Bethlehem Baptist Mobile App Download the Bethlehem Baptist Church Mobile App Available for iOS and Android

Sermons

October 18, 2020

Stand Firm

Steven Lee (North Campus) | 1 Peter 5:10-14

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

By Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it. She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son. Greet one another with the kiss of love.

Peace to all of you who are in Christ.1 Peter 5:10–14

Introduction

As we end our series in 1 Peter, what is the note that the apostle Peter wants to strike in his closing words? When we write letters or emails, our final words function to tell the recipient, “This is what I want you to know.” So how does Peter end this letter? What is the final note that he rings? Peter rings a note of grace. His entire letter has been a letter of hope and salvation. Yes, the letter is about suffering and perseverance, but the final note he strikes is one of grace.

Our main point is, very simply, “stand firm in the true grace of God.” Peter wants them to endure and persevere in their faith, reminding them of key truths that will help them remain faithful until they enter into glory. 

As we conclude this letter we see three things in these final verses:

  1. Promise: God Will Bring Us Home (1 Peter 5:10–11)
  2. Exhortation: Stand Firm in the True Grace of God (1 Peter 5:12)
  3. Closing Word: Greet One Another in Love (1 Peter 5:13–14)

1) Promise: God Will Bring Us Home (1 Peter 5:10–11)

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. 

Verses 10–11 conclude the body of Peter’s letter. What does Peter want us to know? Answer: God’s glorious grace in Christ is what will enable believers to persevere until the very end. He gives us a promise of what God is going to do. See that? He just exhorted believers to resist the devil, but he wants them to know that God is going to do it.

Why is this significant? In some circles of Christianity, you could preach the whole letter of 1 Peter with the wrong tone or accent. We could teach it as if everything is precarious, uncertain, and hanging in the balance. And what’s really needed is for you to muster up enough willpower and strength to endure. But Peter strikes the balance to emphasize “you must stand firm” by mainly looking to and trusting in what God has accomplished in Christ. Receive the grace of God—that’s how you endure. It’s not mainly “go do,” but “believe, trust, receive, and cleave to Christ.”

This is going to happen “after you have suffered a little while.” We saw the same phrase in 1 Peter 1:6 where believers are to be grieved by various trials for a “little while.” Peter is answering perhaps an unstated or implicit question coming from his readers: How long will we have to endure suffering? How long, O Lord? When will the fiery trials end? We saw last week as well that God will exalt his children “at the proper time” (1 Peter 5:6).

Peter gives an answer, but perhaps not the one his readers want. They want a specific timeline. When will God judge Nero and when will this suffering and persecution end? Peter doesn’t say. He does not give them a date, but he tells them the final result. Suffering will be for a “little while,” but it will pale in comparison to the eternal glory that you have in Jesus Christ. 

Our lives are like a 100-foot rope. All 60, 70, 80, or 90 years of our life represented by a six-inch section. And the other 99.5 feet of rope signifies eternity. It’s only a “little while” of suffering, but it will result in eternal glory in Christ. Just like 2 Corinthians 4:17 that says, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”

Whether your trials and suffering is 5 minutes, 5 years, or 5 decades, it’s still a little while that will ultimately result in eternal glory. Throughout this letter we have been challenged to adopt an eternal perspective on life. Lift your heads above the clouds to see that the sun still shines. Go from a ground-level view of life to a 50,000-foot perspective on life, and you’ll recognize that there is no comparison.

So what does Peter specifically promise? We read two things about the Promise Maker—namely, he is “the God of all grace,” and “[he] has called you to his eternal glory in Christ.” And then comes the promise itself, that this Promise Maker “will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” 

What does it mean that God is the “God of all grace”? We saw earlier in verse 5 that “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble,” and Peter is suggesting that God lavishes his grace upon his children. He gives us everything that we need to endure. Spurgeon says that we get “quickening grace, convincing grace, pardoning grace, believing grace … [and] sustaining grace. … If He is the God, not of one grace, or of two graces, but of all graces; [and] if in Him there is stored up an infinite, boundless, limitless supply, how can we ask too much…?”[1] The point is that God is the God of all grace because he gives all the grace that is needed to his children. 

The second thing we see about this Promise Maker is that he has “called you to his eternal glory in Christ.” Our election is once again front and center: we are elect exiles, called by God to his eternal glory in Christ. Our glorification will surely come to pass. We will take hold of salvation. We will be exalted at that proper time. We will get our inheritance. 

Someone I know just sold his house, but there were two days between when they moved out and when the contract was finalized. So he has this empty house in a checkered part of town where some people might be inclined to steal all of the copper piping. So what did he do? He slept in his empty house until the sale closed and it was someone else’s problem. Every contract is a precarious contract until it is finalized. You can’t exhale until everything is signed, money is exchanged, and it’s finished. Prior to that, it can still fall through. But when it comes to eternal glory, our future salvation, and our heavenly inheritance, it’s as good as done. The buyer in this case is God, and he isn’t going to back out. In fact, he will do whatever it takes to make sure that you reach eternal glory. He lavishes all grace upon you, and he’s called you to eternal glory. It’s not questionable and uncertain. It’s a promise you can take to the bank.

God promises that he “will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” Each of these four verbs overlaps in meaning, and all point to the main idea that God will bring to completion what he has begun. He will surely bring us all the way home. God is going to restore us and confirm us after we’ve suffered a little while, and then strengthen and establish us to endure until the very end. The apostle Paul writes in Philippians 1:6, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” God is going to make sure that all his children get all the way home!

Who’s a perfect example of this? Our author, the apostle Peter. He suffered a little while, even denied Christ, but then Jesus restored him (John 21), confirmed his faith and love, and then strengthened him and established him to be a pillar of the early church. God will complete what he has begun. He will bring us all the way home.

If you walk away from this series thinking, “Suffering is coming, so I need to work hard and muster up more faith to endure,” I think you will have missed it. Warnings and exhortations are used by Peter to ensure that God’s people will persevere and enter into eternal glory. Warnings don’t undermine God’s effectual calling and our new identity, but provoke true believers to remain faithful until the end. Peter is not trying to tell us to do more, try harder, and to not screw up. This is a book that calls us to look at what God is doing in and through us. He is working through our present sufferings so that we will endure. 

Peter ends with a word of doxology in verse 11: “To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.” Why? In response to God’s promise, we worship. God promises to restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish us, so we can sing his praises, and rejoice in what he is doing. The word dominion calls to mind God’s sovereignty and power. We are humble ourselves under the “mighty hand of God,” yet this powerful hand will restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish us. This is a reminder that it will surely come to pass, because God is sovereign. There will be a day when suffering, trials, and hardships will be no more. 

Why does Peter end on this note? To give us confidence and comfort. If you’re suffering, be comforted that God is powerful and will cause his sovereign will to come to pass. If you are doubting, fearful, and anxious about persevering, take heart and have confidence that God will bring you all the way home.

2) Exhortation: Stand Firm in the True Grace of God (1 Peter 5:12)

By Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it.

First, Peter commends Silvanus—also known as Silas—who likely carried and delivered the letter. He was also a traveling companion of Paul. He commends Silas as a “faithful brother” so that the church would be hospitable and provide for his traveling needs.

Then Peter explains what this entire letter has been about: an exhortation and declaration of “the true grace of God. Stand firm in it.” We aren’t going to spend a lot of time on this particular exhortation lest we rehearse the entire book once again. When Peter says, “This is the true grace of God,” he is referring to everything he has written up to this point and summing it up as God’s revealed grace. Peter has rehearsed for us God’s gracious work in Christ to save, sustain, purify, and ultimately glorify his children. And what are we to do? We are to “stand firm in it.” We don’t run from it, we don’t shift away from it, we don’t hide it, but we stand firm in it. 

For those who are not yet trusting in Jesus this morning, there is nothing to stand on. And in a world of uncertainty, with shifting sands and precarious footholds, I would call you to surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ and to build your life upon the finished work of Christ. In a world where no one will stand for anything, Christians stand firm in the gospel of Christ. But we do not stand alone. Let’s turn to Peter’s closing words.

3) Closing: Greet One Another in Love (1 Peter 5:13–14)

She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son. Greet one another with the kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.

Peter sends greetings from “she who is at Babylon.” Who is Peter talking about? It could be referring to an unnamed woman, but it’s rather unlikely that the Christians in Asia Minor would know the identity of this unnamed woman. Some think Peter is talking about his wife, but there is no other supporting evidence, and Peter would have no reason to mention that she was at Babylon. Third, some think it refers to the historical city of Babylon in the Old Testament, which was a city in ruins. There is no evidence that Peter ever traveled there. The fourth and most likely option is that he is referring to the church in Rome.

First, the church is often referred to as a woman, like the bride of Christ, or in 2 John, where he writes to the church and opens with: “The elder to the elect lady and her children” (2 John 1). It would be a little like if I said our daughter Emmaus is doing well. I would not be talking about my daughter—I don’t have one named Emmaus—nor would I be talking about a literal girl with an odd name, but rather our church plant in White Bear Lake.

Second, there is good evidence that Peter was writing from Rome, and Babylon would be a reference to Rome, just like in Revelation 16:19, 17:5, and 18:2. Why does Peter say “Babylon” instead of “Rome”? He is using the imagery of the church as the new people of God, the new Israel. So while Babylon in the Old Testament was a great and wicked city, opposed to God and his people and full of power, wealth, violence, and sensuality, Rome is now the center of power and wickedness, opposing God’s people. So Peter is saying, “You know that “brotherhood throughout the world” that is suffering? Well, the church in Rome sends you its greetings. You are not alone.” 

Then he sends greetings from Mark, who is also known as John Mark, the writer of the Gospel of Mark. He is not literally Peter’s biological son, but rather his spiritual son, and this reference indicates Peter’s fatherly love for Mark.

Finally, Peter calls for greeting one another with the kiss of love. This would have meant touching cheeks, not lips, as an expression of love within the family of God. Christians are to allow their faith in God overflow into expressions of love within the body of Christ. We saw this throughout the letter: be humble towards one another, love one another earnestly, show hospitality without grumbling, and use your gifts to serve one another. What this suggests is that we are not a business, we are not a country club where you pay your dues and get your benefits, we are not a political party, and we are not consumers who join the church mainly to get something for ourselves. We are a family—and a family that has been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ.

Peter ends with peace, just as he began: “May grace and peace be multiplied to you.” In essence, the letter is bookended by peace. This is not a throw-away phrase. If you’re experiencing maligning, slander, fiery trials, and suffering, what are you likely not experiencing much of? Peace! And here Peter prays and wishes for their peace in Christ. Peace would allow them to endure and persevere until the end—and then take hold of the crown of life.

Application & Conclusion

With an election on the horizon, we remember that we are not mainly Americans—Democrats or Republicans—and we are not mainly fighting for the advance and establishment of this earthly kingdom. Rather, we serve the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And he is the one who is establishing us as a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people for his own possession (1 Peter 2:9). Why? So that we may proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. We are elect exiles, but we’re not just waiting to get out of here. We exist to preach the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We do it with words and back it up with our lives, even in suffering. We know that America, like Rome and like Babylon before it, will ultimately fall. What will remain forever is the word of God, the kingdom of God, and the people of God.

So what do we do? We stand firm. Peter writes his letter so that we would receive it, believe it, and live according to it. These are the inspired words of the apostle Peter, written so that we would endure to the end. And it’s worth reflecting this final question: “Is Peter to be trusted? Can we trust what he’s written?” I would argue yes. Here are five reasons.

Reason 1: Firsthand Knowledge
Peter walked with Jesus firsthand. He was as close as one could be to Jesus. He saw him in the morning, walked with him all day, and saw him retire in the evening. He never saw any inconsistency in Jesus. Peter was asked by Jesus, “Who do you say that I am?” And what did Peter reply? “[You are] the Christ of God” (Luke 9:20). And Peter says now to us that these things are worth standing firm in and never departing from.

Reason 2: Peter Saw Jesus’ Glory
Peter was there on the Mount of Transfiguration and saw Jesus in his glory. Peter was there at the crucifixion in all its agony. And then Peter was there to stick his fingers into the hands and side of the resurrected Lord Jesus. And Peter was there when Christ ascended to heaven. If there was any funny business, Peter, a grizzled fisherman, would have called it out. But Peter bows down in worship, because Jesus is Lord.

Reason 3: Peter Knows Suffering
Peter doesn’t write about enduring suffering as one who hasn’t experienced it. He’s tasted of the pain, the blood, the bruises, and the open shame. Peter rejoiced in being beaten and being counted worthy to suffer with Christ. He’s either crazy and lost his mind, or he knows something better, namely, that enduring suffering is a gracious thing in the sight of God (1 Peter 2:20).

Reason 4: Peter Knows God’s Protection
Peter denied Christ on the night he was betrayed and wept bitterly, and Satan sought to sift him like wheat. But Jesus told Peter that he would pray that his faith would not fail (Luke 22:31–32). Peter knows what it’s like to be kept by God’s sovereign power. Peter knows what it feels like to humble oneself under God’s mighty hand and to come out the other side protected and preserved by God’s power. 

Reason 5: Peter Knows God’s Grace
Peter opens and closes his letter with grace. Why? Because he knows the stunning grace of God. When Peter writes about grace, it’s not some cheap, easy, or shallow grace. This is a man who denied Jesus three times, swearing that he did not even know him. Yet when Peter sought forgiveness and restoration, he received both from the gracious hand of Jesus. When Peter says that “God will surely restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you,” he speaks from firsthand knowledge, having put God to the test and found him faithful, steadfast, true, and rock solid. Peter doesn’t teach wishfully, but knowledgeably. So let’s receive his word as true and stand firm in the true grace of God.
_______
[1] Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon Commentary: 1 Peter, ed. Elliot Ritzema and Jessi Strong, Spurgeon Commentary Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014), s.v. “1 Peter 5:10.”

Sermon Discussion Questions 

Main Point: Believers are to stand firm in the true grace of God. Peter’s aim is for believers to endure and persevere in their faith, not departing from the grace of God.

Outline

  1. Promise: God Will Bring Us Home (1 Peter 5:10–11)
  2. Exhortation: Stand Firm in the True Grace of God (1 Peter 5:12b)
  3. Closing Word: Greet One Another in Love (1 Peter 5:12–14)

Intro Question: As you reflect on the Letter of First Peter, what elements, exhortations, commands, or encouragements stand out most to you? What is most encouraging?

Discussion Questions

  • Why might Peter highlight that God is the “God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ”? (1 Peter 5:10)
  • What does it mean for God to “restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish” his children? What verses throughout the letter point to how God will make all things right?
  • Why might Peter mention Silvanus, Mark, and she who is at Babylon?
  • How are we to stand firm in “the true grace of God”?
  • How is the church to relate to one another in Peter’s call to “greet one another with the kiss of love”? How else does Peter command believers to relate to one another in his epistle?

Application Questions

  • As you think about suffering being “for a little while,” how does that help you endure, persevere, and stand firm?
  • How does knowing that God will make all things right (by restoring, confirming, strengthening, and establishing us) encourage us to endure, persevere, and stand firm?
  • As you look back throughout this letter, what fiery trials are you facing (if any), and what encouragements from this letter did you find most encouraging and timely?
  • As we consider how to relate to one another in love within the body of Christ, how are you challenged to love and deal graciously with fellow believers?
  • As you seek to stand firm in the true grace of God, what verses or truths can you commit to memory in order to endure and persevere?

Prayer Focus
Thank God for his revelation of the good news of the gospel through Peter in this epistle. Confess any anxieties, fears, or failure to trust in God as you endure, persevere, and face hardship and trials. Thank God for your identity in Christ that he has revealed throughout this book, which reorients your heart and mind to an eternal perspective. Ask God specifically for grace in any areas of your life where you are struggling (marriage, work, relationships, election stress, unrest, anxiety, world events, etc.) and cast your anxieties on him.