Exiles Guide to Living: 1 Peter 5:1-7

Jul 24, 2016 by: Sam Hestorff| Series: Exiles Guide to Living
Scripture: 1 Peter 5:1–7

I want to read you a couple of profiles that describe a person, and see which one you like better.
The first description has words like these: considerate, good-natured, team-player, thoughtful, dependable, good listener . . . Do you like the sound of this person?
I don't want to brag, but this comes from a personality profile done on me.
Contrast that with this second description: stubborn, inflexible, hesitant, and detached . . .
How do you like the sound of this person?
You may be surprised to know that this is from the same personality profile . . . and it's also me.
It's like I have these two sides.
We all have this. We have our best selves - the people that we aspire to be, and when life is cruising along and all is good we’re pretty good at being that person most of the time.
Then we have the other side that we’re not so proud of. And that side tends to come out when we’re under pressure, tension, stress, fatigue or when life feels out of control.
It’s the same person . . . me at my best and me under stress.
And I think the same is true when it comes to churches.
I want Logos Dei Church to be known by words like: loving, accepting, engaging, serving, Christ-centered, and people-focused.
In our best moments, I think that these words perfectly describe who we are.
But churches face stresses too, and under stress it's possible for us to become like other words: grumpy, unloving, inward, and program-focused.
It's almost like two different churches, but it's not. It's Logos Dei at our best and Logos Dei under stress.
We have been studying 1 Peter for the past couple of months. A letter written to churches under incredible stress because they were experiencing the cost of following Jesus.
You see, it was a time that bearing the name Christian was a difficult thing to do. It brought great challenges and suffering and persecution every day – just because they were called Christians.
As you can imagine this created a lot of stress which affected their relationships at work, and in their families, and with their friends. And they were facing the danger of letting this stress affect how they functioned as a church.

So Peter steps in and writes this letter of encouragement; letting them know that they are not alone, God isn’t angry with you. He’s as close to you now in your suffering as he’s ever been.
And today’s passage, is sandwiched between two passages on suffering. That's no accident because how we relate to each other is going to be affected by the situation we face.

Let’s listen to our text this morning . . . READ 1 Peter 5:1

It's interesting that Peter doesn't say . . . “Guys, just chill out, go light a candle, meditate and distress as a church” because no matter what they did, their outside environment wasn’t going to change.
So instead of saying don’t be stressed, Peters says, let me tell you how to respond to stress.
And he borrows a concept from the Greeks and Roman’s who had something called a household code which outlined the way that the house should run. These instructions were typically given to the head of the house, the father, to rule over the household wisely.
Peter takes this household code and he applies it to the church, as if we are not just a collection of individuals who go to church to grab a cup of coffee and a bagel and listen to a band play and a preacher preach but an actual household, deeply connected despite all of our differences.
But unlike the Greeks and Romans, Peter doesn't just write to the head of the church saying that they have to rule over the church with a firm hand. Instead, he writes to the whole church and outlines responsibilities for all of us.
He begins with leaders and he says here’s how you should lead.
• Not reluctant, but willing; honored and excited that they get to play a role in what God is doing.
• Not greedy or motivated by a desire for status, but eager to serve
• Not being bossy but being an example of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
In other words, don’t think that you’re doing everyone a favor and that they should feel very lucky to have you as a leader.
And I can’t help but think that as Peter was writing these words, he was recalling that last night as he and the other disciples gathered around the table for one last meal with Jesus.
In that culture, typically a servant would clean your feet as you came into a house because you’ve been walking along dirtied, muddied paths that were trodden upon by animals, so there’s feces, and garbage and mud, and you’re wearing open toed sandals so it’s between your toes, and under your toenails and your feet are nasty. . .
But they were using a borrowed room for the meal so there was not a host with a servant and in this scenario the job would go to the person in the room who was considered the lowest on the totem pole.
And as the disciples were busy arguing over who is the greatest , so clearly none of them see themselves as the lowest . . . Jesus quietly took of his outer garment and put a towel around his waist, gets a basin of water, and he begins to scrub their feet.
Well, Peter couldn’t believe what he was experiencing. It was horrifying to see Jesus washing his stinky, dirty feet; this is the work of servants and so he says to Jesus, “this isn’t going to happen”.

Jesus responds, “Peter, if you do not let me be who I am, if you do not let me stoop down and act on your behalf to cleanse you, you will have no fellowship with me, and you cannot enter the kingdom.”

Washing Peter’s feet pointed to the only thing he needed – the Cross of Christ.

After Jesus had this exchange with Peter, he then took back his place of honor at the banquet table and he says to his disciples . . . “Do you understand what I have done for you? You call me teacher and Lord, and leader . . . rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your leader, have washed your feet, you should also wash one another’s feet.”

• And here he is referring to both being like Peter, and permitting Jesus to cleanse us, and love us, and heal us, and renew us, and change us.
• And it also means being the hands and the feet of Jesus. Of having Jesus live in us in such a way that he works through us, so that his love continues to be shown to its full extent.
Being called into church leadership is about a willingness to get on your knees and take basin and towel and wash the filthy nasty feet of people so that might experience God’s amazing and unconditional love just as you have experienced it.
It's about a completely different attitude . . . willing and eager to serve those whom God has placed in your hands to guide and to shepherd into a deeper relationship with him.
And, if leaders serve this way, Peter says, "When God, who is the best shepherd of all, comes out in the open with his rule, he’ll see that you’ve done it right and commend you lavishly.”
What greater reward is there than that.
Then Peter moves on and although he is briefer in what he says, it is equally as important. He says, “If you’re not a leader then your responsibility as a part of this household is to be a good follower.”
It’s essentially a call to respect your leaders. On one level this should be obvious. I mean, if church leaders have been called to serve so that you can experience God’s amazing and unconditional love, then we should respect their leadership, right?
It may be obvious, but it’s not easy. In fact, it may be more difficult now than it was back then.
We live in a day in which the prevailing attitude is that leaders can't be trusted with power. And some of us have experienced firsthand the abuse of power and rightfully, we carry a very real fear of getting hurt . . . again.
And I think that Peter by pointing out the importance of being a good follower is once again calling us back to the gospel – to forgive when you’ve been hurt, to ask for forgiveness when you’ve hurt someone, and reconcile as brothers and sisters who are a part of a family . . . knowing that leaders will give an account to God.
I know this is far from easy, and it goes against every cultural trend. But we're not called to follow cultural trends of distrust. We're to be an alternate community in which leaders serve and followers respect.
Peter has one more instruction that is for everyone. He simply says, “Be humble”.
There was something that struck me about the night Jesus washed the feet of his disciples . . . He washed the feet of Judas, the feet that are going to walk out of the meal and betray him for a couple of bucks . . . why would he do that?
He did this because he loved the Father. Judas may never appreciate this but the Father does. Judas may never show him any love, or kindness, or affection, but the Father does. So, he’s not doing this for Judas. He’s doing this to Judas out of love for the Father and to bring glory to the father.

And that’s the heart of humility!

Now, I really struggle with this because Judas is a punk, and a thug and a thief and a murderer and he shouldn’t get his feet washed.

But as I struggle with this it forces me to get honest with myself.

• Have I taken money that God has blessed me with and used for things other than God’s purposes? Yeah. Guilty.
• Have I turned my Back on Jesus? Yeah. I have at times.
• Have I maintained this outward sense of piety, when in my heart I was bitter and angry? Yeah. I have. I really have.
• Have I at times, like Judas, thought that God was wrong or that God didn’t know what he was doing, or that God couldn’t be trusted, that somehow Jesus needed my advice?
• I have, we all have. And yet, Jesus humbled himself before me. He has loved me. He has served me. He has forgiven me.

And so, I think that the real reason that Judas bothers me so much is because I am far more like Judas than I am like Jesus . . . and maybe you feel the same way.

On that night, Jesus had the clearest sense he had ever had in his life that he was the son of God. He knew where he had come from and where he was going and no sooner did he gain clarity on all that, that he was on the floor wiping the mud and dung off the calloused feet of grown men – even those who would betray him.

In this foot-washing scene, Jesus shatters our concept of what it means to lead and what it means to follow. This king whose scepter is a towel is inaugurating a kingdom of foot washers.

Now at this point, it seems fitting that we should have a foot washing ceremony . . . but if we did, I think we’d miss the point. If we wash each other’s feet, then you pair up with your best friend and you tickle their foot, and we’re gonna giggle together and then we call it Christ like.

But it’s not. That’s simply called being the church. Loving and caring and nurturing one another. It’s what we just supposed to do as a church.

But washing Judas’ feet, now that’s a hard task; loving those who are unlovable, caring for those who no one else wants to care for, embracing those who want nothing more than to hurt you.

Washing Judas’ feet is about living your life and loving God and asking God to show you those places where you could take opportunities, just like Christ took this opportunity to serve somebody; to humble yourself, to love them, to extend God’s grace.

Because you know what that does . . . you know what it does when you wash the feet of Judas . . . It reminds you of your own brokenness and brings you back to the cross where Jesus died for you, loved you, healed you, set you free.

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