Hope That Can Endure Any Suffering (Afternoon)
Download MP3Let me go ahead and dive into the passage. First Peter chapter one will be reading verses three through nine. Stay in your worship, God. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Ford Galin:To an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice. Though now, for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials. So that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him.
Ford Galin:Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with the joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. This is the word of the Lord. Pray with me. Lord, as Peter cried out, you alone have the words of eternal life. So God, I come, Lord, broken and sinful with little or nothing to offer.
Ford Galin:God, but we trust that you and your words of eternal life will speak to us as you would breathe life into us now in a way that no person could, but could only come from you, our Lord and our God. God, whatever you have in store for this time, it's yours, not ours. So would you do with it what you will, for your glory and for our good? Speak for your servants who are listening. We pray this in the present name of Jesus.
Ford Galin:Amen. Last week, it was such an encouragement to hear from so many of you sharing some testimonies about the living hope that you have experienced in Jesus. And so we thought it went well this week, we would do the same thing with our suffering and try I'm completely kidding. Obviously, this is a little bit of a heavier one. But something I'm really grateful for that we had that time of testimony last week is that now we are able to look at verses three through nine altogether.
Ford Galin:It's tempting for us when we think about our lives to think of joy and grief as polar opposites. I mean, whether it's on a big scale or a small scale, someone just asks us how we're doing. We do a quick inventory of our life and think, okay, what's going on that's good in my life? Okay, let me put that on that side. What's going on that's hard?
Ford Galin:Let me put it on there. Which one do I feel more? I guess it's this one. Guess that's how I'm doing. Either I'm good or I'm bad.
Ford Galin:But that's actually not the way that Christ would have us look at our lives. For us as Christians, we don't net the good and the bad, the joy and the grief of our lives and one win out, one wins out over the other. But for the Christian, there's this unique experience where joy and grief actually coexist within our hearts at the very same time. That's why I'm really excited for us to look at this passage in its entirety. In fact, verses three through 12 in Greek are actually just one long sentence.
Ford Galin:So if you thought Paul was bad, Peter seems to be even worse. But it's really good for us to look at both the joy of these first few verses and the hardship of the fall at the back half together. Because we as Christians, as Paul says in second Corinthians six ten, are those who are sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. So And that's where we're going today. We're gonna work through this passage a little bit at a time.
Ford Galin:We'll spend more time on six through nine because that's what originally Joel told me I was preaching on until he changed it up. But also because I think that might be what we need to look at today. But we'll spend some time on three through five at the start and come back to it towards the end if we can. The cards on the table here is where we're going in one sentence. Because Jesus Christ is our living hope.
Ford Galin:In Christ, we can rejoice even in the midst of grief. And so that's where we're headed. As Joel covered in our series introduction a few weeks ago, just a quick refresh. Peter is writing this letter to Christians who have been reviled, who have been mistreated, who have been slandered, even tortured, persecuted, and are now scattered away from their homes. He's writing to Christians who in many ways have lost everything because of their decision to follow Jesus.
Ford Galin:And in this, he calls them elect exiles. Elect. So these are Christians who have been chosen and beloved by God, but at the same time are exiles. That they live and we live in a world that is not our home, so things do not feel right. And this is gonna be the tension of first Peter that we're both loved by God, yet subjected to the brokenness of a world that is not our home and will not feel like home.
Ford Galin:At the end of his letter, Peter is actually gonna make explicitly clear why he writes in first Peter five twelve. He says that the reason he writes this letter is to declare to them and to us the true grace of God, that they and we may stand firm in it. And throughout this letter, the three themes he will keep coming back to that you'll hear today and in the days ahead are the themes of holiness and hardship and hope. These seem to be the through lines that connect Peter from this idea that we're elect exiles and now we're called to stand firm in this true race of God. First, he keeps talking about hardships.
Ford Galin:The word suffer appears in the New Testament epistles, that's everything from Romans to Revelation, roughly 60 times throughout scripture. So it's about 20 letters, but actually a third of those instances of suffering coming up are gonna come in this first or this short letter of first Peter. It's everywhere throughout Peter's thoughts. And so he's gonna talk a lot about the hardships and sufferings we face as exiles. But he doesn't just stop there.
Ford Galin:He's gonna talk about holiness. What sort of people are we called to be amidst our suffering, amidst our exile, amidst these hardships? What does it mean for us as Christians to be in the world, yet not of the world? And alongside those though, he's finally gonna talk about hope. To what do we look in the midst of that hardship to sustain us in our holiness?
Ford Galin:German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, said, he who is a why to live can bear with almost any how. This hope of the Christian life, that's our why. It's gonna be what causes us to endure through the trials that we will face. And so it's not a coincidence that Peter is gonna start talking about his hope. We're gonna see this right at the jump in verses three through five.
Ford Galin:Now, I know there can be a temptation sometimes as we read the New Testament epistles, these intersections that sound really beautiful glorious and have these big words that make us go, that's really great, but I have no idea what to do with that. We can kinda get lost in some of the language and some of the fact that it's not always that tangible or practical. But I wanna ask and make sure that we don't do that today. Because if we lose sight of the hope of the gospel that Peter begins with, then nothing else he says is gonna make sense. The idea that we could be sorrowful yet still rejoicing does not work if we lose sight of the hope that we have.
Ford Galin:So I'm gonna read verses three through five one more time. And let us listen carefully for these are the comfortable and good news, or the good words of good news that God has given to us in his gospel. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith, for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Peter says that by the mercy of God, we have been born again through Jesus' resurrection.
Ford Galin:Meaning that for those who have put their faith and their trust in Jesus, in his perfect life, in his sacrificial death, and in his victorious resurrection, that our old dead ends and selves are gone, and we are born again as a new creation with a living hope. Now, when scripture talks about hope, it's normally a little bit different than how we use that word today. Today, I may say that, well, I hope I win the lottery or I hope that Auburn will be good at football this year. And based off my experience, that shows hope doesn't actually mean that much. It's just kind of a blind wish that maybe it'll get better and I'm years and years into finding out that it won't.
Ford Galin:Sorry. I'm getting distracted. But that's not how scripture speaks about hope. Hebrews eleven one and two says this, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, and by it, the people of old receive their commendation. Christian hope is not just this blind wish, this desire that maybe things will get better, but it is a conviction regardless of what I see around me, the promises of God unequivocally and impeachably unimpeachably will come to pass.
Ford Galin:Hope, it's concrete. It's firm. And Peter doesn't just say we have a hope. He says we have something better. We have a living hope, which means that we have an unshakable confidence in the things that God is doing in a way that's alive.
Ford Galin:It actually can affect and can move us. And so what is that living hope for us as Christians? It's the inheritance that we have been guaranteed in heaven. An inheritance coming to us which is imperishable, meaning that it will never be lost and cannot be taken from us. That's undefiled, meaning it will never be less than perfect, it will not be tarnished.
Ford Galin:And it's unfading, meaning it will never lose its glory or sweetness. It will not grow dim. And God, Peter says, is now doing two things. Verse four, God is keeping that inheritance from us for us. And verse five, God is keeping us for that inheritance.
Ford Galin:And so now you may be here where you can taste and see the goodness of that inheritance, but whether you can or not, know unequivocally for the Christian that God is holding that right now in heaven for you, and holding and preserving you until the day when we get to experience it in full when our faith shall be sight. And if you're here today and you are not a believer, if you're not yet convinced about Christianity, know that everything else you hear today or anytime you come to church hinges on this. That God offers us this salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone in whom we have a living hope. And if that's you, I ask where else would you find a hope like that? Where else in this world could you find something that cannot perish, will not fade, and cannot be taken from you?
Ford Galin:It is in Christ and in Christ alone that we can have this confidence. And if you are here today hungering and desiring something like that, well, know that the Lord will never say that tomorrow is the day of salvation, but that today is. And so if you are here today not convinced about Christianity, do not let this moment pass. Come to me after the service or talk to the person in the pew next to you and ask, what must I do to have this degree of hope, to have this inheritance, to have this salvation? But for those of us who have put our faith in Jesus, well, what do we do with this gospel?
Ford Galin:Verse six, he continues, in this you rejoice. And honestly, the Greek word, the thrust of it doesn't really seem to come through here in our English. It's it's the word hagileo, which is two words smushed together. One meaning very much and the other meaning jump. He's saying that in this, we we jump a lot.
Ford Galin:We jump for joy in this salvation. See, the gospel of Christianity, it's not like some intro course that we find out when we're a non believer and first coming to faith that we then master and move on to for other things, like deeper theology or practical things about how we live our life. No. As Christians, we never graduate from the gospel. And so if you're here today and you were to audit your life as a Christian and notice that that there's not that much joy in your life, it may be that there are some really legitimate things going on right now that are the cause of that.
Ford Galin:We're gonna talk about those in just a minute. But it also may be worth asking, do I take time to meditate and reflect on the fact that though I had no hope apart from God, Jesus died for me a sinner that I am. And in him, he has made a way when there is no way, and he has made me a people when I was no people, and he has secured an inheritance for me in heaven. Do we take time to come back to that truth and that promise again and again that our joy may be full? May we never grow tired of looking at the gospel.
Ford Galin:May we never think that we've graduated beyond it, but may we come to it time and time again. And that's especially important considering our life. Peter continues in verse six, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials. See, Peter doesn't then give us this idealistic picture of life that says, hey, you've been saved. Everything is good.
Ford Galin:Just rejoice and never stop singing your worship song because nothing can touch you now. Peter knew better than any of us that following Jesus so often does not make our life easier, and many times, it's actually just the opposite. Peter was there when he saw our savior suffering. He was there when Jesus told him that if we would come after him, it would mean denying ourself and taking up our cross and following him. Peter watched this suffering servant, the same one that we too have gotten to see.
Ford Galin:So if we're to follow him, it means that suffering is coming for us as well. Reality is for all of us, whether you're a Christian or not in here today, suffering is never far around the corner. For me, I've been in a pretty busy stretch of work. It feels like there's a high degree of heaviness and care going on at Redeemer right now. There was actually a day last week where I had a rare off day, and I was mowing the yard, I actually had this moment of thinking, like, things feel really good today.
Ford Galin:Like, I was out there, the weather was great, I hadn't yet stepped in dog poop, happens every time I cut the grass. Like, there weren't many crises going on, and I had this thought of, wait, things are things are good. It was about ninety seconds later that I had a friend call me and tell me that his mother had had a stroke and he was racing up to Nashville to try to see her before she passed. Like suffering, grief, and trials are never far from us. I don't think most of you need to be reminded of that.
Ford Galin:Truly imagine everyone in here either has recently come out of a trial, you're in one right now, or it's not far around the corner for you. And what does Peter say about these trials? Well, he says that we're grieved by them. And I know that's obvious, but we also need to acknowledge it and sit in that reality for a second. Peter doesn't just say, yes, you're gonna have trials and sufferings in this life, but but you know about that inheritance, so just, you know, just shrug it off, rub some dirt in, and it's all good.
Ford Galin:This isn't the same as James one where we read, consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds. Like, yes, we are called towards that. But Peter's really honest in saying, no, these trials, they grieve us. That word grief, it's it's the Greek word, which it doesn't just mean we're little sad, it means that we've been excessively distressed. It carries the idea of when there's a body of water and a storm comes, in the bottom, the mud and everything on the bottom of the water gets drudged up and you see this murky, dark, almost heavy water.
Ford Galin:That's what Peter's saying these trials do to us. They legitimately grieve and disturb us. And today is not the day to address suffering and grief from a theological or an apologetic perspective. There's there's time for those conversations. But I know for so many of us today that grief is it's not a theoretical thing, but it's the heavy reality in which we find ourselves.
Ford Galin:To be candid, this scripture, first Peter one six, was actually the scripture I spent far more time in than any other last year. 2025 was a particularly hard and dark year for my wife and I for a number of reasons, the biggest of which just that we have been walking through a period of infertility for the last couple of years. I actually remember a moment last fall in which there was a home group question that came out. I can't blame anyone. I wrote it, so it's my own fault.
Ford Galin:The question had asked, if God never gives me or provides blank, I'm most gonna struggle to believe that he is good. And I remember Megan and I locking eyes and immediately looking down because we didn't have to talk about what went in that blank. And if I'm really honest, we were pretty scared to consider that question because we weren't in a spot where we could say he was good if he never provides in this way. There's a lot more than we go into it, this last year and a half as we've been walking through this has been challenging in ways that we never expected, never anticipated. And now, we can look at some ways where the Lord has not only sustained us, but used us and stretched us and refined us in this trial.
Ford Galin:The work he's done, it's come through sorrow. It's come through a lot of seemingly unanswered prayers. It's come through grief. It's come through mourning. It's come through tears.
Ford Galin:It's come through exhaustion. Our our joy in the Lord is not gone, but we have been grieved in a very real and deep way that we didn't otherwise know that we had or we had not previously experienced. So I don't know what many of you guys are carrying in here tonight. But when Peter says that we've been grieved by various trials, it's clear that all of us will have these trials and these fires come upon us. And the trials in this room are gonna be wide ranging and multifaceted.
Ford Galin:They're various. And I've noticed that it's our temptation in the midst of our suffering in our trial to instantly try to look around us and compare. I know Megan and I have felt this kind of in both directions over this last year and a half. We've walked with plenty of others, some of you in this room, and known the things that you guys have gone through and and been tempted to try to minimize our suffering and think, well, hey, we're we're not that. We don't have a right to grieve.
Ford Galin:We've also felt the temptation the opposite way to think, okay, well, we have that thing you're complaining about. Honestly, I would give anything if that was my story right now. Like like, yes, that's that's hard, but but don't you know there's real suffering out there? Why are we the ones going through this? Why is this our story?
Ford Galin:But in Peter saying that these trials are various or multifaceted, it it means we don't have to compare our sufferings, but that we are united in the fact that all of us in some way will be grieved. And as a quick aside, Peter's gonna use this word various one more time in his letter, it'll be in chapter four, when he says not just that we have various trials, but there's also various forms of God's grace, multifaceted forms of God's grace that come to us. Which means that God gives each of us the grace we need for the trials that we go through. We don't have the same grace, but he gives us the grace we need for the life and the lot that he gives us. So whether you're here and suffering feels really acute today or whether it feels relatively light, whether your trials or external circumstances and things you're suffering through or whether the more internal, the struggles of the heart and wrestlings and doubts and intrusive thoughts, wherever you may be coming into life or coming in today, know that we will be grieved through these trials because we live as exiles far from the home that we were made for.
Ford Galin:The place where one day, every pain and every tear and every morning will be wiped away. But until then, we grieve. Though as Paul says in first Thessalonians four, we do not have to grieve as those who have no hope. And even in this verse, Peter gives us a few things to encourage us in amidst this grief and these trials. First, he says that, well, this happens for a little while.
Ford Galin:Now Peter is not saying that our suffering is actually short. He is saying that it is short relative to the eternity that is waiting to be revealed for us. Imagine that there's a rope going from me all the way to Downtown Birmingham, and that's our life, that's our existence. Now, James four says that our lives are like a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes. That means that in comparison, that rope, our existence and eternity, our life is just this little bit.
Ford Galin:Now, when we're in suffering and trials, they seem to consume us. We get in there, and it feels like they are all encompassing and never ending. But when we can truly look at things from the eternal perspective of the entirety of our existence, we realize it's just a tiny little bit that the hope is coming, that they're, relatively speaking for a little while. A few years ago, about five years ago, Megan and her sister got to go on a beach trip while we were dating. And it was at a point where Megan had made it clear that she knew she wanted to marry me.
Ford Galin:I was a fool and took a little bit longer to come around. I don't know why I was so foolish and blind at that point. But at that point, there had been a good bit of sadness and she was waiting and had been waiting. And what she did not know is that I was planning on proposing four days after she came back. But she was there talking to her sister, and her sister, Oscar worthy performance, great job, Katie, at my prodding, as Megan's venting about something that says, Megan, I don't know what to tell you.
Ford Galin:Like, I don't think he's even talked to dad yet. Like, I think it's gonna be a while. There is a side takeaway to this story that I'm a jerk and an idiot. That is not the purpose for today, but if you walk away thinking that, so be it. I realize this doesn't reflect great on me.
Ford Galin:But Megan, she cried after that. Again, not a great look on my part. Sorry. But imagine how different she would have felt about that pain had she known that what she was longing for was right around the corner. See, that's our lives.
Ford Galin:That when we can see things from this eternal perspective that, yes, we suffer for a little while, but the day is coming when God will restore and confirm and strengthen us, like Peter will say at the end of his letter, and that the hope will be realized. The good is coming. Second, Peter says not only is this suffering for a little while, but he says that these trials only happen if necessary. Now, what does that mean? It means that our suffering is not meaningless.
Ford Galin:God is using our trials. In other words, they are necessary for his purposes. Now, there's many ways that God uses our suffering and time fails me to get into most of them today, but just last week at our services, we heard people testify about some of the things they've gone through, some of these trials and how they've produced godly character in them, how they've revealed idols to them, how they've grown deeper hunger and thirst for God, or given opportunities to share the gospel. And for Megan and I, that one of the biggest things as we've walked through some trials in this last year and a half is that, well, God has been revealing to us areas where we have idols, areas where our faith is not strong. That question in home group, it hit me like a shot to the heart, but it's something I never would have realized I was gonna have a hard time answering if not for the trial that God had put us through.
Ford Galin:That I thought my faith was in a really strong point, and I was actually being confronted with this that I realized it wasn't nearly as strong as I thought it was. And a few months later, I remember a moment where Megan and I were talking, we were like, if God never gives this, we can say that he is good. Like, it's really gonna hurt, but we can say that. And I don't know that I ever would have gotten there if all God had done was provide the second I wanted it. Typically, it is in our trials rather than our triumphs where God reveals the things that our hearts most need to have work done on.
Ford Galin:And that takes us to verse seven. So the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes by fire, perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Let me be really clear clear why these trials and the suffering happened. First, the trials in our life and our suffering, they're not God sending punishment upon us. Like, it's so tempting to think, well well, maybe it's because I sinned in this way that this isn't happening, or maybe if I had done that right or repented earlier, he wouldn't put me through this.
Ford Galin:No. Jesus paid the full price for our sin on the cross, which means there's no punishment left for us. Our trials are suffering. They may be the way God is disciplining us, but they are not a punishment from God because we have sinned. Now Peter says that these trials, they test our faith.
Ford Galin:Or other translations, they prove, they refine our faith. Now in Peter's day, the primary currency was coins, and as you can imagine, the most valuable coins were the ones made of gold, which meant there was also a lot of fake gold that was going around. And so in the day when you got some sort of, you somehow acquired gold of some sort, you you had to test and see, well, is this legitimate? Some of you may know that the ways that you test gold is by holding it over a flame because gold melts at a much higher boiling point or a much higher temperature than other metals. So what you would do is you would hold this coin up to a flame and two things would happen.
Ford Galin:First, it would melt away the impurities and the imperfections, the dross of the gold. It would refine it and purify it. But second, it would show if the gold was legitimate or not. If it was fake, it would burn up, it would melt, but if it was legitimate, it would stay. And then what would happen?
Ford Galin:You would rejoice because you realized through this flame that you had something of great value in your hand. Peter is saying that that how God uses our trials. They're not punishment, but they are tests. They are trials. They are temptations.
Ford Galin:The same word can be rendered all these different ways based off the context. Peter is saying that it's in the fire affliction and trials that God sees of our faith as genuine or not. For when we hold fast to our faith in God amidst trials, it's not that God is testing us so that he can say, I got you. Your faith wasn't real. No.
Ford Galin:God is testing us so he can see our faith prove to be genuine, so he can rejoice over us. Our faith is precious to him, even more so than gold, and it is in the trials and in the affliction that God looks at us, and he sees our faith and he praises it. That's what Peter says is happening. When we read that our faith amidst the fire results in praise and glory and honor, that's not actually saying that we are praising Jesus. Like, yes, obviously that's happening.
Ford Galin:That's what faith is. No. It is saying that God is praising and honoring and glorifying our faith, that our faith is found to be praiseworthy through fire and through affliction. Do you see how beautiful that is? That the God of the universe who made everything, who put breath in our lungs, the Alpha and Omega, the great I am to whom the mountains bow down to, looks at us when we hold fast to our faith in the midst of the fires of affliction and a trial, and he praises us and says, well done, my good and faithful servant.
Ford Galin:Hebrews 11, which I read earlier, said, by faith, the heroes of old received their commendation from God, that he commends us when we hold fast faith. He doesn't test us to try to root us out. He tests us hoping and praying that we would be found genuine justice with Peter. When he said, Peter, Satan demanded to have you, that he could sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. Jesus sends these trials, but yes, then he prays for us, then he rejoices when our faith proves genuine, also using these flames to refine and to stretch and to grow us.
Ford Galin:Some of you may be familiar with the book, The Screwtape Letters. It's a book that C. S. Lewis wrote, is, he writes from the perspective of a demon trying to corrupt a man away from god. It's an incredibly helpful and thought provoking book.
Ford Galin:Premise makes it really hard to quote, so this may flop, but bear with me. C. S. Lewis writes, our cause, that's the devil's cause, the cause of the enemy, our cause is never more in danger than when a human being, no longer desiring, but still intending to do our enemy, that's God's will, looks around upon a universe in which every trace of God seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, yet still chooses to obey. CS Lewis is saying that the devil is never more defeated and God is never more glorified than when we look at our lives.
Ford Galin:And it seems like God has utterly forsaken us, and we can make no sense of the things he is doing and have no desire in ourselves to obey or follow him, yet still we choose to. That is when God is most glorified in our lives. And then God turns around and praises us because that faith is precious to him like gold. This week, Joel and I were talking about the scripture and he made the point that that there's only two things that we're not gonna get to do in heaven. One, we won't be able to evangelize because we won't still be around nonbelievers.
Ford Galin:But two, we'll never again have the opportunity to praise God through tears. I've thought about that a lot this week, and first, I've realized Joel's wrong. There's a lot more things we won't get to do in heaven. We're not going to get to repent because we won't be able to sin anymore. Those of you who are doctors, you won't be able to heal anyone anymore because there will be no more sickness.
Ford Galin:We're never going to have to, I mean, get to do another capital campaign in heaven. But Joel's point remains that that we have an opportunity in this life to wholeheartedly worship God even through a broken heart. That in eternity, we will not get the same chance to glorify God by worshiping him through tears. So this invitation is there for you, that now we have this unique opportunity to grieve and to rejoice at the same time. And Peter himself was an example of this, but so too were his original recipients of this letter.
Ford Galin:He talks about in verses eight and nine. He says, though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice for the joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. These elect exiles of the diaspora, they were scattered, they were slandered, they were persecuted, they were tortured. Many of them killed.
Ford Galin:And what happened, many went to their graves praising God and worshiping him as they did. That's how Peter's readers responded to so many of them. I hesitated on whether to include this illustration because of what I said about comparison earlier, and what I'm about to share is about a pretty extreme version of trials. But this week, I went back and read a story of one of the early church martyrs, a guy named the bishop or a guy named Polycarp. He was the bishop of Smyrna.
Ford Galin:This was about seventy years after first Peter was written, but the Roman Empire, seeing the ministry it was having, they they decided to come and arrest him. And so Polycarp, he flees out of the city, but they find him. They get wind of where he's coming and or where he is, and so they're coming to arrest him again. And he's thinking he's about to flee, but then he realizes that God is making it clear to him that this is his fate, that he is supposed to be arrested for his faith and tried for it. And so he surrenders, they arrest him, and they take him to this coliseum like atmosphere where he's on this trial.
Ford Galin:And the governor comes and says, Polycarp, if only you will just turn away from your faith, if only you will cast your allegiance to Caesar and swear off God, then we will let you go free. But Polycarp responds and he says, eighty and six years I have served him, and he never did me any injury. How then can I blaspheme my king and my savior? But the governor keeps pleading him and says, no, you don't realize we are going to kill you. Even now, they are kindling a fire at which you will be burned.
Ford Galin:And Polycarp responds and says, you threatened me with fire which burns for an hour and after a little is extinguished, but are ignorant of eternity. Why do you tarry? Bring forth what you will. So then he's taken to the stake where he is about to be burned alive for his faith, still refusing to recant. And they're about to nail him to this fearful he's going to run away when the flame gets too hot, but he says, no, don't worry about it.
Ford Galin:Leave me as I am. For he that gives me strength to endure the fire will also enable me without your securing me by nails to remain without moving in this pile. So they kindle this fire, and as he is literally being burned alive, he starts praying and praising God in his final breaths, saying, wherefore God, also I praise you for all things. I bless you. I glorify you along with the everlasting and heavenly Jesus Christ, your beloved son, with whom to you and the Holy Ghost be glory both now and to all coming ages.
Ford Galin:To you be glory now is I'm being burned alive because I chose to follow you. Now, in all likelihood, no one in this room is gonna be faced with that decision of will we face the fires of a persecuted death as we hold on to our faith. But each and every one of us in our faith will be daily tested by the fires and trials that God would send us and left with the choice of will we hold fast to our faith in him? Will we defiantly cling to our living hope and our joy even as we grieve? Or will we lose that faith?
Ford Galin:And as Peter writes these words in verse eight that that what is enabling to do this, enabling these early Christians to do this, to rejoice even in these trials, he writes, though you've not seen him, you love him. That's a pretty important phrase for Peter because for Peter, surely he's thinking back to John 21 at his lowest moment when he denied Jesus and he saw Jesus crucified. And Peter lost hope. He went back fishing. But then the resurrected Lord came to him and he sought him out.
Ford Galin:And he asked Peter a question as he's getting ready to reinstate Peter and tell him what's gonna come, which for Peter is gonna mean a lot of suffering. He says, Peter, do you love me? Do you love me more than these? And I've thought this week, why was that the question that Jesus asked Peter in this moment as he is preparing Peter to move forward as Jesus is about to be ascended and be seen no longer and Peter is gonna have this life of faithfulness, but also suffering? It's because Jesus realizes that if we love him supremely, if he is the biggest treasure of our hearts and if we trust him in that love, then it does not matter what happens to us in this life.
Ford Galin:Our greatest joy cannot be taken from us because Christ himself will never be taken from us, because we have a living hope, because our savior himself could not be held by death, but is alive now. Peter is saying, though you have not seen him, you love him. Because these early Christians were able to endure the hardships and the sufferings and the afflictions and the flames, because what they valued even more than their own lives was their savior. And it's not that they love Christianity or a set of doctrines. It's not that they loved some heaven that was coming for them.
Ford Galin:It's not that they did some sort of Pascal's wager where they waited out and said, well, what's too risky to not believe in God because what if hell is real? No. It's that they loved Jesus supremely above all else. That's the same question that's left for us today in our suffering and our trials. Do we love Jesus more than anything in this world?
Ford Galin:Because if we do even the worst of trials and afflictions and flames and sufferings, At worse, we lose our life, but then we just get to go be with that savior whom we love. A couple months ago, you may remember Joel preaching a one off sermon on Joshua 13 in which he talked about the allotment giving to the tribe of Levi when they were told that they were given one thing as inheritance, that the Lord God of Israel would be their inheritance. And it's actually the same for us today. That inheritance we started with that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, it's not a crown. It's not fluffy clouds and freedom from pain.
Ford Galin:It is that in heaven, we will be perfectly united with that savior, the one who is worthy of the deepest love of our hearts. The reason that inheritance is imperishable, because Christ himself did not perish even amidst death, but was raised to life, which means that now we have a hope in that inheritance of being with him that is alive because our savior is waiting for us and keeping us till that day he calls us home. But that doesn't mean he's absent from us now. He also tells us in Isaiah 43, fear not for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name, you are mine.
Ford Galin:When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned and the flames shall not consume you for I am the Lord your God. Hear this church that we will walk through the fires of affliction and trials in our life. But the flames cannot consume us because they did not consume him and because this Jesus whom we love has promised to be with us in those trials and afflictions. He has not left us to face them alone.
Ford Galin:So yes, these fires will crieve us in a very real way, but all they can do is refine and purify us, that our faith may remain in praising God as he turns around and praises that faith. And he sustains us in us as the one who took that fire on our behalf, which actually leads us to this table. You see, our hope, it causes us to look forward to the day when we will be fully reunited with Jesus, but it also causes us to look back to the day when Jesus wasn't just in a in the fire with us, but actually took the fire on our behalf, the suffering that we deserved. Peter will go on to say that we are called to suffer because Christ suffered for us. First Peter three eighteen, Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, which brings us to this table.
Ford Galin:That Jesus, on the night of greatest suffering, the greatest suffering that the world had ever seen, that he endured on our behalf, he first he took bread. And after he'd given thanks, he broke it. And he said, this is my body, which is given for you. And in the same way, he took the cup and he said, this cup is my blood in the new covenant which is poured out for you and for many and for the forgiveness of sins. The apostle Paul sometime later said, as often as we eat the bread and drink the cup, we proclaim the lord's death until he comes.
Ford Galin:And church, he is coming again because that inheritance is secure and imperishable and undefiled and unfading. So we come to this meal remembering what he suffered on our behalf that it may strengthen us to suffer now until the day when suffering be no more. This is how we're gonna take communion today. This table is for all baptized believers, those who've put their faith and their trust in Jesus. In a minute, I'll invite our servers and the band up and then pray.
Ford Galin:And then we will start with the balcony. You guys will come first, and then we'll work our way forward in the overflow rooms and moving ahead. And you'll come up, you'll rip off a piece of the bread, and here, this is the bread, this is the body of the Lord which is given for you. Then you'll dip it in the cup, and you'll hear, this is the Lord's blood which is shed for you. And then as you take that, you're welcome to hang out up here and pray if you'd like, or when you're ready, your eternal in the outer aisles as we worship.
Ford Galin:But let me pray. Lord, God, we come to you both in grief and in joy. Honestly, Lord, not really sure how those things exist at the same time. God, I come to you personally in grief, but also with a lot of grief for a lot of really dear brothers and sisters in this room. And God, we do not understand why the things you are putting us through are necessary.
Ford Galin:But God, though, don't see you, we love you, we trust you. Lord, you are our heart's greatest treasure because you treasured us enough to die for us. And it's in you and in you alone that we have this hope that is unshakable and cannot be taken from us. God, remind us of that and sustain our faith when we cannot sustain it ourselves. Lord, come and have mercy.
Ford Galin:We pray you would deliver us, but whether you choose to do that in this life or the next, Lord, foster our faith and our hope and our joy and meet us in our grief for our good and for your glory. We pray that in the present and the redemptive name of Jesus. Amen.
