Encouragement in Difficult Days (Part 1)
by Phil Haines
Reading the blog posts on GR:UK, it is wonderful to see how the Scriptures speak so clearly and powerfully into our present troubling situation. Whether it is the ‘Resurrection and Coronavirus’, the ‘Psalms and Coronavirus’, or assistance in praying through the coronavirus, we are able to find help in the wonderful truth of God’s word.
Just before lockdown began, I completed a series on 1 Samuel, and as we entered lockdown, I decided to preach from the First Epistle of Peter and particularly verses 1-9 of chapter 1. In verse 6 Peter writes these words, ‘In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials…’ Peter may have been specifically referring to the ‘living hope’ in verse 3, yet from the opening words of the Epistle, it is evident that the Apostle speaks of wonderful and foundational truths in which we can rejoice today, even in the face of our present suffering. I want to draw a couple of these out over the course of a few posts.
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you. (ESV)
These opening words tell us that this letter was written by Simon Peter, who was an apostle of Jesus Christ. This revelation helps us as we approach the letter, because I believe we are able to see how Peter’s experiences in the Christian life, under the ministry of Jesus Christ, shine through his encouragement and exhortations to the various congregations. This is a letter written by a man who knows the challenge of Jesus’ call to take up the cross and follow him. He is a man who knows what it is to fail in the trial and who knows what it is to be victorious in the trial. He is a man who knows intimately the mercy and the love of God. He is a man who knows the power of faith. All of this background and experience which the Holy Spirit used to shape Peter, helps to shape his letter.
The recipients of the letter spread across various regions are ‘Exiles of the Dispersion’. The term translated ‘dispersion’ was a term often used in the area of agriculture for the scattering of seed and referred particularly to the scattering of the covenant people, following conquests centuries before, by Assyria and Babylon. Some may have left Jerusalem and Judaea on account of the persecution of the church following the death of Stephen. As well as the literal understanding of the term exiles, there is also a figurative sense in the Scriptures that God’s people are exiles or strangers on this earth. So, when Peter speaks of strangers here, he means strangers in the world – their stay on earth is temporary, earth is not their true home, their citizenship is in heaven. As the writer of Hebrews records concerning Abraham and the rest of the Patriarchs,
13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
Peter reflects this hope, this reality, at the outset of his letter; as God’s people they live on this earth as temporary residents, as strangers, as exiles looking forward to their Heavenly home.
And there is something else that is special about these exiles; they are elect, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. They are sanctified by the Holy Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and they are sprinkled with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the glorious message of God’s Triune activity in salvation. Peter is about to warn the brothers and sisters to whom he is writing that they are going to suffer various trials, their faith is going to be tested by fire, what better way to prepare them for these experiences than to set their feet upon the solid ground of God’s unassailable word and almighty work in salvation!
And he starts by saying to these suffering people, you are elect of God. God the Father chose you from before the foundation of the world to be His own. Even before the universe was brought into existence, before there was a place called earth, before the stars were set in the heavens, before man was created, God knew you and had chosen you to be his own.
This truth belongs to all God’s people in every generation, this reality shapes our lives. This is awesome and so humbling. If you believe, the fact is, the God of all creation, who holds the universe in the palm of his hands knows you and he chose you from before the foundation of the world. Peter reflects the words of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 1:
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us[b] for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
And this is an unchangeable truth. Nothing and no-one can change our status as God’s children, as those who have been chosen by God to be his own, chosen to sit at the marriage supper of the Lamb. In the Gospel of John, the Lord Jesus Christ speaking of his people said,
28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.
There is more that could be said, and in the next post, Lord willing, we will consider the rest of verse 2. In the current global situation, when we find ourselves alone, separated from our brothers and sisters in our congregations, wondering about the future and what it may hold, none of this changes our status with God. If we believe, we are his and he is ours, nothing and no-one can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is why Augustus Toplady could write these words in his hymn, ‘My name from the palm of his hands eternity will not erase; impressed on his heart it remains, in marks of indelible grace…’ and then triumphantly declare with confidence that was not grounded in himself, but in God’s word and work, ‘Yes I to the end shall endure, as sure as the earnest is given…’ In this we can rejoice even though we may be suffering various trials at this time. Blessings.
Phil is the Minister of Ely Presbyterian Church (Reformed), in Cardiff
http://www.epcreformed.org
