Watch out! Satan's about!

A message from 1 Peter 5:8-14 by Ben Jones 21/01/07

To listen to Ben's message click here m3u / mp3

Today, I get the privilege of going through the last part of our series on 1 Peter with you.   The passage is:

1 Peter 5:8-14
"8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

12 With the help of Silas, whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it.
13 She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you her greetings, and so does my son Mark. 14 Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ."

Now, when I found out I got to preach on 'Resisting the Devil' my heart sank and I felt despondent.   'How can I preach on resisting the devil, with all of my sin!? I'm hardly good at this... But, as I thought about it, I came to the conclusion I couldn't be alone.   If I were in a minority, Peter would never have had to write these words, neither would anyone be asked to preach on them.   The very reason I've been asked to talk about these words to you today, 2000(ish) years later...   is because, I think, it is human nature to not resist the devil to some extent or another.

So, I read the passage, and I mulled it over, and here, I'd like to go through this passage and share with you some of what I got out of it and hopefully some of it will be relevant to you, as it was to me. Oh, and I've sadly given this sermon the, rather cheesy title of 'Watch out, Satan's about'.   Depending on how you feel about Jeremy Beadle you or may not think it appropriate...

Watch out, Satan's about

"8 Be self-controlled and alert.
I think this is fairly straightforward really, I looked it up in various translations, and they all paint a picture of a common theme:
'Be of sober spirit, be on the alert' says the New American Standard.
'Be vigilant, watch.' says the Darby Translation.
'Be well balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times;' says the Amplified. And finally, the Message ' 8 -11 Keep a cool head. Stay alert.'

So, I think this passage starts with a very clear message, be awake, be aware, be watchful, do not slumber, etc.   But why? For what reason must we be so alert!?

For 'Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.'

'Your enemy' Let's just think about that for a second... Straightaway we are being told something... we have a real enemy... someone who: "Hates one and eagerly seeks ones defeat...an opponent" according to the Oxford Concise Dictionary.  

I also think Peter was trying to make a point here with his choice of words... Not just, 'An enemy' or 'The enemy' or even 'Our enemy': 'Your enemy' He is our enemy, yes, of course he is, but I think there is also very much a degree to which he is a personal enemy, who will take you on as an individual.  So we can see straightaway, there is someone who "hates you and eagerly seeks your defeat". And I feel I can say from personal experience, that your enemy does not follow the rules of war, he takes no prisoners, and given a chance will not pull his punches, has no honour and will happily hit you where it hurts the most. If he's able, that is anyway...

Why do I say that? Well let's have a look at what this Devil does...

He...'prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.'
Ok, I want to leave the prowling and roaring alone for a minute and just concentrate on the end bit for now......'looking for someone to devour.' Implies to me that he can't devour just anyone, he has to look for someone in specific. Who could that be? I wondered...

Earlier I said that he wasn't necessarily our enemy as much as your enemy, I was making the point that he's very personal in his approach.   Though I think if he had his way he would only ever be your enemy and never ours, I think this is one reason; we have the church, safety in numbers!

I thought about real lions who hunt packs... to a certain degree many animals who are in packs are in packs for safety... now when a lion takes on a pack it is, I think, going to be more likely to pick off those who are more vulnerable than others so for example:

The Young

The Weak

The Lone

So, to follow this through, the Young would be, the Young in Spirit, new Christians...   those who haven't been following God long, who perhaps don't know the Word as well as the rest of the 'pack'.

The Weak, would be the weak in faith...Faith I find is like a Yo-yo sometimes... sometimes your up, sometimes your down, so I think we all have/will fall into this category from time to time.   Even the Mightiest Men and Women of God have times of weak faith.   The Bible's full of examples... there's the classic David's naughtiness with Bathsheeba... or Moses' weakness of faith that denied him entry into the Promised Land.   These things happen.

And the Lone, those that don't run with the pack...   I've been here personally... its all to easy to keep everything to yourself sometimes and to go it alone... but you are strategically in a very bad location, if Satan is the god of this world, then you are alone... deep in the heart of enemy territory...

But, what about God I hear you say, true, He will neither leave you nor forsake you, however, God has a habit of working through people.

Galatians 6:2 says, 'Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.'

Which I think, says quite well how a Christian 'pack' should operate.   I believe that God created the Christian community that we might lean on each other to defend against the enemy.   I believe we should be should be carrying each other, protecting each other, safety in numbers...

Proverbs 16:31 says: 'Grey hair is a crown of splendour; it is attained by a righteous life.'

So, if you're a young Christian, find somebody who's lived a righteous life, so that they can carry you, teach you, show you the ropes so to speak and nurture you on to maybe get your own crown of splendour...

If you're weak, I hope you have friends you can go to who will share your burden, pray for you, advise you, lift you up.   If not, well... we're all brothers and sisters here... I'm sure you can make some...

If your alone, my advice is don't be... you don't need to be... your not likely be judged in this environment... we all have our failings... so as before find someone you feel comfortable opening up to...

If we however, don't fall into any of these categories, which is entirely possible, then maybe we should be looking around to see if we can help anyone who is... Do we have a sympathetic ear... or maybe years of life experience... do we have skills, abilities, possessions that somebody else might need to help them out? Or quite simply, are we able to offer someone the simple gift of friendship?

Now back to that prowling and roaring. This seemed strange behaviour to me because the word prowling means: 'To go about looking for plunder or prey'   Now I would've thought that catching prey would involve a certain amount of stealth.   You, know normally, I thought hunting tended to involve getting the drop on your prey by them not knowing you're there.   Which, I imagine would be quite a hard feat if you were simultaneously roaring!

So, I wondered about this and discussed it with Phil, and Phil suggested it could be intimidation... So, I wonder if that's his tactic, rather than stealthy hunting, he intimidates/bullies... roars his prey into submission.   Fear is a powerful emotion...

I know I've felt intimidated by him before, oh I don't want to do this, I don't want to do that I might get attacked.   For instance I felt intimidation over this sermon, apart from it being my first ever real sermon, I thought its on resisting the devil, I can't talk on that, what if he attacks me over it. And, to be fair he did, I had a difficult week, fighting various fears and feelings of inadequacy... however...

'God did not give us a spirit of timidity , but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.'

Says Paul to young Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:7... this is quite a powerful verse I think, which I'm still trying to work out in my life, I've had to remind myself of it in order to stand up here today. Which, I think brings me nicely onto the next bit of this passage...

v9 'Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.'

This verse is a verse of encouragement really, exhorting us to: 'Resist him, standing firm in the faith, ' The New King James uses the word steadfast instead of standing firm... Which I have to say I prefer because I think it sounds meatier and more solid... and it means constant, firm, unwavering... in the faith.

Ok, what faith exactly are we standing firm in? Faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour obviously...   Faith that he has triumphed over the grave... death has been conquered... faith that he has crushed the serpent, or in this case Lion, beneath his feet... that the war has already been one... faith that we are forgiven... cleansed by the blood of the lamb... like someone once said to me... everything has come out in the wash...

The rest of this verse... 'Because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.'   Is also an encouragement... you are not alone! Every other Christian in the world experiences trials and sufferings, its not personal, this walk is hard all round, you are not alone. It's hard to stand firm sometimes, especially if your going through a rough time...

The enemy likes to ask us things like...'Did God really say? Is He really going to help you through this? Is there a light at the end of the tunnel? Does he really love you?'

Something I think Peter was well aware of and answers in the next verse:

'10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.'

He affirms God is the God of all grace, if he is the God of all Grace, then He has Grace for us in our trials and sufferings.   He will answer our prayers, He will be there for us, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, he does really Love you, how can we know he does all this? Because as Peter says He is the God of all Grace, it is in His nature!

How can we be sure, I feel Peter answers this question also with the words, ' who called you to his eternal glory in Christ,' He called us, He had a choice and He chose us.   If you choose something you choose it because at the very least you like it... In this case loved, we know He is the God of all grace who will help us because He chose us because He loved us.   You wouldn't choose to adopt a child because you loved them and then abandon them in their hour of need would you...

Peter then goes on to tell us, its only for a little while, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, God won't let you suffer forever, and after you have suffered He ' will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.' Which is nice... I think so anyway...

Verse 11 is very self explanatory I think, there's not much I can say on it...

' 11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.' (Shrug) Amen.

If I'm honest I didn't get a lot out of verses 12 - 14, they are mainly just Peter saying goodbye, take care, look after each other, and by the way a couple of my mates say hello!

Verse 12 is an encouragement from somebody called Silas (or Silvanus in Greek), an encouragement that echoes Peter in verse 10 with ' testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it.'

Verse 13 refers to 'She who is in Babylon' which I believe refers to the church in Rome.   Christianity was under persecution and Babylon was used as a codename for Rome, for various reasons they would probably have found insulting...

And last but not least... Verse 14, Greet each other with a holy kiss... I'm not sure what constitutes a holy kiss... I'm assuming it would be the cultural kiss on the cheek... I'm sure we could start doing it this morning... as it's in the bible... however I'm sure the God of all Grace won't mind if we remain Britishly reserved and don't bother...

Right, I think I've covered quite a bit of stuff in this sermon and I hope like I said in the beginning you all got a little something out of it.   Id like to say a general prayer now for some of the stuff I've covered, so if you feel that anything of what I've said touched you can I ask you to stand please?

Response

Father God, I thank you that you are the God of all Grace and that we can trust You and You're word.   I thank you that You will never leave us or forsake us... that You are with us always, even unto the ends of the Earth.

I thank you that you have warned us about the enemy that we may be aware and cautious.   I also thank you that you have not given us a Spirit of Timidity but of power.   I ask that anyone hear who is struggling with fear or timidity as I am would be able to take heart from this verse and to draw strength from you.

I pray for the young Christians here, myself included, that we would have older Christians we can go to and learn from and be nurtured in the faith and helped through the bad times.   I ask that you would bless those relationships if they exist already or when they are established, that they would be two way, that the older Christian would benefit too.

I pray for the weak, that they would have loving Christian friends to help them stand and that you would be with them.

And I pray for those who are alone, that they would find companions who they are comfortable sharing burdens with.

And I pray for all of us though, that we would be constantly looking for ways of building each other up and blessing each other.   In order that when the 'roaring Lion' comes by, he would find no easy prey... but a united front, steadfast in the faith.

Amen.