Hope Beyond Misery: Lasting Lessons, Part 2

Feeling unsettled about your struggles? Coming up from Chuck Swindoll. There is nothing tangible on this earth that is inspired by the Word of God. It doesn't tell us about truth. It is truth. We don't make it relevant. It is relevant.

Don't neglect it. When we're going through a painful ordeal, the last thing we need is a trite comment from someone who's entirely disengaged with our suffering. When we're in pain, we need living promises from the only one who's qualified to give us hope. Well, today on Insight for Living, we'll hear the conclusion of our 17-part study in 1 Peter called Hope Again. In this final study, Chuck Swindoll reminds us about the life-altering impact of the resurrection and the unequivocal hope that it brings. Chuck titled his message Hope Beyond Misery. He wrote the letter. His name appears at the very beginning of verse 1. The second observation I make is that hurting people received the letter to those who reside as aliens.

Not abandoned, but they are aliens. Third, the letter came through Silas. It means Silas took a pen in hand and actually did the writing as Peter gave him the words. Fourth, the letter concludes with a greeting from a woman. She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings.

And so does my son, Mark. Now, obviously, everybody wonders who's the she? Some have taught that this is a reference to the church, who is referred to frequently in the feminine. The she, I suggest, is Peter's wife. Fifth observation, note that the final command of the letter is one of intimate affection.

Look how he puts it. Greet one another with a kiss of love. Shalom be with you all. The kiss of the Christian was called the Shalom, the peace. Augustine says when Christians were about to communicate, they demonstrated their inward peace by the outward kiss. Well, so much for the bookends and the front and the end of the letter. Let's go back and look briefly, if you will, back to chapter 1.

Let me just show you kind of an outline. Now, you might wonder how does a person think through the book of Peter and various ways it can happen, but I find it helpful to notice the three times in the letter that he refers to the reader. It sort of provides me with a literary skeleton upon which to hang the meat of a thought. He refers to his readers in chapter 1, verse 1, as we just saw, Peter, to those who reside as aliens and scattered. He refers to them again in chapter 2, verse 11, he calls them beloved, and one more time, chapter 4, verse 12, again, beloved. In fact, that follows a very strong amen in chapter 4, verse 11, sort of like he brings it to a climax, amen, then he says beloved.

It's almost as if he is going to yet another subject. Now, I've taken those three references as sort of clues, hidden clues, for seeing some reflections in Peter's ink. And what are those truths? Look at chapter 1, verse 3, will you? The letter falls rather neatly into three different or distinct sections, each one detailing the how of a certain truth. Verse 3, chapter 1, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Chapter 1, verse 3, introduces a living hope. And I think it is important enough to give it a title for chapter 1, verse 1, through chapter 2, verse 10. Let's call it a living hope and how to claim it.

1-1 through 2-10. A living hope and how to claim it. The answer to that how, and hear this well, is faith in the Lord. If you want to know how to claim the living hope that God offers, it will require faith in the living Lord. Chapter 1, verse 3, refers to his resurrection. Chapter 1, verse 7, that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation, meaning his return, of Jesus Christ.

And though you have not seen him, you love him. And he adds, though you do not see him now, but believe in him, you rejoice, or you greatly rejoice. Faith in the Lord. And notice also faith in his word. Chapter 1, again, verse 23 through chapter 2, verse 2.

123 through 2-2. For you have been born again, not of seed, which is perishable, but imperishable. That is the living and abiding word of God. For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls off.

Just a moment. Most of us cut our grass before it flowers. And so that's kind of a theoretical statement, but if you get a little negligent with your yard work, or if you let some part of your yard go without attention, you will notice that that grass will finally flower.

I've got a little part in my backyard that is behind a wall and I don't care that much about what I can't see, and so I just leave it alone and every once in a while my guilt will overwhelm me, and I'll go back there and I look and I think, well, I better do something about it. Usually the grass back there has flowered. I noticed just this afternoon when I walked back there, bees are there.

Bees are nowhere else but where there are flowers, and they're even now buzzing around my grass back there. But notice what it says about the flower. It says the flower withers. The grass withers.

The flower finally falls off, but this is the contrast. The word of the Lord abides forever. It's the word that was preached to you. It's a bad place for a chapter break. Chapter breaks are not inspired. They've been put in there by well-meaning and scholarly editors. It's just we don't always agree with them.

Here's a case in point. Therefore, in light of the fact that the grass withers and the flower fades, therefore, since the word of the Lord lives forever, put aside malice and guile and hypocrisy, envy and slander, and like newborn babies long for the pure milk of the w-o-r-d, that you may grow in respect to salvation. If this pulpit has mentioned it once, it has probably mentioned it so many times, some of you weary of hearing it, but there is nothing tangible on this earth that is inspired but the word of God.

This book that holds God's counsel. It doesn't tell us about truth. It is truth. We don't make it relevant.

It is relevant. Don't neglect it. You can neglect your grass.

You can neglect your garden. But you cannot neglect the word of God. It is the foundation of a stable life. It just feeds faith.

It's like fuel in the tank. Don't wait till Sunday to see what the Scriptures teaches. We have a living hope and these verses tell us how to claim it.

By faith in our Lord himself and by faith in what he has written, his word. Chapter 2, look at verse 11. Beloved, I urge you as, the King James I think reads pilgrims and strangers.

Here it reads, and correctly so, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lust. So I want to suggest a second title for the central part of this letter and that is the pilgrim life and how to live it. If you want to know how to live or at least some of the techniques of living the life of an alien, a stranger, a pilgrim, you read verse 11 of chapter 2 through verse 11 of chapter 4 and you'll get the gist of it.

The pilgrim life and how to live it. Now the question is how and I want to give you a word. Just like I said, the first word is faith. How to have this kind of hope and claim it through faith in the Lord and faith in his word. Well, second, how do I have this pilgrim life and how do I live it? By submission.

So put that down very clearly in your minds if not in your Bibles. In fact, if there is one theme that stretches through the central section of Peter's letter, it is submission, submission, submission. And we need to be reminded of it again and again because we are so independent. We are just so ornery and stubborn.

It's sort of the American way. It's the reason many came west. It's sort of built into our independent spirit to make it on our own, to decide for ourselves, to prove if not to anybody else, at least to ourselves, we can do it and that's not the pilgrim life. The pilgrim life is a life of submission and that works against our nature. We've been over this so many times in the letter.

Look at verse 13 chapter 2. Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to human institutions. If you have a president, submit to the president. In this case, they had a king and what a monster he was.

His name, Nero. Can you imagine a man like Peter saying, don't fight the system, submit. In the realm of your occupation, verse 18, servants, be submissive to your masters.

Well, that cuts cross grain in our day of unions and strikes and determination to go my way and this is very unpopular teaching. You have a boss, submit to your boss or quit. Submit. Make the thing work or get out.

Submit. In the realm of the home, verse 1, chapter 3, in the same way wives, be submissive to your husbands. It works and husbands, it is marvelous if you are fun to submit to. If you are one that listens closely to God and verse 7 will help you do that. Husbands likewise.

That's a word that's like a big rope that wraps around back into chapter 2, still in the thought of submission. There is a submitting husband to the Lord and there is a very cooperative wife who says, I trust my husband. I'll work alongside him and I'll believe in him. I was talking with a young couple just two days ago. He's a dentist.

I would say he's 35, 40 years old. He and his wife standing side by side at the front of a meeting where people were there to think about their plans for their future and he said some nice things and then he referred to his own life. He said, I'm thinking about a career change. I said, really? He said, yeah, I'm thinking seriously about ministry. I said, really? Have you had any training at all? He said, no, not formally.

I'd have to go back to school. I'd like to have your suggestion for seminary and what you think would be best for me. I said, well, let's talk for a few minutes and we did. Then I looked at him and I said, you know, my counsel is if you could be happy doing anything else, do that.

Don't just jump into ministry because it seems exciting and all of that. And the next day I talked to him. He said, it really made me think through the night because I am very fulfilled in dentistry and I find a lot of satisfaction in it.

He says, it's really making me think. And then I had the idea to look at his wife and I looked right into her eyes, beautiful lady standing there by her husband. They had their arms around each other and I said, and how do you feel about this? She had a terrific answer. She said, you know, Chuck, when I married this man, I really gave myself to this marriage and I determined that this man who is walking with God was worth working alongside of and however God leads him, I'm a part of that plan.

And I went a little further and I said, well, how do you feel about going into ministry? She says, I'll tell you, if he's convinced, I'm convinced. There is some kind of spirit in that and she's no dummy. She's no vanilla shadow standing there saying, whatever he wants.

It's not that. People have this idea, this beaten down kind of doormat type woman that's pictured here. That's not that woman. I mean, there's vitality, there's zeal, there's fun in her life. There's direction and she said, I am confident God's working in him.

I wouldn't think of going some other direction. It's a beautiful kind of give and take. The pilgrim life and how to live it, even in the home, it's even in the church. Look at verse 8 of chapter 3. To sum up, let all be, and you'll see in these words, a lot of submission. Let all be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kind hearted, humble in spirit, not fighting back, returning evil for evil, insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead. You're called to the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. And he describes that even further down through verse 12. One more, 3.22, referring to Christ who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, we saw that in our study on the ascension, having gone into heaven after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to him, even the angels, the authorities, the powers are subjected to him. Just picture those magnificent angelic creatures, the cherubim and the seraphim, folding their wings in front of him, bowing in submission to him. Work on a submissive spirit. Ask God if necessary to break the sinews of your will, so that you become a person who is cooperative, submissive, harmonious, willing. One of the greatest things to find when you get to the top of an organization is a servant leader. A leader who knows how to submit.

It's beautiful. Peter was one of those examples. Finally he learned it. There's one more little section of Peter in chapter 4 verse 12 through chapter 5 verse 11. It talks, look at verse 12 of 4. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal or the fiery trial among you, which comes upon you for your testing.

Here he is talking to hurting people as though some strange thing were happening to you. But to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing so that at the revelation of his glory, once again a reference to his coming, you may rejoice with exaltation. I can't explain how it will happen, but when the Lord Jesus comes back and we have endured the suffering for his glory, there will be some sense of ecstatic joy at his presence. Now this is talking about the end of the book talks about the fiery trial and how to endure it. The fiery trial and how to endure it.

Let me give you three ways. They're all right here in the passage. Verses 12 through 19, the sovereignty of God. You struggle with enduring fiery trials, you call to mind the sovereignty of God. Nothing touches you that hasn't come through the willing plan of God.

It must all pass through his fingers before it reaches you. He is in control, the sovereignty of God. Chapter 5 verses 1 to 5, the flock of God.

You want to endure the fiery trial? Be in touch with, be in league with, be faithful to the flock of God. Chapter 5, 6 through 11, the power of God. You must rely on that.

You know the answer here? It is cooperation. A living hope, how to claim it by faith. The pilgrim life and how to live it by submission. The fiery trial and how to endure it by cooperation. That's Peter's timeless letter. It talks about a living hope, pilgrim life and the fiery trials. Bringing the letter to a close is not an easy matter. It's not easy to do personally and it's not easy to do homiletically. That is in some kind of a sermon.

Let's see if I can leave with you. Well I said to begin with I thought of four. Let me give you five that are sort of lasting lessons that keep coming to me when I think of the letter of 1 Peter. Number one would be this, when our faith is weak, joy strengthens us. All of these comments will have to do with suffering times. You will find in some kinds of times of suffering you will discover that your faith is getting weak. Joy will strengthen it.

Remember the psalm, weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning. Psalm 30 verse 5, try your best not to let the trials make you a grim kind of person. Second, when our good is mistreated, endurance stabilizes us. And the mistreatment takes us back to chapter 2 where even when we suffer wrongdoing, though we have done right, there is something about endurance that stabilizes us. When our good is mistreated, endurance stabilizes us.

One of my hopes for every one of you is that you will learn how to endure. It's a wonderful old Greek word, it means to abide under. It's used for a beast of burden that you kept putting your baggage on and all the things you're carrying for a trip. And that old burl, that old beast of burden stands under that load.

We've all seen pictures of huge weights carried by this little tiny, by comparison, this little creature. He abides under the load. Third, when our confidence is shaken, love supports us.

And that's toward the middle of chapter 4. Keep fervent in your love for one another. When our confidence is shaken, love supports us. Fourth, when our adversary attacks us, resistance shields us. And we looked at that when we were looking at the attack of the enemy who like a roaring lion prowls about.

When our adversary attacks us, resistance shields us. Here's one more for you to ponder. When departure is forced upon us, grace sustains us. When departure is forced upon us, I'm thinking only of death, the departure of a loved one, but of travel where missionaries have to say goodbye, where Christians have to leave one another, where you have to move in order to obey God and you depart from family and the long-time support of friends, grace sustains us.

We'll hear a final prayer from Chuck Swindoll in just a moment, so please stay with us. This is Insight for Living, and this marks the final message in the series called Hope Again. It includes 17 studies on the hope we have in Jesus Christ. To dig deeper into 1 Peter on your own, remember you can freely access the online study notes called Searching the Scriptures. In fact, don't hesitate to download the PDF and make copies for your Bible study group.

All the details can be found at insideworld.org slash studies. Well, this is a wonderful season for recreational reading, and our website clearly illustrates a wide variety of great options. Specifically, let me draw your attention to one of Chuck's most popular books.

It's the one that parallels the teaching series that concludes today. The book is called Hope Again. This classic from Chuck will reinforce your confidence in God's love and care.

It'll also help you identify the barriers that keep you from trusting Him. To purchase a copy of Hope Again, go to insight.org slash store or call us. If you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888. We never know how God might use these daily programs to inspire people like you, but we do know this. Insight for Living would never get beyond our offices without the voluntary gifts from people like you. So thank you so much in joining us in an all-out effort to make disciples of Jesus Christ in all 195 countries of the world.

To give a donation right now, go to insight.org. And now let's conclude our time together with prayer. Our Father, we thank you for sustaining us in your grace. Through times that absolutely defy explanation, for being a friend that is closer than a brother, for meaning to us more than a mother or a father. Thank you for the great grace that takes us from week to week through a life that isn't fair, dealing with people who aren't easy to love, and yet finding your grace all sufficient. Thank you for strength that comes from five chapters in a little letter written by an old fisherman who understood life and failure and disappointment and victory and joy and intimacy. We commit to you, our Father, the truth of what we have heard. May it pass through us often and come to our rescue. In the lovely and gracious name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. The preceding message, Hope Beyond Misery, Blasting Lessons, was copyrighted in 1989, 1990, 1996, 2006, and 2011, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2011 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited. The opinions rendered herein are those of the guests, and not necessarily those of the public.