Take Heed Unto Yourselves
Paul's farewell to the Ephesian elders gives every pastor an order of operations. Before he mentions the flock, he mentions the shepherds.
“Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.”ACTS 20:28 · KJV
A pastor spends his life caring for souls, and his own can starve while he does it. Richard Baxter, the English Puritan, built a whole book on this verse. He warned ministers to take heed “lest you famish yourselves while you prepare food for them,” and “lest you unsay with your lives, what you say with your tongues.” A man can feed a congregation for years and go hungry himself.
Robert Murray M'Cheyne, a Scottish pastor who died at twenty-nine, wrote to a friend, “It is not great talents God blesses so much as likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God.” By awful he meant full of awe. Charles Spurgeon quoted those words in “The Minister's Self-Watch,” and The Preacher Behind the Pulpit takes up what this means for preaching. This study looks at the rest of a pastor's life.
Who is pastoring you?
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For Deeper Study
- The Reformed PastorAmazon Richard BaxterThe 1656 classic on Acts 20:28 quoted here. Baxter was an English Puritan who baptized infants; we differ on that and on church government.
- Stewarding LifeAmazon Paul ChappellAn Independent Baptist pastor on the stewardship of time, health, thoughts, money, friendships, and testimony.
- Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual HealthAmazon Donald S. WhitneyA short, searching book for any believer. Whitney leans Reformed, where we differ.
- Zeal Without BurnoutAmazon Christopher AshA brief, kind book on the difference between sacrifice and exhaustion. Ash is a Reformed Anglican, and we differ on baptism and church order.
- Can Fallen Pastors Be Restored?Amazon John H. ArmstrongA book-length treatment of how churches should respond to pastors who fall into sexual sin.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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The Preacher Behind the Pulpit
God prepares the preacher before the preacher prepares the sermon: a man called and qualified for the office, watching his own life and doctrine, given to prayer and the Word, who seeks the truth, does it, and then teaches it.
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