“What are you Waiting For?” 1Pet.1:3-9 Dec.1/19 (Advent I)

HOPE’S TURN-AROUND
It’s the first Sunday in Advent, the 4 weeks leading up to Christmas. The word ‘advent’ comes from a Latin root meaning ‘arrival’ or “coming”. In this season Christians have traditionally looked forward not only to the annual celebration of Jesus’ birth – actually, we don’t really know exactly when Jesus was born, it likely wasn’t December 25th! – but we also look forward to His Second Coming. The first Sunday in Advent is associated with HOPE, anticipation, looking forward to something positive that has yet to arrive. So we’re not just looking back to an event in history, we’re also looking ahead to our Saviour’s return, taking us to be with Him forever.
    Hope – having something to look forward to – is SO important in life. When despair sets in, motivation to live grows dim. The school system in a large city had a program to help children keep up with their school work during stays in the city’s hospitals. One day a teacher who was assigned to the program received a routine call asking her to visit a particular child. She took the child’s name and room number and talked briefly with the child’s regular class teacher. “We’re studying nouns and adverbs in his class now,” the regular teacher said, “and I’d be grateful if you could help him understand them so he doesn’t fall too far behind.”
    The hospital program teacher went to see the boy in hospital that afternoon. No one had mentioned to her that the boy had been badly burned and was in great pain. Upset at how badly the boy looked, she stammered as she told him, “I’ve been sent by your school to help you with nouns and adverbs.” When she left she felt she hadn’t accomplished much.
    But the next day, a nurse asked her, “What did you do to that boy?” The teacher felt she must have done something wrong and began to apologize. “No, no,” said the nurse. “You don’t know what I mean.We’ve been worried about that little boy, but ever since yesterday, his whole attitude has changed.He’s fighting back, responding to treatment.It’s as though he’s decided to live.”
    Two weeks later the boy explained that he had completely given up hope until the teacher arrived. Everything changed when he came to a simple realization. He expressed it this way: “They wouldn’t send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?”
    He found a reason to live! Hope came alive.
    In today’s reading from 1Peter, we find the apostle encouraging those who were facing fiery persecution to keep hope and not lose sight of the good things that they already had and that were awaiting them. After all, we are all waiting for SOMETHING: are our hopes and dreams anchored in what they should be, or misplaced?
PURPOSES IN THIS WORLD’S PROBLEMS AND PERISHING
The month that’s just ended, November, can be a difficult one for some folks. Winter is setting in. Outside things look grey and tired, drab and dreary: nature is shutting down for its long winter’s sleep, temperatures are dropping, darkness is increasing as the days grow shorter and the sun spends less time above the horizon. Green vanishes from plant life as the vegetation seems to all be dying back.
    A prominent word in Peter’s letters is the word “perishing”... Unfortunately, our sin-struck creation being what it is, there’s a lot of disease and death and decay around us. The Bible doesn’t sugar-coat things, it acknowledges the world as it is, realistically. Journalist Malcolm Muggeridge observed, “The depravity of man is at once the most empirically verifiable reality but at the same time the most intellectually resisted fact.”
    Peter writes in v6, “...though now for a little while you may have had to suffer GRIEF in all kinds of TRIALS.” Grief intrudes its unwelcome presence interrupting our day to day struggle for survival. About a week ago I assisted with a short graveside service for my first cousin, a victim of cancer at 72. While returning to my vehicle, a few yards away I passed the graves of my father and mother and brother and wife. The brevity of life really struck me. Life involves loss. Perishing.
    V7 Peter refers to “gold that PERISHES though it is tested by fire” – even precious metals wear down and fade and get lost. At the end of chapter 1, Peter quotes the prophet Isaiah who contrasts our human temporariness with what’s really eternal: “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, ‘All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.’ And this is the word that was preached to you.”
    2Peter 3:10 predicts an apocalyptic end to the material ‘stuff’ that surrounds us: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.” When you think about it, atoms are mostly empty space with little bits of matter held together by invisible forces of attraction, so it wouldn’t be that hard for the universe’s Designer to suddenly release the laws that hold it all together.
    Are we ready for that to happen?
    The situation was even more problematic for the early Christians to whom Peter wrote his letter in the region of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). Much of the Empire’s capital, Rome, had burned; when suspicion grew that Emperor Nero had set it to make room for his lavish building programs, he spread the accusation that it was Christians who had set the fire instead. Persecution grew as Christians were targeted on account of their faith. They refused to worship the emperor as a god and thus were viewed as atheists and traitors. They refused to worship at pagan temples, so business associated with that dropped wherever Christianity took hold. They didn’t support the Roman ideals of self, power, and conquest; Romans scorned the Christian ideal of self-sacrificing service. And believers exposed and rejected the horribly immorality of pagan culture. (Life Application Bible) So, they became easy targets for persecution – scapegoats.
    Would WE ever stick out and become targets for persecution in our own culture – or do we blend in a little too well, accommodating to its ideals?
    Peter acknowledges the problems his fellow Christians are facing in their setting. 4:12-14 “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.” Painful trials - sufferings - insults: believers were getting harassed and even killed on account of their faith. In fact in his second letter, Peter is quite candid about the likelihood of his own being martyred in the very near future (tradition tells us he was crucified upside-down): 2Peter 1:14f “because I know that I will soon put it [the tent of this body] aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.”
    So much grief and perishing and persecution, so many problems: is there a point to all these difficulties? When life hurts, where can we turn to find purpose, some sense of meaning for it all?
    There’s a little clue in v7 if you look closely. It begins “so that” - which is a ‘purpose clause’, not to be overlooked. Let’s back up and start in at v6: “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.”
    Griefs and trials come, but they have a purpose, Peter insists: they ‘had to’ come SO THAT our faith (so precious, more valuable than gold) may be proved genuine AND so it will bring praise, glory and honour – both to ourselves, and to God to whom we belong. John MacArthur writes, “God’s purpose in allowing trouble is to test the reality of one’s faith.But the benefit of such a testing, or ‘fire’, is immediately for the Christian, not God.When a believer comes through a trial still trusting the Lord, he is assured that his faith is genuine.”
    You KNOW that you know – because you’ve come through it.
    So faith must be pretty important if that’s the reason such trials and griefs are allowed to befall us. Peter’s saying faith is more precious than gold. Faith, according to Hebrews 11:1, is “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see”; without faith it is ‘impossible to please God’, you can’t come to God without believing He exists and rewards those who earnestly seek Him (11:6). Faith perceives what’s unseen in the spiritual realm as real. 1Pet 1:8a “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him...”
    This is a striking fact for Peter because he and the other apostles were the ones who were physically present to Jesus and eyewitnesses of all He did, including His resurrection. 2Peter 1:16,18 “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” “We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.” So Peter is glad others can believe in Jesus even though they’d never had the privilege of seeing Him and being with Him tangibly as Peter had. That took faith – trust – believing.
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
What we prize and value, we commit to, we devote our energies toward, we’re passionate about. Where faith leads, feelings and force follow. Advent, this season of waiting and anticipation and hope, prompts us to re-evaluate and take stock of what we’re really waiting for, what we’re most keen on in life, what gives our life meaning and we’re striving for. Is Jesus really at the centre, the focal point for our life? Or has something more tantalizing displaced Him?
    Are we eagerly waiting for Black Friday sales, or Cyber Monday deals? Decluttering my house lately, I had to visit the electronics recycling depot several times – computer parts that were once so valuable are now ‘junk’.
    By contrast, Peter emphasizes that believing in Jesus brings rewards both NOW and THEN (later, when He returns). It’s not all just ‘pie in the sky by and by’ – faith brings benefits in our present life. In fact it’s hard to understand how people can find strength to go on coping with life’s many difficulties and griefs and disappointments WITHOUT trust in the Lord.
    Rewards NOW: new being, new joy, new protection.
    New BEING (or BIRTH): V3, “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...” Also we have seen v23, “You have been born again...through the living and enduring word of God.” Being ‘born again’ isn’t some quirky phrase invented by American sports stars or TV evangelists: it’s what Jesus described to Nicodemus, the work of the Holy Spirit re-inventing a person’s life when they repent of their sin and trust in Him. Jn 3:3,5 “...No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again / born of water and the Spirit.” It’s a miracle God works in your life! John 1:12f “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” If you trust in Jesus as your Saviour and commit to follow Him as Lord, you already have a brand new nature, you’re a new being, spiritually speaking – God’s precious daughter or son in a way you weren’t before.
    New joy. Peter’s letter deals more bluntly than most other Biblical writing with persecution and suffering, yet strangely there’s a big emphasis on JOY in the midst of it. V6 “In this (an inheritance kept, and being shielded until salvation comes) you GREATLY REJOICE...” Literally, are ‘exceedingly glad, exuberantly jubilant’. Was that shining from our faces as we greeted each other this morning? Or do we default to ‘sad sack’ mode? V8 believing in Jesus leads us to be “filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy”. Such joy attracts others who otherwise are faced with despair and cynicism in secular society.
    Here Peter echoes another apostle writing about the same time, James, Jesus’ brother. Jas 1:2-4 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” It’s the testing that produces the maturity and completeness – and that’s cause for joy.
    Recently we were watching a horse trainer put an animal through its paces. Part of the training involved dragging a noisy plastic barrel along a gravel road. Another part involved cracking a whip right beside the horse repeatedly so it would learn not to flinch or jump. Another test required the horse to ride straight through a tarp suspended and cut in strips so the horse couldn’t see and also had the irritation of material brushing its face. The more training that goes in, the more valuable the animal. Trials have a marked bearing on the finished product.
    New being (or birth) - new joy - new PROTECTION. Now, already, Peter says in v5 believers “through faith are SHIELDED by God’s power” until the coming salvation in the last time. NLT “God is protecting you by his power...” It’s a military term, literally ‘garrisoned’. There are griefs, but we are being guarded.
    Late Thursday we were coming back on the interstate from a quick trip to the States when cruiser lights started flashing behind us. You automatically think to yourself, “Oh no, what have I done wrong?” After we pulled over, the officer came up to our window and explained our trailer lights weren’t working. Uh-oh! But he went back and wiggled the connector, and on they came. I guess when I’d hooked up the trailer I hadn’t shoved it in quite right, or it had vibrated loose over the miles. (Probably in Ohio!) But he didn’t give us a ticket. Simply said, “Major violation of the motor vehicle traffic act...Have a nice day.” He was doing us the service of PROTECTING us (and others).
    So we are receiving some rewards for our faith NOW; there are others we are promised to receive later, THEN, when Jesus returns and judgment occurs – inheritance, salvation, commendation.
    INHERITANCE: v4 [He has given us new birth] “into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade— kept in heaven for you...” The Bible isn’t specific about the form this inheritance will take; Paul in 1Corinthians 3 talks about fire testing the quality of each person’s work on the day of judgment, then, 1Cor 3:14 “If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward.” The good and faithful servants in Jesus’ parable in Mt 25 are put in charge of many things (Mt 25:21,23). Simply being in God’s presence will likely seem as if it’s reward enough.
    THEN there will also be salvation in a more particular sense – being rescued from destruction and punishment in the fires of hell for rebelling against the Almighty Creator. 2Pet 3:12 “...the day of God...will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.” Daniel 12:2 “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.” (You really want to be in the first group!) Salvation from judgment and condemnation.
    THEN there will be commendation for believers. V7 “so that your faith...may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.” God will be honoured by our faithfulness, but we also will receive praise ourselves. 1cor 4:5 “Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.”
SO REAL YOU CAN SEE IT
So, what are you waiting for? What’s lubricating your gears, giving you motivation, keeping you going on the ‘down’ days? Jesus-followers not only rejoice NOW because of so much we’re already receiving – we anticipate eagerly with great hope what’s yet to be unveiled at our Master’s return. Can we picture it? Does the vision of what’s to come keep pulling us forward when it’s muddy in the trenches?
    In his book Winning Life's Toughest Battles, psychologist Julius Segal wrote about the 25,000 soldiers who were held by the Japanese in POW camps during World War II. “Forced to exist under inhumane conditions, many of them died.Others, however, survived and eventually returned home.There was no reason to believe there was a difference in the stamina of these two groups of soldiers.The survivors, however, were different in one major respect: they confidently expected to be released someday. As described by Robins Readers in Holding On to Hope, ‘They talked about the kinds of homes they would have, the jobs they would choose, and even described the kind of person they would marry.They drew pictures on the walls to illustrate their dreams.Some even found ways to study subjects related to the kind of career they wanted to pursue.’”
    Segal goes on to point out that researchers have found that a hopeful attitude can lead to physiological changes that improve the immune system, your body’s defence against toxins and disease. Hope heals!
    As we prepare now to receive the Lord’s Supper, we’re reminded by Paul that this action points ahead to a pivotal event upon which our hope hangs: our Lord’s return. 1Cor 11:26 “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” Until then, may God grant us grace to keep rejoicing in the privilege of participating in His sufferings. Let’s pray.