This sermon was preached on Sunday
morning, June 23, 1985, at the Trinity Baptist Church
in Montville, New Jersey. Now may we again bow in the presence
of God and plead in prayer for the very things we've asked God
to grant us in the singing of this hymn. Let us pray. Oh, our Father, we can find no
better words to frame the deepest longing of our hearts. Come with
unction and with power. Oh, Lord, send the Holy Spirit
down upon this congregation. Send him upon the preacher that
he may know the expansion of his own mind and spirit with
your word of truth. that he may know facility of
utterance, be with his mouth, be with his heart, be with his
whole being, that he may accurately convey your mind in the scriptures. And then, O Lord, come with unction
and power upon this congregation, unction to give light, power
to move our affections and our wills by the word of truth. Power
to break down ignorance and remove prejudice. Power, O Lord, to
sweep aside whatever barriers of misconception may have been
raised in our minds and our hearts. O Lord, we thirst to know Your
living presence, granted to us as the gift of the ascended Christ
and for His sake. Amen. Now those of you who were with
us last Lord's Day will remember that it was our privilege to
recognize in a formal and public way the goodness of God in giving
to us as a congregation three more men to serve in the office
of deacon. The entire structure and most
of the content of our morning hour of worship and ministry
were intended to underscore the significance of the office of
a deacon as we laid our hands upon Messrs. Rich Denzel, Cliff
Kitchen, and Jeff Smith. Now the culmination of our evening
service will find us God-willing in a posture in which you as
a congregation will witness an activity in which the existing
elders will lay their hands upon and pray over Dr. Robert Paul Martin in a formal
acknowledgment of his installation as an elder in this church. Now, in that act of laying hands
upon him and praying over him, we will be imparting nothing
to him, nor will we be conferring anything upon him. Rather, as
the existing elders, we will be basically doing three things. we will be making a public acknowledgment
of Christ's previous activity of making and giving Dr. Martin to us to be Pastor Bob
Martin. That's what we will be doing.
As your elders, responding to your unanimous recognition of
this brother, We will be making a public acknowledgment that
Christ has previously both formed him and now given him to us as
an elder. And then secondly, we will be
formally embracing the gift of Christ and consciously placing
ourselves under him in the Lord. we as elders will be submitting
to him as our elder, for we as undershepherds are shepherded
by our fellow undershepherds. And on your behalf, as we lay
hands upon him, we will be symbolizing that you as a congregation, having
recognized him as Christ's gift, Do now with joy submit yourself
to Him in the Lord. And then the third thing we will
be doing is entreating the Lord God to confer upon Him all of
the additional and sustained gifts and graces that He will
need to accomplish His task to our good and to God's glory. Our hands cannot confer either
the graces or the gifts, but the living Christ can. And we
will be in the posture of praying over Him, not personally to confer
anything upon Him, but to plead with God that God will grant
that which our brother will need to accomplish his God-given tasks
in the strength and power of the Spirit. Now, such an occasion
as this constitutes a wonderful opportunity to consider the teaching
of Scripture with respect to this office of an elder, a bishop
or overseer, a pastor or a shepherd in Christ's flock. Now, there
are two things that I wish to establish by way of introduction
this morning. And from these two pillars or
starting points, the entire shape and form of the ministry will
be derived this morning and again this evening, God willing. So
I would ask you to gird up the loins of your mind and to think
with me as our study this morning will be unusually dense in the
didactic area. That is, I will be primarily
found in the role of a teacher this morning God willing, tonight
I will take more the role of an exhorter and a preacher. But
as we would approach the subject of an elder, an overseer, a bishop,
a shepherd in Christ's block, we must come to grips with these
two fundamental biblical perspectives. Number one, the centrality of
the shepherd imagery in defining and describing the nature and
function of the office of an elder. We must come to grips
with the fact that scripture gives a central, a predominant
place to the shepherd imagery in both defining and describing
the nature and function of the office of an elder. And then
the second introductory principle that I trust to demonstrate is
this, the supremacy of Christ as the perfect prototype and
example of the shepherd's office and function. So we want to come
to grips with the centrality of the shepherd imagery and the
supremacy of Christ as the perfect example of the shepherd. First of all, then, the supremacy
or the centrality of the shepherd imagery with reference to the
office and functions of an elder. When we turn to the Word of God
in order to consider the comprehensive teaching of Scripture on the
subject of elders, we find that one of the dominant images, if
not the dominant image, by which the nature and function of elders
is set forth is the image of a shepherd. Turn with me to several
pivotal passages in the New Testament. First of all, to Acts chapter
20. You will remember the setting.
Paul has gathered to himself at Miletus the elders of the
church at Ephesus. Acts 20 and verse 17. And from
Miletus he, that is Paul, sent to Ephesus and called to him
the elders, the presbyters of the church. And when they were
come to him, he said unto them. Then we have a record of Paul's
discourse to the elders, which begins essentially with Paul
reviewing his own conduct amongst them as a minister of the gospel. And he does this for several
reasons that it is not important for us to touch upon this morning.
But then there is a transition at verse 28. Verses 20 or verses 18 through
27 constitute basically a review and a summary of Paul's own ministry
in their midst, coupled with his own perspective on his determination
to fulfill his God-given task as an apostle. Now, having done
that, he now turns to these elders to charge them with their ongoing
responsibility in the midst of this church where Paul had labored
for over three years. And when he begins his charge,
he does so with these words, Take heed or pay close attention
unto yourselves, now notice, and to all the flock. When he describes the church,
the first imagery that he uses is that the church is a flock. It is a gathered company of sheep. Pay close attention to all the
flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you bishops, overseers,
those who inspect and look over and care for this flock. to feed, or better translated,
to shepherd the church of the Lord which He purchased with
His own blood. So they are to take heed to the
flock by being shepherds unto the church. The church and the
flock are synonymous. They're taking heed to the flock
has reference to discharging the task of oversight in a peculiar
sense as shepherds. So you see the conjunction between
church and flock. overseers and shepherds. And then verse 29, I know that
after my departing grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not
sparing, and now he drops the term the church and goes back
to the imagery, not sparing the flock. So having clearly identified
who the flock are, he then goes back to that lovely imagery of
the flock. So you see in this passage, the
elders who are now found in the presence of the great apostle,
with his own example before them of some three plus years of ministry,
they are to go back to their task of oversight with this concept
ringing in their ears and echoing through the chambers of their
hearts, We are to function as shepherds in our oversight of
the flock of God. You see, it is a dominant imagery
by which the ongoing task of elders is both defined and described. Now turn to another pivotal passage
in the New Testament, 1 Peter chapter 5. 1 Peter chapter 5. verse 1, the elders therefore
among you I exhort, so he is singling out this plurality of
overseers, the elders, the presbyters, the same group Paul called to
himself at Miletus, Peter now charges these presbyters, the
elders therefore among you I exhort, who am a fellow elder and a witness
of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the
glory that shall be revealed, Tend the flock of God. Now again, it's the verbal form
of shepherd. Shepherd the flock of God which
is among you. So the first word of exhortation
that would fall upon the ears of the elders as they sat there
that morning and one of their number or an officially designated
reader would stand in the assembly and read this epistle The first
word that would fall upon their ears by way of a specific charge
is this, shepherd the flock of God. The concept of fulfilling
their task as elders is to be understood in the framework of
that of a shepherd who shepherds his flock of sheep. Tend or shepherd
the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight,
literally performing the functions of a bishop or an overseer. So
you see how these two thoughts are brought together again. Paul
brings them together. The Holy Spirit has made you
overseers. That's the plain, blunt, unadorned,
unimaginative statement of the task. But when it picks up an
imagery, it is oversight in the capacity of a shepherd caring
for his flock. And the same two lines of thought
are brought together here. Shepherd the flock of God, exercising
the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the
will of God, nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, neither
as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves
and samples to the flock. And so the shepherd-flock imagery
again dominates Peter's exhortation to these elders. Now, we ask
the question, why does this imagery dominate in identifying the spiritual
leaders of God's people under the New Covenant? Well, the answer
of Scripture is very plain and straightforward. because it is
precisely this that God promised under the Old Covenant when He
prophesied the distinctive marks of blessings under the New Covenant. And I want you to look at several
passages with me in which this is made plain. Jeremiah chapter
3. Jeremiah chapter 3. The shepherd
flock imagery with reference to the task of elders dominates
in the New Testament description because it was precisely that
which was prophesied in the Old Covenant as there was anticipation
of the New. Jeremiah chapter 3, verses 14
and 15. Return, O backsliding children,
saith the Lord, for I am a husband to you, And I will take you,
one of a city and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion."
You see the remnant element? He says, I'll take one of a city,
two of a family, and bring you to the city of God. Here is the
concept that under the new covenant God will have a remnant, and
they will gather to that which is called Zion. Hebrews makes
it plain that that Zion is not a literal city in Jerusalem,
but is God's city, His church, His special dwelling place. And
when He gathers this remnant, what will He do for them? Verse
15, And I will give you shepherds. I will give you shepherds according
to my heart who shall feed you with knowledge and with understanding. And it shall come to pass when
you are multiplied and increased in the land in those days, saith
the Lord, they shall no more say the ark of the covenant of
the Lord. Neither shall it come to mind,
neither shall they remember it, neither shall they miss it, neither
shall it be made any more. God says a time is coming when
that which was central to the old covenant worship will pass
and be forgotten, and He will gather one of a city and two
of a family. And as He gathers them into Zion,
the crowning blessing that He gives to them is shepherds after
His own heart. who shall feed them with knowledge
and with understanding." Now, if that was God's promise in
the Old Covenant, anticipating the blessings of the New, we
should not be surprised when we turn to the New Covenant documents
that the concept of the leaders in Zion are to function as shepherds. Another prophecy out of Jeremiah,
chapter 23, An additional note is woven into this prophecy that
will become, I trust, increasingly significant as we meet together
again this evening, if God is pleased to gather us. Jeremiah
23. We begin with verses 3 and 4.
After God pronounces a woe upon these shepherds that destroy
and scatter his flock, then God makes a wonderful promise in
verse 3. I will gather the remnant, you see that note again, the
remnant of my flock out of all the countries wither I have driven
them and I will bring them again to their folds and they shall
be fruitful and multiply and I will set up shepherds over
them. who shall feed them, and they
shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be lacking,
saith the Lord. So when He gathers His remnant
together, the great blessing that He gives to them is to set
up shepherds over them who shall feed them in order to deliver
them from their fear, their dismay, and their want. Now, it's interesting
that when we move on to verses five and six, we find something
that seems on the surface to contradict this prophecy. Behold
the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David
a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely
and execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah
shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely, and this is his
name whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. Under the New Covenant, God says
that He will gather His remnant, He will give them shepherds,
plural, and yet it's at the same time that He will raise up out
of the stock of David a branch who shall reign as king. Well, if Christ is reigning as
king, what need is there for human shepherds? And there are
some who reason from the immediacy and the dynamic of the gift of
the Spirit in the New Covenant to a concept that the New Covenant
community, because of the measure of the Spirit's gift from the
ascended Christ, do not need to be shepherded. If they have
their Bibles and the Holy Ghost and Christ as King, they need
no earthly shepherds. Well, such a state was never
envisioned in the prophetic utterances couched in the old covenant in
anticipation of the blessings of the new. In fact, as much
as it is a blessing to have Christ as David's greater son to be
king in Zion, It is a blessing to receive from the King in Zion,
from His place of exaltation, Ephesians chapter 4, those gifts
that He gives. And those gifts are shepherds
and teachers. Therefore, in that passage to
which I've just alluded, Ephesians chapter 4, what the ascended
Christ does, subsequent to His death and resurrection, filling
all realms by His conquering power is not to negate under
the new covenant the necessity of leaders, but to grant the
very shepherds who will, by the blessing of God, be instrumental
to bringing the people of God to maturity in Christ. Ephesians
4, verse 10. He that descended is the same
that ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all
things. And he gave some apostles and
some prophets and some evangelists and some shepherds. The word pastor is simply the
word shepherd. There were shepherds watching
over their flocks by night. Same word in the original. He
gives shepherds and teachers for what purpose? for the perfecting
or mending of the saints unto the work of service. You mean
that it's not enough to have an ascended Christ, an exalted
Christ who gives the Spirit? who by the Spirit inspired the
apostolic writers to give us a completed revelation of the
mind and will of God? You mean it's not enough to have
Christ, the Holy Ghost, in my Bible, to come to perfection
in Christ? That's right, it's not enough.
It's not enough because He has given shepherds and teachers
to perfect the sayings. And he who seeks that perfection
apart from Christ's gift either does so out of gross and willful
ignorance of what is plainly taught or out of a horrible and
blasphemous construction of the wisdom of Christ in his own institution
of this arrangement. Well, we see then that this imagery
is dominant with reference to the function of elders, so that
shepherd becomes one of the titles, and shepherding the flock the
most comprehensive functional description. Now, it's always
comforting when you come to a conviction out of the Bible to go to an
old writer and find that when he read the same Bible, he came
to the same conviction. And when I'd been rooting around
for some time in these passages, I turned to my good old mentor,
Dr. John Owen, and this is what I
found in Owen, quote, the name of a pastor or shepherd is metaphorical. You all know what a metaphor
is, a figure of speech in which you liken something to something
else, but you don't say like. We could say of a certain fellow
in a football game, he was like a tiger. down by the goal line. That's a simile. But if you said,
man, that guy was a tiger in the trenches, you don't mean
that suddenly he had orange and black stripes and grew a tail.
When you say he was a tiger, it's a figure of speech, a metaphor.
Well, the old doctor says the name pastor or shepherd is a
metaphor. It is a term suited unto his
work, denoting the same office and person with a bishop or elder,
spoken of absolutely, without limitation, unto either teaching
or ruling. In other words, he's saying the
term shepherd is a comprehensive term that is synonymous with
elder or bishop. and it seems to be used or applied
unto this office because it is more comprehensive of and instructive
in all the duties that belong to this office than any other
name, whatever, no, more than all of them put together." So
the good old doctor saw this motif in scripture, that in the
description of the function and role of an elder, the concept
of shepherd is predominant because it more than any other takes
into itself the broadest description of his identity and of his tasks. Now, the second foundational
principle that I want to lay this morning, having established,
I trust, to the conviction of your mind, the centrality of
the shepherd imagery in defining and describing the office of
an elder now, consider with me the supremacy of Christ as the
perfect prototype or example of the shepherd's office and
function. Christ as the perfect prototype
or example of the shepherd's office and function. First of all, then, this matter
of the supremacy of Christ in this office. And we'll have two
divisions of the material. Number one, the Old Testament
roots and the New Testament flowering. The Old Testament roots of this
great principle, and then its New Testament flowering. Turn
with me, please, to the book of Ezekiel. Jeremiah 23 and Ezekiel 34 are
the two pivotal passages in the Old Testament with reference
to the false and to the selfish, self-serving shepherds or leaders
in Israel. They are to the Old Testament
what Matthew 23 is to the New Testament in the indictment of
our Lord upon the scribes and Pharisees. Now, in Ezekiel 34,
having indicted these false shepherds, as you heard when Pastor Nichols
read the first 20 verses The first 24 verses in your hearing,
you will have noticed that after in this horrible indictment of
these shepherds who fed upon the sheep and who used the sheep
to their own ends, God then makes a promise in verse 23, I will
set up one shepherd over them. Well, wait a minute, I thought
Jeremiah said, and I will give them shepherds, plural. Now he
says, I'll set up one shepherd. Well, is it many or one? Well,
it isn't either or, it's both and. And in this promise, the
emphasis falls upon the one shepherd. I will set up one shepherd over
them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David. And God
is not saying that he's going to resurrect the literal David
who's long since been dead, but David's seed, that is the Lord
Jesus. He shall feed them and shall
be their shepherd and I, the Lord, will be their God and my
servant David, now notice, prince among them. I, the Lord, have
spoken it. Well, is he going to be shepherd
or is he going to be prince? Is he prince or is he shepherd?
Is he shepherd or is he prince? Well, it's not either or. He
is the princely shepherd and he is the shepherdly prince.
And in the promise of God, David's greater son, in contrast to these
false shepherds, would occupy a place of authority and power
as prince among them. But in the discharge of that
function as priest, he would conduct himself as a shepherd. so that the One whom every true
godly Israelite anticipated as Messiah, they anticipated Him
as the coming Shepherd, Prince, and princely Shepherd. There is another prophecy very
significant in this regard as we look at the Old Testament
roots of Christ as the great prototype Shepherd. It's the
book of Micah, chapter 5. Often this passage is read at
the Christmas season, familiar to most of us, I'm sure. But
thou Bethlehem, verse 2 of Micah 5, thou Bethlehem Ephrathah,
which art little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of
thee shall come forth one unto me, who is to be ruler in Israel. One is going to come who shall
be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting. Therefore, will he give them
up until the time that she who travails has brought forth. Then
the residue of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel,
and he shall stand and feed his flock. in the strength of the
Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, and they
shall abide. For now shall he be great unto
the ends of the earth, and this man shall be our peace." God
says, I'll raise up a ruler. and that ruler shall stand and
feed his flock in the strength of Jehovah. So you see the motif
of Jeremiah's prophecy that God would raise up a shepherd prince
and a prince shepherd is now taken up and underscored by Micah. And these and there are other
passages, I limit myself only to these, show two of the main
tap roots embedded in the Old Testament. Now we turn to the
New Testament. When Mary's womb which contained
for nine months and then expelled in the fullness of time the enfleshed
God, when that act occurred, how was He identified? Well,
if we turn to Matthew chapter 2, we see the perspective of Matthew,
again the familiar Christmas story. When Jesus was born in
Bethlehem of Judea, Wise men came from the east, saying, Where
is he that is born king? They're looking for a king, a
prince, a ruler. But when Herod the king heard
it, he was troubled in all Jerusalem with him. And gathering together
all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of
them where the Christ should be born. They said unto him in
Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written through the prophet,
and thou Bethlehem land of Judah art in no wise least among the
princes of Judah, for out of thee shall come forth a governor
who shall be shepherd of my people Israel. Where is he that is born
king? We're looking for a king. And
they are directed to a prophecy that says, the king shall be
shepherd and the shepherd is to be the governor of his people. And then the consciousness of
our Lord Jesus, he knew himself to be precisely the one prophesied
by Jeremiah and Micah, the one of whom the scriptures spoke
in this passage read in your hearing. For in the familiar
words of John chapter 10, he gathers to himself all of those
prophetic utterances embedded in the Old Testament, the pronouncement
made shortly after his birth that the governor who is shepherd,
the shepherd who is king has been born. And now he says in
all the richness of that connotation, John 10, 11, I am the good shepherd. Every Jew
to whom he spoke who had any acquaintance with the Old Testament
knew precisely what he was claiming to be. All of those evil shepherds
of whom Jeremiah and Ezekiel spoke those false and wretched
shepherds who fleeced the sheep, who made them the occasion of
promoting their own ends and did not live for the sake of
the sheep. He said, in contrast to them,
I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down his life
for the sheep. He that is a hireling and not
a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, leaves the sheep and
flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees
because he is a hireling and does not care for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd. He repeats that assertion. I
am that shepherd king, that shepherd governor, that shepherd prince
prophesied in your very scriptures. I am He, and our Lord, so clearly
embedded this in the consciousness of His followers, that when inspired
New Testament writers refer to Him, they refer to Him in His
capacity as shepherd. Three passages, very quickly.
Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. And verse 20. Now the God of peace who brought
again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the
blood of an eternal covenant, even our Lord Jesus Christ. And if we were to give a more
wooden, literal rendering, it would be rendered like this.
The God of peace who brought again from the dead the shepherd
of the sheep, the great one. Which shepherd? The Great One. And there was only one Great
One, and He is identified as our Lord Jesus. So in the mind
of the writer to the Hebrews, the Great Shepherd, who stands
above all others who ever fulfilled the role and function of shepherd,
He is the Great Shepherd. And then when we turn over to
1 Peter, there are two references. One in chapter 2, with Peter's mind thoroughly
imbued with Old Testament perspectives, here a direct allusion to Isaiah
53. We read in 1 Peter 2.25, For
you were going astray like sheep, but are now returned unto the
shepherd and bishop, unto the shepherd and overseer of your
souls. And who is that shepherd and
overseer? Well, there is no question, for
we turn to chapter 5 and Peter identifies him. First Peter 5
and verse 4, and when the chief shepherd, he uses a compound
word, the archipoemain, the chief, the first in rank, the supreme,
the archshepherd, shall be manifested, you shall receive the crown of
glory that fades not away. And so it is proper for us to
assert that the Lord Jesus is supremely the prototype and example
of the shepherd's office and function. Now, Christ is the
example of all His people in general. 1 John 2, 6. He that
says he abides in Him ought to walk even as He walked. But He
is the example of His under-shepherds in a very special way. All that
is noble, all that is gracious, all that is honoring to God and
of true service to men in Christ's office as a shepherd is to find
some reflection in the under shepherds who serve in his name
and by his authority. Again, listen to John Owen. If we would know what these qualifications
and endowments are for the office of an elder, we may learn them
in their great example and pattern from our Lord Jesus Christ himself. Our Lord Jesus Christ, being
the Good Shepherd, whose the sheep are, the Shepherd and Bishop
of our souls, the Chief Shepherd, did design in the undertaking
and exercise of His pastoral office to give a type and example
unto all those who are called unto the same office under Him. And if there be not a conformity
unto him in this office, no man can assure his own conscience
or the church of God that he is or can be lawfully called
unto the office of an elder." End quote. Now, I've made great
demands on your mind for a solid half hour. I know that. But I
make no apology for that because if I'm Christ's gift to you,
I'm to feed you with knowledge and understanding. I'm not to
titillate you with interesting stories. I'm not to amuse you
by humorous stories. I'm not to flatter you by empty
platitudes that simply make you feel good. If I'm Christ's gift,
I must feed you with knowledge and understanding. That's my
task. It is defined by the Word of God. And what I've sought
to establish in this half hour of rather dense teaching is this. these two great pillars upon
which all the rest will rest and sit down upon these things
for the remainder of our time this morning and for the entirety
of our time tonight. Do you have them? The comprehensive
description of the function and identity of a pastor, of an elder,
a bishop, is that of a shepherd, And Jesus Christ is set forth
as the great example and prototype of what a true shepherd is. Now, those things being so, we'll
have time just to touch on one strand of the opening up of that
as we consider the office of an elder. And it is this. We'll
open up in the time that remains this morning the fundamental
bond between a shepherd and his sheep. And then, God willing,
tonight, the fundamental function of the shepherd with respect
to his sheep, and thirdly, the fundamental responsibility of
the sheep to their shepherd. But this morning, simply this,
the fundamental bond between a shepherd and his sheep. What
is it that binds a true shepherd to his sheep? What is it that
causes him to live, to labor, and if necessary, to risk life
itself for the well-being of his sheep? Well, let's look to
the Chief Shepherd. Let's look to the Shepherd, the
Great One. Let's look to the prince shepherd
promised by the prophet Jeremiah and the prophet Micah, and let
us see if we can find in him the key to this question, what
is the fundamental bond between a shepherd and his sheep? For
in all of this, and this is vital, we take our clue for the imagery
not from a modern shepherd in Palestine who writes a book,
and interprets the Bible through Palestinian shepherds' concepts. No, no. We go to the Bible to
interpret the imagery. We don't impose upon the Bible
the imagery of a modern shepherd. Most of that stuff that is written
is claptrap. I've looked at it and read some
of it. It's sheer claptrap. It doesn't expound the Bible.
We must go to the Scriptures. What is the bond between a shepherd
and his sheep? Well, when we turn to the Scriptures,
we see that with reference to the great shepherd, the chief
shepherd, there is a twofold bond between himself and his
sheep. And that twofold bond is love
for the sheep and a consciousness of accountability to the one
who owns the sheep. First of all, love for the sheep. John chapter 10. When the Lord
Jesus describes himself as the Good Shepherd, you will notice
that there is one dimension of his role as the Good Shepherd
that receives supreme emphasis. John 10, 11. I am the Good Shepherd,
and the Good Shepherd does many things, but our Lord emphasizes
only one. the Good Shepherd lays down His
life for the sheep. Verse 15, Even as the Father
knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the
sheep. Verse 17, I lay down my life. Verse 18, But I lay it down of
myself I have power to lay it down five times in this short
space. I lay down my life. I lay down
my life. I lay down my life. What is our
Lord saying? He is saying that when you think
of me in my relationship to the sheep, and you ask the question,
Lord Jesus, as the great and chief shepherd, what is the fundamental
bond that unites you to your sheep? He does not give us the
word love in abstraction, but He gives us the supreme statement
of love in action. For it is this same Lord who
goes on to tell us in John 15 and verse 13, Greater love hath
no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his friends. What is our Lord saying? Lest
we misunderstand and put some sentimental or unscriptural connotation
upon the notion of love, He does not say the good shepherd loves
his sheep to the ultimate demands of love. He takes it out of abstraction. He puts it in the concrete and
five times in the short compass of this dense section on his
identity as the true and good shepherd. He says, I so love
that I am prepared to make the supreme expression of love, I
will lay down my life for the sheep. This is the bond that
unites me to my sheep, my own sovereign, self-sacrificing love
for my sheep. Then we have the second thing
that binds him to the sheep. And that is his sense of accountability
to the God whose sheep they were. Look at John 10 in verse 18. Very interesting. This entire
section closes with these words. This commandment received I from
my father. Now that puzzled me for many,
many years. He says five times, I lay down
my life, I lay down my life, I lay down my life, I lay it
down, I take it up, I have power to lay it down, power to take
it up. And he concludes the section by saying, this commandment,
what commandment? I don't read about any commandment.
But he says, this commandment have I received from my father. Well, obviously, what he's saying
is this pattern. of being so committed and bound
to His sheep in love that He is prepared to lay down His life
and take it up again on their behalf was a self-sacrifice in
the role of the Good Shepherd that He did not take upon Himself
apart from the will of the Father expressed in His command to Him. In other words, the Lord Jesus
was very conscious of His accountability to His Father for the sheep entrusted
to His care as the only one who could secure their redemption. Look at chapter 14 and verse
31 and then several verses in chapter 17 of John. Chapter 14
and verse 31, that the world may know that I love the Father
As the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go
hence. What is he going to do? He's
going to go to the place where he knows he will be apprehended
and taken from that place to a place of trial and then executed
upon an instrument of Roman torture. And he says, as the Father gave
me commandment, Even so, I discharge my obligations to my father,
so that when he then enters into the garden and prays that moving
prayer recorded in chapter 17, notice how this sense of accountability
for the sheep lies so heavily upon our Lord's heart. And these
things spake Jesus, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said,
Father, the hour has come. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son
may glorify Thee, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh,
that to all whom You have given Him He should give eternal life. And this is life eternal, that
they should know Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom
You did send. I glorified You on the earth,
having accomplished the work which You gave Me to do. And
now, Father, glorify me with your own self, with the glory
that I had with you before the world was. I manifested your
name unto the men whom you gave me. They were yours, and you
gave them to me. You see that sense of accountability? There is upon our Lord's Spirit
this awesome, this pressing consciousness that the Father has given Him
a deposit, and that deposit is all the redeemed of all ages,
whose redemption hangs upon His willingness to lay down His life
for them. And so, for our blessed Lord,
There was a twofold bond that intertwined His heart with His
sheep. It was His love for them, love
to the ultimate, laying down life itself, and His love to
the Father particularly expressed in the delightful desire to discharge
His obligations to the Father as expressed in the Father's
will and commandment to Him. May I say that that's the bond
that unites a true under-shepherd to a flock of Christ's sheep.
That must be the bond, and though when drawing near to the Lord
Jesus and seeing Him, as it were, lay bare His heart and the cords
that go out from His heart and bind Him to His sheep, we stand
ashamed that we fall so far short, but nonetheless That twofold
bond must be that which knits the heart of every true shepherd
to the flock in which the Holy Ghost makes him an overseer.
Let's just look briefly now at several passages that indicate
this as we close this morning. As far as I know, there is no
explicit command addressed to elders in any of the relevant
passages in which they are told, love the sheep. The Lord Jesus
said to Peter, if you love me, you will shepherd or tend and
feed the sheep. But all of the directives assume
that love to the sheep constrains a man to assume that awesome
position and motivates him in the activities demanded by that
position. For example, 1 Peter chapter
5. Peter doesn't use the word love, but surely it is the fruit
of love which alone will be manifested in compliance with these directives. First Peter 5, to shepherd the
flock of God, which is among you exercising the oversight. Now notice this negative, positive
contrast, not of constraint, but willingly. That is, not as
one who is pressed against his will into the service, but one
who volitionally, willingly takes on this responsibility. Well,
what makes a man willing to take the burdens of others and make
them his? To take the faults and the stumblings
of others and make them his own? What will cause a man to take
upon himself that which will bring upon him at times the ill
will of the very people he's given his life to serve and to
help on their way to heaven? What will make him willing? Nothing
but the willingness of that love which is the fruit of the Spirit.
It's one thing for the child to eat his spinach, and I know
spinach is has gotten a raw deal through the years, but we're
not going to change that in 1985. And the child who has learned
submission to his parents is told, now I only gave you a small
portion, eat it. And he's eating it, but I tell
you every bite and every chew and every swallow is like an
eternity. He's doing it, but of constraint. Constrained by the knowledge
that when that parent says, I want that plate clean, that no amount
of trying to calm the parents, no amount of trying to make like
they're burping up, none of that'll work. It's either clean the plate
or have your behind warmed and have no dessert. You say, you
one of those cool parents who did that way to your kids? Yes.
because they don't know what's good for them, and it's your
responsibility as a parent to try to cultivate in them a taste
and an appetite for foods that are good for them. Now, you may
not be able to make them to love spinach or turnips or some of
these other things that get a raw deal, but you can at least try,
and they may under constraint. But most of them put a dish of
ice cream in front of them, and there needs to be no cajoling,
no threatening, no entreaties, no nothing. They take the ice
cream and devour it willingly. Now that's the contrast, not
of constraint like a child who gulps down his spinach reluctantly. Now it's love that causes that
ready mind, that willing heart. Then the other contrast, nor
yet nor yet for filthy lucre for base gain, but of a ready
mind, neither is lording it over the charge, but making yourself
in samples. Time has gone from us, but look
at 1 Timothy 3.5 and 1 Timothy 5.17 at your leisure. Look up
the passages and you'll see there that the care of an elder is
like the father who cares for his household. And what is it
that motivates a father to give himself to care for his household,
but his love to his wife and to his children? And in that
sense, it becomes a labor born of love, 1 Thessalonians 1, 3. But then there's a second bond,
and that's the bond of his accountability to God, whose sheep they are,
Hebrews 13, 17. Key text, Hebrews 13, 17. Obey them that have the rule
over you and submit to them, for they watch for your souls. How? As they that shall give
an account. They watch as they that shall
give an account. They oversee you, and they seek
to do so in the role of an under-shepherd, bound to you in love that only
God the Holy Ghost has implanted and keeps active in their hearts. But they have not only an eye
to you, bound to you in love, But they have that awesome sense
that they're on their way to give an account. It is God who
has placed them over His sheep. It is the Holy Ghost who has
constituted them over seers and told them to function as shepherds. And it's that God who will hold
them accountable for how they treated His sheep. And what an
awesome, awesome responsibility is upon the shepherds of God.
They watch as those that shall give an account, and Peter emphasizes
this when he concludes his exhortation to the elders by saying, When
the Chief Shepherd shall be manifested, you shall receive the crown of
glory. You do the work of oversight,
not of constraint, but willingly, not for base gain, but of a ready
mind. But, oh, you must do it with
an eye to the hour when the heavens will part, and the voice of the
archangel, and the trump of God will sound, and the Chief Shepherd
comes, and then you'll receive your reward from him. And you
see, it is that binding of the heart to a congregation under
the sense of the eye of God that on the one hand creates such
a sense of weightiness and at times frightening responsibility. But on the other hand, one is
encouraged with this promise of Peter. that whatever that
reward of grace is, it must be a precious thing that Peter holds
forth. When the chief shepherd is manifested,
you'll receive the crown of glory. It is that accountability which
Paul underscored when he said to the elders, take heed to the
flock of God, the church purchased with his own blood. What value
does Christ place upon this church? He purchased it with his blood.
You mean I and my fellow elders, and this evening, formally and
publicly installed to that office, Robert Paul Martin will be handling
the blood-bought property of the Son of God, and he'll go
to judgment for what he did with that property? As will Albert
M. Martin and Mr. Paul C. Clark. Mr. Gregory G. Nichols, Mr. Frank Barker, and Mr. Donald Dixon. Now you see, dear
people, there are times when as we'll note more in exhortation
tonight, when some of you grow rested and irritated because
you've got elders who always seem to have six eyes in ten
years. Why do we cry to God to have
six eyes and ten ears? Because you have been bought
with the blood of the incarnate God. And we're going to give
an account if we've allowed any wolf to tear your hide, and any
vermin to get in your skin, and any poison to get into your system. That's why We're not a bunch
of meddlesome, nosy men who have nothing to do but intrude upon
your life. God knows some of us would run
from this office if we could. How could any sheep resent a
shepherd that cares for it with a view that he's accountable
to the man that owns the sheep? and he wants to give an account
with joy. Any sheep that resent that is crazy. Well, I leave
the conclusion to you. What is the bond that ties a
shepherd to his sheep? A twofold bond seen in the great
shepherd. Love and accountability. As you pray for your elders,
you pray that God will again and again baptize our hearts
with His love, suffuse our spirits with His love, and that He will
give us an intensified awareness of our accountability to Him.
And if we're bound to you with that twofold cord, then we'll
be in a position to be the shepherds to you that we ought to be by
the grace of God. Let us pray. Oh, our Father, we do confess
in your presence that those of us who have been
placed in this awesome office so often see our failures and
we would give up the office in the light of our accountability.
But we know that this would bring upon us that horrible indictment,
thou wicked and slothful, unfaithful servant. So Lord, we cannot run
because you have placed us in it. We can only pray that you'd
give us what we need to function as we ought to the benefit of
your sheep and to the glory of the great shepherd. Write then
this word upon our hearts and continue to be with us on this
day that it may be a day long remembered in our life together
when we got a new glimpse of the Great Shepherd and a new
appreciation of how we ought to pray for our under-shepherds
and when we who are under-shepherds gave ourselves anew to the awesome
task laid upon us. Hear our prayer and dismiss us
with your blessing. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.