Deo Gloria
Sermon for February 4, 2024
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: 1 Peter 5:6-11
Theme: Find Strength in the God of All Grace!
- To deal with the trials and sufferings of this life
- To stand firm against your enemy, the devil
She really struggles sometimes. She struggles with the demands and the pressures at work. There’s always so much to do and rarely enough time to do it. She feels like she’s always scrambling just to keep her head above water. On top of that there is a growing animosity and antagonism toward her Christian faith. She has to attend these training sessions where she is told that she is a racist and bigot just for being a Christian. And she sees people being hired and being promoted who are not qualified for the job and don’t deserve to be promoted. It’s just part of some cultural diversity program. And if she objects or says anything about it, she’ll probably get fired.
She struggles sometimes with grief and anxiety. You see her husband died in a tragic accident a few years back. Her heart still aches at times. She wonders why. She wonders how she will continue to provide for herself and her family.
She worries about her children sometimes too. She sees the negative influence college professors and college classmates have had on her kids. She sees how they’ve drifted further from their Christian faith and from their Savior Jesus. She sees the struggles they’ve had in finding a decent job and a place they can afford and car that will run.
Can you relate to her? Can relate to her trials and her struggles? Can you relate to the worries and concerns that weigh on her heart? Then these words are for you, the words Peter recorded here in 1 Peter ch. 5. In these verses Peter has some words of encouragement for people like you and me, people who struggle with anxiety and concern, who struggle with trials and troubles, who struggle with the devil and his temptations. He encourages us to find strength in our loving and gracious and powerful God, the God of all grace.
The apostle Peter wrote this letter to believers scattered throughout the provinces of Asia Minor, the country we know today as Turkey. They lived in cities like Ephesus and Philadelphia and Sardis. They lived in provinces like Pontus and Galatia and Cappadocia. What they had in common was their Christian faith and the persecution and hardships they were experiencing because of their Christian faith. No, there was no empire wide persecution of Christians, at least not at this point. But the persecution and the animosity toward Christians was growing. And in certain cities and certain localities it was rather intense. In the previous chapter Peter refers to the “painful trial” they were suffering and that they were participating in “the sufferings of Christ.” In ch. 3 he talks about people speaking maliciously about their good behavior in Christ.(v. 16). The fact is being a Christian back in first century Asia Minor was not easy and was not popular. Your non-Christian friends and neighbors often made fun of you or ridiculed you. You experienced pressure at work and pressure from your friends to compromise your faith and turn your back on Jesus. There was a chance you might lose your job. There was a chance you could be arrested and put in prison and maybe even put to death. There were many things that might cause you worry and anxiety and concern.
It sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Christians living here in America experience many of the same things today: growing pressure and hostility from an ungodly culture, pressure to compromise our Christian faith, rejection and criticism from co-workers and friends, pressure to go along with evil or at least not speak up for truth.
So have you heard the latest about men competing in women’s sports. His name is now Hailey Davidson. He’s a guy who claims to be a woman who recently won a woman’s golf tournament down in Florida. And it seems rather likely that he will soon qualify for the LPGA tour. Most of the women on the tour are understandably upset. They don’t think it’s right or fair that they should have to compete against a guy in a woman’s golf tournament. But most are afraid to speak up and say anything. They’re afraid, afraid they’ll be labelled as haters and bigots, afraid they might lose their endorsements and sponsorships, afraid they might even be kicked off the LPGA tour. They’re not alone. Many Christians are experiencing the same kind of pressure, the same kind of intimidation and persecution not to speak up about their Christian faith and their Christian values at work, at school, on their college campus. They’re afraid of being labelled as hateful and bigoted. They’re afraid of rejection and ridicule from classmates and co-workers. They’re afraid they might be reprimanded by their boss or their principal or their supervisor or maybe even lose their job.
On top of that there are the other trials and troubles we often experience in this life: an unexpected or lingering illness, the loss of a dear friend or loved one, trying to survive on a fixed income, trying to feed a family of four with the cost of food and gas and utilities and taxes and everything else going through the roof. There are so many things that can cause us concern, so many things that can create anxiety and worry.
So what’s the solution? Well, it certainly isn’t worry. Worrying doesn’t solve anything and never makes anything better. It’s not getting mad at God either. Our sinful nature doesn’t like it when we have to struggle as Christians, when we experience trouble and suffering in this life, when we experience rejection and persecution because of our Christian faith. “This isn’t right,” we say to ourselves. “This isn’t fair. We deserve better than this.” So we become angry and resentful and accuse God of not caring.
Peter has a far better solution. It starts with humility. “Humble yourselves,” he says, “under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time”(v. 6). Instead of becoming angry at God and blaming him for the trials and troubles we experience in this life, humble yourself before him. Confess your anger and resentment. Confess your fear and lack of trust. Confess your blaming. Ask for his forgiveness and place yourself in his mighty hand. The hand that delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt is more than able to help you. Look to him. Cry out to him. “Cast all your anxiety,” Peter says.(v. 7) All your worries, all your cares, all your concerns—cast them all on him. Cast them all on your heavenly Father. He’s not some deadbeat dad who doesn’t give a rip out his children. He loves his children. He cares for his children, so much so that he was willing to sacrifice his own Son to save them, to give them forgiveness and peace and comfort and salvation. Cast all your cares on him. Trust in his mighty hand, his mighty power to help and to save. And he will sustain you. He will uphold you. He will lift you up at just the right time as he knows best.
But there is something else we have to deal with in this life too, isn’t there, or should I say, someone else, another source of great trial and trouble and anxiety for God’s people, our enemy the devil? Here he is described as a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Chances are the only lion you and I have ever seen is at the zoo and he didn’t look all that dangerous or threatening as he lay there sleeping in the shade. But if you ever saw a real lion crouching under a bush only a few yards off the path you were on or heard a real lion roaring in the jungle, it would send a shiver down your spine and make your blood run cold. Real lions are ferocious animals and dangerous predators. You don’t want to mess with a lion. You don’t want to mess with the devil either. He is a ferocious enemy, a dangerous enemy, a deadly enemy. He would like nothing more than to devour you, to consume you, to destroy your faith and take your soul straight to hell. “Be self-controlled and alert,” warns Peter.(v. 8) Be on guard. You’ve got an enemy out there, an enemy who intends to do you eternal harm. “Resist him, standing firm in the faith.” Yes, we can resist the devil. We have the weapons. We have the armor we need to fight him off: the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, the shield of faith, our faith in Jesus and his mighty Word. That’s all we need to fend off the devil’s attacks, to turn aside his temptations, and send him packing. Resist him, standing firm in the faith.
So how have you done when it comes to resisting the devil and his temptations? Have you stood firm in your faith? Have you fended him off? Have you sent him packing? I know how I have done. Sometimes I did pretty well. And sometimes I failed rather miserably. In fact, sadly there were times I didn’t even put up much of a fight. When Satan tempted me, I gave in and I fell, fell into sin and shame and guilt. It’s not something I’m particularly proud of. Is the same thing true of you?
If so, don’t continue to beat yourself up over your failures and carry around a load of guilt. Confess your sins and your failures to God. And find forgiveness and peace and strength in God, the God of all grace. That’s such a beautiful description, isn’t it, the God of all grace, the God of all undeserved love? In grace God sent someone to rescue us, someone to save us, someone to take on this ferocious enemy of ours, someone to defang that ferocious lion and clip his claws, someone to defeat the devil once and for all. And he did. By his perfect life, his sacrificial death and his glorious resurrection, Jesus defeated the devil and broke his power. Although he would like to devour us and destroy us and drag our souls to hell, he can’t. As Luther says in his famous Reformation hymn, “He can harm us none. He’s judged; the deed is done; one little word can fell him”(CW 863:3) In addition, in grace God has called you to faith and made you a member of his family so that you might live with him in heaven and share in his eternal glory. In addition, in grace he promises to be with you and help you in your daily trials and troubles, to help you in your daily battle with the devil, to give you forgiveness, to give you peace, to give you confidence and strength. As Peter says, he “himself will restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast”(v. 10).
Our strength to do battle with devil, our strength to stand firm against him and his temptations, our strength to endure the trials and troubles and pressures of this life, our strength to stand firm in our faith in spite of rejection and ridicule and persecution from others—it doesn’t come from us, does it? It comes from our gracious God, our gracious and caring and mighty God, the God who sent his Son to be our Savior, to defeat our enemy the devil and to give us his grace. Find your strength. Find your peace. Find your confidence in him. Find strength in the God of all grace. Amen.