[This is the fourth message in I Peter 1 and was preached at Boothbay Baptist Church on April 18, 2016].
PILGRIM LIVING IN A FALLEN WORLD: Part 4
3 Marks of Authentic Christianity: Love, Faith, and
Joy
I Peter
1:8,9
Introduction: One
of the jobs I had occasionally put me in the office, collecting cash payments
from truck drivers. When the boss came in at the end of the day, he would
quickly count through the bills in the cash box, and take the deposit to the
bank. I recall on one occasion he was zipping through the bills and as soon as
his fingers touched a particular $20 bill he stopped, felt it between his
fingers, looked at it closely and said, “This bill is counterfeit!” Whether intentionally or not, someone had
paid with “funny money!” My boss used to be a bank manager, and he had
extensive experience handling cash – I was a 20 something part time college
student working at a garbage dump– I didn’t have very much experience with cash
at all. He tried to show me the bill and how it was clearly false, honestly, it
looked the same as the real money to me, I couldn’t tell the difference. If you
know the real thing well, you will more easily recognize a counterfeit. In recent years the US Mint has produced currency with
features that make it increasingly difficult to counterfeit. One of the best ways to detect a fake is to
put it alongside the real thing... As
Peter is greeting the scattered believers of Asia Minor he speaks of their
relationship with Jesus, and reminds them that their faith has the marks of
authenticity.
The Maine
Idea: Our new life in Christ is
marked by love for Him, trust in His Word, and abounding joy in our salvation.
I.
Love for Christ – “Though you have not seen him you love
Him...” The first mark of an authentic Christian is sincere, unfeigned love
for Christ.
This verse gives us a little
information about the scattered “pilgrims” to whom Peter is writing. Have you
ever read the Bible and thought, “If only I could have been there and seen Him
and heard Him!” Most of those to whom Peter wrote were not among the eyewitnesses of
the resurrection. In fact most of them apparently did not see the earthly
ministry of Jesus, including his miracles and his teaching. They had not seen Him. Even so, they loved him.
How can that be? Well wait a minute.
Aren’t we in the same position? We have not seen Him, yet we love Him.
I remember when we were going through the adoption process we worked
with an agency that matched orphans in Korea with adoptive parents in the US. When we were “matched,” we received a photo
that put on our table. Even before that,
we had begun to pray for the child that God would bring to us. When we had the
photo we put it on our kitchen table. We would look at it. We would study it.
We would talk about Sarah and we would pray for her. For two months, all we had
was that picture. We anticipated her arrival, and you know, before we ever met
her face to face, we loved her. The scattered exiles to whom Peter wrote did
not even have a photograph. But they had words. I guess you could say they had
a “word picture.” They had the teaching of the apostles and perhaps by then the
first of the gospels had been written and was circulating. They talked about the things Jesus did and
the things that He taught. And they
loved Him, even though they had never seen Him!
Remember also that this is Peter who is writing. One of the twelve. One
of the inner circle who spent time with Jesus, who was privileged to witnesses
revelation like the transfiguration. But remember the question Jesus asked him
after the resurrection, not once, but three times, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” (John 21:15-17). Despite all the time that Peter had spent
with Jesus, in the process of restoring Him Jesus asked the question, three
times, causing Peter to examine his heart. Now if that story of Peter and Jesus was known
to the exiles to whom he wrote, it would make Peter’s commendation here even
more emphatic. “I saw Him, I heard Him, and walked with Him. Even so, as you
know, my love for Him was not that evident. You have not seen Him, even so, you
love Him!”
That would be a point of application. Do you love the Lord Jesus
Christ? Jesus said, “If you love me,
keep my commandments.” So obedience to Him is one evidence that we love
him. If you love Him, you will spend time with Him,
in prayer, in worship, in the Word. If
we love Him we’ll want to lift up His name and spread His fame to our neighbors
and family and friends.
By the way, we can’t say that we love God who we have not seen, if we
don’t love our brother. In fact if you read through the first letter of John,
in almost every chapter, he has something to say about love, and love for our
brother is one of the evidences that we love God. For examples read 1 John
4:7-12,
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from
God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does
not know God, because God is love. 9
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son
into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we
have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for
our sins. 11 Beloved, if God
so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God
abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
So, our new life in Christ is marked by
love for Him, trust in His Word, and abounding joy in our salvation.
II.
Trust in Christ - “Though you do not now see Him, you believe...”
“Believing without seeing” is a theme that we saw quite a bit a couple
of years back in our study in the Gospel of John. The Jews kept asking for “signs,” yet even
when they saw indisputable miracles, they would not believe. Finally, after the resurrection, Jesus
appeared to the disciples, all but one that is...
24 Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin,
was not with them when Jesus came. 25
So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said
to them, "Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my
finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will
never believe..." (John 20:24, 25).
The disciples testified, but Thomas doubted, in fact he was determined in
his unbelief, “Unless I see... I will
never believe...” And in God’s mercy, a few days later he did see...
26 Eight days later, his disciples were inside again,
and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood
among them and said, "Peace be with you." 27 Then he said to Thomas,
"Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place
it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe." 28 Thomas answered him, "My
Lord and my God!" 29
Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed
are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Part of what Jesus is teaching is that “faith” or
“belief” is not simply being convinced by our senses that something is true. It
means we take God at His word. I like what Kevin DeYoung said,
“Our teachers, our friends, our science, our
studies, even our eyes can deceive us. But the Word of God is entirely true and
always true. God’s Word is firmly fixed in the heavens; it doesn’t change.
There is no limit to its perfection.”
As the title of DeYoung’s book says, faith is “Taking
God at His Word.” A lot of people who saw
Jesus didn’t believe. Jesus told Thomas, “You have seen and believe... [good]
...blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” “Jesus said my sheep hear my voice...” Where do we hear his
voice? Ultimately it is in His
word. In recent months I’ve been asking
some of you to fill out sermon evaluations. It’s because I want to learn and
grow as a preacher of the Word. We never hand out Scripture evaluations
however. The Bible is always good, and always true. So Jesus is who he claimed to be, he did what
the Bible tells us he did; he did what He came to do. How do I know? God said
it, and that settles it. Our new life in
Christ is marked by love for Him, trust in His Word, and abounding joy in our
salvation.
III. Joy
in Christ - “...and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible... filled with glory...”
In this phrase Peter returns to the subject that seemed so surprising in
verse 6, joy that transcends the moment, that overrules the suffering that we
experience in this present world. Look
back to that verse,
“In
this you rejoice, though now for a little while, as was necessary, you have
been grieved by various trials...”
The rejoicing there is in the sure hope of our promised inheritance spoken
of in vv.3-5. Here he says that they love and believe the One whom they have
not seen, and they rejoice with indescribable joy, joy that is “full of
glory.” Actually that is a single word
in Greek that has the idea of “glorified” joy, the idea seems to be joy that
can only come from God. God’s
fingerprints are all over it. Remember
the scene in Acts 3:1-10...
Now
Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth
hour. 2 And a man lame from
birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is
called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. 3 Seeing Peter and John about to
go into the temple, he asked to receive alms.
4 And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said,
"Look at us." 5 And
he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 But Peter said, "I have no
silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, rise up and walk!" 7
And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet
and ankles were made strong. 8
And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them,
walking and leaping and praising God. 9
And all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 and recognized him as the one
who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were
filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
Notice first the healed man’s response: walking and leaping and praising
God! That was joy indescribable and full of glory! God’s finger prints were all over it, and you
didn’t need to be a CSI investigator to figure it out.
It is worth noting what the
outcome of that miracle was. Yes, some believed. However it also initiated a
period of persecution and trials that the church would face over the next four
chapters of Acts, trials from outside and tests from within. As Peter writes
this letter, he knows he is writing to pilgrims, exiles and foreigners, kingdom
citizens living in a fallen world. He does not minimize the grievous trials
that we pass through in this life. But
since the heart of a pilgrim is looking homeward, even in the Valley of Baca,
we can make a well. It’s a matter of the
heart. Remember the Proverb that says “Above
all else, guard your heart, for from it are the well springs of life...” (Proverbs
4:23).
What is needed for joy? The man was healed in Acts 3 and filled with
joy. What about if circumstances are different? Max Lucado told the story of
Robert Reed. Robert lives with a debilitating disability. His hands are twisted
and his feet useless. He can’t bath himself. He can’t brush his own teach or
put on his own underwear. Strips of Velcro hold his shirts together. His speech
drags like a worn out audiocassette. The disease he lives with keeps him from
driving a car, riding a bike and going for a walk. But it didn’t keep him from
graduating from high school or attending Abilene Christian University where he
graduated with a degree in Latin. His disability didn’t keep him from teaching
at St. Louis Junior College or from venturing overseas on five missions trips.
And Roberts disease didn’t keep him from becoming a missionary in Portugal. He
moved to Lisbon, alone, in 1972. There he rented a hotel room and began
studying Portuguese. He found a restaurant owner who would feed him after the
rush hour and a tutor who would instruct him in the language. Then he stationed
himself in a park, where he would hand out gospel tracts. Within six years he had
led seventy people to the Lord, one of whom became his wife, Rosa.
Lucado said that he had heard Robert speak recently. He said,
I watched other men carry him in his wheelchair onto
the platform. I watched them lay a Bible in his lap. I watch his stiff fingers
force open the pages. And I watched people in the audience wipe away tears of
admiration from their faces. Robert could have asked for sympathy or pity, but
he did just the opposite. He held his bent hand into the air and boasted, “I
have everything I need for joy.” His shirts are held together by Velcro, but
his life is held together by joy.”
I am no expert on distinguishing
counterfeit money from the real thing, but that is authentic Christianity. So,
our new life in Christ is marked by love for Him, trust in His Word, and
abounding joy in our salvation.
IV. Life with
Christ- Now and forever- “receiving the end of your faith...”
“...the end [telos]
of your faith... the salvation of your
souls...”
Love,
faith, and joy accompany God’s work in us and for us. There is an interesting
juxtaposition of the “already” and the “not yet” in this phrase. “Telos” is
future looking, pointing ahead to the result or final outcome of believing in
Jesus. It is a word that speaks to the
completion of God’s plan, the culmination of his work in history. Peter knows that we are pilgrims, passing
through this fallen world, but we are citizens of heaven and our hope is in the
return of Christ and in a new heaven and new earth. That is not yet here but it motivates us and
encourages us. Remember Jesus’ words in
John 14:2,3...
2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were
not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may
be also.
We have a
home to look forward to, even though we have not yet seen it! Yet it is also
true that as we receive new life through faith in Christ we are now
citizens of heaven, some of the blessings of the kingdom are ours now, and we
have a new life that will carry into the new Creation. It is true that “If any man be in Christ, a new creation!”
As Paul told the Colossians, “You have
been translated out of the domain of darkness into the kingdom of God’s Son...”
We are already part of and a participant in the future! Peter here uses the present tense, “...receiving...” indicating that it is a present
reality and not only a future hope. Put another way, you were saved when
you believed, you are saved as you live the Christian life, and you will
be saved when you receive a new glorified body and are delivered once for
all from the presence and influence of sin. Somehow, when we see Him, we will
be like Him. Oh what a glorious day that
will be!
What is God saying to me in this passage? Our new life in Christ is marked by love for Him,
trust in His Word, and abounding joy in our salvation.
What
would God have me to do in response to this passage? You have not seen Jesus (more than likely). But do you
love Him? How can that be? Could it be that you realize that He loved you
first, that He loved you to the point of laying down His life for you? Do you
believe Him? That is, do you take Him at His word? If God said it, does that
settle it? Does the reality of his presence and his grace bring joy to your
heart? To believe Him, we need to be in the Word. That means listening and
learning at every opportunity. It means picking up your Bible (or IPAD or
whatever) and reading the Word carefully, prayerfully, for yourself. Jesus said
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them,
and they follow me...” We are a group of imperfect people – forgiven, but
not yet glorified. The good news is that we are not slaves to sin, because God
is with us and in us. We can grow and become more like He wants us to be. Did
you see the video on my wall on Facebook, the old rabbi talking about a lobster’s
growth? [ https://www.facebook.com/PatDivillyFit/videos/990363947705254/?pnref=story ] Are we willing to allow God to
help us grow, even through the hard things, the “grievous trials” of life? If we
can let go of our personal preferences and ask God to teach us, in the end, we’ll
be more like Jesus. And people will begin to see a difference in us. God is
not finished with us yet. Let us strive together to be faithful in the mission
He has set before us. AMEN
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