Act 20:17-28 | KingComments | STEP | Although Paul cannot go to Ephesus due to lack of time, he still longs to have contact with the church. He cannot call the whole church to him, but he can call the people in charge of the church, the elders. That is why he uses the stop at Miletus to call these elders to him. That he does this with a purpose and not from an emotional whim, is clear from his speech to them. Of his two earlier speeches, one was to the Jews ( ) and one to the Gentiles ( ). Here he addresses the elders of the church in Ephesus and in them the whole church there and over their heads then also the worldwide church. Elders are always mentioned in plural and are only connected to the local church. So there is no such thing as a reverend or a teaching elder. Elder and overseer is the same person. This is clear from where Paul calls this same group of elders overseers (cf. ). Luke has again reserved a lot of space for this speech. This speech is not only important for the elders of Ephesus and the church there, but for the whole Christian church. It gives us an overview of Paul’s ministry. It is not so much about the outward effect of his ministry, the results for others. It is especially about the inner side of his ministry, what he himself has experienced and endured, the struggles and soul exercises that went with it, the tears, the care, the commitment with which he carried out his ministry. In this small company of these responsible brothers he feels free to express his feelings, to share them with them as with friends. His speech also has a prophetic meaning. He speaks about what the impact of his ministry will be in the history of the Christian church if he and the other apostles have passed away. In his speech he looks 1. back ( ), 2. to the present ( ) and 3. to the future ( ). He speaks of his ministry as 1. evangelist ( ), 2. teacher ( ), 3. prophet ( ) and 4. shepherd ( ). As a shepherd he has an eye for the whole flock, mentioning his care for the weak specially ( ). We can divide his speech into four parts, with the words “and now” or “and now, behold” marking the different parts: 1. his example ( ), 2. its way ( ), 3. the developments after his passing ( ) and 4. his commendation ( ).

‏ Acts 20:17-28

Paul Calls the Elders of Ephesus to Him

Although Paul cannot go to Ephesus due to lack of time, he still longs to have contact with the church. He cannot call the whole church to him, but he can call the people in charge of the church, the elders. That is why he uses the stop at Miletus to call these elders to him.

That he does this with a purpose and not from an emotional whim, is clear from his speech to them. Of his two earlier speeches, one was to the Jews (Acts 13:15-41) and one to the Gentiles (Acts 17:22-31). Here he addresses the elders of the church in Ephesus and in them the whole church there and over their heads then also the worldwide church.

Elders are always mentioned in plural and are only connected to the local church. So there is no such thing as a reverend or a teaching elder. Elder and overseer is the same person. This is clear from Acts 20:28 where Paul calls this same group of elders overseers (cf. Tit 1:5 ; 7).

Luke has again reserved a lot of space for this speech. This speech is not only important for the elders of Ephesus and the church there, but for the whole Christian church. It gives us an overview of Paul’s ministry. It is not so much about the outward effect of his ministry, the results for others. It is especially about the inner side of his ministry, what he himself has experienced and endured, the struggles and soul exercises that went with it, the tears, the care, the commitment with which he carried out his ministry. In this small company of these responsible brothers he feels free to express his feelings, to share them with them as with friends.

His speech also has a prophetic meaning. He speaks about what the impact of his ministry will be in the history of the Christian church if he and the other apostles have passed away.

In his speech he looks

1. back (Acts 20:18-21),

2. to the present (Acts 20:22-27) and

3. to the future (Acts 20:28-31).

He speaks of his ministry as

1. evangelist (Acts 20:21 ; 24),

2. teacher (Acts 20:25 ; 27),

3. prophet (Acts 20:29-30) and

4. shepherd (Acts 20:31-35). As a shepherd he has an eye for the whole flock, mentioning his care for the weak specially (Acts 20:35).

We can divide his speech into four parts, with the words “and now” or “and now, behold” marking the different parts:

1. his example (Acts 20:18-21),

2. its way (Acts 20:22-24),

3. the developments after his passing (Acts 20:25-31) and

4. his commendation (Acts 20:32-35).

Paul’s Service With the Ephesians

When the elders have come to him, Paul begins his impressive farewell speech. We can compare this speech with the farewell speeches of Joshua and Samuel (Jos 23:1-16 ; Jos 24:1-28; 1Sam 12:1-24). It is clear from his speech that he is not calling for submission to his authority or to that of any successor, but that he is asking for following his example.

He begins his speech by reminding the elders of their first encounter. He did not come to them with the request to show him the city and to visit all sorts of interesting places. He did not need time to familiarize himself or to explore things or to create a certain atmosphere for his message in a diplomatic way. From the very beginning he dedicated himself to his task. They have seen that. His behavior among them has been transparent, there was no need to wonder what he was doing. He has been “with” them, that is to say, he has been one of them and not a preacher standing above them.

The first thing to which he remembers, therefore, is his ministry. Further on Paul gives an overview of his ministry:

1. testifying of repentance and faith (Acts 20:21),

2. testify of the gospel of the grace of God (Acts 20:24),

3. preaching the kingdom (Acts 20:25) and

4. declaring the whole purpose of God (Acts 20:27).

He begins, however, by expressing what is in his mind. It is not only about what someone says, but also about who says it and how he says it. He has done it in humility. In this way he has served the believers. Yet he does not say that with those words. Here he says that he has served the Lord. Serving the believers is in fact serving the Lord and that service will be rewarded by Him as such (Mt 25:40).

He served in humility and not as a celebrated highness who required others to serve him. He is a true follower of his Lord from Whom he has learned this humility (Mt 11:29). Extra meaning was given to this humility by the tears that appeared while serving. He did not serve coolly, from on high or from a distance. His tears expressed his compassion for the other. He was not ashamed of his tears (Acts 20:31 ; 37; 2Cor 2:4; Phil 3:18). God counts these tears (Psa 56:8) and He will soon wipe every tear from his eyes (Rev 7:17).

That humility and those tears were not signs of weakness. They were accompanied by trials and attacks on his life from the side of the Jews. If you can resist them, you are not a weakling but a man of courage, strength and determination.

He was guided by what was useful to the believers and not by his own preferences. Always he was concerned with the Lord, and since with the Lord the interest of others is always paramount, it was also paramount with Paul. Because he looked for what was useful for others, he did not withhold anything. He proclaimed everything that was entrusted to him for the church. Withholding something would mean that he was unfaithful to his Sender and that he did not share in the feelings of the Lord Jesus for His church. Paul had served the believers both “publicly”, that is in the synagogue and the school of Tyrannus, and in a smaller circle “from house to house”.

The first part of that service was to testify of repentance to God with, inextricably linked to it, faith in the Lord Jesus. He gave this testimony, which is the basis of everything, to the Jews and Greeks – the Jews first and foremost. Repentance to God means that one sees oneself in the presence of God and then comes to total self-condemnation. In God’s presence everything is judged as it is in God’s eyes. We no longer apologize and we don’t want to.

The result is confession of sins before God through a conscience that feels itself in His presence (Heb 4:12). We justify God in our condemnation, while at the same time trusting in His grace, for He Who is light is also love. This brings us to faith in the Lord Jesus.

Faith in the Lord Jesus means that we trust in His work through which sins have been put away, because He died for our sins. Then He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Heb 1:3). It is about His Person as the object of faith. He is also our righteousness before God. We are made pleasant in Him.

If true repentance has taken place in God’s presence and before Him, trust and peace come through faith in the Lord Jesus. Repentance and faith are both necessary and inseparable. Only when both aspects are present, one does become a child of God.

The Gospel of the Grace of God

Then Paul shares with the elders the purpose of his journey and the urge he feels to do so. For a long time, he was strongly pressed inwardly to go to Jerusalem. The fact that he says “bound by the spirit” – that is his own human spirit and not the Holy Spirit – could indicate that it was an obligation of love for his people that did not have its direct origin in a commission from God, although not necessarily against God’s will. It is like the wish he expressed to be separated from Christ with a curse for the sake of his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh (Rom 9:3).

These desires of Paul have nothing to do with the sinful flesh, but could, at most, be a zeal of the noblest motives. If it turns out to be a weakness, then any selfishness in this desire is absent with him. The only motive is his burning love for his own people. This love drives him, as it were, into the lion’s den.

Paul is in fact a slave – which is included in the word ‘bound’ – of his own mind. He is forced in such a way that no other way is open to him. Although it is possible that Paul does not act under the direct guidance of the Holy Spirit, but from the weakness of his own mind because of his love for his kinsmen according to the flesh, the Lord will still use that for the honor of His Name. There is no self-deception with Paul.

We also see this in what the Holy Spirit expresses to him. Following the testimony of the Spirit, Paul could have sought a way out, but he does not. He knew what the Holy Spirit said to him and that could mean that he did not have to go. The Spirit did not directly tell him not to go, but only told him what was in store for him.

Paul consciously chose what was in store for him, out of love for the Lord Jesus and His earthly people, to save some of His people. He knew that God’s hand was in this. And we know that God would use his captivity to write letters with the highest Christian truths.

All suffering could not prevent Paul from conforming to the will of God. He had learned from his Master how suffering in a world full of sin and misery can have an effect of glorifying God. Paul carried the marks of that suffering in his body (Gal 6:17).

Paul could count. On the one hand he calculated the value of his life for himself and on the other hand he calculated the value of his life in the service of his Lord. From that calculation it appeared that all profit lay with the Lord Jesus and the commission He had given him (cf. Phil 3:7-9). He saw his life as God’s gift to him, with which God had a plan: a service to fulfill it to the fullest. He would indeed accomplish his course (2Tim 4:6-7). To Paul this means, that to accomplish his course, he must also testify the gospel of God’s grace to his own people.

The gospel of the grace of God is the full gospel. The grace of God is more than repentance and faith. In repentance and faith, the emphasis is more on the need of the sinner. In the gospel of the grace of God, the emphasis is on the side of God, everything He has done by revealing His grace. We find this gospel in the letter to the Romans. Among other things we learn there that the believer stands in the grace of God and that he is justified by faith alone, on the basis of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus (Rom 5:1-2).

The Kingdom and Purpose of God

Paul announces his farewell. It will be a definitive farewell. He knows that they will not see each other again. Against the background of this announcement, he reminds the elders that he went around among all of them to preach the kingdom. The kingdom is mentioned here for the fifth time out of a total of seven times mentioned in Acts (Acts 1:3 ; Acts 8:12 ; Acts 14:22 ; Acts 19:8 ; Acts 20:25 ; Acts 28:23 ; 31).

Paul did not only speak about the kingdom in its future glorious form, as it will be when the Lord Jesus reigns on earth. He also proclaimed the meaning of the kingdom that it has in this day and age, in which it is not yet visible, but is present (Col 1:13; Rom 14:17). The believers are subjects of the Lord Jesus in that kingdom. Linked to the kingdom is the idea of dominion and service. Believers acknowledge the Lord Jesus as their Lord and serve Him. The kingdom has to do with our acknowledgment of the reign of the Lord Jesus in daily life and in every area of it.

Because they will no longer see his face, “therefore”, he declares on this day that he is innocent of the blood of all men. Earlier he said to unbelievers that he was clean of their blood (Acts 18:6), here he says that to believers. He knows that he is not in debt to them. After all, he told them everything he had to tell them. The word “for” indicates the reason for his being innocent of the blood of all men, not just the elders: he has not withheld anything from the whole purpose of God.

The proclamation of the purpose or counsel of God is the fourth part of his ministry. Later on he will record this counsel, especially in the letter to the Colossians and the letter to the Ephesians. It is the counsel of God that extends from eternity to eternity. His ministry concerning the counsel of God has come to an end, because he has communicated everything he had to communicate. No new things will be revealed after what has been entrusted to him (Col 1:25).

Warnings

Thus he has accounted for his motives and his ministry. Now he turns to the elders. He calls upon them to be attentive to their own spiritual mindset in the first place. Only when this is in order can they also be on guard for the flock to provide it with what is needed (cf. 1Tim 4:16). As said, Paul speaks to this group of elders as overseers. He also reminds them of the origin of their service. No one less than the Holy Spirit has given them that place in the church in Ephesus.

There is no mention of any appointment of elders by the church or by any human institution. The Holy Spirit appoints them. If there is a human being involved, it is an apostle or his envoy. This is evident from the few times that there is talk about the appointment of elders (Acts 14:23; Tit 1:5). Since there are no more apostles, the appointment by man ceases.

As mentioned before, elders and bishops are names for the same person. In the church this has been handled differently. The Greek word for elder is presbuteros. That has been corrupted to our word ‘priest’. The Greek word for ‘bishop’ is episkopos. That is corrupted to our word ‘bishop’. Soon in the Christian church a distinction was made between the priest and the bishop. That distinction does not exist in the New Testament. It indicates the same person, but with a different accent. With the elder it is more about age, wisdom and life experience; with the overseer it is more about the task, the supervision of the flock.

Elders or overseers perform their task in the local church. The local church is a miniature of the worldwide church. That whole church is the church of God. He has “purchased it with the blood of his own” (Acts 20:28, Darby Translation). It is the blood of Him Who is of Himself, i.e. of His Son. “The blood of his own” or “his own blood” is not the blood of God. That goes too far, Scripture does not speak that way anywhere. The blood is connected to the Lord Jesus, the Son of God Who became Man, to be able to give His blood as purchase price for the church.

It is the church of God and not that of the elders or any other human being. It will happen unconsciously by some, but every pastor who speaks of ‘my church’ speaks pretentiously and steps into the rights of God. Only the Lord Jesus has the right to speak of “My church” (Mt 16:18). No one has purchased that church; the Lord Jesus has done so. Therefore, it is wrong for a person to speak of ‘my church’ after all.

Then Paul speaks about the very near future. He speaks about ‘after my departure’. In the first place he foresees that savage wolves (cf. Mt 7:15; Jn 10:12) will come in from outside to do their destructive work in the church. They can come in because the shepherds have not remained vigilant. We have an example of such people in John’s second letter, in which we also have the indication that such savage wolves should be denied entry (2Jn 1:10-11).

Second, people will arise from among the church who distort the truth. They do this to make themselves the center instead of Christ. False teachers not only bring false doctrine, but also seek followers. They set themselves up as sect leaders. They are often more difficult to recognize than the savage wolves. In the third letter of John we have in the person of Diotrephes a telling and cautionary example of these dangers from within (3Jn 1:9-10).

In connection with what is about to happen, Paul warns to be on the alert. He binds their own responsibility upon them. They must always remember what he has told them to keep them on the right path and also how he has done it. Incessantly, night and day (cf. Gen 31:38-40; 1Sam 25:16), he has been doing this, for three years. Each time tears appeared; thus he was moved by the fate of his beloved Ephesians. His message is soaked with tears. Such words do need to hit home in hearts in which true concern for the church is present.