Living in the Last Act --1 Peter 4:7-11

1 Peter • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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Introduction

Picture the scene. It is December in Wal-Mart, and you are on a tight deadline of having several errands to run. You quickly pick up the items you need, then you head for the checkout line.

When you get there, you notice they have 25 checkout lines, but only 2 are open. The line stretches as far as the eye can see?

Do you want to wait in that line?

But the more significant question is, "how do you wait?" Do you tap your foot? Do you open your phone and write a snarky post with the hashtag "Walmart Stinks?"

Why don't we want to wait?

For some, it is about wasting life. Every moment that passes is another second of life we won't get back.

Most of it is the human tendency to want everything to happen right now and on my schedule. That's why what used to take an hour to cook but only 2 minutes in a microwave makes us irritated with the two minutes.

Waiting is hard and taxes us. I know.

When Vickie and I were married in 1976 (yes, I remember the date), we were married in the Waterview auditorium. Vickie wanted candles, more candles than anyone could imagine. And to make the scene just right, it had to be dark.

So our wedding was set for 8 pm at night.

But then we have a problem. Vickie's cousin's little boy was our ring bearer, and he would not go down the aisle without holding the promised pillow. And the caterer forgot the pillow. So, for want of a pillow, we were stalled.

The caterer went back to get the pillow and returned…but forgot it a second time. It was fortunate that Willora Oglesby found a pillow in the nursery, pinned lace, and handed it to the boy.

So, at 8:45, Vickie walked down the aisle. (If we ever get married again, we are eloping!)

Peter has addressed the Christians' suffering. But why doesn't God end it? Why do we have to endure all of this? We are stuck waiting for a time when it is over.

That's our life. God seems to be waiting, and we grind our spiritual teeth, wondering what is keeping him. It is in those times that our Christianity shows most clearly.

How do you live in times like that? Peter wants them and us to learn how to live in the long haul.

Discussion

The End

Peter wrote his letter during the reign of Nero, around 64 A.D. Yet, Peter introduces a concept that sounds strange. Listen to how he opens this lesson.

"The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers." (1 Peter 4:7)

How could this be the end? We keep turning calendar pages and replacing our funny cat calendars with a new one each year. How can he say this is the end of all things?

The concept sounds foreign. After all, if you take the time when Peter wrote this book and do the map until today, 1,957 years have passed. It doesn't sound like the end.

That's because we don't understand the end. Peter uses an expression that means "all has been accomplished for the end to come."

Think about the plan of God and all that had to take place. In the Garden of Eden, man sinned, and the veiled promise of the "seed of the woman" would prevail. Time would pass with a flood wiping the world clean of mankind save one family. From that, humanity had to sprout and grow. Then, we meet a citizen of the Mesopotamian town of Ur named Abram. Calls and promises grace his life. And God uses him. Through him, his commitment to us finds its channel to flow forward.

But it would be generations before the family would become a nation with its own law code. Sin would arrive. With it, the spokesmen, the prophets calling his people back. He incubated them through 70-year captivity in Babylon. The whole time the prophets were saying, "not yet."

Then, after prophecy grew hoarse and became silent, a baby's cry echoed in a barn. Within three decades, that baby would die as a man but rise to life as the Christ.

Just a scant 50 days would pass when God's kingdom invaded the planet, opening God's redemption to all men, regardless of race, gender, or language.

And now, it was "the end of things."

Our problem is we don't see time as God does. Think about eternity as the size of the Empire State Building. And at the top, on the television antenna, is a speck of dust blown there by the wind. Our history, all that we know is that bit of dust compared to eternity.

It is a problem that becomes critical to Peter's second letter. If we are suffering so, why do we wait? Why doesn't God do something?

No wonder we struggle with the "end of all things." But to God, those 1,957 years, roughly the same as from Abraham to Peter, are a flick of an eyelash.

But God does say that the sand in the hourglass is dropping with sonic speed. But it is hard for us to explain.

I want you to look at this picture. It is a Christmas gift we bought 3 years ago for one of our granddaughters. But we forgot about it. For the last 3 years, it has been a fixture in the trunk of my wife's car.

It is wrapped, but we haven't given it yet. Everything is bought, and the wrapping is there. It just hasn't found the hands of a child.

That's our time. God has wrapped the gift, and he just hasn't given us eternity yet.

So we want to ask Peter, how do you act in the last act?

The truth is every day is the final day. We will never get this day back again. It will close, and it may or may not be replaced by another. How do you use that day?

Almost 9 years ago, my father died suddenly. The afternoon before he died, 7 hours later, I went by his room at Appletree Court. I picked him up, and we both went to get a haircut. I helped him write his Christmas checks and then said, as I left, "see you later."

If I had realized it was the last time, I would have acted differently.

How do we treat each day we live before the end with that kind of care?

Living in the Last Act

Peter doesn't want them to squander the time. He also doesn't want them to fret as they are facing the persecutor. It will become easy to panic or protect. The church could suffer if everyone took an "every man for himself" approach to life.

They also might start to compromise their faith. They might feel that it is apparent that justice delayed is judgment ignored.

So, in this small piece of scripture, he tells us how to hold on spiritually.

Keep Your Wits About You

For the second time, Peter returns to a favorite admonition.

"The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers." (1 Peter 4:7, ESV)

He brings out the twin terms of self-controlled sobriety. Everything Peter says is about keeping your mind clear and focused as time drags on.

The words drip with a serious demeanor. "Sober" is used in some intriguing contexts. One is in Mark 5 in a graveyard.

Jesus finds the demoniac who has been confined to the burial place of the dead. He is fierce, frightening, and out of control. Jesus casts the demons out of the man. The result of this mad man is that he is "sober."

"And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid." (Mark 5:15, ESV)

You can feel the sense of peace that has washed over the man. His mania has settled. He now can see life as it is, not through the eyes of his demon. He is aware and calm in the face of the circumstances.

Peter was there watching that man and selects this word to describe the mindset.

He knows that people who cannot see life from God's view suffer terribly.

It happened in 1843. William Miller, a self-appointed prophet, told his believers that Jesus was returning that year on a specific day. They all assembled. Many sold all they had and stopped paying their debts.

The night arrived and left. A growing dissatisfaction started to grow, but Miller said he had an arithmetic error and changed it to the following year, 1844. They came again, and…the night passed with no coming of Jesus.

That's when they gave up and went home.

This could happen to people who were expecting God to act sooner than he was ready to act.

He addresses the problem of complacency. If nothing has happened, nothing will happen. Passions cool and faith fades. Christian lives start compromising with the world around them.

Peter does not want them to face their lives with either fanaticism that makes bold claims or indifference that nothing would happen. He wanted clear thinking.

This thinking is best characterized by having the perspective God has. God will work his will in time, and our goal is to serve God, not worry or wrangle about times and seasons. Peter had heard that from Jesus himself. Now, he was passing it along to those who would live beyond him.

One reason exists for this spiritual sanity.

"The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers." (1 Peter 4:7, ESV)

People stop praying when they stop expecting. After all, why pray if it does no good?

While we can justify prayer for many reasons, the real reason is the conviction that God will act on that prayer.

When you expect God to act, you pray. When you believe the situation is dire, it propels prayer.

Peter could wince as he wrote the words. There was that night in Gethsemane that, despite the warnings, it seemed too routine. He was tired and slept. Jesus comes to him with his companions, James and John, and tells them:

"Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." (Mark 14:38, ESV)

The mind that stays alert can stay spiritually engaged.

How much do we maintain God's perspective? It makes the difference between obedience in waiting and surrender in waiting.

Care for Each Other Strenuously

Peter continues with the words of priority.

"Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins." (1 Peter 4:8, ESV)

One of the curses of time is to let love cool. Peter, for the third time, punctuates the need for Christians to keep loving each other.

And it is not just a feeling. Earnestly is a good word that doesn't capture the sense Peter is describing.

Have you watched a horse race in which the horses were neck and neck as they approached the finish line? Each jockey, trying to get the hair's breadth advantage, pushed his horse. And the thoroughbred, with every ounce of his muscle, strode even harder.

That's the kind of love we have, the type that strains like a horse reaching for the tape.

Do we have that kind of care for each other? Do we look out for the needs of one another with passion?

It would be easy to lose it if pressured. Why should I bother with them? I have my own problems. But remember, the Lord is coming. He is looking for those who have loved each other in the worst of times.

The reason comes in the second verse. It covers a multitude of sins.

Peter reaches back to the Proverbs to quote the saying.

"Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses." (Proverbs 10:12, ESV)

When stress comes, it seems no relief is in sight. We can grow irritated with each other. We can magnify small slights into intentional betrayal. We can jump to conclusions about motives when the motive was never present.

If we can just love each other with every fiber of our being, we can "cover up" the sins others commit against us.

It can even happen when people have truly hurt us. In Genesis, we see how a son's love helped "cover" the same as his father.

In Genesis 9, as Noah returns from the ark, he plants grapes. But, great men have feet of clay. Noah gets drunk and exposes himself.

Here is the account:

"Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father's nakedness." (Genesis 9:20–23, ESV)

It was Ham, who, out of love and concern for his father's reputation, covered him. He took extra steps to protect his father.

That is what love does when it covers sin.

Patiently Endure

In the ancient world, hospitality was the only way travelers survived. Without accommodations in hotels and inns, strangers would depend on others to keep them. Christians especially opened their homes to others. Many were traveling evangelists and teachers or pilgrims on the move.

Peter reminds them of this responsibility with a caveat.

"Show hospitality to one another without grumbling." (1 Peter 4:9, ESV)

Why would people grumble and complain about this duty?

It could grow expensive with feeding more people and sharing cramped quarters. And many might overstay their welcome.

Benjamin Franklin was fond of saying that "both fish and guests begin to smell after three days."

Peter encourages them to open both their hearts and home to the needy. This was not the time to concern yourself with convenience. It was time to show compassion practically.

Take Care of the Body

One of the temptations of suffering without what seemed to be an end is to focus on my needs, not the needs of the other Christians.

Yet, the body of Christians had both a mission to the world and a responsibility to each other. Peter does some "body building" instruction.

The foundation is what God has done for them.

"As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." (1 Peter 4:10–11, ESV)

God has provided his grace in the form of specific gifts and talents. All are necessary. The church functions when the people function as it expresses itself through the multicolored grace that flows through each of us.

Peter calls us "stewards of God's grace." The steward was an important position in ancient homes. In large households, the steward was responsible for many things. They would make sure all were fed or received food. Bills and responsibilities got paid. The needs of all were taken care of.

A steward had a single focus—to take care of things as the master would if he were doing it.

All in God's family must act as if God gave them a personal church to care for it.

How do we express the grace of God in the body of Christ?

Many times, the term "oracle" was used interchangeably with the authoritative word of God.

The Roman Empire knew of oracles, with the most well-known was the Oracle of Delphi. It was located near Corinth. When Greek city-states wanted to know what would happen, they would consult the oracle, which would give them the answer.

In a world needing direction, a clear message given with God's authority is vital. God wants us to be the vessel through which his will is told to others.

Peter continues:

Employing a common term we translate "deacon," Peter speaks of willing service done for the good of all. When something must be done, the servant does it.

When something needs a mop, a servant finds it. When food is required, a servant prepares it. When someone is lonely, the servant sits quietly to encourage.

For a church under stress, they need the servant to lift the load and bear the burden.

But as Peter says, none of this comes from our human ability. Instead, it is something God supplies.

In Greek cities, local performers formed a chorus to entertain the town. However, someone had to provide food, funds for costumes, and arrange for performances. That patron supplied all needs.

God, according to Peter, is the patron of the servants of God. He provides all the needs of those who labor in the kingdom. We are not alone or dependent on ourselves. When in need, God supplies our every need.

That is why we can be generous with service.

Conclusion

We still live in the "end," as Peter would put it. Even though two millennia have passed, the responsibility has not.

How do we act in the last act? We act in the last act with clarity, compassion, and conviction. We provide the world the direction it needs, the understanding for the hurting, and the conviction of God's goodness and judgment.

All of our actions show we still believe despite the times being at the end.

But we do it for a reason. It's not for our own survival. Instead, Peter ends this section with a doxology, a prayer. In his prayer, he provides the ultimate motive for all that we do. It's not about the Christians, and it's not about the church. Instead, it is so that in everything, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. We act so others will look to God and worship him.

Can we do that?

In Washington, D.C., a bridge over the Potomac River bears a plaque: The Arland Williams Bridge. Most cross the bridge and never know who Arland Williams was.

On January 13, 1982, Arland Williams boarded Air Florida flight 90. It was to be an ordinary day, and he would be home later in the day.

He never made it. Instead, the plane crashed into a bridge over the Potomac River. The river was filled with ice and frigid. No one would survive long if they stayed in the water.

Williams did what was not expected. He went into the water, dragging one person after another to the bank for paramedics to treat. He kept going back into the water. On the last trip, the plane's tail shifted, and Williams never surfaced.

That day, he had his last day, but his last day was his best day.

May our last time be the one in which God is elevated.

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