The Sheep's Responsibility

The church is the only institution Christ promised to build and bless and I take great comfort and confidence in the fact that I am a part of the greatest institution on the face of the earth. The local church and I'm thinking for having a small part in our Lord's great ask ask what you can do for your country will bouncing off those words. Consider something that's really far more important, not what your church can do for you but what you can do for your church. So what is it you can do and should do to help your congregation become more vibrant, healthier and well Bible driven John MacArthur is showing you that in his current study on grace to you. He's titled it. The Bible driven church and now with today's lesson. Here's John well let's open our Bibles for our time in God's word chapter 5 of first Thessalonians chapter 5 of first Thessalonians were studying verses 12 and 13 let me read them to you.

First Thessalonians 512 and 13 but we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work, live in peace with one another. These two verses discuss how the sheep are to treat the shepherd how the shepherds are to treat the sheep within the framework of Christian fellowship in the church. We talked about the responsibility of the shepherds to the sheep how shepherds are to care for their sheep. That of course was a message close to my own heart, as a shepherd who has sheep in the responsibility before God to do that kind of care. As I was mulling over the joys the difficulties the trials and tribulations. The exhilaration's of being a pastor, I was reminded that a few months ago Phil Johnson and I were having lunch and as I was munching my chicken sandwich I said you know Phil, I think I like to write an article on why am a pastor just so that everybody understands that no matter what profile I might appear to have any outside world. The heart of everything is pastoring and that's what God called me to do and that's what I really am and he said well how would you do it.

I so well what about if I wrote an article on 10 reasons why I am a pastor and I just whimsically said 10 and he said will, can you think of Canon.

I said I bet I can get a pencil, so he began to write as I articulated 10 reasons why am a pastor.

My thinking was originally stimulated when I read the biography of Jonathan Edwards, written by Ian Murray and learned about all the personal heart aches. He had had in his church. He pastored a church he kicked them out voted him out after all that time of a profound and blessed ministry. Jonathan Edwards even was the key leader in the great American awakening the greatest revival, it's ever hit this nation's church didn't seem to take that into account and while I don't anticipate such a fate. I do know I do know what it is to suffer criticism. I do know what it is to be the constant subject of accusation both inside the church and outside the church. There have been moments, believe me when leaving the church was attractive to me, and there is almost a constant query to me. Why don't you leave Grace Church and do something else but I have never contemplated any such move seriously because I love my calling from God and I love my place. I love my people.

I remain wholly totally committed to the duty of a pastor and there are number of reasons why. Let me just rehearse for you. Briefly, those 10 reasons why am a pastor or why am a shepherd number one.

The church is the only institution Christ promised to build and bless. He said I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it and I take great comfort and confidence in the fact that I am a part of the greatest institution on the face of the earth. The local church and I'm thankful for having a small part in our Lord's great work of building the church.

Secondly, I'm a pastor because the corporate functions of the body, all take place in the church as soon as you move outside the church you divorce yourself from the place of celebration. The place of worship, the place of the Lord's table, the place of baptism, the place of encouragement.

The place of edification, the place of instruction, and if we are going to come as the psalmist said in worship and bow down, and if were going to comment take of the Lord's table and if were going to come to the waters of baptism and if are going to come to be fed and taught and nurtured and discipled and to enjoy the riches of fellowship that all happens in the local church. Thirdly, I'm a pastor because preaching is the chief means God uses to dispense his grace. The apostle Paul commanded Timothy to preach the word. It is through the preached word through the proclamation of the word that people are edified and built up and encouraged and strengthened and motivated and confronted and convicted and rebuked and reproved and restored.

I have the privilege each Sunday of proclaiming God's message. Once in the morning and once at night. Fourthly, I'm a pastor, because I can be consumed with study in communion with God. All my lifelong.

I would hate to be involved in administrating some organization where I was caught up in the minutia and the trivia and the details of of things that are other than the word of God because I am consumed by the things of Scripture.

Someone asked me what drives you and I said, it's my love for the word of God. That's what drives me and the fact that I can spend my whole life doing what I love to do is to me a great thrill was talking to a professional baseball player and I said what do you like the best about what you do when you said what I like best about it is that I'm doing what I love to do so. My, in fact, what I love to do just happens to lead me into personal, private, constant communion with God in the pages of Scripture. The reality of prayer is absolutely inseparable from the exercise of preparation I cannot in the process of preparation.

Divorce myself from an ongoing conversation with God. As I seek to know his mind. It is hard and is will and have them apply in my heart what it is that I'm studying and learning, and shall sooner or later preach. That's the joy that's the love that's the passion of ministry. Fifthly, I am a pastor, because I am directly responsible to God for the lives of the people he has given me to shepherd and I love that accountability I don't mind being a teacher on the radio. I don't mind writing books I don't mind sending out my words to people I don't know whether they hear me on the radio listen to a tape or read a book, but I have a relationship with my people, like that of a shepherd to the sheep and I have the privilege of the call of God to watch over their souls is one it will give an account to God and the only way I can discharge that calling is in a local church. I cannot be accountable for the souls of people on a radio program, I cannot be accountable for the souls of people to listen to me on a tape or read a book. I can only be accountable to God for the souls of the sheep in my own flock and to that I have been called to that I desire to be faithful. Sixthly, I am also accountable to the people in my church. Not only am I accountable to God for the people in my church. But I'm accountable to the people in my church being faithful to God. Everything is expose their my my wife, my children, my family life my personal strengths my personal weaknesses. The things I love the things I hate style of life I live.

It's all there, and I cherish that accountability you say why because it it holds me it holds me where I need to be held. It's a constant encouragement for me to reflect Christ and everything I say and do, because that's the only way I can undergird a message number seven. I am a pastor, because I love the challenge of building an effective leadership team from the people God has put in the church.

I really believe that to be an effective leader in the church is the most challenging enterprise there is on the face of the earth. There are number of reasons why one of them. For example, is when you start a business or company and you want to be successful. You can hire anybody you want but when you build the church. You gotta take what God gives. That's very different very different and it's a volunteer organization. You not only take what God gives you take what the people God gives her willing to give.

And it's out of that kind of challenge that you are called to build a leadership team that can advance the kingdom of God and frankly I not saying this to despair.

But I want you to know the Bible says not many of you are wise. Not many of you are mighty and not many of you are noble. First Corinthians 126, where basically the common folks of the world are we and I thank God again and again. They didn't stick me in some elitist kind of church I don't want to ever pastor a church is made up of of the elite. I wanted the church that was the cross-section of the whole of the body of Christ where there were only a few who would be considered the mighty and the noble and most of us would be just the faithful folks. I see myself among them, and it's been a tremendous joy to see the spirit of God build a leadership team and advance his kingdom through our church. What a challenge that is number eight. I'm a pastor because the pastorate embraces all of life. All of life. I don't know about you but I love adventure and I love variety and if you want a life of adventure and variety be a pastor. No two days are the same.

No two days are the same.

I was never made to work on an assembly line. I would be somewhere under the bed, saying the Greek alphabet in a few weeks.

If I was working on an assembly line would drive me stark raving mad. My mind gravitates toward variety and that's because God's design me for that and that is true in the ministry embraces all of life. I can share the joy of parents over the birth of a child, I can share the pain of parents over the death of the child. I can share the joy of the wedding.

I can share their the comfort necessary at a funeral. The gamut of life is expose to the pastorate. All of the joys and exhilaration's and happy times of life, all of the tragedies, difficulties, trials and pains of life.

It is an incredible adventure which can begin at any moment because anytime anything out of the ordinary happens. I'm somehow involved in that it is a joy to go beyond the sermon, which is the predictable part of the ministry into the unpredictable part is you stand in the gap for God in the place of Christ in the lives of people. I am a pastor for two other reasons.

Number nine am afraid not to be a pastor. That's the truth. When I was 18. God threw me out of a car going 70 miles an hour I landed on my backside and slid 110 yards on the pavement by the grace of God I wasn't killed by the grace of God I was committed to become a pastor because prior to that I knew the Lord called me to that I was being rebellious and I decided the Lord's unified like that. I want to give in and be a pastor or whatever else he wants me to be redone. I scratch my back, I feel the scars of that because they're still there to remind me that I should be faithful to the pastorate, or there might be another highway somewhere in my future and that's all right. And lastly, I'm a pastor because the rewards of pastoring are absolutely marvelous. I have to tell you I feel loved. I feel appreciated I feel needed. I feel trusted all of those things. Why not because of me, but because being an instrument of God changes people's lives when God uses you to preach his word teaches work apply his work people's lives change and you have the sense of a marvelous, marvelous meaning to life.

Life is so valuable for me because of what what God uses it to accomplish.

I know you pray for me. I know you care for me. I know that I owe a debt of gratitude to God for that because I'm not worthy of that.

But I understand that that goes with the territory of being a channel through which the grace of God can flow to people, though it is God doing it all in God spirit doing it all is the thanks is passed back to God somehow gets passed through the channel that came through. That's a wonderful and exhilarating reality when all is said and done, the joy and fulfillment of being a pastor is the response in the mutual love that the sheep and the shepherd share and it has been the response of the sheep to the shepherd, but it made this ministry so exhilarating for me and I think anyone in the ministry would say that with all of those 10 things I gave you the bottom line is this. I'm in the ministry because the rewards are so great and the rewards are eternal and eternally.

The value of a relationship between a Shepherd and his sheep. What a great truth. I suppose all the shepherds in this flock all the elders of this church would agree that the joy of ministry is linked to the attitude of the sheep toward the shepherd.

When God passes the truth through me to you and you pastor thanks through meeting him. That's a tremendous joy. I'll tell you. Not everybody experiences that the driveways of many churches are blackened with the skidmarks from the hasty exits of pastors who have been abused and bashed by heartless, thankless people that has not been my case, but it does pose the question for us in the text. How are shepherds to be treated. How are you to treat the shepherd. Now I get this message with a little reluctance because somebody will surely say, well, somebody's been after Johnson we preach this message to straighten them out. Not true.

You know, we just happened to arrive in chapter 5 in verse 12 and 13 right and you know that we are compelled by the plan of God, not by some personal agenda of mine now for some people don't even think about this. Sometimes the issue is little more than a joke, like the pastor who was literally bothered to distraction by one man fell asleep every Sunday through his sermon, and the man was a prominent church member and he slept through every sermon.

Finally, the pastor decided I don't care if it's prominent.

I don't care if he's a big giver I have to confront him and he said why sir do you fall asleep when I'm delivering my sermon. It shows a lack of respect which the man answered.

You think I'd sleep if I didn't trust you, look, I don't need that kind of trust if it's the same view. How are sheep to treat their shepherds. How are sheep to treat their shepherds the following article entitled how to get rid of a pastor appeared in the church bulletin listen to.

Not long ago a well-meaning group of layman came from a neighboring church to see me.

They wanted me to advise them on some convenient and painless method of getting rid of their pastor, I'm afraid, however, that I wasn't much help to them at the time I had not had the occasion to give the matter serious thought. But since then I pondered the matter great deal in the next time anyone comes for advice on how to get rid of the pastor. Here's what I'll tell one look the pastor straight in the eye while he is preaching and say amen once in a while and he'll preach himself to death to pat him on the back brag on his good points and you probably work himself to death. Three. Re-dedicate your life to Christ and asked the preacher for some job to do, preferably some lost people.

You could win to Christ and he'll die of heart failure for get the church to unite in prayer for the preacher and he will soon become so effective that a larger church will take them off your hands does raise some vital questions we think about and how are we to treat the pastor survey of 3000 churches, pastors and layman included in the survey asked the question, one of the main reasons people drop out of the church. One of the most common replies was I don't like the pastor.

What is our duty, let's go back to our text we already looked at the responsibility of the shepherds to their sheep and we noted that they are the labor among the sheep. First of all, secondly they are to exercise authority over the sheep and they are to give instruction for the sheep.

We carefully delineated those three things. The first point, laboring among the sheep you notice there in verse 12. Those who diligently labor among you pastor's elders, overseers, shepherds are to labor hard work to the point of exhaustion and the sacrificial life of service alongside the sheep total dedication is seen there. That's the servant role of humility and then note please.

Also they have charge over you in the Lord.

They have authority over the sheep virtue of the Lord's calling for his sake by his will for his glory. They are to preside in direct and lead and then at the end of verse 12 there to give you instruction instruction for the sheep. Teaching is the primary element they are to be skilled teachers, skilled at delineating and disseminating the word of truth.

Now let's go to the responsibility of the sheep to their shepherds and this is very very basic. I mean the church has to know this. This is the bottom line in our relationship together sometime sheep can be very hard on shepherd somebody said we think sheep are cuddly little creatures because the only ones we ever deal with her stuffed that's true. If you've ever worked with sheep and I have been exposed to them just enough to know they are weak, helpless, unorganized prone to wander, demanding, dirty and have sharp hooves and when the Lord was describing asset sheep. He was talking about sheep as sheep not sheep as stuffed animal sheep can make life joyless for the shepherd if they don't follow the path of their duty, they can make life miserable. If they're not obedient. So let's look at the three characteristics are principles that we are enjoined as sheep for our shepherds number one appreciate your shepherds.

Verse 12 says we request of your brother that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction.

The word appreciate for a moment, is only die in the Greek it means to know it is a common word used all over the New Testament for to know what it means the kind of knowledge it comes by experience to have learned to know to have come to know to buy experience to arrive at knowledge and here it has the idea of a deep knowledge and the knowledge that includes unit respect and appreciation to knowing the value is the implication of it here. Perhaps the best translation is the word to appreciate another one might be that you value those who diligently labor among you that you respect those who diligently labor among you, doesn't mean you know their names, not that kind of simplistic knowledge.

It doesn't mean you know just the names of their children or their wife or their ZIP Code or where they live or whatever school they graduated from work. What kind of car they drive or whatever, it means that you have come into a deep and intimate personal acquaintance that leads to appreciation.

You know them well enough to care about that that word no is sometimes translated to refer to the physical act between a man and a woman. The deep kind of knowledge.

The intimate kind of knowledge where a man knows a woman and she becomes the bearer of a child. It's the sense of knowing someone in the worthiness of that someone from constantly given a comment when I enter in the questions of people who listen to me preach very very frequently they will say to me I feel like I know you, I've never been personally acquainted with you like I haven't spent a lot of time with you but I feel like I know you and what they're really saying is that because they have listened for so long to the pouring out of the heart of the preacher.

There's a sense in which you know that person and I always reply by saying with you been listening to me. You know me because what you're hearing is is what is me.

I am not what I look like. In fact I tell people all the time when they meet me so I listen you on radio for years. I said I know I look better on radio. It isn't a question of of what I look like you don't know me by knowing what I look like you know me by knowing what I feel right. You know me by knowing what comes out of my heart you know me by knowing the passions of my life.

It's easy to be unkind and it's easy to be critical and it's easy to be in different to someone you don't know deeply and intimately when you know someone and you come to know them by experience, and you understand the passion of their heart is a certain respect that is born out of that kind of knowing, so it is incumbent upon you that you come to know your leaders if you want to respect them and appreciate them and admire them and understand their worth and their value. It means that you are going to have to come to know them and then when you know them, you show them that kind of respect. This is grace to you with John MacArthur.

Thanks for being with us. John is Chancellor of the Masters University in seminary.

He calls our current study the Bible driven church. Now John, let me ask a question that's related to what you said today about the pastor and his people share with our listeners. Some of the ways your congregation has encouraged you in ways that are especially meaningful things that our listeners could be doing for their pastors. That's really good question and I have to say I must be the most blessed of all pastors half a century, with the same people now holding the great-grandchildren of some of the original people that were grace when I came sought. I have longevity and longevity of this kind generational ministry with the same group of people brings blessings that are hard to even imagine I think. Typically, a pastor may stay two or three years in the church that might even be high, but to be somewhere for half a century.

The bonds of love that are built are just amazing.

I'm experiencing something that most men in the ministry would never experience would have to say first of all what the congregation shares with me that is the greatest amount of encouragement. Is there love and is this not a love because of my personality or because I necessarily have a lot of private time with people to build a bond of relationship in a large church like ours that love is shared around the word of God. They love the one who brings them the truth of God. And when you do that, you know, year after year, year after year, decade after decade, the, the bond of love is very strong. I do have opportunity to be in their lives and to care for them personally.

But there's a bond of love and and it shows up in encouragement, just constant encouragement to me notes, letters like I can barely absorb all of that that comes to me all the time. Prayer were praying for you. Would you please know how much we pray for you and thank the Lord for you inviting people to the church. They love they love their church and so they bring people to hear the word of God. They trust the teaching they trust the lives of the leaders.

So I think it's just all the myriad expressions of love that they pour out to me to Patricia to our family. That is the the benediction of all benedictions in terms of the years of ministry. That grace yet.

Thank you, John, and as a member of your congregation.

I know that the love we have for you is tied to our mutual love for biblical truth which you are committed to teaching and proclaiming and making clear to the people you lead and friend speaking a biblical truth. There is nothing more important than filling your mind every day with truth from God's word. A great help and that is the MacArthur daily Bible takes you. Verse by verse through the entire Scripture in one year to order your copy, contact us today. Call toll-free 855 grace or go to our website Jide TY.org each day. The MacArthur daily Bible gives you a portion of Scripture to read from the Old Testament and New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs. Plus it includes study notes from John to help you get more out of your time and God's word again to order the MacArthur daily Bible for yourself or for someone you know, call 855 grace or go to our website Jide TY.org and if you'd like to download all eight lessons from John's current study, the Bible driven church there free of charge@jidety.org effect all of John's sermons over 3500 of them are available for free, so to listen to any of John's messages go to Jide TY.org L4 John MacArthur and the entire grace to you staff on Phil Johnson.

Keep in mind you can watch grace to you television this Sunday on DirecTV channel 378 or check your local listings for channeling times and be here tomorrow when John shows you practical ways you can bless and strengthen those who lead your church. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on race