The Last Act
1 & 2 Peter: Faithful Endurance
1 Peter 4:7-11
Read: 1 Peter 4:7-11 - 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.
Last week we talked about suffering and how to live our lives during that suffering. I reminded you that the Church is like an aspen grove, when one is suffering, we are all suffering. Today, we are still talking about how to behave in the context of suffering, but specifically with the end times in view.
Main Idea: Live life as if Jesus could return at any moment.
I: The end is at hand.
We have a tendency to live life like there is a never-ending supply of days ahead of us. And pretty much everyone who has come before us did the same, then they died. What would it look like if we lived everyday like the end was at hand? Like Jesus could return any day…
1 Peter 4:7 - The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.
A. Peter is talking the actual end times here – believing that Jesus could return anytime.
B. Why would Peter and the early church believe that Jesus would return any day? In his commentary on 1 Peter, Wayne Grudem writes, “The end of all things is at hand means that all the major events in God’s plan of redemption have occurred, and now all things are ready for Christ to return and rule. Rather than thinking of world history in terms of earthly kings and kingdoms, Peter thinks in terms of ‘redemptive history’. From that perspective all the previous acts in the drama of redemption have been completed—creation, fall, the calling of Abraham, the exodus from Egypt, the kingdom of Israel, the exile in Babylon and the return, the birth of Christ, his life, death and resurrection, his ascension into heaven, and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit to establish the church.”
C. So, in the redemptive history sense, Jesus could have returned at any time during the last 2,000 years. That means, He could certainly return today…
D. With this in mind, we need to be self-controlled and sober-minded. Peter makes an interesting connection to the effectiveness of our prayers and our self-controlled and sober-minded behavior.
E. Our prayers are more effective when we correctly evaluate the things going on around us. We should be aware of what is happening and pray about it…
Main Idea: Live life as if Jesus could return at any moment.
II: Love each other.
“But the kind of love that God created and demonstrated is a costly one because it involves sacrifice and presence. It's a love that operates more like a sign language than being spoken outright.” – Bob Goff
1 Peter 4:8-9 - Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.
A. With the end in view, Peter says, “above all, keep loving one another”, did you catch the “above all”? Does that sound at all familiar?
B. One of the greatest discourses on “love” is found in 1 Corinthians 13. Reading from the CSB – 1 Corinthians 13 - If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, 5 is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. 6 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known. 13 Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love—but the greatest of these is love.
C. Peter writes that love covers a multitude of sins – while he isn’t saying that your sins are forgiven because of your love, he is saying that when love abounds small offenses are overlooked…
D. “Loving one another” also means we need to show hospitality to one another.
Main Idea: Live life as if Jesus could return at any moment.
III: Serve one another.
1 Peter 4:10 - As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:
A. We have all been given gifts to use for the Kingdom of God – and that includes other Christians…
B. Paul tells the Church in Ephesus: Ephesians 4:11-12 - And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ
C. We all have different gifts to use for each other’s edification and building up. That works best in close proximity. You need to be a part of the gathering on a regular basis, and you need to be a part of a smaller group. It’s often in those smaller groups that you can be most obedient to using your gifts for the sake of others…
Main Idea: Live life as if Jesus could return at any moment.
IV: All for God’s glory.
1 Peter 4:11 - 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.
A. The “oracles” of God comes from the Greek "of God," which means word or sayings of God.
B. This doesn’t just refer to the teaching or preaching of God’s Word, but also to evangelism, singing and sharing words of praise. In other words, the Word of God should be central to our gatherings and in our lives in general….
C. In our text today, we are given some tall orders for how we ought to be interacting as we await the return of Jesus that could happen at any time. But Peter reminds us in this verse where we get the power to do as we are told – he wrote, “as one who serves by the strength that God supplies” – we aren’t on our own here…
D. When we live like we are told to live, with the return of Jesus in view, and in His strength, we bring glory to God.
E. Part of our mission statement here speaks about “enjoying God together” – so I don’t want to give you the wrong idea, doing life God’s way in God’s power is a joy-filled experience!
F. The Westminster Catechism says, “The chief end of man is to know God and enjoy Him forever.” Pastor and author John Piper offered his take on this famous statement saying, “The chief end of man is to know God by enjoying Him forever.”
Main Idea: Live life as if Jesus could return at any moment.
Conclusion: We are in the end times and have been given specific instructions on how we ought to live. How are you living in light of eternity?
