Message preached at Grangemouth evangelical church 25/08/2013
1 Peter 3:18-22
“The Glorious Ever After”
If I started my sermon this evening with the words. "Once Up a time" you might think to yourself this guy is about to tell us a fairy tale. And if that was true the fairy tale wouldn’t be complete until I had ended it "and they all lived happily ever after."
You are hopefully please to know that I am not going to tell a fairy tale this evening but I might like to suggest to us that often in life we all secretly wish that we were living in one.
Now I'm am not talking about wanting to be the knight in shining armour or the damsel in distress but we are all looking to get to the happily ever after stage. We realise that like in our fairy tales life is not straightforward, there will be trouble along the way but if we can just overcome those few obstacles we can walk off into the sunset on our very own happily ever after, our very own heaven on earth.
Maybe that happily ever after for the single is if I can just get married, for the unemployed if I can just get that job, For the parent if only my child walk or talk that quickly turns into if only they would stop walking/ stop talking. For the employed if I can just reach retirement. For the retired if I can just get my golf handicap to single figures.
I wonder what is your happily ever after? The point at which you say if only I could... Then I can have peace, then I can rest. Well the longer we live the more we realise that life is not a fairy tale and the happily ever after is just a mirage. Something in the distance that never gets any closer.
The truth about life that we learn in the Bible is of a different story. It doesn't start Once upon a time it starts In the beginning God. And it doesn’t finish happily ever after but instead glorious ever after. And it’s not our glory but the Lord’s. The story begins with God, and ends with his glory.
It is this great encouragement that Peter was simply and profoundly setting out in his letter to the elect exiles, the Christians, of Asia Minor. Those who persevere in faith while suffering hardship and persecution should be full of hope because of the glorious ever after to come when Jesus comes back or we go to meet him whichever is sooner.
If you are a Christian here this evening you are born again into a living hope. That living hope is the glorious ever after. 1 Peter 1:4-5
“an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. And you ... by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time”
Therefore says peter in v13. Prepare yourselves because in the meantime as we wait for the last time we are called to be holy v15 loving one another from a pure heart v22 Do good Peter tells us this is the will of God ch2 v15 but in doing good you will suffer and for this you have been called v21 do not retaliate but entrust yourself to God the Judge. Instead bless those who persecute you ch3 v8 always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. The living hope. This is the message of Peter’s letter so far.
And the verse just before our passage that sets the scene is this
v17 For it is better to suffer doing good, if that is God’s will, than for doing evil.
What a statement to make. We know that life is tough that this fairy tale ending that we are all looking forward to might require a little bit of struggle. You know fight our way past an evil dragon or two to get to the damsel but we do not expect to ride back into town and get thrown into prison and tortured for saving her?
But this is the inbetween that we are called to as Christians to suffer for doing good. And Peter tells us at the beginning of the letter ch1 v 6 to rejoice in it. Wow that is a big ask? Or is it?
It was God’s plan that Christ should suffer in this way. Jesus suffered he went through trials whilst he was here on this earth. He was the righteous one he did nothing wrong and yet by God’s will he suffered. He took on the unrighteousness of us all and was judged in the flesh for that unrighteousness judged to death. Bearing the wrath of God as the punishment of our sin. And what was the result of that? The result was that we the unrighteous might be brought to God.
Now that is what I call a glorious ever after. The process was tough but do you know what got Jesus through it? We read the answer in Hebrews 12:2
“For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Who was the Joy set before him. Do you know? It was you. Jesus was up in heaven in glory lacking nothing. But what he was sort was you. He came down to Earth and suffered. He suffered in his life for doing good and he suffered in death as he took on our sin. That wasn’t fair, that wasn’t just. But he did it for you he did it for me. He didn’t just say I love you he came and proved it.
It was God’s will that Jesus should suffer that the result of the suffering was that we could be reconciled to him.
God has a will for us too and his will includes suffering and we learn earlier in Peter what the results of that suffering is to be. Christ suffered for the joy set before him. That was us, you and me. We are also called to suffer for the joy set before us too. Peter tells us what that looks like.
1st we learn in ch1 v 7 that the we can endure the test of suffering for the joy that is proves our faith genuine. Secondly we learn in ch2 v12 and 15 that we can endure suffering for the joy of knowing that suffering well, will glorify God. And thirdly we learn in ch2 v15 we can endure suffering for the joy that through our suffering we silence the ignorance of foolish people, the ignorance of the world that says there is no God.
Now out of the suffering that Jesus went through on the cross the victory came when Jesus defeated death. Though he took upon himself as the righteous one, all our unrighteousness. Though he took upon himself the death judgement for our sin. Death could not hold him and he rose victorious. Made alive in the spirit and in that spirit he proclaimed his victory of triumph over the spirits in prison as we read in the passage v19.
But who are these spirits and why are they in prison? These we are told are those who disobeyed God and did not receive the gospel message preached during the time when Noah was building the Ark.
You see in that time the coming judgement was proclaimed by God to Noah and by Noah to the people but God did not enact it straight away, his patience meant that they were given time to repent. But they did not repent so now they are receiving a different message. A proclamation of victory and in that victory they are condemned.
This is the same message that we all will hear and have been given an allotted time by Jesus in which to respond just like those in Noah’s time. We all have a limited timespan in this life. God is patient whilst we are in our disobedience but one day, and that day could be soon or it could be in many years, he will require our life from us and if we have not repented as those in Noah’s day did not the only message left for us to hear is the proclamation of jesus’ victory over death and our judgement.
There were however those that heared the message and were saved. They were saved through faith we are told by Peter in what Jesus would do for them thousands of years into the future. They were brought safely through water. Which Peter tells us was a picture of the death burial and resurrection that now saves me and saves you. Which is the same picture that baptism gives us now. Baptism is the physical act that represents with the going under of the water and the coming back up again the death, burial and resurrection to new life that a believer goes through in salvation. Baptism represents our appeal to God for the forgiveness of our sins, for a good conscience is how Peter describes it.
We go down into death with Christ and we rise up to new life. The death cuts off the old life and the new life raises us up to live in the spirit the way God does. We read this in Chapter 4 v6.
And this is where we get our difficulties. If in death our old life is cut off, those around us are going to feel that and if in new life we live in the spirit the way God does, the way Jesus did in his earthly ministry people are not going to like it.
As a Christian when we make a stand for Jesus, as we give our life to him, we die to the old life of sin and we are infilled with the Spirit of God. That means that we get a new set of desires. When previously we would never have wanted to read the Bible suddenly we have a desire to learn about Jesus. When previously we only prayed in an emergency suddenly our prayers are relational as we communicate with our heavenly Father. When previously life would have been about seeking our own personal happiness now its about bringing glory to Jesus.
However this type of life is totally counter cultural, it is the reverse of everything that the world preaches. The Bible calls the worldly life living in the flesh where the flesh is everything that is opposite to the spirit. God is Spirit, the flesh is everything that God is not. In the life of the Spirit Jesus is Lord, in the life of the flesh we try to become the lords of our own life.
So we are called to do good by living in the Spirit the way God does. But as we all know the world, and the flesh are against God, they are in rebellion to God. The whole of mankind running around on this planet in not keen that there is a higher authority that will call them into account. They would rather be their own judge.
So the the flesh looks to put to death and kill the world of the spirit because the world of the spirit is standing in judgement. As we make a stand for Jesus as Christian the Holy Spirit present in our life will convict the world of its sin, and of God's righteousness, and of the coming judgment. John 16:8.
Sometimes we don’t even have to say anything but on the other hand often we are called to make a stand vocally. As we make such a stand there is a cost. It could be the cost of reputation, it could be a financial cost and most difficult of all it could be a relational cost.
I personally at the age of just 27 have felt the cost of standing for Jesus. The cost of loss of reputation, the financial cost but the most difficult to face is the relational cost. And the most difficult relational cost is family turning their back on you because of Jesus. To know deep down that the only hope that they have in this life, they are running away from. But not just running away but striking out against and the wounds of a loved one are hard to take.
Maybe your story is similar to mine. Maybe you have another story of cost, another story of trial. Maybe there are many things that weigh on your heart. These are trials that the Lord has brought into our path that our faith might be tested as genuine. These are trials that might silence the ignorance of the world of flesh. That in the end they might result in the praise and glory and honour of Jesus at his revelation in the last day.
We need to hold on to these truths because trials are hard, very hard! We need to hold on to the truth knowing that our Lord is trustworthy. In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
But if we are not continually holding on to these truths then the trials of life can weigh us down if we don’t release it and lay it at the foot of the cross. Maybe the Holy Spirit has been reminding you of a trial that has wounded you deeply. It may have been years ago but you know that every time you think about it again the wound is still fresh, it still hurts. Maybe there is someone that you have never been able to forgive, perhaps its God that you blame for the hurt and the pain.
Jesus invites us to lay these things down. To put to death the bitterness, that settled anger because these are the fruit of the flesh life and Jesus died to put to death the flesh life. We are no longer to live in the flesh life, we are called to live in the spirit life. In Jesus we have the power to overcome the flesh. It no longer needs to rule our lives. In the Spirit Jesus proclaims victory over the flesh. That same spirit lives in us through our baptism, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
This evening I would like us to remember that it is God’s will that we should suffer in this life because Peter says Ch2 v 21 Christ also suffered for you leaving you an example so that we might follow in his steps.
Jesus’ job is now complete, he has completed the will of the father. He came down from heaven as the righteous one, suffered for doing good. Suffered for the sin that he never even did in our place and now he has been raised up to his glorious ever after, his rightful place in heaven at the right hand of God. He has triumphed over the angels, the authorities and powers and all are now subject to him.
We for now though are still here facing trials and as we live in the spirit we can say the same as Jesus from the cross "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." and in so doing suffer well because in the end there is not a happy ever after but the living hope of a glorious ever after to the praise, glory and honour of Jesus.
So let us bring the fruit of the flesh life to Jesus and put it to death that we might live the fruit of the spirit.
Perhaps this evening you are like those in Noah’s day. You have heard the preaching of the gospel but you have not yet responded. Let me urge you that although the Lord is patient now his patience has a limit and in the end we are all called to account. If you have not given you life to Jesus do it tonight. Because there is no such things as a happily ever after, walk off into the sunset and you know that. The reality is there is a glorious ever after and that glory is not our own but that of Jesus. The judge of all who has authority of all things and will be coming back to judge the living and the dead.
