Inspired P.S. #1: Silvanus Commendation

Introduction to 1 Peter's Postscript and its Purpose

0:02 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, June 25, 2000, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now we return this morning to our studies in the book of 1 Peter, and I would ask you to follow as I read in your hearing 1 Peter chapter 5. And I shall begin in the middle of verse 5, which really is the beginning of the paragraph that concludes in verse 11, and then we'll read the Spirit-inspired postscript bounded by verses 12 through 14. 1 Peter 5, 5b.

0:47 Yes, all of you gird yourselves with humility to serve one another, for God resists the proud. But gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your anxiety upon him, because he cares for you. Be sober, be watchful.

1:17 Your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour. Whom withstands steadfastly. In the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are accomplished in your brethren who are in the world. And the God of all grace, who called you unto his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, shall himself perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you.

1:50 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

1:56 By Silvanus, our faithful brother. As I account him, I have written unto you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast therein. She that is in Babylon, elect together with you, salute you.

2:17 And so does Mark, my son. Salute or greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace be unto you all that are in. Christ.

2:31 Well, let's pray again and ask God to open up his word to us as we study it together. Our Father, we are once again conscious that when our Lord Jesus said, Without me, you can do nothing. That this is no rhetorical exaggeration to somehow persuade us that we ought to look to him. But we own that it is the naked truth.

3:03 Amen. I acknowledge, Lord Jesus, that we have no power to plumb the depths of your word, to grasp its meaning, to embrace it in a way that would cause it to be internalized and fleshed out in life. So we look to you. Come, Lord Jesus, and teach us.

3:24 Come and shape and mold us by the word. Send your spirit in copious measures upon this congregation and upon the one who attempts to open up your word. Make the most uninstructed among us know and sense and feel that there's something more going on in this place than can be described in terms of human realities. Oh, Lord, may we taste the powers of the age to come as together we turn to your word.

3:59 Hear us, we plead in Jesus. Hear us, we plead in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

4:10 On the Lord's Day morning of December 7th, 1997, approximately two and a half years ago, we began our studies in the first epistle of Peter. And little did I know at that time as a preacher and a pastor or as a Christian man how preciously relevant the contents of this letter would become in my life. Amen. And in the life of my family.

4:41 Little did we know as a congregation how vital the truths of this letter would be to us in our corporate life and experience over the past two and a half years. One thing I trust that all of you can say who have been with us for those expositions is that through the spirit-inspired words of the Apostle Peter as contained in this letter, the Lord Jesus Christ himself has come to us as his people and ministered to us as our prophet, our priest, and our king. In our last study of the letter on June the 4th, three Lord's Days ago, we considered together what I call the concluding doxology as found in verse 11. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. Amen.

5:37 As Peter completes the body or the main substance of his apostolic directives and pastoral counsel to these suffering saints in Asia Minor, he then adds a postscript that comes to us in the words of verses 12 through 14. And if you ask the question, why did Peter put a PS to his letter, it would seem to me, you may say, that these things are the same. These things should have been said on the front end of the letter. Why does he add them?

6:11 Why does he put them precisely at this point in the letter? The formal part of the letter concludes with the doxology ringing in our ears to him, this God, this God of all grace, this God who has called these suffering saints unto his eternal glory in Christ and who, after a little time of suffering, will surely bring every one of them into the world. To the glory to which he has called them, and meanwhile is committed to perfect and establish and strengthen and settle them. Surely having concluded the letter with this ringing doxology, to this God be the dominion forever and ever.

6:52 Amen. Seal the letter and send it. Why descend to something so mundane as, by Silvanus, our faithful brother, as I account, I have written to you briefly? Seems like a letdown, doesn't it?

7:06 Or maybe you don't feel letdowns like I do. I mean, you come to that concluding doxology and you say, Don Peter, leave us with all of the timpani ringing in our ears and all of the strings playing and all of the trumpets blasting. You come down to, by Silvanus, our faithful brother, as I account. Why in the world did Peter do this?

The Holy Spirit's Guidance and Social Sensitivity

7:28 Well, two reasons. Number one, because he was guided by the Holy Spirit. As Peter says in his next letter. Peter said, when men are made the instruments to give us Holy Scripture, they do not do so by a choice of their own will, but they are carried along, they are borne along by the Holy Spirit.

7:50 And ultimately, in answer to the question, why did Peter do this? We must say, because he was guided by the Holy Spirit. But there's a second reason and it's this that I want to sit on in my rather lengthy introduction this morning. The second reason is.

8:04 Part 3. Why did Peter do this? it was the socially and culturally accepted pattern in the more formal letter-writing style of that day to compose the letter, starting with the identification of the sender, as we noted way back two and a half years ago when we began our studies. Peter does not sign at the end the Apostle Peter, but at the beginning he signs the letter.

8:32 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, and as certainly as he used the culturally, socially acceptable pattern of beginning a more formal letter at the beginning, so Peter, conscious of those socially and culturally expected and accepted standards of closing a letter in the first century Greco-Roman world. Peter does not fly in the face of that element of a non-moral aspect of the existing social and culturally acceptable way of composing a proper letter. The presence of such a P.S. in a letter containing lofty and soul-ravishing truths, a letter containing soul-sobering duties and responsibilities.

9:32 Such a P.S. in such a letter underscores one of the most vital principles of the Christian life. And before I begin to unpack verse 12, and that's all I'm going to do this morning, is unpack the first segment of that verse, I want us to gird up the loins of our mind and be exercised with this question.

9:59 What principle that is vital to the Christian life? Is Peter exemplifying, fleshing out, by adapting a spirit-inspired letter to an innocent social and cultural expectation that has no inherent moral significance? Why in the world did he do it? Or to put the question in a more challenging way, why did not the sovereign Holy Spirit, who is superintendent, ascending Peter as he writes, why did the Holy Spirit subject himself to the spiritual and cultural norm of the first century Greco-Roman world? Can't the Holy Ghost be indifferent to how you write a letter? He's God. Yes, he is.

10:59 But he didn't make himself an exception. Why?

11:06 Are you with me? You can ask big questions. You can ask big questions. You can ask big questions.

11:09 You can ask big questions. You can ask big questions. Well, then you may be ready to listen to the answer. Because of this very vital principle of the Christian life that touches the work of the Holy Spirit in inspiring scripture, the work of the Holy Spirit in helping us when we study the scriptures to understand them, the work of the Holy Spirit in conjunction with preaching the Word, the work of the Holy Spirit in conjunction with the totality of the Christian life.

Principle: God's Grace and Morally Neutral Customs

11:37 And here's the principle. The principle is that God's grace does not war with nature or with the morally neutral and social customs of any society. Let me give it to you again. God's grace, and therefore the work of the Spirit, does not war with nature or with the morally neutral social customs of any society.

12:07 Rather, the Holy Spirit possesses them, sublimates them, refines them, and works in and by and with and through them to the magnifying of the grace of God. Now think with me. Here you are, a first century Christian, way out in the far reaches of the then existing Roman Empire. You are in the Northeast Quadrant.

12:38 The vast Roman Empire. And you're sitting there on a Lord's Day morning and one of the elders or an appointed reader who had more than an ordinary facility in processing words into the eye and brain and then making them into vocables that would be exegetical. In other words, reading the Scripture with the nuances intended in Scripture. And you are sitting there as a first century Christian coming out of the existence.

13:08 And you're sitting there as a first century Christian coming out of the existing Greco-Roman world. And Peter had ended the letter at verse 11. You know what would have happened? You would have sat there and nudged your brother and said, What in the world is Peter doing?

13:23 Why did he break off the letter like that? Why didn't he give a proper conclusion to the letter? And Peter's failure to compose a letter that conformed to a morally neutral social custom would have done one of two things. It would have done one of two things.

13:41 It would have either distracted their minds from the content of the letter or prejudiced their hearts against the substance of the letter. And Peter is determined that he will do nothing either to distract the mind from the contents of the letter or prejudice the heart against the substance of the letter, illustrating the principle that even that unique, concentrated, powerful influence of the Holy Spirit that made Peter a penman of the eternal Word of God, the Holy Ghost is socially and culturally sensitive and submits his mighty working to a morally neutral social and cultural expectation. I never thought of that. Well, that's why preachers have to be committed to consecutive exposition. I never would have seen it so clearly.

14:49 But I had to sit with verse 12 and say, Lord, I've got to feed the flock of God. What in the world are you saying here and why? This is what God is saying. This is His example to us.

15:01 You say, Pastor, I'm having a little bit of difficulty processing that. I'm not sure I can internalize it. Well, let me stick with it for a minute and have a good dose of application before we even get to more detailed exposition. If ever someone could defend a digression from or indifference to a non-moral social and cultural detail, it would be Peter, while he's under the special inference and superintendence of the Holy Spirit, but he doesn't do that.

Application: Conforming to Non-Moral Social Expectations

15:31 The Holy Spirit ordered and directed him not to do what was socially boorish and culturally oddball. And in that, Peter has said, let a marvelous example for all of the people of God in any and every situation in which there are non-moral social and cultural expectations to which we should conscientiously conform lest we unnecessarily prejudice people's minds against us and against our gospel. Let me illustrate. Most of you know, the last Lord's Day, I was down in Florida. I was down in Florida from the Wednesday before.

16:25 Inland, central or northern Florida while in Orlando. And it's hot. No sea breezes. You walk out of an air-conditioned hotel, and I mean it's like someone opening the door of an oven.

16:38 It just, it hits you. Stifling. And then I was down in southern Florida preaching three times on the Lord's Day. And I sweat.

16:49 They say horses sweat, people perspire. No, I sweat. And this wretched social expectation that I must put on, deliberately and knowingly, a shirt that has the stiff backing, two layers of cloth that constitute the collar with the stiffening, the backing in between, and then another two-layered thing called a tie. Four layers of cloth around my neck.

17:13 It's a form of torture for me. It's wet before I ever get to church. You know how I'd love to preach? I told some of the men in Florida.

17:24 I'd love to be able to preach with what we used to call an arrow, a Nero shirt, a Nero shirt, you know, just has a nice little thin collar around the top. No tie. And have it open at the top so I could breathe. My body could breathe and have it not tucked in so air could circulate and I would just preach up a storm and really enjoy it.

17:47 But you know why I don't go out and buy an arrow shirt and appear that way in this pulpit? Because the moment I came up here, you'd be wondering, what in the world's happened to the man? Your mind would at best be distracted from my message. At worst, I would discredit my message by running roughshod over your morally neutral cultural and social expectations of me.

18:15 That's why I suffer keeping the tie on and up here when everything in me wants to wrench it down and open. You say, Pastor, you're serious. Yes, I am serious. Because there's something more important than my physical comfort at any given moment.

18:34 It's the word of God getting into your heart and into your mind and doing nothing that unnecessarily prejudices you against that word. Now that's what Peter is doing here. Now if we get hold of that principle, for some of you, it will be revolutionary. Because you've come out of a generation that's said to blazes in much more coarse language.

19:01 With all social refinement and social customs, God's not interested in what you appear to be in your clothes. He just is interested with the heart. And so you have the generation of the sixties throwing over innocent, non-moral social standards and customs and treating them like junk and raising a generation of boorish, socially insensitive men and women who in turn, are having children just like them. It's grievous.

19:33 Why? Because it goes contrary to the work of the Spirit of God. That's why. The Holy Spirit demonstrates in the very form of this letter He is neither ignorant of nor indifferent to.

19:51 Morally neutral. I keep using that qualifying term. Social and cultural expectation. Dear parents, if we're going to have Daniels to make an impact on this present Babylonian society, we need young men and women of whom it can be said they can find no fault in them except in the things pertaining to their God.

20:18 Raise Christian ladies and Christian gentlemen. People who know how to dress properly in every given setting. Who know the common courtesies to be expressed to peers, to inferiors, to superiors. Who understand that the Spirit of God forming Christ in them will not make them socially boorish and oddballs and irritants but will make them like our Lord Jesus who could move in any circle with perfect social awareness and sensibility. And where the expectations were moral and because they were moral they were contrary to the word of God He was willing to run counter to them. The people of His day said respectable religious teachers don't hobnob with tax collectors who are defiled by their involvement with wrong and certainly not with the local Palestinian union of hookers. Jesus said, Son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost.

21:35 You're offended by my breaking your social mores too bad. Your social mores are set in the concrete of your ignorance of your own heart and your prejudice. And He was willing to defy them on moral issues. If our society becomes so sunk in its hedonism and in its abandonment to immorality and bared flesh that we must dress in a way that seems strange in order to meet the biblical norm of modesty and propriety we're willing to be strange for Christ's sake.

22:10 But dear people it would not be for Christ's sake if I appeared in a Nehru shirt open at the top and hanging out of my trousers. That would be crass selfishness by Albert N. Martin. I can't reach you.

22:31 You look near stung. You think I've gone off my rocker or do you see it? It's there in the word dear people. No other way to explain this.

22:38 But that Peter was sensitive to those non-moral cultural and social expectations and the Spirit of God has clothed his own words in the form and structure of those expectations. Go thou and do likewise. May I really go from preaching to meddling? It is scandalous the way some of you allow your children to answer the phone.

23:10 You say well I don't know how they answer it. You ought to be there to monitor it. And if you hear them say hello, who's it? You sit them down and say that's no way to answer the phone.

23:24 And you tell them why Jesus wouldn't answer the phone that way. Jesus would have said this is Jesus of Nazareth in the home of Mary and Joseph. May I help you? Or you've reached 463-2701.

23:40 May I ask who is speaking please? When it says he was holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners it means he never once unnecessarily provoked prejudice to himself or to his message by his social boorishness. He knew the expected customs. He was disappointed when they weren't rendered to him.

24:02 He came into the house of Simon and said Simon I came into your house. You didn't wash my feet. You didn't anoint my head with oil. You did not give to me the common social expectations of the day.

24:14 Dear people we are told in Philippians 2 to be blameless harmless sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you are seen as lights in the world. And the more there is the disintegration of common grace and the spillover effect of the gospel in our society simply to maintain a modicum of social decorum and awareness and decency will be part of our Christian testimony. Don't write this off as one of Albert N.'s hobby horses until you can rewrite the book of 1 Peter and all the other epistles that follow precisely the same sensitivity to first century Greco-Roman culturally socially acceptable formal letter writing. Go thou and do likewise. Well that's just the introduction. Now we're going to come to verse 12.

Unpacking the Commendation of Silvanus: Identity and Role

25:19 What do we have in this Holy Spirit inspired postscript? Well what we have in verse 12 are three units of thought. We're only going to get to one of them this morning. Look at the text.

25:32 By Silvanus our faithful brother as I account him I have written unto you briefly exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God stand fast therein. Now in this verse we have what I am calling the commendation of Silvanus and then the summarization of the entire epistle I have written unto you briefly exhorting and testifying this is the true grace of God and then the exhortation to stand fast in the grace of God. So we have commendation summarization and exhortation as I've already indicated we'll just take the commendation of Silvanus and we'll unpack it in answering in raising and answering three questions. Number one who was this Silvanus? By Silvanus who in the world is Silvanus? Well it's the commonly accepted position among serious and believing Bible students that the man called Silvanus here and in the Pauline letters is the man who is consistently called Silas in the book of the Acts.

26:47 A.T. Robertson a universally respected Greek scholar presents a long list of Greek names which had both a long and a short form. You'll find this statement in Gruden's commentary on first Peter page 199.

27:01 Just like we have Richard and Rich. Richard is often called Rich we've got the long and we've got the short form and we have Alexander who's called Alex and we have Alexander who's called Alex and we have Alex and we have and we have Albert who's called Al and in the feminine names Barbara is called Barb Sophia Sophie and Dorothy Dottie and nobody says well Dottie and Dorothy are two different people. No. We know that Dottie is short for Dorothy etc.

27:42 Well there are good and responsible scholars who say this was true by the length and more formal expression or identification of the same person. Others say well the lengthened form is the more formal Greek way of expressing it and the shortened I'm sorry vice versa Silas the Greek way and then Silvanus the Latinized expression of it and others have other theories but this much seems to be clear that when we compare what is written in the epistles concerning With the man identified as Silas in the book of Acts, there are so many parallels that make it well nigh impossible to even begin to think that it's a different person. So I am assuming, with the overwhelming consensus of historic interpretation, that in answer to the question, who was Silvanus, that he is the Silas of the book of Acts. And I want you to turn to Acts chapter 15 for several things that are said about this man, Silvanus, or Silas.

28:51 In Acts chapter 15, you will remember, most of you, that this is the account of the coming together of the apostles and the representative from the Antioch church, representatives, plural, to discuss the whole question, do Gentiles need to be circumcised and become kosher Jews in order to be saved? And after they thrashed that out in a...

29:13 Establish, no, we need only to believe on the Lord Jesus to be saved, and some counsel is given to the Gentile churches. We read now, in Acts chapter 15, these words, verse 22, Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men of their company, and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. Namely, now notice, Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, chief...

29:43 Men, among the brethren. And they wrote thus, by them, the apostles and elders, brethren to the brethren, who are the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia, greeting. So Silas is named as one of those among the chief men in the church of Jerusalem. Now, he did not have some special office, but he had special and unique stature.

30:08 The cream came to the top among men then, as it always... Does in any group of men.

30:15 And here, this man, Silas, Silvanus, is identified as one of the chief men entrusted with this epistle to be taken to the Gentile churches, resolving the question for which the representation from Antioch went up to Jerusalem, and now this is going to be distributed among all the Gentile churches. Now, verse 30, So they, when they were dismissed, came down to Antioch, and having gathered the multitude together, they delivered the epistle. And when they had read it, they rejoiced for consolation. And Judas and Silas...

30:50 Now, note what is said further. Being themselves also prophets, exhorted the brethren with many words, and confirmed them. So not only was Silas one of the chief men among the brethren, he was a New Testament prophet. And without getting into the full significance of a New Testament prophet, this much is clear.

31:14 A New Testament prophet was given a peculiar insight by the Holy Spirit to give to the New Covenant community the teaching by which its life would be sustained. New Testament church life, though it has its tap roots in Old Testament prophecies and type and shadows, the continuation of the true Israel of God. Yet, because that community is founded by New Covenant, blessings and realities, God gave New Covenant prophets until the canon of the New Testament was complete. And the church, until the Lord Jesus comes, can have its New Testament documents to govern and regulate its New Covenant life. So Silas is not only a proven man, with a more than ordinary measure of grace and gift, he's called a chief man, he is also called, along with Judas, a prophet. Furthermore, you know in the last paragraph of Acts 15, when Paul and Barnabas have a fallout over whether or not John Mark, who thinks out in the midst of pressure in the first missionary journey, whether enough time had passed for him to prove himself, and Paul thinks not, and Barnabas thinks strongly that it has, and he wants to take Mark, they split, and who does Paul choose to be his companion at the beginning of his second missionary journey?

32:43 Verse 39, There arose a sharp contention, so that they parted asunder one from the other, and Barnabas took Mark with him, and sailed away unto Cyprus. The last we hear of Barnabas, and Paul chose Silas, and went forth being commended by the brethren to the grace of the Lord. Paul chose Silas. Now what do we learn about Silas from these little tidbits?

33:09 Well, the Spirit of God has given us these facts about, he's a man of more than ordinary spiritual stature and gift. He is a New Testament prophet. He accompanies Paul on his second missionary journey, and if we were to take the time to show the area of that second journey, it's the very area, some of the areas, to which Peter's letter is sent when we come to 1 Peter. Some of those very Roman provinces to which 1 Peter is sent would be the areas where, Silas had previously labored as a companion of Paul in his second missionary journey.

33:49 So what are we learning about this man Silas? He is a chief man. He is a prophet. He is Paul's companion on the second missionary journey.

34:02 Now, second question. What is his precise connection with this letter of Peter's? Now we come back to 1 Peter. I hope you don't find this boring, folks, because this is all I can do in expounding the word to tell you what the Scripture reveals about these matters.

34:20 It's a little bit technical, but hang in there. What is his precise connection with this letter? Your English version reads, By Silvanus, the NIV interprets and says, With the help of Silvanus, our faithful brother as I account him, I've written to you. The Greek text is very terse.

34:41 It says, and very brief, it says, Through or by means of Silvanus to you. Dia, in the genitive, Silvanus. Through or by means of Silvanus to you. That's all it says.

35:02 This letter has some connection with Silvanus, and it's the letter that's coming to you in some connection with Silvanus. Now what's the connection? Well, there are three possible answers. Some have floated the theory that Silas, Silvanus, was the actual writer of the letter.

35:21 They make all these pontifical pronouncements. Peter could not have written in such elegant Greek. How do they know that? Well, because they know it.

35:29 They're scholars. That's tongue-in-cheek, folks. That's irony. No, they don't know it.

35:37 They assume that they know how much Greek Peter knew. And they say, The Greek of first Peter is too elegant for this rough, shoo-hewn fisherman. Well, how do you know what kind of Greek Peter knew, and how much he'd learned over the years? And there's nothing in all of the Scripture, in the Book of Acts and the Epistles, in any way to suggest that any letter was ever sent by a biblical author that first verse says, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the elect.

36:06 And then at the end say, By the way, I didn't write the letter my buddy Silas did. No. Now, whatever Silas' connection was, he was not the actual writer. Though there are a few so-called scholars who take that position.

36:18 Some suggest Silas is the recording secretary of the letter. That big word, amanuensis, that's just a fancy word that scholars use for recording secretary. Now, Paul had some amanuensises, if that's the way you have the plural of amanuensis. And he says who they were.

36:38 Paul would dictate, and the amanuensis or secretary would take it down, read it back to Paul, read it back to Paul. Is this what you said? Yes, that's what I said. And at the end, Paul said, Now, I'm going to put my own signature here.

36:50 I'm going to write the last few lines with a big hand to affirm that when this letter comes to you, this is not a bogus letter. It doesn't come in my handwriting. I'm affirming that this brother was my amanuensis, my recording secretary, but he hasn't messed up on a word. It's all been read back to me.

37:09 And it is my word to you through the pen of the secretary. Well, some suggest that Silas was such, but there's nothing in the text to indicate it, nothing in the rest of Scripture to indicate it. So I would be hard pressed to take that position because some of you are discerning enough and determined enough not to believe anything until you see it with your own eyes in your Bible. You'd ask me, Pastor Martin, where in the world did you get that idea?

37:35 And I'd say, Well, the other scholars said it. And thankfully, that wouldn't satisfy most of you. You're not intimidated by scholars, and I'm sure of that. I'm glad.

37:44 So the third position is what the vast majority of believing, devout commentators take, and I personally believe, Silas was the bearer or the deliverer of the letter. This is the most compelling possibility. Silas was an experienced letter deliverer. Remember Acts 15?

38:04 When they have a letter that they want to send out to the churches. And remember, this is the day before telephones. You couldn't get on the phone and say, Hey, you guys up there, we're at Jerusalem. Some dude named Silas has showed up on the doorstep, says, You got a letter from your apostles.

38:18 Is he the real thing? Yeah, he's kosher. And I don't, they couldn't do that. I say, Silas?

38:24 Smilas? Who in the world is Silas? What kind of letter are you talking? We never sent out a letter.

38:28 They'd be able to run to the front door and say, You're a fake. Get out of here. We just called up to Jerusalem. They don't know who you are.

38:34 Think of the day when you didn't have those means of communication. And there were false apostles. And they wrote false letters and said they came from Paul. Remember, Paul said, If you get a letter purportedly from me that says this, it's not from me.

38:45 Put yourself back in the first century. That's the context in which first Peter comes to us. And now you're writing to these saints up there. How are they going to know that this is a real, sure enough, pettering letter?

38:59 This really comes from the apostles. Who are you going to send that they believe? Who are you going to send that you trust? Well, there's a chief man among the brethren who had a chief response of the apostles.

39:12 He had a great responsibility in conveying letters. And he did a good job. And furthermore, in the providence of God, he was chosen to be Paul's companion. The guys up there, they know who he is.

39:21 He's a household word. Silvanus, he's our beloved brother. He's the faithful companion of the apostle Paul. And if Silvanus comes and says, Hey, I've got a letter from Peter.

39:31 They're going to say, Hey, we can't trust you. You lied to us this. No, they'd say, You lied to us this. No, they'd say, You lied to us this.

39:41 No, they'd say, Silvanus, your word, take it to the bank. It's as good as God's truth. He's the bearer of that letter. A very natural choice to convey that letter.

39:55 Furthermore, because he was a New Testament prophet who was given special spiritual insight to new covenant privileges and new covenant doctrine and responsibility, to have Silas take the letter is to have an on-board spiritual, spirit-equipped expositor of the letter. What's this mean? We're a living temple. Silas being a prophet could teach and instruct and open up the mind of God as conveyed through the pen of Peter.

40:30 I wonder if he didn't ask some questions when he read the letter over before he went up there and said, Peter, when we get to that passage about he went and preached in the spirit to the souls in prison. Peter, they're going to be some questions. What do I tell them? I don't know.

40:50 That's a little bit of conjecture. You can, you can spin that out on your way home today. But you see what a marvelous choice Silvanus was. He didn't want an arbitrary thing, draw straws and oh yeah, Silvanus.

Substance of Peter's Commendation: 'Faithful Brother'

41:03 By Silvanus, this man, Silas, his precise connection with the letter, he's the bearer of that letter. Question number three, who is he? What is his precise connection? What is the substance of Peter's commendation of him?

41:22 What is the substance of Peter's commendation of him? Look at the text. By Silvanus, our faithful brother, as I account or reckon him. He is called not a faithful or our faithful.

41:46 By Silvanus, of you, the faithful brother. The definite article is in the Greek text. He is the faithful brother as I account him. Now let's open up those words.

42:05 Peter sees him, first of all, in terms of his sharing, excuse me, in the identity of the family of God. You see, every place where Peter could have paraded his papal role, he never does it. He doesn't call Silvanus one of my bishops or archbishops or underlings of me, the Pope. He says, a brother.

42:34 He's a brother. He's a brother. We're in the family of God. We stand on level ground in Eden before Golgotha in the open tomb.

42:44 And we all share in common the blessings of salvation in Christ. He's the elder brother. And we are brethren around him by his grace. He is first of all commended as a brother, but then this descriptive adjective.

43:01 He is the faithful brother. And that word faithful can either be translated believing as it needs to be translated in some places or as here, trustworthy. One of proven fidelity. One who is worthy of being trusted.

43:24 Now, to the Apostle Paul and to the scriptures, this is one of the most cardinal virtues that can be attributed to any of the fallen yet redeemed sons and daughters of Adam. Notice how Paul likes to use it in Colossians 4 and verse 21, one of the many examples. This is not exhaustive, but just an example. Colossians chapter 4.

43:50 It must not be 21 Colossians chapter 4. I have the wrong reference, but it's one of those men that are mentioned who is mentioned as a faithful brother. But then in 2 Timothy 2 and verse 2, familiar words to us, Paul directs Timothy, the things that you have heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit also of all the qualities of Christian grace that Paul could identify. He said, Timothy, this is the one that is supreme above all others. Commit the apostolic tradition, the apostolic doctrine, committed to not clever, brilliant, well educated, socially upgrade, no, commit to faith, to trust worthy men. Peter adds that this commendation was not hastily given, nor irresponsibly given. Notice the text.

45:06 He said, by Silvanus, our faithful brother, as I reckon. And this Greek verb, logizomai, is a word of the accountant's office. When the accountant was taking his account, Peter says he did with respect to this man, Silvanus. As I reckon him.

45:36 It's an accounting word. Peter's assessment was not made emotionally. It was not made second or third hand. It was not made hastily or irresponsibly.

45:53 He said, I have a relationship and when you add it all up, you know what my sober, settled assessment of this man is? He is a faithful, trustworthy brother. I would not send this letter that is Christ's word to you suffering saints by the hand of a man that I could send to you in seven seven and make the trip in a couple of hours from Rome out there to that far reach of the Roman Empire. There was personal danger, exposure to the elements and to crude means of transportation. But he said, this is a trustworthy man. In my name, I can trust him because I've had opportunity to take a reading and when I total it all up, this man is a trustworthy man.

47:14 Trying to illustrate what is something trustworthy. You know my mind went to Old Faithful in Yellowstone Park. You can count on it. Every 67 minutes, Old Faithful.

47:36 You can count on it. Every 67 minutes, you come at 62 minutes, you say I just got five minutes to go. Faithful. Faithful.

47:57 You can count on it. You can count on it. You can sing along to a prize. Faithful is backed up by God's individuals and Entertainment Service.

Application 1: The Value of Faithfulness and Trustworthiness

48:20 What causes them trouble? They need to go first. Wherever they go, something connection to the letter, what is the substance of Peter's commendation of him. Now, before we move on, God willing, next Lord's Day, to take up Peter's summarization of the contents of the letter and his final exhortation, I want us to make several applications on this first part of the verse that we studied this morning. And I have two applications. The first is this. Of all the commendations one can legitimately desire or earn, and listen carefully to my words. Of all the commendations one can desire or earn, none is more to be valued than that of faithful. Is it right to desire commendation? Yes, it is. Supremely from God, but validly from men. In the early church,

49:38 they sent among themselves letters of what? Commendation. Paul said, do we need again to bring letters of commendation? No.

49:49 He said, because our lives have already commended the reality of what I am as an apostle. But you see, he's not denigrating or despising or setting aside this practice of commendation. It's all through the epistles. Paul commends Phoebe to the church at Rome.

50:08 He commends a whole litany of proven Christians. And throughout the epistles, it is not sinful to desire commendation. So long as the commendation of God is our supreme desire, and you earn commendation. Commendation is not a matter of grace.

50:30 Now let that sink in.

50:33 I sin against you, and I come and say, will you forgive me? You must grace. Graciously forgive me. I don't earn your forgiveness.

50:42 You conferred upon me graciously, just like God does. We are to forgive as God, for Christ's sake, forgives us. Forgiveness is not earned. Grace pervades forgiveness.

50:53 But listen.

50:55 Confidence, based upon faithfulness, is earned. It's earned. A nickel and a dime at a time. And listen carefully.

51:07 Once you've betrayed it, not only do you, empty the bank, you put yourself in the red.

51:18 Listen to me, children. God helps you to listen. You may show a pattern of honesty, no deliberate deviousness and deception of mom and dad. If in a moment of weakness you stole money out of your mom's purse, or out of your dad's change tray in the car, your conscience smote you, you came to mom and dad and said, forgive me, I stole 35 cents, and you make it up again.

51:44 But if you steal once, and you do it twice, you don't get caught, and you get bold to do it a third time, and then when you're caught, and mom and dad have the evidence, you try to deny it, and wiggle out, and rationalize, until the proof is so clear. You do not deny it. You know what you've done? You've destroyed all the trust that you're a faithful son or daughter, and you've put yourself in the right place.

52:18 And you've got to claw your way back to ground zero, and earn the trust you willfully betrayed. What's true of children is true of parents, husbands and wives, is true of preachers. The reason some of us keep a jealous guard over thought and I is we have settled solemnly with God. Once we betrayed public trust in the ministry, I've lived.

53:00 With that solemn commitment before God, that if I ever betrayed public trust, by sexual uncleanness, by monetary deviance, though God would forgive, and I trust His people would forgive, the trust would be destroyed, and my mouth would be forever shut from any pulpit on the face of the earth. And God knows that is the solemn commitment of my heart. When we have betrayal of trust, at the highest level of elective office in our country, spawned a generation that says, if the parson is a pickle, may not the people dance. Some of you sitting here have betrayed trust willfully. You sit here, and you know it. Mom and dad don't know, yet.

54:13 Husband and wife don't know, yet. Pastors and elders don't know, yet. My friend, listen, be sure. I'm going to tell you something.

54:22 I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to tell you something.

54:22 Your sin will find you out.

54:32 Kids, I beg you, no matter how much it costs you, come clean before mom and dad find you out. It's so much easier to regain trust. But when you're found out, they always have to wonder, are they sorry simply because they got caught?

54:53 Or are they sorry because they betrayed trust, and they desperately want to earn it back again? Why does Peter put such a premium, on faithful, trustworthy? Because he understands this biblical principle. He doesn't say, by Silvanus, our impressive brother, as I reckon him, our brilliant brother.

55:22 You young people, listen to me, our classically educated brother, our wealthy brother, our popular, our handsome, our impressive, no, our faithful brother. You want to know what character, our characteristic dominates Silvanus? He's trustworthy. He's trustworthy.

55:47 Can your wife say that of you? I have a trustworthy husband. Whatever else he's got or he doesn't have. He may have a little bit too much here, a little less up here than I'd like.

56:00 But whatever he doesn't have or has too much of, one thing I know, I've got a trustworthy husband. You men, go home and ask your wife that today. Have a little judgment today. You wives, what does it say of the noble woman in Proverbs?

56:19 The heart of her husband, what? Safely trust in her. Does your husband safely trust in you? Go home and ask him today.

56:31 And if not, say, tell me, dear, with judgment day honesty, why not? Can you have a flat tire, be caught in the traffic jam and arrive home three hours late, no way to communicate and never have your wife have a moment question? If you're doing anything dishonorable, does she trust you? Have you earned her trust by the way you jealously guard your eyes with anything that comes in the mailbox, with anything you watch on the TV, with any glances you give mingling among God's people?

57:08 Do husband and wife safely trust? Have you earned trust? What about your kids? Have you earned trust?

57:16 When you were given a measure of liberty and freedom, is there anything that's come back as reality? Cause his mom and dad to say, oh, no. Say, I wish I'd never given them that liberty. They've betrayed my trust, my trust.

57:37 Of all the commendations one can legitimately earn, none is more to be sought or valued than that of trustworthy.

57:49 In the day of judgment, Jesus will say to his own, what? Well done, thou good end. Here's our word, pistos, faithful, trustworthy servant. And remember Luke 16, this is the last text I want to look at under this heading.

58:05 And then I'll touch more briefly on my second line of application. Luke 10, I'm sorry, Luke 16, 10, not 10, 16, 16, 10.

58:21 He that is faithful, there's our word, trustworthy in a very little is trustworthy also in much. Now notice, what's the opposite of being trustworthy? It's being unrighteous. He that is unrighteous in a very little is unrighteous.

58:38 He is unrighteous also in much. What's Jesus saying? Listen carefully. He's saying, your true character is known when being faithful or unrighteous is a relatively inconsequential and piddling issue.

58:56 You go to the store, you buy something, you get $3.22 in change. Your mom says, how much is the change? You say $3.15 and you keep 7 cents to yourself.

59:07 That's a little. Given the opportunity, you've robbed your mother of $1,000. He that is unrighteous in a little, unfaithful in the little, given the opportunities, will be unrighteous, which is a synonym for unfaithful in much. But the man that's honest to a penny, he has a faithful spirit.

59:30 He'll be honest with his thousands. Your character is known in the little pointers to trustworthiness or its opposite.

59:46 Well, I'll just bring up one thing on the family computer that I know mom and dad wouldn't want. Given the opportunity, you'd bring up every foul thing you could if you were sure you wouldn't be caught. He that is faithful in little, faithful in much. I didn't say it, Jesus did.

60:11 There can be a thousand motives to make you faithful in the big things. Only a faithful spirit before God will keep you faithful in the little things. That's what Jesus is saying. He's saying it to you and to me why Peter makes such a big deal about this quality.

Application 2: The Virtue of Open Commendation

60:32 Then second point of application. It is not sinful nor spiritually harmful to give open commendation where such commendation is warranted and deserved. It is not sinful nor spiritually harmful to give open commendation where such commendation is warranted and deserved. Some would say, Peter, shame on you.

60:59 You wrote in a letter that's going to go to all the churches in Asia Minor and then subsequently copied and distributed to all the churches. So wherever the letter goes, people are going to know you praise Silvanus. Won't that make him proud? That's what some people would say.

61:18 Peter, you must never do that. Just say Silvanus. If you think he's worthy of commendation, tell the Lord. Don't tell anybody else.

61:26 You'll put him up with pride. Some people are really convinced no one will ever get proud by their commendation. They don't commend anybody or anything. I don't think they'd commend the Lord if he were among them.

61:41 You know, it's not that you really fear someone's going to be proud, but you have an ungrateful heart and perhaps a jealous heart that to commend would show you're rejoicing in the gifts and graces of another that exceed your own. A man or woman secure before Christ finds it very easy to commend the grace of Christ in others. He finds it a delight. Why don't you commend?

62:04 Some of you husbands, you don't ever commend your wife. You'll grunt and complain like an angry boar. B-O-A-R. If the meal's burnt a little and not quite up to your taste, but she gives you a winner day after day.

62:21 You never put your arms around and say, sweetheart, I know that didn't just spill out when you were half asleep. I appreciate cracking down some new recipes and experimenting. Thank you, dear. Do you commend her?

62:31 Do you commend her? For being faithful in her culinary duties, in keeping a neat house, in washing and folding and putting your stinky, dirty underwear back in the drawer week after week after week after week, and she never so much as gets a grunt from you. Stop it. That's ungodly.

62:52 It's not like God. It's not like God. Peter is showing true godliness. Silas earns the commendation.

63:04 Peter freely gets it. And any true man, any true man of God, any true woman of God is not made proud by this kind of judicious commendation. It's the most humbling thing in all the world because you instinctively say, it is not I, but the grace of God in me. When I've done all, I'm an unprofitable servant.

63:27 Isn't that what you say in your heart? You see, flattery is not commendation. Flattery is excessive praise in which the flatterer always has your praise. You see, flattery is not commendation.

63:37 It has your harm or his gain in view. He gives you excessive praise to get something out of you or to do something evil to you. But sincere commendation is not flattery. It can be the most encouraging thing in all the world to say to someone, you know, I appreciate your being faithful in that task, in that endeavor.

64:02 I am the benefactor of your efforts. Thank you. Peter, by the Spirit of God, is setting an example for you. I am the benefactor of your efforts.

64:11 Thank you. You read through your New Testament epistles sometimes, speed read them, looking for one thing. How many times do Spirit-inspired apostles command even the little nobodies in the churches. Paul does it for more than a whole chapter!

64:26 And at the end of his epistles, Tychicus and Andronicus and Junius and he's commanding all the time. Dear people, that we become a company of holy commenders. Not flatterers but commenders. I shock visitors often when they come.

64:54 And there's one sitting here, and we'll remember this, a few months ago. They're no longer visitors. They're regular attenders. First Sunday they were here.

65:00 I met them at the door. I said, you know, I want to thank you for the way you listened to the Word this morning. You thanked me? I said, no, no, no, no.

65:06 And I told them exactly where they were sitting. First day they were here. I said, you were sitting such and such a place. And you, sir, I want to say, look, you can blink.

65:14 I won't be insulted. You never once blinked. And every little nuance of humor, I said to the wife, I said, the smile broke a cross. You were locked in.

65:21 I said, that does something to the preacher. And they looked at you shocked.

65:26 You see, now if they get glassy-eyed, they get a lot more incentive to hang in there. I've been commanded for the virtue of rapt attention. God help me if the preacher catches me half asleep.

65:42 You see, commendation reinforces virtue.

65:46 Doesn't it do that with you? You go through a whole week and never get grumpy with your wife. She's a sweetheart. It's been wonderful to have a whole week.

65:54 And you haven't been grumpy. That gives you a lot more incentive to say, maybe I can do it for two weeks.

66:00 And you see, the Spirit of God does not bypass the natural chemistry of these things. Dear people, may God help us to get hold of it. Get our noses in our Bibles and say, Lord, make me like your servants in the Scripture. Make me like your son.

66:20 You go through the Gospels and see the Lord Jesus commending creatures He came from heaven to save. Save. You want your mind boggled, read the one where it says, Jesus says, in the marriage supper when we're sitting at the feast, the Lord Himself will rise and gird Himself and serve us.

66:41 I don't understand that. But can't we do a little bit of that Christ-like service one to another? By godly, judicious, earned, earned commendation.

66:58 Well, I had hoped to open the whole verse. I didn't have time to come up with a nice, neat commendation. I'm done. I was convinced I'd only get the first part of the verse.

67:10 My preparation of the latter part is sitting on my desk. But I trust God has spoken to us and that we'll embrace that word. And by the power of the Spirit, live it out in the days to come. Let's pray.

67:29 Father, we never cease to marvel the richness of your word. Passages we've read over and looked over and wondered whatever in the world. They were there for how we thank you that you rebuke our pride and you rebuke our careless reading of your word. And you give us light and understanding and direction even from obscure parts.

67:56 We thank you. And we pray that the things we have learned at the feet of Peter, who in a very real sense is the very mouth of Jesus to us, that we may, by your grace, receive that word, and implement it, that by your grace, we who know you, may earn the commendation of being faithful brothers, faithful sisters, faithful sons and daughters and husbands and wives and church members. Oh, God, in a day of wretched unfaithfulness, make us a company of faithful men and women who can be counted upon to be and to do what we say we are, and what we are committed to be and to do by your grace and power. Hear us, we pray, and dismiss us with your blessing. In Jesus' name, amen.