Midweek Bible Study | 1 Peter 5 | Gary Hamrick

we're gonna close out the book of first Peter tonight and then Lord willing we will be into second Peter next Wednesday night but for this evening we're gonna look at chapter 5 the last chapter in the book of first Peter and we have Bibles for you if you need one this evening feel free to raise a hand the ushers are coming down the aisles right now with some Bibles in hand I teach from New King James so if you have a different translation it may not sound the exact same that I'm going to be reading but nevertheless follow along if you can first Peter chapter 5 the Bible's that are being handed out is the same translation I teach from and it's page 11 91 and those church Bibles 1st Peter 5 page 11 91 in those church Bibles let's pray first and then we'll dive into this closing chapter here together Lord it's good to be in your house it's always good to just humble ourselves before you and we trust that you have been glorified through our worship we just want to magnify you we want to exalt you there is nothing and no one greater than you you are high and lifted up and exalted above everything and everyone and we just worship you tonight and we pray that you will be just as worship through our time in your word as you have been in our time of singing that as your children hear and do what your word says it would bring glory to you that you would be worshipped in that way so I thank you Lord for all those who are here tonight those who are watching online we just commit all this to you for your glory strengthen our hearts tonight as we read through this chapter and lord help us to understand its application even in our day we love you and we give you all glory honor and praise in Jesus name and everybody said amen so just as kind of a running start into this closing chapter by way of a quick review from chapter 4 Peter is giving instructions to believers about what our lives should include and there are five things from Chapter four in it spills into Chapter five so I just want to review it real quickly he he calls us to holy living serious praying continual loving and then also number four and number five he tells us in chapter four that we are also to be people who whose lives are marked by faithful serving and unfortunately some expected suffering remember again the book of first Peter mentions the word suffering more than any other book of the Bible and it's only five chapters long and again it's because the this is written during a time when there's severe persecution of Christians going on in the world this particular time between the Year 64 and 67 AD during the time when Christians are particularly being persecuted by the by Emperor Nero of Rome and so he's got a lot to say about suffering but in the context of all this suffering here's what Peter also says hold on to your heavenly hope because this world has its share of suffering but there is a world to come for the for the believer and our confidence is in the Lord and our future hope which is heaven and and not in this world and so that's that is the balance of what he's saying here he's not just you know droning on and on about hey there's gonna be a lot of suffering there's gonna be a lot of suffering there's gonna be a lot of suffering he's talking to a people of this particular time who know firsthand what suffering is all about and at the same time he's saying hold on to your heavenly hope hold on to your heavenly hope and there are three particular ways that he says we can expect suffering first we can expect suffering as Saints just simply as Christians there's the persecution of Christians around the world we're pretty much removed from it in the most severe sense but there are plenty of brothers and sisters in the world today who know what suffering is just for being a Christian and again the people that he's writing to primarily understand suffering as Saints and then he also talks about suffering for sin and it's not just that we suffer for sin when we do sinful things and therefore we suffer the consequences what he's talking about here is suffering for sin in the sense of dying too south because in Chapter four versus verse 1 & 2 where he talks about you know Christ has suffered for us in the flesh and he he died on the cross therefore arm yourselves within with the same mind for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men but for the will of God so he's talking about there needs to be a certain kind of suffering that we endure in the sense of dying to self crucifying the flesh so that we will not be people who give in to the lusts of the world the lust of the flesh but rather people who live for the will of God so there is some measure of suffering for that when we determine that we're just gonna die to self we're gonna crucify the flesh you know that's hard and and yet we're called to that kind of suffering and and it's and it's so that we might live for the glory of God and not for our own fleshly desires and then the third kind of suffering that he gets into more here in chapter 5 is suffering from Satan and we'll talk about that when we get to it but first here in the opening verses of chapter 5 Peter is going to address a group of people in the final exhortation of this last chapter and the group that he's going to address first here in chapter 5 our elders / pastors so he's going to give some exhortations here to elders and pastors in the first four verses so let me read verses 1 through 4 and then we'll come back and talk about what what he is saying here so in chapter 5 verse 1 he says the elders who are among you I exhort I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed Shepherd the flock of God which is among you serving as overseers not by compulsion but willingly not for dishonest gain but eagerly not rather nor as being lords over those entrusted to you but being examples to the flock and when the chief Shepherd appears you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away so the first thing that he says here in exhorting elder slash pastors is I know what I'm talking about and I know to whom I speak because I am one he says there in the beginning he says to the elders who are among you I who am a fellow elder see he identifies himself here as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ because even though Peter denied knowing Jesus three times from a distance he did see the literal sufferings sufferings of Christ being crucified on a cross and he says and also particular of the glory that will be revealed see that's where Peter laces this whole idea of suffering in this age with the future glory that awaits us when he adds there he goes yeah I'm a fellow elder I've seen and experienced and witnessed the sufferings of Christ but I'm also a partaker future tense of the glory that will be revealed so he again is urging us to hold on to that eternal hope hold on to the fact that heaven awaits us hold on to our ultimate reward right now it's dark it's ugly there are things we're gonna have to go through experience endure don't give up persevere because on the other end of it there is a retirement that is literally out of this world and he identifies here as a fellow elder now again this is the Apostle Peter and he is one of the original twelve whom Christ selected he is if you will the preeminent among the disciples he's not the first pope that's now that I said I just said he's preeminent because every time the list of the disciples is mentioned in the Gospels or in the book of Acts Peter's always at the top of the list he's always mentioned first in fact next to Jesus there is more mentioned about Peter in the Gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John than any other person so he is a central figure in the in the Gospels and he is preeminent among the disciples the Apostles the original 12 and so he is a fellow elder now he's not he's not necessarily asserting his authority here he's not you know pulling the Apostle card on them he's just simply saying I identify with you I am one of you I get this and so everything I'm about to say to you I'd receive for myself because I'm a fellow elder with you and he speaks here to the elders that's verse one it is the Greek word press Boutros and it can mean elders in the sense of church leadership that can also just simply mean elders in terms of age and maturity he's he's gonna get to the younger people in the next section so don't check out if you don't consider yourself to be elder all right if you consider yourself to be younger there's more coming for you so hang on but for the moment he's going to address the the elders and so it can sometimes be interchangeable can sometimes mean just simply elder in terms of age or maturity and it can mean elder in terms of leadership in the church and you also notice another term he uses in verse 2 which is actually in a verb form but it's from the noun shepherd and verse 2 and it uses another term in the latter part of verse 2 which is overseers so you have elders Shepherds overseers overseers is the greek word episkopos that is more of a church leadership term we get our English words Episcopalian from that word episkopos overseers some translations say bishop it just means leaders in the church and and elders Shepherds and overseers can sometimes be used all three interchangeably in the scriptures he's talking generally about church leaders so why do I use the word pastor even though the word pastor is not in here because the word Shepherd in the Greek aspo men and that is the Greek word for pastor so whenever it speaks here of shepherding he's speaking of pastoring and these three terms elder Shepherd overseer can be sometimes used interchangeably in the New Testament and he's going to say basically three things to the group the first thing he's going to say here using this word Shepard is Shepard faithfully Shepard faithfully now just in in terms of a simple definition for one who's Shepards it would be one who feeds leads loves and protects you know again if you were here I don't know a year maybe it's been two years now when I went through Psalm 23 and talked about the role of the Shepherd and the idea of sheep you know it's not just Psalm 23 that whole analogy of shepherding and sheep is all through the Gospels I mean it's a picture of the loving tender care that a shepherd gives to sheep and that analogy is used for pastoring and sheep being the flock being being being the church being the congregation and so the idea behind the the major responsibilities and role that a shepherd has to a flock is to feed lead love and protect just like what a shepherd is to real sheep that's basically the responsibility you feed them you lead them you love them you protect them and that's the same concept Peter saying this is the role of a pastor you're supposed to be doing these things now you know depending on what your church background may be and or maybe don't maybe this is the first exposure you've had to church you know different churches operate differently and you know when I grew up in the church I grew up in a smaller church you know relatively speaking the average sized congregation the average sized Church in America is 86 people and that was about the size of the church I grew up in and therefore it had a solo pastor and that one pastor did everything I mean that that one pastor did everything for the congregation and proportionately speaking it was pretty manageable obviously in a church our size I don't do everything I can't do everything you would be neglected if your love care feeding protection so rested on me and so you know I'm very thankful for the other pastors on staff here that God has raised up to help shoulder the responsibility of feeding and leading and loving and protecting the sheep here and and so I'm grateful for all the pastor's we have on staff and together we try to do these things now obviously as kind of the the lead pastor your cornerstone my main responsibility is the feeding part and that's what I do on Sundays that's what I do on Wednesdays and I love doing it and by the way you make it a joy for me to feed lead love and protect because I know enough horror stories from enough pastors because we get together and we share and and I know enough horror stories and war stories from other pastors to be grateful for what we have your Cornerstone so I just want to say you make it a you make it easy for me to Pastor because you all are a great flock and I say that sincerely and so it's a joy to to pastor to Shepherd and that's to your credit and I thank God for you and these are the main things that pastors are called to do to faithfully feed lead love and protect now Peter is writing here obviously and he knows by firsthand instruction what it means to be a shepherd because if you remember after Peter had denied even knowing Christ three times there's a scene at the end of John's Gospel John chapter 21 where Jesus restores Peter into public ministry again and there's this tender conversation that he has with Peter along the bank of the Sea of Galilee in John chapter 21 where Jesus just simply says to Peter three times gives him the same number of opportunities to acknowledge him as he did deny him Jesus says to him do you love me because you know that I love you do you love me you know that I love you do you love me you know that I love you and there's a there's kind of a play on words with the word love there that's not the main point but every time that Jesus asked Peter if he loved him Jesus responded with a simple instruction the first time he said do you love me Jesus responded after Peter said you know that I love you Jesus said feed my lambs the next time Jesus said do you love me and Peter said you know that I love you Jesus said tend my sheep the third time when Jesus said do you love me and Peter said yes you know that I love you jesus said again feed my sheep feed my lambs tend to my sheep feed my sheep those are the three things you just said and again the emphasis is on feeding twice two out of three times you said feed and then he said ten and that we're ten can mean all those other things lead them love them protect them so Peters writing here from first-hand knowledge like yeah that kind of got schooled by Jesus so you know I so for the rest of the elders and I'm one of you for the rest of the pastor's I'm one of you I just want you to know it's important that you feed them you lead them you love them you protect them because that's what being a real Shepherd is it's also important to point out you're not and you know I think this is critical I don't think this is just you know semantics every time Jesus said in John 21 feed my lambs tend to my sheep and then feed my sheep it was always my this Jesus speaking my lambs my sheep my sheep and the reason I point that out is because Peter heard that and he emphasized it here in verse 2 when he look at your Bibles when he says Shepherd the flock of God it's God's flock I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with pastors over the years who refer to the congregation where they passed her as my people and it bothers me and I just want to publicly say you are not my people I mean I'm your people and I'm your peeps you know but you are not my you don't belong to me you know the church belongs to Jesus it is his church it is the flock of God every time Jesus exerted Peter in John 21 he said feed my sheep tend my lambs feed my sheep okay it was always mine the ownership is the Lord's and Peter emphasizes it here when he says Shepherd the flock of God he doesn't say to any pastor here Shepherd your flock it's not a pastor's flock the flock the sheep belong to the Lord pastors are just serving under the Lord to help what feed lead love and protect God's sheep and it's an important distinction here because you know and I know I know some of this I'm actually just kind of preaching to myself and and if there were a group of pastors here maybe this would be more applicable but just so that you know what scripture says relative to pastors in general my role specifically you don't belong to me you belong to the Lord you are the Lord's sheep you are the Lord's flock here and I think that's just simply an important distinction here because he says he uses the word entrusted in verse three nor as being lords over those entrusted to you it's a stewardship thing it's a caring thing it's a loving and feeding thing but no people belong to the pastor and that's why he also reminds in verse four about the chief Shepherd because it's saying clearly Jesus is the chief Shepherd he is over all the flock he is over every other Shepherd small-ass and pastors are just supposed to serve under the Lord now that leads to number two one of the other expectations he says here is to serve willingly he says and the end of verse 2 where he says Shepherd the flock of God which is among you serving that's the key words serving as overseers not by compulsion but willingly willingly to serve willingly now hopefully whatever position God has called you to you know whatever you do for a living whatever job you do for hopefully you are not doing it under compulsion hopefully you are doing what you do because you're doing it willingly but Peter says here especially for pastors you better be doing this willingly and not under compulsion I mean I mean how how thrilling would it be if you came up for prayer and you're a pastor gee I just have this power you again I don't even want to be here what's your prayer neat I mean you know how joyful would that be so hopefully pastors are doing it willingly hopefully you're doing what you do willingly okay nobody should be doing it under compulsion now that isn't to say that there are some days there are some days for all of us you don't really want to be doing what you're doing maybe just a bad day or you know you're just going through something and you know if I really want to be here I don't know if I really want to do this those that those days happen every once in a while no matter what you do but hopefully on a consistent basis what you're doing what your call do should be something that you want to do willingly you want to do a joyfully and particularly as pastors Peter's exhorting here you better be doing this willingly not under compulsion you ought to be doing this as undo the Lord by the way the same Greek word for compulsion about not doing something by compulsion is used in 2nd Corinthians 9 verse 7 about giving Paul says the sin Corinthians 9:7 nobody should give under compulsion if you want to give in the offering if you want to give to the Lord nobody should ever do it under compulsion I got okay Lord you know okay this is the time and they receive okay nobody should give under compulsion but it says in sin Corinthians 9:7 but God loves a cheerful heart we should we should do things cheerfully for the Lord and Peter's saying you're particularly as pastors you should be doing it cheerfully willingly not under compulsion and then the third thing that he says here is to specifically to elder slash pastors is you should lead humbly you should lead humbly in verse three he says there nor as being lords over those entrusted to you but being examples to the flock now clearly by saying these things Peter thought that pastors should have significant authority in leading a church because if he thought that pastors were powerless or just hirelings by a church board then he would not be giving a warning here about the potential to abuse their authority and power because that's what he's doing he's saying here caution for every church leader you better be sure you're doing this not as lording authority over people but by setting examples to people therefore leading humbly so he's not denying significant Authority the pastors have at the local church because that's why he's saying you better be cautious here that you never use your authority in an abusive way but nevertheless he urges here leading by example not lording it over people but leading by example this is very similar to something that Jesus said back in Mark's Gospel chapter 10 he was asked by James and John those two brothers two of his apostles in Mark's Gospel chapter 10 who's asked hey they come up to Jesus and say we have a question and we want you to do whatever we ask it's pretty bold right we want you to do whatever you whatever we ask and Jesus says to him what do you want me to do for you and they said to him grant us that we may sit one on your right hand and the other on your left in your glory so these guys are having a power trip and they're like yeah we're we're kind of the original a-team where the original 12 apostles and before the other 10 figure out what we're asking we want to come to you first and ask if we can a position of authority one on your right and one on your left when you come into your glory wouldn't you love to just be a fly on a wall when Jesus like is hearing them and I would love to have seen Jesus's reaction when they asked that question was there a pregnant pause was did he give him a look that he kind of like raised an eyebrow you know I but he responds by saying to them you don't know what you ask he says are you able to drink the cup that I drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with in other words you prepared to go through some of the suffering I don't know about to go through and they said to him we are able they have no idea what they're answering and he said to them you will indeed drink the cup that I drink and with the baptism I'm baptized with you will be baptized but to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give but it is for those for whom it is prepared and when the ten heard at the other tenth disciples heard it they began to be greatly displeased with James and John but Jesus called them to himself and he said to them so now picture this ooh so jesus then gathers all the twelve and by the way I'm thinking the other ten are all upset not because James and John asked the question but because they got to Jesus first you better believe it these people these 10 these twelve guys they weren't the sharpest knife in the drawer and so when they come together Jesus uses this as a teaching moment he's okay listen all 12 you guys just just gather around the campfire here make some s'mores I got some stuff to say to you and he says to them this you know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them you know they they use their authority in an oppressive abusive way and they're great ones exercise authority over them he says yell it yet it shall not be so among you but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant and whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all for even the Son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many it's very counterintuitive especially in our culture the idea that leadership is really about servanthood and I don't care whether you're in a position of leadership Authority or whatever it might be all of us are called to servanthood all of us are called to serve one another in love all of us are called to have a servant's heart now years ago Gayler and when Lucy are speaking and he made this statement in our old building years ago and he made this statement that has always stuck with me about having a servant's heart he says here's how you will know if you have a servant's heart because everybody's like yeah as a Christian I wanna have a servant's heart servant's heart servants are so we need to have servant's heart okay and all of us can think we have a servant's heart and I'll never forget here's what he said here's how you can tell if you have a servant's heart it's how you react when someone treats you like one yeah how you react when someone treats you like a servant now that isn't to say that that that people have Liberty to walk all over you okay and unfortunately some people will do that that's not what I'm saying it's just how do we respond okay because the real servant doesn't care about the notoriety a real servant doesn't care about the attention a real servant doesn't care about who knows you just do it because it's it's just humbling and it's honoring to other people it's respectful of other people but how do you deal with it when you go unnoticed and when you go unappreciated did you do it only for the gratitude because a real servant hearted person does it as unto the Lord not because they get to thank you not because they get the notoriety so how do you react when someone treats you like one in that sense like how do you react when someone doesn't acknowledge you doesn't say thank you doesn't appreciate what you do because then that's when you can really tell did I do this with a servant's heart or did I do this because deep down inside I just wanted somebody to pay me a little tension or give me some gratitude or whatever it might be and so here in this context you know Peter is saying listen as pastors in particular don't use your authority lording it over those entrusted to you but set the example that I have to be honest with you you know there are times when I just say to the Lord I'd rather I'd rather sell computers because I I know that then people don't necessarily look at me for an example because it I don't necessarily hope he's like feeling like I'm you know living in a glass house I'm just being real with you and you know I've said this before but I get the looks like when I'm like when I'm at Costco first of all this is the look I get in a Costco like you shot the Costco that's it that's what I get and you know that coming out on a baseball cap and you know I just got on you know whatever and somebody's like I can't you wear baseball hats I can't even believe that you know and so it's funny the reaction I get but then this is the second reaction I get what's in your card pastor G you know what are you buying mm-hmm what's in your card mm-hmm yeah just checking it out yeah seeing if you're a godly example yeah so I like to have fun I like to look in your cart you know and I just like ah what do you got going on you know what's your game what are you drinking all right but nevertheless this is what we're called to beat it doesn't mean that every pasture is a perfect example please don't look at me please look at Jesus right please look at Jesus but nevertheless we are supposed to recognize that with the responsibility of being a pastor goes the responsibility of living a life that at least points people somehow to Jesus as examples to the flock and when the chief Shepherd appears he says here at the end you will receive a crown of glory that does not fade away so unless you're a pastor you don't get a crown of glory lead humbly what is wrong with me listen here's the good news everybody gets different there are three kite types of crowns measuring the viable crown of glory right here there's also the crown of righteousness mentioned in second Timothy four verse eight which you get to and also James 1:12 in Revelation 2:10 says about the crown of life three three types of crowns that we get crown of glory crown of righteousness crown of life but here's the reality okay including my own little hopefully maybe there is some kind of little tiny crown of glory but here's here's the reality for all three of those that all of us you know get in Revelation 4 it says we're all throw our crowns down at the feet of Jesus it won't matter because but when we get to heaven it's not going to be like whoa I can hardly hold my head up look at my crown crown of glory because when we guess there's not going to be any of that can you imagine if there's competition over your crown because in Revelation 4 what it says is we end up just casting all of our crowns down we are undone in the presence of Jesus nobody is wearing a crown everybody is undone we're just throwing or casting our crowns down at the feet of Jesus so as soon as you get it you just don't it won't even be a power struggle don't even think it well for a moment they're gonna be okay Jesus here you can't have your crown back because we're gonna be just so undone in the presence of the Lord we're just gonna be like Lord here take the crown I want nothing I want no one except you so as much as this looks like a little bonus that pastors get or we get all together it's going down to the feet of Jesus anyway alright this is a condom verse five likewise here's where here's where you younger people get get nailed a little bit so it's your turn likewise you younger people submit yourself to your elders underline that every young person in your and your Bibles right now every parent loves that verse too don't you you're gonna put that on a three by five card and put that in your teenagers room aren't you likewise you younger people submit yourselves to your elders yes all of you be submissive to one another again it's not a power trip it's one another and be clothed with humility so in other words he's saying here humility extends to everyone this is not just something the pastors have to practice this is this extends to everybody no matter what your age whether you're elder or whether you're younger or anywhere in between he says be clothed with humility for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble now you know it's interesting he does specifically refer here to younger people and the reason may be because and I'm sure you would agree with me if you're older now but probably when you were younger you know I may have disagreed with I'm about to say but basically youth and immaturity okay often leads to a self inflated view we tend to think when we're younger that you know we're all that and we got everything figured out until you hit the reality of life and you realize I don't know as much as I thought I knew and I don't have it all together as much as I thought I did and so perhaps he's addressing younger people for that very reason because youth and immaturity often leads to an overinflated view of self but he in general says to everybody here God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble now he's quoting proverbs 334 and again it applies to everybody and Peter's not the only one who quoted from Proverbs 334 James also did in James 4:6 James quotes this same proverb so it's repeated a couple of times in the New Testament and you know again the bottom line is do we want God to resist us or give us grace which side of that do you want to be on yeah I mean it's a no-brainer do we want God to resist us or do we want God to grace us and I want and need God's grace every minute of every day and therefore the challenge is if we want to be graced by God rather than resisted by God we need to humble ourselves before God because God resists the proud he resists the proud he gives grace to the humble and therefore verse six humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you or lift you up in due time verse seven this is a great verse verse seven casting all your care upon him for he cares for you and it's an interesting verb there in verse seven casting he doesn't say laying down all your care upon him for he cares for you that that would be fine instruction but he actually uses a word in the Greek that means to throw it it's an it's a word that implies energy it it's like actually don't just like get rid of it like get rid of your cares like cast it on him throw it on the Lord why because he cares for you and he wants his best for you and so he calls us to cast all our cares don't you know if you want to keep your cares all to yourself you can try to deal with them all to yourself but it is much better when we cast them on the one who can deal with what concerns us better than we can ourselves cast all your cares upon him for he cares for you now this is very unusual language in first century Roman Empire because remember first century Roman Empire their polytheistic people they believed in multiple gods and it is completely foreign to the Roman polytheistic mindset that a God actually cares about you see that they were all about multiple gods distant gods who are typically angry with you when Peter writes here in the first century this is so counter to what the culture was in the day when Roman polytheism was just all about multiple gods who didn't really care about you he personalizes the true and living God here and he says the God of heaven the God of the Bible the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob cares about you he cares about you and some of you maybe just need to you know highlight that in your Bibles or go home and write it down put it somewhere prominent because sometimes because of what I'm about to read in the next couple verses you think God doesn't care about you and there's a reason why sometimes we don't think I cares about us and it's good to be reminded God cares about me God cares about me God cares about he loves me and he wants me to cast all my cares on him look at how it continues verse 8 and this is this is a the third aspect of suffering be sober be vigilant because your adversary the devil walks around NIV says prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour resist him steadfast in the faith knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your Brotherhood in the world but may the God of all Grace who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus after you have suffered awhile perfect establish strengthen and settle you to him be the glory and the Dominion for ever and ever amen so in this closing section he has a little PS in the next couple of verses we'll get to in just a minute to wrap up our study but in this closing section here he ends with this instruction about the reality of the devil because he doesn't want us to be ignorant about this now look the devil or Satan is a real being he is not a figment of our imagination he is not the counter voice on one shoulder you know to the angel on the other shoulder he's not a guy in a red suit with a pitchfork he's he's not God's opposite either by the way because God has no equal therefore he has no rival God is unequaled having said that Satan is opposed to everything that God is about and everything that God loves including you and we need to get this Satan is opposed to everything about God and everything that God loves so Peter just gets through saying cast all your cares on the Lord he cares about you now by the way Satan as opposed to you the God who cares about you is also the same one that we need to turn to because there's an enemy who prowls around like a roaring lion wanting to devour you so you better cast all your cares on the Lord and this is one of them there is a real enemy of our souls and he's called here the devil the devil just simply means false accuser or slanderer and he has many different titles and/or names in the Bible he's called Satan which means adversary and job 1:6 he's called the tempter in 1st Thessalonians 35 he's called the wicked one in Matthew 13:19 he's called the accuser of the brothers in Revelation 12:10 he's called the Prince of this world in John 12:31 and if you're trying to take notes you'll have to come back later because I'm gonna keep going through the list he's also called the ruler of the kingdom of the air in Ephesians 2:2 he's called the dragon in Revelation 12:9 the serpent in Genesis 3:1 Lucifer in Isaiah 14:12 and here in first Peter 5:8 he's called a roaring lion Ezekiel 28 tells us that Satan was originally a guardian cherub chief among the angels in heaven until pride filled his heart he rebelled against God in heaven and became the head of a kingdom of evil spirits called demons those were the angels who rebelled with him and so he was kicked out of heaven to earth in Ezekiel 28 17 the Bible says your heart became proud on account of your beauty and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor God says so I threw you to the earth in Revelation 12:9 that says the Great Dragon was hurled down that ancient serpent called the devil or Satan who leads the whole world astray he was hurled to the earth and his angels with him Jesus described it like this in Luke 10:18 he said I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven and now Satan roams the earth like a roaring lion looking for somebody to devour and in 2nd Corinthians 2:11 Paul says do not be unaware of Satan's schemes Satan is always scheming against you he wants to bring division in your marriage in your home in the church Satan always wants to inspire fear in your life discouragement hopelessness Satan likes to incite hatred he likes to tempt us with sin he lies to us all the time and so Peter says here there are some things that you need to be aware of in withstanding the roaring lion and he says these four things to us he says first I want you to be sober and vigilant NIV says I want you to be self-controlled and alert there's no time for games there's a sobriety about this we have to be vigilant about this Satan is unseen and the demons with him but he is constantly working in your life in your home everything about you he hates because you remind him of your father in heaven and so he's prowling around like a roaring lion just looking for somebody he can devour a flicked tempt discourage divide this is his motive as a mode of operation and Peter says here I want you to be sober one should be aware of this I want you to be vigilant he says also number two I want you to resist him resist him don't give in fight the good fight of the faith be wise about the way that Satan works be on to his schemes and then resist him don't give in number three stand firm in the faith it says in the New King James steadfast in the faith but that's what he means NIV says stand firm in the faith don't go anywhere you know it can feel trust me I understand like anybody else it can feel you can start to get really battle weary you start to get really battle weary sometimes and just want to like throw in the towel but you resist him you stand firm in the faith and you remember that you're not alone what you're going through is probably very similar to what other people are going through in the ways that Satan tries to work overtime on us Peter says I want to remind you that the same sufferings are experienced by your Brotherhood in the world by other brothers and sisters around the world they're going through similar kinds of suffering the way that Satan tries to work on us but look at what God is going to do he says but in verse 10 may the God of all grace he's the God of all grace isn't that good who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus there's that the hope of heaven again after you suffered a little while because life has its share of it God's gonna perfect you establish you strengthen and settle you and that's why he ends here by saying to him be the glory and the Dominion forever and ever amen because the Lord is our strength you know we were seeing an earlier lion of the tribe of Judah and it reminded me you know here we are tonight talking about Satan like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour but the good news is we have a greater lion we have the Lion of the tribe of Judah who fights our battles for us [Music] and he adds this little PS here at the end verse 12 he says by Sylvanas our faithful brother as I consider him I have written to you briefly now when he says by Sylvanas I have written to you it tells us that Sylvanas was probably the pennmen for Peter that Peter dictated this and Sylvanas was writing it down and Sylvanas most Bible scholars believe is the same as Silas one of the travelling companions of the Apostle Paul it's just a more formal name Sylvanas is probably the same as Silas in the Bible and he is the scribe for Peter and so Peter says I have written to you briefly exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand she who is in Babylon remember at our opening of the of the study of this epistle we talked about how she is a feminine reference probably to the church at Rome this is probably where Paul up rather Peters writing from this is kind of a euphemism for Babylon being Rome during a time of great persecution used its code word here that that's what it probably means he or she who was in Babylon the church in Rome had left together with you greets you and so does mark my son my son in the faith not a biological son greet one another with a kiss of love peace to you all who were in Christ Jesus and everybody said a man Lord we thank you for this time in your word we thank you for Peter and his exemplary life he was a flawed man like we are Lord but nevertheless he writes here by example he lived by example he encourages us by example and we pray that we would take this epistle to heart Lord particularly all this part about how we might resist the devil stand firm in the faith being sober and vigilant about these things Lord protect us from the fiery darts of the enemy shield us Lord from the one who wants to try to devour us we thank you that you're always greater in us than he the devil that is in the world but sometimes it can be weary Lord sometimes it can be difficult and so we pray that you would help us to stand firm in the faith Lord encouraged us we pray we're grateful for your grace in which we stand and we pray these things in Jesus name and everybody said

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

Views: 4,645

Rating: 4.949367 out of 5

Keywords: Cornerstone Chapel, Calvary Chapel, Gary Hamrick, Cornerstone Chapel Leesburg Va, Bible, Sermons, Teaching, Faith, Christian, Jesus, God, Holy Spirit

Id: QqIMiVumgHE

Length: 49min 16sec (2956 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 10 2019