Warning of Satan
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2023 · 12 November 2023
Throughout the years of God’s kingdom on earth, He has always mediated His rule through specially chosen and qualified leaders. In the New Testament time, God mediates His rule in the church through evangelists and teaching pastors, as well as through the indwelling Holy Spirit who guides the individual believer. And so, there is authority and submission as a two-fold operation of God in the world.
Chaos of life begins in Genesis, and so God instituted another kind of order in the world. God now rules over people through three categories: the family, the Church, and the state. And in all these areas were leaders and followers; authority and submission. In the family, the parents are the leaders. In the church, the pastors are the leaders. In the state, the government officials are the leaders.
For our study, we draw our attention to the Church. God directs His rule in the church through pastors and elders. And that takes us directly into Acts 20. Now, from verse 17 through 38, the apostle Paul is giving information to church leaders. He is to the church what the priest, the prophet, the patriarch, and the king was to the Old Testament to God’s people then.
What makes an effective leader, particularly in the church? The world’s evaluation of leadership, it isn’t necessarily the way God evaluates it. Example, Israel decided they wanted a king. And they found the perfect one. Because there was nobody handsomer in the whole land. And not only that, he was taller than everybody else. Saul was anointed king. And what a disaster it was.
So the world’s qualifications are not always internal things. They are mostly external things. But there’s no such category of leaders in the Bible. All of the biblical qualifications circumvent anything like that. And all of the biblical qualifications for leaders in the church are spiritual and internal rather than external and physical. But in Scripture, biblical leaders lead by example.
1 Peter 5:3 says that a pastor has to be an example to the flock. And in Philippians 4:9, he says, “Do what you have learned and received and heard from me, and seen in me.” And in 1 Thessalonians 1:5, Paul reflects on the ministry he had in Thessalonica. He says, “Our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, in the Holy Spirit, and with full assurance.”
Christian leadership is leading people into Christ like behavior by example. A true godly leader is only one when somebody is following the pattern of his godliness. Hebrews 13:17 says we have to give an account to God for what we do. And James 3:1 says that we have a greater condemnation if we fail. But it can be so blessedly rewarding that it compensates for the possibility of failure.
So Paul is talking to the leaders of the church at Ephesus in Acts 20, and it’s so important that they follow the pattern of biblical leadership. So he gives them all of the precepts of leadership from verse 17 to 38. And over and over and over sets himself as the example. And we find there are five priorities to leadership. Principle number one, make sure you’re right with God.
Personal holiness is foundational. My most important task is to prepare myself, not my sermon. It’s to prepare yourself to be a channel through which God can effectively work. Verse 28, “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.” This is where it starts.
To illustrate this look at David. 2 Samuel 11:1 says, “In the spring when kings march out to war, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained in Jerusalem.” Verse 2, “One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman.”
Verse 4-5, “David sent messengers to get her, and when she came to him, he slept with her. Now she had just been purifying herself from her uncleanness. Afterward, she returned home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to inform David, “I am pregnant.” And in verse 15, he wrote a letter to the soldiers, and he said, “Put Uriah at the front of the fiercest fighting, then withdraw from him so that he is struck down and dies.”
And he was killed. So, David committed adultery and murder. And you know what happened when he did that? He rendered himself in terms of any usefulness to God zero. But, God spoke to his heart, and he broke under the weight of his sin, and when he broke, he wrote down his feelings in Psalm 51. It was the broken heart of David over the sin of Bathsheba and Uriah.
1 Be gracious to me, God, according to your faithful love; according to your abundant compassion, blot out my rebellion. 2 Completely wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I am conscious of my rebellion, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against you—you alone—I have sinned and done this evil in your sight. So you are right when you pass sentence; You are blameless when You judge.”
10 God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not banish me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore the joy of your salvation to me, and sustain me by giving me a willing spirit. 13 Then I will teach the rebellious your ways, and sinners will return to You.” David was not worth anything in converting anybody until he was cleaned.
Principle number two is also in verse 28, “Feed and lead the flock.” The second priority is to lead and feed. Some are familiar with what is known as congregational rule, where the congregation rules. That’s foreign to Scripture. In Scripture, the congregation is subject to the authority of the elders. Because when you put people over the leaders, you have violated God’s pattern for authority.
So, there is in the church the prerogative of the congregation to choose from among them men full of the Holy Spirit, wisdom and faith. But once those men are chosen of God, and ordained of God, they are to rule in God’s place as they stand as under-shepherds for Christ. And so, leadership is important, making wise decisions, leading them into the places and the things that are going to be beneficial.
Number three, is to watch and warn the flock. The faithful pastor, the faithful elder –who labor in the Word and doctrine; are in the area of ruling to watch and warn the flock. Verse 29, “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.” Because I know how Satan works. Paul says, “I know one thing, false teachers are going to arrive as soon as I’m gone.”
Matthew 7:15 says, “Be on your guard against false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves.” 1 Timothy 4:1 says, “Now the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will depart from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons.” Verse 6, “If you point these things out to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus.”
A good minister of Jesus Christ reminds people to watch out for false prophets. He reminds people to watch out for doctrines of demons, and he reminds people to watch out for seducing spirits. In 2 Peter 2 God calls them false teachers, spots and blemishes, and springs without water. He says, they are “Mists driven by storm.” And they attack the people searching for God, looking for religious answers.
Verse 30, “Men will rise up even from your own number and distort the truth to lure the disciples into following them.” False prophets not only from the outside, but from the inside. Ever notice how false teachers always publish their followings? “Sun Myung Moon with so many followers,” dragging away people. And it happened at Ephesus. And the leading elder in that church was Timothy, and still it happened.
Because Paul even names them. 1 Timothy 1:3 says, “As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine.” People who had risen right out of the congregation. He says to Timothy in verse 4, “Don’t you listen to their myths and endless genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edification.”
In 1 Timothy 1:19-20 Paul says, “Having faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and have shipwrecked the faith. 20 Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered to Satan, so that they may be taught not to blaspheme.” In 2 Timothy 1:15 Paul says, “You know that all those in Asia have deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.”
Do you know we have to fight to hold onto the faith? Verse 31, “Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for three years I never stopped warning each one of you with tears.” As a pastor, because you care for the flock, you got to watch out for false teachers, and you’ve got to watch for the tares being sown among the wheat. In Matthew 13, Jesus said that the tares would be sown.
Jesus said, “Don’t try to pull out all the tares, because you might also tear up the wheat. They’ll grow together until the harvest.” That’s a scary thing, because that means if the tares get in, you can’t get rid of them. And there’s only one way to keep the tares from getting in, and that’s to watch spiritually. And it’s up to us to make sure we know who’s teaching, and who sits in a place of leadership.
The next thing is to warn. It means to admonish. Admonishing is giving counsel with a warning involved. And I do that to you this evening; I warn you, be aware and be alert, and expect that false teachers will arise, and infiltrate. Paul said, “I did not stop warning everyone.” He wept, because he knew the terrible consequences of false teachers that infiltrated the church.
Then a fourth priority is to study and pray. What do I spend my time doing? Praying and studying. Verse 32, “And now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all who are sanctified.” I’ve done everything I could do for you. You know what I have left to do? Commit you to God.
That’s really a part of the ministry. This is His flock. This is His church. And I commit it to Him. Because it’s His, to safeguard and care for. You can take the book of Acts and find that when they met together to choose somebody to take Judas’ place, they were praying. In Acts 2, they’re praying again. In chapter 2:42, it says, “They came for the apostles’ doctrine, communion and prayer.”
When the Gospel begins to expand, they are praying. They anoint deacons in Acts 6, and they pray and anoint them. Later on they pray when they send out Paul and Barnabas. When they get to a new area, they pray and commit it to God, and they go in and minister. Prayer always bathed everything they ever did. Why is that? Because they always gave everything to God.
There’s no substitute for prayer. Everything the church ever does, everything you ever do in our ministry should be committed to God. Not as an afterthought. But before it’s ever brought to fruition, it should be committed to Him. If you think you have an idea that might work, just start praying about it and see if God makes it happen. Let the Holy Spirit take me along when He’s moving.
And study the Word. Our whole commitment is to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. And the Word is able to build us up. When people say to me, “I have so many doubts,” I say, “Do you study the Bible? Because if you study the Bible, faithfully, the Bible continues to guarantee your inheritance among all those that are sanctified.” That means holy unto God, there is an inheritance.
The fifth, freedom from self-interest. Verse 33-35, “I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. 34 You yourselves know that I worked with my own hands to support myself and those who are with me. 35 In every way I’ve shown you that it is necessary to help the weak by laboring like this and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, because he said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
Paul said, “You’re going to have to look at it as a giving, not a receiving.” God does not bless the ministry of a man who is concerned about money. You can’t serve God and mammon, money. This was Paul’s heart. He says, “I have the right to ask of you, but I don’t. I’ll work to earn my own keep just to show you the pattern of example, that that’s how it’s to be, not asking for anything.”
Verse 36-38, “After he said this, he knelt down and prayed with all of them. 37 There were many tears shed by everyone. They embraced Paul and kissed him, 38 grieving most of all over his statement that they would never see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.” If I can minister the way the Spirit wants me to, God will reward me with the love of the saints. Let’s pray.