Fountain City KC

If what Peter says is right, Christians ought to expect suffering, but why would we add that to all the other heartbreak and hardships we face? As Peter transitions toward his closing thoughts, he reminds us of the center of our hope. This hope is not only comforting for us in times of difficulty, but, what's more, it recalibrates how we relate to one another in our ordinary lives -- beginning first in our churches and spreading out to our families, friends, neighborhoods, and workplaces.

There's something about the start of a New Year, the feel of it, that connects pretty easily with our Christian faith. A New Year can feel as though it offers us a new beginning, an opportunity for change, something different. As we return to Peter's letter this Sunday, he will draw a sharp connection between that New Year feeling and the call of the gospel. The gospel of Jesus calls us into a new life. The question Peter will put before us all this morning is are you owning that new life?

This past season was likely filled with warm relationships, joy, and memories. Now, this week or the next, life gets back to normal for most of us. Real, everyday life is often hard. It might be filled by disease, job loss, or unresolved conflict you have to deal with. Real life can make the joy of the gospel seem only like a seasonal thing. As we'll see in this week, the advent season is of course meant to bless us now, but even more so, to point to us the ultimate joy and peace that awaits. 

This Sunday will be the fourth week of Advent. Christmas is just days away! As the final preparations are made and excitement levels rise, a question worth considering is what is it about this season and holiday that make it such a special and happy time? The simple answer that we'll explore this week is that Christ has come and Christ changes everything.

This Advent season we've been tracing the promise of God running through the whole of Scripture: that He will send One to overcome our sorrow and shame. But a nagging question hanging over this promise is who is it for? Through this beautiful passage, God will make it very clear that He sends the promised One for all of us, and He invites us all to respond with joyful worship.

At the heart of the Advent season is a promise about Jesus. But promises are only valuable if they’re kept; if we put our hope in a promise, but that promise is broken, that can feel unbearable.  It would be better to not trust that kind of promise to begin with. A lot of us experience our relationship with God that way, even in Advent. Through this passage, God will show us that we can have complete comfort in his promises because we know he will always keep them. 

Life is full of promises. Promises offer confidence about the future; they offer us hope. In our modern era, we are promised that through human achievement, we'll all reach a utopian life together. The Advent season reminds us of the truth that there is only one grand promise that will actually be fulfilled. It's the ancient promise found in this all important passage, the promise that found its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, and the only promise you should bank your life on.

Living faithfully in everyday life has been, is now, and will be nuanced and complex. So, how does Peter expect us to discern what is good for us to do? How are we to be devoted to God but also mindful of our neighbor? Lastly, who has the final say on who we are and what we've done? Was any of it worth it? In 1 Peter 3:13-22, the Apostle Peter lifts our eyes to the great hope we have in every circumstance as we are in Christ so too do we share in his victory.

If you could ask Jesus to do one thing what would you ask Him to do? Most of us would ask Jesus to bring some kind of peace or healing in our lives. Part of the good news of the gospel is that Jesus can and will bring His renewing power to us. What can be lost on us is how He does that. Through this passage we will see that Jesus renews things not primarily through other-worldly signs and wonders, but by working in and through His disciples as we live a new kind of life: a cross-shaped life.

One of the most glorious and yet most difficult relationships in life is marriage. Some people, because of the difficulty, have grown jaded and view marriage as a mistake to be avoided. As a disciple of Jesus, how does following him make any difference in marriage? The answer, even though it's hard to believe, is that it makes all the difference. That's because discipleship to Jesus develops a cross-shaped life which transforms marriage from a power struggle to a relationship of sacrificial love.