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19th June 2024
WednesdayReflection
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Josh Tancordo comments
'Preacher'
'Shepherding God's Flock'
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1 Peter 5 says,
1 I, who am an elder myself, appeal to the church
elders among you. I am a witness of Christ's
sufferings, and I will share in the glory that will
be revealed. I appeal to you
2 to be shepherds of the flock that God gave you
and to take care of it willingly, as God wants
you to, and not unwillingly. Do your work, not
for mere pay, but from a real desire to serve.
I want to say that this is an important passage for all of us to study and take to heart.
Not only is it important for those of us whom God's called to be elders - so that we can be reminded of kind of ministry God's called us to and the way he expects us to carry it out - it's also important for the rest of the church as well.
The entire church needs to be aware of the things Peter writes in this passage so that everyone can have a clear understanding of the kind of ministry they should expect from the elders.
Hopefully, this understanding will also help the church as a whole to have a better idea of how they can be an encouragement to the elders.
In fact, it's almost impossible for us to overstate the importance of understanding what Peter teaches in this passage-because, if you look around at the church in general in our society today, it seems to be in a rather lamentable condition.
We might even say it's in a state of spiritual disarray.
Why is that? Why are so many professing Christians in our society so worldly-minded?
Why do so many professing Christians embrace blatantly unbiblical doctrines?
Why do they often seem so confused even about the most basic Christian teachings?
Why are they so often spiritually immature and malnourished?
After all, if you were to see a flock of sheep scattered all over the place - many of them looking rather malnourished - who would you say is to blame for that more than anyone else?
Does the responsibility for that not come back to the shepherds?
So, it's vital that we understand what God calls the elders of a church to be and do - so that we can all work together to ensure that they're seeking to fulfil their calling.
Thankfully, Peter gives very clear instructions in this passage about elder ministry.
He writes at the beginning of verse 1, "So I exhort the elders among you ..."
Now, before we go any further, I want to make sure we all understand what the word "elder" means.
When we talk about "elders" in this context, we're not talking we're not talking about those in the congregation who are elderly.
The New Testament uses the term "elder" to refer to leaders of a church with an emphasis on their spiritual maturity.
By the way, one term the New Testament never uses to refer to church leaders is "priest."
That's a term some denominations have unfortunately carried over from the Old Testament, but it isn't an appropriate term to use for church leaders at all.
Because, first of all, church leaders in the New Testament don't offer sacrifices on behalf of everyone else as the priests of Israel did in the Old Testament
And also, church leaders don't have a kind of access to God that's fundamentally different than the access to God all Christians enjoy.
In fact, as we've already seen in 1 Peter, the New Testament speaks of all Christians as "priests," indicating that we all have the same level of access to God.
Church leaders aren't unique at all in that regard.
So, that's why we don't use the term "priests" to refer to church leaders and why we actually believe it to be quite contrary to New Testament teaching to view church leaders in that way.
Peter first identifies himself as a "fellow elder" and also as "a witness of the sufferings of Christ."
Peter's writing these things as an eyewitness of what Jesus suffered on the cross and as one who had been forever changed by the things he saw.
We then discover what Peter's exhorting them to do in verse 2.
He tells them to "shepherd the flock of God that is among you."
This is the core component of Peter's exhortation to these elders - to "shepherd the flock of God" - the "flock of God" being a reference to the church.
The main idea of this passage is that God has given 'elders' the responsibility of shepherding his flock.
After Jesus was raised from the dead, he appeared to his disciples, including Peter, and told Peter specifically to fulfill the duties of a shepherd - and told him this not once but three times.
In John 20:15, Jesus instructed Peter, "Feed my lambs."
Just as Jesus told Peter to shepherd God's flock, Peters tells elders to shepherd God's flock.
So, think about that analogy of a shepherd.
What does shepherding involve that makes it such a good analogy for the work of church elders?
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This is an extremely edited version.
The full article is avaiable on request
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