David Pawson - 1 & 2 Peter [1] - Unlocking the bible

on September the 2nd 1666 there was a great fire in London it began in a baker's oven you can actually work out the exact location of that baker's oven if you go to what's called the monument in East London and the top of the monument there are bronze flames coated in gold leaf and if you could take that monument and lie it down it's the exact distance from where the baker's oven was that originally started the fire and it caused tremendous damage 200,000 people lost their homes because most houses were timber-framed in those days did 10 million pounds of the damage even in their money and altogether 90 churches were destroyed many of them rebuilt by Christopher Wren including some Paul's Cathedral afterwards now of course when there's a disaster it's one of the unfortunate sides of human nature that you look round for a scapegoat someone to blame Lockerbie disaster anyway people are wanting to find someone who they can blame for it and we'll search for someone and often they innocent or accused and in the case of the Great Fire of London the French Catholics became the scapegoat and they were blamed for having set London on fire now on July the 19th in the year 64 AD the city of Rome burnt down and again there was widespread devastation it burned for three days and then it died down and then the wind changed and blew it up again and there was a second great fire and most of the center of Rome many temples many houses were destroyed the same thing happened they looked for a scapegoat only this time they began to blame the Roman Emperor Nero they knew he had ambitions to pull down all these buildings and put up new magnificent structures and so they said our Hiro started all this he got somebody to light the fire while Nero wasn't having any of that so he looked round for another scapegoat and this time the Christians got it and that really marked the outbreak of serious persecution of Christians to the point of martyrdom and it was triggered off by that Great Fire of Rome they were tortured they were sewn into the skins of wild beasts and made to crawl round the theatres on all fours while they were set upon by lions and other wild animals they were hunted by dogs they were crucified I remember standing with my back to the Colosseum and looking at a low green hill next to the Colosseum in Rome which is Nero's Palace garden and I thought of the day when he held a barbecue party in that garden and he took the Christians and he coated them with tar and bitumen and then he tied them to posts around the garden and set them on fire while there was still alive to provide fairy lights for his barbeque party and a shock wave went through the whole empire from church to church when they heard about it and with that shock wave went a little letter from a man called Peter to get people ready for the shock wave of persecution that he knew would spread Peter himself was to die in that shock wave he was to be crucified as Jesus had predicted fancy living for 30 years knowing that you'll die by crucifixion that's not a very pleasant thing to have at the back of your mind when he came to be crucified in Rome during that near onic persecution he requested especially that the cross be inserted in the socket in the rock upside down because he didn't feel worthy to be the same way up as Jesus and he wrote this little letter we're going to read now or look out now and he wrote it to the Christians with whom he had a special connection and interest in what we call now Turkey Northwest turkey he obviously had been ministering in that area Paul had ministered in southern Turkey but Peter seems have gone to northern Turkey way in that northern area he writes to them and he says get ready you're going to suffer and therefore in a sense 1 Peter is really for Christians who are suffering it's relevant everywhere Christians are fearful and wondering what's going to happen now as in fact they are in many many parts of the world and the surprises he doesn't tell them how to escape it but how to endure it not how to get out of it but how to stay in it for Jesus and how to conduct themselves when it comes how to live in an increasingly hostile world an increasingly anti-christian society well it's very relevant for us because persecution has now broken out in this country it's no bigger than the tip of an iceberg as yet but if at the next election we swing to the left it's going to increase I'm not making that a political statement in other countries the anti Christians are on the right wing of politics in our country they happen to be on the left and I believe we are going to have much greater battles in the future not least over such things as the Sex Discrimination Act and both the question of homosexuality in the church and the question of male and female elders it will be under the race Discrimination Act because it's now considered an offence either to criticise another religion or even to say that your religion is better than any other and so we are facing an increasing pressure on Christians so it hasn't reached yet nearly the degree that it was going to reach when Peter wrote this letter now the writer we know a lot about him great favorite is Peter and his letter is a favorite letter to Christian's love to study 1peter it's a warm human letter that really touches your heart and it really comes across you know when he speaks in the first chapter to Christians and says even though you haven't seen Jesus you'll love him and you have an unspeakable joy in doing so well that touches your heart it's a beautiful letter this impulsive man with foot-and-mouth disease as we said earlier always opening his mouth and putting his foot in it but that did mean that he did open his mouth from time to time was the first to say wonderful things about Jesus what else do we know about him his first name was Simon or Simeon or Simone which means a reed fancy calling your son a reed woman honest I call him weedy but Jesus when he met him said I don't like that name I'm going to give you another name rock and that's something of what happened to this impetuous man when Jesus found him he could be easily swayed like a reed in the wind but when Jesus left him he was solid rock I suppose the most moving occasion was after he denied him three times and then met him on the shores of Galilee after the resurrection and some bishops need to know that Jesus fried fish after his resurrection that was real enough jesus cooked breakfast for the disciples and there was Peter and suddenly Peter found himself looking into a charcoal fire now there are only two charcoal fires in the whole New Testament actually mentioned one was in the courtyard of the high priest when Peter was warming his hands over the fire and a little girl said you're a friend of Jesus on you know no but you got the same dialect from up north oh well a lot of us have but I've seen you with him I swear I don't know the men and as he said that Jesus was led through the courtyard it broke Peters heart now he's looking at a charcoal again it must have brought it all back and Jesus said Peter I rather hoped you'd be the first pastor but I'm afraid now you'll just have to give out the hymn books that would he said it's the kind of thing we say no he said Peter I'm going to put you on probation for a year and see if you've pulled your socks up and and after yo we'll review your case and reconsider your position he said that no you already said he said Peter I can cope with you provided I'm sure of one thing do you love me do you love me so Peter emphasizes that in his letter e says though you haven't seen him as I have yet you love him that's the most important thing that's going to matter in the future to you do you love him see Jesus can cope with you as anybody can cope with you provided they know that you love them husbands and wives find out the worst about each other they can cope with that provided they can be sure of the heart and Jesus is Peter do you love me he asked him three times and somehow that put Peter back on the rock and dear old Peter the first to get up and preach well I've got 10 tapes on the life of Peter so I'll leave you to go through those tapes because it's one of the most lovely studies you can make the life of this man who began as a read and finished as a rock Mark's Gospel is virtually Peters Gospel mark got it all from Peter and that's why in mark you find out all about Peters weaknesses Peter said be sure and tell them mark that's what I did I denied him three times the book of Acts first half is all about Peter fact we know more about Peter than probably any other of the Apostles maybe with the exception of Paul even in Galatians as I told you Peter and Paul are having differences so Peter went on making his mistakes but he loved his Lord that's why he became the first pastor not the first pope the first pastor of the church and incidentally he was married well jesus healed his mother-in-law so now he's far from home and for 30 years he's lived with the knowledge that he's going to die and he's in Rome and this is burst out in Rome and he writes to those churches that he was personally in touch with in northern Turkey he says get ready now actually there were people from that area at Pentecost in acts 2 there were people from that same area so maybe that's how it all started and some of the people from that area listening to Peters first sermon responded got baptized and filled with the spirit went back home and then asked Peter later and said you know we came to Christ through you come and visit us maybe that's how it arose I don't know but he gives them a Jewish title and by then they would have included many Gentiles Yeti gives them a Jewish title this same title the dispersion to those of the dispersion because you see that title was another of those that came through from Israel to the church as did a number of titles in the second chapter of this letter you are a holy nation a royal priesthood those are titles of Israel from the book of Exodus and Peter is applying titles of Israel to the church and just as the Jews are a dispersion there are all over the world now so Christians are a dispersion and we are misfits he calls them aliens strangers now that's one of the problems when you become a Christian you become a misfit you know I can't stand testimonies that go like this I came to Jesus and all my troubles were over I don't believe them for a start and they just are so misleading my testimony is rather simpler I came to Jesus at 17 and my troubles began some years later I got filled with the spirit and my troubles got much worse and from time to time I'm asked what is the evidence of being filled of the spirit and I always say I'll tell you in one word trouble and the reason why you get into trouble is that one of the immediate effects of being filled with the Spirit is that you have a boldness of speech and that's even more common in acts than tongues the Greek word is parecía it means you become bold to speak out and that's not the way to win friends and influence people it's the way to lose friends and influence people and that's what the early disciples did holy boldness you become a misfit and that one of the proofs that you've been born again is that your sense of humor changes you no longer find certain things funny but you do find certain new things funny sense of humor changes and you find it increasingly difficult to communicate with the people you knew before because you're living in another world now they don't understand becomes particularly excruciatingly ly difficult when a husband or a wife is converted before their partner and and here are two people living in two different worlds and they can't share so much and God never intended it that's why a believer is forbidden to marry an unbeliever because of that tension because there's going to be whole area that they can't share and some of the most unhappy homes are the homes of an unequal yoke between husband and wife you're a misfit you're a stray you no longer belong here you actually belong somewhere else and though you will spend the rest of your years here in the world you no longer belong to it you are actually part of a new species you're no longer Homo sapiens you're homo Novis you're new men you're no longer in Adam you're in Christ there's a new species of human beings on earth well now because you're a misfit every misfit suffers now we used to have large litters of pigs on the farm but there was always one called the runt a little pig that was different from the others and the way all the others treated them was dreadful and I'm afraid human society without Christ is a jungle we are naked apes accept that apes don't behave as badly as human beings do I can believe that we've descended from them there were a lower species and the Apes because Apes don't do to each other what we do to each other and children's school are so unkind so cruel to somebody who's different really is quite a proof of original sin therefore Christians expect trouble and Jesus was so honestly said in the world you'll have big trouble but he said cheer up I'm on top of it and I said to a friend of mine recently how are you and he said I'm very well over the circumstances and I thought only a Christian would talk like that see Jesus is over the circumstances be of good cheer I've overcome the world I'm on top of it and you're in me so we're on top of it together but he always promised as big trouble and you notice that when Paul went back to the southern Galatian churches he went back to preach this message to the believers through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom of God through big trouble let's be honest let's promise people come to Jesus and you're in for trouble but cheer up he's on top of it that's the real good news and we ought to be honest with people now some of you been asking me where I got that bit about James well I didn't get in the New Testament there are many other documents in the early church and reliable documents they've been collected one of the best-known collections is called documents of Christian Church or the early churches by Henry bettin s'en and they're very interesting they're not the Word of God they don't have apostolic Authority but they give us great insight into the condition of the early church and there is one from just about the turn of the first century called the Epistle to diognetus and it's got a most moving passage in it it's an appeal it's a letter defending Christians before the civic authorities describing what Christians really are to show that we're not guilty of bad citizenship were not disloyal we're good citizens but this is the paragraph ours particular destructors it's been widely quoted it's a beautiful description of how we're in the world but not of it this is the letter Christians are not marked out from the rest of mankind by their country or their speech or their customs they dwell in cities both Greek and barbarian each as his lot is cast following the customs of the region in clothing and food and in the outward things of life generally yet they manifest the wonderful and openly paradoxical character of their own state they inhabit the land of their birth but as temporary residence thereof they take their share of all responsibilities of citizens and yet endure all the disabilities of aliens every foreign land is their native land and every native land is their foreign land they pass their days upon earth but their citizenship is in heaven that an amazing description and so every land is a native land and missionaries have gone everywhere and just fitted in with the customs and the dress and the speech of the land and yet it's a foreign land and even if you stay in the land in which you're born now you're a foreigner you belong somewhere else now that is the situation in which suffering arises we are different we are misfits and as long as there is peace and prosperity everything is ok but when things get tight when crises come it's the misfits who get it first and now that for example Germany has high unemployment up to 50% in East who's getting it the Turks the aliens the other workers from elsewhere who were welcomed when Germany was prosperous and had worked for all but now there's pressure see so when there's trouble Christians can expect to have more than their fair share of it because we don't belong were different we're not one of the crowd were not one of the club now that's the basic theme behind suffering is at the heart of this letter and if you go through the letter underlining the word suffering you all realize that is what it's all about but he has two other themes one is salvation and he reminds them of the salvation which is the foundation of their attitude to suffering and then the practical side of his letter is how to deal with suffering and there was amazing advices learn to submit to it don't fight it don't try and get your own back accept it now that's unusual advice and he applies that word submission in a number of areas it is not blind submission as we shall see but it is learning to have a submissive spirit one of the things that astonished the world was when the Jews were being carted off to extermination camps how quietly they walked into the cremation chambers how submissive they were it was an astonishing fact because they knew what was going to happen to them and what Peter is saying that must be your attitude now course that's absolutely against all human instinct isn't it that's the very opposite of how we normally respond to injustice because normally when a thing is unfair we say so it's one of the earliest things children learn to say it's not fair and their face screws up when they say it and you see that same expression on picket lines don't you outside a factory on strike you see that same injustice and the response of the flesh to injustice and wrong suffering is that it's the clenched fist to stand up for your rights and yet what Peter is saying is in the kingdom you have no rights and Christians need to prepare for suffering by learning to give in to accept it now it's amazing advice and all your instincts say that's not what we should do we should fight it and try and prevent it and stop it so I'm just we shouldn't suffer for this because we're innocent but all the time Peter says that's the rioting and he perfectly exemplified it when he came to be crucified himself didn't fight it he said just upside down please and he lived up to what he actually said now let's just run through the letter and get the feel of it it all hinges around these three he does move from salvation to suffering to submission but the three are a bit more interlocked than that they are three themes that go all the way through but in the first two chapters he is concentrating on salvation even though he warns them that it's to get them ready for surgery first thing we need to be absolutely sure of when the going gets tough is we need to be sure of our salvation if you're not sure about that boy you're going to be in trouble because that's the firm foundation so he says there are two aspects to your salvation you must be absolutely sure about now first the individual aspect and second the corporate aspect now both a part of being saved were saved as individuals but were been saved into a family and that family is going to stand you in good stead when the pressures on you won't be able to cope by yourself you need to be part of a fellowship that's going to stay together but the individual side comes through the Word of God and it was the through the Word of God he says that you were born again the Word of God that will never pass away it was through the word that you found your salvation and that gave you three things now I'm sure you know at the end of 1 Corinthians 13 Paul says now abideth Faith Hope and love but that Trinity of Christian virtues goes all the way through Scripture they all use it faith is primarily relating you to what God has done in the past hope relates you to what he's going to do in the future and love relates you to what he's doing the present but faith hope and love are the three dimensions of your individual salvation the trouble is today faith hope and love abide but of these the most neglected is hope and that's the tragedy and that's why I made the video the final facts because I find as I move around the country the future is not being talked about so all the kingdom now it's all here and now it's all how to live in the kingdom now how to have your marriage in the kingdom now in your business the kingdom now and so there's been very little talk about heaven and hell and return of Christ the day of judgment in many new fellowships so we made that video to try and restore this dimension of hope because hope is an anchor that's the symbol of hope it's an anchor that holds you when the storm comes when you know how it's all going to end that holds you firm when you're in crisis when the storm hits you if your anchors down and your hope is sure and you know that Jesus coming back for us you can face anything but we've been so concentrating on faith and love that we haven't been teaching people how to hope and 1 Peter is the Epistle of hope he concentrates on hope in both his letters more than faith in love but what he says is God has given you a living hope by the resurrection from the dead even if they kill you death won't touch you you got a living hope for the future and the hope of a new body and a new life beyond the grave you can face death if you know that friend of mine was held up by a mugger in Sydney Australia with a knife and the man was going to plunge the knife into his chest if he didn't give him all his money and my friend just said you can't frighten me I said why not he said because if you stick that knife in me you just rush me to heaven and I'm longing to go there and he really meant it and the mugger dropped the knife and he led him to the Lord what an instinctive reaction see his hope was so certain another man I know a Methodist headmaster a burglar broke into his house and held him up at gunpoint in his study across the desk and that friend just said whatever brought you to this my friend his whole concern was for the men and again he led the man to the Lord see when you hope is sure it's quite a challenge that's in it when your hope is sure even death doesn't they just rush you into the presence of the Lord mind you to balance up I must tell you about Herbert silver would any of you heard that name he was a pub comedian and became a an evangelist and he used to go to Yarmouth and on the promenade he used to preach on the front you knew him too and one day they persuade him to go in swimming in the water and he hated swimming but he donned an old pair of Bermuda shorts or some really outlandish garment and they took him in they couldn't swim but the sea showed rather steeply and they hadn't realized that they got out of his depth and he's splashing around and yelling for help and the lifeguard pulled him out and pumped him dry the lifeguard said Mr silver I don't understand you I've heard you preaching about heaven all this week and how much long to go there first chance you get to go he said ya yelling for me to pull you back again now Herbert silver would hadn't been a pub comedian for nothing and he just looked down he said would you go like this but knowing knowing Herbert silver would he really did long to go do you know the real difference between a Christian has got hope for the future one who hasn't Cristiano hasn't is willing to depart and be with Christ but wanting to stay here but a Christian with real hope wants to go but is willing to stay see now remember the last letter I wrote to David Watson I just shared that with him it made quite a difference to me mentions it in his little autobiography fear no evil and it was David are you willing to go but wanting to stay or wanting to stay wanting to go but willing to stay and Paul said I'm wanting to depart but he wants me to stay around here a bit longer I'm willing to stay quite a difference isn't it it's why that man in beckons fields had come and see how a Christian dies eager for off well that's hope and he's begotten us again into a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead he's also given us a tested faith and he said don't worry your faith is like gold to you but gold is always refined by testing the fires tested and it comes out more pure and you know in the old days when they purified gold they had a big vet and the man would keep staring it over the fire until he could see his own face perfectly in it then he stopped refining it and your faith will go through that be tested and we've got a joyful love even though we've not seen him we love him and were filled with a joy unspeakable our person who's got that has got half salvation there's another half too that's the corporate half that were part of a people of God through the Word of God we find individual salvation for ourselves but that also introduces us to the people of God and the people of God are very important to Peter and he lays this foundation before he talks about the suffering he said you've got to get these two things right you've got to have these this faith hope and love yourself and you need to be part of the royal priesthood the holy nation the people of God he said you're a living temple he said Christ is the cornerstone and you are living stones and you are the temple of God you need to remember that that together as Christians we are God's dwelling place on earth his holy temple and people touching us a touch in God's holy temple and we are a royal priesthood were all priests I remember giving a lecture on the priesthood of all believers at a seminar in Zurich in Switzerland and a man came to me afterwards some and he said oh that was wonderful he said I've never heard such thing before I said oh what's your background he said no I setup it there were many Catholics there so do you appraised he said no I'm a I'm a Catholic layman I said are you a priest no he said I told you I'm a Catholic Lim I said are you a priest he said no no I said I'm a Catholic I said you were priest and he began to blush she began to be embarrassed he thought it was either crazy or deficit and I asked him five times and then suddenly he left he said yes I am I said now I believe you heard me because now people thank you for the sermon the minute I heard it or received it and I said now whenever anybody asks you are you a priest what we say he say I am I thought that man's got it he's part of the royal priesthood now and bear in mind that towards those who persecute you you are a priest you're the one who can go to God on their behalf and bring a word from God to them you are their priest even though they're throwing stones at your calling you names you are their priest the only priest between them and God they may ever have and we are a holy nation were special and it holds you when people ridicule you and say oh will your only minority you're a special people a holy nation now that's the foundation he lays now he says you're ready to face suffering if you've got that but get the foundation right be absolutely sure you've got the individual side of foundation the faith the hope and the love and the corporate side that you belong to this people and know you do that you're a living stone and a priest and you're part of a new holy nation that God is calling out from the earth then you're ready to face the suffering it says three things about it number one don't ever deserve it now if you go to prison for crime don't think you're suffering for Jesus very important point often you know we we offend people with our manner or with our awkwardness and then we say of course it's the offense of the gospel there's nothing of the kind make sure that the only offense is the offense of the gospel make sure that if you go to prison it's not because of something wrong you've done it's a shame when Christians suffer for doing wrong things he said suffer for doing right not wrong it should never be deserved that's an important point then he said the second thing when you suffer it should never be revenged don't ever retaliate now the instinct is to hit back someone told me when he read the Sermon on the Mount he said it says turn the other cheek he said I would turn the other cheek and I'd bring the right knee up sharply that is the instinct Taurus isn't it when someone insults you well I just won't talk to them again when somebody hurts you well I'll just wait a chance to do something back that's instinct revenge is instinctive to hit back he says don't ever do that Jesus when he suffered did not retaliate when they spat on him I remember talking to some church member who'd been mortally offended by another church member over something you know it always happens and this person was saying and they did this and he said that in the other and I said did they spit on you I should hope not see I said they spat on Jesus and there was saliva running down his face and they unnecessarily caused him to suffer you know when a lamb was slain in the Old Testament it was not tortured beforehand its throat was cut clean and quick but when the Lamb of God was slain they mocked him they jammed the thorns on his forehead they dressed him up this spat on him what's his response Father forgive them they don't realize now it says Peter don't ever think of how you can get your own back repay evil was good give them good not evil bless them he says blessing that's exactly what Jesus said bless those who curse you that's the best way to get your own back it heaps coals of fire on the head bless those who curse you there was a young man went into the army and the first night he knelt down by his bunk in the barrack room said his prayers and the sergeant was right opposite in a bed and he saw this mat and he threw his boot at the man and it cut his ear and that boots a heavy thing and the nails in the boot cut man's ear and he went on praying so the sergeant threw the other boot at him and that caught him and cut him and but he went on praying gave up next morning those boots were at the foot of the sergeant's bed polished the Cylons said I've got to find out what makes a guy do that that's Peter he says don't revenge and thirdly and finally don't let it get you there trying to weigh you down don't let it be successful it may harm your body but it can't touch your spirit and body and spirit are key words at that point what happens to your body doesn't really matter it's what happens to your spirit that matters don't let them get through to your spirit let them do what they like with your body but keep your spirit intact well time has gone so we'll move into the third part in the second talk

Channel: BlueXiphoid

Views: 71,845

Rating: 4.7111912 out of 5

Keywords: David Pawson (Person), Peter

Id: lCgedAQlVvk

Length: 38min 4sec (2284 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 05 2013