Cornerstone or stumbling block?

1 Peter 2:4-8

It's estimated that c.135000 stood in the mud & rain to hear U2 at Glastonbury this year. Meanwhile a crowd of 1200 went to Glyndebourn to hear Mozart's Don Giovani.

Music has the capacity to unite crowds of people. And yet, I know only one person who would happily listen to U2 and Don Giovani – music also has the capacity to divide us in a way that few other things do.

It is also true that Jesus both unites and divides people. And in 1 Peter 2, Jesus is pictured as two different kinds of stone:

• the cornerstone of a temple bringing honour to those who trust in him;
• a stone that trips up, those who reject him, making them stumble and fall.

Which he is to you depends on your attitude to him. But while our attitude to music is of no consequence at all, our attitude to Jesus determines our relationship with God and our eternal destiny.

We begin with Jesus the living cornerstone.

If you look at 1 Peter 2 in the church Bible, you'll see that Peter gets his illustration of Jesus as a stone from the OT – the three quotations are clearly set out – two from Isaiah & one from Psalm 118. So, to understand what Peter's saying, we need to be reminded of what was happening when people first spoke about this stone.

God's people, Israel, was in a terrible state. In a report reminiscent of a tabloid exposé, Isaiah reveals that the nation is full of binge drinkers – even the priests and prophets he writes, 'stagger from beer and are befuddled with wine; they reel from beer, they stagger when seeing visions, they stumble when rendering decisions. All the tables are covered with vomit, and there is not a spot without filth.' The nation is proud and arrogant. They ignore God's word, saying that it's just gobbledegook.

But God will not allow his people to completely abandon him and plunge into utter oblivion. Yes, Assyria will conquer Israel, & destroy her cities, but God will rebuild his people:

“So this is what the Sovereign LORD says, 'See I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.'”

So through Isaiah God promised to rebuild his people around a chosen and precious cornerstone – one that will be a secure foundation for a new people. And when Israel was taken into captivity and Jerusalem was destroyed, the few who remained faithful to God began to look for the coming of a great ruler who would be this tested & precious cornerstone around and upon which God would rebuild his people.

And in passing, notice who this stone will be: Isaiah 8:13-15 shows that the stone is the LORD himself. But Jesus says that he himself is that stone – that chosen & precious cornerstone - thereby implicitly declaring his own divinity:

  “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them.  Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’  But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’  And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.  When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”  They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

“‘The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;

this was the Lord's doing,

and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

So the fruitless people of God rejected God's messengers, the prophets, and even killed God's own Son. And even the people listening to Jesus could see that the response of God would be to 'bring those wretches to a wretched end' – to take the vineyard away from them – to take the kingdom of God away from them; and to give the vineyard to other tenants – to give the kingdom of God to a new people – a people who would produce good fruit for God.

So, whereas Jesus likened his new people to a vineyard, Peter speaks of a new temple - but the same principle underlies both:

Jesus says that his people will be a fruitful people for God's glory.

Peter says that they will be a new & living temple, offering their lives as spiritual sacrifices for God's glory.

And today, as we come to Jesus, the living stone, we also become like living stones, v2, Jesus shares his life with us. Without Christ we were hard, cold, dead stones, separated from God, unwilling and unable to please him. With Christ we become living stones – stones connected to God, filled with his Spirit, and shaped by God into stones that beautify his church and glorify him.

But perhaps you're wondering how you can gain this connection to the living stone? Perhaps you're somewhat envious of those whose Christian faith seems so powerful and precious.

Well, the answer could not be more straightforward, and yet at the same time it could hardly be more difficult or more important. The answer is there in v8 – 'the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame'. What God wants from us is that we trust Jesus Christ to be the foundation for life – it's as simple as that. As we entrust ourselves to Christ so he shares his life with us, and draws us into a living relationship with God.

But to make Jesus Christ our foundation means abandoning all other foundations for life and hope. And that's not so easy. All of our life we're told to trust ourselves – to make our own rules and follow our own moral code. Such a transfer of allegiance and trust isn't easy, but God doesn't ask us to make the move alone. God himself offers to help, 'whoever comes to me I will never drive away', said Jesus. And, 'knock and the door will be opened to you'. So if you're struggling to make the move from self to Christ, then ask – cry out to God to help you.

For those who do put their trust in Christ as the cornerstone of life, there's a promise that Peter echoes from Isaiah: that you will never be put to shame – that he will never humiliate or dishonour you. In fact, the reverse is true – God will honour you.

That's what v7 should say. Literally translated it means, 'Therefore the honour is to those who believe'. (ESV: "So the honor is for you who believe."). I can only imagine that the translators of the NIV couldn't bring themselves to say that believers will be honoured by God. But that's what Peter actually says – and he's echoing the words of Jesus, who said as he prayed, 'Father... the glory that you have given me I have given to those who believe in me'. Ponder that for a moment - the glory that God has given to his eternal Son, the Son gives to we who believe!!

So there is this astonishing mutuality in our relationship with God. Although he is God and we are merely his creatures, yet when we honour & glorify his Son, he honours & glorifies us. This means that although entrusting ourselves to him may seem a high risk strategy, in fact it's no risk at all. By aligning ourselves with God our future is assured because Jesus Christ will honour & glorify us as he has himself is honoured and glorified by his Father.

However, there's an ominous 'but' in the middle of v7; 

'But, to those who do not believe, the stone the builders rejected has become the capstone', and 'a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.'

They stumble because they disobey the message – which is also what they were destined for.'

Again, Peter echoes what Jesus said in his parable of the vineyard – those who reject Jesus end up being rejected. At the end of the parable, the Chief Priests and Pharisees knew that Jesus was talking about them. So they looked for a way to arrest him. And soon enough they did arrest him. And he was falsely accused and found guilty. When he was hung on the cross to die, they thought they'd got rid of him. But they only succeeded in sending him through death to resurrection and ascension to God's right hand where he will judge the living and the dead.

So in his book on 1 Peter, Leonhard Goppelt, says, Christ is laid across the path of humanity on its course into the future. In the encounter with him each person is changed: one for salvation, another for destruction... One cannot simply step over Jesus to go on about the daily routine and pass him by to build a future. Whoever encounters him is inescapably changed through the encounter.

Either you come to Jesus the living stone, and become a living stone yourself. Or you stumble over him and fall from him. In which case you are discarded and excluded from his life.

When it comes to music, it really doesn't matter whether you like opera or not. Whether you like U2 or not. It's just personal choice and there are no consequences. But when it comes to Jesus it is much more than just a matter of personal choice. Your choice matters.

This is more like a decision about whether or not to take life-saving medication. Only it's even more important than that. Your decision about Jesus Christ stays with you beyond the grave and into eternity.

Don't give up!

I'm in the middle of preparing a school assembly on prayer, but it seems that God has a message for me & St Peter's church. The passage is Luke 18:1-8, and Luke leaves us in no doubt as to the meaning of the parable:

Jesus told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.

The application? Well, yes to prayer in general, but perhaps more specifically to our prayers that God would send us a musician. We've been praying along these lines for several months, and so far there's been no positive answer. But 'don't give up' is the message, 'keep praying, keep asking; individually and together, persevere in prayer.'

The wonders of the Trinity

Mention the Trinity and most Christians (including preacher-teachers) shrug their shoulders and say they can't explain him properly. That's a dreadful state of affairs in terms of our own faith and in terms of evangelism, and it's why I spent last week at Westminster College at the the Cambridge Summer School, run by Christian Heritage.
The speaker was Don Fairbairn, Professor of Historical Theology at Erskine Theological Seminary, South Carolina; a delightful and humble man with a golf handicap of less than 10!
Don's teaching reminded us of how the three persons of the Trinity each possesses the 'divine identity' (a phrase from Richard Bauckham). In other words the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit each possess all of the characteristics of God-ness, and are therefore united as one God. No other real or imaginary god possesses these characteristics, and so there is only one true God.
But the really important aspect of Don's teaching was his emphasis on the relationship between the Father and the Son, and how, when we are united to Christ by faith, we share in this relationship. So, in John 13-17 Jesus reveals how we, as his redeemed people, can now and will in the future, share in the fellowship between the Father & the Son:

if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  (14:3)

 in the Father-Son relationship of leader-follower:

I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them (14:20f). I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me (14:31).

in the love of the Father-Son relationship (and notice how love and obedience go together):

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.  (15:9f)

in the joy of the Son:

I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. (15:11)

in the knowledge that the Son has of the Father:

You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.  (15:14f)

and even in the opposition from the world:

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. (15:18-24).

in the generosity of the Father:

In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. “Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. (16:24-27)

There's much more in these chapters, but this idea of sharing in the relationship of the Father & the Son isn't just in John 13-17 . Think of how Paul speaks of our being 'in Christ', 'seated in the heavenly realms', 'adopted as sons of God', united in Christ etc., in different ways all of these contain an echo of Christ's relationship with his Father - a relationship which we now have the glory of sharing!
And one application of this: we tend to think of Christian service as a burdensome command. But surely to love as Christ loved and serve as he served is not a burden but a wonderful, glorious privilege! If we could really understand and believe this, wouldn't it transform our attitude towards serving God's people, the church, and towards loving non-Christians in the way Christ loved us while we were still sinners?

Growing up

1 Peter 1:22-2:3

'We don't do God', Alistair Campbell famously said when Tony Blair was asked about his faith.

Perhaps it was that comment that really brought to the fore the question of whether faith could ever be a public matter or whether it is entirely a private thing.

First of all, we need to understand that those who say, '”we don't do God” in the public arena are actually imposing their own faith – their very dogmatic and unyielding faith – on everyone – their faith, their belief, their creed that faith should be private. Which actually means that every other faith should be private, but theirs is allowed to dictate – and I use the word deliberately – dictate all government decisions and national ethics.

One of the reasons this attitude has gone unchallenged is that for far too long people have imagined that Christianity is a private thing – a matter between me and my God. There are still thousands of church services where people arrive and quite literally speak to no-one, recite the words of the service, and then go home with no more than a 'good morning vicar' at the door. 

Many people say, 'I can be a Christian without being a member of a church', or they think that church can be peripheral to their Christian life. But the reality is that when anyone comes to faith in Christ, they become as much a member of the church as the Archbishop of Canterbury! God doesn't ask us if we'd like to fill in an application form to become a member of a church, he just signs us up.

The imagery and language of the Bible shows us that every Christian is an integral part of his or her local church:

• In 1 Corinthians, Paul says the church is the 'body of Christ', and every Christian is a part if his body with a particular function and role within Christ's body – an ear or an eye; a hand or a mouth.

• Here in 1 Peter 2:5, we're told that when we come to Christ, we become like 'living stones being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through JC.'

• In ch 1 vv3 & 23 we read that God has given us “new birth” - we have been adopted into his family – God is our Father, we have brothers and sisters in Christ, and so we have family responsibilities.

So no Christian can say, 'Sorry, Lord, I don't really want to be a part of Christ's body. I don't want to be a living stone in your spiritual temple. I don't want to be your child or a member of your family – I don't like meeting with other Xns, I don't like your church.' If you say that, you're saying, 'Lord, I don't want to be a Christian. I want to sever my ties with you and your Son, Jesus.' To be a Christian means belonging to God's people. And Peter's focus from 1:22 – 2:12 is what it means for us to live as God's people in the church.

Peter begins this section by reminding us that each individual is a member of God's holy people – we have purified ourselves by obeying the truth.

But hold on a minute! Surely Christians don't purify themselves – we can't rid ourselves of the stain of sin, only Jesus can do that for us through the work of the Holy Spirit. After all, isn't that what Peter taught in v2? – 'you have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood.'

While the Bible teaches us that God always takes the initiative in our salvation, it also tells us that we have a responsibility. We have a responsibility to listen to, trust and obey God's word. In fact the essence of Christian faith is to trust and obey God's word of truth.  And 'the truth' here in v22 refers to the truth of the gospel – the headline news that God has come to earth in Jesus his Son to deal with our sin and guilt, and to reconcile us to God. So when Peter says we've purified ourselves by obeying the truth it's simply another way of saying that we've purified ourselves by believing the gospel. Rather than calling God a liar and disobeying his truth, we've admitted that he's right, and we've agreed to obey what he says about our need for repentance and faith in Jesus.

Now, notice what Peter says happens as soon as we do that – as soon as we obey the truth, we have sincere love for our brothers and sisters in Christ. This is the inevitable consequence of being reborn into God's family.

The apostle John says, 'We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers & sisters [in Christ].'  He's very blunt about it, 'Whoever does not love his brother does not know God.' And, 'If anyone says, 'I love God', but hates his brother, he is a liar. Whoever loves God must love his brother.'

So you see it's impossible for anyone to say, 'I'm a faithful Christian but I don't go to church.'

When I was a child, we had a cat called Benjamin. And when Benji began to get fatter & fatter we wondered why. Then we noticed him in the garden of a house just down the road – not once, but again and again. And we began to see less & less of Benji as he spent more & more time with the Wicket family. Eventually, he stopped coming home at all. He didn't want to play with us, he didn't want to sit on our laps. Benji demonstrated by his actions where his true home was, so we he left us and was adopted by the Wickets.

Now that may be a silly illustration, but if our true home is with Christ and his people, we'll want to be with them. That will begin with Sunday mornings where we learn together, pray together and talk to each other. But 'sincere love' surely extends well beyond that – we can't really say that we have a sincere love for people we see for one hour a couple of times a month or even once a week.

And so Peter reminds his readers that they should – they must – “love one another deeply from the heart.”The love that is there because we're all children of the same Father, must be worked out in practice. You cannot say, 'I love my brother, and I know he's been coming to church for a couple of years, but can you remind me what his name is please?' Just as it's easy to neglect our natural family, so it's easy to neglect our spiritual and eternal family. But it should not be so.

And it should not be so, says Peter in v23, “because you have been born again, not of imperishable seed (that is, not because you've been born of your father & mother), but you've been born again of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” This birth-through-the-word is more permanent than birth from a mother & father. For, v24, “All men 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 stands for ever. And this was the word that was preached to you.”

Peter's point here is that our natural life is short, and our life with our earthly family will all-too-soon end in death. But God's word has given us new birth into his own spiritual, heavenly family. And God's promise lasts forever – even though we die, God's word will sustain us for all eternity in our life with him & with his people. So earthly families are temporary. The church family is eternal.

As you know, there were 5 of us born to my mum & dad. Three of us have been born again by God's eternal word, and we will live as brothers in Christ forever. But unless my other 2 brothers repent and believe God's word, we will be eternally separated when they or I die. And you – if you have been born again into God's family – you are my brothers & sisters forever. You are my eternal family, and I am your brother in Christ. “Therefore” says Peter at the beginning of chapter 2, 'Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.' “In light of the fact that you have been born again through the living and enduring word of God, begin to live now as you will live in the new heavens & new earth.”

After one of the candidates in The Apprentice had appeared in the boardroom before Lord Sugar, he said, “you can be ruthless and cut-throat and know that it doesn't get taken out of there. Ultimately, your conscience has to go out the window and you have to fight for your life… you have to dig up the pettiest detail in order to defend yourself. That's the way it goes.”

And indeed that's the way it does go – because we're sinners, we will always tend to promote ourselves, to make ourselves look good at the expense of others. So when Lord Sugar's candidates get back in the boardroom there's a superabundance of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander of every kind! But as the church, we've been set apart by the HS to be God's own people. We are his temple; his holy priesthood; his family – brothers & sisters of Jesus. So surely it's unthinkable that we should behave like malice-filled, deceitful, hypocritical, jealous, slandering pagans.

And yet we know that that kind of behaviour lurks within each of us. 

If you were fortunate enough to be born into God's family, and have always known him, you'll still know what it is to want to promote yourself at the expense of others.

If you've been a Xn for many decades, you'll know how easy it is to slip back into those ways.

And if you've only recently become a member of God's family, then you will probably be having a real struggle to overcome your old habits – I hope you are!

So how can we begin to live this new life? How can we put a stop to those old ways?

Remember the power of the word of God, how it gives new birth into God's family? Remember how God's word is imperishable, living and enduring?

Well then it shouldn't be a surprise that what God started in you by his powerful word, he continues in you in the same way. So, 2:2, 'Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.'

The healthy new-born baby has one over-riding desire – milk. Any failure to satisfy that desire will give a loud and sustained reaction! For the new-born, milk is not a fringe benefit, not a special treat, but absolutely essential to health and growth. So Peter's telling us here that if we're going to grow up in our salvation we have to feed on pure spiritual milk – literally the pure milk of the word.

A baby only refuses to drink if there's something wrong – if it's sick. So with us – if we don't want to read the Bible and study God's word, then there's something wrong. We're not healthy Christians. We're ill. And if we continue to refuse to feed on God's word, the consequences are not that we'll just remain a spiritual baby - a baby doesn't remain a baby if it doesn't get milk. It dies. So, as Christians, it's a case of grow or die. But as we feed on God's word, we grow up – we grow up into mature Christians. And that means we grow into the image and likeness of Christ, we grow in our joy and love of Christ. We begin to understand more fully who Jesus Christ is and, but the power of the word of God, we begin to become more like Jesus. As we begin to see more clearly the hope to which God has called us, so he shapes us into what we shall be.

One of the signs of a genuine Christian is that they love God's word, and if you've truly tasted that the Lord is good – if you've begun to know & experience the goodness of Christ, you will want more of him and his word.

So why not decide now to feed on God's word every day this week – and beyond. Set aside some time, pray that the HS will show you new and wonderful things about the Lord JC, and read your Bible. As you read, ponder who God is and what he's like.

If you do that, God's promise to you is that you will grow up as a Christian. Attitudes towards your brothers & sisters in Christ will change – perhaps not immediately, but gradually your thinking and then your behaviour will begin to change. And you will begin to enjoy your church family much more because your heart will be much warmer to our Father in heaven, and to your brothers & sisters.

A tough prayer

In school assemblies, we've been going through the Lord's prayer.
The opening line, 'Our Father in heaven' isn't too difficult even for 5 year-olds to understand. And once we'd talked a bit about respect, it wasn't too difficult to grasp the main point of 'hallowed be your name'.
But in a couple of weeks' time we get to 'forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us'. On the face of it, this is quite straightforward, and there are plenty of easy illustrations.
And yet this is one of the hardest things to say to God with complete honesty. Are we really content that he forgives us as we forgive others? Don't we really want him to forgive us more easily, more quickly, more fully that we forgive others? But Jesus is uncompromising:

If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

People sometimes talk too easily about God's unconditional love. But here there is clearly a condition attached to our receiving forgiveness from God - we must forgive others.
But then Jesus is talking to people who have begun to understand that God gives us

...strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

And surely such forgiveness as Jesus expects us to show is only possible because he has begun a work of grace in us, and has begun to give us the knowledge of the full extent of his love for us.

So it will be one thing to talk to the children about forgiving each other, but quite another for them to fully appreciate and experience the forgiveness and love of Christ so that they are empowered to forgive as they would like to be forgiven. My prayer is that they will indeed experience the grace of God.
But my prayer also is that adult Christians will be able to model this kind of living and forgiving.

Now and not yet

For all you SPA and CY people, here's a chapter by Don Carson on the eschatology of Ephesians. If that sounds too scary, it's just a clever way of saying, 'a chapter about what Ephesians says Christians can expect to experience now, and what we have to wait until the recreation to enjoy.'

I've not read it yet, but D A Carson is, in my opinion, the most capable and realistic Bible teacher today.
Now, I must download it to my Kindle...

Hope and Joy

1 Peter 1:3-9

We don't write letters like we used to, but there are still times when only a letter will do – bereavement, serious illness, divorce and so on.

And when you write you want to say something helpful – to strike the right tone: you don't want to make matters worse.But if you're too positive, it might come across as patronising and trite.

If you're too negative – well, what help's that?

Peter writes this letter in front of us to groups of people who are really suffering for being Xns:

• In ch 2, we hear they're being beaten up by their bosses when they've done nothing wrong.

• In ch 3, we hear that some of the women are struggling to live with unbelieving husbands.

• Ch 4 tells us that they're surrounded by people who delight in drunkenness, adultery, & idolatry. And because the Xns don't join in, they're insulted and abused.

So how do you write to people in this kind of situation?

How would you write to the church in Kazakhstan where just a fortnight ago their service was interrupted by drunk police officers & their pastor, his wife & children taken in the back of a police van?

Would you say what Peter says in v8, 'you are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith – the salvation of your souls'?

And can you say that your own faith and life are full of an inexpressible and glorious joy?!

I'd be surprised if many of us here this morning would say that our lives are like this.

So as Peter speaks of having such joy in such suffering is he being hopelessly naïve?

Well, if he was hope-less, then yes, he's being naïve.

But in fact, hope, says Peter is the source of Xn joy – a joy that non-Xns simply cannot understand let alone possess.

This means that if we are going to experience the fullness of Xn joy, we must have a genuine Xn hope. Knowing genuine Xn hope is the way to experience genuine Xn joy.

So we'll start with the genuine Xn hope.

Imagine you're a committed supporter of Tunbridge Wells FC. Your great hope is that one day, they'll play in the Premier League with Spurs.

But before that, they've got to gain promotion from the Kent League. Isthmian League 1, Isthmian Premier, Conference South, Conference Premier, League 2, League 1, Championship and finally the Premier League. 
That's a minimum of 8 years – starting next year because this year they only finished 7^th.

So, realistically, TWFC are never going to play in the Premier League. To think that way is hopelessly optimistic – pointlessly optimistic.

And yet as Christians we hope for nothing less than the recreation of the heavens and the earth – the removal of all evil – a perfect world.And we hope that we ourselves will have a place with the LJC in this perfectly renewed world. Isn't this just as hopelessly optimistic as the TWFC supporter's hope of becoming a premiership team?

No!

Most Xns think of their future like this:

There is a disconnect between where we are now and where we hope to be – a massive gulf between what we are now, what this world is now, and what we hope for ourselves & for the world. And as long as we think like this, our hope will lack assurance and certainty.

But in v3, Peter says, 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, and into an inheritance that can never perish spoil or fade'

When you became a Xn – assuming you did – you were reborn into a living hope; into an inheritance.

So our relationship to hope is actually more like this... 

 

When Jesus spoke about eternal life, he said that we already possess it: Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life – John 3:36

and, I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, he has crossed over from death to life.

In Colossians, Paul says, God has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

In Ephesians, he says that when we came to faith in Christ, 'God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace...'

So we are already with Christ, already in Christ, already in the Kingdom of God. Yes, there is much we don't yet have, but we are already heirs – and nothing and no-one can take away our inheritance. So, v4, our inheritance can never perish, spoil or fade – it is kept in heaven for you.

Your inheritance is there already, it is just waiting for you to go and collect it.

So we could picture it like this..

But how can I be sure that this is how it is and will be for me​​?

Have a look at v4 again – this inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who by faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

If you have received God's gift of faith in Jesus Christ, then you are shielded by the power of God himself – and no-one can break through the power of God to take away your inheritance. And so, says Peter, v6, in this you greatly rejoice.

Therefore, Peter is saying that genuine Christian hope brings glorious Christian joy.

And it's when people suffer that hope is at its most powerful. When what little you have is forcibly taken from you, you cling to what cannot be taken away – your hope, your inheritance - the LJC.

So let's read v6 in context: in this – that is, your inheritance - you greatly rejoice though now for a little while you may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that you faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when JC is revealed.

The grief and trials help to prove that faith is genuine. 
 

Over the years, my support for Spurs has been proven genuine. The last time we won the league was 1961, & the FA cup, 1991. I could have given up on Spurs. I could have switched my allegiance to one of these clubs that's been bankrolled by a foreign investor. But no. My support is genuine. Whether I will once more enjoy glory, honour and praise as a Spurs supporter is debatable, but one thing is certain, when my faith in Christ has been tested and proved genuine, I will enjoy praise, honour and glory.

Yes, it seems as if v7 is talking about us – that we will be praised and honoured for our perseverance when Jesus returns, and then we will be glorious as he is glorious.

Now if, even in the midst of trials and suffering, we can grasp the enormity of our hope, then we can rejoice. 
But how much are you aware of what awaits you?

How often do you meditate on heaven?

Do you allow yourself to imagine what the Bible says heaven will be like – how you'll never have to remember your keys (or apologise profusely for taking your wife's house keys as I had to on Thursday!)

Imagine a world without money and no bankers because no-one is greedy and everyone shares generously.

Imagine a world with no hospitals, no doctors waiting rooms and no prescriptions.

A world with no police, no lawyers, no courts, no prisons.

A world where all the effects and consequences of evil have gone.

A world where work is pure delight and you love everyone equally (so it won't matter that you're reunited with friends or family because you'll love everyone equally!).

When you carry than kind of hope around with you, then you also have joy. And yet there's even more than that. Yes, hope, by definition, looks to the future. But vv8 & 9 remind us that by God's grace and through faith in Christ, we begin to receive now something of that future blessing: 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, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

So we come back to where we started.

We can be certain about the future because we've begun to experience it in the present:

• Whenever we pray to our Father in heaven, we experience something of the future blessings of knowing God as our Father.

• Whenever we read our Bibles and hear God speak to us, we experience something of what it will be like to hear God's voice in heaven.

• Meeting together as Christ's church is a foretaste of heaven (and, by the way, why it's so important to be here week by week - if we're not, then others are missing out).

• We experience the power of the Holy Spirit steadily changing us into what one day we shall full be - like Christ himself.

But all of this isn't the only reason for our hope and joy!

Remember in vv1 & 2 that our faith also rests on the authority and reliability of the apostles' testimony.

And it rests on God's election and foreknowledge.

It rests on the work of the HS who has set us apart for obedience ot JC.

And it rests on the death of Jesus which makes us God's own covenant people, his special possession.

And yet... do you really experience that inexpressible and glorious joy day by day? 
If not, why not?

Well, if hope is the source of joy, then placing our hope in the wrong place will diminish our joy. And that's what we do all-too-often.

Some of us place our hope in our children or the relationship with our spouse. But neither can bear the weight of that responsibility and expectation. We cannot expect our children or our spouse to fulfil all our hopes and therefore our joy. Of course they'll let us down - they're human - just as we let others down because we're sinful and human.
Only Jesus Christ is an adequate and sufficient object of our hope. Only he will not let us down. Only the promise of inheriting all he offers can bring us glorious joy.


Meanwhile, some of us place our hopes in the latest tech, or fashion or beauty treatment. 
But beauty fades, fashion is fleeting, and technology fails. None can satisfy our hopes and dreams. Only the promise of the new heavens and the new earth; of meeting the Lord Jesus Christ can satisfy our humanity. Only his amazing promises can bring us true hope and real joy.

Glorious things of you are spoken,

Zion, city of our God!

He whose word cannot be broken

formed you for his own abode.

On the rock of ages founded,

what can shake your sure repose?

With salvation’s walls surrounded,

you may smile at all your foes.

See, the streams of living waters

springing from eternal love!

Well supply your sons and daughters,

and all fear of want remove;

who can faint while such a river

ever flows their thirst to assuage?

Grace which, like the Lord, the giver,

never fails from age to age.

Round each habitation hovering,

see the cloud and fire appear

for a glory and a covering,

showing that the Lord is near.

thus they march, the pillar leading,

light by night and shade by day;

daily on the manna feeding

which he gives them when they pray.

Saviour, since of Zion’s city

I, through grace, a member am,

let the world deride or pity,

I will glory in your name.

Fading is the worlds best pleasures,

all its boasted pomp and show,

solid joys and lasting treasures

none but Zion’s children know.

John Newton

Psalm 40

This is a complicated Psalm, with loads of important truths, but one thing stood out for me this morning.

The Psalm begins with David praising the LORD for hearing his prayer and rescuing him, and the hope that many others, seeing his own rescue, will come and put their trust in God, for in him is great blessing (1-5).
Verses 6-8 are hard to understand, though Hebrews 10 tells us that they're really speaking of the Christ, Jesus, and in 9&10, David remembers how he has told everyone of God's great deliverance - he hasn't concealed what God has done for him.

But it was vv11ff that made a big impression on me this morning:

11 As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain

your mercy from me;

your steadfast love and your faithfulness will

ever preserve me!

12 For evils have encompassed me

beyond number;

my iniquities have overtaken me,

and I cannot see;

they are more than the hairs of my head;

my heart fails me.

13 Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me!

O Lord, make haste to help me!

14 Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether

who seek to snatch away my life;

let those be turned back and brought to dishonor

who delight in my hurt!

15 Let those be appalled because of their shame

who say to me, “Aha, Aha!”

16 But may all who seek you

rejoice and be glad in you;

may those who love your salvation

say continually, “Great is the Lord!”

17 As for me, I am poor and needy,

but the Lord takes thought for me.

You are my help and my deliverer;

do not delay, O my God!

David says that even though he's surrounded by evil and his iniquities have overtaken him and they are more than the hairs of his head, yet the LORD will not restrain his mercy or his steadfast love & faithfulnes.
And when he concludes, 'As for me, I am poor and needy', King David can't mean that he hasn't got any money. Instead he's saying that he's poor and  needy spiritually - his prayer life and his loving obedience to God are lacking - and yet, 'the LORD takes thought for me.'
So, though I too often feel overwhelmed by my sinful actions & failures, the LORD God will not 'restrain' his mercy or love; God doesn't become stingy in his mercy & love even when I fail him. Why not? Because he is 'my helper and my deliverer'. And David prays that God would not delay in coming to complete his salvation because then he will be free from sin and failure.
And, significantly, in the middle of this section (12-15), there are again pointers to the Lord Jesus and his death (especially if, 'my iniquities' in v12 is understood to mean the iniquities that Jesus has taken upon himself on the cross). It's Jesus whom God rescued from his sneering enemies (15), and in rescuing Jesus, God rescues me.
'You are my helper and deliverer; do not delay, O my God.' (17)  'Come, Lord Jesus!' (Rev 22:20).

For everyone who teaches the Bible

I would love to have gone to the Gospel Coalition Conference last month. Fortunately the talks are available at their website .
Here's the first session - and everyone who teaches the Bible - whether to children or adults - needs to hear and understand this:


Studying The Scriptures and Finding Jesus - Albert Mohler - TGC 2011 from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.