Hopefully this week my stuff will work properly so we're going to sing 5 or 6 full songs. But our text today is Acts chapter 20, verses 17 through 32. If you have the keywords set up in your sheets, it begins on page 1470. Verse 17, from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. And when they had come to him, he said to them, you yourselves know from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials, which came upon me through the plots of the Jews. I would not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable. And now behold, bound by the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me. But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself. so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify solidly of the gospel of the grace of God. And now behold, I know that all of you among whom I went about preaching the kingdom will no longer see my face. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. Be on 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. I know that after my departure, savage ghouls 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. Therefore, be on the alert. Remembering that night and day for a period of three years, I did not cease to admonish each one of you with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. We praise you and thank you that your word will not return void. It will accomplish what it is sent to do. So we praise your holy name for that. And we pray, Lord, that it is accomplishing in us great things. I pray that it is edifying your people, that it is building us up. It is making your church stronger. It is making your bride stronger. For your name's sake, for the fame of your name, Lord, build it up among us. so that we might be strong in our proclamation of it to others, so that we might be examples within our own households, examples within our workplaces, examples within our schools of what that order of grace has done for us and the inheritance that that has afforded to us, Lord. Restore to us the joy of your salvation, that salvation that you have given to us, provided to us, Lord. And we grow to higher elevations of praise of your great name. You are great and greater to be praised. So may great praise exude from the proclamation of your word today. Again, edify your people, grow us in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We pray this in his name, amen. All right, so, Trayvon finished off chapter one of Luke last week. And in chapter two, I'm gonna give you a little bit of a spoiler alert here. What Gabriel told Mary would happen, what he told Mary would happen, it actually happens. I know, I'm just as shocked as you are. But the child that she is bearing, it actually arrives in chapter 2. Jesus is born. Again, I'm shocked. But if you don't believe me, stay tuned to next week's episode of Walk Through Luke. Where, with any bit of God's happy promise, Maybe more than one, who knows? He knows. But for this week, we're going to talk about something that is really along the same lines of the Advent, of the coming of Christ. And that, of course, is pastoral visitations. I mean, immediately when you think of the Advent, you think of the Christmas season, you think of pastoral visitations. Because this is the season where us as pastors come and barge in on your Christmas celebrations with your family. We expect gifts and we expect an awesome meal. That's what Travers has been setting up for by announcing our pastoral visitations. We're going to barge in on your Christmas celebrations. Maybe even Thanksgiving too. We don't know. The pastoral visitations do indeed pastors doing their pastoral visitations to the Advent season. I submit to you that they have a lot to do with one another. In other words, I believe, again, that you can draw that line from the Advent, from the coming of Christ, to the necessity, the necessity of pastoral visitations. Now, of course, I'm joking. We're not going to jump in on your family Christmas celebration. visitations will be less social in nature. They'll be much more deliberate. They'll be less social in nature. that will be much more deliberate. So I have a couple of goals here. I had two goals listed in my notes, but it's actually going to be three goals. First of all, I'm going to walk us through the scripture, this text that we're in, and show you from the text the necessity or the example that we have of pastoral visitations. My next goal, or goal number two, is to prove to you that I can indeed draw that line from the advent, from the coming of Christ, to the necessity of pastoral visitations. And finally, draw some application from that, and give y'all a little bit of insight as to what these pastoral visits should look like. Of course, as Traver mentioned in our announcements, we're working out some of the finer details, but I can give you an idea of what the general theme will be, okay? So, our passage today, again, Acts 20, verses 17 through 32. In it, we have reported for us by Luke, the writer of the Gospel, that we are again, right, the Apostle Paul, his address to some overseers, we all know that those are the same names for the same person. Us as elders, you can call us bishop, I prefer not. You can call us pastor, you can call us overseers, but it's all the same thing. It's all under that umbrella, elder, right? Pastor, shepherd. Verse 17, this proves that he is talking to the elders of Ephesus. Verse 17, from my liaisee, Paul, sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. And he's giving this farewell address to them, and in it he shows himself to be an example to them. And he also gives them some instructions that flow from the example that he has laid out. He said he spent three years among them. What did he do in those three years? Well, he provided an example to them to follow. So we'll glean from that example, look at that example, and gain some instruction from that example. For instance, part of the instruction that he gives is particularly relevant to me as an elder. Verse 28, verse 28, 2028. Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock. Again, he's addressing the elders. Be on guard for yourselves, elders, 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. Again, this is a standard text for elders. It's standard instruction for elders. I can't remember, I should have gone back and looked if I had brought up this passage when I'd done the ordination service for the traitor. It may have been brought up in the ordination service for me. I'm not sure. This is a standard instruction text. It may have been brought up even in passing. Shepherd the church of God. Simple, right? Standard instruction for elders. Be on guard for the flock. Oversee the flock, as Paul says. Shepherd the Church of God, or the flock, right? But my question is, can we find in this passage a need for an individual or for individual pastoral visitation? Individual pastoral visitation. For you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you. Individual pastoral visitation. Can we find that from this passage? I think so. Look at the first part of 28 again. Be on guard for yourselves. Again, what is he addressing? He is addressing the elders. Be on guard for yourselves. But is he talking to the elders corporately? Collectively? Or is he talking to the elders individually? Like me, Michael Earler, Traver Gingrich, or Ken Shaw. Me on block four. Yourself, Traver Gingrich. Is he talking corporately as in the elder group, or the elder board, all three of us collectively, to make sure that we are a cohesive unit that confess the same thing, that we preach the same thing, we proclaim the same things, that we are not out of order. Be on guard that, indeed, we confess the same things, we preach the same things. Collectively, also, be on guard that we don't allow anyone inside that elder board that could be a savage wolf, as Paul declares. We've got to be on guard for those savage wolves. As shepherds, we need to be on guard for that. And being on guard for ourselves might also include not allowing those wolves in sheep's clothing to infiltrate the elder board. Us as a group, collectively. verses 29-33 But they're really a wolf in sheep's clothing. Should we be? I think we should. But, could this also be talking about elders individually or talking to elders individually? Be on guard for yourself. Individually. As in ourselves. As in me, myself, Traber. You being on guard for yourself. Or us one-to-one. Me being on guard for Traber. Traber being on guard for Ken. Ken being on guard for me. And vice versa. all around in that, should we be on guard for individually one another, to guard what is entrusted to us individually as an elder? Why would we need to do that? Well, to ensure that I don't, as verse 30 says, speak perverse things. I need to guard my mind. I need to guard my mind so that I am not a, verse 30, Someone who has come in among the flock speaking perverse things to draw you away. I need to be on guard. Also to guard one another individually. If the savage wolves begin to bare their teeth against Trager, we should be on guard with him and for him and come to his defense. Be ready to refute any wolf that comes after him, right? If, as Paul tells Timothy, if opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge come against him, he and I should be on guard to come to his defense, and vice versa. So again, is this passage talking, when he says, be on guard for yourself, to the elders, is he talking about them corporately, collectively as a group, or to guard themselves individually and one-to-one? Now obviously, if you listen to me the last two minutes, the answer is both. The answer is both. For all the reasons that I stated, we need to be on guard for ourselves individually, myself and one another, as well as being on guard for us corporately or collectively as an elder group. So if that's the case when he says be on guard for yourselves, if it's talking both corporately and individually, What would he mean in that next part of verse 28, being on guard for yourselves and for all the flock? So again, the same question, does Paul mean all the flock collectively or does he mean it individually or both? In other words, is my obligation to you as an elder or pastor or overseer, as a shepherd, is it fulfilled simply behind this sacred desk. Is this all I have to do? When I'm preaching to teach, that is simply fulfilling my office as an elder. That is how I am on guard for the flock, simply by getting up here and chatting, or talking, or preaching, or teaching. Or do my obligations extend to you individually as a member of Grace Chapel? Maybe Paul will give us an example to help us with this question. And to be sure, again, in this passage in Acts, he gives us plenty of his own example. Look back at the very beginning, verse 17. He says, for my leaders, he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. And when they had come to him, he said to them, you yourselves know from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials, which came upon me through the plots of the Jews. And even amongst that, what does he do? He says, first point, how I did not shriek from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you. He didn't treat back from it. He was preaching and he was teaching. He was declaring what was profitable and teaching to them. That might sound familiar. He says something similar to Timothy in his pastoral business. He says all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching. What do you say here? I declare you anything that was profitable and teaching you. So what is he declaring? He is declaring the Word of God. He is preaching. He is proclaiming the Word. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. Paul, as an example, does this among the Ephesians. How does he do it? Does he do it corporately? Or does he do it individually? He tells us in the very next statement. Man, that was a massive lesson. "...declare to you anything that was profitable in teaching you, publicly, meaning in the midst of the people, of or around the people, the group of people, of the group, and from house to house, or amongst each and every house. So how is he on guard for the people in Ephesus here? What example did he lay out for these elders in Ephesus? What did he do? He was on guard for them. by proclaiming to them, shepherding them, declaring to them anything that was probable in teaching them, both corporately, collectively, and individually, publicly and from house to house. and to prove what he was proclaiming to them or declaring to them. Verse 21 states, "...and solemnly testify to both Jews and Greeks of repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ." So he's an example of shepherding the people. He does this. He's proclaiming the gospel. He's preaching the word. That's what we do behind the sacred desk. But it goes beyond this. obviously needs to go beyond this. And Paul is our example. We see that it needs to go beyond this. More than just public declaration, more than just declaration up behind the pulpit, it is declaration to you, even in your houses, you individually. All right, so I think goal number one is accomplished. We've briefly established that part of our responsibility as elders is to shepherd you corporately and individually. Again, following Paul's example there, publicly, which we're doing here, and individually from house to house. That's why we want to do pastoral visitations, house to house. By the way, it doesn't necessarily have to be in that geographical location of your home. Pastoral visitations can happen elsewhere. You'll want to go somewhere to eat, fine. You're paid, obviously. We can meet here and do our pastoral visitations. But part of our governing documents, if you become a member of a church, we ask you, if you've read our constitution, if you agree to what is in there. And it talks about pastoral visitations, by the way, and it mentions the responsibility of the members of the church to schedule that time if asked by the pastor. So we're about to pass it. And as a member, you have agreed to schedule that time. So let's do that, OK? Let's do that. But we'll get into the details of pastoral visitation in just a bit, because goal number two was to describe this business about tying pastoral visitations to the Advent. Why would I do that? Well, let's look again. be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock. Corporately, individually. Among which the Holy Spirit has made you, elders, overseers. To do what? To shepherd the church of God, and here it is, which he purchased with his own blood. That's how I tie it to the end. To qualify the importance of what we should do as under-shepherds of the chief shepherd, Jesus Christ, Paul points us to what that shepherd did for his sheep. Let me say that again. To qualify the importance of what we as under-shepherds do, Paul points us to that, to what And what did he do? He purchased them with his own blood. That is our motivating factor, by the way. Look at what Christ did for his sheep. Do likewise. All right? What did he do? He redeemed them. And how do you go about redeeming them? We talked about this last week, or Trader talked about this last week. How did he redeem them? He purchased them with his own blood. How did he do that? Luke chapter one, verses 67 and 68. And his father, John's father, Zechariah, was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, save me. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people. So how did He redeem them? He visited them. In order to purchase them with His blood, He had to come. He had to visit His people. So what did the Chief Shepherd do to redeem His people? He visited them. How did he purchase them with his blood? He visited them. How did he proclaim that salvation to them? He visited them. And if the under-shepherds are to take their example from their chief shepherd, what are they to do for his sheep, for Christ's sheep? Visit them. Now of course, we are obviously not doing this to accomplish salvation. We are not purchasing your redemption with his blood, with our blood rather. But our visit should be to proclaim that redemption that he visited us for, to proclaim that redemption that the chief shepherd accomplished for us. That is why we visit you. We proclaim that corporately behind this pulpit. We preach it, we teach it. We proclaim that redemption. but we also individually proclaim it to you. Therefore, I think we should visit you. For he visited us and accomplished redemption for his people. That's literally all we're going to do in our pastoral visitation, is point you to that redemption that the chief shepherd has afforded to us. That's literally it. That's what our pastoral visits should do. Point you to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That's it. There you go. So schedule your visits better. Now what does that look like? What does that actually look like during the pastoral visit? Am I going to come in and sit down at your kitchen table and say, all right, our text tonight is Galatians chapter 3. Open your book. I'm not going to preach again to you. I'm not going to preach at you. And we're also not going to be rummaging through your medicine cabinets. We're not going to be looking at your internet browser histories or anything like that. We are simply going to help you apply the same message that we proclaim from the pulpit to your life. We are going to visit you to see how you are applying that message in your own life and help you out with it. helping ensure that that proclamation that all of you as believers have made, all of us as believers have made, to ensure that that proclamation that you made that Jesus is Lord is actually lived out within your homes on a day-to-day basis. How do you need, where do you need help with that? That's what we're gonna ask you. What Traylor mentioned this morning during the announcements, Diagnostic in nature, that's what he's meaning. Diagnose any kind of problems that we see within the household so that we can shepherd you, so that we can help you, so that we can apply gospel knowledge to whatever situation that you are dealing with. Now, when I say that, when I say that, oh, you know, we're coming to you, we're coming to help you out, we're not coming necessarily to touch you, okay? All visits shouldn't be us coming in gloom and judgment to you. I think of the Seinfeld episode. You're a bad, bad man, Seinfeld. You're a bad, bad man. We're not coming to do that. We're not coming to touch that. We're not coming wagging our fingers at you. But there is room for a level of feeling shame and these pastoral visits. There is room for feeling a level of shame for not doing what you're supposed to be doing as a follower of Christ. Rebuke or reproof for such things is not fun. It shouldn't be. But if that rebuke is heard and the corrections apply, joy is found. If the rebuke is heard and the correction is applied, joy is found. I hope you're not nervous, you're not timid about us coming into your house, us proclaiming the gospel to you, us being in that more intimate situation with you to see where we can shepherd you through these things. Because all we're doing is applying the gospel to your whole situation, your individual situation. And hopefully from that, much joy will exude. And again, you may be timid because, oh, you know, my family time hasn't been what it should be. My family worships haven't been what they should be. My quiet times haven't been there. I've been slacking on these elements. Good. Be grateful that Pastoral Visitation is there to help you out with that. Because while you may feel shame for not keeping up with that or doing that to the level that you should be, on the other side of us possibly rebuking you for that, offering our correction for that, on the other side of that is great joy within your family. If we encourage you to continue on or to be more consistent in your own family worship, to be more consistent in your own quiet time, if we encourage you to do that, I guarantee you joy is found on the other side of that. It may be uncomfortable. That's fine. but we will apply the gospel to your own lifestyle as well so that great joy flows from that. Restoring to you the joy of His salvation. We need to do that as shepherds, as under-shepherds of the Lord Jesus Christ, as under-shepherds of our Chief Shepherd. Let's look at it. responsive reading that we have in Ezekiel chapter 34. That's a tough one. Ezekiel 34, three through six. Ezekiel 34, three, this is obviously You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool. You slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock. Those who are sickly you have not strengthened. The diseased you have not healed. The broken you have not bound up. The scattered you have not brought back. Nor have you sought for the lost. But with force and with severity being dominated them. Verse 5, they were scattered for lack of a shepherd. And they became food for every beast of the field and were scattered. My flock wandered through all the mountains and on every high field. My flock was scattered over all the surface of the earth and there was no one to search or seek for them. The savage wolves have come again and destroyed this flock. They are scattered. They are all over the place. My flock was scattered over all surfaces and there was no one to search or seek for them. If shepherding is only done here, you will be scattered. If shepherding is only done here, that means we are not searching and seeking you. Let that not be said, Grace Chapel. Let it not be said that no one, there was no one to search or seek for the members of Grace Chapel. That the shepherds were merely behind the sacred desk, if you will. When the chief shepherd comes, let it be said of us that we were diligently tending and feeding the sheep well. That's my prayer for us. That's my prayer for us, and that's the beautiful thing. We have a nice little advertisement for small churches. That's a beautiful thing about having a small church. We pray for numbers and we pray for more people to come in, but we don't want to pray to overextend ourselves to where we have people within our fold that we are not able to shelter. That's the beauty of having a small church. And hopefully we take advantage of that. And I think being more diligent in our pastoral visitations will help that out tremendously. And I want to feed us, feed our church like this, like Paul did at the very end of our passage. He says, 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, all those who are sanctified. Our aim is to feed you on the reality of that inheritance and help you apply it to your individual life. That's what our aim is in our pastoral visitations. And hopefully in proclaiming that to you, it lightens any trepidations that you may have, any hesitations that you may have in trying to schedule. Don't avoid us. We desire to help you. That's why we're here. That's why we are in this office of elder, shepherd, pastor, overseer, bishop. That is why we attained to this office is to shepherd you. So, you know how in Hebrews he said we should do it with joy and not grieving? Be the people that we joyfully come to, okay? Don't be that person. Our aim is to joyfully feed you on the reality of that inheritance among all those who are sanctified. We want to feed you because we love Christ Jesus. Do you love me, Peter? Feed my sheep. Do you love me, Peter? Yes, Lord, I love you. Why do you keep asking me that question? Feed my sheep. How do we as elders show our love for Christ? By ensuring that you are fed. Help us feed you. We feed you because we love Christ. We love your families. We love each and every one of you individually. We'd like to proclaim the word from the pulpit, but we love and we want to feed you. So help us out. Amen. All right? Amen. I look forward to it. I am eager to do it. There was some hesitation at first, but praise the Lord I got to preach this. And I hope you are too. Amen? I have this prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for this Lord's Day. Thank you for the encouragement that we get from your word. Thank you for the encouragement that we get from how you have structured your church, how you have put your pride together. Each part, doing each part. for the sake of your name, for your kingdom, Lord. I pray for us as Grace Chapel corporately. I pray that indeed we grow in our understanding of you, grow in our love of you, grow in our love of one another, and thus fulfill both of those tables in the commandment, Lord. We love you. We love each other. Lord, we are so eager to bring great praise to your great name. And let us do that in how we do church and how we live this life out with one another. Help us all to be eager to strengthen weak hands and feeble knees for the glory of your name. For your name's sake, Lord, you are so worthy. For your name to be hallowed among Grace Chapel, may you be glorified for many, many generations to come through our efforts. Sanctify us all, build us up, in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We pray in his name. Amen.