Keeping The Church Together - [1 Peter 5:1-5]

You know, when we look back at history, we can see time and time again how one army is hopelessly outmatched.

The other army has all the guns, has all the weaponry, has all the size, has every single advantage.

And yet, from time to time, the smaller army wins, it prevails. Way back in ancient times, back in 1967, there was a group of nations led by a man named

Nasser, and they vowed that they would throw Israel into the sea.

They had the numbers, they had the weapons, they had a massive edge, and they had

Israel surrounded on every side. Israel didn't wait to be attacked.

She attacked first. And in six days, the very nations that had said they were going to throw

Israel into the sea were pleading with the UN to stop the fight. It was like, stop it, we can't take anymore.

Well, what happened to driving the Israelis into the Mediterranean? What about this massive advantage you had in numbers?

You know, pressure is a funny thing. You don't know how somebody is going to respond until you apply pressure.

You can train, and you can train, and you can equip, and you can give them everything, but it's when times of trial, when times of testing, when times of great pressure come upon people that you really see what they're made of.

And that's what happened here. The pressure came, and the massive advantages that these nations had wilted, and Israel was victorious.

Well, in real life, oh, I guess that was real life, but in spiritual life, the same principles apply.

You don't know how people are going to respond until pressure comes, until persecution is on you.

How much more in the church, with the church all together, how do you keep a church together under persecution, under pressure, in the crucible of persecution?

Let's look at 1 Peter 5, verses 1 to 5, our text this morning.

And Peter, again, has been writing to these churches scattered throughout Asia Minor, encouraging them, knowing that persecution is coming upon the church, and it's going to be ramping up, that the program under Nero is just kind of in its beginning form, and things are going to get worse and worse.

And I've said many times, I think this is a great message for today's church. Maybe we're not undergoing persecution yet, but the time is coming.

I mean, we think we have it tough. We don't have it tough, not yet. But, 1

Peter 5, verse 1, Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder, and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and to partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed.

Shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God, and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness, nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.

And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders, and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

This morning, I want to draw your attention to two commands, two commands drawn from this text, so that you will never contribute to the dissolution, breaking up of a church.

In the best of times, with no persecution, and complete religious liberty, do we see churches in trouble?

We sent Pastor Dave to one this morning. Pastor Mike, the elders,

Charlie, the fearless deacon, were there at one a few weeks ago. Think about what it would be like when the pressure is on from the outside.

When men are dragged from their houses in the middle of the night because they are leaders of the church, men and women of the church are beaten, denied work, denied the essentials of food, clothing, and shelter, children are removed from Christian families.

Isn't that happening in places around the world? And all of these things have happened during the course of church history.

Peter gives us this instruction so that when difficulty comes, when persecution comes, the church can survive and function as God has designed.

Our first command, you must have, a church must have

God -approved shepherds. The church must have God -approved shepherds, and I'm going to give you from the text five biblical truths about elders, and that's my clue that this point has five sub -points so that you don't miss it.

I think I was giving you five commands. Nope, two commands, five sub -points in the first one.

Elders ought to be in every local church. Look at verse one. Therefore, I exhort the elders among you.

Peter has just finished writing about how the Christian life may be filled with suffering in chapter four. Even how it is to be anticipated, expected, it's part of being a

Christian. He expected, when he says, you know, therefore,

I exhort the elders among you, he expected that there would be elders among them. This is how churches functioned.

This is how they ought to function. In Titus, Paul wrote, and again, you know, I'm quoting,

I quote from Paul, and I'll quote Jesus later. Why? It's because I think it's important to see, again, as I've said many times,

Peter didn't make this stuff up. He wasn't giving new revelation. He was taking what

God had said and presenting it to another audience. Titus 1 .5,

Paul writes this to Titus, and Titus, 1

Timothy, 2 Timothy are known as the pastoral epistles. Why? Because they're Paul's instruction to these young pastors on how to organize churches, how to run churches.

Titus 1 .5, Paul writes, for this reason, I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you.

So Peter, when he writes these churches, he's presuming that this is the norm, that churches will have elders.

The last section in chapter four, Peter wrote, therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful creator in doing what is right.

So submitting to the will of God, even in the midst of persecution, is what those who truly trust the

Lord will do. And in light of that truth, that Christians will submit to the will of God, even when it's not pleasant, even when they don't like the situation, it's in that context that we have that first word there in verse one of 1

Peter chapter five, therefore, therefore, I exhort the elders among you.

And that exhort is present tense, it's ongoing, urging, encouraging, appealing to strongly or as the text says, exhorting the elders.

He is pushing them, pressing them. He's going to give them important instruction and we'll get to the nature of his exhortation in a moment.

But I think it's important to note that the apostolic expectation, what Peter would expect to see in every single church that was going to get his letter were elders.

You can look through the entire New Testament and you're not really going to see an example of congregational rule.

You're not going to see an example of deacon rule. You're not going to see an example of a lot of forms of government that are popular.

So here I could go into that, but that's another day, another probably Sunday school. But notice also that elders is plural.

The only times in the New Testament where it's singular is when a writer is referring to himself or when

Paul writes about disciplining an elder or when he lays out the qualifications for an elder. But when he's talking about elders in a church setting, it's always plural because the idea would not be that there would be a single elder in charge of the church.

There's to be a plurality of elders to run every church. Why? Why would that be?

Because each elder is gifted differently, not exactly the same.

So that each man is a bit of a check on the others. Bethlehem Bible Church, we're elder rule.

I can say that. And we do nothing major. We might do some minor things here and there, go out to lunch or something like that, but we do nothing major unless we are in unanimous agreement.

We believe that the Spirit will create a discord, a dissent, if it's not time to do something or if we shouldn't do it at all.

So the church is to have elders. Secondly, the elders have a great motivation, a great motivation.

Again, back at verse one, as your fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed.

Peter refers to himself as your fellow elder, like he's just one of the guys. And this tells us something about the humility of Peter.

He doesn't stress the fact that he's an apostle. He wants the elders in every church that are going to receive this letter to identify with him.

Look at how he says that, your fellow elder. I mean, he could say a lot of things here.

Like how about this, your fellow elder, although I saw the glory of Christ in the Mount of Transfiguration and I saw him after the resurrection, but there's no boasting here.

I mean, who wouldn't want to do that a little bit just to kind of boost their credibility? He doesn't need to do that.

Even the words he uses, the word witness here doesn't necessarily mean eyewitness.

It can just mean someone who bears testimony to what he accepts as true. In other words,

I believe it. It's true. And here it is. But he was an eyewitness in the truest sense that he actually saw these things.

Peter himself had been persecuted for the sake of Christ. So who better to write and encourage his fellow elders than one who understood perfectly the pressure of persecution, what it was like to be in that crucible.

Over and over again in this letter, Peter writes of suffering, persecution, trials, difficulties, but he always points toward the future reward that results from such suffering.

And he does the same here. Says he's a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed.

He encourages his fellow elders by reminding him that he and they will partake in the glorious return of Christ.

Well, how how do they participate in the return of Christ? First, just imagine, and I've mentioned this before,

I just cannot. I don't think we fully understand how great it would be. I mean, maybe there's something you're really looking forward to.

Maybe it's a wedding. Maybe you're not so high minded. Maybe it's a movie coming out.

There's something you really just can't wait for. And you're just marking those days.

And do you ever find yourself thinking, boy, I would love the Lord to come, but I would prefer it would be after August 27th because I don't want to miss.

I got to tell you, you know, I mean, I just think we undervalue what the second coming will mean to us.

Those who love the Lord, that should be our the greatest day ever. The thing that we most look forward to, just imagine our joy when

Christ returns and establishes his kingdom. Peter also reminds them that there is a reward for their faithfulness.

They are partakers. They have fellowship. Literally is what that word means. Again, it's from the word for Cornonia.

They have fellowship. They have a part in that glory, the glory of Christ. How?

Well, certainly they're going to receive a reward at that point, but also just the great joy that comes along with it.

When Christ returns, his faithful servants will be rewarded. But how great their joy will be in seeing their shepherd.

Elders also have a great responsibility. Look at verse two, he exhorts them to do what to shepherd the flock among you, as has often been said, characterizing the people of God as sheep.

Well, it's accurate, but it's also not too flattering. I mean, who wants to be a sheep? Sheep are not really too much to be emulated.

But Peter uses the common imagery, biblical imagery of shepherding and sheep and gives his fellow elders a charge to shepherd the sheep.

Well, let's just talk about sheep a little bit. I did a little research. And as I said, they're not very bright.

In fact, they rarely recognize danger. That's why they have to be protected so much.

And when they do recognize it, they can only run. Bleat.

And prepare to die, because that's that's all they've got. You know, there's no jujitsu for sheep, they're done.

They also I mean, this is just this is great stuff. They cannot find food for themselves and they need a specific sort of water.

You know what kind of water that is? Still water. They can't drink rushing water. There are a lot of things that they can't do.

And I was thinking about it this week. And I thought, you know what? Dogs are a lot smarter than sheep. And they're braver, too.

Just this week, one of our dogs was out in the backyard, growling, doing the low crawl thing and bouncing around and back and forth.

And I went out there and I looked and he'd cornered something. All right. It was a snakeskin, but he had it.

That snakeskin was not going anywhere or doing anything, man. He had it and it covered. Well, you know, he's brave, not too smart, but you know.

But the helplessness of sheep helps to explain the actions and qualities of a good shepherd.

It was the task of a shepherd to lead sheep away or into nighttime protection in a sheepfold.

And he had to take them on safe paths to places of grazing and watering. And after the morning grazing and watering, they would take a little nap in a cool place and they'd return at night to the sheepfold where the shepherd would attend to sick or injured sheep.

To protect sheep against predators, shepherds carried two pieces of equipment. What would those be?

The rod and staff. I mean, when you go through Psalm 23, it is describing exactly what shepherds would do.

One of them was a club -like weapon and the other had the crook and it was used for protection and also to rescue sheep and also to place them across or to place across the back of the sheep when they were counting them, putting them in for the night.

Shepherds were thus providers, guides, protectors, and constant companions of sheep.

Sheep, they're also figures of authority and leadership to the animals under their care.

We've talked about this before, even to this day, if you put a large group, many flocks together of sheep and the shepherd walks into the middle and calls his sheep, his sheep will follow him.

Shepherds are inseparable from their flocks and their work is demanding, solitary, it's lonely and sometimes dangerous.

Commentator Lenski writes this, the sheep is gentle, defenseless, libeled astray, needing a shepherd, happy, peaceful under his care, pitiful when lost, scattered, etc.

What shepherd could have the care of any part of God's flock and treat it carelessly?

This is a call, shepherding the flock of God is a call to the highest care of the people of God.

God, through Peter, gives a definite, important charge to the elders, shepherd the flock.

How do they do that? How do elders today shepherd the flock? I suppose we can come up with many examples, but a couple really jump out.

First, by preaching and teaching the word of God from the pulpit, in class, in your home, in the office.

Constantly, it is the spiritual nourishment that the flock of God requires. Sheep require the proper food.

They need exactly the right kind of grass, they need exactly the right kind of water. Peter wrote about it in First Peter 2, he said, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.

You have to have that pure milk of the word. Paul charged

Timothy to do what? He said, I solemnly charge you with the presence of God to preach the word.

And he said, you know what? There are going to be times this is my own translation. He said there are going to be times when the sheep aren't going to want to hear it.

So give them something else. No. Give them what they don't want. You give them the word over and over and over again, because that's the way they grow.

That's what they need to hear. I think there's maybe no better illustration than in Acts chapter 20.

And I would invite you to turn there for a moment. Acts chapter 20, starting in verse 17,

Luke writing about the Apostle Paul. The book of Acts was written by Luke, the physician, not by someone called

Acts. And at verse 17, we read from Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church.

So here's the picture. There's the Apostle Paul. And he calls the elders of the church of Ephesus.

And when they had come to him, he said to them, you yourselves know from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how

I was with you the whole time, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials, which came upon me through the plots of the

Jews, the persecution, how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you publicly and from house to house in congregations or in your very households.

Verse 26, therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men.

Why? Because he had discharged his duty. He had done exactly what God wanted him to do. Verse 27, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.

Be on guard, he tells these elders. Keep that in mind. Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the

Holy Spirit has made you overseers, overseers, elders. Same.

To shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you.

Among whom? Among the elders. Not sparing the flock, verse 30, and from among your own selves, men will arise among the elders, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them.

Therefore, be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years,

I did not cease to admonish you or admonish each one with tears. And now

I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

Listen, shepherds have to watch out for the other shepherds. Peter would expand on that.

Second, Peter, Jude would write about it in Jude. This is false teachers are a concern.

So we see first that they have to exhort in sound doctrine. They have to teach the word. And secondly, they have to do what refutes unsound doctrine.

That's what shepherds do. Titus one, nine, Paul writes, elders are able to both exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict sound doctrine is implied there.

Shepherds teach what is right, and they warn the sheep away from error.

God has placed these under shepherds, and they are under shepherds. We'll get to that. But each elder here is an under shepherd under the authority of Christ.

In fact, just to say a word about authority at somebody, I mean, get all kinds of questions, but I had somebody, you know, wanting to resolve a question even last night for them.

And and I said, well, you know what? My authority ends where? Whenever I say anything, it just goes.

No, my authority ends where the Bible ends. If the

Bible has nothing to say on a particular topic, I better not have a whole lot to say other than biblical wisdom.

I can pray for you. I can tell you what I've done. I can say, well, this seems right to me or whatever. But ultimately, that's in your court.

It's only when the word of God is clear on a matter that I have any authority or any of the elders have authority here.

But may I say that it is. A foolish sheep, which is almost redundant, but it's a foolish sheep.

Look, if we have important decisions to make, if I have an important decision to make, I'm not going to go off and just go, you know what?

I I think I know what's right and I'm just going to go do it. Before I came out here,

I didn't go off and do it on my own. I talked to my pastor. And that's my point is, if you're going to do something, if you're going to change jobs, move, get married, whatever big life changing decision you're about to make, there are two ways to go about it.

One, I think, is the better way. One is, well, it seems right to me. I'm going to do it. The other one is to get counsel from those who have charge over your soul, the elders at the church.

Why? It's not because we need to control everything. But sometimes sheep need a little steering, a little guiding.

Get a little wisdom. See if there are biblical principles that apply before you go headlong into it.

But elders have a great responsibility. Shepherding the flock of God.

It is not our flock. It is God's flock. We are under shepherds.

Even teaching it in and of itself, if we're to exhort and warn,

James would tell us that what teachers have a stricter judgment, held to a higher standard.

And that gets right into our next of the five sub points here.

Elders have great requirements. The bar is set very high to be an elder.

First notice from your text, he must have desire. Verse two, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily.

Being an elder, a shepherd, an overseer, or a pastor, is not something that can be done by chance, by lot.

We don't roll the dice to decide or draw cards, pick the short straw, and that guy's the elder.

It is not something that any man can be forced to do. An unwilling shepherd will not lay down his life for the sheep.

Commentator Hebert writes, the elder should not occupy the office as a reluctant draftee, doing an irksome task because he feels that he cannot escape it.

It is hard work and no one can be forced to do it and expect to have a good result as, or to have a good effect or to have anything good come out of it.

First Timothy three, the very characteristics of an elder, the qualifications of an elder.

Timothy, again, chosen by Paul to lead a local congregation.

And he writes to Timothy, verse one, it is a trustworthy statement. If any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do.

You have to want to do it. You have to have that desire to do it. It's a good thing. But if you don't have it, you should not be an elder.

Now, why is that so important? Again, because it's hard work. It is difficult to bind up the wounds of a sheep, to go after the sheep when they stray, to apply the business end of a shepherd's crook when needed.

I mean, I love the pastor that I sat under at Grace Community Church because he had a shepherd's heart.

I remember one Sunday him saying to me, Steve, would you mind skipping service? We just sat through Sunday school, his class.

He said, would you mind skipping service this morning? I said, well, what's up? He said, we've got somebody with a crack cocaine problem.

We need to go confront him right now. And I said, hmm, kind of sounds like my sort of thing.

So off we went. And he didn't do it because, you know, nobody, can

I just say nobody wants to confront anyone in sin. If you want to confront someone in sin, there is something wrong with you.

It is uncomfortable, but there are times where it has to be done. And a shepherd has to have that desire not to...

I feel a sneeze coming on, sorry. It's going to happen. I should almost turn the microphone off.

Okay, may I get scared away. But a shepherd has to be willing to do things that most of us would prefer not to.

Why? It's not because he longs to confront people. It's because he knows that the sheep need help, that they need correcting, that they need to be kept within the framework of the body of Christ.

High qualifications. Another qualification, he must be chosen by God.

Look again at verse 2. Exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily according to the will of God.

He must be chosen by God. The desire to be an elder must be God given. Any man in the office of elder for any amount of time will tell you that there must be a nearly tangible, palpable sense of God's call in your life.

Or there will be times where you just cannot continue. Listen, many of the times on Sunday night where I lay there and think,

I don't know if I can do this anymore. But you know, here are the two rules you'd ever quit on Sunday night or on Monday morning.

You know, you just kind of get through those and you keep going. God demands his shepherds desire to watch over his flock, that they care tenderly for his flock.

And he gives them that desire. So what happens if someone misreads his feelings for the calling of God?

What happens if an elder comes along and he's in there and all of a sudden he realizes he shouldn't be in there?

And I think, well, look at our current board of elders. One from Nebraska, one from California, one from all over the place,

Texas, all over the South and North and Europe and one from India and one from Massachusetts.

Now, who could make that up? That in a church this size in Massachusetts, we would have elders from all over the planet.

So what happens? God will make it evident to that man or to the other elders and he'll step down.

It's a high calling and there's nothing wrong with not wanting to be an elder. I'm telling you, there is nothing wrong with that.

It's okay. But it's a blessing to have that desire. He must be chosen by God.

He must be given that sense. He must be called of God. Thirdly, he must not be in ministry for money.

Look again at the text, and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness. Now, keep in mind that Peter was not writing in the age of television or the internet.

He was not addressing people who had been doing magic prayer cloths that you could buy for $29 .95

plus $8 .40 shipping and handling. It wasn't like that. And yet still, men had to be warned against the lure of money.

Why? That word, by the way, for sordid gain and fondness, for dishonest gain, greedily.

Why? Well, I don't know if it's so much a warning against elders per se, although certainly something we have to look at.

But I think it shows us about false teachers. Again, if we look at false teachers, if we were to do a systematic study of what the

Bible says about false teachers, we would notice several things, several common themes that run throughout.

One would be greed. MacArthur writes this. True shepherds will never use the ministry to steal the sheep's money or acquire it dishonestly like false prophets always do.

Always do. Such despicable behavior is typical of false shepherds, the charlatans and heretics who masquerade as the servants of God to make themselves rich.

Don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel. For a true shepherd, no amount of money could turn him from the work or get him to dishonor his office.

There are other verses that talk about, I mean, is it wrong to pay the pastor? No. And we could pull that out of several verses in First Timothy, other places where even the

Lord would talk about it. There's nothing wrong with that. The question is someone who fleeces the flock, so to speak, as opposed to someone who receives honor from the church.

What else about elders? How high is that bar? Well, the elder must be an example of godliness.

Look at verse three. Not yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.

Now, first, let's just look at this. What would they be lording over? Anyone.

What is it? He says, not yet as lording it over.

Well, what is it? Clearly, the concept is authority. If they had no authority, they could not lord anything over their allotted charge, right?

If they didn't have any authority to exercise, if they were just figureheads, then they couldn't lord anything.

But the elders are to make decisions. They are to lead. They are to exercise authority, but not simply because they can.

The flock should be able to look to them as examples of Christ likeness, not perfection,

Christ likeness, so that they can say to the church, so that the elders can say to the church, follow us as we follow the

Lord Jesus. Now, I don't think there's a man on the elder board that doesn't feel like, you know, if somebody says to me,

I want to be just like you, my response would be, aim higher, you know. But the objective for an elder is to follow after Christ.

And if you follow them as they follow Christ, your life will grow as well.

Peter stresses that there are two polar opposites at work here.

One is lording authority over the flock, and the other one is being an example of godliness.

These are exact opposites. Why? Well, think of the

Lord himself. How often did he exercise his authority over his disciples? I think it's pretty frequently.

That's why they were his followers, because he had authority over them. But what an example of humility.

No elder can live up to the absolute flawless perfection of Christ, but he is the standard.

Listen what Athanasius said. Preacher of antiquity said, the life, talking about leadership, he said, the life should command and the tongue persuade.

Wayne Grudem says this, the elder shepherd is not a cowboy driving his flock like cattle.

And I think that's right. They're shepherds that lead. They don't have to drive the flock. Now, does that mean that the elders should never push or prod or exhort?

No, just means they should never lord their authority over the flock. That word that they should be examples.

It literally means the root word means a mark made as the result of a blow or pressure.

The idea is that you take in some kind of heavy mallet and on a piece of leather, you've just smashed it and you've left that dent in that leather.

And so then the idea is that that is the imprint. That is the model. That is what you hold up to the flock and you say, this is what you need to be like.

Not perfect, but an example. A shepherd leads by example.

The sheep follow not because he's perfect, but because they know he's faithful.

Okay. Elders have a great reward. Verse four.

And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

Again, Peter just reminds the elders of their status as under shepherds by pointing to the chief shepherd,

Jesus Christ. Elders are ultimately accountable to the chief shepherd, the chief elder, the chief overseer.

And this is the only reference to Christ as the chief shepherd. But he's also called what?

The good shepherd, John 10, the great shepherd in Hebrews 13. If the

Lord is the chief shepherd and he has given authority to these under shepherds, then they are, as it says in Hebrews 13, accountable to him.

They are the ones who are going to give an account for your souls to him.

And again, Peter looks forward to the second coming. When the chief shepherd appears, that's what he's talking about.

And he's not talking about some random appearance of someone who claims to be Jesus in Florida or in South Korea.

When Jesus Christ returns in all of his glory, we will all know about it.

The entire world will know about it. And he will reward those who have faithfully tended, fed, and cared for his church.

Peter promises the elders who are faithful an unfading crown of glory. And that wording just reminded me so much of 1

Peter 1, verse 4, when he was talking about the inheritance that all believers will have.

An inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away.

Reserved in heaven for you. And this idea of a crown. In ancient times, you would compete. You would run.

You would box. You would wrestle. And at the end of the event, if you won, they gave you not a gold medal, but a crown, a wreath.

And he says, this crown, after you've completed this competition, this crown, unlike all those others, will not fade.

It will not perish. It will be permanent forever. It's the idea of a reward in heaven.

So you must have two commands. First command, you must have God -approved shepherds.

Then we had five biblical truths about elders. One, elders ought to be in every local church. Two, elders have a great motivation.

Three, elders have a great responsibility. Four, elders have great requirements.

And five, elders have a great reward. May I say that such men, elders, are indispensable to the church, especially when she is under persecution.

Imagine an attack on a flock of sheep and there's no shepherd. What happens to the flock? They scatter, never to be heard from again.

And if there is a shepherd, even if some of them are divided off, what would the shepherd do? He'll go and get them.

Our second command, and we're going to move quickly. You must submit to those God -approved shepherds.

See, I just wanted to explain it. Now I'm just going to say, you must submit, and then we'll all be done. You must submit to those

God -approved shepherds. Submission is the standard for all Christians. You younger men, he writes in verse five, likewise be subject to your elders.

Now, this is a command that continues a pattern. We walk through First Peter, all of it.

We don't have time. I'm going to make this rapid. There's a pattern of submission that is required.

Believers who work are to submit to their unsaved, even unfair bosses.

As we walk through First Peter chapter three. Why? Why are they to do that? Because their bosses are great people?

No, because you are to follow the example of Christ and honor him in this way, by submitting.

Believers are to submit to government, no matter how we might feel about the government.

Why? Because you are to follow the example of Christ and honor him in this submission.

Believing wives are to submit to their unbelieving husbands, even those who don't treat them well.

Why? Because you are to follow the example of Christ and honor him in this way.

Believing husbands are to live with their unbelieving wives in an understanding way.

Why? Because you are to follow the example of Christ and honor him in this way.

Now we're all equal in Christ. So why does anyone have to submit to elders?

Because you are to follow the example of Christ and honor him in this way. Did he submit to the will of the father?

Yes. Did he submit to sinful men who wished him ill? Yes. So if God commands that the church submit to the elders that he's going to hold accountable, sinful men for sure, but who ought to have your very best interests at heart.

Why would you not want to do that? When Peter writes, you younger men, was he excluding women?

Middle -aged men? I don't think so. MacArthur speculates that Peter wrote this because it was obvious that they generally, young men, generally tend to be the most aggressive and headstrong members of any group.

I agree with that. But I think it also flows out of the context here. Peter has commanded the elders to be examples to the flock.

And then he turns his attention to the young men who aren't elders, and he says to them that they need to hoopoe tassel themselves, to array themselves under that military language where they need to think, okay, here are the elders.

Here I am. I need to get under them. I need to submit to them. And that's the picture.

And it's no different for anyone else. Finally, humility is the standard for all

Christians. Elders, non -elders, deacons, non -deacons, ushers, parking lot attendants, people who have no service at all at the church.

Second part of verse 5. And all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another.

Now, sadly, the NIV, if any of you have the NIV this morning, it does not translate the all.

And that is clearly in the Greek text. And this may lead you to believe that Peter is addressing only the young men.

But this is to the entire church. Who in the body of Christ has the right to be less than humble?

I don't think anyone does. Paul wrote in Philippians 2 about our need to do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves.

Now, how does the church survive in the midst of persecution? Because the members of the church put each other first.

They sacrifice their own good for the good of others. They serve one another. They love one another. They understand that no good comes from attacking church leadership.

And I'm not saying that in any self -serving way. We've seen examples of that here just recently. And there are biblical mandates.

There are ways of making accusations against elders. It's not like any of us can never be accused of anything, but there are ways to do it.

And there are ways not to do it. And to not do it the biblical way is to sin. It's to gossip.

When we are not willing to submit to what the word of God says, we can expect trouble in the church, period.

That was the case at this church we went to here not long ago. The men who left and were causing the trouble, they just flat out said, we don't care what the

Bible says. We know what's right. And when that's the way that you want to bring an accusation against an elder or against a pastor, you've already lost.

Look again at the text. To clothe oneself is a command. It is an imperative from Peter.

And it pictures donning an apron with a genuine willingness and desire to serve one another.

And really, it paints the picture of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples, how he tied that little garment around himself and went and scrubbed it.

And that was the most demeaning thing you could do in that culture was to scrub the feet of someone else. No one would naturally want to do it.

But Peter isn't calling for a natural submission. He's calling for a supernatural service to one another, a willingness, even an eagerness to put aside appearance and to get one's hands dirty and serving the body of Christ.

And finally, rebellion manifests itself in pride. Look at the end of verse five.

For God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Now you notice the capitals, because that is a quote from the

Old Testament, a quote from Proverbs. But this ought to scare anyone who wants to disobey the word of God or do things apart from the word of God.

Now, here's a no -brainer for you. Would you rather have God as your opponent or as your ally?

Would you rather have God as your enemy or as your friend? I think that's pretty clear.

But God is opposed. He is the opponent of the proud, and he gives grace.

He is a friend. He is an ally to the humble. It's kind of a little bit of a paradox, though.

How does one become humble? By having a right view of God. And that's a view that only

God himself can grant. If we view ourselves rightly, whether we're an elder, a deacon, wherever we are, if we're a brand new believer, we recognize that we have absolutely nothing to boast about.

We have no grounds for pride. What do we bring to salvation?

Our good works? No, nothing. God has done everything for us.

One writer puts it this way. A Christian possesses nothing he has not received, is nothing but for the grace of God, and apart from Christ, he can do nothing.

Absolutely right. Humility is the mark of a true child of God, one who understands rightly where he fits in, she fits in.

So to review, you must have God -approved shepherds, and you must submit to your God -approved shepherds.

So how does that help keep a church together? I'm confident that there's never been a church split where the leadership was qualified and shepherding the flock of God according to the word of God and the people of God submitted to them, and yet the church fell apart.

I don't think that's ever happened. We live in a country where we are afforded by the grace of God freedoms unknown in much of the world and throughout history, and it ought to be easy to obey these things now, to have biblically qualified leadership and submit to it, and yet we see churches all over the place struggle.

Why? Because they don't want to apply the word of God. In many ways, we are spiritually, and I don't mean

BBC, I mean Christianity in general, we're spiritually like the pre -six -day war leadership of the opponents of Israel, too sure of themselves, too sure of our own strength, too dismissive of the enemy.

We as a church must be vigilant. We must tend to the body of Christ and be mindful of our dependence on the

Lord so that when pressure is applied, our strength will be from Him.

Let's pray. Our Father, it is a good reminder to be told to place the priorities of the church rightly, to have qualified leadership, to submit to that leadership.

Father, not because the men who are elders are better, perhaps you're even using the faulty men in this church to refine your people and to refine the elders at the same time.

Lord, I pray that as an elder board, we would never lord any authority over the body.

And I would pray as a body that we would be willing to submit, willing to follow the shepherds.

Lord, I pray that this would be a place of increasing unity, of increasing desire to please you and to do everything according to your word, to not set things aside for a single moment that you have said in your word.

Father, would you continue to bless this church as it is faithful to your word?

Lord, to increase the fellowship here, to increase the joy here, to increase the comprehension of your word and through the comprehension of your word, our love for you.

Father, would you keep the elders here faithful to you, faithful to one another, faithful to the flock that you've given them charge over.