It is known simply as “The Play.”  The greatest college football game of all time.  1982.  California vs. Stanford.  With 53 seconds left in the game, Stanford was down 17-19, all the way on their own end of the field.  It was 4th down and 17 yards to go.  Game should be over.  But amazingly, Stanford’s QB, John Elway, rifles a pass for the first down!  Four plays later, Stanford marches down the field to California’s 18 yard line.  With 8 seconds to go, they line up for a field goal.  The kick is good!  The crowd goes crazy!  Stanford wins 20-19!

Or do they?  4 seconds remained on the clock.  So Stanford still had to kick off again, a mere formality now, and their fans were crashing onto the field and the band was already marching onto the field for victory celebration.  But this is where the game became The Game…

Stanford kicked off and California fielded the ball at their 39 yard line.  As the last second ticked off the clock, the Cal returner started running up the field.  He was grabbed and started to go down.  At the last moment, before he hit the ground, he managed to pitch the ball to a second runner, who ran downfield until he hit a brick wall of Stanford linebackers.  Once again, just before he hit the ground at the 10 yard line, he pitched the ball to a teammate who carried the football through a field flooded with Stanford fans already celebrating the victory that was not to be.  As the Cal runner crossed the goal line, even knocking over a trombone player, the crowd dissolved into hysteria.  California won the game, 25-20, on an unbelievable play!

After scoring with 8 seconds left, Stanford had thought: “This one’s in the books.”  And if history were a football game, that is what the Devil had thought, too.  After all, he has been scoring a lot of “touchdowns,” hasn’t he?  The Devil scored a flurry of TDs when genocide began in Rwanda and a million Tutsis were slaughtered by their Hutu brothers.  The Devil scored big on September 11.  He is racking up points in persecutions.  The Devil is dancing in the end zone not only in Baghdad and Jerusalem, but also in the hate-filled gang-patrolled streets of New York, Chicago, Detroit, and in the crime and godlessness in Montreal, Toronto, and Mississauga.

But in the first century, it looked even bleaker for God’s team. It looked like the Devil had the victory in the bag.  Peter wrote this letter to Christians who were truly being persecuted.  When Peter talked about the Devil as a “roaring lion,” a lion on the prowl looking for someone to devour, he wasn’t just using picturesque language.  These Christians were being thrown to the lions, literally!  They knew all too well what it meant to be “devoured!”

What would ever get them through all of that??  One thing.  Even though it looked like the game was over for them and there was less than 4 seconds left, they had reason to believe they would win in the end.  That they were, in fact, on the winning team, because they were on God’s team!  That Christ has won the victory! That This One’s In the Books!  For them!  For us!

Friends, knowing and trusting this will help us endure to the end.  It will give us reason to NEVER give up, no matter what!  To trust in and follow God to the very end!  Knowing that we are on the winning team will help shape our Christian Attitude Toward Suffering.  Because even though this one is “in the books,” it doesn’t always look like God is winning.  Or we.

“Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.”  What painful trials do you and I suffer?  Is it that you are shunned at work or school for what you believe?   Maybe the people on your street don’t invite you to their parties?  Or maybe you are dealing with some serious spiritual problems in your family.  Or health problems.  Or financial problems.  Or relationship struggles.  Or horrible temptations.  Don’t be surprised!  Please don’t be misled into thinking that the Christian life is where everything comes easily and life goes swell all the time.  As followers of Christ, we will go through some painful trials – fiery ordeals – that purify us, refine us, and make us stronger!  Don’t be shocked by this.  It isn’t new!  Jesus went through it and we follow Him!

“But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.”  Friends, being a fan of a team only when they are winning can only bring so much joy.  But when you follow a team through their hard times and losing seasons, it becomes particularly sweet when they start winning!  If you and I share in the sufferings of Christ, if we are given trouble because we follow Him, it proves we are on his team!  And if we are on his team, we’re really going to be overjoyed when his triumph is made clear!  If we cheer and rejoice through our sufferings now, can you imagine how we will pour out of the stands on the last day?  Complaining about our trials now will only ruin it for later.  We can rejoice in our sufferings because it is proof we are on the right team, and the final victory will be sweet!

Now friends, let’s make this clear.  We aren’t talking about the suffering you go through because of the bad decisions you make.  Or the sinful choices.  If you are suffering with a hangover because you abused one of God’s gifts the night before, that isn’t a painful trial you are receiving from being a follower of God!  If you have found yourself with an unwanted pregnancy outside of marriage because you did not make a God-pleasing decision, that isn’t suffering you are undergoing for the sake of Christ.  If you are in financial trouble because of bad spending habits and materialistic greed, that isn’t persecution because of Jesus.  Those are sinful decisions with consequences for which you need to go to God and ask forgiveness!

But today, we are talking about the trials that you experience because you are a Christian!  Persecution for your beliefs.  The burden of sacrificing for and loving others – putting their needs before yours.  The cost of giving your life to God and putting Him first.  The reality that you are going to stick it out in your marriage, no matter how hard, because you made a promise, and you know that’s what God wants you to do.  The challenge of loving that friend, no matter how difficult they make it, because you love others as Jesus does.  If living this way causes you suffering, don’t be ashamed!  Praise God for giving you the honour of honouring Him!

“For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”  Friends, if God chastises us with trials and tests on earth, his chosen people who trust in Him, what will it be like for those who reject his Word in the end?  Let’s not get into this pattern of complaining and whining that we have it so bad and unbelievers have it so good… because let me ask you this:  Would you want the roles reversed?  In that football game, what if all the Cal fans envied the Stanford fans after they kicked a field goal in the last 8 seconds and switched over to being Stanford fans?  They would have missed out on the greatest victory!  Friends, do we have any reason to be jealous of those who don’t have what we have in our Saviour Jesus?

The second thing that knowing victory is “in the books” for us does is this:  It gives us Christian Steadfastness in the face of the Devil’s Assaults.  “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.”  Friends, pride doesn’t help when things get difficult.  We want to fix things ourselves.  We don’t want to listen to what God is doing for us with the hardship.  But humble Christians will willingly submit that God knows best.  God wants us to trust entirely in Him and his strength and not in our own.  In his love, God will lift us out of our troubles!  That’s a promise!  “Whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (Mt.23:12).  God will give us what we need to handle whatever cross is placed on us.  And one day, He will exalt us in heaven, where we will taste his glory forever!  That one is in the books!

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”  We have plenty of cause for anxiety!  Anxiety is the number one illness in Canada today.  We stress ourselves out with life.  How much time do you spend worrying, friends?  About your job, your family, your relationships, your health, your money?  Why worry when you can PRAY?  Every worry we have, every concern, every anxiety, can be cast on God, heaped on his shoulders!  Go to Him in prayer!  Give Him your troubles!  Ask Him for help!  Stop trying to handle it yourself, humble yourself, and give your problems to God.  That’s how we can make it to the end.

But that doesn’t mean kicking back and going to sleep, does it?  “Be self-controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”  Don’t forget who wrote these words!  Peter!  Jesus had just told him: “Watch and pray, so that you don’t fall into temptation,” and moments later he denied Jesus 3 times.  Peter knew the power of the Devil’s temptations.  And so do you, don’t you?  The Devil, just like a lion, uses all forms of evil and distraction to reduce us to weak and helpless prey.  Constantly! Our confidence in God can’t lead to slackness!  Spiritual warfare demands vigilance!  Our mind must be alert and clear, not clouded with the cares of this world, so that Satan doesn’t catch us off guard!

“Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”  Christians, it is time to play defense!  Faith which clings to Christ and to his Word can defeat Satan!  It keeps us on the team that will win in the end!  And know this – you and I are not alone in this!  We have each other – we are ALL going through it.  It is time for teamwork!  Strength from Christ and encouragement from each other!

“And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.  To him be the power for ever and ever.  Amen.”  Friends, we can have the confidence that: This One’s In the Books!  The final victory is in the books and it goes to our God! The final, ultimate power is His!  And being on His team gives us something solid to hang on to!  God is a God of grace.  Undeserved love.  He fixed our Problem through Jesus.  He will deliver us from suffering.  He has forgiven our failures.  And there are no conditions attached to these promises!  It’s a gift!  We only suffer for “a little while” compared to the eternity of comfort we look forward to!

One spring morning, the Monday after Easter, a man was walking past the cathedral.  As everyone was rushing past, he paused for a moment and noticed the old flower lady, who sat there every morning with corsages and boutonnieres on top of a newspaper at her feet.  The flower lady was smiling, her wrinkled old face alive with some inner joy.  Instead of walking by like he usually did, on impulse, the man stopped and bought a flower.  As he put it on his lapel, he said, “You look happy.”  “Why not?” she answered.  “Everything is good.”

She was dressed so shabbily and seemed so very old that her reply was surprising.  “You’ve been sitting here for many years now, haven’t you?  And always smiling.  You wear your troubles well.”  He said.  “You can’t reach my age and not have troubles,” she replied.  “Only, it’s like Jesus and Good Friday.”  “What do you mean?” he asked.  “Well, when Jesus was crucified on Good Friday, that was the worst day for the whole world.  When I get troubles, I remember that, and then I think of what happened only three days later: Easter!  Our Lord rose from the dead!  So when things go wrong, I’ve learned to wait three days and somehow, everything gets much better!”  She smiled goodbye, but her words stuck with that man.  Whenever he thinks he has troubles, he remembers: “Give God a chance to help.  Wait 3 days.”

Friends, we conclude our Easter celebration today.  Easter means Jesus won the victory over sin, death, and the Devil for you!  Because of Easter, This One’s In the Books!  We know who is going to win, even though it seems, at this stage of the game, to be impossible!  But fear not!  Victory will be ours!  How can we be sure?  Because This One’s in the BOOK.   Amen.