A Verse for Elders

As many of you may know I am an elder at my local church.  As such I paid special attention to Acts 20:13-38 where Paul addressed the elders of the church at Ephesus.  This is the only recorded speech to Christians in the book of Acts, so Dr. Luke put it in there for a very special reason.

I read this passage again this last week as I prepared to teach on this chapter for adult discipleship class and there is a lot that stood out.  But one verse was especially poignant.

"Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.  Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood." Acts 20:28

The first thing that jumped off the page is that the first person an elder is required to watch over is himself.  Elders, or any other in any other church office, are not super-Christians.  Elders are not immune to the cancer of sin metastasizing in their flesh.  Elders must watch themselves first.  Elders must remove planks from their own eyes.   Elder teams must remove planks from each other's eyes. Men, this will help keep us humble and healthy enough to do the task.

Secondly, elders are to keep watch over the people of their local church.  Keeping watch implies activity.  Keeping watch over others requires work.  It requires knowledge of others.  It demands the elder be in the pen with the sheep not sitting gazing with binoculars from afar.  Elders must be in relationship with those they are charged with watching.  Is every elder able to do this for every member?  No, that is why elders are always multiple in the New Testament.  If your church has just a single pastor-elder then you should recommend that you remedy that and get your pastor the help of at least one another elder.

Lastly, the most heavy words that I read in this lone verse: Elders must "be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood."  The task is to look after a possession not your own.  The job is to oversee people bought through the death of Jesus Christ Himself!

In 1656 Richard Baxter wrote these words in his book The Reformed Pastor:

"Oh then, let us hear these arguments of Christ, whenever we feel ourselves grow dull and careless: Did I die for them, and wilt not thou look after them?  Were they worth my blood and are they not worth thy labour?  Did I come down from heaven to earth, to seek and to save that which was lost; and wilt thou not go to the next door or street or village to seek them?  How small is thy labour and condescension as to mine?  I debased myself to this, but it is thy honour to be so employed.  Have I done and suffered so much for their salvation; and was I willing to make thee a co-worker with me, and wilt thou refuse that little that lieth upon thy hands."

Elders, our task is a difficult and noble task.  Elders, our task is beyond our doing perfectly, but let us do it full bore.  I have failed in the position several times, including recently, but let us never fail because we love our Lord too little and think too little of His blood.  Elders, keep watch over yourself and all the flock that the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.  And elders, let us not forget whose flock it is and who's blood bought it today.