The Substitute Brings Serenity
Leland Herring
Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 27:27
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Big Idea: The church needs constant preparation for spiritual battles
In this letter Peter has given the church may wanrings, instructions, and reminders. He wants to end by giving some final instructions. First, he addresses the attitudes of elders (leaders in the church), and the attitudes of the younger (followers in the church). He calls for humility. Then he once again reminds the church of the spiritual nature of the battle they are in, reminds them they are not alone in their suffering, and promises that after the suffering is done, they will have Christ and eternal glory.
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.
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
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.
To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
By Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it.
She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son.
Greet one another with the kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.
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:
“So” or “therefore” (Based on everything Peter has said thus far in the letter)
Now he addresses elders in a very personal way. First, he calls them fellow elders. He is saying that he is a fellow worker with them, not putting himself as better than them, but seeing them as important workers in the gospel work. Peter further identifies himself as a witness to of the sufferings of Christ, which recalls us to his attendance at the cross, where he saw the sufferings of Christ, the passion, with his own eyes.
He is also a partaker in the glory that is to be revealed, which all faithful believers will see. This is our great and blessed hope, that we will see the glory of Christ and experience it, even after we may have suffered in this life. You can see that Peter is all about facing reality with hope. The reality of suffering in the life of the believer, which he clearly considers to be an important thing to acknowledge and talk about, but not without hte reminder of the hope we have, which should help us to bear the things we encounter.
A pastor is an elder. The terms are often interchangeable in different times of church history. In our denomination, pastors are elders, but not all elders are pastors. Paul gives the qualifications of elders in his pastoral epistles.
And being a fellow elder, a fellow sufferer, and a fellow person of hope, Peter continues to address the elders:
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;
Shepherd, or tend to. Take care of, protect. Paul wrote quite a bit to elders, and we know that he was particularly concerned with the doctrine of the church, and false teachings, and was clear that the elders had a grave responsibility to protect the flock from wolves, or bad teaching.
So the elders are to shepherd. Some people take that as meaning only lead, but a shepherd is to do more than just lead, he is to care, nurture, and protect the flock. The primary way this happens in the church is through instruction in God’s Word. This is the paramount responsibility of the elders, to ensure the flock is well fed on the bread from heaven, that is, the Word of God.
Remember that Peter’s last physical interaction with Jesus was when he told him to feed his lambs. In other words, Peter had a responsibility to Jesus himself to make sure that the church received biblical instruction. As they shepherd the flock, the elders are to exercise oversight. This is not oversight so much in the managerial sense, but means: look upon, inspect, observe, take care of. They are to observe and guide the flock.
This is important work. Today, many people believe the only job of the church is to love everyone, by which they mean “never make anyone feel bad”. This is toxic affirmation, whereby our society has trained most people to have an attitude that we never correct or notice bad behavior. You can see what that leads to, and the church is not to have this attitude. We are told not to judge, but scripture says judgment begins in the church.
That does not mean that elders are supposed to be hyper legalistic and be looking down on everyone and constantly calling people out on their failures. But when sin is observed, we have a duty to the Lord and to each other to address that.
Now Peter gets at the attitude of the elders as they shepherd. They are not to do some out of compulsion, or out of obligation. You don’t want someone leading you who feels they have to do it for duty’s sake, so they do it begrudgingly. Rather, you want willing servants as elders, who do it for joy and true love and concern for the church.
C. S. Lewis put the distinction between love and duty this way:
A perfect man would never act from a sense of duty; he’d always want the right thing more than the wrong one. Duty is only a substitute for love (of God and other people) like a crutch which is a substitute for a leg. Most of us need the crutch at times; but of course it is idiotic to use the crutch when our own legs (our own loves, tastes, habits, etc) can do the journey on their own.
The elder is also not to serve for shameful gain, but eagerly. If he is motivated by his own building up of wealth or prestige, he has the wrong attitude about serving. Unfortunately, there are many wolves in sheep’s clothing throughout history who have used their position in church leadership for this.
In addition to being willing to serve, and eager to serve, the elder is not to domineer:
not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.
The elder should not see himself as someone others need to quake before, or as though others must serve them. Peter may be recalling here the night of the last supper, when Jesus gave them the example of a servant willing to wash feet. As Jesus was an example to Peter and the others, elders should be examples to others.
This is why Paul gave the qualifications of elders in the pastoral epistles. It is important to have elders of the highest quality, and this means that churches should carefully select elders who meet the biblical qualifications. There are many horror stories out there about what happens when a church has unqualified elders. But when the elders meet the qualifications, and have the proper attitude of joyful service to the Lord and to the congregation, the church benefits.
And the elders who do well can look forward to the reward:
And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
This echoes an encouragement from James:
Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
So the elder who does well can look forward to the chief Shepherd, Jesus, and the crown of glory. Ultimately, all the glory belongs to God, but those who finish in the faith will share in that glory.
Now Peter moves on from addressing the elders to addressing the younger people in the congregation.
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.”
So there is order in life, and there is order in the church. The elders are the rulers or leaders of the church. Sometimes this can be confusing to people, since we live in a democratic republic, many people think the church should operate in the same way. But in the local church, the elders are the highest authority. Maybe I should say the highest human authority. Ultimately the highest authority is Christ, and the Word of God is where all authority derives.
So younger, be subject to the elders, and all of you, including elders, are to have humility toward one another.
Now he gives an imperative to all in the church:
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,
Here Peter may be recalling another lesson from the Lord, one he certainly heard, when Jesus said that if you go to a banquet, sit in the lowest spot. If you do, the host will honor you by moving you forward. If you sit in the highest spot, you may be removed and embarrassed. In God’s Kingdom, the humble are exalted.
casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,
yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Most of us need to be constantly reminded of this. In the hymn, What a friend we have in Jesus, is a great line: “Oh, what peace we often forfeit, oh, what needless pain we bear, all because we did not carry everything to God in prayer.”
What re you worried about this morning? Take it to the Lord in prayer. Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Here is another strong encouragement and reminder. Be Sober minded and be Watchful are imperative commands. It is not optional for the believer. We must be sober minded. That means self-controlled, or well composed in mind. We must think clearly and that means we must think biblically. Having a biblical worldview. So when we hear stories from people in our lives, or what is on the news, or whatever, we need to filter it through that biblical worldview.
This is always very important because we are all prone to fall into the thinking of the world, or of this age. We must be ready to think differently from those around us, and think biblically. And along with that to be watchful. We will be tempted and we have an adversary. When you have a known enemy, you maintain a state of readiness. We have an enemy of our souls, who will seek to trip us up and make us sin. He prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Sometimes the lion charges at you, and sometimes it sneaks up on you. The tactics can vary, but we need to be on guard at all times. And we are commanded next to resist him:
Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
Firm in your faith, you resist. And you also must remember you are not alone, Christians throughout the world and Christians throughout history have faced trials, and that should be an encouragement to us. Remember how he said earlier that we should not think we are encountering something unusual? We aren’t. Christians before us, and Christians even today in may parts of the world, are likewise experiencing different types of suffering.
But there is hope at the end of the suffering:
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.
To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
David Helm says about this:
1 & 2 Peter and Jude—Sharing Christ’s Sufferings Restore, Confirm, Strengthen, Establish
Four marvelous verbs. We will be completely restored, confirmed, strengthened, and established. The word translated “restore” is in other places translated “mend.” In fact, it is used when Jesus approaches his disciples and finds them mending their nets. Peter the fisherman, more than most, knew what this term meant. And now he uses it to speak of what God will do for each one of us. He will mend us. He will attend to us. He will make us whole. He will stand us up on our own two feet, for that is what “confirm” means. He will “strengthen” and “establish” us. Those final verbs, architectural by nature, are terms that echo Peter’s earlier teaching that we are being built up into the spiritual house of God (2:3–8). When we arrive at Heaven’s gate, we will be his dwelling.
Finally, Peter wraps up the letter:
By Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it.
She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son.
Greet one another with the kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.
Silvanus was the scribe of this letter as Peter dictated. Exhort means to urge or to implore. Peter wants all who encounter this letter to take it seriously and he is declaring it to be the true grace of God.
Two more imperative verbs remain.
Stand firm in it.
Greet one another
She who is in Babylon most likely refers to the church there.
Standing Strong: Be bold, be watchful.
1 & 2 Peter and Jude—Sharing Christ’s Sufferings Our Adoration
The Reformer Hugh Latimer and Nicolas Ridley were burned at the stake in Oxford for their faith in October 1555. As the flames of this final trial rose around them, Latimer cried out:
Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.9
These were the final words of a suffering man who wanted nothing more than to die in adoration. It was enough for him to know that what happened to him on that day would accomplish the purposes of God’s unextinguishable and everlasting dominion. As it was for Latimer, so it also was for Peter, and so it must be for each one of us.
