Shepherds For Hard Times: 1 Peter 5:1-4

I was considering the text for this message, 1 Peter 5:1-4 and thinking how can I illustrate it? I was taken back to July 1975. I was doing some summer classes and about to enter my senior year at Pacific Christian College.

I was looking for a way to be involved in ministry while I finished my degree. A professor suggested I meet with a pastor by the name of Herb Read from Lawndale, Calif.

I met Herb for lunch at a sandwich shop on campus. We talked about me coming to work with him in the area of youth and some administration for the church program at Lawndale Christian Church.

I took that ministry part time in August of 1975, and came on full time in June of 1976 when I finished my degree.

Herb was 55 years old at the time I met him. His background was originally in sales. He was the manager for Hoover vacuum sales for the state of New York and was successful. Then he went to work for the American Bible Society and ended up in Long Beach where he volunteered to lead a College-career Ministry for a large church. The group he led became so large they hired him full time to lead it.

Next, the Lawndale church needed a Senior Minister, today we would call that position Lead Pastor, but this was the 1970’s. They hired Herb.

Herb wasn’t too wrapped up in preaching and leading. Those things were afterthoughts for him. He was all about personal pastoral ministry to people. Herb was a classic shepherd.

He and I had an understanding I would always have a sermon ready to go on Sunday morning if he had to go to the hospital, or if someone had a personal crisis, he would take care of the person and I would just preach if he didn’t show.

Herb was the classic shepherd for hard times. We need preachers, evangelists and leaders, but we will always need shepherds for hard times. That was Herb.

1 Peter 5:1A starts with these words in the NIV translation, “To the elders among you.” (NIV) One word is left untranslated in that translation. The word for “then” or “therefore” is in the text. That refers back to the last verse of the previous chapter, 1 Peter 4:19, “So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful creator and continue to do good.”

Peter is writing to God’s people who were under persecution and in the midst of hard times. 1 Peter 5:1-4 gives us 4 essentials for shepherds in hard times.

1 Peter 5:1, “To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ’s suffering and one also who will share in the glory to be revealed.” (NIV)

First, we need elders in hard times.

The word translated elder is the Greek word PRESBYTEROS. It has been translated by various words and is the word Presbyterian is derived from. It means an older man.

Notice Peter calls himself a fellow elder, or a fellow older man. It’s not so much about age, as it is about maturity in Christ. Peter had witnessed Christ suffering and him raised from the dead. Peter knew Jesus and was mature in the knowledge of Jesus.

No one today will see Jesus like Peter did, but we need people who know Jesus and walk with Him and have made Him the focus of their life for years, even decades.

An elder is a mature man. More than 50 years ago when I was starting in ministry no one ever considered whether a woman could be an elder as it was a male in the Bible and the churches I served in were conservative Biblically.

Today, some are asserting women should be elders. The Scripture applies minister or servant to woman, but not elder. Certainly, woman can serve and minister, but elders are mature men Biblically.

Churches need multiple men who are older in the faith to take care of and lead those younger in the faith. Churches need elders.

1 Peter 5:2A, “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care,” (NIV)

We need shepherds in hard times.

This statement is a command to shepherd God’s people, to shepherd God’s flock. I served in churches that were mainly elder focused in terms of governance.

What happens is elders end up as guys in a meeting talking business and policy. Guess what that’s not! That’s not shepherding!

The apostle Peter isn’t suggesting under the power and authority of God in Scripture elders shepherd the flock, he’s commanding that.

I think back to Herb and what he did. If someone was in a marriage crisis, Herb was in the middle of it trying to bring healing. If someone had a loss of a loved one. Herb was there. He was shepherding the sheep.

I remember going to a hospital to be with a young lady whose husband had sustained a horrible head injury in a motorcycle accident. Her husband was critical and we were waiting for Herb to show up.

I pulled a nurse aside and asked how he was doing. She said, “he just expired.” That’s hospital speak for, “he died.” I sat with the lady and waited for the doctor.

He came out and sat in a chair and took her hand in his and explained that they had done all they could for the man but he had died. I thought the doctor handled it well.

She began to scream and fell on the floor and started rolling around screaming “oh, no!.” She stood and I tried to get her to sit and pray with me. Now she was jumping around and screaming, swinging her arms in the air. I was wondering, “what am I going to do?” I was thinking about asking the doctor to sedate her.

Then Herb walked in! He calmly came up to her, held her in his arms, crying with her as she sobbed. Before long he was praying with her and had her sitting down. It took an hour or so, but eventually she was able to go home and get herself together.

What happened? The shepherd showed up and cared for a sheep under his care. We need shepherds in hard times!

1 Peter 5:2B, “serving as overseers— not because you must, but because yo are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve.” (NIV)

We need overseers in hard times.

The overseer is one who sees over and cares for others and does so as service to others.

The overseer isn’t to be motivated because he must do it, but he’s motived about caring for others as God wants him to care for others.

It becomes obvious an overseer could be compensated for his work, but he can’t be greedy for money. It needs to be the kind of thing he would do for nothing, just because he wants to care for God’s people.

Notice the overseer is eager to serve for the purpose of caring for the needs of the people of God.

Notice what 1 Peter 4:3A says, “Not lording it over those entrusted to you.” (NIV)

I have known elders who considered themselves “ruling” elders. They saw themselves as people exercising their rule and authority over God’s people.

Overseers aren’t the “boss man,” but are the servant/shepherd!

In Genesis 48:15B Israel blessed his son, Joseph, and said, “May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,” (NIV)

God was his shepherd, which is a function of oversight! God has all the authority that exists and didn’t lord it over Israel, but was his shepherd and overseer to care for him through a long life of hard times.

We need mature men who will pick up that function today.

1 Peter 5:3B, “but being examples to the flock.” (NIV)

What’s an example? A person the pattern of whose life you can follow. Elders, shepherds, overseers must be examples who set a pattern we can follow.

I saw and experienced a man who walked with God, and he became a pattern for me to follow. My grandpa Bishop. He walked with God and the pattern of his life has changed me for all of my life. He died when I was 12, but I’ve never been able to escape the example he set for me to follow.

Churches need shepherds whose example they can follow in the hard times we live in.

Churches need grown up men who are shepherds, overseers and examples to follow in these hard times we live in.

Peter closes this section with 1 Peter 5:4, “And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.” (NIV)

Any shepherd today is an “under shepherd” under the chief shepherd. Jesus is the chief shepherd and when he appears the elder, shepherd, overseer and example will receive the crown of glory from him and that crown of glory will never fade.

Jesus is the chief Shepherd. When He returns all the “under shepherds” get that unfading crown from him.

Herb Read got his crown in 2013 when, at the age of 93 he went to be with Jesus. We need a lot more shepherds like Herb for the hard times we face.