Please stand. We're going to read from Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20 verse 17. Now from Miletus, he 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 and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and 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. that 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 of God will see my face again. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for I did not shrink 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 ministered to my necessities and to those who were 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 the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship if you would please be seated. It's a great blessing to see you again this year and enjoy your fellowship. We are hoping that your voting or whatever it is that you do regarding Calvin will end up in him being sent back to Vancouver. I probably shouldn't say this, but my congregation are not particularly happy with you right now, which is a glowing recommendation, is it not, to Kelvin and his ministry in a short time with us. In fact, Kelvin probably wouldn't tell you this, but earlier this year I was contemplating starting a seminary in Cape Town, South Africa, and went down there to a look at that option and I spoke to Calvin before I left saying that if I did indeed take the call to Cape Town, would he be interested in replacing me, which is my own recommendation of Calvin, which I would not have done for everyone who has come across our pulpit. That is for sure. So I hope that will be an encouragement to you for whatever it's worth from our church, both me and our congregation. And I trust that the Lord in his providence has I brought you the right man, and as it so happens in my preaching at Faith Church, I'm going through the Book of Acts, and I thought, well, not only have I preached sermons on Paul's charge to the Ephesian elders recently, but that seems an appropriate text to exhort the congregation, the elders, and Calvin who will be listening. So that is the main reason why I bring this text to you today. And I can begin by saying very simply that Paul's words that he speaks to these Ephesian elders, these are the words that every pastor should in some way aspire to say to his flock. They are not words that you can say at the beginning of your ministry. They are words that take years to be able to say. There's a certain type of authority, there's a certain type of power in the words that we speak based upon context. I could say to you, you yourselves know how I have ministered to you, but you don't know. And they would be empty, hollow words in many respects. When Paul speaks these words, he has his life plastered before these people over the period of several years where they actually know. So these are not words that you can enter into the ministry speaking, but they are words where you hope to get to that point, you pray to get to that point, and you would love to get to that point. how many ministers could say something of what Paul says here with a clear conscience. And they are remarkable words. Some of these passages in his charge are words that I have to confess I'm not sure I could say to my own congregation. They're embarrassing words for some ministers. They are words that If I should ever get to the point where I could say them, I know that much suffering would have to take place to be able to get to that point. And as you read this church, the Ephesian elders, you'll notice that Paul highlights his sufferings. So just by way of introduction, the words that we're able to speak in the Christian life always happen in context. and they have an authority based upon how we have lived. Which goes to say that Paul is able to speak with such authority, with such passion, with such tears, with such persuasiveness because of all that he endured before their very eyes. Now let's see something of this. You see in verses 18 to 19, he reminds them of the manner of his ministry. That from the very first time he set foot in Asia, he served the Lord in what way? Well, he says, I served you with all humility and with tears. There are Perhaps words that we might find embarrassing to say to somebody. I am the most humble man you know. We laugh at those types of comments. Forgetting perhaps that Moses was the meekest man to have lived on earth and perhaps Moses was the one who wrote those words. Here Paul is saying that he served the Lord with all humility and tears. He's saying, I'm a humble man. Do you not find that a little bit shocking? Aren't we supposed to let others say that about ourselves? But Paul says that, I served you with humility and with tears. And why is he able to say that? Well, look at the context, and with trials. In fact, the latter part of that verse, and with trials, explains why he's able to say those words at the beginning. Why was he able to serve with humility? Because here was a man not going from victory to victory, from success to success. Here is a man that was crushed every single period of his new life in Christ. That's why he could serve with humility, because he was under constant trial from the Lord. You're only going to be humble when God deals with you. Nobody says, I serve the Lord with all humility, who doesn't go through a great deal of trial. So that explains why Paul's able to say that. These are not just the words of a raving lunatic who's got a heightened sense of his self-importance. These are the words of a man who knows what it is to suffer and can say, I served with humility. But then also, If you want another shocking verse, you can also look a little bit later on to verse 24, after he has spoken to how he has spoken of the whole counsel of God. Notice what he says in verse 24. But I do not account my life of any value or as precious to myself. Could you say those words? Could you say, before a group of people, I do not count my life of any value or as precious to myself. And the second part of that, or as precious to myself, gives us the meaning of, I do not count my life of any value. Of course, his life has value in one sense. He is serving God. He is serving Christ. He is serving the kingdom. But what he's saying is, in and of myself, in the abstract, Paul, apart from Christ, apart from the kingdom, my life has no value. And I don't consider it as precious to myself. Those are are words that if I'm being honest with you, I'm not sure I can say before you. I do not count my life as any value. Isn't our whole society, isn't our whole inner being, isn't the whole way in which we live in this world, basically, I count my life of much value? that it is very precious to myself, that I take every means appointed to make sure that I look after myself. And Paul is saying the very opposite. And again, I bring you back to the fact that here is a man who went through many trials. That's the only thing that can explain verse 24. So I say to you again, this is a shocking speech. when you look at what is being said. And so he exhorts, and you see that begins around verse 26, where he begins to exhort and says to these Ephesians that, he is innocent of the blood of all of you. And why is that? Well, the answer is given in verse 27, because he did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. And notice why he did not shrink. He says, 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. Paul is saying that I did not shrink back from teaching you, from exhorting you, from preaching to you anything that would be profitable. Why? Because you don't actually belong to me. You belong to God. You are his sheep. And he was willing to speak to the sheep whatever they needed to hear that would help them. And my friends, that is not easy. It's not easy for a number of reasons. One of the reasons is we don't actually value all of the sheep equally. There are, I am told, roughly 1,000 breeds of sheep. I did not know that until I did what pastors do, and you do a little bit of extra work in the week to make those comments, right? Well, about 1,000 breeds of sheep And some of you may know the merino sheep is commonly understood as one of the better breeds. Why is that? Well, because of the lovely wool that comes from that sheep for clothing. I don't know if any of you have merino wool. A little warm this climate for that, but that is the number one sheep. And some of the gentlemen here who like their lamb might know the Dorset sheep because of the lovely food that comes from that sheep. Now there's some sheep that are just really inedible. They are, to put it bluntly, quite useless. They're still sheep, but they really don't have any value to them. There are some sheep that are highly valued and sought after. Well, I think Paul says something about that regarding the church. There are some people who are very valuable. He speaks of some are different parts of the body. Not all members of the body are equally valuable. Yes, they're all part of the body, but there are some more modest parts, right? And their value is not as much. There are hands, there are eyes, there are legs, there are toes. But what is Paul saying? Paul is saying that he is willing to teach everything that is profitable to all the flock. Notice verse 28. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock. Yes, there are some who give more than others. Yes, there are some more important than others, but pay attention to all the flock, not just the merino sheep. Why? Because the blood that was spilt for the merino sheep is the same blood that was spilt for the sheep that aren't particularly useful. The sheep that give you headaches all of the time. We know these sheep, don't we? You may be sitting here right now. you just give pastors headaches. And God loves you, and the pastor loves you, and you're at an early point in your sanctification where you're a lot of trouble, and then there are others who are just bliss upon bliss. But the point is that we don't have that option as pastors to pick and choose our sheep. Christ didn't even have that option. That's the amazing point. He received those whom the Father had given to him. And he went to Golgotha for all the sheep. And Paul understands that. All of the sheep, he ministered to, and he loved them, and they loved him. And I think that's a very important point for pastors to understand. that you don't have that option to play favorites. You love all the sheep. You love the old and the young. You love the widow. You love the family. You love those like you. You love those who aren't like you. Why? Because it wasn't your blood that was spilt for them, but Christ's blood. and the elders need to keep watch over themselves and the flock. And Paul continues by being very blunt and straightforward with them, that I know after my departure, verse 29, fierce wolves will come in among you. Now, here again is another shocking thing for Paul to say. Not that there will be fierce wolves, where we understand that based upon the fact that history teaches us this, but even verse 30, and from among your own selves. Can you imagine? Gathered around the apostle Paul, and Paul is saying, in essence, some of you are going to be savage wolves. Speaking twisted things. That is falsehood, that is untruth, that is heresy. Now why is it that men speak falsehood and heresy and untruth? Is it because they're intellectually disabled? The answer is an unequivocal no. False teaching is always a moral issue. Notice that he connects it explicitly to this point, to draw away the disciples not after Christ, not after His glory, but after them. So let us come back to our motives for the ministry. If your motives for the ministry are to draw away disciples after you, you're going to be very disappointed. You may, in the short term, have some success. But it is the most freeing thing in the world when you are drawing disciples after Christ. Because then it doesn't matter. The pressure's off. Christ died for these sheep, therefore we're to draw the disciples after Christ, not ourselves. Until you go to the cross sinlessly, blamelessly, righteously, and lay down your life, you have no right whatsoever to draw any sheep, bug, ant after yourself. And these savage wolves come in. And they cause destruction. because they are selfish and self-glorifying. So the elders have to watch out for themselves. And then Paul comes to verse 32 where he says, now I commend to you God and the word of his grace. And he gives us three things that grace actually does. You see, it's not something that's just an esoteric sort of idea that I'm off the hook. It actually does something. The first thing is it builds the church up. It builds the church up. Grace isn't some static thing. It builds the church up and it gives us the inheritance. I was just saying this morning on the way to church, you know, as Christians, we can enjoy steak, we can enjoy a glass of wine, we can enjoy the things of this world so much more than non-believers. And why is that? Well, because for the believers, it's like going away on a holiday, and you know that it's going to come to an end, and you have to get back into the rat race, and you have to get back into the traffic, and you have to get back into this life that has so many miseries. But when we eat some steak, when we have a glass of wine, when we have fellowship and friendship, we know that what we experience now is only a small taste of what we will experience forever and ever. That's our inheritance. And that brings much joy. That the church is built up, but that we have an inheritance to look forward to, but also notice what he says. among all those who are sanctified, among all those who are holy. So how does Paul address the church? He says, you are holy. You are righteous. And my friends, if you read the New Testament, it's also a most remarkable thing that the way in which God describes believers in the New Testament is not primarily by way of calling them sinners. When you read the New Testament, the sinners are actually those outside of the kingdom. They are the unrighteous. They are those in Galatians 5.21, not 5.22. I ask my students, whether in South Africa, whether in Vancouver, I ask them, I say, who here is pure in heart? Guess how many people usually put up their hands? No one. Then I asked them, who here is a Christian? Oh yeah, I'm a Christian. I says, if you're a Christian, you're pure in heart. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Only the pure in heart are going to see God. Who ascends to the hill of the Lord? He who has clean hands and a pure heart. Now the point is not that we don't have sin, of course we have sin. The point is that God describes you as holy, describes you as righteous, describes you as pure in heart, because He is pleased to accept you that way. He is pleased to describe you that way, and that is very important for the way you're going to live your Christian life. If you fundamentally identify yourself as a sinner, guess what? You're going to sin. This sort of defeatist attitude, oh, I'm just such a sinner. Then don't be surprised if you sin. If that's your identity, you're going to act out in accordance with your identity. That's why 1 John is such a striking letter because John says, we just don't sin. And the reason he says that is because of who we are. Let me use a... a very common example. You're all aware of the problems of internet pornography. Well, the man who sits down at his computer and says, I'm a sinner, I'm so wicked, I'm vile and evil, clicking away and this is who I am. But then consider that same man sitting down at the computer and saying, I am pure in heart. I am righteous. I am blameless. I am holy. I am sanctified. How can I, being all of those things, gaze upon this iniquity? And so he doesn't because of who he is. So Paul is saying to them, you are sanctified. Not that you're going to be sanctified, though that's true. But that's who you are. I am accepted in Christ. Why do I need to prove myself before the world? I've been accepted. I'm justified. I'm holy. Why would I speak in such a way? Why would I swear? Why would I take the Lord's name in vain if I identify myself as pure in heart? And I'm totally persuaded that many in the Reformed Church even have made the T in Tulip a capital T to the power of 100 and have lost this identity, which is very important for us. So look at what ends up happening then in verse 33. If you don't believe me, look at the way Paul then naturally goes into the way he describes his Christian life. I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. So after speaking about the fact that grace means that you are holy, what does Paul speak about? His holiness. Now, Verse 33 is a lovely passage for this very reason. What was the specific sin that Paul speaks about in Romans 7 that showed him what an evil man he was as a Pharisee? Well, you can look at Romans 7, verse 8 later on. but it was sin that produced in him every form of covetousness, that he came to understand his wickedness through the law that he was a covetor. Now he's a Christian, notice what happens. He doesn't say that I have every form of covetousness. He says, I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. Now, I can see some of you don't believe me. Well, let's turn to Ephesians chapter 4 just as an example. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 25, this just gives us an example of what the Christian life ought to look like. Verse 25 of Ephesians chapter 4, therefore, having put away falsehood, what do we do? It's not just don't do the negatives, but what do we do? Well, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor. You don't just put away falsehood, but you speak the truth. You don't just stop coveting, but you act generously. For we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. And give no opportunity to the devil. Now look at this in verse 28. What does the thief do? Well, the thief no longer steals. But Paul doesn't just end there. He says, but rather let him labor. doing honest work with his own hands so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Instead of stealing, give to people. Now if we could keep on reading and you'd see that comes out many more times, it illustrates this point that the Christian life is not one about negatives so much as it is one about exchanging the negative for the positive. I was a sinner, now I'm righteous. I once coveted, now I give. I once spoke falsehood, now I speak the truth. So Paul says, 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. He was generous. And then he brings up the words of our Lord Jesus, not incidentally from the gospels, but what would have been oral tradition handed down, how he himself said, it is more blessed to give than receive. And we may ask ourselves this question, does that mean it's not blessed to receive? And the answer is no. What he's saying is it's more blessed to give than receive. Yes, it's blessed to receive. I've received lots. And I can tell you, I'm very happy about what I've received. Some lady gave me an envelope last week in church with a check for money. I was ecstatic. If any of you are thinking about that, But guess what? She must be, according to this principle, even more ecstatic. That's the point. It's better to give than to receive. And Paul was able to say this by his own example. These are not just hollow words. He was able to minister with his hands and share with those in need, and that was better than receiving. Did Paul at times receive? Yes, but at other times he gave, and he says it's better to give than to receive. In other words, the way you attack sin is with righteousness. I remember as a young man saying, one day I woke up, I don't think I was a Christian yet, but I woke up one day and with good intentions I said, today I'm not going to sin. I'm just not gonna sin today. I'm not gonna say anything mean. I'm just not gonna do anything. In fact, if I just stay in my bedroom and don't do anything, I won't have sinned. I thought this. But even theoretically, if I had been able to stay in my bedroom and not say an unkind word or think an unkind thought, Would I have been a Christian? And the answer is no. Because the Christian life is not only don't do this, but what are you doing? And so we believe that giving is better than receiving. And that explains the rest of this chapter. Notice when Paul leaves, they weep. As time comes to an end, I'm conscious of that. But notice that they weep. There was much weeping in verse 37 on the part of all. Why do you think they were so sad for Paul to leave? Well, I'll give you one reason. They were sad that Paul left because he was a giver and not a grabber. People aren't sad when grabbers leave. And selfish people leave, we're not particularly sad, are we? When menaces to the church leave, we call it an addition by subtraction, don't we? We have to be honest about these things. There are certain people, we're not that unhappy to see the back of them. It may be a teacher in a classroom with a kid who just causes problem after problem. It may be on a sports team. Why were they so sad? Because here was a man who gave and gave and gave and gave. And when you have people like that, they are a loss. Now you can ask yourself this very pointed question. If you were to leave this church, would there be sadness or gladness? What are you actually doing for the church that people would be sad for you to go, that you would actually be missed? I'm a pastor. I monitor what people do. That's my job. And there are some people who I'm convinced they come, and they take, and they take, and they take, but they do not give. And they haven't really learned the joy of giving. They're the ones missing out. It is better to give than to receive. And they're miserable people because they never can receive enough. And giving is the best way to deal with your covetousness. You have a problem with covetousness? Start giving as much as you can. Some churches have this issue. Do they have the offering after the sermon or before the sermon? Right, which one do you do? Well, if your pastor so ticks you off every Sunday and makes you feel wicked and unrighteous and that there's no hope, well, then why would you want to give? You should just take from the offering for the trouble that you've given up time this morning. But why do we have to look at it so negatively? Why can't we have the offering after the sermon where people have been incited by the grace of God and they want to give and they're taking their watches off if they could to give? Why? Because it's better to give. It really is better to give. I can see this in my life with people who've given and given and given and they are always better off. The good thing about being a visiting preacher is I can actually go longer than when I'm at my regular congregation because I don't have to see you next week. But I have to illustrate you this point. When I was in South Africa as a seminary student, I gained a reputation for helping out the homeschool society because these poor homeschoolers didn't get to do PE. They were locked up in their homes all day, you know, studying and getting smarter than everybody else and smarter than me. So I said to the parents, well, why don't we have PE class? And these were missionaries. And I just wanted to have fun with the kids, playing rugby, playing soccer, out on the grass. And before they went back to America, I could not believe what they gave me. I'm like, where would they have got the money from to give to me? I didn't even want the money, but they gave and they gave. The people with the least amount of money gave. One guy gave me his car when he left. He just gave it to me. But there was someone else in the church who caught on to this idea that I trained young boys, and him and his wife had decided that his son wasn't very good at soccer. This was potentially an embarrassment to the family. We'll have Mark make him better. Because that's what I do. The only problem was I lived on the same property as the missionaries, but this wealthy pilot with South African Airways and owned all sorts of things, he lived in the rich suburbs where I'd have to drive with the car that was given to me by this missionary, which incidentally broke down once on the side of the road and started overheating, which is another story. But I'd have to drive out there, and I'd have to buy basically a carton of oil every time I went out there because it drained oil so fast. I'm just giving you the context. I haven't got over this, you can tell. And he'd always say, I'm gonna look after you, Mark. And I'd go there and drive out, and sometimes I'd pick up my wife when she was working, and she'd say, no, we don't have to go out there. I'm like, yeah, we gotta go out there. And we'd go the opposite way. And we'd be in traffic, and I'd teach this young man in this beautiful big house with his mom overwatching. And it came to the point where I was about to leave to go home. And the man who had all this money, who kept saying, Mark, I'm going to look after you, gives me a South African Airways backpack. Now, it doesn't really matter for me, does it? It matters a lot more for him that he was so enslaved to money, so enslaved to the things of this world that he didn't know how to give. And those with nothing, those with little, knew how to give. And they were more blessed. And Christ comes into this world, and he gets to that point where he's at Golgotha. But how does he get to that point? Well, he had to be in the Garden of Gethsemane and he had to make a conscious decision. Is he going to go to the cross or not? Now, why was he able to say, I will go, I will go to the place of darkness. I will have the plagues in Egypt of the death of the firstborn and darkness meted out upon me. I will go where my father will turn his face away from me. I will do this. Why was he able to do that? Because his whole life had been one of giving. That's why he was able to make that decision at that point. Not that for the first time he had to say, well, am I gonna go to the cross? No, his whole life had been a perpetual Gethsemane where he suffered, but he gave and he gave and he gave so that when it came to the point, will he go to the cross? It was really in one respect, an easy decision. His whole life had been one of giving. And so what was he going to do then? He was going to do the only thing he knew how to do. Give, to give his life a ransom for many. It was more blessed for Christ to give than receive. And that is why we are here this day, because of that principle. Let's pray. Oh Lord, our God, we thank you that you are a giving God. And yes, O Lord, you receive praise and glory, but only because you gave. And we know, O Lord, that we receive, and we receive more than we can thank you for, but O Lord, may it not be that we are those who do not give. It may be that we are those who are blessed, who are holy, who are righteous, who are pure in heart, and so live out of that reality. and are generous and kind and loving to those who are your people. For Jesus' sake we pray, amen.