Sermon Tone Analysis

Today as we move on through Peter he reminds us of the grace of God that is ours in Jesus Christ.

This grace has come to us through our faith in Him.

During the frigid winter months the man stood alone along the river’s frozen edge, tending a covey of ducks.

He fed them.

He cut through the ice to open up an area of water for them.

In short, he met their every need during the cold season.

Every day.

And there was a story behind why he was doing this which his friend told:

“He has just returned from the war in Vietnam.

The story is that ducks saved his life.

His unit had been ambushed.

Many of his friends had been killed, and while he hadn’t been shot, he lay down to look like he had.

He hoped they would go away.

But they didn’t.

The enemy kept coming.

Through the fields they came.

They’d put one more shot in every fallen man to ensure that he was dead.

But suddenly a covey of ducks flew overhead, and the attention of the soldiers was diverted.

In their excitement they began running after the ducks to shoot at them instead.

In the end, they stopped checking the field for men and left.

That’s how the man down by the river escaped.

And now he has a special love for ducks.

He loves because he lives.”

This is a picture of how it should be for us because Jesus has saved us by His astounding grace.

We should indeed be grateful and have a special love for Him and everything that now follows in this passage is as a result of all that we have been given.

How can we not live our lives in line with the will of God and not obey the words we hear today?

We have, after all, been given a living hope as Peter said in verse 3.

13

We are to gird up the loins of our mind.

What does that mean?

We are not drunk, but sober, sane, in control.

Of all the things that we can be told this is one of the most important for us to get a grasp of.

We are to roll up the sleeves of our mind Peter is saying.

We are to prepare ourselves for the life of holiness and it starts in the mind.

In a way we are saying you put rubbish in, you get rubbish out.

Or to put it biblically from:

The interesting thing about sowing is that whatever we sow, like a seed, will produce a harvest greater than the seed we sow.

So, if we sow into our minds good things, multiple good things will result but if we sow into our minds bad things then multiple bad things will result - whatever the result, good or bad, will show up in our behaviour.

The principle is clear and we can revert back to our previous study in Philippians where it says:

The mind that is girded up is one that has been redirected by Scripture to think in a different way.

The mind that is girded up remembers and relies upon the grace that will soon be brought to us at His appearing.

I love the verses in Colossians that say

What is above?

God.

Heaven.

Our citizenship.

Our future.

If we meditate on these it takes our mind of the temporary things of earth.

Peter in a nutshell is saying: Pay complete attention to the grace you have been given and will be given in Jesus when He returns.

14

In order for this to be fully seen in us we are to leave worldly things behind.

We are to be obedient.

This is both already true and to be true.

We are obedient children for responding to the Gospel, that’s a great start!

And we are to be obedient, not lustful as we were before we became Christians, before we knew about the salvation that Jesus brings.

Let us be clear what lust is.

Lust is an intense desire, not just for things that are sexual, but for things as well.

Most sins can come under the umbrella of lust:

The point for us is that before we had an excuse to live the lives we led, as much as anyone can have an excuse.

We lived the lives other people were living – we were conforming to the world but we were ignorant, without knowledge, without understanding but we now have no excuse for we are well aware that the price has been paid for us, that God through Jesus has loved us with an everlasting love.

15-16

We are now called to holiness as a response.

We are called to repentance.

We are called to set ourselves apart from the world and live unto God.

We are called to be holy, wholly for God, separated for Him and His work in our lives and through our lives.

Of course, only God can truly be holy.

And if we were holy we would be like God – and that is the point – we haven’t made it yet but the command is still there.

We have to become more like Jesus and less like the world.

Naturally we rebel against this – naturally we want to obey our lust and evil appetites but by doing so we are acting as mere men, as Paul puts it (1 Cor 3:3).

Let me tell you a true story: Late one evening an interesting conversation took place in a college dormitory room.

One student posed the question, "What do you want to be?" Several different responses were thrown out by various students.

Some thought it would be great to achieve academic distinction.

Several thought it would be wonderful to win athletic awards.

One or two had set their goal to be a professor.

One young man surprised everyone by saying, "You fellows will laugh at me, but I want to be holy."

It was an interesting response – but I wonder if it would be something we would agree with.

In which case this should all be what we want to be.

17

We know that the Father will judge us, each of us, you and me according to the works we do whether good or bad and we should keep that fear in mind before acting.

We are strangers here on earth.

Our stay here is short but Heaven is a long time.

Time is short and we are fast running out of it.

Comparing the shortness of our stay in this life with the rewards or lack of them that we will receive in Heaven for all eternity, it is, therefore, really important that we build our treasure for Heaven rather than here on earth.

Every moment matters, eternally.

Every minute affects millions of years into the future.

We are looking forward to that time when this life and its troubles pass away once and for all and a new world beckons us in.

This new world is where we will truly be free from sin, free from trouble, free from crying, free from the past and truly holy:

Peter’s point is that if he and his readers have a special relationship to God by virtue of their calling and their new birth, then it is all the more urgent that they remember who he is in himself, and display the reverence that God deserves.

This is why Peter says our faith and hope is in God and that we are to rest our hope fully on the grace that will be brought to us when Jesus is revealed, when He returns to vanquish His enemies and ours.

18-19

If we have Jesus in view; if He is foremost in our minds and hearts; if we remember what Jesus has done through the cross, redeeming us not with money or shares or anything else that we think is of value but with His precious blood which is worth more than all the world can offer whether platinum, gold, silver, oil and gemstones put together, if we remember our response to Him can only be love in return.

We were bought out of the market place of sin.

The market place was the place where slaves were sold and to whomsoever they were sold they were then their slaves.

And we were not bought with something like money that will in the end perish but with His blood, Divine blood, blood spilt from the lashings, from the crown of thorns and from the nails driven through His hands and feet, from the sword thrust in His side, this blood paid for us in full.

We are now His slaves.

This blood has brought us atonement and forgiveness of sins as the author to the Hebrews makes clear:

No remission means no forgiveness.

But Jesus’ blood was shed for us for the forgiveness of our sins and so God’s perfect justice was satisfied.

John the Baptist got it right when he said:

It seems so unfair that Jesus had to pay the price for us.

The problem was that the price we would have paid was hell with no get out clause.

The Father wanted us to avoid that so He sent His Son instead who could adequately pay the price of justice.

We read in Exodus at Passover the Israelites killed a lamb and put the blood on the lintel and doorposts and the angel of death passed over them because the lamb was killed in their place.

Well, with Jesus, His blood covers us and when the destroyer comes to deal with sin; he will see the blood and pass over us and leave us alone for a lamb, the Lamb of God, was sacrificed in our place.

And because Jesus paid the price in full He defeated sin and the consequence of sin, death and hell and demonstrated His victory by rising from the dead.