Though I will show glimpses of the entire chapter tonight, I mainly want to focus on one verse found in Paul’s address to the elders at Ephesus. I want to illumine to all of us something that, before now, had escaped me every time I had read this passage.
The context is that Paul is readying himself to go to Jerusalem and is making last-minute stops throughout the region before he leaves to exhort and encourage the brethren. On this trip through the region, he arrives at Miletus and calls for all the Ephesian elders to come to him. Then he tells them that he will see them no more and exhorts them, and they prayed together, weeping, embracing, and kissing Paul for his words.
In the past I always saw this as a crucial text for how the elders and the church of God as a whole are supposed to watch out for false teachers coming into the church. And it is that indeed. But it is much more. For what I have missed in the past is verse 28. Here Paul tells the Ephesian elders, “Be one guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.”
In this verse, he tells the elders that they have a two-fold commitment. They are to be on guard for the flock, yes, but they are also to be on guard for themselves. This is what I had always missed. They are not simply commanded to be on guard for the flock but for themselves as well. This is a two-fold commandment, which Paul gives them.
And as is the nature with elders, their duties are often just heightened duties of what everyone is supposed to be involved in (see note 1). Therefore, I want to remind us tonight that we all have a two-fold commitment in the body of Christ. We are committed to be on guard for ourselves and our brothers and sisters.
But for what are we to be on guard?
Well, the content of verses 29-30 give us part of the answer, I believe. Paul says, “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.”
We are to be on guard against false teaching coming into the church and carrying us all away. And I think the second thing that the elders, all the church at Ephesus, and we are to be on guard against is the tendency for our knowledgeable and affectionate love for God and one another to grow cold.
Now, I could argue that this is wrapped up in the “perverse things” that the savage wolves that Paul spoke of would teach. For if the greatest commandment is that we love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; and the second is that we love our neighbor as ourselves, then it would seem that anyone speaking “perverse things” to lead people away from the commandments of God would lead them directly away from these two commandments.
But there is another reason I say that as well. We actually get a glimpse of what happened in the Ephesian church in one of the seven letters in the book of Revelation. And if we turn to Revelation 2:1-7, we will find that the Ephesian church did quite well in seeing and rebuking most falsehood. They tested false apostles. They hated the work of the Nicolaitans. But that which the Lord had against them is that they had left their first love, which I think should bring us back to the first and greatest commandment.
Therefore, lest we hear a familiar word from our Lord, we should heed this exhortation to be on guard for ourselves and for our brothers and sisters.
But how do we do it?
Paul gives us these answers in his exhortation and in the example of his life in this chapter. Therefore, let’s look at these, starting with how we are to be on guard for ourselves, and then how we are to be on guard for others.
We should guard ourselves from falsehood and coldness toward loving God and our brothers and sisters by:
Paul specifically tells the elders in verse 32, “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 those who are sanctified.”
The word of God is crucial in our lives. Paul knew it. That’s why he commended the Word to the Ephesian elders. That’s also why he gave much exhortation (no doubt from the Word of God) to the Macedonians in verse 2. And it’s why, when he only had one night in Troas (verses 7-12), Paul spoke throughout the night from the Word. He knew it was crucial to have the Word. It is able to build you up.
We need to be in the Word constantly. If you are not reading, learning, and even memorizing Scripture, then you are not guarding yourself from sin and from the falsehood that is being brought forth from many false teachers today. You are giving yourself no weapon against sin. For the psalmist said, “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You” (Psalm 119:11). Susanna Wesley told her son John: “This book will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this book” (see note 2).
I think that sums it up quite well. We daily need intake from the Word of God and meditation on it. Therefore, even this week we are going to make available to you Scripture memory cards that are small enough to be kept in your pocket so that you may continually meditate upon the Word, memorize it, treasure it, and hide it in your heart. This is crucial to guarding yourselves from the sin that will so easily entangle you.
I don’t know of a person led away into great falsehood and coldness toward God that personally and privately studied, treasured, read, memorized, and adored the Word of God. It’s written for you joy.
I don’t think it is a mistake that Luke mentions Paul’s traveling companions in verse 4. He writes, “And he was accompanied by Sopater of Berea, the Son of Pyrrhus; and by Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy; and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia.” And because Luke often says “we” in this chapter, we can assume that Luke traveled with him as well.
I think Luke wants us to see that Paul understood the need for close companions (if for nothing else) for the sake of accountability. We need this.
And I don’t doubt Paul knew it. He hardly ever traveled alone. He was with Barnabas, or Silas, or Timothy, or Ananias and Sapphira, or someone else. And when he had to be alone, he longed for human companionship. He tells Timothy, “Make every effort to come to me” and “Make every effort to come before winter” (2 Timothy 4:9, 21).
When Jesus sent out the seventy, he sent them out two by two. Proverbs tells us that men sharpen one another. And Ecclesiastes tells us, “Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart” (4:9-12).
To guard yourself, you need close companions and individuals with whom you can fight the enemy’s attacks. I personally have three men in my life who know everything I do. This is a system that helps me guard myself. None of us is great enough to live the Christian life alone, nor were we meant to do so.
This is something we often forget. But Paul didn’t even consider himself to have a right to live. He says in verse 24, “But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, in order that I may finish my course, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.”
The reason we will often fall into sin, falsehood, and coldness toward God and his people is because we forget or just ignore the fact that we don’t have the right to authority in our lives. This is somewhat paralleled in the law of the United States. No one has the right to kill himself. In fact, if you are a threat to kill yourself, I believe the state has the right to protect you from yourself.
As a Christian, you belong to God. He purchased you with his own blood (v. 28). Therefore, you must obey him. And if you must change the movies you watch, cut out the paper and replace it with the Bible, or get rid of things your flesh tells you that you are entitled to in order that you might live a live obedient before our Lord, then you must. You do not have the right to listen to your flesh telling you that nobody else does that or that it is illogical and stupid. You forfeited all such rights when you were purchased by God on the cross.
Therefore, discipline yourself that you might obey the authority of God in your life. Paul was willing to give his life because God had given him a command. He also writes in 1 Corinthians 9:27, “I [discipline] my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.”
These things, combined with prayer, are the major things that we must practice to guard ourselves from falsehood and coldness toward our Lord.
Then your responsibility to guard others in these areas will flow out of that. For you guard your brothers and sisters by:
1) Admonishing and encouraging them from the Word of God.
I have already shown you three examples of Paul encouraging them with the Word, but he also encouraged them with tears. He reminds them of three years in which he did not “cease to admonish each one with tears” (v. 31). And then commends them in verse 32 to the Word of God.
We need to admonish our brothers and sisters from the Word as well. Just take what you’ve been reading on and meditating on in your day and exhort and admonish from that. This is what I find myself having to do daily.
And you are right to make the connection that to do that to others you must be feeding on the Word yourself. That’s why I ordered this the way I did.
For example, one of our verses for this week is John 1:1-3, which says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” Therefore, when one of your brothers or sisters begins to have doubt and confusion as to how Jesus could be both man and God and is confused about the deity of Christ, you admonish them with the truth from this verse.
And that’s just one application. This verse is also assuring to individuals waiting for God to show himself in providing for their needs. In moments where it seems like it is going to take the impossible, you can remind them with this word that Jesus Christ made the world, and so their problem is small in comparison to his ability and power.
Do not cease admonishing one another like this, for this is your responsibility to your brothers and sisters.
2) Being an example for those around you.
I’ve said before that one of the greatest ways you can encourage someone to godly living is by modeling it for them. Paul does this for the elders. For remember, he is encouraging them to guard the flock, and even as Christ often did, he teaches them by pointing to his own actions. He says, “[Remember] that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each on with tears” (v. 31). He is pointing to himself as a model of what to do.
We need to be able to do the same. That’s why the call to guard the flock is followed by the call to guard yourselves.
3) Truly caring for one another as God does.
Why should you truly love your brothers and sisters in Christ? Because you claim to love God and God loves them so much that he gave his Son for them.
I think that is what Paul is reminding the elders in verse 28 as he tells them, “Be one guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.”
How can anyone claim to love God if he does not love his brothers and sisters for whom God gave his own life? We need to remind ourselves of God’s love for his body that we might love them even as he has loved us.
Therefore, I exhort you tonight, make a practice of these things that you might be on guard for yourselves and your brothers and sisters. Let’s fight to be a covenant community of believers of whom the Lord says, “Well done, my good and faithful servants.”
Amen.