You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.
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This is a special Sunday for us, a little bit unusual.
A dozen or so of you have already commented on our suits.
Thank you for telling us how nice we look.
I know this is not exactly what you're used to every Sunday.
Some of you have noticed already that there's not as much room for notes on the back of your
bulletin for sermon notes.
You're distressed.
You usually have so much you want to write down and the sermon's going to be shorter today.
We're even, you don't believe that, do you?
It is.
We're even leaving the book of Ephesians for a Sunday.
We're in a series there and we're taking a break.
This is a special Sunday in the life of our church where we get to ordain and install
new officers and we're thrilled about that.
But we're going to be in the book of Acts today.
Acts chapter 20 at verse 28.
We haven't completely left Ephesus behind today.
These are actually Paul's words, his parting words to the Ephesian elders, the elders of
the church that we've been reading the letter to.
He's telling them goodbye.
This is a church he started, that he loves, and he's speaking to the whole church, particularly
here to their elders.
Listen to God's inerrant, infallible word.
Acts 20 at verse 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.
I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.
And from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the
disciples after them.
Therefore, be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish
everyone with tears.
Pray with me.
Father, these are your words.
We are your people.
And we ask you that you would teach us this morning.
Would these not just be words that we read and hear?
Father, my words in themselves are simply the words that a man would speak.
Would your spirit make them much more?
Would he take your word and apply it to our hearts?
That we might indeed be the kind of people that you mean for us to be?
The kind of church that you have created us and called us to be?
Father, that would be the desire of our hearts.
Would you do that work by your spirit?
We ask in Jesus' name.
Amen.
This weekend, of course, was Valentine's Day weekend.
There are many cultural practices surrounding courtship and marriage.
Some that are unique to our society.
Some that are more commonly practiced around the world.
One of those that I remember experiencing was the moment of asking her father.
You may have had that moment, some of you guys.
I remember going to Christy's hometown and taking her parents out for dinner one night
with the express intent of having the conversation with them.
I was very nervous.
My palms were sweaty.
I had a long speech prepared.
I delivered that pretty shortly after we sat down.
I wanted to tell them how much I loved their daughter.
How precious and valuable and important she was to me.
All of those things.
And so I told them all of those wonderful things I had prepared in my speech.
And I got to the end of it.
And her father said, if you're asking for my daughter's hand.
And I thought, that's exactly what I was thinking you were hearing for the last several minutes.
And it wasn't the last time that I spoke too long and people got confused.
That's happened a couple of times since then.
Y'all are so mean.
And he said, my answer would be yes, if that's what that just was.
He had a few other questions and we talked for a while.
But many other cultures have conversations that go somewhat similar to that.
In some cultures, that conversation includes what's called a bride price.
And I'm not going to necessarily commend some of the implications of this.
But for a beautiful woman of high social standing with lots of education.
In some countries, hundreds of thousands of dollars can be paid in that conversation in order to marry that bride.
The groom shows how much he values her by the high price he's willing to pay in order to marry her.
How precious.
How valuable is the church to her groom.
What is he willing to pay to live in relationship with her?
Verse 28.
The church of God which he obtained.
How?
With his own blood.
A higher price has never been paid.
His own blood in order to have his bride.
Jesus said his people, his sheep, hear his voice.
And they know him.
That he lays down his life willingly for the sheep.
He knew what it would take for them to be his.
And he willingly paid it.
Isn't that amazing?
Willingly he paid it.
How precious must we be to Jesus?
Jesus.
It was the price required, wasn't it?
Because of our wanderings and our failures.
Not his.
The story of the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament, individually and corporately,
is of an adulterous, unfaithful bride.
One who wanders away.
We had earned death.
Chosen our own ways and our own paths.
We had muddied ourselves on the filth of this world, hadn't we?
But the story of the Bible is also one of an undeterred, absolutely always faithful groom.
And so when the price required to bring us back, to make us clean, was someone's death.
When it was said that blood had to be shed in order for sins to be forgiven and people to be cleansed.
He was all in.
He was willing to pay it.
He would pay it.
And the price wasn't, Peter tells us, silver or gold.
It wasn't with perishable things like that.
Material possessions like silver or gold.
That we were redeemed from the way of life that we had wandered off in.
It was the precious blood of Christ.
A lamb without blemish or defect.
The perfect son of God giving his life for us.
Do you ever feel worthless?
Overlooked?
Neglected?
Like someone couldn't possibly care for you?
You really don't matter in the grand scheme of things.
No one would really care if you were gone.
Have others hurt you?
Made you feel rejected?
Ashamed?
Unworthy of their love, attention, or effort?
You need to remember the high price your God paid to have you as His own.
To reclaim your heart.
He didn't just do it impersonally.
Your name, the Bible tells us, is written on the palm of His hand.
He did it for you.
I've told some of you when we're taking communion before,
that if you were the only sinner in the whole world,
it would require the blood of Jesus to pay your penalty.
The other thing that's true is that if you were the only sinner in the whole world,
Jesus would have paid that price willingly.
Because He loves you that much.
That's how much your Savior loves you.
That's how precious you are to God.
He loves you that much.
He loves His church that He purchased with His own blood.
The picture of Jesus that we need to see when we're feeling worthless and neglected and undesirable
is the one that John saw in Revelation 5.
We started our service with it as the call to worship.
It's a lamb standing as if slain.
He is the one who has purchased people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation
to gather His bride together.
And as you keep reading in Revelation about this lamb who was slain,
there's all of a sudden before Him a great multitude.
The bride of Christ that He's gathered together, no one can count them.
It's His bride dressed in beautiful white robes.
And how?
How is it that Revelation tells us the church stands before her groom dressed in white robes?
It's because they've washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.
In His blood, He's washed them and made them clean.
Dear Christian, you're His treasured possession.
We are His treasured possession.
A people for His own.
The ones for whom the Father would send the Son.
The ones for whom the Son would willingly lay down His life.
He has not forgotten you.
You're precious to Him.
Imagine if at the point in your life where you felt most worthless and undesirable,
someone scraped and sacrificed and gathered together enough money to give you a ring.
To say, I want to spend the rest of my life with you.
I want to enter into relationship with you.
That kind of act would at least begin to rewrite the story of worthlessness
that you've been telling yourself that's in your own heart, wouldn't it?
It would begin to do that.
Imagine if rather than a ring, if rather than someone sacrificing just some money,
He sacrificed His life to save you and to live in relationship with you.
That kind of love really does begin to rewrite our story,
to give us a new narrative of who we are,
a completely new identity because of who He is and what He's done for us.
We have an identity as precious to Jesus.
He has not forgotten us.
We are precious to Him.
There's a particular gravity for that this morning,
especially for our new officers,
of thinking of how precious the church is.
I remember one of my seminary professors whom I love, Jack Collins.
He used to warn us young, prideful, overconfident seminary guys
of what we could do with God's Word and ways that we would hurt or abuse the flock.
Ways that we would mislead people.
Things we could do that would hurt them.
And he would regularly get emotional and tearful
and warn us not ever to do whatever it was in that moment that he was concerned about.
And he would say,
don't you ever do that to Jesus' precious blood-bought lambs.
You're going to them.
Don't you dare treat them that way.
In a sense, the marvel of today
is that Jesus would take such a precious bride whom He loves so much
and place her hand in yours this morning
and say, officer,
take good care of my church.
The one I bought with my own blood.
Take care of that one.
You'll feel the weight of that
probably even more today than you have before.
Of being asked to care for something so precious to someone else.
Because that is indeed the first thing that the high price shows us
is how valuable and precious the church is to her Savior.
But that's not all we notice when we think about the high bride price
that's paid for the church.
When you pay a high bride price,
it's not merely to communicate how precious and valuable the bride is,
but also how strong and capable the groom is.
That's a big part of what's being communicated as well.
It's why I got asked at the restaurant that night
one of the most common questions
for a guy to get asked in that setting.
How are you going to take care of her?
How are you going to provide for her?
It's why I had in my pocket that night
a copy of a budget for the first year of our marriage.
Because I was that anxious to show to her.
Thankfully, I didn't have to use it.
But it was there just in case things got dicey.
I wanted him to know how much I loved his daughter
and how capable I was of caring for her.
I wanted to show myself as strong and capable
that I intended to provide for her.
In many cultures, that's the primary thing
that a bride price is communicating.
The glory and strength of the groom.
It's a display of his power and his resources.
And so in this text,
we see not only how precious the church is,
but also how powerful her Savior is.
After those verses where Paul challenges the elders
to care faithfully for the flock,
he says this, verse 32.
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.
You've been given a tall task,
a great charge,
a high calling.
And Paul says,
do it well.
And now,
I commend you to God
and His word
and His grace.
He is the one who has the power
to bring you through
to the end of the mission.
That's the word there
that we have translated
is able to.
It's the word for power,
for dynamite.
The word is that God is powerful,
that He is strong and capable.
It's one of the words
we saw recently in Ephesians
when we were talking about
the immeasurable greatness of His power
according to the working of His great might,
the resurrection power
that raised Jesus from the dead.
You remember that in Ephesians?
The one that had Jesus exalted
above every power
and principality and authority?
That kind of power?
That's the power that God has.
The power that has Him
reigning over everything
for His church.
That power.
He has that kind of power
to bring us through
from the wolves of outside,
from the deceivers of inside,
and present us perfect
at the end of it all.
That's what Jesus is doing, isn't it?
Ephesians tells us that.
That He shows us
how He's going to care for us
not only in giving His life
and paying that high price
to have us,
but that He continues
to cleanse us,
washing us with water,
with the Word,
until He presents us how?
Holy and blameless,
above reproach,
without blemish.
Did you catch that?
He doesn't stop
at giving His life
that one time, does He?
He's not through then.
He keeps doing that work
all the way until the end.
He never lets His bride go.
That may be my favorite part
of this whole passage in Acts.
Paul seems to be heaping
all this weighty responsibility
all on the shoulders
of these elders
that he's talking to.
Be careful.
Protect her.
Take care of her.
She's precious.
And then he says
these words of grace.
He finishes by saying
when God puts her hand in yours,
He never lets go either.
He doesn't hand her off
and turn His back.
He puts her hand in yours
and then He puts His hand
around both of yours.
It's not,
I'll leave you to it.
Good luck.
It's a big deal.
But I commend you
to God.
You're not on your own.
You're still entrusted to Him.
The One who is able
to see you through
to your full sanctification
and inheritance.
He's the One who's able
to do that.
So you never shepherd
Christ's church on your own.
He never lets her
out of His sight.
How else would you have any hope?
You're weak.
You mess up.
You'd be sure to break
His precious possession.
You'd blow it.
But there's hope for you,
officer,
because you never care
for Christ's bride
on your own.
There's another picture
of Jesus in the book
of Revelation
that this reminds me of.
It's in Revelation chapter 1
where Jesus,
who's described
one like a son of man,
is pictured in beautiful imagery
as powerful and wise.
White hair,
fiery eyes,
bronze feet.
He holds in His hand
seven stars.
And He walks around
among seven golden lampstands.
Now in itself,
that picture of Jesus
holding seven stars,
it does give us
a little bit of an idea
of the power
and the majesty
that He must have
to hold those stars.
But it may not mean much
to you until you're told
at the end of the chapter
that the seven stars
stand for the angels,
the leaders,
the representatives
of the seven churches.
And the seven lampstands
stand for the churches themselves.
He's holding those churches
in His hand
and walking around
among them.
He holds all of us
in His hand.
He walks among us.
He will never let go of us
or leave us to ourselves.
Friends,
where do you feel weak
or vulnerable?
What situation
makes you fearful?
Is it one where
it's unfamiliar?
Where you're feeling alone
or incapable
of handling it?
Is it the words
of a naysayer
from recently
or from long ago
that have you discouraged
and afraid?
The picture of Jesus
we need to see
is the glorious,
exalted Savior
holding the seven stars
in His hand.
The one who will fight
for us.
The one who will sustain us.
The one who promises
the gates of hell
will not prevail against us
that He's that strong.
You may look up here
on this stage
some Sunday mornings
and see your pastors
and know some of our frailties
and begin to be fearful.
You may look up here
this morning
at men being ordained
to elder and deacon
and you may know
their weaknesses
and be concerned.
You need to see
beyond these men
to the powerful God
behind them.
It is He,
verse 28 says,
who has called them
to care for His bride.
He has called them.
Even as He is
most fully aware
of all of their weaknesses,
He has called them.
Southwood,
your trust
is not in a few
new elders
or deacons
this morning.
Your trust
is in a powerful Savior
who holds all of them
and all of us
in His hand.
Amen?
Your trust
is in a Lamb
who would give
His life
for you
because you're
precious to Him.
Amen?
He is powerful
for us
and we are
precious
to Him.
Let's pray.
Father,
we need to believe
that we struggle
because we
so prefer
to be strong
on our own.
It's easy
to put our trust
in princes,
in mortal men
who cannot save
when You indeed
are strong
and mighty
and have saved
and continue
to save.
Father,
would we see You
this morning
as strong
and mighty?
Would we see
our Bridegroom
Jesus Christ
glorious and exalted?
Would we get
great joy from that
and great joy
in celebrating
together
how He is
caring
for His church?
Father,
would that be
the joy of our hearts
even during
these next few minutes
we ask in His name.
Amen.
For more information,
visit us online
at southwood.org.