Youth & Outreach Director, Hunter Newton, preached this message on September 2, 2025. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Audio Transcript
Reach out if you’d like to go visit too. The other thing too is I’m not Pastor Robert. And so he and Mary missed their connecting flight back from Montana. They should be getting back sometime today. I see I have a text from him in between services.
They originally supposed to fly out yesterday, and then it got moved to 5am this morning. Now they won’t fly out till this afternoon. Just crazy bad weather in Denver. But pray for them, things are going good. Otherwise they seem to be okay.
So I do not have a sermon on the Davidic Covenant ready for you, but I do have one from first Peter 5. So you can take the bulletin insert, you can cross out the Davidic Covenant. We’re going to be First Peter 5 this morning. We’ll be in First Peter 51 5. And that’s where we’re headed.
It’s on page 1078 of the Pew Bibles. You start making your way there, friends. Let me just kind of set the scene for us, though, and just say that seeing people who are like actually legitimately humble has kind of always baffled me. Maybe it’s not baffling to you, but that’s not my default setting. That is not what comes most naturally, most normal to me.
And so I think about a number of people, and there’s a number of people in this church. I wouldn’t say your name because I don’t want to embarrass you, but I think about one instance in particular. Some of you know that I did my seminary studies at Moody, and some of you know that I did those seminary studies online. And so I went to campus twice. Once for graduation rehearsal and once for graduation Rehearsal was on a Thursday, graduation was on a Saturday.
And so I went down on a Thursday. I did not drive down there. I grew up in a town with no stoplights, so I was not driving downtown Chicago. So I was hanging out in the commons after the rehearsal, kind of wondering what would it have been like to be an on campus student. And I saw Dr. Job kind of walk across.
As I’m sitting there waiting for my, like, waiting to take an Uber back to the train station, back to Milwaukee. I see Dr. Job walk across. He’s the president of the undergrad and the seminary at Moody. And Dr. Job’s a legitimate man. He’s a wonderful follower of Christ.
I don’t know him personally, but just the stories I’ve heard. He’s the real deal. And he’s walking across the campus. It’s a lot of concrete in downtown Chicago. He walks across and just stops taking, takes a knee and just picks up a piece of garbage.
That’s a pretty normal thing to do, hopefully for all of us. It’s one of the most normal things in the world. But he’s walking by himself, just stops, takes a knee, picks up a piece of garbage. He probably doesn’t think anybody’s watching him. And I’m only watching him because I’m bored.
And he stops, picks it up and he just keeps walking. And what’s humbling to me, what’s encouraging to me, is this guy, by a lot of worldly standards, Dr. Job is a pretty big deal. Like, not to give you a conflated image, but Moody is Moody’s reach in terms of publications and also radio ministry is exceeds far beyond the Midwest. It’s very much an international thing. It has been for several decades, probably close to a century now.
And so he’s this man who has tremendous influence. Like by worldly standards, he’s a big deal. Like a lot of people who are that high position, like, would have the quote unquote right. They would think it’s beneath them to stop and pick up garbage. But he doesn’t.
He walks, stops, picks it up and keeps walking as if it’s the most normal thing in the world. And really it was. But it struck me because it’s a simple, humble act of service. He doesn’t consider himself too big for it.
And it struck me. And that’s what we’re looking at this morning, humble service. And in particular, we’re going to look at how the church can serve Jesus humbly together. Like I said, 1st Peter 5:1:5 is our text this morning, our big idea. I normally like to have it for you on the slides or on the bulletin.
Sorry, I don’t have any. I don’t have any slides for you this morning. I don’t have a bulletin insert. But here’s our big idea. This is something to be applied.
So the whole sermon is really pretty much application. Our big idea. Serve Jesus humbly together. Serve Jesus humbly together. That’s our big idea.
If you’re walking out here with one thing this morning, it’s that. And this is something, like I said, to apply to our lives. The text gives us three really specific ways to apply this. The first we’ll see in verses one through four. It’s a charge given just to church elders.
That doesn’t mean that everyone can sit out, but it’s directly addressed to elders. Verses one through four. Peter writes there. He says, church elders, I’m summarizing because I think that’s the main point of verse 1 through 4. Church elders serve Jesus humbly by shepherding God’s flock among you.
And then there’s a charge given in verse five. In the first part of verse five, just to younger believers, he says, younger believers serve Jesus humbly by submitting to the elders. And the second part of verse five, all believers serve Jesus humbly by choosing to be humble. Big idea. Serve Jesus humbly together.
That’s what everything is going to be pointing towards. Drawing from this morning. We’re going to first Peter 5:1 through 5 this morning on page 1078 of your Pew Bibles. Let’s read God’s Word there together.
I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and witness to the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory about to be revealed. Shepherd God’s flock among you, not overseeing out of compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not out of greed for money, but eagerly, not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. In the same way you who are younger be subject, some translations say, will say, submit to the elders. All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another because God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
This is the word of the Lord, right? Big idea. Serve Jesus humbly together. Our first idea that we’re tackling first practical application the text gives us. Church elders serve Jesus humbly by shepherding God’s flock among you and me in verses 1 through 4.
For that, before we jump in, let me just give you two definitions to find two keywords we’re just going to be using. Some of you is going to feel like ad nauseam this morning. Biblical humility, as Proverbs 22:4 says, is the humility. Humility starts at the fear of the Lord. That’s what humility is.
Biblically speaking. It has to start by fearing God. And this isn’t like a Friday night haunted house. I’m scared out of my wits. No fear, biblically speaking, is being so consumed by, being enamored with, so captured with, so fearing God is the start of humility.
If we are captured by God’s goodness and everything about him. That is where biblical humility starts. Another definition from Colossians 3. This is again sort of a paraphrase. Colossians 3, especially 18 through 25, talk about do everything you do as if it’s for Jesus.
And so as we’re talking about it, we’re reminded there from God’s word that it’s essentially biblical services working for God’s plans above our own. So biblical humility, biblical service, you can kind of really see they go hand in hand. Make sense. Cool. So the first application, like I said, belongs to church elders.
Verses 1 through 4. Church elders serve Jesus humbly by shepherding God’s flock among you. It’s an incredibly important charge given to the under shepherds, given to the men that lead and love and serve God’s church. And how. And there’s some great tasks given to them, how they’re supposed to serve Jesus humbly.
And it can really be summarized as shepherd God’s flock before. Because there’s going to be two distinct charges given to pretty defined groups of people. There’s going to be the charge given to elders and then the charge given to younger believers. Please don’t just see this as a chance to just check out. Well, I’m not a church elder, so this really doesn’t apply to me.
Or don’t, don’t say, well, I’m not really a physically younger believer anymore. This doesn’t apply to me. Not only would that be rude just to stop listening, but these commands are things that we can learn from and hear and know in God’s word. Right. 2nd Timothy 3.
And it talks about that. All teaching. Right. It’s profitable. Is profitable.
Sorry, all scripture is profitable for teaching. Right. There’s things for. And I’ll draw them out for us to see and to know and apply this morning. So please don’t check out just because a certain passage isn’t directed especially to you.
We all need each other. We need to know how we function together. All right? So your church elders, let me just say this to you because they, they need. They need you to not only know who they are, but they need you to know what they’re supposed to do.
And, man, they will tell you they need you to pray for them. In case you don’t know or you need a reminder, our church elders are Robert Dennison, Matt Jesse, Tom Midtoon, Brad Rosma, and Matt Vanderkoy. And I would encourage you to, if you don’t already do this, pray for them regularly. Make that a part of your consistent weekly prayer time. Write their names down.
You can find me after service if you need those. Pray for them. But also God’s words tells us to hold them accountable. And there’s job descriptions given for them in first Peter 5. Here but also one Timothy 3 and Titus 1.
Everyone in the church needs to know the roles of their elders in addition to knowing them personally. Because as you can see here, they’re tasked with some incredibly important responsibilities that are called, let’s see here, they’re called to shepherd God’s flock, exercise oversight and be godly examples. To shepherd the flock of God. It’s helpful. Remember, Bible is first and mostly an ancient Near Eastern book.
It applies to us, but it’s written to a context and to a people. The shepherd is talking about to be among them, to care for them, to guide them. Think about a shepherd with his sheep. A shepherd lives among the sheep. A shepherd cares for the sheep.
Hey, don’t come here. Get out of that. Stop eating that. It’s not good for you. Let me tend to this wound.
Hey, you two can’t stop fight. Fighting, Separate. No. It’s a constant. Shepherding, caring for, guiding, protecting.
And then it says another part of the job description is exercise oversight. Make sure things are going how they’re supposed to be going. Hey, that wolf’s not supposed to be in the pen. Hey, this is not supposed to be how this is supposed to go. And practically speaking, there’s a lot of false doctrine that tries to creep into the church friends.
Rarely ever does false doctrine come from outside the church. It starts from within and it’ll be just a fraction of a degree off. We know that the Gospel can’t be a fraction of a degree off or we lose the whole thing. So to exercise oversight, know and guard the sound doctrine. And also it talks in here too.
Be an example. Be an example to the flock. Not doing this out of a sense of have to, but in a way that looks like Jesus. As under shepherds, church elders should serve in a way that reflects Christ’s heart for his sheep, that reflects who the good shepherd is and points them back to him.
The verse 2 starts off with the simple phrase, it doesn’t say shepherd. Matt’s flock. It doesn’t say shepherd. Tom’s flock doesn’t say shepherd. Robert’s flock.
It says shepherd. God’s flock. The elders who serve at Lake Wisconsin are under shepherds of the great Shepherd. There are no sheep without first the great shepherd.
The text offers some application for both church elders, but also. That’s explicit, but there’s some input, an implicit command to the rest of us. It’s also. We’ll get to that in a second. It’s also worth pointing out too here that the word elder, pastor, synonymous throughout the New Testament 1st Peter 5 Acts 20 the word elder, pastor, overseer, bishop are used fairly interchangeably.
I just want to offer that because I think it’s worth pointing out. If you want the longer explanation, you can find me after service. But all that to say they’re all used interchangeably. All pastors are elders. All elders are pastors.
Biblically speaking, the primary job of the men who humbly serve Jesus as local church elders or pastors, as we see here in the text, is to shepherd God’s people. The Greek word here, poimante, is used in the active sense. So it’s an ongoing constant needing to we raised sheep in the summer. I was going into seventh grade for the county fair, and let me tell you, they needed active tending, too. No less than a dozen times did the neighbors call, hey, your sheep are in our backyard again.
You can’t take your eye off of them. I don’t think it’s coincidence that we’re referred to so often as sheep. In the scriptures, the elders have a heavy task, a worthwhile task. In a given week, pastors or elders may be called on to put out quarrels amongst church members, encourage someone to repent of sin, visit someone in the hospital, meet with a new believer, pray with someone to trust in Jesus. And more often than probably, most of us realize they’re correcting doctrine.
Not as a killjoy, but right. We talk about we cannot lose a doctrine or we lose the faith. The task for pastors or elders is tall, but worth it.
Like I mentioned earlier, tucked in here is the explicit is another explicit command that’s for elders, but also it’s for us too. There’s an explicit and implicit kind of inverse of that command. If the elders are supposed to be good examples, well then the command right for everyone else is look to their example. Look to the example set forth by the elders. Notice I’m convinced that we have godly elders, godly men who lead our church.
We should then attempt to mimic how they follow Jesus. Watch how they treat those who wrong them. Watch how they love their spouse. See how they raise their children. Notice how much and how often they’re serving at church without even having to be asked.
That’s why so often the health, the spiritual health of a church goes with how the leadership is going. Not always, but a lot of times. That’s how it works. And verse four reminds the elders here of why they’re supposed to do this. All believers, we’re all doing this for Jesus.
But verse four talks about here. It’s a reminder to the Others, this is for him, the unfading crown of glory. Friends, what a picture that’ll be. That’s just a side note. A healthy, really devotional, a simple one you can do.
Find a place in the Scriptures. Revelation 20 is one of my favorite ones. Revelation 21:2. Just find a place in the Scriptures where heaven’s described and just think about it until it makes you happy. That’s a small glimpse of what’s being pictured here.
This is for Jesus. When the unfading crown of glory is given to you, when the chief shepherd appears, this is for Jesus. Press on. He’s saying elders because this is for Jesus.
It’s another way to remind them why they’re doing what they’re doing. And to the elders in the room, this charge from the text is for you. To the non elders in the room, emulate how you see these godly men living and serving the truer and greater shepherd. That’s how the text says elders should serve Jesus humbly. Next we’ll turn our attention to how younger believers serve Jesus humbly.
We turn our attention to the very start of verse five, right? It says there in the same way you who are younger, be subject to the elders. This is kind of a tricky hermeneutic to figure out. Is this talking about spiritually younger believers? Is this talking about physically younger?
Is this another way of saying Everybody? I think Dr. Tom Schreiner here, one of the best New Testament scholars in the world, he’s tremendously helpful in a number of ways. But he says here the designation younger is a suitable formal counterpart to elders. A decision is difficult, but we probably should understand Peter to refer to those who are literally younger, perhaps because younger people would be more apt to act rebelliously, I’m sure. Parents, that’s not relatable for you.
This view is suggested by the address to all. And he cites the Greek word pontes that follows the younger introduced by. And so we’ve seen a distinct charge given to elders. And now Peter turns his attention to a distinct address to younger believers. Like physically younger.
What does that mean? Like who? Where the parameters? Is it age 0 to 18? Well, I think it kind of depends on the context.
But it’s clear here that the physically younger believers are the ones who are being addressed here. And are they the only ones who are called to submit to the church’s leadership? No, of course not. Hebrews 13:7 makes that clear. It says, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.
Yet this is a distinct, this is a distinct address given to younger believers in the same way there’s a distinct address given to church elders. It’s a specific people here.
What does a submission look like then? Throughout the Scriptures, submission is one of the most humble things that a believer can take up, isn’t it? And it’s worth noting too that throughout church history, unfortunately there have been plenty of church leaders that have abused this, that have used it to abuse, that have used it to coerced, that have used it for mal intent, that have used it for a number of twisted reasons. Friends, that is not what biblical submission is.
Submission is referenced in the scriptures in relation to husbands and wives, church leaders and even government authorities. And let me just some standard traits of this act, friends. Biblical submission has to be voluntary. True biblical submission is never, has never someone who is in the position of authority lording it over like it’s talked about here in the text. It’s never somebody in position of authority lording it over those who underneath them.
That’s not biblical submission. It has to be voluntary otherwise there’d be coercion. It’s also putting the wisdom and desires of someone else above our own. Some real practical examples if a husband and wife reach an impasse and they can’t come up with a decision together, biblical submission looks like the wife saying I will trust you and go with my husband. I will trust you and go with my husband’s leading.
Biblical submission looks like if we are, if church members are at odds with church leadership saying even though we disagree, I’m going to go with your leading. It’s a practical thing. That does not mean it’s an easy thing. But those are some standard characteristics of it. And it always, always looks like doing this in order to serve God more.
And friends, for reasons we don’t always know, God asked this of us. And I’m not naive. I know that there’s, as soon as I say the word submission, there’s necks that bristle in the room and faces that scrunch up, think, why are you. This really is a cultural thing. We don’t have any evidence that it was a cultural thing.
Not only the repetition of it, but also elsewhere. It’s tied to Christ and his church. It’s also tied to the creation order. We know that it’s a universal thing, but there’s still people in the room. Like I thought, that’s antiquated.
That feels barbaric, archaic. God, are you. No, he’s not asking that of me.
And I’ll be honest, friends, this is not always easy for me. I’m guessing it’s not easy for you either. It used to be a lot harder, though. I mean, the Holy Spirit has convicted and grown me in a lot of ways. But in particular, he used a section from Tim Keller’s book titled the Prodigal God.
And there is not even necessarily directly addressing submission, but just the broader theme, broader idea of it, broader idea of a lot of things there. He’s talking to a woman who’s really wrestling with this concept of free, unmerited grace, he writes there. I asked her what was so scary about unmerited free grace. She replied, something like this. If I was saved by my good works, then there would be a limit to what God could ask of me or put me through.
I’d be like a taxpayer with rights. I would have done my duty, and now I would serve a certain. Or now I would deserve a certain quality of life.
This is probably the sentence is gold. But if it really is true that I am a sinner saved by sheer grace at God’s infinite cost, there’s nothing he cannot ask of me.
That point runs true for more than just younger believers, doesn’t it? Since we are saved by sheer grace, there’s nothing that God cannot ask of us.
There are going to be commands in God’s word that we, for just being honest, we don’t like. I’ll be candid with you. There’s parts of the Bible that I don’t like. But whose ways are better, his or mine? Who knows how humans flourish, him or me?
We have to ask ourselves a fundamental question. When we run up against something in the Bible that we necessarily don’t like, don’t understand, or don’t want to submit to. Does God primarily exist to serve me, or do I exist to serve God?
The woman from Tim Keller’s book understood that God can and will ask anything of us.
Younger believers serve Jesus humbly by submitting to the elders. All believers, though, should serve Jesus humbly by choosing to be humble, remember? So let’s remember our big idea. Serve Jesus humbly. Together, we’ve seen two ways practically to do that.
This one is so those first two are two distinct groups of people. This last one is for everyone. So at least you have one application. At the most, you have probably two.
This theme of humility runs throughout the scriptures. Around 70 or so times, the characteristic of humility is either described or commanded. And maybe you’ve heard this phrasing before too. If something’s in God’s word. One time.
Incredibly, incredibly important. God let it be in his Bible. If it’s in there. Two times, hey, don’t miss this. Three times, so on and so forth, 70 times, it’s like, hey, don’t miss this.
I want to get your attention. This is for you. This is a command. This is who I am. This is what I’m like.
You’ve heard Pastor Robert say before, too. If you’re raising kids, you don’t have to tell. You have to tell them more than once. They need to brush their teeth. We need to the command to be humble because apparently it’s against our natural intuition.
Maybe you’re holier than me, but, man, I have plenty of days where it feels like everyone but me is an idiot. Maybe that’s not relatable for you. I don’t know. But the command to be humble is in there to buck what our natural desires, our inclinations are like with what we’re actually supposed to do, who God actually is.
Humility is not my default setting. I’m guessing it’s not yours either. We need to be reminded to choose humility. Not only is it good for our relationship with God and one other, but it’s good for our witness to the world. Remember here it’s Peter writing, he sat at the foot of Jesus, walked with him, talked with him, ate with him for three years.
You’d have to imagine as he’s writing, as he’s being led by the Spirit to write the Scriptures. He had several ideas of things that Jesus taught him. Ways Jesus lived. Because this to me sounds like when it says, do this for and toward one another. It sounds a lot like the Command from John 13, 34 and 35, where Jesus says, I give you a new command.
Love one another just as I have loved you, you also love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples. If you love one another.
What a testament. We could be friends to the world around us. Like, by the way we love one another, way we humbly serve one another, the way that we are humble towards each other. Think about the Witness Lake, Wisconsin church could have to the rest of Columbia county. If we loved each other, if we were humble towards each other in a way that didn’t make sense.
If on Sunday mornings, if we were a place where people from different ethnic groups, people from different political parties, people from different socioeconomic statuses gathered together and we were humble and cared for and even acted like we liked each other, like that would look strange to the outsider looking in being humble towards each other?
I’d venture to say it wouldn’t make sense to them.
Not only that, but think about how much more ministry we could get done. Not saying anyone here has an ego, but man, if you’ve worked with people long enough, you know that feelings, you know that emotions, you know that stuff gets in the way. How much more ministry could we get done if we weren’t focused on doing the little things, but instead of, you know, submitting, being humble, caring for one another. What would it look like if we were really quick to say I’m sorry? What would it look like if we were quick to approach a situation with curiosity instead of immediate scrutiny?
A lot of ministry gets impeded by someone saying or doing the wrong thing. Let’s choose to clothe ourselves with humility toward one another. And the Scriptures here brings us to another really, really prominent idea. It says, clothe yourselves with humility. It’s a conscious choice.
Nobody wakes up in the morning just naturally humble. You have to choose to choose to be humble. Ask God’s spirit to help you do that. I’m not saying it’s gonna be easy. Cause it’s certainly not.
But wake up in the morning and choose that. And cognitively say out loud if you have to, I’m going to be humble. I’m going to be humble today. I’m going to humbly serve. I’m going to do this.
I’m going to choose to serve God in this way. It’s as cognitive of a decision as it is that you chose whatever outfit you have on this morning.
And some of you are still asking, wondering, okay, why? What’s the big deal? Doesn’t God know what he’s asking of me? Doesn’t he know what somebody did to me in 1984? I’m still holding onto that grudge.
And that’s of course ridiculous, but it still happens. Or maybe somebody said a discouraging word to you last week. What would it look like if we humbly chose to forgive? We’re asking ourselves, doesn’t God know what he’s asking of me? Of course he does.
You know how I know that? Because he went through it himself. The only one who’s ever accomplished anything of actual significance. Where he accomplished our salvation for us. He humbled himself.
Philippians 2 describes it far better than I ever could. In Philippians 2, 5, 8, Paul writes, adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. And you can read that maybe as another way of thinking taken advantage of. Instead, he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even to death on a cross.
Why should we serve Jesus humbly, friends? Because he led the way in humbly serving us.
Serve Jesus in a way that emulates Jesus.
That’s our big idea this morning. Serve Jesus humbly together. That’s the big idea. That’s the big takeaway. Three Practical Points of Application Church elders serve Jesus humbly by shepherding God’s flock.
Among them, younger believers serve Jesus humbly by submitting to the elders. And remember this one is at the very least, you have at least one. All believers serve Jesus humbly by choosing to be humble.
Our temptation can tend to be after hearing a sermon or doing a Bible study as okay, I gotta work on seven things, which we probably have way more than seven. At least six or seven. Maybe more, maybe less. Pick one. Work on one.
Ask God’s spirit. Ask other believers to help you. Pick one and then keep working down the list.
Don’t take 10 and get discouraged right away. Pick one or two and then keep working through that list. That’s just some practical advice.
Consider, though, what that might be for you. This week we’ve given you at least three practical points of application.
Ask yourselves the question what would my life, what would my ministry look like if I sought to be humble for the sake of not only knowing God better, but serving him better? Not only at home, but with people at church too? As we get ready for the final song, encourage you. You can remain seated. You are welcome to stand.
Take the time to do business with God. God, how would I respond? How do I need to respond this morning?
If you feel like he’s calling you to repent of something, please do that. Maybe there’s someone sitting a pew or two over that you haven’t been humble towards. Maybe he’s calling you to get ready to say sorry. Get ready to apologize. Ask God’s spirit to help you with that.
Maybe he’s calling you to deeper worship of Him. Please do that. We want to make space for though. As the worship team plays, the last song is simple, just with empty hands say God, how do I need to respond to what I’ve heard from your word proclaimed? Think of this as your space to consider how we can serve Jesus humbly together.
I’m going to pray and we’ll give you the chance to do just that. God, we love you and we thank you for this morning and the God that you are, you’re the God of second chances, you’re the God of a billion chances because we know that your word says we’re sin abound, grace abound all the more and so we delight in that. But we confess to you that we often self included are not the most humble people and that gets in the way of ministry, that gets in the way of relationships. And so what would that look like God? What would that look like if we chose to serve Jesus humbly and if we did that together as a church body?
We pray that we would do that and receive your grace because your word says that you resist the proud but give grace to the humble. Humble us where we need to be humbled. Encourage us where we need to be encouraged. We trust you to do what you need to do. It’s in Jesus name we pray.
Amen.