Trinity 8
Acts
20:27-38
8/10/25
“Therefore I testify to you this
day that I am innocent of the blood of all.” That is what Paul says in the
verse just before our text – the verse that introduces the statement, “for I
did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.”
Paul is in the midst of addressing the
elders – the pastors – from the area of Ephesus who had gathered to meet him at
the port of Miletus. The apostle had
concluded his third missionary journey, and now he was travelling to
Jerusalem. He was in a hurry to get to there,
and hoped to arrive by Pentecost.
His trip along the eastern
Mediterranean would take him past Ephesus. Paul had ministered in that city for
nearly three years. He knew many people
there and wanted to see them. But if he went into Ephesus it would probably
turn into a long visit that would slow him down. So instead, Paul called the pastors of the
area to come out to the port city of Miletus to meet him.
The visit was probably not what these
pastors expected. Paul said that
hardship awaited him in Jerusalem. He told them, “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.” In fact, the apostle said that this was the
last time they would see him.
Paul believed that this visit provided the opportunity for his last words to them. And so he announces, “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.” Paul declared that he was innocent if anyone did not receive salvation. He was innocent because he had been faithful and had not held back. He had declared the whole counsel of God.
Earlier in his address the apostle had explained what this meant. He said that despite the plots of the Jews, “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.”
Paul said that the whole counsel of
God meant repentance. He had preached
the law that revealed the sins of man.
He did this because God is going to judge all people on the Last
Day. At Athens he said, “The times of
ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people
everywhere to repent,
because
he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in
righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given
assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
Jesus Christ will judge all people in
righteousness. He will deliver the just judgment of the holy God. And that is not
good news for you, because you are guilty as sinners who break God’s law. Paul
told the Romans, “For there is no distinction:
for all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Every sin is a sin committed against
God. Your failure to trust God; the false gods of wealth, sports, and hobbies
that you put before him; the hatred and jealously in your heart; the lust and
coveting; the angry words and gossip that harms your neighbor’s reputation –
these are all sins that you commit against God as you violate his will and
ordering of life. This sin cuts a person off from fellowship with God. And it
will result in God’s damnation on the Last Day.
But Paul also says that the whole
counsel of God involves faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. In our text the apostle addresses the pastors
and says, “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.”
Paul refers to the church of God. And then he says God obtained the
church – he made it his own – with his own blood. It is a striking phrase – the statement that
God did this with his blood. Yet it is true, because of who Jesus Christ is.
Christ is the Son of God – the One who has eternally existed with
the Father and the Holy Spirit as the triune God. He is the One who made the
cosmos. Paul told the Colossians, “For by him all things were
created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were
created through him and for him.”
But in the fullness of time, according to his plan and will, the
Father sent forth the Son into our world as he was born of a woman. Conceived by the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ
was born of the virgin Mary. He was a human being. But he did not cease to be God. His divine
and human natures were united in the personal union found only in Jesus Christ.
God is the just God who judges sin. He sent his Son, Jesus Christ,
to take our place and bear our sin. The
Old Testament had declared that the Christ would suffer and die. Jesus
fulfilled this as he received God’s judgment when he died on the cross. By the
shedding of his blood – the blood of the incarnate Son of God – he paid the
price for our sin. God redeemed us – he freed us and made us his own through
the blood of the Son of God. And then God raised Christ from the dead on the
third day as the One in whom we now receive life – life with God, and
resurrection life on the Last Day.
Baptized into Christ, you now receive this forgiveness. Ananias
told Paul, “Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on
his name.” As our text says, you have received “the inheritance among all those
who are sanctified.” In God’s eyes you are longer a sinner. Instead, in Christ
you are a holy one – you are a saint.
The Father sent forth the Son to carry out his saving will. The Son
redeemed us through his suffering, death, and resurrection. The Holy Spirit has
called us to faith through the word and baptism. Therefore the church is the
church of God.
And we learn in our text that God has provided for the care of his
church. He does it through pastors in the Office of the Holy Ministry. Paul
says to the pastors, “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.”
Christ instituted the Office of the Ministry to administer the
Means of Grace, and to care for the church. We learn in our text that the Holy
Spirit works through the church to place a man in the Office of the Ministry in
each location. There he is to serve as
an overseer – the word that will later come to be mean bishop. He is to care for the church of God –
literally “to shepherd it” – for that is what pastor means. He is a shepherd for God’s flock.
The pastor is placed by the Holy Spirit as the one who cares for
Christ’s people in that place. Paul told the Thessalonians, “We ask you,
brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in
the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of
their work.” Peter tells us that the pastor
is to shepherd the flock of God that has been allotted to him.
It is Christ’s Office of the Ministry, and the Holy Spirit has
placed the pastor. Therefore, congregation members recognize the authority the
pastor has in spiritual matters as he cares for them. But this also has the
most serious implications for the pastor.
These are the people Christ redeemed. God has given the pastor the
responsibility to care for them. And so the pastor is accountable to God to
do so. The writer to the Hebrews says, “Obey your leaders and submit
to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will
have to give an account.”
It is for this reason that Paul says, “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.” Paul could say that he was innocent because
he had been faithful and had not held back. He had declared the whole counsel
of God. We see this in his letters, which are really long distance sermons.
Paul declares God’s will – his law. He does this to reveal sin. But
that’s not the only reason. He also does
this in order to exhort and encourage Christians to live in ways that are true
to God’s will. God has made them holy in Christ, and now by the Spirit of
Christ they seek to live in holy ways.
This meant saying things that the first century world did not want
to hear – things that the twenty first century world once again does not want
to hear. In reading Paul’s letter it is impossible to miss how often he talks
about sex and marriage. He does so
because these are fundamental to how God has created us as male and female, and
how he has ordered his creation. But he also does this because God’s will for
sex and marriage is completely contrary to what the world then and now says.
Paul tells us that sexual union joins husband and wife together as
one flesh. God created it for this
purpose and couples are only to engage in sexual intercourse within marriage.
This was completely alien to Paul’s world, just as it to ours today. But this
is God’s will – it is the way he has ordered his creation. To engage in
persistent sexual sin – especially as we see it in those who live together
outside of marriage – brings God’s judgment. It drives out the Holy Spirit and
leads to unbelief – an outcome that sadly I have seen in my ministry as a
person chooses their sexual sin and rejects life in Christ’s Church.
The apostle teaches God’s will that marriage is a one flesh union,
and that it is a one flesh union for life. The Greco-Roman world had no fault divorce
long before it showed up in California in 1969. Paul teaches us that seeking divorce
apart from sexual unfaithfulness or complete desertion and abandonment of
marriage is sin.
Instead, husbands and wives are to live in the commitment of
marriage – they are to live in the one flesh union that has been established by
God. This means that as they live in
Christ each put the needs of the other ahead of themselves. In particular,
husbands love their wives with the sacrificial love by which Christ loved us. Wives recognize the headship of the husband. Spouses
both seek to fulfill the sexual needs of the other, for sexual intercourse is
an expression of their unity and serves to reinforce it. And spouses admit when
they are wrong and ask for forgiveness, even as they speak the six most
powerful words in marriage: “I forgive you for Jesus’ sake.”
As Paul said farewell to the pastors at Miletus he urged, “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.” The apostle points us to the same thing – to God’s gracious
word. In the Scriptures we receive the
good news of the forgiveness and life with God that we have in Jesus Christ. We
receive instruction about how to live the life in Christ.
The Holy Spirit works through the word that he has inspired. And so
Paul says that it is able to build us up. It is this word that sustains faith
and so it is able to give us the inheritance among all those who are
sanctified.
But in order for the word to do this, we must read it. It must be
part of our daily life. And so as your pastor I commend you to God’s gracious
word. I urge you to commit yourself to
the daily reading of Scripture. And
here, a little more is always better. I encourage you to use the pattern for
Daily Devotion found in the bulletin and on the church website, and the
Scripture readings included in it. You can easily access the text in the Treasury
of Daily Prayer, in the CPH InPrayer app, and through the link in our
website. The Holy Spirit will work through this word to build you up in your
life in Christ.
Paul said to the pastors at Miletus, “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.” Pastors have been charged with proclaiming
God’s word – all of it – both law and Gospel.
They have been placed by the Holy Spirit in the Office of the Holy
Ministry to care for God’s people the church, because you are the ones who have
been obtained with his own blood – the blood of the Son of God.
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