When a body is detached from its head obviously it won't survive. In the same way a church will fail if it is disconnected from Christ as its head. So how can we tell if a church is spiritually alive? We'll learn today how to look for the vital signs on Truth for Life. Alistair Begg is teaching from 1 Peter chapter 4.
I can hazard a guest at them. I think you're supposed to be breathing. That's helpful. And that there should be a pulse somewhere there is an indication of something. That your eyes have some movement in them is a help as well, I believe, but certainly I don't know what the vital signs are in terms of the specifics. However, there are vital signs to show that a body is alive, and so in the same way there are vital signs to show that the body of Christ is alive. And these vital signs are practical evidences of the fact that Jesus Christ is the head of that body.
And they are these as he outlines them for us. First of all, prayer, then love, then hospitality, then service or ministry, and then praise or worship. So prayer is number one, and we have considered that. And then secondly, in verse 8, vital sign number two or practical test number two is the test of genuine Christian love. You will notice that he assumes that Christian love is operated amongst those who love Jesus. He wants that we would love each other deeply. He's concerned about the quality of Christian love. He's concerned about its sincerity. He's concerned about its priority in much the same way as we discovered in the twenty-second verse of chapter 1, where he says, Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth, so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply from the heart.
He says, You can't be a Christian without loving one another. You've obeyed the truth. Your lives have been purified. You've been cleansed from your sin.
You have been automatically brought into the familial relationships of Christian love. But, he says, recognizing that, let's make sure that the vital signs are not simply there, but they are vitally there. Let's make sure that what is expressed amongst us is love is genuine, it's sincere, it's a priority, it holds preeminence, and it has a quality similar to the quality of the Lord Jesus, about which we read in Philippians 2, verses 5–11. Indeed, the phrase which he uses carries with it the notion of strenuous activity. The word which he uses is not a word which conveys mush and gush, as it were—some kind of mushy expression of something that is primarily emotive—but rather, it is something which is tough and something which is true. So he says, I want you to love each other the way brothers and sisters love one another—tough love, true love, sincere love, genuine love, quality love. Now, we need to recognize this morning, dear ones, that we cannot evade this challenge, nor can we absolve ourselves of any absence of its presence.
We need to recognize that in many ways Jesus said this was the vital sign, did he not? He said in John chapter 8, "…by this will all men know that you are my disciples, that you have love for one another." In other words, there will be, in the average golf club or in the average VFW or in the average gathering of groups of humanity, a genuine concern which exists among those people, a code of ethics, a standard of excellence, a preparedness to tolerate one another.
That would be understandable, and that is to be expected when other groups come together as a result of a commitment to a common purpose. But, he says, Jesus says, in the family of faith there is going to be a dimension which is far and beyond that, which is far and beyond human explanation. It is going to be the qualitative characteristic, he says, of the love which you have discovered in me, Jesus, and which you are now demonstrating to one another. Whatever else may be true of a church family, whatever else may mark it in terms of its distinctive characteristics, in terms of its giftedness, in the lives of individuals, in the lives of it as a corporate whole, this one thing cannot be absent. It is the vital sign.
It is the presence of strenuous, deep, genuine, tough, true love for one another. Indeed, when Paul wrote to the Colossians—and we studied this some years ago now—in Colossians chapter 3, we built up this picture of wearing clothes, and he is describing all the things that we're supposed to put on. You should turn and notice this. Colossians chapter 3. And so, in verse 12, he says, Here are the things that you should put on when you get dressed in the morning.
Put these things on. Don't go out without wearing compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. And when those things are present, then this is going to be the implication. You'll bear with each other, and you'll forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive, he says, as the Lord forgave you. And finally, he says, as the ultimate cloak and as the big wraparound over all these characteristics, he says, over all of these virtues, put on love which binds them all together in a perfect unity. Now, instead of us being left to wonder what the implications of this will be if we do it, he tells us immediately one of the characteristics that will be accompanying the presence of this kind of genuine love as a vital sign of the body of Christ.
Love each other deeply, because, he says, love covers a multitude of sins. Now, let's say what it does not mean. It does not mean love sweeps sin under the carpet.
It cannot mean that. It does not mean love avoids the difficulty of confrontation. It does not mean that love absents itself from the responsibilities of discipline. What it does mean is that love is ready to forgive and forgive again, as Colossians 3 says. That love finds a way to return a silent answer in the face of fury unleashed against us. And also, that this kind of love embodies what Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13, regarding the nature of these specific things. When love covers a multitude of sins, this is what is happening. Love is showing itself, 1 Corinthians 13, for to be patient, to be kind, not envying, not boasting, not proud, not rude, not self-seeking, not easily angered, not keeping a record of wrongs, not delighting in evil but rejoicing in truth, always protecting, always trusting, always hoping, always persevering, never failing. Vital sign number two in the body of Christ, along with prayer, is the presence of love—a love which forgives and forgives again, a love which is tough and true, practical and readily present. Vital sign number three, or practical test number three, in verse 9, is actually an expression of this same love. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Here's love in action.
How will we know if we have love within our hearts? Well, we will reach out to others, and we will give to others what we've received. And one of the things we'll do is we'll turn our church, in one sense, into the very kind of hospital that is necessary for the broken and the weak and the wounded and the troubled in society. Certainly, our church needs to be a gymnasium. We need to be training people for the vigors of the army. Certainly, it needs to be a school.
We need to be learning the Bible. But at some degree, it needs to be a hospital as well. And our homes need to become these things in a society that is wracked by so much pain and so much fear and so much emptiness and loneliness. Peter is intensely practical here.
He says, I want you to love. Love will cover a multitude of sins, and love will express itself in another important sign, simply that you'll open your hearts as you open your homes. Now, the practicality of this was real in his day, as we know from studying the history of the time, simply that there were no holiday inns, no comfort inns, nobody coming on the television and saying, We'll leave the light on for you, which I think is the red roof or whatever it is.
The light will always be on. Well, you say, Well, what possible application is this today, you know, because we have all these places for people to stay, and sometimes people would much rather stay in those places. Well, it has all kinds of possible applications for us as a church.
Do you know how many people's lives have been changed for the good of Jesus Christ as a result of a simple expression of hospitality? The lady says, You know, I can't do very much. I cook, and I clean, and I have my home, and I can't preach, and I can't do this, and I can't do that. That's fine.
You don't need to. But you can make your home the kind of place that is one extra seat at the table which a student may take. And they may end up sitting around the table in that great kingdom one day, breaking bread as a result of the simple offer of a meal. It's a vital sign of Christian fellowship that people like to hang together in eating and in opening their homes. What about the widows in our church family who are tired of making the same meals every week, who have gone regularly to Mrs. X's house because she always looks after them, but they've run out of conversation. Seven and a half years ago, they ran out of conversation.
And this lady's not about to say it, but she's looking for somebody just to turn around and say, Like to come for supper on Thursday? See, it's a vital sign. Now, Peter is a great guy, is he not? Look at this.
Look at these two words at the end of verse 9. Offer hospitality to one another, so far so good, without grumbling. It simply means without secretly wishing that you didn't have to be hospitable. So in other words, invite people over to your home without secretly wishing that you didn't have to invite them over to your home.
You say, Oh, I wish you hadn't said that. Because that's the way we always invite people over to our home. It might not be when we ask them, Could you come two weeks on Thursday?
Two weeks on Thursday feels like it'll never come. Two weeks on Wednesday comes, and you look across at your wife, and you say, Why did you have to go and invite those people to our house? They come, and they think it's hospitality. It's actually hospitality. It's a kind of anti-Guguzmos hospitality.
When the phone rings for the 50th time, when the folks announce that they're actually going to stay an extra four days, there's just a possibility of the necessity of this Guguzmos word creeping into our experience. And the only way we'll tackle it is to see it as a Christian privilege. That's what Jesus said to his disciples, Matthew 25. He said, You know, when you minister to people, you're going to have to look beyond the people.
There will be times when it takes everything in you just to stay the course. But he says, I want you to realize that on that day when you come before me, you will realize that I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. Matthew 25, 35, and I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink, and I was a stranger, and you invited me in.
And I needed clothes, and you clothed me, and I was sick, and you looked after me, and I was in prison, and you came and visited me. And then the righteous will answer, We don't remember when we did that at all. And Jesus said, Inasmuch as you have done it to the least of one of these my brethren, you have done it unto me. You say, Well, I never thought I could minister to a prisoner.
With the Lord's strength and a little bit of encouragement and somebody to go first, you'll be amazed what you can do. Jesus said, You do it to them, you do it to me, and also we should do it, says Paul, 2 Corinthians 9, in such a way as to realize that God is going to surprise us as a result of our activity. In Romans 2, Corinthians 9, 6, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. Whoever is real grudging with hospitality will realize that in the recipients that they find for themselves. Whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he's decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion. Because God loves a cheerful giver, and God is able to make all grace abound to you so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. Hospitality is not waiting until we have the China that we believe is the right kind of China to entertain.
Hospitality is simply opening our doors and allowing people to experience our lives the way they are. Vital sign number one, prayer. Vital sign number two, love. Vital sign number three, hospitality.
Vital sign number four, service. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others. Principle number one, we have all received spiritual gifts. There is nobody in the body of Christ who has not been gifted spiritually under God. We may not have tons of gifts, we may not have all the gifts that we thought we ought to have, but we do have gifts. And indeed, we have gifts according to the apportioning of God the Father himself.
1 Corinthians 4.7, we've mentioned it many times, but it's important when you come to a verse such as we're discovering here in 1 Peter. For who makes you different from anyone else? And what do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?
In other words, there's no place for big shots in the church of Jesus Christ. There's no place for anybody walking around parading their gift as if somehow they engendered it themselves. No, he says, who makes you different from the person sitting right next to you this morning? Answer God.
What do you have that you didn't receive? Answer nothing. Well, then there's no reason to be boastful about what we might do, and there's certainly no reason for any of us to be negligent concerning what we may do. Practical Christian service emerges from the fact that one, God has gifted us. Two, he has gifted us in order that we might serve others, not ourselves.
Simple stuff. The gifts of the Spirit are given not as toys to be played with, not as banners to be waved, but as tools to be used. And not to be used for ourselves, but to be used for each other. That's why he says, whatever gift he has received, use it to serve others—faithfully ministering or administering or stewarding or managing God's grace in its various forms. So here's the thing.
The sum, the whole, is greater than the individual parts. Here's the point, loved ones. The notion of individualistic Christianity is nowhere in the whole of the New Testament. The only way the body of Christ in the chapel will ever be anything for God is as a result of the melding and the melting of the variegated grace of God in the lives of those that he has entrusted to this place. There is no one individual as all the requisite gifts.
And even if they had, they'd be totally unbearable to live with, would they not? So we cannot look to an individual or even to individuals to be doing the job, to look into, as it were, ministers in that old-fashioned notion. I like the church noticeboards that say, This place has X number of elders and X number of deacons, and it has eight hundred and fifty ministers. That's right. There's a work for Jesus that none but you can do as a mom, as a single, as a dad, as a student, as a high school person, as a practical person, as an intelligent person, as a skillful person, as a business person, whatever it might be. Now get to grips with a gift, he says, and realize you should serve others with it, and realize you're only a steward of it in the first place.
We exist together according to God's purpose, and we function best as a result of our molding together. The other night there up in Camp O' the Woods in New York, there were thirteen members of the orchestra—I think it was, or maybe sixteen—who all got a stomach bug. So suddenly the orchestra had, what, I don't know, forty-five members in it, and then immediately it's got forty-five minus sixteen. You think that made a difference?
You bet your life it made a difference! Because when the mm-mm was supposed to come in, it wasn't there to come in. And when someone's supposed to do this? And so they had guys who were vocal majors playing cymbals. They didn't tell me that, but I could tell. That guy, he can't fool me all the time every time he bangs those big things. I saw him banging and looking around to see if anyone noticed.
I noticed! So you had guys out of place. You got singers banging cymbals. And the Church of Jesus Christ can't function unless the cymbal bangers bang the cymbals, and the singers do the singing, and the piccolo does the piccolo, and the tuba does the tuba. Then all the parts of being the score and under the conduction of the Lord Jesus as head of the orchestra. Then we make beautiful music.
That's the picture here, very practical. In fact, he mentions two things in particular. In verse 11, he says, if anyone speaks, Phillips paraphrases it, if any one of you is a preacher, then he should preach his message as from God. In other words, he shouldn't stand up and try and draw attention to himself. He shouldn't stand up and try and be a comedian.
He shouldn't stand up and try and be a storyteller. He should speak as speaking the very Word of God. If you want to judge preaching or teaching, there are a number of things you ought to look for. The kind of speaking that speaks as the very words of God ought to be systematic in its form.
It ought to be didactic in its content—that is, it should communicate truth that is understandable, it should be clear in its structure, it should be lively in its presentation, it should be irrelevant in its application, and it should be authoritative in its proclamation. But some other time we'll deal with the nature of preaching. Speaking and serving—the second half of verse 11. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength that God provides. Not that speaking isn't serving, but he is distinguishing between relevant instruction and practical kindness. Now notice as we draw this to a close this morning that there is a flow-through here.
I want us to pick it up. Notice the sense of the flow-through. If anyone speaks, he should do it as the one speaking the very words of God. In other words, God is the origin of the words he speaks. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides. That takes the carpet out from those of us who say, I'm sorry, I can't do it, I'm not strong enough, I'm not smart enough, I'm not bright enough, whatever. We're not going to ask you to do it in your own strength, loved ones. You're going to do it with the strength that God provides. The strength that God provides for the purpose that God intends, leading to the praise that God deserves. How are we to serve in the body of Christ? On the basis of the strength which he provides, to fulfill the purpose which he intends, to engender the praise which he deserves. That way, our service must inevitably be modest. That way, our service must inevitably be strenuous. That way, our service recognizes the weakness of the me and acknowledges the strength of the he. And so says Peter, when this takes place, vital sign number five will be that praise and worship ascends to the throne of God. God is glorified as a result of the exercise of our spiritual gifts in the awareness of our divine enabling for the purpose of bringing glory to his name. So you see, whatever it is, if you get a nice welcome at the door from somebody and you came here as a visitor, the welcome at the door is supposed to have a flow-through to it. The welcome at the door is supposed to say, my, that was nice to have a welcome.
I wonder what that was about. And it's got to flow through into the experience of worship. If the Word of God comes with any sense of help or clarity, it's got to flow through to its implications in our lives and flow up and beyond to the worship that is due his name.
So that the preoccupation of the people of God is with the glory and the majesty and the dominion of the name of Jesus Christ. We're learning together about the signs of life in a local church on Truth for Life with Alistair Begg. Looking ahead to next week, we're going to begin a study in the book of Ruth. It's a memorable story about a widow and her faithful daughter-in-law.
It's widely considered one of the most heartwarming stories in all of the Bible. And we're excited to be releasing a brand new verse-by-verse Bible study where Alistair walks us through the book of Ruth. The study is called God of the Ordinary. It's a six session study designed for a small group to go through together.
Each lesson includes a brand new video teaching from Alistair. And then the material in the accompanying booklet prompts group discussion, points to applicable scriptures, and contains codes that link the teaching videos for each session. Your group will learn that God's loving hand is at work, even in the routine events of life. If you're planning now for a fall Bible study, think about the God of the Ordinary, a study that will be available from Truth for Life beginning July 1st. For now though, let me remind you about the book we are currently recommending titled The Christian Life. It's written by Sinclair Ferguson who takes profound biblical teaching and makes it easy for us to understand without diluting the truth. Ask for your copy of The Christian Life when you donate to Truth for Life at truthforlife.org slash donate. Thanks for listening today. Tomorrow we'll learn how sharing the gospel can start with a simple question. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.
