Miraculous Births: The Church
Miraculous Births • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 4 viewsWe ought to rejoice that God has given the church, the anticipated new birth through Christ
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
I’ve mentioned before that I keep a journal.
I carry it with my to remember what I studied in the morning
and what I’ve done throughout the day.
about every 6 months I bind all the smaller journals together
to create a book
so I can look back and read the memories of the past year.
One thing I’ve also done is to create a habit tracker
it keeps track of various things throughout the day
and also helps me to build habits into my life
that I want to continue.
Things like reading every day
drinking a certain amount of water,
only drinking a certain amount of coffee,
sending letters to people, etc.
When I think I’ve successfully built that habit into my life
I change the tracker to something else
to build new habits into my daily rhythms.
I had the opportunity the other day
to record a quick video about resolutions.
Should Christians make New Year’s resolutions?
Here’s the shortened version of it.
If you want the full version
I would check Facebook or Instagram.
The short answer is yes, Christians can and should make resolutions
as long as we understand the meaning of the word resolution.
It means to resolve something.
Apparently there is something in our lives
we want to fix.
So we resolve to make changes
in order to fix what is wrong.
The problem is that resolutions are often made
with self help in mind
rather than including God and others into the decisions.
That means that we spend our time and energy
trying to either fix a problem
that wasn’t brought to our attention by God
or we are trying to fix a problem in our lives without God
or without accountability of others.
This is why we often fail.
because we are using our own spirit and energy
to try to fix something.
And by the time February rolls around
we ‘ve given up.
Last Thursday marked the beginning of a new year.
What is it about the New Year
that gives one new hope for a better you?
I won’t get into the psychology of it.
But one thing is clear to me.
I don’t need just a better version of myself—not merely Art 2.0.
But I could use a whole new “me.”
A new me that is healthy, well rested, active,
bold in evangelism, disciplined, well-liked by others,
compassionate, a loving father and husband,
a good friend, successful, generous, wealthy,
well-traveled, joyful, thankful,
and who always keeps an eternal perspective—
just to name a few things.
I’m a firm believer in goals and hard work,
and I do think we can see progress in some of our ideals.
There is just one problem.
Me.
I am my own worst enemy.
I don’t know about you,
come February, the New Year’s motivation will have worn off
and I’ll already be thinking, “Ok, maybe next year will be better.”
What we need most this year is not just resolutions,
hard work, discipline, or motivation.
What we need is a new identity and a different goal.
In Christ, we have that new identity,
and salvation is that goal that together we strive for.
This morning, I want us to consider this new identity
and new goal corporately—
not just for you as an individual Christian but for us as a church.
My goal and main idea this morning is that
we would rejoice that God has given the church
the anticipated new birth through Christ.
We are going top be focused on the first letter from Peter this morning.
As we begin with the first point of A New Identity.
A New Identity
A New Identity
What most shapes our identity?
Is it what we do?
So many times we introduce ourselves by what we do.
Hi, I’m Art, and I’m a pastor.
It sounds like the beginning of an AA meeting.
But these are the questions that start most conversations.
What do you do?
Where you are from?
and the answers by someone are either followed by
“Ohh” or “Eww”
We’ve come to believe that these are the things
that shape our personal identity.
maybe even our individual personality?
I’d wager that more important than where we’re from
or what we do are our relationships.
And what relationships shape us more than any other?
Family.
I would tell students all the time
you will become your parents when you get older.
You will inherit traits from your mother or your father.
I inherited my mothers winning personality
and my dad’s hair style.
I inherited my dad’s work ethic
and meticulous perseverance and creative tenacity
with a touch of my mom’s sense of hospitality and unbridled tact.
If we really want to know someone,
we should know about their family.
When you date someone
you may not realize it
but you are potentially marrying your in-laws as well.
Whoever your mother-in-law or father-in-law is
there are traits that your future and potential spouse will be also.
So it is significant that Peter begins his letter
to this group of Christians
by reminding them of who they are
in relation to the Heavenly Father.
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ: To those chosen, living as exiles dispersed abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, chosen
2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient and to be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
Peter writes to “chosen exiles.”
I like how some translations put it—“elect strangers.”
Peter’s readers are scattered throughout modern-day Turkey.
Many of them are scattered
because of societal pressure against them for their faith.
What does it mean that they are “elect” or “chosen”?
Well, verse 2 explains that these mainly Gentile Christians,
are “chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.”
This doesn’t mean that God looked down the corridor of time
to see who would believe in him.
It means that God chose a people for himself.
Just as he chose Israel in the Old Testament.
Nothing that they have done makes them “foreknown.”
God calls his children to himself because of his grace alone.
This word foreknow is a deep word of love.
look ahead at 1 Peter 1:20
20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was revealed in these last times for you.
see that God also “foreknew” the eternal Son—Jesus Christ our Savior.
So he has called us to be
incorporated into his eternal family through his Son.
We see this clearly in verse 2.
The whole Trinity makes an appearance in this verse.
The Father chooses,
the Spirit sanctifies,
and the Son saves us through his work on the cross.
The word trinity is not in the Bible.
But our relationship to God is only possible
because of the work of our triune God.
Who he is, as three in one, shapes who we are.
This is why it says in 2 Corinthians 13:14,
13 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
From the time of the early church till today,
Christians have understood themselves to be part of a community.
That is only possible because of the work of the triune God.
If you’re a non-Christian here today,
I want to commend you for coming to a Christian church
where you may hear a different perspective
from what the world is preaching.
It shows an open-mindedness and willingness
to hear what God’s Word has to say.
So let me give the CliffsNotes version of the Bible in like 60 seconds
so we can have some context to this letter
that Peter wrote to these churches in about AD 62–63.
We are all created beings.
There is a creator God who is holy, good, and all-powerful.
But like rebellious teenagers,
we rebelled against this Father who had given us life.
We didn’t want a divine authority over us
but wanted to live our lives according to our own rules
and what we think will make us happy.
In the midst of our rebellion,
God sent His Son in humility to be born as a man
and to live the life we should have lived in obedience to the Father.
He died on the cross for our sins.
The sprinkling of Christ’s blood forgives us of our sin
and cleanses us from guilt.
And the Spirit sets us apart as a true child of God.
When we think of Christianity,
we may think of a certain lifestyle, politics,
refraining from certain behaviors, or just being “conservative.”
But fundamentally to be a Christian
is to turn from our sin
and know the grace and peace that can be ours in abundance.
That is grace from Jesus Christ
and the peace that God secures between us and the Father
through the blood of the Son.
And God doesn’t just save us and then call it good:
“Ok, you’re forgiven, now get on with your individual life.”
No, he saves us into something and for something
and that something is the church.
We are to know a new identity corporately
just as God’s identity is fundamentally corporate in the Trinity.
This church is not a social club.
It is not merely a place to motivate “the faithful” to do good works.
This is a place where Christians know their real identity as
children together of the King.
An eternal family.
We understand that our relationships with one another
are actually more fundamental than
our relationships with our biological family
because of how God has chosen us in the gospel.
That’s a radical idea.
I chuckle at those that would say
“I’m not coming to church
because that’s my family time.”
Where as I believe God would say
what are you doing with your family time
that is making an eternal difference in the world?
For those that are Christian,
our response to what God has done must be one of praise.
And that is exactly where Peter goes in verse 3.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.
5 You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
This sermon marks the conclusion of our “Miraculous Births” sermon series.
And here in 1 Peter 1:3 we see
that God wasn’t done with miraculous births with Jesus.
Individuals who are dead in sin
are “born again” into God’s family.
God gave us that new birth
into a living hope through Christ’s resurrection.
Our hope is that we will follow the incarnate Christ
in resurrection one day!
In 1 Corinthians 15:17-19, the apostle Paul makes the point
17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.
18 Those, then, who have fallen asleep in Christ have also perished.
19 If we have put our hope in Christ for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone.
If Christ was not raised from the dead, we have no hope.
And then the church is worthless and we should be pitied.
But Jesus was raised and, therefore, we have hope
that we will be raised.
This literally “living” hope gives us a new identity.
You can’t change who your parents are,
the DNA they gave you,
the influence they were on you for good or ill.
But you are offered a new identity
that is more powerful than your DNA,
more powerful than the lessons of your parents,
because this identity is rooted
in the resurrection of the God-man.
Those who turn from their sin and trust that he is who He says He is
by virtue of His indestructible life
are made children of God and given a hope
that nothing in this life can take away.
1 Peter 1:4 shows us that this new identity
as children of the risen Christ also comes with an inheritance.
What is this inheritance?
It is the living hope we have already considered.
The inheritance is also connected
to our future salvation that we see in verse 5.
And Peter uses the strongest possible terms
so that we might know that our hope and salvation is secure.
This isn’t like how we use the word hope like,
“I hope I have enough money to retire”
or “I hope I can find a spouse”
or “I hope my kids have happy lives.”
or “I hope he finishes up soon because I’ve got lunch plans.”
This hope is certainty. unlike me finishing up soon,
because it is rooted in Christ’s resurrection.
In verse 5 the tool that God uses
to shield our salvation until the end is “our faith.”
Which may make it sound like
our salvation isn’t as secure as we thought.
I’m sure we all have had friends or family
who have “left the faith.”
But faith is a gift from God.
It is something he does in us from first to last.
Real faith won’t leave due to doubts or difficult circumstances.
Real faith perseveres.
And God himself is the one who ensures that.
That is why I love the song we sing,
“When I fear my faith will fail, Christ will hold me fast.”
But we often fear.
And not just losing our faith.
We have small identity crises all the time.
At least if you’re anything like me.
If I give a poor sermon, I can feel insecure.
If I come to the realization that
I haven’t been a loving father or husband, I am insecure.
But this new identity is rooted not in us
but in the living Christ.
This knowledge of where we come from
and where we are going should change everything for us.
If we now know that our Father chose us before time began
and we know that we have an inheritance of a living hope
that is 1 billion times better than a generous retirement account,
it hopefully changes our outlook on our future.
Our inheritance is rooted in the new birth.
Think of it this way:
What did we do to be born? Nothing!
In the same way, we contribute nothing to our new birth!
We are secure in this new identity.
Is this how we understand our identity here this morning?
Or is our identity more rooted in you and the things you do?
I’d encourage for us to consider
a much more secure and joyful identity in Christ.
One that is rooted in the sovereign choice of the Father,
the Son’s sacrifice and resurrection,
and the Spirit’s setting you apart to be in the eternal family of God
As 1 Peter 1:2 says.
As we’ve considered these births over this series,
Samson, Samuel, John the Baptist, and Jesus,
they must have known they were special.
I wonder if their moms told their sons the story.
“An angel appeared and told me you would be born of a miracle!
And that God would make you great
and accomplish great things through you!
This is your destiny; God will accomplish it in your life!”
These men of miraculous birth had a supernatural origin
and a God-given destiny.
As the church, we are no different.
Together we have been born again
through the miracle of the resurrection.
And God will witness to His great power and love through us, the church.
He will accomplish it, and we can’t mess it up.
Doesn’t that make us want to be a part of God’s family in the church?
Doesn’t that give us great confidence and trust
that God will accomplish great things for us and through us
despite all our failures and weaknesses?
How would our life together change
if we really lived in this reality?
I know for me,
it makes me want to take more risks for the sake of the gospel.
To be bolder in sharing Christ with others.
To make it more of a priority to be fully present with God’s people
as we sing, pray, and hear his Word.
An angel might not have announced our birth.
But angels long to catch a glimpse of what God has done in the church.
How the triune God has brought us into a relationship with Himself is breathtaking.
It should fuel our confidence in evangelism
and our zeal to know his Word
and commune with Him in prayer,
and it should give us not only a new identity
but also an unshakeable joy.
An Unshakable Joy
An Unshakable Joy
One would think with having a new and secure identity as a child of God
with an imperishable inheritance that life would be grand!
What is there to worry about?
Well, in verse 6, we get a reality check.
Peter mentions Suffering. Trials.
But in verses 6–9, we see that not even suffering can shake the joy of our salvation.
6 You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials
7 so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; though not seeing him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy,
9 because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Verse 6 says, “In this you greatly rejoice …”
What are we to find so joyful?
Well, verse 5 says that our salvation is coming
and will be revealed in the last time.
This is such a future certainty; it changes our present.
Suffering and trials may be swirling all around us
and will certainly be unpleasant and painful.
But even in the midst of this,
our eyes and our hearts are turned upward,
looking forward to the revealing of our final salvation.
And this gives us great joy even in the midst of suffering.
Verse 6 says that we suffer “all kinds of trials for a little while.”
We may take issue with that “little while”
because you have known suffering for many years.
So how can Peter say that we endure it for “a little while”?
Well, I think Peter is getting at the same idea that Paul was getting at in 2 Corinthians 4:17–18
17 For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory.
18 So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Compared to eternity, our current affliction is “light and momentary.”
Peter and Paul are not belittling suffering.
It is very real, heavy, and discouraging,
but our trials will seem light in the future by comparison
with the salvation that will be ours forever.
Not only does our future inheritance
and new identity inform how we perceive our present suffering,
but suffering itself has a purpose.
It proves our faith.
How can we know if our faith is genuine?
Faith is key, as we saw in verse 5,
because God uses our faith to shield our inheritance by his power.
Now we may get worried , and say,
“Oh no, my inheritance of salvation must not be very secure because my faith is weak!
I doubt him. I fall into sin.
I have this sin I keep falling into.
And when I look at other Christians,
they are so much farther along than me in faith.”
But if we think that way,
we may not really know what faith is.
One way to think of faith is faithfulness,
and faithfulness is proven over time.
True faith perseveres to the end.
Amidst struggle, amidst doubt.
Because the point is not the strength of our faith
but the object of our faith—
Jesus Christ and his promises.
That’s what makes the gift of faith more valuable than gold.
One commentator said,
“Approved faith is more valuable than gold because the latter is temporary and perishes. But faith is also compared to gold, for like gold it is refined and proved through fire.”
Suffering is often thought of as a problem for faith.
How could a good and all-powerful God
allow this pain and suffering in my life and in the world?
Anyone ever asked that question?
I wonder if we really want an answer?
Because if you do, we have one here in verse 7.
7 so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Get that?
Peter is arguing that suffering is the crucible for faith.
Trials test the genuineness of faith,
revealing whether or not faith is authentic, according to Schreiner.
If faith was never tested by suffering,
we would just be like prosperity gospel believers—
trusting God for our best life now.
That kind of “faith” that the TBN and other preachers peddle
isn’t really faith at all.
It is living by sight,
that God’s blessing is proven by the good things he gives us in this life.
If suffering in this world and in your life
causes you to wonder about the goodness and power of God,
welcome to the club.
We don’t dismiss suffering and just say tritely,
“Well, it will all work for good in the end.”
It will.
But there are times I struggle to believe that,
and that is one reason I come to the church
to remind myself that this world is not my home
and that what is coming
will make sense of all the troubles we know now.
If you would like to think through these difficult questions, though,
we’d love to connect you with someone to do a Bible study
or read through a Christian book on the topic.
We realize that it isn’t easy to trust a God
who has brought suffering into your life.
Verses 8–9 explain that faith is more than just “faithfulness,”
but it is belief.
Hebrews 11:1 agrees,
1 Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.
You will be criticized by the world for your faith.
The world finds its trust in “reason” much more rational
and secure of a foundation than our “blind faith.”
After all, isn’t that what Peter says our faith is here in verse 8?
A trust in what we cannot see?
Isn’t sound thinking and living
according to what we can see more reasonable?
Isn’t basing our whole life on what seems like a fairytale a bit risky?
Peter’s answer to your objections is “love wins.”
Love is greater than doubt.
Love is greater than sight.
Think about it.
All of us live by faith in things we cannot see.
Human rights, equality, and love
are not things that we see
or can be proved by science or an evolutionary worldview.
But we build our lives and society around these ideals.
Christians love Jesus not because we have seen him
but because we have heard his words of love.
He has changed us
and given us a new identity and an imperishable hope—
a salvation from our sin
and the joy of life forever in his glorious presence.
This is the goal of our faith.
The coming salvation that we see in verse 9.
When suffering and trials come into your life,
what is your prayer?
That the suffering would go away? I
know that is often my prayer.
And that is okay, Jesus and Paul prayed that too.
When there are trials in marriage,
we pray that things would go back to the way they were before.
We are plagued by nostalgia.
“Lord, make things like they were before this trial hit,
when our family was unified.
Before that divorce or death.
Before the financial trouble.
Before the cancer came.
Back when I was happy and everything was peaceful.”
What a lack of imagination we have!
We need to stop looking back at the way things were before
and instead look with hope and great expectation for
what God is accomplishing in us and for us through our trials.
God is doing something beautiful
through the pain of our suffering.
Do we trust him even in the suffering?
Not to take away the trial
but to grow our faith in him and cause us to see him
for how beautiful and powerful he is?
Seeing him and knowing him more deeply
is better than things going back to the way they were before.
Do we believe that?
We don’t sign up for faith
because God promises to make this life easy.
On the contrary,
faith is proven through these trials as we await our glorious hope.
An Anticipated Salvation
An Anticipated Salvation
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who prophesied about the grace that would come to you, searched and carefully investigated.
11 They inquired into what time or what circumstances the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating when he testified in advance to the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.
12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you. These things have now been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—angels long to catch a glimpse of these things.
We live in the day of prophecy fulfilled.
We live on the other side of the prediction of Jesus first coming.
Those who feared God in the past
trusted God to fulfill his promises and send a king,
Abraham’s seed to bring restoration and salvation to Israel.
But how privileged are we as the church of Jesus Christ
to be on the other side of those promises?
Those prophets and promises serve us now.
The Spirit sent by Christ himself
gave the prophets their message
and then Christ came and fulfilled those prophecies himself.
All so that we can wonder that
God has accomplished our new birth and salvation
through his beloved Son.
What would Daniel, Ruth, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Abraham, and David say
if they could see us today?
With all that we have?
With the salvation realized in Jesus?
The Holy Spirit dwelling within us,
no longer a law that is external to us
but a law now written on our hearts by the Spirit?
The church, God’s people who are part of the family of God?
And the Scriptures?
They would go nuts!
Angels currently look at our church,
the fulfillment of God’s promises,
and it’s like they want in!
Notice that in all the miraculous births we’ve considered
that angels are present?
From Samson to Jesus?
There is an angel announcing the upcoming birth in each story.
Here in 1 Peter 1:10–12,
we see that the prophets
announced the new birth of the church and our salvation.
We don’t get angels.
But we do get angels
longing to see this amazing thing that God has done.
If angels are amazed at what Christ has accomplished in the church,
should that change our perception of the church?
Yes, we are weak.
Yes, we are culturally out of touch.
Yes, we are often boring.
But the prophets of God foresaw a day
when God’s people would be redeemed,
and we are that redeemed community.
No longer defined by
our failures, our sins, our weaknesses, or our politics.
But defined by our new identity in Christ’s resurrection
and our common goal (and destination)—salvation in Christ.
Together we gather to remind one another
that this world is not our home.
We are elect exiles.
Chosen strangers.
Not strangers to one another.
For this a forever family.
But strange to the world in its rebellion against God.
If this is true (and it is)
does that change how we will invest in God’s people today?
And this year?
Does that change our goals for this year?
What if instead of merely improving ourself starting tomorrow,
we resolved to invest deeply in this church?
What would it look like to sacrifice our own desires
and inconvenience ourself
and instead take some risks for our “forever family”?
Which by the way
isn’t really risk at all.
God has shaped our identity and goal
to be centered in what God is doing here,
in this supernaturally called community of faith.
Conclusion
What God has accomplished in the church—
giving us a secure identity, an unshakable joy,
and a longed-for salvation—
is a work of mysterious love and grace,
as Peter writes in verse 2, “multiplied.”
Why would God be so kind to us?
Why would God make us so rich with blessing?
It’s not because he thinks we are so great.
It’s because he identifies us with his Son.
He calls us the body of his Son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the head,
and we have our new life in him.
We no longer belong to ourselves,
our previous ambitions and goals.
Instead, our goal is to make much of Christ together.
To know his joy, to share in his sufferings,
and to long for the day when together we will see him—
when our faith becomes sight.
This year may not turn out to be the year
that you finally have a quiet time every day,
or lose 20 lbs., or whatever the New Year’s resolution is.
But may this be the year that we see Jesus at work.
and potentially see Jesus in person.
And when we do see him (whenever that may be),
our salvation will be complete.
He will make all things new in our life.
A new body. A new reality with no more suffering.
Just pure joy.
That day is coming soon.
Will you encourage the brothers and sisters of this body
with this certain hope in the New Year?
That is our goal together:
to press on in hope to salvation.
Let’s pray that God would help us.
