The Living Hope of Easter | Living For God (1 Peter 4:1-11)

Jesus knows what it is like to be ridiculed, abandoned, and humiliated. He suffered for us and by doing that, gave us a reason to live for Him, even when that is hard or means suffering for us. The first enemy we have to fight is our own sinful self. It craves things that God knows aren’t good for us. Let God change our hearts and minds – which will begin to change our behavior. The best way to do this is living with the end in mind – especially when the going is difficult. Living for God includes self-control, wisdom, loving, showing hospitality, serving, giving. We especially think of our confirmands who are making a promise today to always live for their Savior who died and rose for them. 

Transcript

Have you overheard a conversation that wasn’t meant for you, yet still made an impact? Even though the words spoken weren’t primarily for you, and yet you found yourself in that conversation? That’s a little bit how our tall today is going to go. The wonder of the Bible is that it simultaneously was written for a specific audience, and yet its words were also written down for you and me. Dr. Mark Paustian put it like this, “The dynamics of overhearing become significant once we recognize how the great bulk of the Bible comes to us as “someone else’s mail.” I mention this, because this message is primarily for Aletta, Shelby, and Aiden, but you might just find yourself in this conversation too. As you, our confirmands know, I am the most hip and cool pastor that’s ever graced the earth. I shouldn’t be so sarcastic! No, I’m the exact opposite, as one of our dear members said to me once, “Pastor, you’re an old soul in a young person’s body.” But I do try to hear the different cultural influences around us, including what’s on the Billboard Top 100. The number one song in America is called “Fortnight” by Taylor Swift, and I heard a line in there recently that made me think. She sings, “I love you, it’s ruining my life.” It made me think of moments in my life when living out of love for Jesus felt like it was kinda ruining my life. You three, if that hasn’t happened to you yet, it will. You’ll look at Jesus and feel that tension, “Jesus I love and I know you love me, but my life feels ruined.” It’s for moments like that, that Peter’s words here are so life-changing. He wants to share how God’s given you a life worth living through his unbreakable love.

That unbreakable love is what we want to keep on our minds focused constantly. Because times will come, as they already have for you, when you feel so strange, awkward, and conflicted because you’re child of God facing a world that isn’t your home. This will happen and I say this not to scare you but to help equip and prepare you. You’ll likely be asked to do something with your body that you know goes against everything you know to be true about how to care for the temple God put together with his own hands. With your voice, with your mind, a battle will rage trying to get you to forget the holistic identity Jesus has given you. If you stand up for Jesus in moments like that, which is the grace-motivated commitment you’re making today, it may feel like the end of you. Sometimes you will feel very alone, feeling like there is no one else like you. When abuse is heaped on you, attacked intellectually and emotionally for your faith, how can you see the world through the viewpoint of Jesus?

Peter has some great things to tell you today, friends. He says, “God will fight for you!” “Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin.” The battle is not easy, but Jesus always overcomes. Yes, Confirmation is a mile marker in your Christian life, but it’s not the end of the battle. You want to make this commitment because this is who you are by grace through faith. God has equipped you with a weapon that overpowers anything Satan and sin can throw at you, it’s unbreakable, you know what it is? Peter says, “Therefore since Christ suffered in his body.” He’s talking about the weapon of the gospel, that Jesus suffered for you, yes died for you, rose for you. And do know what you’ll find, keeping your mind and heart obsessive over that gospel, letting Jesus dominate every thought, every moment, every situation, dear baptized child of God, that’s seeing life as it really is. That’s experiencing true reality! The struggle is this: There will come a time when you’ll look at the Bible, the very book we worked our way through this year, and you all did a tremendous job doing so, you know the lay of the land of the Scriptures, don’t shortchange yourself. All the studying, the Bible passages, the treasures you’ve put in your memory won’t come to mind, your weapon will not be easy to access. The thought will come, “Come on God, why do I have to have this guilt and shame over doing this, while my friends are carefree, and having fun? Come on Jesus why does it have to be so hard? I feel ruined!”

It’s for those moments and all the ones in between that you put together a devotional life plan, not just to build up your biblical literacy, or to have more Bible facts for Trivial Pursuit. You made that plan because you know what the Word can do. Listen to Peter describe it. The Word refocuses you to “be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.” Why? “The end of all things is near.” What does he mean? In the ultimate sense, the end of all things is Jesus coming back to make everything sad come untrue, yes, be ready with joy, this might be the day you meet Jesus! But also, in another immediate sense, the end of your suffering is always near, because Jesus is always near you. Remember my one goal as your teacher, first class, our number one goal: That you walk away from this class knowing even more how much Jesus loves you.

The struggle with sin, peer pressure, temptation, it all comes down to forgetting his love. When you desire Jesus above all else, when your mind and heart are obsessed about Jesus dying on the cross and rising for you, the simple gospel, but think about its infinite depth of meaning! That Jesus, the God of all, put himself in your place. When you face the battle, and you are armed with the Word, both in language and in Jesus himself, when your mind is consumed by his love for you, sin's attractiveness disappears. Why? Because he was the one who considered you so valuable that he shed his blood to pull you into his arms of grace.

This is why we talk about identity so much because God does in the Bible. We must know dear friends who we are, the identity God has given us by his grace. You need to remember who you are. Identity given, not achieved, one given to you on your baptism day, through Water and Word, the gospel Jesus put his name on you. Peter talks about the power of baptism when says, “It (baptism) saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.” When Peter says, “Therefore” in 4:1, he’s pointing back to these verses. The power of the gospel specifically through baptism. The day Jesus put his name on you. And yes, that makes you strangers in this world, in your school, in whatever you do one day, but you are family to him, you belong to Jesus. 

That’s why we’re wearing white robes today, and I pray you remember this day the rest of your life. Let this be a reminder of who you are. Not that you’re going to wear white robes every day, that might be the wrong kind of strange that we want as Christians! But you live following the only absolute truth in the world. Jesus who is the truth. He defines you, silencing the voices within you and outside you trying to define you. God defines you by his self-sacrificing love. After you take pictures today, seriously frame it, put it up in your room. Jesus has thrown his righteousness over you, and very likely the next time you wear a robe like this, you’ll be beaming before your God, not because you made yourself somebody, but because Jesus became the ultimate nobody so you would never doubt how loved you are by God.

Remember your Jesus-given, grace-enveloped identity, especially in those moments when your love for Jesus seems to be ruining you. See yourself in this robe, because this is how God sees you. He’s washed away your sins with his blood, covered you with the waters of baptism, and removed every stain of sin even the things you regret most. He’s given you the most powerful, unbreakable love that gives you goosebumps because you know he’s always there.

Only the Lord knows how many young people have made the same promise you’re going to make today but not even a passing thought of Jesus breezes through their minds anymore. How many people have said, “I’ll never leave you, Jesus,” but now they are more distant from him than ever. So what does Peter say in all this, “Pray.” “Love each other deeply.” “Offer hospitality.” “Serve others.” “Use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms” that through you another unique gem of God’s treasure-packed grace is witnessed.

Why do we strive for this? Who are we living for? The God of hope, power, and glory! For all of us here today, parents, church family we’re called to offer hospitality, when they feel like strangers in this world, they’ll have a slice of their heavenly home with people who know the one truth that this world will try to tear down but never will. It’s unbreakable because the almighty God stands. And you guys will come back here with intellectual doubts, and worldviews that challenge every last thing you learned in confirmation class, come back to this family, ask your questions, see how beautifully God answers every single challenge against his Word. When you face emotional doubt, which you will, be armed again with the truth of God’s love, the gospel, when those questions come: “Why God is this happening? Why? why?” That all doubt’s darkness will be blinded as you see again Jesus’ arms stretched out on the cross for you, when you take and eat his very body, his own blood, given for you, to give you forgiveness, joy, and renewed closeness with your Savior who died for love of you. When those doubts come, arm yourself with your Redeemer’s love. He will never ruin you. How can we not give everything we are and have to him, to live only for him?

This commitment you are making today is not just for you to accomplish, in fact, when you look back in glory one day laughing with warmth and joy, you’ll see clearly that it was all him, because your God will always be committed to rescue you. Your God who approached you in baptism, the same Savior who will pick you up when you fall, the same Savior who will take you by the hand, leading you to a home where all feelings of being a stranger will be but a forgotten passing memory, because you’ll finally belong. Isn’t that the battle you’re in? The constant question, “Will I ever truly belong?” Will loving Jesus ruin my life?” No, my young friends you know…Your love for Jesus leads you to desire what he desires, you long to live for him who gives you the greatest life ever, obsessing over the gospel, read his Words written for you, pray non-stop, bring him into your fears and joys, the more you think about him, the more you see the reality of all things, the unbreakable love of your God, his grace that has set you free to live for the God who died and rose for you. Amen.