Half the trouble in finding something or someone is knowing what or who you are supposed to be looking for—right?!
Which is why when I receive phone calls from people wanting to meet with me for counseling or some other issue that I have never met—I will ask them to describe themselves and what they will be wearing and even driving that day.
It's a whole lot easier recognizing them when I know what and who I am looking for.
And this is just as true when it comes to recognizing the men God has called to shepherd His people.
And since this is something we as God's people should know—and especially something we need to know given the fact that God is calling our family into missions--
Let's turn to Numbers 27:15-18 and take a look at part 2 of what God's people should be looking for when it comes to recognizing the spiritual leaders God is providing for them.
Now, last week I shared with you that as I have been studying the examples presented in the Bible of how leadership is transferred from one leader to another, I have observed at least six stages that appear to be involved in this transition.
First, there was the: Realized Need Stage—where the present leader realized the need for a new leader—a replacement, if you will.
Second, there was the Divine Choice Stage—where God makes it clear at least to the present leader that He has already chosen a replacement for the present leader.
Third, there was the Leadership Recognition Stage—where God provides the criteria for recognizing whom He has selected for leadership over His people.
Fourth, there was the Leadership Commission Stage—where the present leader and God's people recognize who the new leader is to be and then commission him to that leadership position.
Fifth, there was the Passing of the Torch Stage—where the present leader before leaving the scene spends time mentoring and helping the newly recognized and commissioned leader assume his role of leadership so as to pass off the torch of leadership smoothly.
Finally, there was the Divine Credibility Stage—where God provides the necessary divine credibility for the new leader in the eyes of His people so that they desire to follow His leadership.
Last Sunday we spent our time in Numbers 27:15-17 in the Realized Need Stage in which Moses realizes that there is a need for a new leader and begins to talk to God about supplying a new leader for the people of Israel.
This Sunday we will spend our time in verses 17-18 and will continue to move through this first stage of realizing the need for a new leader and how to recognize him when God selects him.
Now we need to do a little bit of a review and then we'll look at Moses' last stated qualification that he wanted to see in his replacement as well as who God chose as the new leader and why.
Moses' two requirements for his replacement were that he be a man who had the self-discipline and spiritual integrity to lead himself and then a man who could effectively lead others.
In reading between the lines, what Moses wanted in a leader was a man of character, personal integrity, and self-discipline who could say “No” to himself and his fleshly desires and ambitions.
He also wanted a man who was willing to engage the people and be with them—among them.
And he wanted a man who had the courage and the spiritual guts and wherewithal to lead God's people into God's battles for God's glory.
He needed to be—in Moses' estimation--”a man's man” but more than that I think—he needed to be a “godly man's man”.
Now, let's move to the third quality Moses was looking for in his replacement.
Look at verse 17 again.
Moses' concern was that the people would be as sheep without a shepherd.
Thus, he wanted the new leader to have certain qualities that would enable him to shepherd the people as a shepherd tends his sheep.
And the interesting thing about this characteristic is that Moses knew a bit about shepherding sheep.
If you remember, he shepherded his father-in-law's sheep for 40 years in the land of Midian, while hiding out from Pharaoh for killing the Egyptian.
He knew that sheep unlike goats did not do a real good job of living on their own without a shepherd.
They needed the shepherd to lead them to good pastures so they could eat good and healthy food.
Then they needed to be led to fresh water as well as safe places to sleep.
And while they were eating, drinking, resting, and traveling—they needed to be protected from predators and they needed to be protected from each other too.
You see, sometimes the flock would have to be protected from unruly sheep that liked to bully and take advantage of the flock.
So, Moses knew that sheep needed a shepherd to lead them, feed them, protect them, and provide a safe and healthy environment in which to grow, mature, and reproduce other sheep.
And in his mind, this is what God's people needed as well—a leader who would lead them, feed them, protect them, and ensure they had a safe and healthy environment in which to grow and develop to maturity.
And this is what God also sees His people, the church, as needing since the primary Greek word for “pastor” as used in the New Testament means “shepherd”.
In other words, to pastor a church is to shepherd the people in the church.
It is to lead them, feed them, protect them, and work to ensure they have a safe and healthy church environment in which to grow, mature, and reproduce spiritually.
Now, I want to take the remainder of our time to check out what two of God's premier New Testament leaders, the apostles Paul and Peter, had to say about what it takes to shepherd God's people.
The apostle Paul made it clear that the reason God provides his church with elders or “overseers” is for the purpose of shepherding His church.
Thus, the primary purpose of an elder or a pastor or an overseer—all of which are titles referring to the same position of the spiritual leader of God's people—is to shepherd God's people.
You see this in Acts 20:28 in which Paul is exhorting the elders at Ephesus to shepherd God's people.
And in the context surrounding this verse Paul provides us with the example of shepherding that he set for these Ephesian pastors while he was in their midst shepherding them for three years.
Let's start in verse 17.
1.Shepherding God's people requires a man who recognizes his accountability to the Lord in shepherding them. (17-19)
2.Shepherding God's people requires a man who will preach and teach the whole counsel of God to God's people—irregardless of what it may cost to do so. (20-27)
3.Shepherding God's people requires a man who will work to protect them by recognizing spiritual dangers and continually warning against them. (28-31)
4.Shepherding God's people requires a man who will entrust them ultimately to God and to God's Word—realizing that if they are truly God's people they will grow irregardless of how unlikely it may look. (32)
5.Shepherding God's people requires a man who will place the spiritual needs of God's people above his own physical and material needs so as to be in a position to minister to them what is necessary fro their spiritual good. (33-35)
The Apostle Peter also had a few things to say about this work of “shepherding” God's people.
Turn with me to 1 Peter 5:1-3.
In verse 2, Peter commands elders, the spiritual leaders of God's people—pastors, if you will, to “shepherd the flock of God among you”.
The Greek word he uses has to do with the actual act of shepherding or tending the flock of God.
And built into the meaning of this word are the ideas of providing God's people with good solid nourishing spiritual food, protection from spiritual dangers, and proactive spiritual leadership.
And essentially, this is what the pastor does on a daily basis.
He studies the Word of God so as to share the Word of God with God's people.
He prays for and counsels God's people so as to protect them from spiritual danger.
And he provides the church with proactive wise and scriptural leadership.
This is what God expects him to do and what God has also given him the authority to do!
But Peter goes deeper than just what is implied in the word and adds how the shepherd of God's people must exercise this spiritual leadership and authority.
He says that the shepherd must exercise this oversight—not under compulsion but voluntarily—in other words, it needs to be something he wants to do because he knows it is God's will for him.
He is not to shepherd God's people for the money.
Rather, he is to do it because this is his heart's desire and he is eager to do it.
Peter also makes the point in verse 3 that the shepherd is not to “lord it over those allotted to his charge” but rather is to lead by example!
And here is where Peter hits the nail of pastoral leadership and authority right on the head—the effectiveness of any spiritual leader is tied directly to how well he lives and models his own faith, devotion, obedience, and sacrifice before his people.
Whereas actions speak louder than words—words accompanied by appropriate actions speak louder than actions alone!
And the essential point of what Peter is saying here is that God's shepherds tend and lead their flocks best by providing a godly and biblical example to follow.
Thus, the man who is to lead God's people as a shepherd is to be working hard at becoming the very person he is teaching God's people they need to become.
He should provide them with the example they need of a person who loves God with all his heart, mind, and soul.
He should be their example of a person who is following Jesus as one who is completely sold-out and making hard and intentional decisions that demonstrate that Jesus really is his greatest treasure and pleasure in life.
He should be the prime example of one who obeys the Word of God in all that it speaks to.
He should be the go-to example of the person who is in the Word, praying without ceasing, and involved in sacrificial, relevant, and God-glorifying ministry.
He should be an example of a hard worker, an honest worker, and a humble servant.
He must never usurp his God-given authority by lording it over God's people as a dictator and a tyrant but rather must lead them firmly but gently by his godly example as a man who is also under authority.
All of this is what a “shepherd” does for the people of God he has been assigned to tend.
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Now, all these things are what Moses had in mind when he petitions God for a new leader who will tend the people of God so that they are not like sheep without a shepherd.
Moses is looking for a man who will shepherd his own heart first and then the hearts of those God gives him to lead second.
CONCLUSION
You know, the leadership characteristics which Moses highlights as really being basic to the task of leading and shepherding God's people cannot really be taught although they must be caught.
What I mean by that is that you don't send a man to school alone to learn how to be a shepherd of God's people.
Oh, he can go to school and learn what a shepherd is supposed to do but that does not make him a shepherd.
Its like saying that schooling alone can make a person a rancher or a dairy farmer.
You certainly can go to school to learn about being a rancher or a dairy farmer but eventually you have to start taking care of cows if you're going to be a rancher or a dairy farmer.
As we will see next week, the man who wants to shepherd God's people has to learn this and then demonstrate it, “on-the-job” just like Joshua did.
And it all starts with shepherding himself and then his wife and then his kids and then those believers and even unbelievers at work and then by working himself up the ladder of shepherding God's people in the church—beginning with kids preferably.
The kind of man a church should be looking for to shepherd them is the man who has demonstrated that he has a “shepherd's heart” in all he does and with all whom his is with.
And these kinds of men aren't too hard to recognize.
They will be men who have an intense desire to shepherd God's people and who are willing to put in the effort and the hours necessary to shepherding God's people.
In other words—they are already doing it.
And when you begin to think about the pastor whose primary responsibility is the teaching ministry of God's people—the Scriptures are clear.
You are looking for a man who is “able to teach” according to 1 Timothy 3:2.
You are also looking for a man who will teach you whatever is spiritually profitable to you according to Acts 20:20.
You want a man who will teach you “the whole counsel of God” according to Acts 20:28.
And you'll want a man who is modeling what he is teaching you according to 1 Peter 5.
He'll be the men who leads from the front and by example rather than from the rear and by directives.
He'll be the man who is with his people wherever they are gathered so as to watch over the flock God has entrusted him with—so as to encourage, exhort, listen, and be with his people.
He'll be the men who has learned and demonstrated spiritual leadership “on-the-job”.
And next week—we'll see what God highlights as the most important qualifier for the man who would lead and shepherd God's people.
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