Forest Park Church Sermons

Why should Christians suffer well for righteousness? Peter reminds us of Christ's suffering and what He has accomplished for us through His substitutionary death. Just like Christ was vindicated and accomplished the ultimate victory, we too will be vindicated as we share in Christ’s victory. 

Peter addresses that the Christian life is marked by suffering for righteousness. How do we suffer well for righteousness? Why should we suffer well for righteousness? A common theme in the answers to these critical questions is our Lord Jesus Christ.

Peter addresses the life of a Christian marked by submissionin the context of marriage. This passage not only confronts our culture but has also confronted the values of all cultures throughout the centuries for almost two thousand years. Peter gives clear instructions to the wife and husband. When wives live in submission to their husbands, and husbands live with their wives in showing honor and...

Nothing comes more naturally to our hearts than self-defense and retaliation against those who mistreat us. To embrace a life of submission and unjust opposition requires a supernatural power and example to follow. As Christians, we have both in our crucified and risen Savior – Jesus Christ. 

When Peter addresses the Christian life, he reveals to us that the Christian life is marked by submission. Understanding the Kingdom of God helps us understand the command to submit to every human authority, as well as why and how we should submit.

The Christians who have been bought by the blood of Christ, chosen as God’s people, shaped to be a temple for God’s presence, are to live unique and countercultural lives so that the world cannot help but notice. When the world gives in to the desires of the flesh, the Christian abstains from sinful desires. We will examine sinful desires, how we abstain from them, and why.

Through Christ, God is building a spiritual house that grows as people come to him and are converted into living stones. Just like the temple and the priests in the Old Testament who mediated the presence of God to the people, believers in Christ mediate the presence of Christ to the outside world by offering the “spiritual sacrifice” of witness. In what we say and do, we mediate the presence of C...

As elect exiles, we sincerely love one another. We will discover in our passage that what commands, enables, motivates, and equips us to love one another sincerely is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Since we are elect exiles who have received a salvation that brings living hope, joy in suffering, and it is a privilege, how do we live as elect exiles? Peter teaches us that as elect exiles we live with hope, we live holy lives, and we live assured lives.

Peter reminds us of the salvation we have received because of God’s great mercy that was displayed for us by Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. This salvation brings a living hope, a joy amid suffering, and a privilege that even angels longed to glimpse.

Our cultural context is increasingly becoming secular. A growing percentage of Americans no longer share a Christian worldview, hold to Christian beliefs and values, or identify with any Christian heritage. We find ourselves living in a post-Christian culture. How do we as Christians live in a post-Christian culture? In the introduction of 1 Peter, we will discover that it does not begin with what...

After Jacob's death, the brothers feared Joseph would enact vengeance due to the suffering they had caused him. In humility, the brothers pleaded for forgiveness, and Joseph, in compassion, extended forgiveness and promised to provide for them and their children. From this passage, we learn about the characteristics of seeking and extending forgiveness and see how this story ultimately points...

Jacob’s final request was to be buried in the ancestral burial plot of Machpelah, in Canaan. This request is honored, despite the great inconvenience and traveling required to fulfill it. By insisting on being buried in Canaan, Jacob communicated to his sons his unyielding faith in God’s promise for the future. Revealing God’s future for His people lies in Canaan, not Egypt. For Jacob, the future...

As Jacob’s life is coming to an end, he is looking both backward, reflecting on God’s promises and faithfulness in his life. He also looks forward to how God will fulfill his promises to his sons, turning them into a great nation and giving them the land God has promised him and his fathers. In an act of faith, he adopts Ephraim and Manasseh as his own, giving Joseph a double portion. Believing th...

After Israel settled in Goshen, the narrative returns to the famine in the land. Our passage contrasts the people of Egypt and the people of God (Israel). The people of Egypt struggled to survive the famine and sold their livestock, land, and themselves. In contrast, the people of God are acquiring land and becoming fruitful and multiplying. The people of Egypt come to Joseph to save them from dea...

The momentous reunion of Joseph and Jacob that has been long anticipated in the story is all but swallowed up in the larger context of the nation of Israel’s descent into Egypt. Through Joseph’s wisdom, God preserved Israel physically and spiritually in Goshen, where they lived in Egypt and remained distinct. Under Joseph’s administrative wisdom, and Jacob’s blessing of Pharaoh and Pharaoh’s honor...

Jacob, named “Israel,” is marked by prevailing in the struggle of life. Leaves Canaan to be reunited with his son, knowing the dangers and challenges ahead. Stops at Beersheba to remember the Lord and offers a sacrifice of worship and reliance on the Lord. In the middle of the night, the Lord reveals and reassures Jacob that the Lord is the “I will God”. Just like Jacob, the Christian life is mark...

After his brothers respond to his test in Genesis 44, Joseph is overcome with emotion and finally reveals himself. Shocked and scared, the brothers sit in dismay as Joseph reassures them that God is ultimately in control and used their sinful actions to bring about His will for His glory and their good. He further urges them to bring this good news and testimony to their father Jacob so God can op...

Joseph puts the brothers through the final test. If the first test was designed to retrieve Benjamin, the second test is designed to expose their genuine attitude towards their youngest brother, Benjamin. In this final test, we continue to see evidence of the Lord’s restoring work.

All the brothers, including Benjamin, are returning to Egypt on their second journey. As the Lord is restoring this broken family, we begin to see the Lord’s transforming grace in their lives. Where their hearts are changing, they are concerned for one another and are willing to lay down their lives for one another, and they are slowly turning from fear to trusting the Lord.

In our text today, the Lord, through Joseph, will put his brothers to the test. He will put them in the same situation where they failed and decided to sell their brother into slavery for personal gain, and lied about it. Will they do the same again? We will learn that through the testing of our faith, the Lord continues his restoration work.

Easter Sunday is one of the biggest highlights in the life of the church as we celebrate the resurrection. But after all the excitement dies down, we are often left with the question in our lives of what happens next? How do we handle the magnificent news of the Gospel now that we have received it and responded to it? How do we truly live for Christ and cling to Him? To find these answers, we’ll t...

Our world has been experiencing a growing crisis of hope. The future seems uncertain and the present volatile. When you feel hopeless and beaten down by life, Peter reminds us that we have a God who is merciful and sees our helpless state, who has made us alive and has given us a living hope that is anchored in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Through Christ, our eternal future is secured in the...

Palm Sunday is the first day of holy week or the first day of the final week before Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. It is the day we traditionally celebrate Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. As we take a closer look at Jesus’ triumphal entry, what was Jesus declaring about himself in this triumphal entry? Did the disciples and the crowds really understand what they were saying? What dif...

Starting with chapter forty-two, the author will draw our attention to the condition of Jacob and his sons. What we will immediately discover is that this is still a very broken family. Over the course of their journey to Egypt, the Lord will begin his restoration work on this broken family. We will learn this restoration work occurs in the middle of a famine, it is a deep and slow work, whereby t...