Obedience of Hope
Living Hope: 1 Peter • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 74 viewsNotes
Transcript
What is the therefore, there for?
What is the therefore, there for?
This is a really important word here.
It is a transition word between these 2 passages that are linked together.
In vv. 3-12 Peter paints the most beautiful picture of what God has done for us in the resurrection of Christ, our resurrection reality.
Remember, nothing in verses 3-12 was initiated by us or even required action from us:
According to God’s mercy (is unearned love toward us) He has CAUSED us to be born again.
God initiated our new birth in Him. He brought it about through His work of raising Jesus from the dead.
And because of His action in raising Jesus from the dead, we have living hope, an abiding hope in Jesus.
But not only that, through the resurrection, God has given us an eternal inheritance that is waiting for us in heaven.
He has promised us an unimaginable inheritance through the resurrection of Jesus that nothing in this world we could gather, earn or experience will ever match.
And He has saved us, not only in the future tense, but in the here and now as we live in the light of the victory over death and sin through the resurrection of Jesus.
This is what GOD has done for us.
THEREFORE!
What are we to do in response.
That is the direction of vv. 13-2:3
Here Peter shares 5 encouragements/challenges (however you want to see them)
We are going to look at 3 today.
HOPE FULLY
HOPE FULLY
13 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.
The word “set” here has in mind setting something in place, anchoring our minds in the hope Jesus brings.
It is important to remember, biblical hope is not uncertain desire, like I hope I get the job, or I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow.
Biblical hope is full assurance that whatever God has promised or decreed will absolutely happen.
Peter is telling theses believers in the midst of struggle “Anchor your hope in the only thing that will never change and never fail, the promise that Jesus rescue us.”
Peter is calling them (and us) to look beyond our present circumstances, regardless of what they are, and SET OUR HOPE on the promise (the SURE PROMISE) that Jesus will make things right, that Jesus will fix what is broken.
28 so also Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
Our hope is God’s gift, an inheritance created for us by Christ’s resurrection (1:3). Because we have been given hope, we are called to live in it.
Edmund Clowney
We have a hope that is not based on things going right for us or situations working out in our favor.
Our hope is rooted in God-sized and God-backed promises.
And we are told to “prepare our minds for action” meaning we are to remind ourselves of those promises over and over again.
As the abiding Word of God speaks those promises to us:
24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
And we are also told to remain “sober-minded”, which does mean not drunk, but also means more.
It means don’t be lured into the intoxication of the world that devalues and distorts the beauty of God’s grace and His promises.
The world we live in is full of sales pitches offering HOPE.
Money, sex, entertainment, political figures and ideologies…but in NONE of them will you find the FULL ASSURANCE of Hope.
And that is why Peter calls us to SET our HOPE FULLY on the Gospel
FULLY means completely and not partially or alongside something else.
It means to have all our hope in Jesus, not Jesus and money, or Jesus and our marriage, or Jesus and success, or Jesus and early retirement, or Jesus and financial security, or Jesus and our health, or Jesus and successful, healthy children...
To live life in the reality of the Resurrection first means to HOPE FULLY in Jesus.
Where is your hope set?
Where is your hope set?
One of the ways God helps us answer this question is through giving us trial and trouble in our lives.
Trials have a unique way of highlighting the direction our hope is pointing.
Be Holy
Be Holy
14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
Any time we start throwing the words obedient and holy around Christians either start perking up in their self-righteous obedience like a Pharisee
Or they start shrinking back, looking for excuses for why they are struggling right now.
but before you start getting all cocky or mute this portion of the video, hear me out.
Peter starts this verse off with an identity statement that is vitally important.
“As obedient children...” the obedience he is referring to here is not “I got all my spiritual chores done Jesus.”
It is a mindset wrapped up in the identity of being “born again” sons and daughters of God.
He is saying, “because you are born again sons and daughters of God, ACT LIKE IT!”
I am a Robinson man, so if my car breaks down, my refrigerator is leaking or my heat stops working then I HAVE TO take the first crack at it.
You don’t call the repair guy first, or second for that matter, you got to call the buddy or the family member that knows a bit more than you.
This is what it means to be born a Robinson man.
Peter is calling these believers to ACT LIKE the ones God has saved them to be.
So, he says, “don’t act like the people you used to be when you didn’t know God as father.”
Every once in a while I have to remind my girls of how old they are.
See if they are acting like a 3 year old when they are actually 7, then I have to remind them that they know better, they have learned a better way.
Peter is saying the same thing Paul says in Romans 12: 2
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
“Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God remold your minds from within.”
As born again sons and daughters, strive to live lives of holiness.
The word Holy here is not “super saint”, it means “set apart”
It means we need to be becoming more like Christ and less like who we used to be.
18 So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!
Who are you becoming?
Who are you becoming?
Again, God has a way of using hard season, trails, and suffering to help us understand who we are and who we are becoming.
Joni Eareckson Tada says “If I were to nail down suffering’s main purpose, I’d say it’s the textbook that teaches me who I really am, because I’m not the paragon of virtue I’d like to think I am.”
“God’s intention for us is not that we become more happy, but become more Holy, more Godly, more like Him.”
Holiness is God’s agenda to create a people for His own possession, who love Him, and who walk according to His ways, and in order that the whole world can see the greatness of His glorious grace.
So it isn’t about checking tasks off the chores list for Jesus so that we can become “good Christians”
It is about investing time, effort, intention, heart, soul, blood, sweat, and tears into know Christ, loving Christ, and becoming more and more and more like Him in our emotions, our motives, our obedience, our disciplines, and our love for others.
Live Fearfully
Live Fearfully
17 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, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 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 word “fear” here is a tricky one.
It comes in between God being called our Father (loving Father as we have heard already and throughout the Bible) and the glorious restatement of what God has done for us in Christ
Namely, “ransomed us from the futile ways of our fathers” and redeemed us by the precious (incomparable) blood of Jesus.
So why are we told to conduct ourselves with FEAR?
There are 2 ways to fear God
One way is to fear Him as Judge.
The other is to fear Him as Father.
Either way He is Judge, but there is good news for those who call Him father.
Peter reminds us here that God is the “impartial Judge” who judges “each one’s deeds”.
This should illicit fear in any and all listening to this today.
As an “impartial” judge, God does not judge the way we often judge.
He doesn’t take into account who your dad was, how much money you have, how good or bad of a neighbor you have been.
He doesn’t look at your resume, your ACT scores, your performance evaluations at work.
He doesn’t judge you based on your parenting skills or how many time you went to church in a given year.
God’s judgement is based on His criteria and He makes it really clear that the best we can do is nothing more than filthy rags in His eyes.
6 All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment; all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.
That is the first way to fear, to fear the judgement of God against our sinfulness.
To fear God as Father means all that has already been said in this verse and then is restated in vv. 18-21 is true of us.
Yes we will all face judgement, but instead of facing the wrath of God for our sins, we will experience the joy of our Father welcoming us into His presence by the precious blood of Jesus.
To fear God as Father is to revere Him as the one who, by His mercy and His grace, saved us and set up free.
We conduct ourselves in reverent fear KNOWING...
We know that God has redeemed us our of futility and damnation.
We know that He has given us a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead
We know that He has given us an imperishable inheritance that is waiting for us in heaven.
And we know this:
20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you
Get this verse folks, understand and wonder at how incredible the truth of this verse is for us.
Peter is saying that Christ Jesus was foreknown before the foundations of the world.
This is reverence-inducing if anything is.
Listen to the way Jen Wilken explains it:
"The salvation of the saints was never Plan B. We can trust the One who authors, accomplishes, and applies it for our sake. Our faith lies not in a hastily constructed fall-back scheme, nor do we hope in a God who was blindsided by sin. Our faith and hope rest in the God who made provision for us before uttering the words, “Let there be light”.”
Where is your fear focused?
Where is your fear focused?
How can we let the fear of some virus overwhelm us when the God who saved us has a plan that predates every molecule that exists in this world.
How can we fear pain, sickness, or even death when the one who defeated it all rose from the grave.
The only place fear ought to be in our lives is in fearful respect of the our glorious and righteous God, whom we call Abba Father, daddy.
Ask yourself these Questions:
Ask yourself these Questions:
Where is your hope set?
Who are you becoming?
Where is your fear focused?