Pondering First Peter (4)

 

“To those who reside as aliens…according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.” (1 Peter 1:1 – 2; NASB).

 

What do you see about God in this passage? What do you see about God’s work in your life?

 

As we touched on previously, those who belong to Jesus Christ are aliens, we belong to the City of God, not the City of Man. It is because the world-system is opposed to the Kingdom of God that John warns us “not to love the world nor the things of the world” (1 John 2:15 – 17). Now we don’t much care to read this warning because most of us have been raised to be consumers, to desire things, pursue things, accumulate things. We have also been raised to value position and influence, to esteem what others think about us, to value the praise of mankind more than the praise of God. We are also taught to value the experiences that this world can give us more than the experience of knowing God, of loving and serving others, and of learning the depths of His love and grace.

 

As a practical matter we often go “undercover,” blending into our social environments so that we look and act and speak like everyone else, rather than aliens whose citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20). How many times have I seen an unashamed follower of Jesus Christ come into a workplace, sharing his or her faith as a natural part of life, and before long other people who have been in that workplace for years begin saying, “O, I’m a Christian too.” Well now, while better late than never, I want to ask, “Where have you been all this time?” I don’t ask this question harshly, I ask it to get us to think about why most of us live incognito, why we don’t live as citizens of heaven? There is something fundamentally amiss when so many of us do not live lives of witness at work, at school, and in our communities. It is not so much that there is something amiss with us as individuals, it is that there is something amiss with us as a people, as congregations.

 

Here are some observations:

 

Perhaps if we shared our faith with one another within our congregations, and with other followers of Christ outside our congregations, as our way of life, then it would be more likely that we would share our faith, in words and deeds, with those who don’t know Jesus yet; it is more likely that we would be who we are in Christ at work, in our communities, in school, at recreation…indeed in all facets of life. But the reality is that we have little opportunity to share with one another within our congregations. We meet for an hour or two for a “service” once a week, we may or may not attend a “class” on Sunday (which seldom has opportunity for personal contribution and is often driven by dumbed-down curricula, and which typically has no expectation that its participants actually engage the Bible as a way of life). We may even participate in a small group, or home group, during the week, but again, that is often driven artificially by poor curricula and offers little opportunity for organic relationship with one another.

 

How often do you share Biblical insights with other professing Christians? I am not asking you how often you talk about “church” with other Christians, though that may be a good question too, I am asking you how often you share with other believers insights you are gaining as you ponder the Scriptures and as Jesus Christ reveals Himself to you through His Word? How often do you talk about the Person of Jesus Christ with your brothers and sisters in Christ? How often do you pray with your brothers and sisters in Christ?

 

If this is not our Way of life, why isn’t it?

 

If we are not sharing Jesus Christ within the People of God, is it little wonder that we seldom share Jesus Christ outside the People of God? We don’t need yet another DVD series or a book about sharing Jesus, we need healthy congregations who are truly functioning as relational local bodies, bodies in which all of the members are participating and growing and loving and giving.

 

Another question I have for us is, “If a brother or sister within our congregation were to lose his or her job because of witnessing for Christ, whether by word or deed, would our congregation support and help that person, including economically?”

 

If the answer is “no,” then why are we wasting our time living in such hypocrisy? Why are we calling ourselves Christians if we are not prepared to lay down our lives, including our money, for one another? Certainly we can find something more profitable to do on Sundays, perhaps work in a food pantry, feed the hungry, assist in an animal shelter, or help with the environment.

 

I wonder how many times a Christian fails to witness at work, whether by word or deed or both, because he knows that if he loses his job, neither he nor his family will find support within his church “family”? Also, when I speak of “witness” I am including those times when we are confronted with the choice of telling the truth or not, of engaging in deceptive practices or not, of treating others fairly or not; I am not referring exclusively to verbally sharing the Gospel – let me assure you, the world and its workplace and its political and educational systems are corrupt to the point where we have ample opportunity to witness by our words and actions as those who are citizens of heaven – we don’t need to hand out literature, we are to be the literature that others read.

 

We can have confidence is sharing Jesus Christ with others because we are in a secure relationship with Him, a relationship that God initiated, that God is preserving, and that God is perfecting. We have been chosen by God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, our sins have been forgiven us through the blood of Jesus Christ, and by God’s grace we are being taught to obey our Lord Jesus.

 

Jesus Christ gave His all for us, ought not we to give our all for Him?

Pondering First Peter (3)

 

What do you see in 1 Peter 1:1 – 2:10? What is the story?

 

What do you see about God? The Trinity? The Father? The Son? The Holy Spirit?

 

What do you see about yourself and about the People of God?

 

What are the mysteries? The things that you don’t know, that…at least for now, and maybe forever…are hidden?

 

If 1 Peter 1:1 – 2:10 were a painting in a gallery, how would you describe it?

 

If this passage were a forest, how would you describe it as you walked around it, viewed it from a nearby hill, and as you flew over it in a helicopter?

 

I’m not asking you to describe individual trees, I’m asking you to describe the forest. If we can’t describe the forest, we’ll not see how individual trees contribute to the forest and we will run the danger of making individual trees define the forest…which is what we typically do with the Bible and the books within the Bible.

 

The thing is, when it comes to seeing the forest, is that it takes more than a quick glance to do so. In fact, it takes trip after trip after trip to “see” and soak in the forest – in one sense it takes a lifetime, for what is 1 Peter becomes 1 & 2 Peter, then it becomes the NT Letters, then the entire NT, then elements of what we call the Old Testament, then the entire Old Testament; our vision and understanding keeps expanding as we see Jesus Christ and His People – the glory and texture and wonder are renewed and heightened and our hearts beat more passionately for Him with each day, each step, each breath.

 

Can we see that this forest, this story, begins before the foundation of the world? God’s work in our lives is “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father” (1:2), and Jesus the Lamb “was foreknown before the foundation of the world” (1:20). Can we see that the story, the forest, extends into eternity? For we have “an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you” (1:4).

 

Do we see that our faith and salvation reach back into eternity past and into eternity future and that it has a dynamic present? We see God’s foreknowledge in 1:2; we see the future glory of our salvation in Jesus Christ in 1:7 and 13; and we see our present reception of salvation in 1:9.

 

Can we see the Trinity throughout our passage?

 

Can we see that it is God who works upon us, and that it is not us who work upon God? That is, it is God who brings about our total and complete salvation.

 

It is God’s foreknowledge (1:2). It is the sanctifying work of the Spirit (1:2). It is God the Father who causes us to be born again (1:3). It is the power of God that protects us (1:5). It is the blood of the Lamb that redeemed us (1:18 – 19). We have been born again by the Word of God (1:23).

 

If 1 Peter 1:1 – 2:10 were a tapestry, what would you see? How would you describe it? What threads and images and motifs would you see running through it? If we were to see a tapestry depicting this passage, would we say, “These images depict the story of 1 Peter 1:1 – 20”?

 

It is possible to memorize a verse or a passage of Scripture and not “see” it, not understand it. In fact, to memorize a passage of Scripture, to memorize many passages of Scripture, without seeing those passages in their respective contexts, can be a path to spiritual blindness and self-deception. The Pharisees knew the words of Scripture, but they did not know the Word contained in Scripture. Paul reminds us that though the prophets were read every Sabbath, that the rulers and people of Jerusalem recognized “neither Him [Jesus] nor the voices of the prophets” (Acts 13:27).

 

I am learning things all the time that I wish I had known earlier in my life in Christ – what about you? How is it that men and women, generally well – meaning and intelligent, can go to “church” all their lives and reach the final season of life and not know much more about the Bible and a relationship with Jesus Christ than they did when they were in their twenties? How is it that they will accept dumbed – down Bible studies and Sunday school curricula, and be typically unable to open the Bible with other brothers and sisters and read it, share it, and experience it in Jesus Christ – building one another up, edifying one another, in the Holy Trinity?  

 

Why don’t we have the courage to admit that something is wrong, something is terribly wrong? This is a collective failure.

 

The initial challenge in just about every small group or Sunday school class I’ve ever participated in is to “stay in the Biblical text, to work through the Biblical text, to allow the text to work through us, and to obediently respond to the text.” We have attention spans shorter than a two-year old’s, we want to give our opinions, we want to judge the Bible and force the Bible to submit to us. Jesus Christ is knocking at the door of our hearts in His Word and we have the music up so loud in our lives that we can’t hear Him.

 

Let me tell you what would likely happen with 1 Peter 1:1 – 2:10 in a small group. We would read the entire passage but few, if any, would pay much attention to what we read because they would be fixated on these words in 1:1 – 2, “…who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” (See also Ephesians 1:4 and Romans 8:28 – 30). In other words, most people in a group would see this unusual and mysterious tree in the forest and they would miss the beauty of the forest because of their fixation on this one tree. Instead of seeing this tree’s relationship with the other trees, most people would be fixated on how this tree got to be in the forest.

 

We would have endless discussions about predestination and election, and we’d rationalize this and that and fall back on preconceived notions and things we’d read or heard and we’d become like a room full of puppies chasing our own tails. We’d do this instead of being in awe and wonder of our God and His works and His amazing love for us; instead of rejoicing in His knowing us and choosing us and desiring us to be His sons and daughters in Jesus Christ, we would spout our speculations. I can write this confidently because I’ve seen groups get sidetracked over much less – otherwise intelligent people no longer seem to be able to focus on the text and to submit themselves to the Word of God. The reasons for this are myriad, and it is getting worse.

 

Let 1 Peter 1:1 – 2:10 soak into the pores of your skin, let it fill your heart and mind, ask the Lord Jesus how He is calling you to see and understand and obey this passage; ask Him to reveal Himself to you through this passage. This means reading the passage, and reading it again, and again, and again. It means pondering the passage, meditating on it, ruminating on it – breathing it in and out. It means knowing the furniture in the passage the way you know the furniture in your own home, knowing it so well that at night you don’t need to turn the light on to walk through the room…and after all, this is the way we are called to know the Bible, the Word of God.

Pondering First Peter (2)

 

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens…”

 

I am amazed at how little we consider the question, “Who were the writers of the New Testament letters writing to?” This is such a foundational question that if we don’t know the answer we will not know how to read these letters, and it is, in some measure, because we don’t ask the question and answer it correctly that we misread much of the New Testament. Well – meaning Christian leaders woefully lead their people astray by not submitting themselves to the clear Biblical answer to the question, “Who were the writers of the New Testament letters writing to?” This is a tragedy of the first order for it enslaves the People of God by shackling them with the identity of slavery to sin rather than affirming their true identity as the holy sons and daughters of the Living God in Jesus Christ. (Romans 6:8 – 11; 8:12 – 39).

 

Consider Peter’s affirmations in 1 Peter 1:1 – 9, ponder the assurances that the apostle gives to his readers. How many do you see? How many more do you see as you continue to read through 2:10? Why O why would we want to rob our brothers and sisters of their glorious inheritance and identity in Jesus Christ? Why would we want to rob ourselves of our collective identity as God’s holy priesthood, His Living Temple (see also Ephesians 2:19 – 22), His Holy Nation, God’s own possession?

 

Are we residing as aliens? In 2:11 Peter also writes, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers…” Is this our mindset? Are we on pilgrimage? Are we on a journey from here to There? Are we passing through this life and its surroundings to our eternal Destination in Jesus Christ?

 

In Hebrews 11:8 we read that Abraham “by faith” lived “as an alien,” and that our forefathers (11:13 – 14) “confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.”

 

Are we “making it clear” to those around us that we are “looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God”? (Hebrews 11:10). When people see us, when they come to know us, do they identify us as tourists who are passing through this life?

 

Now when I write “tourists” I mean it only in the sense of passing through, of this world not being our home; I do not mean it in the sense of leisure (though we do rest in God). For we are on mission to those around us with the love and grace of Jesus Christ; we are called to serve our generation with the Word of the Gospel and the works of God – not living for ourselves but for Christ and others.

 

The thing about tourists is that you can often recognize them, which is why I’m using the word right now as an illustration. Living in the Boston area, I often saw tourists – they had cameras and maps. Growing up in the Washington, D.C. area and frequenting its many galleries and museums, I saw tourists; they were often in groups, having cameras and maps. Tourists can have a distinctive look about them which locals easily identify. As God’s People, do we have a distinctive look? Do we have a distinctive speech?

 

Unlike average tourists, we are not here to observe and to be entertained, but to give to others, to leave people and places better than when we arrived. Unlike most tourists, we are not here to take things home with us, but to bring others with us to our heavenly home in Jesus Christ. We are not to be tourists laden down with baggage, but we are to travel light so that we may focus on eternal things, on people – giving ourselves away to others as we breathe the Divine atmosphere of our heavenly home in Christ.

 

As strangers and pilgrims we travel with a heavenly passport in Jesus Christ, knowing that our “citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20).

 

Why then do we live as if this world were our home? Why do we adopt the identities of this world? Why do we deceive ourselves into thinking that certain nations are the equivalent of the Kingdom of God? Why do we allow ourselves to be manipulated as slaves to the political, social, religious, and economic agendas of this present age?

 

Well…Peter is writing to aliens, to strangers and pilgrims…

 

Am I one of them?

 

Are you?

 

 

Pondering First Peter (1)

 

 

I’ve come to First Peter in my morning readings. I think First Peter Chapter One, along with Psalm 101, was the first passage of Scripture I ever wrote about; this would have been in the early 1970s. The patterns I saw in First Peter back then, have expanded and danced in my heart, mind, and soul – and taken me from the present into eternity past and eternity future, indeed, they have nurtured the wonder of living in Christ in the eternals so that present, future, and past are melded into our Lord Jesus Christ, into the glorious and holy Trinity.

 

When “in” First Peter Chapter One, I often see the vistas and hear the music of Ephesians Chapter One. It is as if two choirs from two different churches are in the same venue singing antiphonally – they complement each other, speaking to one another, and the whole is greater than the two parts. Much the same occurs when I move into 1 Peter 2:1 – 10, for here Ephesians 2:11 – 4:16 comes into play.

 

As I ponder 1 Peter Chapter One alongside Ephesians Chapter One, the similarities seem more than the stars of the heavens, with their dance and arrangements changing heavenly patterns in such ways as to manifest the light of Jesus Christ in myriad facets. The fulness of these Himalayas can never be captured, but in Christ (who is the Fulness), it can be glimpsed and experienced.

 

Two thoughts before I close, one from Ephesians and one from Peter.

 

In Ephesians 1:10 Paul writes of the “summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth, in Him.” The Gospel is about Jesus Christ. Life, my life and your life, is to be about Jesus Christ. The lives of our families and congregations are to be about Jesus Christ. Are we substituting other teachings and agendas and “things” for Jesus Christ? What are they? What is capturing our hearts other than Jesus Christ? What goals do we have other than Jesus Christ? What are we known for, other than Jesus Christ? What are we teaching our people to love and live for…that is not Jesus Christ? Are we living…heart, soul, mind, strength and bank account…for Jesus Christ?

 

Peter writes concerning the recipients of his letter, “…and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory…” (1 Peter 1:8).

 

Does this describe us? Does it describe our families and congregations? Is this what we are known for in our communities? Are we overflowing with joy for Jesus?

 

I am not talking about our music, I am not talking about upbeat church services – whether “contemporary” or “traditional” (whatever those words mean…which isn’t much) – I am talking about our hearts, our souls, our innermost beings – are we filled with joy and rejoicing in Jesus Christ? Is He our All in all? Is He our joy? Our source of life? Our love of loves?

 

Are we experiencing and expressing joy unspeakable and full of glory? Are we loving and rejoicing in Jesus Christ with all that we have and all that we are?

 

O my dear friends, the message of Ephesians and 1 Peter is the Message of eternal glory and joy in Jesus Christ, it is a joy and glory that cannot be contained. Have we left our first love (Rev. 2:4)? Have we ever known Jesus as our first love? Whatever the case may be, whether we are the son who is far away or the one who is near, our Father and Lord Jesus wait for us to share the fattened calf with them – to feast with them in this life and in that which is to come, with joy inexpressible and full of glory.

 

(And if you are a pastor or ministry servant – leader, may I gently ask, “Do the people you serve, and the people you live amongst, know and see that you love Jesus Christ? Do they see, in some measure, the joy and glory that you daily have in Him?)

 

Might not this be a good time to tell Jesus how much we love Him? Might this not be a good day to speak with others of our love for Jesus?

There are times when I want to dance down the street rejoicing in Jesus, telling others of His glorious love for them. Loving Jesus is truly joy unspeakable and full of glory.