Servant Leaders, Part 1

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. What images come to your mind when you think of the position of leader? The world's leader seeks power and renown and is lifted up based on talent, appearance, and cunning. But 1 Peter 5, 1-4 portrays the biblical image of the leader as a servant. Today, Rich unpacks the text to show how a leader must think and function within the church. God's Word presents church leadership as a weighty responsibility that requires a constant view toward the cross and eternity.

Let's listen in. Good morning, church. Live as people who are free. That is the theme of this whole study of 1 Peter. And now here we are in the last chapter, chapter 5. And the title for this sub-series is The Community of the Free. We looked at the identity of the free. Faith is liberating.

This is the next series. The series we just finished in chapter 4 is How Free People Suffer. We looked at 12 characteristics of people who are free and then how free people suffer. What is this freedom of which we speak? The Bible says we are free.

1 Peter 2, 16. Live as people who are free. Do you know that you are free? Free from what?

Free to what? You see, Christians need to know what our status, what our position, what our identity is. And if we don't, we're going to be missing out on what God has for us. We are free. We are free from the penalty and the power, the bondage of sin.

Jesus took care of that. So it's not about trying harder to live a better life so God's pleased with me. That's not the gospel of grace. I am free from the penalty of sin. I'm no longer under condemnation. I am free from that. And I'm free from the bondage of sin.

This is biblical truth and you and I need to know it. But we're not just free from something. We are free, say it with me, to something.

We are free to what? To know God. To walk with Him. To enjoy Him.

To serve Him with delight. You see, that is our freedom. And so being free in Christ is not about all the things you can't do.

That's how the world would love to paint us. You're Christians. You don't enjoy life. You can't do this.

You can't do that. That is not the gospel of grace. In fact, people who are free can do so much more than those who are still in bondage. Listen, this is not just positive speak. This is biblical truth. This is the gospel of grace.

And you have an adversary of your soul who would love you to be confused about what I just talked about. It's not about trying harder to be better. It's not about simply pulling up myself by my own bootstraps, which is, by the way, physiologically impossible, and just trying to live the Christian life. There's no grace in that. We live by grace. That's why we are free. That was the first sermon today. Alright, so the community of the free.

We need to understand our freedom, because if we're going to be the community of the free, how can we be a community of the free if we don't know our freedom? And so he comes into chapter five here, the last chapter of this first letter, the community of the free, in verse four. We're going to look at the first four verses today. And this is called Servant Leaders. Servant Leaders. So what I'm going to talk to you about today is my job description.

And Dwight's and Bobby's. Not only my job description, but what ought to be my job disposition as well. That's a lot to say. There's a lot packed into these four verses, the first four verses of chapter five. He says, look with me at verse one, so I exhort the elders among you. And that so is going back to all the freedom that is ours, even in the context of suffering, tribulation, adversity, because that's who Peter was writing to in this letter.

People who are under duress because they were followers of Christ. So I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ. He says, I exhort the elders among you. I exhort the word parakaleo. It's like you see Peter, the elder apostle now, coming up and putting his arm around you.

He says, now come with me. Talk with me for a minute. I want to talk to you about the leaders.

I want to talk to you about leadership in the community of the free. And the word he uses here, the elders among you, presbuteroi. The elder, of course, the word means a lot, doesn't it? Right? Older person.

Be careful what you do with that now, okay? But the idea here is a mature spiritual man to spiritually lead and guide with biblical wisdom and grace. That is the whole nuance of this word elder. A mature spiritual man to spiritually lead and guide with biblical wisdom and grace. Mature as elder, you think of somebody who's older. Now Peter here, he was probably close to 60 years old when he wrote this letter.

Because it's written after 64 AD, the Roman fire, okay? And so he's like three decades removed from the ministry of Christ. So he's probably close to 60 years old here. The life expectancy in this age was about 66 maximum.

So he's getting up there, okay? So he's an elder. He calls himself a fellow elder, all right? And look what he says when we're talking about elders. He says he's also an elder with them. And that means an older person. And some of you, I know what some of you are thinking right now. Well, what about Bobby? He's under 40.

He doesn't know anything. Do you remember what... I'm glad I didn't hear any amens there. Do you remember what Paul said to Timothy? Let no man despise your youth.

Be an example to the believers. Bobby is a Timothy. He's a good one.

He's a person that can be followed and looked up to. Let me make an important distinction here. Maturity, let me start over again. Age does not equal maturity. You've seen some men who've never grown up yet, haven't you?

Let me get a little more specific on this. Just because you've been a Christian for 40, 50 years doesn't necessarily mean you're mature in Christ. I have seen some Christians who've been Christians for four or five decades, and they're still infants spiritually.

It's a sad reality. So we're looking at qualified men here, qualified men. Maturity. Mature spiritual men to spiritually lead and guide with biblical wisdom and grace. Now we see here what Peter demonstrates, first of all, in the first verse is an authoritative humility. Peter is an apostle, but he starts by saying, I am a fellow elder with you.

He did not begin with his apostolic authority. Isn't that interesting? He said, I am a fellow elder with you. Like he's speaking to peers and what they have is a shared position.

This is an authoritative humility. It is a shared position. Secondly, there is a shared foundation. A witness of the sufferings of Christ. The sufferings of Christ is that shared foundation, and Peter himself was a witness of them. He witnessed the death, the burial, and the resurrection, and the ascension of Jesus Christ.

Not even to mention the Mount of Transfiguration. He was there. Stuck his foot in his mouth, but he was there. He was good at that, wasn't he? But that should be comforting to us.

Sometimes I have mastered Operation Open Mouth Insert Foot. So it's a shared foundation of the sufferings of Christ, meaning that the Son of God came and he died and he rose again. That is the foundation of the church. That is what the leaders of the church, that is what the church proclaims. So it's a shared foundation.

Thirdly, there's a shared goal. It says in verse 1, a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. If you look back at chapter 1 and verse 7, he talks about it because Peter is all about keeping the big picture in view. You cannot make sense of this life if you don't keep the big picture in view. Christians, are you hearing me? We have the big picture.

Why? Because we have God's self-disclosure. You cannot make sense of this life if you don't keep the big picture in view.

He begins his whole letter with that, chapter 1 verse 7, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. We await his return. We live with that in view. So that's the shared goal. And that the reality of that goal that we confidently expect was certified by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

That's how we can confidently expect it and live in view of it. So notice something as Peter writes this. He's writing these and he's writing as an apostle of Jesus Christ. So there is that apostolic authority as a witness, one who is personally commissioned by Christ and a witness of the resurrected Christ.

But listen to the words he uses. The elders among you, a fellow elder, a partaker of the glory, the flock of God. He's speaking with terms of community and he's a part of that community. Here's a very, very important point I want you to remember when we're talking about church leadership. He refers to them here as elders.

They are part of the flock too. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace weekdays at 10 a.m.