PREACHED BY THE REV. D. MACFARLANE AT DINGWALL.
At the Ordination, by the Northern Presbytery, of the
Rev. WILLIAM MATHESON (with a view to service in Canada)
on Monday, 6th August, 1917.
“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 being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.”—I PETER v. 2, 3.
THE Apostle Peter, in this epistle, exhorts several classes of people with regard to their duties to God and to one another. In this chapter he begins to exhort elders or ministers in the Church. These ministers were Presbyterians, for the word in the original, translated “elder,” means “a presbyter,” and Peter tells them that he is a presbyter himself, “who am also an elder.” Peter was not only a Presbyterian, but also, inasmuch as Christ the Son of God made him free, it may justly be said that he was a free Presbyterian. In the days of the Apostles the form of Church government was Presbyterian, and we have good reason to believe that during the millennium that form of Church government shall be the only form throughout the world in the Christian Church.
In addressing you shortly from the words of our text, I shall call your attention to the following particulars:—
I. The flock of God.
II. The duty of pastors in relation to the flock.
III. The reward—a reward of grace—that shall be given to them for their labours.
I. The flock of God.—A flock implies more than one individual. It implies several, whether few or many. These are called the flock of God, they are His people. (1) They are His as set apart in the covenant of grace, or elected unto salvation. (2) They are His by purchase. “They are bought with a price”—the price is the blood of Christ whom the Father sent into the world to lay down His life for them. (3) They are His by the effectual work of the Spirit in them, making them able and willing to give themselves to Him in the day of their effectual calling. In these and other senses, they are “the flock of God.”
II. The duty of pastors towards the flock.—Their duty is to feed them. To feed here includes all that they have to do in connection with the flock. They are not only to feed them by preaching Christ to them for their spiritual nourishment, but they are also to rule them by the Word of the Lord, which is the law of His Church. They are, moreover, to exercise discipline when that is necessary. The flock of God are living persons, and need food
to nourish them, and to make them grow up to the full stature of a perfect man in Christ. They live on Christ, who is the bread of life, and the water of life—”The true bread that came down from heaven,” of which if a man eat, he shall never die. Although it is Christ Himself that feeds them—”He shall feed his flock like a shepherd” (Isaiah xl. 11)—yet He employs His ministering servants to minister food to them as He did. When He fed the thousands with a few loaves and a few fishes, after He had blessed the small provision which one man carried, it grew and multiplied, and He gave it to the disciples to distribute among the large congregation. In like manner, Christ uses His ministering servants to feed the flock. They are also to rule them by the word of truth. Ministers are spoken of in Hebrews xiii. 7, as those who have “the rule over them.” They are also to use discipline towards offenders. If communicants break the law of God, if they do not keep the Sabbath day holy, they are to be brought under discipline, and suspended from the Lord’s table till they are brought to repentance.
Another part of their duty is to take the oversight of the flock. In the original the words rendered in English, “taking the oversight,” describes the work of a bishop. The pastors were not in the time of the Apostles bishops in the prelatic sense. There were not then such bishops; even Peter was not a bishop in that sense. Every pastor was a bishop or overseer over his own congregation, but he had no lordship over other pastors. It is in this sense ministers are called bishops in Scripture, and it was not till the Church departed from the rule of Scripture and became corrupt that prelatic bishops were set up in the Church on mere human authority.
The Apostle Peter points out in our text the manner in which pastors are to perform their duty. (1) They are not to discharge their duty “by constraint, but willingly.” They are not to do it because they must, but because they are willing to do it. (2) “Not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind.” There are many nowadays in the office of the ministry merely for the salary. The salary of these is filthy lucre, and received in an unworthy manner. The labourer earns his wages in an honourable way, but an unconverted minister’s salary is indeed filthy lucre. The love of money and not the love of God, or the desire to feed the flock, is what actuates many to enter into the ministry of the Church. When I was at college in Glasgow, I lodged for several sessions in a minister’s house. One of his sons (a little boy) said to me one day that he would like to be a minister. I asked him why he wished to be a minister. He said that if he were a minister he would be a rich man, for everyone that came to church put money in the plate at the door. That little boy in his simplicity spoke out what was in his mind, and if many ministers, especially in our day, told the truth as that boy did, they would speak as he did. (3) “Neither, as being lords
over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.” Christ is the only Lord of His Church. Pastors are only servants, and they are here warned not to act as lords. They are not to enact any laws, or to make any changes in the Church on their own authority. They are in their preaching to teach and command the people to observe all things whatsoever Christ commanded them (Matt. xxviii. 20); and they are to set a good example to the flock in their character and life. Ministers who make changes in doctrine and worship do not act according to this rule. They act as if they were lords and not servants. If their own servants made changes in their manses without their authority, they would not tolerate it. Let us suppose that a minister who went to the meeting of the General Assembly left a servant in the manse to look after it, and that during his absence a man came to the manse and suggested to the servant that the house would be much better if he made such changes in it as he told him, outside and inside. The servant at once began to make the changes proposed to him. The roof of the manse was well covered with slates. He took off the slates and covered the roof with felt. He threw outside the splendid furniture and substituted inferior furniture instead. When the minister returned home he could scarcely know his own house, and was much displeased with the servant for what he had done. He quickly brought him to task, and asked him why he had spoiled his house, which he left in good order when he went to the Assembly, and charged him that he acted not as a servant, but as lord of the house. The servant replied that though he made the change at the suggestion of another man, he himself meant to do it in order to open the minister’s eyes to the error of his ways in making changes in the house of God. He reminded the minister that he also was only a servant, and had no right to make any change in the service of the sanctuary without the authority of the Lord of the house. Of course, the minister dismissed his servant at once, but would not believe of any man that Christ would dismiss him as an unfaithful servant.
III. The reward.—The reward is not a reward of merit, but of grace. The reward is great; it is a crown of glory. It is Christ whose servants they are that shall put this crown on their head. He is in our text the “Chief Shepherd.” They are under-shepherds, on an equality—none having the supremacy over the rest. Christ is their Lord and Master, and their only Archbishop. The time, when He shall give them the crown of glory, is when He shall appear at the last day. So far as their souls are concerned, they shall receive the crown of glory immediately after death, but at the resurrection their bodies shall be crowned with glory in union with their souls. Although all believers shall shine in glory, we believe on the authority of Scripture that faithful ministers shall shine more brightly than others of the redeemed. “They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever” (Dan. xii. 3).
In conclusion, so far as our text is concerned, the congregation to which Peter preached was composed of Presbyterian ministers. and he preached to them not as a bishop or archbishop, but as a Presbyterian minister on the same level with themselves, for he tells them that he is a Presbyter himself. None can claim for him a superiority over the rest, any more than can be claimed for Paul, when he preached to Presbyterian ministers at Miletus, as you may see in Acts—”And from Miletus he (Paul) sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the Church. And when they were come to him, he said unto them: Ye know from the first day that I came into Asia after what manner I have been with you at all seasons. Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears and temptations which beset me by the lying in wait of the Jews. And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you, and have taught you publicly: and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (xx., verses 17-21).
The office of the ministry is the highest, and the most glorious office in the whole world. The Apostle Paul thanked the Lord for enabling him and counting him faithful, putting him into the ministry (1 Tim. i. 12). It is also a most responsible office, and requires faithfulness on the part of ministers. They are stewards in the Church. “It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful” (1 Cor. iv. 2). It is written that Moses was faithful as a servant in all he had to do in God’s house. Ministers are to give an account of their stewardship at the day of judgment, but it is to be borne in mind that it is not fear of punishment that prompts them to faithfulness in the discharge of the duties of their office, but the love of Christ, who did the will of the Father, which was His meat and drink. The same disposition is in them, and they may say in their own measure with the Head of the Church, “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart” (Psalms xl. 8). They consider the crown of glory promised infinitely above their desert as the servants of Christ, for, although they did all that was commanded them, they had to reckon themselves, and do reckon themselves as unprofitable servants. Their only ground of hope for eternity is not what they did themselves, however faithful they might have been, but what Christ did for them in the great work of redemption. There is great need in our day of faithful ministers. “The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest” (Luke x. 2). AMEN.
WEAK saints are full of desires, their whole life is a life of desires, they are still a-breathing out holy desires: and the Lord hears and answers such gracious breathings and longings.—
T. Brooks.