Scripture Introduction
Three weeks ago, we explored in 1Peter 5 the heart of the job description of church elders. They are “shepherds,” looking out and caring for us through love, prayer, compassion and concern. We also learned they are “overseers,” a work which must be done without domineering, but by “exampling.” Meshing overseeing with shepherding requires profound humility, a fact which Peter stresses.
We begin today where I left off: with an illustration from the life of Abraham Lincoln. I thought it particularly fitting because it reveals a humble response to mistakes. A godly elder must learn and grow, in sight of the congregation, without losing his ability to shepherd and serve.
Abraham Lincoln wanted to please a politician, so he order the transfer of certain regiments in the army. When Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, received the order, he refused to obey it. He said, “The President is a fool.”
Gossip ensured that Mr. Lincoln heard what Stanton said. Lincoln answered: “If Mr. Stanton said I’m a fool, then I must be, for he is nearly always right. I’ll see for myself.” As the two men talked, the President realized that his decision was a serious mistake, and withdrew it.
Humility which accepts correction, examines actions and admits failures characterizes all who follow a humble savior. This is God’s challenge to us today. [Read 1Peter 5.1-11. Pray.]
Introduction
Billy (that is not his name) met me at the back door to offer the traditional complement: “Good sermon, pastor.” Billy and I had been meeting together to study a book and pray and encourage each other for months. We had a close friendship, one I felt confident could sustain a surprising answer.
So Billy said, “Good sermon, pastor.” I responded: “Yes, it was, wasn’t it?”
Billy was…flummoxed! He finally stammered: “Yes, but you are not supposed to say that!”
So I said: “Really? Why not? I explained truth from the Bible, and I showed you your weakness and sin. I preached Jesus as the one and only solution, and called you to faith in his perfect, completed work. It was a good sermon.”
Of course, Billy was complementing my rhetorical skills and what bothered him was my apparent lack of humility. But I was after something different — I wanted Billy to rethink what he valued in a sermon and even his definition of “humility.” Do we recognize Biblical humility?
Peter knew it; he read the nearly 100 times it appears in the Bible. Verses like: Proverbs 11.2: “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom”; and Proverbs 29.23: “One’s pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor.”
More than simply reading, however, Peter heard Jesus teach. We listened to one of his parables earlier in the service. Another example is in Matthew 23, where Jesus condemns the Pharisees because they do good works to be seen by others. They crave honor, they love to be called “teacher,” “father,” “pastor,” “elder.” But among you (said Jesus), “The greatest shall be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
Peter heard and he read; but more even, Peter saw humility. God entered Jerusalem, “riding on a donkey,” the lowliest of positions. And on his final night, when the world should have bowed in cheering adoration for his soon to be sacrifice on the cross, Jesus dresses as a slave and knelt to wash Peter’s feet.
Peter read about humility; he heard Jesus’ frequent teaching on humility; he saw humility lived out by the only one who had no reason to be humble. But before he commanded this trait in us all, he experienced it himself: Matthew 26.33: “Peter answered Jesus, ‘Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.’” Jesus corrects him: “No, Peter, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And Peter corrected Jesus: Matthew 26.35: “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!”
Within hours, a teenage girl confront Peter: “Hey, weren’t you with him?” “I don’t know what you mean. I don’t the man. As God is my witness, I do not know him.” And the rooster crowed.
Chrysostom (the most popular preacher in the early church): “The foundation of Christianity is humility.”
Augustine (possibly the most brilliant theologian ever) commented: “When a certain rhetorician was asked what was the chief rule in eloquence, he replied, ‘Delivery’; what was the second rule, ‘Delivery’; what was the third rule, ‘Delivery’; so if you ask me concerning the precepts of the Christian religion, first, second, third, and always I would answer, ‘Humility.’” (Both quoted in John Calvin, Institutes, 2.11, 268-269).
God helps the humble. Humility, as it turns out, is central to the Christian faith. Because it is so valuable, we ought to be especially wary of counterfeits.
1. Because Humility Is So Valuable, We Must Avoid Its Counterfeits
Satan fell, principally, because of pride: “I will ascend to heaven…. I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly…. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High” (Isaiah 14.13-14).
We should expect, therefore, for Satan to promote pride in us, and for God to oppose it. But that does not mean his temptations are always direct and obvious.
For example, we may be stirred to pride by pretended humility, claiming something is not good, even when it is. But true humility does not require that you lie. “Pleasure in being praised is not the same as Pride.” (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity).
C. S. Lewis illustrates this well in his allegory, The Screwtape Letters. He imagines how a senior demon would train a new tempter: “You must conceal from the patient the true end of Humility. Let him think of it not as self-forgetfulness, but as a low opinion of his own talents and character. Fix in his mind the idea that humility consists in trying to believe those talents to be less valuable than he believes them to be…. By this method thousands of humans have been brought to think that humility means pretty women trying to believe they are ugly and clever men trying to believe they are fools. And since what they are trying to believe is, in some cases, manifest nonsense, they cannot succeed in believing it and we have the chance of keeping their minds endlessly revolving on themselves in an effort to achieve the impossible…. The Enemy [God] wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in the fact, without being any more (or less) or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another…. He wants each man, in the long run, to be able to recognize all creatures (even himself) as glorious and excellent things…. For we must never forget what is the most repellent and inexplicable trait in our Enemy; he really loves the hairless bipeds he has created and always gives back to them with his right hand what he has taken away with his left.”
Many suppose that true Christianity requires constant self-loathing and self-abasement: “Oh, I am so evil; I am all wickedness. I am too bad for God to love. I am beyond hope, beyond help; beyond his reach. Woe to me!” The subject of each sentence there is “I.” But the thoughts of the truly humble are on God and neighbor.
Pastor Tim Keller: “The path to humility consists not so much in thinking less of ourselves, but in thinking of ourselves less.”
We could also say it this way: humility is not an end in itself. Counterfeits confuse us that way. They point out that humility is desired, then convince us to seek it. Humility is desired; but we are to seek God—through glorifying Jesus and serving others. Such is the true humility required of elders and of all who would walk with a humble God.
2. Because Humility Is So Valuable, We Must Meditate On The Cross
No Bible passage is more narrowly focused on developing humility than Philippians 2.5-8: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Jesus hung on the cross because he counted your needs more important than his rights. Jesus deserves honor and glory and dominion and power. He is eternal, all-wise, all-beautiful, all-perfect, all-magnificent. Yet, as the hymn writer says: “What you my Lord, have suffered, was all for sinners’ gain; mine, mine was the transgression, but yours the deadly pain.”
Jesus went to the cross, silent, as a lamb to the slaughter, when but one word would have brought 10,000 angels armed for destruction to his relief. Jesus held his tongue, when a mere murmur would have instantly transported him to glory and us to a well-deserved damnation. It was “all for sinners’ gain.”
God serves your interests—and when we fellowship with him, he teaches the freedom and joy of considering others more significant than ourselves. Frequent thoughts of the grace of God in the cross is the path to humility.
3. Because Humility Is So Valuable, We Must Labor For This Trait
How do we obey the command to “clothe ourselves with humility”? What does it look like to “have the mind of Christ”? What does it feel like to “humble yourself under the mighty hand of God”?
3.1. Recognize and Admit Pride
C. S. Lewis: “The more pride one has, the more one dislikes pride in others. In fact, if you want to find out how proud you are, the easiest way is to ask yourself, ‘How much do I dislike it when other people snub me, or refuse to take any notice of me, or shove their oar in, or patronize me, or show off?’… If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realize that one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed.” (Mere Christianity, 109, 114).
Jesus would not have warned so often about pride if it were not endemic to humanity. We all have it; not all recognize or admit it.
Pride is the desire to be recognized when serving others. Pride rises as anger when people either do not ask my opinion or ignore me when I give it. Pride pushes for me to get my due: “All I want is what is fair.” Pride fuels my goal of better grades than Sue; rather than seizing every educational opportunity for the glory of God. Pride makes me care less about being good than about being better than another.
It is a biggish step, to admit conceit. It is, though, first.
3.2. Ask God for Humility
C. S. Lewis was correct (The Weight of Glory, 39): “The dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship…. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”
You were made for glory and honor. You bear the image of the king; you are daughters and sons of the most high!
But how will you get the honor you deserve? In this, you have a choice. You can grab for it, clutch at it, scrape and claw and seek with all your power to obtain that for which you were created. It makes sense—you were made for glory, so you go for the gusto!
But what if you slip? What if your goal is beyond your grasp? What if you fall short of the glory you must have for happiness?
Jesus chose a different path. He released glory to grasp humility—and God “highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
It seems too grand to imagine a similar fate for us who do not deserve such honor. Jesus grabs what he did not deserve (humiliation), and the Father gives him what is rightfully his (honor, glory, praise, adoration, the name above every names). Faith is our grasping what is rightfully ours (humiliation); and in exchange for faith the Father gives us what Jesus deserved (honor and privilege and rewards beyond contemplation). I must admit, such an exchange sounds too good to be true. Yet the Bible is clear: “‘God gives grace to the humble.’ Submit yourselves therefore to God…. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” (James 4). Peter says the same: 1Peter 5.6: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.”
4. Conclusion
A Nature Valley commercial depicts a rough and rugged man climbing a mountain. In the end, he is awed by the vastness of the height and staggering beauty of the breadth of the sight. The tag line is: “You’ve never felt more alive; you’ve never felt more insignificant.”
God made his world so that even the makers of granola bars see and sense the obvious. We are made for glory—not taking it, but reflecting back the glory of Jesus. This is our glory, our delight, our joy. Not so much being made glorious as given the glory and honor and delight of reflecting glory. We are never so much alive as when we feel insignificant! There is no greater joy than observing and honoring a greater glory. When you accept that there is a fantastically more glorious glory than your own, and you delight to bow before him, then you will know fullness of joy.
As God gives grace, he will produce such humility in us. May he be pleased to do so.
