But I'm not going to shirk my
duty. I'm going to preach now. You'll open your Bibles to 1
Peter chapter 5. 1 Peter chapter 5. Peter, who is an apostle, one
of only 12 men, set apart by our Lord Jesus Christ,
to be his initial witnesses and testifiers of his glory. These men were charged with the
obligation or the responsibility to preach the gospel. Paul said, woe is unto me if
I do not preach the gospel. Now he didn't just say, woe is
unto me if I don't preach. He said, woe is unto me if I
don't preach the gospel. Which makes you fear for those
many preachers who are regularly and consistently preaching something
the scripture says, but they're not preaching the gospel. And these apostles went out and
they were given an authority among men that no one has had
since their generation passed away. They were like, in many respects,
like the prophets of old. They were given special grace
to work miracles, what we call miracles, so that when people
heard what they spoke, They were more inclined to believe it because
they had just seen men do things that men cannot do. Peter is near the end of his
life. And these are, in a sense, his
final words to the church. I don't know if he knows that
it's near the end of his life, But this and 2 Peter are the
only books that we have from Peter. And we understand that
these both were written near the end of his life. So here
you have the collected wisdom of a man who had the unspeakable
blessing of being a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ for
three or three and a half years, depending on how you interpret
some scriptures, but about that amount of time, to see Him face
to face, to learn directly from Him what the truth is, to see
it played out before you, and to see Him raised from the dead
and ascend unto heaven. He was among those first to receive
the Holy Spirit in all of his new covenant powers. As on the
day of Pentecost, he became the spokesman for all the disciples
as he addressed the entire crowd and explained to them what was
going on. And for another 30 years, He preached the gospel. There were times that he had
a difficult time with some of the ramifications. I wish we had another word for
that. But ramifications of the gospel, that is those things
which we ought to understand because we believe the gospel,
but they may oppose our prejudices. For example, God told Peter,
in a visionary dream, to go to the house of a Gentile. Actually, he put it this way.
He had a vision of a sheet that came down with all kinds of what
the Jews considered was unclean food. And the voice said, arise
and eat. And he said, I've never eaten
anything unclean in my life. I'm not starting today, you know? The Lord says, don't call. unclean,
what I've called clean, and sent him to Cornelius's house, a Gentile
man. And he was surprised when he
got there and preached the gospel that the Holy Spirit came on
those Gentile people who had just heard and believed the gospel
came on them and he expressed himself the same way he had expressed
himself through the apostles on the day of Pentecost. And
he says, now I see of a certainty that God is no respecter of persons. Don't you think that anybody
who understood anything about grace would already know that?
He was an apostle. The doctrine of grace had not
worked its way through his entire mind yet and flipped all the
switches that need to be flipped from whatever they were to a
new understanding. But he'd gone through 30 years
of this, of being wrong and being corrected. He'd seen the fruits of gospel
preaching. He'd seen what goes on in churches.
because I'm sure he was familiar with the goings on in many of
the churches. He knew the troubles and the
stresses of the ministry, ministry of the word. He knew the conflicts
that arise within congregations and even between congregations. He had seen some who seemed or
appeared so promising at the beginning but fizzled out somewhere
along the way. He'd also seen those who didn't
seem to have anything. They make a profession of faith,
you know, and you say, well, we'll see. And they turned out
to be the faithful. He'd seen just about everything
that any minister of the gospel has seen since. And with the
wisdom of the revelations given to him and the experience he
had, you know, up to that point, he speaks these things. Now that's
the kind of person I want to listen to. You know, we, we have a, I say,
we general Christendom has a mistaken notion that, um, The way to make
a minister is to send him off to seminary and give him a head
full of knowledge and when he gets out at about the age of
27, 28, let him send his resume out and some church will hire
him. Now there are some, that's the pattern they went and it
worked out just fine. But someone having the wisdom and experience
to shepherd the flock of God at that age without any experience
it's a rare thing. Well Peter had the experience
and so he says to the elders among you. Now we're going to
find in these words that he speaks the first four verses which were
directed specifically to the leadership in the church. We're
going to discover that that what most of religion has divided
into three offices is all just one. One job described three
different ways. You know, we hear of religions
that have these hierarchies. You know, you've got bishops,
and under them, pastors, and under them, elders. The Bible
knows of no such thing. pastors, elders, it's all the
same people. It's just, and you know these
aren't titles, they're just descriptions of what they do, or why it is
they're able to do it. For instance, he says to the
elders, why were these leaders called elders? Because generally
speaking, none of them were ever into the position to lead until
they had some years, that is some experience, so they weren't
talking through their hat about things they didn't know anything
about. I was only 32 when I came here
and I'd already been pastoring a church since I was 28 and a
half. I had some experience before I came here. You can pity the people I was,
first, when I was back in Owensboro, they had somebody just about
as green as can be. There never comes a point when
anybody has all wisdom, all understanding, and they're never going to grow
from that point. We should all be growing, we
should all be maturing in Christ, and that's true of pastors as
much as it is anybody else. But they were called elders because
generally speaking, they weren't put into their position until
they had some experience behind them. So much so that Paul had
to tell Timothy, and we don't know what Timothy's age was,
but he said, don't let anybody despise your youth. So evidently,
Timothy was one of those exceptions that proves the rule. He was
quite young, but had a remarkable level of wisdom for someone who
was so young. Therefore, he could carry out
the work that God gave him to do, but there were people who
were taken back by how young he was. But elders, he said, I appeal as a fellow
elder. You notice he didn't say, now
I'm the apostle, you listen to me. This word appeal, is the word
that is used to describe the Holy Spirit, is our comforter. It's used to describe the Lord
Jesus Christ as our advocate. It's the word, actually they dragged it right
into English, but only in religious circles, but the word paraclete.
And it comes from a Greek word that means called alongside. And it has many applications.
But the idea in all of them is that one has either been called
on to help by someone in trouble, for instance, the defendant in
a criminal case. His lawyer is one of these that's
called alongside to help him. And it's used to describe what
beggars say. We beg. But the idea is whoever draws
near is drawing near in intimacy. Drawing near as someone who himself
or he binds himself to the trouble. It's not someone who stands afar
off. It's someone who comes close. And so here's Peter, and I'm
sure that people would hear stories about Peter. I'm sure there were
stories about him that weren't even true. The Lord gave him the ability
to do some miracles, and I'll bet you some people even invented
miracles. When folks get together and talk,
one of them say, well, I saw Peter when he did such and such.
Well, I saw Peter when he did this. I saw Peter, you know,
before long, they're telling stories that aren't even true,
trying to outmaneuver. But these apostles, no doubt,
people, being people, elevated them far out of measure. And what does he say to these
elders? These leaders in the individual churches, I appeal
to you, not as the authoritative I don't bark at you. I'm not commanding you. I'm appealing. I draw near. You and I are one. I appeal to you as a fellow elder,
a witness of Christ's suffering and is one who also will share
in the glory to be revealed. And here's his appeal to them.
Be shepherds of God's flock. So we've got elders. This word
translated be shepherds, if you turn it into a noun, that's the
word that the Bible translates pastor. A pastor is a shepherd. Once again, pastor's not a title,
pastor's a job. And this job is given, or this
name is given to those who do this kind of work because care for God's sheep is what
their work is. heard people say, well you know
I want to establish a ministry. Look, if God's called you to
ministry then He's already established what your ministry is. It's right
here. It's to feed the flock of God,
to be a shepherd to the flock of God. It's to watch out for
them. So he said, be shepherds of God's
flock that is under your care, serving as overseers. Now that
word overseer in the King James is translated bishop. I have
no idea where the word bishop came from. Probably ought to
get on Google and find out. When they translated the King
James, or translated into the English, which is now called
the King James Version, The translators were given rules that they had
to follow in the translation. And nearly all of them were quite
good. We wouldn't have any problem. But there was one that was just
awful. It said, all the old ecclesiastical
terms will be preserved, like baptize, bishop, and church. And the reason that rule was
put there is because if the people ever found out what those words
or the original Greek words behind those translations, they ever
found out what it was? It would bring down the Anglican Church.
And this translation was being put together under the authority
of the king, who's considered head of the Anglican Church.
Because you see, the word for baptize, its most basic meaning
is to immerse. And that would have undermined
their whole baby sprinkling process by which they get people into
the church and then spend the rest of their lives keeping them
in. If they would have translated the word for church as it really
is, something meaning assembly, they wouldn't be able to set
forth to people the idea that the church is something you come
to instead of the church is what you are. They had the idea that, you know,
that the church was that hierarchy. It was all those authorities. The bishop, archbishop, that
means top bishop, you know. And that was the church. And
the members of the church were just there. They weren't the
church. They were going to church. And so they wanted the word church
there because that kept it from the people, that the assembly
is the church. And in this word that was translated
bishop, which referred to a high office within the Anglican church,
it is the word episkopos, the Episcopalians. I'm sure you've
heard of them. They are the American version
of the Anglican church, but that word, made up of two Greek words, which
means to oversee or to watch over. Now that kind of takes all the
high and mighty out of the job, doesn't it? It's not a job wherein
a person is served. It's not a job wherein a person
is looked up to. It's not a job that gives him
the right to wear fancy robes and go out with a special hat
so that everybody knows that he's bigger, better, stronger,
higher than everybody else. It is a job such as might be
given to a servant when he is sent by the master to take care
of someone whom the master loves. You go and see to his needs. He isn't someone who's above
an elder or above the pastor slash shepherd. He is the elder,
he is the pastor, and he is to oversee God's flock, but not
oversee it, and he mentions it specifically here later, not
as going and trying to boss their individual lives, but to care
for their souls in whatever fashion God enables him to, and that's
primarily through the preaching, whether it be preaching from
the pulpit or face-to-face in the house, talk, whatever. His
job is to look out for the sheep. And he says, don't do this because
you must. Do it because you are willing. Now, you know I'm kind of morbidly
fascinated with the passing of time. And I have no idea when
my ministry here will cease. Don't have much idea about the
future at all. But I know this. I'm within shouting distance
of that, simply by virtue of my age. There comes a point when
the work of a ministry, even in a church as small as this,
simply becomes more than a man can deal with. Maybe he can still
preach, but the pastoring care, things like that. I don't know
how much longer that will go on. I'll do it as long as I can
and you're willing for me to do it. But I can tell you this, even
as I think about the prospect of retirement, it breaks my heart. I'm torn between two places.
I'm torn between my kids down south and you all up here. And I told Bonnie once, I said,
you know, no matter what I do in retirement, I'm going to be
separated from people I love and who I want to be with. If
we retire and move down south, we're going to be separated from
you. If we retire and stay here, we're
going to be separated, continue to be separated from our children
and grandchildren. Now I say all this to point out what I
do here, I'm glad to do. I'm glad to do it. I want to
do it. I'm willing. I don't do this
because I'm under any obligation. And that's the way everyone who
serves in God's church should serve. True, there are times
when it was time to go here to the building and meet, and there's
part of me that said, man, I'm tired, or I'm just frustrated,
or I'm in a bad mood, I wish I didn't have to do this, and
I would go and carry it out because I knew it's expected of me. But the fact is, I love preaching
the gospel, and I love preaching it to you. I rejoice in the fact Some of
you have been coming to listen for over 30 years. I'm one of these guys that's
always thinking I won't be accepted. But I told somebody, I said,
but they keep coming back. And they've had plenty of opportunity
to go elsewhere. And that tells me that this work
is not being carried out by me. What grace you and I have been
blessed with that we've walked together all these years in one
truth, repeating it over and over. And even through whatever
disagreements may have come up, God has enabled us to persevere
in that one thing which we absolutely agree on. Not every church has that blessing.
I thank God for it, and I'm glad to be here. He says, not greedy
for money, but eager to serve. You know, money is always a touchy
subject. In fact, it's such a touchy subject,
my parents taught me you don't talk about money. And we didn't. I had no idea what my dad made
or what the bills were or anything. which meant when I left the house
on my own, I didn't know much anything about money or handling
it. But nonetheless, this money is such a touchy thing and it
becomes an issue. When preachers go out, you know,
and they send out their resume and the preacher, excuse me,
a church thinks, well, let's try him out. They like his preaching.
Well, then they got to sit down and negotiate the pay package. Brother Milton Howard told me
that when he left Mexico because it was no longer safe for a white
man to be down in the state of Chiapas where he was. And the
church where he is now wanted him to be pastor for them. So they called him and he said,
fine, I'll do that. And then one of the men in the
meeting, he said, well, gonna have to bring up that dirty word."
He said, what? Money. Milton said, why? Whatever y'all give me be fine.
That's the way someone called of God deals with money. He's there to serve not to be
served. He liked the Lord. The Lord said,
the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve. Now having
said that I want to I want to thank you all that you take such
good care of me. I'm, I got no complaints. I got nothing to fuss about.
And, uh, but here it is in the scripture, you know, money is
just not worth falling out over. And therefore he says to them,
to these leaders in the church, don't be greedy. Don't let them
think. that the only reason you're doing
this is because you're getting paid. Serve. Verse 3, not lording it over
those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. Those
put in leadership are not supposed to consider themselves above
those to whom they minister, as though the people should be
looking up to them and should Be afraid of them. You've seen
those kind of preachers, haven't you? They walk in a room and
all at once, you know, everybody starts putting on religion, you
know, and starts talking different than they were, differently than
they were before the preacher walked in. And they stand there
with such an august gaze about them. That's not what leadership
in the church is about. Our Lord wasn't even that way.
We don't lord it over God's flock. Why? Because they already have
a Lord. Rather, they simply set an example. Teach and then live out what
you're telling them. Paul said, follow me as I follow
Christ. He didn't say follow me because
I'm the Apostle Paul. He said, I'm just going to give
you an example of what it's like to follow Christ. I've, you know, so Paul said,
I've exhorted you to follow Christ, now let me show you how it's
done. And then he said in verse four,
and when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of
glory that will never fade away. Now brethren, this is exciting. When the chief shepherd shall
appear. Now, first of all, I find this exciting because it means
there is a chief shepherd. I'm a shepherd. I'm glad there's
one bigger than me. I'm glad there is a shepherd
of God's flock, bigger, stronger, wiser, more committed, more helpful
than me. There's a chief shepherd who
works in and through these under-shepherds that he sends out. So there is
a chief shepherd. You know, thinking about whenever
that time comes that I'm no longer the pastor here, and you wonder,
well, what are we going to do for a pastor then? Well, remember
this. You already have a pastor who is in heaven. And I don't
mean that the church ought to say, well, then we don't need
a pastor. No. Just that understand the chief shepherd will not let
you go without what is good for you if you want it. I remember
Henry once said, I think some of these small churches that
don't have pastors, well, they don't have them because they
don't want them. No matter what they say, they must not want
them, because the scriptures say God will give good things
to his children. He'll give to those that ask. Well, evidently, he, in searching
their hearts, realizes they're not interested. And then verse four, and when
the chief shepherd appears, our Lord is the chief shepherd and
he's coming. He will appear. He will be made
manifest. The day is coming when all of
us will see him who loved us and gave himself for us. We'll
see him who's truly been our shepherd. And we'll see him in all his
glory as we've only imagined him now. We'll see him completely
vindicated before all flesh. We'll see him as our advocate,
as our glorious righteousness, as the one who gives us access
to the Father in all his blessings. We'll see him as the mighty warrior
slash conqueror who has gone ahead of us kept our foes at
bay so that we wouldn't be destroyed. I don't want to take away from
any honor that a person might deserve, though I don't know
if any of us deserve any honor, but I hear people talking about
Peter saying, oh he was such a warrior for the gospel. And
I want to think, are you kidding? The book of Revelation says,
and I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and he that sat
upon it was called faithful and true, and in righteousness he
doth judge and make war. And all the armies that were
in heaven followed him. He's David who takes down Goliath
and then leads his army. And they just follow him and
scoop up the spoils. It's the Lord who confronts the
enemy. It's the Lord who pushed to death those who would, spiritually
speaking, put us to death if they could. They don't see Him, and they
don't even believe He's there. That's why they go on. That's
why these enemies of God's people continue in their persecution
of the people of God, their troubling of the people of God, they don't
think they're ever going to have to answer for it. They don't
see Him and they don't believe Him. We don't see Him. Remember
what Peter said in the first chapter? The one that even though
you haven't seen Him, you love Him. Well, that day is coming when
we who love Him will see Him and so will those who were His
enemies and our enemies, spiritually speaking, who troubled us. And they're gonna say, uh-oh. I've been an enemy of the most
glorious person in and out of the universe. The chief shepherd will appear
and he goes and you will receive the crown of glory that will
never fade away. Now is this some special crown
that elders slash pastors slash overseers get that you're quote
common believer doesn't get? No. It's just this, leaders in
the church are at the forefront And they become the targeted
enemies of the enemies of God. Now all of God's people are called
on to persevere to the end, but he points this especially
to those who are going to probably experience much more of a desire
to give up. And I said to you, I'm glad to
do what I do. I do it willingly. But there are some times I think
to myself, boy, I wish I didn't have to do this. Fortunately,
by the grace of God, they don't last long. I think it'd sure
be nice just to lay this down. And so he tells them, you keep
going. Yes, you'll be persecuted. Yes,
you'll be disappointed. Yes, just like your master, things
will happen to you that are unjust. But when the chief shepherd appears,
he will bring a crown of glory that never fades away. You may
be nothing in this world, and you know, this applies to every
one of us here. You may be nothing in this world,
you're gonna be like Christ in the next one. You may be held
in contempt, and mocked and verbally abused and considered the offscouring
of the world. The early Christians were. He said, but when the chief shepherd
shows up, you will be glorified. You will be made like him. The
crowns they speak of are not crowns to rule, but crowns to
show victory. Because faith is the victory
that overcomes the world. It's not that faith brings victory,
faith is the victory. God gives faith to his people,
he perseveres in them, and therefore they persevere. And when they
die, they die in faith. They die pursuing the one who
first pursued them, and they are made like him, glorious. with a glory that never
fades away. I look at pictures of me as a
young man, teenager and young man, and then I look in the mirror
and I think, what happened to that guy? Was he in a bad accident or what? Whatever handsomeness I may have
possessed, at 20 years old or something like that? Nah, it's
fated. Very fated. But to every child of God will
be given this crown of victory, and it's really not gonna be
something they literally wear on their heads, this crown of
victory, having believed when everybody else said don't believe.
It will be the glory. that they are given. It will
be the transformation of their persons into that which is perfect,
flawless, and glorious. Kings wear crowns and victors
wear crowns because without those crowns you wouldn't have known
that they were any better than anybody or more powerful than
anybody else. But the glory that shall be revealed in us when
we see Christ in all his glory That will be our crown, and we
won't need to wear something to let everyone know that we
are the beloved of the Lord, that we were the sheep of his
pasture, and that while we were mocked
and ridiculed or held in low regard or whatever, that all
that time we were the children of a gracious father, the wife
of a fierce, and glorious husband and under the watch care of the
most tender yet most powerful spirit. Boy, how blessed we are. We won't
know it until we see it all. I think no matter how much we
try to elevate our minds to understand those spiritual blessings that
are in Christ Jesus, I think that when we get them, we're
gonna go, Oh my, I never imagined this. So, if you have never yet called
upon the name of the Lord for salvation, do so. Do so. It's written, whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And if you have
called upon him, keep calling on him. Don't quit, don't stop. Because at the end, there's something
glorious. There's a lot of glorious things
going on now. Maybe we need to pay attention to those, too.
But I tell you, the end to which we're headed, unspeakable. Well, may the Lord grant His
grace.