WHO OWNS THE SHEEP?
Authority or Service?
In our first study we found something important.
In the New Testament, elder, overseer or bishop, and shepherd or pastor do not appear to be three levels of church government.
The elders were overseers.
And their work was to shepherd God's flock.
But that raises another question.
What kind of authority does a shepherd have?
Is an elder the boss of a congregation?
Does he make the decisions and expect everyone else to obey?
Can he use his position to force Christians into line?
Or did Jesus give us a very different picture of spiritual leadership?
To answer that, we need to begin long before the New Testament.
GOD HAD SEEN BAD SHEPHERDS BEFORE
Ezekiel 34 contains one of the strongest condemnations of religious leadership in the Bible.
God speaks against the shepherds of Israel:
“Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?”
— Ezekiel 34:2
There was leadership.
There was authority.
But something had gone terribly wrong.
The shepherds were using the sheep for themselves.
God continues:
“Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool... but ye feed not the flock.”
— Ezekiel 34:3
The problem was not merely bad organization.
It was self-serving leadership.
The shepherds had forgotten why shepherds existed.
WHAT SHOULD THE SHEPHERDS HAVE BEEN DOING?
God tells us.
“The diseased have ye not strengthened,
neither have ye healed that which was sick,
neither have ye bound up that which was broken,
neither have ye brought again that which was driven away,
neither have ye sought that which was lost...”— Ezekiel 34:4
Read that list slowly.
Strengthen the weak.
Heal the sick.
Bind up the injured.
Bring back the wandering.
Search for the lost.
That is shepherding.
These people needed help.
Instead, God says:
“with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.”
There is our problem.
The shepherd had become a ruler.
GOD SAID, “THE SHEEP ARE MINE”
Because the shepherds failed, God said:
“Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.”
— Ezekiel 34:11
Notice the possessive word.
My sheep.
The shepherds had responsibility for them.
But they did not own them.
God did.
Then comes a remarkable promise:
“And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David.”
— Ezekiel 34:23
Ezekiel wrote long after the historical David was dead.
God was looking forward to the coming Davidic Shepherd.
And then Jesus came.
“I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD”
Jesus said:
“I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.”
— John 10:11
Now compare that with Ezekiel 34.
The bad shepherd uses the sheep for himself.
The Good Shepherd gives Himself for the sheep.
One takes.
The other gives.
One benefits from the sheep.
The other dies for them.
That is the model Jesus gives every person who would shepherd His people.
JESUS DEFINED LEADERSHIP FOR HIS DISCIPLES
On another occasion, James and John wanted positions of prominence in Jesus' kingdom.
The other apostles became angry.
Jesus called them together and said:
“Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them...”
— Matthew 20:25
That was how ordinary human authority worked.
People at the top exercised authority over people beneath them.
Then Jesus said something that every church leader ought to read carefully:
“But it shall not be so among you.”
— Matthew 20:26
Not:
Try not to overdo it.
Not:
Exercise dominion kindly.
Jesus said:
“It shall not be so among you.”
Then He explained greatness:
“Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister.”
— Matthew 20:26
Jesus turned the normal idea of leadership upside down.
JESUS DIDN'T JUST TEACH IT
He lived it.
On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus washed His disciples' feet.
Then He said:
“I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.”
— John 13:15
The Lord was on His knees washing feet.
That is difficult to reconcile with a model of church leadership built around prestige, rank, privilege, and control.
Jesus possessed all authority.
Yet He served.
Authority and service were not opposites.
His authority expressed itself through service.
NOW RETURN TO THE ELDERS
With that background, Peter's instructions become much more powerful.
Peter writes:
“The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder...”
— 1 Peter 5:1
Then:
“Feed the flock of God which is among you...”
— 1 Peter 5:2
Or more literally:
Shepherd the flock of God.
Whose flock?
God's flock.
Peter doesn't say:
your flock.
The sheep have been entrusted to the elders.
They haven't been given to them as possessions.
“NOT BY CONSTRAINT”
Peter continues:
“taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly...”
— 1 Peter 5:2
The shepherd should want to serve.
This isn't merely holding an office.
It isn't possessing a title.
It is accepting responsibility for people.
“NOT FOR FILTHY LUCRE”
Peter continues:
“not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind.”
Money must not be the motivation.
Again Peter is concerned about what leadership can become.
Position can provide money.
Position can provide prestige.
Position can provide power.
Peter strips those motivations away.
The elder serves because the sheep need a shepherd.
THEN COMES THE WARNING
“Neither as being lords over God's heritage...”
— 1 Peter 5:3
The word translated “being lords over” carries the idea of exercising dominion over others.
It is the same basic idea Jesus condemned when He described Gentile rulers.
Peter isn't telling elders they have no responsibility or authority.
He has just told them to exercise oversight.
But he draws a boundary around that authority.
Oversee them.
Do not dominate them.
Those are not the same thing.
HOW, THEN, DOES AN ELDER LEAD?
Peter answers immediately:
“but being ensamples to the flock.”
— 1 Peter 5:3
By example.
The shepherd walks ahead.
The sheep follow.
That is quite different from standing behind the sheep beating them forward.
A shepherd's staff had a purpose.
It could guide.
It could rescue.
It could defend.
The crook could help retrieve a sheep that had gotten itself into trouble.
The shepherd's task was not to keep striking the sheep until they obeyed him.
His task was to get them safely to green pasture and water and bring them home.
PAUL SAID THE SAME THING AT EPHESUS
Paul told the Ephesian elders:
“Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock...”
— Acts 20:28
Notice where responsibility begins.
“Take heed...unto yourselves.”
Before watching everybody else, watch yourself.
Then:
“to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.”
Again we encounter ownership.
Who bought the church?
Not the elders.
Not the preacher.
Not a bishop.
Christ did.
And the purchase price was His blood.
AN ELDER IS CARING FOR SOMEONE ELSE'S SHEEP
That may be the simplest way to understand New Testament eldership.
Imagine that a man entrusts his flock to another shepherd.
The shepherd has real responsibility.
He decides when the sheep need water.
He watches for danger.
He treats injuries.
He searches for the wandering animal.
He may have to pull a sheep out of a dangerous place.
But he never forgets:
These aren't my sheep.
That changes how he treats them.
WHAT ABOUT OBEDIENCE TO ELDERS?
Someone will immediately think of Hebrews 13:17:
“Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves...”
That verse belongs in this discussion.
We shouldn't avoid it.
Christian leaders really do lead.
Christians should not be rebellious simply because they dislike being told something.
But keep reading:
“for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account...”
Their authority is connected directly to their responsibility.
They must give account.
The leader isn't ultimately accountable to himself.
He answers to someone above him.
And that someone is Christ.
AUTHORITY DOES NOT MEAN INFALLIBILITY
Peter himself provides an interesting example.
Peter was an apostle.
Yet in Galatians 2, Paul opposed Peter publicly when Peter's conduct was wrong.
Having spiritual responsibility did not make Peter immune from correction.
Likewise, an elder does not become correct merely because he is an elder.
His teaching can be examined against Scripture.
His behavior can be judged against the qualifications Scripture gives him.
Authority under Christ is always authority under the Word of Christ.
WHAT ABOUT CHURCH DISCIPLINE?
Here we need another important distinction.
The New Testament certainly teaches discipline.
Jesus discusses dealing with a brother who sins in Matthew 18:15–17.
Paul commands action concerning serious immorality in 1 Corinthians 5.
So “do not lord it over the flock” cannot mean:
Never correct anyone.
A shepherd sometimes must confront danger.
But notice something important in 1 Corinthians 5.
Paul does not write privately to one bishop and tell him to remove the offender.
He writes to the church.
“When ye are gathered together...”
— 1 Corinthians 5:4
Discipline is not presented there as the personal weapon of one powerful church official.
It is an act concerning the body.
THE SHEPHERD'S STAFF IS NOT A SCEPTER
Perhaps this is where church leadership can go wrong.
A shepherd carries a staff.
A king carries a scepter.
They are not the same thing.
The staff exists for the welfare of the sheep.
The scepter represents the ruler's authority.
Jesus gave His church shepherds.
When a shepherd begins treating his staff like a scepter, something has changed.
PAUL WARNED THAT SOMETHING COULD CHANGE
And now we reach something disturbing.
Paul is still speaking to the Ephesian elders when he says:
“For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.”
— Acts 20:29
Danger would come from outside.
But then Paul says:
“Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.”
— Acts 20:30
“Of your own selves.”
Paul is speaking to elders.
The danger would not come only from pagan rulers.
It could arise from among church leaders themselves.
And what would these men do?
“Draw away disciples after them.”
That is almost the opposite of shepherding people toward Christ.
The true shepherd says:
Follow Christ.
The corrupt leader says, in effect:
Follow me.
PETER WARNED ABOUT THE SAME DANGER
Why would Peter have to tell elders:
Do not lord it over the flock
unless lording it over the flock was a genuine temptation?
Power can change people.
Religious power is still power.
And religious authority can become especially powerful when people believe that obedience to the leader is equivalent to obedience to God.
That possibility should make every Christian leader cautious.
THE CHIEF SHEPHERD IS COMING
Peter finishes his instructions by saying:
“And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.”
— 1 Peter 5:4
There is another title worth noticing.
Peter doesn't call himself the chief shepherd.
He doesn't call an elder the chief shepherd.
He doesn't call a bishop the chief shepherd.
Jesus is the Chief Shepherd.
Every other shepherd serves underneath Him.
And every shepherd will answer to Him.
SO WHO OWNS THE SHEEP?
Not the elders.
Not the preacher.
Not the bishop.
Not the congregation itself.
Christ does.
He purchased them with His blood.
He is the Good Shepherd who died for them.
He is the Chief Shepherd to whom every lesser shepherd must answer.
And He specifically rejected a model of leadership based upon exercising dominion over His people.
The New Testament elder therefore possesses genuine responsibility.
But his authority is:
pastoral rather than imperial,
protective rather than possessive,
serving rather than self-serving,
leading by example rather than ruling by force.
He does not own the sheep.
He serves the One who does.
AND NOW OUR STUDY TAKES A SERIOUS TURN
We have established two things from the New Testament.
First:
Elders, overseers/bishops, and shepherds/pastors describe the same leadership.
Second:
Those leaders are expressly forbidden to lord their authority over God's people.
But Paul also warned those very elders:
“Of your own selves shall men arise... to draw away disciples after them.”
And elsewhere Paul warned that a departure from the faith was coming.
He even said:
“the mystery of lawlessness doth already work.”
— 2 Thessalonians 2:7
That raises our next question:
DID THE APOSTLES WARN THAT CHURCH LEADERSHIP ITSELF WOULD BECOME CORRUPTED?
Before we look at what happened after the apostles died, we need to know exactly what they said would happen.
That is where we go next.
TEXT B4 TRADITION
Read First. Conclude Later.