Acts 20:28-38 Under-Shepherds
Good morning! Turn with me once again to Acts chapter 20, verses 28-38, page 930 in the pew Bibles.
Last time we looked at this farewell address from the Apostle Paul to the elders of the Ephesian church. In the first half of this farewell sermon to them he focused on his own work among them, and now he turns his attention to their work and gives his final charge to them.
And while these were some final instructions to a group of elders and pastors, there is still a great deal we can learn from this sermon and be encouraged by its instructions.
So, let’s look at the text and dive in.
28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. 29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. 32 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. 33 I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. 34 You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. 35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”
36 And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. 37 And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, 38 being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.
Let’s pray.
So as we consider this text, we can see that this was a sort of farewell address from an upper shepherd to some under-shepherds. And as we examine this we might also use it as a bit of a report card for our own family here at CrossRoads.
So there is one thing that we have to make clear right off the bat, and that is the term “overseer” used in verse 28.
There are a few terms used in the New Testament to describe this role within the church family, one of which is “overseer.” I’ve already used the other two this morning, they are “elder” and “pastor.” The New Testament authors, inspired by the Holy Spirit, use these terms interchangeably. And they do so because they all mean the same thing, they describe the same office, the office of shepherd.
The Bibles uses the picture of the shepherd repeatedly in both Old and New Testaments. Don’t we love to recite Psalm 23, the Shepherd’s Psalm? And who is the Shepherd? The Lord!
1 Peter 5:4 calls Jesus the Chief Shepherd. Jesus said in John 10:14 that He is the Good Shepherd. Ezekiel 34:24 says that David, who was a type of Christ, was a shepherd over the people of Israel, given to watch over them and feed them.
The Greek word for shepherd is poimen, the Latin word for poimen is pastor.
The role is the same as an overseer, sometimes translated bishop, and it’s the same as the word we use here, elder. The roles are all the same. I serve as an elder, just as Joel and Will do, and they are pastors just like I am. The only difference is that my primary responsibility is for preaching.
The definitions and qualifications for this role is clearly spelled out in Titus 1:5-7 and 1 Timothy 3:2-7. You can look that up as homework.
All this to say, that this is the group that Paul is talking to and reminding them of their responsibilities. And what are the responsibilities? There are three, pay attention to yourselves, pay attention to the flock, pay attention to the wolves. This is the job of shepherds.
First, in verse 28, Paul tells the elders to pay careful attention to themselves.
Seems kind of backwards doesn’t it? Aren’t they supposed to put others first? Isn’t that what we are all supposed to do? Sure, in a general sense we are, but when it comes to the role of shepherd their level of spiritual health and depth will be reflected in the entire church family.
When I was a kid and my grandfather was teaching me to do woodturning, the first thing he made sure of was that I was using a sharp tool. A dull tool is far more dangerous than a sharp one. A sharp tool cuts easy but a dull tool has to be pushed harder and forced to cut. This puts the operator in a dangerous situation and one slip can be disastrous. The same is true when it comes to spiritual shepherding. If the tool isn’t sharp, shepherds put themselves in a dangerous situation and in step of shepherding by the Spirit they use worldly wisdom or potentially selfish motivation or pride to direct people.
Paul made clear that his doctrine had been pure and so theirs should be too. Without pure, biblical doctrine, biblical teaching, you cannot have biblical shepherding. And when you try to have a church apart from biblical doctrine, you don’t have a church at all.
Don’t forget, those who are appointed to this task, to this role will have to give an account for what they taught and how they lead according to Hebrews 13:17.
The elders were not only to pay careful attention to themselves, but obviously to the flock, the church.
If those appointed to oversee the church were referred to as shepherds, what does that make those in their charge? Sheep.
Nowadays this gets thrown around as an insult, as if people don’t think for themselves, just follow the crowd, are generally unintelligent, and stubborn… and smelly. Doesn’t sound like us at all, does it?
Unfortunately, the Bible refers to us all as sheep because they do so closely resemble us. Jesus left the 99 sheep to go find the one lost sheep. Why? Because he wandered off. Isaiah 53 says that all we, like sheep, have gone astray, everyone turned to our own way. Jesus described sheep falling into pits on the Sabbath day because it was a common occurrence.
Maybe we are not that dissimilar after all.
If you ever have some time and want a good laugh, look up “Super Sheep” by Ken Davis on YouTube. It’s hilarious, and powerful.
1 Peter 5:1-4 says, So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: 2 shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; 3 not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
So how do the elders shepherd the flock? First of all, by feeding them the wholesome and nourishing food of the Word of God. This does include sermons and Bible studies, but also doctrinally sound and appropriate songs for worship in singing. A person may never remember any sermon points but we all get songs stuck in our heads, we remember lyrics easy!
But it’s not just the formal, or semi-formal, I guess “official” meetings of the church but also the examples that they set just living life. Living lives that honor God, not being greedy, or proud, or covetous. Giving wise counsel and practical guidance and watch-care for the church family.
The beautiful thing about this whole picture is that the shepherds, the elders, were sheep too, they had just grown into sheep shepherding sheep. And the work of shepherding isn’t just to make the sheep feel warm and fuzzy all the time but also to train the sheep to work.
Ephesians 4 says, 11 And [Jesus] gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…
The work of the ministry is not reserved just for those who are called to be shepherds but for everybody in the church family. Growth and development into works of service is part of the program. We need to be investing in others, especially the next generation of potential shepherds so that our church family doesn’t just grow old and die.
Verse 29 and 30 say, 29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.
Guarding the flock against fake sheep, false teachers, and false teaching is a primary task of the shepherds. Warning against authors and speakers that do not faithfully teach the Word of God but only teach what itching ears want to hear is a big part of the job because there is so much out there that sounds good at first but when you get down to it is false and just plain bad.
There are authors that we should not read. There are preachers that we should not listen to. There are songs we should not sing because they do not accurately reflect the Word of God and the gospel. This is a less fun, but very necessary part of shepherding the flock, watching out for wolves in sheep’s clothing.
John Calvin outlined four reasons Paul gives for elders to do their duty diligently. These are paraphrased.
First, they should do their duty diligently because they were bound to the flock that they have been appointed to oversee. They were a part of that family so they were to watch over themselves as they watched over the church family. You can’t look after the salvation and sanctification of others if you neglect your own, you are part of the flock too and also need shepherding.
Second, they should do their duty diligently because they were called to this work, not by man but by the Holy Spirit.
The elders will have to give an account to the One who appointed them the work so be diligent and faithful.
Thirdly, they should do their duty diligently because it is no small honor to oversee the church of Christ. Jesus is the Chief Shepherd and Author of the incomparable riches of our salvation. It is a privilege to be His under-shepherd.
And lastly, they should do their duty diligently because the Lord declared His high view of the church by redeeming it with His own blood. The preciousness of the church in the Lord’s sight ought to urge the elders to do the work joyfully when we consider the great price that Christ paid for us.
Verse 32 says, and we’ll end with this, 32 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.
Paul recognized that the church belongs to Jesus and so he was able to commend them to God and to the word of His grace because he knew that God is able to build them up and give them their inheritance in His eternal kingdom along with all the saints, those who are sanctified.
No matter how long I’ve been preaching here, this is not my church, this family does not belong to the elders, we belong to Jesus. The elders, overseers, pastors, shepherds, whatever you want to call us, are His servants and stewards of His most prized possession.
So if you are left wondering, so what, what does any of this have to do with me?
I would encourage you to do two things: first, pray for the elders, this is not work that anybody can do without the Lord’s help.
Second, let us know how we’re doing. If there are gaps we don’t see let us know, if we’re knocking it out of the park, let us know. It’s a work that is bigger than any of us and those serving in this role need encouragement and watch-care ourselves.
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever.
Amen.
