Hope for Uncertain Times
Hope is Your Birthright, part 1
Wildwind Community Church
August 27, 2006
David Flowers
Life is hard, isn’t it? You hear that a lot. Life is hard. But next time you hear that statement, I want you to think, “Compared to what?”
Life is hard. It takes up all of your free time – all your evenings and weekends. Isn’t it just exhausting? Like comedian Flip Wilson used to say, “If I had my whole life to live over again, I don’t think I’d have the strength.”
Life is hard. And we live in uncertain times. We’re at war in Iraq. We’re in a nuclear showdown with Iran. We’re in another nuclear showdown with North Korea. Israel is fighting Hezbollah. Heck, Israel is fighting just about everybody! Gas prices are going up and down, but mostly up. If you live in Michigan, which pretty much all of you do, there’s a chance your job is in danger, especially if you work in manufacturing. The housing market is terrible – unless you happen to be trying to buy a house. But if you’re trying to sell one, good luck. Our country is deeply divided over the war in Iraq, with people of good will on both sides of the issue. We live in the shadow of 9/11.
This is a big list of issues. They are the issues of the 21st century. Every century has its issues. I remember hearing sermons like this when I was a kid in the 80’s, only the issues were the incredible menace of the Soviet Union, the nuclear arms race, this new and extremely scary virus called HIV and whether it would end up being spread through casual contact and threaten the entire human race, the devastation of the inner cities caused by trickle-down economics, the Iran-Contra scandal, and all the TV preachers caught making it with hookers or with their secretaries. As Queen sang, we grew up tall and proud in the shadow of the mushroom cloud. I can’t imagine what the list of world-shaking events would have looked like in the 60’s and 70’s. John F. Kennedy – dead; Martin Luther King, Jr. – dead; Bobby Kennedy – dead. Vietnam. Kent State. The world must have seemed like it was coming unglued. During World War II, I’ll bet the world seemed like it was coming unglued, particularly for those on the beach at Normandy, or for Jewish families, dying together in gas chambers. During the Civil War, if you lived in America, I’ll bet the world seemed like it was coming unglued.
My friends, I am not here this morning to tell you that since the world has always seemed like it’s coming unglued, and it still seems like that today, we can take comfort from the past in knowing that’s just the state of things, the way things are – and that the world, in fact, is NOT coming unglued. I’m here to tell you just the opposite. I believe that in every age the world has seemed like it’s coming unglued because it IS coming unglued, and that it has been coming unglued since – well, since forever. Since sin first entered into this world, since Adam and Eve first bit into that forbidden fruit. I have to think that shortly after that time, when two brothers – Cain and Abel – had a fight, and Cain killed his brother Abel – I have to think Adam and Eve in their grief might have cried out to God and to one another, “What have we done? What is this world coming to?” And it’s been that way ever since.
The way of the non-believer is to point to how it has just always been this way and say, “See, this is just how it is. This is the normal way things are. Today isn’t any different. It’s just normal. Deal with it.” The way of the Christian believer is to say, “See – things have always been bad. Sin has racked the human condition from the very beginning, and every personal, familial, local, state, national, and global crisis we’ve ever seen springs from sin that is just part of the human condition.
Unfortunately it is normal. But I don’t have to deal with it, because one day, God is going to deal with it.”
The Christian believes that God has a plan for history, and that God’s plan for history will come down exactly as he determined it would. The Christian looks around at the state of the world, watches world leaders scurrying to this summit and that summit and trying desperately to plug every hole that springs up in the dam, and rejoices that God is sovereign over a world that seems to have spun completely out of control. All is not as it appears. Hope is not lost. The Christian hopes in God. Let’s read from God’s Word about hope this morning.
1 Peter 4:7-19 (NIV)
7 The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.
8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.
10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.
11 If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.
13 But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
14 If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.
15 If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler.
16 However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.
17 For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
18 And, "If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?"
19 So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
I want you to note, first of all, Peter’s first words in this passage, “the end of all things is near.” 2000 years ago, Peter wrote, “the end of all things is near.” The early Christians believed they were living in the end times (as have all Christians all throughout history). After all, how could things get any worse? Peter and his contemporaries lived during Emperor Nero’s persecution of Christians. Many of you have heard about this. Christians were thrown to lions. They were impaled on poles, dipped in oil, and used as lamps in the emperor’s gardens. They were thrown in prison. Crucified. It was not a great time for Christians. And it was against this horrendous backdrop that Peter writes, “The end of all things is near.” I can understand that, can’t you?
But look at what he says next. “The end of all things is near – everybody panic! Run for your lives! Indulge all your sensual desires. Get in that last romp between the sheets. Time’s running out! Oh God, we’re all going to die!!” Of course that’s not what Peter says at all. Because that’s not the Christian way of thinking. The Christian way of thinking about life in a time of uncertainty is exactly the opposite. The end of all things is near – THEREFORE, be clear-minded and self-controlled SO THAT, you can pray.
Hear that? The end of all things is near – therefore be clear-minded and self-controlled. In other words, do exactly the opposite of what people tend to do when they hear and believe that the end of all things is near. In fact, say that to yourself a few times – let the irony sink in. The end of all things is near, therefore be clear-minded and self-controlled. The end of all things is near, therefore be clear-minded and self-controlled. I cannot stand here this morning and tell you whether or not you will witness the end of the world in your lifetime. I just don’t know, and Jesus said we are not to busy ourselves thinking about such things.
Mark 13:32 (NIV)
32 "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
What I do know is that from the earliest days of the church, it has been normal to consider one’s present day to be the last days. And there is good reason for this. First of all, every day you live is your last day. You lived yesterday and that day is gone forever. It was your last August 26, 2006. You’ll never have that day again. We must live the Christian life as if every day is our last.
Ephesians 5:15-17 (MSG)
15 So watch your step. Use your head.
16 Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times!
17 Don’t live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the Master wants.
If we are not to live carelessly, unthinkingly, we must live in the light of the fact that our days are numbered. Christ COULD return at any time. The world COULD end at any time. Heck, you could keel over at any time, right? All of these things have always been true. And the proper response from us is not to blow it off and live carelessly, to get all fatalistic about it, nor is it to get obsessed with it and live in a constant state of panic and anxiety. The proper response from us is to be clear-minded and self-controlled, because those states are required in order for us to pray. Any of you who have gone on your retreats into silence and solitude have discovered how being clear-minded is a necessary condition for prayer – many of you noticed how hard it was to clear your head so you could get away from yourself and be open to God. We must be clear-minded, and self-controlled so we can pray.
And what is needed more in uncertain times? Eugene Peterson writes that it can seem meaningless to pray for nations and world leaders. After all, what difference will that make as nation rises against nation and kingdom against kingdom? Peterson’s answer – none if God is not working in this world. But all, if He is. So what do you believe?
Verses 8, 9, 10, and 11 are about how we should live. Now Peter has just finished saying to everyone, “Get ready – you’re going to die soon. Clear your head, think straight, control yourself so you can pray.” Then in the next four verses he speaks not of dying, but of living – of the things that always must happen in all of the moments before death actually comes to us, be that from old age, natural disasters, wars, famines, or disease. Folks, in these verses, Peter speaks not of death, but of life. The reality is that you and I are always living in the shadow of death. All our days are uncertain. There are no days that are promised to us. So how are we to live in uncertain times? In other words, how are we to live, period?
Well, Peter says that above all, we should love one another deeply. And we should love because love covers over a multitude of sins. In other words, if you love someone, you are less concerned about ways in which they may have wrong you. In light of the fact that our time on this earth may be short, in light of the uncertainty of our times, in light of our inability to know, determine, or control the manner and moment of our own demise, we should love one another. Because love keeps us from carrying grudges. And if our moments are not guaranteed to us, then we simply don’t want to waste any of them in bitterness toward others.
Verse 9 says we are to offer hospitality to each other without grumbling. Why? Because time may be short. Because the end of all things may be near. Be good to each other – make the most of every opportunity – realize your days are numbered. And LIVE them ALL!
We should use our days, verse 10, to serve other people with the gifts God has given us. Remember, folks, this is Peter writing to people who all believed they were on the verge of death – the certain end of the world was immediately at hand. And the advice is not to panic, not to grieve, not to pull the sheets over their heads and give up, but to love each other, to offer hospitality to each other, to serve one another with whatever gifts we have been given.
I love this, folks. In light of the reality of death, in light of the fact that we are all going to die one day – could be soon, could be a very long time from now – could be together in a massive world cataclysm, could be one at a time like the end has come to most throughout history, but in light of that fact, we are to do what? We are to keep living! We are to love and serve each other with whatever tools God has given us.
A lot of people live one way, and hope that before they die they have a chance to set things right – with God, with their family, with others they may have wronged. But to me one of the grand proofs of the rightness of the Christian path is that we live and die in the same vein. We are to live every day, every moment of our lives in such a way that we would be ready at any time for the end to come – because one day, sure as shootin’, it will. Jesus himself set this pattern for us when he spoke about how we are to live in light of the reality of his return.
Matthew 24:45-47 (NIV)
45 "Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time?
46 It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.
47 I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.
In other words, God has given you a job to do. It will be very good for you when your time comes if you are doing what God put you here to do. Don’t you just love that. My friends, we don’t have unlimited time! We must work while it is still day. Jesus taught us that too. He said…
John 9:4 (MSG)
4 We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over.
If you are working on a project outside, and that project is important to you, and night begins to fall and you are running out of time, what do you do? Do you give up and say, “It’s not as bright now as it was an hour ago – I’m calling it quits.” No way, you work harder and faster and with more diligence and more strength and more inspiration, because you know night is falling and you will soon not be able to work.
My friends, in your life, and in this world, night is falling. There is nothing we can do about that. God has a plan for history. But the Christian message has never been, “Despair – for night is falling.” The Christian message has always been, “Night is surely falling – but joy comes in the morning!!”
Psalms 30:4-5 (NLT)
4 Sing to the LORD, all you godly ones! Praise his holy name.
5 His anger lasts for a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may go on all night, but joy comes with the morning.
The Christian message has always been one of hope couched in joy. If you read Christian apocalyptic literature (whether Old or New Testament), you’ll see this undercurrent of joy.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 (NLT)
13 And now, brothers and sisters, I want you to know what will happen to the Christians who have died so you will not be full of sorrow like people who have no hope.
14 For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus comes, God will bring back with Jesus all the Christians who have died.
We are not to be full of sorrow like people who have no hope, because we do have hope. In fact here at Wildwind we often say, “Hope is your birthright.” In other words God created you with the need to have hope. You instinctively hope in things. You need hope to live, because hope is your birthright – hope is something given to you at birth by God, and as long as you live (and even after that) hope will be found in him. When Christians speak of the end of history (or the end of their own lives), it is always with hope.
The first few words of Revelation read:
Revelation 1:1 (NIV)
1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,
The word “Revelation” comes from the Greek word “apokalupsis,” which means “an uncovering.” So the book of Revelation is the uncovering of Jesus Christ. Why is this hopeful? Because Jesus came to earth first as a humble, suffering servant, but will return in his glory as King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. In Revelation we see Jesus for who he is – the magnificent, conquering, prevailing, matchless, Almighty God who will in fact have the last word in history, the last word in your life, and the last word in mine.
Revelation 1:7-8 (NASB)
7 BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.
8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."
1 John 3:2 (NIV)
2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
Our hope is in the fact that one day, we shall see him as he is. We even have prophecies of this day in the Old Testament:
Isaiah 40:5 (NASB)
5 Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, And all flesh will see it together; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
So Peter says, “The end is coming folks. Be clear-minded and self-controlled so you can pray. And here’s how you are to live in the light of your approaching last day.
Love each other. Offer hospitality to each other and serve each other. Keep doing what you’re doing.”
Then Peter addresses suffering more specifically. First in verse 12 he says, “Don’t be surprised by your suffering.” Don’t be surprised. Don’t think this is some unusual thing. In verse 13 he says rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ so you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. In other words, as you suffer for Christ in this life, you will take part in the suffering Christ has already done for this world. And on that day when Christ is revealed (uncovered – apokalupsis) to the world, your joy will be that much greater.
In verse 14 he says that being insulted because of Christ is blessing. And in verse 15 he makes it clear that being a Christian does not exempt us from suffering, saying, “If you suffer for any reason it should not be because of wrong-doing, but for following Christ.” Suffering will come to you – the question is for what? Will you suffer as a result of pain and hardship brought into your life by your own sin and rebellion against God, or will you suffer at the hands of those who would persecute you for doing what God would have you do? Either way we will experience suffering in this life. The question is what will we suffer for? And there’s a huge difference between these two kinds of suffering, because suffering for Christ leads to glory, joy, and blessing (happiness!) – it is bittersweet. Suffering as a result of our own sin and waywardness is pain for the sake of pain – it is just bitter.
And in verse 19, Peter perfectly wraps up what he has been saying.
1 Peter 4:19 (NIV)
19 So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
We are not to give up, or freak out, or shut down when our personal lives or the state of the world seem dismal. The Thessalonian people believed so deeply that the end of the world and the return of Jesus would happen in their lifetimes that they just gave up and shut down. They quit their jobs and were just waiting around for Jesus to return. After all, if Jesus is coming back in the next few days, why paint your house? Why shingle your roof? Why buy your kids a new bike? Why do anything? That was their thinking, and here was Paul’s response:
1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 (NIV)
11 Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you,
12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
More of the same advice we get from Peter. In light of Christ’s imminent return, live your life. Work diligently. God created you for a purpose – keep working the plan!
My friends, I do not know whether the things currently happening in this world will lead to its end soon. But – like Peter – I do know the end is coming someday. More important, I know that whether the world ends during my lifetime or not, my days are numbered. So are yours! Rather than live in a dream-world like that’s not true and just fritter away my time, and rather than panic and give in to fear and anxiety, I want to be found faithful when my time is up. I want to live in hope of the apokalupsis – the uncovering of the glory of God.
Hope is your birthright. You were created by God to hope deeply. And for as long as you live, and forever after that, hope will be found in him. That is the hope we need for uncertain times.
