Peace in the God of All Grace

Introduction

Today we come to the conclusion of our journey through the first epistle of the apostle Peter.

For the past several months we have walked together through this remarkable letter, learning what it means to worship as exiles in a world that does not share our values.

We began this entire journey with Peter reminding us that our identity is rooted in Christ and not in this world. He has called us to worship through holiness.

He taught us to worship through submission, through love, through hospitality, through faithful service, through suffering, through godly leadership and humility.

Over and over again Peter has shown us that worship is far more than what happens during an hour or two on Sunday morning. Worship is a whole-life response to the God who has redeemed us.

As Peter comes to the end of his letter, he brings his lesson to its conclusion and gathers everything he has been saying into one final exhortation. It is like saying, "If you forget everything I've written, remember this."

His closing words are not a collection of loose ends. They are the theological anchor of everything he has written. In these final verses Peter leaves these scattered believers and us with three grounding realities that summarize the heart of his message.

I. Worship Stands Firm in God’s Grace (12)

1 Peter 5:12 LSB

12 Through Silvanus, our faithful brother as I regard him, I have written to you briefly, exhorting and bearing witness that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it!

Peter begins his closing remarks by mentioning a man named Silvanus. This is the same man that Luke call Silas in Acts. He was a Jew from Jerusalem but intriguingly has a Roman name meaning “of the forest”

Silvanus or Silas served alongside Paul during his missionary journeys. He endured imprisonment in Philippi. He and Paul were able to lead the jailer and his family to Christ (Acts 16:19-24)

He helped established churches throughout Macedonia and Greece, He spoke Aramaic, Greek, and most likely Latin.

Whether Peter's Greek was good enough, capable of producing polished literary Greek on his own, is debated and First Peter is written in excellent Greek.

Many scholars believe Peter likely used Silvanus as an amanuensis—a secretary who helped prepare and deliver the letter

Some scholars have suggested that Silvanus may have been the primary theological voice shaping the church at Thessalonica.

Yet Peter simply calls him “our faithful brother.” What a description. Peter does not commend his intelligence, his influence, his preaching capabilities, or his popularity. He commends his faithfulness.

In God's Kingdom faithfulness is one of the highest compliments a believer can receive. After all that is what every Christian longs to hear one day.,

“…well done, good and faithful slave…” (Matthew 25:21)

According to Scripture we will not hear the words "Well done successful slave" or "Well done famous slave" or "Influential slave" but "faithful slave".

Where our culture celebrates success, our Lord and Savior celebrates faithfulness and that should encourage every believer in this room.

You may never become well known or write a best seller or lead a large ministry or stand before thousands of people but every Christian is called to be faithful. Then Peter says,

“I have written to you briefly…”

Isn't that a humorous statement? After spending months walking through this letter Peter calls it brief.

I suppose compared to everything he could have said Peter considered this only a brief encouragement. Then he explains his purpose. First he says,

“…exhorting..” parakaleō. The word means to urge, to implore. It carries the same urgency as when Paul uses it in

Romans 12:1 LSB

1 Therefore I exhort you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice—living, holy, and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

Throughout his letter Peter has been urging believers to remain steadfast, keep hoping, keep obeying, keep loving, keep suffering faithfully. Don't give up, don't compromise, don't lose heart. And then his second reason:

“…bearing witness…”

Peter is not offering personal opinions or religious advice. He is testifying, he is declaring what he knows to be true. Christianity has never been built upon speculation but upon eyewitness testimony.

For Peter is the man who walked on water, who witnessed the Lord's miracles. He saw Jesus arrested, watched his suffering, watched him crucified. He is the man who saw the risen Christ with his own eyes.

Peter is saying “I know there is grace to be true because I have experienced it myself” and that gives tremendous weight to everything he has written. Then here comes the summary statement of the entire epistle:

“…this is the true grace of God.”

It is not just grace. It is the true grace of God and he emphasizes that this grace is true because there have always been false teachings about grace.

People who teach and preach that God's grace means that God overlooks sin, that if God is gracious then people should never suffer. That grace exists merely to make life easier or comfortable.

Peter has been explaining the true meaning of grace, which is not the removal of suffering. It is sustenance through suffering. It is not the elimination of trials. It is strength to endure them.

Grace is not the lowering of God's standard of holiness. It is empowerment for us to pursue God's holiness. Everything Peter has commanded through his letter rests upon the grace of God.

Whether it is our living hope, our new identity, our holiness, our submission, our love, our hospitality, our service, our endurance, our humility, none of these will ever, could ever earn God's favor.

What they are is responses to the grace that we have already received in Christ, which brings Peter to his final command.

“stand firm in it”

Stand firm in God's grace, not in your own strength, not in your determination, your feelings, your circumstances. But in God's grace.

The picture is that of a soldier refusing to surrender his ground despite relentless pressure. This image perfectly captures the message of this letter.

These believers that would read this letter were scattered, misunderstood, and slandered. Some of them had suffered greatly because of their allegiance to Christ and Peter tells them, "Stand firm."

For us what does that mean? It means do not retreat, do not blend in or bend into the culture. Stand firm. Consider the word given to the Colossians:

“…continue in the faith, firmly grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you have heard…” (Colossians 1:23)

Stand firm… or the words of the psalmist:

Psalm 16:8 LSB

8 I have set Yahweh continually before me; Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Stand firm… or what was told to the Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 15:58 LSB

58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord…

Stand firm… When our culture pressures us to compromise, redefine truth, abandon biblical conviction… you stand firm. Not because you are strong but because His grace is.

Stand firm when obedience is costly. Stand firm when faithfulness is unpopular. Stand firm when suffering comes. Stand firm through valleys and seasons of confusion. Stand firm because the grace that saved you is the same grace that sustains you.

To worship is to stand firm in God's grace. Peter started his letter with grace. He ends his letter with grace and everything in the middle was about grace.

Next Peter reminds us that we are not standing alone, that even in exile God has surrounded us with a family that shares the same grace and the same hope. He anchors us in this second reality.

II. Worship Flourishes in God’s Family (v. 13)

1 Peter 5:13 LSB

13 She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings, and so does my son, Mark.

I know this just sounds like final words of greetings. But this is the inspired word of God which means there's more here than meets the eye.

One of the greatest temptations believers fave during suffering is the temptation to believe that they are alone.

When life becomes difficult; when obedience becomes costly; or when following Christ isolates us form those around us. We begin to think we are the only ones standing.

In this verse, Peter reminds the scattered believers that nothing could be further from the truth:

“She who is in Babylon”

When Peter wrote this letter in the mid-first century AD, there was no independent geopolitical nation or empire called Babylon. The Babylonian Empire had collapsed centuries earlier.

He is referring to Rome metaphorically or perhaps even sarcastically. Throughout Scripture, Babylon came to represent every worldly system—political, cultural, and spiritual—that sets itself against the rule of God.

“…Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth” (Revelation 17:5)

She, Peter says is in Babylon, that is the Church of the living God in Rome was still standing in the thick of things. Peter personifies the church as a woman much like the people of God are described elsewhere in Scripture as the bride of Christ.

So Peter is saying the “the church that is living in Rome–the very center of power–sends you greetings.

The believers in Asia Minor were not the only exiles. The believers in Rome were also living as exile. The believers in Jamaica, Mexico, Romania, they're all living as exiles.

Different cities, different circumstances, but the same gospel, the same grace, the same Lord, the same hope. That is the reason why Peter calls them:

“chosen together with you…”

Different locations, same church, chosen together, one family. Peter reminds them and us that election is not merely an individual blessing. It creates a spiritual family.

The same grace that saved you has united you to believers all over the world. Church, this is one of the great blessings of belonging to Christ.

We may come from different nations, cultures, languages, and backgrounds. Yet because of Christ we belong to the same family. Exiles never worship alone. We worship together. But then Peter adds another familiar name:

“…and so does my son Mark”

Which is another demonstration of grace The same Mark who accompanied Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. The same Mark who abandoned Paul and Barnabas in that missionary journey.

That departure caused such sharp disagreement between Paul and Barnabas that they separated. For a time Mark's failure seemed to define him but God's grace had not finished its work. Years later Paul will write:

2 Timothy 4:11 LSB

11 Only Luke is with me. Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service.

This is the restoring grace of God. The man who once quit the ministry became useful again. Mark became a close companion of Peter and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit he is the one who writes the gospel that bears his name.

This is exactly what worship as exiles looks like. We do not merely celebrate what God has done in our own lives but we rejoice in what he is doing in the lives of his people.

We worship together because we belong together. Even though we are scattered throughout the world, we are united in Christ.

That is why the local church is not simply a place we attend. It is the family to which we belong. In a hostile world that family becomes one of God's greatest gifts to his exiled people.

The Christian life was never intended to be lived in isolation. God has always sustained his people through his people.

After reminding us to stand firm in God's grace and reminding us that we stand together as God's family, now Peter closes with the blessing every exile longs to experience: the peace that only Christ can give.

III. Worship Rests in Christ’s Peace (v. 14)

1 Peter 5:14 LSB

14 Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace be to you all who are in Christ.

Finally Peter closes with two final exhortations: One concerns the churches' relationship with one another. The other concerns the relationship with Christ.

He tells believers to greet one another with a kiss of love. To our modern ears that may sound unusual but in the first-century church this was a common expression of Christian affection and fellowship.

Peter is not commanding a particular cultural custom. He is commanding genuine Christian displays of affection rooted in genuine love.

The form may change from one culture to another. Today may be a handshake, a hug, a warm embrace, A sincere greeting. In some cultures the kiss is still very much the custom but the principle remains the same.

The church should be marked by genuine affection for one another because we are family. Peter has already emphasized this thought throughout the letter.

“Since you have …purified your souls…fervently love one another from the heart…” (1 Peter 1:22)

1 Peter 4:8 LSB

8 Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.

Now he ends exactly where he has been all along. Love one another. One of the greatest testimonies to the watching world is not merely what we believe. It is how we love one another.

John 13:35 LSB

35 “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

In a world filled with suspicion and isolation and hostility, the local church should be one of the few places where genuine love is consistently experienced because that too is worship.

When we genuinely love God's people, we are reflecting the love of Christ himself. And then Peter closes with one final blessing:

“…Peace be to you all who are in Christ.”

He doesn't leave wishing or praying for suffering to disappear or for persecution to end. He doesn't even say, "May Rome leave you alone." Those things may or may not happen. Instead Peter prays for something infinitely greater: peace.

Contrary to common thinking, peace is not the absence of trouble. It is the presence of Christ in the midst of trouble. This is the peace Jesus promised his disciples:

John 14:27 LSB

27 “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.

This is wholeness with God, not the absence of conflict. This is the settled confidence that no matter what happens around us, God remains sovereign. Christ remains Lord. His promises remain true. Our future remains secure.

And who receives this kind of peace?

“All who are in Christ.”

This summarizes everything Peter has written. Our identity, hope, holiness, endurance, family, peace, everything is found in Christ. Outside of Christ there is no lasting peace.

The world offers temporary distraction, temporary comfort, temporary escape, and calls at peace. But Jesus gives the lasting peace because only he has reconciled us to God. Paul writes:

Romans 5:1 LSB

1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

That peace becomes the foundation for every other kind of peace we experience. Think of how Peter began this letter.

Conclusion:

Over the past several months Peter has taught us that worship is far more than singing songs or attending church. Worship is a life lived in faithful obedience to Christ.

It is hope in suffering, holiness in a corrupt culture, submission in a rebellious world. Love in divided relationships. Service without seeking recognition. Humility without demanding our way.

Worship is perseverance when following Christ is costly. Now Peter leaves us with one final reminder: stand firm in God's grace, stand together as God's family, and rest in Christ's peace.

The world around us may never understand why we live the way we do. They may oppose us, misunderstand us, and even reject us. But we know where our hope is found.

We know whose family we belong to and we know who gives us peace. Because of that we can continue to worship faithfully as exiles until the day our Chief Shepherd returns.