Sermon Transcript:

 We are near the end of our journey through the book of 1 Peter. Peter is writing to believers in Jesus who are encountering increasing hostility and opposition in their communities. He began by reminding them who they are in Christ and that God has chosen them and is working in them. He reminds them that God’s people have always faced opposition in this world and yet they have received blessings that ancient believers and even prophets longed to see.

His main theme has been that our response to such trials should not be primarily to try and change our external circumstances, but to draw nearer to Christ. Believers are not to be revolutionaries looking to upend the social, economic, and political institutions of the world. God has already promised to do that. As we wait upon God, we are to respect governing authorities, family roles, and even class structures, even when these are not as they should be. 

That doesn’t mean we do not use appropriate and reasonable methods of improving these things, but our hope is never in worldly means. Instead, we are to live faithfully knowing that the new kingdom has dawned and judgment has already begun at the house of the lord. We are to live like Jesus, seeking to bless others and sharing the good news, placing our hope in Jesus.

Last week, we finished with verse 5 where Peter reminds us “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Today, we pick up on what Peter says to do in light of that truth. This is the conclusion of the letter. We will look at the final greeting next time but this is the end of his main message. As such, it is a summary of everything we have looked at in this series.

Peter isn’t just giving us information. When you read your Bible don’t just look to learn doctrine. Look at how the author expects you to respond to the doctrine. The Bible is written to transform us not to merely inform us. Faith equals living out the doctrine you understand. In this last section Peter summarizes the truths and responses he has been teaching throughout the letter. He says, 

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 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. 11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

When we face adversity for our faith here is what we should do and why:

1. Be humble and trust in God’s sovereign plan because he cares for us.
2. Be alert because the devil looks for opportunities to attack us.
3. Resist temptation because we know our trials will not last long.

We can depend on God because he never fails. Having faith in God's promises allows us to be humble, be alert, and resist temptation. These are evidence of saving faith, therefore those who do these things in faith have assurance they will be with God in heaven.

Since God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble, the conclusion is that those who love God will pursue humility. We want humility because we seek God’s blessings and God blesses those who acknowledge their need for him. Peter says,

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,

When Peter says we should humble ourselves he has in mind the difficulties and sufferings that come with a life of faith. A proud heart thinks “I don’t deserve this” or “why is this happening to me”. It focuses on us rather than the kingdom. The humble heart says “not my will, but yours be done” and “here am I send me”, “do with me whatever will bring you the most glory.” “I trust you”

A proud servant thinks that certain duties or trials are beneath them whereas a humble servant doesn’t assume they deserve a more honorable assignment. The humble servant trusts in God’s wisdom and care and is therefore willing to suffer or face indignity if that is what God asks of them.

That leads to the glory of God because when saints are willing to suffer for Christ it testifies to how great Jesus is that we are willing to do it. The early Christians who gave their lives for their faith were called martyrs. That is the Greek word for witness. They were witnesses who gave testimony to the surpassing glory of Christ through their death. Their love for Jesus was greater than their love for life.

Understand that although God is glorified in our suffering, the suffering and trials of believers are temporary sacrifices leading to eternal joy. 

The puritan preacher Thomas Watson used to remind believers that although our trials may be lasting, they are not everlasting. Our temporary discomfort will be replaced with unimaginable blessing. Revelation 21:4 says of God, in the new heavens and earth,

4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

We can humble ourselves and accept whatever comes from the hand of God because we know God will deliver us either now or in the future. When we face ridicule and discrimination because of our faith, we glorify God knowing we are seated with Christ.

When we suffer economic loss because we insist on dealing honestly, paying our taxes, and not taking advantage of others, we do so glorifying God because our treasure is in heaven. When we live and work under unrighteous laws and policies we do so glorifying God that he is our king and we will live forever in his kingdom very soon. When those close to us abandon us because of our commitment to Jesus we rejoice that God is our friend. When we lose loved ones to disease, death, and disaster, or when we ourselves are sick we know God has conquered even death and the grave and we will rise again.

I think of Job who lost everything but maintained his faith and was restored by God. I think of Joseph, whose brothers sold him into slavery, which resulted in him not only being a slave but ending up in prison for something he didn’t do. He trusted God and God worked through all that to bring great blessing. Do you recall what Joseph says when he was reunited with his brothers? He says “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” You had a plan and it was evil but there was another plan, a better plan working through the same circumstances. 

Of course, the best example of this is Jesus. We sometimes forget that Jesus was fully man. He was a human being. He wasn’t looking forward to being tortured and killed. As he prays that night in the garden the stress is so great he is sweating drops of blood.

But what does he say? Luke 22:42, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” Jesus humbled himself and trusted God and the result was the salvation of many. Had Jesus not humbled himself no sinner would ever be saved.

That includes all of us. We have all sinned. We have made ourselves like God, following the laws that make sense to us and ignoring them when they get in the way of what we want to do. We know this is true. Our own hearts condemn us because we know we are not righteous. If we could take our brains out and plug them into the computer back there and display for everyone your every thought and motive and deed, would you want us to do that?

I wouldn’t, because I know there is stuff in there that is horrible and selfish and disappointing. We all have shameful things in our lives or past we wouldn’t want others to know. If we are hesitant even to be judged by other sinners who have their own dark places of the heart, we should understand that we could never claim to be innocent before a perfectly holy God.

If we were to be judged on our performance, each of us would be condemned. But God is rich in grace and mercy and he made a way for even those who have sinned to be cleansed of that unrighteousness and be brought back into fellowship with him. He made a way for us to receive a verdict of innocence. Jesus came and lived a perfect life and then he died for the sins of any who would come to him in faith. He traded his life for all those who accept him as lord and savior. Since we have no righteousness of our own, he becomes our righteousness.

He knows everything about us. He knows all the hurtful and sinful things we have done. He has heard all our thoughts and knows our every motive and yet he was still willing to die for us. That is what is so amazing about the gospel, that he would love us that way. He suffered for all who will believe. Then he rose again proving that the sacrifice was enough. It was sufficient and he had the power to deliver us from sin and death.

God is now calling sinners everywhere to repent and believe in Jesus. Let go of your pride and accept Christ. Doing that is turning from looking for glory and comfort in this world to putting our hope in God’s promises for the next. I am not going to tell you your life will be easier, because it could very well become more difficult. I am not telling you it will be easy, I am telling you it will be worth it because he is worth it.

When Peter says humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God he doesn’t mean we are under the hand of God as if we are under his thumb. It means that although we may suffer temporarily, we do so under his sovereign protection. Listen to what Jesus says in John 10:27–30,

27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

To be under or in the hand of God is not oppression, it is protection. There is no better place for one whom God loves to be than in his hands.  

I know that Peter intends this to be a comfort because the phrase “mighty hand” of God is the language of deliverance. That phrase is used in the Old Testament in contexts where God is working for the salvation of his people. It is especially used to refer to God bringing his people out of slavery in Egypt. For example,

Exodus 3:19 says,

But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. 

Deuteronomy 6:21 says,

Then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 

Daniel 26:8 says,

And the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. 

God delivers his people with a mighty hand. This is salvation language. God knows how to deliver his people from oppression and suffering. We humble ourselves knowing that God is with us, that he is on the throne, that he is more powerful than the forces of darkness at work in the world, and that in due time he will reward us.

That is why Peter says humble yourselves…

7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

The Bible addresses all the various aspects of our lives. It deals with money, power, sex, selfishness, anger, every aspect of our experience as humans. But by far the most common things believers are told to do in the Bible have to do with joy and peace. We are told constantly to “give praise”, “rejoice”, “be at peace”, and to “give thanks”. The most common of these is “don’t be afraid”.

Here Peter says, don’t be anxious but take your concerns to the lord because he cares for you. If you are a believer in Jesus, Don’t be afraid, God loves you. There are many dangers in the world, but God is sovereign and he loves you.

Anxiety is one of the most significant challenges facing not only our culture, but also our churches. We all get nervous at times but a deep and debilitating type of anxiety is increasingly common. Notice that Peter doesn’t deny that we will have anxiety. Some preachers speak as though true Christians will never have anxiety. 

If we all had perfect faith then yes, there would be no anxiety, but we don’t and real Christians can struggle with this. If that were not the case, Jesus would not have so frequently told his followers “fear not” and Peter wouldn’t have to give this advice. Believers can struggle with this and many do.

Peter doesn’t ignore the reality of anxiety but instead points us to how we should handle it. If any of you here this morning struggle with anxiety I want you to know I understand. When we look at the world around us and think of all that is going wrong and can go wrong it can be overwhelming. Some people go through life thinking nothing bad can happen to them and so they just float along assuming everything will be great.

Anxious people are too smart for that. They have a more realistic assessment of what can happen. Adding to the obvious craziness in the world, we have a powerful spiritual enemy prowling around looking to devour us. The world really is a dangerous place and bad things really do happen to people all the time. Although anxieties may often be connected to improbable events, we usually cannot guarantee that everything is going to be alright. 

Anxiety comes from worrying about the future but it makes all the difference for the Christian how far ahead you look. We know that for believers ultimately all things work for our good. When we understand or keep in mind that God is in control of even the bad things that can happen but uses them for our benefit, it changes our perspective. 

When we are thinking clearly about who God is and that he loves us and about the promises he has made to us, we can honestly acknowledge the possibility of things being difficult, recognize God has a purpose in that, and still move forward. Theologian A.W. Tozer captured it well when he said,

“When I understand that everything happening to me is to make me more Christlike, it resolves a great deal of anxiety.”

In other words, the answer to managing anxiety is not to try and become more confident in ourselves or ignore our feelings that something could happen. The answer is to focus our attention on what God is doing and the promises we have in Christ. 

The Bible is full of fearful and worried people God used mightily. Let that be an encouragement to us. Yes, anxiety is a weakness of faith, but we can rejoice that we are not saved because of the strength of our faith, but by the strength of the God our faith is placed in. The preacher Jeremiah Burroughs put it this way,

“A weak faith can still lay hold on a strong Christ”

Jesus said if we had faith even the size of a tiny mustard seed, we could move mountains. I haven’t seen any mountains moving around, have you? So, what does that tell us? We all have varying degrees of weak faith. Nobody is saved because their faith impresses God, but because he is gracious and merciful.

A small and weak hand, if it is able to lift the fork or spoon to the mouth, does its job just as well as a strong powerful hand, because it is not the strength of the hand, but the goodness of the food that nourishes the body. In the same way, a weak faith fixed upon a strong savior still saves.

One of the most comforting passages in the Bible is found in Mark chapter 9. A father of a child with an unclean spirit comes to Jesus and says if you can do anything please help me. Jesus looks at him and says “if you can, all things are possible for one who believes” and then in verse 24, 

24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

That is the prayer of the anxious Christian. Managing anxiety is about reminding ourselves of who this God we serve is, just as this worried father was reminded. That means reading our Bibles so we are filled with reminders of his love and his promises. That means constant prayer, taking our concerns to him because we know he loves us and hears our prayers. That means gathering with other believers so we can comfort them and recognize we are not alone in this journey.

When God commands us to cast our anxieties upon the Lord he is telling us to meditate and pray about some promise he’s made until our fear is no longer paralyzing because we are filled with confidence in him. It means we reflect on all that he has already done for us in Jesus Christ so there are no doubts about his love for us. Believer, God loves you, don’t be afraid.

Next Peter says,

8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 

Having peace does not mean we become reckless. I am not afraid of crossing the street, but I still need to look both ways. We need to recognize that we have an enemy and cannot afford to have our senses dulled. If you knew someone was coming for you, you are going to keep your head up and probably have some people with you. Peter says, keep your mind clear, be watchful so that you can see him coming. The word “your” is plural, we need to look out for each other as well.

When you see one of those nature videos where there is a gazelle off by itself, away from the herd, not paying any attention you already know what’s coming. That’s the one the lion gets. Don’t be like that guy. The devil cannot win but he is still ferocious and dangerous. He is not going to stop coming after us he wants to do as much damage as possible in the short time he has left before he is cast into hell. Peter says,

9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

We pray for the strength to resist his temptations to fall away and to sin. We must also pray for the grace to resist bitterness. He wants to steal our joy and when we are going through adversity he will whisper in our ear that we don’t deserve it. That we are all alone, and nobody else understands, or nobody else has to go through what we are.

Peter says, resist that. It isn’t true. There is no place for that attitude in the heart of one who, by grace, has been pulled out of the pit and seated in heavenly places. There is no place for a follower of Jesus, who left the glory of heaven and submitted faithfully to suffering for us to think it is unjust if we must be patient for a short time while he saves others, just as earlier believers waited so we would be brought in.

The devil wants to shift our attention from what we have to what we don’t. We can either become bitter that we cannot eat the fruit of the one tree or rejoice that we can have been given the fruit of all but one. Last night I saw a story on the news where a couple was driving down the freeway and a truck tire hit their car. It literally came through the middle of the vehicle between the driver and passenger, tearing off the roof of the car. The driver and passenger had only minor scratches. As they were interviewing the man said “of all the cars on the road why us.” 

That is the way our flesh reacts. Why me? But really, why not me? Am I better than any other servant? Am I better than my lord who suffered? Peter is reminding us again, we live in a fallen world and that comes with adversity. What should capture our attention is not the suffering, but that the Son of God gave his life so that our suffering need not be eternal.

Whatever we deal with, tt will be worth it. Peter says,

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. 11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. 

The difficulty is for “a little while”. Some of us suffer for 70 or 80 years, most don’t. But even several years of suffering doesn’t seem like a little while to us but Peter is encouraging us to look at our experiences here in light of eternity. I remember when I was graduating from high school I was so happy to be done. It felt like those four years lasted forever. Of course, at that time they represented over 20% of my life. 

Now when I think back it seems like a flash. I have forgotten most of the challenges and sacrifices that had to be made then but I still live with the life blessings those years contributed to and prepared me for. My career, my marriage (Beth and I first met when I was still in high school) and so forth. Imagine then how short this life of suffering will seem in relation to an eternity of being with Jesus.

Peter ends his teaching in the letter the same place he started. Our peace and joy and perseverance doesn’t come from our strength, but from God. Our works may be weak and inconsistent, but God is a God of all grace. We know we will not be turned away at the end because God has called us to his eternal glory. We know that our inheritance is secure because Jesus Christ is the beloved Son of God and we are called to glory “in him”. God will no more reject us than he will reject Jesus because by faith, we are united to him.

We have fallen but God himself will restore us. The enemy accuses us but God himself will confirm us. We are often weak and anxious and hesitant, but God himself will strengthen and establish us. If we are putting our trust for salvation in the person and work of Jesus then we have these promises just as assuredly as God is on his throne.

The way to persevere in a hostile world is to fix our eyes upon Jesus and to follow him. We may be tempted to fear the world because its opposition to us wounds our pride, but Jesus calls us to be humble. We are tempted to fear Satan and his fury, but Jesus says if we resist him using the armor he provides through his Spirit and his Word the devil will flee from us. We are tempted to pursue the pleasures of the flesh, but Jesus calls us to put to death the flesh and to offer our members as a living sacrifice, knowing that we will be resurrected to glory.

Believers in Jesus can persevere in a world hostile to our faith because we see in all things the good hand of a mighty God preparing us for unimaginable glory that we receive for no other reason than his love and grace. His grace enables us to walk faithfully in humble confidence. Humble regarding ourselves, but confident in the promises of God. Promises we can be assured of because of what God has already done for us in Jesus Christ.

11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.