In the previous chapter, we pinned a thought that we are going to open back up and address together: the need for sheep to have a flock and a shepherd.

Let me just pause right here to say this to you, whoever is reading this. It may not be the most popular thing to say, but popular isn’t always the filter for good. And sometimes what is good, and even right, runs contrary to what is popular. Regardless of how this next statement lands, we all need to hear it, myself included.

You and I need a pastor, and we need a church community that we are actively engaged in and known among.

“Easy for you to say, you’re a pastor.”

Yes. A pastor who has not always understood the gravitas and significance of having spiritual leadership and covering in my life, but I learned it eventually… with a couple of bumps, bruises, and scrapes, might I add.

I write this instruction to you as someone who actively is submitted to good and godly spiritual leadership, who is actively involved in my life.

I need this. You need this. We need this.

So before you think that this is a “do as I say, and not as I do” tactic that some manipulative leaders have deployed in the past to gain a following—which they have—let me first tell you that I personally adhere to the instruction that I am delivering to you. And second, let me clarify to you that I am not saying that I need to be the primary spiritual leader in your life. I am making no claims or appeal to be anyone’s spiritual oversight… but I am saying that someone needs to be.

While it isn’t the aim to cover this point entirely in this book, you must know this principle. Because part of following Jesus means following Him with others. This is an inescapable reality when we assess the lives of the disciples of Jesus recorded in Scripture. As far as the Bible is concerned, there is no such thing as following Jesus alone.

Let’s say that you’re living in the times of Jesus, and one day Jesus comes by your town, issuing to you His invitation, saying, “Follow me.” And let’s say that you accept this invitation. Upon acceptance, as Jesus turns to walk forward toward whatever or whomever He is headed to next,  there you are, following Him closely, moving as He moves, going as He goes.

But as you take a moment to look around you, you begin noticing something: you aren’t the only one who is following. As a matter of fact, as you look around you, you begin to notice that there is actually a cluster of others who have accepted His invitation and are following Him too, just like you are.

Never alone.

Why do I mention this? Because if you’ve been around this Jesus thing for any period of time, you’ve probably heard somebody say that they don’t need a church or spiritual leadership to follow Jesus.

And while there may be some that portray this type of life in Christ, in whatever version or stream of Christianity it is that they have chosen to subscribe to, when we turn to the Bible (our sole source for belief and practice), this concept is completely foreign. Plainly, this type of thinking is not one that comes from the Scripture.

There is not a single instance in the New Testament, either by example or instruction, that would teach or affirm the concept of spiritual isolation. There is no “it’s just me and Jesus off by ourselves” way of following.

If you are reading this and you are currently following Jesus alone, I want you to know that you are presently a sheep on the outside of the flock, and it’s not safe for you out there. I mean no insult when I say this, as my desire is not to offend you, but to use this occasion to express my care for you by telling you the truth, even if it stings a little. Above all, I want you safe. And yes, you may be a sheep that belongs to the shepherd off by yourself. And yes, He may come to visit with you from time to time. But please know that His intentions in doing so are to get you back into the safety of His flock, not to keep you outside of the cover of His care where the wolves roam.

As a matter of fact, in Luke 15, Jesus tells a story of a sheep who wandered away from the flock. In this story, Jesus says that the shepherd left the ninety-nine sheep that were safely secure in the flock to go find and reunite this one wayward sheep to the community of the flock and the safety of the oversight of the shepherd.

The point is this: Jesus may find you by yourself, but He never intends to leave you there.

It is always, in every scriptural scenario, the complete and total will of God that the Good Shepherd brings His sheep back into the communal life of His flock.

We need the spiritual community that the body of Christ provides us through the local church. And once again, while it is not the central point of this chapter, as long as I am still on this massive side note… you need a pastor.

While this topic is not primarily the point of this chapter, the subject is actually incredibly fitting being that we are talking about how the first-century disciples followed Jesus. So how about we further derail for a moment as we continue this conversation?

When we read the passage in 1 Corinthians 11, where Paul instructed the flock he had been tasked to shepherd and provide oversight to, this is exactly what he was demonstrating and communicating when he instructed them to “follow me as I follow Christ.”

This very writing here to the church in Corinth was Paul actively demonstrating what we call in our modern context the work of a pastor (a shepherd), which in the first-century-church context was called an elder or bishop.

Paul was an apostle, which without getting too deep into what that means, essentially meant that he was a primary leader in the churches that God was using him to establish through His Spirit, wherever the Lord would send him to do so. His apostleship gift was from God and meant that God would send him to plant and raise up new churches in new areas and people groups the gospel of Jesus had not yet reached. But as Peter, who was another apostle, points out in 1 Peter 5:1–4, it is the task of all primary leaders appointed by God to the churches to provide a degree of shepherding care to them (this is what pastors do, or at least this is what they are supposed to do) until the “Chief Shepherd,” Jesus, who is the ultimate “Shepherd and Overseer” of our souls, appears once again (1 Peter 2:25).

As a matter of fact, the context of 1 Peter 2:25 further solidifies our point when we read it in its fullness.

“For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (1 Peter 2:25).

Earlier in Scripture, God uses Jeremiah the prophet from the Old Testament to echo this exact same sentiment and clarify what is to be a true sign of the godly spiritual leadership that was to come, and in our current era is now here as he writes, “And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding” (Jeremiah 3:15).

When we read these verses together, there is a certain harmony and interpretation that only God’s divinely inspired Word can reveal to us. That is this: that Jesus is the ultimate Shepherd and Overseer of our souls, and that He has given us shepherds (notice the lowercase here) after His own heart to work as conduits of His shepherding care and oversight in our lives… to do what the Shepherd did in Jesus’ story in Luke 15, restoring the sheep to the flock, and ultimately, the flock back to Him.

True shepherds who are given by God do not lord over God’s people, but they do recognize that God has given them the authority to serve as extensions of His care, providing safety, knowledge, understanding, nourishment, and more—ultimately serving as conduits of the ministry of Jesus to the flock of God which is His.

Unfortunately, it is true that in our twenty-first-century context, in some cases, pastors have become more like CEOs who speak on Sundays than true pastors who “shepherd the flock of God.” But while truly some have missed the mark, many have not. Don’t allow the small contingent of false leaders to ruin your ability to trust the care of those who are truly following Jesus.

Let me just throw this out to you today, say, as a nugget from my personal chicken basket: I personally know that I (myself) am spiritually healthy and aligned with God when I possess a desire to be in the community of the flock of God and under the care of a shepherd appointed by God. Maybe that will be of help to you, as a decent measure of your own heart, as it is of mine.

Let’s look at the first-century church for a second to see what is actually going on as it relates to this subject.

In the first-century church, as the church was forming, there were a few layers of leadership, which essentially were broken down into the following gifts/roles: apostles, bishops, elders, and deacons.

I know you may be wondering where all of this is going. I thought I picked up this book to learn about Jesus.

We are. I promise. All of this is going to make sense and serve you well as you not only meet Jesus but make the decision to become His follower. Hang in there. This is important to know. The apostles were those who were gifted and sent by Jesus into new territories and people groups to bring the message of His gospel and kingdom. Their task was to help people meet Jesus, encourage them to become His followers, and once they converted, equip them to help others to do the same (this is called ministry). Ultimately, in all of this, the goal was to do the will of God and thereby establish the kingdom of God so that it may be on “earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

Of these disciples, the apostles would train up and establish ministers who would take on varying roles in and among the churches of God, such as bishops, elders, and deacons.

Bishops helped oversee the churches that were started by the work of the apostles. These churches were connected together in a relational, spiritual network associated with the leadership and sphere of authority of the founding apostle. The founding apostle  would function as a bishop among them, overseeing the church or churches within this sphere/network as a team with the rest of the trained and appointed bishops, while possessing unique authority among them.

The elders were what we call in our modern context “pastors.” They provided, in teamwork with the bishops, the shepherding care that the disciples within the churches needed. These elders taught, led, and cared for the disciples in the churches that they were tasked to steward.

The deacons were helpers. They were servant leaders in the churches who assisted in various tasks that were necessary for the function of the church to continue, providing essential ministry assistance through gifts of helps, administration, and more.

As you can see, there is a very clear theme with all of this. In the first century, a team ministry structure worked together in harmony and was designed to provide oversight and covering, guarding and shepherding the disciples. In the safety of this structure, disciples were protected from rogue leaders, false teachers, and more threats that might pose harm to them as sheep within the flock of God.

Is it really important to say all of this? I think so. Here is why I feel so strongly about this: If we are going to truly meet Jesus and become His disciples, we must acknowledge that there is no biblical context to do so by oneself and outside of the context of being within the structure provided by spiritual leadership.

We need others, and we need leadership.

I know that message is not popular everywhere and with everyone. But as it pertains to the Scriptures, it is popular with God, and as ones who desire to closely associate with that popularity, it must become a message that is popular and received among us.

We are all sheep following our Shepherd… Jesus. We are all underneath His care and oversight. But Jesus has tasked some of the sheep in the flock to dual function as undershepherds of His shepherding care, serving as conduits of His leadership and covering to the flock.

There is a reason for this. When a sheep gets isolated, it gets in danger.

A shepherd guides a sheep to water for drink and green pasture for food. A shepherd guards the flock from predators and dangerous terrain that comes with the journey.

Isolation and shepherd-less living bring spiritual danger, a lack of spiritual nutrition, and direction for the spiritual journey of life.

The Bible tells us that “we are like sheep that have gone astray (Isaiah 53:6).

What does that mean?

It means that without a shepherd, this is what sheep do. They wander off. They venture into personal danger and paths that are not conducive for safety on their journey.

In Matthew 9:36 (KJV), Jesus talks of shepherd-less living in a negative sense. Jesus comes upon a group of people, and when He sees them, Matthew records that He viewed them “as sheep without a shepherd.”

Seeing the people in this condition caused Him to be deeply moved, because as a shepherd, He knew that as long as they were shepherd-less, they would be without help when danger would surely come.

As we have observed, in the church that Jesus started in the first century, there were no shepherd-less sheep. And as a matter of fact, it mattered very much to Jesus that His flock (His disciples) had a shepherd.

There are two realities of the first-century church that Jesus started that we need to review:

  1. It isn’t Jesus’ desire, will, or plan for sheep to be isolated from the true community found within the body of Christ.
  2. Jesus cares deeply that His sheep have shepherding care and oversight via truly appointed spiritual leadership.

I bring this up here, as we discuss living as first-century disciples of Jesus in our modern twenty-first-century context because there is an epidemic right now of isolated and shepherd-less sheep, as well as sheep who do not know how to discern false and self-appointed shepherds from true shepherds who have been appointed by God.

Let me just say this as clearly as I can, with the Bible as my footing:

There is no biblical pattern for following Jesus alone and outside of true spiritual oversight. There is no biblical pattern for following Jesus outside of being led by God-appointed spiritual authority and in community with the body of Christ, through the local church.

This is the will and plan of God, evidenced not only by Jesus’ words but also by how His church operated and functioned in the first century.

Let me also state this: Man isn’t your covering. If he were, that would be quite the faulty covering. Instead, Jesus is our covering, and He has provided us a structure in which He facilitates that covering in our lives. We then must make the choice to step within the construct in which Jesus provides His covering. We step into that covering when we get in alignment with the covering system that Jesus has designed and deployed in the church.

Are you isolated? This is your call to find a flock and get in it. Are you shepherd-less? This is your call to find one and begin following their lead as they follow Jesus.

Reflection Questions: