The First Letter of Peter- 20

Subtitle: How Suffering Ties To Our Future Hope- Part 2

1 Peter 5:1-5.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, April 19, 2026.

Peter has been pointing to suffering and how it leads to a witness to the world.  We are suffering with Christ before the world.  Yet, he also wants to connect our suffering to our future glory with Christ at his Second Coming.

Peter now gives some exhortations to people within the body of Christ with this in view.  These are more than commands on how to do church.  It is an exhortation to Christians about being faithful under difficult circumstances.

Let’s look at our passage.

An exhortation to elders (v. 1-4)

The exhortation Peter gives to elders is connected to some commands.  These are stronger than saying, “Let’s do this!”  It pictures a person summoning others to their side in order to receive important instructions.

In this case, we have important instructions for those who are elders within the Church of Jesus Christ, the people of God.  Elder is a word that essentially refers to one who is older.  However, in this case, Peter is talking about more than those who are older.  It is a reference to those who have spiritual maturity through years of walking with God.  If an 80-year-old person repents and becomes a believer in Jesus, they are not an elder within a church because they have no maturity with spiritual matters.

Peter is writing to a large area, so these men are particularly elders within the local group of Christians where they live.  They have been through trials and joys of life while remaining steadfast followers of Jesus.  For these men, that has also meant withstanding periods of intense persecution for following Christ.  Their spiritual maturity comes from winning spiritual battles and not from degrees at a Bible school or seminary. 

Peter does not address them as an overlord, their general, or as “the Pope.”  He exhorts them as a “fellow elder.”  This is important because Peter will challenge them to be humble, so he demonstrates that here.  Though he has had spiritual training directly under Jesus, he speaks to them as one of them.  He is even now showing an example to them of how to speak to believers within their local groups.  They will perform the same function of an elder as he but with a smaller scope.

Peter further describes himself as a “witness of the sufferings of Christ.”  This is not just his suffering on the cross, but also of what Jesus suffered in order to minister to Israel.  Yes, Jesus suffered and died on a cross, but he also suffered lack of sleep, lack of time alone, physical hardship through the demands of people on his time.  All this, he endured in order to minister to people.  Jesus also suffered slander, attacks, and arrest from those who did not like what he was doing.  Lastly, let us not forget that our Lord experienced betrayal from Judas and also from the religious leaders of Israel who should have been the first to embrace him and his ministry.

Peter knows what it looks like and what it takes to follow Jesus, to minister on behalf of God.  A witness not only sees something but also gives testimony to those with ears to hear.

Peter further describes himself as a partaker of the glory that will be revealed.  Partaker translates a word that describes the portion, or share, that believers have in Jesus.  This is both a portion in what Christ is doing now and a portion in what Christ will do at his Second Coming.

However, Peter has also “partaken” of a glimpse, a foretaste, of what that glorious coming of Christ will be like.  He saw the true glory of Christ shine through his mortal body on the Mount of Transfiguration.  More than this, Peter also saw the glory of Jesus in his resurrected, glorified body, later ascending into heaven before him and many others.  In the book of Revelation, the apostle John sees Jesus in his immortal body, but it is also shining with his greater glory.  Not everyone was given such powerful portions of witness to the glory of Christ.

All believers will one day see this glorious Jesus, and they will share in it through resurrection and glorification.  We will participate and partake fully in the glory of Jesus!

In verse two, we come to the first command.  Shepherd the flock of God among you.

The shepherd image for leaders is used throughout the Bible.  God with Israel is pictured as a shepherd with a flock in the wilderness.  God led them, but also used a delegate-shepherd, Moses.  Psalm 78:52 and following uses this language.  David uses it personally of himself in Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not lack!”

A shepherd watches over sheep in order to protect them from predators, protect them from themselves, whether wayward or injured, and they care for their physical needs such as food, water, and shelter.

God is our shepherd, and He has sent forth Jesus as the Good Shepherd to help the flock of God.  Jesus is still the Good Shepherd of the flock of God, but he also works through the spiritually mature, elders, in order to shepherd his people.  Mature Christians need to take this seriously and pray for the leading of Christ in helping young believers.

The flock of God, the people of God, do not belong to the elders of the Church.  Neither do they belong to any particular elder.  Notice that Peter presents himself as a fellow-elder.

Shepherd is not a term about ruling but about care.  It is about being the hand of God’s love in all its facets within the lives of His people.  Hebrews 13:17 does use the term “rule” for leaders but notice to whom it is speaking.  The spiritually immature need to respect the reality that God’s will is to use the spiritually mature believers around them in order to help them grow to maturity.  They are not God to us, but they are being used by Him.

Elders, shepherds, do not need a title or even an official position.  They don’t need payment in order to do what they are called to do.  I say this because the Greek word behind this term elder is where we get the English term, Presbyter.  Don’t say, “I’m not an official Presbyter of the church, so Peter isn’t talking to me.”  No, you must hear the Spirit speaking through Peter to the spiritually mature among us, “Shepherd the flock of God… [for His purposes and with His heart].”

Peter describes some of the things that flesh out what it means to shepherd God’s people.  They are to exercise oversight.  This is what Hebrews 13 was talking about.  Watching over and watching out for the souls of young Christians is a main responsibility for elders.  This idea of watching over is where we get the English words bishop and episcopal.  Again, this is not about having the title of a bishop (one who watches over).  He is talking about a function.  The elder does not watch over the younger for their own purposes, or for protecting the organization.  They do so for the sake of the young person’s spiritual growth.  Of course, this will help the group, but that is not the primary focus.

Peter then brings up the issue of serving voluntarily versus under compulsion.  Elders should not be forced to do this.  In fact, giving a person a title and a paycheck is one sure way to make sure something gets done.  However, we can overly lean on such types of compelling.  Of course, it is not wrong to provide materially for those who minister to us spiritually.  Yet, this should not be the thing that drives spiritual work.  Spirit work within the people of God needs to be driven by the Holy Spirit stirring up the heart of a shepherd within the spiritually mature.  This will help the Holy Spirit’s work within the heart of the young sheep of the flock.

Peter also adds the phrase, “according to God’s will.”  It is God’s will that we all voluntarily serve His purpose.  He desires those who trust His wisdom, His vision then to serve Him with joy.

Those who put their faith in Jesus are not compelled to do so.  We are all volunteers to join the ranks of those following the Good Shepherd.  Yet, amongst this great body of happy volunteers, God stirs up volunteers to watch over and help the spiritually young among us.

Peter then tells them that they should serve with eagerness and not for “sordid gain.”  Sordid is the idea of something that is base, vile, the opposite of something that is morally noble.  Thus, elders must be eager to serve the people of God, but their purpose for serving must not be for an immoral purpose.  If you want to serve because it gives you money, fame, power, and the respect of people around you, then you are not serving for the right reasons.  Repent of it.  Our eagerness must come from serving Jesus.  It must come from seeing his heart for our younger spiritual brothers and sisters.

In verse three, Peter challenges them to be examples to the flock and not “lording it over those allotted to your charge.”  We have witnessed in history how these words in the New Testament have turned into positions and titles in the Church.  Men with positions can easily fall into the trap of emphasizing their authority to the detriment of the example of Christ.  It is more important for an elder to be an example to others of how to live than it is for them to have authority over them.

Lording it over them comes from the instructions of Jesus in the Gospels (e.g., Matthew 20:25-28).  Jesus reminds us that the Gentiles love to lord their authority over those under them.  It is the picture of dominating and rubbing their noses in the fact that you are the one in charge.  Yet, Jesus says to them, “It shall not be so among you!” 

We should pause and meditate on that simple command.  This is not a prophecy that no one will ever do such a thing.  Rather, it is a challenge to those who would disobey the command.  Jesus feels quite strongly about this. 

He went on to challenge his followers.  Do you want to be great?  You should then become servant to your brothers and sisters.  Do you want to be number one?  You should then become a slave to your brothers and sisters.  Notice the progression.  A servant still has some areas of their life that are up to them.  However, a slave has no personal plan or purpose.  They exist solely for God’s purposes in the lives of others.

“Those who are allotted into your charge” refers to the sphere of influence in which you find yourself.  Most of them would simply be watching over a local gathering of believers.  Peter as an apostle had a calling for a much larger sphere.  He was an apostle to the Jewish people no matter where they were.  Just like parents who have children know that God has allotted this child into their care, their charge, so elders find themselves with a sphere of influence given by God.  It is not given by Him to stroke their ego.  It is given by Him to serve the flock of God.

Verse four says that elders who serve well will receive a crown when the Chief Shepherd appears.  Our work in the midst of suffering in this life will be rewarded.  The Chief Shepherd is Jesus.  His appearing is the Second Coming.  Those who have believed in him and served his purpose will be rewarded by him.  This crown of glory may indeed be a literal crown.  But if it is literal, it still symbolizes the glory of Christ in which we participate.  Christ will resurrect us into glorified, immortal bodies to serve at his side.  We shall accompany him in his train as he takes up the reins (and the reigns) of the earth.  Our glory is to be at his side when he takes possession of the earth, raising up righteousness and putting down wickedness.

Of course, this is not only a promise for elders.  This is for all who believe.  This mortal time calls for those who are further along to help those who are coming behind.  However, there will be no “elders” in our immortal state for we shall all be fully, spiritually mature.  We shall be like Jesus!

An exhortation to younger men (v. 5a)

Peter then moves to give a short exhortation to young men, i.e., the men who are not elders, the spiritually immature benefiting from the help of spiritual elders.  They are told to be subject to their elders.

I made this point when talking about wives being subject to their husbands.  The point here is to the spiritually immature.  They are to willingly make a choice to take their proper place under the spiritually mature in the group.  It is only proper that novices listen to and learn from those who are farther down this path of following Jesus.  It is only proper for a novice to humble themselves and recognize that they have much to learn and should not be too quick to criticize and try to correct the elders.  Yet, this is something that young men need to do for themselves.  It is not the job of elders to scour the lives of their charges looking for any seeds of rebellion, quashing it instantly with harsh measures.  Elders need to recognize that the spiritually immature will never grow until they get to a place where they can make that choice willingly.  They need to choose it because they see that it is the Lord’s will and that it is good for them.

There is a long history in this world of young men chaffing at the leadership and words of their elders.  This is true in the Church and outside of it.  There are times when the elders are right.  These young men rush headlong into paths and ideas that end up destroying them and those who follow them.

However, there is also a long history of elders who are entrenched in a position and system that they love to rule.  Their heart is in the wrong place.  This creates an impasse between entrenched elders and rebel-youngers.  A young person can point to Jesus facing the religious elders of his day and fancy themselves following in his footsteps.  However, remember that you will one day stand before this very same Jesus and give account for just how well you followed his commands.

What is the end of the matter?  Elders, you must not mimic such false elders.  You need to be like Jesus who laid his life down so that the spiritually immature disciples could follow him.  Yet, young men, you must not be too quick to paint yourself as Jesus standing against wicked leaders.  You must ask, “Is my Lord pleased with my attitude and actions?”

The proper place for these young men is not under the feet of the elders, but to willingly come under their spiritual experience and to learn.  It is not to fight them all the time.

An exhortation to all Christians (v. 5b)

Peter then quickly turns to all Christians, “all of you…”  It is clear that the following command is the natural point that would be made to the younger men.  They are to choose to take their proper place under their elders and “clothe [themselves] with humility…”  Yet, Peter expands this to include the elders and the rest of the church, “all of you.”

This is important.  It is easy for elders to tell young people to humble themselves in an inadequate way.  This is when elders have an attitude that they no longer need to be humble themselves, as if humility is only for those in the “lower position.”  We could use this same criticism in the relationships between husbands and wives.

Yes, young men need to clothe themselves in humility, but so do elders.  In fact, all of God’s people need to be clothed in humility.  Why the imagery of clothing?

We wear clothing suitable for the task at hand.  One who gets up in the morning does not wear their bed clothes to go to the market or to work in the garden.  In this case, we are not talking about literal clothing.  We are talking about an attitude of heart and of the mind.

This is a purposeful action of every believer and not about any particular time of the day.  All believers regardless of age, spiritual maturity, class distinction, or sex need to consciously put on humility in their dealings with one another.

Elders cannot remind young men to be humble without first demonstrating what humility looks like.  Leaders cannot remind those who are not leaders to be humble without being humble with them.

We are not “doing church” for our purposes and our desires.  This all for Jesus.  If we do it improperly, we will give an account to him.  Thus, there should be no place in the Church for pride and ego.

Peter then quotes Proverbs 3:34, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Do we really believe that God is against the proud but gives grace to the humble?  Grace is the favor of God that can come to us in many different ways.  We can speak of it in general, but the verse is pointing to all the specific ways that God gives grace to the humble.  It is not the same specific grace for each humble person, but it is the grace given to them by God.

When a person is suffering or being persecuted, it always feels like proof that we are not favored by God.  However, we should always remember the suffering of our Lord and the fact that he was the Most Favored One of the Father!  You might quip that Jesus is different.  Of course, he is more than a man and different than you and me.  However, he was setting an example of humility in the face of suffering, faithfulness to God’s will in the face of hatred.  If you do not follow the example of Jesus because you think it was different for him, then you are not listening to what the Holy Spirit is trying to say to you throughout the New Testament.  Everywhere, Jesus is our example, our pattern, our trailblazer.  We are to pick up our cross and follow him.  Believe me, clothing yourself in humility is not the worst cross that you will have to die on, but it is a big one for us.

Do you want God’s favor, His grace?  Trust His Word and humble yourself.  It is interesting how humble circumstances and being treated lowly can stir up non-humble attitudes.  The flesh wants to respond in all of the wrong ways.  The challenge is put before us.  We must be humble if we do not want the Lord to be against us.

We have a whole generation of people who are chafing at this world and how it is run.  Of course, they are not wrong.  Things are messed up in every nation, including this republic, the United States of America.  However, if we respond with a heart of rage, destruction, pride and arrogance, then we will only make God our enemy.  We only destroy ourselves by refusing to listen to His instruction.

Just as the elders need to set the example of humility before the young, so the Church needs to set the example of humility to a lost world.  Instead of becoming angry with the proud of our land, let us humble ourselves and speak the truth in love to them so that they may have a chance to repent and avoid God’s judgment.

We have to stop here, but Peter’s instructions to them continue, which we will pick up next week.  Let’s live for Jesus this week by clothing ourselves in humility towards one another!

The Waiting King

Psalm 110:1; Ephesians 1:19-22; Hebrews 2:5-10.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on December 12, 2021.

We know that we are told to be patient and trust that God is waiting for the right time in order to bring this present age to an end, and to bring in the promised Kingdom Age.  Of course, this is not a waiting of inactivity.  Instead, we live our life in order to glorify God, regardless what we face, and we testify to others about the Savior, Jesus Christ.

Yet, we rarely think about the fact that God has not asked us to do anything that He is not doing Himself.  Today, we are going to look at the reality that our Lord Jesus is also patiently waiting, and yet not inactive.

Let’s get into our first passage.

The now, but not yet, kingdom

Psalm 110 is a Messianic Psalm that prophesies about the coming Kingdom of Messiah.  It is quoted three unique times in the New Testament.  The first is by Jesus himself during the week leading up to the crucifixion (Matthew 22:44, and in the other synoptic Gospels).

On one hand, Jesus is pointing out this psalm to the religious leaders to silence their badgering of him.  The rabbis generally saw this psalm as messianic, but there were some cryptic aspects to it.  The Messiah is of the line of David, the ultimate Son of David who would come and restore the kingdom of God.  However, verse one has David calling the Messiah, “my Lord.”  If the Messiah is David’s offspring, in what way can he be David’s Lord?  Before we jump in with some suggestions, we should understand that the culture in the Near East was not like ours.  This would hit the religious teachers as a difficult puzzle.  There is something about this Son of David that would be so unique that David recognized him as greater than himself.  David literally says, “Yahweh [Jehovah] says to my Lord…”

The Apostle Peter also points to this verse during his sermon at the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2:34).  There he points out that this is what has happened with Jesus.  He was victorious over the grave, but the Father has decreed that he is to sit at His right hand.  Of course, Peter also points out that Jesus isn’t just sitting there twiddling his thumbs.  He was directly responsible for the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon God’s remnant people.

The writer of Hebrews also points to this verse in Hebrews 1:13. The emphasis there is that God does not minister to angels, or serve them.  Rather, angels minister on His behalf to us.

All of these passages, point out the concept of a kingdom that was initiated in the first century after Christ’s resurrection, and yet had an aspect that wasn’t yet.  These verses picture God the Father having the Messiah sit at His right hand until his enemies are made his footstool. 

The ascension of Jesus was clearly preached as a fulfillment of this prophecy.  Where is Jesus?  He is at the right hand of the Father.  This implies a picture of participation in the rule of the Father.

One should not miss the use of the word “until” in this verse.  This sitting and waiting of the Messiah will not last forever.  This makes the phrase following “until” very important.

The phrase is until “I make your enemies your footstool.” (NKJV and ESV).  This almost sounds like Jesus does nothing and it is the Father who “makes” the enemies of Jesus his footstool.  However, there is more going on with this verb than can be seen in the translation.  I would point out that Revelation 19 does not picture Jesus setting still and the Father subduing his enemies.  Jesus clearly participates in this.  So, what about this phrase?

First, the verb is a continuous thing that is future to its writing.  It points to a time when God will be making the enemies of Christ to be under his feet.  Second of all, the verb can also mean to make in the sense of appointing or decreeing.  As we are going to see, there are ways that the enemies of Christ are already under his feet, and ways that they are not.  These can fit nicely with the sense that there is both a decreeing that happens and an enforcing of the decree.  Thus, there are ways in which this is “now, but not yet.”

There does develop a confusion over just when this “enforced” aspect of the kingdom would occur within the Church.  The early Church understood that they had spiritually joined the Kingdom of God, but that the enforcement of all things under Jesus, would not occur until he returned.  They saw themselves as warning others of a coming kingdom that they could spiritually join ahead of time by faith in Jesus.  It wasn’t until the A.D. 300’s that this began to change.  First of all, the emperor Constantine issued an edict of toleration in A.D. 313.  This gave to Christians the protection of the empire and shut down much of their persecution.  By the time we get to the 390’s, things have changed.  The emperor Theodosius was a Christian and was making paganism and its rituals a capital crime.  Historians often point to this vast change of the Roman empire as a separate kingdom (Byzantine Kingdom).  However, that is somewhat special pleading.

Over the next century, Bishop Augustine and others fueled a reinterpretation of the kingdom to fit with what they saw happening on the ground.  They still held to the believe that Jesus would come back, but now they understood the kingdom to have been handed over to the Church as Christ’s representative.  Jesus would rule over it spiritually from heaven instead of in person on earth.  The Church would march forth and bring all the enemies of Christ under the feet of Jesus in the name of the Father.  We are now at the end of 1600 years of the Church wrestling with how to make that happen. (Note: not all Christian groups adopted this modified view of the Kingdom, nor hold to it today, but it is widely prevalent). 

The patience of our Lord

Just as Christians have been called to be patient, we must see that Christ is being patient too.  We can be guilty of thinking of patience as something only we humans have to do.  God is not just choosing patience.  His nature is patient, where ours is not.  It is God’s patience with a lost world, with sinners, that we must emulate.  Similarly, the Messiah is put in a now, but not yet, situation that calls for patience.  Surely, after Jesus is resurrected, it would be the time to attack and take over the kingdom.  Yet, the Father says, “Sit at my right hand until…”  This is contra our human nature.

Let’s walk through several New Testament passages in order to get a handle on this and perhaps also unravel some of the confusion.

Ephesians 1:19-22 seems to be clear that everything is already under Christ’s feet in the 1^st Century A.D.  Verse 22 says that God “put all things under His feet…”  The Greek word used for “put” is a verb that often means “put” in the sense of appointing.  All things in heaven and on earth have been given a station that is under the feet of Christ.  Clearly not all things are choosing to submit to that “setting,” or appointing by God.

This all makes sense as early Christians were persecuted to the point of being fed to lions for Rome’s pleasure.  They were rejecting the rule of Christ.  Neither Rome nor the majority of the world came under it even in the sense of being forced into that position.  Yet, it is taught and believed in the first century that Jesus has a position that is above all powers and authority.

Now, let’s look at Hebrews 2:5-10.  This passage is a little long, but verse 5 obviously states that the time of subjection to Christ is in the “world to come.”  The Church Age had begun.  Christians were proclaiming this appointment by God the Father of His Son to the place of a cosmic Emperor.  This gave/gives room to people to choose allegiance or not without being forced.  Yet, the “until” would eventually come to an end.  Jesus would not stay in heaven forever.

In fact, verse 8 even recognizes that what is promised, and what we are seeing in this age, are at odds with each other.  “We do not see all things under his feet.”  This reminds us that part of the patience of our Lord begins with the incarnation, his suffering as a man, and now his patient waiting in heaven.  Our Savior Lord ahs not asked us to do anything that he isn’t doing himself.

So, verse 10 ends making the point that it is fitting for a suffering people to have a suffering savior.  No matter how hard you have it, it has always been hard for our Lord Jesus.  He is not absent, but is our fearless captain leading us through the suffering, the waiting, and into the joyful reward that lies on the others side.

Another passage that is important is 1 Corinthians 15:26. All of these passages have Jesus in the heavens waiting.  However, in 1 Corinthians 15:26, we are told that “the last enemy that will be destroyed is death.”  This is actually pictured in Revelation 20:14, “then death and hades were thrown into the Lake of Fire.”  It is not the Church’s job to put death and hades into the Lake of Fire, but that is the path that some have put themselves on.  Notice that at least the completion of the enemies being both appointed and made to be under the feet of Christ is after his second coming.

This brings us back to today.  If God grants repentance to a large number of our society, then our nation will see great political change.  However, there is a tension here.  We can be tempted to see favorable events as a sign from God to “force” the issue of the dominion of Christ.  God help us to become like Him, patient and yet quick to glorify God in what we do and speak, rather than trying to force the world into subjection to Christ.  That day is coming, but it is not this day.

Waiting King audio