For the Love of the Church, Part 2
Acts 20:1-7
We continue this morning in our study of the 20th Chapter of the Book of Acts. And what an exciting insight it is to the ministry of the Apostle Paul. And in this particular passage, we have kind of digressed from just the close Verse by Verse examination and kind of felt our way out into a little bit of the dimension of Paul's personal life as been kind of hinted at in this passage. And it's been a great joy.
In Acts Chapter 20, Verse 1 to 17, we have entitled the section For the Love of the Church. For the Love of the Church. And we've seen in this not directly stated but implied the tremendous love that the Apostle Paul had for the church. And by that we mean not the organization, but the people. The saints and this really is what made the difference in the life of that man. He loved the church.
Paul said in Ephesians 5, "Jesus loved the church and gave himself for it." But that could have equally been Paul's testimony for he loved the church and gave himself for it as well. Jesus gave himself to redeem the church; Paul gave himself to serve the church. In redeeming the church, Jesus died. In serving the church, Paul died. And so there was a parallel if not in exact purpose, certainly the level of Paul's commitment was the level of absolute and total self-sacrifice.
Paul had a tremendous desire to see the church be what it ought to be. And I think the basic reason for that was because he so intensely loved the Lord Jesus Christ. That whatever the will of the Lord was became the will of Paul. You know it is when we fall in love with Jesus in the truest sense that we begin to want passionately what he wants. We looked a little bit into this last time when we saw in 1 John 5, the statement of John. "That if you love the one who begets, you love the one's begotten of him."
In otherwords, it's not hard to love Christians if you love the Lord who begotten them. And the Apostle Paul was so in love with Jesus Christ that the fulfillment of his life and this is important; came in the fulfillment of the will of Christ for the church. He was lost in the will of Christ. He had no separate will. And that's maturity. It is not spiritual maturity to submit my will to Christ. It is spiritual maturity to will with Christ for that which he wills.
And most of us are still learning how to submit our wills. We haven't grown to the level of maturity where we will what he wills. But that was Paul. He loved the church and gave himself for the church because he so loved Jesus Christ that there was no other reason for living and to fulfill the will of Jesus Christ in behalf of his church.
In Ephesians 3:20, he saw in a great dimension. He said, "now unto him that is able to exceed abundantly above all that we could ask or think according to the power that works in us." In otherwords he says to the Ephesians and to all Christians, you ought to really be moving out powerfully, dramatically, dynamically. You ought to be fulfilling your potential and the reason is this. That unto him, be glory in the church. In otherwords, he saw God glorified when the church was maximized in terms of its potential.
And this was his passion. For this he lived, for this he suffered. For this he died for the love of the church. I'll tell you we need more men like that. God only knows what could happen if men loved the church. Men who were responsible to the church and to the Lord and if they loved the church in that way. Look what one man did who so loved the Lord and so loved the church. And incidentally there was a price to pay and he was willing to pay it.
In Colossians 1:24, he said, "who now rejoice in my sufferings for you." He was willing to pay the price. If the price of the maturity of the saints, if the price of the unity of the church. If the price of the full-grown stature of the church was pain, he willingly paid the price. "I fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body sake which is the church." In otherwords, I suffer in the place of Christ; I take the blows the world would mean for him willingly for the sake of his church.
Now he loved the church. He loved the church. Even in jail when he wrote the Philippians, he said, "that which has happened to me my being in prison has fallen out to the advance of the gospel and some people in the church are becoming more bold because of my imprisonment and I am happy." He paid the price. He loved the church. And his love was defined as self-sacrifice. Now Paul knew what it was then to be a passionate man. He knew what it was to pursue a goal.
And this goal simply was the perfecting of the saints, to bring them to full maturity that they might totally honor God that God might be glorified and therefore Jesus be satisfied and therefore Paul be satisfied. He loved the church. And really down at the bottom of every motivation in the ministry that may be the heart of it all. Is to love the church. I can't see how if a person didn't really love the church he'd ever really give himself to it.
You know recently I had a great joy. Just a personal little joy that probably no-one will even know but me. Now you'll know when I tell you. Although it's something that maybe thousands and thousands and thousands of people have read concerning me they would never really know what it meant to me. Recently in the Christianity Today which is a theological magazine there was a review about the book I wrote called The Church, The Body of Christ.
And you always kind of wait anxiously to hear what reviewers are going to say because they can either make you or break you, just by whoever the reviewer is. But this review said one little thing that just I just was so overjoyed. This is what the reviewer said. "The book reflects genuine love for the church." Well no-one could ever know except now you know what that meant to me. Because if there is one thing that in all of my heart I want that is to know something of what Paul knew when he said he loved the church.
And it says in my implication over and over and over in the New Testament. As we watch Paul. I mean you say; well MacArthur isn't that great, you love the church. Are you to be patted on the back? No. I'm not saying it for that reason, I'm saying for this reason. If a man doesn't love the church, God help him if he tries to minister. If the goal of the ministry is not for the love of the church to see the saints brought to the place where God is glorified in their lives, then you got a perverted goal. If a man approaches the ministry from his own standpoint to fulfill himself, and for the love of his own ego and his own exultation or position or whatever, then he has perverted it. The only reason to be in the ministry is for the love of the Church.
The only reason Jesus came into the world was for the love of the church, to die to redeem us. To redeem mankind and again this is basic to the ministry. I'm not to be commended. I would be to be expelled if I didn't love the church. That's basic; I just wish to God I loved the church like Paul did. Well Paul loved the church and that's really where the ministry, that's where the heart of the ministry is. You say, well does that include me? Sure you have a ministry. You have just as much a ministry as I do.
You say, but I wasn't called a priest, but you're given spiritual gifts, weren't you? And I'll tell you something, the measure of the effectiveness and the intensity of your ministry of spiritual gifts will be determined by whether or not you love the believers. If you really love the believers, then you'll know they need you to minister to them. And if you really love them, you'll minister to them because you love them. And you want them to be grown up and full stature.
The ministry of gifts is for the others. My gift isn't for me; it's for you. It doesn't do me any good. I could study and really preaching and teaching is something that you need not for me. I could study the same things, go and hide in the closet. But it's my gift only in terms of effectiveness when it's given to you. And one great motive has to be that I care about you. That I care that you grow up. That I care that you're mature. That I care that Jesus is honored in your life. That I care that God is glorified. And you have to have the same view.
You say, well my gift is the gift of health, fine, then you ought to know that for the love of the church, you ought to spend yourself to help others. Whatever it is. That's basic to any ministry. Well Paul loved the church. He loved the church enough to spend his energy on it. He loved the church enough to die for the sake of the preaching of the gospel and the nurturing of the saints.
Now in this passage, Verses 1 to 17, we see Paul's love for the church implied. And it isn't here directly it's here indirectly. And I just kind of read between the lines a little bit. I tried to sense the feeling of the passage without adulterating its meaning. But I hear and see here as I move with Paul and visualize and try to see realistically what's happening in these 17 verses. I just see love oozing out in the white spaces you know. It's there. I can't get away from it. That's the one dominant thing I kept having in my mind as I read and re-read and re-read this passage several weeks ago when I began to pursue a study of it.
Now Paul is on his third missionary tour. And this time he is in the same area generally that he'd been previously. The area of eastern Mediterranea. You remember that he had covered a lot of ground. Syria, Silesia, and moving west to Galatia and then the area of Fridgea and Panfilia and all that. And coming further west to Asia Minor and then to Macedonia, then to Acaia, which is where Corinth was. He covered all that area and planted churches all over the place.
The gospel was growing up. Oh here was the third tour through this time and this time he has companions with him as he's had before. And he's ministering and moving about and this time he stayed for long time on this tour in Ephesus for three years nearly. But it's coming to a close. He's leaving Ephesus. In fact a riot just broke out. Verse 1 begins after the uproar was ceased, the riot just ended. And Paul was leaving Ephesus, this is the last little swing and he's going back to Jerusalem then from Jerusalem he wants to go to Rome and from Rome to Spain.
So in his mind he feels this is the last time he'll ever be in Eastern Mediterranea. He has some tremendous, tremendous roots there. Some beloved, beloved sons in the faith. And he knows in his own mind that the feeling is it's over, this is it, this is my last time, this is farewell, this is swan song and so forth. And so there's a feeling through this passage of finality. It's interesting that probably he did get back if very briefly. And that's due to the fact that he made the statement that he left Profimus ill at Myledus. And since that didn't happen here, it must have happened at a later time and so we conclude that perhaps his Roman imprisonment was separated into two sections and in the middle he made another little trip near Asia Minor.
But for the most part, this is it. This is the wrap up on it. And you sense farewells and I suppose all of us know that when farewells come along there's kind of love, kind of rises to the top. And when we're saying goodbye for the last time to the people we really care about, all the little things sort of fade and just kind of love sort of rules. And maybe that's in a sense what happens here. Although I think it probably ruled in all the life with Paul, from the time of his conversion.
And so we see a series of goodbyes and a series of farewells all through Chapter 20 as Paul goes back toward Jerusalem. Now as we look at these 17 Verses and originally I thought we could do all 17 in one time because it's just narrative. And then I thought we could certainly do it in two times. But now we'll do it probably in three times or more. Because we didn't get past Verse 7. But we see here six areas, just words. They don't really mean that the text is divided by God this way. It's a very poor outline in fact. Just some nails to hang your thoughts on. But there are six different things here that express Paul's love. His affection, his giving, his teaching, his persistence, his availability and his concern. And you have a little outline there in your bulletin that you can follow along and make some notes if you want.
Now these are just simple little words that'll help you key on a concept at each given section. But Paul's love is revealed in just little simple ways implied in the text. First one, Paul's love is revealed in his affection. Verse 1. After the uproar was ceased, the ride of Ephesus, Paul called unto him the disciples and embraced them. Now stop right there. I don't want to make a big point out of this as I said last time because it isn't a big point. It's a very minor thing. He just embraces it. Literally he drew them to himself.
That's all it means. But the usual embrace in that particular part of the world, the usual customary thing was a hug and a kiss on the cheek. That was customary. Well that just set my mind at thinking. Here is the apostle Paul and he they must have had his farewell when he's going through and it was always customary to hug people. Remember I told you that's why Jesus told the people that he set out not to stop and greet everybody, because that could really get long? You had to go through the whole crowd and hug everybody and give them a little friendly thing.
So he just says, keep moving; don't get hung up. And today, in our world, we see somebody ho, and it's over. In those days there was time for people to talk to people. And there was fellowship, we're always in a big hurry all the time, so we can't relate to that. But anyway, here was a time when he went through the whole gang at Ephesus. And I just begin to think; well this says something about the man. Something about his personal touch.
But not much. Just something about it. You say it's only a custom; everybody did it. Right. But over in Chapter 20, Verse 37, we added this thought. That when he left Ephesus at a later time, we'll see about this in a couple of weeks. It says, they all wept much fell on his neck and kissed him. And here he uses the term in the Greek which has to do with a fervent affectionate vehement repeated kissing.
Now listen. You've got to be a certain some kind of a person for people to want to do that. Alright? Let's face it. There are some people no matter what they did or no matter why they left, no-one would do that. There was something about the man that endeared him and people felt that they could affectionately touch him, embrace him, hug him, kiss him. And there's something good about that. And that is this. Here was the man who was the greatest man alive in that world at that time. If we can measure greatness by effect on history, right?
Paul. And as great a man as he was, and as dominating a figure as he was, and as strong a man as he was, and as critical a man as he was to God's plan, he was a man among other men. And other men knew that. There was something so human about Paul that people could love him even in a physical way. God deliver us from cast systems, from spiritual hierarchies. Well we have certain people who are untouchables.
There should be such an affectionate feeling toward every man of God. There should be, you know there must have been something so warm about Paul that they felt comfortable in loving him in this manner. You know I think it's important for us to recognize that love should be able if it's legitimate, to be reduced to the physical. You know in our world, that's just such a foreign thing. Some parts of the world it's still that way. I told you I was in Mexico and we were hugging everybody that came along. It's just, but there's something about that that's good.
I don't want to make a big case out of it, but it's interesting that today in psychology there is such an emphasis on touching. I've been reading all about this sensitivity training, everybody wants to touch. Now they have groups where you just go and you just touch. That's right and that's no exaggeration. Psychology has proliferated with touching groups. Feeling groups, I got invited to one for ministers only, where we all go and take our clothes off and sit in a warm pool and touch each other, that was legitimate. I was invited to be one, they had one for ministers early, it was so successful they're going to have another one. I don't need to sit in a warm pool and it's ridiculous. It's an amazing attempt on the part of people to make love somehow physically demonstrated. I think it's good, I think it's good.
I think in your home it ought to be that way with your children. I think men that your kids ought to see you grab your wife and plant one on her. And they ought to see that often. They ought to see it often. It is a healthy thing for them to be able to demonstrate their affection. And I think it ought to be that way with your kids. I think it ought to be that you could affectionately touch and hug and kiss your children. I think that's important. You know you see kids that grow up in homes where parents are gone, they're working they're busy; the child never knows the meaning of physical affection. He grows up with a warped personality.
That's part of human life. The physical need is there for the touch. And you respond to it and I do too. I do too. You say, well is that a big deal for the Christian to be able to demonstrate his love? I think if the love is there, there ought to be that kind of ability to demonstrate it even physically. Listen to this. And I'll just give you a few verses that are interesting. Roman 16:16, "greet one another" don't try to follow me, you'll never get