Ryan Hale

As Peter is writing to the churches throughout the area that is modern-day Turkey, he finishes his letter with an appeal. He says that he is making his appeal to fellow elders, those that are leading the churches, to watch over their flocks, caring for them, leading and guiding them.

To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.

1 Peter 5

But at the end, Peter says something interesting. He says that there is a Chief Shepherd who is yet to appear. Who is Peter speaking of? He is, of course, speaking of Jesus.

But wait a minute… Isn’t the entire Catholic church built on the idea that Christ will build his church upon the rock, who is Peter? The papal legacy has been passed down from Peter to the rest of the popes, and have even been considered to have authority to speak and set the direction of the church here on the earth, on par with the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, based on the idea that Christ gave this authority to Peter. The pope, as the head of the Catholic church, is God’s representative on the earth, according to the Catholics, as a result of Jesus’s declaration that he would build his church upon that rock.

Right?

But it seems that Peter has a different understanding. He calls himself a “fellow elder”. Fellow, as in, on the same level. Those that Peter is writing to are leading their flocks, just as Peter is leading his. Peter is overseeing the flock that he has been given. The elders to whom he is writing will oversee theirs.

Peter is writing to instruct and encourage, not because he is in authority over them, but because he has simply gone before them. He has Apostolic status and authority, that much is true. But so do several others, including Paul who was the first through the areas that Peter is writing to.

Instead, the authority that we see here comes from One and only One, and that is from the Chief Shepherd. The Chief elder is the one that they are all waiting to see. Jesus is the one that is over all. He is the head of the universal church. And only him. No other. No mere man can lead Christ’s church, regardless of his Apostolic authority. Only Christ can and will lead His church.

What is the worst that they could do?

We might ask ourselves this question if we find ourselves in a situation where we are in a position of relative strength and we are wondering what the consequences of our next action might be. What is the worst that they could do to me, we might ask, if I take this next step? If I complete this next action?

In that case, we are probably calculating that the worst is not all that bad. We are probably thinking that we are in a good position and we can move forward without significant consequences or issue.

But that is a completely different scenario from what Peter is talking about here. In this case, he has been talking to the believers to submit themselves to the government. Or he spoke to slaves to submit themselves to their masters. Or to wives to submit themselves to their husbands.

And why should each of these be submitting?

Because through their submission, through their hard work, or through their loving kindness back to the people who are over them – whether they should be over them or not, whether they treat them well or not – they try to reach those people for Christ so that they might also be saved.

But what would give Peter the right to ask people to do this? Is slavery right? Is it right that a husband would “lord” authoritatively over his wife? No, of course not. But that isn’t the point. Peter isn’t talking about rights, or even what is right. That is far from the point. He is talking about eternity.

For the sake of this person in eternity, God calls his people to reach others.

For the sake of this person in eternity, God wants his people to give themselves now for a reward that they will receive forever.

For the sake of this person in eternity, God wants his people to lay down their rights, even to lay down what is right, to make Christ known.

But how would Christ be known through these people’s actions?

Christ gave himself to reach his enemies.

Not the “good” people. Not the religious people. Not those who are part of the church, the synagogue, the mosque, or whatever other religious structure.

No, he gave himself for his enemies.

All people – I repeat – All people are, or have been, Christ’s enemies. All people have sinned. All people have rebelled against God. Whether in many ways or in a few ways. Whether other people see them as good people or not. None of the ways that man measures his sin matters. The only thing that matters is how God sees us before Him.

So Christ came to die for his enemies. He came to give himself for others. He came to give himself.

And so this is Peter’s justification. Christ did it first. Christ gave up his rights. He didn’t consider what was “right”. He thought only about eternity. He thoughts about establishing his Kingdom for eternity. He thought about the eternal future of the people – his enemies – that he came to purchase, to save and bring into his Kingdom.

And so Peter calls each of us, in our various roles, to do the same. To give ourselves for others. Citizens, foreigners, slaves, wives. Peter calls each of them to give themselves for the eternal salvation of others, and he calls us to do that for others because Christ did it first for each of us.

But we should also know that it could be bad. It won’t all be roses and rainbows. This will be difficult. This is going to be painful. But Peter says to not fear.

But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.”

1 Peter 3:14

Peter says that we will likely suffer, but even if we are going to suffer, we shouldn’t fear. Why shouldn’t we fear? Because what is the worst that they can do? Remembering what Jesus told his disciples, the worst that they can do is kill the body, but they can’t touch the soul. Only God can speak to the soul and where it will go.

So, could this be difficult? Could it really be bad? Yes, absolutely. But do not fear. Christ is with you.

There was recently something written in graffitti on a wall here in our town. In English, you would translate it to read:

He is only forgotten if no one speaks of him any longer.

I appreciate the sentiment, I do. They placed this script alongside a picture of their friend who had passed away too young. Maybe of sickness. Maybe in an accident. Possibly something else. Who knows… Whoever wrote it wanted to honor their friend, and I can appreciate that.

On the other hand, I think that it is much more important to realize now the fragility and truly short-lived nature of our lives. For example, here is something else that I read online recently:

In 100 years we will all be buried with our relatives and friends.

Strangers will live in our homes we fought so hard to build, and they will own everything we have today. All our possessions will be unknown, including the car we spent a fortune on, and will probably be scrap, preferably in the hands of an unknown collector.

Our descendants will hardly or hardly know who we were, nor will they remember us. How many of us know our grandfather’s father?

After we die, we will be remembered for a few more years, then we are just a portrait on someone’s bookshelf, and a few years later our history, photos and deeds disappear in history’s oblivion. We won’t even be memories.

Let’s be honest. That’s a much more likely scenario, right? Isn’t it true that, very soon, we probably won’t even be memories?

Yes, that is the truth. That is the reality. A few people will live on in various history books for the next few hundred years, but even for them, not much more than that. Otherwise, for the rest of us, we will be “dust in the wind”, as was once wrote in a famous pop song.

Yet we still have within us a desire to live on. We have a desire for eternity. We have a longing for forever.

Forever, in our physical bodies or in the history books, simply isn’t available to us. But forever is available to us spiritually. It is available to us through Christ.

The Apostle Peter spoke to us on this theme. Here is what he said:

“All people are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of the Lord endures forever.”

1 Peter 1:24-25

Peter explains that our days our numbered. You can see the grass today, but the truth is that it will wither.

You can see the beautiful flowers today, but they will soon fall.

But what will live on? The word of the Lord. And that is all. God and his word will live on forever. God’s Kingdom will remain. That is what has been prophecied for millenia, and that is what came true through Christ 2000 years ago. That truth continues on to this day and will continue on forever.

God offers each of us eternal life. You can live on forever, but only if you are found in Christ. If you are in Christ, you will be given a new life, life in eternity. In this way, you will not be lost, but you will be found alive into eternity. Eternal with Christ.

What a mess. James calls out the people that he is writing to saying that they are adulterous. They have been unfaithful to their true husband, the bridegroom, Christ himself, and instead have become friends with the world.

To be adulterous means that we are unfaithful to the one to whom we are truly married. It means that we say that we are married to one and yet in our actions we have given ourselves to another. This is what James is saying that the Christians are doing. We have said that we are married to Christ, but in reality we are giving ourselves to the world. We have become adulterous, unfaithful to the one that we are married to.

So James says that this has happened to believers. We have become adulterous. We have become unfaithful. We have become friends with the world and its ways, and in so doing, we have become enemies of God.

You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

James 4:4

Whew… We’re supposed to be believers in Christ. We are supposed to be the bride of Christ. We are supposed to be wedded to him, and we say that we are. We have committed ourselves to him. But the reality is that we have become God’s enemies because we are sleeping around with the world.

What are the ways of the world?

Money. Power. Fame. Personal fulfillment in sex and self. These, and much more, are the ways that we run to the ways of the world. These are the ways that we put off our friendship with God, our marriage to Christ, and instead become adulterous to the things of the world.

We depend upon the world instead of upon God. We look for our problems to be resolved in the ways of the world instead of upon God. We want what WE want instead of what God wants. We think of our kingdoms above all else instead of God’s Kingdom. And this is normal for us. This is our everyday life.

And of course this is far from what God desires. This is far from what God wants for us, and that is James point. We should repent and turn back to God, leaving behind our adulterous ways and friendship with the world, instead returning back to Christ, our first love, and finding all that we need with him.

Today we are starting the book of James, and it is completely full of practical wisdom that is important for any believer to put into practice.

But this book starts, immediately after the introductions, with this statement:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

James 1:2-3

And we’re off…

That’s quite a way to start as you write to other believers. Let me paraphrase:

If you face trials, make sure that you are joyful.

That’s a pretty long way from some of the discussions of our day:

But, why do bad things happen to good people?

Why would God allow this bad thing to happen to me?

But this guy never did anything wrong, why would God allow him to get sick?

James takes the exact opposite approach. He tells the readers of his letter that they should be joyful. Or let me rephrase… It should be PURE joy.

How could that be? If I am facing a trial, shouldn’t I be upset? Shouldn’t I be worried?

And what is more, shouldn’t God be protecting me? Shouldn’t I have received God’s blessing and He watches over me, preventing bad things from happening?

On the contrary, according to James: We should understand that we should be joyful that those things have come into our lives because it is a test for our faith. It is an opportunity for us to truly put our faith into practice and make sure that it is real. This trial can be an opportunity to purify our faith.

Have we been depending on things instead of upon God?

Have we been depending on other people instead of upon God?

This is our opportunity to know. We should consider this trial to be a test for our faith because as we go through it, it will help us to see where we actually put our faith.

If we have thought that God should protect us from bad things, we are wrong. God wants to use those bad things to strengthen us. If we have thought that God should protect us from difficult times, we are wrong. God wants to use those difficult times to teach us to persevere regardless of the difficult time.

And this is the way that James starts his letter. The believers of that time have just as many – and I would dare say, many MORE – trials that we ever could imagine, especially in our western culture and Christianity today. Yet James is calling the believers to consider these trials, these difficult times, to be joy.

Now, this doesn’t mean happiness. No one is ever happy when we have trials. This is not some stupid, artificial, superficial, put-on-a-happy-face attitude. No, James isn’t talking about this.

James is talking about a deeply-rooted contentment. Not just a fleeting feeling but an exalting of Christ and peace within the context of the difficulty.

But why? Because we are working toward perseverance. Perseverance means something that lasts in the long term. Not a moment. Not for a period of time. We’re talking about the long term. From here on out. That is what perseverance does. Perseverance doesn’t reach a point in the future and give up when times are difficult. Perseverance continues in the face of difficulty.

When we have headwinds, we keep going. We persevere.

When we have competition. When we have opposition. When those war against us. When it seems that nothing goes right. We persevere.

And we do that because we have joy. We are joyful because our perspective is no longer just today, or even just this life. We are joyful because our perspective is now for eternity. We start today, but we live tomorrow, next year, the next decade, and the rest of our lives persevering in Christ.

But in truth, at that point, we are still just getting started. This life is nothing in the light of eternity. A blip on the radar. A tiny dot on the timeline…if that. Christ gives us eternal life, so we must persevere to not only grab ahold of that life, but to live it for all that it is worth for eternal consequence and for eternal joy. We live for what gives us joy and so James calls us to perseverance in the face of trials, and in this way we have joy because our faith has been tried and tested and found to be true.

How many trade-offs do we make?

How many times to we choose what is expedient, or what feels better in the short-term, instead of what is right and will last forever?

The writer of Hebrews gives an important warning to us to not do this.

What did Esau do? Esau was Jacob’s older brother, the first-born of Isaac and Rebekah. As the first-born, he should have received the birthright from his father. He should have been the one to receive the blessing of God and the blessing of the family.

But what did he do? He came home from hunting and was hungry. He didn’t care about his rights within the family, which would have given him a double portion of the inheritance and a place in the eternal line of Christ. The scriptures even say that he despised his birthright.

So Jacob, seeing his opportunity, tells Esau that he must swear to him that he, Esau, would give him, Jacob, the second-born, his birthright. And that is what he does. In Esau’s foolishness, in his search for an expedient solution to his hunger, he swears to Jacob that he will give his birthright…and it is over. Jacob now takes Esau’s place.

And for what?

A bowl of soup.

Later on, we see that Esau regreted what he had done. In fact, with Rebekah’s help, Jacob also deceives his father Isaac and takes Esau’s blessing. Jacob will be the one who will carry on the blessing of God, not Esau. Esau cries bitterly, but it is done. Jacob has the birthright and he has the blessing. For the longer-term rewards of the family, Jacob has it all. Esau has none.

Here is how the writer of Hebrews says it:

See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.

Hebrews 12:16-17

So let’s return back to the initial questions… How often do we do the same? How often are we like Esau?

To answer that question, let’s look at a couple of ways that we could imitate Esau.

First, we could despise what we have been given. We have been given a pathway into eternity, if we are willing to look to Christ as Savior and Lord.

But instead, we want to be the ruler of our own lives. We want to manage it on our own. We want to be the ones who lead our lives. We want to be unique. Rich. Powerful. We want to lead our own lives, kings ourselves instead of worshiping the King.

So as a result, we have more important things to do. We don’t have time to think about God. We have work to do.

I’ve had people tell me these exact words. Someday… In the future… Maybe… Once I am rich, then I will think about God. But for right now, I have things to do. I have to work. Right now, no. Maybe one day.

Even if we don’t say it, we often live it. We think primarily about the things of the world, not the things of God. We think more about what will please other men, not about what will please God. And our actions reflect these things. We are acting like Esau, thinking about today, those things that are temporary, not that which will last forever.

In a similar way, our sin does the same. In reality, what we have said above is sin because we walk away from God, from loving Him with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. We walk away from a desire to please Him.

But then it just continues to get worse. Because we don’t have a desire to please Him, to love Him, then we are willing to do much more. To go further. To break other commandments and find ourselves mired in sin even more deeply. And this is the same. This is the same thought process that Esau had.

Now.

What I want is what I want. And that is what I will have. The rest, that which is eternally important be damned. I will have what I want now. And we despise the birthright that God has offered to each of us through Christ. We are blinded by our desires of today so much that we only think about those things, not the truths of eternity.

Let us not despise the birthright that God offers us through Christ. Let us instead grab ahold of that which is eternal. We all know that this life will end. Let’s live wisely today to invest in what is eternal, not just living in the moment for what is temporary.

Previously, I wrote about how the temple curtain was torn in two. Then just recently, I noted that the writer of Hebrews says that Jesus himself, as our high priest, was able to enter into the the Most Holy Place himself, making a way for each of us to follow him into God’s presence.

Now, we bring that conversation forward even further because the writer of Hebrews says that we, ourselves, are able to enter into the Most Holy Place as well. Jesus offered his blood, which was the perfect sacrifice, made once for all, and was so much better than the sacrifice of a bull or a goat that had been offered by the Jewish High Priests up to that point. Instead, Jesus offered his own blood in the true temple, the place where God actually lives in heaven, and that provides us entry directly into God’s presence.

You see, we no longer need to be simply represented by the High Priest in God’s presence. We don’t need to stay away and risk being fried by the fire of God if we come close to him. No, he offers us everything. Full access. But he offers it to us as a result of Jesus making the way.

In Hebrews 10, Jesus is described as the curtain which has now been torn in two. The curtain, in that sense, is described as Jesus’s body:

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

Hebrews 10:19-22

Jesus’s body is described as the curtain, which I think can be taken in a few different ways:

First, we saw that the curtain had been torn in two. It was broken, but it was broken for us to allow us entry into God’s presence.

Second, it makes the way. The curtain, or Jesus’s body, no longer represents a barrier, but a way. Through the curtain we can reach the presence of God. Through the broken body of Christ, we reach the presence of God.

This, of course, should remind us of the time that Jesus told his disciples – Thomas in particular – that he is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the way that we can enter into God’s presence. He is the way that we can come before God. And he is the only way. Unless you go through him, you cannot come into God’s presence.

So, the fact that the way has been made for us, and has been opened to us, should give us great confidence. Confidence in what? In the fact that we belong. Confidence in the fact that we are able to enter in. Through Christ’s blood and his broken body, we have been made holy. We have been given forgiveness for our sins. We have had the way opened to us, so we can enter into God’s presence.

“But my righteous one will live by faith.
And I take no pleasure
in the one who shrinks back.”

But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

Hebrews 10:38-39

We no longer need to shrink back, as the Israelites did before Mount Sinai. We no longer need to fear. We have been given access through Christ into God’s presence and we can come into His presence boldly because we now belong. Christ’s blood has made us clean before the Lord.

In the time of the tabernacle and of temple, there was a room, an outer area, referred to as the Holy Place. In this area, there was a lampstand and a table with the consecrated bread of the presence. In this room, the Levitical priests would go in and out and do their work to bring offerings and sacrifices to the Lord on behalf of the people and the community each day throughout the year.

Then, past another curtain further still inward, there was another room referred to as the Most Holy Place, also referred to as the Holy of Holies. In this place was the golden altar of incense and the golden ark of the covenant that contained the manna from the time that the Israelites wandered in the desert, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets which were what God had written His law.

One time per year, the High Priest who had been chosen for that year would enter into the Most Holy Place to come before the Lord. As he did this, he would offer sacrifices of a bull for his sins as well as a goal for the sins of the people, and would then sprinkle the blood of each on the atonement cover, also referred to as the mercy seat, which was the cover over the ark of the covenant.

So this is what the human High Priest would do. But the writer of Hebrews says that, in Christ, we have a High Priest that is much greater and explains why:

He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.

Hebrews 9:12

In fact, we do see an incredible difference here. Christ came with a one-time offering for all. He didn’t come once per year as the High Priest of the Jews would do. He came one time for all.

What is more, Jesus didn’t bring with him the blood of animals. Jesus brought his own blood. His blood was pure because he was innocent. And he was not only innocent, he was holy. He hadn’t been born of the seed of man. He hadn’t inherited the curse that had been passed down from Genesis 3. Jesus was holy and had not sinned, so he could offer one time for all a single perfect sacrifice.

That is who our High Priest is. His work is done and he is now sitting beside the Father in heaven.

That is what our High Priest has done. He has offered his own blood. Not the blood of animals, but the blood of perfect, and in this case holy, man.

The writer of Hebrews is now really beginning to move forward his argument for the supremacy of Christ as the high priest that will minister the New Covenant that has been given to the people. Here are a few of the things that we can see about the New Covenant as noted in Hebrews 8:

Previously, the Old Covenant with Moses brought laws that the people must obey. Now, quoting the prophecy of Jeremiah, we see that God has written His law on the hearts of His people:

I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.

Hebrews 8:10

Previously in the Old Covenant, Moses mediated with the people by giving them laws that they must obey. Now, Jesus has offered love, grace, and mercy to God’s people and they will obey God because of their love back to Him for what Jesus has done for them.

Previously in the Old Covenant, the covenant was confirmed through the sacrifice and blood of animals. Now, the New Covenant is confirmed through the shedding of Christ’s blood on the cross.

Previously in the Old Covenant, the priests were from the tribe of Levi, serving the rest of the people. Now in the New Covenant, all believers are priests of the Covenant with Christ serving as the High Priest.

The Old Covenant is no longer necessary because the New Covenant has now been made between God and His people through the work of Christ. The New Covenant is the covenant that will live on and last forever.

These differences have significant implications on our world today. Islam and Catholocism, as a starting point, but also Buddhism and Hinduism, impose a set of regulations that must be followed and through the fulfillment of these regulations, a person can be accepted by God. This is the nature of religion. Do lots of good things and hope that you will one day be able to be accepted by God (or “gods” in the case of some of the religions) at the time of judgment.

But God has done something much greater, and is communicating something much greater, if we are willing to understand it. He has been saying that He has done the work already. We don’t need to continue to strive to reach Him. We don’t need to try to keep a law that is impossible to keep. We have already lost the battle. We are already imperfect, and without God’s mercy and grace, we will be judged for being spiritually dead before God as a result of our sin.

Jesus fulfilled the law. He did not sin…and he is the only One who has ever done that! But yet Jesus was punished as if He was a sinner because God placed all of humanity’s sin upon Him.

This is why Jesus is called our great High Priest. He was offered, and for that matter, offered Himself, as a sacrifice. And he continues today, sitting at the right hand of the Father, mediating on our behalf.

The book of Genesis recounts that God created the world in 6 days, and then on the seventh day, God rested. Reading in Hebrews this morning, I saw an important connection between the story of creation and the invitation that we have into God’s rest.

So if we say that God rested, what are we referring to? There are at least a couple of things that we can talk about on this front:

First, we see that God rested on the seventh day from His work of creation. There was a specific time that was set out for rest from the work. In each of the previous six days, we see that they are each described as finishing with an evening and then a morning, and then the day would be ennumerated. So, for example, if we refer to the first day of creation, Genesis says it this way:

God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Genesis 1:5

Each of the days go like this. It is a pattern of the day happening with God creating through His word in the course of that day, then evening to bring the day to a close, followed by morning to open a new day.

But then we arrive to the seventh day and we see that there is no end. There is no evening and there is no morning. The seventh day never ends.

Well, maybe the author just didn’t close off the day and moved on to the next thought.

Or maybe instead it was intentional.

So now we arrive back to Hebrews 4 where I was reading this morning and it speaks of God’s day of rest being called Today. Here is the breadth of the passage:

And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “On the seventh day God rested from all his works.”  And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.”

Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience, God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted:

“Today, if you hear his voice,
    do not harden your hearts.”

Hebrews 4:3-7

So I think that what we are seeing here is that God rested from his word on the seventh day, but that day, from God’s perspective, never ended. And he calls that day Today.

So God has rested and is continuing to rest, and He is calling us into His rest. If we will believe what He has said, then we also can enter His rest.

What has He said that would allow us to enter His rest? God has sent Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life to come back to the Father. Jesus came into the world to reestablish God’s Kingdom here on earth and call His people to Himself, purchasing them away from the kingdom of darkness to come into the Kingdom of God.

And Today is the day. Today is the day that we are called to enter God’s rest, which we can do if we will put our faith in Christ. If we will believe and we will give our lives to Christ. If we place Him as the Head over our lives. If we submit to Him. This is the only way, but it is the way of rest. God gives us an invitation to enter into His rest, the rest that God has been in since the very first Sabbath day, the 7th day, the day that He calls Today.

I pray that we would all enter into God’s rest. That instead of doing as the Israelites did and not trust Him, instead rebelling against Him, that we would put our faith in Christ and enter into God’s rest.