The following sermon is by Boyd Johnson, pastor of Treasuring Christ Church in Athens, Georgia. More information about Treasuring Christ Church can be found at tccathens.org. Of all the titles that Jesus gave himself, none is more tender and comforting than that of shepherd. Jesus said in John chapter 10, I am the good shepherd. As far as we know from the New Testament, he never called himself a priest, though Hebrews indicates that he is a kind of priest. But he did call himself a shepherd. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep. He's the Shepherd who searches for lost sheep, like us. He's the Shepherd who guides us to still waters and restores our soul. He's the Shepherd who leads us in paths of righteousness. He's the Shepherd who protects us from harm. This is our Shepherd. He's the Good Shepherd. Hebrews 13 says He's the Great Shepherd. In some ways, it's surprising that Jesus would use such a metaphor to describe Himself. Shepherds in those days weren't highly regarded. Their jobs were difficult, even dangerous. They were forbidden by the Pharisees from worshiping on the Sabbath because they were with unclean animals. The work was dirty. The hours were long, tending the sheep by day, guarding the sheep by night. And yet, this metaphor that Jesus is the shepherd of his people is a perfect metaphor for the work of leading the church. A good shepherd cares for the sheep and makes sacrifices for the sheep. A good shepherd guides his sheep to green pastures to graze. and keeps them away from dangerous areas or predators. All of this and more Christ has done for His sheep, including shedding His own blood to rescue them. Christ is the Good Shepherd, and nobody replaces the Good Shepherd. He's the Chief Shepherd of the church. Yet he's also called men to become shepherds in his church. These shepherds, what we might call under shepherds, are called elders or pastors in the New Testament. They act as under shepherds to the chief shepherd in the church. They serve Christ by serving the flock. Last week, we began a three-part series called Elders by the Book. As our church continues to celebrate what God has done in the last five years, we're examining what Scripture says about biblical church leadership. We begin this series by answering the question, how should the church be led according to Scripture, according to Christ's plan? And we learn that Christ governs the church through elders, men called by him to lead the church. This week, we want to answer a second question. What are the responsibilities of those who lead the church? And what we'll see as we examine the New Testament teaching on this subject is that under Christ, elders have four roles or responsibilities. Elders lead, elders feed, elders tend, and elders guard the flock of God. These are the four primary responsibilities of elders in the life of the church. So we're going to take these one by one. First, elders lead the sheep. Now as we saw last week, elders in the New Testament are called overseers. That title describes the role that elders have in the church. Elders oversee the church. The Greek word is episkopos, which means one who supervises or governs. Elders are responsible for the overall supervision, governance, and management of the church. In other words, elders are to lead the church. With the responsibility to lead comes the authority to lead. That authority the elders have is described in a variety of ways in the New Testament. For example, in 1 Timothy 5.17, elders are described as those who rule in the church. Rule. Paul writes, let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. This is what elders do, they rule. In Hebrews 13, 17, elders as the leaders in the church are to be, says, obeyed and submitted to. The author writes, obey your leaders and submit to them. For they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy, and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you." In 1 Thessalonians 5, 12 and 13, elders are described as those who are over the congregation. Paul writes, We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. In 1 Timothy 3, verses 4 and 5, elders are required to be ones who manage their homes well. Otherwise, they're not fit to manage the church. Paul writes, giving qualifications of elders, he must manage his own household well, with all dignity, keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? So from these passages, among others, we see the elders have the responsibility to govern, supervise, rule, lead, and manage the church. In Scripture, there is no higher office of leadership within the church than that of elder. Elders aren't better than anyone else. At the foot of the cross, it's level. However, as far as leadership is concerned, there is no higher office of leadership within the church than that of elder. In other words, there's no biblical warrant for bishops or popes to govern the church. There's no biblical warrant for councils or synods or presbyteries to govern the church. There's no biblical warrant for the majority vote of the congregation to govern the church. There is no higher office of leadership within the church than that of elder. The responsibility to lead the church is the burden, and it is a burden, of the elders. In our doctrinal statement, which is found on our website, we summarize these biblical convictions like this. We teach that these leaders lead or rule as servants of Christ and have his authority in directing the church. We teach the autonomy of the local church, free from any external authority or control, with the right of self-government and freedom from the interference of any hierarchy of individuals or organizations. The elders should determine all other matters of membership, policy, discipline, benevolence, and government as well. Now I left out all the scripture references that are listed in our doctoral statement along with those assertions of what we teach, but you can see that from the passages that we've just read where we get those assertions. Now the first century Christians were used to living under the authority of others. Most of them lived under Roman rule, which wasn't a democracy. And they didn't have the right to vote on policy matters or choose their leaders. Many of them also had lived under the rule of Jewish leaders who rightly or wrongly prescribed certain religious practices. Our world is much different than that. In contrast to their world, we live in a culture where self-autonomy is one of our culture's highest values. And we live in a country where voting is considered a human right. To add on top of that, I think a tendency in our culture to be anti-authority and suspicious of power. Now, to be sure, we've all seen abuses of authority and power in our culture, including within churches. And that's sad and that's discouraging because that's not how God designed the church to be led. with abuse, or overreaches of authority, or with power trips. Authoritarianism is not God's model for the church. But neither is a democratic republic God's model for the church. A church where the congregation governs the church through majority rule quite simply stands outside of God's pattern. Christ governs the church through elders, men called by him to lead the church. However, that's God's pattern, however, the authority given to elders to lead the church is not without limits. In fact, the authority to lead is limited in several important ways, and for the sake of time, let me point out two that I think are most significant. One important limit to the authority of elders is that it's a delegated authority. I remind you from last week that Colossians 118 says that Christ is the head of the body, the church. As the head, he tells the body what to do. He tells us what the church is, what our purpose is, what our mission is. how it should be led, what our roles are, how we're to relate to one another, and so on. The church is Christ's idea. So we don't have the right to tell Him how to organize it or govern it, nor do elders have the authority to go beyond what He has authorized them to do, because it's not their church. The authority to lead, rule, govern, manage, or exercise oversight doesn't originate with any man. but with Christ who is the head of the body and whose blood redeemed the church. Christ owns the church. The church always and forever is Christ. Let no man ever forget that. Therefore, elders who lead the church are only stewards of what is His. That's exactly what Paul calls overseers in Titus 1.7, God's stewards. A steward is one who manages his master's property or things on behalf of the master. And that's what elders do. Elders can't do what Christ hasn't permitted. Elders must not do what He has forbidden. Elders should only do in the church what He has told them to do in His Word. God's Word is the charter. It's the governing document for elders in the life of the church. So eldership is a stewardship of delegated authority and as such it can be taken away. Because the authority doesn't rest in the man, it can be taken away. The authority always, always, always rests in Christ and Christ alone. And He governs from the right hand of God the Father on heaven through His Word and through elders in the church. But it's always a delegated authority. There are no lifetime appointments to eldership. Elders have no authority in themselves, none. The authority is always Christ. Now, the Apostle Peter understood better than anyone the great responsibility of leading Christ's church. You will remember on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus told him, Feed my lambs and tend my sheep. Feed my lambs and tend my sheep. Whose lambs, Peter? My lambs. Whose sheep? My sheep." Peter was commanded by our Lord to be a steward of those entrusted to him. So when Peter wrote to the churches in the Roman Empire, he gave a solemn charge to the elders of those churches in 1 Peter 5, beginning in verse 1. He said, 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, 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 examples to the flock. Just as Christ commanded Peter, so Peter commands these elders they must shepherd the flock of God. In verse 2, whose flock is it? Not Peter's, not the elders, but God's. Peter had learned the lesson on the sea shore of the Sea of Galilee. And now he passes on that lesson to these elders in the Roman Empire. The mandate for all elders is to be a shepherd of those sheep entrusted by God to them. Shepherd the flock of God that is among you. The job of an elder is not to shepherd somebody else's flock, or to be a shepherd over a city, or a region, or a country, or the world. An elder is a shepherd of those sheep entrusted by God to them, knowing that they themselves are mere sheep. Notice also that Peter gives three warnings to elders and how they're to steward this responsibility. Three warnings. First, don't exercise oversight under compulsion, but willingly. In other words, serve the people not because you must, but because you want to. Second, don't exercise oversight for shameful gain, but eagerly. That is, the work of oversight must be done not for selfish motives, but selflessly. Serve to give, not to get. Third, don't exercise oversight, domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. In other words, leadership is not lordship. Leadership is service. Jesus said the Son of Man didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. That's the pattern of leadership in the church. That's true biblical leadership. Leadership is service, sacrificial service, just as our master led us, just as the great shepherd did for us. Shepherds lead by example, by going first in sacrifice. Well, there's a second important limit to the authority of elders, and that's Scripture. God's Word governs the elders as they govern the church. An elder has no authority beyond what he's been called to do in Scripture. Ingrid and I, years and years ago, became members for a very brief time of a Presbyterian church. And it was a good church, still existing, led by good pastors. Pastors who loved the church and loved the people. Pastors that we both trusted. In the membership class, teaching really in accordance with what many Presbyterians believe, The issue of the authority of the elders in the church somehow came up. And the senior pastor, I guess you would say, the teaching pastor, said that essentially that the authority was nearly absolute. That if one of the elders told a member to make him a sandwich, That's the example he gave. To make him a sandwich. The member would be compelled by God to make him a sandwich. Now I love this guy. And if he would have told me to make him a sandwich, I would have made him a sandwich because I'd want to serve him. And I know he would do it from a good place and I wouldn't think anything of it. I'd just make him a sandwich. On the other hand, I know he would never tell me with a command to make him a sandwich, but he was giving that example. That's totally wrong. I love that pastor. That's totally unbiblical. An elder has no authority beyond what he's been called to do in scripture. He can't lay burdens on the flock of God that God hasn't commanded. Nor can he bless what God hasn't blessed. Nor can he neglect what God has required. The Word of God holds elders accountable to God. Elders are accountable to God and the test of their accountability is their faithfulness to His Word. All of us are under the authority of Scripture. But elders are held to a higher standard and have a greater accountability to it because they're called to lead the church according to his word and not go beyond what's written in it. So several important limits on the authority of elders. There are others, but those are two important ones. And that brings us really to the second role that elders have in the life of the church. Second responsibility, elders feed the sheep. Jesus said that in Matthew 4.4, quoting Deuteronomy, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Man doesn't live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. We need to be fed from the mouth of God. The sheep are fed by the teaching of God's word. When Jesus commanded Peter to feed the sheep, that's what he meant. He meant teach the church God's word. Teach the church my commandments. The God-given responsibility of preaching and teaching in the church lies primarily with the elders. That's why elders must be able to teach according to 1 Timothy 3. Eldership is a ministry of teaching scripture. In fact, eldership is primarily a ministry of teaching scripture. Paul, for example, laid upon the young pastor Timothy the necessity of teaching God's Word as he led the church in Ephesus. He said in 1 Timothy 4.13, Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. While he waited for Paul to arrive, Timothy was charged with teaching scripture, exhorting scripture, reading scripture. His whole ministry was around scripture. In 2 Timothy 4, verses 1 and 2, he said, I charge you, Timothy, in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching. This is what Timothy was supposed to do. The primary ministry of an elder is to teach God's word. He may do ten thousands of other things. But if he does not teach the Word and shepherd the people with the Word, then he has not done the primary thing he must do. Now, elders, to be sure, aren't the only teachers in the church. Titus 2 tells older women to teach younger women what is good, that is, what's according to Scripture. And Colossians 3.16 says that we all must teach and admonish one another. But the doctrine of the church is established by the elders teaching scripture, precept by precept, line by line, explaining what God's word means to God's people and making application of it within the church. Elders feed the sheep. Third, elders tend the sheep. they tend the sheep. Just as shepherds care for the physical needs of the sheep and their flock, elders are to tend to the spiritual needs of those entrusted to them. In Paul's farewell address to the Ephesian elders, he included this exhortation in Acts chapter 20, verse 28. He said to them, 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 he obtained with his own blood. See, in this verse, the elders are responsible to pay careful attention to the spiritual needs of the flock. The words of Proverbs 27, 23 could be applied here. That says, know well the condition of your flocks and give attention to your herds. The reason elders must pay careful attention to the flock is that God holds elders uniquely accountable for their soul care. That's not true of anyone else in the church. but God holds elders uniquely responsible, not only for their own soul care, but for the soul care of the flock that they have oversight of. Hebrews 13, 17 says, we read this before, obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Give an account. To who? To God. They're accountable to God. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that be of no advantage to you. Elders must keep watch over the souls of the sheep entrusted to them. Now, this is difficult work. Because not all sheep are easy to care for. Some are harder to love. Some don't want the shepherd to know their true spiritual condition. They'd rather hide their sin or pretend they're more righteous than they are. But the only way for elders to know the spiritual condition of people in the church is to be among them. Good shepherds smell like sheep. Elders care for the souls of the sheep primarily in two ways. First, they instruct them in God's word, as we've already seen, and second, they're faithful to pray for them. James writes in chapter 5, verse 14 of his epistle, is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him. through God's Word and through prayer are the two primary ways in which God and which shepherds care for God's flock. Prayer and the Word. Finally, elders also guard the sheep, the fourth responsibility of elders. Good shepherds know that sheep are vulnerable and they do what they can to protect them. One aspect of guarding the sheep is to protect them from false teaching and false teachers. In Titus 1.9, Paul writes that an elder must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction and sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. So there's a twofold ministry of the word the elders must do. One that's positive and one that's negative. On the positive side, they must be able to give instruction in sound doctrine. That presupposes that they know sound doctrine. They're versed enough in the scriptures. They're versed enough in theology to be sound in doctrine. Doesn't mean they understand everything perfectly. Doesn't mean they have an answer to every question or every exegetical nuance, but it does mean that they have a solid basis, a solid foundation that's sound, like a sound foundation in your home that you build the rest upon. But they also, on the negative side, must be able to rebuke those who contradict sound doctrine. Again, that presupposes they know sound doctrine well enough that they can spot the error. Not only spot the error, but refute the error. Not that they have answers to every question. Not that they are understanding every heresy that's come down the pike. But they know enough about Christ, they know enough about God's will, they know enough about God, man, sin, the Holy Spirit, angels, demons, the church, the end times, and so on. They know enough that they can spot the error and refute it. Perhaps not on the spot. They can do so because they're equipped to do so. So an elder must know enough sound doctrine to be able to refute error. Likewise, Paul again said to the Ephesian elders back in Acts chapter 20 verses 29 to 31, 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 didn't cease, night or day, to admonish everyone with tears." Amazing. Now, presumably, if Paul knew who it was that would arise from among them, from among the Ephesians church, who would speak twisted things and draw people away if he knew he would name them. Go after so-and-so. He's a wolf. But he doesn't name anyone. by virtue of the Holy Spirit's revelation to him, that that was coming. And that's true in every godly church, in every church of sound doctrine. There will be those who come into the church and rise up within the church and seek to draw away the disciples after them. One of the jobs of an elder is to, as he says in that last verse, be alert. Look out for this. Guard that front door. He said, remembering that for three years I didn't cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. In other words, the way that Paul strategized to protect the church, was that for three years without ceasing. He admonished them, he taught them the Word of God. The greatest remedy. To prevent heresy or false teaching spreading. In the church is sound teaching. Sound teaching. Hard preaching produces soft hearts. Soft preaching produces hard hearts. Hard preaching on a hard text with hard things to hear produces a soft heart that's malleable to sound doctrine. That's necessary in order to protect a church from false teaching. So these elders had to be ready to combat wolves among the sheep and courageous to expose their air through church discipline and through teaching. The ministry of guarding the sheep, I think, is increasingly important in a world where false doctrine is so readily accepted among Christians. Well, those are the four responsibilities. of elders in the church, lead the sheep, feed the sheep, tend the sheep, and guard the sheep. And for all four of those responsibilities, they're held accountable to God. Every man who becomes an elder is accountable to God for how that goes in the church. And they will answer to Him for how He did. These are weighty duties that God has put upon those He's called to govern the church. So as I did last week, I'll once again exhort you to pray for the leadership in our church. Pray for the leadership in our church as the sheep are led, fed, tended, and guarded. On one of Charles Spurgeon's visits to America, Charles Spurgeon, a pastor and preacher in England, on one of his visits, a pastor said to him, I've long wished to see you, Mr. Spurgeon. And to put one or two simple questions to you, in our country there are many opinions as to the secret of your great influence. His sermons were printed and spread all around the world. Would you be good enough to give me your own point of view? In other words, what's the secret of your influence? What's the secret of your ministry, Spurgeon? And after a pause, Spurgeon said, my people pray for me. My people pray for me. Every pastor I know longs for that to be true in his church as well. Will you be such a people? I pray that you will. Let's pray together. Father, find us faithful in prayer for each other. Pray for the members and pray for the leadership. We pray that we'd be found faithful to do that. Father, I just know in my own heart that my capacity to love and care for others, for people, expands to the degree that I pray for them. It just seems that the more I pray for somebody, the greater I love I have for them, the greater compassion I have for them. And I just know that's not accidental. So Father, help us to be a praying church. And help us to be a church that's biblically led. That all is done in subjection to You and Your Word. That no elder would lay burdens on the people that they're not meant to bear. And that no elder would neglect any doctrine or issue of life that needs to be heard. Thank You, Father, that You did send Your Son, Jesus, to be the Good Shepherd. And we know that no under-shepherd compares. Every under-shepherd falls short of the good shepherd standard. And yet we're thankful that we're not trying to replace you, Jesus, as the one that governs this church. So we look to You. We look to Your supremacy in all things, especially the church. We look to You for guidance. We look to you primarily for care and for hope. We look to you for teaching and that you would guard this church. We look to you as our leader. May that always be true at Treasuring Christ Church. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you for listening to this message from Treasuring Christ Church in Athens, Georgia. Feel free to make copies of this message to give to others, but please do not alter the content in any way without permission. Treasuring Christ Church exists to spread a passion for the fame of Christ's name in Athens and around the world. We invite you to visit Treasuring Christ Church online at tccathens.org. There you'll find other resources available to you and information about our upcoming gatherings.