Irvine, Ian: The Functions Of Elders ~ 1 Pet 5

Well, beloved, shall we turn together to the scriptures? And in this instance, we'll turn first to the first epistle to Peter. First Peter, the fifth chapter. Reading from verse one: The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder. Interesting to have Peter give such a frank, open statement, isn't it? And a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. Neither as lords, as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock. When the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Now should we turn to Acts chapter twenty, twentieth chapter of Acts. And here we come to that tremendous chapter where Paul sent for the elders from Ephesus. Reading from verse seventeen of Acts twenty. and from Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church. And when they were come to him, he said unto them, ye know, ye know, ye know that from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you. Now they would have known Paul through and through, and he now re- causes them to recall their summing up of his testimony, of his life, and of who he was, what he was, because this was absolutely vital. If his life didn't reflect what he was going to say and what he had said, then they could not accept the words he was going to give them. So he calls them to bear witness to his life as the basis of his ministry. And a life is, is as important as a man's ministry is, because if the life is not lived and seen by all, then the ministry is not as effective as it should be. And so he calls them to witness that. Verse nineteen, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and the successes which Paul had had, had not gone to his head, and the areas he had reached and those who had been saved through him and how he had been received by the churches on his missionary journeys did not affect him one bit. He was a pauper financially, but he was one of the wealthiest m- men in the world spiritually. Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, with many tears and temptations which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews, and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you. You see, he draws their attention to, to one of the temptations that comes to preachers, to teachers, even preachers of the gospel, and elders likewise. And that is not to say what we should say to each company, and not to give all that we should give. Some will tend to withdraw in the light of people who are present in the company, and they will not give the whole ministry of what is their responsibility to give. We are responsible to give the whole book. We are not to add to it, and we are not to dilute his words. And Paul made it very clear to them that he withheld nothing. Therefore, there was no grounds on which they could refute the ministry he was going to give to them. I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but I've showed you and have taught you publicly from house to house, just testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, his two planks of preaching, repentance and faith. And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there. What a heavy heart must have been as he considered this. Say that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me, but none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to d- declare unto you all the counsel of God. He's not shunned in one sense, and this is the way we've got to walk too. Now he addresses them, and he says, take heed therefore unto yourselves. He's now turning the whole thing around. Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers. And oh, brethren, how tremendous this verse is in the sense of the comparisons of the pattern of the appointment of overseers and bishops today. The appointment by a church or by a body of people, no matter how solemn or how serious and how wonderful it may be, can never put into the soul of a man the heart of an overseer. Only God can do that, and God does his work amongst his children, and he implants by his spirit in the souls of those whom he has chosen, and he plants within them a shepherd's heart. And then that person begins giving evidence of that by undertaking the work of the under-shepherds of the flock. It doesn't require the church to appoint a man for him to do it. It begins first on the other leg. The Father appoints by the Spirit. He puts his seal upon that man, and that man is recognized because of his work, and the church and his fellow elders will note that he is taking and undertaking the role of an under-shepherd, and therefore they may draw one another's attention to the fact that he is, and thus he will be recognized amongst the flock. It is the Holy Ghost who makes men overseers, not men. So it's the Holy Ghost who makes you overseers to feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing, till grievous wolves enter among you, not sparing the flock, and that's from outside. Wolves would come from outside. Also, of your own selves men shall arise, speaking perverse things to draw you away, to draw away disciples after them, and this is from inside, from the inside. Therefore, watch and remember, watch and remember, each of you elders, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn everyone night and day with tears. Now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the work of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. I coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, to them that were with me. Then finally, thirty six. and he had, when he had said thus, when he had spoken, he kneeled down and prayed with them all, and they all wept sore and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spoke, that they should see his face no more, and they accompanied him to the ship. May God add his blessing to his own precious word for us today. It's most interesting to see Paul's address or his charge to the church in this, um, record by Doctor Luke in his historical narrative of the Acts. It possesses unusual interest to each of us. It is the only specimen of a sermon addressed to the church in the book of the Acts of the Apostles, and in this book we have three sermons of Paul's, and we have three speeches of his. The three sermons, one was given to the Jews at Antioch, one to the Gentiles at Antioch, both of whom had been educated in Athens, and one to the uneducated at Lystria. Then his three speeches were given, one to the Jews at Jerusalem, to Felix, the Roman governor, and to King Agrippa and the world at large. Here in the center of Of these these 3 three speeches speeches and and 3 three sermons sermons lies lies Paul. Paul's charge to the church. The three sermons present the gospel aggressively. The three speeches of Paul's present the gospel apologetically. Now, this charge, which is in the center of them, combines both aspects of the sermons and speeches, and it adds a third dimension, as we see coming out the aspects of the element of personal affection. And you see the brotherly love which has grown between Paul and those members of the church, those elders there, which had deepened to a rich bond between them and Christ. And when brethren work together in unity, what a tremendous bond comes between the elders of a church and comes between the members of the church, because the tone of spiritual life of the elders of the church sets the tone of the children of the flock there. If you get spiritual men who are the under-shepherds and leaders of the flock, you can rest assured that tone is going to be reflected from the company over whom they've been made overseers. If you get legal men who think and follow a line, and they lack grace and brotherly love, and we don't find these qualities amongst them, then you find that the company of people will become legal. Barrenness comes into the company, or if those who are taking the oversight thereof are not men of God. What a responsibility it is, because the sheep and the lambs follow our footsteps. Wherever we go, and the way we go, is going to be followed by others. So here we find Paul brings a new dimension into the aspect of eldership and working together, because here he comes and he's conscious that he's going to be a, a public servant no longer. Probably he's not going to make another speech or sermon for a long time. And here, when he's going back into the recess of his imprisonment and he's going to, um, to be held in Caesarea and then to go over by the shipwreck to Rome, he realizes this is probably the last time he's going to see them. Of course, this brings quite a nostalgic note to his ministry, and it's evidence in this particular passage. Now, there was three strains of thought in his statement to the elders there. He puts to them, uh, and it's interesting that there is a parallel here. Uh, you see, he's very concerned about the elders of the churches where he had gone to, just as the Savior was tremendously concerned about his disciples and his followers. So as the Savior prayed with them before he went, so Paul seems to approach the elders at Miletus here with the same spirit, in the same manner in which the Savior did at his farewell. And just so in this instance, how great an aspect of truth was compressed into one speech. How tremendous was the meaning was brought out in only a matter of moments. And this was going to linger with those elders there in Miletus as they went back to, uh, Ephesus. So Paul gives them the same words of warning as the Savior gave to his disciples before he went. He says, take heed and watch. Those are the two committals that are given to the elders of the flock, and we have those two aspects as our functions. We have to take heed, we have to sum up, we have to take note, and we have to watch. We have to be watchful, we have to be alert, not slovenly. We have to be on the ball all the time. Now, Paul then turns and he vindicates his ministry. He'd be, he had been fiercely attacked on many sides and on many counts, but here, having been attacked, he now gives his defense in his speech or sermon to the church. And like Samuel had the moment when he had to testify to his own integrity in one Samuel twelve, he does the same. Like Moses, who had to review his own ministry in Deuteronomy one to three, Paul does the same. So he then turns, and the third aspect is that he reviews the his past ministry before them, and then he gives the charge to the church to cleave to the truth. And this is the charge which he gives them. He gives it to them in all solemnity. He gives it to them after he stated the eighteenth verse, ye know from the day I came what manner I have been with you. And so, you see, they saw the man. They saw the life lived. The past didn't go to his head, and he goes on to be faithful and to give all that he should give. He ministered all that the book said he should minister, that the Spirit of God ga- guided him in, and we must do the same. And we must not add to or take from, and Paul was so meticulous in observing this. And so the pattern flowed from that particular aspect. Uh, you'll notice in the notes I've just given you these basic headlines, which you can follow through to your own committal. He gives on the aspect that the church is not going to be orphaned. They're not going to be left. The Savior was so concerned about his children that that he left them, that he spent time with them. He put all he had into them, and Paul is almost doing the same and leaving them with those same words. Truth is an important factor. Now, they were told there were going to be stewards in the house, there would be shepherds in the flock, and in these few verses, they're given the pastoral manual of the New Testament. The chief office of the elders, guard the truth. Truth is the foundation of the church that's built on Christ. Truth and the basic fundamentals that which we believe are the things that we must guard. Now, if you and I have papers that are very important and very valuable, they could be other things than papers, but the thing that we do is we take those possessions which we value so much, and we will go to the bank, and we will ask and be given the opportunity to put those deeds, those papers, those valuables into safe custody, and they're put into a safety deposit, and they're kept there under security, that they will not be broken, they will not be added to or taken from, and they are there until the time comes that we want to redeem them, that we want to take them. Now, the same thing is applied with the fundamental truths of the church, the factors on which the church has been built, the foundational truths of the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, of his sacrificial death, of the atonement, of his coming again, of his virgin birth, of salvation through faith and the shedding of blood. All of those vital truths are given, are given to the elders of the local assembly, and the elders are entrusted with guarding the truth. And so this shows to us that the local church is a depository of the church, and the elders have the care of that deposit. And the Savior has put this deposit into the hands of the under-shepherds and said to them, now take it, take heed and watch and keep the truth, keep it safely. I entrust it to you until I come and take you to be with me. And then he would add, I bought them with my blood. And so is the responsibility of the elders to guard the truth and to treat it in the sense that it should be taught, taught. Now, it has been interesting to note how our two brethren this morning have touched on the Good Samaritan's, um, story, and I think it would be good just to look at it. It's there in Luke ten verse thirty. Let's just look at the way it reads. Jesus answering said, a certain man went down from Jerusalem, which is the place of blessing, to Jericho, which is the place of a curse. So a certain man went down from the place of blessing to the place of a curse. He fell among thieves, which stripped him. This, of course, happened to our first parents. They were stripped of their garments and left. They stripped him of his raiment and wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance, there came down a certain priest. It's typically Luke's writing, how a doctor puts the word certain in. He is specific. He gives the story accurately, and his penmanship is delightful. He is a certain priest went that way. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Now the priest represented the law. He represented the inner workings within the veil, and this was to show that the law, even in its closest relationship to the altar within the veil, was not able to add to or to help this man who had fallen down. And likewise, a Levite. Now here's the Levite who represents the outer work of the outside of the temple, and he was a servant of the outer temple. Likewise, a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him and passed by on the other side. The Lord still could do nothing for him. But a certain Samaritan, here's Luke again, specially really specifies, and he wants to be very, very clear about it, not just a Samaritan, a certain Samaritan, the master. As he journeyed, came where he was, where he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine. The Holy Spirit still pours in wine, joy, and oil and soothing to the souls in need, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to the inn, and took care of him. Now, it's very interesting to note the situation concerning the inn in scripture. And I believe here the inn is the local assembly, the local church. The inn was the place that the Good Samaritan saw fit to entrust this wounded man to while he was undergoing the healing, the strengthening, and what he needed to make his life full and acceptable. The inn in scripture has been forever specified in a certain way. We see that the inn first comes into view when it became the place of discovery, and those brethren of Joseph found the money in the sack in the inn, when they were in the inn. And so the inn comes first to us as the place of discovery. Then a little, uh, later, we find that God sought to kill Moses in the inn because he would not deal with the flesh. And there it comes as a place of discipline. And so we find here, the inn becomes the place where the Good Samaritan brings the wounded soul to leave him there for nourishment, for nurturing, so that he will be taken care of, and so that all his spiritual and soul's need will be met. And so, you see, the Savior today is moving through the world, and the Spirit of God is causing conviction to come into the souls of men. And as the Savior sees that wounded soul, he then bends down and takes that soul to the hosts of the inn, the hosts of the elders of the local church. And then, you see, and on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence and gave them to the host and said to him, take care of him. Now, here we find the Savior takes the wounded soul to the place of discipline, the place of instruction, the place of nourishment and nurture, because he has already tr- entrusted to the hosts of the inn, the elders of the assembly, all the great truths of the Christian faith. He's put them there in safety deposit with the elders of the local church, and it's now up to the elders to carry out their function in the nurture of new converts, in the admonition of the souls in their care, for the instruction and furtherance of the truths of God, and discipline of the flock, because it is only given with the aim and sole object to bring about the recovery of the soul who has erred. And so you see, the inn is a very interesting place. And when the Savior brings him there, on the morrow he was departing, and he took out two pens. May I suggest to you that one of them was the Word of God, and the other the throne of grace? Because as the elders face the call in their assembly to the diversity of tasks that fall to them, if they use both of those pens, they will never lack, and they will find an answer to every set of circumstances. With the Word of God as our guide, and with the throne of grace that we lean upon in prayer, every elder will get direction one way or the other. And then you see, it's interesting that the same words that are used when Paul speaks about taking care in relationship to elders' functions are used here. Take care in verse thirty four and took care of him, and then in verse thirty five, take care of him. Then comes that word from our great Savior. He said, when I come again, I will repay thee. And so the Lord's rewards will come to true shepherds commensurate with what they spend. No matter what effort the elders put into the local church's work, never fear. Every bit of effort is worthwhile. Every hour you spend on your knees with your brethren alone or with a soul in need is absolutely worthwhile, apart from the joy you and I get from it. We're not doing it just for a reward that may be given. How delightful that the Savior is going to do that. But oh, what a burden it is for us to walk close to him, so that we're going to be available to, so that we can administer the nourishment, the nurture to that wounded soul and be able to go with him. And we must move closer to the members in our charge so that when they're in distress, they know who to go to, they know who to lean on, they won't go to a person who's not fitted for them. They're going to go to that one who has shown the warmth of Christian love and confidence. This is what we've got to get. Eldership must never be just associated with discipline. That is the last thing, but it's an important thing. The Church of God is holy, and his holiness must be upheld and must be kept true. But this is one of the aspects that is only necessary to follow through when circumstances demand it, but it's got to be done. So you see, from that, Paul then turns to the Ephesian elders, and he says to them, back in chapter twenty of Acts, where we left a moment ago, he says in verse twenty eight, the first thing he says to them is, take heed therefore unto yourselves. So he's saying to them, before you do anything concerning the flock who are placed within you, uh, under your care, take heed to yourself. You know, in the song of Solomon, the writer there says, in chapter one and verse six, they made me the keeper of the vineyard, but mine own vineyard have I not kept. Here was a man put in charge of all the vineyards, but he was honest enough to recognize and state that his own vineyard had he not kept. You know, this sometimes comes close to an elder and a person to whom responsibility is given in a local church. They made me the keeper of the Sunday school. They made me responsible for a certain area of work. While I was working for them, mine own soul I neglected. Mine own vineyard have I not kept. Oh, this is a very likely theme. Do you know what it's like to be busy? We're living in a, in a century and in the age in which pressures come from right and left, and I can say to you without any question in my life, I know what it means to say that I know the tragedy of the barrenness of a busy life. And this is one of the tragedies that happens in eldership today. We are so busy going through all the functions and all the exercises, which are very right in themselves and very necessary to be carried on, that we neglect our own soul. Always just take care of your own soul first. Get the tone of the Spirit of God in your own life first, and then when you're out, it'll be no effort for you to exude the graces of your Lord. You won't be able to reflect the characteristics of the Chief Shepherd. You'll just be living as he means you to live, and around you will go the graces that associate with the soul. This ready and active with his Lord. Whatever comes when our Savior, look, our service can actually be our hindrance, brethren. The service wherein we can be so absolutely wrapped up in it and vitally concerned with it that it can overtake us, and we find ourselves a spiritual pauper. And we need not do that. We must care for our own souls. You see, Samson wist not that the Lord had departed from him when he went to rise up that last time and found he couldn't. He was out of touch with God and didn't know it. He wist not that the Lord had departed from him. I wonder, is it possible to happen today? You and I can get into a situation of being out of touch with God, and we don't know it, and our past experiences are greater than our present, and we expect that because God blessed us in the past, he's going to bless us now, and we take right out of the purpose the fact that we have stepped aside from his pathway in one way or the other. It might have been a very small step we took, but it was a step in the wrong direction to take us away from the warmth of the spiritual life of one who walks with God. Of Ephraim, it was said, strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not. He didn't know it. Grey hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth it not. Hosea records. Take it with Saul, King Saul. Saul was afraid of David. Why? Because the Lord was with him and had departed from Saul. Now you see, there's a man, when he was in the presence of a man of God, he became fearful because he realized that the Lord had departed from him and that the Lord was with David, and he was fearful. The same thing happened with Herod the King. Herod the King was afraid of John, John the Baptist. Why? Because John was an just and holy man, and the holiness of the walk of John the Baptist left around him the aroma of the presence of Christ. And even the wicked king Herod, in this case it was the, the second of the Her- Herodian line, not the Herod who had endeavored to get the child Jesus in his infancy. It was Herod, um, Antipas, who in this instance came before both John the Baptist, the two greatest people the world has ever heard. John the Baptist, of whom it was said no greater prophet has been born of a woman, and our blessed Lord, who was the great giver of salvation. And because John the Baptist was beheaded by Herod, our Savior was speechless before Herod. Because the king had slain John, Jesus would not speak to him. And because John the Baptist preached repentance, repent was his ministry, the gospel of repentance. Herod silenced repentance in his own soul when he turned him away from him all the time. Herod would send for John again and again. John would come up from the prison cell, stand before the king. The king would probably try and exonerate himself in one way or the other. I don't know what he said to him, but I know this, that every time that John the Baptist came before Herod, he spoke burning words. He spoke words of truth, and we've got to be very careful, brethren, when the time is due to say those words that are burning and to be faithful with what we are to say. John the Baptist was, and he spoke burning words to Herod because they were called for and they were necessary. Herod has stolen his brother's wife, and every time John saw him, he says, Herod, it is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife. And every time he said it, he was sent back to the cell again, until at last Herod, when he looked down upon the head of John the Baptist brought to him on the charger, little did he realize that he s- had silenced his best friend forever. And so concluded John's ministry. It was a ministry of repentance. And then came the minister of salvation, our blessed Lord. And the moment Herod knew he was there, he w- there was a man in the land who had healed the sick, had risen a man from the dead. He said, I know who it is. It's John. It's John. He's come back again, and I killed him. And he, he then sought for a way to see whether there was any resemblance between this man Jesus and John, whom he had killed. Little did he realize how he was going to have that opportunity. There, one morning, into his presence was brought that lowly Galilean, chained between Roman guards, brought from Pontius Pilate, now before Herod the King, clothed in Herod's own gown. He was only used to seeing John clod- clod in a goat skin. Now stands the giver of salvation before the king. Herod looks at him. He's very interested in gazing at him to see if there's any physical resemblance between John and Jesus. When the Savior comes in through that great door, he looks and there's no resemblance. And so he's interested, though, he qu- questions him. He asks him question after question after question, and the Savior doesn't answer him one word. He could have said to him, is it true you called me a fox? Because it was true. The Savior did call him a fox. No answer. Is it true that you're the king of the Jews? No answer. Question again and question again, and no answer. Nothing but the innocent eyes of Jesus looking into the guilty eyes of Herod. And so Herod thinks, well, I killed John, what of this? And he sends Jesus away from his company to be crucified. On the cross, there was a man on one cross that spoke to him, and he asked him one question, and he received in return the whole of paradise. And yet Herod asked him question after question after question. Why? Do you know why? Because Herod had silenced repentance, and because he was not prepared to repent, then the giver of salvation had nothing to give him. Repentance is a necessary ingredient before salvation can be given. Repentance before salvation, repentance and then faith, and Herod wasn't prepared to repent. Now, you see what happened when a godly life like John the Baptist spoke to Herod. Herod feared him because he saw the Lord was with him, and, beloved, we have to, in our lives and in our service, so walk closely to our Lord that they're going to see a godly life first. They're not going to hear a voice preaching first. They're going to see a spiritual toned life, and they're going to want to get near to that life, and they're going to seek you out, just the way Herod would send for John. Herod would get possibly in a, in a depressed sort of atmosphere, and he knew that when he was in John's presence, there was something about John that he would send for John, hoping he might win some favor with him. You see, the men and women of the world will seek your presence because they know that you spent a time with your Lord, and they'll want something of what they see in you. Be careful, whatever you do, that the barrenness of a busy life doesn't overtake you, and that you become the keeper of the vineyards, but your own vineyard have you not kept. That's what I have to watch so very, very closely, the tone of one's own soul in the home, in the local church, in the district, in your business, whatever your vocation may be, is going to be seen by them all. And then, you see, they were to take heed not only to themselves, but to the members of the flock committed to them, to feed the church of God, to set the spiritual tone, to watch and remember in verse thirty one. And then, of course, the example is so necessary. And then the charge is reviewed. Um, Peter, Peter receives and gives a charge. He received a charge from his Lord. Feed my sheep, tend my lambs, care for my sheep. And here Peter gives it again, all in verse two of chapter five of First Peter. Feed the flock, to do the work of an overseer, do it willingly, do it not for gain, do the work with a ready mind, equipped, furnished, necessary for the job, not lording it over the charge allotted, which is God's heritage. And then you see the same thing coming forth in the charge given to Timothy by Paul in two Tim- Timothy four. Again, preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season. This is the strategy of assembly witness, to be ready all the time, and to be quick and to be active. And it's coupled with reprove and rebuke, and in so doing, restore in a spirit of meekness those who are overtaken in the fault. How important, vital this is. And so we're given the aspect of rebu- reviewing, reproving, and flowing through in this aspect. I think it's interesting for us to note that it is the work of elders to care for the flock, to guard the sheep, and to uphold the holiness of God. And in so doing, there c- comes moments when reproof has to be given, when a rebuke has to be stated, and it must be done in such a way of love, uh, filled in such a way that it is basically the means to a very specific end. To correct an erring believer in such a way as to bring about his restoration to the Lord and to the local church is the basic essential of reproof and rebuke. Discipline of believers is never an end in itself. It is always a means of affecting spiritual recovery, and so it's administered with love. It's administered faithfully, faithful to the end, and no words must be taken away from what the scripture gives concerning the set of circumstances, and nothing should be added either. We mustn't dilute it, and we mustn't add to it. It must be done specifically according to the pattern which we've been given. It's not given so that we can expose each other, so that we can open them up and hurt them coldly. It's given so that we might, after the breakdown area has been discussed and clarified, we might be enabled to then bring them into the restoration path of coming back to the Savior, and with love, enduring in the local church. It's very interesting to notice how Paul had to face up to this aspect with a fellow elder in Peter. Now, Paul doesn't call himself an elder as outrightly as Peter does. Paul in Philemon verse nine speaks of himself as being the aged, which is another word for elder. But it's interesting here that Peter, in the early stages, visited Antioch, and he lived freely with the Gentiles, and then, after he, um, fraternized freely with them, there came up some legalistic, uh, brethren from Jerusalem, and they then made to separate from the, uh, believers who were of the Gentiles. And Peter unwittingly, um, moved and withdrew from the fullest fellowship with the Gentile believers and separated himself with the Judaizers. Now, when Paul came and saw this, he realized, obviously, this could not happen. And so we find that Paul rebukes Peter with great indignation before them all. Peter's action had incited Paul's indignation, and Paul felt that since this breakdown had occurred within the sight of the believers there, it should be rebuked within the sight of the believers there, so that he was following a principle in which he was allowing the breakdown to be dealt with within the area or the circle of the breakdown. He wasn't bringing more people in that should be brought in, and he wasn't leaving people out that needed the lesson to be taught there. And so he then chooses the moment to speak and rebuke Peter, and he does it in the presence of them all, so that they would understand and know why it was, and from then on there should not be any repetition of it. And it's very difficult. It must have been a tremendous chapter in the early history of the church when these two great men faced each other. The tentmaker of Tarsus fainting, uh, facing the fishermen of Bethsaida, twenty years before their martyrdom. And Paul, who is pictured to us as a small man, diminutive of stature, a man who had tremendous constitution, a man who carried on tremendous missionary enterprise, and yet he must have had some lameness, some distortion. He was weak in so many ways physically. He was sick in some aspects, and yet he must have had a cheerful and a winsome expression that drew people to him, who actually were drawn to the Christ in him. And so he faces Peter, who's represented to us as being a man of much greater stature, a muscly, sinewy fisherman who was abrupt, outright, quick with his reactions, quick with his reflexes. The man, the soldier who lost his ear, will verify to that. And here was Peter standing before Paul, and Paul rebukes him openly. It's represented to us, um, of a larger and stronger form. Now, there's sternest indignation was expressed in this rebuke, but there's no basis for us to consider that there was a quarrel. Peter was immediately convinced of his fault. Peter was an honest man, and this is one of the great problems we have today. We are not prepared to be honest, honest with ourselves, honest with our brethren, and honest with God. Now, there's one thing, it's very hard being dishonest with God because we know that he sees in our hearts no matter what we say, but it does happen that we're sometimes dishonest with our brethren, or we don't tell them the whole truth. What is greatly needed amongst us is the liberty of frankness, absolute honesty with each other, and even if we are in the wrong, to be man enough to say it. And then, from this, there can come an imminent triumph of grace and truth. From it, there will come two men, even though they differ, they will rise higher in the respect of their fellow brethren and sisters. They will be more effective in their work, and this is precisely what happened here. Now, what resulted? This is what resulted. The Jews and the Gentiles came together, and there's a oneness of their witness. Also, as Peter goes, he wrote a letter back, and he speaks in that letter of the long suffering of his Lord, as he remembered the number of times he had fallen and his Lord had taken him back again. And he also alludes in the epistle in two Peter three fifteen and sixteen to our beloved brother Paul. The mention he makes of the one who spoke to him and rebuked him was only a mention of love, and that's delightful. And that, to me, shows an imminent triumph of Christian grace and humility and love pervaded in this aspect. And the two men are not seen together until their deaths, so that in their lives they were united, and in their deaths they were not divided. And this is the way we have to work. Then you see, that was a rebuke. And then comes the aspect of re- reproof. Then comes the aspect of a difference between men of God. And we see this in a different way between Paul and Barnabas. In chapter fifteen. we see the incident there. Now, Paul had told the Lystrians not long before this that here, uh, they were men of like passions. So we find that this dissension between Paul and Barnabas, two delightful men of God. Barnabas was a benevolent gentleman, and Paul, of course, we need not carry on any more concerning the qualities that in that man appeared. But even though it was more closely connected with human feelings than Peter's, and proportionately more violent, there were severe words spoken between them, as in most quarrels, there was blame on both sides, no doubt. Barnabas wanted John Mark again. Even though he had broken down on the first missionary journey, Barnabas wanted to take him again. Barnabas also could have shown weakness in yielding to the influence of Peter and the Judaizers that we just noted that happened in Antioch. Uh, Barnabas had submitted himself, and he had gone with Peter into that, uh, section that isolated themselves. And so, on the one hand, Barnabas may have, from these things, been under a certain amount of strain. Then, on the other hand, Paul, he would have had reactions within himself. He may have been very strong in his not wanting John Mark. He absolutely was. Paul might have been overtired and too anxious not to have John Mark that caused this, um, bitter dissension between the two men. Now, he may have been quick. Peter would have been quick. Now, I think the comment that must be made is, which is the better counsel, it is not for us to show. We cannot give a comment onto which was the right and wrong aspect. What we must do is observe, though, that they did not allow a work to fall dead. They must have sat down and talked about the fact that they would both go different ways for the furtherance of the work. They wouldn't sit down and continue the quarrel or fight and allow the work to stay dead. And so Paul took Silas, and he went one way. Barnabas took Mark, and they went another way. And they didn't part as enemies. Paul, in one Corinthians nine and six refers lovingly to Barnabas afterwards, and he speaks knowingly of an intimate knowledge of Barnabas's work. Now, to Timothy, Paul writes, bring Mark, he is profitable to be in the ministry. And later, as you know so well, that the servant who failed, Mark, wrote the gospel of the perfect servant who never erred or turned back from the path of sacrifice. So there are these sets of circumstances in which we must be absolute honest with our God and with our brethren and with ourselves, that we see one of the roles of the functions of elders flowing. I'm sorry our time is gone, and I've gone longer than I should have, and I won't continue with other aspects from it, other than just leave you with those things that we have said, and from the word of God, that he may bless his word and may cause us to carry out the functions of elders, which are greater and larger than we've even outlined here, to the glory of his own name. For his name's sake. Amen.