Bible Lesson for Bible Teachers, Lesson #9
Don’t Try to Teach People You Don’t Care For
Ezekiel 34.1 – 6; John 21.15 — 17; Acts 20.28; James 5.19, 20

Good Questions Have Groups Talking

If you like this format of lessons, I have a couple of thousand at

OPEN

What is your name and what pastor have you known would you say was an excellent shepherd?

DIG

  1. Acts 20.28. What exactly does it mean to keep watch?

The only way the flock will grow, the only way the church will expand, is if we, as sheep, are being fed consistently and faithfully—for when sheep are fed properly, they will reproduce very naturally. Thus, the great need today is for people to be fed. In many places, believers gather together, but are never really taught the Word. Consequently, the flock is anemic and not reproducing numerically. The pastors or boards of such churches will often implement programs or techniques to bring about growth—door-to-door evangelism, contests, and all sorts of tricky activities to try to motivate people to share their faith. But they don’t work. So then the pastor does something oh, so dumb: Instead of feeding the flock, he begins to beat the flock, saying, “Why aren’t you evangelizing more? Why aren’t you working harder? Why aren’t you engaged in this ministry, or joining that committee, or involved in the other activity?” — Jon Courson, Jon Courson’s Application Commentary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 782.

  1. Why do you suppose he starts with, “keep watch over yourselves”?

Notice the order. Take heed to yourself first. Make sure you’re cultivating a personal devotional life—that you’re a man or a woman of prayer. Make sure you’re one who is engaged in consistent communion with the Lord personally. Take heed to yourself.

Here is a great danger: When you get involved in Christian service, you can find yourself serving the Lord and doing the work of the Lord at the expense of your own personal walk with the Lord. True ministry is the overflow of what is taking place in your life personally, secretly, intimately. So take heed to yourself. Make sure you are personally cultivating a walk with the Lord. — Jon Courson, Jon Courson’s Application Commentary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 781.

  1. What are some practical steps we can take to keep watch over ourselves?

Everywhere I go, I run into people who are tired and frustrated. They are so busy. Harried. Running. Weary. Not living the John 10.10 Christian life. You cannot infect people with a disease you do not have. Self-care is not selfishness. You must take care of yourself first. Put on your own oxygen mask, then help those around you. Have your Quiet Time. Memorize Scripture. Take a day off. Learn to enjoy God. Live the life.

  1. What are some practical steps we can take to keep watch over all the flock over which the Holy Spirit has made you an overseer?

Get on their Facebook book page once a week. Comment as appropriate.

Pray daily.

Call from time to time to check up on them. Call everyone whether they are absent or attend every week.

Get in the home of every member once a year.

Have a fellowship once a month. Invite every member and every prospect.

Get a team of people to help, especially if the group is large.

  1. Ezekiel 34.1 – 6. What bad things happens to sherds who don’t take care of the sheep?

What about the people in your church who are scattered—is anyone searching for them? An Effective Bible Teacher is very different from a school teacher in this regard. An Effective Bible Teacher is a shepherd to God’s people, not merely a dispenser of information. — Josh Hunt, The Effective Bible Teacher, 2013.

  1. What six things are shepherds to do according to this passage?

Giving care is part of the role of being a shepherd. God expects us to give the kind of care that He Himself would give to His flock. This is clear from Ezekiel 34:1–16, in which God rebukes the shepherds of Israel for not giving appropriate care to the flock. As you study the passage, you see that God desires shepherds to

•feed the flock

•lead them to rest

•seek the lost

•bring back the scattered

•bind up the broken

•strengthen the sick

Being a shepherd is an awesome responsibility. That is why we have limited the leader’s span of care. If you have too many people to care for, you will eventually burn out. — Bill Donahue, Leading Life-Changing Small Groups (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009).

  1. How do we strengthen the weak? (Ezekiel 34.4)

When it comes to “strengthening the weak,” a shepherd might have people in his small group who are overwhelmed with life. He could spend time with them and remind them of ways God has provided in the past. He may call to encourage and pray with a person who is struggling; he may ask someone else in the group to use their past history with the same issue to encourage that person. Remember, we create a shepherding culture so we ask people to care for one another in the group. As they use their past for God’s glory, they learn to become ministers. — Jim Putman, Bobby Harrington, and Robert E. Coleman, Discipleshift: Five Steps That Help Your Church to Make Disciples Who Make Disciples (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2013).

  1. What does it mean to bind up the injured and heal the sick?

With “healing the sick” and “binding up the injured,” Jesus is the good and true shepherd who heals people’s illnesses and binds up their wounds (John 10; Matt. 9:36; 11:1–6); however, we can pray for those who are sick or injured, and God, at times, does act to heal. What we can do is care for those who are sick. The small group can do so many things to help when there are struggles. Maybe the group takes turns driving them to the doctor, or brings meals to their house. Healing the sick isn’t limited to physical sickness; there may be someone who is dealing with addiction, and we may have to walk them through spiritual healing from the sin that ravages their spiritual and emotional lives. Scripture tells us to carry one another’s burdens, and we can do that in so many ways (Gal. 6:2). — Jim Putman, Bobby Harrington, and Robert E. Coleman, Discipleshift: Five Steps That Help Your Church to Make Disciples Who Make Disciples (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2013).

  1. How can we bring back the strays? See also James 5.19, 20.

With “bringing back the strays,” perhaps someone has left the group and appears to be moving away from Christ. Members of the group are encouraged to pray for the one who might be drifting, and the leader will call to check on them. He will encourage those who know the person best to track them down and encourage them to come back to their spiritual family. I often use the analogy with our staff that the church service and small group can be likened to a watering hole. If I have a thousand acre ranch and one watering hole, I can keep track of my cattle in a couple of different ways. I can figure out how to cover every corner of the ranch to make sure all the cattle are okay, or I can just wait by the watering hole to see who shows up. I know the cattle need water or they will die. So as the cattle come in, I can know they are at least okay. I can check on them and look them over. But for the cattle who don’t show up, I can know that they are probably in trouble somewhere and that I need to go after them. In the same way, people need spiritual water. When they decide not to come, it tells me something. They have changed their priorities and are drifting. Maybe they are hurt somewhere or lost, so I need to go after them. So many leaders in the church today do not feel the need to chase the strays. They think their job is to build a program, and “if people come, they come.” But that is not Jesus’ example. Jesus is willing to leave the ninety-nine to find the one, and we should be willing to do the same. — Jim Putman, Bobby Harrington, and Robert E. Coleman, Discipleshift: Five Steps That Help Your Church to Make Disciples Who Make Disciples (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2013).

  1. Why do sheep need shepherds? Why does our flock need us? What do they need us to do?

Just as a new mother needs to take care of her baby, a disciple-maker who helps a spiritually dead person come to faith needs to help that spiritual infant grow up. Spiritual infants don’t understand the rules of the new game they are playing. They don’t know that a spiritual war is on and that they have a new Enemy, who wants to kill and destroy them (see John 10:10; 1 Peter 5:8). They don’t realize they need spiritual protection, nor do they know what weapons and armor are available to them or how to use them (see Ephesians 6:10–18). They need a disciple-maker who will be their shepherd.

Shepherds lead their sheep to water and make sure they have food to eat. They protect their sheep from wild animals and from those who would love to cut them away from the flock and lead them astray. If a sheep is missing, the shepherd goes looking for it. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, was a great protector of His little band of disciples. He did not lose any of them except for Judas, whose betrayal was a fulfillment of prophecy (see Psalm 41:9). In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus protected the disciples so the soldiers would let them go (see John 18:7–8).

Likewise, as shepherds of God’s sheep, disciple-makers must also protect the sheep in our care. That means if we are teaching a class or leading a small group, we should follow up with those who are absent and do our best to ensure that everyone in the class is present. It requires work and commitment to chase the strays, bind up the hurting, and lead and feed those we are shepherding. True disciple-makers do all we can to guide those we disciple to safety and maturity. — Jim Putman, Real-Life Discipleship: Building Churches That Make Disciples (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2010), 52–53.

  1. How many people can one person effectively shepherd?

Of course, it would be impossible to do this kind of shepherding with a large group. I believe that this is why Jesus chose only twelve men to disciple. He was giving us a model of discipleship to follow, and He knew that in our finite state we could disciple only a certain number of people at a time. When a disciple-maker is responsible for shepherding more than twelve people, it is far more likely that some will fall through the cracks because there are just too many people to get know all of them well. And remember, if you don’t know people, then you don’t know where they’re at and what they need in the spiritual growth process. — Jim Putman, Real-Life Discipleship: Building Churches That Make Disciples (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2010), 53.

  1. John 21.15 – 17. Do you love Jesus? How does this passage suggest we show love for Jesus?

“A good place for you to start, Peter, in this restorative process is to feed lambs.” Want to be a good minister, a good teacher, a good communicator? The best training you’ll ever get is with children because they won’t snow you. If you’re boring, they won’t look at you and nod politely. If you’re not communicating, if you’re not connecting, you’ll know it. Children force you to define your terms. They don’t let you hide behind big words. Maybe you feel like you’ve been on a fishing excursion. Get involved in kids’ ministries. Feed the lambs. It’s a privilege and the finest preparation you’ll ever have. — Jon Courson, Jon Courson’s Application Commentary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 604.

  1. Is it possible to love Jesus and not be concerned with His church?

Jesus’ concern here is not just for Peter’s welfare and self-confidence; he is also genuinely concerned for his fledgling church. So Peter is directed to his work: Feed my lambs, Take care of my sheep, Feed my sheep (15–17). Following Jesus and loving Jesus mean accepting responsibility for Jesus’ people, a truth which is in need of rehabilitation at the present time. Commitment to Christ involves commitment to the church of Christ. Jesus Christ is not a ‘single’ person in the sense that he comes to us without other attachment. He is a ‘married’ person; he comes to us with a bride, whom he loves and for whom he sacrificed himself (Eph. 5:25). To be in relationship to Christ while ignoring or even despising his bride is no more acceptable than such behaviour would be in human contexts when relating to a married friend; far less so, because the relationship with Jesus has infinitely greater dimensions. Genuine New Testament conversion means not only turning to and accepting Christ. It also means turning to and accepting his bride, the church. Jesus’ love for his church remains undiminished even though the church be torn, illclad, dirty in places, and generally malnourished and diseased. The church is still his bride, the people for whom he died, and who are therefore the burden of his concern. So he speaks his word today to those who will hear it: Feed my lambs, Take care of my sheep, Feed my sheep. — Bruce Milne, The Message of John: Here Is Your King!: With Study Guide, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 318.

  1. Are “feeding my lambs” and “taking care of my sheep” two different things or is this saying the same thing in two different ways?

In response to Peter’s affirmation of love for him, Jesus said, ‘Feed my lambs.’ His commission to Peter was to feed (boske) his ‘lambs’ (arnia), meaning he was to provide spiritual nourishment for new believers.

16. In this verse Jesus repeats his question, and receives the same answer: Again Jesus said, ‘Simon son of John, do you truly love me?’ He answered, ‘Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Take care of my sheep.’ The only differences are that Jesus’ commission to Peter is to take care of (poimaine) his ‘sheep’ (probata) implying pastoral care of believers generally (cf. 10:1–27). — Colin G. Kruse, John: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 4, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 385–386.

  1. What would you think of a pastor who loved to preach to his people, but did not care for them?

In the comic strip Peanuts, Linus once explained, “I love mankind; it’s people I can’t stand.” English playwright W. Somerset Maugham similarly said, “I’ve always been interested in people, but I’ve never liked them.”

Perhaps you can identify with those sentiments. People can be rude, obnoxious, selfish, foolish, trying, vexing, and vicious. Some of them even fall into the category of “enemies”—people who criticize us or try to take advantage of us. We naturally feel resentment, anger, fear, and even hatred.

Yet Jesus said, “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.”

We can do this only on our knees. The person we most dislike is still a soul for whom Christ died. We don’t have to always agree with our critics or defer to our enemies, but loving unconditionally is simply letting the love of Christ flow through us like warm water through a pipe. The most unlovable person is the one who needs love the most. After all, if Christ loved us, He can help us love others.

So find someone you don’t like, and pray for that person today! — David Jeremiah, Turning Points with God: 365 Daily Devotions (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2014).

  1. What would you think of a Bible Study leader who enjoyed teaching his people, but did not care for them?

But like it or not, people are what ministry is all about; and the sooner we learn to love the sheep and the lambs, the easier it will be to feed them and lead them (John 21:15–17). But we can’t love people at a distance and still be faithful shepherds. Warren W. Wiersbe, The Dynamics of Preaching, Ministry Dynamics for a New Century (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999), 47.

  1. Jesus told us to love one another. But, sometimes people are hard to love. How do we love and take care of people who are hard to love?

The opposite of loving difficult people is not hating difficult people but coping with them. Every pastor has them. Sometimes they are conquered by the difficult people, and sometimes they are able to work with them, or around them, to get the job done despite them. Difficult people have been around since the beginning of time. Moses had his difficult people. King David had his difficult people. Jesus had them, and so did St. Paul. — Calvin Miller, Letters to a Young Pastor (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2011).