Theology of the Cross
Download MP3My name is Caleb Chancey and it has been a joy to serve as an elder here at Redeemer for the last seven years. Today we're gonna be continuing our study through the letter of first Peter and we'll be in chapter four. First Peter chapter four and you can find it if you're in your worship guide as well if you didn't have the bible. We'll begin in verse 12. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you.
Caleb Chancey:But rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings. That you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. Let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed.
Caleb Chancey:Let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. This is the word of the Lord.
Caleb Chancey:Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your love for us and we thank you for the time we get to be together as sisters and brothers. We ask that during this time as we meditate on your word that you would do the thing that only you have the power to do. Change our hearts. Lord be with the one who preaches for his sins are many.
Caleb Chancey:In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Almost twenty years ago, Enterprise, Alabama and spent three days interviewing and documenting my grandfather Bill Snead. During those days, Papa and I talked a lot. We also watched like a lot of Fox News.
Caleb Chancey:It's just I don't think he had any other channel. I documented his life, I even documented his morning routine which included going to coffee. And if you're not familiar with the old man tradition of going to coffee, pick any southern town, go to the McDonald's at 6AM and you will find between five and twenty five old men sitting silently drinking coffee. I don't even know if they know each other, they just symbol like the geriatric avengers. Papa told me a lot of stories during those days.
Caleb Chancey:He told me about how he and Nana had met and fell in love. My grandmother Nana was called Billy, so they were Bill and Billy. How cute is that? How cute is that? What are they doing?
Caleb Chancey:Solving crimes? I'd watch that show. The most moving story Papa told me though was the moment that he came to faith. When Papa was 12 years old, his little 10 year old sister died. This story hits a little harder now that Laura and I have raised a few 10 and 12 year olds.
Caleb Chancey:Just imagining Papa at 12 years old sitting in his suit in front of a casket that is far too small, not understanding what's happening and not knowing what to do with everything inside him. Papa's dad, my great grandfather gave the eulogy at his little girl's funeral. Papa said the eulogy was simple like most powerful things are. His father stood up, opened his King James bible, turned to the first chapter of Job and read, the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Caleb Chancey:Papa said that that truth in the middle of his suffering converted him on the spot. Peter has been writing a letter primarily about suffering. Peter is speaking to a church church that is suffering and even though it's 2026 and not AD sixty two and we are not in Asia Minor, but are in Birmingham, Alabama, by God's faithfulness, these words are still speaking to a church that suffers. I believe Peter wrote this letter because he knew that when we feel like our lives are being consumed and defined by suffering, we begin to believe lies. We believe that God must be mad at us.
Caleb Chancey:We believe our suffering is a thing that is keeping us from community and keeping us from God. We believe that we need to suffer alone. It's my burden to bear. We believe there can't be a point and there surely can't be any end to this. I believe Peter wrote this letter to pass on the words of his rabbi.
Caleb Chancey:In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart I have overcome the world. Suffering is the major theme in this letter. If you've been following along in our study, these verses that we've read might feel repetitive to you. Much like the creatures in Revelation shouting, holy, holy, holy or Jesus in the gospel saying, truly truly. The repetition is not Peter just trying to reach a minimum word count for his college essay.
Caleb Chancey:That bears repeating because it is worth repeating. And if you find your heart growing numb to this message of how we should suffer from hearing it again and again and the promises of God, take heart. An area is often numbed right before surgery. Let's look together at verse 12. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you.
Caleb Chancey:Peter is about to drop a very heavy truth, but before he does he wants to make sure the church remembers something like the voice of Mufasa in the clouds. He wants us to remember who we are. The church is the beloved. We are the beloved. Whatever follows in the letter comes out of that name.
Caleb Chancey:A name that we did not make for ourselves, a name that we did not persuade God to call us, a name that while we were still sinners, God set on us, a name we did not earn, a name we cannot lose. Amen? Beloved, do not be surprised to the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. Peter has mentioned the fiery trial before. At the beginning of his letter, he said these trials test the genuineness of our faith.
Caleb Chancey:And we hear the word test, we can imagine God as some sort of harsh teacher, pencils all in a row, leaning on his desk as he waits for us to finish our exam so he can fill our paper with red marks. In our culture, it's almost wholly lost on us the image of a blacksmith dedicated to his craft pouring over his metalwork, moving the piece of metal from fire to anvil, fire to anvil, working out impurities and testing the metal to make it stronger. I recommend a visit to Sloth's Furnace to refresh your imagination or maybe an Adam Savage video on YouTube. Peter says the fiery trial or in later verses what is called suffering. He says it shouldn't take us by surprise and in some ways we should anticipate it.
Caleb Chancey:And this is not Peter saying that we should be a Debbie Downer or constantly looking for things to go wrong for us. Rather we are meant to be honest about life and what it really looks like to live under a curse of sin. Last week Jeff highlighted the importance of remembering what time it is. We are living in the time of the flesh and denying that or forgetting it is both dishonest and unhelpful. In his book, Faith, Hope and Carnage, the artist professing believer Nick Cave says, suffering is a defining element.
Caleb Chancey:The defining element of the human story. He says this is a man who has suffered the death of two sons in the last fifteen years. As human beings, we are under the curse of sin, but we like to forget that. We would prefer not to think about it and that forgetfulness can feel like a temporary support, but it can't really hold the weight of our lives. Peter is urging the church to not forget that we live in a broken world and our hope does not rest on our ability to distract ourselves from this fact, but our hope rests on God's ability to remember his promise.
Caleb Chancey:I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. Peter continues, beloved, do not be surprised of the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you, sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. The comedian Ryan Hamilton recently released his comedy special, This Just Hit Me, which is an hour of material based solely off of him being hit by a bus.
Caleb Chancey:It's very funny. He says at the beginning, you can laugh, it's funny. His friends, Ryan's friends, when he was early in his recovery were quick to point out to him that, hey, you should look on the bright side, this is gonna give you a lot of material to work with on stage, and Ryan responded, as the one who got hit by the bus, not worth it. Just like Peter was not calling the church to be Debbie Downers, when Peter calls us to rejoice in verse 13, he is not saying that we need to put on a happy face or always look on the bright side of life. We know this temptation all too well.
Caleb Chancey:When we get into times of discomfort or suffering, we are quick to re narrate them in ourselves and to others, trying with all of our might to turn the situation to a positive one. You know, if I think about it, that job really didn't fit me, so I'm glad I got fired. And or she broke up with me, but really we were just growing apart and we went our separate ways. We don't wanna sit in our pain. We wanna find a way out as quickly as possible.
Caleb Chancey:In 1518, a 34 year old Augustinian friar named Martin Luther laid out the difference between what he called living a life with a theology of glory and living a life with a theology of the Cross. To quote our friends over at Mockingbird summarizing Luther, theologies of glory are approaches to Christianity and to life that try in various ways to minimize difficult and painful things or else defeat and move past them rather than looking them square in the face. In particular, theologies of glory acknowledge the cross but view it primarily as a means to an end. An unpleasant but necessary step on the way to good things in the future. As Luther puts it, someone who lives with a theology of glory only does not know God hidden in suffering.
Caleb Chancey:Both Luther and Peter are pointing to the cross suffering and dying God and see that we share in his suffering. Peter is saying that if we really look at the cross, we will see a God that is suffering and that is there is a God who is in suffering not just at the end of suffering. If you are here and you're exploring belief and you're wondering what does Christianity have to offer that other religions don't offer? Offer? Peter gives us the answer here.
Caleb Chancey:Christianity If you're looking for inner peace, many religions will say that they offer that. If you're looking for a moral code or the five principles to crush it in life, You can find that on any airport bookshelf. Almost every religion will tell you to serve the poor and do unto others. What does Christianity uniquely offer? The cross.
Caleb Chancey:He is the king of glory. He is the king of kings. He is also the God that suffers. The God that is crushed. The God that dies.
Caleb Chancey:The God that is raised. If we profess belief in a God that is only a God of glory and not a God of the cross, then that is not the God of the Bible. That is not Jesus. And have you met this Jesus because this Jesus, the real Jesus is the one that Peter is introducing us to. And if a God on a cross feels like a foolish thing to offer a world, it's because it is.
Caleb Chancey:But only in the suffering of the cross is hidden the full power of God and the full wisdom of God. As Paul says, for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. Without the cross, we would keep thinking that our lives should be defined only by good times and glory. Without the cross, we would think that times of success are when God really loves us, and times of failure is when God is really displeased with us.
Caleb Chancey:Without the cross, we are surprised when suffering comes. But without the cross, there is no resurrection. The priest RJ Heyman says this, if the cross, the most powerful thing that has ever happened in the history, the most awful thing that has ever happened in the history of the world is also the site of God's most powerful redeeming work that has something important to say about human life. Namely, that God works most often and most powerfully through suffering. Do we believe this theology of the cross or do we only live in a theology of glory?
Caleb Chancey:Back to our text. If you're insulted for the name of Christ, you're blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. We know that we are beloved, but now Peter gives us another name as well, Christian.
Caleb Chancey:Christian was only used a few times in the New Testament. I hear it's gained popularity though. We can translate Christian as a follower of Christ, but I love the translation of belonging to Christ. Like the brand that God puts on each one of his sheep and says, that one is mine. Because humanity has positioned ourselves as the enemy of God, specific suffering can be expected to come when we bear the name of God in the world.
Caleb Chancey:You can hear Peter quoting Christ's most famous sermon here, blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad. As crazy as it sounds, if we follow the teachings of Christ or the instructions of the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans to bless those who persecute you, rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, live in harmony with one another, don't be haughty, and if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all, what follows that is ridicule and persecution. If we think belonging to Christ leads to a life defined by ease and success or being understood by your neighbors or community, I strongly encourage us to reread our bible. The world may say it wants peace, but we want it on our terms only.
Caleb Chancey:But Peter says that there's another way that specific suffering can be experienced and that's by bearing the name of Christ while harming others. Sadly, we don't have to go far within the church to see how Christians in the name of God physically harm people, demand what isn't theirs. Slander brothers and sisters and stir up trouble wherever they go. If you've ever wanted to know what it means to break the third commandment, don't take my name in vain, this is what it means. Do not carry his name into actions that should never be done in his name.
Caleb Chancey:Murder, stealing, meddling, doing evil. But when we experience suffering for carrying the name of God and peace and humility, Peter says, to not be ashamed when suffering comes. And that word ashamed means to shrink back or close yourself off. When suffering comes, we could be tempted to stop leaning into that name, to hide that brand that says belonging to God. Are we ever embarrassed by the name Christian?
Caleb Chancey:Do you ever feel we need to clarify whenever it comes up that we're not that kind of Christian? Maybe we do this out of empathy for others who have been hurt by the members of the church, who have taken the name of the Lord in vain. Or maybe it's our way of shrinking back and insulating and protecting ourselves because we desperately want their approval over God's acceptance. Back to our text. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God.
Caleb Chancey:And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become the ungodly and the sinner? My friend Kristen is a baker and she makes incredible pastries. And I've actually documented a few times her making puff pastry. I've documented enough where I know you should never make puff pastry.
Caleb Chancey:It's very hard, just buy it at the store. But she makes it. And the process of puff pastry is that they roll out a piece of dough, and then in the middle of that piece, they set a pad of butter, and they'll fold the dough edges on top of that butter and make it a book. They'll call it a book. And then they will pass that book through a press over and over and over again until the dough is stretched out again and you can't even see the butter anymore.
Caleb Chancey:And then they'll repeat the process, more butter folded over and over and over again until there are layers and layers and layers of hidden butter and pastry stacked on top of each other. Then she'll cut it out and make croissants or croissants if you're nasty. She'll make croissants. Then she'll put it in the oven. And then when heat comes, all of those layers that were hidden become fully exposed and expand.
Caleb Chancey:Judgment is when all of the compressed layers of our lives, things remembered and things forgotten, actions done and left undone, words said and left unsaid, beautiful moments, horrible arguments, all of them are exposed to the holy presence of God and they respond. Everything opens up. At some point in every life, there will be a time when your life is fully exposed. Every light will be turned on in every chamber of your heart. Every moment will be laid bare.
Caleb Chancey:Everything will be on display. And we think about judgment. The church can often think only about the judgment outside of the church, but that's not what Peter is talking about here. It begins with us, he says, the church. If we profess belief in Christ, we are signing up to have our lives opened up first.
Caleb Chancey:But if our hope is in the God who is with us in our suffering, if the only hope we hold on to is Christ's work on the cross when our lives are opened in the presence of God, every layer will shout beloved, covered, redeemed and Christ himself will declare, I have gone before you. I am with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear, surely goodness and mercy will follow you. Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good.
Caleb Chancey:Just like Peter reminded us of our name, beloved, at the beginning of our passage, he is now giving God a name. He calls God an unusual name for the letters. He calls God a faithful creator. God is always doing something. He is always creating especially in our suffering even when we can't see it.
Caleb Chancey:Will our suffering one day end? Yes and amen. Will he work all things together for good for those who love him? Yes. Does our suffering have meaning even when we can't see it?
Caleb Chancey:Yes. But Peter is saying that our job is not to try and find out that meaning. We're not meant to be detectives in this, but rather we are meant to trust an always creating creator and do good. It was in the middle of his suffering that my great grandfather spoke truth at his little girl's funeral and his son was saved. After Nana died while papa was still grieving is when he founded a camp for abused foster children.
Caleb Chancey:While Christ was on the cross, he said, father forgive them. They do not know what they do. We are not meant to be surprised when suffering comes, but the real surprise, surprise that is worth rejoicing over is the God who is hidden in our suffering. The real surprise is that by the power of the spirit that rests upon us, the suffering somehow produces faith, hope, and God willing love. How are we meant to do good while suffering?
Caleb Chancey:I wanna end our meditation on this scripture with a story about one of my favorite modern saints. This story is a little long, but I think it's worth it. This is from Tom at Esquire Magazine in 2017. Once upon a time, there was a boy who didn't like himself very much. It was not his fault.
Caleb Chancey:He was born with cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy is something that happens to the brain. It means that you can think, but sometimes you can't walk or even talk. The boy had a very bad case of cerebral palsy and he was still a little boy, some of the people entrusted to take care of him took advantage of him instead and did things to him that made him think that he was a very bad little boy because only a very bad little boy would have to live with the things that he had to live with. In fact, when the little boy grew up to be a teenager, he would get so mad at himself that he would hit himself hard with his own fists and tell his mother on the computer he used for a mouth that he didn't wanna live anymore.
Caleb Chancey:For he was sure that God didn't like what's inside him any more than he did. He had always loved mister Rogers though. And now, even when he was 14 years old, he watched the neighborhood whenever it was on. The boy's mother sometimes thought that mister Rogers was the only thing keeping her son alive. She and the boy lived together in a city in California.
Caleb Chancey:And although she wanted very much for a son to meet mister Rogers, she knew that he was too far away and too disabled to make the travel to Pittsburgh. So she figured he would never meet his hero until one day, she learned that through a special foundation designed to help children like her son that mister Rogers was coming to California. That after visiting the gorilla called Coco, he was coming to meet her son. At first, the boy was made very nervous by the thought that mister Rogers was visiting him. He was so nervous in fact that when mister Rogers did visit, he got mad at himself and began hating himself and hitting himself and his father his mother had to take him to another room to talk to him.
Caleb Chancey:Mister Rogers didn't leave though. He wanted something from the boy and mister Rogers never leaves when he wants something from somebody. He was waiting patiently and when the boy came back, mister Rogers talked to him and then he made his request. He said, I would like for you to do something for me. Would you do something for me?
Caleb Chancey:On his computer, the boy answered, yes. Of course. He would do anything for mister Rogers. So then, mister Rogers said, I would like for you to pray for me. Will you pray for me?
Caleb Chancey:And now the boy didn't know how to respond. He was thunderstruck. Thunderstruck means you can't talk because something has happened that's as sudden and as miraculous and maybe as scary as a bolt of lightning and all you can do is listen to the rumble. The boy was thunderstruck because nobody had ever asked him for something like that ever. The boy was always being prayed for.
Caleb Chancey:The boy had always been the object of the prayer and now he was being asked to pray for mister Rogers. And although he at first didn't know if he could do it, he said he would he said he would try. And ever since then, he keeps mister Rogers in his prayers and doesn't talk about wanting to die anymore because he figures mister Rogers is close to God and if mister Rogers likes me, that must mean God likes me too. As for mister Rogers himself, well, he doesn't look at the story in the same way that the little boy did or that I did. In fact, when mister Rogers first told the story, I complimented how I'm being so smart for knowing that asking the boy for his prayers would make the boy feel better about himself.
Caleb Chancey:And mister Rogers responded by looking at me at first with puzzlement and then with surprise. Oh heavens, no Tom. I didn't ask him for his prayers for him. I asked for me. I asked him because I think that anyone who has gone through challenges like that must be very close to God.
Caleb Chancey:I asked him because I wanted his intercession. Let's pray together. Father, we are a people who need you. Forgive us when we forget this. Father, forgive us when we think that we have your favor only when things go well.
Caleb Chancey:Father, move our hearts to rejoice in suffering because we cannot do that on our own. It feels holy and completely impossible, but nothing is impossible for our holy God. Amen.
