“When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.” (John 10:4, NIV)
In the ancient Near East, shepherds typically led their flocks rather than drove them. Cattle can be pushed from behind. Sheep follow a voice they trust. So the shepherd walked in front, on the path he expected them to take. He found the water first, saw the cliff first, and was the first to meet the wolf.
Jesus used that picture to describe himself. Before it describes any pastor, John 10 describes Christ: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11, NIV). He went ahead of us all the way to the cross and out of the tomb. Every faithful pastor is an under-shepherd, walking a path someone else already cleared.
This Sunday is Pastor Appreciation Day, and October is set aside in many churches to honor those who serve as shepherds. The image of John 10:4 tells us what we are honoring. Not a performer. Not a manager. A person who goes ahead.
1. Going ahead means going first into the hard places
The shepherd’s position at the front is not a place of privilege. It is a place of exposure. The first to step onto unsure ground is the first to fall.
Most of what pastors carry happens out of sight: the hospital room at two in the morning, the phone call after a suicide, the marriage held together over a kitchen table, the funeral for a child. Congregations see the sermon on Sunday. They rarely see the week that produced it.
Paul names this work plainly: “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” (1 Thessalonians 5:12, NIV). Work hard. Care. Admonish. None of these is glamorous. All of them cost something.
We tend to measure pastors by visibility: the size of the room, the reach of the platform. Scripture measures them by proximity: who was near when the valley got dark?
2. Going ahead means leading by example, not by force
Peter, who had once been told three times to care for Christ’s sheep, wrote this to the elders of the churches: “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; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:2-3, NIV).
There is the antithesis. Not domination, but example. Not driving, but leading. The shepherd who goes ahead does not shout from behind. The shepherd walks the road first and invites others to follow.
This is why a pastor’s private faithfulness matters as much as public gifting. Sheep do not follow a title. They follow a voice they have come to trust, and trust is built slowly, on ordinary days, in small acts of integrity no one applauds.
When we honor our pastors, we are honoring that long obedience. Years of showing up. Years of preaching the same gospel to the same people, trusting God to do what no sermon can do on its own.
3. Going ahead means pointing beyond yourself
The best shepherds know they are not the Shepherd. Peter ends his charge with a promise that keeps every pastor humble: “And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away” (1 Peter 5:4, NIV).
A pastor goes ahead of the flock, but always behind Christ. The goal is never that the sheep would follow the pastor forever, but that they would learn to recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd for themselves. “His sheep follow him because they know his voice.”
That is also why the church is not called to idolize its pastors. Honor is not flattery. Appreciation is not celebrity. We thank our pastors precisely because they point us away from themselves and toward the One who laid down his life for us.
How should the flock respond?
Hebrews gives a striking reason to support those who lead us: “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).
Joy, not burden. That is something a congregation can give. Here are three ways to do it this week:
- Say it specifically. Write or tell your pastor one concrete way God used them in your life: a sermon, a visit, a word at the right time. General praise fades. Specific gratitude stays.
- Pray for them by name. Pray for their soul before their ministry, and for their family before their calendar. Many pastors are tired in ways they cannot say from the pulpit.
- Carry part of the load. Ask where you can serve. The best gift to a shepherd is a flock that begins to shepherd one another.
Paul’s instruction still stands: “Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work” (1 Thessalonians 5:13, NIV).
To every pastor reading this: thank you for going ahead. For walking first into the hospital room, the hard conversation, the grief no one else wanted to touch. For staying on the path when it would have been easier to step aside. Your labor is seen by the Chief Shepherd, and his reward does not fade.
And to every church: follow well. Make their work a joy. Then look past them to the One they are following, and go where he leads.
