Finishing Well Series

Goodbyes are no fun, are they? We just returned from a few days with our two daughters and their families in Virginia. I cry like a baby every time we leave. In our family, some of our most painful goodbyes were when we left our parents and siblings to serve as missionaries in Mexico City for three years. Another gut-wrenching goodbye was when we left our previous church after 14 years to follow the Lord’s leading to serve with you on Team Edgewood. Our family is now experiencing a different kind of farewell, as we say a “long goodbye” to my mom, who was recently placed on hospice.

This week, I asked our five-year-old grandson Pip what “goodbye” means to him: “Goodbye is when somebody who you really love is going back to their house, and also if their house is far away from somebody else’s house.”

As we come to the second half of Acts 20 in our On Mission series, we’re going to encounter an emotional goodbye from the Apostle Paul. As Paul prepares to leave the Ephesian elders, he gives them an exhortation to keep going as they go back to their far away house. We could summarize his goodbye this way: If you want to finish well, celebrate God’s provision in the past, surrender to His plans in the present, and serve faithfully in the future.

Last weekend, Pastor Dan did a super job mining for gold nuggets from the first half of Acts 20 as we learned, “A gospel centered life compels us to Gather, Grow, Give and Go.” Speaking of giving and going, thanks to your generosity, 611 children from around the world will receive the gospel and other gifts in their Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes this year!

Next weekend, we’ll begin a December series called, “The Cast of Christmas” as we experience the anticipation of the prophets, the joyful proclamation of the angels, and the journey of the shepherds. We’ll see what happens when this cast of characters comes face-to-face with Jesus Christ, the main character of Christmas.

Acts 20:17 sets the context for our text: “Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him.” Let’s look at a map. After three years in Ephesus, Paul journeyed to Macedonia and Achaia to collect an offering for the believers in Jerusalem. On his way back, he landed in Troas, and considered traveling by land but decided to take the Channel Cat, or something like that. As he jetted to Jerusalem, he stopped in Miletus and called the Ephesian elders together for a spontaneous pastors’ conference before saying goodbye to them. Miletus is a seaport town, which was as far from Ephesus as Rock Island is to Aledo.

I have benefited from the exegetical outline of Warren Wiersbe and will be utilizing elements of his excellent work to frame our study today. Let’s learn how Paul’s mode of ministry can serve as a ministry model for us as well.

1. Celebrate God’s provision in the past. It’s normal to share memories from the past when you reconnect with someone. We do that all the time with our daughters as we remember significant stories and experiences from their childhood. Paul does something similar in verses 18-21: “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, 19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; 20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, 21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

• The manner of his ministry. From the very first day, Paul spent time with them personally. He was not a religious celebrity who hung out in the green room. Listen to verse 18: “I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia.” The word “among” means he was “together with them in their midst.” Paul was a shepherd who spent time with his sheep.

• The motive for his ministry. Paul was committed to “serving the Lord with all humility.” Paul was tough and he was tender as he went through trials with “tears.” He served the Lord by loving the Lord’s people. 2 Corinthians 2:4 gives us insight into his loving leadership: “For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.”