In the sermon 'Portrait of a Pastor: His Power,' Peter Allison discusses Paul's farewell address to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20. Paul emphasizes the power of a pastor is not in the person themselves, but in God working through His Word. The Word of God is described as possessing the power to build up believers and provide an inheritance among the saints. This power is inherent in the Word's ability to communicate truth, bring conviction of sin, and lead sinners to salvation. The sermon highlights the importance of pastors and elders to be diligent in studying, teaching, and living out the Word of God. Paul warns against covetousness and emphasizes compassion, responsibility, and the necessity of prayer in ministry. The relationship between God's sovereignty and human responsibility in ministry is also underscored, with the understanding that God works through human labor to accomplish His purposes.

Acts chapter 20. Read one more week on this farewell address of Paul to the Ephesian elders there on the port city of Miletus. Verse 17, From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church and when they had come to him he said to them, you know from the first day that I came to Asia in what manner I always lived among you serving the Lord with all humility with many tears and trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews, how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews and also to Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And see, now I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me, nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

And indeed, now I know that you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, will see my face no more. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. To shepherd the church of God which He purchased with his own blood.

For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone day and night. So now brethren, I commend you to God and the word of His grace which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I have coveted no one silver or gold or apparel.

Yes, you yourselves know that these hands have provided for my necessities And for those who were with me, I have shown you in every way by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. And When he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And then they all wept freely, and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spoke, that they would see his face no more, and they accompanied Him to the ship. May the Lord grant faith to believe His commandments and teach us good judgment and knowledge.

Heavenly Father, may this word that we have heard be mixed with faith. May you open our eyes, enlighten our hearts. May you transform us and sanctify us. And I ask that you would also sanctify my lips and cleanse me of all unrighteousness to proclaim this morning the riches of the word of your grace. In Jesus' name, Amen.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, in preparing this week, I was tempted to open this message with all number of analogies related to the power and how power is conferred and transferred, but decided at the end that those analogies would not be helpful and might be more complicated than the message itself, which is the power of a pastor. Where does that power come from? We're looking at the portrait of a pastor in this passage as Paul presents it to these Ephesian elders. And we've looked at his example.

We've looked at his priority. How he governs his life based on this priority of his call, his call as a pastor, as a Christian, as a minister of the Gospel. But as he closes this address, He commends them to God and to His Word. To the Word of His grace. He entrusted these elders.

That word, commend, is commit. He told Timothy to commit the Gospel to faithful men. It's the same word, to entrust the Gospel, to entrust the truths of his Word to faithful men. And he entrusted these elders to God's hands and God's words, which he said is able to sanctify them and build them up. See, he pointed them to God and the word of His grace.

And this was his standard greeting on, or standard departure message on leaving churches where he has ministered. Paul is telling them that as much as they loved him, as much as they benefited from his teaching and presence, as much as his example can be helpful to them, that he's not actually indispensable to them. In fact, he's not actually the reason for there being a church there. The power of His ministry is God working through His Word. And that it is God and His Word that these elders need in their job of shepherding the Sufisian Church.

It's His Word that they need in their ministry. And He says that this Word is able. That means it possesses capability for whatever reason, maybe personal or other factors, but he's saying this word possesses capability for doing something. It possesses power. That's what It means to be able.

To have power to do something. It's not the same as permission to do something. It's saying that there is the ability, the power to do something. And what can this word do? What does it have the power to do?

It has the power, he says, to build up God's people. It's actually to build on something that is already built. That's what that word means, to build on something. 1 Corinthians 3, he says, According to the grace of God, which was given to me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another builds. That's the word there, Build up.

Another builds on it. Or a little later, now if anyone builds on this foundation with wood, with gold, silver, and precious stones and so forth. See, the New Testament church was built, Paul wrote to the Ephesians, on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. And so this word, Paul is saying, this word is able, it has the power, to build you as a church on this foundation. And secondly, he said it has the power, it's able to give you an inheritance among the saints.

An inheritance among the saints. An inheritance for those who are the children of God, who persevere to the end. All those who are justified, and as we read this morning, are adopted as children. You notice in our confession, speaks about have a right to this inheritance. He told the Colossians, he gave thanks to the Father who qualified us to receive the reward of the inheritance." He said a little later in Colossians, his letter, that from the Lord, they would receive the reward of the inheritance, for they served the Lord Christ.

And Hebrews tells us that by means of His death, for the redemption of transgressions under the first covenant that those who are called receive the promise of an eternal inheritance. And Peter describes it as an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and does not fade away, reserved in heaven for us, an inheritance." And Paul is saying the Word of God is able to give us this inheritance. That means it's going to have a preserving power in it. Now, how does God's Word do all this? How does it build us up and how does it give to us this inheritance that's reserved for those who persevere?

Well, God's Word is the source of all truth, first of all. Everything that we know, God teaches us. God teaches us, and He teaches us through His Word. Now, you mean God teaches us how to make bread? Through His Word?

How to fix cars? How to study the stars? Through His Word? Well, actually, yes, he does. Yes, he does.

His Word is the source of communicating all truth, but especially the truth concerning salvation. But to this point about making bread, you can look in Isaiah 28. And Isaiah says, yes, the farmer knows how to disc the field because the Lord teaches him. He knows when to stop disking the field and planting because the Lord teaches him. He knows how to harvest this crop and thresh the grain, different grains, different ways, because the Lord teaches him.

And David says in several places that it was the Lord who taught His fingers to make war. So yes, God's Word teaches us these things. And it is through them that all knowledge that we have is revealed. This is the Word of Truth. This is the Word of Truth.

In Him, He told the Ephesians, you trusted after you heard the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation. In Colossians, He said, because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of truth." God's Word is truth. And there is no other truth outside of God's Word. There is no other knowledge outside of God's Word. Everything we know, we know through the Word of God.

And so we are to be diligent to study that Word, to rightly divide what Paul called again to Timothy, the word of truth. See, when we believe things that are not true, we are brought into destruction and into bondage. And if you're like me, you've probably believed things that weren't true and faced the consequences of them. But when we believe and we live the truth, we are set free. If you believe and you follow, for example, bad financial investment ideas, your finances suffer, don't they?

If you believe and practice something that is not true medically about our bodies, then your health suffers. If you believe in the feminist lies, regardless of whether you're male or female, your marriages suffer. But see, when we know the truth and believe the truth, then we are delivered from bondage. We're set free. It's called the word of liberty.

The law of liberty. So the truth is very important if we are to be preserved for this inheritance. God said people are destroyed for their lack of knowledge. It's the Word of God that brings us everything that we know. The Word of God is also powerful.

It's a purifying hammer. Purifying fire and a hammer. It's powerful, it's active, and it's capable of breaking through our self-deception about ourselves, about our sin, and any other error that we may believe. Hebrews says, for the Word of God is living. It's living because it is the Word of God and God is living.

And it's powerful and It's sharper than a two-edged sword, able to divide even to the division of soul and spirit, even to the division of joints and marrow. And it's not dividing joints and marrow, it's the division of joints and the division of marrow. It is, you know, marrow is something that's an integral part of our bones. It's saying God's Word is able to discern and divide these things. It's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of our heart.

We want to deceive ourselves. In our sinfulness, we suppress the truth. And we can deceive ourselves. The Word of God, Paul is saying, is powerful. It's able to discern the thoughts and intents of our heart, and to expose them where we have deceived ourselves, where our pride has blinded us.

And so when God's Word comes to a sinner, it pierces the heart and it brings conviction of sin. Jeremiah describes that word this way. He says, The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream. And he who has My Word, let him speak My Word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?

Says the Lord. Is not my word like a fire? Says the Lord. And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces. That's power.

And Paul is committing these Ephesian elders to that power of God's Word that is able to break the rebellious hearts, the hard, rocky hearts of sinners. It's not our knowledge about things. It's not our clever speech, our passionate emotional appeals that break the hearts of sinners. It's the Word of God as it's used by the Spirit of God. That is the power in Christ's church.

It's also called a sword in the Scriptures elsewhere. It's not only compared to a sharp sword, but it is called the sword of the spirit. It's part of our spiritual armor. Now a sword has to be wielded, doesn't it? To be effective.

It doesn't do any good sitting in the scabbard. It doesn't do any good if it's not with us. Today we carry guns instead of swords, but it's the same principle. They're useless if we don't have them with us when we need them. And so the word in the same way is an offensive weapon, not that it offends, though it can offend the unbeliever in the right way, but it is a weapon that is used to proclaim the Gospel.

So we have to have it. And that means we need to hear it. That's the first step to having it, because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word. So we need to hear the Word. We need to hear it preached, and we need to hear it preached regularly.

That's why God commands us to gather regularly for the preaching of His Word. We need to read the Word ourselves. God has committed His Word to writing because there's a difference between the things that you hear and the things that you read. The things that you read are the things that you retain much better than the things that you just hear. We need to read the Word.

We need to hear it, but we also need to read it. And we need to study the Word. Because there are some parts of the Word that are deep and hard to understand. There are some parts that are more easy. But we can study the Word of God our whole life and still continue to glean more from it.

In fact, I think the more we study it, the more we learn, not the less. It's not diminishing returns that the more you grow in Christ and the more you study His Word, the less you get out of it. No, it's the opposite. The more we study His Word, the greater the riches that we get from it. But in order to have it really with us, we need to memorize it.

We need to memorize it. I used to have this idea when I was in college that you wanted to memorize as few things as possible because you could just memorize the basic equation, the basic principle, and then if you needed it, you could derive it. Well, There's some truth in that. And it's probably a good principle to have in school. But I also realized when I got into the nuclear submarine world, and you have to take actions immediately, that You don't have time to figure things out.

And then what you really use effectively in your everyday life is the things that you have memorized. The things that you have to go figure out are often never used. It's what you have memorized. It's what you know. It's what you can recall in the moment that's what you use.

So we need to have the Word of God memorized. Or we won't have it available. It'll be like leaving our gun at home. Yes, it's at home, and we can go get it, but it's not there when you need it. Or leaving it in your car.

How many people leave it in their car and then find they need it where they went, and in their car it's not helping them? Well, the word is the same way. We have to have it memorized in order to be able to have it with us to be able to use it. Remember, it is a sword, so it has to be used to be effective. It's not effective when it's sitting sheathed.

But lastly, we also have to meditate on the Word. Because the Word is deep. And I think the easiest way to be meditating on the Word is to have it memorized. Because what's in your mind, what you've committed to memory, you can then much more easily meditate on it. Because when you meditate on something, you mull over it.

And that can happen all the time if you have the word memorized. If you don't, then you have to be reading it. And most of us have a hard time just sitting, meditating on something. But if we are working, and we have the Word in our heart memorized, then we can meditate on it. And This word is powerful.

Paul said it's able. It's able to build us up and it's able to give us an inheritance. This word is the means by which God makes dead people come alive. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, Paul said, it is the power of God to salvation. The Word is power.

God's power to salvation to everyone who believes. And he told Timothy, and that from your infancy, you have known the Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation. It's the Scriptures. Of His own will, James says, He brought us forth by the Word of Truth. And Peter says that we have been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the Word of God, which lives and abides forever.

We've been born again through the Word of God. It is the means by which God makes dead sinners alive. There is no other power in the world that can do that. But the power of God working through His Word. And David alludes to this in Psalm 119 in many places.

This is my comfort in affliction. Your Word has given me life. I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life. The power of life is in the Word of God. This is the means by which we enter the Kingdom.

He said it's able to build you up and able to give them an inheritance in the saints. Because this Word is the means by which we enter the Kingdom. In order to have an inheritance in a Kingdom, you have to be in that Kingdom. In order to have an inheritance in a family, you have to be a member of that family. In order to inherit as a child, you have to be a child in that family.

A son or daughter. In order to receive the inheritance of this kingdom, we have to enter the kingdom. And the Bible says that it is through the Word that we do that. Jesus told Nicodemus Most assuredly, truly, truly, this is the truth. I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.

Nicodemus said, well, then how can somebody who's old be born again? And Jesus said, I say to you, unless one is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God." So this is the means by which we enter the Kingdom. It's also, This is also the means by which we are nourished. That's how we are built up. If you want to, I've never done it, but people that do their bodybuilding, they take a lot of protein to nourish their bodies, to build up their muscles.

The Word of God, Paul said, is what nourishes us to build us up spiritually. It's spiritual food. It's spiritual milk for infants. It's spiritual meat for spiritually mature. And like the physical food that we can't live without, if we're on restricted rations in God's Word, then we will be spiritually weak.

Just like somebody on a fast from physical food will be physically weaker. God's Word is what nourishes us and builds us up spiritually, just like meat and milk and bread build up our physical bodies. And Peter says that we should crave that pure milk of the Word, just as newborn babies, so that we may grow thereby. We're to crave it. Babies crave milk.

Every mother knows this. And even in the middle of the night, They have a craving for it. And they will cry until somebody comes and feeds them. And Peter is saying we need to have a craving for the Word because it can nourish us spiritually in the same way. It even nourishes us in the times of affliction.

David said in Psalm 119, unless your law had been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. He's delighting. It is also a solid foundation. Christ, who is the Word made flesh, provides the cornerstone of that foundation on which we as living stones, Peter says, are being built up to offer spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ. You see, believers as living stones are built onto this structure, and we find this unshakable security in him.

We are preserved. And that's how it's able to give us an inheritance in the saints. It is also, God's Word is also a guide to us. As Bunyan so eloquently conveyed in his allegory, Pilgrim's Progress, we are on a pilgrimage. And we need guidance to get there.

And Scripture is that guidance. Scripture is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. The Word of God, as I mentioned, also revives us in times of affliction. David referred to this many, many times, Especially in Psalm 119. I am afflicted very much.

He said, revive me, O God, according to Your Word. By Your Word. According to Your Word. He wanted to be strengthened in his times of affliction. And of course, Paul gives a motive to these elders for their labor as shepherds.

He says they were to take heed to the flock which the Holy Spirit had made overseers to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood." And Peter calls it precious blood. It's not corruptible things, but incorruptible. The precious blood of Christ is how we've been purchased. If you are holding something that's very precious, you take great care of it. If it means something to somebody that you love, then you're going to take great care of it.

You're going to respect it simply because This is something that someone you love respects. Someone you love values. And so Paul is saying Christ values His church. He purchased it with His own blood. And He's made you shepherds and overseers in it.

And I think that flows down to every relationship where we are a shepherd or an overseer in some way. Our children have been given to us. But God says their angel is always before the face of God. So we want to shepherd our families with that same care that these elders are to shepherd the Church of Christ. Now, we've talked about the sovereignty of God working through His Word.

And that that is the power through which all this happens, through which we are built up, through which we are preserved and given an inheritance in the saints. But Paul also brings in our responsibility to labor. We live with this all the time, this duality between God's sovereignty and our labor, in every aspect of our life. And yet, it still is one of the first stumbling blocks, even for Christians, when they encounter the sovereignty of God, because they always want to oppose it to our responsibility. And somehow, If God is sovereign and does all this, then why do we have to do anything?

But of course, we recognize that these two always go together. God is sovereign and He is the power that does all things, and we are responsible and we have to work as well. And that it is through that work, our work, that God works. It's not half us and half God. It's all God's power and all of our power together at the same time.

It's God's power that makes it happen. He uses us. And those two completely go together without any confusion. And so there's a number of things that Paul instructs them to do. But he's instructing them to do these things, recognizing that all their work is in vain, it's useless, it doesn't get halfway there, it doesn't get any of the way there without the power of God working through them.

So some of their activities are there to keep watch for the wolves that are both within, that will rise within and that will rise without. That requires a knowledge of doctrine, of truth to discern error because oftentimes These heresies are very deceptive. It's kind of like nailing jello to a tree to pin down a heresy. Very deceptive language, very slippery language. It's always been that way.

Going all the way back to the heresies of the early church, Arianism. Very slippery. And so there has to be care. To have doctrinal knowledge and understanding. To discern truth from error.

Both from within and from without. He calls them to remember His example in verse 31. He says, therefore watch and remember. And he points to his work, what he did. How to lead, how to comfort, how to forgive, how to pray, how to preach, and so on.

They are, verse 27, they are to declare the Word. They are to publicly proclaim the Word and privately teach the Word from house to house. They are to testify of the Word to the Jews and the Greeks. Meaning, it's not just something that happens in their closed worship, but this is something that they did in the public square, they did in the rest of their lives, testify to the Jews and the Greeks. And then he warns them about covetousness.

Heirs can be disqualified by covetousness. Ephesians 5, he wrote to this same church, "'For you know that no fornicator, unclean person, covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. No covetous man is put right up there with fornicators and idolaters. Because coveting is at the foundation of all of the sins. It begins with a desire in the heart.

And that desire when it gives birth to sin, and sin when it's full grown brings forth death. But it begins with that desire, that covetousness, which is a sinful desire. And Paul warned Timothy about this. To flee from the love of money because it was a root of all kinds of evil and the cause for which some had strayed from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. He said, flee these things, flee this covetousness, this love of money.

And so he tells these elders that, I have coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. Yes, you know that these hands have provided for my necessity." He was diligent with his work. And he worked to provide for his own needs that he would not be a burden to the people that he was bringing the Gospel to, the people that he was witnessing to. He put that burden on other churches that were established to support his work in the new areas. You know that these hands have provided for my necessities.

I have shown you in every way by laboring like this that you must support the weak. There is compassion. It's such a significant part of our ministry. Of your ministry in your home, your ministry to your family, your ministry to even your neighbors. Because where there is no compassion, where there is no genuine compassion, then people have no regard for what we are trying to tell them.

And we heard testimony even today, this morning, and before the service, of how genuine compassion can touch somebody and make them want to be around us, make them want to come, and hear what we might have to say. That's through that compassion. And so Paul says here, I have shown you in every way by laboring like this that you must support the weak. It's a significant part of the ministry of the Word. It's by the goodness of God that we are brought to repentance.

And remember the words of the Lord Jesus that He said it is more blessed to give than to receive. Now, I don't think that's in the Gospels anywhere, but John said that Jesus said a lot of things that weren't written down, and this is apparently one of them that Paul brings in here. It's more blessed to give than to receive. There is greater blessing in giving than there is in receiving. So you want to be blessed?

Look how you can give. Look how you can give. And there are amazing promises in the Scriptures about that. And if you've experienced the blessing of giving, you know that you cannot out-give the Lord. And every time, out of true compassion, without thinking about a return, without thinking about how something could benefit us, when we give, so often we find us completely caught by surprise that the Lord gives us back far more than we gave.

And it's actually humbling to think, why was I so stingy in that gift? When you realize, months later, sometimes it's three or four months later, the Lord gives you this gift and then He connects it to something you did earlier. You think, why was I so stingy in that gift? It's more blessed to give than to receive. But there is one more thing before he closes, and that is The Holy Kiss.

Paul was a man of deep emotions. And he wasn't afraid to express those emotions. As part of a mature man, The idea that men never express emotion is not a biblical idea at all. It's not at all. It's a part of the Christian faith because emotions are a part of what God made us now Yes, our emotions need to be sanctified They are falling just like every other aspect of us is But they are they ought to be a part of every sanctified person's life.

The expression of genuine, godly emotions. Sorrow, compassion, Love, kindness, brotherly love, tenderness, empathy. And this is demonstrated very graphically. When they had said these things, They knelt down and they prayed. Because prayer is the means that God has ordained for providing for us and forgiving to us the things that He has promised to give to us.

He wants us to come and ask for them in prayer. It's a vital and necessary part of any ministry. He kneels down too. I think that's also significant. It's very common in the Scriptures to kneel down.

And I've wanted for a long time for us to be able to kneel down and worship. I've even, several years ago, looked into getting foam pads for us so we could kneel in our times of prayer. Not everybody can kneel, I understand that. And there are several things that have given me pause. Not everybody can kneel.

We're also packed very tightly together. Our chairs are very close. There's not a lot of space. But it is something that we want to strive for. It's a biblical posture for prayer.

To kneel. Because you see, our thoughts and our feelings follow what we do with our body. Our thoughts and our feelings follow what we do with our body. Our thoughts and our feelings follow what we do with our body. And when we know we ought to do something, but we don't feel like it, then we need to do that so that we can feel like doing it.

It works the other way. You don't wait until you feel like it to do it. You do it so you feel like doing it. If you're having trouble loving somebody, you physically express love for them. Because it is powerful.

And so they kneel down and they pray, and they all wept freely. They all wept freely. They weren't embarrassed about it. This was a sad parting. This was the last time that they were going to see each other, or so they thought.

It turned out not to be the case, but it was a long time before they would see him again. They thought it at this point, it was the last time they would see him. And so they fell on Paul's neck, and they kissed him, And they were sorrowful. And this just shows the emotions that Paul was willing to express. And that He had taught all these men to express.

Because this was not something that the Roman culture practiced. In fact, I just learned this week, apparently, I didn't have time to verify it, that it was actually, Claudius, I think, made it illegal for men to kiss one another. Because nobles were kissing commoners, slaves, and that was horrific in their culture. He didn't do that. And apparently he made it illegal according to Suetonius.

And so this is not cultural, this was counter-cultural. In our series on Romans about 15 years ago. I gave a whole message on this topic of the Holy Kiss, and I won't repeat it here, but seeing that there were probably most, some of you that weren't born then, and Most of us that weren't here then, I'll mention a few things about this. The holy kiss is an ancient practice in the Orient. It's in the Scriptures.

Jacob kissed Isaac when he received the blessing. He kissed Rachel and Laban when he greeted them the first time he saw them in his life. Jacob and Esau kissed each other at their reunion. Moses and Jethro kissed when they met. Samuel and Saul kissed at Saul's anointing.

David and Jonathan, Absalom, and the men of Israel all exchanged kisses as greetings. In fact, Jesus chided Simon the Pharisee who had invited him to his house for supper because he didn't give him a kiss, a holy kiss of greeting when he arrived. This holy kiss is commanded, actually, five times in the Scriptures. It's commanded. Here it's done.

It's practiced. But in five other places, three or four of them are Paul's commands, to greet one another with a holy kiss or a kiss of love, or a kiss of peace. And it was practiced in the Western Church up until probably the 13th century. And it continued to be the practice in The Coptic Church. Justin Martyr who lived from 110 to 165 AD was a Gentile born near Samaria, not a Jew.

In his chapter on the administration of the Lord's Supper in his first Apology, he says, he's describing how they do the Lord's Supper, having ended the prayers, we salute one another with a kiss. There is then brought to the president of the brethren bread and a cup of wine mixed with water, and He taking them gives praise and glory to the Father of the universe through the name of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and offers thanks at considerable length for our being counted worthy to receive these things at His hands." And when He's done, all the people express their assent by saying Amen. This was a Part of their celebration of the Lord's Supper is that they greeted each other with a kiss. Clement of Alexandria warned against the misuse of it, saying, And if we are called to the Kingdom of God, let us walk worthy of the Kingdom, loving God and our neighbor. But love is not proved by a kiss, but by kindly feeling.

But there are those that do nothing but make the churches resound with a kiss, not having love itself within for this very thing, the shameless use of a kiss, which ought to be mystic, occasions, foul suspicions, and evil reports. He says the apostle calls it a holicist. So there was a warning against this being abused and misused. And in the constitutions on the apostles, on assembling in the church, they say it's basically an exact description of the church and what things in particular everyone is to do in solemn assemblies. This is what they say.

As to the deacons, after the prayer is over, let some of them attend upon the on the Eucharist ministering to the Lord's body with fear that others of them watch the multitude and keep the people silent but let the deacon who has at the high priest hand say to the people that no one have any quarrel against another. Let no one come in hypocrisy. Then let the men give the men and the women give the women the Lord's kiss. But let no one do it with deceit as Judas betrayed the Lord with a kiss. And after this, let the deacon pray for the whole church.

See, this was practiced. You see, culture, we say, well, it's not cultural today. But culture is simply the cumulative expression of what we believe in our heart. It's our religion externalized. Culture reveals who is our God.

See how we spend our time each day. How we organize our home. How we set our priorities. As we saw last week, it's the outward expression of what is preeminent in our life. Who's the God of our life?

Even the syntax of our language is shaped by our religion. The practices of pagan cultures are changed by the Gospel, even down to the very words that they have in their cultures. And one Chinese author in a paper titled The Influence of Christianity on English said, quote, for the Chinese English learners, it is inevitable to encounter Christianity while learning English." Because you see, the Bible, the Christian faith, it changes our language. We have words for things that other languages might not have words for. Or vice versa.

And the fact that we have lost this custom is maybe a sign of our departure from the kiss of peace that was to mark our fellowship. You see, it was counter-cultural in Paul's day to practice this. But it became accepted as Christianity transformed the culture and it became a regular part of their worship. And so I think we should be very careful not to write this off as just a cultural thing from a bygone day. But this is something that we ought to practice.

And I'm not going to force it on anybody, you're free to disagree with me on this? It's not easy for me. It's not something that I find culturally easy to do. And yet, this is in the Word of God. Because the effect of human touch is powerful.

You know, remember, thoughts and emotions follow our actions. And so I think obedience to this command produces physical effects. It's harder to hate those people that are in the practice of greeting with a kiss. It's just like when we are worshiping the Lord, we can lift our hands up in praise because our hearts are lifted up. And if our hearts aren't lifted up, but we move our body that way, it can also help our heart to come along that way.

And so I think we are missing the blessing of obedience when we omit this from our greetings. And so then in all these ways, we have to live out the Word. We have that responsibility. Knowing that The power is not in what we're doing, but the power is in the Word of God as He works through that Word in us and through us. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the clarity of Your Word, for its directness, for it speaks the truth. It speaks to the deepest issues of our hearts and our lives. It frees us from bondage to falsehoods, from bondage to the evil one. And it does guide us, lighting our path. Father, we ask that You would deepen our love for Your Word, that we might know more of its power in our life, more of its sanctifying influence, more of its cleansing, more of its nourishment and strength.

And that You would enable us as we meditate upon it, as we memorize it, to understand more and to dig deeper into the great riches of Your Word. We ask this Lord in Jesus' name. Amen.