Christ acts by them in such a manner that he wishes their mouth to be reckoned as his mouth, and their lips as his lips; that is, when they speak from his mouth, and faithfully declare his word.[2]
The congregational shepherd stands face-to-face before the people of God as a living voice speaking the word of life (Philippians 2:16). Every follower of Christ longs for the day when Christ consummates His kingdom, and “they will see his face” (Rev 22:4). Until that day, the believer hears Christ through the voice of the shepherd that Christ has appointed to preach His Word in His church. The transaction between a particular group of spiritually-minded sheep listening and the living voice of a particular shepherd speaking, mediating to them the voice of the Good Shepherd through the Scriptures, is an intimate and personal reality that cannot be replicated by just any voice and any people.
Thus, many times a church member will tell their beloved pastor whose voice they know well, a voice that has taught them faithfully, having helped them again-and-again to hear Christ, “You are my favorite preacher in the whole world. I’d rather hear you preach than anybody else.” It is often not empty flattery, but reality. They are not suggesting their pastor is the most well-trained and gifted preacher in the entire world. Rather, they are expressing that they are his sheep who know and love his voice, and they recognize him as a unique gift from the Spirit of Christ to help them hear Christ in the Word of Christ.
Fulfill Your Calling
Pastor, here is the danger: You have been uniquely entrusted with a high and holy calling in a local church, and instead of spending and being spent, throwing yourself into the task with all of your might, you are wasting time being jealous of someone else’s charge and gifts. Faithful shepherding means trusting God with your task rather than trying to be God. It is doubtful that before Christ on the last day you will be wishing you would have had someone else’s sheep for which to give an account as the one charged with watching over their souls (Hebrews 13:17).
Saturate yourself in the “living and active” word of God (Hebrews 4:12), and use your living voice in the power of the Spirit to preach Christ to the flock with which you have been entrusted for the glory of God as long as you have breath. The end goal should be the same no matter your church’s size, location or history: “Preach the gospel. Die. Be forgotten.”[3]
[1]John Broadus, A Treatise on the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons, 2–3.
[2]John Calvin,Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah,vol. 1, 381.
[3]Nikolaus Ludwig Von Zinzendorf.
This article originally appeared here.
