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Redeemer Community Church is located in the historic Avondale neighborhood of Birmingham, AL. Our church family exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
For more information on who we are, what we believe, or how to join us, please visit our website at rccbirmingham.org.
So we have been in a study for some time now going through the life and the letters of Peter. And today, we find ourselves in first Peter chapter four. We're gonna be looking at a little bit more than what's there in your worship guide. So if you do have a bible with you, analog, digital, whatever you may have, if wanna you go ahead and find first Peter four and we'll be making our way through together. So first Peter chapter four.
Jeffrey Heine:To begin, I'd I'd like for us to to start by reading from verse seven on down through verse 11. So beginning here in first Peter chapter four verse seven. Let us listen carefully for this is God's word. The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be self controlled and sober minded for the sake of your prayers.
Jeffrey Heine: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 speak oracles of God. Whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength God supplies.
Jeffrey Heine:In order that in everything, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray together.
Jeffrey Heine:Almighty God, we we come this morning in need of your grace and your truth. And whether we know it or not, each one of us here, we are desperate for you above all else. And through your son Jesus, you have set your unceasing, unyielding, steadfast love upon us. So in this time that's before us, would you meet us by your spirit and your word? We might know your mercy and learn to trust in Christ alone.
Jeffrey Heine:So would you speak Lord for your servants are listening. We pray these things in name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Last year, I lost my great grandfather's watch. I'm pretty sure that I left it in a rental car.
Jeffrey Heine:It it didn't fit my wrist that well. It was too tight and I was on a long drive back to the airport and and I think I remember taking it off while I was driving and putting it in the little cubby in the door and then in the seemingly unavoidable anxiety of returning a rental car, where people are pointing for you to drive in places where it says don't drive and then there are the little spikes that are just waiting to shred all four tires and and I don't even know how insurance insurance works and so all of that, somehow in that serene environment, I forgot the watch and I left it there. And so for over a year, every time I think of it, I get this pain in my stomach that the watch is gone. To be clear, it was not a good watch, not because it was too tight, but but at its very core of its watch being. In other words, it didn't tell time.
Jeffrey Heine:Now, to be fair, it it didn't tell the right time. It it told a time, just a time that never mattered to to anyone anywhere. The failure for it to tell accurate time was chiefly my fault though. The watch was an old military issued watch that required a manual winding once a day, which meant that once a day, I would look at the watch, you know, to tell what time it is and then I would realize that I had forgotten to wind it in time, and so then I need to get my phone out to see what the correct time was to then wind the watch and reset it. So it wasn't so much a watch as it was an albatross around my wrist.
Jeffrey Heine:But what good is a watch if it doesn't tell you the time? Telling time, it's this essential skill that we teach to kids as soon as they can possibly understand it, like it's six years old because every parent is so ready for their kid to understand the concept of time, specifically the concept of not now. But as you know, learning to read the numbers off of a clock is pretty different than telling time. Telling time means knowing a sense of the past and the present and the future, knowing before and after, now and then. It means knowing when you are relative to everything else.
Jeffrey Heine:In this section of first Peter that we've been looking at for the last few weeks is part of Peter's lesson to the followers of Jesus on how to tell time, which is important because we know that depending on the time, we live differently. We prioritize differently. We plan differently. We expect lives differently depending on what time it is. And Peter began this section by telling his readers and us what time it is.
Jeffrey Heine:So if you have your Bibles, look back at first Peter chapter four beginning in verse one where it says, since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. Peter begins this section by distinguishing the period between the present and the future and this time in between is the rest of the time in the flesh. Cole Ragsdale noted Peter's teaching on time a few weeks ago. There's a distinction between the time that is the past, that time living out those human desires and passions of the flesh, and then this rest of time in the flesh. Peter is marking how though we are in the flesh, the children of God do not live according to that flesh and according to human passions, but according to and for the will of God.
Jeffrey Heine:That means that to the followers of Jesus, time looks different now. And And then Peter makes his biggest time telling claim of all in verse seven declaring the end of all things is at hand. Last week, Joel noted how when Peter talks about us being in these end times, Peter is talking more about how we are living in this last stage that Jesus ushers in this last age. And Peter is telling the time for his hearers. The end of all things, the end of everything is near.
Jeffrey Heine:That can be alarming to read. It can also be confusing because Peter wrote it nearly two thousand years ago and so it's especially important for us to understand what he means. The Greek word that Peter uses here which is translated in our English Bibles as the end, it's the Greek word Telos. And some of you may be familiar with this word because it's often used in diverse context such as biology, zoology, ethics, law, psychology, philosophy, even in AI development. There's this concern for the Telos, the end of something.
Jeffrey Heine:If Telos is applicable in so many different contexts, then what does it mean here in first Peter? Well, the word Telos does not simply mean mean the termination of something. Telos holds more than just an ending. It includes the culmination of a goal, the fulfillment of a purpose. So that the end of everything is not simply the termination of everything, it is the culmination and fulfillment of its ultimate purpose.
Jeffrey Heine:And so Peter is telling his hearers and us, the Telos, the ultimate aim and goal of everything is near. So what is this ultimate goal that Peter is holding out for these followers of Jesus? In particular, these persecuted exiles, these suffering aliens and strangers, what is this Telos? Peter told us about the ultimate purpose back at the start of his letter. And again, you have your bible, you can turn to first Peter chapter one, the very beginning of this letter in verse three.
Jeffrey Heine:Try to wait until I hear this shuffling of the papers. This is the third service. We got plenty of time. Right? Alright.
Jeffrey Heine:Where it says in verse three of chapter one, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you. You who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Peter says, the culmination, the ultimate purpose here is your redemption. It's your salvation ready to be revealed in the Telos, the last time.
Jeffrey Heine:Here, at the end of everything. Because at the end of all things is the great revelation of everything, the revealing of Christ and his kingdom of his great mercy. So, for our understanding of what Peter is instructing the followers of Jesus to do, it's essential that we know how to tell the time. Peter's encouragement is is on how to live in this time. It's it's directly related to and dependent upon what time it actually is.
Jeffrey Heine:And because the time is the Telos, the culmination of everything, we need to learn how to live in this time, in this rest of the time in the flesh. While we are living and awaiting and anticipating the great culmination of the divine goal of our redemption and the coming of Christ's kingdom, we still live in the flesh. We still live in our brokenness and our suffering. So there's a new way that we need to learn how to live in this time and that is what Peter has been instructing his listeners since chapter two. He's been unfolding what life still in the flesh is supposed to look like while we await the revealing of Christ and the grace that is to be ours.
Jeffrey Heine:And throughout these chapters, chapter two, chapter three, and chapter four, Peter has unfolded his instructions on how to live in this time in the flesh, how to live with one another, how to live within our households, our homes, in our marriages, with our work, and all these places. What is life in the flesh, this time remaining supposed to look like? And he offers this helpful summary in chapter four verse two, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passion, but for the will of God. Throughout these chapters that we have studied together over these weeks, we've seen that not only are these instructions helpful instructions for how to live as obedient disciples of Jesus, but they are also words of comfort to those who are suffering. Because part of what Peter is articulating here is that at the at this time in the flesh as it's nearing its end, at the end of all things, it's also the end of all suffering.
Jeffrey Heine:It's the end of hatred and violence. It's the end of persecution and sorrow and pain. Because this time that we find ourselves in, in the flesh, it's nearing its end because redemption and resurrection and the renewal of all things is drawing near to us by God's grace and his justice. So that's why Peter has been building building towards this declaration to the followers of Jesus like us, like us who are weary and heavy laden, who are suffering, who are sorrowing, not only persecution from the outside but also strife within the family of God, within the church. And not only within the church but in our own flesh as we have that warring struggle with ourselves.
Jeffrey Heine:Peter declares to us that the Telos of God is near to you. The fulfillment of God's great plan of redemption is nearing the revealing of his grace that God has called you to. That's what time it is. The fulfillment of all God's great promises are coming to you, to us. They're drawing closer and closer by the day.
Jeffrey Heine:In a sense, Peter is talking less about humanity getting closer and closer to the end of time like a clock running out. He's we're talking about the kingdom of God, his justice and his mercy drawing nearer and nearer to us. I know that it's been about a year since our study of the major prophets, but you might still hear these echoes of the prophet Isaiah here in these words at the end of his prophecy in in Isaiah 65 that says, for behold, I create new heavens and a new earth and the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind, but be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people.
Jeffrey Heine:No more shall be heard in it, the sound of weeping or the cry of distress. It's out of this declaration that the Telos of God is near to us that Peter offers four instructions, four directives on how to live in this remaining time in the flesh at the end of everything. And we've looked at the majority of these over the last few weeks. So to remind us and to reiterate them, the four things are to pray, verse seven. To love one another, verse eight.
Jeffrey Heine:To show hospitality to one another, verse nine. And then to serve one another, verse 10. Peter says, keep your mind clear about what time it is. Be clear minded, keep focused in reality and what is true so you can be in prayer. Prayer to endure this time in the flesh with love, with obedience and with rejoicing.
Jeffrey Heine:And in your clear minded reality grounded prayers here at the end of everything, God by his holy spirit will ready you and prepare you to live in this time. In a sense, Peter is setting this section up by saying, you will not be able to live into these next three directions. The these directions to love one another, to show hospitality to one another, to live out your giftings, to serve one another, you won't be prepared to do those things without prayer. And, you won't be able to pray if you don't know what time it is. You need to know when you are.
Jeffrey Heine:You need to know what is happening so you can move to God in prayer to endure and in that enduring to know how to live within the household of God. So out of this prayer and this preparation, Peter says that we are to love one another, we are to show one another hospitality, and we are to serve one another. Here at the end of all things, Peter says, it is love above everything. Love for one another, love for your brothers and sisters in Christ, love within the household of faith and to do that love earnestly. You need this love to make it through these days in the flesh.
Jeffrey Heine:Peter says, you need this love because if you are really going to live your life as the household of God with one another in these days in the flesh, if you're really going to live together, then you're going to hurt one another. You're gonna disappoint one another. You're going to sin against one another and love is the only thing that will cover this multitude of sin. This love is that powerful. Christ alone forgives sins through his atoning work on the cross, but we are called to extend love to one another within the body of Christ to cover this multitude of sins.
Jeffrey Heine:I've been in this job here at Redeemer. I've been here at Redeemer since the start over eighteen years. My resume could fit on a post it note. That's why I just keep declining all of your LinkedIn request like there's just there's nothing for me to put on there. Okay?
Jeffrey Heine:I I I've just been here. Okay? That's it. And people ask me though, how are you still here after all these years? And the thing that I come back to is love covers a multitude of sins.
Jeffrey Heine:Real love covering a real multitude of real sins. That's how. That's how we endure. That's how we persevere. That's how we keep going.
Jeffrey Heine:This love endures and this love covers a multitude of sins. Even as Christ has dealt with our sin, we still sin against one another. These eighteen plus years, it's not just been me extending love to my brothers and sisters, it's people extending unwarranted, unmerited love back to me when I did not deserve their love. And yet that love covered the multitude of my sin. We wrong each other even within the household of God, even within the church And you know how we can be the rudest and most impatient with the people that we love the most.
Jeffrey Heine:It's the same in the church. Peter is reminding us that while we are here still in the flesh, even in the church, the household of God, it isn't free from sin which hurts one another. Maybe some of you, maybe even a lot of you feel that hurt today. Either hurt that occurred within this household of faith or from some other church as you've made your way here. But let me say that if you've come to this church, this local expression of the church and you expect this place to be free from sin, free from the flesh, free from disappointing one another, free from having to ask for forgiveness or free from having to offer that grace to one another, let me tell you, you found the wrong place.
Jeffrey Heine:I don't blame you for wanting it because I want it too. But don't don't let that image of the perfect church keep you from joining the real one because the clock still reads flesh. We have 95 new members who are joining us in this household of faith today. 95. And from one honest angle, we are increasing the number of sinners by nearly a 100 people.
Jeffrey Heine:We're bringing even more people in to live out this time in the flesh. And Peter says here, now, at this time in the flesh, here with the Telos of everything growing closer to us, the end of everything, it is love above all of it. It's love that holds us together, the love of Christ, not some vague love, not some vague notion of love, Jesus himself and his heart. Because by the spirit, this love is how we show our brothers and sisters within the household of God that we can cover the multitude of sin and address the countless times that we will let each other down. Hear me.
Jeffrey Heine:Our identity is that of the saints. You are fully adopted as a child of God. When you put your trust in Christ, you are fully his. Our identity is in him. We are forgiven and we are alive in his righteousness and at the same time, we are still alive in the flesh.
Jeffrey Heine:The great reformer Martin Luther referred to this as reality that we are at the same time, simul simul justus et pekator. We are at the same time simultaneously justified and sinners. That is our reality. That is what the clock really says. And, just as your physical body is still in the flesh and still getting sick and still suffering pains, we are in the flesh as we await to Telos of our redemption in Christ, the full culmination and end.
Jeffrey Heine:And, through prayer, Peter says that this love that is above everything is to permeate within the family of God. It is essential for us. Next, as Joel shared last week, the first place that Peter goes to talk about this love playing out is within the community of saints practicing hospitality for our brothers and sisters. We are to invite one another in even though we know that we will frustrate and disappoint and hurt one another, we do not distance ourselves but we invite one another in. Where this love, this grace of Jesus isn't just a concept, a doctrine that we believe in or affirm at a distance, but will be required as we live our lives together.
Jeffrey Heine:It will be necessary in our life together. Peter says, this time as you prayed that the Lord is readying you to show this love for one another. Pray so that you are ready to show hospitality to one another. And lastly, pray so you will be ready to serve one another with your gifts. Look at verse 10.
Jeffrey Heine:As each has received 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 be glory and dominion forever and ever. This is how we live in this time in the flesh as the household of God. This is how we live here at the Telos of Everything, as stewards of God's manifold grace.
Jeffrey Heine:Notice this. We aren't simply waiting out the clock for the end to come, the doomsday clock counting down for the Telos to arrive. God has given us his grace and the gifts of his grace for the here and now. These gifts of grace aren't just for heaven, they're for now, in this time in the flesh. And those gifts of his grace are to be stewarded.
Jeffrey Heine:So what does that mean? During Peter's time of this writing, he's in first century Rome and a steward was a common role within a large household. A steward acted as a manager for the head of the household. Oftentimes, these managers were bond servants, individuals who are wholly and unconditionally accountable to the ruler of the house. Their task was to steward, it was to manage whatever the master chose to entrust to them.
Jeffrey Heine:And that could be the agricultural operations, the financial accounting, even managing other servants or tending to the children of the family. The steward would approach this role with a sense of ownership, but only a sense of ownership. Because they would be wise to keep in mind that they themselves are not the owners. They are accountable to the owner. They are stewarding what belongs to someone else.
Jeffrey Heine:And Peter says that God, the God of all grace who is wealthy in mercy has given his household of faith gifts of his grace to steward, to manage and put to use. These gifts are an extension of and an expression of the love that God has for you and his bride, the church, and his ultimate Telos of redeeming us to himself. And you in like manner are to steward these gifts entrusted to you for the good of your brothers sisters within the household of God. Stewarding these gifts, putting them into their best practice, it's part of you loving your brothers and sisters. And Peter directs his readers that to steward these gifts means to serve one another.
Jeffrey Heine:That the ultimate goal of that service is the glory of God which means success is defined by the glory of God not the success of your stewarding, not the success of your gifts, not them achieving some recognition or immediate approval. You might invite that same person over for dinner over and over and over again and when they finally do come, it doesn't go well. That's stewarding the gifts, that's serving your brothers and sisters. Success will be defined on the glory of God and no other terms will do. That is what a good steward does with God's gifts.
Jeffrey Heine:They put the gifts to use for the good of the household of God and through this stewardship, God is glorified. Next, Peter gives examples, but rather than kind of a list of examples kinda like Paul does with the Corinthians and talking about the gifts that we we hold, Peter instead offers kind of two summative summary categories that represent what I believe to be the whole of life. Let's look at verse 11. Whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies. Speaks and serves our words and our deeds.
Jeffrey Heine:Whoever speaks to serve their brother and sister should do so as one who speaks the true words of God. And whoever is serving their brother or sister should do so as one who serves with the strength that God is supplying. When you love one another and you serve one another, and you put these gifts of grace entrusted to you into use, God himself will supply the substance, the substance of your words and the strength of your deeds. You don't have to conjure up wisdom, you don't have to read every book in the library, you don't have to rely on your own strength when you seek to serve in the house of God. God has committed himself to supply both the truth and the strength for you to steward these gifts.
Jeffrey Heine:So back to you 95 sinners coming in here. I said that from one honest angle, we are increasing our number of sinners by nearly a 100. But from another equally honest angle, we are increasing the number of ministers ministers in this church by 95 people. 95 more ministers are joining our family of faith today. 95 more hands and feet of Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:95 more saints who have been gifted by God to do what we could not do without you. Gifted in ways that we did not have before you got here. So hear me please when I say to each of you new members, thank you for your faithfulness to join this covenant family. We are humbled and excited that the Lord would call you to bring with you the gifts that he has given you to build up his house of faith. We are so much better with you here.
Jeffrey Heine:We are so much more with you here and we need your gifts of grace that you have been entrusted to steward. Peter is saying that each follower of Jesus has been given God's diverse and gracious gifts for the good of the faith community. Paul gave a similar summary in his letter to the Colossian Christians when he said, and whatever you do in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through him. In your speaking, speak the beauty, and the grandeur and the holiness, the greatness and the graciousness and the glory of God. Steward your words as your words are speaking the oracles of God because they are gifts from God, his grace to you.
Jeffrey Heine:And Peter says, use them for the good of your brothers and sisters. The author of the letter to the Hebrews, he offers a similar lesson to his readers when he writes in chapter 10, and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. One of the phrases that always stands out to me in that is let us consider how. That is stewardship in action. Let us consider how stewardship is deliberate, it's on purpose.
Jeffrey Heine:We don't accidentally steward. And so we consider how this morning when you were getting ready, when you were getting dressed to to come here, we don't only prepare our outside to be with our brothers and sisters, but internally to consider, God, how might my words stir up my brothers and sisters to love and good works today? How about you use my words? Help me to imagine what you might do as I steward my words to speak the oracles of God. Notice it's not just the speaking alone, it's the consideration, it's the thoughtfulness, it's the prayerfulness, it's the deliberateness of faithfully wondering how your words might encourage your brothers and sisters.
Jeffrey Heine:That's the stewardship of our speaking. It's serving one another. And in it, it has this direction. Our words have a Telos, the love and good works of our brothers and sisters. The second example that he gives, so if the first one is a it's our words, the the second that Peter offers is the stewardship of our deeds.
Jeffrey Heine:Whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies. The the Greek word that's translated here as supplies. It's only found one other time in the New Testament. It's used by Paul in one of his letters to the Corinthians and it's a very unique word to use because it was chiefly used within that context and and culture to speak of the ancient Greek theater. A Greek chorus was a company of trained artists, the the actors, the singers, the dancers, and a chorus would have fifteen, thirty, even 60 members in it.
Jeffrey Heine:And being an artist in ancient Greece was not all too different than being an artist today and that someone has to pay the bills. The arts aren't always self sustaining. Someone has to pay for 60 people to spend their time learning and training because when they're learning and training for their performance, they are not out in the fields working. They're not in the streams fishing. They're not selling goods in the marketplace.
Jeffrey Heine:They're at the theater learning and rehearsing for a new performance. And, there's a term for that benefactor, the person who paid so their training could happen. So they could be in that place to learn the performance. That word is the Coriego. They supplied the resources necessary for the chorus to perform.
Jeffrey Heine:And that's the word of all words, that's the word that Peter chooses to describe how God supplies you with the strength that you need to serve others. He is the benefactor. He's the one who pays the bill that you can put forth this strength that is his to serve your brothers and sisters within the house of God. It is not by your own strength that you serve because you do not have enough or even the right kind of strength to do it on your own. You will burn out in your own strength.
Jeffrey Heine:You don't have enough of that kind of strength to put others needs before your own. If you wanna burn out, if you want to grumble, if you wanna grow weary from doing good, then try doing it all in your own strength. Do it with your own virtue or your own character or your own reputation as your fuel. You you will be grumbling before you get to the parking lot. Trust me.
Jeffrey Heine:And your attitude in service is a perfect barometer, a perfect gauge in seeing if you are running on your own strength or the strength of God. Here's the deal, he supplies it, he joyfully supplies it, he has enough of it to go around. Remember the time you are in your flesh. The strength of the body, the strength of the mind, even the strength of the heart, it cannot come from your own supply. It will not suffice, it will not endure this time in the flesh.
Jeffrey Heine:But God is rich in mercy and grace. He has given you the supply of his strength that you might love his family by stewarding his gifts and putting them into loving service. You may ask, how do we get this strengthened? How do we tap into this? Well, he already told us in verse seven that it's through prayer, through this clear minded, time telling, honest prayer.
Jeffrey Heine:And when we do this, when we steward the gifts of his grace and we live in this time in the flesh where there is suffering and sorrow and a longing for redemption where we disappoint one another and fail one another. In this time where we await the fullness of Christ kingdom, in all of this, we steward his gifts so that he alone gets the glory. Not us, not our gifts, not our abilities, not our strength, we serve at the pleasure of the king. And in his glory, we find our greatest purpose, our greatest delight. In other words, we find our Telos in his glory.
Jeffrey Heine:That's what it means when Peter closes this section out saying, in order that in everything, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. He is so so he's he's probably writing this in chains, he's probably writing this pacing around while the scribe is writing it down and he gets so excited he essentially ends his letter. He essentially he writes a benediction then and there, to him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Peter starts preaching in prison and he gets so excited because he is seeing by God's grace, he is seeing the culmination of all things.
Jeffrey Heine:Here in this time, this time in the flesh, here at the end of all things, in our stewardship of the grace of God, stewarding our words and our deeds, It is his love in everything that we do in order that he alone would be glorified through Christ in everything. Here, at the end of all things, it is love above everything. So that in all things, God will be glorified forever and ever. That is the Telos of everything. Let's go to the Lord now in prayer.
Jeffrey Heine:Lord, you are you are Lord over everything because to you belong, you own all glory and dominion forever and ever. And that we could participate, that we could join in stewarding the gifts of your grace, the manifold grace of God. Lord, help us to tell the time. And Lord, keep calibrating, keep rewinding, keep setting the clocks of our souls that we might know rightly what time it is now, that we might steward the gifts that you have given us in order that in everything you may be glorified through Jesus Christ. We pray these things in his name.
Jeffrey Heine:Amen.