The message of the First Let..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Good morning, everyone. If you have your Bibles, please open them up to 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 1.

We're going to be reading from verse 1 to verse 9 this morning, but we're going to be studying verse 1. And as we start this journey through the first epistle of the apostle Peter to the church, what I want us to do this morning is to have an introduction to the message, to the substance of the letter, and then focus our attention to the first verse that is found here in this that was written by the apostle Peter. So I'm going to be reading from the English Standard Version of the Bible. This is the words of God. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect, exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood. May grace and peace be multiplied to you. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Here, beloved, we have perhaps one of the most beautiful theological, practical, and encouraging letters that the Holy Spirit has given to the Church of Jesus Christ through the unique and inspired ministry of the Apostles. And I say that that ministry is unique and is inspired, the ministry of the Apostles of Jesus Christ.

In this case, the one who was entrusted with the task of giving this precious letter to the Church is Apostle Peter. There's something that I want you to notice here, and that is the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church, in the process of edifying the Church, not only the Church as a body, but also each one of the members of the Church of Jesus Christ. Because the person that wrote this letter for us is the Church, It is that person that early as a disciple was very quick to speak, that was very self-centered, a little bit of a coward sometimes. Even the Lord Jesus Christ himself, he called him Satan. But it's through the work of the Holy Spirit within the context of the church and in the life of Peter that this man became the man that gave the profession of faith and said that Jesus Christ was not only the Christ and the Messiah, but the Son of God.

And upon that confession, the church of Jesus Christ is built, as we learned last week. Not only that, but the same man became one of the leaders of the early church. We can read that in the book of Acts. You can see the preeminent work and ministry of the apostle Peter in the first 10 chapters. Preaching the gospels, adding people to the church, mighty words and miracles.

That is the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of His people. Then, later on, the Apostle Paul calls Peter one of the pillars of the Church. This is the man who is writing this letter to the Church in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Bithynia, and Asia. Churches that probably were comprised primarily by Gentiles. Of course, they might have Jewish Christians in those places, but primarily they were Gentile churches.

And this is the apostle writing this precious letter to those Gentile churches in that region that we call Turkey today. Now, beloved, if there is something that I want you to have in your mind, from today. And if there's something that we are going to do, it is that I want you to get the substance, I want you to get the soul and the message of this letter. Because what I want us to do today is to have that big picture of this letter, so then we can go into verse 1 and understand what the Apostle Peter is trying to communicate to the Church. And if I could summarize the content and the message of this letter in one single word, that word would be encouragement.

The apostle Peter is trying to bring encouragement to the church. Encouragement, trying to give comfort and support and confidence and assurance. He is trying to give that comfort and encouragement to the church of Jesus Christ, to those churches in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Bithynia, and Asia. But because of the providential work of the Spirit, of course, this applies for the church of Jesus Christ in this age. So every time that we come to this book, and not only as we study this book verse by verse as a congregation, as a church, but also when you come to the first Peter, the thing that I want you to have in your mind is that the Holy Spirit is trying to bring to you encouragement.

Encouragement to the church, encouragement to each one of the believers of the church, encouragement to each one of the souls that belong to the person of Jesus Christ. that we have to give a framework to that encouragement. Because encouragement is an abstract concept that is just there, and you can give many definitions of it. The definition of the framework that we're going to give, that encouragement, it is from the mind of the apostle Peter. We are going to study, therefore, the nature of the encouragement that is found in 1 Peter, according to the mind of the apostle Peter, so we can understand the main message of this letter, and then we can see that in verse one.

So what is the nature of that encouragement? And I'm going to say, I'm going to submit to you that the Apostle Peter is setting a foundation and then two different practical applications for that encouragement. He's going to give us the foundation of the encouragement, and then he's going to give us two things that are going to go throughout the whole letter, and they're going to serve as a framework for us to understand what he's trying to communicate to us. to pay attention to this, because that foundation that the Apostle Peter is given for this encouragement that he's gonna give us, it is the gospel of Jesus Christ. In verse three, he says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy, he has begotten us, would say the King James, to a living hope through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He says that blessed is the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is through Jesus Christ and the resurrection that we have life, a new life today. But not only that, we have a living hope. We're going to see in the mind of the Apostle Peter that this concept is going to happen once, another time, another time, another time, that we live our present life as Christians based on two moments. one in the past, which is the consummation or the accomplishment of redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ, and another one that is in the future.

You see, this is craziness for the world, because the world tells you that you are to live your life according to your present. But for Christians, we live our lives based in the past and the expectation of something that is going to come in the future. He says, the Apostle Paul says that we have been begotten As a new creature, we have been given life through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and given a living hope. Then in verse 8 and verse 9, he says something beautiful. You don't see him, but you love him.

You don't see him, but you believe in him. The present of the life of the Christian is based on something that happened in the past. And then beyond that, he says that we are filled with unspeakable glory or joy, waiting for the consummation of the obtaining of the purpose of our faith, which is the salvation of our souls. Beloved, we live our lives based on the gospel of Jesus Christ. the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is the foundation upon which the Apostle Peter is going to give us two applications of the encouragement that the church needs, and therefore, each one of you needs.

Now, the question that follows then is, what are those two practical applications of encouragement? First thing, and the first main idea of the Apostle Peter is that he's gonna encourage us in the midst of afflictions. First thing, He's going to give us encouragement in the midst of tribulations and trials and difficulties and afflictions. You have to understand something. This letter was written probably 30 years after the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ.

30 years after the Lord Jesus Christ was taken up in heaven in the clouds. This letter was written by the Apostle Peter, or was authored by the Apostle Peter. The Church was going through tribulation and persecution and difficulties. The Roman Empire was not the best place to be a Christian. Perhaps it was the worst place to be a Christian.

And the Church was persecuted. Many people were dying. And he knew that there was a need to write something to the Church to encourage them. That's why we read in verse... That's why we read here in verse 8 and 9 that You don't see him, but you love him.

And before that, he has said that it is necessary that some of you might go through different trials so the tested genuineness of your faith might be proved. He even gives us the analogy of gold being put through fire. And he says that this is for the glory and honor and praise of the revelation of the Lord. Christ. Not only that, but then later in chapter 5 he says that for a little while you go through tribulations and to trials so that the God of grace might establish you, confirm you, and strengthen you.

The Apostle Peter knows that the church will go through tribulations and difficulties and therefore based on the gospel of Jesus Christ he's given encouragement to the church. He actually sets the purpose of this letter in chapter 5 verse 12, and he says that I am exhorting you and declaring you the grace of God that is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ so that you may stand firm in it. You see, any type of encouragement that is not derived from the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is fake and empty encouragement. It is encouragement that is produced by your mind, it is encouragement that is produced by your moral understanding of things, or it is encouragement that is produced by the world. The only encouragement that the Church needs in this time and this age is that which comes from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This is the first practical application that is found in that Gospel. The second more important thing that is related to that encouragement in the midst of afflictions is that the apostle calls us to be holy. The apostle calls the church to be holy. In chapter two, he is going to say that because Jesus Christ is holy, you shall be holy. Do not be conformed to the former passions of your ignorance, he says to the church.

but rather, just as Jesus Christ is holy and He's the one who has called you, you shall also be holy. And then, the topic that will go together with this encouragement to the church in the midst of afflictions is that you should not only remain steadfast in the midst of your afflictions, but you should also be holy. You should remain Christ-like. You should remain like your Savior, like your Redeemer. And because the apostle knows those things, he's going to give us practical teaching.

In marriage, he's going to address the topic of husbands and wives, chapter 3. He is going to speak of our relationship within the church of elders and younger people, chapter 5. He's going to speak of our relationship with unbelievers, chapter 2. He's going to speak of our submission to the government and to human authorities in the midst of affliction, chapter 2. The Apostle is trying to communicate to the Church, founded on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, an encouragement that is, you should remain steadfast in the midst of afflictions and be holy at the same time.

Now, why would the Apostle provide this encouragement? to the churches in Pontus, Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and Asia. Why would He provide this type of encouragement to the church? And because of the providential work of the Spirit to the church throughout the ages. Why would He do that?

The answer is very simple. Because we need it. Because the church needs that type of encouragement. As I said to you before, the church was going through a lot of tribulations and difficulties. There was persecution, there was problems.

And you know what? I don't want the 2,000 years that separates you from that reality. And the reality of this world that we live in, a Christian society, may remove you from the reality that we will face tribulations and persecutions. Beloved, it's not a question of if this is going to happen to us. It's a question of when this is going to happen.

Each one of the Christian, each one of the souls that have been redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ will go through tribulations and difficulties and problems. And you know what? I don't know anything about the situation in the world, but I know that very soon being a Christian is not going to be as easy as it used to be. And then therefore we must understand that the source of our encouragement, the source of our peace and steadfastness. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ, but it's not only called to be a steadfast in the midst of our afflictions, we're also called to be holy.

Now, the question that follows then is, how does the apostle Peter, how does he provide this encouragement? How does he start providing this encouragement to the church of Jesus Christ? I'm saying to you that he's providing an encouragement that is found on the gospel of Jesus Christ, on this thing that happened in the past, the life and death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this living hope that we have that is to come. And based on those two things, we should leave the present being encouraged by that gospel to live holy in the midst of our afflictions. The way that he does it is glorious.

And it is beautiful because he starts the first verse and he says, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those elect and exiles of the dispersion. To those elect and exiles of the dispersion. If we want to understand what the apostle Peter is trying to do here, we need to understand the ministry that he was given to the apostle Peter. You see in Galatians 2, Apostle Paul says that he is the apostle for the Gentiles. That he has been sent to bring the good news of the kingdom, the good news of the gospel to Gentiles.

But then he says that James and Cephas, or Peter, that he is the apostle of the circumcision. that Peter is the apostle of those who belong to the covenant of the people of Israel, that Peter is the apostle, the minister for those who belong to Jerusalem and for Israel. But here we have Apostle Peter writing a letter to churches that are comprised primarily by Gentiles. And then he uses these two glorious He says, he calls them elect and exiles of the dispersion. Beloved, you have to understand that this dispersion, that this concept that sometimes is called the scattered or the diaspora, the dispersion was a concept that means that those people of Israel, the covenant people of Israel that were dwelling in Gentile countries, So these Jews that belong to the people of Israel and were living or dwelling among the Gentiles, they were in the dispersion.

This is what we know and we see in John, in John 7. You might remember when the Lord Jesus Christ is teaching and is speaking about his life, his death, his resurrection, and his coming to glory to the Lord. And then he says, I'm going to a place and you cannot come with me. And then the Jews that were in the audience, they were just a little bit confused. They were saying, what is he saying?

That he's going to a place and that we cannot come with him? Where is he going? And then they were confused and they said to each other, is he going to the dispersion? Is he going to the dispersion among the Greeks? This concept of the dispersion, it is a concept that belong to the people.

of Israel. You see, people of Israel that went to Gentile countries will be then those who are living in the dispersion. And now, the Apostle Peter, what he does is that he says that we are elect and that we are exiles of the dispersion. Beloved, what he is doing here is bringing a glorious reality of the Old Testament and applying that to the Church of Jesus Christ. because it was Israel, the ones that were chosen and elected under the old covenant, and now he's given that concept to the Church of Jesus Christ.

Will your Bibles please to Deuteronomy. chapter 7. I want you to see here how the people of Israel, the covenant people of Israel, were the ones that were the elect, the chosen people. Because these were elect, in the mind of the Apostle Peter, will signify and will have a meaning that goes beyond what we are reading here. So Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 6 and 8.

This is the Word of God, it says, pay attention to this, it says, for you, this is God speaking to the people of Israel, for you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you, has elected you to be a people for his treasured possession. Out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth, It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you. For you were the fewest of all peoples. But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

Here we know that it is Israel, the one that were chosen and elected. But beyond that, the author gives us here the reason why they were chosen and elected by God. He says, it's not because there were many of you. It's actually, they were little, like you were the fewest among the nations. It is because I love you.

It's because I set my love on you that I have chosen you. And then the author here gives us from what they were chosen or from what they were redeemed or saved. And he says that you were redeemed by the mighty power of God from the possession of the mighty power of Pharaoh. Go back to first Peter, please. First Peter chapter two, because now here in first Peter, Peter is going to give us now more insight into this word, elect, that he is using in verse 1.

Remember that he's saying to the Gentiles that they are elect, exiles of the dispersion. This elect word here, in the mind of the Apostle Peter, as I said, it is taken from the Old Testament. Go to chapter 2 in verse 9. This is now what Peter says to the recipients of this letter. He says, But you are a chosen race, elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.

a people for his own possession." And then you have to see the similar vocabulary and the similar language that is used in Deuteronomy there. In Deuteronomy it says that you were his treasured possession. Here it says, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellences of him who called you out of darkness into this marvelous light. The people of Israel They were redeemed from the dominating power of Egypt into the promised land.

Then the church is taken from darkness into light by the power of the Holy Spirit in the work of Jesus Christ. And then he says something very important. Once you were not a people, of course they were Gentiles. You were not the chosen people of Israel. Once you were not a people, but then he says, but now you are God's people.

Once you have not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Now, beloved, in Deuteronomy, he says that the reason why the people of Israel were chosen and elected among the nations, it was not because they were great in numbers, but rather they were the fiercest. The same thing applies to the church. Go, please, to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 26.

Here, the apostle Paul is going to give us the reason why we have been chosen among the Gentiles, among the unbelievers. He's going to explain to us here the nature of our calling. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26, and you have to love this. This is the Apostle Paul speaking about the nature of our calling. He says in verse 26, pay attention to this.

For consider your calling, brothers, and of course, sisters as well. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose or elected what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.

God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is slow and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of the Lord, or God. And because of Him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. As we sang the hymn that we sang, that we may boast in Jesus Christ alone. The foundation of our choosing, it is not because of who we are, but it is despite of who we are.

The choosing of the people or the election of the people of Israel under the Old Covenant is a reflection, foreshadows the election not only of Jesus Christ, as Peter will also say in chapter 2, but beyond that, the election and the choosing of the Church as a holy nation, a holy people, those who have been set apart. And you have to love this when our brother was explaining the covenantal presence of God in the midst of the garden. You have to love how through the story and the history of redemption, God is giving us clues and pointing towards a reality that is yet to come. And that reality is found in the person of Jesus Christ. And we are partakers by grace through faith of the realities that were promised from times ago in the past.

that we are going to be partakers of that. But Peter goes beyond election. Actually, election is something that we're going to study afterwards. He says something very important. He says that we're not only elect, but that we are exiles of the dispersion.

That we are exiles of the dispersion. Now, beloved, He is not speaking of a physical dispersion as John 7 or as the Jews in John 7 had in mind. He was not speaking about only Jews that were taken from Israel and were dwelling in Gentile countries. He's speaking of a spiritual reality. Go to 1 Peter please, 1 Peter 2.

What Apostle here is trying to communicate What he is trying to say to the church, beloved, is that we are electing Jesus Christ. And because we are electing Jesus Christ, we are exiles of the dispersion. That we do not belong to this world. that we do not belong to this system, that we do not belong to this evil age, that we do not belong to this that we see as reality, that we belong to something else, that we are pilgrims, that we are sojourners, that we do not belong to this place, that we are exiles of this world. 1 Peter 2, this is where he explains, he says, Beloved, verse 11, Beloved, I urge you, as sojourners and exiles, to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul."

Look what he does here. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles. He is speaking to Gentiles. And he says, keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable. He's saying, you are the true Israel, and those who are not believers are the Gentiles.

Honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of the visitation. Beloved. Israel was chosen under the Old Covenant as a type of the shadow of the election on the church in these days. And then the Apostle Peter is saying to us that we are electing Jesus Christ, and therefore we are sojourners and exiles of this world. This means, beloved, that we do not belong to this world.

Go please to John 15, and I want to show you this. This is the teaching that is very clear in the Bible. Because we are Christ's people, we are exiles in this system, in this age. The kingdom of Christ is not of this world. Therefore, those who belong to Christ are not of this world.

This is what we find in John 15. John 15, verse 18, this is the Lord speaking. John 15, verse 18, it says, if the world hates you, Know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you at its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Beloved, you know, I don't want that the pleasures and comforts and sometimes what we call blessings of this contemporary world that we live in might confuse us and remove from our minds the reality that we are pilgrims in this time and in this age. That we do not belong to these things that we see here and therefore our relationship to things of this world should be always in light of that which is eternal. Because the fact that we are electing Jesus Christ and that we are exiles of the dispersion speaks that we are not only have been removed from the system, but that the system does not have power on us anymore. This is what Paul teaches to the Galatians. He says that by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have been removed from this evil age, that the power of this evil age is not on us anymore.

This is the power of the Gospel, not only to give you eternal life individually, but to insert you into a covenantal family, into a covenantal congregation, into a covenantal community, nation from every tribe, every nation, every town, that does not belong to this world. Actually, the author of Hebrews says that we have tasted the powers of the age to come. That if we are in Jesus Christ, we have tasted of those powers. And then he says, the Apostle Paul says, that if we are in Jesus Christ, we are a new creature. That all things new, all things old have passed.

Everything has been made new. The same Apostle Paul in Philippians 3 says that our citizenship is in, is in heaven. That our citizenship, it is in heaven. And that we await for the coming of the Lord. that we belong to the people of God, that we belong to the people of Jesus Christ.

This is the same teaching that we find in Ephesians 2, when the apostle Paul is comparing the Jews and the Gentiles, and he's saying that in the gospel of Jesus Christ, the wall of hostility and separation between the two has been destroyed. And then it's in the gospel of Jesus Christ that these two people, these two groups of people, have been made one, Jews and Gentiles. And then we are not foreigners or aliens anymore in this land, but rather we belong to the people of God. We belong to him. And then the apostle Peter is going to give us encouragement in the midst of our afflictions to be holy so we know that we have to know that we have been elected, that we have been chosen in Jesus Christ.

And that we are exiles of the dispersion on this world. And therefore, the things that we are going to face in this world, the things that we are going to go through in this world, do not belong to the nature of the world that we actually belong to. That's why there's going to be afflictions. That's why there's going to be tribulations. That's why there's going to be problems in our lives.

But then He says, He gave you life. He has begotten you through His resurrection and He has given you a living hope. And therefore, Be to the unbelievers what Christ is to the unbelievers. Be to the government what Christ was to the government. Be to your wife and to your husband what Christ is to the church.

Be to your brothers and sisters what Christ was to his disciples. How are we going to live then as exiles in this dispersion? It is only through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. But I don't want you to be confused here because sometimes we think that we are exiles in this world and then we tend to put ourselves into a box and disconnect entirely from the world. We are not called to do that.

We are called to remain in this world and to be light to the world. The Apostle Peter says that we are in this world to proclaim the excellences of God. And I want you to see that. Go please to John, John 17. I don't want you to be confused because it is very tempting sometimes to the minor people just to go into a box and to separate yourself from the world and just be with those people that you love and that who are like you.

We have been called as select people of God to be exiled from this dispersion but to actively live in this world so the kingdom of Christ is extended, the excellences of God are proclaimed. And this is what the Lord Jesus Christ taught to his disciples in John 17 in verse 12. This presently prayer that the Lord Jesus Christ offers for his disciples, he says, While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

I have given them your word, that the world has hated them, because they are not of the world." Just, I am not of the world. Now pay attention to verse 15. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world.

Just say, I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. And you gotta love this. Your word is truth. as you send me into the world, so I have sent him into the world."

Jesus Christ came as an exile from heaven, from the heavenly places where he was dwelling with the Father, to this place that is completely opposite to his nature, to redeem a people. So these people would be redeemed, united to him by grace through faith. And just as Israel was walking through the wilderness towards the Promised Land, The church in this age, as a redeemed people, will walk towards glory, expecting the manifestation and the revealing of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, as you walk through the wilderness of this evil age, be steadfast in the midst of our afflictions and be holy. Be like Jesus Christ.

Now, beloved, something that I want to bring to your attention the meaning of these verses and the meaning of this passage to the mind of the immediate audience, it's somehow a little bit different to us. This was written 30 years after the Lord was ascended and taken up in glory. There is a sense in which the early church lived with this awareness or this sense of the coming back of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ had departed 30 years or 35 years before that. So they were expecting that in the midst of these afflictions and in the midst of these tribulations that the Lord will come at any point.

I don't want that 2,000 years of history might separate you from that reality. Because we cannot live and be steadfast in the midst of our afflictions and be holy if we remove one side of the equation of the gospel. Sometimes we just leave thinking about what the Lord Jesus Christ did in the past, that He lived a perfect life, that He went to the cross and paid for our sins, and that He was powerfully resurrected, and because of that, we have life. The Apostle Peter also says that there is a living hope, that there is a living hope, that this journey, that we are sojourners and exiles in the dispersion, that this is gonna come to an end, that there is a purpose, for which the church has been given and planted into this place, and each one of us, that we are gonna be taken up to glory or the Lord Jesus Christ is going to return, but that we should live our lives with the reality of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. So therefore, founded on the gospel, founded on the gospel, we can live our lives steadfast in our tribulations and being holy in the midst of them.

This is the main message of what Peter is trying to communicate. He's saying, I exhort and declare to you the excellent glory of the grace of God so that you may stand firm in it. Beloved, in Jesus Christ, we are elect and we are also exiles of the dispersion. We do not belong to this world, but we are in this world. and it's through the power of the Holy Spirit that we have to live the things of this world.

We have been given one another to duplicate and represent those things, to encourage one another, to bring those realities into our minds, so we understand that we are not individually exiles, but as a community and as a whole, the Church of Jesus Christ, it is walking through the wilderness of this world, awaiting for the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, But if we are not taken up to glory, just as Paul says, that it will be better for me to die and to be with Jesus Christ, but I remain here for the sake of who? Of others, of the church. That this may be the intention and the desire that we have in our hearts as the people of God. That we know that these temporary things can only be lived in light of the eternity. This is what Jonathan Heather said.

May the Lord give us the grace to understand these things and to see our election in Jesus Christ. Amen.