“1 To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ’s sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed: 2 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.”
If you are a father, you are more important than you realize. Brian will be more important to Jett than he can begin to realize. Brandon will be more important to Harper than he can begin to realize. Josh will be more important to Lennon than he can begin to realize.
Seeing three fathers stand for and with their children at baptism communicates a great deal and it should. They stand because they are fathers. They stand because they are called by God to be fathers. This act communicates today because the culture is in the midst of something of a crisis regarding fatherhood. The culture doesn’t seem to know what fathers are for anymore. In his book Father Hunger, Doug Wilson writes, “What are fathers called to? Fathers give. Fathers protect. Fathers bestow. Fathers yearn and long for the good of their children. Fathers delight. Fathers sacrifice. Fathers are jovial and open-handed. Fathers create abundance, and if lean times come they take the leanest portion themselves and create a sense of gratitude and abundance for the rest.”
When a father like that is gladly present, it makes a difference. Children with such a father grow up knowing that they are protected. Children with such a father grow up knowing that they are worthy of delight. Such children grow up knowing that their father loves them. That makes a difference in the life of a child.
When a father like that is absent from the family, it also makes a difference. Children living in homes without a father are four times more likely to live below the poverty line. Children raised in father-absent homes are twice as likely to be obese. A father’s influence begins even before birth; pregnant women who don’t have the support of the child’s father are significantly more likely to lose the child in pregnancy.
Fathers matter. If you had a father who was gladly present, that made a difference in your life. If you had a father who wasn’t gladly present, that has made a difference in your life as well. Now in many ways, elders play the role of fathers in the church family. Blessings abound when elders are gladly present. Trouble abounds when elders are not gladly present.
Christ wants blessings to abound in his church and this is one of the reasons he calls elders. Christ invites elders to act as fathers to the church. Now this language of fathers is not intended to disparage the necessary involvement of women in the church just as any discussion of fathers in the family is not intended to disparage mothers. Mothers also give. Mothers also yearn for the good of their children. Mothers also sacrifice. When mothers are gladly present in a family, it makes a difference. Mothers of the church play a crucial role. The fact remains, however, that mothers are not fathers and fathers are not mothers. If you are a single mother or have been, you know this. If you are a single father or have been, you know this as well.
It would be good and wise to focus on the mothers of the church at some point, but today we will focus on the fathers of the church. We will focus on the elders. The elders act as fathers to the church because Christ called them to do so. Christ calls elders to join him in his work. If you are an elder right now, it is because Christ himself has extended his hand to you and said, ‘join me.’ Christ calls elders to join him in his work. That is the claim of this sermon.
We see this in three points. First: from a fellow elder. Second: shepherding God’s flock. Third: receiving your crown of glory. In verse 1, we see that these words about elders come from a fellow elder. In verses 2-3, we see the specifics of shepherding God’s flock. In verse 4, we see the crown of glory that awaits faithful elders.
First: from a fellow elder. All Scripture is God-breathed. This Scripture is God-breathed, and it is important to note through whom God breathed it. It matters that Peter wrote them just as it matters that the words, “the Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want,” were written by a man who had an incredibly difficult life. It matters that the words, “fear God and keep His commandments for this is the whole duty of man,” were written by a man who first tried everything in life other than fearing God and keeping His commandments. It matters that these words about elders were written by a fellow elder. As Peter put it, “To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder… be shepherds of God’s flock.”
Peter wasn’t urging these elders to do anything he wasn’t doing. He wasn’t urging elders to do anything Christ hadn’t commanded him to do. When Jesus restored Peter to ministry by the seaside, he said, “Peter, do you love me? Then feed my sheep.” Peter was asking the same question and giving the same command to these elders. ‘Elders, do you love Jesus? Then feed his sheep. Shepherd this flock.’ “To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder… be shepherds of God’s flock.”
Now if you are called to be an elder, you might feel insufficient. You might not feel up to the call. Peter doubtlessly wondered the same about himself when Christ called him to feed his sheep, but the fact remained that Christ called him. The fact remains that Christ has called you elders. Christ equipped Peter because he called Peter. Christ will equip you because he has called you. Christ has invited you to join him in his work.
You elders are serving a necessary role. Families flounder without involved fathers. Churches flounder without involved elders. When Paul and Barnabas planted churches, they appointed elders in every new church because involved elders are necessary. The church family must have fathers who are gladly present.
The role of elder most likely started not so much as an official office but as a recognition of the men who were already filling the role. The first elders were most likely the oldest and most respected among the new converts. In time, the apostle laid down guidelines for selecting elders. We will study some of them in adult education.
Peter connected these first century elders with his own office. He called them fellow elders. If you are an elder seeking to be faithful, Peter is not ashamed to call you ‘brother.’
Peter wants you to know that your office is glorious. It is a call directly from God Himself. Peter also wants you to know that your office will, at times, involve suffering. If the chief shepherd suffered by reason of love, we under-shepherds have good reason to expect the same. It is for this reason that Peter called himself a witness of Christ’s sufferings in verse 1.
Christ suffered for his people and so will the leaders he called. Peter wanted these elders to know that he shared in their sufferings. He was part of the same sort of difficult meetings that they were. He knew the pain of being misunderstood. He knew the sting of chancing trouble with people for the sake of peace with God. He knew it—not as well as Christ knew it, but he knew it. If you are, or have been an elder, you know the heartache that the responsibility can bring.
If you are not an elder, I urge you to empathize with this load that you are not currently called to carry. Situations look quite different when you sit in an elder’s seat. Interpret the elder’s actions generously because, as Jesus said, “the measure with which you judge will be measured onto you”.
A man without children is very prone to make any number of assumptions about how others should raise their children. He stops making such assumptions when he has children of his own. A person who is not an elder would be wise to avoid making untested assumptions about the work of these men.
Interpret the actions of the elders generously and remember that they are under authority just like you are. They stand before God. Before speaking of elders, Peter wrote that, “it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household.” It is likely that Peter followed those words with this discussion of elders because judgment starts with the elders. Just as the father carries an increased responsibility and culpability in the family, so the elders carry an increased responsibility and culpability in the church. Just as God will hold absentee fathers responsible, so God will hold absentee elders responsible. Just as God will reward godly fathers so God will reward godly elders.
We will study some specifics of this reward later, but for now it suffices to say that there is glory corresponding to this increased responsibility. Peter makes that clear when he says, “To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ’s sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed.” There is a glory in store for those who are gladly present as the fathers of the church.
John F. Kennedy understood the suffering and glory of leadership. His words are true for the elders among us, for those who have served, and for those who will serve. “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best, if he wins, knows the thrills of high achievement, and, if he fails, at least fails daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
Get in the arena. Jesus invites you to join him in his work. That is true whatever your call in this church and if you have the Holy Spirit you are gifted for some sort of service. You elders are specifically called to the service of shepherding God’s flock. That is our second point.
This shepherding metaphor implies caring oversight. You see both in the words of verse 2, “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers.” Elders practice oversight. They are overseers. Elders must also care. The church is described as people under their care. That’s caring oversight.
Caring oversight is the call of the elder and every human heart craves caring oversight. If you were fathered well, you appreciated your dad’s caring oversight. If you were fathered poorly or not at all, you longed for caring oversight. Elders are called to give caring oversight to the church. Our elders are called to caring oversight within this congregation.
They are men tasked with a mandate that they must carry out at the instructions of their master. They are men who must give an account. They are men who must follow the pattern given them. They must shepherd God’s flock in God’s way not lead their own people in their own way. It is God’s flock, as Peter put it.
Willy Wonka understood this principle. Wonka was a reclusive candy maker who held a contest that resulted in five lucky children touring his chocolate factory in hopes of winning the grand prize. One by one throughout the film, the children show themselves to be selfish and ungrateful until only Charlie remains. Charlie was a noble and generous boy who wound up winning the grand prize. The grand prize was the chocolate factory itself. “I can’t go on forever,” Wonka told Charlie, “and I don’t really want to try. So who can I trust to run the factory when I leave and take care of the [workers] for me? Not a grown up. A grown up would want to do everything his own way, not mine. So that’s why I decided a long time ago that I had to find a child—a very honest, loving child, to whom I could tell all my most precious candy making secrets.” Wonka was looking for someone who would do everything in his way because his way cared for the workers and cared about the candy. The good shepherd is looking for elders who will do everything in his way because his way cares about the people and cares about the truth.
You elders are called to do everything in Jesus’ way. Jesus’ way is willing. In verse 2, Peter called you elders to serve, “not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be.”
If you serve only because you feel as if you must, your service will be joyless; your service will be love-less. We’ve been studying what happens when Christians serve without love. “I speak in the tongues [of men or of angels, but have not love, I am only a clashing gong or a clanging cymbal.” You don’t want your three years as an elder to be the equivalent of a cymbal clanging as it falls on to the floor. Love.
Your eagerness to serve will make an impact on this church. Apathy also makes an impact. Over Christmas I was talking with a brother-in-law who was eager to serve on council. After the first meeting, a fellow office-bearer who also just began his term leaned back in his seat and said, ‘well, one meeting down; thirty-five to go.’ That attitude is death to a council. It is death to an elder body. It can’t be changed unless the apathetic men in question have a change of heart or rotate out of council.
Elders, remember to serve “not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be.” If you are not, repent. Remember it is Christ who called you. The same Christ who died for you has called you. The same goes for deacons. The same goes for myself. The same goes for all of us in this congregation. Don’t serve under compulsion. Be willing, as God want you to be.
Jesus’ way is willing. It is also generous. Peter tells us in verse 2 that elders are to be generous benefactors rather than greedy for gain. In other words, elders are to serve to give and not to get.
The word that is translated here as ‘elder’ was used in the rest of the culture to describe the benefactors of a city. Benefactors gave of themselves for the good of the city. Denny Sanford is a benefactor of Sioux Falls. He gives of his own abundance for the good of the city. Elders are to give of themselves for the good of the church. Now the way in which each elder acts as a benefactor to the church will be different. They need not be the primary financial givers, although they should lead by example and integrity in this area. What matters is that they give of themselves for the well-being and enrichment of the church just as Denny Sanford gives of himself for the well-being and enrichment of Sioux Falls. People rightly wonder how Sioux Falls would be different were it not for Denny Sanford. People should rightly wonder how this church would be different were it not for your service as an elder.
Jesus’ way is willing. Jesus’ way is generous in that it is about giving and not getting. Jesus’ way is also humble. Peter, in verse 3, told these first century elders not to lord it over those entrusted to them, but to be examples to the flock. The same goes for twenty-first century elders.
How could it be otherwise when you consider who called you. “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them,” said Jesus, “and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Any man who thinks that he is better than the congregation because he is an elder needs to take yet another look at Jesus. Jesus is God and yet he doesn’t lord that over us. Rather he is an example to us. You are to treat others as Jesus has treated you. You are to lead others as Jesus has led you.
Now this weighty calling comes with a weighty reward. We see that in our final point: receiving your crown of glory. ‘Peter did not call on leaders “to sacrifice” with no thought of reward,’ writes Thomas Schriener. [Rather] ‘he reminded them that their labor for others will have a great reward and will bring remarkable joy.’
If you serve faithfully as an elder, you can know by the authority of God that one day you will have great reward and remarkable joy. That is what the word of God says in verse 4, “when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.” You will have “the greatest reward conceivable,” as Schriener puts it.
Elders will be richly compensated for the heartache their office brings. They will be rewarded for their faithfulness. This promise is very precious to elders because their service often goes unrecognized in this life. It is even disparaged by others, at times. “They often suffer [ingratitude],” as Calvin puts it; “long and great labors are often in vain…” If you have served as an elder, you know that pain. Regarding the burdens of the elder Calvin writes, “there is for him one and only one remedy—to turn his eyes to the coming of Christ. Thus it will be, that he, who seems to derive no encouragement from men, will assiduously go on in his labors, knowing that a great reward is prepared for him by the Lord… which is sufficient to compensate for all delay.”
There will be times in the service of every elder when he wonders if it is worth it. There might even be times when he wishes he wasn’t chosen. In those moments, he must take the medicine Peter prescribes. He must remind himself of the coming of Jesus. “When the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.”
Unless elders keep that day in mind, they will not lead in a way that is worthy of that day. They will not lead in the way that we need on this day. They will make bargains with this present, evil age. They will serve begrudgingly. They will do what they can to be comfortable in their office rather than serve the people for whom Christ died. Unless our elders remember Jesus’ return, they will serve as they see fit. Elders who remember Jesus’ return serve as Jesus’ sees fit.
When Jesus returns, he will reward the elders who have served faithfully. We tend to shy away from verses like this because we think they speak of works – righteousness. We shouldn’t. This reward makes clear that your service matters. You elders matter more than you realize. Blessings abound when you are gladly present. Trouble abounds when you are absentee. Be gladly present. Be a father to this church. We need you more than you know. Amen.