One Sunday morning the pastor of this church is walking down the hallway in the foyer and noticed this seven-year-old boy named Alex who was just transfixed. He was just glued to this thing on the wall It was this plaque and it had these little pictures of people their name below it and two American flags You know both sides and he was just you know just dumbfounded by this. What is this? And the pastor walked seven says hey Alex is this high-pastry. You know still just looking at it and He said pastor what is this? He said well Alex that's a memorial to the fine men and women that died in the service and You know they stood there for a little while very quietly soberly and After an uncomfortable a few minutes Alex, you know his voice now quivering and barely audible with a great fear asked Pastor was that the 9 o'clock or 1030 service. Thank you
Let's be honest a lot of us have been burned by the church For some of you you know, I always feel sorry for those of you that for whatever reason logistically or otherwise They have to sit through both services and endure my sermon twice in one morning You know, they ought to be one of these sort of spiritual surge in general warnings attached Hazardous to your health. You know, this could be toxic But the reality is that a lot of us have been burned by the church in one way or another and so there's an apprehension Studies show and and I see it as a pastor that while a lot of people may be excited about Jesus Christ and You know want to some degree to affiliate with a Christian church There's a lot of people out there that want to remain loosely connected for one reason or another Now, this is something that would have been utterly alien to the writers of the Bible This kind of mindset and in the passage that Glendice read for us this morning from 1st Peter. We see Peter reinforcing now Very specifically some things about the church the local expression of the church that he has been alluding to in one way or another Throughout this letter and he's talking to people you remember who are suffering and going through terribly difficult times And he's throughout the letter pointing in one direction that he nails home the passage we're going to look at next week as we You know, we're rounding the corner this week will conclude the series next week, but in chapter 5 verse 12 he gives the purpose statement He says now this is the true grace of God Stand firm in it. That's what I'm talking about this whole time Peter saying And here it is he's saying if you want to persevere throughout life if you want to especially as a Christian Enduring perhaps a specific difficulty Being persecuted for in one way or another maybe even within your own home If you want to endure and persevere through life you've got to do so by standing firm in the true grace of God What he does now is he's saying That is never to be something in your way of thinking that you do individually That you are part of a larger family You're a part of the army of the living God the Lord of hosts and you are to stand strong Together now he's talked about this in any number of ways, but you know up until now you may have Thought about the church in really abstract maybe nebulous terms. You think well sure I think of the church what you mean by that is the Catholic church meaning the whole according to the whole That is all the individual Christians globally That's the church this passage Peter makes it unmistakably clear that he is talking about not simply the Catholic expression the universal church, but the individual collected bodies of the church And so what he shows this morning is look you've been burned by the church Don't buy into the notion That the church is going to be a place of suffering just like the world the world is far more brutal and precarious What you and I need Is to enter into a deep humble commitment to Jesus Christ through his church That's where we will realize the true grace of God and its fullest potential and therefore stand strong in it All right, so we want to look at this morning and there's three sort of aspects to this Getting it three dimensions first of all as we persevere through life Where can we find the strength to stand the context for all the alluded to it kind of giving you the name The answer to that already when you go in a little more detail on that what's the context secondly within this context Who will lead us in this who's going to take care of us What kind of structure is there for us who will be our caregivers? So not just the context but caregivers and then finally What about the church and its leaders will help me to stand strong in grace What is the culture of the church or the environment or atmosphere all right? So first of all, let's look at the context where you're going to be able to stand strongest in grace And then we're going to look at the caregivers those who are going to lead us and help us and then finally The culture the things about the church that will engender among us An enthusiasm about standing strong in grace all right, so first of all And we're looking actually at just the first five verses for some reason I miscommunicated with with we have several printing problems this Sunday We're not going through verse seven. So we'll pick that up next Sunday just through verse five this Sunday The context that is where can we find a strength to stand and so what he gives us here is some structure He starts off remember he's just talked about probably the heaviest passage on suffering in the book that clay preached on last Sunday Because he really nailed down it's not just suffering In general, but it's it's also in this past talking about suffering as a Christian And so he you know he gives a very strong interpretation the first verse it's an unfortunate chapter division here Because it really blends right with what came before it so I exhort the elder Among you as a fellow elder in other words you saying I'm not telling you to do anything that I'm not preaching first to myself first rule of to preachers As a fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed Shepard the flock of God that is among you exercising oversight all right Let's just stop and talk about that for a few seconds We've said it many times But you can hear it again christianity is not an individual endeavor. It is a team sport And you know just as it would be silly To think that the UCLA Bruins could do as well. They had done this year in the March madness stuff Um, I'm not going to talk about Texas. That's too depressing to talk about that as we'll focus on the Bruins I mean of course they've done so well Largely because they have leadership and they have submitted themselves to that leadership to a game plan to Texas couldn't take down LSU Um, but there's a leadership there plan that together can be accomplished Same thing you know imagine being an American citizen but thinking that you didn't have to submit to the governing authority of this land You do whatever you please that's anarchy right and it's same thing in a family context some of you're saying yes That's what I feel like in my family. It's just total pandemonium In the christian family in the christian nation There is structure as well is not just that it's you know cool, you know, you're my brother sister in Christ There is structure here where we have authoritative figures called elders and we are called to submit to them now Let me read to you if you're going well. I'm not really sure what that means. Let me read to you a pastors and elders favorite verse Hebrews 13 17 obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account Let them do this with joy and not with groaning for that would be of no advantage to you Of course leaders in the church love that first, but uh You know these are these are pointed things. It's not just in some vague way submit to them It's saying obey them And make their Responsibilities they have to carry out with accountability to the Lord a joy and not a burden And there's other passages that talk about the same thing. You say you know that makes me uncomfortable. Does it? Does it make you uncomfortable to think about submitting to the governing authority of the church? Oh that's such a heavy word And you know we we're as Americans we we like to be in control. We like to have our freedoms And whatnot you know perspective is everything in this don't you think if Christianity and life is basically bliss with a few occasional hiccups Then this doesn't make any sense If the church is You know a non for profit if it's you know if it's the rotary club or the junior league and I can You know participate at whatever level I choose to participate and do whatever I'd like to do so to speak Within the boundaries of that but the church didn't like that is it? We're not a voluntary society. We are chosen And against our will I believe the gospel teaches brought into this Organism called the body of Christ and called to live as servants not volunteers before our living Lord And you know you say well, but I'm If I if I'm honest with my heart, I really feel down deep that I'm a fairly competent person I've got a lot of gifts and strengths and I've you know I can make it in the world I can make it in the church. I don't need someone else telling me what to do Really It's so interesting the metaphor the principal metaphor that Peter would use in this passage It's a metaphor of you know a shepherd And you probably know sheep are not known to be the smartest of the animals the Lord created And a lot of commentators will say that there's enough Back and forth in illusions to this imagery in first Peter that it's highly likely he was meditating on Isaiah 53 Where we learn the painful reality that we all Like sheep have gone astray and followed our own path We've told the Lord God. I can figure it out of my own. I don't need you to guide and care for me I might You know retain you I might hold you on a retainer as a consultant, but I don't need you To be an authority figure in my life and tell me what to do But I think we need to switch the paradigm To one that is more biblical to one you see throughout the Bible you certainly see it in this book And that is it's it's not that life is basically blissful with a few hiccups It's that There is war going on spiritual war For instance in chapter two verse 11 He may remember as he's urging us to really deal with the The passions and idols of our heart He says what they're doing is waging war chapter two verse 11 against your soul There's war going on. It's invisible warfare You don't see it, but nevertheless it's there Chapter four verse one He tells us to arm ourselves that's military language with the same way of thinking that Christ had as he suffered and laid down his life And next week we'll get into I think it'll be a pretty fun sermon talking about the devil you think goodness This guy's twisted he thinks me a fun sermon, but you know, I think it'll be an interesting It'll be an interesting time to think together about this subject Chapter five verse eight your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour Okay, it's not bliss We're about to be devoured by the king of beasts See and there's this covert warfare going on and we must adopt that mentality that perspective So that we value the indispensable role of the church that we are to stand together And if we choose to approach life As a lot of studies sociological ecclesiastical studies would show if we choose to approach the Christian life kind of on our own Entering into the church as we please We will fall we will not stand strong We will not stand strong because we're not standing together within the God ordained structure It's sort of as the musketeers said you know one for all and all for one That's the context now the caregivers that is it's getting at the question um How is it Within this context call the church that I'm going to realize the true grace of God and stand fast in it More so than I would if I was just out there on my own reading the bible and praying and so on and so forth And he's saying it's because God has given caregivers to the church to help you That's the word I'm choosing to use to talk about elders he says elders and then as I've already read the verse That they are to call to shepherd the flock of God so you have that pastoral language Intrusted to them exercising oversight now the term elder grew out as you may know of the Jewish context and the synagogue and when you think elder you may think you know old man That's um that was very much the case ordinarily within the Jewish synagogue context that is as min matured within the spiritual ranks They were typically recognized in that way as elders within the church It quickly lost an age distinctiveness to the quote office of elder If there's no other reason just take Jesus for example he died at 33 and he is our chief shepherd He's our chief elder and he was a very young man Peter is well probably all the apostles for the most part were young men Serving as elder apostles Peter now 30 years later Is writing this letter so it's not age distinctive And when it talks about you who are younger submitting. It's really using borrowing the same terminology But the idea is you have the authority the elders and then the rest of the congregation they're called to subject themselves To that godly leadership of the elders who is this elder shepherd They are undershepherds of the chief shepherd chapter five verse four in the gospel of John Jesus himself referred to His role as the good shepherd so he is the shepherd and In one sense the one who cares for us is Jesus say we're the body of Christ When when you have a when you have an illness When you have a crisis in your life and the church loves on you You know, it's happening Jesus is loving on you But it's also Jesus through the instrumentality of his people in the church and so what he's saying here is that Jesus is the shepherd he is the shepherd all right And he never makes a mistake in his shepherding unlike all of us on the session of this church. We make plenty of mistakes Jesus however has chosen In his plan of things to to delegate his Shepherding authority and Caregiving role to the elders of the church And if you don't like the word delegate then just think of it being an instrumental role that we are an instrument through which God Through us Loves and shepherds leads protects and cares for you know because what did it shepherd have to do You know the sheep are just kind of wandering out there and of course that the interesting thing about this is we're all even all the elders and pastors We're all sheep all right, so we're all alike kind of clueless You know, we think we understand things and we really don't and we're just out here wandering off and off in the corner Is that wool for to use Peter's imagery that roaring lion you know just ready just going this clueless sheep I'm just going to pounce on him he doesn't have a hope And so what does the shepherd do he protects the sheep he guards and protects the sheep And in the context of first Peter and the purpose statement in chapter 5 verse 12 That we persevere through all of the suffering and turmoil and even the evil and wicked ways of the devil in this life By standing strong in the true grace of God. What does it mean for shepherds to protect us? It means that they preserve the true grace of God One of the custodial roles of elders in the church is to make sure That the body of Christ Follows this book that we don't get caught up in human tradition that we don't water down the integrity of the Holy Gospel But it is preserved That we might be protected from the wolves and lions of life And of course also you have the imagery of feeding the sheep you remember Peter In a very moving episode in Peter's own experience where he had of course With great strength and courage and conviction and Confidence no doubt himself said Jesus. I know you're saying everybody's going to fall away But there's Peter even if everyone else falls away. I will stand strong. I promise. I assure you Jesus like Peter come on Satan wants to shift you his weight. Listen Peter Absolutely You will deny me It's going to happen He didn't think it was a possibility and just a brief time later He denied his Lord three times and what you have at the end of the gospel of John in chapter 21 is this beautiful very tender restoration where Jesus restores the fallen apostle and shepherd and How does he restore him? I call it the breakfast club We don't have time to go into it But gee they couldn't catch any fish Jesus halls and this mighty load of fish and then cuts breakfast for them on the beach and And how does he restore Simon Peter? He says Feed my lambs Over and over and over and ties that inextricably together with what's going on in his heart. Do you love me Peter? Because Peter I made you to live in love for me and one of the ways Particularly in your role as an apostle shepherd that you do that is by feeding the sheep And how do you feed the sheep to the ministry of word and what we're about to do sacrament When there's so much we can go into this and we can only just barely scrape the surface of it How do elders shepherd the sheep? Well see this is a part that you really got to like because Probably for some of you that's that have grown up in no authoritarian homes or you just have a problem with authority It's because you think that what is being placed before you is a is a structure a model that is oppressive That is burdensome And what Peter is saying is no if elders really catch a clue as to what their role is This is becomes a blessing because they are not to be warlords there to be servants And so he goes into the fact that they are to not do it with out of obligation, but willingly In other words, it's a privilege not because we're going to get something in return You know the ministries are very lucrative business. Well, you know you laugh But there's there's actually a lot of people who make it lucrative and that was a problem in the ancient church as well Interestingly, but it's more than just another words elder don't Don't want to do that pastor don't want to do that because you're gonna You know make a a killing at it financially. It's the idea of don't don't aspire to that position for position Safe so that people can look up at you and go wow there's a pastor You know, oh there's the elder no We are servants and have the privilege of being Jesus is under shepherds to care for and protect and feed his body now I like the way he adds the concept here that that the elder is charged with exercising oversight In the body of Christ. That's really what they're called. They're called a shepherd By exercising oversight and you tie that to what he mentioned earlier in chapter two verse 25 that Jesus is the overseer of our soul As you see likewise this instrumental or delegated function here How is it that elders are to give oversight? Well if you think of how Jesus Has in essence worked through us to do to give oversight and shepherding care to the body of Christ Extend that now one step further to the entire family How do elders and pastors shepherd and exercise oversight We do so through the body of Christ Have you noticed in the New Testament even in the book of 1 Peter all of the one and other passages? Did you notice how For instance in chapter four verse eight he says this is the most important thing like he's just like if you get one thing in this letter Get this above all Keep loving what one another Verse nine show hospitality to one another Verse 10 serve one another with what as good stewards of the varied grace God has given us There's the instrumental role. Don't you see it? Here's the point Stay with me. Here's the point The elders are called to shepherd, but the strategic way God has designed to do that within his church is not that Every single person gets their shepherding exclusively from an individual elder or pastor But that there is a team concept here and that we are loving on and serving one another One of our core values at Christ the king is that we are committed Passionately to caring for and developing one another. It's that idea It's sort of this mutual discipleship and shepherding and caregiving and ultimately the Elders are responsible for these things and We institute various systems and programs and whatnot so that we attempt to do the most responsible job We can but it is all of our responsibilities To love on one another. So here's the question right now Who is on your prayer list at Christ the king who are you praying for? All right, let me get a little more convicting who are you pursuing It isn't very interesting to pursue Who's hurting and you are seeking to care for them and love on them Who is that you know little lamb who's wandering off from the flock and you're running after him in the name of Jesus to pull him back See that is all of our responsibilities and I know I speak for the session when we say we need your help and I By way of encouragement to our session, but more importantly to you I think you should be encouraged that God has called men to serve and in the office of elder and a session in this church That take this very very seriously that considerate a very humble and distinct privilege to Be involved in your lives for the sake of the gospel and that you might stand strong in that grace All right a lot more we can talk about we need to move on because we're out of time here We've talked about the context. It is the church That's where we're going to stand the strongest in grace not out on our own, but in the church Where's the structure who is going to care for me and help and protect me and feed me It's the caregivers who are the elders of the church the pastors and lay elders of the church working jointly together We have a session meeting tomorrow night. Please pray for us But all of us by extension loving and caring for one another finally the culture in other words These are heavy things They're nice and theory How does it work out in practice what what is really important what kind of dynamics What environment needs to be in place that these kinds of things flourish in our midst Two things very quickly It's a culture of humility and the culture of hope Notice how Peter in verse five Says Clothe yourselves all of you so I've been talking to elders I've been talking to the congregation now he's saying here's something for all of you to apply Clothe yourself with humility toward there's another one another God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble wow Okay, the word there for clothe yourself is actually it's very interesting in the ancient context is talking about the The clothes that a servant would put on all right, so this isn't like you're going to Ralph Lauren and you're putting on some really cool outfit all right You're donning the most in in the ancient world the most humbling if not disgraceful Clothing possible You're a servant but see the cool thing about the gospel is We are never greater than our master and our master saved us Shepherded us we returned to the shepherd and overseer our soul as he dawned the cloak Of humility and served us And so the church should be someone told me after the first service It's sort of like in Harry Potter the invisibility cloak if you if you've read that stuff if you haven't don't worry about it, but you know, it's like We all look different So how do you know if someone's wearing the humility or not? It's all of our responsibilities to Wear that humility to clothe ourselves in it every single day whether you're an elder pastor layperson It's invisible and yet it should be so evident and powerful that it absolutely transforms So it's humility that is being talked about that's the uniform I heard a mother earlier this week talked about how her children go to private school where they have uniforms And she said she was so thankful that they have uniforms because there's no option every morning You know, they don't have to go through this argument every day What am I going to wear because it's only one option as a Christian we think there are other options Okay, as a pastor. I think there's other options. I deserve You know to put on this cloak of self-esteem and Reference and whatever ridiculous other things there might be but for every single one of us every day There's one option. It's clothing ourselves with humility and that's where grace comes in because They're really they go hand in hand. They're two sides of the same coin the only way That we get grace Is by recognizing we are absolutely unworthy of it We're totally desperate and that of course ultimately is a work of the Holy Spirit in us But that's why he said God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble The worst place for any of us to be the worst place for a leader to be Is to be a proud person to think you're strong look what happened to Peter Jesus. I'll never deny you even if everyone else does See it's always got to be an a keen awareness. Okay I'm like that dumb why am? I don't have a clue and I go off on my own way and I need daily to return to the shepherd and overseer of my soul the reason God elevates one person in church leadership and doesn't elevate another is not because this person has their act together and is so strong and so area-diet and so accomplished it's because he wants to elevate people That will Through them show forth the glory of God In other words so that you won't see that person's strengths. You're gonna say how the world that they Make it. It's because of the grace of God. I'm going long, but at this point You're stuck so just hanging there with me for a second
Because I don't I didn't give this in the first service. It's just such a great illustration I don't want you to miss it st. Francis of a CC Witness sissy St. Francis of a CC and he said this you know way back in the ancient church on one occasion Brother maceo looking earnestly at Francis began to say who are you why you he repeated it again and again You know that's why are you so elevated in your ecclesiastical role and Francis cried what are you saying I'm saying that everyone follows you everyone desires to see you hear you obey you and yet for that You're not beautiful learned of noble family. Why is it that? Why is it that it should be you that the world desires to follow when when Francis heard these words He was filled with joy raised his eyes to heaven and after remaining a long time absorbed in contemplation Nelt praising and blessing God with extraordinary fervor and then he turned a brother maceo and said you want to know It's because the eyes of the most high have wheeled it so He continually watches the good and the wicked and as his most holy eyes have not found listen among sinners any smaller man Nor any more insufficient and sinful therefore he has chosen me to accomplish the marvelous work which God has undertaken He chose me because he could find none more worthless And he wished to confound the nobility and grandeur the strength the beauty and the learning of this world There we all say the same in our hearts and in our lives whether you're a leader or a Christian See it's the same thing. Why did God choose you to be in his family? That's the great question of all time. I don't know other than for his glory to be maximized
It's also a reminder to the non-Christian that simply because you're you happen to be in a church doesn't make your Christian Any more than if later this week you happen to be at minute-minute park You're not a member of the astros. I mean that's delusional right Some of us need to deal with reality. Are we being delusional about our spiritual condition? Do you know Jesus? Do you see yourself as a lamb whose wayward and gone your own way have you returned By faith and repentance to the shepherd and overseer of your soul And finally not only a culture of humility but one of hope See what Peter says is he's a fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker of the glory That is to be revealed and later he speaks of The day when Christ the chief shepherd will reappear and give us the crown of glory and from a literary standpoint would probably is going on there is Crown and glory are in opposition to one another so what he's really saying is crown that is reward that is glory My reward is glory. That's the point. It's not like you're going to enter into heaven and literally get a crown It's metaphorical so that what you and I are longing for look we've got to maintain a proper perspective on this age in this life until Jesus returns There's a lot of suffering We're in the church militant which means we're at war and there's going to be friendly fire We're going to get burned sometimes But let's hunker down and persevere by standing strong in the grace of Jesus Christ Submitting humbly to the caregiving leadership of the leaders god is ordained for this church And loving one another caring on one another Recognizing that in this place call the church We exist there by the grace of god and so we're humbled to the core And that we also look forward in great hope To the day Jesus takes us out of the church militant into the church triumphant Where we will fall on our faces before the Savior And weep in joy as he gives to us our deepest reward Himself To god alone be the glory in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Oh, man