Matt Carter 1 Peter: "Following After Christ in an Non-Christian World"

sagemont we are getting there doo-doo that is it that was incredible that's what i'm talking about we are getting there love it love it open up your bible today to the book of first peter chapter one verse one first peter chapter one verse 1 we'll get there in just a minute we find ourselves in a time and in a culture that is in my opinion unlike any other time that i've experienced in my life we live in a society that is hopelessly divided both politically and racially on top of that we find ourselves in a culture that's growing increasingly hostile to our christian faith and our values but the 21st century church is not the first time that christians found themselves in a culture that was hostile to their faith in the first century a man named jesus of nazareth showed up on the scene and he claimed to be god and he ministered and taught for three years during that time he established a new kingdom that he claimed to he was the king of and after that three years of teaching he was crucified on a roman cross and the craziest thing happened in the history of the world the guy rose from the dead and the men that had followed him and his followers who were on the night of his crucifixion completely scared to death all of a sudden after the resurrection were incredibly emboldened and took the message of the gospel of jesus christ from jerusalem to the ends of the earth at the time and the government who was in power at the time did not like it they didn't like it these christians refused to worship the emperor but would only worship jesus these christians refused to participate in the evil and sinful practices of the roman culture and because of that the romans the roman empire viewed these christians as a threat to their power and so they began to persecute these christians these people that called themselves the church and while the widespread intense persecution of believers would not sort of begin for a little while the apostle peter saw the storm clouds looming on the horizon and he wrote a letter to the churches at the time scattered throughout jerusalem and then all an unknown area and he wrote them and i want you to hear this he wrote them to teach these christians not how to avoid suffering but he wrote them this letter to teach them how to endure in suffering did you catch that y'all wake he wrote them a letter not to teach them how to avoid suffering he wrote them a letter to teach them how to endure suffering and be faithful to jesus in the midst of a world that's going crazy and guys i hope i'm wrong i really do but it seems like to me that the storm clouds are looming on the horizon for us and i chose to preach to this book we're going to go verse by verse through it because that's what we need to do it may be difficult to avoid suffering but we need to be faithful to jesus christ no matter what comes and so let's jump in together first peter chapter 1 verse 1. says peter an apostle of jesus christ to those who reside as aliens scattered throughout pontius galatia cappadocia asia bidna who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of god the father by the sanctifying work of the spirit to obey jesus christ and be sprinkled with his blood may grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure let's pray quickly father i thank you for your word i thank you for its power i thank you for its clarity i thank you lord that years ago you enabled and empowered christians to walk faithfully to you no matter what i pray that we would be that people lord speak through me today speak more importantly through your word today so that we can leave here different how we came in and asked that in jesus name amen so i just read to you those first two verses of first peter and most of us if you're studying your bible you're reading first peter you breeze through those two verses you don't pay much attention to them and that's actually a mistake and i want to tell you why because what peter just did in those first two verses was give us the secret to rejoicing in the midst of trials and suffering that's what he did it's in there we breeze over it but it's significant he gives us the secret to rejoicing in the midst of suffering and we know that's what he's doing because if four short verses later he comes right out and says that's what he's doing look at verse six first peter 1 6. peter says in this you rejoice in this you rejoice though now for a little while if necessary you have been grieved by various trials now guys i don't know about you but but i read that and this you rejoice go down for a little while if necessary you've been grieved by very shallows i say wait a minute peter you're telling me that i'm going through a trial in my life that's so significant that i'm grieving and that my response is that i rejoice that sounds crazy but that's exactly what he just said and in these first two verses peop peter tells us he's saying look here's the secret here's the secret to doing that the secret to rejoicing in the middle of trials and suffering and so in these first two verses what peter does he gives us six data points kind of six thoughts six foundations things we need to remember to enable us to rejoice when persecution and suffering and trial inevitably comes we're going to walk through four today two next week but we'll be done after four here's the first one here's the first step if you will in these texts that we see to help us rejoice in the midst of suffering number one if you're taking notes remember who's speaking to you in the book of first peter sounds pretty uh straightforward but it's actually key peter wanted you to remember who is speaking to you it's essential to rejoice and suffering look at first peter 1 1. peter begins the letter and he says peter says his name then he says an apostle of jesus christ now again that's one of those phrases you've never spent any time on in your life in your bible study but it actually that little phrase that little title he gives himself carries some weight it has significance first thing he says is he says his name and then he says i'm an apostle the apostles were the 12 men that hung out with jesus christ spent time with jesus on his time during the earth and then were specifically commissioned by christ to take the message of the gospel to the world and so he says i'm that i'm an apostle but then he makes an interesting statement he says peter an apostle of jesus christ now that seems pretty straightforward that he would call himself an apostle of jesus christ but there's weight to that it's significant because that is the only title in the scripture that places of jesus christ with it you never see someone call themselves in a t a teacher of jesus christ you never see anyone call themselves an evangelist of jesus christ and yet here peter makes this really bold statement i'm an apostle of jesus christ and very quickly don't want to spend much time on this but he is making the statement to everybody that's reading it including us he goes i want you to know something i'm an apostle of jesus christ which means that the words that you are hearing and reading today are not my words but they are the words that are coming out of the mouth of jesus there's a bold way of saying my words are not my words peter said but they're the words of jesus christ that's going to be huge for you to know how to rejoice in the midst of suffering because what peter is going to tell us sagemont is some really difficult stuff he's going to talk about he's going to talk about some things that are very very difficult to live out we hear him we say amen and then we have to go live him out out there and it's difficult to do he's going to teach us things like that our holiness is more important than our happiness and our comfort and our ease he's going to teach us that when we're attacked and we're maligned and we're persecuted that we ought to respond in love he's going to teach us something today that's that's pretty crazy which is that god allows us to go through trials and suffering and hardship in order to make us look more like jesus and peter knew that peter knew it would be difficult to look out or to live out and he knew you and i just simply wouldn't do it unless we realized that the one that was asking us to do it was not peter himself but the risen king of kings and lord of lords which is jesus christ and so he begins by saying i'm an apostle of jesus christ and so that's step one to you rejoicing and suffering is to know that it is not peter it's not me but it's jesus that's calling you to rejoice in suffering here's step number two key to rejoicing and suffering step number two remember that this world is not your home that's the second key to rejoicing enduring suffering and trials and persecution is to remember that this world is not your home look at first peter 1 1. says peter an apostle of jesus christ and then he says to those who reside as aliens i want you to look at that phrase peter an apostle of jesus christ you're saying jesus is speaking to you here's who i'm writing to to those who reside as aliens that's an interesting thing to call them because they're christians he knows he's writing to christians it's clear throughout the entire letter why does he call them aliens like why does he call him aliens and here's the answer that word aliens is a word that means stranger or foreigner he calls these christians foreigners now that's interesting to me because a lot of the people that he's writing to were born and they were raised in the areas that were reading the letter so why would he call these christians and by the way he doesn't say i'm peter an apostle of jesus christ writing to christians in these areas he calls them aliens he calls them foreigners why would he do that what do you call these people that were born and raised in these area foreigners and the answer is because he's reminding us that this world is not our home he's describing hear this he's describing a christian's relationship to the world that we live in that yes you may have been born and raised in the united states but your primary citizenship is not in the united states you may have been born and raised the united states but your primary citizenship is in the kingdom of god and that's what he's getting at here and because of that because of the fact that that our primary citizenship is not the united states but it's the kingdom of god you and i are foreigners here we're passing through this place to our eternal home where we will live forever our true home and if you're honest if i'm honest most of us don't think about ourselves that way if if someone were to come to me and they would say matt where are you from you know what's your home i would say well i'm from texas dad gummett the greatest state in the world but peter would say that's wrong thinking he would say texas really at the end of the day is not your home you're a foreigner here you're a stranger here this is a temporary place where you're just passing through and when that starts sinking in that's key to you enduring suffering because when that starts sinking in it's going to change the way you view this place and here's what i mean when i'm talking about that um you guys called me to be your senior pastor my first sunday was may 17th and so we moved here and and i started on may 17th but then we jennifer and i didn't move our family into our new permanent home for a couple of months so we had to find a temporary place to live and so for about two months i lived in pastor chuck and marines upstairs bedroom and i had a temporary residence and beca and knowing that that was just a temporary place i was living completely changed how i interacted with their home because it was temporary i'll tell you what i didn't do in my temporary home i didn't come up to maureen and say maureen you know i'm not a big fan of the color that you painted this room that i'm staying in could we could we paint it a different color you know i didn't i didn't um get bored staying up there in the room because they didn't have a tv and so i didn't go buy a tv and mount it on the wall and and get direct tv plugged into the upstairs bedroom because i didn't have it i didn't come to pastor chuck and say chuck you know man it's um it's may it's it's peach season let's go let's go buy a tree and plant a peach tree and start growing it i didn't do that why because i was only there on a temporary basis and that's what peter's reminding us he's saying look you're an alien here you're a stranger here this is your temporary home this is how you need to view this planet because when you do it's going to profoundly change you because all of a sudden things are going to start happening when you really believe that what the bible says it'll change you all of a sudden you giving of your finances to expand the kingdom of god is not some big sacrifice but it's an investment in your future eternal home all of a sudden service to the church or to for the name of christ and the building of his kingdom all of a sudden that's not a drudgery but you're storing up treasure for yourself that you're going to get to enjoy forever in your eternal home and even if you walk through suffering and you walk through trials and you respond in a christ-like way that is just one more crown that you get to lay at the feet of jesus peter knew that he knew that the secret to rejoicing in the midst of suffering is to remember that your suffering is temporary and you will spend eternity in a home in a place and a time where you will never suffer ever again so that's step number two the secret to this which is not easy to do by the way is to remember this place is not your home here's number three step number three and rejoicing and suffering this is when it starts getting difficult for some people so i want you to listen carefully to me through this process this is one of the most difficult theological sentences in the new testament step number three rejoicing and suffering remember that god is sovereign and works all things for your good not that sentence but the bible sentence is the hardest one remember that god is sovereign and works all things for you good now guys this next part of the verse is one of the reasons that most preachers don't preach verse 5 verse to the bible because they come to verses like that and one they don't take the time to understand what it means or when they do understand what it means it's too difficult and they're scared to death to preach what it actually says it's kind of a difficult statement at first glance but the more it sinks in the more you realize that this is going to be one of the most comforting things you ever hear in your entire life let's read it together first peter 1 1. peter says i'm an apostle of jesus christ these words are the words of jesus to those who reside as aliens this is not your home you're a foreigner here writing to those scattered throughout pontius galatia cappadocia asia bidna those are all the known areas of the world at the time and then watch what he says he says who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of god the father for the sanctifying work of the spirit to obey jesus christ and be sprinkled with his blood and so he's saying all the stuff that we can relate to he's like okay jesus is at the end of the day is the author of the bible he's speaking to the inspiration of the holy spirit this world is not our home amen and amen and then he drops this crazy profound statement on us he says hey i want you also to know you were chosen according to the foreknowledge of god what in the world does that mean well it's important to note here that he's not talking about your salvation a lot of commentaries use that statement as a proof text for calvinism it's actually not he's not talking about being chosen for salvation listen carefully when he says you were chosen according to the foreknowledge of god he's implying and i'll show you what i mean here in a second but he's implying that god chose you for the trials that you're going to face in this life now that sounds crazy hang with me i'll show you what i'm talking about you got to get down into the text and so let's look at together let's look at verse 1 peter an apostle of jesus christ of those who reside as aliens scattered throughout pancha galatia cappadocia asia bithya and he says who are chosen and so he makes the statement that you and i as believers and these people that are hearing it that are believers they were chosen now that is the greek word electos and without going into a whole sermon on it which i could that simply means that god hand picked you for something i didn't say this i didn't come up with that is literally what it says it says i'm writing to the people that were hand-picked by god what is what's god doing what's he hand picking people for it says you were hand-picked you were chosen according to the foreknowledge of god so he handpicked us to the four knowledge of god that word foreign knowledge is key to understand what's going on here when you look at the greek language that the new testament was written in that peter's writing in that word foreknowledge in the greek is the greek word prognosis you ever heard that word before that's literally the greek word if you look at it in a greek new testament it'll be prognosis now here's the definition of the word prognosis prognosis is the forecasted or the forecast of a likely outcome of a situation it's the forecast of a likely outcome of a situation i've heard that word before myself when i was 31 i got diagnosed with cancer of the appendix we had surgery they removed the appendix they did the biopsy on my lymph nodes and and everything and they came back and they said matt everything looks good we want to give you your prognosis we we have a forecasted outcome the likely outcome of what's gonna happen they said we think we got all the cancer your prognosis is good we don't think you'll ever see this cancer again that is literally what peter is saying here he's saying that when suffering comes into your life you don't freak out but you rejoice why because god chose your prognosis that's what he said in other words god hand picked you he selected you for a forecasted outcome and this is not the first time we see this in scripture don't turn there but psalms 139 16. the psalmist literally says this in psalms 139 16. this almost says your eyes god talking to god he said your eyes saw my unformed substance and in your book were written in your book are written every one of them the days that were formed for me when as yet there was none of them guys that's profound here's what the psalmist just said that every single solitary one of your days were formed and were written down in god's book by god before you ever lived one of them but peter and the psalmist are talking about god's sovereignty and how he has a specific plan and a specific purpose for every single solitary day of your life and hear this what this is implying what the psalm is implying what peter's implying is even on the worst day of your life god is there and he is at work and he is using it for your good in church that is the best news i've ever heard in my life that's the best news i've ever heard in my life other than jesus christ shed his blood on a cross for my sin is that even on the worst day of my life god has not abandoned me but he is there and he is using it for his good my good and his glory that's what the scripture says one of the other places we see this in the bible is in genesis 37 we see crystal clearly in genesis 37 it's a story of joseph for those of you that grew up in sunday school and had the flannel board thing and saw joseph and what what did his coat look like it was a coat of what many colors got some baptists in here and joseph's dad loved him and he made him a coat of many colors well his brothers got jealous of him got jealous of him and then has to plan to steal his coat and then sell him into slavery into egypt and so let me read this to you really quickly genesis 37 23. so when joseph came to his brothers they stripped him of his robe the robe of many colors that he wore and they took him and threw him in a pit pit was empty and there was no water in it and they sat down to eat and looking up they saw a caravan of ishmaelites coming from gilead with their camels bringing gum balm and myrrh on their way to carry it down to egypt then judah said to his brothers what prophet if we kill our brother and conceal his blood come let us sell him to the ishmaelites and let not our hand be upon him for he is our brother our own flesh and his other brothers listened to him the midianite traitors passed by and they drew joseph up and lifted him out of the pit and sold him to the israelites for 20 shekels of silver and they took joseph to egypt now i want you to put yourself in joseph's shoes for just a second his brothers just jumped him they stole his most prized possession they threw him into a pit where there's no water and then he sold him into slavery in egypt or he will go to prison and spend multiple years of his life would you and i agree that the brother is having a bad day as a matter of fact i would argue that this was hands down the single worst day of joseph's entire life his life is falling apart it's bad he's not only being persecuted he's going through a trial he's not only going through a trial but he is suffering and none of it was his fault now if you're in joseph's position what's your temptation i know my temptation would be well to think god you've abandoned me i'm hanging out with my dad he's making coach for me life's good now i'm a slave in egypt because of my stinking brothers god where are you that's what i'm thinking or our temptation is to think that the lord abandoned us and i don't know about you but i'm thinking i might get a little bitter at my brothers i'm thinking maybe that my heart would even begin to hate them i i think i might even some of us might even begin to get better at god because he allowed this horrible evil to happen to us but that's not how joseph responds he gets sold into slavery by his brothers but he never got bitter he never walked away from god and because of that joseph began to grow in his favor with his egyptian captors to the point that he eventually rises to be one of pharaoh the pharaoh of egypt's top advisors years later joseph brothers get captured they get brought to egypt and because joseph had risen to power as one of pharaoh's top advisers his brothers were brought before joseph and he got to decide their fate now let's put our ourself in joseph's position again you've got these guys in front of you that have horribly mistreated you and abused you and we're the the reason behind the single worst event in your entire life there before you what do you do again i think i would be tempted to put those guys in jail for at least a couple of days to think about what they did to me but that's not what he does he ends up blessing them he blesses him doesn't retaliate against him get some release guys how did he do that y'all heard all that you're like i think i would have responded kind of matt how you were saying not how joseph was saying how in the world does he do that he tells us in genesis 50 19 watch this joseph tells us how he was able to do it in genesis 50 19 the brothers are in front of him joseph speaks and says but joseph said to them to his brothers do not fear for am i in the place of god tells his brother hey don't be afraid because i want you to know that i know that i'm where i'm at because the lord has me here i'm in the place of god in slavery in egypt and then he goes on and this is a profound verse in verse 20 he looks back at him he says as for you you meant evil against me but god meant it for good you brothers you meant that for evil but in that moment the worst moment of my entire life god meant your evil for my good that's what peter's saying that's all he's saying peter's teaching us that when trial comes into your life and it's coming the secret to not falling into despair the secret to not growing bitter the secret to rejoicing is to remember that even on your worst day god takes what the world meant for evil god takes what satan meant for evil god takes what your enemies meant for evil and he destroys the power of those things by turning them and using them for your good in his glory and again it's the greatest news i've ever heard in my life now really quickly step to step three how do we rejoice in the minutes when our life is falling apart we remember the sovereignty of god and that he's using everything in our life for our good and his glory here's the last one number four the key to rejoicing in the midst of suffering is remember that god uses every trial to use every child of life to transform us into something that's beautiful and powerful that's it's huge it's key for you to remember that every trial you're walking through in your life god is at work we just learned that he's sovereign he's at work what is he doing in us in that trial that he's at work in he's transforming us through that trial into something powerful and beautiful let me show you exactly what i'm talking about look at verse 2 first peter 1 2. it says according to the foreign knowledge of god you were chosen according to the foreknowledge of god the father god chose your prognosis and then the next thing he says peter tells why god chose your prognosis he says according to the foreign you were chosen according to the four knowledge of god the father why for the sanctifying work of the spirit to obey jesus peter said god chose you according to the foreknowledge of god the father he hand picked your prognosis why for the sanctifying work of the spirit that you would obey jesus christ what peter is saying here church listen carefully he's saying through every moment of suffering every moment of trial in your entire life the holy spirit is at work through that trial transforming you and sanctifying you into a person that looks like jesus christ we think the greatest good in our life is to be free from suffering we think the greatest good in our life is for us to avoid suffering peter's saying no actually the reason you rejoice is because the greatest good in your life is when you walk through suffering and it makes you look more like jesus that's the greatest good and so that some of us we need to let that sink in today we need to let that sink into our lives today into our hearts today because what he's saying again he's writing these people to comforting them comfort them in the midst of suffering but he doesn't write them to comfort them by saying they're going to be able to avoid suffering everybody look at me he's comforting them by saying that every single time you suffer in this life it has a purpose every moment of it has a purpose god is at work let that sink in are you going through a trial right now you just got through with trials three kinds of people you just got through a trial you're walking in a trial you're about to go through a trial let it sink in god's not allowing you to go through that trial to harm you or to punish you he's not allowing you to go through that trial because he's forgotten you it's actually the polar opposite of that he's allowing you to go through that trial because he loves you he's allowing you to go through that trial not because he's left you he's allowing you to go through the trial because his hand is upon you he's allowing you to go through that trial not because he's forgotten you because he is transforming you into something more beautiful and powerful than you were for the kingdom of god and that's incredible news we forget that i want to tell you a quick story i uh sort of illustrates this years ago when i was at the austin stone the pastor of the stone and chris tomlin was my worship leader we went to the passion conference together for those of you that know what the passion conference is it's a conference for college students and young professionals and tom was leading worship louis giglio was preaching and a guy named john piper was preaching there if you don't know who john piper is he's going to be one of the guys that we look back on he's like one of the top theologians of our time and generation it's a big deal in certain circles and he is i hope he doesn't listen to this he's one of the most socially awkward people i've ever met in my life he's very introverted he's brilliant but he's very introverted and he's intense he's just an intense dude he's like 69 or 70 now and we're passion conference and he came up to chris tomlin and said chris i want to go to lunch with you here at the conference and he didn't say why he wanted to go to lunch and so a few minutes after that tomlin comes running up to me he goes matt john piper just asked me to lunch and i was like why he said i don't know but i think maybe i wrote a song that was theologically incorrect he's about to lay me out so he's like would you go with me to lunch in case it gets theological you got my back and i'm like my head i'm you know i'm like second year at the you know seminary studio bro he's like you got to go so i said okay and so we went to lunch together and it was one of the most awkward lunches of my entire life because talmud is this if you've ever watched him he's so charismatic on stage and so amazing in person he's pretty introverted and piper's worse than him and i'm pretty introverted too so it's we're sitting there jennifer is with me uh jesse reeves who wrote how great is our god was with tomlin and jennifer and jesse are extroverts and so they're uncomfortable with how awkward the whole thing is and so jesse feels like he needs to talk chris's bass player to like liven things up and get the conversation going because we're literally true story we're just sitting there eating nobody's saying a word jesse starts telling the story that vaguely had something to do with dr piper and it kind of culminated in this big punch line that was really funny and and i'm laughing and tomlin's laughing and jennifer's laughing and piper doesn't laugh piper looks at jesse true story looks at jesse and says riveting jennifer's under the table now at this point finally mercifully john piper begins to sort of speak and never talks to talmud the entire time by the way and i had just gone through cancer dr piper was going through cancer at the time nobody knew it he looked at me and said man i heard you walking through cancer he said tell me what you learned i said well dr popper i said honestly it's a it's a really long story but i said i'll just simply say this i said in many ways cancer is one of the greatest things that ever happened to me because through it god drew me to jesus christ in a way i don't think i ever would have without walking through cancer that's all i said and as soon as i said it john piper smiled for the first time in the whole lunch this big smile got on his face and he leans in real close to me and he says suffering is a beautiful hermeneutic and i remember thinking i have no idea what that means true story grab my phone under the table i'm texting pastor at the one of the pastors of the stone i'm like suffering is a beautiful hermeneutic what does this mean quick quick quick quick tell me he texts back he says matt that means that suffering makes the bible come alive that suffering brings god into this sharp clarity that you don't ever see when everything is good the greatest moments of spiritual growth in my life church did not happen in the good times but the greatest moments of spiritual growth in my life they happened when my life was falling apart because when my life was falling apart god gave me something that was so much better than ease and comfort and safety he gave me more of himself and that's what peter is saying be comforted rejoice you can rejoice in suffering because you remember who's speaking to you it's not it's jesus you can rejoice in suffering because you can remember this world as not your home you can rejoice in suffering because you remember that god is sovereign and that he's working every moment of your life and lastly you can rejoice in suffering because you remember that god is transforming you into something beautiful and powerful and i'll end today i'm done don't move hear this i'm done with this in light of everything we've learned today in light of everything we're gonna see peter is screaming from the rooftops of this truth this reality that if you're here today and you're not a believer enjoy this life soak up all this life that you can live for every moment gather up as much stuff as you can experience everything that this life has to offer because if jesus christ is not your lord and savior this life is as close to heaven as you're ever going to get but if you are a believer if you've trusted in jesus as your lord and as your savior if you're his child if you're his son or you're his daughter endure suffering endure it when it comes and during the trials and the tribulations and the mockery and the scorn and the persecution if you're his child you can rejoice in suffering you can stand tall and smile at the looming storm clouds that are coming because if you are his child this world is as close to hell as you are ever going to get and that's why we rejoice so let's pray father i pray for those that have recently walked through trials i pray for those that right now as i speak are in one and i pray for those that soon will be i pray that they would remember and they would stand fast with the reality that none of this takes you by surprise that you're still on your throne that you're alive that you never sleep you never slumber and that you're good and that we can trust you with every moment of our lives father this world needs a lot of things but one thing it needs are people that trust you no matter what help us be those people no matter what we face in the days to come let's shine like stars in the sky father god we love you we praise you that we pray that you would do this great work in us and as we sing to you today i pray it would be more than a song or the words on a screen but it would be our confession and our prayer that all my life you've been faithful that all my life you've been so so good and so with every breath that i'm able i'm gonna sing of the goodness of god we ask all these things today in jesus name amen amen church let's stand together

Channel: Sagemont Church, Houston

Views: 1,190

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Matt Carter, Sagemont Church, 1 Peter, Sagemont, Houston, Following Christ, Following Christ in an Non-Christian World

Id: -0yU8SopUKA

Length: 38min 31sec (2311 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 11 2020