Answers Bible Curriculum Year 3 Quarter 4 Lesson 3
This week in Sunday school, we look at Paul’s third missionary journey. We overview the entire trip and then look more specifically at Paul’s ministry to Ephesus. What happened in Ephesus? What message did Paul later want to pass on to the Ephesian elders? And what can we learn from Paul’s and the Ephesians’ examples? We’ll consider these questions and more.
Our main texts are Acts 19:8-20 and Acts 20:17-38. You can find the description of the whole third missionary journey in Acts 18:23-21:17.
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Kenyon’s he worked a job not necessarily constantly but certainly a good portion of the time so this was a lot of work and this was clearly the Lord’s servant acting in a disciplined fashion should mention some have suggested that Paul’s desire to go to Jerusalem was misguided or even sinful and there is some reason to say that because of what acts 21 verse 4 says do you go back and look at that it says Paul was told by others through the spirit not to go to Jerusalem so if that’s the case was Paul simply a stubborn apostle with a martyr’s complex well I do grant that apostles are capable of ever I mean we see that with Peter and even Paul would say that he doesn’t he’s not perfect I would say that this decision to go to Jerusalem was not a mistake that verse acts 21 verse 4 can be explained not as a command from the spirit for Paul not to go but rather an urging from Paul’s friends who once they knew what the Spirit was foretelling in Jerusalem they urged Paul not to go so it wasn’t a command from the spirit it was just people using the revelation of the Spirit and then reacting to it now why do I say that well because that’s exactly what we see later in the chapter acts 21 verses 10 to 14 we see revelation you’re gonna suffer in Jerusalem Paul and then all the friends saying don’t go so that’s probably what we’re seeing annex 21 verse 4 we could add some other reasons to that Paul says in chapter 2 chapter 20 verse 22 that he’s bound in the spirit to go to Jerusalem Paul is proven very sensitive to the spirits instruction and leading up to this point so we should we have very little reason to say that suddenly he’s going to turn rebellious against the spirit moreover as we’ve already noted there’s clear parallel between Jesus and Paul if Paul is mistaken to go to Jerusalem then why is Luke setting up that parallel and how does that advance the purpose of Luke’s writing in the book of Acts he’s trying to encourage Theophilus and the other Gentiles that they do have true salvation how is that purpose advanced by showing that there so went into great and stubborn error out of vainglory that would make Paul seem like a main wannabe in his journey to Jerusalem madder than a faithful apostle and that would be highly unsettling to the Gentile Christians one through Paul’s ministry and we could add finally that in chapter 23 verse 11 God Himself affirms Paul’s ministry in Jerusalem 2311 God comforts Paul by saying and this is right after all the explosion of persecution there God says to Paul verse 11 actually a little bit of narrative right before that but on the night immediately following the Lord stood at his side and said take courage for as you have solemnly witnessed to my cause at Jerusalem so you must witness at Rome also now that’s not gone making the best out of Paul’s rebellion no that’s God affirming and encouraging Paul is saying you’re doing what is right and you’re gonna continue to be a witness for me when I bring you to Rome so indeed I would say that Paul’s journey to Jerusalem is an exemplary act of faith rather than a drive or vainglory now having over viewed this third missionary journey let’s now turn to the description of Paul’s ministry in Ephesus so turn back to Acts chapter 19 we’re gonna look at verses 8 to 20 the first part of Acts 19 mentions how Paul finds a small group of disciples who are following who had been converted and we’re following the teaching of John the Baptist he instructs them meet sue them tells them about the Lord Jesus more specifically and they received the Holy Spirit we’re gonna pick up what the narrative describes right after that so verses 8 to 20 acts 19 let’s look at that and he entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God but when some we’re becoming hardened and disobedient speaking evil of the way before the people he withdrew from them and took away the disciples reasoning daily in the school of Tiran this took place for two years so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord both Jews and Greeks God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick and the disease’s left them and the evil spirits went out but also some of the Jewish exorcists who went from place to place attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus saying I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches seven sons of one Skiba a Jewish chief priests were doing this and the evil spirit answered and said to them I recognize Jesus and I know about Paul but who are you and the man and whom was the evil spirit left on them all left on them and subdued them all and overpowered them said they fled out of the house naked and wounded this became known to all both Jews and Greeks who lived in Ephesus and fear the fell upon them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified many also the many also of those who had believed kept coming confessing and disclosing their practices and many of those who practice magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone I counted up the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver so the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing might we’ll pause there and let’s follow our Bible study method observe interpret apply start with observations basic observations of the details of the text notice in Ephesus we see Paul go right back to his standard ministry method strive in the synagogue and he teaches there for about three months until opposition grows too great does this thing warns the Jews and then leaves and preaches to the Gentiles somewhere else and that is where he goes with the disciples that he had one he goes to the school of tyrannous so this is right close by a facility that would have been used during the mourning but then it would have a break time in the afternoon and that’s probably where Paul with the disciples to teach them this is interesting because this shows us that not all church gatherings were in homes even though that’s what we see most the time in the book of Acts you can use public buildings like a school – it’s not really about the building it’s about the Assembly of the disciples and he teaches in this school gnosis says it teaches the disciples there for two years and then notice the effect and says all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord both jews and greeks that’s that’s a pretty striking statement all who lives in asia i remember we’re talking about Asia not being the continent of Asia there Roman province of Asia Western Anatolia remember he was formally forbid to preach in this area because God wanted him to get to Macedonia but now as he says in first Corinthians a wide door had opened for ministry you may notice a strong emphasis on the supernatural and the miraculous in the city of Ephesus emesis was a large city it was the capital the Roman province of Asia and this was a very wealthy promised province the Roman Empire it could have had as many as 250,000 people in this city I was one of the largest of the ancient world largest at that time all kinds of people but we can see that there seems to be a strong desire for an obsession with magic people wanting to practice magic have magic be used on their behalf in all of magic and other supposed supernatural powers but then the Apostle Paul comes into the city and a greater and truer supernatural power is on display notice verse 12 says there were many extraordinary miracles and they are pretty extraordinary mere pieces of clothing that touch Paul can be brought to various people and as soon as the cloth touches them the demon is cast out or they’re totally healed that’s pretty fantastic but if you are I suppose the magic worker and this Paul comes into town what are you gonna do and how you gonna surviving that kind of competition well you can do what the sons of sceva tried to do but that doesn’t work out very well as you can see in the text or you can do what many others in the town do which is just give it up we see people has they hear the gospel as they see these miracles accomplished in the name of Christ they confess their sins they repent and they throw away their magic books you know what are we talking about when we say magic were they indeed practicing something of substance in Ephesus we can ask the same question about those who claim supernatural power today is there anything to it well I think there are probably three ways that we can explain what’s going on when somebody supposedly practices magic one is that it comes from it comes from demons it’s a cult power and we know that this is a thing because we do see it manifest even in the book of Acts back in Philippi you remember that slave girl she was able to bring her master’s much profit because the demon in her allowed her to be a fortune teller so it’s not impossible for someone who is demon-possessed to have some abilities that wouldn’t be normal that’s one explanation of course that is not the benefit of the person certainly it’s impressive and whatever a demon-possessed person might have in terms of power is is inferior and subservient to God’s power so even if we were to encounter someone with a demon we have nothing to fear but that is perhaps one way that even people in Ephesus were seeking to practice magic another is that it’s just the illusions and trickery we are maybe less in awe this kind of magic based on how much we know about magicians today having so much history having a technological advances all those kinds of things but you can imagine in the ancient world someone who could pull off magic tricks well quite impressive they did they didn’t see these explanations as to how magicians did these things and be easy to believe that these men indeed had supernatural powers and these magicians these suppose and magic workers they’re just using clever faints and sleight of hand and illusions it’s nonetheless quite impressive third explanation is that it’s really a manifestation of the placebo effect now do you know what a placebo is it’s just the idea that something works or something has power because you believe it has power and there have been many studies in modern times about the placebo effect I remember listening to one one little program talking about placebos and he and there was this modern study done on hexes now if you know what a hex is it’s kind of like a curse that could be cast on somebody and it’s to bring them harm or to even destroy them and in this one study that these researchers did they looked at people who had hexes cast on them and whether anything actually happened to them and they noticed something very striking for those who had a hex on them and did not believe in hexes they were fine but for those who had hex on them and did believe in hexes they suffered greatly and some of them even died this is what the placebo effect can do now the seam effects not totally it’s not all powerful and when it comes to medicine that we can observe the placebo effect but it doesn’t usually last forever it lasts for a short time and then it goes away but you can see how from the placebo effect or even from nearly confirmation bias where you’re looking whether something is true or not you see something that that seems to confirm it and now you believe in it this is probably where we get some of the superstitions that still exist in our day today like I know people don’t take these too seriously but breaking mirrors blackcats Friday the 13th those kinds of things these these things seem innocuous until something bad happens and then people say it true I knew I should have done something on Friday the 13th and look this bad thing happened now now I know and so the next time a Friday the 13th comes around they’re expecting something bad to happen or they may even act in such a way to cause something bad to happen there’s really nothing supernatural happening it’s just the effect of their own minds and how it changes their behavior or causes them to view circumstances certainly this was an effect at work in the classical world people believed strongly in the power of words and rituals to have a supernatural effect and we can see this in things like curse tablets I think we maybe even mentioned curse tablets when we did some of our Sunday schools on Biblical Archaeology but these exist they survived from the ancient world and both what they basically are is you’d get a specific tablet you’d write down a curse that you want to come down on a certain person and then you’d submit that tablet into a sacred space it might be a fountain a religious fountain or it might be part of a shrine and the idea is because you’ve written those words you you put down that spell that it will come to pass and it will bring harm to the person that you don’t like when people believed in these things and different things that happen and they’d say look it worked so these are probably the kind of things we’re talking about in Ephesus when it comes to magic people are looking to practice magic they have all sorts of books Scrolls that they’ve written down there various techniques the kinds of spells that you would need to say or to write the rituals you’d need to do and this was a very important business in the city and yet all of this was nothing like what God was doing through the Apostle Paul and that’s what the people noticed yeah there’s one of the Exorcist you cannot do what Paul does and in verse 17 notice it says that people gained fear fear of Yahweh came upon them from what they were witnessing they knew a true and greater power was coming to the city that they had never seen before and they were pants many of them do anyways but notice they don’t just repent verse 19 we see that many gather up their sorcery books and they publicly burn them and we see right away that this these books were not cheap they were considered quite valuable to the people as much as fifty thousand pieces of silver that’s why there are a lot of books or very valuable books now what are these fifty thousand pieces of silver that’s probably referring to the Greek coin the drachma a silver coin it could equivalent to a day’s work very similar to the Romans and arias so this bonfire if it’s fifty thousand days of work that’s consuming property equivalent to a hundred and thirty seven years of labor now imagine how much money you would make at your job if you worked at it Franz in 37 years now imagine every all the money all the property you could obtain from that job and then imagine burning it all up in public so that everyone else could see it that’s a pretty big deal can you imagine what these converts were doing and notice verse 20 it says to the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing having made these observations let’s go to step two and talk about interpretation just a couple questions asked here first if Paul stayed in Ephesus how did all age’ hear the word of the Lord is probably not Paul going into the various regions it’s those who heard the word in Ephesus going back to those regions or for those who were converted in Ephesus telling others and the word continues to spread via a gospel chain Paul remained in Ephesus and yet his ministry had a wide effect and it’s probably from this that we see the origin of some if not all the seven churches of Asia that appear later in Revelation also the Church of Colossae was probably started this way one that Paul never visited but one that was indirectly affected by Paul of ministry and also the church at Heera Palace this was a great great and gracious work of the Lord a wide-open door just as Paul said another question why did the Ephesian converts burn their books publicly even when they could have sold these books for a great profit obviously it’s not mentioned directly in the text but what can we know from the rest of the scriptures what is consistent with the gospel we can infer some reasons yes right yeah so this is certainly a market repentance and when you know that these books are evil and useless you don’t want to delude others you don’t want to deceive others and by giving them those books that be disingenuous that would be saying one thing and acting in a way contradictory to it certainly there are several reasons why burning of these books would have been quite significant it was indeed a confession of the evilness and the uselessness of their former way especially with magic and you can you can understand that these magic spells written in these Scrolls these were not for righteous purposes it’s not like you were casting a spell because he wanted to give glory to God no this was to advance your own interest this was to bring harm on your enemies this was to get more wealth for you and so these things themselves there was nothing good in them and they looked to a power that was outside of God and they yet this burning this getting rid of the books it was a strong testimony to the others in Ephesus trying to help them see that magic spells and this devotion to power in your own way this is useless and this is evil before the before God there is a real power that people need to know about and come to terms with the Creator God the Ephesian Congress they want other people to turn from what is useless and evil to the true God and the true power but there’s another reason why burning these books was important and it’s to prevent backsliding by burning these books they made sure that they and no one else could use these books again and that is the difficulty with sin isn’t it because even when you resolve to turn away from an evil practice or a useless practice the one that you were accustomed to it just comes back it comes back it whispers in your mind seems to grab your ear and tell you that you know what maybe you went too far with this thing maybe you should reconsider maybe what you did before wasn’t all that bad maybe you’re mistaken in your understanding about God but these Ephesian believers when they’ve arrived in a moment of clarity by understanding and believing the gospel they want to make sure that they leave no opportunity for the flesh and so they literally burn their bridges back to their old sinful way now were they losing something valuable by doing this well yes and no the word the world sure thought it was valuable but once you understand that gospel you realize that these these ways of magic and all former sinful ways they’re trash they hinder you they’re our deficit in your spiritual finances you want to be rid of those things you’re glad to be rid of them and you can see just as I was mentioning earlier how various scriptures intersect with or are Illustrated and what happens in Ephesus like you think about the words of Jesus when it came to this seriousness of sin matthew 18:6 he says don’t you dare cause another believer to stumble it’d be better for you to have a millstone tied around your neck and thrown into the sea what Matthew 18 verses 8 to 9 where he talks about your own personal dealings with sin if your hand or your foot cause you to stumble cut it off and throw it from you it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire we see the Ephesian the fusion believers acting on those truths or Romans 6 Romans 6 verses 21 to 22 Paul wrote therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed for the outcome of those things is death but now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God you derive your benefit resulting in sanctification and the outcome eternal life the Paul was saying you didn’t get any benefit from your old way there’s no reason to hang on to it get rid of it or Philippians three verses seven eight Paul writes but whatever things were gain to me those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ more than that I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ we see that Illustrated here as well and also some words from the Psalms Psalm 62 11 once God has spoken twice I have heard this that power belongs to God or Psalm 56 verse 4 in God whose word I praise in God I have put my trust I shall not be afraid what can mere man do to me they knew that they didn’t have to rely on their spells anymore they could believe in the power of God you know what’s interesting about this narrative report in acts 19 you can see some connections to the letter to the Ephesians some have observed that one of the themes of the letter to the Ephesians is the power of God over and above the power of the evil one and his agents you can see how this would be quite relevant to the people of Ephesus they’re coming out of a world of arbitrary deities magic spells demonic power and they would be concerned or they’d be tempted to be concerned will God really protect me do I actually have the power to stand against sin and against the evil one and Paul’s message in Ephesians is yes you do the Lord is with you he has saved you he has given you life he is sealed you with his spirit he’s empowered you with his truth but Paul is also keen sure to note there will be a battle you must fight for the Lord’s sake every day you must stay on the alert you must pray you got to realize you are not dealing with people in terms of a battle but you’re dealing with the dark forces of this world you can’t let your guard down some days will be easier than others but you’ve got to persevere and that’s that coincides of what we see at the very end of the book of Ephesians put on the armor of God stand firm until God grants relief and deliverance because that is the Christian life have you discovered that yet as we’ve even discussed ourselves in a very sunny schools being a Christian is both easy and difficult its joys and sorrowful its total rest and it’s also constant battle there’s not going to be a silver bullet when it comes to our struggle against the flesh and against the evil one there’s no secret truth that you can you can learn that will make temptations and persecutions to suddenly cease and evaporate but you can grow and you are guaranteed victory through Christ if you will believe in him as Paul says in Romans 8:37 but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us and normally I wait to the end of our lessons to talk about application but I want to actually go right to that now our third step in our method what’s the application of this couple things think about what the Ephesians did they burned their magic books do you also need to do that kind of thing in your life think about what they did think about why they did it do you need to do that to confess sins publicly so that others might be see the power of God at work in your life and not be misled as you were you need to finally obey Christ’s command even the ones that we just read and looked at the cut off those things that cause you to stumble or that might cause others to stumble even if it’s a cost to you do you need to stop holding on to something that the world says is valuable but what you know is actually hateful to your soul and to the cause of Christ second question asked do you believe in the power of God we certainly see it on display in the city of Ephesus we see it described and applied in the various New Testament letters but do you believe in it not only to save you eternally through Christ’s work but also to deliver you from sin from the evil one from all men who are opposed to God to those who act in faith it is a very common Christian temptation to despair of overcoming certain sins to give up and trying to be a witness to God for others to just say well you know what this is Who I am I can’t change that’s not what the power of God shows us we see that if we have faith in Christ God is able to grant victory even for the most established sins our darkest habits and even against the greatest supposed powers of the world all power belongs to God he’s superior to any supposed power in the world but do you believe that have you actually taken up the armor have you called on the resources that God has given you in the church don’t raise the white flag when you have such a power on your side have faith let’s now consider Paul’s other interaction with the Ephesians later on in the book of Acts Acts chapter 20 we’re going to skip over the persecution that arises in Ephesus may know of it a persecution arises from the idol makers actually Ephesus was famous for its Temple of Artemis don’t think Artemis of Greek mythology the Huntress think Artemis of the that of the Asians of the Ephesians that would be a fertility goddess there’s this riot that takes place because the idol makers are upset that they’re losing their business due to people believing the gospel but God provides Paul is not harmed there while a riot and it takes place and people gather in the assembly it’s dispersed by the by the city magistrate and the Christians are not harmed but Paul does end up moving on from Ephesus continues the rest his missionary journey and on his way back to Jerusalem on his way to Jerusalem he passes by Ephesus to the city of my leaders and he sends for the elders let’s look at the message that Paul gifts to the elders as he passes by and note what this what this message of excitation normally what is he trying to say to them what is it you think is important to tell them but notice how it describes further here’s a ministry in the city of Ephesus verses 17 to 38 in chapter 20 from my latest he sent to Ephesus and call to him the elders of the church 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 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the Pilatus of the Jews how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you publicly and from house to house solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and now behold bound by the spirit I am on my way to Jerusalem not knowing what will happen to me there except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city saying that bonds and afflictions await me but I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself so that I may finish my course in the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God and now behold I know that all of you among whom I went about preaching the kingdom will no longer see my face therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to Shepherd the Church of God which he purchased with his own blood I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you not sparing the flock and from among you selves men will arise speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them therefore be on the alert remembering the night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears and now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified I have coveted no one silver or gold or clothes yourselves know that these hands ministered to my own needs and to the men who are with me in everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he himself said it is more blessed to give than to receive when he had said these things he knelt down and prayed with them all and they began to weep aloud and embraced Paul and repeatedly kissed him grieving especially over the word which he had spoken that they would not see his face again and they were accompanying him to the ship let’s observe this section of text nurse the way Paul describes his ministry in Ephesus verse 19 he says he served with humility with tears and through many trials he declared everything to them that was profitable the whole purpose of God he was teaching publicly and from house to house verse 20 says so that would be both preaching and personal discipleship or what we could even call counseling he was solemnly testifying verse 21 says so solemnly that is he’s serious he’s not putting on airs he’s not being disingenuous he’s not putting on a show he’s earnest with them he’s teaching both Jews and Greeks not showing any prejudice or favoritism and what’s his message repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and what is that that’s the gospel he remarked that he had a serious serious commission of Christ to carry out a course marked out for him what she do not deviate from and it was three years of constant admonishment with tears verse 31 says we could we could surmise what what those tears came from his weeping over sin is weeping over the consequences of sin dB what’s the word I’m looking for the terrible the terrible danger that people are in without Christ and certainly the the lostness of those in Ephesus who had not yet believed another thing that Paul brings up in this final address the Ephesian elders is his innocence he says I’m innocent of the blood of all men why he tells us he says because I declare to you the whole purpose of God and you can see the implication in that if he had not declared the whole purpose of God what what would have been true of him that he had blood on his hands and this might remind you of what was something was said in the Old Testament in Ezekiel chapter three when Ezekiel is called as a prophet God told him I’m setting you up as a watchman now whatever I tell you you better tell Israel or better tell the the Exile because if you don’t and they don’t turn from their ways I will require their blood at your hand Paul has that same idea but he says I’m innocent because I declare to you the whole council Oh God the whole purpose of God he also says I’m innocent of any covetousness and again he tells us exactly why how do we know that because I worked with my own hands to provide for myself and for my companions so she cannot accuse Paul of preaching for money he was no leech no loafer he worked a day job at least for part of the time so he could provide for himself and his companions but he tells us further there was a reason he did not simply so that no one could accuse him of covetousness but notice verse 35 he says in everything I showed you I showed you that by working hard and then he goes on he was providing an example for the Ephesians and for the Ephesian elders I want you to see what a minister ought to do he ought to work hard not to help the weak he ought to remember Jesus’s words that it’s greater to give and it’s more blessed to give than to receive notice that Paul so give some warnings in this final message says first of all I’m going to do Jerusalem to suffer for Christ’s sake and the gospel’s you’re not going to see me any more but also more importantly after I leave false teachers are going to come this is the same thing we see echoed elsewhere in the New Testament right valedictory addresses usually contain a warning against false teachers second Peter second Timothy right when these apostles are about to die they specifically warn against false teaching Paul tells the diffusion elders here wolves are going to come in they even will arise from within their group of elders and the flock at Ephesus so what the elders need to do verse 28 guard the flock as the spirits appointed overseers stay alert verse 31 and remember my example verse 31 and then of course they part they they pray together they weep together and they express their affection to Paul well just one interpretation question I want to ask in response to these observations Paul certainly sets a great example as to what it is to be a minister of Christ but for whom is his example meant I was trying to show you what it looks like to be a minister and certainly the most direct application would be the Ephesian elders they’re gonna be leaders and teachers they need to see Paul’s example and that applies to any elder teacher leader in the church but we’d be remiss if we didn’t note that Paul’s example really is for all believers I mean if it’s for the elders it’s also for the people the the normal people in the church they are to imitate their leaders if their leaders would act like Paul then they also Jack like Paul let’s not forget that we are all slaves in our masters house that is Christ we are all members of the same body building up one another has God meant us to do therefore we are all to do as Paul did to serve with humility to serve with earnestness even tears as we look to build up to give and to guard you know people often talk about being called to ministry I don’t know if he’s called are you called to ministry is he gonna enter the ministry does he have the calling but you know what the biblical truth is we’re all call to ministry this is what God has given each member of the body to do we serve in various ways but we’re all called so this ministry model this example left by Paul is for all of us he shows us what a godly service or godly ministry looks like he modeled himself upon Christ and so we also can follow Paul’s example and so when it comes to application that’s exactly what we should be thinking about what does your ministry on behalf of Christ look like does it look anything like Paul’s I don’t mean the scope of ministry you say oh I’m not doing miracles I’m not traveling all over I’m not talking about that I’m talking about the character I’m talking about the quality of your ministry your service to follow the pattern that Paul exemplified and really the pattern that we see in our Lord Jesus Christ do you serve do you serve with humility emptying yourself just as Christ did I’m concerned whether people notice you or not do you serve with earnestness realizing that serious realities are in the balance do you serve through suffering hardship and tears so that others might be blessed do you serve without base ulterior motives do you stay alert in your service realizing and this is very important for us realizing that this is not a world where everybody is just okay I’m okay you’re okay no this is a world where sin has wreaked havoc even in the lives of your brothers and sisters in the church you know we can all put on a smiling front in church and politeness seems to suggest we do that but you know what the reality is and we can tell this from the Scriptures is that we all need help they’re deep spiritual wounds struggles within the body they need ministry and this is nothing to say of those who are lost totally without Christ and an in danger of entering eternal blackness and torment our materialistic society would love to low us into a drowsy stupor convincing us that nothing is amiss we’re all fine and let each may pursue his own pleasure in his own comfort everything’s okay no that’s a lie of the devil it appeals to our flesh that doesn’t to do anything the reality is this is a desperately broken world it needs Christ each one of the members of the charter church needs Christ needs to grow more in Christ and so we need to stay alert we need to recognize what the reality is and that’s got to inform our service another thing we can ask based on Paul’s example is do we serve determine to declare the whole counsel of God the whole purpose of God not only what is popular what is acceptable what sure to bring praise but in what God actually gave us to say God gave it all because we need it all and it’s true yes some people need certain things before they need other things but let us never avoid who needs to be sad or oh boy what needs to be done for the sake of the lost for the sake of a brother or sister in Christ of course as I said these questions this application is particularly important for the leaders and teachers at Calvary myself included but it’s really for all of us so what is your ministry on behalf of Christ look like I know that many of you do serve Christ both formally and informally both in the church and in the home and in the world so extol domore but for any of us who have fallen asleep and useless indulgences it’s time to wake up believe Christ serve the body Jesus did say according to Apostle Paul it is more blessed to give than to receive so as we end today’s lesson please remember these three application questions continue to meditate on them ask the Lord God how can I be more in the pattern of Christ do I have any magic books of my own to burn do I really believe in the power of God and what does my ministry on behalf of Christ look like does it follow the pattern give him even by Paul and by the Lord Jesus any quick questions before we end today that’s fine if there are anything that comes up or any other comments you want to make a noise email me next week we look at what is sometimes called Paul’s fourth missionary journey but this one was a little different than the other ones because it was an all-expense-paid trip by the Roman government to Rome let’s close repair Oh Lord God we thank you for us word the examples that are given us in the book of Acts Oh Lord what a great comfort it is to know that you are the all-powerful one we indeed have nothing to fear but God our flesh really wants to fight against that truth and say no I dare not I do not go out on a limb for God oh this sin I’ll never be able to overcome it or I’ll never be able to speak to these people Lord you have not given us a spirit of timidity but of power and of boldness so God increase our faith let us be must be faithful servants for your name’s sake then we would love and build up the others in the church and love and seek to rescue the lost God because they are not okay despite what they think and lord I pray that you would be gracious to you to continue to build up your church sanctify it guard it and help us to do our part in building up and guarding your church in Jesus name Amen you’re welcome I will see you next