This is a sermon on 1 Peter 5 preached 7.2.23 at Redeemer Church (watchable here).

When I worked as a construction inspector, I was 19. Can you imagine being 19 and going out into a cutout in the woods, walking up to a track hoe, and telling a grown man that he’s not putting the dirt back in the hole correctly? Some of them didn’t take to that very well.

There was another time when I was about 23 and led an adult discipleship class at church. Now, that didn’t cause quite the same kind of stir that the construction gig did. No one at church jumped off a back hoe cussing or yelling at me chest-to-chest, but some thought it was a little out of place for an early twenty-something to be telling their fifty year old person about life. It’s kind of understandable.

Peter’s Story

In 1 Peter 5 this morning, Peter is eager for you to know that the position from which he writes is not like mine was. Peter is no teenage inspector telling you how to do your job or live your life. Notice, in verse 1, he starts by addressing the elders in the church, and he says that he too is an elder. Some of you might not realize this, but elder just means older. It’s a word that was used to refer to the leaders in the church. Peter says he is a fellow elder, and he adds two more things: He was a witness of the sufferings of Christ and a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed.

Peter’s whole story is packed into those descriptions. Think back with me through Peter’s story. For three years, not just one week, Peter witnessed the sufferings of the Christ. Mark says Jesus was so busy that he didn’t have time to eat (3:20). When he tried to get away and pray, even early in the morning, he would be interrupted by people that needed him (1:37). Peter saw the really hard weeks leading to Jerusalem, and of course after he denied Jesus three times, Luke 22:61 says,

The Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.

Peter knows about failure, he’s seen the hurt in Jesus’s eyes and he heard Jesus’s tone of voice as he bore the burden of life. Peter also stood on the mountain in Matthew 17, beholding the Lord transfigured before his eyes. Later, he sat dripping wet with Jesus on the beach in John 22, as the Lord, with a resurrected body, cooked and ate breakfast with him.

The Spirit speaks to us this morning through Peter’s words, urging us to orient and reorient our lives towards the pattern of the Chief Shepherd, that is, Jesus.

The message this morning has three parts: the problem, drifting and reorientation, and the gospel, which we will sprinkle throughout. We start with the problem.

The Problem

Look with me at verse 10 of chapter 5, where we read, “And after you have suffered a little while …” Father Collin has said many times during this series that 1 Peter is written to a church that is marginalized by the Roman empire, and that’s true, but that does not mean that the suffering this letter addresses and the encouragement it offers are irrelevant to you and your hardships.

Look back, flip the pages back to chapter 1 verse 6, where the Holy Spirit says, “You have been grieved by various trials.” Let those words sit with you for a minute. I’ve taught Greek for about ten years; I can read this letter in its original language, and I’m here to tell you this morning that “various trials” means “various trials.”

The problem of suffering Peter addresses is the various trials of life — like anxiety at night, the difficulty of being a kid and growing up, the crucible of raising kids and being parents, the suffering of lost loved ones, the hardship of growing older, of — and I say this with fear and trembling — sickness and uncertaint diagnoses. There is an enemy that would like you to believe that these things, these ordinary hardships, are not God’s concerns, that he doesn’t care about your type of suffering. In the name of Jesus, I tell you God cares about your various trials.

Notice back in 1 Peter 5:10, one of our “various trials” is waiting. God moves in mysterious ways, and part of accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior is accepting Jesus’s way in the world as wise and good. In God’s wisdom he has seen fit to fix us and this broken world over the course of many, many years. And so Peter says in 5:10 that it’s going to be a little while.

Sustaining Gospel

There is, however, a gospel to be proclaimed. We have to wait, but it’s only a little while. He has called us to more than hardship and waiting. Both now and in the future, we are called to his presence.

Notice how Peter describes God in verse 10: “The God of all grace.” Many people think of grace as something that is only relevant for their entrance into the Christian life. The Word of God, here, says “God of all grace.” God will now and in the future sustain us.

Here’s the thread that ties together the whole chapter: God is present, and he will help us as we seek to orient our lives toward the Chief Shepherd. Verse 7 invites us to cast our cares on God now because he cares for us. That’s one of the passages of scripture that is deeply saturated into my soul. I think of it often because it speaks of God’s real presence with us now to listen to us and to help us, and it explicitly says “he cares for you.” Though we suffer a little while, he has invited us to his prensence now.

We are about to move into a section of address that splits the congretation into younger people and older people. I don’t mean we are going to actually divide into groups, but Peter’s address will speak to older people and then to younger people. With that in mind, it is easy, I think, for younger people to miss the significance of something else here in verse 10. The latter half of verse 10 speaks to where this whole Christian journey is going. We are called to something in the future. Do you see it there in verse 10?

“After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore [you] …”

I want to plant this seed of hope within your hearts and minds, younger people, there is more to your existence than this present life. We are called to “his eternal glory in Christ.” This is one of those aspects of our faith that would make “normal people” think we are a little religiony or cultish or “brainwashed” or whatever. Core to the Christian faith is the good news that our life is moving towards an eternal existence with God. We live with an eye towards an existence that can’t be mapped by the Gregorian calendar.

Notice 5:4 speaks of “when the Chief Shepherd appears.” Take the time to look down at the words. He’s coming back, and that is why we confess together, “He will come again to judge the living and the dead.” We live in God’s presence now because that is where we are headed.

People talk about the glories of heaven in many ways, but God himself is heaven. He is the new creation. His presence is the end game. God himself is the giver, the gift, and the gospel. This is why Peter speaks of our call to his eternal glory in Christ.

Drift & Reorientation

Peter spends much of the chapter describing what it looks like to drift and then reorient back towards Jesus’s way in the world. Take a look at verses 1–3.

Elders’ Drift

Peter’s first exhortation is to the elders, that is, the older people in the church. Notice the ways scripture talks about older people drifting:

1. In verse 2, Peter urges them not to do their shepherding work “under compulsion.”
2. Second, he warns them about working “for shameful gain.” That could mean using the church for money or, perhaps, to build a platform or brand.
3. Notice the third drift in verse 3: The Holy Spirit is concerned that elders not be “domineering over those in your charge.”
   

Now, apart from “not being nice” — money grabbing, working “under compulsion,” platforming — what’s really wrong with these things? I mean you could frame each of these with a positive spin: grinding, gettin’ paid, leading, not letting people hold you back. There’s weeks of hours of YouTube self-improvement videos that will support you in these ways of being in the world. What’s wrong with them?

Elders’ Reorientation

In short, for Peter, the problem is that these ways of opperating drift from the way of the Chief Shepherd. Rather than seeking a platform and money, for much of his ministry Jesus constantly withdrew from conflict and sought to show mercy to unexpected people in unexpected places. If you are taking notes, and want to look up some of these places later, check out Matthew 4:12, 12:15, 14:13, 15:21, where Jesus encounters conflict, and then withdraws. He withdraws, not in order to be complacent, but to administer mercy to people that actually won’t gain him much of a platform.

Furthermore, what kind of life did Jesus pronounce flourishing in the beatitudes? “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt 5:5). Meekness is strength that doesn’t demand its way; its a beautiful thing when you see this in the flesh, a leader who knows how to carry his strength. When Jesus describes himself, he says, “Come to me for I am gentle and lowly in heart” (Matt 11:29).

Peter has a lot to say to the elders, but these things are relevant for everyone in the room this morning. Do you buy that? We know this is true — that Peter’s exhortations to elders are intended for everyone else as well — because verse 3 says that elders should become examples to the whole flock of God. Notice he says “the flock.” It’s almost like the elders are to shepherd people as models of Jesus. But if that were the case you would think Peter might then refer to Jesus as a shepherd … and in fact he does. Jesus is the Chief Shepherd (5:4).

The point is that elders imitate Jesus, and they become examples of Jesus for the rest of us to emulate. That means what Peter wants elders to become is the same thing he wants us all to become, like Jesus. There’s positives for each of the negatives mentioned above, and each one of these positives are ways of being like Jesus.

Peter urges the elders and thereby the whole congretation to be meek (not demanding your own way), to work for the kingdom (not platforming and money grabbing as an end in itself), to work willingly and eagerly (not just because you have to).

Aligning yourself with a life that reflects Jesus’s way in the world is something that takes course correction and committment time and time again. It isn’t a one-time thing. Peter is a person who certainly knows that being a disciple takes repeated course correction.

Young People’s Drift & Reorientation

Scripture directly addresses young people, here, as well. Read the first sentence of verse 5 with me:

Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders.

Consider that word likewise. What’s it doing there? Look back at verse four. There has to be some correlation, some connection, to what was said in verse 4. Maybe it simply connects to the very first words of the first verse, “I exhort.” Peter has urged elders to be like the chief shepherd, and now he wants to exhort young people. That’s true, but I see more of a connection.

Verse 4 says that elders are to become models of Jesus — see that in the text! That’s the core to this whole chapter. It’s right there in verses 1–4 the way Peter refers to elders as shepherds, calls them to be examples, and then refers to Jesus as the Chief Shepherd. So his words to older people are built on a pattern of subordination. Older people are subject to Jesus, and likewise, Peter says, in the same way, young people, be subject to the elders (5:5). He’s bending all of us, through a pattern of subordination, toward Jesus.

Young people’s drift often looks like going their own way and stiff-arming the instructions of those who are older.

As a parent and teacher of young people, these words mean so much more to me, now. The number one thing that young people need to do is listen to people that are older. It’s like their whole focus of life right now. I see it every day and beat my head against the wall in frustration that I can’t just make this happen. Peter is being so practical here. Listen to people that have been following Jesus for longer than you have been alive!

It’s great advice, but it’s more than that. According to Peter, it’s built on a spiritual order God has put within his church. Reorient towards your elders as they reorient towards Jesus.

Everyone’s Drift and Reorientation

Finally, Peter addresses “all of you” in verse 5. Now, as we move from young people to this address to all people, I’m struck by the leap from practicality — listen to your elders — to deep wisdom. This wisdom takes some real maturity to get. So here’s a challenge, younger people, see if this sounds like wisdom to you. See if these next words sound profound and relevant and deeply Christ-like. Take a look at verses 5–6:

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 …

This exhortation flows right out of the word to young people. Young people often drift from Christ by stiff arming the advice of their elders and doing their own thing, and here’s the connection: That’s called pride, which is the opposite of humilty. Pride is that inclination of the heart and mind that says my way must happen. I’m the one! I have to stand out and be lifted up! One author calls it “an unreasonably high self-esteem.”¹ Augustine describes pride as “the first of vices, the beginning … and cause of all sin.”² Origen called pride, “The principal sin of the devil himself.”³ The drift towards this posture goes way back to the beginning.

The Current of Drift

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve thought their perception of what is good and beautiful in the world was better and more relevant than God’s instructions. There is a world out there that says some desires are untouchable. You are what you want, they say. Scripture, however, tells us that the problem with the world has everything to do with our desires. In the garden, two things teamed up to break the world: the devil working through our own desires.

1 Peter 5 says we have an unseen enemy. He seeks to devour us or, you could say, through our desires, to “wage war against our souls” (2:11). Is it any wonder Paul said, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces,” and the way those spiritual forces get to us is through our desires. This current that leads us to drift can, however, be countered through the gospel so let’s close there.

Reorienting Gospel

In summary, life is a wonderful experience of the God of all grace’s delightful presence and his creation, but because of the Fall our experience is not what it was supposed to be. The devil continues, from Genesis 3 to today, to get at us through our desires, waging war on the deepest part of our being. God is making all things new, but for a little while we must wait and work and endure various hardships.

Nevertheless, let us close being reminded that by God’s Spirit who dwells within us we can resist the devil and stand firm in our faith by sobering our minds with the gospel. Here’s the gospel in 1 Peter 5:

1. We are headed somewhere, and it’s not suffering or hardships. It’s the glory of God’s presence.
2. That means there is an end to our experience of disappointment, failure, and struggles. We will make it to the end. Whether it’s the reappearance of the Chief Shepherd or by walking with him through the veil of death, either way we are called and we are headed to his eternal glory in Christ.
3. He cares for us. God invites us to cast our worries, our anxieties, on him. There are no magic words to cure anxiety, but God will help you and me when we talk to him.
4. Finally, the good news is that he will lift us up. We can embrace lowliness, like Jesus, because God himself promises to lift the lowly (5:6). When everything within you says that you are approaching life in an out of touch way — you’re missing out! — remember Jesus. Seek his meekness and lowliness with the gospel truth that God will lift you up to the true joy of his presence. You don’t have to do it yourself.
   

☩ In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. ☩

1. J. R. Beck, “Pride” in The Baker Encyclopedia of Psychology and Counseling (Baker, 1999), p. 908. ↩
2. Saint Augustine, “Sermon 340A: At the Ordination of a Bishop” in Sermons 306–340A on the Saints. Edited by John E. Rotelle. Translated by Edmund Hill. Vol. 9. The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century (New City Press, 1994). ↩
3. Origen, “Iniquities, Pride, Relative Justification (Ezekiel 16:45–52).” in Origen: Homilies 1–14 on Ezekiel, edited by Dennis D. McManus, translated by Thomas P. Scheck, 62:116–27. Ancient Christian Writers. New York; Mahwah, NJ: The Newman Press, 2010. ↩