P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

Peter: Standing Through the Storm

CONNIE: Have you ever stood on a cliff above the sea as storm-tossed breakers crashed against the rocks below you? It’s best to be above the storm. But what if you have to stand in the storm?

Giving God’s trumpet a Certain Sound for more than 70 years, this is the Voice of Prophecy.

CONNIE: Hello, I’m Connie Jeffery,

LONNIE: and I’m Lonnie Melashenko. Today in our program, we open the book of 1 Peter—a letter that was written to Christians who were undergoing some hard times. To pick up on your metaphor, Connie, they were right down there on the rocks, getting hit by the waves that were pounding the shore.

CONNIE: It hasn’t always been easy to be a Christian. And when 1 Peter was written, things were pretty stormy for a lot of believers.

LONNIE: Well, Connie, I think that many people had joined the church, intensely hoping and believing that Jesus would deliver them from all their trials and suffering. But Jesus never promised that. He only promised that He would be with us and strengthen us to face the storms of life—which all sounds pretty encouraging when everything is going well for you. But what about when you’re really down there in the storm? That’s the situation Peter’s first readers faced.

CONNIE: For those who have never had to face persecution, it’s hard to imagine how hard it must be to stand up for what you believe in, when the storm really hits. To gain some perspective, we’ve invited a very special guest to join us today.

LONNIE: The words you’re about to hear come from a man who learned what it really means to suffer for your faith. Pastor Mikhail Kulakov served as a minister of the gospel in the Soviet Union during a time when serving the Lord often meant serving hard time in the Soviet prison system.

CONNIE: Lonnie spoke with Pastor Kulakov about his experiences, and how he maintained his faith during those hard times.

LONNIE: Pastor Kulakov, what a privilege and an honor to have you on our broadcast today.

KULAKOV: It’s my joy, and my privilege to be here. I actually never dreamed of such an opportunity.

LONNIE: You were born in St. Petersburg, Russia, many years ago, 76 years ago…Your life journey because you stood up for your principles of your belief of God, you ended up in what we know as the Russian Gulag.

KULAKOV: When my other brother came from his military service after the World War 2, he was full of zeal to share the good news about his salvation, and I was warned by the leader to move from that area because my brother was already in prison. So we moved to Latvia, there was more freedom, but the KGB officers came and arrested me while I was a teacher of art in a school.

LONNIE: Why did they arrest you as a teacher of art?

KULAKOV: I continued to correspond with those leaders in the place where we had lived before…

LONNIE: So they had been informed that you were a believer?

KULAKOV: Yes, they were watching all of our activities and in my family 3 of us were arrested.

LONNIE: So you were taken to jail?

KULAKOV: They brought me to the KGB prison and locked me there in a small cell, where there was nothing except a long bench. I thought, that is my destiny, because that’s the way that the Christian has to go, so I just prayed to the Lord and asked Him to give me courage.

LONNIE: What age was this when you were first arrested by the KGB?

KULAKOV: I was 20 years old.

LONNIE: From here you were finally sent into the labor camp, where was that?

KULAKOV: I was kept 6 months under investigation, but it was difficult for them to find any accusations, so they just announced that I would be sentenced to 5 years at a labor camp.

LONNIE: So now you have a 5 year sentence, and where was this going to be lived out?

KULAKOV: Well, they took me to Moldavia, and I considered myself a happy man.

LONNIE: How did you maintain your faith for those years in prison?

KULAKOV: I believed in God, and there was hope in my heart. You know what happened, the officers gave me the Bible because they were afraid that I might try to escape, and so they gave me the Bible and I opened to the book of Psalms 66, “For you God have us to the test, and refined us like silk, we went through fire and water, but you have brought us out into a place of freedom.

LONNIE: How many years did you actually spend inside prison?

KULAKOV: 5 years.

LONNIE: What kept your faith strong as those years ticked on?

KULAKOV: The knowledge of God and the knowledge of the Christian church was a great strength to me. Before I was arrested I had the chance to see my father who was sentenced to 10 years of labor camp, and he told me, I know now that they are gathering material against you, but don’t be afraid for that is the path of all Christians.

LONNIE: So those words came through?

KULAKOV: He told me that Jesus had chosen this path, and that all faithful followers of Christ were prosecuted, and that kept my faith. There was no Bible, so I asked my mom if I could have a Bible, so she sent me the New Testament in a parcel, but the censor opened the parcel and he noticed the New Testament, he took it and I asked him to give me back that book, but he said no. He took all the pages except for one.

LONNIE: What page was that?

KULAKOV: That was John 16-17, and that was the prayer of Jesus. When I read these words, “Father, they are your gift to me, and my desire is that they may be with me where I am”. When I read these words tears were running down my cheeks and I was so happy to know that Jesus was praying for me, He doesn’t want me to be here on this stinky earth, He wants me to be where He is, and that was my encouragement and hope and strength, that I know that Jesus loves me.

LONNIE: Amen!

CONNIE: Amen! We want to thank Pastor Kulakov for that marvelous testimony of God’s care through the storms of persecution.

LONNIE: And our own Walter Arties, for his testimony in song. Today as we focus on the message of the book of 1 Peter, we’re considering how Christians can face the world and stand up proudly and proclaim their faith, in spite of the trouble it may bring upon them. History is replete with stories of men and women, who have done this, and today we have a special offer—a free gift for you, our listeners.

CONNIE: It’s a book called Still Standing True, and it comes from our sister ministry, it Is Written. If you’d like to hear more stories about heroes of the faith, this little book is just the thing for you.

LONNIE: To receive your free copy of Still Standing True, just give us a call at our toll-free number today.

CONNIE: That number is 1-800-872-0055, and remember, the book is our gift to you. So give us a call today at 1-800-872-0055.

LONNE: I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading the stories of God’s champions of faith.

CONNIE: Right now, though, let’s listen as Lonnie shares his message, “1 Peter—Standing Through the Storm.”

1 Peter—Standing Through the Storm

There is perhaps no instinct that is more natural to the human spirit than the desire to get even.

We want to see justice done when we have been wronged.

It’s a favorite theme of Hollywood: The underdog finally gets fed up and says “I’m just not going to take it anymore,” or to quote Popeye the Sailor Man, “I’ve had all I can stands, I can’t stands no more!” And you know, when Popeye says that, old Bluto better watch out, because the can of spinach is about to come out, the gloves are about to come off, and whoever gets in Popeye’s way is going to see stars.

We love to root for the underdog. Whether it’s John Q, Harry Potter, or Frodoe Baggins, we want to see the little guy who’s fighting against overwhelming odds triumph.

And we like to think of ourselves as the ones who are fighting for justice. The things we do are right—justified—because of what someone else did to us. The old “Mo – o – o – m he hit me first!” routine.

That’s just human nature.

But the first epistle of Peter calls us up short. Challenges our natural instincts. Questions whether we should be fighting so hard against our opponents. And invites us to be part of a different group of people. A new group. “God’s own people,” “A chosen race, a royal priesthood” (2:9, NRSV). A group that lives differently, thinks differently, reacts differently.

We might call this new group we’re invited to be a part of God’s special forces unit. Because they’ve been chosen to take on some heavy challenges, in the face of strong opposition and heavy enemy fire.

The recruiting poster for this particular group has a lot to say about the trials and suffering they’ll face. It’s a topic that comes up 13 times in the five short chapters of 1 Peter.

I’ll never forget the program we did a year or so ago, called “How to Get Rid of Your Enemies.” We interviewed a fascinating man for that program, named Jacob DeShazer. Maybe you remember—he was one of Doolittle’s Raiders—the men who flew their B-25 bombers over Japan in early 1942, to wreak a little vengeance on the nation that had struck America so hard at Pearl Harbor.

Jacob told us the story of his being chosen to be a part of that band of highly-trained airmen, who would go on that top-secret raid. He said that the men who had been chosen were all called to a meeting. They were told that they had been selected for a special, very dangerous mission, and that some of them probably wouldn’t come back alive.

“I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that,” he said.

Well—how many of us would be sure we wanted to put ourselves in harm’s way?

Jacob volunteered anyway. It seemed like a good way to start to even up the score with Japan.

His courage nearly cost him his life. After his bomber crashed in China, he was captured by enemy troops and spent several years in a prisoner of war camp where he nearly starved to death.

But it was there in that prisoner-of-war camp that Jacob joined up with the special forces unit we read about in 1 Peter—a group who would use a very unconventional type of warfare to overcome their enemies.

They would follow in the footsteps of their Master. Peter reminds us that “when [Jesus] was reviled, [he] reviled not again; when he suffered [he] threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously” (2:23, ASV).

After many months in solitary confinement—time he spent plotting how he would get revenge on his captors—Jacob DeShazer encountered Jesus.

He read about Jesus on the cross, praying “Father, forgive them, for they know now what they do.” And slowly, bit by bit, he began to let go of the hatred, the thirst for vengeance, that had been eating away at his soul. By the time the war was over, he knew what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.

He came home to America, and as soon as he was strong enough, he enrolled in Bible college. Then he returned to Japan and spent the next 30 years sharing the gospel—the good news of God’s forgiveness—with the very people he had wanted to get even with.

Jacob had volunteered for a job that led to terrible suffering on his part.

How many of us would do that?

If the epistle of 1 Peter was the only Christian document you ever read—would you want to be a Christian? Consider some of these passages:

“Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy” (4:12-13, NKJV).

“When you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God” (2:20, NKJV).

“But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed” (3:14, NKJV).

“For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil” (3:17, NKJV).

“Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,” (4:1, NKJV).

“But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you” (5:10, NKJV).

Why such a focus on suffering? In a letter to Christians?

Can you picture an evangelist today, standing up in front of the television cameras on TBN, or any other network, and inviting people to join the suffering church? We hear a lot more today about prosperity, and how God wants to bless us. I have to confess that when I hold an evangelistic series, suffering is not one of the things we talk a lot about—except to explain why God has allowed sin and sickness and disasters to continue on earth. We don’t try to win people to Christ by telling them that becoming a Christian will lead them into difficulties and trials. We like to talk more about God’s blessings.

And don’t get me wrong, God does want to bless us. But in Peter’s day the picture for those who wanted to become Christians was anything but rosy. Signing up to be a Christian was about like volunteering to join Doolittle’s raiders.

First Peter was apparently written from Rome—a place that was already code-named “Babylon” by Christians because of its opposition to their religion. It was probably written about A. D. 66 or 67. That would be just a year or two before Peter was imprisoned and martyred.

And it would be about 2 years after the great conflagration when much of the city of Rome went up in flames. After that horrific disaster, Christians were rounded up by the thousands and fed to the lions, or burned as torches in Emperor Nero’s gardens.

When Peter wrote about “fiery trials” coming upon Christians, it wasn’t just metaphor.

When he warned his readers that “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (5:8), he knew that among his readers there would be widows and orphans who had lost loved ones to real lions and tigers in the arena.

The imagery would still have the power to bring up the raw hurt in their hearts.

But still, he wanted to encourage them to stand by their faith in Jesus. They would need a faith that could not be shaken. A faith founded on the example and ministry of Jesus Himself.

They would need good, caring leadership, to see them through the troubled times ahead. One of the best-known passages in this letter is found in chapter 5, where Peter exhorts the elders of the church to tend the flock of God as good shepherds, leading by example, not compulsion. This is what Jesus, the Master Shepherd, had taught him in one of their last visits before Jesus ascended to heaven. Remember the story in John 21, where Jesus kept reminding Peter: “Feed my sheep, tend my flock, feed my lambs.”

Peter also addresses himself to various groups in the church—urging them to be humble and submissive. Slaves should not complain against their masters, even if they are treated unjustly. If they were punished even after doing the best they could—well, they should remember that Jesus also suffered for righteousness, and they should consider it an honor to join Him in His suffering.

In Peter’s day, Christians were being accused of all sorts of heinous deeds, so it was essential that they take care to live honorable lives in their communities—so that if they ran afoul of the law (something that could happen just because of their faith), there would be no valid grounds for accusation. And if they suffered, it would be for doing good, not for doing wrong.

All of this is part and parcel of our walk with Jesus, Peter reminds us. As Jesus suffered without fighting back, it is our privilege as Christians to join Him in suffering for righteousness.

Peter does not lay out a simple, easy road for us as Christians. Looking from his vantage point in Rome, he sees many bumps in the road ahead. Because the devil doesn’t want the way to be easy for us.

He didn’t make it easy for Jesus, either. But the time of trouble won’t go on for ever. Peter ends his epistle on a positive note, reminding us that “after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you” (5:10, NRSV).

This is the hope on which Peter’s gaze is fixed. This is the hope that carried him forward in his mission and gave him the courage to stand for Jesus—even when it meant giving up this earthly life. For he considered himself a mere exile, far from home, as long as he walked this earth.

Friend, how is it for you today? Is your Christian walk, a glorious trip on well-paved roads from one bright sunrise to the next? Or have you hit some bumps along the way? Do you sometimes find yourself wandering in the darkness, wondering whether you’ve missed the road? Wondering whether Jesus is still traveling with you?

If so, take heart. The Lord has not abandoned you. He never will abandon you. Stay strong in your faith and you’ll be able to join Peter, whose faith never failed. Who stood strong, even in the storms of life? And whose life still, today, testifies to us and encourages us in our own walk with God.