A Victorious Hope
1 Peter 5:8-11
Our Hope is in the victory Jesus gives us that will overcome any struggle, trial, or enemy. We have nothing to fear because He is on our side - He will make you strong, firm and steadfast - because all power is his - so praise him.
At the beginning of June we began our study of 1 Peter and now Peter is bringing his letter to it's climatic close. Like a symphony that has various movements the composer is drawing the listener to a particular climax and Peter is leading the early churches he was writing to and us as well to the point of his letter, the message, the encouragement, the challenge, what he is trying to say in 5 chapters he boils down into 4 short verses.
1Pet. 1:3 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, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-kept in heaven for you, 5 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. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 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.
Then he says:
Pet. 1:13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."
Then Peter spend 3 ½ chapters talking very practically about how this is lived out. -. He talks about living differently than the rest of the world but living as the chosen and living stones building a new people and a new way of living. He talks about humility, submission, suffering.
At times we looked at how Peter drew on his own experiences with Jesus and how they shaped him, who he was, how he lived and how he taught others to live.
Now we look at this passage in 1 Peter 5
1Pet. 5:8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
1Pet. 5:10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.
In this passage - Peter leaves us with 2 pictures of reality, 4 commands and 1 promise and proclamation.
First - lets look at the realities - the situations the readers and we find ourselves in.
Reality is a peculiar thing today - we have reality TV which is never real, but an unscripted manipulation of someone's life.
On a practical level we sort out facts and ideas into 3 different categories
True, Real, False (not true or real)
Ideas we "feel" to be true, but do not have any practical impact or consequences we affirm to be "true"
The world is 25,000 miles around - true
The sun is 93million miles away from earth
The year has 365 days in it.
These things do not have a practical impact to our daily lives & we will never use the idea or circumstance to guide our decisions in daily life.
Have you ever noticed how you can tell people there are more than 300,000 billion stars in the universe and they'll believe you, but tell them the paint is wet and they will touch it to see if you're telling the truth?
Ideas we ‘feel' to be not only true but also have real, practical consequences in our daily lives - we affirm to be ‘real to us'
Gravity is real
We guide our lives by things we consider ‘real'
I recently saw a church sign that announced the topic for that Sunday's sermon, it said "change your focus, change your reality" as if reality can change!
We also have subcategories for ‘real' - good reality and bad reality
Reality we can manipulate or influence = good reality
Reality we can not influence = bad reality
For most of us the difference between true and real is pain or prosperity
Most people - including ‘born again Christians' tend to put God and God's word in the ‘true but not real' category.
I spoke with someone this week who was struggling with becoming a Christian because this person could not reconcile God's truth and what they were ‘feeling' - they did not ‘feel' the same as what God said.
We may affirm the truth of the idea of God & His ways and perhaps even argue it vehemently - but we may not think those ways bring any real consequence in daily life - Therefore we are ‘generally' guided by scripture, but don't really bother with the specifics of God's word in she small situations of daily life.
What does this have to do with today's passage and the realities Peter reminds us of - lets look --
2 Realities
- There is a real enemy
"Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."
There is a real enemy - the devil. The Bible is clear and real experiences confirm this reality. "Diabolos' is a personal spiritual being who is in active rebellion against God and who has leadership of many demons like himself. Satan - comes from the Hebrew word of the same being.
Anyone who does not believe in a real and physical devil is not living in reality or is uneducated - a strong statement - a strong enemy.
This is a fascinating reality - today 62% of people surveyed do not believe that Satan is a real entity or person but they ‘feel' he is just a ‘symbol of evil'
Yet - horror films are the most profitable films made and Halloween has now become the largest marketing holiday in North America after Christmas.
We like to play with the idea of the devil, but we don't really believe he exists.
He is not a friend, playmate or anyone to joke about - he is God's adversary and there for as a child of God he is your adversary. He is against everything that we stand for.
He is a real, conscionable and unrelenting enemy
He is the Slander - Rev 12:10 - accuser of brethren - to God and self - self-defeating thoughts - to destroy from the inside out.
He is a prowler - he comes by stealth, in secret, shadowy, never draws attention to his attack - the metaphor of a prowling and roaring lion is apt. A prowling lion attacks suddenly, viciously, and often the unsuspecting victim is doing normal things. It seems every year we hear of mountain lion attacks, they are horrible and real. Peter views the devil as a cunning and evil personal being who has the ability and propensity to attack and harm Christians.
He appears to be particularly interested in attacking Christians than non-Christians, particularly those who are committed to living in and advancing God's ways in the world. Satan wants all of us - destroy all of mankind because mankind is made in the image of God - who he ultimately wants to defeat.
He is starving for anyone - someone - everyone - an insatiable appetite -
Put your name "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for (YOUR NAME, OUR CHURCH, US ) to devour."
Wise to remember when we travel - when we don't worship, when we are alone
Two of the strategies the devil effectively uses is
1. Convince you he is not real - then we will blindly invite him into our ‘house' - our lives -
2. Separate you from others - get us alone - that is why he often works to get people alone - away from other believers - create disunity, arguments, lies, confusion.
Peter reminds us of the second reality -
- You are not alone
"...you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings"
often when someone is alone, the world becomes a scary place - fear and insecurity sets in when you are alone.
When someone thinks or says "no one knows what I am going through..." "my situation is unique" - these are lies the enemy is using to set us up for destruction.
Everyone deals with suffering, trials and attacks from the enemy - and God brings us together to build immunity and ward off attacks from the enemy.
2 Commands
- Be self-controlled and alert
Like a person walking down a dangerous road who is advised to be careful
Peter is writing of a watchfulness - a spiritual alertness - attuned to not only the physical world but the spiritual world of which we are now a part of:
Peter remembers when Jesus took He and James and John to the garden to pray, after celebrating Passover for the last time and instituting what we call the Lord's supper - Jesus had just told Peter that Luke 22:31 "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.
Then he takes them to the garden to pray
Matt. 26:36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me."
39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."
40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. "Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?" he asked Peter. 41 "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."
Peters greatest failings came because he was not alert and self-controlled and he is cautioning us to not fall down the same trap.
- Resist the enemy and stand firm
"9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith,"
James 4:7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Resist him - you have nothing to be afraid of
1John 4:4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
How do we resist the devil - Eph 6
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes
14 Stand firm then, with the
belt of truth buckled around your waist, -
be committed to God's truth - not what you feel is real
breastplate of righteousness in place,
- rely on God's righteousness - not your own - you don't' defeat him Christ in you does
15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
- Be committed to advancing the gospel
Matt. 11:12 From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.
16 take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
- is your faith ‘vapor-wear' a good idea or is it real, solid tangible, does it absorb every idea that comes along or withstand the foolishness of the world's thinking - When your faith is solid - you know what and why you believe what you do then you will see it extinguish the darts of the enemy -
that is what our Build-up times are doing with those who are a part of them, building their faith -
17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests
The Promise
1Pet. 5:10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.
We have a Good God
The trials, suffering and attacks we endure will not last long, just long enough to accomplish what God wants to build in us to make us
Strong, firm and steadfast - to help us stand firmer for future experiences.
The greatest promise is that he HIMSELF will restore you
He will take you in his arms - he does bring you comfort in your soul - he will let us know him deeper and stronger than before
This morning what is God saying to you - how is he challenging or encouraging you -
Is he calling you to be self-controlled - have you let your spiritual disciplines become soft - have you lost sight of what is true and right
Or to be alert - have you gone to sleep - even though Peter was tired, he should have been praying
Or is he encouraging you to stand firm - and resist
The victory is His and in Him - you can stand firm - resist the enemy
You can experience God restoring you, making you strong, firm and steadfast for him
Because the Power is in HIM.
This morning do you need to experience his restoration - confess where you have let the enemy into your own ‘house' and ask The Father to forgive you
Receive his forgiveness and in the strength and name of Jesus resist the enemy - remove him
Ask Jesus to fill your life again with his strength - His spirit of life and truth and be self-controlled to live in his truth again.
Our Hope is in the victory Jesus gives us that will overcome any struggle, trial, or enemy. We have nothing to fear because He is on our side - He will make you strong, firm and steadfast - because all power is his - so praise him.