Our sermon text this morning comes from Acts chapter 20, verses 25 through 31. And now behold, I know that all of you, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, will no longer see my face. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men, For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves, men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. therefore beyond the alert. Remembering that night and day for a period of three years, I did not cease to admonish each one with tears. You can tell a lot about a person by the last words that they give. before they die. A person's last words tell you a lot about what mattered to a person, what they cared about. what they were hoping in and what they're thinking about in the very last moments of their lives. Let me give you kind of two examples of opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to some famous last words. Winston Churchill, one of the most significant and influential persons in World War II for the Allies, his last words are recorded as such, quote, I am convinced that there is no hope. Some powerful words of sadness from a great man. Compare that to the last words of a reformer from the Reformation, John Knox. These are his final last words. Live in Christ, die in Christ, and the flesh need not fear death. Do you see what a significance knowing Christ makes to the very end of life? This morning we're not looking at Paul's final words in death, but we are considering Paul's final words to the Ephesian elders. If you were here last week, you remember that Paul is giving these last final admonitions encouragements, commands, and instructions to these elders in Ephesus. And we've seen a significant portion of what matters most to Paul. But I would argue what we're going to see this morning in the text that was just read to us, that we're going to go in-depth to this morning, is we're going to see the heart of what mattered most to one of the most important, influential biblical figures, and that is Paul. We are going to get a picture into what he cares about most, knowing that this is the last time he's going to speak to these specific Christians. The title of the sermon is The Role of the Shepherd. It's from Acts chapter 20, verses 25 to 31. And I want this to be clear, what we're going to be talking about this morning, because this introduction, I think, is important to set up what we're going to be talking about. What Paul is going to be talking about this morning in our text, it's the role of the shepherd, but I want to explain what that means. What Paul is talking about here in this text, just to show you where we're going, is that God uniquely qualifies and positions men as spiritual leaders of the flock of God. I just want that to be abundantly clear that this is the thrust of Paul's final message that he's delivering to the elders of Ephesus. That God uniquely qualifies and positions emphasis on God here. He is putting people in place for a purpose, to be spiritual leaders for the flock of God. Begins with God, ends with God. The emphasis is on God and what he does for his people to provide for them. So what we're going to be doing this morning is I'm going to give you four aspects of what a godly shepherd looks like. And when I'm talking about a godly shepherd, I'm not specifically talking about the guy that's out in the field with the sheep, right? That's the imagery, but what we're talking about is we're talking about the spiritual leaders of the church. We're talking about the pastor, but let me also say it in the plural, the pastors, the elders, the overseers of the church. That's what we're going to be getting into this morning. Who are these spiritual leaders and what have they been tasked to do? That's going to be the thrust of Paul's final message here to the church at Ephesus. Again, I want to make sure that we have a clear understanding with where we're going. I don't normally do this, but can I give you instruction on how to listen to the sermon this morning? I don't normally do that. I normally just say, hey, here's the sermon, and you do with it what you may. But I think there's a temptation whenever we talk about the pastorate or the eldership. that if some of us who are here, who are not pastors, and we're not elders, and we're not spiritual leaders of the church, we have this temptation to think, oh, sweet, I can check out this morning. This doesn't have to do with me. Jeremiah is definitely preaching to himself this morning. I am doing that, but I'm also preaching to you as well. And I think there's three reasons, these are just quick three reasons, why you, the church, needs to know what the office of shepherd, that is elder, that is pastor, that is spiritual leader, there's three reasons why you need to know what this looks like. First, you need to know your Bibles. There's nothing in the Bible that you don't need. Nothing. That goes for all of us. We don't segregate the Bible into this people, these people need this part, these people need this part. All of us as a church, as a body of Christ, needs to know Scripture completely. Now here, let me give you why that matters. Because one day, you might go to a different church than this church, and you need to know, what should a pastor look like? What should the leadership of the church look like? Within this church, you hold the pastor and the leadership responsible for following God's commands. How should you pray for your spiritual leaders within your church? It's all tied into what the spiritual leaders look like within the church. You need to know Scripture and what Scripture says about this. Secondly, this is a little bit more of an abstract, but if you're here and you're a father, there's a lot of parallels between the leadership of the church and the leadership of the home. So what we're gonna be talking about, about the leadership of the church, is not exactly 100% parallel to fathers and husbands, but it's gonna be similar. So what we talk about of the leadership of the church, fathers be paying close attention. And then thirdly, it is my strong belief, and I hope yours as well, that one of the ministries of each and every gospel preaching and Bible-believing church is to raise up leaders within our midst, amen? We're not satisfied with, okay, we have a few leaders, that's it. We are called to train up more leaders. And so I believe with all of my heart that this church has men who are called to a ministry that you're not currently yet doing. And the goal, part of my goal in preaching every Sunday is giving you tools, equipping you with scripture so that the Lord will use that to convict you and call you to the ministry. whatever that looks like, however that ministry might look like, God is working in your lives. And you need to know what elders look like, and those of us who maybe aren't called to that need to encourage and affirm men within this church, hey, I think God might be calling you to this. I see something in you that's consistent with what we see in scripture. So hopefully you know this is for all of us, okay? We're all on the same page. All right, with that being said, let me pray, and then we'll jump into these four aspects of what the role of the shepherd looks like. Father, we've said much to try to build up the theme of what we're talking about this morning, of the leadership of the church. And Father, you know my heart is desiring to be faithful to the text. My heart desires not to communicate Jeremiah's best thoughts or my best efforts or what I think is best, but what you say is best for the church. Father, will you help us to follow your blueprint? Will you help us to follow your leadership? And will you help us to rightly hear for ourselves what your words speak to us. Father, we ask this in your name, amen. Four aspects that Paul gives us of what godly shepherds should look like. The first aspect we see of shepherds is in verses 25 through 27, and I'm calling it Shepherds Spotlight Scripture. When we're talking about the spiritual leaders, and I'm going to be calling them elders and overseers because those are the words that are here in the text, we're talking about these shepherds, these spiritual leaders of the church, the first thing that Paul tells us is that they highlight or spotlight Scripture. The idea here is that those who lead the church are not primarily focused on you being impressed with them. The leaders of the church are not most interested in popular church growth strategies or things that are exciting to the world. The leaders of the church, of God's church, according to what Paul says here and throughout all of Scripture, is to highlight, to make much of, to know and to teach Scripture. Notice how we see this in a public and in a private setting. Notice verse 25. Paul uses himself as an example, and he does this throughout all of the text. He says in verse 25 that he went about preaching the kingdom. Now, this is a public ministry that Paul is doing here, and he is calling these people to do the same thing. If you are an elder, if you are a pastor, an overseer, a shepherd, you are called to publicly proclaim the gospel, Scripture. Does that have to be behind a pulpit on Sunday morning at 10.15? No, it certainly includes that, but leaders of the church are called to, in everything they do, publicly be teaching, publicly be admonishing people with the Word of God, but I don't think it's limited to just a public declaration. Paul certainly is talking about a public ministry, but there's also a private ministry that he's talking about as well. We talked about this last week, but look back at verse 20 in your Bibles. This was part of last week's text. Notice how Paul compares, or doesn't compare, he joins together the public ministry and the private ministry of the elder. He says that he was teaching you publicly and from house to house. I think that's a key distinction there. He publicly declared the gospel, so spiritual leaders of the church must do the same, but he also went house to house indicating private, individual ministry. You see, we can fall off the boat in two ways as leaders of the church. We can fall off the boat on one side where all we want to do is talk individually and we never want to get up in front of anybody. We just want to have personal conversations and that's it. But leaders of the church are called to publicly admonish and encourage and teach. But we can fall off the boat the other way as well, where it's easy for us to get up in front of a lot of people, but one-on-one, when someone says, this is my sin, this is my struggle, this is my concern, what do I do? I don't know. Go talk to somebody else. You see, we can fall off the boat either which way. According to Paul, the office of elder, the office of shepherd, is for both a public and a private ministry. Let me make a quick application here. I want to make sure that this is known. If you are a member of this church, and even if you're not a member of this church, this is open and available to you as well. But we have biblical counseling available to each person here at this church. As many of you know, you have received biblical counseling in this church, that no matter what sin you might struggle with, no matter what depression you might deal with, no matter what issue you, your child, your parent, or whoever else it might be, no matter what you're struggling with, there are answers, and those answers are found in the Word of God, and one of the things that we do here is we want to help you in that. Many of you have already taken advantage of that. Some of you need to take advantage of that. that there are resources open and available to you and your family here in the church, because that's the ministry of the church, a private ministry going from house to house, speaking individually. And let me just say, one of the goals of our church here is to teach and train some of you to do biblical counseling as well. Our goal is to teach you to know scripture so that you can help others, so that we are ministering to one another. Isn't that a good goal to have? To know scripture so well that we can help one another and encourage one another in the trials that we have. But bringing it back here to the text, what Paul is helping us to see is that church leaders must declare the gospel publicly and privately. Friends, we must not forsake that the kingdom for church leaders are proclaimed publicly and privately. But we have to ask ourselves, what kingdom work is being proclaimed publicly and privately? This is, I think, a pretty obvious answer, but I want to build up to how Paul answers this. What exactly did Paul admonish these elders, these shepherds, as spiritual leaders, to be declaring? What are they declaring to others? Notice verse 26. Paul claims to be innocent of men's blood. What a strange expression to use. He's saying that his responsibility over the Ephesian church's spiritual condition has been released. He's no longer responsible for them. How can he say, I'm no longer responsible for the spiritual condition of the Ephesian church? What has he spent three years of his life declaring to them? And these are the beautiful words of verse 27, and they are beautiful. He says, for I did not shrink back. I love that. He wasn't afraid. I didn't shrink back from declaring to you what? The whole purpose of God. Okay, so what is the public and private ministry of the Shepherd? What is the spotlight that the spiritual leaders of the Church are supposed to be illuminating to others? It's very clear to Paul the whole purpose of God, the counsel, the decrees of God. Church, are we seeing that our entire lifeline, our blood that flows through our veins, are not what we think is best, but what God's Word commands us to do? That's all that Paul did. He went around and for three years in one church said, I'm going to tell you nothing about the whole purpose, the whole counsel, the whole decree of God. Elders are called to no different task. Elders are called to look at the Word of God, to know the Word of God, and faithfully declare that and proclaim that to others. The directive of God's Word is sufficient to meet the needs of God's people. This is what Paul would say in Ephesians 1, 11, using the same word from verse 27. Also, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to his purpose, who works all things after the counsel. That's the same word as verse 27, the purpose, after the counsel of his will. We have to ask ourselves, Paul, what is the whole counsel of God's purpose? 2 Peter 1.3, seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence. What is that, Paul? It's God's Word. What is the power for your life? What is the power for your depression? What is the power for your sorrow? It's the Word of God and God working through that Word in order to produce a more perfect result in you. The role of the shepherd is to spotlight that. And if the shepherds, the elders of the church, fail to spotlight the Word of God, then we have failed in the very ministry that God has called us to do. There's a lot at stake here. If we don't spotlight Scripture, then we're worthless, because we're not leading to Christ. We're certainly leading to something else. So we can ask ourselves this question as a church, From whether it's the spiritual leaders to the newest members, are we seeking answers to church life and our personal life in God's word alone? Put it this way, the church must always do better in knowing and applying God's word. If the job of the elders, the job of the shepherds of the church is to know and apply God's word, then we must always be doing this more clearly and more faithfully. The role of the shepherd is to spotlight Scripture. There's a second aspect of the shepherds that we see here in this text. Verses 25 to 27 showed us how Scripture must be at the forefront of the ministry of the elders. But look at verse 28. Verse 28 gives us the second aspect, and that is that shepherds guard God's people. Shepherds guard God's people. This is I think what we would consider the crux of the entire passage. Everything in our text this morning more or less reverberates or responds to verse 28, and so we're going to spend the most time of our time together in this sermon looking at verse 28 and the implications of verse 28. The shepherds guard God's people. I see two basic descriptions of how shepherds guard God's people, and we're going to take these in turn. First, God appoints his leaders, and secondly, those whom God appoints guard the flock. So let me just describe what both of these look like from verse 28. First, God appoints his spiritual elders over the church. This is an in-depth, in-depth study that we could have here. We wanna make sure we rightly understand what's happening, and I'm gonna try to be concise with my language. God is the one who appoints spiritual elders over the church. Notice the word used in verse 28 that most of our translations describe as overseer. Do you see that word in your text? I looked at almost all the translations and they almost all use the word overseer. Okay, now here's what we need to make sure that we understand. If you look back at verse 17, of which we talked about last week, you might remember that in verse 17 we were told that Paul was talking to the elders of Ephesus. That is the word presbyteros, the Greek word for elder, presbyteros. The Greek word for overseer, here in verse 28, is episkopos, or episkopos, when it's in the plural. Now, what is the difference? I'm going to tell you there's really not much of a difference. The word for overseer, this is what it literally means from the Greek, one who has the responsibility of caring for others. That's what an overseer is. That's what an elder is. That's what a shepherd is. Has the responsibility of caring for or looking after others. Now, here's the amazing thing of what Paul's doing. He's using these words elder and overseer more or less interchangeably, and we need to see that to him, they're more or less the same position. We also need to see that this word is in the plural. The role of the elder, the role of the overseer is not a singular position, but it's a plural position. Now look at verse 28 when it says the overseers are to do what? They are called to shepherd. Have you ever wondered where the word pastor comes from? The word pastor comes from the idea of the shepherd. And what does a shepherd do? The shepherd shepherds. That's, I think, a technical way of describing it, right? A shepherd shepherds. Well, notice what he's saying here. Who is supposed to shepherd? Who are the shepherds? They're the overseers. Who are the overseers? They're the same as the elders from verse 17. And so what we're seeing here in this text is helping us see that the pastor of the church is actually more accurately known as the pastors, the elders, the overseers. And please note, this is a different office than deacons. This is not to say that deacons are de facto elders. Consider Philippians 1.1. Consider how there's a distinction in roles in the church. Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Christ Jesus, to all of the saints, all of the Christians, he's speaking to Christians here, all the Christians in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi. He's writing to a church, the church at Philippi. He's writing to the Christians, including the overseers. Ah, we recognize that word, don't we? From verse 28. And the deacons. These are two distinct roles within the church, the office of overseer and the office of deacon. The role of one, the role of the other. We have to be very clear, deacons are not elders and elders are not deacons. One is not greater than the other, they're different. different purposes for different reasons. You might remember, if you've been with us for much of the Book of Acts, back in Acts chapter 6, elders are called, I'm sorry, deacons are called, to do the practical ministry of the church, helping the widows, the orphans, the practical consideration of what does the body of Christ need. So the deacons do the work of the church that is necessary in the practical considerations. If you have a problem, if you have an uncertainty that you don't understand, you call a deacon. and say, how can I receive help? The deacon is the one who walks you through that. But that's different than what an elder is called to do. An elder is called to do the ministry of the word, the preaching, the teaching, the admonishing, the counseling, and the explanation of the word of God. Both of these offices are vital to the church. They're distinct from one another, and they're both plural. By the way, isn't it amazing? Let me say this as a qualifier. I'm a Baptist. I'm a Southern Baptist. I've been a Southern Baptist my whole life. So understand, I'm one of you. But nowhere in the Bible do we see anything about committees. Did you ever see that? Like, Baptists are really good, and again, I'm one of you, so we can talk openly and honestly about ourselves. Nowhere in Scripture do we talk about committees being formed. Now, there can be some practical considerations of that, but when we get to Scripture, what are the two necessary components or roles within the New Testament? Elders, and deacons. What do these roles look like? We could do a great big study and hopefully I look forward to doing this at some point in the not-too-distant future, but let me just read a few verses from 1 Timothy and from Titus. In 1 Timothy 3 it talks about the office of the overseer. It says it's a trustworthy statement. If any man aspires to the office of overseer, that's again our same word, episkopos, It is a fine work he desires to do. And then for the next six verses, he describes what a man looks like who's fit for that role, before then the next six verses, he describes what a deacon looks like and the men fit for that role. Or look at Titus. In Titus chapter one, he uses both elder and overseer interchangeably. He says in Titus 1.5, for this reason I left you Titus and Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders, or essentially make sure that there are elders. In every city as I directed you." And then in verse 7, he says, for the overseer must be above reproach as God's steward, and then again goes on to describe what that man looks like. Elder, overseer, he's using these interchangeably to talk about the spiritual leaders, dare I say, the shepherds of the church. Now, perhaps you're sitting here and you are bored to tears. Pastor, who cares? Here's why I think we should care. We should ask ourselves, and we should go to the Lord in prayer, in saying, are we being faithful to God's Word? And if so, how can we be more obedient to Scripture? Isn't that what we're called to do as Christians? How can we be more faithful, more obedient? How can we obey God even more? I ask that in my personal life, and I hope you do as well, but we ask that in our corporate church life as well. And then bringing it to here, so if this is what the office of elder, the role of overseer looks like, again, I mentioned that God is the one who appoints these leaders. Isn't it amazing in verse 28 what we're told? We're told that the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Do you see that in Acts 20, verse 28? God has given spiritual leaders to the church And then we're told the Holy Spirit is the one who's brought all of this about. And to then even go even further, at the very end of verse 28, he says that these overseers, these shepherds, are to do their work for the church which Jesus purchased with his own blood. The whole point of this is God is doing this work. God paid for your life, church, with His own blood, of Jesus' blood, and then God has set apart men in the church to do a work over this church, and every church. Do you see how God is the one who's appointing these leaders? God is the one who's putting them in place. That yes, there are votes, there are nominations, but it's the Holy Spirit who's leading and guiding. So we could say, the church is to be overseen and shepherded by elders whom God uniquely positions. And friends, I think that's as biblical as anything else we talk about. God is the one who puts shepherds and overseers and elders in the positions to serve him. But verse 28 has another nugget of gold for us. Again, the second aspect of the shepherd is to guard God's people. And what we see here, secondly, in verse 28, is that the shepherds are to be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock. Isn't that amazing? If you're a leader of the church, an elder, an overseer, a shepherd, you are to guard yourself and others. There is little worse for a church whose spiritual leaders think they no longer have to submit to the Lord. There's little worse that dooms a church than the spiritual leaders thinking they are above reproach. thinking that they're fine just as they are. Is it shocking to you, because can I be honest, it was to me, that the first thing that the elders are called to do in verse 28, to guard yourself. How easy it is for any of us to be susceptible to sin and to fall in to transgression. And church, let me just make this honest declaration to you. Spiritual leaders of the church are susceptible to the same sins as you are, if maybe not more so. Just because I get up here and preach every Sunday morning does not mean that it's easy for me to not sin. It's not. In fact, it's sometimes, in some ways, a lot harder. And the same is true for the elders of the church. And we need to be honest about this. If elders fail to guard themselves and are always only looking at the others, then there's a deep problem. There's not humility there. Humility leads the leaders of the church to say, there's something wrong with me that I must go to the Lord to seek his help for. I think this is the idea. of Matthew chapter 7. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talks about, I guess it's a little bit of a parable, and it's so common, we know it very well, but think about what Jesus says in Matthew 7, 3-5. He says, why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? You know this passage? Makes a lot of sense. How can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye, when all the time there's a plank in your very own eye? The idea here is, normally what we think of is, pay attention to yourself, and that's there. But listen to the very last thing that he says in verse 5. You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, guard yourself, but he's not done. And then you will see clearly to do what? to then remove the speck into your brother's eye. You see, the problem was not that you're seeing sin, temptation, failure in your brother and trying to help him and say, hey, there's a problem there. The problem is you're not doing it to yourself first. Isn't that what Paul's saying here? The elders of the church first guard yourselves from heresy, from false, wrong theology, wrong thinking, but then guard the flock. Guard the church. Help the church to see rightly what God's Word says. Spotlight Scripture and guard the church from temptations, from sin, from wrong theology. Let me make a quick application here before I move on to the third description of shepherds. And that is that church, can I ask you to pray for your elders? Since we don't have elders in this church, technically I'm the only elder, the only one who's been tasked with the spiritual ministry of this church. Pray for your spiritual leaders of this church, because there's a great burden that the spiritual leaders of this church carry, to guard ourselves and then to guard you. That's a God-given task. It's not one to puff ourselves up and say, look at the role that we have. We must be pretty important. It has nothing to do with that. It has everything to say, this is Christ's church. This is the bride of Christ. And as we'll see here in a moment, the spiritual leaders are merely the under-shepherd for the good shepherd. Pray for your leaders. Pray for the people in this church that have been tasked with your spiritual well-being. Shepherds are to spotlight scripture. Shepherds are to guard God's people. Thirdly, shepherds tangibly lead in truth. So far, I have refrained as best as I am able to not use a lot of this sheep-shepherd imagery of the idea of being in the pasture, but I think it applies here in verses 29 to 30 in what he talks about. When a shepherd has sheep, yes, there's general maintenance. Yes, there's feeding, but the most important role of the shepherd in the pasture with his flock is to protect the sheep from enemies. That's the most important job of the shepherd, is to take care of sheep. Now, I'm not going to say what some other pastors have said, that sheep are dumb, that sheep are foolish, and that the church are like the sheep. I didn't say that, other pastors have said that. But I will say this. It's a joke. I'm really trying to be silly. I will say this. Sheep have a unique ability to need to be led. This is true for all sheep. A unique ability, they need to be led, and sheep are prone to attacks of predators. I learned this lesson firsthand, not because I was the good shepherd, but because I was the predator. Let me tell you a quick story about what imagery this looks like in my mind. Sadie and I were in Iceland a couple of years ago, as many of you know. And I had an opportunity to preach for a local pastor there and in response he let us borrow his car for the week. And so Sadie and I were driving across this island and just going to different places. I need to tell you this aspect, I have driven all of my life automatics and this was a manual. Okay, that's a pretty important component to this story. We're driving through a road that's going through some fields. Do you wonder where this story is going? It's going where you hope it's not going. We were driving. Everything was perfectly fine. Oh, look at the mountains over there. Look at all the sheep and the pastures. Oh my goodness, they're just doing what they want. And everything was so wonderful until three sheep decided to cross the road. And this is not a joke. It really happened this way. And they ran across the road to make matters worse. It was a mama sheep. and the two little lambs. The two little lambs were in front because, as every good mom knows, she's pushing them across, get across, this crazy pastor's driving and he doesn't know what he's doing. I tried to slow down. Oh, man, you should see your faces right now. I did slow down, but I clipped the mama sheep in the back. And we stopped and we looked back, Sadie and I did. And I think, I'm remembering this correctly, we saw her in the ditch kind of waddling around and said, she'll be fine. And so we kept going, because we were going somewhere that we needed to get to, and we knew we were going to come back. We can't do anything for the sheep. So we came back, and I'm happy to report that when we came back, the mama sheep wasn't there. So either, well, I'm going to just assume that she was perfectly fine and everything That's my assumption. But I think the point of the story is when I think about the attacks that sheep are prone to, that's the church. How easy is it for a variety of predators to come about to steal the joy by whispering the same lie from Genesis 3? Has God really said? And then go off into wrong lies. Friends, the role of the shepherd is to lead in truth. I think this is a little bit different than spotlighting truth. Spotlighting truth is proclaiming truth publicly and privately, but leading in truth is saying, that's wrong. What you've heard on TV from that pastor who sounds really nice, that's wrong. What that Christian bestseller book says, that's wrong. What your friend has said who might be well-intentioned, that's wrong. Let me tell you what's right. Let me tell you what's truth. Let me tell you what leads you to eternal life. Friends, can I just say this? Just because someone seems genuine in telling you what they think is right or good, does not mean that it's truth. Just because somebody is a pastor and they say something, does not mean that it's truth. Just because the Southern Baptist Convention says something, does not mean that it's truth. The truth that we are called to lead in is not what Jeremiah thinks, it's not what someone else thinks, it's what does God's Word think and say and speak to our lives. Shepherds are to tangibly lead in truth. But notice in verse 30, and this should bring us to tears of terror. The wolves are gonna be among you. and from among your own selves, he's speaking to the spiritual leaders, from yourself, men are going to arise, speaking perverse, distorted, heretical things, and they're going to draw away the disciples after them. a spiritual leader according to what God's Word calls them to be, the godly shepherd points people to Jesus. What does the heretical shepherd do? He points to himself. Look at me. Build up my platform. Give me praise. Think of me as your Savior. That's what a heretical shepherd does. And Paul warns, this is gonna happen. Did it? 2 Timothy 1, verse 15. Speaking to Timothy, who pastored in Ephesus, You are aware of the fact that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are these two people that biblical scholars think were some of the elders who were here in Acts chapter 20, Phygelus and Hermogenes. Jesus would say in Revelation 1, verses four and five, writing to the church at Ephesus, but I have this against you, you've left your first love. Therefore, remember from where you have fallen, repent, do the deed you did at first, or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent." The idea here is there were leaders within the Church of Ephesus, elders who led to themself instead of to Christ. and that church was in sin. And friends, if it could happen in Ephesus, it can happen here, unless the shepherds tangibly lead in truth. Let me make one more note from verses 29 to 30. I've been convicted lately that we need to have a long understanding, a bigger picture of the Christian life. The Christian life is applicable to right now, absolutely. What do we do right now? But it's also applicable to the future as well. And there are some in this room that you are going to move to another city, move to another state, or for whatever reason, you're gonna at some point in your life look for a church. You won't be in this church, you'll be looking for another church. Let me admonish you. When you look for churches, don't go window shopping. Don't try to find a pastor that says things just the way you like it. or have programs just the way you think it should be, or the music that sounds just the way you think it is or should be, go to a church that where the leaders of the church take seriously, verses 29 through 30, where their sole God-given role is to protect you from the lies of the world. I'm just telling you. I don't know which of us need to know that, but at some point, some of you are going to be looking for a new church. And when you do that, are you seeking after a church that has spiritual leaders that are desiring to know Christ more than desiring to be worldly friendly. I don't know how to say that in a better way. Make sure you go after a church, you pursue a church where the truth means the most. Go where the truth means the most. And friends, for those of you who are going to stay here for the remainder of your days, that's why we focus on truth more than cultural relevancy. Because when suffering comes, when doubt comes, when difficulties arise, the only thing that's going to matter is this question, did Jesus Christ really die for my sins and am I eternally secure in Christ? That is number one question for your church leaders to consider. Did Jesus Christ really die for my sins, and am I eternally secure in Christ? My goal, the goal of the leaders of this church, is to faithfully declare that to you. There's a fourth aspect of a godly shepherd. It's found in verse 31, and I'll continue very quickly to finish this out, and that is that shepherds passionately persist. Shepherds passionately persist. Notice how in verse 31, Paul admonishes the elders to be alert, using himself as an example. He says that the elders, essentially, should be alert night and day. For many years, they should not cease. and they should admonish with tears. This is what Paul did. These are what godly shepherds should do as well. I have to admit, I have to be careful not to cry here. I think I'm becoming a little bit like Pi. There are some things in life that you can never fully communicate accurately to others. and the role of the elder, you can never fully communicate to others. Night and day, be alert. The office of elder is not a nine-to-five. It's not a do-it-when-you-want-to. It's not when it's convenient. It's kind of like disciplining your children or changing poopy diapers. Do those ever happen at convenient times? Lately, I've just been struck. Those are never at convenient times. The role of the elder is never convenient. But it's always in God's perfect timing. Night and day, God has called the elder, the overseers, the shepherds of the flock to be alert. I want you to know I'm committed to that. At any time, in any way, as much as I am able, and as much as the spiritual leaders of this church are able, we are here to guard your heart, to help you in your moments of difficulty. Never ceasing. The ministry of the elder is not a Sunday morning. It's not just a Wednesday night. It's not just. It's always. and admonishing with tears. Do you know that the leaders of this church have wept with and for some of you? Some of the hardest things, being a pastor, is to see sin in someone's life and to give them to the Lord, to pray, to lovingly admonish them and encourage them. Some of you know that because I've done that with you. One of the best things we can do for one another is encourage each other lovingly, kindly, graciously. Don't follow after the lie of the savage wolf. That's leading to death. Trust in the truth. When everything else in life fails, a church is blessed to have leaders that love Christ more than they love themselves and more than they love their own passions. There's one more thing that I want to say in application. We've been talking about shepherds. I hope that I've made the case to you that this is something that is for men, many men within the church to spiritually lead and guide the church. But I want to make this abundantly clear, and this is the last thing I want to leave you with. I don't want you to leave thinking, wow, I'm just so impressed or so thankful for anybody in the church. You might have the most perfect elders in the church. You might have the most perfect shepherds within the church who do everything and more that you could ever want, but those shepherds within the church are just under-shepherds for another shepherd. The truth is, your pastor, your elders, will never, ever be Jesus. And that's a good thing. Because I will fail, spiritual leaders will fail, but the good shepherd will never fail. John 10, Jesus says about himself, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. I'm the good shepherd. I know my own, and catch this, my own know me. The point of the under shepherds are not to point to ourselves. The best we can do is point you to another and to say, he is the shepherd of your soul. He is the one who will hold you until the end. And when the darkness of difficulties come, Jesus will always satisfy. Friends, that's the only truth that matters. And the role of pastors is to just point you to him. It's not about us, it's about him. Friends, do you know that good shepherd? Do you have a protector who guards your heart? who leads you in truth and who protects you from the savage wolves. If you don't, there's a good shepherd named Jesus Christ whose blood was poured out for your sins so that you who were enemies apart from God can be reconciled to God as a son and daughter. That's hope. And that hope is only found in Jesus Christ, the good shepherd. Let's pray. Father, we need you. The only hope that we have is from you. It's not in eloquent sermons, devotionals, conversations. Our only hope is in Jesus Christ. Father, will you forgive me if I've said anything that I ought not to have? Forgive me for not saying things as clearly as they should have been. But Father, will you help us to rightly take heed of your word? Will you help us to see more clearly the Good Shepherd? Will you help us to respond in love and obedience and passionate faith to that Good Shepherd? Thank you, Lord, for grace and mercy that brings us to you. In your name, amen.