Acts 20:17–24: "Paul’s Farewell Address in Miletus" (Part 1)

Let’s take our Bibles together and turn to Acts 20. Our passage for today and for next Sunday is Acts 20:17–38, Paul’s “Farewell Address in Miletus” to the Ephesian elders. Today, we will study the first part of that in Acts 20:17–24. Next week we will look at Acts 20:25–38. 

And let me start this message today by asking you the following morbid question. What do you want said about you at your funeral? How do you want people to remember you? Now I’ve asked you those questions before. I’ve said in the past please don’t make me lie at your funeral. Live your life in such a way that the pastor will have plenty of material to work with when he eulogizes you. 

But today, as we look at the Apostle Paul in Acts 20, I want to take another run at those questions. But I want to ask them a little differently. Here’s what I want to ask: What do you want to be able to say about yourself at the end of your life? If you were doing a performance review on yourself at the end of your life, what would you want to be able to say?

Amazingly we have all this content on the Apostle Paul at the end of his life… not just here but also in 1 and 2 Timothy. And Paul started thinking about the end of his life many years before he died. In Acts 20, he meets with a group of Ephesian elders and gives some important statements of self-reflection. And, as I understand it, historically, Paul met with those Ephesian elders in approximately AD 57. Paul’s going to live at least five more years. I actually think he lives about ten more years, dying in AD 67 at the hands of Emperor Nero. He’s going to be imprisoned several more times in the book of Acts. And he’s going to be imprisoned a final time even after the book of Acts ends. 

But even ten years before his death, Paul was thinking about how to finish life well. And he met with these elders for the last time in Acts 20 to give them his swan song. And Paul gives us three things that he was able to say to the Ephesians. And these are things that I want to be able to say at the end of my life. These are things that we should all aspire to say at the end of our lives.

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Three things. Here’s the first. At the end of your life, you want to be able to say this:

1) “I have served the Lord with humility and determination” (Acts 20:17–19)

 Now here’s the context of Paul’s statement. If you remember from our previous study in Acts, Paul has been travelling around the Roman Empire preaching the gospel, planting churches, and training up leaders. When we last saw Paul, he was travelling from Corinth to Jerusalem and he stopped in Troas where he spent the whole day and all night teaching the church from the Scriptures (see map). 

Paul in Miletus before Traveling to Jerusalem- [Click For Map]

Remember that’s where Eutychus was overcome by sleep, and fell out of a third story window. Paul, raised him from the dead, and then they all went back to the upper room for some more teaching. 

The reason Paul did that is because he figured this was his last chance to teach that church in Troas. He knew that life was about to change forever. So he made the most of that opportunity with them. 

And after he was done there in Troas, Paul boarded a ship and set sail for Jerusalem. But before he gets to Jerusalem in Acts 21, Paul has one more stop that he needs to make. He decides that he wants to impart one final goodbye message to the leaders of the church in Ephesus. 

Look with me at Acts 20:16.

16 For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he might not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hastening to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.   

Paul’s in a hurry to get to Jerusalem. And he doesn’t want to go into the city of Ephesus. Probably because he doesn’t want to start another riot in Ephesus! And also because he doesn’t have time to meet and greet with everyone in the Ephesian church. You know how it is. You go to the city and you’ve got to go say “hi” to so-and-so. You’ve got to go have coffee with that guy who got saved while he was in Ephesus. You’ve got to go have dinner with Mr. and Mrs. so-and-so whom you baptized. Paul couldn’t do it. He didn’t have time for that. 

Plus, he’s got money that he’s collected from all these churches for the church in Jerusalem. It’s just not a good idea to go back to Ephesus and spend time there. But he does have a final word for the leaders of Ephesus. And this is strategic because the Apostle Paul can’t keep leading the church in Ephesus. He’s passing the torch on to the elders in Ephesus. 

So here’s what he does. Look at verse 17. 

17 Now from Miletus [this is a port city about 30 miles south of Ephesus] he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. 18 And when they came to him, he said to them:

By the way, Acts 20 is about 25 years after the Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost. So the church has exploded onto the world in the last 25 years. And Paul’s been a big part of that. 

And by Acts 20, Paul’s life is starting to wind down. He’s planted most of the churches that he’s going to plant. He’s written about half of his thirteen epistles: Galatians; Romans; 1 and 2 Corinthians; and 1 and 2 Thessalonians. Most of the rest of his life will be spent in prison. 

And knowing that his ministry is winding down and knowing that this will be the last opportunity to minister to the church in Ephesus, a place where he’s spent three years of his life, he calls the elders down to Miletus and he gives them one final charge. And Ephesus is a strategic city too. It’ll be the hub of much of the Christian activity in the years ahead.   

Now let’s think about this one wrinkle in verse 17. Paul doesn’t go to the whole church in Ephesus—he doesn’t have time. And he doesn’t call the whole church down to Miletus—that’s too many people. He calls the elders. Why? He doesn’t call the deacons. He doesn’t call the new converts that he’s led to Christ and baptized. He calls the elders. Why?

 Well, the elders lead the church. The elders (πρεσβύτερος [presbyteros]) are the shepherds and the overseers of the church. They are responsible to God for keeping watch over souls in the church.  If Paul was passing through Texas and he didn’t have time to stop by Messiah Bible Church and meet with all of us, but he still wanted to instruct us, he would call the elders of Messiah to him and give us a charge. 

 Alistair Begg tells the story about a study that was conducted by the Church of England about 150 years ago. And the study was designed to find out what makes a parish (or an Anglican church community) healthy and what makes them unhealthy. And in the report for that study they got to one issue very, very quickly. Do you know what that issue was? Leadership. 

Here’s what the report says, “Conditions vary from parish to parish. The determining factor being the personality of the incumbent [pastor]. More particularly is this the case in villages, where a spiritual leader can make an astonishing difference [in the health of the church].” Let me put that in other words for you. According to that report, church health is largely determined by the health and spiritual vitality of its leaders. 

And you might say to that, “Thank you Pastor Tony for that blinding flash of the obvious.” Well stay with me, here. Let me ask you a question—How many people do you know who choose a church because of its facilities or programs instead of leadership? How many people do you know who choose churches because of the musical style? How many people do you know who choose churches because of the prominence or the visibility of people that attend those churches? Yet studies have shown 150 years ago, and also today, that leadership and the spiritual health of those leaders is the most important determining factor for the spiritual health of the church. Paul gets that. Paul understands that. And so he takes advantage of this opportunity to make one final deposit with the Ephesian elders. Because he knows that the health of that church moving forward can’t depend upon him… and these elders are going to have to step up and get the job done when he’s gone.     

Now before Paul gets into what the leaders need to do… it’s interesting to me how his instruction to them is primarily about getting rid of wolves in the church. That’s fascinating to me. We’ll talk more about that next time. 

But before he gives them instructions, he gives them his testimony. And it’s not a testimony about how he got saved. Paul’s going to talk about that again and again while he’s in prison speaking to unbelievers. Paul’s testimony here with them is more about how he has faithfully ministered in the church. This is his testimony about how he has, “post-conversion,” offered up his body as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God (Rom 12:1–2). 

And I don’t think Paul is saying this just to toot his own horn. He’s not telling the Ephesian elders what he’s done so that they can pass on to everyone else how awesome Paul is. “O that Paul, he’s so awesome. I could never be like him.” No Paul is saying these things so that others would imitate him. He’s saying this because he views a life of service and self-sacrifice and humble determination for the Lord as normative for the Christian life. 

And Paul wants the Ephesian elders, and the Holy Spirit wants us, two-thousand years later, to be able to say these same types of  things at the end of our lives. “What kind of things, Tony?” “I served the Lord with humility and determination.” 

Look at verse 18.

18 … “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, 19 serving the Lord [the Greek here could be translated “serving as a slave for the Lord.” The Greek word is δουλεύω (douleuō), and it’s stronger than just “serving.” Paul is commenting here on how he was bought and owned by the Lord… he was a slave of righteousness for him]  with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews;

I heard a story once about Ruth Graham, the famous wife of Billy Graham, a well-known author in her own right. One time a well-known evangelist went over to the Graham house as she served lunch. And then afterwards she collected all the plates and took them to the sink and started to wash the dishes. And over her sink in her home was a plaque that read, “Divine Service, Done Here, Daily.” That’s a great picture of humility. No false pretense. No pomp and circumstance… just a faithful servant of God who did her part to serve and build the kingdom of God. 

Similarly Paul says here, “I lived among you as one of you… I didn’t live among you like a King among his subjects. I didn’t lord my authority over you. I didn’t use my great intellect or my extensive learning to browbeat you into submission. I didn’t tell you to do something that I wasn’t willing to do myself. Instead I loved you. I lived among you. I ate with you. I drank with you. I came to your homes. I baptized you and your family. I taught you the Scriptures. I risked my life to minister to you.” “I served the Lord among you with humility.” 

And there were tears! “Why were there tears, Paul? What were you crying about?” Only a person who doesn’t know the heartbreak of ministry would ask a question like that. The truth is that if you choose to humbly, faithfully, serve the Lord in the context of the church, there will be tears. 

Why? Why is that the case? Well, let me direct you to my favorite Bible verse: John 11:35, “Jesus wept.” And Paul wept too. 

Why would Paul be accustomed to shedding tears? Well, if you’ve ever watched helplessly as a person whom you love walks away from their faith, you know how to shed tears. If you’ve ever counseled someone who stuck in a dysfunctional marriage and couldn’t turn it around, you know how to shed tears. If you’ve ever pleaded with the Lord to grab the hearts of your children so that they would submit their lives to Christ… If you’ve ever watched a person die and did their funeral… If you’ve ever been brokenhearted over disunity within the body of Christ and felt utterly helpless before God… then you know what it means to serve the Lord with humility and with tears.   

Some of this has to do simply with personal investment in people’s lives. If you’re going to invest in people, you’re going to get hurt. And if you’re going to serve the Lord with humility and determination, you’re going to suffer and weep.

R Kent Hughes once wrote that if “enlarge your heart”  and “discipline yourself for ministry,”  then “you will enlarge your experience of pain.” He continues: “No one has ever cultivated a ministering heart and lived to tell of a life of ease.” 

Additionally he writes, “If our ambition is to dodge the troubles of human existence, the formula is simple: avoid entangling relationships, do not give yourself to others, and be sure not to seriously embrace elevated and noble ideals.” “That sounds great. Sign me up for that!” The problem with that is that you will never know the joy of serving Christ. You will never know the deep satisfaction that comes with being a spiritual leader and a discipler. And if you cocoon yourself off from people, you will live a safe, shallow, and selfish life, and die an unmourned death. 

And let me say this too. I mentioned the importance of both humility and determination. These are things that Paul exemplified, and they are not mutually exclusive. Humility is not a weakness. And determination doesn’t have to lack humility. We are called to be both humble and strong-minded! We can and should be humble and self-effacing and  even meek in the way that we interact with others. And at the same time, we can have a deep, abiding, convictional stick-to-itiveness. We don’t give up on Christ, his church, and his people. We rage on the inside with determination, even as we exude humility, brokenness, and kindness on the outside. 

And let me say this too. A lot of the times determination isn’t about hard work and muscling through the challenges of ministry and grinding it out. More often it’s about forgiveness. In my own experience, more people quit on God and the church because of unforgiveness than because of laziness or apathy. And forgiveness is an aspect of humility. 

If we’re going to finish life well in service to the Lord, then you’re going to have to forgive, and you’re going to have to embrace what it means to “serve the Lord with humility and with tears.” There will be tears. 

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Secondly, write this down as #2. You want to be able to say this at the end of your life:

2) “I didn’t hesitate to speak of my Savior” (Acts 20:20–21)

Look at verse 20 with me. By the way, the controlling verb of this statement is the “You yourselves know” in verse 18. So, Paul says, “You know…

20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, 

“I didn’t hesitate,” says Paul. “I didn’t shrink back!” 

The Greek word for “shrink from” here is ὑποστέλλω (hypostellō), and it literally means “to retreat from a position” or militarily “fall back.” It connotes fear and a lack of faith. 

And with Paul’s phrasing here he uses a double negative, which for us in English is nonsensical, but in Greek it’s used for emphasis. So Paul says literally, “I did not… not” shrink back. We might colloquialize it this way, “I never, ever, ever, shrank back.” You can sense the emotion in Paul’s voice here. 

You can sense his conviction as he says, “Whatever was good for you, whatever was profitable, I didn’t hold back.” “If there was something that they needed to hear, even if it was hard for me to communicate it, even if my life was threatened, I didn’t hold back.” “I loved you enough to speak truth even when it was inconvenient for me.” 

Now what does that look like in our own day? Well it looks something like this: (1) “I love you brother. I care about you. But this pornography addiction of yours is killing you and your family. You’ve got to end it. I’ll help you as much as I can, but you can’t do this anymore.” 

It looks something like this: (2) “Listen brother so-and-so… Listen sister so-and-so… I love you, but you’ve got a real attitude problem. You are believing the lies of the enemy and you are fixating on things that harm you. You’ve got to renew your mind. You’ve got to Philippians 4:8,  “Think on those things that are true and honorable and just and pure and commendable and excellent and praise-worthy.” 

Here’s another example of what not shrinking back looks like: (3) “You really believe this Jesus stuff!” “Yes, I believe it. And you should too, because it’s the truth. We are all sinners who need forgiveness and Christ’s blood can wash away your sins and restore you to right relationship with your Maker. And even now you can have your sins forgiven and experience the newness of life that only God gives. Would you like to give your life to him right now?” That’s what  not shrinking back looks like.

Let’s keep going in verse 20. Paul says…

I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, 

In other words it wasn’t just at church on Sundays. It wasn’t just from the pulpit that Paul was bold and truthful. Paul says, “I came to your homes.” 

Probably there was a significant network of house churches in Ephesus. They didn’t have a big church building. That would come later. But we know that Paul spoke in large gatherings, because we read in Acts 19 that Paul was reasoning with the Jews in the synagogues. Also he taught in the hall of Tyrannus to large groups of people (19:8–9). So Paul wasn’t afraid to teach publicly. But he taught privately from house to house in smaller groups as well. John Calvin said once that public teaching which is given to everyone together will often grow cold unless it is helped by advice given in private. 

And not only was Paul teaching, he was also testifying. Look at verse 21. Paul could teach the Scriptures and he could preach the gospel. He did both.

21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Verse 21 is a really important verse because it encapsulates the two-fold process of salvation. There’s repentance and faith. There’s no salvation without repentance. There’s no salvation without faith. Faith and repentance are two sides of the same coin. And Paul is saying here, “I didn’t hesitate to speak of my savior.” “I didn’t shrink back, when given the opportunity, to tell people about new life in Christ.” 

And by the way, some of the elders were obviously converts of Paul’s. Paul says to these guys, “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia.” How would these guys know what Paul was like when he first rolled into town? The answer is that these guys weren’t saved. They were pagan Gentiles or unconverted Jews. Paul led them to Christ. And now they are leading the church!

I didn’t put this down as an explicit point from today’s message. But let’s just make this a bonus point since we dealt with this last time. One of the things that you want to say at the end of your life is I passed the torch on to others. I discipled others. I replicated myself in others. Paul was able to say that. I want to be able to say that too. 

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Thirdly, you want to be able to say this at the end of your life.

3) “I valued the Lord and his gospel as more precious than self” (Acts 20:22–24)

Jesus said this, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:34–36).

Paul says something similar here. Look at verse 22.

22 And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. 

Paul has no misgivings about what’s going to happen to him in the future. He knows that suffering and imprisonment await him in Jerusalem. Because they don’t like him there. And remember that was part of Jesus’s prophecy over his life when he got saved. “I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name” (Acts 9:16). This was always part of God’s plan for Paul’s life. 

But he says in verse 24.

24 But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

If this whole passage sounds familiar, it’s because there are a lot of parallels here with 2 Timothy 4:7–8. Paul says there, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”   If you read a commentary on Acts 20, the commentator will almost certainly mention how many similarities there are between Luke’s account of Paul’s message here to the Ephesians and the end of Paul’s second letter to Timothy, which coincidentally was written to Timothy as he was serving in Ephesus. 

And in both of those passages—both 2 Timothy 4 and Acts 20—Paul talks about finishing well. In 2 Timothy 4 it’s past tense. “I’m done. I’ve finished well.” Here, approximately ten years before that in Acts 20, it’s not past tense. Paul’s saying, “I want to finish well. I’m driven to finish well. The Holy Spirit is sending me to Jerusalem. That means imprisonment and almost certain death. If that’s the case, so be it. I value obedience to God as more precious than life itself. I value the spread of his gospel as more valuable than my own life.”

Have you ever heard anyone say, “Well, the important thing is your health! At least you have your health!” You ever hear people say that? But nobody says that at a funeral, right? “The important thing about so-and-so was his health.” I’ve never said that at a funeral. 

But Paul says here explicitly that health is not the most important thing. What’s more important than that? The gospel! Serving Christ! Testifying to the gospel of God’s grace! Finishing the race well! And if we die early, so be it. “To live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21). We can’t lose. 

In the 1800s, there was a young missionary to the Fiji Islands named James Calvert (1813–1892). And the Fiji Islands were not a vacation destination back then. The islands were filled with cannibals. And Calvert went to convert them. And the ship captain who took him and his team to those islands said, “‘You will lose your life and the lives of those with you if you go among such savages.” And Calvert replied, “We died before we came.”

Remember again Jesus’s words, “Whoever would save their life will lose it, whoever loses their life for my sake and the gospel will save it.” You want to be able to say this at the end of your life, “I valued the Lord and his gospel as more precious than self.”

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Now there are two objections that I need to deal with at this point, and then I’ll close. One of the objections to this line of reasoning goes like this, “Isn’t Paul’s attitude towards self a little masochistic? Isn’t this a kind of self-loathing that Paul is exhibiting? Is this really healthy for a believer?” That’s one objection. 

Here’s my answer to that. I don’t think that Paul was masochistic or self-loathing. I think he valued obedience to God and the fulfillment of his mission as the most important duty of a Christian. That’s not self-loathing; that’s Christ-exalting. That’s not masochism; that’s servant-mindedness or “slave-mindedness” towards Christ. 

And here’s what I believe. I believe that there is a kind of selflessness and self-sacrifice that is actually healthy and good and joyful for the Christian. I’ve experienced it. I believe that being a slave to Christ is one of the most joyful and liberating realities in the world. Counterintuitive maybe, but it’s true. 

 And on the other side of that, there is a self-focus and self-preservation that leads to misery. In my experience, selfish people are the most miserable people in the world. Don’t you agree? And I can see that even in myself. My selfishness leads to my worst bouts of misery. Our self-esteem needs to come from who we are in Christ. Our self-worth comes from our identity in Christ. Paul knew that and embraced it even if that meant he lost his life. 

(2)  Now the second objection that I can hear already goes something like this. “Tony, I’m a twenty-something. I’m a Gen-Zer. Why do I need to start thinking about finishing well? I’ve only started this life. I’ve got my whole life ahead of me. I’ll start thinking about finishing well when I’m old, like you.” Now I’ve addressed this before, and maybe some of you are tired of hearing me say this, but I’m going to say it again. And I’m going to keep saying it. Nobody has promised us tomorrow. None of us knows how many days God has given us on planet earth. Jesus could come back tomorrow, and Jesus could call you home this afternoon. And I want you to be able to say at a moment’s notice, even if Christ came this week, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” 

I want you be able to say: 

1) “I served the Lord with humility and determination” (Acts 20:17–19)

2) “I didn’t hesitate to speak of my Savior” (Acts 20:20–21)

3) “I valued the Lord and his gospel as more precious than self” (Acts 20:22–24)

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I’ll close with this. Several years ago I read a great book by John Piper entitled  Don’t Waste Your Life. It altered the course of my life. In many ways it altered my preaching style. It gave it more urgency. 

And there was a poem that Piper mentioned in that book called “Only One Life” by C.T. Studd. It goes like this. 

“Only one life, ’twill soon be past, 

Only what’s done for Christ will last. 

And when I am dying, how happy I’ll be, 

If the lamp of my life has been burned out for Thee. 

Only one life, ’twill soon be past, 

Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

I think I’ve come to terms with the fact that part of my job description as a pastor is helping people put their lives in perspective. Because let’s face it, we are distracted. We are bombarded with advertisements and marketing and pleas for our undivided attention. 

And we live in a fast world with a lot of moving parts. Every time I buy a computer, I spend forever trying to figure it out. And just when I get comfortable with the latest software, they switch to something else and I’ve got to start all over again. It’s maddening. 

And I feel like all of life is like that. You’re a hamster on a wheel. And if you’re not careful, and if you don’t get reminded of these eternal things from time to time, you’ll wake up at age 60 and say, “I’ve wasted my life chasing things that don’t last forever.”

Now we need computers. We need to know how to use them. And we need to work. And we need to mow the lawn, and change the oil, and buy groceries, and go to the dentist. I get it. And you need time for rest and relaxation. We’re not robots that can work without rest. I’m not here to make you feel guilty about those things. 

But I am here to remind you… Paul is telling the Ephesian elders what matters most… We need these reminders. I need these reminders. 

“Only one life, ’twill soon be past, 

Only what’s done for Christ will last. 

And when I am dying, how happy I’ll be, 

If the lamp of my life has been burned out for Thee. 

Only one life, ’twill soon be past, 

Only what’s done for Christ will last.”