First Peter, chapter five, verse number one. The elders which are among you I exhort. I am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. The victory, if you like. Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly. Not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. Neither is being lords over God's heritage, but being in samples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. As Heavenly Father, that your direction would be upon us this morning, or this afternoon, as we consider a small portion of these four verses. We pray that our Savior would be pleased with what is said and done here, how the Word of God is taught, and how the Word of God is received. We pray that you'd be glorified in this place. We thank you for salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ. In his name we pray, amen. You may be seated. Going back to Luke 24, we see a description of Jesus' first visit with his church after the resurrection. The first part of the chapter tells us that he revealed himself to Mary at the tomb, and then he met with those two disciples that were on the Emmaus road. But this was his first appearance before the assembled church, and the members were somewhat frightened about the situation. They had heard that Christ was risen from the grave, but they hadn't seen him as yet, or at least the majority of them, and they were concerned. So as Jesus appeared to them, the first things that he said was, peace be unto you. He was aware of the weakness of their hearts. He was aware of the shallowness of their faith. Peace be unto you. And then he showed to them some of the wounds that he had received. And just to make sure that they knew that he was for real, he asked for some food and he ate some fish that day in front of them. At that point, he reminded them of what he had said in regard to prophecies about him. He opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures. And he said unto them, thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. Ye are witnesses of these things. Now, before Peter gets to his exhortation to the elders that he knew of there in Asia Minor, before he gets to his exhortation, he points out that not only was he an elder as well, but also a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Christ had called him to be an apostle and an elder, but also to be a witness of these things. Now in his second epistle, Peter testifies, we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses. Three things. Apostleship, eldership, and observance gave Peter opportunities to serve his Savior. They also provided some of the gifts that he was to invest for the Lord, some of the pounds and the talents that we've spoken of earlier. Now let's think about the fact that Peter was a witness of and a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ. How much of Jesus' ministry did Peter have the privilege to observe? Essentially, all of it. Every bit of it. John 1 tells us that Andrew and some other unnamed person, which was probably John, were the first to be called by the Lord and first to follow the Lord. And then Andrew immediately went out to find his brother Simon Peter telling him, we found the Messiah. And the scripture says, Andrew brought Peter to Christ. There were lapses in Peter's life when he was not as close to the Savior as he should have been. That's true of all of us. But essentially, Peter became a witness to all that Jesus ever did and all that he suffered while in this world. For three and a half years, he was there at the Savior's side, so to speak. He saw Jesus' miracles. Even that one that was so close to home, it was his mother-in-law who was healed. He also saw when people picked up stones to try to kill Christ for blasphemy, blasphemously declaring that he was the Son of God. But of course, they couldn't kill him because he was the Son of God. He is Christ, the Savior. Peter heard the verbal abuse which Christ received from time to time. The Pharisees and Sadducees and the priests often came to Christ and tried to trip the Lord up, try to get Jesus to say and do sinful things that they might be able to accuse him of sin and thus he's not the Savior, that sort of thing. Peter was there. He saw these things. He witnessed the arrest of Christ and even tried to defend the Lord at that time by swinging that sword that he was carrying. Peter was there throughout the lifetime of the Lord Jesus. And even though he was not present when the Savior was beaten at the palace of the high priest, He was there to see the beaten Christ when they took him out and prepared to send him to the castle of the Roman government. Peter saw the blood from the crown of thorns as it went over Jesus probably puffy face from the beating he endured. He probably saw the blood seeping onto the back of the seamless robe of Christ from the whipping that he had endured. At the crucifixion, Peter may have been, and this is a maybe, may have been among all Jesus' acquaintances and the women that followed him from Galilee beholding these things. Luke 23 and verse number 49. In other words, Peter was intimately familiar with the Lord Jesus and all that he suffered for our salvation. And he refers to this here in verse number one of his first epistle. And as important as that was, to be a witness to the sufferings of Christ, Peter was thrilled also to be able to say, I was a witness of Jesus' resurrection. Not that he was there to see the resurrection per se, but he saw the resurrected Christ. The statement that he makes in the second epistle may be a reference to something else, the transfiguration, the precursor to Christ's resurrection. We were eyewitnesses of his glory. Then four times in the book of Acts, Peter declares that God had given him the privilege to be a witness of the resurrected Savior. It was prominent in Peter's preaching. As he tells us, Peter was someone who observed, who saw and witnessed all that Jesus suffered. But the word he uses, witness, has more meaning than just a spectator of things. The same word is used in Acts chapter one and verse number eight, where Christ says, but ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. For Peter to be a witness of the sufferings of Christ was not just to see it, but to share it. This is what Peter was doing in his defense before the Jewish council when he said, the God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. and we are his witnesses of these things. And so is also the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him." Peter was not only saying, I saw these things, but I'm sharing these things with you. Incidentally, As many of you know, I hope you do, the word Peter uses has another extended meaning. It's not just I saw and I share. The Greek word translated witness is martus, and that has come into our English language as martyr, martyr. A martyr is literally someone who is willing to testify to the truth to the extent of sacrificing or giving up his own life for that truth. And that's what we've just heard there in 1527 in those vignettes. Even though this was not Peter's intent in our text, that was eventually his outcome, the witness of his How shall I put it? His witness of Christ eventually meant his death. Tradition says that Peter was crucified in Rome, and there's some evidence to suggest that was true. It is also suggested by tradition that he was crucified upside down, and there's very little testimony to that fact, but maybe it's so. But of the fact that Peter gave his life as a witness of the sacrifice that Christ made for our salvation, of that there is no doubt. He was an observer, he was a testifier, and he was a martyr to the sacrifice of Christ. He also claimed in this verse, 1 Peter 5, 1, he also claimed to be a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. There is, beloved, a glorious day coming. By that I mean the Lord Jesus Christ is coming again. And when he does, it will be with all his now unimaginable glory. There's no way for us to picture all that will be involved in the Lord's return. We just don't have the minds or the hearts for it. All of the ugliness of this world will be dissolved in the heat of that glory. and the people of God will be glorified through the Lord's glorious appearance. The Apostle John said in Chapter 3, Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. for we shall see him as he is. In essence, John says that we can't at this point imagine how we shall be transformed or what we shall be when we are transformed, but we shall be like him when he comes. As Christ was transfigured so that the fashion of his countenance was magnificently altered, and even his clothing radiated the glory of God, was white and glistering, so will God do for his saints. Luke chapter 9, verse 29. Paul wrote, when Christ who is our life shall appear, when then shall ye also appear with him, in glory. Colossians chapter 3 and verse number 4. How do you interpret those words? Then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Do you understand those words to say that we will be taken to a place which is called glory and we shall be in heaven glory with the Lord? I don't. That's not my interpretation. I think Paul is saying that when Christ shall appear, we shall appear glorious just like him. We shall appear in glory. David said in Psalm 17, no matter what the world, the flesh, and the devil throw at me in this life, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake, even if it's from death, in thy likeness. One day we shall be in Christ's likeness. That means glory. glorified. Paul said, our conversation is in heaven. From whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body. He also said, I reckon that the sufferings of this present world are not, or present time, are not to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. He wasn't talking about the glory which would be revealed to us. He was not talking about the glorious place where we will be eventually with the Lord. He was talking about the glory of Christ which will be revealed in us, through us. Peter was quite particular in the way that he spoke about his part in this coming glory. He said, I am an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. He is to partake of it. He is to be a recipient of it. That glory will be another gift from God's grace, not something that Peter or anyone else ever merited. I would just be a partaker of that glory because the Lord is so kind. The word that he used is translated partaker, here, and the other half The other, half of the other scriptures where the word is found. Big lunch. But in some of the other verses where it's not translated partaker, it reveals some interesting things. It speaks of a far closer bond than we generally recognize at first glance. Let me illustrate. Peter, if you'll remember, was a fisherman. Before the Lord called him to be an apostle, he was a fisherman. And in his business, he shared a boat with his brother, Andrew, and two others, fellow disciples, John and James. Luke 5.10 says, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were partners with Peter. The word partner is the same as partaker here in verse number one. Peter, Andrew, James, and John equally shared all the fish that they caught, divided it up, they partook their share, they were partners. Also, Paul spoke of Titus to the Corinthians. Whether any do inquire of Titus, he is my partner and fellow helper concerning you." Again, it's the same word. Partaker is more than just someone who shares. The bond is a little closer than that. I brought all this to your attention because I believe there's a pattern in it. Peter is not a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed because he was in the business of witnessing about Christ. But because of what he saw, because of what he believed about Christ's sufferings, he became a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. He was a partaker of Christ's future glory because he had made the sufferings of Christ, which took place in the past, a part of his moment. He had made the sufferings of Christ a part of himself, a part of his heart and soul. The sufferings of Christ were made the key to his future glorification by faith. It is only when sinners are witnesses of Christ's sufferings that they will be partakers of Christ's glory. No one is in the family of God because they have some sort of relationship with me. No one is on his way to heaven because they are members of Calvary Independent Baptist Church. The ordinances of this church cannot transmit the glory of God to a spirit that's dead in trespasses and sins. It doesn't work that way. To enjoy the future glory of God, you must be intimately connected to the sufferings of the Savior. On the next page of your Bible, at least it is for me, flip that page over there, in 2 Peter 1, Peter says in verse number two, grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature. Peter was not only a partaker of Christ's glory, but also a partaker of God's nature, to a limited degree, of course. Did he do something special in order to become a partaker of the nature of God? Of course not. What could he do? then how did he receive it? By the grace of God. The Lord chose to redeem this man and promised to him eternal blessings. It was all of God. It was all of the Lord. Peter was a witness of the sufferings of Christ. And I invite you to look to Christ. Look at his suffering. Look what he endured. Look toward the cross. When Paul's evangelistic travels took him to the city of Corinth, we had reference to that in our message this morning, he arrived with fresh vigor and resolve. He later testified of that visit. For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. For Paul, it was not enough to know that Jesus was virgin born. It was not enough to know that he fulfilled 333 prophecies. Hadn't yet, but get the point. It was not enough to know that he lived a victorious and sinful life. He did. All of these things are good. To know that Jesus is the Messiah and that he is the eternal son of God is important, but it is not enough. The people of Corinth and the people of this Spokane Valley need to witness Christ crucified. Paul said, for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with words of wisdom, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but to us which are saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. You must be a witness of Christ. You must be a witness of the sufferings of Christ. In order to enjoy the glory that shall be revealed at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, we need to experience, by faith, the crucifixion of the Savior. There's no glory without Christ's sacrifice. How much sacrifice you have in between the two does not matter. You must have the sacrifice of Christ. So Paul said to the Galatians, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. Why did he refuse to glory in anything else? For one reason, because for the sinner there is no eternal glory in anything else. What enabled Peter to say that he will be a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed? It was because he was already a partaker by faith of the sufferings and the sacrifice, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You must be a witness of the sufferings of Christ to enjoy the glories of Christ. You must have both. Is your faith in Christ this afternoon?