“THE COWBOYS”

TITUS 1:9-10

A long time ago [around 140 AD] a man leaves his home in Pontius and goes to Rome where he becomes a power player in the Roman church.  But, Houston , we have a problem.  He has beliefs for which he will become forever known in history as “The Heretic.” 

His name is Marcion and historians call him “Marcion the Heretic.  And, oh, boy, Houston , do we ever have a problem!  Marcion considered Judaism to be evil and he hated the Old Testament and the God in it.  Marcion planted a seed back then because through the Heretic, anti-Semitism entered the church.   

Marcion, like most heretics, didn’t stop there.  He set up his own “Bible,” that is, his own canon of Scripture and in this Bible, was only a portion of Luke and ten epistles of Paul.  He saw the God of the Old Testament as mean, even evil and saw this God as the creator of the “good” one, Jesus who was the Redeemer.  He believed that Jesus had no human body; His death was not a sacrifice for our sins, there was no physical resurrection on Easter Sunday, and there is no physical body for believers in the future.  This heretic also planted another seed, the seed of monasticism, believing that the flesh is evil.   

Just think about it: he said the real Bible wasn’t the real Bible, that his Bible was the real one.  Think of the confusion this would cause, especially at a time when martyrs were dying for the faith and there’s uncertainty about which book is The Book.  Are you going to put your life in danger if you don’t know which book is the authentic one?  No.

Fast forward to another time and place.  In the late 1960’s a Bible-believing church up in the northern United States decides that the book of Esther shouldn’t be in the Bible and they want to throw it out.  They read of Esther’s immorality; of her breaking the Mosaic Law in what she ate and in whom she married.  They don’t know how to deal with her except to throw her out, not asking the question, “Is this book a description or a prescription?”  Had they answered that it’s a description of what Esther did, not a prescription of what to do, they would never have come to believe the heresy they did.

Who’s going to stand in the gap and deal with Marcion and the morons in the church up north?  Are they defenseless?

No, of course not because God has provided elders to be the shepherds of the church.  I Peter 5:1ff: “Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight.”  And: “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.  (Acts 20:28)

I’m in a car being driven to another week of camping as a Boy Scout.  The driver is taking us to the mountains of New Mexico, which might be pretty to look at, but they become miserable place in which to pitch a tent in and live in for a week or for even for an hour.  While on the way, we see a large grassy area and sheep are lazily eating the stuff.  Overseeing the sheep are two Indian shepherds sitting on the hillside.   That’s all, just sitting.

I remember one of my fellow Scouts in the car, one who loved camping, remark what a miserable and boring job that would be—lead the sheep there, sit on the hillside for hours, lead them back at the end of the day.  Get up and do it all over again.  Just think, no TV, no radio, no books, just sitting, looking at sheep.  And in all of that, looking forward to the next day when you can do it all over again.  Boring.

That’s our picture of a shepherd, but that’s not the biblical shepherd.  If I were writing a classified ad for a shepherd 2,000 years ago, it would say:

1. Must be courageous.
2. Must be willing to cope with long, dry summers.
3. Must be willing to constantly and tirelessly search for new pastures.
4. Must be willing to travel great distances, far from home.
5. Must be willing to endure lonely nights on exposed hillsides. 
6. Must be willing to face danger from the elements and from the animals roaming around in those elements.
7. Must not be concerned about your own comfort.

So, the word “shepherd,” which carried with it the above qualifications, doesn’t carry that freight today. I think of bored Indians eating a sandwich on a hill in that almost most awful of all states, New Mexico , when I think of shepherds. So let’s change the word to bring its connotations and qualifications into English. Instead of “shepherd,” think “cowboy.” The cowboy of the wild west fits those qualifications, and is for us, the shepherd.

It’s the cowboys who are the elders, the shepherds of the flock. They must be able to “hold fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.” (Titus 1:9)

The idea of “hold fast” is a picture of the cowboy who studies, knows, lives by the Bible as God’s faithful message to His people. Not only that, but also one who defends it against the many attacks of the Marcions that have come and will come against the Bible as God’s special revelation to man.

It’s the cowboy who “exhorts” which means “to encourage” the people in sound doctrine. The cowboy is an encourager of the congregation in the truths of God’s Word. This is why the cowboys in the congregation must hold fast the Word, so they can carry out the responsibility.

When studied this paragraph earlier, we saw that these are marks of maturity, not just for those who hold the position of cowboy, but maturity in the faith of all believers—they are those who study, know, and live by the Word because they are to encourage the other members of the flock and to help protect the flock.

Who was to protect the church at Rome against the Heretic? It was the cowboys and the cowboys did just that—they kicked him out, which would be unheard of today because Marcion was wealthy.

Who was to protect the church up north from the morons who wanted Esther out of the Bible? The cowboys.

The cowboys not only encourage us as they teach the truth, but they also “refute” those who contradict it. To refute is to “expose.” It wasn’t all so long ago when a whole lot more people knew the Bible was the authority. They knew that the truth was external to them and that the Bible was revelation from God to man. But that’s gone; now we have Oprah Winfrey who spreads the “news” that truth arises from inside each person. Now we have the disturbing news that each one of us is our own little god.

Who’s going to protect the church from Ophrah? The cowboys, that’s who. The cowboys expose her error and bring it to the light of the Book. It’s the cowboys who show that she’s been weighed in the balance and found wanting, no matter how many cars or laptops she gives away, no matter how many schools she funds.

A long time ago, another man said something which needs repeating. His name is John Chrysostom and he said that we wouldn’t ask an unskilled person to pilot a ship through the obstacles and into the harbor, carrying valuable cargo. How much more foolish is it to ask an unskilled (immature) person to pilot the church through difficult waters, laden as it is with valuable cargo of eternal value.

The cowboys aren’t bean counters, pencil pushers, administrators, or bureaucrats. The cowboys proclaim and protect. What’s happened in so many places is that the business model has become the model of the leaders, and such should not be. When it comes to the church, the cowboys are all business, but they aren’t businessmen.

Be thankful for the cowboys past and present.

Truth to Take Home: Cowboys proclaim and protect.

* = Free Grace Teacher or Ministry