A Pastor Feeds and Protects the Flock
Acts 20:25-31
As we continue our verse-by-verse study through the book of Acts, Chapter 20 delves into the pastoral responsibilities of feeding and protecting the church community. Whether you’re a pastor, leader, parent, or friend, these insights are invaluable for anyone looking to serve and support their community effectively.
The Importance of Serving
Did you know God is not finished with His work on the earth? I know so many of you are hungering and thirsting after righteousness. You are changing, growing, and developing! Part of this is serving. I urge all believers to step up and serve your church community somehow. Our lives belong to Jesus, and He wants to use us in ways we may not have experienced before. We see this call to service in the book of Acts, which showcases the early church yielding to God and following the Holy Spirit’s leading. Paul’s confidence in Acts 20:25 comes from knowing he has fulfilled his mission. I want the same confidence for you and me, and we obtain that same sense of fulfillment by doing all that God has called us to do.
Teaching the Whole Counsel of God
Paul’s ministry in Ephesus is a prime example of teaching the entire message of God, including the difficult parts. We can’t shy away from any part of the Bible. That’s why here at Calvary Church, we teach through the Bible, book by book, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse -through the whole counsel of God. We allow the Bible to speak for itself and are not ashamed of what it says. It is okay if you struggle with specific passages; concentrate on the clear and straightforward truths first. As you continue to study the Bible, the Holy Spirit will continue to reveal things to you, and those difficult passages will become clearer.
Take Heed to Yourself
In Acts 20:28, Paul pleads with the church to take heed of themselves. This is very important! We must begin by paying attention to our walk with the Lord. Ensure you have a growing devotional life, maintain your integrity, and be a person of prayer. When we do this, we:
Guard Against Spiritual Weakness: Strengthen your spiritual life to avoid weakness.
Guard Against Wandering: Stay in the Word daily and fellowship with others to avoid straying.
Guard Against Spiritual Weariness: Walk in the Spirit to face challenges with strength and grace.
Take Heed to Protect the Flock
After taking care of yourself, you can care for others. You and I must serve out of the overflow of our own lives.
A significant part of pastoral responsibility is protecting the church from false teachers and wolves in sheep’s clothing. Paul warns the elders of Ephesus about the dangers of savage wolves who seek to take advantage of the church. As part of a Church community, we must be vigilant and committed to protecting the church from those who seek to take advantage of it.
You may be asking, how can I recognize a wolf in sheep’s clothing? The answer: It can be challenging. Often, wolves look like sheep, smell like sheep, and even sound like sheep. But there’s a big difference: wolves eat sheep, they don’t feed them. They cause confusion, draw people to themselves – not the Lord- and often seek financial gain. Remember, we have the Holy Spirit, who gives us a depth of discernment to spot these wolves. But even if we miss them, we can trust Jesus to care for his church and guide and direct us. Listen, even if we miss it or make a mistake, you can trust Jesus Christ to care for his bride, the Church. And that’s our responsibility as well.
FULL EDITED TRANSCRIPT
Open your Bibles. Acts chapter 20 is where we are. verse-by-verse, through the book of Acts, we’re spending a little bit of time in what’s known as this, what I’m calling, this pastoral chapter in the life of Paul and in the life of the early church. And I’ve entitled our Bible study today, “A Pastor Feeds and Protects the Flock.”
And you could say that for a leader; you can say that for a parent; you can say that for a friend. We have a responsibility both to support, and encourage, and feed one another, but also, to protect one another. And if you haven’t already, in our study through the book of Acts, if you haven’t already, it really is time for you to step up and serve. It really is time for you to see your life as belonging to Jesus, and allow Him to use you in ways that you haven’t been used before. That that is the sum of the book of Acts, even up to this point: To be the church; to yield ourselves to Him in fresh new ways; to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit; to be empowered by the Holy Spirit, to step out in faith; to face new things; to put ourselves in a position of vulnerability where we do trust the Lord; to be used at work; to be used at school; to be used in the church; to be used in the neighborhood.
If you haven’t already, please step up and serve and obey the Lord. You know why? Because God is not finished with His work on the Earth, did you know that? He is not finished! We’re going to come to a place in not too many chapters, and it will be a lot faster to get to the end now than it was to get to where we are now. We’re going to get to the end of Acts, Acts 28. We’re going to get to the very last chapter. We’re going to get to the very last verse where it talks about Paul just being faithfully serving and then riding into the sunset. And many people will turn the page and we will, too. We’ll go to another book of the Bible and we’ll start in chapter one, verse one. But, you know, even though we have closed the chapter on Acts, and even though the book of Acts in its written form is done, in another way, the book of Acts is not done because God is still working in the church today.
Now, I don’t mean He’s writing new books of the Bible, not at all. But He is still working in the Church today, through you and through me. Some people have even tried to describe that as…referring to it as, “Acts 29.” That, “Acts 29,” are the chronicles of your life and mine. And again, God is not writing new chapters of the Bible, but in another way, He really is in our lives. We get to be a part, like, if the book of Acts is our history as the Church, and it is the roots of this church. This church was born in the book of Acts. That’s our history. If you if you’re looking for a history of the church, you got to go all the way back to the day of Pentecost. And some could even say, and I would make that argument, go all the way back to the last chapter of John when Jesus breathed on the disciples and they received the Holy Spirit there (John 20:22). That’s the history. And this is where our church comes from – the ongoing work of God on the Earth today.
Which brings us to where we left off in Acts chapter 20, Paul the Apostle – or now we know him as “Paul the Pastor” – has drawn the elders of Ephesus, the leaders of Ephesus. He’s invited them, and they have come to him at the city of Miletus. Why? Because Paul is on his way to Jerusalem. He’s on his way to Jerusalem for a couple of reasons, one, he wants to make it there originally for the Passover, but now he’s going to be there for the Days of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost. So he’s on his way to worship. But secondly, he has money. He has the tithes and offerings, or the offerings of other Gentile churches that he has collected, that he will take to Jerusalem and deliver to the hurting Jerusalem church. They’re struggling. They’re going through a downtime financially, and other churches that are stronger in the Gentile world have given of their money. And now Paul is going to deliver it to help a struggling church. He’s called the elders together because, as we’ll see in today’s section, he really senses that he’s never going to see him again. And he’s giving him his last words, his final words, they’re brief, but they’re in depth. The only sermon to believers recorded in the book of Acts by Paul.
And we’ve studied it verse-by-verse up to this point, and up to this point, Paul has been descriptive in his encouragement to the elders. He’s described different characteristics that make a good servant of the Lord. Now he’s going to become a little more protective. And thus the title of our study today, feeding and protecting – both are essential and necessary. A pastor and leader’s responsibility goes far beyond just the teaching of the Bible. We are not only responsible to feed the flock, but also to protect it from false teachers and “wolves in sheep’s clothing” (Matt 7:15).
With that in mind, pick up with me in verse 25 of Acts chapter 20, Paul says, “And indeed, now I know that you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, will see my face no more. Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men.” Remember, Paul spent three years in Ephesus, which is where we are able to see him develop his pastoral gifting. We know him as missionary. We know him as preacher. We know him as evangelist. With Ephesus, and a little bit with Corinth, we see his pastoral gifting come out. And there he is, you can get the scene, he’s got these leaders before him, it’s an emotional time. “I’m never going to see you again…I don’t know what’s before…I know I’m going to Jerusalem, but I don’t know what’s going to happen. And here’s the thing…I just want you to know,” he says, “I have a clean conscience. I have done what God has called me to do. I have, in Ephesus, in this city, guys, I just want you to know – I’m clean. Everything that God wanted me to do, everything that God told me to do, everything that God commanded me to do, I have done. And because of that, I am free from the blood of all men. I can I can look to God. I can stand before God, kneel before God with a clean conscience, that I have done what God has wanted me to do.”
Church, I want you to have that same sense in your life. I want you to do all that God has called you to do, and I want you to be all that God has called you to be. I want you to have that confidence. And it’s not an arrogant confidence at all. It’s a peace. There’s a sense of, “I have fulfilled what God has called me to do; today.” Up to this day, I’ve done what God’s asked me to do. It’s not like I’ve done it perfectly or it’s not, like…and I can speak for myself. I can just speak out loud for myself. I believe even with all my imperfections and all my weaknesses that I can stand before God and say, “Yes, Lord, I did what You asked me to do. I learn from my mistakes, and I desire to obey You, and I have done….”
And that’s where Paul is. He’s just standing there, “Look, man, I’m not going to see you guys anymore. And I just want you to see…I want you to remember, in my life, you saw faithfulness.” You saw faithfulness. But the question in verse 26 is that…how can he say that? What was the essence of what he felt and what he sensed was what God called him to do? And we learn that in verse 27. One of the most important verses under the foundation of our church right here, this verse, verse 27, he says, this is why, because “I have not shunned to declare to you the whole council of God.”
That is what God called Paul to do – to give the city of Ephesus the whole council of God. Everything that God has given to him, he gave to them. He didn’t shun it. Or some of your Bible translations might say, “avoid it.” He didn’t skip around the hard parts or dance around the difficult things. He gave it, everything, to them. What we would say today is that our goal is to give you the whole counsel of God from the beginning of Genesis, all the way to the end of Revelation. The whole thing, verse-by-verse, chapter-by-chapter, however long it takes us to get there. I mean, one day I hope to be able to say exactly – I can’t say that today – but to say exactly what Paul said, that I have given it all to you.
I mean, so far I’ve made it through the entire New Testament. So I’ve taught the entire New Testament, verse-by-verse, from the beginning of Matthew all the way into Revelation to our church. And I’ve done, I think, about 50% of the Old Testament verse-by-verse. We’ve gone through Genesis, we’re in Exodus right now. Again, we’re in Leviticus. All you can see on the website, all the books that I’ve done, verse-by-verse. And one day I want to be able to say, “I’ve done it all,” but I can say today with confidence that I have done all that God has asked me to do up to this day. That I can stand and go, “Man, I have not shunned to give you everything that God has given to me for you.” It’s very important. I’m not going to back away or shy away. I’m not embarrassed by the Word of God. I’m not afraid of it. Did you know you do not need to be afraid of the Bible? Anything that you read, you don’t need to be afraid of it. You don’t need to shun it or avoid it in your own personal life.
If you like to write in your Bibles, you can circle that word shunned there in verse 27. It’s a word that means, “to withdraw.” It’s a word that means, “to shrink back.” They used it in the ancient days in the Greek language to describe when a ship would take down their sail, and then it would begin to go off course. Paul says, I didn’t go off course. I didn’t avoid it. I didn’t shrink away. I gave you everything that you needed. In effect, he was saying, “I knew the direction that God wanted to take this church and take this city, and no matter what I faced, I didn’t take you guys off course.” And he shared with them how to follow Jesus in the New Covenant based upon the revelation of the Old Covenant. They needed the whole Word. One of the things we would say here is that God has given us the whole Bibleso that he can make a whole believer.
And you need it all. Every single word is important to God, even if we don’t understand it at the time. That seems to be the biggest barrier with the Bible, and that is, “Well, you know, I started reading it, Pastor, but I just don’t understand it, so I put it down.” Don’t do that. You’re going to face things that you don’t understand. I’ve been studying the Bible for thirty-plus years, and there are still things that require deep study that even after I study it, I’m like, “Yeah, I’m not quite sure what he meant there.” I’m not really sure about it. So here’s…I’m going to give you permission. You come across something you don’t understand, skip it. Set it aside, and really focus on the things that you do understand…don’t take away the things that are super crystal clear. Let me give you one. Like because if you say, “Whoa, there’s some things that are really hard, I’m not going to read the Bible anymore.” Then you’re going to skip the things that are super easy.
Like how about this one? If you just say, “amen,” or “yes,” if you understand this. This is what the Bible says: don’t steal. You understand that? Yes. Amen. Yes. Well, you know, “I’m just not going to read the Bible because I don’t understand whatever Melchizedek is.” Okay? Set aside and go to the one that you do understand. Yeah. Don’t steal. Don’t lie. Don’t be a gossip. Be nice to each other. Treat others as you would want to be treated. Jesus said, “Look at the flowers and remember the faithfulness of God.” That’s pretty easy to understand. Like, just keep your focus on the things…and here’s what’s going to happen over the years. You know what’s going to happen. You’re going to understand more. You will understand more. It takes time.
You have to…this might help you. When I was born again, I did not even own a Bible. There wasn’t a Bible in my apartment. I could care less about God. I could care less about the Bible. I didn’t have one. I needed to go buy a Bible for me and my wife. And so I went down to the Bible bookstore where it was near our house, and I said, “Hey, we just got saved at this church and we need a Bible.” And they said, “Well, this one’s popular.” So I bought two of ‘em. But I found out that that Bible was jacked up. And I’m like, “What is my problem? I can’t even buy the right Bible.” I mean, I don’t…it was hard, but I threw those Bibles in the trash because they were the wrong Bible. They had taken the Bible and changed the words to gender-neutral. And I’m like, “Oh man, I don’t even know how to pick a Bible.”
So instead of that store – I didn’t trust them anymore – I’m like, I can’t believe it…I went to Raul Reis’s church for a service. I was a brand new believer, and after service I walked by…they were in a strip mall, so you had to walk by the tanning salon and the liquor store. And as you were getting…and then you went to their bookstore and I said, “Hey, I just stopped. I don’t even know how to buy a Bible, man. I’m brand new believer. I don’t know how to Bible.” And they point behind him. “Well, Pastor Raul uses that one.” I said, “that’s it. That’s the one I want.” I got one of those for Marie. I got one of those for me, and a different one for Marie of the New King James. I haven’t left it. And, so, if God can teach me the Bible – and He has – you can learn, too. There’s nothing special about me. God has given me the Holy Spirit, and He’s given you the Holy Spirit. So if you just read your Bible every day and pray, you’ll learn the Bible. We believe it’s sufficient.
I believe that the whole counsel of God is all-sufficient for all of our spiritual needs (1 Peter 1:2-4, 2 Tim 3:16-17). Everyquestion, every issue, everything that you need is found by faith in Jesus Christ. And if you will just read the Bible and pray, take notes during Bible study, receive, saturate yourself with the Word of God, you will learn faster than you give yourself credit for. But you won’t learn if you don’t have the Bible and you won’t learn if it stays closed. You know, even today, it’s very discouraging. I had to think about this as I came into the pulpit today, but just thinking about the landscape of Christianity today and how much the Bible is not used and not taught.
I think, you know, in ancient history, or at least over the centuries, I think of the Roman Catholic Church, how they refused for so many years, like decades, centuries, they refused to make the Bible available to the people. For a couple of reasons, one, they go, “Oh, they’ll never understand it, only the priests could understand it,” and they would set up the priesthood so that they would train the people. You can’t have the Bible, but if you ever want to know anything about the Bible, you have to come to the priesthood. That’s not true. If you’re a born-again believer and you open the Bible, you can understand it. God will reveal it. You don’t need me or anyone else. Although God has given pastors and teachers to teach us, you don’t need us. You have the Lord and you have the Bible, and He will help you.
I also think in modern Christianity how there are churches today that discourage the use of the Bible. They literally discourage it because they say, “Oh, it’s outdated.” It’s not! They say, “Oh, it’s not contemporary.” It is! “Oh, it’s not relevant.” It absolutely is! Or, “You can’t ever understand it.” That’s not true! And so churches will not use the Bible, or there’ll be people walking into church today where there’ll be a Bible right there, set up on the pulpit so the cameras can see it, and it’s right there as the perfect prop that it is, but it’s never used. And it’s there. It looks good. Look, we have a Bible. We believe in the Bible, but they don’t use it. They don’t teach it.
It just becomes like a like a trampoline. You know, I was talking to a kid before service today. “Well, how was your week this week?” “Well, I got to go to the trampoline place, Sky-something-or-whatever-it-is.” And I think about how many people that use the Bible as a trampoline to go off into their own things and share their own opinions. That’s not going to help you grow. You’re never going to understand the heart of God. If you’re not studying the Bible verse-by-verse, there are churches today that will use the Bible but not teach the Bible. And there’s a big difference because, I mean, you can make the Bible say anything that you want if you take one word and jump off and trampoline off into the next.
You know, I don’t even know…I don’t do that, so I don’t know how you do it, but you just like, oh, you know? Weak! I mean, I don’t even know how to do it. I just, like, I was trained to let the Bible say what it says, and all of us have to yield to it. We can’t make it up along the way. This is what it says; this is what it means. And so this is how God is going to use it in your life. There’s a word that’s that is given to this type of teaching, verse-by-verse, it’s called, if you ever hear it, expository teaching. That’s the kind of church you’re in. A church is committed to expository teaching, and there’s different styles. You have walked into a church where my style of expository teaching, where God has created me, is to emphasize application. That’s why you’re going to hear a lot of movement. God has gifted me with exhortation and encouragement, and so you’re going to see, you’re going to feel moved a lot. You’re going to feel moved because I believe that that’s important.
Other expository teachers like to go much deeper and explain every single Greek word and Hebrew word to you. And you have to understand, I do do that, but that’s not my emphasis. You go, “How do you do that?” Well, I did it for you. When I ask you to circle a word and write next to it, I gave you the Greek definition of it. I may not have mentioned the word, but I mean, if I did mention the word, what are you going to do with it? Are you going to go to work tomorrow and go, “Hey, I just want to let you know I learned this Greek word, ‘rah blah rah blah blah’” And they go, “what?” “Yeah, I was in church, and I just want you to know I’ve got ten Greek words for you, sit down.”
What will be more profitable for you? Teaching somebody the Greek word? Or coming alongside them and looking at them in the eye and going, “Are you okay?” “Can I pray for you?” “Can I serve you?” “You won’t believe I learned a word at church yesterday – it’s about not avoiding the Bible; have you been avoiding the Bible?” That to me is more powerful. That’s how God put me in the body of Christ. But that’s the beauty of the body of Christ. He uses all of us.
And, s,o there are some teachers that go deep, deep, deep, deep, deep. And I say, God bless you. But in this church you’re going to be moving. It’s moving, constantly moving. I want you to be uncomfortable. I don’t want you to settle down. I want you to examine your life. I want you to know that God has a plan and a purpose for you. He has a plan of purpose for your family and for your kids and for your grandkids and your singleness, and for your problems. Even if you had a bad week, God’s going to use that bad week. If you turn to Him, you’re going to learn from it. You don’t have to live in bondage to worry all the time. You can trust the Lord with your life. You can learn from your sinful mistakes. You can recover. I want you to know by the time you leave here, that, “though a man or a woman falls seven times, he’ll rise again.” Isn’t that good? Do you know where that came from? The Bible. It’s in the Proverbs. So hopefully you’re reading the Proverbs a chapter a day, gaining the wisdom of God.
So this is an important…I have it marked green in my Bible, because this is one of those verses that’s foundational to this church. That’s why you could join the church in 2020 when we opened up early on. We opened up super early during COVID and you could join the church, and there we are in the book of Acts, and here we are four years later. Hello! We’re still in the book of Acts! Why? Because we’re going to teach it till we finish it. And then we’ll go on to something new and something new, because God has something for us.
And then the context is so powerful. I just did this on midweek…I showed the church midweek, those that were with us, how knowing the context of a scripture is so important. And I paused because we have a little bit more time. On Wednesday, I paused and I proposed a very important truth that could be controversial to some people. But I said here, I didn’t make this stuff up. Just go one chapter back and see what God said about Himself. That’s all I’m doing is explaining what God already said. But if you drop into the Bible at one point and you don’t understand the, “whole counsel of God,” which you would refer to as context, then you miss a lot in the Bible. And so this is vital. We are not going to be a church that’s filled with entertainment. I don’t want you showing up and going, “Well, you know, entertainment….”
You know why there’s so many churches today that have emphasized entertainment? It is because it draws a lot of people. Who doesn’t want to be in a place where you’re laughing all the time? And, you know, it’s just so fun. It’s so fun. I mean, there is occasion, I mean, let’s just be honest here. Sometimes I do say a joke you laugh at, right? Sometimes, like, sometimes I get you laughing. I mean, as a matter-of-fact, I want to be better at it only because I was taught if I can get you laughing and you’re, “Ha ha ha,” with your mouth so I can take the truth and just shove it right down your open mouth! It’s like, I want that in your life. See, I just got you right now. I want that in your life. But I’m not the best joke teller. I appreciate your courtesy laughs and such, but, if you were in a church where it was like a stand-up comedian all the time and just like, yeah, well, who wouldn’t? Who wouldn’t want to be in a place where, “Come on, draw…come on, come on…we got all of us here,” and, you know, “we’ll be the church that doesn’t hurt your feelings,” or, “we’ll be the church that makes you laugh all the time.” We’ll be….
How about this? Just be the church that Jesus wants you to be and love people and teach them the Bible. How about that? That’s what the church is for. This is the only place really, where God has ordained for pastoral teaching of the Bible to His flock. And you’re in a church that’s committed to it. I’m committed to it. We teach book-by-book, chapter-by-chapter, verse-by-verse. It’s expository teaching and we’re unashamed of it. I am not ashamed of the gospel (Romans 1:16). And I’m not ashamed of the methodology. And I always have to pause here because I am so passionate about it and speak so strongly. I want to pause here and say, we don’t have everything perfect here. We’re not…I’m not saying, “we’re the best.” I’m just saying that you are in a church and this is what we’re committed to. So that way you can measure it any way you want to do it. And we realize that God uses other churches and other teachers, that’s not our business, actually, because the Bible says they stand or fall before their Maker (Romans 14:4). But in order to make you understand what the landscape is, you may have been in a church that had the Bible but never taught the Bible, and then in six months, you learn more in the Bible than you did in 30 years. Why? Because the Bible is powerful.
And that’s one of the reasons why we started GraceFM, because we just knew, I knew…there was a lot of motives, but one of them was…I knew that if there was regular Bible study on-the-air, like, constantly, that it would bless every church in our area. It would bless every church. Every believer will always be blessed with the systematic teaching of the Word that every believer in Denver and Colorado is not going to come to our church. I mean, obviously. But if we could create an environment where in their car or in their kitchen, or on their run and in their AirPods, they would get the Word of God – it’ll bless every single church. The Body will be stronger, and it will be amazing to see people grow. Because the Bible works, church! The Bible works in your life. If you’ll just open it and take it in, it’ll change your life. That’s what Paul’s saying here.
Notice, now, let’s get to a few points before we head out. In light of the teaching of the Word, Paul now gives some direction – and some protective direction – he says…and there’s a few points if you’re taking notes, here’s point number one in verse 28, he says, “therefore….”
Okay, so let’s pause and just explain that. This is a concluding word, right? So when you see a “therefore,” he’s making a conclusion. Another way to think of “therefore’s” in the Bible is to always ask what it’s there for? What’s he concluding? So he’s making a conclusion. And here’s what he’s saying, “Because I have given you the whole word of God, and there’s been a church planted here, and I’m never going to see you again. And I want you ready, because of that,” number one, “take heed to yourselves.” Jot that down. Number one, take heed to yourselves. Pastor. Leader. Believer. Servant of the Lord. Mom. Dad. Single. Married. Listen. Listen. Listen to the Word of the Lord. Take heed to yourself. The most important person to take heed of is yourself. Take heed to yourself. Make sure you have a growing devotional life and make sure you’re maintaining your integrity. Make sure your character is solid. Be a woman of prayer. Continually be connected to Jesus. Abide in Christ. I love how Oswald Sanders says it in his book, Spiritual Leadership….
By the way, start praying, our School Of Ministry just started yesterday – got a brand new class – this is one of the books that is part of their curriculum, Spiritual Leadership by Oswald Sanders. And this is what he says in his in his book, listen, and I quote, “If the world is to hear the Church’s voice today, leaders are needed who are authoritative, spiritual, and sacrificial. Churches grow in every way when they’re guided by strong spiritual leaders, with the touch of the supernatural radiance radiating in their service.” He goes on to write, “Often, truly authoritative leadership falls on someone who years earlier sought to practice the discipline of ‘seeking first the Kingdom of God.’ Then, as that person matures, God confers a leadership role and the Spirit of God goes to work through them.” And what I like about this quote is that simple thought that God conveys leadership on someone who probably years earlier, made a decision to seek first the kingdom of God, and through their maturity and growth then God says, “That’s a leader! That’s the woman I want to use. That’s the man I will use.” But you’ve got to decide. You have to decide that, “Jesus, I’m not going to serve two masters.” “Jesus, you get everything from me.”
And there’s three things, when you take care of yourself, there’s at least three things that automatically benefit you. Number one, when you choose to take heed to yourself regularly, you’re going to put a guard up in your life. You’ll guard against spiritual weakness. You will be stronger, not weaker. When you pay attention to your own spiritual life, you will be stronger. The church is weak today because men and women are not paying attention to their own personal walks. And instead it’s like, you know, I’m telling you right now, the church is weak today. Not because of the government, not because of Secularism, not because of the economy. The church is weak today because men and women in the church are not paying attention and being obedient in their own spiritual life. That’s the source of weakness. It’s much more convenient. Oh, I can’t believe in politics. And I can’t believe the economy and I can…. Hey man, this stuff has been with us from the beginning of time, and you have the power of the Holy Spirit. You’ve got to pay attention to yourself.
Number two, when you pay attention to your own personal walk, it puts up a guard against wandering. A guard against weakness to a guard against wandering. What do you mean? Well, it’s easy to stray away when you’re not in the Word every day; when you’re not in fellowship with one another; you’re not breaking bread with one another. You’re not taking heed to yourself. It’s easy to walk away. There’s always some temptation. The world always has something. There’s always something out there that catches our eye. And it’s like, “Well, I think that’s what I want, I think….” But the Bible says, “No, don’t worry about it.” And it’s only because you haven’t been paying attention to your own walk.
And then, thirdly, when you take heed to yourself, you put a guard up against spiritual weariness. Because, listen, serving God is labor intensive. It can be tiring. Being a stay at home mom – tiring; raising kids and working – tiring; staying pure as a single – tiring; on and on. The world’s weary, serving’s weary, dealing with people on their worst days can be weary. But when you’re taking heed to yourself; you’re walking in the Spirit, not in the flesh. It’s like, “Okay, Lord, I know today is going to be challenging and I’m going to go double into the Word this morning. I just know it’s…I get that sense.” And sometimes even we get that sense here where you know, you’re heading in, you’re like, “Man, I just feel like today’s going to be a challenging day.” You get that going to work, too, don’t you? You left on Friday and go weekend and then Sunday night. Mon-daaaay! And then you wake up on Monday and you go, “You know, I just get a sense it’s not going to be easy today.” Okay. What do you do with that? You got to go in, man, and start praying. Maybe you just like, “Okay, I’m going to pray, I’m not listening to anything, I’m not even going to listen to sermons, I’m just going to pray on the way into work today.” You would only do that if you were paying attention to your own personal walk.
Now, with that in mind, notice the second thing we’re looking at. So there’s subpoints and stuff, you can jot ‘em all down, but here’s the second point, that’s in verse 28, the feeding and the protecting. Now secondly, “Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock.” That’s point number two. Take heed to the flock. Usually that supersedes everything where you think, well, “I’m serving on my ministry; I’m just going to take care of the church; take care of everybody’s needs.” No, no, no, no! It starts with you first, then the flock. Then, and only then, after you have watched over yourself can you then watch over God’s church. Because the flock always follows the Shepherd. And we as under-shepherds need to follow so we can be followed. Looking unto Jesus, the Chief Shepherd. It’s important that before you, because here’s what…I have watched this happen where I’ll see people care more about other people’s marriages while theirs sufferers. I’ve seen people just pour in and pour in while their own home suffers, their own family suffers, their own spiritual life suffers.
That is not God’s will for you. It starts at home, where you serve out of the outflow of your home and life, not the other way around. It’s not God’s will for you to step into a difficult marriage and be ministering to them and watch your own marriage break up, or help somebody with their wayward kids and watch your own kids walk away. It always starts with you first, you first, and then you’re able to watch over the flock.
And then thirdly, notice, he says, “Take heed to yourself,” “take heed to the flock,” and then notice, he says, “among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.” We learned that word last time, didn’t we? It’s episcopas, overseers, “to shepherd the Church of God which he purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28). Here’s the third point in feeding and taking care of you. Give them the whole counsel of God, and you do it as a shepherd or a servant, right? You’re serving the flock. You’re among the flock. I think it bears repeating. I know I’ve said it a lot, but I’ll repeat it. Even today, “I am not the most important person in this church.” Neither are you. We are all the body of Christ. I may have a different role here where I get different attention, but it doesn’t make me any more important than you. It doesn’t make me any…now I have a responsibility and accountability. And it’s true that my sin and my mistakes could hurt the church more than you, but I’m not more important than you. I just have a different role, that’s all. Same responsibility in the sense that I answer to God, that God’s looking for faithfulness. But I’m not more important than you. The most important person in this church is not you. And it’s not me. It’s the Chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ. It’s His church. We serve Him. He shed His blood, for we didn’t shed our blood. Jesus shed His blood for this church. And so it’s important that we are shepherding and feeding and taking care of and pointing to people. And we’re not a church where people get taken advantage of.
Because, notice, the next thing we learn in verse 29 now is, “For I know this,” and you can feel the tone of this if you read it slowly. Paul’s like, man, I just tell you I he’s almost…I could see it on his face. He’s pleading like, “You guys understand I’ve done everything I can; I can’t be here for you anymore; you’re going to have to take the mantle; and this is it, “Take heed to yourself, take care.” And he’s pleading. And maybe…maybe there’s even tears. “I’m never going to see you again.” And he’s going through it and all of that. And then he says, “Because I know this,” verse 29, “that after I leave savage wolves,” mark that. “Savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, also from among yourselves, men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves.” So pay attention to what Paul said, he says, I want you guys to know you guys are elders, leaders, church, you got to understand, savage wolves will be coming in. First of all, from the outside. Did you notice that? It says, “come in.” So, right, first they’re out, then they’re going to come in. So there’s always a danger of the outside. And notice he doesn’t say kind wolves, pretty wolves, cute wolves, baby wolves. He says savage wolves. Destructive. Ready to take advantage, and destroy, and consume the flock of God.
Not some little cute puppy wolf…it’s funny, this morning for devotions, I opened up, I got up super early. I opened up the curtains to where our little back door is, and in our back door there’s a sliding screen there. It’s kind of a little bit open and there’s a little baby rabbit stuck behind the screen, going back and forth, looking at me with its little nose and its little ears and its little tail. Paul didn’t say, “little cute bunny is going to come into your church.” And it’s not that cute after all, I look at the bunny, I go, “Yeah, that’s what you get! Stay stuck for eating all my wife’s flowers.” It’s not as cute as you think.
But he didn’t say bunnies. He didn’t say puppies. He didn’t say cats – there’s nothing good with cats anyways – but he didn’t say cats. He said savage wolves. That want to destroy God’s work. We’ve seen our fair share of savage wolves here over the years. They’ve come in, been revealed, and they go right back out. But it’s sad, because by the time they get in, and get revealed, they do a lot of damage. Jesus taught about wolves in sheep’s clothing. Watch out for false teachers, false prophets, false believers. Which begs the question, doesn’t it: How do I know the difference? How do I know, pastor, who’s a wolf is – in sheep’s clothing? How do I know a savage wolf? Well, here’s the answer: It can be really hard; we don’t always know.
They do a good job disguising themselves. They look like sheep. They smell like sheep. They sound like sheep. It can be very challenging. However, there is a big difference, and this is something you can look out for, there is a big difference between wolves and sheep among sheep and that’s this: wolves eat sheep. Sheep don’t eat sheep. And you go, “Ed, that doesn’t help very much at all.” Okay. I want you to consider this: wolves, they take advantage of people. They draw people to themselves. They wanted to do their own thing and get your eyes off of Christ. This is the bottom line foundation of every cult – every cult – to get you out of the Bible, make you doubt the Bible. And then what will you do when you doubt the Bible? You will follow them. So they create environments, “well, you just come to me, come to me, I can answer all your questions,” and you want questions answered. “Come to me, I can…” and they subtly take you away from Christ.
And there’s really only two things available to people that want to take advantage of the church; there’s really two main things. You know what they are? Power and money. Savage wolves want power over people to control you. Take advantage of you. Have you follow them, control your life, make you super, ultra-dependent. What do they call that? Co-dependent upon them. And you know that’s a wolf every day of the week, or somehow cozy up to you to take your money to extract from you money that will continue to give to them. And that is not the way of Jesus.
I mean, you think about it, there’s three main cults that are active today. There’s the Mormons. They’re the Jehovah’s Witnesses. And then there’s that cult that goes around… the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons come to your door and they’re trained, you got to understand something, they are trained to confuse you in five minutes or less. Because if they can get you confused, confusion breeds vulnerability. And if they can get you confused about the Bible or “that’s not the right Bible,” and you know they will take you away from all. “No, that’s not what it means. Let me tell you what it really means.” And what will happen is, as they get you confused about the Bible, guess who becomes the authority in your life? They do! That’s a savage wolf. Every day of the week. All day long.
The other cult that they don’t so much go to your door, you know, they meet you in Walmart and Starbucks. I don’t know how they do this, but I remember they came to me once in Walmart. That’s how I found out about them. I’m just at Walmart years ago looking for a DVD for the kids, and somebody comes up and starts talking about the “mother of God,” and all kinds of weird stuff, and I’m like, “Dude, I’m just here for a DVD for my kids, man. Who are you? Where’d you come from? What’s your deal?” And they’re very, very popular there. They’re all over town. So you watch out in Walmart, okay? You watch out!
But we don’t need to worry about any of that stuff. You know why? Because if you know the Bible, you’ll know any falsehood. You’ll just automatically go, “Hmm, that doesn’t sound right.” I mean, even online today, like, it’s amazing that the algorithms have a demonic part to them. You got to understand this, the devil can get behind this stuff. And I’m not trying to be extreme here. I’ll explain it to you. The devil can get behind this stuff and use technology against you. I mean, I saw it in my own life, man. I follow the Lord, I love Him, I care, and I’m not on YouTube very much, but I have been on YouTube recently looking at our page. Because Brad here has been pouring his…hour after hour after hour, for weeks and months, and months now…redoing our page to make it more available and accessible. And man, he’s been working hard. So if you see Brad, you thank him because he’s been working really, really hard on this project. So I’m up there looking at things and I relaunched my blog and I’m embedding things and there it is. For a long time I never saw any ads, but all of a sudden now I see all these ads. I don’t know why, I got to figure that out later, but I’m telling you, I love Jesus with all my heart. And what’s on the left hand side? Nonsense! Like the weirdest stuff! Trying to undermine my faith. I don’t want to know. There was a video up there recently, “I spent 28 days in hell,” and I’m like, “why didn’t you stay there, what do you come back for, man?” Like, what do I care? I could care less. That’s not true. It’s not biblical, but it’s right there. Check it out, Ed. I’m not checking nothing out!
And I probably could have screenshot it and showed you all the weird stuff. I didn’t ask for that stuff. I don’t click that stuff. I don’t look for that stuff. It’s not on the cookies on my computer. It’s not in the browser. But the devil is there using these things. As much as we can use technology for the good, the devil’s in it, man, wanting to rip us off. Whether they’re at your door or on your computer or on your phone, you’ve got to know the Word. Savage wolves come in, but also they’re among us. Do you see that in verse 30, “also from among yourselves?”
Listen, church, I’m not naive to think that there aren’t a few savage wolves here today. It’s a great possibility. And so let me just speak to that small amount, if you are a savage wolf here today, listen to this: You are not welcome here! You are welcome to repent of your sins, but you’re not welcome here. And even though you think you’re well hidden, you will be exposed. God will expose you. We will confront you. And if you don’t change, we will not allow you to take advantage of this church. Period. 100%. We have experienced it before, and I know we’ll experience it again. Our heart is for you to change, but you cannot use this church for your own purposes, for your own fake ministries, for your own stuff. You cannot use this church. This church is the Bride of Christ, and we take care of the bride.
You know, I have the privilege of officiating wedding ceremonies. I get to attend them and you’re there, right? You’re there. You go to weddings, and it’s usually some wonderful place that could be the church all made up or some beautiful venue and candles and lace. I mean, it’s awesome. It’s wonderful. I’ve been to some really beautiful places and it’s amazing. And the music starts and the DJs go, all of that is good. But then there comes a moment, isn’t there? There comes a moment in where everything changes, and that’s when the bride is revealed. Every eye, everything stops. The candles don’t matter. The venue doesn’t matter. The food doesn’t matter. Nobody matters. Everybody stops, gets up, turns around. Bam! There she is. And usually, if I’m officiating and the guy next to me, I tell them beforehand, “Hey, bro, it’s going to be amazing. Make sure you don’t lock your knees.”
I tell him that, “don’t lock your knees.” Because if the dude locks his knees and his bride is revealed? Boom! He falls flat. And so I see these strong…I’ve seen guys like, they’re there, and they’re laughing, and they’re so confident. And when their bride shows up, they start bawling like a baby. He can’t believe his eyes. Oh my gosh, it’s amazing. Why? Because the wedding is about the bride. That moment – the bride is special. She’s decked out. All focus is on her. It’s amazing. It’s beautiful. She’s gorgeous in every way. Yes, in a few moments, the attention will be the bride and the bridegroom. But right now it’s the bride. And even as the bride comes up with the bridegroom, I mean, she’s the stunning…well, she gets all the attention. This is how God intended it. God intended the bride to get special attention. God intended that the bride be protected.
I mean, if you saw…and here you are at the ceremony, and you see these kids playing in the mud over there, and they come running with mud on their hands, and they’re going right for the bride. Even though they are not your kids, you probably will get up and say, “Excuse me, children, please don’t touch.” Now, you probably won’t do it that way, but you’re not going to let them jump all over the bride, that she’s not even your daughter or, you know, you’re just invited, but you’re going to protect the bride. I tell you right now, the man that’s standing next to me that’s going to marry her, he’s going to protect her the rest of her life. That’s God’s heart, church, you are the Bride of Christ, and we will protect you the rest of your life. That is our commitment as pastors and leaders to you. And I’m asking you to make the same commitment for each other so that when the bride is protected, what happens? The bride joins the bridegroom.
And with the church, it’s flipped a little bit. The Bridegroom gets more attention than the Bride. Listen, we don’t put our fingerprints on the Bride. We don’t mess with the Bride. We don’t hurt the Bride. We don’t make the Bride cry. We take care of Her. We honor Her. We protect Her. And the Bible says the Church is the Bride of Christ. And that’s Paul’s heart. That’s his desire for us. This stuff happens throughout the Bible. You can jot it down. Jannes and Jambres came against Moses; didn’t end well (2 Tim 3:8-9). Judas kissing the cheek of Jesus; didn’t end well (Luke 22:48). Ananias and Sapphira bringing hypocrisy in the church; didn’t end well (Acts 5:1-11). Demas forsaking Paul; didn’t end well (2 Tim 4:10). Because God protects His church.
Over the years, it has happened where we’ve missed one, or they’ve done so much damage but it was too late for us. There has been that over the years, for sure. I know in my own ministry, God has given me a depth of discernment more than I see in other people. He has always used me that way throughout my entire life. It’s not perfect because I have missed some people and I have read people wrong, for sure. But I have this depth of discernment and I am committed to protect the Body of Christ. But even if I miss it, listen, even if I miss it, it doesn’t depend upon me. I thank God for the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit in His church. He’ll get it. I can trust Jesus to take care of His church and guide and direct us, even if we miss it, even if we miss it or make a mistake along the way, listen, you can trust Jesus Christ to take good care of His Bride. And that’s our responsibility as well. Amen?
So, Lord, thank You for your Word as we are just reminded of these essential, essential truths. The Bride is very valuable to You, Lord, and so becomes valuable to us. And we want to take care of the Church. We don’t want to use it for our own purposes. We don’t want to take advantage of people. We don’t want to take from them. We don’t want authority over them. We don’t want money from them. We just want to serve them. Shepherds, we want to be used by You in the benefit of other people’s lives. So Lord, go before us as we head out today. In Jesus name, Amen.
