SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/13/2018
7:06 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Intro to
Acts 20:25-38
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts
20:25-38
Message of the
verses: “25 “And now, behold, I know
that all of you, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, will no longer
see my face. 26 “Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the
blood of all men. 27 “For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole
purpose of God. 28 “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among
which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God
which He purchased with His own blood. 29 “I know that after my departure
savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among
your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the
disciples after them. 31 “Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and
day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with
tears. 32 “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. 33 “I have coveted no one’s silver or gold or clothes. 34 “You
yourselves know that these hands ministered to my own needs and to the men who
were with me. 35 "In everything I showed you that by working hard in this
manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He
Himself said, ’It is more blessed to give than to receive.’"36 When he had
said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. 37 And they began to
weep aloud and embraced Paul, and repeatedly kissed him, 38 grieving especially
over the word which he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And
they were accompanying him to the ship.”
In his commentary on these verses John MacArthur entitles
this chapter in his commentary “A Charge to New Testament Church Leaders.” It looks like that we will take a couple of
Spiritual Diaries to cover the introduction of these verses.
In my experience in working for a large car company for
over 35 years I saw different kinds of leadership, both in the large foundry
that I worked in and also in the front offices of the company located in
Dearborn Michigan. The company would
rise and lower itself due to the good or poor leadership. When we take a look at the Old Testament, and
especially the nation of Israel we see similar things. We begin by looking at the beginnings of the
nation of Israel by looking at Abraham, and then his son Isaac, followed by Jacob
and we see that this little family that God chose to spread His Word kind of
began a bit on shaky ground. However the Lord would use them to begin this task
that He had for them. After ending up in
Egypt where the Lord turned this family of around 70 people into a nation God
raised up Moses who was a wonderful leader as he led the nation of Israel out
of Egypt and onto the Promised Land.
Next we see Joshua leading in children of Israel into the Promised Land
conquering many nations who were very sinful, and God promised to destroy when
he spoke to Abraham in Genesis chapter 15.
As we continue to look at the leadership of Israel from that time onward
it was not really the best with a few exceptions we find in the book of
Judges. Finally God raises up Samuel to
lead the children of Israel, but they wanted a king and so God gave them the
kind of king they asked for in Saul, a very poor leader. God would then raise up David, a man after
His own heart who would be a great leader and would also with God’s calling
begin a dynasty all the way to the Messiah.
Between the time of David and the coming of their Messiah there were
many poor leaders, with a few good ones too.
As we move to the New Testament times we see the very
poor leadership of the Pharisees who our Lord condemned on many occasions. After His death and resurrection the church
of Jesus Christ began and once again the need for good leadership is
needed. The apostles as part of their
job were to begin to preach the gospel, begin churches and then appoint good
leaders in the churches that they founded.
This mostly happened with the apostle Paul and we have seen on his first
missionary journey with Barnabas that they accomplished this task as they appointed
leaders in the churches that they began.
In our portion of the book of Acts we see Paul talking
about the importance of good leadership to the Ephesian elders whom he stopped
off to see on his way to Jerusalem. John
MacArthur writes that “Before giving them the priorities of leading the church,
Paul laid a foundation by summarizing his own ministry at Ephesus. He opened on a sad note, informing them, ‘I
know that all of you, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, will see
my face no more.’ He had served with
them for three years, and his work with them was done. Having been taught and disciple by the
apostle, they were ready to minister on their own. The term ‘kingdom’ encompasses God’s rule in
the sphere of salvation, not just the future millennial reign of Jesus Christ
(cf. Acts 28:31). ‘Preaching the kingdom’
meant proclaiming the gospel, the good news that sinners in the realm of Satan,
death, and destruction (‘the kingdom of darkness’) could enter the realm of
salvation, life and glory (‘the kingdom of God’s Son’). Paul preached this gospel thoroughly and
clearly, as he indicated in verses 20 and 27.”
We will continue to look at this introduction to these
verses in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I know the
importance of having good leadership in the church as I have been a part of
churches with very good leadership that turned into not good leadership, which
caused us to leave and find a church with good leadership which we go to at
this time.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to give me the grace I need as
I continue to face some challenges in my life.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “They were torn by two bears”
(2 Kings 2:23-24).
Today’s Bible
question: “What does the officer of the
law not bear in vain?”
Answer in our next SD. 7/13/2018 7:50 AM
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