The end of all things is at hand, therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. 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. This is God's word.
Peter said the end of all things is at hand. What's Peter doing? He's talking about eschatology, the study of end times. And he's writing to Christians. Now these are men and women, these are husbands and wives, these are sons, daughters, grandchildren. These are real human beings that are walking through suffering and persecution. They are not inanimate objects, they are not simply statistics. They are real people suffering through the persecution of the Roman Empire. And they were castigated for their faith, looked down upon, belittled, thought that they were nothing in comparison to the things of the world.
They were simply ordinary, everyday Christians. So Peter wants to encourage these Christians and he wants to talk about eschatology.
Now eschatology has always been a form of encouragement to Christians since the first century. Now, most of us think of eschatology, we think of divisions in the church. That's not what Peter's doing here. Peter's not laying out a millennial view so that we can all totally divide and go our different directions. Well I'm a preterist, well I'm a dispensational premillennial guy, I'm just a classic premillennial guy, I'm an amillennial, I'm a postmillennial, let's all just fight and go different ways. That's not what Peter's doing. Peter is giving eschatology so that people will be unified, people will be encouraged. And Christian eschatology is not go outside, look up in the sky, wait, and then hopefully Jesus will come back ASAP. That's not Christian eschatology. Christian eschatology is also not going to Costco, storing up on bottled water and food, getting guns and ammo and hanging and waiting for the zombie apocalypse. Because the zombie apocalypse is not coming either. It's not Christian eschatology. So what is Christian eschatology? Well Peter has given it to us in the first chapter of this letter. And Christian eschatology is, well, we have a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. That is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. It's kept in heaven for you who's being guarded by God's power.
You see, this is great assurance for the Christian. You have a blessed assurance, Jesus is mine, or we are Jesus's. This is Christian eschatology. It's a hope, it's a way to unify around one another. And the Dutch neo-Calvinist Herman Bobnick said something like this, he said Christian eschatology is hope for this world and the next. So how does Peter implement Christian eschatology in order to encourage these Christians? Well, he's going to address two things.
Number one, teleology. Now you may not be familiar with that term, teleology. Let me spell it for you, T-E-L-E-O-L-O-G-Y, teleology.
Now I do like to bring something new and fresh to you at times. I want to expand your vocabulary. I don't want you to have dangling participles. I got a laugh over here, that was good. I must have a literary guy here.
We're going to talk about teleology. Teleology is there's an end goal, and it falls under the umbrella of eschatology. And it's not just for theology, but it's also philosophy, and even philosophy across all shapes, forms, and backgrounds. So this is not something that's just narrow to Christians. So number one, we're going to look at teleology. And then number two, we're going to look at doxology. These both are embedded straight from the text. You'll see it here in just a minute. So number one, teleology, or we could say the end. Take a look at verses 7 through 11b. He says, the end of all things is at hand. Now just stop there. The end of all things is at hand. The word end there, circle it, it's the word telos in the Greek.
Now telos is a very important word, because we actually derive our word telescope from the word telos. What do we do with a telescope? Well, you look through it to see an end goal, a purpose, where you're trying to get to, the direction in which you're heading. Well, the word telos here points us to the ultimate goal. And as I said just a minute ago, under the umbrella of eschatology, we see teleology, which is what is the purpose?
See, isn't it always great to know the purpose of something? And before we go any further, I want you to think about this. Does God know all things? Yes. He's omniscient.
Is God eternal? Yes. He has no start date, no end date. So when God explains his theology, which is the study of him, he also lumps in protology with eschatology at the exact same time. It's not disconnected, because the beginning and the end are all together. See, God sees everything in the present. He's not like us. We're limited. We see the past. We can see the present. We don't see the future. We can try to construct some things for the future, but it usually doesn't go according to how we have it planned. But God, God says, I know all things at one time. I am the alpha, the omega, the beginning, and the end. He knows everything. That's why we're called upon to trust and obey, for there's no other way. I'm going to litter you with hymns today. I'm just going to forewarn you. And they're not even in my notes. I can already feel it coming.
Nonetheless, he says, the end of all things is at hand. Now, when you've heard this in the past, it's usually been in some kind of a sermon where, get ready, there's going to be Apache helicopters and tanks, and the Russians are going to invade, and you've seen the movie Red Dawn, and it's like, oh my goodness, the end of all things is at hand. This is encouraging for first century Christians. Why? Because they're suffering. They're being persecuted. They're hoping there's an end to this.
However, there's an end goal. There's an end purpose. Tell us. Goal. There's a goal for the suffering. There's a goal for the persecution. And the end of all things is at hand. God has a goal for the purpose of this fallen, sinful world.
In chapter 4, verse 5, he says, but they will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. There will be a judge, and there will be a judgment day. And we as Christians do not have to fear. We actually warmly embrace the day when Jesus will return, when the trumpet will sound, Christ will descend, Christ will return, and Christ will judge. Why do we not fear? Because Jesus was judged so that we will not be judged insofar as being condemned to eternal lake of burning fire.
This is the good news of the gospel. So when you hear the end is near, when you hear there's a judgment day coming, we say what the Westminster Confession just said, come quickly Lord Jesus. We embrace this. We want to know this. You see, the reformers, many of them, many of the people want to discount the reformers because they didn't talk a whole lot about eschatology. Well, if you actually read through their writings, you will find plenty of eschatology. We just don't have careful readers in our modern day. Yes, John Calvin did not write a commentary on Revelation. Oh, can you believe that? But he spoke of eschatology throughout his writings. And where did Calvin get his understanding of eschatology? He got it from Augustine. And where did Augustine get his understanding of ecclesiology, not ecclesiology, but eschatology? He got it from Paul. Where did Paul get his eschatology? He got it from Jesus. Follow the line. It's directly back to Christ and it's always meant to encourage Christians, especially in times of suffering. So what's the goal of suffering? What's the goal of being persecuted? Well, it's to be self-controlled. Go back to the text. Look at verse 7. He says, therefore, be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Now you see the word self-control there and you immediately begin to think of what? The ninth fruit of the Spirit. Well, it's not the exact Greek word.
Paul uses a different Greek word than the Greek word that Peter uses here for self-control. Paul's use is one of those to restrain or to hold back your emotions, to not give yourself over to your emotions. That's the ninth fruit of the Spirit, to be self-controlled. That's not what Peter's talking about. What's Peter talking about here is he uses the word self-control. He says you need to think, not just feel. You're being persecuted. They do not like you. Definitely emotions are full bore here, but I want you to think. I want you to think more deeply about what's going on because there is a telos, there's a goal for this. If God is in control, and do you believe that God is in control, then God wastes no time. God does not waste even our suffering. There's a purpose for it.
Well, Peter said in chapter one, verse 13, he says therefore preparing your minds for action and being sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. The old translations say gird up your loins. In other words, stop. Think. Think deeply about the end result, the end goal for your suffering.
Peter who was always impetuous, isn't it so ironic that he's the one saying we need to think? He was always given over to feeling, over to the emotions, and as God the Holy Spirit carries him along and he matured over time, he realized that was me in the past. This is who I used to be. This is how I used to act, and it wasn't very helpful for me or the people around me. I don't know if you've ever spent time around someone who's a little emotionally unstable. They're up, and they're down, and they're up, and they're down, and they're up, and at some point you become exhausted, and you're not the one who's going through it mentally, but you're riding the roller coaster with them, and you're thinking can you just level out? Is there any balance? Is there any equipoise? Is there any equilibrium in your life at all? Do you always have to be up and down and up and down? And you see, it's the wonderful thing about Peter is he's saying find that equilibrium, and that is to think deeply about God's telos, his goal for this.
There's something greater, there's something higher, because God has decreed these things. God has allowed us to walk through this. Now what's the end goal? Don't just get stuck in the mud. Now how many of us are walking through some phase of suffering? How many of us have walked through times in our life where we see people hurting deeply, and we want to sympathize with them, we want to help them, but we should also stop and think Lord, what is your end goal for all this? Here he says it's to be self-controlled, sober-minded, but it's all in the context of what? Look at the very end of that passage for prayer. For the sake of your prayers. Now is it easy or hard to pray? It's hard.
Praying can be extremely difficult. You have to focus on what you're saying.
We have a little saying around my house, when we pray, we don't offer up pagan incantations. It's not just repeating yourself over and over again. That's why, as you notice, we don't sing songs here that just repeat themselves over and over and over again, and it's one line.
I actually threw you guys off today for a reason, putting two songs back to back. Sorry, Ann Tippins, and thank you for playing today, though. Thank you, thank you. But I threw everybody off.
Sometimes I'll use the Apostles' Creed, and it won't be the old school, it'll be the new one. And you're looking for the quick and the dead, and there's the living and the dead, and you're I want you to think. I want you to be fully engaged in worship. This is not a time to blend in pagan activity. And here he says, in the context of prayer, we need to think, especially during times of persecution. Now, this past week, I was on an airplane, which I haven't done since 2011, and I hate flying. I'll admit it.
And we were hitting turbulence, and I was trying to pray. It didn't work out too well for me. I'm bumping around everywhere, I'm trying to pray, and I just couldn't focus. That's what he's saying. He said, you're meeting times of turbulence in your life. Stay sober-minded so you can focus on the sake of your prayers. And Peter says that prayer matters, especially in 1 Peter 3, 7. We already studied this, but he said that husbands are to live their wives in an understanding way. Why? So that their prayers may not be hindered.
Prayer matters.
By the way, if you're a young couple in here, or an old couple in here, the most intimate thing you can do together is to pray.
It binds your hearts together. It brings the two of you together where you openly say, I'm not in control, but he is. And he is the one who can help us through any and all circumstances. And men, you should be leading your wives in prayer because it shows them, yes, I'm going to attempt to lead you, but I need you to know I'm not the ultimate one you need to follow. You need to follow the Lord. He's fully in control. So Peter says, you need to stay sober-minded so that you can pray. And prayer requires a lot of mind power. This is why Paul says in Ephesians, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not lead us in some kind of euphoric state where our minds are detached. Prayers are rational. Prayers are fervent. Prayers demand that we are alert and offering them up always in accord with God's will, but through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's Westminster Confession of Faith as well.
Jesus actually said this to his disciples on that night in the garden. He said, stay with me and pray. Don't fall asleep. And he went away, and he came back, and they had fallen asleep. Stay awake. Don't fall asleep. Stay with me and pray. This can be extremely difficult in times of suffering, because your mind's going a hundred different directions.
My advice to you is to begin to pray the attributes of God. What do you know about God?
This is like being married to your wife or your husband. What do you know about them? You know that she has beautiful, long, brown hair with green eyes, soft skin, doesn't have a scratchy face like mine. You begin to think out loud about the things that are her attributes. She's so wonderful. She's so great. Why don't we do the same thing with God so that we can focus on who he is? We need to know who he is and then what he's done. This is a simple way to pray, but it takes our eyes off of the circumstances and situations and our difficulties, and we begin to see how big he is, how great he is, how magnificent he is, his bright and radiance. It's all around us, and he cares for us, and he says, you have not because you ask not.
Come to me in prayer, seek my face, but we can't do that unless we stay sober-minded and self-controlled. Well, what's the goal of the persecution and the suffering? According to Peter, speaking to these first century Christians, well, it's also to serve one another. Go back, look at the text. He says, above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. The goal is to not turn inward during times of suffering, but to turn outward and to love one another, but to love one another is not a nebulous or ethereal term. To love one another means, well, from this passage, forgiveness.
He says love covers a multitude of sins. If you need to forgive someone, you need to do it today. That's a way in which you can love another person. And if you say you have already forgiven them, well, then the Bible says stop bringing up the sin. Stop bringing it up, because all you're doing is holding it over their head so that you can be Lord, God, and Master over them, so that they owe you something.
If you say you have forgiven, don't bring it up ever again. Let it go to the grave and die. Kneel it to the cross so that the red-shed blood of Christ can cover it, and you can get out of the position of Jesus. You can get off the throne, and you can truly love that person. It's not real love if you keep holding that sin over their head. It's not.
I love them, I've forgiven them, but you know that dirty dog.
Forgive.
Don't bring it up anymore, because that's not loving. That's actually hatred, and that is a satanic move from the pit of hell to hold someone's sin over them that you supposedly have forgiven them. Causes damage to relationships, but most importantly, it causes damage to your own heart. You're the one who's going to suffer, ultimately, if you don't forgive.
But how do we love one another? Well, not just forgiveness, but go back, look at the text, he says, show hospitality to one another without rumbling. Now, historically speaking, they didn't have hotels and motels in their day, and so when travelers would travel, they would rely upon the hospitality, the graciousness, the kindness of other people to be welcomed into their homes.
Well, he says, show hospitality. This is a qualification to be an elder in the church, by the way. First Timothy chapter three, verse two, but why should we show hospitality?
Hebrews chapter 13, verse two says, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware. Abraham and Sarah did this in Genesis 18, didn't they? When they showed hospitality to the three men at the door. We should show hospitality because that shows that we really do love others, that we want to serve others. And oftentimes, we do fall all over ourselves to serve and just show hospitality to strangers, but then we neglect to love our own family members the same way.
Ah, they're family, who cares?
No, they're another human being made in the image and likeness of God, which is the highest and greatest accomplishment. It's a great compliment from God to say, I made everything, I made the aardvark, I made the donkeys, I made this thing and that thing, but they're not made in my image. Do we have a high regard for the image of God? And if you have a high regard for the image of God, you don't have to be suspicious about everyone.
You don't have to put up defense mechanisms where it's like, well, I don't know if they're really reformed or not. I don't know if they're really Presbyterian, I don't know if they're really Christian. Even non-Christians are made in the image and likeness of God, and guess what? From this text, yes, he's speaking to Christians, but Christians also offer this to other non-believers in that day. This is one of the great ways in which many people came to faith. Now, I love the fact that we have many Christians coming to worship on the Lord's Day, but wouldn't it be great if we were reaching out into this community more individually, collectively, so that people would come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? And one of the great ways is how we behave. The end goal of some of the suffering during this time was to say, yeah, I'm going through a tough time, but it's not all about me. I'm going to turn outward and to serve others. I'm going to welcome them in, even if they don't look like me, smell like me, act like me, use the same vernacular as me.
See, this is where the gospel of Jesus Christ makes us uncomfortable. We like the fact that, yes, Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Thank you for dying on that cross so my sins are forgiven, but there's ongoing implications for this gospel message. That is, we are to do things that don't look exactly the way the world does them. And that is to receive, to show hospitality to strangers, even people that do not look like us, do not share the same beliefs as us. This is the great thing about the Christian faith, because in the Christian faith you can have both — and I know, brace yourself, because this is going to offend someone — in the Christian faith you can have Republicans and Democrats.
Now, I know some of you would say, it's Jesus plus being a Republican. That's how you're saved.
And some would say, it's Jesus plus being a Democrat. That's how you're saved. It's Jesus plus nothing.
That's how you're saved. That's how you become a Christian. And when we begin to see the image of God in all people, we will have a high regard for all people, and we will look for every opportunity, as they did in the first century, to show hospitality, and he says — oh, and by the way, each of you have a gift — go back to the text, take a look at verse 10 — as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another. As good stewards of God's very grace, whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies. Therefore, the end of all things is at hand.
What's the teleology or the goal of suffering? To be self-controlled, sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. But what is the ultimate, not the penultimate, but the ultimate goal for suffering?
Well, go back to the text, take a look at verse 11c. He says, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to him belong glory and dominion forever and ever, amen.
Which word did he use twice? Glorified and glory. It's the word doxa in the Greek, which means doxology, or in other words, to praise.
Suffering is weighty, suffering is heavy, but suffering can be crushed, and suffering is light underneath the weightiness of God,
underneath his glory. His radiance and his brightness can be seen even through times of suffering.
One author said it this way, we can ignore pleasure, you can ignore pleasure, but pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but he shouts in our pain. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
I'm sure you all went out and you watched the Barbie movie.
That was a joke.
There's a section in the Barbie movie where everybody's having a great time.Everything's wonderful. They're dancing. Oh, you look great. Oh, I feel great. This is wonderful. And the music's playing. And then Barbie has the audacity to say, you guys ever think about dying?
Music stops. What? You just killed the mood. Buzzkill. Don't talk about death. We're just having a good time. We're so focused on the present, we could never see beyond our nose.
Peter says, I know you Christians are suffering. Death is real. It's imminent. It's right there.
We have a problem in here in the U.S., don't we? Because oftentimes we are caught up in the moment. We cannot see past our noses. We can't see the telos, the end goal. We can't see that we will all return to dust.
Has God been speaking to you lately? Have you been listening to him? Have you been going to him in prayer and praise, even through emotional and physical suffering? It's countercultural, isn't it? Because when we suffer, we tend to think, poor me. Why is this happening to me?
The Bible says to give thanks in all circumstances. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Even in times of suffering, to praise him, to thank him, to go to him in prayer and praise When things seem like they're falling apart, you give thanks, for he is good, because his steadfast love endures forever. There is an end goal, and that end goal is doxology, to praise him, to glorify him. But there's only one way that you can glorify him.
There's only one way to glorify him. How? What is that only one way? What is it? Well, fortunately, it's in the text. So let's go back to the text. He says, through Jesus Christ, it's the only way to give him glory and honor and praise. It's through the Lord Jesus Christ. See, Jesus suffered, not so that we won't suffer.
See, that's a heresy. It's a false gospel. The false gospel is, if you turn to Jesus, you won't suffer. Life will be great, be fine, everything will be okay. You'll be healed. In the name of Jesus, you're healed. And if there really was healing, why aren't those guys at the hospital, walking through the ER? Instead, they've got massive ministries, where they're flying in private jets all over the world. Go to the hospital, heal somebody if you've got this power. The Christian faith says Jesus suffered on that cross, not so that you won't suffer. Oh no, no, you're probably going to suffer with some kind of illness, some kind of pain. But it's so that you won't suffer for eternity.
See, for the Christian, when he says the end of all things is at hand, we begin to applaud, we begin to cheer, we begin to say, to God be the glory, great things he has done. Because the end of our lives is the beginning of our real life. Our real life, where we will see him face to face, and maybe this has happened to someone you love.
Yes, we grieve, yes we mourn, but we do not grieve and we do not mourn as those who have no hope. We have a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and that leads us to what? And Peter gets excited about it, he goes, to him belong glory and dominion forever and ever.
See, Jesus doesn't just sympathize with us, he does sympathize with us in every way. But he doesn't just sympathize with us, he suffered so that we could be saved. So that we won't suffer for eternity underneath the wrath of God.
This is the good news. The good news from a God who says, I do love you, I do care for you, you are walking through suffering, but I came down and suffered immensely on your behalf. I heard a man preach a sermon the other day, and he went on about the agony of Christ and about the nails being shoved through the most tender parts of the body. And yes, you think about the physical beating that Jesus endured on our behalf, by his stripes we are healed.
But it wasn't just the physical, it was the emotional, the spiritual, because Jesus took on the wrath of God so that we can have a peace that passes all understanding. Now some of you may have never experienced this, and some of you have experienced this. Some of you have walked through suffering already. Some of you have not walked through suffering. If you've not walked through suffering, you're going to need this when the day comes.
If you've already walked through suffering, you've been quietly, like a Presbyterian, amening me the whole time. Because it's experiential for you, it's real. And you know that Jesus is enough, and we usually don't see that he's enough until everything else has been taken away. The end of all things is at hand. Let us celebrate and rejoice and give thanks to God. Let's pray.