mayfield church of christ

Eternity - A Life of Hope (1 Peter 1)

Posted by Pastor Mark on 6 July 2008 | 0 Comments

Tags: Hope, Submission,

I'm still a bit blown away....as I walk down the corridor to the toilets.....to look at the response to our Easter series on the HOPE of Easter. I think one of the main things that impresses me about those artworks.....is the sense that there is a very tangible connection between what Jesus did....and the lives of the people who prepared those masterpieces.

Developing that connection with Jesus....is VITAL to our ongoing development and understanding of who we are as God's people.....and So this morning.... As we begin a 4 part series on 1 Peter....I want to take that to the next level....and focus on  four areas in this amazing  letter.....that I think are foundational in a relationship with Jesus......A Life of Hope.....A Life of Love.....A Life of Submission....and a life of Service

I read a disturbing article this week......that I want to share with you.....

It is 2:00am and you are deep in sleep, warm and at peace in your bed. Suddenly you wake up to the sound of pounding on your front door.....the sound of shouting.....You jump out of bed and race for the door.....your heart pounding....your eyes still bleary. Before you reach the door....it's torn off its hinges and flattened ..... You are face to face with men in uniform carrying guns.....There are bright lights in your eyes.....You begin to speak and then you feel the throbbing pain at the side of your head then ... nothing!

When you come to.... you are lying on the ground...you can feel the grass....Then the realisation....It was not a dream.... hours must have passed. Your wife is by your side...and so are your chil­dren....and they are all distressed and crying. They are trying to bandage up the wound on your head with strips of cloth from your son's T-shirt.... It feels cold and damp. As your eyes begin to focus you finally ask...."Why are we outside?.... What's happening?"

Then....with tears streaming down her face.... your wife says, "The government....they took everything....Our house....cars....clothes...food....money....every­thing! ...WHY

Because we are Christians."

In one day, your whole life has changed radically and permanently. You are now poor, unemployable, persecuted, an exile. You won't get together with your friends for church this Sunday.  As a matter of fact, you don't even know where they are. You sit there with a numb mind and bruised body trying to grasp what has just happened to you and your family.

This morning, in over 50 countries....that's the reality for many Christians who are being persecuted for their faith.....Up to two thirds of the world's Christian population faces abuse of some kind....whether it's verbal harassment....discrimination....hostility or persecution. Up to 170,000 Christians are killed every year because of their faith. The top countries...where this persecution is happening....China...Laos...Vietnam...North Korea...Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Iran, the Maldives and Afghanistan. A study in 2001 identified that in North Korea alone..... 100,000 Christians were in labour camps....In prison because of their refusal to deny their Faith in Jesus Christ.

I found that a really disturbing article......NOT only because of the persecution of fellow humans....

But also because it highlighted to me just how EASY it is for US to be in relationship with Jesus.....and how little it actually COSTS us.....

If I asked you.....what parts of the Bible you like.....I recon I'd come up with a list that included the Psalms....Luke's Gospel.... Philippians.....The Sermon on the Mount....Romans....or maybe a practical book like James.

If I asked the SAME question of our friends over in the slums of Manila....or in China.....then it's very likely....that they would give me a different perspective.....and quite possibly....1st Peter would be high on their list....and the reason for that is that the world which Peter describes....of social isolation....of exclusion from society and of persecution..... is their daily experience.....they relate to what he is describing and they CLING to the HOPE that he expresses in his letters.

But you know.....I really believe that this letter has so much to say to us....right here....living in what is a very a secular.....very comfortable....very materialistic Australia.

Sue and I went camping years ago.....up on the Barrington River.....there had been a lot of rain in the week before....and we had to cross two fiords.....On one of them.....as I drove down into the water at about 20km/h....I remember asking Sue the Question.....600mm......is that too deep to cross.....well it WAS....and the car STOPPED about 10 metres in.

As soon as it stopped....water started to come in through Sue's door....she was upstream.....So I grabbed the can of WD40....and I thought I'd just get out and give the distributor a spray to dry it out....but when I got out of the car.....and managed to get the bonnet up.....I couldn't even SEE the distributor...it was underwater

As I stood holding my can of WD40 in one hand....and the Bull Bar in the other hand.....it was all I could do to keep my feet on the ground....the current was so strong......and I had this very real fear....this feeling in my GUT.....that at any moment I could be washed downstream.....

I remember that feeling of fear and panic really clearly...as a feeling of hopelessness....of a sense that there's NOTHING I can do......and as I thought about it....I recognize that I get that feeling a lot at different times in my life.....

Because  I think that FEELING.....of impending DOOM.....like our feet are going to be taken out from under us at any moment......is a very REAL feeling for many of us on a regular basis.....we might not be going through the type of persecution I mentioned earlier....but the feelings are no LESS....

The bills still keep coming into the letter box.....but your bank account doesn't match your spending.....and the river rises... Your calendar is out of control...... and your relationship with your partner is strained . . . the current gains speed... Pressures of life are mounting....your health is starting to suffer.....each day you wake up with a knot in your stomach wondering what catastrophy today will bring ... and you FEEL the ground beneath your feet starting to give way as the water presses against you. You try to hold on.....and you keep going day after day....but you are not sure how long you can stand your ground before you are swept away.

See....I think that's a pretty familiar feeling for most of us..... When Peter wrote to these early followers of Christ....his words brought hope in the middle of a HUGE rising river of trials and persecution. THAT was their life......I mean these guys were living right around the time that Nero was burning Rome....and looking for someone to blame it of.....and he chose....the Christians....and so he burned, and crucified, and generally found any way to persecute them.....But what Peter is saying....to them....in the midst of all that....is the same message he has to us....that....We all face difficult times of varying levels....of pain...of tension...and conflict. But the stuff we have to face....DOESN'T have to sweep you away...it doesn't have to make your whole life miserable .... destroy your fam­ily.... or demolish your hopes.

Maybe it's just me, but I just get the feeling that people aren't very optimistic these days. You can almost hear and see an overall mood of doubt and pessimism in people's voices and faces. You ask how people are going....standard reply...no use complaining.....Instead of being hopeful, Australia is full of people who flip each other off....cut each other off in traffic....and generally live with a scowl on their faces. It seems that for so many....hope and happiness has BEEN swept away.

And I find it hard to understand WHY that seems to be an INCREASING reality in our country..........given that we are NOT experiencing what Christians in North Korea or China are experiencing...... I don't understand WHY there is so much doubt and pessimism...around us.....But then I read this amazing verse this week...in Ecclesiasties 3....and it just blew me away....

Here.....Solomon wrote....I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set ETERNITY in the hearts of men. The burden that God has laid on men is that everything is beautiful, but only "in its time." The beauty of a flower only lasts for a week. The grass is only green during the summer. The beauty of a snowfall only lasts so long, and then it melts away. But God has set "ETERNITY" in the hearts of men, the desire for things to last.

ETERNITY....isn't that a great word....and it seems so appropriate for us here in Australia.....And it all starts to make sense.....We buy dishwashers, stoves, air conditioners and mobile phones to LAST....... We don't like it when things break down...... But the problem is that EVERYTHING in this life has a life span..... Cars wear out..... Gadgets get old.... Love gets mediocre.....Computers become obsolete...the week after you buy them....and our bodies slow down and grow old.

And so as Australians who live with some of the newest and the best equipment in the world....we STILL aren't happy and optimistic..... Why?..... Because we have "ETERNITY" in our hearts..... But the things and dreams of this life are not eternal......they wear out.....

You don't have a guarantee on health.... You don't have a guarantee on wealth.... Marriage don't always last till death do you part..... And so our whole OUTLOOK is skewed to give this pessimistic view on life.....

But....Do you think God wants you to live your life that way? Do you THINK that God wants us to be Eeyores.....Thanks for comin'.....it's meant to be sunny but I doubt it will be..... Does that sound like the attitude of someone who Jesus calls the "light of the world" or the "salt of the earth?" That's not the way God wants us to live....to live without HOPE....And if you live without hope....then in a sense you are living without faith.....And what I believe Peter is spelling out here....is that there's no excuse for that kind of outlook on life...when you are in relationship with Jesus....... But we do it all the time.

Martin Luther went through a real downer like this once...... So you know what his wife did?..... She came down the stairs one morning wearing all black and looking really sad sorrowful...... He asked her, "who died?"...... She said....."God did." Luther said.... "You silly woman, God did not die." And she responded, "oh, I thought by the way you were acting that he had."......See she wanted to remind him that Jesus still LIVED. There was still hope. And that's Peter's point in this opening chapter of 1st Peter.......

Listen to the optimism of these verses......

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.....kept in heaven for you, .....who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.....in this you GREATLY rejoice.....

No matter how bad life may get.....there is still hope - because we have the assurance that Jesus died for the sins of the world......and that Jesus died for US.....and that God accepted what was pinned to that cross...... There is something more certain to life than death and taxes ....there is eternal life......and it's THAT promise that GIVES spiritual life and hope in our world.... of something that is permanent.....that DOEN'T perish, spoil, or fade.

When Sue and I went to Thailand......we booked all our hotels before we left.....and you know that feeling....when you arrive at your destination and you're tired....and you check in.....and even before you get to your room.....you REALISE....that it's NOTHING like the brochure....Well the HOPE that Jesus gives us...is like INSUIRANCE against that happening when we move on from here.... That ISN'T going to happen in heaven.......we AREN'T going to be disappointed....

Do you have that sense of HOPE?.....Does that HOPE get you through the hard stuff in your life......Or are you floundering a bit?...... I find it so sad to see Christians moping around frustrated with life, and depressed over their futures.

See.....When you really live with that hope....and I mean LIVE with it....not just see it as a nice possibility......it honestly does effect the way we live our lives.

I have a student at school....whose mum is in the final stages of Cancer.....and Thursday before last....her mum went in to have an operation to reduce the size of the tumor in her head....and there was a lot of concern as to whether she would make it through.......I was at the hospital on Friday, and I saw this girl and she was so happy that mum had come through the operation and she was back in a general ward....and it all seemed good.

On Monday morning.....she came and saw me first thing.....and she was smiling....so I thought it was good news.....but she said....Mr Mac....I just wanted to tell you....that we saw the surgeon yesterday...and the operation actually didn't go well...mum actually died on the table and they had to bring her back....and they accidentally severed a vein in her brain that has left her paralyzed from the waist down and without the use of her left hand....BUT This young girl was still smiling ....and I sensed a real HOPE in her spirit....and as I talked with her.....she told me that even though the outcome was not good.....she STILL had her mum and she had her for a little while longer.....

 Do you GET the concept that this young girl just drove home to me......?

What is YOUR happiness based on? So often you deal and talk with people who just aren't happy with life..... Why? .....Because their job stinks.....their marriage isn't what it's cracked up to be.....or they're having health problems...... And so often....they equate their happiness with healthiness and wealth and comfort. But they're basing their happiness on the temporary things of this world.....they have ETERNITY in their hearts....

It seems strange to us here in Australia..... when we are given every creature comfort .....to expect to be happy without comfort........In our trip to  MANILLA .....the most amazing...most stand out thing about the beautiful people living in the slums of Quezon City.....was their ability to be happy with NOTHING....and they SHAME us.....And it's a genuine happiness.....not put on show for us rich Australian visitors......there is a depth to their FAITH and their HOPE that I just find INSPIRING.......

Have you ever read the story of Paul and Silas in prison? Luke tells us that the jailer......he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. Doesn't get much more uncomfortable..... Often times their legs would cramp up and cause extreme pain...... But what were they doing?..... About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them ....thinking what the heck.....

And Peter tells us that these Christians who he is writing to...... were doing much the same thing during their pain and suffering....... And WHY were they doing this?.....well you get some idea when you read what Peter says from verse 6......

In 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 your faith-of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-may be proved genuine and 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 goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

I think in our society......we have a lot to learn about HOPE......there are no guarantees in life....no promises of an easy run....good health....happy marriage....no promises of retirement at 65 with wealth..... health...and stealth to get away......

BUT....what we do have.....is the ASSURANCE of HOPE......hope in something that IS ETERNAL.....I think we are YET to fully understand that HOPE......to embrace it in the NOW....to allow it to SHAPE our lives....our temperament....our outlook.

Can I encourage you this week....to read over 1 Peter.....and to REDISCOVER the HOPE that we have through Jesus Christ.....Amen.

Father.....for some of us here this morning.....life at present feels like the river is rising and the current is strong......for some of us.....there is that feeling of impending doom.....and for some.....there is a sense of frustration....that comes as the things that we see as important in this life are failing us.....our health...our finances.....our relationships.....Lord...you have given us an eternity of HOPE....and yet so often......our hope is so dependent on the here and now. Help us to look beyond Lord.....to understand the goal of our faith.....and offer you praise, glory and  honour right NOW....for the HOPE we have in you....Amen.