1-10-10 The End Is Near Pt. 4

We are in our fourth week of a 4 verse section of the 4^th chapter of Peter’s 1^st letter.

It’s a section that begins with the words, “The end of all things is near, therefore...”.

Obviously it is a section in which Peter seeks to equip us for life

given the brief time we are each given.

At this point in his own life

Peter assumed that the first readers of his letter

would be the last people alive on this planet prior to the return of Christ.

His assumption was wrong,

but his assuming it was not

because it is an assumption

or at least an expectation that our Lord wants every Christian to have

no matter when or where we may have been placed in the flow of history.

My Lord barged into my life in the fall of 1966.

It was a time of tremendous turmoil in our society.

The Viet Nam War was causing deep division in our nation,

and my generation was in open rebellion against anything

that had the stench of the establishment about it.

National leaders were being assassinated at a terrifying rate,

campus revolts were all too common,

and the civil rights movement was polarizing our nation.

Shortly after I came to the Lord

I got involved in an infant evangelistic organization called Campus Crusade For Christ

and through them was exposed to the teaching and writings of one of their staff members,

a man named Hal Lindsey.

He’d just released a book entitle The Late Great Planet Earth,

and anyone who listened to him and trusted his teaching

knew that we had at the most 30 years left before the return of Christ,

and very likely far less than that.

He was wrong.

We were all wrong.

And yet, even though I can now see the major flaws in some of that teaching,

I have no regrets for the way my Lord used it in my life

because it imbedded into my Christian life from the earliest days

an attitude that has served me well ever since,

and attitude that our Lord wants every Christian to possess,

the same attitude that Peter is offering us when he says, “The end of all things is near...”.

If we ever loose the expectation of our Lord’s intervention and deliverance in our lives

we have suffered a loss of tragic proportions.

There will come a time when that intervention is in the form of His physical return to this earth,

but even if we are not among those who see that day

the underlying hope of our King’s daily intervention into our lives

is an absolutely essential element in our walk with our Lord.

If He isn’t there,

if He doesn’t know and care and intervene and deliver and hold us tight throughout every day of our lives

then there is no hope at all.

Interesting, isn’t it, how Peter’s declaration that the end of all things is near

affects the Christian exactly opposite from the way

that it would affect everyone else in the world.

For the non-Christian

the thought that the end of all things is near

would be the most terrifying thought they could ever have.

It would be the declaration of the arrival of the dreaded doomsday.

Yet for the Christian

exactly the same proclamation that the end of all things is near

is the ultimate statement of hope and victory,

the promise of the end of pain, and heartache, and suffering

and the arrival of a world operating at last as it was designed to operate,

a world in which "... the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea...(HAB 2:14),

a world in which “... justice will roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”AMO 5:24

Even so, come Lord Jesus!

Well, Peter knows that day will come,

but he also knows we need guidance

in how we can effectively approach life until that day comes,

and so he writes.

1PE 4:7-11 The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaint. As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

In these 5 verses

he gives us 4 specific instructions

about how we are to approach our daily lives here and now

in view of the fact that the end of all things is near.

We’ve looked at two of those four so far -

his instruction to us about the need to live our lives in the presence of our King,

sharing our lives with Him each step of the way,

and then his call to us to keep fervent in our love for one another.

And this morning I want us to look at the remaining two instructions he gives us.

We’ll spend most of our time on the fourth one,

but before we move into it

I don’t want us to miss what he’s saying to us

in that one line where he says, Be hospitable to one another without complaint.

This word that we have translated as hospitable in the English translations

doesn’t fully capture the meaning of what Peter is saying to us.

To our minds

it sounds sort of like Peter is telling us

that we should all be having one another over for dinner lots

and that we shouldn’t keep too close an eye on whose turn it is to be the host

or what they served when we arrived.

That is not what Peter is talking about here.

This word hospitable literally means “loving strangers”

and I believe what he’s asking of us

is that we always keep our hearts open to the new people God brings into our lives.

And the closer we get to the end of all things

the more we need to hear and trust Peter’s words

because the closer we get to the end of all things

the more our self-protective mechanisms

will cause us to want to close ourselves off

from all but those few safe relationships in our lives.

Paul made it all too clear

what we could expect as we see the end approaching.

In his second letter to Timothy he told him,

2TI 3:1-4 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God...

Of course we don’t need Paul to tell us that.

All we have to do is to look at the society in which we now live,

a society that has no sense of moral integrity whatsoever

and then look at how that absence of morality

affects the way people relate to one another.

This is not a safe world, folks,

and we’ve all been hurt deeply enough

and frequently enough

so that our instinct for self-preservation tells us to keep people we don’t know at arm’s length.

And I think Peter includes this instruction to love strangers

in his list of end-times exhortations

because he wants us to know it’s worth the risk.

It is what we’re here for.

Certainly there will be times when we will be used,

times when people will take advantage of us,

which is why he calls us to love strangers without complaint.

We don’t turn bitter,

we don’t hold a grudge.

We simply forgive and move one.

But there will also be times

when those strangers will respond to our love

and we will become to them and for them a light in the darkness

and the hope that there is another way.

And then Peter moves on to his final end times instruction

as he talks with us about our using the special gifts given to each of us by God.

1PE 4:10-11 As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God; whoever serves, let him do so as by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

OK, we’ll go ahead and look at what Peter is saying here in some detail,

but first let me just state simply what we’ve seen in this passage

because what we have here

is so different from what we may have expected.

In view of the rapidly approaching end of all things,

look at what Peter tells us to do.

Share your life continually with your Lord.

Fervently love the people near you.

Show love to strangers.

Use your gifts to serve one another.

The thing that impacts me so powerfully

is how unreligious all of this is.

All of these are accessible to every child of God,

and they are the things

that make our lives effective, and productive, and truly filled with power.

OK, let’s look a little more closely at this last one on the list,

our using our gifts to serve one another.

Now, before we go any farther with this

I want you to know

that over the years I have been exposed to a wide range of approaches to teachings about spiritual gifts.

In the end

nearly every one of them

has accomplished exactly the opposite result

that Paul clearly states as being the purpose of the gifts.

In the fourth chapter of Ephesians,

after giving us a brief overview of the gifts,

Paul tells us in verses 12 and 13 that when they are used correctly the gifts will bring about the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

In other words,

when correctly used

the gifts of the Spirit will accomplish three things in the lives of God’s people.

First, they will build us up,

they will help us to grow.

Second, they will produce greater unity within the family of God.

And third, they will ultimately move us toward true maturity.

Yet, nearly every teaching I have seen on the gifts has done exactly the opposite.

Rather than encouraging people,

it has frustrated them.

Rather than bringing about greater unity,

it brings about division.

Rather than bring about greater maturity

it leaves people feeling confused and even inadequate.

So, with the hope that I can approach this

in a way that actually accomplishes what Paul says we should accomplish,

let me share with you what I believe to be

the three key things every Christian needs to know about the gifts.

First, God’s Spirit has given every one of His children some spiritual gift.

These gifts are not the same thing as natural talents.

Our talents may be useful tools in the exercise of our gifts,

but they are not the same thing as the gifts.

A person who has a natural singing ability

may use that singing ability in the exercise of his or her gift,

but the singing ability is not the spiritual gift.

A person may have a natural talent for public speaking,

but that speaking ability does not then mean

that the person possesses the spiritual gift of teaching.

But every Christian has been equipped by the Spirit of God with some spiritual gift.

And at the heart of that spiritual gift

is our own unique ability

to touch the life of another person in a way that encourages them,

or gives them hope,

or makes it easier for them to trust their God,

or brings them a measure of healing from some wound within them.

Which brings me to my second comment about the gifts, that all true spiritual gifts

are not gifts God gives to us,

they are gifts God gives through us to our fellow Christians.

It is one of the ways in which the Spirit of God

allows us to contribute to the growth and health of those around us.

When it is correctly exercised

it will touch another person’s life

and at the same time leave us with a feeling of gratitude to God

that He has honored us with the ability to be of value to another person.

Have you ever felt that way?

Have you ever come away from a contact with another person

realizing that, in the most beautiful way,

God just used you to bring about encouragement, or growth, or a step toward greater health in another person?

And inside you just felt so very grateful

that He honored you by allowing you to be some place where He was doing something,

and in the process allowed some of the honor that rightfully belongs to Him

to slop over onto you.

If so,

that was probably your spiritual gift being exercised,

and you most likely didn’t even know it.

Which brings me to my third statement about the gifts -

your spiritual gift will operate just fine

whether or not you are ever able to label it,

or even consciously recognize it’s existence within you.

Nowhere in Scripture

does God ever tell Christians to label their gifts,

or even to try to figure out what they are.

What He does tell us

is that He has equipped each of us

with the ability to contribute to the growth and maturity of our fellow believers.

Now, having said that,

I’ll go ahead and say just a tiny bit more.

Consistently throughout the New Testament

we see the New Testament writers

telling us that there are two broad categories of spiritual gifts.

The clearest statement of these two categories

is found right here in 1^st Peter 4:10-11.

Peter begins by saying,

1PE 4:10 As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

Then he goes on to divide those gifts into two major groups.

1PE 4:11 Whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God; whoever serves, let him do so as by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

There are speaking gifts,

and there are serving gifts.

We see exactly the same two major divisions in Romans 12:7,

and again in Ephesians 4:11-12.

The Ephesians passage is unique in some ways

because Paul lists the speaking gifts

and then explains to us the relationship between the two groups.

He tells us that the speaking gifts are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.

And then he tells us that, when correctly used,

these gifts will equip those with the serving gifts for the work God seeks to do through them.

EPH 4:11-13 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.

And with all of the gifts,

when they are being used as God intended,

they will result in greater unity

and greater maturity in the lives of God’s people.

And I think it will help us here

if we look a little more closely

at what Paul tells us about the gifts in this Ephesians 4 passage.

First, Paul tells us

that God has designed His church in such a way

that some of His people are given speaking gifts

that, when used correctly,

will equip the body as a whole for the work God has for us to do.

Then he tells us that those with the speaking gifts do this

by building up those who listen to them in two major areas -

their practical daily trust in Christ (faith),

and their personal, intimate, growing friendship with Him.

The word Paul uses for knowledge in this passage

is a word many of you will remember from our study of the 1^st chapter of 2^nd Peter.

It is the Greek word epignosis,

that unique word used by the New Testament writers

to describe not just facts but intimate, personal life-centered knowledge of God,

the kind of knowledge that only the Christian can possess.

And I do hope you hear what I just said

because it is intended to be your first great line of protective defense

against so many of the forces and the voices around us

that Satan will use in his attempts to war against the body of Christ on this earth.

Let me make it personal here.

Every time I stand before you as your pastor and teacher

my ultimate responsibility,

my God-given calling is always the same.

It certainly has nothing to do with making this local church “successful”.

If I do my job correctly,

no matter what we may be studying,

the end result will be twofold.

It will be easier for you to trust the words and leadership of your Lord,

and it will be easier for you to grow in your friendship with Him.

And with every voice you ever hear in the Christian world,

always, always, always ask yourself those same two questions about what you hear.

Did what I just heard

make it easier for me to trust my Lord with this really hard stuff going on in my life?

And did it make it easier for me

to grow in my personal friendship with Him?

And if the answer is “Yes”,

then the person you’re listening to

is using his or her gifts as God intended.

And if the answer is “No”,

then no matter how convincing they may sound,

no matter how charismatic they are,

no matter how fascinating their message may appear,

walk away from them.

And if you do that,

if you listen only to those sources

that meet those two criteria,

listen to what results.

EPH 4:14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;

EPH 4:15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ...

You see, once we let go of those two criteria,

once we cease to measure every source we listen to

on the basis of whether or not it truly draws us directly into the Person of Jesus Christ -

not just His teachings,

not just His system,

not just His Church,

but into HIM,

once we cease to use that as the measure of the value of all things,

we open ourselves up to every ego-driven, flesh-based motivation within the world of religion,

falling victim to any religious game or charismatic voice or pretty face out there,

and find ourselves to forever be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming.

But look what happens

when we choose our sources as God intends.

Paul says that we ... grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ...

Interesting wording, huh?

He doesn’t say that we grow up into maturity.

He says that we grow up into HIM.

We grow up into epignosis of our Lord,

into deeper and deeper friendship with Him,

a friendship that then gives us the ability

to relate correctly to everything else

and everyone else that comes into our lives.

Peter then closes this section on end times instructions

by giving us the measure by which we can know

if we are doing what we’re doing as our Lord intends.

What he wants us to know

is that if we find ourselves feeling helpless and utterly dependant upon Him

to do in us and through us what He’s given us to do

then we’re probably right where He wants us to be,

doing exactly what He wants us to do.

And the end result is that in all things God is glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.