Authentic Faith - 1 Peter 1:6-9
Pastor Tim Brown, Calvary Chapel Fremont, Sunday July 19, 2009
Authentic faith
1 Peter 1:6-9
I’m sure Peter was utterly blown away when he realized that Judas had betrayed Jesus. Judas had been w/ Jesus three years and had seen/heard/experienced everything. How could someone so close to Jesus/someone to whom Jesus had entrusted so much not only turn his back on, but turn on Jesus w/ such hostility? Peter came to realize that a person could have a profound experience w/ Jesus w/o having a saving relationship w/ Jesus. You can have a profound experience w/ Jesus w/o having a saving relationship w/ Jesus. How do you know that your faith is genuine?
Parable of sower – short lived or life long relationship? You can have a profound experience w/ Jesus w/o having a saving relationship w/ Jesus. Paul writes: examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith. We need evidence that our faith is authentic.
Is your faith authentic? Do you have real thing or cheap knock-off? Fake Rolex: 2nd hand ticks/Real: 2nd hand sweeps. Tick: on-off/on-off/start-stop/etc. Sweeping – constantly in motion.
What is the evidence of an authentic faith?
* Future: praise and glory and honor 7
…at the revelation of Jesus Christ (rapture or 2nd coming). Anybody would say that if they are alive/hear the trumpet/Jesus splits the skies and descends to planet earth – they will bow down and worship. “I don’t follow Jesus now, but if I see that, I’ll bow down for sure.” If the 1st coming of Jesus doesn’t impress you, the 2nd coming of Jesus will terrify you. There is a difference between faith praising and sight praising. Sight says: God hasn’t given me enough proof now – I am not satisfied w/ the historical evidence of the death/resurrection of Jesus/spiritual conviction of the Holy Spirit. I am not persuaded by the preaching of the gospel nor by the drawing of the Holy Spirit.
Every knee will bow… If you wait to bow to Jesus, you won’t be bowing to love, but to raw power - this is not conversion, this is acquiescence. Bowing to power and not surrendering to love is not conversion because it never reaches the heart.
There is ample evidence now to come to Christ. Faith isn’t believing in spite of the evidence, it’s believing because of the evidence. When Christ splits the skies and returns to the earth, it will too late to bow in faith then if you haven’t lived in faith now. There is a down-to-the-wire faith – thief on the cross – but there is no after-the-buzzer faith. If you don’t love Him now, you won’t love Him then. The return of Christ will mean judgment for those not in relationship w/ Him, but it will be an intensification of the joy that believers already experience.
Present: love and belief and joy 8
Note, 1st of all, that what we will do when Jesus shows up is what we are doing now. When we see Him, we will rejoice. When we don’t see Him now, we rejoice. The reality of an unseen Christ penetrates to our very bones – so, too, the reality of His revelation. Faith loves and rejoices and believes even when it can’t see Jesus. Do you have this kind of faith? Remember Peter and Judas.
your faith is verfied by how you act in trials
* What is a trial? Anything that burns you… tested by fire 1st – 4th degree burns – from redness of skin to damage to muscle/tendons/ligaments.
Trial = to put to the test. A trial is a device used to get at the truth. Cf. court trial – examination made/questions asked/evidence brought forth. Are you really who you say you are? Are you a follower of Jesus? Are you regenerated/heavenly minded vv3-5? Are you Christ centered vv6-9? What is true about you? Are you a ticking or a sweeping follower of Jesus?
Encouragement in the sorrow of our trials
* Your trials are necessary - Since (not IF) it is necessary
Necessity – fire code enforcement officer/EXIT signs/glow w/ the neon green light - doesn’t mean they will work when necessary. They have to undergo trial – poked w/ stick to provoke a response. Some of them have inoperative lamps/others have failed batteries. What a tragedy to think they’re OK and then when we need them they don’t work.
Your trials are necessary for your assurance. What a tragedy to think you’ve been regenerated and come to find out that you’re not - you’re just giving off some kind of fake spiritual glow, but there’s really nothing inside. You’re not heavenly minded nor Christ centered – no lights come on!
* Your trials are short-lived
6 …for a little while… puny: in extent/degree. Peter wants to keep it real. He doesn’t want to paint a Pollyanna picture of the Christian faith – so he speaks of suffering. But at the same time he wants to keep it in perspective. Yes, it hurts, but it’ll be over quickly. There is heaviness – things are heavy – but heaven is on the way.
* Your trials do you a service
They reveal the reality of your faith - In this you greatly rejoice. If there is lack of joy through trials/love for God – it may indicate a lack of faith – a lack of relationship w/ Jesus. “Well, I get bummed out when I go through a trial and I may be no fun to be with during that time, but I get my joy back when the fire has died down.” So do people who don’t know Jesus. If I’m deceiving myself, I want to know.
Often, people a trial want to know, “Why, why, why? What is God trying to show me?” Here’s something – that your faith is real! You fear no evil in valley of shadow! When you are poked/prodded the light should come on – praise and glory and honor…!
There are some real paradoxes in the text – (the bolded are trials)
6 rejoicing/sorrowing
7 tested by fire
8 loving Him/not seeing Him/believing Him/rejoicing in Him
9 obtaining salvation (this is a now and ongoing experience)
Two comments for believers who are on medication for depression.
1) Joy is an emotion, but it is deeper than the emotions. It is a response to God that comes into my soul from the spirit. Happiness is an emotion that comes into my soul through circumstances. Your soul may be depressed, but your spirit isn’t. Ps. 42.
2) As you focus on the hope set before you and the scope and grandeur of your salvation in Christ, you can rejoice. Aren’t you thankful that because of Jesus you’re not going to hell? Tell Him! If you’re not nurturing this vision of our hope, you need to do so.
This passage doesn’t describe how God develops these qualities, it describes how we demonstrate these qualities in times of hardship.
You can have a profound experience w/ Jesus w/o having a saving relationship w/ Jesus. This is why we need evidence that our faith is genuine/authentic.
Is your faith authentic? Do you have real thing or cheap knock-off? Examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith.
Trials test the genuineness/trustworthiness of your faith. Peter isn’t looking at faith from a doctrinal point of view, but from an experiential point of view. What is it that demonstrates a living faith in Jesus Christ? Not affirmation of a doctrinal statement – the demons believe and shudder. If affirmation of a doctrinal statement were a test of genuine faith, the demons would be Christians! Someone could say, “I have a demon possessing me, but he is a very orthodox demon. He believes that the death/resurrection of Jesus really happened.”
Vv4-5 caught up into heaven and in v6, yanked back to earth – from ecstasy to agony/heaven to heaviness. Peter causes us to think about heaven and then he causes us to think about heaviness.
Have not/do not see Him – if you saw Him and then no longer saw Him, you would be crushed. You would lose all your joy and your whole life would be seeking the experience of physically seeing Him.
Download | Duration: 00:52:47
Authentic faith
1 Peter 1:6-9
I’m sure Peter was utterly blown away when he realized that Judas had betrayed Jesus. Judas had been w/ Jesus three years and had seen/heard/experienced everything. How could someone so close to Jesus/someone to whom Jesus had entrusted so much not only turn his back on, but turn on Jesus w/ such hostility? Peter came to realize that a person could have a profound experience w/ Jesus w/o having a saving relationship w/ Jesus. You can have a profound experience w/ Jesus w/o having a saving relationship w/ Jesus. How do you know that your faith is genuine?
Parable of sower – short lived or life long relationship? You can have a profound experience w/ Jesus w/o having a saving relationship w/ Jesus. Paul writes: examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith. We need evidence that our faith is authentic.
Is your faith authentic? Do you have real thing or cheap knock-off? Fake Rolex: 2nd hand ticks/Real: 2nd hand sweeps. Tick: on-off/on-off/start-stop/etc. Sweeping – constantly in motion.
What is the evidence of an authentic faith?
* Future: praise and glory and honor 7
…at the revelation of Jesus Christ (rapture or 2nd coming). Anybody would say that if they are alive/hear the trumpet/Jesus splits the skies and descends to planet earth – they will bow down and worship. “I don’t follow Jesus now, but if I see that, I’ll bow down for sure.” If the 1st coming of Jesus doesn’t impress you, the 2nd coming of Jesus will terrify you. There is a difference between faith praising and sight praising. Sight says: God hasn’t given me enough proof now – I am not satisfied w/ the historical evidence of the death/resurrection of Jesus/spiritual conviction of the Holy Spirit. I am not persuaded by the preaching of the gospel nor by the drawing of the Holy Spirit.
Every knee will bow… If you wait to bow to Jesus, you won’t be bowing to love, but to raw power - this is not conversion, this is acquiescence. Bowing to power and not surrendering to love is not conversion because it never reaches the heart.
There is ample evidence now to come to Christ. Faith isn’t believing in spite of the evidence, it’s believing because of the evidence. When Christ splits the skies and returns to the earth, it will too late to bow in faith then if you haven’t lived in faith now. There is a down-to-the-wire faith – thief on the cross – but there is no after-the-buzzer faith. If you don’t love Him now, you won’t love Him then. The return of Christ will mean judgment for those not in relationship w/ Him, but it will be an intensification of the joy that believers already experience.
Present: love and belief and joy 8
Note, 1st of all, that what we will do when Jesus shows up is what we are doing now. When we see Him, we will rejoice. When we don’t see Him now, we rejoice. The reality of an unseen Christ penetrates to our very bones – so, too, the reality of His revelation. Faith loves and rejoices and believes even when it can’t see Jesus. Do you have this kind of faith? Remember Peter and Judas.
your faith is verfied by how you act in trials
* What is a trial? Anything that burns you… tested by fire 1st – 4th degree burns – from redness of skin to damage to muscle/tendons/ligaments.
Trial = to put to the test. A trial is a device used to get at the truth. Cf. court trial – examination made/questions asked/evidence brought forth. Are you really who you say you are? Are you a follower of Jesus? Are you regenerated/heavenly minded vv3-5? Are you Christ centered vv6-9? What is true about you? Are you a ticking or a sweeping follower of Jesus?
Encouragement in the sorrow of our trials
* Your trials are necessary - Since (not IF) it is necessary
Necessity – fire code enforcement officer/EXIT signs/glow w/ the neon green light - doesn’t mean they will work when necessary. They have to undergo trial – poked w/ stick to provoke a response. Some of them have inoperative lamps/others have failed batteries. What a tragedy to think they’re OK and then when we need them they don’t work.
Your trials are necessary for your assurance. What a tragedy to think you’ve been regenerated and come to find out that you’re not - you’re just giving off some kind of fake spiritual glow, but there’s really nothing inside. You’re not heavenly minded nor Christ centered – no lights come on!
* Your trials are short-lived
6 …for a little while… puny: in extent/degree. Peter wants to keep it real. He doesn’t want to paint a Pollyanna picture of the Christian faith – so he speaks of suffering. But at the same time he wants to keep it in perspective. Yes, it hurts, but it’ll be over quickly. There is heaviness – things are heavy – but heaven is on the way.
* Your trials do you a service
They reveal the reality of your faith - In this you greatly rejoice. If there is lack of joy through trials/love for God – it may indicate a lack of faith – a lack of relationship w/ Jesus. “Well, I get bummed out when I go through a trial and I may be no fun to be with during that time, but I get my joy back when the fire has died down.” So do people who don’t know Jesus. If I’m deceiving myself, I want to know.
Often, people a trial want to know, “Why, why, why? What is God trying to show me?” Here’s something – that your faith is real! You fear no evil in valley of shadow! When you are poked/prodded the light should come on – praise and glory and honor…!
There are some real paradoxes in the text – (the bolded are trials)
6 rejoicing/sorrowing
7 tested by fire
8 loving Him/not seeing Him/believing Him/rejoicing in Him
9 obtaining salvation (this is a now and ongoing experience)
Two comments for believers who are on medication for depression.
1) Joy is an emotion, but it is deeper than the emotions. It is a response to God that comes into my soul from the spirit. Happiness is an emotion that comes into my soul through circumstances. Your soul may be depressed, but your spirit isn’t. Ps. 42.
2) As you focus on the hope set before you and the scope and grandeur of your salvation in Christ, you can rejoice. Aren’t you thankful that because of Jesus you’re not going to hell? Tell Him! If you’re not nurturing this vision of our hope, you need to do so.
This passage doesn’t describe how God develops these qualities, it describes how we demonstrate these qualities in times of hardship.
You can have a profound experience w/ Jesus w/o having a saving relationship w/ Jesus. This is why we need evidence that our faith is genuine/authentic.
Is your faith authentic? Do you have real thing or cheap knock-off? Examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith.
Trials test the genuineness/trustworthiness of your faith. Peter isn’t looking at faith from a doctrinal point of view, but from an experiential point of view. What is it that demonstrates a living faith in Jesus Christ? Not affirmation of a doctrinal statement – the demons believe and shudder. If affirmation of a doctrinal statement were a test of genuine faith, the demons would be Christians! Someone could say, “I have a demon possessing me, but he is a very orthodox demon. He believes that the death/resurrection of Jesus really happened.”
Vv4-5 caught up into heaven and in v6, yanked back to earth – from ecstasy to agony/heaven to heaviness. Peter causes us to think about heaven and then he causes us to think about heaviness.
Have not/do not see Him – if you saw Him and then no longer saw Him, you would be crushed. You would lose all your joy and your whole life would be seeking the experience of physically seeing Him.
Comments