Sermon

Endure

By Jared Warner

Willow Creek Friends Church

April 26, 2026

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Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili

Query 4 (Faith and Practice of EFC-MAYM pg 61)

Do you provide for the suitable Christian education and recreation of your children and those under your care, and endeavor to train them for upright and useful lives?

Are you thoughtful and careful to supervise their social activities and to guard them against harmful reading and associates?

Do you encourage them to read and study the Scriptures?

Do you prayerfully seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit in your efforts for their conversion and growth in grace?

Ephesians 6:4 (ESV)

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

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1 Peter 2:19–25 (ESV)

¹⁹ For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. ²⁰ For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. ²¹ For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. ²² He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. ²³ When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. ²⁴ He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. ²⁵ For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

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What does it mean to follow Christ? What is a true Christian?

These are questions that have been asked for probably the past two thousand years. Questions that we have all asked, and probably been unable to answer adequately in our minds. We have these ideas in our mind of who is good, what it means to be born again. But as time goes on we find that some of the people we once aspired to be like had skeletons in their closets. CS Lewis for example. Today we would not think much of it but when he married his wife it was a scandal. At that time it was unacceptable for a divorced individual to remarry in the church. He married Joy anyway. He married Joy even though she had cancer. He married her because it was the right thing, and at times the right thing is hard. Sometimes it carries pain. The world and even our closest friends do not understand. And even worse the people we respect may not have guidance. He married Joy.

He loved her, and it brought great pain to his life. I cannot tell you why he did it. He did not have to do it. His life would have been easier had he not married her, yet what everyone else thought was logical did not convince him. He loved her and her children.

Lewis’s marriage was a scandal, but he also accepted evolution as a manner of explaining creation. In the time of history and in his location that train of thought was widely accepted. Even among evangelicals that was accepted. It was only after the second world war that fundamentalist ideas began to take prominence, along with dispensational theology. Now there are groups that forbid children from reading the works of CS Lewis because they claim he promotes magic and erroneous creation theologies. Can you imagine a childhood without Narnia?

I bring this up because what people find scandalous in faith often changes. We like to say our stances have never changed, but this is not fully accurate. We as people of faith have changed over time. We have recognized areas where our testimonies of faith did not coincide with our understanding of scripture. Our understanding of history has deepened. We gained greater knowledge of the grammar of ancient languages. And most of all, we have found manuscripts that confirm or provide broader insight into how we translate the words. This causes some to question faith, but for me it is exciting. With everything we have found, with all the textual criticism, or research, we have found that, by in large, the text used to translate scripture has been faithfully transmitted through history with very few errors.

Most of the differences that have been found are nonuniform spelling. There are some other errors that are attributed to scribal clarifications primarily in the Latin sources. As we do this work we become more aware of how various passages connect with others. We find how they connect with writing inside and outside the church. It gives us more context and when we have more context we can then look at the passage with greater clarity.

We have learned more, and this can cause scandal. When I use the word criticism, I am sure most of us cringed just a bit. That word is the proper thing to use, but usually when we use that word it is negative. We criticize someone’s clothing. We criticize the pastor’s sermon. We speak criticism in reference to someone’s cooking when it is not like our mother’s. We criticize. We speak negatively. This is not the fullness of criticism. When we speak of textual criticism regarding scripture, it basically means we are looking at the text and considering all the sources we have, and we are attempting to determine with scholarship if it is part of the original text or if it was potentially added. They do this by considering if the handwriting, the word usage, the context fit with the rest of the text around it. And if it does not seem to fit, some translations move that portion into a footnote, or add some sort of editorial notation explaining that this might not be original.

I have gone completely into nerd mode, but I do this for a reason. It makes us uneasy. We do not like the feeling we get when our faith is challenged. We are more comfortable with our faith when it is unquestioned and dictated to us. Faith is not supposed to be dictated, it is supposed to be experienced, lived in, and explored.

Living faith is difficult. CS Lewis wrote about it in many ways. He spoke about injustice in his children’s books in a manner that most kids can understand, “The White Witch cast a spell which caused it to always be winter but never Christmas.” Children can understand that. They understand the pain in their fingers when they get too cold and warm back up. They understand the need for heavy coats and blankets just to be able to function. They understand all of that, but when you say never Christmas, that is unfair. Christmas is what makes winter bearable.

Peter tells us, “For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.”

I will not be one of those teachers that tell you that if you come to faith your life will get easier. Life is never easy. We will have pain and sorrow, we will have to deal with thorns and weeds, we will have to endure the antics of governments lording over the governed. This was promised in Genesis. Coming to faith does not change this completely because we still live in a world with people of different understandings and different faiths.

Those that do not understand us often speak out against us. I mentioned last week how I have been accused of things simply because I hold to a traditional testimony of Friends in regard to peace. I will be honest with you, there was a time where I was not so traditional. I thought I was a maverick when I boldly said in worship one Sunday evening that I supported the invasion of Iraq, and I justified it in my mind because we were going to protect the Kurdish people. I have regretted that statement. We did not protect the Kurdish people, they are just as oppressed today as they were twenty years ago. And this caused me to reexamine why I believe things, and why Friends have their stances. I do not hate those that have a different opinion, I love many who have served. But I believe that we should do all that we can to prevent the use of violent means.

These misunderstandings have caused me a great deal of stress of late. I have suffered. I have been told to keep my mouth shut. I have been called things from a liberal communist to a mindless sheep. Why, because I have tried to explore, and live within faith.

Peter wrote this letter to Christians that most likely lived in Asia Minor. He likely wrote it just prior to his death while he was in Rome. This was early in church history, those that followed Jesus were often persecuted. They were beaten and imprisoned because they did not make sacrifices to the Roman gods. They were rejected from commerce because they did not carry a form of identification that indicated that they offered sacrifices to the emperor’s temple. People made a sport of violence against the followers of Jesus. And tradition tells us that Peter was the first Pope, the first bishop over the entire Church within the Roman empire.

He is telling that the suffering is good. And we look at these words and we think Peter has lost his mind.

He says that it is good because, “Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed not sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.”

I want us to think about this for a moment. None of us like suffering. We tend to avoid it at all costs. But there are times where we do need to endure. Peter encourages the churches, not to focus on their suffering, but to turn their attention to Jesus. How did Jesus respond to the world around him?

In the sixteen years that I have served as your pastor, I have mentioned often the lifestyle or the rhythm of Jesus’s life. He made it his custom to worship with the community at the synagogue. He withdrew often to isolated places to pray, and he ministered to the people through teaching and activities. I have expressed that this rhythm can be seen in our own mission statement: Loving God, Embracing the Holy Spirit, and Living the love of Christ with others. We love God through worship. We embrace the Holy Spirit through prayer, and we live the love of Christ when we use the gifts and resources we have available to us to encourage and help those around us. This is the same thing that Peter is telling the first century church to do. This is the same thing that Paul tells the churches to do when he encourages us to discard the old life and put on the new. We are to clothe ourselves in the very life and lifestyle of Jesus.

He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When we think of sin, most of us think of the breaking of a rule, or one of the ten commandments. I want us to broaden our understanding a bit on this. If sin was only the breaking of the ten commandments, then the gospels tell us that Jesus sinned a great deal. How can I say this? In his culture they were very strict on keeping the commandments, and Jesus was pretty liberal when it came to Sabbath keeping. We justify this in our minds, we say well the religious leaders of his time were just being to legalistic in their interpretations, where Jesus was focused on the heart of the law instead of the letter of the law. I want us to reflect of that for a moment, we are not wrong in saying that.

The commands were not merely rules. They were conversations or concepts to be explored. And Jesus gave us the framework or guide to use while exploring the commandments. When he was asked what the greatest commandment was he said it was to love God with everything we are and all that we have, and that the second is like the first to love our neighbor as ourselves.

This is profound if we think about it. But there was another instance where Jesus even challenges this. The gospels tell us that Jesus became angry when he entered the temple and saw the tables of the money changers, and the pens of animals being sold for sacrifice. He became angry and he made a whip the hair of a beast, and he began shouting, “that God’s house is to be a place of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.” How is Jesus loving his neighbor as himself in that instance?

He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. Sin is missing the mark. It is an action that is done that falls short of what of the goal. The goal is to love God with all we are and have, and we do this by loving those around us as we would love ourselves. We show our love for God in how we interact with those around us. This is why Jesus says that the first and second commands are the same. We cannot love God without loving our neighbor, and we cannot truly love our neighbor without loving God.

What this boils down to is one thing. Living justly. When we speak are we speaking truth, with grace and mercy to encourage those around us to a better place? Or are we twisting our words so that we can convince them to do things for our own benefit? That is deceit. That is sin. When people spread untruths or gossip about us are we striking back at them with the same venom or are we responding with truth filled with grace and mercy? When people commit acts that cause us harm, are we responding with the same threats of harm or are do we instead encourage them with grace and mercy?

I want us to really consider the words that Peter is speaking and apply them to our lives, apply them to our actions. Apply them to the activities we encourage our government to enact. Are we following Christ or are we following the world? Are we entrusting ourselves to him who judges justly or are we entrusting ourselves to the powers and principalities of this world?

We suffer in life. It is just part of human existence. We suffer because of things we have done, and we suffer because of things others have done to us. When we endure suffering because of actions we do for the good of others, it is a gracious thing in the sight of God. I have often wondered about that statement. But as I have matured in my faith I have gained understanding. The commandments of God, are not mere rules, but conversations. And one of my favorite podcasts have been doing a series on this the past couple of weeks. Why does God command us not to make idols and worship them? Why should we refrain from making images and setting them within a temple? It is because God created the image for us. We are the image of God, we were fashioned out of the dust of the earth and placed within the garden. The garden is the place where God dwells, it is the temple or sanctuary. When we love our neighbor as ourselves we are offering gifts of praise and worship to the one that created us.

When we suffer for doing good, we engaged in the Lambs war. We are participating in the expansion of the kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven. When we suffer for doing good we are following in the footsteps of Christ. But we need to be humble. We need to be careful, we need to examine ourselves and encourage those under our care. Are we providing suitable educations and activities for those under our care and are we making every effort to train them for upright and useful lives? Are we exploring life with those around us so that they are able to live the love of Christ with others?Are we thoughtful and careful to supervise our activities and our media consumption, and do the groups we participate in promote the lifestyle of Christ? Do we prayerfully seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives so that we can be conduits of God’s mercy so that they took can know God and entrust their lives to him?

As we enter into this time of open worship and communion in the manner of Friends. I encourage you all to sit with these queries. Consider the suffering around us. Where is it coming from and how are we responding? And let us seek out our Shepherd and Overseer so that our wounds can be healed by the hands that were wounded for us. And let our lives be renewed just as he was raised.

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Ransomed to Love

By Jared Warner

Willow Creek Friends Church

April 19, 2026

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Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili

1 Peter 1:17–23 (ESV)

¹⁷ And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, ¹⁸ knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. ²⁰ He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you ²¹ who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. ²² Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, ²³ since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;

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We are currently living in a historic time. I say it is historic because we are at a cross road that I never thought I would have ever been. Twenty-five years ago on September 12, 2001 Pope John Paul II said “[9/11] was a dark day in human history, a terrible attack on human dignity.” and added: “The heart of man is an abyss whence, at times, emerge acts of unspeakable ferocity.” He then went on to urge against the spiral of hatred and violence, and faith comes to our aid at these times when words seem to fail, stressing that those who believe in God know that evil does not have the final say, and that forgiveness is not weakness but the fullness of justice needed to heal the wounds caused by such atrocities.

I am not Catholic, I am a Quaker. I am a minister of the gospel among Friends. Our Faith and Practice says this, “Friends feel that life is sacred, and that war and violence are not consistent with Christian Principals (Matthew 5:38-48). It is our firm conviction that war is wrong as a method of settling disputes, destructive of our highest values, and productive of the seeds of future wars. We, therefore, as a church, unequivocally support young Friends who as conscientious objectors to war refuse military service. And we are concerned to find alternative solutions based upon justice and righteousness for all peoples and are deeply moved to participate in the new calls to peacemaking which are being sounded in our day.”

This is what I was taught growing up. When I turned eighteen and had to register for selective service my mother, father, pastor, and pretty much everyone in our Meeting both those that served in the military and those that refused to serve, made sure I knew that as Friends we seek peaceful methods of resolving disputes and each wanted me to register as a conscientious objector. Much to my surprise there is not a box to check on the form for a conscientious objector. I stressed about this. And unfortunately no one had an answer. The final solution we came up with was that I needed to write a letter to my pastor with a copy of the registration form that we could keep on file at the Meeting.

There is still not a box on the form for CO’s, I even asked our Yearly Meeting Superintendents how we should encourage our young people to register as CO’s and they did not have an answer. So the method I used when I turned eighteen is the same method I encourage today. If you want to register as a CO, I encourage you write a letter to the Meeting expressing that desire, we will keep it, and if needed we will stand with you.

I bring this up because for some reason, when the current pope expresses concern for peace, there is an outrage. When I make comments about the peace testimony there is outrage. I have been told by many of my friends that I am being political, and have mental illness because I just cannot accept the current administration. No, that is not the case. This has been the stance of the Catholic church my entire life, they had a few eras of their history where they started wars, but for my entire life the Catholic church has been advocates for peace. And the Friends Church has had a testimony for peace since our beginning. When William Penn, whose father was the admiral of the British Navy, was first becoming convinced he asked George Fox if it was alright to wear his sword. In that day and age, the aristocracy would often wear a sword, both for protection and status. The answer that George gave was profound. You would think that being a proponent of peace that George would have chastised young William for asking the question. You would think he would say, “Friends are peaceful you shall not wear a weapon of war.” but that is not what George said. Instead he said, “Wear it as long as you are able.”

Wear it as long as you are able.

I want us to consider that statement for a moment. George did not tell him that he was wrong for wearing a sword, he did not belittle him for owing a weapon, he simply said wear it as long as you are able. William Penn could not bring himself to continue wearing the sword much longer after that. He had listened to the preaching, and the teaching of the Friends and was convinced that warfare was opposed to the teachings of Christ, and that testimony went with him to the colony here in America that bears his father’s name. It is this testimony that drove Penn to promote and petition all the other colonies of America to form a congress where representatives of each could come and find resolution to their disputes and promote common good. That testimony of peace was woven into the very fabric of what became our nation.

There are times where it appears that peace cannot stand, but we must try. We must encourage those around us to recognize that of God in the image bearers that we see as our enemies. Because if we do not try, we can quickly fall prey of dehumanization. We can justify violence against others, because they are not like us. They are other. And we turn into something terrible, we begin to champion sin instead of grace. We become the ones that nailed Christ to the tree.

“And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.” We live in a world that is at odds with our professed beliefs. It has always been at odds with our expressed beliefs. Those that profess Christ are living in exile, because our ways are not the ways of this world. Jesus taught us to love our enemies, to do good for those who persecute you. But that is not the easiest thing to do. When we face our rivals we want them to pay. We see it on the sports’ field at the KU vs. MU Football game. Albert faces that on the ice, especially when he challenges the Stars. We do not want to lose, we want the opponent to face the worst. Competition is not wrong if we keep it in check. After each period of play Albert often meets the opposing goalie with a fist bump as they skate to the bench. After each game the players often shake hands at center field. But the world does not often lend it self to that kind of sportsmanship.

The world wants us not to see the opponent as a friend but an enemy. The world wants us to look at the citizen of Germany as something less than us. The Russians as less than us. The world wants us to view the Muslim as a hopelessly violent beast in need of eradication. We once lived in a world like that, but instead of people of Islam the enemy was Israel. We fought a war to defeat that world view, and we made treaties signed by all nations within the United Nations that made the claim that genocide is a crime against humanity and a war crime. Yet have we stopped to think about how we speak about those we have disagreements with? Do we not remember the words of scripture that say, “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:8-10 ESV).

While we were God’s enemy, Jesus came to us. While we were living in full rebellion against everything God stood for, Jesus came, lived among us, taught us, faced injustice, execution, and the grave. That was what we were, but God so loved the world that he send his son not to condemn the world, but to save it, so that whoever calls upon his name will have life.

“If you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers.”

We were ransomed. This is a term we do not often think about in our contemporary lives. We might hear the word on a movie when a child is taken from their parents and the criminals demand money for the return. Often we look at this verse, and that is what we think, Jesus paid the price. That is only part of the meaning. The word here can also used in the story of Ruth and Boaz. Ruth was not kidnapped but according to the law the nearest relative had an obligation to marry Ruth after her husband died. Boaz was a relative of Ruth’s husband but he was not the nearest relative. Boaz had to go before the council of elders and ransom Ruth, he had to free the man from his obligation and take it on himself. But this is not the only instance.

Every first born child according to Jewish law belonged to the Lord. When Israel lived in bondage in Egypt, God sent plagues to defeat the spiritual forces of that dark empire. The final plague, was the death of the first born children of all the land, and Israel was ransomed from that horror by the blood of the passover lamb that was spread across their doorposts. From that moment on God told the people of Israel, that the first child to open a womb was his. That child would be dedicated to service of the Lord. In some instances, like Samuel, the child was given to the priests to literally serve, but in most cases the family would ransom the child. They would bring gifts of praise and offerings of thanksgiving to the temple to thank God for the child, and to provide for the livelihood of the Levite who would take their place of service. To ransom is to free, to release, and to redeem. It can be a release from bondage, or it can be a release to service.

Peter is reminding us that we have called upon the name of Jesus, and the Father who judges impartially has heard that call. He knows what we were. He knows who we are, and we should conduct or live our lives with fear. Not afraid, we should not be afraid of God, or of what the world can do to us. We should live in reverence. We should revere and reflect the life of Jesus in everything we do, because through him we have been ransomed. We have been released from our obligation. We have been freed to serve. We have been restored to a different kind of life. We were once enemies of God, but while we were still on that field of battle Christ stopped the conflict and stood in our place.

What does this look like? For Ruth, she was once a foreigner living in the land of Israel. A widow of a man whose marriage would have been scandalous during that time. Yet Boaz ransomed her. She was no longer a daughter of Moab, instead she would become the great grandmother of a king. She was released from shame, from poverty, and from disgrace because Boaz saw her as she was a beautiful child of God. Consider Moses and Aaron. They gathered in the huts of Egypt, they listened to the screams of sorrow that filled the empire of Egypt, while they held their children close, eating the meal of roasted lamb. They stood ready to act in an instant. Ransomed by God, released to act if called, ready to face the armies of an empire. But they did not fight, instead they, along with the rest of Israel, walked out of Egypt no longer slaves but at liberty.

“Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you.”

Jesus was known, he was foreknown before the foundation of the world. From the foundation of world it was known that we as humanity would reject our place with God. We would use the freewill God created us to have and abuse it. God knew, humanity would desire the knowledge of good and evil. God knew that we would use that knowledge and would become afraid of those around us. That we would use the brains we were gifted to create marvels and weapons. He knew that we would inherit from our forefathers, the constant quest for wealth and power. And even before this happened, God had already predestined Jesus to stand in our place for us. God, himself had already known that he would come to provide a way for our redemption.

The world fights. The world struggles against itself, taking from one nation what we think we deserve. What is it we deserve? What is it we think we deserve?

Open the pages of history and read. What do we deserve? Russia deserves Ukraine in their mind, because they are brothers, they share history, and culture. But the people of Ukraine do not see things from the same perspective. From the Ukrainian perspective, Russia is a thief. They stole their culture, their name, their heritage, and kept it for their own. What do they deserve?

Let us look at my own people, the English. Our language is spoken around the world, it is the language of business. But it is also the language of bondage, the language of oppression, and dominion. What do the English deserve? God will look at the people of Moscow and the people of England and judge impartially. Just as God looks at the people of Iran, Israel, Germany, and New Zealand. We do not deserve anything. We are nations and people of oppression every last one of us. If you give us the right tools, we have within us the capability to do the most heinous or the most beautiful things. We can create art, or missiles. We can walk on the moon in the pursuit of exploration and the advancement of knowledge, or we can annihilate civilizations. What do we deserve, what is the inheritance we receive from our forefathers?

I love my history. I love the history of Friends. My ancestors came to this nation for the right reasons. They traveled west hoping to create a city where Christ would be known. That was their mission, and I can look on a map and see the path they traveled, because they named the communities they set up the same. But even that grand ideal is tarnished. There was not a military in Pennsylvania colony, they sought to treat the indigenous people as equals, but even the greatest ideals have darkness. The people of Pennsylvania gave blankets to indigenous people, they gave them blankets as a gift, but those blankets carried disease. A people of peace, a people of God wanting to create cities where God could be freely worshiped, gave to the needy blankets of disease. We stand saying we deserve what is ours? We have done many good things. We have done marvelous things, but we deserve nothing in ourselves. For every amazing thing I have done, I have done something worse. For every smile, I have created a frown. I know what I am capable of, and at times it scares me.

I know what I am capable of, but I also know that I have been ransomed. I have been released from bondage. I have been liberated and called to something new. I have been raised with Christ from the dead, and my hope no longer resides in the things of my forefathers, but instead it is with Christ. We have been redeemed to a new life, a new hope, a new kingdom.

“Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been borne again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.”

I have reflected on the events in the news. I have listened to friends, I have heard people make claims and accusations. And my mind keeps going back. We were born into a world of sorrow and dust. And we will go back to dust. Kingdoms and empires rise and they fall. They always fall, but something remains. Children are born. Life continues. And my mind goes back to the words written by Paul, once again, “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”

We have been ransomed not by the might of David over Goliath, not by the passion Boaz had for Ruth, not by the righteousness and faith of Moses. But God himself come to live among us. God himself, came to live within our worldly systems of wealth and power struggles. God himself, challenged those systems and taught us to love one another just as he has loved us. He faced wrongful accusations, he faced brutality, and death. Not because he deserved it but because we do. He showed us just what we are capable of. We will kill an innocent man as long as we can profit. Jesus died and was buried. He laid separated from life for three days, and then rose from the grave. He rose to give us hope. He rose to show us that the systems of the world do not dictate the end of the story. Life will triumph over death.

We were enemies of God, and yet Jesus loved us enough. We deserved wrath, yet he gives hope. The world gives war and sorrow. Christ gives loves. Purify your souls by your obedience to the truth. Love one another earnestly from a pure imperishable heart, living and abiding in the word of God.

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Born Again to a Living Hope

By Jared Warner

Willow Creek Friends Church

April 12, 2026

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Click to read in Swahili

Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili

1 Peter 1:3–9 (ESV)

³ 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, ⁴ to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷ 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. ⁸ 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, ⁹ obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

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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.

Born again to a living hope.

The idea of Born again is something that has been used a great deal among Evangelicals. It has become a touch point, or a signal word to us. We listen for people to drop that phrase into a conversation so that we can have some assurance that they are safe to listen to. We have used this phrase to such a degree that I wonder if we understand its meaning.

The phrase is derived from the conversation that Jesus had with Nicodemus one night. Jesus said to him, “you must be born again to enter the kingdom”. Nicodemus asked what that phrase meant, and he asked if he must enter into his mother’s womb once again? We laugh at that statement but it is honest. We do not fully understand it. The confusion goes so far that some have said that Jesus taught reincarnation, or that we our spirit will enter another body and live life again and again until we live the saintly life. We might even laugh at that idea, but it too is an honest leap.

I assure you that Jesus was not teaching reincarnation, but the phrase means to beget again, or caused to be born again, recreated, or renewed. The phrase although it can be misunderstood, has a unique usage. The root of the word means to re-create. The senses of the word point to basically four different usages, to give a new role, new abilities, new representation or image, or renew. The sense of the word that Peter uses comes from the to renew sense, and from that sense there are six other sensations that are covered. To refresh is one, to remake or beget again, to give birth, to replace, restore, or to revitalize.

I know that for most of us, I can just list off all those things and it just goes over your head, but the reason I share this is that there is a prefix on most of those senses, re. In the English language that prefix usually means again. When we renew a subscription, we are extending the subscription for another term. If we are reforming an organization, we are taking what was once there and changing things so that it can continue into the future. The sense that Peter is using is the remake sense. It is almost like a reset. And if you play video games we know what reset means, we get a second chance to try again.

But as I consider this I was drawn to the context of the passage, Peter also speaks of various trials. The translation to English softens things. The reality is that what he is saying is you are going to face injustice, and suffering. You are going to face things in life that will be challenging. Some of those things will be reasonable, some of those things will seem like utter chaos, some of it will be understandable, and others will be injustice. We will find ourselves in hard time that are self inflicted, and we will face trials that were enacted upon us from outside forces. We will and we do suffer.

We suffer. This is often one of the factors of life that cause people to reject faith because they do not understand, we do not understand. How can a loving God allow suffering?

I was talking to my mom a few months ago, I told her that I though I would someday write a book and I would call it 3:16, and I would go through every book of the bible and write something about chapter 3 verse 16. I did this because so many of the 3:16 verses are cool. We all know John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Then there is 1 John 3:16, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” Then 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”

I love the 3:16 verses. But in our conversation, we got to Genesis 3:16. “To the woman he said, ‘I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” My mom decided at that point I should probably pick a different profession because she thought that the book would not sell at that point. But I got to studying that passage as we talked. We look at this from a labor perspective, or the actual work of giving birth. That is not the complete picture. It is more than just child birth it is child bearing or motherhood. It is the work of raising a child. Then there is that weird your desire shall be contrary to your husband part. I do not know if this happens at your house, but have you noticed that fathers and mothers tend to do things differently when it comes to children? I do not remember wrestling my mom, but I do remember my dad tossing me around. I also remember my mom yelling at him when she saw me flying through the air.

There is pain and suffering in raising a child. Yes it is a complete joy, but every scrap makes our own knees hurt. Every tear we want to take on ourselves so that they do not have to suffer. But we cannot take their pain. We instead suffer with them.

But if we look at the work of bearing children, we can then look at the next verse and see that the judgment given to Adam also includes labor. “Cursed is the ground because of you, in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust and to dust you shall return.”

Suffering is the consequences of the desire of trusting our wisdom instead of the wisdom of God. Suffering is a result of our actions. Some of that suffering is intentional and some is unintentional. Sometimes in our best efforts to be wise we have opened ourselves up to greater trouble.

I was watching a youtube video while I was working about the history of sugar. I did not realize that there was a history of sugar, but I was proven wrong. There was a point in time where doctors thought sugar was miraculous. They would prescribe for various ailments, and one of the things they prescribed it for was to clean your teeth. At that point I stopped working and diverted all my attention to the video. We as humanity once thought that sugar was something that would protect and clean our teeth. I am sure you are not surprised at the unintentional consequence to that. Nearly every emerging technology is seen as being amazing at first. We want to apply it to nearly everything. And in that excitement there are unintended consequences. Pain relief is important in medicine, but can often have consequences. Using a computer is nearly a necessity now but if you use it all the time you end up with bad posture and carpal tunnel syndrome. The automobile is connected to an increase of lead poisoning. The industrial revolution changed industry yet air pollution was the result. Unintended consequences from human action, that result in human suffering. We needed the technology, we use the technology, but we must recognize that we have caused many problems in our search for wisdom.

Our labors often result in suffering. And Peter says we are going and are facing suffering. Suffering of many kinds and from many sources. Yet he does not say this is unfair. He instead tells us to rejoice.

I struggle to rejoice in the midst of suffering. I do not like being sick. I lose sleep over many different stresses in my life. I used to work nights, and after doing that it is like my body’s default settings were changed and whenever I get stressed out my internal clock gets switched again. And this just leads to more stress, anxiety, and suffering usually in the form of a migraine. But Peter says rejoice.

He says rejoice because we have been born again, recreated, renewed, given a new chance. Rejoice because we have been made into something new born to something different. Living Hope. God has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

I want us to just reflect on this for a moment today. I have given several Easter sermons over the years twenty-three years I have been a pastor, about twenty I think. Over the course of those years I have reflected often on the resurrection, and there is a question I have often asked myself over the course of my contemplations. “Do I believe in the resurrection?” I want to say a simple yes. But then another question comes to mind, “If I do believe, what does that mean?”

I struggle with this, because the implications are vast. If we believe in the resurrection, if we believe that Jesus rose on the third day in literal physical form, should it not change something in our hearts and minds?

As I think about that I have often reflected on what lead to the need for the resurrection. What was Jesus doing that put him into that situation in the first place. Since I have read a great deal of theology I can say he had to be crucified so that he could be our propitiation, he needed to become sin for us so that he could satisfy the wrath of God. I can speak of several things about why Jesus had to die, but what was he doing that inspired the Religious leaders and the Roman government to take such a drastic action? He was faced injustice head on.

In our lives we often suffer. And often we absorb that suffering as our lot in life. There is nothing necessarily wrong with that. Paul tells us that he has learned to be content in all situations, rich or poor, well fed or hungry. We can be content. We must endure our suffering. But Jesus did not just endure. He spoke boldly against the hypocrisy of religious leaders. He said to them that they burdened their disciples with great loads that they themselves did not carry. And then he would cry out to the people, come all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. The meaning of that is that he did not have a lot of rules to follow, just one really. Love God with everything you have and are, and love your neighbor as yourself. He called them out on their hypocrisy because they did make a bunch of rules, they interpreted scripture and instead of finding the teaching or wisdom of God, they found methods of exploitation.

But the religious leaders were not the only people that felt threatened. Rome was also concerned. Jesus inspired people, his miraculous healings attracted attention, and because of that crowds would form wherever he went. The towns and villages were not huge in the first century. Yet thousands of people would crowd in around him. I used to work in retail security, and crowd control was a major part of that job. We would spend months devising plans to handle one singular day, the day after Thanksgiving. If plans were not carefully made, trouble would be the end result. Crowds are scary when you are tasked with keeping peace. And when over five thousand people randomly show up in one area, something little could spark an all out riot.

Jesus fed over five thousand people with five loaves and two fish. Imagine the emotions of that crowd. Imagine what would happen if after they all ate, that man then said march right not into Jerusalem and take it. The Romans were scared and looking for some way to prevent that from happening. Then one day Jesus went into the temple and gave the religious leaders and overlords both a reason. Jesus walked into the court of the Gentiles, the place that the people of all nations could come and worship the one true God. And scattered throughout that courtyard, were pens with sheep and tables where people would convert currency. There was this conspiracy among the righteous to take advantage of the people wanting to worship God, exploiting faith for gain. Jesus cried out that my father’s house is a place of prayer and you made into a den of robbers. And he began to snap a whip in the air scaring the livestock, and overturning the tables of the money changers. Silver and gold was flying and scattering. The poor were diving onto the ground to gather what they could, and the rich were doing the same to save their potential losses. Chaos ensued. And suddenly the righteous and the powerful had a common purpose.

Jesus stood up against injustice. He called out the hypocrisy, he challenged the philosophies of the government. And those that had power felt threatened. They crucified Jesus because of their own desires of power and control. Jesus died so that the rich could stay rich. He died so that the poor would stay poor. He died so that the exploiters could continue to extort their victims. Jesus died so that the wisdom of this world, the suffering of this world, the sin of this world could survive. Jesus became sin for us. And he carried the burden of that sin to the cross. He died and was buried. Hope was lost.

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. Jesus died so that the world systems could continue. But he rose again so that they would crumble.

We are born anew to a living hope, 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 read to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice. In this we rejoice. Because Jesus lives we know that though we suffer now, it will not last forever. Though we face trials now, it will not be the end. We have something better, something pure, something beautiful just beyond the horizon.

Our suffering is not in vain. It is through the suffering that we obtain the prize in Jesus. It is through the suffering. We gain something invaluable. Hope.

Jesus once said that the poor would always be with you, he also said that those poor are blessed. We often struggle with that thought. We struggle because something has been lost in the context of time. The poor, does not only mean those that lack finances and wealth, it also means those that lack power and influence. In ancient cultures, the rich ruled, because the rich were the government. Everything belonged to the Emperor or the king and if you had wealth or power it was because the ruler allowed it. And the rulers of the Gentiles would lord it over their subjects. That is not so among us, Jesus said. The rich are not blessed because they have their reward. Our focus instead should be on the one that do not have power and influence. We should care for the least of us because theirs is the kingdom. They possess the treasure that we seek. They are the ones that understand the power of hope. The rich have all they need, but the poor do not. The poor are able to recognize that they do need, they suffer.

That is where our focus should be, according to the teachings or the commands of Jesus. We can seek out power and influence here and now, but that is all we will get, here and now. Have you ever wondered why the richest people in the world are so concerned with money? Everything revolves around it, because everything in their life is focused on it. They are nothing without their money. No one would know their name, no one would care about their opinion, no one would value their input, because in the world system those that have power control the money. But the value of corporations can disappear. What was once seen as an immovable force within a society can become worthless within a short amount of time. Its perishable, defiled, fading. Walmart is being swallowed by Amazon. Emerging technology that makes life easier, gains wealth and power, then they exert control to maintain their power. But the giants will fall, suffering happens. Blessed are the poor, for they will inherit the earth.

God has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. We are born again, given another chance, a new chance, to obtain an inheritance that does not diminish, because it is based on something more valuable than the systems of the world can fathom. Hope.

People see how we respond through the trials we face. When we face those trials do we rejoice or complain? When we are in the middle of the struggle do we give up or do we continue to strive? And how do we respond to the people around us while we bear the most difficult of our burdens?

I believe in the resurrection. I believe not because someone gave me a good answer. I still struggle with the logic of that belief, and yet I believe. I believe because I saw the lives of the saints within my community. I saw the tears streaming down the face of my mother singing, “it is well with my soul” while my little sister’s body was being prepared for organ donation. I saw it when my dad got up every morning to go to work, and rushed out to the fields to work some more, so that he could pay of the debts obtained during a farm failure. I saw it the lives of students in Ukraine that lit up when they finally were able to grasp some concept of faith they had wrestled with. I saw hope in the eyes of my boys when they do the thing they love. We suffer, we face trials. But we have something greater. We have hope, and we have that hope because of the great mercy of God, who did not think equality with God was something that could be stolen, but become submitted himself and become obedient even to death on a cross. And on the third day he rose again to life. Do we believe in the living hope? Will we stand up to the injustices around us so that the poor will see that hope lives? Will we rejoice?

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