May 1, 2011
Dear friends in Christ.
If I could choose only one season out of the entire church year as my favorite, I would have to choose Easter. I love Easter. I love how the whole church seems to transform from a veil of sorrow to a veil of joy. I love how we beautify our church with all sorts of different flowers as we celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus. But most of all I love how joyful our celebrations are as we gather to sing praise to the Lord our God on Easter Sunday. It is always so fund to gather and raise our voices together in song as we sing praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as we did last Sunday, with songs like, I know that My Redeemer Lives, Amazing Grace, Sing, My Tongue, the Glorious Battle, and even a couple of stanzas of How Great Thou Art! As I’ve said before, I do wish that all of you could sit where I do and hear how beautiful you all sound as we raise our voices together, singing praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! For, as we gathered on Easter Sunday and as we’ve gathered here again this morning, we have gathered to sing praise to the Lord our God who raised his Son from the dead. We’ve gathered to sing praise to the Lord our God who freed us from our sins and made us his own through the death and resurrection of his Son, our Savior. We’ve gathered to sing praise to our God and Father because he has redeemed us, restored us and forgiven us. In short, we have gathered to sing praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for all the great things that our God has done for us, just as Peter explains to us in our lesson for today.
Now, if you haven’t already opened your Bibles to our lesson for today, I invite you to open to 1 Peter chapter 1 beginning with verse 3 and we’ll take a look at all the reasons Peter gives us to sing praise. Now, as you are turning to 1 Peter, let me give you the back story, so to speak. As Peter writes in 1 Peter chapter 1, the year is somewhere between 62 and 64. The Apostle Paul is most likely traveling in the region of Spain, and Peter, perhaps at the request of Paul, sits down with Silas to write a letter of comfort and encouragement to the believes in the cities where Paul and Silas had traveled on Paul’s second Missionary Journey. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned in Bible Class that it was Luke who had written 1 Peter along with Peter, however, that was not correct, as Peter tells us in chapter 5 that it was with the help of Silas he had written this letter (1 Peter 5:12) And who better than Silas, the man who had visited these congregations with Paul, to aid Peter in writing this letter of praise!
Take a look at what Peter writes beginning with verse 3: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:3–9, NIV84)
What better message could there be for us to hear on the heels of Easter than this message, giving us every reason to praise our God who has brought us into a new and living hope. What greater message could there be than the assurance that we have hope in any and every situation, especially when we take a look at the world around us. It is no secret that our economy is struggling. It is no secret that people are scared. It is no secret that more and more people have entered survival mode and are on the brink of losing hope? How many of us are in the same boat? How many of us are finding ourselves scared about the future? How many of us are sacrificing little things here and there to keep from having to enter survival mode too soon. How many are looking at the world around us and beginning to wonder if hope will hold out?
This is why Peter is writing as he is this morning! He is writing to assure us that in the midst of our economy we have every reason to sing praise to our God and Father. We have every reason to sing praise to our God and Father because even though we had once been lost in the darkness of sin and unbelief, God the Father willingly handed over his one and only son to death so that we would not have to die. Before we were even born, God the Father loved us and planned for our salvation. Before he even created the World, God the Father laid out his plan for our eternal salvation which centered on nothing that we could do for him, but everything that he could do for us. Now, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Savior, we have been given new birth in to a new and living hope. No matter what might be happening around us, the hope we have is secure, because our hope is in the forgiveness of sins that Jesus won for us. Our hope springs from the waters of Baptism that have washed us clean through the work of the Holy Spirit in connection with the Word of God. Our hope is certain because Jesus Christ who died in our place, rose again from the dead to assure us that our sins have been completely washed away.
Now, through faith in Jesus Christ, our Savior, we have been made children of God and heirs of eternal life! In the midst of an economy where people are concerned about their investments, 401k’s, stock options and other retirement funds, we have no concern whatsoever. We have no concern because we know that our retirement benefits are not only safe but they are out of this world. We are confident because we know that our inheritance is kept for us in heaven, where no thief can ever break in. No moth can ever destroy. No rust can ever corrupt. Nothing can ever spoil it, nor can it fade away, nor can it be lost because the stock market takes a turn for the worse. Thus we sing the praise of our God and Father because he has secured our inheritance through his mighty power with which we are shielded even now, until our salvation will be revealed when the Lord calls us home.
Because of this, we have every reason sing the praise of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if that’s the case Pastor, if we can rejoice in the Lord our God, if we can sing his praises because he has redeemed us, made us his own, and even protects us in this life, why do we still have to face sorrows and hardships? Why do find ourselves suffering at the hands of others? Why do face difficulties in this life? Peter answers that question for us beginning with verse 6 where he says, “6 In this [that is all these things with which God has blessed you] you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:3–9, NIV84)
Though no one likes hardships or suffering, we can still rejoice in them because we know that they come to us so that our faith might be proven to be genuine. They come to us to draw us closer to the Lord. They come to us to make us take our eyes off the things of the world and refocus our vision on the things of eternal life. They come to us because Jesus promised that when we followed him the world would hate us and we would be persecuted just as he was. They come to us because satan is looking for any and every opportunity to distract us from our faith, cause us to despair, lose our hope, and finally fall away from the faith. They come to us because sometimes the Lord sends them into our lives, as he did when he asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, so that we can learn what we are made of; so that we can learn the caliber of our faith and our trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior. Though they are never easy to cope with, James tells us that we can consider it pure joy whenever we face trials of many kinds because it will produce perseverance of faith. (James 1:2) Though they are never the most easy thing to cope with, Paul assures us that we can rejoice in suffering because produce perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character produces hope. (Romans 5:3) Though they are never easy to cope with Peter assures us that they come to help us look forward to our living hope in a better future with the Lord our God forever in heaven.
This is why we have every reason to sing praises to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! We have every reason to sing praise to our God and Father because he is the one who freed us from our sins by sending his Son to be our Savior. He is the one who crushed Jesus and caused him to suffer (Isaiah 53:10) so that we would never have to. He is the one who forsook his own son on the cross so that he would never have to forsake us. He is the one who raised Jesus from the dead to assure us that not only have all our offenses been cleared, but that he will also raise us, just as he raised his Son. Thus we have gathered together on this Sunday after Easter, to sing praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because he is the one who has made us his own and has given us a sure and certain living hope in eternal life through his Son, our Savior.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church --Le Sueur, MN
