Welcome to this week's edition of the Weekend Sermon. I am so happy to be able to be back again with you all this week. I hope that everyone is having a very good week.
Everything is going fairly well at work. I'm still having a lot of stress at work, and the job is very difficult, but I am making it through with prayer and the Lord's help.
In your prayers this week, I would ask that you please pray for the people of Vanuatu and Nepal. Vanuatu is still in recovery mode from a devastating typhoon, and Nepal still needs aid after two earthquakes. Let us also continue to pray for an end to Ebola cases in West Africa. Let us all continue to pray for peace in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Ukraine and Afghanistan.
This weekend, the weather is supposed to be very bad where I live. The soil is so saturated that we can't take in more rain, yet it is supposed to rain over five inches this weekend. I am worried about my house flooding. Please pray that it won't be too bad. Thank you.
Last week, we took a one week break from our continuing study in I Peter. Today, we will resume our study in this interesting epistle.
A few weeks ago, I took a large section of I Peter that dealt with submission to government, masters and husbands in one big chunk. I did not focus at that time on one section of chapter two that I want to deal with in conjunction with I Peter chapter 4. These passages speak about the sufferings of Jesus and how they are relevant to us.
I Peter 2:21-23 speaks about the way in which Jesus responded to suffering. Jesus faced immense suffering in His life. I am not just speaking here about what Jesus suffered on the cross. We will focus on that more in a moment. Jesus suffered greatly throughout His entire life.
Just think about it for a minute. There is nothing in the Bible that states that Jesus in His divinity did not remember the glory He shared with the Father in Heaven. I believe that Jesus was acutely aware throughout His earthly life of the great sacrifice that He was making on our behalf by taking upon Himself human flesh and leaving Heaven to dwell on this earth. In my mind, that had to be a type of suffering.
Jesus also suffered in His humanity while on earth. Jesus was rejected by those who were the closest to Him. Those in His hometown didn't want to have anything to do with Him, and at one point, the members of His own family were opposed to Him. This type of rejection causes great suffering.
Later in His ministry, the large crowds that followed Him would abandon Him when He said that they needed to eat His flesh and drink His blood.
And now let us think of the suffering that Jesus endured on the cross. First of all, Jesus suffered the agony associated with crucifixion. He would have undergone incredible physical pain. I can't even comprehend it.
More than this, Jesus suffered great agony on the cross because while He was on the cross, Jesus bore all of our sins in His body as it states in I Peter 2:24. All of God's wrath for sin was poured out on Jesus while He was bearing our sins on Calvary's tree. Jesus took upon Himself the punishment for sins that we who are sinners justly and rightly deserved.
I think that it is quite clear that Jesus clearly understood and understands what it means to suffer in body and spirit. However, Jesus who was completely without sin always responded correctly in the midst of suffering. Because of this Jesus is our great example when we too face suffering just as He is our perfect example to follow in every aspect of our lives.
When Jesus was reviled and threatened and when He suffered, He did not respond in kind. Jesus committed all of His suffering into the hands of the Father in Heaven. And we should do the same.
All of us will experience suffering in one degree or another in this earthly existence. Suffering is unavoidable. In the midst of our suffering, it is easy to become discouraged and feel as if we have been abandoned by God. When others cause us pain, it is often our desire to retaliate. However, this is not the example of Jesus.
In following Jesus in the midst of suffering, we must forgive just as Jesus asked the Father to forgive those who were crucifying Him. We must place our lives in the hands of the Lord believing that ultimately all of our suffering and hardship will be redeemed by the hand of God and used to make our lives what the Lord wants them to be.
So, why did Jesus endure all of this suffering. He did it so that we might be redeemed. He did it so that we might be healed of the sickness of sin.
We were like sheep that had gone astray and had wandered from the fold of God. Jesus, who is the Good Shepherd, came to seek and to save that which was lost. He came to find the wandering sheep and bring them back safely into the fold of the Lord.
If you are still wandering away from the Lord, run to the arms of Jesus who is the Good Shepherd. Ask Him to save you and bring you back into the fold.
Next week, we will delve more deeply into the idea of how suffering can benefit us in this life. We will look into chapter four and study the idea of how suffering in the flesh can help us to lead lives of holiness.
On Monday, I will post the verses. I plan to have a book review on Wednesday. May God bless you. Amen.
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