1 Peter, chapter 5, beginning at the 1st
verse, and reading down through the 9th verse.
I am reading from the Revised Standard Version.
So, I exhort the elders among you, as
a fellow elder and a witness to the
sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker
in the glory that is to be revealed,
to tend the flock of God that is
your charge, not by constraint, but willingly, not
for shameful gain, but eagerly, not as domineering
over those in your charge, but being examples
to the flock.
And when the chief shepherd is manifested, you
will obtain the unfading crown of glory.
Likewise, you that 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.
Humble yourselves, unto the mighty hand of God,
that in due time he may exalt you.
Cast all your anxieties on him, for he
cares about you.
Be sober, be watchful.
Your adversary the devil prowls around like a
roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that
the same experience of suffering is required of
your brotherhood throughout the world.
Speaking to the Ephesian elders before his departure
from Ephesus for Jerusalem, the Apostle Paul exhorted
them to faithfulness and the responsibilities resting upon
them as shepherds of the flock.
In the twentieth chapter of the book of
Acts, in verse 28, Paul said to the
elders, "'Take heed unto yourselves and to all
the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath
made you overseers, to feed the church of
God which he hath purchased with his own
blood.'" There was need for this exhortation because
of the threat that the Apostle foresaw, for
he said in verse 29, "'I know this,
that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter
in among you, not sparing a flock.
Also of your own selves shall men arise,
seeking perverse things, to draw away disciples after
them.
Therefore watch.
Remember that by the space of three years
I cease not to warn every one of
you night and day with tears.'" The saints
in Ephesus were viewed by the Apostle Paul
as sheep who needed a shepherd.
They were viewed as children who needed parental
care.
The children were not left to themselves, nor
was the flock left to itself.
In the economy of God, God had provided
for his children.
God had provided for his sheep and for
his land, and God's provision for his children
was to give them spiritual fathers, to give
them elders.
For the sheep he had provided shepherds, or
overseers, who were responsible to protect the flock.
The same passage in Acts tells us that
Paul saw a twofold danger.
There was a danger from within, and there
was a danger from without, and therefore the
elders were responsible to oversee, to watch for,
to tend the flock.
In writing to Timothy, Paul sees a similar
danger that necessitated the oversight of the flock
by the shepherds.
In 1st Timothy, chapter 1, verses 19 and
20, the Apostle exhorted Timothy to hold the
faith and the good conscience, with some having
put away concerning faith have made shipwrecks.
This has to do with doctrinal defection, and
there were those who had made shipwrecks of
the faith.
Then, in the same epistle in chapter 6,
in verses 9 and 10, the Apostle saw
the danger of moral defection, and he writes
concerning those who have erred from the faith.
For the love of money is the root
of all evil, which some have coveted after,
and they have erred from the faith and
pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Some had made shipwrecks of the doctrines of
the faith.
There were those who had erred from the
practice of the faith, and in the light
of these dangers there was need that the
elders should be found faithful in the discharge
of the responsibilities placed upon them.
It was this truth that the Apostle Peter,
writing in 1 Peter, chapter 5, verses 1
-4, laid upon those who were elders along
with Peter, to whom had been given the
responsibility for the oversight of the flock.
Peter was living in the midst of extreme
persecution, and those to whom Peter is writing
were being persecuted for their faith.
Peter is writing to preserve the flock of
which he was a shepherd.
He reminded the elders, or the shepherds in
the flock, of their responsibilities.
They were to feed or to tend the
flock.
1 Peter 5, 2.
They were, in verse 3, to set an
example to the flock of faith, of confidence,
of trust in the midst of the persecutions
and the sufferings that they endured.
Then again, in verse 4, they were to
serve the flock as servants of the flock,
not to please the flock, nor with a
view to receiving reward from the flock, but
they were to serve the flock with a
view to pleasing the owner of the flock.
As we proceed in Peter's teaching to consider
this morning, verses 5 to 9, in chapter
5, we find that Peter turns from his
charge to the shepherds to his charge to
the sheep.
If there is not a proper relationship between
the shepherd and the sheep, there will be
no point to the provision that God has
made for the oversight of the flock.
If God raises up shepherds, and the shepherds
are derelict in their responsibilities, proper oversight, protection,
care, guidance, and provision will not be provided
for the flock.
But if God does provide shepherds, and they
are faithful, but the sheep refuse the shepherds
the right to exercise oversight, then God's economy
will be dissipated, and the sheep will not
have experientially that which they need.
So, after Peter is given his exhortation to
the shepherds, he moves in verses 5 and
following to the sheep.
The sheep are addressed by the term younger
in verse 5.
This is in contrast to the elders, the
shepherds, in verse 1, and the responsibility resting
upon the sheep is that they should submit
to those who are their shepherds.
The sheep are to submit to the oversight
of the shepherds.
The sheep are not given the responsibility of
self-preservation, of self-direction.
They are to trust themselves to the spiritual
oversight of those who, in the will of
God, have been raised up to perform this
ministry for them.
Sheep, as we have emphasized before, are helpless.
They are defenseless.
They have no natural means of protection.
They must depend on the faithfulness of the
shepherd.
But the shepherd cannot do his work if
the sheep refuse to let him do his
work, and if they are not in right
relationship to the shepherd.
So, the sheep are to submit to the
oversight of the shepherd, and this is commanded
in verse 5.
Submit yourselves unto the elder.
But then the apostle points out another fact
in this verse, and that is that the
shepherds, in the exercise of their responsibilities, are
to be governed by the need of the
sheep.
It is the need of the sheep that
dictates the ministry of the shepherd, and when
Peter says, all of you be subject one
to another, Peter is saying that because God
sets some apart as shepherds and others as
sheep, it does not mean there is no
relationship between the two, and it does not
mean the shepherds have no responsibility to the
flock.
Contrarywise, he says, that even the shepherds are
to subject themselves to the sheep so that
in the exercise of their responsibility they are
governed by the needs of the sheep.
This means, you see, that the elders or
the shepherds must give careful attention to the
flock.
How derelict a shepherd would be if he
was so careless in the exercise of oversight
he did not notice that one sheep had
strayed away and was missing.
Our Lord emphasizes that responsibility to the shepherd.
You'll remember when he tells the story of
the man who had a hundred sheep, and
when evening came he discovered that while ninety
-nine were safely in the fold, one was
missing, and as a true shepherd he left
the ninety-nine in the protection of the
fold and went to seek the one that
was lost.
That was the responsibility of a shepherd.
How careless a shepherd would be if the
shepherd did not notice that one of the
sheep had been lacerated by the thorns and
need the healing oil that he carried in
a pouch at his waist.
How careless if the shepherd should not recognize
that after the sheep had been feeding in
the hot sun all morning they needed water,
and if he did not leave them besides
a still water so that they could drink.
You see, if the shepherds are to exercise
their responsibility to the sheep, they must know
the needs of the sheep, and they must
give such careful attention to the individual sheep
that they can structure their shepherd's work to
the needs of the flock over which God
has made them in samples.
And that's what Peter has in mind, I
think, when he says, all of you, shepherds
and sheep alike, be subject one to another.
The sheep in subjection to the authority of
the shepherd, and the shepherds in subjection to
the need of the sheep, and thus there
will be a provision made for the flock.
Now, in this relationship of submission of the
sheep to the shepherds, Peter says that ye
should be clothed with humility.
Clothed with humility, the explanation is given that
God hates pride.
God will resist the proud but give grace
to the humble.
Peter evidently had learned a lesson.
It had been deeply impressed upon him as
he had watched that great shepherd of the
sheep, the Lord Jesus Christ, ministering to the
spiritual needs of the little flock over which
he was shepherded sometime before this.
If you go back into the thirteenth chapter
of the Gospel of John, you'll recall that
when our Lord took the twelve into the
upper room before they sat down to the
Passover feast, we read in verse 4, or
as they were in the course of the
Passover feast in John 13, 4, Christ rises
from supper, laid aside his garment, and took
a towel and girded himself.
After that, he poured water into a basin
and began to wash the disciples' feet and
to wipe them with the towel wherewith he
was girded.
Our Lord evidently wore the robe of a
teacher, a robe that set him apart as
a rabbi, one who was able to teach
and instruct them in the truth of God.
When our Lord came to this point in
the observance of the Passover supper, he laid
aside that robe of dignity and beauty and
honor, and our Lord girded himself or robed
himself with a towel.
The towel was the emblem of a servant.
The teacher was in a position of authority.
The servant had no authority, and the one
who could say, the Son of Man came
not to be ministered unto, but to minister
to the needs of that little flock there
in that upper room.
They needed the ministration of cleansing, and so
our Lord girded himself with a towel.
He put himself in a servant's position, and
as one in the servant's position, he ministered
to the needs of that little flock, and
he washed their feet and wiped them with
a towel wherewith he was girded.
That so impressed Peter that Peter burst out
and said, Lord, I'll never permit you to
be a servant to me.
That was when our Lord said, Peter, if
I don't wash you, you have no part
with me, and Peter cried out for a
complete cleansing because he wanted fellowship with the
one who was there ministering to him.
Peter never forgot that, that instance of our
Lord's ministry to him as one who had
brushed himself in the servant's position, because when
Peter came to write to his suffering sheep
in 1 Peter 5 and verse 5, he
says, All of you be girded with the
thigh of humility, exactly the same way Jesus
Christ girded himself with the thigh of a
servant there in the upper room.
For Peter, in writing this text, used exactly
the same Greek word translated here, clothed, as
was used in John chapter 13 on several
occasions translated there, girded.
Now, Peter's mind went back to the upper
room as he saw Jesus Christ lay aside
that which was a badge of men's acceptance
and take that which was the badge of
a servant to minister to them.
Now, in writing to those who are going
through these sufferings, Peter reminds them that God
has made a provision for their protection.
He has not placed the responsibility on the
sheep, he has placed it on the shepherds.
But the shepherds will be unable to do
their work unless the sheep are in right
relationship to their shepherds.
Therefore, he says, you take as your badge
and your emblem, you take as your clothing
and as your covering the same mind that
Christ had when he clothed himself with a
towel, for submission to authority demands humiliation on
the part of those who subject themselves to
the authority.
So, Peter says to the sheep, you have
no right to be independent, no right to
be lawless, no right to be stubborn and
rebellious, because God's method of protecting the sheep
in a day of moral and doctrinal defection
is to raise up personally shepherds whom he
makes responsible for the sheep, and he asks
you to submit to their authority.
The next thing that he points out in
verse 6 concerning this submission is, in other
words, shrumble yourself therefore under the mighty hand
of God, that he may exalt you in
due time.
The point that Peter is making is that
when a believer in an assembly of believers
submits himself to the authority of the elder,
he is submitting to the authority of God,
and one submits to God by submitting to
God's constituted representative.
You remember in writing concerning the submission of
the wives to husbands, in Ephesians chapter 5
and verse 22, Paul writes, Submit yourselves unto
your own husbands as unto the Lord, and
Paul taught that submission of the wife to
the husband is submission to the Lord, because
the husband is constituted as the head of
the wife.
In writing to children, in Ephesians chapter 6
and verse 1, he says, Obey your parents
in the Lord, for this is right, and
what he is saying is that when a
child submits to the authority of parents, the
child is submitting to the Lord, because the
parents are God's constituted authorities in the home.
Paul, writing in Romans 13, says that when
one submits to government, one is submitting to
the Lord, because governors are appointed by the
Lord, and one submits to the Lord by
submitting to government.
Now, we have seen in the area of
personal relationships in the home, in the general
area of relationships in the home, in the
area of state, that God's method was to
set up authority and then compel subjection to
those authorities, and men are subject to God
as they are subject to the constituted authority.
When we move into the realm of the
church, we find exactly the same setup.
God sets up men in authority, and when
individuals submit to the authority that is in
the elders, they are submitting to God.
And Peter brings that up in 1 Peter
5 and verse 6, Humble yourselves under the
mighty hand of God, and you humble yourselves
under the mighty hand of God by submitting
to the authority of the elder.
This submission carries with it a promise in
verse 6 that he may exalt you in
due time, and as God faithfully ministers through
the elders that there will be protection and
guidance and deliverance for the flock, the flock
will be fed by the ministry of the
elders, that every need of the flock will
be met.
God works through those whom he puts in
places of authority, and those who receive the
benefits of this are those who submit to
them.
The next thing that Peter asks is found
in verse 7, casting all your care upon
him, for he careth for you.
Now, the submission to the elder is an
act of confidence in God by the one
who makes the submission, or does the submitting,
casting all your care upon him.
If you were to sit down and try
to reason it out logically or rationally, you
perhaps would think of better ways of giving
oversight to the flock of God than God's
method.
You're convinced that you know your needs better
than any elder, that you're far better able
to take care of yourself than someone else.
You want to declare your independence and work
out your own problems, the problems of your
own individual suffering, the persecution, and I'm sure
these believers perhaps were tempted to think of
that.
When they submitted to elders because God told
them to, they are saying, in effect, God,
maybe I don't understand this, and it doesn't
seem the best way to me, but you
have told me to do it.
I'm going to do what you told me
to do and trust you to meet my
needs as a sheep in the flock, so
that when one casts his care on God,
he does so by submitting to the oversight
that God has constituted in the assembly.
I realize that this verse is very well
known.
You have used it personally and individually concerning
your needs and your cares over and over
and over again.
But, beloved, I think you've lifted this out
of its context, and because this is such
a precious personal promise, I can cast my
care upon him because he cares for me.
That's certainly true, but will you see it
in its context?
Peter is talking about a flock that are
being ravaged by persecution, a flock where there
is danger from within, and Peter says to
the flock as a whole, you trust God
to supervise the flock through his appointed way
and stop trying to work out your own
salvation.
Trust him to do this, and God will
do it.
He's talking about the supervision of the whole
assembly of believers.
Perhaps a group of believers could well conclude
that they could handle some of this practical
or moral or doctrinal defections in the elders,
and they want to do something about it
themselves.
Peter says, you trust God to do it
in his way, casting all your care upon
him, for he cares for you.
In the eighth verse, we have the second
exhortation that Peter gives to the flock.
He told them in verses five through seven
that they are to submit.
Now he tells them why this submission is
so necessary, and it brings the exhortation, be
sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil
as a roaring lion goeth about seeking whom
he may devour.
Be watchful or be on guard.
With verse, Peter gives up several reasons why
the sheep need to be in subjection to
the shepherd and then on guard against the
adversary.
The first reason is because of the nature
of the adversary.
Your adversary the devil as a roaring lion,
and the phrase roaring lion emphasizes the nature
of the enemy.
The lion is bent on just one thing
as he stalks his prey, and that is
the destruction of the prey.
Peter wants them to be reminded that their
adversary is no gentle lamb, no harmless dove.
Their enemy is a lion that is stalking
prey.
Therefore, they need to be in subjection to
those who stand guard over them.
The second thing he emphasizes about the adversary
is the method that the adversary uses.
He walketh about, or literally, he stalks.
This emphasizes the stealth, the secrecy with which
Satan pursues the sheep of God's flock.
An elephant can afford to go crashing through
the brush, but not a lion, and if
the lion is to destroy his prey, he
must do it by stealth.
This concept goes all the way back to
the Iltening chapter of Genesis, where in chapter
three we are told that the serpent was
more subtle than any beast of the field,
and his subtlety came from the one who
controlled him, the subtle one that is Satan.
And there is need that the sheep submit
to the watch care of the shepherd because
of the subtlety of the adversary.
Then he speaks also of the purpose of
the enemy in this eighth verse.
This one whose nature it is to destroy
by stealth is seeking whom he may devour.
Satan is not trying to frighten the sheep,
he is seeking to destroy the sheep.
He is not seeking to divert the sheep,
he is seeking to kill the sheep.
He is not content with inflicting a slight
wound, he wants to utterly decimate the flock.
Never forget it for a moment, and if
the sheep are not cognizant of the nature
of the enemy and the method of the
enemy and the purpose of the enemy, they
will never see things in their true light.
That's why Peter says, be sober, and sobriety
here has to do with seeing things according
to their true nature.
It has to do with understanding what Satan
is, how he operates, what his plans and
programs are, so that when Satan comes with
his doctrinal defections and his moral defections and
his practical defections, the sheep will be worn
by the shepherd of the true nature of
things, will be guarded and preserved.
But those who have the gifts of discern
and the gifts of oversight and the gifts
of teaching cannot exercise their gifts unless the
sheep are in subjection to their shepherd.
But when we come on in verse 9,
Peter brings us to his third exhortation addressed
to the flock.
They are not only to submit and to
be on guard, but they are to resist
the adversaries.
The word translated resist, when Peter says, whom
resist steadfast in the faith, is a word
which means to actively war against.
There is no passivity in the Christian life.
The Christian life is not viewed as a
little citadel surrounded by an impregnable bastion behind
which the believer takes refuge and enjoys peace
and security because the adversary cannot penetrate.
The Christian life is viewed as a battle
on an open plain where the only protection
he has is the protection that there is
provided in the word of God and the
armor that is provided by the captain of
our salvation.
The believer is not protected from the enemy's
attack, he is protected so that he can
endure and sustain the adversary's attack.
He is not given a refuge through which
he can run, but he is given the
means of victory.
That is, he actively pursues the adversary, the
adversary who will not fight against hopeless odds,
retreat and leave the attacking one the victor.
And so Peter says to those who are
being persecuted, who are experiencing the fiery darts
of the evil one, that if they will
press the battle, if they will resist or
do wars against the adversary steadfastly in the
faith, they will be victorious.
And Peter can point to myriads of believers
who in their own generation have endured the
same darts that were hurled against them, but
have been victorious and triumphant, and the victory
of other saints was to encourage these persecuted
saints to victory against their adversary, the devil.
Now, Peter gives no hope that in this
life, saints will escape the fiery darts of
the wicked ones.
But Peter does emphasize the great truth that
God has made a provision for his flock.
I am anxious that you should see what
God's provision is.
God has raised up shepherds upon whom is
placed the responsibility for the total supervision of
the flock, and the flock has the one
major responsibility of submitting to those whom God
in his economy has placed in positions of
authority.
When they manifest the humility of Christ and
clothe themselves with the mind of Christ and
express a willingness to submit to the authority
that God has instituted, they are submitting to
God, and when they submit themselves to God
and to God's provision, God undertakes their defense.
And because we are subject to the authorities
that God has constituted, we can then press
the battle against the adversary as individuals, but
more in this passage as a congregation of
believers.
We can go from victory to victory and
from triumph to triumph, and we can press
the adversary against the wall if we are
properly related to the program of God, having
shepherds who exercise their authority, their oversight, discharge
their responsibilities according to the word of God,
and have sheep who are content to submit
themselves to God's provision and trust God's method
to grant them delivery.
One of the most difficult things that any
man is asked to do is to give
up his own rights, to give up his
own wisdom, to give up his own abilities
and trust himself to another.
It is humiliating to put ourselves in the
position of sheep who don't know, to put
ourselves in the position of children who need
to depend upon someone else to provide that
which we need.
That's God's method.
Men who have never received the experience of
the forgiveness of sin find it naturally most
difficult to come to the place where they
confess they cannot save themselves, they cannot work
out their own salvation, they cannot buy their
way to heaven, they cannot offer God something
for eternal life.
It's difficult, I say, to come to the
place where a man says, I have sinned,
I need a savior, and I will trust
Christ for my salvation.
Just as hard, unless the Spirit of God
gives us the mind of Christ as saints
of God to say, I need a shepherd.
What Peter commands, be clothed with humility or
apart from dependence upon God's probation.
There is no victory, there is no triumph,
there's no defeat of the adversary, there's no
salvage.
Be girded with humility.
We pray, our Father, that God the Holy
Spirit, who through the Apostle Peter has revealed
God's provision for the protection of his little
flock of sheep, might give us to exercise
our care, lest we who are sheep should
not be in proper relationship to God and
our shepherd, and lest we who are shepherds
should be derelict in our duty and responsibility
under God to the sheep.
For as shepherds and sheep are subject to
the plan of God, we pray thou will
lead us from victory to victory.
Thou will preserve us from doctrinal and practical
defection from the faith.
We might be a flock nurtured and cared
for, provided by that great shepherd of the
sheep, as he works his will through the
shepherds he has provided for us.
Let thy blessing rest upon us, we pray.
May the riches of thy grace and mercy
and peace rest and abide upon each one,
now and ever.
Amen.