Tag: Don’t Shrink — Acts 19-20

Acts 20:17-21

(Paul Speaks to the Ephesian Elders)

Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. And when they came to him, he said to them:

“You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Acts 20:27

for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

Tag:  Don’t Shrink

Paul is about to leave Ephesus and will not return.  He will, eventually, be taken captive to Rome and die there.  He and the Ephesian elders and church do not know that.  This is, in essences, his last contact with them.   Before he leaves, however, he wants to make sure they know the purpose and the reason for his work among them.  He states on two occasions that he did not “shrink” from telling them about the complete counsel of God.  He spoke all of God’s Word.   The word “shrink” might be were we get the little song that says in regard to the Gospel, “... hide it under a bushel, NO! I’m going to let it shine.”   To “shrink” was to draw back the sail on the boat so as to slow the course or, perhaps, change the course.   Paul was NOT about to draw down the sail when it came to giving the complete Gospel.   We ought not be “shrinking” in our delivery of the Good News either.   God’s word is good news.   We ought to give it full and complete.  Paul told the Romans:

Romans 1:16

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Paul was not ashamed of the Gospel.  It is the power of God!!   He did not Shrink in his delivery of the message of the Cross.