1 Peter 5: Standing Firm in the True Grace of God

Introduction

A goldfish is said to have an attention span of nine seconds. Paul Rees, senior pastor of Charlotte Chapel in Edinburgh, admits he doesn't know how anyone could have proved it, but he notes that the more we use social media, the closer our attention gets to that of a goldfish. After about twenty-four sermons on the first letter of Peter, the question is worth asking: what have we retained? What is this letter about?

Someone once taught him that the Bible is like a big bag of golf clubs. Whoever teaches the Bible, whether a Sunday school teacher or a home group leader, needs to know what kind of club each book is, so as to know when to pull it out for the situations of life. So, what kind of club is 1 Peter?

For this last message of the series, the pastor builds on the conclusion of the letter, where Peter himself sums up what he has written (1 Peter 5:12-14). He draws out two parts, what Peter testifies to and what he urges, for one single call: stand firm in the true grace of God.

Message Outline

1. Silvanus and the Purpose of the Letter

• "Through Silvanus, our faithful brother (for so I consider him), I have written to you briefly" (1 Peter 5:12). Before the telephone and email, it took a Silvanus (Silas) to carry the mail.
• Silas was a respected Christian of the Jerusalem church, a coworker of both Peter and Paul. It was not the first time he had carried an apostolic message: the council of Jerusalem had entrusted him with bringing its letter to the non-Jewish churches, and that news had filled them with joy (Acts 15).
• Peter then gives his intention: to exhort them and to testify that the grace of God to which they are attached is the true one. In the translation the pastor read, the call is explicit: stand firm in it.
• What they have in Jesus is the true grace of God. They must never leave this ground of the gospel.

2. A Letter for Christians Who Suffer

• "Beloved, don't be astonished at the fiery trial which has come upon you to test you, as though a strange thing happened to you" (1 Peter 4:12). The theme of suffering runs through the whole letter.
• So here is the golf club: 1 Peter is encouragement for Christians who suffer. "If you find Christians suffering for their faith, take your Bible, pull out 1 Peter, and start playing the ball from there."
• This need is still current, including in Turkey, the region Peter was writing to. Almost twenty years ago, in Malatya, in the east of the country, three Christians were killed: a German missionary and two Turks who had converted from Islam. Some men had presented themselves as wanting to study the Bible, then tied them up, tortured them and killed them. At the trial, the victims seemed to be judged more than the accused, and the addresses of other Christians were made public.
• The letter is also for us when society becomes more pagan, when family or friends reject our faith, when our spouse is not yet a Christian and sometimes comes to find it hard to bear.
• In trials, the question that comes naturally is: "Am I going in the right direction? Did I make the right choice?" Peter assures them that they did: this is the true grace of God, so stand firm in it.

3. What Peter Testifies To: God Has Chosen You to Be His Special People

• The church of the chosen ones in Babylon sends greetings (1 Peter 5:13). At that time, Babylon was no longer anything; Peter most likely writes from Rome, and it is the church that sends the greeting.
• Like Israel taken into exile in Babylon, Christians live far from their heavenly homeland, like Daniel in Babylon: spiritual exiles in the midst of a pagan culture. The letter opens, in fact, with the strangers scattered in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia (1 Peter 1:1).
• The text of Isaiah 46 read during the service stresses the contrast: pagans have to carry their idols, Bel and Nebo, whereas God's people know the God who carries them.
• There is a fundamental change of identity when you put your trust in Jesus Christ. "You may have grown up in Edinburgh all your life, but when you become a Christian, you receive a brand new identity." If you feel different in your own culture, it is because you are different.
• This calling is a call to obedience, and the blood of Christ covers all our disobedience (1 Peter 1:2). "You shall be holy, for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:16).
• To students starting university: if you live for Jesus, your life will look shocking to those who don't, and you may be mocked. They think it strange that you do not rush along with them into the same excess of debauchery (1 Peter 4:4).
• But what a privilege: "We don't live for idols that have to be carried. We are carried by the Creator God, known and loved by him."

4. What Peter Testifies To: Called to Glory After Suffering a Little

• If the world persecuted Jesus, it will persecute those who follow him. But the path of suffering with Christ leads to eternal glory: this is what they were called to, because Christ also suffered for them, leaving them an example so that they would follow in his steps (1 Peter 2:21).
• Peter urges them, on the contrary, to rejoice in the share they have in the sufferings of Christ, so that they may also be glad with great joy when his glory is revealed (1 Peter 4:13).
• Peter was an eyewitness. He saw Jesus, "who committed no sin" and who, when insulted, did not insult in return (1 Peter 2:22-23). He knows the meaning of his death: "who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24), the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18).
• Why accept a share in suffering? Because being united to the one who suffered for us is the path by which our sins are forgiven, our shame covered and our guilt removed.
• God has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Peter 1:3). "We have a living hope because we have a living Savior." If you are suffering, come back to these truths.

5. The First Exhortation: Be Holy

• The God who calls is holy, and those he calls have been redeemed for holiness by the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without defect and without spot.
• The pastor sees in 1 Peter 2:11-12 the hinge of the letter: abstaining from the desires that wage war against the soul, and living a good life among the pagans, so that they notice the good works and glorify God.
• This holiness does not mean withdrawing into little monasteries or hiding in our meetings. "We are called to be a holy people who live in Babylon." As God does good to us, we do good to others.
• Concretely: submitting to authorities for the Lord's sake, from heads of state to police officers; submitting at work even when the boss is difficult; for wives, submitting to their husbands; for husbands, treating their wives with great respect.
• It is a holiness that looks like Jesus: when we are cursed, we bless. We do not pay back insult with insult.

6. The Second Exhortation: Be a Witness

• "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9).
• "Our lives are an advertising campaign for the grace of God." That is why wives whose husbands do not believe can win them "without a word" by their conduct (1 Peter 3:1), and why everyone must be ready to give an answer for the hope that is in them, with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15).
• The pastor tells a story from the book by Mez McConnell, The Least, the Last and the Lost. Mez, a former member of the Charlotte Chapel team, who came to faith from a background with no Christian reference points at all, is invited to the surprise birthday party of his father, who is not a Christian. He is asked to pay for the stripper. He refuses, but offers to pay for the DJ.
• With his wife, he decides to go. When the show starts, they leave the room amid jeers and mockery, then come back and sit in a quiet corner. As the evening goes on, one after another, those who had mocked his faith come and sit at their table, ask him about his faith and tell him about their broken lives and inner emptiness. In the end, a crowd gathers around the table while he explains the gospel. "Instead of leaving early, we were the last to leave."
• For Paul Rees, it is a beautiful picture: a couple who know they belong to God's chosen people, who make the hard choice to be holy in that setting without withdrawing from it. They were probably the first Christians that this family and these friends had ever met. Be holy, do good, and you will be a witness to the grace of God.

7. The Third Exhortation: Be Loving

• Peter ends with a command: "Greet one another with a kiss of love" (1 Peter 5:14). It is not a romantic kiss, but the relational warmth of a family, brothers and sisters meeting again after some time apart.
• If you live in a society hostile to your faith, it is essential that the church be a loving community. This is how we hold on: a place that reminds us how wonderful God's grace is and that encourages us when everything else is harsh.
• Peter calls them to love one another fervently, from the heart (1 Peter 1:22), and, above all, to have an earnest love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins, and to be hospitable to one another without grumbling (1 Peter 4:8-9).
• The kiss is not the custom in Edinburgh, so the pastor suggests adapting it: a hug, a warm handshake, "an affectionate fist bump", whatever everyone is comfortable with, while staying respectful.
• "We are not standing on ground that depends on what we do for God. Everything rests on what God has done for us in Jesus." He concludes with the words of Jesus: "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you" (John 14:27).

Key Takeaways

• 1 Peter is a letter of encouragement for Christians who suffer: the grace received in Jesus is the true grace of God, and we must stand firm in it.
• If you feel different in your own culture, it is because God has chosen you and set you apart: you are an exile, carried by the Creator God.
• Suffering with Christ lasts only a little while; it leads to eternal glory, thanks to a living hope founded on a living Savior.
• Christian holiness does not flee the world: it does good around it and becomes a witness that raises questions.
• A loving church is indispensable for holding on in a society hostile to the faith.

Personal Application

1. In what situation of your life are you wondering right now whether you made the right choice in following Jesus?
2. In what way does your new identity in Christ make you different from those around you, and how are you living out that difference?
3. Does your holiness push you to withdraw from the world, or to do good in it like Jesus?
4. Who around you might one day ask you to give a reason for the hope that is in you, and are you ready to answer with gentleness and respect?
5. How can you, this Sunday, warmly welcome a brother or sister who is going through a difficult time?

Verses Cited

• 1 Peter 5:12-14
• Acts 15
• 1 Peter 4:12-13
• 1 Peter 1:1-3
• Isaiah 46:1-10
• 1 Peter 1:14-17
• 1 Peter 4:3-4
• 1 Peter 2:21-24
• 1 Peter 3:18
• 1 Peter 2:9-12
• 1 Peter 3:1
• 1 Peter 3:15
• 1 Peter 1:22
• 1 Peter 4:8-9
• John 14:27

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the central message of the first letter of Peter?

Peter sums it up himself in 1 Peter 5:12: he wrote to exhort and to testify that the grace of God in which his readers stand is the true one. For Paul Rees, it is a letter of encouragement for Christians who suffer because of their faith: they are on the right path and must stand firm in this grace.

Why do Christians suffer according to 1 Peter?

Paul Rees points out two related reasons. God has chosen them to be his special people: they live as strangers and exiles, and their difference disturbs. And God calls them to share in the glory of Christ, after suffering a little while with him, just as he himself suffered for them.

What does "Greet one another with a kiss of love" mean today?

It is not a romantic kiss, but the warmth of a family meeting again. Paul Rees suggests carrying the gesture over into our culture: a hug, a warm handshake, a friendly greeting, with respect. The essential thing is that the church be a loving community for those who live in a world hostile to their faith.