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May 19, 2013

Post Script (Part 24)

Passage: 1 Peter 5:12-14

Preacher: Tim Badal

Series:Strangers in a Strange Land

Detail:

If you haven’t yet, turn to 1 Peter 5.  We’re in a series that we’ve entitled “Strangers in a Strange Land” that we’ve been in now for over six months.  We had the great privilege to have Betty Shiman  with us—a wonderful elderly woman who now lives in Minnesota and was a long-time attendee of the church.  The last time she was here, I had just started 1 Peter 1.  She asked me, “What are you on now?”  I said, “First Peter 5—we haven’t gotten very far in the six months you’ve been gone, Betty.”  We have been in this series for six months, focusing in on the idea of being strangers in a strange land.

We’re finishing up the last paragraph—the last couple verses—of this letter.  I hope that during this time you’ve been able to understand the balance between our allegiance to the One true God Whom we worship and the calling we have to live amongst a people who live so very different lives.  We live among these people in our workplaces, homes and families—people who pursue different endeavors and live contrary to the ways of God.  Yet we are called as a people who are exiles in this land, traversing this life and finding this is not our home We are called to recognize our home is in Heaven—in glory where we will spend eternity with Jesus Christ.

Yet Peter has articulated over and over again that we still have a life to live here on earth, and that life is to be lived in all godliness and truth according to the prescription of Scripture.  Our engagement with this world should be an ongoing and continual advertisement about the change that Christ has made in our lives.  I hope you have learned a little bit more as to how we as Christians are called to live differently in this world.

Peter shared this letter with the churches of Asia Minor—modern-day Turkey.  He wrote this around A.D. 65-67, right around the time when persecution was unleashed on the church.  Peter was preparing the people to suffer well and calling them to endure hardship and trouble by living lives of love and devotion to Jesus Christ. 

I hope during our time in 1 Peter you and I have learned how to live greater lives of devotion and love.  Though the world around us can’t stand the Jesus Whom we serve and may look at the Holy Scriptures with great reproach, they should know there is something different about us.  Peter says we should live such good lives that even though the pagans do their own thing and pursue their own ways of life, they would glorify God because of what they see in us (1 Peter 2:12).  I hope we live differently in light of what we’ve learned.

Now we come to what is called the postscript, the final greetings or the P.S. to the letter.  We’re getting to the final remarks of an aged and faithful Apostle Peter.  It is here that he shares parting words to a group of people who were living in some pretty difficult days.  What a truth that is for us today.  As the world pursues an all-out war against Christianity, we see that Peter’s words—while they are short— are surely sweet.  Here Peter has the opportunity to share some parting words not only with the people of Asia Minor, but also with us.

You see, postscripts are powerful.  They can frame the whole letter in what is left at the end.  A man once was writing to the woman he loved and said:

There is no mountain too tall that I won’t climb just to be with you.  There’s no ocean so deep that I won’t swim it just to be by your side.  There isn’t any place in this world that is so hard for me to get to that I won’t do all that I can to be with you.  I love you so much. 

P.S. – As long as it doesn’t rain on Thursday, I should be able to see you. 

Postscripts can change the whole way you view the letter.

A man named John received a letter from his employer.  It said:

John, you are a great employee.  Everything we ask of you, you do.  You work well on teams.  You’re a joy to be around.  You accomplish all that is set before you.  We are glad to have you as our employee. 

P.S. – Pick up your final check.  We’re laying you off. 

Postscripts sometimes have a way of changing what we understand about a letter.

I found an article by a man from Harvard University.  He was encouraging his students about the importance of a postscript.  He calls this article “The Leveraging of the Postscript: How to Use Your Final Words with Great Effectiveness.”  It was written from a secular point of view and yet according to his standards of what our final postscript in a letter should be, you’re going to learn that Peter—this unlearned fisherman from Galilee—nails it when it comes to a farewell device in a letter.  Notice what this Harvard man says.  According to the article, he says, “Research shows that 80% of us—when we read a letter—will automatically skip down to the postscript and read it first.”  So his advice to us as writers is to write clearly with many personal touches in the postscript.

What is the postscript to look like?  He says,

“Don’t include a whole bunch of new information about varied subjects.  Stick to what you’ve been talking about in the letter.  Don’t write a long or drawn-out postscript.  Leave it to be just a couple sentences—three or four at the most.  Take time in your postscript to encourage the reader with kind words and leave the reader glad that they’ve read your letter.  Call the reader to action in response to the letter.  Address the reason again for your letter in a short summary and make it incredibly conversational and personal.” 

This is a secular understanding of what a postscript should look like, but it’s as if that writer from Harvard took the letter of 1 Peter to build his whole premise on what a postscript should look like.  Peter nails every one of the requirements.

So with these closing words, I want to look at three important aspects of Christianity:

  1. The issue of teamwork
  2. The issue of theology
  3. The issue of tranquility

With that, let us look to this text before us—the final words of this great letter of 1 Peter.  Let us look to it together.  First Peter 5:12-14 says:

12 By Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God.  Stand firm in it.  13 She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son.  14 Greet one another with the kiss of love.  Peace to all of you who are in Christ.

Let’s pray.

Father God, we realize we could spend years gleaning the truths of this letter, but we’re thankful for the six months You’ve given us.  I pray we would be a people who are strangers in a strange land.  Though we live in a way that the world would call strange, help our lives to be so attractive and our love to be so contagious that our standing for truth—while it may be galling to the world—would show them our conviction that You are all You say You are.  I pray that we would stand firm when the suffering comes and the challenges to our faith are evident.  Help us recognize we are recipients of Your grace and this grace is not something we just enjoy as individuals but we enjoy it as a congregation and community of believers.  Let us share this grace with one another.  Allow this grace to impact our conversation, our conduct and the way we reach out to the lost.  As we encounter this true grace of God, help us be changed.  Open our hearts and give us ears to hear Your Word.  Give us the strength by Your Spirit’s power to put these truths into action.  In Christ’s name we pray.  Amen.

Teamwork

As we look at this postscript under these three headings, I want to address the first issue of teamwork right away.  As Peter closes out this great letter, he says he’s “written briefly” to them (1 Peter 5:12).  I think you’ve come to learn that when a preacher says he’s only going to speak briefly, it’s not very brief.  Peter has written briefly for one hundred and five verses about the true grace of God.  Before he gets there, he wants us to understand that one of the chief graces God gives us is the community of believers that we share as fellow believers.  This community is a gift God has given and Peter stops at the end of his letter to remember those who have been so vastly important to him.  He wants to stop and share about all those who have shown him love and affection and have used their gifts to serve this aged apostle.

Before we look at them, I want to remind you of a truth: what Peter is sharing is not simply a principle to live by, but Peter believed—as all the New Testament writers did—in all practicality that Christianity is not a solo act.  Here in America, we have this idea that we don’t need others because we can do it all by ourselves.  But God has seen fit that life in Christ—Christianity—is a community project even though there are many aspects of our faith that are personal and individual.  For instance, I cannot have my parents act in faith on my behalf.  My pastor can’t do it.  There are parts that I have to do on my own.  But we need to recognize that as soon as we become Christians we’re brought into the family of God which is manifested through the local church that you’re a part of today.

Peter wants us to know that we are brought into a community of believers.  We need one another.  We need to encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11), to spur one another on towards love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24), to bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), to confess sin to one another (James 5:16), to serve one another (1 Peter 4:10) and the myriad of other “one another” commands that are in full view in the New Testament.  We need to recognize that we’re part of a team that is built on the foundation of Jesus Christ and we are called to love on one another.  Peter takes a moment and says, “I want to share with you people who made me who I am today.  Without them, I would be in trouble.  People who have encouraged me and called me to persevere when suffering comes.”

Peter speaks of two guys and one gal.  Peter begins by speaking about this man “Silvanus,” translated Silas in other translations.  Now most scholars believe Silas was Peter’s scribe.  That means while Peter was writing this, he wasn’t the one who was actually putting these words on parchment.  He was dictating these words to his scribe Silas.  This is very important because when we get to verses 12-14, we see a change in writing style.  Most scholars believe that Peter took the pen and parchment in hand for these last verses and penned these final words himself.  On various occasions, Paul also had the help of a scribe for his writings.

We can see that these final words are not only the words of Peter but they are also written in his own hand.  We know this because the words Silas uses and the way he writes are evidence of an educated man.  The words of verses 12-14 have a little more simple approach to writing.

So we have Silas who was a Jew by birth and also a Roman citizen.  That means he was educated and had all the great privileges of the Roman citizenry at his disposal.  Silas was a good man.  Peter calls him “a faithful brother” (1 Peter 5:12).  He is a man who had walked with God for some time.  He was younger than Peter.  He was one of the missionaries on Paul’s journeys.  We know that Silas recognized what it meant to suffer well for Christ.

In Acts 16 we’re told that Paul and Silas were in the area of Philippi, the area to which the letter of Philippians was written.  While they were in Philippi preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, they were taken and imprisoned.  In Acts 16:23 we’re told they were thrown into the Philippian jail.  What did they do?  They did what all good Christians do and complained—right?  “Woe is us!  Why would God put us in this situation?  We’re doing good and God doesn’t care!  He threw us into prison!”  No, that’s not what Silas and Paul did.  They broke out into song.  They sang and praised God into the early hours of the morning.  In the night, something amazing happened.  God caused an earthquake.  The chains fell off them, the prison doors opened and the Philippian jailor went crazy.  The greatest prison break in all of Philippi took place and the jailor asked, “Who’s there?  Is anyone left?”  He was ready to kill himself because he lost all his prisoners but Paul and Silas yelled out from their prison cell, “Don’t do it!  We’re all still here.”  It was in that moment that the Philippian jailor looked to Paul and Silas and asked, “What must I do to be saved?”  He had heard Christians who suffered well and praised God amidst their suffering.  The only question he had was, “How do I get to know your God?”

Silas was a faithful brother.  We know that Silas was a man whom God would use in so many ways—ways that aren’t even brought up in Scripture.  Many of you are like Silas today.  Not much is written about you.  It’s written about the person who is next to you or the one whom you’re working side-by-side with, yet you’re still faithfully serving.

Notice Peter brings up another man—Mark (verse 13).  We know Mark because not too long ago we read the Gospel of Mark.  Mark was a young boy during the days of Jesus.  Many believe he was just a young kid whose mom and dad were followers of this new Rabbi Jesus.  Scholars tell us that Mark’s parents lived in Jerusalem.  In fact when the disciples were in the upper room on the Day of Pentecost, scholars believe they were in the room of John Mark’s parents. 

We see that John Mark who had come to grips with Jesus as his Savior at a young age is now walking and living an adult life following Christ.  But John Mark wasn’t always this way.  Even though Peter says, “This is one whom I consider a son—a spiritual son in the faith,” John Mark had had a pretty bad defeat earlier in his life.  You see, when John Mark was still a young adult in the faith, he went on a missionary journey with Paul.  When the going got tough, John Mark didn’t suffer well.  He walked away.  It was so bad that a great conflict took place between Paul and Barnabas (Acts 15:36-41).  Barnabas—the son of encouragement—said, “I will give him a second chance.  I will take him.”  Paul said, “I want nothing to do with him.  If he’s not ready to walk with God and be steadfast in his walk with Him, then we’re going to move on.”  A great dispute broke out between Paul and Barnabas.  Here’s the great truth: later on in John Mark’s life, the Apostle Paul said, “Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry” (2 Timothy 4:11).  Here in 1 Peter 5—some 30 years after John Mark was a young lad in Jesus’ entourage—Peter calls him a faithful young man in Christ.

So here’s the thing: maybe there has been a failure in your past.  Maybe you’ve been given some great opportunities and responsibilities to serve God and you’ve failed.  That doesn’t mean you’re done.  It just means it’s time to get back on the horse and try to serve Him now with greater faithfulness in the future.

Then Peter moves on to speak of a gal.  This woman is mentioned in verse 13, “She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings.”  We have a mysterious gal in our midst.  Who in the world is Peter talking about?  When I was first an elder here at the church, our elder chairman was a man named Don Hershey [sp? @ 20.00].  Don was a terrible typist.  As the chairman, we had given him charge of writing out the elder minutes.  Every time he would type out the elder minutes, the minutes would talk about all the decisions the elder board had made, but it didn’t say “elder board.”  It said “elder broad.”  It said things like, “The elder broad made a decision with regards to the budget.  The elder broad talked about Sunday School for the summer.  The elder broad…”  Finally someone asked, “Who is this elder broad and why is she making all the decisions?”  She was a mysterious woman to us. 

Well, we have a mysterious lady in our text.  Who is Peter talking about?  The woman who is chosen and is at Babylon.  A minority of scholars are of the opinion that Peter is saying, “My wife who’s in Babylon sends you her greetings.”  We know Peter was married because one of the first people Jesus heals is Peter’s mother-in-law (Matthew 8:14-15). 

But I agree with most conservative evangelical scholars who say that Peter is not talking about a person but about a people.  He is not talking about a woman who is in Babylon—Mesopotamia or modern-day Iraq—but he’s speaking of a church.  In fact, I think he’s speaking of the church of which Peter is a part.  Tradition tells us that Peter spent his final days in the city of Rome.  Rome was called Babylon repeatedly; not only by those who wrote in the Scriptures but also by many of the church fathers who considered Rome to be the place of Babylon.  It was the place of great defilement, world power and authority.  Peter is saying that the church—the local assembly of believers who reside in Rome—sends their greetings.  So in our postscript, we have a personal greeting given by two guys and this gal—the church. 

Peter speaks of striving for a goal.  We go on to see that there is a goal for which we need to strive.  In verse 12, Peter says—speaking of Silvanus or Silas—this phrase “a faithful brother as I regard him.”  I know many of us look at that and say, “Well yeah, he’s just saying nice things.”  I want you to understand there’s a mouthful being said here.  Peter uses his first words in these closing thoughts to speak of what he has come to know about his friend Silas.  He uses the word “regard.”  That word regard (logizomai) in the Greek speaks of a very thoughtful and deliberate assessment and evaluation of another.  So Peter says, “As I look at my friend, evaluate him and look at the totality of who he is.  I want you to know from my careful examination of my friend that he is a faithful brother.”

There are two things I see as important in this:

We don’t talk like this anymore.  It is to our shame that we don’t talk about people in regards to their faithfulness.  If someone says, “Tell me about Tim,” we say, “He’s a nice guy.”  If someone says, “Tell me about Amanda,” we say, “She’s a great gal.”  We’re so generic.  Peter says, “I’ve evaluated my friend.  I’ve assessed him and in that assessment I’ve seen that he is faithful.”  What in the world does that mean?  Faithful (pistos) means reliable, trustworthy, dependable, loyal and thoroughly steadfast in his love for his friends.

Are we faithful?  I was struck by this idea of being faithful because I asked myself a question.  Each week I start by asking questions on my notepad about the text.  In big letters, I asked the question, “Am I a faithful brother?”  Who in this world would say, “Tim, you are trustworthy, reliable, faithful and absolutely steadfast.  You’re a faithful brother.”  Who would look to me and say, “Without you Tim, I would not be where I need to be in my walk with Christ”?  Silas was one of those people and my heart burned that I would be a Silas.

So my question for you is the same question I have for myself, “Who would call you a faithful brother or sister?”  Who would call you steadfast?  Who would call you a reliable and loyal friend?  With your service and gifts that God has given you, have you enabled your friends around you to be better followers of Jesus Christ?  Are there people who would call you such a faithful friend?  How faithful are you about praying for your friends?  When someone has a prayer request, we say, “I’ll pray for you.”  If you’re like me, the temptation is just to leave it there.  We tell a whole bunch of people we’re praying when in fact we’re not.  The reason why is we’re unfaithful.  Other things become more important.

How faithful are you in your service to others?  How reliable are you when you say you’re going to do a ministry?  Do you actually do it?  Peter would never have called Silas faithful if he had said, “Silas, I need you to go and share with this church,” or “I need you to write this letter,” or “I need you to do this task,” and the things weren’t done.  Peter would never have said he is a reliable and trustworthy friend.  Because Silas did these things, he was reliable and trustworthy.

How faithful are you with your time and energy?  How important are people?  How faithful are you when it’s inconvenient?  How faithful are you when it’s going to cost you something?  When it’s going to cost you an opportunity, are you more willing to see to it that you reach out, love on a friend and serve them as you serve Christ?  At Village Bible Church, we strive to be a family—but not any ordinary family.  I might add to our vision statement that we desire to be a family that is filled with faithful brothers and sisters—people we can depend on who are laughing with us when we are happy and joyful and who mourn with those who weep (Romans 12:15).  We should be people who are willing to endure the good and bad in one another’s lives to show God’s faithfulness through every day encounters. 

If we are going to be effective in any way, the church must be a church of faithful people.  We live in a world where people manipulate us, scheme and lie.  Those things must be foreign to the people of God here at Village Bible Church.  Let us be a faithful people.

Peter speaks of an affectionate greeting.  Peter says in the text that this church—which we have observed is in Rome—sends greetings.  So does Mark.  Then in verse 14 he says, “Greet one another with the kiss of love.”  So twice in this closing remark Peter speaks to the issue of greeting.  I want you to know that greeting is so very important because it engages us in reaching out to others as the family of God. 

Now you might say, “Greeting is not all that important.  We do that every Sunday.  We greet one another.”  I know some of you think our greeting time is just to allow the worship team to get their music set and make sure their guitars are tuned up so we distract you by spending time with one another until everything is all set up here.  We make sure Kendra knows the announcements and we’re all set and say, “Okay, is everybody ready?  Now they’ve greeted one another enough.  We’ve wasted their time.  We’ve got what we need done.  We’re all good.”  No, brothers and sisters.  Greeting one another was a huge part of the first-century church.  Peter wants to make it clear that greeting must be a part of who we are as Christians today as well.

This is why I love exposition of God’s Word.  I never thought I’d preach a sermon on greeting, but when it’s in the text and it’s the next verse, you do it.  Here’s the thing I learned about greeting: greeting one another acknowledges the presence of others in your busy life.  We are so self-absorbed here at Village Bible Church.  The world revolves around us.  Greeting is a reminder that there are others in this world besides us.  When we’re absorbed in what we’re doing, the work we’ve got to accomplish, our thinking and our concerns, greeting reminds us of the presence of another person in our midst.  Greeting embraces others instead of ignoring them.

I want to challenge you today.  I know that the church is growing quickly.  Last year we grew at a rate of 21%.  That’s a lot of people.  I know a lot of you say, “There’s no way I’m going to know the people.  So do you know what I’m going to do?  I’m just going to talk to the people I know.”  Shame on you.  Will you know everybody?  Will everybody be your best friend?  No, but one of my biggest pet peeves as a pastor here is what I see on a weekly basis—the abject ignoring of people.  I’ve challenged some of you on it.  A person is two feet from you and you stand there without even looking at him.  The Bible commands us to “greet one another.”  We’re called to do it. 

I’m going to give you a rule.  If someone comes into your five-foot sphere—that’s about an arm’s length—here’s your job: shake their hand and ask them their name.  “But what if I’ve already asked them a million times?”  Here’s your permission—if you don’t know them, ask their name.  If they get mad at you, come talk to me and I’ll go yell at them.  Greet them!  Ask them where they’re from.  Ask them how they’re doing.  Ask them, “Is there anything I can do for you this morning?”

You might say, “But Tim, I don’t know who they are!”  Let me tell you a practical truth I’ve learned.  Every one of the important relationships I have today started at some point with a greeting.  Even the greatest earthly relationship I have—the relationship with my wife—started with a greeting.  If you want to hear a funny story, ask her how that went.  It all started with a greeting.  When my children were born I said, “Hey guy!  Welcome to the family!” 

Every relationship we have starts with us reaching out and saying hello.  So here’s the thing.  Do you want a reason for greeting one another?  Your next great friendship is being missed out when you ignore those around you.  I want to add that every ministry we’re part of affects people.  We don’t just do ministries that don’t have any impact on others.  Every aspect of our ministry is connected to our greeting of one another.  We have to greet one another.

Now if you’re uncomfortable, let me make you even more uncomfortable.  Peter says, “Alright, this is how you do it—you kiss one another.”  Last week one of our ushers thought it would be funny for him to apply this truth.  When I walked into the worship center, he took my hand, pulled me close and just started laying kisses all over my cheek.  I will tell you, there was nothing holy about it.  He said, “I’m just doing what the Scriptures tell me to do!” 

Now there are various cultures to consider with this.  I was born into a middle-eastern home.  My father is from Iraq.  We understand what it means to kiss as a greeting.  Some of you may have seen my Palestinian brother Abraham and me kiss each other on both cheeks—we’re just two middle-eastern brothers of a different mother loving on each other.

So there is some cultural background to understand here.  We see the Apostle Peter commanded it because the affection that was shown in a holy kiss showed no formality.  It showed no prejudice.  It showed equality and intimacy.  Here’s the problem—what God intends for good man turns into bad situations many times.  You can read the writings of the early church fathers to learn this.  I never thought I would study the subject of a holy kiss, but I did some research on this and was flabbergasted. 

Why don’t we see the holy kiss practiced anymore?  Tertullian, Polycarp and Justin Martyr—who lived 100-200 years after Jesus walked on this earth—wrote about this practice of a holy kiss.  They said it had run amuck in the early church.  It had become a sign of lust.  When the people of God gathered, they got excited to kiss and they would go and look for the people they wanted to kiss.  I don’t mean to be gross here, but it was spoken very clearly in the early church that this type of kissing was to be done with a closed mouth.  It was to be a peck.  But this sign of love became debauchery in the early church.  So the early church fathers said, “Men, you kiss men.  Women, you kiss women.”  Tertullian taught in his early writings not to give an occasion for lust and reproach to the name of God.

By the third century at the Council of Nicaea, the church fathers gathered together and said, “We need to outlaw the kiss altogether.  It just doesn’t need to be done.  Find different ways.”  So what we see when Peter says, “Greet one another with the kiss of love,” is not per se the activity but the affection behind it.  So if we shake hands, make it heartfelt.  If we hug, make sure it is done without hypocrisy.  You might say, “Wait a minute.  You can’t kiss somebody and not show affection.”  Let me remind you that our Savior was betrayed by a kiss (Matthew 26:49).  You can fake it and some of you do.

W.E. Vine—a biblical scholar—said this regarding our greetings, “There was to be an absence of all formality and hypocrisy, a freedom from prejudice arising from social distinctions, from discrimination against the poor, from partiality towards the well-to-do” (Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, by W. E. Vine).  The greeting should flow from a heart that lets the world know that we are Christians by our love.  Do you think we can grow in our greeting?  You bet we can.  Let’s do it.

 Theology

Now Peter moves to theology which is an important thing.  When he speaks about theology, Peter says very quickly in verse 12 that he is “exhorting and declaring [briefly] that this is the true grace of God.”  What is the true grace of God?  All that he has talked about in these five chapters.  This is the life and the life that we have is in the grace of God.  We need to understand something: we are different from all other world religions primarily because of one thing and that is grace.  No man-made religion is based on grace.  I want to remind us of grace because our theology is built on “the God of all grace” as we see in 1 Peter 5:10. 

The source of grace – Where does this grace come from?  Its source is God.  You can’t go to Wal-Mart, look on the shelves and find “grace” for half-price.  Your employer doesn’t say, “Well, you’ve done a good job so I’m going to give you an extra week of vacation and a little grace to get you by.”  We cannot get grace on our own.  It must come from God.  God doesn’t just give grace to us as believers.  The man who is mowing his yard in Sugar Grove this morning and hates everything about God—who despises God and His ways—is breathing in, looking deeply into and experiencing the almighty grace of God while he mows the grass and he doesn’t even know it.  The Psalmist says, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no god,’” because the very breath he’s breathing and using to articulate those words is a grace God has given him (Psalm 14:1).  Apart from the grace of God, you and I would be destroyed.  We could never stand in the presence of God.  We could never experience even an ounce of happiness if it weren’t for the amazing grace of God.  God is the source of grace.

The significance of grace – Notice its significance.  The Apostle Paul makes it very clear as he states twice in the Book of Ephesians, “By grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:5, 8).  Without grace, you and I could never experience Jesus or eternal life.  We would close our eyes and only see torment in a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:42).  But God saved us because He’s the God of all grace.  I know some of this is elementary to many of you but it’s done so on purpose.  Every once in a while in a church like ours, we need to go back to the basics and ask if you think you’re going to Heaven or get to experience the grace of God because of something you’ve done.  Listen to the words of Isaiah 64:6, “Our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment [before a holy God].”  So recognize that if you think you’re going to work your way to Heaven because of all the good you do, you need to understand it is “by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:5, 8).  Have you bowed the knee to Jesus?  Look at what John Newton said:

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

(“Amazing Grace” by John Newton)

If you don’t rely on and rest in that, you’re lost in your sin.

This last week I saw on Facebook something one of our own people said, “It’s a hammock day,” and there was a picture of their bulldog sitting in a hammock.  As I was working on my sermon I thought, “We need to have a hammock day just to rest in God’s grace.”  Do you know that every good thing we have is because we are recipients of God’s grace?  God is the Giver of all good things.  All that God allows us to do—to have breath, to have life, to enjoy our family and friends, to enjoy creation—is a gift of God’s grace.  Everything we have is because of God’s grace.  His grace is totally significant in our lives.

The strength of grace – Peter says grace is the strength that the Christian needs to get through life.  This grace is so powerful and amazing that you and I can “stand firm in it” (1 Peter 5:12).  The phrase “stand firm” (histēmi) is a military term.  It’s a command of urgency.  God’s grace is true and what the world is offering is false.  So Peter says, “Now you need to stand firm in what God is giving us.”  The idea of “stand firm” was of a soldier holding a strategic position even though he was under attack.  So as believers, we are to stand firm in this grace because the world is going to throw everything it can against us. 

We just read last week about how “the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).  What are we to do?  We are to “Resist him, firm in your faith,” (1 Peter 5:9).  How are we to do that?  We rely on God’s grace.  We remember that God is the One Who has saved us.  We remember that God’s the One Who will see us through to the end.  Our salvation will be brought to culmination when God raises us from the dead as He raised His Own Son.  We stand firm in it even though we’re under attack.  God’s grace will get us through.  God’s grace will allow us to suffer well.  God’s grace will allow us to serve Christ here in this world and in the Kingdom to come.

What a source, what significance and what strength this grace is.  That’s why grace is amazing.

 Tranquility

Finally Peter finishes with a word about tranquility.  He stops the whole letter and says, “Peace to all of you who are in Christ” (1 Peter 5:14).  Some of you need peace today.  Some of you find yourselves hurting, scared, lonely and troubled.  You find yourself broken and in need of peace.  It has been said…

  • Know Christ to know peace but…
  • No Christ means no peace.

You will have no peace if you do not know Christ.    Amidst the devil’s schemes and the trouble the world brings, there is no peace without Christ.  Remember that Peter wrote this letter to a group of people who were about to have all kinds of torment unleashed on them.  In a matter of a couple years, the Roman Empire’s singular goal would be to destroy Christianity and their lives would never be the same.  For the next 300 or so years, Christians would be put to death one after another because they would choose Christ over Caesar.

Even with that coming, Peter says, “You can have peace.”  He promised peace to a hurting, scared and troubled people in Asia Minor.  Where does that peace come from?

Peace comes from salvation.  Peter bookends this letter with the idea of grace and peace.  Look at 1 Peter 1:2, “May grace and peace be multiplied to you.”  We need peace.  We need grace.  It begins by knowing that our salvation is secure.  Peter says in 1 Peter 1:3-5:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

How can we have peace?  By relying on the salvation God gives.

Peace enables us to submit.  Peter has talked repeatedly about submitting to earthly authorities, about wives submitting to husbands, about the church submitting to its church leaders and about employees submitting to employers.  Submission is all over the place.  How do we do it?  We stand at peace with where God has us.  The way we are settled and tranquil in our position is to recognize that we are sinners in need of God’s grace.  He has given it to us and that’s all we need.  Whether I’m a janitor at a local McDonald’s or the President of the United States, I’m okay with wherever God has me because that’s where God wants me.  I’m going to serve to the best of my abilities and I’m going to use that opportunity to serve the world by sharing the gospel with all who will listen.  Peace enables us to submit.

Peace calms us amidst suffering.  Peter has written this great book on suffering.  He seems to emphasize from the beginning to the end—despite the fact his readers would be sorely tested and experience fiery trials—that we can experience peace.  Both the first-century readers and readers today can experience the peace of God which transcends all understanding amidst all of the trials and tribulation (Philippians 4:7).  This peace is available to us.  It’s accessible.  Beloved, as the blazing furnace of expected trials comes and as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we can rest in the grace of God and take hold of His peace.  If that doesn’t warm your heart, then something is wrong with you.

We need God’s grace in abundance.  We need God’s peace.  We don’t need it just as individuals, but we need it as a church because we’re called to be strangers in a strange land.  So let’s live up to the calling He’s given us.  Let’s live these holy lives He’s commanded us to live and let’s do it knowing He’s going to meet us every step of the way. 

Let’s pray.

Father God, we come before You and I thank You for this book.  Thank You for what it’s taught us.  I thank You for the example of Peter—not a perfect man by any stretch of the imagination but one who was faithful.  I pray that we would be faithful.  Just as Silas was called a faithful brother, I pray that we would be called faithful children of Yours.  I pray that as we are faithful to You, we would then in turn be faithful to one another.  I pray that faithfulness will be seen in how we greet one another and show love to one another.  I pray that faithfulness would be a response to the grace and mercy You’ve shown us.  I pray that because of all You’ve done for us, we can be at peace in this world of chaos and entrust ourselves to a faithful God, knowing that Your ways are greater than ours.  We know that You have a plan that is being unveiled for us and we will see it in the right time.  Humble us to wait on that plan and Your timing.  During those times of strife, difficulty and waiting, let us experience the peace that is Yours and is found in Your Son Jesus Christ.

Lord, as we head into a very chaotic world, enable us to be Your hands and feet to a dying world, that we may be able to reach out and share the good news of Christ.  Allow us to live the holy lives needed to be that example.  I pray that You would receive the glory and honor for it.  In Christ’s name we pray.  Amen.

Let me share these words in closing, “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.  To him be the dominion forever and ever.  Amen” (1 Peter 5:10-11).