“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 20:8)
At some point, Paul must have received a word from the Holy Spirit to return to Jerusalem. He may also have been warned that something serious was going to happen to him because apparently one faction of the Jews had conspired against him because they resented all of the preaching he had down among the Gentiles and because he had harsh words with the Jews he had encountered.
Before Paul left for Jerusalem, he gave a tear-filled farewell to the elders of the church of Ephesus. He reminded the pastors that they must watch over themselves, as well as the flock over which the Holy Spirit had made them responsible. They are to be shepherds of God’s church, to teach, feed, and guide them. But the flock, the people belong to God. They are His servants just as are the pastors. Thus pastors have a great responsibility to care for the flock, but perhaps the greatest and most arduous of the tasks of the shepherd is to guard and protect the sheep from the wolves and predators, the false teachers. False teachers will arise from within as well as from outside of the church and devastate Christ’s flock, distorting the truth, and seducing the people to forsake the gospel and follow them instead.
As we must realize, the words of the gospel do win a lot of converts for they have the power of God to convict and convince. Yet the gospel also cuts the other way. It creates enemies and opponents who desire power for themselves and who hate the truth of God’s grace and mercy. Thus we should never be surprised when we take a firm stand for the truth of God’s word and other people hate and despise us and try to silence us by abuse, violence or even the law. In addition, we must pray for our pastors that they would be encouraged, enlightened and strengthened by the Lord at all times.
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