December 13th

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Each weekday, Dr. Crisp will be discussing biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Tune in daily to start your day right and deepen your understanding of how to better walk the way and enjoy the journey. Here's your host, Dr. Tony Crisp.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Welcome to On the Way. This is Tony Crisp, and this is the 365 Bible reading plan. Today is December the 13th, and our chapter for today is the last chapter of the book of 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 5. Peter gives final instructions and warnings to those scattered abroad. First of all, to the leadership. The elders who are among you, I exhort, I encourage. The word is paracileo. It means to encourage or call alongside, to give counsel to. He says, I exhort you, I who am a fellow elder. In other words, Peter was an apostle, yes, but he was also the elder of a church, what we would call the pastor of a church. And he was one of several, no doubt, that were in the larger congregations. He said he was a witness of the sufferings of Christ. He was an eyewitness of that. And a partaker of the glory that will be revealed. In other words, Peter said, I saw him suffer, I saw him die as a sacrifice for sins, I saw him rise from the dead, I saw his ascension, but I also saw his glory on the holy mount, Mount Hermon, when Jesus was transfigured before them. It was in that Hermon mountain range to the far north in Israel that Peter saw the glory of God before his very eyes. And so he is giving testimony that he has authority to ask what he is about to ask and warn the people of what he's about to warn them of. He said to these elders, the presbyteroi, he said, I want you to shepherd the flock of God. Now the word shepherd, poimano, is really it's in a form which has at its heart activity. In this particular case, it is calling attention to the act of shepherding. Usually it's in some kind of verbal form, either a verb or a participle. This word to shepherd usually has activity associated with it. That's how it gets its name. And this particular aspect of the ministry of being a pastor, being a leader, being an elder, being an overseer, is to tend the flock of God, to find food for the flock of God, to guard the flock of God, to overall tend to them. And he said that this was their responsibility. They are to serve as overseers, episcopoi. That is, they are to give oversight into every aspect of the congregation. This is so important, I believe, for people to understand that the lead elder has responsibility to the other elders, yes, but also to the Lord and to the flock, to see that there is oversight. In other words, that person who is on staff, they are responsible because this man is going to give an account for leading the flock. And so he is pastor of music, of education, of everything, and he assigns those duties, and the elders assign those duties to people depending upon their gifts, abilities, and so forth, and their calling. And so he uses these words interchangeably. The three words that we translate as pastor is not three offices, it is rather three functions of one office, the elder, the overseer, and the shepherd. The word elder is the word presbyteras, the word overseer is the word episcopas, and then the word poimano is the verb form of this concept of being a shepherd. And so he gives them warning, all of those who would be leaders of the flock of God, that they are to do this willingly. They're not to do it for dishonest gain. Now that doesn't mean they don't get paid, that doesn't mean they are not compensated, but it means that they are to do what they do eagerly, and not for money, not for greedy gain. In other words, they're not in it for the money. That's really the way that we would say that idiomatically in our language today. But willingly, not by compulsion, not because we have to, not for dishonest gain, but eagerly, not as being lords over those entrusted, but being examples, types to the flock. The Bible says, When indeed the chief shepherd appears, you'll receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. So Peter is just saying to the leaders, you need to understand that you have a responsibility to the flock, yes, to each other, yes, but primarily to God. And this is a very important thing for all of us to remember. And then he goes on to talk about really what I call the arrows of the adversary. As a matter of fact, I did an entire podcast called The Arrows of the Adversary. And you can go back in the archives and look at that. Now I have over a thousand. I just got a notice that I just went over a thousand podcasts. And so there's a lot of podcasts out there for you to listen to, and you just have to go back through and find those. But for the first 250 to 300, there were only names and verses attached to them, and so they are more easily and readily available to search for titles and for topics. And so he comes to this idea of warning, and he said, All of you be submissive one to another. In other words, get in your proper order. There's that word again, hopotasa, which means to get in your proper arrangement, your proper order, because everybody doesn't have the same role within the Church of Jesus, just like within the family, within the culture, society. And so he says that you are to clothe yourself with humility. And the reason is God squares off against, there's that word again, to resist. God is an opposition to the proud, the arrogant. But God gives grace to the humble. Now it's interesting that the word humble, when it is referring to the believer, is almost always in the middle voice. That is, you are responsible. I am responsible as followers of Jesus to humble ourselves before God. If we do not, God will humble us. And so in verse 6, this is why it's translated this way. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. Why? Because you do not want God to stand against you. You don't want to be fighting against God. Doesn't matter who you are, but if you are proud, the Bible says God's going to fight against you. And he did this in the Old Testament and people in the New Testament. Remember, King David paid a huge price for his arrogance and his pride at the end of his life. Many lost their lives because of the arrogance of King David, who did a census of the people that was unauthorized by God. He did it so he could see how vast his army was and so forth. God never gave him the authority to do that. And whatever God authorizes, God will sustain. Whatever we initiate and authorize, then we have to sustain. Just remember that because it's very important in walking with God, especially as a leader. He says, 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. Now, as we read through here, you're already finding out what these arrows of the adversary are. And then he says, Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, and this is the one who is unjust. This is a fascinating word, and it's the word for justice, a decos, then anti on the front of it. In other words, no justice. It's someone who is an accuser, an adversary, from a legal standpoint. And it says that he walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. There is the call to resist him, not resist God, not have arrogance, so God resists you, but resist the enemy, the adversary, the accuser. And that's what the word here is. It's the word for a prosecuting attorney. This is what our adversary is Satan is. He's an accuser. And he accuses the brethren day and night. He accuses all of us. He tempts us into doing things. Then once we do it, he turns around and accuses. And he's the one that is continually standing before God saying, Is that the best you can do? Now look at Crisp. Boy, he looks like a dandy, doesn't he? I mean, look at him. Look how he's thinking, look what he's doing, look what he's saying. Surely, surely. And so he accuses not only us before God, but he accuses us. You see, he's a liar, and so he'll come and say, God can never use you because you said that or you thought that or you wished that or you did that. God can never use you again. That's a lie. That's a lie from hell. He's continually lying to us. Why? Because he's a liar and the father of it. But he always is accusing us. And so these arrows that the adversary obviously shoots at us continually is given to us in these verses. It's the arrow of arrogance. We are so tempted to be prideful. And so arrogance is an arrow that the adversary strikes in our heart. Anxiety, casting all your care upon him because he cares for you. Why would Peter say that? It's because the enemy will come and say he doesn't care for you. God doesn't really love you. He doesn't care for you. How could God let you go through this persecution and suffering if he really cared for you? Now no doubt this is what he used with the Jewish people during the days of the Holocaust and afterwards. There's no doubt that in this recent uprising that took place on October the seventh, twenty twenty three, when you saw Hamas brutally murder, rape, pillage, behead, burn bodies, burn babies, put them in ovens, all of these kind of things. Don't you know that the enemy's going to say to people that survived that? How could a loving God do that to you? And so he's always accusing God to us, he's always accusing us to God, he's always accusing us in our conscience. And what we have to do is trust God. We have to cast our care upon him, and here's the reason. Because God does love us, he does care for us. But the enemy will try to get you to think that he doesn't. He said, Be sober, be vigilant. Why would God say that? Why would God command us to do that? Because we're apathetic, that's why. And so the errors of the adversary, I believe, are arrogance, anxiety, and apathy that Peter was talking about. And he's got a remedy for each one of those. He's got a solace, he's got an antidote for each one of those. The antidote for arrogance is humble ourselves, humility, and trust God to exalt us in due time. We don't have to exalt ourselves. We don't have to pat ourselves on the back. God will do that which is necessary in that regard. We need to humble ourselves and walk humbly before God as a way of life. We don't need to fret and worry about what tomorrow is going to bring. Jesus told us not to do that, not to even worry about what we would eat or what we would drink or what we would put on. And he gave the example of the flowers and the birds of the air. And he cares for them. If he cares for them, surely he will care for us. Casting all your care upon him because he cares for you. That's the idea of having a pack on your back, a heavy load, and kneeling down beside of an animal of burden, a camel perhaps, or a donkey, and rolling that burden over on them and letting them bear it. Why? Because they're able to bear it. You're not. And many times we try to bear burdens that God never meant for us to bear and it breaks us down. There's some burdens that everyone must bear, but there's some that will overwhelm us. And all of that care that we can do nothing about, we have to cast upon the Lord because He cares for us. And we've got to be sober, clear headed, and vigilant at all times. We've got to be on our guard. And the reason is the devil is walking about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And we have to resist him. Now that takes energy, that takes willpower, that takes discipline. We need to resist him steadfast. In other words, we need to continue on in trust and faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by brothers and sisters all over the world. We're not the only one that's going through hardship. As a matter of fact, we in the West have it very light compared to many others. Those in communist China, those that are suffering in Muslim countries, those that are in totally secular settings that they are having to fight every day to just stay afloat because they are so going against the streams of modernism and postmodernism and secularism and humanism, communism and socialism and all those things that would seek to dominate and destroy all those ideologies that are continually coming against the Christian faith and will become more dominant in the West as the church grows weaker. And so all to say, these closing verses of 1 Peter chapter 5, this beautiful letter that Peter wrote, is an admonition to all of us to realize that the Lord is coming and that you and I have a responsibility before God if we're leaders to lead, if we're followers to follow. And all of us are leaders and followers to someone. And may God bless you as you heed the words of Scripture. For on the way, this is Tony Crisp.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Thanks for listening to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Tune in every weekday for information on biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Fridays are for your questions. Email your questions to questions at TonyCrisp.org, then just listen for your question to be answered on Friday's podcast. That's questions at TonyC R I S P dot org. Thanks for listening and have a blessed day on the way.