4.25.21 Acts 20:28
28 “Always keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock in which the Holy Spirit has placed you as overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.
This is part of Paul’s farewell speech to the pastors in Ephesus. He was on his way to Jerusalem, and the Holy Spirit had revealed to Paul that he had “chains and afflictions” waiting for him, and that none of them would ever see his face again. So this is in some ways like Jesus’ last meal with his disciples. Paul was revealing to them his last will and testament. You couldn’t have been any more serious or solemn than this right here, from one shepherd to another. It was -
Paul’s Final Proclamation to Pastors
What were his words? “Always keep watch.” Think of a secret service agent protecting the president on detail. Always watching. They case out the area in advance, always looking for the worst case scenario. You might compare it to driving through a wooded area at dusk. You have to constantly be on the alert for deer crossing the road. Always keep watch.
Paul said, “Remember that for three years, night and day, I never stopped warning each one of you with tears.” (Acts 20:31) That seems like overkill doesn’t it? Day and night, for three full years?!? With tears? What does this teach us? Paul took the threats seriously. All it would take was one slip, one moment of weakness, one moment of letting down your guard, and disaster could strike. People could land in hell.
The first line of defense? Always keep watch over yourselves. Bible history is full of leaders who were led astray in the faith.
? Think of Peter who was led astray by his fellow Jews so that he stopped eating with Gentiles for a time, giving the impression that they were saved by works and not by faith. Paul had to publicly rebuke him so that Peter and the people weren’t ultimately led into hell!
? Judas, of course, fell into sin when he helped himself to the money bag and then eventually sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.
? David fell into adultery and then murder.
? Ananias and Sapphira decided to lie and deceive.
? King Asa became entered an unholy alliance with Aram near the end of his life and appeared to die in stubbornness and unbelief after a long and faithful lifetime of service.
? Paul warned that some from their own leadership would try to pull others away from them out of a sense of pride
So you can never let your guard down, no matter how old you are, how powerful you are, how faithful you are, or what kind of a position you have in life. The devil knows that if he can get a pastor to fall it can shake the congregation down to its very core. Think about the damage the child molesting scandal has had on the Catholic church because of the sins of the priesthood, and the Catholics aren’t the only ones with guilt. I’ve had several classmates who have had to resign, one was due to pornography and another because of one angry post on a social media site. All it takes is one slip, one mistake, and a lifetime of faithful service can be tainted and lost. (Out of my 30 classmates, 11 have resigned, 2 have reentered the ministry in our Synod and 2 others left for ministry in other church bodies. Thankfully only two of them were for cause.)
Luther wrote a sacristy prayer - a prayer that he would pray before he entered the pulpit. We have it written in German in our sacristy. It is a beautiful prayer of honest humility. It goes,
“Lord God, You have appointed me as a Bishop and Pastor in Your Church, but you see how unsuited I am to meet so great and difficult a task. If I had lacked Your help, I would have ruined everything long ago. Therefore, I call upon You: I wish to devote my mouth and my heart to you; I shall teach the people.”
The devil knows how weak pastors are and he’s always looking for an opening. So a pastor has to be very aware of his surroundings. Think of when Vice President Pence said that he never had a meal with a woman who wasn’t his wife and the media made fun of him. Come to find out, it was wise practice. All it takes is one accusation that can’t necessarily be disproven. He has to be aware of his own weaknesses, which means that he has to be in the Word regularly and first of all apply it to HIMSELF. He has to confess his sins to God and cling to forgiveness on a regular basis. This is good advice for YOU as well, of course.
If he is watching himself well, then he has an even higher duty. “Always keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock.” Did you know that the word "pastor" derives from the Latin noun pastor which means "shepherd" and is derived from the verb pascere – "to lead to pasture, set to grazing, cause to eat". It is a very fitting of Psalm 23, where the LORD leads his sheep through the valley of the shadow of death, and sets a table before them. It’s quite the picture, a whole flock of sheep following a pastor through a dangerous valley of death. This is the way God designed it.
But it seems pretty foolish, right? I mean the shepherd is a sheep too! What makes him so special? Notice how Paul says it, “keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock in which the Holy Spirit has placed you as overseers.” This was the Holy Spirit’s doing, who put the overseers of the flock over the sheep. So we regard this as a divine call, that God placed me and Pastor Hatzung over Trinity to look over you and care for you, and He has equipped us with the Word and sacrament. If you have a problem with it, then talk to God about it. This is how designed it, to have sinful and weak sheep try to shepherd other sinful and weak sheep.
Yet there are prerequisites for the pastors, too, right? Paul writes,
1 Timothy 3:2–4 Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect.
There’s more too. God doesn’t want the church to be scandalized by loose cannons, by men who can’t control themselves or be decent role models. God has standards that He wants kept for this special office.
There’s some trust that has to go on in this. That God could and work through shepherds. There’s also a relationship there. I think of my father in law who drives out to the field with the feed truck and starts yelling, “Mmm-boss!” over and over. The cows know his voice and come running when he comes in the yard with the feed. He’s done it hundreds of times. They know him well. When a heifer is going to give birth, she has to trust him to come and help if needs be.
So it is the duty of the pastor to look over the landscape, to be aware of the dangers. To warn the flock about what those dangers are in their society, and to feed the flock and lead the flock through the dangers on the way to the promised land. It is also YOUR responsibility to come and be fed. It isn’t as simple as driving a feed truck into a fenced in yard. You live on your own in your own homes with your own jobs. You have your own special struggles, responsibilities, and difficulties. Your life is not as simple as a cow’s life or a sheep. But God expects you to use the gifts you’ve been given here. God wants your pastors to help you through them.
It’s beautiful when it works. The phone call comes. “Pastor, I know you’re busy, but I’m having some marital difficulties. Can we talk? Pastor, I’ve got surgery on Friday. My mom is in the hospital. Pastor, I need help. I’m struggling with alcohol.” I consider it an honor and a privilege to be able to help you through these struggles together! Don’t be sorry for it! We go to the hospital to feed people with the Word and give the Lord’s Supper. We cry together and sing together at the funeral. We pray together in counseling. People are comforted. They are strengthened. Sins are forgiven. Relationships are mended. Hope is found. This is what keeps me going as a pastor! This is how God designed it. A pastor leading his flock through the valley of the shadow of death.
But how can that happen if the sheep don’t come to the service and the Supper to be fed? How can that happen if you don’t trust your pastor to counsel you with the Word of God? I can remember when I first got here trying to line up visits with everyone in the congregation, and how hard that proved to be. It was depressing. “Um, I’m kind of busy. I’ll get back with you on that.” We live in such a rugged individualistic society, and it rubs off on our members. There are probably around half who want to be members of a church but don’t really want a shepherd. They really don’t want to be part of a flock either. And it doesn’t take too long for the theology to start lagging. Lutherans who were taught to cherish the body and blood of the LORD but don’t make it a priority to receive it. Relationships at home start deteriorating. Couples stop talking and stop forgiving. Love turns cold. And the devil is at the door. And there’s plenty of sin and guilt on the pastor’s side too, people that have been missing for a long time, that could have been called and should have been called.
So I personally see and feel the sad carnage of sin in the lives of people who have gone or been led astray. I’ll never forget a young lady who had been molested by her father turned to prostitution during a rough time in her life. She called her pimp her “mac daddy” or something to that effect. They became her family. It was sickening and sad. I was supposed to be taking care of her with the Word. I tried to bring her back. I prayed and tried to confront her as lovingly as I could. She resisted. It was so sad! But finally, she came back! A young couple that I took through marital counseling, with two young boys involved, and a new father struggling with PTSD. We counseled. They married. It was going great! But then things fell apart, and I never had the chance to counsel them back together. It ended in a divorce. The kids were devastated. So much sadness.
And what does Jesus say to pastors again? “Always keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock in which the Holy Spirit has placed you as overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. These sheep weren’t cheap for Jesus, and that means you aren’t cheap. He spent His life for you. He died for you, to make you holy in His sight! You are precious in His sight. However much time and effort a shepherd puts into the flock, Jesus did so much more. He lived and died for you! He designed your life so that you would come to faith in Him, and stay in the faith! Think of the parable that Nathan spoke to David about the man who had his own pet sheep. “He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.” (2 Sa 12:3) This is how Jesus wants you to be with Him. I see the sadness in the eyes of the parents whose children go astray. They feel it personally. It hurts. But then I think, “It even hurts more to Jesus! He’s put even more into their children than they have!”
What does that mean for the shepherd? We aren’t called on to deal with cars or crops. We aren’t dealing with animals, precious as they may be. We aren’t just dealing with human bodies. We are dealing with human souls! I originally started studying for the ministry because I was going down a dark pathway in high school. I didn’t want to end up in hell. So I thought, if I enter the ministry I will be able to stay in the Word. I will be able to remain in the faith. As time progressed my motivations of course changed. I was just a kid at the time. Yet it is ironic to think, “Here I am, with a calling from God to take care of the sheep, and what have I done? I haven’t warned as I should. I haven’t fed as I could. The very thing that I thought would save me has damned me a hundred times over. I have failed the sheep that Jesus used His blood to pay for. I have failed the Shepherd.” What can I do, but beg for mercy? What can I do but put myself at the mercy of the same Shepherd you do, and see myself as the same sheep that He loves too, the same sheep that He died for too, saved by the same mercy, eating from the same body and blood, clinging to the same baptism? What can I do but tell myself, “Jesus wants me too. Jesus died for me too.” Thank God for that! With all of these failures, God still forgives me and wants to use me.
Please understand how important this relationship is. We are on the pathway to heaven, and Satan and his demons are biting at our heels! Your sinful nature doesn’t want to fight. It wants to be comfortable. We need to stick together, to fight together, to feed together, with Word and sacrament. Together, under Christ, we stand. Divided we fall. This is how God designed it, for us to come together as a flock of sheep, feeding at the same trough of forgiveness. Hebrews 10:24–25 Let us also consider carefully how to spur each other on to love and good works. Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have the habit of doing. Rather, let us encourage each other, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
A group of men meet at the bar to watch the Tigers game. They have a few beers together. One buys a shot for the bartender they know so well. They have some burgers and chips. The Tigers win! They go home after a fun afternoon at the bar. There’s a camaraderie there around beer, burgers, and the Tigers. Now, grant it, I might be able to think of worse ways to live. But it doesn’t go any deeper than that. Their life revolves around baseball and beer and burgers. That’s their church! There’s more to life than that!
God has designed something deeper here. We are part of a historic fight. And we know the ending. Jesus wins! Every week the pastor is called to feed you with God’s Word and sacrament, to fill you with God’s grace in Christ, to keep your hope and your purpose and your drive ALIVE in Christ. This is what church is all about. We are fed with the body and blood of Christ. We are washed into the same family, baptized in the same Spirit. Our lives revolve around Jesus Christ, who came to rescue us from this world. We are more than spectators here. We are called on to be active in this world. God designed to keep you active and strong through His Word and sacrament. God designed the church to have a shepherd serving you under the Shepherd. A shepherd is called to look after the sheep and feed the sheep with the bread of life and the water of life, Jesus Christ. Dear Jesus, please make this happen here at Trinity and around the world, and bless this relationship of the shepherd and the sheep, living and feeding under the Good Shepherd. Amen.
