Sunday, January 10, 2016

How To Live in View of the End (Part 2)



SERMON               GMT15-042

SERIES:              Topical Messages:  Special Days – New Years

SETTING:          North Kelso Baptist Church

SERVICE:          Sunday AM (January 3rd, 2016)

SUBTITLE:        How to Live in View of the End (Part 2)

SCRIPTURE:     1 Peter 4:7-11

SUBJECT:          The impact of the end of all things

SUMMARY:       The realization that the end is now here serves as the motivation for Peter’s call to prayer, love, and service towards one another which leads to the glory of God through Christ.

SCHEME:           To enable my people to transcend unbiblical means of motivation for the ministry they are to have for one another in view living at the end of all things
_____________________________________________________________

Our theme is:  The end motivates our ways

Proposition:  The Christian’s awareness of the end of all things impacts their present daily conduct

Interrogatory Sentence:  How does the awareness of the end of all things impact your daily conduct?

Transitional Sentence:  Our passage describes three (3) aspects of how the awareness of the end of all things has an impact on your daily behavior; The Assertion of the Apostle, The Admonition of the Apostle, and The Application of the Apostle.


[The Title of the Message]
How to Live in View of the End (Part 2)

[Announce the Text]
Please open your Bibles to 1 Peter 4:7-11

Prayer for illumination & understanding
Our gracious Father, help us to hear your holy Word that we may truly understand; and that, understanding, we may believe and believing, we may be in all in all things faithful and obedient. Father by understanding your word may we seek your honor and glory in all that we do; through Christ our Lord. So Father we ask you, through your Holy Spirit to open our hearts and minds for the sake, the honor, and the glory of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, so that as the Scriptures are read and your Word explained, we may hear with joy what you say to us today. We ask you Father to show us all that Christ is and what He has done for us. Amen.

Re-announce and read the text
Our text for today is 1 Peter 4:7-11 

[Main Introduction]
On a warm summer day in June a teen-age boy lost one of his contact lenses while he was playing basketball in the driveway. After a lengthy fruitless and frustrating search he went inside his house and told his mother that he could not find his contact lenses anywhere in the driveway. So his mother, stopped what she was doing and went out to the driveway in order to search for his lenses.

In a short while she came back into the house with the lenses in her hand. While her son was putting it back into his eye, he asked her why she could find it and he couldn’t. She said it was because they were not looking for the same thing. She said, “You were looking for a small piece of round plastic, I was looking for 150.00.” She was motivated by the cost of the lenses!

Orient the Text:
Motives shape and determine our strategy, our service, and our success

This morning I want to continue to speak to you about the impact that the awareness of the fact that the end of all things is here – or more specifically how the Christian’s awareness of the present end of all things impacts their present daily conduct by serving as a practical motivation.

It is obvious that motivation is extremely important in anything in this life. The proper motivation is no less important when it comes to the daily life of a believer.

Proper motivation will shape your strategy or your plan of ministering to one another. Motivation will affect your actual service or ministry to one another.

Raise a Need:
Christian priorities and their detractors

As I said last week, there are an innumerable types and kinds of distractions that are designed to derail you from your responsibilities toward one another and your interpersonal relationships. Satan, your flesh, and this world is at work in order for you to misalign your priorities. When your priorities are wrong you fail to relate to one another as God intended and you focus on your own personal desires. It is the failure to maintain Christ-like priorities or maintain godly motivation that causes believer to fail one another.

There is only one response to the care, welfare, and benefit of God’s people, and that is being fully aware of and responding properly to the awareness that the end of all things is actually here.

The Christian’s awareness of the end of all things impacts their present daily conduct.

State the Purpose 
Once again, my purpose today is to challenge you to rise above any and all unbiblical means of motivation for the ministry towards one another and live biblically in view of the fact that the end is now here. I want you to resist any and all unbiblical reasons for ministering to one another by seeing the real reason we are to minister to one another.

Let’s look at the impact that the realization of the end of all things has on the daily life of believers.

[Sub Introduction] 

[Scripture Introduction]
Last week I mentioned that Peter’s letter was written to provide encouragement to the Christians who lived in northern Asia Minor who were undergoing intense persecution. This letter was designed to encourage these persecuted believers to remain faithful and obedient under this persecution. The reason that they were to remain faithful and steadfast was their knowledge that the end of all things was at hand.

And so, Peter emphasized the holy lifestyle that they were to maintain since they were only temporary residents in a foreign land. Peter wanted his readers to know that as they suffered for Christ’s name and for his sake in a hostile non-Christian land, they were to always remember that they were citizens of heaven and the children of God.

Peter urged his readers to stand firm against the persecution by focusing on their spiritual privileges, promises, and preservation. So Peter reminds his reads that they are called to holiness, a life of sacrificial love, a life of ministry and service to fellow believers, which ultimately culminates in the glorification of God through Jesus Christ.

And so I remind you, that your awareness of the end of all things impacts your present daily conduct 

[Review:]
Last week we saw that a fruitful, faithful, and obedient Christian life is inspired or is motivated by the hope of the future. The strength to endure persecution and hardship is also inspired or motivated by the hope of the future. Of course the future is the release from this world by the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we look for this release and this return.

Your anticipation of the end of all things should have an impact on your present day conduct and Christian experience. So, as believers experience persecution and as we wait for Jesus Christ we should be motivated to band together and minister to one another to the glory of God. We saw that the justification for this premise is found in Peter’s opening statement in verse 7:

“Now the end of all things is at hand…”

Peter stated that the end of all things is here and remains here. The HS inspired Peter to use the perfect tense of the verb. Human history has always been moving toward this goal. As of late it seems as if history is plummeting at an uncontrollable and unstoppable breakneck speed. The time separating God’s timetable and ours is razor thin.

This caused Peter to write, “…therefore…” Since the end of all things is here there are two areas in which should impact your remaining time in this life –

·        Your personal life
·        Your public life

We were able to closely examine the first area that is impacted by this awareness and that was their personal life. Peter made two very clear points about their personal life:

·        They were to maintain a sound mind 

Peter commanded his readers to have a clear mind. He commanded them to have a right mind. It is a mind that has been delivered, rescued, revived, salvaged, and protected and is now safe and secure. A sound mind has a proper perspective on the end times and the events that are transpiring motivating you to live a godly and faithful life.

·        They were to maintain self-control

Although this word originally was used to describe a state of being free from the control of an intoxicating beverage, it came to be used to signify the ability to manage your actions, feelings and emotions. So one who is motivated by the knowledge that the end of all things is here is one who controls his/her mind, emotions, and will.

Peter’s readers are to be clear-minded and self-controlled so that they can pray effectively. So that they can pray for wisdom, guidance, and to know God’s will.

Our theme is:  The end motivates our ways

Proposition:  The Christian’s awareness of the end of all things impacts their present daily conduct.
Interrogatory Sentence:  How does the awareness of the end of all things impact your daily conduct?

Transitional Sentence:  Remember, our passage describes three (3) aspects of how the awareness of the end of all things has an impact on your daily behavior; The Assertion of the Apostle, The Application of the Apostle, and The Admonition of the Apostle.

[So, let’s continue to examine the second aspect described in our passage, the application of the apostle by looking at the second major area which is impacted by the motivation of the end of all things. And that is…

          2B     Peter’s admonition regarding their public life (8-11a)

Peter is going to deal with two major areas in the lives of believers that involves one another. First he deals with their…

1C     Peter admonishes his readers to love one another (Vss. 8-9)

[I want you to notice at least three (3) things about the believer’s duty to love one another]
                             1D     The description of love – stretched out with no limits

                                      “And above all…”

Above everything. This places love for one another as the most important thing that a believer can do for another believer.
Peter admonishes his readers, and ultimately you and me to love one another with a deep and fervent love.

“…have fervent love for one another…”

Peter used a noun in this phrase rather than a verb. He is talking about the nature of this love that they are to have for one another.

Many times you have heard the word “fervent” means “hot” or burning. But it really doesn’t and it doesn’t in our context.

It means “stretched out.” It means to the fullest capacity. This word was actually used to describe a horse that was running at full gallop. Picture a horse in your mind for a minute, picture the horse running at full speed, and see his taunt muscles bulging from strenuous and sustained effort of running.

Because we are a family, our love for one another is to be like that. Full, stretched out, with no limitations. We are to love one another with no limits. 

                             2D     The Duty of love – refuses to gossip or throw in the face (8b)

Peter tells us the reason we are to have such a “stretched out, with no limits” type of love for one another.

“…for love will cover a multitude of sins.”

This little phrase describes the kind of love that you have for one another. This is a very convicting and cutting piece of truth.

We may be able to limit love to two types:

·        A love that is selfishly motivated in order to achieve personal goals or personal benefits

·        A love that is unselfishly motivated for the sole benefit of the one that is loved

How can you tell the difference between the two? How can you tell what your motivation is in loving someone, particularly other believers? Peter tells us:

          “…for love will cover a multitude of sins.”

Now, Peter does not mean that love condones sin. He does not mean that we sweep sin under the “proverbial rug.” Peter does not mean that we ignore sin or close our eyes to sin.

Peter is saying that true godly love that is stretched out to the limits hides those sins we see in others from our sight. In other words we do not gossip about them, we don’t bring them up, we don’t point them out. True love forgives sin.

This does not mean that we are to be blind to sin. Believers do not delight in sin. But genuine believers are interested in the welfare of other believers – genuine, out stretched love with no limits is always compassionate. Real love does not, Peter says, remind one another of their sins.

The love that Peter is talking about refuses to deliberately expose the sins it encounters to the sight or gaze of other people.

True love refrains from reckless gossip about sins. True love acts like a blanket and covers them up.

[For example:]

When Ham discovered his father uncovered and naked in his tent he spoke of it to others. He broadcasted Noah’s sin. He exposed it. But, Japheth did not speak of it but went and simply covered up his father. 

                             Lenski who was a Lutheran pastor and theologian wrote:

“Only when Christians become mean and ugly do they favor the devil by dragging each other’s failings out into the public and smiting each other in the face.” [1]

Why should Peter care about this? Why is it so important that as we are aware of the fact that the end is here motivate us to love one another with such a love that refuses to throw up one another’s sin to each other? Well, it really is very simple, isn’t it?

·        Believers are weak and do fail

·        As we gather together even more frequently we are going to see the weakness and failings of one another

·        In order to get along and spend much time with one another we need to be forgiving

Well, in our public life the awareness that the end of all things is here motivates us as genuine believers to refuse to gossip and bring up the sin of other believers and to forgive them and keep them from public sight.
  
3D     The demonstration of love – meeting the needs of others (9)

          “Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.”

There is no verb here. The English verb “be” is supplied by the translators. This isn’t another command or directive, it is an example of how to love one another.

It goes back to have fervent love for one another hospitable to one another.

What does hospitable mean?

The word Peter used translates an adjective that describes someone who has an affectionate care for strangers that is expressed by offering strangers food and shelter. It also contains within the word the idea of a repeated practice.

This practice was very important in the early church. Believers would travel and need a place to stay, eat, and be refreshed. Inns were often filled, dangerous, or too expensive. Not to mention the crude and lewd behavior that took place in the inns – which the genuine Christian would have separated himself from.

So believers found refuge with other believers. They had fellowship, were encouraged, and even strengthened.
But look at what Peter added – “…without grumbling.”

This word means a low speaking, a murmuring or mumbling beneath the breath of displeasure. It depicts a lack of loving cheerfulness.

Genuine believers were expected to open their homes and resources to other genuine believers. Without this practice the early church expansion and evangelism would have suffered a great deal.

So, we find that Peter’s instructions about the present end of all things is very practical. First, in the fact that believers are to have a mutual love, a stretched out love with no limits that forgives and forgets sin, and opens the home and resources to one another.

2C     Peter admonishes his readers to serve one another (10)

“As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” (vs. 10)

1D     The Reality for Service – each believer has a gift
·        It is clear that each genuine believer has been assigned a gift by God

But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all” (1 Corinthians 12:7, NKJV)

“But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” (Ephesians 4:7, NKJV)

“As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” (1 Peter 4:10, NKJV)

Very briefly those gifts were divided into three categories, of which only two categories remain today:

·        Sign gifts – tongues, miracles, healings, wonders (Mark 16) (temporary)

·        Speaking gifts – apostle, prophet, pastor/teacher, evangelist (Eph 4)

·        Service gifts – (Ro 12) prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, administration, and mercy

2D     The Reason for service - for the good of the whole

o   Each believer has a distinctive function in the body for the good of the body

o   Each believer is a steward and not the owner of the gift.

3D     The Result of service – each gift used for others & not self    

o   Each gift is to be used to serve others and not self
o   Each believer is a steward & will give an account

Serving one another should promote the well-being of the entire group. It is God who gives the gift and then energizes it with the power of the HS

[The second admonition for their public life is that…] 

                   2C     Their duty to speak to one another (VSS. 10-11a)

Peter moves from the duty to serve fellow believers to the duty of speaking to fellow believers.

1D     The Scope of speaking – not limited to officials, includes all

“If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God.” (11)

·        If anyone – refers to every individual member

·        First of all this is not referring to a leader or an official

2D     The Sphere of speakingin any and every setting/opportunity

·        This word is used in relation to teaching, exhortation, sharing a word or even sharing a testimony in any setting

·        It can even be used to describe the speaking outside of church in a setting such as speaking to the sick in their bed or a hospital, etc.

·        It can be used to describe personal conversation in any casual setting – shopping, chance meetings, etc.

Because the end is here, some believers will become confused, fearful, or frustrated. So when you speak to them, speak the word of God to them. Teach them truths that will encourage them, exhort or encourage them.

3D     The Significance of speaking – in the place of God

·        Recognize that you are God’s messenger or representative.

·        Forsake your own personal opinion on the current events and speak God’s word.

Well, it is clear that because the end is here, this should serve as the motivation to maintain an outstretched, without limits love for one another and to serve one another in such a way that it benefits the entire body, and to speak words of God in such a way that it uplifts, encourages, and edifies one another.

Our theme is:  The end motivates our ways

Proposition:  The Christian’s awareness of the end of all things impacts their present daily conduct.

[Finally, and briefly, we see…] 

3A     The Admonition of the Apostle (VS. 11b)

“…that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and he dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 4:11b, NKJV)

This is the true goal in all Christian living. This is the goal of our loving, speaking, and serving one another. In all things means in everything that we do. We should do nothing to or for another believer without the end goal of the absolute glory to God through Jesus Christ.

Every gift that we have for God is to be used for the glory of God.

“Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31, NKJV)

God should be, and especially as we are made aware of the fact that the end of all things is here, the supreme center of our lives.

Peter was so moved by this that it caused him to add a few words of adoration and worship – to whom the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen! Peter had to worship right then and there.

Well Peter makes it very clear under the inspiration of the HS that the end of all things is now here. It is going to break in on us at any moment – nothing hinders the end from breaking in. This should cause each and every genuine believer to love one another with a stretched out, limitless love, to serve one another for the good of the whole, and to speak God’s word as his representative in order to encourage one another.

Our theme has been:  The end motivates our ways

I have proposed to you that:  The Christian’s awareness of the end of all things impacts their present daily conduct in a significant way!

I have tried to answer the question of:  How does the awareness of the end of all things impact your daily conduct?

From our passage I hope you have seen described three (3) aspects of how the awareness of the end of all things has an impact on your daily behavior;

The Assertion of the Apostlethe end is now here at hand ready to break in

The Application of the Apostlewe are to love, speak, and serve one another for the good of one another with a stretched out love that has no limits

The Admonition of the Apostleand all that we do is for one another is for God’s glory

[What do you say we wrap this up?]

[CONCLUSION]
Arthur Brisbane, was the newspaper editor for the Ohio edition of the AAA magazine. One day he was overheard telling his best cartoonist, a man named Windsor McKay, that he was the second greatest cartoonist in the world.

A reporter happened to be standing nearby, and his curiosity got the best of him, and so he asked the editor who was greatest cartoonist in the world?

"I don't know," said Brisbane, the editor. "But it keeps McKay on his toes." 

Peter said the end is here. It is ready to break in any second. We don’t know when it is going to break in on us. Just knowing that it will break in at any moment should keep us on our spiritual toes of loving and serving, and speaking to one another. Let’s pray! 




[1] Richard C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of the Epistles of St. Peter, St. John, and St. Jude, p. 182

1 comment:

nashvillecats2 said...

Most uplifting as always Gregg:
Yvonne.