If you are a fan of Georgia Tech football, you might consider October 7, 1916 as one of the greatest daysin history. If you are a fan of offense in general, you might feel the same way. Because on October 7, 1916, Georgia Tech delivered the most stunning beatdown in football history to Cumberland College, beating them by a score of 222-0.
Here's the way it went down. The season before, Cumberland’s baseball team humiliated the Yellow Jackets, beating them 22-0. So Tech coach John Heisman (yes, that Heisman), was looking for revenge. So he was determined to run up the score as much as possible. And he did. 32 touchdowns. They scored a touchdown every one minute and forty three seconds. 471 yards of offense, which if that doesn’t sound like very much for 222 points, that’s because 73% of the game was played in Cumberland’s red zone. Cumberland’s quarterback was carried off the field uncounscious THREE DIFFERENT TIMES. At one point, Georgia Tech’s kicker kicked off, ran down the field, and caught his own kick for a touchdown. At halftime, when the score was 126 to 0, Cumberland’s coach went to Coach Heisman and begged him to end the game. Heisman agreed to shorten the game by five minutes.
But there’s another part of the story that isn’t told as often. In 1916 Cumberland College was experiencing such financial difficulties that their president cut funding for all sports, including football. However, when Cumberland tried to back out, John Heisman demanded that they either play the game or pay a $3000 fine to forfeit. In order to pay that money (about $70000 today), Cumberland would have to not pay their professors, and the school would have closed. So Cumberland chose 13 members of the Kappa Sigma freaternity, some of whom didn’t know how to play football to go to Atlanta and sacrifice themselves in order to save the school.
Now, I ask you, how would you feel to have been chosen for that kind of assignment? Would you have looked at Tech’s record at the time (in the middle of a four year, 33 game winning streak) and opted out?
Let me put it this way: What if you knew that because of your actions, the school would be saved? Not only that, but eventually Cumberland College would become Cumberland University, whose alumni include 14 governors, more than 80 members of the United States Congress, two Supreme Court justices, three United States ambassadors, and the longest serving secretary of state in US history? Would you be willing to endure 55 minutes of football humiliation for something like that?
This morning we begin a new sermon series on 1 Peter, and we’re going to spend a lot of time on the term Peter uses to describe the recipients of his letter.
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:
May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Meet the Author
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ (v. 1)
• Leader of the Twelve
• Head of the Jerusalem church (Acts 15:8)
• Eyewitness to the life and death of Jesus (1 Peter 5:1)
Meet the Audience
To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia (v.1)
• ELECT: Those to whom God has chosen to give saving faith so they can become Christians (1 Peter 2:9)
• EXILE: One who has been banished from one’s home or country, expelled from one’s native land by official decree (Jer. 24:5-7)
The Questions We Most often ask:
1. If I’m chosen, then why am I suffering?
2. If I’m suffering, then does that mean I’m not chosen?
How are We Chosen?
Foreknowledge: (prognosis): God’s eternal, predetermined, loving, saving interntion.
• Not mere supernatural knowledge of the future.
• A work of the sovereign, Triune God: The foreknowledge of the Father; the sanctifying work of the Spirit; and the cleansing blood of the Son.
Why are We Chosen?
• Not dependent on our choice of Him (see John 15:16, Rom. 11:16)
What do we get when we are chosen?
• New Identity (new birth, v. 3)
• Living Hope, based on Jesus’ resurrection (v. 3)
Christian hope is not a sedative. It’s a shot of adrenaline. It’s a transfusion.
You never have to wonder where you stand with someone who died and rose again for you.
• Imperishable inheritance: Did you know that honey is the only food that never goes bad? In the Republic of Georgia, arachaeologists have unearthed a 3,000 year old jar of honey. And it is still good. God described the Promised Land as a “land of milk and honey” and I think this is why.
• The protection of God’s power through faith. Your faith does not activate God’s power. God’s power is what makes your faith possible.
So back to the original question: If we are chosen, then why do we experience hard times?
In verse 6, Peter uses a word for the first time that, verse for verse, shows up more often in 1 Peter than any other book of the Bible. The word is “suffer.” A form of it (Suffer, sufferings, suffers) is used 14 times in 13 verses. What is the purpose?
7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
God’s glory = tragedy + time
A young man happened upon a silversmith who refined silver and gold from raw materials, sitting in front of his fire. “Why do you heat the metal?” he asked?
The Refiner answered, “In order to make precious silver I have to remove all the impurities that make it worth less than it really is.” The young man thought about his own life and how one time of fiery suffering or another was required to remove some of the ‘junk’ in his own life.
“Why do you sit while you work?” inquired the visitor?
The Refiner replied, “I have to watch the fire closely. Too little heat and the impurities will not be removed; too much heat and the precious metal will be destroyed and made worthless.” The young man reflected how his life of comfort had brought a sense of complacency that led him to abandon his dreams, settling instead for a humdrum life. But he had also come through painful fiery times with character and strength that he would not have found elsewhere.
Then the young man asked The Refiner, “How do you know when the silver is at the right temperature?”
The Refiner smiled and answered, “I know the purifying is complete when I can see my reflection in the silver.” The young man marveled at the answer thinking, “That is true in my life. My own fiery trials were only complete when My Refiner’s image could be seen in me.”
The young man left contemplating the aspects of his life still needing to transformed by The Refiner: his own selfish desires, ambitions, and time-wasting activities; his tendency to quickly judge others or believe a lie that he never really examined. And he gave thanks to God who is the only one able to free him from these impurities and transform him into the likeness of Jesus.
There will come a day, twenty or thirty thousand years from now whan the most cancer-ravaged believer will be able to say, “What was that thing? What did they call it? Oh yeah. Leukemia.
And that disease, that diagnosis, that divorce, that disappointment, that defect, that death—its going to have no more impact on your eternity than the skinned knee you got when you were four years old. Do you remember that? Yeah. When we are with Jesus in eternity, we won’t remember whatever is consuming us right now. Because God’s glory is just tragedy plus time.
