Acts chapter 20 verses 17 through 19, these are God's words. From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. And when they had come to him, he said to them, you know from the first day that I came to Asia in what manner I always lived among you, serving the Lord with all humility with many tears and trials, which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews. Amen. This ends this reading of God's inspired and inerrant word. We rejoice to know that he blesses the reading and especially the preaching of it. Please be seated. As we thought about the beginning of last Lord's Days portion, verses 1 through 16, the Apostle Paul is in a hurry. He's on the way to Jerusalem. He is making decisions to get there quickly. That informed us and helped us to read with more understanding. In verses one through 16, the significance of the length of the Lord's day that he kept and the way that he kept that Lord's day in Troas. And at the end of that portion last week, we read that for Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia. And yet, even as he's doing that, he stops at Miletus and he calls the Ephesian elders to himself. And so there's an emphasis, an urgency, a necessity of what he is going to be saying in this final conversation, this final interview and really charge with the Ephesian elders. And as we listen in on this and he reminds them of his example, he reminds them of what they are called to, he reminds them that the church among which they minister is purchased with the blood of God and that it's the Spirit of God who has set men redeemed sinners as overseers and shepherds in the church and that they are now commended to the grace of God as he commends them to the word and it's very solemn and serious and urgent. That is to say, the elders have a crucial ministry. There's a lot here, of course, for those who are elders in the church and those who are shepherds in the home. For such a husband is to be to his wife and a father is to be to his children. That the Lord who has instituted those ministries, the Lord who is our hope, our help, and all of our everlasting happiness, has charged them with the duty that they have. The church is his institution. The family is his institution. And so there's much there for them, but there's also much there for us who are eldered, who are overseen, who are shepherded, that we would remember that Christ is the chief shepherd. and that we are not at liberty to come up with an individualistic or self-directed way of doing things. We have need of that which he has provided because we have need of him. And we have need to do it in the way that we are instructed. And as we look at those things, the next several weeks, I thought four, maybe five. And then I began preparing verses 20 and 21 for the next Lord's day. And it's just verse 20 now for the next Lord's day. As we go through these several weeks, it is going to be extremely challenging to us. Because the kind of ministry of shepherding in the church that is commanded here, and the kind of ministry of shepherding in the home, by analogy, and the kind of ministers that our elders are to be, that we elders, I speak as one of them, are to be. And shepherds that fathers and husbands are, we not only are not like that because we are still sinful, we still live on this side of glory, we're still partially sanctified, but we are in a season of great weakness in the churches and in the homes. So we come and It'll help us. I pray God helping the preacher to be faithful as we see all of these things in relation to Christ, in relation to his spirit, that we will have our comfort from him and our confidence in him, that we might have repentance, that we might have growth, that we might seek to do that which we hear. and not have the wounds of God's people easily healed or the stains upon us easily whitewashed. But knowing that we have him who created all things and gave himself to redeem us and who has poured out his own spirit to apply that redemption, that we would come in hope. But if we're hoping in him, then we must do things as he has said to do them. And we find that this is a crucial ministry, that it is crucial in two ways, its place and its pattern. The first is that it is literally at the crux of the way the Lord shepherds his people. Paul was on speeding to Jerusalem. And yet in his love for Christ and his love for Christ's church and his love for the sheep who are in the congregations in Ephesus, he could not speed by without addressing their shepherds one last time, their elders one last time. It's a crucial ministry in its place and how the Lord shepherds us, how the Lord ministers to and works in his church. It's also a crucial ministry because it's cross-shaped. It holds to a joy that we cannot see but is set before us. And it perseveres in suffering for the joy that is set before us. It's not easy. It's not easy to do and easy things do not come when we do it. But it is according to the pattern of Christ. It does depend on an almighty power and it delights in an almighty pleasure and therefore it is worth doing and it can be done in dependence upon him, devotion to him, delighting in him. Jesus is not visibly among them. They may hear of Him and His suffering and His joy and He works by His words that He gives by His Spirit and that His Spirit attends as they read and especially hear preached and taught those words. And yet he has, in his wisdom, ascended to heaven. We do not see him where he sits. Though not having seen him, we love him. Blessed are those who, not having seen him, believe. And Paul has been an example to them, but he tells them in verse 25 that they will see his face no more. And that's something that is really shaping this entire conversation. We hear at the conclusion of the passage in verse 38, that they were sorrowing most of all for those words which he spoke, that they would see his face no more. And so the Ephesian Christians, the moms and dads and boys and girls and widows and single people in the congregation, they would have this, their only visible example of what it looks like to live the Christian life, to live this cross-shaped life, they would have their elders. The elders would continue. as examples. And so he would tell them, verse 28, therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood, taking heed to themselves as a necessary part of their ministry. Verse 32, now brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace. It's not just their ministry, but they themselves who must be kept by God. They themselves who must be kept by the word of his grace, so that as they minister his word to others, they see word kept elders through whom God gives the word through which he will keep them too. Elders must be examples. And in verse 35, I have shown you in every way by laboring like this that you must support the weak. And they of course are to show then by their labor among the congregation that they are sacrificing themselves to be a help. to those who need it, to carry along those who need it, verse 35. And we remember, of course, Hebrews 13, 7, which applies not just to elders in the congregation, but to fathers and husbands in the home, to mothers with their children in the home, that we submit to those whom the Lord has set over us, and we are to follow their faith, remembering the outcome, that they are examples to us as those whom the Lord has set over us. And so the ministry of the elders is not just one of preaching, teaching, shepherding, oversight, but as examples unto the flock. And the first thing that He points out to them the thing that we're covering in these three verses is the consistency of the example that they are to set. The consistency. And he reminds them of the consistency of his own ministry. Consistency in that it was continuous. Consistency in that it was comprehensive, not just in the word, but in the life, not just verbal, but visible. And consistency in that it was convincing and convicted that those specific things that he has preached had specific applications, specific differences they made in the life. first then consistency in time, continuous, a consistently continuous ministry. When they had come to him, verse 18, he said to them, you know from the first day that I came to Asia in what manner I always lived among you, always, all the time, no breaks, The Christian ministry must be like the Christian life. Believers respond to the mercies of God. You remember that at the beginning of Romans chapter 12 and this wonderful opening of the mercies of God in the first 11 chapters. And how do we respond to the mercies of God? We offer our bodies as living sacrifices. which is to say that has been handed over to God. It is our very bodies, our very selves. And in that place, it uses a word that is the basis of our word for corpse. There's not a hair on our head or a fingernail on our hands that isn't now set apart to God, consecrated to God in the whole life, all the time. We have this horrible phrase in American speak, but it's not a uniquely American thing, me time. There's no me time for the Christian. It's all Jesus time, it's all Christ's time. We have been purchased, we have been bought. As he is gonna say of himself in verse 19, he functioned as a slave. We don't have me time. When we work, it's working in and for Jesus Christ, which is shaped by when we worship. God help us that even in our worship, we seek that which serves ourselves, which pleases our emotions, which seems good to our minds. But if that's going to be the Christian life, that needs to be the Christian ministry. And he reminds them that he was always on. He was always on for Christ. That doesn't mean he was always strong. It doesn't mean he always maintained the same level of passion or intensity. There was no time off from being a minister because there's no time off from being a Christian. The minister's Sabbath is the Lord's day. because the Lord comes and he has fellowship with us as his body and he addresses us from his word. He speaks to you right now from his word and his spirit comes and attends the preaching of his word so that you can see what's in the passage. And as he brings that home to your heart and you become aware that it's not just a man standing in front of you, but the Lord Jesus sitting enthroned in heaven. who having loved his own who are in the world and love them even to the end of going to the cross has continued to love them having departed from the world by the ministry of his spirit who pours out his love in our hearts. And he comes and he speaks to us. And yes, sometimes it's a word of correction or a word of rebuke. And always it ought to be a word of comfort and encouragement and gladness in him because it's his. And he loves us. There's something wobbling from here. But he says, you remember, or you know rather, you know in what manner I always lived among you. The reason the Christian life is an all the time, not something that you take breaks from, is because Christ is Lord all the time. He never changes. You want a proof text for the fact that Jesus Christ is Yahweh. How about this from the book of Hebrews? Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. That is not something that belongs to any of the creatures. He is Lord. and he will never leave us or forsake us. This is why when the apostle says to rejoice always, he says rejoice in the Lord always. Your circumstances change, you yourself change. There is much to grieve over in the circumstances and certainly much to grieve over in yourselves. But there is always an abundance to rejoice over in him. We are, Jesus Christ is always king, always ruling and overruling. He works in all things. We never do anything apart from him. He is present to us for he is not only man, but also God. He was always with us, as close as not just the breath from your mouth, but the breath in your lungs behind us and before us, everywhere we go. If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you go to glory, it will be glorious because He is there and you will know Him without any more of your sin, without any division of your pleasure and desire. You will delight in Him entirely and you will have Him entirely. If you go to hell, for your sin, for pushing down on the knowledge of your Creator, who made Himself visible in everything that He has made, and insisting on being a law to yourself rather than knowing in your heart and in your mind that your Creator has a law, that there is right and wrong that is above you and outside of you and from Him, but you've sinned against Him. If you go to hell and you get what you deserve, It will be hell for you because he's there. It is from him and the glory of his presence. 2 Thessalonians 20 chapter one tells us. It is from him and from the glory of his presence that destruction comes forever and ever. It will be an experience of the glory of the one whom you despise forever. The Lord never changes and he is infinitely glorious and he is infinitely worthy and he is holy and righteous and he has given himself to redeem sinners. He has not just atoned for our sin to take it away, but He has joined Himself to sinners and is still doing so by the ministry of His Spirit, who when He gives you faith in Jesus Christ, to believe that He is God, to believe that He died for you, to believe that He rose again for you, and that you are His, and that He is yours forever and ever. When He does that for you, He brings you into a joy, a thanksgiving, a comfort that never leaves you. So it is necessary that we be consistent. If we do not aim at this consistency, and I know we don't get there in this life, but if we do not aim at this consistency, and if an increasing consistency is not part of Christian maturity, and if an exemplary consistency is not part of the Christian ministry, then we basically say, with the way that we live or the way that we minister, that all of this is a lie. that it's just a pleasant fiction, or maybe it's just an abstract theory that has no practical application to Christian life. And so when the spirit comes and he convinces us of who Jesus is, and he convinces us of what Jesus has done, and he convinces us of what Jesus, by that spirit, is doing in the believer's life, He comes and he is unto us a spirit of power and a spirit of love pouring out in our hearts, the love of God, so that we're always responding to him who loved us. We love him because he first loved us. And the believer's whole life is a response in love to him who has loved us infinitely. And he is to us a spirit of sound mind. convincing us of that which is more real or more significantly real than that which is visible. You know, there's this, it's become popular to take ideas that the spiritual and the invisible is more real and more significant, more substantial. than that which is visible and palpable and accessible to our senses. It's become popular to say, oh, well, that's just Platonism. Plato came up with, no, Plato got close enough to the truth. that those who want to deny God and want to live as if the physical and temporal is more substantial, give them an excuse for rejecting what the scriptures tell us. But you and I have faith, which is certainty and conviction about things not yet and things not seen. in which we believe what God says even more than what we can see and we could touch. We must live that way. Not just always, but from the first day. Notice that's where he started. When they had come to him, he said to them, you know, from the first day, that I came to Asia. Oh, here is a great mistake with unbelieving friends and unbelieving family. I have made this mistake coming into ministry at a church where we think that we may slow play the intensity or comprehensiveness of our Christianity. We may ease up at first, find ways to connect over worldly things so we can ease into it. And it's not difficult to do because we're still very worldly in our flesh. And so if you want to interact with someone as if the Lord Jesus himself isn't all of your pleasure and all of your purpose in life, and that anything else that you do is subsidiary to that purpose, and anything else that you enjoy is subsidiary, participatory in his purpose, it's very easy to dial it back. and not be all about Christ in even the mundane things of life. And yet, if you dial it back and he's not everything, when are you going to turn it on? When are you going to suddenly be deadly serious and heavenly joyful about everything that you do? Because it's going to be inconsistent. Sure, you may make that connection. They may feel familiar with you. But now, when you want to come and say, I know the God who made me. And he didn't just make me, but he saved me. And he is the God who made you. And he offers you to know him and his salvation. He offers you to have him as all of your joy. And yet, you've spent the vast majority of your time joking around, speaking lightly of things, not interacting over everything that you do in the context of the knowledge of God and Christ, who is your creator and your redeemer. And you can't do it, there's really no way back. Many of us with unbelieving family, one of the places that this happens most of all, or one of the places I've seen it most, let's put it that way, is with children who have grown up and departed from the faith. And rather than interacting with them sort of the way you interact with an excommunicated person, Because they were covenant children and in fact the church in a healthier season would actually excommunicate those who do not profess faith and who live according to that profession. But instead of having our interaction with them as one of seriousness over the peril of their soul and delight in the Lord myself that I wish you would have my son, my daughter. We try to dial it back because they're offended by all that spiritual stuff. It makes things awkward quickly. They feel judged. And yet the Lord is real, and eternity is real, and salvation is real. How do you get back if you start off with something else? It's folly to slow play Christianity. Because if your Christianity can be slow played, then it's not what the Bible says it is. And it's not what you hope to be able to convince them later that it actually is. Because that's not the Christ that we have. The Christ that we have is the Christ who is. He made all things, they are from him. He upholds all things, they are through him. And he is the end of all things, they are to him. Churches do this. Sat through a dreadful presentation recently about how to revitalize your church by having carnivals. You know don't change your worship don't change your gospel Just let everybody know that you're the carnival church and eventually they'll come to the to the nice and fun people When they remember that hey, they were nice and they were fun But carnival is not what the church has to offer Imagine I've got a bouncy castle and free blood pressure screenings for you. And then they come later and they find you saying, I have the living God who gave himself for sinful creatures who deserved his wrath. And you just wanna ask, well, if that's actually true, why didn't you lead with that? And yet we do that not only to the ministry of the church, but even to the worship of God in the church. Slow playing Christ before the face of Christ in hopes that unbelievers will find it attractive. Do you not want them to find him attractive? Now this is a perfection that is aimed at, but not expected. What does that mean? Christ doesn't change, but we do. And praise God, we change even by the power of Christ. It means repentance is necessary. One of the reasons why we have husbands and fathers who cannot seriously lead their family in a life that is hemmed in at the beginning and end of every day with some form of worship and devotion to God, gratitude for keeping us through the night and committing the day to Him, gratitude for helping us through the day and committing the night to Him. One of the reasons we can't do that is because that's not how Dad lives in between the morning and the evening. Christ does not everything to him in his work. Christ does not everything to him as he interacts with his family. They do not know that we are not just having family time with dad, but we are having family time with our heavenly father who has joined us to his son and adopted us all as his children. And this is dad's life and this is dad's heart. And he doesn't turn it on when it's family worship time and then it's off for the rest of the day and turn it back on again. No, he always lives before them in that way. None of us do that. Every one of you husbands and fathers who are taking this word seriously just now, it should have smote your heart, struck your heart, pounded you, as it does me. Because living with a Christ who doesn't change as imperfect people is a life that is full of repenting. And this should be something that they see in us too. Because if we cannot live before them always as one who is as we ought to be, then they ought to see us continually repenting, continually saying, you know, we've not been finding our pleasure in him. I'm sorry, forgive me. He forgives me. My hope is in him for me. My hope is in him for us. Let's do it again. and we rejoice over the full forgiveness of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that Jesus was actually always on for his heavenly Father, entirely devoted to him, loving him with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength, as all of his joy, that the one for whom it would be most painful to be forsaken by God was the one who was forsaken for us. We rejoice that it is His devotion to God that has counted for those who believe in Him. You say, no one can ever live like that. You're wrong. There's only one who could ever live like that, and it is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only one who ever has, and it's counted for you if you believe in Him. But not only that, you are changed to be more and more like Him when you believe in Him. And so the Christian life is full of these repentings. And when we repent, we believe. And when we lay hold of the fact that we have been forgiven so much, what does the one who is forgiven much do? He loves much. Some of you know what I'm talking about. I would that all of you would know what I'm talking about. That when you have that moment of repentance before God, whether individually as a person or especially for those of you who are heads in marriages and heads of households, that when you have that moment of repentance and you look back on what you have done and you say, this is not how I should have been. I've sinned against God. I've sinned against you, my family. And then you start to tell them of the righteousness and sacrifice of Christ, and you start to realize for yourself of the righteousness and sacrifice of Christ, and you lead them in prayer together, and you lay hold of that. And how marvelous and glorious it is to know that as much as you have imperiled your own soul and as much as you have imperiled your family's soul up until this point, God has given you repentance in Jesus Christ. God has atoned for all of your sin and taken away all your guilt. And you almost can't believe the greatness of the goodness of a God who ought to have been everything for us and we had despised that, we had treated that lightly and now he has come and he has washed all of that away and counted us as righteous as if we had done it perfectly every moment in every part of our life. But you realize with that joy how much he has loved you and how much that love has done for you. We love him because he first loved us and he has loved us unto the point of giving Christ for us. And he who is forgiven much, loves much. And you say I have much to be forgiven of. And I tell you, on the word of God, you may be forgiven of all of it in Jesus Christ. The more you have been forgiven, the more you may love. And what does that love do? It produces obedience. It produces repentance. Your repentance is imperfect. You come along and you realize again, my heart has been cold towards him. I've been forgetful of him. I've been living with my wife. I've been living with my children as if this is all there is. I haven't been thoughtful of God. And what can you do at that moment? What must you do at that moment? You repent again. Learn again, it's the cycle of repenting and believing and in believing you're forgiven much and you love much again. And maybe you have been stuck. You've been stuck in the needing to repent part of that cycle. And it's been a long time. since you stopped everything and said, we're gonna walk again with God now. And it's been a long time since you rejoiced over the forgiveness of sinners and the sacrifice of Christ and the righteousness of those sinners before God and the righteousness of Christ. It's been a long time since that joy produced new love. But here you are. He spared you all this time, and he brought you to hear about it. And the more he works in you, the more you'll be able to say, you know, from the first day until now, I've always lived among you, repenting, trusting, loving, living. His Lord over every moment of life, that was the first part of the consistency. Not just the always there, literally all the time in the text, but also that from the first day language, but it's also comprehensive. It's very interesting. He says, in what manner I always lived among you. He uses the present of that word that a different Tense of the verb is the way we say begotten. It refers to how he existed among them. Now he's going to tell them next week, I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly from house to house. And that is going to need at least one sermon. For what he talks about for what he says about this word ministry that he has But he doesn't remind them first of the word. He reminds them of his living Says you know from the first day that I came to Asia in what manner I always and he could well have said preached and taught or Proclaimed to you and taught you like he's gonna talk about the proclaiming and the teaching in a couple of verses, isn't he? But the first thing that he says is in what manner I always lived among you. Because our consistency needs to show not only that Jesus is Lord over every moment, but that Jesus is Lord over every part of life. That he is an actual Lord in practice. That the Lord Jesus and his salvation are real, not imaginary. They're not merely theoretical, they're applicational. Christ's lordship is something that it must show up in how we live, not just how we speak, or how we think, or how we feel. I went through various phases in what the Lord has done for me in my life. There was one that was just kind of a youthy face, a flimsy, even jellyfish face, and she was always looking for an emotional experience of the Lord. And there were those great emotional experiences, but it betrayed the fact that I was not grasping how real he is. It's not wrong to have emotions about God. But if you're looking for the highs, then maybe it's because you're not actually experiencing life with him in the lows and in the in-betweens as if he actually is. And so it's in moments where you think as if he exists, and you think as if you may be forgiven, and when you think as if you may have a divine purpose for your life, and in those moments, you think and feel as if the Lord is and as if the Lord saves, but the Lord is and the Lord does save. Well, I was on the other side of the horse, fell off the other side of the horse at one time. Love to get together with people and argue maybe a fairly strong word, but discussed theology, the calculus of doctrine, of who God is, of how salvation works, of all of the applications of his good law and what that should look like. And yet, it wasn't something that I loved when I was alone. to be living out in the way that I studied or the way that I worked, the way that I played. I can use that language, how I found recreation. No, it's comprehensive. It's not just something we preach and teach on the one side or hear on the other. It's something that forms the life. So a Lord over every moment, a Lord over every part of life, there's a comprehensiveness, not just mind life and emotional life, but living life, not just what happens with your head and what happens with your heart. Yes, your heart should say, Jesus is Lord, and your head should say, Jesus is Lord, but your hands should also say, Jesus is Lord. And that was actually the first thing. that the Apostle called their attention to in the passage. And how does that happen? Well, it happens by conviction. He says, you know from the first day that I came to Asia in what manner I always lived among you. And so he reminds them of the necessity of consistency in time, and he reminds them of the necessity of consistency between the whole person, mind and body, body and soul, but also that the particular manner in which we live would be consistent with the particular doctrine that we preached. And so in the first half of verse 19, he shows that he is convinced of the Lordship of Christ because the way that he lived says that Jesus is a Lord worth slaving for. And in the second half of verse 19, he demonstrated that he is convinced of the delightful Lordship of Christ, not just the authoritative, worthy Lordship of Christ, but now the pleasant, worthwhile Lordship of Christ. value of the Lord Jesus Christ, because he's not just a Lord worth slaving for, first half of the verse, he's a Lord worth suffering for, second half of the verse. Serving, and it's the word for slave here, you know that sometimes you see that serving word, it's the deacon word, this isn't the deacon word, this is the slave word. So you know what I was always like. First day I set foot in Asia, anybody who ran into me was like, this guy is someone's slave. He's never seeking his own interests. He's always on mission, he's always on an errand. Slaving for the Lord with all humility. See, this is what slaves are like. When you interact with someone, who thinks that he is someone. What he is communicating to you, and you might misperceive this, this doesn't necessarily, if you see it incorrectly, it doesn't necessarily mean that he is wrong. But there's a great difference, isn't there, between someone who wants to appear like a great slave and someone who, in the way that he slaves, you think he must have a great master. And this is how Paul was. There's the mind of the bridegroom, not the bridegroom, the bridegroom's friend, who knows the wedding isn't about him. And he must decrease and the groom must increase. This is how Paul was with the Ephesian elders and this is how he is now trying to convince and reminding that the Ephesian elders that they must be among the flock because later on he's going to talk about not just savage wolves who come in among them, But those who rise up from within the Ephesian elders and draw people after themselves and why themselves is because they don't know themselves to be slaves of the great Lord, the great master, the worthy Jesus Christ. He says, this is what I was, it was a problem for Paul in his ministry. You remember his letters to Corinth? He wasn't like the super apostles. He was the humble, unimpressive guy whose letters seemed so great, but he doesn't seem so great. And it was because his God is great, his Redeemer is great, his Master is great. Paul says, conduct yourself with an attitude where everybody knows that you're a slave. You know, where I previously lived to here, there was a servant class on the island, and they were the sweetest Christians. And you didn't necessarily know by nationality, although sometimes you did, or there was a general disparity between, you know, the ethnicities who were in the, you know, the upper middle class and those who were in the servant class. But you really knew by how they carried themselves. They were just people who, they were servants, they were slaves. That was their mindset. They were not about themselves. They were always attending to someone else, even when they were off duty, even when they weren't on the clock. They come to church, they spent their whole week slaving for someone else, well, serving in the home. It wasn't, you know, what we usually mean. They weren't living for themselves. And they come to church and they are the ones. who just immediately, they knew what it was to have a master day by day, and so when they were in the congregation, they rejoiced to have a master, not the rest of the congregation so much, as the one whose church it is, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, the leadership of the church and the leadership of a family should be like that. With all humility, with all lowliness of mind, there was nothing that was too low for Paul to do. There was no opinion of him that he worried someone had of him that was too low. In fact, when he defends himself in his letters to Corinth, he says, I write like somebody who has lost my mind. But he was the slave of Christ, and his words were in service of Christ, and in service of those to whom he preached, and in service of those to whom he wrote. And when he upheld his authority, he did not uphold his authority the way that the lords of the Gentiles do. And neither should elders and ministers in the church, and neither should fathers and husbands in the home. A wife, a child, should know that dad is willing to get down and do anything for everyone else. That dad maintains his headship in the marriage and his authority over the children because he knows that that is given to his wife, that is given to his children for their good. And he is not trying to be their hero. or to use a more appropriate and common word now scarily in our culture, is not trying to be their idol. Because they have a hero and they have a God. And that's the one who put him where he is. And the way he interacts, the gentleness of manner, the compassion in difficulty, the willingness to get less sleep so she can have more sleep, to bear the brunt of everything. that all of those things showed that here is one who is an authority, but he has the manner of a slave. All lowliness of mind, why? Because we have a Lord worth slaving for. I'd rather be the footman of Jesus than a duke over a kingdom of my own. not just a Lord we're sleeping for, but a Lord we're suffering for, serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials, which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews. If you believe that Christ is real and that eternal souls are real and that there's heaven and hell at stake, then ministry is full. of tears and trials, even without respect to what those outside the church do. And there are those who are outside the church. He refers to the Jews here. We've already made reference to the savage wolves in verse 29. But there are also those in the church who rise up speaking perverse things and draw away disciples after themselves. When you think about Paul, you think especially in this regard, you think especially of Alexander the coppersmith in 2 Timothy, who was a very clever and polished speaker and he spoke against the doctrine that Paul spoke and the whole congregation abandoned Paul. When Alexander opposed him at the first, none stood with him, but everyone left him. And you remember when he's giving the list of his ministry trials, you know, how many times he's been given the 39 lashes, you know, because the 40th supposedly might kill him. How many times he'd been beaten with the rods, et cetera. And we know that he was stoned and left for dead. And he refers to two shipwrecks and being adrift night and day at sea. And there was no coast guard. That's pretty bad even if there is a coast guard. But he says above all those things is his anxiety over the churches. If we do ministry in the congregation the way we're going to be hearing in the next 20 verses or so, the way we are to do ministry in the congregation, counting Christ as real and redemption as real and the Christian life as real, there's going to be a lot of grief. There's going to be those who go away after poor theology and despise the Lord Jesus and harm themselves. If you do ministry in your home, the Lord Jesus working in different children at different rates, there's gonna be a lot of grief. And if you know yourself to be inconsistent there's gonna be a lot of grief. And yet Jesus is worth that grief. Do not, do not dial back. the way you minister to your wife, the way you minister to your children, because it will be painful if we do this. He has told you it will be painful. The Lord Jesus was a suffering savior. Paul was a suffering apostle. And even in our reading, in God's coordinating it for us in 2 Timothy 1, he was calling Timothy to be a suffering elder. Christians are suffering people. And the greatest part of our suffering is our suffering against sin. That's what he's talking about in the opening verses of Hebrews chapter 12. He says, don't give up. You haven't yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your fight against sin. The Father is willing that you would suffer so that you would be holy, so that you would have Him. And you also be willing to suffer that you may have that holiness, without which we will not see the Lord. Don't you see how wonderful is the suffering that isn't wasted? Because for a believer, it is being used to bring him into everlasting joy. And so Jesus, for the joy set before him, was willing to suffer. And Paul, for the joy of having Jesus and of being used by Jesus, was willing to suffer. And now he reminds the Ephesian elders. He doesn't say, all right, guys, if you just do it right, everyone will like you. Things will go well. People will grow. They'll all trust in Christ. They'll all be smoothly sanctified, more and more unto glory. No, he says, you've seen how painful the ministry is. Do it with all your heart. The one whom we serve is worth it. And what he is doing for his people is worth it. See, Christianity isn't a religion that says you can get through this world with less suffering. It's a lie. It's a religion that says there's no amount of suffering in this world that won't be worth it because of how worthy he is. And you can have him even in the midst of your suffering. This is, incidentally, the same thing Peter says. We won't take the time. I've given it to you in a number of devotionals and we'll probably come back to it before we finish Acts chapter 20. But, uh, I would take the time to open it up too much. First Peter chapter five, the elders who are among you, I exhort my, who am a fellow elder, all humility and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God which is among you serving as overseers, not by compulsion, but willingly, not for dishonest gain, but eagerly, not being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. Likewise, you youngers, and I say it that way, because it's in contrast to elders here, it doesn't just mean those of less years. Likewise, you youngers, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility. For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. But may the God of all grace, who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Is he the God of all glory and the God of all grace? Then the Christian should consistently live as someone who really believes that's true. And if the Christian should live that way, shouldn't their shepherds in the congregation as examples to the flock? Shouldn't the husband and shouldn't the father Do we have such a Lord as Paul and the Ephesian elders and Timothy and Peter did? Then would those who know us best in the church and in our homes know that we had such a Lord from the way that we live? One of the ways they will know is when we hear of who he is and we remember, and we don't just shrug it off, but we repent because we know we have all righteousness counted for us in him. And we know that we have all righteousness guaranteed to us to be conformed to in him, and we lay hold of him so that we can make a new start again The hundredth time, the thousandth time, there is more than enough righteousness in Jesus counted for us, atonement in Jesus given for us, life and goodness in Jesus to conform us to himself. There is more than enough for him in him that you may repent today and lay hold of that and rejoicing that you may have him. You who have forgiven, been forgiven much, may love much. and may set out in that love to live for Him. Oh, that God would give us such examples in our churches and in our homes, because we know that He has given us such a Redeemer who sits on the throne of heaven. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we offer you weakness, weakness in preaching, weakness in hearing, and certainly that weakness which your word has exposed. But we come to you not by what we are able to offer you. Even the brokenness of our hearts and our contrition comes by your grace, by your spirit, using your word. We come to you because you have offered yourself to us in Christ. And we ask that the reality of his lordship, the reality of his worth, the reality of his value would be put on display by the repentance that you grant us and the rejoicing over the forgiveness and righteousness that we have in him. And then the life of love, humility, willingness to suffer that you give us. Lord, give us to taste and see and know the value of Jesus Christ, so that it won't just be an attempt to look like we realized we should, but a genuine response to knowing that he is what he says. Help us by your spirit, we ask, in Jesus' name, amen.