Preaching of the Word will be taken this morning, the book of Acts chapter 20 and we are going to read the short section from verse 17 through 31. I will omit certain of the verses during the reading of this passage, Acts chapter 20 from verse 17 through 31. We have read this passage you may remember at least twice on previous Sunday mornings. From Miletus Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church. When they arrived he said to them, you know how I have lived the whole time I was with you from the first day I came into the province of Asia. I served the Lord with great humility and with tears although I was severely tested by the plots of the Jews. You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ." Now picking up at verse 25 Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. Therefore I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Guard yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard. Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you, night and day, with tears. May God indeed bless this portion of his own inspired word to our understanding. Thanks be to him. Now for several Lord's Day mornings we have been engaged together in the 20th chapter of the Book of Acts. You may recall that we began with verses 1 through 6 in Paul's extensive travel and confirming ministry among the churches of North and South Greece, Macedonia and Achaia. And we look subsequently at verses 7 through 12, an early church worship service where there was literally a resurrection from the dead. And subsequently for two Sunday mornings, several weeks ago, we concentrated together upon this great passage, a part of which I read to you again today. the address by the great Apostle Paul to the elders of the churches of Ephesus who had met with him on the sands of the little seaport of Miletus on the coast of the Aegean Sea. And we looked first of all at verses 17 through 38 or 27 I should say under the title of an eminent evangelist and then secondly at the parting counsels that the apostle gave to these men as they would never see his face again in verses 28 through 38 as he set before them both faith and hope and love drawn from his own powerful example as a shepherd of the flock Now this morning I believe we need to return to this great passage of Acts 20 one final time for a third look at the teaching that the Apostle Paul gives to us there. And I consider it an important theme my friends in Christ for this reason. But in our previous expositions we have only touched lightly upon a subject that is surely central to Paul's thinking in all this marvellous exhortation to the elders of Ephesus in Acts 20. The theme of Paul's view of the Christian Church. What did he really think the church was? How did he view it? What was his perspective, if you like, upon the Christian church? And I believe that this is one of the most vital elements of a very vital passage. Because surely there is only one answer to that question that I have posed to you. That the Apostle Paul saw the Christian church above every other consideration in a pastoral light. And he draws upon pastoral metaphors to describe the church and the ministry that should be toward the church on the part of its pastors and elders. For instance, you must have noticed even in the reading this morning, short as it was, that he sees his own role as a shepherd toward God's people. And he warns the elders in pastoral terms of the wolves that are about to come in among the sheep and he finally affirms the value of the Church of God again in a pastoral metaphor by referring to the Church as the flock of God that has been bought at infinite cost and has overseers or shepherds appointed to it by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And so he focuses our attention upon the vital matter of the identity of the Christian Church. Not just an organization, not a social gathering of people who have some vague religious attraction that draws them together and certainly never a building but an organism that is presented in pastoral terms. And so we have before us this morning, beloved, the ideals of a pastoral ministry. Now I want you with me then to look at three things. but I think we haven't dealt with heretofore in our exposition of this passage together. Now first of all it seems to me Paul is setting before us the model of a faithful pastor in verses 20 through 27 and again in verse 31. Now let me say immediately that our purpose this morning is not to go over again the ground we covered several sunders ago in describing the Apostle's ministry as that of an eminent evangelist. How he served humbly you recall and shed tears in that ministry and suffered innumerable trials yet stood firmly for the whole counsel of God. but rather I want you to focus upon the single thought that stands out from these verses that Paul saw his ministry to the church as that of a shepherd to the flock. and in several different ways he reminds the elders that he addresses of his example among them as a shepherd pre-eminently. Now my dear friends this is of great importance for the days in which we are currently living. I believe I'm not mistaken when I say that there is much confusion in the church today, even in the evangelical sections of the church about the nature and purpose of ministry in the church. And you pick up magazines and you can read innumerable paperback books on some aspect or other of the Christian ministry today. There's a plethora of them, they abound And in some of them you have the image of the ministry set out as that of being social workers among God's people. And others emphasize that the minister is some kind of glorified psychotherapist. Or in others still you get a great emphasis upon the minister having to develop his skills and ability to counsel and his chief role is that of a counselor. and God forbid that we should ever say that there is no place for counselling of course there is in a truly biblical ministry but does the centre and heart of the ministry my friends lie in any one of these things? And still others encourage us that the pastor and that the elder should develop their administrative skills. Because they are the chief executive officer of the congregation and the chief administrator. And still other books and articles emphasize his role as an educator of God's people. And others still bring before you the picture of the pastor or the elder in his ministry being the great facilitator of God's people enabling them to conduct their ministry. And of course, there is an element of truth in that also. But I want to say to you this morning beloved, that none of these things, it seems to me, are the emphasis of the Holy Scriptures of God's Word. And I believe this age, if it needs anything in this area of the question, what is a true Christian ministry? What is the model of a faithful pastor? It needs the rehabilitation of the noble word of pastor. Again, a shepherd who comes among Christ's sheep to do the very things primarily that we see Paul doing in this great passage. And that is that he is called to feed and to defend and to protect the flock of God before he does any of these other things, if indeed he does them at all. Now let me put it to you in these two ways, because it seems to me that Paul lays this emphasis in these two ways in this passage, as he addresses the elders of Miletus. Do you notice the first thing, the elders whom he addresses. Now we did touch upon this several Sundays ago and only touch upon it and I draw your attention to it with reinvigorated emphasis this morning. The very names or designations given to these men by the great apostle indicates what? That they have a pastoral function above every other function that they employ. that they should perform pastoral duties more than any other duties that they perform. Well what are these names and titles and designations? Look at verse 17. He calls to him the elders of the church at Ephesus. And the Greek word is the word presbyteros. And it has an honourable Old Testament ancestry. As many of you Presbyterians, I hope, fully realise. from the days of the patriarchs, from the ministry of that man of God, Moses. In the books of the Pentateuch, when he called out from the center of God's people, those men marked for their maturity and godliness and leadership. That they might bear with him the burden of leading God's people through the howling wilderness. And that they might administer justice with equity in the midst of God's flock. We read of them in Joshua, we read of them in the book of Judges, leading the people of Israel in times of great calamity and distress. The Psalms mention them, they're mentioned in the prophetic books. The company of the elders are called upon to lead in the praise and the worship of God in the Old Testament scriptures. It is a representative role but it is drawn from the authority of God himself who appoints them as leaders and shepherds to his flock. And you must be aware in the New Testament that from the book of Acts onwards, the frequency with which elders are mentioned is quite astonishing. They are chosen by the people in Acts 14 verse 23. That they are called by God and ordained by the apostles. And so we read in the letter to the Hebrews. But they are the ones who watch over your souls as those who must give account to God. Chapter 13, verse 17. And we could adduce many similar and parallel references to their work. But the role in which they come before us as elders is that they pastor and shepherd the flock of God. Now do you notice in verse 28 the other two terms are used to describe their work. They are implied as being pastors at the beginning of verse 28 because Paul gives them the charge that they are to guard all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made them overseers. And this is nothing other than taking up the well-known Old Testament figure of the Lord being the shepherd to his people. As in Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want he leads me beside the still waters and so on. And the imagery you recall of Ezekiel chapter 34 Which is Ezekiel's word against the faithless shepherds. The kings of Israel who had spoiled the flock rather than fed them. Who had weeped benefits from them without tending the sick and healing the lame. And bringing back the sheep that had wandered out of the way. Woe to these shepherds of Israel, says the prophet Ezekiel. And it's this imagery you see that is taken and applied to the elders of God's people as they are to God, all the flock as a faithful shepherd would do. And then at the end of verse 28, that third and glorious term is used to describe their work, but they are overseers appointed by the Holy Spirit. Episcopoi, which gives us our word Episcopal. We have an Episcopal church government. in the Presbyterian Church, but it is through our elders who are overseers and given authority and responsibility beloved. to watch over the flock as those who must give account before the great shepherd himself one day. Now all of these three terms denote one and the same class of persons and the message clearly is that the New Testament emphasis of ministry by a faithful elder is that he is in a pastoral office. Tend the flock of God says Peter in chapter 5 of his first epistle, setting his own example as an apostle in the same category as the example of the godly elder. It is a pastoral office, in which like the great shepherd himself, these men if necessary, must be ready to give their very lives, in the service of the sheep. But do you notice the second thing that emphasizes this pastoral image is his own example. Now several times the Apostle Paul, as we saw, reminded these men of his own example. In verse 18, you know how I lived. In verse 20, you know that I have not hesitated to preach to you anything that was profitable. And again in verse 34, you yourselves know that these hands have ministered not only to my own needs, but to the needs of others who were with me. And what the apostle surely is doing is appealing to their knowledge of the thoroughness of his ministry as a faithful shepherd to the flock. Now without taking up time this morning, do you remember how we saw he was thorough in his teaching? He preached the kingdom of God. He preached repentance and faith. He did not hold back what was profitable to them. In verse 27 he preached all of God's salvation plan. The rough corners as well as the smooth curves, he held nothing back from them. And he was a man who was faithful in all his ministry of teaching. You know we're living in days, beloveds, when men and women have itching ears, don't they? And they say to us, let our elders and leaders be facilitators and psychotherapists and counsellors and what have you. But don't let them bring the whole council of God to bear on our lives. But you pick up the book of 1 Thessalonians and you look at chapter 1 and you read verses 9 and 10, the account of Paul's ministry among the Thessalonians and you find what? That he didn't water down anything. He preached the whole gospel. to a people that needed the whole truth of God. You turned, he says, to God from idols. There is theology proper and to wait for his son from heaven. There is Christology, the doctrine of the person of Christ whom he raised from the dead. There is the supernatural acts of God in history, even Jesus. There is the humanity of Christ who delivers us from the wrath to come. There is the Christian doctrine of sin and the necessity of the cross of Christ. You see, there is the whole counsel of God with not a part of it. held back from the ears of needy men. And so it is in the New Testament, from the beginning to the end, thoroughness in gospel teaching. Because it's vitally important that the church should stand in the whole straight message of God's Word. full and accurate and unhesitating. That is what a faithful shepherd does in his teaching. You look at him in his coverage in Ephesus. He was concerned to bring the whole community of Ephesus to the whole truth of God. And you remember he worked among Jews and Gentiles. He worked in the school of Tyrannus. He taught in the synagogue. Both residents and visitors from that teeming province heard the same gospel of the grace of God until it had spread, says Luke in Acts 19, through the whole region of that province of Asia. He was thorough in his methods. Do you remember how he says, both day and night, I warned and exhorted you, both in public and private, I did it. And in summary you see, when he sets this example before them, you can say here is a shepherd that was faithful and indefatigable. and someone who could not be put off his task and ministry by any of the opposition or discouragement that crossed the Apostle's path as it often did. The model of a faithful pastor. drawn from the title of those he addressed and the example of his own painstaking ministry. Let me ask you this morning, is that your view of what the church is? Or do you think of it as an organization and a religious club whose officers are there by some ecclesiastical directive for some reason that you don't fully understand? Oh, I appeal to you, beloved in the Lord, this morning, let the image of that ministry to the church be large in your mind and thoughts. but it is the flock of God ministered to by faithful shepherds who should be much in the word, thorough in their teaching, thorough in their coverage, thorough as God enables them in all their methods to reach both you and a generation in greatest need of the gospel of God's saving grace. Now look with me secondly at the marks of a false prophet in verses 29 to 31. Now this is the second feature that sheds a flood of light on Paul's view of the church. He not only sets before them his own example as a faithful shepherd but he uses the pastoral imagery again of warning the elders that savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Now many of you know that in the ancient world of the Near East, wolves were the main enemies of sheep. Hunting either in packs or sometimes individually, they posed a constant threat to the flock. The sheep were defenseless, the pastors, the shepherds could never relax their vigilance for a moment, day or night. and nor can Christian pastors, says Paul, over the flock of God. Now what he means of course is false teachers as Jesus meant in Matthew 7 verse 15 when he warned the disciples and his hearers that wolves in sheep's clothing would come among you to deceive you and lead you astray. And his similar warnings you will recall in Matthew chapter 24 and Mark chapter 13 that great prophecy from the lips of Jesus concerning the end times when false teachers and false prophets will arise he said and deceive many. And all through the New Testament, if you read it with discernment, you find that there is constant reference to this danger. In 2nd Thessalonians 2, in 1st Timothy 4, in 2nd Timothy chapter 3, 2nd Peter 2, in the book of Jude, even in the book of Revelation. there is mention of this danger. And we see Judaizers arising and we see antinomians who would turn the grace of God into a lie and distort it. We see those arising in Paul's epistles such as 1st Corinthians 15 who denied the reality of the resurrection or else said that the resurrection of the body was already past. false teachers arising from within the church and from without it. And there are just three things I want to say to you quickly about this. That you see in the light of it, faithful ministers of the gospel have a double duty. They are to feed the flock and they are to defend the flock. And I want to say to you beloved, in the light of the marks of false prophets, the true pastor is not called upon to be a facilitator of this program and that organization. Nor is he called upon primarily to be a counselor and still less a psychotherapist of some stripe or another. But as Paul says in Titus 1 verse 9, elders must hold firm the sure word in order that they might give, he says, instruction in sound doctrine and also confute those who contradict it. And what he's saying is that the true shepherd stands between the wolves and the endangered sheep. And he protects them if necessary by his very life as well as by his teaching. And you know I believe it is no easy thing to defend the faith today against the mighty attacks that are being levelled against it in every direction. And what we need today are shepherds who have a knowledge of the truth that is deep and profound and wide as well. And a clear acquaintance with the forces that are hostile to the Christian church. And I say to you that you should never grudge the time that your pastor or your elders spend in the study of the Word, pouring over it and commentaries that shed a flood of light upon the sacred text, and bowing in prayer before God, who sovereignly is able to give the Word that feeds and defends the flock. And you might well say, well isn't it safer if we just learn the truth and are never warned against errors? Well of course it's safer in one sense. But you see in another sense, if you never know those errors, the flock is constantly imperiled and at risk and the enemy remains in possession of the field. And what we need today, I believe, is shepherds who feel that they are not only feeding the flock but also men called of God who know that they are in a great battle and the deadly perils await God's people unless they are safeguarded and defended from all the perils around them. But men also who know it is the Lord's battle and he beloved is a great captain. That's what we need in the church. But let me also say that this emphasis is unpopular today, isn't it? So often we find men and women saying let's be positive from the pulpit and the teaching desk and in the Bible class and in the Bible study and of course we must be positive and woe to that minister. who is more negative than he is gloriously positive. But to say that we must never be negative is surely a great danger and a great mistake as well. And someone who says that surely has no acquaintance with the New Testament because the Lord Jesus and his apostles confuted and refuted error as they built up the church and they urge us who are pastors and under shepherds still to do the same. And the whole of the New Testament is on our side. Now you know the application to the modern church is this. But so often this element that is so necessary is missing. You see so often we look down our noses at doctrinal preaching. It's been pushed out from the primary place it should occupy in the church to a secondary or even a tertiary place and in some communions you look for it in vain, it's not there at all. And the result is that the people are not built up in their most holy faith and they're not prepared against the dangers that surround them. And the word of the Apostle comes into its own that savage wolves come, not sparing the flock. And that flock is weak and decimated and a ready prey to their waiting team. And you see, is it any wonder that the Church, so inadequately nurtured and nourished, is carried away by every wind of doctrine and the slate and cunning of men and is helpless in the presence of the foe? And, O beloved, we should pray and intercede before God for the raising up again of ministries, of solid instruction in the Scriptures and at the pulpit desk and at the Sabbath school And in our homes, as fathers, the head of the homes and husbands lead their families in the full teaching of the whole counsel of God as it is given to us in the scriptures. What a world is in the Bible, my dear friends. And a hundred lifetimes would not be enough to explore the riches of the scriptures to our building up and edifying, as we should be doing. And that's the message I believe we need to hear. You know Gresham Machen many years ago in one of his radio broadcasts that have become famous said these words, listen, I trust he said that God will raise up for us preachers of a different type who will build upon the one foundation of Jesus Christ, not wood and hay and stubble, but gold and silver and precious stones. Do you, if you are pastors or teachers in the church, want your work to endure in the day of Jesus Christ? says Machen. There is one work which at least I think may hold to stand the test of her judgment by fire. It is the humble impartation Sunday by Sunday or day by day of a solid knowledge not of what you say or what any man has said but of what God has told us in his words. And he says, is that work too lowly for you? Is it too restricted to fire the ambition of your soul? May God have mercy upon you. And may God, I say, have mercy upon the church of this age, where it seems to me that everything but this, at times, is being followed so closely. there is the model of a faithful pastor. There are the marks of the false shepherd. Now thirdly, do you notice as we close, there is the motive that is drawn from a favoured people. In verse 28, look at verse 28 in your Bibles in front of you. The flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, the flock which he bought with his own blood. So you see we come from the pastoral metaphor of the shepherd and the wolves, to the pastoral metaphor of the flock itself. Now you know as we read verse 28, those of us who are pastors and elders, we stand before it ashamed and humbled. Because we must say in the light of it, as Paul said later in the New Testament, who is sufficient for these things? because I am made an under-shepherd, an overseer, an elder in the flock which God himself owns and is bought by the blood of his own dear Son and in which the Holy Spirit has a ministry of establishing those who are to be its true shepherds and leaders. And as I look at these things I say, woe is me for such a responsibility as this. Because you see verse 28 beloved teaches us the simple but profound truth that ultimately the pastoral oversight of God's people does not belong to any man or men but it belongs to God himself. And each of the three persons of the Trinity has a share in that pastoral oversight. Do you see there in verse 28 that to begin with it is spoken of as God's flock. And then secondly, for which he gave the blood of his own, literally his own son. Because God being impassable, being incapable of suffering in his Godhead, could not shed blood. He does not have a physical body, it should be rendered. He gave the blood of his own, and in parentheses, Son. So the purchase price is the blood of Jesus, the second person of the Trinity. In which church says Paul? The Holy Ghost? has made you men overseers. The oversight is the Holy Spirit's and that is why he has the authority to delegate it in part to others. Now do you see the profound truth that I'm bringing before you? The splendid affirmation that the pastoral oversight of the church belongs to Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And it should have a profound effect both upon the pastor and the people. You know upon pastors and elders it should humble us to think that this flock in which we minister and go out and in before is not ours, it's God's. And it should inspire us also to faithfulness. Because you know the sheep are not the clean and cuddly animals that we often think they are. But they get dirty. And they have their pests, their ticks and their lice. And they have to be regularly dipped in strong chemicals to get rid of them. And sometimes they're unintelligent and wayward. And very often they're obstinate. Now I've got to be very careful, I'm not applying this closely to you. But I am saying that this is what the sheep are like. And there is a broad parallel here. That it's very difficult to minister to the sheep at times. And the sheep may find the pastor very difficult to deal with. And the elders And similarly the pastor and elders may find it very difficult to deal with the sheep. And when I remember that the flock beloved is not mine, but it belongs to God and he sees their wounds. and how the lame have gone out of the way and the infestation of parasites and the need for a thorough cleansing. It strengthens my hand as the under shepherd to say I must care for them even though my natural instinct is to run away a hundred miles because he cares for them. and they are really his, the flock of God the Father, purchased by the precious blood of God the Son, supervised by overseers, appointed by the Holy Ghost. And if the three persons of the Trinity are committed to shepherding the sheep Should not we be also, however difficult and dangerous at times, the task may be. You know let me finish with these words of Richard Baxter. He says this, oh then let us hear these arguments of Christ. Whenever we feel ourselves grow dull and careless. Did I die for them, says Christ, and wilt thou not look after them? Were they worth my blood? And are they not worth thy labour? Did I come down from heaven to earth and seek to save that which was lost? And wilt thou not go to the next door or street or village to seek them? How small is thy labour and condescension as to mine! I debased myself to this, but is it is thy honour to be so employed? Have I done and suffered so much for their salvation? And was I willing to make thee a co-worker with me? And wilt thou refuse that little that lieth upon thy hands? Oh what words of rebuke and yet of divine encouragement rest in those words of Richard Baxter. Beloved, so we finish Paul's view of the church. How fully do we understand these ideals of pastoral ministry? How readily do you pray for your elders and officers? How much are you concerned that the church is the flock of God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and that these men should be prayed for, that they might be mightily furnished for their immense and oh so difficult but so rewarding tasks. and how much encouragement do you draw this morning that you are not an organization, not a social or religious class. but the very flock chosen of the Father, brought by the Son, over which the Holy Spirit is the divine Episcopos, the overseer who has appointed his under-shepherds to take care of you in God's church.