Faith and Hope Amid Life's Tragedies

We actually turn to God when bad things happen, believing he could have kept them from happening in the first place, isn't this true? Don't we all do this in fact, we encourage other people to do this. We actually turned to God when something bad happens and we turn to God with this crazy confidence that well God, you could have kept this from happening in the first place, but now that it's happened, I'm gonna turn to the very one who could have kept this from happening. [00:00:15]

And what they recovered was faith in God, not the promises of God, not the blessings of God, just God. Because all the other stuff, all the other fluff had been torn away in a day. Now you may know someone like that and perhaps you're hoping for a recovery like that. And it may help to know, it certainly helps me to know, it may help to know that the men and the women who brought us the message of Jesus walked through similar valleys, valleys filled with random acts of violence, unnecessary suffering, and unanswered prayer. [00:04:48]

The Jesus followers in Jerusalem are asking God to deliver Peter days after God did not deliver James. Again, the Jesus followers, they're asking God, they're praying, they're asking God to deliver Peter from prison just days after God did not deliver James. I mean, why bother if God was concerned about Peter, he wouldn't have allowed Peter to be arrested in the first place, right? So if God didn't stop Peter from being arrested, why turn to God after he's arrested? [00:09:51]

They continued trusting it and turning to God because the thing that made the least sense of all, the crucifixion of God's Messiah resulted in the greatest possible good for all, the salvation of the world, forgiveness of sin and on-ramp to our relationship with God. And here's the thing, to the degree, to the degree that our faith is anchored to those same ancient events, our confidence in God will sustain us through the random, inexplicable God where are you valleys of life. [00:11:11]

Peter says that our hope is anchored to an event, an event that rekindled his hope, the resurrection of Jesus. And then he says this, "In all of this, all of this suffering and all of this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, you may have had to suffer grief of all kinds of trials in all kinds of trials." In other words, he says in light of all that God has done for you, you can find joy and you can rejoice in the middle of it. [00:14:46]

These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith, the proven genuineness of your faith of greater worth than gold which perishes even though refined by fire may result," in other words, there's gonna be a result, "may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." Again, to which we would say, so Peter, we should expect this to which Peter would say, "Yes." And people are watching, people who are suffering as you suffer are watching, people suffering without hope will be drawn to your hope, your peace. [00:16:00]

And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and you are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy because you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls." So once again, we pushed back, so Peter, so what you're saying is this, that the inconsistency and the randomness of life, it doesn't throw you off, It doesn't undermine your confidence. I mean, come on, they got James, they came for you and Peter would say, "No, my faith, my faith doesn't depend on consistency or certainty or my ability to explain things. [00:17:34]

My faith is not shaken by the randomness of life. Come on, I saw the best possible person suffered the worst possible death, it made no sense at all, none. And God brought him back to life. So while there's a lot, I can't explain, there's a lot I don't understand I just got to tell you. After the resurrection, the rest is just detail." And then in the same letter, Peter gives his audience and gives us the strangest to do list, but we're gonna talk about that next time. [00:18:15]

But, in other words, in spite of all of this drama, in spite of all this inconsistency, in spite of all of these unanswered questions, but the word of God continued to spread and flourish." In fact, we know that it did because it's why these texts were created and preserved, it's why the name and the message of Jesus would eventually circle the globe. But on a personal level, these events and events like these and the response of our first century brothers and sisters is why to borrow a phrase from the apostle Paul, it's why we don't grieve, [00:25:38]

It's why we don't mourn as those who have no hope, for we believe that Jesus died and rose. Again, it's why to borrow from Peter's words, it's why we can cast our cares on him, because we know he cares for us. You can know that he cares for you in spite of what you see around you, in spite of what's happening to you, it's why to borrow a phrase from the author of Hebrews, "We can approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." [00:26:13]

If Peter is correct and he would know, if Peter is correct, what strikes us as random, unfair, unnecessary, may in fact be random, it's certainly unfair and perhaps unnecessary but in spite of that, if Peter is correct, he assures us our hope is not misplaced, our hope, your hope is not in vain because we have a living hope that is anchored not to our ability to predict and interpret circumstances, we have a living hope that is anchored to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. [00:27:19]