For the Love of the Church, Part 1
Acts 20:1-2
Turning your Bibles to the 20th Chapter of Acts, and we're looking at Verses 1 to 17. You know I read this over for about three hours. When I first started this sermon, I said, Lord, what am I going to say about this passage? There's no doctrine here. There's no theological statement of any kind. There's not even an application of anything. And so I thought well I'll just cover all 17 Verses in kind of a narrative fashion.
But finally after several hours of just going over this, I began to catch in this. The love of the apostle Paul for the church. And the thought came to me that this really in just a very simple narrative passage kind of exploded on my mind how much the apostle loved the church. So I entitled the message For the Love of the Church. In Ephesians Chapter 5, Verse 25 to 27, Paul wrote these words. "Husbands, love your wives. Even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it that he might sanctify it and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having a spot or wrinkle or any such thing. But that it should be holy and without blemish."
Paul said, "Christ loved the church and gave himself for it." Peter says, "that we were redeemed not with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ." He loved the church and gave himself for it. And I thought to myself, if Jesus loved the church and gave himself for it, redemptively, Paul loved the church and gave himself for it in terms of service.
Paul loved the church. And by that I don't mean the institution, I mean the people who are the church. He loved the Saints, with all of his heart, he loved the Saints. He lived for the love of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of the Saints. He existed from the time of his conversion until his execution in a good kind of love triangle. Passionately in love with the Lord Jesus Christ and with the Saints. And I saw that just leap off this particular page in this passage as I began to see the activities of Paul in this little historical narrative. A really a little lesson in geography. And yet expressing something of the depth of the love of the Apostle.
His whole life was a great love affair with the church. And you know you get this as you begin to study the apostle. You get this from almost every angle of his life. The man saw himself first of all as totally expendable for the sake of other people, didn't he? If I be offered, he said to the Philippians, "On the sacrifice of your faith, I joy and rejoice." In otherwords, if I give my life in your behalf, what joy that is. To see people saved, to see the elected enter into the fold. To see Christians come to maturity and be discipled to holiness. This was his life. And the passion overflows over and over again. To the Roman church he said this, I long to see you. Why? That I may impart unto you some spiritual gift to the end that you might be established.
To the Corinthian church he said, "Oh, let us cleanse ourselves from the filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness and the fear of God." His heart was just kind of broken in 1 Corinthians, that was 2 Corinthians, but in 1 Corinthians it was broken over the sinfulness of the church and he pled with him, saying what no ye not what your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Which you have of God, you're not your own, you're bought with a price.
So the Galatian church you remember what he said. Oh, foolish Galatians, who bewitched you? Are you so foolish having begun in the spirit you made perfect in the flesh? And he was so distressed through Galatians because some of them had defected. So the Ephesian church remember his prayer, he said, "I bow my knee to the father and I pray that you might be strengthened by his spirit in the inner man. That you might be mighty." Anyone ought to say that you might know the love of Christ. That you might be filled with all the fullness of God. That you might be able to express that fantastic power that's in you that enables you to do exceeding abundantly above all, you can ask or think to the Philipian church he expressed the same thing. To the Colossian church, you remember the great statement in Chapter 1, Verse 9 where he says, "for this cause we also since the day we heard it do not cease to pray for you."
And and I love this, "to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding that you might walk worthy of the Lord." In all pleasing. Being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. The desire of this life was to see the Saints mature. To the Thessalonians church he said in the 2nd Chapter, Verse 9, "you remember brother our labor and prevail for laboring night and day because we would not be chargeable unto any of you we preached unto you the Gospel of God. You were witness and God also how holy and justly and unblamably we behaved ourselves among you that believed."
Now listen, "as you know how we exorted and encouraged and charged everyone of you as a father doth his children that you should walk worthy of God." This was his passion. He loved the church. Because he loved Christ. And I think it rose out of 1 John. Chapter 5, Verse 1, principle. Where it says there, "that whoever loves God, loves whom God begets." Remember that verse? And if I really love the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm going to love the church that is his. If you have trouble loving the brothers, then you're having trouble loving the savior. Because they're all his. He has a going love affair with every believer. If you've got a problem, your problem is loving him.
Paul didn't have that problem. He loved the church. And was willing to give himself for it. Not in redemption, but in terms of service. For the sake of the church, you remember what he endured. Look for just a minute, review for you. The 2 Corinthians 11:23. And just be reminded in your minds in the context of this particular study this morning of what Paul went through for the love of the church. Contrast this sometime with our own indifference. Sometime it's a real obligation for us to just roll out of the sack, get ourselves taken care of enough to get here. Let alone to have this kind of love for the church.
But look at Verse 23. "Are they ministers of Christ? I am more. In labors more abundant, stripes above measure, prisons more frequently, deaths often of the Jews five times received thy 40 stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods. Once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck and night and day I been in the deep. And journeying's offering perils of water, perils of robbers, perils by my own countrymen, that is the Jews. Perils by the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness perils in the sea, and perils among false brethern, weariness, painfulness, in watching often in hungered thirst and fastings often cold and nakedness."
Now what staggers me is this all Paul went through and he was a believer in total grace. This sounds like a guy trying to earn his way to heaven, doesn't it? This sounds like some kind of masochism. Or certainly some kind of legalism. But this is the outpour of a man who was totally aware that everything he had, he had by the grace of God. And he did it out of love. He did it out of love. But on top of all of that stuff, the thing that really got to him was Verse 28. Besides those things that are without. All those externals are somewhat incidental.
"That which comeith upon me daily" here it comes, "the care of all the churches." Paul loved the church. He cared for the church. It wasn't a responsibility someone gave him; it was just in his heart. Nobody put him in charge of a church; he just went and started them. And the care was built in. The greatest griefs that Paul gained in his life were not those that came from being beaten. Or being shipwrecked, or being stoned. The greatest griefs were those defections in the church. And when sin came to the church, what tore his heart up was the situation in Corinth. Do you know that he was so distressed over the situation in Corinth that when he left Ephesus as we shall see in a few minutes, he was in such anxiety that he was torn up on the inside.
And he got the Troas and he was so anxious for Titus to come to report about Corinth, that he couldn't even stay in Troas and keep preaching. He crossed over to Macedonia just anxiously waiting for Titus and when he finally met Titus and Titus said, hey, everything in Corinth is great, he just gave a great big sigh of relief. And the burden was lifted. He was so caring about his churches that the greatest pain he ever knew was the pain of the love for the church.
And when a church was in sin, it tore him up. I think about the Galatians. He wrote to the Galatians, almost in the state of panic. The Greek construction of the Book of Galatians is unbelievably difficult because Paul just running off in all directions speaking emotionally. And then I think of the statement that he made, you remember it. That he made when he said, "Dimus hath forsaken me, having loved this present world." That's what hurt him most.
In fact what John Mark did to him, he never really recovered for a long time. Remember John Mark forsook him and the next time Barnabus wanted to take John Mark along, Paul was still so distressed over that that he didn't let him go. It was that that tore him up because his love was the church. And the pain that he suffered himself, he said, I count all these things as nothing. These are nothing to me. But what was something to him was the church. He loved the Saints. And he loved to see them mature and grow. And he spent his life unloading that love on them. Listen to 1 Corinthians 4:11. And I'll read you a few verses. You can follow if you want. 1 Corinthians 4:11. Incidentally he wrote 1 Corinthians right about the time we're speaking of, so this is up to date. "We both hunger and thirst our naked buffeted and have no certain dwelling place. And we labor working with our own hands, she still was earning his own living. Being reviled we blessed, being persecuted we endure it." Boy he was a patient man, wasn't he?
"Being defamed, we intrigued, we are made as the filth of the world and the offscouring of all things under this day." Now I love this. "He says, I've been going through all this." He says, "I write these things not to shame you but as my beloved sons I warn you. For thou you have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet you have not many fathers for in Christ Jesus I've begotten you through the Gospel wherefore I'm on my knees begging." Is what it means.
"Be followers of me." You know this man was totally consumed with the responsibility to make disciples out of those people. He says, you know what I've been through for your sake? Just remember that. You have a lot of teachers; you only have one Father. Please don't forsake me. Please. "And for this cause," Verse 17, "I sent Timothy who's my beloved son and faithful in the Lord who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which are in Christ as I teach everywhere in every church. For I'm sending Timothy just so he can make sure you're still following in my way." You say well is he supposed to be the example? He said elsewhere, "be followers of me as I am of Christ."
But here is the heart of the man. He loved the Church. I don't read anytime in the suffering of the Apostle Paul. About his emotional reactions being anything other than faith and joy. What did he do in Phillipi when he was in stocks in the inner jail? Sang. Other occasions when he was in difficult situations, he just trusted God. You say, didn't he ever cry? Yeah, he cried a lot. He cried all the time. He wept over and over again. You say, what did he cry about? I'll show you what he cried about. Acts 20:19.
"Serving the Lord with all humility of mind and with many tears and trials which befell me by lying in wait of the Jews." Tears Paul. What do you mean tears? I understand the trials from the Jews, but where did the tears come in? Go to verse 31, same Chapter. "Therefore watch and remember that for the space of three years, I cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears." You know where the tears came? And I'm not making an absolutely exclusive statement. But the dominance of tears came in the life of Paul, not through his physical pain, but through the anxiety of teaching the Saints.
He taught with tears. That's right. That was the thing that just tore his heart. He had this desire as expressed in Colossians 1:28. "Whom we preach warning every man and teaching every man and all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus for this I also labor. The desire to present the church complete and mature." And he couldn't teach without tears. And you remember when he left Ephesus as we shall see in a few weeks, he said to them, "the thing that hurts me most is I know that when I leave, grievous wolves shall enter and not sparing the flock and of your own selves, false teachers shall arise."
Oh, he said, "I commend you to the Word of his grace which I taught you for three years with tears." He loved the Church. I believe that you can tell a person who really loves the Lord Jesus Christ by the love they have for his people, for the church. And by that I again say I don't mean the institution I mean the Saints who make up the church. Now the passage today opens this concept up. That was just introduction. Go to Chapter 20. And the passage opens up to us. I think some just simple little insights into Paul's love.
You know I really believe this and I told you this before that two things make a great church, a great teacher, a great Christian. Love and sound doctrine, right? The perfect combination. And here was a man who had such great doctrine, but he was a man who had such love. He was so believable; he was so human. He was so real. That you couldn't resist the man's doctrine because you couldn't resist the man, you know? Love. And in this simple little narrative and we started in that early service and got all tangled up in Verses 1 and 2 and never got any further. Just talking about his love. And I grant you, we're going to be preaching between those words and it's kind of in the space his preaching.
But I want you to look at Verse 1 and 2. Let me just read them to you. And then we'll talk about them. "After the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples embraced them and departed the go of Macedonia. And when he had gone over those parts and given them much exertation, he came into Greece." Now that didn't bless your life, I know, there isn't a whole lot of stuff in there that you just want to run out and say praise the Lord, alleluia, I'm fed. But so we'll try to stick some things in the white spaces and see what we come up with.
So the apostle Paul, this simple little statement here just kind of opens the crack in the door to begin to see his love. Here's a man who lived and died for the church because he loved the Christ who bought the Church. Now I had six things on the outline and we covered oh I don't know a couple of three of them. Let's look at beginningly at his affection. First of all his affection. His love has seen in his affection. His love for the church. And I don't want to make a point where there isn't any point. And I don't want to use this as a pretext, but just to take a simple thought out of here and kind of bounce off of it.
I believe beginningly in the chapter you can see the love of Paul in his affection. Verse 1. "After the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples and embraced them." Stop there. Now you know what the uproar was, don't you? It was the riot in Ephesus. You remember Paul had such a great ministry in Ephesus and it was probably at that time that the other six churches of Asia Minor mentioned in the Book of Revelation were also founded. But he had such a great ministry there that idolatry was going downhill.
And the silversmiths who made the little idols for Artimus were really getting uptight because they were losing out on money. Business was dropping off. And we talked last time didn't we about how Christianity affected Ephesus economically as well as politically, socially and religiously. And so there was a tremendous economic drop in the silversmith's guild got together and said we got to stop this guy and a riot ensued. And they all stood in the theater there for two hours screaming at the top of their voice, "Great Artimus of the Ephesians." And finally the whole thing was quieted down by the town clerk and all this.
But there was still kind of a fomenting anti Paul, anti Christian thing there in Ephesus. And so the uproar, that's interesting words too, the word uproar is the same word used in Matthew 27:24. Same Greek word to describe the tumult that occurred at Pilot's trial of Jesus. So it was that same kind of uncontrollable hysterical mob. Well after the uproar was ceased, Paul then calls the disciples to him and embraces them. And I just want to use that word embraced to set some thoughts in your mind.
Now the word embrace refers literally means to draw to oneself. That's what it means. To clasp and pull toward oneself. So it's an intimate word in that sense. But it was used to refer to greetings that were customary among eastern people. In fact very customary even yet today. And in fact they go back as far you can find people giving each other embraces and kisses as early as Genesis 48:10. And also in 2 Samuel I know it's Chapter 19 Verse 39. There are other passages in the Old Testament where you have that. So it's a long time custom. In fact there are places where it's still done in the world apart from the east. When I was just in Mexico, everywhere we went, there was all this hugging and kissing everybody on the cheek which is different.
And anyway, but anyway it was good. It breaks down barriers. It really does. It was fantastic. After we play a baseball game, we'd run across and we all had Bibles and we'd give, like I'd give the Bible to the other team's shortstop since I played shortstop. And then I'd embrace him and we'd exchange a hug and put our cheeks to each other's cheek. You know it just all of a sudden stripped down all the barriers. And we just stand there and grin because he couldn't speak English and I couldn't speak Spanish. And I'd say, "Would you come over and help me?" I'm trying to say something to this fellow.