1 Peter 5:12-14 | No Time to Play Church

Speaker: Well, that was a waste of time.

Not that, but do you ever think that?

Do you ever feel that?

Do you ever do anything that you just sit there and you think to yourself,

"That was a massive waste of time"?

Maybe you've built Legos before or Lego.

Apparently, there's no such thing as Legos, 'cause Lego is both

individual and plural, which is just mind-numbingly frustrating to me.

But you've built Lego before and, and, and y- you get all the way to, towards

the end of the book, and then all of a sudden you're supposed to do a piece,

and you're supposed to put something together, and you look at it and you

go, "This is, this is not Lego-ing.

The pieces are not piecing.

Why?"

And then you realize that you missed a step or you made a mistake

30 pages back in the booklet.

That's, that's a, a waste of time, right?

You have to undo everything to get back to where you were and start over again.

Or, or maybe, uh, you are like me and you go and you do a workout, but

you don't start it on your watch, and then afterwards you think,

"Well, that was a waste of time.

It didn't even count because my rings didn't close because I didn't

tell it that I was working out."

Or maybe, uh, you've had a situation, uh, where you've gone the wrong

way and had to turn around.

I remember there was a, a retreat that I led with our, our college ministry back

in California where we went up to Big Bear, and it was the, the winter retreat,

so it was snowy up in Big Bear there.

And, uh, to get up, you can go one of two ways.

Well, one of the ways was closed and, and we found that out ahead of time, and we

sent an email out to all of our leaders and said, "Hey, this way is closed.

Don't go that way."

Uh, and, and most of our leaders got that email and read it.

Let me rephrase that.

All of our leaders got that email.

Most of our leaders read that email.

O- one of them in particular, who had two of our other leaders in the car

with him, decided to go the wrong way.

And so two hours later, after putting on snow chains and taking off snow

chains and putting them back on and taking them off again, he got to the

place where the road was closed, and they said, "You can't get through here."

And so not only did he go two hours that direction, but he had to drive

two hours back to where he started and then go two hours the other way to

get back up to where the retreat was.

That is a waste of time.

We've been in 1 Peter for 30 Sundays.

Not consecutively.

We've taken a break for Christmas and some other things here

and there, but 30 Sundays in 1 Peter, 30 sermons from 1 Peter.

That's seven and a half months of our year.

The question I want us to ponder this morning as we end our study

of 1 Peter, how do we make sure that this wasn't a waste of time?

What do you do with this book?

What should the impact of our study of 1 Peter be?

How do you make sure that you haven't spent seven and a half months, if

you've been with us the whole time, 30 Sundays listening to preaching

that in the end isn't really gonna do anything in your life?

How can you make sure not to waste our study of 1 Peter?

I think First Peter, as Peter ends the letter, is gonna encourage us and exhort

us to say that i-if you wanna make sure that First Peter counts in your life,

then it's gonna involve your conviction, it's gonna involve your humility,

and it's gonna involve your love.

Your conviction, your humility, and your love.

So we're gonna begin in First Peter chapter five, verse 12,

as Peter is landing the plane.

And, and I know how it can be when you come to the end of a, of an epistle

especially, and you start to read names.

You can almost get into the genealogy mode of reading the Bible.

It's like, "Okay, I know this is God's Word, I know it's inspired,

I know it's got authority, but these are just kinda the, the,

the throwaway part of the letter.

He's just talking personal stuff at the end of the letter.

This isn't really for me."

And I wanna encourage you, if, if you're there, don't be there.

I wanna encourage you to, to lean in to the end of this letter, because Peter

has some profound things to say to us that really helps us, again, frame the

rest of the letter to say, "How do I make sure that I don't waste First Peter?

That it has the intended impact on my life that God wants it to have in my life?"

So First Peter 5 verse 12 says, "By Silvanus, a faithful brother as I

1 Peter 5:12

regard him, I've written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring

that this is the true grace of God.

Stand firm in it."

My guess is for most of you out here in the room, you probably write your

own emails, although maybe today you have Claude write your emails for you.

Uh, but you usually do your own correspondence.

Uh, you typically don't dictate your, your letters or your emails.

Uh, you ha- you sit down and you type it out yourself or

you write a letter yourself.

Uh, that hasn't always been the case.

In fact, during the New Testament era, what was more common than

not was that somebody would have somebody else write on their behalf.

That person was called an amanuensis, and an amanuensis was somebody who

was a, not a ghostwriter, because they were typically writing on the, at

the, the behest of the other person.

So Peter would've employed Silvanus here to be his amanuensis, his writer.

And so he says that here in the text, "By Silvanus, a faithful brother

as I regard him, I have written."

So I've written by him.

Some question whether or not Silvanus was the writer or just the courier.

We're gonna get to the courier ca- capacity here in a minute.

But I, a lot of people believe that Silvanus was the one that put pen to

paper in the letter of First Peter.

Uh, there's some reasons behind that.

The, the Greek, the language in First Peter is pretty high a- and so some

have, have questioned would a Galilean fisherman like Peter have been able to

write with such eloquence as what we find here in the letter of First Peter?

Or would that be more indicative of the fact that he employed somebody else

like Silvanus as a, a writer for him, as he dictated these things to him?

Uh, there's reasons why Peter would've used Silvanus beyond that.

Number one, just literacy during this time wasn't what it is today.

People weren't nearly as proficient in reading and writing in this culture as you

find today in our society And so literacy was, was r- more rare at this time.

Also, just the cost of writing materials and writing supplies

was, uh, more than it is today.

And so a, a lot of times you would use an amanuensis who had

some of that at his disposal.

Practicality was another element of it.

If somebody knew and did this on the regular, having them write on your

behalf who knew the grammar and knew how to phrase things and knew how

to word things, it just made sense.

It was a little bit more, uh, efficient that way.

And then finally, this was just something that was normative.

It was commonplace, not just within the church and with the, in the letters,

but even men like Cicero and Caesar were known to employ amanuenses.

Uh, Paul did himself, Romans 16:22, he talks about it.

Romans 16:22

In fact, sometimes at the end of Paul's letters, Paul will say things

like, "Hey, see with what large letters I'm writing to you now."

In other words, Paul is signaling, "I've taken the pen from the person

that I was given the letters by, and now I'm writing these things to you."

What I don't want you to think is that this is not Peter's words, okay?

This is Peter's word.

He's just having Silvanus, it would appear, write it down on his behalf.

The one that wrote the letter, the, the amanuensis, was often also the one that

was tasked with delivering the letter.

And so if you go all the way back to the beginning of 1 Peter, we can be reminded

of those that Peter was writing to.

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of

the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

And so Silvanus would have been tasked with going to these cities,

or at least to the first city, and delivering Peter's letter.

And, and why that matters for us right now and why we should pay

attention to that is the one who delivered the letter was usually also

the first interpreter of the letter.

He was the first commentator.

And so Silvanus would have been entrusted with delivering the letter,

and then as the letter is read to the church there, if the church had

questions of Silvanus, like, "Silvanus, what did he mean by fiery trial?

Uh, Silvanus, w- what was Peter referring to by the devil prowling around like a

roaring lion seeking someone to devour?"

Silvanus would have been entrusted as the one who was intimately acquainted with

the writer, with the, the, the origin of it, to, to be the one to explain

it, to exposit it, to expound upon it.

And so really the first person to preach 1 Peter was probably Silvanus.

And so Silvanus is entrusted with this.

He's sent out by Peter, and that's why Peter mentions him at the end of

the letter, by Silvanus, and he says, "A faithful brother as I regard him."

Peter wanted those listening to this letter to know that

Peter trusted this man.

Who is Silvanus?

You may know him by another name, and that is the name Silas.

Silvanus and Silas, one and the same.

Silvanus was on the missionary journey.

Silas was on the missionary journeys with, with Paul and Timothy.

And so Silvanus was a man that was well-acquainted with the church and

well-acquainted with the doctrine and the teachings of the church.

And so Peter is telling the church there that is receiving the letter,

"Hey, Silvanus is bringing it to you.

I've written by him.

You can trust him.

He's a faithful brother."

And so as Silvanus preached 1 Peter to these audiences as he

delivered it- Peter was wanting them to say, "You can follow him.

You can trust him."

And so he says, "I've, I've written by him," and he says, "I've written briefly

to you by him, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God.

Stand firm in it."

He says, "I've exhorted you, and I've declared these things to you."

To exhort is to urge or to implore.

Uh, i- it's to call alongside of...

"I'm, I'm exhorting you to understand that this is the true grace of God."

And he says, "And I've also declared this to you."

It's the word that we get our word for testify.

I am putting my stamp of approval on this.

Peter's saying at the end of the letter, "Everything that I've written

to you, this is about the grace of God.

Stand firm in it."

Peter looked at the whole message of the book that he had just

written and summed it up this way, "This is the grace of God."

And so if you think about the message of 1 Peter and everything that we've

heard about and read about from the very beginning of this epistle about our future

inheritance that we're gonna have that he prophesies about or that he talks about,

and he says we're being guarded by God's power through faith for this salvation,

ready to be revealed in the last time.

As he talks to, to us about being holy as Christ is holy and striving for that

holiness, as he talks about being built together as a living temple together as

the church, as he talks about loving one another earnestly from a pure heart, as he

talks about submitting to the authority, even of unjust rulers, as he speaks to

wives about submitting to unbelieving husbands, as he speaks to husbands about

how to love their wives and live with them in an understanding manner, as he speaks

about suffering and he says there's, there's fiery trials that are coming am-

among you, don't be surprised at that.

As, as Peter says, you should rejoice in suffering because it's testing your faith.

As he says the, the suffering is there to confirm your identity in Christ.

As he says that there is suffering that's being experienced not just by

you, but by others as well in the church.

As he tells us that there's an enemy that's prowling around like

a roaring lion, and, and you and I are on the menu, and we need

to resist him, firm in the faith.

Peter's saying all of this, I can sum it up by saying this

is about the grace of God.

Stand firm in it.

Stand firm in it.

Essentially what Peter is saying here is all of the things that he's talked

about and the commands that he's given, everything in this letter that we've

read to this point, he's saying it's only possible by and through the grace of God.

Stand firm in it.

Stand firm in it.

Don't compromise.

Don't waver.

Own it.

Follow it.

Read it.

Believe it.

Obey it.

Uh, one of the ways if, if you want 1 Peter to matter for you, if you want

this 30 weeks to matter, if you want it to, to leave an indelible mark on your

life, if you want the Spirit to really take it and say, "We're gonna go to

work, and we're gonna make us more like Jesus because of our time in 1 Peter,"

one of the ways that we can do that is by standing firm in the grace of God.

And while Peter was referring specifically to this letter, I wanna broaden that

understanding to say this is really the whole of Scripture, that God has given

us the entirety of the Bible, and He's handed it to us and said, "Here it is.

This is the grace of God.

Stand firm in it."

What does standing firm look like for us?

Well, it's gonna be our first point this morning, it's gonna be this; read the

Bible, believe the Bible, obey the Bible.

Read the Bible, believe the Bible, obey the Bible.

As Peter's writing to them saying, "This is the grace of God, stand

firm in it," what he's wanting them to do is read 1 Peter, believe what

I've written to you, and then obey.

Read it, believe it, and obey it.

To stand firm, this is a, a common admonition in the scriptures.

1 Corinthians 16:13 says this, "Be watchful, stand firm in the

1 Corinthians 16:13

faith, act like men, be strong."

2 Corinthians 1:24, "Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work

2 Corinthians 1:24

together with you for your joy, for you to stand firm in your faith."

Is to be immovable.

Uh, back in eighth grade, I, I tried to play football before I realized

that genetics just didn't do that for me . And, uh, for whatever

reason, my coaches were like, "Yeah, sure, why don't you be our center?"

If you're not familiar with, with football, a center

is on the offensive line.

If you're not familiar with the offensive line, offensive

linemen are bigger than I am.

Okay?

And maybe you're thinking to yourself, "Well, maybe he was kinda...

Maybe he was bigger in eighth grade and he just slimmed down as he grew up."

Nope, I wasn't.

Uh, my coaches used to encourage me by telling me, "Berner, the, the center's

usually the smallest guy on the field."

Check.

Got that, Coach.

I'm good to go.

I was the center.

A- and, and there were some times that these guys would line up across

from me that I'm convinced their parents just bred them for football.

They were enormous, and I was sitting there as the center going,

"There's no way I'm gonna stand firm when this ball is snapped.

My quarterback is toast because that guy is huge."

If we're gonna stand firm as Christians, we have an opponent that's gonna

line up on the other side of us.

We talked about that recently.

Spiritual warfare, right?

And not just spiritual warfare, but spiritual warfare even as it

manifests itself through opposition from earthly people as well.

And that may be somebody at your work, that may be somebody at your dining

room table, that may be your spouse, that may be your neighbors, that may

be coworkers, that may be politicians.

But if we need to stand firm in the grace of God, what's implied is that there's

going to be opposition to it, right?

That we're going to have to take our stance and make sure that no

matter what comes our way, we're not gonna be knocked off kilter.

If you wanna stand firm in the grace of God, it's found by reading the Word,

believing the Word, and obeying the Word.

Think about all the things that, that Peter has called us to in this book.

I've, I've listed some of them before, but just again, it's good for us to

be reminded as we wrap this book up that you've been, by the grace of

God, born again to a living hope.

You've been, by the grace of God, guarded through His power for a salvation

ready to be revealed in the last times.

You've been, by the grace of God, established to fight the passions

of your former way of life.

By the grace of God, you've been called to strive for holiness.

By the grace of God, you've been called to love one another earnestly.

By the grace of God, you've been born again through His living and abiding Word.

By the grace of God, you can long for the word so that you

may grow up into salvation.

By the grace of God, you are being built up to serve the Lord as a spiritual house.

By the grace of God, you have been, been made a people for his own possession.

By the grace of God, you can abstain from the passions which

wage war against your souls.

By the grace of God, you can be subject to the authorities that God has placed over

your life, both the just and the unjust.

By the grace of God, you can be united as a body of believers.

By the grace of God, you can bless in the face of persecution.

By the grace of God, you can be ready at all times to make a defense

for the hope that is within you.

By the grace of God, you can be prepared to suffer like Jesus suffered.

By the grace of God, you can live differently from the lost around you,

such that they're surprised when you don't join in the same things that they do.

By the grace of God, you can live ready for the return of Christ.

By the grace of God, you can serve the church.

By the grace of God, you can expect the fiery trial and

even rejoice when it appears.

By the grace of God, you can submit to faithful pastors who shepherd your souls.

By the grace of God, you can clothe yourself with

humility towards one another.

By the grace of God, you can resist the devil who prowls

around like a roaring lion.

And by the grace of God, you can endure because he's going to restore you, confirm

you, strengthen you and establish you.

Peter says, "This is the grace of God."

And that's so encouraging this morning because Peter doesn't write all of these

things to you, and, and, and some of that is what's happening to you, and some of

that's what you're being called to do.

And so Peter doesn't write all of these things to you and say, "Hey,

those things that you're being called to do, pull yourself up by your

bootstraps and just get after it."

He says, "Stand firm in the grace of God."

See, now that you are in Christ, in other words, now that you have been saved, now

that you've been brought from death to life, now that you've been born again

and you have new life within you, now you can stand firm in these things.

Now you can resist the enemy.

Now you can endure and persevere and not fall away.

You can stay the course.

Why?

Because of God who's at work within you.

This is the grace of God.

Stand firm in it.

Read the Word, believe the Word, obey the Word.

This is, is, is our, our playbook.

God is, is in the Word of God revealing himself.

He's revealing what he's doing.

He's revealing more about you and me, and he's calling us to, to live

in accordance with what pleases him.

And so if we wanna stand firm in the grace of God, we go to the Word of God,

we read the Word of God, we believe the Word of God, and we obey the Word of God.

And all of that is possible because of the grace of God that's at

work within us, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

And so we go to the scriptures.

If we, if we want First Peter to matter, one of the, the key takeaways should be,

man, we need to be men and women of the book We need to go to the word of God.

We need to take it seriously.

We need to read it, we need to believe it, we need to obey it.

Part and parcel with that is, is we need to major in the majors.

We need to major in the majors.

Uh, uh, uh, we live in a world with conspiracies and myths and, and

speculations abounding everywhere.

A- and social media m- has made it possible that you can in, in 10 minutes

on your phone scroll through more false teaching than a person in ages before

would encounter an entire lifetime.

Be discerning.

Be good Bereans.

Take the teaching that you encounter out there to the word of God.

Does it line up?

Does it measure up?

Also, does it matter?

Does...

I- is, is this...

What is this change?

Recently, there was this conspiracy that, that was, that just came out even

just within the last week, that, that somehow there was this cabal of, of

secret pastors that were meeting with government officials, and they were

about to tell them, "Hey, guess what?

We're gonna let you know aliens are real, and they invented Christianity,

and they probably created you too, and this is gonna destroy the church."

A- and people were on social media just panicking and buying into this and going,

"Who was there, and who wasn't there?"

Listen, if there was one, I wasn't invited, okay?

Um, but, but what utter nonsense.

And, and, and even the, the, the release of all the UFO files, which I know

we've got different opinions on this in the room, so I'll tread carefully.

Whether aliens exist or not, what's the mission of the church?

What's your job, Christian?

To grow in Christ-likeness.

The existence of UFOs, aliens, or anything else doesn't do any d- anything

to change what God's calling you to do.

And yet we can care so much more about that than we do about

standing firm in the grace of God.

W- we spend so much more energy debating about whether or not these

UFOs are real or demonic or anything else, a- and we're not talking about,

"Hey, let's go to the scriptures.

How am I applying God's Word in my life right now?

What am I doing with this what I know to be true?"

Paul wrote this to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 1.

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

He said, "As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at

Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different

doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which

promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith."

Listen, y'all, I, I, I know that not every conspiracy theory is a theory.

I, I, I trust that.

But I also know that we as a church have become far more obsessed with conspiracy

theories than being on mission for Jesus.

A- and, and yeah, I probably am far too dismissive of some of these things.

If you wanna talk to somebody about it, it, it...

I'll talk to you.

Uh, you're just not gonna like my, my response I, and I'm not just

saying let's be sheep and just blindly follow and trust that our

leaders are all men of in-integrity.

I'm saying let's just be on mission.

Let's stand firm in the things that we know that God has revealed.

Let's major in the majors.

Vote, yeah, go do those things.

Be politically involved and do the part, the, the, the job that God has given

you, but don't lose sleep over whether or not there's aliens in the world.

Don't lose sleep over whether or not COVID-19 was manufactured

in some government lab.

Don't lose sleep over the hantavirus and what that's gonna do.

Let's...

Come on, the enemy wants us distracted that way.

When Peter says, "This is the grace of God," stand firm in this.

This is it right here.

Look, y'all, we got plenty of homework right here to last

us the rest of our lives.

L-let's, let's major on the majors.

Let's read the Word, believe the Word, obey the Word.

And let's be so busy about doing this that all the world and all the

conspiracy nonsense that, that's going on out there is gonna stop now

and say, "What is the church doing?

They're turning the world upside down."

This is the grace of God.

Stand firm in it.

If you want First Peter to count, one of the key takeaways for us

is saying, "Man, I, I want to be in the Word, I want to believe the

Word, and I want to obey the Word."

There's security there.

There's safety there.

As Peter's writing to these exiles, with all the uncertainty, he

says, "You know what's certain?

God's Word.

You wanna, you wanna endure?

Be in the Word.

Long for it that you may grow up into salvation."

Right?

Read the Bible, believe the Bible, obey the Bible.

He continues, though, in his farewell here.

He says, "She who is at Babylon sends you greetings, who is likewise

chosen, and so does Mark, my son.

She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you

greetings, and so does Mark, my son."

There's been debate and speculation over who this she is, and some have

suggested, well, this is Peter's wife.

Um, but probably unlikely that those that Peter's writing to in all of these

areas would have known Peter's wife or that this is a reference to Peter's wife.

So that, that seems not to be the case.

Others have suggested that this is some unknown individual

in, in the church there.

Again, unlikely that an unknown individual, single woman, would have

been known by all of these different believers that, that Peter's writing to.

Also, he singles out Mark by name here.

So if this was a known individual, I would imagine that he would have s-

called her by her name in this context.

And so there's another option, and that is that Peter's referring to the church.

And referring to the church as she.

Now, John, in his epistles, writes about the elect lady and refers to

the church in those terms as well.

We refer to the church as the bride of Christ.

And so to attach the feminine pronoun to the churches is something that

fits with the context of what we should expect here, even from Peter.

And so Peter says the one, the, the, the church, she who is at Babylon, who is

likewise chosen, sends you greetings.

And so Peter's referring to the church who is at Babylon.

And again, peop- people have said, "Well, was Peter in Babylon?"

No, we believe that Peter was writing from Rome at this time.

So Peter's writing from Rome, he refers to the Roman church there as the church

in Babylon, probably as a reminder of the persecution that was being risen

against the church, but also about their identity as exiles and strangers.

If you go back to the Old Testament, Babylon was the place where God's

people, the southern kingdom of Judah, were taken into captivity.

They were in exile there.

So Peter's saying the church here in Babylon, the church

from Rome sends you greetings.

And then he says, "So does Marc, my son."

Who is Marc?

This is probably John Marc.

Again, the same one, just like Silas was on the missionary journey

with Paul, John Marc was also on the missionary journey with Paul.

And you remember Paul and John Marc had a, a falling out.

Why?

Because Marc left early on the first missionary journey, and Paul didn't

like that, and so Paul didn't take him along, but later on they reconciled.

Well, Marc and, and Peter had a connection here, and they knew each other so much

so that the early church testifies, including Polycarp, that Marc wrote the

Gospel of Marc based on Peter's account.

And so Marc and Peter were, were close friends.

In fact, Peter even refers to him as my son.

There's question of whether or not Peter had a role in Marc's eventual

conversion, or at least Peter was a, a spiritual mentor to Marc, that Marc

looked up to Peter and considered him a, a father in the faith.

And so Marc is here, and he says, even Marc, Marc sends you greetings as well.

And then he says of the church, those who are, are likewise chosen.

Marc in the church.

Peter's reminding his readers one more time in this letter here that they're

not alone, that they're not alone.

We talked about this earlier, that we're not alone because God has

given us His Spirit, and the Spirit is with us even as we suffer.

But what he's referring to here and what he's reminding them here is they're not

alone, even just as they look around at, at, at those that are in this world.

They're not by themselves.

You remember El- Elijah had that complex where he thought, "I alone am, am here.

I'm the only righteous one left, God."

And God's like, "Well, actually you're not.

I've got others."

And, and Peter's reminding the churches that are suffering, that are in exile,

who, who didn't have social media to be able to connect with the other believers

that were in Rome or in, you know, other regions, in Colossae and Ephesus.

He's reminding them, "You're, you're not alone."

And I think that's one of the reasons why he says, "The church

here, we send you our greetings.

Those that are, who are likewise chosen, those that are fellow believers

with you, we send you greetings."

He's reminding them that they're part of something that's much bigger

than just themselves, and we are too.

As we stand firm as the church, as we stand firm in the grace of

God, as the Spirit empowers us, we are not alone in this either.

I think that's one of the other impacts that First Peter should have on us, that

as we are on mission as the church, we are on mission not just siloed here,

but that we as we endure, as we press on, as we suffer, we are on mission

with the entirety of the Church, big C.

We have other faithful brothers and sisters in Christ that are all over,

including in our region here, who are meeting together this morning,

preaching the gospel, preaching the word this morning, and we are not

alone, and we are called, I think, to take our stand alongside them.

So our second point this morning is this: feel small, feel part, feel responsible.

This is a nine-point sermon, by the way.

I have three imperatives on all of my points.

I cheated.

Feel small, feel part, and feel responsible.

One of my old pastors used to tell me all the time that the kingdom of God

is broader than I'm comfortable with.

Broader than I'm comfortable with.

Somebody asked me the question the other day, uh, "Hey, Pastor BJ, what would

you say is the percentage of believers, actual believers in the United States?

How many people out of our population would you say are actually saved?"

My number was, was far higher than some of the others out there.

But I'll tell you why.

I'm not gonna give you my number either, so, um, the reason is, is

because my default is to be too narrow-minded when it comes to that.

My default is to think, "Well, I've got the right doctrine, I've got the

right theology, I've got the right way to do things," and my tendency and my

temptation can be to take secondary and tertiary issues that are not gospel

issues and elevate them to become matters of, of a test of whether or not

somebody is truly a faithful church.

A-and what God has taught me slowly over the, the course of time and

continues to teach me i-is that the, the kingdom o-of God is broader

than what I'm comfortable with.

Sometimes I, I tell people I think when I die and get to heaven, there's

gonna be a room that I'm gonna go into, and God's gonna have this, this,

like, movie that's gonna play of, like, here's everything that you got wrong

I hope it's not too long.

But, but I realize that in my finitude, there are things that,

that I, I, I believe, but I have to believe with an open hand.

There are things as Christians that we have to believe with a closed fist.

The inerrancy and authority of the Word of God, the exclusivity of Christ,

that Jesus alone is Savior, that God is Father, Son, Holy Spirit, the equality

of the members of the Trinity, right?

Those are elements that are un-- We, we, we cannot waver on those.

We have to stand firm on those things.

But there are other things that we believe That we have to hold with open

hands and realize that these are not causes for us to divide fellowship with

other faithful Christians in this world.

And so as we sit here this morning, sometimes it's, it's fun to zoom out and

think about the churches around the world.

Uh, like I'm, I'm jealous of some of the churches where n- they're already

napping at home on the couch 'cause it's Sunday afternoon wherever they are.

But they were here this morning, wherever that was for them, and they were preaching

the word, and they were faithful.

It may look radically different than what we're doing here, but as long as

the gospel is preached and the word of God is exalted and, and the word

of God is held as authoritative, then we can say, "Man, we're, we're gonna

rejoice that we're a part of that."

That's what I mean by feel small.

A- as we think about this and, and Peter saying, "Hey, the church at Rome sends

you greetings," they may have known...

Some of these people may have known a few people at the church of Rome, but

they wouldn't have known the majority of them, and so they're reminded,

"Oh yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm pretty small in the big picture of things."

I mean, we think about churches in our area and realize, man, God is

building His church in North Texas.

There are faithful churches like Lighthouse Church right down the road, or

like The Trails Church, or like Providence Church, or like Trinity Bible Church,

just to name a, a few that are faithfully preaching the word of God this morning.

And I'm, I'm thankful for that.

I wanna feel small to remember that, man, God is doing something so much bigger than

what He's doing inside these four walls.

I'm thankful for what He's doing inside these four walls, but this isn't it.

Thinking about the other faithful churches in this area shouldn't

spur a, a, a feeling of competition in our hearts, but as a gratitude.

It should be life-giving.

It should brea- breathe life into our sails to say, "Man, we've got other

brothers and sisters in Christ that are pushing the ball forward along with us."

Listen to Paul from Philippians 1:27.

Philippians 1:27

He says this: "Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ,

so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you

are," here's our word, "standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side

by side for the faith of the gospel."

That's what I hope that we're doing right now, y'all, is striving side

by side with other churches for the faith of the gospel, that we

are standing firm in one spirit.

We may do things differently.

The way we set up our structure of leadership in the church,

that may be different.

The way we observe communion, that may be different.

The way we dress, that may be different.

The style of music that we have, that may be different.

But that doesn't mean it's disparate, meaning it doesn't

mean that it's at, at odds.

It doesn't mean that we have to divide fellowship and say, "Well,

you're not Christians because you don't do things this way."

Instead, we should say, "Man, let's praise God.

Hey, y- y- y- Methodists over here, I want you to, to be the best Methodist church

that you possibly can be to reach as many people for Christ as you possibly can be.

Share the gospel.

Hey, Episcopalians over here, be faithful to the word of God and

go reach more people for Christ.

Presbyterians, hey, go reach more people for Christ, and get them saved, and then

send them here, and we'll baptize them."

Some of you driving home are gonna be like, "What did he mean by that?"

Nothing worth me repeating.

In other words, y'all, we've been called to join the ranks of other

faithful churches to get the gospel out there, and there are other faithful

churches doing that this morning.

So feel small.

Feel small.

Pray for them, right?

That's one way that we can do this, one way that we can say, "Okay,

how do I, how do I feel small?

What should my response be?"

Man, pray for those other churches.

Pray for God to raise up more faithful churches in our area that would

be doing the work of the ministry.

Pray for the churches that are in our area to, to grow through con- conversions.

We wanna see people, lost people saved.

There's plenty of people in our area that need the gospel, right?

There's plenty of, of unbelievers to go around.

And so pray for conversion.

Pray for growth.

Pray for other churches in our area to be kept from division.

Pray that none of them would split.

Pray for their pastors to be kept from moral failure.

Pray for their marriages to be restored in the church and, and sin

put off through their counseling ministries that are taking place there.

Pray for fruitfulness, in other words, from these churches, that

they would be faithful to the Word.

So we need to feel small, but we also need to feel part of it as a church, and so

we need to be doing our part as a church.

I wanna know that Pastor Jason over at Lighthouse is preaching

God's Word faithfully this morning.

I wanna know that, that Pastor Matt up at Trails Church is encouraging his

flock to be on mission this morning.

I wanna know that the, the, the people over at Providence Church are,

are leaving the church this morning ready to go out and be ambassadors

for Christ tomorrow morning when they get into their, their workplaces.

And guess what, y'all?

They wanna know the same things about us.

And so we need to, as a church, feel a part of what God is doing in this area.

We're not here to be a holy huddle and just kinda hang out

together and, and turn inwardly.

We're here to be on mission with them.

Hebrews 12:1, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud

Hebrews 12:1

of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings

so closely and run the endurance...

with endurance the race that's set before us."

Those witnesses are not spectators.

They are exhorters.

They're the ones that have finished the race ahead of us that are saying, "Go.

Keep going.

Run to Jesus.

Go get, get after it."

It's, it's like Little League baseball, which we've been watching

a lot of in my house recently.

It, it...

With, with Little League baseball, there's always the kid on the team

that just does not want to be there.

He is just defeated by the fact that he is playing baseball.

He's walking up to the plate.

He's kinda dragging his bat behind him, even with walk-up

music nowadays that they have.

You know, he's, he's not gonna s- He...

You couldn't pay him enough money to get him to take the bat off of his shoulder

and even to think about swinging it.

It's not gonna happen.

The coach is gonna put him out in the, the field.

Ball's gonna be hit at him.

He's gonna watch it roll by and look around.

Doesn't matter as the crowd how hard you're cheering for him,

ain't gonna change anything You can be, "Yes, Timmy, let's go.

Hit the ball.

Good eye, Timmy.

Way to take a walk."

Timmy i- is not gonna be motivated by your encouragement.

Y'all, the writer of Hebrews is telling us we've got a crowd that's encouraging

us and saying, "Hey, church, get after it.

Hey, church, swing the bat.

Hey, church, that ball's coming to you.

Are you ready for it?"

And that crowd expects us to respond.

They're exhorting us to run after Jesus, and so we need

to play our part as a church.

Are we doing that?

I've, I've talked about in this series the, the analogy of the

cruise ship or the battleship, right?

We are not here as a cruise ship.

We're here as a battleship, and we are a battleship that's one

of a fleet that God has deployed in this world to do His mission.

Uh, can you imagine right now in Iran if, if one of the battleships

that's there with the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz just decided to be

like, "You know what we're gonna do?

We're gonna go become a cruise ship now," and they just start

turning around and they sail away.

What are you doing?

Where are you going?

There's work to be done.

We depend on you.

You have to be here.

This is your job.

This is your mission.

We as a church can't be the church that's turning from a

battleship into a cruise ship.

We've got to be still on mission.

We've gotta feel small.

We've gotta feel part, and that means you have to feel responsible.

You have to feel responsible.

Uh, this church was getting ready to face some of the most intense

persecution that the, the church really universally has ever known.

Nero was gonna come to the throne if he wasn't already

there, and you know Nero's story.

He burned down Rome and blamed Christians and ended up burning Christians in his

garden parties on torches dipped in tar.

You have another guy named Severus who was gonna come a little bit

later on who outlawed baptism, uh, and killed many Christians

during his reign for their faith.

You have a guy named D- Decius who sanctioned the persecution of

Christians on a, a, an official scale, empire-wide scale.

Also required all Roman citizens to have to offer sacrifices to the

emperor and to their gods, and if they didn't, then they would die.

So again, persecution to Christians.

You had a guy named Valerian.

Valerian stepped up, and he sent the bishops into exile and forbade Christian

assemblies from gathering together.

And then you had a guy named Diocletian.

Diocletian came to the throne.

He ordered the destruction of churches and the burning of the scriptures and

the martyrdom of the Christians who refused to comply with pagan practices.

So persecution was about to be more than it's ever been for this

group and those that followed.

You and I face more of an uphill battle because right now we're not facing

any persecution, and so we have the luxury of throwing stones at other

churches because their doctrine's a little bit different than ours.

We have the luxury of comparing congregational sizes and being like,

"Well, how big is your church?"

"Well, this is my church.

We've got two services."

We have the luxury of elevating tier two and tier three issues

to be divisive in the church.

But what if we don't for much longer?

Have you pondered that?

Have you wondered that?

Have you thought about that?

What if Nero is lurking in the shadows of our time?

Just this last week, I got a text from somebody who took a video.

There were a group of, I, I wanna say probably twenty to thirty Muslims over

here at Frontier Park in Prosper, and they were all there, they had their prayer mats

out, and they were doing their prayer to Mecca in the park right at, at Frontier.

And they're there, and they're bowing down over and over again to their false god.

I haven't seen them do that before, but i-i-it seems that

aggression is increasing.

I-if you haven't noticed, th-there, there's a lot of

Muslims and Hindus in our area.

And i-if you look around the world at Muslim and Hindu nations, ask

yourself how Christians are treated and received in those nations.

And so this is what I mean by, by feel responsible.

I, I'll admit, when I, when I first saw them b-doing the, the bowing

down, it, it, it made me angry.

It made me angry.

But then I was, I was actually challenged by my good friend

and my co-pastor, Pastor Rod.

He said, "Rather than being angry, what it should do to us

is it sh-it should motivate us."

That's the right response.

And the motivation shouldn't be, "Let me go to City Hall and, and,

and, you know, raise a stink in City Hall about how this is taking place."

The motivation should be, "Let's get on mission as the church," and that means

you and me taking the responsibility to do what we're being called to do.

I-I-he says, "The church in Babylon, she who is at Babylon likewise,

who likewise is chosen sends you greetings, and so does my son Mark."

That encouragement to say, "Hey, we're on mission here.

We want you to be on mission there."

And we've got other churches that would feel the same thing about us, but we've

also, again, got this cloud of witnesses that wants to see us do our part.

And so yes, that's corporate, but it's also you individually making

sure that you're doing your part.

Doctrine matters to a church, but so does mission.

And if we want this study of First Peter, these thirty weeks in First

Peter to matter, one of the things that it should do is sh-should cause us to

say, "We're here to reach the lost.

We're here to reach those thirty Muslims that were bowing down

and praying towards Mecca.

We're here to tell them, 'Man, you are chasing a false god.

You are chasing a god that can't save you.

You are chasing a hopeless religion.

But I have hope for you in Jesus Christ.'"

Not to hate them.

Our battle is not against flesh and blood.

Our battle is against the spiritual forces that are at work in this present age.

If you see that and you hate them, then there's something wrong with your heart

You need to love them because they're lost.

We sing the song, let us r- not rage against the captive soul, but to rage

against the captor, and that's what we get to do, and we're on the winning team.

We have the message that overcomes.

We have the true message of hope.

We have the message that saves.

And so we as a church can be on mission.

If you want First Peter to count, feel small, feel part, feel responsible.

Then finally he goes on, he says this, "Greet one another with a kiss of love.

Peace to all of you who are in Christ."

Greet one another with a kiss of love.

Don't worry, we're not about to announce a new segment of our worship service.

Amen.

I got an amen on that one.

But it's interesting 'cause this is, is common.

Paul says in First Corinthians 16, "Greet one another with a holy kiss."

It's a warm greeting.

If you go to the Middle East or Europe, they still do things like this over there.

We don't do it.

A- a- and yet before we run too quickly to just say, "Well, it, it's because

of the cultural differences here," yes, and I would say also amen, but I think

it would do well for us as the church to ask ourselves the question, have we

thrown the baby out with the bathwater?

What was Peter wanting them to do?

'Cause I don't think it was about the kiss.

I think it was about the love.

A- and that's been another common theme in First Peter.

And so as, as Peter's bringing this to a close, he's been exhorting us,

"Hey, stand firm in the grace of God.

Y- you need to know this, you need to believe it, you need to do it."

And then he's been th- telling us, "Hey, you've, you're one of, of many.

The church in, in here in Babylon, we send our greetings to you."

In other words, "Hey, feel small, feel part, feel responsible.

Do join us."

And then he finally says, "And, and also, you need to love each other."

And this has been a repeated theme in the, in the epistle.

He's, uh, hit this in chapter two, he's hit it in chapter four, and he's back on

it here again with loving one another.

And so if you want First Peter to count, these 30 weeks to count, one of the ways

that you can do that is thinking about the way that you love the people in this room.

Our third and final point this morning is this: love more,

love different, love on purpose.

Love more, love different, love on purpose.

I- if persecution does come, see, w- we're gonna need each other.

We're gonna need the people in this room.

For many of us in this room, we've grown up believing that

America is a Christian nation.

A- a- and, and really what that did is it produced in us a view of church

that, that made church something that we don't feel like we really need.

We grew up where church fits into my life as it's convenient for me

because there w- wasn't really a threat.

After all, to be American really was to be Christian And so I don't

really need to worry about it.

We grew up in the megachurch area.

We're going to church meant the multimillion-dollar facility and the

climate-controlled area and the worship band that sounds phenomenal and the pastor

that wasn't going to step on my toes.

And then I could leave and go to the fancy, nice brand-new strip mall and

sit down and have brunch with my family and then go home and get back to the

rest of my life that really matters.

And it's that that we're still trying to shake.

It's no wonder that we struggle and we don't have a category for what

Peter is saying here when he says, greet one another with a kiss of love.

If persecution truly comes, you're going to need me and I'm going to need you.

And we have to have a relationship upon which to build that trust

and that love with each other.

What does this have to do with kissing each other?

I came across an article this week that was on this very subject and he said this.

He said, many commentators are quick to say this is a simple handshake now.

That that's the equivalent.

It's a handshake.

And that's the same thing in our context.

But this writer said, and I think he's right, he said,

this is not the case at all.

A matter of fact, arm's length handshake just doesn't cover what Paul wanted

to see happening in the church.

The whole idea here was to greet one another in a way that displays more

intimacy and affection than what you would do, for instance, merely in the workplace

as you're introduced to a new colleague.

In other words, there should be a closeness, a sincere love

and acceptance of each other.

Can you imagine coming home from work and seeing your spouse and

just giving her a handshake?

Oh, it's good to see you.

How was your day?

How was the weather today?

How are the kids?

Great.

I'll see you tomorrow at the same time.

I know that's a little bit of a misapplied illustration because the intimacy of

a husband and wife, and I get that.

But we're way away from what that is right now, y'all, with where we're at.

And maybe you've got your objections.

Well, I have my own group of Christians that aren't part of

this church that I'm close with.

Okay.

Is that what Jesus died for?

When you read the New Testament, can you honestly in your integrity say that

what the design is is for you not to have close relationships in the local

church here because you've got your offshoot Bible study that's over here?

Can you really say that that's what God's design is?

Is that what we see in the New Testament?

Maybe you would say, well, I'm just not an affectionate person.

Okay, fair.

But how do you show affection?

Do you have some way that you show affection to other people?

You can do that here.

Maybe you'd say, I'm socially awkward.

It's okay.

We all are.

Just some of us are a little less aware of our social awkwardness than others.

And believe the best about your brothers and sisters if that's you to know that

they're willing to push through the awkward for you because they love you.

They love you.

Maybe you would say, "Well, I'm not drawn to anyone here."

Okay, that's a you problem more than it is a them problem.

That's about you going to work on your heart.

Maybe you'd say, "Well, I don't have time in my schedule to

build into relationships here."

Rearrange your schedule.

Jesus didn't die for your kids' extracurricular activities.

He died for this place.

Jesus didn't die for you to be involved in the HOA or on the board

of this company or that company.

If it's pulling you away from the church, it's not honoring to Christ.

Maybe you'd say, "Well, I've been hurt by churches in the past."

Yes, we all have, and there are no perfect churches, and yet that's why Peter says

love covers a multitude of offenses.

And maybe you would say, finally, "I, I live too far away to be meaningf-

meaningfully involved here with anyone."

Okay.

Maybe you sell your house and move closer to the church.

Or maybe you count the cost and say, "I'm willing to drive because

this is what God wants me to do.

He wants me to build relationships that matter in this place."

Or maybe, and this is hard for me to say, but maybe there's a church body

closer to where you live that you need to go get involved with because

then you can love people the way that God's calling you to love people.

The point is, this place is family, and it should feel like that.

Coming to church should in some ways be like walking into the living room

at your grandparents' house and seeing your aunts and uncles and cousins and,

and, and people like that, and your heart just goes to them because you

love them, because they're family.

What does this look like practically?

We were at a, a conference recently that talked about having the 10-foot rule,

and I like it, and so I'm gonna embrace it, and I'm gonna challenge you for it.

The 10-foot rule says this.

The 10-foot rule says anyone within a 10-foot radius of you while

you're at church, that's somebody that you need to go talk to.

You need to go greet them warmly.

Get to know them.

I don't know that person.

Great.

Go get to know them.

They're within your 10-foot radius.

This is gonna be like COVID.

You guys are gonna be keeping like 12 feet away from each other right now.

Like, how far is 10?

I'm gonna go 11.

But, but here's the thing, y'all.

This is such a unique time from the rest of, of your, your week.

You have people here that you can talk about spiritual things with.

You have people here that will pray for you.

You have people here that you can talk about what God's doing in

your life, and they're not gonna look at you like you're a freak.

Why do you wanna rush out?

Spend some time.

Linger.

Hang out here.

That's why we do the donuts.

We don't do the donuts because we're trying to support the local donut shop.

We do the donuts to be the, the glue trap because we want you to stick around.

We want you to talk with people.

Don't treat that hallway like a hallway.

Treat it like a living room.

Spend some time.

Linger.

For some of y'all, that means show up earlier.

Be here earlier.

We would love for this room to be filled a little bit earlier for our, our services.

It, it, it would encourage our worship team too.

But hey, show up earlier a- and spend some more time with people when you get here.

This place, in other words, is supposed to be different.

Love more.

Love different.

Love on purpose.

Be intentional about it.

30 Sundays in 1 Peter, seven and a half months

How do you make sure that this study's been worth it?

It has to do with your conviction.

Do you believe the word?

Are you going to obey the word?

It has to do with your humility.

Do you realize, man, I'm small, but I'm part and I'm responsible?

It has to do with your love.

Are you going to love one another the way that you're

being called to love each other?

Let me pray.

Lord, thanks for this book and this study and for your faithfulness to

bring us through these 30 weeks.

And in this book, we pray that you would take it and apply it to our lives.

Lord, we don't want to waste this.

We don't want it just to be another exercise and saying, well, yeah,

my pastor preached on that book and I remember that and now it's done

and I can move on to what's next.

We want it to matter.

We want it to linger.

We want it to marinate in our lives such that we're different because of

our time in 1 Peter than we were before.

So help us to do these things, Lord, to be convicted, to be humble, and

to be loving one another until you return and call us home to be with you.

And so we thank you for this in Jesus' name.

Amen.