Moving Forward(22May2011)
2 Peter 1 M4
Speaker: Ken Shigematsu
Title: Moving Forward (after getting hit)
Text: 2 Peter 1:1-8
BIG IDEA: By expecting suffering, embracing in the faith that God will use it, and by having our eyes on Jesus Christ we can persevere through trial and suffering and remain faithful to him.
As a kid one of my favourite movies was Rocky 1. In that movie Rocky is a struggling boxer who dreams of making it to the big time. When the heavy weight champion of the world Apollo Creed visits Philadelphia, his managers want to show how kind he is by giving a struggling boxer, who goes by the name the “Italian Stallion” or simply Rocky, a chance to fight the champion of the world. They advertise this fight as a chance for a “nobody” to become a “somebody.” The match is supposed to be won easily by Apollo Creed but Rocky takes it seriously and trains with all his heart. He gets up early, eats raw eggs, runs in his grey hoodie and grey track pants… He works at a meat shop and trains by punching the slabs of beef that hang in the shop.
In the final Rocky movie, simply entitled Rocky Balboa, Rocky is now in his fifties and ESPN features a virtual fight (SHOW IMAGE)
between the current heavyweight champion of the world, Mason Dixon and Rocky, when they would have both been in their prime, and the virtual fight shows Rocky winning the fight.
Mason Dixon, who sees this virtual fight, retaliates by challenging Rocky to a boxing match. To the surprise of his friends and to the dismay of his son, Rocky agrees to come out of retirement and face an opponent who is obviously much faster, stronger, and 30 years younger than he is. The odds are stacked against him and his son pleads with Rocky to not get in the ring and to not embarrass him, his son:
One evening Rocky meets him on the street and says (SHOW CLIP).
Rocky and his son:
Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward.
Rocky was not only a good boxer, he was great preacher, too. He says to his son, “The world is a mean and nasty place. I don’t care how tough you are. It will beat you to your knees and it will keep you there permanently if you let it. Nobody’s going to hit as hard as life, but it ain’t about how hard you get hit. It’s about how hard you get hit and keep moving forward.”
As Lee pointed out last Sunday, Peter's name had been Simon – which means shifting sand – but Jesus renamed him Peter which means rock or Rocky.
Peter knew that life has a way of hitting you hard.
He knew that his brothers and sisters, that is, those who were also following Christ with him, were getting hit hard in life. In 1 Peter 2:18-19, he says he is aware of their brutal working conditions. In that same chapter, Peter says he knows how they had been falsely accused and blamed for things they had never done. He says he knows that he knows they have been mocked by their neighbours who see their faith as crazy (1 Peter 3:3). Peter says he knows how disappointed that they are with a God who seems to be slow in keeping his promises (2 Peter 3:9).
This morning, as we continue our series in 2 Peter, we are going to look at how God through Peter calls us to perseverance.
If you have your Bibles, please turn to 2 Peter 1:1.
1 Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:
2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me briefly review the context. If you haven’t been here the last few weeks you can download the sermons off our website.
Peter begins this passage (verse 1) by saying, “You can have a faith as precious as mine.” A remarkable statement. Peter was one of Jesus’ closest friends. He saw Jesus, heard Jesus’ voice, was touched by Jesus, was powerfully forgiven by him, used by him. And Peter is saying you and I can have a faith, a connection with Jesus, just as close, just as life-changing as his.
How does this happen?
As we see in vss. 2-4 it’s through grace or sheer gift, through the gift of a friendship with Jesus Christ participate in the divine nature, as Lee spoke about last Sunday, we enter into the circle or the family that is God, and by being enveloped by God--we can become like Jesus Christ.
So there is grace, a gift that enables us to become like Jesus.
But, as Lee said, it is also a role that we play.
We can to add to our faith--perseverance.
Peter says for this very reason respond to God’s grace by adding to your faith goodness, knowledge, self-control, and to self-control perseverance.
This morning I we will focus on perseverance.
Why is perseverance in this particular list? Because Peter knows that the people he is writing to are experiencing the world, as Rocky points out, as a mean and nasty place. The people that Peter was writing to had decided to follow Christ at a time and place where it was dangerous and costly to follow him. People around them were suspicious and hostile towards them. They regarded them as strange. Cannibals maybe, because they had these meals where they talked about eating the flesh and blood of their leader.
In Peter’s first letter he mentions suffering 17 times. In fact, it is arguably the theme of the 1 Peter.
Peter says to these brothers and sisters who share a common faith in Jesus Christ, “Persevere.” The word that Peter uses for persevere is hypomone, which literally means stand your ground…maintain your position. Hypomone was typically used as a military term to describe a soldier holding a position. A soldier, of course, then as now, might be tempted to abandon their post when either all hell was breaking loose or when nothing seemed to be happening, and days were stretching on and on. Peter is saying, either way, when all hell seems to breaking loose or when nothing of spiritual significance seems to be happening to you, stand your ground and hypomone, persevere.
How do we become people who persevere? That is, people who hold our ground and who even keep moving forward when we are hit hard in life?
First, as we said in vss 2-4 it is by receiving the grace of God by entering into a life-changing relationship with Jesus, allowing the divine nature to envelop us, and give us a new heart.
That’s God’s part.
What’s our part in the coming people who persevere?
Part what we can do to become people who persevere is to expect suffering.
First, Peter would say, expect suffering.
As Rocky says, the world can be a mean and nasty place.
In 1 Peter 4:12-13a, Peter writes: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come to you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ…”
Peter goes even further in 1 Peter 2: 21. He says that were called to suffer: “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.”
Peter wasn’t just talking about suffering as some kind of armchair theoretician. He knew what it was to suffer firsthand for Christ. He had been beaten for his faith, imprisoned, and he would eventually die as a martyr for Jesus Christ, crucified upside down.
We too will face some kind of suffering if we live long enough: we may go through a relationship conflict, a breakup, some kind of illness, some kind of financial challenge, the death of a loved one, the loss of a baby, the sense of God being absent. And when we go through something really painful, we will have the temptation to run, to desert our post.
Part of the way we become people who persevered is by simply expecting suffering. But when I ran the Vancouver marathon, and about 30 K in the race, I'm running up the second Narrows Bridge (coming in to Vancouver from North Van) just gassed, totally exhausted, but I remember how people who have run marathons have told me that you will likely “hit the wall,” but then you get a second wind. Anticipating that I would hit the wall at about 30 K, didn't make that part of the race easy, but it help me persevere and at about 32 or 33 K, sure enough I felt the second when I came into the Vancouver siding could see the downtown skyline I felt a surge of energy was able to finish strong.
Something about being able to anticipate suffering life, that enables us to keep moving forward.
How do we persevere?
One of the ways we stand firm and keep moving forward is by expecting suffering. This why Peter says, “When you are suffering, don’t see suffering as if something strange—this is part of your calling.”
How do we persevere? By expecting it and second by embracing suffering in the faith that God would use our suffering to make us more like him.
One of the many gifts of offering our life to Jesus is that none of the suffering that we experience in life as a friend of Jesus will be wasted – he will take that suffering and shape us into the kind of people that we long to be.
This is why Peter says to this group of people who are friends with Jesus in 1 Peter 1:6-7: “In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a while you have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 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.”
Peter is saying here that suffering can act like fire that refines our faith… (use lighter) purifies it like fire purifies gold…removing the dross, making it more precious. Suffering has a way of transforming us.
Often we want God to deliver us out of suffering, but God may have a different plan. Instead of delivering us out of our suffering, he may deliver us, in and through our suffering, that is. In some cases he does not save us from our suffering, but he saves us in the midst of suffering; that is, he refines us through the suffering. This why Peter says in first Peter, that suffering is part of our all in following Christ.
Many would ask why would we ever follow someone who might call us into suffering?
Why would anyone voluntarily suffer? Some of us do it on a regular, voluntary basis in another sphere of our lives. Going to gym is a kind of voluntary suffering of sorts. Through our “suffering” we become stronger.
I was at one of the Mt. Pleasant gyms some years ago before I became a parent and I had a little more time to go to the gym. One of the fitness instructors walked up to me and said, “Hey, Ken, I have been watching you work out. Can I give you some advice?” I said, “Sure. I have never really received any kind of training on weightlifting.” He said, “I notice that you are starting with relatively light weights and then you gradually are moving up toward heavier weights. I don’t know what it is like to be a pastor, but I imagine that you must be really busy. You probably want to be into the gym and out of the gym as fast as you reasonably can and get a good workout.” I said, “Yeah.”
He said, “This is what I would advise you to do. Instead of starting with the light weights, start with the heavy weights. After a brief warm up, put on the heavy weights and then lift the weights 10 or 12 times, whatever the number is until you just feel absolutely exhausted and tired and you can’t lift any more. (In other words, voluntarily suffer.) And then, if you want to get an even better workout, go on to slightly weights and lift those until you feel absolutely exhausted and tired. Then you will have had a good workout in a short period of time.”
(It has changed the way I work out now. I don’t spend a lot of time in a gym these days as the parent of a toddler. But this is what I do to increase the weight resistance at home when I have a minute or two. If I am doing a regular push-up like this (DEMONSTRATE), I use a chair (PROP) and put my feet on it, and then start doing push-ups. If I want a little more resistance to start with, I will look for my 2 year old Joey and do it in front of him. Then I will say to Joey, “Joey, Daddy not a horsey,” and that will be his cue to jump onto my back….38 pounds. Then I will start doing push-ups. Start with the heavyweight and then go lighter.)
In the gym of life when we suffering, it is then we become stronger.
And here is the paradox. When we feel really weak, when we are lifting weights or exercising, we are actually becoming stronger.
So it is when we feel weakened by suffering, it is then we are actually in a position to grow. The apostle Paul said, “When I am weak, then, by God’s grace I become strong.”
How does this actually work out in life?
You get a roommate, or housemates, or you get married, or you have children, you really embrace community life a place like Tenth, and you’ll find yourself getting irritated, your selfishness is exposed, and you have the opportunity to grow: to pray “God envelop me” before I kill someone and have an opportunity to grow in patience and love.
This is why the ancient monastic talked about living in community as a “school of love.” There's something about entering into the irritation, and the suffering that inevitably occurs when were living in close relationships with people that creates a school for us to grow in love.
Or take suffering through an illness.
As a pastor, I had a kind of front row seat gracious, winsome, unforced, but he's clearly an unashamedly testified to the difference that Christ has made him in his suffering people have gone through cancer, heart attacks, significant physical suffering.
There someone in this community (who has given me permission to share his story). He has been diagnosed with cancer, gone through chemo. As I have observed him, suffering though he would've never chosen it has given him priceless gifts. His wife, has remarked that while her husband did read the Bible before being diagnosed with cancer, he's reading the Bible more than ever before. When he comes home from work, after dinner he stood edge out by watching TV. These days she sees that he's opening his Bible and reading it. He's a person who's always loved his wife and his daughter – but through this cancer he cherishes them now more than ever. He works for a famous that you all have heard of, but I've observed that since he's had the cancer, his witness for Christ has become bolder – graciously, winsomely, and naturally he has freely shared about how Christ has enabled him to walk through this very difficult chapter of his life.
Praise God is now cancer free.
A woman named Anne spent helping me in my life as a student had a friend named Pam who was dying. Pam's doctor always gave Anne straight answers whenever she asked about Pam's condition. When Pam was going through some distressing developments, and talk to Pam's doctor hoping that her doctor would put a positive slant on what she was going through. She didn't – she couldn't. But this is what she told Anne, “Watch Pam carefully right now because she is teaching you how to live.”
People who suffer particularly those who were dying (the truth is were all terminal on the bus of life), can teach through their lives how we are to live.
And if you're wondering if a loving God would ever really call you to suffer, chances are he will.
Even though I started to follow Christ when I was 15 or 16, quite young really. At 15 or 16 from the perspective of a teenager, I felt like I had come late into the game. I said, “God, you know how mean I can I can be and how much of a snob I can be and how I tend to cheat in sports (God‘s still working on that one). God, I know that you have come into my life. I feel like my sins have been forgiven, but, God, please put me on the fast-track. Please transform me more quickly than you are, because it feels like it is really, really slow.”
Let me give you some context here.
Up to that point, God had come into my life in a powerful, tangible way. If you never experienced that, the only analogy I can offer is falling in love. When you fall in love, if you have ever had that experience you know that actually you feel more physical energy, not just emotional energy. You have this joy and this silly grin on your face…this glow. Food tastes better. When the clouds in Vancouver part, you can see the mountains and the beauty of the ocean. They seem even more beautiful when you are in love.
That is exactly how I was feeling when Christ came into my life. I felt more alive…a sense of joy…a greater sense of security…and more comfort in my own skin. Amazing! And then I prayed, “God, you are not changing me fast enough. Please do something dramatic to change me.” The very next day or the next week, within a few days, I felt that God was completely absent. Up to that point, I had felt God so strongly that I had more energy, I had more joy. The world seemed more beautiful. I was happy, but somehow God seemed completely and totally absent. I had committed no sins that I had not confessed. I hadn’t committed any willful sins. As far I knew, the absence of God’s presence was not because of some sin. It was not like I was physically sick. I just felt like God was completely absent.
One of the great sufferings that those who know Christ can that God sometimes leads us through is a sense of God being utterly absent. According to people like St. John of the Cross, someone whom I had never heard of at the time, this is part of God’s plan for us—to suffer from a sense of his absence so that we are not following Christ just because we have these groovy sort of vibes around him; so that we are not just following Jesus because of all the benefits we get from the relationship with him, but we are following Jesus because we love him.
It is also true that in a marriage, typically early in a romantic relationship, you are in that in love phase. It is really easy to be creative, to be thinking about dates, things that you will do with your partner. It does not take a lot of effort. But when you have been together for a number of years and that initial glow wears off, you maybe have some fights, you have a baby or two, you maybe lose a job, at times you just don’t feel that glowiness any more. But if you really love your partner, you will love them in spite of the fact that you feel you are not receiving a lot in this moment. That gives your relationship an opportunity to mature. The feelings of love can return, but in a different more mature way. It is an important part of the progression of a relationship.
So it is in our relationship with God. One of the ways we can suffer his absence. God may allow that into our lives—or may allow some other kind of suffering--as part of his plan for us, so that our relationship with him deepens, and it isn’t just about Hey ! I love you because of how I feel around you or because what you are doing for me, I love you because are God.
God may call us into suffering – and by the way don't recommend that you pray for suffering as I did – now I'm too much of a chicken to pray that God would increase my suffering…
But God will call us into suffering even if we don't directly ask for it…
Peter knew about this. After Jesus had died on the cross and risen from the dead Jesus spent time walking with Peter on the beach.
Jesus made it clear that he had forgiven Peter for bailing on him the night before Jesus went to the cross. He loved Peter. But as they're walking, Jesus said when you are old you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God.
When Jesus said when you are old will stretch out your hands and someone will lead you or you do not want to go, he was prophesying that Peter would die by crucifixion. According to church tradition, Peter died for Christ as he was crucified upside down… likely not long after he had penned this letter.
Part of the reason that Peter was able to persevere through suffering part of the reason that he was able to get hit and keep moving forward, was because he anticipated suffering – Jesus had warned him and the other disciples that they would suffer for following him and Jesus and Peter's case went to far as to predict the kind of death he would die. The Peter was also able to move forward after being hit the suffering because he embraced his suffering when it came. As Jesus told him the end of John suffering would be an opportunity for God's glory to be more fully manifest in and through. Finally Peter was able to endure his suffering because he kept his eyes on Jesus and followed him.
When Peter was walking with Jesus on the beach and Jesus predicted that he would suffer in his death that he would be led somewhere he did not want to go Peter looked over his shoulder and noticed that another student of Jesus name John was following Peter pointed to him and said “What about him?”
And Jesus replied, “What is that to you?”
“Follow me.”
And he calls us to do the same. He says there will be times in life where you will be led to a place you don't want to go. And some of us are there now or will be one day. Some of us are physically in a place where we do not want to be. Were suffering from some kind of chronic pain. Or some of us are socially in a place where we do not want to be. Maybe we long to be in a certain kind of relationship and that just doesn't happen for us. Or maybe we are in a relationship with someone that we wish were different. Or maybe were not in the place we want to be spiritually. Perhaps we sense this absence of God's presence or absence of his action.
Jesus says to us expect suffering. When it comes (assuming that you're not being led to step out of the suffering and you may be led to step out of the suffering different sermon) embraced allow me to refine you through the suffering. Finally he says as she suffer keep your eyes on the, don't compare yourself to John or Jane, follow me.
How can we stretch out our arms and follow Jesus and through our suffering?
We can do this because Jesus stretched out his arms for us on the cross and he suffered for us he bore our sins in his body, he allowed himself to be utterly separated from his father God for us for us and when we realize that Jesus has stretched out his arms and suffering for us so that we could be forgiven so that we we could be reunited with God when we realize that that is what he has done for us then we can stretch out our arms and be willing to follow him through suffering…
And as we do so we do so in the faith that is the Scriptures tell us if we suffer with him we will also rise and reign with him.
As Rocky said, "you can get a hit hard in life.”
But as the first century Rocky said we can keep moving forward as we expect suffering, as we embrace it in the knowledge that God will transform us through the suffering, and as we keep our eyes on Jesus and follow the one who suffered for us.
Pray:
Speaker: Ken Shigematsu
Title: Moving Forward (after getting hit)
Text: 2 Peter 1:1-8
BIG IDEA: By expecting suffering, embracing in the faith that God will use it, and by having our eyes on Jesus Christ we can persevere through trial and suffering and remain faithful to him.
As a kid one of my favourite movies was Rocky 1. In that movie Rocky is a struggling boxer who dreams of making it to the big time. When the heavy weight champion of the world Apollo Creed visits Philadelphia, his managers want to show how kind he is by giving a struggling boxer, who goes by the name the “Italian Stallion” or simply Rocky, a chance to fight the champion of the world. They advertise this fight as a chance for a “nobody” to become a “somebody.” The match is supposed to be won easily by Apollo Creed but Rocky takes it seriously and trains with all his heart. He gets up early, eats raw eggs, runs in his grey hoodie and grey track pants… He works at a meat shop and trains by punching the slabs of beef that hang in the shop.
In the final Rocky movie, simply entitled Rocky Balboa, Rocky is now in his fifties and ESPN features a virtual fight (SHOW IMAGE)
between the current heavyweight champion of the world, Mason Dixon and Rocky, when they would have both been in their prime, and the virtual fight shows Rocky winning the fight.
Mason Dixon, who sees this virtual fight, retaliates by challenging Rocky to a boxing match. To the surprise of his friends and to the dismay of his son, Rocky agrees to come out of retirement and face an opponent who is obviously much faster, stronger, and 30 years younger than he is. The odds are stacked against him and his son pleads with Rocky to not get in the ring and to not embarrass him, his son:
One evening Rocky meets him on the street and says (SHOW CLIP).
Rocky and his son:
Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward.
Rocky was not only a good boxer, he was great preacher, too. He says to his son, “The world is a mean and nasty place. I don’t care how tough you are. It will beat you to your knees and it will keep you there permanently if you let it. Nobody’s going to hit as hard as life, but it ain’t about how hard you get hit. It’s about how hard you get hit and keep moving forward.”
As Lee pointed out last Sunday, Peter's name had been Simon – which means shifting sand – but Jesus renamed him Peter which means rock or Rocky.
Peter knew that life has a way of hitting you hard.
He knew that his brothers and sisters, that is, those who were also following Christ with him, were getting hit hard in life. In 1 Peter 2:18-19, he says he is aware of their brutal working conditions. In that same chapter, Peter says he knows how they had been falsely accused and blamed for things they had never done. He says he knows that he knows they have been mocked by their neighbours who see their faith as crazy (1 Peter 3:3). Peter says he knows how disappointed that they are with a God who seems to be slow in keeping his promises (2 Peter 3:9).
This morning, as we continue our series in 2 Peter, we are going to look at how God through Peter calls us to perseverance.
If you have your Bibles, please turn to 2 Peter 1:1.
1 Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:
2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me briefly review the context. If you haven’t been here the last few weeks you can download the sermons off our website.
Peter begins this passage (verse 1) by saying, “You can have a faith as precious as mine.” A remarkable statement. Peter was one of Jesus’ closest friends. He saw Jesus, heard Jesus’ voice, was touched by Jesus, was powerfully forgiven by him, used by him. And Peter is saying you and I can have a faith, a connection with Jesus, just as close, just as life-changing as his.
How does this happen?
As we see in vss. 2-4 it’s through grace or sheer gift, through the gift of a friendship with Jesus Christ participate in the divine nature, as Lee spoke about last Sunday, we enter into the circle or the family that is God, and by being enveloped by God--we can become like Jesus Christ.
So there is grace, a gift that enables us to become like Jesus.
But, as Lee said, it is also a role that we play.
We can to add to our faith--perseverance.
Peter says for this very reason respond to God’s grace by adding to your faith goodness, knowledge, self-control, and to self-control perseverance.
This morning I we will focus on perseverance.
Why is perseverance in this particular list? Because Peter knows that the people he is writing to are experiencing the world, as Rocky points out, as a mean and nasty place. The people that Peter was writing to had decided to follow Christ at a time and place where it was dangerous and costly to follow him. People around them were suspicious and hostile towards them. They regarded them as strange. Cannibals maybe, because they had these meals where they talked about eating the flesh and blood of their leader.
In Peter’s first letter he mentions suffering 17 times. In fact, it is arguably the theme of the 1 Peter.
Peter says to these brothers and sisters who share a common faith in Jesus Christ, “Persevere.” The word that Peter uses for persevere is hypomone, which literally means stand your ground…maintain your position. Hypomone was typically used as a military term to describe a soldier holding a position. A soldier, of course, then as now, might be tempted to abandon their post when either all hell was breaking loose or when nothing seemed to be happening, and days were stretching on and on. Peter is saying, either way, when all hell seems to breaking loose or when nothing of spiritual significance seems to be happening to you, stand your ground and hypomone, persevere.
How do we become people who persevere? That is, people who hold our ground and who even keep moving forward when we are hit hard in life?
First, as we said in vss 2-4 it is by receiving the grace of God by entering into a life-changing relationship with Jesus, allowing the divine nature to envelop us, and give us a new heart.
That’s God’s part.
What’s our part in the coming people who persevere?
Part what we can do to become people who persevere is to expect suffering.
First, Peter would say, expect suffering.
As Rocky says, the world can be a mean and nasty place.
In 1 Peter 4:12-13a, Peter writes: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come to you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ…”
Peter goes even further in 1 Peter 2: 21. He says that were called to suffer: “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.”
Peter wasn’t just talking about suffering as some kind of armchair theoretician. He knew what it was to suffer firsthand for Christ. He had been beaten for his faith, imprisoned, and he would eventually die as a martyr for Jesus Christ, crucified upside down.
We too will face some kind of suffering if we live long enough: we may go through a relationship conflict, a breakup, some kind of illness, some kind of financial challenge, the death of a loved one, the loss of a baby, the sense of God being absent. And when we go through something really painful, we will have the temptation to run, to desert our post.
Part of the way we become people who persevered is by simply expecting suffering. But when I ran the Vancouver marathon, and about 30 K in the race, I'm running up the second Narrows Bridge (coming in to Vancouver from North Van) just gassed, totally exhausted, but I remember how people who have run marathons have told me that you will likely “hit the wall,” but then you get a second wind. Anticipating that I would hit the wall at about 30 K, didn't make that part of the race easy, but it help me persevere and at about 32 or 33 K, sure enough I felt the second when I came into the Vancouver siding could see the downtown skyline I felt a surge of energy was able to finish strong.
Something about being able to anticipate suffering life, that enables us to keep moving forward.
How do we persevere?
One of the ways we stand firm and keep moving forward is by expecting suffering. This why Peter says, “When you are suffering, don’t see suffering as if something strange—this is part of your calling.”
How do we persevere? By expecting it and second by embracing suffering in the faith that God would use our suffering to make us more like him.
One of the many gifts of offering our life to Jesus is that none of the suffering that we experience in life as a friend of Jesus will be wasted – he will take that suffering and shape us into the kind of people that we long to be.
This is why Peter says to this group of people who are friends with Jesus in 1 Peter 1:6-7: “In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a while you have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 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.”
Peter is saying here that suffering can act like fire that refines our faith… (use lighter) purifies it like fire purifies gold…removing the dross, making it more precious. Suffering has a way of transforming us.
Often we want God to deliver us out of suffering, but God may have a different plan. Instead of delivering us out of our suffering, he may deliver us, in and through our suffering, that is. In some cases he does not save us from our suffering, but he saves us in the midst of suffering; that is, he refines us through the suffering. This why Peter says in first Peter, that suffering is part of our all in following Christ.
Many would ask why would we ever follow someone who might call us into suffering?
Why would anyone voluntarily suffer? Some of us do it on a regular, voluntary basis in another sphere of our lives. Going to gym is a kind of voluntary suffering of sorts. Through our “suffering” we become stronger.
I was at one of the Mt. Pleasant gyms some years ago before I became a parent and I had a little more time to go to the gym. One of the fitness instructors walked up to me and said, “Hey, Ken, I have been watching you work out. Can I give you some advice?” I said, “Sure. I have never really received any kind of training on weightlifting.” He said, “I notice that you are starting with relatively light weights and then you gradually are moving up toward heavier weights. I don’t know what it is like to be a pastor, but I imagine that you must be really busy. You probably want to be into the gym and out of the gym as fast as you reasonably can and get a good workout.” I said, “Yeah.”
He said, “This is what I would advise you to do. Instead of starting with the light weights, start with the heavy weights. After a brief warm up, put on the heavy weights and then lift the weights 10 or 12 times, whatever the number is until you just feel absolutely exhausted and tired and you can’t lift any more. (In other words, voluntarily suffer.) And then, if you want to get an even better workout, go on to slightly weights and lift those until you feel absolutely exhausted and tired. Then you will have had a good workout in a short period of time.”
(It has changed the way I work out now. I don’t spend a lot of time in a gym these days as the parent of a toddler. But this is what I do to increase the weight resistance at home when I have a minute or two. If I am doing a regular push-up like this (DEMONSTRATE), I use a chair (PROP) and put my feet on it, and then start doing push-ups. If I want a little more resistance to start with, I will look for my 2 year old Joey and do it in front of him. Then I will say to Joey, “Joey, Daddy not a horsey,” and that will be his cue to jump onto my back….38 pounds. Then I will start doing push-ups. Start with the heavyweight and then go lighter.)
In the gym of life when we suffering, it is then we become stronger.
And here is the paradox. When we feel really weak, when we are lifting weights or exercising, we are actually becoming stronger.
So it is when we feel weakened by suffering, it is then we are actually in a position to grow. The apostle Paul said, “When I am weak, then, by God’s grace I become strong.”
How does this actually work out in life?
You get a roommate, or housemates, or you get married, or you have children, you really embrace community life a place like Tenth, and you’ll find yourself getting irritated, your selfishness is exposed, and you have the opportunity to grow: to pray “God envelop me” before I kill someone and have an opportunity to grow in patience and love.
This is why the ancient monastic talked about living in community as a “school of love.” There's something about entering into the irritation, and the suffering that inevitably occurs when were living in close relationships with people that creates a school for us to grow in love.
Or take suffering through an illness.
As a pastor, I had a kind of front row seat gracious, winsome, unforced, but he's clearly an unashamedly testified to the difference that Christ has made him in his suffering people have gone through cancer, heart attacks, significant physical suffering.
There someone in this community (who has given me permission to share his story). He has been diagnosed with cancer, gone through chemo. As I have observed him, suffering though he would've never chosen it has given him priceless gifts. His wife, has remarked that while her husband did read the Bible before being diagnosed with cancer, he's reading the Bible more than ever before. When he comes home from work, after dinner he stood edge out by watching TV. These days she sees that he's opening his Bible and reading it. He's a person who's always loved his wife and his daughter – but through this cancer he cherishes them now more than ever. He works for a famous that you all have heard of, but I've observed that since he's had the cancer, his witness for Christ has become bolder – graciously, winsomely, and naturally he has freely shared about how Christ has enabled him to walk through this very difficult chapter of his life.
Praise God is now cancer free.
A woman named Anne spent helping me in my life as a student had a friend named Pam who was dying. Pam's doctor always gave Anne straight answers whenever she asked about Pam's condition. When Pam was going through some distressing developments, and talk to Pam's doctor hoping that her doctor would put a positive slant on what she was going through. She didn't – she couldn't. But this is what she told Anne, “Watch Pam carefully right now because she is teaching you how to live.”
People who suffer particularly those who were dying (the truth is were all terminal on the bus of life), can teach through their lives how we are to live.
And if you're wondering if a loving God would ever really call you to suffer, chances are he will.
Even though I started to follow Christ when I was 15 or 16, quite young really. At 15 or 16 from the perspective of a teenager, I felt like I had come late into the game. I said, “God, you know how mean I can I can be and how much of a snob I can be and how I tend to cheat in sports (God‘s still working on that one). God, I know that you have come into my life. I feel like my sins have been forgiven, but, God, please put me on the fast-track. Please transform me more quickly than you are, because it feels like it is really, really slow.”
Let me give you some context here.
Up to that point, God had come into my life in a powerful, tangible way. If you never experienced that, the only analogy I can offer is falling in love. When you fall in love, if you have ever had that experience you know that actually you feel more physical energy, not just emotional energy. You have this joy and this silly grin on your face…this glow. Food tastes better. When the clouds in Vancouver part, you can see the mountains and the beauty of the ocean. They seem even more beautiful when you are in love.
That is exactly how I was feeling when Christ came into my life. I felt more alive…a sense of joy…a greater sense of security…and more comfort in my own skin. Amazing! And then I prayed, “God, you are not changing me fast enough. Please do something dramatic to change me.” The very next day or the next week, within a few days, I felt that God was completely absent. Up to that point, I had felt God so strongly that I had more energy, I had more joy. The world seemed more beautiful. I was happy, but somehow God seemed completely and totally absent. I had committed no sins that I had not confessed. I hadn’t committed any willful sins. As far I knew, the absence of God’s presence was not because of some sin. It was not like I was physically sick. I just felt like God was completely absent.
One of the great sufferings that those who know Christ can that God sometimes leads us through is a sense of God being utterly absent. According to people like St. John of the Cross, someone whom I had never heard of at the time, this is part of God’s plan for us—to suffer from a sense of his absence so that we are not following Christ just because we have these groovy sort of vibes around him; so that we are not just following Jesus because of all the benefits we get from the relationship with him, but we are following Jesus because we love him.
It is also true that in a marriage, typically early in a romantic relationship, you are in that in love phase. It is really easy to be creative, to be thinking about dates, things that you will do with your partner. It does not take a lot of effort. But when you have been together for a number of years and that initial glow wears off, you maybe have some fights, you have a baby or two, you maybe lose a job, at times you just don’t feel that glowiness any more. But if you really love your partner, you will love them in spite of the fact that you feel you are not receiving a lot in this moment. That gives your relationship an opportunity to mature. The feelings of love can return, but in a different more mature way. It is an important part of the progression of a relationship.
So it is in our relationship with God. One of the ways we can suffer his absence. God may allow that into our lives—or may allow some other kind of suffering--as part of his plan for us, so that our relationship with him deepens, and it isn’t just about Hey ! I love you because of how I feel around you or because what you are doing for me, I love you because are God.
God may call us into suffering – and by the way don't recommend that you pray for suffering as I did – now I'm too much of a chicken to pray that God would increase my suffering…
But God will call us into suffering even if we don't directly ask for it…
Peter knew about this. After Jesus had died on the cross and risen from the dead Jesus spent time walking with Peter on the beach.
Jesus made it clear that he had forgiven Peter for bailing on him the night before Jesus went to the cross. He loved Peter. But as they're walking, Jesus said when you are old you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God.
When Jesus said when you are old will stretch out your hands and someone will lead you or you do not want to go, he was prophesying that Peter would die by crucifixion. According to church tradition, Peter died for Christ as he was crucified upside down… likely not long after he had penned this letter.
Part of the reason that Peter was able to persevere through suffering part of the reason that he was able to get hit and keep moving forward, was because he anticipated suffering – Jesus had warned him and the other disciples that they would suffer for following him and Jesus and Peter's case went to far as to predict the kind of death he would die. The Peter was also able to move forward after being hit the suffering because he embraced his suffering when it came. As Jesus told him the end of John suffering would be an opportunity for God's glory to be more fully manifest in and through. Finally Peter was able to endure his suffering because he kept his eyes on Jesus and followed him.
When Peter was walking with Jesus on the beach and Jesus predicted that he would suffer in his death that he would be led somewhere he did not want to go Peter looked over his shoulder and noticed that another student of Jesus name John was following Peter pointed to him and said “What about him?”
And Jesus replied, “What is that to you?”
“Follow me.”
And he calls us to do the same. He says there will be times in life where you will be led to a place you don't want to go. And some of us are there now or will be one day. Some of us are physically in a place where we do not want to be. Were suffering from some kind of chronic pain. Or some of us are socially in a place where we do not want to be. Maybe we long to be in a certain kind of relationship and that just doesn't happen for us. Or maybe we are in a relationship with someone that we wish were different. Or maybe were not in the place we want to be spiritually. Perhaps we sense this absence of God's presence or absence of his action.
Jesus says to us expect suffering. When it comes (assuming that you're not being led to step out of the suffering and you may be led to step out of the suffering different sermon) embraced allow me to refine you through the suffering. Finally he says as she suffer keep your eyes on the, don't compare yourself to John or Jane, follow me.
How can we stretch out our arms and follow Jesus and through our suffering?
We can do this because Jesus stretched out his arms for us on the cross and he suffered for us he bore our sins in his body, he allowed himself to be utterly separated from his father God for us for us and when we realize that Jesus has stretched out his arms and suffering for us so that we could be forgiven so that we we could be reunited with God when we realize that that is what he has done for us then we can stretch out our arms and be willing to follow him through suffering…
And as we do so we do so in the faith that is the Scriptures tell us if we suffer with him we will also rise and reign with him.
As Rocky said, "you can get a hit hard in life.”
But as the first century Rocky said we can keep moving forward as we expect suffering, as we embrace it in the knowledge that God will transform us through the suffering, and as we keep our eyes on Jesus and follow the one who suffered for us.
Pray:
posted by Shigematsu at 4:29 PM
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