Well, we're in our final stages of our year-long study of 1 Peter. We're in 1 Peter 5, and 1 Peter 5 is directed to elders. Elders are God's appointed leaders of His church, and Peter humbly says, "I want to speak to you as a fellow elder." But although this material is primarily written to elders, there's so much gospel helpfulness in this passage. And I actually love the way he begins. There's a hymn that we used to sing growing up, it was, "I Love to Tell the Story." And it was a hymn about the amazing gospel story. Well, Peter does one of the best summaries of the gospel story in verse 1 of 1 Peter 5 that you could ever read.
So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed.
If you are looking for a two-word summary of the entire biblical narrative, here it is-suffering and glory. Those themes are everywhere throughout the biblical story. We know from the prophecies of Isaiah that Christ's life was going to be a life of suffering, "despised and rejected, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief." But Christ's life was also one of amazing glory, the glory of the resurrection, the glory of His ascension to the right hand of the Father.
Our lives are suffering between the 'already and the not yet.' We live in this fallen world where suffering is everywhere around us. But every day we are blessed with the glory of redeeming grace. The world that we live in is suffering, broken, groaning. But there's glory to come, the new heavens and the new earth. Suffering is what sin causes and has ushered into the world; glory is what grace is able to do. Suffering is your address now; glory is your guaranteed destination. Suffering is God's tool of transformation in your life; glory is God's promise of a final consummation of His work.
It really is true that this story is this constant coming together of suffering and glory, suffering and glory, suffering and glory, and reminds us that God is not satisfied with our condition, or the condition of His world. I find hope in realizing that I serve a dissatisfied Redeemer who will not give up, who will not relent until every microbe of sin is delivered from every cell of every heart of every one of His children. He will not give up until this world is finally and fully renewed.
Now, that story of suffering and glory is meant to be the story that gets shaped that animates your life. And I would ask you these questions, "What story shapes your living? What is the story that you tell yourself that makes sense of everything you face every day? What's the story that brings you joy? What's the story that brings you sadness? What's the story that is the thing that interprets everything that goes on in you and around you?"
Well, here's the story, suffering and glory. Sin brought untold suffering into this world, but there's a God of awesome glory, who pours into that world the glory of His grace, so that at some moment, sin will be no more, and we will reign in peace and righteousness and glory forever and ever and ever. Now, that's a good story!
