1 Peter 1:13-2:12 "Be Prepared"
Sermon Two
"Be Connected."
1 Peter 1:17-25 Page 1887
November 21, 2010
Last week we looked at ingredients for a successful walk with God. We noticed that we are to be grounded in the grace that God offers. We saw, and tasted, the benefit of mixing together preparedness, self-control, grace, obedience, conformity, and holiness.
This week Peter draws our minds to the impact that Jesus’ death has had on us as Gentiles. He reminds us that our connection to Christ and His word is intended to change us. We now have a different connection to sin and to each other because of the grace of God shown to us at the cross.
There are different kinds of connections. There are different ways to form bonds between two items. Physically we can unite two items using chemical bonds like glue or epoxy, electrical connections including magnetism or welding, mechanical connections like bolts or screws. Some connections make a difference along other connections: eg chain, sometimes one connection influences other connections – Object Lesson: light to a battery (fast connection) and a slow one - rolled paper towel laid into a bowl with food coloring.
People, also, can be united by different bonds; family, friendship, necessity, fear, choice, or purpose. There are even times when people are united because of payment; like employment or slavery. Today’s passage makes reference to being children of God and being redeemed which is a slave term.
1 Peter 1:17-25 on Page 1887:
Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.
This verse carries on the call to a lifestyle that is different from that of non-Christians. Peter reminds Christians that they invoke God as "Father" and that as his children (v.
14) they should indeed call on him constantly in prayer.But God is Judge as well as Father, and those who call on his name must remember that he is impartial in judgment. Simply because some people call themselves Christians does not mean that all will be well for them in the Judgment.
Peter calls us "strangers" referring to our level of connection with the ways of the world. God is Holy and He has called us to be holy in all we do.
Since judgment is certain, we must live in respectful awe of God—and knowledge of his power, for peace is one of our prerogatives (
1Pe 1:2).The Peter mentions our redemption.
18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
The logic of this verse is "Live . . . because you know!" That is, the Christian life is lived out of knowledge of the redemption that Christ has accomplished. Peter reminds us of the cost of redemption, based on the value of the Person of the righteous Messiah himself.
The Greek word for "redeem" (GK
G3390) goes back to the institution of slavery in ancient Rome. Any representative first-century church would have three kinds of members: slaves, freemen, and freed men. People became slaves in various ways--through war, bankruptcy, sale by themselves, sale by parents, or by birth. Slaves normally could look forward to freedom after a certain period of service and often after the payment of a price. Money to buy one's freedom could be earned by the slave in his spare time or by doing more than his owner required. Often the price would be provided by someone else, who purchased a person's freedom from servitude. A freed man was a person who formerly had been a slave but was now set free.The people that Peter was writing to were raised in a pagan culture that was empty, and he reminds them, and us, that the payment was made by Jesus’ blood as a perfect sacrifice and not money. He died that we may live.
The time frame for when that decision was made shows up in the next verse.
20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
The Gentile audience heard about the death of Jesus and then found out about God from that event. Even those who had been converted to Judaism came to know God by knowing Jesus. But this change was not just an intellectual one.
The impact of the redemption is referred to in verse 22.
1PE 1:22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.Peter adds to the command to be holy and to reverence God, the command to "love" (Agape- self sacrificing not just brotherly love). This is the type of connection that the church needs to have for each other because it is the type of love that Jesus has shown each of us individually.
He also gives two reasons for Christians to love one another. The first is that they have "purified" (GK
G49) themselves, a word that is not common in the NT but denotes the moral purity that comes to Christians through the Gospel.The means of this purification is "by obeying the truth" of the Gospel by repenting, confessing, turning from their old life, and being born again through baptism.
Our "new birth" is contrasted to our physical birth in 23.
23
For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.When we were born physically we were born from a seed that is temporary.
When we are re-born spiritually we are born from seed that never dies.
This change in natures occurs because of the transforming power of God’s word.
The power of God’s unchanging word is the focus of the last two verses which are a quote from Isaiah 40:6-8.
24 For, "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, 1PE 1:25 but the word of the Lord stands forever."The quotation comes from Isaiah's "Book of Comfort," his inspired messages to an exiled and oppressed people. How fitting the application is to pilgrim Christians (cf.
1Pe 1:1) in the light of their oppression by the pagan world! The theme of Isaiah's prophecy is the perishable nature of all flesh and the imperishable nature of the Word of God. To the exiles in Babylon, the message was that while human help is weak, God's promise of restoration will not fail.Peter concludes this section by saying:
And this is the word that was preached to you.
Peter’s audience was reminded of their connection to Jesus, each other, and His word. We have a different connection to the desire to do wrong, God, each other, and mortality because of our redemption by Jesus. If we are connected to Christ, then all of our other connections change.
| Have you connected to Christ? If not, why not? |
| How is your connection to Christ? |
| What actions and attitudes do you have that strengthen your connection? |
| What actions and attitudes do you have that weaken your connection? |
| How does your connection on Sunday, or other classes, permeate the rest of your week, and life? Back to the object lesson! |
| How are you showing self-sacrificing love to others? |
| How are you being changed by connecting to God’s word? |
| With whom are you sharing the good news? |
| God has invested a lot in you; how far reaching is the change in your connections? |
Next Week’s Section is 2:1-8 and I have entitled that one "Be changed."
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