Pilgrim Living in a Fallen World: Body Life and the Glory of God
I
Peter 4:9-11
Introduction: In his popular book from about fifteen years
ago, The Purpose Driven Life, Rick
Warren introduced the acrostic “S.H.A.P.E.” to describe God’s sovereign work in
“shaping us” purposefully into the person we are. S.H.A.P.E. refers to our Spiritual
gifts, our Heart’s desire, our Abilities, our Personality,
and our Experiences being uniquely planned, providentially guided, and
sovereignly bestowed by God to make us into exactly the person that we are. The
psalmist said a thousand years before Christ, “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are
your works; my soul knows it very well...” (Ps 139:14). The psalmist may have been primarily talking
about his physical body being knit together in his mother’s womb, but the
principle applies to every aspect of our being. God is the Potter, you and I
are the clay, and he has been “shaping” us into the people we are, for His
purposes.
After
you came to faith in Christ he endowed you with certain spiritual gifts. He led
you to the “heart’s desire” or the sense of calling, the passion for serving
that you have. You might work hard at developing skills, but he has given each
of us certain abilities or aptitudes. Our “personality” may be unique, but we
are who we are because God has designed us to have a part in His story. The
experiences you have come through may have been both exciting and devastating,
joyful and heart breaking, meaningful and mundane, but in all of it God has
been present and working, forming you into the person you have become. So your
S.H.A.P.E., your spiritual gifts, heart’s desire, abilities, personality, and
experiences, have been knit together by the architect of the universe; they
have been molded by the omniscient “Potter.” You have been fearfully and
wonderfully made. Your story is a part of God’s story, His plan, as He is
building His church.
Now
put this into our context in First Peter. The apostle is writing to exiles,
pilgrims dispersed among the nations, Christ followers who are familiar with
suffering, who are experiencing persecution. Peter will tell them in the next chapter
that they shouldn’t be surprised by the fiery trials through which they are
passing. He has urged his readers, in the light of the approaching consummation
of God’s plan, “Above all, keep loving
one another fervently…” (I Pet 4:8). Here Peter talks about showing hospitality and
about using our gifts for the building up of the body. That is one way we show our
love, by not withholding what God gave us, but using all that we have, all that
we are, for the good of others, and for the glory of God.
The Maine* Idea: With the ultimate goal of the
glory of God we should love and serve one another.
I. Our love is revealed by ungrudging hospitality: The “one another’s” of the New Testament start with our heart attitude, including ungrudging hospitality (9).
“Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.”
We touched on this verse two weeks ago,
as we looked at vv. 7-9. Hospitality implies welcoming people into your home,
sharing your time and space with others. Time is a precious commodity, we only
have so much of it. Can we really open our homes and spend time together? Our
lives are so busy! The early church did. They were breaking bread from house to
house, taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart. And that is the idea here, “ungrudging hospitality.” It’s about attitude. In another context the
Bible tells us that the Lord loves a “cheerful” giver. Grudgingly putting your
offering in the plate is like no offering at all. The principle applies to
whatever we do for the Lord. I remember as a seminary student God kept
giving me opportunities to preach almost every weekend. I remember during a
busy time of the semester lamenting to someone, “I am so busy, and I have to
preach this Sunday.” The guy wisely said, “Well, if that is your attitude,
don’t bother!” It should be a pleasure to give, and a pleasure to serve. The
principle here is that the Lord loves those who are “cheerfully hospitable,”
finding joy in sharing their life with others.
By the way, hospitality, welcoming strangers, should apply to us as a church as much as it does to our home life. I read this excerpt from a letter a researcher sent to a friend…
“I am presently completing the second year of a three-year survey on the hospitality or lack of it in churches. To date, of the 195 churches I have visited, I was spoken to in only one by someone other than an official greeter—and that was to ask me to move my feet.”
I am quite sure his experience
would have been different at our church. But even here we can sometimes get so
focused on greeting our friends and enjoying a few minutes of “catching up”
with them, that we don’t even notice the visitor who just dropped in that day.
Let’s be known as a welcoming, hospitable church!
We have families in our church who are freely
hospitable. We saw that this summer as we went to several different homes for our
“Church on the Go” mid-week services. Many of you host missionaries and
visitors regularly. Some love to have
people over for meals, or to host Bible studies or prayer meetings. That kind of openness cultivates the sense of
“family” that God wants us to have as a church. It also is a testimony to the
world. Remember Jesus said, “By this men
will know that you are my disciples: if you have love for one another.” God
gets the glory!
If Ronald Reagan was right that, “All
great change in America begins at the dinner table,” that speaks to our
responsibility to shepherd our family, and also, through hospitality, to reach
out to our friends and neighbors, our oikos,
the people in our close sphere of influence, and to show them Christ in our
life and through our testimony. Teaching
at the seminary in Brazil I would spend time in the lunch room with the
students to be available to them to chat about issues they were facing at home
or in their churches. That kind of
“Table Talk” sometimes is just as impactful as what is learned in the
classroom. As parents talk to their
children at the meal times they can begin to show them that their faith is
relevant to life.
We started a new Sunday School series
today using the “LaserChurch” material. It points out that 95% percent of the
people who come to faith in Christ have primarily been influenced by one or
more people they know, people they are in a close relationship with. Why? Because
the people around you have been watching you, they know you. You aren’t
perfect, and they know that, but you have earned a “hearing.” So we want to be
ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us. Peter has just said that the
task is urgent and the time is short. God has included us in His plan! He said
we should fervently love on another. That points to the Maine Idea* in these verses: With
the ultimate goal of the glory of God we should love and serve one another.
II. Our love is demonstrated as we use all that God has
given us for the good of others (10). Our Gifts Were Freely
Given to be Freely Used for the Good of Others. Be Faithful in service: Use
your gifts for the good of the body and for the glory of
God. Each of us has a spiritual gift(s)
to use for the good of the body, and we are required to be a good steward of
that gift (10).
10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good
stewards of God's varied [manifold, multi-faceted] grace…
First of all, notice that “...each
has received a gift...” You may or may not feel that you know what your
spiritual gift(s) is (are). We are all
included, “each has received a gift.”
You might think that means “most” people, or everyone else, and that somehow
you were left out. I had an uncle who
was always teasing the kids in the family. He would say things like, “When God
was giving out brains, you must have thought He said ‘trains,’ and said ‘No
thanks, I don’t want any!’” Well there is no possibility that God left you out,
if you know Christ as your savior. “Each
has received a gift…” He formed you into the person you are, He guided the
path of your life, and then, when you turned to Him in faith, He gave you a
spiritual gift for the building up of the body.
I know that first of all I am a pastor/teacher, (and secondarily I have
gifts of encouragement and discernment) not because I chose it. I would not
have honestly. I am what I am by the grace of God. The same is true of you. The church is
composed of many members. Each of us has gifts, and each of is called to
use those gifts “to serve one another.” Christianity
is not for spectators and the church is not a social club. We are a Body,
fashioned by God to carry out his mission in the world.
Notice Peter speaks of the “manifold grace of God.” The idea is “multi-faceted.” This points to the diversity of gifts that God has given in the church. I don’t believe that we have an exhaustive list of spiritual gifts in the New Testament. It refers to any supernatural endowment that God has given us to build up the church and carry out His mission. For example, I don’t believe there is a “gift of encouragement” listed in the Bible. In fact we all are called to “encourage one another.” But I think when we look at the life of Barnabas, we see an example of someone who was especially empowered to encourage others. I’ve mentioned before that on our missionary team, when we first went to Brazil, we had a single woman who we called “our Barnabas.” Terri was constantly encouraging us and others on the team. I believe she had a gift. I believe we have at least a couple of people in our church with that gift. Likewise, we are all called to give, to support the ministries of the church, but some have a special “gift of giving” in that God has enabled them to earn at a high level and to give generously to His work. One family I know of has felt that God would have them tithe at 25% of their gross income. It’s not a burden for them, it’s a joy, a privilege. You too have a gift from God, along with every other aspect of the S.H.A.P.E. He has given you.
You might think, “I just don’t know what my gift is!” Don’t stress yourself trying to name your spiritual gifts. Look for opportunities to serve in the church. None of us should be content to go to church week after week, sing a few songs, hear a message, put something in the offering, and then go home. I read a story this week about the need for all of us the be involved...
There were 4 Christians,
Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was a special job to do. Share
the Gospel. Everybody was asked to do it. Everybody was sure Somebody would.
Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that
because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but
Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody
blamed Somebody, and Nobody did it.
One of the books on the back table has the sub-title, Just Do Something! No one can do
everything but everyone can do something. What you find to do, and find
fulfillment in doing, will begin to reveal your gifts to you and to others. God
has formed you purposefully into the person you are. He is the Potter, we are
the clay. The gifts you have been graciously given, the desires and burdens you
feel in your heart, the abilities that have been developed over many years,
maybe over your entire lifetime, the personality that you have, the experiences
you have passed through, God’s hand has been in all of it, guiding your story
to prepare you to fulfill your part in His story. We are responsible to use all
that we are for the good of others and for the glory of God.
“God has placed in our trust a measure of time, a unique set of talents, and sufficient resources to carry out His will for each of our lives. Our task as faithful stewards is to manage those blessings in order to bring the maximum glory to His name.”
We see an illustration of the
principle of stewardship in the life of Joseph, the son of Jacob. When he was
sold into slavery by his brothers he came to the house of Potiphar, and
eventually was put in charge of his household. The scripture says that Potiphar
entrusted all that he had into Joseph’s hand (Gen 39:4). He was to be a
“steward” of his master’s possessions. Paul said to the Corinthians that “It is required of a steward that one be
found trustworthy” (I Cor 4:2). In our passage, Peter calls on His readers
to be “good stewards of God’s varied
grace.” A good steward uses responsibly what God has entrusted to him. When we last looked at these verses in July, I
quoted a little poem by Rick Warren that states the idea,
“God gave me a gift, not for me
but for you, and God gave you a gift, not for you but for me.
If you don’t use your gift, you’re depriving me; if I don’t use my gift, I’m robbing you.”
If you don’t use your gift, you’re depriving me; if I don’t use my gift, I’m robbing you.”
This is God’s design for the church! He could
have made each of us independent agents to bring the Gospel into the world. But
instead He made the church. None of us is complete. But all of us are
important. WE NEED EACH OTHER.
Paul uses the metaphor of the church as a “body” in I Corinthians 12 and in Romans 12. Each part is important, essential, to the proper working of the whole. On Thursday we went to the park with our grandchildren. I don’t know what happened, but suddenly I felt a sharp pain, like I got stabbed in the back with a knife, and went right down on the ground. That was the end of our play date! One muscle spasm (if that is what it was) and I was done! The body is a picture of us. No believer is complete by himself, we are to minister to one another, as a family. We need each other. Peter says you’ve been given a gift, “use it to serve one another,” not in our own strength, but “by the strength that God supplies...” Because God is at work, He gets the credit. With the ultimate goal of the glory of God we should love and serve one another.
III. God is glorified as He uses us to carry out His
mission in the world (11).
As we use our Gifts God Himself
is working in us and through us (11a). Peter
is calling his readers to realize that something supernatural is happening as
we are engaged in God mission. The Gospel is God’s “Good News,” the Bible is
His Word, and His work, His mission, must be carried out in reliance on Him. It
seems to me this is one reason that God asked the disciples to “wait” for the
promise of the Father for 10 days, from the day of His ascension in Acts 1
until Pentecost. It was only after the Spirit was poured out on the church that
they could carry out the mission. They needed His presence and His power, and needed
to understand that they could not carry out the mission in their own strength. Peter says in 4:11,
…whoever speaks, as one who
speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves
by the strength that God supplies…
God’s Word is spoken, God’s
Work is done… What an awesome thought: God is working in us and through us!
Paul said that in Philippians 2:12-16,
…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you,
both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
14 Do all things without grumbling or questioning, 15 that you may be blameless and
innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted
generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of
life…
Do you see divine sovereignty and human
responsibility side by side in those verses? In our passage Peter is not naming
specific spiritual gifts, but he refers to two general categories of gifts:
speaking gifts and serving gifts. The point is that our desire should be to do
what we do in God’s name for God’s glory. It isn’t about us, but rather God
working in us and through us for His purpose.
That brings us to the Goal of
our Mission: the glory of God (11b).
…in order that in everything God may be
glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and
ever. Amen.
Whether speaking or serving, we are to
use our gifts to this end: “…in order
that in everything God may be glorified…” The paragraph ends with this
beautiful doxology... first He states our purpose and then he states a
declaration of praise to God, to Him belong glory and dominion forever!
What is God saying to me in this passage? With the ultimate goal of the
glory of God we should love and serve one another…
What would God have me to do in response to this
passage?
God’s glory is where this passage ends and it’s where we should start. Is His
glory of first importance to you? Our
desire should be to see the fame of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ spread
through the world. That means it isn’t important to us to get the credit for
what God does since we really don’t deserve the credit. He is building the
church, He is carrying out His mission in the world! Don’t get me wrong, it is
not bad to be recognized, or for people to express approval or appreciation.
Paul, in many of his letters, voiced thankfulness for the believers in the
churches. But even then, he thanked GOD for them.
God
gets the glory, because He has made us, and empowered us, and despite our
weaknesses, He uses us in His program. Do you believe that God is working in the
world today? Do you believe He has “shaped” you to have a part in His program? Are you willing to allow Him to use you,
however He chooses to us you, for His glory? Think about that, better still pray about it, and let's see what God will do! AMEN.
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