Sermon Category: Faithful to the End

Psalm 40 is a plea of someone who is trapped, sinking in quicksand, and is miraculously delivered from doom and given a sure foundation and a new song. The speaker in this Psalm proclaims that he has come to do the Lord’s will and replace the temporary sacrifices of the law with a life of perfect obedience to God’s will. This person is, as the author of Hebrews later reveals, none other than our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Because Jesus knows what it is to reach the depth of our fallenness and despair, we can trust that no matter what this life may bring, we will never experience anything that goes beyond his capacity to understand and empathize. Also, because Jesus has overcome our brokenness and lived a life of perfect obedience on our behalf, he offers a new song and a fresh start to those who come to him and are willing to trade the darkness of their sins for the new life of his resurrection.

In his final remarks, Peter sums up his epistle with a final exhortation to stay faithful until the end growing in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. After all, those who are faithful in little are faithful in more. God knows we are not perfect yet and that is ok, the Lord is perfecting us. On this side of heaven, God is looking for faithfulness, not perfection. As long as he finds us clinging to him, it will all be well.

When I was a kid, I hated long trips. Anything that lasted more than 20 minutes seemed to last an eternity. I am sure my parents were not fond of the trips either, especially because I would ask the same question time and time again. Are we there yet? The Lord promised his disciples he would be with them to carry their mission even until the end of the age (Matthew 28:18-20. Almost 2000 years have passed since he gave his promise and every generation of Christians has at some point or another wondered if we are there (or almost there) yet. In the third chapter of his second epistle, Peter helps the second generation of believers in the first century see that our job is to trust God with the details of his plan and occupy ourselves with our mission with the assurance that when the kingdom comes it will be worth our waiting. We may not be there yet but we are definitively closer today than we have ever been!

Living in a place where we are free to share our faith gives us incredible privileges. We have plenty of printed literature on every topic relevant to our faith, we have powerful bible study software and libraries of videos, radio stations, Christian music, and television networks dedicated to spiritual teaching. With this plethora of information, however, come significant challenges. Not everything in the “Christian market” is actually sound in doctrine. In the second chapter of this letter, Peter challenges us to discern the content of spiritual teachings around us and examine the lives of those who profess to be followers of Jesus. Unfortunately, there will be heretical teachings in the churches seeking to take Christ’s disciple on a journey that does not take us where Christ wants us to go. Some of these prophets are bridge builders that lead others to a cliff of self-destructive error and indulgence. As Andy Stanley says in his book “The Principle of the Path” direction, not intention is what determines our destination.

Every day we are bombarded by a relentless campaign of advertising and marketing trying to convince us of our need for an endless array of items and services. More than ever, our lives are filled with an incessant hunger for materialistic and consumeristic products and yet we seem to be never satisfied with all we possess. The reason we are not satisfied is that we have been looking for satisfaction in the wrong places. According to Peter, everything that we truly need has been already given to us! (1 Peter 1:3). Why is it, then, that even though we have been given everything we need, we are sometimes not able to live it out? Peter gives us the answer to this question in chapter one reminding us that Christ’s calling is a life-long, life-changing, and life-giving journey in which we must continue to grow! Essential to this growth is our dependence on God’s word until we arrive at the finish line and the darkness of this world gives way to the light of God’s new day.