Well, hello. You all got very quiet very quickly. I appreciate that so much. So we are continuing our study in the book of Acts. We're going to be in Acts chapter 20.
Jeffrey Heine:We're going to be looking at the words from the apostle Paul to the Ephesian elders. We started looking at this address last week, and we mostly looked at it from Paul's perspective. His faithfulness to his calling and a faithfulness to following the spirit wherever the Spirit was leading him. He was compelled, that he was bound by the Spirit. And tonight, I'd like for us to look at it, really kind of focused in on what Paul is telling these Ephesian elders about what it means to be serving as an overseer, as an elder in their congregation.
Jeffrey Heine:This is a this this scene here, the the back and forth that's occurring, you know, Paul is talking to dear friends, dear brothers in the faith. They they traveled out of Ephesus to meet him, perhaps because of the riot that had happened before in Ephesus, we we don't know. But they they meet at a at a different location, and he tells them it's the last time they're going to see him. And as they're having this conversation, it's full of emotion, it's full of sadness, it's, there are prayers, hugs, tears from everyone. And this topic, what Paul has to tell them, in particular verse 28, which is really where we're gonna be hanging for most of our time.
Jeffrey Heine:This topic is really relevant for us tonight, because in just a little while, these chairs up here, we we are gonna be having, new elders ordained tonight. Robert Scott, Caleb Chancey, and Joseph Ray are going to be ordained as lay elders in our church family. And these words from the Apostle Paul to the Ephesian elders are fitting words to help us as a church family to learn what it means for God to care for his church and to call elders to serve us. They're fitting words also, for these new elders to hear as a challenge of what it means to serve as an overseer. And so it's my prayer and my hope that tonight, we will all gain a better understanding and find a deeper gratitude for how God cares for his church today.
Jeffrey Heine:So look with me in Acts chapter 20, beginning in verse 28, and I'll read down through 31. And let us listen carefully, for this is God's word. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with with his own blood. 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.
Jeffrey Heine:Therefore, be alert, remembering that for 3 years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Father, on this Palm Sunday, we remember our need for a savior. Lord, our very souls cry out, Hosanna.
Jeffrey Heine:Save us. Rescue us. And, Lord, you have heard the cry of your people. You rescued us from our own rebellion. Oh, Christ, you are our great redeemer.
Jeffrey Heine:So, spirit, lead us to truth tonight that we might adore and obey Jesus, our king, with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. So speak, Lord, for your servants are listening. We pray these things in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit. Amen. So what comes to your mind when you hear the phrase, go set a watchman?
Jeffrey Heine:I would imagine that for some of you, your first thought is a book. 4 years ago, Harper Lee published her 2nd and final novel. And I'm sure, as some of you might recall, it was a pretty big deal. It had been about 55 years since the Alabama native had published To Kill A Mockingbird. And I know that some of you are not only familiar with miss Lee, but some of you even knew her.
Jeffrey Heine:And and so for some of you, your first thought is this book. When the title was announced though, it caused some confusion. People wondered what it meant, not as much biblical literacy these days. And so, they wondered what the title actually was going to mean when the book came out. It's not really like to kill a mockingbird was all that clear, though, either.
Jeffrey Heine:But the phrase, go set a watchman, it comes from a passage in the book of the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 21 verse 6, which reads, for thus the Lord said to me, go set a watchman, let him announce what he sees. This image of a watchman is used in other places in scripture. In Jeremiah and in Ezekiel, the Lord establishes a watchman. To the prophet Ezekiel, it says in Ezekiel 33, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel.
Jeffrey Heine:So hear the word I speak, and give warning from me. Watchmen were vital roles in the life of a town, a village, a city. One historian in the 1500 described the role in this way. In the ancient world of agrarian societies, large watchtowers were placed overlooking the fields. There, in the weeks the crops were ripening toward harvest, men would stand watch, guarding the field from animals or from thieves who would make off with the crops.
Jeffrey Heine:With the community's basic food stores at stake, the watchman's role was critical to the townspeople. Shepherds also played the role of watchman as they kept watch over their flocks by night. These were hired hands. Most of the time, these night watchmen tending the sheep, they did not own the land or the livestock. No.
Jeffrey Heine:The sheep could eat pretty well on their own in a fenced in area. They could kind of take care of themselves to an extent, but when the wolves came, those fences were really just sheep traps, and so someone had to protect and defend. The shepherd was a servant who looked after the flock while other people slept. Not everyone needed to be awake in the night. I thought about this actually this morning between 1 and 4 AM when I was awake with James Spann, watching the severe weather that was going on.
Jeffrey Heine:And after a while, as I was very tired, I thought to myself, if James Spann is awake, why am I? So I turned off my phone and went right to sleep. See, not everyone needs to be awake in the night. Not everyone is supposed to be a watchman. Most need their rest so they can get their needed sleep, so they can live out their own calling.
Jeffrey Heine:The role of a watchman was known by everyone, and God was using this image because he was establishing spiritual watchmen who would look after the souls of the people of God. The Greek word often used for watchmen is skopos, which literally means looker, seer. Think of how we use the word scope. To scope something out, or a telescope, a microscope, a periscope, to look, to see. The spiritual watchmen, they look, and they see.
Jeffrey Heine:And in their watching, they protect and care for God's people. It's this picture, picture of a person who takes care and keeps watch, who protects and defends. That's what the Apostle Paul is using when he addresses these Ephesian elders. These elders are servants, God's watchmen set on guard to oversee his church. Paul is reminding them that they are elders set by God to watch over the flock.
Jeffrey Heine:So what does it take to be an elder? What does it take to be an elder at Redeemer? What are the prerequisites? Well, it's not that you have to be from Birmingham. No.
Jeffrey Heine:We have elders from rural communities in North Dakota, Kentucky, North Carolina, bigger cities in Missouri, Louisiana, Georgia, and really big cities like London and Sydney. It's not going to Samford. That's that's not it. No. Most of our elders did not go to Samford for undergrad.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm a proud Murray State racer. Our mascot is a horse named Duncan. That's a true thing. It's not living in East Birmingham. About half of our elders do live in East Birmingham, but not all.
Jeffrey Heine:And it's not growing up in some particular church denomination. We have elders who grew up Methodist, Anglican, Episcopal, Baptist, Presbyterian. Some who didn't grow up in church at all and came to know the Lord later on in life. So what does it take? What does it take to be an elder at Redeemer?
Jeffrey Heine:What guides us in ordaining new elders really are two questions. Are they called by God, and are they qualified? Calling and qualification are the key areas of concern. 1st, we need to recognize that most people are not called to be elders. Just like not everyone needs to be doing the work of the night watchmen, most people are supposed to carry out a different calling.
Jeffrey Heine:And the watchmen serve so that others can live that calling out. That tells us something really important about eldership. While it is a noble calling, the role of an elder is not an exalted role. It is a servant role. And I know that it might sound strange, but Christian maturity isn't simply about growing into a leader.
Jeffrey Heine:Christian maturity is about growing into Christ. And that growth in Christ doesn't always mean leadership roles, and that's good. Eldership isn't a reward for maturity, though an elder needs to be mature in Christ. But eldership isn't a reward. It's not a club either.
Jeffrey Heine:It's the graveyard shift at the watchman's post. It's cleaning out the sheep stall. Most often, it's a living room showing hospitality to the family of God and to strangers. It's a hospital room to praise God after good news or to plead with God for comfort and healing after bad news. It's the visitors' area at the county jail.
Jeffrey Heine:It's the 1 on 1 meetings with 1200 members. It's the urgent call for a marriage in trouble. It's the local funeral home, to weep with those who are weeping. It's to teach the truth of God's word when the reality of the curse of sin and death seems to be prevailing all around, defending the sheep from lies and from deception. It's equipping the saints for the work of the ministry.
Jeffrey Heine:The call of the elder is the call to be a watchman over the people of God, speaking the truth and tending the flock. Paul appointed elders in every city where a new church was established, And here, Paul is urging these Ephesian elders, he's calling them to action. Look with me in Acts chapter 20 verse 28. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Paul's reminding them, and he's teaching us that the Spirit establishes elders by calling them to oversee.
Jeffrey Heine:He is saying that they are in their positions of leadership, and they bear the real burden of responsibility because the Holy Spirit is the one who set them as watchmen. It was the Spirit, not Paul, who ultimately established them as overseers. So the first consideration for someone to become an elder is that question, The question of calling from the Holy Spirit. Calling is not always easily or immediately discerned. It can often take time to discern and understand a calling.
Jeffrey Heine:Calling, what I mean by that, is the Spirit's direction in a believer's life. And this is not exclusive to church leadership. Every follower of Jesus, each of you, you have the Spirit's direction in your life, the common day to day direction and calling, and the big, broad callings of life, where you might live or what vocation you might have. A few years ago, I was asked to write a recommendation for a church member applying to med school, and I found myself writing about her calling. And as I wrote about the Holy Spirit and calling in what would often be considered a secular context, I thought about how when it comes to calling, the spirit doesn't seem to care about our categories of Christian and secular.
Jeffrey Heine:Not only that, the Holy Spirit does not seem to care if your calling looks like the person next to you. In fact, it seems like it's part of his agenda that the church would have lots of different and diverse callings all under one roof. It's a tragic thing to just focus on or be envious of the calling of the people around us and miss the Spirit's calling in our own lives. You cannot live someone else's calling, and we need one another to help discern the Spirit's calling in our own lives, because calling is best discerned, understood in community. Part of the work of discernment when it comes to church elders is done with the qualifications that we find in the New Testament scriptures.
Jeffrey Heine:We read in 1st Timothy chapter 3, and again in Titus chapter 1 the qualifications for an elder. Among the list of qualifications, and there are a number, overseers are to be above reproach, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not greedy, gentle. As the church seeks to discern the Spirit's calling in establishing an elder, we go into these questions of qualification. Obviously, we don't have time to make our way through all of these tonight, but suffice it to say that if you look at all of the different qualifications, outside of the ability to teach, to proclaim and instruct according to the word of God, outside of that, they're not really exceptional things. These qualities are really qualities of godliness that every believer, every follower of Jesus should be striving for.
Jeffrey Heine:Individuals called by God and qualified to serve as church elders are called to be servants of the church. And this is how Paul is addressing these Ephesian elders. Let's take a closer look then at this charge in verse 28, because this is where we learn how faithful overseeing should be done. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. Notice that the charge is in 2 parts.
Jeffrey Heine:He's he's calling them to action. 2 actions. Number 1, pay careful attention. These elders are watchmen, and the first directive of the watch is to pay attention. The Greek wording here has the connotation of closeness, close enough to whisper.
Jeffrey Heine:That means that the elders are to see, not from far away, just observing at a distance. No. They must see closely. They are to watch out in close proximity to the flock. But they aren't just to pay attention to the flock.
Jeffrey Heine:The first part of the charge is to pay close attention to themselves. It's imperative for these elders to know and to repent of their own sin. They must pay attention for their own need of Jesus and to see the threats and the dangers surrounding their own lives. As my great grandmother Ludeen always said, never trust a bald barber. It was either my great grandmother, Ludine, or Christian Slater in the movie Cuffs.
Jeffrey Heine:I confuse it a lot. To adapt these wise words of Christian Slater, into our context, it would be this. Never trust an elder who never thinks they need to repent. Never trust an elder who never thinks that they need to repent, that there's not some sin in their own life, that they don't have some blind spot or something going on that's wrong, that they need to turn from and plead the blood of Christ. See, I I don't know if you've ever written a sermon before, but the hardest part about writing a sermon isn't the studying or the writing.
Jeffrey Heine:It's having to face these lessons first. You see, you get a 30 minute version of a sermon I've had to listen to for days. Yeah. I can't stand up here and tell you to turn to Jesus if I'm refusing him myself. So we pay careful attention, first to yourselves and to the flock.
Jeffrey Heine:Paul then clarifies their task of paying attention to the flock, saying, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. And we've already noted the significance that it's the Spirit who makes them overseers. But did you notice the words in which? Yes, they are overseers, but they are not just over the flock, they are in the flock. What does that mean?
Jeffrey Heine:What difference does that make? It means that, yes, they are shepherds, but they are also sheep. And every shepherd is also a sheep. Every sheep needs shepherds. That's what we mean when we say that we are led by a plurality, a group of elders here at Redeemer.
Jeffrey Heine:No one's chair sits a little bit higher up than the others, and they're the real boss of the group. No. It's a it's a plurality, an an equality of elders serving together for the good of the church. I need shepherds. Joel needs shepherds.
Jeffrey Heine:Josh needs shepherds. Our new incoming elders, Caleb Chancey, Robert Scott, Joseph Ray, they are elders who need elders, people who will watch over them as they watch over others. And I want to pause for just one second and say I know that I'm saying elder and leader and overseer and and pastor a whole lot. And for some of you, the picture that you have of that role or or that office or that type of person does not square with what the Bible says. And it might be hard for you to believe that that's possible.
Jeffrey Heine:I just wanna recognize that some of you have those experiences. And what I want you to do, if you if you are willing, I I want you to bring that with you so that Jesus, through his spirit, can address that, and that he would bring healing into those places. Because what we're looking at here is good. It's what God has for us, and it's for our good. Every person in the church family, every person in the household of faith needs to be known and cared for.
Jeffrey Heine:Everyone needs wise counsel and teaching from the word of God. Everyone needs to be called to repentance. And likewise assured that while we have fallen short of the glory of God, we have not fallen short of the grace of God. Which leads us to the 2nd charge. Paul then gives the 2nd charge.
Jeffrey Heine:Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God. Paul says, the Spirit made you an overseer so that you would care for the church of God. They were not made overseers just to have authority or to have status. They were made overseers by the Spirit of God to care for the church of God. That's our definition of an elder here at Redeemer.
Jeffrey Heine:Our shepherds are called to care, and that's a big task. Caring does not come easily, and it's not carried out easily. Caring is hard work. Caring requires the call of God and the power of God, the strength of God, the energy of God. Consider this.
Jeffrey Heine:It is easy to care for friends. Right? We choose friends. We find connecting points. And you know the saying.
Jeffrey Heine:You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family. Another classic Christian Slater quote. You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family. And that's true of the church family as well. You don't get to pick the church family.
Jeffrey Heine:Some of you know that well. You don't get to pick who God is bringing into the church family. You don't get to pick who these brothers and sisters are. It is not, sometimes you get to, love and care for these people, but you don't have to love and care for these people. It doesn't work that way.
Jeffrey Heine:God is building his church family, and elders help oversee and lead in that care. You see, we expect care from every member of this church family. The elders aren't the ones who are just doing all of the caring. They help to ensure that caring is happening within the family. Right?
Jeffrey Heine:That each one of you, each one of you who are covenant member of this church, you have a responsibility to care for the brothers and sisters around you, to stir them up to faith and to good works, and to put in that hard work of loving family. To clarify the weight of this task, Paul goes on to describe who this flock is. He says, Yes. The Spirit has made them elders to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. Whose own blood?
Jeffrey Heine:God's. Paul is saying the Spirit made you watchmen in the church of God to pay close attention to and to care for yourselves and for the rest of the flock. And don't forget for a moment who this flock is and who this flock belongs to. Don't forget that this is the church of God, which God ransomed with his own blood. I think about this verse all the time.
Jeffrey Heine:This is probably the verse I think about most frequently. I think about it when we have new member classes. I think about it when we have membership Sundays. And these new covenant members stand up here and commit into this church family, and we commit back to them. I think also about a passage from Hebrews chapter 13, where the writer of a letter to the Hebrews says, obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.
Jeffrey Heine:Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that will be of no advantage to you. This weight of eldership. Overseers are to keep watch over the souls of the church, and they will be held responsible before God for how they care, because it's his church. He obtained it with his own blood. Every shepherd is an under shepherd, an under shepherd serving under the great shepherd of the sheep.
Jeffrey Heine:And they are given this responsibility to pay close attention and to care. So what does this look like at Redeemer? Well, like I said earlier, at Redeemer, we we are a church led by a plurality of elders, a group of elders. That group of elders, it's made up of lay elders and staff elders. Staff elders, those would be, often we call the pastors.
Jeffrey Heine:Those are people who work for the church. And then lay elders, those who are in other vocations and giving of their time to the service of the church. Within the the pastors, within the the staff elders, there's a team of 3 senior pastors. This might be news for you. We have 3 senior pastors here at Redeemer.
Jeffrey Heine:Josh Howson, myself, and Joel Brooks. We share this role of senior pastor living into the ways that we feel like the Lord has gifted us to care and serve this church family. And one of the objectives there are many objectives, but one of the objectives is is to in this approach of shared senior leadership is is to reduce the strong cultural tendency to elevate a person beyond the biblical expectations of a pastor. Can you track with that for a moment? So often, we see churches rise and fall not on their commitment to faithful service to God, but they rise and they fall based on the personality of a pastor.
Jeffrey Heine:The celebration of individuals, what we call celebrity. And and these individuals, some of them don't even want it, but they are exalted in these ways, and and turned into one of the most useless titles in all of the English language, a celebrity pastor. I mean, how absurd is that? That's the most famous shepherd. Right?
Jeffrey Heine:Like, that's that's such a bizarre thing. But celebrity, we do this to people. We exalt them. We raise them up. We expect things from them.
Jeffrey Heine:And then when they fail, and we all do, it all comes crashing down. Celebrity is like fashion. It's just a passing vapor. It's like the morning fog that dissipates when the sun comes out to shine. See, all pastors are sinners, everyone, fallible, finite.
Jeffrey Heine:And as the body of Christ, we should desire to embody a mutual submission and service at every place of leadership and life in the church. At Redeemer, we seek to do that in our eldership. And this structure, it doesn't make us special, but it's in place to try and help us to be faithful and to be fruitful as we serve the ultimate and absolute leader of this church, Jesus Christ. Now, you might think that's fine. That sounds great.
Jeffrey Heine:But what does this have to do with me? And that's a fair question. Why does this matter to you? It matters for this. God knows everything that you need.
Jeffrey Heine:God knows everything that you need. He knows exactly what you need to thrive and flourish as a follower of Jesus. And in his providence and his wisdom and his kindness through the Holy Spirit, he has called people to serve as watchmen over your very soul, and they will have to give an account for you. So then it's our responsibility as a church family to help discern the calling of elders and to confirm that calling through what we call ordination. You know, these elders are here to love the Lord and to serve you.
Jeffrey Heine:The honor of an elder is only found in their faithfulness to watch over and care for the flock. The faithful shepherding, is to be a benefit to you. It's to be for your gain. That's why the author to the letter to the Hebrews says to follow leadership of the local shepherds, because you are to gain from their care. Eldership is designed by God that you are to thrive and to flourish because of faithful leadership.
Jeffrey Heine:That's why it matters to you. Because the church has been designed by God to have a group of sinners who trust and follow Jesus called shepherds to watch over the sheep. Shepherds who will defend, protect, and who will lay down their lives for the flock. While reflecting on the biblical qualifications for an elder, John Calvin once wrote this, quote, the title which is given to all shepherds shows plainly what it is that God calls them to do. They are to watch and take care of the flock while other men sleep, End quote.
Jeffrey Heine:Calvin went on to explain why this matters to church members, saying, quote, although the elder may be an overseer in the house of God, every member has an office to fill. When God calls some few to preach his word, he does not forsake the rest, but he will use everyone, without exception in his service. This is the condition. This is the end why God has appointed elders to preach the gospel, that everyone may devote themselves to God's service. When he confers his calling upon us to receive us into his house and adopt us for his children, it's not that we should be idle, but that God may hold us under his yoke and cause every one of us to glorify him.
Jeffrey Heine:End quote. You have a calling. You have a place in this church family to flourish and thrive, to see your gifts developed and put to use for the good of this church family and the surrounding community and the ends of the world. You have a role. You have a calling, and we are committed to walking with you to discern what that is.
Jeffrey Heine:We are committed to equip the saints for the ministry of reconciliation, the the declaration of the good news of Jesus. You have a place. You were saved and ransomed by the grace and blood of God, not to be idle, not to be still, but to serve. And part of this leadership is to care for you and to walk with you along the way. You see, by God's grace, you've been called into the family of God, And also by God's grace, he has established shepherds to watch over your soul, to preach the gospel to you when you forget it or when it seems hard to believe, to remind you of God's grace, to pray with you and to teach you to pray, to care for you, to lead you in living out your calling as the family of God, to see those gifts develop and flourish, to see you live into that calling and care for the brothers and sisters around you in this household of faith.
Jeffrey Heine:May we, with grateful hearts, praise God together that he uses adopted sinners to care for his church even today. May we with grateful hearts praise God that he sets watchmen over our souls for our good and His glory. Let's pray. Lord, as we move into this time of ordination, we pray that you would draw near to us, that we would know your care, that we would see it displayed in front of us as you bring these leaders to this this new season of of overseeing, of watchmen, or may we have the eyes to recognize that it is your loving care for us. May we receive it and take heed of the the words of the writer to the Hebrews.
Jeffrey Heine:That we would submit to leadership, not with groaning but with joy, and that we would see the benefit in our lives. Lord, help us to treasure Christ in this time. For we pray these things in his name. Amen.