Intro to Acts 20:17-24

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/5/2018 9:46 AM

My Worship Time                                                                             Focus:  Intro to Acts 20:17-24

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 20:17-24

            Message of the verses:  “17 From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. 18 And when they had come to him, he said to them, "You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, 19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews; 20  how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house, 21 solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. 22 "And now, behold, bound in spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me. 24  "But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.”

            John MacArthur entitles this 16^th chapter in his second half commentary on the book of Acts “Paul’s View of the Ministry.”  We will begin to look at the introduction to these verses in this SD.

            One of the things that churches do is to try and figure out what is the best way to increase their numbers that come to their particular church.  Sometimes they even hire experts to try and accomplish this, but if one looks at the Apostle Paul and tries to follow how he was so successful from taking a “new religion” that began in Judah and was able to spread it throughout the entire Roman Empire.  The question is how was he able to do this?  I suppose that there are several things that we can look at to find the answers to this question, and one of them is that when Paul first became a believer in Jesus Christ and was still blind from his experience, as God blinded him when he saw the Light of the Lord Jesus Christ in all of His glory, that the Lord then told Ananias to go and open the eyes of Paul there was something else he told him that day:  “"Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; 16 for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake."”  We know as we have been studying the book of Acts that Paul did go and he did suffer for the cause of Christ, perhaps more than any other man has, but there is still more to the answer to this question and our verses we will be looking at give us more insight into answering this question about Paul’s success in spreading the gospel to the ends of the known world in his day.

            John MacArthur writes “This passage in Acts 20 gives insights into Paul’s view of the ministry.  It does not focus on technique but on the godly attitudes he molded.  Paul saw his ministry related to four dimensions:  toward God, the church, the lost and himself.  Having the proper perspective in those four areas is foundational to a successful ministry.”

            Let me add another few sentences from MacArthur’s commentary which will also help us understand how Paul was so successful in his ministry:  “The apostle’s successful ministry flowed from his devotion to truth, spiritual character, commitment to serving God, and the resultant powerful example his life set for others.  There was no credibility gap between the truth he proclaimed and the way he lived.”

            Now as I think about this last highlighted sentence I have to say that it does step on my toes a bit, and I suppose that no one wants to have their toes stepped on, however when walking in the Christian life that is one of the ways that the Lord corrects that walk, but stepping on ones toes.  Ever since I became a believer in Jesus Christ almost 45 years ago there is one subject that has always come up, and that subject is what I am to be doing, and how does all of what I am doing for the cause of Christ, including my walk with Him depend upon the Spirit of God.  I know that when the Spirit of God leads me that I am to do that, but understanding my responsibility and what the Spirit of God does in my life to accomplish His will has been a lifelong struggle for me to understand.

            Now back to our verses and we find that it was Paul’s desire to get to Jerusalem in time for the feast of Pentecost, and so he was in a hurry, which caused him not to want to go to the Ephesian church where he spent three years building and ministering to the point where they now had many people who were able to teach them, such as their elders and probably also deacons.  Because of his time concern Paul decided to call the elders and leaders of Ephesus to come and meet with him and we will get into that in our next section.  What we will be looking at in this section of verses is the successfulness of Paul’s ministry.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As a believer who continues to study His Word and also read many books and commentaries to help me understand His Word better, I have learned to understand the things that God desires me to work on and one of them is to do a better job of living out my Christian walk with the Lord.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I trust that the Lord will guide me into walking with Him in a better way by living out my walk with Him that is by doing the things that He teaches me in His Word.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “A blue fringe” (Numbers 15:38-40).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who shall judge the world?”

Answer in our next SD.  (The answer may surprise you.)

7/5/2018 10:26 AM