John 10:25-26 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. 

God entrusted the religious leaders of Israel to direct His people to Him by teaching them His Word. They were to be shepherds who led God’s sheep into His fold. But they had done their job so poorly that they themselves couldn’t even recognize the Messiah Who stood right before them.

Scripture paints the relationship of a Pastor and his congregation as a shepherd / sheep relationship. That’s because of their pastoral role, their duties and their tasks:

1. Protecting the flock … There are so many dangers these days for the sheep, but they are all the same dangers that were faced by the first church. False teachers, who have a demonic desire to distort the Word of God. False Teachers, who want to diminish the Word of God to grow a large congregation. False Teachers who are seeking after wealth or after a name and who abuse the Word of God in order to further those goals. Wolves within the flock who desire to harm the sheep. Much of the New Testament after the gospels deals with false teachers and others who sought to harm the flock from within the church. It’s interesting that though there was persecution of the church from the outside, the majority of scripture dealing with dangers for the church speak of false teachers and wolves on the inside. Many of the issues we find in society today were allowed by those who were willing to compromise in order to broaden the appeal of the church. Peter noted in his first epistle that pastors were to lead, not to exploit their flocks. Paul said that the Holy Spirit made us overseers and shepherds of the church which he says Jesus purchased with His own blood.

Acts 20:29 (NKJV) For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.

1. Caring for the flock … It is impossible for a shepherd to love the flock of believers that is the church without Jesus. The kind of love that it takes is supernatural and is not something that one man can muster of his own. Every Sunday morning, I pause for a second, either in our time of worship or you may even see me pause before teaching, and I look at you guys and I remind myself that you are beloved of God and I let God well up love in me for you. In 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus and James, I am reminded as a pastor that before I can point this flock to desiring holiness, I must desire holiness myself. The scripture teaches that those who teach bear an extra accountability and I firmly believe that should I not desire to please God with my own life, I cannot point anyone to righteousness.

John 21:16 (NKJV) He said to him again a second time,  “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?”  He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him,  “Tend My sheep.”

1. Feeding the flock … This is the chief responsibility of the Shepherd … To make sure the flock is fed. When a pastor neglects his responsibility to feed the flock from the Word of God, he neglects all other responsibilities, too because they all have to key off of this. A pastor who does not teach the full counsel of God bears no love for his sheep … He does not care for them and he leaves them open to deception. A pastor who does not teach the full counsel of God does not exhort the congregation to better things. Paul didn’t compare Christianity to a race because the finish line had already been crossed. Instead he wrote that we are to run in such a way as to get the prize. Without a diet rich in the nutrients of God’s word, the sheep are not being cared for. Without a diet rich in the nutrients of God’s Word, the sheep are not protected. We look at the news today and we think, “How did we ever get to this point where what is bad is called good and what is good is called bad” … Even in the church? Because somewhere along the lines many pastors, teachers and elders began to trade salt for saccharin, labeling the acceptance of sin as love and laying aside the clear teaching of scripture for something murky at best.

3 John 1:4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

In John 21, Jesus pulled Peter aside and He said to him:

John 21:15 (NKJV) “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Feed My lambs.”

According to Jesus, the reason a pastor is to care for, protect, and feed the sheep is:

4. Out of his love for Christ. All ministry, if it is biblical ministry, is done unto the Lord. All ministry should be directed to the Lord and not to people. When our ministry is to the Lord, we do it with excellence, and the congregation benefits from that.

I love the way in which God presents us with pictures through His Word and no less so in the order of the books that make up the Bible. The four gospels are the grace of God and there are four of them so then grace must be very great and important. Following the four gospels, we have a book called The Acts of the Apostles or the Shlichim which presents us with what the Apostles did with the gospel. It’s a great picture for us of how works flow out of salvation and not the other way around and it’s also a good picture to us of what’s most important, and that is the gospel.

People have had a long history of associating salvation with the teacher they receive teaching from or some movement within Christianity they are associated with. In fact, there are pastors who, though maybe it didn’t happen intentionally, have grown a following of people and maybe they feel uncomfortable with it, but it sells books and puts dollars in the missions budget and so they learn to live with it rather than rebuke it. We need to make sure that we are not basing our salvation on the works of a pastor or on the merits of a movement.

1 Corinthians 1:12-13 Some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul.” Others are saying, “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Peter,*” or “I follow only Christ.” Has Christ been divided into factions? Was I, Paul, crucified for you? Were any of you baptized in the name of Paul? Of course not!

Paul, made it clear that one pastor is not above another, and the body of Christ is not divided into the popular parts and the less popular parts and pastors are not to heap followers unto themselves, but are to point sheep to the Great Shepherd. The pastor is on equal footing with everyone in the congregation who has received Jesus and God is to get the glory.

I sometimes hear Christians say, “My pastor wrote this book or my pastor came out of the ministry of this other pastor” … I so wish pastors would quit writing books and just concentrate on teaching the Bible. I was walking through Books a Million the other day and some of you guys may have seen my post it, but I took a picture of the Christian Living section of books. It was massive … Going at least 30 feet across and 10 shelves tall. Christy and I looked at that and thought, “Wow, being a Christian must be really complicated.” And I’m afraid any non-Christian who sees this gluttony of books is going to think, conclude, “If Christianity is so difficult that it requires all these books, I can’t do it.”

And so, I take you back to the picture we have in the four gospels followed by the book of Acts. Gospel is more important and salvation is the headwaters of good works. But when you look at the Christian Living section of the bookstore, the only conclusion you can come to is that salvation requires a lot of works. The church would be much healthier and capable of discerning the times if pastors would quit trying to be the author and would focus on teaching what The Great Author already wrote to us.