Sermon Tone Analysis

*Glorifying God in the Church by Serving One Another - 1 Peter 4:10-11*

/Preached by Pastor Phil Layton at Gold Country Baptist Church on April 6, 2008/

www.goldcountrybaptist.org

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Before we look at our text this morning, I want to begin in Ephesians.

At the start of this year we began a series of messages on the church that ended up being 14 weeks and today we conclude our series on glorifying God in the church.

This focus on God’s glory through the basics of what the church is to do and be, this has been really refreshing and exciting for me to rediscover and reaffirm the essentials of the church Christ loves and died for, and He seeks to make us a holy bride to the praise of His glory & grace.

This is a series that I honestly would love to continue for many more months and years and would not have to run out of passages for expository messages showing the riches of God’s glory.

But it will be good to return to a consecutive series through a whole book and we’ll be going through Titus (where we’re going next on Sun.

mornings).

I pray the foundation and framework of God’s glory being pre-eminent and central will always continue.

Our study has been called the church series, but it’s been ultimately about God.

A few weeks ago we studied Ephesians, which says in its central verse (3:21), the hinge on which it turns to the 2nd half of the book “To God be the glory in the church … Therefore, walk worthy”

 

And we saw that Eph. 4 tells us /how/ we are to glorify and exalt God which requires that for Him to be lifted high we must first be kept low and humble, patient, being diligent to preserve the unity and fellowship we have, and because we are recipients of God’s grace, what He gives to each of us is to be shared with others.

Look for a moment at the cover of your bulletin this week – we get these pre-printed a year in advance, but it’s neat to see how often God’s providential timing orchestrates the cover and verse fitting very nicely with the message.

Eph 4:7 “/Unto everyone is given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift/”

* *

This is very much the message of our main text in 1 Peter 4, and I want to first tie in the serving of one another in 1 Peter to what Ephesians 4 had to say about the purpose of the church.

We saw in Ephesians 4:11-12 (if you weren’t here, you need to get the CD, because that may be the most foundational messages all year) but that passage teaches that God gave pastors and teachers to the church for the equipping or training of the saints, so that the saints (the believers) can do the work of ministry, to the building up of the body of Christ.

That same phrase, “building up the body” is used in v. 16 and it makes clear every member must do its part.

As James Boice reminded us:

“the early church often used the word ‘minister’ or ‘ministry’ as referring to what /all /Christians are and must do … There are indeed pastors, as distinct from other Christians.

But the difference is one of spiritual gifts and service rather than of ministry versus non-ministry.”[1]

It has also been said, ‘Christianity … has become a professional pulpitism, financed by lay spectators!’ Nowadays we hire a church staff to do ‘full-time Christian work,’ and we sit in church on Sunday to watch them do it.

Every Christian is meant to be in [ministry] ...

There is indeed a special ministry of pastors, teachers and evangelists—but for what?

... For the [equipping] of the saints for their ministry.[2]

John Stott sums it up well, in explaining that this expression

‘about equipping God’s people is of far-reaching significance for any true understanding of Christian ministry.

For the word /ministry/ (/diakonia/) is here used not to describe the work of pastors but rather the work of so-called laity, that is, of all God’s people without exception … the privileged calling of all the people of God.

Thank God that in our generation this biblical vision of an ‘every-member ministry’ is taking a firm hold in the church.

It does not mean that there is no distinctive pastoral ministry left for clergy; rather it establishes its character.

The New Testament concept of the pastor is not of a person who jealously guards all ministry in his own hands, and successfully squashes all lay initiatives, but of one who helps and encourages all God’s people to discover, develop and exercise their gifts.

His teaching and training are directed to this end  … instead of monopolizing all ministry himself, he actually multiplies ministries.

What model of the church, then, should we keep in our minds?

The traditional model is that of the pyramid, with the pastor perched precariously on its pinnacle, like a little pope in his own church, while the laity are arrayed beneath him in serried ranks of inferiority.

It is a totally unbiblical image, because the New Testament envisages not a single pastor with a docile flock but both a plural oversight and an every-member ministry.’

John Stott warns of another model: ‘the model of the bus, in which the pastor does all the driving while the congregation are the passengers slumbering in peaceful security behind him.

Quite different from either the pyramid or the bus is the biblical model of the body.

The church is the body of Christ, every member of which has a distinctive function.

Although the body metaphor can certainly accommodate the concept of a distinct pastorate (in terms of one ministry—and a very important one—among many), there is simply no room in it either for a hierarchy or for that kind of bossy clericalism which concentrates all ministry in the hands of one man and denies the people of God their own rightful ministries.

…If the sixteenth century recovered ‘the priesthood of all believers’ (every Christian enjoying through Christ a direct access to God), perhaps the twentieth century will recover ‘the ministry of all believers’ (every Christian receiving from Christ a privileged ministry to men).’[3]

The word “ministry” or “minister” (/diakonia/) and its verb form is the word that is translated “serve” or “service” or “serving”

* *

1 Peter 4:8-11 (NASB95) \\ 8 Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.

9 Be hospitable to one another without complaint [or “grumbling” NKJV] 10 As each one has received a /special /gift, employ it in serving one another [or “minister it to one another” NKJV] as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

11 Whoever speaks, /is to do so /as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves [or “ministers” NKJV]  /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.

/God is Glorified in our Mutual Ministry When We Are:/

#. *Serving one another with the right heart – v. 10a*

* *

Peter writes in the first part of verse 10 that whatever we receive from God as a gift of His grace we are to use to minister to others with those abilities.

We are to serve one another – each of us has been given at least one gift and God has given His grace /to us/ so that He can also extend His grace /through us/ in mutual ministry within the body.

His grace and gifts are not to end with us, we are to be a channel through which flows service to one another, and this ministry must be done with the right heart.

Why do I say with the right heart?

That’s the prior context:

v. 8 – keeping fervent in love for one another (from a heart of love, not a spirit of legalism – fervent love should drive our ministry)

v. 9 – not grumbling or complaining as we show hospitality

 

God is not glorified when we minister with a bad attitude and without love in our heart for the body, when serve or give grudgingly or with grumbling.

The great motive in v. 11 is not guilt, either, it’s to glorify God by serving in the right spirit with proper motivation, with a happy and rejoicing heart.

The right heart is emphasized in the prior context and also the following context continues further with the type of heart we should have which is rejoicing and exulting even in difficulty.

Vss.

12-16 clearly connect God’s glory with our joy or happiness in the midst of great difficulty or even fiery trials.

\\ 12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; 13 but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, *keep on rejoicing*, so that also at the revelation of *His glory* you may *rejoice* with *exultation*.

14 If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are *blessed* [truly happy], because the Spirit of *glory* and of God rests on you.

… 16 but if /anyone suffers /as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is *to glorify God* in this name.

[“in this matter” NKJV]

* *

We might think the things we have to do in service are a burden from time to time, but remember Peter is writing this who were really suffering – the “fiery trial” of v. 12 was literal fire for some.

This is not those who might have to sacrifice some of their free time, but those who had to sacrifice families and freedoms and even their very lives at the hands of the Nero Caesar!

We don’t have anything to complain or grumble about compared to the living conditions and fiery trials they went through then.

But regardless of our situation, whether under persecution or peace times, we are to have a heart of joy in the Lord and love for each other.

And when we don’t feel that way naturally or when we have to persevere to serve even while under trials, that gives God glory.

What does verse 10 say when it says “minister to one another” or “serving one another”?

The original language is continuing this thought from verse 9, where one example of service or ministry is showing hospitality to one another without complaining or murmuring.

This is a command to be happily hospitable, especially showing hospitality to those in the body of Christ.

The original literal meaning of hospitality has to do with love for strangers.

This duty that God commands us to is not just hanging out with or having over your few favorite friends or those you know the best.

It’s a love and hospitable action esp. to those you don’t know well, even strangers.

This is one thing that marked the early church, there was a genuine hospitality and love extended to visitors, travelers who were provided for, welcomed to meals.

We saw this last week in Acts 2, in the early church, their fellowship overflowed from church gatherings to house to house, eating meals together.

They had open homes, open doors, open hearts, open arms to others, not just within their clique or circle.

Now verse 10 does mention using gifts, but notice that verse 9 is a command.

It doesn’t say “be hospitable” unless that’s not your gift.

The N.T. doesn’t tell us to evangelize or serve unless that’s not your gift.

God does gift certain individuals more than others in certain areas, but that does not mean we can excuse ourselves from any biblical command or duty.

Whether you think you have the gift of evangelism or not does not change your responsibility to evangelize and the same is true of hospitality or service.

* *

In some of the teaching on spiritual gifts, one of the dangers is that people might look for their “gift” (singular) and once they find something, they feel that’s all they need to do.

Some churches do surveys or computer analysis which may find out what you /like to do/, but there is much service that needs to be done that isn’t your preference.

A big part of serving is simply “what needs to be done”

If the disciples took a survey or computer analysis of themselves, footwashing wouldn’t have come up (but Jesus called them to it)

 

Here’s a list of biblical commands of how we are all to serve:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

! *The “One Anothers” of the New Testament*

!

*Our Mutual Ministry of Service*

/ /

1.     Be at peace with one another – Mark 9:50

2.     Love one another – John 13:34

3.     Be devoted to one another – Romans 12:10

4.     Give preference to one another – Rom.

12:10

5.     Don’t judge one another’s liberty – Romans 14:13

6.     Accept one another – Romans 15:7

7.     Admonish one another – Romans 15:14

8.     Care for one another – I Corinthians 12:25

9.     Serve one another – Galatians 5:13

10.

Bear one another’s burdens – Galatians 6:2

11.

Show forbearance to one another – Ephesians 4:2