How To Be The Church

By Bobby Blakey on November 22, 2021

Acts 20:17-21

AUDIO

How To Be The Church

By Bobby Blakey on November 22, 2021

Acts 20:17-21

Well, I'll tell you what, I'm thankful for Thanksgiving 2021, I'm thankful for you. I'm thankful for everybody here who keeps showing up on the first day of the week because you want to hear what God says in this book. And I'm thankful that when I see all of us gathered together, I get to see Jesus building his church here in Huntington Beach. So, I'm thankful for the book of Acts. Anybody thankful for the book of Acts, I'm thankful to see these churches get planted. And all the inspiration we got in the city of Ephesus about reaching the city, makes me think about what God can do here in Huntington Beach, how God could double our church in Long Beach. It's very exciting. But I want to invite you to open your Bible to the book of Acts chapter 20, picking it up in verse 17. And we have something totally different from anything we've seen before. In the book of Acts, we've been watching the church be built up, starting in Jerusalem, and then in Judea, and Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth. And we've had many different speeches in the book of Acts. And the point of all these speeches was evangelism, to share with people that Jesus is the Christ, that they should repent, and they should believe. But this speech that Paul's going to give here to the elders from the church in Ephesus, this is Acts 20:17-38. This speech is different than anything else in the book of Acts because it's not trying to help people become the church. He's telling these guys how to be the church. So, this is him going back to an established leadership group and elder team of a church and saying, here's how you need to be as the Church of Jesus Christ. And so, this is coming at such a great time for us. And we're going to really slow down in our study of Acts. And we're going to go through this almost like this is one of the letters that Paul writes here, as he gives this speech to these men. We're just going to break it down a few verses at a time. So, we're going to be studying this little part of Acts all the way into 2022, everybody. All right? We're going to be studying it for a whole year. If you're like dad jokes like me, right? You know what I mean by that? Okay, so we're going to be breaking it down and looking at this slowly. And because this is for us, how does God want you to be, does he want me to be as a part of the church that Jesus is building? And out of respect for God's Word, I'm going to ask if we would all stand up for the public reading of Scripture. I'm going to ask you and everybody that we welcome, watching online, or out front, that you would stand up. And I'm going to read for us the whole speech that Paul gives to these elders here. This is Acts 20:17-38, all the way to the end of the chapter. Let's hear what Paul has to say to the church. Please follow along, as I read.
“Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. And when they came to him, he said to them: ‘You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. 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. And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.”

That's the reading of God's word, please go ahead and have your seat. And so, if you look back at Acts 19, just to review where we've been, the whole chapter of Acts 19 was Paul in Ephesus. And we had some exciting studies together about how the name of Jesus was made mega in Ephesus, and how the word increased and prevailed mightily there among them. And remember, maybe they were burning up the magic books, if you remember that they were shouting out great is Artemis of the Ephesians. Because they were so intimidated by the name of Jesus being mega, they started to shout out the name of their idol in response. And so, that's who Paul is talking to. He's talking to the men that God raised up, and his three years of doing ministry there. Look at Acts 19:9-10, maybe you remember this, that he was “reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.” And we just read that he said, he was actually there for three years in total. So, he spent some quality time, investing in this city, seeing Jesus build the church there. And these men were the men that got saved and matured, and they became the elders of the church in Ephesus. So, these are the men that are now leading the church in this city, and he wants to speak to them. And he's going to tell them how they should conduct themselves in the Church of Jesus Christ. And he starts with a review of what he did in Ephesus. So, we're going to start here with a review of what has already happened. And then he's going to start building on that as we continue our study in the weeks to come. But look at Acts chapter 20:18, right in the middle there when he starts speaking. You'll see it translated, “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia.” You guys know how I lived. Now, the Greek word there is the word, you could really translate it “how I was.” It's the word that is often translated “to be” or “I am.” He's saying to them, you guys are witnesses of how I was in Ephesus. You guys know how I conducted myself in Asia. And then he's going to say, here's how I was, and then he's going to give us three participles that modify this verb, you know how I was. And here's the three different ways that I was. So hopefully you got a handout there in your bulletin, and you can follow along with us three things that we see Paul was in Ephesus that we want to be here in Huntington Beach. And the first one is there in verse 19, where he says, you know how I was, I was “serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews.” So here, the first thing he says is, you know how I was, that I was serving. I came into Ephesus, and not as Paul the super apostle, but as Paul the servant of all; that's how I came in. I came in and, specifically, I was serving the Lord and I did it in humility. And it was actually a really hard experience. There were tears. There were trials, but I stuck with it. So, Paul wants to make it very clear that when he was there with them in Ephesus, he came with a “here to serve” attitude; he came in to serve other people. And this is definitely an attitude that is not just for Paul, this is for all of us. Okay? You should ask not what your church can do for you; but you should ask what you can do for your church, ladies and gentlemen. Okay? In fact, it's not even like the Christian life. We’ve got to make this so clear here this morning because we're going to talk about ways to be the church, we're going to talk about things we want to do here together. The only reason we're doing any of these things is because of what Jesus has already done for us. Can I get an Amen from anybody? Okay?
So, the reason that you would want to live your life to serve the Lord is because Jesus already gave his life to serve you. And so, this isn't something, well, Paul does that kind of service. That's not for me. No, if Jesus has served you, and you're ready to say that Jesus is my Lord, I see that he is the master, he calls the shots in my life, I now live for Jesus, that makes you a servant. Go to Colossians 3 with me. And we just need to get the context here in Colossians, chapter 3 that servants were a common part of life at this time. In the first century, the time of the Greek New Testament, there was this word called doulos, which meant slave or servant. And there was this word Kurios, which meant Lord, or master. And so, this was a common dynamic of how they thought about it. They didn't think of themselves as students like we might today, they didn't think of themselves as employees, like we know that the common way of talking about it. At this time, there were servants or slaves, and there were lords and masters. And you see that in Colossians 3 here, starting in verse 18. He's describing different relationships. He describes wives and husbands or children and fathers. And then you can see right there in Colossians 3:22, “Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters.” Hey, servants, do what your masters tell you to do, not by way of service as people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. And then he goes on to say this. This is Colossians 3:23-24. “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” So, we're not just even talking about an attitude that you would have here in the Church of Jesus. We're saying, no, if you know that Jesus is the Lord, and if you know that you live to serve Jesus, whatever you do, whatever your work is, if you're a student here among us, if you're a mom who's taking care of the home and loving those kids, know whatever you do you, do it to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. How about an Amen for that?
So, we are all here to serve in whatever it is we're doing. And that could have applied to so many different trades. There were people who would be serving their masters, and he says, hey, you're not just doing a job. You're doing something in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ; you're doing it for him. So, give it all your heart, put yourself into it. And maybe that's something everybody needs to think about when you have a Thanksgiving break this week, and maybe you're feeling like you've been in the grind of the semester, or the grind at your work. And it's feeling like why am I even doing what I'm doing? Well, hey, you're doing it for the Lord Jesus. And everything that we do, we want to do it with a level of excellence, with a whole heartedness because we live to serve Jesus Christ. And even the Masters… Colossians 4:1 one, the lords, masters, they're told, hey, “treat your bondservants, justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.” And so, this whole framework would have been a very common way of thinking that there were servants and there were masters. And Paul says, I didn't come in as a master, I came in to serve.
And so, let's get that down for point number one, if you're taking notes: We want to be here to serve. That's the attitude that we want to have, that's the disposition of how we want to think about ourselves, how we want to think that we're here at church to serve Jesus, and we're here at church to serve the people of Jesus. And we are the least most important person in the room. That's a way of thinking, okay, so I'm not talking about like, hey, after this service, there'll be ways you can sign up to serve. That's not what we're talking about here today. Okay? We're going to get to that in January, like specific positions or roles that you can fill in the church to help build up the body. No, we're talking right now just about your heart attitude. Do you come to church for yourself? Or do you come to church for Jesus and other people? Are you the reason that you're here? Are you here to receive? Or are you here to give because this whole speech that Paul gives is going to end up with, remember the words of the Lord Jesus, it's more blessed to give than to receive. But here's the problem. A lot of people in Southern California church come to receive. And it messes up their whole experience of church. Like, this whole thing is meant to be done that I'm here for Jesus and other people. And if you start coming for yourself, like you get it wrong from the get-go, like the whole way you're thinking about it is not the biblical way, like we gathered together so that the name of Jesus can be exalted here among us, and so that we can be here to serve one another as a group. That's the disposition that we come in here with, not does this church work for me. How does it fit for my family? What can I consume from this church and take and go make my life better? No, people coming in here, like this is the group of people Jesus died for, and I'm ready to die for them; that's the attitude we need at the church. And you don't hear that a lot these days. In fact, it seems like churches are trying to cater to what people want to receive out of a church, rather than saying, hey, who's all here to give to the church of Jesus Christ? Because Paul starts out by reviewing his example, but where he's going is we should all help the weak in this way, we should all remember the words of the Lord Jesus that we're here to give, and not to receive. And we're not just even doing this because of the example of Paul, we're not even just doing it because of the example of Jesus. No, the reason that you should want to serve Jesus is because Jesus served you. I mean, Jesus humbled himself and acted like you were more important than he was.
I mean, this is the thing, like we have a master, we have a lord and what kind of a lord comes and dies in the place of his servants. Go over with me to Philippians chapter 2 because you see here that Paul served in humility. He says, and Jesus also served in humility, that this is the way of the church is that when I come here, I come here to humble myself before God and before others. Now it's very interesting to me when Paul says that I was serving the Lord: you know how I was, I was serving the Lord. He doesn't bring up the good times of serving the Lord, which clearly, there were good times of revival there in the city of Ephesus. There were even good times. Look at these men who love him so much all around him, these elders in the church of Ephesus, who are like weeping and kissing him, like we're never going to see you again, bro. Like they love Paul. So clearly, God did some amazing things there in the city. But notice, he says, no, I was there to serve in humility and hard times.
Let's get that down if you're taking notes, he was there to serve both in humility. And in hard times, like I was here to serve, even when it cost me when I was humbled and putting others first. And I was here to serve when it was hard, and the Jews came against us, and they reviled us. And there was a whole mob against us there in Ephesus, and I kept going. See, he's so committed to service that he's putting others as more important than himself. And when he gets resistance, when he gets negative response, he just keeps serving straight through all the tears and the trials. And see, that's the attitude of our Lord Jesus that all of us are supposed to have this same mindset that Paul had, that Jesus had. Look at Philippians 2:5. It says, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.” So, here Paul writes about the mindset that he has about church, and he says, you should have this mindset because Christ Jesus had this mindset, and you can think this way in Christ. And here's how Jesus did it. Philippians 2:6-7, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a…” what form did Jesus take there, everybody? “servant”. Jesus took the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Oh, I'd like to be a part of the Church of Jesus Christ. Well, then you got to do it the way that Jesus did it, you’ve got to have the same mindset that Jesus had. Going to church is not just about you going to heaven after you die. That's not the way that Jesus showed us. Jesus was in heaven, and he humbled himself, became a servant, and came down here to save us. That's the mindset we need to have. Now, as we go to church, this isn't about just me and my walk with the Lord. No, I’ve got to humble myself, I’ve got to be here to serve. And I’ve got to see what Jesus did. I mean, really, this is what we're moving towards celebrating on Christmas. Christmas is the greatest example of humility and service of all time, that the very eternal son of God would be born as a baby and laid in a manger.
See, some people think Christmas is a day on a calendar. And others of us believe that Christmas is the beginning of a whole new way of life. Which one are you? There are two different ways to think about Christmas, as a day to celebrate, or as Jesus beginning his church on planet earth. And he began it with humility and service. So, I'm asking you a question. When you gather together with the people of God, to worship God, to hear from the Word of God, do you think that you're the least most important person in the room? Is that how we gather together here? Do you come here ready to serve, serve most of all our Lord Jesus Christ, and yes, to serve one another? To humble yourself is thinking of others as more significant than yourself. He says this earlier. Before he gave us the mind of Christ, he gives these commands. Philippians 2:3 where he said, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” See, this is what real humility is, it's thinking of others as more important than myself. In verse 4, he says, “let each of you look not only to his own interest,” yes, we want you to come here and hear the Word so that you could be saved if you are not, or if you're a brother or sister in Christ, we want you to hear how to be the church, so you can be sanctified and build up to your fullest potential in Christ to a mature man or woman of faith. Yes, we want you to grow. We want it to be good for you. But it's not just your own interests, “but also to the interests of others.” You see, you’ve got to go back to Paul going in into Ephesus. What was in it for Paul when he went into Ephesus? See, I'll tell you what was in it for him. Tears and trouble is what he got out of it.
See, it wasn't like, hey, this will work out good for me. This will help me financially, this will help me, this is kind of where I want to live, this will be a nice spot to settle down. No, he came in humility to serve other people, to serve most of all Jesus and see him build his church. And now Paul is saying, hey, you know how this whole thing got started. It got started when I came here to serve, and he's reviewing that. And we’ve got to make sure that's why we gather together, that we come to church not to be served, but to serve. If even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many fun, that's how it needs to be in the church, from the top with Jesus, all the way down to us. We need to be here to serve. And I just want to thank God that there are people here in this church who really live this way. I mean, that from day one, to this very day, there is a growing number of people who serve, and they give tirelessly, and they pour themselves into other people. And they do it not because they care if anybody notices, but they know that Jesus knows what they're doing around here. And so, we praise God for people who have this to-serve mentality here among us. And Paul is saying, this is how to be the church, you've got to start out like Jesus did, where you come to be the servant of all. Now go back to Acts chapter 20, because that's just the first way that he says he was and, and all of these might be reviewed to you. But what we need to start out with, the right foundation, if we're going to be the church, and so Paul saying, hey, let's just review how it was when I was there with you. I was serving the Lord; I was here for Jesus. I was here for you all. And then he says this in Acts 20:20. “how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house.” So, remember how Paul was is our main verb, and then there's participles. First one serving. Now if you're looking at Acts 20:20, for the next participle here, you might think it's declaring how he was declaring or announcing to them, he didn't hold anything back. He didn't shy away from anything. He didn't shrink back. He was announcing to them or how it says, teaching in public from house to house. He taught them both in the big assembly there in the Hall of Tyrannis. Every day he was teaching, but he was also teaching in their homes and in smaller groups as well. And so, but the word here that you don't see in English being the participle, but it is in Greek, it’s that part where it says “anything that was profitable.” What he says is, I was profiting you through announcing all the scripture to you from teaching you in public, and from house to house. No, what he says he was doing is you know how I was, I was profiting you through the preaching of the Word. That's what he says, like there is a benefit when we get together, and we study the Bible. There is a rich treasure of benefit for our souls. That's what we find together in this book, that and even it's amazing how sometimes the things that we learn in this book are that we start out and it's like, whoa, does it really say that in there? Like, yikes, I don't like that, that hurts. That's not how I'm living my life. Who's come to this church, and this word right here has cut your heart like a sword. Anybody experienced that here at this church where you got convicted of sin in your life, and it hurts so bad? And now you're sitting here saying, yeah, I'd like more of that, please, because of the profit it brought to my life. Can I get an Amen from anybody in the congregation?
See, we believe that there is treasure that makes you rich, that opens up to you every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. And so, we have here the Word of God, and when we preach it, whether we preach it like this on a Sunday morning, or whether we're preaching it to one another in a one on one conversation, or a small group fellowship, when we share the Word of God, there is a great benefit to our lives. And so that's what he says, “as I was profiting you when I was teaching you, both in public and from house to house.” And Paul wants to make it very clear here in verse 20, that he didn't shrink from declaring to them and look down at Acts 20:27 because he's going to say it again, “for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” So, I was telling you, whatever God says in his Word, I was explaining it straight to you. I was giving it all to you. I wasn't editing. I wasn't like, oh, they're not going to like that part. Oh, we should hold back about this. No, I was just giving it to you, cutting it straight, exactly what God says I was teaching you any way I could, big groups, small groups, and all of that was for your benefit, to profit you.
Let's get that down for number two: You need to be prepared to profit. You need to be prepared to profit. That is the purpose of our gathering together to hear the word preached. The purpose of our gathering in our fellowship groups is we're going to speak the truth and love to one another. We're going to get to what this book actually says, we're going to hold nothing back from the scripture, and then we're going to see a blessing in our lives. So, it could convict us, and it could cut us to the heart. But that is what the Holy Spirit will use to turn us away from sin, and to sanctify us, to set us apart from that, and to set us apart for his purpose that he would build us up in his truth. Turn with me into 2 Timothy 3:16. Hopefully, a passage that will be review for you, but definitely a passage that inspires us here at Compass Bible Church. That's why we even have the name Compass Bible Church because we have an expectation that when we get together, we're going to study the Bible, and we're going to pray for a revival. That's what we love to do together here. And pretty much anything we do bring your Bible to it because we're going to open it up. We're going to get into it. And it says here in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, this idea that “All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” Okay. And that's our goal. My goal is to equip you to do the work of the ministry.
Another wrong way that people are thinking about church these days is they think that I do the work of the ministry, that the pastors do the work of the ministry, or maybe the deacons, the leaders in the church, they're the ones doing the work of the ministry. No, it's very clear in Scripture that the entire church, it all does the work of the ministry, and we're here to equip you as a man or a woman of God, that you might be equipped to do every good work that God wants you to do. Everybody who's a part of this church is on the ministry team, you're on the encouragement team; we need everybody doing the ministry together. And so, there's a great profit if you want to be corrected from the ways of sin, and you want to be trained in the ways of righteousness, if you want to be equipped for all that God has planned out for you, for all that he saved you to do. Well, that happens as we teach you the Word of God, it profits you in your life, it builds you up so that you can now go and do the work of the ministry yourself, that you can be trained to live a righteous life in the name of Jesus Christ. And so, that's why we gather together, and you could tell people who are like casually listening, and they're like, well, what does this dude have to say, what am I going to get out of this? And then you can tell people who come in here like they expect to hear the very Word of God explained to them, and they think that's going to make a huge difference in their life, it's going to change maybe even the way they live today. This very week is going to be different, there's going to be a benefit. When we hear the Word of God and some people, they're hanging on every single word that God has to say here in this book. And so, do you come here ready to profit? Do you come here ready to say that, hey, I need to be equipped? I need to be ready for all that God has for me. And the best way that that is going to happen is when I get to hear the teaching from the Word of God, whether it's a sermon, or whether I go to my fellowship group, and I talk to them. So that's something that Paul makes very clear.
I want everybody to turn with me back to Acts 20. He said there were multiple ways that this teaching happened. He didn't just say it was through his preaching, his public preaching ministry, to all the people there in Ephesus, the preaching ministry that spread throughout all the cities of Asia where so many heard the Word of the Lord through the preaching of Paul. Now, that wasn't the only way that it happened. He says, yes, it was through preaching in public, or teaching you in public, and from house to house. So, he's saying, this happened both in the big services and the small groups.
Let's get that down there on your notes. Under point number two: The teaching was both big services, and small groups, there was a public instruction and a personal encouragement. And this is something that we need to make very clear was not just happening here in Ephesus with Paul, but this is the pattern we see throughout the church in the book of Acts, whenever the story stays in the city long enough, where we really get to see how that church grows and how the church is built up. We see that they had meetings that worked on both levels, like a massive gathering of people, and then also smaller assemblies of the people, mostly happening in their houses. And so, you can see that they're in Acts 20:20. And then turn back to Acts 2:42. And that was made very clear in the first real description we got of what it was like for life in the church there in Jerusalem. After three souls were saved on the day of Pentecost, when Peter preached the pointy-finger sermon of the gospel of Jesus, and people repented, and they were baptized. Well, how does it describe that? That church, it says in Acts 2:42, “they devoted themselves,” they spent a lot of time in “the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” And it gets more specific down in verse 46. It says, “And day by day, attending the temple together, and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts.” So, the apostles were teaching in the temple in Jerusalem, everybody could walk to the temple, they would hear one of the apostles teach to maybe hundreds or thousands of people there, and then they would go to each other’s’ homes, and have a meal together and probably talk about what they just heard the apostle teach what they had going on in their lives. So, they go straight from walking down in the late afternoon, early evening, we're finishing up our workday we all walk down. There's one of the apostles teaching us and publicly thousands perhaps, and then it's just like, everybody's going to everybody's home for dinner, and the fellowship continues into the night. So, we see this is the pattern of the church in the book of Acts.
Now I understand this is not the pattern of the church in Southern California in our day and age. You tell people you go to church, what we think that means is you go to the big gathering, that's usually what we think. But, no, in the book of Acts, there were big gatherings, and there were small groups. Go over to Acts 5:42. And you'll see that it says this again, Luke being intentional to include this. The two churches you get the most look at, in the book of Acts are Jerusalem and Ephesus. And both of them have this pattern of Acts 5:42. At the end of this chapter, it says, “And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.” So once again, you see that it was happening on the daily, and it was happening in a big group and in people's homes. That's why we have home fellowship groups. That's what we started calling them when we began as a church, because we wanted to establish this dynamic here in Huntington Beach that everybody would be expected to gather together and hear the Word preached. But then we would go and talk about it in smaller groups, and a lot of the groups don't meet in homes because they want to meet here at the church. Because what we've got going on here at the church on Tuesday night and Wednesday night is kids’ ministry, on Thursday night, we got youth ministry. And so, the kids can be doing something while mom and dad are in the fellowship with other believers, and praise God for a whole bunch of new rooms that we can meet in in our new building, everybody. So many groups can be meeting here now. But this is what we would desire for everybody. That's a part of this church, it’s Paul's saying, hey, it got big, and it got small, I was speaking to everybody. And I was speaking to people in a very one-another kind of a way, a very personal, like, I'm really getting to know you, you're getting to know me, and we're sharing, hey, here's the profit I got out of the word. I don't even know what I'm going to do about it yet. I just know that I need this because my life's like this. Will you guys pray for me? People getting honest and real with one another, from house to house, from small group to small group. That's the pattern that we see that there's a profit, not just in hearing the Word, but in being a doer of the Word. And as you go from hearing the Word, and you see it transform your life, you see the benefit of living life the way that God says. Are you getting that full profit, that full benefit as we gather together? Do you come here prepared, hey, I'm going to hear something from God? But it's going to either reinforce something that he's already been doing in my life and encouraged me to continue it, or I'm going to hear something maybe that I haven't really thought through about God before. And that's going to change me from this day forward. And so, I'm ready, whatever God has to say, don't hold anything back. Don't hide the hard stuff from me, bring the book, tell me what God says because I want to be equipped. I want the full benefit. I'm prepared to profit from the Word of God.
And that's what Paul says he was doing is he was serving them, he was profiting them, and then go back to Acts 20 and you'll see the third one. And this one has really been the theme of the entire book of Acts. Okay, this one has really showed us from Acts 1:8, all the way through Jesus said you will be my… anybody remember what he said? You will be my witnesses. Right? And that's what he says here in Acts 20:21. I was “testifying both to Jews and to Greeks.” I was witnessing and that's really the word there. Martureo is the word there in the Greek; it's where the word martyr comes from. It's someone who's testifying or witnessing to what they have seen and heard. And I was telling everybody, I started with the Jews in the synagogue, and they reviled the Way. And so, I went over to the Hall of Tyrannis, and a lot of Gentiles and Greeks came in, and here's what I was witnessing. I was witnessing of repentance toward God and have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. He says, you know what I was doing, I was filling the streets of Ephesus with the name of Jesus, anybody that I had an open door with, I was telling them about Jesus Christ. And I was telling people the response of repenting and believing in who Jesus really is, the Christ that was prophesied, the Savior who came, and the Lord who will reign for all of eternity. Oh, I'm one of the witnesses. You know who I was. I was one of the witnesses.
Let's get that down for number three on your handout: Be one of the witnesses. Be one of the witnesses. You’ve got to decide for yourself whether Jesus just wanted the people at the time of Acts to be his witnesses, or whether Jesus wants all of us to be his witnesses. But he told the original crew there in Jerusalem, you will be my witnesses. And they were. And if you ever get to go to Jerusalem, what an amazing place to go. We've been there several times before it became hard to travel. We've been there together as a church a few times, we've tried to make videos, because it's just so awesome to go walk the streets where Jesus walked in Jerusalem. And if we go there, we have this tour guide, who's become a friend of ours, named Shafiq, and Shafiq he would always talk about how the Christians shout on Easter, he is risen, and then everybody will echo what will we echo. He is risen, indeed, right? And then Shafiq says, the way it's really supposed to go, is somebody shouts, he has risen. Everybody says, He has risen, indeed. And then we all say together, and we are all witnesses. See, are you one of the witnesses? I know, maybe you weren't an eyewitness to the resurrection of Jesus, you didn't watch Jesus, like come through a wall and talk to you, you didn't see him ascend into the clouds. But do you know, by faith that Jesus really is the Christ who died for your sins, and rose again? And have you really died to your old life of sin? And have you risen to a new life by the power in the name of Jesus? Can you testify here today that Jesus really can make you a new creation? So, the old is gone, and the new has come? Are you one of the witnesses of Jesus? See, that's what you're here to be. All you ever got to do for the rest of your life is tell people what Jesus has already done for you, to testify, to witness, to call people to respond. And notice, the response here that he gives is repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus. Repentance. He’s saying, you’ve got to change your mind about how you're living your life. That's what it means. You’ve got to turn from the way that you're living, you're living in idolatry, you're living in sin, you're living in your own self-righteousness, thinking you can be good all by yourself. And you’ve got to change; you’ve got to stop thinking that way. And you’ve got to turn from that way to the new way in Jesus Christ. See, he's calling people to respond. He's calling them to change. See a lot of people, they've come to our church over the last seven years. And we've been trying to make this so clear. I mean, if you've been here for any length of time, I hope that you have heard the three most important words that Jesus says in Mark 1:15, that everybody, because the Kingdom is at hand, you need to repent and believe in the gospel. Can I get an amen from anybody on that? I mean, we're trying to make that clear. And the amount of people that have come to this church and have not heard repentance clearly explained to them, even though they were going to church before, it is a shame what is happening around here. That is not the way John the Baptist was doing it. That's not the way Jesus did it. That's not the way Peter or Paul did it. No, they made it very clear. Hey, you’ve got to have repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
So, let's get that down there for number three: There needs to be both repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, that we are calling people not to just come in and believe and add Jesus on to their life. We are calling people to turn from the way they are living and change so that Jesus becomes their life. And we're not saying it's about you and what you do. I mean, that's my concern. When we review these things that Paul is saying, Paul is saying, here's who I was, I was here to serve. I was here for your profiting from the Scripture. I told it all to you. I was here witnessing to anybody who would listen to me, I didn't care who they were or where they came from. I wanted to tell them that they needed to repent and believe in our Lord Jesus. See, I don't want I don't want to put this pressure, hey, go and be these things. No, the reason you should be these things is because of Jesus Christ. I mean, that's how it ends there in verse 21. This is about our Lord Jesus Christ. And these guys, they already know; he's reviewing it with them. And what really encourages me is I think these are three things that we're talking about here today, that we do know at this church. And I, I couldn't have said that when we got started seven years ago. But I do think that a lot of people here among us could explain to somebody else what it means to repent and believe in the gospel, and it's happening. And people are coming in here, and they're having people witness to them. They're having people testify to the them. Yeah, I used to just go to church, and I used to go through the motions, and then when I really heard the gospel of Jesus, it changed my life, when I really put my faith in Jesus. See, it was a transformation from the inside out in my life. We have people a growing number of people who are servants here, who are ready to speak the truth in love for each other's profit. We don't want to hold anything back that this book says, and we've got people here who are witnesses of the saving power of Jesus Christ, and they know how to tell people to repent and believe. And that's how Paul is saying, and he was there an Ephesus, and that's how we want to be here in Huntington Beach, because that's how Jesus has been to us. Can I get an Amen from anybody on this?
Okay, now, now you're going to say, well, it's hard to be a witness. Who would I witness to? Who would I share all of this with? Well, is anybody going to ask you this week, what you're thankful for? Let me just tell you, if somebody asks you, some relative of yours, somebody you see at a family gathering, somebody that maybe you don't even feel close to, or it could be hard to get along to, or maybe you really do feel very close to them. But you know that they don't believe in Jesus. They haven't repented. I mean, if you have a chance to give thanks publicly, or, or in any house this week, I want to strongly encourage you to give thanks to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ for what he's done in your life. I want to encourage you to be one of his witnesses this very Thanksgiving. Who's going to have a Thanksgiving gathering this week. Anybody in here? All right, if we are going to have a Thanksgiving gathering, we should definitely be saying that I have a lot to give thanks for. And the reason is because of Jesus Christ in my life. You should speak his name and you should make eye contact when you say his name, and you should get a ridiculously big smile all over your mug. You know what I'm saying? I'll tell you what I'm here to give thanks for Jesus. Happy Thanksgiving. I'm serious about this, right now. I grew up in the Blakey family, and we had a tradition of gathering with grandma and grandpa Blakey at their house, I mean, all my aunts and uncles, we did the classic. We did the Classic family thanksgiving gathering, where everybody gets around the big, long table. And there was this one uncle who would always come in late. And I was like, why is this uncle always showing up late, and somebody whispered one time, he's in the CIA. And when I was a kid, I was like, that makes sense to me right there. I believe that. I believe my uncle is a spy, because being a spy is not nine to five. That makes sense why he shows up late, right? Oh, well, thanks, guys. Thanks for this chair. I'll just have a seat. So, when we were sitting in the Blakey family at a table like this, waiting for uncle to show up, right? we would have these meals that my grandma and grandpa would prepare for hours, they would work on these meals and like there was like the adult table and the kids’ table. And I remember when I moved up, does anybody ever remember that transition? I was like, wow, I'm with all the aunts and uncles now. Hey, look at me. Look at me, Bill. Check this out. All right. Hey, right? And of course, what is the centerpiece of the Thanksgiving meal, everybody? Oh, yeah. Let's bring that turkey on out here. I mean, my grandpa, he would work so hard on that turkey, and there it was, and everybody's like, yes. Do you like the dark meat? Or do you like the white meat? Do you want the gravy on there? And you know, at the Blakey family table, nobody was offended that this bird died so we could all eat food, right? So, I mean, that might be controversial at the table these days. Like, can you believe this bird had to die so we could all eat this meal? Like you're going to read about the president pardoning a turkey out there? Well, good job for that guy. But all the other turkeys, not so good for them. I mean, that's why we have that phrase like, you know, where you call people, turkeys because this is how it ends up right here. Like it doesn't work out. Hey, you know, that's interesting because there's somebody else who died so that we could live. It reminds me of something that I think about, the substitutionary atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ. Right. In fact, did you know that it was actually in his body that he bore my sins? When he took my place? You want to talk about a segue, everybody? It's right there in the middle of the table. Right?
This idea of a sacrifice, if you're going to speak about Jesus, I want to encourage you don't give the kids’ ministry Thanksgiving about Jesus Christ. Hey, what are you thankful for? Jesus, right? No, let's tell them what we're really thankful for. I'm thankful that all of my sin was placed on Jesus Christ, and he was my substitute. He died the death that I deserved to die. He took the wrath of God that should have been on me. Hey, once you be thankful if somebody took your judgment? That's what Jesus did for me. He's my substitute. He died in my place. See, we can get more specific than just saying we're thankful for Jesus, we should start… there are there are multiple reasons that you could be thankful for Jesus Christ. One of them is the substitutionary atonement, that it's like your sin was placed on him when he died on that cross in his body on that tree. He died so that you could have eternal life. Now one of the other things that grandma Blakey would spend a lot of time preparing, it's kind of this thing that I was eyeing for years, and I was like, I'm staying away from that stuff. That stuff looks gross. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? Cranberry Sauce, everybody? Cranberry Sauce. And my grandma, she had like this recipe and it was like it had Oh, thank you, sir. That's so kind of you. It but my yeah, my grandma. She had like nuts in the cranberry sauce. Like walnuts and stuff. And I was like passing this on for years. You know what I'm saying? I was like, Look at the color of that thing. You know, that looks gross. Here you go late uncle, you have some more cranberry sauce. You know what I mean? And then one year, I don't know what happened, if maybe I just matured or maybe somebody put pressure on me, but I actually tried the cranberry sauce. And it was delicious. Do you know what I'm talking about? And I immediately regretted my poor life choices all the previous Thanksgivings. Years I wasted. What I could have been feasting sumptuously on. Cranberry sauce. Right? I mean, it adds a perfect complement to the turkey, right? And you know what else is really gross to a lot of people, and they're always like, why are they always hyping this, but then it becomes precious to them later on? It’s the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for our sin. Right? Let me see where I'm going with this, everybody. I'm going to redemption. That's where I'm going. The fact that someone had to pay a price for your sin, yes, it's a free gift of salvation for you. But it came at a high cost to our Lord Jesus. Right? Jesus had to shed his blood to pay the penalty for your sin, like righteous blood was the only thing that could pay. I mean, there had to be death because of sin, specifically, blood, righteous blood, pure blood had to be shed so that you could be saved. Like there was a real cost. That's one of the reasons I'm so thankful for Jesus is because what he had to go through. I mean, he had a crown of thorns in his head, he's bleeding out from his head. He's bleeding out from his hands. He's bleeding out from his feet, and there is a literal pool of blood forming at the foot of the cross. And that's what it cost my Lord to redeem me, to ransom me. I have a redeemer and I want to give thanks to. I want everybody to know that Jesus paid the cost so my sin could be forgiven. Because my sin, it was like a crimson stain. It was like a spill I could never remove. No matter how good I could try to be I could never scrub away the stain of my sin. But when Jesus shed his pure blood for me, he washed my sin away. He washed it as white as mashed potatoes, everybody. That's how white he washed it. Right. Mashed potatoes. Oh, wow. Thank you. Right on cue. Mashed potatoes are like, like these things. Have you ever appealed a sack of potatoes? Have you ever reached in there to get the potatoes and like you get a handful of dirt of like, they should say on sacks of potatoes, dirt included, comes free? You know what I mean? Potatoes, they do not look great when you start working with them, when you're there peeling. I'm thinking how many of these do I need to peel but then because that was my job as part of helping with the preparation. But then when you're passing around the creamy white deliciousness of the mashed potato…
See, this represents right here how you and I are in Christ, you and I, we have an imputed righteousness. It's not a righteousness of our own. It's not a righteousness based on anything that we did. But we were given the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Can I get an Amen from anybody on that? He made him who knew no sin, to be sin, so that you and I could become the righteousness of God. That God doesn't see me as a sinful wretch that I really was, as someone who deserved judgment, apart from God. No, God sees me in the righteousness of his Son Jesus Christ. I will stand before God in a robe of white and he will see me as pure because the righteousness of Jesus, his perfect fulfillment of the law that has been counted to me. So yeah, I'm thankful to Jesus, because somebody who should have never been righteous will be eternally righteous because of the work of Jesus Christ. And so, we're going to have a feast, and we have a chance at that feast to give thanks to Jesus Christ. You can just use anything on the table to start talking about Jesus Christ, or and if you feel like well, that would be awkward for me to pull off, we'll just throw me under the table, bring me up, you should have seen what the pastor did at church on Sunday, right? Oh, man, he was he was ridiculous to comparing cranberry sauce to the there you are right in the blood of Jesus Christ yourself right there. Okay. But that's not the feast, that we have to give thanksgiving. I believe it was right there on your seat, we're going to take communion together. And so, we're going to have our own Thanksgiving feast right now. This is how the early church used to do it, when they would have a meal together, and they would break the bread and they would pass the cup. And they would do it in remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, you can tell when you gather with your extended family or your friends or whoever you gather with later on this week for Thanksgiving, you can say to them right away, this is my second Thanksgiving feast I've had this week. Because I already had my first one, when I gathered together with my church in the name of Jesus, and we got out the little piece of bread there, this little wafer there at the top, if you want to open it up and get it out with me. And then you can open up the cup there. So, we've got this little wafer, and we've got this little cup, and they are reminders to us of the of the sacrifice, that Jesus actually offered his body. And my sin was put on the body of Christ, so that he would die in my place as my substitute. The only reason I have atonement, and that I'm right with God is through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And I remember that in his body, and I also consider that precious blood, and we have not been paid for, we have not been redeemed by silver or gold, or any kind of currency of the world. No, there was only one thing that could pay for your sin. And it is the pure and righteous blood of Jesus Christ that he bled out on that tree, so that you could be forgiven of all your sins. And so, when we take these two things together, that represent the body and the blood, this is a moment for you to say, hey, thank you, Jesus for dying for me. Because I deserve to die. And you died in my place. Is that a reason to give thanks, everybody? So, we want to take a moment to pray right now. And prepare our hearts for this moment of Thanksgiving that we're going to experience. And as we take these elements together, we proclaim Jesus, we proclaim his death until he comes, we proclaim that he is the Christ who suffered and died and rose again, and he will return as Lord. So let me pray for all of us that we would truly give thanks.
Father in heaven, we want to thank you that you gave the gift of your son and that he gave his life. We think about the body that he sacrificed. We think about the blood that was shed. God, we think about the fact that we would have died in our sense if Jesus didn't die for our sins. So, God, please use this time we've had together this morning, use this service, this Thanksgiving feast that we're having right now in communion. And Father, I pray that you will really give us a spirit of thanksgiving, that everybody here will realize that they can give thanks in whatever circumstance they're going through here and 2021. They can give thanks this year because of the body and the blood of Jesus Christ. And as we pray to you right now, our Father in heaven, as you sit there on your throne in your holy splendor, that we can pray to you and you see us as righteous because of what Jesus has done for us, because his righteousness has been given to us. And so, Father, we say here today, thank you to your son Jesus for the body and the blood that you sacrificed on our behalf. That is our salvation. We give you thanks. Amen.
So, let's take this bread, and let's do this in remembrance of the body of Jesus Christ. And let's take this cup and let's remember this is the precious blood of our Lord, that was shared for you.

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