Elders: Shepherd the Flock!

This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

All right.

The Office of Elder and the Need for Biblical Clarity

If you've been with us for a while, then you know that usually we go through a book verse by verse. But we like to, when we're in between books, maybe take a week and go on a little sidetrack. And we did just that just before we started Malachi.

You remember early December, we took a look at the office of deacons in Acts chapter 6. Today, what we'll do just before we start Ephesians next week, is we'll take a look at the office of elder, the second of the two offices that was given to the New Testament church.

The office of elder, or perhaps most people might be more familiar with the term of pastor nowadays, which is simply just a Latin term that means shepherd. They mean the exact same thing. They're used interchangeably and they refer to one and the same thing.

Compared to the office of deacon, however, we have much more inspired commentary when it comes to the office of elder. And what I want us to do today is consider perhaps the overarching charge that Scripture gives to elders.

The charge that I believe sums up the core, the main task of what it means to be an elder nicely. And that charge is shepherd the flock. There seems to be great confusion in the church nowadays as to what exactly a pastor is and what he does, what his job role is.

And if you were asked about the role of an elder,.

What would you answer?

Would you be able to give a solid biblically answer as to what an elder is? I venture to say that in the evangelical landscape today, most people have no idea what an elder is. They might not even be familiar with the term.

In this age of biblical illiteracy that we find ourselves in, most don't even care enough to go and search the Scriptures to figure it out. And so the pastor is often seen as a type of CEO of the church or maybe someone that is a bit holier than everybody else.

Perhaps he's a bit further along in his sanctification than others. And so he gets to run the show and to speak about something from the Bible every Sunday for 20 to 30 minutes or so. It should come to no surprise to us that there's so much confusion about this.

It seems there's as many different pastoral titles as there's churches in the city. Even here in Edmonton, there are places that have more than a dozen different pastoral titles listed on their website.

It really makes one's head spin. I'll give you just a few of the abundance that I came across. We have the Executive Pastor of Ministries. We have the Connect and Impact Ministry Pastor, the Outreach Pastor, the Adults Ministry Pastor, the Pastor of Family Ministries, a Care Pastor, a Discipleship Pastor, and of course, in our day and age, the Online Pastor.

An array of titles like these is perplexing and I believe it's unhelpful. It takes the responsibility of the office away by attempting to place it on those that should not bear it. And in turn, it elevates administrative roles and areas where deacons would be perfect and it elevates them to a status that they ought not to have.

It also minimizes the role and function to a point where anyone is able to become a pastor without even knowing what it means to be one. I truly believe that we have lost the weight and the gravity of the task that it is.

Being a minister of the gospel, we are surrounded by great ignorance concerning the pastor. It has simply become a career path that one can enter into without even thinking about. I believe that all of us should know, have to know, the scriptural command of what a pastor not only should, but must do.

Because with the current state of affairs, many Christians subject themselves to pastors who carry the title, but do not actually do what that title states they ought to do. And if you place yourself under the authority of such a person, then your spiritual life will suffer tremendously.

You expose yourself to the great danger of starving your soul. And that's why we want to consider the office today, to clear up the confusion surrounding it, to equip all of us to discern if we're subjecting ourselves to a biblical model of this God-ordained office, even now in this church, or if one day we leave here and go to another.

It will also serve, I believe, as a reminder for those who are elders and those of you young men who aspire to be elders to think through what it really means to shepherd the flock. And so what we're going to do, as I mentioned, we'll unpack the shepherd the flock charge to the elders.

And we'll be looking at three main aspects of what that entails. We'll be looking at the feeding of the flock first, and then we'll move on to the watching over the flock and the caring for the flock.

And because we're doing a bit more of a topical study today than usually, what we'll do is we'll start in 1 Peter, and then as we work our way through, we'll bring in various other elder-related passages as we go along.

But as we start, if you would turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Peter 5, and we'll read verses 1 through 4. 1 Peter 5, beginning in verse 1. So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed.

Here it is, verse 2. Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being example.

When the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. We'll read verse 5. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another.

For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. We'll take most of our time, we'll spend on the beginning of verse 2. The shepherd, the flock of God. And the first aspect of shepherding God's people is the feeding of God's people.

I see it in your bulletin. As a shepherd in ancient Israel and the surrounding areas, the feeding of the sheep was really the most basic and essential task of a shepherd. Every day their job was, when they got up in the morning, to take the sheep out of the fold and you lead them out to the pasture for food and you try to find a water source for them to drink.

That's really all there was to it. A simple concept, really. It's not difficult to understand and it wasn't really glamorous either at the time, but it is so important. Because if sheep do not eat and drink,.

They'll die.

Just like every other animal, they'll end up becoming malnourished and eventually starve to death. And so making sure that the animals have food and drink was obviously the way to keep them alive. And it's no different with a Christian concerning his spiritual nourishment.

Someone who never takes in God's Word, someone who never feasts on the truths of God and the riches of the Gospel of Christ will end up severely famished until there is nothing left of you but a pile of rattling bones.

And as under-shepherds, Peter here under the umbrella of shepherding the flock is calling elders to feed God's people. To feed them with His Word through the preaching and teaching of the whole Council of God.

We know that from passages like 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, as Shane has read, that the ability to teach is a must-have, a non-negotiable character qualification for anyone aspiring to the office. And later in 1 Timothy 5, Paul doubles down on this when he tells Timothy to honor those who labor in preaching and teaching.

And over and over again, Paul urges Timothy to devote himself to the teaching and charges him to preach the Word. So preaching is to occupy the central place in the ministry of elders.

Why?

Similar to the sheep, because it's a matter of life and death and eternity is at stake. And only the Gospel is the power of God for salvation and preaching. Christ crucified, the forgiveness of sins through a sacrificial death, the proclamation of reconciliation to the Father through Christ is a means to save the sinner from the wrath that is to come.

The Holy Spirit brings the dead to life through the faithful proclamation of God's Word. But it also strengthens the faith and sustains the spiritual health of those who are already part of the flock.

As Christians, we know that we do not live on bread alone, but that we live on every word that comes from the mouth of God. And a neglect to eat well spiritually will starve your soul of affection for God.

Just like a healthy, good nutrition supports and strengthens the muscles and bones of your body, so the hearing of biblical preaching strengthens your faith. You may not be aware of it every week when you leave here, but over time, your faith grows and matures as the Holy Spirit continues to apply God's Word to your heart.

And more and more, you'll grow in Christlikeness and your trust increases and you begin to trust and love Him more and more. He will become more precious in your sight. Researchers say that what they have called a heart-healthy diet, meaning eating certain foods and a certain amount of certain food groups, helps prevent or lower the risk of heart disease.

Now, that is even more true when it comes to a spiritual diet. Faithful, biblical, Christ -proclaiming and God-exalting preaching helps to keep your heart healthy, and that is our greatest need. All of us, we all have a severe heart issue, this nasty disease that we just cannot seem to shake, this condition that we inherited from our first parents.

It's never skipped a single generation, has never skipped a single person in the history of humanity. We all have this heart that continually chases after everything worthless, a heart that is continually evil and does not seek after God.

Biblical preaching, however, is good and healthy medicine. And again, as the Holy Spirit applies it to your heart by using it to rebuke you when you are in love with the world, by exhorting you, urging you, to forsake the fleeting pleasures of sin that are offered to you daily on a silver platter.

Biblical preaching encourages you when you are downtrodden because it shows you the joys of your salvation accomplished by Christ on the hill outside of the city gates of Jerusalem. It ought to give hope amidst suffering and mourning because it shows you the beauty and the riches of Christ and that pain and suffering are just momentary afflictions in light of eternity.

Biblical preaching realigns your heart's affections by the power of your spirit toward our precious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And that is why elders are to feed their sheep. You don't need and you should never desire for someone to step behind the pulpit and to entertain you and to tell you exactly what you want to hear.

The world does that for you all day long, every day. Do you think of these YouTube algorithms? Do you think of TV and the ads and the radio and whatever else there is? None of that is any food for your soul.

It is nothing but poison. Don't be fooled by the taste of it and how easy it is to digest all of it. It will do nothing for you but kill you. You don't need the ideas of man. They're infinitely inferior to the riches of the Word of God and they have absolutely no power in them.

Only the Word of God, by the power of the Spirit, can bring the dead to life and satisfy the soul and sustain your spiritual life. Just this week, I found out about a place. It seems like they have perfected the art of church entertainment.

What they do is they host, they've been doing this for over two decades, they host an annual so-called preaching event and they model it after one of the biggest sporting spectacles known to man. Their publicly stated goal in this event is to have fun in church.

I'm not saying we're not allowed to laugh and have fun when we fellowship. Those are great gifts from God but we're not to replace the preaching of the Word with entertainment. And a comment that they made in the introduction to this event said this, I'll quote, We believe there are spiritual truths and realities that can be drawn out from sports and that's what each of our teachers are going to be doing today.

That quote was preceded only by this one. I quote, You're going to experience hilarious commercials with middle school humor, really good music and some good old-fashioned smack talk. I'm begging you, please, for the sake of your soul, do not submit yourself to anything like that.

A preacher a few hundred years ago said this, A time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats. Now all of that applies to us here at Grace Fellowship too.

If you come here week after week and you're not fed the Word, if you're being entertained and maybe you're spoon-fed the lies of the world with a little bit of Christian seasoning on top, then we need to stop everything we're doing, we need to stop everything that we have been doing, and need to re-examine our theology.

Paul didn't charge Timothy to preach his ideas or share about his feelings or emotions or to entertain the church in Ephesus so that they would come back next week. He told Timothy to preach the Word, to reprove, to rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching.

And reproving and rebuking doesn't sound very seeker-sensitive to me. Elders, those of you who are aspiring to the office, you must lead the flock of God out to the greenest of pastures, to the stillest of waters that is His Word.

And you must let the people feast for the health of their souls and allow His Word to show them Christ and the redemption of sin that is to be found in Him. Church, do not expose yourself to preaching where the Word of God is not proclaimed.

It will kill you.

Elders Must Watch Over the Flock

Secondly, the second aspect of shepherding the church is to watch over God's people. And so after the shepherd would lead the sheep out to the pasture, he found a good pasture with water, he would then spend all day out there with the sheep.

And he would stay there to watch over them. That means he would be on guard, keeping an eye out for any wild beasts or animals that were on the hunt to slay some of the sheep, as well as making sure that none of them would separate from the flock and stray and end up dead somewhere.

At the end of the day, he would then lead the sheep back into the fold for the night for safety from predators and thieves. And he would make sure that all the sheep are there and everything is accounted for.

It's the same for the elders. Sheep are timid creatures, really, and they need constant protection. Philip Keller, he's a Christian author. He had experience as a shepherd and spent many years in cultural research and time around wildlife.

In one of his books regarding sheep's need for protection, he writes this.

He says,.

It reminds me of the behavior of a band of sheep under attack from dogs, cougars, bears, or even wolves. Often in blind fear or stupid unawareness, they will stand rooted to the spot, watching their companions being cut to shreds.

The predator will pounce upon one, then another of the flock, racking and tearing them with tooth and claw. Meanwhile, the other sheep may act as if they did not even hear or recognize the carnage going on around them.

It is as though they were totally oblivious to the peril of their own precarious position. And just like sheep, the church and the individuals that make up this church are to be watched over and protected.

Paul, after having been in Ephesus for three years in his farewell address to the elders, he leaves them with this charge. Let's read it, actually. If you would, turn with me to Acts chapter 20. And we'll read a few verses there.

Acts chapter 20. And we'll read verses 28 to 31. Paul says to the elders in Ephesus,.

He says,.

Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God which you obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.

And from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore, be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease, night or day, to admonish everyone with tears.

In his letter to Titus, as Shane has read earlier, Paul emphasizes the task of keeping watch and protecting the flock when Paul says that an elder must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, not only to give instruction, but also to rebuke those who contradict it.

And the New Testament charge for pastors is to always be on the alert. That's what Paul says to the Ephesians. And to look out for those that teach another gospel. And that danger, I think, is more real to us than we like to think or admit.

That's exactly what happened to the Galatians. And they had not been alert. You remember in Galatians 1, of course, somehow they had allowed to enter people into the church that were teaching doctrine that was contrary to what Paul had taught them.

And as a result, the people had begun to abandon the gospel of Christ and turn to a different gospel. All of us, but especially elders, must guard against the carelessness and pride in thinking that that could never happen here.

The Galatians had Paul himself, the apostle, preach to them in person. And yet they were able to let false apostles in. We cannot think for a second that we're immune to this because of our doctrinal or theological convictions.

There is reason that we repeatedly in the New Testament read about false teachers. We read about ravenous wolves, deceitful workmen who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ that secretly enter the fellowship with the aim of distorting the gospel and drawing some of the sheep with them in destructive heresies.

Wolves are most active during dusk and dawn when the light conditions are low. And they're actually fascinating when they hunt. They adapt their hunting patterns to the weaknesses of their prey. And false teachers are doing exactly that.

They act much in the same way. They show up exactly when we least expect them. That's why Paul charges the Ephesians to always be on guard. And they hide themselves in plain sight when they put on sheep's clothing.

And I think, too, that false teachers nowadays have adapted their tactics very well by using the Internet and social media platforms and all that to get a hold of the sheep. They don't have to physically enter the church building anymore.

They have direct access to the people's homes. And so pastors need to be extremely vigilant because much damage can be done without anyone ever noticing. And so these wolves are really good with their words.

They have an intimate, good knowledge of the Bible and they know exactly how to twist it and cause confusion in the hearts and minds of the Christian. I want to encourage you that when you come across something anywhere that you have perhaps never heard about that doesn't sound right with you, that you have no idea how to fit in with Scripture to come to your elders, to come to your pastor, and sit down with them.

They are commanded to work their way through the Scriptures with you to see if these things are so. The Scripture is their only weapon that they really have in the fight against these wolves and in protecting the flock.

John Calvin had a quote regarding this. He said the pastor ought to have two voices, one for gathering the sheep and another for warding off and driving away wolves and thieves. The Scripture supplies him with the means of doing both.

For he who is deeply skilled in it will be able both to govern those who are teachable and to refute the enemies of the truth. Shepherds are to keep an eye out for the wolves coming in. But they also are commanded to make sure that the sheep don't stray.

And the same applies to the elders. In Hebrews 13 verse 17 it says, Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, and those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that will be of no advantage to you.

You should not be able to enter into membership at a church and then go and sit in the pew and week after week you can just leave and sneak out the back without ever talking to one of the pastors for as long as you're there.

We're so driven by individualism nowadays with the urge to not submit to anyone, to not have any authority over us, that there are people in churches, and some of you here are like this, that do not want the spiritual oversight of an elder.

You want and you're content to live your Christian life all by yourself, off to the side, with no one ever bothering you. After all, what right does an elder have to tell you how to live your Christian faith?

You much prefer if you don't have to talk to them and maybe don't face some of their more probing questions and you can keep your sins hidden away and nurture them in secret. You say, it's nobody's business how you're doing spiritually.

If you're walking faithfully with your God, if you're living with a clear conscience before Him or spend time with Him. If that's you, then you need to repent. The New Testament commands you to submit and to obey to spiritual overseers.

And they, in turn, are called to watch over your spiritual well-being. And they're not to do so in an aggravating, frustrating way, but with all the love and the care and the patience and kindness, imitating Christ.

It's only for your good that God has established that office of elder to watch over you. It's because if you secretly nurture that sin and you forsake the assembly of the saints, you will eventually end up fellowshipping with the world or be torn by the wolves.

It's not because the elders love to seek out secret and hidden sins of the people and annoy you when you don't come to church. It's not for them to satisfy some kind of sick craving to know every intimate detail of the people's lives to hold it against them.

It's because they have to stand before a holy God at the end of their lives and have to give an answer as to why they let some of the sheep carelessly die. Richard Baxter, a Puritan, in the mid -1600s, in his book, The Reformed Pastor, he writes this regarding pastors.

They're preached, but do not keep watch over the souls of the people.

He says,.

It is a fearful thing to have to give an account for every single soul that has ever been under your care. And so elders need to commit themselves to the humble, loving, and servant-like watching.

Over the sheep.

And you as a church need to be willing to submit yourselves to that faithful watching over your souls and not to put yourself under the authority of a church leadership that does not do that. It's difficult because it's much easier and much more comfortable to be in a place where no one knows you and your sins and nobody really cares how you live your Christian life.

But it comes at a much, much greater cost when one day you have to pay the price for that. So elders are to watch over the flock. Thirdly, and the last aspect of what it means to shepherd the flock, is the caring for God's people.

Elders Must Care for the People and Pray for Them

In addition to the feeding of the flock and the watching of the flock, shepherds would be very tender, tenderful, and careful with their sheep as they take care of them. Sometimes they would carry the young in their arms if it was necessary and they would patiently lead those that had newborns.

And as undershepherds of Christ, elders are called to do just that. In the middle of giving qualifications for an elder, in 1 Timothy 3, in verse 5, Paul says that if someone does not know how to manage his own household, that's the qualification.

And the reason for that is how will he care for God's church. And the word translated as care in 1 Timothy means to give proper consideration, to give attention to something as to respond either physically or otherwise.

It indicates concerning oneself with the matters of the church, similar to that of a household. And that same word there is only used two other times in the entire New Testament, and that's in Luke 10 in the parable of the good Samaritan when he takes care of the man, the wounded man by the road.

And so where the watching of the church is offending off or protecting of the flock, the caring of the church is coming alongside aspect of pastoral ministry. It means to walk with the people and to weep with you when you've lost a family member, to stand next to you at the graveside and minister to you, to rejoice with you of the birth of a new child, to sit with you and listen when you're in the midst of trials and suffering and you need wise biblical counsel.

Caring is to encourage you when you're anxious. It is to give counsel when you're having struggles in your marriage, when your children are walking away from the faith. And it means if the Lord allows to visit you when you're sick and dying.

It means to read scripture to and with you before you go into surgery or getting ready to enter into eternity. As good as all these things are, most importantly, it means praying for you. Prayer really is the most important aspect and tool that an elder has when it comes to the spiritual care of his people.

And that's one of the reasons we do the pastoral prayers here. They're essentially just an outpouring of an elder's private prayer for you. And as important as preaching is, as crucial as ministering to the people is, as good, as important as listening and giving good, wise counsel is, none of these things are of any value or bear any fruit if they're not built on the foundation of prayer.

Elders are to commit themselves to prayer for and on behalf of the people they're overseeing. We saw that when we looked at Deacons in Acts 6, verse 4, when the apostles committed themselves to the word and prayer.

We see James in chapter 5. He calls on the elders to pray for the sick. And so a church's leadership needs to be consumed by prayer. It must devote itself to it. They must persist in it no matter how difficult it may be.

What Paul said about Epaphras in Colossians 4 must be exactly true of the elders. They are to fervently, with great intent, urgency, perseverance, and all the effort in the world pray for you. It's got to be the first thing and not the last thing they do for you.

It's not something an elder can do, has the option to do. It is something they must do. It's not optional to pray for the people. But to do all of those things, there's one more thing that is important in the care for God's people.

And Peter, to bring us back to 1 Peter 5, highlights that point in verse 2.

He says, And he says, And he says,.

Author Nate Pickowitz, he wrote a short biography on R .C. Sproul. And in that biography, he shares a story that Dr. Sproul shared about the funeral of his father and how it was just one small detail you wouldn't really think about that really impacted Sproul's entire ministry.

And so what happened was during the eulogy, the pastor leading the service, he made a remark. And he said that he could always recognize R .C.'s dad's steps. He said he could always recognize them by the way he walked.

He knew who was coming before he could even see them. Now, that doesn't sound like a whole lot. But that pastor had over 2 ,000 members in his church. And he was able to recognize this one man by the way he walked.

Why? Because he understood Peter's charge. He was among the people. He spent time among the sheep. He was committed to knowing the people of God under his care. And in the same way, the elders are to spend time with the people.

Elders must commit themselves to the fellowship of the saints. You should regularly be able to see your pastor fellowshipping with the people, communicating with them, praying for them, and not being off to the side somewhere and hidden away in some green room.

You should be able to get a hold of them whenever you need them. They might not be available right then and there, but they should be willing and able to make time for you and visit with you and minister to you.

They're not some kind of super-Christian that don't associate with the commoners of the faith, with those lower on the ladder of Christianity. They're not some kind of celebrity that nobody ever sees unless they're up front preaching.

No, they must live in community with the people. They must know the burdens of the souls.

Of the people.

And they must, as Holy Spirit-appointed overseers, actively pursue the coming alongside of those that are hurting and struggling. They have to walk with you. They have to walk with the defeated when you're discouraged and when you're fearful.

And they must show you Christ in all of those circumstances as undershepherds it's their job as they care for you to point you to Christ, to point you to the chief shepherd. Now secularism and some perhaps more synchronistic-leaning Christians don't suggest to you that you can and perhaps should at any and at all times bring all your burdens not to the pastor but to a psychologist or a therapist.

I don't mean to minimize any of the issues that we deal with as Christians. We do fight with anxiety, with joylessness, with hopelessness, and with marital struggles. We live in the same fallen world as unbelievers and we deal with the same issues.

But all these issues are sin issues. They are issues of the heart. In psychology with its godlessness and without Christ it can't help you with your heart. It cannot help you with your sin issues. Elders are biblically commanded and with the greatest manual on the heart and the mind they are equipped to help you in whatever you're going through.

The world's so-called wisdom and knowledge can't do anything for you. You are in need of spiritual open-heart surgery and the elders are going to care for you from and with the Bible. They are the means that God has established to accomplish that surgery.

If you go to the world for help with your spiritual matters it's like putting a band-aid on your chest when you need an open-heart surgery. There's absolutely no effect. It's useless. In closing, let me quote from Richard Baxter one more time.

If you're an elder and you're aspiring to elder please read his book. Richard Baxter, the reformed pastor. Read this book once a year. It is so good. And regarding the need for the people to come to their pastors for advice and instruction he says this, what a happy thing it would be if you might live to see the day that it should be as ordinary for people of all ages to come in course to their ministers for personal advice and help for their salvation as it is now usual for them to come to the church to hear a sermon or receive the sacraments.

Go to your pastor with your burdens. It's his job. He's called to help you see Christ. He must show you that in every circumstance Christ is and remains enough no matter the trial and suffering you're going through.

The pastor will not take your burdens from you. He will not. He can't. But what he will do is point you to the one who can and who will and who has. To the one in whom you'll find forgiveness of your sins, life everlasting.

He will. He must point you to the good shepherd, Jesus Christ. The good shepherd that has laid his life down for his sheep. So what does an elder do? As an under shepherd of Christ, he has the delegated authority to feed Christ's people through the preaching of the word.

He's to protect them from false teaching and straying from the flock as well as minister to them one on one. He's to come alongside them and weep with them and rejoice for those who rejoice. Always pointing you towards your savior Jesus Christ.

Thank you for listening to another sermon from Grace Fellowship Church. If you would like to keep up with us, you can find us at Facebook at Grace Fellowship Church or our Instagram at Grace Church. Y-E-G all one word.

Finally, you can visit us at our website GraceEdmonton .ca. We pray that you have been blessed by this recording. God bless you and we hope to see you soon.