Good Monday morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
You and I live in a world which can be very difficult, challenging, disappointing and even painful, right? We all need to develop methods to protect our hearts and minds from deep discouragement or even despair. I wonder what works for you. We are surrounded by people who turn to drugs or alcohol or other addictive things to numb their pain, and we all see the ravaging effects which are destroying millions of lives, families and entire cities. No matter where you live in the world, no matter the type of government of your country, our world is increasingly a dysfunctional place to live, do you agree?
It was the same way in Peter’s day and that’s why we’ve been spending time with the apostle Peter as he writes his first letter which the Holy Spirit of God is dictating into his mind and heart. It’s intended to encourage people just like us, living in times amazingly similar to our times.
So today, again, Peter has something amazing to say: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice in as much as 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 Jesus Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.” (1 Peter 4:12,13) A ‘fiery ordeal’! Now that is quite a description of painful times in which to live, yet it’s true, isn’t it?
The intensity of the persecution Christians faced in the first century did in fact become a very real ‘fiery ordeal’ as not long after Peter wrote this, the Caesar Nero was rounding up Christians and sending them to fight hungry lions bare handed, just for sport! Or binding them to a pole and dousing them with some flammable substance like tar and lighting them on fire as living torches along the roadway. It was barbaric!
Yet down through the centuries we’ve seen it in almost every generation, haven’t we? It’s Hitler and Stalin and Idi Amin and Pol Pot and ISIS and Boko Haram and the Mexican drug cartels or the Taliban or now Mr. Putin! Where does such evil come from? Well, my friends it’s down deep inside all of us. It’s called our sin nature and we’re all born with it. In some people it takes on a passion for cruelty or horrific pain inflicted on other people.So, I have a question for all of us: When you consider the list of famous people or groups, I just gave you, do you see the same unbridled wickedness in them as is in the child pornographer or the sex trafficker or the gang taking children and turning them into violent terrorists? And is that the same evil as the person embezzling funds from their business or cheating on their taxes or cheating on their spouse? Yes, it’s all the same thing isn’t it my friends?
It’s our evil, wicked, sinful nature rising up inside of us and rather than countering that, with the demon defeating power of Jesus, we succumb to it and find ourselves on a downward spiral toward self-destruction! Do we see Peter is calling us to recognize that the person who is making life difficult for us, our persecutor, has the same sinful nature in them that we have in us? The difference is, it controls them, and darkness will always try to extinguish light; evil will always try to suffocate good; and wicked will always try to overcome holy.That’s what Jesus experienced when He spent those years among us on planet earth, and Peter calls us to recognize that it shouldn’t surprise us if WE are known to be followers of Jesus, then the very same animosity, anger, objection and rejection will come against us, no matter where you live in the world. Have you experienced that, my friends?
But rather than simply explaining the WHY of the persecution followers of Jesus face, Peter wants us to develop a response which is God honoring. Do you see it? “…rejoice in as much as 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 Jesus Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.” Really? Peter, probably writing from prison, urges us to rejoice in the pain of suffering. Do you see the little word “PARTICIPATE”? When you and I suffer because the sinful nature in someone else or some group or even some government is persecuting us primarily because we are Christians, then we are sharing in the age-old conflict of Satan’s kingdom and the kingdom of Jesus.
Noah faced it as people laughed at him while he and his sons built the ark that God instructed them to build in anticipation of rain like no one had ever seen! David faced the laughter and mockery when he picked up 5 stones for his sling and walked out to face giant Goliath. The disciples faced it when they refused to stop telling people about the resurrection of Jesus which had changed their lives. When I find myself in the confrontation of these two kingdoms: Satan’s kingdom of evil and the God honoring kingdom of Jesus, I take both courage and encouragement to know the REASON I’m feeling the heat is the darkness is trying to extinguish the light of God’s truth and God’s Presence in me! That gives me hope, courage, and strength.
Finally, do you see Peter says, “If you are insulted because of the name of Jesus Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.” Is Peter describing you and me my friends? Is the Holy Spirit of God alive and vibrant in us, empowering us and guiding us when we are caught in what I call the “kingdom clash’? Have you invited the Holy Spirit to empower you more?
May I urge you to remember the Holy Spirit and evil cannot share the same space, so if we want more of the power and influence of the Holy Spirit of God in our lives, then we need to invite the Holy Spirit to show us if there is anything, and I mean anything, that is giving the devil a foothold in our lives. And when the Spirit shows us what we probably knew all along was something in our lives that shouldn’t be there, let’s be careful not to argue or make excuses! Let’s get serious and root it out and invite the Holy Spirit to cleanse that dirty place in us and fill it with His Holy Presence and then empower us more fully to face the ‘kingdom clash’.
Friends, when we do that, now we are inviting the “Spirit of glory” that Peter mentioned. What is this “Spirit of glory”? I believe that’s what Jesus was praying about only hours before the cross when He prayed “Father, I have brought You glory on earth by completing the work You gave Me to do. Now Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world began.” (John 17:4) There it is my friends… the powerful, awesome glory of God that is visible and impacting here on earth when someone, filled with the Holy Spirit of God, does things which push back the dark kingdom and allow the glory of God to be seen and experienced here on earth!
Now ponder that my friends. That is what Jesus desires for you and me, as we ‘walk with Jesus’ every day in the ‘kingdom clash’ of our dysfunctional world. Oh my, that’s a powerful concept that should propel you and me out into this Monday with purpose and passion! And yes, I’ve found a song that will help us live it today. . .
Today’s Scripture is 1 Peter 4:12-14.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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