Sermon

The first thing I want us to see is that a pastor is a shepherd. That’s where the word “pastor” comes from. It means shepherd. The two are interchangeable.

Now a pastor does not shepherd physical sheep. No, I don’t have a flock of sheep in my house. Our kids would probably like that, but it is actually against GHI rules in the rulebook. So no literal sheep.

But God’s people are called sheep. God has one big flock of all his people throughout all time and they are divided into little flocks, called churches.

Peter writes to pastors in various cities and says, “Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, being an example to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.” 1 Peter 5

There is a chief shepherd who is Christ, but a pastor is an under-shepherd who charged with shepherding and caring for a group of sheep.

I’m convinced that if you really want to understand the role of a pastor as a shepherd, you need to begin with God’s overall purpose of shepherding. In his book, Shepherds after my own heart, Tim Laniak says something helpful. He writes, “[Pastoral] leadership can only be understood in terms of a fully integrated theological vision of God and his work on earth.” I think that’s true. (By the way, I used this book a lot to organize this message).

To get us thinking about shepherding, let me begin with the most famous shepherding verses of the Bible, Psalm 23.

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness

for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies;

you anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

all the days of my life,

and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD

forever.

That’s a beautiful passage. I was just thinking about how I read that at a graveside recently. What a comfort it is to know that God is our shepherd.

From this passage, I think we can understand three aspects of shepherding.

1. protecting

2. providing

3. leading

These are the three things a shepherd does, and we see God doing them.

God protects: “Your rod and your staff they comfort me.” The shepherd had two tools. The shepherd’s staff was hooked at the end. It would be used to pull the sheep out of harm’s way. The other tool was a rod used to fend off wild animals if they came after the sheep.

Because of the shepherd’s protection, the sheep felt safe even when they walked through danger.

The shepherd also provides: “I shall not want” (no needs) “He leads me beside the still waters.” “My cup overflows.” “Goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.”

It is the shepherd’s job to get the sheep out of stifling heat and bring them to shade, to green pasture, and to clear water. This would restore them.

Finally, He also leads “He leads me beside still waters.” “He makes me lie down.” The whole idea of the Psalm is that the sheep want to follow this kind of shepherd. The sheep will have no good thing unless they do follow the shepherd.

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Now, who is the shepherd in Psalm 23?

The Lord, right?

Friends, if we are His people, He is our shepherd, too. This passage is used in funerals because in our darkest times, we need to know that God is our shepherd.

If you aren’t a Christian, I hope you see that you have no reason to expect anything good in life unless God is your shepherd, and you follow Him.

Now that we understand that God is our shepherd, I want to, very quickly, take you on a roller-coaster ride through the entire story of the Bible and see how this idea of shepherding unfolds.

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God provided, protected and led His people by putting them in the garden.

We won’t take the time to do so now, but if you read the opening account of Creation, you see that Adam and Eve’s first home, the garden of Eden, sounds a lot like this ideal pasture land in Psalm 23. It is a safe place.

God also provided for their every need. The trees in the garden were good for food. A spring watered the garden. It was not good for Adam to be alone, so in the garden, God provided a helper.

He also led them by giving instructions on how to live and not die. He was their shepherd King, and as long as they followed Him, they would be safe.

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But they didn’t follow their shepherd. They didn’t want to obey His word. They wanted the freedom and autonomy to choose to go wherever they wanted to go.

The Bible describes their sin and all subsequent sin like this: This is from Isaiah 53: “All we like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.”

As a consequence of their rebellion, they had to leave the safe place and go out into the valley of the shadow of death where there would be danger, pain and death, where they would die.

Yet, in God’s amazing Love, he continued to be their shepherd. He continued to watch over them and care for them.