Well, good morning, St. Paul's. It's great to connect in with you again, even if it is
once again on the live stream. We are, I think I've lost count. We're Groundhog Day, I think
nine weeks into this lockdown. And over the course of this time, our connection really
has been a digital connection. Although there was a great joy yesterday when my family and
I, we went for a walk and we ran into another St. Paul's family yesterday. It was just a
joy to see faces in such close proximity. This season that we're in is an awkward and a difficult
season, and yet it's also a season that we can get comfortable with as well. This technology
that we have utilizing over these weeks are an enormous blessing for us to be able to stay
connected in some way. And yet this is not the future of the church. Some are arguing this
could be the future of the church, this blessing that we're in. And I want to argue it's not
the future of the church. It's not a substitution for the church. In fact, in her sobering book,
Alone Together, Sherry Turkle from Massachusetts Institute of Technology writes,
Digital connections may offer the illusion of companionship, but without the demands of friendship.
Our networked life allows us to hide from each other, even as we are tethered to each other,
alone together. That's a great description of our digital age. And the danger of thinking
that checking into a live stream once a week is in fact church, that I've done church,
or that in fact this could be the future of the church. I'm convinced that like nothing else in
our culture, the church has got something very significant to offer our society, and right now
offer our society, and beyond this lockdown. This passage that we are launching into today,
in Acts 20, says a lot about the significance of the church, the church who we are at St. Paul's,
and increasingly church that we seek to be at St. Paul's. So having been separated and locked down
for eight, nine weeks, or whatever it's been, and there'll be another month or more before we
gathered together again. It could be, in fact, just before Christmas. This message, I think, today is a
really helpful message as a reminder message, as a refocusing message, as a let me check my priorities
message. What we have here in Acts 20 is truth, change lies because of truth,
and the deep relationships that truth can form amongst us. So let's jump into Acts 20 and see
that in action. If you've got the St. Paul's app, it'd be great if you could open up there,
and you'll notice that I've got three points. I want to highlight three characteristics of the church
for all people. And you'll notice that those three headings are three of our seven core values here at
St. Paul's. Bible-saturated, humble authenticity, and treasuring Jesus together. So let's jump straight
into this. This is a passage that is often used as a job description for ministers. That is, Paul is
addressing the elders of the Ephesian church here. However, what is particularly, particularly crucial
at this point in Acts, in the development of Acts, is that this passage in Acts 20 is the only speech
in the whole of Acts that's given directly to Christians. So this is not just a message for church
leaders, although it's got something quite significant about that and what gospel ministry looks like,
but it's a message for all of us, all Christians. So let's jump straight in. Paul spent three years
building the church at Ephesus. In verses 18 to 24, he summarizes his ministry to the church,
and we read part of that summary in verses 20 and 21, and they kind of want to focus on this one just
for a bit. You know that I've not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you
but have taught you publicly and from house to house. I have declared to both Jews and Greeks
that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus. So Paul says here,
I have preached and I have taught in Ephesus. That is the essence of the church's purpose in the
world captivated right there. That is what the church has, the Christian church has, it has a body of
content that must be communicated. Our purpose is to convey truth to the world. Paul has preached
and he has taught and he has propagated and defended and guarded a body of truth for three years in Ephesus.
And this is the job that he now hands down to the elders at Ephesus. And not just to them, but to the church
down through the centuries. So this is important. This is really crucial.
The reason why it's crucial is that if you want to know who I am, you can't just believe anything that
you want about me if you want to know who I am. You know, if someone comes up to me and says,
Steve, you know, you know, I just really like to think of you as a Colombian coffee merchant based out
of Dubai who does salsa dancing as a hobby. I just, that's what I want to, I just envisage you as being that.
Now, I do like my coffee. I'd admit that. Salsa dancing, another thing altogether.
And it is, it is a free country. And so you can believe that about me if you like, and no one's going to
arrest you for that. But it's not the truth. It's not who I am. If you want to know someone,
you need to know what is true about them. And what you know to be true about them is what they
communicate to you about them. What is the evidence? And it's the same as God. You can't just believe
anything you want about him if you want to know him. Let me go one step further and say, you need to
know him if you want to know yourself. That's the difference. You can know anything you want about
me, make up anything you like about me, but it will have very little impact on you. Not so with God.
God. If you want to know about yourself, you must know God as he is. You see, our modern world says
that, well, you know, Steve, you're just a body. You're nothing more than a physical being. There's
no soul. There's no spirit. You're just a physical being. And the Bible says, well, actually, you're much
more complex than that. You are soul and body. Our modern world says that I'm a product of an
evolutionary process. I am a product of biology. I'm a DNA, genes, culture, environment, all those
kind of things. The Bible says, actually, it's even more complex than that because you are made
in the image of a creator God. And the reality is both accounts of those, both accounts claim to be true,
true, but they both can't be right. One form of truth actually has to be wrong.
We need to know the truth if we are to truly know who we are. You see, Christianity declares
that the Bible's account of who we are and who God is, is true. The Bible, therefore, must be
central to the church. It must be preached. It must be taught. It must be defended. It must be guarded.
And Paul also modeled here how we should do this when he says to the elders,
you know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you.
There's two things here. He says, without hesitation and what was helpful.
Paul didn't, in other words, shrink back. He had no hesitation. He did not shrink back. He wasn't
afraid. Biblical truth will always offend somebody somewhere.
But the Christian must lift up the message of the Bible and not shrink back from it when it offends.
But it's also crucial that we must mix boldness with helpfulness. It's not just boldness. It's not just,
you know, just coming out there and declaring the truth and I don't care what anyone's offended by it.
It's also a helpfulness. Notice how Paul speaks with helpfulness in verse 32.
That is, truth is never something that we believe for its own sake.
Truth should never lead us to a position of pride where we communicate and we behave and we think
that we are better than other people. Truth is a means to an end. Truth is food for your heart.
It is food for your soul. It is food for your character. All lack of health in our hearts and our
souls and our character is because truth is not dwelling in us richly. That is, the truth in that instance
is not helpful. If we lack courage, if we lack love, if we lack joy, if we lack peace, hope, patience,
it is because we are not dwelling on the truth and applying it to our lives. We're not driving it down
in our hearts, into our being so that it transforms us from the inside out. How do we do that?
How do we drive it down? We do it together. Paul preaches and teaches without hesitation and helpfully,
he says here both publicly, like I'm doing now, sort of publicly, like I'm doing now,
but also from house to house is what he says. The truth is not just to be proclaimed and conveyed
and protected and guarded like I might be doing right now, but also in small groups and in personal
one-to-one relationships. Now, I want to push something really crucial here right now.
So if you'll just sort of flag it off, I want you to hear this one.
Just turning up to a live stream once a week and listening to a sermon like this
will never be enough truth for it to produce health in your soul and in your heart and in your life.
Once a week live stream will not be enough.
Sometimes our sermons here at St. Paul's are okay.
Sometimes they are blisteringly good.
Sometimes, eh, they miss the mark.
But even if every single Sunday they were blisteringly good and you walked away with tears
and you felt convicted and you spent an hour or so in prayer just applying it to you,
it still wouldn't be enough.
It still would not be enough.
Where truth really gets applied in our lives, where it really gets driven down into our hearts
is when we study, when we linger over, when we have conversations and accountability with others,
when someone brings a word of truth to my life and helps me to see how it connects.
It takes close personal relationships, house to house.
Now, I acknowledge there's restrictions at the moment, but take the point.
Close personal relationships in Christian community where we discover the truth and we apply the truth in our lives.
A crucial part of that community we see here in this passage are leaders.
Leaders who take us on the journey of truth, helping us discover the truth and keep us accountable to the truth.
Paul has a word here for the leaders in verse 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 brought, bought with his own blood.
In every church community, some people are appointed as shepherds.
Shepherds are still sheep, but they have a responsibility to lead the sheep.
They have an authority here as overseers of the flock.
They oversee the flock by bringing the word of God to them.
That is, the word of the chief shepherd to the sheep.
That is, they preach and they teach God's word.
They bring the word of God and they apply it into our lives, corporately and individually.
Let me just go on a little bit of a side point to this, which I think is also quite helpful.
In our individualistic West, there are way too many people who identify themselves as Christian.
And because they've got access to Christian bookshops,
they prefer to do their own work of biblical interpretation and application
and create their own faith journey.
That is, they prefer to do it by themselves.
That is not God's design.
It's not God's design.
He gives us shepherds and he gives us each other.
For truth to make a difference in our life,
it must be disseminated within a Christian community.
It must be pushed into our hearts in community.
And so if I might just plug here,
if you've not joined a community group yet,
right now is a brilliant season for you
because I'm concerned the longer this goes on,
the more individual our journey becomes.
Contact the church office,
contact James Barnett,
get into a community group now.
Also,
I want to ask,
have you had the opportunity to share what God is teaching you
in your engagement in God's word
with someone else during this lockdown?
We continue to encourage,
as I do here now,
for you to pick up your Bible in personal devotional life
and share it with someone else,
what God is doing with you right now.
Why not, in fact,
do that as a community group this week?
Maybe just drop the study that you got planned
and just share with one another
what God is teaching you through his word.
Secondly,
what we see here about the sort of church you want to be
is humbly authentic.
The shepherd here is not just to bring the word of God
to the flock.
Paul says that they must also live it out.
The shepherd's life is to be on display
that they themselves are under the chief shepherd,
that they are being transformed.
By the word of God.
Primarily, the shepherd leads with humility,
compassion, passion, grace, integrity.
In verse 24,
we see Paul's own vision of his life
since he met Jesus.
He says,
I consider my life worth nothing to me
if only I might finish the race
and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me,
the task of testifying
to the gospel of God's grace.
So Paul sees here
that he's given the task of testifying
to God's grace
because that is something that he has experienced
in his own life.
Something that transformed his own life.
See,
this is the Paul
who once described himself
as the chief of all sinners.
a blasphemer,
a persecutor of the Lord Jesus
and his church.
He consented to the murder,
to the beatings
and the false imprisonment of Christians.
And the gospel of God's grace
helped him see
that he was off the spectrum,
more wicked and sinful
than he could ever possibly imagine.
Paul,
the religious man,
was self-righteous.
And the gospel helped him to see
that in fact he was covered in shame and guilt.
The good news tells us
the worst possible news
about ourselves.
Oh,
but when we grasp that news,
when we understand
how sinful we are
and we believe that reality,
that truth
and do what verse 21 says
and turn to God
and repentance
and have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ,
that's the moment
we receive the best possible news.
Because of what Jesus has done for us
in dying on the cross,
we have God's love,
we have God's regard,
God's life.
And it's in no way
subject to our own performance
in life.
In Jesus,
God loves us
as much right now
as he will love us
a billion years from now.
And that means that in Jesus,
finally,
because of the security
and the love
that we have in Jesus,
the acceptance
we have in Jesus,
finally,
the mask
can come off.
We don't need
to pretend anymore.
We don't need
to hide
our failings
and our flaws.
That's what the truth
does for you
in your life.
It transforms
your character.
We don't need
to be anxious
about people noticing
that we are anxious.
we don't need
to pretend
that we've got
this lockdown
all sorted.
Our social media
posts can reveal
that, in fact,
I actually do
have bad hair days.
Not me,
they're all the same,
but we do have
bad hair days.
Our Facebook posts
can reveal
to the world
that I am
just as ordinary
as every other
parent.
My house
is just as big
of a mess.
My kids
actually don't
have fun
every single day.
I'm not the parent
who programs
good things
for them
every day.
This is so
counter-cultural
to the digital age
in which we live
and the culture
that we live in
in Sydney.
Our society
values
power,
success,
competence,
strength,
progress.
Our culture
values us
being on top
of everything.
We don't talk
about the hard
things.
And so that
means very rarely
do we ever
feel deep inside
of us that we
ever measure
up.
we are
always
insecure.
And you
don't need to
go much
further than
your Instagram
account and
your other
social media
to realise
other people's
lives always
appear to be
better than
mine.
But in the
gospel,
in Jesus,
we have the
praise of the
praiseworthy.
Not the
praise of a
thousand Facebook
friends,
but the
praise of the
praiseworthy.
We can be
real with
him,
authentic.
The gospel
both brings
us to our
lowest point,
but it also
fills us up
in a way that
we never
could be.
It changes
us.
And Paul
reveals here
the authentic
gospel-shaped
life in verse
18.
You know
how I lived
the whole time
I was with you.
I served the
Lord with
great humility
and we
tears,
although I
was severely
tested by the
plot of the
Jews.
In other
words, what
Paul says
here, this
truth of the
gospel transformed
my life.
life.
And my
life was on
display and
it revealed
the good
news of the
gospel of
Jesus Christ.
All parts
of his
life were
on display.
Humility,
honesty,
industry,
hard work,
meeting needs
and generosity
were just some
of the
characteristics of
his life.
life.
If I can
push this
point a
little bit
further.
If
Christ-centered
biblical
saturation,
if the
truth of
the gospel
is something
that we
declare that
we are as
a church,
that we
hold to as
a church,
it must
show itself
in gospel
transformation
in life.
If it
does not,
we have
missed the
truth.
Biblical
truth must
lead to
authentic
humility.
Or we
need to go
back and
revisit the
truth.
This is so
crucial for
us as we
reflect on
God's agenda
for the
gospel to
go out to
the ends
of the
world as
we go
through
Acts and
mission
month.
Paul often
talked of
his weakness
and his
hardship in
ministry as
he does
here.
Paul was
often
overwhelmed
in ministry.
He often
had tears,
but in
Paul's
weakness,
others
experienced
the power
of God
at work.
A
pastor,
a
preacher,
a
counselor,
a friend,
a youth
leader,
who is
weak
and not
altogether,
who is
clearly humbled
by the
gospel,
moved by
the gospel,
will
authentically
reveal a
crucified
savior to
the world.
a person
who is
trembling
and feeling
inadequate,
but filled
with love
and humility
will show
a crucified
savior to
another better
than a
polished,
altogether
biblical and
theological
scholar.
Unless the
gospel transforms
our identity
humility and
humbles us,
then and
only then,
then and
only then,
will people
want to
come into
this community
and embrace
the truth.
Only then.
if I may
push it
harder around
the other
way,
I care
very little
about your
grasp of
the Bible
if there's
no transformation
of life.
We want
to be a
church that
doesn't shrink
back from
the truth,
want to be a
church that
is sure
about the
truth,
want to be a
church that
is growing
in the
truth,
we're going
to be a
church that
is so
keen to
proclaim the
truth,
and yet a
church that
is so
humbled,
so
transformed of
character that
the skeptic,
the doubter,
the unbeliever
will experience
such grace
and humility
and warmth
amongst us
that the
person who
walks in with
another idea
is not going
to experience
them being
shut down.
that's the
church I
want to
be.
So
finally,
I'm
convinced that
when we
have a
biblical
truth that
matches a
real genuine
change in
character,
development of
humility in
the individual,
we will see
deep relational
ties.
We will
treasure Jesus
together.
one of the
things that
builds friendships
and community
is common
beliefs and
convictions.
But you
also can't
have genuine
friendships and
community without
humility and
vulnerability and
transparency and
sharing of the
real you,
your real
struggles,
your real
hurts.
No community
can be built
if everyone is
just revealing
the airbrushed
versions of
themselves.
Multiple
times people
have asked me
in the last
number of
weeks,
say,
how are you
getting on?
My default
thing is I'm
okay.
You know,
a little hard
but I'm
okay.
The reality
is I am
okay but it's
significantly
harder than
that.
I have moments
where I am
deep.
I've got moments
where I'm
feeling I'm
languishing,
that I'm
unsure.
I am
struggling on
so many
days to
concentrate on
anything.
This sermon
took me most
of last week
to write.
That is highly
unusual for me.
This is a
struggle we're
in right now.
And to be
honest with you,
I'm even
finding it hard
to pray.
when we have
truth and
humility,
then we have
the ingredients
of authentic
deep relationships.
At the end
of this chapter
and the beginning
of the next
chapter,
I think is
quite moving.
Have a look at
verse 36 with
me.
When Paul had
finished speaking,
he knelt
down with all
of them and
prayed.
they all
wept as
they embraced
him and
kissed him.
And then at the
beginning of the
next chapter,
after we had
torn ourselves
away from
them,
we put out
to sea.
Now that
is genuine,
deep
relationship.
They had to
tear
themselves away
from each
other.
people
together.
These are
not
acquaintances.
This is not
Paul and his
parish council.
These are not
associates here.
They prayed,
they wept,
they embraced,
they kissed,
they had to
tear each
other from
each other
away from
each other.
This is
deep
relationship
that is
based on
truth that
has changed
them all.
The Ephesian
elders are
European,
Paul is
Middle Eastern
and there
is a
unity here
stronger than
their own
cultures.
Notice here
that they
knelt down
and they
prayed.
What does
that mean?
We are
together
focusing
on another.
They have
God in
common.
C.S.
Lewis
writes in
his book
The Four
Loves
that friendship
is not
absorbed in
the other
person like
a romantic
love is.
He says
friendship is
focused on
a common
point of
interest.
The same
thing
awes them,
attracts
them,
grips them,
motivates
them.
You start
there at that
foot and
then you
over time
build in
relationship
with each
other.
These guys
kneel and
they pray to
their common
fixed point,
Jesus.
They are
treasuring
Jesus
together and
as they do
that they've
built this
relationship,
this deep
connection.
Let me just
say that
any two
people,
any two
people who
kneel to
Jesus,
who have
experienced
his grace,
any two
people can
have that
depth of
relationship.
He who
binds us
together is
greater than
anything that
separates us.
This is
reflected in
the spread of
the Christian
faith across
the globe
over the past
2,000 years
as I've said
before earlier
in this series.
The Christian
faith is the
most culturally
and racially
diverse religion
by far of
any other
world religion.
It changes
peoples.
It unites
peoples like
no other
religion or
philosophy of
life.
That's so
drastically
different than
the society
in which we
live.
Most people
hang out with
people who
are like
them.
Developing
deep,
relational,
cross-cultural
barriers is
extremely
difficult.
What is so
unique about
the gospel
is that it
exposes who
you are.
It changes
you.
It humbles
you in such
a way that
you can build
relationships with
people who
you would not
normally be
able to.
Nothing
else in
this world
has power
to do
that.
Jesus
Christ has
destroyed the
dividing barriers
of his
hostility and
binds us
together into
deep unity.
Not just a
truce between
people.
More than
just getting
along,
deep,
deep
friendship.
Now of
course we must
work at it.
We must choose
to do it and
keep looking to
the gospel as
we do it.
What's
remarkable about
this passage,
as many
commentators will
point out,
is that in
Luke chapter
9 we are
told that
Jesus resolutely
set his face to
go to Jerusalem.
Jerusalem.
Jesus is the
power here for
us to build the
church that we
need to be.
It's the gospel
is the power for
our friendships and
our relationships with
one another.
Jesus resolutely
set his face to
Jerusalem.
What is
remarkable in this
passage is that
Paul,
likewise,
will not be
distracted from
going to
Jerusalem.
Paul is
called to
Jerusalem by
the Holy
Spirit and
like Jesus he
knows full well
that he may die
there.
Paul is
clearly walking
in the footsteps
of his
Saviour and
yet the
difference is
he's not
like Jesus.
Unlike
Jesus,
as Paul
travels to
Jerusalem,
he is
surrounded by
friends every
step of the
way.
Everywhere Paul
goes on his
way to
Jerusalem,
he has
support,
he has
friends.
It's the
opposite of
Jesus.
On the
night of his
arrest,
the Lord
Jesus was
deeply distressed
in the Garden
of Gethsemane.
His friends
were there.
they were
asleep.
In the
hour of
he described
of his
greatest need,
they were
asleep and
they could
not even
kneel and
pray with
him.
Not even
for 10
minutes.
Jesus Christ
was abandoned
by his
friends,
but the
ultimate blow
came when he
cries out from
the cross,
my God,
why have
you forsaken
me?
He was
all alone.
He felt a
disconnection,
a cosmic
loneliness that
we would never
experience,
the worst
possible form
of loneliness.
And he did
that so that
you and I
could be
friends,
not just
with God,
but with
each other.
He took
all the
barriers
away.
This kind
of deep
relationship
with God
and with
each other
is what
every single
one of us
need.
And right
now we
should be
feeling that
more and
more in
this lockdown.
yes,
we can
still have
it to a
degree,
this friendship
now.
It's why
I've got to
say this
digital church
thing is
such a
blessing for
us in
this season,
but I
just need to
push this
point.
This is
nothing but
an emergency
measure.
This is a
stopgap
measure.
This is not
the ultimate
way forward.
Face-to-face
gathering as
the people of
God is so
precious.
And you
need it.
You
absolutely
need it.
In order to
understand what
you have in
relationship with
Christ.
And yet we
still have the
opportunities to
build those
relationships now.
So can I
ask, what
is stopping
you jumping
straight on
after this
service into
the morning
tea over
Zoom?
I'm assuming
you don't have
anywhere else
to go.
What's
stopping that?
Too busy?
Or are you
afraid?
Does the
gospel need to
transform you in
that part of
your life?
Are you
afraid?
Afraid of a
lack of
privacy?
Afraid for
the real you
to be known?
Afraid of
accountability?
I just need to
push it.
Jesus died
alone so
that we can
live together.
And I'm
going to say
I'm missing
you.
I'm missing
the togetherness.
We have
something very
significant to
offer this
world.
We have
truth.
Truth.
We have a
gospel message
of hope.
Gospel message
of genuine
transformation of
life.
life and a
gospel message
that draws us
together into
deep fellowship
as we walk
this journey
together.
This is the
church that we
are at St.
Paul's and
this is the
church that we
will seek to
build at St.
Paul's.
God bless
you.
Amen.