Maintaining Hope in Hard Times

This is it! This is the final sermon of our series on 1 Peter. I began this series at the end of August last year. We took a brief break from the time Zoe was born to the new year. This marks the 21st sermon preached on this book. As we approach the final verses of this letter, we will review a bit of where we have been, revisit the theme of the book, and look at what Peter’s salutation has to say to us in the modern day.

Peter’s main objective is to speak hope to churches going through hard times. These churches are scattered among five Roman provinces that make up what we know as the nation of Turkey today. These churches have been dispersed from their homeland due to persecution they were facing for the faith. We would do well to remember that the church began out of adversity. The world was hostile to the gospel from the very beginning. These churches faced physical attacks where they lived, so they moved in search of more tolerable places to live and minister.

Throughout this whole letter, Peter has been writing words of encouragement to the churches. The beginning of the letter began with a reminder that Christians are chosen for new birth. This new birth makes us peculiar people as we no longer operate the way the rest of the world does. The new birth in us puts us in the pursuit of holiness, which drives a change in conduct. As God transforms our character, he transforms our conduct. We live lives of excellence in spite of how the rest of the world treats us. We choose to endure suffering in light of the gospel of Christ, knowing that our labor for him is not in vain. There is a reward for faithful service waiting for us. Because there is an expectation that we will do this, our pursuit of holiness and excellence drives our relationships with one another, recognizing we are in a spiritual war. The good news is we have already been given every tool we need to fight well.

As Peter closes the letter, he gives the churches a few final final instructions:

1 Peter 5:12–14 NASB95

Through Silvanus, our faithful brother (for so I regard him), I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it! She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings, and so does my son, Mark. Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace be to you all who are in Christ.

It can be a common practice to gloss over the last couple verses of a letter like this assuming that the author is just giving well wishes and telling the church everyone says hello. But if we linger for a moment, we can see how Peter wraps a nice bow on the letter and delivers some important instructions.

The series has been about having hope in hard times, that even if we don’t live to see the outcome of what God is doing in our country or in our city, we can trust that his plan will come to fruition and our reward for our part in that plan is secure. We live with a blessed hope of eternal life and a hope of one day having all things made new. It is the only hope for our world.

Because the gospel of Christ is our only hope, we must foster unity in the body of Christ. We can accomplish this in three ways.

Stand firm in the grace of God.

Peter says he has been exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God. What He is referring to is the content of the entire letter. Everything from The opening to now, every truth claim he is testifying is true. This exhortation is him strongly encouraging the churches to take action based on what he has said. He says he is doing this Through Sylvanus, which most scholars seem to agree is another name for Silas, Paul’s partner on his second missionary journey recorded in the book of Acts. It is possible Silas was the writer of this letter while Peter was dictating it to him or that Silas was the deliverer of the letter to the churches. Either way, Peter is acknowledging Silas/Silvanus’ role in the message.

The command though is to stand firm in the grace of God which he has been talking about. We must be thoroughly convinced that the words of Scripture are the only source of all wisdom and principles for living life here and now but also the only hope for life after our death. If there is nothing after death, then who cares? But most of us agree that there is an afterlife and that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only ticket to that afterlife. But there is a sea of competing ideas that try to get us to buy into alternative paths up the mountain.

To stand firm means to bu immovable. That means when something or someone pushes you in a direction, you don’t move. It means your footing is secure and you can withstand the force of the blow. To stand firm is to be anchored so the ship doesn’t drift from its position. If the God of the Bible is the only supernatural eternally existent being in existence, and he has revealed himself through the person of Jesus Christ, and he died on a cross having committed no sin, was buried in a tomb for three days, and resurrected from the dead, there is hope for you both in this life and the next because not only are his promises to raise you up on the last day believable, but his promises to walk with you in the storm of everyday life is as well.

We must be completely convinced that this is the truth. That because of Christ, we can experience the grace of God. Having deserved death, but have been given pardon is a gracious gift because we have done nothing to deserve that. It is merciful because it is not what we deserve. We have much trouble in this life, but we stand on the hope that one day Jesus will make all things new and wipe every tear from our eye. Until then, we stand firm and do battle.

Encourage your brothers and sisters in arms.

In verse thirteen, Peter says she who is in Babylon sends you greetings. Babylon is chosen together with the audience. Many assume Peter is referring to the literal city of Babylon. The problem there is the city of Babylon did not exist during this time. The city fell somewhere around 500 years before the founding of the Roman empire. So was Peter talking about the area where Babylon once stood?

Babylon here is mentioned as chosen together with the audience churches. It is fair to say that Babylon means a church. But does that mean there is a church where Babylon once stood? Many scholars believe Pater spent the latter years of his life in Rome and that Babylon is code for the church in Rome so as to protect the church and Peter in case the letter was intercepted by those who would persecute them. But this church as well as Mark, who is believed to be the writer of the gospel of Mark, who is like a son to Peter, send greetings to the churches in the five provinces Peter is writing to.

This ties back to the reality that local churches, though generally autonomous from one another, are united as brothers and sisters in Christ. We are all adopted into the same family of God. Therefore, biblical churches are all tied together and should therefore encourage one another in the fight. Last week one of the practices was hold the line in battle. We fight knowing that our brothers and sisters are fighting as well all over the world. I told you about our brothers and sisters in the Philippines at Grace Baptist Church who asked us for help in repairing a water leak in their building from a storm. We were able to provide for that in less than 24 hours and repairs were underway. We should remember that they need our encouragement all of the time. I guarantee you it is harder to be a Christian in the Philippines than it is in the United States.

So I have a way for you to apply this principle today. Here is what I am going to recommend. I am asking that you consider writing a note of encouragement to the pastor of Grace Baptist Church or to the church in general encouraging them to stand firm in the faith. You may not know much about their ministry, but start with something like you are praying for them and you were excited to see that the roof was getting repaired. It doesn’t need to be long. We are supplying envelopes for you to take with you and return next week with your note in it and we will send all of them to the church for them to read and be encouraged by. In fact, we may make that regular practice as we move forward. We need to continue to be an encouragement to our brothers and sisters in arms.

Maintain peace and brotherly love.

Finally, Peter concludes with verse fourteen. A kiss of love was not what we think of it today. In cultures across Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East, a form of kiss as a greeting is common. I’m not recommending everybody kiss everybody else when we gather for church. What I am saying is that we continue to strive to show genuine affection toward one another in a way that is culturally appropriate. That might be a handshake and a smile. For others it might be a hug. The desire here is that we continue maintain brotherly love under our shared common relationship with Christ. He has made us all members of the same family.

As such, it is critical to the mission of Christ and his church that peace be maintained among the body. If we are not at peace with one another, we will not do kingdom work. Our mission is hindered when there is division among the body. So when division begins to occur, we must address it quickly so we can maintain momentum and accomplish everything God has set out for us to do. Our lives are too short and the gospel is too important for us to divide over trivial things. But as we wage the good warfare and begin demolishing strongholds in the lives of others and Satan loses his power over people, be prepared. The threat of division will come. Let’s stand firm on the grace of God, continue encouraging our brothers and sisters in the fight, and maintain peace and brotherly love.