With A Purpose

An Ethic of Love (1-3)

Growth towards santification (Holiness)

Desire to know God intimately

Not about quantity but quality/depth

The NIV Application Commentary: 1 Peter Fifth Exhortation: Desire the Word (2:1–3)

As John Stott said at the Lausanne Conference, “We confess that we have sometimes pursued church growth at the expense of church depth, and divorced evangelism from Christian nurture.”

300 Quotations for Preachers “Our Hearts Are Restless”

You have formed us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in you.

AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Approaching Christ (4-8)

The Living stone:

Christ is not a monument or dead principle. He is living, resurrected, life-giving.

A spiritual house

Temple language

We, the church, are living stones held up by the living cornerstone, Jesus Christ

The NIV Application Commentary: 1 Peter Bridging Contexts

In order to appreciate Peter’s perspective on the church of Christ, it is important to grasp what constituted that church: a group of sinful people who had come to Christ for salvation and who were committed to walking in obedience. And that is no different from our churches today.

Royal Priesthood

Royal - King David, Emperor, high status

Priesthood - set apart group with direct access to God

Followers of Christ:

The NIV Application Commentary: 1 Peter Bridging Contexts

To become a Christian is to be raised to the ultimate height in status because we suddenly become children of the God of the universe, and we have direct access to him because we are his children.

Rejecting Christ

Eternal consequences

The Gospel is hard

It’s not meant to be fun, easy, or feel-good. It’s meant to life trans-forming, life-giving, life-saving.

“The Gospel is Bad News before it is Good News.” -F. Buechner

A Called People with a Particular Purpose

Notice the Language of Calledness/holiness

Chosen People

Royal Priesthood

Holy Nation

God’s Special Possession

What are we called to.

“…that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

Our chief end as the church is to declare the praises of the Godhead, 3 in 1, Father, Son and holy spirit.

“What is the chief end of man?

To glorify God and enjoy him forever.

Closing

We, the church, are called by an unique God to be a particular people to carry out a specific mission of declaring the praises of him who set us free.

with our kids

in our marriages

in our singleness

in our brokeness

in our work

in our schools

in our recovery groups

in our homes

in the grocery story

in the hospitals

in our creativity

in illnesses

in our poverty

in our riches

IN EVERYTHING...

So that others may pledge allegiance to King Jesus, come to know him as savior and lord, and be free to declare his praises.

Do you know him?