Standing Firm in Grace
Notes
Transcript
It is by grace I am saved. It is by grace I live. It is because of grace, God’s grace that I breathe one more day.
And it is with God’s grace that I can stand and share His love and grace with others.
Peter wraps up his letter with a greeting to the church. It helps serve as a way to wrap up the message of grace he has been sharing. Let us read this short greeting at the end of his letter.
If you have you Bibles, please open them and follow along as I read 1 Peter 5.12-14
12 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!
13 She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings, and so does my son, Mark.
14 Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace be to you all who are in Christ.
1. Stand Strong in Grace
God’s grace is sufficient for every trial or circumstance in which you may find yourself.
Throughout this letter, Peter has written about grace; about the grace that comes from God and allows us to live.
In her commentary on 1 Peter, Karen Jobes states the purpose in this letter is “to present the nature of God’s true grace as it relates to the experience of his original readers.”
She goes on to express the idea that Peter was concerned about his readers standing firm in grace. With the persecution of Christians and the pressure to adapt to the norms of society, they were having doubts and confusion about God and His work.
But this letter was to also instruct and teach those readers in how to live, how to stand firm in grace.
The original readers were facing many different trials that were the cause of suffering and grief. This suffering, grief and continued pressure were causing them to question their faith. I think more specifically, they were questioning who their faith was in.
As readers today, we do the exact same thing. Especially early in our faith but throughout our faith journey, our faith will be tested. It is natural to start to doubt the Gospel. It is easy to doubt that a dead man came back to life and because of this we have been promised eternal life.
These tests will come in various degrees and various types. It can be the loss of a loved one; the loss of a relationship, the loss of a job or even a promotion at work. Any way this world can, it will test us as Christians. When this happens, what are we supposed to do?
What should we do when we are faced with these times of suffering.
There are two things I want to suggest.
The first is to stand firm in God’s grace. Grace is more than an idea. It is much more than simply being liked by someone. Grace is seen throughout the Bible, from the OT to the NT.
Grace is often expressed as finding favor in someone’s eyes. The major characters we read about in the OT, such as Noah and Moses are said to have found favor in God’s eyes. Exodus tells us:
6 Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in faithfulness and truth;
The Psalms are filled with praises about God’s grace.
15 But You, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, Slow to anger and abundant in mercy and truth.
In the NT we see the expression of Grace in Christ’s life with a main focus in the Gospels as the relation to our salvation. Spiritual gifts are referred to as graces. But we also see other gifts, such as the gift of the HS as grace to us.
A couple verses before this we read that God is the Father of all grace. Ephesians speaks of the “riches of His grace. John describes Jesus as “full of grace and truth”. In 2 Thessalonians, God and Jesus or linked in regards to their grace.
12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, in accordance with the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
These promises of grace, of what we often refer to as our living hope, give us the incentive to stand firm in God’s grace.
When the world tempts us to deny our faith or the riducule of society tempts us to hide or leave our faith, we can look back and see God’s grace. We can see that His grace has been demonstrated throughout the Bible. We can look at our own lives and understand the grace He continues to show to each of us. And in so doing, we can stand firm knowing God’s grace will bring us to the where He has promised us.
The second is to remember that as Christians, we will face suffering as Christ Himself did. But we do not have to face it alone. We can face these times in the community of church.
2. Strengthen Through Fellowship
We never face anything alone.
Peter tells us that she who is in Babylon has been chosen with us and this includes Peter, Silas and Mark.
She, the church, in Greek the word for church is feminine so Peter refers to the church as she. It also ties into the understanding that the church is the bride of Christ.
We often think about grace and faith in individual relations with Christ. We will talk about the grace extended to ourselves, or to someone we respect. But grace is also extended to the body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, the church.
The Bible doesn’t say that Jesus has many brides, or there are several bodies of Christ. We do talk about individual churches but the truth is that there is just one church.
Too often we see the church splintered. It becomes divided because we want every church to be an expression of what we think it should be. We become divided of how a church should be governed, who should be in charge of the church, when should we have communion, how should we baptize. We can go on and on.
The word baptism means to dunk so obviously, if you aren’t dunked you haven’t been saved or maybe just the spots that the water touched with you were sprinkled are saved and the rest of you isn’t.
To me this is like saying that Dunkin’ Doughnuts is the spiritually correct doughnuts because it has the word dunk in the name.
Is every church a Christian church. No it is not. We must understand that if a church is not following the Word of God is cannot be a Christian church.
But is every Christian church perfect. Not at all. Every church, even when they work hard to live the life we are called to, will still be imperfect. Every Christian church is also a means of grace. When you are wounded, when you have sinned, when you are finding yourself weakening, run to your church family. Run to the body of Christ and let Christ give you shelter and show you His grace through His people.
Let the church be your strength when you feel yours failing.
3. Share Love and Peace
Peter tells us that we should greet each other with a kiss of love.
That is part of why I had everyone stand and tell someone that God loves them. I don’t mean that you need to go up to everyone in church and kiss them. The idea of greeting each other with a kiss contextual for the first readers.
What we should take from this is that we should greet our brothers and sisters in such a way that we show our love. That can be a handshake, that can be with a hug; it can even be with the words you use to greet someone.
Sometimes it can even be with just a smile and recognition of another person.
I read a story about a man who left a note in his apartment saying he was going to commit sucide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. The note said that if a stranger would smile at him on the way to the bridge he would not jump. He jumped.
I read another story about a person in High School who was on the way home from school. He was going to commit suicide as soon as he got home. He had the plan and the means to do this. As he walked home in his depression filled mind, another person in his class saw him, smiled at him and said hello. This young man did not commit suicide and he later credited it because someone smiled at him.
This world doesn’t want you to succeed. This world doesn’t want you to be able to express the joy of being a Christian. This world hates you because it hates God.
But let me tell you this. God loves you. God has established His church, which means me and you so that we can share the love of God. So when we greet each other, we should always do so with love. This helps to share God’s grace with each other.
And when we share this love, the peace of Christ will always be present.
Let’s pray.
