In The Song of Our Syrian Guest which is a commentary on Psalm 23 by a Syrian first published in 1904 by Faduel Moghabghab a Syrian shepherd, the shepherd, when talking of ancient Bible customs and the ways of eastern shepherds, states quite categorically that: ‘There is no higher task for a shepherd than to go from time to time to study places, examine the grass type whether poisonous or not and find a good and safe feeding place for his sheep by chasing away dangerous snakes and animal preys on the grazing point.’ There are many poisonous plants in the grass and the shepherd must find them and avoid them so that his sheep doesn’t mistakenly graze on them. It has been known for a shepherd to lose hundreds of sheep in one day by failing to take the necessary precautions in this matter and as such shepherds do not like having those ugly experiences of losing their sheep repeated in great numbers, so they try guide against it. Another observer of eastern customs says: ‘There are vipers’ holes from which the poisonous snakes emerge to bite the noses of the sheep injecting deadly killer venoms into them. The shepherd must burn the fat of hogs at the holes to bring out the snakes and then either kill them or drive them away.’ Hogs are domesticated pigs, especially the castrated male reared for slaughter. In addition to these dangers around the feeding ground, there are holes and caves in the hillside in which live wolves and jackals, species of dangerous wild dogs abode. The bravery and heroism of the shepherd reaches its highest point as he works to close up these dens with stones, or confront and kill the wild beasts with his long-bladed knife, which is a kind of the type we see the Fulani herdsmen hung on their shoulders concealed by their dress. The ancient shepherds boasted of nothing more proudly than their achievements in securing a safe feeding ground for their flocks. It is important to note and know that our Lord God Almighty is the actual Good Shepherd Who carries out all of the above listed functions of a shepherd in the lives of all His created children. The way God protects and cares for His children as they go out into the world is a grander (better, greater, higher, excellent) and more wonderful thought than that of seating them at an indoor banqueting table. If it was not apparent before, it should be quite clear by now that in those timeless and beautiful lines: ‘You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies’; the shepherd figure is as real as in the previous section of the Psalm. Pontus where John the revelator was when gathering the book of revelation by revelation is north-eastern Anatolia joining the black sea in modern-day Turkey. Pontus has boundaries meeting those of Galatia, Cappadocia and Armenia, it is important to know that most of the people are Muslims today and majority of them live also in Greece following Alexander’s conquest under Greek rule. Also know that Pontus is a large district in the north of Asia Minor now Turkey on the black sea coast with Cappadocia and Western Armenia on its Island.

Now let us read 1 Peter 1:1-12; Peter, an apostle (a special messenger) of Jesus Christ, [writing] to the elect exiles of the dispersion scattered (sowed) abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 Who were chosen and foreknown by God the Father and consecrated (sanctified, made holy) by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ (the Messiah) and to be sprinkled with [His] blood: May grace (spiritual blessing) and peace be given you in increasing abundance [that spiritual peace to be [a]realized in and through Christ, [b]freedom from fears, agitating passions, and moral conflicts]. 3 Praised (honored, blessed) be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah)! By His boundless mercy we have been born again to an ever-living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 [Born anew] into an inheritance which is beyond the reach of change and decay [imperishable], unsullied and unfading, reserved in heaven for you, 5 Who are being guarded (garrisoned) by God’s power through [your] faith [till you fully inherit that [c]final] salvation that is ready to be revealed [for you] in the last time. 6 [You should] be exceedingly glad on this account, though now for a little while you may be distressed by trials and suffer temptations, 7 So that [the genuineness] of your faith may be tested, [your faith] which is infinitely more precious than the perishable gold which is tested and purified by fire. [This proving of your faith is intended] to redound to [your] praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) is revealed. 8 Without having seen Him, you love Him; though you do not [even] now see Him, you believe in Him and exult and thrill with inexpressible and glorious (triumphant, heavenly) joy. 9 [At the same time] you receive the result (outcome, consummation) of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 10 The prophets, who prophesied of the grace (divine blessing) which was intended for you, searched and inquired earnestly about this salvation. 11 They sought [to find out] to whom or when this was to come which the Spirit of Christ working within them was indicating when He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow [them]. 12 It was then disclosed to them that the services they were rendering were not meant for themselves and their period of time, but for you. [It is these very] things which have now already been made known plainly to you by those who preached the good news (the Gospel) to you by the [same] Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Into these things [the very] angels long to look!

After reading all of these passages listeners will be challenged to place their faith in Lord Jesus. The insecurities of other types of faith will be contrasted by the consistency a faith in Lord Jesus provides for His people. In his book, Six Hours One Friday, (pg. 15, Multnohmah Books, 1989) Max Lucado tells the story of how he and his boat survived a hurricane thus giving an inspiration of the needed anchor which Christ gives to hold us firm from fear of the unknown when life’s hurricanes hit. An old Sea Man gave Max the advice to take his boat to deep water, drop four anchors off each corner of the boat, and pray that the anchors held. Max survived that storm, but he says that he learned an important lesson that; all of us need an anchor that will hold during the storms of our life. Will your anchor of Christ indwelling in you hold in the storm of your life? That anchor is our faith in Christ. On What/Where have you put your faith in? How important is it to have faith? Where do we find a faith strong enough to make it through the storms of life? Peter knows how important faith is and he gives us a great picture of faith, a faith that we can anchor deep with, and a faith which will hold us during the storms of life and he points us where we will find it--in Christ. When Peter wrote his letter, things were changing. In the beginning of the first century Church, the government remained unconcerned about this new religious sect. As the Church grew, the constrictions or blockages of governments on Christian activities increased. Peter is writing to a people who are finding it increasingly difficult to live their faith in Christ especially out of fear. Even today it is not easy being a Christian, but we must find a way to live our faith in Christ without compromise because more of what we see today as Christianity is too Lukewarm. Peter helps us gain some insight into how to live an authentic Christ centered faith in the midst of some difficult times just as the one we are in this modern-day similar to the one our Lord’s early disciples encountered which was foretold them by our Lord Jesus Christ before He left, which started by Apostle Peter’s denial of Him. I. Timeless faith - 1:1-5: The question is not if we have faith, everyone has faith. Even the atheist has faith that his rational reasoning has removed the possibility of God and all the concerns associated with it. He has faith in his intellectual ability. Others have faith in their abilities, skills, connections, friends, family and even in themselves. Everyone has one type of faith or the other. The question is where is your faith anchored? Answer to this question is very necessary because sometimes your faith in ‘whatever’ wavers and it is not steady! Sooner or later the storms of life will begin to blow and then the question becomes will your anchor of faith hold. Or will it continue to waver with the wind of whatever presents itself? Peter gives us three reasons that it is important to anchor our faith in Christ. A. Faith in Christ is imperishable; How can that be? Well look where faith in Christ is kept, in Heaven not in this world! Lord Jesus says that we are to put up treasures in heaven where moth and rust cannot destroy or the thief steal. My wife has bought me several garment bags for my suits. She puts cedar in them for medicinal purification and fragrance. She does this because she knows that the suits are the most valuable and very expensive clothes I have, and that they are mostly wool and linens. Moths could destroy the suits in a short time if they have access to them, but she tries to make them imperishable with cedars. Not too long ago I left one of my sweaters out of its bag. I did not think it would hurt to leave it out. I found it about four weeks ago with little holes eaten all over it. The moths had destroyed the sweater wear. This is the figure of the experience we shall not get in heaven as promised by our Lord Jesus! If our faith is set upon the things of this world, then our faith will perish and will not have value. Countless kingdoms have come and fallen, economies have been built and destroyed, and nations have been established and vanished from the surface of the earth. All that is left of some of those kingdoms are the ruins you can see in a museum. Only the kingdom of God has remained constant in the past more than two thousand years. Our faith is to be set in heaven, and not on the things of this world. That is the only way that we know our faith is imperishable. It is only Christ that can give us this faith and this is why we are to live our life righteous and holy so that Christ will indwell us in our heart/mind and help teach us how to live life on earth different from the worldly way many people are living their life on earth which is why our God’s individual set goals are not implicitly realized in our life, with life failures here and there! B. Our faith will be uncorrupted; You have no doubt heard the phrase, ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely’. It is a statement which indicates our sinful nature. History is full of leaders who started off with the best intentions but along the way pride, ego, or other flaws got in the way of their character, attitude, behavior and lifestyle and thus ruin or derail them in life by making them not to achieve their God set goals in life and we begin to blame so many things. If we place our faith in a leader, it is but a matter of time before the corruptible nature of the individual is revealed and he/she fails us. But Christ has no sin, no corruption and our faith is in the power of Christ in God. God has absolute power, but it is uncorrupted. There is no pride or ego or other flaws in the power of Christ. In the scope of eternity, Lord Jesus is the only known Person Who has absolute power, but not only that, He is also the Only Person in Whom Absolute Power has not corrupted, even a little bit. So our faith can only be incorruptible, when it is placed in Christ, and our faith can only be placed in Christ when we allow Christ indwelling in our (heart and mind) by living right and holy following the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel and in the Scripture by embodiment and by practice. C. Our faith in Christ is unfading; I know of lots of people who are fad people. They jump on the latest trend or idea in town, and about six months or a year down the road, they jump on something new. Do you need a great example? Pull out your years books. Look at the hair styles the clothes you wore, and the tone of the culture. How much have things changed in the last 20 or 30 years? Can you imagine! Lord Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever; as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end—Amen! And the faith we have now will see us through the Last Days. The question is can we learn to be as consistent as our Lord Jesus in all works of life?

Our faith must be anchored in the timeless nature of Christ, but I can hear the question. How do you know that a faith in Christ will hold up during the storms of life? Why should I trust Christ? Because, this is no ordinary faith, it is a tested faith. Countless people have placed their faith in Christ and found the anchor holds. Peter survived some incredible storms of life, and he says here is what I found the faith of Christ to be when it is put to the test. Peter found a tested faith is valuable, revealing, and centered on love. Allow Christ in your life today and He will guide you through to be firm in your faith in Him by removing fear in you! Because it is the fear of the unknown that make us waver in our faith in Christ, which is why our Lord Jesus warned that He has not given us the spirit of fear but of sound mind. A. It is valuable (1:7); Peter here plays upon a great image, the goldsmith. A goldsmith would melt the metal down until it became a liquid. All the impurities would come to the surface and the goldsmith would scrape or filter them off and allow the pure impurity-free metal to cool. He would then come back and repeat the process over and over to get perfect gold. His goal was pure gold. How did he know when he had pure gold? When no impurities came to the surface or when he could see his reflection in the melted gold. Peter says that our faith is like gold, as it is tested, it will begin to bring the impurities or flaws in our life to the surface and be known so that we can begin to beg Christ to help us mold it right. When the impurities are removed our faith becomes more steady and valuable. As seen in 1:7, Gold is the standard by which we define value. We say things like, "worth it's weight in gold", "the golden boy", and "the golden age". Our jewelry is made of gold and we trade with it. In Peter's world and in ours, gold was considered one of the most valuable things a person could have. While gold is valuable, it is secondary to our faith. Gold can perish, but our true faith will endure. A faith in Lord Jesus Christ will carry us through this life and even into the world or life to come. A faith in the life, death, burial, and resurrection of God's only Son our Lord Jesus is far more valuable than gold. Our faith is in something eternal when it is placed or anchored in Lord Jesus, not in something that can be destroyed. Our faith becomes valuable when it is anchored or placed in Lord Jesus Christ! This valuable faith can only happen in your life when you allow the indwelling of Christ in your life and be given a rebirth by Christ in all perspective of your life as per your character, your attitude, your behavioral pattern, and your life style; these are the areas we have flaws and needs to be transformed to conform in Christ. B. It is revealing (1:7); The goldsmith knew that he has pure gold when he can see his reflection in the metal. Our faith should reflect Lord Jesus and reveal Him to our world through our person. As we grow in Christ, we learn more about Him and His love. It is only through a life given to Christ, will we begin to see Him as He really is and then we try to lift Him up for the world people to see so He can draw them to Himself. When I got married, I had spent more than two years dating my wife. However, dating is not being married. There is a deeper stage of learning about each other in marriage than in dating. We begin to see each other in a new light when married to Christ. As our faith in Christ grows, more about the deeper nature of Christ is revealed to us and in us. The end result of a Christ centered faith is that our lives are shaped and molded by Him when we are indwelled by Christ. Our faith begins to reflect that deeper knowledge of Lord Jesus, our lives will begin to change for the better and best. When you and I live differently from the worldly others, because our faith is growing in Christ, those around us will see this difference. Quite literally, your life begins to reflect the image of Christ. Just as the goldsmith knew he had pure gold, when he looked into the metal and could see his reflection, Lord Jesus desires His reflection in our lives as His Christ indwells us. That can only happen in a refined faith in Christ that has been tested. We are tested as we pass through the challenges, circumstances and vicissitude of life on earth and come out successful, victorious and without fault or blemish similar to that of our Lord! It is a life that is very hard to live and practice because one has to decisively battle with so many things or flaws in your soul that is too worldly in your struggle to have them transformed to conform in Christ and our love for Christ pushes us to keep struggling. C. It is centered on our love for Christ (1:8); Peter talks about how we love Christ even though we have not seen Him. In Hebrews we have the definition of faith, "Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen." (Hebrews 11:1). The essence of faith is that it does not require our sight or proof. But notice that faith is "reality". Just because something is not seen does not negate its existence. If it did then all of us would be brainless, for I doubt that you have seen your own brain. But we know we have a brain. Peter says that real faith is loving Christ, Whom you have never seen, but still you know He exists. III. True faith - 1:10-12: In our postmodern word, we often hear the statement that what works for you may not work for me. So Peter had a faith in Christ that was timeless. His faith was valuable, revealing, and full of love. But how does that mean, what worked for Peter will work for me? Almost as if Peter anticipated your question, he writes about the faith of others. The prophets of the Old Testament found their faith in God to hold. As seen in 1:10 God spoke to the prophets and told them that the Messiah was coming. He gave them a hope that the One who could deliver them was on the way. The message of the prophets can be summarized as, "Hang on. God is working and the Messiah is coming. Get ready, your deliverer is coming." Doesn't that sound like a message for people at the end of their rope or hope, for people who don't know where to turn? It is a message of hope and encouragement. It is a promise. How many people do you know that need to be encouraged not to give up. How many people in this room need to be told that there is help on its way in whatever situation they are in. May be you need to hear that God's promises are for you. That is the message of the Old Testament prophets. Peter points out that the true faith is not only tied to the prophets, but also to the fulfillment of those prophecies. There is a faith in the suffering and crucifixion of Lord Jesus. (1:11) I have recently been taking some classes on preaching. A couple of weeks ago, in one of the lectures, a teacher said an astounding thing. He said that Christianity is the only religion which cannot reinvent itself. All other religions are based upon a philosophical basis. Other religions have been created out of a human speculative mind. The teacher went on to state that if all religions were wiped from the face of the earth, someone could come along one day, have the same thoughts and ideas, and recreate any of the religions. But it is not so with Christianity. Our faith is built upon the prophecies of the Old Testament, prophecies which said a Messiah is coming Who eventually came and these phenomenon cannot be reproduced no matter how hard man and his intellectual ability tries! Our faith is built upon Lord Jesus. We believe that He is the Messiah, the embodiment of the Old Testament prophecies Who came and Lived them practically for people to see. We believe that He died on a cross for our sins and that He rose again from dead. We believe that He is coming back again! If all of Christianity were to be destroyed, how could we recreate it in our minds? We could not and we cannot! Our faith is not built upon philosophy, intellect, or creative speculations of man. Our faith is built upon the historical fact that Lord Jesus, God's only Son, died on a Roman cross, in Jerusalem, on a hill called Golgotha, in 30 AD and resurrected from dead and ascended to heaven on the third day. Our faith cannot be recreated, but thank God it is a faith which has stood the test of time, proven itself faithful when tested, and is the only true faith as an anchor which holds in the storms of life. Peter then talks of how the faith of the Old Testament and the Gospels is for these present days. (1:12) Peter literally says, "Angels desire to look into these things." Can you imagine what that must be like? Angels are leaning over the rim of heaven and looking down to see. They have seen what God did with the prophets. They have seen how Lord Jesus fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament with His birth, life, death and resurrection. The angels have seen Lucifer kicked out of heaven due to the evil part or role of attempting a comingling of God’s Gene in Eve with the Beastly gene in the serpent, angels saw the resurrection of Christ, the dead raised, the Red Sea parted, and demons exorcized or being driven out of people; these are marvelous things! But what they desire to see further, is what God is going to do now with regard to fulfilling the second coming phenomenon that is still a mystery to all created beings. The angels are watching you and me whom they know have vital roles to play, and they want to see what the next chapter from revelation onwards will be like. How will our faith and God's great mysterious actions like before meet as they did meet in the first advent beginning from Genesis to revelation? As Mordecai said to Esther, who know but that you have come into the kingdom for such a time as this? Our time to live our faith is now. Mordecai is a baby boy’s name of Hebrew origin, meaning ‘follower or servant of Marduk or belonging to Marduk and in ancient Hebrew cultures, Marduk was a Babylonian god who ruled over the city of Babylon with compassion similar to other mighty deities, it is known that Marduk stood for justice, fairness and order. Mordecai was a man strong in faith and unwavering in his convictions for God. He was also compassionate and tenderly cared for Esther in her need.

All of us have faith, but will your anchor of faith hold in the storms of life? Is your anchor of faith a true anchor? Is your faith built upon the truth of Scripture and Gospel? Is your faith tested? Do you know how valuable, revealing and full of love, a faith in Christ is? Are you living a Christ-like life? Is your faith timeless, or will the newest fad or the latest philosophy cause you to tie to a new false anchor away from your faith in Christ? Only a faith in Christ is true, tested, valuable and timeless. It is not a question of if you have a faith. It is not a question of if the storms of life will come. It is the question, will your anchor of faith, hold through the storms? The time to anchor your hope and faith to Christ is now, before the storms show up so that your faith in Christ will not waver or be shaken by anything including the very fear of the unknown as the storms of life beats about you.