We will continue our sermon series in the New Testament book of Acts today, looking at Acts chapter 20, beginning at verse 17 and reading through the end of the chapter, which is verse 38. This is that season in the ministry of Paul. He is concluding that third missionary journey, as it is called. intending to get to Jerusalem, but he makes some very significant stops along the way. And so this is, this is indeed one of those, one of those stops, one of those pauses that is rich with a significance for us. So let's give attention now to God's word from Acts chapter 20, beginning at verse 17. Now from Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. And when they came to him, he said to them, You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews. How I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, teaching you in public and from house to house. testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now behold, I'm going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. but I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself. If only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And now behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink back from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore, be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands minister to my necessities and to those who are with me. In all things, I've shown you that by working hard in this way, we must help the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And there was much weeping on the part of all. They embraced Paul and kissed him. being sorrowful, most of all, because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship. And may God impress upon our hearts and minds today the truth of his holy and inerrant word. Amen. It has become a fairly customary rite of passage that for a musical group, an entertainer, even an athlete, to have something called a farewell tour. You've heard of that, no doubt. A farewell tour is a way to say goodbye. It's also a way to celebrate accomplishments and and show appreciation. This portion of the Book of Acts is a type of farewell tour for the Apostle Paul. He is saying goodbye to many of his friends and these fellow believers of the churches that he planted. He's on his way to Jerusalem. He's trying to get there before Pentecost. And he does not expect to come back to this region again. His intention is to go to Jerusalem and then to head in the opposite direction from where he now is to go to Spain via Rome. But as we heard, Paul isn't even all that confident he'll live to make it there. He does get to Rome in chains and with other circumstances. So this is likely the last time that he is going to see these individuals. And so he gathers the elders, the leaders together. We notice our opening verse. Now from Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. And what follows is a tender moment with affection, but also a rich moment of instruction. Paul is going to lay out for these individuals and for us what really is the essence of the church and what is the focus. Paul's going to do that by pointing to his own life, to the example of what he has done. In fact, just to highlight where we're going, Paul is going to show and teach and instruct these churches, his farewell address, the example of his emotions, the example of his efforts, and then the exhortations that he has for them. So he gathers the elders, the Greek word for them, for those individuals, an elder is a presbyter in Greek. And this is what he says, verses 18 to 20. You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility. Humility is going to be that first example of emotion. There'll be some other emotions that he highlights. Paul says, look at my life, understand from me, and look first at at the character, at these attitudes, these emotions, and so he begins with humility. Humility is literally lowliness of mind. It's been documented that Greeks and Romans did not have a word for humility. I was surprised to hear that. I probably need to research that a little more, but they did not have a word, and it was regarded as something, when it did arrive finally through Christians, it was a derogatory thing, right? It was something not to be desired. But for the followers of Jesus, it was important. This was an important quality because it reflected the very nature of Jesus. In Philippians 2, verses three to five, Paul writes this, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. It was Jesus who modeled and showed true humility, and that humility is to count others more significant, to think of them first. Tim Keller put it this way, he defined humility not as thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less. Thinking of yourself less often. Wouldn't that be a helpful way for you to think about humility? It's not necessarily trying to think, you know, lower and demean yourself. It's to put others first, as Paul said, and as Jesus showed. We've sadly witnessed a great number of pastoral failures in recent years, and as I was thinking about humility and putting others first, I thought, you know, in some ways that is the core issue. And people have fallen in many kinds of different ways. They've had moral failures with finances, with women, with manipulating people, plagiarizing other ministers' work is becoming more common. But in all of these failings, even though they are different, there is a common ground of a lack of humility, of not caring for others and having a humble spirit. God gave wise instruction for leaders that helped focus on humility in the Old Testament. In Isaiah 66, verse two, it says, this is the one to whom I will look. This is God speaking. Now God sees everything, doesn't he? But what God is saying is, this is the one who's gonna be the special object of my attention. To whom is God going to look? He who is humble, he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. In my first position as a pastor after seminary, I had one of those desks that had a glass top over it. And so what you could do is you could actually put paper between the desk and the glass and it would stay there and you could look at it. And that verse is one that I wrote and had for many years, Isaiah 66 to, I wanted to remind myself, this is the one to whom I will look. He was humble and contrite in spirit. and trembles at my word." I think it's true that the humble person is the one who trembles at God's word, putting God first. So that's one emotion that Paul reflected with other believers, and then the next he highlights is compassion, humility and then compassion. Paul said he served with humility and with tears. Isn't that interesting? We think of Paul and maybe as we'll see some of his boldness, but he served with tears. He had a heart that was tender towards people. It was not just work. It was not just duty and endurance. but it was compassion that Paul showed through his life. Jesus had a similar compassion that he showed through his tears. When Jesus looked over the city of Jerusalem shortly before his death, we read in Luke 19.41, when Jesus drew near and saw the city, he wept over it. And likewise, the apostle Paul shed tears throughout his ministry because he was concerned for those he pastored and he loved them. In 2 Corinthians 2 verse 4, it says, for I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears. He goes on to explain why. Not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you. Paul had a heart of compassion, humble, compassionate, and also persistent, another example of his emotions that Paul showed and that he reminded these leaders in this farewell message. Verse 20 continues, and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews. Trials is also translated temptations. That's what we pray for. And the Lord's prayer, lead us not into temptation. The book of Acts is a story of one trial and temptation after another for God's leaders. Everywhere Paul went, as he said even in our passage today, what awaited him but hardships and difficulties of all kinds everywhere he turns. Yet what did Paul do? He endured and pressed on. So he had that character of persistence. And then there is also boldness. Verse 20 continues, how I did not shrink back from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public from house to house. The word shrink is literally to draw in. It's a word that comes from sailing and drawing in the sails of a ship. Paul didn't hold back. He pressed on. He didn't avoid difficult subjects. He didn't avoid mysteries or things that might seem complicated. He shared, as he will say, the whole counsel of God. So what's happening here? It's pictured again, Paul's gathered these presbyters, these folks who are going to lead after he's gone. He's not gonna be with them directly or personally. He shows them his heart. Before he gets into the things that he did, and he'll share some of those, he wants them to see these emotions, these character qualities, what he's been about. Was this for leaders only? Of course not. While not every believer is in a formal position of leading, every follower of Jesus can seek to follow and live up to these qualities. Humility, boldness, compassion, persistence, they're all valuable. And you know, they're all ways that you, whoever you are, wherever you are in life, can be a leader, right? You don't have to wear the hat. You don't have to get the plaque. You are a, first of all, spiritual leader when you seek these qualities. Why? Because these are gifts of the Spirit. They don't come naturally, do they? We are not naturally going to put others before ourselves. We're not naturally gonna shed tears for others before we shed tears for ourselves. We're not gonna persist and be bold in the right things. So these are gifts of the Spirit. They are works of grace. So as you aspire to these qualities, God's grace is at work in your life and you are a spiritual leader, right? Whether you get the pin or not, whether you wear the mantle or not. But even more than that, you're a leader when you pursue these kinds of attitudes because these are the very things that are truly going to make an impact on other people. There's many leaders that don't have these qualities and they're not impacting anyone. They may have the plaque, but they don't have the character. They don't have these emotional priorities in their lives. But when you do, wherever you are, again, whether in a formal role or not, you are going to impact others. Your family will be stronger. when you are humble, compassionate, persistent, and bold. Your church will be stronger when you are humble, compassionate, persistent, and bold. Those are the qualities that truly change lives. And Paul wants people to see that heart. Again, leaders, they certainly should have reflect that, but all people can reflect that. Well, Paul then moves to the example of his efforts. So we've seen the example of his emotions, some of these character, attitude qualities, but now he talks about what he actually did that he wants them to be reminded of in these closing moments together. What did he do? He preached, verse 20, declaring to you anything that was profitable. committed to preaching God's truth. It was the supreme focus of all his efforts. Towards the end of the passage, verse 34, he says, be alert, remembering that for three years, I did not cease, night or day, to admonish everyone with tears. Paul preached, he preached the gospel of faith in Jesus and repentance from sin. The gospel that is the power of God for salvation. Verse 21 from our text says, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks to all of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul was always preaching because he was convinced this was God's model, God's plan for bringing people to faith and to build them up in the faith. Paul preached, Paul planned. Notice verse 20. teaching you in public, this verse 20 continues, teaching you in public and from house to house to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. Now, Paul was led by the Spirit, Paul was filled by the Spirit, and Paul was an organized guy. And for some of us, those are hard to put together, right? Led by the Spirit, but with an intentional plan. Paul was thorough, right? He's gonna cover public places to speak, private places to speak. He literally says he's gonna go from house to house, right? He's probably gonna think of the community and the streets. Okay, I can go here, then I can go there. One of the great lessons I have learned from the study of the book of Acts is while the work of the Spirit is beautifully lifted up, it's never at the expense of structure and organization. We are not less spiritual when we make plans. We are not less spiritual or led by the Spirit when we have structure and organization and vision and set goals. And so that is what Paul did. He preached and he planned, he discipled. Acts 20 verse 27. I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God." Now think about this, just as Paul had the structured plan of who to teach, he had a plan of how to reach out, he had a plan of what to teach, right? He's going to teach the whole counsel of God. Paul must have had lesson plans. Of course, filled by the Spirit and led by the Spirit. Paul had intentional goals of how to build people up, what they needed to know from God's word to be established in their faith. Colossians 2, 6 and 7, Paul puts it this way, therefore as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, that is in a sense how you come into the faith, even evangelism, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him, he's talking about discipleship, established in the faith, just as you were taught abounding in thanksgiving. So he preached, he planned, he discipled, and he gave, and he gave as a faithful steward. Notice verse 35 from our passage. In all things, I've shown you that by working hard in this way, we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. So again, the example of Paul's life, his character, Those emotions, but now also his actions, those things he did. It is a lesson for leaders and their role of serving the Lord, but it is also a goal and a vision for all believers. This is the call for each of us today. So we've seen the example, right? Emotions, efforts, character, activities. But now Paul finishes with specific exhortations to these individuals. The first is this, that take care of yourself. That kind of doesn't sound very humble, does it? Because wasn't the first thing to be humble to put others first? But the first exhortation Paul gives is essentially to take care of yourself. Notice verse 28, pay careful attention to yourselves. To pay careful attention, it's actually a single word. It means beware, beware. Or sometimes translated, take heed, be on guard. 1 Timothy 4.16 says, keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this or by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. Watching out for oneself, paying attention. It is humble. It's humble because we do that. We watch who we are, what we're doing, because we want to serve. We want to have godliness in our life. We want to make a positive impact. So this isn't for selfish gain or attention, but this is to be a better servant. We watch out for ourselves. We take heed of ourselves when we do the very things Paul's already said, right, when we have that focus and attention on those emotional qualities, remember, of humility and compassion and persistence and boldness, when those are more and more part of who we are and when we are committed to the right activities. Paul says, take care of yourself. He also says, take care of the flock, take care of the people entrusted to you. Verse 28 says, and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. The word overseers is episkopos and sometimes translated bishop. We learn about the word and the role from Peter, 1 Peter chapter 5, opening verses. Peter says, I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder, remember an elder is a presbyter, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ. as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, episkopos, not under compulsion, but willingly as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly. not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples of the flock. The words for leaders of the church are used interchangeably in that passage, just as they are in Acts. There's the elders or presbyters, there is the episkopos or bishops, and then there are pastor shepherds. I want to highlight that because what we're seeing in the Bible is not an organizational structure. There is structure and it's organized, but it's not a hierarchical structure. You have pastors and you have bishops and you have overseers and things like that. No, what is being said is God loves the church and Christ gave himself for this body. And so he has given the structure of certain roles of leader, and they exercise these kinds of functions, right? They shepherd pastor, they episkopos oversee, they elder presbyter rule. And the point is that God has given a clear sense of the need and the value of leaders in their work. And likewise, what that tells us is God has also given us, through the word, a clear picture of the need for defined membership, right? I'm talking about the leaders again, and we know that we're all, in a sense, called to lead. So we exercise the right kind of attitude and behaviors. But we're all called to be members, too. So how can the leaders shepherd the flock if there's no sense of the flockness, right? So we have leadership and we have membership and both are valued and both are important. Paul continues as he clarifies this, the role of shepherd pastor, he says, verse 28, to care for the church of God which he obtained with his own blood." And care is literally to shepherd. That's the particular way to care for the flock. We heard that marvelous passage in our Old Testament reading about the importance of the shepherd and the faithful shepherd. Caring for the sheep, knowing the sheep, leading them faithfully. Paul then exhorts the leaders to protect the flock as well. They have to protect because there are going to be challenges. Verses 29 and 30, I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. It's a threat we see in many places in the early church. The men have been studying 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John and over and over again, the warnings of false teaching, the influence that's going to come. And so the leaders shepherd, they care for the people by protecting them and by protecting right doctrine. What is the essential truth? And then Paul exhorts them finally to rest in God's grace. Verse 32, and now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up. and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified." I commend that's the very word Jesus used on the cross as he died. He committed his spirit to his heavenly Father, the Father in heaven. And now Paul wants these brothers, to be entrusted to God, to be entrusted to God's ongoing care, even as they care for the church, the body of the Lord Jesus. And in particular, Paul points them to grace, to the grace of God. God's grace is the only source of power that can build up people, as Paul said. It's the only source of true and lasting prize of the inheritance of God, as Paul said. It's got to be grace. All this stuff would just be another to-do list, right? This would be another thing when you wake up in the morning and you think, ah, more to do. But this is grace. This is knowing the Lord of grace and growing in his grace, the grace that Paul found. Paul had struggled with some type of physical ailment. He called it the thorn in his flesh. He prayed repeatedly that it would go away. And what happened? God did not remove it, but instead God showed Paul how by grace that God would use that suffering for his purpose. 2 Corinthians 12 verses 9 and 10, Paul writes, but he, God said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, Paul writes, I am content with weakness, insult, hardship, persecution, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Grace triumphs over trials. Grace does not make trials go away, that's what Paul was saying, that's what happened to him. Great, greatness. You really gotta reflect on this. Grace does not make trials go away. When there are trials, it's not a sign God is ungracious. No, grace makes us strong in weakness because it leads to a greater strength. The power of Christ, as Paul said, that's what grace leads us to. Grace makes us content in hardships because it leads to a better purpose, the kingdom of our Lord and his work. Grace is sufficient in all of our sufferings, just like it's sufficient in all of our joys. because it brings a greater prize. It fulfills a deeper desire, union with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the one who loved us and gave himself for us. There was great emotion that day, wasn't there, as Paul gathered with these friends, these brothers, just can't imagine all the things they had gone through together, the labors and the difficulties, the excitement and the joys. There's great emotion. There are great lessons, things that they had seen. Things that they had learned from the life of Paul. Things that we try to highlight here today. Take home the sermon notes and reflect on those and your own experience. But also think of your own experience. Think of those who've said goodbye to you. Think of the way maybe that if you had the opportunity, the legacy that you would want to leave for others. And here's maybe the hard news. And I'm sure they felt this there at Miletus and as they went back to Ephesus. Memories do fade, no matter how hard we try to hold onto them. Right? They do, don't they? We may have them, but they fade. They're not as clear as we think back of the people that we've loved and who've influenced us. That's not the hope. You know, it's not the hope that we can remember precisely what someone said, the sound of their voice, the times we had with them. Feelings alone cannot sustain this most tender moment there in Miletus, as Paul shared. And again, as you think of your own life and those wonderful experiences of love and joy that you had, they're good, they're blessings. But the emotions themselves do not sustain, just like the memories don't always hold. Because the mind doesn't always hold, does it? But Paul knew that the one thing, because there is something that doesn't fade, never fades. And there is something that never disappoints, never. And that is the blessing of being in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and the grace that he gives. So in all your hellos and all your goodbyes and all the seasons of comings and goings, Know the great hope and the great joy is to be in the presence of the Lord now and forever to serve him and his eternal kingdom and to have the hope of his body and his people that will cherish and be with him forever and ever. Dear friend, may that be your strength and your joy now and for eternity. Amen.