Acts 20:28-31
28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God,[e] which he obtained with his own blood. 29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears.
1 Peter 5:1-4
So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: 2 shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight,[a] not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you;[b] not for shameful gain, but eagerly; 3 not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
This is the reading of God’s word
Lord, You have given hope to a people without hope. You have given peace to us, when we were without peace. We thank you for this very gift of Your mercy.
We return our attention to the topic of how to shepherd the church. As Your church, we are a people that You have purchased with Your own sacrifice. Again, we thank you for this very gift of Your mercy.
Open our hearts as we look into Your word. We remain hopeful that you will continue to bless us in Your mercy to understand Your word.
In Jesus’ Name Amen.
A few years ago, Tina and had been at a congregation for quite some time and I was really struggling through some things. I am not going to mention the congregation because it is full of terrific people, it is led by a team of great elders and has two terrific teaching pastors.
Both of us were involved and plugged in. We were very active members.
I had been on the worship team for a long time and had even been approached to lead that team. Tina was plugged in and serving, therefore, both of us were involved, going to class, men’s meetings and groups.
There were several key events that took place over a stretch of about a year that had given us pause:
Our son, Mason, was on an Uber food delivery, he was in a traffic accident in northern Columbus that resulted in his death. As you can imagine the nature of this really cut deep.
Several months after this event, there was a conflict within the worship team and rather than make a scene I decided to take a break for a while. I kept it to myself; I shared only a little with Tina.
Then a couple months after that, the elders of the congregation took a very weak stance on a public issue. Their stated goal had always been, to keep the main thing, the main thing. The main thing in particular is Jesus.
This is a terrific policy, but sometimes public issues and Jesus will cross paths, and this was one of those issues.
I began to ponder our time at that congregation. Tina and I loved the preaching. Yet I had in many ways felt like we were on the outside looking in.
In less than a year our family had experienced a major life event, and our participation had gone from very high and visible to very low. Not one visit. Not one phone call. Not one side conversation on Sunday. Not one text.
I wrote my thoughts about it one day in the form of a small poem I entitled the “Lonely Acre.” It is about being in this position where there are shepherds but one sheep that has seemed to wander away unnoticed and ponders if he had found a lonely acre, one that even the shepherd does not know and cannot find.
It goes in part . . .
Unknown and overlooked and no protection,
No fence! Escaped without detection.
Wanders again amidst the fray,
Because, it’s so much easier to walk away!
As I was preparing for this series that moment in our life together came back to mind. That short poem came back.
I really felt like we had found a lonely acre that the shepherd could not locate, and we had been lost on it.
We loved that church body. We enjoyed being plugged in there. But as the sheep that the shepherds were supposed to oversee, I just felt alone. So, we walked away.
I want to put this in perspective for you looking back and reflecting on the message last week.
We looked at how serious David took his job looking after his father’s sheep. There was NO lonely acre for David. He with great observation looked over his father’s sheep.
He was giving his resume to King Saul and recounted how, apparently on more than one occasion, had to wrestle lions and bears.
I was making the connection with Paul’s words in Acts 20 and the job of the pastor to shepherd the flock and to watch for wolves.
Paul has been in this place called Ephesus for 3 years training the elders. He says, The Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for God’s church. He has obtained this church with his own blood. He has died for this church. You are to oversee it. How? Fierce wolves will come in among you. They will teach twisted things. They will twist the word of God. Don’t let that happen. Watch over the sheep. Watch over this flock.
My addition here is watch over God’s flock like David did his father’s flock. When a wolf comes, protect the sheep. Be in the know . . .be aware. Be in prayer. Be vigilant looking after the sheep, just like David.
Towards the Sheep, in the words of Peter from 1 peter 5, overseeing but not ovrbearing, not domineering gentle . . with care
It is like this staff, remember? This staff can be used to look over the sheep but also be used as a weapon to keep away danger and harm.
I learned a lesson from that experience. I began this story saying that I am not angry and that is true. I harbor no hard feelings at all, I love those people, and I look forward to seeing them in eternity. In preparation for this series I even had discussions with them because I had some practical questions.
They are not perfect; I do not expect them to be perfect. I am not perfect and will make mistakes as well. I really just want to work hard to NOT make that mistake.
In that case the pastorate failed. What I took away from that as a promise to myself to do everything I can to not repeat that mistake.
The shepherds of the church have a tremendous responsibility to care. We began this topical study last week on the Shepherds in the Church. This week we will get into more what the meat of this topic.
What does Biblical church leadership look like? That is the key question.
There are three main types of polity (Church Leadership). Each has not been made up out of nothing but, rather, lean on various Scriptures to support these ideas. I do not want you to get confused because all three of these types resemble a name of a denomination.
Two of these three types are named after Greek words: Presbyterous which means elder. The other is Episcope which means bishop.
Let us deal with this one now: Episcopalian Church leadership. It is defined from the word, episcope in Greek which means Bishop in English.
Lord / Archbishop / Bishop / Pastorate / Congregant or Laity.
This is a system where a bishop governs several local churches. I have drawn some quick sketches to give you a mental image. Think of The Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Church (Epsicopal in U.S.A.) and the United Methodist Church.
Under this system the justification in Scripture is found that Timothy and Titus (which we will be spending more time in next week) were to go from town to town establishing elders.
The Second is Presbyterian. As you are already aware, this comes from the Greek word presbyterous, meaning elder or overseer.
This is where there are several elders who govern the affairs of the congregation. But there is a regional assembly that governs several congregations. The graphic here is one congregation but a plurality of elders. This is done in the Presbyterian Church, Christian Reformed Church
Lord / Regional Elders / Congregation of Plurality of Elders / Deacons / Congregant
The last is Congregationalism: This is where a congregation governs itself. They may have a single pastor, elder or plurality. But there is no outside assembly that controls or governs that local congregation.
The sketch here is one congregation, either 1 or multiple elders. Example of denominations that use this model (the one most often used) is Christian Church, many Baptist churches, Southern Baptist and independent, non-denominational congregations.
Lord / Elder(s) or pastor (s) / deacons / congregant
All of these look to the same passages of Scripture for justification. The Episcopal, Presbyterian and the Congregational all together look at the same Scriptures and from this interpret this differently.
How? It really comes down to is how we define the words that we brought up last week from our various passages of Acts 20, 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1, Ephesians 4 and 1 Peter 5. Those terms are Bishop, Elder, Pastor, Shepherd, Overseer.
Are all these words different? Some think that they are. They are different Greek words. But are they referring to 5 different things?
I am going to argue that even though they are different words, they are all referring to the same thing.
I am asking you to stick with me – this is important, and I think it is important for all the congregation.
As we prepare to grow again, I think this is highly important. Why? As we get new members, as this congregation grows, a STRONG ELDERSHP, STRONG SHEPHERD isthe best path to not find someone in a lonely acre.
Tina and I found ourselves in a lonely acre where the shepherd was (or seemed to us at least) far away.
Fortunately, we were strong. I had been working as a chaplain for many years but what if we were not strong in the faith? Where were these shepherds when we had lost a son?
Why did no one come to investigate? What if it we were straying? No one was there to investigate, and I fear for that as a pastor of a church.
The Job of a shepherd is to be in Your business. They will account for you on judgement day.
In a church with 200 members, with 2 teaching pastors, and 3 other pastors, why was there no one to check on us? This could have been a disaster – it was not, praise God.
We are not just concerned with death and dying but marital issues and people who may find themselves caught in grievous sin. The shepherd and pastor of a church is to look over the church just like David did with the sheep.
David faced lions and bears. In many cases this is what the shepherds of the church are to do as well.
Now, let us look at some passages here and I am going to make the case that Bishop, Elder, Pastor, Shepherd and Overseer (all different words not just in English but in the Greek text of New Testament) are all referring to the same office in Scripture and in the church.
Paul calls a group to himself; they are the elders. They are the presbuterous.
Same context, you get to our reading in verse 28 and you find this. Paul is talking to them and he says, “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers (episkopous) to care (poimanein) <or shepherd> for the church of God, which he obtained with His own blood.”
POINT 1: All the words were used by Paul referring to same office in Acts 20.
So here in one context we have Elders, Overseers and Shepherd all referring to the same group. Three out of the five terms used to define the leadership of the church are all used here in one passage.
Now consider the qualifications for an elder. These qualifications will be the focus next week but for now we can learn something regarding our study this week.
He is giving Timothy qualifications of what to look for and is doing the same thing for Titus. But yet he calls what they are looking for by two different names. Same qualifications (mostly) but two different names.
1 Timothy 3:1 “If anyone desires to the office of overseer (episkopes) he desires a noble task.”
Titus 1:5 “This is why I left you in Crete, that you might put what remained in order and appoint elders (presbuterous) in every town.”
After each of these Paul goes on to list what they are to look for. They are all in reference to the same office.
POINT 2: Qualifications in 1 Timothy and Titus are mostly the same pointing to the same office.
He (the Holy Spirit) . . . gave the shepherds and teachers
Let us go back to our definition of Elder from last week. I put it on the note section of your bulletin so you would have it.
Elders are men of God, mature in The Faith who are servant leaders within a congregation for the purpose of leading through teaching, protecting, and guarding the health of the church.
Typically, the word pastor is used in reference to the person who delivers the sermons each week. This is technically true. But this is not the only thing that a pastor does.
Next week in our time together I will show the differing roles that are found inside those who lead the church.
My point today is to show that the chief Shepherd Jesus, who bought the church with His blood, has under shepherds. Those whom, as we see in Acts 20:28, are designated by the Holy Spirit, to lead the church, protect the church, grow the church in holiness.
The chief Shepherd Jesus tells us in John 10, the extended passage read from last week, that the sheep know the shepherd’s voice. This is an example that the under shepherds need to follow.
To know what direction the congregation needs to go. Where there needs to be correction. Where there needs to be defense from error. To look out for wolves.
These men are men of the word, men of prayer and men who are serving in humility.
There is a view in some congregations that the body of Christ is a democracy. Every person has a vote in the spiritual direction of the congregation.
To be clear, every person’s voice is important. Every single soul in a congregation is of equal value in the sight of the Father.
But there are some BY THE GIFT OF THE SPIRIT who spend an extraordinary amount of time in Scripture and prayer and have been gifted in this area who are to be entrusted to lead the congregation. They have been burdened and moved by the Holy Spirit in this area.
When David gives his resume to King Saul – King Saul says, you can’t do this. How am I going to send you to fight this Goliath. David says, here is what I have done.
I have considered his words. David was not relying on David for his ability to wrestle the lion and bear. He said, “The Lord who delivered me from the lion and the bear shall deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” (1 Samuel 17:37)
David’s words were a complete abandonment of self and full acknowledgement to the Lord. This is the heart of an elder.
Drawing attention to David’s courage to fight for the sheep and then pointing to the shepherd of God’s people, the elders – is not putting a superman S on their chest.
It is the opposite. The shepherd of God’s people leads by submission to the Father. All ability, all strength, all wisdom come from the Father. The Holy Spirit has worked in the heart of this shepherd that he knows this. He humbly accepts his weakness and recognizes the source of his strength.
We are going to dive into this next week. I want to remind you to write down your questions, and you will be afforded an opportunity to ask them.
In our next time together, we will explore what are the qualifications for elders and we find those in 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1 and 1 Peter 5.
