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With that in mind, we come to God's Word and our current sermon series, Anchored, Stabilizing Truths for a
Shaky World. This is our second to last message in the series.
And as we come to this second to last message, there's still so much that Peter has to teach us, so much that God's Word has to share.
And so I don't wanna take too long, I wanna get straight to it. First Peter chapter five then. If you have a copy of God's Word, first Peter chapter five.
And just to set this passage in its context, I'm going to read verses one through 11.
So first Peter five and the first 11 verses. One Peter chapter five, verse one through 11.
If you're physically able to do so, can I invite you to stand with me out of reverence for God's Word as we read this passage?
First Peter chapter five, reading from verses one through 11. Our text is going to be verses one through to the first part of verse five.
But again, we wanna read it, excuse me, in its context. So first Peter chapter five, reading from verses one through 11.
Brothers and sisters, these are God's words. I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and witness to the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory about to be revealed, shepherd
God's flock among you, not overseeing out of compulsion, but winningly as God would have you, not out of greed for money, but eagerly, not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.
And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
In the same way, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. All of you clothe yourself with humility toward one another, because God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exhort you at the proper time, casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you.
Be sober, be alert. Your adversary, the devil, is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.
Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world.
The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little while.
To him be dominion forever. Amen. Pray that God will bless that reading of his word and grant us understanding as we study it now.
Let's pray, ask for the Spirit's help, and we will get to work in this text. Our gracious God, we would ask that as we open up your word that you would open our eyes, that we would see wonderful things out of your law.
May the eyes of our understanding be enlightened so that we would know the hope to which you've called us. And as we think about this subject of authority and leadership in God's church, we pray that you would give us especially soft hearts.
Father, allow us not to be swayed by our experience or by our feelings, but simply to trust in the simple touchstone of your word.
Father, as I pray for us, I pray for our friends over at Grace Church of Central Point. Came to understand this week that they are currently in a pastor search.
We pray that as they look for a new lead pastor, that you would bless the members of the committee who have been put together to examine incoming pastor.
Pray that you would bring them somebody who loves you, who loves your word and loves your people, who desires to see people grown and matured in Christ.
Pray for their witness there in Central Point. Be with them, bless them. And even in this season without a pastor, may they still continue to grow both numerically and more importantly, spiritually.
And Father, even as we pray for growth spiritually, we pray that that would happen even now through the ministry of your word.
For we ask you in Jesus' name and for his, amen. Please be seated.
Well, faith family, I thank our text for this afternoon, grounded in God's authority, grounded.
We're in the second to last message in our summer study through the letter of 1 Peter. And I trust that this series has been a blessing to you.
I know it has been for me as I have spent time studying in it. I'll say more about that next week. But as we continue in this summer study through 1
Peter, for the last few messages, Peter has been speaking to God's people really about their life in the church.
He's really been turning his focus away from our sort of witness, as I think
I said a few weeks ago. We've turned from thinking about witness to thinking about the subject of withness, how it is that we as God's people minister to one another.
And for the last couple of messages, as he has been speaking to us about how we witness or witness together, as it were, as he's been doing that, there's been a consistent emphasis on the fact that Jesus is returning, that Christ will come back, and that is supposed to influence how we live in the here and now.
In a sense, he's been pointing his audience to their future hope and allowing the light of that truth to flood their vision until it's all that they can see.
Well, Peter's coming down for his descent, as it were, as we end this journey. And as we come to this final section, really, we touch on this general theme of responsibility in the last couple of messages.
Really, the emphasis of Peter as he's landing his plane is, beloved, in light of everything that I've mentioned, everything that I've discussed, there are particular responsibilities that weigh on you as the people of God.
In this final chapter in particular, there's three of them. Firstly, there is the responsibility of godly leaders, which is really going to be the bulk of what we talk about in this message.
There's also the responsibilities of those who are led. So if the first one is verses one through four of this chapter, the first part of verse five deals with the responsibility of those who are led.
And then the rest of the chapter, end of verse five into 14, talks about responsibility of all believers.
We're thinking about the first two of those this afternoon, the idea of God -ordained responsibility as invested in elders and the responsibility of those who follow them.
Now, whenever we read the Bible, we want to be intelligent readers of the scriptures. We never want to just read a passage.
So as we read this, we want to ask the question, why is Peter talking about elders and oversight and shepherding here?
Because on first consideration, it seems a little bit out of place. He's been talking to us about suffering and how we deal with suffering and how we respond to it and what our witness should be, both externally and internally.
And then he starts talking about elders. It seems like it comes almost out of nowhere. And that was the question that really came to mind a few months ago as I was putting this series together.
I'm reading through the book and I'm like, why this? Why is it here? And then it hit me that this is not a random subject.
He's still talking, in a sense, about the subject of suffering and our response to it.
And I don't think there is quite a hard shift taking place from the subject of suffering to something else.
I think he's still giving us value for navigating the trials and sufferings of this life as the people of God.
So again, that still doesn't answer the question, why is this here incredibly important for these
Christians? See, the reality is that when trials come, the one, well, one of the things,
I won't say it's the thing, but one of the things, I'll say it's one of the most important things, that the people of God need are strong, faithful, godly leaders.
Remember the setting of this letter? We're dealing with people who have been persecuted. They have been spread around because of the trial of being a
Christian. And in those moments, these scattered sheep, one of the most important things they need is leadership.
Thankfully, as I was studying this, I saw a number of commentators made this point. One of them put it like this, quote, since even believers are prone to wandering, taking in what is bad for them, becoming unclean, and are highly vulnerable, defenseless on their own, and sometimes naive, the demand for shepherds who are faithful and responsible is compelling.
And when the church is under severe persecution, as it was in Peter's day, it is even more valuable and in greater need of strong, godly, effective shepherds today.
See, the reality is that when suffering comes, the people of God can be prone to scatter, and what you need are leaders who are able to help shepherd and to guide and to protect the flock.
And so that's what we're gonna be considering this afternoon. Now, before we dive in, not going to address everything that could possibly be said about eldership.
We just don't have that kind of time, and this text doesn't deal with every single thing that could come up.
I mentioned that we're starting a series in a couple of weeks called Simple Church Volume Two. When we get to that series,
I will have a whole message devoted to the question of how the church is led. And there, I will fill in with much more detail, and we'll look at more passages of scripture that help us understand the subjects of leadership in the church.
So I can't deal with all of that now. We'll deal with that. It'll be much more of a Bible study type message than a typical sermon.
For now, since I don't have time to get to all of that, allow me to give the definition of what
I think is the key term in this passage. Appears in verse one, elder, appears twice.
What is an elder? I think let's start there, because if we can define that, at least a working definition for now, we'll come back in future weeks and flesh out some more.
I think it will help us to understand who Peter's speaking to. Here's the definition for an elder that I put together this week based on a bunch of reading and considering the biblical sort of parameters for an elder.
When we talk about an elder, we're talking about a man equipped by God, affirmed by other godly men and his congregation for serving the church through prayer and the ministry of the word, both in word and example.
Let me say that again. Elder is a man equipped by God, affirmed by other godly men and his congregation for serving the church through prayer and the ministry of the word, both in word and example.
That's my working definition. I'm going to ask you to do something that no preacher should do without due cause.
Just believe me for now, we'll come back in a few weeks and we'll flesh it out. As I said,
Peter's not going to address everything about elders in our text. There's much for which we need the whole Bible to get an understanding, but what
Peter says here is plenty enough, especially for these believers who are going through in the midst of incredibly dark days.
And brothers and sisters, I would put it to you that what Peter says here is no short change on his part.
He's not being lazy by not saying everything that could be said. He's saying what is most vital for these
Christians who are going through various trials. And I put it to you that in this passage, we learn something about the kinds of leaders that the church needs when the church is faced with trials and faced with sufferings.
Think with me through this for a moment. Why is it that God ordains leadership in the church?
That he sets up leadership in the church? And why do suffering saints need that leadership?
Why is it that God sets up leadership in the church even with suffering saints? Well, here's my big idea for today's message.
Simply put, God gives faithful elders to the church to shepherd the flock through times of trial.
That's it. God gives faithful elders to the church to shepherd the flock through times of trial.
You see, as the church endures suffering, as the church goes through hard times, one of the things that becomes incredibly important for the church is the presence of godly shepherd leaders, or to use the biblical term, elders.
For the rest of our time, I wanna consider four aspects of the faithful elders that should help the church in trials.
Four aspects of the work of faithful elders, and again, it's not everything that could be said, but it's what
Peter has to say. Four aspects of the work of faithful elders that should help the church in trials.
Four aspects, I'm gonna try not to be too long, but we'll see how that goes. First of all, consider with me what a faithful elder looks like.
What a faithful elder looks like, chapter five and verse one. To the verse one with me,
Peter says, I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness to the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory about to be revealed.
The first thing we need to get right before we talk about anything else is, how do you know a true elder from a false one? How do you, and let's be clear, there are false elders out there.
There are people who can find themselves in the office who are not qualified for it. Let's just be honest about that.
But how do you know somebody who was called to this office or set apart for this work by God versus somebody who's just found their way in?
What are the characteristics of faithful leaders in the body of Christ? Thankfully, God doesn't leave it up to chance for us to figure out what a faithful leader looks like.
Thankfully, we get a picture in the person of Peter. And in verse one, we get three self -descriptions of a faithful elder from Peter himself.
Peter, I won't say inadvertently, but Peter, as he describes himself, really is describing what all faithful elders should be like.
So three characteristics. First of all, a faithful elder is one of many. A faithful elder is one of many.
Did you catch that there in the beginning of verse one? I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder.
That word for fellow elder literally is what it says, is Peter literally adds a word, the prefix for together with, to the word elder.
As an elder together with you. Think about who is saying this for a moment.
This is Peter. He's an apostle. Not just any apostle.
You could say he is one of the verified apostles. If he were on Twitter, he would have a blue tick next to his name.
He's one of those. As they said in the area I grew up in, he's not new to it, he's true to it.
This is an original one of the 12 apostles. And yet, when it comes to serving the church,
Peter simply describes himself as, I'm a fellow elder. I'm one of you. By the way, so much for Peter being the first Pope and being kind of the
Supreme Bishop of all the other ones. No, Peter says, listen, I'm a fellow elder. I'm with you guys. And this is astounding when you read it on multiple levels, not just because it's an apostle saying this, but because Peter is the one saying this.
If you've read the Gospels, you know Peter by now. He's kind of the loud mouth spokesman of the apostles when you read the
Gospels. As one preacher, John MacArthur, put it, he's the apostle with the foot -shaped mouth, because every time he opened his mouth, he was sticking his foot in it.
Was willing to throw down for Jesus, quite literally. Only one of the apostles we hear about who actually practices violence in the name of Jesus.
This is the man who is saying, I'm a fellow elder in this here thing with the rest of you.
What can make a man say something like this? That's not natural to a man who clearly was a very strong personality, who knew his own way, who knew his own mind.
Can I put it to you, brothers and sisters, that this is extraordinary spirit -wrought humility in a man who has walked with Jesus, quite literally.
And yet, when it comes to serving the church, he says, listen, I'm just like one of you. You see, brothers and sisters, a faithful elder rightly understands that he is not the only one, that he is not the one, as it were, but he is one of many faithful men.
This is one of the reasons that we, well, one of many reasons that we believe the Bible teaches a plurality of godly leaders.
Can I put it to you that when you see a pastor who acts like he is the one, and when
I say the one, I mean like Neo and the Matrix, the one, I am the special one.
I'm a football fan. Those of you who know British football, there was a famous manager, Jose Mourinho. He referred to himself as the special one because he thought he was better than every other manager in the league.
When you meet somebody who thinks like that, that he only understands what it is to lead, he alone is right and all others are wrong.
He alone is lame. When you encounter somebody like that, can I put it to you that you've encountered somebody who doesn't rightly understand what he is called to?
That's a faithful leader recognizes, no, I'm one of many. I'm not the only one.
Not only is a faithful elder one of many, secondly, a faithful elder is one who testifies to the gospel.
A faithful elder is one who testifies to the gospel. So look what Peter says in verse one. I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and witness to the sufferings of Christ.
Peter writes here as one of the 12 who had seen the ministry of Jesus from a front row seat. He has seen it all and part of that gave him authority as an apostle.
The word for witness here is for one who testifies, one who speaks of what they have seen and speaks of what they have heard.
Now, hold on, hold on, hold on. Okay, if that's true, no elder alive today can rightly say they have seen
Jesus today. I think that's a fair point to make. First of all, well done if you believe that. Not everybody in the professing church believes that.
Secondly, you're right. The vast majority, in fact, the majority, if not all elders today have not seen the
Lord Jesus. They just haven't. But can I put it to you on the basis of God's word that every time you hear the gospel, every time you hear the word of God proclaimed faithfully,
Jesus is being represented by his people. So, on verse 22, the
Ephesians after saying, listen, you did not learn Jesus like the Gentiles walk in all kinds of sinfulness.
He said, no, you did not learn him this way. If indeed, some of our Bible translations in Ephesians 4 .20
say if you heard about him, but that's not what the original text says. The original text says, if you heard him and were taught the truth as it is in Jesus.
Paul says, when I preached the word of God to you, you didn't just hear me. You heard
Christ speaking to you through his word. Galatians chapter three, verse one.
Those of you who were here about a year ago, we studied Galatians together. Galatians three, one. He says, oh foolish
Galatians, who has bewitched you before whose eyes Jesus was publicly portrayed as crucified.
None of them saw the crucifixion, but they heard Paul preach it. And in that sense, Paul had bore witness to the fact that there was a man named
Jesus. And this man named Jesus went to the cross for the sins of his people. And Jesus says, listen,
I am one who testifies to those sufferings. I saw it. And we who are on the other side of the life of Christ, we testify in the same way.
The only thing we can't say is we saw it. No, but we have this word of God. And every time that this word of God is proclaimed, we hear him again.
And so a faithful elder is one who testifies to the work of God as we see it in Jesus Christ.
That's what Paul could say in 2 Corinthians 4, verse five. For we are not proclaiming ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord.
Show me someone who always has to tell you about them. Everything's about how great they are and how gifted they are and how wonderful they are.
How nice they are. Show me that, and I'll show you someone who, again, doesn't quite understand why they've been called.
Not only is a faithful elder one, not only is he one who testifies to the work of God in Jesus Christ and the gospel, but thirdly, a faithful elder shares in the glory to come.
A faithful elder shares in the glory to come. So catch the third self -description there, end of verse one.
Peter says that he's a fellow elder, he's a witness of the suffering of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory about to be revealed.
You remember that I've said that throughout this letter, Peter will twin suffering and glory together multiple times.
Well, this is one more time he does this. And this time he focuses on the fact that the glory that we partake in, that he shares in as a fellow elder, is a glory that is yet to be revealed.
It's about to be revealed. This is one of two mentions of the second coming in our text.
You see, beloved, in this life, this age is characterized by pain and suffering for the people of God.
But on the other side is a glory that is beyond words.
Remember what Peter said last week, first Peter 4, 14, that if you're a ridicule for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests on you.
The understanding of a faithful elder. There, listen, we all are participants. We are all partners.
We all have a share in the glory of Christ that will be revealed. It's not as though what
I know about the glory and you'll never know about that. No, he says, listen,
I share in the glory that is about to be revealed. You see, a faithful elder doesn't just keep one eye on the sheep.
He is commanded to do that, but he keeps the other eye on the glory that awaits him on the other side.
And those are our three descriptions of what a faithful elder looks like. Peter, as it were, models by example what the character of a leader under trial looks like.
You wanna see what a faithful elder looks like in times of suffering? They look like someone who is one of many, who testifies to the gospel and they share in the glory to come.
That's the first thing that we see here. But secondly, I wanna draw your attention to a second aspect of faithful elders that we see in this text.
Not only do we see what a faithful elder looks like, secondly, we see what faithful elders do and don't do. We see what faithful elders do and don't do.
Verses two and three. Now we get to the meat of the lineup. All that was introduction. Now we start to get into the heart of what
Peter wants to say to his fellow elders. So verse two, he says, shepherd God's flock among you, not overseeing out of compulsion, but willingly as God would have you, not out of greed for money, but eagerly, not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.
The main command here, the main work of faithful elders is given to you right there in those three words at the start of verse two.
Shepherd God's flock. That's the job. And he makes it clear that you don't do this from a distance, you do this among them.
These are the flock of God that are gathered around you. You shepherd those who are around you.
We'll say more in the message later on about the fact that this is God's flock, not ours, but it is worth noting that he does say that.
This is shepherd God's flock among you. This imagery of shepherding as one for leadership is a rich one.
I don't quite have the time to walk through it, so I'll just summarize. Multiple times in the
Old Testament, Yahweh, Israel's covenant Lord, is called the shepherd of his people, multiple times.
You all know the most famous one, Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. There was a really awful book written in the mid -20th century about Psalm 23, which
I think over -sentimentalized what that was. That language to someone in the ancient Near East had nothing to do with cuddly,
I almost put a graphic up this week, you know, sort of cuddly shepherd with, you know, really woolly sheep that looks really nice.
No, a shepherd was an image for a king, for a ruler. Not only is
Israel's covenant Lord called a shepherd multiple times in the Old Testament, Israel's leaders, both good ones and bad ones, are called shepherds in so many passages.
Spiritual leaders in the New Testament are called shepherds. We see that here. Same language is used in John 21 and Acts 20.
Time and time again, this language of shepherding is used for leadership. Now, in a few weeks, when we look at leadership in more detail, we'll look at some of those passages and we'll start to piece together what that leadership looks like.
But Peter doesn't focus so much on individual tasks here as much as he focuses on the attitude, the mindset by which one shepherds
God's flock. And again, we've got three of those to consider. Three mindsets, as it were, three ways in which elders exercise protection and shepherding oversight over God's people.
First of all, he says that they serve willingly, not by force. Willingly, not by force.
Do you see it there in verse two? It says, shepherd
God's flock among you, not overseeing out of compulsion, but willingly.
The idea of compulsion is that of being forced, of being pushed into doing this, of doing something not by desire, but by necessity.
I don't really want to do this, but you're making me do it. So I'll do it. That's the sense here. And haven't we all seen people who are forced into roles they hate?
How many times have you labored with someone or you've been served by someone? I think about this a lot when
I go out to get something to eat. You can tell who enjoys their job and who doesn't.
I know they're trained to kind of like show happiness on their face in general, but it's very obvious when they don't want to be there.
Versus somebody who has somehow managed to find some joy in what they do. They don't give it their best, any opportunity to bail.
They take it without a second thought. Why? Because they're made to be there for various reasons. They have to be here.
But if it was up to them, they wouldn't be here. They'd be doing something else. Now think about that in the context of the church for a moment.
If you've got somebody who is serving in a leadership role, but they don't want to do it.
They've been made to do it. Let's ask some pointed questions for a moment.
Are such people going to help God's work or are they going to hinder it? Are such people going to help
God's people or are they going to harm God's people? And I'll be honest.
I used to think that such people were no big deal. That you know what? You can tell they don't want to do this, but hey, they're here and we need someone to do it.
So, okay, brother, can you help me with this? Brother, can you do this? Sister, can you help me? And you can just tell you're constantly having to beg them to do stuff.
And it finally hit me that actually this is kind of a big deal. Because Peter says, and I think this is his point in mentioning this, that God isn't glorified and believers aren't edified when somebody serves grudgingly, scripturally speaking.
Those who serve in any capacity and especially those who are leaders, I would argue very strongly, one of the basic biblical qualifications for them is they ought to want to do it.
Let me prove it to you. Two passages. Keep something here in 1 Peter. It's telling me to 1 Timothy. 1
Timothy chapter three. This is a text that we will come back to in our more detailed message on leadership in a few weeks.
1 Timothy chapter three and verse one. Peter says, not
Peter, Paul says something here that apparently was a saying that was common in the early church.
And he repeats it. Chapter three, verse one, he says, this saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to be an overseer, an overseer is the same thing as an elder.
It's just one of three different titles the New Testament uses for those who exercise leadership in God's house.
If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble work.
Paul says that if somebody wants to serve as an overseer, it's kind of implied that they aspire to this.
They want to do it. Now, someone would say, okay,
Kofi, Kofi, Kofi, you're making too much of this. After all, don't we all have to do things we don't like?
I mean, what's the modern term we use? Adulting. Yeah, isn't it a part of adulting to have to do things you don't like?
Yes. But before you go too far with that, again, think to who
Peter is writing to. These are believers who have been scattered throughout
Asia. They've experienced incredible persecution, locally speaking, and it's about to be empire -wide.
Now, think about this for a moment. What do you think happens when a leader sees danger coming, but he never wanted to do this to begin with?
This wasn't something he wanted to do. He was kind of forced into it. What do you think happens? Thankfully, I don't have to guess what the answer is because Jesus on the second time we need to consider, go all the way back to John chapter 10.
John chapter 10. John chapter 10,
Jesus is giving this discourse about him being the good shepherd. I want you to jump in at verse 11 with me.
Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Pay attention to verse 12. He says, the hired hand, and the hired hand he's referring to are the
Pharisees and Sadducees. He says, the hired hand, since he is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, leaves them and runs away when he sees a wolf coming.
The wolf then snatches and scatters them. This is because he is a hired hand and doesn't care about the sheep.
What happens when somebody is put in a position of leadership who doesn't want to do it and then danger comes?
I'm out. And this was actually a common occurrence in the ancient Near East. A wolf came or some other predator came or at some points, marauders came.
I mean, this isn't my sheep. Listen, this is not worth my life. I'm out. Interestingly, in talking about shepherds, contrasts himself as the good shepherd with the hired hand.
And what does the hired hand do? When danger comes, they take off running. I know this all too personally in my own life.
People who were in leadership, who were tasked with serving the body and when things got difficult, where's the nearest lifeboat?
I'm getting off. It's too hard. I can't do this.
Well, Peter wants to protect the flock but he had witnessed the good shepherd in the person of Christ.
And now as a fellow elder who's calling for these elders to shepherd God's flock, he reminds the elders, listen, you exercise your oversight from a willing heart, not from being made to do it or don't do it at all.
Wayne Grudem in his helpful commentary on 1 Peter says this, no one should be pressured to accept to the church office, which he doesn't really want to have.
God wants our ungrudging service and he will provide another solution. That's why
I think it's a dangerous thing. You see in some churches where there's almost kind of an arm twist, you should serve.
No, if somebody doesn't want to do it, it is better for God's people that they don't do it. Not only are elders called to serve willingly and not by force, secondly, elders are called to serve eagerly, not selfishly.
They're called to serve eagerly, not selfishly. So again, look at our text in 1
Peter once again, what does Peter say? Not overseeing out of compulsion, but willingly as God would have you.
Not out of greed for money, but eagerly. The reality is that one of the great dangers of ministry, especially when everything is going well, is that it can become all about you, the person in the front, because you're the one who's most visible.
You know, people call you the leader, the visionary, folks will want to know what the secret source is.
What are you doing that's making this thing work? And if you're an unscrupulous person, you can get very rich very quickly because folks will give you anything to find out how it worked.
Now pastors being paid, and I would argue being paid well for their work is 100 % biblical. If you have questions about that,
I preached a message. Hopefully, yeah, there it is. I preached back in our Galatians series. Some of you remember this, Galatians 6, 6 through 10, walking together in ministry where I kind of unfold from Galatians 6 and a number of other texts, the biblical precedent for those who are vocationally given to the ministry to God's people being paid.
But for a moment, I want you to think about the reality that those who serve don't serve because there is the promise of payment attached to serving.
And in fact, Peter would have us to understand that there are legitimate and appropriate reasons for being paid, and there are very illegitimate and very shady reasons for wanting to get paid.
Some of your translations will, if you have the King James Version or something close to it, we'll talk about dishonest gain.
The King James Version uses the language of filthy lucre, where we got our lucrative from. You see, money is neutral.
It's neither good nor bad in and of itself. But when your means of getting it comes from either manipulation or theft or threatening, and when definitely it becomes your motivation to serve rather than serving the sheep, check yourself.
Peter would have us to understand that that is not a shepherd's mentality. That actually, in contrast to a motivation for ministry that basically says, unless I am taken care of,
I'm not going to serve. No, the New Testament helps us to understand that faithful shepherds will serve the flock even if they are never paid.
Yes, it's tough, and no, it doesn't make the strain of life any lighter, but they are willing to take on that strain for the sake of those who serve.
Paul knew this first time. You don't need to turn it, I'll read it. But if you're taking notes, 1 Corinthians 9, verses 15 through 18,
Paul says, for my part, I have used none of these rights, nor have I written these things that they may be applied in my case.
For it would be better for me to die than for anyone to deprive me of my boast. For if I preach the gospel,
I have no reason to boast because I'm compelled to preach. And woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.
For if I do this willingly, oh, there's that language of willingly again. For if I do this willingly,
I have a reward. But if unwillingly, I am entrusted with a commission. What then is my reward?
To preach the gospel and offer it free of charge and not make full use of my rights in the gospel.
Paul was writing about his early ministry as a missionary and pioneer church planter.
And in other places, in Thessalonians, he talks about this. He would rather have taken on the fact that, okay, I'm not being paid, so that he would not be a stumbling block to unbelievers.
But it's interesting, in 1 Corinthians 9, he acknowledges that that's a right, that, as he puts it, those who live by the gospel, those who preach the gospel, excuse me, ought to live by the gospel.
And yet for Paul, and I would argue for Peter too, the right to be taken care of didn't trump their responsibility to proclaim
Christ. It's tragic that the rise of the sort of modern televangelist movement has created the perception in most minds that all
Christian ministers go into ministry because we're money -grabbing thieves, basically, and we count every penny that lands in the plate.
That's one reason we don't pass the plates at Redeemer. We have a box. No one needs to know what, if anything, you put in it.
But the reality is no true minister is motivated by money. And frankly,
Peter would be horrified for hundreds of reasons at the idea of somebody putting a price on ministry and basically enriching themselves at the cost of God's sheep.
No, Peter says, you're not to serve out of greed for money, but eagerly.
You should want to do this because, again, this is what God has called you to do. Faithful elders serve willingly, not by force.
They serve eagerly, not selfishly. Thirdly, they lead not, oh, wrong one, there we go.
They lead not to dominate. They lead God's flock. They don't dominate
God's flock. You see that final couplet there in verse three? Not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.
The idea of lording it over, actually, it's a good way to put it. Exercising dominance over another person.
It's a fine line between leading and dominating.
It's a very fine line. But there's a line that exists. And so we need to ask the question, okay, if a faithful elder is one who doesn't lord it over those entrusted to them, but they're an example to the flock, we'll come back to that in just a moment.
Well, okay, what does domineering or lording it over the flock look like? Well, I think our fathers in the faith understood something about this.
Listen to one of the post -Reformation confessions on this. God alone is
Lord of the conscience. This is their words. And he, God, who is Lord of the conscience, has left it free from human doctrines and commandments that are in any way contrary to his word or not contained in it.
So believing such doctrines, obeying such commands out of conscience is a betrayal of true liberty of conscience.
Requiring implicit faith or absolute and blind obedience destroys liberty of conscience and reason as well.
And domineering is what happens when your
God -given conscience, which ought to be trained by the word of God, is trampled underfoot for the sake of doing what an external authority demands.
Let me read that again. Domineering is when your God -given conscience, which ought to be trained by the word of God, is trampled underfoot for the sake of doing what an external authority demands.
Let me see if I can help us with this. Let's not make this 10 ,000 foot. Let's put some boots on the ground with this for a second.
Let me start by saying what this isn't. Maybe that will help. And I feel they make this clarification because of the age in which we live.
First of all, domineering is not exercising authority. The actual use of authority is not automatically domination.
I feel the need to say that because we live in an age where there is an increasing attack on the concept of authority.
The idea that anybody exercises authority, especially with the younger generation, it seems to almost be taken as, well, you're trying to tread on me or trying to trample all over me.
If I can put it like this, authority is not inherently negative. Authority is not inherently negative.
And sometimes leaders actually lead. I read a study a few years ago that said that among millennials and what they call
Gen Zers now, among the younger generation, the rate of turnover from drugs was so high.
And when researchers began to ask the question why the rate of turnover was so high, the thing they said was they hate being told what to do.
You can see how that doesn't really work in the world of work where basically the world of work is you being told all day every day what to do.
So domineering is not exercising authority. Secondly, domineering is not making unpopular decisions. Sometimes as a leader, you have to make decisions that people don't like.
That doesn't make you domineering. It just means that sometimes principle leadership isn't always popular.
Thirdly, domineering is not saying that spiritually beneficial things should be done.
What do I mean by that? It's become really popular, especially in conversations with pastors recently.
I hear this constantly. It's not your job to tell people what they should or shouldn't do. It's not your job to just kind of put it out there and they'll figure it out.
Well, yes. I'll give you an example of this that I encountered in my own life. This was back when
I was in the UK. We got somebody, you know, friend of mine came to me and was upset with the leadership of his church.
Okay, that's a very heavy thing. I'm like, okay, well, did something happen? Did they say something or do something to you? And he was like, no, no, no, no, no,
I'm, you know, well, not to me anyway. But we got to church on Sunday and our pastor, like our lead pastor, had the nerve to say that all of us who are guys in the church have to be at the men's
Bible study. My brain starts doing overtime, like, okay, was he being domineering?
Was he doing too? I was like, okay, what exactly did he say? Well, he was like, well, the attendance has been really low for the last like three, they had those once a month like we do.
And since that was happening, you know, he felt the need to let the guys in the church know, guys, you've got to step it up, please.
If you can be there, be there. And my friend was upset that his pastor had the nerve to open his mouth and say that.
Now, I guess he came to me expecting sympathy and didn't really get that. I was like, do you go to the men's
Bible study? He's like, no, not really. Do I really have to do that? Yes.
I mean, the Bible does say, Hebrews 10, 24 and 25, that, you know, we should consider how to stir one another up for love and good works by not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the matter of some.
I mean, that's kind of a command. You're a guy in the church, aren't you? I mean, it's once a month.
You could be there. He was like, oh, you don't understand. Like, we've got stuff going. He has no right to tell us to do that.
Is it beneficial for you? Well, maybe, I don't know, I've never been. Well, there's your problem right there.
But he was willing to leave his church and find another one because he thought they were being domineering.
They were trampling his conscience. No, that's not what being domineering is.
Here's what being domineering is. Domineering happens when a leader's authority extends to that which is not his domain.
We'll talk more about this in a few weeks. But when we look in the Bible, elders have a very limited job description.
Their job description is to feed God's sheep, to tend God's sheep, and to protect
God's sheep. Please note what's not included there.
It's not my or any other spiritual leader's job to dictate your family decisions, your employment decisions, relationship decisions.
Some of you have, Moldy, encountered churches where the elders want to know all about that stuff and want to make determinations for you.
There was a whole movement in this country, kind of flipped over the pond to my country, of the heavy shepherding movement, where church, well, leaders were basically dictating to people what jobs they could take, where they could move, who they could marry, who they shouldn't marry.
That's not, let me just tell you up front, that's not my job. If you come and ask me, I will tell you most part, I don't really have an opinion on that unless you're actually sinning.
And even then, that's not my opinion, I'll just take it to God's word. Domination happens when the leader decides that protection of self is more important than the protection of the sheep.
Therefore, he's willing to trample over you to protect himself. Domination happens when one loves the preeminence of service and is willing to trample over you or anybody else to get it and to keep it.
There's a New Testament example of that. I wish I had time, but I believe it's second or third
John, I forget which one, where John, it's third John, where he mentions a guy called Diotrephes.
And he says, Diotrephes, he's like, basically, he's kind of running his mouth, but don't worry, he'll see me.
And when he does see me, I'll deal with him because he loves to have the preeminence and he doesn't listen to us.
That's what true domineering, dominating behavior looks like. And with a pastor's heart,
Peter fights that. He says, negatively, listen, don't dominate.
You know, catch language of what he says there. Not lording it over those entrusted to you.
They don't belong to you, they're not yours. They're entrusted to your care.
They're kept safe for somebody else to come and look after them. But positively, not only are they entrusted to your family, he says, there's a positive to this, you're called to be an example to them.
And I put it to you that a leader's greatest power doesn't reside in his bark or his ability to dominate.
The greatest power a leader has is his godly example. So Paul writes to Timothy, who apparently is a younger man than most.
And Timothy's apparently suffering the age -old problem of being judged by his age, not by his maturity.
And so Paul tells him, excuse me, 1 Timothy 4 .12, don't let anyone despise your youth, but set an example for the believers in your speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.
Paul says to his young son, he says, listen, you know how you get over the fact that people judge you because of your age?
They show you your age, you show them your maturity. Titus is sent to establish eldership in the churches of Crete and to put things in order, which was an elder's job.
And in a very loose and undisciplined society, Paul reminds his apostolic son,
Titus 2 .7, make yourself an example of good works with integrity and dignity in your teaching.
I have to remind myself of this a lot, that strong -arming people into doing stuff is actually a sign of weak leadership, not strong leadership.
If you're a strong leader in your example, folks don't need to be told and begged and asked endlessly to do stuff. Your example of care and shepherding and faithfulness and biblical fidelity, that ought to compel them.
And even then, that's not always a guarantee of anything. At the end of the day, only God can move hearts. But here's the comforting thing, they're entrusted to you.
The sheep don't belong to you or to any human leader. They're God's sheep. He'll take care of them. You simply be faithful and let
God take care of the rest. That was a slightly long point. The next two will move very quickly. Peter lays out for us what a faithful elder looks like.
He explains what they do and don't do. Thirdly, he explains why faithful elders serve. Why faithful elders serve, verse four.
What is it that motivates a faithful leader in the work of ministry? Verse four. And when the chief shepherd appears, you do your work, shepherd the flock.
And when the chief shepherd appears, verse four, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
Faithful shepherds are not without a shepherd themselves. Jesus is the chief, or as it's literally in the text, the arch shepherd.
He is the one by whose mandate we serve, in whose power we serve, and for whose glory we serve.
By the way, that's why I'm not really fond of the title senior pastor. You know, some churches have that title for their lead pastor.
You know, this is the senior pastor of the church. I'm not crazy about that. Pastor is simply the word for shepherd. And if Jesus is the chief shepherd, the senior shepherd, the senior pastor,
I kind of don't want that title, thank you very much. Now let's leave that to the one who actually is the senior pastor of the church.
You see, one day we who are under shepherds will stand before the chief shepherd. And yes, that sobers us.
Yes, that makes us diligent in our work, because one day we're going to give an account. Yes, it should, I hope, keep us focused.
But did you catch what Peter didn't say in this passage? Peter doesn't threaten the elders with the threat of judgment.
There are other texts where, I wouldn't even say it's a threat, where the reality of judgment is mentioned. No, he focuses the hearts of his fellow elders on the hope of reward.
He seems to imply also that this reward is guaranteed. You see it there? And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
For a faithful elder who serves in this way, there is the guarantee of a glorious reward awaiting them on the other side.
This word for unfading was actually taken from the name of a plant that was used in the crowns that winners won in the athletic games.
It was a perennial, so it lasted longer. And it came to be a description of something that didn't fade. But here's the beautiful thing.
A faithful elder doesn't serve for a crown made out of plants. No, a faithful elder serves for the hope of glory, one for them by another.
I mean, what an encouragement that would be to these faithful men who had borne the brunt of the ostracism and the hatred of the world around them.
Think about it, they're leaders of the church. People knew they were leaders. So when people start persecuting the church, who are the first people they go for?
They had likely suffered the height of rejection and abandonment that came with claiming
Christ. In the tradition I grew up in, we had a song that was often sung at ordinations.
And the chorus said, oh, when I come to the end of my journey, weary of life and the battle is won, speaking of Jesus, carrying the star from the cross of redemption, he'll understand and he'll say, well done.
That's what motivates the Christian minister ultimately. I can put it to you that nothing else will.
It's the chief shepherd who gave his life for the sheep, who rose for their justification, who ascended into glory to intercede for them, who will one day return for that flock.
It's the reality of what the chief shepherd has done that motivates us to serve in the here and now.
I'm fast out of time, I need to move quickly. We've seen what faithful elders look like, we've seen what they do and don't do, we've seen why they serve.
Real quickly finally, how are they to be regarded? How are faithful elders to be regarded?
Verse five, Peter turns, as it were, from speaking just to the elders, now speaks to the whole church.
Verse five, in the same way, you who are younger be subject to the elders.
This theme of submission, this objection, we've seen it time and time again in the letter, I won't go over that ground again.
But now Peter adds another dimension to the posture of submission and subjection we have as God's people.
And it is the realm of believers submitting to spiritual authority.
I wish I had more time for when we look at elders in more detail. But this idea of, and by the way, when he says you who are younger, he's referring to those who are junior in their position.
In other words, they are not the elders, they are under the elders. This is a hard matter to discuss, because like I said, we live in such an anti, a hard matter to discuss, because unfortunately, we live in an age where the doctrine of the church has fallen into radical neglect.
Unfortunately, we also have too many stories of disqualified, unqualified men running amok and causing havoc.
And I think for some, it's honestly easier, and you know what, I do sympathize with it. For a very long time, I didn't. And then it kind of came home, and I'll leave it at that.
But it's honestly easier, and I understand why for some people it is. For some, it's honestly easier to think that all spiritual leaders are guilty until they're proven innocent.
But can I take you for a moment into the privacy of my own heart for a second?
I went through a season where two different sets of spiritual leadership acted in ways towards me that were terrible.
Prior to that, I was one of those people, I'm one of those people, I am naturally very compliant, especially in the face of authority.
You tell me to do something, I do it. One, it's just easier for me. If I have to argue with you, that's more energy than I'm willing to expend.
You want me to do something, okay. That, and I've always taken spiritual authority very seriously.
I grew up in a pastor's home. So I understand a thing or two about that. And then
I get mistreated by not one, but two different sets of spiritual leadership. And for a moment, if I'm really honest,
I went through a season where I didn't trust anybody who was a leader. I described it to someone recently, it was like my innocence in relation to that was violently taken from me.
And I had to remind myself of a few questions. First of all, who ordains spiritual authority?
God does, right? God is in His word the one who ordains there to be leadership. He ordains leadership in the world.
Some of you were there when I taught on the church and the state on a Wednesday night, and those three spheres of authority, the family, the state, and the church.
God ordains authority in all of those. So God does. And who commands me to submit to spiritual authority?
God does. Is authority a good thing? Now again, think biblically, not with culture brain for a moment.
God says it is. How do I know? He ordains the world with authority in it.
And faith family, can I put it that we allow the presence of evil men who subvert spiritual authority to make wary of it when
God gives fateful shepherds for our good. Now I can already hear the objections.
Kofi, Kofi, Kofi, Kofi, Kofi. What if they're sitting? What if they are actively harming
God's people and they're doing what they're not commanded to do? Am I supposed to just like submit to that and not say anything?
No. We'll talk about this when we talk about elders in more detail, but God actually gives prescription in his word for how to deal with that.
First Timothy chapter five, 19 through 22. Okay, Kofi, what if they're not sinning though?
What if they just don't agree with the stuff they do? I could do it better and they won't listen to me.
Well, okay, the reality is leaders will not always make decisions you like, but you should give them the benefit of the doubt and trust that they're making decisions with wisdom, care, grace, and a desire to see you grow.
On top of that, 1 Corinthians 13 is very clear. 1 Corinthians 13, love believes all things.
After my mouth, I'm a cynic by nature. I'm the polar opposite of that. I don't believe anything. And after my mouth,
I'm very, mm. Okay, Kofi, the Bible says, Christian love believes all things.
Take it easy. I also say, talk to your elders, talk to your leaders.
Part of oversight, as the word suggests, is kind of looking over, they tend to have a bigger picture view of what's happening.
They might not, you might not have the full story, but go speak to them. I mean, we know this in life in general.
How often have people run with assumptions based on partial information and done very damaging things without just talking to someone?
And of course, brothers and sisters, this goes without saying, pastoral abuse of any sort is unacceptable.
Elder team abuse of any kind is unacceptable. A pastor being derelict in his duty, whether it's preaching the word or leadership or the carrying out of discipline, none of it is acceptable.
That needs to just be said. It shouldn't need to be said, let me put it that way. But let's just say it, it's not acceptable.
But I'll repeat what I said before. We cannot allow the presence of sinful men to dictate what should be the regular practice of God's people, which is that godly leaders, godly believers, excuse me, submit to their leaders,
Hebrews 13, 17, making their work of shepherding and oversight a joy and not a burden.
Because I am already way over time and we have a potluck this evening. But let me not end on a dour note.
We, as I said, we were launching a men's training coming up real soon. Praise God for the men who have joined on to that.
And we've been very specific to call it a men's training and not a leader's training or an elder training, simply because men need to be trained just to lead in various areas.
But I couldn't help as I was preparing this this week to think about the fact that we're starting that.
And as a body we're thinking about the next step of leadership in our body. I wanna leave you with three things to pray for and I'll be done.
First of all, for the brothers who have signed up for this training program, pray for them as they start this training.
Who knows where the Lord will have them. We wanna be praying that God would raise up people from within our body to lead us.
If I can be so bold. Not only pray for them, but pray for more men, whether from our existing number or other men who want to come and be trained.
Pray for them to come. And pray for men who desire to serve the Lord in his church in this kind of way.
I think for all of us, myself included, it's something I have to pray regularly. Pray that God would help us to overcome the innate fear of authority, even godly authority that our culture raises in us.
And let's ultimately pray that God would help us to see his way is good. And Father, we thank you that you do give us godly leaders, that you do give us godly men to lead and to shepherd and to tend and to protect and to feed your flock.
And Father, we do grieve that at times there are people who abuse that role. And Father, I pray for anybody who's here who's been affected by that, who knows what it is to be mistreated by one who is charged to care for their soul.
I pray that you would, first of all, bring healing. Help them through that, help them as they process that.
Father, I ask that you would be with them even as they navigate the scars of what they've experienced.
And Father, I pray that you would also not just bring healing, but bring restoration. That where there is a fear of leadership, that may never go away.
But Father, would you also give a heart that says,
Lord, even with my fears, I still want to be honoring to you. And Father, for the rest of us who maybe haven't experienced that, may we be praying that God would raise up from our number other men who want to be trained and equipped, not just to serve you as elders, but to serve you in their homes or in other ministries that you open for them.
Lord, you have a purpose for every one of us. Help us as a body so that we can come around those that you have given various assignments to, that we can train them and equip them and help them to serve in the ways you've called them to.
Above all, help us to prepare for that day when the chief shepherd appears. So that whether we are elders or simply just serving you where you've called us, that on that day, we too would receive the faithful reward that you have promised.