Choosing Under (Faith)
I Peter 5:6-11
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
11-27-2022
Humility
I read recently about a man that was voted the most humble person in the church. They had a party for him and then gave him a medal.
The next week, he wore the medal to church and they took it away from him!
The theologian Ray Stevens wrote a song about humility in the 1970s that went like this:
“O Lord, it’s hard to be humble / when you’re perfect in every way / I can’t wait to look in the mirror / I get better looking each day / to know me is to love me / I must be one heck of a man / O Lord, it’s hard to be humble but I’m doing the best that I can.” ?
For the last three weeks, we have been considering what it means to “choose under” in relation to the government, to our spouses, and to our church leaders, the elders.
We’ve concentrated on the Greek word “hypotasso,” which means to be subject to or to rank under. It is a decision of the will to intentionally submit to others.
Ben Miller, in our preaching team meeting, pointed out that submitting is counter-cultural and counter-personal.
Let’s be honest. Submitting isn’t easy. Research shows that since the 1960s (Watergate and Vietnam), trust in authority figures has eroded significantly.
We have watched authorities misuse their power and abuse others in the process. We have seen pastors fall like the leaves in Fall for failing to live up to what they say they believe.
Submitting is scary because it makes us vulnerable to being hurt.
But there is something deeper. It also means we have to admit that we are not in control.
At the very center of our being, we want to be in charge, in control, and the center of the universe.
We want people to notice us, to think we are more than enough, to be important, beautiful, and popular.
This morning, we are going to dive deep into the last verses in I Peter to discover what it means to choose under when it comes to our faith.
Turn to I Peter 5:6.
Prayer.
Peter’s Journey
You might remember Peter - impulsive, haughty, hot-headed, and sticking his foot in his mouth a lot!
He was larger than life in the early church. Everyone had heard the story of Peter walking on the water. Peter saw firsthand Jesus “unzip” His humanity on the mountain of transfiguration. He saw Jesus perform amazing miracles - turning water into wine, and multiplying food, he was there in the courtyard when Jesus faced Pilate, and he witnessed Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.
This letter was written by the Apostle Peter about thirty years after the death and resurrection of Jesus and, by then, Peter is obviously a very different person, a more kind, self-controlled, and humble man.
Peter wrote two letters to the scattered Christ-Followers just as persecution was starting to break out. His goal in writing to them was to encourage their hearts and strengthen their faith in the time of oppression that was to come. Soon Nero will kick the persecution into high gear and Peter will be murdered, crucified upside down at his request.
Peter’s theme is how to grow in your faith when the going gets tough.
White Apron
“All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” (I Peter 5:5)
Peter commands his readers to clothe themselves in humility. This is a beautiful word picture of a person who wears a white apron signifying his status as a servant.
We should imitate Jesus in our humble service toward one another, like when He put on the towel and washed His disciple's feet.
Why? Because God opposes the proud. He stands against those who shine a light on themselves.
We see this in the story of the tower of Babel and the judgment on Nebuchadnezzar.
But He is for those who choose under, those who recognize that He is God and they are not.
So what should be our response? Let me read Peter’s words. By the way, if you are part of the Daily Audio Bible community, Brian read this passage yesterday!
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.” (I Peter 5:6-11)
Because God will exalt you at the right time, we are called to humble ourselves.
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” (I Peter 5:6)
When Illinois first made personalized license plates available, thousands of requests came in for #1. The person in charge knew that not everyone could have that license plate, he decided to give it to himself!
Peter makes the case that since God opposes the proud, the most logical thing to do is to humble ourselves under God’s mighty right hand.
God’s “mighty right hand” is a way of saying that God controls the destinies of men. It would have brought to mind events like the deliverance out of Egypt and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
This is a command from Peter. We can humble ourselves because we stand under the protection of God and we can live with utter dependence on His grace and mercy.
Humbling yourself under other authorities could put you in a position to be hurt or taken advantage of.
But not with God! You can submit, that what the word “under” means in this verse, to God because He is trustworthy!
The prophet Micah wrote:
“He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)
Peter learned through Jesus’s example that humiliation leads to exaltation.
If you submit to God, if you trust Him completely with your life, then the promise is that God will exalt you. This means to raise in dignity, honor, and happiness.
This will happen in “due time,” the right time, God’s timing in your life.
We live in a culture that is obsessed with promoting ourselves, and our brand and exalting ourselves above others.
But we are not called to exalt ourselves. In fact, we are called to die to ourselves.
C.S. Lewis wrote:
“Humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less.”
In the Kingdom of God, the way up is down. One writer calls it “descending into greatness.”
Jesus said that the last will be first and the first last. (Matthew 20:16).
And
“For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:25)
Charles Spurgeon once said:
“If you are willing to be nothing God will make something of you. The way to the top of the ladder is to begin at the lowest round. In fact, in the church of God, the way up is to go down; but he who is ambitious to be at the top will find himself before long at the bottom.”
D.L. Moody was one of the most famous evangelists in the late 1800s. People came from all over the world to his Bible Conference. One year a large group of pastors from Europe attended and, as was the custom there, left their shoes outside the doors of the dorm they were staying in to be shined. They assumed the servants would take care of the shoes. But there were no servants.
Moody realized what happened and quietly took up all the shoes and shined them and put them back out without saying a word. No one would have even known he had shined them if he hadn’t been interrupted by a friend in the middle of his secret mission.
At the end of the sermon, we will see that Jesus lived this out as a beautiful example for us to follow.
Because God cares for you, you can throw all your worries on Him.
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” (I Peter 5:7)
Peter is quoting David from Psalm 55. David knew anxiety firsthand.
The word cast means to “throw upon.” Maxine went to the store on Friday. When she got home, I helped her bring the groceries in. I don’t like to take multiple trips so I try to carry as many bags as I can. The problem is that when I get to the counter, I have to swing the bags in order to get the momentum for them to land where they should.
Peter issues another command. Casting, place upon, throw all anxieties on Him.
The word anxiety is an interesting one. It’s a combination of the words tear and mind. It literally means to tear the mind apart.
While I’ve dealt with depression my entire adult life, I rarely get really anxious.
My children’s generation deal with anxiety more than any other generation before them and lot of that comes from social media.
Anxiety is the most frequently referred mental health problem. Anxiety is real and can be debilitating. It can rob you of your peace and your joy.
Spurgeon wrote: “Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows but only empties today of its strength.”
And it can bring shame when you feel like you “should” be a better Christian and not worry so much.
But Jesus calls to such a soul:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
Why can we trust God with our anxieties and worries?
Say this out loud with me: Because He cares for you!
We live in a culture that is constantly asking the question, “Does anyone care about me?”
I read the story of a man that jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge. In his suicide note, he said that his plan was the walk the bridge several times and if one person smiled at him, he wouldn’t jump.
He was looking for someone, anyone, to care.
Charles Spurgeon calls this verse a soft pillow for a worried and tired heart.
Some of you don’t talk to God much because you don’t actually believe that He cares about you. You think that you don’t want to bother him with the little details of your insignificant life.
You couldn’t be more wrong. God loves you and cares deeply about your life.
Jesus said:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? (Matthew 6:25-27)
We need to learn that we actually control very little in our lives. We have a choice. The things that we worry about most of the time don’t come true. We can either carry all of our burdens or we can cast them upon God.
George Muller told the story about a young man that was carrying a very heaven sack of potatoes and a farmer passed him on the road. The farmer stopped and asked him if he wanted a ride so he wouldn’t have to carry a load of potatoes on his shoulders.
Thankful the man jumped up in the cart and rode for a while. The farmer turned around and noticed that the potatoes were still on the man’s shoulders.
He told the man that he should take the sack off his shoulders and put them down in the cart.
The man told him that he didn’t know if the cart could hold the weight of the potatoes so he would keep them on his back.
Some of you take medication for anxiety and that is a good thing. But just taking a pill without proactive practices to deal with anxiety is only half the solution.
We can daily, hourly, minute by minute, submit our worries to God.
We can talk to a Christian counselor to help us connect our anxiety to our life experiences.
We can remind ourselves every day that if we feel like no one in the whole world cares about us, the God of the universe cares about us and loves us extravagantly.
“For God so loved you that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
Because we have an enemy of our souls, we need to be alert and resist him at every turn
“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (I Peter 5:8)
Two more commands follow - be alert and sober-minded.
The attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, happened, in part, because no one really believed it could happen. In fact, Japanese peace envoys were seated at the negotiating table at the very time of the attack, catching everyone completely off guard.
Peter is commanding us to watch intensely, to be vigilant, to be calm and collected in spirit.
We are called to be temperate, dispassionate, and have a clear head.
This phrase is used six times in the New Testament and three of those times are in I Peter.
Jesus, when talking to His disciples about the end times, give this command:
“Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:34-36)
Why is it so important to be alert and sober-minded? Because we have an enemy. John calls him our adversary. He is a slanderer, a false accuser, and the father of lies.
He is a created being that was kicked out of heaven for leading a coup against God.
He stands opposed to everything that God stands for and hates Jesus and His followers with the passion of a thousand shining suns.
The issue today in the church is that, according to statistics, less than half of people who claim that they are born-again Christians say that they believe in a real devil.
Peter compares him to a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
A mature lion's roar can be heard up to 5 miles away. Lions do most of their roaring at night. The reason they roar in the first place is to create fear in the hearts of those who hear them. This is just what the devil does too! He roars to create fear in the hearts of God's children.
There weren’t zoos back then so where would Peter have seen lions? In the arena, as Christians were being fed to them!
Satan prowls. He is stealthy. He doesn’t wear red underwear and a cape but can disguise himself as an angel of light.
He is actively looking, searching, and studying his prey and wants to gulp them down whole.
He wants to steal our hope, kill our bodies, and destroy our souls.
The great Puritan commentator Matthew Henry wrote:
Matthew Henry writes about Satan as the roaring lion, “He is a roaring lion, hungry, fierce, strong, and cruel, the fierce and greedy pursuer of souls… He walks about, seeking whom he may devour; his whole design is to devour and destroy souls. To this end, he is unwearied and restless in his malicious endeavors; for he always, night and day, goes about studying and contriving whom he may ensnare to their eternal ruin.”
He whispers in our ears that we aren’t worthy of God’s love, that our sins are too many.
So what should be our posture toward him? Should we cower in the corner, afraid of demons behind every bush?
Peter gives another command. Resist him. Oppose him. Stand against him.
When Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce Joseph, he resisted her. He ran in the opposite direction.
Jonathan Edwards said, “The best protection we can have from the devil and his schemes is a humble heart.”
We can’t do this in our own power but by “standing firm in the faith.”
Notice it’s not standing firm in faith but “the faith.” This is the Gospel. That’s why knowing your Bible and what it says about how to deal with the devil is so important.
Satan was attacking Martin Luther with list after list of all of his sins; Luther quietly admitted that it was true: all of those sins had been committed by him; but then Luther turned to his accuser and said: "Now write across them all, 'the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin'" -- that is the perfect and sufficient answer to our accuser.
Paul writes marching orders:
“Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” (Eph 6:11-14)
Many of us run naked into battle and wonder why we lose the fight so much.
James wrote that victory comes through submission:
“Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)
What is our motivation to resist him?
“Because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of suffering.”
We don’t fight this battle alone. In fact, all of the “you”s in this passage are plural, “ya’ll.”
You are not alone! You are part of the brotherhood of believers that are taking their stand against the evil one all over the world.
We have a family that we can lean on in suffering, we can have accountability knowing that there are others that struggle in the same way we do, and we have a cadre of people that form a battalion to go to battle with.
Listen to the promise of verse 10:
“And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” (I Peter 5:10)
We need to have an eternal perspective. God has called us, in grace, to His eternal glory in Christ!
We may suffer for a “little while.” Peter writes in the first chapter of this letter:
“This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” (I Peter 1:5-7)
Paul writes to the Corinthians:
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Cor 4:16-18)
I love the way Eugene Peterson paraphrases this verse:
“So keep a firm grip on the faith. The suffering won’t last forever. It won’t be long before this generous God who has great plans for us in Christ—eternal and glorious plans they are!—will have you put together and on your feet for good.” (I Peter 5:10, The Message)
After this suffering, God Himself will:
restore you. This is a word for the mending of nets. Does anyone here today need restoring? Does your soul need mending?
Peter speaking from experience. After the resurrection, Jesus ate breakfast with Peter and restored him, and recommissioned him to shepherd the sheep of His newly formed church.
Come to Jesus!
make you strong and firm and steadfast. Is anyone here this morning that feels weak and wobbly in their faith? Does any feel like you are made more out of jello than steel?
Come to Jesus!
Steven Curtis Chapman wrote:
“His strength is perfect when our strength is gone / He’ll carry us when we can't carry on / Raised in His power, the weak become strong / His strength is perfect, His strength is perfect.”
Jesus our Example/ Communion
In the famous hymn in Philippians 2, Paul writes:
“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2:5-11)
Jesus showed us what true humility looks like. He left heaven to become a human being. He put aside His glory to become a baby born in a dirty cave in the middle of nowhere.
He lived a perfect life of submission to His Father. He put on the towel of a savant and washed His disciple's feet.
He understands the anxiety and actually sweated drops of blood in the Garden as He wrestled with the will of the Father to break him in our place. He choose under and went to the cross willingly to be tortured and murdered in our place for our sins.
How can we follow His example:
Where do you need to ask God to help you grow?
In humility?
let others talk
Don’t pry
Be okay with people not liking you
Back down from a useless fight
Apologize when you are wrong
In trusting Him?
David Egner gives three ways to do this:
Let worry turn your attention to God.
Let worry turn your attention to the words of Jesus
Let worry turn your heart to prayer.
In resisting the devil?
You don’t have to fight on Facebook.
Be ruled by the Word
Pray for wisdom
Resist the first stirring of temptation
Do not fight him in your own strength
In being in fellowship with others as you suffer?
Make it a habit to never miss a Sunday
Be involved, don’t just attend
Be in a small group
Be accountable to each other
