Participants: Tom Shepherd & Deyvy Rodriguez
Series Code: PBOTB
Program Code: PBOTB00017B
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00:01 And we're back with "Books of the Book"
00:03 and we are studying here with Dr. Tom Shepherd. 00:07 Dr. Shepherd, you had a graphic here earlier 00:12 and it--Jesus pointed out how His calling to Peter, 00:16 the language He was using was lower language in love, 00:20 however his ministry calling was going higher and higher. 00:24 What kind of test was that about? 00:26 Yeah, it's kind of odd, you know, 00:28 you think that Peter would his-- 00:31 the questions would go higher and higher 00:33 and then the commission would go higher and higher as well. 00:35 But it's just the opposite 00:37 that as Jesus lowers this level of love 00:40 that He asked Peter about than the commission 00:43 that He has given seems to become more and more weighty 00:46 and more and more important. 00:48 So people kind of scratch their head about that 00:50 and say, "Well, why would that be?" 00:53 Well, of course, Jesus was testing him about love, 00:55 but in a sense really 00:57 what He was testing was humility. 00:59 And so the level of humility that Peter displayed 01:06 becomes I don't if you can say greater 01:09 because humility is about not being great. 01:12 But his humility shines forth stronger and stronger 01:16 as Jesus lowers the bar and asked these questions 01:19 to the point where Peter is completely dependent on Jesus 01:23 and displays that he's totally humble. 01:26 And that's the great training or the great commission 01:32 for ministry that you have this characteristic, 01:35 you this ability to be humble, 01:38 then you can be a great minister for Jesus. 01:40 Amen. Yeah. 01:42 Well, we keep reading here 01:43 in the Book of Peter last chapter. 01:46 It seems that Peter instructs the elders 01:47 to take care of the church, how does he do that? 01:51 Uh, well, here in this passage he-- 01:54 there are sets of what we call 01:58 antithesis, opposites in ministry. 02:00 We'll, first kind of go through them 02:02 and then a little later, we'll look at the graphic 02:04 that kind of displays all this in sort of graphic form. 02:08 But first we want to look at these, 02:10 he has these three pairs, 02:13 one way that you should do ministry, 02:15 the other way that you should not do ministry. 02:18 I have a sermon called, how to-- 02:20 based on this passage called 02:21 "How to run the church into the ground?" 02:24 And it's-- I remember 02:26 there was this lady in our office 02:27 she did not like that title, that was bad title, 02:30 but king of, you know, catch peoples attention. 02:33 And there are ways that you can do ministry 02:36 that will build people up and of course, 02:38 that's what Peter promotes. 02:39 But he pairs it with ways of ministry 02:42 that will tear people down. 02:45 It's important for us to notice the distinctions between them. 02:48 But we must not forget 02:49 the negative way that he refers to 02:51 because this will actually come up again 02:53 in our discussion in 2 Peter, all right. 02:57 So that's just a little direction of where we're headed 03:00 'cause we're gonna come to 2 Peter, pretty soon. 03:03 All right, so in verse 2, Chapter 5 verse 2, 03:06 gives us that first pair, would you read that? 03:11 "Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, 03:13 serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, 03:18 not for dishonest gain but eagerly." 03:21 All right, he actually gives two of the pairs there. 03:24 And he starts this shepherding metaphor, 03:27 "Shepherd the flock of God 03:28 that is among you, exercising oversight." 03:32 This verb for oversight is epískopol 03:37 from which we would get the word episcopal 03:40 or and in that kind of concept. 03:42 And it has the idea of oversight, 03:45 but it also had the idea of visiting, visiting. 03:49 And if you are gonna watch over a flock, 03:51 you have to be with them. 03:53 If you are gonna be an effective pastor, 03:56 you have to visit people 03:58 in their homes and pray with them. 04:00 And I'll tell you people really respond 04:04 to a visit from their pastor. 04:05 I remember years ago, being a pastor in Illinois 04:09 and I really believed in visiting. 04:12 And I came to the house of one of the deacons of the church 04:15 and he said something to me very sad. 04:18 He was thanking me, but he said very sad. 04:20 He said, Pastor, you're the first pastor 04:21 who had come to my house in 20 years. 04:23 Wow. I think that is just sad. 04:28 Pastors should be out visiting there people all the time. 04:32 So that's what Peter's people do. 04:33 And then the first point of reference he says, 04:36 "Not under compulsion but voluntarily or willingly 04:41 according to God," all right. 04:44 So when he says not under compulsion, 04:47 it may remind us when Paul talks about, 04:51 "God loves a cheerful giver." 04:52 You remember that passage, it's in 2 Corinthians 9 04:54 and he says, "God loves a cheerful giver 04:58 and you should give not under compulsion." 05:02 All right, this word compulsion 05:05 has the idea of pressure involved. 05:08 Somebody is pushing you, okay, 05:11 pressing you to do something 05:13 that you didn't want to do, all right. 05:17 Paul didn't want either internal reluctance 05:20 or external pressure to motivate people 05:23 to give for the church, all right. 05:25 And Peter is in a situation 05:27 where it was probably hard to find leaders for the church. 05:32 And so he says, don't push men into leadership too early. 05:38 You know, there would be that temptation 05:40 to push them, to move them forward. 05:42 He says it-- we can put it this way, 05:45 it must not be the push of men that motivates us. 05:47 It must be the pull of God. 05:49 We must do willingly, all right, so. 05:51 Then we come to the second of these concepts 05:57 and that is also in verse 2. 05:59 Would you read verse 2, once one time? 06:02 "Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, 06:04 serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, 06:09 not for dishonest gain but eagerly." 06:12 Mm-hmm, okay, and he has in there as, 06:15 as God would have you do it. 06:16 So again, the reference point is God as Peter found Christ 06:21 as the reference point of his ministry. 06:24 So God is the reference point of our ministry. 06:26 He says that you are not to do ministry in order to-- 06:34 you shouldn't be pushed into it. 06:35 You should do it willingly 06:37 and you shouldn't do it for shameful gain, 06:39 but you should do it eagerly. 06:43 In John 10, Jesus talked about 06:48 the shepherd versus the hired hand. 06:51 He said the shepherd loves the sheep 06:54 and guards them not thinking of himself, right? 06:58 But the hired hand, what's he thinking off? 07:00 Well, pretty much his paycheck. 07:04 And when the robbers come or the wolf comes, 07:08 what does the hired man do? He run away. 07:11 He runs away, yeah, because he doesn't worry. 07:16 His concern is not the sheep. 07:19 His concern is his paycheck and his own, 07:23 you know, his own benefits, okay. 07:26 Now there are benefits to leadership, 07:29 a lot of people find that out. 07:31 Some of them, sometimes it's financial 07:33 other times it's honor, other times it's power, 07:37 other times it's decision making. 07:39 These are all aspects that go along with leadership. 07:45 But these are not the right motives 07:48 for Christian ministry to gain these things, you know. 07:52 Of course, pastors have to have a living wage 07:54 and, you know, they'll have part of leadership, 07:57 part of decision making. 07:58 But the goal isn't to be, 08:01 to get all of these kinds of things, 08:03 you know, surround yourself where there's power, 08:05 where there's money, all these different kinds of things. 08:08 It must not be for the money that we do ministry. 08:11 It's rather, it's for the mission. 08:14 It's not what you can get out of it, 08:16 but it's rather what you can give to help others. 08:20 Right this leads us to verse 5-- verse 3, I'm sorry. 08:24 "Nor as being lords over those who entrusted to you, 08:29 but being examples to the flock." 08:33 And when-- verse 3? 08:35 This is verse 3, yeah. 08:37 He says, "Not domineering over those in your charge, 08:39 but being examples to the flock." 08:42 You are not sent to be a master 08:43 you're supposed to be a mentor to the flock. 08:45 There's a wonderful story in Mark 10, 08:47 we'll just turn to real quickly. 08:49 Mark 10, there is this story of the disciples, 08:57 James and John and they come to Jesus 09:00 and they want Him to give them a favor. 09:05 And so, we're reading now in Mark Chapter 10. 09:13 Well, no wonder, I'm in Matthew Chapter 10, 09:15 it didn't look quite right. 09:17 Okay, so we're in Chapter 10 of verse-- 09:19 Verse 35, we start in verse 35. Okay. 09:23 "Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, 09:25 came to Him, saying, 'Teacher, 09:26 we want You to do for us whatever we ask.' 09:30 And He said to them, 09:32 'What do you want Me to do for you?' 09:34 They said to Him, 'Grant us that we may sit, 09:36 one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, 09:40 in Your glory.' 09:41 But Jesus said to them, 'You do not know what you ask. 09:44 Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, 09:46 and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized?' 09:50 So they said to Him, 'We are able.' 09:52 So Jesus said to them, 09:54 'You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, 09:57 and with the baptism I am baptized with 10:00 you will be baptized, 10:03 but to sit on My right hand 10:05 and on My left is not Mine to give, 10:07 but it is for those for whom it is prepared.' " 10:11 All right, well, these disciples came to Jesus 10:13 with that wonderful discipleship principle, me first. 10:18 They said we want to be on Your right and Your left. 10:19 Jesus said, you don't know what you're asking for. 10:22 He said to sit on My right and My left. 10:24 There you see, they didn't realize that 10:25 what they were asking for was to go to the cross with Him, 10:28 to be on His right and on His left. 10:29 And that's where two thieves ended up, you know. 10:32 And John and James said, oh, yeah, we can do that. 10:35 And they didn't quite understand it, 10:36 but Jesus then points out to them 10:38 and to the other disciples just what ministry is about. 10:41 If you look in verse 42, 10:43 when he calls the disciples together, 10:45 He says, "You know that those 10:46 who are considered rulers to the Gentiles, 10:48 lorded over them, 10:50 and their great ones exercise the authority over them. 10:53 But it shall not be so among you, 10:56 but whoever would be great among you must be your servant. 10:58 And whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. 11:02 For even the Son of Man came not to be served, 11:04 but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many." 11:09 Christian ministry is about service to others. 11:11 It's not about giving power to yourself. 11:13 It's not that being a master over everybody else. 11:16 If you will get down on your feet-- 11:18 on your knees and you will wash other people's feet, 11:21 that's the idea, service in ministry. 11:24 Now, we have this graphic that shows 11:25 these three pairs of antithesis together 11:28 and just displays what dishonorable leadership is like 11:32 and what honorable leadership is like. 11:34 Dishonorable leadership is under compulsion, 11:36 somebody pushed you into it. 11:38 And then you start thinking about the money, 11:40 if you're gonna in there, you may as well get some money, 11:42 while you are added suffering as much as you are. 11:45 And then while, while you're getting the money, 11:46 you may as well rule over other people 11:48 and take charge of them. 11:50 That's dishonorable leadership. That's not Christian leadership. 11:53 But honorable leadership 11:54 is what Peter puts out and promotes. 11:57 He says you do it willing. You are thinking about God. 11:59 He's your reference point. The way Jesus served. 12:02 You're eager to do it, you do it freely 12:04 and you're an example to the flock. 12:07 This brings us to our last verse which is verse 4, 12:11 where Peter displays the outcome. 12:13 He says, "When the Chief Shepherd appears, 12:16 you will receive the unfading crown of glory." 12:20 Some people think that there are no rewards in heaven 12:25 for those who have served Jesus. 12:27 But that's not how Jesus depicted it. 12:30 He said, yes, there will be a great reward for you. 12:32 And Peter puts this forth too, 12:35 he says, there will be an unfading crown of glory. 12:37 Can you imagine the joy of ministry? 12:41 It's not the crown so much 12:43 to seeing people who have given their hearts to Christ 12:47 eternally saved in the kingdom of God. 12:50 I was recently involved in evangelist meetings 12:52 and we baptized--God blessed us with a lady being baptized. 12:56 She was so happy on that day of her baptism. 12:58 What a joy to see somebody giving their hearts to Christ 13:02 and making that commitment to follow Him? 13:04 That's the joy of ministry. 13:06 That's what God wants for you and me. 13:08 And that's what drove Peter and that's what he remembered 13:11 from this experience that he had in Jesus. 13:13 My friends, God may give some 13:16 wonderful kind of ministry to you. 13:18 Whatever that ministry is, carry it forth in the way 13:21 that Peter expresses it here. 13:22 You will be great blessing to the flock of God 13:25 and you, yourself will be greatly blessed. 13:27 God has in store for you an unending, 13:29 unfading crown of glory. 13:31 We'll see you next time. |
Revised 2014-12-17