God’s Glorious Church
Pastors: Leading as Shepherds
Ephesians 4:11
Woodlawn Baptist Church
March 20, 2005
Introduction
A survey was recently done as one group set out in search of the perfect pastor. Many people responded, and today I want to share the results with you. According to this study, the perfect pastor…
• Preaches his sermons in exactly 12 minutes
• Frequently condemns sin but never upsets anyone
• Works from 8:00 a.m. until midnight
• Serves as the church janitor and lawn keeper
• Makes $100 per week, wears good clothes, buys good books, drives a nice car, and gives $50 per week to the church.
• Is 28 years of age, and he’s been preaching for 30 years
• Is wonderfully gentle and handsome
• Gives of himself completely but never gets too close to anyone lest he be criticized
• Speaks boldly on social issues, but must never become politically involved
• Has a burning desire to work with teenagers, and spends all his time with senior citizens
• Makes 15 calls daily to visit church members, visits the shut-ins and those in the hospital, spends all his time evangelizing the unchurched, and is always in his office when needed
• Prepares three or four inspiring lessons weekly from his lengthy hours in the study.
I have to tell you that if you were looking for the perfect pastor, you got robbed! Today I want to finish this little mini-series that has dealt with the pastor’s role in the church as I speak on the subject of pastors leading as shepherds. We have already considered that pastors are first God-called, then church-called, and that part of their calling is to lead the Lord’s church as a preacher. Today we will deal specifically with the role of shepherd.
Shepherds: What the Bible Says
In studying for this message, what I learned about the role of the pastor / shepherd was interesting to me. The word shepherd or shepherds is only used 18 times, in 17 verses in the New Testament. For example, the word is used when Jesus considered the people of Israel as sheep having no shepherd. They were gone astray. Jesus talked about how in the judgment He would separate the nations the way a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats. Jesus told the disciples about how the sheep would scatter when the shepherd was struck, speaking of the way they would scatter when He was crucified. In John 10 Jesus talked about being the good shepherd, and His sheep knew His voice. In Hebrews Jesus is called the great shepherd of the sheep. In Peter He is the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, and later in Peter He is called the chief Shepherd.
Of all the times the Bible speaks of shepherds, only one time does it identify pastors as such, and without some digging you wouldn’t even find that one. Read with me our text this morning in Ephesians 4:11-13.
“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”
In verse 11, the apostle Paul wrote that God gave to some churches apostles, to other churches prophets, to other churches evangelists, and then to some other churches He gave pastors and teachers. Without going into a lengthy explanation, the words pastors and teachers are referring to the same man. The word pastors as you see it in your Bibles comes from the same Greek word for shepherds. In Matthew 9:36, the Bible says that Jesus, “saw the multitudes, and was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no (poimen) shepherd.” In Luke 2:8, the Bible says that “there were in the same country (poimen), shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.”
Whenever you see the word shepherd in your Bible, you are seeing this Greek word poimen, or shepherds, the same word God used to identify the men He was giving to His churches in Ephesians 4:11. The only exception is found in 1 Peter 5:4, where Jesus is identified as the Chief Shepherd, and that comes from a different word.
Shepherds as Leaders
If you remember our biblical definition of leadership as placing yourself in service to others so they might become what God wants them to be, then you won’t have any problem seeing God’s plan of shepherding leadership in our text. God’s plan for your life is that you be transformed into the image of Christ: that you be Christlike in all your ways. God wants you to think like Him, to act like Him, to hold His values, to feel what He feels, for His passions to be yours, so that when He looks at you He is only seeing a reflection of Himself. God’s plan for shepherding leadership then is that the shepherds are to help you become that reflection. Look at verse 12 with me again. Why did God give shepherds to churches? Paul gives us three reasons that form a progression of sorts.
For the perfecting of the saints
The word perfecting means to completely adjust in conduct and in character. The Bible says in Romans 3 that we are corrupt in every way. Our speech is corrupt, our character is corrupt, and our conduct is corrupt. If you want to think of it in this way, you can say that we are 180 degrees out with God. The work of the shepherd then is to lead you in such a way that a complete adjustment is made in your life.
If the front end of my truck was out of alignment, it would be all over the road. It might pull hard to the left or to the right. But I want it to run true and right down the middle. The only way to get it right is for there to be an adjustment, and alignment, and the only way to get it properly aligned is to allow someone who knows where they’re doing to adjust it according to what some standard says is straight. Our churches are filled with people who are all over the road. Some pull hard to the left, others to the right, but God’s way is straight down the middle. So long as God’s people are out of alignment, then shepherds are needed to help them make the proper adjustments.
The word perfecting also means to equip or prepare for service. As we make the adjustments in our lives that will bring us into alignment with God’s Word and will, we will become better equipped or prepared for service. Now, how are God’s shepherds supposed to accomplish the perfecting of the saints?
Look first with me at 1 Peter 5:1-3.
“The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.”
Now we’re talking about how a shepherd is supposed to accomplish the perfecting of the saints. In other words, if that is one of the reasons I have been placed here, then how will it happen? Peter said to “feed the flock of God…” I don’t have to tell you that Peter wasn’t talking about fried chicken. The diet of God’s people is the Word of God. Every week I can go to the cupboard from Genesis to Revelation and find everything from the milk of God’s Word to t-bone steaks and dish it out so that you can grow and mature into the image of Christ.
The Word of God is God’s alignment tool. It is His perfect standard, and the shepherd’s job is to make sure that you understand that you must be adjusted to it rather than changing it to adjust to your likes and dislikes.
Not only is the shepherd to feed the flock, but he is to be an example for the flock. I can never expect you to be anything that I am not, so the shepherd must be careful to live in such a way that others learn by example. “Follow me as I follow Christ.”
Now turn to Acts 20. In Acts 20:17, we are told that the apostle Paul called the elders, or pastors, or shepherds of the church at Ephesus together. He began to relate his testimony to them and to instruct them concerning this church that he was so fond of when he said in verse 28,
“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. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.”
As the shepherd feeds the flock, he has a responsibility to guard them from the attacks of wolves, to guard them from those who would harm them. Wolves come in many forms today. There are those who would have you to believe in wrong plans of salvation. God’s plan is that you recognize your sinfulness before Him and repent, placing your faith and trust in Him. The wolves of this world would have you to believe that your good works have to outweigh the bad, that you have to be good enough, or work enough, or do something to keep what God has given you, but it’s all a lie! If you have never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you need to know that your sin separates you from God, and He cannot accept you in your sinful condition. But Jesus died on Calvary’s cross to pay your sin debt. He was sacrificed for you, and now nothing stands between you and a relationship with God except your decision. Would you confess Christ and trust Him to save you?
Wolves come in the form of many other false teachings. Those teachings may concern fundamental Bible doctrines, or they may concern the spirit of the age in which we live. Regardless of the form they take, the shepherd must guard the flock from them, and he does this by teaching them the perfect Word of God. All of this has to do with perfecting the saints, maturing them, seeing that a complete adjustment is made in your character and in your conduct. As this occurs, then you become equipped for the next thing found in Ephesians 4:12.
For the work of the ministry
Simply put, God gives men to His churches to train and equip the members of those churches to do the work of the ministry; in other words: Christian service.
“By teaching, preaching, training and by example the pastor / shepherd is to equip church members for God’s service. Pastors are to ready Christians for action and to make them useful in the kingdom’s service. It is not the pastor’s job to meet every need of the congregation. It is their job to see that every need is met.”
Did you notice the subtle difference there? It isn’t my job to meet every need of our church. It is however my job to make sure that every need is being met, and the biblical way to do that is for saints who are being aligned with God to do the work as they are taught and trained.
One time a deacon told the other deacons in his church, “Men, we must help our pastor to do his work.” The man had the right spirit, but the wrong idea. You see, it is not my work. It is not any pastor’s work. It is God’s work. The work is His, the church is His, and we are His. You don’t help me do my work. You have been invited to join God in doing His work.
So, as the shepherd labors for the perfecting of the saints, they become engaged in the work of the ministry, a third reason comes about.
For the edifying of the body of Christ
The word edify means to build up or to grow stronger. As you grow in Christlikeness, as we mature and align ourselves with God’s Word and God’s will and we become engaged in the work of the ministry, our body is built up, both by additions to our membership as lost souls are saved and by the building up of you as individual saints.
Conclusion
Leading one of the Lord’s churches as a pastor / shepherd is a great privilege. There are few things that excite me more than seeing lost people come to know Christ as their Savior, and then seeing those who know Christ grow in Christlikeness. God has placed me here to lead you in that direction. God has given me to you so that I might feed you the Word of God, so that I might guard you, so that I might minister to you in such a way that you not only see the adjustments that need to be made in your life, but that you actually make them.
Verse 13 tells us that until we all come to the unity of the faith (we all believe the same things concerning the faith, and until we all come to the knowledge of the Son of God (we all know Him as we should), and until we all become perfect, or fully grown and mature believers, found to be perfect reflections of Christ, that this work must continue.
It doesn’t take much looking around to know that we’re not there yet. There are many who still do not know Christ – they have never been saved. There are still so many all around us who are lost and bound for hell, who are already under the wrath of God and until we have reached them all we’re not done. It may be that you are one who has never trusted Christ in salvation. Today He is inviting you into a personal relationship that comes only through repentance and faith.
There are still many who do know Christ, who are saints, but have yet to yield all of their lives to Christ. Some of you are still holding back. You have not yet yielded that temper to Christ. You have not yet given your marriage to God. You know that your character or speech is not what God wants it to be, you still struggle with lusting eyes, with prejudice, with laziness or wrong priorities, and so there are still many adjustments to be made.
What adjustments is God looking for in your life today? Perhaps it is nothing more than you having a better understanding of what God has given you in a pastor. Perhaps it is God inviting you to join Him in His work somewhere, and you needing to respond to that invitation.
I am certain as well that as I share this message, there are bound to be those who might say, “Preacher, you are telling us what we need to adjust, but you are not all the pastor God wants you to be. I know your shortcomings.” If that be what God has laid on your heart today, then let me invite you to come to the altar and pray for me, and then why not talk to me about it?
As we sing this song of invitation, what will your response be?
