Old Testament Lesson; Psalm 23
Epistle Lesson; Acts 20:17-35
Gospel Lesson; John 10:27-30
Sermon Text; Acts 20:17-35

I am going to begin with a little, early, church history. Holy Cross Lutheran Church actually has a connection with the early, New Testament Church in Ephesus, (which is where today's scripture reading takes place)! Our scripture reading takes place with a congregation called the Ephesian Congregation. The Ephesian Congregation was founded by St. Paul, and was one of his missionary churches. And so, the Ephesian Congregation goes back to the earliest days of the Christian Church.

It just so happens that in one of the earliest Christian Church buildings in the city of Ephesus, was discovered a cross that dates way back to the early second or third century. The cross that was discovered in that early church in Ephesus, is the cross that our cross at Holy Cross is modeled after.

Our cross has been in front of this congregation for over forty years. And, I think most of you could tell me the letters that are up there, on our cross. They are the letters "I C," which are the abbreviation for "Jesu, Jesus." And then "X C," which is the abbreviation for "Christus, Christ." And finally, at the bottom are the letters, "N I K A Conquers," which is Greek for "Jesus Christ conquers by the cross."

And so, our connection to that early, Ephesian church is that we have the same symbol in front of our church that they had in front of their congregation almost two millennium ago.

Now, a little, early, New Testament history. On his second missionary journey, St. Paul founded the Ephesian Congregation. He started a little mission church there. By the work of the Holy Spirit, working through the Word, there were children, adults, singles, and married people who became believers in Jesus, as their Savior. And so, a little congregation started in Ephesus.

On his third missionary trip, St. Paul stopped at that congregation again, and built it up even more. It came to be a real thriving congregation, there in the city of Ephesus. In fact, it was such a thriving congregation that as Paul spent time there, he trained pastors. We know that the Ephesian Congregation was apparently large enough that they did not just have one pastor, they had at least two, if not more pastors. (They were called elders, at that time.) That congregation had at least several pastors that were trained by St. Paul. It was a thriving, Christian congregation.

At the end of his third missionary journey, Paul was in a hurry to get to the city of Jerusalem. He was taking with him an offering. It had been revealed to St. Paul, by God, that when he got to Jerusalem, he was going to be arrested, and would be imprisoned for his faith in Christ. And yet, he was set to go to the city of Rome and ready to suffer for Christ. He was in a hurry to get there. In his hurry to get there, his ship was going to be sailing past the congregation of Ephesus. You can imagine a pastor going past or getting really close to the town where he started a congregation. How his heart must have wanted to stop in that city of Ephesus and see how the people were doing, see how the flock was doing, talk with the teenagers, talk with the young children, talk with the families who maybe he had taken through some marriage struggles and helped them look at the Word of God. Certainly, his heart wanted to stop at the city of Ephesus. However, the Bible tells us he chose not to stop in Ephesus, because he was afraid that he would be delayed, if he stopped there. It would probably be pretty hard to break away from talking to those people.

So, here is what Paul did. He sent a message to the pastors in that congregation and told them, "I want you to meet me in Miletus." That was not very far away. And so, Paul's ship docked in Miletus and there the pastors came to meet Paul.

And, that is where we pick up today's scripture reading. Paul is now talking to the pastors of the Ephesian congregation and he is saying his final farewell to them. He is telling them, "This is the last time I will ever see you." He knew that he was eventually going to die for his faith in Jesus, as his Savior. And so, he talked to these pastors, and gave them his final charge, as pastors.

As we look at what St. Paul says to them, I want us to really concentrate on two things, this morning. Number one, Paul makes, as does scripture, a very interesting connection between Christ and pastors. Maybe that is most easily seen if you could speak Spanish. We say it this way - "Jesus said, 'I am the Good Shepherd.'" But if you say that in Spanish, Jesus, in Spanish would say, "Yo soy el bueno pastor" I am the Good Pastor, the Good Shepherd. ‘Pastor’ means ‘Shepherd’

Jesus is the Good Shepherd.

He is the Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep.

He is the Shepherd who purchased the sheep.

He is the Shepherd to whom the flock belongs.

He is the Shepherd who loves His sheep.

He is the Shepherd who feeds His sheep and cares for His sheep.

He is the Shepherd with whom the sheep have no fears, even though they walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

What did Jesus say to Peter, when he restored Peter back to his office of ministry? That Good Shepherd said to Peter, "Peter, feed my sheep. Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep." He was placing Peter as an under-shepherd over the sheep. What does St. Paul say to these pastors from Ephesus, that he trained. What does he say to them?

He said, "Keep watch over yourselves and all of the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers."

and then he goes on and says, "Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood."

And so, here, St. Paul, in his last speech to these pastors, impresses upon them that they are to watch over the flock of Christ. This is not their flock. He says, "This is the flock that Christ purchased with His own blood."

As Paul thinks about the children in that congregation, the teenagers, the young families, the widows, and his heart goes out to them, knowing he will never see them again, he tells these pastors, "You watch over this flock. This is Christ's flock. He purchased them. They are dear to Him. He purchased them with His own blood. He forgives their sins. You feed them. You watch over them. You take care of them in a proper way."

He lays a heavy responsibility and heavy burden on the pastors, the under-shepherds of Christ. And so, the pastors do have a heavy responsibility and a heavy burden. They are to be faithful shepherds, under-shepherds of Christ, which means they are to do nothing, nothing that would lead anybody away from the true Shepherd, the Good Shepherd. Every thing a pastor does is to lead the flock.

The flock should be led to Jesus.

Now, given all of that, St. Paul, then says something rather startling, shocking, and maybe a little frightening to this group of pastors he had called together. After he impresses upon them their responsibility of watching over this flock of Christ, he then gives them a warning. What does he say?

He said, "I know that after I leave, (after I get on that ship and sail away, and I won't come back again, after I leave), savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number, (even from your own number), men will arise and distort the truth, in order to draw away disciples after them!"

If you were the devil (thank God you are not) and you wanted to lead astray the flock of Christ, if you wanted to lead astray the lambs and sheep of Christ, (as many as you could), and you were to put on some camouflage to camouflage yourself, so that they would look at you and say, "There is a safe way to go and a safe person to follow," what kind of camouflage would you put on? Well, here in this church, the safest camouflage to put on would be a white robe, with a stole like this, a cross around your neck, and a Bible in your hand.

Paul warns the pastors, "Even from your own number (talking to the pastors) men will arise and distort the truth."

How is the flock led astray? Here, Paul says it is when the Word of God is distorted. When the Word is distorted, the sheep can be led astray from the Savior, from the true Shepherd, the Good Shepherd. And, the ultimate thing for you to consider, as the flock, is that you should know your doctrine well enough and clearly enough that if your pastor preaches or teaches falsely, you as a flock, will recognize it. And then, you as a flock will stand up, and out of love, correct him for teaching or preaching other than the Word of God teaches or preaches.

You know, I did an interesting, little, experiment in Chapel, earlier this week, with our school children. I described two situations. I said, "Suppose it is fifteen years from now. You have grown up. You have moved to a different town. You are married and you have children. Now you have to pick a church to go to. And, there are two churches in town."

Then I said, "Suppose you go to the first church on the first Sunday. And when you go in, there is an old pastor who is wearing a robe. He stands up in front of the church, and talks slowly. His speaking is pretty boring and he doesn't have many illustrations in his sermon. After his sermon, you sing some slow hymns. And then, you go home."

"The next Sunday you try out the second church. When you go in, there is a young pastor, who is not wearing a robe. He is a vibrant speaker and he has good illustrations. The songs are fun and you are lifted up."

"Now you have to pick one of those two churches. Which one would you pick? How many of you would pick the first church?"

Just two or three hands went up.

Then I said, "How many of you would pick the second church?"

Almost all of the hands went up (and mine probably would have too).

However, then I looked at the kids and said, "Now, there was something missing from the description about both of those churches, something that is critical, before we make a decision on which of those churches to go to. What was the critical thing that was missing?"

I could see the wheels turning, as they were thinking, "Oh yeah. We forgot something. We forgot something really important."

And what was it? I did not make any mention, as I described those churches, about what they taught. The question is, "Do they teach the true, pure, Word of God? As sheep, the flock of Christ, it is so critical that you, as God's people know your doctrine, your teachings, your scripture well enough that you can recognize if and when a pastor may teach falsely, whether it happen here at Holy Cross (God forbid, but it could) or elsewhere. I cannot encourage you enough, as a flock, to study your scriptures. The Bible tells us the Bereans tested the teaching of St. Paul and searched the scriptures daily to see if what Paul said was true. What an awesome attitude those people had! They knew where to find the voice of the Savior. Where is the voice of the Savior?

The voice of the Savior

is found

in His Word.

That is where He speaks to us. We want to be trained, as God’s people, that we don't listen to any other voices.

You know, it is easy to listen, for example, to the voice of human reason. "Doesn't it make sense? Isn't it logical?"

But, wait a second! That is not how Christ speaks. Often, what He says may even seem to go against human reason. We listen to the voice of Christ, not the voice of human reason.

It may be easy for us to listen to the voice of the world. The voice of the world may say, "But look. That is old fashioned. That is not the way we look at things anymore."

That is the voice of the world, but that is not the voice of the Good Shepherd. We listen to scripture. Scripture never goes out of date and is never old fashioned. We listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd, not the voice of the world.

It may be easy to listen to the voice of experience. "Isn't it your experience that if you do ‘this’, or you do ‘that,’ then 'such and such' will happen?"

Often, things may appear very contrary to what our experience is telling us. The Bible says,

"Faith

is being sure of things we don't see."

No! We don't listen to the voice of experience. We listen to the voice of Christ.

The voice of the Savior

is found

in His Word.

We, as Christ’s sheep, are to be trained to hear and recognize the voice of Christ. And so, I cannot encourage you enough to dive into your Bibles. If you have an opportunity to go to Bible Study, here at Holy Cross, I encourage you to go to Bible Study, where we can dig more deeply into the Word of God. I cannot encourage you enough to get out your Bibles and read them. Read them! Read them, even if it is just a little bit, every day, and recognize in there the voice of your Savior.

Ultimately, ultimately the point is this. The pastor, who serves as the under-shepherd of Christ, is to feed the flock the pure Word of God, the true Word of God, and to watch over doctrine, and be true in doctrine. And, the flock is to test the doctrine of the pastor. So that together, hand in hand, the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and nothing distracts from the cross of Christ.

What is the problem with false doctrine? Jesus put it so simply when He said, (I learned it this way), "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." Now, we say, "A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough."

A little false doctrine can infect all the doctrines of scriptures in the end. A little false doctrine can ultimately attack that cross we have in front of our church,

"Jesus Christ

conquers by the cross."

The most critical teaching that we have in our lives is

we are saved

by grace alone,

through faith alone,

in Christ alone.

Jesus died for my sins.

My sins are paid for.

He is the only way to Heaven.

His Word and His Sacrament are what keep me safe

and feed me.

May we be a church that continues to preach, teach, and focus on that, and protect that teaching, as well as all the other teachings in scripture. Jesus Christ conquers by the cross.

Amen.