As I hope you all realize, I publish all our sermons and lessons to our internet web-site.
My original intent was to make our messages available to our members who live in other cities.
But there is only one person like that who has ever told me that they turn to our web-site.
Every once in a while I get an e-mail from someone telling me that they found our site,
but I don’t think that our web-site is all about me.
It’s not that I am any less responsible before God for what I say,
now that that message can be read in any coffee house in world with wireless internet access,
but more than ever before, I am forced to double check what I say, and to be prepared to stand behind what I have said.
You might say that a published sermon is semi-permanent, and someone may hold my hand to that fire some day. That is not a bad thing, but it is a little scarey.
For example, this morning I said:
“When a pastor cannot see some of himself in Apostle Paul, then he should not be in the ministry.
And when we find churches that do not teach what the Bible teaches,
We know from the standard that we have in the Bible that they are not churches of Christ.
And we should be able to judge ministers by the same kind of Biblical standard.”
This morning we touched upon one aspect of the ministry of Paul, which ought to be found in every gospel minister, including me.
And with each successive point, it becomes harder and harder for me, or anyone else, to match that very high standard.
Assuming that to be true, it would be safe to say that all of us here tonight have facial hair.
But the moment I try to describe the color of that hair, or the texture of that hair, we split into groups.
And with each successive description, the more groups there are, and the smaller each group becomes.
I wish that I could say that I perfectly match the nine points of Paul’s ministry described here, but I can’t.
And since I can’t, it makes preaching them that much more difficult.
But if I didn’t preach them, then I couldn’t honestly say that
How did Paul describe his ministry?
And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know,
from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons.”
One of my old pastors believes that a pastor should never become friends with the members of his church.
You might justly say that he is “old school” in a great many ways.
He believes that when a pastor becomes too intimate with the members, a couple of things result:
Secondly, even if he does recognize them, his friendship might bar him from preaching against them.
I don’t know if they would think of themselves highly enough to call themselves “His friends.”
But that is exactly what Christ called them.
And certainly, to know the Lord as well as they did, would have to produce a love for the Lord.
And yet Paul could preach and write scathing messages to those friends.
After all, he lived in their homes and sometimes even worked at the same bench with them.
Unlike modern cults which seem to try hard to hide what they believe,
Even this statement seems to say: “examine me.”
The Christians of Ephesus knew Paul’s strengths and weaknesses;
They knew what he liked to eat and what his hobbies were;
And they certainly knew his doctrine.
Paul was a bond-slave to Christ, doing Him service just like a slave would to his master.
But this servitude was not compelled by force of arms, chains about his feet or task-masters’ whips.
The only chain that there was in Paul’s life was the one that was around his heart.
He WANTED to serve the Lord who saved him, and he CHOSE to wear the hole in his ear which said that it was Paul’s choice to be a servant.
Exodus 21: – “And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:
Even though those servants were employed by the owner of the manor,
when there were guests for dinner, they were served with as much respect and dignity as the host.
Paul may have been in Ephesus, or Corinth, or Philippi, and he may have tried to be a blessing to hundreds of different people, but it was the Lord Whom he was primarily serving.
His messages were not only CHRIST-CENTERED, but they were CHRIST-HONOURING.
He was not carrying out anyone’s will, but the will of his Saviour.
And he didn’t care who else was pleased with what he was trying to do, so long as he knew that the Lord was pleased.
Paul’s ministry was Christ-centered.
Paul was arguably the greatest missionary to have ever lived.
He may have started more, more-important churches than any other man.
He probably led thousands of people to the cross and to salvation in Christ.
He helped dozens of young men into the ministry, and they scattered around the world preaching gospel.
Few missionaries have traveled as many miles in the most trying circumstances.
And he suffered through all kinds of problems to get the work done,
but he did it ALMOST WITHOUT COMMENT.
How could he be that successful and that kind of servant without becoming filled with personal pride?
Probably by never forgetting the rock from when he was hewn and going back to look at the hole of the pit from when he was digged.
Many of their hands were covered with Christian blood and even the blood of Christ himself.
Paul’s hands had already been defiled with the gore of Christian death.
Paul realized what he would have become if it hadn’t been for the grace of God.
He said, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing:
For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.”
“The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?
While the word was in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee.
And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.”
What was it that pained Paul so much that it brought tears to his eyes?
Was it the sting of the persecution that he had to endure?
Was it sorrow over the family and friends that he lost when he became a follower of Jesus of Nazareth?
Were they tears of joy as he thought about the things that God had in eternal store for Paul?
the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
Perhaps some of those tears were shed for people like Aristarchus and Gaius who suffered persecution because of Paul.
In fact, the hearts of good pastors ache whenever any of their people hurt, for whatever reason.
But then there were those believers who just couldn’t bring themselves to break with their former lives.
Or perhaps there were some who fought hard not to believe certain important doctrines.
But most likely the tears to which Paul refers were those shed over the unbelievers whom he knew.
But I think that the majority of those tears were shed at Paul’s own house, while he besought to the Lord for those people’s salvation.
I have good preacher friends, who I know, when they get into the pulpit, will most likely fall into tears.
And the people of whom I am thinking, are not actors putting on a melancholy face for effect.
They are simply very emotional, unlike other preachers that you know.
As you may know, the words “temptations” and “trials” are often used interchangeably in the Bible.
For example we are clearly told, and we know that theologically it must be true, that God never tempts people to sin.
Yet, it is sometimes said that the Lord does tempt in the sense of “tests the character of men” by putting them into difficult situations.
When Paul was in Ephesus for those three years, not only did he have the opposition of the idol-worshipers, he had problems with the Jews.
Acts 19 doesn’t specifically tell us about the kind of trouble that they created.
All we have is verse 9 – “Divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude.”
But judging from what happened in Galatia, Macedonia, Achaia and nearly every other place that he ministered, the Jews probably did their best to try to kill him.
Had these men from Ephesus been told about the plot to assassinate Paul over at Cenchrea, just a few months earlier?
Every trial caused by the lying in wait of the Jews, and all the other attacks against him, were not only tests, they were temptations.
They were invitations to somehow change his approach or his doctrines to eliminate that which aggravated people.
They were temptations to quit or to move on to more peaceful fields of operation.
Many times Paul stayed in one place for two or three years, when logic told him to that it would be safer to keep moving.
Paul, do you have the faith to trust the Lord to protect you through all of this?
Some of these trials were temptations to doubt the wisdom, the love, or the power of the Lord.
Did he always pass those tests?
When John the Baptist was in Herod’s prison, just before his head was removed,
He had second thoughts about the person of the Lord Jesus.
Some of his disciples went to visit Christ with the question: are you the one? are you the one?
Did Paul ever have those doubts?
Every time he preached there were temptations of various kinds.
With every problem and every pastoral visit, there were difficulties and temptations.
In fact, everyone’s life is filled with them; but perhaps the ministry even more.
It is not an easy thing to teach the whole counsel of God.
It’s hard to preach things with which you know your congregation disagrees, and dislikes.
And it’s even harder to preach those things about which the preacher knows he’s a failure.
Pride and personal comfort make it difficult to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
And I suppose that the congregation plays a big role in the preacher’s ability to do it.
If you get defensive or argumentative when you are convicted, it makes it harder for the preacher to do his job.
Part of the explanation for failing to preach the whole counsel of God is that that counsel is so large.
There is always something else which could be, and should be preached preached.
The pastor always has a hundred options, giving him an excuse to avoid the more difficult subjects.
One of the blessings of this kind of expository study of the Book of Acts, is, as I’ve said several times,
What should I say about the words “from house to house?”
Some would say that Paul went door to door throughout Ephesus, up and down every block.
And probably we should be doing it still.
It wasn’t door-to-door work as much as it was house-to-house.
This, I confess, I don’t do very well or very often.
Paul was not in the ministry to get rich.
And there isn’t the slightest evidence in any corner of the New Testament that he did get rich.
Paul was accused of different things from time to time.
But he was never accused of greed or theft.
This is an area which is really difficult for the average pastor.
Because it takes just as much money for him and his family to live, as it does for anyone else.
When he is hurting financially, he has only three options: leave, pray, or talk to the church about it.
But the only way that someone in the church can judge the preacher’s needs is through his own situation.
No one can completely understand the financial situation of another family, not even the pastor’s family.
And it is very easy to perceive greed in a pastor who asks for a raise.
No wonder Paul resorted to working with his own hands rather than asking the church.
Paul did whatever he could to make it possible to continue to spread the gospel.
He was far more concerned with the ministry than with the minister himself.
He was willing to give up personal comforts for the sake of Christ and souls.
He was willing to give up his time for others.
He was even willing to give up his life.
I cannot honestly tell you how close I come to this high standard.