Ep 435 – Acts 20:1-6

Do you have any spiritual progeny? Can you claim any sons and daughters in the faith whom you have helped to raise in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? Many of us have biological children, and we have a responsibility to point them toward Christ and to mirror the love of Christ in front of them. But we also have a God-given charge to make disciples. And that commission, given to us by Jesus Christ Himself, goes far beyond the initial point of conversion. We are to see to it that our children in the faith grow in their faith. We are to lovingly push them towards maturity and encourage them to take up their cross daily and follow Christ. One of the things we learn about the apostle Paul, as we examine his life in the Book of Acts, is that he had a passionate desire to see people come to faith, but an equally intense desire to see them grow spiritually. In Acts 20:1-6, Luke is going to introduce us to seven men whose lives had been influenced by Paul. They were his disciples, his sons in faith. We know little about most of them, but they were men who had placed their faith in Christ as a result of Paul's dedication to sharing the gospel with Gentiles. But Paul had not been content to see them come to faith. He wanted to help them grow and watch them carry on the ministry of spreading the gospel to the four corners of the earth. Paul knew that his days on earth were numbered and that the future well-being of the church was dependent upon the spiritual leadership he and the other apostles would leave behind.