Alert Exiles

Thank you for reading this sermon from Christ Fellowship. I hope and pray that this sermon will be a blessing of grace and truth to you. With that said, let me encourage you not to use this sermon as a replacement for your local church. Christ Jesus did not establish his Church simply for us to consume content. Instead, He calls us to be part of a real, covenant family.

Last Sunday, Caleb preached what may have been the best sermon of this 1 Peter series. Go back and listen to it if you missed it. 

This morning, we will finish 1 Peter. It’s always fun to finish a series and I especially like the way 1 Peter ends. It reminds me of a locker room speech. 

I recently saw a video of former Steelers coach Mike Tomlin speaking at an elementary school. He asked the kids to raise their hand if they thought they can run really fast… are you really strong… can you jump high… “none of that matters.” 

“It’s not what you’re capable of. It’s what you’re willing to do. I know plenty of people who are capable. I know fewer people who are willing.” 

Tomlin went on to say that when he was their age, he and his brother developed a habit while watching TV.  Every time a commercial came on, they would start doing pushups. When their arms started to burn, they would do sit-ups. When their stomach started to hurt, they’d switch back to pushups. They did that every night. Every commercial. 

Then he challenged the kids to start doing the same thing and said, “Every one of you will do it tonight. But how many of you will be doing it a year from now?” 

He’s illustrating an important life principle, one that is also entirely Biblical. It doesn’t matter how you start. It matters how you finish. 

Let’s read one last pep talk from Peter. 

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

“Mighty hand of God” is kind of a specific reference, because in the Old Testament it was most often used during the Exodus. That was the 40 years Israel spent in the wilderness between Egypt and the Promised Land. They were exiles without a home. 

So, it’s a fun reference, because what has Peter been teaching in this letter? We are exiles. This is not our home. We’re in the wilderness, but we’re being guided by what? The mighty hand of God! 

This isn’t new. This is how God operates. He uses the journey to humble His people. Peter is simply asking us to submit to and cooperate with that work. 

In English, “humble yourselves” sounds active, as if I need to do something to make myself humble. But that’s not the point at all in Greek. It’s “let yourself be humbled by God”. 

Which means, the best way to obey the command is maybe to ask God to humble you… to make you less important to yourself and other people more important. God has the means to do it. We don’t. But if you pray that prayer, be prepared… 

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

This is one of my absolute favorite verses in the whole Bible. God could crush you under His mighty hand, but instead, He cares for you. 

Because that’s true, Peter says cast your anxieties on him. The word “cast” is important. 

It means putting your back into it. You’re not gently setting it down; you’re hurling it off you. And not some of the weight either… all of it. Everything weighing you down, all at once. 

The tense is also important. You’re not doing it over and over again. You’re hurling it once and then you’re done with it. Off and gone. Chuck that weight on God and be done with it. 

I love that Peter compares anxiety to weight. As someone who has dealt with anxiety my entire adult life, I can tell you that it absolutely makes everything feel heavier. 

But the word anxiety in the Bible is much broader than the clinical anxiety we think of today. It includes all the ordinary cares and concerns of life, not just the irrational ones. 

God is saying give all of that to me. You don’t have to live with a divided mind, constantly thinking about all the things that might go wrong or have gone wrong. Put your trust in the mighty hand of God. 

But here’s my favorite thing about this verse. The two words for our anxieties and God’s care in Greek are related to one another, so that in Greek in sounds like this: Give all your cares to God, because He cares for you. Give Him the things that are on your mind, because you’re on His mind. 

Let’s try to make this really practical and at the same time, I want to show you that this isn’t “try hard, do better”. 

I want you to think of all the concerns in your life right now – the big ones and the small ones. Name them in your mind. What are they? 

Money, health, relationships, grades, stress… name them and then imagine bundling them all up and handing them to God. Just give them all to God. 

Now, doesn’t that feel better? No? Is there a voice inside saying, “It’s not that simple, Mike”? 

It’s not that simple only because we lack faith. Not faith that God is going to solve all those concerns the way we want them solved. But faith that God cares for you more than you care for yourself. Faith that He can be trusted, no matter what. 

If you don’t have that kind of faith, you’re going to need it. Why? Look at verse 8. 

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

Stay alert, because the one who throws false accusations at you is stalking you. It’s not a coincidence that Peter says this immediately after reminding us that God cares for us and that His hand is mighty. 

We need to believe that because there is an enemy as dangerous as a roaring lion, which is a sharp image considering that Christians were often fed to lions in Roman arenas. 

Why is the Devil so dangerous? Because his entire mission is to convince us that God doesn’t care… that we are on our own… that we are not forgiven or loved or safe with God… 

And Peter says, the Devil wants to swallow you whole. He wants to leave nothing left of you. That’s not a slow death… it’s an instant and violent end. 

But there is some hope here. Peter says the lion is roaring. Lions don’t actually roar when they hunt. They are completely silent. If a lion is hunting you, you’ll be dead before you see it. 

And yet, Peter gives us hope that we can spot the Devil before it’s too late. What then? 

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

This is a defensive posture. He’s not telling us to fight the Devil, only to resist him. Stand your ground. Notice, he doesn’t say to rebuke the devil or bind him or speak to him directly. He just says resist and he will flee. 

The key to this resistance is in the next phrase, firm in your faith or standing in your faith. 

If you think back to our study of James, he says the exact same thing. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. And once again, it reminds me of The Gruffalo.  

A fox, an owl, and a snake all run away from a mouse… not because they are afraid of the mouse, but because they are afraid of the giant monster standing behind the mouse! 

This is the same idea. The Devil has no fear of us. But if we’re held in the mighty grip of God, we have nothing to fear from him. 

Peter also reminds us that this is something all Christians deal with. And then he offers this encouragement: 

[10] And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.  

When I read the first part of that verse, “after you have suffered a little while”, it reminds me something Jesus said to Peter back in Luke 22. Let’s look at it. Luke 22:31-32  

[31] “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, 

And Peter had to be thinking; you said no, right Lord? Instead, Jesus says: 

[32] but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” 

What a crazy verse this is, because we have the dramatic irony. We know what happens. Peter’s faith failed, at least for the moment. He denied Jesus. He turned away. 

And yet, God didn’t let Peter go. His faith failed for the moment, but not forever. Peter repented and was restored by the resurrected Christ. And now in this letter, Peter is doing what Jesus told him to do. He’s strengthening his brothers. 

Peter’s offering to us the same thing he personally experienced from Jesus. He was restored, confirmed, strengthened, and established. All of that after failing miserably under the sifting of the devil. 

I personally find this to be super encouraging, because Peter knows as well as anybody that Christians are sometimes going to fail. We are sometimes going to lose faith. We are sometimes going to be raked over the coals by the devil. But that’s not the end. 

And that’s the locker room speech. No matter what you’re going through, if you belong to God of all grace, He’s going to finish what He started. 

Then Peter ends in worship: 

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

Followed by some personal notes: 

[12] By Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it.  

Stand firm in the grace of God, that’s Peter’s summary of his own letter. 

[13] She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son.  

Most people think Peter is writing in code here, referring to the church in Rome. 

[14] Greet one another with the kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ. 

I don’t want to rush past this last verse. Peter says greet each other with a kiss of love. That was a normal thing in social settings, most likely on the cheek and segregated by gender. In other words, the men greeted other men, and the women greeted the women. It’s still common today in some parts of the world. 

But the difference is that in Roman times this kind of greeting would not cross social or ethnic barriers. Roman citizens didn’t kiss slaves. Jews didn’t kiss Gentiles. But in the church, these lines were erased. 

And that means that Peter’s last words were countercultural. He’s calling them to be a different kind of community, where love and peace exist across social and ethnic barriers. 

Peter knows that they are going to need that kind of community to endure life together as exiles. This is not just a passing thought at the end. It’s a visionary statement of calling. 

Having said that, I know we don’t go around kissing people in our culture. But the principle remains. Look your brothers and sisters in the eyes. Greet them with a smile and a hug when appropriate. Lean into community, not away from it. 

This is God’s church, his family. We are brothers and sisters. And this family is always adopting. God designed the church this way because we need each other. We are exiles in this life waiting for the Promised Land.