Transcript
And if you've been here last week, you will know that we have looked so far at three out
of five reactions or responses that Peter says ought to characterize God's people in
the face of persecution.
And remember, persecution isn't just deny Jesus or die.
Most of us hopefully in our lifetime will not face that, although we never know.
But persecution is also living with the ridicule of my friends at work when I bow my head over
my lunch bucket to say my prayer.
It's living with the ridicule of a spouse who doesn't share my spiritual values, doesn't
want me taking my kids to church.
It can take the form of an employer who excludes me from promotion or from being at the center
of the business because I will not compromise Christian values for the sake of expediency.
You can multiply it many, many times over.
And Peter says our first response must always be to not be surprised.
That's verse 12 that we looked at last week.
Do not be surprised at the painful trial you were suffering as though something strange
were happening to you.
And when we looked at that in more detail last week, we saw that there are two opposing
values in the world, the values of the kingdom and the values of the kingdom of the world.
The more you and I conform to the values of heaven and the more the world conforms to
the values of the world, the greater will be the conflict.
The two will never, ever be reconciled.
Do not be surprised.
Secondly, says Peter, learn to rejoice in the middle of persecution.
Verse 13, rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ so that you may be
overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
And when we looked at that, we saw that the reason for rejoicing in the middle of persecution
is twofold.
Number one, it means we have been translated out of darkness into light.
And number two, it means that the glory that Jesus has received at the Father's right hand
because of his obedience even unto death is going to be the glory we get to share.
Every one of these believers in Iraq and around the world that have suffered loss will be
more than compensated in the life that is to come because God, as we'll see later, will
even the score.
And then thirdly, Peter says, keep your nose clean.
If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal or
even as a meddler.
Reason, again, very quickly, when you start living heaven's values, when Jesus lives
in you, you're shining with the light of Jesus, that exposes the darkness here.
If you're honest, it exposes dishonesty.
If you're obedient to God, it surfaces the disobedience over here.
If you love people from your heart, it will expose the rebellion in other people's hearts
and that will cause their anger to flare.
And out of that comes persecution.
Be wise as serpents, you will recall Jesus said, and innocent as does.
Now that brings us this morning, then, with the fourth response that Peter talks about
here in 1 Peter chapter 4, and that is this, live with the end in mind.
Live with the end in mind.
That's the verses 17 and 18.
Peter says it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God, and if it begins with
us, what will be the outcome or what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the
gospel of God?
And if it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and
the sinner?
What Peter is saying here is live with a day of judgment in mind.
If you know scripture, then you will know that scripture from one end to the other talks
about the fact that history as we know it is not going to last indefinitely.
There is coming an end to this age when Jesus comes again, and he comes again when the gospel
of the kingdom has been proclaimed to all the nations of the world, and we are getting
increasingly closer to that just for the record, so that every people group around the world
will have had an opportunity to choose, will we obey Jesus and accept him as king, or will
we reject him?
When that has run its course, the trumpet of God will sound, Jesus with the armies of
heaven will descend, and the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord
and of his Christ.
Jesus will take up his throne, and he will rule over the nations.
Now what that looks like, we can hardly begin to imagine, but throughout scripture we get
these periodic glimpses of what the new creation is going to look like.
We read about the glory of God covering the face of the earth even as water covers the
sea.
We read about the fact that the lion lies down with a wolf, and swords are beaten into
plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, and in the book of Revelation you get that
image of the holy city streets that are paved with gold.
And all of these are human attempts at using the imagination to try to describe the glory
of the age that is to come.
Paul, you will recall, was caught up into the seventh heaven and saw things so glorious
that he not only wasn't allowed, but he couldn't describe them, and in 1 Corinthians chapter
he talks about the fact that eye hasn't seen, ear hasn't heard, the heart of man has not
even conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.
I wonder if we get it.
Can we even begin to imagine, as the song says, what it will be like when Jesus reigns
over all creation, and his kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom.
It will be everything that Adam had originally multiplied by infinity because God himself
will be with us, and we will be in his presence.
The deepest longings, the deepest cries, the deepest passion of God's people's hearts over
all the centuries will flourish, and we will shine another one of these word pictures like
stars forever in the universe that God is recreating.
Now, here's what I want us to understand about the coming of the kingdom of God.
For God's kingdom to come in the way that scripture describes it, there are two things
that have to be addressed first, and that is this.
The first is that every cause of sin and rebellion needs to be removed.
Every cause of sin and rebellion needs to be removed.
Jesus talks about it in Matthew 13, the parable of the weeds and the wheat.
I trust you know it well.
And Jesus says, "As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the
end of the age.
The Son of Man will send out his angels.
They will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.
They will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of
teeth."
Later on, and I don't have this verse up for you, Matthew 25, he says exactly the same
thing.
He will say to those in his left, "When all the nations are gathered before his throne
of judgment on that final day, to those who are gathered on his left," he says, "Depart
from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels."
There is nobody in scripture who talks more about hell and judgment than Jesus does.
And you know why?
Because evil in sin is like a cancer in the universe.
And for God's new creation to be healthy, for God's new creation to be able to last
forever, every cause of sin.
Forget this because God is incredibly holy.
Everything that doesn't measure up to God's standard is thrown in the fire to be burned.
That's why the Bible always talks with great warning about the coming of the day of the
Lord.
The day of the Lord is when God celebrates his plan and his purpose and he gets it his
way.
The first thing that has to happen is all sin has to be removed, every rebel has to
be removed out of the kingdom, every weed, if you will.
But there's a corresponding positive to that, of course, and that is this.
God's people have to be made righteous.
Verse 43 of Matthew 13, "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of
their father, he who has ears, let him hear."
God is of pure horizon to behold evil.
And the whole history of scripture is that if God and the human race are going to get
along with each other, it's not God who is going to bend or lower his standards, it's
you and me that have to measure up to his standards of righteousness.
Now we've talked about that many times, but it's worth reviewing.
Righteousness in scripture happens on multiple levels, doesn't it?
It is both imputed, to use theological language, and it is imparted.
Imputed means it is charged to our account.
Jesus, by his death on the cross and by his resurrection, paid the penalty for sin, and
when by faith we are joined to him, his righteousness is imparted or is imputed to us.
And I've often said from this platform, doesn't matter who we are, where we've come from,
what we've done, once by faith we're joined to Jesus, God sees us righteous in Christ.
And our sins have been washed away by the blood of Jesus.
As we sang earlier, what can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
The book of Revelation puts it this way, Revelation 7 14, in the context of this is the saints
that have come out of the persecution.
And the question is asked, who are these people?
And here is the answer, Revelation 7 14, these are they who have come out of the great tribulation,
they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
So the first thing that has to happen is that we have to be joined to Jesus by faith and
his righteousness is imputed to us, and that's what's going to get us past the day of judgment.
I mean, if anybody were to ask you on the day of judgment, why should I let you into
my new creation, you filthy sinner, you?
The response is not to say, well, you know, I'm sorry I've been bad, please forgive me.
No, the answer is the blood of Jesus, I belong to Jesus, I'm righteous in Jesus, and because
I'm righteous in Jesus, you've got to let me in, I'm as good as I'm ever going to get.
That's the objective side of righteousness.
But there's also a subjective side to righteousness.
What we are positionally in Christ needs to be worked out in actual experience.
And so righteousness is not only imputed, it is also imparted.
And that happens by union with Christ, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit
in us helps us to identify old patterns that we need to put off, helps us to put on new
patterns because we're recreated after the image and the likeness of God.
And so God's people, as they look forward to the coming of the kingdom, have an obligation
and a responsibility to get rid of garbage and to live increasingly in such a way as
to be able to pass the final examination and to be ready for the coming of the day of the
Lord.
Here is how Peter puts it in 2 Peter chapter 3, verses 11 and 12.
You know these verses well.
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, he's talking about the end bonfire that God
is going to create as he cleanses the earth.
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in lives
of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because
of which the heavens will be kindled and dissolved and all the elements will melt with fire.
What manner of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for
and hastening the coming of the day of God.
Always am fascinated by that expression because the church can hasten the coming of the day
of the Lord.
Do you realize that?
Why is God holding off?
Why does Peter say a year, a day with the Lord is like a thousand years and a thousand
years is like a day?
Because he has not slowed towards you as some count slowness because he doesn't wish that
any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
God, if he were to come on the day of the Lord, he's going to wipe everything out and
everything that doesn't measure up is going to go.
And so he is patiently holding off to give us the opportunity to get our lives in shape.
And by getting our lives in shape, Peter says, we are hastening the day of the Lord.
Now if you're still with me, stick it out because this is going places.
For the kingdom to come, wickedness has to be removed, the saints have to be gotten ready.
Now one of the ways in which God does this process is through the process of persecution.
Persecution serves a dual purpose in the life of the church.
The first purpose that it serves is that it is used by God to harden the hearts of unbelievers,
in other words to get them ready for the day of judgment.
He turns the hearts of unbelievers against God's people to bring out what is inside so
that he can judge on the day of judgment the evil deeds they have committed.
Listen to how Paul puts it, let me backtrack a moment and say something about this picture
for a moment and then I'll quote you the verse that we're going to talk about.
I think this is a great piece of artwork, by the way.
I didn't paint it, obviously.
But this is the Lord Jesus according to the book of Revelation, the coming on the white
horse with the armies of heaven.
And I don't know if you can see it, but here are the armies of the world.
They are arrayed in battle and we know from scripture that in this battle these nations
are destroyed and the kingdom of God comes.
But long before this group of people take out their anger against the king of heaven,
they voice it against the people of God.
And much of the religious persecution that we're talking about in the world today is
directed at God's people.
But the purpose of that then is to bring out what lives in people's hearts so that on the
day of judgment there is no doubt but that God is justified in judging the rebels of
the earth.
Here's the verse that I want to refer to, 2 Thessalonians 1, verses 6 through 9.
Listen carefully to this.
God is just.
This is spoken to the Thessalonians as they are suffering persecution.
He says God is just.
He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled
and to us as well.
This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful
angels.
He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord
and from the majesty of his power.
So in turning the hearts of unbelievers against believers, he is flushing out what lives inside
so that everybody can see the true intentions of the human heart.
And the classic example, of course, is Pharaoh's heart.
You'll recall from the Old Testament how God hardens Pharaoh's heart and people say, "Poor
Pharaoh, what chance did the poor dude have, right?"
That misses the point.
Pharaoh's heart was already turned against God, was already turned against God's people,
and so to make sure that everybody knew what was really living on the inside, God gave
him over to his sin so that in judgment Pharaoh and his armies could be destroyed because
all the world could see the righteous judgment of God.
Am I making any sense here?
You're sticking it out with me?
Because this is significant if you want to understand why things happen and why God doesn't
stop things from happening.
So he uses persecution to flush out the sin, the pride, the rebellion, the anger that lives
in the hearts of unregenerate men and women.
And one day the Bible says, "We're going to be hated by all nations."
That is to say, all those who do not pay homage to the Lord Jesus.
But the other side of the equation is this, God uses that same persecution then to purify
the hearts of God's people.
In other words, the anger that is directed towards those who belong to Jesus serves a
dual function.
It not only prepares the world for judgment but it purifies God's people.
They always say you don't know how to love your enemies until you have an enemy to love.
And listen again then how Paul words that in 2 Thessalonians 1, 4, and 5.
He says, "Among God's churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions
and trials you are enduring.
All this is evidence that God's judgment is right and as a result you will be counted
worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are suffering."
God's judgment is right.
You will be counted worthy.
You will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are suffering.
And so what Peter is saying in this passage is there's a big final exam coming up and
a lot of people are going to flunk the final exam.
But God loves you, he says that to the church.
And because he loves you, says Peter, he keeps giving you these pop-up quizzes.
They're tough quizzes but he's giving you those quizzes so that you may know what you're
standing is so that when the big test comes you will not be found wanting, you'll be able
to pass it with flying colors.
Now just to show you how true that is, this is what Paul is talking about in the context
of celebrating communion in 1 Corinthians chapter 11.
You know that there's that whole passage about examining yourself before the Lord's Supper,
right?
You're familiar with that passage.
You don't want to eat and drink judgment to yourself and he talks to the Corinthians about
some of you are sick and some of you have died because you're not properly observing
the Lord's Supper.
That is to say you're testifying to union with Christ and union with each other but
your lives are contradicting yet and the Lord is disciplining you.
Now listen to how he puts it.
It's a very interesting passage.
He says this in 1 Corinthians 11, 31 and 32, "But if we judged ourselves we would not come
under judgment.
When we are judged by the Lord we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned
along with the world."
That making sense?
When the day of judgment comes there's the big exam and when the big exam comes God is
going to expose everything, nothing is hidden that will not be made known on that day.
And because God loves you he doesn't want stuff exposed in your life that will cause
you to fail entry into the kingdom.
And so he arranges difficult circumstances in your life so that in the difficult circumstances
you have an opportunity to identify who you are, what your values are, where your values
are similar to your values in the world and where they need to be conformed to the image
of Christ.
And so as the Christian life proceeds and as you look forward to the coming of the day
of the Lord Paul says understand, or Peter says understand that God is giving you opportunity
to get rid of the weeds, to gather the grain so that come exam time you're going to pass
flying colors and he is prepared to use the nations of the world, he is prepared to use
your enemies to flush out what lives inside you.
I mean how many of us don't think that we are perfectly good and fine Christians like
Peter of old until the maid comes along after the arrest of Jesus and he says and she says
to Peter, aren't you one of them also and what does Peter do, all his bravado goes out
the window.
I was thinking when we were watching that video when he's talking about these children
being confronted by denying Jesus or losing their heads literally, what would happen?
I mean this is sober self-examination, pray to God it doesn't happen, but what if coming
to church next week would cost you your job or your marriage or your bank account or your
life how many of us would show up and it doesn't even have to be that radical.
How many of us stay away because we don't feel like being here or we're mad at somebody
or somebody's mad at us or we don't want to run into this individual or you see where
I'm going with this.
You don't know what lives inside you until you are tested and tempted and God brings
it out into the open and now you have to decide oh my goodness Jesus help me, change me, transform
me, what manner of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness waiting
for and hastening the coming of the day of the Lord.
Pretty critical and very sobering and I pray to God that we won't find ourselves in situations
where we have to make those kinds of choices but in a thousand and one little ways we will
be pushed in that direction and then the challenge is will we love the Lord, will we remain faithful
and can we look forward to the day when his kingdom comes in glory and in power.
I think that's as far as we're going to go this morning, I had wanted as I mentioned
last week to talk about fear but that's a pretty broad topic that I really want us to
have enough time to do justice to.
Allow me just to introduce it and then probably in two weeks time Lord willing we'll come
back to it because the fifth thing that Peter talks about in this passage is that we are
to trust in the Lord, we are to trust in the Lord so then those who suffer according to
God's will should commit themselves to their faithful creator and continue to do good.
Let me ask you that question point blank that I referred to just a moment ago, what, let
me put it this way, when doing the will of God brings persecution into your life, threatens
you with discomfort, loss of relationship or resources, what is your reaction going
to be?
It's very easy like Peter to say well Lord I'll follow you even unto death but the reality
is very different because I'm willing to bet for most of us apart from God's grace all
of us our reaction will be twofold, number one will be paralyzed with fear, fear at what's
going to happen, fear at how am I going to get through this, fear of I don't want to
lose what I've got and the second thing is we're going to stop doing good.
That is to say we're going to stop obeying, we're going to stop doing the will of God
because it's become too costly and too difficult and the antidote to that and we'll come back
to that in more detail, Peter says is entrusting our souls, that is the original Greek, entrusting
ourselves completely to God knowing that God is a faithful creator, he will see us through
and he will present us before the presence of his glory with rejoicing, faultless and
blameless on the day of Jesus Christ because he who began a good work in you will bring
it to completion.