The Work of Shepherding

Introduction

Good morning. So good to see you this morning. It’s good to be together to worship God in spirit and in truth. I want to invite you to go ahead and get out your Bible this morning and make your way over into your New Testament to the book of Titus. Go in your Bible, please to Titus chapter 1. Titus chapter 1 in your New Testament. I want to read a verse I to Titus in just a few minutes from now. As you turn to Titus chapter 1, I want to begin this lesson by introducing you to someone. I want to introduce you to Bayraq. Bayraq, not Barack, but Bayrak. Bayerach is an Australian domesticated sheep who made national headlines back in 2021. You see, some kind of way, Bayrack got away from his flock and he was lost.

He was lost for about five years. For about five years, some kind of way, Bayrack was on his own wandering wandering around in a forest. And how that happened exactly, no one knows for sure. But when he was finally, finally found, he looked like this.

He had grown nearly 80 pounds of matted wool. That’s about the weight of a 10-year-old child. And it was full of dirt and sticks and bugs, and he could barely see.

And traumatized and on the verge of death. He clearly did not do well on his own. He clearly did not do well without a shepherd. He did not do well without having someone to care for him and provide for him and nurture him, and his condition here reminds me of what the Bible says about us. It reminds me of what the Bible says about us as God’s sheep or it’s God’s flock. I’m going in my Bible back to Acts chapter 20. I’m going on the slide here back to Acts 20, where our scripture reading came from this morning. And here the Apostle Paul is talking to the leaders of a local church. He’s talking to the elders from the church in Ephesus. And as the Apostle Paul was making his way to Jerusalem, he met with these elders at Miletus, and he told them, Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock.

Notice how here the people of God are referred to as sheep. We are a flock. Be on God for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd notice, to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood.

Whereas Peter speaks to elders or the leaders of the local church, and he tells them to shepherd, to shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God, and not with greed, but with eagerness.

Because in Titus chapter 1 and verse 5, as the Apostle Paul speaks to a preacher named Titus, he says, For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains. Some translations say there that you would set in order the things that are lacking and appoint elders or shepherds in every city as I have directed you. Notice how, just like Barack needed a shepherd to care for him and provide for him and nurture him according to the Bible, we do as well. I do as well. You do as well. We all need the chief shepherd, who is Jesus Christ, and we also need shepherds, also called elders in the Bible, who have been appointed in the local church. You see, according to the scriptures, a local church that doesn’t have qualified men shepherding the flock of God is lacking.

It is incomplete. It is not properly set in order. It is missing something vital to function at the highest level. That’s what the Bible is telling us here over and over again. The question is, are we sold on that? Or we sold on the value attached to the work of being a shepherd. I think that is an important question for us to think about. Because brothers and sisters, in many local congregations of God’s people, and I know this firsthand, they actually don’t. They don’t see the value in the work of shepherds. They actually neglect, intentionally neglect seeking out qualified men to serve as their shepherds. Why do they do that? Well, for some, they do that because they’re content. They’re content with the way things currently are.

They’re content with having men’s business meetings. They’re content with having every brother in the church give input on local church decisions. Some of them don’t want to be under the oversight of shepherds. They don’t want to listen to shepherds. They don’t want to lose their voice or their family’s ability to be the dominant influence in the church. There are many reasons why some congregations neglect appointing qualified men to be their shepherds, but I think God, with all my heart that we have them here.

And they love his people and they love his word, and they have chosen to take on the demanding work of being a shepherd. They’ve chosen to take on this work, and the question is do we, as members of the flock, understand all that their work involves? Do we understand all that their work demands? I think that’s a question. That even a wonderful congregation like South Bumbe needs to revisit from time to time because due to how we are conditioned by our culture and society to think about leadership and authority, it can be easy for us as the people of God to have a distorted understanding about the work of shepherds. It can be easy for us to develop an incomplete view about their work. And to limit their work to merely making decisions, to see them as sort of a spiritual board of directors, or as spiritual CEOs.

To think that their job solely involves deciding things like, well, who’s the preacher going to be? And what are we going to teach in Bible classes? And how are we going to spend the Lord’s money? And what are we going to do for special events? And when exactly are we going to have those events? And who’s going to speak at those events? And what are we going to pay those guys? And whether we’re going to have green carpet, a blue carpet, a brown carpet, and when exactly are we going to repave the parking lot. You see, so often many Christians in local churches see their leaders, they see their elders through the lens of being CEOs or bosses instead of shepherds, and that’s a problem.

You see, while our elders do make decisions, we don’t deny that. At the same time, we need to understand that according to the Bible, their work of shepherding has so much more attached to it. For example, go in your Bible, please to John chapter 10. Go in your Bible to John the 10th chapter. We’re going to talk about the work of shepherding today.

We learn from the chief shepherd, Jesus. Jesus tells us about shepherding. And in John chapter 10 and verse number one, in John 10 in verse 1, Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way. He’s a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.

This figure of speech, Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which he had been saying to them. So Jesus said to them again, Truly, truly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters through me, he will be saved, and he will go in and out and find pasture. The thief only comes to kill, to steal, and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. Let’s just stop right there. Notice how in these verses, Jesus describes himself in a very specific way.

1. Shepherds Know the Sheep

In these verses, Jesus describes himself as a shepherd. He says, He is the good shepherd. He is the good shepherd of the people of God. How does Jesus shepherd as the good shepherd? Well, there are several things involved in shepherding, according to Jesus. First, a shepherd is someone who knows. He knows the sheep. He knows the names of the sheep. He knows all of them by name. You see that in verse number three. I have a dear friend who lives in another part of the country who several years ago called me and told me that her husband, who was a relatively relatively new Christian at the time, has stopped attending services, and she was frustrated by that. She was discouraged by that. She said she wanted some help with that.

And you know what I told her to do? I said to her, sister, you need to go and talk to your shepherds. You need to go and talk to your elders about that and get some help from them. And I’ll never forget how she responded when I said that. She said, I would do that, but I’m not quite sure who they are. She said, I think I know two or three of them by name, but not all of them. That’s unfortunate, wouldn’t you agree? That’s an unfortunate example of a sheep who did not know her shepherds, and it’s very likely that her shepherds did not know her and her spiritual needs and the spiritual needs of her husband who was missing from the flock. According to Jesus, it should never be that way.

According to Jesus, shepherds know their sheep.

They know them personally. They love them. They’re with them, they sympathize with them, they smell like them, they truly care about their welfare. I don’t care what church we’re talking about. No man has any business trying to be a shepherd if he does not like being with the sheep. It’s no business trying to be a shepherd if he just wants to hold a title or just hold a position or just have others revere him and look up to him in high esteem. Shepherding is about relationships. Shepherds know the sheep. And they know the sheep because, according to Jesus, they got to lead the sheep. Do you see that back in John 10? Look at verse 3. Jesus says at the end of verse 3 that the shepherd is the shepherd.

2. Shepherds Lead the Sheep

He leads them out. You see that? In verse number 4, he goes on to say, and he puts forth all his own. He goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. Drop down to verse 27 and verse 27 of the same chapter. Jesus says, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. Shepherds lead. They lead from the front, not the back. They lead the sheep. The New Testament equivalent idea to that is being a pastor. In Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11, as the apostle Paul talks about the different kinds of workers in the church. He says Jesus gave some to be apostles. There were apostles in the church in the first century. And there were prophets, men who received direct revelation from God.

And there were evangelists and there were pastors and teachers. Notice how Paul here talks about pastors. What’s the work of a pastor? Well, notice how the work of a pastor is not the same as the work of a preacher. It’s not the work, it’s not the same as the work of an evangelist. I’m a preacher. I’m an evangelist. JR is a preacher. JR is an evangelist. We proclaim the gospel. We evangelize the good news of Jesus Christ, but the work of a pastor is different.

A pastor is a shepherd. A pastor is one who shepherds the people of God. A pastor is one who tends to the personal needs of sheep. He feeds the sheep. He leads the sheep. He shepherds the sheep. That’s what a pastor does. And isn’t that an interesting description? Isn’t it interesting that out of all of the descriptions that God could have chosen to describe the leaders of his people? He chose this word. He chose to call them pastors, not CEOs, not a spiritual board of directors. Not congressmen or parliament or the Senate or even cowboys or cattle drivers. You see, a cattle driver forces those under his charge to obey.

We’re not cattle. God never calls us cattle. We’re sheep. We are a flock, and a flock must be led. A flock must be guided. In our case, we must be guided by the word of God and by prayer and by the godly influence of God. And go back to 1 Peter 5 to emphasize that point. Look back at 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 1. Because Peter here, who is an elder, he’s a shepherd in the church at this time, and he has some things to say to fellow shepherds, to fellow elders. In 1 Peter 5 and verse 1, he says, Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed.

Verse 2, shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God, and not for sordid gain. Don’t do it for money, but with eagerness, nor yet is lord in it over those allotted to your charge, for proving to be examples of the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. So notice how in these verses we find three different terms, three different descriptions to describe the same men. Three different terms to describe the same men. Verse 1, we’re talking about elders. They’re called elders because they’re older men, they’re seasoned men, they’re spiritually mature men. They’re not guys in their 20s or early 30s. These are men who’ve been around the block a little bit.

3. Shepherds Guard the Sheep

They battle the devil for quite some time. They have experience. They’re also called overseers, to be the middle of verse 2. They have oversight, they manage the flock, they supervise the flock of God, and then at the beginning of verse 2, they’re called shepherds, pastors. Men who lead the people of God, not as CEOs, not as lords, but with eagerness, the scripture says, and by godly example. Shepherds know the sheep. They lead the sheep. And then the Bible also says they guard the sheep. And Jesus talks about that going back to John 10, verses 9 through 13. There Jesus says that I ask the good shepherd, he lays down his life for the sheep. He guards the sheep. He protects the sheep from the wolf. That’s what shepherds do.

And did not the apostle Paul tell the shepherds from Ephesus to do that, going back to Acts chapter 20. Look back at Acts chapter 20. Remember those verses again? Acts 20, verse 28. Acts 20, verse 28, where Paul said to these elders from Ephesus, he says, Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. Verse 29 I know, Paul says, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from amongst your own selves, even from the eldership. Men will arise, speaking of perverse things to draw away disciples after them. Paul tells these shepherds to guard the flock.

Guard the flock. Why? Well, because the devil’s busy.

We learn here in the New Testament that for a man to be a shepherd, he’s got to be a man of character. He’s got to be a godly man who has godly character. He’s got to be a family man. He has to be a man who has proven himself by leading his family in the ways of God, and he’s got to be a teaching man. He’s got to know the word of God. And there’s a reason why. Look at Titus 1 in verse 9. And Titus 1 in verse 9, Paul says that the shepherd must hold fast the faithful word, which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he’ll be able to both exhort and sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict. Notice how one of the responsibilities that a shepherd has in the church is to shut the mouths of false teachers.

4. Shepherds Search for the Lost Sheep

It is to know the word of God and have deep trust and conviction in the word of God and be willing to have the courage and the love for the flock to use the word of God to battle against false teachers if they’re insistent upon promoting error in the church. Shepherds know the sheep, they lead the sheep, they guard the sheep, and they also search for the lost sheep. While it is true that the devil, that the devil sometimes steals away members of the flock of God, other times the sheep just do like Barak did. They just wander away. They just kind of wander away from the fold and they get lost. And when that happens, shepherds launch out on a rescue mission for those lost sheep.

They do just like the shepherd did in Luke chapter 15. Do you remember that shepherd that Jesus talks about in Luke 15? Remember in Luke 15, verses 4 through 7, Jesus talks about a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. He had a hundred sheep. And he lost just one. And he still had 99 sheep. But he goes and he searches for that one sheep. He looks diligently for it, and when he finally finds it, he puts it on his back and he takes it back to safety and he rejoices with his family and friends. That’s what a shepherd does. He looks for the lost sheep. And you know what that means practically? That means that if we start missing three or four services in a row because we feel like we can watch church on the computer and think that’s good enough.

We shouldn’t be surprised if our shepherds reach out to us and contact us. We shouldn’t be surprised by that. We shouldn’t be surprised if we get a phone call or even a visit from them asking us where we’ve been and how we’re doing spiritually and what they can do to help us maybe to become more devoted to God in the local church and worshiping God in the assembly. We shouldn’t be surprised by any of that kind of stuff because, according to the Bible, that’s a big part of their job. That’s a big part of their responsibility. God gives them the responsibility of doing all they can to make sure members of this flock or account it for. In fact, the Bible makes that very clear in Hebrews chapter 13.

Go in your Bible to Hebrews 13. You might want to put a Bible marker there because we’re going to come back to that verse quite a bit. As you turn there, let me tell you something that a friend once told me a couple of years ago. I have a friend who’s a shepherd in a local church. He’s been a shepherd for quite some time. And he told me once that while he loves serving God’s people as an elder, as a shepherd, there are moments when he finds himself laying in his bed, two o’clock in the morning, and he’s afraid. He’s afraid.

Why is he afraid? Well, because, according to what he told me, it was because of this verse right here. Hebrews 13 to verse 17, where the Bible says, obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls. That’s talking about the shepherds as those who will what? They got to give an account. The Bible says shepherds have to give an account. Ultimately, they got to give an account of themselves and their work to God. They got to give an account of their work to God because at the end of the day, the local church is God’s flock. It’s not their flock, it’s God’s flock. They are stewards over sheep that doesn’t belong to them. Peter makes that clear in 1 Peter 5 and verse 3 when he says the sheep have been allotted to their charge.

The sheep in a local church ultimately belong to God. And that means that if shepherds don’t leave the flock in the way that God prescribes, they’re going to be in big trouble on the judgment day. What I just want you to see is the work of our shepherds. Involves more than just them making decisions. Do you see that? It involves more than them just deciding on which preachers we’re going to support. And the order of our services and the color of our carpets and what we’re going to do for special events and what we’re going to pay those guys. In addition to those kinds of things, our four shepherds are diligently involved in caring for the souls of every member of this church. They have to know the sheep.

They lead the sheep. They guard the sheep. They search for the missing sheep because they’re going to be accountable for them on the judgment day.

5. What God Expects From Us as the Sheep

What about me? What about you? I mean, we’ve talked about their work and what their work involves, but is there anything that God expects from us as the sheep to do for them while they do their work? There certainly is.

As the sheep, we have to submit.

And their oversight. Not because the preacher says so, because God said so. Are you still in Hebrews 13? Look at verse 17. Hebrews 13, 17 says what? Obey your leaders and submit to them. For they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Want you to notice the two of the first words there in that verse obey and submit. Do you see those two words? Those two words carry the idea of yielding. We have to yield. Yield in matters of what? Yield in matters of judgment. That’s what that’s talking about. Yield in matters of judgment. As we said earlier, there are many instances when shepherds in a local church have to make decisions, and we got to understand that most of those decisions involve judgment.

They involve them making decisions that are not necessarily right and wrong or black and white, but they are matters of judgment. Examples of this include things like deciding on which topics we’re going to learn in our Bible classes. And deciding whether or not we’re going to use Lord’s Supper packets or not. And deciding how we’re going to take up the collection on Sunday. Are we going to pass out trays or put out boxes in the front? And deciding whether or not we’re going to put songs on the PowerPoint or not. And deciding which preachers we’re going to support and whether or not we’re going to have a Sunday evening service or a quarterly singing. Or when exactly do we withdraw from a sinful brother or sister in the church?

None of these things have anything to do with book, chapter, and verse. None of these things are black and white issues. All of those kinds of things require judgment calls made by shepherds that are rooted in love and in what they believe is best for the entire flock. Those things require judgment.

We need to submit to their judgment. We need to trust that there’s always, usually a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes that we know nothing about. And they gotta do what is best for the entire flock and to reject the authority they have to lead us is ultimately a rejection of God’s plan for the local church. So we have to submit. And we also have to hold them in high esteem. The Bible says that in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, the apostle Paul has this to say to us when it comes to our leaders in the local church. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 12, Paul says, But we request you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you and have charge over you.

That’s talking about the elders. That’s talking about the shepherds and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work, live in peace with one another. Listen to what Paul says there. Notice how, because of the work that elders do, because of their work of shepherding, God commands us to have high regard for them. He commands us to respect them and to strive to be at peace with them and to appreciate their work. He expects us to appreciate the sacrifice they make to do this work. He expects us to appreciate how some of them have health issues they’re fighting with a lot of them are sacrificing a lot of time away from their families, and some of them are doing this work while still having a lot of responsibilities on a secular job.

We have to submit to the shepherds. And we have to esteem them very highly according to the scriptures, and we gotta allow them to serve with joy. We gotta let them serve with joy and not grief. Are you back in Hebrews? Will you go back to Hebrews again, please? Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 17. And Hebrews 13 and verse 17. The Hebrew writer says, obey your leaders and submit to them. For they keep watch over your souls as those who give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable to you. In that verse, we have a warning. You see it. We have a warning against rebellion against our leaders. The scripture says that instead of making it our mission to bring them grief and stress and have rebellious spirit spirits, we need to try to bring them joy.

We need to bring them joy and not grief. How do we do that practically? Well, we do that by doing everything we talked about so far, by submitting, by obeying, by yielding, by being unselfish and patient and kind, by humbly, humbly listening to them whenever they also offer us counsel and wisdom that’s designed to help us be better for Jesus by supporting them, by frequently encouraging them, and by being willing to be active and serve in whatever capacity they need us to serve in and not treat the local church like a cruise ship by being gracious and understanding and always mindful that just like there are no perfect spouses and there are no perfect children and grandchildren, and there’s certainly no perfect preachers and deacons and people, they’re also no perfect shepherds.

There are no perfect elders on this planet. Elders are people, they make mistakes, they’re not going to lead us perfectly. They are fallible human beings who need to be cut some slack and given understanding and respect and love and the benefit of the doubt. We have to allow them to serve with joy. And we got to make an effort to get to know them. I say that because of what Jesus says back in John 10. In John chapter 10 and in verse 14, Jesus said this in John 10 and verse 14 I am the good shepherd and I know my own.

That means that if the shepherds invite us into their home for a meal, or if they ask if they can come into our home for a meal, what we need to do is make time for that. We need to take advantage of those invitations, and there’s nothing wrong with initiating some ourselves. There is nothing wrong with inviting them to lunch occasionally, but to have breakfast with us, or to come to our home and have supper, or to go to a magic basketball game with us, or attend our kids’ soccer game or baseball game or basketball game. You see, when we are constantly making efforts to get to know our shepherds and be close with our shepherds and nurture a relationship with our shepherds when those days come that we need encouragement, and we need wisdom and we need counsel and we need somebody to pray with us and study the Bible with us when those days come, and they do come, we will do what God wants us to do and naturally just go to them first.

Go to the shepherds, not to the preacher first. Go to the shepherds. That’s what they’re there for. We need to seek to get to know them. And then certainly, let me close with this. We need to be praying for them. We need to be praying for them in Ephesians chapter 6. In Ephesians chapter 6, I’ll close with this. The apostle Paul, as he’s imprisoned for preaching the gospel, he says in Ephesians 6 and verse 18, with all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit. And with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints and pray on my behalf, Paul says, that utterance may be given to me and the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.

Paul here is asking for prayers. You see that? He’s asking for prayers from other Christians that he can be effective in preaching the gospel and being an evangelist, saying our shepherds need the same thing. They need us to be praying for them. In addition to praying for all the sick and the shut ins and our needs and our government and the military, we need to pray for that stuff. But in addition to those things, we also need to be praying every day for our shepherds. We need to be praying for their work. We need to be praying for their families. We need to be praying that they have the courage and the wisdom and the good judgment they need. We need to be praying that they always stay focused on their stewardship and accountability to Jesus.

Conclusion

But I just want you to see it’s just like there are things they are to do for us, there are things we ought to do for them. It goes both ways. And in case you’re wondering, why did Sean preach about this today? Let me just say that I did not preach about this today because the elders or the shepherds asked me to or commanded me to because they did not. I preached this today because I wanted to. Because I personally feel convicted in my heart that a church needs to be reminded about these kinds of things from time to time. And as a preacher, I have the responsibility to preach the whole counsel of God, and this, brothers and sisters, is part of the counsel of God.

This is in the Bible, it’s in the gospel. In fact, this is the first of four lessons I’m gonna be doing this month about the various roles of workers in the church. This morning, I talk with you about the work of shepherds, the work of our elders, but later on this month, I want to talk with you also about deacons. I want to talk with you about the role of deacons. I want to talk with you about women. I want to talk with you about the work that godly women can do in the church, and I want to talk with you about the responsibilities we all have to each other. We’re not just gonna talk about shepherds, we’re gonna talk about deacons. We’re talking about women.

We’re going to talk about things that we all can do to serve in the kingdom of God. But we began this morning talking about shepherds. We begin by considering how God and his great wisdom have given some men the ability to serve the flock as shepherds and again praise God. We have four godly shepherds here, but we need to make sure we’re utilizing them correctly. We need to make sure that we are seeing them in the right way. We got to make sure that we’re seeing them as shepherds who’ve been given the responsibility of spiritually providing for and caring for God’s sheep. In fact, speaking of sheep, let’s close by talking about Barack again. Remember him. Remember, Barack was lost for a time, wasn’t he? For about five years, he was separated from his flock, but eventually he was found.

Eventually, he was brought back to safety, and he even received a great haircut. And he regained his confidence again, and he made some friends and he started being fed properly, and he did just fine for the rest of his life. He did just fine when he had other people, shepherds caring for him and providing for him. And maybe right now in your life, you find yourself just like he was for a time. Maybe right now in your life, you are a lost sheep. You’re not where you need to be spiritually. If we can help you with that, we want to. If you need to respond to the gospel for the first time through faith and repentance and baptism for the remission of sins, so you can become part of God’s flock and God’s family, or if you need to repent and be restored to God’s flock, we’ll pray with you and encourage you.

If there’s anyone here this morning who needs to respond to the gospel, this song is for you. Come to the front. Let’s stand, let’s sing together.