The role of shepherds and sheep is a recurring one in Scripture. Many of God’s people were shepherds (Moses, Jacob, David), and the relationship between the two is often used metaphorically to describe God and His people (see Ps 100:3, Ps 23, John 10.) The prophets use this metaphor to describe the relationship between Israel and its leaders (see Ezekiel 34) and in the New Testament, we see the word ‘shepherd’ (or ‘pastor’) being used to describe a leader in the church (Eph 4:11, Acts 20:28).

So familiar are we with this metaphor that we often fail to pause and reflect on it. Many of us have little idea what being a shepherd is really like these days and have a very idealised view of it based on cartoons and cuddly toys sold in North Yorkshire. John Stott reminds us that ‘sheep are not at all the clean and cuddly creatures they may appear. In fact, they are dirty, subject to unpleasant pests, and regularly need to be dipped in strong chemicals to rid them of lice, ticks and worms. They are also unintelligent, wayward and obstinate.’ (John Stott, ‘Acts’, P 329) Paul reminded the Ephesians elders also of the dangers facing sheep (namely, wolves), which provided an added hazard to the shepherd’s tasks.

People are rather like sheep (including having a tendency to go their own way, as Is 53:6 reminds us), and we have an enemy who seeks to lead us astray by all manner of means, including (as Jesus reminded us in Matt 7:15) dressing as sheep. Paul warns the Ephesian elders about this, saying, ‘Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.’ (Acts 20:28) It is interesting to note that the call to leaders to both feed the flock and protect them from error comes in the context of a reminder that the church belongs to God. He has bought it by the blood of Christ and the Holy Spirit is the one who is overseeing its daily life. This puts things into perspective, keeps leaders humble (it’s God’s church, not ours!) and inspires us to faithfulness, for however wayward and obstinate the sheep may seem at times, they are ‘the flock of God the Father, purchased by the precious blood of God the Son, and supervised by overseers appointed by God the Holy Spirit.’ (ibid.) Paul’s reminder to the elders rings out to all church leaders today. We have a ‘double duty: to feed the sheep (by teaching the truth) and to protect them from wolves (by warning of error.)’ (ibid., P 328)

Here are some Scriptures to start you off as you delve into these important Biblical truths.

The grace of God

This is one of the key themes in Paul’s writings and in the whole Bible. Grace is defined as the ‘unmerited favour of God.’ Quite simply, God is good to us and we don’t deserve it! Read these passages:

• Ephesians 2:8-9

• Romans 3:23-24

• Romans 5:1-5

The kingdom of God

A key theme of Jesus’s teaching (see Matt 6:33, Mark 4:26-34), the kingdom of God shows us what it looks like when God is reigning and ruling. Read these verses:

• 1 Thess 2:12

• 2 Thess 1:5

• 1 Cor 15:50

The purpose or will of God

What’s the point of life? Paul tells the Ephesians ^‘in him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.’ (Eph 1:11) The most important thing we can ever discover is God’s will for our lives. Read these verses:

• 1 Thess 5:16-18

• Romans 12:1-2

• Ephesians 2:10

Repentance & Faith

Repentance means turning away from our old, independent way of living and faith means turning in trust towards God. These key words are at the heart of what it means to be a Christian. Read these verses:

• Romans 2:4

• 2 Cor 7:9-10

• Romans 1:17-20

• Ephesians 2:8-9

The Church of God

God’s church is made up of people who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. We find so many metaphors for the church in the New Testament (bride, body, household, flock, building and family, to name but a few.) Read these verses:

• Ephesians 4:13-16

• 1 Corinthians 12:12-31

• 1 Corinthians 14:12

The Inevitability of Suffering

None of us likes the idea of suffering, but we have to be realistic about its presence in a fallen world, and also the fact that God uses this redemptively for our good. Jesus taught much about this (see Matthew 5:10-12, John 16:33) and Paul not only lived through many trials and sorrows but taught us to expect the same. Read these verses:

• 2 Tim 3:12

• Romans 5:3-5

See also James 1:3-5 and 1 Peter 3:8-22.

The Danger of False Teaching

Does it really matter what I believe? Yes! Don’t all paths lead to God? No! Paul makes it very clear that we must be on our guard against false teaching; much of what he wrote to churches was to correct false teaching or to help Christians discern the truth. Read these verses:

• 2 Timothy 2:16-18

• Colossians 2:16-23

• Galatians 1:6-10

The Need For Vigilance

We are called to be on our guard, to be alert and to be ready and waiting for the Second Coming of Jesus. (Matt 25:1-13). We need to train ourselves to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:14) Read these verses:

• 1 Corinthians 16:13

• 2 Timothy 4:15

• 1 Peter 5:8

Life As A Race

Life is a race – a marathon, not a sprint! There are many Scriptures which use this analogy:

• 1 Corinthians 9:26-27

• 2 Timothy 2:5

• 2 Timothy 4:7

• Hebrews 12:1-3

How’s your spiritual fitness? Paul says, ‘For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.’ (1 Tim 4:8) We need to get spiritually fit if we’re going to run the race and finish well.

Our Final Inheritance

We have so much to look forward to in God! We have the Holy Spirit in us as a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession. (Eph 1:14) We are now children of God and therefore heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. (Rom 8:17) Read these verses:

• 1 Peter 1:4

• Colossians 1:12

• Hebrews 9:15

Paul covers a lot of important truths in his speech to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:13-38. These include teaching on:

• the grace of God (Acts 20:24, 32)

• the kingdom of God (Acts 20:25)

• the purpose or will of God (Acts 20:27)

• repentance and faith (Acts 20:21)

• the church of God and its protection and edification (Acts 20:28,32)

• the inevitability of suffering (Acts 20:23-24)

• the danger of false teaching (Acts 20:29-30)

• the need for vigilance (Acts 20:28, 31)

• life as a race (Acts 20:24)

• our final inheritance (Acts 20:32)

Clearly, all these themes are important to us as Christians and we need to take on board all that God’s word teaches about these things. Why not dig deeper this week and use a search engine or concordance to find out what the rest of the Bible has to teach about these things? You could take one topic per day.

J-P spoke tonight about being positive, reminding us that positive minds produce positive lives. Jesus told the centurion who came to Him seeking a healing for his servant, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” (Matt 8:13) Great things can happen when we exercise faith, but so often, we let previous hurts and disappointments stop us from daring to hope and believe again. We insulate ourselves against future disappointment and avoid hope, often falling into the mentality that ‘nothing good will happen to me.‘ It is dangerous to think like this, for Prov 23:7 reminds us that as a man thinks in his heart, so he is. If we constantly think and speak along negative lines, then we will become negative people, but if we speak in agreement with God’s plan for our lives, we will see great things happen.

Even if we do not know God’s specific plan, we can rest in what we know of who God is. We can expect God to bring good from even the most difficult of circumstances. (Rom 8:28) Instead of focussing on the small things that might not go according to our plans, we can move forward with hope because we are new creations in Christ. (2 Cor 5:17) He has given us a fresh start (and continues to do so each day!) Moreover, God has given us the Holy Spirit as our helper and Phil 1:6 reminds us that we can have confidence not only in God’s plans but in the fact He always finishes what He starts.

A key aid to positivity is spending time in God’s word each day, as the Bereans did. (Acts 17:11) Daniel and his friends kept faith and praised God no matter what came against them, and God reminds us that hope is an anchor for our souls (Heb 6:19). Hope is that rudder which keeps us on a steady course. Because of God’s nature, we can have hope (‘Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!’ (Is 30:18))

A positive mind will lead to positive speech (Ps 34:12-14) so that we can build ourselves and other people up. A cheerful heart is good medicine (Prov 17:22) and will lead us into encouragement. If we trust in God, we have every reason to be positive, no matter what the circumstances.

Ron Potter-Efron, author of “Angry All The Time”, says that anger is behind all hatred. He charts the path from anger to hate, saying that:

• initially we feel upset about something

• we blame someone else for causing this problem

• the problem is not resolved and so our anger escalates

• we lose our perspective, thinking about this issue all the time

• we resent the other person and dwell on what they did, believing that their actions were unforgivable

• our resentment turns to hate, like slowly hardening concrete

• our attitude towards the other person becomes rigid and unyielding

• nothing they say or do can make a difference to us

• hate provides the perfect excuse to stay angry

There is a lot of anger in our world nowadays over different issues (such as Brexit and the pandemic) and if we are not careful, this anger can lead to hatred, which tends to linger (sometimes families have been split for decades over various issues.) Forgiveness is the only way to break the cycle of hatred (see Matt 5:43-45). We have to want to forgive and will often have to work for it (reconciliation doesn’t just ‘happen’.)We must be prepared to pray and ask God for HIs help to forgive, to let go of the past and refuse to dwell on it and not judge the whole person because of one thing they have done. We must keep a sense of perspective, not turning a disappointment into a disaster. Hate will sour and poison our lives, preventing our growth and development, but as we allow God’s nature to grow within us, we will find the capacity and desire to forgive and to love as He does.

Garry continued to speak on the life of Joseph this morning, focussing on Gen 37:1-5. Joseph was the son of Jacob and Rachel and had eleven brothers and one sister; perhaps because he was born when Jacob was older and was the first child born to Rachel, his favourite wife, Joseph was Jacob’s favourite son. This led Jacob to give him a richly ornamented robe (the subject of the musical ‘Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat’), a robe that signified his favour and which perhaps indicated his status (since it was long and therefore not fit for manual workers to wear.) Not surprisingly, this caused great envy and resentment amongst his brothers and this led to resentment – not toward Jacob (whose fault it was) but toward Joseph.

Family dynamics can be difficult at the best of times, and Jacob’s actions certainly did not make life easy for Joseph. We see here how jealousy, envy and resentment can lead to hatred, and how this can become a vicious cycle, leading us to do wrong. Anger in itself is not necessarily wrong; we see that God experiences anger (though He is slow to anger, not liable to throw hissy fits as we are!) and that Jesus too experienced anger (e.g. Mark 3:1-6) Our problem is that anger is difficult to control, and we are all too often angry when we are hurt, wounded, upset or jealous, rather than because something is wrong or unjust. James reminds us that human anger rarely produces the righteousness God wants (Js 1:20) and Paul warns us not to sin in our anger and not to let anger fester. (Eph 4:26) If we don’t deal with anger, it will lead us into a place of hatred which harms both us and those around us.

The way out is through forgiveness. Jesus is our ultimate example of this, for even on the cross, He forgave those who were guilty. (Luke 23:34) Joseph, too, ultimately becomes an example of forgiveness, refusing to allow his brothers’ hatred and actions against him to define who he is. Whether we are the one hating or the one who is hated, the answer to hatred is forgiveness. Love must fill our hearts so that we see people as individuals, rather than collectively stigmatising or belittling those who have hurt us (as is often the case during wartime, for it is easier to fight an enemy we can hate than to see people as vulnerable and capable of being wounded too.) Joseph leads the way out of hatred and gives us an example to follow.