189: Russell Todd - Exhortation: Heirs Together

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:13

   Welcome to Goodra selfie and talks. I’m Levi. And I’m Chris, and I’m Brian. Thank you for joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one taco week to help us get the Bible in our daily news feed. We post a new episode of the start of each week with a short intro before.

2. 0:30

   Hand to kind of set the stage for the talk. You’re about to listen to. And now let’s talk more about this week’s talk. Hello and welcome back to another talk for this week. We’re listening to an excitation that was given by Brother Russell, Todd back in May of 2020, and The excitation that he’s focusing on is taking a look at First Peter chapter 3. So if you would like to read through that before listening to that, I wanted to make sure to mention the chapter, that he will be focusing on and the subject and the title of his exhortation is heirs together.

3. 1:14

   And he’s looking at the story of Peter, and this was a recommendation that somebody sent in shortly after hearing brother Russell. Give this excitation. So sorry, it’s taking a little bit to get the excitation under the podcast, but when I listen to it I really enjoyed it Peters. Always a really fascinating story to study to get to learn more about and without spoiling it because brother Russell kind of reveals it during his excitation. It’s a very different look at Peter and at his character. And then the way that brother Russell ties it into Christ and our walk at the end was really, really great. So I really enjoyed this excitation. I thought it was a again, just added more dimensions. And detail to the life of Peter which is always a fun character to look at.

4. 2:06

   So I was really grateful and appreciative of the recommendation as always, we appreciate those. I know we’ve been mentioned at the last couple weeks but it’s true. We kind of live and breathe on these recommendations. So anything and everything you send through is greatly appreciated, we love sharing them with with everybody else. So with that I will turn it over to brother Russell Todd who is from the south Barry Ecclesia for his excitation heirs together.

5. 2:33

   Good morning everyone, wherever you are doing good. In adversity, is what we read in that chapter. We read from first Peter 3. And We Gather in this unusual way to remember Christ who is the ultimate example of doing good and adversity. As we read in verse 18 Christ, also suffered once for sins, the Just for the unrighteous that he might bring us to God. For excellent today.

6. 3:11

   As we think about is together. I’d like to try and do a gentle excitation today, so on the Mount Sinai, Elijah scale, it’s more still Small Voice than earthquake wind or fire. It’s not polite to shout at people in their own living rooms, I don’t want to upset your Cups of Tea. So it’s still small voice. Today, I want to take you on a journey through scripture and I apologize in advance if I don’t turn up every reference because it’s the gist of it that we want to get across to you. Because this is a time at the moment for us to be gentle with each other, the current situation is affecting us all in different ways. and it’s bringing to each of us, different stresses As it grinds on. We don’t know whether we’re 90% of the way through the disruption to our lives or whether we’re just ten percent of the way through and we each face different anxieties and fears about what that means for us. Make station today in a phrase is to think of others. To be gentle and kind.

7. 4:35

   I hope this excitation can spark in your place, some conversation and some small acts of kindness. Wherever it is that you are And so let’s begin is together. We’ve read from First Peter chapter 3 and we stopped for a moment to think about the hand, that holds the pen. That writes these words, the real person behind the text And when we think about Peter, he’s obviously one of those New Testament characters that were intended to learn from. When we think about the source material for a study of the life of Peter, he’s there through the gospels, he’s he’s there in the stories of the acts.

8. 5:27

   He writes Epistles, We see him in all the phases of his life. Firstly as a disciple coming to a point of belief, Becoming an apostle. Writing as an elder. So we’re obviously intended by scripture to to learn from his life. And he is for us, one of the best examples of the journey. That is that, that the people of God are not Stamped Out by by by a machine press, but they are crafted over time and Peter gives us a good example of that.

9. 6:13

   And as will come to say, he remains aware of the shortcomings right through to the end of his life. He is in many ways. The first of the disciples he’s first in each of the lists of the 12. He’s always first to step forward and he’s always first to fail. He’s a great example for us of the phrase that comes from Christ, out of the Garden of Gethsemane that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

10. 6:46

    and Peter is at once, both the best of us and the worst of us we see in him loyalty and we hear denial, we hear from him, clear, understanding of principle and then we see weakness in application and I like to just take two quick examples of that. So first on, on the Betrayal night, he was ready to die and he said so he left forward to an armed mob, with his pocket knife in the dark.

11. 7:25

    But then he gets disarmed by the comments of the maid. And he needs to be brought to his senses by the counsel of a chuck. A second example, in terms of the coming of the Gentiles to the gospel, he’s convinced by a vision of the need for the gospel for the Gentiles to receive it. He Witnesses the outpouring of the spirit on the Gentiles. He commands that they are baptized But then as we read in Galatians 2, he swayed by peer pressure of those from Jerusalem and chooses, not to eat with them. And so we see in those two examples, perhaps strengths and weaknesses, all mixed together in the life of Peter. His experiences are unique, know how many of us. None of us can say I was there in Gethsemane and saw the sufferings of Christ.

12. 8:37

    I was there on the Mount of transfiguration and saw the glory of Christ as he writes in second Peter. He still remembers that moment. I was there with him and get cemani. I was there with him on the Mount of transfiguration and I was rescued from prison By Angels what an incredible spiritual CV.

13. 9:03

    Peter hands. And yet. As always the mix of strength and weakness. And we could imagine the interview with Peter. So Peter you were with Christ and get cemani.

14. 9:25

    How was it? Well actually. I kept going to sleep. Mark 14 verses 39 and 40 Their Eyes Were heavy. He came and found them sleeping. Their eyes were very heavy. They didn’t know what to answer him. So what were you like in Gethsemane? With Christ? Can’t remember a lot actually. But you were with him on the Mount of transfiguration that must have been an incredible thing. What do you remember of it?

15. 10:06

    Luke 9 verse 32. Now, Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep. and Peter said, things not knowing what he said, it says, and Peter was rescued from prison by an Angel and just kept just come for a second and just just see this one in Acts chapter 12, It was Peters part of this thing. Verse 7 of Acts 12 the angel of the Lord stood next to him, a light Shone in the cell, he struck Peter on the side and woke him up saying get up quickly. The chains fell off his hands.

16. 10:52

    Verse 8, the angel said to him, dress yourself, put on your sandals and he did so. And he said to him wrap, your cloak around you and follow me. And he went out and followed him. He did not know what was being done by the angel was real. And inverse. Some Verse 11. And when Peter came to himself, he said This reads to me very much, like, trying to get the kids ready for school. In the morning, every step needs to be described, put your clothes on sandals, both sides.

17. 11:33

    No, that’s he left, not you’re right. Put your jacket on. Come on now. You really didn’t know what was going on. So I say this. Just to give us an idea. You can take. Yes, I’m Peter. I was in Gethsemane. I was on the Mount of transfiguration. I was rescued by angels and I slept through every experience. There’s no one with their faults. So more written down in scripture for us all to see. Here is the person that walked on water to Jesus and sank. So what of his experiences?

18. 12:21

    How was following Christ to change his life? Come back to Mark chapter 1. and here we have the sort of the beginning, the beginning of the Gospel from from Mark’s point of view, And here we enter. This is day one when Christ came to Peter’s house. And it says, in Mark chapter 1 verse 29 immediately left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.

19. 12:58

    Now, Simon’s wife’s mother lay ill with a fever and immediately they told him about her. He came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up, the fever left her and she began to serve them. And at evening, as the sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons and the whole city was gathered together at the door and he healed many. That first moment when the restrictions of the law were lifted from the Sabbath and people in need came together at the door of his house. for once his house was the central place in that City where everyone gathered But not only the one inside the house, but also those outside, we’re seeking Christ and it must have left an indelible mark on their family. The day when Christ came to their place, We think about the experiences he had in the ministry of Christ. Turn next to Mark, Matthew chapter 10 because this sets the pattern for what was to be the rest of Peters life. In Matthew chapter 10, the disciples are sent out. To preach in various places.

20. 14:28

    So from verse verse 16, well actually earlier on from verse 5, Jesus sends out the the 12 And he said so go out don’t don’t carry too much with you. Go and preach the gospel verse 11, whatever town, or Village you enter find out who is worthy in it and stay there until your depart Inside.

21. 15:02

    They were to travel and to to be provided for, by, by other families. They were to expect, persecution verses, 16, 17. 18 was to be what they were to expect. and in verse 23, when they persecute you in one town, flee to the next for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the son of man comes.

22. 15:34

    So he was to be the changed life for Peter. It was to be spent living in other people’s houses. In other places. It was to expect persecution and to have to flee. And this was to be the rest of his life. And so it was with Peter not just during these moments in the ministry of Christ.

23. 16:01

    But this is what we see works out in the book of Acts. So in the book of Acts we find him in Jerusalem at the start and in in 8:1 the apostles are still in Jerusalem. Chapter 8, verses 14 and 25. He goes down to Samaria and

24. 16:29

    verse 25. When they had testified and spoken, the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching, the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.

25. 16:40

    And then we find him here and there amongst the disciples chapter 9, verses, 31 and 32. The Ecclesia through all Judea and Galilee and Samaria was there. And it says there in verse 32 as Peter went here and there among them all So he stayed on the move, he came down, also to the saints that dwelt at litter. So he’s now at litter, and then from there at the end of that chapter, to Joppa to heal Dorcas, and then from Joppa the called to caesarea to, to Cornelius. And then from caesarea back to Jerusalem to answer the Jews that were uncertain about this thing that he done. I’m in chapter 12, he’s in Jerusalem, but then once rescued from prison, it says, he, then he went into hiding, it says in the text, and a very cryptic, sort of way after they had in in the house welcomed Peter.

26. 17:54

    He says, then he departed and went to another place. He was their closure under persecution, and he needed to be moved somewhere else. We’re not Told. But all the way through Galatians, Chapter 2 mentions that Peter had been to Antioch and Syria. And then, back in Jerusalem again for acts 15. And then by the time, he writes 1st Peter is either in Babylon, Babylon, or maybe Rome as Babylon as he describes in First Peter chapter 5. But either way, he’s a long way away from home. what I’m trying to say through all of this is you know, we know about the journeys of Paul and we met them all out and and that’s And that’s good but they were just as many Journeys though shorter and a smaller Zone perhaps by Peter, it’s summed up perhaps best in Galatians 2.

27. 18:56

    That says, when we saw that the gospel to the Gentiles was committed to Paul as the gospel to the circumsized was committed to Peter. and so, Peter spent the rest of his life no longer the fishermen, but the traveler Working with the flock wherever they were. And what a story could be told, though, not described in detail in scripture of those events.

28. 19:31

    What what events lie Behind these records? But I want to turn our attention now, to another set of eyes. To someone who could have Chronicle these stories better than anyone else. Someone who knew firsthand the joys and the struggles and the hardships of this new life that Peter now lived. Someone who experienced and lived and dwelt on and felt and cared about all these things.

29. 20:12

    More than others. Someone whose Diaries would make fascinating reading, someone present throughout and yet almost totally absent from the record. What is the think about mrs. Barr Jonas. That is Peter’s wife. We could be forgiven for not thinking about her at all. Because apart from a couple of oblique references, she’s almost absent from our scriptures.

30. 20:54

    And yet what I hope to do. Is to reconstruct what we can of her life with lessons, for brothers, four sisters, and for all of us, there’s not much in Scripture that specifically relates to Peter’s wife. It’s only the faintest watermark. If we look carefully, so here we go. In Mark, chapter 1, the verses that we read The healing was of Peters wife’s mother.

31. 21:29

    If he had a mother-in-law, he had a wife, this is what I mean by oblique. Throughout the gospel story. We’re told that there were certain women From Galilee who traveled with the disciples, Luke 8 verse 2 They are the women. Luke 23 verse 49. Who are there at the cross. And they are mentioned again in Acts chapter 1 verses 13 and 14 in the upper room.

32. 22:06

    It says the disciples were there with the women. And we know that in that group was James and John’s mother Jesus mother, there were others as well. But you can see the family group nature of this thing that they didn’t all leave family at home. But family came with them.

33. 22:34

    I don’t know if that’s been part of your imagery of Jesus and the disciples in the gospels, but it makes sense. One other verse talks about Peter’s wife, First Corinthians chapter 9 and verse 5 is the verse. And again, it’s a very oblique reference. But it is perhaps a little key just to help us get going.

34. 23:08

    So in First Corinthians chapter 9, Paul is talking about why he hasn’t asked for support from the Corinthian Ecclesia because I haven’t asked for it but I do have the right to ask for support. And in.

35. 23:30

    From verse 3. Perhaps were raid. This is my defense to those who would examine me. First Corinthians 9. Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Do we not have the right to lead about a sister? A wife as the other Apostles and the Brethren of the Lord? And cephas.

36. 23:57

    Or is it any pain medicine? I who have? No right to refrain from working for a living. So he says, I could be asking for support from you and I would be completely within my rights to do. So, It would not be wrong. For me to lead about a sister, a wife, as the other Apostles as the Brethren of the Lord, and as Peter. So she’s there, isn’t she?

37. 24:31

    Just in the text. And she was being led about by Peter, so she’s there. She’s in the scenes of all that happened to Peter. Probably throw most of the ministry of Christ. And into the period of the book of Acts. They were on the road together.

38. 25:05

    And they were being supported by the generosity of others. So we’ve talked about the experience of Peter when Christ came into his life. Let’s now compare the experience of Peter’s wife before and after the gospel.

39. 25:35

    Peter’s wife, the old life. She might have expected to live an unremarkable life as the wife of a lake Galilee fishermen. When she married Peter, there would have been a very certain inevitability of what life would mean to her the house, the lake, the marketplace. She will be sure that the rest of her life would smell of fish. She would expect that the things of life that she would not enjoy would be his moods when the catch was poor. perhaps having to do things quietly around the house as her night shift, husband slept, She would imagine her the greatest fears would be when the weather had blown in and she knew that the men were still out on the water.

40. 26:41

    When the gospel came to her door, she was sharing their house with Andrew her husband’s brother and her mother, maybe others as well. She might never have had an expectation that they would have a house all to themselves. No, real Prospect of moving up in society.

41. 27:08

    Her aspirations then would would hinge on just Gathering a good reputation, amongst the immediate circle of the townspeople and perhaps over time the gradual accumulation of a few objects of comfort and finery.

42. 27:27

    That’s about all that Ordinary People in poor circumstances. Can realistically aspire to Local reputation little bit of comfort few bits of fancy stuff to put on for the the times of feast and celebration. But what about her new life?

43. 27:57

    The life on the road, the life dependent on the generosity of others. She now faced many different dangers and aspects to her life. As she was led about by Peter through all these different places.

44. 28:18

    When they persecute you in one city, flee to another was to be her experience now too. Shaking the dust off their feet of places that rejected them. Being dependent on others to provide for their needs. It’s a true thing that when other people support you, you don’t tend to spend money on yourself. I remember a few times in Mission travels, people would come to you before you left and hand, you some money and say and this is something I want you to spend on yourself while you’re over there.

45. 28:59

    And it’s almost like the water from the well at Bethlehem ER, became the hardest bit of money to spend on things, just for myself and sometimes you come home after a few months and and and that note would still be in your wallet and something.

46. 29:18

    When other people support you you can’t spend stuff on yourself. It’s really hard, especially not the extras. It’s what I mean. And when you’re living on the move because it says go from one city to the next. You don’t carry valuables with you if we think of Paul’s recollection of travel. in 2nd Corinthians chapter 11, The Perils in the country, The Perils of robbers, the pair of perils of false brethren The weather and the cold. And when you’re carrying everything you have with you, you carry as little as possible people pack differently when they have to carry their own suitcase. There would, there would have been much, not naturally desirable and plenty dangerous in this new life being led about by her husband.

47. 30:27

    And we can perhaps see her in mind at the end of a long journey, Road Dusty and tired. Trying to pull her hair back into shape as she arrives at the doorstep of some other new strangers house. Has she ever wished to be just back in her ordinary old life. Despite what they would the the grand task with which they are involved.

48. 30:57

    There must have been times where she wept for the sheer uncertainty of this new life that she had. And yet, while it was great uncertainty of circumstance, sewers resoluteness of purpose. There was her willingness to be led about in this strange Journey.

49. 31:23

    And there was with her quiet resolve. Despite the disadvantage and the danger. And so here we have two people Peter and his experience and alongside him in the story though, not in the story.

50. 31:45

    Mrs. Pita Together with him. And so we come to First Peter Chapter 3, The the chapter that we read. And I want us now to translate that experience of life. Into the words that Peter now rights.

51. 32:13

    They say first Peter. Was written middle of the 60s ad. So we realized that the man with the pen and his hand is now old, he writes conscious that his own death is now not far away. And in chapter three he’s about to write what he is known. What he has learned what he advises. About husbands and wives.

52. 32:51

    What experience would guide him as he writes these sings about his own experience. Let’s turn first to what he says to her husband’s verse 7. After all that time together. What does he say? He’s learnt verse. Seven, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way.

53. 33:30

    He’s the one thing I want you to think about. Be understanding. I want you to show honor. To them. And there are two aspects of that honor aren’t there as we look in the verse.

54. 33:51

    Giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel. and as being heirs together of the grace of life, give honor to her in her differences to you. The weaker vessel bit. Give honor to her in the unity, you have. As heirs together in the grace of life.

55. 34:29

    Only your differences. Honor your sameness. Why verse in the verse 7 that your prayers be not hindered. It’s for your own good to do this for your wife or your own spiritual well-being. Honor her Peter would have had a great chance to have experienced any weaker, vessel nurse of his wife, in The Crazy Life, that they LED walking from City to City persecuted and they would have been times.

56. 35:16

    That would have been quite tough. If Peter was the mug, his wife was the finer China. The one more refined, the one you had to handle a little bit more carefully. And yet still heirs together of the grace of Life, they had together, one calling one gift, one hope. His life was on show through scripture. Her life is tucked away in behind the scenes and yet, they equals together.

57. 35:57

    In The Gift of Life. Now, of course respecting difference and respecting Oneness is not just for husbands and wives. As at First Sight, be all of you of one mind. Having compassion, one of another love as Brethren be pitiful, be courteous. we tend to the beginning of the chapter, This is dangerous territory.

58. 36:37

    Isn’t it for any husband? Peter is about to write his advice for whiteness. And he does very well because the first thing he talks about is how to work with an imperfect husband, that was a good move. Likewise wives be subject to your own husbands. So that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives when they see you’re respectful and pure conduct

59. 37:20

    Husbands can be won, over to write ways without a word. He says. This is the ultimate of the still small voice, isn’t it? It learnt from his experience with his wife that they were times when not a word was spoken, but the right thing was done by her, And that won the battle notice. He doesn’t say will be won by the look or by the strike. Oh, by the harsh words that remind a man of his own failings.

60. 38:06

    But one. When he sees your conduct. And we think how many times on how many Adventures of Peter and his wife. Was not a word said and yet a battle was won. Piss three.

61. 38:34

    Don’t let your adorning be external. The braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry or clothing your wear, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart. With the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet Spirit which is in God’s sight. Very precious. these are incredible words from a fisherman, and I And yet what I’ve is lived experience with his wife. He’d saying that the life that they lived it meant that there wasn’t time for the beauty salon and the elaborate hairstyles that others had time for.

62. 39:32

    He saw that. I had forgotten the opportunity of that little bit of jewelry. Bit of bling that you can have when you live at home, but is too dangerous to carry on your back. He’d known the two or three outfits that she carried with her over a long period of time as they lived in other people’s places and needed to be packed in a hurry and ready on to the next place as persecution hit.

63. 40:08

    It seemed that she had foregone that. And he saw in her instead. The beauty of that hidden person of the heart. This is the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet Spirit. Not one that’s pushed over, by any means. But her quiet determination to do what was right. Despite forgoing the things that she would have, otherwise maybe have preferred what an incredible tribute when we think about it in terms of his experience with his wife, And yet we’re going to put her back in the picture. As we’ve done through this.

64. 40:56

    Where is she? As he writes this Is she sitting next to him at the table? Does she Smile as he writes these words? But given the time frame. Is he writing this at a table alone?

65. 41:24

    Is this a description of her? In her presence. Or is this perhaps one of the most beautiful eppie tasks that we have in Scripture? Are these the words that he managed to get round to saying to her? Or these the words that he wished he had. Taken the chance to tell her while he could.

66. 41:58

    We don’t know. We know from these words that he had seen, and he had appreciated deeply, what she gave up for this new life. And we don’t know whether he told her while he could. but this is what at least he would have wanted to say, You weren’t flashy to others.

67. 42:29

    Didn’t have the things that others did to make themselves look good. But you You were gold and diamonds to me. And in God’s sight.

68. 42:48

    And that beauty doesn’t disappear. It lasts forever. She may have been quiet but she was not determined. She was not a pushover verse 6. Says, you are Sarah’s daughters. If you do good and you do not fear anything that is frightening, what an unusual phrase that is. But I think it suggests that she had the fears. She saw the dangers.

69. 43:29

    And that quiet, Spirit was a quietly determined Spirit to push on and to continue to do good, despite the risks and the dangers. 3:1 starts with likewise likewise, you wipes and the likewise probably relates back to the previous section about servants and Masters.

70. 44:09

    And about how servants should continue to do good, amidst adversity. And the example, there is of Christ. First 21 Christ also suffered for you leaving. You an example that you might follow in his steps. And that despite great adversity Christ continued with that same. Fierce and quietly determined Spirit to do. What was right.

71. 44:48

    And that is our calling to be late about to follow his steps. and so, of course, as we wrap up Mrs. Peter is ass.

72. 45:06

    Because there’s another bride that has been pulled away from a life of inevitability. To be led about by a husband. As Romans 8 verses 1617 says, Heirs of God and heirs together with Christ. If we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him. Whereas together in the same way she was and how much more than Peter and his wife were held together by their spared, their shared sense of heirship of the grace of life, is there to be the bond between the lamb and those who in the words of Revelation, 14 follow him wherever he goes. Like mrs.

73. 46:05

    Peter the journey we’re called to go on is one that we couldn’t have imagined at the beginning. Maybe it’s a journey that takes a natural toll. But has as its objective, that which is imperishable. The development of a Meek and quiet Spirit. That’s not shaken by what would otherwise be frightening. We’re told in Hebrews chapters 4 and 5 that our Lord deals with us in an understanding way.

74. 46:44

    He is the high priest who can sympathize with our weakness. He is the one Hebrews 5 verse 2 that deals gently with the ignorant and the wayward and he calls us. to draw near to him, to find the mercy and the grace, we need to hold us together in times of need So his inheritance and ours, the suffering, and the glory is joy, and ours are bound together.

75. 47:26

    And we share this meal together to remind us of this Union being heirs together. And we celebrate that Bond. Thank you for listening to the good christadelphians talks podcast. We hope this talk helped you in your walk. If you would like to hear more, please subscribe for new episodes and leave a review and apple podcast or whatever service you are using to help more people find the show when they search for it.

76. 48:09

    If you enjoyed this Secular talk, please share it with someone who you think might enjoy it as well for show notes on the talk. You just listened to visit our show page at anchor dot f, m / G, CT, or check the show notes section of your podcast player. Please share your thoughts on the talk from this week on our Facebook or Instagram Pages where we are at good christadelphians, talks on Twitter where we are at GCT underscore podcast or leave a comment on our YouTube channel where these talks are posted as well. If, you know of a great talk, we want to know about it, to send a suggestion to our e-mail at good Christian talks at gmail.com or message us on any of our social media accounts. Thank you for listening.

77. 48:50

    God, bless and talk to you next week.