Well, open your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 5, and today, to the relief of many of you, we are actually at the end. So, this is the end of 1 Peter. It's been a transforming adventure for me to study in detail and to read and reread this first epistle of Peter, an absolutely marvelous piece of literature.
You think of this man, a fisherman, not particularly well-educated. Now he writes superbly under the inspiration of the Spirit, as he looks back, I'm sure, in all of the experiences of his life. So, as we conclude, we're going to think of three important words that Peter has in 1 Peter, three words that we've seen over and over again. Really, they are part of the themes of 1 Peter. The first word is suffering, the second word is grace, and the third word is glory. Suffering, grace, and glory. We see them all in this passage.
1 Peter 5, we're reading from verse 10. And after you have suffered a little, there it is, and after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you. To Him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. By Sylvanus, a faithful brother, as I regard him, I've written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God.
Stand firm in it. She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you His greetings, and so does Mark, my son. Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ. And there, Peter ends this marvelous letter, which he describes as brief.
A wonderful letter. So first word is suffering. Suffering is only for a little while, Peter is saying. We suffer, but it's only for a little while, verse 10. And after you have suffered a little while, that means that we who follow Jesus Christ do suffer. Look back in your Bible to chapter 2, for example.
Chapter 2, verse 19. For this is a gracious thing, when mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good, you suffer for it, you endure.
This is a gracious thing in the sight of God. Chapter 3, verse 14. But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed.
Have no fear of them, nor be troubled. Verse 17 of chapter 3, for it is better to suffer for doing good if that should be God's will than for doing evil. Chapter 4, verse 12. 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 also may rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed. And here we have it again in chapter 5, verse 9 and 10. We saw last week 1 Peter 5, verse 9. Resist him that is the devil, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world, and after you have suffered a little while.
There it is. Suffering as a Christian, not just suffering, but suffering as a Christian is one of the main themes in 1 Peter. We saw that right at the beginning of this letter, as it begins in 1 Peter 1, verse 1. He's writing, he says, to the elect exiles.
He's writing to people – yes, they're chosen by God, the people of God, but they are exiled in the dispersion, in the scattering of the people of God to such places as Pontus and Galatia and so on. In chapter 2, verse 11, he refers to his readers as sojourners and exiles, travelers, aliens, pilgrims in this world. So, I want you to look on yourself as a pilgrim. We who follow the Lord Jesus are pilgrims. Remember John Bunyan?
He has Christian in the city of destruction, and as a pilgrim, he's traveling to celestial city. That's us. We are in this world, and it's sometimes difficult, and we find – don't you sometimes find that you don't quite fit in? We're exiles.
We're sojourners. And as we travel following Christ, Peter is reminding them, there's tensions, there's suffering, there's persecution, there are difficulties and frustrations. So, this is why we don't listen to the prosperity and the motivational preachers who present a popular but a very false message of excitement, health and wealth, yes, and that you can fulfill your dreams, and Jesus is there. You dream your own dream, and Jesus will make it fulfilled.
No. Authentic New Testament Christianity is a faith of realism. I'm glad that. We live in a real world. We're not Pollyannas. We don't follow Christ thinking everything's going to be wonderful in our life.
No. We're people of realism. We face the suffering. We face the difficulties.
We don't expect hype and shallow emotionalism all of the time. These first century Christians, and in fact every Christian, realizes that from time to time life can taste very bitter, and that grief and tears and difficulties and confusion and discouragements and suffering are part of living in this fallen world. Jim has reminded us of those who have disabilities. Think of that suffering, of their caregivers who minister to them 24 hours a day. What does the prosperity preacher say about that? As Christians, we look at it.
We look at it face on. And Peter is saying, don't be surprised. When suffering and difficult times come. He said in chapter 5 verse 9 that these same sufferings are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. This is common. It's not just you being dispersed upon this in Galatians as he's writing.
This is true of followers of Christ throughout the world. So don't you be surprised when difficulties come. I think we're raising a generation not used to hardship. We live in a therapeutic world where hardships and disappointments are sometimes called traumas.
Now of course there are people who do go through genuine traumas, but your goldfish dying and getting a beat and a test is not a trauma. And parents, can I say to you, train your children to deal with hardships. Don't be one of these helicopter parents protecting them excessively so when they're 18 years old they're not able to cope with life.
Train them to be independent, to be strong, and to realize that there are hardships. There are difficult teachers. There are hardships. Sometimes you don't make the team.
No, you're not always the top student. Yes, life is difficult. Your car breaks down. No need to weep about it. Faith, reality, that we, Peter is saying, be strong, stand firm in your faith. All of us who follow Christ suffer. Remember the words of Jesus? In the world you will have tribulation. Really, Jesus? I thought following you was just going to be wonderful all the time.
No. In the world you'll have tribulation but take courage. I have overcome the world. That's the Christian. We face the tribulation. We face the trial. We don't succumb. We stand firm because our Savior is victorious as we have been singing.
And we who follow Christ live then in this strange world. We face hostility. Think of the outrage during the Olympics of these drag queens and their blasphemous portrayal of the Lord's Supper. Think of the hostility there.
Yes, in France, once a country under the Catholic faith who had respect for God and sacred things. No more. It's now a joke. The shame is presented right in our face. There's hostility. If you speak up about it, you're regarded as a bigot.
You're regarded as intolerant. We realize we're in a difficult world. We don't retreat. You say, well, what's the answer to all of this, John, to this difficulty? Peter has been telling us. Life is difficult for you. What advice do I have for you?
I've got wonderful advice. The advice that Peter has given, he's saying, look to our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the perfect example, not only of suffering, but of innocent suffering. He said that, chapter 2, verse 21, for to this you have been called, that suffering, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you might follow in His steps. Not only did our Lord suffer, He was put to death, though He did no wrong. And those who suffer, Peter is telling us, in a kind of a mystical way, in a way which is difficult for us to understand. As we suffer as Christians, we're being identified with the sufferings of Christ.
Hard day, hard week, hard month, hard year. We don't minimize the difficulties. We don't play psychological tricks on ourselves.
No. What do we do? We look up to Christ. You look down at your circumstances. They will depress you.
They will overwhelm you. But we look up to Christ. As Robert Murray McShane says, for every look itself, take ten looks at Christ. Yes, you look at the circumstances.
You understand the difficulties, but they don't weigh you down. You look at them with realism, that's true, but you look up to Christ. Why would you look up to Christ?
Well, he's giving you an example, Peter's telling you, that you should follow in His steps. But not only is Christ given to us as an example to inspire us, His death is a sacrifice. The gospel is, Christ died for our sins. His death was substitutionary, Peter has said in that marvelous verse, chapter 3 verse 18. His death is substitutionary. He died the righteous for the unrighteous. We are unrighteous. We are sinful people. He dies for us.
Marvelous. But when my Savior died on the cross, He was dying for John Monroe for my many sins. His death is sufficient.
I don't need to do anything else says Peter. He suffered once for sins. That one sacrifice, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, all of the sacrifices under the old covenant are gone. They're pointing to Christ, and all of them are now fulfilled perfectly and sufficiently in our Savior. He died once.
We had, I think it was last week, a wonderful duet. It is what? Finished on the cross. The work is done. Perfect.
You can add to it. All of your goodness, all of your good intentions can add to the salvation, and there's no need to do so because His death not only is a substitute, it is sufficient for us and for all time. And it is also, as we learned, salvific, that is to bring salvation. Peter in that verse, I love this, he says that He died the righteous for the unrighteous that He might, remember it, bring us to God.
That's the Gospel, isn't it? That our Savior leaves heaven, and He comes to us, Immanuel, God with us. The Word becomes flesh and dwells among us. He is with us. And He dies for us. He brings us to God. We are strangers to God. We're enemies of God.
We turn our back on God. We go our own way like sheep going astray, and our Savior comes to seek and to save the lost. And not only does He forgive our sins, He's going to, as we'll see in a minute, He's going to bring us to God. Have you received that salvation? Have you received Christ? The all-sufficient Christ. Your substitute, all-sufficient, the perfect Savior. And Peter is presenting this, and now with that background, he says here in 1 Peter 5 verse 10, and after you have suffered, how long?
A little while. You're suffering your distress, your trials, the persecution, are only for a little while. He said that in chapter 1 verse 6, unless you rejoice, He says, though now for a little while.
Same expression. If necessary, you've been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it's tested by fire. Only for a little while. Remember the old song, all my trials, Lord, soon be over. I find that immensely encouraging, don't you? To realize that the severest of sufferings, the fiercest of storms, the darkness of the night, the fieriest of furnaces, the deepest of valleys, the most severe of sufferings, and the bitterest of tears, they only last for the Christian for a little while.
That's magnificent, isn't it? That is, it's only a little while compared with the vastness of God's eternal day. It's difficult for us to get our minds around eternity, almost impossible, isn't it? But it is forever and ever and ever and ever. No beginning and no end.
No tomorrows as if we're living in a constant eternal day. One of my grandfather's favorite verses was Proverbs 4, 18. But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn that shines brighter and brighter until the perfect day.
Just for a little while, the sun comes up, this morning you just see a little bit of light, and then it shines brighter and brighter until the perfect day. That's the Christian. We're following Christ, and we suffer, but it's only for a little while. The second word is grace. We saw that in verse 10, after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace who has called you.
And what's Peter saying? He said in verse 9, regarding the devil, resist them, firm in your faith. Stand firm in God's grace. That's one of our wonderful words, isn't it, of the gospel of the Christian faith, that the God of all grace saves us.
He's saying here, the God of all grace who has called you. This call takes us back to the opening verses of 1 Peter, where Peter explains that believers are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. They are sanctified by the work of the Spirit. They are cleansed and forgiven by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is our salvation, is all of grace from beginning to end. It's planned by God the Father.
It is executed, as it were, by God the Son. And it is applied to us individually by the Holy Spirit that God calls us. As Jesus says, come to me. Have you heard the call of God in your life?
Have you? Come unto me. And we are sinful. We come to the Savior and we find rest. We find forgiveness of sins.
We find joy. This grace has its origin in God and it flows from God. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. For by grace, says Paul, you're saved through faith. And that not of yourself is the gift of God.
It's not of your own doing. It's entirely of God through the work of His Son, who's accomplished our salvation, and now it is offered to you. Today, I offer Christ to you. I preach Christ to you so that you would know Him, so that you would embrace Him, that you would turn from your sin and come to Christ and know that this magnificent Savior can save us from all of our sins.
Yes, it was a costly price. Peter has reminded us in chapter 1, you weren't saved with silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. Points us time and time again, doesn't it, to the cross. And through that death and His resurrection, there is offered life, eternal life for you and me. I ask you, have you received salvation? This grace of God saves us, but Peter is emphasizing that this God of all grace will sustain you. Not only does this grace save us, it sustains us.
We need it every single day. Notice the text, verse 10, after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to eternal glory in Christ, what will He do? Will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you? As we go through the Christian life and the suffering, we stumble.
We take our own path. Paul, Peter is saying, now, remember this, this God of all grace. He'll restore you. He'll confirm you. He'll strengthen you.
He'll establish you. These first century Christians are being battered and persecuted by the world. And Peter is assuring them that this God of all grace who saved them will sustain them. God's grace saves us.
God's grace sustains us. He will, says Peter, He will restore, will Himself restore. The word is to mend.
The word is used for the setting of a bone. It's used for the mending of nets. God is in the restoration business.
In fact, God's speciality is restoration. You feel broken? We're in a broken world, aren't we?
Battered. We mess up our lives. You know what it is. Your life is a mess. You've strayed.
You've fallen. What's the word to you? The God of all grace. The one who called you will restore you. He takes the broken, the bruised and the fallen, and He makes them whole. Our God is a God who doesn't reject us.
You've got something at home, a utensil, and it's a bit cracked and it's a bit broken, and you throw it out. God never throws out His children. He takes us in our brokenness, in our straying, in our feebleness, in our weakness, and He restores it. Chapter 3, David, who knew this truth, says so beautifully of the Good Shepherd, He restores my soul.
Yes, King David knew what it was to be restored. He had strayed. He had messed up big time, but in the goodness of God and the grace of God, this Good Shepherd had come after Him and had restored Him.
This is supernatural. This is a speciality of God. You're broken and what do you do? You complain about it.
You get depressed about it. Look up to Christ. Ask God for this wonderful restoration. Think of all that God is doing and has done in your life and when the ground around us is shaken, here is the guarantee of the gospel. He strengthens us. He establishes us. He restores us. You see, whatever God calls us to do, as you follow Jesus Christ, however difficulty, however deep the valley, however much the problem, He guarantees that He'll bring you through.
And as you go, He guarantees He'll give you all of the grace and all of the strength that you need if you trust Him. If so many of us are weak and complaining. How are you today?
Not bad under the circumstances. Why are you under the circumstances? Get above the circumstances. Look to Christ. This is the gospel. He restores you. He establishes you.
He helps you. And so often, we have not looked to Christ to help us in the time of suffering. We must learn as Christians how we respond to adversity. Don't be weak. Be strong. Teach this to your children. Teach this to everyone to stand firm in the faith and the true grace of God.
Verse 12, he says, I've written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. This is one of the reasons I'm writing to you, Peter is saying. Stand firm in it. I say to you, brother, sister, stand firm. Difficult sometimes, isn't it?
Difficult sometimes for you in your home, in a place of work, in the community, in your own personal life. Stand firm. Peter has told us what it means to stand firm in the grace of God. He's talking about holiness in chapter one. He's told us that God calls us to holiness. He tells us that the Word of God is living and abiding, that our salvation being born again is through this living and abiding Word of God. The grass withers.
The flower fades. But the Word of God, he says, as he quotes from Isaiah 40, endures forever, living a life, standing firm in the true grace of God, as we saw last week, central to it is a life of humility. How proud we are. No, we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.
It is also, as we saw last week, it's a life of trust. Daily trusting the Savior. That's difficult for us, isn't it?
We wake up in the morning or maybe even during the night and all of these problems in our mind, and we get up and we feel weighed down. What are we to do? Stand firm. Live a life of faith and trust. Stand firm in the grace of God. Stand firm in the storms of life. Daily draw on God's power and grace.
Stand firm. You serve God in the sunshine. We not now serve him in the shadows.
You believed in God in the light of the noonday sun. Will you not now trust him in the darkness of the night? You praised his name in the good times. Will you not now praise him in these difficult times? You rejoiced in the Lord when you were healthy.
Will you not now praise him through your tears and your sorrow? Stand firm. Stand fast in the true grace of God. When we're battered and when we're downcast, we have this anchor that holds.
The true grace of God and the God of all grace will keep you firm and fast. He holds us in his hand, and we will never perish. I'm held in the hand of my Savior, who's given me eternal life, and I shall never perish. I'm going through life, and the Lord Jesus, the Good Shepherd, has me by the hand.
What more would you want for the problems to be removed? God in a millisecond can remove them, can't he? But so often, he sustains us through the suffering. No wonder then Peter gives this wonderful doxology in verse 11.
He says to him, he bursts out in grace. To him be the dominion forever and ever. We sometimes sing, we have an anchor that keeps the soul steadfast and sure, though the billows roll, fastened to the rock which cannot move, grounded firm and deep in my Savior's love.
Not grounded firm and deep in myself, in my gifts, in my education, in my abilities, in my experience. No, grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love. Suffering, grace, here's the final one, glory. Again verse 10, and after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, listen to this, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ. God calls us, want you to grasp this, to His eternal glory in Christ. Peter doesn't use in Christ as much as Paul does, for Paul is one of his favorite descriptions of the Christian, that we are in Christ.
Here Peter uses it. That the believer is in Christ, held on by Christ, showing the love and the intimacy and the permanence of the bond that we have with our Savior. And this great God calls us to eternal glory in Christ. Eternal glory is salvation completed.
This grace that saves us, this grace that keeps us is the same grace that will take us safely home. We are justified by faith, justification is sanctification begun. Glorification is sanctification completed. I was saved, I'm being saved, I will be saved. Justification, sanctification, glorification. Paul says in Romans 8 that those whom God justifies, He glorifies. You've been saved by God's grace. This is a guarantee by the God of all grace that you will enter into this eternal glory in Christ.
How wonderful. Why is Peter telling us this? Why does he mention this?
Oh, it's obvious, isn't it? When we suffer, we've got to look up. It's a little while, and we're going to enter into that eternal glory. He's exhorting suffering Christians to look up, to look ahead. This is the constant call on the people of God in Scripture that we are different. That we live with an eternal perspective, not a self-centered perspective, not a little, my little kingdom that I build for myself and I'm so proud of. No, I live with an eternal perspective. He points to this coming glory.
He's done that before. We saw that in chapter 1 verse 7, chapter 1 verse 13. Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope, we were singing about hope, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Look ahead. Chapter 4 verse 13. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's suffering that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed. And again here in chapter 5 verse 10. Paul emphasizes faith.
John the apostle emphasizes love. Peter here is emphasizing hope. Hope and glory are consistent with Peter writing about suffering. When we're suffering, we need to remember we have hope that there is coming glory. To suffering saints then, he's holding out this eternal glory in Christ. Listen, hold on.
Stand firm. It's only for a little while. Soon, you'll enter into that eternal glory in Christ. That is, if you're a follower of Christ. But meantime, we understand that God's purposes for us include suffering, not that we suffer all the time, but God, the God of all grace who's working all things for our good and for His glory as we just sang, He's also redeeming us for that future glory. And nothing will defeat this coming glory. Our Savior has conquered sin and death, has risen from the dead, and because He lives, we shall live also and we will one day enter into that eternal glory, either when Christ comes or when we die. Glory follows suffering. First the suffering, then the glory.
This is our sure and certain hope. First the darkness of the night, then the dawn of that great, eternal, unending day. Soon we'll enter into that eternal glory. J.C. Ryle writes, Now we are tossed upon a stormy sea, then we shall be safe in harbor. Now we have to plow and sow, then we shall reap the harvest.
Now we have the labor, but then the wages. Now we have the battle, but then the victory and reward. Now we must needs bear the cross, but then we shall receive the crown. Now we are journeying through the wilderness, but then we shall be at home.
Do you look good? Heaven is your home. I'm pretty comfortable here.
Nice home. Heaven is our eternal home. Five years ago, the Lord took home my mother, 94 years old, a wonderful godly mother, and we stood around that open grave in Scotland, and as is the tradition there, the family, close friends take the cords of the coffin and literally put it in. So, my brothers and I and a couple of our cousins, and we lured the coffin.
It was sad in one way. Then we sang this little hymn, fallen asleep, lying at rest, tranquil and deep, safe on her breast. Life's journey o'er, pilgrim no more, safe home at last, safe home at last. A recognition that the follower of Christ is a pilgrim, but now in the true grace of God, the believer that we bury is now safe home at last. No more to fear. No more to die.
All of the trials gone. The pilgrimage is over. The suffering is ended. The suffering is only for a little while, but soon, Peter is saying, will enter into the eternal glory in Christ. God has called you to it, not only to forgive your sins, but to take you safely home into that eternal glory. And then he finishes, as I must, he says, she who is a Babylon.
Babylon probably is a code name for Rome, and Peter is sending greetings along with Mark. And then he asks us to demonstrate our Christian love for one another. Verse 14, greet one another with the kiss of love. It's one of our themes this year, love one another.
Peter has told us, exhorted us, the great virtue of the Christian faith. Yes, there's humility, but there must be love. We must love one another. And Peter is saying, kiss one another with this kiss of love. In other words, the love is to be demonstrated.
What's the point of loving someone if it's not demonstrated, if it's not communicated, if it's not shown? You show your love for your children by hugging them, by kissing them. You put your arms around those that you love and you care for. We as followers of Christ, we demonstrate our love for one another by actions of love, by praying for one another, that bearing one another's burden.
And it's wonderful at Calvary to know all of you who are doing this, loving one another. And then we are, as he says in verse 12, we're to stand firm in the grace of God as we await the wonderful revelation of our majestic Savior. Soon the heavens will open. Soon our Savior will come. Soon we shall be at home. Soon the suffering will be over. Therefore, do not be discouraged, brother.
Don't be downcast, sister. Our hope is in the Lord from this day and forevermore. And whatever our circumstances, stand firm in the Lord, knowing whatever happens, it's well with our soul. And soon, all of us who are in Christ will enter into that eternal glory. Bow with me in prayer.
Our Father and our God, we thank You for this letter of 1 Peter. We thank You for this challenge. We're challenged.
We're convicted. So help us. Restore us.
Confirm us. Strengthen us. In our faith, we do pray. Some are really struggling. Some are broken. Explore them, Father.
You can put the pieces together. Thank You that Your, Your speciality is forgiveness, is restoration and giving us second chances and third chances. And may we, wherever we are, going off to college, starting a new job in our homes, in the community, may we stand firm in the true grace of God. Thank You for this grace, this grace upon grace upon grace. We thank You and we rejoice that this hope is not in ourselves, not in a presidential candidate, but our hope is in the Lord and that soon we'll be home and that's well with our soul. We give You thanks in Christ's name. Amen.
