May 13, 2018 “Saying Goodbye” – Acts 20:13-28

Acts 20:13-38
“Saying Goodbye”
May 13, 2018 – Ascension Sunday

“Joanna, listen to your sister. Go to bed when she tells you to. Susan, you spend some time with Joanna. Don’t just hide in your room, reading.” When our oldest daughter became a teenager old enough to “baby sit” her younger sister, Beth and I left them with words of admonition. Along with hugs and kisses and assurances of when we would return, our goodbye offered parting nuggets of direction in our absence. “Lock the door. Be nice to each other. Listen to the answering machine and don’t answer the phone unless it’s us. Clean up the kitchen. Brush your teeth before bed. Here’s the phone number where you can reach us.” And on and on and on. You may have or remember a script like that.

Today on Ascension Sunday, we’ve remembered how Jesus said goodbye while giving instructions to His followers. In our text study from Acts, Paul said goodbye to the Ephesian church leaders with similar admonitions. He was in a hurry to get to Jerusalem, it says in verse 16. It was about 58 A.D. In two of his letters, in Romans 15 and II Corinthians 8, we learn that he was carrying a gift collected among the Greek churches for needy Christians in Judea. That explains his haste. His brothers and sisters were suffering and he was coming to help.

Verse 13 tells us that when he was delayed with Eutychus in Troas, as we read last week, he sent the ship on ahead to sail around the cape, while he then set out on foot across it to catch the boat with Luke and his other companions at Assos. From there he sailed south along the western coast of what is now Turkey, stopping at three islands along the coast, Mitylene, Kios and Samos, finally arriving at Miletus on the mainland.

Verse 16 says Paul deliberately sailed past Ephesus. He feared that if he stopped there, he would not be able to leave without spending too much time. You may know that feeling as you drive by a friend’s house or walk by a co-worker’s office. You can’t just stop in to say “hi” without it turning into a long conversation.

Yet Paul did not want to just leave behind a church he loved without some last words. So verse 17 describes how he sent for the elders of Ephesus to meet him in Miletus, about a thirty mile walk. It’s not clear why exactly this saved time, because he had to send messengers north and then wait for the elders to arrive, but perhaps he thought their meeting would be shorter if the church leaders were away from home.

The rest of our text this morning is Paul’s parting speech to the Ephesian elders. It’s the third longest speech of Paul recorded in Acts. And it is completely different from the other two. For the first time in Luke’s book, Paul sounds like the man who wrote all those letters we have in the New Testament. Up to this point, you might wonder if Luke’s Paul really is the author of Romans and I and II Corinthians and Philippians and Ephesians. Speaking to Jews in Psidian Antioch in Acts 13, his sermon was more like one of Peter’s, arguing that Jesus was the Messiah and risen from the dead. Preaching to Greeks in Athens in Acts 17, he argued for belief in one God who created the world and then sent His chosen Man into it.

But this speech in chapter 20 is the first time in Acts we hear Paul talking to Christians. He doesn’t need to convert them. He wants to strengthen them. He wants both what they believe and what they do to be solidly grounded in the Gospel, the good news he has shared with them about Jesus.

So in the last words they hear from Paul’s own lips, we hear echoes of themes found in Paul’s letters to churches. The first part of the speech, in verses 18 to 27, is Paul’s account of his ministry, his final report. He begins by telling how he lived humbly among them in the province of Asia, even while persecuted by some Jews for preaching Jesus. Yet in verse 21 he says was unprejudiced on either side. “I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus.” We read that theme over and over in his letters, the equality of all people in Christ. Galatians 3:28 says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Then in verse 22 he shared his own personal future expectations, how he was “a captive to the Spirit” on his way to Jerusalem. At every city, he says in verse 23, and as we will read next week, the Holy Spirit tells him to expect prison and persecutions, but he must go on. In verse 24, we get a great image Paul used in his letters, “I do not count my life of any value to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus.” In Philippians 3, he wrote, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

The great race course Paul was trying to complete is there at the end of verse 24, “to testify to the good news of God’s grace.” The grace of God in Jesus is his calling. A few years later Paul wrote back to the Ephesians from a prison cell in Rome, reminding them, in Ephesians 2:8, “by grace you have been saved, through faith.”

In verse 25 we get words which bring those church leaders to tears, “none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom, will ever see my face again.” Paul has an urgent appointment in Jerusalem, an appointment with courtrooms and chains and prison cells. He will never again set foot in Ephesus.

Then in verse 27, Paul tells them “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.” He begins to remind them again of God’s will in Christ. To hear that message for us, let’s be parents going out for the evening. What would you say to your children? Here’s some ideas, pictured as words Paul offered to his spiritual children.

The first word is found in verse 28, “Keep watch over the yourselves and over all the flock.” In other words, “take care of each other.” We said that to Susan and Joanna. Being older, Susan had more responsibility. She would have to fix something for Joanna to eat, get her ready for bed and tuck her in. But Joanna had responsibility too. She was to listen to her sister, help pick up her toys, go to bed when she was told.

Paul told those church leaders to care for “the flock, of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.” The word “overseers” is episkopoi, “bishops.” These are elders, but they are also bishops. Later on, church offices divided into elders, deacons and bishops, but not yet then. Paul used various terms for church leaders. They are appointed by the Holy Spirit, but their titles were unclear.

The big point for Paul is not terms of offices or titles like elder or bishop, but the great biblical image of God’s flock, the sheep whom Jesus came to seek and to save. Those in charge, whatever they are called, are to do what Jesus commanded Peter, “Feed my sheep.” God’s people are to take care of each other.

Our work for each other is Jesus’ work, the work of the Great Shepherd as we heard Jesus talk about Himself a couple weeks ago. Paul told them, “shepherd the church of God.” That’s another Bible title for church leaders, pastors, shepherds for those whom Jesus loves. They were to care for them the way Jesus would, “to shepherd the church of God that he obtained with his own blood.” That’s a remarkable sentence. It tells us God Himself bled and died for us. When Jesus bled for us, that was God bleeding. God loved us enough to bleed and die for us. That’s how much we are to love and care for each other.

I am filled with joy whenever I see Valley Covenant Church living up to Paul’s first direction by taking care of each other. Thursday I went to McKenzie Willamette Hospital to pray with Bob before his surgery. I sat with Barbara and her daughter over an hour waiting to see him. Finally we got to go in and I prayed with him quickly before rushing off to another appointment. Then Friday morning, another Bob told me that he must have arrived just after I left. He went in to see Bob and then sat with his family while the surgery happened. That’s how Paul meant it to be, how Jesus meant it to be. We all take care of each other, not just designated pastors or deacons or whatever.

So you shepherd each other. One of you listens to another with care and concern after worship. Many of you recently helped the Wilkes move. People are caring for children in the nursery and children’s church right now. You pray for each other. Teach each other. Give to each other. That’s exactly what Paul meant. God bled for us, so sometimes we bleed for each other, hurting because another member hurts. As Paul wrote in Galatians 6:2, “Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.” “Take care of each other.” That’s the first word to children as we leave and of Paul to the Ephesians.

Paul’s second word to the Ephesians is also what we say to children as you leave them: “Be safe.” There are bad people out there. Don’t open the door to anyone you don’t know. If someone rings the bell, first look to see who it is. It’s OK for Joanna to open the door and talk to her friend Brittany, but if you don’t know the person, keep it locked! Protect yourselves from those who will harm you. “Stranger danger.”

In verse 29 Paul warned the elders, “I know that after I have gone, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.” In verse 30 it’s even more frightening because he tells them that evil people will arise even from their own number and “will come distorting the truth in order to entice the disciples to follow them.” So verse 31 warns, “Therefore be alert…”

No less than in Ephesus two thousand years ago, one of the greatest threats to the flock of Jesus Christ today is distorted truth—as Paul would say to the Galatians, a “different gospel.” You and I need that warning. In a world where the terms “fake news” and “alternative facts” are bandied around, it’s hard to know the truth. There is real danger that we will accept something less than God’s truth as gospel, something less that God’s way as acceptable behavior. Whether it is in sexual morality or in the way we treat those from other countries, we are constantly being urged to accept a distorted truth. But if we accept those ideas, the wolves are in the sheep pen.

When we left our children at home, we offered them security. Not just the locks on the doors, but the telephone. If someone threatens you, if someone gets hurt, use the phone! Call our neighbors next door. Call the police at 911. There’s help. Just call.

Paul left the flock at Ephesus with a help line. In verse 32 he told them, “Now I commend you to God and to the message of his grace, a message that is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” The “message of grace” protects us from the threats. We make a big deal here out of studying the Bible. We can’t guard against distortions of the truth unless we know the truth. We can’t lock out the false teachers if we don’t know true teaching. Paul’s second warning to the Ephesians is a call for you and I to fill our hearts and minds with the truth of God’s Word. That way we will know the false teaching wolves when they appear at the door.

“Take care of each other.” “Be safe.” Good words. Paul offered another direction to the Ephesians which you and I might put to children in a single word. “Share.”

Susan had a huge collection of toy dinosaurs. When she was little she laid them out around her room in elaborate panoramas telling a complicated story of imagined dinosaur adventure. As she got older, old enough to stay alone with Joanna while we were gone, Susan had less interest in her plastic Mesozoic friends. But little Joanna was fascinated by them. Susan was reluctant to relinquish her toys, particularly the biggest and nicest ones, into the possibly damaging hands of her younger sister.

So as we would leave, we might say, “Susan, share. Let Joanna play with some of your dinosaurs. We gave those to you, now you share them with her.” In verses 33 to 35, Paul gives the same kind of word to the church leaders. “I have shared with you. Now follow my example. You share with each other.”

In unique self-sacrifice, Paul personally financed his entire mission and ministry among them. He did not covet or ask for money. Verse 34 says, “You know for yourselves that I worked with my own hands to support myself and my companions.” He shared the Gospel freely and he shared his resources with his fellow workers.

Paul’s self-support was not a general rule. He wasn’t asking Ephesian pastors to serve without pay. In passages which humble all ministers, in I Corinthians and in I Timothy, Paul quoted Deuteronomy 25:4, “Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain.” He meant that those who serve the Lord full-time have a right to be paid, to have their needs met as they give themselves to preaching and teaching.

No, Paul’s sacrifice was not a general rule, but a general example of the spirit all Christians should have. Verse 35 says, “In all this I have given you an example that by such work we must support the weak…” By giving up support from his churches, Paul taught them to share, to share with each other, to share with those in need.

This call to share is something I know you carry out for each other. I’ve already mentioned how you give to each other, money, food, time, work, all in care for each other. But Paul also meant for us to help the weak and needy wherever they are.

You share beyond our church. I was pleased again this past week when I went to a lunch about affordable housing and found one of you, Mary, already there, thinking about how to help those in need in our community. We just managed to get some money to India that you all raised last year. You bring food for the food bank and underwear for the Mission. By remembering how you have received, you’ve learned to give.

Paul told the Ephesians to remember “the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” That wonderful saying from our Lord is recorded nowhere else but here in Acts. It is at the heart of what the Gospel is about. We believe first that God gave Himself for us. In Jesus Christ, God bled for us. And so we follow His example. We follow Paul’s example. We give to those in need around us. We bleed for others. Because that is the way to blessing.

“Take care of each other.” “Be safe.” “Share.” Paul’s goodbye words to the Ephesian church are God’s word to us this morning. When Paul was finished with the words, “he knelt down with them all and prayed,” says verse 36. That’s the final word to children, which is not just for children. “Don’t forget to say your prayers.” As we prepare to leave worship this morning, I pray for you. I ask you to pray for me. Let us bow our heads before God together and ask for His strength and His help to do as Paul did, to care and guard and share and pray, so that in the end we last the course until Jesus, who also said goodbye, comes back to us again.

Amen.