rebellion and that would produce all kinds of reaction. Well the argument is persuasive and the assembly is dismissed, and that ends the riot. But you can see the kind of chaos that the message of the gospel is producing now for pagan culture, now for Gentile culture. And the reaction is similar to what we see in the Jews, so that opposition is coming now not just from Jews but from Gentiles. But the Gentile magistrates are insistent that this be handled legally and not as a matter of mob violence. And what is interesting again is, as the trials proceed and the legal route is taken, the Jewish leadership will continue to try and take matters into their own hands, but they will be foiled along the way. Well as we then come to chapter 20, we come to a situation in which the journeying continues. And this journey culminates with Paul s visit with the Ephesian elders. Basically, what we have in the first six verses of chapter 20 is an itinerary of where Paul went. Then we have a discussion of Paul raising Eutychus, showing the continued presence of God s power in his ministry. And then the bulk of the chapter is given over to the speech to the Ephesian elders, one of the important speeches in the book of Acts. In chapter 21, the beginning portion, the crowd tries to persuade Paul not to go to Jerusalem because it s dangerous. But he will 6 of 14

7 refuse, and in the process the crowd says, Well, then let the Lord s will be done. The Eutychus account is key to the early portion of the chapter since it shows again another parallel between Paul s ministry and that of Jesus, and that is having access to power that extends even to resuscitation. On the other hand, the address to the Ephesian elders is important in the latter part of the chapter because it shows Paul and Luke s major concerns for the church. It is the one place where we get a speech to a church audience, and, interestingly enough, it is the one portion of Acts that sounds the most like Paul s epistles, which of course are also written to the church. And so that speech shows how Paul ministered to the churches, the kind of thing he said to the churches, and more importantly it brings up another theme that goes through Acts, and that is as the apostles visit the churches after they planted them and go back through, or as the major teaching figures and founding figures go back through the churches they have founded, they strengthen the churches. And the question is, When they strengthen the churches, what did they say? Well the speech to the Ephesian elders gives us a sense of the content of what was taught on those occasions. Well having overviewed chapter 20 then, let s take a look at the chapter itself. Verse 1, When the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples and, after encouraging them, said good-by and set out for Macedonia. He traveled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece, where he stayed three months. Because the Jews made a plot against him just as he was about to sail for Syria, he decided to go back through Macedonia. He was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy also, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia. These men went on ahead and waited for us at Troas. But we sailed from Philippi after the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and five days later joined the others at Troas, where we stayed for seven days. Now this first section is basically an itinerary just explaining how Paul moved through Macedonia and Greece. But the important thing about the list of names starting in verse 4 is that it shows that he had continuous success in his ministry. The people who are named come from the wide sweeping area of the mission. They geographically cover just about the whole area. Macedonia, Asia and Galatia are mentioned, and as a result we see that Paul was not only able to minister in these areas, but he was able to draw ministers and helpers from each of these areas. 7 of 14

8 And his ministry of discipleship continued and grew as he drew other men into ministry to join him as he traveled. And so the sense of this passage is an indication of the success of the growth and expansion of people who are candidates for ministry and who are engaged in a significant way in ministry as a result of Paul s journeys covering just a terrifically wide area of geography. Well they sail from Philippi, and they join others at Troas, and they re there for 7 days. And then we have this incident with Eutychus at Troas. Verse 7, On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. In other words, Paul held an all-night session, and it was a long and winding discussion. Needless to say, we don t get that speech in full because it would take quite a lot of space. There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting. Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. Probably not the first young man to go to sleep during a religious discussion, and certainly not the last. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. Don t be alarmed, he said. He s alive! Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted. Now the whole goal of this story seems to be to show Paul s power, apparently not of speech (at least with the young man), but his power of resuscitation, his ability to bring someone back from apparent dead after a very tragic fall, a three-floors fall. And everything about this story shows Paul operating very much like a prophet. In fact, some of the language is like the miracles of Elijah and Elisha in I Kings 17:21 and II Kings 4: And the ability to resuscitate or resurrect recalls the ministry of Jesus (Luke 7:11-15) and also the ministry of Peter (Acts 9:36-41). And so it seems pretty clear here that the goal is to show again Paul s authority and ministry being equal to Jesus and equal to the great apostle Peter. Another thing that I think is important is the picture that is produced in the background. We have the mention of many lamps, which seems like a strange detail. But I think that s to give a feel for even though it s night that light is present and yet some are slow to react, and Eutychus passes out, if you will, and yet at the same time he is able to be restored. So the point of the passage is to comfort those around about the power and authority of Paul and to picture the kind of movement out of death into life that is 8 of 14

9 a part of the gospel that is pictured in this resuscitation that takes place. Well the itinerary continues in verse 13. We went on ahead to the ship, notice, by the way, we re back in a we section as we have been since verse 6, We went on ahead to the ship and sailed for Assos, intending to take Paul on board there, for he had made this arrangement intending to go by land himself. When he met us in Assos, we took him aboard and went to Mitylene. We sailed from there, and on the following day we arrived opposite Kios. The next day we touched at Samos, and the day after that we came to Miletus. And this kind of hopping from city to city day after day is very typical of a coastal sea journey, and these distances range from about 20 to 40 miles on any given day. For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he might not have to spend time in Asia. He was eager to be in Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost. So Paul is hustling, if you will, to get to Jerusalem, and this would be in late May. His goal would be to get to Jerusalem in late May; and we re probably in the year AD 57 at this point. And what this shows is Paul continues to worship at the temple and honor Jewish customs despite the fact that he s ministering to Gentiles. He is very interested to minister to continue to observe, rather, Jewish custom and Jewish worship and Jewish practice. Again showing the connection between Christianity and Judaism despite the distinctness of the message. Verse 17: From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church. When they arrived, he said to them, and then we get this final speech, which is very important in Acts because it gives the major themes of the book in terms of how believers should respond. This ends up being the third missionary speech. The first being to Jews at Antioch in chapter 13, and the second major one being the one to Gentiles at Mars Hill or the Areopagus in Athens in Acts 17. This is the third one, and its audience is not Jewish or Gentile but Christian. And the way Paul pursues the speech is he speaks about his life in verses 18 to 21, his destiny in mission in verses 22 to 25, his innocence in 26 and 27; then he has the church look to their future in 28 to 30, and then there is the call to faithfulness and an imitation of Paul s faithfulness in 32 to 35. And this speech, as I ve already mentioned, gives a feel for how the churches were addressed when they were strengthened by the visit of the apostles. Verse 18: You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. I served the Lord with great humility and with tears, although I was severely 9 of 14

10 tested by the plots of the Jews. You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly from house to house. I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ verse 21 being the summary message of the content of his gospel message involving the issue of turning: turning to God and trusting in Christ. So there s both the picture of the change of direction and the attitude that is the basis of salvation. Verse 22: And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. And the Holy Spirit probably has done that directly. But he also has experienced that in virtually every city that he s visited, so he shouldn t expect anything different to be occurring. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me the task of testifying to the gospel of God s grace. In the midst of this message, Paul is making it very clear that he s carrying the gospel of God s grace and that he has a ministry which he seeks to carry out; and his one goal in life is to be faithful to the carrying out of that ministry even if it means his life. He only wishes to serve God and do what God has called him to do. This is the kind of commitment that Paul reflects, and this is the kind of commitment that he s going to urge them to imitate later on in the speech. Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom now this is important because the testifying to the gospel of God s grace and the preaching of the kingdom here are equated to one another; and the summaries of the preaching that we have seen in the book of Acts are really seen to be one and the same thing. To preach the gospel of God s grace is to preach the kingdom. They re one and the same. And that s a very important identification. Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. And so Paul says that in conducting his ministry he has nothing of conscience that he is concerned about. He s clear of any guilt that is before him. He has done the task to the best of his ability up to this point. But, of course, now he s going to depart from them. He s headed for Jerusalem. And so the question becomes, how will the church watch for itself in Paul s absence? And, in fact, that becomes a subtheme that probably floats through all of Acts. How will the churches look out for themselves now that the apostles and the 10 of 14

11 prophets of the first generation are passing from the scene? How should they proceed? And so Paul turns in his exhortation to deal with that question. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Now the exhortation here to the leadership is that they are to look to themselves and be careful about their own walk and also look over the sheep. If you think through the background of this, the picture of believers as sheep is an important one because sheep, basically put, are dumb animals. If you went through the animal kingdom, you would find that sheep are among the dumbest, the most skittish animals in the animal kingdom. They re not strong like a lion. They re not wise like an owl. But they re really silly. I remember the first time I encountered sheep in Scotland. I grew up in the city, so I didn t get to be out in the country very often. In Scotland, we lived out in a little village 25 miles away from Aberdeen, and you d walk through the fields and there d be sheep in the fields. And I thought, well here s a chance to kind of experience sheep and get a feel for them; since they re all over the Scripture, that might be interesting. And you d walk up to these animals, and they were so skittish that anything could set them off in any direction. And there was no organization to the way they escaped, they just bolted out and ran in all kinds of directions; and it was very hard to keep them following or going in the same direction. Well that s the picture of the flock. A flock needs a shepherd. Sheep need a shepherd in order to keep them moving in the right direction and to keep them safe. And so that s the call of these elders. They re to exercise oversight over the flock. All the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood. The church is precious because He s bought it with His own blood. This is the one reference in all of Acts to Christ s substitutionary work; and it comes in a speech to people who already believe, not as part of a gospel message. It s very interesting. The only other place in Luke/Acts where the issue is mentioned again is in the Last Supper of the Lord when He presents the cup of the new covenant, which represents Christ s blood shed for you, which represents My blood shed for you. Those are the only two places where the idea of a substitutionary sacrifice are mentioned in Acts. But what that substitutionary sacrifice means is that the church has been bought with great price, and so the oversight that they have is over something very precious to God. 11 of 14

12 Verse 29: I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you now there s nothing more dangerous to a flock of sheep than a group of hungry wolves not sparing the flock. Some even from your own group will come distorting the truth in order to entice the disciples to follow them. And here is the warning about impending doctrinal deviation having to do with some basic truths of the Christian faith. We re not talking here about internal theological discussions among believers about small points, but about basic points. In the history of the first century, we had groups like the Gnostics floating around who really denied that Jesus came in the flesh at all, but that He only appeared to come in the flesh; and so they denied the humanity of His coming. That s the kind of threat that Paul has in mind here. Also you have the problems from within Judaism of people wanting Christians, Gentiles, to go back into Judaism. Mentioned like in Galatians. That s another concern that he would have historically, in terms of what kinds of distortion is meant here. So he exhorts them yet again. Verse 31: Therefore, be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to warn everyone with tears. Now this whole section is important because it raises a theme that s important to the church, and that is the church is not only a reflection of the truth but it s to be committed to the truth, and in being committed to the truth it has to be sensitive to falsehood. And so this is one of the reasons why the church is committed to teaching, preaching, and learning theology. It s because of this commitment to understand the truth of God, and to do so with care because of the threat of false teaching and the destruction that that could wreak on the flock. In fact, the picture is of wolves devouring the flock. And so it s very important to be careful about the basics of the faith. Now there are many discussions that believers have about the teaching of the Scripture in which the basic teachings are not in question, but it has to do with how certain things are nuanced. I don t think Paul has that so much in mind, although sometimes the nuances can lead to greater problems, but he has in mind basic and fundamental defections like the kind that he dealt with in his epistles as I ve mentioned, like the Gnostics and like the Judaizers. He closes up the speech now with this exhortation: Now I commend you to God and to the message of His grace, a message that is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all who are sanctified. Notice here that again grace is the central theme of the content of the gospel. It s the central theme of the content of the kingdom message, and by understanding and 12 of 14

13 appreciating God s grace they can appreciate the inheritance that they have and the ability that they have to be saved. And understanding that message builds them up, which is of course, this is the phrase (*450) is the verb for building up that we see all over the Pauline epistles as well. So he s strengthening his audience by exhorting them here. I coveted no one s silver or gold or clothing. You know for yourselves that I work with my own hands to support myself and my companions. So he put no burden on them. In all of this, I have given you an example that by such work we must support the weak. Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, for He Himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. And so he calls them to a ministry of service. The ministry of service by Paul meant that he worked hard to teach them the Word of God and to minister to them. He worked hard to show them the full council of God and to share the kingdom with those who needed it. He worked hard to protect from error; and he also worked hard in his own way to make sure that the church itself was not a burden and that in his own ministry he would be able to give out to others because it is the essence of service to reach out to those who are weak. So in all those various senses, Paul is saying: I am an example, and you should seek to live and to minister like I have. So in this way Paul is able to strengthen, to shore up the foundation and to strengthen the foundation of the church and to give the elders instructions about what their role ought to be as overseers in this church community. Verse 36: When he had finished speaking, he knelt down with them all and prayed. There was much weeping among them. They embraced Paul and kissed him, grieving especially because of what he had said that they would not see him again. Then they brought him to the ship. And I think this closing, it s easy to slip by it and miss a very important point. The impression we get from Paul in his letters is that he s very exact, he s very precise, he s theologically quite exact a great thinker, a minister. In fact, I think if most of us read the epistles our impression of him might be that he s a little bit bookish, that he d be a book man tucked away in his study studying hard. And yet it s clear from the way Paul ministered personally with the people that he was around that they felt really emotionally attached to him and emotionally appreciative of him. And the shedding of tears here and the care for one another, they re praying for one another, shows the deep level of their fellowship and shows a relational side to Paul and his ministry that also is to be appreciated. 13 of 14

14 Sometimes in the context of ministry, we want to distinguish one side or the other: someone is either relational or fairly bookish. And we almost pose the two as opposites, and in some cases of some persons that s probably true. Some people are strictly relational, and some people are very intellectual. But what we see in Paul is a balance, a balance of caring, a balance of concern, a balance of having to establish solid relationships with those that he s ministered to on the one hand and their sadness at the possibility they may never see him again, and his commitment to teach them the Scripture and to share with them the truth as he indicated in the speech itself. This balance is part of a reflection of what Paul says should be imitated in him within the speech, and so it s an important balance with which the speech closes out. So as we come to the end of chapter 20, we see Paul ministering to the Ephesian church, to the elders, giving them charge to exercise oversight over the flock, which is at risk because of the threat of false teaching coming into the church, and is at risk because of, or is in need rather of good solid teaching and oversight to direct them and build them up in the way. And as they re built up in the gospel of grace, they are established and affirmed in order to be able to move ahead in the Christian life and in the Christian call. Well that s how Paul ministered to the local churches. And as I said, this speech is the one that sounds the most like his epistles because these themes also are present in several of his letters. It would be interesting we don t have the time to do it but the notes will do it it s interesting to go through and see how many of the phrases in this speech reflect things that he said in the epistles and the amount of agreement that is there. Well we turn now our attention, in the next lecture, to chapter 21 and the journey to Jerusalem. Paul has set his face to Jerusalem just as Jesus had in the gospel. And after Jerusalem, there is Rome. What will happen to Paul? What will be the reaction of the Jerusalem church to this one whose mission has ended up being so focused in a Gentile direction because of the rejection of Jews all around the region? What kind of reports does he have, and how will they greet him, and how will they view him? Will they see him as a threat, or will they receive him with open arms? It is the tension of that question that we hope to answer in chapter 21. Christ-Centered Learning Anytime, Anywhere 14 of 14