John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.”
This now brings us to the ministry gift of the pastor. A pastor is a shepherd of the sheep, and in the above quoted passage of scripture our Lord Jesus referred to Himself as the good Shepherd. And so we see that as with all of the ministry gifts, Jesus is the pre-eminent pastor in the church. As with the ministry gift of the evangelist, there are only two classes in this ministry gift and the first class of pastor in the church is the Lord Jesus Himself.
Acts 14:23 “So when they had appointed elders in every church, and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.”
This brings us to the second class of pastor, which is the class of pastor that exists in the church today. There are no foundational pastors in the church, for as already mentioned, that class of ministry pertained only to the ministries of the apostle and the prophet. We saw earlier in this teaching that the Lord Jesus listed the ministry gifts in order of their importance to the church, which would mean that the pastor is classified as the fourth most important ministry gift in the church. In other words this ministry gift is ranked above the teaching ministry in order of importance. So why is that? The reason is because as we will see in this section, the pastor fulfils two primary roles in the church, i.e. shepherding the local flock and feeding them through the teaching of God’s word. And so whereas the teaching ministry fulfils only one of these roles (feeding the church), the pastoral ministry fulfils both, and it is for that reason that the pastor’s ministry is more important to the church than the teacher’s ministry. The word translated elder can also be translated pastor, and in the above quoted passage of scripture we can see that the apostle Paul and his ministry team appointed elders in every church that they planted. In addition to this we also have record of Paul sending Titus to the churches in Crete to ensure that elders were appointed in each and every church on that island (Titus 1:5). And so we can see from these passages that unlike the ministry gifts of apostle, prophet and evangelist, which are appointed in very limited numbers in the church, every church has at least one pastor appointed to it. The Lord Jesus confirmed that truth to us when He appeared to the apostle John on the island of Patmos, and instructed John to address His letters to each pastor of the seven churches in Asia (Revelation 2 & 3). The word translated “angel” in that portion of scripture can also be translated “pastor”, which in the context of the passage is the correct translation, because the Lord does not instruct His ministers to write letters to His angels, only to His church.
1 Timothy 5:17 “Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially those who labour in the word and doctrine.”
As with all ministry gifts the primary function of the pastor is to preach or teach the word of God, and just like the ministry gifts of apostle and prophet, pastors can either be anointed to preach or to teach. Seldom is a pastor anointed to do both however. In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul teaches us that special honour should be given to those elders who labour in the word of God. The reason that Paul says that special honour should be given to pastors that labour in the word, is because of the two main functions that pastors perform, teaching the word is the most important. The last time our Lord Jesus had breakfast with His disciples, He instructed Peter twice to feed His sheep and once to tend His sheep, thus implying that feeding His sheep took precedence over shepherding His sheep (John 21:15-17).
Luke 12:42-44 “And the Lord said, "Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? (43) Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. (44) Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the Lord pronounces a special blessing on those ministry gifts that rule over His household, and feed His sheep with their portion of food in due season. Although this blessing is applicable to all the ministry gifts, it is especially applicable to the ministry gift of the pastor, for it is the pastor who primarily rules over the local sheep and gives them their portion of God’s word in due season.
Michael E.B. Maher
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