A Sermon Manuscript Anchor Text: Ephesians 4:11–13 • Supporting Text: Luke 15:11–32; Jeremiah 3:15; John 10; 1 Peter 5:1–4
INTRODUCTION — “When Heaven Wraps a Gift, It Sends a Person”
Lift your Bibles with me this morning, and let us hear the Word of the living God. Ephesians chapter four, verses eleven through thirteen:
"So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." (Ephesians 4:11–13, NIV)
Underline three words in your spirit this morning: “I will give.” The pastor is not self-appointed; the pastor is God-given. And notice whose heart the gift comes from — “shepherds after my own heart.” A true pastor does not originate in ambition. A true pastor originates in the very heart of God. When God reaches into His own chest, so to speak, and pulls out a portion of His own shepherd-heart and clothes it in human flesh, the result is a pastor.
This is why our anchor text says “Christ himself gave.” Not a denomination. Not a board. Not a Bible college. Those instruments may recognise the call, but they cannot create it. The call comes down from above. As James says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights” (James 1:17). The genuine pastoral ministry descends; it does not ascend by human striving.
And consider the cost of the gift. Ephesians 4:8–10 tells us that before Christ gave these gifts, “he ascended on high” — but before He ascended, “he also descended to the lower parts of the earth.” Beloved, the gift of the pastor was purchased on the far side of Calvary. Before the gifts were given, the Giver bled. Before the church received shepherds, the Chief Shepherd laid down His life. Every legitimate pastor you have is, in a real sense, a dividend of the resurrection — a token of the victory of Jesus over the grave.
So when you receive a true pastor, you are not merely accepting a leader. You are receiving a piece of the spoils of Calvary. You are handling something that cost the blood of the Son of God. Will you treat such a gift carelessly?
And here is a sobering corollary. Because pastors come from the heart of God, God takes very seriously how shepherds shepherd. Read Ezekiel 34 and Jeremiah 23 — God pronounces woe upon false shepherds who feed themselves and not the flock, who scatter rather than gather. So the pastor stands under a double accountability: God will judge how the shepherd treats the sheep, and God will examine how the sheep treat the shepherd. The gift is holy on both ends.
Let me say it plainly to someone here: the reason you have survived seasons you should not have survived is because God, in His mercy, gave you a shepherd to feed you with knowledge and understanding when you were too weak to feed yourself. That was not luck. That was the providing heart of God.
II. THE HEART OF THE GIFT — The Shepherd Who Runs Toward the Lost
Now, what does this gift look like? What is in the heart of a true pastor? For this, I want us to turn to the passage that the saints at Miracle Centre meditated upon — Luke chapter fifteen, the parable we call the Prodigal Son.
You will ask me, “Pastor, what does the prodigal son have to do with pastors?” Everything. Because in that story Jesus paints, in unforgettable colours, the very heart that God places inside every shepherd He gives. Look at Luke 15:20:
"So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him." (Luke 15:20, NLT)
The father saw him while he was still a long way off — which means the father had been watching. The father had been on the porch, scanning the horizon, day after day, looking down the road for a son who was lost. That is the heart of a shepherd. A true pastor is always watching the horizon for the one who has wandered.
And when the father saw him, “filled with love and compassion, he ran.” Beloved, in that culture a dignified elderly man did not run; running required gathering up the robe and exposing the legs — it was undignified. But love does not protect its dignity when a child is dying. The shepherd-heart runs toward the broken, the backslidden, the prodigal. This is the same heart Jesus revealed in Matthew:
"When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." (Matthew 9:36, NIV)
Now let me show you the threefold heart of the gift, drawn from the Good Shepherd Himself in John 10.
First, the heart of a true pastor knows the sheep. Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me” (John 10:14). A hireling counts the crowd; a shepherd knows the sheep by name. A true pastor is not running a religious enterprise — he is keeping a flock he knows personally.
Second, the heart of a true pastor feeds the sheep. Remember Jeremiah 3:15 — “shepherds… who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.” When the risen Lord restored Peter in John 21, He did not say “build me an empire.” Three times He said, “Feed my lambs… Take care of my sheep… Feed my sheep” (John 21:15–17). The mark of a genuine gift is that you leave the table fed, not flattered; nourished, not merely entertained.
Third, the heart of a true pastor lays down his life for the sheep. “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). The hireling, Jesus said, “sees the wolf coming and abandons the sheep and runs away” (John 10:12). But the shepherd stands between the wolf and the flock. Church, do you know how many sleepless nights your pastor has prayed for you? Do you know how many times he stood between you and a wolf you never even saw coming?
That is the heart of the gift. It watches, it runs, it knows, it feeds, and it bleeds. And when you find a pastor with that heart, you have found treasure — because that is the heart of God Himself wrapped in human form.
III. THE PURPOSE OF THE GIFT — Why Heaven Gave You a Pastor
A gift is given for a purpose. So we must ask: why did Christ give pastors? Our anchor text answers in three crystal-clear movements. Ephesians 4:12–13:
“…to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
Purpose number one: the pastor is given to EQUIP YOU. “To equip his people for works of service.” Hear this — the pastor is not given so that you can sit while he sweats. The original word for “equip” is the word used for setting a broken bone back in place and for mending a torn net. The pastor is given to mend what is broken in you and to fit you back into your place in the body so that you can do the work of ministry. A gifted pastor does not create dependence; a gifted pastor produces deployment. He is not raising spectators; he is raising soldiers. You are not meant to be a permanent patient — you are meant to become a minister.
Purpose number two: the pastor is given to BUILD YOU UP. “So that the body of Christ may be built up.” The pastor is a builder. Where there is a true gift operating, the church is not merely gathering — it is growing. Lives are constructed, faith is established, foundations are laid. Paul told the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:28:
“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, NIV)
The Holy Spirit makes overseers — there is the origin again — and the purpose is to keep watch and to build the church that Jesus bought with His own blood. You are valuable because you are blood-bought, and the pastor is the steward God assigned to guard and grow that valuable thing.
Purpose number three: the pastor is given to MATURE YOU into the fullness of Christ. “Until we all… become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” This is the destination. The gift is not given to keep you spiritual infants forever, easily tossed about, as the next verse warns, “by every wind of teaching” (Ephesians 4:14). The gift is given to march you toward Christlikeness — until the image of Jesus is fully formed in you.
So let me summarise the purpose. God did not give you a pastor merely to marry you and bury you. God gave you a pastor to equip you, to build you, and to mature you until you look like Jesus. That is the divine intention behind the gift. And here is the question that should pierce every heart: Are you allowing the gift to fulfil its purpose in your life? You can sit under a gift for twenty years and remain unequipped, unbuilt, and immature — not because the gift failed, but because you never opened it.
IV. THE STEWARDSHIP OF THE GIFT — How to Treat the Gift God Gave You
This brings me to my final and most practical word. If pastors are a gift from God, then how we treat that gift is not a small matter — it is a matter of stewardship before God. The companion message at Miracle Centre asked the question directly: Why appreciate your pastors? The Scripture gives us the answer in plain commands.
First, KNOW them and ESTEEM them. Hear Paul:
“Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work.” (1 Thessalonians 5:12–13, NIV)
“Hold them in the highest regard.” Not because of their title — “because of their work.” Honour is not flattery; it is the appropriate response to a labour that is real.
Second, HONOUR them — even materially. Paul does not flinch from the practical:
“The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. For Scripture says, ‘Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,’ and ‘The worker deserves his wages.'” (1 Timothy 5:17–18, NIV)
A gift left in the corner, unappreciated and unprovided for, will not flourish. Many a church has starved its own shepherd and then wondered why the flock grew thin. You cannot muzzle the ox and expect it to plough your field.
Third, REMEMBER them and FOLLOW their faith. Hebrews 13 gives us two of the clearest commands in all of Scripture concerning our pastors:
“Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.” (Hebrews 13:7, NIV)
And then verse 17:
“Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.” (Hebrews 13:17, NIV)
Look carefully at the reason given: your pastors “keep watch over you as those who must give an account.” Your pastor will stand before God and answer for your soul. Knowing that, the Word says, make their work a joy, not a burden. Why? Because, it says, a grieving shepherd is “of no benefit to you.” When you wound the gift, you are the one who loses the blessing. The flow of the gift is hindered not by the shepherd’s failure but by the sheep’s resistance.
Fourth, RECEIVE the gift the way they received Christ. Remember how Paul commended the Galatians for the way they first received him: “…you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself” (Galatians 4:14). He even said, “you would have torn out your own eyes and given them to me” (v.15). That is honour. That is reception. And he asks, with grief, “What has happened to all your joy?” (v.15). Beloved, do not let the joy of your first love for the gift of God grow cold.
And finally, let me set before both shepherd and sheep the great accountability. Peter, himself a shepherd who had been restored, wrote:
“Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be… And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.” (1 Peter 5:2–4, NIV)
There it is — the Chief Shepherd. Every undershepherd God gives you is a pointer to the great Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The pastor is the gift; but the pastor is never the source. The pastor leads you to green pastures, but Jesus is the pasture. The pastor walks with you through the valley, but Jesus is the Shepherd of Psalm 23 who Himself prepares the table. So honour the gift — but worship the Giver.
CONCLUSION & ALTAR CALL — Come Home to the Father’s House
Let me bring us home, and let me bring us back to that road in Luke 15.
Maybe this morning you are not thinking about pastors at all. Maybe you are the prodigal. You have wandered into a far country, you have wasted what the Father gave you, and you are sitting this morning among the husks, hungry, ashamed, certain you are no longer worthy to be called His.
I have good news. The Father is on the porch. He has been watching the horizon for you. And the moment you turn toward home, before you can even finish your rehearsed apology, He runs. He throws His arms around you. He calls for the best robe — that is the robe of righteousness. He puts a ring on your finger — that is restored authority and sonship. He puts shoes on your feet — slaves went barefoot, but sons wear shoes. And He kills the fattened calf and says, “This son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (Luke 15:24).
That is the heart of God. And that is the very heart God deposits in every true pastor He gives you — a heart that watches, runs, embraces, restores, and celebrates the return of the lost. The pastor is a gift because the pastor carries that homeward-running heart of the Father into a world full of prodigals.
So this morning I make three appeals:
To the prodigal — come home. The Shepherd of your soul, the Lord Jesus, is running toward you right now. Come to this altar and let Him put the robe back on you.
To the wounded sheep — the one who has been hurt, who has grown cold toward the house of God and bitter toward leadership — let the Holy Spirit heal you this morning, and let Him restore your honour and your joy.
And to all of us — let us repent of taking the gift for granted, and let us learn again to esteem, to honour, to follow, and to pray for the shepherds God has given. Let us make their work a joy and not a burden, that the gift may flow without hindrance, and that we may grow into the full measure of the fullness of Christ.
Heaven did not send you a thing. Heaven sent you a person. The gift is given. Will you receive it?
Let us pray.
Scriptures cited: Ephesians 4:8–14; Jeremiah 3:15; 23:1–4; Ezekiel 34:1–16; Luke 15:11–32; Matthew 9:36; John 10:11–16; 21:15–17; Acts 20:28; 1 Thessalonians 5:12–13; 1 Timothy 5:17–18; Hebrews 13:7,17; Galatians 4:14–15; 1 Peter 5:1–4; Psalm 23; James 1:17.
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Comments
adamgordon
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cmsmasters
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annabrown
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cmsmasters
Thanks.