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Redeemer Community Church is located in the historic Avondale neighborhood of Birmingham, AL. Our church family exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
For more information on who we are, what we believe, or how to join us, please visit our website at rccbirmingham.org.
If you have a bible, I invite you to turn to first Peter chapter five. After eighteen weeks, we are finishing our study in first Peter. Beginning next week, just for four weeks, we're gonna go through second Peter. We're just doing a flyby of second Peter, and then then we will land the Sunday after Labor Day in which we will begin a new series on the book of Daniel. This is our last week though in first Peter.
Joel Brooks:Beginning in verse 10. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. By Sylvanas, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God.
Joel Brooks:Stand firm in it. She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son. Greet one another with the kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ. This is the word of the Lord.
Joel Brooks:Thanks be to God. If you would pray with me. Father, thank you for your servant Peter. Thank you for inspiring him to write this letter and preserving it for us. And I pray, Lord, that in this moment, we would hear you speak.
Joel Brooks:I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, but Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. So many years ago, back when I was in high school and Lauren and I were dating, I went to one of the grocery stores in Downtown Al Pharetta, and I ran into Lauren's mom. Lauren's mom, she was with a friend of hers who was blind, and every week, Lauren's mom would take her blind friend to go grocery shopping and would help her out, and I had never met this person, and so so Carolyn was going to introduce me.
Joel Brooks:And and so she said, I'd like to introduce to you. This is Joel. Joel is and then she paused. There was no reason for the pause because I knew knew Lauren's mom really well, had dinner at her house many times. Lauren and I had been dating for well over a year, the correct thing to say would have just simply been, this is Lauren's boyfriend.
Joel Brooks:But it's like she couldn't get the words out. It was just, this is Lauren's very special friend. I was introduced as Lauren's very special friend, and I think she still refers to me as that. And I was just wondering, like, what does that woman think in her mind? What picture comes to her mind when when when I was introduced to her as that way?
Joel Brooks:I've thought a lot about that story over the years, actually, probably too much about that story over the years. But I especially thought about it when it came time for Lauren and I to introduce our girls to who God who God is, because there's a lot of parallels. God is invisible. We we cannot see God. And yet, our kids see that we are obviously, we have a relationship with this person that they cannot see.
Joel Brooks:So so how are we to introduce our children to God? And and I talked to you all, for those who were, you know, around at Redeemer, you know, eight or nine years ago, I I talked to you about this, but there's so many options out there. I mean, your kids, intrinsically, they pick up on some things about who God is, especially if you pray before a meal, they intrinsically kind of know that, okay, there's an invisible person that we give thanks to. So, they understand some things, but how do you make the official introduction? Because it kinda sets a trajectory.
Joel Brooks:I mean, do you do you introduce God as well, God is the creator of all things, the creator of you. Do you introduce him as, well, God, he's well, he's the all powerful being over everything. Whichever way you go, you're gonna set a trajectory for your child and how they first think about God. And, what Lauren and I decided to do was we would introduce God this way. God, God is the one who changes hearts.
Joel Brooks:It's first thing we taught our kids about God, and and our hopes was that this would, for the rest of their life, teach our kids this, that for one, they need a heart change, and two, who to go to in order to get that heart change. I'm not prescribing that to you, it's just the route that we went. But the more I've thought about that over the years, the more I've thought how insufficient that was. It certainly was not complete. Because I introduced God by just describing what he did, and not by really who he was.
Joel Brooks:I said nothing about his character. So our girls knew that he changed hearts, but they didn't know what God's heart looked like and why they would ever go to him for that. So it really wasn't a proper introduction. So what is God's heart like? Well, thankfully, God introduces himself and he tells us.
Joel Brooks:If you're reading through your Bibles though, you have to make it through 84 chapters of the Bible before God first introduces himself to us. 84 chapters. Of course, you pick up a whole lot of things about God along the way. I mean, he says many things, he does many things, but he doesn't actually ever tell who he is, what his character is like until Exodus 34. And there he is talking to Moses, the context is this, he tells Moses to come up on top of the mountain, and Moses has asked to see the glory of God, and God says, okay, what I'm going do is I'm going hide you in this cave, I'm going to put my hand over the entrance of the cave, and I'm just going to pass by, and then I'm going to let you just catch the faintest glimpse of me.
Joel Brooks:And it's at that moment that God, for the very first time, tells what he's like, who he is. As he passes by, he says these things, I am Yahweh, Yahweh, God compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. The very first thing that God wants us to know about who he is, is that he is a God of compassion. He doesn't say, Yahweh Yahweh, a God disappointed, demanding, disinterested, annoyed, uncaring, but he is a compassionate God. That word compassion, it's it's often translated as merciful throughout your Bibles, the same word, And, it refers to the deep love that someone with strength has towards someone who is weak.
Joel Brooks:The word itself in Hebrew is the word rachum and it has the same root as the word womb. It describes the feeling that a mother has for her weak, needy child. You could actually translate this word as woo me, if you want. And this is how God introduces himself to us. You wanna know who I am?
Joel Brooks:I'm compassionate. Let me ask you, is that the first thing that you think of when you think about who God is? Is this how you were introduced to God? Is this the way that the talking heads on the news or the people who who speak about God on the the the reels that you you flip through, is that the type of God that you see? A God who is compassionate?
Joel Brooks:It's one of the very first things that Peter told us about God when he wrote this letter. Back at the very beginning, he said these words, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his great mercy or great compassion, same word, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope. The reason that Peter, at the very start of his letter that he could bless God, the reason that he understands that he has been born again into a living hope is due to this one reason, God has had compassion. And now, as Peter is concluding his letter, he's continuing with the same theme. This time, he's highlighting God's graciousness, a grace that sees us in our suffering, sees us in our pain, and reaches out in love to restore, to confirm, to strengthen, and to establish us.
Joel Brooks:Notice that Peter, he does not just call God a God of grace here at the end, he calls God the God of all grace. All grace. Every good, gracious thing that has ever come your way in life has one source, God. Now, although Peter, he is book ends his letters, his letter here by talking about the compassion and the grace of God, I'm not sure Peter placed much value on those things early in his life. I don't think when he was back there on the shores of Galilee and he first met Jesus, that in any way was Peter looking for a Messiah full of compassion.
Joel Brooks:You don't look for a compassionate Messiah when you don't think you need compassion. After all, who needs compassion when you're the strong one? Who needs compassion when you consider yourself to be the righteous one? At least, certainly more righteous than all the people around you. Who needs compassion when you consider yourself to be the one who will never fade away, although everyone else is going to run away?
Joel Brooks:You don't you're not looking for a Messiah with compassion then as little value to you. And, can I just say that we're living in this cultural moment, where rarely is God's compassion actually being talked about when I hear it? When I hear people referring to God all the time, it's coming from this tone of like, we're the strong ones, we're the ones who will never fall, we're the righteous, instead of, oh, we are so weak and need a God of compassion. So I don't think Peter was looking for a God of compassion early in his life, but once he was humbled, once his weakness was exposed, once he fell in a way he never thought or imagined he would fall and sinned against the Lord that way, well then, at that point, your hope is not that God is all powerful, your hope is not in God's holiness, your hope is not that God will someday judge the evils of this world, your hope is one thing, oh, I hope that God is compassionate when he looks at me. I hope that when he looks at me, he looks at my weakness just like a mother looks at the weakness of their child, and Jesus did.
Joel Brooks:Jesus did. That's exactly how God responds to us, and it's the very first thing that God wants you to know about him. He's compassionate, he's gracious, he's slow to anger. He's abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Now, know I have that, technically, I haven't even, like, started to unpack the very first verse yet, but you need to understand that this final section just is saturated with this theme.
Joel Brooks:Peter never ever ever got over the mercy and grace that was lavished upon him, not when he was strong, but in his weakest moments. And Peter finishes his letter by once again pointing to the hope we have, and he wants to make sure you know this. Your hope is not in you. Your hope is in the character of God. So let's look at these final words.
Joel Brooks:Verse 10, and after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. Once again, Peter, he brings up the suffering these Christians are going through in Asia Minor. If you remember, much of the city of Rome had just burned. The emperor Nero, he pointed the finger at the Christians, saying they did it, and as a result, all sorts of persecution had been unleashed onto Christians. Eighteen weeks ago, I shared with you that Nero invented new ways of torture.
Joel Brooks:He would he would cover Christians with pitch, hang them up high, and he would light them and use them as torches to light up his dinner parties. He would cover them with the skin of pigs, and then unleash the dogs or lions upon them. I mean, never in human history have Christians been persecuted like this. And although this persecution has started in Rome, it was now beginning to spread all the way to Asia Minor, and so, following Christ now came with a cost. And that's not just history, Following Christ always comes with a cost.
Joel Brooks:I've heard it said that following Jesus is hard, and it is, but not following Jesus will always prove to be harder. Yes. Obeying Jesus, at times, is gonna be hard. Sometimes, you might even have to suffer for it, but living without the hope of Christ, living without his spirit of you, that would prove to be much much harder. I mean, if I could if I could go on matrix on you, and right now, I could offer you a pill, and say, hey, here's a pill, and if you take this pill, you will no longer remember anything about Jesus.
Joel Brooks:You'll no longer remember who he is, what he has done for you, and how he has called you to live, completely erased from your memory. Would you take it? And I'm not just I'm not I'm not saying like, you know, would would you take it in one of your best moments, you know, like after nine lessons in carols, where you're just ready to worship Jesus to the end of days, or maybe after spending time with the church, best worst fest, you know, you're full of sausage and fellowship. I'm not asking at that moment, would you take the pill? I'm asking about when the darkness comes, when suffering comes.
Joel Brooks:And not just the suffering that's common to all of humanity. I'm not talking about that type of suffering. I'm talking about when suffering comes because you're following Jesus. At that moment, would you be tempted? When suffering comes, let's say, for instance, in the workplace, when all of your peers who lie and who cheat, they're the ones who get promoted, but you're the one who's passed over because of your integrity.
Joel Brooks:Or, when all of your friends, if you're single and it seems like all of your friends are just having a great time going around hooking up with everybody, and yet, you seem to always be alone because you know that's not how Christ wants you to live. And yet, it's sad at times. There's just a sorrow that creeps in. What about times like that? Or or perhaps, you're married, but it's a very unhappy marriage.
Joel Brooks:I mean, it's it's not like your spouse has cheated on you or anything like that. It's just almost like the the gears in your marriage have ground to a halt, and there's no longer any joy in it, no longer any satisfaction. And all of your friends are just saying, get out, we got out, just leave. But, you know that following Jesus means, no, I'm going to stay and I have to believe in the power of the resurrection even in my marriage. What about in times like that, where the road is really, really hard, and I would offer you this pill and say, in a moment, you could take this, and you won't remember Jesus, what he's done, and how he's called you to live anymore.
Joel Brooks:Would you take it in that time? The answer is no. Never. This is it's not even a temptation. You you would never go back to your old life because although, yes, following Jesus at times is hard, not living without the hope of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Well, would be miserable. Your best life without Jesus pales in comparison to suffering alongside of him. So it's not even a temptation. Those who have truly tasted Jesus, tasted of his goodness, it's not a temptation because you have found him to be the pearl of such great price, you're willing to sell everything in order to have him. You found them to be the treasure in the field in which you're willing to sell everything in order that you might buy the field.
Joel Brooks:There is nothing greater than Jesus. So you will take him and every suffering that comes along the way. It's not even a discussion. Not only this, but Jesus has actually assured you that the suffering that you will endure for his name's sake, it won't last forever. It's temporary.
Joel Brooks:Peter tells us that God has put an expiration date on our suffering. He he says it will last only a little while. Granted, a little while is a little vague. It's kinda like my wife's two minutes. Been married thirty years, I still don't know what two minutes represents.
Joel Brooks:It could be a literal two minutes, it could be two hours, or I could still be waiting. It's a little while in comparison to eternity. That's what Peter's saying, in comparison to eternity, where glory forever awaits us. Eternal glory. I can't read those words, eternal glory, without thinking of that immortal speech of Keanu Reeves and The Replacements.
Joel Brooks:Once again, I'm not prescribing this to anybody, but you can look up the YouTube clips. Keanu Reeves, you know, he he plays Shane Falco, the quarterback. And in the last huddle, the final play, he gathers up his players and he says, I wish I could say something that was classy and inspirational, but that's just not our style. Pain heals, chicks dig scars, glory lasts forever. The amount of times my girls have heard me quote that line, I still get chills.
Joel Brooks:Glory lasts forever. Glory, though, is one of those vague Christianese words, isn't it? I mean, we say it all the time. I don't even know how many times we just sing about God's glory and the songs beforehand, and yet, I have found that very few people actually stop to consider what does it actually mean. Back when I regularly led mission trips, when I was in college to Northern Ireland, we would have times where we would train the team.
Joel Brooks:And one of the things I would do in one of our team training times was I would say, I want all of y'all to to break off into pairs, and I want you to share the gospel with one another, but you can't take Sean with you. And I wasn't talking about Sean Seamus, who they would meet later in Northern Ireland, who is weird as they come. I was talking about Sean as in, you can't take justification, sanctification, glorification, redemption, like all the shans that we use in our Christianese that were spouting out all the time and I think we hide behind those words because we actually don't know what we're saying. Just use plain words to articulate the gospel. Have you ever actually thought about what glory means?
Joel Brooks:I mean, Peter's holding it out for us, it's the end goal. I hope you've thought about it. What Glory, eternal glory awaits us. When you think about that, what do you think of? Do you do you think of like parades being thrown in your honor?
Joel Brooks:Do you think of crowns being put on your head? Do you think about walking on streets of gold? I mean, those are helpful images that the bible uses, but personally, walking on street of gold, I I gold, I couldn't care less. It's an image. What is what is glory really about?
Joel Brooks:In Greek, the word means splendor or brilliance, and that captures a part of it. But I really think if you want to get to the heart of it, you need to hear that word in Hebrew, which is the word kabod, and it means heavy or solid. Heavy, solid, terms from the seventies that still have kept on. It's kind like the word cool, it's never going to run out of style. You know exactly what's meant when somebody says, that's heavy.
Joel Brooks:I mean, when you were in college and you're having one of those late night discussions, solving the problems of the world, whatever it is you're doing, and somebody says something really profound, you're like, woah, that's heavy. That's that's solid. And when you say that, what you're saying in that moment is, wow, I've I've heard so many words, like, the world is just filled with all of these words and they're just fluff. That had weight. That actually meant something.
Joel Brooks:I'm building this table at my house. I've been working on it for a while. It's a table that I hope that we will use at our new property, we'll move over there. It's only four feet by five feet oval, that's it. It weighs 450 pounds.
Joel Brooks:I have cut down the trees, I have hand hewed every single log, it's more than a foot thick butcher block table. That's probably got, know, at least fifty, sixty something butcher blocks all hand hewed there, put together. It's glorious, Like, it's glorious, solid, immovable, heavy. My goal was to build a table that Jesus could use when He returns. It will be there.
Joel Brooks:That's that's the heart of this here. When we when we talk about future glory, we're not just saying that, hey, hey, there's a day coming when someday all of our sorrows are going to go away, all of our sufferings are going to fade away, and we're going go, you know, everybody hand out a harp, we get to go and play on the clouds, you know, forever, all of eternity. That's not eternal glory. Eternal glory is this, it means a time is coming when you're going to look back at even the best moments of this life, the best ones. Christmas morning, opening up the presents and the joy that you had there, or being at a stadium and joining the roar of the crowd as as your team makes a play and you win, Or like being with friends at a wedding, and afterwards, being able to cut loose with them and just laugh and to dance and just have so much fun.
Joel Brooks:I'm talking about, you will look back at some point at those great moments, your best moments, and you're going say, it's like they're translucent. It's like there was no substance even to that. They were just the smell, but now, I'm feasting. They were just the shadow, but now it's the reality. That's what we will get to enjoy.
Joel Brooks:All the joys, all of our pleasures, they were just the faintest hint, but eternity is coming and glory is when all of those hints of all the joys we've experienced, they finally become solid and real. Peter says that awaits us. The apostle Paul, he talks about our suffering and our glory this way. In second Corinthians four, he says, for this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory. Do you see the contrast?
Joel Brooks:Light, momentary affliction, the eternal weight, heaviness, solid, immovable glory that awaits us. When Jesus calls us to suffer, well, this is ultimately a calling towards glory, which must first go through suffering. I've been thinking about that a lot this week, when Peter says that God has called us to his eternal glory in Christ. Because I think when Jesus first called Peter, I think that's what Peter had in mind. I do think when when Jesus went to Peter, when he was by the shores of Galilee for that very first time, said, Peter, come follow me.
Joel Brooks:I think Peter was thinking, I'm following Jesus to glory. Absolutely. But I think Peter thought it was going to be straight to glory. No detours, no trials. He's thinking that the path, it's nothing but sunshine, rainbows, unicorns, whatever, maybe a few 100,000 dead Roman soldiers along the way, but straight to glory.
Joel Brooks:That was the first time Jesus called him. But when Jesus called Peter the second time, I think he had a completely different vision in mind. Peter's second call came after Jesus had been crucified and resurrected. Peter's second call came after Peter just failed miserably and sinned in the worst possible way. Peter's second call came after Peter had fled, but then Jesus met him, looked at him, and with a heart full of compassion, restored him, strengthened him, confirmed him, established him.
Joel Brooks:It was after that that Jesus once again called Peter and said, Peter, come follow me. And I think Peter, in that moment, he knew without a doubt, yes, this is once again a call to go to glory, but I think he now understood that this is a path that first must go through suffering. This is the path that will take me through the valley of the shadow of death first, before I will go to glory. So when Jesus calls us to glory or calls us to resurrection, remember, the cross comes first. Peter says that a day is coming though when Jesus will put an end to all of our suffering.
Joel Brooks:A day is coming when will restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. And it's hard for me to imagine Peter not weeping as he is dictating these words to Sylvanas, because this is exactly what Jesus did for Peter. After Peter did what he did, after he denied even knowing Jesus, Jesus did not look at him with condemnation, did not look at him with disappointment. He looked at him with eyes filled with compassion, and just like a mother looks on the weakness of their child and heart reaches out towards that child, Jesus reached out towards Peter and restored him. And that restoration that Peter tasted there, he knows it's just a foretaste of restoration to come.
Joel Brooks:The thought of all of this causes Peter to just burst out into praise in verse 11, when he says, to him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. It's probably best to understand that dominion or at least to see that that comment in verse 11 in close proximity paralleled with what he says in verse 13 about Babylon. Verse 13, he says, she who is in Babylon, who's likewise chosen sends you greetings. The she is the church.
Joel Brooks:The Babylon is Rome. That's how Peter refers to Rome. You know, Babylon was the once mighty kingdom that conquered Israel, destroyed its temple, exiled its people, and they perished. And now, Rome is the modern day equivalent for for Peter. He's saying, remember Babylon.
Joel Brooks:Rome is Babylon. Yes. It seems like they hold all the cards. Yes. It seems like they have all the power.
Joel Brooks:Yes, it seems like we're just this small little few that's being persecuted and it's just about to be fully extinguished. But Babylon fell and Rome will fall, but the kingdom of Jesus will endure forever. Think of how absurd that comment sounded at the time. But where is Babylon today? In ruins.
Joel Brooks:Where is the Roman Empire today? In ruins. Where are we today? In the church that Jesus built, and part of his kingdom that will endure forever and ever and ever. You could summarize Peter's whole letter, really, with the last words that he says in verse 12, when he says, this is the true grace of God.
Joel Brooks:Stand firm in it. In this letter, Peter has talked to us about how God has called us to himself, The crucified and resurrected one has forgiven us, called us to himself, called us to be part of a great family. He's given us his Holy Spirit and his scriptures that we might obey him. And even though we might suffer for it, we can rest assured that all of it is just to prepare us for the glory that awaits. He says, that's the true grace of God.
Joel Brooks:Stand firm in it, church. Stand firm in it because while the powers of this world seem to be having their way, they will actually all fade, but to Jesus belongs dominion forever and ever and ever. Amen. Pray with me. Jesus, your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.
Joel Brooks:Thank you that you have called us to be a part of it, and we never ever would have on our own. We never would have, but while we were still your enemies, you died for us. You had compassion on us, and you drew us close to your heart. And, Lord, I pray that you would help us to stand firm either until we die or until you come. And we pray this in the sweet name of Jesus, our savior.
Joel Brooks:Amen.