Text: Acts 20:17-24, Title: So Call Yourself a Pastor I, Date/Place: NRBC, 2/8/09, AM
A. Opening illustration: Bad preachers on God Stuff—youtube.com 30 second intro, pause it
B. Background to passage: Paul is on his way back to Jerusalem to deliver an offering that he has taken up for the famined church there. He knows that he does not have enough time to go all the way up to Ephesus; his heart is there, so he sends for the Ephesian elders to come and meet with him for some final instruction. This is Paul’s only recorded talk strictly to believers. Paul knows that he will probably never see them again, and his message takes the form of a farewell address to a church that is very dear to him. We will deal with elders and church government a little next week, so suffice it for today to simply say that these were the pastors of the church in Ephesus. But don’t think that the divide is so big that laymen weren’t present, and IDs were checked, if that were the case none of these things would apply to anybody but pastors.
C. Main thought: in the text Paul gives us the first of three main instructions about pastoral ministry and church response by saying remember my example, specifically three things.
A. Humbly teaching and serving through trials (v. 19-20)
1. Most of Paul’s ministry was during riots, beatings, imprisonments, accusations, etc. And he says that through it all, he was humbly serving the church and teaching publicly and in their homes. Paul demonstrated his humility by serving alongside them AND his commitment to faithful bible teaching through daily teaching. Paul even notes that he held nothing back that was helpful, even though it might have brought further suffering into his life. Paul’s teaching ministry and example was one that he hoped the elders would follow. Sounds like an ordination sermon. The primary role of a pastor is that of a teacher, teaching the life-giving word of God to a hungry congregation. The apostles boiled it down to two things, including prayer. And the church in Ephesus reaped the rewards of his ministry there.
2. Acts 6:4, 1 Tim 3:2, 4:16,
3. Illustration: tell about losing my ordination sermon, read the blog about Carpe Deim Preacherdude, David Wells comments about the gutting of evangelicalism because our increasing willingness to define ourselves by method instead of by truth and doctrine, speak a word about the 40 year anniversary of John MacArthur at Grace community church and his unwavering commitment to verse by verse exposition, speak about Calvin’s work of commentaries, and picking up where he left off when exiled, preacherdude,
4. Paul didn’t lord his authority over them, he led them by serving with them. He accurately understood his role as a pastor teacher there for three years. Power corrupts, and pastors are not immune, nor are church members. Knowing biblical roles are important. Teaching the word faithfully in addition to whatever else I may be doing is my goal. The life of a believer is in the word! The life of a church is in the Word! The life of unbelievers is in the Word! That’s why I preach through books—it keeps to honest, off your soapboxes, atuned to God’s leading and His heart, and it gives life. You want to know why I have so many books, so many audio CDs—its because of my commitment to preach His Word just as He said it. But as much as a pastor committed to preaching the truth, a church must be committed to hearing it and doing it. The best complement that you can give me is not “great message today” but changed life tomorrow.
B. Evangelizing with the true gospel & it’s needed response (v. 21)
1. The word in v. 21 means to exhort repeatedly and earnestly for people to listen to a warning. Paul says that he continually preached the gospel to everyone indiscriminately. Remember he is reminding them of his example so that they would follow. And we are also given an accurate summary of the gospel that he preached—repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ—and the response that it demanded.
2. 1 Cor 9:16, 20-22,
3. Illustration: “evangelism is more caught than taught,” –Reid, tell about the talk that I had about repentance with Penny Chestnut the books that we give to visitors, and she protested, “but repentance is important!”
4. Pastors are supposed to model evangelism to their congregations if they expect to see them do it. Therefore as church members we are supposed to evangelize all those around us. And we are to do it without respect to race, class, or sexual orientation. Sounds like a government regulation, huh? It is because Jesus is the president, CEO, head hauncho, chief in charge, head of the body, husband of the bride, and ruler of the kingdom. Also it is absolutely crucial that we get the gospel right! We are not careful enough with the greatest truth in the entirety of our faith! Many people in Tifton, at ABAC, at your work, in our families think that the gospel means: living right, getting religion, walking an aisle, saying a prayer, getting baptized, going to church, doing good things. Constantly left out of gospel presentations is the cost of your whole life, repentance and willingness to turn from sin, new nature, killing of sin, sorrow over sin, hatred of sin, and love of Jesus Christ as the treasure of your world so that it looks like you hate your family and you become willing to give up goods and kindred and this mortal life also. Many people have never heard that gospel. You may say that is harsh, but we are only giving you the teaching that Jesus gave, so that you may get on the straight and difficult path that few will be on. And if you are not giving them that gospel, you are only air-conditioning the train ride to hell!
C. Living with eyes on the prize: to finish the race with joy (v. 22-24)
1. Finally, Paul says that his very life is not counted dear enough to forsake his course given to him by Jesus Christ. He is living as a man with one goal, one agenda, one passion, one magnificent obsession—Christ! He was communicating to them that come what may their duty as elders, and church members duties as Christians was to fix our eyes upon Jesus and run our race with patience to the very end. And note that Paul says specifically that he wants to finish his race with joy! Pain…joy? Do these two things mix? He just said that chains and tribulations await him, but he wants to finish with joy. How can this be?
2. Philip 1:21, 3:14, Gal 2:20, Ps 27:4, 2 Tim 4:7,
3. Illustration: “one thing” –Curley, City Slickers, “Knowing the will of God is the greatest knowledge, and doing the will of God is the greatest accomplishment.” –Anonymous, In 1629, when the favorite wife of Indian ruler Shah Jahan died, he ordered that a magnificent tomb be built as a memorial to her. The shah placed his wife’s casket in the middle of a parcel of land, and construction of the temple literally began around it. But several years into the venture, the Shah’s grief for his wife gave way to a passion for the project. One day while he was surveying the sight, he reportedly stumbled over a wooden box, and he had some workers throw it out. It was months before he realized that his wife’s casket had been destroyed. The original purpose for the memorial became lost in the details of construction. They built the Taj Mahal, but they forgot the reason for the building
4. Where to liberals come from? Where do adulterous pastors come from? Where do absentee church members come? Where do those of “the Baptist faith” come from? They all come from people who started down and good path and never finished. They took their eyes off of the greatest treasure and make their main goal a lesser thing. We do the same thing when we remove our focus off Jesus to our fears, our agenda, another person, a job, a college degree, whatever. Remember you can idolize “good” things. What are your ultimate goals? Are you on God’s course for your life? Are you going to finish that course faithfully? You must have outside accountability to maintain a straight course. And the way that you suffer with joy is that you make sure that your joy is supplied by the right source. If your satisfaction and joy comes from Jesus, then it doesn’t matter what kinds of suffering and hardship and disappoint that you go through. Yes, there will be pain, but it will not overcome your greater joy in Jesus. So for Paul even when he is sitting in a jail writing with rats under his feet, he can have supreme joy in that he is finishing his course, pleasing his master, and making much of Jesus in all situations. In what do you draw satisfaction when things are going wrong? Does depression, anger, frustration overtake? Maybe you need to count your life less dear and Christ more valuable.
A. Closing illustration: the words that Mark Buchanan wrote of his own experience in his book entitled “Your God Is Too Safe.” He wrote that when he was saved, “I hit the ground running. Immediately, I volunteered for everything, anything, that I felt vaguely interested in and marginally qualified for. I led the youth group; I helped with the music, I taught Sunday school; I wrote the church newsletter; I became a camp counselor; I served as a mentor to several young men. But something, somewhere, went awry. The zeal fizzled. The fire in my bones became only an a ache in my joints. My running became plodding. My lightness became heaviness. My joyfulness became jadedness. I joined the ranks of the murmurers and faultfinders – those that did not like the music or the sermon or the color of the azalea’s behind the church – and I found their number legion.” Finding his newly-appointed pastor standing at his study window in the church weeping as he looked over the inner city’s tragic conditions, a layman sought to console him: "Don’t worry. After you’ve been here a while, you’ll get used to it." Responded the minister, "Yes, I know. That’s why I am crying."
B. Recap
C. Invitation to commitment
Additional Notes
• Is Christ Exalted, Magnified, Honored, and Glorified?
