Look for Love of Others – Part 1

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Will you turn over in your Bibles with me to Ephesians chapter 20.

Or not Ephesians. There's no Ephesians chapter 20. Acts chapter 20. He's meeting with the elders in Ephesus, so. Acts chapter 20. And this morning we'll be reading verses 17 through 38. Acts chapter 20. Beginning at verse 17, if you're using your Pew Bibles, you'll be able to find that on page 988. Just some background, Paul is on his way to Jerusalem. He was a pastor in Ephesus for three years. And these are the last words that he ever speaks to the elders of that church. Acts 20, beginning at verse 17. From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church.

And when they had come to him, he said to them, You know from the first day that I came to Asia in what manner I always lived among you, serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials which happened to me because of the plotting of the Jews, how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly from house to house, testifying to Jews and also to Greeks, repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord, Jesus Christ.

And see, now I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me, nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. 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, for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God."

And this passage is the one we'll specifically take the sermon from this morning, verse 28. Therefore, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departure, 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 the disciples after themselves. Therefore, watch.

And remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears. So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I have coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. Yes, you yourselves know that these hands have provided for my necessities. And for those who were with me, I have shown you in every good way by laboring like this that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.

And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. Then they all wept freely. and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spoke, that they would see his face no more. And they accompanied him to the ship.

Prayer for Illumination

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this time that you have given us to be in your word. And Lord, now we pray that your Holy Spirit would be working in our hearts, ministering to us, teaching us, exhorting us, comforting us. Give us wisdom, Lord, we plead in Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon

Well, I have been deeply rejoicing because as we've been going through this series on electing an elder, as we look forward, we just read the edict this morning, It's been fun to hear you all talk about this subject. Sometimes a little bit uncomfortable as you come to the elders and ask, who should I vote for? But it's been a blessing to me to open this passage and just look at Christ with you. But then each morning I get an email as well. And coming across my desk each day are headlines like these.

Children rescued from Georgia youth pastor caught in child porn sting. Three arrested in connection with alleged abuse at a Jacksonville church. Former Christianity Today editor Mark Galley accused of sexual harassment, leader of $13 million fraud ring sentenced to 25 years for preying on donors. Million dollar homes become status symbols of televangelists and pastors. Ravi Zachariah's ministry leaders were blinded by loyalty, spent donor money to sue a survivor. Evangelical Lutheran Church installs first transgender bishop. Georgia pastor pleads guilty to wire fraud after buying Mercedes with fraudulent pandemic disaster loan.

We live in an evil world. We have a perfect shepherd. But brothers and sisters, we must be extremely careful when we think about who will be one of the men to lead amongst us. After David sinned, one of the things that God said against him was that he had given a reason for the enemies of God to blaspheme against him. We must take seriously the office of elder and the qualifications that God gives. And here in Acts chapter 20, verse 28, I want to lean in to this this morning with you, to what Paul tells the elders in Ephesus. He says, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. As we looked at the very first sermon in this series, we talked about what must be the two distinguishing marks of a man that you are thinking of electing as an elder.

The first must be that he loves the Lord. Secondly, that he loves his neighbor. Well, we come in the next two weeks to that second requirement, to love his neighbor. And so your challenge today as you think about electing an elder is look for a man that loves others. Look for a man that loves others.

How do we find that in our text this morning? Well, look with me at verse 28. He's to keep watch. The elders are to keep watch over two things. Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock. Two things there, if you notice. First is take heed to yourselves.

Every single one of those headlines I read can fall apart or be diagnosed with two things. Someone had stopped loving God, and they had stopped taking heed of themselves. And then following that, the third diagnostic would be they stopped loving others.

An elder must be one who does what Jesus says in John chapter 15, that they must abide in Jesus Christ. We should be looking for a man who is abiding in Jesus Christ, and as he is abiding in the vine, then there's much good fruit that flows from his life.

Now, I know that the typical thing to do as we talk about the electing of an elder is go through the qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus chapter 1, and I'd encourage you, that's actually what we're going to be doing the next two weeks during Chalk and Talk.

But this is what, so if you really wanna get deep there, that's where we're gonna get this afternoon during Chalk and Talk is, what does it mean for a man to take careful heed of his life? Watch out what type of teaching he is accepting. Watch out where his life is leading. Is he a Psalm 1 man? Is he walking in the ways of the Lord, or is he sitting in the seat of scoffers and standing in the way of sinners? Is his delight in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night, or is he just gobbling up the world? Take careful heed of yourselves, first. Secondly, take heed of the flock, watching over them, caring for them. Again, we're gonna get more into this during Chalk and Talk, but this is where the first part is. An elder must be watchful.

You might say, well, how does this apply to loving others? Well, let me ask you, wives. Does your husband love you when they're looking out for themselves or when they're looking out for you? When they're heeding you or when they're just doing whatever they want?

See, often we wanna divorce holiness, we wanna divorce the ethic of Christ from loving others. One of the most loving things that I could do as a father is to be careful, pay careful attention to the way in which I walk. Because as my impatience shows and as my irritability shows, there's things that I still need sanctified of. that every elder must be able to say, be holy, not as I am holy, but as God is holy. And I'm still working on that, so come on. We're all, we're doing this together.

You need to look for a man who's taking careful heed of their own life. Are they loving others and are they taking careful attention for the flock? But here, interestingly enough, again in verse 28, therefore take heed to yourself and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to what? To shepherd the church of God. Well, how does Jesus shepherd?

This is not, you're not Brian's church. You're not Jim's church. You are not John's church. You're not the Cessna's church. You're not the Presbytery's church. You're not the RPCNA's church. Notice what it said there. shepherd the church of God. You are God's assembly. You are God's living temple. Living stones built upon one another. So how does God shepherd his people?

Isaiah chapter 40, verse 11. Soak this in for a second. Isaiah chapter 40, verse 11. He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and gently lead those who are with young. A couple months ago, we stopped over next door to the oars house. Curtis and Wyatt teach me a whole bunch about sheep. And I remember one time we were just going over to drop off a note or something and say hi. Curtis just says, hey, wait right here one second.

And so it's freezing cold and he runs to the back and he walks over and he's got his coat all filled up and all of a sudden he walks up and he opens his coat and they've been lambing. He's got this little lamb. that he was sheltering from the cold as he walked him up to the car for the kids to pet and meet this new little lamb. He had taken this lamb and he had put it right next to his chest and covered it up as to keep it out of the cold and to keep it safe.

This is the picture of Isaiah chapter 40. This is what Christ does for his sheep. This is what Jesus does for you. He brings you up, he holds you to his chest. He cares for you, he leads you, he comforts you. This is the beautiful picture of how Jesus shepherds his church. This is why God routinely calls the elders in the church shepherds. So we've looked at the positive example of how Jesus shepherds you, but the scriptures are full. full of examples of bad shepherds, bad elders, and I'd like to give you a dark mirror to look in for a second.

In Numbers chapter 20, verse eight through 12, we have the greatest prophet alive beside Jesus himself, Moses. And as Moses has been leading the people for 40 years through the wilderness, they find themselves thirsty. without water. And God commands Moses in Numbers chapter 20, He tells him, go to the rock and speak to the rock and out from the rock will gush water for the people. And it's meant to be this sign that the rock is going to open and the New Testament tells us that rock is Christ and it symbols Christ and it's supposed to bring refreshing water for the people. And Moses, the one who has shepherded God's people out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, into the desert for 40 years, what does he do?

He gets irritated with the people. I don't know about you, but he's been dealing with these people for 40 years. You can imagine the irritation that he would feel. I was just talking to an elder, I won't say which one, but they were telling me about getting lost on the way in this little cartoon of people following Moses, and he's got a question mark about where he's going, and the people behind him are saying, recalculating, recalculating. You can be annoyed by these people. Come on, you guys won't just trust the Lord? You wanna go back for onions and for leeks? Do you remember what it's like to be in slavery? Won't you just follow the Lord?

And he gets mad at them, so he takes his staff and he hits the rock. And notice that God won't allow Moses to enter into the promised land because he didn't show what God was like in being a shepherd for his people. It doesn't strike them like that, in anger, in an annoyance, in just a fit of rage. But then we come to even a more disastrous example of a shepherd. And this should be a warning to every single elder.

2 Samuel chapter 12. We come to the man after God's own heart, who took his eyes off God. And we come to this story in 2 Samuel 12 verses 1-6 when the prophet Nathan comes to David after he's done what? He's taken Uriah's wife Bathsheba and he's stolen her and he's murdered her husband. And notice the picture that Nathan brings to David.

There's a man who had one Sheep. One ewe lamb. And he loved that lamb. Didn't leave it out in the barn, but brought it into his house. He fed it from its table. He cared for that one lamb. He nursed that one lamb. He loved that one lamb. This is what Christ does. Isaiah chapter 40, but what did the rich man do who had a whole herd for himself? How did he treat Bathsheba? How did he treat Uriah? He went and he killed that one lamb.

David is enraged by this. David was a shepherd when he was a boy. That man should surely die. And in one of the most courageous and sobering moments of all the New Testament Nathan looks David in the eyes. You are that man. David had failed in shepherding God's people. He needed a new shepherd, a better shepherd. But sadly it didn't stop there.

I'm going to actually have you turn over with me to the book of Ezekiel chapter 34. Ezekiel chapter 34. And in verses 1-10 of Ezekiel chapter 34 we have an indictment of God against the elders of Israel themselves. Ezekiel chapter 34 verses 1-10, And the word of the Lord came to be, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to them, Thus says the Lord God to the shepherds, Woe to the shepherds of Israel who fed themselves!

Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with wool. You slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock. The weak have not been strengthened. You have not healed those who are sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost, but with force and cruelty you have ruled them. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd.

And they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill. Yes, my flock was scattered over all the face of the earth, and no one was seeking or searching for them.

Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. As I live, says the Lord God, surely my flock has become a prey. My flock has become food for every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd. Nor did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed my flock. Therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God, behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my flock at their hand, because I will cause them to cease from feeding the sheep.

And the shepherds shall feed themselves no more, and I will deliver My flock from their mouths, and they may no longer be food for them." Do you see they ruled these shepherds who were meant to be the sign of God's love for His people, instead were feeding themselves, lining their own pockets, getting fat off the sheep themselves. not binding up the brokenhearted, not caring for the wounded, not chasing after the lost. They were not being like Jesus Christ, going and leaving the 99 to find the one who is straying. They ruled them with brutality and with force. Did you see the absolute lack of love? They had no love for the sheep. They only had love for themselves. God's not going to stand for it.

Notice who the real shepherd is, verses 11 through 22. For thus says the Lord God, I indeed will search for my sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day He is among his scattered sheep. So will I seek out my sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day.

I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them to their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the valleys and in the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in the green pasture, and their fold shall be on the high mountains of Israel. There they shall lie down. in a good fold and feed and rich pastures on the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock and I will make them lie down, says the Lord.

I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick. I will destroy the fat and the strong and feed them in judgment. Do you see it as God himself who says, I will do these things. It is God who will feed his people. It is God who will bring them to the green pastures. It is God who will care for your souls. It is God who will watch over you. Brothers and sisters, yes, you are electing a ruling elder, but you must remember that it is Jesus Christ who is your shepherd.

And I'm sorry. I'm sorry that so often ruling elders and teaching elders fail you. There's a reason why the book of James says, not many of you should aspire to be teachers, for do you not know that we will be judged with more severity? You must elect someone who loves God and loves God's people. Because it's weary. It can be tiresome. Because if it's not done by love, shepherds will just give up, or they'll just care for themselves. And where the shepherds go, the sheep follow. Notice how the sheep responded to their shepherds in verse 17.

And as for you, O my flock, says the Lord God, behold, I will judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats. Is it too little for you to have eaten up the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture? And to have drunk of the clear waters, that you must foul the residue with your feet? As for my flock, they will eat what you have trampled with your feet, and they will drink what you have fouled with your feet. Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them, behold, I myself will judge between the fat and the lean sheep, because you have pushed with one side and shoulder, butted with all the weak ones with your horns and scattered them abroad.

Therefore, I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be a prey, and I will judge between sheep and sheep." Do you see, as the shepherds were just caring for themselves and not loving the sheep, what happens to the sheep and the flock? they stop loving one another too. Fighting each other, trampling under one another, hitting one another.

This is why, again, I implore you, make sure you're looking for a man who's going to love you, is going to love your children, is going to love your family, is going to seek after you and apply the balm of the gospel to your soul. Because where the elders go, so often the church, if the elders are consumed with selfishness and disinterestedness, The church will often end up going the same way because the elders are to lead in love for God and love for others. But thank God that's not the end of the story. The gospel according to Ezekiel. Look with me at verse 23. I will establish one shepherd over them. And he shall feed them, my servant David. He shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God. And my servant David, a prince among them, I, the Lord, have spoken.

I will make a covenant of peace with them and cause wild beasts to cease from the land. And they will dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing. and I will cause showers to come down on their seasons. There will be showers of blessings. Then the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase.

They shall be safe in their land, and they shall know that I am the Lord when I have broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them from the hand of those who have enslaved them. And they shall no longer be a prey for the nations, nor shall beasts of the land devour them, but they shall dwell safely, and no one shall make them afraid. I will raise up for them a garden of renown, and they shall no longer be consumed with hunger in the land, nor bear the shame of the Gentiles anymore.

Thus they shall know that I, the Lord their God, I am with them, and they, the house of Israel, are my people, says the Lord God. You are my flock, the flock of my pasture. You are men, and I am your God, says the Lord." Did you pick it up? He promised that he was going to send one after David, a true shepherd, to care for his people perfectly. God has given us the good shepherd. This is what Jesus says in John chapter 10, I am the good shepherd. Again, you're never going to find a perfect ruling elder candidate, because the perfect one's Christ. The question is, as you look in the congregation, look for a man who loves in a way that Christ loves. Caring for his people, loving his people, bringing them to the green pastures.

I want to end with four keys from Acts chapter 20. Four keys for an elder to love God's flock. Acts chapter 20, verse 28, Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. First key we've already covered and we're going to cover more this afternoon is men, keep watch of your own life.

Secondly, elders must remember who gave them this office. There's not a single elder who has earned their office. Notice who gives the office, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. No elder should be able to walk around and puff up their chest and, oh yeah, I was good enough to be an elder of God's people. You obviously don't understand that God gave you the office of an overseer.

Remembering that it's the gift of the Holy Spirit keeps an elder humble and able to love God's people, because he remembers he's nothing but a sheep, nothing but one of the flock, and Jesus is the one who's leading his people. Next, recognize whose church is this.

Third Point

Third, recognize whose church is this. to shepherd the church of God. I beg you, never refer to a congregation as pastor so-and-so's church. It bugs me to no end, because it is one of the most unbiblical things you can ever say. It is no elder's church, but it is Christ's church. It is God's church, and the ruling elder who's worth his weight knows that. Knows that they are but a steward of God's house. Knows that they are but a shepherd of God's people. Knows that they are just the person who stands as one who must give an account for how they have treated God's purchased ones.

And that's the fourth key. They must keep a good elder who would love others, must focus on Christ. Verse 28, for shepherds, to the shepherds, the church of God. which he purchased with his own blood. I'm gonna end with this note. What is the motivation for any elder to love God's people? Because each and every one of you was that one lamb. And God redeemed you, not with silver or with gold, but with the precious blood of his own son. That's how valuable you are to God. And the elder who recognizes that you are that beloved of Jesus Christ will try to love you with that type of love, knowing that you are of inestimable worth.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Father, please fill your church with shepherds. Father, please fill your congregations and fill this congregation with men who love you and who have a heart for your people. Lord, we thank you for the faithful elders who have preceded in years gone by, who have loved and who have shown us the path of love, but we thank you most of all for Jesus Christ. And Lord, I pray, pray for each of these members of your church, that they might know the great shepherd. and they might know the great love that you have for them, even when ruling and teaching elders might fail them. Lord, thank you that you always comfort them, and you are always at their side.

In Jesus' name, amen. Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural Southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.