Honestly, many of us are little afraid of closely examining the Bible’s message on the future. If we focus on the end times too long, we are afraid of turning into a guy walking around the city with a sandwich board yelling about judgment and the end of time. We easily get confused when reading Revelation because of all of the dragons, and angels, and locusts with human faces, and all sorts of images you cannot imagine. We see people that love this sort of thing much like my friend who just walked through our worship center – freaky. Honestly, we just don’t see anything relevant about the end of time to our time. So we give up thinking about the Bible and the future and just focus on the here and now. But maybe you fail to focus on the future for different reason. Maybe your neglect of the future because you see no way that the future can bring you real happiness.
Perhaps you’re similar to Secular Sam. Sam is successful. He has a good job, a nice girlfriend, and a beautiful home. His car is new, and his health is fine. He is humorous, good with people, and intelligent. He can discuss economics, business, philosophy, politics, the arts, and law. Secular Sam is also a Christian. He affirms the things we believe as Christians. He is an active Christian. Young Life and Campus Crusade are in his background. He is moral. He can carry on a discussion with his skeptical friends about the validity of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. He knows about the power of the Scripture. You might be thinking, “How is Secular Sam secular?” He seems profoundly Christian? Sam is profoundly secular in this: he expects to wake up in his bed tomorrow morning. Sam has never heard of what his grandparents’ generation called the “blessed hope.” His concerns about his spiritual life are all contained in this age, in this time. Sam assumes tomorrow will be just like today. Sam’s hope has been collapsed into the now, the present, the visible, and into what he feels.
Today, I want to ask you, “What is your hope fixed on?” What makes you happy? I invite you to turn with me to 1 Peter 4 and stand with me in honor God’s Word.
The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (1 Peter 4:7-11).
Today’s Big Idea: Because the end is near… pray, love, and serve. Peter is continuing the same thought from last week’s message. In verses one through six Peter called on you to be resolved to fight temptation to do wrong. Why? Because there is coming a day when you will give an account of your life before God Himself.
1. Because the End Is Near, Pray
“The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.” (1 Peter 4:7)
Jesus’ words are, I’m coming. I’m coming quickly. One out of every thirty verses in the New Testament mentions Christ’s Second Coming. Out of the 260 chapters in the New Testament, there are over 300 references to His return. Only four out of the 27 New Testament books do not specifically speak of His return. The return of Christ is a major event, a significant event about which the Scripture speaks again and again because it is a tremendously important event.
The Apostle Peter understood this. In 1 Peter, he mentions the return of Christ eight times. It’s worth noting how often this theme comes out in 1Peter. Oftentimes, when it comes to thinking of the end of time people are driven to hysteria rather than clear thinking. Nowhere does the Bible encourage the setting of dates or any other kinds of charts that are so often associated with the Second Coming. Look at Peter’s words again in verse seven: “The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.” (1 Peter 4:7) Peter tells his readers three times to be sober (1:13; 4:7; 5:8). The two verbs “self-controlled” and “be clear minded” are virtually synonymous. Because the time is short, you are called to act. You are not called to withdraw up in the mountains, secluded from this reckless world. The imminence of the end should function as a stimulus to action rather than sitting in isolation. You would think Peter would call on us to do something extraordinary in light of the end of the world. The nearness of the end has caused some to lost their heads and act irrationally. Because time is short, Peter places two choices in front of us to pursue happiness – the first again is in verse three where you find happiness by indulging in everything hedonistic desire this world has to offer.
The second is in also in verse three where Peter mentions “the will of God.” Peter details for us what the will of God is in verses seven through eleven. Here he mentions three items – prayer, love, and serving others. Peter knows what it means to miss life when it comes to prayer and he also knows how to hit the sweet spot of life when it comes to prayer.
Remember. Gethsemane and Peter Sleeping: “And he came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, ‘Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour’” (Mark 14:37)?
Now, this is the first time the church had come up against any kind of resistance. Peter and John had been jailed and that’s where the text actually takes up. They had a prayer meeting and verse 29 tells us the way they concluded the meeting.
“’And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.’ And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all” (Acts 4:29-33)
I didn’t read the entire passage but it would reveal to us a church in crisis. You might say that the pastor along with another staff member had been jailed. Before they were released they were warned in no uncertain terms that dire consequences if they keep on preaching and teaching in the name of Jesus. I find their response to be very intriguing. The Bible says they circulated a petition and they got 10,000 names on it and they send it to Caesar at Rome protesting this infringement on their religious liberties. Don’t look at me like you believe that. Doesn’t even say anything about them putting protest stickers on the bumpers of their chariots. Rather, the Bible says they lifted their voice to God in prayer. They knew that prayer linked our impotence with God’s omnipotence. They were aware of the fact that prayer links our finiteness with the plans and purposes of infinite God. They saw that prayer attaches our human weakness to God’s sovereign power. This church was on the verge of seeing afresh what happens when people really pray. I’m not suggesting to you that if we are a praying church that every time we come to this auditorium tremble. I hope you’re praying that the great God of heaven will manifest His presence in His church and in our nation soon. That we will see Him touchdown in some unusual ways. An obvious demonstration of the power of God will do more for you to equip you as a Christian than a thousand programs or a dozen lectures.
“But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man”
(Luke 21:36).
The point of praying for “escape” is not that Christians will be taken out of the world and not pass through the trouble Jesus is predicting. You don’t need “strength” for that. He prays for “strength” — that they would be strong so as not to be spiritually and morally ruined by the end-time stresses. Two verses earlier in verse 34 he calls the coming end a “trap” for those who are weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life: “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth” (Luke 21:34-35)
That’s what we need to have strength to escape from — the trap of worldliness as the end draws near. Remember, Peter has placed two big themes in front of us and they are related – our happiness and our mortality. He says first, if you wish to really pursue happiness, then we should pray.
2. Because the End Is Near, Pray
“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling” (1 Peter 4:8-9). Peter calls on us to love one another because the time is short. I want you to imagine that your banker called you last Friday, and said he had some very good news. He told you that an anonymous donor had decided to deposit 86,400 pennies into your bank account every morning, starting the following Monday morning. Now that's $864 a day, seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year. But then imagine that he says this: “But there is one stipulation... you’ve got to spend all the money that same day. No balance will be carried over to the next day. Each evening the bank will cancel whatever sum you fail to use.” You would thank your banker, hang up, and over the weekend you would have time to plan. You would grab a pencil and start figuring - $864 a day equals $6,000 a week, which equals $315,000 a year that is available to you if you are diligent to spend it all everyday. Now remember, what you don’t spend is forfeited.
Did you know that every morning a gracious God, who loves you, deposits into your bank of time 86,400 seconds of time - or 1,440 minutes - or 24 hours a day? Now the same stipulation applies because God gives you this amount of time to use each day. Nothing is ever carried over on credit to the next day. There is no such thing as a 26-hour day, though I know some of us wish there were. From sunrise to sunrise, you have a precisely determined amount of time. That is why someone has wisely said, “Life is like a coin. You can spend it anyway you want to, but you can only spend it once.”
Did you know that in a lifetime the average American will spend five months tying his shoes, six months sitting at stoplights, eight months opening junk mail, one year looking for misplaced objects, two years unsuccessfully returning phone calls, four years doing housework, five years waiting in line, six years eating, fourteen years working, and twenty-four years sleeping?
Life is like an the passing of sand through an hour glass. Be persistent and resolved to find pursue happiness. Combing Peter’s emphasis of love and prayer: “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:14-17).
2.1 Love Covers Sin
“Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses” (Proverbs 10:12) Verse 8 says that our love needs to be the kind that covers each other's sins. In other words the focus is on the effect of love that enables fellowship in spite of sins. Peter is saying that bona fide, authentic love and fellowship is based, in part, on the covering of many sins. This is not sweeping things under the rug. It’s not endorsing keeping skeletons in the closet.
2.2 Love Cares for Sinners
“Show hospitality to one another without grumbling” (1 Peter 4:9). “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Hebrews 13:2). Peter points out in verse 9 that one of the most visible expressions of love is hospitality. Entertaining guests in your home is not the same thing as hospitality – don’t confuse the two. Entertaining involves having your good friends in your home – people you know you’ll enjoy. Hospitality is inviting strangers into your home – without knowing much about them. Entertaining is a social grace that will get your name in the paper. Hospitality is an expression of love that never seeks any recognition. In entertaining the focus is on the host or and their beautiful home or cooking skill – in hospitality the focus is on the needs of the guest.
3. Because the End is Near, Serve
“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (1 Peter 4:10-11). Every Christian is a steward — a custodian, a manager, a warden, a distributor, a servant — of God’s varied grace. What a great reason to be alive! Every Christian lives on grace. “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8).
If you are afraid of hospitality — that you don’t have much personal strength or personal wealth — good. Then you won’t intimidate anybody. You will depend all the more on God’s grace. You will look all the more to the work of Christ and not your own work. And O what a blessing people will get in your simple home. Your little apartment. When a person finds out that he has a terminal illness, the first question he will ask, “How much time do I have left?” Time is a funny thing. Jesus had only so much time when He lived on this earth and yet He spent His time: “…the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). When we call ourselves followers of Christ, there should be within us a heart for kindness toward others. Because we are His disciple, there is way when we show kindness toward others that we honor Christ. We glorify Him. Christ is magnified through our serving and our hospitality. Remember Jesus said that in the last days, the love of many will grow cold (Matthew 24:12) Love is paramount, and it will be needed all the more as the end draws near. Why? Because the pressures and stresses and tribulations of the last days will put relationships under tremendous stress: “But in these days we will need each other, and the world will be watching to see if we are real: ‘By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another’” (John 13:35) We don’t mind wasting it, but we will do anything to keep from losing it.
May feel that the greatest queen in the history of Great Britain was Queen Elizabeth. She launched the ships which smashed the power of Spain and saved England from the papacy and the Spanish Inquisition. She ruled over Great Britain during her glory days, when she was at the zenith of her power, and she reigned for forty-five years. But when she died, a haggard woman of seventy, frantically hanging on to life, her last words were these: “I would give all my possessions for a moment of time.”
