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Please remain standing my friends for the reading of God’s Word and this evening we finish
our our study of 1st Peter as we consider this evening 1st Peter chapter
5 verses 12 through 14 you’ll find that on page 1206 in the back of your pew
Bible your friends let us hear with reverence and awe the word of our God
Peter writes by sylvanus 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 she who is at Babylon who is likewise chosen sends you greetings and
so does mark my son greet one another with the kiss of love peace to all of
you who are in Christ the grass withers the flower fades the word of our God
endures forever let’s seek the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of his word
well Heavenly Father we do thank you that you have granted unto us peace in
union with Christ our Savior we pray Lord that we might know your peace in a
deepened experiential way we pray Lord that we might experience your peace and
presence as we consider this portion of your word we ask that your spirit would
open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your word we ask
Lord that you would enable us to hear and receive that which the Spirit is
speaking to us in this portion of your word this evening and once again Lord
please set a guard over my lips that I your unworthy servant may only speak that
which is faithful in your sight and in accord with your word in Jesus name we
pray and all of God’s people said you may be seated title my sermon this
evening is Christian greetings this is part two and the young people can listen
for five key words the words Babylon Rome elect love and peace well dear
friends on the last Lord’s Day evening we began to consider the closing section
of this marvelous portion of God’s word which is known to us today as first
Peter this closing section of Christian greetings ends on a note of peace just
as this letter had begun on a note of peace and at the end of the the closing
benediction at the end of chapter 5 Peter writes peace to all of you who are
in Christ and that is a bookend because if you go back to chapter 1 and notice
the opening benediction Peter opens his letter in chapter 1 verse 2 with this
benediction he says may grace and peace be multiplied to you and friends this
divine peace is grounded in what Peter describes in verse 12 as the true grace
of God see it is because God has been gracious to us believers in Christ that
we enjoy both peace with God and also at least in principle peace with one
another as fellow members of God’s forever family now on the last Lord’s
Day evening we focused on this man whom Peter greets or mentions here sylvanus
and we focused on sylvanus as an example of a faithful brother that is to say a
brother in Christ who is characterized by dependability reliability a man who
kept his word and fulfilled his obligations such a faithful brother
mirrors our Savior the Son of God incarnate who himself was perfectly
faithful in fulfilling his mission of saving his people from their sins that’s
why his name is Jesus Yeshua the Lord is salvation because he would save his
people from their sins and again this evening we continue our consideration of
this passage as we finish up our time in first Peter as we consider Peter’s
testimony to this true grace of God and as we turn our attention to verse 13 we
focused on verse 12 last Lord’s Day evening Peter mentions some greetings
that were being passed along to the recipients of this letter this epistle
in verse 13 he says she who is at Babylon who is likewise chosen sends you
greetings and so does mark my son and then he goes on to say greet one another
with the kiss of love and so forth I want us first of all to observe that
God’s elect can be found in some of the most unusual places for Peter says she
who is in at Babylon who is likewise chosen sends you greetings who is this
she who is at Babylon that Peter mentions here well some have suggested
that this is Peter’s wife who may have been with him in Rome as he wrote this
epistle but most Bible commentators agree that Peter is using this phrase to
refer to the church in Rome in other words Babylon is a symbolic way of
referring to Rome and why does Peter use Babylon as a symbolic way of describing
or identifying the city of Rome well one Bible commentator Norman Hillier points
out that the pronoun she almost certainly refers to a church it’s a
feminine noun in the Greek and not to an individual especially as the
subsequent phrase chosen together with you more appropriately relates to a
community of believers parallel to those to whom the letter is addressed
Babylon means Rome although the name is not used as in the book of Revelation as
a coded form term intended to conceal the writers whereabouts Peter’s motive
in using Babylon to mean Rome is homiletic in other words it has it has
a sermonic purpose to it an exhortational purpose to it Babylon in
the Old Testament was notorious as the place of exile now all Christians whether
Jewish or Gentile are as it were exiles so far as the world in which they live
is concerned as Peter pointed out in his opening greeting and also later on in
chapter 2 verse 11 so friends in Peter’s day Rome was a wicked idolatrous and
godless city Peter probably wrote this epistle from Rome sometime between 80 62
and 69 and if this is the case then he would have had the opportunity to
observe firsthand the spiritual depravity and the paganism that
characterized the city of Rome in his day Rome’s depravity and paganism and
oppression of God’s people resembled that of the ancient enemy of God’s people
the ancient city of Babylon so on a spiritual level spiritually speaking
Rome was a spiritual Babylon and therefore it shouldn’t surprise us if
Peter chooses to use Babylon as a symbolic name for the city of Rome but
the point here is that even in this spiritual Babylon even in this capital
of the Roman Empire the great city of Rome known for its cruelty known for its
depravity known for its idolatry even in Rome God in sovereign grace had called
a people to faith in his son through the spread of the gospel even in the most
unlikeliest of places God has a people that he takes for his himself for his
name now what is the point of all of this well think about it again even the
ancient city of Rome which was a spiritual Babylon which was Satan’s
backyard if you will God had some of his elect ones residing within it God has a
people even in the city of Rome our sovereign God takes a people for
himself even from some of the most wicked environments and this should
encourage us as a church in our evangelistic and missionary labors
because we know that that our missionary labors will be successful God will not
cause his word to return void it will accomplish all that which he ordains for
it to accomplish and he will take a people for his name dear ones if God
has his elect in some of the most wicked environments such as the spiritual
Babylon known as ancient Rome then certainly he has his elect ones here
even in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and Western Pennsylvania region of our of
our state and country beloved in Christ again this fact should give us great
boldness and great confidence as we confess Christ before others and it
should cause us not to despair even of the most lost and wretched and miserable
sinners for what are we saying amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved
what a good person like me no amazing grace how sweet the sound I know some
versions of it today change the change the wording to someone amazing grace how
sweet the sound that saved someone like me I like the original version because
it’s true to scripture amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like
me Christ came to save sinners remember Jesus said I came not to call the
righteous but sinners to repentance and my friends God does that even in
places like that spiritual Babylon known as ancient Rome remember that our Lord
Jesus again says that he came to call the righteous not the righteous rather
but sinners to repentance and so let us not be defeatist let us not be
unbelieving we serve an omnipotent father God and an almighty Savior his
victorious word goes forth and it will not return to him void so let us go
forth with his word and let us trust that our Heavenly Father will bring even
more of his people home into his kingdom even from the midst of the Babylon’s of
today so we see this noted here in our closing in this closing passage but next
we notice here in this passage how mutual Christian love is exhibited
mutual Christian love is exhibited here and it is exhibited in the greetings that
Peter conveys he says she who is at Babylon who is likewise chosen sends you
greetings and so does Mark my son greet one another with the kiss of love oh you
may say who is this mark my son now even though the New Testament makes it clear
that the Apostle Peter was a married man his mention of Mark my son is
probably not to be understood as a reference to Peter’s biological son
rather Peter is probably here referring to John Mark who according to the strong
tradition of the early church was the author of the gospel that bears his
name the gospel of Mark Peter probably refers to Mark as his son not because
Mark was his biological son but because Mark may have been converted under
Peter’s ministry and may have been discipled by the Apostle Peter this kind
of affectionate familial language is very common in the New Testament and in
the New Testament scriptures we read of fellow believers as brothers and sisters
in Christ as those who are children of God as those who belong to the forever
family of God and friends it helps to underscore this kind of language helps
to underscore the Christian love that the early Christians exhibited in the
church because of their union with Christ and because of the presence of
the Holy Spirit in their hearts and in their midst you’ve heard that that song
they will know we are Christians by our love and that is how we are to it’s one
of the ways that we are to confess Christ and one of the ways that we are
to to commend Christ to others is by the love that we show to one another and
one particular concrete way that Peter mentions that this love was exhibited or
displayed in the early Christian Church was through what was called the kiss of
love he says greet one another with the kiss of love now in reading this and
hearing me speak about this some of you may be getting a little nervous okay
what’s the pastor gonna say here is he gonna recommend that we that we start
kissing each other as an expression of Christian love well no friends I
appreciate what dr. I Howard Marshall says in his commentary about this
language here this reference to the kiss of love he says here is a good example
of where the cultural significance of a particular action must be taken into
account if for whatever reason kissing is inappropriate some other culturally
acceptable substitute should surely be adopted in its place but then he goes on
to say the danger is to do nothing keeping other Christians at arm’s
length in the Christian fellowship there ought to be a greater degree of mutual
love and care especially for single and lonely people than in society at large
and the church may well need to take the lead in showing love to such people and
in confirming and conveying it to them by suitable symbolic actions brothers
and sisters just as we are to be faithful just as we are to stand in
God’s true grace and just as we are to be confident in our confession of Christ
to others so too we are to demonstrate our love for our fellow believers as
spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ and we’re to do so in culturally
appropriate ways of course but also ways that are modest and so forth but ways
that genuinely convey our love for one another as brothers and sisters in the
body of Christ you know one of the things that I’ve truly appreciated
about Grace Church ever since I began serving here as your pastor is the
warmth and the Christian love that you’ve shown to me as your pastor I
really do appreciate that and I believe brothers and sisters that Grace Church
is a genuinely loving friendly and caring covenant community I praise God
for that and to the extent that we are we can we can give thanks to God for his
work of grace in our midst as a body of Christ after all without the amazing
saving grace that we have received through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
we would be cold as a coffin and as unloving as a Scrooge but my dear
friends in Christ there’s always a danger that we become complacent that we
become distant clickish or cold in the way that we relate to each other as
fellow Christians and therefore let us be on our guard and let us all the more
bask in the warmth of our Savior’s love for us that in union with him that love
might flow out to our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ and even
out into the lost and dying world that desperately needs to learn about the
love of our Lord Jesus Christ dear ones may God grant that love our Christian
love for one another abounds yet more and more may God grant that we be a
welcoming church where repentant sinners can experience the welcoming
embrace of our compassionate Savior and where the love of Jesus Christ beams
forth from our hearts as we welcome one another and as we welcome visitors and
newcomers the final thing I want to point to and it’s what I began my sermon
this evening mentioning consider finally that true peace is experienced only by
those who are in Christ true peace is experienced only by those who are in
Christ as Peter writes in the closing benediction peace to all of you who are
in Christ the Greek word for peace is the word
Irene in this closing prayer and apostolic benediction the Holy Spirit
through his inspired Apostle st. Peter pronounces peace this is not just a mere
wish on Peter’s part this is a declaration of God’s peace upon those
who are united to Christ by faith but notice that it doesn’t simply say Peter
doesn’t simply say peace to all of you and then leave it there no as if
everyone experiences peace with God regardless of their attitude toward
Jesus Christ or their relationship to him no that’s not how it works notice
that this verse qualifies this declaration of divine peace as being
only to those who are in Christ you see friends God’s Word declares that there
is no peace for the wicked there is no true lasting peace for those who are
outside of a saving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ now someone might
ask is Peter referring to the objective piece of our justification that peace by
which God in the courtroom of heaven declares us to be objectively righteous
in his sight not because we’re righteous in ourselves but because of the
righteousness of Christ that is credited to us and received as a gift by grace
alone through faith alone or is Peter here referring to our own subjective
inward sense of personal peace with God that subjective sense of peace that we
enjoy as we trust Christ as our Savior and which we enjoy at an experiential
level as we grow in the knowledge and in the love of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ through the process of progressive sanctification is he referring to the
objective piece of our justification or the subjective piece of our
sanctification well Peter doesn’t explicitly state whether he is speaking
about objective or subjective peace with God and friends it seems to me that that
the words of this apostolic benediction could apply to both senses of being at
peace with God but again whatever particular aspect of divine peace that
Peter had in mind as he penned these closing words the point is that it is a
peace that can only be enjoyed by those who are in Christ to be in Christ means
to be spiritually united to him to have received and rested upon him and him
Savior from sin dear listener are you in Christ if you’re not sure come to Jesus
tonight put your faith and trust in him as your Lord and Savior the Bible says
that whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved call upon the
name of Jesus in prayer and by faith receive and rest upon him alone for your
salvation from sin for he is a perfect all-sufficient Savior he is the God man
who made perfect atonement for sin on the cross of Calvary and we’re gonna
celebrate that in a few moments as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper together so
just as we believers receive the bread and the fruit of the vine into our
bodies what a perfect picture what a fitting picture of faith faith receives
Christ into itself it doesn’t just keep him at a distance it takes him to
ourselves we do that by faith believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ receive him
as your Savior and then you can know you are in Christ and you will have true
peace with God both the objective peace of justification you will be made right
with God declared righteous in his sight because of Christ’s righteousness
given to you as a gift imputed to you and received by faith alone and you will
begin to experience that inward peace that joy of the Holy Spirit that the
Lord works in those who trust in Christ as their Savior may God grant us the
grace to experience his peace the peace that is found in Christ tonight amen let
us pray Heavenly Father we thank you Lord God we thank you Lord that you are
sovereign in your grace of salvation we thank you Lord that you take a people
for your name from every tribe and tongue and people in language and that
you are able to take a people for your name even from the spiritual Babylon’s
that exists today and we thank you Lord God that you have brought us into a
relationship of peace with yourself through Christ for Jesus you are our
peace even as you are our righteousness our redemption our sanctification and
our wisdom Lord may these truths be a blessing to our souls and strengthen us
as we commune with you and as we seek to live for you in your name we pray and
all of God’s people said amen and as we respond to what we’ve heard from God’s
word and prepare to celebrate the Lord’s Supper together let us rise from our
seats and sing 275 arise my soul arise 275