Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2610
“The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.” 1 Peter 5:1.
KINDLY notice, dear Friends, the Apostle’s great gentleness. Peter was not always thus gentle, but the Spirit of God had rested upon him and now he writes with much tenderness. He does not say, “As an Apostle, I command,” but, “As an elder, I exhort.” It is always well to combine the suaviter in modo with the fortiter in re, that is, suavity in our method blended with strength in the thing, itself. There are some who are very blustering in their style of speech and there are others who, if they do not bluster, yet in the smallest matter always put forth their greatest force, or what they think to be so. They command and rebuke with all authority—yet here is Peter, who certainly was not a whit behind the very chief of the Apostles—and he speaks, not by way of command, but, addressing the elders, he tenderly exhorts them. Oh, that we may always manifest such a meek and gentle spirit—not drive men, but draw them to Christ—not terrify and threaten, but entice and woo to the Savior those to whom we are speaking or writing!
Next, notice Peter’s humility. “The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder.” He was an elder, most truly, as are all those who, in word and doctrine, feed the flock of God and who, at Christ’s command, take the oversight of the souls of men. But Peter was much more than an elder, he was an Apostle. There were but few Apostles and those who were called to that high dignity were greatly favored—yet Peter does not mention his higher office, but, with true humility, he puts himself on a level with his Brothers. “The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder.” My Brother, if God has given to you extraordinary talent, do not exalt yourself on that account. If others willingly follow your leadership and you have the privilege of rendering to the Lord greater service than they can give, what have you that you have not received? And should not the chief among the saints be the servant of all? Is not he really the highest in Christ’s esteem who is willing to be counted the lowest? Therefore, let no man exalt himself, or think highly of himself, for this he ought not to do. We admire in Peter—the once headstrong, impetuous Peter—the gentleness blended with humility which leads him to say, “The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder.”
It will always be our wisdom, dear Friends, to put ourselves as much as we can into the position of those whom we address. It is a pity for anyone ever to seem to preach downto people—it is always better to be as nearly as possible on the same level as they are. Paul knew this and, therefore, he became “all things to all men.” To the Jew, he was a Jew. Among Gentiles, he was a Gentile, for it so happened that he belonged to both classes. He was one with all men, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free. If he had to argue with the learned upon Mars’ Hill, he could be a match for them. If he had to speak with the rough and illiterate, he threw out all beauty of language and talked to them in the plainest style. And you and I, if we want to win men to Christ, must act after the same wise fashion. Dear Sunday school teachers, would you be the means of blessing to the children under your charge? Then, be yourselves, children! Keep a child’s heart throbbing beneath a manly breast. If you are a mother, go to the girls in your class as though you were still a girl, yourself, and you shall soon find the key of their heart and enter into the innermost chambers of their spirit. A true man welcomes a fellow man—he sees that he is a member of the great family of mankind and he says to him, “Come in.” But if you, in your majestic greatness, speak to me like Jupiter thundering from a cloud, I shall not be likely to regard you. Or, if I do regard you, your message will be forgotten in the grandeur and glory of yourself! This is what never ought to happen, my Brothers—that people should think of us and forget our message Let us belittle ourselves that we may magnify our God. Let the Truth of God be borne before us like a shield! And though we are the Lord’s armor bearers, let us hide behind the great shield which we lift up before the eyes of men. “‘The elders which are among you I exhort’—not as Peter, the head of the College of Apostles—but as one who is a fellow elder with you.” Therein, we see Peter’s gentleness, humility and wisdom combined—and we shall be wise if we imitate him in all those respects.
With this introduction, I now come to speak of the two great offices which Peter said that he filled. I cannot help calling them great, yet they are open to you and to me—and I hope that, by God’s Grace, we have also, in our measure, been what Peter said that he was—“A witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.”