「残りの生涯を御心に従って生きる」 七月第二主日礼拝 宣教 2024年7月14日
ペトロの手紙一 (1 Peter) 4章1〜6節 牧師 河野信一郎
Good morning. We are in the midst of a very difficult time of the year, with either extremely hot days or rainy days alternating day after day, making it very difficult to take care of our physical condition. I am sure that some of you will have difficulty returning to church from July to the end of September due to the extremely hot weather. We ask that you take the utmost care of your health. If you find it difficult to go out on Sunday morning, we would like to ask you to remain at home and offer the service online. If you do so, please let the church know so that those of us who worship at the church can be reassured.
We also understand that many of you will be traveling around the country this week through August and will be absent from worship services. We pray for God’s protection and blessings, so please let us know if you will be absent. I will also be going to Minamiurawa for three days from the 22nd to the 24th next week to attend a meeting of the Japan Baptist Convention. The Wednesday prayer meeting will be cancelled for a month from that week, so my workload will be somewhat reduced, but I intend to work on the issues that I have neglected for the past three months.
Since June, I have been giving a series of messages on the theme of seeking the will of God, and I plan to start with the first letter of Peter this morning and next week on the 21st and continue with the Gospel of John from the 28th to around September. In the Epistles of Peter and the Gospel of John, there are many references to “the will of God”. I am going to give a message from the Gospel of Peter and the Gospel of John, selecting passages that are relevant to the history of Okubo Church and the lives of those who gather at this church. There are also some passages in the Gospel of Matthew that are also suitable, so I am preparing to share the Word of God with you while praying that I will find a balance between the two. Please pray for me.
This morning we hear in 1 Peter 4:1-6, and next week we will hear in the same chapter 4, verses 12-19. The astute among you may wonder, “Why don’t we deal with verses 7-11 in between?” However, I checked the past and found that I had given a message from those verses on February 13 last year, so I decided not to cover those verses this time. If you are interested, you can find it on the church website, click on the section called “Message Summary,” and read the text from February 13, 2023, titled “God’s Love Covers Many Sins”. I will mention a few more this morning, but the message for this morning and next week may be connected there.
This morning, under the title of “Living According to God’s Will for the Rest of Our Lives,” we hope to hear together how God’s will and desire is for us to live the rest of our lives, the lives that God has given to each of us. Many of us have plans for our own future, our family’s future, and our retirement. Even if we don’t have enough time to make plans, we all have wishes and hopes. And we work hard to fulfill those wishes and hopes, to be thrifty, to stay healthy. However, life is full of unexpected events. Most of them involve suffering, pain, and sorrow.
When faced with such hardships, we cry out to God for the first time. The cry may be one of bitterness, or it may be an earnest plea for mercy and help. But when we cry out in this way, we have a chance to know God’s will, to know the path He has prepared for us with His care and plan. We must not waste this opportunity. By knowing God’s will for each of us, we are transformed to live the rest of our lives not according to our own will, but according to God’s will, so that we can live in the true peace that we truly need. To live according to God’s will means to live not for ourselves but for God and our neighbors.
To digress a bit, in the first half of chapter 4:7, the apostle Peter says, “The end of all things is at hand”. It is believed that this letter was written around 63 A.D., so it was 1961 years ago, but it seems that the end of all things is now imminent. Looking around the world, wars and conflicts are taking place everywhere. Global warming and climate change are upsetting the rhythm and balance of nature, and this unbalanced nature is raging out of control, causing enormous disasters on the earth. All of this is the result of the sins we humans have repeatedly committed, and the situation is so dire that we can hardly stand to look at it any longer.
How can one have hope in the face of this tragic situation? We do not have the strength to hope. But there is One and only One who gives us true hope. It is the God of mercy and our Savior, Jesus Christ, who covers all our accumulated sins, embraces us in our brokenness and weakness with love, and offers us salvation and restoration. Therefore, we read in chapter 4, verse 8: “First of all, love your hearts with all your hearts. “First and foremost, love one another with all your heart. For the love of God covers a multitude of sins.”
Those who believe in this God of mercy and in our Savior Jesus Christ are Christians. It is we who are invited this morning to believe. Jesus offered His life on the cross and died an atoning death to cover our sins and free us from sin and death. We are invited to believe in God’s mercy and Jesus’ sacrifice as love from God.
To this one who believes in Jesus as Savior, the Apostle Peter says in chapter 4, verse 1, “arm yourself with the same mindset” as Jesus. Two things are worth noting. First, “the same mindset” as Jesus means trusting only in God, perseverance, faithfulness to carry out God’s plan, and faithfulness to one’s neighbor, even in the midst of suffering, and obedience to His will.
As for “arm yourselves,” Ephesians 6:13 and following say, “Buckle up with the truth as your girdle, and put on righteousness as your breastplate, and be ready to preach the gospel of peace as your footwear. And on top of that, take your faith as a shield. And put on salvation as a helmet, and take the sword of the spirit, the word of God. In a nutshell, this means to live with God.
Those who believe in Jesus are “those who have ceased to have anything to do with sin,” which is better understood as “those who have been set free from sin.” God’s love and zeal have saved us from any association with sin. Therefore, it is His will that we continue to remain in His love. Thus, verse 2 says, “That we might live the rest of our life in the flesh, no longer according to human desires but according to the will of God. It is God and Jesus who has made it possible for us to live the rest of our lives in His love and in His hands.
Verse 3 says, “In former times you did what the Gentiles liked, indulging in licentiousness, lust, drunkenness, revelry, carousing, and idolatry, which is forbidden by the law; but that is enough now.” These words indicate that most of the readers of this letter are those who met Jesus as adults, repented of their sins, and turned to God. We can see that until they met Jesus, they have lived as they pleased, following their own instincts. But Peter says, “I met Jesus, and through Him, I became a man of God. But Peter says, “Now that you have met Jesus and are in the blessing of being made alive to God’s love through Him, stop living the way you used to. It is already too much.”
Even when we want to get out of such a situation, those around us frequently invite us to join them. In verse 4, we read, “They are suspicious of you and criticize you because you no longer participate in such terrible and disorderly behavior. What we need to do in this situation is to pray to God for help and strength to persevere, so that we can still love them.
Because verse 5 says, “They must (one day) make an offering to Him who is about to judge the living and the dead.” When the Lord Jesus comes to this earth again, we will stand before God, without exception. I don’t think anyone can stand before God alone. It is Jesus who will stand with us and help us make an offering. All of this is love and grace from God. Our mission is to share this love of God and the grace of salvation expressed in the cross and resurrection of Jesus.
Verse 6 says, “The gospel was preached even to those who were dead, so that, though from the human point of view they may have died in judgment in the flesh, yet they may live in the spirit in relationship with God. Many people think that everything ends when they die, but God’s will is different. God’s will is on a level that cannot be measured by human knowledge and has amazing provisions.
The “dead” that Peter refers to here are those who died believing in God and Jesus before Jesus’ second coming. The gospel of Christ is the promise that even though our life on earth has ended, we will be with God in spirit, and when Jesus comes again, those who have died and those who are alive will be given new life and live in God’s love forever.
We are invited to church, to God’s family, to believe in it together, to confirm it together, to rejoice together, and to give thanks together. We want to continue to savor that grace together. We feel led and invited to believe that it is God’s will that we should seek and live in such a way. How do you think God’s will is for you to live the rest of your life? Please pray and seek God’s will, continue to listen to His Word, and live as He shows you. I believe that God’s blessing will come after that. I pray for God’s blessing.