We come now again this morning,
brethren, to think about this broad subject of the Christian
ministry. And I've tried to organize our
materials around three questions. Question number one we took up
the first morning. What is the Christian ministry? And we saw in the light of nine
key passages that we studied together that the pastoral office
is to be understood as the work of an elder, a bishop, an overseer,
a pastor, and a teacher. and we must think of the Christian
ministry in those categories if we are going to have biblical
materials by which to regulate our ministries. Now I am not
saying that the work and office of a pastor or an elder is the
only kind of valid ministry recognized in the Word of God. There is
a ministry of evangelism someone sent out by the church to plant
a church now whether he should be called an evangelist that
is a debated subject but we are gathered here in a pastor's conference
and so we have concentrated our thinking on the subject of what
is the Christian ministry as it is defined for us in the scriptures. And the scriptures are clear
that the Christian ministry in terms of pastoral function is
to be understood as the ministry of an elder, a bishop, or an
overseer. And then we took up the second
question in the first morning, who should be in the Christian
ministry? And we saw from the scriptures
that since Christ is the one who gives pastors and teachers
to the church, no one should be in the Christian ministry
whom Christ has not furnished with the gifts the graces and
the sanctified motives for the work of the Christian ministry,
and then who is recognized by the church, thinking and acting
according to the word of God, And in that way Christ gives
pastors and teachers to his church. Christ never gives to his church
men whose lives are not full of the graces which he says must
be present in an elder. Christ never gives to his church
men who don't have the gifts to feed and shepherd and guide
his church. And Christ does not impose upon
his church gifts that the church does not recognize as coming
from him. And then we took up a third question
yesterday, what is the Christian ministry? Who should be in the
Christian ministry? And then we began to consider
the third basic question, what are the basic tasks of the Christian
ministry? And our basic text that formed
the framework of our study yesterday and again today is Acts chapter
20 and verse 28. Acts chapter 20 and verse 28. As Paul is about to leave the
church where he has labored for over three years, he tells us
that in verse 31, remember that by the space of three years,
I cease not to admonish everyone night and day with tears. He
is about to turn over the care of the church to the elders,
to the bishops, the overseers at Ephesus. and he says your
whole task is summarized in these two things take heed, pay attention
to, be concerned for yourselves and to all the flock And so the work of the Christian
ministry is basically a two-fold work. We are to exercise constant
care over ourselves and constant care over the people of God. Yesterday, we just took the first
of those basic tasks. We are to give constant care
to ourselves in terms of the nurture of our own spiritual
life, the nurture of our own intellectual life, and the nurture
of our physical and emotional life. Now today, we take up the
second major task of the Christian ministry, namely, constant care
of the people of God. For the text says, take heed,
pay constant attention to, not only yourselves, but to all the
flock. in which the Holy Spirit has
made you bishops or overseers to feed or to shepherd the church
of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood. Now before
we get into the details of what it means to shepherd the flock
of God, and we're going to look at four things that it means,
I want us first of all to park on this verse for a few minutes
and notice two things. When Paul is charging these elders
with their task with respect to caring for the people of God,
He is careful to underscore, first of all, the specific identity
of the people of God, and then secondly, the dominant imagery
under which we care for the people of God. So we're going to open
up those two lines of thought out of the text before we come
to the four basic ways that we are to care for God's people.
Notice in the text the specific identity of the people of God. As Paul is transferring the spiritual
responsibility of the care of God's people to these elders,
he is careful to identify God's people in two ways. First of
all, he uses a metaphorical identity. That is, he identifies them under
the metaphor or the figure of speech of a flock of sheep. Notice the language. Take heed
unto yourselves and to all the flock. Now that word flock is
exactly the same word used in the familiar Christmas story.
Shepherds were in their fields watching over their flocks by
night. Matthew, I'm sorry, Luke chapter
2. And so there is a metaphor, a
figure of speech in which the people of God are likened to
a flock of sheep. and there are good and wise reasons
why God's people are likened to a flock of sheep, the Lord
Jesus, you will remember, used this imagery very powerfully
in several passages in the Gospels. He likened himself to the good
shepherd who would lay down his life for his sheep. He likened all of his elect to
one great flock that he would eventually gather together. John
10, 16, Other sheep I have that are not of this fold, them also
I must bring. There shall be one fold and one
shepherd. So the specific identity of God's
people in their relationship to their pastors, their overseers,
their elders, those who govern and guide them, is the relationship
of a flock of sheep to a shepherd or to shepherds. but then he
underscores their identity not only in a metaphor, we would
call that the metaphorical identity, but then he gives their theological
identity. Notice the text. Take heed to
yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has
made you overseers to feed the church of God or the church of
the Lord. There is a problem to know which
rendering is the best, and we won't go into that textual variant,
that problem in the original manuscripts, or not the original,
but in the existing manuscripts, but this much is clear. He is
no longer describing the church under a figure of speech as a
flock, but he is using the technical name ordained of God to set forth
what the church is in a theological sense. It is the church, the
ecclesia, the called-out assembly of the Lord. In other words,
the identity of God's people is not only that of a flock of
sheep, but it is that of a group of people who have been called
out of the world into fellowship with Jesus Christ and who are
the unique and special property of God or of the Lord. He says to these elders, No matter
how long you are with these people, no matter how much labor you
may expend upon these people, never forget they are not your
called-out people. They are the church, the called-out
ones of the Lord. and he acquired them. The word
used here, translated, which he purchased, is not the standard
word for Christ's blood being a ransom, purchasing his people,
but it's the word that could be better translated, which he
acquired to himself by his own blood. How did he make the church
his own? He made the church His own by
the shedding of His own precious blood. He acquired them at the
price of nothing less than pouring out His blood in the violent
death of the cross under the anathema and curse of God. now you see this was intended
to have a profound effect upon those elders here Paul is about
to leave and he's turning over the reins of spiritual guidance
and responsibility to them and he says to them I want you to
understand the identity of God's people they are not a religious
club at Ephesus and men If there's anything that's been burnt in
my gut in the past six months, it's this imagery of the religious
club. I've been praying, Lord, give me some way to try to make
clear the fundamental problem of most churches. And I began
to think and pray and pray and think, and this whole concept
of a religious club came to my mind. When we were little kids,
we'd get together someday and we'd say, hey, let's start us
a club. And so three or four of us on the block would say,
all right, we're going to be the four members in the club.
All right. What are going to be the terms?
All right. None of the Italian kids can come in or only the
Italians and none of the Polacks or only the Polacks. And we were
in a multi ethnic area there. So we had all kinds of little
groupings. And so we'd make up our rules.
Nobody under 10, nobody over 13. No girls in the club, no
this, no that. It was great. I mean, there was
a tremendous sense of power. You made your club. You designed
the rules, you said where you're going to meet, you built a clubhouse
or you use someone's garage for your clubhouse. I mean, it was
great. And when anybody came along and
they'd say, can I join your club? Nah, you can't join my club.
You don't meet the standards. You see, there was a tremendous
sense of power. We organized the club. We set
the standards for who could get in the club. We set the rules
for what you did when you were in the club. And do you know
that's the concept most people have of the church? A group of
people get together and they say, this is our church. My mom and my daddy were charter
members. And this is the way we're going
to run our church. It's our club. This is our rules
for who gets in, who stays in, who can't come in, who gets out,
why they get out. And you let King Jesus try to
get a word in edgewise and they say, I don't care what the Bible
says. This is our club. This is the way we're going to
run it. But you see what Paul said? He said to those Ephesian
elders, I want you to pay close attention to yourself. But now
as he comes to tell them what the church is, he doesn't assume.
Heath spells out the identity of the church. It is God's flock
of sheep for whom the great shepherd laid down his life. It is God's
called-out congregation. It is His possession acquired
by the purchase of His own precious blood. And we need constantly
to remember the identity of the people of God if we are to discharge
our responsibility as we ought. But then in the text, he not
only gives the specific identity of the people of God, but then
the dominant imagery of the leadership we are to give to the people
of God. And what is the dominant imagery
of the leadership? It's bound up in this verb, notice,
take heed to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy
Spirit has made you bishops. And most translations render
it to feed the church of the Lord. That is a poor translation. It is simply the verb form of
the noun shepherd. And it's one of the few cases
where it's exactly the same in English as it is in Greek. In
Greek, if you wanted to say, there were shepherds watching
over their flock, shepherding their sheep, you would simply
take the noun form, poimen, shepherd, and you turn it into a verb,
they were shepherding, poimeno, poimino. So what we are told
here is that the dominant imagery of the care that we give is the
imagery of the care that a shepherd gives to a flock of sheep. You have the verb form of the
noun shepherd. So what the Apostle said was
this, take heed to all of the flock to shepherd the church
of the Lord. carry out your ministerial responsibilities
in a way that is parallel to the manner in which a shepherd
carries out his responsibility to the sheep. Now that tells
us one or two very basic things at the outset. Number one, the
sheep are not competent to shepherd themselves. Isn't that clear? The sheep ain't
the shepherd. The shepherd is the recognized
and appointed guide of the sheep. Now, in one sense, we know biblically
every shepherd in Christ's church is himself a sheep of Christ's
flock, and he himself ought to be shepherded by his fellow elders,
and if he has no other elders in his assembly, he ought to
have accountability to others, so he himself is shepherded.
I know that. I practice that. But the point
is clear in the passage. There is in our day some wretched,
rotten, unbiblical teaching that because every believer has the
Holy Spirit and has the Bible, we do not need any true leadership
in the church. All we need is for everyone to
sit around a table with his Bible and indwelt by the Holy Spirit
and we can get all the leadership and all the guidance we need
and all an elder is, is sort of a catalyst to help the people
of God know when to turn their Bibles and when to turn up the
next subject. That is sheer nonsense in the
light of the Word of God. It's nonsense. The head of the
church has given shepherds and teachers for the perfecting of
the church. And that does not contradict
the fact that he's also given the Holy Spirit to every believer
to guide him in his understanding of the Scriptures. This is not
a man-made clericalism. This is simple, honest treatment
of the Bible. He says not to the whole congregation
at Ephesus, shepherd yourselves, because you all have the Holy
Spirit. He says to these elders, you
are to shepherd the flock of God, purchased with the blood. And then the second thing it
tells us, brethren, is this. If anything is true of the whole
biblical imagery of sheep and shepherd, is that God is calling
us to a multi-leveled, demanding relationship of self-giving love. God is calling us to a multi-leveled
relationship of demanding, self-giving love. And all you need to do
is start thinking through the shepherd passages in the Bible.
The Good Shepherd is prepared to give His life for the sheep. The Good Shepherd is the one
who, when one sheep is missing, goes out and braves the craggy
rocks, and the cold night air, and the crack of the lightning,
and anything necessary to find that one lost sheep and bring
it back into the fold. you start thinking of all of
the things the Bible says about the shepherd-sheep relationship
and you realize it is a multi-leveled intimate relationship demanding
self-giving love and if you think of the ministry as a pedestal
on which to parade yourself if you look at the ministry as a
plateau on which to stand as a little king top and order around
the little peons then get out of it and get out of it today
and don't you come back in until you're ready to spend and be
spent and lay down your life for the good of Christ's sheep
Now that's the text by which the apostle lays on these elders
their job. We've looked at the specific
identity of the people of God. Metaphorically, they're like
sheep. Theologically, they are God's
called-out possession. And then the dominant imagery
of our task? It is the imagery of a shepherd
in relationship to his sheep. Now, practically speaking, what
does that involve? Well, we're going to cover four
things. We'll probably get two of them, maybe one of them, two
of them, the remainder of this first hour, and then we'll take
up the remainder in the second hour. Shepherding God's people
involves at least four constant activities. Number one, it involves
feeding the flock by solid biblical preaching and teaching. It means feeding the flock by
solid biblical preaching and teaching now you remember the
23rd Psalm Jehovah is my shepherd I shall not lack anything he
makes me to lie down in green pastures the first thing that
David underscores when he thinks of Jehovah as his shepherd is
that as his shepherd, the shepherd makes sure that there are green
pastures in which he can lie down and graze. And brethren, in our task as
shepherds of God's people, at the head of the list of the specific
responsibilities that that lays upon us, there is the responsibility
of feeding the flock by solid biblical preaching and teaching. And this is to have number one
priority in our official pastoral duties. Number one priority of
our overall duties, as we saw yesterday, is taking heed to
ourselves. But number one priority in caring
for the flock is seen to it that week by week, month by month,
year by year, by our influence, they are led into green pastures. And the only green pastures for
God's precious sheep are the pastures of His own holy and
infallible Word. God says in 2 Timothy chapter
4, verses 1 and 2, Paul's swan song to Timothy, knowing that
soon he's to lay down his life, he's writing his last word to
this man of God. And notice how serious he is
about it. 2 Timothy chapter 4, I charge
you, Timothy, I charge you in the sight of God. and of Christ
Jesus, who shall judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing
and His kingdom preach the word. Be urgent, in season, when it's
convenient, when you feel like it, out of season, when it's
inconvenient, and when you have no real desire, in season, out
of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all longsuffering and teaching, for the time will come when they
will not endure the sound or healthy doctrine, but having
itching ears, now notice, will heap to themselves teachers after
their own lusts and will turn away their ears from the truth
and will turn aside unto fables, but be sober in all things, suffer
hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." He said,
Timothy, listen, the time is coming when men are going to
heap up a great big pile of teachers whose only skill is this, they
are PhDs in tickling ears. They are skilled in tickling
ears. They have no desire to plow up
hearts. They have no desire to instruct
minds. They have no desire to feed people
upon truth. They have no desire to display
the glory of Christ and the power of the gospel and the duties
and privileges of the Christian life. They have no desire to
plow up hearts and heal hearts. All they want to do is scratch
ears that are itching. and people will heap to themselves
what an image they'll get a great big pile of ear scratchers but
he said that's all right you stick to the job i've given you
to do Be willing to suffer for it. Be willing to be called an
old Bible thumper. Be willing to be called narrow-minded. Be willing to be called anything
but Timothy. I charge you in the very sight
of Almighty God and in the light of the Day of Judgment, preach
the Word. Preach the Word. Preach the Word. Preach the Word. Preach the Word. Preach the Word. It's only by
the Word which is likened unto milk in 1 Peter 2, 2. It's the
sincere milk of the Word by which men grow. It's likened unto meat
in other places. It is that instrument, John 17,
17, Jesus said, Father, sanctify them in thy truth. Thy Word is
truth. The prophet Jeremiah said to
the people, or God said to the prophet, running around saying,
I've got a dream and I've got a vision. And the prophet says,
he that has a dream, let him go ahead and babble about his
dream. And he that has a vision, let him babble about his vision.
But he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. Is not my word like unto a hammer
that breaketh a rock in pieces? Dear men, I urge you to face
as shepherds that your first and great and constant responsibility
to the flock of God is to feed them with the solid truth of
the Word of the Living God. You remember we looked at Jeremiah
3.15 briefly yesterday and I want you to turn back to it today
and see it with your own eyes as well as hear it with your
ears. Here is the mark of the shepherds God gives to His people. In Jeremiah 3 and verse 15, this
is what God says, And I will give you shepherds according
to My heart. I am your true shepherd, and
my heart is moved that you would be fed and nourished. And so when I give you shepherds
who are according to my heart, what will they do? Not tickle
your ears. not feed your fancy, not give
you the froth and the foam of just a lot of verbal nonsense
from the pulpit, they will feed you with knowledge and with understanding. Every shepherd given to God's
sheep after God's heart, whatever his particular style of ministry
may be, he may be very quiet, he may be very loud, he may be
very still and restricted, he may be unusually animated. Those are only the secondary
characteristics. If he has been given by God to
the church, this is the common denominator. He feeds the sheep
with knowledge and with understanding. When he's done preaching, they
don't go out and say, wasn't that a great time, man? I got
me the tingles fourteen and a half times while he was preaching.
Yeah, but what did he say? Oh, I don't know what he said,
but I sure felt good. You know, man, what I'm talking
about, don't you? People come, don't you? Not to be instructed,
but to get the goose bumps. Yeah, and preachers who are skilled
in raising goose bumps, but they don't put one ounce of truth
in the heads of their people. They just raise mountains of
goose bumps on their arms and up and down their back. They're
not God's shepherds. white, black, green, yellow,
don't make no difference. He says, I will give them shepherds
who will feed them with knowledge and understanding. So when our
people leave, they ought to be able to go home and say, well,
I can't remember all the preachers said, but I know this much. Here's
a verse he opened up, and I understand it now, and I didn't understand
it before. My knowledge of the Word of God
has been increased. My understanding of the ways
of God have been increased. My knowledge and understanding
of the way of salvation, the privileges of being a child of
God, the responsibilities of naming the name of Christ, the
power that is available to me in Christ by the Holy Spirit,
I have a measure of knowledge and understanding now that I
didn't have when I walked into church this morning. So brethren,
we must allow nothing to keep us from this task of giving to
our people week after week sermons that are marked by these three
things. This is all under this first
heading now. We must feed our people The Word of God. And if we're committed to that,
then we will settle for nothing less than sermons marked by these
three things every single time we stand to preach. Sermons that
are composed of solid chunks of the Word of God. Sermons that
are composed of solid chunks of the Word of God. God says
in Isaiah 57, so shall my word be that goes out of my mouth.
It shall not return unto be void, but it shall accomplish that
whereunto I have sent it. And my friends, it's our job,
our task, to give up to our people solid chunks of the Word of God,
not just taking a phrase here and a phrase there and tying
it together with our own imagination and puffing it up and beating
it thin at the edges with stories and illustrations. Our people
need to be given solid chunks of the Word of God, for man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out
of the mouth of God. Matthew 4.4 Secondly, sermons
that are constructed in a way that makes what we say clear
and convincing. Sermons that are constructed
in a way that makes what we say clear and convincing. Now notice, I didn't say you
gotta have three points or six points or seventeen or two. But
brethren, God made the human mind that it can't absorb some
formless glob of truth that you just dump on your people. You
can't learn that way. The only way we learn, according
to the laws of the human mind that God has given to us, is
that what is presented to our understanding must be structured
in such a way that we say, ah yes, if that's so, then this
is so, and if that's so, then this is so, oh yes, I see, you're
carrying my judgment, you're leading my understanding. That's
why it says of Jesus, the common people heard Him gladly. He could
have dazzled them with his wisdom, for he was the wisdom of God
incarnate. He could have caused the great
doctors of the law to be amazed and when it was necessary he
was able to shut their mouths with just a question or two and
by quoting one or two texts until they stuck their tail between
their legs and they slinked off into the darkness. But the common
people heard him gladly. Why? Because the Lord Jesus constructed
his sermons in such a way that he made them clear and convincing. And brethren, you don't do that
by just running to a passage and in 25 minutes or half an
hour getting a few ideas and putting down a few little headings
and going and serving that up to your people. It cost, it cost
pain, sweat and more sweat and pain and mental and spiritual
agony week in and week out, month in and month out, year in and
year out to speak in a way that is clear and convincing. But that's what you and I are
set apart to do. We are set apart to labor in
the Word and in teaching. Not to play games, but to labor
in the Word and in teaching. And then the third characteristic
of sermons that will feed our people are these. Sermons that
are characterized by close, warm, practical application. sermons
that are characterized by close, warm, practical application. Why are the scriptures given?
2 Timothy 3.16. All scripture is inspired of
God and is profitable for teaching, but not just teaching, also for
reproof. That's pointing out our wrong.
Correction, showing us a mid-course correction, the way that we need
to go. by literally child training. That word instruction is the
word used for training children, for child training in righteousness. What's that mean? It means that
the scriptures are given not only to teach us the proper doctrine
of God and of sin, and of grace, and of faith, and of repentance,
and of heaven, and of hell, and the Christian family, the role
of a father, the role of a mother, the role of a husband, the role
of a wife, the role of employer, the role of employee, honesty,
the use of the tongue, how to speak so as to be truthful. Yes, the Bible is given to set
forth all that teaching, But you see, we're not simply to
parade the teaching before people's eyes like the airplane that drags
an advertising sign behind it across the sky and you stand
there and look and say, oh, isn't that interesting? And when it's
gone, you forget about it. But God says the word of God
is to reprove to rebuke, exhort, Paul says to Timothy, with all
longsuffering and teaching. And so if our people are to be
fed upon the Word of God, our sermons must not only be composed
of solid chunks of the Word of God, they must not only be constructed
in a way that is clear and convincing, they must be characterized by
close, warm, practical application. I tell the men in our academy
about application, this simple little principle. When I'm done
opening up the passage, I think of the housewife who sits there,
who all week long she's heard in her ear, mommy this, mommy
that, mommy that, mommy the other thing, and just when she feels
she can't stand it anymore, then her husband comes through the
door, and it's dear this, dear that, dear the other thing, and
I think of that woman sitting there Sunday morning and I've
opened up the text and I try to think she sits now and she's
listened she's followed the argument and now she says to me so what? so what? and there's that young
single man who chased around an immoral life before he was
saved laid with anything that would get into bed with him and
he's struggling to be pure and holy and godly and he sat there
and he's listened to the text and he's followed the argument
and it's all been opened up and now he looks up and he says that's
interesting pastor but now so what? And then there's that old
grandmother who's just lost her husband of some 50 years and
she's a widow and she feels the pain and the grief and the emptiness
of her widowhood and she's listened and she's followed as I've served
up a chunk of God's Word and tried to serve it up structured
in such a way that it's clear and convincing and when I'm all
done she looks at me through her broken heart and she says,
so what? And you see, you know what application
is? Application is answering the question, so what? So what
to that young mother? Young mother, this truth, this
is what it will do for you. This is what it should mean for
you. Young man, struggling with your
passions that rage within your breast like ten wild bucking
broncos, seeming to break out and consume you. Young man, this
is what the text says to you. and dear grieving widow grandma
this is what the text says to you in other words in application
we take the truth that has been opened up in its general principles
and we tailor make it for the different classes of our people
and we say this is how the truth fits you this is how the truth
applies to you brethren If our people are to thank God
that we are their shepherds, we've got to feed them. We've
got to feed them. Feed them by solid biblical preaching
and teaching. And that solid biblical teaching
and preaching must have those three minimum characteristics. solid chunks of the Bible, constructed
in a way that's clear and convincing, and sermons that are characterized
by close, warm, practical application. All right, that's the first task
of being a shepherd. But now let's take up, we've
got time for the second, and then we'll leave the third and
fourth to the next hour. You see, not only is a shepherd
concerned to lead the whole flock into green pastures, and that's
what we do in our public ministries, but there's a second very vital
aspect of the work of a shepherd, and that is this, caring for
the individual needs of the sheep by loving, wise, assertive, pastoral input. Caring for the individual needs
of the sheep by loving, wise, assertive, pastoral input. Now what do I mean by that? I
mean simply this. Let me run it by again, all right? Caring for the individual needs
of the sheep by loving, wise, assertive, A-S-S-E-R-T-I-V-E,
three things, loving, wise, assertive, pastoral input. Now what am I saying? Just this,
I don't care how faithful a man may be in his public preaching
ministry, I don't care how gifted he may be in his public preaching
ministry. I don't care how anointed and
earnest he may be in his public pulpit ministry. No shepherd
can do the work of a shepherd simply by public preaching. Even the Apostle Paul could not. And he says in this very chapter,
I was one who taught publicly and from house to house. And I want you to look at two
or three passages with me that until someone can show me that
these words don't mean what they obviously mean, I would be prepared
to stake my life by the grace of God on this principle. A true
shepherd is never done when he's out of the pulpit. Turn to 1
Thessalonians chapter 2, where here Paul gives us a beautiful
example of how he was a true shepherd to the Thessalonians.
Even though he was there but a relatively brief time, he not
only preached publicly in the synagogue as we read in Acts
chapter 17, But he says in chapter 2 and verse 10, you are witnesses
in God also, how wholly and righteously and unblameably we behaved ourselves
toward you that believe. You see, he was paying close
attention to his own life. You see that? He said, I tell
you people to recall, you are witnesses and God also, how wholly
and righteously and unblameably we behaved ourselves toward you
that believe. And because of that, he could
have this warm, loving, wise, assertive pastoral insight. Now
notice verse 11. as you know how we dealt with
each one of you as a father with his own children. exhorting you and encouraging
you and testifying to the end that you should walk worthily
of God who calls you to his own kingdom and glory. He says, now
I call you Thessalonians to remember two things. I call you to remember
the pattern of life you saw in me and my companions even when
you got to look at us up close. Some men you can respect so long
as you never go in their homes. Some men you can respect so long
as you never take a drive in a car with them. Some men you
can respect as long as all you know is what they say in a pulpit. But get them in a long car trip,
and you find their language is silly. You find that they say
things with double innuendo. You find that things come out
of their mouth that do not bespeak the man of God. You get into
their homes, and you find that they are insensitive to their
wives. They treat their wives like a
house slave. They are insensitive to their
children, and once you've seen them close for a few hours in
a car, in their home, or in some personal relationship, you can
no longer listen to them preach. But not Paul and his companions.
He said, You are witnesses in God also, how holily and righteously
and unblameably we behaved ourselves toward you that believe. Now
listen. when they got up close to him and saw he was for real
then he could open his mouth and do what he says he did you
know how we dealt with each one of you and in the Greek there
is no other construction that can be put on that language but
individual pastoral input each one of you we dealt with you
faithfully like a father with his children now my three children
are grown and married I came from a family of 10. Some of
you may have come from large families. And I don't care how
large or small the family any parent who's beginning to do
his job knows. He cannot do his job as a father
in ruling his household by simply having family powwows where he
talks to the whole family as a whole. Now certain things he
does with the whole family. He gathers the whole family for
family worship. He gathers the whole family to
discuss family vacations. He gathers the whole family to
discuss a family crisis. But one member of that family
is a young man entering puberty. And he knows if he's going to
meet the need of that son, he needs to take him aside and sit
him down and tell him the facts of life. He needs to say, son,
hormones and other things are starting to operate in your body.
You're going to have all kinds of feelings you never had before.
He's going to explain to him what wet dreams are, so the kid
isn't laden with guilt. He's going to tell him how he's
going to be tempted to masturbate and get addicted to playing with
himself. He's going to tell him how he's
going to start to be attracted to women. He's going to be fascinated
with the sight of a woman's breast. He warns him about pornography. He speaks to him as a father
with his son. Now, he wouldn't say that at
the table with a little seven-year-old girl sitting there. It would
be indiscreet. As a father with his children,
he takes his son aside and gives him the instruction he needs.
Then he's got a little seven-year-old daughter and she's very, very
timid and shy. and he knows that as a family
they're going into a situation where they're going to meet a
lot of strangers so he takes her aside and says now honey
daddy knows when we get in that situation you're going to feel
all kinds of funny feelings with all those people but i want you
to know something it won't bother daddy if all the while we're
there you're right next to my side and i feel you next to me
i'll keep your arm on my arm on your shoulder honey everything
gonna be all right and she looks up and says thank you daddy a
father with his children all the different needs they can
only be met as a loving father assertively and wisely has input
to his children according to his knowledge of their need now
you look at that verse my brethren that's the picture of a true
pastor of a true pastor he doesn't simply dump great globs of truth
over the pulpit and go his way there is individual shepherding
of the sheep second text I want to rest my case on the Word of
God Colossians chapter 1 Colossians chapter 1 Verses 24
to 29 are one of the most wonderful paragraphs on Paul's view of
the Christian ministry. We don't have time to go into
the paragraph, but I want to extract one part of it in fulfilling
his ministry. Notice what he says in verse
28, speaking of Christ, whom we proclaim We preach Christ,
how? Not just publicly, notice, admonishing
every man and teaching every man in all wisdom. that we may present every man
perfect or complete in Christ, whereunto I labor also, striving
according to his working which works, in me mightily." You see
what he could say? He could say, in fulfilling my
gospel ministry, I do not merely preach publicly, though I do
that all the time, but then with love and with wisdom, I admonish
and teach every man that I may present every man mature in Christ. And right back in our Acts 20
passage, at least with these Ephesian elders and by implication
with the other members of the church, he gives the same emphasis,
Acts 20 and verse 31, wherefore watch, remembering by the space
of three years I cease not to admonish He could have used a
Greek word that would have given the concept of the whole group,
admonished you all, but he says, I cease not to admonish everyone,
night and day, with tears. There's the positive teaching
in these three key passages, and there are many, many others. But now let's look at the negative.
When God chides the shepherds of Israel for failure in their
task, look at Ezekiel chapter 34. Ezekiel chapter 34, The word
of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against
the shepherds, the leaders of Israel. prophesy and say unto
them, even to the shepherds, Thus saith the Lord God, Woe
unto the shepherds, the leaders of Israel, that feed themselves. Should not the shepherds feed
the sheep? You eat the fat, and you clothe
yourselves with the wool, and you kill the fatlings, but you
do not feed the sheep. You fleece the sheep, you kill
the sheep, you eat of the sheep, but you don't care for the sheep.
Now notice, he gets specific. The diseased have you not strengthened? You did not look out among the
flock and say, look, there's one of them that looks skinny
and sickly. There's one of them that's got
a running sore. That's a diseased sheep. I need
to go after that sheep. I need to take that sheep aside. I need to analyze its disease
and apply the appropriate remedy. He said, the diseased you have
not strengthened. Neither have you healed that
which was sick, neither have you bound up that which was broken. There you see a sheep that's
limping. It's broken its leg as it fell down a rocky crag,
and you were to take it aside and set its leg and bind it up,
and you didn't do it. Neither have you brought back
that which was driven away. You see one of the sheep straying
away from the flock, and you didn't run after it to lay hold
of it and bring it back in. Neither have you sought that
which was lost, but with force and with rigor have you ruled
over them. In other words, God says you
had no loving heart for the sheep, you just looked at them as a
mass of people over whom you could be the top dog and the
big shot. What a curse! These shepherds
thought that the sheep existed for them, for their ego, for
their bellies and for their backs. And God says no, the shepherds
exist for the good of the sheep. not the sheep for the good of
the shepherd they were scattered because there was no shepherd
and they became food to all the beast of the field and were scattered
and my sheep wandered through all the mountains and upon every
high hill my sheep were scattered there was none that did search
or seek after them my brethren If we're to be true shepherds
of the flock, if we're to take heed to the flock, that flock
which has been acquired by the blood of the Lord Himself, we
must not only be committed to feeding them the word of the
living God in our public ministry, but we must be prepared to care
for the individual needs of the sheep by loving, wise, assertive,
pastoral input. Now, if we do that, what will
it mean? What will it demand of us? At least four things. Number one, Number one, I want
to be practical. I'm not talking as a theorist.
I'm talking as one who's been a pastor with one flock for 25
years, dear brethren. Number one, we must be aggressive
in establishing warm, open-faced relationships with our people.
We must be aggressive in establishing warm, open-faced relationships
with our people. You remember what Jesus said?
The shepherd knows his sheep by name. He knows them by name. And then he said, My sheep know
me and they follow me. And that's why the Bible says
in 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 12 to the Thessalonian believers,
Know them that are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and
esteem them highly in love for their work's sake. Well, if the
sheep are to know the shepherds, the shepherds must be aggressive
in seeking to establish warm, open-faced relationships with
their people. You see that? How can the people
get to know you if you aren't moving toward them with the heart
to get to know them? I think the most cursed thing
in all the world is the distance of most ministers from their
people. It's almost as though they're
afraid if they get up too close they'll find out who they really
are. And it ought to be just the opposite. What have we got
to hide? Paul could say, we've renounced
the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor
handing with the Word of God deceitfully, but by the manifestation
of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God. He didn't preach himself, but
he commended himself. He said, O Corinthians, our hearts
are not constricted to you, but yours are constricted to me.
O Corinthians, our hearts are open to you. Sure you're going
to be vulnerable as you seek to be aggressive in establishing
warm, open-faced relationships with your people. Some of your
people will let you get close enough to stick a knife in your
gut. So what? I'd rather have knife wounds
than be a distant shepherd who doesn't know my sheep. And you
and I have to take the time to do that. That means we must,
in every opportunity, as we see them on the Lord's Day, not allow
ourselves to get distracted with that young man that wants to
come and discuss theology at the door. When our people go
through the door every Lord's Day, someone wants a little mini-counseling
session, I say, Sir, Ma'am, I'll be glad to talk to you when the
rest of my sheep come through, but I'm doing important business,
you'll have to wait. And it's there that I'm picking
up their little ones. And checking to see if the tooth
has come down through yet with the ones that got the two spaces
there, you know? Got any teeth yet, honey? No yet? Ah, well,
we'll be glad. You should be sure to tell pastor.
You're building relationships. And that wife and that mother
that shared with you on the week, over the phone, that particular
problem, you say, how are things going? Going well, Pat? Good,
fine, glad to hear it. What are you doing? You're establishing
warm, open-faced, transparent relationships with your people.
The shepherd loving and caring for the sheep, the sheep knowing
and feeling comfortable with the shepherd. I've had visitors
tell us on more than one occasion who've never heard authoritative
and at times just downright loud, pulpit-thumping preaching. That's
the way God made me, and I just have to accept that. I'm neither
proud of it nor ashamed of it. That's just the way God made
me. but they've never heard it before and they think surely
when someone's up there with his face all screwed up and thundering
out a word people will tremble in his presence and they've told
me they've come and they've sat and seen people hanging on the
word and then afterward seeing the little kids jump up in my
arms and hug me and kiss me and the young people coming and expressing
affection they said it blew their minds they said they couldn't
put this together There was that authoritative, almost frightening
look on the man's face at times and thundering out the word and
digging into the conscience. And yet there was obviously such
intimacy, such love, such openness. My friends, that doesn't just
happen. It has been cultivated over 25 years as a matter of
conviction. I wouldn't say that in ordinary
preaching it sounds self-serving. But I'm saying it in this context
because some of you men don't know me. And I want to tell you
this ain't just empty theory. We must be aggressive in establishing
warm, open-faced relationships. Secondly, we must be alert. We must be alert for the signals
that our sheep have special needs. We must be alert for the signals
that our sheep have special needs you've got that person who has
a naturally happy disposition usually full of the joy of the
Lord and on the given Sunday they come to the door and they
look like they just came out of their own grave well you notice
that and you say look dear sister it's obvious something's troubling
you can I give you a call tomorrow and talk about it and the tear
begins to trickle down her eye and she says Yes, pastor, please. What's happened? The shepherd's
got his eye out for the sheep, alert for a signal that there's
a need. Young couple comes and the girl
says, look, look at this. I'm a ring ring finger. Last
night, eight o'clock, he proposed to me. Give her a hug and rejoice
with her. And you say now they're engaged.
Great period of temptation. You put that in the back of your
mind. You see them and you say, hey, I'm going to have a little
talk about the special dangers of engagement. When can we see
you? And you sit it down and tell them because they're Christians,
it doesn't neutralize their hormones. And now that they're committed,
they're going to be tempted in the area of the physical. And
you give them some positive guidelines so they can come to the marriage
altar with a clear conscience. You don't wait until they come
and say, pastor, we blew it. It just started with some kissing
and before we knew it we were having intercourse. A good shepherd
doesn't wait till a sheep has been scarred. He's aggressive
in looking for the signals that they need some special input. You say, you actually do that?
You bet your boots I do. I did it with my own daughters. I said, you girls are virgins.
You don't have a clue how horny we men are. I told him that. I said, you don't have a clue
how easily a man is turned on. You can be sitting there feeling
nice and warm with just holding hands. You can be starting fires
in your husband to be that are almost unbearable. Well, how
can I know? Dad, I said, just glance over
at his crotch and if you see a lump, you know it's too much. Back off. Yeah, that's right. You think my daughters think
I'm dirty? They love their dad for that. Like as a father with
his children. That's the way I deal with our
engaged couples. You say, well that's just your
personality. No it isn't. My dad never talked to me about
sex except warning me about queers at age 14 before I went off for
a summer camp. That's the only thing he ever
formally told me. I'm thankful for that. He told me what to
do if any guy ever put a hand on my thigh. And I'm thankful
for that. No, this isn't something I got
by example from my own family or by temperament. It's grown
out of the conviction I'm a shepherd to the sheep. And if I see the
sheep may be in danger, far better to warn them before they tumble
down the hill and break a leg. Be alert to look for the signals
of their need. Thirdly, thirdly, be graciously
aggressive Be graciously aggressive in probing to see if there are needs. You see,
some people send out the signals when there are needs. Others,
they are clever at completely masking any sign of need. And we need to be graciously
aggressive in seeking to discover if there is need. What do I mean
by graciously aggressive? Well, what I mean is, you don't
stand at the door of the church with ten people all around, put
your two shoulders on the arms, your hands on the shoulder of
one of your sheep, look them in the eye and say, is it well with
your soul, sister? I mean, that's intimidating. But you look for a good opportunity
to say, look, we haven't had a chat for several months. How
are things at home? Oh, fine. Are they really fine? Well, pretty good. Well, what's
not so good? And after a little gracious probing
in five minutes, you find the marriage is in a mess. A little
gracious probing. A little gracious probing. Why? Not because you're nosy. But because you're a shepherd
and you know some diseases don't show in the lamb's wool or in
the sheep's coat. Some of the diseases don't show
to the naked eye. You gotta feel around the sheep
and find a lump and say, hey, it's got an internal disease
that needs attention. Be graciously aggressive. in seeking to know how it is
with them and then forth and brethren I would urge this upon
you have a plan to meet regularly with every one of your sheep
at least once a year for a general spiritual checkup have a plan
to meet regularly with every one of the sheep at least once
a year for a general spiritual checkup. Instruct your people,
say, look, I and my fellow elders, we are shepherds and we're concerned
to get all the sheep safely to heaven. And we know that an ounce
of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And so we're going to
be coming into your home at least once a year. We're going to make
an appointment by mutual agreement Thursday night at 7.30. And I'm
coming to the home. We're not coming to talk about
the weather, talk about sports. We're coming for an annual spiritual
checkup. We want to come and talk to you.
How is your personal devotional life? How is your family devotional
life? How is the husband-wife relationship? The parent-child relationship?
Are there any areas where you're struggling with remaining sin?
Any besetting sins? Are you having financial problems?
Is there need for help in budgeting your money? You're doing a general
checkup of their overall spiritual health. And then you're asking
them, are you finding the ministry of the Word profitable? What
particular series was especially profitable? What needs do you
feel are not being met in the life of the church? What areas
of truth do you feel need to be preached? Areas where you
feel a need and you've been waiting to hear something and it's not
been there. What are you doing? You see,
as a shepherd who wants to feed them with knowledge and understanding,
you're letting them tell you the areas where they feel they
need more knowledge and understanding. Now, let me ask you something.
If that's a true sheep, and not a stinking rotten goat. Do you
think they'll resent such a visit in the home? That you love them
enough to give them an annual spiritual checkup? Do you think
they'll resent that? That's a passive! That's tyrannical! That's heavy-handed! You think
that's the way true sheep respond? No, no, it's only goats that
act that way because close dealings may pull back their horns and
show they're only goats with a sign around their neck, I'm
a sheep. Let me ask you something. Any one of these brethren here
that you know well enough to know that he loves you, would
you resent it if he came in a spirit of gentleness and love and said,
brother, how is it with your soul? How's your devotional life? How's your marriage? How's your
family life? Would you resent that? You might
feel a little uncomfortable, you might wince. Yes, remaining
sin doesn't like to be exposed, but would you resent that? Of
course not! Say, that's love in action! Brethren, I urge you,
I urge you, set up a plan where at least once a year You are
in the home of every one of your sheep, at least one of your elders
as a congregation grows and God gives more shepherds. In our
own situation, each of us has 30 families we're responsible
for to get to once a year and get into the home. And they know
why we're coming and they don't resent it. They don't regard
that as heavy-handed and oppressive. because there's been a relationship
established of open-faced love and trust and mutual commitment. I would urge you to read Richard
Baxter's book, The Reformed Pastor. That doesn't have anything to
do with Reformed theology. He's talking about pastors getting
reformed in their pastoral duties. And he has some good material
on this very thing. And Richard Baxter said this,
Sometimes more good is done in one hour in the home of a family
than is done by a whole year of preaching. That was Richard
Baxter's experience, and he was urging his ministerial brethren,
don't merely preach from the pulpit, go into the homes of
your people and be a true shepherd. We need to take a break, brethren.
We've looked at the first two ways in which we as the men of
God, shepherds, are to shepherd the flock, and then the last
two we'll deal with much more briefly, and then we'll be done
for the morning.