Stand Strong 1 - Live in Hope

I love the apostle Peter. I love the way he always knows exactly what not to say, and exactly when not to say it. I mean, come on, if there was anyone of whom the saying "he doesn't open his mouth except to change feet" were true, it's Peter. Many of you, like me, would have been amused at Stephen Hilaire's Black Stump renditions of "Jesus and his Merry Men" - with poor Peter the butt of every joke and the source of much frustration and headshaking on Jesus' part.

As we read on in the Bible, however, we start to get a glimpse of a very different Peter indeed. Here is a man confident to speak in front of huge crowds (Acts 2:14-41) and courts (Acts 4:1-22), to heal cripples (Acts 3:1-10), to pronounce judgement leading to death (Acts 5:1-10) and even to minister to his gaoler. What could possibly change a man who is afraid even to be associated with Jesus (Luke 22:54-62) into one who can rejoice at being flogged because he had been counted worth of suffering disgrace for the Name (Acts 5:41)?

• What do you think could cause such a change in you?

I believe that Peter reveals some of his secrets in his first letter (1 Peter). Throughout the course of this and the next couple of studies I reckon we should get a picture of exactly what motivated this change in Peter... and what can bring about the same kind of change in you!

Background to 1 Peter
The first thing to know about 1 Peter is who it is written to and why. Peter, probably writing from Rome, is writing at a time when Christians are just starting to enter a time of intense persecution. The emperor Nero had recently come to power, and tormenting, torturing and killing Christians was starting to become the in vogue thing to do. History tells us that people lost their jobs for being Christians, were shunned by their society, cast out of their houses, deprived of all their possessions. Many ended up running for their lives and hiding in tombs just to stay alive, whilst others were cast into the Circus Maximus to do battle to the death with gladiators or lions for the public amusement. Peter himself was crucified (upside down, because he did not consider himself worthy of suffering in the same way Jesus did) under Nero. Peter no doubt had some insight into all of this, and so he writes to those who are strangers in the world (1:1), for whom the world has no love but rather hatred and enmity.

• Imagine that you were facing such horrific prospects. Where would you look for strength? What would give you hope?
  
• On the flip side, what kind of things would you offer as encouragement to Christians today who are suffering persecution?

Living Hope
Read 1 Peter 1:1-5

• How could the words of Peter in the opening verses of his letter (1-5) bring comfort and hope to people who had been driven from their homes and exiled to foreign lands?
  
• God has offered a storehouse of treasures for all who follow Him. What are some of the treasures Peter highlights that can never be taken away? How have you experienced one of these treasures in your own life?

Our "inheritance is kept for us, and we are kept for it" (Edmund Clowney, The Message of 1 Peter, IVP 2006, p. 47). Not only will it not perish, spoil of fade, but we ourselves are shielded by God's power until we receive it.

Read 1 Peter 1:6-12

• Peter describes some of the fruit that is born in our lives through times of trial. What grows in the life of a follower of Christ through times of struggle, loss and trials? (vv. 6-9. See also Romans 5:3-5)
  
• Tell your group about a loss or time of struggle you have faced. How did you experience God's presence and work in your life through this time?

Footprints in the Sand

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.
Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,
other times there were one set of footprints.

This bothered me because I noticed
that during the low periods of my life,
when I was suffering from
anguish, sorrow or defeat,
I could see only one set of footprints.

So I said to the Lord,
“You promised me Lord,
that if I followed you,
you would walk with me always.
But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life
there have only been one set of footprints in the sand.
Why, when I needed you most, you have not been there for me?”

The Lord replied,
“The times when you have seen only one set of footprints in the sand,
is when I carried you.”

- Mary Stevenson, "Footprints in the Sand"

• Peter promises that hardships lead to "praise, glory and honour" to Jesus. Do you believe this? Have you seen it happen? How?

Read 1 Peter 1:13-21
Verse 13 signals a big shift in Peter's train of thought. The first 12 verses have been focused on the hope that God provides us, but now he is more interested in how we are to respond. He is calling us to have right attitudes and actions.

All of us have faith that may be mixed with improper attitudes or sinful motivations... In the crucible of life, God our Goldsmith skims off our impurities. Through trials, God burns away our self-reliance and self-serving attitude, so that our genuineness reflects his glory and brings praise to him.

- Life Application Bible Commentary: 1 & 2 Peter and Jude (Tyndale 1995) p. 32

• What are some of the attitudes and actions that Peter calls us to?
  
• How is God challenging and growing you in one of these areas? How can your group members encourage and pray for you in this area?

Christians look toward the return of Jesus, when pain will end and perfect justice begin. Faith will be rewarded and evil will be punished. But what should we do until then?

The Bible's answer is simple but not easy: Because we know the future, we must faithfully server God here and now. If today that means resolving a conflict, mending a hurt, working a dull job, confronting a belligerent child, rebuilding a marriage, or just waiting for guidance - do it all with the joy of God, who will return with his reward!

- ibid. p. 33

Some prayer suggestions

• Pray for group members who shared about a trial they are facing.
  
• Pray that God will show you how to respond to Peter's call to right attitudes and actions, particularly the specific areas that God is challenging you in at the moment.

[Parts of this study were adapted from 1 Peter: Stand Strong by Bill Hybels (Zondervan 1999)]

Spiritual Milk

Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly - mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.

-1 Corinthians 3:1-2

What is Paul talking about when he describes spiritual "milk"? Paul describes new believers as being "infants in Christ". Taking up this analogy, I am left wondering what Paul's recipe for spiritual "milk" might include - what kind of food do we, as Christians, have to offer those who are believers and yet are still worldly?

Augustine of Hippo (354-430), commenting in his Confessions on 1 Corinthians 12, argues that there is a distinction between a gift of wisdom ("like the greater light which [God] made") and a gift of knowledge ("like the lesser light"):

Yet [a gift of knowledge is] needed for such as those whom Paul, your far-sighted servant, had to approach as men with natural, not with spiritual thoughts (1 Cor 3:1), though there is a wisdom which he makes known among those who are fully grounded (1 Cor 2:6). Man with his natural gifts alone is like a mere infant in Christ's nursery. He must be fed on milk until he is strong enough to eat solid food, and until his sight is fortified to face the sun, if he is not to be left in a night of utter darkness, he must be content with the light of the moon and the stars.

- Augustine of Hippo, Confessions XIII.xviii.23

Augustine's argument is that some of the gifts are for use in appealing to those who are worldly - specifically the gift of knowledge. This parallel's Paul's own argument in 1 Corinthians 14 about gifts of tongues vs. gifts of prophecy:

Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is for believers, not for unbelievers

- 1 Corinthians 14:22

Returning to Augustine's premise, let us consider these gifts of knowledge and wisdom, and how they might apply to an unbeliever, an "infant" believer and a "mature" believer.

Some would argue that the spiritual gift of knowledge refers to a supernatural knowledge of things otherwise hidden. For example, when Jesus is talking to the Samaritan woman at the well (see John 4:1-26), he knows through the Spirit that she has had a number of husbands and is now living with a man not her husband. This then becomes the basis of her testimony about him - "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" (v. 29).

I believe that this is an overly narrow definition of the gift of knowledge, however. Knowledge need not be supernaturally obtained in order to be a witness to unbelievers. For example, Philip, whilst he is told by the Spirit to approach the Ethiopian eunuch (see Acts 8:26-40), appears to be left to his own devices in explaining the Scriptures. His gift to the Ethiopian was one of knowledge, one he was able to give because the Spirit first imbued him with that knowledge. Once again, this was a testament to Christ, yet probably doesn't of itself fall into the 'supernatural' category.

Certainly, I believe this is more in line with Augustine's interpretation - knowledge is the "lesser light" (moon/stars) compared to the "greater light" of wisdom.

So, from this we understand that the gift of knowledge is an important tool in the evangelist's chest. Consider Paul's earlier argument:

Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

-1 Corinthians 1:22

Clearly knowledge is important in the growth of young believers too. I believe that the essential journey of every Christian is from "knowing about God" to "knowing God". For this reason, I believe that Paul's spiritual milk is to be teaching about the heart of God, based on his own revelation of himself through his Word.

For in the garden are planted both the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life - for it is not the Tree of Knowledge that causes death; the deadly thing is disobedience. Scripture clearly says, In the beginning God planted in the midst of the garden the tree of knowledge and the tree of life; thereby showing that the way to life lies through knowledge. It is only because the first-created couple used it improperly that, through the wiles of the serpent, they were stripped of all they had. Without trustworthy knowledge there can be no life, and without life there can be no trustworthy knowledge; which is why the two trees were planted side by side. The Apostle saw the force of this when he told us, knowledge makes a windbag, but love is a builder; that was his rebuke to the knowledge which is exercised without regard to the life-giving precepts of the the truth. For a man who claims to know, but is without the knowledge which is real and attested by life, knows nothing; the serpent has tricked him, because his heart is not set on life. But he who possesses knowledge coupled with fear, and whose quest for life is earnest, may plant in hope and look for fruit.

-The Epistle to Diognetus xii

This is why it is fruitless to preach a "social gospel" to non-Christians or new believers, unless it is clearly presented as being God's nature to stamp out poverty, oppression and injustice. Good works (and less still, good words) will not win people for Christ unless it is clearly understood that they are simply an outworking of God's own character. Speaking out on abortion, fault-free divorce, same-sex marriages - all of these will be perceived as arbitrary meddling and interference, unless we are able to clearly show that God has both desire and authority to speak into those issues.

Of even less interest are arguments about doctrine and theology. Of what use is a sound understanding of trans-substantiation vs. con-substantiation to someone who doesn't understand that Jesus was broken for them? Who cares about whether baptism happens in one or two stages if they don't know that the Spirit is the gift of God to believers?

So consider carefully then the message that you present to non-Christians. Are your words and actions geared towards revealing Christ? Do your priorities reflect his? Are you teaching new Christians in a way that puts them in touch with the God of the Bible, rather than the God of your own imagination or of popular culture?

Let the heart of you, then, be knowledge, and let your life be true inward reception of the Word.

-The Epistle to Diognetus xii

(More on Wisdom, the "solid food", another time)

Ground rules for apologetics

thinkchristian.net just pointed me to these ground rules for apologetics. I am a big fan, and wish that more people took the time to consider the hows of Christian apologetics in addition to the whys and wherefores. I am sure that a lot of angst and needless friction would be saved, and we would be one step closer to witnessing with 'gentleness and respect' as the Bible commands.

Heaven

I suspect that our conception of Heaven as merely a state of mind is not unconnected with the fact that the specifically Christian virtue of Hope has in our time grown so languid. Where our fathers, peering into the future, saw gleams of gold, we see only the mist, white, featureless, cold and never moving.

- C. S. Lewis, Miracles (HarperCollins 2002) p. 265

Renovations

We live amid all the anomalies, inconveniences, hopes, and excitements of a house that is being rebuilt. Something is being pulled down and something is going up in its place.

- C. S Lewis, Miracles (HarperCollins 2002) p. 253

Half truth

Beware for fiends in triumph laugh
O'er him who learns the truth by half!
Beware; for God will not endure
For men to make their hope more pure
Than His good promise, or require
Another than the five-stringed lyre
Which He has vowed again o the hands
Devout of him who understands
To tune it justly here!

- C. Patmore, "The Victories of Love", quoted in C. S. Lewis' Miracles (HarperCollins, 2002) p. 233

Fishers of men

18As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." 20At once they left their nets and followed him.

21Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

"I will make you fishers of men." When I was in Sunday School as a child, we used to sing a song based on these words of Jesus, complete with actions:

I will make you fishers of men,
Fishers of men, fishers of men,
I will make you fishers of men,
If you follow Me.

If you follow Me,
If you follow Me,
I will make you fishers of men,
If you follow Me.

You can imagine the kind of actions: lean back and then 'cast', before 'reeling in' the 'fish' and repeating all over again. That's how fishing works - you keep tossing out the line and (if you're lucky) you catch some fish.

Whilst often done in small groups, the angler's craft is essentially a solitary one. You vs. the fish, your skill against their wiles, with the bait on the line (no pun). Perhaps you might ask a mate to share in the glory at the end by holding the net to finally land it. Nevertheless, it goes down as 'your' fish, particularly if it is a big one.

Yet this isn't an altogether accurate representation of the image Jesus was trying to convey. In referring to his apostles as fishers of men, he was not trying to tell them that he was going to equip them with rod and reel and send them out to bring in converts. You see, fishermen of the day used nets. Consider the following story:

1One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, 2he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch."

5Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets."

6When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

- Luke 5:1-7

Jesus' model for evangelism is one of teamwork. You may only be one of several people around the edge of the net, but unless you do your part there will be no 'catch'. You may never have a fish you can call 'yours', but if you fish where Jesus tells you to and in the way he tells you (i.e. in partnership with others) then you can expect to see your nets and boats so full that you will need to bring in help!

Off the rails

I found the following illustration of the nature of the human condition to be quite effective.

Can you imagine Thomas the tank-engine thinking to himself, “I don't need these silly rails, they restrict me too much and I cannot go wherever I please and I cannot do whatever I chose”?

So one fine morning – with a full head of steam, Thomas hits the bend - at speed - and deliberately derails himself in a field.

“Wee!! I'm free!!”, he says.

The earth is soft and warm, the sky is clear, and the sun is strong.

But as the weather changes, and the rains begin to fall, and Thomas' wheels begin to rust, and the weeds and vines begin to cover his once gleaming but now faded paint work, and the water in his tank turns pale green, Thomas regrets his decision.

And that is because trains function best when they are on the rails.

Thomas is going nowhere and what is more, he is falling apart in the process.

He is miserable, and he is very frustrated, and there is not one thing he can do to change his situation.

Sin is like that.

Sin, fuelled by self-interest and a contempt for God's decrees and commands – drives people at full speed off the rails (as it were).
Not only is human kind off-course, we are also held fast in that predicament.
There is nothing that we can do to right the situation.
Getting back on track is beyond us.

- Stuart Robinson, "Looking for Justice", preached to St Paul's Anglican, Chatswood, 29/1/06

Children of Promise

Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. But what does the Scripture say? "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son." Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

- Galatians 4:28-31

What does it mean to be children of promise except that we are eagerly looked for by our Father, who has waited not only the 9 months whilst we were in the womb but, indeed, since the beginning of time. We are the favoured children.

Having said that, Jesus is the firstborn of the "free woman", that is, the Kingdom of Heaven. Where we are favoured children he is the Favoured Child, the ultimate Child of Promise. The Bible says that we are "heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:17), but there is no doubt that he is the Heir.

Sadly, we who are born of a promise, and born by the power of the Spirit can expect to be persecuted by those born in the ordinary way - that is, those who are still living under the judgement of the law. On the other hand, Paul promises, we will like Isaac share in the inheritance with Jesus. Indeed, the two are not unrelated - "we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory" (Romans 8:17).

Election

C. S. Lewis writes on election:

The mention of that nation [Israel] turns our attention to one of those features in the Christian story which is repulsive to the modern mind. To be quite frank, we do not at all like the idea of a 'chosen people'. Democrats by birth and education, we should prefer to think that all nations and individuals start level in the search for God, or even that all religions are equally true. It must be admitted at once that Christianity makes no concessions to this point of view. It does not tell of a human search for God at all, but of something done by God for, to, and about, Man. And the way in which it is done is selective, undemocratic, to the highest degree. After the knowledge of God had been universally lost or obscured, one man from the whole earth (Abraham) is picked out. He is separated (miserably enough, we may suppose) from his natural surroundings, sent into a strange country, and made the ancestor of a nation who are to carry the knowledge of the true God. Within this nation there is further selection: some die in the desert, some remain behind in Babylon. There is further selection still. The process grows narrower and narrower, sharpens at last into one small bright point like the head of a spear. It is a Jewish girl at her prayers. All humanity (so far as concerns its redemption) has narrowed to that.

- C. S. Lewis, Miracles (Harper Collins, 2002) pp. 187-8