Acts 20: 19-38
In Acts 20, Paul gives a farewell speech summarizing the six values he has lived by. This is Paul’s farewell speech to the church at Ephesus and is the only extended speech in the book of Acts. made exclusively to Christians. We believe it gives us insight to how the Holy Spirit wants all Jesus-followers to think about their lives.
Six #Goals of Every Christ-Follower:
Make sure your generation knows the Gospel (Acts 20: 20, 26-27, 31). … Paul didn’t hold back, he didn’t shrink from telling people about the Gospel. Paul realized the Gospel is an announcement that the whole world needs to hear. The announcement starts out a bit sour by telling us what we deserve and that we can’t save ourselves. Then it turns sweet by telling us what Jesus did for us and how He died in our place. … Paul knows he is responsible for telling the Gospel to everyone he could, but he was not responsible for what they did with that message as in Ezekiel 33:8.
Point people to Jesus, not yourself (Acts 20:19). … Paul was humbled by his ministry. He suffered greatly for the ministry. Paul understood that ministry is about a Savior who can use the most guilty and broken of sinners to reach the lost. People listen to people who are willing to show their brokenness.
Invest in God’s community, the local church (Acts 20: 28). … Paul tells the elders, the leaders of the church, to care for everyone in the church. The church should be central to our lives. The church is the Body of Christ. When part of your body hurts, what happens? Another part of your part of your body reaches over to comfort it.
Be faithful to your calling (Acts 20: 24). There’s two aspects to your calling:
Universal … We are responsible for telling everyone everywhere about the Gospel.
Personal … We all have personal callings too. These callings are specific to us and help with the universal calling as well. We all need to do our part.
Finish strong (Acts 20: 23-24). … We will face many trials. Paul did, and he was determined to carry on no matter what he faced. Sometimes it’s easy to just give up and stop. But living radically different requires us to push through and make some difficult decisions so that we can finish strong. … Where does this kind of faith come from? This powerful faith comes by believing the resurrection really happened. The power of the cross and resurrection is beyond anything we will face.
Give more than you receive (Acts 20: 33, 35). … This is the trademark of a Christ-follower. Jesus gave us His example when He died on the cross. He gave more than He received.
Jesus did all these things.
He preached to His generation, making sure they heard His word.
He pointed people to God while on Earth. He, being God, pointed people to Himself.
He invested in the community with teaching, healing, and feeding.
He was faithful to his calling both universally and personally. Jesus could have denied the fate of the cross, but He followed through with it.
He gave more than He received by performing miracles, giving wisdom, and dieing on a cross.