“When they arrived, he said to them, “You yourselves know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I set foot in the province of Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears, and with the trials that happened to me because of the plots of the Jews. You know that I did not hold back from proclaiming to you anything that would be helpful, and from teaching you publicly and from house to house, testifying to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus. And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem without knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit warns me in town after town that imprisonment and persecutions are waiting for me. But I do not consider my life worth anything to myself, so that I may finish my task and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news of Godʼs grace.

“And now I know that none of you among whom I went around proclaiming the kingdom will see me again. Therefore I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of you all. For I did not hold back from announcing to you the whole purpose of God. Watch out for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God that he obtained with the blood of his own Son. I know that after I am gone fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Even from among your own group men will arise, teaching perversions of the truth to draw the disciples away after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that night and day for three years I did not stop warning each one of you with tears. And now I entrust you to God and to the message of his grace. This message is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I have desired no oneʼs  silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that these hands of mine provided for my needs and the needs of those who were with me. By all these things, I have shown you that by working in this way we must help the weak, and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he himself said, ʻIt is more blessed to give than to receive.ʼ” Acts 20:18-35

Paul obviously knows that his time is running short — that he will not be around too much longer. He will hardly have a chance to see things “grow old”. It is hard to see things grow old — or hard to know we will not see the fruits of our labors. We can see this in our home towns, when we return after being away for a long, extended time. Houses get torn down, or boarded up — old movie houses disappear or drive-in theaters get knocked down for grocery stores. We often wish we could make every thing last forever, but we can’t. Everything is always changing — sometimes for the better, many other times for the worse. But, we trust that G-d can and will make all things new – we live in the faith that G-d can and will restore. G-d remakes all things in G-d’s time, and in G-d’s way — Jesus will come again to make all things new in the new creation. Until then, we live in the hope and the promise that G-d can and will restore vigor, energy, faith, hope, and the soul.

Pastor Dave

1-2 With things back to normal, Paul called the disciples together and encouraged them to keep up the good work in Ephesus. Then, saying his good-byes, he left for Macedonia. Traveling through the country, passing from one gathering to another, he gave constant encouragement, lifting their spirits and charging them with fresh hope.2-4 Then he came to Greece and stayed on for three months. Just as he was about to sail for Syria, the Jews cooked up a plot against him. So he went the other way, by land back through Macedonia, and gave them the slip. His companions for the journey were Sopater, son of Pyrrhus, from Berea; Aristarchus and Secundus, both Thessalonians; Gaius from Derbe; Timothy; and the two from western Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus.5-6 They went on ahead and waited for us in Troas. Meanwhile, we stayed in Philippi for Passover Week, and then set sail. Within five days we were again in Troas and stayed a week.7-9 We met on Sunday to worship and celebrate the Master’s Supper. Paul addressed the congregation. Our plan was to leave first thing in the morning, but Paul talked on, way past midnight. We were meeting in a well-lighted upper room. A young man named Eutychus was sitting in an open window. As Paul went on and on, Eutychus fell sound asleep and toppled out the third-story window. When they picked him up, he was dead.10-12 Paul went down, stretched himself on him, and hugged him hard. “No more crying,” he said. “There’s life in him yet.” Then Paul got up and served the Master’s Supper. And went on telling stories of the faith until dawn! On that note, they left—Paul going one way, the congregation another, leading the boy off alive, and full of life themselves.13-16 In the meantime, the rest of us had gone on ahead to the ship and sailed for Assos, where we planned to pick up Paul. Paul wanted to walk there, and so had made these arrangements earlier. Things went according to plan: We met him in Assos, took him on board, and sailed to Mitylene. The next day we put in opposite Chios, Samos a day later, and then Miletus. Paul had decided to bypass Ephesus so that he wouldn’t be held up in Asia province. He was in a hurry to get to Jerusalem in time for the Feast of Pentecost, if at all possible.” Acts 20:1-16

Paul gives the disciples words of encouragement. We all could use some words of encouragement every day — every week. As such, could you use some encouragement? Do you need encouragement so that you will not back down but instead standing up for your faith? Jesus scattered the butterflies out of the stomachs of his nervous disciples – or at least he tried to encourage them — and so did Paul. We need to remember that the disciples and the Apostles were common men (and women) given a compelling task — tell how the kingdom of G-d had come in the person of Jesus Christ. It was not a popular message to the Jews — and something foreign to the Gentiles. And yet these Disciples/Apostles were regular people trying to raise families and work in everyday jobs long before they were saints found in our windows of stain glass. They were not cut from theological cloth (Paul had training as a Pharisee) but they were very devoted and were very afraid, and yet they did extraordinary things.

Remember, when we work for the kingdom of G-d, we do not do it alone — we can only do it in the strength of the Holy Spirit working in us.

Pastor Dave