#DailyDevotion Pastors Hold Fast To The Word Of Grace

Acts 20:27-38 ²⁷because I didn’t shrink from telling you God’s whole plan.²⁸“Take care of yourselves and the whole flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you spiritual overseers to be shepherds of God’s church that He bought with His own blood. ²⁹I know when I’m gone fierce wolves will come among you and not spare the flock. ³⁰And even some of your own men will start to tell perversions of the truth to get the disciples to leave and follow them. ³¹So watch and remember how for three years, day and night, I didn’t stop warning everyone with tears. ³²And now I entrust you to God and to the Word of His grace, which can build you up and give you the salvation to be shared by all who are made holy. ³³“I didn’t want anyone’s silver or gold or clothes. ³⁴You know these hands worked for what I needed and for the men with me. ³⁵In every way I showed you that by working hard as I do we should help the weak and remember what the Lord Jesus said: “We are more blessed when we give than when we receive.” ³⁶When he had said this, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. ³⁷They wept very much, put their arms around Paul, and kissed him. ³⁸It hurt them most of all that he had said they wouldn’t see him again. Then they took him to the ship.

Such words St. Paul gives to the elders from Ephesus before he goes to Jerusalem where he faces most certain persecution, arrest and eventually sent to be judged by Caesar and executed. Those who lead the Church should take these words to heart.

First the Church belongs to Christ Jesus, the LORD. He bought it with with his own blood. There is a deep theological statement by Paul here. He actually doesn’t say Jesus. He says God purchased the Church with his blood. But neither God the Father nor God the Holy Spirit became man and shed their blood. Jesus is the one who shed his blood which means Paul is saying here Jesus is God. You should mark this verse in your memory to counter those who say Jesus isn’t really God but just a/the Son of God (as if that means he isn’t God). So Jesus is God and he purchased the Church with his blood. The Church belongs to him. It doesn’t belong to the pastors, bishops, presidents of congregations, the oldest member of a congregation or a founding member of a congregation. It belongs to Jesus.

As after Paul so in our days, some of our own men and women will tells perversions of the the truth to get disciples and follow them. They often say we have to teach certain things and not teach other things in order to win disciples for Jesus. The truth is, they are just trying to get foolish people to follow them, people who love darkness and not light.

We are, pastors and laymen, to see we stick to the Word of God’s grace which builds us up and gives us the salvation which is to be shared with all who are made holy through the waters of baptism. That Word of grace is the good news God became man, shed his blood to free us from sin and death, and offers this gift of salvation to all men freely, calling us to turn from our sin and to turn to Jesus for grace, mercy and peace. As Christ Jesus worked hard to gain salvation and to freely give it to us, we should work hard to have something to give freely to the weak and those in need. “For we are more blessed when we give than when we receive.” Jesus is the most blessed but we are called to follow in his example.

Merciful God and Father, grant us your grace to have faithful pastors and teachers who stick firm to the Word of grace, who submit to the Christ Jesus, the Lord of the Church, so we may receive your mercy and be merciful to those we meet. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.