Bible Guys Classics: Acts 20

All right, Well today, Jeff, we are actually back in the Book of Acts, chapter number twenty, because the Book of Romans has come to an end. That's right, So we're going to pick up Paul is continuing on in his travels and he goes to jail. Is what's coming up next? Yeah, it's a tough one. But he's going to meet with the leadership in the Church of Ephesus first, So that's. What we're talking about. He's Chris and I'm Jeff. We're the Bible guys. So, Jeff, we did miss you when Wesley stood in. I know he did a great job. But Kyle did a great job while you were gone. I mean, we've missed each other quite a bit. Yeah, we actually have. Yeah, Yeah, it's going to be back together this week. And so today I look forward to asking you this because you're here next to me, which is what made Jeff happy this week. Oh this is a playoff of the most famous segment We've got. Ye Chris, which by the week, By the way, somebody in our church lobby came up to me, like just on Sunday, which would have been a couple of days ago, and said, hey, I have a question so what And they said, why don't you ever ask what made Chris happy? And I said, that's a great question. That is a good question. That's not for you today, that's for me today. I get happy. Are you trying to push in on my question? I'm just trying to Hey, let's do what made Jeff mad this week? Hey? Actually I thought we were just having a good conversation. Okay, okay, I thought you're trying to steal. I thought you're trying to ago. Are we all ready to fight? So? What made Jeff happy this week? What made Jeff happy this week? Uh? You know what? So we just celebrated Valentine's Day? Yeah, and uh so my wife she said, hey, I've got a plan for Valentine's Day. It's going to be a lot of fun. And I was like, okay, this is great. So that made me happy that she she made a plan, because usually I'm the one that's trying to figure out what to do for Valentine that's fun. But she put together and she bought tickets and took us to the Detroit Symphony and the Detroit Symphony was screening The Princess Bride while they played the New orchestral soundtrack to it. So Princess Bride was the soundtrack to the movie. The Princess Bride was two guys. It was only two people, a guitar and piano. That's the keys, that's all the whole movie. But they went back and redid the entire thing, full orchestral soundtrack, and it was brilliant. So the orchestra hall was packed and we sat and they played the movie. Of course, the conductor comes out and he takes his As soon as he steps up on the conductor thing, everybody's cheer and he bows and then he whips out his his baton and he points out to the crowd and he says, my name is a Ningo Montoya. You kill my father. Yeah, So it's either you love or hate the Princess Bride. Yeah yeah. And then he's from Australia. So then he said, apparently the only thing is according to this movie they come from Australia, is iye be came Potter and criminals. Populated by criminals. Remember, So that show either you love or hate the Princess Bride. And my wife and I our sense of humor is we love the Princess Bride. So it was funny sitting there, probably three thousand people in the orchestra hall and everybody's quoting lines and laughing, and it was so much fun. It was just a delight. We had so much fun together doing that. No more rhymes and I mean it, anybody want a peanut? It's so great. Yeah, So that that was what really that maybe be happy this week were. Hey, I know this isn't the Chris Happy segment, but my wife also planned, which is unusual. Wow. Yeah, yeah, because my wife does. We lucked out. We've got the best wives in the world. Yes, yeah, And normally she doesn't plan these days, but we're actually, uh, she planned a weekend actually that starts tomorrow. We're going to Saganau overnight and we're seeing John Christ the Christian car Yeah yeah, huh, and then we're coming back. So that'll be fun good for you. Yeah, really cool. So Paul has completed his third missionary journey yep, and he went back. In that third journey, he went back through a bunch of the cities that he'd already been too before, and he writes the Book of Romans that we read and a couple of the other ones there and then now he's in prison, getting ready to go to prison. So here's what happens. Says he was preparing to sail back to Syria when he discovered a plot by some Jews against his life, so he decided to return through Macedonia. Oh, by the way, we're reading in Acts chapter twenty first three. Yeah, it says several men were traveling with him, and they were Soapeter, son of Pirus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundas from Thessalonika, Gayas from Derby, Timothy and Titikus and Trophimus from the province of Asia. They went on ahead and waited for us at Troes. When it says us, that's Luke and Paul. So Luke, that's right. Luke is the writer of the book of Acts. So all these other guys went out ahead, and Luke and Paul are the us there. So these other guys went out ahead and waited for us at Troas. After the passover ended, we boarded a ship at Philippi in Macedonia. Five days later joined them in troy As, where we stayed a week. On the first day of the week, we gathered in the local believers to share in the Lord's supper. Paul was preaching to them, and since he was leaving the next day, he kept talking until midnight. I thought you preached long the upstairs. The upstairs room where we met was lighted with many flickering lamps. As Paul spoke on and on, a young man named Euticus, sitting in the window sill, became very drowsy. Finally he fell sound asleep and dropped three stories to his death below. Paul went down, bent over him and took him into his arms. So have you ever had people die while you were preaching? Uh? I don't think so many of us feel that way. I was literally trying to answer that question. So don't worry, he said, he's alive. Then they all went back upstairs, sharing the Lord' supper and ate together. Paul continued talking to them until dawn, and then he left. Meanwhile, the young man was taken home unhurt, and everyone was greatly relieved. Paul went by land to Azos, where he had arranged for us to join him, and while we traveled by ship, he joined us there and we sailed together to Middelean. The next day, we sailed past the island of Kios. The following day we crossed to the island of Samos, and a day later we arrived at Malaydis. He's telling this because he's being accurate with the travel pattern, that all of his readers would have known these places, right. That's why he's saying this. He's not just claiming that, hey, we went on a journey. He's being specific on purpose. Paul had decided to sail on past Ephesus for he didn't want to spend any more time in the province of Asia. He was hurrying to get to Jerusalem if possible, in time for the festival Pentecost. But when we landed at Malayedis, he sent a message to the elders of the church at Ephesus asking them to come and meet him. And when they arrived, he declared, You know that from the day I set foot in the province of Asia until now, I've done the Lord's work humbly and with many tears. I've endured the trials that came to me from the plots of the Jews. I never shrank back from telling you what you needed to hear, either publicly or in your homes. I've had one such for Jews and Greeks alike, the necessity of repenting from sin and turning to God, and of having faith in our Lord Jesus. And now I'm bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. I don't know what awaits me, except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead. But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus, the work of telling others the good news about the wonderful grace of God. And now I know that none of you to whom I have preached the kingdom will ever see me again. I declare today that I've been faithful. If anyone suffers eternal death, it's not my fault, for I didn't shrink from declaring all that God wants you to know. So guard yourselves and God's people, feed and shepherd God's flock, his church purchased with his own blood, over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as elders. I know that false teachers, like vicious wolves will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock. Even some men from your own group will rise up and distort the truth in order to draw a following watch out. Remember the three years I was with you, my constant waf and care over you night and day, and my many tears for you. And now I entrust you to God and the message of his grace that is able to build you up and give you an inheritance with all those he set apart for himself. I've never coveted anyone's silver or gold or fine clothes. You know that these hands of mine have worked to supply my own needs and even the needs of those who are with me. And I have a constant example. I have been a constant example of how you can help those in need by working hard. You should remember the words of Lord Jesus, it's more blessed to give than to receive. When he had finished speaking, he knelt and prayed with them, and they all cried as they embraced and kissed him goodbye, And they were sad, most of all because he had said they would never see him again. Then they escorted him down to the ship. There it is, there you go. It was a long chapter. Yeah, it's a nice story, yeah right, but yeah, it's a long long chunk there. So the very first thing we have to camp on. Is this guy who follows three stories. Down that's the best and dies. Yes, So think about this. You're making a joke about like people falling asleep and dying when people preach. But you know, I'm sure when Paul was in the city, they probably could not get enough of him. So wherever Paul was, whenever he started to speak, it's not like, well, we're going to go home after an hour, because you know, North Americans in the twenty first century retired if you go beyond sixty minutes, right, it's like, no, Paul's here, He's not always going to be here. So who knows. It doesn't say how long a sermon was. He could have went to midnight. It went to midnight, right, it could have been eight hours. Yeah, right, And so we have to understand, like the idea of him falling asleep wasn't like somebody falling asleep when I preach. Right, that's right, good job. I had a one time when I first came to Heritage, we were meeting in a high school, and before I came to Heritage, I had only ever spoken in front of adults six times total. Six well, and four of the six times. The pastors I was working for at the time went good thing hearing me position because God didn't gift you to speak, right, I just did that bad of a job. Yeah, yeah, I was just a bad public speaker. So then Heritage hires me after me only speaking one time, well two times. I spoke one time on a Sunday morning, one time in a midweek thing, and it was the best I could do. But I wasn't a very good speaker. I still am not a great speaker. But I think you're good. The well, there's so many people I'm like, man if I could speak like them, you know what I mean? I love that. So people who knew me but did not know you, who visited Heritage, their biggest concern was, you know, is I like Chris already? Because I know him and I like him, But am I gonna like Jeff? And I'm telling you just about everybody I've ever talked to, he said, I heard Jeff, and oh good thing, he's great. Oh good great, Because I mean, I wasn't saying that to get a compliment. You know, I wasn't very good at speaking, and so. I think you've changed in the last how many years sixteen years. Sixteen years, yeah, so it'll be seventeen in just a couple weeks. So anyways, I was speaking, and I'd only been here maybe a year, year and a half. The room started feeling, you know, and so the church kept growing and we had a lot of people in the gym, and all of a sudden, this lady, I'm thinking while I'm speaking, I was just aware this message I was preaching wasn't the best message I'd given in a while. Right, I'd been working really really hard trying to figure out how to communicate better, and I was just thinking, man, Jeff, this one's just not hitting. And while that thought was going through my head, this old lady just fell over, fell over. And I started laughing, thinking I killed this woman while I'm preaching. She's like ninety years old. She just went over. So let's get this straight. None of your woman falls. Over while I'm preaching. And while I'm thinking this is a really horrible message, and you laugh. I laughed out loud. It was like goodness, and so the U and I wasn't like ahha, I would just say, you gotta be kidding me, right right, And so I was like, uh, sure's I think we need some help, and you know, we have a great safety team. And our safety team rushes In had several firefighters. They come in smelling salts. Immediately she wakes up, they pick up her chair, right on the chair, they. Took her out. It was great. And so just a few. Seconds later they flashed on the screen in the back that she was fine. She just it was a little too warm in the room and she passed out. She was dehydrated. So once we knew she was well, I said, hey, everybody, I just got a message that you know, the lady that fell over, she passed out, she was dehydrated, and so thank goodness, and I said, you know, I was thinking, what all you were thinking, and that was this is one of the worst message you ever heard. And she just passed out when it happened. That's funny, it was. It was terrible. So anyways, this guy. I did have on East sorry tostray, but I did have on Easter Sunday one time, which is a pretty big crowd. So the room's completely that's like the super Bowl of of the year. This guy. This guy was in probably like the fifth row, about seven chairs towards the middle, so it wasn't on the end, and he actually has like an epilepsy episode. Oh yeah. So they literally had to wheeled down a wheelchair all the way down to the front in front of everybody. There's like a thousand people in the room, and they had to carry this guy, lift him uput in the wheelchair and take it all the way out. In retrospect, what I should have done in the middle of my message was stop and acknowledge what was happening, right, and just say like, hey, what's happening. Can we get a word? Hey everybody, he's fine, he just needs to go out and whatever, and let's leybe do a quick word a prayer for you. So what we did for her, we prayed for that lady and go back and here's but here's what I did. I ignored it and kept on speaking. So I just thought because I didn't understand, I didn't comprehend what was happening, right, I just knew something was happening. Stuff's happening all the time while you're speaking and you're having to filter it out or you can't. Yeah, yeah, it happens to me out time. But people later on said, dude, you just kept on going and just ignored that person. Well, I I we did. We stopped and prayed for that lady. And then I said later on, when I was saying that, you know, she was well I thought, I said, I was thinking, this is such a bad message. I literally bored her to death. Right, And I thought that somebody who was in a wheelchair just needed to go to the bathroom. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I didn't know what was happening. Yep, So that's not what happened here. No, this guy dies and then Paul, you know, raises him back to life, which is kind of an interesting thing. And well, I mean, don't breeze past that. Yeah, right, Paul brings a man back to life. That those are like Jesus powers, right, which is amazing. Well, Jesus said that his followers would do the same things he did, and even greater things, right, so it makes sense that that, you know, miracles would happen like that. So you know, they're sharing in the Lord's Supper, which is always important. They're doing all these things together, and then Paul calls the elders of the church together and there's there's a little teaching here. I think, if you indulge. Me, for just a second. So he says, Paul decides to sail on past Ephesus. When he lands there, in verse seventeen, it says he sent a message to the elders. Not the elder, but the elders. So there's a plurality of leadership in Ephesus. And then if you go down a little further, if you go down to verse twenty eight, he said he's talking to those elders, and he says, so guard yourselves and God's people feed in shepherd God's flock. That's the shepherd. That's where we get the word pastor from pointment is the Greek word there shepherd God's flock, his church purchased with his blood, over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as elders. That word, quite honestly is overseers. There So even though the NLT translated as elders, which isn't inappropriate. Which by the way, my NLT, because I think there's different versions here, yep, it says the Holy Spirit has appointed you as leaders. Yes, that word leader is episcopas it's bishop is what that word is. So if you've ever heard the word bishop, so really, what he's done is he's called the elders together. He says, care for the people like pastors, provide good leadership like a bishop. He's talking to the same group of guys, right, the same leaders. And so where we have I think in our need as humans to create infrastructure and bureaucracy, we have bishops, and we have elders, and we have pastors, and we have all these things. About what Paula saying is, yes, that's right. What Paula saying is the leaders of the church have these three functions. As an elder, you need to be wise, you need to be mature in the faith. You need to be capable of giving good godly guidance. That's what an elder. The value of the elder is, he says, be. A pastor to them, watch out for them, protect them, feed them, care for them, and then be a good leader an overseer. Right. And that's the delicacy, quite honestly, of being a well balanced leader in the church is you need spiritual maturity, you need spiritual care, be able to pride, spiritual care with spiritual authority. Right, those three things go together. And he's talking to a plurality of leaders, because I don't think any one leader can do all those things super well. No, I agree, right. I agree, And uh, you know, it's actually really important for us to understand that that it does take a group of appointed people. Yeah. Uh, and and other parts of the scripture they talk about the qualifications of elders, and it's really the same qualification for pastors, right, So it's an elder should should have a good, good character, be the wife or be the husband of one wife, and it goes down the line of them sort of behaving a certain way, pursuing God, having wisdom, and and and really it's the same qualification that every pastor should have. So this plurality of of of leaders should be the ones that govern the church. So in our church, heritage church, and I'm not saying this is the only way, but for us, we have a group of elders that provide you know, spiritual wisdom in the in the provisional leadership of the church. Within that group, there are a significant number whose spiritual gifts lean towards pastoral care, counseling, care ministry, you know, leadership, that kind of thing. And then within that group, we also have a group of overseers, these bishop types that are providing management of the organization because we have very large organizations, thousands and thousands of people, and so there are some who are gifted with hands on care type ministry. There are others who have supernatural spiritual gifts. The Bible says of leadership and organization and that kind of stuff, and so what we try to do is build a plurality of leadership that then can give advice to because ultimately Paul is saying, listen, i was the leader when I was here, but now I'm not going to be here, and you guys as a plural group need to be able to lead this ministry well. And so you know there is often the apostolic leader or the primary leader, then there's a clustering around that leader. But Paul was able to leave and that church was able to thrive for hundreds of years not because of Paul, but because of the leadership that was there and that they had balance in these areas. And I think that that's incredibly important. The more significant the vision is God gives you for ministry, the more balanced that your ministry needs to be in having wise counsel, pastoral care, and good leadership right, and those three things go together, so and the church thrived because of it. So I think anytime I talk to young church planters or anybody, I'm always encouraging them. You need to build the whole thing. You're the pall, sure, right, but dude. It's not going to be strong and healthy unless you build some spiritual age and maturity around you. That you have some pastoral care built into this, providing care for the people and protection and good leadership. And that it's not fair to make one pastor have to have all those things. It's not reasonable. Yeah, And that's the reason why a lot of churches crumble. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, because the way the ministry gets too heavy. And by the way, I would say, I don't believe that all those guys were being paid, And in fact, Paul goes on and says, I wasn't getting paid, right, right, So it's not that you have to be a professional elder or a professional overseer or a professional pastor. If God's given you those gifts, use those gifts in your church. You might be you might be a roofer, and God's given you the ability to hang shingles so you can fund the ministry you're doing. Paul was a tent maker, and God gave him the ability to make tents so he could fund the ministry of leading that church episode. You know, it's interesting because I've heard people in the past. In fact, one guy used to work on staff with me at a church that I was previously at, and he ended up leaving Detroit Detroit area move somewhere else, and then somehow used you know, was able to come back and reference Paul and said, well, you know, because Paul didn't get paid. He said, I have the belief that no pastor should ever may yeah, it should make any type of living or salary off of that. And I just said, I said, you do realize that Paul had different reasons and motivations. Well, Paul said pastors should be paid, right, He says that, so, I mean you got to read everything. The Bible is its own best commentary. Right. So, just because Paul didn't take a salary, Paul said that pastors are worthy of especially those who teach the Word, are worthy of double honor. That's right. And that honor is not only speaking, He's talking that whole passage is talking in the context of compensation, right, And so Paul was saying that you know, Peter deserved it. He said that even when. He was telling the Corinthians that he didn't take money, he was talking was the Galatians. He was saying Peter did. And that's perfectly fine. He deserved it, right, And so what you'd have to be doing is saying that Paul was right and Peter was wrong. Yeah, right, it's correct, that's correct. But also what I was going to say is that Paul also mentioned that the reason why he didn't is he didn't want to give anybody any excuse because, after all, everybody was skeptical of Saul right right back when he was sawd Yes, you know, if he would have taken money, they would have said, well, we know why he's doing this, right, because so he went out of his way overboard, took the extra step, went the extra mile to make sure that nobody had any excuse to speak against them and his motives, which is why, and he's made that clear abundantly. He mentions that the Thessalonians took care of him, so he did take compensations sometimes, right, But people get obsessed about the couple of times when he chose not to take compensation, right, right, that's convenient. It's convenient, right. The Bible's its own best commentary. If you're going to use Paul as proof of something, you better know everything Paul said right right. And to your point his interaction with Peter about that topic. Yes, that's right. So anyways, that that's another issue. But then he goes out and he's encouraging them Verse thirty one. Watch out. He's remembered that for three years I was protecting you, but now you guys need to protect And there's an expectation that believers grow in their faith to the point that you can protect your family spiritually, you can yourself spiritually. And that's what this is I think he's talking about. So he says, I'm intrusting to you this message now. And that's how the gospel has spread for two thousand years, is that the leaders that came before us have entrusted us with the gospel, and now we have to be handing it off to the next generation. So that's great. Just as a reminder to our readers, we're going to be finishing up the Book of Acts next week. We're in Acts twenty one starting on Monday. Yep. And after all, this whole entire study was a chronological walk through the Book of Acts, breaking off where Paul would have written, for instance, Romans, which we just read and spent time in and came back. So that's right. So we gets pretty crazy for Paul here in the next couple chapters It does, and so hopefully we'll see you then the next time on the Bible, guys,