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Retired pastor

1 Peter 4:7: The priority of prayer

7 The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.” NIV

‘’ The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers.’’ (NLT).

 I feel unable to pull out of this particular station just yet.

There are three other things I want to say:

  1. Prayer is fundamental to a fully committed life: ‘…no matter what a Christian’s circumstances, he cannot live faithfully if God is only a part of his life, bracketed away from the rest. In the end, either Christ is at the Center of our lives, or the Self and all its idolatries are. There is no middle ground. With His help, we can piece together the fragments of our lives and order them around Him, but it will not be easy, and we can’t do it alone.’ (Rod Dreher: ‘The Benedictine Option’,pp.75,76). I believe Rod is correct in his assessment, and note his inference that prayer must lie at the heart of such a surrendered life.
  2. Prayer is of paramount importance for the gathered church. As Peter writes about life in the last days, his first emphasis is on qualities which will help us to pray. This reminds me of Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 2:1 where he writes: ‘’I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people – ‘’ In these words he underlines the priority of prayer in public worship. It’s the most important thing we can do when we come together as a church.
  3. Prayer will enable us to see the way ahead. As denominational leaders begin to share documents designed to help local church leaders prepare for easing out of lockdown, it becomes obvious that any return to physical meeting will be a complex process. At least, that’s how it looks to me. I don’t believe that there will be any single plan which is universally applicable to every single congregation; no ‘one size fits all’ template. This is a time for local church leaders to pray, and for churches to pray for their leaders. In prayer we will find our answers; in prayer we will receive the wisdom we lack and so desperately need. In prayer we can find the way forward. Yes, we must apply our minds; we must think. Yes, we must discuss, and take advice. Yes, we must work hard and ensure we fulfill every necessary obligation. But above all, let us pray.

 

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1 Peter 4:7: Stay Alert!

“7 The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.” NIV

‘’Stay wide-awake in prayer’’ ‘The Message’.

The government’s current message to ‘Stay Alert’ is so important. It should not be taken lightly. As Christians we should want to be good citizens and follow these guidelines as closely as we can. But we also see another level to the ‘Stay Alert’ message. We hear a call in it which was probably not intended: i.e. to ‘Stay Alert’ spiritually.

‘’Stay wide-awake in prayer.’’

I read an article by a pastor this week. As I understood it, he was saying that in all the discussions about the mechanics of returning to any kind of ‘normal’ church life, we must not lose sight of the underlying spiritual dynamics. He said if we don’t come out of this deeply changed something is wrong. We’ve wasted an opportunity.

If, for anyone of us, mediocrity/lukewarmness had become the norm before the pandemic, it mustn’t be any more. As Andy Lancaster encouraged us in a recent interview, this is a time to ‘press into God.’

Staying wide-awake in prayer entails at least 2 elements. These are indicated in one version as being ‘’clear minded and self-controlled’’.

It seems to me that clear-mindedness involves knowing what to pray, and self-control getting on and doing it.

Isn’t it just the easiest thing in the world to know that you should pray, and maybe even have some idea of what to pray, and still not do it?

So ‘Stay Alert’ to the enemy’s subterfuges; to his subtle schemes that would rob you of prayer (and rob the world of the potential impact of your prayers); ‘Stay Alert’ to all his attempts to steal the treasure of fellowship with God from your heart. ‘Stay Alert’ to what the Holy Spirit is saying and doing right now in your circumstances.

As someone said, ‘Pray until you pray!’

PRAYER: Lord help us to keep in step with your Spirit. Please strengthen me to pray until I pray.

 ‘For every time a man wants to pray, his enemies, the demons, want to prevent him, for they know that it is only by turning him from prayer that they can hinder his journey…prayer is warfare to the last breath.’ (A 4th century desert father who devoted his life to solitary prayer and meditation).

 

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1 Peter 4:7: Prayerful

“7 The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.” NIV

There’s nothing new about this, but whenever you find a ‘’Therefore’’ in the Bible, you need to look back to see what it’s there for. This ‘’Therefore’’ relates to the sentence we looked at yesterday:

‘’The end of all things is near.’’

 So the question before us is, ‘How should we live in the last days?’

The first answer is: ‘Prayerfully.’

Indeed, we need to clear the ground so that we can pray; deal with stuff; sweep away debris; unblock the well

Matthew Henry’s words are helpful regarding this text:

‘Those who would pray to purpose must watch unto prayer. They must watch over their own spirits, watch all fit opportunities, and do their duty in the best manner they can…The right ordering of the body is of great use to promote the good of the soul. When the appetites and inclinations of the body are restrained and governed by God’s word and true reason, and the interests of the body are submitted to the interests and necessities of the soul, then it is not the soul’s enemy, but its friend and helper.’

 ‘’Stay wide-awake in prayer’’ is how this is rendered in ‘The Message’.

Perhaps Peter was recalling how he and James and John went to sleep in the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus had asked them to stay awake with him in prayer (Mark 14:37-40). It has been suggested that it was perhaps because Peter failed to pray in the garden that he later fell into temptation and denied his Lord.

The 1960’s media theorist, Marshall McLuhan, himself a practicing Christian, once said that everyone he knew who lost their faith began by ceasing to pray.

Many people acknowledge that there is a certain kind of fatigue that seems to go hand-in-hand with this crisis season. There’s a creeping lethargy which can gradually have a suppressing and choking effect on the spirit. Like weeds, it could steadily take over the garden of your soul.In these days of great crisis, don’t let the devil rock you to sleep in his cradle.

How ought we to live in the last days? Prayerfully!

PRAYER: Lord, teach us to pray.

 

 

 

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1 Peter 4:7: Last things

“7 The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.” NIV

Back in the early 1980’s, I invited a good friend to do several days of Bible teaching for the church I pastored in Lancaster. On his last evening with us, in the course of his talk he said that on another occasion he might do something on ‘eschatology.’ At the end of the service, one lady, thanking him for his ministry, said with a broad smile that she looked forward to his talks on ‘escapology…or something like that!’

‘Eschatology’ is the study of the ‘last things.’ It has to do with the end of the age and the second coming of Jesus. Many books on the subject indulge in flights of fancy and much speculation. But what strikes me as I read the New Testament is that again and again its approach to the subject is practical. We are going to see this over the next few days as we look at verses 7-11.

‘’The end of all things is near.’’

So how should we live if that is the case? How ought this belief to affect us? Well, in really down to earth ways. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

For now, I want to stress that Peter was not mistaken when he spoke about the end. In Biblical terms, the ‘last days’ began with the first coming of Jesus, and will come to a climax with His second advent. In between times, everything that shakes the world, or rocks our personal worlds, reminds us how small and weak and fragile we are. It underlines the point that we are mortal, and we won’t be here forever.

We are feeling something of this now. How should we then live? Read on, and you’ll find out that the application is earthy, feet on the ground stuff.

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1 Peter 4:5-6: The great divide

“5 But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to human standards in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit.” NIV

I think today’s verses become clearer in ‘The Message’ translation. Let’s read from verse 3:  ‘’You’ve already put in your time in that God-ignorant way of life, partying night after night, a drunken and profligate life. Now it’s time to be done with it for good. Of course, your old friends don’t understand why you don’t join in with the old gang anymore. But you don’t have to give an account to them. They’re the ones who will be called on the carpet—and before God himself. Listen to the Message. It was preached to those believers who are now dead, and yet even though they died (just as all people must), they will still get in on the life that God has given in Jesus.’’

There is both good news and bad news in today’s passage.

There is bad news for unbelievers in verse 5. Those who persecute the church and appear to get away with it now will not do so forever. We worship a Just God who will, in His time, set all things to rights.

But the good news for believers is that even though they die, it will not be the end of any of them. As someone observed: ‘Death is the ultimate statistic: one out of one dies.’ No-one can beat it or cheat it; no-one can avoid it. But as a Christian you know you will come through it into a richer, fuller life with God.

The great American evangelist, D.L. Moody spoke of a day when people would read in the newspapers (he was famous) that he was dead. ‘Don’t believe a word of it,’ he said. ‘Then I will be more alive than I have ever been.’ This is the good news here in verse 6.

David Pawson said, ‘The church is the only society on earth that doesn’t lose a single member to death. They just transfer to another branch!’

The Bible teaches that a day of separation is coming – a great divide. It isn’t just the persecutors of the church who need to fear that day, but all who reject Christ. However, for those who trust in Jesus, there is nothing to fear.

Bishop Thomas Ken wrote:

‘Teach me to live that I may dread,

The grave as little as my bed.’

PRAYER: ‘’…thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Corinthians 15:57).

 

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1 Peter 4:4: Misunderstood

“4 They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you.” NIV

The philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, said, ‘Christianity has been made so completely devoid of character that there is really nothing to persecute. The chief trouble with Christians, therefore, is that no one wants to kill them any more!.’

He was, of course, speaking about a certain flavourless brand of traditional Christianity which he saw in his own day and culture. It is manifestly not the case that no one wants to kill Christians, and that no Christians are ever martyred. The persecution of believers is still a sad fact of life in many nations. Nevertheless, Kierkegaard’s words should provoke us to self-examination, because there is much unsalty salt here in the west.

The Christians to whom Peter was writing certainly knew about suffering for their faith. One way this can come is through social ostracism. Your non-Christian friends think it’s ‘’strange’’ that you’ve said ‘Enough’ to your previous lifestyle; that you no longer live as you did, nor want to Some may think you are strange.

I remember David Pawson saying something like this: when you become a Christian you make at least two discoveries. The first is that you’ve got a whole lot of new friends, and that’s good. The second is that you’ve got a whole lot of new enemies, and that’s not so good.

A new convert asked his pastor, ‘Now that I’m a Christian, how much of the world should I give up?’ The pastor’s reply was,’Don’t worry; the world will give you up!’

I believe it was Warren Wiersbe who told the story of a couple of girls who were known for their wild partying. After their conversion to Christ, they received an invitation to yet another party. They sent this reply: ‘We regret to say we cannot attend because we recently died.’

PRAYER: Although living your way, Lord Jesus, may mean that I am misunderstood, scorned, and left out, I want to always be true to you. But I need your help if I am to walk the same path you trod. Thank you that you do help all who look to you.

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1 Peter 4:3: Enough!

“3 For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do – living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.” NIV

The first present I bought Jilly for her 60th birthday was a bathroom weighing scale . Now lest you think me terribly unromantic, let me say two things in my defence:

  • This was not my only gift to my lovely wife. But, more importantly…
  • She asked for them!!

Of course, we are sharing it, and when I first weighed myself a week or two ago, my reaction was ‘Enough’. Without going into too much detail, I discovered I am quite a bit heavier than when I thought (Surely there is something wrong with those scales. I think I’ll send them back!!!!). Furthermore, last time I got weighed, I had put more weight on than I was comfortable with.

Now to be fair, I seem to still be in the acceptable zone for someone my height and age, but only just. So I have drawn a line in the sand. I have said to myself, ‘Enough’. That needle must not go any further to the right; I’d like to see it gradually coming down to the left. So, ‘Happy Birthday Jilly.’ It’s a wake up call for me.

In these opening verses of chapter 4, Peter is writing about the place of suffering in our growth towards holiness. Here, in verse 3, he says, in effect, ‘As you look at how you used to live in those pre-conversion days, you need to say ‘’enough’’.’ That may sum up part 1 of your life story, but it mustn’t describe part 2.

The Message reads: ‘’You’ve already put in your time in that God-ignorant way of life, partying night after night, a drunken and profligate life. Now it’s time to be done with it for good.’’

 Whenever you find one of those dirty, ugly, sinful critters crawling back out from the sewers of your old life, you should look it in the eye and say, ‘Enough!’ You might even find it helpful to say it out loud. Send it packing, back to where it came from. (Of course, that old way of life has more characteristics than are listed here. See, for example, Galatians 5: 19-21).

Somebody went home from church one Sunday, and he was asked, ‘What did the preacher talk about? ‘He spoke about sin, I think,’ was the reply. ‘And what did he say about it?’ ‘He was against it!’

So should I be; and so should you.

‘Enough.’

PRAYER: Lord, as I read the New Testament, time and again I hear the call to resist, to come out, to put off, to put to death. Help me to be militantly anti-sin, and profoundly dependent on you to live the life you want me to live.

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1 Peter 4:2: What are you living for?

“2 As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.” NIV

‘Today is the first day of the rest of your life.’

What are you going to do with it? Not only today, but the rest of your ‘’earthly life’’ I mean?

In what we refer to as ‘the Lord’s prayer’, Jesus taught His disciples to pray:

‘’…your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’’

 The sweetest place in all the world in which to live is right in the centre of God’s will. Yet some people seem to fear that His will is the worst possible thing that could happen to them.

Not all ‘’human desires’’ are wrong. Desire is part of being human, and we have many positive and healthy wants/appetites. Our problem is with the ‘’evil’’ stuff. This is what we repent of at the outset of the life of discipleship. But also, we need to keep on repenting throughout our journey. Day by day we will find ourselves in need of ‘course correction’.

In an excellent book for pastors entitled, ‘The care of souls’, Harold L. Senkbeil writes:

‘ So for as long as he lives the pastor, like other children of God, treads the path of continual repentance and faith on his own personal pilgrimage back home to the Father’s house…This daily dying to sin and rising to new life through faith in Christ is the pivotal hinge in every Christians life…’

Yes, this verse applies to us all. It’s challenging. It’s also encouraging. For even if we messed up yesterday, today there can be a mid-course correction, as we realign our lives with the compass set to doing God’s will.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, I honestly do not want to spend one moment of the rest of my life outside of you will. Please have your way in me.

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1 Peter 4:1: A further thought on ‘mental fight’

“Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body has finished with sin.” NIV

We saw yesterday that an attitude can be an armament. Peter is calling his readers to fortify themselves with a certain ‘’attitude’’ towards ‘’suffering’’. People who follow Christ, He who suffered so intensely to do away with sin, cannot expect to lie back in a warm bath of ease. Suffering is part of normal Christian experience. Christianity is ‘cruciform’ in shape.

But I have been struck by the idea that the principle of arming yourself with a certain attitude can be applied to other areas of discipleship. I believe C.S. Lewis furnishes an excellent example of this in his book ‘Mere Christianity’:

‘The real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at your like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day…We can do it only for moments at first. But from those moments the new sort of life will be spreading through our systems because now we are letting him work at the right part of us.’

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