He Who Would Be Greatest Among You - Konrad Stauffer

When I think of a shepherd, I think of unending patience, waiting, watching, comforting, protecting, looking for good pasture, going after wandering sheep, treating the wounded, knowing all your sheep by name, knowing all your sheep's individual personalities.

Good morning to y'all. It's a blessing to see everybody again today. It's nice to see some of y'all yesterday at the wedding. Today we're going to continue with our study in the book of 1 Peter chapter 5. And most of you probably don't remember where we left off the last time, but just in case you do, I did decide to let some of the last part of chapter 4 be because the subject matter was something we had talked about some more before. And I'm hoping to do a recap of the book of 1 Peter in another message, and then I'll cover some of that. But I decided to move on and finish up today with chapter 5.

I'm sure there could be a lot more said than what I'm going to say about chapter 5 today, but we're going to keep it brief.

So let me see here. And as you can see from my title today, He Who Would Be Greatest Among You, it's not an exact quote, but it comes from this verse, "But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant," Matthew 23:11. And as we begin this passage and we look at the attitude and everything that Peter is trying to portray here, you'll see that theme coming out all over, that this is the way to be great, this is the way to do it, this is the way to do church life.

I love this verse. This is probably one of my favorite verses. So we're going to move into our passage for today, 1 Peter 5, verses 1 and 2. We're going to read those first of all. "The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind."

And in verses 3 and 4 as well, "Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherds shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." Those are just four short verses, but there's so much in those four verses. So I'm going to just talk about those a little bit before we move on to the next part. As I read over this first passage where Peter exhorts and encourages the elder, I wonder what kinds of things are going through his mind. What kinds of accumulative experiences is Peter drawing from? Perhaps he's thinking about the time when some of the disciples were discussing who should be greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

And I have these verses up here in Mark chapter 9, verse 33 to 35. "And he came to Capernaum, and being in the house, he asked them, 'What was it that you disputed among yourselves by the way?' But they held their peace, for by the way, they had disputed amongst themselves who should be the greatest.

And he sat down and called the twelve and said unto them, 'If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all and servant of all.'" So Peter might be thinking about this as he's starting into this part of the letter.

Then again, maybe Peter's thinking about that time right after Jesus was crucified and he, Peter, had returned to his fishing, feeling like he'd really blown it, made a mess of things. He said, "I go fishing," and he went back to fishing for a little bit. And after having denied his affiliation with Jesus three times, and then Jesus had risen from the dead and come to find Peter out on his boat.

And then we'll read these verses here in John 21:15-17. "So when they had dined, Jesus said to Simon Peter, 'Son of Jonah, loveest thou me more than these?' And he said to him, 'Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.' And he saith unto him, 'Feed my sheep.' And he saith unto him again the second time, 'Simon, son of Jonah, loveest thou me?' And he said unto him, 'Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.' And he said unto him, 'Feed my sheep.'

And he saith unto him the third time, 'Simon, son of Jonah, loveest thou me?' And Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, 'Loveest thou me?' And he said unto him, 'Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee.' And Jesus saith unto him, 'Feed my sheep.'" Whatever the case, Peter was not ashamed to call himself an elder because through all his experiences, he had learned what it meant to be a true elder, to be a pastor, and to be a servant. So I don't know if this is in the back of his mind, that phrase, "Feed my sheep, feed my sheep."

And then the other thing here that we have some of the phrases here that I'm thinking about is some of the credentials that Peter had for speaking to the elders and to the flock of God. Many of you probably already know, but this word witness is derived from the Greek word martus, which is also the word from which we get martyr.

We all know Peter went on not only to be an eyewitness of the sufferings of Christ, but a full participant. So for him to be a witness wasn't just an onlooker, but it was him to be a participant.

He went on to own that suffering as a part of being a follower of Jesus. All through the book of 1 Peter, we have that theme of suffering as being a part of being a Christian.

But he also remembered that we're also partakers of the glory that should be revealed. Here again, Peter uses the word that many of you recognize as koinonos, which I believe is also related to the word koinonia, which means fellowship or participant.

Peter had come to understand that when we as followers of Jesus are willing to suffer with Christ, we also share in his glory, delight, and perfected beauty of his kingdom.

And there is our Greek word. At this point, Peter has already experienced persecution and suffering, and we see no faltering in his commitment to his calling as an apostle, as one sent out of our Lord. You could say he is qualified. He has the credentials to exhort the elders. He knows and has experienced the essentials of first being a follower of Jesus and secondly an elder, a leader, a pastor.

So we move on to the next part here with his instructions to the elders. "Feed the flock of God which is among you." I hope I don't weary you all with my checking out other possible renderings of these Greek words. I'm not saying that's going to help you, but I feel like it's helpful to me sometimes. I only do this to help enrich my own understanding, and hopefully it'll help yours as well. I was interested in this word feed. What does it say? What are other possible renderings of this word?

And I'm not even going to try to pronounce that, but to tend as a shepherd is one of the things that came out to me. It's not just a matter of throwing feed down like we do to the cows the dairy farmers do these days when they throw feed to the cows with a machine and they move on with life.

Taking care of sheep and being a shepherd is a completely different job.

And I got this picture, which gives us a little bit of an idea. You'll notice the guy's coat is all dirty. He's bedraggled, and if you could smell him, he would smell like his sheep. And that's the reality of a shepherd. That's the life of a shepherd.

They know their sheep really well. There are two things I believe are important we understand to be a shepherd or an elder is an all-consuming work. And I know you brothers that are in doing this right now understand this even better than I do.

When I think of a shepherd, I think of unending patience, waiting, watching, comforting, protecting, looking for good pasture, going after wandering sheep, treating the wounded, knowing all your sheep by name, knowing all your sheep's individual personalities. When I look at a flock of sheep, I don't see personality. I just see sheep. But a shepherd, a person who spends all his time with them, they begin to have specific personalities.

And that's the way a true shepherd is of a congregation. He understands his people as being specific personalities. I sometimes wonder, and I'm not going to be a judge of this, but this is just something that comes to my mind. I sometimes wonder when I see these pastors of mega churches, if their congregations feel like individual sheep to them, or if it's just the flock of sheep after a while. When you have thousands of people sitting in your congregation, do they feel like do you feel like you have a connection with them or not? It's just a question.

"Feed the flock of God which is among you." There's another phrase here, and I don't want to make too much of it because I don't want to make it say something that it's not saying, but it's something that just stands out to me. There are other flocks out there. There are other shepherds.

And what I see Peter saying here is pay attention to what you have right in front of you. Many shepherds or pastors spread themselves way too thin, and there's no way for them to know their sheep properly when they have too many trying to manage too many things all around them. And I feel like Peter's saying, focus on what's right in front of you. Focus on your flock that you have with you.

Taking oversight thereof not by constraint, but willingly. Church leadership is a big job, a huge responsibility, but Peter's saying here that the pastor or pastors or elders, whatever you want to call them, should not feel forced into their position, but it should be something he enjoys, or you could say delights to do.

I remind us again, he is not talking about the kind of leadership the world so often seeks after or the world exercises, but a servant shepherd style oversight. It seems so often when a man is ordained into leadership, especially in our Anabaptist circles, it's almost like a cloud of gloom settles over him and his family. You see it at the ordination. I've seen very few people seem excited or inspired at an ordination.

They come away with a look of almost like a whipped puppy. And it's kind of like, is that really what God wanted for people when they are ordained to the ministry? And yet on the other side of, if I was the one receiving the charge, I would feel a great responsibility probably. So I understand that part of it. But I think what Peter's saying here is said, do it willingly, do it happily. Own it. We'll talk some more about that. Not for filthy lucre.

Should have probably used a different version. This is old language. I tried to figure out exactly what the apostle Peter means by this phrase. However, the strongs does not give us a whole lot. The biggest word I saw is the idea of being sorted or sortedly, which means dirty or underhanded.

I think what Peter is trying to get across is that a man should not be a pastor or elder for any other reason than to serve. It shouldn't be an idea of that I'm going to somehow rake something in off these people, which I think that's possible out there. I don't think most pastors set out with that idea, though. I'll give that much. I don't think most men who are pastors go with the idea of that they're going to somehow harvest something off the people. So he says, not for filthy lucre, not for dishonest gain, I think is what the New King James says.

Here again, but of a ready mind. It goes along with willingly. Here again, we see the idea of a pastor doing his job willingly with a lacrate. There is nothing more inspiring than a person who loves his job and loves his people. And that just goes all over, not just in the church, but in business. It is inspiring to watch a person who loves what they do. It makes you feel like doing your job better.

And that's what it does for us when we have ministers, elders, people who serve the body of Christ who are excited and enjoy what they're doing. It makes the congregation feel like enjoying what they're doing as well.

Neither as being lords over God's heritage. Thanks to AI, I said, create me an image of an English lord, and that's what they came up with.

First off, this flock has been entrusted to you. It is not your own. They are the Lord our God's people. They are his heritage. When Peter speaks of a lord, we get the picture of maybe a warlord who has risen to power by military prowess, by taking power or control of a certain region.

Or we may get the picture of an English lord, which is something that they either get by an act of bravery or heredity. I'm not sure what's all involved in an English lord, but I always get this feeling that they're just a little bit out of touch with society around them. They live at a level that's hard to reach, and they are kind of out of touch with what's happening around them. I don't think that's the picture we should get when we think about our ministry, our elders, and our pastors. Out of touch and not quite, or maybe somebody has everybody a little bit in fear, has everybody under their thumb. Neither one of those images are something that we want to think about when we think about God's people.

But being an example to the flock, another old word, I think from as near as I can tell, just simply another way of saying examples to the flock. Be the example or model, not of your personal preference, but rather exemplify what you see in the example of our Lord. I imagine Peter well remembered the time Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. Jesus even washed the feet of Judas Iscariot. There's a lesson in that. He washed the feet of his enemy.

We do not coerce people into the kingdom of God. We do not force people into a good church experience. We lead them by example.

And then he says this beautiful thing at the end here, and when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Again, the flock or congregation of whom you have oversight is not your own personal project, but they are God's heritage, God's children. When our Lord returns to receive all that are his, then you who served faithfully, lovingly, and cheerfully will receive a reward far greater than any earthly crown or power can give. Peter says a crown of glory that does not fade away. I don't think we can even quite grasp that in our human minds at this point, but that's a promise.

Moving on to verse back to 1 Peter 5:5-7. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.

Likewise, ye younger.

And just so you know, I put myself in this class, ye younger.

As we can see, and I believe we all know, not all the responsibility falls on the elders. We all have a very vital part or role to play in this whole thing we call church. If you are younger or simply have not figured out what your particular role may be, the best thing you can possibly do for the whole body of Christ is to stand behind those and support them who are serving the flock. Be supportive, be encouraging, support them with your prayers.

Don't underestimate prayer for people, even if they don't know it. Don't underestimate that. As we have heard here many times, submission does not mean that you are under somebody's thumb, but submission means that you are like a subcontractor. A subcontractor like Elam understands, or anybody who works in the carpentry world, that's the way things are done today anymore. There's oftentimes somebody that starts the project and has the dream for it, and then they find these subcontractors that are willing to take on certain parts of the project, and they're kind of all funneling into this dream to make this beautiful building. Well, that's what we're looking at in the body of Christ. It's not just that we're helping just one man do what he wants to do, but we're actually following our energies together into God's kingdom to make that kingdom beautiful and make it wonderful.

And it should inspire us to be able to be a part of all that. So we're subcontractors in a sense.

And your role of submission is not subpar, but it's substantial. I just couldn't help but think about it that way. It just helps me to remember things. It's not subpar, but it's substantial. It is vital to the growth of the body of Christ. As a true Christian, that is what we should desire.

Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility. So we're not just talking about two elders anymore, but this is like goes all the way down through the body of Christ, all through life. It's an inter-submissive relationship.

We work together at this. The call to submission is not only regard to our elders, but it is for all our brothers and sisters. This could also be called preferring one another. The Bible and the New Testament, we read that term, preferring one another. Basically, you take the time to listen and enter into the life and dreams of your brother or sister. It may mean you lay down your own perceived wisdom or ideas to hear them out and try to understand their point of view. There is one essential ingredient that is a must for all of this to work well. That is humility. Humility is a choice. Humility may mean you close your mouth and let the moment pass when you have something really important you wanted to say, just so you can hear your brother struggle to express his heart.

Humility might mean that your mind works 10 times faster than your brother's, but you step into his world, his life, and plans and see how you can help further and advance his dream.

After all, that's exactly what Jesus did for us. He had all this knowledge and all his participation in creation and making mankind, and yet he narrowed his existence down to being a human being along with the rest of us.

And he understands what we're dealing with. He could have just spilled all his wisdom like a fire hydrant on us. It was deep enough as it was what he taught, but we can't even imagine how much Jesus narrowed down what he understands and knows just so we can understand and know what he's so we can know the Father and his goodness. And that's what Jesus is calling us to do for one another. Make it something other people can reach.

Then he says, be sober in verse 8 and 9. Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour, whom resists steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

Your adversary, the devil. While we cannot blame all of our failures on the devil, which is a popular thing to do in the world, the devil made me do it. He is real, and he is our true opponent. Your brother who thinks different than you is not your opponent. The elder you may struggle to understand is not your opponent. Your wife and children may bring stress into your experience at times, but they are not your opponents. Satan, the accuser of the brethren, the sower of discord, the enemy of our very souls is our real opponent.

And I think about just thinking about the lion there. Again, it was an effort through AI to try to create an image of a lion behind a bush watching sheep, and that's all the better I could get it. So I finally said, oh, well, what do I have to do for now?

But I remember a story that an older lady down in South America told me. She lived out in the country all her life, and she said that there were mountain lions in Chile, and there were quite a few of them at one point. And she said that they would sometimes sit out on the fringes of a flock of sheep, and they had a lot of sheep in Chile too. So they would sit out on the fringes of the flock of sheep, and they knew that sheep are curious. So they do stuff like roll around in the weeds and make the bushes shake and stuff, and it never failed. One of the sheep would wander over to see what was going on.

And that's Satan for you. He likes to have his side gig going, and he likes to draw other people into that side gig, you could say, and that's where he begins to make trouble. I'm going to talk about that just a little bit more. The picture I get of Satan as I read this passage is that of a lion watching a flock of sheep. He has respect for the shepherd and possibly for his dog, but he works his way around waiting for some unsuspecting sheep to wander off by itself, and that is where he begins his work.

How do we protect ourselves from the enemy?

There is a theme throughout the book of Peter that comes up a couple of times, and I think I've talked about it before, and yet it's kind of an unpopular word, but we're just going to look at this. Peter mentions it here again in this passage.

Be sober. Do not allow my translation or my rendering of this word, do not allow any substance, word, thought to take root that is foreign to the character of our Lord in your heart and life. Don't let water get into your canoe. We talked about that last in our last message about water getting into your canoe.

Some foreign substance to get into something into your life, and instead of you being on top of the elements, you are finally immersed in the elements around you, and you're sinking. Sobriety is being in touch with reality at all times.

Be vigilant.

You are on guard duty. The city depends on you to be alert. Hopefully, you're not the only one on guard. Some people think they are, but you and your brothers all need to be on the alert. Your life and the life of the congregation depends on this.

One of the biggest, most subtle, most sneaky intruders that threaten to undo the church is mistrust, and this is sown by none other than our enemy, Satan, the accuser of the brethren. And that is also a New Testament term. He talks about Satan as the accuser of the brethren. So I'm just putting that in as a side thought. That is something that we must be vigilant about as a brotherhood.

Knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren, one of the best weapons we have against mistrust or jealousy in regard to our brothers, we need to remind ourselves that they are facing the same kinds of pressures and often very similar struggles as we are. Sometimes when we are under pressure, it is a temptation to feel resentful towards someone who seems to be enjoying themselves.

There again, I remind us, there's that call to weep with those who weep and mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice. So if your brother's rejoicing, try to get into the spirit with him rather than wishing he would fall so you can be together in misery.

It is a temptation to feel resentful towards someone who seems to be enjoying themselves, but you know we need the strength and the encouragement that comes from a person who isn't run down. If we endure and persevere, the time will come when we have strength again, and then perhaps we can be the one to help lift up a brother or sister who is down.

Verses 5 and 10. But the God of all grace who hath called us into his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Our Father, who is the very embodiment of all that is graciousness, kindness, goodness, and life, has invited us through his son, Jesus, to come and participate in his eternal glory. This glory is not like the glory that man seeks here on earth because all the glory and honor that man seeks here on earth is subject to mankind and his whims and ways.

However, the glory that God calls us to is God's glory, which, like his other characteristics, is eternal.

And here's this phrase again, after you have suffered a while. Much of what is truly beautiful is not seen as truly is not seen or truly enjoyed until we have passed through a process that often involves suffering. In smaller and larger things of life, we hardly enjoy anything unless we've worked for them. Just looking at another person's garden is fine, but to look on your own garden that you have worked with your dug with your own hands, you've pulled the weeds with your own hands, has a whole new feeling to you than just looking on someone else's garden that looks beautiful.

And that's a principle that goes throughout all of life, and it applies very much to the Christian life. Everything has its measure of suffering that you have to go through. Even though gardening is therapeutic, there's a certain kind of a small amount of suffering you go through. And for some of us, there's more than for others, I think.

You don't really appreciate feeling well until you've been sick in bed for a while. Sometimes I'm actually glad for a few days where I actually feel very sick just to realize how good I felt before.

There's another one of those things.

There are many factors that contribute to our suffering as followers of Jesus. One of these being that we are human beings striving and participating in the painful process of being renewed daily. We will have moments of relief, moments of ecstatic joy. However, we will only know and experience complete joy when once we are with the Father and the Son with fully renewed minds and fully whole and renewed bodies.

And then we come to the end of the chapter, verses 12 through 14. By Silvanus, a faithful brother unto you, as I suppose, I have written briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein you stand.

The church that is at Babylon elected together with you saluteth you, and so doth Marcus, my son. Greet you one another with a kiss of charity. Peace be with you, all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen.

I have written briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein you stand. The love and the joy you experience as we strive or we experience as we strive together to implement these instructions Peter has laid out here for the edification of the body of Christ. This is the sample, is only a sample of the true grace of God. And it is going to be because of this kind of obedience and practice that we are able to stand to the very end. In this, we equip ourselves not only for life here and now, but we grow into that character that will open our eyes, our emotions, and our understanding for all eternity.

Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen.