“The Way Of The Pastor” (Part 2)

Paul loved his people (Acts 20:17-21),

centering on the gospel (20:22-24).

We’re looking at Paul’s goodbye news conference as he thanked the elders from Ephesus in Acts 20:17-38.

Monday we saw his love for the people and his proclamation of the gospel.  Here he refers to that gospel as the center of his heart and his ministry.

That should be true with us!

In verse 22 he shows that he’s “compelled by the Spirit,” and going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to him there.  That phrase itself implies that it could be very dangerous.  And it was.

This raises a side issue about how the Spirit compels us today.  Most of us can look back in our lives and see God’s shepherding and the Spirit’s compelling in almost secret ways.  Some claim to hear the voice of God for directions, and others emphasize the wisdom of God as they make decisions.  But all His faithful children can thank the Holy Spirit for shepherding in their lives and giving wisdom to make the right decisions and to be in the right frame of heart and character all the time.  Or to come back to it immediately when we have sinned.

As a pastor for 42 years, I do believe one of the highest things I thank God for is His shepherding and guidance through the Scriptures and by His Spirit and through times when I didn’t know what would happen!

In verse 21 Paul again shows that tough times are ahead.

It was Mike Singletary, the great linebacker for the Chicago Bears (now head coach at San Francisco), who was asked on national TV how he sometimes gets clobbered by a lineman on one side of the field and ends up making the tackle on the other side of the field.

The announcer asked, “How do you do that?”

And Singletery just quietly said, “I get up.”

That’s profound.  Get up! And Paul kept getting up each morning and after each hardship.  He sometimes escaped cities by the skin of his teeth, but he got up the next day and kept going.  He knew that the message of Christ was that important.

Verse 24 brings up the issue about the worth of our lives.  Most of us have spent counseling time with others trying to help them consider their life worth something.  Here Paul says that his life is worth nothing – “worth nothing to me” – but you can’t rip that out of the context.  He felt that life was worth nothing if he did not “finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me.”

And in that sense, we should all take that lesson.  Our lives have greatest meaning as we do the tasks that Christ has given us to do – to follow Him, and to present the gospel as Christians, and also as pastors.

We have to look at the whole verse.  His life adds up to nothing if he does not finish the race and do what his Christ has asked him to do.  Now that’s blunt.  Our lives find their highest worth when we do the will of God, as defined in Scripture.

It is just foolish for a human being not to seek to do what God has made him to do.  And God defines that in the Scriptures.  There we find our true worth.

Notice again at the end of verse 24 how Paul emphasizes grace and the gospel – his task is that of “testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” If you had to say one word that describes the gospel, choose Paul’s word, “grace.”

Truly we must understand law a bit before we reach for grace.  We must know there is condemnation or we will not seek salvation.  We must understand the holiness of God before we seek His mercy perhaps.  But it is also important that we major on grace and point to the message of Jesus Christ.  John said that the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came by Christ (John 1:17).

Our churches and our lives should be known for that.

So Paul loves his people but clearly has content to his life also.  The implication is that it is very easy to love people but never say what they need to hear or call them to conversion and to follow Christ on a regular basis.  But that is the privilege of the pastor.

And what a high and joyful responsibility!