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The Ephesian Elders Made Simple

by Kimani Upshur, M.Ed.

"Grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock." (Acts 20:29) On a beach at Miletus, Paul summoned the elders of Ephesus for his final word to them. He reminded them how he had lived among them -- with humility, with tears, through trials. He charged them to take heed to themselves and to all the flock, to feed the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. He warned them that grievous wolves would enter in, and that men would arise from among their own selves, speaking perverse things. Then he kneeled and prayed with them all, and they wept sore upon his neck. Across twelve chapters, The Ephesian Elders Made Simple walks verse by verse through Paul's farewell in Acts 20:17-38: the summons from Miletus, the manner of his life, teaching publicly and from house to house, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, being bound in the Spirit, declaring the whole counsel of God, the shepherd's charge, the blood-bought flock, the wolves without, the wolves within, watching night and day with tears, and the final commendation to God and the word of His grace. Every chapter is Scripture-first and explicitly Trinitarian: God the Father whose church it is, Jesus Christ -- Son of God and Son of Man, Lord and Savior -- who purchased that church with His own blood, and the Holy Spirit who makes overseers, binds believers to their course, and builds them up by the word of grace. Warned. Wept. Watched. That was Paul's farewell, and it is every shepherd's calling.