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True liberty is found in being a bondservant of Christ.
Well friends, please remain standing
for the reading of God’s word
as we prepare for the preaching of the word this evening.
We continue our consideration of First Peter,
and as we are wrapping up our time in First Peter,
not this week, but we will be wrapping up our time soon.
We’re in the last chapter, First Peter chapter five.
This evening we’re gonna focus especially
on verses five through seven.
This will actually be a part one
of considering these verses,
but I’d like to read verses one through seven
to offer the fuller context.
You’ll find that on page 1206 in your Pew Bible.
So let us hear, dear friends,
God’s holy word, First Peter chapter five,
verses one through seven.
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.
The grass withers and the flower fades,
but the word of our God endures forever.
Let’s pray for the Lord to bless
the preaching of his word tonight.
O omnipotent, sovereign, infinite God,
we do bow before you and recognize your divine majesty.
We recognize, Lord, that we are completely dependent upon you.
Lord, not only are we completely dependent upon you
for our natural life,
but we are also completely dependent upon you
for our spiritual life.
And so, Lord, we would pray that you would give us
renewed life this evening through your word
and by your spirit.
We pray, Lord God, that you would bless this word to us
this evening as we consider this portion of your holy word.
And we ask that it might find a lodging place in our souls
and bear spiritual fruit in our lives.
We pray, Lord God, again, that you would forgive us
for our many sins and renew and fill us with your spirit
and grant us the grace to be transformed
by the renewing of our minds
as we consider your word this evening.
And Lord, once again, we pray that you would set a guard
over my lips, that I, your unworthy servant,
might speak forth only that which is faithful to your word
and edifying to your people.
We pray all these things, heavenly Father,
in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, amen.
You may be seated.
Title of my sermon this evening is Clothed with Humility.
This is the first part.
And the key words that the young people
can be listening for tonight are the words submit
or submission, humility, and trust.
Well, my dear friends in Christ, in recent weeks,
we’ve considered the first four verses of this chapter.
And we’ve seen in this passage that our Lord Jesus Christ
is revealed as the chief shepherd of his people.
And we his people are therefore his beloved sheep.
We also learned that one of the ways
that our Savior shepherds his people
is through church officers that are described
in this chapter as elders or presbyters.
The Greek word is presbyterous.
These elders or presbyters are Christ’s under shepherds,
meaning that they serve as spiritual shepherds
under the authority, by the example,
and on behalf of Christ, the good shepherd.
In fact, from a biblical standpoint,
it’s actually an anomaly.
It’s an abnormal state of affairs for a true believer
not to be associated in membership
with the visible church of Jesus Christ.
There are, of course, providential circumstances
and hindrances that keep some believers
from being united to a local association
or a local expression of the body of Christ.
But nevertheless, under ordinary circumstances,
God’s people are to be in God’s church.
The Bible takes it for granted
that those who are committed to Christ as his disciples
will also be committed to the body of Christ
as members of his visible church.
And in our Americanized Christian culture
here in the United States,
where many professing Christians regularly church hop
as a practice and where few seem to appreciate
the importance of being committed in responsible membership
to a local expression of Christ’s church,
we who claim to be disciples of Christ
would do well to take this to heart.
You see, we need to realize that Jesus Christ
is the divine shepherd, the chief shepherd.
We need to realize as well that he has appointed officers
and a government in his church
and that he expects his people, his sheep,
to be under the shepherding care and oversight
that he administers through his under shepherds.
Now, once again, as we turn our attention
to our passage for this evening,
which speaks of these elders
and which speaks of Christ as the good shepherd,
once again, we need to remember the context of 1 Peter.
Remember that 1 Peter was written to Christians
who were facing a fiery trial of persecution
for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And while it is true that all Christians,
whatever their life circumstances,
all Christians need faithful pastoral and shepherding care
by the church’s pastors and elders,
believers who are facing severe persecution for their faith,
such as Peter’s original readers,
especially require attentive, caring,
and loving pastoral care.
Peter’s original readers needed the care, the protection,
the encouragement, nurture, and guidance
of Christ’s under shepherds, his presbyters,
even more so than their fellow believers
whose life circumstances spared them from such persecution.
This is why Peter, under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration,
addresses the opening exhortation of this chapter
to the church’s elders.
But now there is a shift here in verse five.
In verse five, beginning in verse five of our text
for this evening, we see Peter shifting his exhortation
to a different group among the believers
to whom he’s writing.
In the first four verses of chapter five,
it’s quite clear that Peter is exhorting the elders,
the presbyters of the church in particular.
And presbyters probably that Peter had in mind
were the pastors or ministers of the word in particular,
although the principles of this exhortation
to these presbyters would apply equally
to ruling elders as well.
But in verse five, he shifts from addressing the elders
to addressing the younger people,
or as it could be translated, the young men.
That’s how versions like the New American Standard Version
translated as young men.
And then he addresses all of you,
which in context could either mean
all of you younger and older men,
or it could simply mean all of you readers in general.
And then Peter begins a series of exhortations
which appear to be addressed to all of the believers,
calling all of us to humility
in our relationships one with another.
Well, this evening, again, as I mentioned,
I’m gonna confine myself to the lessons we can learn
in verses five through seven,
and in verse five in particular.
And so as we turn our attention to verse five,
I want us first to consider what we learn here
about humility demonstrated in youthful submission
to elders.
And this is the first main point in your outline
if you’re following along young people.
Humility demonstrated in youthful submission to elders.
Peter writes in verse five,
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.
Now, this verse confronts us
with at least two interpretive questions,
namely, who are the younger ones that Peter is addressing,
and who are the elders being referred to
in this particular verse?
Now, let’s start with the elders.
Now, who are the elders referred to in verse five?
It’s clear that the elders who are referenced back
in verse one are the church officers
that are known as elders or presbyters.
Are these the same elders who are being spoken of here
in verse five?
Or is Peter using the term elders here in verse five
to refer more generically to older men
in the church in general?
Well, as you might have guessed,
there’s dispute and debate among Bible commentators
and scholars on how to answer that question.
It’s the same Greek word in both verses,
the word presbyteros,
as being used in both verses one and verse five.
And that word, depending on the context in which it is used,
that word could be translated as older men,
or it could be translated as elders
in the sense of church officers
that are known as elders or presbyters.
The fact that Peter uses the same word presbyteros
to refer to the elders in both verse one and verse five
has led some students of the Bible to believe
that the younger men that Peter is addressing in verse five
are actually younger church officers,
younger under shepherds.
And I’ll be honest with you
that I’m inclined to lean towards that view,
that interpretation.
If this interpretation is the correct one,
then Peter is instructing the younger elders
to show deference and submission
toward the older, more experienced,
and more seasoned elders among them.
But even if that interpretation is incorrect,
it is certainly a wise and biblical thing
for younger church officers
to show deference and submission
and a humble spirit, a teachable spirit,
toward those who are older and more experienced
in the office of church elder.
Well, beloved, whether Peter is addressing
all of the younger believers in general,
or only the younger men in particular,
and whether he is continuing to refer to the church elders
or simply at this point referring to elderly believers,
elderly men in general,
the word of God makes it clear throughout its pages
that older people are to be treated with respect,
honor, and appropriate deference.
And that’s something that really needs to be made clear
in our time when youthfulness is almost idolized.
Let’s consider a couple of passages
which speak of the honor and respect
that the younger are to show towards the elders,
towards those who are older.
Consider what is said in Leviticus 19, verse 32.
Leviticus chapter 19, verse 32.
In this passage, we read these words.
It says, you shall stand up before the gray head
and honor the face of an old man,
and you shall fear your God, I am the Lord.
Notice that the Lord Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel,
he backs up this command with his own authority.
And he says, you shall fear your God.
One of the ways that we show fear,
holy reverence towards God is by showing respect
to the gray headed, to those who are elderly in our midst.
And in those days, one of the ways in biblical times
that you showed honor for the elderly
is you stood up in their presence.
There’s other ways that we might show,
that different cultures might show honor
towards those who are elders amongst them,
the elderly among them.
But here, this clearly is teaching
that we are to honor those who are our elders.
Or consider what the apostle Paul says
in 1 Timothy chapter five, verses one and two.
1 Timothy chapter five, verses one and two.
Paul writes this, do not rebuke an older man,
but encourage him as you would a father.
Younger men as brothers, older women as mothers,
younger women as sisters in all purity, amen to that.
Beloved, Christ our savior honored his elders.
In his act of obedience, he perfectly obeyed
all of God’s commandments, including the fifth commandment,
which is honor your father and your mother.
Jesus perfectly honored both his heavenly father,
God the Father, and his earthly father,
and his mother as well.
We’re told in Luke chapter two, verse 31,
that when he was a youth, he was submissive
to his earthly father and mother.
And of course, he is the perfect model
for honoring the elderly.
Beloved in Christ, one of the ways that we demonstrate
a proper fear and holy reverence for the God who saved us
by his amazing grace in Christ
is to show honor to the elderly.
And again, this is something that we in the church today
need to take to heart, especially since we live today
in such a youth-oriented culture,
a culture that idolizes youth and often views the elderly
with either disdain or with a grudging tolerance.
Well, it is true that there is such a thing as an old fool.
There are old fools, that’s true.
It’s also true that there is such a thing
as young people who are wise beyond their years.
That is true as well.
But nevertheless, as a general rule,
the life experience of older saints
gives them a certain perspective and a certain wisdom
that we can learn from.
A certain perspective and a certain wisdom
that is usually lacking among those who are younger.
And so let us display humility, beloved,
by submitting to the biblical shepherding
of the church’s elders and also by showing deference
and respect to the elderly, the older ones in our midst.
And I say that as someone
who is starting to get more gray hair.
So friends, we see here in this theme of humility
an example of youthful submission to those who are older.
But next we see this exhortation at the end of verse five,
to be clothed in humility toward one another.
And that’s the second point in your outline.
Let us be clothed in humility toward one another.
Peter writes in verse five,
clothe yourselves, all of you,
with humility toward one another.
And what’s the reason for that?
Well, he quotes from the Old Testament,
for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
You know, unbelievers often look upon humility
and a submissive attitude
as signs of pathetic weakness, don’t they?
However, in God’s word,
the virtues of godly submission and humility
are exalted as virtues which demonstrate
the inward strength and integrity
which are produced by the Holy Spirit.
Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
again is the perfect model of submission and humility.
And this humility was especially evident
in his incarnation and his death
upon the cross for our sins.
Think about it.
In his incarnation, our Lord was willing
to leave his throne in glory,
his glorious heavenly throne.
And in humility, he was willing to clothe himself
with our humanity.
Even though our Lord was and is the eternal Son of God,
the second person of the Holy Trinity
who was and is and ever shall be co-equal, co-eternal,
and consubstantial with God the Father
and God the Holy Spirit.
Yet he willingly submitted to his Father
by becoming incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth.
And by being willing to go to the cross,
to stretch out his arms upon the hard wood of the cross
and to suffer death upon the cross
as our substitute, our sin bearer, our Savior,
that he might redeem and save his people from their sins.
The Carmen Christi passage in Philippians chapter two
is especially powerful in displaying
and explaining the humility and humiliation of Christ.
Let me just read Philippians two beginning at verse three
and reading through verse 11.
Philippians two, three through 11.
In the midst of this exhortation where the Holy Spirit
through Paul is calling the Philippian believers
to humility toward one another, he says this,
beginning at verse three,
do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit,
but in humility count others more significant
than yourselves.
Let each of you look not only to his own interests,
but also to the interests of others.
And then he goes on to say this,
have this mind among yourselves.
This should be your mindset and mine.
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,
thing to cling on to, if you will,
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.
And death by crucifixion was not only an agonizing way
to die, but a deeply shameful way to die.
Therefore, verse nine, therefore God,
meaning God the Father, 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 and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
So we are to have this mind among ourselves,
which is ours in union with Christ Jesus, our Lord,
who humbled himself.
He didn’t stop being God when he became incarnate,
but he added to himself the form of a servant.
He added to himself our humanity.
He humbled himself even to the point of death on the cross.
And in union with him,
we are to display a similar kind of humility.
We also have an example of our Lord’s profound humility
when towards the end of his earthly ministry,
our Savior girded himself with a towel
and took the position of a lowly slave
in order to perform that humble, even loathsome task
of washing the feet, the smelly, filthy, dirty feet
of his disciples as recorded in John chapter 13.
It’s a powerful passage of scripture.
Beloved in Christ, Jesus, our master, Lord and teacher
instructed us to do likewise.
In other words, to demonstrate the same kind of humility
and servanthood toward one another,
as Peter again tells us in verse five,
clothe yourselves all of you with humility
toward one another, toward one another,
not lording it over each other,
not looking down on others,
but counting others better than ourselves.
So this is a call to humility,
to be clothed with humility.
But what exactly is humility?
Well, at its core,
humility is an attitude of utter dependence upon God.
You are a humble person, by the grace of God,
you are a humble person if God in sovereign grace
has brought you to the point where you realize
that you are a guilty sinner
who deserves God’s punishment for your sins,
and that your only hope of salvation
is found in Christ and Christ alone.
You are a humble person if you realize
that you are completely dependent upon God
for everything that you enjoy in life.
Every beat of your heart, every breath that you take,
everything ultimately comes from God,
and you and I are completely dependent upon it.
Recognizing that is of the essence of humility.
Recognizing and living our lives in light of that
is the essence of humility.
But if you are trusting in yourself
or your good works for salvation,
or if you take pride in being self-sufficient,
autonomous, and self-reliant, then you are proud.
And you need to beware, for this verse teaches us
that God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
And by the way, those who are humble
are only humble by the grace of God.
And so we are to be clothed with humility.
This is interesting imagery that Peter uses here.
Dr. Kistermacher points out that the word for cloth here
means to tie a piece of clothing to oneself.
The suggestion is that the Christian ought to tie humility
to their conduct so that everyone
is able to recognize them.
Peter exhorts the readers, he says,
to fasten humility to themselves once for all.
In other words, it stays with them
for the rest of their lives.
And so we have this call to be clothed with humility.
And we have good reason to be clothed with humility
for apart from grace, we are nothing
but sinners worthy of his wrath.
We also find in this passage, though,
a warning to the proud.
The reason given for this call to clothe ourselves
with humility is that God does what?
He opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Here, Peter is quoting from Proverbs 3, verse 34.
This proverb highlights God’s provision of grace
to the humble and submissive,
but it also highlights his constant,
unwavering opposition to the proud.
Norman Hillier points out that the Greek implies
that God sends his armed forces against those
who consider themselves far superior to others
and treat the common herd with contempt.
The implication is that the proud are those
who ridicule and despise Christian believers.
And this would have been a great comfort
to Peter’s original readers as they faced persecution
from arrogant unbelievers who ridiculed them
and viewed them as being foolish and stupid
and what do you believe in this?
Crucified Messiah, what kind of ridiculous belief is that?
The proud would look down their noses
at these poor persecuted Christians,
but Peter assures them God opposes the proud,
but gives grace to the humble.
Dear ones, God is at war against the proud.
He is at war against proud,
unrepentant, unbelieving fallen man.
Consider what Mary, the mother of our Lord,
had to say about this in her wonderful Magnificat
as recorded in Luke 1.
If you look at Luke 1 verses 51 to 53,
Luke 1, 51 to 53, we read these words.
He has shown strength with his arm.
He has scattered whom?
He has scattered the proud in the thoughts
or imaginations of their hearts.
He has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate.
He has filled the hungry with good things
and the rich he has sent empty away.
He has helped his servant Israel
in remembrance of his mercy
as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham,
and to his offspring forever.
Dear ones, let us pray that God would grant us
the grace of humility.
May we, by the grace of God and out of gratitude
for his gift of salvation given to us in Jesus,
let us, as our Savior girded himself with the towel
to wash his disciples’ feet, let us clothe ourselves,
let us gird on humility in the way that we relate
and relate to one another,
and let us display humility to a world
that is so filled with pride.
You know, the world often sees the church
and they believe that we are self-righteous.
They, you know, fairly or unfairly,
they often view us as being proud.
Oh, you proud Christians, you think you know it all.
Sometimes that’s an unfair judgment,
but sometimes we do come across as proud as know-it-alls.
Let us, by the grace of God,
clothe ourselves with humility.
That can be a powerful testimony for our Savior
to those who are outside.
And let us pray that the proud in our lives,
that they would be humbled,
and let us pray that God would grant us a humble spirit.
Amen, let us pray.
Heavenly Father, you again, you are the exalted Lord.
We have no reason to boast, we have no reason to be proud.
For every good and perfect gift that we have received
comes from your sovereign hand.
And we thank you, Lord, that you have humbled us
to the degree that we recognize our sin
and our need for Christ.
We pray that you would grant us the grace
to clothe ourselves with humility toward one another,
and to display a humble spirit
to those outside of the church,
that our witness for Christ might be powerful and impactful.
We pray these things, oh Father, in Jesus’ name,
and all of God’s people said, amen.
Let’s close our time this evening in worship by rising,
and we’ll sing as our closing hymn, number 530.
Teach me thy way, oh Lord, 530.