As Paul continues sharing his parting words with the Ephesian elders, he commands them to prioritize their walk with Christ and watch out for "wolves."
Transcription (automatically-generated):
Just want to warn you, this week will not be the usual fluffy and soft content that I'm known for. This week is going to hit a little bit harder, so just prepare yourself for that. And as we rejoin our study in the Book of Acts, the Apostle Paul is on his way to Jerusalem. Following the leading of the Holy Spirit, he stopped in the coastal town of Miletus, where he has called the elders of the Church from nearby Ephesus to come and meet with him one last time. And Ephesus, you may recall, was one of the most prominent cities in the Roman province of Asia, which is known today as the country of Turkey.
And Paul had planted a church there while ministering there for around three years. We ended our previous study in the middle of Paul's parting words to the elders from Ephesus. And that's where we pick things up today. In Acts, chapter 20, verse 28, Paul tells them, be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock of which. And then I just want to encourage you to underline the rest of the verse - of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers to shepherd the Church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.
Paul's speech to the Ephesian elders is considered one of the most important texts in the New Testament. And as we go through it slowly, you're going to understand more and more. Why? Because the implications are seismic. They're massive.
What Paul says has tremendous implications for the Church today. There's a ton of important stuff in just this one verse here. First, Paul exhorts the elders - be on guard for yourselves. The first calling of any Christian, even if they're an elder or a pastor, is their walk with the Lord. The priority must not be the spouse, the children, or the ministry.
It must be Christ. Personally, nothing we can do for the Lord can serve as a substitute for a relationship with the Lord. He lacks nothing, he needs nothing. But he is a Father, and so he is blessed by interacting with his children. If you love someone, you want to be with them.
You don't want them to just go out and do stuff on your behalf in your name. Instead, I love you. I want to be with you. I know that. But what if instead of that, I went out and, like, washed people's cars in your name?
Wouldn't that be great? It's not a substitute. Now, don't get me wrong. God calls us to do good works, but not as a substitute for spending time with him. Your fellowship with God is the most important ministry.
You can do the most. And so Paul's counsel to the Ephesian elders is to recognize that they cannot fulfill their calling to minister as shepherds in the Church unless they are regularly receiving ministry from the great Shepherd Jesus Christ themselves. And of course, this is true in a sense, for every Christian. We cannot pour out that which has not been poured into us. We cannot love anybody with the love of Christ unless we are regularly experiencing the love of Christ ourselves.
We cannot offer anybody the comfort of Christ unless we are regularly receiving the comfort of Christ. We cannot rightly correct a brother or sister unless we are regularly receiving the Lord's correction. We cannot pour out that which has not been poured into us. And I can be so foolish regarding this principle because I can see the goodness of God's ways. I can perceive how good his love and comfort and truth and correction are.
And yet my response is, I'm going to work really hard at doing those things. I am going to strive to be like Jesus, and it inevitably doesn't work. My effort and my desire were sincere, but I failed to understand the principle that Paul is alluding to. Christ pours out of me when Christ has been poured into me. Would you write that down?
It's your first fill-in - Christ pours out of me when Christ has been poured into me. And so trying to have Christ come out of you in the way you interact with others when he hasn't been poured into you is like trying to draw water from a stone. It cannot be done. In his final epistle, written to his pastoral protege Timothy, Paul explained. Now tune in here.
Paul explained what Jesus looks for in the man or woman that he uses for effective ministry. And this is what Paul told Timothy. It's on your outlines. I don't think it actually is on your outlines, so never mind. Pay attention to me.
In a large house, it's there. Okay, good. I should give myself more credit. I'm diligent. Okay.
In a large house, there are not only gold and silver vessels but also those of wood and clay, some for honorable use and some for dishonorable. Now, a vessel was just an object that could hold something, a cup, a plate, a jar, a chest, even a bedpan, anything like that. And so Paul says, in a large house, some vessels are for honorable use, like a gold cup for wine. Others are made for dishonorable use, like a wooden box for trash or food scraps. And then he goes on and he says, so, if anyone purifies himself from anything dishonorable, he will be a special instrument set apart, useful to the master, prepared for every good work.
Here's Paul's point. Only clean vessels of high quality were used for honorable purposes. So if anyone wants to be used effectively by God for ministry, they must embrace self-examination. They must embrace correction and turn from sin. They must live sanctified lives, meaning set-apart lives.
The pursuit must be a life free from sin, driven by obedience to the Lord Jesus. Such a person is making themselves ready to be used by the Lord for purposes that he deems honorable. All Christians are called to holiness. All Christians. But the elder cannot function effectively in the role of shepherd if he is not walking in holiness.
And here's what makes true holiness so difficult. It's internal. The Lord is not interested in good deeds that conceal an ugly heart. He calls such good deeds filthy rags. The Lord is interested in making our hearts like his.
And when good works flow from a heart that's been changed by the Lord, well, he finds those beautiful. Before encountering Christ, Paul says that he had mastered the art of good works that mask an ugly heart. But after encountering Christ, Paul called all those old good works rubbish. And that's why his counselor to the Ephesian elders is essentially the same as Solomon's, who wrote in Proverbs, guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life. If you don't let the Lord pour into your heart, you won't have anything good to pour into anybody else.
And if you don't guard your heart and value holiness, you will cut off what God wants to pour into your heart, because that's what sin does. Remember, we've been talking about this the last few weeks? Sin causes us to turn away from God, to turn our backs to God so that we can't receive from him. That's the picture. The picture is God over here, offering his love, his joy, his peace, his hope, all these things he's faithful to offer them.
But when we embrace sin, we turn our backs on God. And then you know what we do. Where are you, God? Why can't I experience you? Why can't I feel your peace?
Where are you? Did God turn away? No, we did. You cannot turn to sin without also turning away from God. And you cannot turn to God without also turning away from sin.
It's an immutable law of the spiritual life. And that's why the solution to sin is repentance. Turning away from sin, turning back to God so that we can receive from him what he wants to pour into our lives. Many churches pray for revival. I pray for revival.
Revival is a sovereign move of God that he works at his sole discretion. But one common denominator that shows up in many great, genuine historical revivals is a passion for holiness, a church that is gripped by the understanding that the most important thing is my walk with the Lord. And when this happens, when a church is gripped by that, people in the Church become overwhelmed by their sinfulness. They see themselves clearly, and the Lord works in his people a deep desire to be sanctified, a deep desire to be holy, to be set apart, to be vessels fit for honorable use by the Lord. Genuine revivals rarely start the way you think they would.
They don't start with people going out and evangelizing like crazy and inviting as many people to church as they can. They start with people who become consumed by a Spirit-driven passion to be honorable vessels, a church that is pleasing to Christ. And as the Lord purifies his church, he begins to move and to draw people and give boldness to the brethren and convict people of their sin. And so if you long to see revival as I do, I want to encourage you to pray that the Lord would work that in you, that he would work that in us, that we might be transformed into honorable vessels individually and honorable vessel collectively as the Church fit for God's purposes. Because when that happens, we will see extraordinary things begin to happen, extraordinary supernatural things.
Mom. Dad. Husband. Wife. Brother.
Sister. Daughter. Son. Friend. Coworker.
Fellow student. I want to encourage you to apply this principle to your own life. Hear me on this. We cannot change people, and often people have no interest in Christ. So what do you do?
You pray for them, but you ask the Lord to fill you. You ask him to change you and transform you into an honorable vessel. And then you watch and wait and see what the Lord does with a vessel that is set apart for his purposes. Paul's first major point in verse 28 is that an elder cannot effectively shepherd the Church unless he is regularly receiving ministry himself from the great Shepherd, Jesus Christ. Second, Paul tells the elders, the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers.
Now this is interesting because Paul had selected and appointed these elders. Yet he says, the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers. The Bible provides character and gifting requirements for elders. We're using elder as a synonym for pastor, but it is the Holy Spirit who gives those gifts, who raises men up, who stirs their hearts with a desire to serve, and then reveals those men to the Church. Paul understood that by appointing these men as elders, he was simply acknowledging what the Holy Spirit was doing.
And Lord willing, when we appoint additional elders in the future. That's what we will be doing, simply acknowledging what the Holy Spirit is doing among us. Paul's words are one reason I disagree with the way almost all Bible colleges and seminaries function. Men sign up for a Bible college because they've decided they want to be a full-time pastor. None of those colleges investigate the lives of their applicants to see if they measure up to the biblical requirements of elders.
None of them test to see if they are able to teach as the Scriptures require of elders. They just take their money, and if they pass their classes and keep paying, they'll give them a piece of paper that says they're qualified to be a pastor. You cannot earn a calling. You can't. The Holy Spirit does not trade cash and classes for the office of elder.
The character of a man's life and the giftings given him by God reveal whether he is being appointed by the Holy Spirit to be an elder. And if that happens, that man should want to live up to that high calling, which may include education. But Bible College is far from the only way to get such an education, and no education can qualify him to be an elder. Here's what I would tell someone, however young, who believes they may be called to one day be a pastor in the church. Four simple things I would say.
Number one, do what Paul says and focus on your own. Walk with Christ. First, find a biblical church with elders who set an example worth emulating and become a member of that church. Secondly, involve yourself in the life of that church as much as you can. Let the elders know you want to serve wherever it's most needed.
Let them know you believe that you may 1 day be called to be a pastor. Be a blessing to the body. Pray with people, meet with people, encourage them. Learn how to listen well to people. Thirdly, ask the elders what books you should read and how you can grow in your understanding of ministry.
And then fourth, as you serve, study, and do ministry alongside those elders, you will grow. And if you're faithful and little, the Lord will trust you to be faithful and much it'll happen. But I would say those if there's anyone here or anyone watching or listening who feels called to be a pastor, I don't think you want to work in a church that says what we're really looking for in a pastor is someone with a seminary degree. Because I don't think that's biblical. I don't think you want to work in that church, and I don't think that's the path you want to follow, because that's just not how we see the Lord do things in the Bible.
If you're wondering why those standards are so high for men who serve as elders, if you've ever read the qualifications in Scripture, if you're wondering why the standards are so high for men who want to shepherd the Church of God, Paul tells us the reason, and I had you underline it. Here's the reason why there's high standards. It's the Church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. The gravity of that statement will overwhelm any man genuinely called to be a pastor. The Church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.
Scripture is explicit. The Church does not belong to men, but to God. Therefore, the purpose of the church is not to please men, but God. And those who would shepherd his flock must be clear about those facts. So write this down.
The purpose of the church is not to please men, but God, because he purchased the Church with his own blood. In the Epistle of Titus, Paul wrote this about Jesus. He gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself, a people for his own possession, eager to do good works. And our brother Peter wrote, you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. The Church exists for Jesus.
She does not exist for the community, for the poor, for social services and programs to improve marriages and families, or anything else. The church exists for Jesus to bless, serve, and minister to him, and he may lead his church to serve him in all kinds of ways, like the ones I just mentioned. But none of them are the reason those church exists or the Church's ultimate destiny. The Church exists for Jesus. Therefore, the only metric that a biblical church uses to evaluate itself is the word of God.
We look at the Scriptures, we observe what the Lord wants his church to be, and we give ourselves to becoming that church. That's how we measure success. In Ephesians five, Paul wrote about the example of Christ's sacrificial love for the Church. Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. He did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless.
The Church exists for Jesus. To the Corinthians, Paul wrote, I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy because I have promised you in marriage to one husband, to present a pure virgin to Christ. Paul was the greatest pastor who ever lived. Do you hear, in his words, his passion and his desire to see the Church made holy? Do you grasp in his writings the sense that this is the greatest obsession?
The Church is to have holiness set-apart-ness for Christ. How Paul longed to see the church turn from sin and be sanctified for Christ. Because when the Church does that, she is fulfilling her destiny, the very reason she exists. When you understand this, things like preservice prayer become a big deal because you suddenly understand we're not simply arranging uncomfortable chairs in an odd shape in a rundown gym and then taking turns to pray for 20 minutes. We're fulfilling the destiny of the Church.
We're being who Christ wants his church to be. We're focusing on the most important thing, which is ministering to the Lord. Paul loved the church because Jesus loved the Church, and Paul loved Jesus. Knowing that the Lord has purchased the church with his own blood, Paul couldn't help but value and treasure the people of God.
It doesn't matter how you feel about the Church. It doesn't matter. Disciples of Jesus get their perspective of the Church from Christ's perspective on the church and with his own blood. Jesus has said, my church is priceless. It's priceless.
May the Lord fill our hearts with his love for his church and understand this. Your value, your worth, was established on the cross of Calvary. You are priceless.
How do I know? Because the blood of Jesus was priceless, and it's the price that was paid for you. No accolades or accomplishments or affirmations or achievements could raise your value higher than Christ has raised it.
The only question is, will you serve the God who has valued you as being priceless? Because whether you're a believer or not, he's established your worth as being priceless.
BJ and I always do our best to point out issues related to the text. We try to never make the text say something it doesn't say. But we also don't shy away from the implications of the text. And this text has some important and clear applications for church membership that I need to highlight because you'll see how plain it is. So let's look at verse 28 that we've just read, and let's just ask some logical questions.
How did the Ephesians know who was part of the flock that Paul was referring to? How did they know who was part of the Church of God in Ephesus? How did they identify them? When we reach verse 30, Paul is going to refer to men in their church as being, quote, from their own number, end quote. That means they were literally numbering them.
They were pointing and identifying those who were part of their church. And here's what we know from the Book of Acts and the New Testament. It wasn't simply showing up occasionally at the church service that made you part of the flock and part of that church's own number. You had to be a Christian, you had to be baptized, you had to be committed to living as a Christian, as an individual and a member of the church in all the ways the Bible describes. And there were qualifications for being part of the Church.
It wasn't a thing where you could just identify yourself and say, I identify as a member of the Church, therefore I am one. And one thing the Bible describes explicitly right here is that the Holy Spirit appoints elders to be overseers of the flock, overseers of the local church. So understand this. This is what Jesus wants. This is how Jesus wants his Church structured.
Therefore, if a Christian refuses to submit to the leadership of the elders who have been appointed by the Holy Spirit, who is that Christian rebelling against? Not the elders, the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit said, these men are to lead this local church, and a Christian says, well, I'm not going to be led by them, they're not rebelling against the elders. They're rebelling against the Holy Spirit who appointed them. Elders in that church, the Lord gave us the scriptures so that we could test the leadership of our elders against the will of God.
You can look in the Bible and see if what the elders are calling you to do is biblical or not. And if they're calling you to disobey the will of God, you should not do it. You should confront them based on the Scriptures. But if a Christian refuses to submit to the leadership of the church's elders, they cannot be numbered with the flock because you're not part of the flock if you refuse to follow the leadership of the shepherds that Christ has appointed over the church. And I know this chafes against our individualistic, anti-authoritarian, Western mindset, but it's how Jesus wants his church to function, and he's not asking for your feedback.
One of the most fundamental things a shepherd does is lead his sheep. He leads them to water and to good food. He directs them away from predators and hazards. A shepherd leads, and sheep trust their shepherd to lead them. Well, we'll learn later that the Ephesian elders would be tasked with doing things like exercising church discipline and removing people from the church who were spreading heresies and causing ungodly divisions and refusing to repent of their sin.
They would be tasked with telling the flock to ignore and stay away from certain people, like false teachers and Christians who refuse to repent. They would need to remove some people from the Church. As I said, these elders, now get this. These elders could only obey the commands of the Holy Spirit given through men like Paul, if their flock was willing to listen to them and be led by them. Here's my point.
We know from church history and common sense how they identified and numbered those who were part of their flock. They had a church membership role. There's no way around that. There's no way for them to number and identify the people in their church without having that written down somewhere. That's a church membership role.
They had a functional church membership because they could not fulfill the commands Christ had given to his church. Apart from distinguishing who was and was not part of the flock, who was and was not part of the church in Ephesus, at no point in the New Testament, at no point do we see a church being led by the people of the Church as a democracy. Well, there's one exception. It's in Revelation three. It's the Church of Laodicea.
And go look it up. It's not good. Instead, Hebrew 1317 commands believers to obey your leaders and submit to them, since they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account so that they can do this with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. Paul wrote this to the Thessalonian Church. We ask you, brothers and sisters, to give recognition to those who labor among you and lead you in the loved and admonish you, and to regard them very highly in lives because of their work.
The writer of Hebrews and Paul both told believers, submit to your elders and be a blessing to them. Make their task a joyful one. Why? Because it's hard. Because it's difficult.
Elders face constant spiritual attacks and discouragements and will one day give an account to God for how they shepherded those placed in their care. Therefore, the Scriptures say, don't make shepherding more difficult than it by nature is be a Christian who is a joy to shepherd. Here's how I want to bring it all together, not that we're close to the end. I don't want to get your hopes up just this point. Here's how I'll bring it together.
And I'm just trying to speak as plainly as I can dealing with the implications of the text. If you're a Christian and you're not identifying yourself to the elders of this Church as a Christian who wants to be part of this flock and be shepherded by them, then you are not part of this church. You may attend services here. You may also attend home groups. You may socialize with some of the people who attend this church.
We love you. We're glad that you're here. But you are not part of this church, because you have not said, I want to be part of this flock. I want to be under the care and leadership of the elders of this church. I want to pursue Christ with these brothers and sisters, and I commit to do so with them.
And I want to be really clear here because I don't see any way around this. You are disobeying Christ. If you're a Christian who refuses to submit to the elders of the Church, you are actively rebelling against what Scripture clearly says is the will of God for those in his church.
If I'm making any point that the text isn't implying, come and talk to me after, but do it on the basis of Scripture, because I don't see how you can get around this. If you're looking at the implications of the text, write this down. The Holy Spirit has appointed elders over the Church to shepherd the flock of God. Believers are called to submit to the leadership of biblical elders. The Holy Spirit has appointed elders over the Church to shepherd the flock of God.
Believers are called to submit to the leadership of biblical elders. I also noticed that Paul is speaking with a plurality of elders from Ephesus, not just one pastor. And part of his command to be on guard for yourselves includes them looking out for one anoTher. Yes, our personal walk with the Lord is to be our number one priority. But our personal walk with the Lord is not intended to be exclusively personal.
Why? Because we have blind lots. There are gifts that we lack.
We have issues. If you think I don't have any issues, that's your issue. Okay, sometimes we're stubborn and uncooperative. Not you, of course. I'm referring to our online listeners and viewers.
We need brothers and sisters in Christ to help us follow Christ. That's why in the Lord's design for his church, there's a plurality of elders and not just one pastor. That's why there's church membership, where believers are numbered and the flock is defined. If someone is watching your back, you want to know that that person is trustworthy. When the arrows start flying, you don't want to learn, then that they don't really consider arrows to be a threat.
That's why Amos 33, asks rhetorically, can two walk together without agreeing? That's what church membership does. A flock, a church, is defined in part by their agreement over who they are, how they're trying to live, and where they're going. That's why it's necessary to define those things and have people commit to them. A flock, a church, must be on the same page.
That's why Paul addressed the Ephesian elders together.
We're about to move on to verse 29. Finally, understand who Paul was and the ministry he had accomplished. By this point, he had worked incredibly intensely, anointed with apostolic power by the Holy Spirit. For years, he had been preaching the gospel and planting churches all over Syria, Asia, Macedonia, and Greece. He would do his best to keep tabs on those churches, getting verbal reports from people who had visited them and corresponding through letters.
Paul would have encountered and heard about some wonderful moves of God corporately and in individual lives, but also the many issues that can come up in the life of a church, the many growing pains, and the many spiritual attacks. So by this point, Paul was more aware than any other pastor on earth of certain patterns, certain tactics of the enemy. Just as Satan has favorite schemes against us as individuals, he has favorite schemes against the Church. And they're his favorites because they have the highest rates of success. Paul knows that wherever the truth is proclaimed, Satan will soon attempt to counter it with the lies of false doctrine.
It has been so since the Garden of Eden, and so likely with tears in his eyes. Because he knew what was coming, Paul felt compelled to warn the Ephesian elders of two grave dangers they would soon encounter. We'll talk about the second one next week. But first, in verse 29, he says, I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in underline, come in among you, not sparing the flock. Paul describes men as savage wolves that are going to come in from outside the church.
Jesus taught about wolves two different times in the Gospels. So I'm going to ask you to turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew, chapter seven. Matthew, chapter seven, first book in the New Testament.
Matthew, chapter seven, and we'll begin reading. In verse 15, Jesus told his disciples, be on guard against false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravaging wolves. And we're going to make some observations as we go through Jesus' teaching. First observation. Write this down.
Wolves teach falsehoods. Wolves teach falsehoods. Jesus calls them false prophets.
Second observation, wolves disguise themselves as believers. Why? Because they are not believers. They are the proverbial wolf in sheep's clothing. These words of Jesus are where the saying comes from.
In Jesus' teachings and parables and in New Testament language, Sheep generally represent believers, followers of Christ. These wolves look like sheep, but they're not there to be part of the flock. They're there to feed on the flock. Third observation, make a note of this. A wolf's goal is to devour believers.
It's to devour believers like Satan in the garden with Eve. The goal of the wolf is to undermine the faith of the believer and lure them away from the truth so they can be devoured. This can look like the person falling into a sin. That renders them completely ineffective for Christ, becoming consumed with divisive issues that cause strife in the church, withdrawing from fellowship and accountability, leading to depression and sin. The bottom line is that when a wolf gets hold of a sheep, they devour their faith.
And then Jews described how one can identify a wolf. He said, you'll recognize them. Underline this by their fruit are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles. In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can't produce bad fruit.
Neither can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that doesn't produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire, so you'll recognize them by their fruit. Jesus likens the outflow of a person's life, their words, actions, and attitudes to fruit. Nobody can fake it for very long. It's almost impossible to guard every word, every action, and every attitude so that you present as something other than what you truly are.
The truth leaks out of all of us, and Jesus calls that fruit. Because just as an apple tree cannot produce oranges, so too, a wolf cannot keep up the act indefinitely of being a sheep. He will expose himself with his words, with his actions, with his attitudes. And so Jesus says, pay attention to the fruit. In the lives of those who call themselves your brothers and sisters, wolves can be identified by their fruit.
But then Jesus takes it up a notch, saying, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only underline this, the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day, on the day of judgment, many will say to me, Lord, loved, didn't we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name? Then I will announce to them, I never knew you depart from me, you lawbreakers now this may be shocking to Some of you because Jesus flat out says there are going to be many people who will claim to teach and minister in my name, but in reality have nothing to do with me. I never knew them. Do you understand the heaviness of Jesus' words?
Here? He's implying there are going to be men on TV who claim to represent him. He doesn't even know them. He's implying there's going to be men leading churches who claim to represent him, but in reality, he doesn't even know them. This is a call to Christians to not be naive, to not think that just because somebody throws the name of Jesus around, they belong to him.
There is a very specific fruit that Jesus identifies as an identifying mark of those who belong to him, the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. So write this down. The fruit of obedience to God reveals who belongs to him and who does not. The fruit of obedience to God reveals who belongs to him and who does not. Not the fruit of being a positive and upbeat person.
Not the fruit of being someone who smiles a lot and says lots of nice things. Not the fruit of being a gifted or charismatic person. Not whether they faithfully attend church services in a home group, not whether they seem to have their life together, but obedience to God. Now please hear me on this, because I am terrified by the number of professing Christians who do not seem to understand this. The fruit of obedience to God reveals who belongs to him and who does not.
I'm not talking about perfection. None of us are perfect. We all fall short of the glory of God. I am talking about a desire to obey God and an appropriate effort to obey God, the Christian desires to obey God, and the Christian will do all they can to obey God. When it is pointed out to the genuine Christian that they are disobeying God by the Word itself, a pastor, a brother or sister in Christ, a sermon, a book, whatever.
When it is pointed out to the genuine Christian that they are disobeying God, the genuine Christian is compelled to make whatever changes they need to make to repent and begin obeying God in that area of their life. Why? Because that's what they want to do. They want to obey Christ. Christians want to obey Christ.
Now, understanding that, let me ask you plainly - does the fruit of your life reveal that you know Jesus and that he knows you? How do you respond when the Lord points out sin in your life? Do you repent and obey? Is there an area of your life where you know you are disobeying God, and you're not doing all you can to repent.
If so, hear the words of Jesus. Not me, Jesus, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. If you have no interest in doing the will of your Father in heaven, what in the world makes you think you're going to enter the kingdom of heaven? You aren't. That's what Jesus is saying.
According to Jesus, there are many who identify as Christians but are not. According to Jesus. According to Jesus, we are to be judging the fruit of those who identify as Christian. Did you catch that? It is impossible to obey everything Jesus is saying in this text without judging those who identify as Christians.
You can't make a call on the fruit in somebody's life without judging the fruit in their life. That's what Jesus is saying. He's saying we are to examine the fruit of one another's lives to reach a conclusion. That's literally what the word judge means. Are you seeing this in the text?
It's clear that we cannot obey this command of Jesus unless we are in the practice of judging the fruit in each other's lives. As members of the Church, we can't obey this instruction from Jesus. Apart from doing that, many Christians believe in the false unbiblical teaching, that Christians should never judge. That's unbiblical. It's a lie.
Just look at the text. Look at the words of Jesus. The concept is simple and shouldn't be controversial. It's this. Being a Christian actually means something.
It actually means something. It means you've placed your faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior, and you're following him as Lord, as his disciple. I like to point out that Christianity can't seem to win in this regard. One of the most frequent criticisms of the Church is hypocrisy. Christians don't practice what they preach.
Okay, so what's the only potential solution? It's the church holding itself accountable to practice what it preaches. There's no other solution. But when the Church begins to hold those who identify as Christians accountable to obey the commands of Christ, people in the Church start going, oh, this seems legalistic, this seems judgmental. And so many churches settle for being weak, powerless institutions, void of the presence and power of God.
But at least nobody's offended. I mean, except God.
Paul told the Christian believers to not associate with people who were committing certain sins habitually. They were confused and they misunderstood his instructions. So Paul had to clarify his message to them. And so here's what he wrote. To do that in one Corinthians five, he says, actually, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister in Christ and is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or verbally abusive, a drunkard or a swindler.
Do not even eat with such a person. For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Don't you judge those who are inside, as in inside the church? God judges outsiders. Remove the evil person from among you.
Paul says, I was speaking specifically about the members of the Church. If any of them are living in sin and refuse to repent, they are to be removed from the Church until they repent. Do you see where Paul Caleb for the same thing that Jesus instructed believers, judging believers in the Church. If you think that's ungracious, you're wrong and you're in disagreement with Jesus. He wants his bride, his church to be faithful to him.
Those who genuinely love Christ want to be faithful to him, and they want to be part of a church that is faithful to him. Therefore, they welcome having their lives inspected by their brothers and sisters. If you love someone, would you not want to know if you were grieving or offending them? If you love Jesus, then you will want to know if you are grieving or offending him, because not doing that is more important to you than your ego or your pride or your insecurities or your embarrassment.
Jesus and Paul both taught that the ongoing practice of fruit inspection protects the Church against wolves. We look at the life and the words and the attitudes, and we compare them to the commands of Christ in his word, is the fruit good or is it bad? Now, lest any of us think, that's just not my personality, Jeff, I'm a gracious, non-judgmental person. Jesus clarifies that all believers have a responsibility to their brothers and sisters and Christ, to both judge and welcome being judged. This is what Jesus goes on and says in that same passage, Matthew seven, he says, therefore, everyone who hears those words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn't collapse because its foundation was on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn't act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed, and it collapsed with a great crash. If you don't judge as Christ commanded.
This is what the text is saying. If you don't judge as Christ commanded, you are being a fool, and you risk being devoured by a wolf and or allowing your brothers and sisters to be devoured by a wolf. If you do Jude, as Christ commanded, he says, you are being wise, and you'll be able to identify a wolf, thereby protecting yourself and your brothers and sisters. So write this down. Wise Christians judge their brothers and sisters biblically, thereby protecting them and themselves.
The Christian who does not is a fool. Again, Jesus's words, not mine. Wise Christians judge their brothers and sisters biblically, thereby protecting them and themselves. The Christian who does not is a fool. The last thing I'll say about wolves is this.
Part of the job of elders is to always be watching for wolves, and if we see one, we're to kill it. I trust you understand I'm speaking figuratively.
Yes, figuratively. Figuratively. If someone comes into the Church, identifies as a Christian, becomes a member of the church, and then starts living in unrepentant sin and unrepentantly teaching falsehoods, we would have to remove that person from the church until they repent. And here's what often happens when elders do that. The naive sheep who think it's ungracious to judge will look at their shepherds.
They'll look at their elders with outrage, and they'll say, why did you kill that sheep?
The answer is that you don't try to rehabilitate a wolf. You don't try and turn them into a sheep. Even though 2023 might disagree, it still doesn't make sense. You shoot a wolf to protect the flock. That's what the Bible teaches.
Grace upon grace upon grace for struggling sinners who want to pursue Christ, unrepentant sinners who want to divide the church. Zero grace. Get out. That's what the Scriptures say. I'll ask the worship team to come up.
If you identify as a Christian and you're not a member of this church, I believe the biblical texts that I've shared today make it clear that you're in rebellion against God's design for his church. You're chafing against it, and you're refusing to submit to it. The church belongs to Christ. He's the one who gets to decide how it's structured and how it should operate. So become a member of the church.
Become a member of the church. Repent by doing this. Take out your connect card and check the box on the back that says, I want to become a member of the church. Do it. Obey Christ.
Allow brothers and sisters to inspect your life and do the same for them. That we all might be made into increasingly honorable vessels fit to be used however Christ chooses to use us.
Have you been trying to live like Christ without being regularly filled by Christ? It's a fool's errand. We need him so desperately every single day. We have nothing good to offer anyone outside of the power of Christ in us. So ask the Lord to fill you afresh with his Spirit this evening, and then understand that it will not carry over into tomorrow.
Tomorrow's grace is for tomorrow. So you'll need to ask him tomorrow to fill you again. And you'll need to rely on him again because he is where the power is. It's in him. We cannot be like him in even the smallest way, unless we are full of him.
So let's pray for that. Would you bow yours head and close your eyes? Jesus, thank you for your word. Thank you for making it clear how your church is to be structured. And Lord, we just pray that it would be so here at Gospel City.
Lord, I pray that BJ and myself would lead in a way that is pleasing to you as you have laid out in your word. And I pray that our church would submit to you and all you've asked them to do. And that it would be pleasing to you that you would move and work among your people to make us into more honorable vessels, so that we can be used in a greater way by you, so that we can hold more of you, so that more of you can flow out of us to those around us. Please come and sanctify your church. Lord, please come and inspect us.
Please come and reveal anything in us that is holding us in bondage or causing us to miss out on things you want to do. Please come and do that, Lord. And please fill your people with our spirit afresh this evening. And then please fill us again tomorrow. We need you so desperately.
There's nothing good in us apart from you. So please, please fill us afresh with your power. Lord, we need you. We love you and we bless you. In your name we pray.
Amen. Amen.