Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

As we began looking at chapter 4 last week we saw this call to live for God’s Kingdom, to live for God’s glory, to live to do the will of the Father, not to live for this world.

We talked about last week that this is the same way of thinking that Peter is calling us to.

Again we saw last week that when we live this way the world will not like it.

The more you live for God’s will and and the less you live for the world the more the world will hate you.

See what they did to our Lord.

But their judgement is coming

And we are reminded that though we may suffer for righteousness sake we have life that can never be taken from us.

So at the end of this section Peter reminds us of the end time hope that we have as followers of Christ.

And that leads us into the next set of verses.

I.

The imminent return of Christ.

We can trace Peter’s thought as he is lead by the Holy Spirit here.

We are to live for God’s Kingdom, live to do God’s will living righteous and holy lives and not worldly lives marked by sin.

Brothers and sisters we have been set free from death and judgement and have been given life in Christ.

And then there is the encouragement with this truth, the consummation of God’s Kingdom, the consummation of the life that we have been given in Christ and the judgement of the wicked (the end of all things) is near, that is it is at hand.

The reason the end is near is because the ministry, death, and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ inaugurated that last days.

As we read the NT we see this theme that the end of history is imminent often

All of the following exhortations in the following verses flow from this truth, that the end is near.

Because the end is near Christians should live in the following way.

This is typical to what we see in the rest of the NT when the end is discussed.

The NT does not discuss the end of times to help us set dates or charts or things like this, instead these truths are set before us to encourage us to live in a godly way.

through the end of chapter 25

The imminence of the end is not used to call us to withdraw from the world but to live as salt and light in the world, it is a call to action, a call to faithfulness.

Knowing that time is short we are called to make the best use of the time.

Knowing that Lord could return at any time one may think well what are the big things that I must do?

Well if we notice Peter calls us to faithfulness in the everyday things of life.

II.

Living in light of the imminent return of Christ.

Pray

Be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers or so that you can pray.

Sober-minded is to be able to see clearly, to see things as they really are

This word is used

Peter is saying that there is a way of living where one can become drunk by the attractions of this world.

When one is intoxicated by the the entertainment and the flash of the world then they will not be able to set their hope on the grace to come.

When one is drunk by the world then they will not hope in Christ.

Church if we are going to hope in the second coming of Christ then we have to stop drinking the intoxicating lies of the world and of sin.

We have to think soberly about reality.

We have to think soberly about sin and the world, (we cannot dismiss the sinfulness of sin)

we have to think soberly about our own lives,

we have to think soberly about the brevity of life,

we have to think soberly about the emptiness that is there even when we have everything that the world tells us that we are to live for.

We have to think soberly about God's coming wrath,

We have to think soberly about the reality there is nothing more satisfying than Christ and that if we have Christ and if Christ has us then nothing can undo that union.

You will not pray as you should if you are not sober-minded so for the sake of your prayers be sober-minded

He also mentions being self-controlled, if we are going to be sober-minded we must be self controlled, right?

So this is a call for us to pray

We will not pray as we ought, we will not pray in a way that is pleasing to God is we are not self controlled and sober minded.

We will not know how to pray, we will not know what to pray for if we are not self controlled and sober minded.

2. Love one another

Love

Notice the next command is modified.

Before all things, above all things

Serve

We are called to love one another and the significance of this is seen with this phrase “above all”

More than anything else make sure that you love one another.

We are called to love one another earnestly.

The idea here is that of persevering love.

Maybe we could say it this way: More important than anything else make sure that you persevere in loving one another.

That you continue loving one another

Do not waver in your love for one another.

Loving others can be hard, it can be taxing, it can be costly but even though all of that is true we are called to love one another.

Notice the text says that we are love one another and that love covers a multitude of sins.

In other words, our love for one another will cause us to forgive one another.

We will not separate, go our own way, get mad and go home if someone does something against us, no true love perseveres, true love forgives.

This is a theme that Peter has already visited.

1 Peter 1:22

Paul tells us in that the greatest of the Christian virtues is love.

The kind of love that we are called to is the kind that gives of itself for the good of the other.

I think of

1 John

Brothers and sisters our Lord warned us that at the end of the age love is apt to grow cold

Matthew

I think we see this in our day.

Relationships are so self centered, i think technology, cell phones, television, and so many other creature comforts have caused us to turn more and more inward.

Brothers and sisters we must fight to stoke the fires of love so that we display our love for one another.

In light of the imminence of our Lord’s return brothers and sisters we need to be reminded of the centrality of love for one another.

3. Be hospitable to one another

Here Peter shifts to a very particular command in v.9

Hospitality is a form of love

Indeed the greek word philoxenoi comes from the compound of philos (love) and xenos (stranger).

Hospitality is a specific form of love: caring for strangers.

This is one of the marks of the Christian community

Hospitality was particularly crucial for the Chritian mission in a day when lodging could not be afforded and hece the advance of the mission depended on the willingness of believers to provide bed and board for those visiting.

Matth.

10

I think of Chris Teel though they are not strangers, her opening her house to the Ketchens when they were passing through town.

I think of Chris Teel though they are not strangers, her opening her house to the Ketchens when they were passing through town.

Without gru

Having brothers and sisters in Christ in our home is a way that we can show our love to other Christians, to brothers and sisters in Christ.

I think of hospitality in having others over into your home, hospitality was necessary for the early church to meet in homes.

And we see the words without grumbling, acknowledging that opening one’s home to others can be hard and one can easily grow tired of the service.

But we are called to a joyful hospitality.

4. Serve one another

This theme of ministering to one another comes up again here in v.10.

The emphasis shifts to the gifts believers have recieved by God’s grace.

The word gift “charisma” implies the fits believers have are the result of God’s grace

This word is often used to refer to spiritual gifts.

1 Cor.

12.

These gifts are given to believers, not so that they can be puffed up by their abilities or not to serve themselves, not for their own good but that they might be sacrificially used for the good of others.

Notice in the text with these gifts we have a responsibility, we are to be good stewards of God’s varied grace.