60 Seconds – Shepherds

A group of believers was looking for a pastor. As they inquired around, they were asked, “How big a man do you want?” They answered, “We do not care so much about his popularity or size, but we do want a pastor who is tall enough to reach Heaven when he is on his knees.”

In Hebrews 13:20, Christ is described as “that great Shepherd of the sheep.” This corresponds to 1 Peter 5:4 where Christ is called “the Chief Shepherd.” When the flocks of sheep were large and a large number of shepherds were necessary, one was placed in charge of all the others. Burder gives an interesting quotation from the Gentlemen’s Magazine for May, 1764, where a description of the sheep-walks of Spain are given: “Ten thousand compose a flock, which is divided into ten tribes. One man has the conduct of all. He must be the owner of four or five hundred sheep, strong, active, vigilant, intelligent in pasture, in the weather, and in the diseases of the sheep. He has absolute dominion over the fifty shepherds and fifty dogs, five of each to a tribe. He chooses them, chastises them or discharges them at will. He is the ‘proepositus’ or the chief shepherd of the whole flock.” Christian ministers are pastors or shepherds, but there is One who is over them all. Christ is the “Chief Shepherd.” He superintends them, watches over them, cares for them, and to Him they are accountable.

According to J. Oswald Sanders, in John 21:15 – 17, Christ gave a three-fold commission to His shepherds. 1. His love must be demonstrated in deeds and words: “Feed My lambs” – the young of the flock who stray so easily. 2 “Tend My sheep” – care for their spiritual state. 3. “Feed My sheep” – provide food for them, milk or meat as the case may be – and feed them spiritually.

A visitor to the church, where Robert Murray McCheyne pastored, asked one of the members to tell him something of McCheyne – how he studied and how he preached. The visitor was taken into his study, and told to “sit down, put your hands over your face, and let the tears fall – because that is the way my pastor studied.” They went into the sanctuary and up into the pulpit. “Lean over, way over, and stretch out your hands towards the congregation and now let the tears fall – that is the way our pastor preached.”

“God is on the lookout today for a man who will be quiet enough to get a message from Him, brave enough to preach it, and honest enough to live it” (Vance Havner).