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“Keep watch over 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” (Acts 20:28).

This verse, a part of Paul’s parting exhortation to the pastors in Ephesus, contains valuable words for every pastor. Notice four points:

First, we must keep watch over ourselves before we can keep watch over the flock. John Stott writes of pastors: “For they cannot care adequately for others if they neglect the care and culture of their own souls” (The Message of Acts, 326).  Are you keeping watch over yourself?

Second, we must keep watch over the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made us overseers.  The words “elders” (v.17), “overseers” (v. 28), and “shepherds” (v. 28) are all used interchangeably as different words to describe the pastors (as in 1 Peter 5:1-2).  Shepherds are to lead, feed, guard, and care for the sheep.  How are we doing on each of these?

Third, we are shepherds of “the church of God.”  It is not our church.  It is not the member’s church.  It is God’s church.  Jesus is the head/senior/lead pastor.  It is to him that we will give an account for how we shepherd under him.  “And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away” 1 Peter 5:4.

Fourth, the flock we shepherd was “bought by his own blood.”  That’s how God looks at his flock.  We are not to view our sheep like literal sheep: dumb, smelly, and wayward.  We are to view them as God views them: precious, valuable, blood-bought!

Richard Baxter, writing in the language of 1656, drives this point home:

“Oh then, let us hear these arguments of Christ, whenever we feel ourselves grow dull and careless: ‘Did I die for them, and wilt not thou look after them?  Were they worth my blood and are they not worth thy labour? Did I come down from heaven to earth, to seek and 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 it is thy honour to be so employed.  Have I to make thee co-worker with me, and wilt thou refuse that little that lieth upon thy hands?’” (The Reformed Pastor, 121-122 quoted by Stott).

Some thoughts to encourage and challenge fellow pastors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbjEUEnwpx4

“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Corinthians 13:14, NIV)

Here is a challenging and thought-provoking excerpt from The Way to Pentecost by Samuel Chadwick:

Fellowship or “communion” [KJV] means partnership. The word passes through various phases in the New Testament, and is variously translated, but the idea of sharing runs through them all. In Luke 5:10, it is said that James and John, sons of Zebedee, were partners with Simon. Paul says of Titus (II Cor. 8:23) that he was his partner and fellow laborer; that is, they were colleagues in the ministry of the Church. Of Philemon and Onesimus it is used in the still more intimate sense of comradeship. The communion of the Holy Ghost, therefore, means that we are partners, colleagues, comrades with the Spirit of God. We are partners in vocation and resources, sharers in work and power….

The Apostolic Benediction prays: “The communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all.” (1 Cor. 13:14, KJV) All the blessings of communion are for each believer. There is nothing promised to the Church that does not belong to its humblest member. The Spirit of God is not the monopoly of any particular class. There is nothing done by a minister that may not be done by anyone to whom the Holy Spirit is given. Let that be quite clear. Everyone can say: The Holy Ghost comes into partnership with me. He is my Helper, my Witness, my Teacher, my Guide, my Strength. For all the will of God we each have the Spirit with all His resources of wisdom and power. All things are possible to the soul strengthened with His might and led in His wisdom. If these things be true, wherein lies the explanation of our weakness and reproach? Where is the note of certainty in our testimony? Where is the prevailing power of prayer? Where is the power that overturns strongholds and casts out devils?

The communion of the Spirit is with us. He seeks partnership with us. His resources are inexhaustible, and His power invincible, but! but! but! There are reserves, conditions, interests; barriers that hinder, grieve, and quench the Spirit. He is held up by the barriers of unbelief, and prayerless living, worldly ambition, stupid vanity, and inflated pride. He longs for our fellowship. For the sake of Christ and the Kingdom of Grace, He longs to be admitted to confidence and co-operation. He wants a central place in our hearts, and to be admitted to the life of the soul. He comes to co-operate, and co-operation waits for confidence and consent. Where there is “agreement” there is power. Service becomes mighty in this fellowship. All the conditions of power are met in “the supply of the Spirit.” Personality is quickened and sanctified. Sympathy is deepened and enlightened, and in sympathy are the discernment that understands and the appeal that woos and wins. Weakness becomes strength when the Spirit of Might comes upon us. Ordinary men become wonderful when clothed with the Spirit of Power.

Weakness is a reproach when such might is at our service. Defeat is dishonor when the partnership of God is rejected. With the communion of the Holy Ghost at our command, what manner of men we ought to be! With such a partnership what mighty works we ought to do! There are no limits to His power. There are no reserves in His communion. There is no respect of persons with Him. Why do we set boundaries to His work, limit His activities, and refuse His appeal? He brings all, let us give all. “The Spirit which He has planted within us jealously longs for our love.” He seeks to enter into communion with us in all our life, and in return He will lead us into the communion of all that He has and is. Sign the deed today, and there will come the joy and power of the Holy Spirit of God who is the Spirit of Christ. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all.” (2 Cor. 13:14, KJV)

I’m standing in front of the Parthenon on the Acropolis in the center of Athens.  When Paul arrived in Athens (Acts 17) the Parthenon had already been standing for around 500 years!  Paul did three things when he came to Athens: he saw, he felt, and he acted.

First he saw.  He walked around and checked out all the many temples and statues and altars and idols.  It was said in Athens that there were “more gods than men.” But he didn’t just see art, he saw idolatry.  He saw confusion.  He saw people who were very religious, but misguided. He looked; he studied the culture.

After he saw what he saw, he felt. “While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.” (Acts 17:16) The word Greek word for “greatly distressed” was used in medical journals for a violent seizure. The word represents strong emotion.  Paul was not nonchalant about what he saw.  He was extremely moved in his spirit.  As a result he couldn’t just do nothing.

So he acted.  He spoke up and got engaged in trying to share the gospel in two different locations: 1) in the synagogue; and 2) in the market-place (Acts 17:17).  The market place (Greek: agora) in Greek and Roman cities was not just a food market.  It was a major gathering place in the center of the city, not only for trade, but for social and philosophical interchange as well as a place where the legal courts were held.  The synagogue was like the church—a place where mostly the already convinced gathered, along with occasional seekers.  Paul didn’t just stay there.

If we are going to reach people with the gospel, we are going to have to take the good news beyond the church to the agora, to the market place!

John Stott writes:

The equivalent of the agora will vary in different parts of the world.  It may be a park, city square or street corner, a shopping mall or market-place, a “pub”, neighborhood bar, café, [coffee shop] or student cafeteria, wherever people meet when they are at leisure… there is a need for [people]… to gossip the gospel in such informal settings as these. (The Message of Acts, 281)

If we are going to make a difference for Christ in the world, we need to ask His Spirit into our lives so that we can see as He sees, feel has He feels, and than act as He would have us act, find ways to get the good news beyond the church and out into the agora, to “gossip the gospel” in the market-place!