(soft music) - Welcome, and thanks for listening to this message from City Bridge Community Church. Our heart at City Bridge is to call all people to be fully devoted followers of Christ. To learn more about City Bridge and how you can take your next faithful step of Jesus, check us out online at citybridgechurch.org. Now, here's the message. (upbeat music) - Well, good morning, City Bridge, how are we doing? Yeah, if I've not had an opportunity to meet you, my name is David Leaventhall, and super glad you're here. As we start December, December first day is a big day. First day of December, it's our final week in the book of First Peter. It's also my sixth kid's birthday. Happy birthday, TB. 12 years old today, love you, buddy. So big things happen today, big things. As I mentioned, we're gonna close out First Peter. We spent the last seven weeks to be able to the eighth week as we wrap up this amazing letter written by Peter to a group of people that were suffering in the first century and I hope you have seen or been reminded as I have how incredibly relevant and applicable this letter is as we will have touched every paragraph by the end of the day, hopefully. Just like we did Colossians at the beginning of the year, remember that we spent a couple months in Colossians and spent a couple months in Ecclesiastes in the middle of the year and wrapping up the year in First Peter and I hope you are catching a theme that at City Bridge, we believe God's word is really important and there's no better investment of your time, of my time, than spending time slowly going through the pages of Scripture, taking our time to soak in each clause, each phrase, each word, to wrestle with what it means, what it mean for the readers originally, what does it mean for us today and how do we translate that into application? I hope you've been reminded as I have been again and again and again over the last 30 plus years of walking with Jesus that in the pages of our Bibles we get a glimpse of God. We get to see how he thinks about us, about the world, about salvation and it becomes for us a roadmap to help us become all that God calls us to be, to be fully equipped, ready for every good work, as Paul says in Second Timothy, God's word is rich and we will do well as we wrap up First Peter, remember, that whenever we do this Christmas, if we are not in God's word, then we're missing an opportunity. Now as we've been studying through First Peter, we've reminded each other weekly of the big idea of the letter which is that God calls his chosen people to endure suffering with hope as they follow in the footsteps of Jesus, trusting that their trials are gonna serve to sanctify them and prepare them for the glory to come. That's been the big idea of the whole letter and today we're gonna wrap up in chapter five and we're gonna see that the church stands firm in suffering. The church stands firm in suffering through faithful leadership and humility, that's verses one to five. The church stands firm through vigilance and confidence in our full restoration that Christ returned. That's verses six to 11 and then Peter's gonna wrap up with some concluding remarks. So let's dive in. We've got work to do this morning. We've got a lot of Bible to cover. So let's get after it before we do. Let me pray. Father, thank you for your word. Preserved for us today. I pray in this next little slice of time. That you would call them our hearts. You would create clarity. We're gonna be confusion. Lord, I've been doing this long enough to know that by tomorrow morning, most of what I said will be forgotten. But I do pray that there'd be phrases or clauses or points that would resonate with the friends in this room that might shape how they view you, that might move them closer to Christ, that might be a service and an inflection point in their lives, help me to get out of the way, help me to be useful and I wanna be useful. Jesus name Amen. Okay, first Peter five. Let's look at verses one to five. The church stands firm in suffering through faithful leadership and through humility. So I exhort the elders among you, verse one, as a fellow elder and as a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that's to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you'll receive the unfading crown of glory. Verse five, likewise, you who are younger be subject to the elders, clothe yourselves all of you with humility toward one another. For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Peter starts off addressing the elders and I would say I have a unique perspective as an individual who's served in the office of an elder at Watermark, and as one who is currently serving with joy under the care of the elders at this body, and as one who's candidly not on staff here. So I don't need to blow smoke up our elder skirts, 'cause what are they gonna do, fire me? I feel like I can approach this passage without any hang-ups, basically. So he addresses the elders, he's not talking about old people, and an elder is a role. It's a spiritually mature leader in the church, and that individual, that man, is appointed to guide, protect, and shepherd's God people with humility and a servant's heart. And Peter's gonna speak directly to these men in these next verses. Now we have six elders here at City Bridge. So contextually, these verses are addressed to these six men, but I want you to stay with me because you and I need to understand what's expected of our elders, and because the character qualities that God requires of an elder is the character qualities that we should all be aspiring to. So don't dial out, pay attention. How is this section connected to the prior section? Well, Peter having just unpacked what means to suffer as a follower of Christ. That's what Matt taught us last week. Peter now turns his attention to the elders of these churches, and he's gonna exhort them on the importance of leadership, because when suffering and persecution comes, leadership matters. When pain and hardship enters into a group, it has a tendency to fracture, to cause divisions, and so leadership matters. Judgment, Peter says, is gonna begin with the household of God, and so leadership within the church matters. And when it gets hard, great leaders step up to lead, to serve and to protect. Now Peter says three things about himself. He says one, he calls himself a fellow eatery. Elder Peter comes alongside these men by reminding that he also is a fellow elder, just like they are. Peter's not exempt from what he's about to call them to. Peter looks back on what's been done, he says that he's a witness of the sufferings of Christ. Peter was a witness in the sense that he was proclaiming the details of the gospel message. He testified about Christ's rejection, his torture and his death on the cross. And three, Peter looks forward to what's ahead by sharing that he's gonna be a partaker of the glory that's going to be revealed. Peter's looking forward, always looking forward to the future glory that's gonna come at Christ's return. He says, shepherd the flock of God among you. He's gonna provide them command. The command is to shepherd the flock of God that's among you, exercising oversight. This is his high-level command, and he's gonna unpack what does it mean to shepherd the flock of God with three sets of not-but statements. We'll get into that in a sec. Before we unpack it, let me make a couple of observations. One, Peter says, shepherd the flock of God. The first thing for these men, these others to remember is that it's the flock of God. I hear people all the time talk about, oh, I got a Kegs' church, or I got a JP's church, or that guy goes to Piper's church, or that guy goes to Tommy's church. I'm gonna round you, that's wrong. It's Jesus Christ's church. It's not some knucklehead standing up at the pulpit like this each week. The church is God's, and he wants these others to remember, you are but a servant to the king. Two, he says, shepherd those that are among you. He doesn't call these elders to focus their energies on believers in Jerusalem, or Rome, or Thessalonica, but he says, no, you men shepherd the people that are among you in Pontius and Galatian, Cappadocia, and Asian, Bithynia. Leadership matters at a local level. As I mentioned, I served as an elder at Watermark for a number of years, and the reason city-bridge community church exists as city-bridge community church, and not Watermark Plano, is because we, as an elder team, got conviction that all things being equal, a healthy local church is better than a healthy campus, because it allows for local leadership, a local teaching, and so we decided to spin off all of the campuses that Watermark had, into independent local churches. That's why city-bridge exists as a church, and not as a campus, because local churches matter. And while we're here, let me just say, for those streaming, maybe you're a habitual streamer, the idea that you could become a member of a church by streaming goes against the biblical model of the local church. If you're not a member of a local church, then you're being disobedient to scripture. That's it, you're being disobedient to scripture, because scripture calls us to be a part of a local church to use our gifts for the building up of the body. It calls us to submit to local church leadership who can be responsible for our spiritual care. So if you're streaming right now, and you're just local, maybe your next opportunity might be to jump in here to check it out. Our next membership class is gonna be January the 19th. Maybe that's your next New Year's resolution, if you do that kind of thing, which I don't. Three, the job of an elder is to exercise oversight. They're gonna look after, to be responsible for the care for the church. This requires present, active, continual engagement with the sheep. Okay, so how do you shepherd the flock of God? How do you exercise oversight? Well, Peter's gonna give three sets of contrasting not but statements. Here we go. He said number one, not under compulsion, but willingly as God would have you. Not under compulsion, but willing. The New Testament model is that elders are appointed. That's Acts 14 and Titus 1. And an individual should not feel compelled, should not feel like they've been forced into the role of an elder. But there's a fair amount of stress and strain in serving as an elder, particularly if you're a church that's suffering. And Peter's guidance is don't sign up for this because you feel coerced. Elders should serve with joy and not with groaning. That's what the author of Hebrews says too. They serve not for shameful gain, but eagerly. The New Testament does allow for elders to be compensated, especially those elders who labor in teaching and preaching. That's 1 Corinthians 9 and 1 Corinthians 5. So Peter's issue isn't with pay per se. He's addressing the underlying motive of why you would want to become an elder. You don't sign up to be an elder to build your resume, to build your platform, build your social media presence. You serve as an elder so that you can help build up the body of Christ. Motives matter. You don't put a man in the role of elder if you think he's grasping for that role. Three, not domineering those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. In Scripture, that word domineering refers to someone bringing somebody else in line using force. And that's not how God's leaders are to lead. Others aren't to be harsh. They're not to be manipulative. They're not to lord their leadership over others. But they're to be examples to the flock. They're to use the power of their example, which should mimic that of Christ, who is marked by service, humility, kindness, clarity. And it's worth noting that in your New Testament, there are a bunch of examples where the New Testament calls us to follow the examples of other individuals. 1 Timothy 4, Titus 2, Hebrews 6, Hebrews 13. And here in 1 Peter, I think about that for a moment. If you've got Jesus, why would you need to point to Winston or Clem to serve as an example if you've got Jesus? Well, remember what Peter said in 1 Peter 1, 8. He says, though you have not seen him, Jesus, you love him. And though you do not see him now, you believe in him. And it's just a fact that it's helpful for us to be able to point to somebody that you see and say, okay, okay, I see how Keds, how Jonathan are living faithfully in the midst of tough situations. I see how they handle trials or I see how Grant or Matt are handling some bit of relational conflict and how they're being patient with that individual. Even as that individual escalates or I see boot check or Harper, I see them owning their mistakes. I see how they ask for forgiveness when they do something that's inconsistent with Scripture. And I can't, you and I can't see Jesus physically, but we can see how men and women who have walked with Jesus, who have within them the fruit of the Spirit as described in Galatians 5, we can see how they behave and their faithfulness provides us hand holds, examples, a target to aim for. And Peter says elders are to be the kind of men that provide these hand holds in these targets. Verse four, when the chief shepherd appears, you'll receive the unfading crown of glory. Two things to note. There is a chief shepherd, y'all, and his name is Jesus Christ. Don't forget that. It's not David Leventhal, it's not Kyle Kegler, it's not Brian Bootchek, it's not anybody on staff. It is Jesus Christ, he's the chief shepherd. Elders are fundamentally servants. They work for and they report to Jesus Christ. He's the chief shepherd too. Peter says there's a reward for serving faithfully, an unfading crown of glory for elders who serve the chief shepherd faithfully. What's the reward? I don't know, maybe a chili's gift card. I don't know what it is. But it's something that Peter says is to be motivating. The idea is that, listen, elders, you may be despised down here on earth, but you will be honored in heaven for your service. Elders. Verse five, a. Then he says, likewise you who are younger be subject to the elders, likewise. So just as there are responsibilities for elders, Peter says there are also responsibilities for others within the church. And he's gonna single out those who are younger. And the idea is that they're to show support to the elders' direction. They're to get behind the elders' leadership. They're to follow them. Obviously, Peter's not talking about sin. If the elders wanna lead you in sin. Don't be silly, he's not talking about that. He's saying you should follow them. Why does Peter single out those who are younger? He's not talking about those who are younger in faith. The Greek word is those who are younger in age. And I would suggest that some of the greatest revivals in church history have been led by the youth in the church. And the youth have a tendency to be ready to go. Let's go, let's go after it. And sometimes in their youth-ness, they get over their ski tips a bit. And Peter's not trying to squash them. He's saying, listen, you may not have the experience to understand the implications of what you're wanting to do, especially in the context where you're suffering. So you should be subject to the elders. Let them lead. He's not trying to squash those who are younger. And by the way, did you know that in this church, a group of young adults meets every Sunday at 1040 to pray for this church? Every Sunday, you can join them in that room over there if you're a young adult, which ain't me and ain't a lot of you. (congregation laughs) But God is using young people, but he wants them to understand you need to be subject to the elders. I think he says verse five, be clothed yourselves, all of you, with humility towards one another. For God opposes the prob, it gives grace to the humble. So he's moved from instructions to elders, a small group, to a little bit larger group, those who are young, and now he's addressing everybody. And the command is to put on humility. And the reason for that command comes from Peter's quotation of Proverbs 334, which is in the Greek is in the present tense. God is continually opposing the proud, but is continually giving grace to the humble. Proud people trust in themselves. They think of themselves before others. They seek their own glory. And in the church, that's a recipe for disaster. And if Peter says, God stands opposed to those people. Think about that for a sec. Pride puts you in direct opposition to the God of the universe. You wanna bow up to the one who holds it all together by the word of his mouth? I don't. Peter says that's what you do when you're prideful. We put on humility, he says. We defer to one another in the church. We serve one another. We follow Christ's example who came not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for man. That's Mark 1045. And when we clothe ourselves in the coat of humility in the church, those things that would most naturally divide us are socioeconomic status, our ethnicity, our educational differences, our varied backgrounds. They all fade into the background as we submit and serve one another. And so as I close out this section on leadership, on intro church relationships, let me lean in just a bit. First, let me be clear, I do believe we've got good men serving as elders here at city bridge. I've known these men for a long time. They are men who strive to lead in a faithful and God-honoring way. They are not perfect. There have been and there will continue to be missteps in their leadership because that's just a part of it. But I do believe these are faithful men. And that said, as part of the teaching of this passage, I wanna exhort our elders. Kyle, Brian, Grant, Jonathan, Matt, and Scott to evaluate. And then reevaluate how you're doing at shepherding the flock of God-heared city bridge. When you men find areas that need improvement, and to be clear, there are areas that need improvement in this local body, just as there were under my care as an elder at Watermark, just as there are at every single local church that's gathering this morning around the world. I exhort you to commit courageously and humbly to making those needed changes. And men, if you ever find yourself in a place, for whatever reason, where you're unable to serve actively, purposefully, with eagerness enjoyed, then it's time for you to step out of that role. I'm not talking about having a rough day. I'm talking about an extended season, a conviction developed over weeks and months. And if you find yourself in that spot to the six men in the office of elder, I would say to you, well done, brother, you've served faithfully. It's time to step down. And to the rest of us. Let me say as gently as I can from personal experience as an elder, sometimes it can be extremely difficult to serve eagerly and joyfully when you've got a bunch of rogue sheep that don't really want to be shepherded. Sheep who pick fights, who nitpick, complain over areas of preference, who want to force their convictions down on everyone else, who gossip and disparage the elders, who want to debate and argue over every decision that's made. And I would say to you, if that's you, then I would say as gently as I can, you have a choice to make. If you cannot joyfully follow the elders at City Bridge, then it's time for you to find a place where you can. And I want to remind you, as you leave, that there are no perfect elders, just like there are no perfect churches, but there is a perfect chief shepherd. And his model is to use imperfect men to lead this imperfect body. That's the plan. The church stands firm in suffering through faithful leadership and humility within the body. That's verses one to five, verses six to 11. The church stands firm in suffering through vigilance and confidence in our full restoration at Christ's return. Humble yourselves verse six, therefore under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time, he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. Be sober minded, be watchful. If your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, resist him firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 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. Okay, Peter starts in verse six, humble yourselves. The quotation we read from Proverbs three and verse five, it's meant to serve as a springboard from humility towards one another to humility before God. If it's true that God opposes the proud and it's true, then it sure does make sense to humble ourselves before him. And so in the midst of suffering, Peter calls these believers, don't resist, don't fight back either to those who are persecuting you or to the God who's allowing in his sovereignty to happen. But humble yourself into the mighty hand of God who continually gives grace to the humble. Humility precedes exaltation. God will at the right time bring about the exaltation of faithful believers. When's that time? I don't know when God deems it appropriate. I mean, we may experience a little bit a smidge of exaltation on this temporary earth, but Peter's looking forward to the return of Jesus Christ. He says verse seven, cast your anxieties on him because he cares. Verse seven is part of the same sentence in Greek. He's continuing his thought. Humble yourselves, the humble yourself of verse six is we do that by casting our anxieties. How do we humble ourselves? We cast our anxieties on God, why? Because he cares for you. What anxieties might these believers have been facing? Well, I mean, just to start, how about anxieties about being persecuted? How about being ostracized and rejected socially? How about safety for their family? Listen, when suffering and pressure come regardless of the source, whether it's persecution or just the other kind of suffering we endure, it's easy to fall into a bitter mindset. If I don't take care of myself, nobody will. We want to take control. And that's a recipe for anxiety. This morning, God wants you to hear that he cares about you. He sees you and he's one day going to make it all right. And while we wait for that final making it right, we can cast our anxieties on him as we meditate on his word and we'll remind it. As we lean sometimes heavily on our fellow believers for support, as we remind one another of God's sovereignty of his ultimate plan for good. And as we beg the Lord in our prayers to help us believe, sometimes even in the midst of our unbelief, do you believe that? Do you believe that God cares for you? That's one of the core foundational questions of your faith. When you're knee deep in suffering, regardless of where it's coming from, do you believe that God cares for you? Verse eight, be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. This is now the third time Peter's issued this statement, be sober minded. He did it one 13 and he did it four seven and nine five eight. We're gonna be like a soldier standing watch with our eyes and our ears open. Why? Because God isn't the only one interested in the believer. There's another one, not one who cares, but one who wants to destroy. And Peter wants us to recognize the threat of an enemy who stands against God, and therefore everything God wants to do in and through humanity. Your adversary, the devil, it's a personal, spiritual being who is an active rebellion against God and God's people. Scripture says he is a liar, he is a slander, he's a false accuser, he wants to increase your bondage to the things that will destroy you, porn, gambling, envy, alcohol, discontentment, the pursuit of all things temporal. He wants to create division among God's people. He wants to get you off into false doctrine that will lead you away from God. He wants to sift your life in such a way that you'll be marked by fear, hatred, depression, anxiety, anger, and bitterness. And if God would remove his hand, but for a moment, he would destroy you and everything you cherish and hold dear. And Peter warns these believers that the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. You ever watch those Nat Geo shows in Africa, and they got those night cameras that are amazing, and you're watching this lion, this apex predator, and he's creeping up on this little gazelle who's just trying to get some water. And that little gazelle, little baby gazelle is out there minding his own business, you're trying to get water, and you see that lion prowling quietly in the weeds and in the other shrubs getting closer and closer, waiting for that little baby gazelle to get distracted. Waiting for his moment, we get close to, bam! That lion jumps on that gazelle, he has no chance. He gets his canine teeth in there, and he completely overwhelms and devours the prey. That's the picture Peter is painting. Our enemy, the devil, wants to completely overwhelm God's people. So what do we do? Verse nine, we resist him, firm in our faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood around the world. The devil is real, and the devil is powerful, and Peter's command is you don't go cower in your closet, you resist him, firm in your faith. Firm in our faith is remaining firm in our trust in God. How do we grow firm in our faith so that we can effectively resist the devil? Well, fortunately, the New Testament gives us lots of guidance here. We resist the devil by putting on the armor of God that we may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. That's a vision six. We resist the devil by not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, like we're doing this morning. We stay close to other believers, and we avoid being a solo sheep. A solo sheep is a dead sheep. The pack of sheep offers protection, not because a bunch of sheep are tough, but because it keeps you close to the shepherd. That's Hebrews 10, that's 1 Corinthians 12. We resist the devil by meditating and memorizing God's words so that it's in our hearts, it's in our minds that actively guards our hearts, 2 Timothy 3, Psalm 119, 2 Corinthians 10, Philippians 4. We resist the devil as we grow in our intimacy, and our dependence on God through prayer, Mark 9, Matthew 6. And lastly, Peter says, we resist the devil by being reminded that we do not suffer alone. The same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. These first century believers, like us today, are a part of something far greater than ourselves. We are a part of the global church of God, part of God's army of soldiers, expanding the kingdom of God. We're a part of something much bigger than what's going on here in Plano. Last word in the devil. We'd be foolish to ignore his existence, just as it'd be foolish to cower before him in fear. God calls us to be aware that he exists, to be mindful of his plans to harm us, but we do not need to excessively focus on him. We need to excessively focus on the God who loves us, who pursues us, and who cares about us. Verse 10, after you've suffered a little while, the God of all grace who's called you to his eternal glory, in Christ will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. Peter starts to land the plane in the teaching of his letter by getting two phrases up against one another. He says, suffered a little while, and he pairs that with eternal glory in Christ. Peter wants these believers to know that the general has not abandoned his troops. The battle that they were engaged in, the battle that we're engaged in today is a temporal battle. Persecution and suffering is real. But make no mistake about it, Peter, says it will come to an end, not because the world is gonna voluntarily submit to Jesus. They're gonna bow their knee, but it won't be voluntarily. But because Jesus is coming back once and for all to deal with the evil and the sin that is so present in this temporal world. The God we serve is full of grace, and he's called us in his eternal glory in Christ. You and I, we've been called. We've not been rejected, we've been called. And when Christ returns, Peter says four things that will be done to exalt the believers. We're gonna be restored. At Christ's return, God will completely and perfectly heal every hurt. He's gonna repair everything that's been lost or broken. This verse points us forward to a day when our full final restoration is gonna occur. Every scar, every wound, every loss, you've endured and carried in this life, regardless of its source, will be healed once and for all. Confirmed. The word confirm carries the idea of establishing, of strengthening, of supporting. Living under present persecutions and suffering, it tests and it strains our faith. But a day is coming when God will confirm our faith in an unshakeable way. When our commitment to Christ is no longer gonna be susceptible to our doubts and our trials. We'll stand with our backs straight and our heads held high, fully assured and solid in our identity as God's children. We're gonna be confirmed. We're gonna be strengthened. A day is coming when our strength will no longer be something that wavers. The weariness and the exhaustion that we feel sometimes will be a thing in the past. We'll stand in the presence of God with the strength that matches our calling. Fourth, we're gonna be established. The idea of establish is to settle to place onto a foundation. A day is coming when it will be fully and immovably established in Christ, a permanent eternal grounding in God's unchangeable purposes and in his kingdom to him, verse 11, be the dominion forever and ever, amen. Peter closes his teaching with the only appropriate response, which is a short doxology of praise. The word dominion, to him be the dominion, refers to power, to might, to strength. And it implies more than just that. It implies more than just having it. It implies being able to use it in the appropriate way to be effectively lead with it. And so in a world marked by evil and suffering and persecution, a world that's desperate for God's just and righteous ring, Peter acknowledges and praises God for his ability and his authority to rightly govern all things, to him be the dominion forever and ever, amen. Verse six to 11, the church stands firm in suffering through vigilance and confidence in our full restoration at Christ's return. And now Peter's gonna lay in the plane with us some concluding remarks. In verse 12, he says, "By Sylvanius, "a faithful brother, as I regard him, "I've written you briefly, exhorting and declaring "that this is the true grace of God, stand firm in it." First thing Peter does is to mention Sylvanius. We call him Silas, that's his nickname and acts. So you know him as Silas. And Peter commends Silas as the messenger of the letter. We talk about that a little bit in week one. I think Silas was the one who carried the letter to all these churches in Northern East Minor. So Peter commends him for his work. And then Peter states his purpose for writing the letter. I've written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God, stand firm in it. Peter has encouraged, he's urged, he's given commands that were meant to strengthen these believers in their suffering and God has preserved it for us today that we might experience that same strengthening. But he's also declared the truth of God. First Peter is full, a foundational beliefs about God's grace, his salvation and the hope that Peter wants his readers to desperately understand. So when you pull it all together, Peter's message isn't some sort of an abstract ethereal encouragement, it's a call to action. He's saying, I've not just told you what to believe, I've shown you how to live it, so stand firm in it. This is not a passive exercise. It's an active decision to cling to the very truth of God's word and to let it shape our response in every relationship and in every trial we face. Verse 13, she who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does my son Mark. She who is at Babylon, that's the church in Rome. In the Old Testament, Babylon was the global center of power, in the New Testament it was Rome. Babylon was a place of exile, it's a place that was hostile to God as people, it's full of wickedness and pride and likewise, Rome in the first century was a place that was hostile to God's people. Peter's not trying to be covert and hide his location like he doesn't want people to know. He's continuing the imagery that God's people are in exile, that's verse one, one and two, 11. God's people are surrounded by wickedness and persecution. He wants these believers to know that Peter himself is in the thick of it in Rome. When Peter writes about how to live under persecution, it's not some theoretical exercise for Peter or the church in Rome, it's real for them too, with the threat of death hanging over the church in Rome. Peter gets it and he wants these believers to know, those in Rome who are chosen, they send their greetings to you, you're not alone. And then he mentions Mark my son. Sometimes I think we speed through these little endings in these letters, we just kind of, it's just the last little bit and there's golden here. So slow down, there's all kinds of stuff here, so let's just slow down. The mark that Peter's responding to is John Mark. What you need to know about John Mark is that in Acts 15, John Mark was the source of the split between Paul and Barnabas. See, they brought John Mark along with him in their first missionary journey, that's Acts 13. And John Mark abandoned them and they were in Pamphila. He takes off to go home, he abandons them. A couple years later, Paul and Barnabas are like, "Hey, let's go on a second missionary journey." Barnabas says, "Hey, let's bring John Mark." And Peter says, "No way." I'm not bringing that guy, the one that abandoned us in Pamphila, no. And Scripture says that such a sharp disagreement arose that they split. John Mark was responsible for splitting up the Batman and Robin of the first century. And yet here Peter says, "My son greets you." And not only that, but John Mark was fully restored to Paul. So even though Paul was like, no, no, no. God worked in John Mark's life such that when Paul was at the end of his life in Rome about to die himself, he says, "Send John Mark to me, he'd been restored." And oh, by the way, John Mark also wrote down Jesus' story, we call it the Gospel of Mark. So let me just insert here, like John Mark, you may have done something to hurt the mission. You may be doing something now to hurt the mission. And I want you to hear that your story doesn't have to end with your failure, just like John Mark's story didn't have to end. The hurtful choices that you've made, the Lord can redeem. And not only can he redeem, it's his greatest joy to bring about redemption. He wants to take your failures and use them to catapult you to greater effectiveness. We've literally been reading an epistle by the guy who denied Jesus three times, and yet God restored him. So wherever you are right now, if you're in a place where you're like, where you're hung up on something in your past, on your X-15, or X-13 pamphlet event, I want you to know, no. God wants you to know that he wants to restore you to usefulness and joy. And it starts by getting honest about your sins and repenting of that. Verse 14, greet one another with the kiss of love, peace to all who are in Christ. Our last verse, Peter encourages them to greet one of the kiss of love. This isn't the rounding second base kind of kiss. This is the kiss, the brotherly affection kiss based in Christ. So think about who would have been present in these churches. You've got those who are wealthy, those who are not. You've got Jews and Gentiles, slaves and masters. But in Christ, all of those differences become inconsequential. In Christ, we, but we have very diverse backgrounds in this room. In Christ, we're family. And he says, hey, greet one another like your family. Peace to all who are in Christ. Peter's last clause is just a simple blessing of the churches. He wants them to experience the peace of Christ, which would have been appropriate given their circumstances. He wants them to have peace within their troubled hearts and their minds, peace for their today, knowing that in Christ, there would be peace forever it has returned. And with that, we wrap up first Peter. I think I've mentioned here before that like Matt, I don't do this for a living, I work in residential home building. And there's a thing in residential home building when it comes to laying foundations, which is the most important part of the house. Think of PVR, potential vertical rise. It's the amount of movement that you can expect the foundation to move up and down, PVR, based on the soil, of the local soil. And you've got to take that PVR onto account when you're laying in a foundation, because there's a soil, contrans, and expats, contrans, and expans. If you don't account for that, then best case, you're going to have some cracks in your wall. But worst case is the foundation fails, and that house of yours fails. And so the way we solve for PVR in residential home building is by we put a bunch of rebar strategically placed into the foundation of that house. We lay it in a grid. We lay it down deep piers that go way down in there. And it keeps the foundation from failing under the stress of vertical soil movement. And like the rebar in the foundation of a home, God's word, and I believe first Peter in particular, is a means of grace to help us add a rebar to the foundation of our faith. Because here's a fact, we are going to experience stress and pressure. It might be from persecution like these believers, but it might be from other forms of suffering, from sickness, from betrayal, from divorce, and tragedy, from the loss of dreams that you held dear. And those things are going to test the strength of your foundation. And if we are not purposefully and systematically laying the rebar of God's word into our hearts, then there's going to be no way we're going to be able to stay in firm when it comes. This is why we just spent eight weeks in first Peter. This is why we spent eight or nine weeks in Colossians. This is why we spent eight or nine weeks in Ecclesiastes. This is why God wants you and I to spend time in his work as we go daily, so that we have the rebar in our hearts, so that when suffering comes, we will be able to say, no matter what the circumstances, it is well with my soul. That's what God wants for us, is in the midst of all the potential vertical rise of our lives. He wants us to have his word in our hearts and his spirit and his people to hold us together that we may be able to declare, no matter what's going on, it is well with my soul. That's first Peter. Praise God for first Peter. Father, thank you for preserving this incredible little epistle. Thank you for the continual reminders for the last eight weeks that you were sovereign, that you see us, that you are going to one day deal with it fully and finally. And while we wait, you have provided us your spirit, you have provided us your word, and you have provided us one another to walk us together through this world. I pray for my friends in here this morning that they would be strengthened in their inner heart, that they might know the height and the depth of the love of Christ. I pray that no matter what they're walking through today, what season of suffering or persecution or heartache that they are walking through, that you would give them the strength they need to follow you, to submit to you, to trust you in the heart. For anybody in this room who doesn't know you, who is facing an eternal separation, in hell, I pray that you would quicken their heart this morning. They may raise their hand and say, I need Jesus. Would you help me to give it to you? I pray that you would bring those people to yourselves. Jesus name, amen. Thanks for listening. We pray this message encourages you on your journey with Jesus. If you found this message helpful, feel free to share it with others and leave us a review. To learn about City Bridge and how you can take your next faithful step with Jesus, check us out online at citybridgechurch.org. You can also follow us on social at citybridgecc. See you next time. [MUSIC PLAYING] (gentle music)
