Chosen People, Blessed Assurance - 1 Peter 1:1-12

Thank you.

And we're going to look at the first 12 verses.

So Peter writes,

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

to God's elect exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus,

Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,

who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father

through the sanctifying work of the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ

and sprinkled with his blood.

Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In his great mercy, he has given us new birth

into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade.

This inheritance is kept in heaven for you who, through faith,

are shielded by God's power

until the coming of the salvation that is to be ready to be revealed in the last time.

In all of this, you greatly rejoice,

though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief

in all kinds of trials.

These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith,

of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire,

may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Though you have not seen him, you love him.

And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him

and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.

For you are receiving the end result of your faith,

the salvation of your souls.

Concerning this salvation,

the prophets who spoke of the grace that was to come to you

searched intently and with the greatest care,

trying to find out the time and circumstances

to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing

when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah

and the glories that would follow.

It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves,

but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you

by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit

sent from heaven.

Even angels long to look into these things.

Let's pray once more.

Father, thank you for the privilege to gather in your name

and be with us, Holy Spirit,

as we continue our time of worship through the word.

Unlock the meaning of the text to us, Lord.

May your words be lifted up.

May what I have to say die.

And may it be your truths that are implanted

on the hearts and minds of your people.

So speak to us this morning, Lord,

and lift our eyes to heaven.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Those of us with any kind of theological training

have had to read people like Calvin, Luther, Spurgeon,

great theologians and preachers over the centuries

who have really captured the essence of what it means

to be a person in this world that we live in

where sometimes things go well

and sometimes things go badly.

But outside of guys like that,

who would have thought that one of the key theologians

of our time would be Frank Sinatra,

who had these famous words to say,

which I won't sing, don't worry.

We've had to struggle through that enough

for my own voice this morning,

so I'll just speak it for you.

Frank said this,

that's life.

That's what all the people say.

Riding high in April,

shot down in May.

But I know I'm going to change that tune

when I'm back on top in June.

Now it's simple,

but that song sums up a lot of the human experience.

Sometimes life is easy.

Family is healthy.

House is comfortable.

No one left the immersion on

when you left the house this morning.

You've got a good job, which pays well.

Loads of friends.

You're the star of the school of rugby team.

Life is good,

and you expect life to be good

and to keep going

and to be easy and comfortable.

But then, just like that,

things fall apart.

Sickness,

poverty,

even homelessness,

as we were talking about,

unemployment,

loneliness.

Maybe things get better.

Maybe they don't get better.

Maybe you look around

and you see other people

whose lives are together.

Other people who maybe

don't love the Lord

in the way you do.

Who don't serve the Lord

in the way you do.

And maybe you start to think,

like I have,

things like this.

Lord, it's not fair.

Did I do something wrong?

Is God punishing me?

In fact,

where is God?

Now this isn't a subject

we can ignore.

Suffering is part of the human experience,

and indeed is part of the Christian experience.

The Lord himself said this,

in this world,

you will have trouble.

If they hated me,

they will hate you.

Blessed are you,

when,

not if,

when people insult you,

persecute you,

and falsely say

all kinds of evil

against you because of me.

Rejoice and be glad,

because great is your reward

in heaven.

Now the letter of 1 Peter,

which we'll see over the coming weeks,

addresses this subject

of suffering.

Not the kind that would come later

when the Roman emperor

decided to blame Christians

for burning down Rome.

Not imprisonment,

not torture,

not execution,

not the kinds of things

that you see in China

and Pakistan

and Saudi Arabia

and places around the world

where our brothers and sisters

are suffering.

Nothing specific,

but this general,

all-encompassing kind of suffering.

Now we'll see,

as we go through the letter,

Peter talks about things like

insults,

mockery,

intimidation,

harassment,

bullying.

He talks about the workplace,

what it means to be

a Christian employee.

What does it mean

to be a public citizen?

What does it mean

to be a husband,

a wife,

a father,

a mother?

What does it mean

to minister to one another

in the church

in light of all these things

that go on around us?

So Peter is concerned,

first and foremost,

with what is the daily conduct

of the Christian

in the midst of suffering.

So he wrote this letter

basically

to encourage

and to comfort

the believers

as they experience

these trials.

In the text today,

he lays the foundation

and we're going to build

on that foundation

over the coming weeks.

And in doing so,

he doesn't dismiss

the church's suffering.

He doesn't say,

pull your socks up,

build a bridge,

get over it,

get your act together.

He doesn't do that.

He encourages the believers

by reminding them

of their living hope.

It's not vain hope.

It's not like,

yesterday I had hoped

that Ireland would make

a decent fist

at playing the All Blacks

and that kind of fell apart

after the first 30 seconds,

but there we go.

That happens sometimes.

Not speculative hope.

Literally,

hope that lives.

Assurance that will never die.

But this letter,

it doesn't just apply.

If you're one of the ones

reading this in Greek,

I say that personally.

My Greek is terrible,

by the way.

It applies wherever you live.

Whether you live in Carragalline,

Middleton,

Cork City,

anywhere else,

this letter is for all of us

because at some point

or another,

if you haven't found

life difficult,

I can assure you,

you will at some point

because as Frank says,

that's life.

So we can look

to the same living hope

as the original readers

of this letter.

So I've broken up the text

into three points.

If you have one of the sheets,

I apologize,

there's probably not enough

of them to go around,

but if you're taking notes,

I've broken up the text

into three points.

Peter says three things

about this living hope.

One,

it is predestined.

Two,

it is precious.

And three,

it is prophetic.

So this living hope

is predestined.

It is precious

and it is prophetic.

My particular cross to bear

is a compulsion

towards alliteration,

as you can see,

but nevertheless,

bear with me,

I plead you.

Let's take a look

at the first one.

Believer's living hope

is predestined.

Verse one,

Peter describes the Christians

to whom he's writing

as elect.

Now that's a word

that means chosen.

In fact,

verse two says,

Christians have been chosen

according to the

foreknowledge of God.

Some of your Bibles

might say something

like God's chosen people,

elect exiles,

those who are chosen.

In any event,

it means exactly

the same thing.

The Taoiseach

who we were just praying for

has announced

we're likely to have

an election in May.

That is,

when we will elect

or choose

our next government.

So that's just

another word for it.

To elect is to choose.

To choose is to elect.

We all know

what that word means.

There's no confusion

about it.

So what Peter's picking up here

is what we've come to call

this doctrine

of predestination.

Or election.

Now that is,

you're a believer

not because of something

you have done,

of something that made

you please God,

but because of something

God was pleased to do.

Now I need to be

really clear on this.

And don't worry,

this is not going to turn

into a theological lecture.

You can do that

on Tuesday night

or Wednesday night,

whenever your home group is.

But I need to be clear on this

because this subject

has been very poorly taught

and very badly misunderstood

and distorted

and taken out of context.

A kind of a caricature

you might have heard this.

God chooses who gets saved

and who doesn't

so therefore,

what's the point

in evangelizing to people?

Or,

if you're part of the elect,

that is,

if I'm chosen,

well I can do whatever it is

I want to do anyway

and damn the consequences.

Deliberate choice of words.

Or,

if God just turned us

into robots,

what's the point

in worshipping

on Sunday morning?

What's the point

in giving thanks?

There's a phrase

for people like that.

If you came out

of a Presbyterian background,

you might have been

at some point

referred to as

the frozen chosen.

That's what that means.

But this predestination thing

is anything but ice cold.

In fact,

it's red hot.

Look at verse 2.

Those who believe

are chosen

according to the

foreknowledge

of God the Father.

Now that's a funny

sounding word,

isn't it?

So literally,

to be foreknown

just means to be

known in advance.

Now,

we're not talking

about knowledge

like,

I know

that the sky is blue.

Or,

it's going to rain tomorrow.

Or,

when I try and put

Alice to bed tonight,

she's going to scream

her lungs out

for 10 minutes.

You got a

preliminary look

at that

this morning.

This kind of known

is very different.

You don't have to

turn to it,

but Genesis 4

says this,

Adam

knew

his wife.

Then what happened?

She gave birth

to their son,

Cain.

I remember the first

time I read that

and I just thought,

just from Adam

knowing the girl?

That's some

powerful knowledge.

Thinking,

Adam's son,

be careful who you

know if that's

all it takes.

But of course,

we know it's a

euphemism,

right?

Just like when the

angel Gabriel said

to Mary,

Mary,

you're going to

have a son.

And you remember

what Mary said?

How is that

possible?

I have never

known a man.

And again,

I thought,

well,

she must have

known some men.

The poor girl

wasn't hiding

under a rock

her entire life.

But of course,

what it means is,

I have never

been intimate

with a man.

So this picture

of love,

not the act itself,

but this picture

of love that

lies behind it,

this is the same

thing that Peter

is talking about

here.

God has known

you in advance.

So what does

that mean?

God loved you

before you ever

loved him,

is what that

means.

God has had

in mind for

you an intimate

relationship with

you since way

before the

commencement of

history, way

before you were

ever even born.

And on the

basis of that

relationship in

which you didn't

even know God,

but God knew

you, God

elected you,

God chose

you.

Now think about

this.

This isn't just

theology.

Why is Peter

talking about this?

It's the first

thing he does.

The readers of

the letter are

going through

hardship and

persecution and

suffering.

They're wondering,

just like I was

asking at the

beginning, have we

done something

wrong?

Have we done

something to

displease God?

When we look

around and we

see all the

suffering and

all the pain,

what's going on?

Where is God

in all this?

And they're

wondering, has

he forgotten

us?

And Peter wants

to encourage

him.

And he does

that in no

better way than

by pointing to

the fact that

this living hope,

this assurance of

salvation is

grounded not in

something that

they have done,

but in something

God did before

the ages even

began.

Something he

purposed long

ago before any

of them was even

alive.

And not just

because of some

dry, stale,

cold, impersonal

sense of doctrine

that you only find

in dusty old

books, but a

people who were

chosen by God

according to his

foreknowledge,

desire to enter

into relationship

with you.

In the same

way, a man

knows his

wife.

A woman knows

her husband.

They have an

intimate relationship

that nobody else

will ever have

with them.

In the same

way, God

knows us.

And he makes

this visible,

not just, again,

dry theology or

philosophy.

He makes this

visible, verse 2,

by sending us

the Holy Spirit

to sanctify us.

That means to

purify us, to

give us the

ability to kill

those parts of

our flesh that

don't give God

glory.

And look at what

it says.

He did this so

that we would be

obedient to

Jesus Christ.

That means walk

in a manner like

the manner in

which he walked,

humble,

faithful,

devoted to the

things of heaven.

You know, when I

hear people talk

about election or

predestination,

sometimes there's

this arrogance that

can come across

when people talk

about it.

But those of us

who hold to this

doctrine should be

the humblest people

in the world,

because we had

nothing to do with

this.

This is all the

work of God in

our lives, which

would lead us to

live lives like

Christ, humble and

faithful and devoted

to God.

And because of all

of this, the text

says, we have been

sprinkled with his

blood.

Not literally, that

would be quite

gross, but

metaphorically,

pardoned, ransomed,

healed, restored,

forgiven.

No wonder, look at

verse 3, no wonder

it says, praise be to

the God and Father

of our Lord Jesus

Christ.

He could have

finished the letter

at that point, and

that would have been

enough for me.

But he goes on.

And you know, one of

the people that I find

the most fascinating

is Winston Churchill,

and he once said

this, if you're going

through hell, keep

going.

Don't stop.

When you find

yourself feeling the

pressure, when life

knocks you for six, I've

gone on to the cricket

metaphors because the

rugby is done and

dusted as far as I'm

concerned.

When you get the

diagnosis, when the

mortgage is overdue,

when you can't face

going home because the

house is like a war

zone, whatever life

throws at you, fix

your eyes on 1 Peter

1 Peter 1:1–2

chapter 1, verses 1

to 2.

And remind yourself,

you are not alone.

You're not just some

isolated speck of dust

in this vast universe.

You have been chosen

by God.

Verse 4, God's own

son conquered death by

his resurrection and

has guaranteed this

inheritance that can

never perish, spoil,

or fade.

It will never die.

It will never go out of

existence.

It will never be

invisible.

Remind yourself when

you go through these

times that your

suffering cannot and

will not cancel out

this living hope.

Verse 5, you are

shielded through this

faith.

You remember the full

armor of God in

Ephesians 6?

Take up the shield of

faith with which you

can extinguish all the

flaming arrows of the

evil one.

shield is the best

weapon you have in

this fight against

suffering.

So when the arrows of

hardship and suffering

come at you, lift up

the shield as high as

you can possibly lift it

and just let it do its

work.

Take comfort in the

fact that your faith,

your living hope, is

predestined.

So that's the first one.

Let's look at the

second one.

Our living hope is

precious.

Look at verse 6.

Even though we rejoice

in these great truths,

you know, being chosen,

God's foreknowledge, all

of that kind of thing, it

doesn't mean that the

sufferings and trials

disappear.

So even though we

belong to God, we're not

always going to fly over

the storm.

I was listening to a

worship song the other

day and it was talking

about how we fly with

God over the storm.

But that's not always

true.

In fact, a lot of the

time, we sail right

into the storm.

Look at verse 7.

It's not unavoidable.

It's not accidental.

These trials have come,

verse 7, so that the

proven genuineness of

your faith of greater

worth than gold, which

perishes even though

refined by fire, may

result in praise and

glory and honor when

Jesus is revealed.

So I was reading a lot

about gold in preparation

for this sermon.

We all know what it is,

what it looks like,

what it's worth.

Many of us have it in

our fingers or around

our necks, in your

earlobes.

Some of you might have

it in your teeth, but

keep that to yourself

for the time being.

And I looked it up.

Right now, gold is

worth about 40 euro a

gram.

Now, to put that into

context, take a bag of

sugar.

Empty the bag.

If you want to fill that

bag back up with gold,

it's going to cost you

20 grand.

It would be nice.

It's a valuable,

precious metal.

It's been used for

everything from currency

to electronics to

religious idols.

And we watch movies

about it, like Indiana

Jones.

We create myths about

it, like the lost city

of El Dorado, which is

supposedly the city in

South America that was

made entirely out of

gold, which is

completely true, by the

way.

In 19th century America,

to immigrants in New

York, they said that the

streets of New York are

paved with gold, something

which also turned out not

to be quite true.

In the Bible, if you read

the book of Daniel, you

can read about the king

of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar,

and he built this statue

90 feet high in the middle

of the desert, totally

overlaid with gold.

You could see it for miles

around and said, this

represents me and how

valuable and precious I

am.

You will bow down to this

statue.

The Ark of the

Covenant and the temple,

in fact, were completely

decorated with gold.

So whether as a means for

greedy men to celebrate

themselves or in the

worship of the one true

God, gold has always

been valued.

It's always been sought

after.

It's always been precious.

Say, all right, thanks for

the lecture about gold,

Dan.

What's your point?

Well, this is the most

valuable thing Peter can

think of.

So what he's describing is

how precious is this faith,

how precious is this

living hope that believers

in Jesus Christ have.

This faith that's ordained

by the Father, that is

enabled by the Spirit, for

the purpose of obeying the

Son.

Faith is not bronze.

It's not silver.

It's gold.

First place.

Pole position.

Medal of champions, kings

and emperors.

It's the most valuable

possession that the

believer owns.

It's a medal that, as

Peter refers to here, it's

purified by being put

through fire.

Now, I won't go through

it in detail, but it's an

interesting process.

Basically, to get rid of

all of the junk and all of

the rubbish and gold, you

heat it to 1,064 degrees

Celsius, which is 10 times

hotter than boiling water.

The point is, this is not

like gently reheating

soup.

This is violent, high

energy, testing, using

extreme heat.

In other words, trials that

are difficult to bear, cause

great pain, but which have

a purpose.

Now, I've burned myself a few

times, not while refining

gold, but usually while

cooking, like maybe many of

you have as well.

One of them was

particularly bad.

In fact, it was recent.

I was just there cooking,

minding my own business, when

this sauce decided to attack

me from the pot.

The ungrateful sauce, but

anyway.

The skin in my fingers

scorched and blistered and

did everything else they do

when human skin gets burned.

And they were very sensitive

to the touch.

I couldn't touch anything for

quite a while afterwards.

But over time, they recovered.

And the skin got stronger.

So the next time, and there

was a next time, it didn't

hurt as much.

You see, my skin had

developed, it had toughened.

It could still get burned, and

it can still get burned, and it

will still get burned.

But the pain isn't the same.

So now, when I burn myself, I

kind of don't notice it in the

same spot anymore.

My skin has developed to the

point where it just simply

doesn't register the pain.

That's kind of what Peter is

saying.

That's the purpose of

suffering.

Talking about gold again, there

was a Roman philosopher called

Pliny, and he wrote this at the

same time as Peter's letter.

He said this, gold is the only

thing that doesn't lose any

substance by the action of

fire.

You throw anything else into a

fire, and it's gone in a

matter of seconds.

But gold doesn't lose any

substance.

He goes on to say, as a

matter of fact, it improves

in quality, the more often

you put it in the fire.

And fire, here's the point,

serves as a test of the

gold's goodness.

That's what Peter is saying.

Just like these trials have

come to the church to purify the

faith of the believers, the fire

tests the gold to strengthen its

purity.

And apparently, Peter says, so do

things like bullying, mockery,

gossip, harassment, so do all of

these things toughen and strengthen

the faith of the Christian.

The point of the fire, Peter is

saying, is that it's not there to

punish you for something.

The fire is there to develop your

Christian character.

Because it's really easy to be a

Christian when life is going well.

When you've got the job, when you've

got the house, when college is good,

when no one is gossiping about you,

but the proof of the pudding is in

the eating.

It's when things go bad, what way is

your faith?

It's so that when the world looks at

you, when the church looks at you,

and when the Lord looks at you, you

see someone whose faith, or they see

someone whose faith is true and pure,

because it's been tested by fire.

To paraphrase verses 7 and 8, it's so

that when Jesus comes back, or you go

to meet him, but when he separates

the sheep from the goats, you find

yourself in the right pasture.

That's how serious this is.

Because you love him, and you believe

in him, that fire will have resulted

in the salvation of your soul, Peter

says.

It is a means of grace.

We'll get more into this in chapters

2 and 3, but here's some ways in which

the fire can test your faith.

Maybe you're a student, whatever age

you are, maybe you're a student.

When your classmates call you names,

or they mock you because of your faith,

do you respond?

Or do you turn the other cheek?

If you're an employee, when your boss

rebukes you under false pretenses, as

has happened to me before, unheard of

in the civil service, I know.

But when your boss rebukes you for

something you haven't done, do you

shout and scream?

Threaten to go on strike?

Or do you just calmly and respectfully

conduct yourself as a model employee

and let your life speak for itself?

How about this one?

This will make me very popular by

bringing this up.

We're all citizens.

When the government requires us to pay

for our water, do we disobey?

Do we refuse?

Or do we render unto Caesar

as Jesus commanded us?

Friend, the fire is not there to punish you.

The fire is there, ultimately,

to make you more like Christ.

Because think about this.

Christ who didn't open his mouth

to defend himself.

Who went willingly

like a lamb to the slaughter.

Christ who could have said,

I'm not putting up with all of this.

I'm not putting up with being beaten

and mocked and scorned

and harassed and intimidated.

Christ who could have called down

twelve legions of angels

for protection,

but instead,

willingly,

went to the cross.

Christ who even on that cross

bled for the ones

who nailed him to the cross.

The ones who beat him

and whipped him

and scourged him.

And remember what he prayed?

Father,

forgive them.

They don't know what they're doing.

John puts it this way.

You don't have to turn to it,

but this is from 1 John 3.

Dear friends,

now we are children of God.

What we will be

has not yet been made known.

But we know that when Christ

appears,

we'll be like him.

For we shall see him

as he is.

And that,

Peter says in verse 8,

ought to fill us with joy.

Because our trials, friends,

are not interruptions

in our Christian walk.

They're not these things

that happen to us

that distract from being Christian.

Our trials, friends,

they are our Christian walk.

That's when we prove our faith.

Our trials are there

to make us more like Christ.

And in them,

verse 9,

even though we suffer,

and even though we don't

always see God,

we are receiving

the end result

of our faith.

The end result

that is guaranteed

because of this living hope.

The living hope

that is precious

because it is refined

by fire.

So,

our living hope

is predestined,

precious,

and lastly,

prophetic.

Now, it's very easy.

I wonder about this

sometimes myself

when I teach this stuff.

It's very easy

and understandable

to wonder,

why do we bother

reading the Old Testament?

It doesn't look

very relevant to us.

I mean,

this kind of strange

collection of books

of history

and poetry

and law

seems to apply

to this group of people

in ancient Palestine.

It doesn't seem

to have a whole lot

of relevance to me

living in East Cork

in the 21st century.

And sometimes,

I'm guilty of this,

we can take the stories

of Joseph and Daniel

and Moses and all of them

and we can kind of take

life lessons for us.

And that's not wrong,

necessarily,

but it's not the point

of the Old Testament.

You see,

the point of the whole Bible

is that it's part

of this one big story.

And the story goes

something like this.

God created

a perfect universe.

Through mankind,

sin came in

and corrupted it.

And one day,

God will restore

the universe

to the way it was

in the very beginning.

That's the whole Bible

in a nutshell.

It's not much more

complicated than that.

Basically,

the Bible is a story

about how God

is going to sort out sin.

And all of these parts

of the Old Testament,

you know,

Exodus from Egypt,

the Promised Land,

Moses,

the Kingdom of David,

all of these things,

they're pictures

which point forwards

to what it's going

to look like

at the very end

when this sin

is eradicated.

And none of these things

were going to get rid

of this sin.

Ultimately,

there was only one way

in which this sin

was going to be destroyed.

And verse 10 says

the prophets,

the guys in the Old Testament

who spoke the words of God,

they searched intently

for this.

They wanted to know,

they yearned to know,

how was this going to happen?

What's it going to look like?

When is the Messiah coming?

What's he going to do?

And they wrote things like this.

Isaiah said this,

The Lord himself

will give you a sign,

O Israel.

Behold,

which just means,

look,

the virgin

will give birth

to a child.

Jeremiah,

I will set up over them

one shepherd,

and he shall feed them

and be

the good shepherd.

Micah,

you, Bethlehem,

from you

will come forth

for me

one who is to be

the ruler

in Israel.

Zechariah,

behold,

that word again,

look,

your king is coming to you,

righteous

and having salvation,

humble

and mounted

on a donkey.

David,

I looked for pity,

but there was none.

For my thirst

they gave me

sour wine

to drink.

Now those are five.

One source I read

said there are over

350 prophecies

in the Old Testament

that are directly fulfilled

by Jesus Christ.

350.

Those are just five.

And the prophets

only saw these things

through the lens

of their own time

and their own experience,

but we have the benefit

of history.

So we know

Jesus was born

of a virgin.

We know

he was the good shepherd

who quite literally

fed the sheep.

sheep.

We know

he was born

in Bethlehem.

We know

he entered Jerusalem

riding on a donkey.

And we know

that the Romans

gave him sour wine

to drink

when he was hanging

on the cross.

And these are things

that are not accidents.

They are the fulfillment

of thousands

of years

of biblical prophecy

of God's plan.

And we know

verse 12

that these prophets

were not serving

themselves,

but they were

serving us.

That's you and me.

That's the people

who live

on this side

of Calvary.

You see,

the prophets,

friends,

their very words

were pointing

towards a picture

of the fulfillment

of Jesus Christ,

God's plan

to send his own son

into the world

to purchase

for himself

a people,

a bride.

And that bride

is the church.

Not just abstract,

by the way.

This church,

here,

this morning,

in this literal room,

with this literal people,

listening to this

literal sermon,

this living hope,

friends,

that you have,

this is not God

reacting to something.

He's not reacting

to Brexit.

He's not reacting

to Islamic State.

He's not reacting

to all of the other

things that go on

in the world

that make us

really uncomfortable

and make us wonder

what's going on,

Lord.

This is something

that stretches back

hundreds and hundreds

of years before

the prophets

to the Garden

of Eden itself,

where God promised,

one day,

from the seed

of the woman,

will come the one

who will crush

the head

of the snake,

the one who would

destroy sin,

the one who would

conquer death.

We should read

the Old Testament,

friends,

because these things

remind us

God is in control,

even when things

don't go the way

we want them to go.

when we lose our job,

when we're sick,

when my two-year-old

daughter is screaming

here on my first Sunday

in Carragalline,

when all of these

things happen

that don't go

according to plan,

God's plan

will not get interrupted.

That's why we should

read the Old Testament.

And here's what Peter

is basically saying.

Brothers and sisters,

I know you're feeling

the heat.

So am I.

So is Paul.

So are all the other

apostles.

So are all the other

believers.

But friends,

long ago,

and in many ways,

Hebrews 1 verse 1 says,

Hebrews 1:1

God spoke to us

through those prophets

who we just read about.

But in these last days,

he has spoken to us,

who?

Through his son,

whom he has appointed

heir,

king,

emperor,

ruler,

over all things.

And Peter says,

this is astounding,

even angels

long to look

into these things

you can read a lot

about angels.

They're stronger

than we are.

They're smarter

than we are.

They're better looking

than we are,

according to the Bible.

But even angels

long to look

into these promises

made to you and me.

Because even the most

beautiful,

the most strong,

the most angelic angel

is still not

one of the people

about whom the prophets

were speaking,

whom the prophets

were serving.

That's you and me.

And that's incredible.

So don't stop witnessing.

Don't stop loving

one another.

Don't stop serving

one another.

Husband,

keep on being gentle.

Wife,

keep on loving.

Parent,

keep on being devoted.

Employee,

keep on being faithful.

Master,

keep on being kind.

Be the light

of the gospel.

as in really

be that light

by nature

of your life

in a world

of darkness

that desperately

needs that light.

Because Christ

has destroyed death.

And Christ

will bring us

to him

one day.

It's not up for debate.

It's done.

It's been purposed

long ago

and now we know

it for real.

Now I suggest

when you're at home

later today,

take this out

and read it again.

And just soak in

what Peter writes

to people

who are suffering.

And wrap your arms

around the full weight

of his encouragement.

And then go back

and read the first

three chapters

of the book of Job.

You know what

the most helpful

thing Job's friends

did was?

The most helpful

thing they said

was?

Absolutely nothing.

They came,

they sat down,

they didn't say

anything for a week

and that was

the most helpful

thing they did

in that entire book.

And then they

started talking

and the wheels

kind of came

off the wagon

at that point.

And they started

to say things

like this.

Job,

stop and think.

Do innocent

people die?

When have the

upright been punished?

Job,

you withheld

food from the hungry.

That is why

you suffer.

Job,

your children

sinned against God.

That's why

he gave them

over to death.

Unloving,

ungracious,

unhelpful.

They probably

meant well

because most

people do.

They were trying

to comfort

like Peter

but unlike

Peter

they ended

up doing

more harm

than good.

So here's

the pastoral

application.

Is that us?

When our

brothers and

sisters are

going through

pain

and suffering

what do we

say?

What do we

do?

Are my words

unkind?

Do I try

and find

fault?

Do I try

and give

a doctrinal

explanation

for suffering?

But all

I end up

doing is

ignoring

or blaming

the victim.

I personally

know several

people who

have confided

in other

believers about

suffering and

they've been

told things like

this.

Well,

Jim,

not his real

name,

but well,

Jim,

you wouldn't

have

leukemia if

you had more

faith.

Mary,

not her real

name again,

Mary,

your marriage

wouldn't be

falling apart

if you had

more faith

when you

were younger.

Or I've

personally been

told,

you know,

Dan,

Jack probably

wouldn't be

autistic if you

hadn't got him

vaccinated.

Now,

comments like

that,

they don't make

me angry,

they just make

me sad.

death.

But they're

nothing new.

They're as

old as the

book of

Job.

So the

next time,

and again,

here's the

application,

the next time

you're comforting

somebody,

don't look to

Job's friends.

Look to

Peter.

Don't

minimize their

suffering.

Empathize with

them.

Acknowledge,

yes,

I know things

are difficult.

And it's okay

to say that

things are

difficult.

Life isn't

always easy,

and it's not

going to be

easy.

Don't

rationalize

their

suffering,

or explain

it away.

Just point

them towards

the assurance

of their

salvation.

Point them

towards the

divine plan

of redemption

that began

long before

God ever

said,

let there be

light.

Fix their

eyes on the

glory of

God,

the gentle

love of

Jesus,

and the

Holy Spirit

who keeps

them secure.

And when

you find

yourself in

the valley,

and you

will,

if you

haven't

already,

look up

to the

top of

the mountain,

to the

shining city

on the

hill,

and head

straight

towards it.

Keep

going when

you're going

through hell,

just keep

going towards

that living

hope,

that assurance

of salvation

that will

never die.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.