Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
Will you please open your Bible and turn to ?
This morning we are concluding our series on 1 Peter, so we will be looking at .
Before becoming a pastor, I always wanted to know what was coming up next.
If you feel that way, wait no longer because I’m happy to share that we are going to move from 1 Peter to Jesus’ sermon on the mount from .
We’ll begin that series next week.
I’m excited to begin and as I was thinking about it yesterday my hope was and is that through that series we will let Jesus preach to us, and how excited we should be.
I always wanted to know what was coming up next
But this week we are going to let Peter continue to preach to us and today from .
What (or who) is your greatest adversary?
Who’s opposition do you most fear?
Have you ever faced off with someone in some form of competition and known beforehand that you were no match for them?
Today we are going to consider two opponents, one you may expect and one you may not.
Both of these opponents raise a bit of fear in us.
On one side, Christians face to opposition of Satan.
The crafty deceiver whose aim is to steal, kill, and destroy the faith of God’s people is opposed to us.
You may not think about his opposition regularly, which is his greatest victory.
I believe it was C.S. Lewis who said that the Devil’s greatest victory is to convince you that he doesn’t exist.
Yet he is our adversary.
But on the other side, we are going to see the warning of an opponent that is superior to Satan.
There is no match this opponent and yet we, at times, can find ourselves walking in opposition to him.
Of course, I’m talking about God.
Our passage mentions God and Satan while warning us to pursue humility because God opposes the proud, while at the same time encouraging us to fight against our Adversary the Devil by holding confidently to our faith.
This is why I have entitled this sermon “Confident Humility”.
Let’s read these verses together:
Read .
Pray.
As we come to the end of this letter, we should take a moment and think back through the journey that this letter has taken us on.
Again and again, we have seen the idea of suffering emerge from Peter’s letter.
Peter was writing to people that were suffering, even from persecution.
Over and over again Peter has returned to this theme because he wanted to help these churches that he loved cling to Christ in the midst of their fiery trials.
Of course, the close of his letter is no different.
Again, Peter wants to encourage the church as we face suffering.
His final encouragement, on the back of all of his teaching on suffering throughout this letter, comes by way of 3 charges.
As Peter’s letter closes, we are charged with three ideas to help us endure our own sufferings.
What does Peter say?
He says to (1) be humble, (2) be careful, and (3) be confident.
We must be humble, careful, and confident people in these last days as we undergo the trials we inevitably face in our sin-stained world.
In short, Peter’s charge to us is to humbly trust our loving Father while actively resisting the devil’s schemes.
In these final days, as Satan rages against God’s people to destroy their faith, we must resist all of his attacks.
But we don’t resist the devil by beating our chests and flexing our muscles; we resist him by humbly trusting our loving Father.
Church, I cannot think of a more fitting way to conclude this letter than by thinking on these three things.
We should all want to shape our lives around these verses.
As we grow as disciples of Jesus, these three traits ought to be growing within us.
Church, hear Peter very clearly this morning: be humble, be careful, and be confident.
Why? Let’s see why, starting with the first exhortation, “be humble”
Be Humble
The first thing that we see from Peter is that as we endure trials and sufferings in this evil world, we must be humble people.
Be humble, Peter says, and he says it in verses 5-7 of our passage.
Let’s read them again:
1 Peter 5:5
If there is any characteristic that we should pray would mark our church, it would be this: humility.
If there is any attitude that you should pray and disciple your children towards, it’s this: humility.
If there is anything that we should aim our lives toward, it is humility.
A trait that is not always spoken of with a lot of fanfare, humility ought to be the defining characteristic of Christians.
Peter is telling us, in very clear terms, to be humble.
At the end of verse 5 he says, “Dress yourself, cover yourself, everyone one of you - whether elder, member, older, younger, man, or woman - put on humility toward each other.”
But isn’t this an interesting call to people that are suffering?
After all, people that are suffering are typically humble, right?
Maybe.
Unless you’re like me.
Because you know what I’m tempted to think when I’m faced with suffering?
I think thoughts like these:
Why is this happening to me!?
I don’t deserve this!
Does God even care about me?
How can this be the wisest plan for my life?
Is God really faithful to his promises?
These are the thoughts that I think when I’m suffering and you know what they reveal?
Pride.
Evil, sinful pride.
And though we should be sympathetic with each other when we suffer, we cannot overlook and tolerate pride.
Pride comes with a huge warning label.
Some warning labels are so obvious you cannot miss them.
This is one of those warning labels.
Peter says we must clothe ourselves with humility because “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
Here Peter is quoting which says:
Yes, you have an adversary called the Devil but as we will see, he can be resisted.
There is an opponent you are not match for: God.
Don’t miss this warning label: God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
Wow!
This should be life-changing for you and me.
Can you imagine living your life in opposition to God?
The God who made you, gives you breath and life, keeps your heart beating and the stars in the sky.
Can you imagine being opposed by the all-powerful God of the universe?
If there is a team I want to be on, it’s God’s.
And yet, our passage tells us that there is a clear way to put ourselves in opposition to God, by being prideful.
This means that the greatest danger that you and I will face today is not the danger of a school board ruling, a supreme court judgment, persecution, or cancer.
No, the greatest danger that you and I face today is pride.
Because pride puts us in opposition to God.
Your greatest enemy today is you.
What a warning label!
But as you can see, there is also a promise attached to this verse.
If pride is our greatest danger, then humility is our greatest friend.
Because humility positions us to receive God’s grace.
Again, Peter says:
1 Peter 5:
God gives grace to the humble.
What we ought to fear most is God’s opposition and what we ought to desire most is God’s grace.
Humility positions us to receive God’s grace.
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