Sermon by Pastor Nick Krauss -- Acts 20:17-38
The church is the organization that belongs to and was organized by Jesus Christ Himself. All whom He purchased with His blood are His sheep (1 Peter 5:1-4), but some of His sheep He appoints to care for the spiritual needs of the flock (elders; cf. Exodus 18:13-27), and other sheep He appoints to handle the money for physical needs of the ministry (deacons; cf. Acts 6:1-6). 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 record the qualifications for these two offices of Jesus’s organization as a list of characteristics that are to define spiritual leadership, but Luke records for us a model for the ministry to which Paul calls those leaders. Paul is no hypocrite; that which he requires of others is that which he himself modeled.
