1. Peter 5,1-4. Misericordias Domini

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever 

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

1. Peter 5,1-4   2418

Miserikordias Domini 037  

Anastasia and Basilissa, Martyrs under Nero 66 

15. April 2018 

1. О Christ Jesus, our Good Shepherd, bless us with your gifts of grace, so that we may reap the sweetest fruit from them, increase in knowledge and be a witness to others of the gospel (Starck 87).  Amen.  

2. »So I exhort the pastors [πρεσβυτέρους] among you, as a fellow pastor 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 [ἐπισκοποῦντες], 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.« 

3. As the apostles proclaimed the resurrection of Christ, by the work of the Holy Spirit, people believed this gospel. Churches were established, and the apostles ordained pastors to carry on the work of the gospel in those congregations. The Apostle Peter, whose pastoral work bore much fruit in Rome, and whose preaching was the material from which Mark the Evangelist wrote his Gospel, exhorts pastors to exercise oversight over their churches. He uses the verb ἐπισκοποῦντες (episkopountes) from which we get the noun ἐπισκοπος (bishop). Thus the Lutheran Confessions argued from Holy Scripture that all pastors are bishops and all bishops are pastors (Treatise § 60-64).  

4. The apostles charge pastors to exercise oversight in the churches so as to lead the people unto eternal life. This episcopal task involves several aspects. First, it means to ensure that the Holy Scriptures are read and preached at the Divine Service, for the Apostle Paul proclaims: »So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word (ῥήματος, rhematos) of Christ« (Romans 10,17). Second, it means that the forgiveness of sin is given to the people through the Sacraments: people are baptized, they receive the Lord’s Supper and their sins are absolved. Third, it means that the liturgy of the Divine Service is followed. Such liturgy should be doctrinally pure and faithful to the traditions handed down since the apostles. Fourth, it means that the law and gospel should be proclaimed. Sinners should be lead to the confession of their sins by examination under the law, and then they should be absolved by the promise of the gospel. 

5. Jesus is the gospel in the flesh and this is clearly seen in John 10 where He proclaims: »I am the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep« (John 10,11). When this gospel of Christ crucified is preached, then forgiveness and eternal life is preached as well. Christ was crucified in our place and He bore our sinful judgment, thus He offered Himself up as a vicarious sacrifice. Christ laid down His life to save ours; He rescues the sheep who are lost. 

6. The Apostle Peter tells us that the apostles and pastors (πρεσβυτερος) tend the flock of the Good Shepherd. They do so by pointing the Church to Christ and exhorting the Church to look to Christ. Christians are to humble themselves under God (1. Peter 5, 6), cast their anxieties on Him (1. Peter 5,7), discipline themselves (1. Peter 5,8) and keep alert to the temptations the Devil will attack them with (1. Peter 5,8). The apostolic foundation for these exhortations is the new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1. Peter 1,3). 

7. The apostles established a threefold ministerium to help them proclaim the gospel: bishops, presbyters and deacons. Bishops and presbyters administered the spiritual needs of the church and deacons administered the physical needs of the church. All worked together to ensure the gospel and charity were available for everyone. After Ignatius (died 108) this three-fold ministry became universal throughout the Church. 

8. The preaching of the gospel accords with sound doctrine and has as its goal die Heilsgewißheit (the certainty of salvation). This certainty is that you were once lost but now are found. In His Parable of the Lost Sheep, Jesus declares: »Rejoice with Me, for I have found My sheep that was lost. Just so, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents then over 99 righteous people who need no repentance« (Luke 15,6-7). The Gospels reveal that Jesus diligently and patiently searches for those who have gone astray. This caused a division among the Pharisees. Some thought Jesus had a demon or was insane, but others thought He had His authority from God (John 10,19-21). Jesus was not deterred and He further said: »My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never ever perish and no one will snatch them out of My hand« (John 10,27-28. The Apostle Peter affirms that this is the end result of faith in the gospel: »When the Chief Shepherd appears, then you will receive the unfading wreath of glory.« And also the Apostle Paul: »There is reserved for all who have loved Christ’s advent the wreath of righteousness, which He will reward to us on the last day« (2. Timothy 4,1.8). 

9. Christ cares for His Church through His bishops and pastors. We do so by teaching Scripture, administering the Sacraments and praying so that each Christian remain soundly in the verdant pastures of the Lord. In Christ you are justified, and through the Holy Spirit He works out your sanctification (holy living) from justification. It is all by Christ and His merits that are applied to you. You are now dead to sin, alive in Christ and the bearer of holy living all through the gospel that ends in eternal life with its unfading wreath of glory.  Amen. 

10. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, our Good Shepherd; send forth the Holy Spirit to our church and in our lives, so that we know we are Your sheep and follow You in both faith and sanctified living.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, Vol. 4. © 1963 Henry Regnery Co. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. 

Starck, Johann Friedrich. Starck’s Prayer Book. Copyright © 2009 Concordia Publishing House. 

A Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope.