Pay Attention
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)
The verse above comes from Paul’s final exhortation to the leaders of the church of Ephesus at the end of his third missionary journey. Paul first visited Ephesus during his second missionary journey and spent considerable time there during his third missionary journey. Paul had a deep affection for the body in Ephesus and his charge to the leadership was not to be taken lightly. Paul also knew this was the last time he would speak with this group. Paul didn’t sugar coat the critical responsibility these leaders had nor did he minimize the vicious attack that was to come upon them from both inside and outside the church. As Gibborim, there’s a lot we can take away from Paul’s inspired words.
“Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock”. As men of action, we should always seek the verb when it comes to the practical application of the Word of God. In this case, the Greek word translated as ‘pay careful attention’ in the ESV is also translated as ‘beware’ (be aware). Jesus used the same word several times in His teachings. The awareness starts with self. If we’re not aware of our own spiritual, mental and physical status we’re not likely to be of much use to others. When we’re centered in Christ, we’re in the right frame to tend to those we’re responsible for. We also need to keep track of our entire flock. If one in our charge wanders, we need to be aware and go after them. In order to know who’s missing, we first have to know everyone who’s supposed to be there. Your flock includes your family, your fire team, your local body and anyone else the Lord has entrusted to you.
“in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers”. Once again we’ll start with the verb, “has made”. In the ESV this can also be translated as “put in place”. God, through His Spirit, put you in the exact position you’re at, over the specific individuals you’re with, for His divine purpose. He’s done this so you can fulfill the role He’s called you to which is to be an overseer. The Greek word used, episkopos, is often used to describe an elder in the church. This definition of episkopos, taken from Blue Letter Bible, captures the essence well, “a man charged with the duty of seeing that things to be done by others are done rightly”. In short we have a God given responsibility of ensuring those under our watch do what is right by God’s standard without compromise. Will we do this perfectly at all times? Not even close! Regardless, we must have clarity on the expectations of the job description and knowledge of Who will judge our efforts. Remember men, we give our best effort and not our best excuses.
“to care for the church of God”. If the last phrase didn’t offer clarity, Paul leaves no room for misinterpretation with this phrase. The verb, “to care for”, is actually shepherding. This ties back to the word used for ‘flock’ (sheep) in the first phrase. The job description of the shepherd is laid out in Psalm 23. In short the shepherd provides, instructs, guides, restores, leads, protects, comforts and prepares. Jesus gives further instruction and counsel for the shepherd in John 10. The shepherd must be known by his sheep and his sheep must trust him in order to follow him. Jesus has set the standard and modeled the behavior He expects from those He appoints. Luke 10 starts with Jesus sending out the 72 to go reach the flock. Upon their return Jesus addresses the disciples, who are joyfully recounting their efforts, reminding them that their success came from His power and that their greatest victory is to be counted among the righteous for being obedient to His call.
“which He obtained with His own blood”. Let there be no confusion or misunderstanding about the value Jesus associates with His call upon us to care for our flock, He purchased it with His blood! There will be times when shepherding our flock is not what we feel like doing. Whether we want to put ourselves first, dismiss the effort because we’re frustrated by our ‘sheep’, or we’re just plain lazy it’s important to remember that none of this will hold water when we give an account to our Lord. We know from Scripture that Jesus agonized in the garden the night before His crucifixion. He knew full well the abuse He would receive, the disrespect He would be shown and most of all the emptiness He would feel as He was separated from the Father. Despite all this Jesus obediently fulfilled the will of God. He did this for our sake not His. I implore you to keep this in mind the next time you don’t feel like shepherding your flock.
Going back to Luke 10, Jesus provides an example of three shepherds called to care for one member of the flock. These verses are familiar to us as the parable of the Good Samaritan. In the parable, the priest was too concerned with self to care for the one placed before him. The Levite was too concerned with rules and rituals to recognize that love of others is more important to God than the blood of bulls and rams. The Samaritan, the least likely of the three from the perspective of the listeners, was the one who reflected the character of Christ. After giving the parable, Jesus poses a question to the lawyer who sought to test Him. The lawyer answered the question correctly by identifying which of the three was the proper shepherd. After hearing the response, Jesus instructed the lawyer to, “go and do likewise”. Brothers, when it comes to caring for our flock as Jesus has demonstrated for us, He is giving us the same instruction, “go and do likewise”.