Living faith #1

Northside Church

1 Peter #1

Jamey Mills

10/23/22

Video

Good morning Northside,

My name is Jamey and I am the lead pastor here at Northside Church… So good to be with you guys again…

Matt and I both struggled with showing this video a little… some of whats there and whats represented there… is just hard and dark… and is so many ways reveals a brokenness that is just for far away from what God desires… but at the same time… it is the world that we live in,...

And maybe I’m the only one, but it feels like things are getting worse… that the weight of the world that we live in… the lostness of it… the brokenness of it… is becoming more and more dissonant and distant with the heart and purpose of God.

And I thinks its a very real and appropriate question… what do we do… what does it look like to live as Christians in a world like this…

Today we are starting a brand new sermon series on the book of 1 Peter that we are calling… “Living Faith”

And to some degree that is the exact question Peter is answering…

Just another reminder… This QR code is on a sign at each entrance into the Gym, we are calling in “one click”... basically anything you’d need for a sunday morning, we try to have there for you. Online bulletin, fillable sermon notes, daily reading, event sign ups, connection card… even a way to give online…

1 Peter is a letter written by the apostle Peter… one of the three that were closest to Jesus.

He was a fisherman… who was called by Jesus to lay down his nets, to leave it all behind and follow Him… And his life was radically changed by Jesus. Peter is a great example of God’s ability to use normal, everyday, broken people who are seeking Him to do extraordinary things.

One author said it like this… “Before Acts 2, if you were to track Peter's life and faith it would most resemble the tracks of a drunk driver… sort of out of control and all over the place…

In his best moments… he made the great public confession as to who Jesus really is and showing this resolution to follow Jesus even to death if thats what it meant…

And at his worst… Being called Satan by Jesus… and so passionately denying him that swear words were involved.

Almost any time you hear people teach about Peter, they talk about how relatable he is… and I think that's a big part of it. We see his desire to follow Jesus and do the right thing… collide with the reality of his humanity… the struggle of it… and for me there's hope there… You’re saying there's a chance… With all that Peter had going on… he obviously had a place in God’s heart… maybe I do to.

1 Peter was written in about 62AD… not long after the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Most of the people alive when Jesus was crucified were still alive in that day.

And Peter himself tells us why he wrote it…

Why did Peter write the this letter?

1 Peter 5:12b NLT

I have written and sent this short letter to you with the help of Silas, whom I commend to you as a faithful brother. My purpose in writing is to encourage you and assure you that what you are experiencing is truly part of God’s grace for you. Stand firm in this grace.

(NLT)

12 My purpose in writing is to encourage you and assure you that what you are experiencing is truly part of God’s grace for you. Stand firm in this grace.

His purpose was to bring courage, strength and assurance to this group of gentile believers that were in this place of grief over the trials and growing persecution that they’d been facing… helping them understand God doesn’t waste any of it… that even in the face of a extreme and growing hardship… that very hardship is part of God’s grace to them… part of His favor, His gift, and His good will toward them.

Not only is their hardship not beyond the knowledge and power of God, He can use it for their good.

So he says… stand firm, stand strong… in the reality of that grace.

That idea is everywhere in scripture… That there is this growing opportunity… His grace.. The presence of God… this coming to Jesus… and this deepening faith… that happens under pressure…

That has absolutely been true of my life… so much of God’s grace, and favor and work has come through seasons of hardship, when i was forced to question things, pray more, step out in faith, and had little else to hold on to… where more trust in Him felt like all I had left… and that's where these people are…

1 Peter 1:1–12 (NLT)

1 Peter 1:1–2 NLT

This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. May God give you more and more grace and peace.

I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. 2 God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. May God give you more and more grace and peace.

This letter was written to a group of displaced and suffering gentile Christians in modern day Turkey… It was a Roman province… with heavy Roman influence.

In a time and place that really has a lot in common with the world we live in now…

Most scholars agree that the hardship Peter is addressing is not a persecution where Chritians were being drug out into the streets and beaten…

But more living in a time and place where their faith was not only misunderstood… but stood in opposition to so much of what the culture valued… and it was leading which led to all sorts of religious discrimination… they were different… living differently… having different values… and the pressure was building.

Sound familiar?

Paull Trip says that Peter is addressing the question…

What is the most dangerous thing for a Christian living in this kind of culture?

and you’d think the answer would be… this growing threat to Christianity… but Paul says that's not it at all…

The most dangerous thing is identity amnesia; forgetting who you are in Christ and what you’ve been given. Throughout 1 Peter, he shares about 11 identity statements… remind us of who we are…

2 peter 1:3 reminds us that God has given us everything we need to live a godly life… the question is… will we respond and make the most of those things…

And then in vs 9 Paul says that part of the reason that believers then and now aren’t experiencing everything that God has for them in their life…

2 Peter 1:9 NLT

But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.

(NLT)

9 But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.

He’s saying they’ve forgotten who they are and what they’ve been given…

In these first two verses… Peter talks about this dissonance… the paradox we live in.

(Picture)

On one hand…

Chosen by God, intimately known by Him, forgiven, set apart for His purpose, called to follow/obey, blessed by God, and blessed by His presence in our life

And on the other…

Rejected by the world, exiles, foreigners, aliens, feeling, hearing and knowing that we just don’t belong… That is the reality of our situation…

THat is the world that we live in… and ther battle we face… its where spiritual warfare lives and why Peter was the way he was…

Another author said it like this…

So many people want heaven, hope, fullness, freedom, grace and forgiveness… but they don't want Jesus..

And it amazes me… that we have the intelligence to put a man on the moon but with all of our experience and knowledge of history, we cannot put our finger on the source of our brokenness.

The longer and more closely we walk with Jesus, the more this place just doesn’t feel like home… Longing for a place where brokenness, hate, rage, lust, and selfishness are truly undone… and where the reality of God’s presence and purpose

1 Peter 1:3–7 NLT

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.

3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, 4 and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. 5 And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.

6 So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.

You can hear that identity language…

By God’s great mercy… difference between mercy and grace…

Mercy is not getting what you deserve… grace is getting what you don’t deserve.

Peter says that by God’s great mercy and through the resurrection of Jesus… that we as Christians have this “great expectation”… this hope

Peter says that it's different from worldly hope…

Paul Tripp mentions that we, at creation, are all hardwired for hope… it's part of the longing that God put in every one of us toward Him…

It looks something like this…

What is the difference between Christian hope and worldly hope?

Worldly hope is based on my own thoughts, desories, effort, strength, and wisdom… and its benefits are temporary.

But Living hope is active, productive, not the result of our own doing, initiated by God… it’s

Living hope his anchored by the past, points to the future, and is experienced in the present.

achoned/informed by the past (Vs 3)

what God has done- in history but also in our new life

Points to a glorious future (Vs 4)

a pure, undefiled inheritance that is beyond decay... where brokenness is undone

is experienced in the present… (Vs 5)

Emboldens us to live out our faith… knowing that we are guarded, guided and protected by God Himself… until we meet Jesus face to face.

Authentically following Jesus isn’t “safe”... but our hope, our faith, our place and our identity is protected… and guarded by God Himself…

Part of what Peter experienced in this life and part of what he is teaching is that we are not immune to the struggle.

Our sinful nature in combination with the increasingly fallen nature of the world we live in is tough…

There will be moments of rebellion, of weakness, not listening to God, of getting caught up in the culture… of losing my way…

And in the face of that Peter is sharing what he has experienced in calling us back to Jesus and our identity in Him…

And we don’t use that as an excuse to live like hell…

But to rejoice in the goodness of God and in this living hope that we have.

1 peter 1:8-12

8 You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. 9 The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.

10 This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you. 11 They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ’s suffering and his great glory afterward.

12 They were told that their messages were not for themselves, but for you. And now this Good News has been announced to you by those who preached in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. It is all so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen.