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How a pastor says goodbye

Ray Ortlund
Immanuel Church
Nashville, Tennessee
8 September 2019

And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to
build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
Acts 20:32

Now just a few words of goodbye, words of affection and confidence

and encouragement in our Lord. The party Friday evening was glorious.
We all shared many wonderful words then. For now, just a few last words,
as we praise and thank the Lord for all he has given us, for his own glory.

Here in Acts 20 the apostle Paul is saying goodbye to a church he

dearly loved. His letter to the church in Ephesus uses the word “love” at a
higher rate of frequency than any of Paul’s other letters. Their friendship
together was wonderfully marked by the love of Jesus, even as ours is here.
For that, we thank the Lord, who has done it all. So here is how a pastor
says goodbye, as I make Paul’s words to them my own words to you – one
phrase at a time.

And now I commend you to God

I’m not saying, “I give you to God.” You’re not mine to give away.
Verse 28 says you belong to God by his blood on the cross. But I can and I
do commend you to God. He is, and he has, everything you will ever need.
Here is how one scholar paraphrases what God is saying to us all in his
promises throughout the Bible:
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I am Almighty God – he says to us – able to fulfill your highest hopes

and accomplish for you the brightest ideal that ever my words set
before you. There is no need to pare down the promise until it squares
with human probabilities, no need to relinquish one hope it has
begotten, no need to adopt some interpretation of it which may make
it seem easier to fulfill, no need to strive to fulfill it in any second-rate
way. All possibility lies in this: I am Almighty God.

When I say, “I commend you to God,” here is what’s at stake. Will

Immanuel Church treat God as real or as theoretical? But we all believe that
it is not too much to expect a Christian church to treat Almighty God as real.
Our city has the right to see in us people who live in reality with God. The
great divide between churches today is not denominational; the great divide
is practical. Some churches treat God as real at a practical level, because
they know they are nothing without him; other churches, without even
realizing it, marginalize God as a theory, even an orthodox theory, because
they honestly feel successful enough or virtuous enough on their own. But I
commend you, Immanuel Church, God-with-us Church – I commend you to
God. He is how we’ve come this far. And I’m so glad you now know that
you will need to buy or build your own church home within the next seven
years, when our lease runs out. You are right back to where Immanuel
started – with our backs against the wall, with nothing but need. He came
through for us, and he will come through for you. You are perfectly
positioned to see new works of God. Look to him. Pray to him. Love him.
Enjoy him. Stay low before him. Your destiny is to prove the all-
sufficiency of God here in a world that treats him as a failure. And as long
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as God exists, you will have a prophetic ministry in this world. I commend
you to God.

and to the word of his grace

What is the word of his grace? It’s the gospel, the good news of the
finished work of Christ on the cross and the endless power of the Holy Spirit
for us, the undeserving, who have nothing to offer him but our failures and
our regrets, and all we can do is open up the empty hands of faith before
him. I commend you to God and to that word of his grace. You can’t
improve on it, and you’ve only begun to explore it. And as we all have
experienced so many times together, the gospel is the power of God – not
the mere concept of God – but the energy of God for everyone who gives up
on themselves and turns to God and opens up. A message of self-exaltation
would make us proud. A message of self-condemnation would leave us
paralyzed. But the word of God’s grace helps us. How? In two ways, for
starters:

which is able to build you up

This world beats us up, but the gospel builds us up. The gospel tells
us that God values the unworthy, God strengthens the weak, God forgives
the inexcusable, God fights for the defeated, and God rebukes the proud.
Whatever our condition as we walk in here every Sunday, the word of his
grace is able to build us up. And this word translated “build up” is a word
taken from the construction industry. God is building, God is constructing, a
whole new world of hope and beauty here in this world of failure and anger.
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God’s new world, his new neighborhood – here at Immanuel we call it a

gospel culture. It’s where we finally belong, where we can finally breathe
and rest and rethink at a deep level. It’s where we can give thanks to God
and help others, here in a place where Jesus is present. And it’s the word of
his grace that keeps that miracle going, as that word is met with faith. I love
how Martin Luther explained the power of the gospel in his own day:

Take me as an example. I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s

Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept or drank Wittenberg
beer with my friends, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that
no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing;
the Word did everything.

So, my recommendation? Keep preaching the gospel, singing the gospel,

praying the gospel, and God will give you a front row seat to watch him
build a whole new world. And here is the other thing the word of God’s
grace is able to do:

and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified

He’s talking about Heaven. We have been caught up into the one and
only reality in this exhausted world that will outlast the universe. A church,
given over to God, built up and up and up by his word of grace, is an eternal
reality even in the present. Treasure the glory God is creating here. Revere
and guard and spread what God is creating with you. Take the work as far
as you possibly can in your time, and then hand it off to the next generation,
with this same vision of eternal glory and consequence.
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And here is the telltale sign that you really are an eternal dwelling
place of God in this world of darkness. Here is proof: “. . . among all those
who are sanctified.” That is, among those obviously set apart to God. We
don’t have to be perfect, but we do have to be easy to read. And if you have
said to Jesus, “Lord, I’m a mess; but I want to be your mess now. I’m all-in
with you” – you are a saint. Your heart is new. You’re not coming up to the
line and getting as close as you can without actually stepping over. No, you
have re-centered your life around Christ, the Savior of sinners. You have an
inheritance above, by his grace. You will spend eternity in his new world,
and everyone there will like you, and he will be there. But right now, dare to
represent Heaven, for his glory, in this world of exhaustion and aloofness.

You will be tested. Well-meaning but misguided people will ask you
to draw lines where God has not drawn lines. Others will ask you to erase
lines God has clearly drawn. You will be tested by plausible people who
honestly don’t understand what God is building. And you must find a
courteous way of saying No, and then inviting that person to come join you
in your total trust in God. What our broken city needs is more churches
where God is rightly understood, sincerely loved, and actually experienced.

So, I commend you to God. I commend you to the word of his grace.
I commend you to the up-building message of the gospel. I commend you to
the sin-expelling, cleansing message of the gospel. And you will stand out
as a church where the risen Jesus is obviously present. God bless you!