1 Peter 1:13-21

1 Peter 1  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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Intro

last week we talked about hope and placing our hope in Christ
Recall background info- Nero, Roman persecution of the church, Peter is encouraging Christians who have been spread out by the persecution
we are continuing through our series in 1 Peter 1- we’ll be in verse 13-21
Peter sets up all of his argument of being holy on the basis of the great cost of our salvation
He gives us directions on being holy and then roots that in Jesus’ sacrifice
*Read and Pray*
1 Peter 1:13–21 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. 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, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 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, 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. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 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.
The first verse of this section serves as a great reminder of what we talked about last week- placing our hope in Christ and in eternity with Him
Read verse 13- We need to fully place our hope and trust in Christ. There’s no shortcuts to eternity because the road is long and bumpy

Holiness Takes Work (v.13-17)

This phrase sounds militaristic- prepare your defense- you have to be very intentional in your walk with holiness
no one grows in holiness just by sitting around and hoping you get struck with holy powers like a super hero- no holy radioactive spiders
Growing in your walk with Christ takes work and focus. It takes discipline which is just forcing yourself to do the right things even though you don’t want to- You will be glad you did it though
Why do we grow in holiness though?
“Be Holy as I am Holy” (v. 16)- When you are saved, you are bought with the blood of Jesus- this means your life is not your own. You are no longer serving yourself or Satan but God.
you are not your own, but funnily enough, there is freedom in that. There is freedom in belonging to Christ because we were held to a standard we couldn’t amount to
God is perfectly holy, so many times throughout scripture when He gives a command on holy living He compares it to Himself
God is the perfect standard for holiness, but how can we live up to that? We can’t!
For the Christian, God has already given you His righteousness when He laid Himself on the cross
He bore your wickedness on the cross and gave you His righteousness- you are considered holy though you continue to sin
Dedicate yourself to holiness because God has dedicated you to holiness
Therefore, live your life for Him, striving to be holy as He is. Remember last week when I quoted 1 Corinthians 9:24-27- life is a race
When we get to the end of it, we want to be able to say that we finished strong. I don’t know about you, but I want to be hear, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”
“As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance” (v. 14)
Even as believers in Christ now we still have this tendency in our flesh to resort back to our old ways. - we continue to struggle with sin and disobey God
Illustration: who here has had hamsters? When I was little I had a lot of hamsters. We had two that I kept trying to make them race. They kept running and random directions and then I would have to chase after them. Then I tried to build a hamster dragrace track out of VHS tapes, and then that didn’t work.
The hamsters that I truly loved and cared for so very dearly would not do what I wanted and it was frustrating- How frustrating is it for God when you shove away everything He wants for you to do? Obviously, God is not a Star Wars obsessed 10 year old forcing His will on a couple of unsuspecting hamsters that didn’t choose to be bought from the store. But you did choose to be bought. We still have this struggle though
But that’s just it though, it is a struggle- it is something we should always be fighting and shoving down
Your heart which the prophet Jeremiah called in Jeremiah 17:9 “deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” is always going to try and get what it wants.
But you just need to learn to tell your heart to shut up
life is not like a Disney movie- you can’t just follow wherever your heart desires and be happy, the heart will lead you down a path of destruction

Holiness was not Cheap (v.18-21)

through the first few verses, Peter implores his audience to pursue holiness in their actions and words, and then in verse 18-21 he roots that command in our faith in Christ
In verses 17 and 18 he says, “If you call on Him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear” and then he says that we do this knowing that we have been bought with the blood of Jesus.
If you are going to call God your Father and you are going to be a child of God, you need to have a reverential fear or a respect for the Lord and His sacrifice.
He didn’t pay for your freedom with worthless silver or gold but with His own blood. He was beaten, ridiculed, mocked, they stuck a sign on Him that said, “King of the Jews” to make fun of Him. They hung Him up with nails in his hands and feet on a cross, and they hung Him on a hill to be publicly humiliated.
He was perfect, blemishless, sinless, yet He was made a sin offering for all of the world. A holy and perfect God came to earth in the flesh to be persecuted by His own creation
The Holy, Righteous, All-powerful, All-knowing, Sovereign God stepped down from His throne to make Himself the final sin sacrifice for all sins.
I’m convinced that We can’t wrap our minds around the price Jesus paid for our sins, much less, understand how much His life was worth to begin with.

Conclusion

Friends, if you have not given your life to Christ, today can be the day. You might not get another day, you never know. If that is something you feel the Lord drawing you to, please talk to myself, Pastor Mike, or your teachers. We would love to answer and questions you may have.
But when you give your life to Christ, you are giving your life to Christ. You belong to Him which will free you from sin’s reign over you, and you will be able to freely serve Christ. You will be able to be all in to live a holy life!
My friends in the room who are believers in Christ, are you living it? Are you being holy because God is holy? When I was young, I always wanted to be like my dad. Similarly, as a child of God, I want to be like my Father.
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