Oviculture and the Church

Greetings from Woodruff Road Presbyterian Church. It is a delight to be with you and to worship with you tonight. My wife and I have done so on many occasions and just a different perspective from back here. We would be remiss not to give great thanks to your church. We especially are grateful for your staff and session. The Lord has blessed us with a wonderful time of growth in Greenville at our church, and the Lord is prospering the work there, but we are quickly learning that our outdated systems are not up to snuff, and there are children that get lost every week. And so, we have been calling and saying, “Hey, can you give us some ideas? Some of your wisdom, some of your counsel, some of your techniques, some of your forms that you use, whatever you have, we’ll take it. I’ve exploited Clay’s relationship here at the church, I think, as far as it can go, but you have blessed us, even though you don’t know us. We are benefiting very much from the ministry here. We’re thankful for the staff here, the session, and especially the pastors and the work that goes on. Carrie and I, my wife, we are personally very grateful that you have received Clay and Delaney into the congregation. You’ve been very good to them. You’ve been a family to them, and as far as we’re concerned, it’s one more happy marriage. We’ve had a lot of those, and we’re very thankful for that.

25 years ago, I’m trying to man up and compartmentalize. It’s just a little – it’s an emotional kind of time. So, 25 years ago, Carrie and I – we left the Air Force, came to Greenville, South Carolina to see if I had any gifts that were useful to ministering to God’s people, to see if those could be proved and improved, and Clay was along for the ride. He and his sister Avery came with us to Greenville, and that meant going to convocations and commencements and work days at the seminary, different service projects that they were involved in, and then as we came on staff at our local church at Woodruff Road, it meant the same thing again, that he was in the doors of the church day by day with his father. He was part of the ministry that went on there, not only the worship on the Lord’s day. I think we spend about five hours a day – kind of just sort of normal on Sundays – because all of our crazy people come back on Sunday evenings. They love to be there and be together. And that meant pastors who stay longer, and that meant kids who stay longer with their pastor parents. And Clay was there for that. He was part of retreats and mission trips and conferences, and he traveled around the world doing those things, and by God’s grace, he had not grown weary of it. Neither he nor his sister Avery nor his sister Grace had gotten tired of being in the church. I think there’s an obvious reason for that. It’s because they’ve embraced Christ, and they’ve embraced his people. They have loved the Lord, and they love the Lord’s church. And so, I’m delighted to say that, as Clay is here tonight on this special occasion for this wonderful event, that he did not follow his father into ministry. He followed his captain, his pilot, his shepherd. He followed the Lord Jesus Christ. And tonight, we’re going to celebrate him.

We’re going to do so by looking at the prophet Ezekiel chapter 34. We’ll come to that, and I’ll read from that in just a moment. It’s a longer chapter, so brace yourself, but you’re strong people. I’m sure you can handle it. But I know that you’re wanting to know what is this title about? And some of you pulled out your phones, and you already looked it up, and, you know, ChatGPT told you what it was, but some of you are wanting to know. So, I’m gonna make you be suspended a little bit longer, but I think you will recognize, perhaps, what’s going on when you hear the reading of God’s word from Ezekiel 34. So, listen now as I read. I’m going to read the entire chapter.

“The word of the Lord came to me: ‘Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, “Thus says the Lord God: ‘Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves. Should not the shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat. You clothe yourselves with the wool. You slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened. The sick you have not healed. The injured you have not bound up. The strayed you have not brought back. The lost you have not sought. And with force and harshness you have ruled them. So, they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered. They wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth with none to search or seek for them.

‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: as I live, declares the Lord God, surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd; because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves and not fed my sheep, therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God: behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them. For thus says the Lord God, behold, I myself will search out for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock, when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep. And I will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered on days of clouds and thick darkness. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God.

‘I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the stray, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice. As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord God: behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats. Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture, and to drink of clear water, that you must muddy the rest of the water with your feet? And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have muddied with your feet? Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them: behold, I, I myself, will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep, because you push with side and shoulder and thrust at all the weak with your horns till you have scattered them abroad. I will rescue my flock. They shall no longer be a prey. And I will judge between sheep and sheep. And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David. And he shall feed them. He shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them.

‘I am the Lord. I have spoken. I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild beasts from the land so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing. And I will send down the showers in their season, and they shall be showers of blessing. And the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and they shall be secure in their land, and they shall know that I am the Lord when I break the bars of their yoke and deliver them from the hand of those who enslave them. They shall no more be a prey to the nations, nor shall the beasts of the land devour them. They shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid. And I will provide for them renowned plantation, so that they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land, and no longer suffer the reproach of the nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord their God with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Lord God. And you are my sheep, human sheep, of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Lord God.’”

Let’s pray together.

Our Father, we thank you for your Word, and we confess that we are needy people, and we desire that your Spirit would enlighten us to the meaning and the things that we behold in your law. Help us to understand and own and apply these things for your glory and our good. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.

So, who’s Ezekiel? He’s a prophet, and he’s a priest, ministering to God’s people at that most awful of times as God’s people are going into captivity. He is proclaiming God’s Word to them, a word that the Holy Spirit desires for them to hear, that they need to receive because of the position, the plight, that they’re in, that they have earned for themselves. And so, he’s called to that. He’s calling a people to recognize their sinfulness, but at the same time, he is holding out for them this joyous hope. This evening, as we cover this particular passage, I need to do a couple of things for you. I need to first off explain what where did that crazy title come from that’s in your bulletin and then to make sense of the culture that that is feeding into it.

First off, what is oviculture? What are we talking about here? Well, there’s a particular work that goes on in shepherding, and oviculture is sort of a technical name for it. It describes holistically all that goes on if you are a farmer and rancher involved in sheep herding. It’s a whole business. It involves a number of different things. The word oviculture comes from ovine plus culture. Growing sheep is what that means. Within oviculture, there’s an even better term. I couldn’t put it in the bulletin. I knew that would never fly, but the still better term is transhumance nomadism. Not transhumanism. That’s sort of a crazy way tech geeks are trying to escape mortality. This is transhumance (across human soil – got it) nomadism (what nomads do). And it describes that particular practice that some shepherds go through in some parts of the world, that they did in the ancient world, they still do today, where they move their sheep across the land as the season dictates. When they move them across the land, they move them up to the mountains, and they do so with an intention and a desire to bring them to better food. They’re seeking the sheep’s best interest. And they do so by pursuing that, causing them, leading them to do things they may not want to do.

I grew up in West Texas. That’ll explain some of the lack of intelligence. We didn’t have the best education out there. They did what they could. I also grew up raising sheep. We were mostly cattle people, so don’t look down on us too much, but we did have times where we had sheep. We would have a small flock. We had this one particular flock of fine wool sheep. And that may be significant in a moment. There were episodes with those sheep – things, stories I could tell that would go on for a long time, and I would use all of my time on that. So, I’m going to try not to do that. But we raised sheep, and we kept them in a pasture, and that was not transhumance nomadism. That was just put them in a field, shoot all the coyotes so there’s nothing to eat them, and hopefully they’ll be okay. And kind of they were, and kind of they weren’t. Transhumance nomadists, instead – they’re the ones who embed themselves in the lives of the sheep. They recognize the needs of the sheep, and they give themselves fully to it. And you can see it throughout the Bible, even from the very beginning. If you go back to the opening chapters of the Bible, the firstborn of Adam – Abel – was a sheep herder. He gave an offering of the flock to the Lord that was well-received. After that, we have Abraham and Isaac and Jacob were all sheep herders. Following them, you also have Moses and David, sheep herders. Job was certainly – he raised sheep, but a host of other animals. It was the lifestyle that made the most sense and was the easiest source to draw from. When we think about trying to describe hard work and leadership and taking care of those in need, it’s a perfect description for it.

What’s the work of the shepherd? What does he do? Two jobs: provide and protect. Providing was probably the most pressing concern for the shepherds, especially in the near eastern climate – the lack of rain that’s there. It’s harder to find that good feeding. It’s not like these green meadows that you find in England where they make for great pictures. Think more like the Rocky Mountains. Think about desert landscapes. Think about tough terrain. That’s where they lived. Water came from a number of different sources. It might come from springs or from wells or from cisterns. And cisterns, if you don’t know what that is, it’s a catch for water that’s not a well. It doesn’t have fresh water flowing into it. Sometimes they break, and they would be dry. Sometimes the wells go dry. There were also wadis, which were rivers that aren’t rivers, because sometimes they’re just dirt. They’re seasonal. Sometimes the water comes, and if you think about just trying to keep a sheep hydrated, there was a ton that you had to know about how the seasons affected the circumstances in which the sheep would live. They had to follow those cycles of the weather to make sure – could they find water? Could the animals get there? Would it be pushing them too far and too hard to get to this other source?

The same thing was true with their management of food sources. The transhumance nomadists, they especially paid attention to where the grass was growing. You had lower pasture lands in which you might feed the sheep for most of the year, but in the springtime or even the fall, they would take their animals, and they would go up to higher elevations, cooler elevations, where they might feed them more successfully. It was painful work. It was arduous. It was demanding. It required an intense amount of information they were processing. And all of that, with taking care of their immediate needs to pursue their vitality, they also had to defend their lives. You could face death, as a sheep, from heat and from exhaustion if they were pressed too hard, so the shepherds had to guard themselves against hurting their sheep. There’s also the threats against them. There were lions and bears and wolves who would make easy work of sheep. They are docile animals. They have minimal defense mechanisms. And there were also human predators. Sheep would be preyed upon by those who didn’t want to do the work of raising the sheep, but instead they wanted the profit of the sheep. And they would take the sheep and devour the sheep, and sometimes the threat actually came from within the flock. You see that in the passage when Ezekiel testifies to it, that some of the sheep are injuring other sheep, because they’re bigger, and they’re stronger, and they can take advantage of them. The shepherd’s work demanded vigilance. It demanded constant attention. It demanded them studying and knowing the animals that they were guarding.

And especially, sometimes, it demanded of them violence. They had to do extreme things to protect their animals. What were their tools? How did they seek the wellbeing of the sheep? Well, obviously they shepherded them. They led them, typically from the front, though they did sometimes drive them from the rear. There’s an anecdote about only the shepherds – or only the butcher pushes them from behind. Your pastors probably used that before, but sometimes they drive from behind. What are the tools of their trade? They use the rod and the staff. You’ve heard this before. Shepherds would support themselves with their staffs. They would pick off branches of animals, which they do get caught in their wool. They might sometimes snag an animal that had fallen and draw him near and rescue him. Sometimes they would use their staffs to redirect misbehaving sheep, because sometimes sheep misbehave. And the rod was also a complimentary tool. It was sometimes used for counting the sheep, but it was certainly used for a weapon to defend them from those wild animals. And then there’s another way they protected them. You see this in John 10. Jesus speaks of it. There was the sheepfold, or literally the courtyard of the sheep – a place where they would come and find safety at night. They’d be surrounded and protected, and the shepherd was there to guard the way. And then, of course, there was the work of the transhumance nomadists, those who took their sheep to the mountains. This was how they would give them the richest and the best food. This would bring them to a place they might not go by themselves and they might not wander off to on their own, but they had to be driven there, taken there, led there, because there was something good waiting for them there.

Timothy Laniak has a wonderful work on the biblical theology of shepherding, and he writes this wonderful summary. I’m just going to read it for you. He says, “The wide-ranging activities involved in shepherding is determined by the daily and seasonal needs of the animals. Consequently, attentive and careful shepherds become endeared to the flocks. Responsible shepherds know every member of their flocks in terms of their birth circumstances, history of health, eating habits, and other idiosyncrasies. It is not uncommon to name each goat and sheep and to call them by name. One of the most striking characteristics of the shepherd-flock relationship is that control over the flock is exercised simply by the sound of the shepherd’s voice or whistle. Only a special bond between animal and human can explain this responsiveness.” It goes on, and he says, “All of these elements – the movement, the isolation, the variety, the adjustments, the demands – contributed to a knowledge base and skill set that distinguished shepherds as remarkably and broadly capable persons. They were known for independence, resourcefulness, adaptability, courage and vigilance. Their profession cultivated a capacity for attentiveness, self-sacrifice, and compassion. And Jacob was not exaggerating when he proclaimed, ‘The heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night, and sleep fled from my eyes.’ The occupation put shepherds in a constant state of negotiation with an unpredictable physical and social environment. For these and other reasons, the shepherd naturally became an icon of leadership.” The shepherds have intense jobs. They’re this wonderful model, and there’s a reason that kings adopted the model of shepherd for themselves in their work.

What about the sheep? That’s the other part of oviculture. There’s also the sheep. What do sheep do? Well, sheep have three jobs – sort of, not really, jobs. They kind of have one job, but they have three things that you need them to do. One is you want them to adorn themselves. This is kind of a cool thing is that one of the things we did in Texas, we had sort of like a fifth way to letter in sports, and that was to show sheep. You could also show pigs or steers. Sheep were easy. Whenever you did that, you would bring them in. You would find them as lambs. You try and pick them out of a flock and say, “This one looks like he’s going to be a meaty sucker. He’s going to be useful someday to somebody. Pick that one.” And then you would feed them, and you would exercise them, and you grow them. But there was also this little bonus along the way. As you were raising them, their wool would begin to grow out, and it would get thicker and thicker, and sometimes when there was enough wool – and if you kept them out of the cockleburs, which is this big nasty sticker in Texas that ruins wool – if you kept them out of that, then you could actually sell that. This is a major staple involved with oviculture, with raising sheep, is to sell their wool, because they adorn themselves with this beautiful thing that looks like money. Not like the puffy clouds in the children’s books, but it looks like money when you get enough of it. Second work of the sheep is multiplication. You want to take those sheep and have them make baby sheep who will make more baby sheep. You want to see multiplication. That’s a sign of health and vigorousness in your flock, and it’s also – the way that they become productive is by multiplying. And then thirdly is that you would want them to become a fit sacrifice. It’s only sort of in our modern culture that we think that it’s a good thing for livestock to live to a ripe old age and, you know, die in their sleep. Farmers and ranchers don’t think that way. They think in terms of “this one is meant to have a purpose in life.” The desire is to see it grow up and become what it’s supposed to be, that eventually you can eat it. In the ancient world, they might even go a step beyond that – they might become a sacrifice to your God.

How did they fulfill these? Well, they did all of these things by eating, by thriving, and they ate, and they thrived by being led. That’s how they would be kept safe. That’s how they would be able to find good and useful food. That’s how they would prosper and fulfill their purposes in life. So, what does all that have to do with Ezekiel 34? Let me briefly take you through this passage. I know you’re getting a little scared. But I’m going to briefly take you through this passage. Verses 1-10 there, you see the Lord’s condemnation. He’s condemning these shepherds. And who are these shepherds? The shepherds he’s condemning are not shepherds. The shepherds that he’s condemning are the kings of Israel. And not only kings, but the princes and the governors and the elders and the prophets and the priests, all of them, the Levites. They’re all being rolled together – those who had a care for the nation of Israel, those who were assigned to watch over Judah. They’re all brought together under the rubric of shepherds, and they’re roundly condemned. God looks at their work. He looks at what they had been doing, at that responsibility given to them, and they had failed miserably. Not only had they abandoned the shepherd’s responsibilities of looking after the sheep and caring for them and going off to feed themselves, but they were actually feeding themselves on the sheep. These were not their sheep. There was no tending. There was no guarding. There was no nourishing. There was no healing. There was no restoring. All of those things that gave them their purpose in life, that was a reason for the title that they had, they left off on doing those things, and they were paralyzed, because they didn’t love the sheep. And so, they never moved into action unless it was to feed themselves on the sheep. So, the Lord condemns them. He says to them, “I am against you. You are fired. You are no longer useful to me.”

That takes us to verses 11-16. There, the Lord himself takes up the work of the under-shepherds, those who were called to work for him. He says, “You’re no longer useful. You can’t do the job. You prove that you wouldn’t do the job. I will do it myself.” Myself is key. Seventeen times in this section here, he’s going to refer to himself and what he is going to do. I myself will search for my sheep. I will seek them out. I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them. I will bring them out. I will gather them from the countries. The list goes on and on. He says all of it, you failed at every part, and now it’s my job. He takes them, and he leads them to his holy mountain. He brings them back home to a place of good grazing and safety and rest, because he loves them and cares for them, and he wants to see them thrive. He wants them to be defended. He wants them to be gathered together as a flock and strengthened and healed. Kind of like to end it right there, but we don’t get to end it right there, because he doesn’t just have a word for the shepherds.

He has a word as well for the sheep. Look at verses 17-20. The Lord’s justice is not just against the shepherd, but it’s also against wicked sheep. They are not uncorrupted, pristine victims. They are not innocent, where they can point the finger all day long, because the problems are also within, among the sheep. Their muddy feet and their bloody horns testify to the fact that they have been just as evil, just as devouring, as those appointed over them. Maybe they didn’t have the same power as a king, but they had enough power to hurt and to destroy. And God says to them, “I see you. I see what you’ve been doing. I see the trouble that you’ve made for your brothers and sisters. I see that, and I care. You’re not innocent. And I’m against you.”

That brings us to verses 22-31. The restoration. God says, “I will rescue my flock. They shall no longer be a prey. I will judge between sheep and sheep, and I will set over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them. He shall feed them and be their shepherd.” And some of you hear that, and you’re saying that sounds wonderful, but there’s a math problem here. This is 400 years after David has since come and gone. And David, he kind of had his own sheep-shepherd issue, right? Nathan used that very metaphor to point out his failing, his wickedness, and his sin against Uriah. So, who’s this David that’s going to be appointed over the flock, that’s going to feed them and be their shepherd? It’s the true Son. It’s the one who gives perfect peace and rest. The one who protects from every enemy. The one who loves the sheep. It’s the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 30, we read this. It says, “And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, that I am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Lord God. You are my sheep, human sheep of my pasture. I am your God, declares the Lord God.” Just to make clear, Ezekiel says, I’m not talking about literal shepherds and literal sheep. I’m talking about you. And he’s not just talking about ancient Israel. He’s talking about you, Christ Covenant Church. He’s talking about who you are and how you are in these roles. Oviculture is this body. This is this community. This is you together in this particular context and the rest of the context that follows you as you go outside of Sunday and throughout the week and as you come back again, week by week. You’re in oviculture. Church is an oviculture. It’s shepherds, and it’s sheep, and they have roles and responsibilities. It’s an ecosystem. It’s an economy. It has roles and work assigned to people, jobs to do, and there’s progress. It’s all to be made ongoing constantly, just like the work of shepherding. What’s central to understanding this passage and applying it well is to understand the fact that God is the shepherd. He is the chief shepherd over his people, and he embraces that title, and he embraces that title because he loves the work. God the Father, he’s the shepherd. Jacob – we pointed out that Jacob said of him, “God has been my shepherd all my life long, to this day.” Psalm 8, he says, “Give ear, oh shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock.” His shepherding work is evident in Ezekiel 34. He says, “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep.” He loves that title, because he loves to do the work that goes along with it. And so, he embraces it. He’s not ashamed of it.

If we look at the Holy Spirit, we find out that the Holy Spirit is a shepherd as well. Isaiah 63:11, “Then he remembered the days of old, of Moses and his people. Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put in the midst of them his Holy Spirit? Like livestock that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest.” So, you led your people to make for yourself a glorious name. If you ever wonder how Jesus got into the wilderness to be tempted, it’s because he was led there. He was shepherded there by the Holy Spirit. Mark says that he was driven there by the Spirit, the work of a shepherd. And Jesus tells us when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. Again, it’s a shepherding work. The Holy Spirit is our shepherd. And of course, you heard earlier when we read from John 10, Joel read it very clearly. It’s a beautiful echo of Ezekiel 34, when Jesus testifies of himself, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me. I lay down my life for the sheep. My sheep will listen to my voice. There will be one flock and one shepherd.” This is what our Lord Jesus does. He calls disciples to himself. He gathers them to himself in the wilderness. You see him continually bringing people outside the city for study and for worship, to meet with them. He led them, and he fed them, literally and also on the preached Word. He comforted them. He protected them. He healed them. He did all the things that a shepherd is supposed to do. Study the gospels. It’s what he does. He lays down his life for the sheep. He is the good shepherd. Yes, the Lord loves the title because he loves the work, and he loves the work because he loves the sheep.

And that speaks to you today who are under-shepherds. Nathan and Derek and Clay, you have been set apart, called to a particular ministry, a particular work. There are others here who are also called to serve – the other pastors on staff, the elders of this body, perhaps other pastors from other churches that might be here. And all need to listen and take encouragement from what Ezekiel is saying. There is a warning and a clarification. The Lord is and always will be the shepherd. They’re always going to be his flock. You are under-shepherds. You serve beneath, but they are not your sheep. They are his sheep, that you work for the boss. That’s a warning to you not to forget who you are and why you’re here. I remember being stunned when I was at my examination to become a candidate for gospel ministry – I think maybe, as well, at my licensure time – and there was another candidate who was next to me, and we can be charitable and understand charitably what he meant, but he said something that just shook me. They asked about the call to ministry, and one of the questions that they want to get, are you called to preach the gospel? Do you have this this burden to bring Jesus to people who need Jesus? And when he was being asked a question about his call to ministry, he said this answer. He said, “I never feel more alive than when I’m preaching.” And I think I know what he meant, but he put himself at the center of gospel ministry. There was nothing about loving the kingdom and its appearing. There was nothing that was flock-centered about his answer. Again, I think he went on to do better things. I don’t think that was the whole sum of his ministry right there. But the work is not about your experience of the work. The work is about the sheep. It’s about the calling. It’s about the needs of those who can receive from you. And that should also encourage you in the sense of giving you hope, because if you know yourself and if you know your sin, if you know your limitations and your finitude as a pastor, how often you don’t do all the things you want to do – I’ve yet to have a sermon I’ve been happy with. It’s probably never going to happen at this point. But if you know that they’re really in the Lord’s hand, that he is the chief shepherd, that he’s over them, and that he is for them, and that he has them in his eye and in his providence, then it’s a comfort to you. And it allows you to do something. It allows you to know that your work can matter and can be useful. The Holy Spirit is pleased to make use of men for these jobs. And part of the encouragement of this warning, this rebuke, to Ezekiel is that these men were appointed to these jobs. He was pleased to say, “Yes, I want you to do this work,” to set a man apart, to make him a king or a prince or a governor or a priest and to make men today pastors of churches.

Paul agrees. Acts 20, he says to the Ephesian elders – he says, “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.” Get that reminder. This is Jesus’ flock, but I’m using you. I’m pleased to use you. I’m calling you to do this and to this responsibility. Peter, of course, does the same. 1 Peter 5, he says, “Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, overseeing, 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. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.” The Spirit of God makes men shepherds of the flock. It’s God’s flock, and they’ve been purchased by the blood of Christ, and you have a calling. It makes you a public person. You now have two families – your own family and the family of God’s people. And you have to give yourself to both. Good shepherding means that you learn your people. You know your sheep. You’re not going to know everybody in this congregation, but you have the ones that are assigned to you. You better know them well. And you’re called to lead them. And where are you taking them? You’re taking them to Christ. And you’re called to provide for them. You provide for them God’s Word. Allow them to eat and feast upon his Word. You’re called to protect, because there are wolves always abounding everywhere. You’re a fool not to believe that they exist. You’re a failure not to warn your congregation of them. You’re a coward if you don’t face them and drive them away. Your job is to save, to rescue. The one who wanders, you’re called to bring him back, to save a sinner from his wanderings, to save a soul from death, James says. And finally, you’re called to surrender them. What the shepherds are openly called to do, you give up the sheep because they have a purpose, and you give up this congregation, the members of it. You know people, and you look for something more than just living for this world. You remind them that you have a higher purpose to fulfill.

I say to the rest of the flock, this applies to you. It’s easy to take this metaphor and to celebrate the pastor. Men love this. It’s hard work. There’s rescuing going on. The Bible makes it noble, and so it’s kind of easy for us to celebrate it. And the rest of you that are in the sheep category going, “Well, that’s not that great. You know, kind of would like to be one of the shepherds.” What’s your work? Well, go back to Ezekiel. Does Ezekiel leave the sheep alone? Nope. He looks at them. He sees what they’re doing, and he condemns them. He says, “You have something higher to which you are being called. What do you need to do as a sheep? What do you need to do to thrive?” Well, first off, you need to have an appetite. You need to have an appetite for God’s Word. Sheep need to be hungry. It’s a sign of health when they’re hungry and they’re eating, and that’s what you should be doing. What are you supposed to feed on? God’s Word. The psalmist says, “I open my mouth and pant, because I long for your commandments.” Peter says, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation.” You need to have an appetite for God’s Word. You need to have an appetite for your children to have an appetite for God’s Word. You need to put them in the hands of shepherds who are going to feed them. Send them to Clay, and say, “Clay, teach my child Christ. Teach my child Christ and his benefits.”

As a sheep, you’re called to adorn yourself. Paul, writing to Titus, speaking on the subject of bondservants, he says they’re to be submissive to their own masters in everything. They’re to be well pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing or demonstrating all good faith so that in everything they may adorn or beautify the doctrines of God, our savior. Your wool is to adorn the doctrine of God – bear fruit in keeping with repentance, as John would say. You’re in the vine if you’re in Christ, and you should bear fruit. It should be evident. And think what Jesus says in Matthew 25 when he’s saying who is going to be with him in glory and who’s not. How does he divide them? They’re sheep and goats. How do you tell a sheep apart from a goat? I know one way: sheep have wool. They bear that particular fruit. And look at yourself, and ask yourself, am I bearing fruit? Do I act like one who’s being well fed? Or do I act like one who just sort of passes through the congregation on a Sunday morning or a Sunday evening and never take anything in? It never produces anything in me that shows up the rest of the week.

Third thing you’re to do is to multiply. I think Kevin would use the word fecundity. Fecundity is not just for Mormons and Muslims and Catholics. It’s for Protestants too. We like having babies, and you should have lots of them. Fulfill the dominion mandate, the creation mandate, that God gave to us. Have lots of children. But not only have children, make disciples. Bring people to church. That’s how you make disciples. You bring them to where the Word is preached. Then you grow together alongside people. Give yourself to planting churches and to foreign missions and to evangelism. Do all of these things so that the flock grows. You want this room packed out and then have to start another church again and again and again.

And then again, what Ezekiel says in 17-24, remain a united flock. Ezekiel warned against being unruly and embattled sheep, against messing up the waters, against stabbing other people with their horns. Paul says the same things. Ephesians 4, he says that Christ gave us apostles and prophets and evangelists and shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood. Later on in the same chapter, he says, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom we were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.” My friends, to these things, you are called.

And finally, you’re called to be a fit sacrifice. Always struggled with this when I was thinking about the shepherd theme and motif in Scripture and thinking about, you know, how I grew up and knowing what happened to sheep in the end. We’d raise a sheep, and we’d show the sheep, and we’d get a ribbon for it, and then we would take it to the auction, and we would sell the sheep, and very soon there’d be a butcher, and there would be a barbecue, and it was the outcome. And then I would look at the people in my congregation and think that’s part of the story. That’s part of the analogy. But how does that work for you? What’s the expectation for believers? Paul tells us, Romans 12:1. You know this. Now it makes sense. “I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Your reasonable service of worship is to die for Christ, to become fuel on the fire of the altar that goes up to God and becomes a sweet smelling aroma, to bear fruit that’s appropriate in this life, that means dying to yourself so that you can live for Christ, taking up your cross and following him. The goal is for you to die and for your children to die to yourselves and to live for God. It’s not too much to ask.

Why is it not too much to ask? John 1:29. The next day, John sees Jesus coming toward him, and he says, “Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” There’s dignity in being a sheep. There will never be more dignity in any animal that walks this earth than a sheep. And God calls you to be one. And so, when we come to the book of Revelation, we find that he is eternally and gloriously celebrated both as the shepherd king who leads his people to living waters and also as the lamb who was slain. My friends, follow the one shepherd. Follow him as shepherds. The good shepherd laid down his life for the sheep. You lay down your life for the sheep. And follow him as sheep. The lamb that was slain, you follow him who was slain before you. Let your life be given over to him. It’s not that important, and he is. Whoever you are, however you are, give up your life, and follow him. Let’s pray together. Our Father, we do thank you that you would love us as you have loved us and that you would be our shepherd above, who leads us and who feeds us and who makes us fruitful. And we do desire, Lord, that we would become fit sacrifices for you. We pray that we would do this not only for you but also for one another. Help us to be who we’re called as the flock of God and the shepherds of that flock, to do it by the power of your Spirit and for your glory. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.