First Peter chapter five, verse number 12. By Silvanus, a faithful brother unto you, as I suppose, I have written briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein you stand. These words are Peter's, not Silvanus' words. The church that is at Babylon's saluteth together, or elect together with you, saluteth you. And so doth Marcus, my son, greet you one another with a kiss of charity. Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen. Our Heavenly Father, we pray that you would give to us something that would prick our interest as well as stir our hearts. We pray that there'd be a lesson here for each of us. May we be in your will, with a desire to carry out your will. We thank you for each who are here this evening. Bless, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. All right, we're coming to the conclusion of the book. I've tried really hard this week to come up with a sermon so I could actually preach to you this evening. But with the material before us, this will be a little more than a Bible lesson with some teachable material. And yet I did manage to come up with three points. And that's always the first step to having a sermon. If I could have just found a poem that was acceptable, it would have been a complete package. But since we can't, we're just stuck with this. My three points are, Silvanus, Marcus, and the brethren in Babylon. Or to put it another way, the faithful brother, the restored and useful brother, and a group of chosen brethren. Before proceeding, I have to warn you that much of this lesson is open to debate. There's some degree of speculation on each of these men or group of men and there's open debate on the last point. I will share with you my opinion and I'm praying that the Holy Spirit will give you some insight and you can take whatever position you would like to take on these three things. And if we split it all into three groups with three to the third power involved, that's okay because none of this is really important. But it is the word of God and therefore it deserves a lesson, deserves a message. We begin with Silvanus. As do many names, Silvanus originally had meaning. But later on, like many other names, the meaning became unimportant. For example, David means beloved in Hebrew, but no one calls me beloved except Judy. Some of you call me David and I can live with that. Silvanus literally means woody. Perhaps in your reading in the past, you've come across statements, something like the little cabin was built in a beautiful sylvan, Sanctuary, sylvan setting. In this case, the word sylvan refers to the woods. It refers to a forest. So why do I even mention it? What's this got to do with our lesson? Because there's another biblical name which also means woody. I'm referring to Silas. Could it be that Sylvanus and Silas are the same person? Shock and awe. My Bible encyclopedia confirms this. It says, the Silas of Acts is generally identified with the Sylvanus of the Epistles. These two names appear to be interchangeable in the Word of God. You can't find the name Sylvanus in the Book of Acts, but Silas is found there 13 times. And Silas is never mentioned in any of the apostles' letters, either Paul or Peter. But then we have Silmanus mentioned there. It appears to me, and this is conjecture on my part, it appears to me that Luke, who is the penman of the book of Acts, had a nickname for this man. He liked Silas. But judging from 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse number 12, Silas himself actually preferred Silvanus. Remember that Luke and Silas spent a great deal of time together. They were co-workers with the Apostle Paul. They spent many meals together. They probably slept in the same room from time to time. They had the same ministry. They were constantly helping and preparing for the services of the Apostle Paul. They spent a lot of time together, and Luke got to know this Silas, and as I say, he preferred that name, even though Silas himself probably preferred Silvanus as that's what's mentioned right here. With this interchangeability, we can begin to paint a picture of this man whom Peter calls a faithful brother. First, in Acts 15, he was respected enough by the church in Jerusalem that after Paul, at that point, Saul's introduction to the brethren in Jerusalem and his return with Barnabas to the north, this man, Silas, went with them. and he remained in Antioch serving the Lord until it was time for Paul to begin his second missionary journey. Then he joined the Apostle Paul on that second trip. At that point, Silas became a co-worker with the Apostle Paul. After that, sometimes he was with Paul And sometimes he was sent ahead of Paul. Sometimes he remained where Paul had been ministering. He went into Asia with the Apostle Paul. He went into Macedonia with the Apostle Paul. He was beaten and imprisoned with Paul in Philippi. This man knows the ministry of the Apostle Paul. They were very close. It would be wonderful to have a full biography of Sylvanus' life. In some ways, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it was not just as interesting and just as exciting as Paul's or Peter's because this man tied both of those guys together. He ministered with both of these apostles. Silvanus was a Jew, obviously, coming from Jerusalem, but he may have been very much like the Apostle Paul in that he was a Roman citizen. He may have been able to preach to different groups of people because of this background that he had. He was almost as well known in many circles, as were the apostles themselves. All we have to do is mention, Salmanus says, hi, and these people in Galatia and Bithynia know who we're talking about here. He is truly an interesting man. And the Bible tells us that he was a man of the highest Christian character. If that man had a tombstone over his grave, it might have been inscribed with the words, a faithful brother. That's good. That's how Peter described him in this letter that he's sending back to Galatia and Asia. What do you suppose your friends might want to chisel on your gravestone? Last summer, Judy and I got to visit a number of cemeteries. We probably saw a couple hundred different gravestones. Some of them were just a name and a date, and some of them had other things inscribed on those gravestones going back 200 years and more. Some of that was pretty interesting stuff. Should your gravestone bear the words faithful? Should it be loving? How about self-sacrificing? Here's a giving man, woman. If the Lord wanted to use one word, if the Lord wanted to use one single word to describe your life, what would that word be? Maybe we don't want to think about that too much. Apparently, Silas was faithful. That's a pretty good name, pretty good description. Silas was a faithful brother. Then there is Marcus. There are several interesting connections and conjectures about this man. Again, my encyclopedia, that's ISBI, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, identified Marcus with Mark, or more particularly, John Mark. Marcus is a name only found in the epistles. Mark always is found in the book of Acts. With one exception, Paul refers to him as Mark in 2 Timothy. Assuming these names are for one individual, that life becomes, what's the word? We get an interesting picture about this man as well. Peter calls Marcus his son. Hmm. We remember that Peter was married. He probably had children. But I'm going to go out on a limb, joining a lot of other people who are a lot smarter than I am, and say that Peter was referring to a son in the ministry. Not to a physical child, but to a son in the ministry. Peter may have led this man to Christ. More likely, or just as likely, he mentored him. Peter was the teacher of John Mark. and he called him his son. That's not unusual because we know very clearly that Timothy was Paul's son in the ministry. So this was done from time to time. Assuming that Marcus and Mark are the same man, we know the name of his mother. That was Mary. The family was sufficiently wealthy to have a house large enough for meetings of the Jerusalem church. Not all of it, of course, but large groups would gather together in this house for prayer meetings. On one occasion, Peter had been arrested, he was in jail, and then was released, and he knew where to find some of the leadership of the church. So he went to the house of John Mark. He came to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying. Acts chapter 12 and verse number 12. And then Paul further identified John Mark in Colossians 4.10, as he concludes there, Aristarchus, my fellow prisoners, saluteth you, and Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas. Now we remember from our study of the book of Acts that Barnabas too was a wealthy man. And he sold a great deal of property in Cyprus and other places and helped to finance things as the church began to prosper there in Jerusalem. So if Barnabas is wealthy and it appears that Mary is wealthy, again, we have a possible connection between these two. And then we have the statements of the word of God. If each of these Marks and Marcuses and John Mark are the same person. Anyway, apparently, let's see, where shall I start here? Apparently, Peter was the one who brought Marcus to the Lord and who taught him the way of God. And it appears that Mark in writing the Gospel of Mark is sharing information that he had been given by Peter. There are many scholars who say, not tongue-in-cheek, but they say that this is Peter's Gospel, the second one, the Gospel of Mark. It may have been written while these two were in Babylon. spending time together. May have come some other place in time. But Marcus' journey at that point was somewhat circuitous. When Paul and Barnabas began their first missionary journey, they had John to be their minister. So Paul and Barnabas take Barnabas' nephew, logically speaking, with them to help them in the ministry. That was all fine. Their first stop was on the Greek island of Cyprus. After preaching the Jewish synagogue at the city of Salamis, the governor of that island invited these missionaries to come and present the gospel to him. Sergius Paulus gave a royal invitation, and Paul's right there, yeah, I'd be happy to give to you the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. So they met together for a while. Then the deputy, a Gentile, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord. Acts chapter 13 and verse number 12. Sadly, in the very next verse, we read, and John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem. We know that this was John, John Mark, because at the beginning of the second missionary journey, Barnabas was determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark, but Paul thought it not good to take him with them, who departed from them in Pamphylia and went not with them to the work. Why did John Mark return to Jerusalem? It wasn't because he was homesick and he wanted to see his mama, although that's often said. It was probably because he was the spiritual child of Peter. And if you will remember, If you will remember, Peter at that point in time did not understand that the gospel was supposed to be preached to the Gentiles as well as the Jews. And if John Mark was raised in this atmosphere and Peter goes and gives the gospel to Sergius Paulus, the Gentile, and he trusts Christ as his savior, that would make him incensed, or at least confused. I don't get this. And he said, I'm going home. I'm going back to Jerusalem where Peter was at the time. Peter's going to learn that the gospel is to be preached to every kind of person in this world. And John will come around to see that himself. It took him some time, however. When he did come to the truth, he joined Barnabas in forming a second missionary team. On the second missionary journey, Paul takes Silas and goes off, leaving Barnabas there. John Mark joins Barnabas and they go off in a different direction. As angry as Paul was at the departure of that youthful and zealous John Mark, the two were later reconciled. They got along just fine. Paul commends Mark in Timothy and Philemon. John Marcus presents to us a brother with a different kind of lesson than Silvanus. We are all prone to make mistakes in our Christian lives, and even as ministers of the gospel. I can look back at half a dozen major mistakes that I've made in my ministry. That happens. When you find a young believer who from the moment of his salvation has all his theological ducks in a row, please let me know because I want to meet him. I've never met one before. This would be interesting. Pray for the young man that you know whom the Lord has called into his ministry. Early in every ministry, As they say, I speak with experience, mistakes can be made or often made. I think John Mark made one, but he got over it. He got straightened out. He got back into the work. And both Peter and Paul put their arm around him and said, here's a good brother. Here's a man to serve the Lord. Thankfully, we have men like Peter and Barnabas who are willing to take young ministers aside and faithfully correct and teach them. Men like Barnabas will be highly honored for their foresight and their usefulness when they stand in the presence of the Lord. Barnabas was an exceptionally good man. John Mark is a man who was restored to usefulness, even to the Apostle Paul. Only the Lord knows at this point how much good John Mark did with the rest of his life. How many dozens, how many hundreds of people trusted the Savior through the ministry of this man, who for a while was out of the ministry? I wonder how many Gentiles trusted Christ through the ministry of John Mark. In this letter, Peter was willing to put his arm around Marcus and say, my son Marcus sends his greetings to you folk. Our third group of brethren are described as the church in Babylon. Do you remember my first rule of biblical interpretation? One way to put it is this. If what the Bible says makes sense, seek no other sense. Always approach the Bible as if it's speaking literally, unless you have very good reason to think otherwise. For example, when Matthew or Luke come along and say, Jesus gave this parable, then we're supposed to think, this is not really talking about trees. This is talking about the seed of the Word of God, or it has a spiritual meaning. We're told ahead of time. And if a word or image is explained in some allegorical way in one scripture, then we have an option in looking at this scripture to say, maybe there's another meaning. At least we have the privilege of delving into that. But generally speaking, if the Bible knows, the Lord knows how to speak to us, and he says what he wants to say, and we can understand it. Straightforward. So what do we do with the word Babylon here in 1 Peter? As far as I know, I didn't look at all of them, I confess. As far as I know, all 249 times the word is used in the Old Testament, it is referring to the ancient city of Babylon. 250 times. It never means Jerusalem. Babylon never means Damascus. It's not talking about Rome. It's not talking about the Lake of Fire. It's talking about Babylon. It is the 11 New Testament verses, 240 over here in the Old Testament, 49, and 11 in the New Testament. It's the New Testament references to Babylon that are open to debate or are debated by various experts. But the first five references in the Gospels and the Book of Acts, again, all refer, clearly refer to the ancient city of Babylon in Mesopotamia. So the abundant biblical precedence is that Babylon is that Mesopotamian city. That leaves us Peter's reference and six references in the book of Revelation. I will read those ones from Revelation. Chapter 14 verse 8, and there followed another angel saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. Do we have an identification of the city? Don't we? Revelation 16, 19, the great city was divided into three parts and the cities of the nations fell and great Babylon came in remembrance before God to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. Revelation 17, 5, and upon her forehead was written a name, Mystery Babylon, the great, the mother of harlots, the abominations of the earth. Revelation 18.2, and he cried mightily with a strong voice saying, Babylon the great has fallen, has fallen and has become the habitation of devils and the whole of every foul spirit and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird. Revelation 18.10, standing afar off for the fear of her torment saying, alas, alas, that great city Babylon and the mighty city for in one hour is thy judgment come. And again in the same chapter, verse 21, and a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and cast it into the sea saying, thus with violence shall the great city Babylon be thrown down and shall be found. Since the days of the Reformation, Protestant scholars have said that all the references to Babylon in the book of Revelation speak of Rome. Those scholars generally have hated Roman Catholicism, and therefore they have hated the city of Rome. Many Baptist scholars have gone along with that interpretation and application. But I have to ask, why? Why should the word Babylon refer to somewhere else without any explanation for the change? No explanation whatsoever. If we're going to pull a city out of a hat, any old city, and say Babylon is the city, why don't we say New York City, Washington DC, some city in China, London. There are some scholars who insist that it is Jerusalem. I can see a bit of logic in that. I don't believe it, but I can see why they might say that sort of thing. Since, as far as I can see, we have no biblical foundation for saying that Babylon is anything else but Babylon, what is to keep us from choosing any city other than Babylon. Actually, some people point to our verse as proof that Babylon is Rome. They ask or they say that Peter was in Rome when he wrote this epistle. I've read this book a couple of times now, and I have not been able to find any reference to Rome in there. Where in the New Testament is proof that Peter was in Rome? I'm not saying that he wasn't, but I have no biblical proof that he was. Yes, there is tradition. Tradition is not biblical proof. It's tradition. They also say that Peter was never in Mesopotamia. Again, I ask, where's the proof for that, that he was never in Mesopotamia? I go back to my first rule of biblical interpretation. I can't see any scripture which demands that I say Peter was in Rome when he wrote this epistle. And it is presumption to say that the people of Galatia or Cappadocia automatically knew he meant Rome when he said Babylon. Come on now, why should they make that assumption? Why should they make that jump? If Peter is making that geographic and logical leap, I think there must be some sort of evidence to that effect somewhere. So I'm going to go out on a limb saying that he was in the city which has been known for centuries as Babylon. And even if someone wants to insist that the Babylon of Revelation is Rome, He still can't say that Peter is there in Rome when he writes this letter. In that city, there was a church of the Lord Jesus Christ made up of a group of God's elect souls. Whether that church was started by Peter or not, it doesn't matter. I doubt that it was. And in that city were Christians who were brothers and sisters to the suffering saints in Asia Minor. They had much in common, far beyond their simple faith in Christ, if there is such a thing as simple faith. They could sympathize. They could empathize with saints around the world. And when they knew that Peter was writing a letter to the brethren in Galatia and Cappadocia, Bithynia, they sent their salutations and their prayers. And this reminds us that you and I are a part of a large extended family which stretches around the world. I'm not talking about a universal church. But we have brethren over there. We have brothers over here and sisters as well. We are far too myopic. We're far too nearsighted than we ought to be. We may not think very often about our brethren in Manitoba or Macedonia or Macau, but perhaps we should. We're going to spend eternity with saints from every tongue, every tribe, and every nation. We have the same gracious Savior, and our hearts should be linked with His love toward all saints, not just us. We need to remember to pray for our brethren in Europe, and the Philippines, and Korea, and in China. And I think the book of Peter gives us an example and slight exhortation in that regard.