Together: Grow

Scripture

1 Peter 1:13–2:5 NIV

13 Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” 17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 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 ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 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. 22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, 25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you. 1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. 4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Pray.

Introduction

When I began my doctoral program, we had this orientation where the program was laid out so we might know what to expect. They were casting vision for United and what it meant to be in a doctoral program. They told us things like:

write every day. Write for 30 minutes

if you get behind it is so difficult to catch up

you will get to the point where you hate your project

Learn to read quickly

Find people you trust in your cohorts and lean on your mentors

I walked out of there thinking I just enlisted into the Armed forces and I was about to deploy. It was that serious.

What they were doing was initiating us and setting the bar high so that our expectations would be healthy and serious.

Unfortunately, we do not always do that with people when they join the church. We are so eager to welcome people that we are worried about scaring people away with burdensome commitments. Because of that orientation, I began that process with the information I needed and knew what I was being called to do. In the church it is vital that we communicate the expectations, not of joining a study program, but the expectations of what it means to be in a community and expectations for what God can do in community.

Let’s talk about 1 Peter....

1 Peter Context:

One of the things I want you to see when we study together is that Scripture should not be ripped out of its context and dropped into ours. This is a letter written by a person for a purpose to a people. The ancient context of this letter will actually speak into our world but let’s not skip steps to get to a coffee cup scripture....we will miss some of the power of God’s word.

Likely written by Peter, the disciple we have come to know well through the gospels and after Jesus’ death and resurrection, this fisherman becomes a great leader of the new movement.

Peter would be killed, some think in similar fashion as Paul at the hands of Nero. Persecuted for his faith. Writing to a region of churches facing similar difficulties.

To be Jewish in the Roman world is to face great difficulties, sometimes resulting in persecution.

Roman gods, disrespected, culture challenged.

Then to be Greek Jesus follower was even worse. A threat.

The audience, these churches are facing difficulties. And we may not be experiencing the same type of difficulty, but Peter’s instruction is not just for times of persecution but what it means to be a people and how being together is so important.

Spiritual House:

Peter is going to lay out all of this instruction, imperatives…do this and dont do this. Live this way. And as you do, you will be “living stones being built into a spiritual house.

Blocks

House without the cornerstone

Loses integrity

It is just a house, just a gathering of stones, it does not have its purpose

Cornerstone without the blocks

In a crazy sense, Peter says, this is how people will fully see God in the world. The church built around him.

This is your offering, to be this house. This temple to the world. What does this look like? I think Peter gives us the vision of the house in the preceeding verses, particularly through 5 imperatives of the text.

Building the Spiritual House:

Set your hope on Jesus

Be Holy

Live as foreigners

Love deeply

Crave growth

Set your hope on Jesus

The first imperative is to set your hope on Jesus. The future hope that Jesus will return and make all things new, but also the hope that reaches back into the present…look at verse 13

1 Peter 1:13 NIV

13 Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.

This is the first instruction for the house: Focus on the cornerstone, the living stone, Jesus.

Minds that are alert and fully sober.... Gird up the loins of your mind. Sometimes they take out all of the fun in the english translation. It is a metaphor. Like someone that is about to wrap up their outter garments so they can take off whenever they need to.

This is what Peter is saying to do with your mind. Even as you wait for Jesus to return, I want you to focus on him. Train your mind.

Who in your life, do you give place for spiritual and meaningful conversations?

Be Holy

The second imperative is is to be holy. This is exactly what we talked about a couple of weeks ago if you were here when we began this series. 1 Peter 1:15....

1 Peter 1:15 NIV

15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;

Holiness is about staying with the Rabbi and being transformed, being changed by your time with the teacher, our leader. Being holy is about being conformed into the image of the son.

Remember, Skinny white jeans....

Live as foreigners

The next imperative is an important one, and one I think we often miss the mark with.

1 Peter 1:17 NIV

17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.

Sharing fellowship encouraging one another as you live in a foreign land. Citizenship with the kingdom, as Paul puts it.

We are in the world and not of the world, a frame of mind, a way of being that instructs that this land is not for us.... Friends, this is not retreatal language....this is speaking back into the Roman context where everything is Caesar's. Your allegiance is to the emperor, and your social commitment is to the classes, and your religion is for the gods, what you do and what you eat is all determined. This is the language that says, now we are different. We have different commitments, and we live differently on the weekends, and we will not pull away from this land but we will be kingdom focused and stay together on this.

In High School, I remember a group of us making this commitment that we would be different. Probably after one of those summers of giving my life to God....and we went to school and ate together, carried our bible, not in our backpack, but in our hands....oooooooooooo. We sat together in the cafeteria and made a show of praying together. We were trying to be foreigners in the land, but I think we might have missed it.

Church, here is the tricky thing. Living as foreigners in the land is not about looking like Christians, it is about being Christians. Our hearts were in the right place, but the fellowship is to help encourage that we are becoming like the cornerstone. We didnt seek out the lonely kid and have lunch with him in the cafeteria.

Love deeply

Fourth, we are to love each other deeply. Living as a family. Look at verse 22:

1 Peter 1:22 NIV

22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.

Sharing with someone this week about some of the personal stressors in my life right now and the difficulty of moving as an itinerant pastor in all of this. The groups was very supportive and expressed empathy. One night when I decided to call it a night and leave the pastors to get some sleep, one of them got up and walked with me back to my room…I thought it was odd, told the group he would be back. He said JW, I have been thinking about your family all day. How are you today? Where are you right now? How is your heart? That was the difference in being empathetic and walking in the trench with me. Loving me deeply.

This is how you live as a one being built around the cornerstone, if you will love deeply from the love of Jesus.

How many times do we allow anyone in to see us when our masks are off? How many times do we settle for shallow empathy instead of the deep sacrificial love?

Crave Growth

Finally, we are to crave growth. Well, what he says is to crave pure spiritual milk....check it out.

1 Peter 2:2 NIV

2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,

Sleeping outside the door of the rabbi.

I have been trying to get back to a healthier way of living recently. A couple of weeks ago I travelled for some continuing education.... took all my workout clothes, did not exercise one time. I was lethargic and felt lazy and tired.. Ate too much food, drank too much....coffee. I did not grow in the right way.

Can I get personal for a second....

politics

sports

netflix

racial conversation, where you are digging into your own trenches instead of learning from one another

and at the end of it all. We are feeble, we are tired, we are exhausted. Because we have lost our appetite for what is most important. We have lost our appetite for our own salvation. We have lost our appetite for Jesus. This appetite comes from being planted in a community of believers on the same journey.

We are being built into the Spiritual House....Yall (not you) in front of every one of these.