The Shepherd Calling Part I 1 Peter 5:1-5

The Pastor as a Biblical Shepherd

We're actually only going to be looking at a verse and a half, actually, of the first five verses of 1 Peter. Then the second half of that will be later on, on a different Sunday. And in these verses, what Peter is doing is he's giving instructions to pastors and elders as to their important responsibility of looking after the spiritual health of the people of God.

Some of you know that I occasionally write articles that go on a Christian website called TruthScript. An article that I wrote that hasn't been published yet is titled, The Church Needs Shepherds. The Church Needs Shepherds.

And in the article, I address the concerns I have for what people are put forward as pastors versus what a true biblical shepherd is. And as I start this sermon, I'm going to read this article. And as I read this, this is a challenge also to me to be the most biblical shepherd that I can be.

And not just me, I know the elders in this church as well. So here we go. A successful pastor, like a farmer, is one who is a jack of all trades. He needs to be knowledgeable in the Bible and theology.

He needs to have public speaking skills. He needs to have the ability to counsel. He needs to have administrative skills. He needs to be a man of prayer. He needs to have leadership skills. Lastly, he needs to work well with people.

And here's a concern I have. I am concerned that seminaries are producing theologians who are hired by churches. And once they arrive, there's a disconnect between the pastor and the ordinary Christian in the pew.

This disconnect is not something unique in young pastors alone. But pastors stay in this place their entire ministries thinking this is what pastoral ministry is. This is not a new problem, but it might be more prevalent now than ever, given the lust for knowledge to elevate one's status in the broader evangelical movement, thinking that knowledge above all else is a measure of spiritual maturity.

Now, it's not bad to have a rigorous academic training. Good shepherds are also sharp thinkers, since they need to be able to preach and teach effectively, and also to defend the truth from false teaching.

But in most seminaries, there's far less emphasis on what it means to be a true biblical shepherd. A while back, I was speaking with a longtime professor who told me that seminaries are not preparing students to be pastors.

Churches don't need academics leading their churches. They need shepherds. The greatest model as to what a shepherd is supposed to be is Jesus Christ. Jesus describes what kind of shepherd he is and what kind of shepherd every under-shepherd should strive to be in John 10.

There Jesus says, he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice. And he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he has brought out all his own, he goes before them and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. Then Jesus says later on in the chapter, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

What is clear is that Jesus, the chief shepherd, as 1 Peter 5 .4 says, knows the sheep. They are drawn to his voice. There is an intimate relationship between the chief shepherd and the sheep. All under-shepherds are to follow this example.

The people feel safe with the shepherd who knows his people. They are weary of strangers, but trust the true shepherd to lead them in the right way as he leads them following the example of the chief shepherd.

And this raises the question, how many shepherds know their people intimately? Do they know their family, their occupations, their joys, their fears, their trials, and their level of spiritual maturity?

Do the sheep feel comfortable going to their shepherds with the challenges they are facing in life? A good shepherd is an approachable one. Sheep should not be intimidated by their pastor because of their towering intellect, and they should not feel uncomfortable because he spends almost all his time in the study and not with his people.

They should not see him as the guy who preaches on Sunday and only see him from afar. The sheep should have access to the shepherd. While he is in an authoritative position, he should be seen as kind and gentle.

In the modern day, titles like preaching pastor and discipleship pastor are unhelpful. So-called preaching pastors need to know their sheep. They, too, need to be discipleship pastors. They need to know the ones they are preaching to, knowing how to apply the word of God to their respective congregations.

What churches don't need is a theologian in a corner office that rarely shows himself to the people. They need one who is knowledgeable in the scriptures and also personable. They need one who shepherds the flock of God among them, 1 Peter 5 .2.

A true biblical shepherd, by definition, is one who is approachable since he has a close connection with his sheep. But what happens all too often is pastors out of seminary find a church. And when they come to this church full of ordinary Christians, they talk at a level that most of the flock cannot understand.

They use theological terms that need to be defined. They need to be taken along slowly in the doctrines of grace, not have it scarfed down their throat right from the get-go. These seminary graduates have been greatly influenced by evangelical leaders, because at these seminaries, these evangelical leaders are pretty much at the level of the Apostle Paul.

They treat their ministry as if it is the ministry of one of these leaders. They come out guns blazing, trying to make their ministries like these famous leaders. But what happens is they forget to consider the needs of the people in their flock.

Their congregation is not full of intellectuals. They are ordinary people who have a sincere desire to follow the Lord and need to be led. The people need a shepherd who's going to get to know the people, who is going to be their friend, who's going to take a bullet for them, John 10 -11, who isn't going to laugh about their intellectual inferiority of the people in the presence of other pastors who are just like them.

Truthfully, intellectual knowledge can be dangerous. 1 Corinthians 8 -1. Just because a pastor gets a 4 .0 doesn't mean he is going to be a good pastor. Just because he has a thorough understanding of church history doesn't mean the people are going to be blessed by his ministry.

Churches need a pastor who loves them, listens to them, is there for them, and goes at the pace where a large majority of his congregation is at. Churches need pastors who are there to slowly over time move people forward, understanding that a majority of the Christians in the pews are ordinary folks.

The goal is to grow in biblical understanding and, most importantly, spiritual maturity over the long haul. The goal of a pastor should not be to create the most intellectual church in the community, leaving many in his church behind.

But his goal should be to build a church that thinks, talks, and acts like Jesus. Churches that have a true shepherd will be set up well to grow. They will see that their pastor has a hunger for the scriptures, and this will encourage his congregants to have a hunger for the scriptures also.

They will see that he is a pastor who truly loves people as he loves them, and this will encourage them to love the people in their life also. Pastors need to be those whom people want to follow as they follow Christ.

First Corinthians 11 .1. Pastors should aim to live an inspiring life that inspires others to be a soldier of the cross. But the sad reality is that many churches are lifeless because their pastor's ministry lacks power.

The bond that should be there between shepherd and congregant is missing. And the church suffers because they do not have a great example of a shepherd who reflects the chief shepherd. Instead, they have a modern construct of what the broader church calls a shepherd.

The church needs true biblical shepherds. The bride of Christ deserves it. That's the article. And again, as I say this, it's kind of convicting because it's like, OK, I want to be this as a shepherd.

But this is the concern I have as I see the broader movement. And the group that I'm mostly picking on here, maybe picking on isn't the right way to say it, but it would be more the intellectual, the one who just studies and studies and studies but doesn't have a connection with the people.

But there's other groups I'm going to talk about in this sermon when it comes to what is called the pastor, but they're not really a biblical pastor. So now that we've read what I see as a big problem, let's look at our text this morning.

This is 1 Peter 5, verses 1 through 5. So I encourage you to turn there with me. And I'm going to begin by reading the text as I normally.

Do.

1 Peter 5, verses 1 through 5. And as I mentioned, I'm only going to do a verse and a half.

Today.

So not very much ground here, but there's a lot to see here. So these are the words of the apostle Peter, but they're also the words of the Lord. So I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed.

Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you. Not for shameful gain, but eagerly. Not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.

And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another.

For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. You may be wondering, how in the world does this apply to me? 98 of the people in this room right now are not shepherds. You're not a shepherd of a local church.

But it does apply to you, because all of scripture applies to you. And here's my big idea. What this text, this sermon, is calling you to do. Understand that God appoints certain men to look after your soul.

God appoints certain men to look after your soul. And this is a two Sunday sermon. This is the seven tasks how you are to understand this. We're going to look at three today, the first three tasks. But before we jump in, let me give you a little recap of where we have been in 1 Peter.

The last three Sundays, we were in the second half of 1 Peter 4, verses 12 through 19. And in these verses, Peter once again revisited the theme of persecution. What Peter described in these verses was inevitable opposition that believers will face as they follow Jesus in this world.

Believers need to understand that persecution is a normal part of the Christian life. Life is full of pleasant blessings, yes. But it's also full of opposition as you follow Jesus closely. And this we must set in our minds.

But as we saw one week ago, any difficulty that we face for following Jesus, the Lord has planned for you to face. And he plans it all for your good. So our responsibility is to trust him every step of the way, understanding that he is a loving and wise God.

Now, this leads us to our text this morning that we've already read, but now we're going to take a close look at. And we're going to first take a close look at the first half of verse 1 in 1 Peter 5, where Peter once again writes, I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder.

We'll stop right there. A fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ. What we have seen as we have gone through 1 Peter is that Peter has been addressing churches all across the region of Asia Minor.

That's modern day Turkey. And as he has written to these churches, he has been addressing all the Christians that belong to these churches. But as we see in the first half of verse 1, his attention now moves to a particular group of people, spiritual leaders.

Now, spiritual leaders within a church have certain titles attached to them. The terms we hear used to describe these leaders are pastors, shepherds, elders, or bishops. There are other terms like reverend that are also used.

And if you look out at our sign, it says Reverend Seth Brickley. Only the Wednesday Night Bible said he calls me this, though. So nobody, I think most people call me Pastor Seth. But if you see someone who's called reverend, that means they're ordained.

But as we look at our church, Dog, Mark, and Keith are the spiritual leaders that serve alongside me. And I'm very blessed to have these men as fellow elders to look after the people in this church. I wouldn't want anyone else in the whole world to look after the people in this church.

What you will notice in the first half of verse 1 is the title for a spiritual leader that Peter uses.

Is elder.

When we talk about someone who is older than us, what do we call them? We call them our elder. That is how this Greek word is used. The Greek word is presbyteros. There's a denomination called the Presbyterians.

That's where this comes from. Now, presbyteros can mean an older person or a spiritual leader in the church. When we talk about spiritual leaders, they are to be those who have grown in the faith over many years.

So they might not have gray hair, but they must be mature in the Christian faith. What Peter acknowledges in the first half of verse 1 is that he is an elder now focusing his attention on fellow elders.

Peter probably was a leader in a local church, and he had a greater responsibility to be over all the churches. Now, this does not make Peter the first pope, as Roman Catholicism teaches, but Peter would have had a high place of authority in the early church because he was one of Jesus' disciples, and he was an apostle.

He was among a select group of men. He was also, from this select group of men, in the inner group with Peter, James, and John. They were known as the Sons of Thunder. So while Peter was not the first pope, he walked closely with Jesus for three plus years.

And then the Lord Jesus appointed him to look after the church of God as Jesus ascended to heaven. One of the last things that Jesus said to Peter was in John 21, 17, and what he told him was, feed my sheep.

As Peter writes this letter that we call 1 Peter, he is feeding the people of God. What Peter does in the first half of verse 1 is he tells his readers that he is making an exhortation. What's an exhortation?

To exhort someone is to encourage, to charge, to give a task. It is to command, but to do so in an inspirational way. Peter is giving a task to the spiritual leaders of these congregations. And we will see these exhortations as we take two Sundays to get through this text.

But as Peter gets ready to exhort the spiritual leaders of these congregations, he says something concerning his primary task and their primary task as elders. What Peter writes is that he is a witness of the sufferings of Christ.

We know the story of Peter, that he was not willing to identify with Jesus as Jesus was arrested and taken to stand trial. But Peter was a witness of the sufferings of Christ, even though he was afraid, denied him, and kept his distance.

He was there when Jesus was dragged before the Jewish leaders. He was there when he was dragged before the Roman authorities. He was there when he was crucified on the cross. He was there when Jesus rose from the dead on the third day.

He was there when Jesus appeared to the disciples after his resurrection. Peter had a front row seat to this pinnacle event in all of history. As Peter writes to the fellow elders of these churches, they were not there as he was, but they believed the testimony of those who were eyewitnesses to these events concerning the death and the resurrection of Christ.

And it was written down in what we call the New Testament. But here is an important point to make. Even though Peter was an eyewitness, every spiritual leader, every elder that is, is a witness to what Jesus did 2 ,000 years ago.

These elders that Peter wrote to then, every elder down through history, and every elder in the present day. The task of being an elder of God's people is a very important one. Whatever one's ministry is, right at the top of it is that every pastor, every elder, bears witness concerning what Jesus has done.

In 1 Corinthians 2, the apostle Paul wrote, I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This was the focus of Paul's ministry, Peter's ministry, and it must be the focus of every minister of the gospel.

When people say, well, could you describe Pastor Seth's ministry?

I hope, I hope, I hope.

If this isn't the case, this is a problem. He's a witness to the sufferings of Christ. Gospel ministry is not to be a life coach, an entertainer, a social activist, a psychiatrist, a philosopher. It is to be a witness to the sufferings of Christ.

It is to be a fool for the cross, because that's what the world thinks about the cross. They did 2 ,000 years ago and they still think that way. A minister of the gospel is a witness to the sufferings of Christ.

What Jesus did at the cross accomplishes salvation for anyone who believes. Pastors need to be about sharing the gospel so that people can be saved and also helping people grow before they enter glory.

Elders are to lead the way and be those who are witnesses concerning the sufferings of Christ. In so doing, every Christian following their leadership is called to be a witness to the sufferings of Christ also.

That's what your life is about. You are a witness to the sufferings of Christ. Everyone in this room who has been bought by the blood of Christ is a witness of what Christ has done because you believe the testimony written in the Word of God.

It is the task of every believer to share this message so that people will believe the truth and be saved. Understand that God appoints certain men to look after your soul. And the first task how is by testifying alongside other shepherds concerning Christ's redemptive work.

The second task how you are to understand that God appoints certain men to look after your soul is by leading the way longing for future glory. Let's look at the second half of verse 1 where Peter exhorts them as fellow elders as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed.

Okay, so his fellow elders are witnesses to the sufferings of Christ and partakers in the glory that is to be revealed. To partake in something is to share in something. Peter and these other leaders are sharing in the future glory that is promised to all believers.

Once again, we see the important task of spiritual leaders. In the previous point, I shared that an elder is one who is a witness concerning the sufferings of Christ. In other words, you have the information needed to lead people to glory.

Historically in America, a country greatly influenced by Christianity, towns have had ordinances that the church building is supposed to be the highest building in the town. That's why if we look at churches, they have these high steeples or these cupolas as we have in this church.

It's interesting that when you drive south on Highway 8 toward Minnesota and you look across to Minnesota, did I say south? It's actually west. Driving west on Highway 8, when the leaves are on the trees, there's only one thing you can see in Taylor's Falls.

It's a church steeple. Isn't that interesting? So whenever the leaves come back on the trees, look for that. It's a Lutheran church on the hill and in the sprawling town of Eureka Center. The cupola on this building, I think it's the highest point.

The town hall might have something to say about that with their garage, but for many, many years, I mean, there's a reason that when they built this church, they built it the way it did. That's what churches used to do.

And I think that's lost in modern churches when they turn like an office building into a church. The reason that they build churches like this, the reason they have these high points is because this is the place that people are to go to find the meaning of life.

People all across the community could walk to the church, hear a message from the pastor who preached out of this book that tells you what you need to hear. You are a sinner in need of the savior and by believing in him, you have eternal life.

This pastor's responsibility is to share concerning the sufferings of Christ and what obedience to the Lord looks like. The purpose of the church is to be a place that leads people to glory. The elders leading biblical churches are on this path to glory and they are to lead the people in their church to glory.

This glory, of course, that Peter is writing about that is going to be revealed in the future is God's forever kingdom. This glory starts at the rapture when Christ gathers his bride, the church, and brings them to heaven to share in the wedding supper of the Lamb.

Then the people of God will reign with Christ for 1 ,000 years as Christ reigns on the throne in Jerusalem. Then all of this is leading up to the most glorious time, that time when this present universe, stained by sin, is destroyed and God creates a new universe where there is a new earth and on this new earth, the triune God will reign forever and ever.

Can I hear an amen? Okay, someone asked me that.

Can I say amen? Yes, amen.

I know we're Baptists, but no one will confuse this as a charismatic church, but we can say amen. This future home for God's people will be a place of eternal bliss where evil is forever banished and the people of God will enjoy sweet communion with God forever and ever.

Peter is describing this glorious future for him and his fellow elders as he once again writes that they are partakers in the glory that is going to be revealed. The elders in Asia Minor will share in this, so will every true biblical elder down through history.

If you think of this important responsibility, and I think one of the sweetest things as a pastor is to be at the deathbed of a believer. Like you're there with them, ushering them into glory. You've walked through this life with this person, and now it's time to meet the Lord.

I heard it once said that the job of a pastor is to help people die well. That's really an easy way to say it. Preparing people for that day when you stand before God. What an amazing reality that ministers of the gospel get to share in this together, and they get to share in this future glory with the people that they are called to look after.

We share in this together. What Eureka Baptist is about right at the center must be our longing for future glory. And I tell people what a wonderful place to be this side of heaven, but we're not there.

What's awaiting is far better than what we have here, and we must be longing for that. So understand that God appoints certain men to look after your soul. And the second task, how is by leading the way, longing for future glory.

Shepherding the Flock of God Among You

The third task, how, and this is the last one we're gonna look at this morning. The third task, how you are to understand that God appoints certain men to look after your soul is by knowing the sheep under their charge.

Knowing the sheep under their charge, and this really ties in with the article that I read at the beginning of this sermon. So here we get to Peter's specific exhortation to fellow elders. And let's look at the first half of verse two, where Peter writes, "'Shepherd the flock of God that is among you.'".

To describe the task of shepherds, Peter uses an analogy. And the analogy is shepherding. This is an image that people in ancient times would have understood well. Long ago, all over the world, there were shepherds and there were sheep.

During this Christmas season, we retell the story. We just saw it on the stage a little bit ago, right? These little sheep. We retell the story when Jesus is born, the angels appear to the shepherds and the shepherds go and see baby Jesus.

And this experience of seeing sheep and shepherds is not something that we really grew up with, right? It's not like you're driving down the road in Nelson and you see this shepherd leading sheep on the side of the road.

Oh, however, we do have sheep, not too far from here, up on the hill in Eureka. And there isn't a shepherd that looks after them,.

But a llama.

In fact, there was a llama out there and he looked kind of lazy. And the next time he came out there, there was another llama. We're thinking maybe he got fired and they brought in a new llama. I don't know what happened, but the new llama did a really good job because we were actually right on the side of the road by the fence.

And all of a sudden we see this llama in the distance charging toward us. He saw us as a threat. So he's guarding his sheep and he gets paid with food and water and he did a really good job. What we need to understand about sheep is that they're dumb.

They're vulnerable too. So if you ever feel prideful and Scripture calls you a sheep, that'll humble you really fast. There were predators who threatened to harm the sheep and the shepherd had the important responsibility of looking after them.

In Scripture, God is described as the shepherd and the people of God are described as sheep. And this image shows up all throughout Scripture. For example, it shows up in Psalm 23, the most famous Psalm there is, where David wrote, The Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures and so on and so forth. In John 10, 11, Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Any pastor redeemed by the blood of Christ is an under shepherd under the Lord.

In verse four of our text, Jesus is referred to as the chief shepherd, which means he's the head shepherd. So even though Dog, Mark, Keith and I are the shepherds of the church, we are in fact sheep of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord has appointed us as under shepherds of Eureka Baptist.

The two passages I described above, Psalm 23 and John 10, describe well what a faithful shepherd is like. The shepherd in both passages is describing God. Listen to this description of the Lord, our shepherd in Psalm 23.

The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me.

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Then we get to John 10, verses two through five. I quoted this in the introduction. I'll say it again. He who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought all his own, he goes before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him for they do not know the voice of strangers.

And then Jesus says later on in that chapter, in verse 27, my sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. The Lord is the shepherd that shepherds his flock faithfully 100 of the time. He knows his people, protects his people and leads his people to green pastures.

Every under shepherd will fall short, no doubt about it. But every under shepherd is to strive to follow the leadership of God, the Father and his son, Jesus Christ and the way they shepherd the people of God.

Shepherds are to know their people and love their people. What Peter writes in the first half of verse two is that shepherds are to shepherd the flock of God among them. Okay, this is very important. What this means is that certain shepherds are responsible over certain sheep.

The elders and my primary responsibility are not to the Christians at other churches. It is to those who have committed to this church. This is why church hopping is bad, which is so prominent in our day.

People should belong to one church and the shepherds of that church have responsibility to look after the souls of those within their church. Hebrews 13, 17 says, obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.

This is not something, anybody who becomes an elder, anybody becomes a pastor, this is not something you should take flippantly. And this is why one of the reasons I'm so troubled by all the corruption I see out there in the broader church.

James 3, 1 says, those who teach will be judged more strictly. To be a corrupt shepherd is a terrifying thing because you're going to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ someday and His judgment is going to be stricter than the average person.

So every shepherd should kind of feel like Moses. You know, send someone else. I don't really want to do, there should kind of be this reluctance, like do I really want to do this? But of course, if it's your calling, you should do it just as Moses eventually did.

But there should be this hesitancy because of the great responsibility that is there before you. But as we think about all this, you can see why the Word of God uses the shepherd-sheep analogy to describe the pastor and elder relationship over the people under their care.

Peter uses this analogy as King David did. Jesus did and so many others in Scripture. As a shepherd in the field leads his flock, it is important for him to know his sheep. He needs to know their tendencies.

This one is weaker. This one is stronger. This one is somewhere in between. He knows when they need food and water. He knows when there is danger on the horizon. And the shepherd knows to lead his sheep away from the danger.

He is there to protect them and lead them to green pastures to make sure they have the food and water they need. And I once heard the story of a real life shepherd who was asked, how is a shepherd judged?

How do we know a shepherd is a good shepherd? His answer is very interesting. He is judged by the quality of his sheep. Are the sheep he looks after weak or strong? Are there many missing sheep or are the sheep he looks after still alive because they are well taken care of?

Are the sheep happy with their shepherd or is it noticeable that he is violent and beats them and they have an unhealthy fear of him? When it comes to the local church, a shepherd too is judged by the quality of his sheep.

Sheep who are shepherded well will show. Now there is an old saying, you can only lead a horse to water and it's up to the horse to drink. And this is true in a church as well. Faithful shepherds are to put the food of the Word of God before his people, but he can't force anyone to eat.

God doesn't judge a shepherd based on results. He judges a shepherd based on his faithfulness. Very important. Not results, faithfulness. Is he fulfilling the task that God has given him? And if a shepherd is faithful, there should be some good fruit.

There will be good fruit that will show over time, but it is the Lord who is responsible for the results. The shepherd's responsibility is to create an environment where people can grow. It is not enough for a shepherd to preach and teach as I said in the introduction.

The shepherd must know the sheep. A shepherd who knows his sheep knows better how to preach to them. He knows what is going to connect with them. He knows how to lead Bible studies. He knows how to pray for them.

A shepherd who knows his sheep is approachable. The biggest compliment you can give a shepherd is not that he's a great preacher or a great writer, or knowledgeable. The greatest compliment you can give a pastor or elder is approachability.

This is so because you approach the one you know loves you and truly cares for your spiritual wellbeing. That's what a shepherd is supposed to be. There are many pastors who are smart, good preachers.

They might have respect with other pastors, but there's a disconnect between the pastor and the people he is supposed to look after. But this cannot be. Now, good shepherds are knowledgeable, yes. I remember one time I went to a church where they had a Q &A afterwards and they kept asking him questions and he didn't know any of the answers.