Fearlessly, Radically Righteous: Our Resolution

Introduction

What is a “resolution”? We have a tendency to begin a new year promising ourselves to do more of something we have recognized we should have done more of the last year, or less of something we recognized we should have done less of. So, nine months into 2021, how you doing with your resolutions? Who can remember what their resolutions were?

There is a certain kind of folly with new year’s resolutions. There’s really nothing but our wills to hold to them, and no real consequences to let them lapse as we promise ourselves we’ll do better next year. In that sense, the word resolution may have lost some of the depth of meaning it is intended to convey.

The Oxford Dictionary defines resolution as, “A firm decision to do or not to do something.”

It carries the idea of intentionality, an intention of purpose, planning, forethought. It is certainly not a casual thing easily dismissed. Resolutions are usually difficult. If they were easy, we would call them errands or tasks or something that can be dealt with without much thought, planning, or concern.

To move our resolutions to action:

We need to break them down into what we are resolved to do. In other words, a resolution is composed of one or more “resolves”.

We must be reminded of a resolution’s importance regularly. Distractions abound and procrastination is almost always preferred over diligent effort and hard work.

We must act. A resolution without action is nothing more than a wish.

Transition

Open to 1 Peter 5 starting with v. 8

As Peter wraps up his first letter to this group of persecuted believers spread out across Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey, he summarizes the major theme with some practical thoughts to leave with them. These believers were beginning to face persecution at the local level and very soon, would endure wide-spread, government sanctioned persecution. These brothers and sisters faced suffering, and suffering only because they were Christians.

Suffering was the overarching theme of Peter’s letter to them. He tries to encourage them through these fiery trials by showing God uses those situations to draw them closer to Him. Not only that, but God has promised an eternity that will be totally free from all pain and suffering and loss. So, these momentary challenges, relatively speaking, are really nothing compared to the eternity we are guaranteed, promised to us in Jesus Christ.

We started looking at Peter’s exhortation with 1 Peter 3:13 framed in understanding that living a life as a Christian is living a fearlessly, radically righteous life evidenced in our suffering, our witness, and in our consciences. Then through following weeks and next passages, we looked at Christ, as our example, discussed our struggle, our service, our future glory, and last week, leaving a godly legacy behind us.

Now, having looked closely at these themes, hear Peter’s final thoughts as we turn to 1 Peter 5:8 through the end and look at what we out to resolve:

1 Peter 5:8–14 (NASB95)

Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.

After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.

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.

This Christian life is hard. Sometimes it seems just giving in, compromising what God’s Word says, what the Holy Spirit teaches, or what centuries of Christian thought has affirmed, would be easier. How then, do we persevere in the faith?

We recognize evil has a source in the devil and willing accomplices in our sinful, rebellious natures to counterfeit or corrupt what God has given us to try to destroy us by our own lusts and pride. To overcome, we must plunge in and immerse ourselves in the grace of God. We stand with each other, inviting everyone we can to know the peace that comes in knowing Christ.

Block 1: vv. 8-9

So, our first resolve:

Firmly resolve to stand against the Evil One

Notice first in v. 8, we have an adversary, a very real enemy. His desire is to destroy you, and he doesn’t care how.

Therefore, we must be sober-minded, clear-headed, vigilant, watchful, 1 Peter 5:8 “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert...”

The idea is really that of a warning, especially regarding spiritual matters. Consider the alternative. If you are unaware, your chances for a careless action, a hurtful word, or impure thought, whatever it is, dramatically increases.

In Mark’s Gospel, we read how Jesus came to the Garden the night before He was to be crucified … Jesus brings James, John, and Peter, to be closest to Him while He prays. Twice, Jesus finds them sleeping. “Could you not pray one hour?” He asks Peter. It is also here that Jesus says, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Going about our lives in such a sorry state of spiritual lethargy, will often lead us to behave in ways no different than an unbeliever. I have said before, the unbelievers around you are watching you, O Christian, to see if what you say you have in and with Christ is really better than what they have in the world without Christ. Do not allow them any excuse by your actions.

Question often where your relationship with Christ is. How are you doing? Evaluate, ask the Lord to show you places in your life that need to be rightly ordered before Him. Ask His help! Apart from a prayer to be saved, could there be a prayer He would more gladly, more readily answer?

Or, do we ask not because we really want not?

Why are we to be on the alert? 1 Peter 5:8 “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” We get the illustration. Lions typically attack while their victims are engaged in routine, day-to-day business. Of those, the lion will target the more careless or sluggish. It is sudden and without mercy.

Satan seeks to find a way to bring a believer’s struggle with some sin to intersect with his temptations. From there, he can more easily snag the unaware believer and lead them further and further away from God. The further we are away from the Savior, the more imperiled we become. When one compromise is achieved, the next is all the easier, and the next, and the one after that, and so on.

Yell:

Be on the alert!

Praise God though, we are not powerless against such an enemy, far from it! 1 Peter 5:9 “But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.”

Being alert, pleading with the Father to keep us from temptation, to deliver us from evil, even from our own evil, we can see the danger and be ready for any attack. Peter’s exhortation is not to fear such an enemy, but rather to resist him! We do not need to fear the devil. We should not underestimate him, but just as foolish, we should not overestimate him. He is not all powerful, omnipresent or all knowing. But he does know his future. When the enemy attacks, remind them there is a lake of fire prepared for them.

Now temptation is not sin. Giving in to temptation is. Satan even tried to tempt our Lord, and how did Jesus overcome it? By quoting Scripture, Deuteronomy specifically. (If you ever wondered why we read the Old Testament, there’s a pretty good reason.) Having the Word of God, the whole Word of God, present in our thoughts, written on our hearts, meditated upon in our minds. We hold in our hands the most powerful weapon on Earth! Jesus’ temptation also reveals that Satan knows what the Scriptures say, too, but Jesus corrects him by knowing what is taken out of context and putting it right. In other words, we need to know the whole Bible.

“Christian” cults often come at people, unsteady, cultural Christians usually, twisting some passage to make us question what is settled either by looking at the whole context or at other passages. I cannot state it more plainly, or more emphatically, we need to be immersed in Scripture more than we need food and water; even the air we breath should be of secondary concern to our pursuit of the truth of God’s Word.

I came into this world 45 years ago. Do you think I could face Satan in my own strength? He has had millennia of dealing with humans. He has a formula that works pretty good for him. Simply by questioning the legitimacy of God’s Word, and the authority it asserts, raises the specter of doubt in our minds. Before long, we find ourselves considering his argument or simply justifying ways of satisfying whatever it is our sinful nature desires.

Instead, to resist the devil, we stand firm in our faith in Christ. We will see in a little bit that it is the grace of God that sanctifies us, that equips us to resist the evil one and all his lies. When temptation comes, when persecution for the name of Christ seizes us, we press in even closer to Jesus, calling out to Him for His strength, His wisdom.

James 4:7 (NASB95)

...Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Christian, nothing will rid us of Satan’s attack faster than him seeing it pushes us closer to Christ. He will give up when we resist to find another target more willing to compromise their faith.

Firmly resolve, now, while you have the mind to stand against the Evil One.

Transition to Block 2

Now, the enemy may be real and may be the cause for all sorts of evil, but we are wrong to think that all evil everywhere is the result of satanic or demonic activity. Sometimes evil people do evil things because they are naturally evil. Apart from Christ, our hearts are inclined to do evil.

Block 2a: vv. 10-11

Resolve to stand against the Evil One. Our second resolve, then:

Firmly resolve to stand in God’s Grace

Look again at

1 Peter 5:10–12 (NASB95)

After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.

To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.

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!

To be victorious over such an enemy as we have in Satan, and even our own natures, we have God’s grace. O! the sweetness of God’s grace! It is His grace that has saved us through faith.

Ephesians 2:8–9 (NASB95)

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

And what an incredible gift is ours! God’s grace! His grace! Do not ever stop being in awe of the grace in which God has called you into His eternal glory in Christ. The Almighty God of the Universe, has called you to His glory, for His glory! What a wonderful thought!

This is where our life really begins, where we begin to truly live. When God saves a sinner, it is He that begins the work of pruning, cutting out the old junk, the old life. God loves us too much to allow us to stay the way He found us. One day at a time, He works in our lives to transform us more and more into the image of Christ.

He is constantly at work through our lives, and through those around us, working to perfect, that is, restore and complete us.

He confirms His working in our lives by bringing us conviction of our sin.

He strengthens us to be able to resist the devil, to boldly stand for righteousness, to give a voice to the voiceless and defense for the vulnerable, the oppressed, the abused, and the forgotten. He teaches us through His Word, through the examples of other believers, those faithful saints that lived lives worthy of the name of Christ. We know we can stand because we see how they stood. These are all given to us to strengthen us spiritually, between ourselves and our Savior, and relationally, between ourselves and others.

He establishes us. Ours is a faith that can be firmly grounded on the foundation of Christ. This unmoveable rock, forever an anchor for our souls. A more firm foundation cannot be found in all of the Universe that He created and is sustained by the power of His word. In Him, we have certainty. In a world that is constantly unsteady, Christ never changes.

O! the sweetness of this grace! The wonder of this grace!

It tears down our pride.

It makes us alive, truly alive.

It gives us peace with God.

It restores brokenness.

It renews and transforms our lives, our relationships.

It defeats the enemy.

It reminds us Whose we are, Who we belong to.

It makes one dead in their trespasses and sin, alive with Him forever and ever and ever!

Human speech lacks adequate words to describe the fullness of just how awesome, incredible, magnificient, splendid, astounding, or remarkable is God’s grace! As the old hymn goes, “Amazing grace, O! how sweet the sound...” Never stop being amazed in God’s grace.

On reflecting on grace, it is little wonder Peter launches into a doxology

1 Peter 5:11 (NASB95)

To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Failures in leadership by others abound, but Christ never fails. Uncertainty can worry people with paralyzing fear, but our God whispers a peace to us that defies all understanding. The peace that Christ gives the believer is based on the authority that He alone has over all of creation. It is appropriate, then, for us to worship Him and acknowledge His rule over this world, with all its evil and corruption. This world is in desperate need for His perfectly just and righteous rule.

Peter continues:

1 Peter 5:12 (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!

Peter takes this opportunity to acknowledge Silvanus, likely the Silas that Paul was with in the latter parts of Acts. He was the secretary that wrote down what Peter was saying.

Transition to Block 3

Peter draws the themes of this letter to a close. The entirety of the Christian life, whether in suffering persecution or in relative peace and safety, is one of grace. That grace that is lavished on us by a good God every day that we are blessed to wake up, that blesses, sustains, provides for, protects; His grace as defined in v. 10 perfects, confirms, strengthens, and establishes us. All these things we need from His hand, none of them are deserved, but freely given. And in that, we are able to firmly resolve to stand in God’s grace.

Block 3: vv. 13-14

And because of that grace, we ought to extend grace to others. Our third resolve, then:

Firmly resolve to stand with One Another

1 Peter 5:13–14 (NASB95)

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.

In these final verses, Peter sends his greetings. This is a wonderful tradition that has been woven through all of church history, sending greetings between churches. We see it more commonly in areas where smaller churches exist in a more spread out geography. We saw it frequently in India and Haiti both. We would visit a church and it was expected that given an opportunity to speak since we were visiting, would send greetings from our home churches and the congregation would return theirs. It’s a wonderful, beautiful picture of a commonality of faith in the greater Church.

So, the saints gathered at Grace Community Church, send their greetings. And I will return your greetings to them.

1 Peter 5:13 “She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings… ” Peter says he was in Babylon. This is almost certainly not the actual ancient city of Babylon. But as Babylon in the Old Testament was the centralized city of a worldwide empire set against God’s people, Peter is probably referring to Rome. About the time when Peter would be writing to these believers encouraging them through their persecution, if Peter was in Rome, he was witnessing firsthand what that would look like and that to a greater, more horrifying degree.

Chosen together, they were not alone. Though separated by many hundreds of miles, these believers were united by suffering for the same faith, and that united them with a deeper bond than some fraternal order or club membership ever could.

Mark, undoubtedly the author of the Gospel of Mark, is with Peter and sends his greetings as well. The identification as his son, is in the spiritual sense and serves as a reminder that you older folks, more mature in the faith, need to be mindful of these little ones. We saw in the previous verses that we are to leave a godly legacy for the next generation. Be an example, invest your lives in those children that God has placed in your care.

Just like a preacher, Peter said he was wrapping up, but still had a couple more points.

1 Peter 5:14 (NASB95)

Greet one another with a kiss of love.

Peace be to you all who are in Christ.

In standing with one another, in a community of faith, greet one another in a culturally-appropriate way. In some cultures, that’s a kiss. In others, a hug, a handshake, a fist bump. In these days of COVID, I’m good with a nod and a smile. The idea is that we are a family. We are brothers and sisters united in Christ, so when we greet one another, remember the other person was saved by the same grace you are experiencing daily. They are imperfect sinners, just like you are.

And we are all in need of the kind of peace that only comes from being in Christ. In this world, with its trials and suffering, we need to know peace. There is enough violence outside of the Church, why would we bring it into the Church?

So, in God’s grace, we can resist our adversary’s attacks, mindful of that incredible gift we have been given in God’s grace, fellowshipping with one another within the framework of one united body of Christ.

We resolve therefore, living this fearlessly, radically righteous life, we:

Firmly resolve to stand against the Evil One

Firmly resolve to stand in God’s grace

Firmly resolve to stand with one another.

Invitation: If you are here today, unsure of where you stand with Christ, unsure of what grace is…

And now, may the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ grant you peace through the Holy Spirit.

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

Let’s pray