Sunday 07 • 21 • 19

Let's turn our attention to God's word. We're looking at 1 Peter chapter five and as we've been doing, we're going to read this out loud together. So if you'll turn in your bulletin or look on the wall behind me, three, two, one, go.

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. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another. For God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. — 1 Peter 5:1-5

Would you join me in prayer? Father, I pray that the words of my mouth, the meditations of our hearts, Lord, all those things would be pleasing in your sight. You are a rock and our fortress and our redeemer. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

Summertime in Raleigh means summer day camp for kids all over Raleigh. If you've spent any time as a day camp graduate or if you're serving in one as a counselor or if you send your kids to one, you know that day camps thrive on camp themes for the week. So you get themes like Olympic Week, Avengers Week, My Camp's Got Talent Week. Those kinds of themes. But one staple of day camps for years, especially for this week coming up, is Christmas in July.

Now, this is a dumb one, I admit. But it seems like day camps all across the globe do this one where July 25, you pull out a Christmas tree and stockings and candy and you sing Christmas carols and you try to make it fun with the kids. You celebrate Christmas.

Now, I could call this sermon today "Christmas in July for CTK." It's Christmas in July because today God is giving our church an enormous gift in new elders for our congregation. But I gotta say this—and I know you're probably thinking this—that's hokey, right? Just like Christmas in July is kind of like, okay, you know, for many people, the idea of God giving us a gift in church leadership is a head scratcher. It doesn't make sense. It's not an obvious thing.

So today, here's what we're doing. We're skipping a little ahead in 1 Peter. We'll back up and hit one of the passages we missed next week, but we're doing so to make this line up with the ordination of our elders today and hear from Peter why good church leadership is such a gift for the local church.

So here's the deal. If you take notes, here's my outline for us this morning: our need for leadership, the shape of leadership, and the secret sauce for a great church.

Our Need for Leadership

Now the funny thing about this passage is while it's addressed to leaders in the church, to elders in this church, it really is instruction for all of God's people. It's really about being a part of a church body. And so this is what we see in this passage. Peter addresses the church as a flock, God and Jesus as the chief shepherd, and then under the chief shepherd, there are under-shepherds.

That idea—there's a flock, there's a shepherd—those are very big picture Bible ideas. If you're familiar at all, maybe first time in church in a really long time, but a lot of people are familiar with Psalm 23:

The Lord is my shepherd — Psalm 23

Or you may be familiar with John 10 where Jesus says:

I'm the good shepherd — John 10

These are precious promises about how God relates to people. But although they're familiar, we may not really hear these anymore. And what I want you actually to hear is the insult of those statements. There should be a little bit of sting in God saying, "I'm a shepherd and you're a sheep," because what it means is you are not competent to run your own life. That's what God's saying about us. We are people, you and I are people who are not competent. We're like sheep. We need a shepherd. We need shepherding. I mean, that is insulting on lots of levels. That rubs the wrong way.

So even though lots of people would say, "Yeah, I love Psalm 23. God's my shepherd. Yes, that's exactly right," the reality is we much prefer to live our lives like this: I'm my own shepherd. Thanks very much. That's how we really think.

It's just like in the days of Judges. Now, if you go back and read through parts of your Old Testament, one of the books—the book of Judges—is really marked by a lot of ties to where we are right now. And the book of Judges is sort of marked by this one theme statement about the time of the judges:

Everyone did what was right in their own eyes — Judges

Everyone was like, I'm my own shepherd. I wanna do what's right for me. That is a great summary of where we live right now. We don't want a shepherd. We don't think we're sheep. We don't need leadership over our lives.

Now, I think advertising—American advertising—is one of the most helpful things as a pastor for me to help us see how our hearts function. Because the advertising industry, all it does is hold up a mirror for what we want to believe about ourselves.

Take Febreze. One of my favorite ads is Febreze. Here's the commercial: the mom walks into the boy's bedroom, she pulls up the Febreze, she kind of folds her arms and nods like, "My work is done here." Right. Now, if any of you have ever had kids or dogs, you know that it is not "my work is done here." We want like, it's all going to be easy, it's going to smell great. That's what they're selling.

American marketing does this. Now listen to what American marketing does with our desire to rule our own lives. Listen to these marketing slogans from different companies.

Burger King: "Sometimes you gotta break the rules."

Easy Spirit Shoes: "Conforms to your feet so that you don't have to conform to anything."

Ralph Lauren's Safari Line: "Celebrates living without boundaries."

Even stuffy conservative Merrill Lynch gets in on this: "Your world should know no boundaries. What are you talking about? What does that even mean?"

Or here's the last one, Neiman Marcus: "No rules here." What does Neiman Marcus mean "no rules here"? These are ridiculous statements, but they reflect our hearts. They reflect back to us like in a mirror. This is what we're like. This is what we want to hear. Yeah, you are in charge. No boundaries for you. No rules for you. You can run your life.

And the Bible says exactly the opposite. We are not competent to run our lives.

The Need for Under Shepherds

It isn't easy. And I want you to listen to this. It's hard enough that the Bible says to us:

You need a shepherd — Psalm 23

But Peter just kind of dials that up in this passage because it is not only do you need God as a shepherd, you need under shepherds—real people with skin on who are exercising God's shepherding work in your life. No, thank you. I mean, that is a hard thing to hear.

Not only do we need God as a shepherd, we need under shepherds. We need human beings who provide consistent, regular, visible leadership.

You know, if you study the Gospels and you want to study what made Jesus really upset, what really got Jesus worked up—you walk through the Gospel of Matthew, you get to Matthew chapter 9 and you see Jesus just completely lose it over Jerusalem. And the summary that he says is there:

These people are lost and helpless like sheep without a shepherd

I mean, what upset Jesus was a lack of shepherds, a lack of leadership.

Now, let's be fair. Of course, we live in an era right now with a lot of news about abusive leadership. Some of you, if we had a pass-the-mic session, could tell us stories about abusive leadership in the church, and I don't want to in any way downgrade or downplay those things. Those are serious, and actually, if that is you, we would really love as a church to help you meet with someone who could help you work through some of the scar tissue of that.

But that's a minority of people in our church. The majority of us, if we look in our hearts with regard to this issue, we don't find scar tissue with regard to abusive leadership. We find rebellious hearts to leadership at all. That's where most of us are.

But the Bible tells us in our word: we're not qualified to run our own lives. We need leadership. We need shepherding. We need the chief shepherd over us, and we need under shepherds.

So here's my question for you: Is there anyone in your life whom you have given permission to shepherd you? Who you've said, "You have the right to speak to me and contradict me from this book about the way I'm living my life, about the decisions I'm making, about the way I carry myself"?

Look, it is one thing to be under a preacher. It's another thing to be under the authority of a church. Lots of people love preaching. In fact, one of the things that worries me sometimes about our church having a podcast is it's so easy in this podcast culture for people just to collect lots of sermons that they love. People love sermons and they love being under the sound of somebody's voice, and you can find a preacher to tell you just about anything you want to hear.

But it's a different thing altogether to submit yourself to be under the authority of a local church. That's a much harder thing.

So, can I remind you this?

When you most need shepherding in your life is the time in your life you least want it. It's in those moments when you're like, "I just want to be left alone" that you need to not be left alone. It's in those moments when you're like, "I don't want anybody to talk to me" that you probably most need someone to come alongside you and care for you and intervene in your life.

So again, the question: whom have you submitted authority to? So that they have permission to disagree with you on the basis of God's word—not on the basis of their opinion, but on the basis of God's word. If no one has permission to do that, can I remind you what Peter says here?

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. — 1 Peter 5:5

There may be an arrogance or pride that you need to ask yourself about in your heart, because you are in a dangerous place. That is a dangerous place to live in.

Now, you may not like what I just said, and the reality is that may be shaped by some really bad experiences that you've had. So I want to walk through what Peter says here and how he shows us this is actually the shape of what biblical leadership is supposed to look like—what good shepherding is supposed to look like. And he gives us five characteristics here. Godly, good leadership is plural, it's accountable, it's humble, it's formal, and it's from the heart.

Plurality in Leadership

Let me walk through this briefly. Plural, or plurality. I tried really hard to come up with a better word than that because you're like, "Plural? Yeah, that one has a real ring to it." But I can't come up with a better word for this. Let me explain.

Look at verse one. Peter writes here to the elders—plural, more than one. And it's no accident that that word is plural, because the word there is presbuteros. Now, you may not know anything about Greek, but I bet if you think about that word—presbuteros—that sounds like something in the name of our church. Presbuteros sounds like Presbyterian.

And let me just say what that really means. Because Presbyterian doesn't mean anything about a church's theology. It doesn't mean a church loves infant baptism or John Calvin. It doesn't mean anything about the style of worship. It doesn't mean that we use liturgy or that we struggle to clap or know when to raise our hands. It doesn't mean anything about theological beliefs.

Nope. It only means one thing. Presbuteros is the word for elders. It means an elder-led church—led by a committee, led by a group of people who have been elected by the congregation as representatives who make decisions on behalf of the people and shepherd this particular community. That's what a Presbyterian church is.

We just installed four presbuteroi this morning. Let me also make this clear. The word presbuteros appears all over the Bible, all over the New Testament. The word for pastor appears one time in Ephesians 4. And the way we understand Scripture, we look at this and we say the intention of Scripture over and over again is that a church is led by elders. The word pastor and elders—those are interchangeable. What that means is I have the same vote as everyone of the men who stood up here. When we make decisions, we are interchangeable in our function, in the way that we work. Everyone is the same. No one is the ultimate boss. The elders are.

This is such a big deal in the Bible—such a big deal that the entire mission strategy of the book of Acts was developed around elders. This is how the book of Acts pictures missions. It's not "send somebody overseas for thirty years." It's "send a couple of elders out from town to town." They go to a town and they stay there long enough to make new elders.

When they had appointed elders for them in every church with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they believe. — Acts 14:23

Titus 1, Paul writes to Titus:

This is why I left you in Crete, that you might put what remained into order and appoint elders in every town as I've directed you. — Titus 1:5

So here's how it worked. They went to a town, they made elders, they moved on. That's how they did missions.

When I planted a church years ago in Philadelphia, we were for many years worshiping, but we weren't a church yet. We were a group of people gathered together. We were a mission. They had a pastor, but we weren't a church yet. We weren't a church until one Sunday when we had elders who stood up in front of the people. Just like this morning, they took vows, we laid hands on them, and you know what? When they stood up and we clapped, we said, "Congratulations. We are now a church."

You know what separates a church from a Bible study? There are lots of Bible studies in this town.

What separates a church from a really good Bible study? Well, it's not quality of teaching. You can have really great teaching in a Bible study. It's not size. There are Bible studies in this city that are larger than this congregation. It's not even money. There are Bible studies that can take up a collection, have lots of money. It's not where they meet. It's not a particular building. It's this: elders. A Bible study is different from a church because a church has elders, has leaders who are established over that.

Now, this is in the DNA code of the universe. God himself exists as an elder board. He has a council of elders. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have been hanging out for eternity making decisions on behalf of the universe. You could say that the Trinity are the OG ruling elders of the universe.

So here's the thing: as a plurality, as a group together, no elder has authority in and of himself. It is a joint power, not a several power, not individual. So no elder in our church can put on the Lone Ranger mask and the white hat and the six shooters and get on the white horse and go around and start disciplining people or making decisions on behalf of our church. Nobody gets to do that. That's why we do it together as a group, and it's a good thing. That's a check against abuse of power by any particular elder or pastor.

Now, of course, there is a downside to this. How many of you work at companies or places where you have a lot of meetings? We call that death by committee. Welcome to Presbyterian. It is S-L-O-W. In fact, James likes to make the joke: if something happens in a Presbyterian church, it must be God's will because it took so long.

Elders Are Accountable

Second, elders are accountable. They're accountable for their oversight and care of the sheep. Look at verse four. Elders are accountable to the Chief Shepherd for their shepherding of the flock. They have to answer to him.

This is made even more explicit in Hebrews 13 where God tells the church:

Obey your leaders, submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. — Hebrews 13:17

What this means is that every elder who appears before the Lord Jesus at the end of his life does so with a list in his pocket—a list of people. And Jesus said, "How did you do in shepherding these people that you're accountable for? How did you care for them? How did you teach them about God's Word?"

Elders are not responsible for people's sinning, but we are responsible for care, instruction, guidance, and coming alongside people. It is an incredible thing. It is an incredible gift to a church. It is an incredible thing to be a Christian where your name is on somebody's list. And that person will appear before the Lord Jesus and say, "I was under you, Jesus, in shepherding for these people." That is one of the things, by the way, that keeps me up at night as pastor, as our elders. That is a heavy responsibility. It's a great blessing to the church. It's a heavy responsibility for elders.

And it would be wrong for us to ask you to do that if we were not also called to submit ourselves. This passage here tells us we are—you know, people in the church, submit yourself to elders. But you just heard this. This is exactly what we ask our elders to do.

So if you come to join our church, we ask you five vows. And this is what happens when we talk to people about the vows. "Hey, are you a sinner?" They're like, "Yeah, I'm a sinner." "Do you need Jesus who died for your sins?" "Yes, I need Jesus." "Do you want to live as becomes a follower of Christ?" "They're like, yes, I want to live as becomes a follower of Christ." "Do you want to serve in the church and give?" "Sure, that's no problem." "Do you want to submit yourself to the oversight of our elders?" Oh. Really? That is a very unpopular thing to ask. That's a hard thing to ask. As Peter says here, to subject yourself, to submit yourself to the elders. But that wouldn't be right unless we also were doing the same thing.

Did you hear the vows that James just asked these new elders? "Will you subject yourself to your brothers in the Lord?" Same word—subject, submit. We take vows to one another. I'm going to listen. I'm going to submit myself to my brothers. We do so as a pastor to our presbytery over us. They have the right to speak into my life. I have to do what they say.

Like, that is a great check and balance where we are all accountable. We're asking the church to be accountable just as we're being accountable. It's a great gift to the church.

Third, Humble

Peter does show and tell on this one. I love this. He tells the church to choose humble elders, not those who, like verse three, are going to lord it over the flock, push people around, abuse their authority, act like they're above everything. I think Peter here is thinking back to a time where he was with the other disciples and you remember how arguments would break out among the 12 about who's the greatest? Peter's like, that's not what we're looking for. We are not looking for who's the greatest lorded over other people. Elders looking for those who are humble, who are not about self promotion or applause or other people even liking them, but are trusting God.

Peter does show and tell here. This is great. Look at verse one. Peter identifies himself here:

I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ. — 1 Peter 5:1

Peter could have said, as an apostle, this is what you have to do. He doesn't do that. He identifies himself as a fellow elder. Now think about this guy. This is Peter, a witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's what makes him an apostle. A writer of scripture, and he doesn't flex any of that on this church. And he says, I'm just like you. I'm a fellow elder. He's showing you, and he both tells us, don't find people who lord it over, and he shows us what that's like. He's not showing off his power. He's laying it aside. Saying, I'm just like you. I'm a fellow elder. This is what we need at CTK as well.

See, where does that kind of humility come from? I mean, think about Peter. Peter who at one point—we see over and over in the Gospels how bold and brash and kind of obnoxious Peter is. Peter here who won't even reference his own apostleship. What has happened to him? Well, this is what's happened to him. He's been humbled. We looked at this over Easter. See, being humbled for Peter and for us, for leaders in our church means that you are aware: I am a trophy only of God's grace. Called to shepherd people who are trophies of God's grace. That's what you are. Do you know that? If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're a walking miracle. There is no, of course, in the kingdom of God. Just because you grew up in the church, you grew up in a Christian family, that does not guarantee anyone becomes a Christian. It is the inward work of the Spirit and a response in the heart to the word of God proclaimed. That's what makes a person a Christian. There is no, of course. You're a walking miracle if you're a follower of Jesus. And the best leaders are those who every day are awed by the fact—like me? I'm humbled by the fact I'm a walking miracle, and I get to come alongside other trophies of God's grace? That is astounding. That is astounding. That's what makes formerly boastful Peter into a man of humility.

I heard a story recently of a tour group in Israel. The tour guide was telling the folks on the bus about shepherds and sheep in Israel and the practice, ancient and modern, and says, you know, here's what you'll see as we're driving around Palestine. You're going to see a flock of sheep and a shepherd just like in ancient times, and here's how you could tell that this guy is the shepherd. He's either in the front of the flock, leading them, or he's in the middle of the flock taking care of them.

So they're driving along one day on this tour and they go by a pasture and they see a flock being followed by a man. A few of the folks on the tour are like, hey, tour guide, I think you're wrong here. So they pull the bus over. He's like, let me see what's going on. He gets off the bus and goes over and talks to the guy who's following these sheep and says, what's going on? They talk for a couple of minutes. He comes back on the bus and says, guess what? You're right. That wasn't a shepherd. Shepherds are in the front of the flock, leading them. He's in the middle of the flock taking care of them. That's the butcher. He's taking them to, well, you know what's going to happen, right?

A butcher follows the sheep. A shepherd leads the sheep. A shepherd cares for the sheep with gentleness and humility, not flexing, not pushing, not abusing authority, but with kindness and humility.

Fourth, Formal

Look at verse three. He speaks to the elders about those quote, in your charge. Now that's a strange statement, but it's significant because Peter is saying that leadership must be formal. It must be formal. Now think about it this way.

If we're gonna talk about sheep, there's gotta be a sheep pen. There's gotta be a sheepfold. There are individual sheep that identify themselves with that guy, that shepherd over there. Now that is very opposite of the way that people want to talk about Christianity right now. It is very in vogue to say, "I'm into Jesus. I just don't want to be a part of a church." Or "I'm a Christ follower. I just don't identify myself with any particular ministry." That's really, really common and really, really unbiblical.

Leadership has to be formal. Think about the New Testament as we read it in these books. When Paul wrote his letter to the people in Rome, there were only a few people who were in a church in Rome. There weren't like 50 churches in Rome. There was one and it met in a living room. Little tiny. One church in Rome that Paul writes his letter to. One church in Colossae, in Corinth, in Ephesus, all these places.

So when they wrote that, it would be really helpful if you could open up the book of Acts and say, "Well, on that Sunday, First Presbyterian in Rome accepted new members and they took vows and they were identified with that particular congregation." It just didn't happen. And the reason it didn't happen is because there was only one church.

Church leadership though is entirely biblical when it is formal. Those under your charge—identifiable elders with identifiable sheep. Church leadership is always supposed to be this.

So the leadership of the church has a very different relationship in our congregation with those who are members and those who are regular attenders. Those who have made it official. Those who've taken vows to be part of our church community and we have formal structures for how we do this.

If you hang around our church any length of time, you'll know we're a church that's all about community groups. Every elder in our congregation oversees two community groups. That means that the community group leaders are the frontline of pastoral care for those people, but the elders are constantly checking in, following up, training, praying for that group. That's how we care for people.

In addition, we have a shepherding team that's made up of elders, commissioned women, a couple of deacons, and that group is charged with following up with people who fall away, who drop off, who come into crisis in some way in our lives. We have a very formal relationship with people who are members in our church, and we take that really, really seriously. And I've got to say this: if you're not a member of our congregation and you've been hanging out here for a long time, even though you may consider yourself common law married to CTK, we don't. We can't. We care for those who've made vows, that we've made vows to.

A Heart for the Sheep

I listened recently to a recording from a guy who's a professor at Gordon Conwell Seminary who got a grant to go study Bedouin communities in the Middle East. And he went and followed around Bedouin communities who had these flocks of sheep in primarily Muslim communities. They had a translator, and his main question he was asking, interviewing all these Bedouins was, "What does it take to be a shepherd?"

He got a lot of answers from different active Bedouin shepherds, but my favorite one was this. He met a man who said, "You know what? I've been a lifelong shepherd, but when I die, my sons are not going to be shepherds. I'm not gonna give them the flock." And this guy was like, really? Kind of surprised to hear that. He thought this stuff just gets passed down generation to generation. He said, "No. My sons are not gonna be shepherds." Well, why not? Here's the answer: "They don't have a heart for the sheep. They don't love the sheep."

In fact, this was really funny. The researcher is there and he's got his 13-year-old son with him on this trip and the Bedouin shepherd looks at him and says, "You know what? I would give 200 sheep to your son and also give him a wife in our village if he's ready." He's like, "No, I have different dreams for my kid." But he's like, "Why would you do that?" He's like, "I can tell your son has a heart for sheep."

You know, the stuff that we just read about what it takes to be an elder, the vows that you've just taken, don't you think it's a little crazy that people would want to do this? It's such a high bar. It could be such a joy. It could also be such a weight. And only those who do so—as Peter says here—willingly, with a heart for sheep, who love sheep, that's who should be leading within the church.

So here's my call for you: would you pray? Would you pray for our elders? This is such a big thing we just ask these men to do. And we continue to ask of our elders that have been installed years ago. But would you pray for them? This is a heavy mantle.

The Secret Sauce for a Great Church

Last thing I want to say here is the secret sauce for a great church. And I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that after all this lead up, I'm going to say great leadership. Nope. That's not what I'm going to say. In fact, what we read here is something completely different. Look at verse five.

When Peter tells them, "Hey, you want to have a great church?" The secret sauce for a great church is not even great leadership. It's this:

Clothe yourselves all of you with humility toward one another. For God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. — 1 Peter 5:5

I love how he says this. He doesn't say, "Hey, leaders, clothe yourself with humility." He doesn't say, "Hey, followers, clothe yourself with humility." He says, "All of you clothe yourself with humility," and this is the secret sauce.

See, what if you moved to another city and had to go find another church? What would be the things that you would look for in another church? Well, here's what makes most people's list in America: Great preaching? Check. Awesome music? Check. Friendly people? Check. Sweet space? Check. Great kids ministries? Check. Outreach to the community? Check. All those things are in most people's top 10 of what they want in a church. But Peter said, uh-uh. This is what you should look for. A church where people are clothed with humility. Humility being the secret sauce.

You know, there are people throughout church history who've said the same thing. Augustine says, "If you ask me concerning the precepts of Christian religion, here's my list: first, second, and third, the answer would always be humility." G.K. Chesterton says, "We all get taller when we bow down."

See, I think when Peter pictures this, I can't help but think that he remembers this one night of his life where the King of the universe got up and took off his outer robe and laid it aside and wrapped himself in a towel and went around a room with very arrogant men and one by one knelt down with a basin of water and slowly washed their feet and dried them. He said, "This is what I've done for you. And this is the model for my church." The King whose scepter is a towel. This is what God calls us to.

That no one in this church could say, "You know what? I've kind of moved beyond the basic things. I don't do feet." No. This is what it means to be a part of this community. That God's calling us to clothe ourselves with humility, to take off the outer robe of pride, self-promotion, and "I shouldn't have to" and "I've done my time," to wrap the towel around our waist and say, "You know what I do? I do feet."

May God give us grace to be that kind of community. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.