Acts 20.17–38
A sermon preached at Geraldton Anglican Cathedral 15th May 2022
I apologize in advance for this being a “heavy” sermon. There are important things all Christians should know, and for a church seeking a new leader it is important to know what the Bible tells us about Christian ministry.
Joseph Barber Lightfoot was Bishop of Durham from 1879 – 1889. He was a scholar bishop, England’s finest New Testament scholar of the nineteenth century, in fact. He wrote an essay called “The Christian Ministry”, which starts like this:
The kingdom of Christ … has no sacred days or seasons, no special sanctuaries, because every time and every place alike are holy. But above all it has no sacerdotal system. It interposes no sacrificial tribe or class between God and man, by whose intervention alone God is reconciled and man forgiven. Each individual member holds personal communion with the Divine Head. To him immediately he is responsible, and from Him directly he obtains pardon and draws strength.
This is a remarkable statement. He says that Christianity has no sacerdotal system. Sacerdos is the Latin word for a priest; a sacerdotal system is a priestly system. Israel had a sacerdotal system. The tribe of Levi had special responsibility for the temple; the family of Aaron, and later the family of Zadok, were the priests. You couldn’t be a priest if you didn’t belong to the priestly family. So, is Lightfoot saying that to be a priest it is no longer necessary to belong to the priest-family? No. The priests were the go-betweens between God and the people. They offered the sacrifices; no one else was authorized to do so. They dispensed the blessings. Lightfoot is saying Christianity does not have priests like this.
If we turn to our reading we will begin to see where he got this idea.
Now from Miletus Paul sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. (Acts 20.17)
Paul is returning to Jerusalem having established churches in the Roman provinces of Cyprus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Macedonia, and Greece. After he delivers a gift to the church in Jerusalem, he wants to travel to Rome and on to Spain. But he has a reasonable suspicion he will not get out of Jerusalem alive, and does not think he will ever return to Asia. His ship docks at Miletus and a message is sent to nearby Ephesus, the capital of Asia Minor.
Notice in verse 17 that he calls the “elders” to meet with him. These are the leaders of the church or churches in Ephesus. They are called presbuteroi, elders. Jewish synagogues were led by elders, so this is just a continuation of a familiar system. In verse 28 Paul calls these elders, “overseers” (episcopoi), often translated as “bishops”. In the early church most congregations had a number of presbyters whose task was to oversee the life of the congregation. So, they were also called bishops. Only at the end of the first-century did many congregations single out one of the elders and call him the bishop. It was several hundred years later that this elder-bishop, if he was in a city church, became the leader not just of his own congregation, but also of the surrounding churches. That is how our system of diocesan bishops and archbishops began.
In verse 28 the task of an elder-bishop is to “shepherd” the church of God. This is where we get the idea of a pastor. A pastor is a shepherd. It was through studying this and other New Testament passages that J. B. Lightfoot came to realize how the Christian ministry had developed and what it was like at the beginning. Nowhere does Paul call a Christian leader a priest; I will return to that later. He goes on
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. (10.18–21)
Paul reminds them of his own ministry during the two years he spent in Ephesus. He does this because he wants to put them on the right track with their own ministries. Luke included this in his account of the early church for the same reason. He wants pastors to understand their role. I mentioned a couple of weeks back that there was a lot of confusion and disillusionment among the young ministers back then. Society had changed and ministers didn’t have the same respect they used to have. What was our role? Therapy was very popular then, and many reinvented themselves as psychological therapists. I could see that would mean we would be ministering only to damaged and unhappy people. Paul wants the pastors he addresses to remember that the main thing he did he when he was in Ephesus was teach. This is remarkable, because a revival took place in Ephesus. More than any other city we learn about in Acts, Ephesus saw miracles and healings on a scale that affected the whole region. Paul had such a reputation that people were bringing articles of clothing and touching him, and taking them to the sick, and people were being healed. Yet nowhere in this passage does he suggest that healing is part of the work of a pastor. Nor do his letters to Timothy and Titus.
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. (10.22–24)
One thing matters to Paul, to do the job God called him to do, and that he describes as testifying to the gospel of God’s grace. The gospel is the announcement God has made to the world through his Son, the Lord Jesus. It is all we have from outside this world, and we need to hang onto it; it is our key to the future world. It is about God’s grace. That is what makes it so wonderful to Paul, and to everyone else who discovers it. Most people see God as a menace and a threat, even religious people. Paul knows he is kind to the point of suffering abuse and a shameful death to rescue people who hate him. He sees his own task as testimony: he knows the gospel is true; he has seen and heard the risen Lord Jesus for himself, and is able to bear witness. I cannot do that, ad you cannot; but we can make Paul’s testimony known, and Jesus’, and, of course, we all have our own story.
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. (10.25–27)
For the third time Paul impresses upon them the importance of teaching. It may not seem like a big job, but if we are to convince people of the importance of repentance towards God and faith in Jesus, teach them about the gospel of God’s grace, proclaim the kingdom, declare the whole counsel of God, and do these things publicly and from house to house, it means teaching people the whole Bible, and a new worldview. So, it is a big task.
Paul knows it will save people’s lives. If Paul hadn’t handed on what God had given him, he would have their blood on his hands. Embrace his teaching and you will live; shrug it off and you will die. It’s as simple as that. Jesus painted a vivid word picture: “Whoever hears what I say and acts on it, let me show you what he is like. He is like a person who builds a house on rock. When the floods come—and come they will—the house that is built on sand will be swept away.” (Matthew 7) There is only one foundation that will stand the test. “I did not shrink from teaching you the whole counsel of God,” says Paul. This means the whole body of revelation God has given us: the easy bits and the hard bits, the bits we like and the bits we don’t like, the bits that seem relevant, and the bits that don’t seem relevant—not now, but they will be, and if we have not stored them up in our heart, we will fall.
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. (20.28)
Paul is speaking to the church leaders from Ephesus. Luke wants every church leader to hear these words and know what it means to be a pastor-shepherd. Our Anglican forebears built this speech into the service for ordaining ministers.
The bishop says at the ordination of a priest-presbyter:
We exhort you in the name of our Lord Jesus, that you have in remembrance into how high a dignity, and to how weighty an office and charge you are called: that is to say, to be messengers, watchmen, and stewards of the Lord; to teach and admonish, to feed and to provide for the Lord’s family; to seek for Christ’s sheep that are dispersed abroad, and for his children who are in the midst of this naughty world, that they may be saved through Christ for ever.
Have always printed in your remembrance, how great a treasure is committed to your charge. For they are the sheep of Christ, which he bought with his death, and for which he shed his blood …
I said before that Paul never uses the word priest of a Christian minister. The Old Testament cohen and the New Testament hiereus was someone who mediated between humans and God and offered sacrifice for sins. Nowhere in the New Testament is a Christian leader called a priest. This is one of the huge changes that takes place between the Old Testament and the New. Jesus is called our High Priest, every Christian believer is called a priest, but nowhere is a minister or church leader called a priest. The reason is very simple: Jesus became the go-between between us and God, and made reconciliation. Jesus offered the one and only sacrifice needed for our salvation. Paul tells ministers to “shepherd the flock of God which he bought with his own blood.” What an amazing statement: God shed his blood; he bought us with his blood. There is no further need for any further sacrifice. Now, every forgiven person has access by faith to the presence of God. There is no longer any need for priestly go-betweens.
I don’t need to tell you that there are many in the Anglican Church who are seen as priests, and see themselves that way. You may have wondered why you don’t hear that word much around this Cathedral. Doesn’t our Prayer Book have a service for the making of a priest? Words can be confusing, and “priest” has two meanings. The English word “priest” grew from the Greek word “presbyter”. But a thousand years of history meant the elder (presbyter) came to be seen as a sacrificing priest. The word “priest” was used to translate the Hebrew cohen and the Greek hiereus, and Christian elders were confused with Old Testament priests. But as I said, nowhere in the New Testament are these words used of a Christian minister.
As Christianity developed and became accepted as the official faith of the empire Christian leaders came to be seen as priests like the religious leaders of the old pagan religions. These were priests, because they stood between the people and their god and offered sacrifice on their behalf. In time the Lord’s Supper was seen as the sacrifice, and, eventually, the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper came to be seen as the actual body and blood of our Lord. The minister had become a priest, serving at the altar, offering the sacrifice of Christ’s body and blood on behalf of the people’s sins. If you go to a church and see the minister dressed in temple robes, standing at the altar with his back to the people, holding the bread up above his head, while the little bell rings, you are looking at a priest in action. This is how many Anglican ministers understand their role. They may not believe that the bread and wine are physically changed into flesh and blood, but somehow Christ is present in the elements, and he can be offered up again as a sacrifice for people’s sins.
This was the system which developed in the Middle Ages, and was accepted throughout Europe, but began to be seriously questioned as people studied the Bible in the sixteenth century. Many distortions of original Christianity were discovered. The Bible teaches that salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ; it cannot not be dispensed though a church system. The New Testament teaches it is possible to have direct access to God, that Jesus Christ as the sole mediator. This is what Bishop Lightfoot means by “no sacrificial tribe between God and man.” One of the great truths of the Scriptures, which came to fresh light, was that Christ died “once and for all” for the sins of the whole world. (Hebrews 10.10) “Once and for” all means “once and once only.” There is no further need for sacrifice. He does not need to be re-offered. The Holy Communion is a thanksgiving for a sacrifice made once in human history. By trusting in what Jesus did for us once and once only upon the cross we receive eternal life. As Archbishop Cranmer put in our prayerbook service:
All glory to you our heavenly Father, for in your tender mercy you gave your only Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption; who made there by his one oblation of himself once offered (an oblation is an offering to God), a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world …
Those words cost the Archbishop his life. They so undermined the whole sacerdotal system that had grown up, that there was a massive backlash in England. The mediaeval system was restored, but did not last. When Elizabeth came to the throne she brought back the banned prayer book and reestablished the Christianity that three bishops and more than 500 others were burned alive for holding.
Some years ago there was a meeting of Anglican and Roman Catholic theologians to discuss the possibility of recognizing each other’s ministries. The purpose was to explore whether an ordained Anglican priest could be accepted for ministry in the Roman Catholic Church without needed to be reordained, and vice-versa. There was good will on both sides: a desire that it should happen. The Anglicans declared themselves ready to accept Catholic orders, but finally, and with real regret, the Catholics said that it could not be. Why? Because, they said, in your ordination service there is no intention to create a priest—not a priest in the Roman Catholic sense of someone who offered sacrifice at the altar, which they understand as the heart of a priest’s work. And they were perfectly correct. The intention of our Ordination Service is to commission a teacher of God’s Word. And that is exactly what Paul urges on the presbyter-bishops of Ephesus.
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. (20.32)
For the fourth time Paul holds up the word of God, the message of grace, as the all important thing. He says much more, that we do not have time to discuss: warding off error, caring for the poor. But let us take to heart for now that it is the teaching of the Bible that will build people up and give them a place in the world-to-come. And this is not just for the people. It is to build the minister up too, and give him a share of the new world which is coming, which is why our Ordination Service exhorts the new minister to study the Bible every day.
From beginning to end Paul has one thing in mind: God has spoken. He has given us his word in a public, understandable form. And it saves people. No wonder William Tyndale was so eager to translate the Bible into English. At a dinner party someone was holding forth on the danger of giving the Bible to the common people. Tyndale objected: “Sir,” he said, “if God shall spare me, I shall ensure that even the boy who drives the plough shall know more of the Scriptures than you do.”