Joe Rigney, Installation of Pastor Brooks

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Scripture reading for this morning’s message comes from the book of 1 Peter, chapter 5, verses 1 to 7. These are the words of God. So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge,

but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Our Father in God, we thank you for this word.

We pray that you would bless it and help us to apply it to our lives today. We ask it in Jesus’ name, and amen. You may be seated. Well, when we set out to launch this service, that’s about 18 months ago, can you believe that? 18 months ago, a couple of us had a crazy idea from Moscow, Idaho, to plant a church in our nation’s capital.

And we thought, well, normally when you plant a church, you identify a minister, a pastor, church planter, and you say, hey, we want you to go here and we want you to gather a group of people and kind of a smaller group and you build up from there and eventually launch services. That’s the way it’s typically done. And we said, we don’t have that. So Geronimo, amen.

We wanted to establish this service without a minister. And our aim was to launch this effort, which we affectionately referred to as the mission to Babylon. And we decided to use ministers of the 52nd Airborne, named after Isaiah’s words in chapter 52.

And our prayer from the beginning was that God would do two things through that initial effort. It would be to gather a people and provide a minister. And he answered that first prayer very quickly. Last year, beginning a year ago, July 14th, he established a consistent congregation that has been meeting now for a year.

And then in September of last year, we held the Christ or Chaos Conference over in Arlington. And at that conference, I preached from Ezra Nehemiah about the call to build and fight and to renew Christendom in the face of the sabotage that we knew would come. And the first element that I highlighted in resisting that sabotage and laboring and fighting to advance God’s kingdom was the need to look for and rely upon God’s favor and blessing,

and this is a completed theme in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah. Listen to these passages. When Ezra was sent to teach the people, the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the Lord his God was upon him. When he arrived in Jerusalem on time, we’re told the good hand of his God was on him. At one point, Ezra asks for particular needs, and he says, I took courage, for the hand of the Lord my God was on me, and I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me.

He recognized they needed protection from enemies, and they said, the hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and they prayed for protection, and God answered that prayer. Nehemiah later asked the king for help in rebuilding the walls, and we’re told, and the king granted me what I asked for, for the good hand of my God was upon me. And when Nehemiah finally arrives and seeks to encourage the saints to do the work, he says,

But notably, in that sermon, I highlighted this particular verse from Ezra 18, when the people realized they have no Levites to minister at the temple. And so they begin to look for ministers for the house of God. And after a search, we’re told this,

In September, that was a prayer. Today, that prayer is formally answered with the installation of Brooks Pottinger as assistant pastor for Christchurch, D.C. Remarkable. In the long run, we envision Christchurch, D.C. as an independent CREC congregation.

It will remain a service of Christchurch Moscow under the authority of Christchurch Secession of Elders. Brooks will be serving alongside of us in leading and overseeing the service here and shepherding this portion of our flock. And we’re very grateful for the good hand of our God upon us. Which brings me to the passage before us. It gives instructions for elders and for congregations.

And I want to focus on the three main exhortations in the passage that are addressed to three different groups. To elders, shepherd God’s flock. To young people, or as they say in the South, youngins, be subject to the elders. And to everyone, be humble. Now this word builds on the previous passage in 1 Peter. We know this because the first word there is so or therefore.

And that previous passage had explored Peter’s vision of the Christian life, which is frequently marked by suffering. Suffering, he says, is a refining fire. It separates the gold from the dross. And that separation and that judgment begins with the household of God. And so it’s no surprise that having declared that the judgment begins with the household of God, Peter turns to address the household of God.

And 1 Peter 5, if you notice in that passage we just read how Peter refers to himself, fellow elder, witness of the sufferings of Christ, partaker of the glory to come. And he draws attention to these three aspects of his life. And it always reminds me, there’s a scene in the movie Cool Runnings, classic, in which Sanca demands that he get to be the driver of the bobsled because he is the greatest push cart driver in all of Jamaica. And he says to Coach Irv, you dig where I’m coming from?

And Irv responds, yeah, I dig where you’re coming from. Now dig where I’m coming from. I’m coming from two gold medals. I’m coming from nine world records in both the two and four man events. I’m coming from 10 years of intense competition with the best athletes in the world. Sanca says, that’s a heck of a place to be coming from. In this passage, Peter’s doing something similar. Let me tell you where I’m coming from. First, he says, I’m an elder too. I’m not, in calling elders to this task,

he’s saying, I’m not calling you to a responsibility that I don’t have. I get the burdens of pastoral ministry because I’m a fellow elder. Then he goes on, he says, I’m a witness of Christ’s sufferings. I saw Jesus suffer and die with my own eyes. It’s a heck of a place to be coming from. And finally, he says, I’m a partaker in the glory to be revealed. That’s where Peter’s coming from.

There’s the pattern. In chapter 4, Christians share in Christ’s sufferings. In chapter 5, Peter calls himself a partaker, a sharer in the coming glory. That’s the pattern in the Bible. Suffering to glory, cross to crown. There is no other way. And so Peter,

as an elder in God’s church, and as a witness of Christ’s sufferings, and as one who will share in the coming glory and grace when Christ returns, he has an exhortation for the leaders in the household of God and for the members of the household of God. And so I want to explore that exhortation, especially to the minister, especially with Brooks in mind, in terms of the what, the how, and the why. What’s the exhortation? How is it to be done? Why is it to be done? So first, what’s the task? And this is, you might think, why aren’t you just telling Brooks this? Pull him aside.

Give him his job description. Okay? You need to know what to expect from a pastor. You need to know what you should be looking to him for and how it should be done so that you can know whether he’s doing it properly and faithfully to God’s standards. So here’s the fundamental task. The fundamental task is shepherd the flock of God. Elders are called to pastor. That’s why we often use those terms interchangeably.

What does it mean to shepherd? Well, shepherds care for the sheep. Shepherds lead the flock and they feed the flock. They lead it to green pastures and besides still waters, and they guard and protect the flock from bears and wolves and lions. Shepherds are attentive to the health and safety of their sheep. If the sheep begin to look sickly, shepherds examine the diet.

Shepherds bring medicine to heal. If a sheep falls in a crack in the earth, a shepherd pulls him out and sets him back on the path until he jumps back in again, and then you pull him out again, and you jump back in, right? You’ve seen that video probably going around. One of the problems, our Bible understanding has been deeply damaged by the fact that too few of us hang out with sheep. We don’t realize how dumb they are and how much they need the care of a good shepherd.

If a lion attacks, a shepherd grabs his rod and his staff and he uses it to defend his sheep even at cost to himself. And perhaps we can understand the task better by noting Peter’s clarifying phrase. He says, exercising oversight. So you should ask yourself, what’s the difference between sight and oversight? Because oversight includes sight, it’s in the word. You can’t exercise oversight if you can’t see clearly, if you can’t understand accurately.

Oversight is more than just seeing. Oversight is sight plus responsibility. It means that when you see, you’re responsible to do something about it. You can’t just see, you must also see to it. You have to get things done. And notice that Peter is specific here. It’s not just shepherd the flock, generally. It’s shepherd the flock of God that is among you, that’s around you. Pastors are called to shepherd their people, not other people’s people.

Not other shepherds’ sheep. These sheep. And honestly, in the age of social media, it’s really easy to miss the importance of this. It’s easy for pastors to be concerned about dangers to the health of flocks over there, on the other side of town, on the other side of the country. In fact, it’s possible, believe it or not, you can actually build a flock around pointing out the dangers to other flocks while ignoring the dangers to your own.

What do they need? So then if oversight, exercising oversight, this is the task, is sight plus responsibility to act, this means that there are, broadly speaking, two main ways that pastors can fail in this task. First, pastors could fail to see clearly. They don’t recognize when that disease was spreading in their flock.

They didn’t see that pack of wolves creeping over the hill. They didn’t see that the water was polluted. So failure to see or failure to discern is a failure to shepherd well. Second, elders could fail to act. Yeah, they see the disease, but they don’t wisely apply the medicine. They see the wolves, but they cower in fear. Yeah, yeah, they see the polluted water, but they don’t move the flock to better pastures.

And I highlight these two potential failures mainly so that you know two good ways to pray for Brooks and for the session of Christ Church. You should pray as a congregation. You should make it a part of your prayer that we would see clearly what we need to see about this church. What are the needs, the dangers, the tendencies, the temptations of the people in this room, in this congregation,

in this metro, at this time in history? Because we don’t want to be, Brooks does not want to be the kind of shepherd who runs around with fire extinguishers in the middle of a flood. Like if there’s a fire in the church across the country, and there’s a flood in this church, we don’t want to bring the fire extinguisher, we want to bring sandbags and a life raft. And then pray that having seen clearly what he needs to see, what we need to see about this flock,

that he and we would have the courage and the compassion to act with wisdom to do what’s best for the sheep. Once we’ve seen what needs to be seen, now what needs to be said? What needs to be done? Who needs to do it? Pray that we would have the heart and nerve to say it and to do it. And this is actually one of the reasons why a plurality of elders is so important in a congregation, and one of the reasons why Brooks will be interfacing closely with us in Moscow,

as he cares for the flock here. Peter addresses elders, plural. Elders, plural. Because when you have a session of elders, you can see more and act better. Because no single shepherd has 360 degree vision, right? Like otherwise he’s just spinning in circles really fast, trying to see the whole horizon at once. It doesn’t work. No single shepherd can pay attention to all the macro dangers and micro thresh.

With God’s help, a session can. Like some shepherds are scanning the horizon to the east and others scan the horizon to the west. Some direct their attention to distant threats, that storm that’s rolling in, that pack of wolves settling in the valley. Others direct their attention closer to home, condition of the pasture, health of the sheep. And so when elders, plural, shepherd the flock of God among them, plural, they’re able to see more and act with greater wisdom and insight than if they saw and acted alone.

And so you should pray, another prayer, that God would raise up other elders from among you to aid Brooks in this noble work. Okay, so task of shepherding, summarize it in a variety of ways. Elders lead the flock, they feed the flock, they guide the flock, they guard the flock, teach God’s word, and they rule or govern God’s house. They provide for the spiritual needs of God’s people. They protect God’s people from threats, from out and from within.

They put the house of God in order. They’re the immune system for the body of Christ. They regulate its health and guard from disease. A few years ago, I summarized the noble task of pastoral ministry in a sermon on 1 Timothy this way. Pastors are called to oversee and care for the flock of God by teaching the word of God with divine authority, zealously guarding the doctrine and worship of the church, and organizing the church for its mission.

That’s what a pastor does. It’s his job. It’s his calling. So that’s the task. How should it be done? This is just as important. As I said in the exhortation, obedience is one thing. The right kind of obedience is an entirely different one. And the how matters as much as the what. And so Peter gives us three pairs of contrasts in order to describe the quality and the aims of faithful shepherding. Let’s briefly look at each of them. He says you should shepherd not under compulsion but willingly.

So nobody should pastor with a gun to his head. There must be a willingness, an intentionality in the heart of the pastor. Like duty may carry you through a hard day, may carry you through a hard week, even a hard season. But long-term faithful ministry cannot be run on duty alone. There must be desire, willing service underneath it. Second, he says not for shameful gain but eagerly. Like no one should pastor for money.

Pastor should be paid. They should be paid appropriately. But they shouldn’t pastor for money. And you can see how those two fit together, right? If you’re shepherding out of compulsion, then why do you stick with it when it gets hard? Well, because it’s a paycheck. There’s a lot of pastors who are in ministry because it’s inside work that doesn’t require heavy lifting. If you’re shepherding out of compulsion, why stick with it when it gets hard? They pay you.

And Peter knows that someone without the desire to shepherd can be driven to do so by duty or enticed to do so by money. And neither of those motivations is pleasing to God. Pastoral calling is pastor eagerly, with heart. Shepherd God’s flock from the heart because you love the work. And then third, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. So pastors do have authority in the church.

One of the other ways that authority goes wrong is by becoming domineering. I think Peter probably has the words of Jesus in mind when he wrote this. You remember, because one of the only other places in the Bible that that word for domineering is used is in Matthew 20. You know this passage. Matthew 20, 25, where Jesus says to his disciples,

So notice that Jesus contrasts domineering authority with humble service. Peter contrasts domineering authority with being an example to the flock. And that works because Jesus points to himself as the model of humble service. He came not to be served, but to serve. He left an example that we might follow in his steps.

Jesus, we’re told in this passage, is the chief shepherd. And so he’s the model for elders. And elders are models of humble service for the flock. So that’s how it’s to be done. Willingly, not with a gun to your head. Eagerly, not out of greed. And humbly, as a Christ-like model for people. Not lording it over them or using them. And then why shepherd in this way? Well, the answer is simple. Peter says, look, simple basic motive.

So we, as pastors, we shepherd willingly from the heart because Christ has our heart. We don’t shepherd for shameful gain because Christ is our gain. So that’s the what, the how, and the why. Now, what’s their then response from a

congregation, okay? Especially those who are younger, though I think it extends to all of you. The members of a church also have a responsibility. And that calling is very simple. It’s to submit to the elders. Elders lead, feed, teach, govern, guide, and rule the church, the congregation, submit, follow, obey, and are subject to them. So, and this word shows up a lot. In the same way, all Christians are called to be subject, that’s the same word, for the Lord’s sake to every human institution

that’s chapter 2, verse 13 of 1 Peter. Just as wives are to submit to their own husbands, that’s the same word, chapter 3, verse 1. Just as servants are to submit to their masters, that’s chapter 2, verse 18. Peter uses this word a lot for these different relationships. And so, those here who are young, and especially those in the church, are called to be subject to the elders. And so, I just want to make clear here, like, there are overlapping institutions. God has built a number of institutions

to the world. There are civil authorities, like presidents and senators, governors, mayors, city councils. There’s family authorities, husbands, fathers. There’s vocational authorities, bosses, masters. And now there’s church authorities, pastors and elders. And those who are members of those institutions are called to obey the appropriate authority in their appropriate sphere in the appropriate way. At the same time, it’s important to note that elders don’t have absolute authority, even in the church.

They are not the chief shepherd. Jesus is. But there is a real authority from Him, and those under their charge owe them respect, honor, deference, and appropriate obedience for Christ’s sake. So that’s the task of the congregation. Now, then Peter says, I’ve got an expectation for everybody. Just cover all the bases. And this is directed to old and young, elder, congregant, doesn’t matter.

Okay. Everyone, everyone, all of us, we’re called to be humble. But it takes different forms depending on your place in a community. So elders show humility by leading and by ruling and in their leading and in their ruling. That’s how they do it. Like humility before God means lead well, rule well, govern well, teach well. A congregation shows humility by following and in their following.

A congregation shows humility by eating and receiving that word. Elders show humility by exercising authority and oversight. And a congregation responds by submitting and obeying and they’re submitting to the elders. And humility cuts across all, pervades all of it, but it looks different for different people. And that means that all humility has a vertical and a horizontal dimension. So he says, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. So humble yourselves under God. That’s the vertical dimension. Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another.

That’s the horizontal dimension. And you have to do them together. If you don’t humble yourself before God, you will not be able to properly humble yourself before man and vice versa. And the point is, Peter says, do you want God as your enemy? Do you want him to oppose you? Or do you want God to be for you? Do you want his grace and favor to be just poured out abundantly upon you? If you want that, he says, there’s a very simple, clear, Old and New Testament,

and it’s humble yourself under his hand. Clothe yourself. Wear humility like it’s a nice suit or your warm pajamas, whatever. It’s clothing. Wear it like clothing. Make it a part of your wardrobe. And as you do that, cast your anxieties upon the Lord because he cares for you. He loves you. Now, before concluding, I want to personalize this just a little bit for us here today. So, Pastor Brooks, you have been called to this work, and you have accepted

that call, this vocation. C.S. Lewis once wrote that a vocation, what is a vocation? What do you mean by vocation? He says it has a double character. It’s both a duty and a desire. Vocation is a duty and it’s a desire. Duty means there’s moral obligation. There’s a responsibility to fulfill your calling. There’s a must. And at times, you will lean on the Holy Spirit to strengthen your own spirit,

to overcome the weakness of your flesh and your passions in carrying out your calling. Duty has its place. But desire must also be there. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Aspiration, desire, both of those matter. So you must do this. You must. But not that kind of must.

You must remember that this calling is a get-to, not a got-to. So shepherd this flock of God, willingly, eagerly, modeling for them humility before God and care for their souls. And to the saints of Christ Church, D.C., you also have a calling, a vocation. As members of Christ’s body, there is a great work to be done in the world. There is a great work to be done. Do you realize how much work there is to be done?

From fruitful dominion to faithful discipleship of every nation, top to bottom, front to back, teaching them to observe all that Jesus commanded. There is a great work. And God has now supplied you with a pastor who will be keeping watch over your souls. He’s going to keep watch over your soul. He’s going to put this congregation in order for the sake of that mission.

For the sake of that gospel. For God’s glory in this city and around the world. That’s why he’s here. And therefore, humble yourselves before the mighty hand of God. Be subject to your leaders, obeying them with joyfulness and with gladness of heart. Receive biblical instruction from this pulpit and in counseling rooms and coffee meetings. And receive it with eagerness, readiness to apply it in every way.

God cares for you. He loves you. You know how much He loves you? In 18 months, He went from zero to pastor. That’s what He did. Because He loves you. He loves you. He cares for you and He answered your prayers. So the thing that I would come out of here with is, man, what else should we ask for? Right? That’s what I think. In this moment,

I come away saying, okay, right? God filled our cup and we’re drinking it on down. And what do you do after you’re done? You lift it up again and you ask for more. Let’s pray. Our Father in God, we do. Lord, we are just buckets of need. There are people in this room who would not be in this city were it not for your prompting and encouragement.

For the last 18 months to plant this church. They wouldn’t be here. And yet they’re here and they’re doing all kinds of amazing and good work and all kinds of vocations. And you did that. You did it because we asked you to. You did it because you love us. And so, Lord, having received grace upon grace upon grace at every step along the way for the last 12 months in all of the ways that you have supplied our needs through finances, through leadership, through setting up and tear down chairs,

through walking past screaming people. You have done so much. And so, Lord, in this moment, we just want to say, cup, lift it up, fill it, Lord, again. All right, the charge is this. It’s actually twofold. So the reason that this happened, the reason that this happened is because we asked God. Apart from him, Jesus says this, he tells us, John 15,

you can do nothing. Like nothing, nothing. Not a little bit. You can do nothing. He says, I’m the true vine. You’re the branches. Branches don’t do things on their own. Branches need vines to do things. I’m the vine. Apart from me, you can do nothing. So the reason that all of this has happened is because we asked in the name of Jesus and God answered. So again, so that’s what he’s done. Apart from him, you can do nothing. That’s still true. It was true when you didn’t have a pastor on site. Still true when you have one. Still true.

What should you do? You should ask for things. You should pray for very specific things in your life and the life of this church. You should come out of a day like this, seeing God’s manifold answer to prayer over the last 18 months. You should see that and you should go, that’s all we had to do? Was ask? And you should think of things, specific things. It was a specific thing we prayed for. Lord, we need a pastor. Every time, like in our meetings, Wednesday mornings with these guys on the steering committee, what are we praying for?

Bring us a man. Bring us a man. Bring us a man. And then there he is. Right? And so you should just go, wow, that’s what we should do. We should just be a praying people, abiding in the vine all the time. You should ask for things and watch for God to answer that he might be glorified. So with believing hearts, receive the benediction of our Lord. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. Amen.

Amen.

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