CCC Gainesville | Blog
This month Christ Community is seeking to raise awareness and understanding of the offices that the New Testament prescribes for churches: elder and deacon. To that end, I’m posting sections in order from a wonderful survey of shepherding, the task of elders, on this blog.
You can also read the entire article in one shot.
To nominate men for the office of elder and deacon, fill out a form on Sunday morning, or email name(s) and designate office(s) to info AT christcommunity church DOT com.
LUKE
Our look at the Gospel of Luke will be very brief. In chapter 15, Luke presents the parallel account of the parable we saw in Matthew 18. It’s worth meditating on one more time.
Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near him to listen to Him. Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable, saying, “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? “When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. “And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ “I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:1-7).
Does this text describe our desire as elders to see God do a great work of conversion among us and our community? Are we praying as elders for a move of God’s Spirit among us to do his gathering work of conversion through this church? What keeps us from praying this way?
JOHN
Guarding, Knowing, and Gathering
John’s Gospel presents us with some of the most extended and beautiful statements about Jesus as our Good Shepherd. As Jesus says in chapter 10,
I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father” (John 10:11-18).
Which aspects of the Good Shepherd’s character and responsibility stand out here? First, in contrast to the hired hand, the good shepherd is concerned about the sheep. He’s so concerned for them, in fact, that he’s willing to lay down his life for the sheep. He’s not afraid or reticent to sacrifice himself for the good of his sheep. He sacrifices himself particularly in the service of protecting the sheep from wolves. He lays his life on the line to protect the sheep. He sacrifices himself uniquely in giving his life as a ransom for theirs.
Second, he knows his sheep. He knows which sheep are his, he knows the condition of his flock, and his flock recognizes his voice and follows him with willing trust.
Third, he gathers his flock together and keeps them together. One flock with one shepherd. The ideal is that the flock remains together.
What does all this mean for us as Christ’s under-shepherds? First, it means we are called to guard the flock. We need to be on the lookout for wolves and cultivate in our hearts a willingness to protect the flock from them, even to our own hurt. We need to pray that God would plant and grow in us a loving and protective concern for the condition of the sheep and for their safety from wolves who teach false doctrine and practice.
Second, as shepherds, we need to work hard at knowing the sheep and making sure that they know us. The good shepherd isn’t aloof from his sheep. Being a good under-shepherd involves more than just attending regular elder meetings. It means moving among the congregation in a particular way. We should be engaged with people as much as God enables us to be. Some of us will be better at this than others, initiating with people for their spiritual good. It will look different from shepherd to shepherd. But we all need to work hard at getting to know the sheep.
Let me offer two further implications of this second task. Working hard to know which particular sheep God has entrusted to our care means taking local church membership seriously. We must therefore be careful about how we admit members into the flock, and we must be careful about how we see members out of the flock. Also, knowing the flock means knowing both the condition of particular sheep and the condition of the flock as a whole. Don’t rush out after church services, but linger and chat. Call people throughout the week. Offer hospitality as often as you can.
Third, Christ’s under-shepherds must know how to gather the flock. We want to keep the flock together. It’s dangerous for sheep to wander off on their own. It’s always best for sheep to remain together. At least two implications follow. To begin with, we can keep the flock together by working our way back to a single Sunday morning service rather than dividing the congregation so that many of them never worship and feed with one another. Also, we want to promote the right kind of peace among the congregation in several ways: by quelling disputes among the sheep, by making sure that the stronger don’t abuse the weaker, by making sure that our teaching and leadership promote the right kind of peaceful unity, and by making sure that the service of the deacons promotes the right kind of peaceful unity.
Stewarding, Feeding, Self-Sacrificing
John’s most dramatic statement of Jesus’ commissioning of his under-shepherds must be Jesus’ call on Peter to feed his sheep. We read,
So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” he said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” he said to him, “Tend My lambs.” he said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” he said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” he said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.” he said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Tend My sheep. “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go.” Now this he said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said to him, “Follow Me!” Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; the one who also had leaned back on his bosom at the supper and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?” So Peter seeing him said to Jesus, “Lord, and what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!” (John 21:15-22).
The governing verb for Jesus’ command to tend or shepherd is the Greek word boskô, which more specifically means to feed.
Whose sheep does Jesus command Peter to feed? Jesus’ sheep. Jesus will still own the sheep. Peter doesn’t own them. He is simply commissioned to feed and care for them as an under-shepherd accountable to the Owner Shepherd.
What is the relationship between love for Christ and feeding his sheep? Feeding Jesus’ sheep is the particular way that Jesus wanted Peter to love him. As a shepherd of God’s people, Jesus wanted Peter to feed Jesus’ sheep as the evidence and outworking of Peter’s love for Jesus. That’s how closely Jesus identifies with his people. He does a similar thing with Paul in Acts 9, when he tells Paul, then Saul, that in persecuting the church, he is persecuting Jesus himself: “Saul, why are you persecuting [not my people, but] Me?’ And Saul said, ‘who are you, Lord?’ And Jesus said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting’” (Acts 9:4-5) Twice in these verses in Acts Jesus identifies himself with his sheep. The same identification occurs in John 21, yet here Jesus identifies with the opposite kind of treatment of the sheep. In Acts 9, Jesus views himself as persecuted when his people are persecuted; in John 21, he views himself as loved when his people are loved (see also Matt 25:35-40).
What does this mean for us as under-shepherds of Jesus Christ? First, we must remember that we are merely stewards. We are accountable to Jesus for how we shepherd and feed his sheep. He is the owner-shepherd, we are the under-shepherds (Heb 13:17). So we must work hard to give practical care and doctrinal instruction wherever it’s needed, and doing everything God enables us to do to present every person complete in Christ (Col 1:29).
Second, Christ’s charge to Peter reminds elders that we need to feed the sheep. That may look different for a preaching elder like me and a non-staff elder. For a non-staff elder, feeding the sheep may occur by initiating regular one-on-one discipling relationships over breakfast or coffee or lunch, or leading a Bible Study in your home, or teaching a Sunday School class, or inviting singles or young married couples into your home for dinner and spiritual conversation, or being a person who is known in the congregation as easily approachable for biblical counsel and prayer. Whatever it looks like in your life, Jesus’ charge to Peter will be something that drives you. Your heart is anxious to feed others, whatever opportunities God might give.
Having said that, it should also involve occasionally preaching in front of the whole congregation, in one gathering of the church or another. A congregation can become unnecessarily narrow by only listening to one preacher, no matter who that is. I want our own congregation to be exposed to the teaching of other elders. It breaks up the monotony of hearing my voice in every single service, and it lets the flock see other men handling the Word faithfully. It gives them the benefit of learning from someone else’s sanctified thought and labor in the text. And it gives the elders an opportunity to sharpen and expand eldering skills. Part of elder training must be experience in formally feeding the sheep from the pulpit.
Third, Christ’s charge to Peter reminds elders of the call to personal sacrifice. Jesus was not simply calling Peter to an easy life in the country. He was calling Peter to the cross. Pastoral ministry involves dying to ourselves and our flesh, our laziness, our pride, our sense of entitlement. It’s a call to grow in our willingness to make personal sacrifices for the good of the sheep as an expression of our love and loyalty to the Owner-Shepherd.
Footnote:
1. It also occurs in 1 Kings, where Micaiah prophesies to Ahab king of Israel about the results of Ahab’s military defeat at the hands of a pagan king. “I saw Israel scattered on the mountains, like sheep which have no shepherd. And the Lord said, ‘these have no master. Let each of them return to his house in peace’” (1 Kings 22:17).
Paul Alexander is the pastor of Fox Valley Bible Church in St. Charles, Illinois and the co-author (with Mark Dever) of The Deliberate Church (Crossway, 2005).
March 2007
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