Text: Acts 20:25-31, Title: So You Call Yourself a Pastor 2, Date/Place: NRBC, 2/15/09, AM
A. Opening illustration: the greatest pastor ever, and maybe the church job descriptions
B. Background to passage: the setting is Miletus where Paul has decided to stay, not going to Ephesus because there is not enough time on his way to Jerusalem to carry the offering to the church there. This is Paul’s only recorded speech strictly to believers. He has called the elders of the Ephesian church (explain the elder, shepherd, overseer terminology) for a farewell address. Also make the case for a plurality of elders as the NT model. So after Paul gives his exhortation for them to remember the way that he lived among them, he turns to the charge that he will give them. Lord willing we will look at them all.
C. Main thought: in this text we will see the four charges that shepherds are given in relation to the flock
A. Proclaim the whole counsel of God (v. 26-27)
1. Note the link in verse 27 “for” which makes this one thought instead of two. IMPORTANT to note the details of the text! The background of this verse is blood-guilt, and reminiscent of Ezekiel’s watchman charge. Paul says that no man’s blood will be required of him BECAUSE he did not shrink back, retreat, back down, tickle ears, change the message, present options, or offer suggestions, but he proclaimed or announced the entirety of the counsel or will of God with authority. He saw it as a job, a calling, a commission, and one to which he would be held to account one day.
2. Ezek 33:7-9, 2 Tim 3:16, Matt 4:4, 5:18
3. Illustration: “A shepherd’s task is not to tell people only what they want to hear, but to edify and strengthen them with the deep truths of solid spiritual food that produces discernment, conviction, consistency, power, and effective testimony to the greatness of the saving work of Christ.” –JM, I know that I have told the illustration about MacArthur and Dr Fienberg and his preaching in seminary and being told that he missed the whole point of the passage, tell about Michael the other day talking about dealing with difficult texts in 1 Samuel, preachers around here fear man more than God because they shrink back from uncomfortable subjects like money, gambling, divorce, tobacco, gossip, unregenerate church membership, church discipline, church polity or church government, homosexuality, politics, predestination, gifts of the Spirit, etc. “I find it impossible to avoid offending guilty men, for there is no way of avoiding it but by our silence or their patience; and silent we cannot be because of God’s command, and patient they cannot be because of their guilt.” –Luther, Listen to Adrian Rogers: “It is better to be divided by truth than to be united in error. It is better to speak the truth that hurts and then heals, then falsehood that comforts and then kills. It is not love and it is not friendship if we fail do declare the whole counsel of God. It is better to be hated for telling the truth than to be loved for telling a lie. It is impossible to find anyone in the Bible who was a power for God who did not have enemies and was not hated. It’s better to stand alone with the truth than to be wrong with a multitude. It is better to ultimately succeed with truth than to temporarily succeed with a lie.”
4. Blood-guilt applies to all of us who are ambassadors of Christ to lost and dying world. You all are called of God to share and warn unbelievers of their peril in not treasuring Christ above all things. According to statistics, maybe 95% of evangelical Christians will die having never led another person to follow Jesus. Blood will be required of you if your neighbors die lost without you warning them, if your family dies having never professed Christ because it was awkward for you to discuss Christ, if your co-workers whom you have worked beside for years pass into eternity without having been warned by you. But the guilt is doubly heaped upon pastor-elders who do not give the life-giving gospel to those who look to them to do so. As a shepherd I am charged with having to preach the full will of God, the full word of God to you. I am not to pick and choose the parts I like and dislike, or only preach the parts that you want to hear. And we all have our soapboxes, but we are called to preach it all. This is why I preach through books. This is why I deal with every paragraph, every sentence, and every word in every verse, and every tense of every verb, and connective. It is all important to proclaim—the begat passages, the dividing of the land passages, the Levitical law prescriptions, all of it. I am not charged with giving you my clever thoughts, nor pithy quotes, nor jokes, nor anecdotes, but I am to say all that God said, no more and no less, without fear of repercussions from the congregation, but with great fear of The Chief Shepherd and pleasing Him. And that is one reason why you can count on what you hear being from Him. Not to preach the whole counsel of God subverts Christ’s authority as head of the church.
B. Watch lives closely (v. 28a)
1. The next thing that Paul charges them to do is to spiritually watch over lives. The word used here is that of a sailor or captain who is holding a ship in proper direction on a journey. The picture here is not that of hall monitor in school, but a shepherd who knows the goings on of individual sheep. Again the idea is not that we are all up in everyone’s business, but that we are lovingly watching for signs of health or sickness spiritually in our sheep. But note that the first of the objects over which they are to “pay attention” is themselves. Next he charges them with the care of “all the flock” that Christ had purchased with his own blood. Speak about the preciousness of the flock to the one who bought them.
2. Gal 6:1-2, 1 Pet 5:3, read the one another passages,
3. Illustration: The breadth of my ministry is determined by the depth of my relationship with Jesus, “the most important thing that your people need from you is your personal holiness” –Dr. Bill Bennett, SEBTS Pastoral Ministry class, “Take heed to yourselves, lest you live in those sins which you preach against in others, and lest you be guilty of that which you daily condemn...If sin be evil, why do you live in it? If it not be, then why do you dissuade men from it? If it be dangerous, how dare you venture into it?…If God’s threatenings are true, why do you not fear them?...Do you not know the judgment of God that they who do such things are worthy of death; and yet will you do them?” Richard Baxter in The Reformed Pastor, Phillip Keller spoke of how he loved his sheep even the ones that he had to kill because they were leading the flock astray…Phillip Keller’s details about a “cast-down” sheep and what the shepherd does to get him back on his feet. “When sheep lay on their back, gas begins to collect in their stomach. It hardens the stomach, cuts off the air passage and they suffocate. Not only that, their legs go numb in that position. They need a shepherd to restore them. When a shepherd restores a cast down sheep, it doesn’t just happen immediately. It takes time. The shepherd lovingly massages the four legs to get some circulation back. Then he begins to talk in a reassuring tone to the sheep, "You’re going to make it." Then he gently turns the sheep over and lifts it up because it cannot stand up on its own. He’ll hold the animal there while the sheep begins to get some equilibrium. The blood begins to flow in the legs again and it begins to get some stability, illustration about burnout on ill page,
4. Another reason that a plurality of pastor-elders is necessary. And also a reason that deacons were established, to aid in caring for the needs of those in the church. It is impossible for me to know all of you well enough to be able to discern your spiritual vibrancy. There are a handful of you that I feel like I have my finger on your spiritual pulse. Another reason that there is no biblical or practical way to have a non-resident membership roll, or have members who don’t attend regularly. Pastors are supposed to live out lives that are examples to the flock. How can the body take instruction on how to kill sin, if the pastor cannot kill it? Old adage is that “those who can’t do teach.” This cannot be true with pastors. We are to constantly watch over our lives because of the spiritual impact. Therefore self-examination is a part of my life; my life is an open book. I intentionally build accountability into my life. But this same principle is true for parents, grandparents, teachers, public servants, sports stars, and all Christians because your life has an impact on others around you. The bible speaks of times when you are responsible in part for another’s sin. We are told not to become stumbling blocks, and we will be held accountable. But also remember that this is a charge to the pastors, but there are numerous commands for body to watch out for each other. When you notice that people don’t come, it is your responsibility to go a check on them. Usually people tell me about it, because they figure it’s my job. But the Spirit brought it to your attention. And it does take work and intentionality to adequately care for others. Our walls are so tall, and our little cliques so well formed that it is hard to break in. You can be a member here for months after attending for weeks, and most of the congregation doesn’t know your name, let alone your spiritual condition. We must become a church that truly cares for its own, and not just those that are in your little circle.
C. Closing illustration: “A dead ministry will always make a dead people, whereas if ministers are warmed with the love of God themselves, they cannot but be instruments of diffusing that love among others. This, this is the best preparation for the work whereunto you are to be called. Learning without piety will only make you more capable of promoting the kingdom of Satan. Henceforward, therefore, I hope you will enter into your studies not to get a parish, nor to be polite preachers, but to be great saints.” -- George Whitefield
