Wednesday after Judica + 1 Peter 5:1-14

In the Name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

On Sunday we entered into the most solemn part of the Lenten season. Passiontide directs our focus upon the sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ for our sins. St. Peter has written quite a bit about Christ’s suffering and death for such a short epistle, saying that “Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit” (3:18). He has said that Christ “bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness -- by whose stripes you were healed” (2:24). Peter has taught us much about the significance of Christ’s death. But He teaches us more. At the beginning of this final chapter he calls himself “a witness of the sufferings of Christ.” He witnessed Christ’s agony in Gethsemane. He saw Christ’s trial in the house of the High Priest. That’s where he denied his Lord three times. But in spite of this public denial of Christ in His hour of utmost need, Peter confidently describes himself “also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed.” His denial was forgiven. Christ died even for that sin. And the forgiveness won on the cross was applied to Peter after Christ’s resurrection, so that Peter, truly believing Christ’s word, could confidently assert that He was a partaker of His future glory.

All those who trust in Christ’s death to atone for their sins have the promise that they will be partakers of Christ’s future glory. And while Peter has described that glory on several occasions in his epistle, he doesn’t rehash that again. He’s more interested in helping the saints dispersed throughout the world remain in that faith against all the assaults of the world and the devil. The world, after all, hates Christ because Christ shows the world its hypocrisy and sinfulness. Everything the world worships Christ casts down. The world, in its sinful arrogance, worships its human intellect, human wealth, and human ingenuity. The world puffs up against Christ because Christ tells the world that all this is worthless to merit eternal life. Some of the world rails against Christ. Some of the world just ignores Him and imagines He’s not there or that His message no longer applies, if it ever did. This arrogance comes out in how people treat each other, arrogantly thinking of themselves better than others and lording it over others, if not in reality, in their minds.

But the one who trusts Christ’s death and has been made partakers of the glory that will be revealed have no room for this arrogance. “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humility is considered weakness by the world but before God is a great virtue. Pride looks at the word of God and Christ’s gospel and scoffs. Humility accepts God’s Word as true. The word of Law that looks at you and says, “You’re no good. You’ve done all sorts of things that are no good. And you do those things that are no good because you yourself are no good.” Humility accepts this word and confesses it to be true. Humility also then hears the Gospel that says that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). God resists the proud. They do not want His help, His salvation, His gifts, so God is against them. But God gives grace to the humble, those who admit their spiritual poverty, their spiritual death, and freely bestows His favor on them, lifting them up from the dung heap of sin  by forgiving them for Christ’s sake and making them partakers of the glory that will be revealed. But the saints have to know that this glory is a future glory, a glory “that will be revealed.” And it won’t be revealed in this lifetime, in this sinful world, but in the next life, because this world needs to be recreated to bear the future glory of the saints of God.

That means that in this life you will suffer at the hands of the world and that life as a Christian will be difficult. We’re beginning to see this in a way that people haven’t experienced it for some time now. We’re beginning to see Christianity being publically maligned. The world has completed its program of secularization, removing God and anything transcendent from the public square and from people’s way of thinking. But it isn’t enough that the world is secularized, it must be paganized. And that means that the world will its ire on Christianity, Christians, and Churches. This means that there’s plenty to for us to be anxious about. Being a Christian in the public square is no longer a walk in the park as it had been in previous generations. In this, the world is set against you. But that’s where humility comes into play. “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” He will exalt you “in due time,” not now, not in this life, but when Christ comes again in glory, you will partake of that glory.  Cast those cares upon Him. Why? Because He cares for you. He knows what you need, and what the Church needs, even before we ask.

The one who trusts Christ’s death and has been made a partaker of the glory that will be revealed will also have Satan, the roaring lion, as an enemy. Temptation to sin and accusation when you have sinned are his weapons, the lion’s roar which is mean to strike fear in your heart so that you lose confidence in Christ’s promises. Temptation leads you into sin, so that you do not pray and think of God’s will. Accusation gets you stuck in thinking about your sins, so that you don’t believe the Gospel and enjoy the forgiveness of sins that comes by believing Christ’s blood covers all your sins and that His perfect righteousness is yours. The devil is a terrible adversary. “Resist him, steadfast in the faith.” Be immovable in the faith. Be firm in the faith. Endure in the faith when temptation comes. When you do fall into sin and the lion roars about your sins, accusing you of the wickedness you’ve done and the good you’ve left undone, resist him with the promise of the Gospel, that God forgives the sins of all who are penitent as often as they come to Him in faith. And take heart, “knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.” The roaring lion attacks all Christians with temptation and accusation. You are not alone in your temptations. All the brethren experience them. These too you should cast upon the Lord, for He cares for you. He’s provided Christ’s death and righteous life for you so that you should not fall to Satan, but believe, receive forgiveness, and endure unto the end.

This is Peter’s goal for the saints who hear his epistle read: “May the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.” Peter does not end His epistle to you with a simple wish that He hopes the God of all grace does these things. He will do these things for you and He will do them for you through the Word. Hasn’t He “called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus?” He has, through the call of the Gospel. Since He’s called you by the gospel, even though you suffer a little while in this world, He promises to perfect your faith, establish your faith, strengthen you faith, and settle you firmly on His promises. Since He does all this through His Word, remain in His Word. Since you have the world with all its arrogance and the devil prowling around as a roaring lion, seeking to devour you, remain close to His Word, for He has the words of eternal life.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.