A Prayer for People (Acts 20:32)

Paul’s farewell address to the elders in Ephesus is a very moving one. We have heard of people saying farewell to those that they did not expect to see again in this world, and how emotive the experience was. Paul knew that he would not see those elders again and he gave them several exhortations about imminent dangers facing the church in Ephesus. We can read about the development of those dangers in 1 Timothy which was written by Paul to him in Ephesus where he had gone to deal with those issues.

The address also gives encouragement for the elders in Ephesus and that is how our text would be described. We can see from what it contains that it could also be applied to all who belonged to the church there, and how it can be applied to us. Its basic focus is the importance of the Word of God and what it can do for us and in us and through us.

The prayer

Prayer has many different forms. It can be described as petition, adoration, intercession, confession, thanksgiving, fellowship, and numerous other ways. Paul uses the word ‘commend’ to describe his prayer for them. Other versions have the word ‘commit’. The word has the idea of deliberately placing someone somewhere. Paul took those men and placed them in the care of God. It was a definite action, a loving action, a wise action, a beneficial action. And is prayer not meant to be all these things? The other things he mentioned in his prayer were connected to this action of his heart.

To whom did Paul commend them? He placed them into the care of God. Obviously, the apostle knew about the capabilities of God, his power and wisdom. Alexander MacLaren suggests that ‘Here had Paul been carrying the Ephesian Church on his back for a long time now. He had many cares about them, many forebodings as to their future, knowing very well that after his departure grievous wolves were going to enter in. He says, “I cannot carry the load any longer; here I lay it down at the Throne, beneath those pure Eyes, and that gentle and strong Hand.” For to commend them to God is in fact a prayer casting the care which Paul could no longer exercise, upon Him.

But he did not only commend them to God in general. Rather he did so in a distinct way because he commended them ‘to God and to the word of his grace’. We should not separate God and his Word. How did he know that God would welcome his action of commending? How did he know what he was commending them to experience? The only place that could tell him the answers to those kinds of questions was the Word of God.

What is the Word of God about? In a certain sense, one could give many answers to that question. But is there one overall theme that covers its core message? There is, and it is the word ‘grace’. The Bible is all about God’s unmerited favour to sinners, his great salvation devised in eternity past, procured in time by Jesus, and which will be unfolded in the eternity to come. Within that brief description is contained a host of amazing features, each of them being an expression of God’s free grace to the unworthy. Obviously, it is important to know what God has planned and promised so that such a prayer becomes an expression of faith.

This action of the apostle as he stood on the beach at Miletus was one of incredible brotherly love. But it was also an action of a man who had his eyes on the future. He looked ahead, realised what was coming, and informed them of what he had done on their behalf. He had placed the future of the church in Ephesus into the hands of God. And in doing so, he is an example for all of us to imitate as we see the various crises facing the church of today.

The project

The apostle refers to a divine project for which the word of God is essential. It is important to remember that the ‘you’ is plural, so Paul is not advocating an isolationist Christianity. What ideas come from this project language of building up, of becoming mature?

I read an article on spiritual maturity and in it the author mentioned some details that don’t in themselves indicate Christian maturity: grey hair, one-off experience, Bible knowledge, and the possession of spiritual gifts. These things can be present in a person who is not being built up in the faith. So what is maturity? It is ongoing pursuit of the goal of Christlikeness, a goal that is never achieved in this life, but which remains the aim of every true believer.

Obviously, it is God that does the building but in his Word he informs us how he will do it. How does he build it? First, he builds it on a good foundation. Jesus is the foundation, but how do we get on to that foundation? There is only one way, and that is by becoming one of his people. We have to be converted through faith in Christ.

Second, we grow by consecration, and we are enabled to do this through the work of the Holy Spirit. There is no growth without some dedication and determination. Obviously, every Christian could have experienced greater growth, but every Christian must experience some growth. It is impossible to be a Christian and not grow in grace.

Third, in order to grow, there has to be constancy. If you pass a building in the process of being erected and there is no-one working on it, then you can assume that there will be no growth at that time. With regard to a literal building, the workers may have a reason for not continuing with their work. Perhaps they are waiting for some material. But that should not happen if a person grows in grace.

Fourth, the use of correct tools is essential. The tools that God uses is the means of grace, both private and public. Less use of the tools means less growth in grace. How much can we grow? As much as God can enable us is one answer. As much as we put into it depending on his power is another answer. And we have to keep both of those aspects in balance. We understand the Bible better the more we study it. We receive more answers to prayer if we pray more. But the goal is always to become like Jesus, which reminds us of a fifth requirement for being built up, which is conformity to the likeness of Jesus.

The present

Paul also reminds the Ephesian elders of God’s gracious decision to give to them a place in his inheritance. The word ‘inheritance’ reminds us that God’s people are heirs. Indeed we know from Romans 8 that they are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus. This inheritance has future and present aspects.

On the Day of Judgment, according to his parable stated in Matthew 25, the people of God will be invited by Jesus to inherit the kingdom prepared for them from before the foundation of the world. It has been prepared for them in the sense that it was in the mind of God the Father. All its features and details will be the outcome of his meticulous and perfect planning. It will be suitable for them and satisfying for them.

Another way of describing the inheritance is to think of it as the new heavens and new earth. Whatever else that description brings to mind, it does inform us of ample space. Sometimes we hear of someone who has inherited a great estate. Because that person has received it, it means that other people don’t receive it. But that will not be the case in the eternal inheritance of God’s people. It will be a universe to be shared by them forever.

Yet there are present aspects to the inheritance which are brought into the experience of God’s people through the working of the Holy Spirit in their hearts, who is described by Paul in Ephesians 1 as working in believers as a foretaste of the inheritance. Although they are yet in the world of imperfection, they can experience blessings from the world of perfection such as the sense of the peace of God in their souls, of the love of God for them being shed abroad in their hearts, and of them being given the joy of the Lord as their strength and outlook. This experience can fluctuate because it can be affected by their remaining sin. Nevertheless, they are God’s heirs as his children.

One aspect that is found in both the present and future experiences of the inheritance is that it involves real contact with Jesus. One way of thinking about this is to consider Jesus through his offices of prophet, priest and king. He will perform those offices in the world to come, although in ways different from how he engages in them now in this world. But he is our prophet to teach us, our priest to help us, and our king to rule over us. In this life, he teaches us about the kingdom, he sympathises with us in our weakness, and he sends us divine strength through the Holy Spirit, and he rules over us and protects us from the hostile powers ranged against us. As far as his fulfilment of those roles in the world to come are concerned, we will need to go there and find out what they are, because we cannot even imagine what they will be.

The people

Paul describes believers as those who are sanctified. The tense of the word sanctified is the perfect tense and the word refers to what God has done with them in the past rather than what he is doing in them in the present (although the former guarantees the latter). He had set them apart for himself, they are his possession, and they are valued highly by him. They are all God’s heirs, waiting for the kingdom to appear when Jesus returns at the end of the age.

Lessons

What lessons can we take from this emotive statement of the apostle Paul? I have three.

First, in what way do we pray for one another? Do we take the time to commend one another into the care of God, to deliberately place one another into his hands as we think about one another living for Jesus in the world? We would do that with our earthly families, would we not, if we needed to get help for them from someone with the ability to help them? We should do it frequently for one another as an expression of brotherly love.

Second, do we take the time to ensure that we are growing, that we are being built up in the faith? Or are we like a building on which the work has stalled and maybe a building in which weeds are beginning to appear because we have not focussed on what should be our priority, our own spiritual state. Such a building may not be far from collapsing.

Third, do we take the time to look at God’s inheritance as it exists today? There is only one location in the world where we can currently see it. The Christian church is the only place in the world today where anyone can see the inheritance of God. We see the heirs of the kingdom receiving foretastes of the kingdom before it comes in its fullness.

I would say that those three lessons are obvious from these wonderful words of the devoted servant of Jesus, the apostle Paul. He said them to the elders of Ephesus, but I reckon if he were on earth today he would also say them to us.