The Shepherd's Task: Overseeing
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Handout
Introduction:
P- Preaching
A- Alerting
S- Shielding
T- Training
O- Overseeing
These are the primary responsibilities and tasks of God’s under-shepherds.… but what we call today and translated to Pastors.
To begin today’s sermon, we will begin by playing a bit of a fun game… it’s a guess who kind of game. I’ll say a word of series of words and you try to guess who it is.
Chief Executive-
Chief Citizen-
Chief of State (Head of State)-
Commander-in-Chief-
So who am I referring to when I use these different names and titles.… the President of the United States. As we consider these titles, they all refer to one man, one leader, but they all carry a slightly different responsibility...
Commander-in-Chief- Holds supreme command over all military forces.
Chief of State (Head of State)- Ceremonial head of government and face of the nation.
Chief Citizen- Representative of all American citizens
In a very similiar manner, when Pastors are talked about in the Bible, they are referred to using many different titles. Poimen (poy-mane') which is the greek word for shepherd or pastor, Presbuteros (pres-boo'-ter-os) for the word elder, and episcopes (ep-is'-kop-os) word for overseer. Each of these titles are the describing the same person.
You can see clearly in our passage in Acts 20 that we reviewed a few weeks back how interchangeably these terms are to relate to the same person.
Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders (presbuteros) of the church to come to him.
In verse 28 he says,
“Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers (episkopos), to shepherd (poimaino¯) the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.
Another further proof for use that these words describe the same person is in the pastoral qualification passages. 1 Timothy chapter 3 and Titus chapter 1 have almost identical lists to use for identifying would be pastors, but use different terms. 2 Timothy 3 says is anyone desires the office of a bishop (our word episcopes) or overseer he desires a good work. Titus though was put on Crete to appoint elders (Presbuteros -pres-boo'-ter-os)… who are to be above reproach, husband of one wife… and so on.
There is one more text which clearly brings all three titles into one small section of scripture. This is passage that we will be camped in today. 1 Peter 5:1-4
So I exhort the elders (presbyteros) 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: shepherd (poimainō) the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight (episkopeō), 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 examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
Notice in this passage 2 things. Once more, all three terms describe the same person, but not necessarily all three terms means the same thing exactly.
Peter tells the elders to shepherd the flock of God by doing what?
(ep-ee-skop-eh'-o)- the verb form of episcopes (ep-is'-kop-os) which means overseer. So the elder who is to do his work well must be an overseer. We will talk about that today, how being an overseer is part of shepherding work. It includes some overlap to things we have talked about already, but it also covers areas we have not yet discussed.
So let’s dive into our text today, and prepare our hearts to listen, to hear, to grow in our understanding, to apply and be changed, to live out God’s instructions for us.
We’ll see 3 points today about Overseeing and one bonus application point from our text in 1 Peter 5 covering verses 1-7. I’m planning on this being really a 2 part series to cover the wide range of meaning for overseeing before spending the last Sunday in March addressing the “R” task of our Pastor acronym.
I. Preliminaries of Oversight
I. Preliminaries of Oversight
When I say preliminary, I mean to say that there are things that are necessary to know and to prepare you for that are essential before we can just jump right into the verses that talk about exercising oversight. Notice how Peter begins.
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:
A. It’s Origin
A. It’s Origin
Where did the idea of pastor’s being overseers begin?
Looking at the first 2 words would give us a great clue.
“So I”.… Who’s the I in this passage. Who’s our writer?
The apostle Peter. BTW, what did God say He would do through Peter. Build the church. Peter is also called a pillar of the church.
and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.
What do pillars do. They function as braces for the entire structure. Without the pillars, whole buildings collapse. Peter is that same function to the church. He supports it, he secures it, he strengthens it, he gives it the abilities to grow. Of course, this is all impossible without the grace of God in Peter’s life. We don’t worship him as being far superior to anyone of us. We just simply recognize him as someone God said He would use and because of that, Peter’s words carry great value.
They carry great value because God literally told us that He would be selecting people for this ministry.
Through Jeremiah the prophet, God spoke to the leaders of Israel telling them of His fierce anger with how they had led the nation.
“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord.
A few verses later, God declares...
I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord.
This is fulfilled thru Jesus as the good shepherd but also thru the fishermen, tax-collectors, and zealouts he would select as his disciples.
In Matthew 23, Jesus rejects the leadership of Israel by pronouncing 7 woes upon the scribes and Pharisees...
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.
In all of this, Jesus speaks directly to His disciples and to the crowd to distinguish who He now accepts as the spiritual leaders. Peter and the disciples, who on day of Pentecost, filled with the following Spirit, powerfully speaks the word of God and thousands were saved.
So when Peter decides (by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) that its time to talk about leadership in God’s established church thru His writing of this letter… we ought to take very careful attention to what he has to say because God chose Him for this task. Peter by God’s empowerment and design laid out for us exactly who leaders of the church are and what they do. And one of the things that they are called to do is oversee. Another prominent figure in the New Testament is the apostle Paul. Again nothing special apart from God, but critical to Christians in understanding who God is. What did Paul have to say about church leader’s, in essence, the exact same thing. Leaders are pastors (or shepherds) who guard, feed, and oversee the flocks of God.
We might sometimes be tempted to take our understanding of what pastors do from all kinds of sources… whether it be other forms of governance, other religious institutions, other structures, other opinions, even our own desires and understandings, but if those opinions and desires aren’t founded in the origin of God’s intended design, they will fail. God used his appointed leaders… really we could say the highest human authority God has granted on earth regarding this matter… the apostles (Peter and Paul being kinda the pinnacle of authority) to instruct God’s people on how the church’s leaders ought to conduct their ministry and how to give oversight. That should be noted by us.
B. It’s Importance
B. It’s Importance
Notice how important again how important this is to God and to Peter/Paul. I exhort the elders among you…
First of all, who are these elders that Peter is writing?
Peter wrote to all the Christians scattered throughout the regions of modern day turkey with a message stressing God’s will for the Christians during fiery trials. So these elders would the Pastors of those churches spread throughout.
Second of all, is Peter merely giving them some friendly advice, some different viewpoints on the matter, some helpful suggestions? Absolutely not…
Scripture clearly says I (Peter) “exhort” you
Admonish, exhort, beg
Thirdly, notice how Peter approaches these other elder/leaders with this exhortation. In other words, from what position is Peter writing from...
We see Peter ground his authority to exhort with these three thoughts.… they begin with the words.… “as a”
Authorized to Exhort as a...
- “fellow elder”.
- “fellow elder”.
If you were in Lanny’s class, you would have heard him mention how unique it is that Peter doesn’t begin his argument by slapping on his elite membership card, His ace in the hole so to speak. He doesn’t begin by clamming apostleship. Although that would have been perfectly acceptable to do. Paul did this on numerous occasions. Look at the way Paul begins most of his letters.… Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ.… that’s not a bragging point, but it’s way to authenticate the message spoken. Gotta remember that at this time, as the true message of salvation which includes true confession of sins, followed by belief in God’s redeeming work on the cross, verified fruits of righteousness and a changed life- new life in Christ) as that message was being spread… it’s still very “new”. And it would be hard to identify what was true and false. The New Testament was still being written, and many that were being saved were still quite young in the faith, so God provided people like the apostles to verify that the message was indeed from Him. That’s why reading in the book of Acts, many of their words were followed by acts of signs and wonders. People needed to see and hear that this was truly from God. Many false teachers would try to pull the people away but all over the region, nobody could question the authority of the apostles because of God’s special enablement of them in that time.
But Peter didn’t begin with describing the God-ordained authority. He began by speaking in terms that they would also relate with. He in essence said that he was one of them. This is in part of how Peter hoped to convey the message to them. It goes right alongside of what leadership is to to? A few verses down, Peter says that leaders need to be humble, not lord their authority over people. So as a fellow elder, he is doing just that.
Spurgeon said it well when he said...
“It will always be our wisdom, dear friends, to put ourselves as much as we can into the position of those whom we address. It is a pity for anyone ever to seem to preach down to people; it is always better to be as nearly as possible on the same level as they are.” - Charles Spurgeon
That doesn’t mean the shepherd/pastor is to be any less mature… in fact, he is required to be quite mature. That is what’s behind the meaning of the word elder. Maturity and wisdom.… however, that doesn’t mean they should think of themselves above the crowd. Think of Jesus Himself, as the ultimate example of this.
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
Jesus didn’t merely preach down to people, he put himself amongst the people. Still quite separated as far as holiness is concerned, but he became in the likeness of man. This is what Peter is learning and this is what Peter is saying. Peter argued once long ago for the top seat in the kingdom, he once was all about the power and prestige of authority… but as he matured he realized the importance of exercising leadership amongst fellows rather than over fellows.
Why should that be the first thing he uses to stake his exhortation to?
In essence, let me put it this way, 2 things.… God was moving away from the time of apostleship to the time of eldership...
The first time the word apostle was used in connection with church leaders was in Matthew 10:2
The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;
Luke 6:13 describes it this way.
And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles:
Initially the apostles would use that title to describe themselves but slowly overtime, they became identifying themselves as elders.
In Acts, the first church in Jerusalem, first identified it’s leaders as apostles. Chapters 1-10 primary speak of the church’s leaders as the apostles only.
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.
Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John,
But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.
Starting in Acts 11- the church adds a new leadership group to the church to join the apostles in leading, in teaching, in guiding, in guarding, in vision casting… this is the elders.
And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.
And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.” The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter.
In fact that became the norm of church practice. When Paul went to plant churches, we didn’t go appointing new apostles. He went raising up elders for them in every church.
And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
A quick side note, whenever churches were planted, it appears that the idea was always to have more than one leader (elder) present. That’s why when you look at scripture, you will never see the word elder as singular meaning only one. It’s always in the plural sense meaning more than one unless it’s referring to one person… i.e. the elder john or to the office an an elder. You wouldn’t say that in the plural.
The Apostle Paul left Titus in Crete and instructed him to “appoint elders in every city” (Titus 1:5). James instructed his readers to “call for the elders of the church” to pray for those who are sick (James 5:14). When Paul and Barnabas were in Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, they “appointed elders for them in every church” (Acts 14:23). In Paul’s first epistle to Timothy, the apostle referred to “the elders who rule well” at the church at Ephesus.
So by the time God had planted enough churches. Apostles were not necessary and churches began only using the elder term. Even in the church of Jerusalem which had a couple apostles, they began referring to them as elders.
On the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present.
Following this time in acts, no one is referred to as an Apostle.
So that’s the first thing we understand of Peter writing as a fellow elder… the second thing is that it only proves further that this requirement didn’t end with the apostles. If the apostles indeed were finishing their ministry and the time of eldership was beginning, Peter writing as a fellow elder means that oversight as a means to shepherd God’s flock didn’t end with the apostles (didn’t end with him) but must continue. In other words… this task of oversight and instruction on oversight must be a thing that Pastor’s continue to do for other “word be” & “right now” pastors.
Writing as a fellow elder guaranteed that the work of shepherding thru oversight continued and would need to continue throughout all generations.
So he exhorts as an elder, but also as a..
-“witness of the sufferings of Christ”
-“witness of the sufferings of Christ”
Here is where the apostolic authority comes in. He doesn’t come right out and say that he is an apostle but only an apostle can make this claim.
Peter was with Christ in the garden, he was with him when he was apprehended, and he was with him in the high priest’s hall, where he saw Jesus get mistreated and false accused. Considering that Peter may have — or likely did — witness the sufferings of Jesus on the cross, the remembrance of that would make his exhortation to fellow elders all the more powerful.
Think of Peter saying it like this.… “You elders/pastors are leaders of Christians who believe and teach Jesus’ suffering and death (even though you have never seen it). I myself have indeed seen it and was most thoroughly impacted by it being amongst His 12 disciples.
Spurgeon puts it this way...
“There were thousands who were eyewitnesses of our Lord’s sufferings who, nevertheless, saw not the true meaning of them. They saw the Great Sufferer besmeared with his own blood; but into his wounds they never looked by faith. Thousands saw the Savior die, but they simply went their way back to Jerusalem, some of them beating on their breasts, but none of them believing in him, or really knowing the secret of that wondrous death.” (Spurgeon)
Peter did. We get choked up when we remember Christ’s death in our ordinances of communion. Peter had seared imagery that made the gift all the more valuable.
Further consider how Peter may have also thought of the use of suffering, how he may have also used this as a way of identifying with all Christians and especially leaders. Sharing his experience as one who has shared in Christ’s sufferings. This he spoke of much in the preceeding chapter. 1 Peter 4:13
But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
All christians are expected to face hardships as followers of Christ. Let us not forget that we shouldn’t feel that we deserve better than our master. But let us rejoice as did the disciples when they faced persecution.
If all christians should expect that, then certainly their leaders, their shepherds should as well. Judgement will begin at the household of God, and it will begin with us, it’s leaders.
Peter shares as witness of Christ’s sufferings during Christ’s time on earth but also Christ’s sufferings that He experiences thru the Body of Christ. Peter was certainly not exempt from much tribulation himself. So his command to shepherd by exercising oversight comes from a person well-seasoned in all aspects of life and therefore should be heard well.
-“partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed.”
-“partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed.”
Peter would join the other believers as partaker of future glory… but his command comes with greater weight because He knows that the future glory is worth the price of the command today. How can he possibly know that? Because Peter is one of the privileged few who have actually experienced the glory of Christ. During Jesus’ days on the earth, he took aside his innermost 3 disciples and before their very eyes transfigured Himself before them. Transfigured has the idea of pulling away the curtains. Revealing what was hidden. On that day, Jesus shone for them as bright as the sun… so bright it would have been impossible to even have viewed Jesus. His glory radiated thru everything that even his clothes became white as light. God’s voice shook the area and they fell down and worshipped. Terrified and awestruck by the experience.
There are things in our life that baffle us. Things that both capture our attention, leave us with “goosebumps”, and cause us to tremble. The mountains have done that for me a time or too, that deepness of a cave, the vastness of an ocean… but nothing compares to the glory of God. Peter as one that has tasted of Christ’s glory can tell you that nothing is greater than that.… nothing is more motivating than taking part in that glory once more.
C. It’s Definition
C. It’s Definition
Oversight- episkopeō- to take care, see to it
What’s the difference between sight and oversight? Oversight includes sight. You can’t exercise oversight if you can’t see clearly and understand accurately. But oversight is more than merely sight. Oversight is sight plus responsibility. To exercise oversight means that when you see, you are responsible to do something about it. You can’t just see; you must also “see to it.”
Only 2 occurrences in scripture. Here and in Heb. 12:15
See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;
Basically means to oversee the spiritual state of another.
We’ve spoken at large about some of the areas shepherd see to it… the watch the flock and stay alert, but they also proactively guard, instruct (or feed) and train the flock. And yet there are others ways that shepherds exercise oversight that we have not yet covered.
Here’s another place that we can get a more full picture of what it means to oversee.
In 1 Timothy 3:1 we have the noun form of the greek word.
The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.
episkopē- Here it carries the meaning of someone who does investigations, inspections, visitations.
We will talk about that in a minute but from these translations and supplemental scriptures… we can get a pretty good idea of what oversight means.
1. Oversight means Management
1. Oversight means Management
for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?
To manage something is to be over something, to superintend, preside over. This is clearly seen in how the apostles and elders led the church in Acts. When items things were needed to be clarified, discussed, or matter needed attention to… they were brought to the feet of the apostles and elders.
Similiarly, husbands share that same kind of management. That’s why God held Adam most accountable for the deeds of the family. He went to Adam first in the garden though it was Eve that first sinned. Adam was responsible to look after and superintend his family, and He failed to do so.
Another word for manage is lead. It’s not ruling over but it’s leading. More will be talked about next week about misuses of leadership… but here today are some ways that pastor/elders are required to give oversight thru leadership.
-Ordain/Appoint Leadership
-Ordain/Appoint Leadership
Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.
-Determine Church Policy
-Determine Church Policy
Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers,
As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem.
-Delegate Responsibilities
-Delegate Responsibilities
And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
Ephesians 4- equip for the work of the ministry
-Set Vision and Motivate
-Set Vision and Motivate
Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.
Leading is a spiritual gift. Romans 12:8
the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
Pastoral canidates ought to have some gifting of leadership… meaning they are naturally good at organizing, administrating, and communicating these things.
But not all are gifted the same. Some are much more gifted in these areas then others. That’s why larger churches ought have multiple pastors who serve in roles they are much more gifted in. In smaller churches, where their is only one… you may get a Pastor who is less gifted in this area then others. There are multiple gifts that Pastors must use in the ministry but not one pastor is perfectly gifted in all of these.
2. Oversight means Care
2. Oversight means Care
Pastors who oversee also need to provide care… they aren’t just merely inventory movers… their shepherds who see to the needs of the flock.… which means they wear hats as doctor and physician, as friend and advisor, as nutrition expert, etc.
And so here are ways that shepherds exercise oversight in caring for the flock of God.
-Inspect
-Inspect
Smelling like the sheep. With the sheep. Know the sheep.
Shepherds don’t do a very good job at shepherding if they aren’t among the sheep getting to know them. He knows which sheep are likely to fall in the crack, he knows which sheep are more inclined to but heads with each other, he knows which sheep are a bit slower, and he knows which sheep may be the most afraid or brazen. Yet, he cares for all of them.
How do pastor shepherds get to know their sheep… funny enough we see this in the qualifications of a pastor… both in Timothy and in Titus the word hospitality shows up. Hospitality not only reveals a generous heart and a servant’s attitude, but it also shows that the aspiring overseer wants to be with people and looks for ways to welcome people into his life.
So pastors inspect, investigate, visit
-Counsel
-Counsel
(healing)- when sheep get hurt, they go to their shepherd.
In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”
Notice he says “must help;” it’s a moral imperative. People who cannot provide for themselves must be cared for and provided for by the church and its leaders. The church should be a caring place.
It’s a sad reality when the world has gone away from receiving help from their spiritual leaders/doctors. More people now turn to “professional therapy” over “spiritual doctoring”. The church was once the primary healing grounds, but over the last few decades, people including christians have made the church the last ditch effort for help. Where once the pastor and the people were sought, now they rarely bring them up. Some physical things are certainly outside the abilities of the pastor, but God tasked shepherds with the healing of the flock of God… including mental, physical, and spiritual things we wrestle with.
-Prayer
-Prayer
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
It’s amazing what the confident-Biblical prayer can accomplish in people’s lives. We know that Pastors have no power in themselves. But to hear them call boldly and experientially on the God they know is both instructional and reassuring.
So pastors and elders ought to give themselves to praying for and with the flock of God regularly.
You will notice that the shepherd is both “among” and “over”, and this can create problems if the sheep do not understand. Because he is one of the sheep, the pastor is “among” the members of the flock. But because he is called to be a leader, the pastor is “over” the flock. Some people try to emphasize the “among” relationship and refuse to follow the authority of the shepherd. Others want to put the pastor on a pedestal and make him a “super saint” who never mixes with the people.
The effective pastor needs both relationships. He must be “among” his people so that he can get to know them, their needs and problems, and he needs to be “over” his people so he can lead them and help them solve their problems.
-Warren Wiersbe
Conclusion
Conclusion
Conclude once more with Jesus as our overseer.
For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
So this together with me again.
Jesus leads, ordains, determines, delegates, motivates, all the while caring, comforting, healing, counseling, praying for us regularly… and perfectly. We once again are not worthy of such love as this. But Jesus is so good as our faithful shepherd. We each are called to look like him in the areas we are called to oversee. Are we overseeing these areas with the same love and responsibility as He has or are we neglecting to care for those in our charge as we ought to? May Jesus our equipping perfectly make us into people who lead and care well.
