1 Pet 5:5-7 | Humbled Pt. 2
Notes
Transcript
Good morning church! If you have your Bibles go ahead and flip on over to 1 Pet 5:5-7. While you’re heading that direction first I want to give a shoutout to those that came and helped do a deep clean on the church yesterday. I’m super thankful for your willingness to care for one another by caring for this building. A lot of cleanup, a lot of work went into it and I just want to say thanks to all of you who made it.
Second, I want to reiterate one of Will’s announcements from this morning. Our annual fall meeting which we’ve dubbed “Praise, Pie, Pots of Soup, & Performances” is next Sunday night. If you are a member of LBC it’s really important that you are there. If you aren’t a member of LBC then you are welcome to join us for sure. I’m really excited about this not just because of the food, although that alone is worth being excited about. I’m excited to look back over the past year and celebrate what God has done and also begin to look forward into next year with a hope and prayerful expectation of what God will continue to do. Make sure your calendars are marked! It’s going to be fun!
Ok, hopefully by now you’ve made it to 1 Peter 5. Just to gives us a little road map for this morning here’s what we’re going to do. As I said last week, I sat down to write my sermon and got to the end of point 1 and had about 40 minutes worth material and had another point to go. So today, I’m going to read the text and then real briefly cover what we looked at last week and then we’ll get into point 2 of this text.
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.
This is the Word of the Lord. Let’s go to the Lord of the Word and ask for His help.
Last week we saw 6 different reasons as to why the church is to be marked by humility. The first was that humility comes from and gives us a right view. I’m sure you’ve heard C. S. Lewis’s definition of humility, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but think of yourself less.” What would cause you to do that? Ultimately you think of yourself less because you have a right view of God and a right view of yourself. Last week we talked about what all we have to be prideful of. When you look at all that you have personally, you realize that none of it is solely because of you. Then we talked about our salvation and what we have contributed to our salvation. The only thing we’ve contributed to our salvation is our need for it—namely our sin. Then when we take our eyes off of ourselves and we put them on the God who had everything, and lacked nothing, but laid down his life so we could have everything, then the natural response from us is humility. It’s to think of ourself less and so much more of him. So humility is then a right view of ourselves and a right view of God.
The next things we saw was that humility encourages unity and service. These instructions in these verses are given to the church. This is why the younger submit to the elders and why all of us clothe ourselves in humility toward one another. When we view ourselves rightly and God rightly then we can’t help but want our fellow believers to know Him like we do. So that leads to a life of service.
Then we saw that humility encourages prayer. We looked a verse 7, “casting all your cares/anxieties upon him.” Again, this flows out of a right view of ourselves. What causes us to be anxious? Our inabilities, our uncertainties, our fears, our limitations cause us to begin to worry. So what’s the proper response, it’s to look to the one who upholds all things. It’s to throw those insecurities to the God who spoke all of creation in to being with a breath. And when you’ve cast your cares on him through prayer, what are you left with? Peace. Humility encourages peace because you’re no longer carrying your burdens, but he is.
Now what happens when you take all of that and boil it together? You find a person who’s ready to live on mission through trials and tribulation for the glory of the King. You find a kingdom people who endure the storms of life with eyes and hearts focused on him. What then is the call for us from these 6 points? It’s to Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. That’s our main point of all of that and that’s our main point for today. The focus last week was on us humbling ourselves, but there’s really a whole other half of this passage that we didn’t touch last week and that’s God’s side. Yes, we talked about why seeing God rightly causes us to be humble, but what is so encouraging from this text, what brings so much hope from this text is what God does with humble people. Peter gives us 3 different things that God does with humble people. These are pretty obvious from the text. You don’t have to have a thorough understanding of the greek to see these. They just jump right out at you. God does 3 things with humble people: he gives them grace, he exalts them, and he cares for them. Those are the 3 things you see God do with humble people. Now, let’s consider each of them for just a minute.
God gives grace to the humble.
God gives grace to the humble.
Why do you think Peter wanted to remind his readers that God gives grace to the humble? Remember, this is a group who’s suffering in exile and potentially undergoing some horrific persecution. Why do they need to remember that it is to the humble that God gives grace? Scriptures don’t explicitly tell us, but Peter does say God opposes the proud here. So somehow, in someway they’re at risk of walking into church pridefully.
When you’re in a hard spot, what is your tendency to do? Mine is to figure my way out of it, to prove that I can problem solve and conquer, to prove my wisdom, my power, and my might. But what do we see in verse 6? “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God” You see, we will have one of two responses. We will either humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand or we will stand beside God’s hand to show what we can do. When I’m standing besides the hand of God I’m standing in opposition to him. I’m not trust Him, I’m proving to Him and you and myself all that I’m capable of. When we’re in opposition to him we’re at enmity with him and God must oppose us.
However, when we see ourselves for who we truly are and what all we have to offer God and we humble ourselves under His mighty hand, what does God do? He meets us right where we are with His grace, because that’s what Christ does. This is what Jesus does in Matthew 9. Remember he was sitting there having dinner with tax collectors and sinners and the Pharisees got mad and called him out for it. But what does Jesus say? Matthew 9:12-13
But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Jesus can’t save those who think they’re righteous—the self-righteous. He saves sinners. So Jesus gives grace to the humble because that’s who he came to save. But Jesus also give grace to the humble because that’s who he is. Phil. 2:5-10
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 emptied himself, by 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. Therefore God has 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,
He humbled himself to death on a cross for people he didn’t need to save. He humbled himself because of who he is. So when we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, what does the rest of the world see? They see the person of Jesus. And what’s amazing to me is that Paul said that this mindset, this ability to be humble, was ours to have in Christ. So then, even your ability to humble yourself is God’s grace towards you. He allows you to see you for who you are. So God in His grace allows you to be humble so that you can receive more grace & in doing so, everyone else around you see Jesus. But now the question that comes from that is how does God give us grace? What exactly does that look like?
Now there’s no way we could be exhaustive in all the ways God shows us his grace, but I think there are a few worth noting. This phase, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble,” is used by James too. Look at this with me. James 4:4-6
You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
When we’re not humbling ourselves, but are standing pridefully, James says we’re enemies of God. But when we do humble ourselves, we’re no longer enemies, but friends. God’s grace is first seen in that we can be friends with him. I think we sang this song last week or the week before, “He walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am His own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, no other shall ever know.” Joy, friendship, walking with, knowing and being known are all God’s grace towards us and when you’re humble through the midst of trials and storms what more comforting thing could there be?
Then Isaiah 57:15 says,
For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,
who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place,
and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly,
and to revive the heart of the contrite.
To the contrite and lowly—in other words the humble—he revives the spirits and hearts of them. When you’re suffering, what do you look for to give you life? Is it a getaway? Some me time? A little vacation? Those are great while you’re there, but the problem is you have to leave those things and come back to reality. They don’t last. What does? The Spirit of God reviving our hearts and reviving our spirits.
We could keep going and looking across the Scriptures and find more ways that God gives grace like we see in 1 John and Romans and Hebrews that we have an advocate who prays for us. In Hebrews he’s the High Priest who mediates for us and is the perfect sacrifice we need, but looking just ahead in 1 Peter 5 we see him give grace by exalting us and caring for us. We’ll get more into those here in a little bit, but jump down with me for just a second to the end of 1 Pet. 5:10
And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
What does the God of all grace do? How does he give grace? He himself will restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you. What more could you hope for than God himself restoring, confirming, strengthening and establishing you? 1 Corinthians 13:12 “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” Church, what hope is there for us when we humble ourselves and find the grace of God!?
Now while all of this is true and so hopeful, the question remains, why does this truth—God gives grace to the humble—need to be heard by a suffering church? When suffering saints find their hope in the grace of God, then it’s not escape from their trials that they seek. Instead, having received grace, they become a people who are marked by giving grace. They don’t posture for position either within their churches or their communities, but rather they become people who sacrifice themselves for the service of others—especially those within the church. Because they have received grace and that grace has given them a different view of their trials and a different purpose in their roles then their priorities will be reoriented. God gives grace to the humble and the grace produces in us a hope that sustains us and that grace transforms us so that we become a gracious people who clothe ourselves with humility toward one another.
The second thing we see God do with humble people is exalt them.
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,
What does God do?
God exalts the humble
God exalts the humble
Now we might hear that and start to get excited and think, ok, if I humble myself then when the times right he’s going to exalt me and I’ll be able to show them. They’ll get what’s coming to them, I’m just going to stay humble right now—which really, when you listen to that doesn’t sound really humble, does it? Sound more like false humility to me. But is that what Peter means when he says “at the proper time he may exalt you”? Is he saying, don’t worry church, you just hang tight because the time is coming in which those guys will self destruct and you’ll be the ones in charge? In Luke 18:9-14 I think Jesus gives us the answer.
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Do you see what Jesus did right there at the end? This man went down justified. So Jesus is connecting justification with exaltation. You see there’s this really interesting thing that happens with justification. Maybe before we get there we ought to define that word. What does it mean to be justified? To be justified means to be made right. So in order for us to be justified with God we must in our humility recognize who we are, what we deserve and who God is, just like this tax collector did, then, just like the tax collector, we ask for God to be merciful to us and the moment that happens, boom! We’re exalted. Not exalted out of this earth or to a higher position than we were before. We’re now exalted to a new position as sons and daughters of God. God in His mighty hand redeems us from our sinful state and gives us a new heart. So then exaltation in one sense is immediate, and since it’s done by God’s mighty hand what then can remove us from it? Nothing! Not fiery trials or suffering or temptation, nor “death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Since it’s God’s mighty hand that redeems and restores us then we can trust that it’s God’s mighty hand that will confirm, strengthen and establish us. But our exaltation isn’t complete yet. Ultimately, our exaltation will occur when Christ returns and restores all things—us included as we see in v10—and his eternal reign is established.
Church when you submit under the mighty hand of God you can know that he will uphold you in exaltation. First it’s seen in your justification but ultimately it’s seen in glory when Christ returns. Now here’s what this does for a suffering church, for a humble church. So often what are we living life for? Exaltation! We want to be high and lifted up. We want to be seen as valuable and worthy. We want to be seen for what we bring to the table and the good that we can offer others. So we have this disposition of self-confidence and high self-esteem so that when the rest of the world looks at us they see a person who’s “got it.” We’ve got our life put together. We live for the instagram moment just to show the rest of the world we’re worthy of admiration and thus exaltation. But what happens when that exaltation doesn’t come? We begin to drown in self-doubt and become so self-conscience that we’re paralyzed. We’re crushed. But when you place your hope in the certain exaltation of Christ you are filled with a humble joy that’s rooted in your trust of the mighty hand of God. So what does your disposition reflect? Self-confidence? Self-esteem? Or humble joy?
How do I know? Well our disposition is ultimately fleshed out in real life relationships and we respond to relationships in a thousand different ways but really there’s two different ends of the spectrum. We either avoid them all together or we are possessive of them. Now, just to be clear here, Peter’s instructions are to the church, so this application is towards us here in this room and our relationships with one another. We either avoid relationships with those inside the church or we become possessive of people. Ultimately, both of those are a result of our fear of man rather than our fear of God.
I avoid an authentic relationship with you because I’m afraid of what you might think of me if you really get to know me. I think you think I’m a good guy now, and that’s the validation I need. So I really don’t want to press into any more of a relationship than just seeing you once a week on a Sunday morning because then you might really get to know me and not like me. There’s just too much risk. Especially in a small town, right? If you know the true me and my struggles and fears and failures and insecurities then you might not want to do business with me anymore. Or maybe I avoid relationships with others because I’ve done that before and I know what always ends up happening: hurt. At the end of the day my transparency and vulnerability will be weaponized against me. Church, I recognize that every bit of that is represented in this room, and I want you to know it’s ok. The hurt and fears you feel are real and I’m not saying they aren’t unwarranted.
I was meeting with a couple guys on Friday talking through this and one of them pointed out that the word exalt is also translated in the NT as “lifted up.” As in John 3:14 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,” You see the exaltation of Jesus was ultimately seen in his humiliation on the cross. Sometimes the exaltation that God would use to most show his glory isn’t your exaltation in other’s eyes that makes you look good, but rather that results in Him being glorified and others being served. It might hurt you; it might cost you, but when you’re under the mighty hand of God you will find grace to sustain you and keep you until you are ultimately exalted with Him in glory.
If we’re not avoiding those relationships though, the pendulum can swing to the other end of the spectrum in which we’re possessive of them. I do this because I need your validation because I’ve either never had it or because I had it from someone else and now don’t have it anymore. So we latch on to others because we so desperately want…exaltation. We need their approval and validation and if we loose it then what do we have left?
You see all of this is ultimately rooted in the fear of man which is rooted in pride. It’s the pride of thinking that I deserve you to think a certain way about me and I’m afraid of losing that so I either avoid or overcommit. But church, when we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God we will be exalted and not in a way that let’s us down, or abandons us, but eternally secure in his hands. So let me ask you this: are you living in authentic community? Are you even willing to live in authentic community? If not, what’s holding you back? Is it because of your fear of man? Is it because of your pride of life and unwillingness to be transparent and vulnerable?
I’ll use this Spurgeon quote from last week: “I am to think very little of myself, and to think so much of others that I admire all that I see of God’s grace in them, and am glad to learn from them as well as to help them in their progress to heaven.” Authentic community looks something like that. A willingness to learn from and help those in your faith family in their progress to heaven. There are opportunities for you to do that here. I know my wife leads it, but I continue to hear stories about how Women’s Bible Study has helped strengthen and deepen the relationships of our ladies here at the church. Women, if you haven’t been able to be a part of it then I’m calling you now to make it a priority in your life. We have small group on Wednesday nights and Sunday School on Sunday mornings for adults as ways for you to grow in your knowledge and application of the Word and to grow in relationship with other people here. Make it a priority for you to be at one or both of those. Students, this is for you too. Wednesday night and Sunday morning the same thing is going on.
We don’t seek these things for exaltation. We do these things in humility because we have been exalted with Christ in our justification and will ultimately be exalted with him in His glorification. Church, God exalts the humble and that affects our disposition and our relationships.
The last thing we see God do for the humble is care for them. Let’s reread our last verse for today. 1 Pet. 5:7
casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
God cares for the humble
God cares for the humble
In the book of John 10 Jesus says he is the good shepherd and immediately after he says he’s a good shepherd he says, John 10:12-16
He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
How does the good shepherd care for his sheep? He knows them. He knows what they’re afraid of and worried about. He knows what they need to not just survive but to grow and be fed and satisfied. And he protects them. So much so that he laid down his life for his sheep. He died so that the roaring lion seeking someone to devour wouldn’t devour His sheep. He cares for his sheep by pursuing after them. There are sheep that are not of this fold, so he came after those sheep and brought them into His fold. Now there’s one flock—that’s the church! That’s us. Church he cares for us by being the good chief shepherd!
But that’s not the only ways he cares for us. What did he promise for his church? He promised to never leave or forsake them. He promised to complete the good work that he began in them. He promised to work all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to his purpose. He promised to grant us peace because he’s the prince of peace. He promised to give us rest. He convicts us because He cares for us. It’s His kindness that leads us to repentance. And He gives us His Spirit as a sign and seal of our inheritance so that as we join Him on His mission not only does he sustain us but he shapes us to look more like Him.
Church because all of this is true you can humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and cast all your anxieties, all your cares on Him. Knowing that He does care for you. You don’t have to stand in opposition to His mighty hand but rather you can confess your inabilities and weaknesses and find that under His mighty hand is the all sufficient grace that you really need and desire. And when you do that you can find that there’s a group of people, the church, who are just like you. Weak and humble. And you can live with and in that community not seeking exaltation, because your exaltation comes through your justification and will be complete when Christ returns in glory. And church, He will return in glory and not just because He is a conquering King, but because He is a good shepherd who cares for you. Some of us just need to hear this this morning. Jesus cares for you.
I know, fiery trials and sufferings sure make it seem like He doesn’t care for you. But His hand is mighty, and all of these other truths, all of these other promises remind us that he really does care. You can trust Him. You can run to HIm. Some of you need to do that right now. There’s nothing to be proud of. We all know the truth about each other. So here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to ask the music team to come on up and as they get in their places I’m going to ask you to go ahead and begin to meet with the Lord. I’m going to give you just a minute to pray and humble yourself before Him, knowing that if you don’t you will be opposed. But in your humility find his grace. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Cast your anxieties on Him because He cares for you. The musics going to begin to play and I’ll give us a minute then pray and after that we’ll stand and sing. If you want to meet and talk through any of this I’ll slip to the back and am happy to meet with you. We can grab lunch or coffee this week and talk through whatever the Lord is laying on your heart. But for now, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God because God gives grace to the humble. God exalts the humble. And God cares for the humble. Let’s pray.