Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Series: 1 & 2 Peter

Sermon series by Pastor Geoffrey Willour on 1 and 2 Peter.

Clothed with Humility, Part 1

About this sermon

Peter tells younger people to be subject to their elders and all believers to clothe themselves with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Scripture commands honor for the aged as part of fearing God. Pride shows itself in self-sufficiency and refusing to depend on God and others. Clothing oneself with humility is like putting on a servant’s apron, as Christ did when he washed his disciples’ feet, and the humble are humble only by God’s grace.

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Sermon transcript

True liberty is found in being a bondservant of Christ. Well friends, please remain standing for the reading of God’s word as we prepare for the preaching of the word this evening. We continue our consideration of First Peter, and as we are wrapping up our time in First Peter, not this week, but we will be wrapping up our time soon. We’re in the last chapter, First Peter chapter five. This evening we’re gonna focus especially on verses five through seven. This will actually be a part one of considering these verses, but I’d like to read verses one through seven to offer the fuller context. You’ll find that on page 1206 in your Pew Bible. So let us hear, dear friends, God’s holy word, First Peter chapter five, verses one through seven. So I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed.

Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another. For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord to bless the preaching of his word tonight.

O omnipotent, sovereign, infinite God, we do bow before you and recognize your divine majesty. We recognize, Lord, that we are completely dependent upon you. Lord, not only are we completely dependent upon you for our natural life, but we are also completely dependent upon you for our spiritual life. And so, Lord, we would pray that you would give us renewed life this evening through your word and by your spirit. We pray, Lord God, that you would bless this word to us this evening as we consider this portion of your holy word. And we ask that it might find a lodging place in our souls and bear spiritual fruit in our lives. We pray, Lord God, again, that you would forgive us for our many sins and renew and fill us with your spirit and grant us the grace to be transformed by the renewing of our minds as we consider your word this evening.

And Lord, once again, we pray that you would set a guard over my lips, that I, your unworthy servant, might speak forth only that which is faithful to your word and edifying to your people. We pray all these things, heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, amen. You may be seated. Title of my sermon this evening is Clothed with Humility. This is the first part. And the key words that the young people can be listening for tonight are the words submit or submission, humility, and trust. Well, my dear friends in Christ, in recent weeks, we’ve considered the first four verses of this chapter. And we’ve seen in this passage that our Lord Jesus Christ is revealed as the chief shepherd of his people. And we his people are therefore his beloved sheep.

We also learned that one of the ways that our Savior shepherds his people is through church officers that are described in this chapter as elders or presbyters. The Greek word is presbyterous. These elders or presbyters are Christ’s under shepherds, meaning that they serve as spiritual shepherds under the authority, by the example, and on behalf of Christ, the good shepherd. In fact, from a biblical standpoint, it’s actually an anomaly. It’s an abnormal state of affairs for a true believer not to be associated in membership with the visible church of Jesus Christ. There are, of course, providential circumstances and hindrances that keep some believers from being united to a local association or a local expression of the body of Christ. But nevertheless, under ordinary circumstances, God’s people are to be in God’s church. The Bible takes it for granted that those who are committed to Christ as his disciples will also be committed to the body of Christ as members of his visible church.

And in our Americanized Christian culture here in the United States, where many professing Christians regularly church hop as a practice and where few seem to appreciate the importance of being committed in responsible membership to a local expression of Christ’s church, we who claim to be disciples of Christ would do well to take this to heart. You see, we need to realize that Jesus Christ is the divine shepherd, the chief shepherd. We need to realize as well that he has appointed officers and a government in his church and that he expects his people, his sheep, to be under the shepherding care and oversight that he administers through his under shepherds. Now, once again, as we turn our attention to our passage for this evening, which speaks of these elders and which speaks of Christ as the good shepherd, once again, we need to remember the context of 1 Peter.

Remember that 1 Peter was written to Christians who were facing a fiery trial of persecution for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And while it is true that all Christians, whatever their life circumstances, all Christians need faithful pastoral and shepherding care by the church’s pastors and elders, believers who are facing severe persecution for their faith, such as Peter’s original readers, especially require attentive, caring, and loving pastoral care. Peter’s original readers needed the care, the protection, the encouragement, nurture, and guidance of Christ’s under shepherds, his presbyters, even more so than their fellow believers whose life circumstances spared them from such persecution. This is why Peter, under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, addresses the opening exhortation of this chapter to the church’s elders. But now there is a shift here in verse five. In verse five, beginning in verse five of our text for this evening, we see Peter shifting his exhortation to a different group among the believers to whom he’s writing.

In the first four verses of chapter five, it’s quite clear that Peter is exhorting the elders, the presbyters of the church in particular. And presbyters probably that Peter had in mind were the pastors or ministers of the word in particular, although the principles of this exhortation to these presbyters would apply equally to ruling elders as well. But in verse five, he shifts from addressing the elders to addressing the younger people, or as it could be translated, the young men. That’s how versions like the New American Standard Version translated as young men. And then he addresses all of you, which in context could either mean all of you younger and older men, or it could simply mean all of you readers in general. And then Peter begins a series of exhortations which appear to be addressed to all of the believers, calling all of us to humility in our relationships one with another.

Well, this evening, again, as I mentioned, I’m gonna confine myself to the lessons we can learn in verses five through seven, and in verse five in particular. And so as we turn our attention to verse five, I want us first to consider what we learn here about humility demonstrated in youthful submission to elders. And this is the first main point in your outline if you’re following along young people. Humility demonstrated in youthful submission to elders. Peter writes in verse five, likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another. For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Now, this verse confronts us with at least two interpretive questions, namely, who are the younger ones that Peter is addressing, and who are the elders being referred to in this particular verse?

Now, let’s start with the elders. Now, who are the elders referred to in verse five? It’s clear that the elders who are referenced back in verse one are the church officers that are known as elders or presbyters. Are these the same elders who are being spoken of here in verse five? Or is Peter using the term elders here in verse five to refer more generically to older men in the church in general? Well, as you might have guessed, there’s dispute and debate among Bible commentators and scholars on how to answer that question. It’s the same Greek word in both verses, the word presbyteros, as being used in both verses one and verse five. And that word, depending on the context in which it is used, that word could be translated as older men, or it could be translated as elders in the sense of church officers that are known as elders or presbyters.

The fact that Peter uses the same word presbyteros to refer to the elders in both verse one and verse five has led some students of the Bible to believe that the younger men that Peter is addressing in verse five are actually younger church officers, younger under shepherds. And I’ll be honest with you that I’m inclined to lean towards that view, that interpretation. If this interpretation is the correct one, then Peter is instructing the younger elders to show deference and submission toward the older, more experienced, and more seasoned elders among them. But even if that interpretation is incorrect, it is certainly a wise and biblical thing for younger church officers to show deference and submission and a humble spirit, a teachable spirit, toward those who are older and more experienced in the office of church elder.

Well, beloved, whether Peter is addressing all of the younger believers in general, or only the younger men in particular, and whether he is continuing to refer to the church elders or simply at this point referring to elderly believers, elderly men in general, the word of God makes it clear throughout its pages that older people are to be treated with respect, honor, and appropriate deference. And that’s something that really needs to be made clear in our time when youthfulness is almost idolized. Let’s consider a couple of passages which speak of the honor and respect that the younger are to show towards the elders, towards those who are older. Consider what is said in Leviticus 19, verse 32. Leviticus chapter 19, verse 32. In this passage, we read these words. It says, you shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God, I am the Lord.

Notice that the Lord Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel, he backs up this command with his own authority. And he says, you shall fear your God. One of the ways that we show fear, holy reverence towards God is by showing respect to the gray headed, to those who are elderly in our midst. And in those days, one of the ways in biblical times that you showed honor for the elderly is you stood up in their presence. There’s other ways that we might show, that different cultures might show honor towards those who are elders amongst them, the elderly among them. But here, this clearly is teaching that we are to honor those who are our elders. Or consider what the apostle Paul says in 1 Timothy chapter five, verses one and two. 1 Timothy chapter five, verses one and two.

Paul writes this, do not rebuke an older man, but encourage him as you would a father. Younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters in all purity, amen to that. Beloved, Christ our savior honored his elders. In his act of obedience, he perfectly obeyed all of God’s commandments, including the fifth commandment, which is honor your father and your mother. Jesus perfectly honored both his heavenly father, God the Father, and his earthly father, and his mother as well. We’re told in Luke chapter two, verse 31, that when he was a youth, he was submissive to his earthly father and mother. And of course, he is the perfect model for honoring the elderly. Beloved in Christ, one of the ways that we demonstrate a proper fear and holy reverence for the God who saved us by his amazing grace in Christ is to show honor to the elderly.

And again, this is something that we in the church today need to take to heart, especially since we live today in such a youth-oriented culture, a culture that idolizes youth and often views the elderly with either disdain or with a grudging tolerance. Well, it is true that there is such a thing as an old fool. There are old fools, that’s true. It’s also true that there is such a thing as young people who are wise beyond their years. That is true as well. But nevertheless, as a general rule, the life experience of older saints gives them a certain perspective and a certain wisdom that we can learn from. A certain perspective and a certain wisdom that is usually lacking among those who are younger. And so let us display humility, beloved, by submitting to the biblical shepherding of the church’s elders and also by showing deference and respect to the elderly, the older ones in our midst.

And I say that as someone who is starting to get more gray hair. So friends, we see here in this theme of humility an example of youthful submission to those who are older. But next we see this exhortation at the end of verse five, to be clothed in humility toward one another. And that’s the second point in your outline. Let us be clothed in humility toward one another. Peter writes in verse five, clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another. And what’s the reason for that? Well, he quotes from the Old Testament, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. You know, unbelievers often look upon humility and a submissive attitude as signs of pathetic weakness, don’t they? However, in God’s word, the virtues of godly submission and humility are exalted as virtues which demonstrate the inward strength and integrity which are produced by the Holy Spirit.

Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, again is the perfect model of submission and humility. And this humility was especially evident in his incarnation and his death upon the cross for our sins. Think about it. In his incarnation, our Lord was willing to leave his throne in glory, his glorious heavenly throne. And in humility, he was willing to clothe himself with our humanity. Even though our Lord was and is the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity who was and is and ever shall be co-equal, co-eternal, and consubstantial with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Yet he willingly submitted to his Father by becoming incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth. And by being willing to go to the cross, to stretch out his arms upon the hard wood of the cross and to suffer death upon the cross as our substitute, our sin bearer, our Savior, that he might redeem and save his people from their sins.

The Carmen Christi passage in Philippians chapter two is especially powerful in displaying and explaining the humility and humiliation of Christ. Let me just read Philippians two beginning at verse three and reading through verse 11. Philippians two, three through 11. In the midst of this exhortation where the Holy Spirit through Paul is calling the Philippian believers to humility toward one another, he says this, beginning at verse three, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. And then he goes on to say this, have this mind among yourselves. This should be your mindset and mine. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, thing to cling on to, if you will, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant.

Being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. And death by crucifixion was not only an agonizing way to die, but a deeply shameful way to die. Therefore, verse nine, therefore God, meaning God the Father, has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So we are to have this mind among ourselves, which is ours in union with Christ Jesus, our Lord, who humbled himself. He didn’t stop being God when he became incarnate, but he added to himself the form of a servant.

He added to himself our humanity. He humbled himself even to the point of death on the cross. And in union with him, we are to display a similar kind of humility. We also have an example of our Lord’s profound humility when towards the end of his earthly ministry, our Savior girded himself with a towel and took the position of a lowly slave in order to perform that humble, even loathsome task of washing the feet, the smelly, filthy, dirty feet of his disciples as recorded in John chapter 13. It’s a powerful passage of scripture. Beloved in Christ, Jesus, our master, Lord and teacher instructed us to do likewise. In other words, to demonstrate the same kind of humility and servanthood toward one another, as Peter again tells us in verse five, clothe yourselves all of you with humility toward one another, toward one another, not lording it over each other, not looking down on others, but counting others better than ourselves.

So this is a call to humility, to be clothed with humility. But what exactly is humility? Well, at its core, humility is an attitude of utter dependence upon God. You are a humble person, by the grace of God, you are a humble person if God in sovereign grace has brought you to the point where you realize that you are a guilty sinner who deserves God’s punishment for your sins, and that your only hope of salvation is found in Christ and Christ alone. You are a humble person if you realize that you are completely dependent upon God for everything that you enjoy in life. Every beat of your heart, every breath that you take, everything ultimately comes from God, and you and I are completely dependent upon it. Recognizing that is of the essence of humility.

Recognizing and living our lives in light of that is the essence of humility. But if you are trusting in yourself or your good works for salvation, or if you take pride in being self-sufficient, autonomous, and self-reliant, then you are proud. And you need to beware, for this verse teaches us that God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And by the way, those who are humble are only humble by the grace of God. And so we are to be clothed with humility. This is interesting imagery that Peter uses here. Dr. Kistermacher points out that the word for cloth here means to tie a piece of clothing to oneself. The suggestion is that the Christian ought to tie humility to their conduct so that everyone is able to recognize them. Peter exhorts the readers, he says, to fasten humility to themselves once for all.

In other words, it stays with them for the rest of their lives. And so we have this call to be clothed with humility. And we have good reason to be clothed with humility for apart from grace, we are nothing but sinners worthy of his wrath. We also find in this passage, though, a warning to the proud. The reason given for this call to clothe ourselves with humility is that God does what? He opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Here, Peter is quoting from Proverbs 3, verse 34. This proverb highlights God’s provision of grace to the humble and submissive, but it also highlights his constant, unwavering opposition to the proud. Norman Hillier points out that the Greek implies that God sends his armed forces against those who consider themselves far superior to others and treat the common herd with contempt.

The implication is that the proud are those who ridicule and despise Christian believers. And this would have been a great comfort to Peter’s original readers as they faced persecution from arrogant unbelievers who ridiculed them and viewed them as being foolish and stupid and what do you believe in this? Crucified Messiah, what kind of ridiculous belief is that? The proud would look down their noses at these poor persecuted Christians, but Peter assures them God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Dear ones, God is at war against the proud. He is at war against proud, unrepentant, unbelieving fallen man. Consider what Mary, the mother of our Lord, had to say about this in her wonderful Magnificat as recorded in Luke 1. If you look at Luke 1 verses 51 to 53, Luke 1, 51 to 53, we read these words.

He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered whom? He has scattered the proud in the thoughts or imaginations of their hearts. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent empty away. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his offspring forever. Dear ones, let us pray that God would grant us the grace of humility. May we, by the grace of God and out of gratitude for his gift of salvation given to us in Jesus, let us, as our Savior girded himself with the towel to wash his disciples’ feet, let us clothe ourselves, let us gird on humility in the way that we relate and relate to one another, and let us display humility to a world that is so filled with pride.

You know, the world often sees the church and they believe that we are self-righteous. They, you know, fairly or unfairly, they often view us as being proud. Oh, you proud Christians, you think you know it all. Sometimes that’s an unfair judgment, but sometimes we do come across as proud as know-it-alls. Let us, by the grace of God, clothe ourselves with humility. That can be a powerful testimony for our Savior to those who are outside. And let us pray that the proud in our lives, that they would be humbled, and let us pray that God would grant us a humble spirit. Amen, let us pray. Heavenly Father, you again, you are the exalted Lord. We have no reason to boast, we have no reason to be proud. For every good and perfect gift that we have received comes from your sovereign hand.

And we thank you, Lord, that you have humbled us to the degree that we recognize our sin and our need for Christ. We pray that you would grant us the grace to clothe ourselves with humility toward one another, and to display a humble spirit to those outside of the church, that our witness for Christ might be powerful and impactful. We pray these things, oh Father, in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said, amen. Let’s close our time this evening in worship by rising, and we’ll sing as our closing hymn, number 530. Teach me thy way, oh Lord, 530.

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August 25, 2024
Shepherd the Flock of God, Part 2

About this sermon

Peter charges the elders to shepherd the flock of God among them. Pastors and ruling elders are to know, feed, guard, and care for the sheep actively, as the OPC Form of Government describes, not only on Sundays. They must avoid serving under compulsion, for shameful gain, or by domineering over the flock. Jesus taught that greatness in his kingdom is service, and he, the chief shepherd, laid down his life for his sheep. Faithful elders will receive the unfading crown of glory.

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Sermon transcript

Please join me in prayer as we ask the Lord to bless the preaching of his word this evening. Our gracious Lord and Father in heaven, once again we thank you for your word. It is a lamp unto our feet, a light into our path. We pray that you would illuminate us, open our minds and our hearts this evening by your Holy Spirit, that we might behold wondrous things from your word and help us Lord to see the relevance and significance of this passage to our lives as individual believers, to our life together as a congregation, a covenant community, and to the church universal as well. And help us Lord to bear spiritual fruits of obedience and renewed faith as we consider this portion of your word. Give me the grace Lord to declare your word with clarity and power and with the assistance of your Holy Spirit.

We pray these things, O Lord, through Christ our Lord and all of God’s people said. Amen. You may be seated. Well friends, the title of my sermon this Lord’s Day evening is Shepherd the Flock of God. This is part two. I addressed some aspects of this passage on the last Lord’s Day, but we continue to consider this passage this evening. And the key words that the young people can be listening for tonight are Shepherd, sheep, flock, elders, and reward. Well my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God in his word often speaks of his people as his sheep. And he reveals himself as the divine shepherd of his sheep. One of the best-known passages of scripture, namely Psalm 23, begins with those unforgettable words, the Lord is my shepherd. We sang that earlier in the service this evening.

And in our passage for this Lord’s Day evening, the Lord is referred to in verse 4 as the chief shepherd. On the last Lord’s Day evening we began to explore the meaning and significance of this passage as we focused especially on what passages like this one revealed to us about the shepherd heart of our God. We also began to consider what this passage teaches us about the identity of Christ as our chief shepherd and the elders of his church as his under shepherds. Well this evening we continue our consideration of this passage as I mentioned. And as we do so, we would do well to keep in mind the situation that was faced by the original readers of this divinely inspired letter. As believers who were facing a fiery trial of persecution for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, these believers to whom Peter wrote this epistle needed faithful shepherding as they faced the dangers and the uncertainties that were before them.

What a comfort to know that Jesus Christ, our chief shepherd, protects, leads, guides, and defends our souls, whatever may be our outward circumstances in life. And even if we have to face a fiery trial of persecution or affliction. Well dear friends, in my sermon this evening we’re going to consider three main points from our passage. First of all, we’re going to consider the apostolic charge to the elders to shepherd God’s flock. We began to consider that on the last Lord’s Day, but we’ll give further consideration to that point this evening. Secondly, we’re going to consider the kinds of shepherding, quote-unquote, that the church’s elders should avoid. And finally, we’re going to consider the gracious reward promised to faithful elders, faithful under shepherds of Christ. So let’s first of all dive in. Let’s first of all consider the apostolic charge to elders to shepherd God’s flock.

The apostolic charge to the elders to shepherd God’s flock. Now again, this is an exhortation as we learn in verse 1. Peter, as he’s beginning to wrap up his epistle, he addresses his readers with these words. He says, so I exhort the elders among you. And so he exhorts in particular the presbyterous, the elders among them. And I did mention on the last Lord’s Day, I believe that there’s good reason to think that the particular elders that Peter had in mind are what we would today call pastors or teaching elders, although certainly the principles that are applied to these under shepherds that Peter is addressing would apply as well to those whom we would call ruling elders. And so the principles, so I’m just going to assume that throughout as we consider this passage, that it speaks principles that are relevant both to pastors and to ruling elders.

And you may say, well pastor, I’m never going to be a pastor or ruling elder, what relevance does it have to me? Well it has relevance to all of God’s people because we are all the sheep of Christ and we need to know what the requirements are to be faithful shepherds and we need to know what to look for in faithful under shepherds in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. So he turns his attention again, as I mentioned, to exhorting the elders. And notice he exhorts them as a fellow elder. Though he is an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, an eyewitness to the resurrected Jesus, a one who was himself personally called by Jesus to be the Lord’s official spokesman, as was the case with all of the Apostles, the Twelve plus the Apostle Paul.

But he addresses them as their fellow elder. And under the higher offices, if you will, are subsumed all of the duties and responsibilities of the so-called lesser offices. And so he can do this and he’s doing this to appeal to them. He’s putting himself, he’s saying, look we’re equal here and I am a fellow elder and under shepherd and these are concerns that you should have as well. I exhort you, not I order you, I command you, but I exhort you. I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. What does he exhort them to do? What is his charge to them? He says very simply in verse 2, shepherd the flock of God that is among you exercising oversight.

The concept of shepherding is a concept that brings to mind care, protection, guidance, rescue, and so forth. And so I would have us consider what it means to exercise spiritual shepherd care in the body of Christ. And what kind of shepherd care should you as the people of God expect from the church’s pastors and elders? How are the church’s elders to go about shepherding God’s people? Well we’re told that they are to exercise oversight. Now this is, I’m preaching from the English standard version, some of your versions may may not include this phrase exercising oversight. And the reason for that is that this phrase is not found in some of the older manuscripts of the New Testament, copies of the New Testament. And so there are some textual questions regarding whether or not this was in the original writing, the original letter that Peter wrote.

But while some ancient manuscripts omit the words exercising oversight, this phrase has early attestation among many ancient manuscripts. And so it seems likely that these words were in the original letter as penned by the Apostle Peter. But even if they weren’t, the thrust of this whole passage indicates that exercising oversight is indeed the task that under shepherds of Christ are to engage in. The rest of the exhortation included in this passage shines the light on what Peter means by shepherding the flock of God. And of course whatever it means, and I hope that we have a clearer concept of that as we as we consider this passage, it’s clear from this passage that the shepherd care of God’s people requires attentiveness, it requires diligence, and it requires great personal care. Now with this being the case we need to ask ourselves, and I want to challenge you, some of you brothers, to consider, may God be calling you into the office of ruling elder.

Do you believe God might be calling you to serve as an under shepherd in Christ’s church? Well if that is the case, what subjects should you study to equip yourself for that shepherding task? And what are the subjects of the shepherd study? How are shepherds to be equipped to provide this kind of shepherd care, this kind of spiritual oversight? Well in order for pastors and ruling elders to effectively shepherd the flock of God, they must seek as much as possible to know their sheep. Jesus knows his sheep. Jesus the good shepherd, he knows us his sheep, and not only that, he knows us by name, he calls us by name. And therefore I would suggest that it is advisable for ministers and ruling elders in being equipped in their shepherding tasks to focus on three main subjects of study, and I will list these subjects in the order of importance.

First of all, the under shepherds of Christ must first of all be devoted to the study of God’s Word, for they are to minister the Word of God to the people of God, and you have the right to expect that your pastors and your elders will seek to shepherd you in the Word and in devotion to the Word of God. So they must be devoted to the study and exposition of God’s Word and to biblical truth that is grounded upon and based upon God’s Word. But a close second subject of study is the study of God’s people. Under shepherds of Christ must not only exegete the Scriptures, they must exegete the sheep of Christ. They must seek as much as possible to get to know the sheep of Christ and to be accessible to them and to understand their particular life circumstances, their particular challenges, their particular joys, and so forth.

So the under shepherd of Christ must be devoted to the study of God’s Word, must be devoted to the study of God’s people, and also must be devoted to the study of God’s world, for the people of God live in the context of the world that God has made. And so the exercise of spiritual shepherd care involves exercising oversight. And what does this exercise of oversight involve? Well it involves, among other things, keeping watch over souls. And here I would have us consider another passage of Scripture as we compare Scripture with Scripture, for it’s all God’s Word. It is a unified divine revelation. And in Hebrews chapter 13 verse 17, the author of Hebrews says this about the leaders, and by the leaders here he means the spiritual leaders of the church, elders, and so forth.

Hebrews 13 17, I know I quoted this last week, but let’s go back and look at it briefly again. The author of Hebrews says, obey your leaders and submit to them. Again he’s not calling for blind obedience. You are to submit to your leaders in the Lord, and insofar as they submit themselves to and administer the Word of God. But nonetheless, that being assumed, obey your leaders and submit to them. Why? For they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Brothers and sisters in Christ, on the Judgment Day I will stand before King Jesus as your pastor, and I will give an account to my Lord for how I ministered the Word to each and every one of you. And when I think about that, you know, when I really pause to consider that, you know, my knees shake.

I get shaken to the core of my being, and I realize, woe is me, without God’s grace, who is sufficient for such a task. But this indeed is the task of your pastors and your elders. They keep watch over your soul. That’s what they are called to do, and if they neglect to do that, they will be held accountable to the Lord for that. And then it says again in verse 17 of Hebrews 13, obey them, submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. Praise God for his amazing grace. Praise God that the sufficiency of your under-shepherds, of Christ’s under-shepherds over you is a sufficiency that comes from the Lord and the Lord alone in his grace alone.

So what are the responsibilities of such shepherd care? What does this shepherding of the flock of God look like in terms of practical outworking in the life of the church? I want to quote from a source that many might regard as a rather boring source, but it’s important. I want to quote from our OPC form of government, a few sections of the government. Chapter 8, the chapter on pastors, it’s a brief paragraph here, but let me read this and take this to heart, and I believe that all of this is based upon and agreeable to the Word of God. It says this in chapter 8 on pastors, Christ’s under-shepherd in a local congregation of God’s people who joins with the ruling elders in governing the congregation is called a pastor. It is his charge to feed and tend the flock as Christ’s minister, which means servant, and with the other elders to lead them in all the service of Christ.

It is his task to conduct the public worship of God, to pray for and with Christ’s flock as the mouth of the people unto God, to feed the flock by the public reading and preaching of the Word of God according to which he is to teach, convince, reprove, exhort, comfort, and evangelize, expounding and applying the truth of scripture with ministerial authority, not with legislative or domineering authority, but ministerial authority, authority that serves and administers the truth. As a diligent workman approved by God to administer the sacraments, to bless the people from God, to shepherd the flock and minister the word according to the particular needs of groups, families, and individuals in the congregation, catechizing by teaching plainly the first principles of the oracles of God to the baptized youth and to adults who are yet babes in Christ, visiting in their homes, in the homes of the people, instructing and counseling individuals, and training them to be faithful servants of Christ, to minister to the poor, the sick, the afflicted, and the dying, and to make known the gospel to the lost.

And this is why pastors only work once a week, right? But you see, friends, this is a very active kind of shepherd care that the pastor is called to. And the same thing with ruling elders. In chapter 10 of our form of government in section 3, it says this about your ruling elders. It says, ruling elders individually and jointly with the pastor in the session are to lead the church in the service of Christ. They are to watch diligently over the people committed to their charge to prevent corruption of doctrine or morals, evils which they cannot correct by private admonition. They should bring to the notice of the session. They should visit the people, especially the sick, instruct the ignorant, comfort the mourning, and nourish and guard the children of the covenant. They should pray with and for the people.

They should have particular concern for the doctrine and conduct of the minister of the word and help him in his labors. In other words, your elders, one of their tasks is to keep me accountable, to make sure that I’m walking in line with scripture and to correct me if they see me going astray. But this is very different from the way that many folks today view the tasks of church leaders, especially pastors as well as elders. There are many misconceptions today among Christians and in society in general about the roles and functions of ministers and ruling elders. For example, when it comes to ministers who serve as pastors, many folks tend to view pastors simply as religious functionaries, as basically religious professionals who are assigned certain sacerdotal and ceremonial functions. So, for example, those of a more high church mindset often seem to view pastors and church leaders as religious masters of ceremony whose main function is to dispense sacraments, to perform rites of passage, and to perform other ceremonies at important stages in people’s lives.

Those who have more of a sort of a nominal approach to the Christian life, you know, the so-called Christmas and Easter Christians, will often, in my experience, they will often view the pastor. Well, it’s the pastor’s job to baptize babies, officiate at wedding ceremonies, and to help oversee funeral services, to administer or preside over funeral services as well. In other words, the pastor’s job is to baptize, marry, and bury people, or to put it crassly, to hatch them, match them, and dispatch them, right? But on the other end of the theological spectrum. Another common view today, at least in the more broadly evangelical world of mega churches and celebrity preachers, is the view that pastors and other church leaders, namely the elders, are basically religious businessmen. The pastor basically being the local church’s CEO. In fact, in some of the mega churches out there, the senior pastor is sometimes given the title executive pastor.

And so he’s viewed as the one who is charged with running the administration of the church. And so that’s his basic function, to run the business of the local church and to deliver inspirational pep talks to the people at Sunday services. But the pastor and the other church leaders, like the elders in such contexts, are basically otherwise quite distant from and uninvolved directly in the lives of the average congregant. That is the corporate business model for how to do church. That is not the biblical shepherding model for doing church. And you know, even in some reformed circles, it seems that the minister or pastor is viewed almost exclusively as a preacher with few other responsibilities. And certainly preaching is one of these central activities. In fact, I would argue the central activity of the minister of the word, and that’s the chief way in which the pastor at least helps to shepherd the flock.

But while all pastors are preachers, pastors don’t merely preach, just as elders don’t merely administer the business affairs of the church. Now, certainly activities like preaching the word and administering the sacraments, these are some of the ways that the pastor and the undershepherd shepherds the flock. And of course, part of what pastors and ruling elders are called to do involves church administration. And most pastors as well also do things like officiate at wedding ceremonies and at funerals, even though the Bible doesn’t list that as part of the pastor’s job activity or job description. Those are activities that are generally regarded as proper to the shepherding role of the pastor. But friends, the point here is that the main responsibility of ordained ministers and ruling elders in Christ’s church is to spiritually shepherd God’s flock. And true spiritual shepherding is much more involved than simply preaching, teaching, administering sacraments, and administering the affairs of the local church.

Although, again, all of those activities are important aspects of shepherding God’s flock. A faithful undershepherd of Christ will, like the divine shepherd he serves, seek to actually know the sheep, to have at least a basic acquaintance with them and their basic needs. He will seek to study the sheep entrusted to his care, seeking to know their joys, their sorrows, their triumphs, and their trials. In some, my friends, the church’s elders are not called to merely manage or manipulate the flock. No, they are called to shepherd the flock of God. They are called to do so as attentive, caring, loving, undershepherds of Christ. And once again, brothers and sisters, you as God’s people have the right to expect your pastors and your elders to provide you with this kind of shepherd care. Your shepherds, your pastor and your elders will not do this perfectly.

We all sin, we all fall short, and we don’t fulfill our callings perfectly. But, nevertheless, this is what you should be looking for in Christ’s faithful undershepherds. But that leads me to my next point as we consider verses two and three. Let’s consider next the kinds of shepherding that the church’s elders should avoid. First of all, there is compulsory shepherding. The exhortation, the charge is to shepherd the flock of God. And then he goes on to say in verse three, not under compulsion, but willingly as God would have you. God would have us serve willingly. God would have us fulfill our callings, our vocations willingly and not under compulsion. The church’s overseers should desire to serve. They should aspire to the office. Consider what the apostle Paul writes, for example, in 1 Timothy chapter three, verse one, as he lays out the character qualifications of those who would aspire to the office of overseer or bishop.

And by the way, in the New Testament, the bishop and the presbyter or elder are two different terms that refer to the same office. And Paul writes this in 1 Timothy three, verse one. He says the saying is trustworthy if anyone aspires to the office of overseer. He does what? He desires a noble task. Theologians talk about both the internal and the outward call to the ministry or to service in church office. There has to be both. There has to be the internal calling, namely an internal desire to pursue the office. And that desire has to be confirmed by the church seeing the gifts for office in the one who aspires to the office. But in terms of the internal calling, there has to be a desire. Those who would serve as Christ’s under shepherd should be willing to serve, aspiring to office, not pressured into such service.

So if you’re a man and you’re wondering, well, am I called to serve as a ruling elder in the church, for example? Let me ask you this. Do you desire that? Do you aspire to that? Because if there is no desire, then there is no call, at least not at this point in life. And that’s okay. God calls us all. We all have a calling. We all have a vocation. It may not be to church office. It might be to other things. And that’s fine. We should recapture a robust sense of calling and vocation in the church of Jesus Christ. And not everyone is called to church office. And that’s all right. We are all called to the general office of believer, however. And we are all to admonish one another and encourage one another in the Lord.

But in terms of shepherding, the true shepherd must not be so under compulsion. Another form of shepherding that should be avoided is greedy shepherding. It goes on to say in verse 3, nor not for shameful gain, but eagerly. Not for shameful gain, but eagerly. The churches under shepherds are called to serve, to feed, and to lead God’s flock into the green pastures of his grace and truth. They are not to fleece the sheep. They are not to use them as sources of personal financial enrichment. Of course, this does not invalidate the equally biblical truth that those who labor in the word have a right to be paid for their services. The apostle Paul makes it very clear in First Corinthians 9 verses 7 through 14 that that is the right of those who labor in the word to be paid for such labor.

Paul himself chose not to make use of that right, but he recognizes that the right is there. But here’s the balance, brothers and sisters. We know that God is greatly dishonored by church leaders who are motivated by greed. A few individuals cause more harm to the witness of the church than those who are obviously in it for the money. An obvious example being the charlatans out there, the prosperity preachers out there, who if you watch them on their programs, they’re always appealing for you to send in that seed money, to send in that gift, or to buy this product, or that product, and so forth. And obviously, that’s an obvious example of such a greedy shepherding. But it’s also neither honoring to God nor a good witness for the gospel when faithful pastors are underpaid, under supported, and underappreciated.

And I thank God that that’s not the case here at Grace OPC. Let me say very quickly, I’m very thankful to serve such a graciously generous and supportive congregation. But over the years of my ministry, I’ve seen colleagues in the ministry who I believe were not appropriately appreciated or valued by their congregations. And that too is a dishonor to the name of Christ. So again, compulsive shepherding, greedy shepherding, these are forms of shepherding that should be avoided. Another form of shepherding that should be avoided that is mentioned in verse three is domineering or abusive shepherding. Again, look at verse three, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. Not domineering. Oh friends, faithful under shepherds of Christ are not to be intrusive control freaks or heavy-handed micromanagers over God’s flock.

And they certainly are not to be bullies. Sadly, there are some who enter into the ministry because they have a desire to control people. And that is not the character, that is not what a man who would aspire to be an under shepherd of Christ, that’s not the kind of character that ought to be sought. They are not to lord it over the flock. Instead, they are to shepherd God’s flock as servant leaders. Following the example of Christ, the chief shepherd, and what did Christ do? He laid down his life for his sheep. He didn’t abuse his sheep, he laid down his life for his sheep. Let me just read what our Lord teaches in Matthew 20, beginning at verse 20. I want to read this brief passage to you. Matthew chapter 20, beginning at verse 20, we read this.

In other words, please give my sons the highest places of honor and authority in your kingdom. And what does Jesus say? Jesus answered, that the rulers of the gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. That’s not how you are to lead my sheep, in other words. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant. And whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Dear ones, Christ is the good shepherd who laid down his life for his sheep, his elect church. Even though he is indeed Lord over all, he’s King of kings and Lord of lords, he doesn’t exercise his lordship over his flock with harshness or with cruelty or with abuse.

Jesus is Lord, but he’s not a divine bully. Instead, his yoke is easy, his burden is light. He is gentle and lowly of heart. And though he is the royal messianic King before whom every knee shall bow and every tongue confess him as Lord at the end of this age, nonetheless, he humbled himself to wash the feet of his disciples. A disgusting, filthy, menial task, the lowest task of the lowest servant. Jesus did that for his disciples. And he expects his under-shepherds, the church’s pastors and elders to follow his example in the way they shepherd the flock of God entrusted to their care. And you as the sheep of Christ, we as the sheep of Christ, ought to expect such servant leadership from those whom God raises up as under-shepherds in our midst. And dear listener, let me ask you this.

Do you know Christ as your divine shepherd and Lord? Jesus laid down his life for his sheep and he welcomes all who would come to him, come to Jesus, trust him as your savior and your shepherd, and he will take you into his fold, and he will lead you beside the still waters and in green pastures. But finally, and very briefly, consider the gracious reward that is promised to faithful elders. We read of this in verse four, where it says, and when the chief shepherd, that’s Jesus, when the chief shepherd appears, you, you who are faithful under-shepherds, will receive the unfading crown of glory. Again, the chief shepherd is obviously the Lord Jesus Christ. And it says when he appears, what’s that referring to? That’s referring to his future glorious second advent. When Jesus returns in his eschatological glory, those who are faithful in serving him will receive the unfading crown of glory.

Here, Peter uses imagery from an ancient athletic contest where the contestants who won were rewarded with a garland crown that was woven with branches, either from an olive tree or from some other tree. And as Dr. I. Howard Marshall points out, Peter describes the crown as being made of amaranth flowers, and amaranth flowers did not fade away. But the same contrast but the same contrast between perishable earthly garlands, even of amaranth, and the everlasting imperishable divine award, that comparison is made by Paul as well in 1 Corinthians 9. But the crown is a metaphor for the glory that the church leaders will share with Christ. But this is not just something for church leaders to look forward to. Faithful shepherding, my friends, indeed all forms of service to the Lord can be exacting and at times even wearying.

However, this gracious promise is meant to assure God’s servants that it will be worth it in the end. And not only is this true for the church’s elders, as under shepherds, not only is it true for them in their shepherding role, it is true for all of us as God’s people as we faithfully seek to serve the Lord in our various callings and vocations. Dear Christian listener, your service to our Lord, whatever form that service may take, is not in vain, for the Lord will graciously reward your service even as he promises to reward his faithful under shepherds with the unfading crown of glory. But understand that this unfading crown of glory and this language of reward with this unfading crown of glory, this crown is not a crown that is earned or merited or deserved.

We don’t deserve this crown. We’re not worthy of it. Ultimately, it is a reward of grace, not a reward of works or merits or worthiness. You know, one aspect of God’s amazing grace is that God’s amazing grace is all the more highlighted by the fact that he chooses to crown his own gifts as a reward. And that’s why on the final day, when we have those crowns, we will cast our crowns before him. And we sang earlier in the service today, to God be the glory. We will say on that final day, who we who by grace are in Christ, we will say, when the Lord says to us, well done, thou good and faithful servant, we’ll say, to God be the glory. To God be the glory. Not to me. To God be the glory.

And therefore, let our boasting always be in him and in him alone, even as our reward will be of his grace and of his grace alone. Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you that you have chosen Jesus Christ as the good shepherd. We thank you, Lord Jesus, who laid down your life for your sheep. And we thank you, O Lord, that you provide under shepherds for your church, that you choose to shepherd your people through these under shepherds. But Lord, we know that it is only by your grace that under shepherds can shepherd faithfully. And so, Lord, we would pray that you would bless your churches with faithful under shepherds, pastors and elders, who will shepherd your sheep, who will shepherd the flock of God faithfully, exercising godly oversight. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said.

Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

August 18, 2024
Shepherd the Flock of God, Part 1

About this sermon

Peter exhorts the elders as a fellow elder to shepherd the flock of God among them. The passage reflects God’s shepherd heart, and the church follows the biblical pattern of government by elders. Christ is the chief shepherd, and elders are under-shepherds accountable to him. They are to serve willingly, not under compulsion, not for gain, and not as lords or little popes over their congregations, but as examples to the flock. When the chief shepherd appears, faithful elders will receive the unfading crown of glory.

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Sermon transcript

Please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word, the beautiful hymn we just sang. This evening we continue our consideration of 1 Peter and we find ourselves tonight in 1 Peter chapter 5, the final chapter of this wonderful epistle, this wonderful portion of God’s Word. I’m going to read the first seven verses, but we’ll focus this evening and at least for another week on the first four verses. So let us hear God’s Holy Word, 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 1 through 7. Dear friends, hear the Word of God. So I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. Heard the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, nor for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.

And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders, clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another. For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of His Word. O gracious Lord and Father in heaven, we would ask that by your Spirit and through this portion of your Word you would shepherd our souls this evening, and we pray that you would give us insight into the Scriptures tonight.

We pray that your Word would find a lodging place in our souls and bear much spiritual fruit to your praise and honor and glory in our lives and in all that we do and say and think. Lord, we once again ask that you would be with me, your unworthy servant, granting me grace to declare and speak forth your Word in a way that edifies your people. We would pray all of these things, Heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said. Amen. You may be seated. Title of my sermon this evening is Shepherd, the Flock of God. And the key words to listen for tonight, three key words, shepherd, elder, and flock. Well, dear ones, in the Bible, God’s people are often spoken of as being His sheep. And God Himself is often described as the Divine Shepherd of His people, His flock.

And so, for example, we sang this Psalm earlier in the service, but the very beginning of Psalm 80 verse 1 says this, Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock. You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth. So in that beautiful Psalm, the Lord is addressed as the Shepherd of Israel, the one who leads Joseph His people like a flock. And of course, the Lord Jesus Christ described Himself in shepherding language, especially in the Good Shepherd discourse recorded in John chapter 10. And so, for example, in John chapter 10 verse 1, the Lord Jesus says, I am the Good Shepherd. I am. Ego, Amy. In other words, He’s claiming to be divine. He’s claiming to be God. And as the Lord, as the Shepherd of Israel, Jesus says, I am the Good Shepherd.

The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. And back in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 25, the Apostle Peter says this about our Lord Jesus. He says, For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and overseer of your souls. And so the Lord is described as the Shepherd and overseer of the souls of us Christians. And of course, in our passage for this Lord’s Day evening, the Lord Jesus is also described in verse 4 as the Chief Shepherd, who will appear and reward His faithful undershepherds at His glorious and He will reward them with the unfading crown of glory. Now why this shepherd sheep imagery? Why is this such common imagery in the Word of God? Well, friends, much of the Bible, of course, was written within the context of an agricultural and pastoral setting.

People in Bible times in their daily lives were much more familiar with sheep, with shepherds and with shepherding activities than we tend to be today in the 21st century here in the Pittsburgh area. So it shouldn’t surprise us that the Holy Spirit has chosen to use this kind of intimate pastoral and shepherding imagery to describe His relationship with His own people. Now while most of us today do not usually run across sheep or shepherds in our daily lives, at least I don’t, I don’t know about you, but I don’t, and while our contemporary world of things like computer technology and industry and concrete and skyscrapers and superhighways and the internet and social media, our world is very different today from the agricultural and pastoral world of Bible times. Nevertheless, even today in the 21st century, we as God’s people can still appreciate and can still benefit from this rich biblical imagery of God as our shepherd and we as the sheep of His pasture.

When God the Holy Spirit inspired the Bible readers to use this kind of shepherd sheep imagery, He knew that it would be of benefit to His people throughout the ages of human history and not just during Bible times. He knew that it would be relevant to His people whether or not they happen to live in the context of a pastoral or shepherding setting. So with that in mind, what do we learn in this passage? As we turn our attention to this portion of 1 Peter, this particular portion of the Word of God where Peter is beginning to wrap up this marvelous epistle, I want us to consider for a few minutes the shepherd heart of God that is reflected in this passage. The shepherd heart of God that is reflected in this passage. We’re not going to get so much into all of the nitty-gritty details of these verses tonight.

We’ll come back to that a little bit more on the next Lord’s Day. But as we consider this kind of shepherding language that the Holy Spirit inspires Peter to use in this passage, I want us to consider what that teaches us about the shepherd heart of our God. Beloved in Christ, I want you to think about it. God is our divine shepherd, and we are the sheep of His pasture. How appropriate this imagery is. You know, sheep, are sheep highly intelligent animals? Are they known for their intelligence? Are they known for their carefulness? Now sheep can sometimes be rather clueless, even sometimes they can behave rather stupidly. As fallen sons and daughters of Adam, how sinful and ignorant we are in and of ourselves. How often we in our sin behave like clueless, stupid sheep who need a shepherd to come and rescue them and rub ointment upon them and heal them and bring them back into the fold.

How often we in our sin behave in this way. As you may know, sheep are quite prone to wander off and how prone we are as God’s sheep to wander from the protection and care of His fold. Sheep are relatively weak animals, prone to exposure not only from the elements, but also danger from wild beasts, and in general, prone to harm brought on by their own cluelessness. Sheep require protection. Sheep require nurture. Sheep require guidance. Sheep require the tender watch care of an alert, protective shepherd. We who are Christ’s sheep also require protection, nurture, guidance, care, and discipline from our loving, divine shepherd. For in this life, we are constantly exposed to spiritual danger and peril from the world, from our own sinful flesh, our fallen nature, and from the devil himself. My dear friends in Christ, it is a deep comfort to know that our loving Heavenly Father shepherds us.

And what a comfort as well to know that the Son of God, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, also shepherds us, for He is the divine shepherd and overseer of our souls. God, the Father, and Christ Jesus, the Son, shepherd us, His sheep. And they do so by the Word and through the Holy Spirit who abides within us and who dwells among us as His people and who leads us by His Word into the pastures of His truth and grace. But we also learn in our text for this evening that our chief shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, chooses to use elders or presbyters of His church as under-shepherds, shepherds under the authority of Christ Himself, the chief shepherd. In other words, Christ chooses to shepherd His people, His church, His flock, primarily through the ministry of under-shepherds, presbyters, elders.

And we who are these under-shepherds, I’m sorry, who are these under-shepherds that Peter is referring to? Whom does he have in mind? Well in verse 1, they are simply called the elders. It says, so I exhort whom? I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder. Notice how Peter describes himself here as a fellow presbyter, a fellow elder. Even though Peter is an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, I talked in my message sermon this morning about the meaning of apostle. An apostle is an officially appointed spokesman for the Lord Jesus Christ, one whom Christ had Himself chosen to be an eyewitness to His resurrection and an official spokesman who speaks with His authority. And Paul, Peter rather, was indeed an apostle. And yet here in this passage, this apostle Peter, he doesn’t throw around his authority in the sense of saying, hey listen, I’m an apostle, he says, as a fellow elder.

He was an apostle, but he exhorts the elders as, not an apostle, but as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ. He reminds them that he witnessed the sufferings of Christ the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep. But not only was he a witness of the sufferings of Christ, he was also a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed, going to be revealed when Christ returns at the end of this age. Now, in verse one, these under shepherds, as I said, are called elders. In the Greek, the word is presbyteros, presbyterous rather, which is a word from which we derive our English word presbyter, presbyter, presbyterian. This is why we are a Presbyterian church. One of the reasons why we are a Presbyterian church is because we believe in following the pattern for church government that is outlined in the word of God, the Bible.

It is a pattern of church government that includes spiritual rule and oversight by church officers who are described in the Bible as elders or presbyters. Now I will, without getting too far into the weeds, I just want to say that it’s my conviction that the particular, the specific elders that Peter has in mind in this particular passage are what we would normally call pastors or ministers or some denominations call them teaching elders in particular, although I believe there are other passages in scripture which indicate that the church officers that we typically call ruling elders also share with pastors or teaching elders in various shepherding responsibilities and therefore the principles of this particular passage can also be applied to ruling elders. But whether or not you agree with that assessment here, and I don’t have time to get into all the reasons for that, but the point is that ruling elders and teaching elders or ministers, pastors, what do they do?

They share together the role of under-shepherds. The task of these under-shepherds, these presbyters, is to shepherd the flock of God by doing what? Let’s look at verse 2. It says, what is it that he exhorts them and appeals to them to do as under-shepherds of Christ? What does he appeal to these elders to do? He says, shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight. Oversight, care, spiritual oversight. They are to shepherd the flock of God. Then he goes into detail to describe how they are to shepherd the flock of God and things that they are to avoid in their shepherding of the flock of God. This was a particularly important exhortation for those who served as elders to Peter’s original first century readers because remember, friends, these readers that Peter is writing 1 Peter 2, these original first century readers were facing a fiery trial of persecution for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ’s sheep, his people, always benefit from the spiritual oversight of faithful elders. But God’s people need special attention and care when they face a fiery trial of persecution such as that which was being faced by the original first century readers of Peter’s first epistle. Beloved, God’s provision of elders to shepherd his people as Christ’s under-shepherds reveals and displays the shepherd heart of God for his people, for his flock. Faithful elders and pastors are Christ’s gift to his church, given to shepherd and care for the sheep whom he laid down his life to redeem. God’s people, however, again, need special care when they face trials and persecutions. How much our Lord cares for us, beloved. Here we see again the shepherd heart of God. How much our Lord cares for us, his sheep. How great his heart of love toward his sheep in blessing them with pastors and elders to shepherd them.

And how weighty the responsibility that rests upon the shoulders of those whom the chief shepherd has called to be his under-shepherds in the church. Under-shepherds who are called to shepherd his flock with great love and care. Under-shepherds who themselves need to be shepherds. I got some news for you, brothers and sisters. Elders also need to be pastored and also need to be under authority and under oversight. A lot of Christians seem to think, oh, well, he’s a pastor, he doesn’t need pastoring. He’s an elder, he’s fine. Those are super-spiritual dudes, right? That’s not how it works. It’s by grace and grace alone. Christ chooses to use those who are themselves sheep. He chooses to gift some of his sheep to serve as his under-shepherds. And this is how he expresses his shepherd heart for his people.

Let me ask you, dear listener, are you part of God’s flock? Do you know Christ as your good shepherd? Christ invites and welcomes and calls all who recognize their sin, all who know their need for a savior to come to him. If you come to Christ, trusting him to save you from your sins, trusting that his blood is sufficient to atone for your sin, if you trust him alone for your salvation, the word of God says that you are his sheep and he is your good shepherd and he laid down his life for you, not just to make salvation possible for you, but to actually redeem you, to actually save you from your sins. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you can be assured you are part of his flock and he will never leave you out of his sight.

He will never let you ultimately be exposed to wolves that will destroy your souls. He will keep you in his sovereign care. Do you know Christ, the good shepherd? And this brings me to my next and final point. As we focus especially on verse 4, there’s a lot in this passage to cover. We’re not going to have time to cover it all tonight, but I want us finally to consider the identity of Christ as our chief shepherd and the elders of the church as his under shepherds. I want us to consider this a little more carefully. The identity of Christ as our chief shepherd and the elders of the church as his under shepherds. It says in verse 4, and when the chief shepherd, that’s Jesus, when he appears, meaning when he appears at his glorious second advent, at the eschaton, at the parousia, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

Not because you merit it or earn it, but it’s a gift of grace. This is the gracious reward given to faithful under shepherds. Now by highlighting Christ as the chief shepherd, Peter is emphasizing the fact that the elders of the church are subordinate to Christ, and that’s very important because there’s a lot of church leaders today, pastors and elders, who forget this fact. See when pastors and elders try to usurp the authority or the prerogatives of the chief shepherd, they end up harming the sheep of Christ. They lord it over God’s flock, and they expose themselves to the judgment of God. For example, and I don’t have time to read it tonight, but if you were to read Ezekiel chapter 34, in that chapter, the Lord Yahweh sharply rebuked the irresponsible spiritual shepherds of Ezekiel’s day and pronounced to them that he was against them.

If God is for you, who can be against you? But if God is against you, you’re toast. Who can be for you? And that’s a warning to the spiritual shepherds who fleeced and abused the sheep in Ezekiel’s day. This is a passage which every under shepherd of Christ needs to take to heart, myself included. Oh, how many of us who are pastors and elders need to take these truths to heart, and how you brothers and sisters need to pray for us that we be faithful in our responsibilities. There was a dear retired minister who used to attend services in the church that I pastored many years ago in New Jersey. He was a retired Bible Presbyterian pastor, and I remember I was talking to this dear brother. He has since gone home to his reward, but I remember talking to him once during coffee time, and he had a habit when he held the coffee cup of kind of, to make a point, he would emphasize it, and so I’m trying to keep from getting sprayed by all the coffee.

But in any case, we were talking about grace, and this brother was named Bob. Brother Bob said to me, yeah, I always tell my people, I need more grace than you. And what he meant by that is he recognized that, look, I stand before the people of God, I expound the word of God, the Bible says as a teacher of the word, I will face a more serious judgment, so I need more grace, because I have more responsibility. And that really stuck with me. Friends, we who are pastors and elders, we must always remember that Christ is himself our chief shepherd. We all need to remember that. And we who are pastors and elders always need to remember that we are only servants, only under shepherds. Only God knows how many pastors and elders there are who lorded over the God’s flock, who basically set themselves up as virtual popes over their local congregations.

That’s not the way Christ designed his church to operate. Beloved, it is a sad reality in Christ’s church that there have been and there continue to be pastors and elders in the churches who serve in the church for less than noble or godly motives. I’m not saying that that is something we should overlook or excuse when it becomes obvious, but sometimes false shepherds or irresponsible shepherds go under the radar and don’t get noticed until it’s too late. No doubt there are some who serve because they’re basically control freaks who enjoy micromanaging and controlling other people’s lives. There are others who serve in these offices who are motivated by greed in desiring to exploit the financial resources of their congregations. Still others serve because of ego, because they view the ministry as a way of building up their own little theological empire or personality cult.

We talked this morning from 1 Corinthians 1 about the danger of personality cults in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Friends in this fallen world there have always been and in this present evil age there will continue to be false and irresponsible under shepherds who sneak into positions of leadership in the church under false pretenses. And the chief shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, will most certainly bring such false and irresponsible shepherds into judgment if by God’s grace, if they do not repent by God’s grace. However friends, the fact that there are some false and irresponsible shepherds in the church of Jesus Christ does not give the sheep of Christ an excuse to show a lack of respect for or to ignore the legitimate authority of true and faithful under shepherds that Christ raises up in his church to exercise spiritual oversight over his sheep.

In fact, again this is going to come at the risk of sounding self-serving, but I would remind all of us beloved that the word of God does command us to honor and obey in the Lord the spiritual elders of the church even though your elders are imperfect sinners who themselves need to be shepherded. Remember that Hebrews 13-17 is in the Bible. Let me just briefly read that passage. Hebrews 13 verse 17 it says this, obey your leaders, he’s talking about church leaders, he’s talking about elders and pastors, obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls. Let me just point out, he’s assuming faithful shepherds who actually do care for the souls of their flock, those who will have to give an account, he says obey your leaders and submit to them, not with blind obedience, not with unquestioning obedience, that’s not what he’s saying, but he’s saying obey them, your general attitude should be one of obedience, obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as it’s those who have to give an account.

Let them do this with joy and not with groaning for that would be of no advantage to you. Couple closing points of application. Remember friends that our Lord Jesus Christ, he is himself the chief shepherd of his people and as his sheep we are responsible to follow our chief shepherd in trust and obedience. Let us make it our aim to follow Christ our good shepherd as his faithful, trusting, obedient and submissive sheep and he will keep us and protect us from the wolves and he will keep us and guide us and lead us beside the still waters. But dear ones, just as all of us are responsible as Christ’s sheep to faithfully follow our chief shepherd, so our chief shepherd also wills for us to follow the biblical lead and direction which he administers through his faithful under shepherds, through the presbyters and elders whom he’s raised up to shepherd and feed to lead and to guide his flock into the green pastures of his word.

Pray for your pastor and your elders and let us all seek to be faithful sheep of Christ trusting in him our chief shepherd, following him out of gratitude for his gift of salvation. Amen. Let us pray. Our gracious Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you and praise you Lord God that Christ is indeed our good shepherd and that he laid down his life for us. We pray that by your grace we would be filled with such gratitude that we would be willing to lay down our lives for our brethren. We ask all these things, Heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said, Amen. As we prepare to celebrate the Lord’s Supper together, I’d invite us to rise and let’s sing together 337, Ah, Holy Jesus, how hast thou offended, 337.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

August 11, 2024
No Divisions!

About this sermon

In a sermon preparing for the Lord’s Supper, Paul greets the church in Corinth as those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be saints, together with all who call on his name. Every true believer is a saint now. Paul thanks God for the grace given them and assures them that God will sustain them to the end. Then he appeals for unity: no divisions, but one mind and one judgment. They are not to rally behind Paul, Apollos, or Cephas, for Christ is not divided, and they received baptism into him alone.

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Sermon transcript

Congregation, please remain standing for the reading of God’s word. We’re going to take a little break from our consideration of the book of the prophet Isaiah to consider a passage from 1 Corinthians chapter 1, the opening passage, 1 Corinthians 1, verses 1 through 17, and you’ll find that on page 1131 in your Pew Bibles. When we consider this passage, especially as we anticipate celebrating the Lord’s Supper this evening, our OPC directory for public worship advises that it is a good thing periodically to preach suitable preparatory sermons on the Lord’s Supper, and so that is the intention of my preaching from this passage this morning. So let us hear God’s holy word, 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 1 through 17. Paul called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sostanese, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.

For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, I follow Paul, or I follow Apollos, or I follow Cephas, or I follow Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. I did baptize also the household of Stephanus. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. Dear ones, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever.

Let’s pray for God to bless the preaching of His Word. Our Lord and Father in heaven, we stand in awe of Your Word, for it is like a two-edged sword dividing even between a soul and spirit, bone and marrow. We would pray that this Word that we consider this morning, that Your Spirit would take this portion of Your Word and apply it powerfully to our hearts. We pray, Lord, that Your Word would find a lodging place in our souls and bear much spiritual fruit in our hearts and lives. Help us to be attentive. Help us to see the relevance of this portion of Scripture, and use this portion of Scripture to build us up in our most holy faith and, most important of all, to build us up in faithfulness to You and in our unity, one with another, as brothers and sisters in the body of Christ.

We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people’s said. Amen. You may be seated. A simple title of my sermon this morning is No Divisions, and there are quite a number of key words that you can listen for. I’d encourage the young people to listen for the following words in my sermon today, the words, unity, sanctified, holy, hope, blameless, division, and factions. Well, we are considering a portion of Scripture from the pen of the Apostle Paul, and my dear Christian friends, fellow disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, the letters or epistles of St. Paul the Apostle are deep and rich and weighty writings, and they had a profound effect upon the development and the spread of Christianity in the context of the first century Roman Empire, especially as Paul was called as an apostle to the Gentiles.

Through God’s sovereign hand of providence, Paul was raised up to be a theological genius, and from a very early date the apostolic church recognized Paul’s writings as bearing the marks of being specially inspired, breathed out by the Holy Spirit, and thus they have taken their place rightly as part of the canon of Holy Scripture, and are rightly recognized as being part of the written Word of God. Now, if you are familiar with the writings of Paul in the New Testament, you will realize that most of Paul’s letters are what scholars would call occasional letters, which is to say that Paul wrote his letters to address particular occasions or particular circumstances or problems in the life of the early churches to which he wrote. Paul’s epistles to the Corinthian church, known as 1st and 2nd Corinthians in our Bibles, are just such occasional letters.

In 1 Corinthians, St. Paul is writing in response to various issues and problems and questions that face the members of the church at Corinth. And while the Corinthian church was blessed with many spiritual gifts, many gifts of the Holy Spirit, it was also a church that was plagued with many problems and indeed plagued with many sins. These problems and sins included such things as divisions in the church, pride, litigation amongst its members, sexual immorality, idolatry, abuses of the Lord’s Supper, I mean there were some who were actually getting drunk at their celebrations of the Lord’s Supper, and of course abuses of the spiritual gifts and so forth. Of these many serious problems confronting this first century church, it would seem that one of the biggest problems, the problem that Paul addresses right out of the gate here in 1 Corinthians was the problem of division and factionalism amongst the members of the church.

Throughout this epistle of 1 Corinthians, Paul makes it clear to the Corinthians and thus the Holy Spirit makes it clear to us that no divisions are acceptable in the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. At least not the kinds of divisions that the Corinthians were experiencing and were guilty of. And certainly if division occurs because heretics cut themselves off from the church or apostates leave the church, that’s one thing the New Testament tells us to expect, those kinds of divisions. But divisions amongst those who hold to the same gospel and confess the same Lord, that’s another question, that’s another thing. Among the churches, no such divisions over the gospel are acceptable. Now Paul wrote 1 Corinthians while he was in the city of Ephesus. He probably wrote this letter probably sometime in the spring of either 53, 54, or 55 AD.

The scholars debate which of those years he wrote this letter in which he wrote this letter. And one commentator writes that Paul’s goal in writing this epistle is that he, quote, wants them, he wants the Corinthians to drop their divisive one-upmanship, build up the faith of those who are weak and witness effectively to unbelievers. Well dear ones, in light of the fact that we are scheduled to celebrate the Lord’s Supper during our evening service coming up tonight, it is most appropriate that we consider the importance of the church’s unity. What does the Lord’s Supper have to do with the unity of the church you may say? Well one of the spiritual realities that is signified and symbolized by the Lord’s Supper is our union and communion with one another as members of the body of Christ.

Not only does the Lord’s Supper highlight and signify and seal our union and communion with our resurrected and reigning Lord Jesus Christ, it also symbolizes our union as brothers and sisters in the body of Christ for we all share in common in the Lord’s Supper. As our OPC form of government acknowledges in chapter four, section four, the chapter on the unity of the church, it says, the visible unity of the body of Christ, though not altogether destroyed, is greatly obscured by the division of the Christian church into different groups or denominations. Now you may wonder, okay pastor, what’s your real agenda in preaching from this passage? Let me just assure you that by preaching from this passage, I’m not at all meaning to suggest that Grace OPC faces the same kinds of challenges and issues that were faced by the first century church of Corinth.

We have our own issues, every church this side of glory has its issues and its problems and its struggles, but at the same time brothers and sisters, this epistle offers a great deal of wisdom and guidance for Christ’s church in all ages of church history, including the church today in the 21st century. And I believe brothers and sisters that we would do well to heed the divine instructions that are contained in this marvelous divinely inspired epistle. So let’s dive in and let me draw your attention to the opening three verses of this passage. And we learn from these verses, from this opening section, that our Christian unity is rooted in our shared position as sanctified ones. That is to say, as those who have been called to be holy, called to be saints. This is the first point in your sermon outline.

Our Christian unity is rooted in our shared position as sanctified ones, as those who have been called to be holy, called to be saints. Now Paul follows the typical practice of letter writing in the first century, which is kind of different from the way that letter writing goes today. I know nowadays actually writing a physical letter is not a very common practice anymore. But if you were to write a letter, how would you start it off? Well, you would say, dear, so and so. You would first address the recipient of the letter. And then you would probably have an opening greeting. And then you’d have the content of the letter. And then you would sign your name at the end. But the epistolary practice, the practice of letter writing in the first century was kind of different.

If you were writing in the first century, you would open up your epistolary, your letter, by first of all, identifying yourself. You would sign your name first. And then you would address the recipients. So that’s why Paul begins 1 Corinthians by identifying himself. He signs his name, if you will, right out of the gate. And he identifies himself as Paul, Paulos in the Greek. Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus and our brother, Sosthenes. So how does Paul identify himself? Not only does he identify his name, he says that he has been called by the will of God. It has been God’s sovereign will that he be called vocationally speaking to be an apostle. Now, what is an apostle? We have folks today claiming to be apostles. Are they?

Are there apostles in the church today? Well, that term apostle can have sort of a generic use. It’s a word that can mean messenger or even missionary. So in that kind of informal, non-technical sense, yes, our missionaries are in that generic sense apostles. But Paul is identifying himself, I believe, as an apostle in the specific technical sense. An apostle in this specific technical sense was someone who had been directly commissioned by Christ himself to serve as his authoritative spokesman, his authoritative messenger. And one of the qualifications for being an apostle was that you had to have been an eyewitness to the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. Paul saw Jesus, the resurrected Jesus. He didn’t just have a subjective hallucination or vision of the Lord Jesus. Jesus actually appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus, just as the resurrected Lord Jesus had appeared to the other 11 disciples after his resurrection from the dead.

So Paul was indeed an eyewitness of the resurrected Christ. And no one who claims to be an apostle today can claim to have been an eyewitness to the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. And that’s why we in the OPC believe that there are no apostles in the technical sense today. Now why does Paul, right out of the gates, identify himself as an apostle? Well, it’s likely that Paul begins this letter by identifying himself as an apostle of Christ because his apostolic authority was being challenged and questioned by some in the Corinthian church. So that’s why in identifying himself, he calls himself, he highlights his office and his calling as an apostle of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. And then he is saying, he also acknowledges that he writes in cooperation with our brother Sosthenes. Who was Sosthenes?

Well, Sosthenes, this is perhaps the same Sosthenes mentioned in Acts chapter 18 verse 17. And Sosthenes had been the synagogue ruler in Corinth when Paul first visited that city. So here again, Paul identifies himself and then what does he say? He then addresses, he then names his addressees. And he says in verse 2, to the church of God. Now that’s significant. Church of God. If I’m remembering my research correctly, this is one of only three times when Paul addresses the church as the church of God. Usually he just says to the church of the Thessalonians or to the church of Christ or what have you. But here it’s the church of God. Why does Paul identify the church to which he’s writing as the church of God? Well, I suspect that the reason that he’s doing this, and perhaps he has in the background of his mind the fact that this terminology is similar to the way that the old covenant church was spoken of.

Namely as a congregation of God. A congregation, a covenant congregation gathered together for the worship of God. In any case, he addresses the church of God, that’s a generic term for the church universal. But it’s not just the church universal, the church of God that is in Corinth. The church has an address. The visible church has an address, and it has a definite membership to it. And then he specifies, he gets more specific about those whom he is addressing. He says to those sanctified or set apart in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. Here Paul identifies the intended recipients of his letter as the church of God that is in Corinth. This is a local expression of the universal church.

The universal church including all of those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. In verse two upholds what could be called the catholicity of the church. That term Catholic doesn’t mean Roman Catholic. The term Catholic is a perfectly fine term. It means universal. It’s referring to all true believers scattered throughout the world, all who profess the true faith of Christ united together in the worship of Christ as Lord and Savior. So again he starts off reminding us of the connectionalism of the visible church. Independence by the way is not a biblical form of church government. The churches of the New Testament were connectional. They were connected to each other and they recognized their spiritual unity with other local congregations of this universal church of God.

And then after identifying himself and identifying his recipients he pens those familiar words in verse three, the words of the apostolic salutation which you hear every week at the beginning of each worship service. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in saying this is Paul just saying wishing them well? No friends, Paul as an official spokesman of the Lord Jesus Christ declares authoritatively to the church of God at Corinth that God’s grace and peace rests upon them. And this is the importance by the way of the salutation as well as the benediction at the end of the service. The salutation is not just the pastor saying hey welcome on in, hope you’re all doing well. No it’s Jesus himself through his minister declaring to his people my grace, my peace rests upon you, you who are believers in Christ.

And so this is how he opens up the letter. Now what are some of the things that we can derive? What are some of the lessons we can learn from this opening section? Well first of all notice believers, brothers and sisters, we are already in principle, in position and by identity we are already sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints, set apart ones. Sometimes you hear folks say well I love Jesus, I try my best to be a faithful follower of Jesus but I’m no saint. Let me tell you this, according to the Bible if you are in Christ and indwelt by the Holy Spirit you are a saint. You are a saint. You don’t have to wait until you get to heaven to be a saint. If you have been truly converted, if you are repentant for your sins and trusting Christ alone for your salvation, the Bible addresses you as a saint and you say well I don’t always feel like a saint, I don’t always behave like a saint.

That may be true but if you are in Christ you are sanctified, you are a saint. As you would see if you read first and second Corinthians carefully, the Corinthians did not always act very saintly but in terms of their position before God they were saints, they were set apart ones. This is what the theologians would call positional sanctification or definitive sanctification and that is the foundation of progressive sanctification where we grow in the knowledge and love of the Lord Jesus and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness. The challenge and adventure of discipleship is learning to live out in our daily practice what we already are in principle and by our spiritual identity before God. If Christ is truly your Savior from sin, if you’ve received and rested upon Christ and Christ alone for your salvation from sin, then you are already a saint, a sanctified or holy or set apart one.

Christian, are you living in practice like the saint that you already are in position and by your identity in Christ? And Church of God also consider that since we all share a common position and status and identity before the Lord as his saints, his holy ones, his sanctified ones, let’s treat one another as the brothers and sisters in Christ that we are, as brothers and sisters who share a common calling as saints. Let us not harm the communion of the saints through divisive behaviors, attitudes or actions. Instead, by the grace of God, let us manifest the holy status that God has graciously bestowed upon us by making every effort to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. So friends, we have considered that our Christian unity is rooted in our shared position as saints, as sanctified ones.

But next, as we move on to the next section, which we’ll cover very briefly, verses four through nine, this opening Thanksgiving, we consider next that the hope we share in common is a hope that should strengthen our Christian unity as we make our pilgrimage to glory. The hope that we share in common as brothers and sisters in Christ is a hope that should strengthen our Christian unity as we make our pilgrimage to glory. We learn in this passage that this is the hope that God is faithful to sustain us to the end so that we might be found blameless on the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. As it says in verse four, as Paul again following that typical pattern of the way letters were written in the first century, he has his opening Thanksgiving.

And he says, I give thanks to my God always for what? Does he say to the Corinthians, I thank my God that you guys are so great, that you’re walking so faithful, so worthily? No, Paul’s going to have a lot of rebuke and pastoral correction to offer in this letter. But he doesn’t, he doesn’t mention that right out of the gates. He sets the tone of the whole letter by saying, I thank my God always because of the grace that was given you in union with Christ Jesus. Though the Corinthian believers have many problems and have many things that they a great deal of Christian growth that needs to take place in their lives and in their congregation, Paul still recognizes the grace of God that has been at work in their midst. And he thanks God for his grace.

And then he goes on to say, he thanks God for the grace that in every way. And this particular grace that he focuses in on is what we might call a serving grace. God had richly blessed the Corinthian church with many gifts of the Holy Spirit. Some of those gifts, of course, are gifts that we would not expect in the church today. The Corinthian church was blessed with many revelatory and signed gifts. They were blessed with words of wisdom and prophecy, as well as miraculous gifts, healings, speaking in tongues, and so forth. And we ought not to expect those gifts to be operating today because of the fact that we now have the full and complete canon of Holy Scripture. Yet the Holy Spirit does continue to gift God’s people in the church, even though we should not expect to be speaking in tongues or have the gift of faith healing, although we should certainly pray, we believe that God does sometimes choose to miraculously heal people in response to prayer.

And yet, nevertheless, the Holy Spirit gives so many gifts. There are non-miraculous continuing gifts that the Spirit continues to give to the church today. And in any case, the Corinthian church had a super abundance of these grace gifts from the Lord. And Paul thanks God for that. He says he thanks the Lord for the grace that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you. Now what is Paul referring to when he talks about the testimony of Christ, the testimony of the gospel being confirmed among them? There’s different views of what that could mean. Perhaps he’s speaking about the fact that these gifts of the Holy Spirit confirmed the truth of Christ that they had believed through the preaching of Paul.

But nevertheless, whatever that’s referring to, he goes on to say in verse 7, so that you are not lacking in any gift. They’re incredibly gifted. You’re not lacking in any gift as you do what? As you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. What revealing is he talking about there? He’s talking about the second coming. And this is the stance of the church ever since the first century, that we await the glorious return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and we live and operate in the church in light of that future eschatological glorious return of Christ at the end of this age. But then he goes on again to say this in verse 8, this Lord Jesus Christ, and again notice that he repeatedly says, our Lord Jesus Christ, he gives the full name and title of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is the divine Lord, the God man, the Messiah, that this Lord Jesus Christ will do what according to verse 8, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This dysfunctional church with so many sins, so many problems, so many weaknesses, nonetheless Paul expresses gospel confidence that even in their case, God is able to sustain them to the end, faithful, even guiltless unto the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we have here, this is a passage that underscores and bolsters our belief, our confidence in the security of the true believer in Christ. And then he goes on to reaffirm what he just said in verse 8, he says, God is faithful. You may not be faithful, we are often unfaithful, but God is faithful and it is by him by whom This is speaking of the saving effectual call, not just the general gospel call, although the saving call comes through the general call of the gospel, but God has sovereignly called you in grace into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

You’ve been savingly called into union with Christ, God who began a good work on you will carry it through to the day of Christ. He will carry through to completion unto the day of Christ in spite of all of these sins and problems and issues in the church. Beloved, not only do we share a common status and position before the Lord as his holy ones, his sanctified ones, his set apart ones, his saints, but by his sovereign grace, we also share a common hope, a common destiny. We who know Christ, we are all heading in the same eschatological direction. Now you may say, well wait a minute pastor, is it a hope or is it a certainty? Now when we use the term hope, and I’ve explained this before, but it’s good to be reminded of this, when we use the term hope, we often imply a certain amount of uncertainty.

You might say something like, I really hope the American economy doesn’t face a depression. Now in saying that, you’re expressing a wish and there’s some question about whether or not that wish will be fulfilled. But when the Bible talks about the hope of the gospel, it’s not talking about something that is uncertain, rather it is talking about something that is an absolute certainty and yet still in our future. We who are in Christ, we have been saved, but will we be ultimately saved? Well what does Paul say? The Lord Jesus Christ will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord, and as Paul writes elsewhere in Philippians chapter 1, he who has begun a good work in you will carry it through to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

So our Christian hope is not an oh I hope I’ll make it in the end, no. Our Christian hope is the certainty of our final salvation, our eternal inheritance, and we can walk in confidence that as the scripture says in Romans 8, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. If you are in union with Christ, you need not fear condemnation. That doesn’t mean it’s okay to get lazy in your walk with the Lord, not at all. In fact, this certainty should motivate you and spur you on to greater action and greater faithfulness. But you are secure, so live in the joy and confidence of that security. Well a couple points of application before we move on to the final point and wrap up our time. First of all friends, as we see, the Corinthian church was a very gifted congregation.

Many grace gifts, many gifts of the Holy Spirit. But the presence of abundant spiritual gifts in their congregation did not in and of itself produce spiritual fruit in the life of their church. This my friends is very instructive to us because it indicates that the presence of spiritual gifts, including gifts of the Holy Spirit, that’s what spiritual gifts mean, gifts of the Holy Spirit. The presence of such gifts does not itself guarantee spiritual maturity or the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. We can praise God for the gifts that he gives, but we need to remember that the gifts of the Spirit are to be exercised in service to the fruit of the Spirit. Many today boast in gifts, their gifts, but oftentimes those who boast in their gifts are lacking, sadly lacking in the fruit of the Spirit.

Today we pray that God in his grace would not only gift us as a congregation, but would enable us to receive those gifts and use those gifts in a way that bears fruit in spiritual maturity and growth in grace. We also are reminded in this passage that we serve a faithful covenant-keeping God, a God who will complete the work that he has begun in us. Dear believer, hold fast your confidence that God will preserve you blameless on the day of the Lord Jesus Christ, just as he promises to. Grab hold of this promise and believe it and live your life in light of it. But finally, beloved, and we don’t have a lot of time to spend in this final section, but the final point I want to make based on verses 10 through 17 is that since Christ himself is not divided, we who are his body, his church, must not be divided by worldly things such as personality, cults, hero worship, or factions.

Christ, the God-man, the Word-made flesh, our all-sufficient Savior, he is not divided, he is one Christ. And therefore we who are his body, his church, we must not be divided by worldly things such as personality, cults, hero worship, or factions. Let me just read a couple of these verses here in this passage. Paul begins to start addressing some of the problems in the Corinthian church here in verse 10, and he begins not by harshly addressing them. He addresses them very pastorally with a great deal of love and with an appeal, not with an order, not say, I’m an apostle, you better listen to me and shape up. He does kind of get that tone a little bit later on, but he says here at the outset, I appeal to you, brothers, brothers, and you know, he includes the sisters as well in that terminology, he’s using it generically, I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, in other words, I appeal to you on the basis of who Jesus is and all that he’s done, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.

And then he explains why he’s given this appeal, he explains the reason for this appeal in the following verses, for it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people, we’re not sure who Chloe’s people were, there’s debate about that, but he’s been given insider information that there is quarreling among you, my brothers, and then he explains the kind of quarreling he’s talking about, he says, what I mean is that each one of you says, I follow Paul, and so you had the Paul contingent in the church, others said, I follow Apollos, Apollos was a great teacher in the early church, or I follow Cephas, that would be Peter, perhaps those were the Jewish Christians in the Corinthian congregation, say, well we follow St. Peter, being an apostle to the Jews, and some of them, apparently, claim to be above it all, well I follow Christ, I’m not schismatic like you guys, I follow Christ, right?

And then he asks the question in verse 13, is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name, Paul’s focus when he was with the Corinthians was preaching the gospel to them, not administering the sacraments, and then he has, we have here a divinely inspired record of apostolic memory lapse, as Paul goes on to say in verse 18, parenthetically, well I did also baptize the household of Stephanus, beyond that I do not know whether I baptized anyone else, for Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, that was another thing that the Corinthians were into, is wisdom, but he did not make it his goal to preach the gospel in fancy terminology, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Apparently there were factions in the church and people that would attach themselves to their favorite preachers and perhaps their favorite apostle, perhaps the one that had baptized them. In any case, we see the problem here, division, factionalism, but Paul reminds us Christ is not divided, we should not be either. Now friends, back in the earlier days, and I’ve shared this story before so forgive me if it’s repetitious to you, but in the earlier days of my ministry when I served in orthodox Presbyterian mission work in New Jersey, I remember during one of my sermons offering some criticisms of a popular television preacher for some serious doctrinal errors that he was promoting in one of his books, a book that I happened to have in my pastor’s library, and so I mentioned this man and his teachings and I was critical.

Now a dear sister in Christ in the congregation at the time got very upset with me that I would dare to offer public criticism of this particular preacher, this popular celebrity preacher. I criticized him by name and she was just really upset by that. Now if you’ve sat under my preaching for any length of time, you know brothers and sisters I don’t usually make a practice of criticizing other preachers by name from the pulpit, but in this particular case I was convinced and I believe I was right at the time, I believe I was justified to offer a warning about the particular false doctrine that this man was teaching in his book. I wasn’t saying that everything that this man taught or preached was bad or wrong, much of what he preached was edifying and helpful, but in this particular book he was teaching false doctrine that really struck at the heart of the gospel, so I felt the need to warn the congregation.

I admit I probably could have been a bit more diplomatic or nuanced, maybe not pounded the pulpit quite so much when I made the criticism, I get it. I was young in the ministry, but what struck me brothers and sisters about this dear sister’s reaction is that it seemed to me to be a symptom of a really big problem in the American church, the same problem apparently that was found in the Corinthian church, and that is the problem of cults of personality and devotion to celebrities, in our case celebrity preachers. Just as the world has its celebrities, especially actors, musicians, entertainers, and nowadays social media influencers, well friends just as that’s the case in the world, so we in the church, we have our own celebrities don’t we, let’s be honest. The danger here is that our devotion to our favorite celebrity preacher can tend to outweigh our devotion to the truth of God’s word, and this is similar to what was going on in the Corinthian church, but Paul says in verse 10, brothers I appeal to you by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you.

When he says all of you agree, that could literally mean say the same thing, in other words avoid party cries, be united, the Greek indicates be mended. And so what can we learn from all of this? Many things, but let me just mention as we close our time in the word a couple brief points of application. First of all friends, we can certainly be thankful for the gifts of teaching and preaching that God has given to his church, and we can be thankful for the teachers and preachers that God raises up to lead and to instruct his church. We stand on the shoulders of giants, we can learn from the great theologians and Bible scholars of the past, and we can appreciate the preaching gifts of those whom God has raised up in the present church as well.

But at the same time, let us be warned against factionalism and against exalting any man above Christ, even if that man’s name happens to be, oh I don’t know, Martin Luther, John Calvin, J. Gressam Machen, John Knox, Cornelius Van Til, Gerhardus Voss, or even R.C. Sproul. Brothers and sisters, these are great men of God, incredibly gifted in their theological gifts, we can learn much from them, let’s appreciate them, let’s use them, let’s learn from them, but let us also avoid becoming factionalists. Let us avoid the, well I’m of Calvin, or I am of Machen, or I’m of Van Til, or I’m of Gerstner, or I’m of Sproul. Let us be of Christ. And finally, take to heart the fact that gospel-grounded Christian unity in the church is not an option for we are one in Christ.

Paul is not saying be united for unity’s sake alone. He’s not talking about unity for unity’s sake alone. He’s talking about unity in Christ, unity in the truth of the gospel. We must maintain that unity. May God grant us the grace to do so. Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you that we are one in Christ by your spirit and through the word. We thank you that we are sanctified, set apart ones. We would ask that you would help us, Lord, to walk together as brothers and sisters in Christ, to study the word together, to confess Christ together, to live out our callings, our vocations together faithfully. We pray all of these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said. Amen. As we close our time of worship, let’s rise and we’ll sing together hymn 488, May the Mind of Christ my Savior, 488.

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August 11, 2024
The Fiery Trial

About this sermon

Peter tells believers not to be surprised at the fiery trial, as though something strange were happening, but to rejoice in sharing Christ’s sufferings, for the Spirit of glory rests on them. They do not add to his atonement; their suffering resembles his. They must not suffer as wrongdoers, but if as Christians, they should not be ashamed. Judgment begins at the household of God, a refining that separates true believers from false, so those who suffer entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

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Sermon transcript

Please open God’s Word as we continue our consideration of 1 Peter. We are approaching the latter part of this book, this letter, and tonight we are in 1 Peter chapter 4. We will consider verses 12 through 19 of 1 Peter chapter 4. I’m going to begin reading at verse 7 to remind us of the fuller context, but our focus will be especially on verses 12 through 19. You’ll find this on page 1206 in your Pew Bibles. Dear friends, let us hear God’s Holy Word. The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace.

Whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evildoer, or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.

For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God, and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? Therefore, let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, once again we pray that by your spirit you would give us wisdom and insight as we consider this portion of Holy Scripture, and we pray that by your spirit your word would find a lodging place in our souls, and that you would bear much spiritual fruit in our lives through the word that we consider this evening.

Give me grace, Lord, to declare your word with clarity and power and faithfulness this evening, and give us the grace, Lord, to hear your word and to embrace it by faith with reverence and awe. In Jesus’ name we pray, and all of God’s people said, Amen. You may be seated. The title of my sermon this evening is The Fiery Trial, and four key words for the children to listen for this evening are the words suffering, rejoice, judgment, and persecution. Well, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, when we celebrate the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, which we are scheduled to do on the next Lord’s Day evening, we are reminded in that sacramental celebration that our Savior Jesus Christ suffered for us and for our salvation. Now throughout this epistle, St. Peter the Apostle has repeatedly highlighted and reminded his readers of Christ’s sufferings for them.

For example, let me just remind you of a few passages where the sufferings of Christ are brought to our attention. If you look back at chapter two, let me read once again chapter two verses 21 through 25, where Peter writes this, For to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued in trusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed, for you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

Or consider what he says in chapter 3 verse 18, where he wrote, For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit. Or consider chapter 4 verse 1, Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, in view of all that Christ has suffered for us, we who by sovereign grace are united to him by faith should not be surprised when God in his providence calls upon us to share in the same kinds of sufferings that were experienced by our Lord. Now of course, unlike the sufferings of the Lord Jesus, our sufferings as believers cannot, indeed they do not atone for sin in any way, nor do they have the power to redeem.

You can’t atone for your own sins by your own suffering, much less atone for the sins of others. Only Jesus was qualified to do that. But at the same time, the sufferings of believers may, and they often do, play an important role in furthering God’s kingdom purposes within history. Dear ones, when we suffer graciously and with Christian dignity, loving our enemies, praying even for those who persecute us, when we exhibit that kind of Christ-like love even in the midst of hostility, that can be a powerful witness for Christ and may even be used by God as a means of bringing his enemies to repentance and faith in Christ. Think about the Apostle Paul, Saul of Tarsus, right? Paul was a witness of the martyrdom of Stephen, and no doubt that made a powerful impact upon him as he witnessed Stephen’s gracious martyrdom as Stephen prayed for those who were stoning him.

As we saw when we considered verses 7 through 11 of this chapter, the Apostle Peter had taken a brief break from this theme of suffering for righteousness’ sake in order to direct the attention of his readers to do those things which are necessary to maintain the strength and the vitality of the church, especially as the church faces hostility and persecution. And these necessary components to a strong and healthy church include such things as living a life of self-control and earnest prayer, fervent love for the Christian brotherhood, and a strong love for the Christian brotherhood and using our spiritual gifts to benefit our brothers and sisters in Christ. But here in verse 12, Peter begins a new section as he returns to the theme of suffering for our faith in Christ. In this section, Peter recaps and he fills out some of the points that he’d already made earlier in this epistle as he begins to wrap up his letter.

And so let us now turn our attention to considering the details of this passage of God’s Word. And I first want to have us focus on verses 12 through 14 as we consider here the privilege of being a participant in Christ’s sufferings, the privilege of being a participant in Christ’s sufferings. As he says in verse 12, beloved, again notice how he addresses his readers. He loves them. He has a pastor’s heart for them and he wants what is best for them. He says, beloved, do not be surprised or as some translations put it, think it not strange at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice in so far as you share Christ’s sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. Brothers and sisters in Christ, the sufferings that we may face because of our faith commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ really should not surprise us. Now we live in America. We enjoy the blessing of religious liberty and we’re able to gather freely without fear of legal overt legal persecution or imprisonment or worse just because we gather for the worship of God and we should thank God for this wonderful privilege. But this is not the norm throughout Christian history. In fact, in the opening verses of this passage, the inspired apostle exhorts God’s people with the words, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you. In other words, opposition to the sovereign lordship of Jesus Christ and hostility toward his gospel and his people, this is to be expected as the norm in this present evil age.

Being opposed and slandered and even perhaps persecuted for seeking to be faithful disciples of Christ ordinarily goes with the territory when it comes to following Jesus, when it comes to seeking to live a faithful Christian life. Remember that our savior warned us, beloved, that as his followers we would experience the same kinds of sufferings that he had to endure. For example, let me take you to a few passages where Jesus makes this very clear, where the word makes it very clear. In John chapter 15 verses 18 through 20, John chapter 15 verses 18 through 20, we read these words. The Lord Jesus says, if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. And the Apostle John reflects this teaching in his own epistle, 1 John chapter 3 verse 13. If you look at 1 John chapter 3 verse 13, the Apostle John writes these words. He says, do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. Don’t be surprised. Don’t let it shock you. Now again, because it’s not usual in our experience here in America, it might tend to shock us if in God’s providence persecution should ever come our way, but we should not be surprised at it. We also should remember as well what our Lord said in Luke 6 verse 26 in one of his woes.

He says, woe to you when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets. If you never face pushback or opposition for your faith in Christ, if everyone always speaks well of you and is never critical of you for your stance of faith, well maybe there’s something awry there. We need to be warned about that. So tempting to seek the world’s accolades and affirmation. Brothers and sisters, when we face the fiery trial because we confess Jesus Christ as Lord, when we confess him as the one and only way of salvation and because we seek to live in submission to his Lordship and in obedience to his holy word, when we face pushback and hostility and opposition and persecution for such things, the Holy Spirit through Peter says, do not be surprised.

Do not think it’s strange. Instead, rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings. Now it’s important that we understand, I want to make a few clarifications here about what Peter is not saying in this passage. First of all friends, understand that Peter is not telling us to rejoice in suffering itself. He’s not saying that suffering in and of itself is a good thing. The kind of masochism that takes a perverse pleasure in suffering for suffering’s sake is the furthest thing from Peter’s thinking here. Secondly, understand that Peter is not telling us as believers to seek out persecution, to seek out suffering. If you’re not presently experiencing persecution in your life, don’t think to yourself, oh well maybe I’m not radical enough in my discipleship so I need to go out and actually look for persecution.

I need to seek it out. No, that’s not what Peter is saying. He doesn’t say seek out suffering, seek out persecution. If suffering for our faith happens to come into our lives, we should be prepared to suffer for righteousness sake, but we should never seek it out. If we live faithfully to Christ and to his gospel, it will come in one form or another to one degree or another. It’s very likely to come, so don’t seek it out. Well what is the purpose of Christian suffering? Well Peter makes that very clear in verse 12. He says, beloved do not be surprised at the fiery trial. He expresses or describes this persecution as a fiery trial when it comes to you to do what? To test you. The Lord doesn’t tempt us to do wickedness, but the Lord does test us.

The fiery trial here that is referred to here, the Greek term that is translated as fiery trial, is the word pyrosis and it literally means burning. It occurs in the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint, in the metaphor of the refining of metals. So in other words, beloved, just as metals are refined and purified in the fire, so trials and persecutions are used by our sovereign God to purify and refine us in our sanctification. This is what Peter is getting at when he says that these trials come to test you. They are for the purpose not of crushing you, but of purifying you, refining you, and conforming you into the image of Christ. And he goes on to say, rejoice, verse 13, but rejoice in so far as you share in Christ’s sufferings. What does it mean to share in Christ’s sufferings?

I mean, Christ did suffer horribly, especially in his crucifixion. Well, obviously this does not mean that our sufferings as Christians somehow help Christ to atone for our sins. Our sufferings as Christians we don’t participate in Christ’s sufferings in the sense that we contribute to his atonement. No, that’s a blasphemous thought. Jesus alone paid the penalty for our sin. And while there are different ideas about what it does mean to participate in Christ’s sufferings, the simplest explanation seems to be that our suffering for our faith resembles Christ’s sufferings. It means experiencing the same kinds of sufferings that Christ experienced. I mean, what are some of the sufferings that Christ endured? Well, Christ was mocked and he was ridiculed. Christ was misunderstood. Christ was marginalized and he was slandered. And not only that, he was outright mistreated and crucified.

And so we participate in Christ’s sufferings by enduring things like slander and suffering unjustly at the hands of the wicked. And we suffer in this way simply because of our allegiance to God’s kingdom. And Peter makes an astounding claim here. He says that we are to rejoice. Rejoice in so far as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also be glad when his glory is revealed. He says if you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed. Oh, this is the opposite of the way that the world thinks, isn’t it? If you suffer for the sake of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. He gives some reasons here in verses 13 and 14 why we are blessed if we partake of Christ’s sufferings and why such suffering should actually lead us to rejoice.

Again, he’s not calling us to rejoice in suffering for suffering sake, but when we suffer as Christians because of our allegiance to Christ in his gospel, that is a good thing. That is something that we can rejoice in. First of all, we are to rejoice in so far as we share in Christ’s sufferings that when his glory is revealed, we may be glad with exceeding joy. When you endure suffering because of your Christian faith, it reminds you that there is glory. There is a crown to come. It’s not a crown that you earn by your works or by the merit of your suffering, but it is a crown of grace that God gives to Christ’s disciples on that final day. We rejoice in so far as we share in Christ’s sufferings so that when his glory is revealed, we may be glad with exceeding joy.

Now, don’t misunderstand what Peter is saying here. This does not mean that suffering for our faith somehow earns us eternal glory, but it does seem to indicate that the way that we respond to suffering for our professed Christian faith is an indication of whether or not our trust in Christ is genuine. If we counted a privilege to suffer shame for the name of Christ and if we know that the end of that suffering leads to ultimate glory, well then it shows that our faith in Christ is a living faith and that should bolster and strengthen our hope and our assurance. We are also to rejoice in so far as we share in Christ’s sufferings, for we are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon us, as we’re told here in verse 14.

Now, when Peter here uses this term glory, he may be alluding to what I mentioned, what I spoke about in my sermon this morning, namely the Shekinah glory of God, the glory cloud which hovered over the tabernacle in the Old Testament and which dwelt in the Jerusalem temple and which symbolized God’s presence with his people and his special protection of them. Peter’s words would seem to indicate that believers who suffer for the name of Christ are blessed with a special presence of the Holy Spirit who rests upon them in grace and blessing. Now, all Christians, whether they’re persecuted or not, the Holy Spirit abides in all of us. He indwells us and he is amongst us and in us, but there’s a sense in which the spirit of glory rests in a special way upon those who suffer shame for the name of Christ.

Believer, however others may react to your confession of Christ, know that you are truly blessed even when you are reviled and insulted because you are a Christian. You’re blessed not because suffering in and of itself is a blessing, you’re blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. Dear listener, are you a true Christian? Have you embraced and confessed Jesus Christ as your very own Lord and Savior and are you willing by the grace of God to confess him before others? As we move on in our passage to verses 15 and 16, we consider next the kind of suffering to be avoided in contrast with Christian suffering. Peter next points out the kind of suffering that we Christians should seek to avoid in contrast with Christian suffering. He says in verse 15, but let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler, yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, a Christ follower, if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed but let him glorify God in that name.

That name meaning either the name of Christ or the name Christian. Now in verse 15 he says, let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief. Now these types of these descriptions, the murderer and the thief, this indicates criminal behavior. Let not the Christian suffer for criminal behavior but he also uses terms that refer to non-criminal yet sinful behavior. By the way, every genuine crime is a sin but not every sin is a crime in the realm of the civil realm. But evildoer and meddler, these are terms that can refer to non-criminal though sinful behaviors. Being a good witness for Christ friends means more than merely avoiding overtly criminal and extreme behaviors. All unseemly and sinful behavior must be avoided for the sake of our witness for Christ. And Peter’s point here is that there’s no virtue in patiently suffering the consequences of your own sinful behaviors and choices.

Let me give you an example. Not all suffering leads to the kind of blessing that Peter had referred to in the previous verse. There’s nothing noble about suffering the consequences of your own wrongdoing. And so for example, if you steal an item from a store and have to face legal consequences for shoplifting because you get caught, perhaps those legal consequences would include having a criminal record and perhaps even having to do some jail time. There is nothing virtuous about patiently bearing up under such suffering in those circumstances. In that case, the consequences that you are suffering are deserved consequences. Contrary to what our culture tells us, our culture constantly gives us the message that, well, you know, we’re all basically good people. We make mistakes, you know. No. And our mistakes, if we mess up and make mistakes, we should blame society or blame our upbringing or whatever.

No. You and I are held responsible before God. We are moral agents. We have personal agency. And so if you suffer the consequences of your own sinful attitudes, actions or behaviors, there’s nothing virtuous about suffering patiently the consequences of your own evil. If a college student cheats on an important test that he must pass in order to graduate and is caught with the consequence that his professor fails him for that course and therefore he is unable to graduate, there’s nothing noble about that student patiently enduring the penalty for his sinful behavior. I think you get the point. Many other examples could be given. Beloved, as followers of Christ, we need to make sure that we do not suffer as a result of evil or sinful or unbecoming behavior. But if we suffer because we are persecuted for our Christian faith, if we suffer because we are Christians, not because we’re obnoxious or because we’re we’re misbehaving, but because we’re Christians, then let us not be ashamed of our suffering.

Let us not be ashamed of Christ. Instead, let us glorify God in that name. And finally, as Peter wraps up this section here of our passage for this evening, we note that God, we note the distinction being made between God’s judgment of his people in contrast to his judgment against the ungodly. This is the final point in your sermon outlined this evening. We note God’s judgment of his people in contrast to his judgment against the ungodly. It says in verse 17, for it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God. That’s the church, the professed church of God. And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome of those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?

Therefore, let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. Now this is another set of verses, this passage is another set of verses that has caused some debate among Bible commentators and scholars. But I tend to agree with Dr. Marshall when he writes that God’s judgment of his household, as mentioned in verse 17, is God’s judgment as it is directed against the church as the company of people who profess to believe in him. I think what Peter may be getting at here in this language in these verses is how God uses persecution to expose the false professors and hypocrites and to weed out the false believers from true believers in the church. You know, persecution tends to have the effect of separating the wheat from the chaff.

It tends to weed out false believers and hypocrites in the visible church while at the same time refining and purifying the true believers within the church. Remember our Lord’s parable of the soils, sometimes it’s called the parable of the sower. The sower goes out to sow the seed and the seed represents the word of God, the message of the gospel, and there’s different responses to the gospel. Some seed falls on the ground and is taken up by the birds, other seed falls on thorny ground, some on good soil, but there’s seed that falls on rocky ground. And remember the shallow soil convert, it says that it springs up immediately but it doesn’t last because when the sun rises, when the heat of the sun rises, it doesn’t have any root and it withers away. In that parable, Jesus warned about the shallow soil hearer who makes an emotionally based profession of faith but who ends up falling away from that profession once persecution arises on account of the word.

I knew someone in a friend in college who I believe fit into this category. She made a very excited profession of faith in Christ and she became part of our college Christian fellowship. She seemed so excited about her newfound faith and she just seemed to be bubbling over with joy but over time she drifted away. She drifted away from the church, she drifted away from Christ, and I think she ended up in some kind of new age or false religion and it was very sad to see. Well friends, this can have, persecution has the way of weeding out and distinguishing between the wheat and the tares. But while all of this is true, it may also be the case that here Peter is simply speaking of judgment on the house of God in the sense of God spiritually refining and purifying his elect people through their sufferings.

God’s judgment upon his people is not a judgment of wrath. Now some of you may look at this passage and say judgment begins with the house of God. I thought my sins were already judged on the cross of Christ. Doesn’t Jesus say that truly, truly I say to you he who believes in my word has passed from death unto life and will not come into the judgment? Well certainly Jesus took the wrathful judgment of God upon himself in our place, in our stead. That’s not the judgment that Peter is speaking of here if that’s what he is saying. Jesus has taken that judgment upon himself but God does judge his church not in the sense of wrath. This is not a judgment of wrath since Christ took that wrath for us on the cross but instead it is a judgment of fatherly chastisement and purification.

It’s a gracious judgment that has the effect of purifying us and so it goes on to say if the righteous is scarcely saved what will become of the ungodly and the sinner. Now don’t misunderstand what this passage here this verse here Peter is not saying that our that we’re just barely saved that that our salvation is uncertain. He’s not saying that he’s in the context here he’s pointing out the fact that our experience of salvation comes through many trials and tribulations as as Paul says elsewhere it is through many tribulations that we must enter into the kingdom of God and here by the way in this verse verse eight in verse 18 Peter is quoting from Proverbs 11 verse 31 believers only enter the consummated kingdom through many trials those trials don’t save us they don’t add to our salvation but they are the means by which God sanctifies us and fits us for glory and so what is what is the end of this passage what is it that we are to do in light of all of these truths we’ve considered tonight.

Well I think Peter puts it very plainly in verse 19 therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will according to God’s will it may be God’s will that we go through seasons of suffering for our faith may not be God’s will but if you are one who suffers for your faith in accordance with God’s will what are you to do let those who suffer according to God’s will and trust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. God is described here as a faithful creator why does he refer to God as the creator why doesn’t he say you know entrust your souls to your loving heavenly father well he’s emphasizing the power of God. God as the creator of heaven and earth is the omnipotent God who spoke all things into being out of nothing and if he had the power to create this vast universe he certainly has the power to preserve you in the midst of such sufferings for the faith so entrust your souls to a faithful creator a creator who will vindicate you sooner or later who will sooner or later deliver you a creator who will preserve you and vindicate you in the end but in the meantime keep doing good let those who suffer according to God’s will and trust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good instead of sitting around saying woe is me I’m suffering continue to walk in the Lord continue to abound in love and good works out of gratitude for what Christ has done for you amen let us pray heavenly father sovereign and eternal God we thank you and praise you for the finished work of Christ we thank you that Christ our savior suffered for us we ask that you would grant us the grace to suffer for his name should you in your providence call upon us to do so we do not desire or seek such suffering but we know lord that you are a faithful creator and that you will preserve us through any suffering that you may call us into so be with us lord comfort your people especially we remember again your persecuted church praying that you would be with our persecuted brothers and sisters in their trials and sufferings prove yourself to be a faithful powerful creator and preserver and a gracious lord in the midst of their sufferings we pray all of these things heavenly father in Jesus name and all of God’s people said amen as we close our time of worship this evening let’s rise for our closing psalm number 91b who with God most high finds shelter 91b we’ll rise and sing together so who with God most high finds shelter lives in God Almighty’s I will say to God my God my fortress where my trust is stayed from the fowler snare he’ll save you from the deadly pestilence cover you without spread pinions make his wings your confidence God’s truth is your shield and buckler you will fear no will by night nor the shafts in daylight flying nor disease that shines the light nor the plague that way sat noonday at your side ten thousand fall you will only see the judgment which the wicked will be fall oh you have made the lord your refuge God most high your dwelling place nothing evil shall befall you near your tent no skirt your face he will angels charge to keep you guard you well in all your ways bear you up with hands that hold you lest your foot a stone should graze you shall trample serpents lions tread on all your deadly foes since he loves me I will save him keep him for my name he knows I will honor I will save him when he calls I will reply I will show him my salvation with long life will satisfy amen beloved children of God look up and receive

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

August 4, 2024
Living in Christ, in Light of the End

About this sermon

“The end of all things is at hand,” Peter writes, so believers are to be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of their prayers. Christ’s return could come at any time, and its nearness shapes how his people live. Above all they keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins, show hospitality without grumbling, and use their gifts to serve one another as stewards of God’s varied grace, so that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.

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Sermon transcript

Please stand for the reading of God’s word as we turn our attention to our sermon text for this Lord’s Day evening we continue our consideration of 1st Peter and this evening we’re in 1st Peter chapter 4 and we will consider verses 7 through 11 1st Peter chapter 4 verses 7 through 11 you’ll find that on page 1206 in your pew Bible. Dear friends let us hear with reverence and awe the word of our God. The end of all things is at hand therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace. Whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God.

Whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies. In order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. The grass withers and the flower fades but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the blessing of God upon the preaching of his word. Heavenly Father once again we ask that that same Holy Spirit who breathed forth and inspired the scriptures would illuminate the word to our hearts and minds and would implant the word within our souls this evening. We ask Lord that your spirit would bless the proclamation of your word. Jesus son of God be present by your spirit in the preaching of your word this evening and build us up we pray in our most holy faith.

We ask these things oh God in Jesus name amen. You may be seated. The title of my sermon this Lord’s Day evening is living in Christ in light of the end and just there are four words that the children can be listening for in my sermon this evening those are the words prayer, love, forgiveness, and hospitality. Well dear friends as we’ve seen throughout our study of 1st Peter one of the major themes in this epistle is the theme of suffering for righteousness sake. Now we know that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ himself as the messianic suffering servant of God he was a man of sorrows he was acquainted with grief. He suffered the punishment for the sins of God’s elect people when he bled and died upon the cross of Calvary and during our Lord’s earthly ministry he had told his disciples that they would face suffering if they followed him faithfully.

Now here in chapter 4 in verses 1 through 6 as well as later on in verses 12 through 19 Peter’s overall focus in these in those sections of this chapter is the theme of suffering abuse and persecution for our faith at the hands of unbelievers. However friends here in verses 7 through 11 of this chapter Peter briefly breaks from this theme of suffering in order to direct his readers to those things which are necessary to maintain the strength and the vitality of the church even in the face of such persecution. It’s one thing to be ready for persecution or to have this mind among us that was in Christ that he suffered and we are to follow him in his sufferings but it’s another thing to equip ourselves and be ready to face that. We would do well by the way to notice the corporate covenantal and churchly or ecclesiastical focus of this passage with its emphasis on one another exhortations and serving one another in the church.

For example look at verse 8 it says above all keep loving whom? Keep loving one another earnestly or look at verse 9 show hospitality to whom? To one another without grumbling and then in verse 10 as each has received a gift use it to do what? To serve one another. See there’s that that emphasis on serving others and the assumption here is that this is to be done in the context of the body of Christ in the context of the church. This passage is a good reminder to us that the primary focus of 1st Peter as indeed the primary focus of most of the rest of the New Testament epistles and most of the scriptures as a whole the primary focus is corporate, communal, and covenantal not primarily individualistic and private. The scriptures were written to build up the body of Christ and brothers and sisters we are in we are meant to live out our faith and discipleship together as brothers and sisters in Christ and we are to draw strength from our communion with other one another in the body of Christ we are to draw strength from that as we face a hostile world that seeks to persecute us for our faith.

Here the importance of the church as a body of believers who live out their discipleship together in a covenant community shines forth and in these verses the Holy Spirit through his inspired Apostle Peter calls us as God’s people he calls us here to sober living to fervent love and to good stewardship of the gifts of grace which we have received in Christ and so as we turn our attention to our passage for this evening let’s focus on the opening verse of our passage verse 7 and in this passage we have an exhortation to end times living Church of God heed the call to end times living heed the call to end times living the Apostle Peter writes the end of all things is at hand therefore therefore in view of this fact how are we to respond to that fact how are we to react to that fact well therefore be self-controlled and sober minded for the sake of your prayers he doesn’t say the end is all the end is at hand and therefore sell everything you have and go up on a mountain and wait for Jesus to return just kind of sit back and wait for him to return well that’s not what he says he says in view of the fact that the end of all things is at hand time to get busy time to live responsible lives lives characterized by self-control and sober mindedness why for the sake of your prayers in this verse we as God’s people are called to live lives of self-control and earnest prayer and what is presented as our motivation for such self-control what is our motivation for engaging as individual believers but especially as the body of Christ in earnest prayer what is our motivation well the answer is very clear Peter writes the end or the telos of all things is at hand or some translations translated as near it’s at hand it’s near means the same basic thing now in verses five and six Peter had reminded his readers that the unbelievers who slander and persecute them will have to give an account of themselves to God on the day of judgment and it reminds us that God will vindicate his people in the end and this is why verse seven is linked in the Greek with the previous verses with the connective word day which is translated in some versions like the New King James version as but the NKGV translates it as but the end of all things is at hand indicating that there’s a connection between verse seven and the verses that preceded and we should keep that in mind now what this is saying friends is that in light of the coming judgment day we believers ought to live sober and self-controlled lives and we ought to engage in earnest prayer notice that Peter says that the end again the end is at hand it is near the sense is that the end has drawn near and my friends from an overall overarching perspective on redemptive history the end indeed the eschatological end has drawn near in the person and saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ God in Christ has drawn near to us he has redeemed us through Christ and in Christ the end has drawn near the consummated end has not yet come but it has drawn near in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and so what Peter is basically seems to be saying here friends is this he basically seems to be saying look God is ready to judge the end is near therefore oh church live responsible lives and be active in prayer be ready for the end by living responsible lives in Christ here in the present in the here and now now what does again what does Peter mean when he talks about the end what is this end this tell us of which he speaks now some commentators have suggested that Peter is here referring prophetically to the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and its temple which took place in 70 AD and that indeed was a judgment against faithless Israel for rejecting Jesus the Messiah it’s a judgment which our Lord had predicted in his Olivet discourse of course the events of 70 AD brought a final end to the old covenant sacrificial system and therefore demonstrated with utter and absolute finality that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross of Calvary had ended the old covenant age of shadows and types once and for all and forever the judgment events of 70 AD also pointed forward to the greater judgment event that will occur when our Lord returns in glory at the end of this present new covenant age of redemptive history however friends I would tend to agree with most biblical commentators that within the context of this passage the end the tell us to which Peter refers is nothing less than the absolute end the glorious future return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ at the end of this age which will usher in the final judgment day this interpretation makes the most sense in the context of this particular passage especially since Peter had just referred in verse five to the general judgment of the living and the dead and when we compare scripture with scripture we learn that this general judgment of the living and the dead certainly did not take place in 70 AD no the general judgment of the living and the dead will take place at the end of this age when Jesus returns in glory and when the final judgment day is upon humanity in any case our passage for this evening situates the time of redemptive history in which the suffering church lives as the end times the last days these end times extending from the resurrection of Christ and the day of Pentecost all the way to our Lord’s future glorious return at his second Advent I know I say this often but there seems to be controversy sometimes among fellow Christians about the question are we in the end times sometimes we hear our brothers and sisters in Christ ask questions like I wonder if we’re in the last days or in the end times well the New Testament answer to that question is that we have been at in the end times we have been in the last times the last days ever since Jesus rose from the dead and ever since the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the church and the church went out in fulfillment of the Great Commission to take the gospel to all the nations why then if that is the case if we’re still in the last times if we are still in this time of the end that Peter is referring to as he writes this in the first century if that’s the case you know is Peter mistaken I mean Peter wrote this 2,000 years ago right about 2,000 years ago he says the end of all things is at hand and certainly you know 2,000 years is a long time to go by without with Jesus not returning yet so what does he mean when he says the end of all things is at hand well the focus here friends is on the imminence of Christ’s return this means that our Lord’s return is imminent meaning that he could return at any time the next major event on the schedule of redemptive history is the glorious second advent of the Lord Jesus Christ and Jesus himself remember Jesus said no man knows the day or the hour if you ever come across a preacher or Bible teacher who claims to know when Jesus is gonna gonna return run don’t trust such a one Jesus is very clear no man knows the day or the hour he could return at any time however he could return today he could return tomorrow or next week or next month or next year or in a hundred years or he could tarry for another hundred thousand years or more we simply do not know but the nearness of his return to judge the living and the dead should motivate us as his people to be self-controlled and sober minded for the sake of our prayers his return is imminent it could happen at any moment moments and therefore we are to live our lives in light of that we are to the Christian life is an eschatological life it is a life lived in light of the return of Christ history is climaxing towards the goal and the goal is the return of Christ and the summing up of all things in the Lord Jesus Christ and we are to live in the present in light of that future we are to be self-controlled and sober minded now what in particular does Peter mean when he calls us to live self-controlled lives the term self-controlled has also been translated for example the NIV translates it as clear minded the idea here is that of maintaining a sense of proportion and keeping one’s head despite the dangers and fears of the time as dr.

Marshall describes it and the term sober minded if of course it it does speak about being sober instead of being intoxicated but this has to do the idea has to do with exercising self-restraint living a life of self-restraint controlling yourself and your passions keeping yourself in check dear friends there’s not a lot of self-restraint in our culture today is there there’s not a lot of self-control even among professing Christians there’s far too much frivolity in our world unsaved people are constantly seeking to drown out the voice of their consciences with loud partying and frivolous entertainments but life is not a frivolous thing life is serious business judgment day is coming and the souls of the lost are in grave danger and we must have a burden for them and seek to reach them with the good news and this is why we Christians need to be characterized by a sober and a sensible attitude of course don’t misunderstand this this does not mean Peter is not saying that we should be morose or that we should be gloomy or joyless on the contrary we have much in which to rejoice we have received every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus right and so we have much to rejoice in in fact the scriptures describe Christian joy as joy inexpressible and filled with glory as we think about who we are in Christ and all that Christ has done for us in dying for our sins and rising from the dead for our justification granting us the gift of eternal life and promise giving us this the the earnest of his spirit which is a guarantee of our eternal inheritance the fact that there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus indeed these are great reasons to rejoice in the Lord but what this does mean what this call to sober mindedness and self-control does mean my friends what it does mean is that we always need to be responsible and sensible it does mean that even in the midst of rejoicing in the Lord and even in the midst of enjoying the good things of this life that God in his providence provides for us to enjoy and it’s certainly legitimate to enjoy those things nevertheless we are always to keep our priorities straight and we are always to keep an eternal perspective we are to live our lives in the light of eternity only as we walk consistently in union with Christ our Savior both as individuals and together as a church only then will we be able to heed this call to end times living with self-control and sober mindedness and one of the manifestations of this is constancy in prayer we see here in this verse the importance of constancy in prayer Peter writes the end of all things is at hand therefore be self-controlled and sober minded for the sake of your prayers for the sake of your prayers now notice that the word prayers of course is in the plural he doesn’t say for the sake of prayer but for the sake of your prayers and again remember he’s addressing the church as the church as the body of Christ personal private prayer is very important it is it is a practice that I hope you are committed to and and seek to engage in but the focus here is on the prayers of the church we are to be a praying people we are to pray individually in our private prayer closets yes but we are especially to devote ourselves and be constant in prayer as the body of Christ and so it seems that Peter is indicating that prayer must be a constant and a persistent activity in the life of the church of Jesus Christ a dear ones prayer you know the the unbeliever looks at us and and looks at the at Christians and in praying and they say all those silly Christians they’re talking to their invisible friend again right I remember when I was a child I used to have you know invisible friends when I was a young child and and they seemed very real to me at the time and sometimes the skeptics and unbelievers will say well that’s just what you Christians believe in you believe in this invisible friend that doesn’t really exist but no our God is the true and living God and he is omniscient he knows all things and he hears our prayers at this very moment think about how many folks throughout the face of the planet how many of our brothers and sisters are even now engaged in prayer and the Lord is able to hear all of those prayers and to answer them your ones prayer is important prayer is simply talking to God expressing to him our desires and also our needs bringing our needs to him and praising him for who he is prayer is one of the most important activities to which we as God’s people are called prayer is not only the spiritual lifeline for the individual believer it is also the lifeline of the church and in order to engage in prayer as a church and as individuals we need to be sober minded and self-controlled brothers and sisters in Christ are we as a church and are we as individual disciples truly devoted to constant persistent prayer so this is a call to end times living but we also see here in the remainder of this passage that God’s people are called to fervently love and sacrificially serve their fellow believers God’s people are called to fervently love and to sacrificially serve their fellow believers of course God in his word calls upon us in many places of scripture to love all people we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves right we are even to love unbelievers in fact Jesus calls us to love our enemies and I read a passage from Romans 12 earlier in the in the service this evening where Paul calls upon us to bless those who curse us and and to overcome evil with good and if your enemy is hungry give him something to eat if he’s thirsty give him a drink we are to actively love even our enemies but while scripture commands us to love all people in this particular passage the focus is on the special love that we believers are to have for one another as brothers and sisters in the church and so he says keep loving one another earnestly the Greek word that is here translated as love is that familiar word agape agape love of course is the kind of sacrificial self-giving love that Christ himself demonstrated when he died on the cross for our sins when he laid down his life for us on the cross of Calvary that is the kind of love that we are to exhibit one to another as brothers and sisters in Christ we see here that love is in one sense love is the church’s highest priority notice that Peter writes in verse 8 above all keep loving one another earnestly the reason that Peter can say this is because love for God and love for neighbor is the essence of God’s moral law and I’m reminded of what the Apostle Paul writes in that famous chapter on 1st Corinthians 13 that passage that is often read at weddings in 1st Corinthians 13 verse 13 Paul summarizes that chapter by saying so now faith hope and love abide these three but which is the greatest of them but now faith so now faith hope and love abide these three but the greatest of these is love now what are some of the ways that we are to demonstrate Christian love well Peter mentions a few here in this passage we are first of all we show Christian love by forgiving each other by forgiving others love covers a multitude of sins we are told in verse 8 and this is a quotation from Proverbs chapter 10 verse 12 so we love one another by forgiving one another and that assumes that there will be something to forgive and the more you get to know someone the more that we are involved in each other’s lives the more opportunities there are to step on each other’s toes or to offend one another in one form or another instead of being hardened and bittered by offenses we are to extend forgiveness to one another so we love one another by forgiving each other we also show Christian love by offering hospitality without grumbling as it says in verse 9 show hospitality to one another without grumbling and in that context hospitality meant invite people into your homes and and especially traveling missionaries and evangelists they needed a place to stay so open your home to them don’t just show a welcoming attitude towards them that’s that’s the heart and foundation of Christian hospitality but actually show hospitality welcoming even the stranger into your home as as you have opportunity the commentator William Barclay writes that without hospitality the early church could not have existed the traveling missionaries who spread the good news of the gospel had to find somewhere to stay and there was no place for them to stay except in the homes of Christians and you might say well wait a minute why couldn’t they just stay in the local Motel 6 because there were no such things back then there were ins but as Barclay goes on to say such ins as there were were impossibly dear meaning they were few and far between they were impossibly filthy and notoriously immoral if you lived in the first century Roman Empire you did not want to stay in a in an inn especially if you wanted to maintain your good name and reputation and if you had concern for your own safety he says many a nameless one in the early church made Christian missionary work possible by opening the doors of his house and home even though most ins and motels and hotels today are far cleaner far safer far more comfortable than they their equivalents were in the first century there is still a great need even today for Christians to practice the grace of hospitality our hospitality to others is to be motivated or to be motivated by and modeled on God’s hospitality toward us in the Lord Jesus Christ and that doesn’t necessarily mean you know that you have to have people staying in your house but it does mean having an open heart a welcoming spirit that manifests itself in in acts of welcoming behavior towards others again the perfect model of hospitality is God himself in the Lord Jesus Christ you see even when we were aliens and strangers to the kingdom of God the father sent his son into this world to accomplish and to secure our salvation and he did so so that his mansions in heaven could be opened up wide to us through Jesus Christ the father has welcomed us into his family room and he has invited us into his dining room where we may enjoy the feast of his banquet table the feast of eternal salvation since our Lord has been so welcoming to us in Christ let us welcome one another with open hearts and open homes so we love one another by forgiving each other by having a stance a welcoming stance of hospitality toward one another we also show Christian love by using our spiritual gifts to serve one another look at verses 10 and 11 it says this as each has received a gift now that’s significant each has received a gift as that is the case use it when God grants a gift he grants it with the intention that it be used to serve others in the body of Christ as each has received a gift use it to serve one another there’s that one another emphasis once again that communal covenantal emphasis once again as each has received a gift use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied or manifold grace and then he gives some examples of these various gifts and he focuses especially on speaking gifts as well as serving gifts he says whoever speaks as one who speaks the oracles of God this would be an example pastors and evangelists and so forth whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ God is glorified brothers and sisters when we use the gifts that he has given to us to serve one another and then what an appropriate end to this verse verse 11 to him belong glory and dominion forever and ever amen now the term that is translated in verse 10 as gift is the Greek term charisma we get the term charismatic from that and Peter is not telling us that that we Presbyterian should become charismatics what he is saying here is the charisma’s these are gifts of grace that God gives to us these are grace gifts granted by God and intended to be used to serve the body of Christ and we are to be good stewards of God’s varied or manifold grace and again what is the goal of this good stewardship of the of the gifts that God has given to us the goal is service to one another in the body of Christ beloved in Christ as we seek to live in the light of the end let us serve one another in love and let us devote ourselves to prayer amen let us pray heavenly father we thank you and praise you that in Christ the end has indeed drawn nigh we thank you Lord Jesus that we look forward we can look forward to your return and we do pray Lord Jesus with your church in all ages come Lord Jesus come quickly come quickly Lord and while we await for you Lord while you Terry grant us the grace to live sober-minded and self-controlled lives in light of the end we pray these things heavenly father in Jesus name and all of God’s people said amen as we close our time this evening let’s sing as our closing hymn number 500 father I know that all my life 500 will rise and sing together

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

July 21, 2024
Arm Yourselves!

About this sermon

Since Christ suffered in the flesh, Peter tells believers to arm themselves with the same way of thinking: whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, God having released them from its rule. They are to live the rest of their time for the will of God, not for the sensuality and idolatry of their former lives, though the world maligns them for it. Those who mock will give account to the Judge of the living and the dead. Believers, clothed in Christ’s righteousness, can take comfort in that judgment.

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Sermon transcript

Congregation, please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word as we continue our study and investigation of 1 Peter. This evening we are in 1 Peter chapter 4 verses 1 through 6. 1 Peter chapter 4 verses 1 through 6 that begins on page 1205 in your few Bibles. Dear friends, this is the Word of God, hear it with reverence and awe. Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. For whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

With respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you. But they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the Spirit the way God does. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord to bless the proclamation of his Word this evening. Oh dear Lord and Father in heaven, your Word is precious to us. We love your Word. We desire to embrace your Word, assimilate it into us, and to live it out in our lives. We would ask that by your Spirit you would implant your Word in our souls this evening.

We ask that you would open our minds and our hearts and our consciences to behold wondrous things from your Word. We ask, heavenly Father, that you would set a guard over my lips, that I, your unworthy servant, may declare your Word with clarity and power and with the grace and assistance of your Holy Spirit. May Jesus be exalted in the preaching of your Word this evening, and may you, Lord God, also be exalted in our hearts and lives. We pray these things, heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said, Amen. You may be seated. Dear friends, the title of my sermon on this Lord’s Day evening is Arm Yourselves, and there are three key words that I’d encourage you to listen for this evening, especially the children, and those words are suffering, persecution, and comfort.

Well, my dear friends, the Apostle Peter wrote this letter, this epistle, under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, and he wrote to Christians who faced severe persecution for their faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I imagine that many of us tend to think of persecution primarily in external and physical terms, and so, for example, say a Christian is imprisoned or tortured or killed for the faith, we would rightly consider that to be persecution. Likewise, if a Christian’s possessions are confiscated and he is displaced, thrown out into the streets, we would rightly consider that to be a form of persecution as well. All of these examples fall under the umbrella of persecution in its various forms, but Peter’s original readers also faced a form of persecution that some of you may be more familiar with in your own lives.

They faced slander and verbal abuse because of their refusal to go along, to get along, so to speak, with their pagan neighbors, as it says in verse four, speaking of the wickedness and lawless idolatries of their gentile neighbors. Peter writes in verse four, with respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you. They malign you. You see, dear ones, Peter’s original first century readers were engaged in an intense spiritual warfare. They were engaged in the kind of spiritual warfare that subjected them to persecution, including persecution in its verbal forms, as they became the subjects of gossip, slander, and other verbal attempts to denigrate and malign them and to destroy their public reputations. What guidance and direction does the inspired apostle Peter offer to them as he seeks to encourage them through the difficult times that they were facing?

How were they to prepare themselves to face the spiritual warfare that was ahead of them, a spiritual warfare that would confront them with what Peter describes as a fiery trial of persecutions? Well, friends, in my sermon for this Lord’s Day evening, we’re going to consider what God in his word says to his people who face the fiery trials of persecution in its various forms. And brothers and sisters in Christ, whether or not we are personally experiencing some form of persecution in our lives at this particular time, our God has much to teach us in this passage of Holy Scripture. And we know not what the future brings, and so it is important for us, whether we’re facing persecution or not, it’s important for us to be equipped to face it, should God in his providence allow it to come into our lives.

And so as we turn our attention to this portion of God’s word this evening, I would first of all point out in verse 1 that we are to arm ourselves for spiritual battle. Church of God, let us arm ourselves for spiritual battle. Peter writes, since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, he’s referring back to the previous context, since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. He calls us to have the mind of Christ when it comes to how we view suffering and persecution for our faith. And he goes on to say, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. Now let’s focus on the opening statement here, where Peter writes, since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh. And you know the saying, whenever you see in the Bible the word therefore, what’s the question you’re supposed to ask?

What is the therefore? Therefore. Well it’s there because Peter here in this verse, in chapter 4 verse 1, he returns to the thought that he had begun back in chapter 3 verse 18, where he says, for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but made in the spirit. And then in verses 19 through 22, which we considered on the previous Lord’s Day evening, we learned that the end of chapter 3 is basically a parenthetical comment. Peter does a little bit of off-roading here at the end of chapter 3 as he kind of wanders off into some other subjects. And then here in chapter 4 verse 1, he returns to the subject that he had begun back in chapter 3 verse 18.

And what does he say? He says in chapter 4 verse 1 that Christ suffered in the flesh. We are creatures of flesh. We are body souls. We have an immaterial aspect to our being but we also live in this physical material world. And so our sufferings are not just of a mental sort or a spiritual sort but also can often be of a physical variety. But our Lord Jesus knows all the kinds of sufferings that we face in our lives. For he himself faced abuse. He himself faced the inner pain on the cross of being separated from communion with his father as the Lord poured out his wrath upon the Son of God on the cross of Calvary. He knows the agony of mental and emotional distress and he also experienced in its extremity the extremes of physical agony and pain.

Christ suffered in the flesh. Of course our Lord Jesus here is presented as the ultimate example of one who suffered unjustly at the hands of the wicked. And he did so by God’s will. It was God’s will and plan that he should suffer in this way. In order to fulfill God’s plan and purpose to save his people from their sins. Friends since Christ our Savior was willing to suffer unjustly in order to fulfill God’s will and sovereign purpose so we who are his followers are to have the same kind of willingness to suffer unjustly for righteousness sake. Now Peter is not here calling upon us to look for suffering, to search for suffering, to desire suffering for righteousness sake. But if we are faithful in following the Lord, in trusting the Lord, in bearing faithful witness to the gospel it should not surprise us if in God’s good providence he allows suffering to come into our life of one sort or another, of one variety or another.

And so we are called here to arm ourselves with this same mindset, this same willingness if God in his providence should call upon us to do so according to his sovereign purpose. And so he says Christ suffered in the flesh therefore what are we to do? Arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. Now this terminology here arm yourselves is a military term in the Greek referring to a soldier putting on his weapons in preparation for battle. Peter uses this language to spur his readers on to action and preparation. This language also implies does it not that we believers are called to be soldiers in Christ’s kingdom. When Christ calls you into his kingdom and calls you to be his follower he also enlists you in his army. We are soldiers of the cross. We are soldiers of Jesus Christ not of course that we spread violence or discord or anything like that but we on a spiritual level we are called to engage in a spiritual battle against the world, against our own sinful flesh and against the devil and we do so with the weapons of warfare that the Lord has given us not carnal weapons not guns and bazookas or anything like that but the weapons of our warfare are spiritual to the tearing down of strongholds the weapons of our warfare are the word and prayer the gospel of Jesus Christ and so forth.

And so this language implies that we believers are called to be soldiers in Christ’s kingdom and as soldiers of Christ we must prepare ourselves if called upon to do so to suffer for the sake of righteousness if that should be God’s providential will. And we are to do this because we are called to follow Christ’s example and Christ himself was willing to suffer for us and for our salvation according to God’s sovereign will and redemptive plan. And then Peter goes on to make this interesting he says since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh arm yourselves with the same way of thinking and then he says this for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin now Peter is here thinking of Jesus that but of course that Jesus in dying for our sins in his death has quote ceased from sin but that seems like a rather far-fetched that seems like a rather far-fetched view.

What does Peter mean when he says whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin does he say that that sinless perfection is attainable through bodily suffering is that what he’s trying to say again there is some dispute among commentators about how to understand this statement in my own studies of this passage I’ve come to the conclusion that the most likely interpretation the interpretation that makes the most sense in the context of goes something like this Peter is saying that if you are willing and armed by the grace of God to suffer for your faith if necessary if you are willing in other words to suffer for righteousness sake as indeed every true follower of Christ should seek to be willing to do if called upon by God if that is the case then in a sense you have ceased from sin now by this language it’s important not to press this language too far by this kind of language Peter is certainly not saying that suffering for our faith brings us into a state of sinless perfection or that suffering for righteousness sake somehow necessarily purges us from sin there’s no kind of Peter’s not preaching some kind of monastic ideal that says well you know we bring the flesh under control by punishing ourselves and subjecting ourselves to suffering and so forth but what this does mean is that a God bestowed willingness to suffer for righteousness sake means that you have resolutely turned your back on a lifestyle of sin now this of course happens to all true believers all the truly converted this this resolute turning from sin occurred at our initial conversion and it continues to happen as we daily renew our faith and repentance by daily denying ourselves taking up our cross and following Jesus our savior each and every day your initial turning to Christ in faith and repentance begins a life a life of daily renewed repentance and faith there’s a sense in which conversion is an ongoing thing we don’t just get converted once although there is an initial with the effectual call of God there is an initial coming to Christ in faith and repentance but that begins a life of following Jesus I think Martin Luther was correct when he said that the Christian life is a life of repentance you will never in this life come to a point where you do not need to continue repenting of your sins repentance is a daily necessity we are to daily do battle against our sin against the world against the devil and that is the Christian life is indeed a battle and therefore we ought to be willing to suffer for righteousness sake in principle if we are in Christ indwelt by the Holy Spirit in principle in principle the ruling power of sin has been broken in the lives of true believers the true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ has indeed by the grace of God resolutely turned his or her back on a lifestyle of sin although true believers will continue throughout their lives to struggle with sin since the remnants of that sin nature continue to be present in the hearts of the regenerate even in the hearts of the regenerate the remnants of the sin nature continue to make their presence felt sometimes powerfully felt the Greek term that Peter uses here is the perfect tense in the verbal form has broken with which indicates a past act that has lasting ongoing effects and this is the only commentator I’m going to quote from tonight but Dr.

Kistermacher points out helpfully that the verb form has broken with can be interpreted in the passive voice as the Greek text indicates literally we read he has been released from sin this means that God is the implied agent in other words God has stopped man from living in continual sin when Peter writes Christ suffered in the flesh therefore arm yourselves with the same way of thinking for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin it doesn’t mean that we by our own willpower by our own fleshly strength can resolve to turn from sin no this is something that the Lord does in us he has stopped those whom he has brought into his kingdom he has stopped us from living in continual unrepentant sin so what are some of the lessons we can learn from this first of all friends we learn here that God himself supplies your battle armor and he does so through the gifts the sovereignly bestowed gifts of regeneration and conversion we use the means of grace we put ourselves in the place where where God is pleased to work his regenerating and converting grace in us but only God himself can equip us to arm ourselves with the same mind that Christ had but nevertheless while God gets all the glory in our conversion and salvation that does not absolve us from personal responsibility we are to seek to arm ourselves for battle by having the same mind as Christ had towards suffering for righteousness sake and by seeking no longer to live for our own sinful desires but instead by seeking to live for the will of God as revealed in his word dear friend have you come to Christ have you recognized that he alone can rescue you from your sin this morning we consider the fact that Christ and Christ alone is our refuge from the righteous and holy wrath of God against our sin and that we run from God’s wrath by running to God in Christ and his offer of grace Jesus Christ was crucified for the forgiveness of our sins and raised from the dead for our justification and that we might receive the gift of eternal life and the scriptures promise that if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ if you trust him alone for your salvation you will not perish but receive the gift of eternal life and God will take you as his child so turn to Christ the God man the word made flesh today and those of us who by grace have come to faith in Christ how is it that we arm ourselves well I would encourage you brothers and sisters to diligently use the ordinary means of grace it’s encouraging to see you here this evening many Christians today do not diligently use the means of grace as they ought they are only occasional in their attendance upon the means of grace the word and the sacraments and public prayer and worship but these ordinary means God chooses to use these ordinary means to do extraordinary things and blesses those means by the presence of his spirit so let us arm ourselves by continuing on diligently using the means of grace but as we move on in our passage we’re called upon as we see in verse one to arm ourselves but next notice the two ways of living that Peter describes here in verse two the two ways of living he goes on to say in verse two he says we are to arm ourselves for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin verse two so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God you see the two options there there’s basically two ways of life you can either live for yourself for your own sinful self-absorbed passions and desires whatever manifestations those passions of desires may take for the will of God meaning the revealed will of God the will of God revealed in his word the will of God that we who trust in Christ and submit to his lordship seek to follow again ultimately there are only two possible ways of life there are only two paths in life that are available to us there’s no in between there is what our lord Jesus called the broad way that leads to destruction and then there is the narrow way that leads to life Jesus makes this clear for example in his sermon on the mount if you turn to Matthew seven excuse me Matthew seven let me read just verses 13 and 14 in the midst of this famous sermon on the mount the lord Jesus says this he says enter by the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction so there’s the narrow gate the narrow way and he says the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many for the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few what does Jesus mean by this narrow way well elsewhere in scripture our lord indicates that he himself is that narrow way for he is the one and only way back into a right relationship with God the father as Jesus says in John 14 verse 6 I am the way and the truth and the life no man cometh unto the father except by me Christ is the way and the reason that the narrow way the way of salvation through faith in Christ alone apart from works of the law the reason that that way is hard to fall in sinners is that it is so humbling it requires that you say lord I’m inadequate I can’t do it I need you to do it for me it takes a miracle of grace to humble us to humble our pride that we come to the lord recognizing our utter dependence upon him the broad way it is the way of self-salvation it is the way of works righteousness it is the way of man-made religion and mere human piety the way of self-indulgence and self-worship but the narrow way is the way of saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and repentance unto life it is the way of spiritual and saving union with Christ and the fruit of that narrow way the fruits of that narrow way are a walking after a new obedience a pursuit of holy living or as Peter puts it here a living for the will of God as he says in verse 2 that we who are in Christ that we have ceased from sin we’ve resolutely turned our backs upon sin to follow Christ why so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh that is to say in our bodily existence in this present life no longer for human passions but for the will of God dear listener what road are you on the broad road that leads to destruction or the narrow road that leads to life that is to say who are you trusting you’re trusting yourself your works your merits or are you trusting Christ in his perfect obedience alone and having come to Christ believer are you pursuing holiness is your deepest desire to pursue godliness and sanctification now this brings me to the next point and we consider in verses 2 and 3 Peter exhorts us not to waste our time with ungodly living brothers and sisters in Christ don’t waste your time with ungodly living Peter talks about that we are not to live the rest of our time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God and then he goes on to say in verse 3 for the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles in other words the idol worshipping unbelievers that they had been before their conversion the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do and then he gives a sampling of the kinds of behaviors that the typical pagan idol worshipping Gentile of his time used to engage in he mentions living in sensuality passions drunkenness orgies drinking parties and lawless idolatry he’s not giving an exhaustive list of the Gentile lifestyle but he’s giving a sampling of what was common behavior in his own day and by the way from passages like this we see that the author of Ecclesiastes is correct there is nothing new under the sun this is the bent of the human heart and the lifestyle that we would give ourselves over to unless god and his grace intervenes in sovereign grace and mercy in our lives but I want you to notice friends that Peter is here concerned that believers be good stewards of their time and besides being an offense to our holy god doing what in verse 3 he calls what the Gentiles want to do in other words living according to your own sinful fallen desires is a very poor stewardship of our time life is short life is fragile we hang on to life by a thread recent events have shown that to be the case life is so fragile it can slip away from us at any time but we have been blessed with life right now every new day is a new opportunity to choose one of two ways to choose the way of self-indulgence and thus to waste your time in godless living or to choose to live for the will of god these are the choices before us and we are against for us and we are accountable to god for our stewardship of our time Peter’s original readers had apparently already spent a good part of their lives prior to their conversion to christ living as idol worshipping pagans giving themselves over to a debauched lifestyle but now that they by grace had been converted to christ Peter in effect says to them hey listen now remember remember that you have had done with sin you’ve resolutely turned your back on sin you’ve already wasted enough of your life living as a pagan now it’s time to live the rest of your brief life doing something much more fruitful much more productive much more worthwhile now make it your intention by the grace of god to live the rest of your earthly existence the rest of your time in the flesh according to the will of god be a good steward of whatever remaining time god has allotted to your life brothers and sisters in christ when we allow ourselves to become overcome by temptation and to slip back into ungodly patterns of living we are being poor stewards of the time that god has given to us when we through the temptations of satan and the allurements of the world and of our own sinful nature when we backslide into ungodly patterns of living we are wasting precious kingdom time we are wasting time that should instead instead be stewarding to serve the cause of god’s kingdom brothers and sisters let us stop wasting time time is precious by the grace of god let us strive to live the rest of our time in this life not for our own sinful passions the sinful passions of our fallen nature but instead for the will of god as revealed in his word and let us do so not to earn points with god or to make ourselves more commendable to god we are already accepted in the beloved if you are in christ you are already accepted by god as you will ever be because god sees you in his son he loves you as much as he loves his son he sees you as righteous as his son is righteous because you are clothed in christ’s righteousness why then are we to live as good stewards of our time serving god out of gratitude for god’s gift of salvation in jesus but finally beloved let us take comfort in the judgment and vindication turn our attention to the final three verses of this passage verses four through six beloved take comfort in the judgment and vindication of god in this passage peter touches upon the treatment that believers sometimes receive at the hands of unbelievers he gives an example of this in verse four he says with respect to this with respect to his readers refusal to go along with the pagan lifestyle that was all around them he says with respect to this they’re surprised that you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery now what’s wrong with you why won’t you loosen up why won’t you relax and just kind of join in with us we’re having lots of fun join in on the fun right and they’re surprised that you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you if i’m remembering correctly i believe the greek word that is translated here as malign is the word from which we derive the word blaspheme they blaspheme you they malign you they they verbally attack you and seek to denigrate your good name and reputation unbelievers we believers are strange because we won’t give ourselves over to sin in the way that they often choose to do and as a result they may heap abuse and insults upon us in the eyes of some unbelievers we christians if we’re not viewed as being a bit odd a lot of times they look at us and they say what a bunch of weirdos what a bunch of weirdos what’s wrong with you people your refusal to participate in their pagan godless lifestyle your refusal to go along just to get along often provokes the hostility of the godless and they may respond by speaking evil of you even seeking to destroy your good name and reputation what are we to do if such is to happen to us let us not despair for they will have to answer to god certainly love our enemies jesus commands us to and we should pray for the conversion and salvation of even the most hardened persecutors of god’s people we can also take comfort beloved in knowing that if our god chooses not to deal with our enemies in mercy and grace he will nevertheless vindicate us in the end by judging all of his and our enemies and he will do so on the final judgment day in the meantime let us not despair let us hold up our heads high and realize that though the world may heap abuse and scorn upon us by the grace of god our father looks with favor and love upon us in christ and we are assured here in verse five that the persecutors of god’s people will in the end be judged by god if they continue unrepentant in that persecution it says in verse five but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead and as we learned this morning this morning sermon there will be no escape in the end all will give an account to almighty god are you ready ready to give an account to your maker if you are in christ you will be ready if you are outside of christ there is no escape turn to christ rest in him and then verse six is a again at one of the messages it says for this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead that though judged in the flesh the way people are they might live in the spirit the way god does so what’s what’s peter getting at here again there are some differences in the pit in opinion among the commentators but what peter seems to be talking about here are those believers who had died perhaps died as a result of persecution they had had the gospel preached to them and even though they were judged in the flesh the way people are their persecutors judged them as worthy of death yet they live in the spirit the way god does the fact that they are person the fact that they are martyr does not end their life for now they live on in the spirit with god forever those sinful men condemn judge god’s people in the flesh by persecuting them god vindicates his persecuted people because they live on in his presence as it says in verse six that they might live in the spirit the way god does and this this truth would have been a great comfort to peter’s first century audience it should be a great comfort to you and to me as we seek by the grace of god to faithfully follow jesus we can do so with courage because come what may come what may if we are called upon in god’s providence even to lay down our lives for the lord we can have hope and assurance for we will live on in the spirit as god has promised dear ones in closing let us arm ourselves with the mind of christ let us stop wasting time in ungodly living and instead let us pursue the will of god are you pursuing godliness are you pursuing holiness let us be comforted as well by god’s promise of vindication for in christ we are vindicated amen let us pray heavenly father sovereign and eternal god we praise you and thank you that you have been so merciful and kind to us and we thank you that you have given us new life in christ we thank you that you have called us to live a life that is full of meaning and purpose a life that is meant to be full of joy we are called upon to glorify you and to enjoy you both now and forever grant us the grace lord to pursue you to pursue your holy will out of gratitude for all that you’ve done for us and make us faithful in bearing witness to the gospel of jesus christ we pray all of these things heavenly father in jesus name and all of god’s people said amen as we close our time this evening let’s rise and we’ll sing together 465 love divine all loves excelling 465

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July 14, 2024
Baptism Now ‘Saves’ You?

About this sermon

Peter restates the gospel: Christ suffered once for sins and was made alive in the Spirit, in which he proclaimed to the spirits in prison who disobeyed in Noah’s day. God brought Noah’s family safely through water, and baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves, not by washing the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through Christ’s resurrection. Christ is the ark of salvation; the flood that judged the world carried his people to safety. Angels and powers are subject to him, a comfort to persecuted believers.

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Sermon transcript

Please remain standing for the reading of God’s word, we continue our consideration of 1st Peter, and tonight we are in a challenging portion of 1st Peter, 1st Peter chapter 3 verses 18-22. And you’ll find that on page 1205 in your pew bibles if you’d like to follow along. But let us hear with reverence and awe the word of our God, 1st Peter chapter 3 verses 18-22. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely through water.

Baptism which corresponds to this now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels’ authorities and powers having been subjected to him. For once the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Once again, let’s seek the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of his word. Heavenly Father, we ask that your word, which is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe, we ask that this word would be driven home to our hearts by your Holy Spirit, that you would open our minds and our hearts this evening to behold wondrous things from your word, and we pray that you would implant the word of grace into our souls this evening as we consider this portion of your word.

We ask that you would set a guard over my lips, that I might speak only that which is faithful, and we ask, Lord God, that the name of Jesus would be exalted in the preaching of his word this evening. In his name we pray, and all of God’s people said, Amen. In congregation, you may be seated. My sermon this evening is Baptism Now Saves You, and the keywords are Gospel, Christ, Baptism, and Saves, or Salvation. Well, dear ones, this evening we consider, as I already mentioned, we consider a challenging passage of Holy Scripture. Indeed, dear ones, verses 19 through 21 of our passage are arguably some of the most difficult verses in the entirety of the New Testament Scriptures to interpret. And how to understand the various minutiae, the various details of this passage is heavily disputed among biblical scholars and exegetes.

In this passage of God’s word, we are confronted with many puzzling questions. I mean, a good practice in learning how to be a good interpreter of the Bible is to learn how to ask good questions of what you are reading, especially if you come to a difficult passage. And I suggest to you, in cases like that, you might want to have a notepad or a computer beside you and take notes and ask questions of the text that you’re reading. And this particular text confronts us with many such questions. For example, this passage raises the question, when did Christ preach to the spirits in prison that are referred to in verse 19? And who are these spirits in prison? Is he referring to dead human spirits or is he referring to demonic spirits or something else?

And what is this prison to which he refers in this passage? Why does Peter mention God’s patience in the days of Noah? And why on earth does Peter compare the floodwaters of Noah’s day to the sacrament of Holy Baptism? And what does he mean when he states in verse 21 that baptism now saves you? Again, in attempting to answer these kinds of questions, biblical scholars have offered a confusing array of possible interpretations of these verses. In my opinion, there are some equally competent and learned and godly Bible-believing scholars and theologians who advocate some very different interpretations of these seemingly mystifying verses. Now, you might be thinking to yourself, okay, buckle up, the pastor’s going to take us through all of the various different interpretations or possible interpretations of this passage. And I assure you that that is not my intention this evening.

But I do want to point out that this is a difficult passage and this can be rather discouraging to the typical Bible reader. After all, since the study of this passage by professionally trained and learned Bible scholars has yielded so many differences of interpretation, what are you supposed to do if you are not a professionally trained biblical scholar? When trying to dive into a passage like this one, you may be tempted, brother or sister, to throw up your hands in frustration and to say, what is the use? If even biblical scholars with advanced degrees struggle to understand this passage of God’s word, then how can I, an ordinary Bible reader, ever hope to profit from this passage of God’s word? But, dear listeners, if you’re tempted to be discouraged, if you’re tempted to think like that, let me offer you some words of encouragement by reminding you that the Bible attests to the truth that all scripture is profitable.

All scripture is God-breathed and profitable, and that would include even difficult passages of scripture like the one that we are considering this evening. Again, consider what the apostle Paul tells us in that very familiar passage in 2 Timothy 3, 16, and 17 as he writes to his son in the faith Timothy, and he says this, all scripture is breathed out by God, theopneustos, God-breathed, all scripture is breathed out by God and what? So again, even though this is a passage that we as God’s people need to wrestle with and struggle with, and sometimes that’s how God contributes to our sanctification, he sanctifies us by forcing us to work through passages like this one, and we have to bring all of our resources to bear as we seek to understand this passage. But let me also encourage you, brothers and sisters, to keep in mind the life situation that was faced by Peter’s original readers in the first century.

Consider how the truths that are contained in these verses would have encouraged them in their faith. Remember friends that Peter’s original readers were facing an intensified, demonically inspired persecution for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And even though we may not be able to come to dogmatic conclusions about how to interpret all of the minutiae and varying details of this passage, as we will see, Peter in this passage emphasizes the gospel truth that our Lord Jesus Christ has conquered sin, has reconciled us to God, has gained victory and vindication by his resurrection from the dead, that he reigns at the Father’s right hand and that he has subjected the angelic realm of spirits to himself, which would include even those demonic spirits that were behind the fiery trials of persecution that these believers were facing.

Jesus has subjected even those spirits to his sovereign dominion. My friends, the message of this passage to these first century believers and indeed to all believers who face uncertainty and opposition and persecution in this present age, the message is loud and clear. The basic message is loud and clear. And that basic message is Christ is victorious. Jesus Christ reigns. He has conquered, therefore fear not. Now beginning in chapter 3 verse 13, Peter had returned to the theme of suffering for righteousness sake, a theme which virtually dominates the remainder of this epistle. In verse 18, he draws our attention to the ultimate example of one who suffered unjustly at the hands of the wicked, namely our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the suffering servant of God. And in turning our attention to Jesus, Peter cannot help but review the basic elements of the gospel message.

And so as we turn our attention to the details of this passage, I want us first to consider the truth of the gospel restated. What we have in this passage is the truth, the basic truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ being restated for the encouragement and the fortification and the building up of these suffering Christians to whom Peter is writing. Now we consider verse 18 on the last Lord’s Day, but by way of quick review, we learned in this passage, verse 18, that Christ the righteous one suffered for the unrighteous. The idea of substitutionary atonement lies behind this statement here. And that of course is at the heart and center and soul of the gospel. It says in verse 18, for Christ also suffered once for sins, Jesus Christ, the God man, the word made flesh offered a perfect once and for all sacrifice for sin, a propitiatory sacrifice that accomplished eternal redemption for God’s people.

Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for or in the place of the unrighteous. Why? That he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in or by the spirit. This statement here in verse 18 implies a number of very central gospel truths. For example, the truth that we are sinners, Christ died what? The righteous for the unrighteous. Who are the unrighteous ones for whom Christ died? That’s me and you, brothers and sisters. We are sinners. We are unrighteous. We fall short of the glory of God. We do not love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. We do not love our neighbor as ourselves. We are by nature, fallen nature in Adam and by choice and sinners. And we are culpable, responsible for that sin.

And because of our sin, we are in desperate need of a sinless savior. Praise God that God has provided for sinners like me and you a perfect, all-sufficient savior of the Lord Jesus Christ. For Christ is the sinless one. He is described as the righteous one. We also learn in the statements of this verse that Christ, the God man, suffered. He died in our place. He offered a substitutionary atonement. He took the penalty that we deserve for our sin upon himself. And the Father sent his Son out of love to redeem sinners. It’s not that Jesus had to die to make an angry God loving. It’s that God, who was justly angry for us because of our sin, out of love for us sinners, sent his Son Jesus to pay the penalty for our sin in our place, in our stead.

Again, that is at the heart and center of the Gospel. And why did Christ do so? In order to bring us to God. This is the language of bringing us to God. That’s the language of reconciliation and justification. So in this passage, in this verse, are condensed these central Gospel truths. The truth that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The truth that Christ died for sinners like me and you. That he died in our place, in our stead, in order to effect reconciliation and justification. But not only that, this passage clearly implies and proclaims that Christ rose victorious from the dead. The resurrection victory of Christ is also pulsating throughout this passage as we’re told in verse 18 that he was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit.

Now I pointed out on the last Lord’s Day that there’s some interpretive and translational differences of opinion about how to understand this. Some translations, for example, the New King James Version, say that Christ was made alive by the Spirit, which would mean that the Holy Spirit was the divine agent in raising our Lord Jesus from the dead. And certainly the scriptures elsewhere teach that. Or it could be translated as it is here in the English Standard Version as made alive in the Spirit, which would refer to Christ in his resurrected sphere of life. Christ in his bodily physical resurrection from the dead was raised in a body that was adapted to the Spirit world. Christ was physically raised from the dead, but his resurrection body also had unique qualities to it. He seemed to be able to appear and disappear at will.

He could also eat food and you could touch him and see him, but he would also appear and disappear at will. Whatever the case may be, however we are to understand this statement in verse 18, it is clear that the glorious, victorious resurrection of Christ from the dead is at least clearly implied in this verse and it is clearly stated later on in this passage in verse 21, where it says of baptism that it is an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So we have the death and resurrection of Christ being proclaimed and stated and affirmed in this passage. Not only that, we learn in this passage that Christ has ascended into heaven and that he exercises universal dominion, as it says in verse 22, that Christ has gone into heaven.

That’s his ascension, which was his coronation at the right hand of the Father. He has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of the Father. The right hand of the Father, God the Father, is the place of highest authority, highest honor, highest dominion and glory. He is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. Oh, what a comfort this truth must have been to Peter’s original readers. Indeed, what a comfort this truth should be to all believers who face persecution for their faith. After all, friends, if even angels, the glorious angels and authorities and powers have been made subject to Christ, then Christ certainly has dominion over those on earth who would dare to persecute the beloved blood-bought children of God. And so, as we wrestle with the difficult details of this passage, let’s remember the basic foundational truths that are made clear in this passage.

For in this passage, the truths of the Gospel are restated with great clarity. Do you, dear listener, believe this good news, this good news about Christ who died in the place of sinners and rose victorious from the dead, Christ who reigns at the Father’s right hand, Christ who has subjected all things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible to his sovereign dominion? Do you believe this Gospel, and do you trust Christ as your Lord and Savior? But having considered the basic clear truths that are communicated in this passage, let’s dive in a little bit to some of the difficult details, and I want us next to consider in verses 19 through 20 the identity of the spirits in prison. The identity of the spirits in prison. After stating in verse 18, or restating the Gospel truth that Christ suffered for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring us to God and has been made alive in the Spirit and so forth, he goes on to say in verse 19, in which, in which, speaking of the Spirit, in which he went and proclaimed, that word could mean preached, to the spirits in prison.

And then he assumes that his readers, his original readers, would understand what he’s talking about, and they probably did, which is, you know, we’re not exactly clued into exactly what he’s speaking of, so it’s frustrating to us, we have to try to reconstruct what his argument is here, but obviously his original readers would have followed his train of thought, and he says that Christ went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison because they formerly did not obey when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely through water. Whew! Peter, what are you talking about here? Well, again, let’s just be honest, this is a challenging passage, and in my own research on this passage, I think the most likely interpretation about Christ going and preaching to the spirits in prison is that these spirits are not the spirits of departed humans, these are not the spirits of dead human beings, but rather Peter is referring here, I believe, to the spirits of fallen angels.

In the Bible, the word spirits, if it’s not referring to the Holy Spirit singular, the term spirits is usually used in scripture to refer to angelic spirits, unless, of course, there is some qualification or clarification within the context of a passage to indicate that this word is being used to refer to a human spirit or soul. Now, of course, it is possible that Peter is referring to the spirits of those who died in Noah’s flood, but that would raise an interesting question. That would raise the question, well, why would Jesus, in the spirit, preach to those human spirits who were perished in Noah’s flood to the exclusion of other departed human spirits, and what would be the purpose of preaching to these dead human spirits who had perished in the flood of Noah’s day? Why would Jesus do that?

So I think it’s more likely that Peter is referring to the spirits of fallen angels. The disobedience of these angelic beings is somehow connected with the days of Noah and the building of the ark. And the flood of Noah was a prototype of God’s judgment. Indeed, it was a type and a pointer to the final judgment. And the wickedness of the world that then was prior to the flood of Noah is a paradigm for the wickedness of this present age, which we are assured the Lord will bring such wickedness to judgment in the end. But if these spirits that Christ proclaims to are demonic spirits, then it would seem to be futile for the Lord Jesus to proclaim the gospel message of salvation to them, wouldn’t it? After all, God has made no provision for the salvation of fallen angels.

Jesus, the eternal Son of God, did not take upon himself an angelic nature to die in the place of fallen angels. No, he took upon himself our humanity to die as the God man on the cross of Calvary. And so, clearly, Jesus did not preach the gospel to these demonic spirits for the purpose of bringing them good news of salvation. Rather, it seems more likely that our Lord proclaimed to them his resurrection victory. And he preached to them, he proclaimed it to them as a proclamation of judgment. A proclamation that would have confirmed their ultimate defeat and their eternal doom. Now the reason why I believe that this is the most likely interpretation of these spirits in prison is that it seems to fit in well with Peter’s purpose, his overall purpose in this larger section of scripture.

And that purpose is to encourage these believers who were suffering for their faith. I mean, think about it, brothers and sisters. What Peter is telling persecuted believers is that Jesus Christ has gained the victory over the demonic spirits, those spirits who had inspired the disobedience of the wicked in the days of Noah. And likewise, our resurrected Lord Jesus Christ is victorious over those demonically driven enemies of God who would seek to harm and persecute his people, such as those who were threatening persecution to these first century Christians to whom Peter is writing. And so, friends, do you see how this truth would fit in with Peter’s purpose of comforting and fortifying and strengthening these suffering Christians? Beloved, remember, by the grace of God, we are more than conquerors, not because we’re strong in ourselves or conquerors in our own strength, but no, we are more than conquerors how?

Through him who loved us, for Christ our Lord has conquered sin, death, hell, and the devil and his minions. I’m reminded again of that familiar passage in Romans 8, 35 to 39. I know we’ve heard it many times, but we need to hear it over and over again. As Paul writes, under the Spirit’s inspiration here, he says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Amen. Now, at this point you’re saying, okay, pastor, but what about the title of your sermon? I want to know what he’s talking about when he compares this to baptism. Let’s finally consider here, based on verses 20 and 21, let’s consider the connection of baptism and salvation, the connection of baptism and salvation in verses 20 and 21. In verse 19, the flood waters that destroyed the earth and how Noah was saved, Noah and his family in the ark were saved through the flood waters and brought into a new world, a new life. He compares that to baptism. He says in verse 21, baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Now this passage touches upon the question of the efficacy of baptism. In other words, what does baptism actually do? What does it actually accomplish? Peter’s statement here that baptism now saves you in verse 21, that’s a statement that seems rather shocking, especially to those of us with Protestant sensibilities. And if we don’t read this passage carefully and in context, we’re likely to misread it. Again, I know I quote from him often, I’ve refrained so far from quoting Bible scholars, but I do want to quote once tonight from Dr. I. Howard Marshall. Now Dr. Marshall is not reformed in his conviction, but he does have good comments in his commentary on 1 Peter. And he says this about this passage. He says, by what he says in verses 21 to 22, Peter has made three things clear.

First, just as Noah and his family escaped despite the disobedience of the evil spirits in their day, so too Christians will be saved and not be overcome by the evil forces behind persecution. Salvation is not just from sin, but also from the powers that threaten us and our salvation. Second, although baptism is the normal means of Christian initiation, salvation is not the result of merely submitting outwardly to baptism. It is for those who come to God with a longing to be set free from sin and to have a pure conscience. Third, the one source of spiritual victory is the crucified and risen Jesus. Now with that foundation in mind, did you notice here as we compare verses 20 and 21 that the flood waters of Noah’s day are said to spiritually correspond to the waters of baptism?

Back in verse 20, he talks about how God’s patience waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight persons, that would be Noah and his family, were brought safely through water. Baptism which corresponds to this now saves you. Now let’s pause there. In what sense does baptism correspond to the flood waters in Noah’s day? Well Peter is using language here that indicates that there is a type, anti-type relationship between the flood waters of Noah’s day and holy baptism. Let’s consider that for a few moments. How were Noah and his family delivered from the flood judgment that God sent upon the earth in that ancient time? Well they were saved in the ark. It was in the ark that they were saved. But how were they saved from the godless world that no doubt ridiculed and persecuted Noah for his godliness?

Well they were saved. Noah and his family were saved in the ark, which is a picture of Christ. Jesus Christ is the ark of our salvation. Noah and his family were saved in the ark through the flood waters. The flood waters brought judgment and death and wrath upon the godless world that they left behind. But God used those flood waters to deliver Noah and his family from a godless world and to bring them into a new world, a new life. And so the same flood waters that destroyed the ungodly world were an agent of salvation for Noah and his family in the ark as God used the flood waters to deliver Noah and his family from the ungodly world in which they had previously lived. Theologians call this kind of dynamic redemptive judgment. God delivers, redeems his people by bringing judgment upon the wicked.

And that redemptive judgment is supremely illustrated at the cross of Christ. For on the cross of Christ, Jesus, the sinless, spotless lamb of God, endured the flood waters, the metaphorical flood waters of God’s holy wrath in our place, in our stead. And our baptism is an outward sign and seal of that. As Romans 6 points out, our baptism among other things signifies and symbolizes our union with Christ in his death as well as in his resurrection. The waters of baptism signify and seal that, point to that redemptive judgment. Christ was judged in our place, in our stead, and the waters of baptism that are applied to us remind us and seal to us by grace through faith that indeed we are united to Christ in his death and resurrection. So do you see the parallel there, the type and anti-type relationship that goes on there?

So again, in what sense does baptism save us? Peter makes this shocking statement in verse 21. He writes this under the inspiration of the Spirit. We cannot dismiss it out of hand. We have to reckon with this. But what does he mean? This verse, of course, along with others like it, is misused by ritualists and sacerdotalists and hypersacramentalists who teach that the sacrament of water baptism automatically and necessarily conveys regenerating or saving grace to all who receive it. Many believe that this passage supports the doctrine which we believe to be a false doctrine known as baptismal regeneration. Yes, it is true that Peter does say that there is a sense in which baptism, quote, saves. But notice how quick he is to qualify his statement. It’s as if Peter knows that by stating this he could be easily misunderstood.

So after saying baptism, which corresponds to this now, saves you, what’s the next thing he says? He says it saves you not as a removal of dirt from the body. In other words, it’s not the outward ritual that saves you. It’s not the external washing that saves you. The waters of baptism are not magical waters, no, but rather it saves you by what it points to, what it means, namely as an appeal to God for a good conscience. Dear ones, the point of this is that it is not the external ritual of baptism that saves. It is not as a removal of dirt from the body, but rather it is the inward grace to which baptism externally points to, to which baptism externally signifies and seals. It is that inward grace that saves. Friends, baptism does not save as a magical hocus pocus kind of ceremony.

It is not the water of baptism that actually saves. Rather it is what baptism symbolizes and signifies and seals. It is that which saves us, namely an appeal to God for a good conscience. Baptism is a sign of cleansing, which implies that we have a guilty conscience. We are sinners in need of cleansing, and in baptism we have an appeal to God to bring a clear conscience to the baptized, all by God’s grace through faith in Christ and faith alone. Apart from Christ, our consciences accuse us, rightfully so, of sin, and they show us that we are worthy of God’s judgment for that sin. Remember, as we come to Christ in true faith and repentance, trusting in Him and Him alone to cleanse us inwardly from sin, just as the waters of baptism cleanse us outwardly from the dirt of the body, so we can have a good conscience before God.

We can have a good conscience as we trust in Jesus and His finished work. If you have been baptized, your baptism calls you to trust in the one who is signified and sealed in the grace that is signified and sealed in your baptism. So believe in that good news that is proclaimed not only in the preached word and the written word, but also in the word that is symbolized in the visible sermons of the sacraments, including baptism. Let us trust in the Lord and His mercy that we might have a good conscience, and let us remember and improve our baptism as the Puritans and our Westminster divines would call us to do. Let us improve our baptism by reflecting on what our own baptisms mean and how they point us to Christ and Christ alone for cleansing and forgiveness and growth in grace.

Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, Sovereign and Eternal God. We thank You for this difficult passage. We pray that by Your Spirit, You would cause us to spiritually profit from that which we have considered this evening. And we would ask, Lord God, that those of us who have been privileged to receive the sign of baptism, we pray that the grace that is signified would be abundantly realized in our lives. We pray these things, Heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, Amen. As we close our time of worship this evening, let’s rise for our closing hymn, number 435, Not What My Hands Have Done, 435.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

July 7, 2024
The Heart and Soul of the Gospel

About this sermon

Peter sets out the heart of the gospel: Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. His death, of infinite value, paid the debt for sin in full, so no one needs to offer another sacrifice, and the accuser has no ground against those who trust him. Men put him to death in the flesh, but God made him alive in the Spirit. Baptism corresponds to Noah’s deliverance through water and is an appeal to God through Christ’s resurrection. Christ is the sinner’s substitute and Savior.

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Sermon transcript

Please remain standing for the reading of God’s word. My sermon text this evening, 1 Peter 3 verse 18. You’ll find that on page 1205 in your Pew Bible. 1 Peter 3 verse 18. I’m going to read verses 18 through the end of the chapter, verse 22, but we’ll focus especially this evening on verse 18. Dear ones, this is the word of God. Let us hear it with reverence and awe. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely through water.

Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels’ authorities and powers, having been subjected to him. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Once again, let’s seek the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of his word. O heavenly Father, we do once again praise you and thank you that you have given to us a firm and certain word in the Holy Scriptures, for they are indeed your God-breathed, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. They are a lamp unto our feet, a light into our path. We pray, heavenly Father, that you would deepen and strengthen our confidence in your word and that you would give us insight as we explore the Scriptures, as we seek to take these truths to heart.

We pray that by your spirit you would cause the seed of your word this evening that is being proclaimed to find a resting place, rather a lodging place in our souls that it might bear spiritual fruit in our lives. Lord, bless the preaching of your word this evening and bless us as we hear. May we hear with reverence and awe, and may your spirit empower us to put into practice that which we hear this evening. We pray these things through Christ our Lord and all of God’s people said, Amen. You may be seated. The title of my sermon this evening is The Heart and Soul of the Gospel. There are a number of key words that I encourage you to listen for, especially I would highlight the words atonement, justification, and faith. Well, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in this section of 1 Peter, the apostle has been seeking to encourage and prepare his readers for the possibility of suffering for their faith.

Now, it’s likely that they had already begun to suffer persecution for their faith, but Peter is preparing them for a fiery trial of persecution. He’s preparing them for the possibility of intensified suffering at the hands of the wicked for doing that which is right and good. In other words, suffering for righteousness’ sake. We see that back in verse 14, for example, where Peter writes, But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy. We think also of what he says in the verse immediately prior to the passage we consider this evening, verse 17, where Peter writes under the Spirit’s inspiration, he says, For it is better to suffer for doing good if that should be God’s will than for doing evil.

This passage indicates that it may sometimes be within God’s will that his beloved children suffer for doing what is right, as I just read for you in verse 17. And that’s a hard pill for us to swallow, isn’t it? God’s, you know, God’s will that we suffer, that’s difficult for us to accept. From our limited creaturely perspective, this may be difficult to understand or accept, but we can be assured, brothers and sisters, that should God choose to permit us to suffer for doing that which is right, in his infinite wisdom and good providence, our loving Father in Heaven will ultimately somehow bring good even out of such evil. The perfect example of this, of course, is the suffering and death of our Lord at the hands of wicked men. Our Lord who by his suffering and death atoned for our sins, atoned for the sins of God’s people and brought us back into a right relationship with God.

And friends, since this is the case, it should not surprise us that immediately after telling his readers that it is better to suffer for doing good if that should be God’s will than for doing evil, it’s understandable that Peter’s thoughts would immediately turn to the sufferings of Christ. And of course, as his thoughts turn to the sufferings of Christ, his thoughts also turn to what Christ has done for us in his sufferings. And so we come here in our passage for this evening to the heart and soul of the Gospel. As Peter writes again in verse 18, for Christ also suffered once for sins, though righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit. As we focus on our passage for this evening, the first thing I want to point out, brothers and sisters, is that Christ suffered once for sins.

This is the first point in your sermon outline. Christ suffered once for sins. Now some versions read Christ also died for sins. That’s how it’s translated, for example, in the New American Standard Version. Instead of Christ suffered for sins. Now this is actually a textual issue, and some ancient manuscripts read suffered while others read died. But whichever reading is the correct one, the meaning of this passage is not in any way altered or compromised. Whichever translation, textual issue or textual reading is the correct one. Our Lord did indeed suffer in his death, and he did indeed die for our sins. And that’s the point that Peter is making here in this passage. It seems again, it seems that the thought which Peter is expressing here in this verse is picked up again in chapter 4 verses 1 and 2.

If you skip down from verse 18 to chapter 4 verses 1 and 2, we read this in chapter 4 verses 1 and 2. Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. In verse 17 he had said that we might have to suffer for doing, for righteousness sake if that be God’s will. He then turns his attention to the sufferings of Christ. And then there’s sort of a parenthetical statement here in verses 19 through 22, and then he returns to the theme of suffering for righteousness sake in chapter 4 verses 1 and 2. But what are we to make about the intervening verses here at the end of chapter 3?

This is actually after verse 18, it gets very complicated exegetically and in terms of how to interpret what Peter is talking about here. And I assure you that we’ll be getting into the weeds a little bit in the weeks ahead as we seek to understand what the spirit through Peter has recorded for us in verses 19 through the end of this chapter. But this evening we’re going to focus especially on verse 18. Remember friends that Peter is trying to encourage believers to endure suffering for righteousness sake by reminding them of Christ’s sufferings. But this God intoxicated apostle seems to find it difficult to mention Christ’s sufferings without also mentioning the glorious things which Christ accomplished by his suffering upon the cross, and also Christ’s subsequent victory and vindication. So brothers and sisters, our hearts also should be so full of gratitude for what our Savior has done for us on the cross that we too should find it difficult to mention Christ’s sufferings without also mentioning the wonder of all that Jesus did for us on the cross, all that he accomplished by his substitutionary atonement, his sufferings on the cross for our sins.

We should celebrate and rejoice in the wonder of the atonement and the glories of our Lord’s resurrection victory. Now with this context of the passage in mind, allow me to draw your attention to a few important truths that we glean in this passage. And one of the important truths that we learn from this passage of God’s word is we learn about the absolute sufficiency and finality of Christ’s atonement. Again, Christ suffered or died once for sins. Jesus didn’t have to die over and over and over again. He didn’t have to suffer over and over and over again in order to atone for our sins. It wasn’t like it was under the Old Covenant where animal sacrifices had to be offered in the morning, in the evening, day in and day out, and where over and over again the priests under the Old Covenant were constantly slaughtering animals as a reminder of ongoing sin and a reminder of the ongoing need among the people of God for a perfect lamb of God, a perfect Savior.

Our context tells us that Christ suffered once for sins, or I like how the New International version reads. It says that Christ died for our sins, or excuse me, that Christ died for sins once for all. This language, beloved, points to the absolute sufficiency and the absolute finality of our Lord’s atonement. Jesus paid it all and he paid it once and for all and forever. And that, brothers and sisters, is good news because it means that the debt has been paid so you and I don’t have to chip in. We don’t have to add our own payment for our own sins. Jesus paid it all. We could never pay for our own sins anyways by our own sufferings. We could never atone for our own sins. We are told here again that Christ suffered or died.

Now think about the implications of that. Who is Jesus Christ? He is the eternal Son of God in the flesh. He is the God-man, the Word-made flesh, Emmanuel, God with us. He is the one and only mediator between God and man. Yet he had to suffer and die in order to atone for human sin. Friends, the Bible tells us that sin is so utterly offensive and serious in the eyes of our infinitely holy creator that it requires death, spiritual, physical, and ultimately eternal death in hell for the rebel sinner. As that familiar passage of Romans 6-23 tells us, the wages of sin is what? Death. Death. Separation from the loving, gracious presence of God. Spiritual death, physical death, and ultimately eternal death. That is the penalty for rebelling against our holy creator. God is holy and just and His holiness demands that sin be punished.

And our sin is so offensive to God that the only way He could redeem us from our sin was to send His Son, His incarnate Son Jesus, to pay the penalty for sin. And praise be to God, Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God incarnate did indeed die for the sins of His people. But not only that, He died once or once for all. His atoning death was of such infinite worth and such infinite value that it didn’t need to be repeated. Jesus does not need to be re-offered. It’s not like in the Roman Catholic Mass where they do acknowledge in Roman Catholic theology that Christ died once and for all, that His atonement was once and for all, but the atonement of Christ needs to be re-presented over and over and over again in their so-called sacrifice of the Mass.

We don’t need that. Jesus paid it all once and for all and forever. His atoning death was of infinite value because He is the infinite Son of God. He is the one of infinite worth and therefore His infinite worth as the God-man lends value, infinite value to His all-sufficient atonement. And so friends, our Lord’s all-sufficient atonement is indeed of infinite worth and value. Think about that. Think about that. If you’re tempted to imagine that you have gone too far, that you’ve become such a prodigal that there’s no opportunity to return. If you think, oh, I have just really messed up this time and there’s no turning back. The Lord will never receive me back. Jesus’ death is of infinite value. It can cover an infinite number of sins against our infinite Lord. He died once and His death is sufficient.

And therefore no more sacrifice for sin is required. Jesus took care of our sin problem once and for all and forever. And I don’t know about you brothers and sisters in Christ, but I need to remind myself of that time and time and time again. Especially when the devil, the devil’s called what? The accuser of the brethren. When the devil uses my conscience to say, ah, Jeff, Jeff, how can you call yourself a Christian? How can you have that wicked thought? Or how can you speak in that unedifying way? Or how can you do this and still call yourself a Christian? Especially since you’re a pastor. You should know better. And yes, I should know better. But Jesus paid it all and His atonement is of infinite value. And He doesn’t need to repeat what He’s done.

It is done. There are many other places in the Bible that affirm the all sufficiency of our Lord’s atonement. Let me just read as we compare scripture with scripture a few other passages. Turn with me if you would to Hebrews 9 verses 27 and 28. Hebrews 9 verses 27 and 28 as the author of Hebrews is contrasting the atonement of Christ with the Old Testament sacrifices. He says this, nor was it, I’m sorry, verse 27. It says, and just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. So Christ having been offered once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him. Or think of what, stay in Hebrews and skip ahead to chapter 10 and look at verse 10.

It says, and by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And by that will we have considered chapter 10 verses 12 to 14. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until His enemies should be made a footstool for His feet. For by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Jesus offered a perfect atonement how blasphemous to think that He needs our help to save us. Oh Lord, I’m glad You died for me, but let me hear, let me add my own works of penance, my own religious works. What a blasphemous thought. Jesus paid it all, once and for all and forever.

Dear listener, are you trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ and His once for all sacrifice on the cross to take care of your sin problem? There’s nowhere else you can turn. There’s no other Savior. There’s no other atonement but that which Jesus offered on the cross for the sins of His people. And so believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, trust in Him and His perfect once for all sacrifice for your salvation. And God’s Word says that you will be saved, that you will be forgiven through faith in Him and faith alone. But how does this work? How is it that Christ’s once for all sacrifice deals with our sin problem? And that brings me to my next point. We learn here in this passage that Christ the God man, the righteous one suffered for the unrighteous.

Christ the righteous or just one suffered for the unrighteous or the unjust. As it says again in verse 18, our passage for tonight, for Christ also suffered once for sin, the righteous for the unrighteous. The righteous for the unrighteous. The language here friends indicates that Christ’s death was vicarious and substitutionary. Christ the sinless, spotless lamb of God, the righteous one died in our place, in our stead. He took upon Himself the divine wrath and punishment that we deserve for our sins. Because of our fall in Adam and our sinfulness, God views us as unjust, as unrighteous in His sight and thus worthy of His holy wrath and judgment. If you are in your natural fallen condition in Adam and apart from a saving union with the Lord Jesus Christ, then that is how God views you right now at this very moment and that’s a fearful place to be.

How then is it that a sinful man like me or like you, a sinful man or woman, boy or girl who is unjust before the infinitely holy God can come to be viewed by God as just and righteous in His sight? The biblical answer is only through a saving union with the just one, the righteous one, Jesus Christ our Lord. The scriptures present Christ as the second or last Adam who succeeded where the first Adam failed. Adam, our original covenant head and representative, he failed to keep the creation covenant, the covenant of works. He failed to keep the covenant of works by failing to perfectly obey God during his probation in the Garden of Eden and as a result, he and all of those whom he represented became covenant breakers. In Adam, you and I are covenant breakers.

We’re covenant breakers from conception. We are involved in the fall of Adam from the moment of our conception. We are conceived and born in sin. God created us in His image. He didn’t create us sinful but we became sinful because of our connection to Adam, our covenant, our original covenant head and representative. Adam broke the covenant and we are covenant breakers in him but the good news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ, the last Adam who is also under the covenant of works, perfectly obeyed God throughout his entire life. Jesus never once sinned. That is why he is described as the righteous one. He is the sinless one, the just one. He obeyed God’s holy law perfectly with all of his heart, soul, mind and strength all of the time. Our Lord Jesus did this as the covenant head and representative of all those whom the Father has given unto Him, namely the elect.

Because of His divine nature and because of His perfect obedience to the law, Jesus was the only one who was qualified to be the sinless high priest of His people who would offer a perfect sacrifice of atonement as the substitute and sin bearer in the place of God’s elect. Beloved in Christ, praise be to God, praise be to God that Jesus suffered in our place. Praise be to God that our Lord for us on the cross. He suffered the punishment for sin that we deserve to have suffered. By His life of perfect obedience to God’s law, Jesus merited for us that perfect everlasting righteousness that we need to stand justified before the infinitely holy God. And through faith in Jesus Christ, we are clothed in His perfect righteousness and declared to be just in the courtroom of heaven.

God declares us, we who are in and of ourselves and in Adam unrighteous, He declares us to be righteous in His sight. Not because of our own righteousness, for we have none, but because the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, credited to us and received by faith, by trust alone in Christ. This is what the Bible means when it talks about justification by faith. But in order for us to be justified in the sight of God, it was not only necessary for Jesus to live for us, to earn a perfect righteousness for us by His perfect obedience to God’s holy law, it was also necessary for Him to pay the just penalty for our violations of God’s holy law. The law requires and declares a curse upon those who do not perfectly obey it.

Let’s look for example at Galatians 3. Let me read briefly Galatians chapter 3 verses 10 through 14 where the Apostle Paul lays this out very clearly. It says this in Galatians chapter 3 beginning at verse 10, for all who rely on works of the law are under a curse for it is written, this is a quote from Deuteronomy, First be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. You want to be saved by good works, you’ve got to be perfect. You’ve got to keep it all, it’s all or nothing. Verse 11, now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith. But the law is not of faith, rather the one who does them shall live by them.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. By becoming a curse for us, in other words he died the righteous for the unrighteous, the just for the unjust. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith. But if God the Father has chosen us to belong to his son Jesus Christ, then we have been delivered by Christ from the curse of the law. You’re no longer under the curse. You’re no longer, God no longer views you as being under his wrath and curse. Yes, we as believers can fall under the fatherly discipline of our heavenly Father through backsliding and sin. God loves us enough not to allow us to continue on in sin and he will discipline his children.

But that discipline is not a sign of holy wrath and anger but a sign of love. My friends, how did Christ deliver us from the curse of the law? He did so by his atoning sacrifice of himself on the cross of Calvary. When he died on the cross he suffered the righteous for the unrighteous, taking upon himself our sin burden as our sin bearer and substitute. He died to pay the penalty for our sins and praise be to God, he paid our sin debt in full. It is finished. It is finished. Pound that into your consciousness. Let that be pounded into your head. The work is finished. Your sins have been atoned for, brother, sister and Christ. Dear listener, do you trust him as your sin bearer, your substitute, your savior? Trust in him tonight by the grace of God may he call you to himself.

So Christ suffered once for sins. He offered a fully sufficient infinitely valuable atonement. He died once and for all and forever. The righteous for the unrighteous. Why did he do so? This brings me to my final point. Christ suffered that he might bring us to God. This is the language of reconciliation. Our sin has separated us from our God, but Christ by his atoning work brings us back to the Father’s favor. Dear ones, we have seen from the scriptures that we are sinners. We have fallen short. We are covenant breakers, unjust men and women who inherit the curses of the covenant of works in Adam. As a result of our fallen condition, we find ourselves alienated from God, separated from his favor under his righteous wrath and curse. But if you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, my friend, then God through Christ has brought you back.

He has brought you back into a right relationship with himself. And that is the reality for you, dear believer, no matter how you may feel. Don’t base your faith on your ever-changing moods or feelings. We all wrestle in this fallen sin-cursed world. Sometimes we wrestle with depression. Some of God’s children wrestle with depression or they have a hypersensitive conscience and they suffer doubts about their standing before God. If you face those kinds of stresses and those kinds of issues, realize that your standing before God does not depend on how you feel. It doesn’t depend on your psychology. It depends on Jesus Christ, his objective outside of you work that he did for you in your place and in your stead, dying as your sin-bearer, the righteous for the unrighteous. And even on your worst days, that is true.

Believe the good news. The God-man Jesus Christ brings about reconciliation between the holy God and sinful man. As the end of verse 18 tells us, even though our Lord was put to death in the flesh, he was made alive in the Spirit. Or as the NIV translates it, he was made alive by the Spirit, meaning by the Holy Spirit. And there’s different ways of understanding this language here of this contrast between in the flesh and in the Spirit. This could perhaps mean that Christ was put to death in the visible physical realm but was raised bodily from the dead in his resurrection body that is adapted to and capable of living in the invisible spiritual heavenly realm. Or perhaps it points to the Holy Spirit’s agency in physically and bodily raising our Lord from the dead.

But either way, this language points to our Lord’s resurrection victory over sin, death, hell, and the devil. Christ’s resurrection proves that the Father has accepted the sacrifice of his Son. Jesus paid the penalty when he was giving up the ghost on the cross. He said, it is finished. It is finished. And his resurrection proves that it is indeed finished and the Father has accepted his finished work. Our Lord’s physical bodily resurrection from the dead is confirmation and proof that God the Father has accepted our Lord’s sacrifice on the cross for our sins. Isn’t that good news? Praise be to God. Dear ones, Christ our Lord suffered that he might bring us to God. If by the sovereign grace of God you are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for your salvation from sin, then you can be assured that you have been reconciled to God by the death of his Son through the saving work of Christ.

Dear listener, once again I ask you, do you know this Christ? Have you personally trusted in him as your very own Lord and Savior? And if you have, are you seeking to walk after a new obedience, not in order to earn further favor with God. You’re already, if you’re in Christ, you’re already in the favor of God. You already enjoy all of the infinite favor of God that the Son of God enjoys because you are in the Son. But out of gratitude for God’s gift of salvation, are you seeking to walk after a new obedience as an expression of thankfulness for God’s amazing gift of salvation in Christ. May God grant us the grace to trust him and also the grace to show our gratitude by walking after a new obedience. Let us pray. Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you that through the suffering and death of Christ, his atonement for our sins on the cross, not only have our sins been atoned for, but we have been reconciled to you and you have been reconciled to us in Christ.

We thank you Jesus that you suffered and died to bring us back to God the Father. That you brought us back into a right relationship and we thank you Heavenly Father that we can address you as a loving Heavenly Father. We pray Heavenly Father that these truths would indeed so impact our hearts and lives that they change and transform us into more faithful disciples of Jesus. We pray all of these things Heavenly Father in Jesus name and all of God’s people said, Amen. Let’s close our time together by rising and we’ll sing hymn number 170, God in the gospel of his son, 170.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

June 30, 2024
Defending the Christian Hope

About this sermon

Peter writes to suffering believers: in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks a reason for the hope that is in you, with gentleness and respect and a good conscience. Defending the faith begins with submitting to Christ’s lordship, not only with sound arguments. The church has a duty to defend the gospel as well as preach it, and a gentle, respectful answer joined to a godly life puts slanderers to shame.

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Sermon transcript

All right, brothers and sisters, please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word as we continue our consideration and study of 1 Peter. My sermon text this evening, 1 Peter 3, 15, will be focusing especially on verse 15. I’m going to read verses 13 to 17 to fill out the context a little bit, but again, our main focus tonight will be on verse 15. And you will find that on page 1205 in your pew Bible. So, friends, this is the Word of God. Let us hear it with reverence and awe. Now, who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled. But in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

Yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good if that should be God’s will than for doing evil. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord to bless the proclamation of his Word. Our Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you that you have spoken to us. We ask that by your Spirit you would help us to hear that which the Spirit has revealed to us in this portion of your Word. We thank you, Lord, for your God-breathed and errant, infallible, authoritative Word. We pray that we might indeed receive it with reverence and awe.

We pray that we might indeed hear these truths and put them into practice in our lives, and we pray that your Holy Spirit would cause your Word to find a lodging place in our souls once again this evening. Be with us now and bless our time in the Word this evening. We pray these things in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said, Amen. You may be seated. Well, dear friends, the Epistle of 1 Peter is a great gift of God to his suffering church. For in this divinely inspired letter, the Apostle Peter seeks to encourage, to comfort, and to bolster the faith of the believers to whom he was writing. And these believers were believers who were facing a fiery trial of persecution for their Christian faith. 1 Peter is a wonderful, divinely inspired, gospel saturated guide to living a godly life in the midst of a godless world.

And one of the evidences of its Christ-centered, gospel-driven focus is its emphasis on the Christian hope. That hope is not merely a pipe dream, merely a wish, but when the Scriptures speak about the hope of the gospel, it’s speaking of something that is sure and certain, yet still in the future. And indeed, the promise of eternal salvation we’ve already received through faith in Christ as our Savior. We’ve already received the gift of salvation in its first installment, if you will. We’ve already been justified and adopted, and we are sanctified in Christ, but we are also not fully saved in the ultimate sense, in the sense of glorification. That awaits the future. But we are promised in the gospel that if we are in Christ, that hope is secure, for there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

And so friends, this focus on the Christian hope is a focus on the sure and certain promises of eternal salvation which are found in the Lord Jesus Christ and through faith in him. And so as Peter writes here in our passage for this evening, in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the what? For the hope that is in you, the sure and certain hope of your eternal inheritance in Christ. And that is part of our apologetic, that is part of our defense of the faith. Our passage for this Lord’s Day evening calls us as God’s people to be always prepared to offer a defense and apologetic for our Christian hope to those who inquire, in other words, to anyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you.

Among other things, this indicates that one of our responsibilities as a church is to defend the Christian hope of the gospel that we have received. Praise God for the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it gives us an eternal hope. Well friends, our passage for this Lord’s Day evening is found in the midst of this final lengthy section of 1 Peter. Again, to quote from Dr. I. Howard Marshall, he explains as he comments on this section as it begins in verse 13, he says, a last major section of the letter begins here, here in verse 13. From this point onward, Peter is concerned principally, but not exclusively, with the Christian’s response to actual persecution. To be sure, the hostile attitude of non-Christian society was also very much in the background in earlier parts of the letter, but there he focused directly on the character of Christians individually, in the Christian community and in various social relationships.

But now the focus shifts to an actual response to specific attacks. In chapter 3, verses 13 through 17, Peter urges his readers to make positive use of the opportunities posed by hostile situations. And indeed, friends, because our hope in Christ is firm and certain, because we have the promise of eternal life and we can be sure of that promise because of the gospel. Therefore, we can give a reason for the hope that is in us, in the power of the Spirit. Well, friends, as we look at this, as we consider our passage for this evening, the first thing we notice here is a call to submit to Christ’s Lordship, a call to submit to Christ’s Lordship. As Peter is speaking of suffering for righteousness and how we as believers in Christ should respond to that, he says at the end of verse 14, have no fear of them, those who would persecute you, nor be troubled.

But instead, what are we to do? Verse 15, in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy. In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy. Now, if you have a version like the King James Version or the New King James Version, it reads somewhat differently, slightly differently. It says, for example, in the New King James Version, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. And that may cause you to wonder, well, which is the more accurate translation? And again, as I explained on the last Lord’s Day, this is a textual issue. There are some ancient manuscripts that have the reading that is represented in the New King James Version and others that have the reading that is represented in versions like the English Standard Version. According to the textual expert, Dr. Bruce Metzger, the reading that is represented by translations like the ESV is supported by early and diversified external evidence, which is a fancy way of saying that the reading Christ the Lord is supported by early and widespread ancient manuscript evidence.

And in my opinion, I believe in line with many biblical scholars that this represents what Peter probably wrote in the original. And so we can rest in this text. In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy. Well, friends, proclaiming Jesus Christ as the divine Lord is an essential part of the biblical gospel as that gospel was preached by the apostles. The proclamation of Jesus’s divine lordship and the implications of that lordship was part of the apostolic proclamation of the gospel. And in order to effectively defend and bear faithful witness to our Christian hope, we need to submit by faith to Jesus Christ as Lord,and we need to seek to live under his divine lordship. We see this, for example, and just to give you a couple of examples as we compare scripture with scripture, consider what Paul writes in Romans chapter 10 verses 8 through 13.

He writes the following, but what does it say as he’s speaking about the proclamation of righteousness by faith, the gospel, the good news of righteousness by faith, the word of the gospel, he says, but what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith that we proclaim, because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is what? That Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. With the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the scripture says everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. There is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

If you trust Jesus as Lord in your heart, that will lead you to confess him as Lord with your lips, and this is part of the apostolic deposit of the faith. And then consider what Paul writes in Colossians 2 verses 6 and 7, as we consider again the theme of Christ’s lordship and how important that truth is for the biblical gospel. It says here in Colossians 2 verses 6 and 7, therefore as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Again, who do we receive for our salvation? We receive Christ Jesus the Lord, Jesus of Nazareth who is the Messiah, the promised Messiah, the anointed divine prophet, priest, and king, the son of the living God, and the divine Lord, the word made flesh.

It is he, it is him that we receive, and as we receive him by faith, we are also having received him to live in union with him, rooted and built up in him. We see this also, for example, in the way that the apostle Paul describes the church in Corinth as he opens up 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 2 and 3. He addresses the church as follows, To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place do what? Call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. Jesus is Lord, and we are to submit to his Lordship. Indeed, as he is Lord, we are to walk in union with him. Friends, living by faith in and submission to Christ’s Lordship is vital and essential to our defense of the faith.

It is vital and essential to our apologetic. While being intellectually equipped with sound doctrine and sound argumentation is certainly an important part of defending the Christian hope, the hope of the gospel. At the same time, effective apologetics is not merely an intellectual game involving clever argumentation and running logical circles around the arguments of unbelievers. It is also grounded in a Christian walk, which honors the Lordship of Christ and which bears the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And so, dear listener, are you honoring Christ the Lord as holy in your heart? Is Jesus Christ your Lord? Have you trusted him as your Lord and your Savior? He is Lord, and it is because he is Lord that he has the power to save us sinners. Praise God that Jesus is Lord and that he is sovereign and that he is our King.

We see here next in our passage a call to preparation. Not only do we have a call to submit to the Lordship of Christ, we have a call to preparation. As it says in verse 15, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason, for the hope that is in you. Always being what? Prepared. Always being prepared. Dr. Marshall writes, the text probably implies no more than that Christians should always seize such opportunities when they arise, but it is fair to add that they will be unable to capitalize on the opportunities if they are not already prepared with a coherent understanding of faith and some practice in rehearsing it. Jesus is saying, and he alludes to Jesus’ saying in Matthew 10 verse 19, and let me just read that verse really quickly because some might point to Matthew 10 19 and say, well we don’t really need to prepare, we just need to rely on the Holy Spirit, right?

No need for preparation in our witness for Christ, but notice again Matthew 10 19 says this. It says, when they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. Now some have taken that passage and said you don’t really need to prepare, you don’t need to really study hard and know your faith in order to share it, but as Dr. Marshall points out, Jesus is saying in Matthew 10 19 is meant to rule out worry, not preparation. We need to keep that in mind. He says, Peter says, or the spirit through Peter here says, always being prepared, prepared. Now I bring this up and I belabor this point beloved because there seems to be this idea out there in at least in some Christian circles that it is somehow unspiritual to prepare for sharing the gospel with others, as if preparation somehow stifles the Holy Spirit.

Friends, not to be unkind, but that’s really pietistic nonsense. The spirit of God is the spirit of truth. He is the spirit of order. He is the spirit who brings order out of non-order and certainly the spirit is pleased oftentimes to use our preparations to forward his gospel and to cause his gospel to bear spiritual fruit. The spirit of God is not opposed to preparation, but can be relied upon to use our preparations to bear witness to our Christian hope. But at the same time, a practical application of this principle of preparation is that such preparation involves both intellectual aspects and godly living. How is it that we are always prepared to give a reason for the Christian hope, the promise, and the certainty of eternal salvation through faith in Christ and Christ alone? How is it that we are enabled and prepared to give that witness?

Well certainly that involves knowing the gospel and being able to articulate the gospel at least in its basic form. At the same time though, it also involves godly living. As the cliche goes, and it is a cliche, but like many cliches, there is some truth to it. You’ve heard the cliche perhaps. You are the only Bible that some folks will ever read. Yes, we defend and share our Christian hope by our words. We must use words, but we also demonstrate that hope by our Christian lives and our walk with the Lord. Here, listener, does your life adorn or defame the gospel message which you seek to defend and which you seek to bear testimony to. We are called to be always prepared. We do that by making sure that we understand the gospel, that we are somewhat practiced in sharing the gospel with others as we have opportunity to, and also we do so by making sure that we are walking the talk, that we’re being doers of the word and not hearers only who deceive ourselves.

But the reason we are to do this is because we have a duty to defend. This is the next point that I’d like to bring out from our passage for this evening. In your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to do what? To make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. The word in the Greek for defense is the word from which we get our word apologetics. It’s not talking about apologizing for being Christian, obviously. It’s actually a word that has legal overtones. Dr. Wilbur Smith defines the word apologia as follows. He defines it as a verbal defense, a speech in defense of what one has done or of truth which one believes. We see the apostles in the New Testament.

We see examples of the apostles giving a defense for the Christian faith on numerous occasions. There are, as we compare again, compare scripture with scripture. Let me take you to a few passages where this term is also used and to kind of give us an idea of how this terminology of apologia is used. Turn with me if you would, for example, to Philippians chapter one verse seven. Philippians chapter one verse seven. Just give me a moment to get there. In Philippians one verse seven, the apostle Paul writes, it is right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart for you are all partakers with me of grace both in my imprisonment and in the defense and a confirmation of the gospel. Paul was set apart for the defense and the confirmation of the gospel and he uses that word here in this passage.

We see this also in second Timothy chapter four verse 16. Second Timothy chapter four verse 16. It says this, at my first defense no one came to stand by me but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them. He’s speaking about illegal defense before officials here and we see this kind of language also used in the book of Acts. Acts 22 verse one. Acts chapter 22 verse one. Let me just get there where Paul addresses the people and it says brothers and fathers hear the defense that I now make before you. Hear my apologetic, my defense and then he proceeds to share his testimony and to speak of the gospel, the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see this also, this kind of language and the final example I’ll use is Acts 25 verse 16 where he is before Agrippa and again he’s defending himself.

It’s a legal context and he says I answered them that it was not the custom of the Romans. This is actually Festus speaking here. I answered them that it was not the custom of the Romans to give up anyone before the accused met his accusers face to face and had opportunity to make his defense, his apologetic concerning the charge laid against him. So there’s legal overtones to our apologetic and we are to give a defense as you would in a courtroom. My friends what does this point to? What does this teach us? Well it teaches us that the church not only has a responsibility and a duty to preach the gospel but also it has a duty to defend the gospel before a hostile unbelieving world. But how do we do that effectively? How do we do that effectively?

Well this leads me to my final point which is based on the latter part of this verse. In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you yet do it how? With gentleness and respect. Gentleness towards the unbeliever to whom you are sharing with whom you’re sharing the gospel. Respect or reverence towards God showing a reverence towards God in your in your testimony in your apologetic. Do it with gentleness and respect. You know this this reminds me of what we’re told in Proverbs 15 verses 1 to 3 and I know in that passage it’s a different different context but nevertheless I think we could apply the principles laid out in in Proverbs 15 1 through 3 to an apologetic situation.

It says in that passage Proverbs 15 beginning at verse 1 of life but perverseness in it breaks the spirit that is true in general in general human relationships if someone if you’re if you’re in a dispute with someone and you speak harshly to them then you inflame their anger that’s the natural tendency but a soft answer turns away wrath a harsh word stirs up anger a gentle tongue verse 4 is a tree of life a gentle tongue promotes life but perverseness in it breaks the spirit you see the contrasts there friends these principles apply in apologetic scenarios as well in situations where we encounter ignorant or hostile objections to our Christian faith it’s easy to respond with defensiveness especially if you’re talking with an unbeliever who is attacking your Christian faith or belittling you for your Christian faith it’s easy to return evil for evil it’s easy to get defensive to react with vitriol and vehemence it’s easy to react with guns ablaze as we seek to metaphorically destroy our non-believing objectors but as those who are followers of Jesus Christ this is not how we are to respond to hostility we’re not to respond to cursing with cursing but with blessing and we are not to respond to unbelievers with harshness when they display their ignorance or hostility towards the gospel instead we are to speak gently we are to offer a gentle word we are to speak the truth in love certainly speak the truth defend the gospel the good news of Jesus Christ crucified for the forgiveness of our sins raised from the dead for our justification defending the gospel which promises salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone apart from works of the law we must stand for the truth we must speak the truth but we must speak the truth in love and offer a gentle witness and we are to do so in the hopes that our objector will be brought to repentance not simply that he would be humiliated or lose the argument but would be brought to personal repentance and faith so brothers and sisters in Christ as we seek to be always prepared to give a reason for the hope that is in us this hope which is not merely a wish but a firm and certain a firm certainty because our salvation is a firm certainty in Christ let us seek to bear witness to that gospel with gentleness and respect for there is great power in a gentle witness may god give us the grace to have many opportunities to present a gentle witness for the gospel of Jesus Christ amen let us pray our lord and father in heaven we thank you oh god that you have saved us we thank you that you have sealed us with the spirit unto the day of redemption we thank you lord god that we have a hope that is truly a living hope we ask lord that you would give us grace and wisdom to know how to bear faithful testimony to this living hope that we have in Christ may we always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is within us to anyone who asks a reason for that hope we pray these things heavenly father in Jesus name and all of God’s people said amen as we close our time this evening let’s rise and we’ll sing as our closing hymn number 459 my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness we’ll rise and sing number 459

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June 23, 2024