Summary:

The sheep in a “flock” (v.28) would be lost without a shepherd, and the Greek word translated shepherd is also translated pastor.  Some say only Jews are sheep, but that was only true under the law, when Gentiles were considered dogs.

“Overseers” (v.28) in the Bible watched over and guided workers (IIChron.34:13).  God expects every believer to be engaged in His work in every dispensation.  But we have a dispensational difference when verse 28 says the Holy Ghost made them overseers. Back then, the Spirit chose who received what gift (ICor.12:7-11).  Today, men must desire to be a leader (ITim.3:1). If a man’s “apt” to teach (has a natural aptitude for it), he can “profit” God’s people with Scripture (IITim.3:16), as men with gifts profited others (IICor.12:7).

God purchased us “with His own blood” (Acts 20:28). The blood shed on the cross was God’s blood, which proves He was God in the flesh.  But if He purchased you, He owns you, and you should live with that in mind (ICor.6:19,20).

Paul didn’t have to be a prophet to know grievous wolves would enter the Ephesian flock (Acts 20:29); he just had to know the Scriptures.  They testify that wolves were always entering the flock of God’s people in every dispensation (Zeph.3:3,4; Mt.7:15).  These wolves are men who pretend to be sheep to get a chance to become the shepherd, to see what they could get out of the flock (Ezek.34:2,3), instead of what they could give to it, as a good shepherd would.

Paul told the elders to watch for wolves who would enter the flock from without, but he also warned them to watch for wolves who would arise from within the assembly speaking “perverse” things.  Perverse means to teach something different from what is correct (cf.Jer.23:36).  Paul then reminded them he wasn’t asking them to do anything he himself hadn’t been doing for the past three years (Acts 20:31).

Paul commended the elders to God (v.32) the way the Lord commended His spirit to God (Lu.23:46)—by putting the elders into God’s hands.  Of course, God only speaks through His Word, so Paul was putting them in the hands of the Bible as he left them, not in the hands of a pope of any kind.

But not the Bible in general!  He commended them to “the word of His grace,” i.e., the grace message.  That’s the only message that can build believers up in the age of grace, and give us an inheritance among the Jews who were sanctified before us.  Those are the Jews who believed on Christ before the Lord saved Paul, the ones He told him were already sanctified by believing on Him when He was here (Acts 26:18).

What do we inherit among them?  God told the first Jew that he and his seed would inherit the world (Rom.4:13), i.e., they’d be rulers of the world.  We inherit a position as rulers of the world with them (ICor.6:2), because we’ll judge angels (6:3), and the rulers of heaven are over earth’s rulers.  So we’ll rule the world through Israel, as husbands rule their kids through their wives.  That doesn’t make the Jews inferior to us, any more than wives are inferior to their husbands.

Rather than covet the Ephesian church’s money (Acts 20: 33), Paul worked as a tentmaker to pay his way (v.34) as an example to those elders (v.35), since one of them would likely be their next pastor.  Paul believed in letting churches pay pastors (IICor.11:9).  But he encouraged the next pastor to work a secular job so he could give to the “weak” to address a temporary situation in Ephesus. He put a lot of Ephesians out of work, including exorcists (Acts 19:13-16), men engaged in black arts (19:17,19), and makers of shrines for Diana (19:23-41). Paul later told the members of the Ephesian church to help those weak brethren as well (Eph.4:28).

Helping others must be the highest level of spirituality attainable, for after saying this, Paul didn’t say anything more (Acts 20:36-38).  They just kissed goodbye.

A video of this message is available on YouTube: “Paul’s Goodbye Kiss” Acts 20:28-38

Summary:

“Elders” (v.17) were leaders. Peter was the elder of the kingdom church, but he wrote to others (IPet.5:1).  The elders here were leaders in the grace church in Ephesus.  Paul reminded them he’d served with “humility” (v.18,19). It’s so important, it’s at the top of the list of things he mentions.  It’s the opposite of pride. Pride will ruin us (Pr.16:18;29:23).

But if you don’t humble yourself (James 5:10), don’t expect God to do it, as He did for Jews under the law (Deut.8:2).  No matter what you’re going through, God didn’t send it.  But if you don’t humble yourself, life will sometimes do it for you.  It does for me, when I say and do dumb things.

Paul wept “tears” (v.19) because he was trying to help unsaved Jews, but they were “lying in wait” to kill him (cf.Lu. 19:41,42).  The “temptations” this caused him were testings.  I think he was tempted to quit trying to help them, but didn’t!

When Paul said he “kept back nothing that was profitable” to them (v.20), he meant he taught them the entire Bible, for “all Scripture is…profitable” (IITim.3:16).  He taught them “publickly” (v.20) in school (Acts 19:9), and from house to house.  These days, I teach saints in houses around the world by email, and even in “the big house” in prison by snail mail.

While teaching the saints, Paul was also “testifying” “repentance toward God” to sinners (Acts 20:21).  Repentance means to change your mind (cf.Mt.21:28,29).  Unsaved men need to change their minds about what they think about God (cf.Isa.55:8) and exercise “faith toward our Lord” (20:21).

Paul felt “bound” in his own personal “spirit” (20:22) to go to Jerusalem (cf.19:21) because he’d collected a lot of money from Gentile churches for “the poor saints” there (Rom. 15:26).  He could have sent trusted men to deliver it, but he wanted a photo op.  He wanted unsaved Jews to see him deliver it to those saved Jews to get them to put their faith in Christ.  So he “hasted” to get there by Pentecost (Acts 20:16), so Jews from all over the world (2:1,5) would see the photo op.  He said he didn’t know what would befall him there (20:22) because the Spirit said bonds and afflictions would “abide” him there (v.23). That is, he’d be arrested and beaten there, like he was in places where he wasn’t giving out money. But he wouldn’t have cared if the Spirit said he’d be killed, for he didn’t count his life dear to himself (v.24).

The “kingdom” he’d preached in Ephesus (v.25) was the overall kingdom of the saved of all ages (Col.1:12,13).  As a prophet, he knew he’d see them no more (v.26).  But he did not know as a prophet what would befall him in Jerusalem because God hid it from him (cf.IKi.4:27) to see how faithful he’d be not knowing what it would cost him.  That’s a type of how we have to serve God as well.  All we know is what he knew, that bonds like sicknesses (Lu.13:16) will abide us.

Paul could say he was “pure” of the blood of all men (Acts 20:26), even though he hadn’t warned all men (cf.Ezek.3: 18), “for” (Acts 20:27) he’d given the message to leaders he knew would teach others (IITim.2:2), thus fulfilling his apostolic duty.  The “counsel of God” (20:27) Paul taught them changes.  It once included baptism (Lu.7:29,30).  Paul took them to record (20:26) as a type of how God is recording everything men do.  He used to use heaven and earth to record it (Deut.31:28cf.Josh.24:27), but they will flee away from the Great White Throne (Rev.20:11).  But God backed up His records in “books” of men’s works (v.12).

Esther 6:1-3 is a type of how God’s records will be cited to reward kingdom saints, and we’ll be rewarded too (ICor.3: 14).  No books are mentioned in connection with our judgment, so I believe we’ll do what Paul did here and give account of ourselves to the Lord (Rom.14:12).  Acts 20:6-12 was a type of the dispensation of grace, and this passage is a type of the Judgment Seat of Christ that will follow.

A video of this message is available on YouTube: “Paul Says Goodbye” Acts 20:17-27

Summary:

Paul didn’t decide to leave Ephesus (v.1) because the “uproar” that Satan instigated (Acts 20:23-41) ran him out of town.  He left because he knew his work in Asia was done (Acts 19:9,10).  So he actually planned to leave for Macedonia before the uproar (v.21).  He planned to go to “Achaia” because he’d heard that the church he established in the Achaian city of Corinth had fallen into sin.  So he wrote them a letter and sent Timothy to deliver it (19:22 cf. ICor.4:17).

In that first Corinthian epistle, Paul really let them have it, and warned them of his plan to come and straighten them out further in person (ICor.16:5,8)—especially because he’d also heard some of the Corinthians were doubting his apostleship. So in that first epistle he warned them he was coming to chasten them with an apostolic rod (ICor.4:18-21).

But after all his big talk, he didn’t show up in Corinth.  His detractors claimed that he was obviously a man who made promises lightly, and didn’t keep them (IICor.1:15-17).  So Paul wrote them that second epistle, explaining he didn’t show up in Corinth to “spare” them (1:23-2:1).  He didn’t want to have to use his rod on them, so he took some time to cool off in Macedonia before going to Corinth (Acts 20:2).

The Macedonian churches of Philippi and Thessalonica were among Paul’s favorites, but even they needed “much exhortation” from God’s Word (v.2)—and so do you!  Be sure to be in church to get it, as often as you can.

During the time Paul was administering that exhortation, he was going through a rough time himself (IICor.2:12,13).  When you find yourself going through tough times like he describes in those verses, be sure to do what he did and just keep serving the Lord in spite of it all.  That’s the best cure for dealing with adversity.  Then find God’s comfort in the fellowship of other believers, as Paul did (IICor.7:5,6).

Paul was also comforted by the news Titus brought him that said the Corinthians had repented (7:7).  He was very comforted by this, for he’d repented of some of the things he said in that first Corinthian letter (7:8).  Even Paul wasn’t always sure he’d done the right thing!  I find that very comforting, how about you?  We know Paul wrote II Corinthians from Macedonia due to the references he makes to Macedonia in it (IICor.7:5; 8:1; 9:2,4).  He then visited the church in Corinth during his time in “Greece” (Acts 21:2).

It must not have taken Paul more than three months to write an epistle, for he wrote Romans during his three months in Greece (21:2,3).  We know this because he mentions staying with Gaius, a Corinthian (Rom.16:23 cf. ICor.1:14).  Of course, the writing of Romans got Satan’s attention, and he instigated a Jewish plot on Paul’s life (Acts 21:3).  God was phasing out rescues like the earthquake in Acts 16, so Paul rescued himself. He heard the assassination was to take place near the ship he was taking to Syria, so he took a land route to Macedonia instead (Acts 21:3).  We too must save ourselves from trouble by making adult son decisions like that!

Paul also gathered bodyguards (21:4), who also joined him to guard the money he collected from the churches in their respective cities (cf.Rom.15:26).  After the Jews rejected the Spirit when they stoned a Spirit-filled man, He withdrew, and the ones He empowered to live as one, with no lack (Acts1:8;2:4;4:34,35), suddenly became “poor” (Rom.15: 26).  The twelve asked Paul to help them (Gal.2:9,10), which Paul was “forward” to do by taking collections for those poor Jewish saints from the Gentile churches (Rom.15:25,26).

Paul sent Titus to pick up the Corinthian letter, but sent a man with him (IICor.8:16-19) to provide things honest in the sight of all men when it came to the Lord’s money (ICor.16: 1-3).  Plus, the collecting of money can’t be kept secret, so Paul was “in perils of robbers” (IICor.11:26).  So the more men involved in collecting and delivering money, the better.

A Video of this sermon is available on YouTube: “The Travels of Paul” Acts 20:1-5