EverGrace Church

Dennis White: Let's open our Bibles to 1 Peter chapter five, and we're going to read verses one through four. My name is Pastor Dennis here at EverGrace, and we're just so excited to have you here and have everyone listening. Those that listen online, thank you for listening. Continue to listen and follow what God is doing here in Frederick, Maryland. 1 Peter chapter five, verses one through four.

So I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercise oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not for domineering over those in your charge, but be examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive an unfading crown of glory.

Heavenly Father, help us to unpack this passage and help us to understand what your will is for us to understand in this passage. Help us to exemplify what it means to be godly leaders. For those of us that look at ourselves and say, "I am not an elder of a church so therefore I don't have to listen today," Lord, help us to understand this practically in our own context. In Jesus' precious name. Amen.

This is an interesting passage for me to actually start reading and start studying because in many ways as I'm studying and reading this, I am looking into my own life. Although today's sermon is directed toward leadership, it's not only directed toward leadership. We might look at ourselves and say, "I'm not a leader and I can tune out." But also, a lot of us are under leadership. I am the shepherd, I'm the pastor of this church, so in many ways I'm a leader. But I myself am a man under leadership also. You yourselves are under leadership.

This passage is speaking specifically toward pastors but also to us that are underneath leadership or underneath pastorship. It is also for us to listen to because it is a warning sign of things or qualities that we should be looking at toward people. Also, even if you're not a leader, I'd like for us to really redefine what leadership is. Leadership is not an authoritative position that I have therefore X, Y, and Z happens. Actually, leadership is a place of influence.

I was actually reading this thing called a Dunbar limit. It actually says that each one of us has influence over about 150 people. We change these people's beliefs, we change these people's lives, we can even change these people's behavior. That means one individual has influence over about 150 people. In some respects, no matter who you are, you are a leader. You have the ability to speak into people's lives. You have the ability to change people's beliefs or change people's habits.

This Dunbar limit is broken down into three groups. The first one is that core group, which is really your family. They say it's around five people. That's not many. But these are people that you are in touch with every single day and you are speaking to every single day. You are influencing them. That means your wife, your husband, your children, your grandchildren. Those people that you are very close and intimate with, you are influencing them the most.

Then there's that second ring of people, which is about 15 close friends. People you call a couple times a month maybe, people you go to dinner with a couple times once a month. I would say that there are about 15 people that I would consider friends. People that I call, people that I invite to dinner, people that are sick or rich and I say, "Hey, how you doing? Do you need help?" We have those conversations. Then there's another group, that third ring, which is very big: acquaintances. Around 130 people.

These are people that you know their name, and when they call you, it's not a strange thing, but it is strange at the same time. But you don't talk to them very often. You don't know really how they're doing, but you'd like to know. I would say people that are involved in a year's time in your life are an acquaintance. I'm saying this all to say because these are people that are in your life and you have influence with. You have the ability to encourage them, to point them to Jesus, the ability to sit down and counsel them, and help them through some very strange, life-altering circumstances.

You are a leader. Have you ever looked at yourself that way? I want you today to begin to look at that and say that you are a leader. Leadership is not defined by a title or authority, but by the ability to guide, inspire, and influence the actions and beliefs of others toward Jesus Christ. Every one of us has that ability to have leadership in our lives. Whether we take a hold of it and we grab it and we actually use it is another question, but we all do.

Peter uses this word "elder," and it's the same idea that we get the word for "pastor," or someone that's working alongside the pastor. In our church, we have plurality of elders. That word "elder" speaks about the pastor or those that are spiritually leading other people. We can open our Bible outside of 1 Peter and we see very clearly what is expected of an elder. This is in 1 Timothy chapter three, verses one through seven.

There's a lot of expectations. Write that passage down because when you read those requirements, that is what the Bible says is required of a church elder. If you don't meet these qualifications, very simply the Bible says you should not be an elder yet. Churches have elders in training, they have elders to come, these kind of things. But the requirement first has to be found in 1 Timothy chapter three, verses one through seven. It goes well here with 1 Peter chapter five.

In 1 Peter chapter five, we don't have the specific requirements of what it means to be an elder, but we do have very clearly what the motivations of an elder should be. If you read those verses one through four, you see what their motivation should be. Very simply, it should be out of the outflow of their heart because of the love of Christ. It shouldn't be begrudgingly, it shouldn't be for money, it shouldn't be because they can lord authority over others, but it should be because of their love for Christ.

For today's sermon, I want you to keep three things in mind as I speak. Number one, for you men, that one day I might be an elder, so today's message is important for me. Number two, this is for everyone, that I sit under eldership, so this message is important to me. You need to know what you're sitting under. If you're sitting underneath eldership that is not biblical, then you should ask some questions. Number three, this is for everyone, that I have influence over 150 people. It's true. We have influence over people, so this message is important to me.

Just because Peter is speaking to the elders in Turkey doesn't mean that I don't have to listen today because I'm a woman and I'm not in charge of a church. Don't think because I am older and I'm not going to be an elder in the church ever, or because you're younger, or maybe don't even think because in 1 Timothy chapter three that I don't meet these qualifications therefore I'll never be an elder. Don't ever think those things because the word of God always has application in my life.

It doesn't matter what the Bible is speaking, there's always something for me to glean today. So even though Peter is speaking to this Turkish leadership in these multiple churches that are going through a lot of persecution and he's having a heart-to-heart talk with them, it is still applicable to us today. What we say today is important because it's going to teach you how to be motivated by the grace of God. We don't do this here because we're motivated by money.

I don't know if anyone realized that, but none of us here are making a lot of money by having a church. We're all volunteers. I get a stipend a little bit, and it basically equals my gas money because I drive here four days a week. That's not to say look how amazing we are, but it is very simply to say we are not here for money. We're not here because we want to control a small group of people into doing what we think they should be doing.

But we are here today, and you are a leader today. What is the motivation of your heart? What is the outflow of your communication of changing people's beliefs, changing people's actions, influencing them toward the cross of Christ? What is that motivation? It better be the grace of God. Peter makes this one amazing statement where he takes a pause. He's saying to these leaders, "I am also a fellow elder," meaning he doesn't say "I'm an apostle, so listen to me," but he identifies with them as an elder of the church.

Instead of jumping right into the do's and don'ts of leadership, he says this one statement in verse one: "a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory." This phrase is important because out of this phrase flows all of verses two, three, and four—all the do's and don'ts. Meaning if I don't understand this phrase, "a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker of the glory of Jesus," I will not understand the do's and don'ts of leadership.

If I misunderstand, then in return I confuse the motivation of what true leadership is. Jesus doesn't take businessmen and turn them into church leaders. He does do that, but the idea is that you don't have to take a personality test and get a certain kind of grade or a certain kind of letters after your name to decide if you're going to be a leader or not. What we find out here is that a leader, a man, a woman of God that is inspiring people toward the grace of God has to be someone who understands what it means to be a witness of the sufferings of Christ. It has to be someone who understands what it means to be a partaker in the glory of Jesus Christ. When you understand that, you can now be a leader.

It's interesting because Peter was a witness to many things. What was Peter a witness to? Think back with me. We're going to stick in the book of Luke today. In Luke chapter five, verse eight, we see that Peter was a witness to a great miracle. Caught a lot of fish that day. At that miracle that he witnessed is also where Jesus said you will no longer be a fisher of fish, but you will now be a fisher of men. At that miracle that he witnessed, Peter was not only a witness of that, but he's also a witness of his own calling to be an apostle.

The second one we see is in Luke chapter nine, verses 28 through 36. This one is amazing because Peter was one of the only two people who witnessed the transfiguration of Jesus. Could you imagine that? Seeing what Peter saw that day? The transfiguration of Jesus. Another one we see is in Luke 24, verse 34. In that verse it says that Jesus appeared to Peter individually, personally after his resurrection. These three things are important for us.

Each one of these things that Peter was a witness to gave Peter bragging rights. Peter was a witness to the miracle and then called to be a disciple. Jesus picked me personally and I caught a lot of fish. It gave him the bragging right to say, "Hey, look at me. Jesus picked me out of all these people in Jerusalem, out of all these knowledgeable people, all these religious rulers, all those rich people, all those other poor people, but he picked me. I have bragging rights."

How about him being a witness to the transfiguration of Jesus? What kind of bragging rights did he get there? I'm like Moses. Or he could say this too. One of the disciples says, "Hey Peter, where were you and Jesus?" I can't tell you. It's just between Jesus and I. We got a little secret. I'll tell you eventually maybe, but sorry, it's just between us. He could sit there and have bragging rights like "I know the secrets of God."

How about when he saw the resurrected Savior? What kind of bragging rights would that give him? He appeared to all of you together, but he again appeared to me individually. You see this common theme that could happen to Peter when he was a witness of these things. "He chose me. I know the secrets. He appeared first to me alone." A lot of these things are things that Peter could have inserted here in 1 Peter chapter five.

He could have said, "I was a witness of the resurrection of Jesus, I was a witness of the transfiguration, I was a witness of the miracles. Therefore, listen to me." It would add to the weight of his apostleship, it would add to the weight of his authority, and it would shout with a loud and booming voice, "You should listen to me, church." But there's something that we didn't mention here that he was a witness to. What is that? The crucifixion.

All of those witnesses that he could have said gave him bragging rights that could have been shouted out loud. But you notice here that Peter doesn't mention those in verse one. He mentions the suffering, the crucifixion of Jesus. Does that give him bragging rights? I want to ask you a question. What in your life are you a witness of? Meaning in your life you are a leader, either you know it or you're not, you're still influencing people.

When it comes to the things of God, what are you a witness of? Very simply you could ask this question another way: what have I seen God do in my life? Isn't that a good question? I think the older we get, the more stories we have about the goodness of God. We could say that I was a witness to this. Personally I have seen God's hand in my life so many times and I know it's the same with you.

And then I could elaborate on these things. I have seen demons cast out. I remember in Fellowship Hall down in Baltimore at the church it happening. I have seen people healed. In China we've seen it. We have seen these things, and each one of us has these stories. And isn't it amazing? I think every one of us should ask that question to ourselves on a daily basis: what have I seen the hand of God in my life? Because when we ask that question, it helps us to become eternally focused.

It help us to begin to see the things of God. But it doesn't give us bragging rights, does it? Because here we have the sufferings of Christ. We will turn here to Luke chapter 22 because this is where the sufferings of Christ is happening. I'm kind of taking a block of passage out of a larger block of passages for time, but the entire chapter of chapter 22 is pre-cross and during suffering. In verse 33 and 34, Peter said to him, "Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death."

Isn't that an amazing confession? Any of you ever made a bold confession for Christ? I have many times. How'd it go? Not so well. Well, by the way, it's the same here with Peter. Peter is so motivated by the authority and the power of Christ, he is so moved by what God is doing that he says, "I am ready to go with you to prison and to death." That is a great place to be, by the way. I love the zeal, I love the faith, I love it.

Just because Peter fails, it does not mean that we should eliminate zeal in our life. It just means that it has to mature a little bit. That doesn't happen with a magic wand, but that happens as we walk with Christ in our failures. Jesus said, "I tell you Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny three times that you know me." We're starting to paint a picture here. Peter says, "I am a witness of his sufferings."

The sufferings of Christ was not a good time for Peter. It starts off strong where he says, "I will go with you," but then Jesus prophesies and says, "You will deny, you will not go, you will deny." And we read further down the passage in verse 59 all the way to the end, we read his last denial. It says after an interval of about an hour, still another insisted saying, "Certainly this man also was with him for he too is a Galilean."

But Peter said, "Man, I do not know what you're talking about." And immediately while he was still speaking the rooster crowed. Verse 61 says, "And the Lord turned and looked at Peter." I don't know if you've ever been caught doing something you're not supposed to be doing. I was tempted yesterday. We went to the Crystal Grottoes caverns up in Boonsboro. Really cool. They tell you not to touch anything. Are you serious?

For one, I'm in a cave and I can't touch anything. But on the top of the cave are these little stalactites. I was thinking in my mind as I could get in the back of the line and I could do this. Without a doubt, what's going to happen to me is that I'm going to get caught. Have you ever been caught doing something you're not supposed to do? And then you say, "It wasn't me." Or when you're a child you say, "Mom, it was the devil that made me do it." We have these kind of things, these moments in our life.

This is exactly what happened to Peter. As soon as he denied Jesus again, what comes to his mind is the prophecy, and at the same time the eyes of Jesus. This is how close he was to the sufferings of Jesus. The eyes of Jesus were right there and they looked at him. And what does it say of Peter? After that, in verse 62, it says that he ran away and wept bitterly. Peter, in chapter five, could have said so many different things.

Instead of him bringing out his trophies, his awards, his certificates and waving them saying, "Hey, I am certified to be an elder, I have this ordination, I have this experience, look at my resume, I am qualified." Instead of him waving all these amazing things that he was a witness of, he brings out his resume and lists his most grievous sin. How many of you wear your sin as a badge on your chest? Look at what I have done. Look at where I have failed as a church leader.

Look at what's wrong with me. Look at what disqualifies me from standing here today. This is why I can't shout the name of Jesus to the top of my lungs because I have failed him so many times. Brothers and sisters, this is the story of humanity. I live in a world where pastors compare each other's resumes on the daily basis. They try to say, "Oh, you went to this school, oh, you went to this school. Oh, you have this certification. Oh, this is the name that is behind you. This is the name that's not behind you.

Oh, how big is your church? How many baptisms? How many members? How much money do you bring in? How many kids were at your VBS? What was your church retreat like?" These are the conversations that I can have on a weekly basis with other pastors. And what happens is we begin to become witnesses of great things that God is doing, yes. But what does it become about? It becomes about me. But Peter here is doing very, very carefully is he is saying, "It is not about me, but it's about my Savior."

I want to ask the second question. The first one was how many times you've been a witness of God's great glory? How many times have you failed Christ? Did you fail him on the ride here today? We'll fail him on the ride home. Monday morning we'll forget that we were even at church. Maybe some of our coworkers will be like, "Hey, I thought you were a Christian." This could be our reality, right? It's very true.

And because of that, many of us live broken lives. Just like Peter, we walk away, we run away from Jesus weeping because of our failure. But Peter's declaration of grace in 1 Peter chapter five, verse one doesn't end with him dredging up his failures, but it ends with one more statement. The first statement was that I was a witness of the sufferings of Christ. And what he's doing is he's dredging up his own failure, not the fact that he actually saw him get beat. He's dredging up the fact that he failed.

The second part of that declaration of grace says that he was a partaker of the glory of God. What is the glory of God? I love this statement from Irenaeus, a disciple of John I believe. He said this: "The glory of God is man fully alive." I'll say it again. The glory of God is man fully alive. The glory of God is not in the building we worship in, the glory of God is not how many miracles that he can do, the glory of God is not the coming kingdom.

The glory of God is not how amazing a leader that I can be. The glory of God is me, a sinner saved by grace, fully alive. We could say it this way: the glory here is the restoration of mankind in full relationship with Christ. So when Peter says that I am a witness of his suffering but I am also a partaker of the glory that is yet to come, he is saying that I have experienced in part the full restoration of mankind in my relationship with Jesus Christ. He said, "I was broken, but he restored me again."

See, the glory of God in Peter's life, we find it in John chapter 21, verses 15 through something. John chapter 21, and it's these three famous times that Jesus asks, "Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me?" That is the glory of God, that Christ comes back to me even in the midst of my failure and he says, "Do you love me?" Not only that, but then he restores me to my leadership position and he says, "Feed my sheep. Do you love me, Peter? Feed my sheep. Do you love me, Peter? Feed my sheep. Do you love me, Peter? Feed my sheep."

That is the glory of God because that is where a sinful man who has failed the grace of God, who has failed in his leadership, who failed as a Christian in his responsibility is given back to Jesus Christ in full relationship. And that brings us back to Luke chapter 22 where we were earlier where Jesus prophesied saying, "Hey, you will fail. When the rooster crows, you will deny me." Peter says, "No, I will not." And then he proves it in the Garden of Gethsemane, doesn't he? Cuts off the ear of a soldier.

"I told you Jesus, I'm here, I'm not going anywhere, I'm coming with you." But in Luke 22, verses 31 through 32, Jesus says this: "Simon, Simon, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail." Did Peter's faith fail? It's a hard question to answer because on one hand the answer is yes. But as we look at the story as a whole, the answer is no.

It says, "And when you have turned again, when you have repented, when you come back to me, strengthen your brothers." What is Peter doing here in chapter five, verses one through four? He is looking at another group of leaders, old, young, we know not, but another group of church leaders who is responsible for influencing the community, whether it be a few or many, toward the cross of Jesus Christ. And what is he doing? He is strengthening them. And he says, "Take care of the flock that you've been given."

All of this is said before the exhortation of do's and don'ts as a leader. As a Christian, my motivation for influencing people has to be sourced in the glory of God because if it's not, the do's and don'ts get all messed up. I don't get my church money so I don't, I'm not preaching, I'm not doing any more. I can't do this. Oh, they don't want to submit to my authority? They're in trouble. I'm going to chastise them from the pulpit and bring out some Bible verses that says this is where they are wrong.

See what happens when we don't understand the declaration of grace that Peter first instituted in verse one? All the do's and don'ts become backwards. And it is only from that launching board that he can say to the church, "Don't do it this way, because if you do, it is sourced in the wrong place." Things you're supposed to do: shepherd the flock. Again, remember, you all have an influence. Shepherd them out of willingness, not begrudgingly. Shepherd them eagerly, meaning be excited to do it, and shepherd them as examples of God's grace.

Those are the do's that Peter says. The don'ts says don't shepherd them out of force. Don't shepherd them out of a need or love for money and don't shepherd them out of a domineering authority, a domineering hand. In closing, we've gone a little long today. I apologize, but I don't because these words are good, aren't they? I learned so much in my own heart, I learned so much about what I'm supposed to be doing when I read this passage that I can stand before Jesus not as a good CEO, but I could stand before the Lord as a good under-shepherd, very simply because I minister God's grace.

Here's what I want you to take home. If you haven't been listening at all, very possible, and maybe you don't remember anything, or maybe you're just waking up because I'm about to say amen, this is what I want you to take home. Number one: you are a witness to the restorative power of grace. It is your life. It is you. Look in the mirror and you will see that you are an example of God's restorative power of grace. Isn't that amazing? You can say today that I am a witness. I have seen God do some amazing things. Yes, he's not done yet, he's a lot more to do, but I have seen him do some amazing things.

Number two: you have the ability to influence others with the grace of God. I pray that that is our default. Our default should be grace, not judgment. Let our default be grace and influence others with that. Number three: when you lead, do so out of the gift of grace you have received. When you lead others in your workplace, when you lead others in your family, do so out of the gift of grace that you have received, not out of your talents.

Again, part of the world I live in is I see a lot of pastors that are very talented, a lot more education, a lot more ability to orate and accumulate good information and a good sermon and to organize all these bells and whistles for the church. But you know what? The end of the day when we lead, when I lead, it has to be out of the gift of God's grace that he has given me. And it's that way for each one of us. Amen. Let's bow our heads and close with prayer.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for this sermon and we want these declarations of grace. Lord, we don't wear our sin as a badge on our chest with pride, but we're also not afraid of it because our sin is a great example of the restorative power of your grace. And we thank you for this great example that you've given to us in Peter and we look at all the other apostles, very much the same, that they were examples of the grace of God.

Paul was the same, Titus and Timothy, Thomas, Barnabas, Mark, Luke, John. You go into the Old Testament and read about the faith heroes from Hebrews chapter eleven and you see again that they are all great examples of grace. Lord, we ask that we will learn to lead with grace, that you will help our hearts to change. We may not influence thousands, we might not have our own TikTok channel and be famous, but Lord, we have our coworkers, we have our sons and daughters, our grandchildren, we have our husbands and wives, we have our grandparents, cousins. Lord, they are people that are around us that we have the opportunity to give them grace. Help us to lead this way. In Jesus' precious name. Amen.