All right, Acts chapter 20. And we'll be finishing this chapter this evening, which we've been on this section for a little while. As I mentioned to you at the very beginning I was doing that, I knew that I would do that because this is a very personal passage as the Apostle Paul was writing this, or pardon me, speaking this charge to the Ephesian elders as he had drawn them to come and hear him and wanted to meet with them on his way to Jerusalem. And so very, very intimate words that the Apostle Paul gave to them, personal words And so finishing that this evening, he has finished his charge to them, verses 36 through 38, when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down and prayed with them all, and they all wept sore and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him to the ship. And I told you this morning that this, and it's in the bulletin, the title is Leaving Well. And this, It's a thought that has been in my mind as I've gone through this passage of scripture, I thought Luke recorded this, Luke wrote it down and he had important things for us to say, it's a part of the narrative but there are also lessons to learn from it. If it's in the word of God it's important for us to know and I suppose it's a dangerous thing for a pastor to say I'm preaching on how to leave well, that's not the intent at all because really as I mentioned this morning also that there is application to a bunch of other things in life and we'll kind of give those to you in the introduction. Sometimes our leaving may be from ministry. Obviously I'm here now but I have been in several other ministries throughout life. The church that we were just speaking of, Crossroads Baptist Church in Columbus, North Carolina, though I was not in vocational ministry there I was the song leader. I preached many times there because Nathan was in Mexico with Jenny as she was enduring cancer. I taught at the adult Sunday school class and So I functioned in, I guess you could say, a vocational, non-vocational way while I was there. But we left that ministry and we came here. Before that, we had been in Paxton, Illinois for 15 years. Before that, we had been back in North Carolina for two years at the church there, Maranatha Baptist Church. And again, I did music a fair amount there. I taught a college and career Sunday school class in that church. Before that we had been in Belvedere, Illinois for two years where I was an assistant pastor and we left that church and before that we had been at Maranatha Baptist Church in North Carolina for a couple of years after we were married and while we were in college and before that I had been in First Baptist Church of Wayland and left there to go prepare for ministry at Ambassador Baptist College. So when we're looking at this idea of leaving well which Paul does here with his verses 36 to 38 Sometimes it may be for ministry and most of the times I've left ministry it has been good, maybe not easy but good. You understand that it doesn't necessarily have to be easy even if it is the right decision to make. When I left Wayland I loved the people there, that had been my church for many, many years. Dad had been pastoring there at the time for probably close to 10 years. and nine years I guess there and I had grown much in that particular church and they commissioned me to ministry, they licensed me to preach and had done much for me in preparation for ministry there in life. And so I left there and was sent by the grace of God to Bible college to prepare for ministry. And then I think of the church where I was the assistant pastor in Illinois. And that wasn't necessarily a bad departure. I was the assistant pastor, but I would do things differently then, or now than I did then. The church was in a very difficult situation financially. We had a Christian school that had had about a hundred students in it. end of the Christian school was getting ready to close and yet we had about 15 teachers that we had to pay through the end of the summer for their contracts. the cost of tuition was ending in May and so the church was going to have a huge deficit for the summer and I had been feeling the Lord's direction for various reasons to go back to school and when I resigned I told the pastor I said why don't I just give two weeks notice and then that will save you know it normally would be 30 days or you know in ministry that'll save half of my month's salary for the month and that will help the church through the financial crunch of this summer as the Christian school is closing down. So I thought it was logical to me the sooner the better but that didn't work so well with some of the people because there were rumors even after I left, oh boy what was going on, why did he leave so fast and what was going on with him and pastor and so forth. And there wasn't anything but it allowed rumors. And so sometimes those kinds of things happen. When I left Grace Baptist Church in Paxton, it was as good of circumstances as, I mean, or as good of a relationship as we could have. They didn't want us to go and, you know, it was just necessary for the sake of our family at the time. But we left in good relationship. And all that to say that sometimes leaving may be for ministry, it may happen that way. Most of us are going to look back over some of those times and think, I wish I would have done that differently. Sometimes for leaving it may not even be a pastor, it may be from one town to another. I remember one of our deacons in our church in Illinois was a very good friend of mine. He and I had spent a lot of time together. He was one of our deacons. He had been on the committee where we wrote our constitution bylaws and doctrinal statement. We had spent every other Tuesday night for two years together doing that and talking through doctrine and theology and church functioning and so forth. And then he was one of our deacons while he was there. Well, his job transferred him a couple of hours away. And that was really hard because he was close. I mean, as far as a friend, the relationship was close, but the Lord had clearly done that. And so it was because of a job, there wasn't anything wrong with the church and they found a good church over there. But we still missed him, it was still hard to see him go, their family. Sometimes it's from one job to another, sometimes it's from one town to another, sometimes it may even be moving from one church to another and in a near locality. I've pastored people before who have left the church where I've been pastoring and say we just believe for various reasons we should be going to this church and so forth, I don't necessarily or haven't necessarily always agreed but when that happens I've always had this, if I've lost the ability to pastor you I want you to be somewhere where you will be growing. And so that's been my mindset whenever people have left the church, I don't necessarily always like it but it happens. Sometimes leaving may be for the sake of growth and this would be when I referred to myself leaving First Baptist Church of Wayland, Missouri and going to Bible college, that was the Lord's direction, it was the next step in my life. I think of John, John's going to be back home now for eight months but then he's going to go to Maranatha Baptist University. And so we'll have him again for a little while and then he'll be home for breaks and maybe for the summer and so forth. But the anticipation is that he's stepping up to the next place that God has for him and those kinds of things happen. There's another way that I think is probably going to be very practical for most of us where we may be leaving and that's death. We're all going to eventually leave this church. If the Lord tarries it's going to happen with all of us and Gilead might be thinking that's a ways away. might be another 70 years for him but we're all going to leave and when I leave this earth I want to leave well. If that's how the Lord separates me from this church I want it to be one that's done well. And so the things that we'll consider this evening, I think, are important. By the way, I understand that when leaving happens under sinful or divisive conditions, the following things that we'll see in these three verses may not necessarily be possible. Sometimes separation isn't easy, okay? I think of Acts chapter 15, whenever Paul and Barnabas were getting ready to start the second missionary journey, Barnabas wanted to take John Mark with him, and Paul was not minded to have him go. And as the scripture says, that the contention between them was so sharp that they decided to split or to go separate ways. And Barnabas took John Mark and went to Cyprus which was his hometown or his home country there and then Paul then went on ahead and ended up with Timothy and took Silas with him and found Timothy in chapter 16. So all of that to say sometimes there are divisions that it may not be possible to have these same things happen in them but under ideal or under most circumstances the example of Paul, I think the way that he left the elders there in Ephesus and this was just kind of a quick reunion. They had spent three years together. Paul had already been away for a while at the end of the second journey and then this is the end of the third journey. He's coming back by there with them and so he's coming back through. It's not as though he had been at the church for the three years and was immediately leaving then but there was a relationship and they acknowledged to this, or he acknowledged, this is the last time most of you are going to see my face. And so they realized this is in most For most of us it's the final separation at least until eternity. As I was meditating on this passage of scripture and anticipating this over the last couple of weeks there was a part of me that was even thinking there's no mention of eternity here. Whenever they're weeping and sorrowing that they're not going to see his face anymore, there was a part of me that was thinking about, what about eternity? Why wasn't that brought up? But you know what? I didn't inspire the scriptures. I didn't write the scriptures. This is what happened. And that's not the focus that is here. I do think that that would be something that we should keep in mind whenever separation comes to us, that there's always eternity. We always have the hope and the anticipation of an eternal reunion. which is our ultimate hope not only with the Lord but of course with other people as well. So looking back at this the Apostle Paul gives I think a really good example of how a separation can take place and how we should work for that kind of a separation. So you've got the thesis there before you leaving well and we'll start with number one and this is how Paul left. Number one he left with an exhortation, he left with an exhortation. And I would say the same thing, leaving well would have an exhortation with it. The last month that I was in Paxton there were several things that I was doing, I was in the middle of the book of Hebrews, I was in the middle of the book of Acts, I had made it through chapter 14 there and I was going through the life of Christ on Wednesday evenings and there was no way that I was going to finish that. But with those particular studies I tried to wrap up the last couple of weeks, there was exhortation that was in there. But one of the things that I did is that I jumped to the end of 1 Corinthians because, and I've mentioned this to you when I preached through 1 Corinthians here, that I'm convinced that there was no pastor in Corinth. Okay, remember that the last question that they asked the Apostle Paul is, would you send Apollos back here? And Paul said, I've asked him and it wasn't his mind or it wasn't in his mind or his will to do that at this time when it's convenient or fitting or appropriate, he may come back then. But they seem to be a church without a pastor. And so he told them, submit yourselves under the house of Stephanas for they've addicted themselves to the work of the ministry. The work of the ministry is deaconing, the word that is there. So just reading The context in that, the House of Stephanus were like the deacons in Corinth, and the Apostle Paul was telling the believers there, in the absence of Apollos, or in the absence of a leader, a pastor, then you make sure that you're submitted to those men, the House of Stephanus, who are doing the work of deacons, okay? And so I took a couple weeks and I exhorted the church in what it was going to be like. I was back there. to preach another time before they had a pastor. They went nearly three years. I was back there to preach another time to them and I went through and I preached a message on the great shepherd, the one who's the chief shepherd, the bishop of our souls. And I just encourage them to remember that, look, even though you don't have a human pastor at this time, you still have the great shepherd. you still have the chief shepherd. And so there was exhortation that was a part of leaving. Notice verse 36 and how it begins, the first six words there, and when he had thus spoken. Okay, what's that referring to? When he had thus spoken. That's referring to verses 18 through 35. The verses that I've been preaching to you over the last several weeks, these are the verses that are reminding them of his ministry to them, how he had gone from house to house and with tears, how he had kept back nothing that was profitable to them, how he had given them the whole counsel of God. And so he was reminding them of his ministry to them. He was reminding them of his testimony before them as selflessness, how he had provided for himself and for those that were with him. We've looked at that recently. And so he reminded them of those, but the main thing that I think is being referred to here is the challenge that he gave to them beginning in verse 28. These are the things we've looked at the last couple of services on Wednesday evening. He reminded them of their need to, if you will, feed the flock of God, okay, to do the work of shepherding. He also challenged them to fight or to guard against the wolves and those who would come up from among them, the apathy that would be a part of the church. And then he also reminded them and challenged them of the need to follow, not just his example, but the example of the Lord Jesus. And so he is leaving them with exhortation. He's not just saying, well, guys, our time together is finished. You're not going to see me anymore. And so adios until eternity. That wasn't the case. I mean, there was in this, there was a very deep emotion as he's challenging them. And so he's leaving them with exhortation. He's not leaving them and just going away. One of the things that I always laugh about whenever we, I shouldn't say always laugh about, but I always notice whenever on the Andy Griffith show, whenever Andy and Barney are getting ready to go on some kind of a trip or whenever somebody's getting ready to go somewhere, Aunt Bea always has a bag of sandwiches. In case she sends them away with something to nourish them, they must not have had McDonald's every three miles but she was always sending them with something and Paul in his leaving or in his departure and his separation from them he was exhorting them and you could go back and again we've spent several weeks on it so I'm not going to do it now, I thought about it but reading verses 18 through 35 and seeing the exhortation that the Apostle Paul gave to them. This was quite a message, quite a challenge that he gave to them and reminding them of his work in them, the ministry that he had with them. But then those three primary challenges, the instruction that he gave to these Ephesian elders that would be taken over after his departure. And so, number one, verse 36, just the first six words there, the first phrase, leave with exhortation. When the Lord may have you leaving somewhere else, make sure that there is edification, that there is exhortation, that is being left with those who leave. And I'm thinking of this specifically because hopefully it's not going to be ministry that's being a departure, that you're going to be going somewhere else, but perhaps even going into eternity. My dad is in the middle of writing a book, I think he's near the end of it, and it's kind of a compilation of ministry stories that he has known through the years. The boys and I were just listening to it, I've put it on my speechify and so we listen to it when we're driving, they're listening to it with me. And just as we were pulling into the church parking lot this evening we're getting to the chapter where his pastor's wife, the man in the story, his pastor's wife, has been told that she has terminal cancer. And if she treats it, if she allows surgery and then radiation and chemotherapy, she could live for another six months. But if she doesn't, then she has three weeks. And by the way, I don't know if any of you would remember them, but that's the story of Lydia Helwig from over in, I think it was Overland, Missouri, but north. Do you all know the Helwigs? And that's the way it was. And Mrs. Helwig even called my dad and said, I wanted to talk to you. He went to visit and she had recognized in the last three weeks of life, I have a lot of work to do. And she called people to her house and she said, I've been praying for you for 10 years or for 12 years that you would be saved. And I want you to know I've only got three weeks left to live or two weeks left to live and I'm not going to be able to be praying for you once I'm gone. And who's going to be praying for you? And really you need to trust the Lord. And as she witnessed to many people she recognized in her final few weeks that she had a lot of exhortation or a lot of evangelizing or a lot of work that still needed to be done. And Paul in this separation he left with exhortation. So number one if the Lord is leading you somewhere or if the Lord is taking you home, leave with exhortation, the Apostle Paul did that. By the way, not only am I not anticipating leaving, I'm really not anticipating any of you leaving either, but this is the passage of Scripture and I think this is how we interpret it looking at Paul's narrative and the reality that this is the way he left whenever he was departing from there. So leave with exhortation, number two, and you can see this in the middle of verse 36, he kneeled down and prayed with them all. And so you can imagine what the next one is, leave with prayer. leave with prayer. Incidentally when you look at all of these things that are here they're all in some sense going to have some kind of a spiritual connection. I'm one of those who believes that if I'm praying seriously for someone it's going to be very difficult for me to criticize them and praying is kind of an inoculation against bitterness in that particular sense. But leave with prayer, he kneeled down and prayed with them all. This wasn't a prayer about the decision, Paul already knew what he was doing. he knew it was the Lord's direction or he was convinced it was the Lord's direction for him to do that. Not everyone thought that way if you remember there were some who had tried to stop him and even spoke of the spirit bearing witness through the man who was a prophet that bonds and afflictions awaited him and so forth. But it wasn't a prayer about the decision and it wasn't just a prayer as we would say over the meal. This was a prayer that was a committal to God's keeping for them. I can just imagine what kind of prayer this would have been. You know there are some prayers that just take on a serious nature. And not saying that all prayers don't, but there are many prayers that just become kind of a part of life as far as just the activity of life. But there are some prayers which just have a deepness, there's a connection where you can sense that the Lord is working. One of the prayers that I've recognized in my life, or a couple of them, two specifically have been prayers that my dad has prayed. One of them we asked him to pray the prayer of dedication at our wedding. And so this is 25 years ago, I've watched it recently as I've seen our wedding video in the last several months, watched that and I remember hearing my dad's prayers. I was standing at the front of the auditorium holding Carol's hands and standing there being sure not to lock my knees so I didn't pass out or fall over. But I remember some of the things in the prayer even to this day that from their birth, you have known that these two were going to be brought together. From their childhood you have prepared them and their character, the way that their parents have helped to instruct them and bringing them both to salvation, their spiritual growth, and those kinds of things were a part of the prayer that my dad prayed at our wedding. And I envision the prayer of the Apostle Paul was much like that. The other prayer that I'm calling to mind is the last Christmas that we had together, it would have been 2020 I think, the last Christmas before my sister-in-law Jenny passed away and the Lord had made it possible for all of my siblings and our families to be in North Carolina together. Most of the grandkids were there. Even Joel was there. So most of our family was there together. We spent a couple of hours eating a meal together in the church fellowship hall. had a gift exchange that we did, and then we spent a little bit of time singing hymns together and picking out hymns and just singing mostly a cappella as a family. And at the end of that, my dad, we asked him to pray, and we all knew that this time next year, Jenny's not going to be with us. We all knew that she was not going to live very long and with that dad prayed a prayer of blessing over our family, he prayed a prayer of grace, his family would go on and things were going to change and Jenny wasn't going to be with us anymore. We all knew that that was going to happen and it was a very somber time and yet the reality is that prayer meant a great deal to all of us, it's also recorded, we have that recorded. And I envision the prayer of the Apostle Paul here, and he kneeled down and prayed with them all. This was a prayer where he was committing them to God's keeping for their ministry in Ephesus. Remember, this is primarily the elders that were a part of the church in Ephesus. They may have had family with them, but we know it was the elders. those who were the leaders. He was praying for their ministry in Ephesus, for the Lord's church and his work there in Ephesus. Remember, these men would have been representing the body of the believers that were in Ephesus, perhaps for their impact on the community or for their protection in a hostile world. Remember that when he had left there, it was after the uproar. because of the temple of Diana and there are some who speculated, though I don't think that is the primary reason, that Paul knew that going back to Ephesus may have caused some political issues there. There were hostile people in Ephesus who did not like the church of God there. All of these things when we see or remember the context of Ephesus and so forth we can imagine what this prayer was like and so number two, leave with prayer. The Apostle Paul certainly did this, he kneeled down and prayed with them all, and of course we recognize even the kneeling down there is a physical stature as far as what he is doing there, that's a picture of humility and submission, and he prayed with them all. So number one, leave with exhortation, Paul did that. Number two, leave with prayer. Number three, leave with love, with love. Verse 37, and they all wept sore and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him. Frankly, this is a very awkward or maybe even difficult sentence to translate, especially the first half. I'm going to give you just the word order, okay? and you can try and formulate it into, it won't be better than what you have in verse 37 in English. But here's the word order. Considerable, okay, which would be the word that we have for sore, okay. Considerable and, there's a post-positive conjunction, it's the second word in the sentence there. Be or became, okay, it's a being verb that is there. And then weeping, which is actually a noun in this particular construction, and then all. So I'll read it to you. Considerable and become weeping all. Okay, that's not necessarily easy to translate, but that's pretty much what it is. There's emphasis. The first word in the sentence is the one that is emphasized, which in our English translation, it's sore, and it's considerable, okay? Indicating that there is a tremendous amount of weeping that is taking place. And the word be or become, the verb, is a state of being or a state of existence verb, okay? And so this is happening, that these men are weeping sorely with the Apostle Paul. I can't even, I think, emphasize how this would be. I don't know that I've ever been in this condition. There have been a few times in my life where I've wept. But in this kind of thing where I'm weeping on a man's neck because he's told me I'm never going to see him anymore, I don't know that I've ever been in that kind of a condition. At least I'm not bringing it to mind. And Luke is recording what happened, they all wept sore, there was considerable weeping that was taking place. And then they fell upon the neck of Paul or on Paul's neck and then the word is kissing him and by the way the word kissing there is emphatic and that's a fervent kissing or there's a kissing fervently. The picture that I had up there at the beginning I don't think accurately represents exactly what was taking place, that picture had one man that was hugging the Apostle Paul and the others were standing around. I think that this would be a legitimate, you've probably heard the phrase before, group hug. Okay, that these men are all surrounding Paul, they're weeping on him. I think that Middle Easterners have a higher degree of passion in some sense than we do. When I think of the Pharisees and the religious leaders that were stoning the apostle Paul, pardon me, Stephen. Do you remember what they did before they stoned him? They ran upon him and they gnashed on him with their teeth. Okay, that's a level of passion that doesn't usually describe people in the United States. And yet that's what was happening there. This here, when we have this, it's really more than I think that most of us can even imagine. But here's the point, Paul left the place where he was deeply loved. The weeping, the hugging, the kissing all demonstrate the amount of affection that they had for the apostle Paul. Here's again the point, Paul was deeply loved here and by the way I believe he deeply loved them. I think that one of the reasons he didn't go to Ephesus and instead called them to Miletus is because there was so much of a connection there that he knew I'm not able to go to Ephesus for just a couple of days. If I went to Ephesus it would be weeks or months because I'd have to see this person and I'd have to see this person and I would want to go spend time with this person and so forth. And so there's a deep connection there. The contrast is there wasn't a sigh of relief when he left, there wasn't rejoicing, there was instead this weeping and the hugging and the kissing that has taken place. And I would just say this in application, when you leave a place, a job, a church, this earth, I think that it's legitimate that there should be weeping at the thought of the whole which you may be leaving, at the edification which will be missed, which you have contributed and will no longer be there, at the responsibilities which now need to be filled, at the presence of a spiritual person which will now be gone. I dread the day, and it's going to happen, I know, I dread the day whenever I'm no longer able to pick up the phone and call my dad. or whenever my mom will often text me that whenever those kinds of things happen I loved my grandparents and they're gone and they leave a hole. God has designed interdependence of people and here there was a tremendous amount of love that was there whenever the Apostle Paul left. The affection that they had for him was evidenced in verse 37, they all wept sore or with considerable emotion, they all wept sore sorely and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him. And so number three, when you leave, leave with love and again this can apply to more than just a church like the Apostle Paul, when you leave a job, when you leave this earth, that whenever you leave something, if you have had the kind of influence that you should have, if there's the kind of love that was there, they're going to miss you. So leave with love, number three. Number four, and this one seems a little bit strange, but this is what I see here, leave with pain, leave with pain. And that's connected to the idea of leaving with love. Verse 38, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake that they should see his face no more. And that particular point number four, leaving with pain, comes from the idea that this church or these elders were sorrowing because of the fact that he had said you're not going to see my face anymore. In other words it was painful for them. They were going to miss the apostle Paul and it was painful for them to hear this idea, you're not going to see me anymore. Now before I get into that I did want to say this, the presence of the superlative sorrowing most of all, the word most is the superlative there, the presence of that word indicates that there are other and yet perhaps lesser reasons. that they were sorrowing, okay? They were sorrowing that he was going to be gone. The thing that over which grieved them the most is when he said, you're not going to see my face anymore. But there were other things as well, okay? The superlative indicates that there were other things. That wasn't the only reason. And these are some thoughts that may be, again, they're things that I'm implying in this or that I would say, okay, there were other reasons they were going to miss him. They were no longer going to be able to hear him teach or preach. Again, I can only imagine the depth of the preaching and the teaching of the Apostle Paul. When I consider the Old Testament and how Paul was an expert in the law and in the Old Testament and quoted the prophets and knew so much in Romans it makes it clear how much he knew of the book of Psalms as well. What it was like to have a man like the Apostle Paul who was so well versed in the Old Testament be able to make application to the New Testament and Jesus as the Messiah. Have you had favorite preachers before? There have been a few men in my life that I've thought of them, I could name a few of them, Chuck Phelps, Dr. Surrett, Mike Bates, those are men that as I've sat and listened to them preach I thought I could listen to them preach a lot. I could hear them preach for many many weeks in a row, I would love to hear them expound the scriptures more regularly. Those kinds of people they just have the ability to be able to explain the scriptures to you. I can imagine that the people were thinking, we're not going to hear him teaching anymore, or even more history or more experiences. And what I mean by that is I'm sure that Paul explained some of the things to them. You remember the Corinthians? He ended the book of 2 Corinthians telling them all of the different things that he had endured for the sake of the gospel. He had been shipwrecked. He had been whipped. Can you imagine hearing Paul tell those in the first person? What is it like as he's telling you, yeah, I was stoned? I mean, it could even be, I remember seeing the guy with that stone above me. Who knows what it would have been, but that's not going to be happening anymore. The history, not only of his own life in ministry, but the history of the other churches, how this church was started and how this church was started, and how he saw this person minister and so forth. the history, the teaching, the doctrine, and this is purely practical but I get a sense from some of the Apostle Paul's, I'll use the word sarcasm, or perhaps we would look at this and say that Paul just had the ability to put his finger on something. and find something that could be almost like what we looked at this morning as I'm thinking of Luke chapter 1 when it strikes me funny that those ladies or that those people were trying to convince Elizabeth and Zacharias that they should name his son Zacharias and there's no John in your family. I think Paul had a sense of humor, it's not immediately apparent in the text of scripture that we have but I'm convinced that he would have been a fun person to be with. And then other things, I'm convinced that there would have been music. You remember what Paul wrote in both Ephesians and Colossians, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord. He had encouraged them in Colossians 3.16 to be edifying one another with music. These would have been things Paul's no longer going to be participating in our music. I don't know what kind of voice Paul had for singing but I know he was familiar with psalms. He quoted several of them in Romans. So no more music, psalms, spiritual songs, no more praying together. Can you imagine what it would have been like to have been in a prayer meeting with the Apostle Paul? It seems like it was a regular part of his day and in nearly every one of the epistles that he wrote he spoke of the fact to those people that he was praying for them all the time and unless he was a liar he was praying for them all the time. These are all some of the things that they would be missing and again the superlative when he says sorrowing most of all indicates that there were a lot of things that they were going to miss with Paul but the one that brought them the most grief and pain therefore was the words or for the words which he spake that they should see his face no more. And literally what this is in the greatest of agony or he was departing with the greatest agony because of his word which he had spoken to them that they would have and literally no more opportunity to be before his face or in front of him, they would no longer be there. And so this was the great agony, the great sorrow, the greatest of them and though it sounds as though we would say people say I don't like goodbyes. You know, I like to say, see you later or something like that. The reality is Luke, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote that these men were experiencing great grief and great pain because they knew they weren't going to see Paul anymore. What does that say? That says that Paul had endeared himself to these people, that says that there was a connection and an intimacy that they had together. And that's why I say if the Lord is calling you to leave, whether it's a job, a ministry, or this life, that you ought to have had such an impact on people that it pains them to know they're not going to see you anymore. So leave with pain, not the kind of pain which has been provoked by sin or by bitterness or something like that, but leave with the pain of parting. The song Blessed Be the Tithe That Binds, I was thinking of the verse, when we asunder part it gives us inward pain. The church that I pastored in Illinois that was a song that we sang often. And I'd only been there three or four years and they had a lady do calligraphy and put it on a big plaque. If you're ever in our house, it's hanging right inside the front door. And I think of that whenever we have church family over, just the tie that binds us together. And so whenever we are parted, it gives us inward pain. So they sorrowed most of all for the words which he spake that they would see his face no more. When my grandma died in 2014 we inherited her dog Oscar and I asked my aunt a month or two after grandma had died and we'd gotten Oscar back to Illinois with us, I asked my aunt Carol and I said, why did grandpa and grandma name Oscar Oscar? And she told me, she said, I've realized that there are a lot of things that I never asked them that I wish I would have. And there was kind of a regret in that. I wish I would have been able to have asked them more, to tell more about life. And that's a part of the pain of separation but Paul had built such a relationship with these people in Ephesus that whenever he departed there was pain, there was sorrow that was a part of it. And so there was the pain that they would never see Paul again and certainly pain for other things, they wouldn't hear his teaching anymore, they wouldn't be praying with him anymore, they wouldn't participate in edification and music anymore or perhaps even laughing, we don't know all that it would have been but the the most grievous pain was that they would not see his face anymore. And this is where I want to just jump into history and say, yeah, but fellows, you're going to see him in eternity too. You know, you're going to get to be in heaven with the Apostle Paul, but that's not a part of the text. But I would say this, remember that. I can say that to you by way of an exhortation. Whenever there is separation that takes place in our lives, we always have the hope of eternity. We always have the reminder that not only that we'll be with the Lord for eternity but I'm convinced that we'll know each other in eternity, there's not a lot that the scripture says about that, we do know that there's no more tears. But one of the things, it's kind of a proof text, is that when the apostles were with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration who are the two men that were with Jesus? Moses and Elijah. The apostles knew that. They recognized Moses and Elijah and so that in itself just says that we in our glorified bodies are going to be recognizable as Moses and Elijah were then, that's beside the point. Number five, finishing this, leave with hesitation, leave with hesitation, and this is the final phrase in verse 34, and they accompanied him under the ship. It's almost as though they just couldn't quite let him go. The story about the man who wrote the song Blessed Be the Tithe It Binds and he was pastoring a small church and there was a church and it was in England and Gardner would you look up the song Blessed Be the Tithe It Binds, is that in our hymnal? It should be. His name is slipping my mind but as he and as soon as Gardner says it I'll remember it. You have to look it up in the hymnal to get his name. He was leaving and he was going to, for money reasons, he was leaving the small church in rural England and he was going to a suburb of London to the church that would eventually become the Metropolitan Tabernacle or where Charles Spurgeon would pastor years later. And he was ready to go and he just decided at the last minute they had their wagon loaded and he said, I can't do it. And so the church family had all helped him load his wagon. And he said, I'm not, I can't go. And so he told them unload the wagon. They unloaded all of his furniture. He stayed there. And the story is, is that he went back in and wrote the words to bless be the tie that binds right then. There's a hesitation in departing. Okay. You're familiar with the, the old Southern goodbye. Are you familiar with the Southern goodbye? Okay, that's the one where it takes about three hours to leave. Okay, it's it's where there's an old joke about this is standing up, you're sitting in the living room at the couch or on the couch and say, well, we better get going. You know, so you stand up, okay, that's the first step of the goodbye, they stand up from the seated position, then you move towards the front door, and it might take 10 minutes to get to the front door. And then they stand at the front door and visit for a while longer. standing in the doorway, and then you make it out to the front porch, you stand there and visit for a while, moving towards the car, and then once you're in the car with the window rolled down and you visit for a little bit longer, etc. You could add several stations in there. I'm getting to the south, it'd be get another glass of sweet tea, whatever it is, okay? There's a hesitation that is there because you enjoy each other's, what's his name? John Fawcett, that's right. OK, he's the one who wrote Bless Be the Tithe that Binds. You ought to look him up sometime and read the story or maybe I'll get it for you. And wrote the song Bless Be the Tithe that Binds. OK, there's a hesitation in leaving. And that's what this is. These men are following Paul to the ship. It's like they know this is our last minute. I want to make it last as long as I can or it's our last hour together. We want to make it last as long as we can. So leave with hesitation. And that's just a picture that we have in this. They accompanied him under the ship. And the words there, it could be that they followed him all the way as far as the ship. There is even the picture that could be interpreted that they walked onto the ship with him, and then as it was time to go, then they had to walk back off of the ship. But they were leaving, or he was leaving with hesitation, they were hesitant to let him go. And when you think of the context of these three verses, this whole passage in Acts chapter 20, and how Paul was leaving here, It just gives us a picture of how to leave well. Again, we don't want this, okay, we don't want this kind of a separation to take place. It may be a church, it may be a job, it may be from this life, we don't know what it may be. But I think it should be in each of our minds that whenever the Lord does bring a separation between any of us that it should be done well. and that we should make sure that that separation is one that is being done in really a spiritual way and an example that is set forth by the Apostle Paul. One final thought as I'm finishing this up. Carol is of course sick and she was in our room as I was getting ready for church just before I left and I was telling her about this. Of course she was not gonna be here tonight. And she asked an interesting question. She said, do you think that was that way with Jesus? And immediately I thought of the ascension. and thought of the way that Jesus was leaving the earth. And not all the things that the Apostle Paul did here would have been the same way, Jesus had promised the disciples that in essence my presence through the Holy Spirit will be with you forever. You'll have my power, my authority unto the end of the age." But think of the apostles, the love, okay? You know, as far as them watching him ascend into the clouds, the hesitation, watching him depart, there would have been pain. There was definitely love, okay? Those things, he left them with an exhortation. The first thing that I started out with, and Jesus had given them in Acts chapter 1 and verse 8, what we call the Great Commission. And he had challenged them on what it was supposed to be like. They had asked, is it now time to restore the kingdom? He's like, don't worry about that right now. The times and the seasons are in the hands of the Father, that'll all be taken care of. But when the Holy Spirit comes, okay, and after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, you should be witnesses unto me. And they were given a commission. So he gave them an exhortation. We don't have the record of him praying with them at the ascension, but we know he committed them into the hands of God. And so yeah, Jesus left in pretty much the same spirit, there was a hesitation, there was certainly a wistfulness or we might even say a pain as they watched him go and they're no longer going to have his physical presence but they did have the promise of the Holy Spirit. And so when you think of this idea of leaving with are leaving and going somewhere else leave well, the Apostle Paul did and then even the Lord Jesus did whenever he left this earth. So much upon which we can think and meditate and I think some tremendous illustrations and pictures about our interactions in life and again I'm hoping that no one is going to be leaving this church but I will say this, we're all going to leave this life at some point unless the rapture happens and that being the case I think these three verses give us a picture on what our separation should be like. Father thank you for this passage of scripture for the practical pictures that we can see here of the way that the Apostle Paul in your will separated from the church in Ephesus from the elders there and Father recognizing that you were moving him on to another place. I pray Father that whenever the occasion might happen in this life that we would separate that you would help us to do it in a spiritual way that it would be one that is painful not because of the division or circumstances but because The connection has been so close and so personal that we sorrow at the absence of another person and Lord I pray that you would help us to learn from this passage of scripture. Ultimately I pray that you would help us each to prepare for the end of our life here and Father whenever you may call each of us home, whenever that may be, I pray that the separation of others would be difficult and that there would be just the realization that there's a spiritual life that we'll no longer be able to participate with and that friend or that brother And so Father I pray that you would help us to be thinking even of our separation from this life. We ask your grace and your help and we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.