A Charge to New Church Officers
Stephen Doe
Extracted from Ordained Servant vol. 9, no. 2 (April 2000), pp. 43-44
When the apostle Paul considered the words which he would leave with the elders of the church in Ephesus (Acts 20:18-35), he first of all rehearsed his own activity in the city. Then he said to them, "Guard yourselves..." (Acts 20:28). Every officer in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church no doubt knows those famous words very well. We know that Paul goes on to say that they are to shepherd the flock of God. But the hardest thing of all is that first command: guard yourselves [prosecete —present active imperative], or attend to yourselves, or take heed to yourselves. In other words, the apostle tells us, don't only consider others but first of all have a regard to ourselves, our own spiritual state. That is what I would like to charge each of you with: guard your own spiritual state.
When we turn to the judgment of Christ of this congregation in Revelation 2:1-7, we find that the elders at Ephesus did shepherd the flock, they did root out false teachers, they did encourage the believers to persevere. But they failed as leaders in a devastating way. You remember Christ's words: "You have forsaken your first love..." (2:4). What love? Surely it is their love for Christ! This is a prime danger for those who lead the church, to forsake our first love, our own devotion to Christ. We are so often urging that on others, we are so eager to see people grow in their Christian lives that we neglect to take heed to ourselves. And when the leaders of a congregation fail to guard their own spiritual state, when they neglect their own devotion and love for Christ, the congregation will surely follow into a dead formalism. So take heed to yourselves.
The apostle Paul was aware of this danger of spiritual neglect and spoke of it in 1 Corinthians 9:25-27. He called for others to pray for his ministry in Ephesians 6:19-20. Toward the end of his life he came back again to the centrality of his own hope in Christ in 1 Timothy 1:15. This is why Paul is so bold to call others to imitate him, because he was intent on imitating Christ (1 Corinthians 4:16, 11:1, 1 Thessalonians 1:6, 2 Thessalonians 3:7, 9, 2 Timothy 3:10). In Acts 20, the opening section, beginning at verse 18, stresses the reality and sincerity of Paul's own faith. Paul wanted to guard himself.
How do you take heed to yourself? Let me urge on you several things. Guard yourselves when it comes to the worship of God. Sundays are always busy for the ordained officers of a church. We have responsibilities. We want things to go smoothly, for visitors to be welcomed. Yet we can fail to worship ourselves. Guard yourselves by pleading with God to give you hearts hungry to worship Him, to long for the courts of the Lord. See that you are the most eager of all God's people to be in worship on the Lord's Day, for here is where you will meet your God. Take heed to the sermons, listen to them so as to apply them to your own hearts. Elders mustn't just be attentive to the preaching of the Word in order to be examples and guardians of the preaching, but must look forward to it as the Word we need. Ask the Lord to plant that Word in your own heart first of all.
Take heed to yourselves at the Lord's Table. Do not simply take care in the administration of the sacrament, but come to the Table because you must have Christ. Do you see yourself as needing Christ and dying if Jesus Christ is not your bread and drink? Is the Cross of Christ like honey to your own hungry soul? Guard yourselves when you come to the Table of the Lord.
Take heed that you do not see this church as your church or as a burden which God has loaded onto your shoulders. Every church officer struggles with those feelings at some time or other. But this is not your church; take heed that you do not see yourself as the saviors of the church. Jesus Christ is the only Savior of the body. Do not beat the sheep to make them what you want them to be. They are Christ's flock, so take heed that you do not forget that. Do not think that God is seeking to crush you by placing the burden of this congregation on you. Take heed to yourselves, that you beg Christ to rule His church and to give you the grace to simply obey His Word. Guard yourselves that you do not subtly, without thinking, become lords of the flock. Take heed that you do not forget whose church it is. Keep these things uppermost in session meetings, in diaconal meetings, in private prayers for the flock.
Brothers, guard yourselves that you do not forsake your first love, the love that counts most of all. You cannot love the flock well, unless you love Christ better. For if you forsake your first love, then your congregation will follow you, into formalism, externally good and orthodox, but inwardly dying. Know your own need of Christ. Let your love for Christ be a mark of your service to this church that you belong to. See that each of you desires to know Christ better and to be filled with all the fulness of Christ (Ephesians 3:14-19). Guard yourselves, brothers.
J. C. Ryle wrote some encouraging words to every preacher in commenting on Mark 1:38: "We ought to observe here, what infinite honor the Lord Jesus puts on the office of the preacher. It is an office which the eternal Son of God Himself undertook. He might have spent His earthly ministry in instituting and keeping up ceremonies, like Aaron. He might have ruled and reigned as a king, like David. But He chose a different calling. Until the time when He died as a sacrifice for our sins, His daily, and almost hourly work was to preach. 'Therefore,' He says, 'came I forth.'
"Let us never be moved by those who cry down the preacher's office, and tell us that sacraments and other ordinances are of more importance than sermons. Let us give to every part of God's public worship its proper place and honor, but let us beware of placing any part of it above preaching. By preaching, the Church of Christ was first gathered together and founded, and by preaching, it has ever been maintained in health and prosperity. By preaching, sinners are awakened. By preaching, inquirers are led on. By preaching, saints are built up. By preaching, Christianity is being carried to the heathen world. There are many now who sneer at missionaries, and mock at those who go out into the high-ways of our own land, to preach to crowds in the open air. But such persons would do well to pause, and consider calmly what they are doing. The very work which they ridicule is the work which turned the world upside down, and cast heathenism to the ground. Above all, it is the very work which Christ Himself undertook. The King of kings and Lord of lords Himself was once a preacher. For three long years He went to and fro proclaiming the Gospel. Sometimes we see Him in a house, sometimes on the mountain side, sometimes in a Jewish Synagogue, sometimes in a boat on the sea. But the great work He took up was always one and the same. He came always preaching and teaching. 'Therefore,' He says, 'came I forth.'
"Let us leave the passage with a solemn resolution never to 'despise prophesying.' (1 Thess. 5:20) The minister we hear may not be highly gifted. The sermons that we listen to may be weak and poor. But after all, preaching is God's grand ordinance for converting and saving souls. The faithful preaching of the gospel is handling the very weapon which the Son of God was not ashamed to employ. This is the work of which Christ has said, 'Therefore came I forth.'"
Stephen D. Doe currently serves as pastor of Covenant OPC in Barre, VT. He gave this charge at a November installation of officers in the Merrymeeting Bay OPC, Topsham, ME. He also submitted the foreging excerpt from J. C. Ryle's Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of St. Mark.