The Good Shepherd

We have reached the final chapter in our study of 1 Peter.


Here, in the first four verses of Chapter Five, Peter is exhorting the church leaders to Shepherd their flocks. Now sometimes we have a tendency to skip over passages like this because it doesn't seem to apply to us. So the challenge here is to see how we can apply these verses to our lives. Let's begin, Open your Bible to 1 Peter 5:1 "The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed:" Peter starts off exhorting the elders. Remember, at the time Peter was writing this letter the Christians were going through severe suffering and persecution. My friend, it is so important to have good leaders. Peter was exhorting these leaders to serve faithfully, to not run away from adversity, that their flock needed them. Notice how Peter starts out, he shows them he knows where they are coming from, he was also a fellow elder. Now he doesn't show authority over them by saying I am an apostle of Jesus Christ, instead he simply identifies with them and shows them he is also an elder. He then said he was a witness of the sufferings of Jesus Christ. Peter was in a unique position here because he was a witness of the sufferings of Christ. He walked with Christ and saw the ridicule, the mockery and cursing of Christ. He saw the unbelief and rejection of Christ; he saw the sufferings of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, the beatings and abuse that Christ suffered. Peter knew that the sufferings of Christ were real. He then went on to say he was also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed. In the past Peter saw that glory. In 2 Peter 1:15-18 Peter identifies this as taking place on the Mount of Transfiguration; which is also talked about in Matthew 17:1-5. But he also indicated the glory that will be revealed. Peter was a partaker of the glory that we are all to share. In the transfiguration of Christ he actually witnessed and tasted a little of the glory that is to be revealed and brought to us when Christ returns. He knew that heaven and the glory of life eternal are real. In other words, Peter wrote these words, inspired by the Spirit of God, out of his own personal experience with Jesus Christ. Now we have established Peter's authority to exhort these elders as a fellow elder, one who has witnessed Christ's suffering and was a partaker of the glory that will be revealed. Next we will look at how Peter exhorted them in verses two - three.