Husbands, Understand Your Wife

Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way…

If you want to see what that looks like it is modeled in Revelation 2-3.  Every letter from Jesus to these individual churches display’s his understanding.  All seven letters have the phrase, “I know”. 

Jesus knows His Bride.  He knows her struggles.  He knows her circumstances.  He knows her good.  Her motivations.  Her reputation.  Her love.  Her faith.  Her service.  Her pain.  Her needs.  Her wounds.  Her sin. 

When he speaks tenderly to her he does so out of knowledge.  When he exhorts her to more faithfulness it is from a storehouse of understanding.  Jesus knows His Bride.  Husbands, do you know yours?

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Of course this analogy breaks down at one point.  Husbands are not called to make sure that our wives find their ultimate joy in us.  We are never in a position to “remove a lampstand”.  But we are encouraged to pursue our joy in their joy in Jesus.  May such a pursuit be done with knowledge. 

4 Reasons Fulfilling The Great Commission Must Include Suffering

After preparing for a sermon on 1 Peter, I read through Piper’s sermon on the same text to see how he handled it.  One of the things he did that I appreciated was note four reasons why if the church is going to be faithful to fulfilling the mandate of Christ we will inevitably suffer.  Here are the four reasons:

1. Jesus clearly taught that “you will be hated by the nations”.  So, “wherever you go among the nations, your efforts to bring good news of everlasting life will be met with joy in some and anger in others”
2. Paul calls evangelism “the filling up of what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions”.  “God’s purpose is that the afflictions of Jesus that purchased our salvation be imitated and demonstrated in the propagation of that salvation”. 
3. Jesus warned the first evangelists as he sent them out saying, “If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more members of his household”
4. Paul told Timothy, in the midst of church planting in Ephesus, “Do not be ashamed, but share in the suffering for the gospel in the power of God..”

As I noted when I preached on this text, Peter admonishes us in 1 Peter 4 to arm ourselves with a robust theology of suffering and then to not be surprised when we have to use it. 

Why Your Prayers May Be Hindered

I preached on this text last night:

Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.
(1 Peter 3:7 ESV)

It’s sad that for many our first response to this text is to be chaffed because Peter refers to the woman as the “weaker vessel”.  And in some ways I understand that because guys can be jerks and use texts like this one to promote their insecure theology.  Yet if we aren’t careful we’ll neuter the beauty of this text because of our 21st century chaffing. 

I like what Robert Rayburn says about the meaning of “weaker vessel”:

Remember weaker" is being used in a context. A ming vase is weaker than a five dollar hammer; a Rembrandt canvas is weaker than a razor blade; and Mother Teresa was weaker than Mike Tyson! Peter is not talking about comparative worth, he is speaking of the reason why men have a special responsibility, laid upon them by their Creator, to show a particular regard for women and their wives in particular. It was not so long ago, even in secular Western societies that a man's manhood was judged according to the way in which he protected and provided for the women in his life. Only a feminist ideologue surveying the wreckage of American society can really believe that the abandonment of this viewpoint has improved the lot of women and children.

Wives are a treasure that are given to husbands to nurture and care for.  The Lord loves His daughters so much that He promises if we do not treat them with the care we ought it will hinder our prayer life. 

I’ve known men (including myself) that have felt a darkness and a separation in our prayer life with the Lord.  I have felt my ability to pray (not to mention preach and write) hindered.  It’s like there is this big fat rock that stands between me and the Lord. 

At times I’ve been so foolish as to think what I really need to do to remove this rock of separation is to get uber-spiritual.  Perhaps if I fast.  Maybe I just need to read a book on prayer.  Possibly a little time alone in the Word will remove this rock.  When in reality I just need to stop being a bear to my wife.  Maybe what needs to happen is that rather than sit in my office and pray about this separation and mourn the distance I need to go home and repent of my attitude and lack of nurturing of my wife. 

What is really interesting is that if we are praying for our wives to change and yet we are not treating them with honor, tenderness, and understanding our prayers will be hindered.  And they will be hindered until we actually begin treating them with honor, tenderness, and understanding.  What is really crazy about this though is that our repentance before our wives may just be the means that God uses to answer our prayers for her. 

It’s not always the case that feelings of distance in our relationship with the Lord is because we have been blowing it as husbands.  But this is one of the few things in Scripture that the Lord promises will hinder our prayers.  And so if we feel a distance there it would do us well to analyze our level of tenderness towards our wives. 

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As a side note to our married female readers.  Consider how much the Lord loves you that He would cause a hindrance in His relationship with your husband because your hubby is not nurturing you.  God cares for you mightily, so much that He rips up the conscience of us men until we begin treating you the way that we ought. 

Hotdogs and Craving

Have you ever had Nathan’s Famous hotdogs? 

Though watching those hotdog eating contests on ESPN makes me not able to eat a hotdog for a few months afterwards, I cannot get enough of these Nathan’s hotdogs.  They are a little more expensive than your generic 99 cent hotdogs at the grocery store.  But the $2 more is worth every scrumptious bite. 

Now that I’ve tasted the delicousness that is a Nathan’s hotdog I find it a little difficult to eat those poor excuses for hotdogs that Wal-Mart tries to trick me into buying based on their cheap price.  Once you’ve tasted a Nathan’s you won’t want to grill out with another brand. 

I doubt he had Nathan’s hotdogs in mind when he wrote these words but 2,000 years later they fit:

“Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”  (1 Peter 2:2-3)

When you have tasted the Lord’s goodness—through His Word and his mercies then you develop a hunger for more of him. 

As I am writing this little article about Nathan’s hotdogs my mouth is starting to water and I am thinking about calling my wife and letting her know I plan to grill some hotdogs tonight for supper.  Just thinking about their goodness creates a hunger and a longing to sink my teeth into one. 

The same thing is true of the Lord and His Word.  He makes all other things seem like eating a cheap hot dog.  Nothing but a fresh encounter with the living God will satiate when you have tasted the Lord’s goodness.  There is no one and no thing like Him. 

Tasting leads to the craving. 

Going All-In

“…set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” 1 Peter 1:13b

What does that look like, to set your hope fully on future grace?  It looks like a desperate gambler that has placed every bit of livelihood that the Roulette wheel lands on black.  It looks like the poker player sitting with pocket Aces convinced that he will have the “nut hand”. 

If it doesn’t land on black you are homeless.  If some other guy gets lucky on the flop and you find yourself up the river with only a pair of Aces and the other guy is sitting there with a Full House you’ve not only lost the farm you’ve lost your shirt, shoes, and family dog. 

Keeping a few chips aside just in case you are wrong isn’t going all in. It’s not setting your hope fully on something. It’s not really having absolute confidence in your hand. To set your hope fully is to throw in all your chips and maybe your watch to boot. You aren’t leaving anything back.

So when Peter tells us here to “set your hope fully on” he is saying don’t leave an ounce of hope to anything else. Go all in. Don’t shore up your bets. Don’t keep a few chips into the stock market, or a few chips into another religion, or a few chips into your good works, or a few chips into having a nice house or a nice family, or a few chips into money, or a few chips into entertainment, or a few chips into relationships. Don’t shore up your bets. Go all in. Set every ounce of your hope onto Jesus Christ and what is awaiting you in Him. 

May we hope in nothing else. 

That Which Captivates Angels

It would not surprise you for me to point out that people are fascinated by angels. And I suppose they are quite fascinating.  But you want to know what is even more fascinating?  The gospel.

How crazy that angels long to “look into the gospel” (1 Pet. 1:12); we are bored with the gospel and long to look into angels.  What is even crazier is that this idiocy is probably part of what has the angels so baffled.  God redeems a humanity filled with idolaters, guilty of sin no less treasonous than the angels that he refuses to redeem.  The gospel indeed is precious.  If only we had the wisdom of angels to be enamored by all that Jesus Christ has done.

It’s no stretch to say that more people would probably attend a seminar on unlocking the mystery of the end times than they would one on unveiling the different facets of the gospel.  More people would probably take a class on angelology than they would on atonement.

Yet, this is really not surprising; angels are comfortable, the gospel isn’t.  You can talk to a stranger (even if he hates Christianity) about some angel named Gabriel.  Worse thing that will happen is that he will probably consider you a fruitcake and leave smiling.  But the gospel will get you killed.  I cannot remember reading of people getting persecuted to death for belief in angels.  And why would they?  Angels do not divide history.  Jesus does. 

Undoubtedly Satan, an angel himself, would be rather content with you spending your time concerned with angels instead of looking into what angels are concerned with; namely, the gospel of Jesus Christ.  What, then, is this thing that angels are concerned with?  “…that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures”.  This is what angels long to look into, and Satan longs to distract you from.

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I wrote something very similar to this a couple of years ago but because I am preaching on 1 Peter 1:3-12 on Sunday evening I thought it might be beneficial to pull this one out of the archives. 

When Your GPS Unit Reads the Same But Your World Looks Different

We begin a new series this Sunday evening on 1 Peter.  The series will be entitled Sojourn: A Travelers Guide to Christian Pilgrims.  Here is the introduction to the series on 1 Peter.  If you live in the Jasper, Indiana area I invite you to give us a visit Sunday evenings starting at 6:00.  If not feel free to check out our sermons online.

Do you remember the story of Rip Van Winkle?

It is set before the Revolutionary War in the 18^th Century. Rip is kind of a lazy guy with a nagging wife. One day as she is nagging away at him he wanders up the mountains with his dog. He meets up with some fun-loving chaps and he ends up having a little too much whiskey.

When he wakes up his gun is rotted and rusty, his beard has grown a foot long, and his dog is nowhere to be found. He soon discovers that much more than his beard, gun, and dog have changed. The whole world it seems has changed to him. He gets in trouble for saying he is a loyal subject of King George, they are calling some other guy (what turns out to be his son) by his own name, his wife has died and most of his friends have died in the war as well. His GPS unit would still read the same location but somehow his very home has changed underneath him. He is, it appears, living as a stranger in his own hometown.

Now every analogy breaks down at some point so don’t press this any further than the single point that I am making. What happened to Rip Van Winkle is very similar to what happens to believers when God invades our life and transfers us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son Jesus. Our GPS unit still reads the same but everything is different. We start to live as a stranger in our own hometown.

This is especially weird if the Lord saved you a little later in life. If you have grown up in church most of your life I doubt you experience the Rip Van Winkle effect. But I remember how it was really strange how everything started to change. My view of life was different. Not all that cataclysmic at first but over time I look back and my whole view is shaken to the core. My friends no longer treat me as such a great friend. There is something that has decisively changed. Even within my own family I can feel that something has changed. The things that I once loved I cannot seem to find pleasure in anymore. The things that I used to find really boring, dull, and drab I now cannot seem to get enough of. The Bible—which once seemed confusing as all get out—I cannot get enough of. My GPS unit still reads the same but everything around me is different. Actually it’s not only the outside world that is different—but I’m different. 

This is what has happened to the believers that the apostle Peter writes his letter to.  Their GPS unit still read the same but they found themselves as exiles in their own homes.   And that is why we have titled our series on 1 Peter as Sojourn: A Travelers Guide for Christian Pilgrims. That is what we are sojourners/pilgrims and 1 Peter is written to those just like us that find themselves living in a strange world that they once called home.

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Thanks to Doug Baker for providing the graphic.