Test our faith through persecution

The apostle Peter is inspired very peculiarly at this time when he writes, and Peter is writing to a Church that is in the midst of persecution. And it is interesting how Peter addresses them and what his first Letter contains, to some people who are being persecuted. And while we in the 21st century, in the city of Boston, have not experienced this kind of physical persecution as the early Church did, we do have our own persecutions and trials of our own.

And Peter begins by saying in verse number 3, and I'm going to read from the International Version: "Praise God, the people are being persecuted." Many of their contemporaries are killing them, and Paul begins with a salutation.

So we are going to put ourselves in the place of the Church that is being persecuted and you are waiting for them to tell you: well, this is the way to get out of that trial or to escape that suffering, or to avoid these problems and Peter says: "Praise be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. By his great mercy he has made us be born again through the resurrection of Jesus Christ so that we may have a living hope and receive an indestructible inheritance," thank you, "uncontaminated and unfading."

In those first verses when I put myself in the place of those apostles, these disciples, these people who were being persecuted, and he tells me now that: yes, I am about to lose my life or lose what I have but the reason why He has made me born again is to have a living hope. It is not a hope that comes from a philosophy, it is not a hope that comes from something that I have read or have been taught.

Peter always uses the living word a lot, that it is real, that it is active, that it is not only something that is teachable but that is seen and is credible, and he says to them: the reason why we praise that God who is Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is that by his great mercy you have made us be born again so that we may have a living hope.

That is to say: in the midst of my circumstances, in the midst of my tribulations, in the midst of my problems, in the midst of my situations, in the midst of what I am going through that is happening now, in the midst of this irrational world that does not forgive, a world that does not forget, a world in which we suffer, a world in which we are always pointed out what we are doing wrong, he reminds us: despite all those things that we can lose our hope we cannot lose it because it is alive.

And it is alive not because of what Peter says, but rather he uses that determination as a subjugation: it is alive because Jesus rose from the dead, and that makes my hope, my longing so real that the things I am going through are not going to overshadow, they are not going to remove, they are not going to take me out of myself, I am not going to deny, I am not going to turn my back. Because even though I am going through whatever is happening, and in this case they are losing their lives, my hope is alive, my hope is alive.

And Peter who is speaking, remember our brother Peter who is the one who denies Jesus, but is also the one who sees the risen Jesus. So in Peter's experience, Peter would think of those moments: these people who perhaps never heard Jesus, perhaps never saw Jesus and are suffering for a Jesus they don't know, but I Peter, I knew Jesus. I saw that Jesus crucified. I saw that Jesus who was crucified but now he is glorified. I did see that Jesus, yes, on a cross, but I also saw him when the angels took him and took him to heaven.

In Pedro's mind he is saying: I have to communicate to this people that what they are dying for, what they are being persecuted for, is a reality, it is a reality that cannot be taken away from us. And Peter then adds a very nice play on words when he says: "Our inheritance is indestructible." Not only that our faith is alive, it is that our inheritance cannot be destroyed, how many say amen for that? If you have never inherited anything on this earth, at least an inheritance awaits you that no one can destroy and it is yours.

My dad died a few months ago and left a piece of property. So I began to investigate how properties are claimed in Puerto Rico, I thought that this was going to the registration site, giving my name and that's it, they gave me the house but no, it doesn't work like that, you have to make a declaration of heirs. If we are six siblings, so to make a declaration of heirs you must have six birth certificates, one for each sibling, you must go to the Court of Puerto Rico, you must present the birth certificates with a paperwork that must be filled out, the judge takes those papers and it can take from three to a year and a half to decide that yes, those six people are the heirs to the property.

Once they declare that process, one then has to assume any debt left by the person who died and any taxes owed by the property. When thinking about a blessing, one thinks: what will that inheritance bring that one does not know? The other thing is to get everyone to agree to send their documents and then for the Court to declare that there are six heirs, and the property belongs to six people, and then divide the property and sell what is sold, but it is a process that is not guaranteed.

So speaking recently with the lawyer in Puerto Rico I asked him: what is the average, how much is the average of the people who access and obtain the documents and submit them to the Court, and secure the inheritance? He tells me: well, 50% of the people who have property, right? They do not make a declaration of heirs. I tell him: why? He says: oh, because maybe the one who died very old maybe hasn't paid the taxes for years, and maybe the taxes are worth more than the property.

So I tell him: isn't there a way to find out if there are taxes to pay before making the declaration of heirs? He told me: no, gentleman, things don't work like that, you have to declare first so that you can know everything else. The entire process is uncertain, the entire process causes agony, expectation, anxiety, waiting, but the indestructible inheritance that the apostle Peter speaks of, and Jesus paid for this process with His life.

We must not despair. It is not necessary to obtain a birth certificate or go before a Court to assure us. It assures us that the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, he gives us a living hope, we receive an indestructible inheritance, the other is uncontaminated, a very common word now in our century, right?

If we are in the flu season, you have to wash your hands, you cannot say hello, people carry a lot of purex and things on hand to clean their hands, antibacterials, if someone in your office sneezes, people walk away because nobody wants to take catarrh or the cold, or the flu, nobody wants to be contaminated, but how precious that the inheritance of Jesus for you, for you, is indestructible, it is not contaminated.

And the next text says: "It is unfading." Do you know what is unfading in the Greek? think of a flower that withers. Pedro is telling those people that this inheritance does not wither, it does not fade, it does not disappear, it does not vanish.

What kind of peculiar characteristic do the adjectives Peter uses to describe that inheritance have? He could have said: this inheritance is an eternal inheritance and we already know that it is forever, but Peter was broader in his language, and I imagine that if I am in prison either they are going to kill me or I am going to give my life to the Lord and I have nothing else, my future is there, the future is over, when I read the Letter of Peter that says: look, I have a living hope, because that hope is an inheritance that you will receive from the Lord, which is not only from Lord, but it is indestructible, look: nothing is going to destroy it. Your body will be destroyed but your inheritance will not be destroyed.

Your body may be polluted but your inheritance will not be polluted. Your body is going to get old, we are going to get old, we are going to start doing many things, we are going to leave, we are going to die, but our inheritance remains intact as the Lord gave it to us on the first day. And he says: "Such an inheritance is reserved in heaven for you."

Those people who work in the field of finance, invest money, invest stocks, mutual funds, they know that with this matter of investing you have to pray, because if there in Japan they decide to raise what they are going to raise affects the North American market, If the Middle East decides to lower the price of oil, it affects a number of things.

I worked in a place that my boss always had on his television in the office, the Blooming Dale channel and he lived 24 hours with that channel watching how things went up and down, because there was the money he was going to retire with and that I had him pending. When the debacle of 2008 a lot of people committed suicide, lost their jobs, do you remember Lehman & Brothers that were very safe and fiush, they disappeared from this planet? but not so with what God has given us. In that living heritage we can rest.

In that living heritage we are not going to lose sleep. In this living inheritance we are not going to generate anxiety because I do not have to do anything except believe, believe that it is a living experience, believe that it is indestructible, believe that it is uncontaminated, believe that it is not going to wither, believe that it is in the best bank, in the best bank, in the Kingdom of Heaven.

The question may also arise: well, I kind of don't understand this business of the Gospel. This Peter has preached to us to give ourselves to that Lord Jesus that we do not know, to profess a faith of someone we have never seen, to speak to another while we are being killed and persecuted of that Gospel message and our reward, isn't it in the earth? this doesn't make sense. Do I have to die to see my reward or can I be raised in the rapture of the Church to see my reward?

Peter goes on to say, verse number 5: "Who are protected by the power of God through faith until the salvation that is to be revealed in the last days comes." Until the salvation that is to be revealed in the last times arrives.

There Paul is talking about an event that sometimes in the lives of many Christians must be dusted off, because it is an event that we forget about, it is a crucial event in the life of the Church and Paul reminds these people of that event. When he talks about the arrival of salvation, he is not talking about salvation by faith, he is talking about the salvation of the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, a real and crucial event in the life of the Church.

They expected Him to come in the first century, He didn't come in the first century. And as part of that living experience, as part of that reception that they have had through the years, he reminds them: don't worry. In other words paraphrasing what he means is: don't worry. His inheritance is so, so real that he and Paul later abound, saying, "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet sound, those who have died believing in Christ will be raised and raised, and then we who are alive will rise up to receive the Christ of glory in glory."

That is why he says: "this is a reason for great joy for you" not only joy, great joy, because even though up to now they have had to undergo various trials for a while, then they compare us to gold. How many of you know that you are gold? not diamond, not pearl. Peter compares us to gold, so raise your head. Sit up straight, you are gold.

The problem is that they are going to polish the gold (laughs), that is what Pedro tells us more or less, right? They are going to burn the gold and they are going to burn it enough to be able to remove all its impurities. The more they burn gold, the cleaner it becomes, the purer it becomes, the more it shines, the more its essence is real. Realize that you are more valuable than 24 carat gold because the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ was shed for you.

So even though we don't have much to offer but you can tell your brother next door: I'm gold cleaned and burned through ordeal, but I'm genuine. I am not a copy, I am genuine.

A co-worker asks me this week: what are you going to preach on Sunday? when I'm explaining what I'm going to preach he tells me: oh I like gold, I love it! I tell him: oh that's good, but he tells me: but explain something to me because you religious people are not pro-have a lot of money. I told him: wait, we like to work and earn money, and spend on our vacations, and don't forget the long weekend, it's important (laughs), but what is here is a comparison, an analogy, what does Pedro do? ?

For these people who are suffering, because now we are listening to a message from 2000 years ago in a completely different context. You are comfortable, you are comfortable where you are now, despite the fact that the problems you have have reached the house of the Lord. Maybe the problem is that you didn't have an umbrella or your car didn't have whippers, but you're comfortable; you are sitting, you are calm in a good chair, good heating, you are not feeling cold, listening to the Word of the Lord, you have sung, but the people that Peter is speaking to are not in this situation, they do not know if they are going to be alive

And when he says to them: you are like gold that will suffer, you are going to be burned, but he says to them: "So also your faith, which yields much more than gold, when tested by tests, which is worthy of approval, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."

Some documents have been found in some excavations of the primitive Church, some letters in which in one of them he refers to the passage from Peter, and in one of the letters, one of the writers writes to another saying: "It is different to have been thrown to the lions and to see my churchmates walk towards the lions with an attitude knowing that they would perish, but in their hearts they understood that they carried the marks of the cross in that gold."

That gold is different. That gold is not Italian. That gold is not from the Earth, that gold has been placed at our birth for the second time, the new birth, that gold gives me essence. That gold tells me who I am. That gold tells me that I am not just anything, I am gold, gold, valued by the Lord, what better than that! You don't have to go to Fort Knox to know my value, you have to call Jesus and He has my number and my value. At least that gold is not going to be stolen from me. How many say amen?

That you are standing tomorrow going to work at the train station or at the bus station, or driving to your car, arriving at work and you arrived at work with a smile: here came the servant of the Lord who carries gold in his being. Oh, a brilliant gold.

If we could have spiritual eyes we would see our people shining, shining. And the more it shines is because more tests have passed, the more it shines is because more suffering has passed.

The idea is not only to go through suffering or defeat, or victory, it is that at the end of all these stages we can get up and say: thank you Lord Jesus, I can praise you as Peter said, praise God, praise God, who is Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It says in verse 8: "You love him despite not having seen him and although you do not see him, you believe in him, and you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy because you are obtaining the goal of your faith, which is your salvation."

In the Greek the word: joy, at this moment, in this context speaks of a joy that cannot be measured. How many of us, let's think for a few minutes, in our difficult moments, whatever your moment you are going through now, moments of tribulation or moments of illness, how many of us can say: yes, I don't feel like laughing but the joy that God placed in my heart has not been taken away? I still have that peace in my being that produces joy. It produces a commitment that even when my physical and earthly eyes can only see the negative, what does not make sense of life, I can still say: Lord, thank you because I still have that faith that You gave me and I have worked to demonstrate it, Lord Jesus. I love you, even though I haven't seen you.

I love you even if those close to me don't believe in you. I love you even though I'm still in the middle of that test. I love you even if I don't see the way out of my situation. Lord, I love you, because even when I am weak or I have failed you and I have not been very committed to your cause until then, Lord, until then, Lord, you have been faithful and I love you.

Father, I love you because that love is indestructible, even if I don't have the desire to praise you, but joy, joy. I rejoice in the joy of the Lord, I rejoice in the reality of that Gospel. What can I give to the Lord? absolutely nothing, compared to what He has given me; an inheritance that is alive, an inheritance that is real, an inheritance that, understanding and believing that it is uncontaminated and unfading, I do not need anything else.

When I stop to preach, when I stop to sing, when I come and play an instrument, when I am sitting in the sanctuary and I stop to be part of the worship and music, or when I am listening to the preaching, I also feel joyful. , because I came home believing, and I come from countless different difficult circumstances that perhaps do not allow me to come with the desire to do things for the Lord, but I have arrived. I have arrived because I believe that what He has for me is alive, it is real. No one can contaminate it, no one can wither it, and even if no one sees me, if I could open my chest, if I could open my flesh and I could teach the enemy what I have inside, I would teach him that it is gold, a gold from the heaven, a gold that cannot wither, a gold that has no earthly value but eternal value, and that gold has been given to me by God, that gold is mine and no one is going to take it from me because the Lord has given it all to me time, and even though I don't have many things to wear, I can say: Thank you Father, beloved Father, thank you in the midst of problems because what you have given me this Earth cannot take away from me, this Earth cannot take it away from me , and this gold is Yours, this gold is Yours.

The last thing that is lost according to philosophers is hope, and for them it is an unknown, it is a challenge that believers never lose hope because they have never understood that hope has come from a race or a human feeling, hope comes because it comes from heaven and it is real, and it is alive. God bless us this morning. Let's stand up.

Let's sing one more praise, hallelujah, praise the Lord. Let's meditate on this morning before we leave and let's take this morning's message home with us. Life is hard, life is going to get harder. The more years pass, the closer the persecution approaches. The Church in the United States of America has not experienced persecution like it does in Europe or in Africa, or in the Soviet countries. We did go through persecution but not that kind of persecution and so far God has protected us.

But let me tell you something: God did not protect the apostles from the great persecution. God has not protected Europe and Africa and Asia from the great persecution. At some point in the history of this country we are going to test our faith through persecution, whether it be our generation or our children's generation, or our grandchildren's generation. But take one thing with you this morning so that you can tell your family, so that you can tell your children and so that your children can tell their children in the future.

What Peter said to the primitive Church, Peter repeats it today: when that moment arrives, say what Peter says: "Praise God, praise God" because even if I have to suffer or die, what God has given me Given that no one will be able to take it from me, not even the very enemy of souls will be able to touch the gold that God has given us.

So this morning when you get home and over the days and months remember: things are going to get worse but our inheritance will not change, our investment will not suffer because our bank will never be touched because it is protected by the shed blood of Calvary.