Look for Love of God

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Will you turn over in your Bibles with me to John chapter 21? John chapter 21, we continue to take our break from the book of Joshua as we look forward to, as Jim mentioned earlier this morning, we're looking forward to having an elder election. And so the session decided to have a series through what does it look like as we choose a new elder to rule among us? So John chapter 21, and we'll be looking this morning at verses 15 through John, chapter 21, verses 15 through 19. If you're using your Pew Bibles, you can find that on page 963. Brothers and sisters, this is the Word of the Lord. Let's pay careful attention to it.

So, when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, feed my lambs. He said to him a second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, tend my sheep. He said to him a third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he had said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you.

Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and another will gird you and carry you. where you do not wish. This he spoke signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said to him, follow me.

Prayer for Illumination

Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. And father, we pray now that your Holy Spirit might not let these words be dead on a page, but that they might be living and active, sharper than any two edged sword. We pray that you would do heart surgery this morning. that you would let us know your love and follow in your ways. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Sermon

I have a friend from my seminary days. His name is Ricky. He's a big black dude from Alabama. And when he's got a big long sermon he has to preach and not much time, he says, I have a lot of fish to fry and not much time to cook it. He's from Mississippi. And he says, all right, let's get moving. Well, we got a lot of fish to fry, not a lot of time to fry them, so let's go ahead and get moving.

First Point

First, elders are shepherds. Caring, gentle, loving shepherds.

I remember when I was sitting with a ruling elder one time, he was telling me about this in a different denomination. situation that was going on in the session, and the elders were talking back and forth, and one of the elders said, you know, if we tell everybody in the congregation they all need to sell their cars and get white cars, they should follow us. And the elder I was talking to said, no, you don't have that type of authority, hold on, you don't lord it over the people, you have biblical authority, delegated authority, and that's not the authority God has given you. See, there's a type of power-hungry person that you could Oh, the church could be in big trouble if they're elected as elders. And here, Jesus is getting at the heart of what an elder must be and do. And so, we're looking at, when we look for an elder, we need to look for a man who loves Jesus. Look for a man who loves God, loves Jesus.

Remember, the preceding chapters of this story, Jesus has already prophesied and told Simon that Peter, he's going to betray him. Before the rooster crows, he's going to betray him three times. I love how one of the gospels says that after the rooster crows, Peter remembers what Jesus said in the text says, and the Lord looked at him. Could you imagine the heartache and the shame that Peter must have felt? And here at the resurrection, Jesus is sitting down for a meal with them. And three times he asks him, Verse 15, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? Then in verse 16, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? Then verse 17, he said to him the third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? What does he mean when he says, do you love me more than these?

Remember, it was Peter who's seen as like the spokesman of the twelve. You said that even if everybody else was to desert you, you would go to war for me. You were ready to pick up your sword and fight for me. And yet, when push came to shove, when a little servant girl came and said, you're one of his followers, aren't you? You were ashamed of a little girl.

You really love me more than these? What is Jesus getting at? Peter, you're one of the apostles. You're one of the ones that I'm sending out to the nations. Do you actually love me? And he gives them three opportunities to repent of each time that he had forsaken his Lord. I love you. You know that I love you. You know that I love you. You know that I love you. When you think about electing an elder in the congregation, do you know that they love Jesus? If they don't meet that first qualification, do not vote for them as an elder. Do they love Jesus? But notice what Jesus commands him. Each time after he says, you know that I love you, what does Jesus command him? In verse 15, feed my lambs. Verse 16, tend my sheep. Verse 18, or verse 17, feed my sheep. Y'all are Jesus' sheep. The sheep of His pasture.

I am begging you, when we had VVS, one time there was a little kid who said something about, you know, oh, this is your church, and I said, no, no, no, no, no, this is not my church, this is Jesus' church. He said, yeah, but you're like the pastor, you own this place, right? And I said, no, no, no, no, no. If there was a name on the deed of the building, it would be Jesus. If there was a name on the deed of your heart, it's Jesus. It's Christ. You are Christ's people. No elder is the one who, yes, we must give account for how we shepherd your souls, but the elders keep watch over you, but it is Jesus who loves you as the great shepherd.

Just turn back a few pages with me to John chapter 10. John chapter 10 verses 1 through 18. John chapter 10 verses 1 through 18. We're going to move through this really quickly, but I think it's important for us to actually hear what Jesus speaks about himself as the good shepherd. John chapter 10 beginning at verse 1.

Most assuredly I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber, but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens. And the sheep hear His voice.

You know what it's like sometimes, don't you? When an elder will say something, or when some quack teacher will say something, and you realize, that's not the voice of my Savior. I don't know what's wrong, but I'm not going near that dude because something's wrong. That's not the voice of Jesus. That's the voice of some dude. My sheep. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name. An elder must be one who knows you intimately well enough to pray for you by name. So, when you're looking for an elder, is this somebody who actually knows you? Who takes interest in you? Who could call you by name?

And he leads them out. Notice, it is the shepherd who is leading his people out, his sheep out. Denis Proutot used to tell the seminary students, he said, men, there's a reason why God called you to be shepherds and not cowboys. Cowboys go behind the herd and they push the herd in front of them. You men are shepherds. You must lead in front. of the flock.

You must go where you think that there is danger and make sure that it's safe for your people. You must go and lead, not be those who drive. Jesus leads his people out, verse 4, and when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers."

You know, I never used to understand this until we moved to Iowa. And when we first moved here, we went to Curtis Orr's house, just a couple of miles down the dirt road here. And as we went to his house, he has this big shed or machine shop on top of the hill by their house.

And he looked at me and he smiled and he said, bring your kids over. You want to see something fun? And I thought, oh boy, he must know me pretty well. And so he, we all gather around him, and he, across the valley, there's a field, there's a pasture, and there was all these sheep in the pasture. And he just goes one time, eeeh sheep! And all the sheep at one time, their ears perk up, their heads, all with one motion turn, and the whole herd, all of a sudden, the whole flock, goes down the hill, because they heard the shepherd's voice. And then we were at the school ball's house a couple months later, and they had little sheep, and I thought, oh, it'd be fun to go play with the sheep, and they won't come anywhere near me.

Why? I'm not their shepherd. You all follow Jesus' voice. As well as an under-shepherd, an elder is leading in the voice of Christ. Follow. So when you think about the man you would like to lead you, is he the one who's telling you the words of Christ? Is he the man that you would follow?

Jesus used this illustration, but they didn't understand the things which he spoke to them. That's what verse six says. So Jesus said to them again, most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep and whoever came before me are thieves and robbers. But the sheep did not hear them. He's talking about those Sadducees and those Pharisees. And he's saying that they were liars and thieves.

I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved. and will go in and out and find pasture. When you hear the voice of Christ, when you follow Christ, you will be saved. You will find peace for your soul. You will be brought into the green pastures beside the cool waters. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. I love that one of the vows that teaching elders have to take in our denomination is that I had to promise before I was allowed to be ordained as one of your elders. that I wasn't doing it for any known gain.

That there wasn't somehow this idea that, oh, I could be someone of prominence, or I could be, I could just line my pockets and, you know, well, I say it at coffee all the time, I don't work today, I only work one day a week. It's true, you know, I only work one day a week. No, it's not true.

But the point is that there's a reality that some men will go to our seminary, And this is one of the jobs of our seminary professors. This is why I love that every single seminary professor has been a pastor or is a pastor. Because they'll just outright tell a guy, I don't think you're called to be a pastor and I'm not going to recommend you to your presbytery. I think you're just out for this for your own prestige and honor, not because you love the people.

The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. But Jesus comes to bring life and to give it abundantly. And then he says in verse 11, I am the good shepherd. Jesus shows what he means by that when he says the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. Jesus loved you so much. He laid down his own life for you. That's a good shepherd. One that when the ravenous wolves would come and try to attack would stand between you and the flesh-mongering teeth. Wet and wanting blood, Jesus stood there in the gap.

This is why. This is why Acts chapter 20 verse 28 says that God purchased the flock at the cost of His own blood. So what does this have to do with elders then? On Titus chapter 1 verse 7, one of the qualifications for an elder is that he must be a steward of God. Do you see? An elder is nothing but one who must manage God's own house. This isn't Brian's church. It's not Jim's church. It's not John's church. This is God's church.

An elder is one who is managing Jesus' church, caring for Jesus' people, watching out for Jesus' people. This is why the qualifications in 1 Timothy 3, when it says an elder must be temperate or sober-minded, self-controlled, gentle and not quarrelsome. It's because a good shepherd is one who thinks about his people, cares for his people, loves his people. See, the qualifications, often we want to look at the qualifications of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 and look at them like a checklist. But if we don't see them, that they're mirroring Jesus Christ and what it means to be a good shepherd, we miss the point.

So what is Peter commanded to do by Jesus? To feed and to lead. To feed and to lead. Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? Lord, you know that I love you. Feed my sheep. Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? You know all things. You know that I love you. Lead my flock. Do you love me? You know that I love you. Feed my sheep.

Feed and lead is the command that God gives to Peter. What is he to feed them, though? If Jesus is about to go to heaven, which is going to happen, just flip over one page, and we're in Acts chapter 1, and Jesus is leaving, and Peter is left there, what is Peter to feed them? A healthy diet of God's Word. This is exactly what Titus chapter 1 verse 9 says, that an elder must be holding fast to the faithful words. You must look for an elder who is going to give you the words of Christ. Who will be able to say like Paul, my hands are clean from blood for I have proclaimed to you the whole counsel of God. Even the hard parts. Even the parts that our culture doesn't like. Even the parts he might not like himself.

This is why 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 2 says that one of the qualifications for an elder is that he must be able to teach. Now, please don't get in your mind that there's only one way to teach. There are many ways that elders can teach. Yes, they need to be able to actually speak words, but there are many who teach. Not standing in front of a group, but will sit down with a few kids at a time and will talk to them about their lives. Who will get together with guys and will admonish them one-on-one when nobody else is around because they're teaching them individually. But they must be able to teach. Why? Because they hold firm to the promises of God, and they're willing to feed God's people God's Word. Okay, so to feed them a healthy diet of the Lord's Word, what else are they supposed to do? They're supposed to leave. But where? Look with me again at John chapter 21, verse 19. John chapter 21, verse 19, when Jesus is finishing this conversation with Peter, then he spoke this signifying by what death he would glorify God.

And when he had spoken this, he said to him, follow me. I can't help but imagining Jesus's words from three years ago ringing in Peter's ears when he found him by the of Galilee and he said, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. And Mark says, he and his brother immediately dropped their nets and followed him. Jesus is saying, you're not done yet, Peter.

Keep following me. Keep following me in the path of holiness. Keep following me in the proclaiming of the kingdom of heaven. Keep following me in the way of sanctification. Keep following me And all the teaching that Jesus had given them, and all the example he had provided for them, he's saying, follow me. And that's where you can lead them. Where Jesus walked, that's where they're to walk. Where Jesus taught, that's where they're to teach. They're to bring the people to Christ. The elders are to imitate Christ. They're to feed, and they're to lead.

Now, some of you are more astute than others. Some of you have had an objection in your mind for a while and went, does this really apply to elders? We're talking about Peter and he's an apostle. Is that really, like, how does that translate from apostles to elders?

Well, I want you to hear from Peter himself. 1 Peter chapter 5. 1 Peter chapter 5. You'll want to turn there with me. 1 Peter chapter 5. Right after the book of Hebrews. If you get to Revelation, John's epistle, you're too far. First Peter chapter five. And these are Peter's own words.

The elders who are among you, I exhort, for I am a what? What does the text say? For I am a fellow elder. And a witness of the suffering of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed. You see, Peter calls himself a fellow elder. There are elders, there are overseers in the church, and Peter is just one of them. Get this idea out of your mind that we have from all these horrible church government structures that act like the apostles were way up here, and then there were bishops, and then there were cardinals, and all these hierarchies and stuff like that. No, what does Peter say? I'm a fellow elder. I'm an overseer. He puts himself in the same camp as John Smith, and he elevates Jim Pilling to the same place. Fellow elder. So yes, this absolutely does apply to fellow elders. So what should the fellow elders do?

What does Peter say? How does Peter understand Jesus's words? This is where we're going to finish our time this morning. Let's look real quick at what does Peter say? Well, it's remarkably similar to what Jesus taught. Verse 2. Shepherd the flock of God which is among you.

Another idea that we must get out of our mind is that an elder is just somehow, like the session is just a business meeting. Like it's just a board of corporators or something like that, just making decisions. No. Each elder is a shepherd, not a member of a business board. Evangelicalism, I'm telling you, is filled, is absolutely filled with all this garbage of treating the church like a business, but the church is not a business. You are the people of the living God, his blood-bought sheep, and you deserve far better care than just being taken over by an administrative business board. Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers."

Now, notice here the word overseers. Again, I'm going to just go a little bit and talk about the word overseers there. If we were to go to the Greek, and I'll show this at Chalk and Talk, is the word episkopos. Maybe you've learned of someone who is an episcopalian. They think that we should have bishops. Maybe even some of your translations might say a bishop. serving as a bishop. This is just somebody who's watching over somebody else's stuff, guarding somebody else's possessions. So, an elder is a bishop.

This is why we don't use a whole bunch of different words. The word that we keep using, elder, here, is where we get our word, Presbyterian, from Presbyteros. They're the same word, different functions, same thing. An overseer and an elder watching over, caring for the flock of God. Not by compulsion, but willingly.

Did Jesus have to twist Peter's arm? What was Peter's motivation for being an elder? Was it because he was just so prideful that he thought, oh, I can do this. I'm the most qualified person in the world to ever lead all of God's church. Does that sound like what's going on in John chapter 21? No, Peter is humbled, brought low. And Jesus asks him, do you love me?

An elder, the man we are looking for, must be one who loves God and out of his love for Christ is willing to serve God's people. Not under compulsion, not trying to twist his arm behind his back, but because their motivation is they love God, they might feel unqualified for it, they might feel uneasy about it, but they love God and they love His people, so they say, okay, I'll do it. Not for dishonest gain, but eagerly. Not for their own honor, not for their own glory, not for their own wealth, but out of their love for God. Nor as This gets to what we already talked about, verse three, nor as being lords over those entrusted to you. Look for a humble man. Look for a man who's gentle and lowly like Christ. Not someone who's lords it over you, but one who will shepherd you.

But being examples. To the flock. That's why we have all the other qualifications, and we're going to get to those next week. But the other qualifications are meant to be examples to the rest of the flock. Here's what a love for Jesus looks like. And here's what a love for others looks like in their lives. Yes, it's going to be imperfect and lacking in some areas. Because like we talked about last week, if you're looking for the absolute perfect elder, you're looking for Jesus. You're looking for the good shepherd. Look for the one who loves Jesus and is following after his ways. Is he actually following Jesus? Can you say, I know he's following Jesus. Yes, it might be imperfectly, but I can follow after that man because he's following Christ.

And then verse four, there is a hope. And this is where I want to leave us this morning. And when the chief shepherd appears, You will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. And I just talk to the men in the congregation, and even the young boys in the congregation who might someday be elders in the church. There is a blessing that comes with being one of the overseers of God's people. It is heart-wrenching work. It is tiresome work. There are tears that are shed, hours that are spent, days of frustration, seasons of grief. But there is great joy.

There is great joy when you see a family walking in the way of the Lord. There is great reward when you see people opening up their Bibles and loving God. There is great joy when you hear of people rejoicing because their children love the Lord. There is great joy to be had even when you go to the house of mourning. When a family is able to give that testimony that I know my loved one walked with Christ. It's a good thing to desire to be an overseer. If one of you desires the office of an elder, it's a good thing. If it's because you love God, and it's because you love Jesus, and you love His people.

There's a crown of glory. One of these rewards in heaven laid out for the elders. Not so they can boast, but what does it say in Revelation they do with those crowns? They put them at the feet of Christ. When Peter stood before his risen Lord, when he saw Jesus again face-to-face in heaven, what do you think Peter did with his crown of glory? When he saw the Lamb sitting upon the throne who was slain before the foundation of the world, he took off his crown.

Closing Prayer

He said, you know that I love you. I gave your people you. I pointed them to you. I followed you. Look for elders who love Jesus. Look for elders who are following after Jesus. Look for elders who will point you to Christ. Let's pray. Father, we pray, thanking you that you are our great shepherd, that you will never leave us nor forsake us, but you always keep us. Lord, you always guide us to living water. And you always bid us to come when we are. Lord, when we are tired and weary. You're the one who gives us rest for our souls. Lord, we pray that you would raise up Christ loving elders in this congregation and throughout your church all around the globe. Thank you for our Good Shepherd. It's in His name we pray.

Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa 52640. May God richly bless you this week.