Submission, Part 1

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem.

This series on 1 Peter is titled, Live as People Who are Free. Today, Rich looks at 1 Peter 5, 5-6, pointing out our need for humility and submission within the community of believers. What does true humility really look like? And how can freedom come from surrender?

What are the blessings that come from Christ-like humility? Let's listen in as Pastor Rich answers these questions using today's text. All right, we're in 1 Peter chapter 5, and this part of the series, this is the last series from this book. The series is entitled, The Community of the Free, which is all of chapter 5. And then part two today is submission. Part one was servant leaders, because it begins talking about the elders of the church.

In part two today is submission. We're going to be looking specifically at verses 5 and 6. Peter continues with the theme that we find our greatest freedom in surrender. It's very counterintuitive, isn't it, for all of us recovering control addicts. We find our greatest freedom in surrender and submission. And we are to humble ourselves, he says in verse 6, therefore, under the mighty hand of God. And the hand of God in scripture is portrayed as the hand of God, as his hand, as the mighty and powerful deliverer, but also the one who disciplines. And that discipline is not always just a punitive discipline.

It's a formative discipline. The hand of God. This is what Peter is referring to, to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. So as we begin today in verse 5, the first word in verse 5 is likewise.

Well, that requires an understanding of context, doesn't it? Well, last week in the first four verses, he was talking about the elders. And elders are people who are also under authority and who are accountable. Likewise, he says, the elders who are accountable and under the chief shepherd, today he focuses on you who are younger. So today, all of you who are younger than seven don't have to listen.

No, that's not true. Who are the younger, is he talking about? Remember, it's a first century church. It's a relatively new church. The younger are the ambitious and the free, and they're enjoying their freedom in Christ. But remember how Paul instructed us not to use our freedom as an occasion for the flesh to serve self-serving impulses, but instead to develop the mind of Christ by serving one another. We are free to serve one another in a capacity that those who don't know Christ don't have.

So he says the younger, likewise you who are younger, young adult, it's an elastic category, begins at 18 and can go to something seven, right? David Helm says this in his commentary, if any young man had the right to put himself above his elders, it was Jesus of Nazareth. Yet he resisted taking the reins of leadership before God's appointed time came. Rather, he was quite content to simply increase in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

That's a good point. So you who are younger be following in the steps of Christ. It is possible, as I said before, the church was still relatively young here, so this could have been, he could have been writing to some congregations that were relatively new, but each of these congregations were led by elders.

And so as he says, as he uses the word you who are young, likewise you who are younger, the word that is translated young is sometimes translated new. And so it could be to those who are newer in the faith, because an elder of the church is not someone who's new in the faith, right? You don't, you don't lift up a novice to the position of spiritual leadership, right? And so it's, it's very possible he could be talking about those who are still new and growing in the faith, to be under the oversight, the leadership of those who are spiritually mature.

Whatever the case, here is something that I think you need to understand about the church. Every one of us, everyone, needs spiritual mentorship. It's what we call discipleship.

One life coming alongside another so that together they walk in a God-ward direction. Everyone needs spiritual mentorship. In other words, someone needs spiritual mentorship. Someone you look up to who faithfully, graciously, lovingly lives the gospel in front of you.

All of us need that. There are no exceptions to that. And that primarily, for the responsibility for that primarily, firstly falls on the shoulders of the elders of the church, and the younger are called to follow. And that's why he says, be subject to the elders.

You who are younger, be subject to the elders. Elders being defined as we did last time, elders are mature spiritual men to spiritually lead and guide with biblical wisdom and grace. Qualified men, spiritual men, as I pointed out last week, just because you've been a Christian for 40 years doesn't necessarily qualify you as an elder.

Some people take way too long to graduate from spiritual kindergarten. But those who are younger and newer in faith, and the elders that you have in the church, you are called to line up behind them. Because an elder is a point person, following the chief shepherd, and you follow up, and you get in line behind them, if I could use a word picture.

It is a posture of humility, fulfilling your place in God's ordained order. God is a God of order, and he has ordained order, and that order is very much present in the church. But we have to also understand that when it says, you who are younger be subject to the elders, it's not just Peter pointing to all of you and saying, you just need to do what you're told. And the elders don't do that either.

You just need to do what you're told. Now listen, you can find plenty of churches that will operate that way, but they're not operating according to first Peter. They're not operating according to the gospel of grace. If someone will stand up in front of you and say, you just need to do what you're told, they're not following the chief shepherd. Kind of pointed that out last week. I said, because he says here the elders in their leadership of the church, it is not, it should not, it ought not to be domineering.

But there is a lot of that that happens. And as I said last week, if you're in a church where there's a domineering pastor, you need to run. And last week there was a little girl in the congregation listening to me, and she says, why would you need to run from Pastor Rich? That's so sweet. We are inundated with cuteness in this church. Shorter than average people, you know, and it's not, listen, it's not uncommon on a Sunday morning for children to run up and give me a hug.

I love it. Especially since we don't have any grandkids nearby, you know, we're working on that. No, just, but see, there's like a family relationship there, right?

That's the kind of leadership submission that we're talking about. There's a family relationship. There's a love bond. There's a connection, a mutual connection there. And that has to be in existence if 1 Peter 5 is to be followed.

All right. Like Paul says it very well in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 24, not that we lord it over you, over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith. Isn't that a wonderful verse? We work with you for your joy. And if that is to become a reality, there is a God ordained order in which that happens. In the context of a loving family relationship, because we're all part of the family of God and remembering that we who are elders are also part of the flock too.

We also need leadership. We are accountable to the chief shepherd. But that working with you for your joy, what is that joy? It's the Christ likeness that God is in the business of developing in me that joy, that good. And this is why the writer of Hebrews says that they watch for your souls.

Watch what? That you indeed are on the track to becoming like Christ. That's why I've said so many times I've had to say it to the board over the years as we meet together as a board in our relationship with you pastors in the church, the board in the church. This is not about customer service. Our chief ambition is not just keeping you here.

Some of you might be pretty surprised to hear that right now. What is our chief ambition? It's to help you become like Christ.

That is it. Colossians bears that out very clearly. To see and create the environment and the teaching and the culture where your heart and your mind are shaped by biblical truth and sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. That's true elder leadership in a congregation. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace weekdays at 10 a.m.