ResponsiveReiding

1 Peter Part 8

1 Peter 2:13-17

Jeremiah 29:1-9

THE AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE

We’ve spent all our time in this letter thus far, reckoning with the Believer’s true identity in Christ.

[[ SLIDE ]]  An identity summed up in v9 as: A CHOSEN RACE; A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD; A PEOPLE FOR HIS OWN POSSESSION.

Now what is that supposed to look like in the real world?

Here, we move from the theoretical and doctrinal, to the practical.

[[ 4 SLIDES]]  OUTLINE

1 – 13-14 / WHAT TO DO – The Directive: Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.

The connection between this exhortation and what came immediately before seems clear: the one who will not submit to earthly authorities, will not submit to God’s either.

Submission to earthly authorities is the boot camp to serving God.

Practice here serves us well for the other, and failure here indicates unwillingness in the other.

These are not disconnected issues but very closely tied, indeed intertwined.

Do not imagine yourself a devoted follower of Christ if you are constantly chafing against earthly restraint – for the Heavenly is more encompassing.

[[SLIDE]]  Note that Peter’s concern here is in our interaction with pagan governments.

Whatever that might look like, it must be governed first and foremost by regard to Christ’s Lordship and program in the earth – for His sake.

The idea is that we do not interact for our OWN sake as the primary motivation, but what will be most useful in the displaying of Christ’s Lordship in this place and under these circumstances. What will put Him in the best light and accomplish His will?

That Christ has an agenda, and that that agenda must inform our responses to oppressive and pagan rulers.

We can’t help but see here in Peter’s instruction, is that the argument that Christians need only submit to the government IF the government is performing up to Biblical standards and fulfilling its God appointed functions and purposes – doesn’t hold water.

This specific government he is referring to here was a pagan government.

This was a Godless government.

This was a government that endorsed abortion and infanticide.

This was a government that endorsed, practiced and regulated widespread slavery. Nearly 40% of the population.

This was the Emperor who removed them from their homes, and exiled them to this place.

[[SLIDE]]  This is Emperor, Claudius in the best case, Nero in the worst – but let’s take Claudius –

Was married 4 times.

Had his 3^rd wife and her lover executed.

In his 13 year reign had 35 Senators executed and over 300 knights. Knights where a privileged class, originally from the army but who stood as an intermediary group between the ordinary citizens and the senatorial class.

He was well known for ignoring the laws in court rulings merely on personal whims.

And what was widely known and would have opened him up for ridicule is the fact that his own family thought he was defective and useless.

One relative called him a monster.

His childhood illness left him disfigured.

He was “clumsy and coarse.”

Tales of him falling asleep after dinner, and being pelted with food to wake him up were common.

It was even said they put shoes on his hands while asleep so that when he woke he would rub his eyes with them.

He was a joke to his family and everyone else.

He had an undiagnosed malady with head tremors. When he got excited his nose ran profusely and he even foamed at the mouth.

He also had an extreme blood-thirst, addicted to the gladiatorial games in the arenas.

Claudius and his government cared nothing for the religious rights of Christians as a sect of Judaism.

And he ran a government that cared nothing for whether or not these people were discriminated against due to their ethnic origin (Jews?) or their religion.

[[SLIDE]]  And Peter, through the Holy Spirit says: “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.”

For the Lord’s sake. So that His will and agenda is accomplished.

[[SLIDE]]  We are NOT at war with our government – but with sin.

[[SLIDE]]  2 – 15 / WHY DO IT THIS WAY? – The Rationale:    “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.”

[[SLIDE]]  The idea here is that the Christian lives a supernatural life in the midst of a fallen natural world.

We don’t base our actions on theirs – but upon Christ’s commands, at whose pleasure we serve as a Royal Priesthood.

Doing good in this context is specifically connected to our obedience to secular authorities.

This is a UNIQUELY Christian attitude, meant to display our trust in higher glories in Christ as Lord.

And so we are not afraid of earthly authorities, nor at war with them.

I fear that in our day, this idea is almost entirely lost in the Church.

[[SLIDE]]  Because our responses are to be EVANGELISTIC.

God desires to have us address these circumstances with His eternal plan in view, above our immediate concerns.

He draws into His grand scheme, rather than letting us founder on the small stuff.

In the capacity of your Priesthood, you have a vastly different responsibility toward God’s purposes in your circumstances.

Note how silencing the ignorance of this foolish people (specifically corrupt governmental agents) is done:

Not through demonstrations.

Not through legislation.

Not through protests.

Not through lawsuits.

Not through shouting the others down.

Not through vilification of the opposition.

Not through cowering in fear.

Not through fleshly human responses.

But, through DOING GOOD – as one of the core honors of our Priesthood we discussed last week. Remember Hebrews 13:16 “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”

[[SLIDE]]  “Epistle to Diognetus” in the early part of the second century. “The Christians,” he says, “are not distinguished from other men by country, by language, nor by civil institutions. For they neither dwell in cities by themselves, nor use a peculiar tongue, nor lead a singular mode of life. They dwell in the Grecian or barbarian cities, as the case may be; they follow the usage of the country in dress, food, and the other affairs of life. Yet they present a wonderful and confessedly paradoxical conduct. They dwell in their own native lands, but as strangers. They take part in all things as citizens; and they suffer all things, as foreigners. Every foreign country is a fatherland to them, and every native land is a foreign. They marry, like all others; they have children; but they do not cast away their offspring. They have the table in common, but not wives. They are in the flesh, but do not live after the flesh. They live upon the earth, but are citizens of heaven. They obey the existing laws, and excel the laws by their lives. They love all, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown, and yet they are condemned. They are killed and are made alive. They are poor and make many rich. They lack all things, and in all things abound. They are reproached, and glory in their reproaches. They are calumniated, and are justified. They are cursed, and they bless. They receive scorn, and they give honor. They do good, and are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice, as being made alive. By the Jews they are attacked as aliens, and by the Greeks persecuted; and the cause of the enmity their enemies cannot tell…This lot God has assigned to the Christians in the world; and it cannot be taken from them.”^[1]

[[SLIDE]]  When is it a sacrifice to “do good”? When you are doing good to those who are NOT doing you good – perhaps doing positive harm!

 

[[SLIDE]]  3 – 16 / WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR – The Warning: “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.”

The freedom referred to here seems to be the freedom from earthly authorities versus Heavenly.

Our service is to FIRST of all Christ, not to men.

We are citizens of Christ’s Kingdom.

We are called to submit to them, but not fear them like we do God Himself.

Yet we are not to construe that as license to ignore human authority – nor as license to rebel against or overthrow human authority.

It is freedom to serve Christ above all, but that, in righteousness.

It is interesting to note that Israel as God’s people was in captivity 2 major times: 1^st in Egypt and 2^nd in Babylon.

AT NO TIME WERE THEY GIVEN PERMISSION TO REBEL AGASINT THEIR CAPTORS.

[[SLIDE]]  The early Christians were subject to a power which required them to do that which was forbidden by their religion. To that extent and within those limits they could not and did not obey it; but they never encouraged in any way resistance or rebellion.… He only disobeyed when it was necessary to do so for conscience sake. The point of importance is the detachment of the two spheres of activity. The Church and the State are looked upon as different bodies, each with a different work to perform. To designate this or that form of government as ‘Christian,’ and support it on these grounds, would have been quite alien to the whole spirit of those days. The Church must influence the world by its hold on the hearts and consciences of individuals.… [William Sanday and Arthur C. Headlam, The Epistle to The Romans (New York: Scribner’s, 1895), p. 372]^[2]

Daniel was not to rebel.

Joseph was not to rebel.

Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael were not to rebel.

[[SLIDE]]  Civil disobedience under specific circumstances? Yes.

[[SLIDE]]  When commanded to do anything God’s Word forbids,

Or,

[[SLIDE]]  When forbidden to do anything God’s Word commands.

But that does not then carry over into wholesale rebellion.

Only in those circumstances and with a willingness to endure the consequences.

Again – Free in what way?

We’re free from the constraints the Culture would try to impose upon us.

Live as those who resist being compelled to do that which is against holiness – the pressure to be “politically correct”.

But in that freedom – don’t use it as a cover up for venting your spleen in “righteous indignation.”

It is so easy to justify anger, vilification and outward contempt on lost people and their thought process.

But deal with them in patience and righteousness and not in justifying your inward compulsion to shout them down or dominate over them.

Live as servants of God as opposed to:

1. Servants of the present culture and worldview, and
2. Servants of our own unrighteous responses to that culture.

The Jeremiah portion we had read needs to come in here.

Note how God directs the actions and attitudes of the Jews while under the severe captivity of the Babylonians.

[[SLIDE]]  Jeremiah 29:4–9 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:

1. ⁵ Build houses and live in them;
2. plant gardens and eat their produce.
3. ⁶ Take wives and have sons and daughters;
4. take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.
5. ⁷ But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

 

[[SLIDE]]  Extremes on all ends must be avoided:

1. Secluding and detaching ourselves, so that we have no one outside of our own community to do good to!
2. Thinking that since we are citizens of another country, we do not have to submit to the governmental authorities.
3. Caving to the culture and losing our identity in Christ.
4. Forgetting our first freedom is from sin – not to justify sinful responses to sinful treatment.

 

[[SLIDE]]  4 – 17 / THE WRAP-UP – The Summary: “Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.”

What does that look like?

[[SLIDE]]  Honoring EVERYONE. Each in their own station. 3 Examples:

1. Loving the BELIEVERS. (Especially in example and faithfulness)
2. Fearing GOD. Not caving to the World or the Flesh.
3. Honor the EMPEROR – the very one who is responsible for putting you through this trial.

This, as opposed to vigilantism.

We all yearn for justice.

And we have an interesting affinity for movies and such where someone wronged may go outside the bounds of what is legal and ethical in order to bring about the justice they may have been deprived of.

And the stronger our sense of justice, the more inclined we are to cheer such exploits.

But a sinful response to sin is never justified – no matter how grievously we may have suffered injustice at the hands of others.

It is a hard thing to trust God with injustice. But a necessary one.

Every single human being is made in the image of God. They must all be treated as such.

Above mere honor, those in the Church must be LOVED, and thus encouraged and supported and reminded of their station, identity, provision in the Spirit and ministry to the World as Priests.

God alone is to be feared. Period.

But honor is due, even to that rascal who subjected them to such difficulty. He too, is one made in the image of God.

The bottom line to it all is this: To live a supernatural lifestyle, in submission to His appointed arrangement, unperturbed, in carrying out Christ’s agenda and not our own. Fearless but respectful.

To present a stark contrast to all human and fallen reasoning.

To be otherworldly – here and now, for Christ’s sake.

Ultimately – to live as He lived in His incarnation.

This is what He did in saving us. This is what we do in extending that salvation to the rest of this fallen world.

That all might come to know Him savingly too.

[[SLIDE]]   OUTLINE.

^[1] Schaff, Philip & David Schley Schaff. 1910. History of the Christian church. . Vol. 2. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.

^[2] Ryrie, Charles Caldwell. 1982. The Christian and social responsibility. (Current Christian Issues). Chicago, IL: Moody Press.

1 Peter Part 7

The Honor of the Believer’s Priesthood

1 Peter 2:1-12  /  Isaiah 61:1-7

 

THE AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE HEARD HERE

Last week, we spent our time in this same passage, and we saw how Believers are not to be thrown by being prized by God while at the very same time being rejected by the culture.

This idea was presented in terms of Jesus being God’s “Cornerstone” the foundation of all God is doing.

Then Peter notes that Believers share in that experience.

And uses this phrase: “So the honor is for you who believe.”

He is saying that the outward negative experience, is actually an HONOR when understood in the context of sharing in Christ’s experience.

And then he goes to fill that out in describing the sum of the Believer’s 3-fold identity:

We are: Members of a new race.

Part of a royal PRIESTHOOD,

And Citizens of a new Kingdom.

This idea of the Priesthood of the Believer. What exactly might that mean?

That’s what we want to explore a bit this morning.

First, by taking a look at God’s appointed priesthood in the OT, and then seeing how that might apply to the Believer in the NC.

Ordinarily, when people think of Priests, they think of vocational clergy.

Some Protestant denominations like Anglican or Episcopalian for instance, call their clergy “priests.”

Certainly that is the case with Roman Catholicism and many other religions as well.

For us it comes as a surprise that Peter would use that term in talking about ordinary believers.

Yet that is the term Peter uses.

To Peter’s Jewish readers, this would evoke images from their own heritage, where within the greater Israelite nation, God chose one tribe out of the 12 to serve Him as Priests – The Levites.

In Ex. 28, we see the appointment of Aaron, who was of the Tribe of Levi, and his sons, set apart by God to serve Him as “priests”.

However, nothing is said about the entire Tribe of Levi until the incident with the Golden Calf at Sinai. There, in Ex. 32, when Moses is restoring order to the people after their wild abandon into idolatry,

the text reads: “Exodus 32:26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him.

Later, when God is giving instructions on organizing the nation – something He has not done with any other nation on the earth – we read: Numbers 1:1–4 The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness…² “Take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel, by clans, by fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, every male, head by head. ³ From twenty years old and upward, all in Israel who are able to go to war, you and Aaron shall list them, company by company. ⁴ And there shall be with you a man from each tribe, each man being the head of the house of his fathers.

Numbers 1:47–51 But the Levites were not listed along with them by their ancestral tribe. ⁴⁸ For the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ⁴⁹ “Only the tribe of Levi you shall not list, and you shall not take a census of them among the people of Israel. ⁵⁰ But appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony, and over all its furnishings, and over all that belongs to it. They are to carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings, and they shall take care of it and shall camp around the tabernacle. ⁵¹ When the tabernacle is to set out, the Levites shall take it down, and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up. And if any outsider comes near, he shall be put to death.

1. So they became the guardians of God’s proscribed worship and the articles that made Him known as the God He is. The Temple, its furniture and implements and rites and rituals.
2. Along with this guardianship came the privilege of entering into God’s presence, and especially of offering up prayer on behalf of the nation.

No one else was allowed to enter the Tabernacle in the Holy Place, where God manifested His presence behind a veil, over the Mercy Seat or cover of the Ark of the Covenant.

But twice a day, a Priest and only a Priest was to go to the altar of incense that sat right in front of the veil – and offer up incense as a picture of prayer going into God’s presence.

We get a glimpse of this in Zechariah – John The Baptist’s father when he served as a priest for a time. Luke 1:

3. Deuteronomy 33:10 tells us that the Priests were responsible for teaching the people the precepts and promises of God. To make His Word known to them accurately so that as a people they might serve God well.

Along with this function, the Priests were entrusted with the Urim and Thummim, two stones which were part of the High Priest’s special garb, whereby they might inquire of God concerning His will in matters of national importance in specific situations. Just how this worked is a mystery lost to us, and in fact the Urim and Thummim were lost to Israel in the Babylonian captivity – never to be seen again.

[[SLIDE]]  4. Lastly, the Priests were to officiate at the sacrifices which God appointed as central to Israel’s worship.

These are the 4 key areas God’s appointed priests in Israel were to set in place to perpetuate and administrate as God’s ordained priesthood.

And as I said, it would be the most natural connection for Peter’s first readers to have these ideas in mind when reading the portion we have before us today.

Additionally, and a point Peter’s readers could not have missed in this context, is how God also ordained that the Priesthood would have no physical or earthly inheritance like the rest of the Jewish nation.

Numbers 18:21–24 “To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service that they do, their service in the tent of meeting, ²² so that the people of Israel do not come near the tent of meeting, lest they bear sin and die. ²³ But the Levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations, and among the people of Israel they shall have no inheritance. ²⁴ For the tithe of the people of Israel, which they present as a contribution to the Lord, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance. Therefore I have said of them that they shall have no inheritance among the people of Israel.”

This would have rung in their ears as they are now a dispossessed and transplanted people. Truly without any national or physical inheritance. And as Priests – if indeed ALL of God’s children are priests, would mean these circumstances are in fact to be expected!

God’s people are not to look at this life and its blessings, as our inheritance. We have something much greater before us.

They would also see that while God ordained a priesthood in Israel – that special class had undergone a tremendous transformation now that Christ as the Great and final High Priest had come.

For God had in fact prophesied to them that one day His entire PEOPLE would be a priesthood.

And this is exactly what Peter is saying has finally come to pass.

Ex. 19:6; Isa. 61:1-7

Not only does Peter pick up on this idea, but the writer to the Hebrews does in Heb. 13:15, and the Apostle John appeals to it no less than 3 times.

Rev. 1:6; 5:9-10; 20:6

Now that the Messiah has come, and fulfilled all the types and shadows of the Mosaic era, it is the Believing people called Christians who are this new nation of priests unto God.

And what of it?

This is Peter’s point for his readers: This idea of being a PRIESTHOOD is central to a lifestyle that refuses to be driven by the passions of the flesh – for the passions of the flesh war against the soul – and make it impossible to carry out our priesthood!

So we have but 2 things to look at this morning:

1. What does the Believer’s Priesthood look like?
2. What do the passions of the flesh have to do with it?

 

1. What does the Believer’s Priesthood look like?

Taking the 4 general areas we saw above with the Levitical Priesthood, it isn’t hard to draw a line to what that might look like to us, especially when Peter Himself makes one of the chief connections for us.

1. As with the Jewish Priesthood, NC Believers are to be those who administrate the sacrifices of God.

And since the blood sacrifices have all been concluded in Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross –what is left to us?

Romans 12:1  /  Heb. 13:13-16

1. Our bodies – our actions to further His kingdom.
2. Our praises and thanksgivings. 1 Peter 2:5
3. Doing good. Heb. 13.
4. Sharing what we have – especially spiritual riches. Heb. 13

 

2. Instruction. To know God’s will and Word ourselves, and to make it known to others. This is a primary ministry of the Church.

2 Tim. 3:14-16

As Priests, all of us are to study it.

Some of us are gifted to teach it or preach it publicly.

All of us are to provide the means whereby it is proclaimed publicly – supporting the platforms for it.

Local Churches, missions, publishing, evangelism efforts, etc.

 

3. To be guardians of the Church of God and to preserve the true worship of God in our generation.

Guardians of what the Church is, and who is part and who is not.

1 Cor. 3:9; 3:16.

This is why at least in part, we hold to a concept of Church membership even in the local assembly. For every Christian in his or her priestly duty is to labor to preserve the identity of the Church as God’s called out people and to identify with them as such. Join themselves to them and identify as one of them.

This applies to Baptism as a public profession, and to church membership in being joined with other Christians to further the Gospel, display the Kingdom, grow in grace and preserve the public and Biblical worship of God in society.

Some do not think that Church membership per se is COMMANDED, but it most certainly is implied when we see how God structures His church, and calls us to that one racial identity, one citizenship and then the one singular priesthood. Taking responsibility for sustaining and building up the representation of God’s Church wherever it is found.

To be part of a gathering of God’s Priesthood to learn together, labor together in the Gospel, build one another up in grace and pray for each another. It is why intentional relationships in Christ are so important. Is anyone close enough to you to be really involved in your spiritual growth? This is part of the priestly privilege.

EZRA 4:1-3 – Not everybody who says they belong – do!

4. Prayer. Much of the NT, beginning with Jesus introducing the Disciples to a new way of prayer in the Gospels, to:

Hebrews 4:16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 10:19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,

So Peter’s thought is this: Believer’s have this high and holy honor to serve God as His ordained Priesthood – a Priesthood which gets to exercise its unique privileges in –

Knowing and proclaiming God’s Word to the World

Offering up sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving and service to the King

Building and protecting His Church, His Body, His people in all places and in every generation as a people set apart for God

And the extraordinary ministry of prayer.

And in this – NO priest is without opportunity. You may be precluded from every other priestly task, but all of us can pray.

It is not a millstone, but an unworldly honor bestowed upon the Priests of the Living God.

 

1. What do the passions of the flesh have to do with it?

The warning then in this passage – if we take it as a whole is this – back in vs. 1 we were told: 1 Peter 2:1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.

Because we cannot, we CANNOT fulfill the role of priests in the areas mentioned, while at the same time being filled with malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander.

They are antithetical to one another.

Matthew Henry writes:  The grand mischief that sin does to man is this, it wars against the soul; it destroys the moral liberty of the soul; it weakens and debilitates the soul by impairing its faculties; it robs the soul of its comfort and peace; it debases and destroys the dignity of the soul, hinders its present prosperity, and plunges it into everlasting misery. Of all sorts of sin, none are more injurious to the soul than fleshly lusts. Carnal appetites, lewdness, and sensuality, are most odious to God, and destructive to man’s soul. It is a sore judgment to be given up to them.^[1]

In addition, when one is fostering sin in their lives, secret or otherwise, they dull their own ability to hear and know God’s will and Word. You won’t pray, especially for others, because guilt will either keep you away from prayer, or dominate your prayers. Sin wages a continuing battle against a heart and mind set on holy things.

In closing he says to keep our behavior honorable – commensurate with the honor of our Priesthood among the heathen – so that in the day when Christ reveals all – He may be glorified in what we’ve done.

It may never be recognized by any now – but one day it will.

1 Peter 2:9 Overall – that grand point is this: Believer – you have been ordained into God’s Priesthood in this present world.

It is a high and holy privilege.

And as we assume the role that is assigned us in offering up such spiritual sacrifices; establishing, building up and protecting God’s Church in the world; Absorbing and proclaiming God’s truth in the world; and engaged in prayer – entering freely into the very throne room of God to plead for one another – then let us throw off anything and everything that might hinder us in these pursuits.

Let’s get rid of everything that doesn’t fit with our role as God’s ordained priests.

Let us serve Him in the joy and knowledge of our privileges.

Oh what extraordinary privileges belong to those who are God’s own Children in Christ Jesus!

Peter is not laying some burden on the backs of his hearers, but reminding them of their high estate in Christ, though utterly scorned by the World.

In this, they are, we are prepared to face the petty scorn of others.

And to walk above it in the most humble and godly way.

^[1] Henry, Matthew. 1994. Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume. Peabody: Hendrickson.

1 Peter Part 6

Christ Jesus – The Cornerstone

Psalm 118

1 Peter 2:4-10

 THE AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE

Who am I?

That is a question everyone wrestles with at one time or another.

Sometimes, we wrestle with it more than once in life.

That is because we gain our identity mainly through relationships.

And all relationships, for better or for worse, change.

A black line has no self-identity if it is on black paper.

It needs some sort of contrast to take on its own shape and dimensions.

We’re like that too.

Our identity is formed though the way we see ourselves in relation to other things and people that are NOT us in every way.

So we think in terms of being sons or daughters of…

Grandchildren of…

Siblings to…

And then there are other contrasts –

Male or female

Citizenship

Employment

Hobbies or activities

Etc.

So from the very beginning of this letter, Peter has been helping his disorientated readers who were involuntarily forced into a new and hostile culture – to find themselves again, after being wrenched from the contexts – at least partially by which – they understood who they were.

No one knows this process of disorientation better than one who has lost a spouse or their parents or a child.

Something of their self-identity is ripped from them.

And the process of getting steady again can take a long time.

It’s also the trauma of those who have suddenly lost their jobs after being in the same employ for a long time, or losing a faculty like sight, or hearing, or a limb.

So that if our identity does not rest in things which cannot be changed under any circumstances, then every time circumstances DO change – we are lost – at least for a season.

This is as much true for Christians as it is anyone else.

This is common to the human condition.

We were created with a certain relationship to God and this material world, and to one another, which in the Fall was radically and irreparably distorted.

No wonder so many around us feel so “lost” and at times seem to spin off into strange behaviors trying to “find ourselves” as the saying goes.

Man who was created in the image of God, to have fellowship with Him and to be His representative in the earth stripped himself of those identifying referents, and has been trying to redefine himself ever since.

Proof of this is the total confusion that reigns in our society today, as so many, sadly and grotesquely try to gain a sense of identity in their sexuality (a concept never seen prior to Freud), or in fame, social standing, ethnic culture, material possession or career.

And it all rings so horribly and shatteringly hollow.

In the portion before us this morning, Peter is putting into the place the final piece of the Christian Believer’s self-identity.

He’s been building this picture for us up until now a number of different ways.

He began by telling his readers to think of themselves as “ELECT EXILES.”

Not just ELECT as God’s people – tho certainly not less than that.

And not just EXILES, though they are certainly that as well – according to their outward circumstances.

They are both.

And both, through God’s sovereign appointment.

Both as part and parcel of their sanctification or setting apart for God and His purposes by the Holy Spirit.

Both as part of growing in obedience to Jesus Christ.

And both as part of their being purified from their sin through the blood of Jesus.

An identity that ties their inward reality in Christ with their adverse, external circumstances.

These are not in conflict, but by God’s sovereign grace, part of a unified whole.

Next he led them to identify themselves NOT as hopeless, but as born again – to a LIVING HOPE through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

As those in pursuit of holiness above everything else because that is where Christ is taking us – re-conformity to His own character.

Living awestruck at the astounding salvation that is theirs in Christ – something even the angels wish they could comprehend fully.

Ransomed from sin TO God, with the very blood of the Lamb of God!

As overflowing with God’s great, divine love poured out through them – to others in Christ.

Lastly, as “newborn infants” – born again by the Spirit of God – as those who have tasted the goodness of God – and being given the privilege of continuing to slake our soul’s thirst on that bottomless well.

All of these are how Peter’s readers, and Christians in all generations are to begin to understand who they really are in this world.

The sum of that identity being this: I belong to God in Jesus Christ, as one of His own children, infinitely beloved, and set where and when I am, for His good, eternal and wondrous purposes, until I gain my final inheritance.

But he isn’t done yet.

Peter has saved the best for last.

He is about to summarize our true identity in Christ in the verses before us today.

And from this platform, he will begin to tease out all the ramifications of what that means in the way we live here and now in the balance of the letter.

So our task today is to see this summary in its fullness.

Following Peter’s own arrangement, we’re going to do this in 3 parts:

 

OUTLINE:   A Word of Encouragement (4-5)

A Warrant from Scripture (6-8)

A Wondrous Identity (9-10)

 

1. A Word of Encouragement (4-5)

Note how He gives a sort of summary statement before He examines things in more detail: 1 Peter 2:4–5 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Who is Christ as “The Cornerstone”?

The foundation of All God is doing.

 

What relationship to that do I have?

I too am a living stone.

 

What does all that imply?

The Believer’s identity as a Priest of the Most High God.

 

So first there is this word of encouragement: [[vss. 4-5]] Jesus was a living stone in relationship to God, but rejected in relationship to mankind.

Especially by the Jewish religious establishment.

Jesus knows the tension of the Believer in this unbelieving world.

He knew our duality.

He knew Himself as the foundation of all of God’s purposes, and He knew what it was to have no one really understand that, and reject Him in the process. To treat Him as utterly worthless. A nobody.

So you too – are chosen by God as central to His purposes, but will be regarded as nobodies by an unbelieving world.

DO NOT BE SHOCKED BY ALL OF THIS.

You are so tied to Christ in your salvation, that you become a further example to the world of what He was and is. Thus you share some of the same experience He had.

 

2. A Warrant from Scripture (6-8)

Peter offers up Scriptural proof for his argument, by alluding to no less than 6 OT passages in this short section, and puts a number of important ideas together in the process:  We’ll only look briefly at 3 of those passages –

[[ 6 ]]  He cites Isa. 28:16 – Which speaks directly to God’s sending Jesus as “the Cornerstone” of His eternal purposes. A portion of which describes how He will be unrecognized as such, but that those who trust in Him will NOT be put to shame.

[[  7  ]]  Psalm 118:22 – This rejected Stone of Jesus will become in due course, manifestly the Cornerstone to all.

[[  8  ]]  Isa. 8:14 – But those who reject Him as such, will stumble over Him and be destroyed.

Everyone who rejects God’s Word – especially as it reveals and relates to Jesus Christ – is destined to be rejected by God.

NO ONE WHO REJECTS JESUS CHRIST IS ACCEPTED BY GOD.

And note that Peter DOES NOT in any way insert himself in these passages as “the Cornerstone” of God’s work in and through the Church.

This is all about Jesus, as Peter no doubt remembers that Jesus applied these STONE passages to Himself in Matt. Mark & Luke.

In fact all 7 NT passages having to do with the OT image of this STONE are applied to Jesus and no one else.

3. A Wondrous Identity (9-10)

So – in light of all of this – who are you Christian in this world?

Who were Peter’s readers in their extreme distress as exiles in a hostile culture?

Who are Believers today in our increasingly hostile culture?

No matter how hostile it becomes!

Our identity remains the same.

An identity – he is going to sum up in 3 concepts, 3 which all humanity uses, but uses without the light of divine revelation.

 

1.  RACE – People, Stock, Family. 1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

[[ SLIDE ]]  There is perhaps no identifier more profound than this one.

We live in a day when people identify themselves – even as Americans, while referring to their ethnic or racial background as first.

So we have Ibero-Americans, African Americans, Irish-Americans, German Americans, etc.

There is nothing wrong with this in and of itself.

It is very natural – to want to be connected with those we would call our “people”, the stock we come from, our ancestry and family.

The Census Bureau  – rather unscientifically, uses 5 major racial categories:

White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander.

The scientific community argues back and forth as to whether or not true racial categories really exist.

After all, in the most basic sense – there is at the bottom of it all, simply, the race of man. Humankind.

From that point, we have lots and lots of sub divisions.

But it is at this most basic point that Peter is asking his readers and us, to consider Christians as both sharing a common humanity as having all sprung from Adam – but beyond that, to be a new race entirely.

One without genetic or social or ethnic considerations.

There is in God’s scheme of things but two races – Regenerate human beings, and unregenerate human beings.

He bids us to consider, as the Greek word imports here – that our “People”, our “Stock”, our “Family” is the family of God.

We were born into it when we were born again.

And so radical is the change, when the Holy Spirit comes to indwell someone, it is to make them an entirely new class of human being.

No, we do not entirely lose those other characteristics we share with the rest of humanity, but there is a new humanity in Christ.

Paul deals with this issue very plainly when writing to the Ephesian Church where the issue of those who were racially or ethnically Jewish, had trouble relating to those where we NOT Jewish and Gentiles in the Church.

So he writes: Ephesians 2:14–16 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility ¹⁵ by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

Jesus didn’t come to be  “Jewish” savior, or a Gentile savior, He came to save lost human beings irrespective of race, and make them “one new man” – one new race or ethnicity altogether.

“IN CHRIST” or “IN HIM” is the term employed in the NT well over 100 times.

To think of ourselves in these terms is both sublime and overwhelming.

It is why the appeals in the NT to living in a holy manner are most often cast NOT in following laws and rules and regulations, but in living in accord with who and what we’ve become when we were born again as Peter said back in 1 Peter 1:23 “since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;”

We were not born again as Italian, or Hispanic, or as white or black or Asian or Pacific Islander – we were born again as Christians! As children of God!

This is our racial heritage.

And it is this we are to take to ourselves as our chief identity.

Peter is interested in reliving his readers of the stress of trying to figure out how to assimilate and interact with their new cultural surroundings, by directing them to live first and foremost as Christians in their surroundings.

To live in line with their true race, and stock and family.

To think of themselves and live as Christians above all.

But he doesn’t stop there.

By the Spirit of God he brings them to another self-identifier that will inform all they say and do.

He asks them to consider their PURPOSE.

2. PURPOSE – 1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Peter is aware that we take much of our self-understanding from what we DO in life. Career, job, activity, etc.

Here he asks his readers to consider that before they are merchants, or housewives, or craftsmen or farmers or garment makers – that they are PRIESTS.

Royal Priests. Ordained by God to the offering up of spiritual sacrifices.

About the holy privilege of honoring God in all of His saving glory everywhere and at all times.

Making His goodness and mercy and grace and lovingkindness and forgiveness and patience and holiness and all that is glorious in Him – known to others!

And that, primarily by being the vessels these things are poured out of!

Since all of the sin sacrifices have been fulfilled in Christ – there is only one kind left to us in our Priesthood – sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving.

Proclaiming – making known the excellencies of the One who called us out of the darkness of this world, and into His marvelous light!

 

3. CITIZENSHIP – Sharing a common culture and tradition. 1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

What I want to suggest to you, on the basis of what the Holy Spirit has written here, is that we ought not to think of ourselves as Evangelical Americans, but as Christians first of all. And Americans in the sense of being resident aliens.

This is what Peter stressed in chapter 1 when he wrote to his readers as “EXILES”

“The term parepidēmos (plural, parepidēmoi) was used in the first century to designate someone who did not hold citizenship in the place where he resided and was therefore viewed as a foreigner. The lack of citizenship implied that such people did not enjoy all the rights and privileges of citizens. Moreover, as foreigners, they were not necessarily expected to hold the values and practice the customs of their host culture. Because of such differences, foreigners were often looked upon suspiciously as potentially subversive to the established social order, an attitude not unfamiliar even today.^[1]

As Peter expects his 1^st readers to take this idea in fully, so does the Holy Spirit expect us to!

We are truly “strangers in a strange land.”

Christian before Roman or Galatian, or Pontian or Cappadocian or Asian or Bithynian in their case.

Christian before American, or German, or Dutch or Irish or Italian or African or Tibetan in our case.

And Christian before Republican or Democrat, Liberal or Conservative, Independent or Libertarian, Progressive or Socialist.

This is absolutely foundational to our self-identity.

We can be all those other things in the second place- but never first.

Christian defines us over and against everything else.

And these are UNCHANGEABLE.

That is a paradigm shifting reality that few of us have ever truly considered, let alone lived conscious of.

But I would challenge you today to begin to think in these terms. Terms that will radically transform the way you see yourself, and therefore in the way you live life in this present world and age.

i.e. “A People, for His own possession.”

1 Peter 2:9–10 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. ¹⁰ 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.

Be your own culture in the midst of the one that surrounds you. Own your RACE, your PURPOSE and your CITIZENSHIP.

And let the rest fall where it may.

All of which leaves us in the very same place where we closed last time –

Are you a Christian?  Have you indeed been born again by the Spirit of Christ?

Have you seen and owned and confessed your sin – running to Him for forgiveness, and trusting only in the shed blood of Jesus Christ at Calvary for your right standing and acceptance with God?

Or not?

You can only be one of 2 races. That of Adam, or that of Christ Jesus.

Which are you?

 

^[1] Jobes, Karen H. 2005. 1 Peter. (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.

1 Peter Part 5

1 Peter 2:1-3 & Psalm 34

Reacting or Responding?

 

THE AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE

When people are marginalized,

When they feel powerless in their circumstances,

When they are subject to ridicule because of things they hold dear,

When they are misunderstood and misrepresented,

When they are treated unfairly, with no recourse,

When there is no prospect of change on the horizon

It is only natural to react in certain ways.

 

Peter knows this.

Because Peter knows his own heart.

Just as he knows sin because he knows his own sinfulness.

Therefore he knows his readers.

And even if he didn’t know these things first hand, the Holy Spirit gave him these words to pen.

And no one knows our hearts like our Creator.

He knows us better than we know ourselves.

 

His readers have been forced into a hostile culture.

They’ve been robbed of many if not all of the even scant rights they enjoyed as Romans – as some of them certainly were.

Many of them never even had those rights – and were always at the mercy, or more precisely, at the mere whim of those in political power.

 

There was no regard for their Christian convictions.

There was no religious freedom as they understood it.

They had no voice in the government.

They were displaced to areas where they did not know the customs, and few cared to know theirs.

Language was a barrier.

But even more, the people groups they were plunged into had no concept of a single, personal creator God,

No reference point for external moral absolutes like the 10 commandments.

They were plunged into this mess of a situation.

Similarly the Church in America today sits in the midst of a society that is in many ways becoming just like the one they were sent to.

 

Years ago I was traveling from the 12 Corners to Pittsford on Monroe Ave.

It was a clear, lovely morning.

There were few cars on the road.

The one immediately in front of me, and a few way behind us was all the traffic on our side.

There were just a few cars – spread out in the oncoming lanes.

I noticed the head of the driver in front of me, duck down to the right.

But he didn’t pop back up quickly. He was going about 40.

As I watched, helplessly behind him, his car started to drift over the double yellow lines into the oncoming lane.

The elderly couple in the car coming straight at him had no time to react.

They hit head on.

To me it was all like it was happening in slow motion.

I could see it happening, but was powerless to intervene.

All I could do was run into a store to get someone to call 911 – this was before cell phones – and attend to the 3 unconscious victims until a passing nurse and then an ambulance got there.

The driver in front of me was simply trying to retrieve a dropped cassette tape, and veered off.

That might be how it looks to many of us here today – when it comes to the direction our nation is taking.

Increasing hostility toward Evangelical Christianity.

Lessening regard for our Biblical and moral convictions.

No voice in government.

The devaluing of human life resulting in abortion, euthanasia, physician assisted suicide, a market for harvested baby parts, and an erotomania that makes the only absolute right: The one to seek sexual expression in any form – the only thing no one can safely criticize.

A horrible wreck unfolding right before our eyes.

Peter has given us some extremely valuable tools so far to respond to all this.

[[SLIDE]]   The Believer’s dual-identity as both Elect and Exile

[[SLIDE]]   Reminding ourselves of the wonder of salvation

[[SLIDE]]   And last time, like wrapping those two things around a 4 piece core he drew is to consider a mindset rooted in HOPE, HOLINESS, COMING JUDGMENT and LOVE.

But he also knows that these things need enlarged upon, repeated, and supplemented by more knowledge.

So our text today puts three things before us in consideration of all this.

[[SLIDE]]  This is how he begins – building off of what has come before:

“So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.  Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

 

[[SLIDE]]   And we’ll look at it in 3 parts: OUTLINE

 

1. [[SLIDE]] 5 Dangers to look out for.
2. [[SLIDE]] 1 Direction in overcoming these dangers.
3. [[SLIDE]] 1 Penetrating and all important question to answer.

 

[[SLIDE]]   1. 5 Dangers to look out for.

 

Note that the dangers Peter draws our attention to here are not EXTERNAL dangers, from the circumstances themselves.

No, these are INTERNAL traps.

Sinful tendencies which may be undetectable in the good times, but surface when we are tested and tried – the way his readers were.

 

[[SLIDE]]  It is a reminder of Paul’s admonition in 2 Cor. 10:3-6 – ³ For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. ⁴ For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. ⁵ We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, ⁶ being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. ^[1]

Let’s take them in order and see how they might be important to his 1^st audience, so we can be aware of them for ourselves.

 

[[SLIDE]]   a. MALICE – a mean-spirited or vicious attitude or disposition, malice, ill-will, malignity

 

[[SLIDE]]    Bush, Obama, Clinton, Trump.

This is NOT a political sermon.

What I am doing here, I am taking from Peter’s cue in 2:13 & 17.

No doubt you have one or more visceral responses to one or more of the faces you see here.

You might react badly to President Bush for his war or spending polices.

On the other hand, President Obama’s visage may conjure up concern over the loss of religious freedom or increasing debt or some others issues.

Mrs. Clinton’s picture might evoke and entirely different set of responses, as well may Mr. Trump’s.

The point it is this – when we feel unheard and trampled upon in any way – when we foresee or at least THINK we foresee – impending disaster but feel powerless, it is extraordinarily easy to slip into and justify MALICE toward such people – from all different sides!

[[SLIDE]]   And note the definition I gave you here a mean-spirited or vicious attitude or disposition, malice, ill-will, malignity^[2]  BDAG

One does not have to wish ill on the one they dislike, they need only to fail of GOOD WILL toward them.

A vicious indifference. As though they are not human and in need of grace like ourselves.

Anger may be legitimate – but when that crosses over into wanting to see them get their comeuppance, or fall or be punished or suffer shame – we’ve fallen into the trap of the Enemy and become people of REACTIONS rather than people of Godly RESPONSES.

This is one of the most subtle but important aspects of being conformed to the image of Christ.

Jesus – as the Son of His Heavenly Father – did not allow his reactions to be jerked about by those around Him, but RESPONDED according to the need of the hour and the need of those He was interacting with.

In like – Peter calls his readers to refrain from an understandable but sinful response to the sins they are exposed to.

As we’ll see in later portions of the letter – he has very specific responses to sin in mind.

But he must point out the problem of falling into the trap of reacting out of emotion and fear and anger first.

And isn’t this a timely word for us as we face the political, moral and cultural future in America right now?

Who might you harbor malice in your heart toward?

Don’t candy coat-it. Admit it. And repent.

Amazing as it may seem, Peter will go on to tell these very people – thrust into these circumstances by the fallen whims of the Emperor Claudius –

 

[[SLIDE]]   1 Peter 2:13 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme,

[[SLIDE]]   1 Peter 2:17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

In due course we’ll have to unpack what these look like under various circumstances – but we cannot be simply swept away in our anger or frustration.

 

[[SLIDE]]   b. DECEIT – taking advantage through craft and underhanded methods, deceit, cunning, treachery…

to make false through deception or distortion,  falsify, adulterate ^[3]

The temptation here is – when powerless, to get down on the perceived enemy’s level, and try every which-way to gain the upper hand – even if it is less than kosher.

 

[[SLIDE]]   I saw a great example of this very thing this week. Trying trough craft and cunning to discredit.

On NEWSGRU.COM, they ran a video of a 2014 Mass at which – in Latin, the phrase “luciferi” was used in prayer.

They tried to say the participants were praying to, or at least invoking Lucifer’s name as God.

I am no apologist for Roman Catholicism. They codified their own apostasy from Christianity at Trent when they denied the Gospel and anathamitized anyone who preached justification by faith in Christ alone.

But to misrepresent what was in fact a phrase taken from 2 Peter 1:9 where Jesus is called “the morning star” – the same phrase some apply to Satan in Isa. 14  – is underhanded, deceitful and distorted.

And isn’t it evident that both sides of an argument – political or otherwise often take words out of context, or use underhanded means to defeat their opponent – because legitimate means seem impotent?

This, is not to be the Christian’s response no matter HOW much it may be the tactics of those who oppose us.

 

[[SLIDE]]   c. HYPOCRISY – The temptation here, especially for Peter’s readers, would be to compromise at work or in the marketplace, and hide their Christianity in order to get along – while being good little Christians at home or at church.

It was Sigmond Freud’s father, who though Jewish, converted to Lutheranism when the family moved, so that he could do business in his new town. His attitude was – we need to do what we need to do to conduct business.

We can want to deny our allegiance to Christ when it seems uncomfortable – or even a central doctrine like Peter himself did in Antioch when the “Circumcision Party” came to town.

Paul notes in Galatians, those who had visited from James, reported the persecution of the Christians by some of the Jews, and even tho he stops eating with the Gentiles when the Circumcisers show up – probably hoping to avoid his fellow Christians from being persecuted – he shows himself a hypocrite – and Paul calls him on it.

No doubt this was a sharp reminder of how easily he fell into this trap personally.

 

[[SLIDE]]   d. ENVY – How very easy it is to slip into envying those who do not have the strain of these things on them – and who seem to thrive in the World by simply caving to the World’s standards.

 

[[SLIDE]]   Psalm 73:1–3 Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. ² But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. ³ For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

 

[[SLIDE]]     e. SLANDER – Repeating anything about anybody to discredit them – because we can’t do anything else.

Giving ourselves over to criticizing, defaming, doing anything we can to detract from those we perceive to be the bad guys.

In America right now – it is the Premier sport of the age – from the left, the right, conservatives, liberals, atheists, Evangelicals – name it.

As we said already – We need to see in the first place, how these things might have played out in the lives of Peter’s 1st readers.

And in their being brought to our attention – we see a truly essential principle in the Christian life that in the rest of this letter will take on more and more importance: The Believer is never justified in responding to someone else’s sin WITH sin of our own.

The truth is, that when we are in dire straights and feeling helpless and perhaps hopeless, stretched beyond measure and facing unsure outcomes – we can respond both to outsiders, and to insiders alike in these categories.

To lash out at the outsiders and treat them with disdain, contempt and disrespect, and to let that overflow to the ones closest to us as well.

Many a man takes out their frustrations at work by vilifying their boss or co-workers, but then in turn brings that poison right back into their homes and infects their families with it.

Put these things away says Peter – or more literally, take them off – like you might shed inappropriate, soiled and smelly garments.

In his reader’s case, they are swimming in an alien society and culture, and alienated BY that culture.

How one responds to that society and culture, will be the same way they respond to it at home and in the Church!

It does not take much of a survey of Christian radio or literature to see how readily many of us are reacting to the way American culture is growing increasingly hostile toward us – with malice. Allowing a deep seated resentment to well up inside which spills over into unguarded words and attitudes toward our perceived persecutors.

This is not to say we ignore such slights nor justify them. It IS to say we cannot let the malice which is being directed toward us – be returned by malice WITHIN US!

 

[[SLIDE]]   2. 1 DIRECTION – In opposition to falling into the temptation of the 5 things just mentioned – Peter gives one great remedy: Crave the pure unadulterated “milk” that enables you to grow up fully into the salvation you’ve been saved for.

 

[[SLIDE]]  1 Peter 2:2–3 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— ³ if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

There is little doubt Peter has Psalm 34 in mind here – he quotes it here at the end of vs. 3 – and again more fully in chap. 3:10-12.

 

[[SLIDE]]  Psalm 34:8–10 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! ⁹ Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! ¹⁰ The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

What is it specifically the Believer has “tasted” in this regard? MERCY & GRACE

In opposition to caving into malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander – fill yourself up on the mercy and grace you have received in your salvation.

Swim in it.

Make it your filling food.

You are forgiven.

Pardoned.

Graced.

Promised.

Indwelt.

Kept.

And in response – extend mercy and grace.

 

[[SLIDE]]  3. 1 All important Question: IF IF IF IF IF – If you have in fact been the recipient of mercy and grace.

IF – is the question. Are you truly a Christian?

Or are you merely a religionist?

A cultural Christian?

A Christian in the sense that you aren’t a Jew or a Muslim or an adherent of some other religion?

Not a “Christian” because you were raised in a Christian home or belong to a Christian denomination – but because you personally have felt your guilt – and run to Christ for mercy on the basis of His substitutionary atonement?

A Christian because you know you’ve been made a child of God, born again by the Spirit of God, because God has been good to you – and for no other reason than that alone.?

This is of the utmost importance today.

Are you a Christian?

Have you truly tasted of His mercy and grace in the Cross and the New Birth?

Or are you a Christian in name only?

IF – you have tasted that the Lord is “good” – drink in the reality of His mercy and grace over and over and over again so that you do not spew out the poison of MALICE, DECEIT, HYPOCRISY, ENVY or SLANDER.

Putting it all together then this is Peter’s point:

[[SLIDE]]  Given the present stresses, Christians are tempted to react out of our flesh in sinful ways: MALICE, DECEIT, HYPOCRISY, ENVY and SLANDER. And the way to escape those snares and display Christ instead – is to dwell on the goodness, specifically – the MERCY & GRACE of God to the exclusion of other things. But this is not some psychological mind game – it is the exclusive province and privilege of those who have been born again by the Spirit of God.

Are we aware of these tendencies within us?

Are we seizing on the honor of directing our thought-life to dwell on God’s goodness more than the things of this World? To make us radically different manifestations of Christ’s Spirit in this age of darkness?

[[SLIDE]]  Are YOU, am I truly a Christian? For this cannot be done otherwise.

If you have NEVER tasted of the Lord’s goodness in salvation – you cannot drink of the “pure milk” mentioned here. And you need to come to Christ today!

^[1] 2001. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

^[2] Arndt, William, Frederick W. Danker & Walter Bauer. 2000. A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

^[3] Arndt, William, Frederick W. Danker & Walter Bauer. 2000. A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

1 Peter Part 4

1 Peter 1:1-25

Leviticus 11 (entire)

4 Foundations of Living the Gospel Here and Now

 

THE AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON IS AVAILABLE HERE

1^st. Tool: Dual identity – Elect/Exiles (vss. 1-2)

2^nd. Tool: A Praising heart for a stupendous salvation. (vss. 3-12)

3^rd. Tool: 4 parts of a whole.

 

Given what we’ve seen already, we know that Peter does not see Christians as passive victims, even though they may have no power to change their outward circumstances in the slightest way.

He is speaking to his readers – to US – in such a way that they & we might learn how to live and act.

To take advantage of what CAN be done, and for the RIGHT REASONS, rather than being left to endlessly stew over what can’t realistically be changed.

Peter sees his readers as spiritual men and women.

Born again in Christ Jesus to live in a whole new way.

They have rights and privileges that extend far beyond their geographical location, cultural setting, linguistic isolation, and government imposed exile.

They are God’s people.

Made for God’s purposes.

Indwelt by God’s Spirit.

Informed by God’s Word.

Thrust into the middle of God’s sovereign work in the world.

In the process of being conformed to the image of God’s Son.

And destined for an eternal inheritance of unspeakable glory in, with and through Christ Jesus – the Lord of all.

[[SLIDE]] SO – “THEREFORE” (13) Preparing (or HAVING prepared) your minds – to think soberly.

SOBER: “a broader range of soberness or sobriety, namely, restraint and moderation which avoids excess in passion, rashness, or confusion” (GELNT domain 88.86), hence self-control.^[1]

 

1. Grasping your dual identity as Elect/Exiles…
2. Living overawed at your great salvation which is yet to be fulfilled…

 

And live out that sober-mindedness out virtue of 4 things:

1 Peter 1:13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

 

[[SLIDE]]  1. (13) Set your hope FULLY on the resurrection.

NOTE: This is NOT some spiritualized or religious technique to finally get things changed. It is the way to proceed forward regardless of whether or not things change.

Sometimes, even Christians can take on a somewhat superstitious approach to adversity.

One that says inwardly – “if I just do X or Y, God will magically be happy and change everything.”

So, I’ll Pray more.

Read the Word more.

Make sure I don’t skip Church.

Give more.

Etc., etc., etc..

In reality your circumstances may, or may never change in this life.

If they change, they may change for the better, OR for the worse.

If they do not change – how do you live here and now?

Informed and encouraged first and foremost by God’s promises for the future.

How utterly foreign this is to all worldly mindedness.

Our hope doesn’t rest in earthly change. But in what is to come because of Christ.

“Peter’s point is that one sets one’s hope on future grace, not by idle wishfulness or unfounded optimism, but by a mental resolve to live in such a way as to manifest the “living hope” of the Christian believer. The Christian hope is a reality to be recognized and acted upon now.”^[2]

To set our hope fully on the grace that is to be brought to us when Jesus appears – is to be constantly mindful that when He does appear – the wonder of the fullness of God’s undiluted favor poured out upon us in that moment is so transcendently high and wondrous, that in comparison, nothing we’re suffering now is worthy to impact our thoughts and actions. GLORY IS COMING!

If instead we live like the world for its values: We lose “sobriety”.

 

[[SLIDE]]  2. (14-16) Pursue holiness now. (Guido Reni – 1631)

1 Peter 1:14–16 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

Reject former patterns of sin.

HOW?

By living in accord with your destiny – pursuing holiness above everything else, since you are destined to be conformed to the image of The Holy One.

Peter makes a couple of important points about this.

1. Sin is connected to the “passions of our former ignorance.”

To continue in the things Jesus died to save us from the penalty of and the ravages of – is to live like Jesus hasn’t come, hasn’t paid for our sin, hasn’t sent His Spirit to indwell us, and hasn’t guaranteed us an eternal future in Him in the resurrection.

It is to live as though blind and unaware of the way things really are.

Which is as ignorant as it gets.

1. God is holy. And the privilege that attaches to those in Christ is that we get to be holy too!

NOTE:  – We WILL be holy.

He is in the process of conforming us to the image of Christ. So doesn’t it make sense to live in accord with where we are going?

Does it make sense to Head to Toronto if your destination is Miami?

So does it make sense to keep walking in sin when your destiny is to be like Christ?

1. God is “other” than anything else in this world.

So as His People – He wants us to make that otherness known by who and what we are as His.

It is in this context Peter takes us back to Leviticus 11.

One of the interesting things which often occurs when reading a passage like Leviticus 11 – is that we have this almost uncontrollable urge to figure out practical reasons for all the details.

Why not eat camels, pigs hares or rock badgers? Is there something inherently bad or unhealthy in consuming them?

Why can’t we even touch their carcasses? (v 8)

Why only seafood with fins and scales?

What’s God got against lobster, crabs, oysters and clams?

Some birds are OK, some not.

Some insects are OK, and some not.

[[SLIDE]] I know every time I see the GEICO Gecko, I imagine he might taste like a plump chicken wing.

A little honey Bar-B-Q sauce and some bleu cheese and he’s gone!

[[SLIDE]]  But God tells His people – NO.

And what about all the special cleaning rituals?

No doubt, we might be able to attach some scientific or health reason to all of this – but God tells the people that above all else – He has THIS reason: (v 45). “I am holy, and therefore YOU are to be holy.”

What has THAT got to do with it?

The word “holy” means in the first place, set apart, consecrated. Unique.

And God, in demonstrating that He is utterly unique, not like the idols that men create and fashion out of their own minds –

And not one and the same with the creation – like sun or moon or earth gods

And last of all not like US.

In making His “otherness” known, He sets apart things that mark out His people as unique among all the peoples of the earth.

And some of these markers are put in place for no other reason that to mark them out as uniquely belonging to the unique and only true God.

And that’s enough.

You are my Children. Let it be known that you are not like everyone else – because you belong to me.

And if they cannot see the reasons behind my statutes – so what?

They set you apart in a fallen world as living unto an authority that transcends all else.

Don’t be afraid to be MINE.

Reject the culture’s views on morality and sexuality and so many other areas. And show yourself to live as unto me.

I am other – so as mine, you be “other” too.

NOTE: We don’t have invent any oddness of our own in this enterprise.

Not bending to the Culture in terms of morality, religion, ethics, materialism, self-love, etc. – will grow more and more into aberrant features to the World.

As 1 Peter 4:4 says, they will be surprised enough when they see that you don’t buy into and follow the World’s forms of excess.

God knows that is sufficient.

 

[[SLIDE]]  3. (17-21) Judgment AND deliverance – Remembering God WILL judge (your persecutors will not be unaddressed) and how blessed you are in comparison.

(Rubens – Lot fleeing Sodom)

1 Peter 1:17–21 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, 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 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.

 

Again – Peter has a couple of thoughts to consider about this.

1. It is good to fear being partakers in the things God will judge.
2. It is good to jealously guard the gifts and the position that has been granted to us in Christ.
3. It is good to fear losing anything of what was so dearly purchased at the cost of the Blood of The Lamb.
4. It is good to fear going back into your former bondage to sin.

Remembering God’s timing in sending Christ when He did for you.

How privileged you are to see first-hand the things the OT prophets only saw in dim shadows.

How privileged you are that you partake of things the holy angels who dwell in the very presence of God WISH they could fully comprehend.

How privileged to know that your salvation is not an accident, but that Christ’s predestined sacrifice for human sin included His thoughts of saving you from all eternity.

If you know these things – live like they are true and let them govern every decision you make!

 

[[SLIDE]]  4. (22-24) Love one another. (Dirck Van Baburen 1616)

1 Peter 1:22–24 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 born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; ²⁴ for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls,

The purifying of your soul in salvation, your obedience to the truth of the Gospel, has now enabled you to love in a way the world knows absolutely nothing about.

And it is one of the things you have been born again for – to “love one another from” this newly purified heart.

A heart no longer set on the world’s values and selfish desires – but on higher, spiritual, eternal things.

For Peter, loving one another is wrapped up in living for Christ in every aspect of life.

This is such an un-Worldly way of thinking about love.

The World puts the weight of love on the shoulders of our emotions and personal passions being fulfilled by someone else.

It is why people talk about falling in an out of love.

What they mean is: Sometimes I have an emotional affection for someone, that at other times I do not.

And while Christian love also impacts our emotions – it doesn’t find its root or its residence there.

It is not just how we feel about each other, it is how we think about ourselves as being bound to each other in Christ – as members of the same Body.

Far above the pragmatic – this is Biblical thinking in terms of loving one another.

I cannot love someone in Christ by exposing them to sin – mine or others.

I cannot love someone in Christ by venting my spleen at them.

I cannot love someone in Christ by living in a state of constant frustration and anger.

I cannot love someone in Christ by adopting the World’s morality.

I cannot love someone in Christ by living in fear and faithlessness.

I cannot love someone in Christ by indulging in sin secretly.

 

CONCLUSION: (25) This is how the Gospel is lived out.

1 Peter 1:25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

Everything the World lives for – will perish.

Only the Word of God – the working out of the Gospel in lives lived in joyful submission to Christ Jesus will endure.

Since that very Word of the Gospel that saves us alone will endure.

[[SLIDES]]  Prepare your minds for action in the midst of this exile where you live Christian.

Do it with all godly sobriety.

Set your hope fully on the grace to be brought to you at the appearing of Jesus Christ – not on any earthly goal or circumstance.

Pursue the holiness you are destined for – now.

Remain overawed at the wonder of what it cost to ransom you from your sin and the way the whole world lives.

And in these realities – live a life loving the brethren, by making these things the foundation of how you live.

^[1] Jobes, Karen H. 2005. 1 Peter. (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.

^[2] Jobes, Karen H. 2005. 1 Peter. (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.

1 Peter Part 3

1 Peter 1:1-12

Psalm 103

Our Stupendous Salvation

THE AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE

So far we’ve seen that Peter’s 1^st means of ministering to his readers in their difficult circumstances, is to get them to remember their dual self-identity.

[SLIDE] They are both God’s ELECT, and EXILES.

These 2 states are not contradictory.

So you and I, as Believers today need to keep this duality in mind as we face the crumbling culture in which we live.

Biblical Christians in America today are more and more “strangers in a strange land”.

AND –

This in no wise renders the reality of the Christian’s being fully owned by God and uniquely His.

We must not let the darkness of our age, cause us to forget the light of who and what we are in Christ.

We are exiles NOW, for certain. But ELECT of God and chosen by Him for the glory of salvation in Christ.

Dual self-identity: Elect Exiles.

Now Peter calls upon his readers – both then and now – to remember that present circumstances do not define the future.

Life won’t always be the way it is right now.

Our situations are not eternal – but temporary.

And to take some of the crushing pressure of the present off of their shoulders, Peter reminds them that they must not forget what is yet before them because they are in Christ.

So the second tool he is going to place in their hands is a revisiting of the stupendous wonder of their salvation in Christ.

The incomparable and incomprehensible wonder of salvation in Jesus Christ.

Before we jump directly into the text, let me make an observation about it.

Vss. 3-12 are only one sentence in the original Greek.

And the words and ideas Peter uses here under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, are so densely packed and full of meaning at every turn – it is very easy to let them slip by almost unnoticed.

So we will really set our attention today on each concept the text brings up in such rapid fire succession.

To do unpack it carefully, we are going to look at the passage in 4 segments.

OUTLINE

I. v 3 – THE GOODNESS OF GOD HIMSELF in Giving us salvation.

II. vss 4-5 – THE GRANDEUR OF OUR SALVATION

III. vss 6-9 – THE GIFTS BIBLICAL FAITH GRANTS

IV. vss 10-12 – THE INSCRUTIBLE GLORY OF IT ALL

I.  (v 3) THE GOODNESS OF GOD HIMSELF (In Giving us salvation)   1 Peter 1:3 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,

1. Salvation is an act of MERCY
2. Salvation is a “caused” act. DELIBERATE
3. Salvation is not given in a vacuum, but unto an end. COMPREHENSIVE – not 1 dimensional only for here and now.
4. Salvation is living in prospect of a LIVING HOPE. FORWARD LOOKING
5. Salvation is completely tied to Jesus’ RESURRECTION. GUARANTEED

In a sovereign and deliberate act of mercy, God has given us an entirely new life of divine blessedness.

One that does not terminate here – but reaches into eternity, and is certain for us since it was accomplished in the death, burial, and especially the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Our eternal hope – is rooted in the absolute certainty of Jesus’ resurrection.

If you are Christian here today – it is not an accident – you don’t just HAPPEN to be one.

God, the Judge of all the universe has personally extended MERCY to you, made you an OBJECT of His mercy – a trophy of it.

And He did this DELIBERATELY – He caused it to come about.

You have been born again into a COMPREHENSIVE salvation – that encompasses not only your present, but your eternal future.

A future filed with the hope of being in a state of eternal bliss and glory and honor and blessing without end!

And this, purchased and guaranteed by the most astounding proof – the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Does this mean your present sufferings aren’t real? Of course not.

But it is a call for us to weigh our trials and sufferings against the wonder of what it means to be God’s child in Christ.

To see our present distress in comparison to our eternal blessedness.

II.  (vss 4-5) THE GRANDEUR OF OUR SALVATION & INHERITANCE     1 Peter 1:4–5 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.

1. That “hope” is called our INHERITANCE.
2. That hope is IMPERISHABLE, UNDEFILED, UNFADING.

Our being born again is not the end, but the beginning. We are born TO – a living hope. Hope beyond this life, and stretching into the full eternity of the next. He has made us into new creatures that we might be inheritors of what He has stored up for us. Things which:

Are IMPERISHABLE – Can NEVER die or end.

Are UNDEFILED – Are possessed of absolutely no corruption whatever – nothing which makes them less than absolutely perfect in every way.

UNFADING – Are perennially fresh and new. Never losing their luster and shine.

These 3 descriptions are noted as diametric opposites of any inheritance we might imagine in this present life.

In Heaven, our inheritance is imperishable. Here, everything is perishable.

In Heaven, our inheritance is pure and unmixed. Here, everything is stained by sin.

In Heaven, our inheritance remains perennially fresh and vibrant. Here, everything is in a state of decay.

What’s more, is this not the perfect picture of Christ Himself WHOM we inherit? Isn’t this why this “hope” is termed “LIVING”? It is Christ who is alive – tho He died. And HE is our great hope Himself!

He died once, but was raised imperishable (as we will be) – and is alive forever more.

He is undefiled. He was sinless in life, sinless in death, and remains sinless forever.

His glory was dimmed or veiled here – but there, His glory is unfading and perennially fresh and lovely and glorious.

And He is preserved, reserved for us in Heaven, until the day when He will be the final and complete fulfillment of all for us in His return.

3. It is kept in HEAVEN for us – we do not receive it now

4. The Believer is being preserved for that inheritance as much as it is being preserved for us.

5. That preservation is not some mechanical provision, but God’s own power exerted on our behalf.
This hope is both SECURED for us, and we are ORDAINED for it – in the established wonder of Christ’s death and resurrection!

As sure as He is resurrected – that’s how sure this hope is, and how sure our salvation is so that we might obtain this hope.

 

[SLIDE]  III.   (vss 6-9) THE GIFTS BIBLICAL FAITH GIVES   1 Peter 1:6–9 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.

1. THIS is why we rejoice now, even in the most troubling, confusing and adverse circumstances.
2. Not only that, but enduring or experiencing the trials themselves is a means to purify our faith so that it is rooted only in Christ, and not in anything else. We must be careful never to view these tests and trials from God as some sort of divine entrance exam. They serve a completely different purpose.
Where we most often talk about how MUCH faith someone has, Peter’s emphasis is rather upon its GENUINENESS.
3. This kind of faith is more precious than any kind of earthly wealth.

Now trials themselves are indeed grievous – even though in Christ, they yield much, rich fruit.

Christians do not live as though trials are not painful. We live authentically.

They DO grieve us.

But not like they grieve those who have no sense of the goodness of God in them and behind them.
Note that there is something that is more valuable than the purest gold imaginable. What is it? Praise and glory and honor bestowed upon us by God Himself, when Jesus returns. We can live now not mourning the loss of earthly riches when we look forward to having God Himself, praise us, honor us, and give us glory – whatever that can possibly mean. What a wonder to contemplate.

And Peter’s point here isn’t how MUCH faith you have, but rather the purity or genuineness of it. That it is faith in the right object: Jesus Christ.

 

So here a very great question – how do I know if my faith is genuine?

How do I know if it is saving faith?

a. Because it is faith in HIM, not in some vague hope.

Trusting His CHARACTER, and therefore trusting His PROMISES.

Not personal, subjective impressions – faith in Jesus Christ, in His person and work.

b. By virtue of its endurance through trials.

Genuine faith survives in spite of every opposition. Because genuine faith is rooted in a revelation of Jesus to the soul that is as real as anything or anybody else in all of life.
4. That faith will find an unbelievable reward in time: PRAISE, GLORY and HONOR from God!
“That at Christ’s appearing, faithful servants shall not only be commended, but gloriously rewarded.

There is not only verbal commendation, but real remuneration; glory and honour put upon them, as well as praise ascribed to them. (1.) Praise, because he shall then commend their faith before men and angels: Rev. 3:5, ‘I will confess his name before my Father and his angels.’ (2.) There will be a solemn owning and honouring of them, when all the holy angels shall be present. Oh! what a favour is it to be commended of God! 2 Cor. 10:18, ‘For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.’ When they had finished the tabernacle, all was viewed and approved by Moses: Moses blessed them. Oh! what is it to be blessed and commended by the Son of God in that great assembly of the whole world!

Here is preferment and advancement to a higher place in the family. Christ will prefer them as men do their servants: Mat. 24:47, ‘Make him ruler over all his goods.’ These expressions are taken from the greatest honours a man can do his faithful servants in the world, 1 Kings 12:20. As Jeroboam was made ruler over all the charge of the house of Joseph; so will Christ advance his servants to high dignity, sometimes expressed by ‘setting them upon thrones,’ Rev. 3:21; ‘giving them crowns,’ 1 Peter 4:13; 2 Tim. 4:8. That antithesis is to be regarded; few things, and many things. All things are few in comparison of heaven, our works, our gifts, our sufferings; the reward is far above all these: Rom. 8:18, ‘For I reckon that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us;’ 2 Cor. 4:17, ‘For our light afflictions, that are but for a moment, work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.’ It is all little that we do or suffer; it is little that God hath done for us in this world, in comparison of what he will do for us there. Here is the earnest; that is but a small part of the whole sum.^[1]

5. That faith is rewarded AT the appearing of Christ Jesus, not before.
6. That faith puts us in a state of salvation even now.

It is not a mere future possibility, but also a present reality!

IV.  (vss 10-12) THE INSCRUTIBLE GLORY OF IT ALL 1 Peter 1:10–12 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, ¹¹ inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. ¹² It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

 

1. These things are so astounding, the prophets of old wished they could understand it more like we can now.
2. These things are so astounding, even the angels wonder at it.

CONCLUSION:

If all this is true – Then:

Endure without fear,
Rejoice continually
And trust Him to be faithful.

 

 

^[1] Manton, Thomas. 1872. The Complete Works of Thomas Manton. . Vol. 9. London: James Nisbet & Co.