Our submission to God in our fiery trials opens up a day of God’s visitation to the difficult people who instigate our trying circumstances. Peter, no stranger to suffering himself, assures us that our sufferings and afflictions as Christians will result in a revealing of the Lord Jesus to others. Peter takes us into the deep end of the theological pool of God’s higher purposes for the fiery trials that come our way. The message of 1 Peter isn’t to simply make pain and hurt vanish but to open our eyes to the invisible God who works miracles in the lives of those who bring us pain and hurt. As we allow Jesus to live through us as the submissive sojourner and exile, God will see to it that the world around us will see Him in a supernatural way.
Peter’s opening literary unit is a strong foundation that the rest of 1 Peter is built upon. As this foundation draws to a close, he transitions to unsaved people receiving mercy, a mercy that this day of visitation abounds in.
Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy…Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
1 Peter 2:10, 12 ESV
This day of visitation is a continuation of a people estranged from God receiving mercy. In the previous blog, we investigated how this day of visitation is not a day of judgment but a day of God’s personal compassion and mercy to bring life out of death. This visitation consists of personal presence expressing sympathetic care. The day of visitation mercifully leads us who were “once…not a people” to Jesus as our “Shepherd and Overseer,“ Overseer—episkopos (ep-is’-kop-os) —a word play on visitation—episkopē (ep-is-kop-ay’). This title of “Shepherd-Visitor,” the Shepherd who incarnates personalized compassion to care for the helpless and needy, is the one and only time Jesus is ever called this in the Bible.
This day of visitation is marked not only by God’s personal presence but by His revelation. He comes near Gentiles who speak against us as evildoers to call them out of darkness and into His marvelous light. We see this demarcation of darkness and light in this verse:
Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
1 Peter 2:12 ESV
On the one hand the Gentiles “speak against you as evildoers” but on the other they “see your good deeds and glorify God.” At first glance it seems almost contradictory or at least paradoxical. What’s happening, though, is a before and after snapshot, the day of visitation serving as a dividing line between the two. This day of visitation is what causes them from slandering you as an evildoer to a total about-face of them glorifying God over you! How does this radical transformation happen? That’s what Peter is going to dive into.
Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable…they may see [epopteuō] your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
The word Peter uses for “see“ is a rare Greek word epopteuō (ep-opt-yoo’-oh), used only twice in the New Testament and never in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. It means to look into, examine, or behold. The Gentiles were beholding and eying closely the good deeds of Christians but putting their own negative spin on them as evil deeds, labeling these believers “evildoers.” Every action called into question the motives and end results. It takes a miraculous day of visitation for people like that to see good works rightly. And when this day of visitation comes that opens their eyes to truth and reality, then and only then is when they glorify God.
Good preachers use sermon illustrations to help their audience visualize the principles. Peter as a veteran preacher of the Good News will draw our attention to the supreme illustration of God’s day of visitation—Jesus. Let’s see how this day of visitation worked in Jesus’ life to encourage our faith.
But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 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.
1 Peter 2:20-21 ESV
We all like being called out of darkness into His marvelous light (2:9) and being called into His eternal glory (5:10), but this calling to suffering? That doesn’t quite hold the same thrill factor. But remember the context. Our calling to suffer is so that foolish people that are ignorantly running their mouths (2:15), Gentiles that slander us as evildoers, can have their day of visitation so that God can call them out of darkness into His marvelous light.
He committed no 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.
1 Peter 2:22-23 ESV
Peter is saying, “Look to Christ. Follow His example. When He was reviled, He did not revile in return.” And guess what? God visited somebody! When Jesus in His fiery trial entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly, He didn’t seek vengeance. He turned the other cheek, absorbing the barrage of insults and slander hurled at Him without reviling in return. And when He turned the other cheek, God turned His face of mercy and favor towards those who were doing the persecuting and reviling. God’s day of visitation came in compassion and mercy to those causing Him injury and harm! The Father manifested His sympathetic care to bring life out of death!
Let’s now feast our eyes on this illustration in living color with one of those revilers. Everybody knows this guy—the thief on the cross.
One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” (Luke 23:39-42 ESV)
That word “said“ is in the imperfect tense, which meant he didn’t just say it one time but multiple times. “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.“ Silence. Maybe a little louder this time. “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom!” Silence. Jesus seems to be giving His crucified companion the silent treatment. The Lord doesn’t respond immediately, but when He does it’s glorious, fantastic news!
And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Luke 23:43 ESV
We all love this story. It encourages us that it is never too late. God can save at the last hour. In Luke’s account here of these two criminals, we might get the impression that one was a good thief—tenderhearted, trusting in Jesus—and one was a bad thief, an ornery, nasty guy, hardhearted to the bitter end. Well, that’s not really how it was. That’s not the complete picture. Matthew’s recounting of this same incident fills in a key missing detail.
Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” (Matthew 27:38-43 ESV)
And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.
Matthew 27:44 ESV
“Robbers.” That’s plural. How many were there? Two. One on the right and one on the left. Both of them were guilty of reviling Jesus “in the same way” as those harsh chief priests, scribes, elders and unruly mob. Both of these robbers were really letting it loose on Jesus just like everybody else. “Reviled” in the imperfect tense means that they repeatedly taunted, disgraced, reproached, and defamed Jesus, for so the word means. Again and again their voices joined in unison with the rabble, mocking Him as King of Israel.
So what happened? How did one thief go from mocking and reviling Jesus to all of a sudden acknowledging Him as the true King of Israel? What happened to spark this surprising about-face? Was it the placard over Jesus’ head that said, “This is the King of the Jews”? Did those words “He is the King of Israel” said in mockery somehow awaken truth deep down in his heart of hearts? This we don’t know. But what we do know is Peter, in his Christian maturity and sharing precious Spirit-inspired insight, is beautifully reflecting back on this event. Remember, Peter is pointing to Christ suffering for you, “leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.” A big aspect of Christ’s suffering was how He endured reviling, the very thing the thief on the cross had been doing to Him.
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.
1 Peter 2:23 ESV
Because Jesus did not revile this thief that was reviling Him, God the Father does a miracle in that persecutor. He opens his eyes! He suddenly sees Jesus as the King in charge of the kingdom of God. Amidst a cacophony of insults and jeers, God’s eye of mercy visits this reviler. It was his day of visitation! In addition to all the other offenses the thief had piled up over his lifetime, he added blasphemy to it. The penalty in the Old Testament for blasphemy was death. That’s what the thief on the cross deserved. Yet God showed him mercy. This thief railing on Jesus, mocking Him as king, in the rich, abundant mercy of God suddenly and surprisingly has an undeserved day of visitation. Anybody witnessing this chaotic scene would never in a million years have expected this thief to make such a dramatic turnaround. Yet by God’s personal visitation in compassion the ignorance of this foolish man is silenced and he glorifies God.
But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” (Luke 23:40-41 ESV)
God’s day of visitation was a day of revelation and illumination. Though the thief on the cross had been speaking against Jesus as an evildoer, God graciously intervened and opened his spiritual eyes. He now saw Jesus’ good deeds rightly: “This man has done nothing wrong.” He went from death to life! This thief joined the company of the redeemed of whom it could be said, “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1Pe 2:10). The salvation of the reviling thief on the cross is a prime example Peter uses to fuel our expectation of supernatural visitation for the revilers in our lives. Because Jesus didn’t revile but rather “continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly,” He opened up the visitation of God to that persecutor to go from death to life. So Jesus could say, “Today you will be with Me in paradise.” “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.”
One of the most amazing salvation testimonies I’ve seen the Lord accomplish happened in a detention facility for young teens in Prince William County, Virginia, in April of 2003. At that time I was overseeing gospel outreaches at my church, of which this was one, about an hour’s drive away. On this particular occasion I didn’t go in, but I would always fast and pray for the volunteers who went out, believing God to manifest Himself and give them words to impact the kids.
When our volunteers, close friends of mine, entered the detainment area, an open space encircled by cells with heavy doors and Plexiglas type windows, seven teenage girls sat around tables, laughing and joking, eating candy and drinking soda. Some of them had heard very little of who Jesus was at all. As Mark shared about what Jesus did for them on the cross and the two ladies their testimonies, four girls on the right were intently listening and asking questions like “How can I have a relationship with God?” whereas the other three on the left’s giggling and drawing attention to themselves degenerated into mocking and complaining to a facility staff member. The four who soaked in everything like sponges responded without hesitation to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior. At the end of the prayer, all wept uncontrollably, asking for forgiveness. While this was going on, the other three, Mark recalled, “just mocked out loud, laughing and casting insults at these girls and us.”
Afterwards, after I’d had time to process these wonderful events, as I was praying about it, I sensed a heavy burden to pray for the chief mocker of the three girls. Specifically her. As I was interceding and crying out to the Lord, I tangibly felt God’s compassionate heart towards this girl. The next time our volunteers went in they asked about this one. Her roommate said she wasn’t there because she’d been released. The next few days after our volunteers had left, that reviler had come under heavy conviction. Here’s the amazing thing. One night, light came in from a window, casting on the floor of her cell a shadow—a cross with a man on it! When another church group came in, this girl couldn’t wait to surrender to the Lord. One of the four girls who’d gotten saved knew this one for many years from high school and testified how she’d radically changed. It was her day of visitation, a day of mercy when she passed from death to life.
Sometimes we write off people that are in opposition, judging them as unlikely candidates for God’s mercy. Yet if we just submit to the Lord and do life His way, not reviling for reviling nor threatening those who make us suffer, He will do a miracle. Not with everybody, but there’s a thief in the crowd who will pass from death to life. He will do a miracle in His time, not ours. Microwave Christianity likes everything to happen instantly. But it may not be today. It may not be next week. It may not be next year. But if we’ll trust the Lord, He will show Himself strong. He will do it. “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Mt 5:44). There’s a day of visitation coming for them!
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