Generosity: Primarily Like Christ

What would you say to people you love who you are never going to see again? For many of us that brings to memory an emotionally powerful moment in our life. May be it was tender words of affection and admiration or it may have been tearful words of confession and forgiveness. I’ve been at this place with family, friends, and church members. That’s why the scene of Paul’s departure in Acts 20 is so powerful and, frankly, shocking to me.

Luke, the author of Acts, is describing Paul’s journey back to Jerusalem with the offering for the impoverished Christians. The first half emphasizes Paul’s farewell address to the church in the port city of Troas. He speaks all evening. The meeting is held on the third floor of a building, and a man named Eutychus is sitting in the window. At midnight, Eutychus falls asleep while Paul is preaching. He falls out of the window to his death. Paul is used by God to perform a miracle to bring this man back to life. Luke’s focus is not on the miracle, but on Paul’s message. The miracle underscores that Paul’s message was from God, but Luke doesn’t tell us what was Paul’s message. One explanation is the substance of Paul’s message can be found in what he said to the Ephesian leaders in the last half of chapter 20. This is where the surprise came for me.

Paul wants to arrive in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost. This is why he boards a ship that bypasses Ephesus and docks at Miletus, which is 30 miles from Ephesus. He sends for them to meet him before the ship sets sails. When they arrive Paul recounts his conduct while in their midst. Paul focuses on the nature of his ministry. He describes how his ministry of three years was characterized.

I want to walk through the passage and point out the characteristics of Paul’s ministry. But these characteristics of his ministry are like a funnel that results in a summary statement that describes the nature of Paul’s ministry. His whole ministry to the Ephesians can be described by this statement in v. 35, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Where did Paul learn that the essence of his ministry, the description of how he was to live his life, was fundamentally a life of generosity? He learned it from what Jesus taught. Like Jesus, Christians are to build their lives around the principle of generosity. What surprises me is Paul’s last word to people he loves that he will never see again. He says, “Be a generous person.”

Look at the description of how his ministry demonstrated that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

(17) Now from Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. (18) And when they came to him, he said to them: "You know, from the first day I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time— (19) serving the Lord with all humility, with tears, and with the trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews— (20) and that I did not shrink back from proclaiming to you anything that was profitable, or from teaching it to you in public and from house to house. (21) I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus.

Paul lived with and among the people. They had the time and opportunity to observe his true heart and motives. They observed that he served them with humility. Humility is putting the interests of others above your own. A humble person is willing to sacrifice self-interest for the good of others. It was this mindset that led the Lord Jesus to the cross of Calvary for undeserving sinners.

He served with “tears.” What do tears have to do with Paul’s ministry? They reveal how much he thought about them and the depth of his love and compassion for the Ephesian’s. The explanation of Paul’s sacrificial service for people was his love for them. He cared. You can’t truly love and be stingy.

Trials did not stop him in serving the people. If it meant he had to suffer so they could hear the whole truth; then he suffered. There was no teaching which he avoided. Paul was willing to pay the price so they could know and receive the Good News of salvation found in Jesus Christ.

He did this publicly and privately. He did this on stage, and he did this in small groups. The gospel wasn’t restricted to just Jews. The gospel was shared with the despised Gentiles too. Everyone received the truth from Paul. Do you see how Paul lived out of a heart filled with generosity?