Acts 20:28-32
Monday will be two week since Jan and I attended the
celebration of Wayne Thomas’ life, and how Wayne let Jesus Christ live in his
earthsuit while on planet earth. Before
the service, Jan and I were talking in the foyer with many people whom we have
known for years, when I saw Pastor Mark Estep visiting with an old friend, Kyle
(Fred) Bergeron, who has been the area manager for a large real-estate company,
and on greeting them Kyle told me he was no longer doing that, now he was just
in sales. Kyle went on to tell Pastor
Mark that being over a large group of people was much like running a
church. I replied that he could not be
more wrong, that the two did not compare.
This was all done in light conversation but this morning as I read Acts
20:28; Paul’s instruction to the elders of the church at Ephesus, and to all
the elders since, the words jumped off the page at me.
“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.” (Acts
20:28 ESV) Now if you were part of that
conversation, it was not light, that was some very deep waters for the
elders. Paul, letting the Holy Spirit
wiggle his lips, shared how they were to pay careful attention to themselves
and to all the people the Holy Spirit had given them in his church. The apostle reminds them that God is mighty
and that His grace is the search engine that is needed to be an overseer to His
church. He goes on to share that (Grace)
is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are
sanctified. Sanctified can be defined
as: free from the power of sin, not sinless, but sin has no authority over us,
though, sin is always a choice, after one comes into a relationship with
Christ. That goes for the overseers as
well as the pew sitters!
If each person who has felt the call into fulltime church
work, was instructed in this manner it would be a wise person who reminded them
of what the Holy Spirit said through the apostle Paul. This should be shared; “I know that after my departure fierce
wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own
selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after
them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease
night or day to admonish every one with tears. And now I commend you to God and
to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the
inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
(Acts 20:29-32 ESV)
We who are referred to as (the flock) must also be alert, we
are told by the Spirit of God to; “Do your best to
present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be
ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”
(2Timothy
2:15) We should be like the Jews in
Berea who received the word with all eagerness, and they examined the Scripture
daily to see if these things were so.
Why is the flock easy prey, because they sit at the trough of some
pastor who may be one of those the Holy Spirit is referring to as speaking
twisted things, to draw away disciples after themselves. If you are like the Bereans that will not be
the case, for the Scriptures will expose such a person.
Now
let me close with a word about my friend Wayne, he could easily have been
called a Berean, in that he searched the Scriptures and I knew him to be a man
of prayer because he was part of a group of men who for years met on Saturday
morning to pray, I was blessed by and often confronted by my friend Wayne. He understood that grace was a free gift,
that it was grace that made him acceptable before God, it was grace that put
the love of Christ in him and that it was through grace that God poured out his
love for him. It was the power of grace
that showed Wayne that he was not on a performance-based acceptance but a Jesus-based acceptance. If you do not know about grace, ask Jesus to
open your eyes and bring someone to teach you the ways of God.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
No comments:
Post a Comment