July 6, 2003
"The Suffering Leader" 1 Peter 5:1-4 Pastor Jon MacKinney
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A couple of weeks ago in the Arizona Republic, there was an article about mega-churches, super-churches. Did any of you read that article? Do you remember that? Some of you did. And in that article there was a quotation by one of the pastors of an East Valley mega-church. Now, a mega-church, I think, in the article, was defined as a church with over 2,000 people in attendance. And one of those pastors made a statement – and I don’t have the article, so I won’t quote it exactly – but, basically he said that the mega-church has redefined what it means to be a pastor. Now, you may imagine that as a pastor of a church of about a hundred or so people, that shook me to the foundations; and I’m sure a lot of others, too, to hear that what I was supposed to do has now been redefined into what would be more like a CEO model, the Chief Executive Officer, distant from the actual people that you serve, the head of a giant bureaucratic organization. And I, and a lot of other pastors I think, look at that statement – and I know one pastor of a mega-church in the East Valley took that man horribly to task in a sermon that he preached. Well, I’m not going to do that necessarily, but I am going to say this, that whenever we have these kinds of statements that maybe cause confusion and we ask ourselves, "What is a pastor anyway? What is a church leader?" That instead of going to the Arizona Republic, we may go to this Book right here. And I think, and I believe that the first four verses of 1 Peter 5 are maybe more instructive on what it means, not just to be a pastor, but to be anyone who is called to lead the Church of God and what kind of character they need to manifest in that process. But not only church leaders, but really anyone in the Church of God, anyone who is a believer and who has responsibility for one or more people, for whom that person is a leader. That could be a husband. That could be a husband and wife with children. It could be a teacher. It could be the leader of a committee, in a ministry committee in a church. All of these people who are leaders can come under the same idea of what it is to be a leader in the Church of God. What does it take? What are the characteristics that God wants from us?
First of all, when you look at what it means to be a leader in God’s Church, throughout this passage, first we’re going to see what God’s leader is not. Sometimes it’s very instructive to start with a negative. When we think about leadership, we have a certain idea in our minds. But, what does God say in terms of what a leader is not? Throughout this passage, as you read these first four verses, there are a lot of "not this, but instead this." And Peter says he is an elder. He is a fellow leader of the church, one who actually witnessed the sufferings of Christ and so, therefore, he’s actually an apostle – one who is sent out to lead the church. He says in verse 2, "Be shepherds." Frankly, folks, shepherds isn’t exactly the most glamorous job in the world. I don’t know of that many kids when they’re asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" and they say, "Well, I want to be a shepherd. I want to sit out in the fields in one of these little gypsy campers and take care of sheep. Many, if left by themselves, frankly, would die." So, Peter calls them, and this is very instructive, to be shepherds of God’s flock. And then he says, halfway through the verse, "Not because you must, but because you are willing." And that’s the first one of the "nots." Being a shepherd, being a leader, of the flock of God requires that a person not be improperly motivated. You’d think that for a person to even to want to be a shepherd means that he’s automatically properly motivated. Such is not the case. In the book of Ezekiel God talks about the shepherds of Israel in very negative tones, that all they wanted to do was to shear the flock for their own benefit. You can be improperly motivated to be a shepherd. And it says here, "not because you must." The word there means to be forced or to be constrained, "I’ve got to do this." Not, "I have to do this because God’s calling me," but "I’ve got to do this."
What are some of the improper motivations? One of them is guilt. Guilt is one of the most powerful motivators that there is. We use it on our kids. We use it on our animals. "Shame on you!" We’re taking care of our daughter’s and son-in-law’s little doggie this week – which is not potty trained. We’ve done a lot of that this week. "What’s that? That’s outside!" So, shame is a powerful motivator, guilt. "Nobody else will do it, you’ll have to do it!" "Oh, alright." He says, you know what, if you’ve got to be motivated by guilt, you’re better off not being a leader. Maybe there is a motivation of force by peers. Peers, of course, love to use the guilt motivation. Have you ever wondered why people are so eager for you to do it? Yeah, you know, because they won’t have to.
Why is it that motivation is so important? Why is it so important? After all, all you want to do is be an elder, and sometimes we fall into the trap to saying, "Yeah, we want you to be an elder and it doesn’t take very much. It just means you meet twice a month." We soft sell it. If we have to soft sell leadership in the church, if we have to lower the bar so far that people will ultimately give in to the guilt pressure, and our peer pressure, to do it then frankly, folks, the church, the leaders that we will have will lead us to a bad end. Motivation is important because the task that God has called us to is so demanding - not in terms of hours; not in terms of physical labor, but in terms of the constant challenge that leadership is, Biblical leadership is, to a person’s own self-worship. You read it in this passage. You cannot be a leader in the church without giving up your rights and desires in order to serve other people. That’s the whole premise of leadership in the church, just the opposite, I might add, of the premise of leadership in the world. Our Congress of the United States may have started years ago as public servants, and if you think about those first Congresses and maybe the Continental Congress, those men who signed that Declaration of Independence, often paid a high price. But, I have the feeling that the Congress in our day, and I’m sure there’s exceptions, is often more interested in keeping the job of being a Congressman and being a Senator and eating in the Capitol lunchroom and having the trips to wherever they go and all that stuff, than they are in serving. Leadership in the Church of God is not to be improperly motivated.
And there is even another motivation. You can be improperly motivated by money and power and prestige. And you think, "Oh, come on. Who’s going to make money in the church?" Oh, yeah. There are plenty of people who can get into positions of leadership in the Church and just rake it in hand over fist. There can be a lot of power, can be a lot of prestige. So, many times, for a person who has those kinds of motivations, the Church of God and the Kingdom of God can be a place where he or she can find great financial gain, great gain of personal power, great gain of prestige. I’ve been in God’s Church a long time and I’ve seen squabbles and things and they all come down to the same thing – power. Who’s got it? How can I get it? How can I keep from losing it? The Church that is full of people seeking power is going to be a sad place. That’s our natural tendency. "My ideas are best. My goals are the best. My plans. My purposes. My ideas." And God says here, don’t be motivated by money. Look at where it says here in verse 3, "Not greedy for money, but eager to serve." That phrase ’not greedy for money’ is kind of a paraphrase. The word actually means ’not greedy for shameful gain.’ It isn’t necessarily money, but it can be money. It’s anything - the shameful gain means, "What am I going to get out of this deal? Am I going to get more power? Am I going to get fame? Am I going to get money? Am I going to get my name in lights?" And if that’s your motivation, sit down and ask God to change your heart. It can be money – ’not greedy for money.’ One of the famous prayers of the deacons over the years has been "You keep him humble, Lord. We’ll keep him poor." Not our deacons, but some deacons, I’ve heard that.
Why is it that perfectly good, qualified (well, maybe not qualified), gifted, talented people are prohibited from taking the reigns of leadership in the body of Christ? There’s one reason. There’s one disqualifying characteristic and that is self-centeredness. If it’s all about me, then the Church leadership is no place for you. Jesus Himself has exemplified it for us, hasn’t He? It’s all about other people. It’s all about service. "He who would become the greatest among you must be the" what? "The servant of all." Well, you don’t find that on the letterhead of Charles Schwab or Big Blue. Leadership in God’s economy is about other people.
Look at verse 3, another ’not.’ "Not lording it over those entrusted to you." Lording it over – the word means ’domination, the exercise of complete control.’ And people who exercise complete control, very typically are looking so that everything can be controlled for whose benefit? Their own. "How can I make this work so that I continue to benefit?" One of my favorite authors is James Michener. I’m reading his book about Hawaii. I don’t know if you’ve read that book. It’s a very interesting book as all of his are. And in that situation, the people come in and there’s this slow process that takes place in which, in the end, a small group of people from Boston basically control the sugar manufacturing, the pineapple manufacturing, the banking, the education, and all these things. And they run it, at least according to Michener (and you always have to put in that caveat), for whose benefit? Well, other people’s benefit to some extent, but basically the benefit is for me. "What am I going to get out of it? How can we keep the sugarbeet farmers in Colorado quiet so we can continue to corner the market with sugarcane?" "Not lording it over." "My way or the highway." You know, the need to dominate others really is simply the need to require others to worship me like I worship myself. "Isn’t it obvious that I am the greatest person in the room and all of you should worship me? And I will help you do that by controlling you." J. Owsald Sanders in the book Spiritual Leadership, said this, "Egotism is one of the repulsive manifestations of pride. It is the practice of thinking and speaking much of oneself, the habit of magnifying one’s attainments or importance. It leads to consider everything in relationship to himself rather than in relation to God and the welfare of His people." God’s leader is not requiring complete control because if he is, he’s merely expressing egotism which is really the worship of self, the worship of I, the worship of me. Such a person might get a lot done, but at what cost? When we look for leaders, when God looks for leaders to lead His Church, it becomes clear doesn’t it, that egotism, this self-centeredness, focused on me, is the absolute enemy of effective leadership in the Church. The person might be wildly successful in a business environment, might even write books about it, but if he or she has not learned that other people are more important than they are they will never be a leader in God’s Church, because the founder of our Church, Jesus Christ, found other people more important than Himself, even to death on a cross.
Now that’s negative, what God’s leader is not. Let’s move on to what God’s leader is because what God’s leader is in verse 2, "a shepherd of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as an overseer." Being a shepherd involves, of course, some rare, rare characteristics because it begins with the idea that a shepherds whole purpose in life is to care for sheep. He’ll put their own well being ahead of his own comfort and even sometimes, in some really powerful cases, ahead of his own life. The sheep are the priority of a shepherd and not the shepherd himself. And we shepherd (we are called to shepherd here in verse 2) by overseeing, serving as overseers. Now that word ’overseer’ has, over the years, picked up kind of a negative connotation. An overseer, oh that’s the guy who’s coming over at work and looking over your shoulder to see if you’re working or playing videogames on the computer. He’s the guy who sits up there in the room, doesn’t do anything productive. He just sits there smoking a cigar and watching everybody else to catch them from doing stuff. That’s kind of the picture that maybe we have developed. But the fact of the matter is that as God’s leader, and as shepherding overseers, we follow right in the footprints of God Himself.
"For you," 1 Peter 2:25 says, "were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to," now look at this, "the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls." And that’s not me, that’s God. God paints Himself in this position – the Shepherd and Overseer of your soul. So then, at that point, we say, "Well, what is an overseer? What does he do? What is it about God that makes Him an overseer?" Well, for one thing, He provides for the sheep. "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul". God is a provider. He knows what we need and He gives it to us. The shepherd knows what the sheep need and gives it to them. The shepherding parent knows what his child needs and gives it to them, whether that is a glass of water or a warm blanket or a swat on the rump. "We know what you need and I’m going to give it to you out of love, because I know what you need." God is a provider. That’s even one of His names in the Hebrew – Jehovah Jireh, "God Provides."
He also protects the sheep. An overseer is watching the sheep and protecting them from harm. Now, for the sheep, this is almost always physical. But in God’s oversight of us, in addition to the physical, there is the more important protection against the enemy of our souls. And much of God’s protection of us, then, involves something that we may not see as protective, but it is protective, and that is the work of teaching us what is true. Do you realize how much protection God gives us by shielding us with the truth of His Word? So that when we can read this Word and not only identify what’s not true, but also identify what is true – because the truth of God’s Word illuminates those things that are lies.
This week we just got back from our vacation. We had a wonderful time on our vacation and part of our vacation, one of the more interesting parts of our vacation was that, well we’re teaching Tom to drive. And so, I always thought it would be easier to teach him to drive out on a freeway going 75 miles an hour with other people going a little faster. And it looks easy and it usually is for a while, until you can feel the tension in the car rise as you come up to a little traffic problem. So, we had some adventures. Here we are, we’re safe and sound. I recovered my sanity and Jan stopped shaking. Everything’s good. But, one of the things that I mentioned to Tom in driving, as we were doing some driving with some curves. And I said, "You know what, Tom, you know what those signs are? Those signs are warnings about something that is coming up that you can’t see yet." When you’re 17 years old and you’re driving through the mountains and the road keeps going straight, you figure it just keeps going straight forever – just keep on going straight. And that’s a lie, of course, because as you know it doesn’t keep going straight. And so these little signs pop up that say, "You think it’s going to keep going straight, but in fact it’s going to curve left and you need to slow down to…" Well, that 45 is only an advisory number. You’ve got to slow down to safely negotiate this curve, especially if you’re a beginning driver. And so those things are little statements of truth all along the road. Now you can choose to ignore those little things of truth and you’ve seen it, haven’t you? On the freeway where it says, "Slow down. There’s a 25 mile an hour curve." And you see these big black streaks going off the side. Well, there’s somebody who didn’t believe the sign or maybe didn’t read the sign.
Those signs are for our protection. They are instructive signs for our protection, challenging our closely held ideas with the truth. That’s how God protects us. He says, "You’re going down the road that’s going to lead to a pit. Now, you can either turn away from this road or you can keep on going to it, but I’m telling you now, I’m putting up the sign ’Bridge Out.’ You can keep on going if you want to but, ’Bridge Out.’" God is involved in this protection. As leaders, then, we have the same task as overseers, to warn people, to teach people what is true even when (and this is especially true of parents) our children might resist those statements. Anybody got kids like that, once in a while, who will say, "That’s not true. I can do that and nothing will happen."? Teenagers especially consider themselves invulnerable to anything negative. I had these kids in the children’s home that I used to work at, "I can steal the car and get away with it." And sometimes they could for a while, but the long arm of the law is kind of long. So we as parents seek to, from our vast store of not only learned wisdom but also Biblical wisdom, we have learned that the Biblical wisdom is true and we seek to tell our children, "The path you’re on is dangerous. Slow down. Turn the wheel. Stop the car." It’s for their protection because we don’t want them to make a wreck of their life. That’s what an overseer does. And you know what? Sometimes that protection isn’t well received. That instruction isn’t well received. And at that point we say, "Well, should I save myself the aggravation and the pain of having my counsel rejected because, after all, it’s too painful for me to do that? So, I’ll just let the kid go his own way." Who are we thinking of when we refuse to accept the negative consequences that righteous behavior sometimes brings? But the person who is a servant says, "If my kid has to get in my face about this or my students have to get in my face or if my congregation has to give me trouble for this, I know that it’s right, I’m going to keep on doing it anyway for the benefit of those who are giving me trouble, even when it would be easier just to sit back and say ’Okay, go ahead and go on that curve at 100 miles an hour and I’ll be there to pick up the pieces.’"
God protects us as an overseer. God provides for us as an overseer. God also assures, the overseer also assures the productivity of the sheep because the sheep aren’t just out there having a good time, are they? It’s nice that they can live and eat, but that’s not the whole purpose of their existence. The purpose of their existence is to provide something and that is wool. And so, ultimately, there is a responsibility of the shepherd is to make sure that these sheep fulfill their responsibility in the world, their task. For sheep that’s to produce wool, for human beings, members of God’s family and God’s flock it’s to glorify God, to share the good news with lost sheep, to nurture lambs, to be productive. It’s easy, and it would be the easiest thing for us to come into the flock of God, be grateful for the provision, be grateful for the protection, but want nothing to do with the productivity because the productivity involves work. But that’s exactly why we were saved, not just to enjoy life here and then go to heaven but to be here as a productive member of God’s flock to produce fruit, as John 15 tells us. We are part of the vine to produce fruit, and God, as the vinedresser (another agrarian image that has the same idea) is out there trimming away at us so that we will not just enjoy being a branch, but produce fruit, be productive. And God says, "As an overseer, I know that your life will be much more enriched and meaningful and joyful if you will produce fruit consistent with righteousness."
It’s not easy, then, to be a leader of God’s flock because everything we are called to do – to provide for, to protect for, to assure the productivity of the sheep – means that there will be sacrifice on the part of the leader, just like there is sacrifice on the part of parents or sacrifice on the part of a teacher. Because we are called, it says here in the end of verse 3, "Not lording it over, but being examples to the flock." That means that when God calls us to live for other people, He says, "I’m going to call you to stand before you and say ’Look at me. I’m a model of what you should be like.’" Now we all, in our humility, pull back aghast at such a statement. I remembering listening to a sermon one time by Chuck Swindoll when he was talking to husbands about their wives and he said, "I do that. Do you?" And I thought, "Well, Chuck, aren’t you cool?" Then I thought more and I said, "You know what? What Chuck is doing is being a leader." Saying, You know what? I am willing to be an example even though being an example is costly. When you say, "Look at me," that means you’ve got to be living a life that’s exemplary. That means that you have to make sacrifices. If you want to be an example of servanthood, then you’ve got to be a servant. If you want to be an example of holiness, then you have walk a holy life. If you want to be an example of love, then you’ve got to love people. It’s easy to talk, not as easy to do. This requires a radical reversal of priorities to put other people first, to suffer so that the grace of God can be manifested to other people. You know the amazing thing about this passage is that it calls people to be enthusiastic. Look at the end of verse 2, "Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers not because you must but because you are willing as God wants you to be, not greedy for money but eager to serve, not lording it over those entrusted to you, but eager to serve." Eager to serve. Who in their right mind is going to be eager to be in a situation where they’ve got to serve other people and do everything for other people’s benefit? You’ve got to have a couple of rocks loose. But, that’s what God calls us to do. And it says that this is what Jesus did - eagerly. It doesn’t say eager to dominate, eager to rake in the money, eager to exercise power, it says eager to serve. Eager to serve. How is it possible for people to enthusiastically put others before them? I thought if you’re going to be a servant you have to paint on an unhappy face and put on the sackcloth and ashes and beat yourself on the back and "Woe is me! I am undone. I’m a terrible person, but I’ll try to serve my way out of it. Oh, what a miserable life!"
Eager to serve. How is that possible? Well, it’s possible because there’s rewards. Ah, now we think, "Ah, rewards! Good. What am I going to get for this?" "For you today, having done a life of service, you’re going to get your own heavenly Jacuzzi with a heavenly Maserati and a big mansion." No! God’s rewards are different. God’s ways are different. Have you found that out yet? God’s ways are just different. And His reward system is different too, but it’s very consistent with what He calls us to do. If God’s leader spends his or her time truly serving other people, enthusiastically living for the benefit of others, what would be an appropriate reward for such a person? What should such a person anticipate as a reward for that? Because verse 4 says, "And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away." Man, that’s got to be something really great! That’s got to be money or a big mansion or my own planet or something. What does the person who lives for other people really want? What are you going to get this guy for Christmas? Well, I believe it’s the same reward that Jesus received. And what was that? The joy of seeing people saved for eternity. Hebrews says, "For the joy that was set before Him, Jesus endured the cross, despising its shame." What was that joy? What could possibly make Jesus joyful? I’m looking at ’em. If you looked around, you’d be looking at ’em too. You. Me. Us. What’s the greatest joy that a parent can have? As a parent, think about it. What really pulls your bell whistle. It’s to see your children succeed. It’s to see our children grow and mature and live godly fruitful, transformed lives.
I’ll never forget my daughter’s senior year in high school. She was in track She ran track and she was really good at it. She had the fastest time in the state in her 2A classification for the 400 meter. She was great, but then she got the Epstein-Barr Syndrome and no energy the whole business. But you know what, she won for her team they gave her the Christian Character Award. That meant more than all the races that she had won because it said that those young people recognized something in her that was something they wanted to emulate. What a great privilege for me, as a parent, to see that and to rejoice in her growth and success.
If you live your life for the benefit of other people, then it would be ridiculous for God to expect you to be rewarded for something that wasn’t other-oriented. You’ve lived your whole life that way. Well, If you’ve lived your whole life for the benefit of others, then your reward will be seeing those people in heaven receiving their own treasures and the multiplication of your ministry in them and then their ministry to others, and their ministry to others, etc. What a reward. What a tremendous privilege to know that my life was used to transform the lives of others for eternity. And you think that heaven will be great for so many reasons. Well, one of those reasons will be seeing the eternal impact your life had on other people. These are the characteristics we need to seek when we look for leaders in our church – people who truly are (and you can see it) interested in the benefit of others, who focus on the needs of others, who demonstrate that need, that focus in very practical ways, people who manifest the other-oriented character of God. God’s all about other people. He’s all about, "What can I do for you? How can I bless you? How can I bring grace into your life?" That’s what God is like.
When I look at the leaders that God has given this church, I see those kinds of people. And I call on you to follow those examples, people who are living for the benefit of others. That is what it means to be an elder, a deacon, a committee chairman, a Sunday School teacher, an AWANA leader. What else would bring a person out on a Wednesday night, week after week, to hear the shriek of children playing games (it’s enough to bust your ear drums) and to listen to children fumble through verses – because they love those kids. They’re here for their benefit.
Let’s follow that example.
