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The Pilgrim’s Humility (Part 1): A Protective Covering

September 23, 2018 Preacher: Series: The Pilgrim Letters: 1 & 2 Peter

Scripture: 1 Peter 1:1–5

Key Truth: We are called to humbly display the attributes of Christ in both how we shepherd and submit to one another for the church’s protection and for the life of the world.  

 


Introduction:

Have you ever been hurt by poor leadership?
Or suffered the consequences of someone’s
unwillingness to submit to your leadership?

 

“One of our chief blind spots has been to overlook the central importance of the church. We tend to proclaim individual salvation without moving on to the saved community. Our message is more good news of a life than of a new society….This vision of renewed human community has stirred me deeply. At the same time, the realities of the lovelessness and sin in so many churches are enough to make one weep, for they dishonor Christ. Yet increasing numbers of church members are seeking the church’s radical renewal. For the sake of the glory of God and the evangelization of the world, nothing is more important than the church becoming God’s new society.”

John R.W. Stott, Ephesians

 

 

The Call to Humbly Shepherd in the Image of Christ:

1 Peter 5:1-4

“Peter is an ‘elder’ who has sinned, repented, and been restored, and will share with Christ in glory. He can rightly ‘exhort’ any elder in whose life there is sin likewise to repent and be restored before God’s disciplinary refining fire reaches him.”

Wayne A. Grudem, 1 Peter

 

What are the key qualities of leaders you respect both inside and outside the church? 
Which of these qualities did Christ display?

 

The Call to Submit to One Another Clothed in Humility:

1 Peter 5:5

“Just as people will deliberately pick out the clothes they are going to wear, so Christians (all of you) should deliberately walk out to face the world and to face each other clothed in humility. It should be the mark of Christian brothers and sisters that they behave well with each other, putting the other first and listening to and engaging with other in a humble rather than an arrogant way. Peter gives a decisive reason for doing this, and draws on Proverbs 3:34. God is opposed to the proud and he gives grace to the humble.”

Paul Gardner, 1&2 Peter & Jude: Christian Living in an Age of Suffering

 

Do you struggle with submitting to authority?
Is your struggle related to past or present
experience, an internal struggle, the characteristics of the present leadership, or some combination of these?
What does humility look like in those you respect?
Do you
recognize these qualities in your interactions with others?

 

1 Peter 5:1-5 teaches us that we are called to display the attributes of Christ in how we:
humbly shepherd those entrusted to us  
submit to one another in humility for the church’s protection and for the life of the world

 

“Christian submission to authority, however, is never servile, and Christian exercise of authority is never authoritarian. Our awareness of the Lord gives dignity to our obedience and humility to our rule. In both we serve him.”

Edmund Clowney, The Message of 1 Peter: The Way of the Cross

 

 

Benediction:

1 Peter 5:6-11