1 Peter 5:8-9
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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.
Thou art my protecting arm,
fortress, refuge, shield, buckler.
Fight for me and my foes must flee;
Uphold me and I cannot fall;
Strengthen me and I stand unmoved, unmoveable; Equip me and I shall receive no wound;
Stand by me and Satan will depart;
Anoint my lips with a song of salvation and I shall shout thy victory;
Give me abhorrence of all evil as a vile monster that defies thy law, casts off thy yoke,
defiles my nature, spreads misery. (Valley of Vision pg. 182 part 1)
As we roll into verses 8 and 9 Peter continues His exhortations to the church. He continues to call them to live in a way that is preparing them to meet the Good Shepherd in the midst of suffering and persecution. The elect exiles in Asia needed to understand the hazards that were out there which they were susceptible if they did not pay attention and submit to God and His Word.
This brings us to our first truth this morning,
Believes are to have a,
I. Controlled Thought Life
I. Controlled Thought Life
Notice what Peter says,
Be sober minded;
In other words,
be in control of one’s thought processes and thus not be in danger of irrational thinking—‘to be sober-minded, to be well composed in mind.
Now this exhortation to be sober-minded is a term we don’t use often, unless we are reading the Scriptures, but the idea is throughout the New Testament.
Peter has already used it in,
Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
He uses it again in,
The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.
1 Peter 4:7
I want us to think for a moment about Peter. If anyone has the credibility or understanding of the need to be sober-minded/controlled in their thinking who would it be. Peter!
Think of the times especially in regards to suffering/persecution Peter has been corrected for irrational thinking.
When Christ predicted his own death. Peter responded how? Matthew records, “And Peter took him aside and begin to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.”
And Jesus said....
When the lawmen come to arrest Jesus how did Peter respond? Whacked off Malcus’ ear!
And Jesus did what… calmly put it back on...
When the girl approached Peter at the fire when Jesus was headed to the cross, how did Peter respond? I don’t know him....
And Jesus’ prophesy was fulfilled.
On a positive note after the Lord’s resurrection when he walked up on the beach what did Peter do?
That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.
1 Peter
When Peter tells the church to be sober-minded we ought to listen. He has been an example to us of how being uncontrolled in thinking and action can cause us to sin and act in rebellion against the will of the Lord. Peter is not the only one who call us to sober-mindedness.
Paul uses the same idea in
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,
The apostles are using a certain imagery to present the danger of not being in control of one’s thought life. Letting our minds wander off and go places they ought not to go will ultimately lead our mouths and our actions to follow.
Have you ever been around a person who has drank a little to much? Who has crossed the line into drunkeness? What happens? They being to say things they would never say sober. They begin to run off at the mouth. And men and women who are often careful with their words are all of the sudden careless in their speech! Then everyone around them remembers what they said and the way they acted and then how does peoples perception of them change?
Peter called the church the children of God, to not lose control of their thinking as they were seeking to live faithful lives. As they were walking through the trials and afflictions of their day they needed to understand the importance of controlling their thought life.
When they were being reviled, control your thoughts.
When they were being threatened, control your thoughts.
When they were being maligned, control your thoughts.
When they were being grieved by various trials, control your thoughts.
In all of these situations which Peter has presented in this letter, what are ways in which these men and women could have been tempted to lose control of their thoughts?
Woe is me! When a believer is in the midst of a time of suffering one of the primary things we can do is to begin to dwell on how bad we have it. We think about how bad our situation is, we think we deserve better, we begin to be resentful towards God, not thankful, not content and all of the sudden we are thinking sinful thoughts.
I want to whip that person! Granted this is the extreme, but first we see how bad we have it then we begin to focus on the one whom has done us wrong. Then we begin to have sinful thoughts toward that person, we begin to wish ill against them we being to dislike, then potentially even hate that person. What does that due to the unity of the body? What does that do to the brother hood? Is this kind of thought pattern not in direct contradiction to Peter’s call to love one another?
How can we avoid thinking as if we have been drinking?
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.
How then do we stay mindful of God, how do we think on whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is pure.....
We fill our minds with the Word of God
We surround ourselves with the people of God.
We listen to things which help us honor God in our thought life.
We watch things that do not cause our minds places to go they ought not go.
We watch what we drink to make sure we don’t let strong drink corrupt the way we think.
These are ways we can be sober-minded.
Secondly, we are to be,
II. Continuously Ready
II. Continuously Ready
Peters writes, be watchful.
be watchful.
be in continuous readiness and alertness to learn—‘to be alert, to be watchful, to be vigilant.
In other words Peter wanted the church to Pay Attention, keep a watch of what is going on around you. Don’t let your suffering and your circumstance cause you to lose control of your thought life and lose perspective or sight of what is going on around you. Don’t be asleep at the wheel.
Peter is not the only one to give this warning.
Jesus warns the disciples to be watchful.
“But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Luke 21:34-36
What is it that Jesus calls the disciples to look out for or pay attention to?
Dissipation- Excess, debauchery,
Drunkenness....
Cares of this life....
How does Jesus tell us to stay alert?
Praying for strength, a way out, etc...
Paul says it this way in,
Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.
Acts 20:28
Paul calls the elders to take heed, pay attention, to keep a watch over the flock, to care for the church of God.
Why would Jesus, Paul, and Peter feel the need to call the elders and the church to attention?
I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;
Paul says the enemies are coming to destroy the flock. What do wolves do? They kill and devour.
Jesus says,
Stay awake so that we can pray that we will have strength to stand in the midst of all that is going to happen during our days.
How is it that we can stay awake, alert, and watchful in the order that we might remain faithful?
Pay attention to what is going on in the world around us!
View the world around us through the lens of the Scriptures.
Prioritize the reading, studying, and meditating of the Scriptures.
Stay close together in the community of faith.
Following Peter’s call to seriousness, and watchfulness, he unpacks one of the primary reasons we are to keep or head on a swivel. He continues, to describe what we are to pay attention, he says the reason we are to stay alert and ready is because of,
Peter gives us another reason for being watchful. He continues, to describe what we are to pay attention, he says the reason we are to stay alert and ready is because of,
Your adversary the devil
Peter is describing the devil as,
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains 39.9 ἀντίδικος, ου
one who is actively and continuously hostile toward someone—‘adversary, enemy
I don’t want to give the devil to much credit, because as Martin Luther has said, “the devil is God’s devil.” In other words he cannot do anything that God does not allow him to, but Peter warns us that we must be watchful because he is the adversary of the church. He is the Antichrist. He is the deceiver, the Father of all lies and his desire is to destroy God’s people and seek to do harm to God’s church.
George Swinnock says this about the devil, “Shall the sweet breath of this alluring panther still bewitch thee, notwithstanding all his deformity and ugliness, vanity and emptiness, so as to get thee within his power and destroy thee?”
We see his tactics in the book of Job.
The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”
He roams around seeking for a victim, seeking someone he can deceive and turn against the Lord God.
Consider the first mention we have of the adversary,
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,
And what happened when Eve was deceived and Adam was asleep at the wheel?
Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
The adversary led our Federal head right into the Fall. Because Adam was not watchful he was tricked by the craftiness of the serpent through his wife. And the battle began. Which we know because of verse 15 Satan may cause major issues but Jesus is going to crush his head!
Genesis 3:
Notice what Jesus told the Jews,
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Jesus explains that the Jews don’t even know who he is because they have been deceived by the adversary. Notice what Jesus says about the devil, He was a murderer, and does not stand in the truth, there is not truth in him. He speaks lies because he is a liar and the father of lies.
In the book of Revelation John describes the devil as an one who had deceived the nations. The word devil translates a Greek word meaning deceiver.
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.
And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,
What are some ways Satan seeks to deceive and devour God’s people?
Drawing us into sin. Go ahead and do whatever, no one will know, it won’t hurt you or anyone else. God is not that concerned about that.
Doubting who we are in Christ. You can’t be saved, look at what you just did, listen to what you just said, consider the thoughts you just had.
Denying the truth.
How then can we keep watch and make sure we are not getting deceived and devoured by the devil?
Know the truth, the best way to defend ourselves against a lie is to know the truth, to understand when God’s truth is being attacked.
What are some of the truths that were attacked in the NT church?
The deity of Jesus
The humanity of Jesus
The Resurrection of Jesus
The Return of Jesus
The work of Jesus on the cross, it was insufficient for salvation, you needed the cross plus...
What are truths are being attacked in our day?
The authority of Scripture
The sufficiency of Scriptre
The gospel itself -
The person and work of Christ is constantly under attack.
This means we must know these truths well to make sure we see when the adversary or his workers are seeking to come in and deceive God’s people.
Notice how Peter explains his work, the devil
prowls around
prowls around like a roaring lion. This tells us a couple of things about the devil. First, he is not omniscient or omnipresent. In other words, he has to travel around to find his prey. He doesn’t know for sure who he will attack and who will fall into his deception. Secondly, he travels. He is not here attacking us and those in China at the same time. He can only be in one place at one time.
like a roaring lion,
Now this doesn’t mean we take him lightly. Notice what Warren Weirsbe says,
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Twelve: From Grace to Glory! (1 Peter 5:5–14)
Satan is a dangerous enemy. He is a serpent who can bite us when we least expect it. He is a destroyer (Abaddon and Apollyon both mean “destruction”) and an accuser (Zech. 3:1–5; Rev. 12:9–11). He has great power and intelligence, and a host of demons who assist him in his attacks against God’s people (Eph. 6:10ff). He is a formidable enemy; we must never joke about him, ignore him, or underestimate his ability. We must “be sober” and have our minds under control when it comes to our conflict with Satan.
1 Peter Resist the Devil
Conventional Christian wisdom rightly observes that we make two mistakes regarding Satan. We can take him too seriously, as if he possessed God’s omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. But he is an angel, and like all other creatures, he is in one place at a time, has areas of ignorance (see notes on 1 Peter 3:19), and has finite power. Indeed, Michael the archangel is presented as his peer in Revelation 12:7ff. On the other hand, we can fail to take him seriously enough, reducing him to a cartoon villain. First Peter states the essentials.
But that doesn’t mean his army is not worldwide.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
I believe the devil is attacking folks way more important than us, however if we are not alert, watchful, sober-minded Peter warns us there is a sense in which our adversary may get to us to devour us. Peter is giving a clear warning hear, I am not sure how the enemy will do it, but we must be watchful understanding that he is seeking someone to devour.
Scot Mcknight explains we must be careful with the way we interpret this idea of Satan seeking someone to devour in the midst of persecution. We would do well to consider Satan’s attacks against God’s will and seeking to attack thwart God’s plan. Mcknight gives the example of the political machine stopping a evangelistic crusade. Or maybe politicians being deceived into defending and celebrating abortion. He is not saying that individuals cannot be deceived, but Satan is not the one who causes or car not start, or our alarm clock not to go off…Do you see the difference. We don’t want to give the devil credit for things he isn’t doing or can’t do.
seeking somene
Even our temptation to sin. The devil is not the only tempter, what else or who else tempts us to sin? Our flesh and the world. There are sins that the devil doesn’t have to draw us into, our own desires to that at time and other times the world’s systems and advertisements take care of that as well.
George Swinnock writes,
Satan catcheth many a soul with these baits, and then throweth them into the fire. But if religion be thy business, that which is poison to others will be nourishing food to thee.
The psalmist shows us one way to be watchful of the lion. Cry out to God to save us from him!
to devour.
Save me from the mouth of the lion! You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!
Do you think Peter has personal knowledge of the devil seeking to devour someone?
From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
Matthew 16:21
Peter was rebuked by the Jesus and called Satan. Why was Peter rebuked? Jesus said you are setting your mind on the things of man not on things of God! In other words when Peter ties together being sober-minded and Satan, there is a reason! He knows what selfish, sinful thinking will lead too.
Notice how Jesus warned Peter in,
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Peter said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.” Jesus said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me.”
Luke 22:31-
Jesus tells Peter that Satan is coming for you, he has demanded to sift you like wheat. Peter the strong, bold, out front apostle was going to be turned into wheat dust by Satan. Satan was going to personally attack Peter and cause him to what?
Deny the truth!
Do you see how this is working. The devil has his sites set on those who he thinks he can deceive and divert away from the truth of the Word of God, the truth of the Gospel, and the truth of Christ and then devour and destroy them!
We are going to stop at verse 9 today, but I want us to consider what we can do to Be sober-minded and be watchful to ensure we don’t draw the devil’s attention and allow him to prowl into Pray’s Mill and devour God’s sheep? Verse 9 will give us more insight but I am going to leave that one for Jon Norton next week.
What do you think? How do we keep watch and keep alert?
Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 492). New York: United Bible Societies.
George Swinnock writes, Satan catcheth many a soul with these baits, and then throweth them into the fire. But if religion be thy business, that which is poison to others will be nourishing food to thee.
Satan catcheth many a soul with these baits, and then throweth them into the fire. But if religion be thy business, that which is poison to others will be nourishing food to thee.
As we close, here is what we need to understand as Peter’s main point of this paragraph. God is calling his people to live faithfully among the brotherhood in the midst of suffering, understanding that we are engaged in a spiritual war.
Although we may not be suffering in the same way that exiled churches in Asia are our suffering and persecution will most likely increase as we seek to grow in grace and godliness. The more we become like Jesus, the more we deny ourselves and follow him the more suffering we are likely to face.
On the other hand, we must remember that we are not in this battle alone. God will sustain, keep, and reward his children as they live according to his will, trust in Him, and are willing to be humble in this life with a confident hope in exaltation in the next!
Let’s close with the second half of the Puritan Prayer we opened with.
O LORD God,
Teach me to look to Jesus on his cross
and so to know sin’s loathsomeness in thy sight.
There is no pardon bu through thy Son’s death,
no cleansing but in his precious blood,
no atonement but to his expiate blood,
Show me the shame, the agony, the bruises
of incarnate God,
that I may read boundless guilt in the boundless price;
May I discern the deadly viper in its real malignity,
tear it with holy indignation from my breast,
resolutely turn from its every snare,
refuse to hold polluting dalliance with it.
Blessed Lord Jesus, at thy cross
may I be taught the awful miseries from which
I am saved,
ponder what the word lost implies,
see the fires of eternal destruction;
Then may I cling more closely to thy broken self,
adhere to thee with firmer faith,
be devoted to thee with total being,
detest sin as strongly as they love to me is strong,
And may holiness be the atmosphere in which I live. (Valley of Vision pg. 183)
(9) Resist him,
firm in your faith,
knowing that
the same kinds of suffering
are being expierienced
by your brotherhood
throughout the world.