Judgement Begins With The House Of God

Chippie the parakeet never saw it coming. One second he was peacefully perched in his cage. The next he was sucked in, washed up, and blown over.

The problems began when Chippie's owner decided to clean Chippie's cage with a vacuum cleaner. She removed the attachment from the end of the hose and stuck it in the cage. The phone rang, and she turned to pick it up. She'd barely said "hello" when "ssssopp!" Chippie got sucked in.

The bird owner gasped, put down the phone, turned off the vacuum, and opened the bag. There was Chippie -- still alive, but stunned.

Since the bird was covered with dust and soot, she grabbed him and raced to the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and held Chippie under the running water. Then, realizing that Chippie was soaked and shivering, she did what any compassionate bird owner would do . . . she reached for the hair dryer and blasted the pet with hot air.

Poor Chippie never knew what hit him.

A few days after the trauma, the reporter who'd initially written about the event contacted Chippie's owner to see how the bird was recovering. "Well," she replied, "Chippie doesn't sing much anymore -- he just sits and stares."

It's hard not to see why. Sucked in, washed up, and blown over . . . That's enough to steal the song from the stoutest heart. Max Lucado, In the Eye of the Storm, Word Publishing, 1991, p. 11.

I’m sure we all know what it feels like to have a bit of a bad day, a day when we have suffered unfairly at the hands of another. But I wonder how many of us have suffered because of our faith in Jesus Christ? I mean ‘suffered’, ‘really suffered’.

There is some debate about when exactly 1 Peter was written, but most scholars agree that it was somewhere around AD 64 when Peter was in Rome and he was writing to a group of Christians who were undergoing terrible persecution for their faith in Christ. More than likely it is the same persecution that in fact saw the death by crucifixion of Peter himself and the beheading of the Apostle Paul – both of which took place in Rome somewhere around AD67/68 during the reign of the Emperor Nero.

Nero – 64 AD

In July 64 A.D., a great fire broke out in Rome. Hundreds of public buildings were burned to the ground, thousands of homes were destroyed, and thousands of people were left homeless. History believes that Nero himself started the fire so that he could create some space to build a marble palace.

The people of Rome were understandably furious and were ready to overthrow their Emperor, so Nero had to find someone to blame the fire on.

Now there was in Rome a group of people who were just right to take the blame for the fire. They were called Christians. They followed a man named Christ, about whom strange things were said, and they themselves did very strange things. Now Christianity was still very much in its infancy – especially in Rome – the Apostle Paul had only arrived there for the first time – three years earlier.

And there were rumors were flying all around Rome that these people, these Christians, were cannibals, because they talked about getting together in their houses, drinking someone's blood and eating his body. They spoke about "love feasts," - at which they greeted one another with a holy kiss, and shared their innermost problems with each other. And that soon became exaggerated into stories of sexual orgies.

So they were a people already under deep suspicion. And Nero started the rumour that it was the Christians who had burned down the city.

And as a punishment Christians were dipped in tar and burned as torches to light the gardens of Nero when he threw an outdoor party. They were tied to his chariot and dragged through the streets of Rome until they were dead. They were thrown to the lions; they were tied up in leather bags and thrown into water so that when the leather bags shrank, they were squeezed to death. They were hounded and persecuted all through the Empire because of Nero's proclamation. They suffered terribly, and unjustly, for carrying the name of Christ.

Peter’s suffering

When Peter wrote that Christians can expect to suffer for the cause of Christ he knew what he was talking about. He saw firsthand what happened to Jesus: how he had been arrested, convicted, mocked, beaten, and put to death. He knew that because of Jesus’ name, Christians could expect the same kind of treatment from the world! He himself had been imprisoned a number of times, and would be martyred for his faith. And so Peter writes, as he is preparing Christians for the suffering that lies ahead: "If you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.." (1 Peter 4:16-19)