This sermon on 1 Peter 4:7-11 unpacks what it means that “the end of all things is at hand.” Christ’s redemptive work is finished, and now believers are called to speak God’s Word boldly, love fervently, and steward their gifts faithfully. Like Noah and Lot, we must proclaim truth amid rejection, trusting the Spirit to work through our words. Jesus saves—our role is to speak and serve in love.
Faith Lutheran Church in Pinellas County is located at 1620 Pinehurst Rd, Dunedin, FL 34698. It can be contacted at (727) 733-2657. https://faithdunedin.org
Transcript
Brothers and sisters in Christ, more than 1,500 years ago, Peter wrote those words that we read earlier.
The end of all things is at hand.
The end of what though?
Certainly, as we heard before the service, the school year has just ended for those still matriculating, and congratulations again for our youth who just graduated.
But this is certainly not what Peter had in mind.
Many assume that he’s saying that judgment day is nigh, that 1,000 years is but a day in the eyes of the Lord.
So repent and believe.
And this, though wrong, is closer to Peter’s meaning.
Certainly, judgment day is coming, and we do need to repent and believe, but this is not what Peter is getting it here.
Peter has been warning his readers to be ready for that day, to be ready for the end, but the end of which he’s writing here, the end of all things, is the work of redemption that Jesus Christ accomplished for us on the cross, and which is completed, and thus he has ascended into heaven.
This is what Peter has been teaching the church in his letter, for Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit, by whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient when once the divine long-suffering waited in the days of Noah, but the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight souls were saved through the water.
Christ’s death on the cross covered all sin, every sin, and that committed at first by Adam and Eve, to those which you and I will commit in the future, even the ones we may commit as we draw our final breaths.
Covered, paid for, done, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
God’s love and sin in Christ, to bear our shame and transgressions to the cross.
This love has covered all of your sins.
God’s love, the blood of the lamb, has washed your robes as white as snow, clothing you in Jesus’ holiness and righteousness.
But in order to receive this gift, you must believe.
Moses, excuse me, Noah, his wife and his three sons, and their wives, eight souls in all, were saved through the waters of the flood in the ark.
Because they had heard God’s word, and they believed that he would do as he said.
They repented from sin.
They strove to be obedient to God, including by building the ark, and including by loving their unbelieving neighbors.
Noah took 120 years to build the ark, 120 years.
During that time, he was proclaiming God’s word to his neighbors.
Do you think they didn’t wonder why he was building a boat in the middle of nowhere?
It gave him an opportunity to preach.
And yet, the people that heard it rejected his word.
And they perished, not just in the waters of the flood, but in the fires prepared for Satan and his angels.
In our creed, we just confess that Jesus descended into hell.
He did this not to suffer for sins in hell.
He had already done that in the cross.
But he did it as Peter taught to preach to those who were disobedient, to show them the folly of their unbelief, the consequence for rejecting the love of God in Christ Jesus.
For souls such as those who had rejected Christ’s work of redemption, this is the end of all things.
Christ has come, Christ has taught, and revealed all that is needed for the salvation of man.
He died, and he has risen, and now he has ascended to God’s right hand of power.
His enemies, sin, death, and the powers of hell are mere footstools of his.
His work of redemption is completed.
The end of all things is at hand.
Now the work of the saints has begun.
Now the church is called to be serious and watchful in our prayers.
Exaude Domine, hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud.
Hallelujah.
I was once told by a well-meaning member of the church that if I wanted to become a good preacher, it kind of implies I wasn’t, I should include no less than six jokes in every sermon.
Six jokes.
That’s 40 percent of the average sermon.
The majority of you do not regularly attend Bible studies during the week, so the precious few minutes of the sermon is the only time that I have to proclaim the ways of the Lord, to speak his oracles, to spend 40 percent of that time telling jokes is not taking God’s words seriously.
It’s elevating my words, my humor, my opinions above his.
It’s treating you as if you were mindless imbeciles, unable to grasp the richness and beauty of what our Lord has done for you, or as if you had the attention span of a gnat.
Even worse, it would be neglecting to show you the fervent love of God, the love that covers a multitude of sins.
Sin is serious business.
Sin should not be glossed over by humor.
Sin cannot be paid for by human love.
Not all love is love.
I’m sorry.
To claim this, I’m actually not sorry.
To claim this is to deny the objective truth that God’s love in Christ Jesus alone atones for your sins.
God’s love alone atones for your sins.
Not my love, not your love, no matter how much you love.
You cannot atone for a single sin.
His love has covered my sins.
His love has covered your sins.
And this is why Peter tells us not to speak as court jesters, but as the oracles of God.
If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things, God may be glorified through Christ Jesus.
Each of us, each of us have been given gifts, and Jesus calls us to use our God-given abilities to speak his word to all men.
To speak to mankind, specifically we are to speak to those whom God has placed into our lives, both family and neighbor alike.
This is what it means to be good stewards of his manifold grace.
Like Noah, however, we have to be prepared to be rebuffed, to be ridiculed, to be rejected.
We should feel no guilt when this happens.
We should learn to shake the dust off of our proverbial sandals and get on with the work that God has given us to do.
Noah was not able to save a single person to whom he preached outside of his family.
Later in scripture, we read of Lot and his family in the city of Sodom, and God had sent him to preach to the men of that city.
And they too rejected God’s word, and they take it a step further.
They told Lot, this one came in to stay here, and he keeps acting as a judge.
Now we will deal worse with you than what they were planning to do to the two angels.
Neither Noah nor Lot apologized for speaking God’s word.
Neither one of them softened their tone.
They didn’t stop to crack a joke.
They didn’t make light of the sins they’d been called to condemn.
For to do so would not be speaking the oracles of God.
It would not be God’s love.
It would be preaching peace, peace, when there was no peace.
You and I, we are commanded to teach all that the Lord has said, all of it, even the parts that the world and our neighbors will hate.
To do any less is not love.
To do any less means that we are not using the gifts that the Lord has given us properly.
We speak, we speak all of it, for the end of things is at hand.
Christ has accomplished the salvation of all mankind, and now he’s sending his spirit to move us to do those good works which he has prepared in advance for us to do, to speak God’s love to our neighbors.
Imagine the courage that it took for men like Noah and Lot to speak, to condemn the cultures in which they were living, knowing that no one else outside their family would take them seriously, knowing that they might get killed for saying the very things God had called them to say.
Yet they spoke anyway.
Just as today, you and I must speak.
It’s not your job to save your neighbor.
I hope that doesn’t surprise you.
It’s not your job to save your neighbor because you cannot.
You can only speak the oracles of God and have faith that the Holy Spirit will use those words to create faith in your neighbor’s heart.
You are not even to worry about what to say, for the Holy Spirit will give you the words at the right time.
This isn’t done mystically.
It’s not like a dove is going to descend from heaven and sit on your shoulder and whisper in your ear what you’re supposed to say.
You’re equipped with the words to speak every time you read scriptures, every time you participate in the divine service and hear his words, every time you engage in a Bible study or pray or sing hymns.
With these words, you learn the language of God, you learn to let go of your own fears and you learn to speak the oracles of God.
You learn that Jesus alone is the savior of mankind.
Noah and Lot, Moses, King David, St.
Paul, Peter, none of these men were saviors.
And neither are you or I.
You’re mere humble servants, equipped with unique talents, skills, and gifts to serve our Lord.
Jesus saves.
Jesus paid the price for sin on the cross.
That debt has been paid in full.
In God’s word, you learn that Jesus alone is wise, wise enough to guide us through the end of all things.
Jesus’ law, his wisdom, his spirit is what we need to find peace.
As we turn to him, as we repent for our sins, we hear that our sins are forgiven.
We hear and we live, and we have peace.
This is true for our neighbors as well.
As we surrender our lives to Jesus, as we allow him to direct our lives, we find freedom and peace.
We surrender control over what we think we’re doing, and we trust that the good shepherd, the keeper of Israel, that Jesus alone will defend us from the assaults of the evil one with the shield of faith, that he will guide our footsteps in the way that we should go.
Rather than rely on our own strength or intellect, we turn to the giver of these gifts.
We turn to the shepherd of our souls.
We cry out loud to him for his wisdom and his guidance.
And above all things, have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins.
We have spinned to one another without grumbling.
As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
Your shepherd has given you his grace.
He’s given you the forgiveness of sins.
His love was poured out for you.
And it continues to be poured out in the chalice, in the waters of the font, and in the living waters flowing from the pages of Holy Scripture.
These means of grace have covered all your sins.
Every one of them.
Now, he sends you forth to bear the same hospitality to the world you find at your doorstep.
The Lord is calling you to use your gifts.
Jesus came to pour out his love, to cover your sins, to usher in the end of all things, whether people want to believe in him or not.
He was approaching Jerusalem during Holy Week, and he stopped to gaze upon the people for whom he had come to die, for whom he loved so much that he would pour out his own life.
He stopped and he saw the city, and he wept.
He wept saying, if you had known even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes.
Jesus wept for the loss of Jerusalem.
He knew the fate that awaited them, as surely as he had seen those lost in the flood or in the fires of Sodom.
Jesus wept.
He wept, and then he moved on.
Jesus had a mission to complete, and he pressed forward to Good Friday and to the cross.
And we too need to heed this lesson of Jesus’s.
We’re to weep for the loss of this world.
It’s a tragedy that those who reject the time of their visitation, the ones who turn the deaf ear to the Messiah and take pride in their sins, that they will be lost forever.
We weep, and then we move on.
Jesus didn’t stop to beg people to believe in him.
Jesus didn’t camp outside their houses and plead with them.
Jesus simply declared the truth of his word.
Jesus offered to them faith by the power of the Holy Spirit, and if it was rejected, he moved on.
And the church, too, has the same mission, a mission to share God’s word.
There’s a lot of people out there who haven’t heard and who need to hear, but there’s other people out there who will hear and not join us.
There’s others out there who will hear and seek to betray us or even to crucify us as they did their Lord.
So when we encounter these people, we don’t waste a whole lot of time.
We shake the dust off our sandals and move forward with his mission for the sake of the others who will hear and who will believe.
We cannot allow the doubters.
We cannot allow the enemies of the Lord.
We cannot allow our wicked culture to turn us from the mission that our Lord has given us.
We can allow fear of speaking to turn us from that mission.
The end of all things is at hand.
He is risen.
He is risen indeed.
Let this be our battle cry as we go forward from Easter in triumph and joy.
Let it be our battle cry as we go forth to call the world unto our Lord’s victorious banner.
Let us go forth in love.
Let us go forward trusting that the Word of God will do everything that our Lord promises it will do, that it will restore lost sheep to the fold.
That it will do these things because the Lord is our good shepherd, and in him alone do we find peace and salvation.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
