Sermon Cloud

The Glory of Christ in Christian Suffering

 

1 Peter 4:7-11

 

Grace Fellowship Church

 

February 25, 2007

 

 

⁷ The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. ⁸ Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. ⁹ Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. ¹⁰ As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: ¹¹ 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.

 

Introduction

 

Like most of you here I love books.  There are stacks of books in our home.  Without exception there are books in almost every room.  I have seen some fantastic books in people’s homes.  Books that I almost covet.  But have you ever seen a set of books that were sitting on the shelf held up by two very ornate or even very beautiful bookends?  I can think of a couple of bookends that I really liked but one pair that is stuck in my mind is a pair of burden bearing elephants that held up a set of books.  Bookends serve a purpose.  They hold the books that gravity would cause to tip over up.  They secure that information within a framework. 

 

In our passage today we have two load bearing bookends that I want you to take notice of.  The first bookend is in verse 7.  Look at the verse. 

⁷ The end of all things is at hand; therefore…

 

The opposite bookend is in the last part of verse 11.  Look there.

in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

 

 

The information is between these phrases in our text.  But Peter has provided a framework for our understanding and obeying these instructions.  The two bookends are these;  the end is at hand is on one end and the glorifying of God through Jesus Christ is on the other.

 

Let’s look at these two bookends as we get ready to see the instruction between them.  First verse 7: ⁷ The end of all things is at hand;

 

Many will and have take the opportunity to use this phrase as an excuse to wow their congregations with flights of eschatological fancy and then they miss the meat in the middle of the sandwich.  In that short phrase is does not matter what you believe as to the outworkings of the end time events to understand what Peter is saying.  What he is simply saying is that no matter what you are enduring or enjoying now, it will come to an end.  We all will face our end.  In light of the context of verse 5 that we saw last week, we know that God is ready to judge both the living and the dead.  The end of all things is at hand.  Peter does not tell us specifically what he is speaking of.  He lumps the information into one big category and that is “all things.”  And the one thing we can be sure of is that they will come to an end.  And at that end is judgment. 

 

The other bookend is the glory of God through the Lord Jesus Christ.     

 

The Westminster Catechism’s first question states, “What is the chief end of man?”  The answer of course is, “To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” 

 

The first part of that is what I want to key in on.  What is the purpose of suffering and persecution in the Christian life?  Well the answer to that is the same as the first part of the WC answer.  To glorify God.  Specifically here in our text it is to glorify God through the Lord Jesus Christ.  To sum up this idea of everything to the glory of God we need to understand that the Reformers who coined this phrase, soli deo Gloria, understood that the sum total of the Christian life was to be lived out to the Glory of God alone.  He saved us and therefore we are to give him glory in every aspect of our life.  There is no separation of sacred duty and secular duty.   

 

The sum total of the motivation for living the Christian life in obedience to God can be summed up by Peter’s bookends.  The end of all things is at hand and everything that we do is to give glory to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. 

 

Context

 

Last week we saw that in the midst of suffering the Gospel is to be proclaimed and is to be done so accurately.  We saw that a proper Gospel proclamation is done in light of the coming judgment, is done promiscuously, and is done in the hope of salvation.  We have been looking at the theme of suffering for the sake of evangelism.  Now Peter shifts from Gospel proclamation to proper Christian activity in the midst of suffering.  He has previously told us in verse 3 what we are to avoid and that is the activity of the unbelievers.  Today he does the opposite and tells us what we are to do.   

 

PNP

 

From our text I want you to see that there areas in which we are to glorify God in the midst of suffering. 

1.  We are to glorify God in our prayers in the midst of suffering.

2.  We are to glorify God in our love for each other in the midst of suffering.

3.  We are to glorify God in our service to one another in the midst of suffering.  

 

Purpose

 

My purpose in preaching this passage is to show you that even in the midst of tough times, impossible times, it is possible and a command to glorify our Lord.

 

I want you to understand that these commands are binding even when we are not suffering.  But I also want you to understand that these commands are binding even in impossible difficulty.  Remember that God is glorified in our Christ like response to the world in the midst of suffering and in our Christ like response to each other. 

 

The picture that I have in my mind of the church in this situation is the idea that they are together in a group being attacked from the outside.  So in the midst of this attack they can not let the attack dictate their response to one another.  The troops can’t fight each other and still endure the attack of the enemy. 

 

RPNP

 

So look with me at these three areas in which we are to glorify God in the midst of suffering. 

 

1.  We are to glorify God in our prayers in the midst of suffering.

 

⁷ The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.

 

There are two imperative verbs in verse 7.  The first is the call to be self controlled.  Your translation may say serious, or clear minded, or to be of sound judgment, or even sober.  The idea is clear headedness. 

 

The second imperative verb in my translation is sober minded.  This is very similar to 1 Peter 1:13.  Look at that verse. 

¹³ Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

 

 

I am sure that all of you that were here when I preached this verse remember every detail of that sermon and can practically recite it.  Most of you are probably like me and can’t remember that far back.  The focus in chapter 1:13 for being clear minded and sober was so that we could set our hope on the grace of God that Christ would bring at His revelation.

 

Now in 4:7 the focus is different.  Look again at verse 7.  ⁷ The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.

 

In the midst of suffering we are to remain clear minded in order to have an effective prayer life. 

 

Peter draws on his own experience here in verse 7.  The command in essence is to remain awake and watchful. 

 

Remember Peter, James, and John in the Garden of Gethsemane with the Lord Jesus?  Listen as I read Matthew 26:36-46.

³⁶ Then Jesus came* with them to a place called Gethsemane , and said* to His disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." ³⁷ And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. ³⁸ Then He said* to them, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me. " ³⁹ And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will." ⁴⁰ And He came* to the disciples and found* them sleeping, and said* to Peter, "So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? ⁴¹ "Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."
⁴² He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, "My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done." ⁴³ Again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. ⁴⁴ And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more. ⁴⁵ Then He came* to the disciples and said* to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. ⁴⁶ "Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!"

 

 

Peter had the terrible designation of one of the ones who could not stay awake on the last night of Jesus’ earthly ministry.  Here is Jesus in spiritual preparation for suffering and death on a cross and there is James John and Peter snoozing. 

 

Before we come down to hard on these disciples how many of us have ever fell asleep praying?  How many of us can say that we are so clear minded and sober that our thoughts do not run too and fro while we are trying to pray?  How many of us can say that our prayer lives are so great and focused that we can spend hours in prayer and never focus on anything else except the Lord? 

 

That is what we have the command here.  We must do this in order to live out the Christian life to the glory of God.  Prayer is how we face suffering and how we are able to do the rest of the instructions in the passage today. 

 

I want you to think about what happened to the church in the book of Acts.  They were persecuted.  The Apostles were thrown into prison.  What did the church do?  They had prayer meetings.  There prayer meetings were the type where the place was shaken and the people were renewed to life.  Maybe the reason we do not experience building shaking prayer meetings is because we are not forced to our knees by outside pressures. 

 

As I thought about this passage this week I could not help but feel the conviction of the Lord over our lack of prayer in our congregation.  We have some good things going for us.  I think we sing good solidly accurately theologically correct hymns.  We have Scripture reading in our worship services.  There is a steady diet of verse by verse preaching.  We observe the Lord’s Supper.  We fellowship together and we sincerely love each other.  There is a brotherhood and a kinship among us that I have personally never experienced before. 

 

But where is the prayer?  I want to lay down a challenge to GFC this morning.  The challenge is to start praying more together.  Some of you ladies should be meeting for prayer.  Some of you men should be meeting for prayer.  And the elders should most definitely be meeting for regular prayer.  Will it be convenient?  Probably not.  Will it always be easy?  No.  But will it be worth it?  You bet. 

 

So far we have seen that in order to glorify God in our prayers we are to remain clear minded and sober.  Next I want you to see that:

 

2.  We are to glorify God in our love for each other in the midst of suffering.

 

⁸ Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

 

Peter begins the verse with the phrase “Above all.”  And then he tells us to keep loving one another.  Christians loving each other should be a given right?  Of course.  Jesus said, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, because you have love for one another.”  Peter adds an adjective to the type of love we are to have for each other.  It is the word earnestly.  This adjective carries with it quite a bit of meaning.  First this type of love is without ceasing.  It is also done eagerly and continuously.

 

Peter also gives the why and fleshes out some application of this love for us.  Look at verse 8 again. ⁸ Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

 

 

This type of love that is done earnestly and eagerly will allow us to get along with one another better.  I want you to get the picture here.  The world is in full assault of the Christian community.  The Christians are banded together and loving and encouraging each other through difficult times.  They care for each other deeply.  Here is the problem.  No two Christians are at the same spiritual level.  We are all in the process of sanctification and the Lord still has a lot of work to do on all of us.  Amen?  Amen.  None of us have reached sinless perfection.  And what happens in our Christian fellowship is that we grow comfortable with each other.  Our masks come off and guess what happens?  Our shortcomings become evident to each other.  The words of our mouth and the language of our bodily movements tell everyone around us the truth about us.  We are all sinners saved by grace and still in need of the forgiving grace of our Lord.  And we are in need of forgiveness from our Christian brothers and sisters. 

 

Here is what we have to come to grips with in this passage and appropriate into our lives.  The correcting of our brothers and sisters in Christ is often necessary.  But there are times when issues of sin due to immaturity or ignorance of the Bible will be covered by the agape love of our brothers and sisters.  What we have to realize is that the best of people are still people at best.  So we must be very careful here.  There are times when correction is necessary.  But there are appropriate times when Christian love will cover a particular sin. 

 

Here is the truth from Scripture.

Peter approaches the Lord Jesus and thinks he has come up with a good thing.  Listen to Matthew 18:21-22.

²¹ Then Peter came and said to Him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" ²² Jesus said* to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

 

  

Now Jesus doesn’t mean you only forgive a brother or sister 490 times.  You math folks have already figured out that number anyway. In the Lord’s prayer Jesus said, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.”  Does God only forgive us 490 times?  If so then we are all in deep trouble at this point in our lives. 

 

And even when correction is needed it is to be done in a certain way.  Paul was telling Timothy how to deal with those who were leading the church astray through unsound even false doctrine.  Listen to 2 Timothy 2:24-26.

²⁴ The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, ²⁵ with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, ²⁶ and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.

 

The minute we stop being grace filled we cease to be Christ like and begin to be Pharisee like.  The Pharisees were constantly looking for something to be angry about.  They chewed each other up and constantly compared notes on how holy they are.  Listen to the Pharisee praying at the Temple .  'God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹² 'I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.' Luke 18:11-12 (NASB)

 

Here is how we handle most of the sin issues in our brother’s and sister’s lives, by praying for them.  By loving them enough to take them before the throne of grace in prayer and asking the Lord to come to their aid.  And by the way, while we are there at the Throne of Grace, we need to seek mercy for those sins that everyone else sees in us that we can not seem to see in ourselves.

 

And if it’s not enough that we are commanded to love each other, that love must be lived out.  Look at verse 9.

⁹ Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.

 

The Bible talks quite a bit about hospitality.  The Lord Jesus used this as a separator of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25.  He said, “I was a stranger and you took me in.”  The idea in Matthew 25 is the need for Christian hospitality and its importance.  A Christian unwilling to open his or her home, according to Matthew 25, places the assurance of salvation in jeopardy. 

 

In 1 Timothy 3:2 and Titus 1:8 we learn that hospitality is a qualification of biblical eldership. 

 

Christian hospitality involves not only opening your home but also providing for the person staying with you.  This person staying with you is another believer who is either visiting on some ministry project or has found themselves in difficult times.  In the First Century it was common to open your homes to Christian travelers because the inns were often filled with debauchery and the open road was filled with robbers. 

 

Now in our day and in our culture we tend to think less of hospitality when in fact we should not.  It should still be a part of our Christian lives and here at GFC we do practice it.  Each week someone opens there home to friends and strangers for worship, food, and fellowship.  This is great.  Which leads us to the last part of verse 9 that tells us how we are to be hospitable. 

⁹ Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.

 

Notice that Peter says “without grumbling.   This is a very interesting word.  It even sounds like something you would not and should not do.  Gongysmos.  It means to grumble, complain, and even to do so behind that person’s back. 

 

I want you to think about the classic grumblers in the Old Testament.  Who were they?  The Israelites going through the wilderness toward the promised land.  They complained because they had no food.  God gave them Manna.  They complained because all they had was manna.  If God would have driven them to the promised land in a hover craft they would have complained and grumbled about the noise.  If he would have beamed them over to the promised land without having to walk through the desert they would have complained that they missed all the good sites on the way.  They were just constant grumblers and complainers. 

 

Let me ask you this morning, when you open your home do you grumble and complain about the rest of the week?  Do you complain that you have to do extra cleaning to make the house presentable?  Or is it a joy to open your home to your brothers and sisters?  It should be. 

 

Here is a word to the men and I know that I am probably preaching to the choir at this point but I should say it anyway.  When its your turn to meet in your home, help your wife.  Volunteer to go to the grocery store or vacuum the floor.  Do what you can to help alleviate the stress of preparing for Sunday.

 

Dr. Whitney was here last week doing the conference and he and I spoke about this on Friday night.  He and a group planted a church in Kansas City that started out the way we have started out.  But the women became overly burdened by the demands of Sunday and instead of a joy to come together for worship it became a chore added to the list of the week. 

 

Men here is where we come in, we can jump in and help.  I know that you have been busy all week at your jobs and dealing with the stress of that.  But keep in mind that our wives have been with the children all week and have been cooking and cleaning and schooling.  They have had just as busy a week as you and some even more.  So jump in and enjoy the preparation.  Get the kids involved and make it a joyous time. 

 

Remember we are to glorify God in our hospitality.

 

We have seen that we are to glorify God in our prayers and in our love for one another in the midst of suffering. 

 

Next week we are going to see that:

 

3.  We are to glorify God in our service to one another in the midst of suffering.  

 

¹⁰ As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: ¹¹ 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.

 

Conclusion

 

But let me close with a little encouragement.   Christ is not glorified so much in the fact that we suffer.  What He is most glorified in is the proof of our salvation in the way that we love one another and care for one another selflessly. 

 

Christianity is under attack as it always has been.  Tomorrow there will be an announcement that the tomb of Mary, Jesus, and some others have been discovered with bones there.  Many will be fooled by the lie that will be propagated by a group that hates Christianity. 

 

But the truth is until Christians in the 21^st Century start caring and loving each other like the Christians in the 1^st Century people will be fooled by a box of bones that never belonged to the Lord Jesus. 

 

The resurrection of Christ and the salvation that He secured is proven in the changed lives of those who pledge allegiance to Him as savior and Lord. 

 

What are you communicating by your life?

 

Let’s pray.