And we're back
with "Books of the Book"
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and we are studying
here with Dr. Tom Shepherd.
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Dr. Shepherd, you had
a graphic here earlier
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and it--Jesus pointed
out how His calling to Peter,
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the language He was using
was lower language in love,
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however his ministry calling
was going higher and higher.
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What kind of
test was that about?
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Yeah, it's kind
of odd, you know,
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you think that Peter would his--
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the questions would
go higher and higher
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and then the commission would
go higher and higher as well.
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But it's just the opposite
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that as Jesus
lowers this level of love
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that He asked Peter
about than the commission
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that He has given seems to
become more and more weighty
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and more and more important.
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So people kind of
scratch their head about that
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and say, "Well,
why would that be?"
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Well, of course, Jesus
was testing him about love,
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but in a sense really
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what He was
testing was humility.
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And so the level of
humility that Peter displayed
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becomes I don't if
you can say greater
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because humility is
about not being great.
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But his humility shines
forth stronger and stronger
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as Jesus lowers the bar
and asked these questions
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to the point where Peter is
completely dependent on Jesus
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and displays that
he's totally humble.
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And that's the great
training or the great commission
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for ministry that you
have this characteristic,
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you this ability to be humble,
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then you can be a
great minister for Jesus.
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Amen. Yeah.
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Well, we keep reading here
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in the Book of
Peter last chapter.
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It seems that Peter
instructs the elders
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to take care of the
church, how does he do that?
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Uh, well, here
in this passage he--
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there are sets of what we call
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antithesis,
opposites in ministry.
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We'll, first kind
of go through them
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and then a little later,
we'll look at the graphic
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that kind of displays all
this in sort of graphic form.
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But first we
want to look at these,
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he has these three pairs,
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one way that you
should do ministry,
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the other way that you
should not do ministry.
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I have a sermon called, how to--
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based on this passage called
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"How to run the
church into the ground?"
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And it's-- I remember
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there was this
lady in our office
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she did not like that
title, that was bad title,
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but king of, you know,
catch peoples attention.
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And there are ways
that you can do ministry
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that will build
people up and of course,
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that's what Peter promotes.
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But he pairs it
with ways of ministry
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that will tear people down.
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It's important for us to notice
the distinctions between them.
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But we must not forget
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the negative way
that he refers to
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because this will
actually come up again
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in our discussion
in 2 Peter, all right.
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So that's just a little
direction of where we're headed
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'cause we're gonna come
to 2 Peter, pretty soon.
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All right, so in
verse 2, Chapter 5 verse 2,
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gives us that first
pair, would you read that?
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"Shepherd the flock of
God which is among you,
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serving as overseers, not
by compulsion but willingly,
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not for dishonest
gain but eagerly."
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All right, he actually
gives two of the pairs there.
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And he starts this
shepherding metaphor,
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"Shepherd the flock of God
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that is among you,
exercising oversight."
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This verb for
oversight is epískopol
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from which we would
get the word episcopal
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or and in that kind of concept.
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And it has the
idea of oversight,
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but it also had the
idea of visiting, visiting.
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And if you are
gonna watch over a flock,
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you have to be with them.
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If you are gonna be
an effective pastor,
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you have to visit people
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in their homes
and pray with them.
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And I'll tell you
people really respond
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to a visit from their pastor.
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I remember years ago,
being a pastor in Illinois
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and I really
believed in visiting.
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And I came to the house of
one of the deacons of the church
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and he said
something to me very sad.
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He was thanking me,
but he said very sad.
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He said, Pastor,
you're the first pastor
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who had come to
my house in 20 years.
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Wow. I think that is just sad.
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Pastors should be out visiting
there people all the time.
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So that's what
Peter's people do.
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And then the first
point of reference he says,
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"Not under compulsion
but voluntarily or willingly
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according to God," all right.
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So when he says
not under compulsion,
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it may remind us
when Paul talks about,
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"God loves a cheerful giver."
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You remember that
passage, it's in 2 Corinthians 9
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and he says, "God
loves a cheerful giver
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and you should give
not under compulsion."
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All right, this word compulsion
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has the idea of
pressure involved.
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Somebody is pushing you, okay,
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pressing you to do something
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that you didn't
want to do, all right.
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Paul didn't want
either internal reluctance
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or external
pressure to motivate people
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to give for the
church, all right.
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And Peter is in a situation
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where it was probably hard
to find leaders for the church.
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And so he says, don't push
men into leadership too early.
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You know, there
would be that temptation
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to push them, to
move them forward.
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He says it-- we
can put it this way,
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it must not be the push
of men that motivates us.
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It must be the pull of God.
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We must do
willingly, all right, so.
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Then we come to the
second of these concepts
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and that is also in verse 2.
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Would you read
verse 2, once one time?
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"Shepherd the flock of
God which is among you,
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serving as overseers, not
by compulsion but willingly,
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not for dishonest
gain but eagerly."
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Mm-hmm, okay, and
he has in there as,
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as God would have you do it.
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So again, the reference point
is God as Peter found Christ
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as the reference
point of his ministry.
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So God is the
reference point of our ministry.
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He says that you are not
to do ministry in order to--
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you shouldn't be pushed into it.
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You should do it willingly
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and you shouldn't do
it for shameful gain,
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but you should do it eagerly.
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In John 10, Jesus talked about
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the shepherd
versus the hired hand.
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He said the
shepherd loves the sheep
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and guards them not
thinking of himself, right?
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But the hired hand,
what's he thinking off?
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Well, pretty much his paycheck.
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And when the robbers
come or the wolf comes,
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what does the hired
man do? He run away.
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He runs away, yeah,
because he doesn't worry.
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His concern is not the sheep.
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His concern is his
paycheck and his own,
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you know, his
own benefits, okay.
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Now there are
benefits to leadership,
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a lot of people find that out.
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Some of them,
sometimes it's financial
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other times it's
honor, other times it's power,
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other times
it's decision making.
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These are all aspects
that go along with leadership.
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But these are
not the right motives
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for Christian ministry to
gain these things, you know.
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Of course, pastors
have to have a living wage
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and, you know, they'll
have part of leadership,
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part of decision making.
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But the goal isn't to be,
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to get all of
these kinds of things,
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you know, surround
yourself where there's power,
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where there's money, all
these different kinds of things.
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It must not be for the
money that we do ministry.
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It's rather,
it's for the mission.
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It's not what you
can get out of it,
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but it's rather what
you can give to help others.
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Right this leads us to
verse 5-- verse 3, I'm sorry.
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"Nor as being lords over
those who entrusted to you,
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but being
examples to the flock."
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And when-- verse 3?
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This is verse 3, yeah.
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He says, "Not domineering
over those in your charge,
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but being
examples to the flock."
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You are not sent to be a master
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you're supposed to be
a mentor to the flock.
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There's a
wonderful story in Mark 10,
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we'll just turn to real quickly.
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Mark 10, there is this
story of the disciples,
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James and John
and they come to Jesus
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and they want Him
to give them a favor.
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And so, we're reading
now in Mark Chapter 10.
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Well, no wonder, I'm
in Matthew Chapter 10,
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it didn't look quite right.
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Okay, so we're in
Chapter 10 of verse--
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Verse 35, we
start in verse 35. Okay.
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"Then James and
John, the sons of Zebedee,
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came to Him, saying, 'Teacher,
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we want You to do
for us whatever we ask.'
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And He said to them,
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'What do you want
Me to do for you?'
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They said to Him,
'Grant us that we may sit,
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one on Your right hand
and the other on Your left,
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in Your glory.'
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But Jesus said to them,
'You do not know what you ask.
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Are you able to
drink the cup that I drink,
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and be baptized with the
baptism that I am baptized?'
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So they said to
Him, 'We are able.'
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So Jesus said to them,
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'You will indeed
drink the cup that I drink,
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and with the
baptism I am baptized with
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you will be baptized,
00:10:00.10\00:10:03.05
but to sit on My right hand
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and on My left
is not Mine to give,
00:10:05.10\00:10:07.49
but it is for those
for whom it is prepared.' "
00:10:07.52\00:10:11.55
All right, well, these
disciples came to Jesus
00:10:11.58\00:10:13.61
with that wonderful discipleship
principle, me first.
00:10:13.64\00:10:18.10
They said we want to be
on Your right and Your left.
00:10:18.13\00:10:19.57
Jesus said, you don't
know what you're asking for.
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He said to sit on
My right and My left.
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There you see,
they didn't realize that
00:10:24.39\00:10:25.81
what they were asking for
was to go to the cross with Him,
00:10:25.84\00:10:28.01
to be on His
right and on His left.
00:10:28.04\00:10:29.77
And that's where two
thieves ended up, you know.
00:10:29.80\00:10:32.21
And John and James said,
oh, yeah, we can do that.
00:10:32.24\00:10:35.10
And they didn't
quite understand it,
00:10:35.13\00:10:36.79
but Jesus then
points out to them
00:10:36.82\00:10:38.64
and to the other disciples
just what ministry is about.
00:10:38.67\00:10:41.63
If you look in verse 42,
00:10:41.66\00:10:43.64
when he calls the
disciples together,
00:10:43.67\00:10:45.39
He says, "You know that those
00:10:45.42\00:10:46.79
who are considered
rulers to the Gentiles,
00:10:46.82\00:10:48.80
lorded over them,
00:10:48.83\00:10:50.20
and their great ones exercise
the authority over them.
00:10:50.23\00:10:53.50
But it shall
not be so among you,
00:10:53.53\00:10:56.02
but whoever would be great
among you must be your servant.
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And whoever would be first
among you must be slave of all.
00:10:58.92\00:11:02.31
For even the Son of
Man came not to be served,
00:11:02.34\00:11:04.68
but to serve, and to give
His life as a ransom for many."
00:11:04.71\00:11:09.03
Christian ministry is
about service to others.
00:11:09.06\00:11:11.64
It's not about
giving power to yourself.
00:11:11.67\00:11:13.75
It's not that being a
master over everybody else.
00:11:13.78\00:11:16.70
If you will get
down on your feet--
00:11:16.73\00:11:18.95
on your knees and you
will wash other people's feet,
00:11:18.98\00:11:21.23
that's the idea,
service in ministry.
00:11:21.26\00:11:24.10
Now, we have this
graphic that shows
00:11:24.13\00:11:25.69
these three pairs
of antithesis together
00:11:25.72\00:11:28.60
and just displays what
dishonorable leadership is like
00:11:28.63\00:11:32.14
and what honorable
leadership is like.
00:11:32.17\00:11:34.36
Dishonorable
leadership is under compulsion,
00:11:34.39\00:11:36.58
somebody pushed you into it.
00:11:36.61\00:11:38.29
And then you start
thinking about the money,
00:11:38.32\00:11:40.38
if you're gonna in there,
you may as well get some money,
00:11:40.41\00:11:42.46
while you are added
suffering as much as you are.
00:11:42.49\00:11:45.10
And then while, while
you're getting the money,
00:11:45.13\00:11:46.88
you may as well
rule over other people
00:11:46.91\00:11:48.88
and take charge of them.
00:11:48.91\00:11:50.28
That's dishonorable leadership.
That's not Christian leadership.
00:11:50.31\00:11:53.24
But honorable leadership
00:11:53.27\00:11:54.64
is what Peter
puts out and promotes.
00:11:54.67\00:11:57.44
He says you do it willing.
You are thinking about God.
00:11:57.47\00:11:59.90
He's your reference
point. The way Jesus served.
00:11:59.93\00:12:02.25
You're eager to do
it, you do it freely
00:12:02.28\00:12:04.81
and you're an
example to the flock.
00:12:04.84\00:12:07.39
This brings us to our
last verse which is verse 4,
00:12:07.42\00:12:11.57
where Peter
displays the outcome.
00:12:11.60\00:12:13.75
He says, "When the
Chief Shepherd appears,
00:12:13.78\00:12:16.01
you will receive the
unfading crown of glory."
00:12:16.04\00:12:20.88
Some people think that
there are no rewards in heaven
00:12:20.91\00:12:25.52
for those who have served Jesus.
00:12:25.55\00:12:27.69
But that's not
how Jesus depicted it.
00:12:27.72\00:12:30.29
He said, yes, there will
be a great reward for you.
00:12:30.32\00:12:32.75
And Peter puts this forth too,
00:12:32.78\00:12:35.26
he says, there will be
an unfading crown of glory.
00:12:35.29\00:12:37.77
Can you imagine
the joy of ministry?
00:12:37.80\00:12:41.86
It's not the crown so much
00:12:41.89\00:12:43.26
to seeing people who have
given their hearts to Christ
00:12:43.29\00:12:47.27
eternally saved in
the kingdom of God.
00:12:47.30\00:12:50.74
I was recently
involved in evangelist meetings
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and we baptized--God blessed
us with a lady being baptized.
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She was so happy on
that day of her baptism.
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What a joy to see somebody
giving their hearts to Christ
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and making that
commitment to follow Him?
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That's the joy of ministry.
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That's what God
wants for you and me.
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And that's what drove Peter
and that's what he remembered
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from this experience
that he had in Jesus.
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My friends, God may give some
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wonderful kind
of ministry to you.
00:13:16.02\00:13:18.26
Whatever that ministry
is, carry it forth in the way
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that Peter expresses it here.
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You will be great
blessing to the flock of God
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and you, yourself
will be greatly blessed.
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God has in store
for you an unending,
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unfading crown of glory.
00:13:29.67\00:13:31.89
We'll see you next time.
00:13:31.92\00:13:33.30