Perfecting the Saints in Christlikeness
By Pastor Matt Black
26
October 2007
Lord's Day morning
Ephesians
4:11-16
Introduction: Today we are talking about equipping the saints in Christlkeness for the work of ministry. Really it is how all of us come to be useful for God. Today’s message is the story of the journey of purpose and fulfillment for Christ in your life. Now when I say fulfillment, I’m not talking about being healthy and wealthy and happy from worldly terms. I’m talking about being used of God to transform people’s life to be like Christ. Most of the time fulfillment and purpose in Christ has an element of hurt to it. Bending hurts. In order to grow and change you must be stretched and move spiritual muscles you didn’t know you had. Changing is not cheap. It takes a full commitment to God and His Word, but the benefits are eternal.
Let’s stand and read Ephesians 4:7-13, “But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. 8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. 9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: 14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; 15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: 16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”
Car Illustration: Think about that beautiful car you drove in here. At one point in history, the car was nothing but a chunk of metal in the ground. But somebody found it and melted it down and formed it. And only once it was formed to the designer’s standards did it become useful for a certain purpose. The designer had a goal in mind with that chunk of metal.
In order to change you must know what your goal is. An engineer building a car better have a blue print. We have the blueprint right here: The Word of God. We find God’s mission statement right here. All of our values are right here in the Bible.
God has a purpose and a plan to form you and to use you. But it requires a total transformation. It requires that the form of your present life to be melted down. It takes a total new formation of the way you think to the way God thinks. He wants to use you, but you have to be committed to His cause—the work of the ministry.
I. First I want you to see the overall Goal and mission of our church: Christlikeness. It is right here. In fact Paul is so convinced of it that he says it over and over again. Be like Christ he says. Let’s return back to our car illustration. Here we all are as chunks of metal. We need to be melted down and formed into something. That something is Jesus Christ.
And actually, before Paul expresses that goal, he says something very important. He gives us a warning, a disclaimer. He says—listen—God’s goal for you is going to take a lot of work! That’s the first thing he says in verse 12.
A. The caution: Christlikeness takes work! In verse 12, Paul says we are working and ministering toward a goal. Verse 12—he says his whole goal is to perfect and mature the saints for what? -“[F]or the work of the ministry”.
Transition: We are to work toward something. What is it? What are we to spend our lives working for? A paycheck? A presentable family? To be faithful in our jobs? All noble and good goals, but they are too small. There is something much bigger that effects every area of our lives. What are we working toward? Verse 13 describes the goal we are working toward.
B. The commitment. The goal is to bring Christ’s Body to Christlikeness. Verse 12 says it, and verse 13 expands on it. Verse 12 says the goal of all this work is “for the edifying of the body of Christ”. Verse 13 says that edification and building up is identified by Christlikeness. So God is going to melt us down and bend us and form us in so many ways so that we can be like Christ and we can do the work of forming others into Christlikeness.
This is the mighty goal that we are to work toward in our lives.
We can say it in several ways.
1. We can say it theologically: Man’s main goal, his chief end is to glorify God. Christ magnified who the Father was in his life. He said
2. We can say it practically: Man’s main goal, his chief end is to please God. Christ did always that which pleased the Father.
3. We can say it affectionately: Man’s main goal, his chief end is to enjoy God. Christ’s highest joy was to do the will of God.
4. But ultimately we have to say it personally. The goal of man is bound up in a person. We have a living example of what we should be. Man’s main goal, his chief end is to be like Jesus Christ. And that’s how Paul says it in this passage.
a. So the long term mission statement of our lives is that “we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God”. Faith as I said is a total commitment to Christ’s agenda. Knowledge speaks of correct understanding of the person of Christ. In essence it is a correct understand and commitment that Jesus is Lord over our lives.
b. Your commitment to Christ ruling over your life will bring maturity—you will end up being “a perfect man”, mature, Christlike!
c. A third time he says the same thing a different way. This time in verse 13, he explains Christlikeness as us growing “unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”.
d. Verse 15 says “But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
C. Let’s see how this goal is expressed in the New Testament.
1. Jesus. Jesus gave us this mission statement of the church first and foremost. We call it the Great Co-mission. It is a Co-mission. We are in this mission together!!
Turn over to Matthew 28:18-20, “…Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
There are three aspects to this great commission. They are sequential and interdependent. That is they are chronologically in order, but you can’t have one without the other. They are a whole, but there are three aspects to the whole. They are Evangelism, Identification, and Edification.
1) First there is Evangelism: Jesus said to go and “teach all nations” (verse 19). This is teaching people correct knowledge about themselves and about Christ. People are born as “not like Christ” and the good news is that they can be born again to be “like Christ.” We are to teach all nations that Christ is their Creator and Lord. Furthermore, we must warn them that they are guilty and are “condemned already”. They have not followed the mission statement of Christlikeness! They are guilty of far more wickedness than they can imagine. The entire human race are all liars, thieves, filled with lust and hatred and are all worthy of hell. They are one second and one breath away from burning alive forever in hell. But they also need to know that there is no one in the Universe more merciful than Jesus Christ. He gave His own life’s blood and took the punishment for our sin and in our place so that He could make us Christlike!
2) Then there is Identification. Verse 19: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost”. Baptism is actually a public act of repentance. It is a public way of informing everyone that you have a new mission statement in life. Your values have changed. You now repent of your sin and disloyalty and nonconformity to Christ, and you identify yourself as one who wants to be conformed to the image of Christ. It is like a marriage ceremony where you publicly reject all others and pledge your life to only one: Jesus Christ.
3) Finally, and the ultimate goal is Edification in Christlikeness which is found in verse 20: “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
So according to Jesus Christ, Christlikeness is the goal! Do everything Jesus commanded. Be like Jesus. Follow Jesus. The word teaching means to disciple, or to make followers. It is not just information but mentoring. We are to imitate Jesus Christ. He is our master and Lord.
2. What does Paul say? The same thing. Christlikeness is the goal. He says it everywhere. In fact, he is sent out by Jesus Christ, so he’s saying the same thing as Christ.
Paul opens up Ephesians 4 by saying we are to walk in manner worthy of our high calling. We are called to unity and conformity to the goal of Christlikeness together. That’s Paul’s whole goal. He explains that we would “may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ” (verse 15). This is the high calling. Apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastor-teachers are to promote this goal. They are to build up the saints for the work of this ministry.
Paul says this all over the place.
a. Paul says it historically. Look at Romans 8:28-29, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son”. Paul says the goal from before the very creation of the world has been Christlikeness!
b. Paul says it personally. Look over at Paul’s own testimony in Philippians 3:8-14, “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: 10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; 11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. 12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Paul says the I press toward that ultimate goal—that high calling—to know Him and to be like Him. To follow him in His suffering and in His death and ultimately to be raised like Him at the resurrection.
3. John the Apostle. 1 John 3:2, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” We shall be like Him! That is the ultimate goal of all eternity. Ten billion years from now that goal will have been met.
So the goal every day is to have more commitment to the correct knowledge of Christ! Unity in commitment and correct knowledge about Christ.
Are you committed to the goal of Christlikeness?
II. Secondly, I want you to see the two essentials in accomplishing this goal of Christlikeness. We see this in verse 13, “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”. If we want to be like Christ as “a perfect [or fully mature] man”; if we want to reach the goal of Christlikeness “unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”, then two things are essential according to verse 13: Commitment, and Correct doctrine.
Verse 13 calls it the unity of the faith and the unity of knowledge of the Son of God. Let’s break that down.
Faith = true and total commitment.
A person who is married is to be “faith” full. That is they are to be totally committed to that person.
In our walk with God, faith is total commitment to Christ. It is dependence or trust in Christ. In other words, faith is the total commitment to the supernatural ability of God. You have faith in Christ’s ability through the cross and the resurrection to save you and forgive you and transform you to be like Him. It is a total commitment to Christlikeness.
So the first essential to Christlikeness is true commitment to it. You have to buy into Christ’s mission statement. You must buy into the goal. If you don’t believe it you won’t reach the goal!
Incidentally, (and we’ll talk about this in a minute), but the second essential is correct doctrine, here identified as “the knowledge of the Son of God”. You must be committed to the right thing.
So the two essentials are faith and knowledge.
Faith is the right commitment
Knowledge is the right doctrine
Let’s talk first about the right commitment.
A. Right Commitment. This is characterized by “faith”. Commitment is characterized by personal response to God. Commitment means you take personal responsibility to put Christ first in your life.
1. Examples of committment.
Your goal is to please Christ, not to please yourself. You are to please Christ regardless of how you feel. You must have a higher commitment to Christ than you do to your emotions.
Your goal is to please Christ, not your employer. You are to please Christ regardless if it is financially profitable.
Your goal is to please Christ, not to be happy. You are to please Christ regardless of whether it is easy or convenient.
Your goal is to please Christ, not to please others. You are to please Christ regardless of whether it is popular or whether people like your decisions. Don’t be a man pleaser. Be a God pleaser.
2. Measure of your character. This level of your commitment to Christ is the measure of your character and integrity. If you break your commitment to Christ because of personal happiness, or trying to pacify others, then you are a traitor to your commitment. You show unfaithfulness. You must operate according to what pleases Christ, not what pleases your flesh or what pleases others. You must take personal responsibility to operate according to the principle of pleasing God, not emotions, or pleasing others or any other motive. The goal is Christlikeness not emotional fulfillment or making people happy.
Someone who is truly committed doesn’t make excuses. He or she takes personal responsibility. That is true committed faith!! The opposite of true committed faith is characterized by:
· Comparison (I’m not that committed, but I’m doing better than so and so)
· Complaining (I can’t believe how uncommitted others are) while doing little to be committed yourself
· Blame shifting (It’s not my fault. My church isn’t where it needs to be. If my spouse were more committed, I would be)
· Confessing one another’s sins (This is seen in gossip and tale bearing).
Are you a comparer, a complainer, a blame shifter, or a confessor of others sins? Or are you truly taking personal responsibility to be committed to Christ.
Are you truly committed to Christ? Many people who aren’t think they are. They all think they are mature or are growing and changing, but they are wrong! Let me introduce you to a few people with wrong commitments.
1. First there is Conrad the Compartmentalist. He always confuses true faith with Compartmentalization. His goal is be a success in at least one area of his life. He gets satisfaction at his success in at least one area. Conrad is a master at comparing himself with others. He may be failing in all other areas of his life, but he’s doing well in at least one. Do you see where Conrad is going wrong? His goal is reformation by his own will power, not transformation by the grace of Christ. The grace of Christ affects all areas of life, not just one or two. It doesn’t mean you are perfect in every area, but your goal is Christlikeness of your entire person, not just one area.
Let’s get “real” practical now. Let’s see what Conrad the Compartmentalist might look like. Ladies’ you might be married to a Conrad Compartmentalist.
Example: The family compartmentalist will never venture out into the world to reach the world, because it might mess up the family perfection. Ultimately, we cannot totally isolate our family from the world. We must teach them right values and beliefs so that when they are in the world, they are strong enough to hate what God hates. The family compartmentalist has it right as far as holiness in the home, but he has to be careful not to become an isolationist and be sure to be reaching people in the world. We are to be “in the world but not of the world”. In other words we are to be in the world influencing the world, not having the world influence us! Listen, the venue of our ministry includes our family, but it is not limited to our family! We are to “go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature”!
Should we provide for our family? You better believe it. “If a man doesn’t work, then let him not eat!” But you don’t have to choose either or. You don’t have to kill your family life and your church life to succeed at work! Amen?
So don’t compartmentalize. Don’t get off focus. Don’t think of area by area. Area by area is works based. Transformation is grace based. False religions can reform area by area, but you need the power of God to be transformed. Think of a total life transformation. If you fail in one, you fail in all. You are called to be blameless in all aspects of your life.
2. Then there’s Busy Bob. He confuses true faith with Busyness with Activity. His goal is to stay active. He thinks, “If I’m active in the church, then I must be heading toward the goal.” This is a misconception. You are not necessarily serving Christ just because you are just busy. You must have the right goal. You can be busy climbing the right ladder, but you must make sure that your ladder is on the correct wall! You can be busy about entertainment. You can be busy about organization. But entertainment and organization are not the goal. Transforming people into the image of Jesus Christ is the goal. We need to put our ladder on that wall and be busy in the ministry of transforming the lives of people.
You can be busy, but not touch the lives of people. The first thing we learn in verse 13 is that ministry is all about transforming people. It’s not about programs and tasks and time management and organization. All of those things are just tools. The goal is to see the transformation of people. The work of the ministry is people! It is transforming them day by day—this is the very first thing we learn in verse 13)… we are to work hard ministering to people: “till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”.
It’s about people being totally committed to Christ. Faith is total commitment. It means you buy into God’s mission statement. It means you are fully sold as to the validity of God’s proposed agenda for the universe, and specifically for you. The higher level of commitment we have, the higher level of maturity we have. The goal is to have the same faith and commitment that Christ had to His Father. Of Him it is said that “he did always that which pleased the Father”.
3. Busy Bob is married to Fife the Fire Chaser. She’s always in the Crisis management mode. She’s thinks she’s solving people’s problems, but she’s not getting any where. She is so busy with the urgent, that she has forgotten what is important. Fife might scream at her kids to get the job done. She also might complain at her husband to get him in line. She gets results through manipulation and comparison. She manages the crisis one way or another, but she has forgotten the goal. There is no one overall goal in her life. Her goal is to manage the crisis. Her goal is to put out fires. And yes life is full of fires that we need to put out, but that is not the goal!!
4. What is the answer then? You can succeed at every area of life. I’ve given three examples of compartmentalization. But you can put any role that you have in life in there. So how do we succeed in every role we have in life?
5. What does true faith look like then? True faith is a total commitment to Christ over every area of your life. It is a total surrender. It is all or nothing. It doesn’t mean you are totally perfect, but your heart is totally committed.
This passage says that the church out to be the center of our lives. Now do not misunderstand. I am not saying we should isolate everything else but the church. What I’m saying is that when we understand what the church is, it changes everything. The church is not about programs and time management and entertainment. The church is about transforming people’s lives. Giving them an eternal purpose of pleasing God. Forgiveness and freedom from sins!
So the answer is—you are on a mission to please God and transform lives. You do that in your family. You don’t come to church, you are the church! You are the church at home. You are the church at work. You are the church at church. You are either edifying the saints or evangelizing sinners to a God-glorifying transformation of the heart and mind.
So pathway to Christlikeness is to have right commitment to the right doctrine. We see this in verse 13. Read along with me: “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”. The goal is “a perfect man” to the “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”. Christlikeness is the goal.
B. Right Doctrine. If you are going to grow you must have correct doctrine. Immaturity is unstable and imbalanced. “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro”.
First there are people that children. They can do one thing well, and another thing well, but over all they fail.
Verse 14 gives the enemy of the goal. It’s not just avoiding false doctrine, but avoiding an imbalance in doctrine. We are to teach the whole counsel of God. So the sign of maturity is proper doctrine and the proper emphasis in doctrine. Paul says it clearly in verse 14, “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;”
You see, commitment is great if you are committed to the right thing. But you might have total commitment to the WRONG thing.
· Roman Catholics say they are committed to Christ. They have the faith, but the do not have the correct knowledge of Christ. They leave him powerless as a babe or defeated, hanging on a cross.
· The Jehovah’s Witnesses have plenty of commitment, but they do not have correct knowledge of Christ, saying Christ is an archangel. No creature can save me. Only God can save me and Christ is God.
You need to be committed to correct doctrine about Christ. You need to “speak the truth” in love, but definitely “speak the truth”.
Are you committed to pleasing God? Christ “did always that which pleased the Father”. Do you please God with your life?
1.) Are you more committed to pleasing God than you are to your feelings?
2.) Are you more committed to pleasing God than your circumstances?
3.) Are you more committed to pleasing God than your relationships?
III. Now finally we are going to back up to verse 11 and look at the Preachers of Christlikeness. We looked at Apostles and Prophets last week, and this week we are going to look at Evangelists and Pastor-Teachers.
A. I want you to first see some similarities between these four offices. In these four offices, you have birthers and builders.
The apostles and evangelists are birthers. Jesus said you must be “born again” into the kingdom. The apostles and evangelists give birth to the church. They bring people from darkness to light by proclaiming the gospel and organizing the people into local assemblies of followers of Christ. They evangelize and baptize.
The prophets and pastor-teachers are builders. They stay and “teach them to observe all things.” They build up the body into Christlikeness so that the body can serve. Now the prophets and pastor-teachers are builders, but Paul told Timothy who was a pastor, to “do the work of an evangelist. So the pastor is mainly a builder, but he is also a birther.
B. We saw the similarities, not let’s see the differences in the offices. We talked about this last week, but the Apostles and Prophets are foundational, and the evangelists and pastor-teachers are functional. There are no more apostles and prophets today. They built the foundation of the church. We today are now building the house on the foundation.
C. Now let’s look at the description of these offices.
The FOUNDATIONAL PREACHERS: THE APOSTLES AND PROPHETS. These offices are unique and temporary.
Let’s begin by looking at Ephesians 4:8. It says, “When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men”. What were the gifts He gave? Verse 11 says, ” And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers” (lit. teaching-shepherds).
In Ephesians 2:20 it says that the church is ”built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone.” The Apostles and prophets were for the foundation of the church. They had their day and no longer exist.
1. We looked first at the Apostles. What is an apostle?
a. FIRST, AN APOSTLE HAD TO HAVE PERSONALLY SEEN THE RESURRECTION. He had to be a witness of the resurrected Christ.
b. SECOND, ONLY THE LORD JESUS CHRIST CAN PERSONALLY AND DIRECTLY APPOINT AN APOSTLE.
c. THEY HAD A REVELATORY MINISTRY—they were the writers of the New Testament.
d. FOURTHLY, THEY HAD THEIR MINISTRY CONFIRMED BY MIRACLES. Hebrews 2:4 tells us that God himself gave witness on their behalf “both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles”.
The Apostles are “sent out ones”. They are sent out by Jesus Christ personally, are no longer around. They were foundational.
2. Then we looked secondly at the Prophets.
These aren’t the Old Testament prophets, these are the New Testament ones. The Greek word for prophet means “one who speaks forth,” These men were the preachers of the New Testament.
What the prophets did was follow up on the work already begun by the Apostles. The Apostles would move around to new areas where Christ wasn’t named and preach, establish a church, build it up, and move on. Apparently, the prophets were the ones who stayed and continued to preach, or repreach, the Apostolic doctrine to the already organized churches. Now and then they would get direct revelation, but in every instance recorded in the New Testament where direct revelation was given to a prophet, it has to do with the practical life of the church. They were for the most part preaching the doctrine that the Apostles gave them until the NT was finished.
So it seems as though the Apostles majored on theology and the prophets majored on the practical application of the theology to the local church. In many ways the Apostles were the forerunners of the evangelists, who went out and proclaimed Christ, founded churches, and won people to Him. The prophets, who went in and made practical application to the church, were the forerunners to the teaching-pastors.
Now we look at the Functional preachers of Christlikeness. These preachers are around today.
3. First look at the Evangelist. Some people think an evangelist someone with fifteen sermons and fifteen suits, while others see an evangelist as someone in a tent filled with sawdust, pounding a great big pulpit, and screaming about liquor. To many, an evangelist is someone who holds city-wide crusades or reaches people through television. I don’t know what your picture of an evangelist is, so let me give you a little idea of what it is biblically.
The evangelists are church planters. An evangelist is basically somebody who presents Jesus Christ where Christ is not known. They are present today following in the Apostles’ footsteps. The Apostles faded away, they ceased, because their ministry was unique--but the evangelist took over. Paul told Timothy to “do the work of an evangelist“ (2 Timohy 4:5).
A biblical evangelist was somebody who:
a. WENT TO A PLACE WHERE CHRIST WASN’T NAMED.
b. WON PEOPLE TO CHRIST.
c. STAYED UNTIL HE BUILT THE CHURCH AND ORDAINED ELDERS TO TAKE OVER THE LEADERSHIP.
d. THEN MOVED TO A NEW AREA.
“Evangelism is the ability to go into an area and establish and build a church. In an area where a church already exists, the evangelist wins people to Christ, integrates them into church, and takes part in their maturing process. I feel that when evangelism is disconnected from a local church, it loses its power in many ways. New converts need a place where they can be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. So whenever God calls someone to be an evangelist, the church needs to give him room to function in evangelism within its own doors--not turn him loose to hit the road!”
4. Finally, let’s look at the Pastor-Teacher.
1) THE TERM. Verse 11 reads, “And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.“ The last category of gifted men is teaching-shepherds. The Greek construction indicates that “pastors and teachers“ are not two words, but rather a hyphenated word, pastor-teacher. The word “some,“ which is before “apostles,“ “prophets,“ “evangelists,“ and “pastors,“ is not before “teachers.“ The word “and” is the Greek word kai, which means “and” and has the idea when joined together with another word in this construction as “and even”. So the idea is that God gave some pastors even teachers. They are pastors and they are also at the same time teachers.
And I might add that the word “pastor“ only appears once in the whole Bible—here in this verse. So the idea is that the pastor is a teaching-shepherd.
2) THE TRANSFER. The teaching-shepherd is different from the evangelist in that the evangelist wins people to Christ and builds up the flock, while the teaching-shepherd teaches and shepherds the flock. Again we see a beautiful parallel. The evangelist is like the Apostle--itinerate, on the move confronting people in the world. Whereas the teaching-shepherd is more like the prophet who applied doctrine to the local situation, building the flock. The teaching-shepherd was permanently settled in one place--always teaching.
3) THE TASK. In Acts 20:28 Paul gave instructions to the shepherds of the flock at Miletus: “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.“
i. Now there are two things in that verse that a pastor must do-to lead and feed; to take the oversight of the flock and to feed it. In 1 Peter 5:1-2, Peter says the same thing: “The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: 2 Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof.“ The teaching-shepherd is to be committed to two things—feeding and leading.
a. They are to Succeed. 1 The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed:1 SUCCEED
The Pastor must be a “partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.” The Lord’s people will rarely ascend to heights that the pastor has not scaled first. It is utterly vital that the pastor have a living dynamic loving walk with God, a man of fervent prayer. The pastor must be one who knows how to touch heaven and to cling to the Lord.
b. To Feed the flock - Feeding the flock also has two aspects to it.
2 Feed2 FEED the flock of God which is among you,
1. Preaching must be God-centered. Rich, expository, practical preaching!
The pastor must read, study, and grapple with the Scriptures so that he can adequately feed the people of God. The man of God must be so God-centered that he preaches out of the overflow, and the message focuses on the Person and Plan of God in the world. People DO NOT need entertainment in the pulpit; they need FOOD.
2. Preaching must emphasize the Grand Plan of God
Paul said to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:27, “For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.” The sheep need a BALANCED diet of the whole counsel of God.
But look at God’s promise in Jeremiah…
Jeremiah 3:15 And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.
c. To Lead the flock - Leadership involves two things:
If you’re going to lead, you also must model or pattern the principles taught. Paul said to the Philippians, “Be followers together of me“ (3:17); and he also said “Those things, which ye have learned, and received and heard and seen in me, do.“ (4:9). 1Peter 5:2 Feed2 FEED the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight3 LEAD thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;
The pastor must Guard the Sheep with line upon line preaching. We are to “Preach the word in season and out of season”. That is when it is popular and when it is not! We are not follow the fads and fashions of men.
Today, many who call themselves pastors could care less about real line upon line preaching. They are like the watchmen of Isaiah. The term bishop, which means “overseer” is from the same word as is above “taking the oversight.” This comes right out of the Old Testament. Paul’s Hebrew mind was thinking of the word “watchman” in the Hebrew. Listen to what Isaiah said about the pastors of his day--
Isaiah 56:10-11 His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. 11 Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.
Do you hear what God calls pastors who do not feed their sheep? They think that the pulpit is for entertainment and self-help! They do not preach doctrine, but avoid it. The Lord says they are “blind, all ignorant, all dumb dogs that cannot bark, they are greedy dogs, they are shepherds that cannot understand.” A man may have a church of 30,000 over at the Compaq Center in Houston, but if he will not feed the sheep, he is a false teacher. If a pastor gives the sheep nothing but sugar when what they really need is sustenance, avoid that man! He is blind and ignorant.
d. To Precede. He is to be an example of the doctrine! He must life it!! “…3 Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples4 PRECEDE to the flock.
The pastor must model Christlikeness.
Conclusion: So what is the goal? It is Christlikeness! What is the path to that goal? Faith (commitment) and Knowledge (correct doctrine). And the preachers of old and of today are committed to that goal. Are you committed to the goal?