Well, congregation, let's continue to worship our God this morning by considering His Word, and I would invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to 1 Peter 5. We're going to be reading in your hearing verses 1-4. If you're following along on a Pew Bible, you can find that on page 1016. This is now our third message on 1 Peter 5, verses 1 through 4, and it's gonna be our last message. I have intentionally spent some time on this passage because I think it is crucial that we as a congregation understand what an elder is to be, both to his congregation and before God. So let us give our attention to 1 Peter 5, verses 1 through 4. The apostle says, so I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight. Not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you. Not for shameful gain, but eagerly. Not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. As far as the reading of God's word, the grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of our Lord stands forever. And we are thankful for it. Let us ask the Lord for help this morning as we come before his word. Father God, we have humbly sought to come before this passage now in our third week. trying to mine out of it, Lord, what you call your under-shepherds in the local church to be and to do. And Father, I pray that it would have its way in the life of this congregation. I pray specifically, Lord, that the elders of this place would see their solemn responsibility and yet joyful responsibility and task to shepherd your people, Father, not their people, but primarily your people with your word for your glory and for your honor. I also pray, Father, by the mercies of your son, Jesus Christ, that as a congregation, we would appreciate and honor the gifts that the risen Lord has given to this church. And Father, we want to strike a balance in all things. We do not want to give more honor than is due. But at the same time, Father, we want to recognize that you have placed undershepherds in this place for the shepherding of our souls. And I pray that as a congregation, Father, we would desire to be shepherded, Lord. That none of us in this place would think himself or herself in such a lofty manner that they feel like they don't need shepherding. Father, humble us. Humble us to be shepherded, and not simply, Father, by the under-shepherds, but also by one another, as your word likewise teaches, that we are to admonish one another, encourage one another, edify one another. May this place be a reciprocation of encouragement and blessing and edification and admonishment, all for the purpose that we might walk in Christlikeness and glorify you. Father, we also pray this morning, as we're thinking about elders, that you would raise up another elder, maybe two, maybe three. Father, as many as you would be pleased to raise up in this place so that shepherds would be able to give greater attention, more attention, both qualitatively and quantitatively to your people. Do this for your honor and your glory, we pray. Pray that you would help your servant this morning to unpack this passage compassionately. pastorally and clearly. We ask these things in your son's name. Amen. So as I said, we're now in our third week about talking about pastors. And this is important, as I've said, for a number of reasons. We saw last week what the duties of pastors are and what the duties of pastors are not, and that is very important because it is very important for you as a congregation to know what to expect from your shepherds, to know that they are not moral, therapeutic deists, that is to say, those who are just simply trying to make you live a good life just to be good and pull yourself up by your bootstraps. But we do not come with worldly wisdom to help you live a moral life. We come with a supernatural, life-changing, sin-shattering, God-glorifying message of the gospel that breaks shackles and actually enables you, enables you to live a moral life. Not because you have to, but because you want to. There's nothing else in the world that can do that. There's no medicine that can do that. There's no therapy that can do that. It is only the pure, unadulterated gospel of Jesus Christ that can do that. And so for all aspiring preachers, you wanna know how you could preach better than 99% of the preachers out there? Say more of this, Jesus died for the sins of the world. You say that, you're automatically preaching better than 99% of the pastors out there, because you're including the gospel. But you know what's interesting? When you look at the requirements for a pastor in a local church in both 1 Timothy 3, and Titus chapter one, you'll notice something very peculiar. What you'll notice is that the lion's share of the attention is not given to the abilities and the skills and the leadership capabilities of that prospective man of God, but the lion's share of the requirements are given over to his moral and ethical life. In 1 Timothy chapter three, we see one requirement that he be able to teach. And so that clearly means that he needs to have some gifting, he needs to have some skills. Ideally, he should be able to read his Greek Bible and his Hebrew Bible so that he can approach the passage every week, translate it, and give it to you in HD Technicolor. He should be able to have a biblical theology that understands, in some ways, as a grid, how to understand each passage in its particular context. So he should be able to teach, that's true. We also see in 1 Timothy 3 that he should have some type of leadership capabilities. The Apostle Paul tells Timothy that he needs to manage his own household well, because if he can't manage his own household, how can he manage the household of God? So we see an ability to teach, some gifting, some skills, and we see leadership capabilities. But other than that, the lion's share of those requirements are given over to his moral and ethical life, and why is that? Well, you know, I have said under pastors before who were phenomenal speakers. I mean, they could jerk a tear out of your eye socket quicker than two shakes of a lamb. They could make you feel guilty, they could make you feel great, they could make the scriptures come alive in a way that you had never seen them before, and that's wonderful. But, you know, in the counseling office, they were miserable pastors. It's possible to be a good preacher and a lousy pastor. It's possible to be an eloquent speaker and a horrible shepherd. And that's why Paul gives the requirements in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 and why also here in our passage this morning, Peter likewise gives attention to the moral life of the man of God and not just the moral life, but his motivations for why he enters into ministry and why he continues in ministry. There are three principle vices that Peter is addressing here that every pastor can succumb to. The vice of sloth, laziness. The vice of a desire for gain. And the vice of a lust for power. These are all pitfalls that a pastor can fall into. So what I'd like to do this morning is I'd like to show you two principle things. One's gonna take up the most of our time. The other one's gonna be very brief. But the first thing is, unpacking the manner and the motivation of the pastor, what drives him, what are his passions, what they should be, what his moral life should look like. And Peter does that by giving what we might call three couplets. A pastor is to not do this, but do that, not do this, but do that, not do this, but do that, okay? And then secondly, we will look at the reward that pastors can anticipate after the Lord comes back. So let's look first off at these the manners and motivations of a pastor. And I wanna look firstly at this, number one in verse two. A shepherd, a shepherd serves not as one who fills a position, but as one who is fueled by a passion. Look at verse two. Peter says, shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight. And here's our first couplet. not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you. So here we see the first driving motivation that a pastor is to have. He is not to shepherd the people of God under compulsion, meaning there is some external reason that is not culled, if you will, from a heart's desire to shepherd the people, but maybe, for example, he was brought up by parents who, as early on as two years old, were telling him, we want you to be a pastor. We want you to be a pastor. Your father is a pastor. Your grandfather was a pastor. Your great-grandfather was a pastor. Your uncles are pastors. We want you to be a pastor, and we're willing to pay for your education, pay for your seminary, pay for your books, do whatever it takes. And you know, I mean, maybe the kid says, eh, it's a good idea, but as he progresses in age, he has other desires to do other things, but because he doesn't wanna disappoint his parents, he becomes a pastor. That's a bad reason to go into the ministry. Because if you do not do it out of the internal desire that the Lord has placed in your heart to shepherd the people, you're gonna come up against pitfalls that are gonna be disastrous. But Peter here says, do not shepherd under compulsion, but willingly. You know, not all jobs require passion. You know, you go to McDonald's and there's somebody back there making your hamburgers, and they may not be passionate about making your hamburgers. They may not be passionate in such a sense that they are a burger connoisseur who have in their bookmarks of their browser various webpages that give themselves over to how to make the perfect burger. I mean, frankly, if you ever got a burger from McDonald's, you know it's not the perfect burger. But you know what, the man or woman who's back there making the burgers, even though he or she may not be passionate about where the pickle goes precisely, they can make a decent burger. And I think a lot of jobs are like that. We don't necessarily need passion. Maybe it would be nice to have passion. But I think there's many jobs that for many people, and we've all had them, they're a stepping stone, right? Or it's just a job. Like I'm not passionate about being a burger maker. I'm not passionate about being a toll booth operator. I'm just putting food on the table. But that is not the case with the pastor. You cannot go into the pastorate thinking, I'm just gonna put food on the table for my family. You cannot go into the pastorate likewise thinking, I am going to give sermons every week and that's all I'm going to do. Can I dispel a myth for a second? I hope none of you believe this. The pastor does more than preach sermons every week. We have a neighbor who, very kind, we love her, she's a dear lady, but she asked my wife one time, what does your husband do? And she said, he's a pastor. And she's like, oh, but does he have another job? She's like, no, he does that full time. He's a pastor. That's what he does. She's like, oh, I didn't know that you could do that full time. Because people have this idea that he only works one day a week. He gets up on Sunday and gives a sermon, and then that's all he does all week. Beloved, I do much more than prepare sermons every week. I counsel, I disciple, I lead out in vision, I think about where we're going as a church, where we need to be going, where we need to shore things up. I'm constantly being called sometimes and having to give counsel and wisdom to people who are seeking it, having to deal with discipline issues. There's many things that a pastor does besides preach. But a pastor should not go into it thinking or should not go into the pastor because he is compelled. Now notice he says. not under compulsion, but willingly as God would have you. Literally, that means according to the example of God, which is to say, as God shepherds his people, so that, Peter says to his fellow elders, is to be your model of how you shepherd your people. Not that you're gonna do it as perfect as God, you're not. But in the same way that God is compassionate for his people, and intentional that his people be holy and does whatever it takes to get them to that place. Likewise, using the resources that God has given you are to be that pastor. So let me just give you four marks. Four marks of a pastor's deep-seated passion for ministry. That is to say, four marks of a pastor who does what he does willingly. Not under compulsion, but willingly. Number one, he is passionate about God's Word. Period. He's passionate about God's Word. He realizes, he realizes that sin may keep him from this book, but he also realizes that this book will keep him from sin. And so an elder in the church of God is one who is in the Bible daily, as much as he could possibly be. You try to keep him away from the Bible, you're not gonna be able to. Because he sees his identity wrapped up in what that Bible says about him. That Bible is his compass. That Bible is his mirror. That Bible is his teacher. That Bible is his standard. That Bible is his compendium of precious promises. Not just as a Christian, but as a shepherd. And our orientation toward this book says much about our orientation towards ministry. I remember one time sitting down with an elder in a church. He was a lay elder, he didn't do it full time. He was a good man of God. But he had been dealing with a lot of issues in the church, a lot of strife, a lot of, just a lot of problems, just a lot of messy relationships. And you know, flash bulletin, there's a lot of those in the church. But he told me, he's like, you know Josh, when I look at this Bible, All I see in it is a book of arguments to be made to show people that they're wrong. And I tell him, I said, brother, that's sad. That's really sad. Like if you as a pastor think that this book is just a book of propositions that you were to cobble together and bang people over the head with, there's something wrong. In other words, the way we view this book says much about how we view ministry. On the other hand, if we primarily view this book as God's inspired revelation filled with instruction for predominantly being made right with God, being sanctified and making it to heaven, then that's going to be reflected in our ministry. It's not just a hammer, it's balm for the soul. It's not just the rigid staff of Moses to beat us over the head, but it's also counsel and wisdom and consolation and soothing. And so how he views this word comes out in how he handles ministry. Secondly, and second mark, is the pastor, the minister of God is passionate about being with the people of God on the Lord's day. You don't have to tell a minister, hey, are you gonna be there on Sunday? He's like, what do you mean am I gonna be there on Sunday? Of course I'm gonna be there on Sunday. If the doors are open on Sunday, he's there. You wanna know why? Because worship is paramount in the life of the elder, especially public worship. Can I just try to dispel a myth that I think maybe some of us have succumbed to? And it's come from broadline evangelicalism. It's this idea that my spirituality is primarily and maybe even exclusively individual. It's me, Jesus, and my Bible. The grammar is horrible, theology's worse, but that's not what the New Testament gives us. When the New Testament speaks of worship primarily, especially Hebrews chapter 10, Hebrews chapter 11, the assembly of saints coming together to worship and Mount Zion coming down from heaven through the liturgy, it is never thinking of one saint by himself with his Bible in his prayer closet. It is always surrounded by not only a myriad of angels, but a myriad of what? Saints. And the man of God understands that worship is corporate, and he loves it. He can't get enough of it. John Calvin couldn't get enough of it. John Calvin is quoted as basically believing that, you know, we really should meet every day for worship. But I realize that that's unrealistic, so we'll just do it one day. And by the way, it's the day that the Lord told us to do worship. John Calvin likewise says, we pattern our worship on the Lord's day after the worship sessions, if you will, of the old covenant. The old covenant, they would have morning sacrifices and evening sacrifices. In the new covenant, we have morning worship and evening worship. The man of God, try to keep him away, will not be kept away from worship with the people of God. And it's not an attendance thing. It's a passion thing. He loves worshiping with the people of God. There are all kinds of events, all kinds of activities that are jockeying for our attention throughout the week. And the man who would be leader in the church, you know what he does? He draws a line in the sand. He draws a line on his paper calendar, if people even use those anymore. He draws a line in his Google calendar on that left-hand column. the month and says, this day is marked out for the Lord as for me and my family, we will worship the Lord. That's what the man of God does. And guess what? That's what every Christian should do. That's what every Christian should do. The Lord's day is to be the center of gravity of your life. Do you think of it that way? Do you think of the Lord's day as the center of gravity in your life such that everything else revolves around that? Or on the other hand, do you think of the rest of the week as the center of gravity? And if you can fit the Lord's day in, great, if not, oh well. Do you know that the shift in the day of worship from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant says much about our orientation toward life? What did the Jews do? Sunday through Friday, work, work, work, work, work, rest. They had to work to enter into rest, but in the New Covenant, what do we do first? We rest. We rest in the grace of Jesus Christ, and out of that rest, out of that consolation of soul, we go into the week and we work. Works follow rest. Works follow grace. The Lord's day is not only just a day that the Lord has commanded that we get together and worship, but it has a theological thrust to it that should drive the whole orientation of our life. The Lord's day is the center of gravity, and the man of God, who would be a minister of God, builds everything else in his life around that. And just before I move on, can I just encourage all of us, whether you are a minister in this church, or whether you are an aspiring minister, or whether you are just a Christian, There are many voices that are jockeying for your attention throughout the week, and they want to be able to encroach upon the day of rest that the Lord has given you. Can I encourage you and exhort you to make the Lord's day as much as you can possibly make it a habitat of holiness that is to be a day of rest? Do you realize that you need rest? I've used this illustration before, but you think of the man who is chopping wood out in the forest, and he's chopping, and he's chopping, and he's chopping, and this man, he's got such a good work ethic, he never takes a break, but he sees all these other slackers taking a break, but he just keeps chopping, and chopping, and chopping, and chopping, and chopping, judging everybody else in his heart who's being slothful, chopping, chopping, and then at the end of the week, they measure up all the quotas, And the man who never took a break, he has less felled trees than the men who were taking a break. Why? Because the men who were taking a break, you know what they were doing? They were sharpening their ax. They were sharpening their ax, they were resting their bodies so that they could go out and be more what? Productive. And so it is on the Lord's day, we need a day of rest, not only spiritually, but physically for our bodies. The Lord knows you better than you do. The Lord knows you better than your medical doctor does. and he has wrapped up within the fabric of our DNA and our theology and our being a day of rest for your souls. Don't let the world encroach itself upon that day. I'm done. Number three, a mark of a man of God. He's passionate about the church. Notice that he's a shepherd over the flock of God whom the Lord has made him overseer. You know what the elder is? He's a churchman. We don't often hear that term anymore. You don't have to be an elder to be a churchman. You can be a churchman if even as a member, as a lay person in the church, you have such a high esteem of the church, of the Lord's day, of the Lord's people, of prayer, of the means of grace, of preaching, of sacraments. Okay, of singing the Psalms with the people of God, singing hymns and worship with the people of God to the Lord. You have such a high esteem of what church is that you make it a priority in your life. The elder is de facto a churchman else he should never have hands laid on him. The people of God are his people. He finds, listen, there's a lot of talk about identity today. You know what the man of God does? He finds his identity with the people of God. He finds his identity with the people of God because he has first put his identity in the Son of God. And by extension, because Christ loves the church so much and so often through Scripture identifies himself with the church, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? He wasn't persecuting Jesus, he was persecuting the church. But to persecute the church is to persecute Jesus. To serve the church is to serve Jesus. Too often, foolish evangelicals separate these things. and they think that I can have Jesus without having the church, nothing in the Bible says that. Everything in the Bible says if you love God, you will love your brother. If you love God, you will worship God with your brother and sister. The people of God have a priority in the life of the elder. And you know, think about it for a second. There's many of you around here who, I hear you on Sunday mornings and evenings, and it warms the cockles of my heart to, you have these theological discussions, right? You're talking about this and you're talking about that. It's fun, it's fun to have theological discussions and break out the Greek and break out the Hebrew and look at church history and look at heresy and orthodoxy and dabble in philosophy and do all these things. But then you get to go home and you get up Monday morning, go on with your life, and maybe you don't even think about that conversation for the rest of the week. But you know when an elder has a heated conversation about theology. He not only has to think about the ramifications of that theological discussion in his own life, he has to think about what it looks like in the life of the church. He has to think about what ramifications that idea were it to gain tread in the life of the church, what ramifications it would have on the life of the church. In other words, he's not entering into these theological discussions just for fun. For him, it's a serious thing. Somebody comes in the church and they've got these wacky ideas, you got red flags going up all over the place saying, how will this affect the people of God? Just like in our reading this morning, what did Paul say? He said, there's two guys, and he names them, Himenaeus and Philetus, who are going around telling people that the resurrection has already happened. Okay, you think red flags were going up in Paul's mind when he heard that? Absolutely, that is heresy. That will damn you to hell. So it's not just a fun conversation, it's serious business, and that's how the elder thinks, because he loves the people of God. He doesn't just think about making a showing, grandstanding with how much knowledge he does or does not have. He thinks about what effect such theological ideas will have on the people of God. Fourthly, An elder is passionate about doing all things well for the glory of God. Not just in preaching and teaching and discipling and shepherding, but also in the many unseen tasks that he has to undertake. He's organized. Can I say that again? He's organized. At least he should be. He has a good work ethic. He fights against sloth just as much as he fights against pride and lust and favoritism, okay? If an elder is to become an elder, he needs to have an idea or a goal, a motivation in his mind that what I do here in this church, whether I'm a full-time vocational elder or a lay elder, what I do here is important. In fact, it's just as important as what I do in my vocation, even though I don't get paid. You see, money, and we're gonna look at that in just a second, doesn't motivate him for better or for worse. Whether or not he gets paid in his tasks, he takes what he does very seriously. That's what the man of God does. So a pastor doesn't become a pastor, as I said, because of some external pressure. He pursues the office out of a deep-seated passion to see Christ formed in his people. So the first motivation we see is a willingness to undertake the work of ministry. But now the second couplet we see also speaks of his willingness, but it accents a particular vice that he has to steer clear of, and that is the vice of dishonest gain. So look secondly at verse two. A shepherd eagerly seeks to feed the sheep and not fleece the sheep. Verse two, not for shameful gain, but eagerly. Now I want you to notice just, I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on this. I want you to notice that he says not for shameful gain. That adjective is very important. Because he doesn't say, if I could bring out the contrast, he doesn't say not for gain, which is to say this, a pastor has a right to make money. Jesus said, a workman is worthy of his wages. Paul said, and using the law of the Old Testament, okay, if an ox can thresh in the field and he's able to open his mouth and take up a little corn from time to time, how much more a pastor in his work for the gospel? He even goes on to say, is God concerned for oxen here or is he concerned for people? Which is very interesting hermeneutically, but that's another conversation. What he's saying is a minister has a right to make money. Now hopefully you don't have a problem with that or else your voice would be much louder in the membership meeting. But a pastor has a right to make money. Now where does the problem come in? Well, you know, I remember in seminary, I was sitting under my professor's instruction and he was talking about this passage. And he was talking about how, you know, you shouldn't get into ministry for financial reasons. And I audibly laughed out loud because all of the pastors that I knew of, I mean, they certainly were not rich. They weren't poor, but they certainly weren't rich. Like they weren't living high on the hogs, so to speak. And he said, Josh, what are you laughing at? I'm like, I'm sorry. I mean no disrespect. I've never thought, I've never thought like, hey, you want to make a million? Go into the ministry. But he reminded me of something very important. And once he said it, the shoe dropped. How many ministers do you see on certain television stations who are fleecing the sheep by telling them things that the Word of God doesn't say? I mean, I have seen ministers or televangelists, pastors, I don't know who laid hands on them. some judgment on the day of judgment for whoever did, but these men would basically tell poor, unsuspecting, little, precious, blue-haired ladies and men to give of their pension or else God is gonna judge them, and they do. They happily write their checks and they send all that money. You can make a killing through religion. You really can. You can make a killing through religion. And Peter recognized this, and so he said, a minister's primary motivation should not be money. But what should it be? He says, not for shameful gain, but what? Eagerly. Now this is very interesting. This word is very similar to willingly, okay? The eagerness, listen, is that the minister is there first to serve the church and second to take care of his needs. Now what do I mean by that? Let me give you an example. I've seen ministers that I've sat under who budget time comes around and for whatever reason, people are leaving the church, people are moving away, numbers are dropping, they've got a very lean fiscal budget, okay? And they recognize, like, if I continue to take the salary that I'm taking, it's just gonna put, it's just gonna make things very difficult. So you know what I've seen faithful ministers do? They say, you know what, just cut my salary a little bit, it's fine, my family, we're doing okay, the Lord's gonna take care of us, but I understand that the church is going through a hard time, so I'm willing to make that sacrifice. I think that's what Peter's getting at here. Just give an example. A minister is not supposed to try to squeeze blood out of a turnip. A minister is not to put an undue burden on his people just to take care of his needs. Now, there's a balance there, right? Because a minister has a right to make a living. We even have a paragraph in our confession that talks about how he should be amply provided for. Why? Our confession says, and I think it's right because there's proof text to demonstrate it, one of the things that a pastor does on an ongoing basis, he shows hospitality. It takes a lot of resources to show hospitality. It takes a lot of energy to show hospitality. I mean, unless you're having, you know, bread and water, which none of you would come over if I told you that's what we're having, okay, you know, you're not going to be able to make it. I mean, it takes resources to do things like that. There's a balance there, but the main thing that he's getting at here is that a minister should not do it for shameful gain. The reason I'm going into ministry is so that I can make a buck. But now thirdly, I want you to notice in verse three, a shepherd is a servant leader, not a tyrannical despot. A shepherd is a servant leader. Not a tyrannical despot. Look at verse three. Shepherd the flock of God, exercising oversight over those whom the Holy Spirit has made you overseer. Not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. Now let me say something abundantly clear, and please listen to me, because we're gonna talk here for a second about domineering. And I have a lot to say, not only from experience, but just the reality of what this text is getting at. I often have people come to this church who are looking for a new church, and we're grateful for that, you know, whatever. But a lot of them come, not all of them, but some of them come and they come with stories, right? They come with baggage. Like, well, I was under this pastor and he was real domineering, or he didn't preach the gospel, or this, that, and the other thing. You know, out of charity, I always listen, you know, and I, out of charity, again, I give them the benefit of the doubt. But out of wisdom, what do I also recognize? That's just one side of the story, okay? And sometimes people will come and say I've been hurt by the church, I've been run out of the church. And you know what I found out when I follow up and get the other side of the story? I found out that all those ministers were doing was calling that person on sin and they refused to repent. It is not, listen to me very carefully, it is not domineering for a minister to call the people of God to repent of sin and believe in Jesus Christ. That, I repeat, is not domineering. Maybe you don't like how the minister does that. And you know what? That needs to be addressed, okay? Because in all his charge, in all his exhortation, in all his encouragement, in all his edification, he needs to be wise, he needs to be winsome, okay, as much as he possibly can. But at the end of the day, it is not domineering for a minister to call a person to repent of sin. And the moment you start thinking that, you've completely missed what the purpose of the church is. Well then let's go on and ask this question, then what does it look like for a pastor to be domineering? There are many things that we could say. I'm gonna give you three examples of how a pastor can be domineering, okay? Three examples. Number one, domineering can be a failure to distinguish black and white commands from matters of Christian liberty. You know, as much as we in the church have in common, there are also individual convictions that Christians may legitimately hold, while other people's consciences forbid them from holding them. And Paul says in Romans 14 on this matter, let everyone be convinced in his own mind. We do not stand or fall before one another, but before the Lord. Now, I've talked about this a lot in the pulpit, and one of the reasons I have is because, you know, Churches can shipwreck on things like this, especially in the age of the internet where you've got all these voices out there on their YouTube channels and on their websites and on their blogs. They think they're so important that they need to have their own blogs. They're pushing their hobby horses. And maybe they're hobby horses, head coverings in the church. There's a big movement now. The ladies are wearing head coverings. We're getting back to the Bible. Or diet, or vaccines, or, I mean, you go down the line. Alcohol, education for my children. Now, I wanna say something. These things are important. And guess what? You should have an opinion on them, okay? You should have an opinion on how you educate your children. You should. You should research it. If you blindly put your children in public school without figuring out what the philosophy of that school is, what kind of education scope sequence of curriculum is going to be fed to your children, you are failing as a parent to guard them from error. You should do that. You should have an opinion on that. At the same time, okay, this is a matter of Christian liberty. We cannot tell somebody unless you are homeschooling your children, public schooling your children, drinking alcohol, putting vaccines in your kids, then you're sinning. You can't do that. It's so much more complicated than that. And the man of God who would be a minister of God, listen to me very carefully, he understands the distinction between these things. He understands that there are black and white things. Do not commit adultery. Do not kill versus can I have a little bourbon on Monday night after a hard day? He understands the difference between those things. And again, it's not that these things are unimportant. Again, you need to have an opinion on them. But here's the key. Listen to me very carefully. Wake back up if you've been sleeping. What you can't do is become a Pharisee and impose your view on other people. Where did this come from? Where did this distinction between black and white and Christian? Well, first it came from Paul. And then listen to me very carefully. You know where it came from for where we're standing right now? It came from the Reformation heritage stream of tradition, which reacted to a church, okay? Reacted to a church that were taking gray areas of scripture or things that weren't even in scripture and elevating them to church authority. Can I give you an example? We're in the season of what right now? Lent, right? See some people, Ash Wednesday, they have a little cross on their head, and everybody's fasting. Some are fasting from meat, some are fasting from chocolate, some are fasting from fasting, just trying to be funny, okay? Is that something, listen, that the child of God should do? What's the answer to that question? No, the child of God doesn't have to do that. Child of God doesn't have to abstain from those things. Fasting in the New Testament is always something that is taken up, what? Voluntarily. Voluntarily. But what has happened in the history of the Roman Catholic Church? They have assumed authority at the ecclesial or church level to say, this is something that God demands that you do. So the reformers, you know what they did? They completely reacted against that. And not only that, the vestments, the smells and the bells, the absolution on the part of the priest, the stained glass windows with pictures of our Lord breaking the second commandment, all these types of things. And if you read the accounts of what the reformers' churches looked like, they were whitewashed walls, very plain, wooden benches, a pulpit, a communion table, and an infant baptismal, which is another issue. They got a few things wrong, okay? Why? Because, listen to me very carefully. They were so intent, listen, on only putting on the consciences of their people what God says in his word. They would not put on the consciences of their people any political opinion, any dietary opinion, any popular Christian opinion, though even though it may be right individually, could not corporately be put on the consciences of their people. And I bless God for the reformers, and you should too. Otherwise, the moment we start opening that door, like Lent, you know, Protestant churches, a lot of them are practicing Lent. And again, I wanna make it very clear. You wanna practice Lent by yourself? Go for it. I'm going to eat pork almost every day of this month, okay? Because I don't think that I have to submit to the authority of the Church of Rome, okay? You wanna do it individually, that's fine. But the moment you come in and say, we need to do this as a church, I'm scared. I'm scared of that. This place, listen to me, this place should be a place where your consciences are only weighed down with what the word of God says. And we're not gonna let any holiday of any season of the American calendar or any other calendar come in and say as a culture, you need to have these fixtures in your church on this particular holiday. We're not gonna do that. because we want to keep your consciences clear. You wanna do that in your own homes? Go for it, I do, but not with the people of God. All right, I'm done with that. Number two, what's a second way that pastors can be domineering? It's similar to the first way. Domineering can be an overly narrow view of unity that results from a failure to distinguish between primary, secondary, and tertiary doctrinal matters, okay? I'll give you an example. Eschatology, okay? There are some churches who are so intent on you holding not only to the fact or the belief that Jesus is gonna come back, break through the clouds, judge the living and the dead, but a particular timeline of what that's gonna look like. The seven years tribulation, rapture, millennium, et cetera, et cetera, okay? I think that that's wrong, but I don't think that we should bar somebody from becoming a member at our church just because they have a different view of the timeline of eschatology. One of the things a minister needs to do is to be able to distinguish, and it's not always easy, but be able to distinguish what is a primary theological matter that is the, what we say in Latin, the sin qua non, without which there is no Christianity. What are those issues? What belongs in that category that if a person denies something in this category, they're not a brother or sister? You deny the resurrection, you're not a brother or sister. You deny the gospel, you're not a brother or sister. You deny that Jesus is coming back, you're not a brother or sister. As opposed to maybe secondary issues, maybe somebody believes in speaking in tongues. I don't happen to believe that. As a church, we don't believe that. But are they not a brother or sister? When you ask them about the gospel, they recite the same gospel as you do, by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone. Am I to break fellowship with that person? Absolutely not. And you see, here's the thing, listen to me very carefully. If we put elders, if we lay hands on elders in this place who don't have this distinction between primary, secondary, and tertiary issues, you know what's gonna happen? We're gonna have a diatrophies on our hands. You know who diatrophies was? 3 John, verses nine and 10. He was a man who wanted the preeminence in everything. That if you didn't tow his agenda, if you didn't tow the line of his agenda, you know what he did? He put you out of the church. unilaterally excommunicated people because they wouldn't toe the line. And John rebukes that man in his epistle. But if we have elders who don't make this distinction, that's what they're going to do. Why? Here's the point. Everything is a first-tier doctrinal issue to them. Everything. Okay? We don't believe that. And none of the elders on this elder board believe that, and nobody who will ever become an elder in this place will believe that. because we want to shepherd you in a way that is gracious and balanced in holding what we must hold and having disagreement on what we are allowed to have disagreement on. All right? You know, Paul and Barnabas had differences of opinion. In fact, they were so great that Paul and Barnabas split. Do you think Paul went around saying, Barnabas is not a brother? You think Barnabas, the son of endearment, the son of encouragement, you think he went around saying, Paul, he's conceited and egocentric. No, they were brothers, but they had a serious enough agreement. I believe that they yelled at each other. I believe that they raised their voices, okay? Thirdly, what's a third way that pastors can be domineering? This is so important. Domineering can mean that a pastor doesn't give people room to grow. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5.14, and we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak. Be patient with all. Be patient with all. Most of you are here at this church because you're, quote unquote, you're first a Christian, but then when you get into the discussion of what tradition, what denomination, whatever, what heritage, what pedigree, you say, I'm Reformed. And I wanna be in a place that preaches Reformed teaching and preaches the gospel clearly. I wanna hear Jesus. I wanna hear Jesus as much as possible. Good, okay? But you know, that didn't happen to you overnight, right? Your journey to the reformed understanding of the Christian faith was just that, it was a journey. Some of you it took five years, some of you it took 10 years. Maybe as you think back, when you first began to behold the precious tulip. Okay? And you saw predestination, like, oh man, that is a hideous doctrine. Who could ever believe that? And then you actually open the Bible, and you're like, oh my goodness, there it is. Like, I'm bound to believe it because it's, I mean, those are the words that literally came out of my mouth one day. I just, I'm like, Ephesians 1, like, I have to believe this. How am I gonna work, and then later, limited atonement, all these things, but you know what? Maybe it took you 10 years, maybe it took you 20 years to get there. And guess what? When people come to this church who are likewise on that journey, maybe they're in year one. And maybe they don't totally understand sanctification. I've come across Christians who have been Christians for three years that didn't know that fornication was a sin. They were living with their girlfriend and they would come to Bible study every week. And one day they were confronted a Bible. Wait a minute, you're telling me that I can't sleep with my girlfriend. Yeah, that's called fornication. Mic drop moment. But you know what Paul says and what Peter's getting? We need to be patient with these people. Are you as sanctified today as you were 10 years ago? No, you're not. Were you a Christian 10 years ago? Yes. Are you a Christian now? Yes. Did you need grace back then? Yes. Do you need grace now? Yes. And you know what I would submit to you? I think those of us who are older in Christ than those who are younger in Christ, I think we actually need more grace than those who are younger in Christ. You wanna know why? Because with greater sanctification comes the temptation for greater what? Pride. And with the snap of a finger, you could be a merciless, camel-swallowing Pharisee. He says, if your sanctification doesn't look like mine, you're just not a Christian. We'll never put an elder, we'll never put our hands on elders in this place who have that perspective. The elders in this place are going to seek to admonish the idol, yes, we're not gonna shy away from that. They're gonna encourage the faint-hearted, they're gonna help the weak, and they're gonna seek to be patient with all. Because they realize that they are just as much a sinner as anybody else. An elder is to be not domineering, but now Peter says on the other side of this couplet, he is to be an example. Elders are to be an example, listen, of what their shepherding and overseeing should produce in the people. You know what that means? That means that an elder needs to preach and disciple and counsel better than he is. Do you understand what I mean by that? I don't judge what I preach by whether or not I personally have reached that level of sanctification in my life. That's not what I'm called to do because then that makes me the measure, me the measuring rod of what your sanctification should look like. I don't do that. Sometimes I preach against things and demeanors and dispositions that I myself am very guilty of. And you know what I've done earlier in the week? I've preached that first to myself. But elders are to be an example of what their shepherding and overseeing should produce in the people. So what are leaders here at Grace Covenant Church telling the congregation when they lay hands on an elder? Here's a few things they're telling them. Number one, we're telling you this. This is a man who is to be imitated. Is there anything wrong with that? Can we say things like imitate me as I imitate Christ? Paul did. And yes, I think we should. I think we should be able to look at men and women in this congregation and tell the younger generation, young man, young woman, follow that man, follow that woman as he or she follows Christ. He or she is modeling Christ in their family. Like they take the Bible seriously in their family. They seek every day to open up the Bible and wash their wife and their children with the water of the word. Follow that example. You wanna see that man? You wanna see that woman in their work? They are a godly example. They watch how they speak. They watch how they interact. They watch their witness because they care about what other people see in them. Because they want people to see in them Jesus. Follow that man's example. We see wisdom. the wisdom of Christ in dealing with others, follow his example. You know what else we're saying? We're saying, when we put our hands on a man in this place, we're saying, this man is, in his private life, what he is in his public life. You know what that means? It means he doesn't take sin lightly. He doesn't just say, well, I stay away from the big ticket sins, but the respectable sins, the things that everybody else does, everybody else does them, so it's okay for me to do it. That is shameful, with all due respect. And I really mean that, that's shameful. And I'm guilty of it, we're all guilty of it. You were probably guilty of it when you drove here today. Respectable sins, everybody does it. Do we come to truth and morality by counting noses? Or do we come to truth and morality by opening up the word of God and reading the words, thus saith the Lord? The elder doesn't simply think about the effect his sin may have in his own life or his family's life, but what effect that sin would have in the church's life. You know what the elder thinks in his mind as he wrestles with sin? It's not just that I don't want to offend Christ. It's not just that I don't want to disappoint Christ. It's that I don't want to disappoint my wife. I don't want to disappoint my family. I don't want to disappoint my church. I would rather have a millstone hung around my neck and drown at the bottom of the sea than make one of these little ones to stumble. That's the approach that the elder has towards sin. So he's gonna watch his mouth. He's gonna watch his actions. And you know what that means? A lot of times we just don't say things. Because it's better not to say something knowing that I might say it foolishly, or maybe it's not the right time, or maybe you're not ready to hear it. then say something and put my foot in my mouth. I care about what I say. You know what else we're saying? We're saying that a man of God is teachable, approachable, and humble. Listen to Proverbs 15, 31 to 33. The ear that listens to life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise. Whoever ignores instruction despises himself, but he who listens to reproof gains intelligence. The fear of the Lord is instruction and wisdom, and humility comes before honor. The man of God who would serve as an elder in this place, you know what he has to do every week probably? He has to admonish people. And you know what? When you admonish people, you know one of the things that you have to have in your own mind and soul? You have to have a clear conscience. Because how can you sit there and admonish somebody when maybe you're guilty of the exact same thing? Or maybe you're guilty in the prevailing disposition of your heart of some other sin. You know what an elder must do if he's gonna be an elder? He needs to be willing to admit when he's wrong. That's hard, isn't it? You ever do that with your children? If you don't do that with your children, you're teaching them to do the same thing. Don't admit when you're wrong. That's a dangerous thing, congregation. in parenting and especially in shepherding, you need to admit when you're wrong, you need to repent of it, and you need to endeavor never to do it again. You're going to, but you need to endeavor never to do it again. The man who cannot admit that he's wrong should not be an elder. He just shouldn't be an elder. And you know what we do in every single elder meeting? We have an accountability session, Pastor Ken, Pastor Jim, and I, for about 15 to 20 minutes, sometimes it goes longer, where we have judgment day honesty interrogation of one another. How you doing, brother? How you doing with your wife? How you doing on the internet? Are you keeping your eyes pure? How you doing in your thoughts toward the sheep? Is there any sheep that you have bitterness toward right now? If so, let's talk about it. You know what we're doing to one another? We're shepherding one another. We're calling out sin in one another's lives because we cannot shepherd you with a clear conscience unless we have a clear conscience. We cannot shepherd you with a clear conscience unless we're willing to admit our sins. So finally, finally, number four. What is, after we've looked at the demeanor and the motivation of elders, what they are to be, what they're not to be, what is the heavenly reward of elders? Peter says in verse four, And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. He's not talking about justification here. You're not going to get a reward for your works and be justified. What he's talking about here is a reward that Jesus will give to under shepherds for their faithful service. Why does a shepherd work? He works so that he might stand before God with a clear conscience. He's passionate about making much of Christ in the life of his congregation. You know what that means among other things? It means that a minister should not become drunk on the smiles of his people, nor be shamed by the frowns of his people. What do I mean by that? That does not mean that we don't take into consideration what you think of us. We do, but as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4, it's of little account to me what man thinks of me, but what matters is what the Lord thinks. And you know what? There are times when we've got to admonish a brother or sister, and they don't wanna hear it. And they may even speak against us, and they may have a low opinion of us, but we should not let the frowns of the people of God deter us for doing what we need to do, because at the end of the day, We're not doing it for them. We're doing it for the glory and honor of the Lord that they might be brought to the great throne of judgment and pass through the merits of Jesus Christ, that they might get safely to heaven through an under-shepherding ministry that will point them to Jesus. You know what elders are gonna do with the accolades that they get, these crowns? I don't really know what these crowns are, to be honest with you. I studied for a long time and I just gave up. I don't know what it is. It's some type of reward. But you know what we're gonna do with those rewards? The same thing that the elders did in Revelation chapter four verse 10. We're just gonna bow down before the throne of Jesus and we're gonna cast them before him because he gets all the glory. So let me just conclude this morning with two thoughts. I know I've gone long and I don't regret that because it's important for us to understand what a shepherd is to be. Here's the first thing I'll say to you as a point of application. If you ever see anything in the elders in this place that is not in line with what Peter has laid out here in this passage this morning, I want to make it abundantly clear that the elders not only welcome you to come to us and address the matter, but we would say you are obligated by the word of God to do so. Let me tell you something. A church will have the kind of elders that she demands. a church will have the kind of elders that she demands. If you don't want elders to actually shepherd you, then you're not gonna have them. But if you would have elders that would not only do the work of shepherding, but have the demeanor and the disposition and the motivation that drives it, then you must keep them accountable. When we have another man, Lord willing, that will come before you for your consideration for eldership, if you don't know him, it is your obligation to pursue him and try to get a sense of whether he is fit for the ministry. It's your obligation, because guess what? Once those hands are placed on him, he's your shepherd. A church will have the kind of elders that she demands, and the question this morning is, what kind of elders do you demand? As you look at 1 Peter 5, one through four, do you say, that's the kind of shepherds that I will have over me. That's the kind of shepherds I will have over my children. And hopefully that's the kind of shepherds that my children, when they raise up to adulthood in this place, they will choose likewise the same type of shepherds, and the lampstand that by God's grace continues to be here at Grace Covenant Church will continue. because we want elders who are gonna shepherd the flock of God biblically. And you know what, when Christ comes back and he takes off all of our cultural blinders, all of our suppression of sin will be cast off, both for elders and every other Christian, you know what we're gonna see? We're gonna see all the myriad of mistakes that we have made. And we may in that moment be ashamed of them, But at the same time, wonder of wonders, all of it will have been forgiven because we have trusted in the chief shepherd. He gives us his righteousness and covers our sins. And my question for all of us this morning is have you come to this chief shepherd this morning? A shepherd that on judgment day will be able to acquit you because of his sacrificial atonement in covering your sin and giving you a righteousness that you do not deserve. Have you come to this shepherd this morning? It is only coming to this shepherd that you will receive through his healing wounds and his spotless righteousness grace that will transform you. You can know him personally today if you turn from your sins and trust in him. Let's pray. Father God, I've labored this morning to put before your people a portrait of what shepherds should be. And Father, I just pray that we would join together, congregation and elders in this place, to put a standard, not only for this generation in this church, but for all generations to come, of the kind of men that are to rule in this place. And I pray by your grace that we would never compromise this standard, Father. Somebody says the standard's too high, are you never gonna have elders? I'd rather not have elders. than to have elders who would be false shepherds and mislead the people of God. Father, would you sustain your elders in this place by your mercy and compassion, and would you raise up for us elders that will join them in the task of shepherding your people for your honor and your glory, we pray. In Christ's name, amen.