Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements

Don’t forget, we do have a church cookout right after this service—we’d love to have every stay after and enjoy some delicious food and fellowship with us.

And before I forget, thank you to those who were here early today to help set up canopies and tables outdoors.

I greatly appreciate the help.

I’ll give more details about the cookout at the end of the service.

On July 3rd (next week), we’ll have a quarterly business meeting right after worship.

All our business meetings are open to the public so even if you aren’t a member, you are welcome to stay and see what all is going on.

If you are a member, please plan on being here for that service.

We have a number of outreach events going on in the next month or two and we could definitely use help in all these events.

If you’re willing to help, there’s a sign-up sheet at the front of the room.

Let me remind you to continue worshiping the Lord through your giving—to help you give, we have three ways for you to do so: (1) in-person giving can be done at the offering box at the front of the room—checks should be written to Grace & Peace and if you’d like a receipt for your cash gifts, please place it in an envelope with your name on it; if you’d prefer to give with a debit, credit, or ACH transfer, you can do so either by (2) texting the number 84321 with your $[amount] or by (3) visiting us online at www.gapb.church

and selecting Giving in the menu bar.

Everything that you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Call to Worship (Ps 54)

Our Call to Worship follows chronologically after Psalm 52 in which David was betrayed by Doeg the Edomite.

The betrayal itself wasn’t really a surprise to David, but now he finds himself in a situation in which he is being rejected by his own men.

And though, he is presently being pursued by Saul and chased by ungodly and wicked men, he expresses great confidence in God’s ability to save him.

Please stand and read with me Psalm 54—I’ll read the odd-numbered verses; please join me in reading the even-numbered verses.

Congregational Singing

And Can it Be? (180)

At the Cross (284)

By Faith (361)

Scripture Reading

Our Scripture Reading this morning is Matthew 25:14-30, which is a parable taught by Jesus concerning servants who were given a certain amount of money by their master before he left to travel.

It is a parable concerning faithfulness and stewardship, which I think you can tell parallels our message for this morning quite easily.

Tara, can you read Matthew 25:14-30 for us?

Sermon

Introduction

If you have your Bible with you, please turn it to 1 Peter 4:1-11.

If you’ve been with us over the past few weeks, you know that we’re in a series concerning spiritual gifts and that series continues today.

And I’m sure you’ve probably noticed that much of this series, though we’ve been looking at various different passages over the weeks has focused primarily on serving regardless of if you know what your gifts are.

In addition, I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’ve intentionally not emphasized the different gifts nor have I really bothered to spend a lot of time defining what the different gifts are and I hope that you understand the reasons for this—that there are probably other spiritual gifts not listed in Scripture and to focus intently at the ones that are mentioned in Scripture would be to give the impression that there are no other gifts.

I hope that through this series, thus far, you’ve noticed that the primary emphasis in Scripture concerning the spiritual gifts is that of use—use your spiritual gifts for the glory of God and for the common good of the local church.

At the very least, start serving so that God through the local church reveals to you what your spiritual gifts are and so that God through the local church helps you to develop your spiritual gifts.

Our passage for this morning continues in the same line of thinking—that you are to use your gifts to “serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.”

However, the primary difference is that Peter emphasizes doing this regardless of what sort of situation you’re in.

In the case of the Christians in 1 Peter, they’re in some sort of severe persecution that has caused them to be scattered—1 Peter 1:1, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.”

Peter writes to these Christians to not just give them comfort in the midst of persecution that has caused them to be dispersed or scattered through Asia-minor, but to encourage them and exhort them to continue living like genuine Christians are supposed to live.

He reminds them of the living hope that they have in Jesus and their call to be holy.

He reminds them of how the household should be Christ-focused and Gospel-minded and he repeatedly reminds them that Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection wasn’t for them to continue living like unbelievers, but rather to live like genuine believers.

He reminds them of all these different truths before getting to ch. 4, which focuses in on the issue of suffering and how Christians ought to think and what they should do despite suffering.

Keep this in mind as we read 1 Peter 4:1-11.

As we study this passage together, we’re going to break it into two parts.

The first part, vv.

1-6, A Christlike Attitude and the second part, vv.

7-11, Christlike Service.

Both parts actually work together in ch. 4 along with vv.

12-19, which speaks of a Christlike Faith to essentially teach the Christians that were being persecuted at that moment, how they should think and act in light of the persecution that they’re facing.

For them, it was an exhortation to think like Jesus thinks about sin, the Gospel, and life in general; and it was a command to use what God has gifted you with for God’s glory.

For us, 2,000 years later, it does the same—it exhorts us to think like Jesus and to use the gifts that God has given us for His glory.

Prayer for Illumination

A Christlike Attitude (1-6)

Our text starts with Peter connecting this passage with the previous passage.

In v. 1, the “since therefore” clues us into this connection.

Just prior to this point, Peter speaks of the suffering that Jesus experienced on the cross.

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous of the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.”

And he uses the suffering of Jesus as almost a launching point in v. 1 of ch. 4.

Since Jesus suffered in the flesh, “arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.”

We really have to pause here for a minute and just think through this verse because if we were to misunderstand this verse, it would give us the impression that if we suffered in the flesh, we wouldn’t sin at all.

But that calls into question all the various parts of Scripture written to believers that were struggling and suffering in the flesh and why the authors of those texts still taught them to seek holiness, reject sin, and pursue the fruits of the Spirit.

For instance, in 1 Peter 2 (just before our passage) Peter, who is writing to believers that are suffering in the flesh, tells them to “put away all malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.”

Or in other words, he’s writing to people who are being persecuted physically and he’s still telling them to stop sinning—so 1 Peter 4:1 can’t mean that they absolutely won’t sin if they suffered physically.

Rather, we really have to focus on the phrase, “arm yourselves with the same way of thinking.”

Peter here, is focusing on suffering and he’s telling them that they need to change the way that they think about something, in particular.

Many commentators assume that he’s talking about suffering itself, but I’m going to argue that he’s actually talking about life itself and he’s utilizing the idea of suffering as a catalyst for the way of thinking that he’s telling them to adopt.

The idea at hand then is that when there’s suffering, there’s a fundamental change of mind; and it’s that fundamental change of mind that Peter wants all Christians to adopt because it results in a desire to stop sinning.

This concept is expounded on in v. 2, “For whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.”

Did you catch what the fundamental change of mind is?

Peter is calling the believers scattered abroad, to live for the rest of their lives no longer for human passion but rather for God, in the will of God.

It’s that fundamental change of mind that results not in a believer never struggling with the temptation to sin, but rather it results in the believer not wanting to continue in sin.

And what Peter is stating in v. 1 isn’t that believers who suffer aren’t capable of sinning, it’s that they no longer want to keep sinning because their focus isn’t on earthly things and their own passion, but rather in accomplishing the will of God.

Or in other words, when genuine believers experience genuine persecution, they lose their desire to keep sinning because their focus shifts to eternal issues.

And Peter is saying that all believers, regardless of if they’re suffering, ought to have this same state of mind—all believers should cease wanting to sin.

It sounds like a given, but there are reasons for the Bible’s repeated statement concerning the rejection of sin and the putting on of righteousness.

The mindset that needs to change is that of no longer thinking just of our temporal lives and our earthly enjoyment, but rather thinking of eternity as our primary focus.

It’s this change of mind that ends our desire to continue in sin.

Peter then continues by expounding on the issue at hand.

What does he mean that those who suffer no longer live for human passions but the will of God?

He compares how the unbelieving Gentiles live with how believers are to live in vv.

3-5, “For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.”

Peter makes a blunt statement concerning the things that Gentiles want to do—he says that “the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do.”

Or if we were to use a more modern vernacular, we would say that our time to partake in the sins that unbelievers partake in was in the past—as a believer, it is no longer acceptable to continue in sin.

What sins are in mind for Peter?

He lists them:

Living in sensuality, which is essentially the idea of living in sexual sin.

Passions, which refers primarily to lustful desire.

Drunkenness

Orgies

Drinking parties

And lawless idolatry

Note that this isn’t a comprehensive list of sins, these are just the sins that are on Peter’s mind at that moment and unsurprisingly, they’re sins that supersede any one culture or one time period.

And they happen to be sins that people indulge in the more they continue in their sinful desire.

Sins that believers should not partake in and he emphasizes their lack of indulgence in v. 4.

Peter says that the unbelievers are surprised at their lack of desire to sin.

“With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you.”

He uses some vivid imagery to describe the sorts of sins that the unbelieving Gentiles are partaking in—he calls them a “flood of debauchery.”

In the modern definition of debauchery, we understand this to mean an extreme indulgence in bodily pleasure, which can include pleasure in alcohol, drugs, and inappropriate sexual relationships.

In the more archaic definition of the word, Merriam-Webster says that debauchery is “seduction from virtue,” which is just as vivid as Peter’s initial statement concerning debauchery.