Week 43 Acts
Paul took a breather on his trip home so he could visit the church leaders from Ephesus one last time. It wasn’t exactly a social call.
First Paul reminded them that his basic message for all people everywhere was: the necessity of turning from sin and turning to God, and of faith in our Lord Jesus. Previously Paul had spent three years in Ephesus and likely said an awful lot of other things but the bare bones summary of it all was this: a) turn away from your sin; b) turn toward God; and c) put your faith in the Lord Jesus. The rest was detail.
Secondly Paul gave the church leaders some pretty serious advice and warnings:
…be sure that you feed and shepherd God’s church
…false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave
…some of you will (eventually) distort the truth in order to draw a following (gulp!)
Finally, Paul told the church leaders a couple of things about money:
…I have never coveted anyone’s money
…(I) worked to pay my own way
…I have been (an) example of how you can help the poor by working hard.
I reread the section. If I said out loud what Luke said Paul said it would take less than five minutes. So I guess Paul likely said more. But even this condensed version would make me think twice about leadership and ministry.
Note: quotes from Acts 20:21, 28-30, 33-35 (NLT)