Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] And might I add, thank you to everyone who has showed up tonight.
[00:00:07] It's great to see you guys.
[00:00:09] I think I was hearing maybe a little murmur just a minute ago that perhaps, maybe it was the repulsive foam pits of Sky Zone that has caused everyone to fall ill.
[00:00:22] I don't know.
[00:00:24] I don't know the evidence of it, but Jen Lee Jolie are sick. No, there's a lot of people sick. It's not just them.
[00:00:32] And I saw someone that had lost something in this foam pit. This is completely irrelevant to everything. They're like digging down to the bottom of it and there's just like all the disintegrated pieces of foam at the bottom. Horrific. Anyway, hope you guys had fun. Those of you that were at the weekend jumping around in that stuff.
[00:00:51] It's like little bacteria sponges that you're just belly flopping into.
[00:00:57] Anyway, all right, all right, so we're in first Peter, 4:12. So you go to one Peter, chapter four. We're going to finish the first letter of Peter tonight.
[00:01:14] And I have a question. See if anybody knows this trivia question.
[00:01:22] What movie features a top secret agent, Michael Scarn, as he seeks revenge for the killing of his wife against the evil villain Golden Face? Yes, Talia.
[00:01:35] Threat level Midnight. That's right, Threat level Midnight. If you guys don't know, this is a movie that was made in the TV show the Office. I don't need to get into all the details, but the level of thr. I just think the title of it is really funny. The level of threats for Michael Scarn had reached its climax. I think that's what the title Threat Level Midnight is trying to communicate.
[00:01:59] So likewise this. I couldn't help but think of this as. As I read First Peter, you know, because it's evident at this point in the letter that the stakes are continually raising. The suffering is too.
[00:02:12] The threat level is at its climax.
[00:02:15] And this is Peter's concluding section of the letter. I think there are a lot of important points and just interesting ways that he ties everything kind of back together from the beginning to the end.
[00:02:28] So Peter concludes this letter by rounding out. I hope you'll see the central theme of first Peter suffering now, but glory later. I trust that you guys have seen this and I hope that you'll continue to see it even in this passage. This truly is the theme of the letter.
[00:02:46] So having just encouraged these elect exiles as they've been called, to live under authority, well, to suffer for the sake of righteousness as Christ did for sinners to avoid living like the world and to steward God's gracious gifts to them. Peter then brings it all back to the central theme of suffering in this life while awaiting glory with God in eternity. Peter that's how he wraps it all up together.
[00:03:15] This passage will talk of suffering as a blessing and as something that leads to glory.
[00:03:23] So he will exhort the elders of each church to shepherd well and each member to humbly submit to them and to each other. And in concluding, we'll get a glimpse into the love of which they all shared as coheirs of the Gospel promises.
[00:03:39] So the main idea of first Peter 4:12,5,14 is that suffering will continue, but through Christ it can be a blessing and lead to glory.
[00:03:52] So Christians must be humble and resist the devil. Suffering will continue, but through Christ it can be a blessing and lead to glory.
[00:04:01] So Christians must be humble and resist the devil.
[00:04:05] Read. We'll just read the whole passage and then we will talk more about it.
[00:04:10] So first Peter 4, starting in verse 12.
[00:04:15] Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
[00:04:31] If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
[00:04:40] But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evildoer, or as a meddler.
[00:04:47] Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, or a thief or sorry, yeah, if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.
[00:04:59] For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God. And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
[00:05:09] And if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?
[00:05:16] Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.
[00:05:23] So I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in in the glory that is going to be revealed.
[00:05:32] Shepherd, the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.
[00:05:50] And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
[00:05:57] Likewise you who are younger. Be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
[00:06:09] Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.
[00:06:19] Be sober minded. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls or around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.
[00:06:28] Resist him firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the whole world.
[00:06:36] And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you to to him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
[00:06:52] By Silvanus, a faithful brother, as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it.
[00:07:02] She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son, Greet one another with the kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.
[00:07:14] Suffering will continue, but through Christ it can be a blessing and lead to glory. So Christians should be humble and resist the devil. So what? One scholar I read, her name is Karen Jobes, categorized this last section of Peter helpfully as giving two final thoughts and two exhortations to the church.
[00:07:37] So I'm going to kind of base the structure, the outline of what I'm preaching tonight on that two final thoughts, two final exhortations to the church, and there will be a little bit more after that.
[00:07:50] Now I want to acknowledge something that it might be a little tempting for some of you to hear the word suffering and glory in the main idea and through the text and other related terms, and think we've heard this before. This is already getting repetitive throughout this book.
[00:08:07] It seems to have be this thing every single week.
[00:08:11] But I want to encourage you to pay attention to how Peter rounds out this letter and to think of how he frontloads so many truths. He talks at the beginning of this letter about how Christians are born again to a living hope Christ suffered, and that led to subsequent glories that have been proclaimed in all the earth. Now through Christ, believers are made holy and put together into a holy living house in which God dwells even on earth. As you suffer, he's doing these things.
[00:08:44] And then he turns to pointing these Christians in their various local churches to ways that they ought to live in light of the truths that he has expressed. So that's what he's doing here.
[00:08:55] So again, in that same pattern, we're going to talk about two truths, two things, and then there'll be like a cherry on top at the end. So maybe it's like two scoops of ice cream, two spoons and a cherry on top. It's like a sundae. This is going to be a, hopefully a helpful passage of scripture for you guys. So point number one is that suffering leads to blessing. Suffering leads to blessing.
[00:09:23] Now, often we would have to admit that suffering and trials do surprise us because nobody puts in their agenda fiery trial at 2.15pm Right? Nobody does this. Yet Peter can say that you must not be surprised. As if some brand new, totally never before seen unexpected thing has just happened to you.
[00:09:48] This makes me actually think of when I was little with my little sister. We were young. She was probably four years old, five, six in that range, which would have made me seven, eight or nine. She did not get along well at this time with one of our dogs. We had golden retrievers.
[00:10:10] My sister's face, to put it bluntly, was a bite magnet, which really does make me question, why do we keep these things?
[00:10:19] It was a bite magnet. She got bit every once in a while, a couple of times.
[00:10:26] My dad even had to use surgical glue on her eyebrow to kind of put her back together.
[00:10:33] Not bad enough for stitches, but he could glue it back together.
[00:10:37] He does that sort of thing. So it wasn't that big of a deal.
[00:10:41] And as I think about it, it was really always easy to see coming. Perhaps maybe I had a hand in egging it on.
[00:10:47] Who's to say? Does an older brother ever egg on stuff like that? I don't know, but I definitely did. So what she would do so often is she would corner this dog. She loved to corner it. She loved to try to take its food when it was eating.
[00:11:04] She would try to take the bone away from the dog. I mean, she really did all these really stupid things, things that a dog with some traumatic past absolutely loves, right? They dogs that were like beat by their former owners or something love it when you try to steal their food.
[00:11:19] So that's what she would do. And so of course she would get bit.
[00:11:23] She had no reason to act surprised, as she always did. She should not have been surprised. And in the same way you believers also cannot be surprised when suffering strikes you.
[00:11:35] We cannot be surprised by that. The world is like an angry, possessive dog and we're trapped with it in the corner of the room. It will bite the best. You can do is acknowledge that suffering is here, or it will be here at some point and it may or may not subside.
[00:11:55] That is just the tough reality of suffering. There's no guarantee that it goes away. There's no guarantee of when and how intense it is. That's just the reality.
[00:12:05] But still you can rejoice.
[00:12:11] And so that's what he tells them to do, rejoice.
[00:12:15] I think there's something amazing about the gospel and that we can say that you can rejoice even in suffering.
[00:12:22] I can't think of a lot of things that make you rejoice in suffering. The closest analogy I can think of is probably in the sports world where you suffer training you, you suffer in recovering from injuries, and when you win, you rejoice.
[00:12:38] You know, it's like that hockey player that got his teeth knocked out, but he, he scored the game winning goal, right? Was it the same guy? Right? Is that right? Anybody? Yeah, it. I couldn't remember if it was the same guy or not. He scores the game winning goal. That is a really great recent analogy of suffering. But it led to rejoicing.
[00:12:57] But that still doesn't quite capture this, because suffering in this life won't end with a golden goal.
[00:13:04] You will die. And you may suffer up until death.
[00:13:07] There's no guarantee, but you can truly, and you can genuinely feel it. You can rejoice if you're in Christ.
[00:13:17] Because if and only if you have been united to Christ through faith in him, then that union, that oneness that you have with Jesus means that you actually have United States union or oneness with him in his sufferings. And if you have oneness with him in his sufferings, you have oneness with him in his glory as well.
[00:13:38] That's only if you are united to Christ through faith. So when you are in Christ, suffering becomes a blessing. As you get to suffer like Jesus did, you get to experience at least some taste of what he experienced.
[00:13:55] So verse 14, when you receive insults, you are blessed. Verse 16 when you suffer as a Christian, you are blessed.
[00:14:03] Peter is particular in showing that blessing and suffering is a message of hope.
[00:14:10] When you suffer, it's actually a message of hope, paradoxically. But it only counts for hope to those that have been born again through faith and in Jesus, if you've not surrendered your life to him, then you are verse 15 counted as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, a meddler. You are counted as a sinner. You have no hope or blessing and suffering. It all becomes meaningless for you.
[00:14:38] And that's what we are born into meaningless, purposeless suffering. But it is only in Christ where that suffering is lit up with meaning and significance and blessing.
[00:14:52] So trust in Christ.
[00:14:54] Then your suffering will lead to blessing.
[00:14:58] Point number two. Suffering leads to glory.
[00:15:01] Suffering leads to glory.
[00:15:03] So these verses 17 through 19 especially, they turn from looking at blessing to this future glory. It is a future end times type of glory. The way judgment is used here is actually in the context of purifying or refining. So you can see that in verse 17 through 19, Peter is not predicting a time of condemnation for believers, for there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This verse actually reminds us. I'm sure you guys all knew this. It reminds us of Malachi 3.
[00:15:41] Malachi 3 1, 4. In those verses, the Lord comes to his people and they are then purified.
[00:15:51] It says he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi. That's what Malachi3 says. So Peter points out that judgment, it begins at the household of God. In other words, it begins with God, God's people.
[00:16:08] And how do we make this connection between God's people in both of these passages? Well, Peter has called God's people a temple, a holy house of the household of God. He's also called the church, a kingdom of priests.
[00:16:21] And who will he Purify? In Malachi 3, he says he'll purify the sons of Levi. Sons of Levi were the priests.
[00:16:29] So he. It's this very close connection between these passages. And the point is to show that suffering begins with God's people.
[00:16:37] It helps us to interpret this passage to show us that God is refining and purifying his people through suffering. That's the point.
[00:16:46] That is why if you're in Christ, your suffering is not for no purpose. It's to refine you and purify you, to grow you in the Lord.
[00:16:55] That should encourage you if you're in Christ, if you. Or it should worry you if you're not. But there is meaning for the believer.
[00:17:05] Verse 18 then actually quotes another Old Testament scripture, Proverbs 11:31, another one we've studied in recent past. Since most of you are looking at probably an ESV translation, maybe another with the same word. I just want to clarify something because it sounds a little weird to me in English when we read if the righteous is scarcely saved, right? So the righteous, AKA those who are credited with righteousness through faith, they aren't rarely saved. It's not. You have faith and Then every once in a while you'll be saved for that. That's not what he's saying. That's kind of what it sounds like. That's not what's actually being communicated in the words.
[00:17:46] The Greek word probably should be translated as with difficulty.
[00:17:51] And based on the context, that does seem correct to me.
[00:17:55] So we could read it this way. So you're looking at that little quote in verse 18.
[00:17:59] We could read it. If the righteous is saved with difficulty, with trouble, with trials, with difficulty. In other words, if believers have to endure hard, difficult things before their salvation is complete in heaven, then how much worse will it be for those who are not in Christ? Does that make sense? If believers have to suffer, if it's difficult for them to get through this life, how much worse will it be in eternity for those outside of Christ? It's a stunning warning to the non believer. That's what is being said there.
[00:18:32] Suffering for the Christian is during this life, but eternity is bliss.
[00:18:40] The opposite is true with the non believer. They might suffer, they might not in this life, but eternity, suffering.
[00:18:49] That's what we see here.
[00:18:51] So the takeaway can be seen in verse 19, which says to entrust your souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.
[00:19:00] If you're in Christ, then you can take comfort. You can entrust your soul to God because God is faithful. He won't mess it up. He won't change his mind. He won't pull the rug out from under you. He's not going to trick you. He won't let you down, and he won't punish you. If you're in Christ with the wicked, that is a great comfort that you can truly the Creator, God. You can truly entrust your soul to Him. And you, you can trust him with that. You don't have to have any doubts or worries about what he's going to do. He's told you what he will do, and he will come through on his promise.
[00:19:39] However, this verse is again equally terrifying for those that are outside of Christ, because your suffering will be far greater than any suffering you could have possibly found in this life.
[00:19:52] You imagine the worst suffering in this life and it'll be worse.
[00:19:57] But students don't feel doomed by that because Christ suffered for sins he did. Trust him and you will be saved through that judgment. You will instead be refined and purified and blessed and welcomed into glory. If you would just trust him as the one who suffered for sins.
[00:20:20] Remember that suffering leads to glory.
[00:20:23] That brings us now to our third point, then.
[00:20:26] Be humble as sheep.
[00:20:29] Be humble as sheep.
[00:20:32] So now we're kind of getting into chapter five. And here, Peter, as an application of what he has just said, begins to encourage the elders among you. So to remind you guys, you probably have heard this word, but maybe you haven't. An elder is the same thing as a pastor or an overseer.
[00:20:47] Overseers not really used that much. So the elder is a pastor. Every church should have elders, multiple of them, preferably, like we do.
[00:20:56] Peter wrote to all sorts of Christians, but he wanted, in this case, to single out the elders for a second, because the elders, they have a particular function in a role. They serve as spiritual shepherds for the members of their churches.
[00:21:11] So they are spiritual shepherds for the members who are like sheep of their churches.
[00:21:18] Now, I thought of this analogy, but then I remembered I've never actually been duck hunting. Has anyone been duck hunting before? You guys can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure you either hide or you come up quietly on the ducks. Right. You don't scare them off. Right. But then. Then when they are calm, they're not ready. That's when you start shooting them. Is that correct? Yes.
[00:21:39] You try to kill the duck. Nobody. Nobody's confirming this? No. What do you do? You make them fly and then you shoot them.
[00:21:46] Oh, that's even better, actually, because that actually works even better because what happens is you scatter the ducks and then you fire. It would have been really easy for me to cross check that beforehand.
[00:22:00] So you scatter the ducks and you fire at them. Right.
[00:22:05] So that's when they kind of scurry or fly away. Right.
[00:22:10] Well, church members are likened to sheep. And when trouble strikes, trouble like suffering and persecution, the sheep might react like ducks. They might scurry away, fly away, run around.
[00:22:25] They need a good shepherd to keep them safe and calm and at peace.
[00:22:31] That is the point of shepherds.
[00:22:34] So my question then is, do you want peace?
[00:22:40] Of course. Everyone wants peace.
[00:22:43] Some of you might actually feel that a lot more than others. You have a longing desire for peace. And you've never felt at peace in yourself. You've never felt at peace in God. You've never felt at peace in the world. Maybe you feel like a scattered sheep. You feel like a duck flying for its life.
[00:23:02] Maybe your world at home is chaotic. Maybe your life at school is overwhelming to you. Maybe even there are intrusive thoughts in your head that are absolutely killing you that you can't get rid of. Well, you need shepherds, and you actually need one shepherd in particular. You need what this passage calls the chief shepherd, what another passage calls the good shepherd. You need Jesus, the good and chief shepherd more than anything else that you think you might need.
[00:23:33] He is your fundamental need.
[00:23:36] You don't need parents that don't fight. You don't need siblings that leave you alone. You don't need friends that think you're super cool. You don't need athletic success. You don't need perfect grades. You don't need a certain relationship. You don't need to have the perfect diet or the perfect body. You don't need your anxiety to just disappear, your depression to disappear. You actually just need Jesus.
[00:24:02] That's your fundamental need. Those things are secondary.
[00:24:06] You have to get your problems in order, and then other things will come into play. But you fundamentally need a good shepherd. You need Jesus because the good shepherd can bring you peace.
[00:24:21] And many believers lack peace for various reasons. Maybe it's refusing to repent of sin, hiding it in the shadows.
[00:24:28] Others lack peace because they've not joined a church even, and they've not come under the care of elders of spiritual shepherds.
[00:24:40] So, you know, here I am talking again about joining a church, church membership and baptism again.
[00:24:46] But I think it's important and I think it's relevant here. While we wait for Jesus to return, he has given us temporary shepherds.
[00:24:55] Sometimes they're called under shepherds, shepherds under Christ. And we call those elders or pastors. He's given those as a gift to us.
[00:25:03] If you're not a member, then how is the shepherd to know that you're a sheep? If you're not a member of his flock, how can he care for you?
[00:25:11] You know, if you just take one pastor, for example, you think of Ryan. He can't possibly be responsible, a shepherd for every sheep in Oklahoma or even in Broken Arrow. He just can't do it.
[00:25:22] He has to know who God has entrusted to him to care for, to shepherd.
[00:25:28] So run first to the good shepherd, to Jesus, and then join the church and love your earthly shepherds as they reflect Christ.
[00:25:40] But Peter here, he does turn from the elders toward members again in verses five through seven.
[00:25:49] And he says to you that are younger, well, this room is full of people that are younger. Be subject to the elders.
[00:25:57] Peter is telling these young Christians to look at more seasoned believers, elders and pastors in particular, and to follow their lead.
[00:26:09] So listen to them when they preach. Listen to them when they call you out sin. Listen to them when they call you to serve in some way.
[00:26:17] Go to them with questions and Listen to their answers.
[00:26:21] The only way that this sort of ecosystem of members, and even young people in particular, being subject to elders, the only way that this can work in a church is if we humble ourselves. And that's the key point that Peter is making here. God opposes the proud, but. But he gives grace to the humble. You must humble yourself to do this.
[00:26:45] If you're willing to lower yourself and come humbly to the Lord, then He'll lift you up. Because that's exactly what Christ did. He humbled Himself by becoming man.
[00:26:57] And his humbling peaked when he was crucified on a cross. Yet at that low point, at the point of death, is where he proclaimed his victory.
[00:27:07] He then was raised from the dead and then ascended into the heavens at the right hand of the Father. And through faith, you can be joined to him in his humility and in his glory. They're not mutually exclusive. Being humble actually leads to exaltation.
[00:27:23] So be humble.
[00:27:26] A guy named Tom Schreiner. He said something I thought was a helpful way to understand humility and its importance in the church. He said, humility is the oil that allows relationships in the church to run smoothly and lovingly.
[00:27:40] That's a wonderful way to think of it.
[00:27:42] The church runs well when we are humble.
[00:27:46] So because God gives grace to the humble, you should humble yourself. By verse seven tells us, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.
[00:27:57] Now, I think maybe some Bibles out there might say, cast.
[00:28:00] Casting really is the appropriate word, because that is how you humble yourself.
[00:28:06] Anxiety is a form of pride.
[00:28:09] So cast your cares, cast your anxieties on him because he cares for you.
[00:28:16] And you can confidently do that because again, he loves and cares.
[00:28:21] God with his mighty hand, actually knows and cares for you when you are one with His Son through faith.
[00:28:29] So the mighty Creator God knows you and he cares about you.
[00:28:35] And then this leads us naturally to our fourth point, which is resist the devil. Let me read the next few verses again, just to kind of refresh our brains. He says, be sober minded, be watchful. This is verse eight. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish. You to him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. So resist the devil. Peter knows the temptation when things are hard why is temptation difficult when suffering is intense? Well, because suffering weakens you and when you are weak, you're more likely to sin. It's simple as that. When you're weak, you're more likely to sin.
[00:29:35] So you need to recognize that at times you're weak, that you should be on guard against sin when you sin. Just as a friendly tip, I think it can be helpful to reflect and think about what brought about that temptation. What situation was I in, what was I feeling that kind of led to this temptation?
[00:29:55] The fact is, whatever it takes, resist the devil.
[00:30:00] There shouldn't, there shouldn't need to be a lot of motivation for that. You should just resist the devil because you don't want the devil to influence you.
[00:30:09] Now the way that Peter tells them to resist the devil who is plotting their doom is this. He says in verse 8, be sober minded and be watchful. Be sober minded and watchful.
[00:30:21] Well, this basically just means to think clearly, to be awake, to be alert to what is going on.
[00:30:29] A sober minded person should have kind of the Persona of Jesus. You can think of Jesus who is calm and level headed.
[00:30:39] He was never dragged around carelessly by his emotions. He had perfect and complete self control even when he did show emotion.
[00:30:49] Only Christ can clear your mind and give you the same spiritual alertness.
[00:30:56] And he is not a prowling lion. He is not like that. What is he like? He is someone on whom you can cast all your cares.
[00:31:04] He is quite different from the devil.
[00:31:06] And Jesus was calm, he was sober minded as he was being paraded into different trials before ultimately being crucified for no crime. And yet he never lost his head. He never lost sight of the plan of God and what was happening.
[00:31:21] He was sober minded, he was watchful. And through faith you can be united with him in his death and resurrection. And he will give to his spirit so that you too like Jesus can take every thought captive to obey Christ.
[00:31:35] That's 2nd Corinthians 10:5.
[00:31:37] So resist the devil by being united to Christ in the spirit. And then you can see clearly. He can help you to see.
[00:31:45] There is then a great reward when you have resisted the devil that Peter speaks of the prowling lion. The devil attacks hard when you're weak and suffering. But the gracious God and the kind shepherd will verse 10 restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you.
[00:32:04] This God is the God of all grace.
[00:32:08] And if we've been noticing throughout this letter, we have seen exactly how he's been the God of all grace. Peter wishes grace on the recipients of this letter in 1, 2.
[00:32:20] He is the God of the grace of life, 3, 7. That all believers share.
[00:32:27] Chapter 1, verse 13. He is the God of grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
[00:32:34] Chapter 4, verse 10. He is the God of varied grace that strengthens the church.
[00:32:39] Chapter 5, verse 10. He is the God of the grace given to the humble. And in this grace, he calls believers to his eternal glory in Christ. He is the God of all glory. Grace. So, students, I hope you realize that he is the God of all grace, and yet we do not deserve eternal glory. We need his gracious gift, but we need to remember that we don't indeed deserve eternal glory.
[00:33:07] I think we need to remember this because if we're honest, the world tells us otherwise all the time.
[00:33:13] It tells you that you're perfect the way you are, that your feelings are always valid, and that a good God would just kind of let everybody into heaven. These are all very common things, beliefs in our world.
[00:33:27] But none of that is true.
[00:33:29] We're all sinners. And as sinners, we are like an oblivious baby antelope. And the devil is the prowling lion.
[00:33:38] And he will feed on us if we're not in Christ, but in Christ. God will guard you. He'll guard you if you would finally humble yourself and come to him. If you would quit resisting God and instead resist the devil, or if you would happily take a leap of faith.
[00:33:59] Even if you'll end up suffering for it, it is well worth it. And if you suffer for Christ faithfully, He will restore you, not leave you broken.
[00:34:09] He will confirm you in the faith as your faith has been tested through suffering. He will strengthen you so that you can persevere. And he will establish you. Another way we could say that is he will secure you.
[00:34:22] This last word actually refers to the establishing of a foundation for a building. So even here he's calling back to how God builds Christians together into a spiritual house. House. He establishes them together as living stones when they trust in Jesus to resist the devil.
[00:34:43] Now, finally, the cherry on top. Point five, the encouraging words. He closes with. We'll just cover these real briefly.
[00:34:51] So we see this Sylvanus guy, he delivered this letter around and Peter's final exhortation, which an exhortation is like a. The command is to stand firm in the true grace of God that he has explained all throughout the letter. We just saw how God's grace was a consistent theme.
[00:35:14] Then he mentions in verse 13 this she who is at Babylon. The she is actually in Reference to the church, which was often referred to by a feminine pronoun, the church, Christ's beautiful and perfect bride. That's who the she is. And the church is in Babylon. Babylon, which is another way to say that the church is in a foreign land, just as Israel was exiled in Babylon. That's what's being communicated. So what he's saying is that there are other Christians and churches sending greetings.
[00:35:53] And in the same way, instead of just saying what church or what specific Christians are sending these greetings, he's encouraging these suffering, lonely, elect exiles to remind them that just as God brought his people Israel back from Babylon, so will he come back for them. No matter where they are in the world. He is coming back to collect all of his children and bring them to glory with Him.
[00:36:19] So likewise here, Peter, he ends by encouraging them to greet each other lovingly, to have peace if they're truly in Christ, which we need Christ to achieve.
[00:36:30] So remember that suffering will continue, but through Christ, it can be a blessing and lead to glory. So Christians must be humble and resist the devil. Now, at the end of this letter, you are left with the time to respond to what Peter has written, to what God is communicating.
[00:36:47] Are you willing to suffer for Christ's sake?
[00:36:52] Then put your trust in him if you are, and don't delay. Because delay merely gives the prowling lion more of an opportunity to strike you.
[00:37:02] So run to Jesus, who is kind and will bear all your burdens if you cast your cares on Him.
[00:37:09] Only he can restore, confirm, strengthen and secure you. So trust in Him.
[00:37:15] And I don't say this enough because I maybe kind of assume that you know. But if you want to trust in Jesus, if you want to know more about this, if you want to do it, if you have questions about that, you can always come up to me, even right afterward, any other time, you have all these small group leaders that are faithful to come consistently that would love to walk through that with you, even if it's just mere questions. Seriously, just talk to us. Don't delay.
[00:37:45] Don't give the lion more of an opportunity and cast your cares on the one who cares for you.
[00:37:52] Let's pray.
[00:37:54] Father, thank you for this message of though we suffer now, that if we're in Christ, there will be glory later, that Christ is coming back for his people. He will not leave them alone.
[00:38:09] Lord, we pray that by your grace, you would rescue those in here who have not believed in your name, that you would call those outside of Christ to yourself, that they would repent. Of their sin, they would resist the devil and his leadings, and they would go all in for Christ, even being willing to suffer for his sake. We pray all of this in his name. Amen.
