Read Luke's account of Paul's ministerial labors in Ephesus, as we will look at one of Paul's speeches. And so brothers, I invite you to turn with me to Acts chapter 20, if you're not already there, and we'll be reading verses 17 through 38. People of God, hear now the word of God, the only infallible rule for faith and for life and for the ongoing work of the church. 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 from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks, of repentance toward God, and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to myself. If only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And now behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all 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 are with me. In all things I have 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. And there was much weeping on the part of all. They embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. and they accompanied him to the ship. Let's pray briefly. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word, your word of grace that you have entrusted to us and that we ourselves have been entrusted to. We thank you that you are such a good and gracious God to reveal yourself and speak so clearly and so authoritatively into our lives. We ask that you would do so now from your word and by your spirit. Give us hearts and minds to readily receive it. Work it deep into the fabric of our lives that it may guide us and lead us in all of our decisions. And that we may learn more deeply the affections that you have for your people. We pray all of this in Christ's name. Amen. Sweat, tears, blood. These are often shed for a very worthy cause. Where there is commitment, these fluids are sure to follow. Where there is exertion, they are rarely absent. Some of you have shed these very fluids in honorable service to your country. Some of you have shed these very fluids in providing for your families or in bringing new life into the world. But before us today in our text, I want us to look at how these three fluids, sweat, tears, and blood, how they defined the ministry of the Apostle Paul. And they defined the ministry that Paul was entrusting to the elders at Ephesus. In doing so, may we be challenged and encouraged this morning in the ministries that the Lord has placed before each one of us, the various locations we inhabit, whether wet or dry. And may we be encouraged in the work set before us today. Let's begin with sweat. Now, to be honest, the word never actually occurs in this passage, but there had to be buckets of it. Why do I say that? Well, I think we see right away that this text begins with a sweaty summons. Look at verse 17, with me again. Now, from Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. Paul takes a great liberty here to summon his audience. It's actually the first of Paul's and the only of Paul's speeches where he summons the audience to come to him. In Acts 13, he is summoned to come before the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. In Acts 17, we see that it was his common practice to go into the marketplaces, into the synagogues, and to speak to whomever was there. And we remember that great scene in Acts 17 where Paul is brought to the Areopagus. And so even the way that this speech is prefaced provides a contrast to what we've seen so far in the book of Acts. And it's no small contrast because it's no small request that Paul is making of his elders. If you were to look at a map, you would see that Miletus is about 30 miles south of Ephesus. They're both port cities. And so Paul was sailing down from the north, and he sailed right past the port city of Ephesus, right into Miletus. And it was his decision to do so. If we go back just one verse, and look at verse 16, where Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus. So what's going on here? Well, immediately I have flashbacks to my military days. If you were to go out to Coronado Island, you might see a boat team of Navy SEAL students waiting for that inflatable watercraft to come to them with an instructor aboard. And at the last minute, the instructor might hook a 90 degree turn and go barreling down the shoreline and then pull in miles down just to give his students an extra sweaty effort through the sand. Is that what's happening here? Is Paul acting like some sort of military cadre to squeeze those extra ounces of sweat out of his elders? I hope you're seeing that that's somewhat of a foolish question. In fact, if we're to continue on in reading verse 16, we see Paul's reason for sailing right past Ephesus, and so that he might not have to spend time in Asia, not because he didn't want to spend time with these men that he had invested in, but he was hastening to be at Jerusalem. Now, we don't get any sense from the text that the elders were disgruntled in any way for having to make this 30-mile trek. I don't know about you, but the last time I was invited to go do 30 miles on foot, I happily declined. And we could say that maybe it's because Paul didn't give them an opportunity. I mean, we look at the text, and in verse 18 we read, and when they came to him, he said to them, almost as if while they're still catching their breath, while they're still taking gulps of water, Paul breaks into his speech. So maybe that's why we don't get any signs of a disgruntled elder here. But I still don't think that's the case. Paul explains in verse 22 why he was going to Jerusalem. 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. The elders trusted Paul's judgment. The elders knew that Paul was a man after God's own heart. He was a man in tune with the Holy Spirit. So we don't get any signs of disgruntled elders in this passage. But I think there's even more. I think the elders never would have dared to confront Paul and ask him, why make us sweat? Why did you sail right past us and make us go on the 30-mile trek? I think we ought to see from what we just read in this speech that the elders there in Ephesus are Paul's sweat equity. Paul had labored in their midst, not shrinking back from any of his ministerial duties by pouring his entire life into them. We certainly see that was the case as we come near the end of the speech. And in verse 34, Paul says, you yourselves know that these hands minister to my necessities and those who are with me. In all things, I have shown you that by working hard in this way, we must help the weak. Remember the words of the Lord Jesus. The elders don't grumble or complain at that long, sweaty journey. I think primarily because they weren't breaking the seal on sweaty labors. Paul had been sweating in their midst as we read from the text for three years, night and day. These men willingly, gladly made the journey to see Paul's face. Well, sweat isn't the only fluid we have in our text before us. We also see that Paul not only worked hard with his hands, that his efforts were tireless, but Paul also ministered through tears. There's no shortage of tears. as we see them throughout several places in the text that we just read. I just want to point you to a few verses. We see in verse 19 of chapter 20, Paul reminding the elders that he had been serving the Lord with all humility and with tears. And again, in verse 31, Paul reminds them, therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. And then verse 37, we see that there was much weeping. or shedding of tears on the part of all. In a great display of affection and sorrow on account of Paul's departure, we see more tears. But you know, not all tears are created equal. Not all tears on account of one's departure mean precisely the same thing. As I was on my way into Squamish about six months ago, there was a pastor on his way out. This pastor had been there for 10 years, teaching, laboring amongst the saints. And in shocking news to the congregation he served, and in shocking news to the entire community, this pastor was leaving. because he was in a romantic relationship with another married woman in the congregation. The pastor had been found out, and the pastor was departing. Oh, there were certainly many tears that were shed at this pastor's departure. But they are not the kinds of tears that we see shed on behalf of Paul. before his. In fact, the tears shed by Paul and for Paul tell us a very different story. The tears in our text come from an entirely different source, and that source is Paul's esteem for blood, that third and final fluid we need to look at in our text. I think it's safe to say that the most important characteristic of Paul's ministry that we see here is his esteem for blood. Well, whose blood did he esteem? It's clear it wasn't his own. You see that he counted his life as nothing. It wasn't precious in his sight. It was the blood of the people of God. In this case, it was the blood of the elders he trained. Their blood was so precious to Paul that we see him saying in verse 26, therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you. Why would Paul take such great care to be innocent of their blood? I think the answer comes to us as we look at verse 28. where Paul goes on and 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 esteemed the blood of the people of God, because it was the blood of God's own Son. that was shed for them. Paul dared not be guilty of the blood of any under his care, because those under his care had been bought by the blood of Christ. Paul understood his pastoral ministry as one that shepherds those who are precious to God. There seems to be a general rule in life that the more we pay to purchase something, the better we care for it. The more costly a possession, the greater lengths we go to ensure its safekeeping. Paul knew that he was entrusted with the most costly possession the world will ever know. And it was a possession he didn't pay for. And ultimately, he didn't own. but it was the church of God. On the cross, it was God himself, God in the flesh who knew no sin and became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God and become the prized possession of God. It was on the cross that God purchased the church. So the church of God has been bought with his own blood. You have been bought with God's own blood. Every sheep that looks back at you from the pew week after week has been bought with God's own blood. Every family and single that you visit from house to house as you carry out your labors has been bought with God's own blood. The Church of God deserves the highest degree of careful attention because it was obtained by the most precious commodity the earth has ever known, the blood of God's own Son. And so Paul's ministry possessed the greatest esteem for the blood shed on behalf of the church. And he encouraged the Ephesian elders that day to carry on their shepherding of themselves and of all the flock with that same esteem for blood. In fact, I believe it was this very esteem mentioned in our text. that drove Paul to shed so much sweat and so many tears on behalf of the church. And I believe that it was his esteem for the blood that was the occasion of the tears shed by the elders at Paul's departure. And the text tells us that they were sorrowful, most of all, at Paul's departure because they would not see his face again. Why would they be so sorrowful to not see Paul's face again? Maybe they had the sense that as he left, surely imprisonment and afflictions awaited him, even death. You get the real sense that they believed Paul's words, that his face would no longer be set before them. Were they merely just losing a friend, a good friend in the ministry? That alone would be sufficient cause to weep and to shed tears. But I think there's more. I think they saw in the face of Paul the face of their Savior. I think they saw in the face of Paul that tender care and that ardent love that Christ Himself has for the sheep. And so in not seeing Paul's face again, they were sorrowful most of all, because to them they were losing one of those radiant faces that radiates the love of Jesus Christ for His church. When it is time for your ship to sail, when your congregation will no longer see your face again, will they be sorrowful most of all? Because they will no longer see a face so conformed to the likeness of Christ. A face that showed so much care and love and concern for their souls. Will they be sorrowful at such a loss? May they be so for each and every one of us. Father in heaven, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you