Missions Paul

False Leaders

Acts 20:30 “Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.”

Watch out. False leaders:

1. Rise from within the ranks, they are known by many and so find it easier to deceive.
2. Know the history of the Church and the people, so manipulation is easier for them.
3. Reposition themselves within their equals so as to appear higher in command and with more authority.
4. Desire leadership because of its power over people.
5. Aim to have disciples following them and not solely Christ.
6. Make their lies not look like lies so that the disciple of Christ swallows them.
7. Their ultimate vision is not Christ but themselves, they need the glory and will do what it takes to get it.

Savage wolves

Acts 20:29 “I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.

We can feel Paul’s pain, he may indeed have tears in his eyes as he knows that after he leaves those he has spent so much time building in the faith, those he loves, they will be attacked by what he describes as savage wolves.
Jesus had said, “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. (Matthew 7:15)

So what will this look like when wolves attack? Here are 5 points about a wolf attack and the connection with an attack on the Church:

1. Paul is clear it will be plural. Wolves attack in a pack.

2. It will be an organised and strategic attack. They have their own leaders, the alpha male and female who breed and who decide when to attack and eat. The attack will be talked about in private beforehand, it just doesn’t happen.

3. Paul says they will come in amongst the leadership and then attack the flock. It is an attack on how the church is led. Wolves eat meat and the larger the prey the better. They kill and eat only to survive. They have to do this. The attack on the leadership is for a just cause, it will make sense, it has to happen.

4. Paul says they will come in among them. He was leaving a church that was moving forward, he had put mission at the heart of the church. In the Revelation of John he writes of the Church at Ephesus, “I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.” (Rev 2:2). The Ephesian Church was a hard-working and enduring Church. Wolves typically only attack a running animal. They outrun them wearing them down, burning them out. Apparently a large animal has a better chance of survival if it stands its ground. A Church that is on mission is an easier target than a Church that isn’t moving (which could be a sign that it is standing firm or dead already!).

5. Paul says the wolves will be savage. Wolves use their sharp teeth to inflict massive blood loss. They can be up to one inch in length. They have very strong jaws, they cling on to their prey and once down they just about eat everything of the animal, there is little waste, nothing is left. It is messy and it is brutal. There are many not in ministry and not in the Church today because of these attacks. These attacks are destructive and final.

The Undershepherd

Acts 20: 28” Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.”

Paul is addressing the Ephesian leaders:

1. Put in place a programme of protection for yourself: have a regular devotional life, develop a healthy lifestyle, be stimulated mentally and emotionally, don’t burn-out, surrender your heart to God, don’t give the enemy a foothold.
2. Know you have been appointed by the Holy Spirit. It may look like man appointed you, but God did. You are where God wanted you to be, leading the Church.
3. Your role is to oversee God’s people, know what is going on in their lives, know who they are and the challenges they face, know their stories.
4. Your role is to shepherd God’s people, tend to their true needs, feed them the Word of God (preach and teach really well) and give them advice, guiding them along their journey so that they walk in step with the Spirit.
5. They are God’s people not your people, so don’t abuse them spiritually or manipulate them for your own gain.
6. It is God’s church, not your church, they are the body of Christ not just a group of people, so don’t disrespect or hurt them.
7. He bought them with His blood not your blood, they are of high value to Him, they are precious and treasured so handle with care, don’t make them bleed, He has already bled for them.
Being an undershepherd is a high calling in terms of responsibility and sacrifice but also in privilege and blessing.

The tough gospel
Acts 20:27 “For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.”
The whole will of God or the ‘whole counsel of God’ (ESV) is difficult to proclaim and even more difficult to hear at times.
It is easy to proclaim the love of God, but it is difficult to hear of His wrath for sin.
It is easy to proclaim the sovereignty of God, but it is difficult to hear of man’s free will in a broken, evil world.
It is easy to proclaim the omnipresence of God, but it is difficult to hear when you suffer and lose.
It is easy to proclaim the grace of God, but it is difficult to hear when man condemns you.
And the list goes on.
Paul never hesitated. Look at some of the things he proclaimed:
Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Ephesians 3:6 “This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”
Ephesians 4:4-6 “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
Ephesians 5:33 “However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”
Ephesians 6:1 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.”
Ephesians 6:4 “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”
Ephesians 6:5-6 “Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.”
The gospel may seem easy to proclaim but it is often difficult to hear.

Innocent of others
Acts 20:26 “Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you.”
Paul is saying his goodbyes to the Ephesian leaders and he declares his innocence if anything untoward happened to them.
If they suffered for the gospel he had warned them.
If they went through hardship he had told them they would.
If they were put to death he had instructed them not to let go of Jesus.
No one would be able to say Paul had failed in his duty to tell them.
Whenever you move from one job or position to another then the thought may come to you. ‘What will people say about me when I have gone?’
Paul tells the elders no one will be able to blame him for anything after he leaves them.
This statement of confidence is either because he is not bothered about them or because he has discharged all his duties and done what God had told him to do. We will find out which it is tomorrow.
But today, look around you, especially if you are saying goodbye to someone, if anything happens to that person, did you tell them what you needed to tell them? Did you love them? Encourage them? Warn them? If something bad happened to them would a finger be pointed back to you? Could you have done more and said more to prevent tragedy?
Often we think of innocence being connected to our sins before the Heavenly Father. We seek Him through Jesus for His forgiveness. How about your relationships with people, in and out of the Church? Could you have done more? Could you have stopped the prodigals leaving home? Have you taken your opportunities seriously? Are you innocent of people’s lives?
What a tremendous freedom of mind and heart to have!

Goodbye

Acts 20:25 ‘Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again.’
Goodbye.
We can almost see the tears and feel the pain of Paul and those of his team as they are hearing his words of departure.
I don’t like goodbyes, do you?
I see a lot of them at the airports. Children and parents, friends and lovers, they are proud moments, romantic moments and also very sad times. The departure lounge and the arrival lounge are often the opposites of human response.
Yesterday the UK and the world were commemorating the death of Princess Diana over 20 years ago. In the many programmes we have watched over these last several days the ones containing her sons were most poignant as they described on their last phone call to their mum how they had rushed the phone call, not realising it would be their last. How so many of us have not realised it was our last conversation with a loved one. So many struggle with regret over what they could have said or should have said but they didn’t know, or there was a stupid division perhaps in the relationship and the line from the song ‘Living years’ echoes in the recesses of our mind: “I just wish I could have told him in the living years” (Mike and the Mechanics 1988).
Today I am waking in the home of a married couple. They are my friends, one of several intercessors who pray for me and support my cause. Around 6-7 weeks ago the wife had a severe heart attack which resulted in a quadruple bypass. Prior to the surgery I drove away from the hospital with tears in my eyes having said goodbye. We have all known those difficult times. Thankfully all went well.
6 months ago I said goodbye to my friend and colleague of many years who died serving God, it was a new pain for me. I said goodbye and my hope was crushed here on earth, but not in eternity. I am sure many reading this know what I mean when in those situations.
Goodbyes. I don’t like them. But they have always been here and always will be.
Paul is saying goodbye and he is entrusting his team to God just like Jesus did with his disciples. That is the heart of the goodbye in its essence. When you don’t know what the future holds, so ‘I entrust you to God’. He is in control of what happens now. I may not see you again but I give you to God. He will decide.
It doesn’t lessen the pain perhaps but in the uncertainty and fear of what might happen, it brings stability, it realigns the all-sufficient One into the centre of our lives. He knows. Through the tears of the goodbye, that is all we have and that is all we need.
Goodbye.

Nothing but the gospel

Acts 20: 24 “ However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”

Paul was born for the gospel of Jesus.
He ate, slept, breathed and talked all the time of the gospel of Jesus.
His every waking moment was spent thinking about the impact of the gospel of Jesus.
When he went to sleep he dreamt of the gospel of Jesus.
He was consumed with the gospel of Jesus.
His only aim in life was the gospel of Jesus.
Nothing mattered, no other interests or concerns even for his own life because his only want and need was the gospel of Jesus.
In my first few years of pastoring a church I had a couple who were the youth leaders. With their passion, their constant energy, the fact that they had no time to chat about other ‘important’ issues but young people, in no time at all my small Church had more young people than adults. In fact we were reaching twice the amount of young people.
Several years later I was energised by one of my assistants who would find a way to talk about the gospel at every opportunity. Even to the extent of being in the bakery and talking to the shop assistant about Jesus being ‘the bread of life’. We laughed about his dedication together but I was moved by his passion.
Some of my missionaries that are seeing the greatest results are forever talking about the gospel of Jesus. They introduce the gospel to everyone they meet.
The Suffering Church do not have the luxury of leadership conferences and worship-fests. They don’t have the shelves of books and the access to the latest ideology. They only have the gospel.
I think of one of our Pastors who works in a desert and who walks 20km every day in extraordinary temperatures with a book of drawings that illustrate the bible stories (a book that when I saw it a week ago was falling apart!), he does it because he considers his life worth nothing to him compared to being a gospel worker. He has nothing. He doesn’t have qualifications. He has no transport. He has very few possessions. In the eyes of the world and even the Western Christian world he is nothing. But this beautiful man would agree with that opinion. He has become nothing for the gospel. But this amazing gospel-carrier is richer, more experienced and effective than many. Being with this man last week made me realise that when the gospel consumes us then nothing else really matters. It is the gospel of Jesus and He becomes all in all.

The gospel road

Acts 20:23 “I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.”
Compelled by the Spirit and now warned by the Spirit that if you are obedient then you will face trouble. Now do you still want to go?
For Paul, knowing that he would face prison and hardship was worth going to every city with the gospel of Jesus Christ. He did not love his life so as to shrink from death (Rev 12:11), he wouldn’t die for a few years, but he was on the road to his death for sure.
The gospel road is the pathway to your death for the sake of the gospel.
“We are prepared to die. We will die for the gospel. We know it. Someone here will die.” I was there when this was said. These are common words from the Suffering Church.
Perhaps there is no chance that you will die because of your faith. Maybe you are in a privileged nation. If that is the case then your surrender and submission to God over your life is even more important because for many in the family of God, death means just that.
The gospel road is worth your surrender.
The religion road is not worth it.
The road of kindness and being nice is not worth it.
The campaign road of correcting everyone else is not worth it.
The road of gain is not worth it.
Only the gospel of Jesus Christ will cause you to surrender and say yes to the Spirit, ‘wherever you take me I will go’.
Do you still want to go?

Compelled by the Spirit

Acts 20:22 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.”

In some ways this is beautiful language and yet we soon realise the high price Paul has to pay. He is compelled, meaning he is bound and in chains not to the attack of an enemy, but to the Spirit. The Spirit is holding him and leading him, maybe at times dragging him to Jerusalem.
Have you ever wondered in that constricting place where you want to break free from but cannot, that it is the Spirit? You may weep and complain but the Spirit is leading you forward like a prisoner in chains. “I am in chains for Christ” (Phil 1:13); “I am an ambassador in chains” (Eph 6:20); “I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal” (2 Tim 2:9). These were physical chains as he was held under Roman guard. But the reason Paul could survive these chains was because long before this he recognised he was chained to the Spirit.
A person can survive anywhere if they know the Spirit has led them or is leading them to it. This is not the same as compulsion. A Harvard Business Review in 2011 actually led with the title “Whatever you feel compelled to do, don’t.’ It went on to talk about the short-sighted destructive choices that we make out of reactions and not forethought leading to people asking us, “What were you thinking when you did that?!”
Paul wasn’t reacting or being short-sighted. Paul was a prisoner to the Spirit who was leading him to the city of Jerusalem. “Why Paul? Why are you going there? Why don’t you turn around and get out of there as fast as you can? It could be dangerous. You don’t know what will happen to you.” Maybe Paul heard all of those voices. Those self-preservation voices still exist today. Many have left their posts at that critical point of feeling compelled by the Spirit. Many are not where they used to be. Many have not been effective for the kingdom. Many have abandoned relationships and pressed self-destructive buttons because they just couldn’t cope anymore in their situation and circumstance. Paul wasn’t one of these and though I sympathise fully with these strong consuming feelings, I fight not to be one of those either.
Today, go forward again, maybe one step at a time, it may not be easy and you may not know what the future holds, but compelled by the Spirit you are putting the kingdom of God first. His glory is what you seek, the love for others and the love for God is so much more important than your love for yourself, you are compelled, by the Spirit.

Can you be bothered with the gospel?
Acts 20:21 “I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.”
Paul in his farewell speech to the Ephesian elders says that he has preached to all. He preached to the Jews in their synagogue and then to the Greeks in the hall of Tyrannus.
He met people in their setting, in their comfort zones and preached the gospel to them.
There is no one who does not need the gospel.
Religious people need the gospel as much as unreligious people.
Paul found a way and he adapted his gospel presentation to his hearers. That took forward planning and learning.
Just because someone calls themselves Christian doesn’t mean they do not need the gospel. In Pakistan if you are a Christian it means you are not a Muslim. There are many Christians in Pakistan who need the gospel. It is the same in the UK.
The question we need to ask ourselves is this: how would I begin to take the gospel to:
Atheists, Baha’is, Buddhists, Christians, Hindu’s, Muslims, Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, Jews, Pagans, Rastafarians, Sikhs, Spiritualists, Taiosts or the Unitarianists. I am sure the list can continue.
Where do they meet?
How do they worship and if they don’t then how do they express their philosophy?
What do they believe or what do they not believe about what you believe?
Final question! … Can you be bothered?