I invite you to take your Bibles with me and turn to Acts chapter 20. This morning acts 20 as we do continue our multi multi month study through the book of Acts. This morning we want to cover a large portion of the narrative. Acts chapter number 20. We know Paul is a great apostle. We know Paul as a pioneer missionary. We know Paul is a powerful evangelist. We know Paul is a church planter, but have you ever thought of Paul as a pastor? Just as a pastor in Acts 20, Paul is more than anything else, in my opinion, pastoral, and that is in Acts 20. We find Paul feeding and leading the people of churches that he has previously planted, and the people have been converted. The churches have been planted, and now Paul shepherds them in a very special way. So consequently, from Acts 20, I prepared a message titled Pastor Paul. Let's pause briefly for a word of prayer, shall we? Lord God, it is with eager anticipation that we approach your holy word and God, we are hungry to read and to study and to learn and to understand the things that are here. I thank you for your servant, Paul, and I thank you for the very specific shepherding role that he played in this text. Lord, while it's a large portion of Scripture this morning, I pray that you would give us understanding of the big picture. I pray that you would. do a work in our minds and our hearts and applying these truths to our lives as you see fit. So we commit our study to you now in Jesus name, I pray. Amen. A moment ago, this scripture was read for us publicly, corporately. But I would like to begin back in the early part of Acts chapter 20 with verse number one, just to give us the larger context. of Paul's journey after the uproar had ceased. Chapter 20, verse number one, that is the uproar in the in the city of Ephesus. Paul called his disciples to himself, embraced them and departed to go into Macedonia. Now, when he had gone over that region and encouraged them with many words, he came to Greece and stayed there three months. And when the Jews plotted against him as he was about to sell to Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia. of Berea, accompanied him to Asia. Also, Aristarchus and Segundus of the Thessalonians, and Gaius of Derby, and Timothy, and Tychicus, and Trophimus of Asia. These men, going ahead, waited for us at Troas. But we sailed away from Philippi after the Days of Unleavened Bread, and in five days joined them at Troas, where we stayed seven days." Now, stop there. That is a lot of information in those first six verses and that these verses are full of the names of places and people. Let me quickly help us with the details. The places. Acts 19 concludes with a riot in the city of Ephesus of Asia Minor or modern-day Turkey. Acts 20 then begins with Paul departing from Ephesus to go back across the Aegean Sea to Macedonia and then south into Greece. Verses 2 and 3. When he's preparing to leave Greece and sail all the way back to his home in Antioch of Syria, verse number three, there was a plot on his life that he learned of. And so instead, he traveled north again across land through Macedonia, sailing from Philippi to Troas in verse six. Now, of course, all of this is plotted for you on the maps in the back of your Bibles. But it's not only the places that are named here in verses one through six. There's also people that are named. And Paul's companions here appear to be representatives from the different churches that he had previously planted. For instance, verse number four. Look at the scripture. We have soap at her from Berea. What do we know about Berea? Those in Berea search the scriptures every day. Chapter 17, verse 11. The believers in Berea were diligent Bible students. Also, look at verse number four there. We have Aristarchus and Segundus, who were from Thessalonica. Now, Aristarchus means what it sounds like, aristocrat or aristocracy. We might assume that Aristarchus was from the upper levels of society. And then Segundus there means what it seems. It comes from the Latin word meaning second or number two. But who would ever name their child second or number two. But in Latin and Greek households, slaves would be ranked by position. So Primus would be the chief slave or the head slave. And then Segundus might be second or number two, the assistant who carried out the responsibilities. Now, we don't know for sure if Aristarchus is from an aristocracy or if Segundus was number two slave in a household, but it may be that the church in Thessalonica sent these two men with Paul as representatives of the social diversity of that church in Thessalonica. Look there in verse four, also Gaius represented the church in Derbe, one of the cities of Galatia. Also in verse four, Timothy was from Lystra, and we're familiar with Timothy as Paul's son in the faith, the recipient of the two epistles, first and second Timothy. Verse 4 there, from the province of Asia, where Tychicus and Trophimus. Verse 6, you see the personal pronoun, we, informs us that Dr. Luke, the human author of this book of Acts, has rejoined the journey, and Luke may have represented the church in Philippi. It doesn't appear that Corinth had any representation here on this portion of Paul's journey. But these places and these people that are cited here in these first six verses represent the places and the people that were part of Paul's third missionary journey. But there is one insight that we can't overlook in all of the information, and that's in verse number two. Look to verse number two. After the riot at the Temple of Diana in Ephesians, back in Acts 19, Pastor Paul traveled from Western Asia to Macedonia, to Greece, to encourage and edify the saints with many words. Do you see it there in verse number two? Rather than doing more pioneer work as an evangelist or a missionary church planter, he was revisiting the churches that he had already founded, and he encouraged them with many words. The word encouragement there is paracletus or the verb is paracleto. It means to come alongside and to comfort and to exhort and to admonish and to encourage. So I would give you, by way of notes, number one, Paul's pastoral encouragement in verse number two. But how is it that Paul encouraged these people and these churches? What was it that he said? And be careful to understand that entitling these verses Paul's pastoral encouragement, I don't mean that Paul was making them feel good with many words in verse two. I don't believe that Paul was complimenting them or stroking their self-esteem. He was not a health and wealth prosperity preacher with with only good news in a in a large toothy smile, but rather Paul was delivering a very important message. encouraging, or exhorting, or admonishing these believers. If we were to harmonize Paul's third missionary journey, recorded here in the book of Acts, along with his letters to the Corinthians and the Romans, we would know that he was appealing to them and admonishing them regarding a number of different matters. And some of those issues were very difficult issues. Many of them were hard matters. And one of those issues was that Paul was collecting an offering from these Gentile churches for the Jewish believers back in Jerusalem and Judea. You say, OK, we understand now Paul was raising money. That is why we call him Pastor Paul. So that's what pastors do. They always ask for money, right? Money, money, money. No. Pastor Paul, in this case, was not simply raising money as a humanitarian or raising money to finance his own ministry efforts. In fact, as was read just a moment earlier in our service, Paul was very careful to labor with his own hands to fund his own ministry. activity, but Paul was seeking to bring the Jewish and Gentile factions of the church together by exhorting and encouraging the Gentile churches that are represented by these names that we read a moment ago to meet the needs of their Jewish brethren in Jerusalem. And you can read of it in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 and 12. But I want to continue here. There's a little episode in verses 7 to 12 that we'll just read very briefly. Now, on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul readied to depart. The next day, he spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room that they were gathered together and in a window sat a certain young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep. He was overcome by sleep, and as Paul continued speaking, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. But Paul went down, fell on him and embracing him and said, Do not trouble yourself for his life is in him. And when he had come up and had broken bread and eaten and talked a long while, even till daybreak, he departed. And they brought the young man in alive and they were not a little comforted or they were much comforted, you might say. Now here in verses 7 and 12, we might find a precedent for the corporate meeting of believers on Sunday. Verse 7 there, the believers were meeting on the first day of the week, and we find that to be a pattern now throughout the New Testament. Sunday was the day to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Sunday was the day for the corporate gathering of God's people for worship and fellowship. Sunday eventually became known as the Lord's Day. We also, perhaps, find justification for the Sunday evening service. Look at the scripture text. Where in the Bible does it say we ought to meet together on Sunday evenings? At the end of verse seven, it says Paul spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. OK, I concede that this is not a mandate for a Sunday evening service. But we might observe that Paul was a long winded preacher there at the end of verse seven. He preached so long that, in fact, one guy was overcome with sleep. He falls out of the window and he appears to be dead. Aren't you glad that Pastor Paul is not your pastor? See, I'm not so bad, am I? I give you 30 minutes and you know that we will be out at the conclusion of the hour or on the half hour. But Paul is preaching there in the evening, late at night, and whatever may be said about me, I won't keep you that long and I won't kill you with my preaching. But you might feel a number to Paul's pastoral preaching, his pastoral encouragement with many words. He encouraged them. And now he is preaching Paul's pastoral preaching now up to this point in the book of Acts. We find Paul's preaching to the Jews in the synagogues and into those in the marketplace. But as the churches are now established, Paul is retracing his steps. He's revisiting those assemblies and he's preaching long messages to them as a pastor. And one of the critical components of Paul's ministry philosophy was preaching the foolishness of preaching. He called it and his parting words to Timothy were preach the word. Let's continue, verse 13. Then we went ahead to the ship and sailed to Assos, where, intending to take Paul on board, for so he had given orders, intending himself to go on foot. And when he had met us there, we took him on board and came to Maileni, and we sailed from there. And the next day, came opposite of Chios. The following day, we arrived at Samos and stayed at Trogoleum. The next day, we went to Miletus. And again, you can chart all of these things as they are plotted for you on your Bible maps. For Paul decided to sell past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hurrying to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost. And Paul and his team are basically now traveling south along the eastern shore of the Aegean Sea from Troas to Miletus. And at last, now, we come to the portion of the passage that was read for us earlier in the service. And I would call these following verses Paul's pastoral testimony. Paul's pastoral testimony. And this is really where we want to go this morning. Some of this other information is just advancing the narrative in our Bibles. But this is a very sweet scene. And Paul is now summonsing the elders or the presbyter off from Ephesus. And when they arrive, he spoke to them of himself as a model for them to follow. That's the point. Letter A. Paul's personal testimony. Paul's personal testimony there in verses 17 and 18, he calls the elders of the church in Ephesus. When he had come to them, he says, you know, verse 18, that from the first day that I came to Asia, in what manner I always lived among you. And Paul pointed to his life and his lifestyle, his personal testimony, I'm calling it here as a point of credibility for his ministry. For you see, a pastor's personal life cannot contradict his public ministry or else he will compromise that ministry. It was Charles Spurgeon in his classic work, Lectures to My Students, who wrote it. It's a handbook for the pastor. He wrote this. He says of the pastor, his private life must ever keep good tune with his ministry. or his day will soon set with him. And the sooner he retires, the better for his continuance in his office will only dishonor the cause of God and ruin himself. And Paul could say to the Corinthians, imitate me as I imitate Jesus Christ, and that was his personal testimony, but then also his professional testimony in verses 19 and 20. Let her be his professional testimony. And Paul's professional pastoral work was one of humility and heartache. I don't have those as sub sub points for you, but but humility and heartache regarding humility. He served the Lord with selflessness in verse 19, serving the Lord with all humility. And if you read his letters to the Corinthians, Paul, Paul was very careful to empty himself of self and not to be concerned with his image. And his only concern was that Jesus Christ be glorified. That's regarding his humility regarding his heartache, he he served the people with sensitivity. And you see that in verse number 19. With many tears. Now, I don't think that tears are necessarily an evidence of leadership, we in fact, we think of tears as a sign of weakness. But Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem. And we are told to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep. In fact, Paul criticized the Corinthians for being puffed up and they had not rather mourned over sin that was among them. And I believe a sign of Paul's pastoral heart is his tears. In fact, I don't know if you caught it as as the scripture was read a moment ago, this chapter is full of tears. Look at verse 19 with many tears. Look at verse thirty one. Verse thirty one, watch and remember that for three years and not see for whenever one night and day with tears. Look at verse thirty seven as well. They all wept freely, fell on his neck and and kissed him. What a bunch of emotional saps, right? No, there was genuine love and care and concern. Verse twenty five. There's Paul's pastoral responsibility, that's number four. Paul's pastoral responsibility versus twenty five to thirty one, as was read a moment ago, this is Pastor Paul speaking to the pastors. of churches. The elders or the presbyteros is there in verse number 17. They're also called bishops or episkopos in verse 28. And then they're described as shepherds or pastors there in verse 28. And the terms are synonymous. It would be appropriate for you to call me Pastor Matt or Elder Matt or Bishop Matt or Shepherd Matt. We're blessed here at Fourth Baptist Church to have a shepherding team, a plurality of pastors or elders, Pastor Brent, Pastor Killian, you've seen even here publicly this morning. And we serve to shepherd you and we have a pastoral responsibility. That's what Paul describes there in those verses, and Paul knew that he would not see these men again, either he anticipated his own demise. or else he had no physical plans to travel that way again. And so he gave them his parting words and in the parting words of anyone or are certainly powerful. And so I would suggest that some of these words are some of the most solemn statements that Paul has ever made. And it illustrates it illustrates the pastor's responsibility to shepherd the sheep. And there is even a sheep and a wolf analogy here that's found in verse 20, 28, if you're looking at the narrative. But a pastor must first, sub point letter A, watch over himself. Paul says to the Ephesian elders, to the pastors in the city of Ephesus, take heed to yourself. Verse 28, you see it there, take heed to yourself. And Paul told Timothy the very same thing in First Timothy, take heed to yourself. On the back of your notes, I've copied. Or printed here what what the Puritan pastor Richard Baxter has written, and I want you to before you look at that, I want you to know this. The application of this text extends far beyond the pastor. There are lessons for each of us here, follow as I read, take heed yourself. lest you live in those sins which you preach against and others, unless you be guilty of that which you daily daily you condemn. Will you make it your work to magnify God and when you are done, dishonor him as much as others? Will you proclaim Christ's governing power and yet have contempt for it and rebel yourselves? Will you preach his laws and willfully break them? If sin be evil, why do you live in it? If it be not, why do you dissuade men from it? If it be dangerous, how dare you venture on it? If it be not, why do you tell men so? If God's threatenings be true, why do you not fear them if they be false? Why do you needlessly trouble men with them and put them into such frights without a cause? Do you know the judgment of God that they who commit such things are worthy of death? And yet, will you do them thou that teaches another teaches thou not thyself? Thou that sayeth the man should not commit adultery, or be drunk, or covetous, art thou such thyself? Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonorest thou God? What? Shall the same tongue speak evil that speaketh against evil? Shall those lips censure, and slander, and backbite your neighbor that cried down these things, and the like, and others? Take heed yourselves. Lest you cry down sin and yet do not overcome it. Lest, while you seek to bring it down in others, you bow to it and become its slaves yourselves. For of whom a man is overcome, of the same he is brought into bondage. To whom you yield yourself servants to obey, his servants you are, to whom you obey. Whether of sin and death, or of obedience unto righteousness, O brethren, it is easier to chide its sin than to overcome it. And certainly it's a difficult reading with some of the old English. But folks, that is not just a charge for the pastor or the elders, but for all of us to take heed to ourselves. And that's the charge that Paul gave to these pastors in the city of Ephesus, verse twenty eight, therefore, take heed yourself. But then there's a second pastoral responsibility. Paul says, let her be watch over the flock. Watch over yourself or himself and secondly, watch over the flock. In verses twenty seven to thirty one and watching over the flock demands shepherding, that's feeding and leading, and I I believe this is best done by preaching and teaching the whole counsel of God. You see it there in verse twenty seven and verse twenty seven, Paul claims to have fulfilled that very responsibility. But it's not only feeding and leading, it's also guarding. And in this context, that is what is most emphasized. A pastor is responsible to protect the flock of God from the dangers that lurk both without and from within. Look at verse 29. For I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also, from among yourself internally, men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves. Therefore, watch. Remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day. With tears. Unless Paul or less, I'd be accused of high drama or exaggerating the situation, turn quickly, quickly with me to second Peter, chapter two, second Peter, chapter two, and I know we're covering a lot of ground, but I want us to cross reference some of these very same themes. Second, Peter. Two, verse one. But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who brought who bought them and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow the destructive waves because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed by covetousness. They will exploit you with deceptive words for a long time. Their judgment has not been idle. and their destruction does not slumber. Jump to verse twelve. But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand and will utterly perish in their own corruption and will receive the wages of unrighteousness as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime their spots and blemishes carousing in their own deceptions, while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery, and they cannot cease from sin. Jump to verse number 18, for when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lust of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption, for by whom a person is overcome by him. Also, he is brought into bondage. We just read that as the Puritan pastor Baxter just cited. Jump to chapter 3, verse 1. Beloved, chapter 3, verse 1, I now write to you the second epistle, in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles, of the Lord and Savior. Knowing this, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lust. Jump down to verse 17. You, therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware, lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked, but grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in the glory both now and forever. Amen. Folks, may I just say this, I know we covered a lot of scripture text, but hear me. I am speaking to you as your pastor right now. It is a jungle out there. It is a war zone out there, and there is a smorgasbord of selection, religious selection, whether it's Christian literature or concerts or seminars, organizations or personalities, and you can gorge yourself in a bunch of junk food. Spiritually. It's laid to my charge to not only watch over myself. But to watch over you. And there will be as there has always been, Paul says, in fact, in Acts 20, there will be wolves among the sheep, but they will look like sheep for they will be wolves in sheep's clothing. How is this done? Go back to Acts 20. We're nearly done. Acts 20, verse 27. Look at Acts 20, verse 27, and let me link it. Acts 27 with verses 31 and 32. Acts 27, Paul declared the whole counsel of God to them. In verses 31 and 32. Every day and every night for three years, He warned them and commended them, verse 32, to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among those who are sanctified. Folks, I believe the best thing that a pastor can do, the best thing that I can do for you is your shepherd and your pastors, plural, the pastors and the shepherds of this church, is not to raise money. It's not to to implement new programs. Or to create original ideas, but that is to preach the word, to teach the word, to declare the whole counsel of God. For this ultimately is the measure of a pastor. The final verses in Acts 20, I call Paul's pastoral farewell. It was an emotional scene and it was a tender scene. As those believers in Ephesus wept in verse 37 with Paul and said farewell to him. And this morning, I am not saying farewell to you. Lord willing, we'll have many, many more years together to grow together, but I only hope that I might be this type of a pastor. Where I can faithfully, regularly, accurately proclaim and teach the word of God, the text in its context. and that we might enjoy the affectionate relationship that we observe here at the end of Acts 20. However, in conclusion. More than. Your affection for me. Or my love for you, as we witness here in this scene, I want us to be passionate about the chief shepherd, Jesus Christ. And I want more than anything that here in this church, in the midst of all of our activity, that we're not only a church that that declares the whole counsel of God, we will be that we are not only a church that is careful to guard against the threats of those wolves in sheep's clothing, but above all, that we might be a church that loves God with our whole being. And I believe that I think of the church and Revelation two that have had left their first love and God knew their works, they were good works, but they had left their first love. And so a moment of. A moment of a family chat, I hope that you love me, I want you to love me because I love you. And I want us to enjoy what is described here in this narrative, but more than that, Love Jesus Christ above all, let's pray. God in heaven. We thank you for Pastor Paul. We thank you, Lord, for the busyness of his ministry activity, he traveled everywhere all the time. I thank you, Lord, for his missionary journeys, for the churches he planted. for the converts that came to trust in Jesus Christ. I thank you, Lord, for the special relationship he had with the Ephesians after three years of warning them day and night. I thank you for. The sweet affection he shared with the pastors from that those churches in Ephesus. But God, as we consider the pastor and the people of Fourth Baptist Church, we thank you for what we enjoy in this place. But above all, I pray that you would give us An affection for you and a love for you. For your church, for your gospel, for your people. What I pray that that might be seen in us, I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.