Hope Beyond Religion: A Job Description for Shepherds, Part 1

In the generations that have come and gone since the early church was born, has the job description for your pastor changed?

After all, with all the advancements in technology, not to mention the major changes in our culture, life in 2023 doesn't look anything like the first century. In this portion of scripture, Peter clearly defines the role of church leaders, then and now. Chuck titled his message, Hope Beyond Religion, a job description for shepherds. Of all the preachers who ever lived, Charles Haddon Spurgeon was among the most colorful, and for that matter, among the most prolific, and among the most controversial, and among the most eloquent, and it seems timeless in his work. As you can see, in my opinion, if not the greatest preacher in the history of the church, certainly among the top ten. Anytime the subject of preaching arises, either in a classroom or among a group of pastors, the name Spurgeon will soon surface. He was a man who, it seems, cut new swaths, and to this day, it seems as though he has no peer.

His works are both helpful and interesting. It's remarkable because he lived over 100 years ago, from 1834 to 1892. At the age of 20, Spurgeon was called to the New Park Street Chapel in London, where he served the Lord until his last sermon was preached on the 7th of June, 1891, and then he died the following January. During that period of time, it was not uncommon for the congregation to number 6,000 back 100 years ago, when there were not the conveniences of travel that there are today.

One biographer I read told me that people would stand in the snow waiting for the doors to open to assure themselves of a seat to hear Spurgeon preach. During his 38 years at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, you see they had to build a new building after five years when Spurgeon had been there, so it was renamed the Tabernacle, the Metropolitan Tabernacle. During those 38 years, he was responsible for the swelling of the membership of the church to 14,692.

Remarkable, remarkable man. Although a Baptist, he was an evangelical Calvinist. He was, as one biographer put it, preeminently a preacher. His clear voice, his mastery of Anglo-Saxon, and his keen sense of humor, allied to a sure grasp of scripture and a deep love for Christ, produced some of the noblest preaching of any age.

His sermons have been printed and distributed throughout the world. A great deal of criticism was leveled against him. It seemed as though he, like Luther, thrived in the storm. He was a man who we might call unflappable. He was criticized for two things in his private life and many things in his public life. The two things in his private life were curious. First, he loved a good cigar. And his brothers in the family of God simply could not tolerate such a thought. And he said, when I take this to an extreme, then I will stop.

Someone asked, what is an extreme? He said, two cigars at one time. The other private criticism came against him and his wife who, out of their own funds, enjoyed an extremely large home on a massive amount of acreage. And when the American press came and exaggerated the report of the home, it infuriated Spurgeon. And again, he was known for his controversy and that went on for some time. His lovely home was known as Westwood. And I have in my study, one of my prized possessions, a full book of the Spurgeon home at Westwood and his enormous library, as he was a man who not only read widely, but quoted widely in his sermons.

And even that brought an enormous amount of criticism against him. Anyone who enters the ministry owes it to himself or herself to read Spurgeon. And to do it at least once a month to become a good student, especially of his work, lectures to my students. From that I quote, every workman knows the necessity of keeping his tools in a good state of repair. If the workman lose the edge, he knows that there will be a greater draft upon his energies or his work will be badly done.

Michelangelo, the elect of the fine arts, understood so well the importance of his tools that he always made his own brushes with his own hands. And in this he gives us an illustration of the God of grace, who with special care fashions for himself all true ministers. We are in a certain sense our own tools, and therefore must keep ourselves in order. If I want to preach the gospel, I can only use my own voice, therefore I must train my vocal powers. I can only think with my own brains and feel with my own heart, and therefore I must educate my intellectual and emotional faculties. I can only weep and agonize for souls with my own renewed nature, therefore must I watchfully maintain the tenderness which was in Christ Jesus.

It will be in vain for me to stock my library or organize societies or project schemes if I neglect the culture of myself. For books and agencies and systems are only remotely the instruments of my holy calling. My own spirit, soul, and body are my nearest machinery for sacred service. My spiritual faculties and my inner life are my battle acts and weapons for war. And then quoting from a letter of McShane, he concludes, remember you are God's sword, his instrument. I trust a chosen vessel unto him to bear his name.

In great measure according to the purity and perfection of the instrument will be the success. It is not great talent God blesses so much as likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God. I realize my introductory remarks have been a bit longer than usual, perhaps too long, but I wanted you to savor the flavor of a life now gone whose continued ministry is as effective as ever.

Some of my most treasured works are the Spurgeon section of my library and I am continually enlarging it and in some cases replacing it because of overuse. The first four verses of 1 Peter 5 were among of Spurgeon's favorites and that's what drew my attention to him for us to get underway in our study today. Let me begin with some practical words of exhortation regarding expectations as regarding the ministry for the next few minutes. Tell me to clear the air as we get underway in this wonderful passage out of 1 Peter 5 and I want to touch on an area that is clearly one of the most, one of the thorniest and frequently the greatest battlefield in the local church and it has to do with expectations. It happens on both sides of the pulpit. A young minister comes to a church and has unrealistic expectations of the flock. On the other side, the flock contacts and calls a man to pastor the church and they also have expectations that are off the graph. This has the makings of madness in the ministry.

And so let me begin with some comments regarding the value of clear thinking realism. One of the secrets of a long-term pastorate is clear thinking realism on part of both the pastor and the congregation. Let's understand not every church will be a metropolitan tabernacle and hardly worth mentioning, most of us preachers will never be a Spurgeon.

These are illustrations of the ultimate but the fact is most of us live far down the scale from that and we must learn to live with that and even love it. I think if Charles hadn't Spurgeon lived today, most churches would not call him to be the pastor of that church. They couldn't get over his style and I think if most of us knew in depth the story behind the tabernacle, most pastors would not want to be the preacher of that place. It's amazing what a hundred years history will do to enlarge our vision of a church or of a man. The importance of two-way tolerance is terribly significant. A pastor needs to be very tolerant of the people he is serving and the people who are being served by the minister need to be very tolerant of him.

We need a lot of wobble room. We need to give people room to be themselves. Reminds me of one of my favorite quotes. It comes from the country, be who you is because if you ain't who you is, then you is who you ain't.

And I have found that people who try to be who they ain't are really very frustrated people. I was just thinking as I sat and watched Howie and Paul and Mel and others involved in this service how wonderful the harmony is here. You wouldn't know that if you were just dropping in as a visitor or even as a guest of ours for a number of weeks. You would look at a church this size and think it's a probably behind the scenes, a rather slick operation and a lot of professional stuff goes on but not much care for people. And I'm sorry if that is your false impression. It is an impression but it's wrong. The magnet that holds us here as a staff and draws you who are faithful in attendance over the years back to this place is the very real bond of love that you just can't get away from. It can't be bought for any price.

It can't be legislated by any power. And if anyone were in the thing of ministry here for the glory that it would ruin it all. And I can tell you behind the scenes there is a sense of oneness and delight.

There's an absence of competition. Within the boards I have never seen a church work in such harmony. Never.

Never ever. In small churches or large, I have never found a staff quite like ours. Just this week, and I won't name him, a man came into my office and looked me right in the eyes and with tears expressed a love for me that he had just not said for a while and he wanted to say it.

That could sound very self-serving but it's not meant that way. He's a very masculine individual, a person you've all seen many times but he just in a very spontaneous way just decided to walk in, sit down, close the door, look me right in the eye and tell me how much it means to him to be a part of the team. That's wonderful isn't it? That's magnificent. That's really what grace can do in a place like ours and I think that goes on in groups that meet for times of public baptism for, and I like the idea of swimming afterwards. I thought that was great. I heard, I think it was Carl Armerding talk about the first baptism he did in Central America. It was a great story. They had never been to a baptism.

Probably never had one in that area. He said, I baptized the first one and he came up out of the water in the river and he stood there and he said, in Spanish of course, is that it? And Dr. Armerding said, well, yes. He said, well, I think I'll take a swim. So he started swimming around. And then the next one was baptized. He thought that's what you're supposed to do after baptism. So he said, by the time we finished about 20, there were guys swimming around, some floating, spouting water out of their mouths.

It looked like a flotilla out there after we finished the baptism. Very spontaneous, very unpredictable. I love that kind of thing.

I hope we never ever lose that. I love it that no service is quite the same as another. I love it that you're free and you're open to that. I like it that we get less and less notes from the congregation that say, let's always do such and such, or let's never do so and so. There is a sense of, let's try something different. Let's do this. This is fresh.

This is new. We'll never lose that. Or we will be small again. Or we will be small minded, though large.

And that's not really what we want. Congregations need to allow the minister to be himself, to have his own style. Of course, I'm not referring to his living a lie or promoting sinfulness in his lifestyle. But all of us have quirks. All of us have uniquenesses.

And if we're going to live together comfortably over a long period of time, we who have been married quite some time know the value of being tolerant of one another's idiosyncrasies and styles. Now in the passage before us, we have a section of scripture that sort of stands on its own regarding the pastor. May I read these four verses to begin with? Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God among you, not under compulsion, but voluntarily according to the will of God, and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness, nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. I'm so pleased that our source of direction for guidelines in life does not rest in a book a hundred years old, but in the timeless word of the living God.

The inerrant word of God. And from this passage and others related to it, we're able to sort of build some biblical guidelines for all who minister, in any era, and in any geographical location. I find right off the bat in verses one and two, two effective principles for the minister. The first is this, pride of position must be absent.

Pride of position must be absent. You will observe that it is Peter, the apostle, the spokesman for the early church, the one who saw with his own eyes and literally walked with the Messiah that wrote this letter. It is Peter, and yet he never hints at his own position of authority.

Any sense of pride of position is absent from these opening remarks. He calls himself a fellow elder, a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker of the glory that is to be revealed. I think those words are very humble words. Not a word about apostleship, not a word about the importance of their obedience to his teaching. He simply identifies with the elders as a fellow elder.

And if you want to make the word partaker a little bit more understandable, think of the word partner. I'm a partner with you in the same glory that's going to be revealed here after. Having taught that for a few moments, let me apply it. The ministry is a wonderful place for the building of a proud life. Unfortunately, that can consume a person in ministry. I've made a list of the reasons why we can become proud. We speak for God. We stand before large groups of people regularly. When you stop and think about it, the minister in his profession, calling, occupation, whatever you may call it, stands before more people than most other executives stand before in their work. And we do it more regularly. We have more people waiting upon our words than most any other calling.

Perhaps more than any other. We can live a virtual, unaccountable life. We are trusted by most, we are respected by many, and throughout our lifetime, we are questioned by very few people.

We do our best work away from the public eye. We are expected to live in the study, which is a place of secrecy, a place with God. All of that is like a minefield of perils and dangers. Because before you know it, you can begin to fall into the trap of believing only what you say.

And seeing only what you discover. Now, if Peter, one of the original twelve, the earliest spokesman for the church, this anointed servant of God, would not mention his role of importance, I think we can learn a lesson from him. Few things are sadder to behold than a minister whose eyes have fallen upon himself. Let's be careful about that, all of us in ministry today. Now the second is that a heart of a shepherd must be present. Shepherd the flock of God which is among you. This is why I call this a job description for shepherds. The initial imperative in the passage is to shepherd. Your Bible may read to feed the flock of God. The original root word means to act as a shepherd to tend a flock.

And don't miss this. They are called deliberately the flock of God. That is why I have never cultivated the habit that I hear among many ministers of referring to their church as my people.

You are not my people. I love you as a congregation, we've gotten along relatively well, and God has joined us and bonded us together in this ministry, but I don't believe I have ever thought of you as mine. Always as God's. You must ultimately answer to him. You live your life before him. You are to obey him. It is his word that we together follow. So technically speaking, you are the flock of God. And I as an under shepherd am responsible to tend his flock, much like David tended his father's flock.

One man describes the assignment like this. By definition, the true elder is the shepherd of the flock, in which God has placed him. He bears them on his heart. He seeks them when they stray. He defends them from harm.

He comforts them in their pain and feeds them with the truth. Now I won't go any further before I add that unless you have the heart of a shepherd, you really ought not to be in a pastorate. You might wish to teach in ministry. You might wish to be involved in some other realm of ministry, and there are dozens of possibilities, but don't go into the pastorate if you lack the heart of a shepherd. And if you lack that heart, do the flock of favor and step aside so as to make room for a shepherd. I've heard people say, well, I'll just learn how to be a shepherd.

It's got to be in your heart. There isn't a textbook. There isn't a course.

There isn't an assignment. There isn't some relationship that will make you a shepherd. It is a calling.

It is a calling. You are not educated into becoming a shepherd. Seminary is so important in that during your years in seminary, you discover if you have such a heart. And if it's there, the pastorate might be your aim. If it is not, do not pursue the pastorate because it requires the heart of a shepherd.

I've seen it on many occasions. I've seen evangelists filling pulpits, and the church is evangelized, but it isn't shepherded. I've seen teachers, strict hardcore teachers filling the pulpit, and the church is educated, but it isn't pastored.

It isn't shepherded. One must have a shepherd's heart, which certainly includes teaching, and it certainly includes exhortation, but it also includes love and tolerance, understanding, even a little wobble room, so as to make room for those who don't measure up. In the first letter from Peter, the apostle gives some wise counsel to church leaders, and we're just getting started in this study that Chuck Swindoll titled Hope Beyond Religion, a Job Description for Shepherds. This is insight for living, and whether you're the shepherd of a flock or one of the sheep, there's much more to learn on this topic.

To learn more, visit us online at insightworld.org. Well, finding hope beyond religion is just one of the many topics that Chuck addresses in his 17-chapter book. It's called Hope Again. It's the one he wrote to parallel the current teaching series. Following the flow of Peter's practical letter, Chuck harnesses the major themes such as finding hope beyond our culture, hope beyond our trials, and hope beyond our suffering. You can purchase a copy right now by going to insight.org slash store. If you're looking for an expositional commentary, that is a book that will walk you through 1 Peter verse by verse, let me recommend Swindoll's Living Insights New Testament Commentary.

Chuck's commentary is particularly helpful for Bible teachers, church leaders, and anyone who wants to learn more about the Bible. You can purchase a copy by going to insight.org slash store. While many have inquired about how they can help Insight for Living meet our financial goals, it's never too late to make an impact. And so let me explain how you can get in touch. You can give generously today by giving us a call. If you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888.

Or if you prefer, simply go online to insight.org. I'm Bill Meyer, inviting you to join us next time when Chuck Swindoll describes A Job Description for Shepherds on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Hope Beyond Religion, A Job Description for Shepherds, was copyrighted in 1989, 1990, 1996, 2006, 2011, and 2023. And the sound recording was copyrighted in 2023 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. The publication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.