WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:16.800 Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. It is wonderful 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:20.760 that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, either 00:00:20.760 --> 00:00:24.920 by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray 00:00:24.920 --> 00:00:31.520 for us that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself? 00:00:32.079 --> 00:00:37.939 The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, we really, 00:00:38.179 --> 00:00:42.579 I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the Bible, 00:00:43.240 --> 00:00:48.760 they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will 00:00:48.760 --> 00:00:54.560 do what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a 00:00:54.560 --> 00:00:59.340 non-Christian checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't 00:00:59.340 --> 00:01:04.680 hesitate to send us questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the 00:01:04.680 --> 00:01:07.780 types of things that you're really struggling with. So God bless. 00:01:12.300 --> 00:01:13.599 Bow your heads in prayer. 00:01:16.359 --> 00:01:21.500 Father, there's a child crying. We ask that you comfort that child. Father, thank you for the gift 00:01:21.500 --> 00:01:29.819 of children in our church. And Father, we come before your Word. And Father, it's easy for us to 00:01:29.819 --> 00:01:34.219 look at a part of your Word and think, oh, it doesn't have anything to do with me speaking about 00:01:34.219 --> 00:01:39.519 other people. And it's easy for us, Father, to dismiss your Word. And so Father, we ask that you 00:01:39.519 --> 00:01:46.620 help us to hear your Word deeply this morning and see how it speaks to us in different ways. Not how it 00:01:46.620 --> 00:01:52.480 speaks to other people or how other people should hear this, but how your Word speaks to us. We ask 00:01:52.480 --> 00:01:59.560 that your Holy Spirit would bring Jesus, the life and work and death and resurrection of Jesus home 00:01:59.560 --> 00:02:05.560 to us in a new way and bring your Word home to us in a new way. And we ask this in the name of Jesus, 00:02:05.560 --> 00:02:09.120 your Son and our Savior. Amen. Please be seated. 00:02:09.120 --> 00:02:19.960 Amen. So before I came to this church, I looked after four little congregations up the Ottawa Valley. 00:02:20.420 --> 00:02:28.000 How many people here have had a beaver tail? If you've had a beaver tail, these were originally 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:33.240 developed at the Killaloo Fair. And Killaloo was one of the areas that I was the pastor of. I looked 00:02:33.240 --> 00:02:39.860 after a little tiny church in Killaloo, also in Eganville and in two places, which at one point 00:02:39.860 --> 00:02:45.219 in time had a bit of a training post or something. Now they're just a bend in the road, Clontarf and 00:02:45.219 --> 00:02:53.740 Traymore. There's also cemeteries there. Anyway, I was there for seven years and change. And I got to 00:02:53.740 --> 00:03:01.240 know this couple who lived on a farm just outside of Eganville. And I got to know them because the 00:03:01.240 --> 00:03:09.400 woman's mother had moved to Eganville to die. I'm not making that up. She moved from Toronto to be 00:03:09.400 --> 00:03:15.240 with her only daughter. During, she had inoperable cancer and she was going to have whatever it was, 00:03:15.240 --> 00:03:22.400 four or six months to live, and she came to die. And she was an Anglican. The daughter, we'll call her 00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:28.820 Sue, the daughter Sue. Her and her husband were very devout Christians who attended the Roman Catholic 00:03:28.819 --> 00:03:34.519 Church. So I'd never met them. But they called me up and I ended up going regularly to bring the 00:03:34.519 --> 00:03:41.219 woman communion and to chat with the whole family. And eventually, God gave me the great honor of 00:03:41.219 --> 00:03:46.859 doing the funeral for this woman. But here's the point of me mentioning this story. As I got to know 00:03:46.859 --> 00:03:52.340 this really, really wonderful couple, very kind, lovely, very devout, prayerful couple, I discovered 00:03:52.340 --> 00:03:58.980 that one of the great sorrows of their life was that they had believed a whole pile of stuff when 00:03:58.980 --> 00:04:04.879 they were young and could have children, and that they hadn't been Christians. You see, they grew up 00:04:04.879 --> 00:04:11.460 as hippies, as activists, political activists. And so for some of you, this is ancient, ancient history, 00:04:11.860 --> 00:04:19.280 like ancient, ancient history. But if you grew up in the 60s and in the early 70s, there were, well, 00:04:19.279 --> 00:04:24.239 there was lots of different things which were very common in the culture. There were books that 00:04:24.239 --> 00:04:30.039 talked about how the population explosion was happening, and it was going to cause massive 00:04:30.039 --> 00:04:35.059 problems and famines throughout the entire world. There were books that talked about how resources 00:04:35.059 --> 00:04:41.359 were being depleted. They predicted that by the early 80s, we'd run out of copper. There's a whole pile 00:04:41.359 --> 00:04:47.839 of things that we would run out of, and that would lead to wars and famines. There were ecological crises 00:04:47.839 --> 00:04:53.879 with pollution that was, again, going to lead to war and famine. And I'm probably missing one or two 00:04:53.879 --> 00:04:57.939 other types. Oh, and then there's, of course, that there was the whole threat of nuclear holocaust, 00:04:58.459 --> 00:05:05.120 mutually assured destruction. And so it was a dark, dark, for many people, it was a dark time. You know, 00:05:05.179 --> 00:05:10.379 our resources are running out. Pollution is overwhelming things. There's too many babies being 00:05:10.379 --> 00:05:15.519 born. The whole world is going to hell in a handbasket. And they were activists in this, 00:05:15.519 --> 00:05:20.740 and they believed this. And as a result, they felt guilty when they had one child. And then 00:05:20.740 --> 00:05:24.139 they decided to have a second child, and they felt guilty as well to have two children. They 00:05:24.139 --> 00:05:29.339 thought they were, I mean, they thought several things. How can we contribute to this population 00:05:29.339 --> 00:05:34.620 explosion, which is going to be so destructive to the human race? And the other thing, of course, 00:05:34.659 --> 00:05:41.259 they felt was that how on earth could they bring a baby into the world that's on the edge of nuclear 00:05:41.259 --> 00:05:45.240 destruction, on the eve of destruction, all those other things. Like, if you think about it, in many 00:05:45.240 --> 00:05:51.319 ways, what they were thinking and going through is very similar to what many people in our culture 00:05:51.319 --> 00:05:58.959 today believe. And so they believed that, felt guilty about having two kids. After they were too old 00:05:58.959 --> 00:06:03.740 to have any more children, they became Christians. And they started to see this whole thing in a very, 00:06:03.740 --> 00:06:09.740 very, very different way. And that's separate from the fact that, just in case you didn't know, 00:06:10.280 --> 00:06:14.379 we didn't run out of copper and all that other stuff, by the way. That didn't happen. We didn't 00:06:14.379 --> 00:06:19.460 run out of gas and all those other things. They were all wrong. But that's a whole other separate 00:06:19.460 --> 00:06:23.680 thing. Their sorrow wasn't that the predictions were wrong. It was that they started to have a very 00:06:23.680 --> 00:06:28.340 different way of understanding the world when they gave their life to Christ. Now, I mention that 00:06:28.339 --> 00:06:35.359 because the text that we're looking at today really focuses very heavily on the life of Jesus and the 00:06:35.359 --> 00:06:42.539 return of Jesus. And in other words, it's going to talk about the future and how that guides 00:06:42.539 --> 00:06:47.139 something, which on the surface just looks like it's a bit of a boring thing or something you can 00:06:47.139 --> 00:06:51.759 make, you know, talk about about me afterwards, because it's actually talking about elders, which is 00:06:51.759 --> 00:06:57.839 me. Anyway, let's look. It's that whole thing is very important for how we live our lives and how our 00:06:57.839 --> 00:07:02.639 churches are ordered and how we relate to our neighbors. So let's turn in our Bibles to 1 Peter. 00:07:04.039 --> 00:07:10.219 1 Peter chapter 5. We're almost finished. Next week is our last Sunday. And then we'll begin a 00:07:10.219 --> 00:07:15.120 series on the Psalms with a sort of a little mini-series by Steve Griffin in the middle while 00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:20.899 I'm on holidays. So 1 Peter chapter 5. We read five verses. I'm just going to look at four verses. 00:07:21.799 --> 00:07:25.359 And we're going to read all of them. I'm going to make a couple of brief comments. I'm going to 00:07:25.360 --> 00:07:30.639 circle back because I want you to see how the four verses go together first before we 00:07:30.639 --> 00:07:36.560 sort of talk about what it means for us. And here's... Oh, and by the way, for those nerdish 00:07:36.560 --> 00:07:43.379 ones amongst us, this is a sandwich text, okay? There's two pieces of bread. And then I guess 00:07:43.379 --> 00:07:47.240 if you're a vegan, there's... And you're not allergic to peanuts, there's peanut butter and jam in the 00:07:47.240 --> 00:07:51.240 middle. Or if you're a meat eater, there's some nice roast chicken or roast beef or something in the 00:07:51.240 --> 00:07:56.699 middle between some bread. And so here's how it goes. Verse 5, chapter 5, verse 1. 00:07:57.220 --> 00:08:04.579 So I, that's Peter, exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of 00:08:04.579 --> 00:08:11.660 Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. So just pause very briefly. 00:08:12.060 --> 00:08:16.400 That word elder, it's not just talking about all people. It's actually an office. 00:08:16.399 --> 00:08:22.379 And you might say, well, George, there's no elders in this church. It doesn't apply to us at all. 00:08:22.379 --> 00:08:25.319 Actually, in terms of this text, I'm an elder. 00:08:26.859 --> 00:08:30.799 Well, that fits, George. You really look old and you have really, really gray hair. And I don't know, 00:08:30.839 --> 00:08:37.360 you got ordained just after writing was invented. But I was an elder at 28 as well when I got ordained. 00:08:37.720 --> 00:08:41.439 And the underlying word in Greek is the word that we get presbyter from. 00:08:41.440 --> 00:08:46.680 And in the English Reformation, in the book of, the old book of common prayer, what they meant when 00:08:46.680 --> 00:08:52.560 they said priest was presbyter. It had just gotten changed the way English can get sort of slurred 00:08:52.560 --> 00:08:57.100 into a bit of a different word. And so it's talking about a particular office, presbyter, 00:08:57.620 --> 00:09:04.640 as in a sense talking about, about me, Daniel Avitan, Colton, Steve Griffin. We're all elders. 00:09:04.639 --> 00:09:12.139 We're all presbyters. So Peter is saying, I'm a presbyter as well. And I exhort you as a fellow 00:09:12.139 --> 00:09:16.100 elder. And then he reminds them that he's also a witness of the sufferings of Christ. He actually 00:09:16.100 --> 00:09:21.580 saw what Jesus lived and went through in his life. And then this other phrase, which is very 00:09:21.580 --> 00:09:28.080 interesting, as well as a partaker. The word partaker is the same word that you get communion 00:09:28.080 --> 00:09:33.960 or fellowship. It's all, it's actually koinonia. So the word fellowship or communion, partaker, 00:09:33.960 --> 00:09:39.840 they're all the same word in the original language. He is a, he's going to have fellowship 00:09:39.840 --> 00:09:45.340 or partake in the glory that is going to be revealed. And he's referring to the second 00:09:45.340 --> 00:09:49.720 coming of Christ. So that's in a sense, the first piece of the, that's the bread. Now he 00:09:49.720 --> 00:09:55.000 gets into the, in a sense, the meat, so to speak. And he's going to talk to elders about 00:09:55.000 --> 00:09:59.200 what their task is and three sort of caveats about how they do their task. And here's how 00:09:59.200 --> 00:10:04.300 it goes. Look, verse two. So he's speaking to the elders, shepherd the flock of God that 00:10:04.300 --> 00:10:11.640 is among you, exercising oversight. Or it can also be translated, yeah, anyway, exercising 00:10:11.640 --> 00:10:18.060 oversight. Now just sort of pause there for a second. This is really, I'm sorry, I think 00:10:18.060 --> 00:10:22.200 it's interesting. Maybe I'm putting all of you to sleep. I don't know. But the word shepherd, 00:10:22.200 --> 00:10:27.160 the original word, the language in the original word for shepherd is where we get the word 00:10:27.160 --> 00:10:38.120 pastor from. So it's saying, you know, presbyter, pastor, or shepherd, the flock. And then the 00:10:38.120 --> 00:10:44.800 word exercising oversight or showing oversight, that's the word that we get bishop from. I think 00:10:44.799 --> 00:10:53.079 it's sort of cool. So he's saying to the presbyters, be pastors and bishops, or exercise oversight. 00:10:53.419 --> 00:11:00.479 Okay, that's the basic thing. The basic job description that I have is I'm to be a shepherd 00:11:00.479 --> 00:11:08.179 of God's flock and I'm to exercise oversight. And then it gives you these two little caveats, 00:11:08.179 --> 00:11:13.859 not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you. First one. Second one, 00:11:13.860 --> 00:11:21.300 not for shameful gain, but eagerly. And then verse three, the third one. Not domineering over those in 00:11:21.300 --> 00:11:27.600 your charge, but being examples to the flock. And now the second piece of bread to make the sandwich. 00:11:28.159 --> 00:11:36.000 And that goes like this. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:47.679 glory. So it's referring to the second coming of Jesus. Now, why did I bring up those people in Eganville? 00:11:50.080 --> 00:11:59.200 Their belief that the world was going to hell in a handbasket meant that they felt guilty about even having 00:11:59.200 --> 00:12:05.360 one child. And they felt even more guilty about having two children. How could you bring a child 00:12:05.360 --> 00:12:11.200 into the world? Well, the world is going to hell in a handbasket. How's that responsible? How can you 00:12:11.200 --> 00:12:16.300 possibly do that? How can you make those commitments? It just felt completely and utterly wrong. 00:12:18.080 --> 00:12:22.780 Many of us know that there is in fact a type of meaning crisis in our culture today. Whether 00:12:22.779 --> 00:12:29.899 people recognize it consciously or not, there is a meaning crisis. And we live in a time when there 00:12:29.899 --> 00:12:34.439 are a significant number of people who think that the climate is changing and it's going to make life 00:12:34.439 --> 00:12:40.639 unlivable. And that in fact, that's going to happen within 10 or 20 years or maybe a little bit longer, 00:12:40.639 --> 00:12:48.759 but that it seems to be inevitable. People see all the wars that are going on and they see the way 00:12:48.759 --> 00:12:55.720 society in many ways seems to be breaking down. And they feel like it's harder to make commitments. 00:12:55.720 --> 00:12:59.559 How can you make commitments in life? How can you marry? Like, why would you marry? Why would you have 00:12:59.559 --> 00:13:04.279 children in a world like this where the end is going to be something which is so terrible? 00:13:05.799 --> 00:13:13.399 And on another hand, different types of understanding of what the end of the world means by people who 00:13:13.399 --> 00:13:17.879 aren't thinking that it's all going to come to an end, but they actually think they know what the world 00:13:17.879 --> 00:13:23.559 is going to like. And they're convinced that the world is going to go and look like that. And that 00:13:23.559 --> 00:13:30.919 ends up often justifying the most horrendous things. The Soviet Union, Stalin killed 50 million people, 00:13:30.919 --> 00:13:35.960 give or take. I mean, give or take a couple of million, right? You know, Stalin famously said, 00:13:35.960 --> 00:13:42.279 one death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic. It's a very, very cynical thing to say, 00:13:42.279 --> 00:13:45.720 but it's actually very profound. For most of it's just a statistic. The death of one, 00:13:45.720 --> 00:13:50.440 that's a tragedy, a million, I don't know, it's a statistic. All because they thought they were 00:13:50.440 --> 00:13:54.680 bringing in a worker's paradise. The same thing with communist China, the same thing with Pol Pot. 00:13:55.720 --> 00:14:00.920 Often people who believe they have, know what the future is going to be and how to make it glorious. 00:14:01.639 --> 00:14:05.240 They can actually create a lot of damage. It's the same thing even in our own day, 00:14:05.240 --> 00:14:11.560 the main millennial type of movement in our own culture is connected to the whole diversity, equity, 00:14:11.559 --> 00:14:17.000 and inclusion movement, which believes there is a way by which we will deal with racism and sexism 00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:22.199 and bring in some type of a more perfect, more equitable type of society. And when you believe 00:14:22.199 --> 00:14:27.799 those things, you often feel empowered and justified to do very horrible things. 00:14:29.879 --> 00:14:31.079 Not everybody is like that. 00:14:31.080 --> 00:14:41.240 But even secular Canadians, average Canadians, who don't necessarily worry so much about that climate 00:14:41.240 --> 00:14:45.320 change and all of that other stuff, there's still a problem with meaning in our culture, 00:14:45.320 --> 00:14:50.200 and it's all centered about the fact that at the end of the day, we die. 00:14:51.639 --> 00:14:56.840 When my kids were a lot younger, sometimes in a road trip or whatever, maybe we'd been at a beach 00:14:56.840 --> 00:15:02.040 and they'd found some little plastic toys or we'd gone to a, you know, some type of dollar store, 00:15:02.040 --> 00:15:06.680 thrift store, and they used their couple of pennies to buy some little type of thing. And then, you know, 00:15:06.680 --> 00:15:10.680 maybe one of them broke or the other person broke it. And so they wanted the other person's and they'd 00:15:10.680 --> 00:15:15.080 get into great fights about this or who found it or who should play with it or what the order is to play 00:15:15.080 --> 00:15:19.960 with it. And, you know, just the normal type of thing that kids do that I probably did when I was a kid, 00:15:19.960 --> 00:15:23.960 by the way, my kids were no worse or probably actually, my kids were probably way better than me, 00:15:23.960 --> 00:15:30.680 but that's a whole other story. But, you know, they fight over these things because for a moment, 00:15:30.680 --> 00:15:36.200 for that car trip, they're unbelievably meaningful and important to them, worthy of having a fight 00:15:36.200 --> 00:15:41.800 over. And then, you know, Louise and I would know that 10 minutes after we arrive in our destination, 00:15:41.800 --> 00:15:46.440 it would be left in the car and then thrown out and they never remember it. And, you know, 00:15:46.440 --> 00:15:51.000 for many people in our culture, they have the same thing. On one hand, we have a deep hunger to have 00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:56.759 meaning in our life. And so we're always finding new things to have meaning over that, you know, 00:15:56.759 --> 00:16:02.519 that our marriage will give us meaning or a relationship will give us meaning or money will 00:16:02.519 --> 00:16:08.440 give us meaning or power will give us meaning or fame will give us meaning. The eight o'clock service, 00:16:08.440 --> 00:16:12.440 I just, you know, I said about fame or, you know, that's something that many people have. 00:16:13.559 --> 00:16:17.080 I'm sure there's a couple of us, there's enough people here in the congregation, but I can tell you 00:16:17.080 --> 00:16:23.080 right now, I could not tell you the name of every Canadian prime minister. Now, it might be one or two 00:16:23.080 --> 00:16:27.320 of you who could probably tell us the name of every Canadian prime minister, but most of us can't. 00:16:28.759 --> 00:16:30.759 I mean, that isn't even a fame that lasts. 00:16:33.960 --> 00:16:38.600 That isn't even a fame that lasts. See, that's the problem. 00:16:38.600 --> 00:16:47.240 Fame goes. I, you know, and even things like family. I know, I think I mentioned this a couple 00:16:47.240 --> 00:16:55.800 of weeks ago, and I know I was talking to somebody afterwards. I can't tell you the names of any of my 00:16:55.800 --> 00:17:01.480 great grandparents. I'm not boasting. I'm not, like, I can't tell you a single one of their names. 00:17:02.440 --> 00:17:06.360 Like, if you get, if you're, if family is that which is really going to give you meaning in your life, 00:17:06.359 --> 00:17:10.119 and if you're going to live on in the memory of your children and your grandchildren, well, 00:17:10.119 --> 00:17:13.799 actually, that doesn't work in Canada, because you won't be remembered. 00:17:15.319 --> 00:17:19.639 I know there are some cultures that are very good at remembering the names of their ancestors, 00:17:19.639 --> 00:17:24.119 but this, ours isn't one of them. You know, in every case, there's always death. 00:17:26.519 --> 00:17:30.919 And so what we, and even now in this life, it's just like the kids, like for many of us, 00:17:30.919 --> 00:17:36.119 even as adults, unconsciously, we don't realize that we're very, just exactly like my kids in the van, 00:17:36.519 --> 00:17:42.519 where we're doing a bit of a longer drive. In the sense that you, you put important meaning to this, 00:17:42.519 --> 00:17:45.639 and then as that starts to fade, you put important meaning on this, and then after, 00:17:45.639 --> 00:17:49.240 as that starts to fade, you put important meaning on this, and then on this, and on this, and on this, 00:17:49.240 --> 00:17:54.359 it's an ending, ever-ending thing. But then at the end of the day, it just, it just dies. 00:17:54.359 --> 00:17:57.719 You keep trying to get the next meeting. 00:18:00.199 --> 00:18:01.639 The future is still death. 00:18:05.639 --> 00:18:10.199 See, this is, now to go back, why am I saying this? What I'm saying about this is, 00:18:10.199 --> 00:18:15.799 why I'm saying all of this is, is you think about what Peter said. If you go back to look at verse 1 and verse 4. 00:18:15.799 --> 00:18:23.079 So I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness to the, of the sufferings of Christ, 00:18:23.559 --> 00:18:30.039 as well as a partaker of the, in the glory that is going to be revealed. And then in verse 4, 00:18:30.039 --> 00:18:43.639 what Peter does is he keeps all throughout the whole book, and the Bible keeps doing this, 00:18:43.639 --> 00:18:53.240 he turns our eyes to the fact that history isn't just a cycle that keeps going around, 00:18:53.240 --> 00:18:55.799 and you keep going back and back to the same type of thing. 00:18:55.799 --> 00:19:01.079 That in fact, it's not just that we make up little stories that help us to get through the day, 00:19:01.079 --> 00:19:04.919 and then as that story comes to an end, like Santa Claus doesn't exist, you have some other thing, 00:19:04.919 --> 00:19:06.919 or some other thing, or some other thing, or some other thing. 00:19:07.879 --> 00:19:12.279 It's not just that whatever happens, it's just going to, it's, there's a complete despair, 00:19:12.919 --> 00:19:16.519 because your life is just one meaningless thing after another, and then you die. 00:19:20.119 --> 00:19:21.799 Jesus really rose from the dead. 00:19:21.799 --> 00:19:26.599 He lived a very particular life, he really rose from the dead. 00:19:26.599 --> 00:19:31.639 And Peter is so completely convinced about this, that within a year or two of writing this, 00:19:31.639 --> 00:19:36.599 and he's writing it about 30 years after the resurrection of Jesus, that he's willing to die 00:19:36.599 --> 00:19:41.480 a martyr's death, because he's going to say, no, Jesus really did die on the cross. Yes, 00:19:41.480 --> 00:19:45.639 I know that's shameful, I know that's an embarrassment, I know that's a slave's death, 00:19:45.640 --> 00:19:50.520 and I know that's a completely dishonorable thing, but the fact of the matter is, is that God used 00:19:50.520 --> 00:19:56.840 that which was dishonorable, and shameful, and humiliating, and painful, and Jesus did it for us, 00:19:56.840 --> 00:20:01.800 and he really did die on the cross under the hand of the Romans, and he really did be put in a tomb, 00:20:01.800 --> 00:20:07.800 he really was embalmed, and on the third day, the grave really was empty, the grave clothes were there, 00:20:07.800 --> 00:20:13.400 but the body was gone, and we really did see him alive, he really did rise from the dead, 00:20:13.400 --> 00:20:18.440 and because he rose from the dead, we now understand and believe and trust the words that 00:20:18.440 --> 00:20:24.840 he said, they're vindicated, and that means that God created the universe, and it means not the gods 00:20:24.840 --> 00:20:31.560 in those times, and in our day, the naturalistic explanation, and there's some scientific merit to 00:20:31.560 --> 00:20:36.920 parts of it, obviously, but the fundamental premise that it's just a matter of things happening over 00:20:36.920 --> 00:20:42.840 time that created all of life, that that's wrong, there is a creator, and there really is, 00:20:42.839 --> 00:20:48.359 Jesus will come again at the end of time in history, and so that's why life is not just 00:20:48.359 --> 00:20:53.240 one meaningless thing after another, and then you die, and it's not just an endless cycle of 00:20:53.240 --> 00:20:57.480 things happening, and then re-happening, and then re-happening, it's not like Groundhog Day with 00:20:57.480 --> 00:21:03.000 theology, it's where you learn stuff, because you don't learn anything in most myths, you just 00:21:03.000 --> 00:21:08.359 completely are as ignorant in the cycle as you were before, and that's, there really is a story, 00:21:08.359 --> 00:21:15.240 there really is a creator who created all things, and he made all things good, there really was evil 00:21:15.240 --> 00:21:20.279 coming into the, and death comes into his created order as a result of human beings at the end of 00:21:20.279 --> 00:21:26.919 the day saying to God, not your will, but my will be done, and God seeing how we've made a complete and 00:21:26.919 --> 00:21:32.199 utter mess of things, he started to make promises that he would send a mighty deliverer that would crush 00:21:32.200 --> 00:21:37.559 the serpent's head, that would do for human beings what human beings couldn't do for themselves, 00:21:37.960 --> 00:21:44.279 and Peter is saying, good grief, God kept his promise, we were eyewitnesses to how he kept his 00:21:44.279 --> 00:21:50.360 promise, his promise was the person of Jesus, and he really did live a sinless life, and he really did 00:21:50.360 --> 00:21:55.799 die a death on the cross, and he really did rise again, and he really ascended into heaven, and he's 00:21:55.799 --> 00:22:03.960 going to come again, he's going to come again, it's guaranteed, we're in a story, life has meaning. 00:22:10.119 --> 00:22:16.680 You know, one of the things I'd say to my conservative friends, my Jordan Peterson fans, 00:22:16.680 --> 00:22:23.079 and my conservative friends, and you might hold your nose up at climate change, and you might hold 00:22:23.079 --> 00:22:27.000 your nose up at a lot of other things, and you might maintain that there is honorable things, 00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:32.759 there are things of, there is dignity, there is beauty, there is duty, there's honor, there's nobility, 00:22:32.759 --> 00:22:37.399 there's things that are worthwhile, like family, and nation-state, and all of those types of things, 00:22:37.399 --> 00:22:42.199 and I think that's wonderful that you believe all of those things, but the fact of the matter is, 00:22:42.199 --> 00:22:48.919 is that you are suspended in the middle of the air, with nothing to support you, and nothing to hold you up, 00:22:48.920 --> 00:22:56.200 because at the end of the day, my conservative friends, if you're listening, you still believe 00:22:56.200 --> 00:23:02.120 that everything came into existence as a result of just, well, chance, and all of that, and I can 00:23:02.120 --> 00:23:07.880 tell you this right now, if you think about it, you cannot derive, honor your father and your mother, 00:23:07.880 --> 00:23:13.800 or love one another, from a system of thought that says the strong eat the weak, and the strong survive, 00:23:13.799 --> 00:23:20.519 and everything else is chance, you can't in a billion years, get everything as a result of 00:23:20.519 --> 00:23:24.200 chance, and the strong eat the weak, therefore honor your father and mother, and honor the state, 00:23:24.200 --> 00:23:33.240 and love each other, no, that doesn't, like, we're going to do Messiah Reads, to my conservative 00:23:33.240 --> 00:23:38.919 friends and to all, this is a brilliant book, it's a simple book, but very profound, and very brilliant, 00:23:38.920 --> 00:23:44.360 and what he's done is he's looked from people who are agnostics and atheists who've done research, 00:23:44.360 --> 00:23:49.960 and he just wants to show you that things like equality, compassion, consent, enlightenment, 00:23:49.960 --> 00:23:56.360 science, freedom, process, progress, all of these fundamental things that we believe, they all 00:23:56.360 --> 00:24:03.160 ultimately come from the Christian faith, not from anywhere else, and so what I'm just telling you is, 00:24:03.160 --> 00:24:11.400 to my conservative friends, don't just believe this stuff, you don't have to just have it hanging in 00:24:11.400 --> 00:24:18.360 thin air, the only way to stand on these things is to give your life to Christ, that's the base, 00:24:18.360 --> 00:24:22.040 that's why they're true, because he's true. 00:24:22.039 --> 00:24:36.519 See, there is this big overarching story, and you and I are living in that story, whether we recognize 00:24:36.519 --> 00:24:44.759 it or not, and part of our task is to tell people the true story of the universe, and not only tell 00:24:44.759 --> 00:24:48.759 people the true story of the universe, but to tell you the true story of the universe and give you this 00:24:48.759 --> 00:24:59.559 wonderful news, well, there's that Christ wants to save you, and that because you are in a big story, 00:24:59.559 --> 00:25:04.279 your life, not only can it have profound meaning, but there's a consequence to it, because at the 00:25:04.279 --> 00:25:10.680 end of the day, we will appear before the true and living God, and we will be judged on whether in 00:25:10.680 --> 00:25:17.079 the center of our soul, we basically said, I want to do it my way, or whether we are willing to bow our 00:25:17.079 --> 00:25:21.559 head and bow our soul and bow our spirit and say, I will do it your way. 00:25:25.079 --> 00:25:33.399 And you can't do it his way without coming to Christ. It's not just abstractions, it's him. 00:25:33.400 --> 00:25:43.320 And that, you know, that means that whether it's, that, so some of them may say, George, doesn't that mean 00:25:44.519 --> 00:25:47.960 that you're just going to have a different Christian version of it, George? Like, you know, 00:25:47.960 --> 00:25:54.600 you said about how, you know, like, the Soviet Union and other people have this utopian future, 00:25:54.600 --> 00:25:59.400 and it just enables them to do horrible types of things, and you're saying there's some type of 00:25:59.400 --> 00:26:04.280 future like that when Jesus returns, and aren't, it doesn't that just kind of mean that you're going 00:26:04.280 --> 00:26:09.320 to do horrible type of things, and, and, and know that it's completely different. 00:26:11.640 --> 00:26:18.200 Luther was once asked, he was one of the English reformers, he was a, the first reformer, I guess, 00:26:19.000 --> 00:26:23.000 and he was asked a question, and I think he gave a profoundly Christian answer. 00:26:23.720 --> 00:26:29.559 He was asked, what would you do, Luther, if you woke up one morning, and you were certain that 00:26:29.559 --> 00:26:35.960 Jesus was going to return that evening? Luther thought for a second, he said, I'd plant a garden, 00:26:36.599 --> 00:26:37.720 and pay my taxes. 00:26:43.720 --> 00:26:50.599 That's a very profoundly Christian answer. You see, the difference between things like 00:26:50.599 --> 00:26:55.959 ideologically utopian things, whether of the left or the right, because they're on both sides, 00:26:55.959 --> 00:27:00.439 it's not just a left-wing problem, it can be on the right as well. The problem at this, at the end of 00:27:00.439 --> 00:27:06.119 all those things, is they're still sort of based on this whole idea of evolution, and the inherent 00:27:06.119 --> 00:27:10.919 meaningless of our origins, and they're going to have to try to create or rest these types of things, 00:27:10.919 --> 00:27:15.399 and, and wrestle creation, and all of those types of things into some type of order, but that's not 00:27:15.400 --> 00:27:21.080 how God views it. Remember that we're in a big story. It's God's creation. There isn't a single, 00:27:21.080 --> 00:27:27.560 there isn't a single square millimeter of the universe that God doesn't say is his. God loves 00:27:27.560 --> 00:27:33.480 this earth, and, and our, our belief is that when Jesus comes again, and there will be a judging of 00:27:33.480 --> 00:27:37.560 the living and the dead, but on the far side of that, he brings in a new heaven and a new earth, 00:27:37.559 --> 00:27:45.000 where his redeemed people will live with him forever. That's the end, and that's why first 00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.079 Peter talks about how husbands and wives should relate, and how you should be honoring your, your, 00:27:49.079 --> 00:27:53.480 the government, and how you honor other people in authority, and how you deal with insults, and 00:27:53.480 --> 00:27:58.919 how you deal with ostracism, and, and, and, and, and, and how you think, and all of these types of 00:27:58.919 --> 00:28:03.319 things, is because it's trying to get you to understand that you live in a world with, that's meaningful, 00:28:03.319 --> 00:28:08.559 and that has moral type of order, and so therefore live within those moral parameters, and, and start 00:28:08.559 --> 00:28:13.399 local churches, and so in a sense, what would I say? If I'd say, if somebody said, George, I, we know for 00:28:13.399 --> 00:28:17.839 certain that God is, that Jesus is going to return in a month, like, what would we do? I'd say, well, 00:28:18.139 --> 00:28:22.799 I don't know, like, let's plant a garden. Let's honor the government. Let's plant a church. 00:28:25.099 --> 00:28:32.720 Let's tell people about Jesus. Let's hug babies, and care for the poor. 00:28:33.319 --> 00:28:41.399 And, and, and, and, and call powers, whether in government, or in, in, in, in industry, that are 00:28:41.399 --> 00:28:45.819 doing injustice, to call them to justice. Why wouldn't we do those types of things? And in all 00:28:45.819 --> 00:28:52.200 things, tell people about Jesus, because Jesus loves them, and he died that they might be made right 00:28:52.200 --> 00:29:00.500 with him. And then you could say, well, George, how does that all fit in? You know, you said there's a 00:29:00.500 --> 00:29:07.839 meaning crisis, and I don't, I don't, I don't see how, oh, listen, here, look, look again, look again 00:29:07.839 --> 00:29:13.779 at verses one and four. So I exhort the elders among you, like, in an eight, I'm going to do all 00:29:13.779 --> 00:29:18.000 the other stuff just very briefly. Let, let, let, verse eight, verse one again. So I exhort the elders 00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:23.380 among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a part, what, 00:29:23.380 --> 00:29:32.880 what, what, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. Look at verse four. 00:29:33.720 --> 00:29:41.400 And when the chief shepherd appears, that's Jesus, when he returns, you will receive the unfading crown 00:29:41.400 --> 00:29:52.560 of glory. What is the meaning of life? Well, we cut ourselves off from the source of meaning when we 00:29:52.559 --> 00:30:00.039 rebelled against God, and it is God's heart that we would hear of Jesus and incline our heart to him 00:30:00.039 --> 00:30:10.019 and trust him. And in him, the end of your life is glory. The end of your life is to participate 00:30:10.019 --> 00:30:19.940 in God's eternal glory. Maybe some of you are watching it and your bodies are breaking down and old, 00:30:19.940 --> 00:30:23.880 and that's why you can't come, or you're just very, very sick. That's not the final word about you. 00:30:23.940 --> 00:30:27.799 Death is not the final word about you. When you are in Christ, the final word about you is glory. 00:30:31.039 --> 00:30:35.980 That's one of the reasons we don't want to kill handicapped babies or deformed babies. 00:30:37.340 --> 00:30:43.580 You don't want to take innocent human life because the final word about them in Christ is glory. 00:30:43.579 --> 00:30:54.199 The final word about you and me and him is glory. Not failure, not loser, but glory. We were made 00:30:54.199 --> 00:31:06.839 to share God's glory in Christ. And glory is its beauty, its honour, its ennobling, its physical, 00:31:06.839 --> 00:31:15.679 its spiritual, its intellectual, its emotional, and that's the final word. That's what God made us for. 00:31:22.139 --> 00:31:31.799 Very, very different thing than seeing yourself as a piece of just a very evolved ape. 00:31:31.799 --> 00:31:38.240 Let's just go very quickly now through the rest of the text. If you could put up the first point. 00:31:39.720 --> 00:31:44.319 I don't know, you get the points you did, yes. So here's the thing. Jesus lived a particular life. 00:31:44.899 --> 00:31:51.180 He suffered a shameful but saving death, and he will come again in glory. How is it that an elder 00:31:51.180 --> 00:31:57.379 is to, you know, in verse 2, and it says, shepherd the flock of God that is among you exercising 00:31:57.380 --> 00:32:02.960 oversight the way, in a sense, all leaders, in a sense, me as an elder, as a, in a sense, 00:32:03.020 --> 00:32:08.320 the leader of the leaders in the congregation, that what we do is we keep having people that 00:32:08.320 --> 00:32:12.780 there's, there's no way of growing or developing or doing anything apart from who Jesus was and 00:32:12.780 --> 00:32:17.860 what he was like. And, and people can't just say to me, well, that's not like the Jesus that I know 00:32:17.860 --> 00:32:21.320 or worship. You go, no, no, no, no, no, time out. Like, let's look in the Bible. Just, you know, 00:32:21.400 --> 00:32:25.400 that just, you know, like, really? That's what you think Jesus is like? No, that's not what Jesus is like. 00:32:25.400 --> 00:32:29.980 Like, there's this whole movement going on right now in the States called Christian nationalism. 00:32:30.220 --> 00:32:35.519 From what I gather, it's completely horrendous. It's racist. No, that's not what Jesus was like. 00:32:37.160 --> 00:32:41.120 You know, and if you go on the other end, and, you know, very pro-LGBTQ play, and they make all 00:32:41.120 --> 00:32:45.259 these statements about what Jesus, no, no, no, no, no, you don't, you don't have to make this stuff up. 00:32:45.259 --> 00:32:51.400 It's a very particular story. Like, you look at Jesus. You look at his word. You look and see the 00:32:51.400 --> 00:32:56.360 apostolic testimony. You look and see what it says, and that's, that's, we have to keep going 00:32:56.360 --> 00:33:00.780 back to it, because he lived a very particular life, and in that life, he suffered a shameful 00:33:00.780 --> 00:33:05.320 but saving death, and he will come again in glory, and that's the story. That's what we need to be 00:33:05.320 --> 00:33:10.540 reminded by him. Second point, this is a development of something that Leighton Ford said. He had a very 00:33:10.540 --> 00:33:16.060 brilliant definition of how anybody should be a leader if they're a leader in the Christian church, 00:33:16.059 --> 00:33:20.980 and he said, in his words, where a Christian leader is one who is being led by Jesus, 00:33:21.779 --> 00:33:30.200 leads like Jesus, and leads to Jesus. Isn't that brilliant and simple? Be led by him, 00:33:31.500 --> 00:33:37.480 lead like him, lead people to him. That's simple. I've just put it in a slightly different way. 00:33:38.039 --> 00:33:41.700 You know what, you know, an elder, and then, you know, council members, and Sunday school 00:33:41.700 --> 00:33:48.360 superintendents, and worship leaders, be led by him. Learn to lead like him, lead people to him 00:33:48.360 --> 00:33:54.960 till he returns or calls you home, and then what Peter's just talking about here, you give the sweep 00:33:54.960 --> 00:33:59.799 of the book of Acts, and all the other epistles, is that Jesus leads his people into the fellowship 00:33:59.799 --> 00:34:05.799 of an enduring local church. That's, that's what Jesus does. You know, he sends us out to tell people 00:34:05.799 --> 00:34:10.820 about Jesus, and people give their life to Christ, and if they've given their life to Christ, he's going to 00:34:10.820 --> 00:34:15.120 lead them into the fellowship of an enduring local church, and I say enduring, it's not something you've 00:34:15.120 --> 00:34:19.720 got to endure, but I mean that it's, it's not just here, it's not like a pop-up business. 00:34:21.580 --> 00:34:26.920 It's, it's to endure. It's to be a place that until Jesus comes back, that if God leads you into 00:34:26.920 --> 00:34:32.100 marriage, you can be married, you can have kids, the kids can be raised in it, and, and it's to endure. 00:34:32.220 --> 00:34:37.260 It's not just like a pop-up or something like that, and then the local church, the next point, 00:34:37.260 --> 00:34:42.620 the local church is to be led by an elder or elders discerned to be called by God. That's 00:34:42.620 --> 00:34:46.740 what Peter is assuming. That's what all the New Testament is teaching, and whether it's one or 00:34:46.740 --> 00:34:51.240 multiple, and there's different ways that churches put all that and mix and match, but the fundamental 00:34:51.240 --> 00:34:57.140 idea is local churches are to be led by an elder, a presbyter, and that is a person that's to be 00:34:57.140 --> 00:35:02.740 discerned by the congregation to have been called by God. And then the next point, if you could put it up, 00:35:02.739 --> 00:35:09.899 and just here, this is, this is, this is verse two. The elder presbyter is to shepherd the Lord's people 00:35:09.899 --> 00:35:16.119 and exercise oversight. Whatever that's going to look like in our context, that's what you can pray 00:35:16.119 --> 00:35:24.419 that I can do, and Daniel, and Colton, and, and, and Steve. And then we get into the three particular 00:35:24.419 --> 00:35:30.879 things, very briefly, number, the, the next point, the elder, to the elder presbyter, there's a message. 00:35:30.880 --> 00:35:36.160 So here you can see how you need to pray for me. And by the way, it's not just once again, 00:35:36.820 --> 00:35:42.460 in a sense, if, if I'm called to be a leader in the congregation under God, once again, you know, 00:35:42.980 --> 00:35:47.800 moms and dads lead their kids. Sunday school superintendents lead the Sunday school. You 00:35:47.800 --> 00:35:51.539 know, the sound people lead the sound people. The worship people lead the other people in the 00:35:51.539 --> 00:35:57.059 worship. It's not just a message just to me, but to all of us. And here's the first one. Don't think 00:35:57.059 --> 00:36:05.820 got to, think get to. And there's sort of pause here. Um, I have a daughter-in-law who's, um, 00:36:05.880 --> 00:36:11.380 she can be very outspoken. And, uh, there was one time she was very outspoken to me. This is like 00:36:11.380 --> 00:36:18.820 10, 15 years ago, 15 years ago or something. And, um, I, we had a lot of people over and, um, 00:36:18.820 --> 00:36:26.820 I was in a really grumpy mood. I was in a really, really, really grumpy mood. And, um, I think they, 00:36:26.880 --> 00:36:30.760 they all wanted to go out for a walk and I was grumpy. The day hadn't gone the way I want. I was 00:36:30.760 --> 00:36:35.700 also probably hangry. I probably needed to eat something because I, if I get hungry, I can get a 00:36:35.700 --> 00:36:40.740 bit grumpy as well. Anyway, I didn't want to go. I wanted to do something else. And she got right in 00:36:40.739 --> 00:36:51.579 my face. And she said, dad, don't think got to think get to. You don't gotta go with your family. 00:36:51.579 --> 00:36:56.699 You get to go with your family. And that's like a really, that that's what Peter's saying here when 00:36:56.699 --> 00:37:02.239 he talks about how, uh, don't not under compulsion, but willingly. It's a very different attitude of your 00:37:02.239 --> 00:37:09.259 heart. Like I get to lead you folks. Like it's a privilege. I get to do these things. It's a privilege. 00:37:09.260 --> 00:37:13.320 You know, if you're doing the sound, you get to do it. If you're doing the Sunday school, 00:37:13.440 --> 00:37:17.860 you get to do it. You know, if you're organizing things that, you know, if you're a treasurer, 00:37:18.020 --> 00:37:24.100 you get to do this. It's a very different attitude of the heart of gratitude that you've been called 00:37:24.100 --> 00:37:30.120 to do something for God's people. The next point, if you could, to the elder presbyter, don't think 00:37:30.120 --> 00:37:37.200 dollars, lots of them. Think, live to hear Jesus say, well done. That's, that's what he's talking 00:37:37.199 --> 00:37:44.019 about when he says, um, as God would have you not for shameful gain, but eagerly. Now the implication 00:37:44.019 --> 00:37:48.859 there, by the way, is that the elders are being paid, but it's not that they're being, it's not 00:37:48.859 --> 00:37:54.460 that they do everything to make more money. What should drive and motivate you in leadership is the 00:37:54.460 --> 00:38:00.539 fact that, well, the fact that life has meaning. Jesus rose from the dead. He's coming again. 00:38:00.539 --> 00:38:08.639 And what should really matter is that in a sense, he smiles at you and he says, well done. 00:38:10.059 --> 00:38:18.880 The last one, almost finished. To the elder presbyter, don't think the boss. Think, live as an example. 00:38:19.440 --> 00:38:24.039 This, this is really important. It's very easy for a minister to think of it as his church. It can also 00:38:24.039 --> 00:38:29.400 be very simple. Any type of ministry, a small group, this is my small group. It has to be my group. It has 00:38:29.400 --> 00:38:33.800 to be my way, or it can be any ministry. It can be the men's ministry. It can be the women's ministry. 00:38:33.900 --> 00:38:38.519 It can be Sunday school. It can be the music ministry, that this is my thing. I'm the boss. 00:38:38.660 --> 00:38:44.180 It's all about me. And the scripture text says, no, it's not about that. Don't be domineering over 00:38:44.180 --> 00:38:50.119 those in your church, but, but be an example. Model how you want, how people are going to live in a way 00:38:50.119 --> 00:38:54.720 that's godly and Christ-honoring and freeing and, and builds people up. 00:38:54.719 --> 00:38:59.139 So, include conclusion. 00:39:02.899 --> 00:39:06.299 If you haven't given your life to Christ, there's no better time than right now to give your life to 00:39:06.299 --> 00:39:10.879 Christ. There's no better time. Won't be better next week or next month. 00:39:12.439 --> 00:39:17.919 And for any of you who are worried about trying to take on some tasks or whether you should marry 00:39:17.920 --> 00:39:23.440 or anything like that, if assuming you can, don't think the world is in such a bad place that we 00:39:23.440 --> 00:39:28.340 can't have children and, and we can't start businesses and we can't write novels and we can't, 00:39:29.139 --> 00:39:34.539 that we can't do those things. Like, live by the story here in this, in the scriptures. Live a life that 00:39:34.539 --> 00:39:41.099 honors God. Yeah, yeah, obviously there's going to be bad things, but we walk together, we walk through 00:39:41.099 --> 00:39:44.980 them with Christ and we walk through them with each other and we walk through them with prayer and we're fed 00:39:44.980 --> 00:39:51.019 by God's word. And we point people to the fact that there really is meaning and that meaning is only 00:39:51.019 --> 00:39:56.480 truly ultimately found when you give your life to Christ. And pray for our church to have godly 00:39:56.480 --> 00:40:03.840 elders and pray for our church to have godly leaders. And for all of us, seek to be led by Jesus. 00:40:04.719 --> 00:40:10.719 Seek to lead like Jesus and seek to lead people to Jesus. I invite you to stand. 00:40:14.980 --> 00:40:19.519 Bow our heads in prayer. 00:40:24.639 --> 00:40:30.719 Father, we give you thanks and praise that Jesus died on the cross for us as our savior. And, and we 00:40:30.719 --> 00:40:35.519 thank you that he tasted everything there is to taste of death. And we thank you that he rose on the 00:40:35.519 --> 00:40:42.699 third day. And Father, we ask that that, those truths would be deeply formed in us. And we also ask, 00:40:42.699 --> 00:40:49.980 Father, that you deeply form within us the belief that Jesus will come again. Father, make us skeptical 00:40:49.980 --> 00:40:56.339 of all depressing descriptions of the future as if we human beings have the power to bring everything 00:40:56.339 --> 00:41:02.939 to an end. Father, we acknowledge before you from your word that's just not true. You bring things to 00:41:02.939 --> 00:41:09.480 an end, not we human beings. And Father, make the truth of Jesus returning so true to our hearts that we 00:41:09.480 --> 00:41:17.219 are skeptical and disbelieving of all utopias, no matter how many people and how many PhDs they have, 00:41:17.559 --> 00:41:23.340 or how compelling or brilliant they are. There will be no utopia, Father. The end comes when Jesus 00:41:23.340 --> 00:41:28.219 returns and only he will bring in the new heaven and the new earth. And we ask, Father, that you bring 00:41:28.219 --> 00:41:33.820 these truths home to us in a very, very deep way. Help us to live, Father, not only mindful of what 00:41:33.820 --> 00:41:38.460 Christ has done for us on the cross, but looking forward to the day that we will see him face to 00:41:38.460 --> 00:41:46.080 face, whether it is when he comes again or when he calls us home through death. Help us, Father, to have 00:41:46.080 --> 00:41:54.559 that forward-looking hope that will characterize each of our lives in our church. And we ask these 00:41:54.559 --> 00:41:57.019 things in Jesus' name. Amen.