A Word for Younger People

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Will you please open in your Bibles with me to 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 5. And this morning we'll be looking specifically in the sermon at verses 5 through 7, but we're going to read verses 1 through 7. I think it's important, especially this morning, to have context of what God says to the elders first in the first four verses, and then secondly to the young people and the rest of us in 5 through 7. So, 1 Peter chapter 1, if you're in your pew Bibles, you'll find that on page 1079.

Brothers and sisters, hear now God's perfect word. 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 which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion, but willingly, not for dishonest gain, but eagerly, 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. Likewise, you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility. For God resists the proud. but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves unto the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your cares upon him, for he cares for you.

Prayer for Illumination

Thus ends this portion of the reading of God's word. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. It doesn't return void. Your spirit is moving and active. And Father, we know that Your Word is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, joint and marrow.

Sermon

Lord, we pray that You would please do heart surgery on us this morning, that You would wield Your sword like a surgeon's scalpel. Lord, where there is the cancer of this world, we pray that You would please remove it. Where there is sin, we pray that You would convict us of it. where we have become calloused. Lord, we pray that you would cut it off. We pray that we would have ears to hear, hearts to believe, because your spirit is working. We entrust our souls to you this morning. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

I don't know about you, but I think we here are Americans. We don't like to submit. We don't like the bow. We don't like anybody telling us what to do. We live in a free country, and we're going to do what we want to do. Right? I mean, this is what our kids will even say to each other. It's a free country. I'll do what I want. But there's, I think, no matter what country you're in, a sense of pride that happens in almost everybody's heart, every culture's heart, every nation's heart, people who do not want to submit. In our country, just recently, there was a really interesting story that came across the news just over the last couple of years.

If you remember watching big Super Bowl ads and all sorts of funny commercials for the crypto exchange FTX, led by Sam Brinkman Freed, who is now imprisoned. And one of the things that happened with Sam Brinkman Fried is people tried to tell him and tried to warn him. There were regulators saying, Sam, there's things wrong here. He even had his now biographer who was with him saying, Sam, that's not a good idea.

You don't want to do that. Where's your board of directors? Who's keeping people in check? And he wouldn't listen to anybody else. It was his ideas. He was going forward. People were warning him something's going to happen. And even the guy with him was like, I don't know where you're going to go, but it may be jail. And he wouldn't listen. He wouldn't submit. He wouldn't heed advice.

There were red flags all over the place. But in his heart, he was filled by a sense of pride and a misplaced ideology that landed him in jail. And many people, their life savings evaporated, gone, because of mismanagement of funds. Pride hides in rebellion. Bitterness, control, and even anxiety. Pride hides in bitterness, anxiety, control, and rebellion.

But as Christians, we're called to humility. But we need more than just the virtue of humility. We need the humility that is in Christ. Peter, as he's preaching to the people here in these five different regions, He is exhorting them to be clothed with humility, first towards the elders, then towards each other, and ultimately toward God. Because God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

And it really unfolds in those three different ways. We're able to see in verse 5, it's submission of young people. Verse 6, submission of everyone to one another. And then verse 6 and 7, submitting to the Lord Himself. And so the truth I'm hoping that you'll take home with you today is that God calls you and God calls me to be humble, to walk in humility towards leadership, towards one another, and under God's care himself. So first, submit yourselves to the elders. Look with me just at the first part of verse five. Likewise, you who are younger, younger people, submit yourselves to your elders.

Now it's interesting to me, the translation here, very rarely will change things to be more gender neutral. Sometimes that's the case. Everything in Greek has a gender. A cup of water has a gender. A book has a gender. Everything has a gender. Just like if you study Spanish or Latin or something like that, everything is gendered in Greek. And so sometimes it's true when you have something that's maybe it's more gender neutral, but here it's specifically young men. Neoteri. Young men.

Likewise, you young men, submit yourselves to your elders. I'm not saying the New King James translators are 100% wrong here, because I think definitely this applies to everybody who's under the authority that God has given to the elders. We saw that in verses 1 through 4, how they were supposed to conduct themselves. But specifically, why here does the Holy Spirit call out young men? Younger in age dudes in the church. What are they supposed to do? Submit to the elders. Why just call them out though? Why focus just on them? Well, I think we've seen this all throughout the first epistle of Peter, haven't we? Where he addressed slaves, he addressed women, he addressed men, he addressed rulers, he addresses all sorts of different categories of people.

And here I think he's saying, you want to know one of the biggest challenges, and I'm saying this is still the case today for you young men, one of the biggest challenges you will have in your life is learning to submit to authorities God has rightly placed over you. It's hard. It's really hard. If you don't believe it, try to stay under the speed limit. It's really hard to submit to authority, especially for young men.

Now again, the flow of this fits in verses 1 through 4. It's very clearly speaking to the elders. That's who the Holy Spirit was addressing in those first four verses of this chapter. And the elders were told not to lord it over the people, right? They weren't to act like tyrants. But within God-given authority, young men submit. This isn't permission for the elders to act like tyrants. This isn't authoritarianism. but it is saying that God resists pride in both the leaders and in young people. True authority and true humility reflect Christ. And this isn't terribly weird for Peter to necessarily say this in a Roman culture.

And the area we're talking about, this is modern-day Turkey. This is an area that had lots of different cultural influences. In the area of Gaul, there were Celtic people who had migrated hundreds of years before from what we call France now today. There were Greek influences that came through. There were Persian influences that came from the East. There were then Roman influences that came in the last 150 years. And so there's lots of different influences. But one of the things that, as I was researching the different cultures that overlapped in this area, all of them had a common thread.

Hierarchy of society. all of them had a hierarchy of society. So it's just interesting here that the Holy Spirit doesn't overthrow everything with the hierarchy of society, but says, no, no, hold on. There are still husbands, there are still wives, and there are still young people. There's still this hierarchy of society. And honor and boldness were prized and external obedience were demanded of by the society.

But I gotta tell you, one of the things in our culture, especially if you go down to the South in America, if you ask a child a question, and it's a yes or no question, how will they answer? Yes, sir. No, ma'am. And as I was talking to a young person down there, they said, well, there's a way I'm able to say yes, sir, but I'm really cussing at him in my heart.

Not submitting in attitude, not submitting in heart, but just submitting with mouth. Peter here is calling for an inward humility, not just a forced compliance. So why is he addressing just young men? Well, young men are prone to pride. This is one of these traits that we're able to find. I think this is most clearly demonstrated in the Scriptures when we look at one of Solomon's sons, Rehoboam.

When he becomes king, he has all the elders around him, all the old men advising him, and they come and the people are tired. They have built massive monuments, they've built Solomon's palace, they've built the temple, they've built up all these things all around Solomon's kingdom, and they come and they're just saying, we're tired. We're tired, okay?

How are you going to rule us? And all the old men say to Rehoboam, they say, speak to them kindly, hear their concerns, and you'll be their king forever. That doesn't fit Rehoboam. What does he do? He goes and asks his friends. He goes and asks the young men, the young advisors, and he asks them, how should I answer? And they say, give it to them hard, right? They're just a bunch of grumblers and complainers. He says, you thought my dad's was strong, right? His waist was like a pinky finger. Wait until you feel my full weight. And splits the kingdom. He literally loses ten tribes to the north who desert. And it's a civil war because of that advice, right? His pride was stoked up because he didn't want to listen and submit to the wisdom of the elderly men.

Now again, there are limits to submission. We saw that before in 1 Peter 2, when we talked about submitting to the king. It's not just blind submission. No authority can tell you to do what God tells you is sin. This is Peter who writes this, who says, is it better for me to obey you or God? That's Acts chapter 5, and he says to the council, I'm not going to listen to you. You've told me to not preach in Jesus' name. I'm going to go preach in Jesus' name more.

So there's a limit to authority. But it's totally natural for young people to want to rebel against the authorities God has placed in their lives. It's totally natural. But just because it's normal, just because it's natural, doesn't mean it's good. And the godly characteristic is saying, hold on, these authorities were placed in my life by God, and as long as they're going in a legal direction, I need to submit to those authorities God has put in my life.

And so youth, I know it can be frustrating, but submit. All right, submit. Likewise, you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. And I gotta say, older siblings? You may be a year or two older than your siblings, but I'm not saying this means you should go home and say, I'm older than you and so you need to submit to me. That's the type of pride and lording it over that God is saying, don't do that. And to parents, I think we can help even our young people to have the humility of Christ to be understanding and not lord over even our children.

I know I struggle with that myself. Submission is not suffocation. Submission isn't suffocation. Especially you young men, when we're saying you need to submit to those lawful authorities God has placed over you, we're not trying to suffocate you. But it is part of learning sanctification. It is learning to be more and more like Christ. Humble submission to godly authority isn't weakness. It's Christ-like. It's an act of faith.

But notice it doesn't just stop here. It starts in the first part of verse 5, directing the subject as young men, or young people. But there's a second half of verse 5. Notice there's actually a period. It's two sentences. It's one of these weird verses. But in verse 5, there's a second half, starting with the word yes. Yes, now the subject changes. No longer is it just young men. The view broadens out.

Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. All of us must clothe ourselves with humility. Clothe yourselves with humility. All of you. The Holy Spirit now is addressing to everyone in the church. All of you submit to one another. Submit yourselves to one another. Be clothed with humility. This word clothed with humility, the specific word clothed there, is the only time in the entire Bible that this word is used. This word is Ekombozaste.

And this is a word that's like, you know, sometimes in other Greek literature, it's like somebody tying on an apron, right? Tying the knot on an apron. So, over your clothes, if you were going to go and you were going to work, you would put on an apron and you would tie the knot on it, right? So, if you're going to put on some type of apron to do some work, you've got to tie it on. And what's the work you're putting on?

Humility. Submitting to one another. The closest thing we have to this in the scripture would be Jesus. In John chapter 13, when he takes off his outer garments and he ties them around his waist, and he gets down and he washes his disciples' feet, humbly serving even his disciples. Humility is not passive. Humility is an act of love. It is an active, visible posture.

I need to be very careful here, because there are ways in which people have taken verse two, the second half of verse two in chapter, or verse five here, but then they've used it to almost erase all category distinctions. And they'll even do this in the book of Ephesians. In the book of Ephesians, likewise, when Paul is going through the family code in Ephesians chapter five, Likewise there, he says, submit to one another. And people have said, whoa, whoa, whoa, see? So we're totally misunderstanding. There's no hierarchy in the family. And so it's just totally egalitarian. I'm not sure that's the case.

Because he's just told the elders to love the people, to not lord it over them, to do it eagerly, not under compulsion, not out of a love for money. To love them and lead them like the chief shepherd, desiring a crown of glory that will never fade away. That's the motive for their love, but they really do have a legitimate authority. Likewise, husbands have a legitimate authority in their own family, but yet they're told to love their wives like Christ loves the church, and not embitter their children. So there is an authority, but that authority isn't authoritarian. Mutual humility and submission does not erase roles.

But what God is doing here is telling us that the heart needs to be reformed. What is existent because of pagan structures for the family needs to be changed. Those ways in which husbands have lorded over their wives, and wives have not wanted to submit to their husbands, and children have wanted to rebel against their parents, and citizens, we know we don't want to listen to our government at all. We want to be total anarchists if we're honest with ourselves. We want to do things our way whenever we want. God's saying that heart needs to turn. It's not because the authority structures themselves are totally alien and wrong, but how we treat those authority structures are sinful. Each one should be doing everything out of love. Elders must be humble. Husbands must be humble. Wives and children, too, must be humble. It's not about erasing roles. getting rid of all type of any authority structure, but it's about redeeming those authority structures for the glory of God, for the good of each other.

I need to acknowledge here, though, that some people, maybe even some of you, have suffered under abuse of authority. There are those who have suffered under tyrannical rule of government officials, husbands who have been harsh, fathers who have been heavy handed, even mothers who have been cruel.

The Lord knows that. This is not a call to endure that harm for the harm's sake, it is a call to walk like Christ. Even though it was hard, even submitted himself to the ruling authorities of his day. Where humility reigns, Love is in control. Now this though, the first part of verse five wouldn't have been very offensive to the listeners. Yeah, yeah, young people you're supposed to obey. Telling a Roman, especially a Roman free person, not a slave, but a citizen of the country, you need to be humble. That was an offense. In Rome, slaves submitted. Wives submitted. Children submitted.

But for husbands, or especially for the paterfamilias, and for any leader in society, in the civic realm, to show humility was not strength, but it was a sign of weakness. And here the Lord is saying, not in His economy. Not in the way that He desires. things to go. Peter flips the world on its head here, not erasing the authority structure, but he's showing the badge of courage is the badge of Christ, walking like him in humility.

We often want to think that humility is optional, or at least we treat it that way sometimes, but it's not. Humility is not optional in our marriages. Humility is not optional in our friendships. Humility is not optional in our workplaces. Humility is not optional in the church.

If you've ever tried to live with someone, work with someone, be on a team with someone who doesn't have any humility, you know what it's like. You feel like you're just banging your head against the wall, because they won't listen. Because what's the opposite of humility?

Pride. Pride. Pride can be dressed sometimes in niceness, and yet always pride proves to be defensive and controlling. Humility, on the other hand, means loving somebody else, considering somebody else more high than yourself, and being willing to take your own preferences, your own desires, and say, I desire something better than my desires, and that's your good. It's sacrificial. It's Christ-like.

And so, some questions for your husbands. Are you leading with gentleness? Or are you demanding control? Elders, we have to ask ourselves, are we gentle or are we demanding control? How do we treat our children? Are we tyrants over them? Or do we treat them as our Heavenly Father treats us? in the church.

Man, I can't tell you how many, my bread and butter of the academic world is church history, and I can't tell you how many churches have been divided because nobody will stop, humble themselves, and submit to someone else. There are thousands and thousands of churches that have split, congregations that have been ruined, families ripped apart because both sides refuse to humble themselves and just say, you know what? I really don't like that color of carpet, but I love you more than I love my preference. I'm telling you, it happens in churches all the time. Churches get ripped apart because members refuse to listen to Peter's command by the Holy Spirit here. All of you be submissive to one another. Be clothed with humility. But notice the grounding for that. Did you notice that? The second, the very last part of verse five. There's a reason for it. What's the reason? For God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. God's face shines upon those who are humble. This is why his face shone upon his son. He said that this is his beloved son in whom he is well pleased because his son submitted.

Don't think that that was an easy thing. You know how hard it was for the son to submit to the father, don't you? On that last night in which he was betrayed, what did Jesus do after giving the Lord's Supper? He went to the Mount of Olives, and there on the mount, he pleaded with his father, if there's any other way, if there's any other way, let this cup pass from me. But not my will be done, but yours.

Jesus' humility and submission is our model. It's not easy. Sometimes it comes so hard that it's like sweating drops of blood. So put on humility. All of us as a church, put on humility. And lastly, as this just gets into our relationship with the Lord, humble yourselves under God's hand. Look with me at verse 6 and 7. Humble yourself under God's hand. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you."

This idea of the mighty hand of God This is the same type of language of the God who redeemed His people out of Egypt by His mighty right arm. It's the God who is sovereign. It's the God who is powerful. It's the God who is mighty. It's the One who is in charge of all nations and all times and all principalities and all powers. It's that God who, if you are in Christ, is controlling your life for your good.

But here's the thing, right? That's not always easy. We don't live in la-la land. We don't live where everything is just dessert table constantly and you can eat all the desserts you want and there's never any weight consequences. We don't live in that type of utopia. No, we live in a world where the Christians here are being persecuted, where they're being slandered, where they're being reviled, where they're suffering.

And God is telling them, humble yourselves under God's mighty right hand. Submit, because this is His plan for your life. And I'm sure some of them are sitting there going, God, I don't know how this could be your plan for my life, but I'm going to trust you. I'm going to trust that you are the God that you say you are. That you really did elect me by your foreknowledge before the foundations of the world. that you really did sanctify me under good works by the power of your Holy Spirit, that you really did sprinkle me in the blood of Jesus Christ, and that there really is an inheritance waiting for me, kept safe for me in heaven, that you did really redeem me by the blood of Jesus Christ. So I trust you, Lord. That type of faithful humility under God's mighty hand is active faith. Faith played out. Faith that's worth its weight in gold is the faith that goes through the fire of the furnace and still trusts God on the other side of it. So we cast all of our cares upon Him. Verse 7 is grammatically tied to verse 6. Casting our cares is directly tied grammatically to humbling ourselves. As we humble ourselves unto the mighty hand of God, it is an act of casting our cares upon Him.

And this is where it might get a little bit stingy, okay? Maybe you're not gonna like this. But every single time we decide we want to worry, Every single time we want to decide, I want to think about this, ponder this, I'm gonna keep this in my heart, I'm gonna work through this, I'm gonna make sure that this situation happens, I'm gonna make sure that everything with this scenario works according to my way. We're showing the same heart of pride from the garden. I know what's good for me. I know the desires of my eyes are going to give me exactly what I want.

And it's a pride that will steal away your peace that you can have in Christ Jesus. In Philippians chapter 4, this is exactly why God says, be anxious about nothing. But in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of Christ, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Do you see, when we take our prayers and our petitions and our thanksgivings and we lay them at the footsteps of Christ, we say, God, it's too big for me, so I submit myself under your mighty right hand. I don't know what to do, but I trust you that your plan for me is good. And we get the peace of Jesus Christ in exchange. Do you see the humility is marked by prayer.

It's by offering up our cares or desires, casting them upon the Lord, knowing that he cares for us and saying, Lord, they're yours. It's not that I don't care about them, it's that I know that you care about me more. And so we go to a God, we go to a God who does care for you. He counts every hair upon your head. He knows every day of your life. God knits you together in your mother's womb. He provides your daily bread. He knows that you need food and clothing.

So don't be like the pagans who worry about all those things. They would go to the temples, constantly trying to placate their gods, not knowing, maybe the gods will listen to us, maybe we need to do these right things, maybe we need to bring these sacrifices, maybe we can manipulate and control the gods into giving us exactly what we want. We're worried about harvest, and so we'll bring these different sacrifices and make sure they're not mad at us. That's not Christianity.

Your God has demonstrated His love for you in that while you were yet a sinner, Christ died for you. God cares about you. If He cared for your soul, He's going to care about your daily breads. And when hardship comes, and there may be trials, and there may be hardships, there may be famines, your 401k might decrease, your income may go down, your car may break, your clothes may wear out, you may have family that falls out from underneath your feet, the cancer might come back, will you trust Him? that even when those hardships come, He knows what's good for you. Will you submit to His care for you?

The Lord's not looking just for an outward submission, but an inward humility. Trusting as a child in His loving care. I'm going to end just with Philippians chapter 2. Because if I gave you all this stuff, it would just be a moralistic sermon. Why do we do this? It's because Christ is our model and Christ lives in you, if you are one of his. I'm just going to read it with you. Philippians chapter 2. You can turn there, I have no clue what page it is in your Bible. Philippians chapter 2.

Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, Fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you. which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God has also highly exalted him and given him above a name that which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and of those on the earth and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. to the glory of God the Father. Brothers and sisters, God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. We are called to have the same mind as Christ Jesus, who became obedient even to the point of death, even death on the cross.

Younger people, young men, will you submit yourselves to your elders? Church, Will we submit ourselves to one another? Will we be humble and submit ourselves like Christ under the mighty hand of God, knowing that he will exalt us in due time because he did it to his son?

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Father, we rejoice in who you are. We confess that we are often so sinful, so filled with our own selves, filled with our own pride, conceit, selfish desires. Lord, You know how they wage war within us. We want to be humble. We want to be like Christ.

Father, we need Your Spirit to apply these words to our hearts. that we would actively live it out, showing preference and deference to one another, truly loving each other, because you have first loved us. Thank you. Thank you, Lord, for directing us in our lives. Please powerfully make it true of us. In Jesus's name.

Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.