Chapter 20
Verse 1 – “And after the uproar was ceased,” referring to the mob action at Ephesus; “Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them” – it was time to leave—“and departed for to go into Macedonia.” He is now going to move north into the northern part of Greece once again. The word to “go” is the Greek word for going from one place to another – poreuomai, which means to follow an established itinerary. This is an present active infinitive. The words “he departed from” is an aorist active indicative. When you have an aorist tense which is followed by a present tense it indicates a single act followed by a process. This explains where Paul was for an entire year of his life. The infinitive indicates his purpose. During this time Paul not only visited Macedonia but he went to Troy, called Troas in the KJV. In 2 Corinthians 2:11-13 we see that Paul went to Troy. This is not the same visit as we have in verse five of Acts chapter twenty which is mentioned in connection with Eutychus falling out of the window. When Paul went to Macedonia he met Titus—2 Corinthians 2:13; 7:6, 13, 14. When Paul was at Philippi he not only met Titus, but Titus brought him back information that the Corinthian situation was now properly solved. As a result Paul wrote 2 Corinthians while in Macedonia during this year which is described by an aorist tense followed by a present tense. In addition to that he also wrote Romans during this time. So this was a very important year—57-58 AD.
Verse 2 – “And when he had gone over those parts” is an aorist active participle to indicate that he did a lot of travelling. “Those parts” in this verse is comparable to “these parts” in Romans 15:19 and refers to the fact that he finally got into what we call today the Balkan states.
Verse 3 – “And there he abode three months.” It was while he abode there these three months that he wrote Romans. By the time he finished Romans the Jews from all over the world were out to kill him and there was now a great assassination plot, which is mentioned only briefly here. He was under great pressure here from the Judaisers. The middle of this verse says, “and a plot by the Jews came to pass against him.” They didn’t lay wait for him, this is an assassination plot which came to fruition. For a year the Jews had planned it and they were looking for the time.
“as he was about to sail to Syria” – apparently, as the Jews knew this was a long non-stop trip, they decided to fill up the passenger list with assassins and get rid of him before he arrived in Syria. Through the grace of God the plot became known to Paul so he decided to take the land route—“he purposed to return through Macedonia.”
Verse 4 – Paul has a travelling seminary. “And there accompanied him into Asia Sopater of Berea.” Berea was the place where the church emphasised Bible doctrine, so obviously he was a believer who thought of doctrine and put it first in his life.
“and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus” – he accompanied Paul on the third missionary journey, nearly killed in Ephesus, was with Paul during his first Roman imprisonment, according to Colossians 4:10; Philemon 24, and suffered martyrdom at the hand of Nero; “and Secundus” – this is not a proper name at all, it just means Gaius of Kmacedonia: “and Gaius of Derbe”; “and Timotheous; and of Asia, Tychicus” – he did not accompany Paul to Jerusalem but remained behind at Miletus; “and Trophimus” – a native of Ephesus. In 2 Timothy 4:20 Paul had to leave Trophimus behind in Miletus due to an illness.
Verse 5 – “These going before tarried [waited] for us at Troas [Troy].”
Verse 6 – a Trojan Bible conference. “And we [Paul and Luke] sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troy in five days.” Ordinarily from Philippi to Troy was two days of sailing plus one day from Philippi to the sea port.
“where we abode seven days” – during this time they had a week of Bible conference. The last day was a Sunday, the first day of the week.
Verse 7 – “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together.” Remember that the believers had been called by four terms in the Word of God: saints, recognising their union with the Lord Jesus Christ; disciples, which means those who are being inculcated with Bible doctrine; Christians, which was a rare word; and finally, brethren. They were assembling in the city of Troy for a church service and their custom was to have a communion service in connection with the worship. So the breaking of bread has to do with the communion service. But the central facet of the worship service has always been preaching, and we know this from two very simple bits of syntax here. The verb to break bread is followed by the word to preach. The word to break bread is an aorist active infinitive and indicates that this was just a very short piece of ritual over which they did not linger, but the word for preaching is an imperfect middle indicative. The imperfect tense is linear aktionsart in past time, which means he kept on preaching. The preaching was lengthy; the breaking of bread was very short. The middle voice, however, indicates that the preaching was beneficial because the middle voice in the Greek means that the subject is benefiting by the action of the verb. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that the central part of worship in the Church Age, right from the start, has always been the dissemination of Bible doctrine described here by the word “preaching.” But the word is not preaching here, they did not preach on Sunday. The word here is dialegomai [dia = through; legomai = to speak on the basis of what you think] which means discourse or analysis, verbal analysis. Paul kept on making this verbal analysis, it was a long, long sermon. In the ancient world they did not meet during the day, they met in the evening. This was often because many of the people were slaves and because in the economy of the ancient world people worked every day except on special holidays. And they worked all day. Consequently services during the daytime were impossible. They generally began in the evening and this was true of Troy. So this service possibly started at about eight o’clock in the evening and went until well after midnight.
“ready to depart on the morrow” – the Bible conference would be over on Monday morning; “and continued his speech until midnight.”
Verse 8 – And there were many lights,” imperfect linear aktionsart, the lights were burning all the time the message was going on. The many lights simply indicate that this is after the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and there were many oil lamps in the room. An oil lamp not only generates heat but also take oxygen out of the air.
Verse 9 – “And there sat in a window a certain young man.” The word for “young man” is neaniaj, which means a teenager; “named Eutychus” – his name means “good luck.”
“being fallen into a sleep” – present passive participle of kataferw [kata = norm or standard, but also down; ferw = to carry, bear a burden] which means he was carrying a burden down, i.e. his head would drop. This was a gradual going to sleep until sleep eventually overpowered him, even though he fought it. The participle indicates this was a process. He didn’t just suddenly fall asleep.
“he sunk down to sleep” – this time it is an aorist passive participle, a point of time when he finally went to sleep; “and fell down from the third loft [floor], and was taken up dead.”
Verse 10 – when Paul goes down he does something that Elijah and Elisha did. This was a case of resuscitation. Since they took the boy up dead it means that the soul departed.
“and fell on him” – he didn’t fall on him and embrace him, it simply means he stretched himself out over him. The triple-compound verb sumperilambanw [lambanw = receive; peri = to stretch over; sum = identified with him] means that he did the same thing that Elijah did.
“Trouble not yourselves” – present middle imperative qorubew which means to scream, to carry on, to be in panic palace. When a negative is put with this it means to “Shut up.” Paul did not want to perform a miracle amid all this noise.
“his life is in him” – he doesn’t say “his life,” he says “his soul is now in him.” In other words, Paul could actually tell the very moment that the human soul came back into the body of the dead boy. The Greek word is “soul” – yuxh.
Verse 13 – “And we went before to ship [embarked], and sailed unto Assos, there intending to take in [pick up] Paul: for so had he appointed, minding himself to go afoot.” To take a direct path to Assos was about a 20-mile trip. By walking Paul has a chance to be alone, to relax, and to prepare for a very important pastor’s conference since Ephesus is really the new capital of Christianity.
Verse 14 – “and came to Mityline.” This is an island off from Assos which was the top of the island of Lesbos.
Verse 15 – “Trogyllium” is the port between Ephesus and Miletus; “and the next day we came to Miletus.” This is where Paul starts to go to work again.
Verse 16 – Paul suddenly discovers that he must accelerate his schedule, an at this point we see where he is getting ready to get completely out of fellowship. He decides he has to be in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost because it was a holy day and Jerusalem would be filled with a great deal of religious activity—from which Paul has separated himself. “For Paul had determined” – perfect active indicative, it means to make up his mind and be bull-headed about it.
“for he hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost” – he was hurrying, rushing to get there.
Verse 17 – the pastor’s conference. The pastor’s are from Ephesus, the conference is 36 miles to the south at Miletus. The “elders” is the Greek word presbuteroj and it refers to the pastor of a church. This is identical to e)piskopew in verse 28, “overseers,” and this word is translated “bishop” in the KJV. Elder and bishop are the same thing. One is the title of rank and one is the title of function. Paul calls a conference for certain rank only—preachers—therefore he calls for the elders, but when he is giving them their responsibilities in teaching the word he uses the word e)piskopew which is a cognate to the noun e)piskopoj, referring to the function of the pastor. He must teach with authority. There are three words which describe the minister of a local church: pastor, elder, bishop.
Verse 18 – “And when they were come to him,” proj plus the accusative means face to face. They came face to face with him. “Come” is paraginomai [para = by the side of; ginomai = to come], they came by the side of him, they were face to face with him. In other words, this is a personal public speaking situation, an actual pastor’s conference. Asia is the Roman province of Asia, not the continent of Asia.
“Ye know” – should be, You remember; “after what manner I have been with you at all seasons.” He wants to remind them of his ministry. These men have all been trained by Paul and he did several things: he gave them doctrine; with this doctrine they were able to mature, and as they matured they realised they had the gift of pastor-teacher; they cane to the point, then, of being spiritually self-sustaining, i.e. they were dependent on the Word and not dependent upon Paul. When they depended upon the Word they were able to function under their spiritual gift, to function in the spiritual life, and were able to produce divine good.
Verse 19 – Paul describes how his service was activated. “Serving the Lord” – the key is the word “serving” which is a present active participle, indicating linear aktionsart. It also sets a precedent and a pattern, and Paul was constantly serving the Lord. Serving the Lord is set up here in principle.
“with all humility of mind” – tapeinofrosunh [tapeino = humility; frosunh = thinking], thinking in terms of humility means orientation to grace and the plan of God, both of which require knowledge of doctrine. A mental attitude of orientation to the grace of God is absolutely necessary for service, you cannot serve God without it. Paul has been devoting his full time to this particular ministry. But the big thing is not what he did on the outside, the big thing here is his mental attitude. Basically the concept of humility here is thinking grace.
1. The Greek word means more than humility of mind, it means orientation to grace, thinking grace. It is amplified in its concept by 1 Peter 5:5-6 cf. 1 Corinthians 15:10.
2. If God does not promote you, you are not promoted—Joshua 3:7.
3. When the pastor is promoted then Isaiah 54:17 applies.
4. Obedience to the pastor, or the recognition of his authority, is commanded of all believers—1 Thessalonians 5:12; Hebrews 13:7, 17.
“and with many tears, and temptations” – these are two different situations. Tears really express the disappointments of the ministry. It is an occupational hazard with many pastors to get their eyes on the congregation, on people, to expect more from people than one should expect. Temptations here is not temptations, it is pressures, testings; “which befell me” – literally, “which went with me.” These are the things which accompanied him, and especially now with the opposition of religion—“by the lying in wait of the Jews.” These are the religious Jews and Paul is the recipient of pressure from religion.
Verse 20 – “And how” is not found in the original. “I kept back nothing” is ordinarily a nautical term for furling the sails. To furl the sails means to slow down the ship, and Paul is saying he has not done anything to slow them down as far as their ministry was concerned. The verb is u(postelw [u(po = under the authority of; stelw = to go]and it means not only to hold back but also to furl the sails. It has a negative in front of it which means the sails are not furled. It means to be restrained under authority.
“that was profitable” is a present active participle and it means to be advantageous. The thing that is advantageous to all pastors is Bible doctrine. Paul did not hold back from them anything that was profitable. In other words, he declared unto them the entire plan of God contained in Bible doctrine categorically.
“and have shewed you” – a)naggellw [a)na = again and again; ggellw = to announce, to proclaim, communicate]. So Paul said he had to communicate this again and again and again.
“and have taught you publicly” – aorist active infinitive of didaskw which means to teach in a public speaking situation, but it means to provide categories.
“and from house to house” – emphasising the local church concept. These local churches were meeting in houses. Cf. Acts 12:17; Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15. For the first three hundred years of church history all local churches met in homes, caves, fields, the side of a mountain, etc. There never was a church building. Meeting in building only occurred when the Roman Catholic church began to dominate the state or states. The buildings were put up by the state because the church was the state, and there is nothing more dangerous than the union of church and state.
Verse 21 – “Testifying to the Jews, and also to the Greeks.” The word for “testifying” here means to make a solemn and earnest declaration—diamarturomai [dia = through; marturomai = to witness or proclaim]. In other words, Paul never took Bible doctrine lightly. He had two concepts in mind: evangelisation and teaching of doctrine. In this verse he is going to emphasise evangelisation.
“repentance toward God” – the principle of presentation. Repentance is the Greek word metanoia [meta = the preposition to change; noia = thinking: it comes from the noew which is the common word to think], so it means they must change their thinking toward God. It does not mean to feel sorry for sin. Feeling sorry for sins doesn’t mean anything spiritually. Metanoew means to change the mind about the content of a subject. You hear it; you change your mind. The object is the big thing. Here we have “change your mind about God.” How do you change your mind about God? Through gospel information. And you have to hear gospel information. Before a person can believe he must have information, and the information is covered under the word “repent” because repentance here is a noun (metanoia) and it means a complete change of mental attitude, a change of mind toward God.
“and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” is the other side of the coin. Side one of the coin: “repentance toward God,” a change of mind which immediately precedes or is coterminous with faith in Christ. You do not have to be aware of repentance but you do have to be aware of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, which is a conscious step on your part. Side one is the message, repentance toward God, and this leads to a change of mental attitude. Side two of the coin is faith in Jesus Christ, and this is the non-meritorious system of perception.
Verse 22 – “And now, behold I go.” The verb for going is poreuomai, a word which means to go from one place to another. This is a specific geographical concept. Paul is at Miletus and is getting ready to go to Jerusalem. This is a dramatic present active indicative. The next word is one which is really an enigma—“I go bound,” a perfect passive indicative of the verb dew. It is not the type of verb that you would find in the execution of the will of God. It means primarily not to be bound (a secondary concept), it means to be impeded. He says in effect, “I go, having been impeded by the Spirit.” This is a perfect passive participle, and the perfect tense means that at some point in the past the Holy Spirit said no. This is not the last time this will occur. There will be warning after warning not to go to Jerusalem. The apostle of grace is going to fail in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a place of legalism. The Jerusalem church is falling apart through legalism. The apostle Paul will be pressurised into an act of legalism; he will commit a sin of legalism; he will be under a four-year disciple, and the cursing will be turned to blessing by his own rebound. Out of the cursing will come great blessing—the prison epistles. The Holy Spirit has said no but Paul has rationalised no into yes.
“not knowing” – o)ida, perfect active participle. The fact that Paul does not know in itself is most unusual because Paul generally knew what to expect. He is placing himself into a situation of uncertainty. This is not like Paul. Cf. 2 Corinthians chapter five with begins with “For we know.” That is the real apostle Paul, knowing and applying doctrine. In verse 6 he says, “Therefore we are always confident, knowing.” Verse 8 – “We keep on being confident.” That is the pattern of Paul’s life, in contrast to Acts 20:22.
“the things that shall befall me there” – that isn’t Paul, and you can begin to see that if he doesn’t know at this point, when the hierarchy of the Jerusalem church say to him, “Paul, go into the temple and offer a vow,” that is the worst thing Paul ever did as the apostle of grace. It slowed down God’s plan of his life exactly four years when, instead of moving west, Paul was stuck in the east. It all starts right here. He was warned again and again but he goes right on. Literally, “the things that I will encounter there.”
Verse 23 – “Save.” The word “save” when used as a noun never means save. This is an anachronism. When the KJV was translated it meant except, and that is what the Greek word means. The verb to save has two meanings: to deliver, and to save in the technical sense of faith in Christ and entering into the plan of God.
“that the Holy Spirit witnesseth in every city” – the word for “witness” doesn’t mean witness here, it is the Greek word diamarturomai [maturew = to witness; dia = through], which has the idea of making a very solemn warning. So, “Except that the Holy Spirit makes a solemn warning in every city” – every city where Paul went on his way to Jerusalem. Every city where Paul went on his way to Jerusalem the Holy Spirit kept warning him.
“saying that bonds and affliction abide with me” – bonds means imprisonments; afflictions means pressures; “abide with me” should be “wait for me.” Paul has rationalised this into blessing type suffering where in reality it is discipline type suffering.
1. A change in locale does not remove pressure.
2. If you cannot cope with pressure in one locality you cannot cope with pressure in another locality.
3. You cannot run away from pressure.
4. Therefore running away does not solve anything. Change of locale is not a panacea.
5. Change of environment does not solve problems.
6. All problems and pressures are resolved by knowing doctrine, applying doctrine, and orientation to the grace of God.
Verse 24 – “But none of these things move me.” That is, all of these warnings. In other words, “I am hard-headed.”
“neither count I my life dear unto myself” – Paul is not afraid of death, of pressure. But there is something that should bother him, and it doesn’t: he is getting out of the geographical will of God, he will shortly be out of the operational will of God, and he is going to have disaster after disaster.
“so that I might finish my course with joy” – the word for ‘course’ is dromoj, a race track, a track on which runners run. It is true that joy (inner happiness in the plan of God) is to be the experience of every believer in fellowship, but there is going to be no joy in Paul’s pressure when it is discipline.
“and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord” – but he is going in the wrong direction to finish his ministry; “of the Lord” is para, “from the immediate source of the Lord.” Para is referring to the will of the Lord but he is not in the will of the Lord at this point, or he won’t be very shortly.
“to testify the gospel of the grace of God” – but he can’t do this and operate under legalism.
Verse 25 – “And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.” In other words, we are ships that pass in the night. This may be a true statement but it cannot actually be proved. These are pastors in Ephesus and Paul will be in Ephesus again eventually.
Verse 26 – “Wherefore” – dia plus the accusative which always means “Because.” The object of “because” is “this”—“Because of this,” i.e. Because I have trained you, because you are ships that pass in the night, because you are now thoroughly prepared to go out and minister; “I take you to record this” is “I testify this day.”
`”I am pure from the blood of all men.” The word “men” is not found in the original. “I am” is e)imi which means absolute status quo, and the present linear aktionsart means he is now and always will be. When he says he is pure from the blood of all he means that he has done absolutely everything necessary to make these people spiritually self-sustaining. The word for “pure” is kaqaroj, and it was used by Aristotle to describe the audience reaction to Greek drama. Greek drama was designed to bring out the emotions of the individuals and to give them an attitude of worship. This was the original concept; it was designed for worshipping the gods on special festival days. The word does mean innocent, clean, and pure; but here it connotes the concept of responsibility. There are very few people in the Christian life who totally understand their responsibility before the Lord, and Paul was one of those people. Any believer can understand his responsibility because we have doctrine categorically presented for this purpose. But here is a person who understood doctrine and applied it to his experience in such a way that he understood, first of all, his own responsibility before the Lord and then his responsibility to the Lord with regard to others.
Paul’s primary responsibility was to believers, and when a pastor has a responsibility to believers his responsibility is very simple: to communicate Bible doctrine. But to communicate Bible doctrine you have to understand Bible doctrine. To understand Bible doctrine you have to study, and the primary responsibility of the pastor is to study the Word of God. Most of his time should be devoted to study, and along with that the communication of doctrine.
“to record” means to witness, “I witness to you this day”; “from the blood of all” – the word “blood” is an idiom, and it means that if anyone fails it is their own responsibility. The blood here means the failures of believers in their modus operandi. Paul is saying, “If you fail I am not at fault. All I can do is communicate the Word, and what you do with it is between you and the Lord.”
Verse 27 – how does all of this occur? The gift which God has provided for the Church in every generation is a spiritual gift designed with one thing in mind: to make believers spiritually self-sustaining and to have them function under the dynamic equation of phase two, i.e. knowledge of doctrine plus the filling of the Holy Spirit, which equals the production of divine good. The plan of God calls for divine good.
“For I have not shunned” – u(postellw. Basically this word was a nautical terms, it was used by sailors for furling the sails. But it also means to hold back. The aorist tense here refers only to certain points of time when Paul taught in Ephesus. In each communicating situation he provided information whereby they could become spiritually self-sustaining. Paul always had something to teach; he always had some Bible doctrine for them.
“to declare” – a)naggellw means to announce, to teach, or to communicate again and again and again, as here. In other words, to truly teach you must repeat.
“all the counsel of God” – the Greek word for “counsel” is boulh which means design, plan, even decree. Paul communicates the design of God, the plan of God. Bible doctrine, one way or another, declares God’s plan designed in eternity past. So the design of God is a much better word.
Verses 28-31, Paul gives us a final warning.
Verse 28 – “Take heed” simply means beware. Beware and always beware—present active imperative; “with regard to yourselves” – he is addressing this to pastors and they are to beware that they communicate the Word of God.
“and to all the flock” – the members of the local congregation; “the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers” – tiqhmi means to appoint. The Holy Spirit is the subject. The Holy Spirit appoints the pastor-teacher at the point of salvation. The aorist tense refers to the point of salvation. 1 Corinthians 12:11. “Overseers” is e)piskopoj, which means to rule, to have charge of a group of people and to watch them. It is a technical word which means the final authority.
“to feed the church of God” – you must have authority to feed all kinds of believers, so the word here is poinainw, which means you have to feed them with a stick. To feed is a present active infinitive, you have to keep on feeding them. The infinitive denotes a purpose. It is the purpose of the pastor to feed the sheep.
“the church of God” – genitive of possession, the church that belongs to God. In other words, the pastor is the under shepherd because the chief shepherd is God Himself. When you believed in Jesus Christ you became a sheep. The pastor didn’t purchase you; Jesus Christ did, and you belong to Him. Therefore it is the responsibility of the pastor to communicate doctrine to you. But it is not his responsibility to make you do these things, that is between you and the Lord Jesus Christ, the good shepherd who gave His life for the sheep.
“which he hath purchased with his own blood” – Jesus Christ Himself paid the purchase price.
Verse 29 – “For I know this.” He is speaking from the maximum discernment which he has: o)ida; “that after my departing” – Ephesus had a large number of churches and there was need to have an apostle around until apostleship went out in 96 AD. So Paul has charge of all the churches at this moment but he is resigning. The next one with authority will be Timothy, and later on John. Paul’s departure at this time means that they will be without someone to check them out. They are through with this stage of their training.
“grievous wolves” – the word in the Greek doesn’t mean grievous as we have it in modern English. It is baruj means several things: pressure, heavy. As an adjective it came to mean a bully. It was used for being vicious, rapacious, burdensome, for adding pressure. These are unbelievers. But in verse 30 Paul recognises that even some of these men are bullies, are rapacious in the sense that they will prey upon the sheep rather than communicate the Word to the sheep. Grievous wolves refers to some of those men who are listening to Paul’s verse at that particular moment. What Paul is saying is that there are two kinds of false teachers. In verse 29 he calls them wolves in keeping with the concept of the sheep in that they are unbelievers. Then, secondly, he has the word “men” in verse 30 with reference to believers, some of whom are listening to him. The difference between the wolf and the man is that the wolf is the unbeliever type teacher and the man here is the believer who is going to be eternally saved. The point is that a person can be a false teacher and an unbeliever, and a person can be false teacher and a believer. The warning is to know doctrine so that the sheep can be protected.
“shall enter” – means to infiltrate, e)iserxomai means they will subtly introduce themselves into the picture.
Verse 30 – “Also of your own selves.” Some of the people standing there are also going to be false teachers in the future in Ephesus, even though they have been trained by Paul; “shall men arise” – this isn’t apparent yet, but they will arise. And this means to rise up in the sense of revolt against the true system. The Greek word is a)nisthmi which means to revolt. It is a future middle indicative, it hasn’t occurred yet but it will.
“speaking perverse things” – the word “perverse” means to take something that is true and to impose upon it a system which it does not need for support. It means to take true doctrine and true principles and to superimpose upon the truth a human energy/good system which it does not need for support, and which in effect robs it of its true spiritual power—some system which becomes a substitute for the power of doctrine in the life, for the power of the Word of God.
“draw away disciples” – a)postaw means to seduce. This doesn’t mean that they are deliberately trying to draw away disciples after them but it means that believers will eventually follow the personality of the one who enervated the system rather than Bible doctrine. The purpose of the pastor is to communicate Bible doctrine. They draw away disciples, not away from the Lord but “after themselves.”
Verse 31 – “Therefore watch.” “Watch” is grhgorew which means to be alert. There are two different words that are translated “watch.” There is another one, fulassw which means to be alert with regard to things around you. The one which is used here, grhgorew, means that a pastor must be constantly alert with regard to himself. He must be alert that he sticks to teaching the Word of God.
“and remember” – this means that Paul has taught them, given them the principles that are involved, and they must become very aware of these things. This is a present active participle, and they must remember Bible doctrine. This is the great stabiliser: the thing that keeps a pastor on the beam, that causes the congregation to grow spiritually as individuals and to become spiritually self-sustaining.
“that by the space of three years” – a reference to the sum total of time that Paul logged in Ephesus, including his training of these pastors. Along with teaching, which is brought out by the word “remember,” that he also did something else which is absolutely necessary. He warned them.
“I ceased not to warn” – nouqetew [qetew = to place or to put; nou is from nouj = the mind or thinking] means to place in the mind. True warning is placing doctrine in the mind. This is the principle of being spiritually self-sustaining. “I ceased not” is an aorist active indicative, and the aorist tense is a point of time when he would teach doctrine to these people specifically whom he was training. He would constantly warn them – present active participle. The participle means that this was always the practice of Paul whenever he trained pastors. This was so those pastors would avoid gimmicks, legalism, and so that they would have a relaxed mental attitude.
Verse 32 – “And now, brethren” is a reference to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ; here they are the pastors of Ephesus; “I commend” – paratiqhmi [para = from the immediate source of self; tiqhmi = to place] means to deposit. “And now, brethren, I [keep on making a] deposit” – present middle indicative. Paul did this himself by studying and then communicating. Paul deposited Bible doctrine with these pastors, and this means that he can walk away from them knowing that they are in the Lord’s care and knowing that he has done everything possible for them.[1]
“and to the word of his grace” – all of their teaching must be compatible with grace. This is an instrumental case here and therefore it should be translated, “through the word of his grace.”
“which is able to build you up” – this is what doctrine can do; “and to give you an inheritance” – doctrine makes you realise your inheritance. The inheritance here is the sum total of God’s plan for you after salvation; “among all them which are sanctified” – the greatest thing God can do for you is to make you like His Son, Jesus Christ, and He does it in three phases: positional, experiential, and ultimate sanctification. Doctrine can take these men and give them a ‘barrel” that never runs dry, and give them listeners, hearers.
Verses 33-35, Paul’s motivation.
Verse 33 – “I have coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel.” Silver is used here for money, gold is used for the principle of wealth, and apparel represents materialistic things. Each one represents a category. Covet means to set your desires upon.
Verse 34 – “and to them that were with me.” They didn’t pay for Paul’s theological students and they didn’t pay for him. Paul himself worked and supported the seminary students! Therefore the issue was always in the pulpit: doctrine. He made an issue out of doctrine and he taught them doctrine.
Verse 35 – “I have shewed you all things.” He has made an issue out of doctrine; “how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak.” He also taught them a principle of giving. Even though they didn’t have to give to him it would have been wrong not to give somewhere. The word for “support” here is a)ntilambanomai [a)nti = instead of; lambanw = to receive] which means to support in turn, to take your turn in helping someone else. The weak here refers to those who are in distress, those who are needy, those who need money.
Now he quotes something that is not in the Bible but has been passed down by word of mouth: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
More blessed
1. Giving expresses the principle of grace.
2. The principle of grace depends upon the character of the giver.
3. The person gives because of who and what he is, not because the needy deserve it.
4. Often the needy are in the opposite place of deserving—obnoxious.
5. But deserving is not the issue in giving.
6. The issue in giving is your stability of character, your generosity; operation grace.
To give
1. You don’t give because anyone earns or deserves.
2. The more frequently the believer gives the more often he is reminded of the principle of grace.
3. The more he is reminded of grace the more he is oriented to grace.
4. Giving depends on the character of the giver, not the recipient.
5. This is why giving gimmicks must be avoided. E.g. pledge cards, tithing, etc.
6. Approbation lust destroys the object lesson of grace.
Verse 36 – a benediction. “he knelt down.” Kneeling down isn’t the issue in prayer.
Verse 37 – the farewell. “And they all wept.” This is the weeping of gratitude, not out-of-fellowship weeping or the weeping of self-pity; “sore” – considerably.
“and fell on Paul’s neck, and kissed him” – a custom of the ancient world. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written, and in the time in
which this was written there was a custom in the ancient world where they kissed on the side of the neck. We don’t express gratitude in this way any more.
Verse 38 – they sorrowed because of gratitude for what Paul had provided amongst them; “most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him to the ship.”