To Be a Pastor (Acts 20:17-32, Jeff Kliewer)

Thanksgiving and Prayer for Guidance Into God’s Word

You have done good things for us, and we are filled with joy. Thank you God for the evident hand of your blessing in our church. We pray that we would continue to press forward. Lord, we pray that you would use us as a church in powerful ways.

And now Lord, we pray that you would focus our minds into your text, that we would be submissive to your word, to receive from you, not to read into it what we want to see, but rather to read out from it what you have written.

Help us now to focus in, in Jesus name. Amen. When I was in college, I took a class called the history of economic thought. And for the entire semester, each person in the class assumed a role of a famous economist.

I was Thorstein Veblen for the whole semester.

We had.

Famous economists from Adam Smith to probably the most ridiculous one of all was Karl Marx. This young man just decided that no matter what anybody said, he would blame the bourgeoisie and defend the proletariat.

And no matter what was said, he would argue and it was really a fun thing to do and quite educational. But what I've noticed, looking at college campuses today, I would think that the students are in a history of economic thought class.

But the problem is, many of the students aren't play-acting. A number of them are Marxist to the core. There is a Marxism that has come into the American University even in the midst of the Cold War.

As our country battled against economic Marxism, the full-scale revolutionary kind, in a more subtle way, the Frankfurt School moved from Germany into New York. Having been driven out by Hitler and the Nazis.

And over the course of decades, that school of economic thought has invaded our universities and many of the professors in this country hold to a Marxist worldview of a cultural variety. Shepherds protect the sheep.

My sermon today is directed toward our associate pastor. But it is also directed to every one of you. Because what a pastor does is only typical of what all of us are to do. And the first thing that I would say, a pastor protects the flock.

Now we know that there's forces in this world that are bent and determined to stand in opposition to Christ. We know that there are many forces that are against the God that we serve. But there's greater danger when those influences begin to invade the church.

Last week as I stood in this pulpit, I addressed a danger that is infiltrating the church. It's called red-letter Christianity. I would call it a cultural version of Marxism. An identity politic.

A racial.

Construct that seeks subtly to divide the body of Christ rather than to unite. It's infiltrating the church in a number of ways. I spoke about it last week. But what I'm realizing now is that this subject is so complex.

It's going to require something different. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to prepare a university class. A cornerstone university class. We've already been having university classes in this church when we feel there's a pressing issue that needs to be talked about.

I'm going to take a number of weeks, months, to prepare a class on this very subject. Now what blows my mind is that the students at the universities in our country think that they're expert in the field.

They're being told that they're experts, but I remember when I was in college. I remember when I was playing Thorstein Veblen in history of economic thought, and this is what I did. I read as much as I needed to read in order to get an A in the class.

So no matter what anybody said, I would say conspicuous consumption because that was Veblen's big term. That was the case with every student I knew in that class. None of us were experts. None of us had true understanding of economic thought.

And yet we spoke so dogmatically in the class. I see that happening in the universities of our country. So here we'll teach what isn't taught. We'll look not just from what the cultural Marxists are teaching at the universities, but we will look from a number of different angles.

Primarily through the word of God. Because the word of God is not silent on this issue, and that brings me to my second point. The role of the pastor is to feed the sheep. It is to teach the whole counsel of God, and there are scriptures referring to this issue that I'm addressing like Colossians 311.

Here in the church, there is no Greek. There is no Jew. There is no circumcised and uncircumcised. There's no barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free, but Christ is all and in all. What the scripture tells us is that the blood of Jesus runs red, and all of our blood runs red.

And the giving of the blood of Jesus turns our eyes off of our ancestry, and our ethnicity, and upon the Lamb of God who is slain. And when we put our focus on Christ, unity comes into a body of Christ.

That's the teaching of Colossians 311 and Galatians 3 26 to 27. The tearing down of the dividing wall of hostility of Ephesians 2. We will look to the whole counsel of God. Next, sorry to tell you this, brother, to be a pastor means to endure suffering for his name.

And the more you speak truth, the more you wait out, especially into controversial matters, the more you will be attacked, not the less. And to occupy an office in the church of pastor means that you will be a special focus of criticism.

I spent 12 years in the inner city. I preached funerals of, I can think of four, of our teens that were in our clubs that were killed or died from other things. You get thick skin when you're in the inner city.

I can think about one night we heard some commotion outside and my daughter was sleeping in her bedroom and we looked out the window to see the police discovering a dead body who had just been shot after driving a taxi cab and parking it in the alley right next to our church.

When you've been through suffering, your skin gets a little thicker. Criticism will come. But I'll tell you this, if you know and you do stand upon the word of God and your suffering is on account of the preaching of the word, delight that you bear that reproach.

Our Savior who went to Calvary was mocked and derided all along the way. He was pressed, a crown of thorns was pressed down upon his head. Why? To mock his claim to be king. A purple robe put upon him.

Why? To mock his claim to be king. He was mocked on the cross. You saved others. Why don't you save yourself? If you're the Messiah, come down from there. Intentionally held to shame and scorn on the cross.

And brother, you will be shamed for standing upon the word of God. But delight that you bear that name like the apostles, like the apostles who, having been beaten and left the synagogue, rejoiced that they were counted worthy of suffering on account of the name of Jesus.

So you delight to bear that name. Finally, to pastor a flock means to set the pace, especially for evangelism. I love racial unity in the church. I love diversity in the church. And here's how I believe it comes.

When a Christian goes out into the world and preaches the gospel to all creatures. To all people, regardless of ethnicity. Colorblind to who they're speaking to. You know what happens? Those who hear his voice will come.

And some will be Asian, and some will be African, and some will be white. All ethnicities will come. When you go preaching the gospel, some will come to believe. And the natural result of preaching the gospel will be the diversification of the church.

You see how that happens? You set the pace. I have one suit that I have had since I was in college. And believe it or not, I can still squeeze into it, but it is definitely a squeeze. Ever since I got that suit, my first funeral I preached in the early 2000s.

And I've kept in that suit pocket the sermon that I preached that day. It was for a young man. He was 18 years old. His name was Jerry. And I had gotten a call from the local Dream Fund, which was kind of like Make-A-Wish, where there's somebody who's dying, a young man, young woman who's dying of cancer often.

And so I went to spend time with him at this hospital. For that month, we became as brothers. And he really began to cling to me, because I came as a brother in Christ, encouraging him. And he became very dear to my heart.

Well, a few years ago, my parents told me something that they were proud of in me. And I don't do this to boast. I do this to make an illustration, because this is very important. They said, Jeff, we want to tell you why we're proud of you.

Because when we went to Jerry's funeral, we were the only white people in the congregation. And when you preached, you were white, and everybody else was black. And my dad said, this is why I'm proud of you.

Because you never mentioned it, and I don't think you even saw it. And I testified that that's true. I never noticed, and it never mattered. I did not tell my parents that they were coming to a funeral where the young man who died was black, because that was irrelevant.

What mattered is that my friend died, my brother died. And so I preached his funeral. And that sermon has stayed in that suit pocket, which I guess eventually is gonna wear out. I'm gonna need a new one one of these days.

But this is the positive teaching. We do decry racism. We hate racism of every kind. And we see it in the world. There is racism in America. But this is the path forward. This is the way forward and not backwards.

It is to turn our eyes upon Christ and to find unity in the blood of Jesus. Not to recriminate the things that have been done by our ancestors, but to look forward at Jesus and focus on his commission to all of us.

This is how our church will diversify over the years. And sadly, it's true. The observation has been made that Sunday morning is the most racially divided hour of the week. White churches, black churches, Hispanic churches, Asian churches.

And yet we serve one king.

What to do?

Should we yell at each other, scold one another, convict one another? Or should each one of us go out preaching the gospel to anybody and everybody and let the work of the spirit draw the elect that we would be one in Christ, because you will disciple the people you lead to Christ.

That's your role, having led them. And they'll gather with you in the congregation. We are one body. There is no skithian Christians, barbarian, circumcised or un. We are one in Christ. Lastly, before I get into the actual text, by way of introduction, I did write a letter this week to someone who's prominent in the Christian community.

I don't have time to go into that now, but I wanna tell you why I did it. Because in the case of the letter that I was responding to, the gospel was at stake. The argument of this particular prominent evangelical is that for all these 30 some years, he's been preaching a truncated gospel.

But now he sees that his gospel of forgiveness of sin through the blood of Jesus needs to be balanced out by the proclamation of social justice. And I said to him, in different terms, and I think in gracious and loving terms, that the blood of Jesus is so weighty that put on the scale all the weight of all things in the world cannot balance it out.

The blood of Jesus is so important that you don't counterbalance it with social justice or any other pursuit. The blood of Jesus is infinitely valuable. And the trouble with the article that I responded to was that it conflated the gospel, it redefined the gospel.

And so gospel matters need to be taken on, that is the role of a pastor. Let's see it for ourselves. And I think there's no better place for us to learn about the role of a pastor than Acts chapter 20.

Go with me to verse 17. I know we're not up that far, we didn't just skip halfway through the book. But we're doing something special this week. We're installing our associate pastor. And for sake of time, I'm not gonna be able to read through it or really even linger at each verse the way I would like to.

But I want to say some very important things of what it means to pastor a flock. Now, church, listen, I'm not preaching to one today, I'm preaching to all. Because what the pastor is called to do does have some unique roles.

There is a unique office and important things that pastors do in a church. But what I say to John, I say to all of us, the principles apply to all. We need to learn, each one of us, from what it means to be a pastor.

Turn with me to Acts 20, verse 17. Now from Miletus, he, that being Paul, sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. Verse 18, and when they came to him, he said to them, you yourselves know.

He'll go on to tell them what they know. First observation, Paul is the missionary who started the church in this region. He's passing through on a journey, but he doesn't have time to stop and meet with the church at Ephesus.

So he calls the elders. And if you'll turn with me to verse 28, you'll notice that the elders are, in fact, the pastors and the overseers. There's only one group of people who comes to meet him on the beach.

The elders are the pastors, are the overseers. Verse 28, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseer. The language of pastoring the flock, poimen, the pastor is there in verse 28.

The overseer, that's the episkopos, or the presbuteros, is there. And the elder, back in verse 17, is also present. So what am I trying to say? The pastor, the elder, and the overseer refers to one person.

Refers to our brother, John. It's the same office, three functions of the same office. That'll be important a little bit later. Now, notice the next point. The pastor's ministry begins with the example he sets.

That's verse 18, and when they came to him, Paul says to them, you yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews.

How I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public, and from house to house. Is Paul bragging here?

He's not bragging.

In fact, sometimes he'll need to call upon his experience in order to refute false prophets, 2 Corinthians 10 and 11. He even says, forgive me for my boasting. I need to be foolish for a while for your sake.

The point of what he's doing here in calling attention to his own life is not to brag, but rather to stand as an example as he's called to be. Pastors have a high accountability to set an example for the flock.

I recently heard a sermon that talked about the late Howard Hendricks, great Dallas seminary professor. I never really got to spend time with him. I met him, I saw him and sat in on a class just to hear him teach when I was at Dallas, but I never had a chance to be mentored by him.

He's the man that mentored Tony Evans, and David Jeremiah, and I'm forgetting some of the others that are prominent. Jeffers down in Dallas Baptist, Chuck Swindoll. So many of the great nationally known pastors who have had wonderful ministries were mentored by Howie Hendricks.

Howard Hendricks would tell them that there are four landmines that they need to avoid in ministry, and I'll say the same thing to you, brother. Your example matters greatly, and there are four landmines that can shipwreck any ministry.

The first is silver, the appeal of money. For the motive of the pastor, especially when beginning to experience success, to turn away from the God he serves and to begin to serve for the purpose of money.

Second Timothy chapter six gives great warning. I'm sorry, first Timothy six, great warning about that trap.

It is a snare.

The second is sloth, to become lazy and content, and I have no worries about you. As you go back to seminary, as you do all that you do, which has already been spoken of today, and yet many pastors fall into a slothful kind of ministry.

The third is sex, referring to the unrighteous kind of adultery, falling into traps and temptations. Even this week, a very prominent pastor has fallen under allegations of sexual immorality, a landmine of ministry.

And finally, self, self, becoming arrogant, becoming self-centered. Any of these things are traps in the ministry, but brother, we are not professionals. Our first role as pastors is to stand as examples to the flock.

To stand as examples, and we're not perfect. We'll stumble, but be the first to confess, be the first to repent, to live humbly and walk humbly with your God. Acts 20, 21, the pastor sets the pace for the church's evangelism.

Look at verse 21, Paul says about his own ministry that wherever he went, whatever he was doing, he was testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

What is our call? Our command as evangelists, each one of you, brothers and sisters, your job is to go and command and call for repentance and faith. Not a popular message in our culture. Call people to repentance and faith, but the pastor cannot simply beat the sheep into doing that.

And I see this all the time. Constant guilt messages that the church isn't doing enough. You're not evangelizing enough. No, you wanna know how to inspire a church to evangelize? Let them see you evangelize.

Let them see you do it. And they'll say, I wanna do that too. Lead the sheep in evangelism. That's what Paul did. Paul lived to evangelize. Remember his life. We'll study it through the book of Acts. We're not there yet in our expository teaching through the book, but it is a life of passion to spread the fame of the name that is above every name.

Model that.

Suffering, Pleasing Christ, and Expository Preaching

Verse 22 and 23, the pastor's ability to endure pain is the level to which he can lead. Think about that. Now behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except, this is what he knows.

The Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. Of this you can be sure, pastor, afflictions will await you. The bolder you are, the stronger you run, the harder you press, the more the pushback will be.

Be sure of that, but be strong. Fight the good fight of the faith.

Be strong in the Lord.

Put on the belt of truth and the full armor of God. And recognize that you can endure because you are indwelt by one who is greater than.

He who is in the world.

Be strong in him and endure pain and welcome him. It's your joy to serve the Lord and to suffer for his name. Verse 24, the pastor is consumed with pleasing his master. Verse 24, I do not account my life of any value.

Nor is precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I receive from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. Notice that zeal, for to me to live as Christ, to die as gain, says the apostle.

It is a wholehearted pursuit of Christ. It is the kind of running after Christ that leaves everything else behind. How is it that Jesus says, unless you hate your father and your mother, your wife and your children, you cannot stand with me.

You cannot be part of my kingdom. How could Jesus say that? Why would he say that? He says it because your love for Christ, your passion for his name, must be so strong that it makes every other love in your life look like hate.

By comparison, he has but one ambition. He does not account his life of any value, nor as precious to himself, only to finish my course and the ministry that I receive from the Lord. Next, the pastor preaches and teaches expositorily.

And again, I'm glad I don't need to exhort you in this area, because you model it for us. But notice, expository teaching in verses 25 to 27. And now behold, I know that none of you, among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom, will see my face again.

Well, that's sad.

They're never going to see him again. How can he know that he's done what he could? Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

That means Habakkuk and Philippians and every book. The whole counsel of God. And that is why, church, we are committed to studying book by book through the text. The whole counsel of God. Be devoted to that in your own private life.

If you've never read Haggai, and you don't know who Zerubbabel is, there's your homework for this week. The whole counsel of God. Next, the pastor genuinely cares about every sheep in the flock. What kind of pastor doesn't love the sheep?

A genuine concern. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. To care, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

Care for everyone who is sitting here this day or not. Who's scattered or gathered, care. Be concerned for the spiritual well-being and the physical and the emotional well-being of every sheep. That is a pastor.

The pastor protects the flock from wolves. And I'll take these last three points together. The pastor does have to stand up and protect. Sometimes wolves come in sheep's clothing. Yet we trust the word of God to keep the sheep and to sanctify.

Let's read this in verses 29 to 32, then I'm going to wrap up. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them.

Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one of you with tears. And now, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

The wolves are coming. You may not recognize them, by the way. They're wearing sheep skin. They're wearing sheep faces, but sometimes I wonder, how did they get those sheep faces? I guess they had to kill a sheep to get that, didn't they?

Put it over their own. We talked about Marxism. There's 100 million dead people because of Marxism in the last century. There's danger without. There's also danger from within, because a cultural Marxism is creeping in.

Stand against it, understand it, fight against it. Stand for Christ. And so I close with a paragraph I've written to my brother John, and one that I've written to us. Pastor John, pay careful attention to yourself and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you an overseer, to care for the church which he obtained with his own blood.

Be wise, make good decisions, set an example in everything. In evangelism, don't just tell the flock to do it, let them see you how to do it, see you do it. Expect more affliction to come into your life this day, not less, but count it pure joy, because you value pleasing Christ more than anything, and it is he who has granted to you to suffer for his name.

Preach the word, exclamation point, 2 Timothy 4 .2, never have an off season. Preach expositorily, care for the members of this flock. Fight the good fight of the faith. Sincere love is willing to fight for what it loves.

Wield the biting sword of truth, handle it well. Be dogmatic about dogma, be open handed about the adiaphora, which means the peripheral things. If Jesus obtained something at the cost of his blood, be willing to give your own blood before letting it go.

Count your life as nothing, count Christ as all. And church, honor Pastor John. Like Paul to the Ephesians, John's own hands are providing his financial necessities while he performs this role. Paul did that in Ephesians, Acts 20, 34.

If you read a little farther down, he says he never took financial aid from the Ephesians. Although he had a right to it, 1 Timothy 5, 17 and 18. We honor you for that, brother. Be very slow to bring a charge against him.

1 Timothy 5, 19 warns about that. Rather, obey and submit. Let his pastoring be a joy for him, Hebrews 13, 17. So in closing, let's just bow our heads and each one make a renewed commitment to the things that we have learned.

Not everybody here is called to be a pastor, but I wonder if maybe a few of you aren't. Maybe someone here is called to be a pastor one day. But every one of us is called to these principles. Let's pray.

God, there are enemies without and enemies within. Wolves in sheep's clothing protect us. Lord, help us to love the word of truth. We pray for John, that he would pastor well, setting an example, evangelizing, bringing unity.

We pray for John, that he would handle the word of God well, that he would preach the gospel in season and out of season. We pray that you protect him, Lord, from the evil one. And even if he ever comes under criticism or fire, that he would gladly bear that reproach for the sake of the name.

We pray for ourselves as a church, every one of us, that we also would obey these principles and learn from them. To take note of those who live according to the pattern set and consider the outcome of their lives.

Help us, Lord, to be submissive to the authority structure that you, yourself, has created in the church. Elder, pastor, overseer, an office that you have given because you love the church, you, God, are the good shepherd.

Jesus, you laid down your life, you shed your blood to purchase this people who are your own possession, help us as under shepherds who are stewards in the flock to love the church like you do. Now send us out with joy in our hearts, filled with this word of truth, in Jesus' name, amen.

Let's stand and worship.