Sunday, February 3, 2008

In This You Rejoice!
1 Peter 1:3-12

I. Introduction

Joanne Weil tells about a time her young son asked what the highest number she had ever counted to was: “I didn't know, but I asked about his highest number. It was 5,372.”

"Oh," I said. "Why did you stop there?"

"Church was over."

—Joanne Weil, as told by Mike and Amy Nappa, Bore No More! (Group Publishing), p. 7; submitted by Clark Pfaff, Granby, Connecticut

Now, hopefully you do not get so bored with this church that you can count up to 5,372. In fact, today we want to rejoice before the Lord with all our hearts and that doesn’t sound boring to me.

If joy seems to be something that is always around the corner, or if you wonder what you have in life that gives you any reason to be happy, then Peter has some encouraging words for you today.

I understand that joy can be extremely elusive. How can I be joyful when I am suffering from chronic pain and illness?
How can I be joyful while my bills are piling up even though I work as hard as I can?

How can I be joyful when my work situation is horrible or I have lost my job? How can I be joyful when my kids
or those I care deeply for are lost and engaging in self-destructive behavior? How can I be joyful when I have just lost someone I love?

There is much in this life that seeks to rob us of our joy, but look at the condition of those Peter was writing to:

   - They were suffering persecution (1:6 and others)
   - They were a people who lived on the margins of society (2:11)
   - They were slaves (2:18)
   - They were a people who had little or no control of their own lives (3:1)

The human condition is often one of suffering. There is war, poverty, famine, and disease everywhere. Relationships are broken, abuse is rampant, and people suffer from all kinds of physical and mental disabilities.

What are we to do? How can I talk about joy in the midst of all of this?

I want to talk about joy in the same way that Peter did.

Peter says that in spite of the human condition you can have joy. The key is what you choose to focus your
heart and mind on.

Why is joy so important? Because joy promotes health and life and strength.

The enemy is out to destroy you, and he will work through the circumstances of your life in an attempt to overwhelm you with pain and sorrow.

Now, we all experience pain and sorrow and I am not encouraging you to ignore your pain and sorrow; in fact you need to invite Christ into those areas of your life and allow Him to bring true healing to you.

But often we tend to focus on our pain and become so consumed by it that we do not know any other condition. In fact, we can become so accustomed to our pain that it becomes our identity and we are in truth afraid of what life would be like without it.

In fact, just yesterday I received an e-mail from David Brewer with some of his comments on a passage in John 5. Turn there with me for a moment.

“Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes.
3 In these lay many invalids — blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you
want to be made well?’” (John 5:2-6, NRSV)

I found David’s comments on these verses interesting:

“When I have studied this in the past, and read that Jesus asks the man ‘Do you want to be made well?’ I usually have focused on the fact that he'd been sick for so long, you'd have to wonder. Only this time did I realize how much change the healing would bring the man: instead of lying around, he would now be expected to get a job and bear community responsibilities, to develop new friendships, to let go of his old self. He would have to become a new creation just on the basis of the physical healing. Sometimes I think we think about healings as only the physical, but even in our churches, we should ask the question to make sure people are really prepared for what a change like newfound sight, hearing, the ability to walk, etc., would bring. Not everyone has gotten themselves ready for the implications. Maybe that's one of the things Scripture means when it references the faith needed to be healed.”

The point of this long-winded introduction is this – do you really want joy?

If so, you may need to make some major changes in your life, and the first thing that may need to change is what you dwell on throughout the day.

It is here that Peter can help us. What does he say in verse 6? “In this you rejoice…”

So let us look together at what we need to focus on.

II. In This You Rejoice!

What are we to rejoice in?

“By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
5 who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the
last time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5, NRSV)

A. We have been given a new birth. (verse 3)

Have you ever experienced what it is to have a fresh start? That is how it felt when I first came to Christ.

In Christ, you are born again. You get a fresh start. Everything of the past has been cancelled out, and the slate
is totally clean.

What is even more amazing is that as a follower of Christ that slate is new every day.

His mercies are new every morning!

B. We have a living hope. (verse 3)

This hope is alive. It is not some abstract hope in vague theological promises – it is a living, growing hope.

What is our hope in? Or better yet, who is our hope in?

   1. It is in Jesus Christ, who has been resurrected from the dead! (verse 3)

Why do you have a living hope? Because you serve a living Savior! God is not dead. He is alive and working in your
heart and life today! Hallelujah!

Why can we have hope?

   2. Because we have “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for us.” (verse 4)

You have not put your hope in someone who will die or something that will fade away. You have put your hope in Jesus Christ who is preparing a place for you that will not perish or fade away.

Why can we have hope?

   3. Because we “are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last        time.” (verse 5)

You may say, “I have had all kinds of things happen to me that are horrible. How can I believe God will protect me?”

You are missing the point of the passage and probably the whole point of what it means to be protected by God.

What does it say?

We “are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

What is being protected? Our faith!

God promises to protect our faith, allowing us to endure until we achieve the goal of our hope – our final salvation – our deliverance from this world!

In fact it is this faith, “being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire — may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (verse 7)

It is this faith, though tested by the fires of this life, that not only will be protected and will endure, but it will be refined and result in praise and glory and honor to God. Now that is the work of God!

It is in these things we rejoice!

We need to stay focused on God the Father, who through Christ has given us this new birth and put a living hope
into our hearts.

By trusting God we allow the trials of this life to refine our faith and allow us to live lives that bring glory, honor and
praise to God.

It is by faith that we say with Peter, “Although we have not seen him, we love him; and even though we do not see him now, we believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, 9 for we are receiving the outcome of our faith, the salvation of our souls.” (Verses 8 & 9)

Listen, my friends, the prophets of old longed for what we have today. If you look at verses 10-12, it makes it clear that what they could only long for in Christ, we now have in Christ.

No wonder Peter begins this passage, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!” (verse 3)

III. Application

You have a decision to make every single day. Are you willing to let go of all the stuff of life that is dragging you down?

Put those things into the hands of God and allow Him to bring the healing and joy that He longs to give you.