The Pastor as Shepherd

Topic The pastor as shepherd Time October 2016 Place APC, South Africa

We are down on the beach once again as we come to the matter of the Pastor as Shepherd. In Acts 20:28-30 Paul says to the Ephesian elders

Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them

You will find similar language in 1 Peter 5:1-4, where Peter says

To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ's sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, watching over them - not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.

When I first became a pastor there was some discussion over what people should call me, including what the children should call me. One family asked me what I would like their children to call me and I said pastor might be nice. Their oldest girl was about two at the time and so they began to encourage her to refer to me as pastor. Unfortunately she couldn't manage pastor and started calling me plaster instead!

There are several terms used to refer to pastors or ministers used in the Bible and elsewhere - pastor, minister, elder, preacher, parson, priest, clergyman, vicar, rector, reverend, etc.

The word priest may be a shortened version of presbyter but it does suggest the Roman Catholic idea that we are somehow representing the people before God. In truth, all Christian are priests under their one High Priest Jesus Christ.

Rector, vicar, parson and reverend are too churchy for most. Rector suggests ruling, vicar really means representing the bishop. Parson is a form of person in the sense of the person who matters.

The word overseer or bishop is from the Gentile world and is a New Testament way of referring to pastors and other leaders who have the oversight of a congregation, who oversee it. The more Jewish term is elder or presbyter. Early in church history people began to distinguish between the two word putting bishops above presbyters but in truth every local minister if a church is a bishop or presbyter, an overseer or elder.

Both words are useful in certain contexts but for various reasons the words don't always conjure up the best images. If I call myself Bishop Brady you may think of Bishop Tutu or someone; Overseer Brady may make you think I'm a gold mine overseer or something and Elder Brady may make you think I'm as old as I am!

Preacher is okay, as that is our chief work, as is minister, if people remember that it means servant and that we are all to have servant hearts. I heard an amusing story once of a preacher landing in an African country somewhere and being ushered straight into a VIP lounge. Some poor chap had assumed that when his passport said minister of religion it meant the minister of religion!

Perhaps the best word to describe ourselves, however, is the word pastor which means shepherd. It is a widely used word, acceptable to everyone from Roman Catholics to Baptists to Pentecostalists. It is the word that great Puritan deliberately chose when he was in his first pastorate in Fordham. It has been pointed out how even though before and after him used the word parson he deliberately signed himself John Owen, pastor.

One of the strengths of the word is that it carries us straight to Christ who called himself the Good Shepherd and whom Peter refers to as the chief shepherd. He is also called the great shepherd of the sheep by the writer of Hebrews.

He looked upon the masses as sheep without a shepherd and his initial mission was to save the ones he referred to as the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He spoke of his people as sheep and of other sheep not of this sheep pen that he had to bring also. He spoke of himself as the shepherd searching for the lost sheep. One of the ways he spoke of himself at the final judgement was in terms of a shepherd dividing the sheep and the goats.

The history of the use of the word shepherd and the use of the sheep/shepherd metaphor in Hebrew thought is a long one. Priests, prophets and kings were spoken of as shepherds to the people. They are the Undershepherds but God is the Great Shepherd over his people as famously described by David in the Shepherd Psalm, Psalm 23 – The LORD is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing. Asaph begins Psalm 80 Hear us, Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock.

These undershepherds often failed and none were perfect. The people were encourage to look to the day when Messiah would come, the Messiah sometimes described in shepherd terms by Jeremiah, Ezekiel and others. In Isaiah 40:10, 11 the prophet says See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power, and he rules with a mighty arm. See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.

Other metaphors were used for Messiah but both in the Old Testament and in Jesus' own ministry, as we have seen, the shepherd metaphor was well loved. He used it also to speak to his disciples of their pastoral task. At the end of John's Gospel, you remember how he says to Peter, that he must feed his sheep and take care of them.

Peter himself takes up this picture when he says (1 Peter 2:25) you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. As we have seen, he speaks to fellow ministers as shepherds of God's flock. Paul, as we have also seen, uses similar language.

To help us think together about this I want us to look at two passages in the Old Testament that use this shepherd imagery, Psalm 23 and Ezekiel 34.

Psalm 23

In his handbook for pastors Shepherding God's Flock Jay Adams takes Psalm 23 as a model for learning what pastoral ministry is about. He makes a number of points.

1. There should be a concern for each individual sheep. The Lord is my Shepherd is very personal. The Good Shepherd, of course calls his sheep by name (John 10:3), he knows them (10:27), goes after the sheep that is lost (Luke 15:4). You have to have a personal relationship with each of your flock. You need to know their names, something about them. You must get to know them properly.

2. We should help the flock to rest. He makes me lie down. Jesus knows our constitution. He knows what we can handle, what is too much for us. He treats us accordingly. A pastor should know the pressures his congregation are under. What are their fears, their doubts? What trials and temptations do they face? He ought to be able to encourage them. Jesus would take his disciples off from time to time, give them a holiday. The Good Shepherd doesn't keep driving the sheep.

3. We must provide for their daily sustenance. … In green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters. The shepherd provides food and drink for his flock. There should be good fresh food Sunday by Sunday and at other times too. The flock should never go away unfed.

4. We should refresh them and encourage them. People get tired, worn out and discouraged. But he refreshes my soul. It's not just regular food and drink, as it were, from the Word but real refreshment from heaven.

5. They are to be guided and shown leadership. He guides me. Again in John 10 (3, 4) the shepherd leads them out … he goes before them.’ Psalm 80 again speaks of the Shepherd of Israel … who leads Joseph as a flock. Always the pastor should instruct his flock. “This is the way to go … ” “Come this way”.

6. There must be instruction, training and discipline. ... along the right paths .... Paul tells Timothy that the Scriptures are useful for training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). The Word must be brought to bear on the lives of the people.

7. We ought to provide goals and motivation. For his name's sake. This should always be the ultimate goal – we should be doing everything in the name of Jesus Christ and for his glory. Pastors ought to remind their flocks it is so.

8. There is security and protection. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. We ought to protect the flock from falling, from attack by wolves outside the fold and within. The Lord is described as The Shepherd and Overseer of our souls (1 Peter 2:25). There are similar statements in Hebrews 13:17 which speaks of your leaders who watch over your souls and in Acts 20:28-30 again where it says Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. ,,,, In John 10 (11) again we read of the wolf coming and the Shepherd laying down his life for the sheep.

9. Also personal fellowship and loving friendship. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, …. John 10:14, 15 I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me - just as the Father knows me and I know the Father - …. The idea of the loving care and concern of the shepherd for his sheep reaches its acme, perhaps, in Revelation 7:17, where God says of potential martyrs that the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd; 'he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. As pastors we are to get alongside the members of the flock so that we may encourage, comfort, urge or warn them, as may be appropriate at any given moment.

10. We must give them a living hope, the hope of heaven. and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. The pastor sets everything in the light of eternity. The reality of heaven puts everything in perspective.

A few short years of evil past, We reach the happy shore,

Where death-divided friends at last Shall meet, to part no more.

Ezekiel 34

You can do something similar by taking a less familiar and more negative passage. Ezekiel 34 is a prophecy against the shepherds of Israel. Here we see both how a pastor should not go about things and how he should.

1. Consider how pastors can fail their flocks

God says through Ezekiel Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. There is a selfishness about these men. Instead of taking care of the flock their only concern is to look after number one. They are happy to eat the curds from the ewes' milk, and clothe themselves with wool from the sheep and eat the choice animals when they are slaughtered but they don't care about the sheep. Ezekiel itemises using pictures from the work of shepherding.

1 Weak sheep – There are always going to be weak sheep, sheep that can't keep up with the rest of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak. Some people are weak – they find it hard going and need strengthening. Make it happen.

2 Sick or injured sheep. … or healed the sick or bound up the injured. Others are actually sick with diseases but they are neglected by false pastors. Still others are injured but again they are neglected.

3 Straying and lost sheep. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. There is a tendency to wander from the truth. Sadly many pastors are not concerned for these strays.

4 Harsh and brutal shepherding You have ruled them harshly and brutally. In general there can be a tendency to be rather brutal with the flock. There can be a distasteful harshness about some men.

Now obviously when we come to a passage like this we have to look at ourselves. We are called to be pastors (shepherds) but are we doing the work of pastors? We are happy to take the money God's people provide or enjoy other benefits but are we strengthening the weak? Are we healing and helping the sick and injured? Are we endeavouring to bring back the strays? Are we searching for the lost? Is there a gentleness and a care about our approach? I have to confess that such a list causes me shame and reminds me there are certain areas where I'm falling down and where there needs to be change. What about you?

More widely, what is it like among ministers today more generally? I think we'd have to say that although there are many faithful men there is also a great deal of neglect and one fears that some are in the ministry simply for what they can get out of it. The weak are not strengthened from God's Word, the spiritually sick and injured are not cared for as they should be. There is a general failing to really go after the backslider and reach out to the unbeliever. Generally speaking people are happier to receive sheep from others than go find them for themselves. There is also evidence of harshness, even brutality, in some cases.

Such facts should make us mourn before God and pray he will forgive his ministers and change them so that they may begin to be the sort of people that they ought to be.

2. Consider the problems these false shepherds cause

The result of all this we read about in verses 5, 6 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.

What a tragic picture – sheep wandering on the hills with no shepherd. This is a reference to the idolatry that went on in the hills in Ezekiel's day. The people were divided and in danger. They were turning to false gods in their neglected and ignorant state.

And don't we see the same sort of thing today? Division, confusion, all sorts of false worship. Now it can't all be blamed on bad pastors but that's where a great deal of the problem springs from.

3. Consider how God punishes such shepherd sins

Verses 7-9 God calls on the shepherds to hear his Word As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock.

God speaks first about his attitude then what he will do.

1 Note God's attitude I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. Such people may claim to be leaders of God's people and technically they were, but the truth is that God is against the shepherds. He is determined to hold them accountable for his flock.

You cannot just act as you please with God's people, with those he has under his care. To fail here is to be in great trouble indeed.

2 Note God's action I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. Such false shepherds will be removed. They can't last. God has his ways of removing them.

We see such things happening in our day and it shouldn't surprise us when such people are removed – rarely by being arrested, sometimes by being found in immorality, through ill health or unpopularity. In the end God will remove all false shepherds.

4. Recognise God's concern for his flock

This is all rather negative but midway through verse 10 we begin on a more positive and encouraging note. God says I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them. God will not allow such situations to continue. He goes on to speak of gathering his flock and caring for them. He thus shows what true shepherds do.

1 Gathering them (11, 12) I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.

God is the Great Shepherd. He will protect his people and care for them. He will not neglect them. Specifically he speaks again about what will happen after the exile - I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. Their current leaders were utterly failing but God himself would one day gather the people and bring them into the Promised Land again.

This is what good shepherds do – despite the false shepherds they gather a people to God, for God. In the end all God's own will be safely gathered in and there shall be one flock.

2 Caring for them I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. After the exile, God will bring his people back to the Promised Land again (14) I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.

Here are the most encouraging words (15, 16) I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. The very problems that the false shepherds had so neglected – the strays, the injured and weak, he will deal with - I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but and this is the other side of the coin the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.

God uses good pastors not only to gather his people to himself but as a means of caring for them and providing for them. When God is your shepherd you lack nothing. There are green pastures and quiet waters. Souls are restored. When sheep stray, the shepherd brings them back; if there are injuries, he binds up the wounds; if there is weakness, he strengthens.

5. Dealing with warring sheep

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales describe a poor parson, probably a Lollard or something of that kind. One of his sayings was 'If gold rust what will iron do?' in other words, 'Like pastor like people'. Poor pastors are likely to produce poor congregations. However, it would be very foolish indeed to suppose that all the problems in a church can be put down to its leaders. And so here God makes clear that although Israel's leaders were clearly at fault the people were not without fault themselves. They need to be spoken to as well. Hence verse 17 As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats.

1 You need to warn the strong. 18, 19 Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet?

Think of your people as a flock of sheep again. In general sheep are not aggressive animals but rams and goats (kept with the sheep) can be so. Some sheep are bigger than others too and so there is room for problems. Like all animals they can be selfish too. In that time there was a certain amount of what can only be called bullying – one person taking advantage of another.

Such things can happen today too; a congregation can become quite self-centred in its thinking. People live merely for themselves. They forget about the needs of others.

2 You need to comfort the weak/ 20-22 Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says to them: See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away, I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another.

God wants not only to deal with false shepherds but warring sheep too and so there is hope for the weak, those who have been mistreated by other members of the flock.

Sometimes we can get quite discouraged when we think of what happens at times in church life – divisions and splits, a lack of care towards people on the fringes or to outsiders – but here God speaks full of tenderness I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. God will have his people. Despite all, he will save them himself. This is our calling, brothers, to see this happen.

6. Give thanks for the Good Shepherd and the new covenant

Finally, in verses 23-31 we come to the most interesting and powerful part of the chapter. Here we are taken forward to the coming New Covenant in Jesus Christ. There are three main things here, three things to give thanks for.

1 Give thanks for the Christ. 23 I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the LORD have spoken. This is a clear prophecy of the coming of Messiah Jesus Christ, revealed in the New Testament as the Great and Good Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd. Remember how he looked on the people with compassion as sheep without a shepherd. He had a shepherd heart. Eventually he laid down his life for the sheep – he died that his people might be forgiven.

Give thanks that the Great Shepherd of the sheep Jesus Christ has come for his people. HE is the model pastor who we must seek to emulate.

2 Give thanks for the new covenant in Christ. God goes on (25) I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of savage beasts so that they may live in the wilderness and sleep in the forests in safety. We get these intimations in the Old Testament of a new covenant that is going to be brought in. It is in one sense the same covenant of grace that we read of all through Scripture but the coming of Messiah means that it is brought in now with great freshness and in a new way. The eternal covenant can be summed up as here (30, 31) Then they will know that I, the LORD their God, am with them and that they, the Israelites, are my people, declares the Sovereign LORD. You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign LORD. It is God being God and those in the covenant being his people. Or if you prefer – God as Shepherd and those who belong to him, his sheep. It is into this covenant relationship we are seeking to bring people.

3 Give thanks for our covenant privileges in Christ. Several wonderful things are alluded to here. We can put them all under two headings: security and blessing.

• Security See 27b, 28 the people will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the LORD, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them. They will no longer be plundered by the nations, nor will wild animals devour them. They will live in safety, and no one will make them afraid. They were becoming slaves to the Babylonians and those who succeeded them – they were under a yoke. But God was going to break the bars of that yoke. Sheep in open country can be in danger of attack from wild animals. These sheep had come under attack, if you like, but a time was coming, says God, when They will live in safety, and no one will make them afraid. That time is here now and it ought to be the lot of Christian believers in Christ. As pastors we ought to be encouraging them to trust in Jesus Christ and so be safe and secure. He can rescue from the slavery of sin and from the power of the world and the devil so that his people will live in safety, and no one will make them afraid.
• Blessing. Two or three pictures are used to illustrate.
  • Refreshing showers I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a blessing. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing. Think of soft refreshing rain on a hot day How refreshing, how good So it is when God comes to his people giving new strength.
  • Abundant fruitfulness 27a The trees will yield their fruit Think of a tree full of fruit. God works in the lives of believers to make them fruitful – full of good works. It goes on - and the ground will yield its crops. Then verse 29 I will provide for them a land renowned for its crops, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations. The abundance of harvest is another way of picturing the blessings that come under the new covenant.

To sum up (30, 31) Then they will know that I, the LORD their God, am with them and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Sovereign LORD. You my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are people, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign LORD.

As pastors we want the people to know the Lord is with them. We want them to have a sense of his presence if they belong to the Lord. We want them to know the Lord is their shepherd as they turn from their sins and trust in Jesus Christ. Let's pray we will be able to bring that about.