The Mission: Pay Careful Attention (Acts 20)

Acts: The Mission of the Church  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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Have you ever felt that something big was about to take place in your life? You probably didn’t know exactly know what God was doing, but you clearly knew He was doing something significant. That pressure of that upcoming “something” caused you to take every day more carefully. You lived with your eyes wide open watching and waiting for God to reveal that “something.” Have you ever experienced that before?
I ask because Paul had been experiencing that same sort of pressure, during the three years he ministered in Ephesus. The Holy Spirit had been been communicating that something big was going to take place that would significantly impact Paul’s life and the churches he planted and grew. Something big was about to take place in Paul’s life, so in Acts 20, Paul directed the pastors to pay careful attention how they lived from that point forward and his words, “pay careful attention,” are essential for life in today’s world.
(pause)
The first 16 verses are important because God included them in His Scripture, but for the sake of time, I am going to skip them for the most part and encourage you to read them this afternoon of later this week. Here is a brief summary of those verses though… Paul departed Ephesus on a whirlwind trip to care for other pressing ministry tasks, then in Acts 20:18, under a great time constraint, Paul called the pastors of Ephesus to come to him. In verse 18,
18 And when they came to him, he said to them: “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia (or Ephesus which represented Asia)

(How Paul lived ) (20:17-21)

In verse 18, your version of the Bible might use the word “how” or “after what manner.” Paul led deliberately. What he chose to do each day was profitable for God and the people of Ephesus. In the following verses Paul recapped how he lived because he wanted them to pay attention… something significant drove his daily life choices. God recorded these words for us so we also can pay careful attention to a life well-spent. He said, “I lived...
“among you.” He was in their homes eating and sleeping. He shared their joys and trials and carried their burdens to God in prayer. He who was once an outsider became one of them. He assimilated into their culture and families and cared for their physical needs by healing incurable diseases and casting out spirits that once possessed them. He did life with them instead of doing his own thing.
Paul loved being among people, so much so that he said, I was among you...
“the whole time.” He didn’t take a break, he didn’t burn out, he didn’t give up, he didn’t get frustrated with them. His love resembled God’s love: it was dedicated, committed, passionate, and focused kind of love that began on the very first day and continued the whole time.
We should pay attention to these two ways Paul lived. Paul started his address to the pastors with these two details because he believed they were significant. If you want proof of this, look back at Acts 19:10. There God recorded that all Asia heard the Gospel. That was a direct result of how Paul’s choices to live among the people he ministered to and a direct result of his intense love for people. We must “pay careful attention” to how we live life.
(pause)
The word “how” appears again in verse 20. “You have also paid attention to how I served the Lord.” Paul intentionally gave his life for others. Pay attention to how...

How Paul served (vv19-21)

in verses 19-21. “You yourselves know how I was...”
Acts 20:19–21 (ESV) 19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; 20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, 21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
He served with “all humility” (v19). He was not greater than any other person. He placed others’ needs before his own.
He served“with tears” (v19) Each member of the body was significant to him. He loved them dearly!
He served “through trials and through plots of the Jews” (v19) Those were not just attacks against Paul, they were attacks against the body of Christ. Paul, like Christ bore afflictions and trials and persecutions so that the young, tender Ephesians did not have to suffer. Paul had endured much trials and testings. He had trained to endure and he was training the Ephesian pastors to endure afflictions.
Paul was a sort of shield to the young church and he refused to give up on them. Their neighbors were his neighbors. Paul had skin, sweat, and blood in the game.
In verse 20, pay attention to how Paul served boldly…
Acts 20:20(ESV) 20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable
Cowardice is not a fruit of the Spirit. Our God is mighty. Paul, who naturally wanted to shrink back, instead wholly relied on God’s strength to say bold things, life changing things. People didn’t save him, God did! so Paul didn’t care what people thought. Only what God thought mattered. So his boldness caused him to...
Serve with passion. in verse 21 Paul taught “in public and from house to house.” He didn’t get burned out. He passionately taught from house to house that faith in God effects all parts of life. A person can’t believe something and keep it separate from all other parts of life. What a person believes impacts every single choice in life, or at least it should. Sometimes our belief doesn’t play out like it should. We call that sin. In the book of James we read that “whoever knows to good and does not do it, it is sin.” Whoever believes and does not act on that belief in all areas of life sin. Paul was passionate about how drastically faith in God changes lives.
(pause)
He served all people equally. In verse 21 Paul said “you know how I was...
testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Race didn’t matter, gender didn’t matter, social status didn’t matter. Salvation was available to all people so Paul proclaimed Jesus to everyone equally. Pay attention… Paul loved people so much that he tried to stay out of people’s view of God. When he wrote 1 Corinthians 9:22, he said,
(ESV) 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.
The verse by itself might sound a bit confusing, but the concept is very simple....
Imagine for a moment that all of us were on a sight seeing tour to the Grand Canyon or Niagara falls. How foolish would I be if charged through everyone in our group and through all the other tourists? How foolish would I be to get to the overlook, turn to the group, and flex for a selfie? It would be ludicrous, unspeakable. Who am I am compared to God?
Why would I flaunt my gifts? What Christian truly wants to block others magnificent view of God! Paul served all people equally and humbly.
Something significant should drive everything we do…
We need to pay attention. At salvation, our days were redeemed for a new purpose. Every single choice we make in life should be carefully planned so God is revealed.
This morning’s passage is a reminder that Paul was like us. He made every day life choices. He thought about where he would live, whom he would spend the day with, what group he might reason with and we can relate to that. We schedule our days. We usually know what location we will be working from. We know what big tasks we hope to tackle at work. We make plans to accomplish big things at home. We make time to schedule important conversations.
According to Paul and God, "Significant” doesn’t mean “big.”
1 Corinthians 10:31 (ESV) 31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
God wants us to pay attention to the details. Details all come together to make the big picture magnificent when we arrive at the scenic overlook.
(pause.... transition)
Paul was in a very real sense at a scenic overlook of his life. Remember, he was showing the view of his life to the Ephesian pastors because something big was about to happen to all of them. Paul, in effect, said I want you to pay attention to how the Spirit has been working in my life these past few years...
(ignore speaking the heading)

How the Spirit had been working (19:21; 20:22-25)

For this, you might flip back to Acts 19:21. Just after the expensive bonfire, when spiritual warfare was perhaps at it’s peak, and just before Demetrius caused the riot, Scripture records that...
Acts 19:21 (ESV) 21Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.”
Now, please flip to Acts 20:22. (PAUSE) Here we find what might be the most passionate and emotionally intense words Paul spoke. To the pastors he said...
Acts 20:22–25 (ESV) And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit (or obeying what the Spirit has told me to do), not knowing what will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. 24 But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. 25 And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again.
This was important! This was intense! We could have heard a pin drop at that moment! City after city, Paul had faced afflictions, persecutions, and trials. Paul knew God was dong something big and the Spirit finally revealed what that something was going to be. Persecution was not going to disappear: they were going to become more intense. God was bringing Paul’s missionary travels to an end and this was a hard thing to bear!
He deeply loved these brothers in Christ: We can almost hear the grief in Paul’s strained voice as he said farewell for the last time, but again, Paul did not make this about him. He stepped to the side and pointed beyond himself to our magnificent God by saying that he was not throwing in the towel!
God, through the Spirit had been causing Paul to finish the race just as strong as started the race. Paul had been running the race as Heb 12 states “with endurance” but his goal was not to only to finish. Anyone can finish. Anyone can die. Paul wanted to run as he described in 1 Cor 9:24. He desired to go for the gold so that one day before Christ, he could lay that medal at Christ’s feet.
Pay careful attention to yourselves... From his conversion fifteen years earlier and every day leading up to this conversation in Acts 20, Paul had been running for the gold. Paul wanted those pastors and us to know that....
God’s retirement benefits don’t kick in until we get to Heaven!
As long as life is in our bodies, God has work for us to do. Verse 24 preserves Paul’s mindset. He wrote...
Acts 20:24 (ESV) But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
He was not going to retire from preaching to save his own skin. He desired to testify of Jesus until his very last breath.
When we get old or health issues greatly hinder us, God still has work for us to do. That work might look different. It might mean writing letters to our church family, as Paul did from prison. It might mean standing on a rock with arms lifted up watching and praying for victory for the saints battling in the valley below. Ministry should not stop as we age, it might looks different but it is just as important. God’s retirement plan doesn’t start until we are dead, for only then we will bask in his radiance for all eternity!
(SLIDE: map of where he traveled in Acts 20:1-16)
This slide shows where Paul traveled in the first sixteen verses of Acts 20. Miletus is in green text because that is where Paul’s emotional speech took place, and was only a few days south of Ephesus. There was too much to do and not enough time to do it. After about 15 years of missionary work, much was left to do! (PAUSE)
This explains the time crunch Paul faced! (vv 1-16)
Paul’s ministry didn’t slow down, it intensified! In Acts 201-16, Paul traveled over a lot of ground and visited a several churches again. (please read those verses at some point this week). Romans 15 beginning at verse 23, churches in Macedonia and Achaia had collected an offering collected for the Jerusalem Christians. That lines up with where Paul traveled in this morning’s text and the Romans passage also carries a sense of urgency and time constraint. Paul also spent the Passover in Philippi, and he spoke at least one sermon from sundown until daybreak in Troas. There, a youth fell out of the third story window and died, but Paul picked him up and declared the boy alive. Ministry was intense. It was busy, even frenzied!
(Pause)
Finally, to the Ephesian pastors, Paul said “pay attention” to how the church will continue after I am gone...

How the church will continue (20:26-35)

Imagine you were in that room with Paul at that moment. Your best friend said you will never see each other again. You would probably listen very closely to that friend’s next words as closely as if they were Paul’s last will and testament! These words are valuable. Let’s read those words starting from verse 25...
Acts 20:25–35 (ESV) And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. 26 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, 27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. 28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.
29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. 32 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. 33 I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. 34 You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. 35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”
God said, “ pay careful attention!” The church is Christ’s bride. We should be pure and spotless and ready at any moment to meet Him in the air. God said, “pay attention” so you can complete Christ’s mission successfully, so in verse 28, we are first to...
look to ourselves. care for your spiritual needs so you you can minister out of the overflow. We cannot minister to others with the fruit from our tree of our fruit is shriveled up for lack of water and nutrition.
pay careful attention to others. Do not shrink back, but do what Paul did… don’t let fear prevent you from speaking truth, even if you think your closest friends will harm, or persecute, or stone you. God’s words will always bear fruit.
to the pastors he said, “be on the lookout. Wolves are guaranteed to come.” Those wolves will devour the flock if I am not on my guard. You, the sheep also need to be on your guard. You will sense and see some of these dangers yourselves because you also have the Holy Spirit. People will come in to our church who “will speak twisted things.” Satan loves chaos and confusion that will cause people to leave the church. We don’t want that, we intensely love each other! Wolves can attack at any moment. Pray for me. Pray for me. Pray for us.
Paul says, “Do what I did” (vv31-35) Paul ministered for three years tirelessly shielding the tender Ephesian lambs from the wolves. He was direct. He said what needed to be said and still, at other times, he was tender and soft.
“Do what I did” “Live life how I lived, serve how I served.” Don’t covet money or power but serve with with great humility constantly pointing to Christ. If we are going to accomplish our mission, we must be generous and encourage others to also be generous. Jesus himself said “it is more blessed to give than to receive.”
If you don’t remember anything else from this passage, please remember this… spiritual warfare is intense, so we must pay careful attention! How we live from this point on must be different, so...

“Pay careful attention” means we must...

...form deep friendships! (vv 3-5, 36-38)
The wonder of Christ’s church is the deep friendships that form as a result of Christ’s redeeming work in our lives.
C.S. Lewis wrote that “Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: ‘What! You, too? Thought I was the only one.’”
I believe that, when Christ is not the foundation of a friendship, all friendships are almost entirely selfish. Interestingly enough BBC published an internet article entitled, "How and why do we pick our friends.”(https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20130123-what-are-friends-really-for)
In the opening paragraph, the author stated, “Studies of dolphins, primates and humans show the reason we choose the companions we do is more complex, and perhaps less honorable, than we might think.” The article cited several studies using dolphins, sharks, primates, and humans and all studies revealed something interesting. The most important criteria for friendships were centered around the personal and political agendas of the group. An outsider became a friend only when that outsider brought something of value to the group. The closing line of the article reads, “we might like to make grand claims that friendships are without agenda, but that doesn’t necessarily mean this is the case.”
The article proves we make friendships because we get something in the process. Paul though, quoted Christ.... “it is more blessed to give than to receive.” If we are going to succeed in our mission, we should choose friends because we can give something. We can give them them hope of the Gospel. We can give them peace, joy, comfort, prayer, food, a home. Pay careful attention to our friendships, they are not for US, but for God’s glory.
This is exciting. Do you remember when Paul first began mission work? How many people accompanied him on his travels back then? Usually 1 or two. God provided a large ministry team to care for the growing universal church. Check out this next slide...
(SLIDE: map of where they were from!)
In Acts 20:4-5 we discover who formed this team. There was...
4 Sopater the Berean, son of Pyrrhus, accompanied him; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy (Lystra); and the Asians (or from Ephesus), Tychicus and Trophimus. 5 These went on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas (“us” meaning Luke who was from Antioch).
So when I was studying, I was like, oh cool, then I dropped the names on the map and thought, “How amazing! How awesome is the wonder of God’s church! These eight men were not friends because they got something, but they were friends because they were giving their lives daily in service to Christ! Their friendship was perhaps a the single most exciting way God preserved the church in that whole region for many, many, many years. Pastors and lay leaders rotated through those churches in years to come. They relieved each other, they addressed various difficulties in other churches, and they continued providing financial relief.
You might disagree with me. You might argue that these eight men also selfishly benefitted from the friendship and I would say that you are wrong. Paul didn’t choose friends selfishly. Paul became friends with all Christians and many of them naturally became deep. The difference? God caused the deep friendships, not Paul. This final point also might convince you.
Paul, his seven companions, and the pastors’ behavior in verses 36-38 teaches us to “pay careful attention...”
…intensely love each other! (vv36-38)
We exist to give love because God pours out His endless love onto us. Love, in this chapter, is most often shown by acts of encouragement. Love, encouragement is the theme of this chapter.
In verse 1, before Paul left Ephesus what did he do? He encouraged them.
In verse 2, when he made the whirlwind trip to Macedonia, what did he do? He encouraged every congregation and every believer he encountered. The text actually states, he had given them “MUCH encouragement!” Paul poured out every drop of encouragement he was trying to love them, just like Christ did.
In verses 7-12, a young man fell out of a third story window and died, but when Paul picked him up...
Acts 20:12 (ESV) 12 And they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted.
meaning, they were greatly encouraged!
What drove Paul’s speech to the pastors in verses 17-35? Not Paul’s selfish motives. Remember verse 24?
Acts 20:24 (ESV) But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself
In other words, it seems to be textually accurate that Paul didn’t want to selfishly say goodbye to his friends. Rather, Paul wanted to give them every bit of love and encouragement possible. Paul was pouring himself out for their benefit.
(pause)
Verses 36-38 are my favorite verses in all of Acts. In a final act of love and encouragement, Paul did one more thing.
Acts 20:36–38 (ESV) 36 And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. 37 And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, 38 being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.
They embraced him and kissed him, yes, seemingly selfishly here, but God was the center of their deep friendship, so not it was really not selfish after all. They returned Paul’s encouragement. They became encouragers to Paul and even gave of themselves and walked with him to the ship.
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(pause)
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CLOSING STATEMENT
God’s Word has so much to reveal, but the one thing we should take with us is this... Pay careful attention because God’s mission is important. Pay careful attention. Spiritual warfare is intense! Pay careful attention… the smallest details of life matter to God. How we live from this point on must be different. We cannot walk away from the mirror of God’s Word and remain unchanged. We must love Christ and His people intensely.
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PRAYER
Praise for Paul’s tireless example!
Pray for me to be a tireless example!
Pray for protection from the wolves!
Pray that we will intensely love and always be an encouragement to each other.
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