This message is primarily for those who call on the name of Jesus Christ as their own Lord and Savior from sin, and serve as a Chaplain or a gospel minister in a jail, prison or a follow-up ministry such as a rescue mission – in the United States.

All Scripture quotes are usually taken from the New King James Version (NKJV) of the Bible, copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. When quoting a text, any deviation from the NKJV text is placed within parenthesis signs (). These usually occur as direct translations from the original languages, or as notes from the original setting to help apply the text to today’s culture.

ALL CAPITAL LETTERS are sometimes used to emphasize words in a text, or to make a comment about a biblical text, or emphasize a statement.

Greetings Christian Chaplains and volunteers. Continuing our 2011 theme of reminding ourselves and teaching inmates WHO JESUS IS, this month I want to say TO YOU that - Jesus is a Shepherd. That word “shepherd” is the same as PASTOR. Scripture calls Him the Great Shepherd, the Good Shepherd and the CHIEF SHEPHERD.

I want to briefly speak of the first two titles given to Jesus, the Great Shepherd and the Good Shepherd. THEN, I want to spend the rest of the time on Jesus as the CHIEF SHEPHERD over all like you – in Christian ministry. He is your CHIEF PASTOR.

First then, as the Great Shepherd (the Arch-Shepherd, the Arch-Pastor) in Hebrews 13:20-21, we read this final blessing from the human writer of the Book of Hebrews.

20 Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,

21 make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Here, Jesus is called the GREAT SHEPHERD of the sheep because by virtue of His blood sacrifice unto death, He confirmed the irrevocable everlasting covenant with all the believers. They are His sheep. That forever covenant is all about salvation from sin.

The adjective “great” is given to His Pastoral role over believers, because He is to be large in their lives and they are to be small. The subsequent pronouncement of this benediction is that the sheep or believers, would be complete in every good work doing HIS WILL. The power of the risen Great Shepherd is the only thing that can make that happen!

Next, we should consider Jesus as the Good Shepherd in John 10:7-16.

There He spoke of His role as the Good Shepherd of God’s sheep - in contrast to bad, false shepherds that did not care for or love God’s flock. Note these verses:

7 Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

8 All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.

9 I am THE DOOR. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

In ancient Israel real shepherds protected their sheep. When they would lead them to high pastures they carried a portable fence rolled up on their back. When they wanted to bed down the sheep they would encircle the sheep with the portable fence.

But the fence had no hinge or constructed door. The shepherd himself would sit or stand in the opening and be a human door. No sheep could get in or out of the sheepfold EXCEPT through the shepherd who knew each and every one of his sheep.

As the Door for His Sheep, Jesus protects them from harm and proves He is their true Shepherd. Ultimately in protecting true believers, true sheep, Jesus as the GOOD SHEPHERD gave His life to save them. Note it in verses 10-16

10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

11 “I am the good shepherd. THE GOOD SHEPHERD GIVES HIS LIFE FOR THE SHEEP.

12 But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.

13 The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.

14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.

15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR THE SHEEP.

16 And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.

This passage is stressing that - in contrast to bad, false shepherds like the religious leaders of His time, Jesus was the real true Shepherd that saves His sheep by dying for them

Having said all of that, I want you, as ministers and Christian Pastors to inmates to remember two things that relate to Jesus being your Chief Shepherd.

The first is that Jesus is the MODEL SHEPHERD you are to copy. You are a shepherd or pastor of inmate believers, and your leadership of His sheep should follow His example. Jesus Himself was the greatest example of the instruction on how to pastor given in verses 2-3 of our main text below.

The second thing about Jesus as your Chief Shepherd is that one day He will judge all the under-shepherds on HOW THEY PERFORMED THEIR PASTORAL DUTY OR HOW THEY SHEPHERDED HIS FLOCK! He will hold each of you accountable for how you as an under-shepherd handled His sheep.

Note it in our MAIN TEXT for this month, 1 Peter 5:1-4.

1 The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed:

2 Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly;

3 nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock;

4 and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.

Examining this passage, I want you to understand something important about the New Testament teaching on church leaders. According to the God-breathed out Scripture, there are three different words that describe the same man, and the same office.

The words or various names for the same person and the same office are: Elder, Pastor (Shepherd) and Overseer (sometimes translated ‘Bishop’).

These terms all apply TO THE SAME MAN. As a Christian minister of the gospel to inmates (ESPECIALLY Christian inmates) who look to you for leadership and direction in the Christian life, THEY APPLY TO YOU! I have said this before but THIS IS IMPORTANT TO YOU, a Chaplain (volunteer or paid) IS TO BE A PASTOR TO INMATES.

Forms of these three NT words are all in this passage. Two are verb forms of the nouns (Pastor and Overseer) and the third, which occurs in verse 1, is the name of the office, “Elders.” So, said another way, according to the New Testament, a Christian Pastor is an Elder and an Overseer (Bishop).

This is a serious and heavy calling. You need to make sure you qualify biblically for the office according to 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9. Now look with me a bit closer at this main passage for this month’s message. Verse 1 says:

1 The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed:

In Verse 1, the Apostle Peter related to local church leaders as simply a “fellow elder.” Another way to translate that is a “co-elder.” Peter was an Apostle, which meant he was given some special things to do, like laying down the NT doctrine. But in terms of church function, he was not ABOVE other men that led local bodies of believers.

The main thing Peter started to do in verse 1, was then TO EXHORT all other Christian elders (pastors and overseer-bishops). This word, exhort, means to encourage to action. The Holy Spirit even gave Peter this word as a present tense verb, meaning He wants to continually exhort elders (pastor-overseers) to the actions and attitudes described in verses 2-3. Here then is what the Holy Spirit through Jesus’ Apostle is saying to you too -

2 Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly;

3 nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock;

You are to shepherd or pastor, and oversee God’s flock. The main thing here is the COMMAND to shepherd Christians where you serve. As you do that, you are to be constantly overseeing the believers.

The concept of shepherding includes feeding them God’s word, helping them when they are sick (spiritually) and protecting them from spiritually dangerous people (wolves).

There are three positives involved in doing this and there are three warnings, or negatives, about how NOT to do it.

Look at the positives first. In verse 2, you are to shepherd Christ’s flock WILLINGLY and EAGERLY, then in verse 3, you are to BE A GOOD EXAMPLE.

Willingly means ‘of one’s own accord.’ It pictures a heartfelt desire. The earliest copies of the original manuscript adds the following to willingly, “according to the will of God.” So altogether the idea is to have your own will line up with Christ’s will in caring for His flock! Eagerly carries the idea of a readiness to do something rather than a feeling of not even wanting to prepare to do something because you really don’t want to have to do it.

A pastor-elder-overseer needs to be with their people. They need to exemplify the Christian walk to the believers under their care. Verse 3 says you are to be an EXAMPLE TO THE FLOCK.

A comparison to a similar passage in 1 Timothy 4:12 (NASB), calls Christian pastors to “show yourself an example of those who believe.” Part of your responsibility is to model for the inmates just HOW a Christian is to behave. Those are the positive ways of shepherding the Chief Shepherd’s flock.

Now verses 2-3 also call Chaplains and Christian leaders in correctional ministry - to NOT BE DOING some things. These verses warn you against the following things which I will EMPHASIZE by looking at the passage again.

2 Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, NOT BY COMPULSION but willingly, NOT FOR DISHONEST GAIN but eagerly;

3 NOR AS BEING LORDS OVER THOSE ENTRUSTED TO YOU, but being examples to the flock;

The things you are commanded as an under-shepherd not to have as attitudes and then actions that come out of those attitudes - are sadly, things that too many in “Christian ministry” have had and have done.

First, shepherding “not by compulsion,” means not with a feeling of being FORCED to do it against your will. If God has truly called you to pastor inmates, He will change your heart so that you really WANT TO DO IT. No one should ever be in the ministry to inmates that does not have a God-given deep desire to do it.

The remaining two prohibitions in this text on shepherding the Chief Shepherd’s flock, are in other Scripture passages shown to be characteristics of FALSE TEACHERS. They are into ministry for money and as an opportunity to serve their own pride.

Pastor them with eager readiness but NEVER ”for dishonest gain.” One of the qualifications for elders listed in both 1 Timothy 3:3 and Titus 1:7 is “not covetous (not with a love for silver)…not greedy for money.” As a minister of the gospel, according to

passages like 1 Corinthians 9:4-14, you have a right to be paid a living for your gospel ministry, BUT THAT SHOULD NEVER BE YOUR MAIN FOCUS.

I know many involved in biblical chaplaincy are under-paid. At the same time God promises to supply your NEEDS, when you serve as His ministers according to biblical direction. So, the application of not being in the ministry JUST for money, or as a covering for getting a lot of money by scamming people (like the ancient Chief Priests and Pharisees did) is to TRUST GOD to give you what you need. Never put a price tag on your ministry. If people ask your needs, then tell them, but AVOID hiring yourself out for a heavy fee.

Not “as being lords over those entrusted to you,” is a prohibition against manifesting pride in pastoral ministry. Jesus taught the disciples on this in Mark 10:42-45 which reads:

42 … Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.

43 Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.

44 And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all.

45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

The pastorate including chaplaincy should NEVER be for your own aggrandizement. When the Apostle Paul spoke of gospel ministers he said this about what their motive and attitude was, “Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are fellow workers for your joy;” (2 Cor. 1:24).

In first century Jewish religion, the Chief Priests and Pharisees were guilty of pride and out of that pride lording their ministry position OVER the people. Jesus taught His followers NOT to be like them in Matthew 23:6-13. Note the following words He spoke against them in Matt. 23:6-8.

6 They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues,

7 greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’

8 But you, (Jesus’ followers) do not be called ‘Rabbi’; …”

Now all of 1 Peter 5:1-3 builds up to verse 4, which in conclusion to the instruction given to elders about their pastoring says:

4 and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.

That means when Jesus returns He will EXAMINE all those in church leadership. He will examine all of you that are in chaplaincy. Those that have followed the teaching and obeyed its commands on how to shepherd and HOW NOT to shepherd Christian believers will receive a reward from Him – because HE IS THEIR CHIEF SHEPHERD.

If Jesus would return today or next week, would you receive the unfading crown of glory from Him? If not, you MUST change the way you do ministry to fit the biblical instruction given in 1 Peter 5:1-4.

Rich Hines, Minister to Chaplains, Aurora Ministries’ - Chaplain Help Ministry