Thrive Following Jesus

[Recap]

1 Peter is powerful in reminding us how to Thrive in the midst of whatever it is we face!

Looking Back to God’s great salvation

Looking forward to God’s coming salvation and the consummation of all things.

Persevering in the present by living holy lives as a testimony to Jesus’ resurrection.

Identity in Christ

New Creation, born of God, elect, chosen according to the foreknowledge of God, sanctified by the Spirit, sprinkled with his blood, forgiven, new birth, heirs of an inheritance that does not fade away, in love with Jesus, full of glorious and inexpressible joy.

How to Live with Godly Values - the 4 Pillars

Hope

Holiness

Fear of God

Love one Another (and rid yourselves)

1 Peter 1:23–2:2“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,”

1 Peter 2:21 “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.”

Thrive Following Jesus

Being a disciple or follower of Jesus simply put means to imitate him.

This is how the indicatives (what has happened by God’s grace) become the imperatives (how we now live by following Jesus).

Grow with Milk / Desire the Word!

“Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

In context Peter could be saying: Instead of craving the former sins of the flesh, crave the nourishment that comes from God’s Word.

Logikos- literally mind-engaging, it is rational and believers like children must mature cognitively. From Logos - the Word (in the beginning was the Word…)

This is the message you obeyed and believed. It is the Gospel (good news) of God’s Grace.

It is the message the Apostle Paul gave his life to, Acts 20:24 “24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”

It is the message that Peter said in chapter 1 was what Angels longed to look to.

It is the message in Colossians 1 that is bearing fruit all over the world for those who believe and understand the grace of God.

The message is not only the instrument by which God uses to save us but also to mature us.

Milk in the Greek world represented learning. This craving also implies the need just as a child needs nourishment.

And as a child nurses from his/her mother’s breast, a special unbreakable bond is formed, So as we taste the goodness of the Lord in His Word, we mature in this relationship. The Father nourishes us in intimacy.

He is not saying that we graduate from milk or from babies. He also is not referring to our spiritual maturity as babies but rather the attitude and desire within a baby for their mother’s milk. They crave it and they need it - so should you!

Bode desires and craves the milk and he doesn’t care what you have going on or what time it is. He wants to eat. and God is saying you need to crave his word like this baby or you will begin to crave the wrong things. They only want one thing!

Jesus said to Martha: “Luke 10:41–42““Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.””

In fact, perhaps we aren’t thriving in following Jesus because our problems arise from desiring the wrong things instead of the one thing!

When we are craving spiritual nourishment as a church we will thrive instead of being involved in demonic disputes of envy and such.

And The very foundation/motivation for desiring/craving the Word of God is that the Lord is good.

God is good

Reminder of Peter in Luke 5 who experienced the goodness of the Lord.

Luke 5:8 “When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!””

Notice, it wasn’t the teaching of Jesus that caught his attention, it was the blessing and goodness of the Lord towards him who did not deserve it.

He is good to us when we don’t deserve it. This is the Gospel of Grace - unearned, unmerited favor. Peter did not deserve it earn it, this was His grace!

What all the toiling and work to obtain what was needed failed, simply obeying “The one thing” the Words of Jesus brought it all.

How many of us in the world are chasing happiness and freedom and fulfillment, distracted like Martha and missing the one needful thing where we will find what we are looking for.

So crave the Word of God, it is the one thing that will cause you to thrive. It is the one thing needful to imitating Jesus.

Notice- This grace did not leave him as he was, it changed him and the course of his life.

The goodness of God is not hypothetical or theoretical. It is experienced.It is the goodness of the Lord that brings us to repentance

Romans 2:4 “4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?”

This encounter with the grace of God led them to leave everything and follow him.

This is the Gospel. It isn’t just a topic, it is the message!

It is the good news of what God has accomplished in Christ.

The Gospel says you are forgiven and cleansed. You are in right standing with God because of what Jesus did for you.

The Gospel of Grace is Transformative.

Growing by “milk” is discipleship. So that you “May grow up in your salvation”

The Gospel of the grace of God is intended to transform us as it did Peter and all the others.

Becoming a disciple or rather “following Jesus” is defined by imitating Jesus because “being conformed to the image of Christ” is our ultimate destiny. As Peter said, be holy as he is holy, and to love one another and rid ourselves of that which doesn’t belong.

Jesus did what he did because he loved God. So must we.

Jesus trusted in the plan and power of God. So must we.

Jesus lived a certain way to help others believe in him and God’s plan. So must we.

Living like Jesus can be hard, there are things we are told to stop doing and start doing, that is why a change of heart - repentance and his indwelling spirit is necessary but it is not to make God love me, he already did and does. Look at Jesus:

Jesus lived a life of sacrifice. Jesus put God first, and loved others. Jesus lived this way not so God would love him or be happy with Him. God loved Jesus already as he did you (you were foreknown). John 17:24 - God loved Jesus before the foundation of the world.

This is imperative to staying out of the performance trap.

Some Christians add a bunch of things on to the purity of the Gospel in order to feel like they deserve the blessings of God.

This is not the abundant life Jesus came to give us, it is just another form of bondage. Perpetually living in guilt of not living up to a standard you have created for yourself will blind you from the love of God and his immense grace towards you.

We do not imitate Jesus in order to merit or earn or deserve God’s love and blessing.

Remember, it was when we were god’s enemies God loved us. He didn’t wait until we cleaned up our act to love us.

Our motive for imitating Jesus is also not to keep God loving us so we’ll be saved in the end.

We do not sustain our salvation or righteousness because: That which cannot be achieved by performance cannot be lost by performance.

Salvation has nothing to do with our own worth or merit. It has everything to do with what someone—Jesus—did for us.

2 Corinthians 5:21 “21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

We take no credit for our new identity and salvation. Jesus gets all the credit.

The goal of our lives should be to show our loyalty and gratitude to the one who saved us, and help others enter God’s family.

What if we fail? What if we sin? We will do both. God knows that. He knows humans pretty well! He knows who we are and nothing surprises Him. You have never dissapointed God in the true meaning of the word. Disappointment implies unmet expectations. God doesn’t have unmet expectations.

But he already loved us before we had the slightest interest in doing anything to love him back. He loved us when we were his enemies—“while we were yet sinners” (Rom 5:8).

God loved us before we were in his family. Why would he love us less, or stop loving us, now that we’re in his family? Now that we are his children? Now that we are his heirs? When we sin and fail, He forgives us. He wants us to believe that and get back to imitating Jesus.