August 26 2007 Reading: Acts 20.17-38

Theme: The Church and the good news of Jesus Christ.

There was a great split in the Church of Scotland in 1843, when some 300 ministers, led by Thomas Chalmers, got up and left the General Assembly, which was meeting down at St. Andrews and St. George’s. They marched down to Tanfield Hall at Stockbridge, and there formed themselves into the Free Church. Historians, scholars, commentators have given many reasons why all this happened. Trouble had been brewing for a number of years – to do with who had the right to choose the minister – the congregation or, for example, the local landowner ?

Historians tell us that on a snowy winter’s morning, the 21st. of January 1841, a new minister was introduced to the parish of Marnoch. He was the choice of the local landowner, not of the congregation. On that morning the entire parish of 2000 turned out, one of their number read out a protest and then they returned to their homes, leaving the church empty. It was said that on that cold winter’s mornign the crisis in the Church had come to a head.

However, Hew Scott, a rather eccentric keeper of the records of the Church of Scotland had another explanation. He thought the trouble at Marnoch had all started at a presbytery visit some months before. Tea was due to be served for the presbytery at one of the two manses in the district and when the tea was switched from one manse to the other, feelings ran very high between the rival manses. I should know, said Hew Scott, I was there at the tea. He insisted that that was where the trouble started !

Whatever we think of the explanations for those troubles long ago, they do have something of reality about them, real human life. Whether the trouble started with opposition in the congregation, or with a presbytery tea, whether with with petty differences, or principled actions these are all part of the complexity of such matters - the real stuff of human life, and Church life itself.

There is much that is very striking about the Word as it is contained in the book of Acts, chapter 20. What we read there is the real stuff of human life, and Church life too. The book of Acts records for us that dramatic farewell, the dramatic final moments of Paul’s farewell on the beach at Miletus. Paul had called the elders together from the Church at Ephesus for a last meeting before he left for Jerusalem. There in the late afternoon, Paul took his leave of them on the shore. And Paul tells them, poignantly, that he will never see them again. With the gentle sound of the waves on the sand, the soft breeze rising and falling, many of these grown men have tears in their eyes.

But actually, there is also the real stuff of human life, and Church life itself in what Paul had to say to the elders before he finally says farewell. What does he say to them ? For three intensive years, Paul says, I have declared the gospel to you in Ephesus, the full gospel. I have lived among you, serving you. I have explained to you the riches of God’s will, and declared to you the good news of Jesus Christ, of His death and resurrection (v.28).

The message that Paul had preached over those years is the message of the gospel. That Jesus Christ, offering Himself for us, has taken the old sinful human self to the cross and there in His death on the cross He has broken the power of sin over us, broken the power of sin for us. In the resurrection of Jesus there is a new beginning – life is no longer lived under the power of sin, or the shadow of death – but in the power of the new life that is in Jesus.

The result of this message was a Church in Ephesus – a community of tradesmen, merchants, market stallholders, slaves – finding forgiveness for sin in the death of Jesus Christ , and new life in Him. A little community of men and women in the midst of the old era of sinful human life, and despair, and injustice – responding to the gospel of Jesus Christ, trusting in the Father’s love.

There is something dramatic in the thought of that little group of elders on the beach at Miletus, the little congregation struggling, fighting for its existence, the long farewell on the shore. But what strikes us is the realism of what Paul has to say to them. He makes quite clear the threat that faces them, the outside threat from beyond of the Jewish agitators who will come in among them, like ’savage wolves’, Paul says. These men will come to try and deflect the men and women of the Church in Ephesus, try and dislodge them from the bedrock foundation of - sin forgiven at the cross and new life in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And not only will there be dangers from outwith the congregation, Paul says, but also from within ! There will come a time, says Paul, when even from the congregation itself there will arise those who will distort the truth. Paul is under no illusions about the reality of sin, that power which turns men and women away from the living God, the loving Father, the gospel of Jesus.

So - Paul’s speech here on the beach at Miletus, is hard hitting and realistic. He is quite clear about the human faults and failings, the power of sin to turn men and women away from life in God. What Paul is saying is that the Church at Ephesus knows the fulness of Jesus Christ, but they are still sinful ! Sin, is there, in the life of the Church: lying under it like a hidden and dangerous reef.

And what Paul says here to the elders at Ephesus, he says to many of the churches he writes to in his letters: What happened to you ? he writes to the Galatians – you had Christ crucified portrayed before you – and yet… things have gone wrong. To the Church at Corinth he writes: we preached Christ and Him crucified to you… and yet, here you are, splitting apart, arguing among yourselves.

So, with these dangers, it does make you wonder why Paul was leaving. How could he leave the Church at Ephesus, if he knew, as the old hymn says, that they would be “tossed about, with many a conflict, many a doubt, fightings and fears within, without”. How could he leave ? Today, if a congregation was in this situation, after some discussion the minister, pastor, worship leader would say to the Church authorities – “Well, I cannot leave at the moment, I will stay until things have been sorted out – until all this is settled.” Not so Paul, he is leaving, quite literally, on the next boat, on his way to Jerusalem.

So – given the threats, the challenges facing the Church at Ephesus – the question is, how could he leave ? How could Paul leave ? How could Paul leave Ephesus at that difficult time ? The answer is there. He can leave, because he commits the elders and all the congregation at Ephesus to the only true source of life, and strength – Jesus Christ and His cross, the bedrock, the wellspring of their life. Paul can go, can leave them, knowing the threat they face, the realities of their situation, because he points them to the greater reality of their strength in Christ, in the power of their loving Father in heaven. How beautifully the Good News Bible puts it: “ And now I commend you to the care of God and to the message of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you the blessings God has for all His people” Is Paul saying, there on the beach at Miletus “You’re on your own” ? No ! he points them to, commends them to the care of their loving Father in heaven, and to the Holy Spirit who guides, purifies, strengthens them – the Spirit who leads them into the living truth of Jesus Christ and His cross.

Do you see the significance of Acts 20 ? Here is the reality of Church life. The dark and the light of Church life. The Church is not perfect, and neither are we. Like the Church at Ephesus, we have our own challenges from outside. On the inside, to be realistic, we are weak in faith. But the great and ringing declaration of the living Word through Paul is, that we have the light of Jesus Christ, the good news of His death and resurrection. And we have His Spirit at work among us to guide, purify, strengthen us – to lead us all the while into the living truth of Jesus Christ and His cross.

AMEN.