The True Shepherd of the Flock

A True Shepherd of The Flock What if I told you that this morning you could be free from the anxiety and depression and stress and worry you are carrying? With all that is concerning you about the future, past and present? You can because of Jesus! It is all about having faith in what is a main theme of the Old and New Testaments. He is our Shepherd. We are His sheep. Sheep do not concern themselves with anything if they follow Him. He provides safety, security, shelter, food at all times. If you are overwhelmed by life it is so simple. Look to Him, fix your gaze on Him. Open our eyes LORD to what we have in You as our Shepherd. Acts 20.17-38 Jesus warned about false representations of Him coming in His Name. The news media is a false representation today. They tell you things that are false. They adjutate your mind. This actually an be addictive. False Representatives He told that at the final judgement there would be protest by them. Matthew 7. 21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ I remember some years ago getting a phone call here at the church, from a dear lady. She was attending a church here on the Island. She was distraught. She asked for an appointment. One evening she came to my study when it was still here in the church building. She was a business woman. She launched into her story. Her pastor was involved in a gross sin. I did not ask what church it was. What perplexed her was that the gifts of the Holy Spirit were still operating through him. People were still coming to the LORD. The congregation was divided. Her question to me was, “He must be right with God. God is still using him, right?” Yet something did not add up. His lifestyle was sinful. I shared these verses. I told her the gifts of God are irrevocable. Once given they cannot be taken back. A man can be living in the grossest of sins and still be used by God. She left still feeling perplexed but with a better grasp on the situation. I had a classmate in Bible College. He had a gift of prophecy. I have to admit that as a young man I envied him and this gift. He became an evangelist. I had him come to my church in upstate NY. I remember us being on the street, visiting people from the church. This elderly man was there. He led him to the LORD on the spot. The gentleman started crying as he spoke to him. That night he came to the service. It was electric! He held special services in my Dad and Mom’s church. People were divided. One saintly man said it was the best revival he had seen. He was a descendant of John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace. Another lady could not stand him. My Dad loved him. My Mom asked me, “Is he for real?” We soon found out. After I moved back here this evangelist guy was arrested, found guilty of a horrible crime and sentenced to a Federal Prison. It was disgraceful. From a Pastor friend who visited him I found out in the prison he was leading fellow inmates to Christ. He wrote to me and told me that he was calling down fire from Heaven on prisoners there who interestingly enough had the same sinful lifestyle he had. He had gone mad in some ways. He died in that prison. After his arrest I stopped envying his gift. I am telling you this to warn you not to be taken in by the flashy, highly gifted. Watch out for those who can preach, cast out demons and do wonders yet their lifestyle is not consistent with the Gospel. Take this warning to heart. Watch out for wolves in sheep’s clothing. In this passage we have just read Paul, the Apostle goes into detail about what a true shepherd of the flock is like. He was an apostle, did evangelistic work and pastored several churches to get them established. The Church at Ephesus was one of those he pastored For 3 years (verse 31) he warned them with tears. We are given the qualifications for an overseer in I Timothy 3. Here the same man, who wrote to Timothy, his son in the Gospel, gives his personal testimony of his ministry and life: * Humility, Tears, Lifestyle vs.17-19 Humility= a deep sense of one's (moral) littleness, modesty It is can be a heady thing to have God work through you. It can throw you off if you are not grounded. One of the reasons we are urged not to lay hands on a new believer. Years ago a group of teens from our church were on their way home from Clinton, New Jersey. I was on a team with them (photo) It was a new church. We went out into the community and invited people to come for services on Saturday evening and Sunday. They came. The Holy Spirit was at work. It was 1970. The movement of God was powerful. We talked about it in the way back to the Island. What had happened? One of our “wise” young ladies said, “I think we left the Holy Spirit there.” Now I don’t think that was true, nor was it good theology. We would have been better to conclude with praise to the LORD rather than trying to figure out what happened. God sorts that out. 2 years later the pastor of that church in New Jersey came here and built the building you are sitting this morning! The fact is we probably had very little to do with what God did in Clinton. There was a move of God’s Spirit at the time and I think He blew His Spirit through that newly formed church and we just happened to be there. We were available and He used us. All praise to Him! Paul, the apostle, was very humble. He also served with tears. The ministry is emotional. The shepherd’s heart sometimes breaks. Jesus was gripped with compassion because He saw the people as they really were… like sheep without a shepherd. * Preaching the Kingdom This is so important. Pastors follow Jesus when they proclaim the Kingdom of God. We do not proclaim our opinions. We do not proclaim “our” Kingdoms… or our denominations, although God has done great works through them. Jesus said to the repentant thief when He asked the LORD to remember him when He came into His Kingdom, “Today, you will be with Me in Paradise.” He came into His Kingdom on the cross when He died. We preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We proclaim life in the Kingdom. We urge people to seek His Kingdom. That is a shepherd’s work. * Teaching God’s Word Genesis To Revelation My pattern of Sunday’s messages are a chapter a week from the Bible. We give on the bulletins the Scripture Reading for the week. If you read that you will not only be prepared for Sunday’s message but you will eventually go through the whole Bible. We have been through it three times completely. We are on our way again. This is the whole counsel of God. Pastors tend to repeat themselves. A new Scripture to dig into every week is so good. The humility comes in as we realize how much we do not know and still need to study. In these times when people are literally making up their own religion (and that means variation on what God says in His Word) we need to hold forth the Word of Life. God’s Word stands forever. Heaven and Earth will pass away but His Word is eternal. * Keeping Watch Over the Flock The condition of the flock and of individual sheep. This is what the Apostle Paul did and what Pastors are to do. This is serious work. This has eternal consequences. The shepherds, on the night Jesus was born in Bethlehem: Luke 2.8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Acts 20. 28 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. This is why from time to time I will speak to you privately and how each LORD’s Day I pray you will receive the Word given and that I will proclaim it fearlessly as I should. * Free from the Love of Money, Silver and Gold - vs. 33-34 You cannot serve both God and money, Jesus said. A shepherd leads a simple lifestyle. He only owns what he can carry, the clothes on his back. His life’s work is not about making money. It is all about taking care of that flock. Even as the flock increases his concern is for the welfare of those sheep. If he is distracted then the sheep will suffer. * Man of Prayer This indispensable for the work of a shepherd. He must depend upon God completely. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd of the Sheep set the example for all shepherds in this. Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed" Luke 5:16. This is the pattern for pastors, often (a regular practice) withdrawing to uninhabited places and communing with our Father In Heaven. This is where direction for feeding the flock, caring for the flock and preparing for the next encounter with the sheep takes place. Blessed is the church who has a true shepherd as we have seen Paul, the apostle, describe here in this 20th chapter of Acts. Pray for the pastors around the world. Hymn #595 Lead On, O King Eternal