We Are in This Together

Preached by Pastor Chad Rickenbaker on October 11, 2026 [watch online] |  1 Peter 5:1–11

1 Peter — “We Are in This Together”

The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed: Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 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. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. —1 Peter 5:1–11 (NKJV)

This weekend was a soggy one. A tropical system followed a track much like the one Helene took two years ago. Thankfully it was nothing like that storm, but it brought back memories. I grew up in the part of the state Hugo hit hard, and I remember Hurricane Hugo in 1989 very well. I have three sisters, so all six of us crowded into the bathroom in the center of the house and waited. I started that night in my own bed, until Mom or Dad came in and said, “All right, we’re all going to the center of the house.” About the time I left my bedroom, shingles blew off the neighbor’s house and came right through my bedroom window. It was just the right time to have left.

Helene wasn’t Hugo, but it brought the same strange sense of camaraderie. We were all going through the same hardship. Nobody had power, and nobody had the luxuries we’re used to. We live on Tugaloo Road, and one end of our road was washed out. The neighborhood across the road from us looked like a war zone, with six, eight, maybe ten pine trees down. At one point I looked out and eight, ten, twelve people had gathered in front of our house. They started cutting trees and dragging brush. They didn’t know one another, but we were all in it together.

Power and communication lines were down across the road, and I heard one guy say, “We’ve got to get these lines out of the way. I’ll be back.” He came back with his DeWalt side grinder and commenced to cutting lines. Now, Brother Randy, you know you probably ought not just start in on a line and cut it. My son Will works for Sumter Utilities, and I’m standing there thinking, we don’t know whether that line is still hot! At that point we are not in it together. That’s you. If you light up like a Christmas tree, that’s you. Otherwise we were all in it together, clearing trees and helping one another out.

The Christians Peter wrote to were going through a storm of their own. They faced persecution because of their faith in Jesus. The whole letter is Peter encouraging them and teaching them how to live as Christians in a world that is hostile to believers. For about five months we’ve been studying our way through 1 Peter, and this morning we wrap it up in chapter 5, for all intents and purposes.

Chapter 5 stands out because of who Peter addresses. Earlier in the letter he spoke to servants, wives, husbands and citizens. Here he still speaks to groups, but now they are groups within the church. As I read through the chapter, this idea came to mind: we’re all in this together. After a storm, everybody joins together and does what they’ve got to do to get through it. When the church faces hardship, adversity or trials, this is how the church gets through it.

Elders Are to Lead by Example

The first group Peter addresses is the elders (1 Peter 5:1). Who are they? Is he just talking about the older members of the congregation? When you come across a word you don’t understand, you interpret it in light of its context. The instructions that begin in verse 2 show that Peter is speaking to the people we would call pastors. In the New Testament, the words elder, bishop and overseer are interchangeable. All three refer to the same office, the office of pastor. The New Testament church has two offices: pastor and deacon.

Peter’s first instruction is “Shepherd the flock of God which is among you” (1 Peter 5:2). Shepherd is the word our word pastor comes from. The idea is that pastors nurture God’s people with and from the Word of God. Preach the Word, minister the Word, and help the people of God be rooted and grounded in it. The pastor’s first responsibility is the spiritual health of the sheep.

Notice whose flock it is: it is the flock of God. This is God’s church, and you are God’s people. Whoever serves as a pastor is entrusted by God with ministering His Word to His people. No one should enter that calling lightly or casually. It takes a clear, discernible call of God.

Notice also the words “which is among you.” There is the universal church, made up of all believers everywhere, and there are local assemblies. Berea First Baptist Church is a local congregation of the universal church. God called me, and you voted as a congregation, so my responsibility is to shepherd this church. I’m here to teach and preach God’s Word, to provide spiritual leadership and to nurture your walk with the Lord. I answer to the Lord and to you. And thank the Lord, I am not personally responsible for the hundreds of other churches in Greenville!

“Serving as overseers” describes spiritual oversight. That means caring for the doctrine of the church and for your spiritual well-being by ministering from the Word and directing the church by it. Then Peter tells us how.

Not by compulsion, but willingly. A pastor shouldn’t serve because he has to. That includes serving because his mom thought he was called to ministry (I’m not talking about my mom!) or because a church pushed him into it. If God has called you, no one needs to force you.

Not for dishonest gain, but eagerly. We could all name too many pastors on TV whose real motive, it becomes obvious over time, is to get wealthy from their ministry. Peter says to serve not because you have to, but because you get to. It’s a privilege.

Not as lords over those entrusted to you, but as examples to the flock (1 Peter 5:3). A pastor does not hold an authoritarian position. Pastors lead by example: in how they follow Jesus, how they honor Him and how they keep the teachings of God’s Word.

There is no greater example than Jesus Himself. His disciples got caught up in the world’s idea of greatness and argued over who would be greatest in the kingdom. Jesus answered them:

But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” —Mark 10:42–45

He showed them what He meant in the upper room. A servant would normally wash the guests’ feet, but no one was there to do it, and none of the disciples were in the mindset to do it. So Jesus got up from the table, clothed Himself with the servant’s towel and began to wash their feet:

[He] rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. . . . “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.” —John 13:4–5, 14–15

Then comes verse 4: “When the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.” Jesus is the Chief Shepherd, and pastors are under-shepherds. In Peter’s day, the winner of the games received a wreath of leaves and branches. It looked nice at first, but the leaves withered and fell off. Peter says that faithful shepherds receive a crown that does not fade. In his commentary on 1 Peter, Wayne Grudem says this crown is a special reward or honor Jesus gives to the shepherd who serves faithfully. So a pastor doesn’t have to depend on the recognition of men, because he is looking forward to the recognition of his Lord.

Why does Peter start with the pastors? When the church faces adversity, one of the first targets is often the leader. He and his family are often on the front lines of spiritual warfare. So Peter’s message to them is this: keep shepherding the flock. When it’s hard, do it willingly. When it gets harder, do it eagerly. And when there seems to be no recognition at all, remember that it comes when the Chief Shepherd appears. Keep being faithful.

Younger People Submit to Elders

“Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders” (1 Peter 5:5). The word likewise matters. Just as the pastors have a role to play, the younger people have a role to play. We are all in this together.

Who are the younger people? Peter doesn’t say young. He says younger, and I don’t know exactly where to draw the line. Under 70? Sister Harriet has her hand up in the back, and she thinks we should go higher! And which elders does he mean? Maybe older people, but in context I believe Peter means the elders he has just addressed: the people placed in positions of spiritual leadership in the church.

In 2026, anytime anybody reads the word submit, we bristle. “I ain’t submitting to nobody.” But we will have a hard time in the body of Christ if we don’t like the word submit, because the Bible uses it a lot. Here it means a general willingness to support and follow the spiritual direction of the spiritual leaders.

This is what I love about preaching verse by verse: your problem is not with me, unless I’m not teaching you from God’s Word. In any church, if the pastor is not teaching, preaching and leading from God’s Word, don’t follow him. But suppose he is teaching, preaching and leading by example from God’s Word. Then, if you are younger, you are responsible before God to willingly support and follow that direction. Why? Because that’s how God designed it. When God gives us instructions, it’s never for our harm. It’s for our good.

If you count yourself among the younger, you have two choices: be offended, or be encouraged. Be encouraged! By singling you out, Peter is saying, “You matter in this.” Don’t discount yourself. Don’t say, “The older people will take care of this,” or “My parents or grandparents will handle it.” It’s not the adult ministry over here and the student ministry over there. We’re all in this together. When younger believers follow biblical leadership, the church is stronger. It can bear up better under hardship, and it gives a better witness to a hostile world. If your life and place in the church didn’t matter, Peter wouldn’t have mentioned you. But the Holy Spirit led him to include you.

All of the Church Submits to One Another in Humility

The third group is what we might call the drip-pan catchall: “Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility” (1 Peter 5:5). All of you. All y’all. Pastors, younger people and the whole church together. And here comes that word again!

To submit to one another means to put the needs of others ahead of our own. Jot this one down:

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. —Philippians 2:3–8

Peter says we can do this when we clothe ourselves with humility. Again, I think of Jesus in the upper room. Washing feet was beneath the disciples, and they were too proud to do it. So Jesus put on the servant’s towel. The end of verse 5 gives us our reason to do the same: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Peter is drawing on Proverbs:

Surely He scorns the scornful, but gives grace to the humble. —Proverbs 3:34

The proud person wants to do it himself. He doesn’t want to rely on God or trust Him. He wants to be first, and God resists that. The humble person trusts that God will raise him up in due time, on God’s timing, and that person receives the grace of God. We think of grace at salvation, and rightly so:

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. —Ephesians 2:8–9

But grace is also the strength God provides for living the Christian life day to day. The proud will meet the resistance of God. The humble will find His provision.

“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time” (1 Peter 5:6). Throughout this letter, Peter has driven home that God allows suffering, trials and hardship. At the very beginning he told us God uses them like a refiner’s fire:

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. —1 Peter 1:6–7

And he told us not to be surprised:

Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you. —1 Peter 4:12

So this is Peter’s message as he closes the letter. In His sovereignty, God may allow suffering and trials to pass through His fingers into your life. If He does, humble yourself under His mighty hand. Why? Earlier Peter told us that how we endure is a witness:

. . . having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. . . . For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. —1 Peter 2:12, 15

As you endure with the right attitude, God will use your example to silence those who speak evil of you. Let His will and purpose be worked out even in your pain, and believe that He will lift you up in due time.

“Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Suffering is no sign that God doesn’t care for you. It doesn’t mean He has forsaken you, and it doesn’t mean He is indifferent to what you’re going through. Tell Him. Share with Him how hard it is. He does care about you.

He will exalt you “in due time,” but whose timetable is that? It’s God’s. Don’t you sometimes wish He worked on ours? “Lord, five minutes ago would have been the opportune time!” A pastor may have to wait his whole earthly ministry, until the Chief Shepherd appears. God may deliver you from your hardship this afternoon. I don’t know. But in His infinite wisdom, He knows the timetable, because He is accomplishing things in us and through us that we can’t see right away.

So what do we do until then? “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Church, all of you, be alert. Your adversary is watching how you handle adversity, pain and suffering. If he sees you flinch, he knows that’s his opportunity to pounce. He roars in our pain, our adversity and our difficulties to make us afraid. When we’re afraid and haven’t humbled ourselves under God’s mighty hand, he starts whispering: You can’t really trust God. He isn’t up to anything good. He has forsaken you.

Isn’t that what he did in the garden?

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” . . . Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” —Genesis 3:1, 4–5

Those are the lies of our adversary. He roars all around us to make us doubt the goodness, faithfulness and provision of God. And he’s not interested in nibbling on your calf muscle or your pinky toe. He wants to take you down. He wants to devour you.

So how do we stand? “Resist him, steadfast in the faith” (1 Peter 5:9). We resist with the Word of God. Right doctrine comes to our aid when we suffer. When the moment of trial comes, you have truth from God’s Word to lay hold of, and you can stand fast against the insinuations of the devil. That’s why our Wednesday night classes matter. Ford is teaching on Christian worldview, and I’m teaching on walking with God through pain and suffering. We also have the armor of God at our disposal:

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. —Ephesians 6:10–13

Notice the rest of verse 9: “knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.” You haven’t been singled out, and you’re not by yourself. Christians around the world are going through similar sufferings. We’re all in this together.

Then Peter closes: “But may the God of all grace . . . after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you” (1 Peter 5:10). How long is a while? As long as God determines. You say, “I don’t like that.” Well, there are lots of times I don’t like it either. That’s why Peter tells us to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.

Remember what the Lord told Paul about his thorn in the flesh? Paul prayed for it to be taken away, just as you have and I have:

Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. —2 Corinthians 12:8–9

That’s the grace Peter is describing. If you feel weak, the good news is that you’re in the right place to experience the strength of God. If you’re walking around strong and feel like you’ve got it all together, you’ll probably meet the resistance of God. But if you will humble yourself under His mighty hand, you’ll find that His strength is made perfect in your weakness. I know it sounds strange, but weakness is the best place to be.

Take Heart: We’re All in This Together

When we suffer, it’s easy to feel isolated and alone. But someone in this very room has very likely endured what you’re going through, or is enduring it now. And if not in this room, Peter says, then your brotherhood throughout the world. So take heart.

And fulfill your role. Mine is to shepherd the flock of God among us and to minister to you from His Word faithfully, willingly and eagerly. If you’re younger (Sister Harriet says that’s 70 and below, maybe 80!), your role is to support and follow spiritual leadership that comes from God’s Word, for your good. And all of us are to submit to one another, be clothed with humility and humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand. We do that believing He will lift us up in due time, on His timetable.

Meanwhile, we stay sober and vigilant, because the adversary would take us out if he got the chance. We’re not going to give him one. We’re going to stand fast in the faith, knowing not only what we believe but why. When his accusations against God come, we’ll answer, “No, this is what God’s Word says. This is the character and nature of my God, and I will stand fast in it.”

This morning we close by sharing the Lord’s Supper. It is an ordinance given to the church, and it reminds us of our unity as the body of Christ. Before we take it, Scripture calls us to examine ourselves (1 Corinthians 11:28). Then we remember together:

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” —1 Corinthians 11:23–25

Scripture references in this message: 1 Peter 5:1–11; Mark 10:42–45; John 13:4–5, 14–15; Philippians 2:3–8; Proverbs 3:34; Ephesians 2:8–9; 1 Peter 1:6–7; 1 Peter 4:12; 1 Peter 2:12, 15; Genesis 3:1, 4–5; Ephesians 6:10–13; 2 Corinthians 12:8–9; 1 Corinthians 11:28; 1 Corinthians 11:23–25. (NKJV)

Want to go deeper? Join us Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights as we study God’s Word together at Berea First Baptist Church.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.