St Paul in Ephesus - Shepherd God's Church

Hello and welcome to Van Life Devotions. This ancient City of Ephesus which is in modern day Turkey was known for its wealth and luxury around the time when Christ was born and it was also home to the temple to the Greek goddess Artemis. During these years, this city and its busy harbor became the capital of the new Asia and was one of the five major cities in the Roman Empire, along with Rome, Corinth, Antioch, and Alexandria. In a few hundred years, the water ways silted up stopping Ephesus from being a port and therefore the city lost its significance and died.

Ephesus had a strong Christian connection and over the next few weeks we will share devotions from this city.

It was about the year 52 AD that Paul first ministered in Ephesus for a short time where he went to the Synagogue to have discussions with the Jews (Acts 18:19-21). About two years later, as part of his third missionary journey, Paul went back to Ephesus and stayed here for three years (Acts 19).

For three months Paul kept going into the Synagogue at Ephesus where he boldly spoke and arguing persuasively about the Kingdom of God (Acts 19:8). He then went to this lecture hall and for the next two years he preached and held discussions with many Jews and Greeks.

These were hard but exciting days for the church at Ephesus. Many heard the word of the Lord as it spread widely and grew in power; others were so convicted that they brought their scrolls that taught how to do sorcery and burnt them publicly, and God was doing extraordinary miracles through Paul. The Ephesian church is also an example where Paul and others established leaders such as elders and deacons in the new churches to give spiritual oversight.  

The church continued to grow, and we will look at this next week, but Paul felt led after three years of hard but fruitful ministry to go back to Jerusalem. He told the elders of the church that he felt compelled by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem not knowing what will happen to him there (Acts 20:22).

Some of Paul’s last words to the elders of the Ephesian church are found in Acts 20:28-30, “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears” (Acts 20:28-31 NIV).

I thank God that every church where I have been a part of either growing up as a child or pastoring, that there have been godly elders who shepherded those churches by their love for God and His Word and for one another. Each of those churches had a positive impact on my life. These leaders guarded the church from bad influences and shepherded me as Christian. If you are a spiritual leader in your church, your role is to shepherd your people as Peter points out (1 Peter 5:1-3). If you are not a church leader, pray and support your leaders. Today, the church needs people to lead our churches with love for God, His Word, and His people.

Let’s pray:

Dear God. I thank you for Godly people who have shepherded churches over the years. We pray that you will raise up Godly people to continue to oversee churches for Your glory.

O God, preserve us who travel; surround us with your loving care; protect us from every danger; and bring us in safety to our journey’s end; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

David Moyes