1 Peter 1:13-2:3 Sermon

1 Peter  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  45:35
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Scripture Intro:

1 Peter...
“Elect Exiles”
How do we live as God’s people in places and cultures where we are strangers and aliens?
These people were actual exiles from their homes...
Yet, we are called to be exiles in a world that is hostile to God and hostile to his people.
Background of the sermon slides...
a photo of downtown Columbia,
representing the are that we live and call home.
It’s home, but it is definitely not our ultimate home.
Just to qualify the statement,
“This world is not our home.”
This earth actually is our home.
Imagine if Adam and Eve had never sinned,
where would they be?
On this planet...
so you can easily argue that we were created for this earth (home).
However, what is NOT home about it...
is the earth in its fallen condition.
or living on this earth without a direct walking with God.
Scripture Reading (“Please stand…”)
1 Peter 1:13 ESV
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.
1 Peter 1:14–15 ESV
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,
1 Peter 1:16 ESV
since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
1 Peter 1:17 ESV
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,
1 Peter 1:18–19 ESV
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.
1 Peter 1:20 ESV
He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you
1 Peter 1:21 ESV
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.
1 Peter 1:22 ESV
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,
1 Peter 1:23 ESV
since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
1 Peter 1:24–25 ESV
for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
1 Peter 2:1 ESV
So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
1 Peter 2:2–3 ESV
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.
“All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of [the field].
“The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.”
Pray...

Intro:

ILL. Rich uncle… filthy rich
Billions… “never have a financial care in the world” kind of money
And you are the only person that will inherit his fortune.
But you will have to wait 10 years to receive it.
How does that change your perspective on your finances today?
Let’s say you are truly just scraping by...
paycheck to paycheck
Hoping a big expenditure doesn’t come your way.
What changes about your thoughts of your current financial challenges?
They are light and momentary… B/c of the inheritance that is coming.
Remember from last week,
(v. 3) “born again to a living hope”
1 Peter 1:3 ESV
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,
hope - certainty and confidence
(v. 4) “to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.”
1 Peter 1:4 ESV
to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
(v. 5) we are “guarded through faith...
for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. “
1 Peter 1:5 ESV
who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
We set our confidence (hope) on something that God is keeping for us...
that will be ours when Jesus returns.
This perspective frames how we should live as exiles.
Exiles are without solid footing in this world.
Exiles feel displaced.
Exiles face an uncertain future.
Yet, how does God call us to live?

Pursuing What Endures

1 Peter 1:14–15 ESV
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,
“not conforming”
it is describing the action that follows in verse 15...
“passions of your former ignorance”
Basically, before you knew Christ...
what you chased after and thought was most important.
“passions”
fleeting, short-lived
Yet, very powerful
Seemingly… very real.
They even feel more real than the things of God.
So that’s why Peter writes this (to believers in Christ)...
even though we know the truth...
even though we have been born again...
we can easily think that the passions of the flesh are far more rewarding than the promises of God.
We can think that the payoff of what we can get now...
far outweighs what is to come.
Things are nice, but they don't endure.
The fruit of our passions disappear as well.
App. Pleasure and happiness is everything
Getting what we want from this world
More stuff, better vacations,
Just a little bit more money
An experience of unbridled pleasure
The image or video that pops up on our phone or computer
The attention and approval of people around you.
The payoffs are often immediate.
Yet, they are fleeting and many times end up in destruction.
But we still chase after them.
App. Where do you overvalue the “here and now” compared to the promised inheritance that God promises?
Where have you pursued “What you can see” more than the God who is unseen?
Where have you chased after the fleeting and forgetting the eternal?
1 Peter 1:13 ESV
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.
Preparing you minds
Modern equivalent of preparing minds for action - "roll up your sleeves"
Being sober-minded
Jeremiah 17:10 ESV
“I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”
Jeremiah 17:9 ESV
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Set Hope
Imperishable
1 Peter 1:23 ESV
since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
Same word as (v. 4)
Things that don’t pass away.
1 Peter 1:24–25 ESV
for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
ILL. Things pass away
You can in a moment lose your stuff, your home, your town
Hurricane Helene.
That came out of nowhere.
People didn’t go to the store.
People were thinking this was like all the rest of the storms...
“Much ado about nothing.”
But now… people have lost everything.
Our stuff, our security is so fleeting.
The things of this world can never be our hope.
Yet, if we are honest,
we put more hope in the things we can see than our God at times.

Living as People of Hope

1 Peter 1:15–16 ESV
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.”
Leviticus 11:44–45 ESV
For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground. For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”
1 Peter 1:17 ESV
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,
Imperatives:
"set your hope"
"be holy"
"conduct yourselves"
"love one another"
"long for pure spiritual milk"
Why?
1 Peter 1:18–19 ESV
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.
You were ransomed...
purchased
With a price that is unable to be measured.
the “precious blood of Christ.”
Honored, like a gem
“Born again”
1 Peter 1:23 ESV
since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
1 Peter 1:22 ESV
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,
App. Disposable people
1 Peter 2:1 ESV
So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
1 Peter 2:2–3 ESV
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.
Psalm 34:8 ESV
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

Close in Prayer

Closing Song:

“He Will Hold Me Fast”
No matter what we face in terms of suffering or being an exile,
he will hold us “fast” (old-school way of saying “secure”).
He will never let us go.
He will never fail.
He will hold us...
until “our faith is turned to sight”

Benediction:

According to [God’s] great mercy,
he has caused us to be born again to a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading,
kept in heaven for you...
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