Ransomed

1 Peter - A living Hope  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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Peter instructs the early church to fear the Lord, as they have been ransomed by his precious blood.

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Introduction

Welcome
Today’s Text

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.

In case you haven’t been with us the last few weeks, we have been working through 1 Peter verse by verse. This letter, penned by the apostle Peter about 30 years after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, was a letter to the scattered Christians in what we now call modern-day Turkey. Christian persecution in the Roman empire was on the rise. Many Christians in Jerusalem found themselves hiding or on the run, fleeing for their safety, now living in foreign lands among people that thought and acted very differently than them. Peter writes this letter to remind the scattered Christians that even among their circumstances, they have hope in Jesus Christ.
Today, we see that Peter calls on the early Christians to conduct themselves with fear. Christians had already faced persecution and rejection. They were already living in a strange, foreign land where they were not necessarily popular or welcome. Life wasn’t exactly spectacular for the early Christian church. This was a group of people that were already filled with anxiety and fear. So, why would Peter tell them to fear God? Peter expected them to be fearful; fearful of the now, the future, the outcome. Yet, Peter reminds the Christians to rightfully be fearful of God. This fear was a reverent fear… a healthy fear… like most should have for a father.
If allowed, our culture would have you believe that you should never fear God. Culture would say that God is love and love is kind and they would reject any idea of God having wrath, being just, showing anger, or being anything to fear. Our culture would tell you that God is a God of never ending grace. We’ve turned God into this warm, fuzzy grandfather figure that will give us whatever we cry out for and tell us he will make everything better without question. But that’s not God.
In order for Him to be a God of love, then he must also be a God of wrath. He cannot be one without the other. Think of it like this. I have five children that are precious to me. Now imagine if some creep came up to one of them and grabbed them by the arm to try to kidnap them from me. What kind of father would I be if I just didn’t react and I stood there and told them I loved them as they were taken away? Doesn’t that sound ridiculous? But you know, that’s exactly the kind of father our culture would want you to believe that our God is. Nonsense. If someone were to grab one of my children by the wrist and attempt to snatch them up, rest assured I’m perfectly willing to spend the next 10-15 sharing a metal toilet with another guy in a 10x10 concrete cell. It would be at that moment that the stranger would see and experience the full wrath of Ryan…all because of my deep, deep love. That’s love.
Our culture can try all they want to create some soft, gooey, hippie god all they want. But I want to serve the God that loves his people so much that he would send ten plagues on the nation that refused to free his children. I don’t know about you, but I want to serve the God that, when his children were about to be destroyed by the greatest nation in the world, that he would send an angel to kill 185,000 of the enemy in their sleep. You can read about Hezekiah and his battle with the Assyrians in 2 Kings 19.
Peter says: “Don’t you know that you were slaves? Don’t you know that you were in slavery to your sin? And you serve a God that is so madly in love with you that he paid a ransom to set you free!” I’d like to spend the rest of our time today looking at this ransom and its significance. Look with me at verse 18.

Ransomed From

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,

1. You were ransomed: FROM the futile ways inherited from your forefathers.
Futile ways = way of life – handed down generational
Gentile listeners - pagan lifestyle. “They were worshipers of others gods, other idols. They worshiped Greek gods, Roman gods, mythical gods, ancient Egyptian gods. They worshiped Roman Emperors as gods in human flesh. They worshiped statues crafted by human hands, images standing in great temples. They were pagans through and through.” [shanegarrison.org]
Jewish listeners – Jewish traditions they were enslaved to. Not that they were wrong. In fact, they were given as law. However, relating to salvation, they were futile. They were merely laws that could show us how badly we needed a savior, not offer us salvation by obeying them.
Today, we still meddle in futile ways:
Climbing the career ladder. Only friends you have are your coworkers, you state your occupation when you introduce yourself, thoughts of losing your job feel like your whole world would be unraveling, you’d love to start volunteering at church but your work schedule just doesn’t allow it.
Binge watching TV shows (US - 6.1B hours each month = 700,000 yrs). That comes out to an average of 25 days per year! The average Christian can’t tell me who wrote the book of Ephesians, although the answer is revealed in the first word of the letter.
Scrolling social media. Two thirds of Americans would say social media mostly negatively affects our country. Just one in ten believe social media has a positive effect on our culture.
11“Don't waste your time on useless work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are. 12 It's a scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do in the darkness where no one will see. 13 Rip the cover off those frauds and see how attractive they look in the light of Christ. 14 Wake up from your sleep, Climb out of your coffins; Christ will show you the light!” - Ephesians 5:11-14 MSG

Ransomed With

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.

2. You were ransomed: WITH the precious blood of Christ.
As a child, I remember the old original farmhouse on my grandfather’s farm being a storage building. We called it the smoke house, although I don’t really know why. I remember hearing stories about how the family that built it all lived in the single room home, no more than 15’ x 20’. The attic above was so short that you couldn’t stand up in it, and it served as a single bedroom where the entire family slept at night. When I was still fairly young, I remember my grandfather cleaning everything out of the smokehouse, almost all of which he threw in the back of his pickup and paid to dump in the local landfill.
I remember the following calamity that arose after everyone in the family realized he had thrown the original wood-burning iron stove, probably worth thousands of dollars, into the dump. You see, ultimately my grandfather just failed to recognize the value of what he had. He had a low view of the stove. To him, it was junk that was in the way. This message from Peter, that you were bought with the precious blood of Christ is Peter trying to convince the church of how great and awesome their God was. You see, if you put all of the riches, money, and gold that exists together as one large payment, it still wouldn’t be enough to cover the cost to ransom a single person from the slavery they are in. While all of the riches of the world are unable to buy your freedom, a single lamb, without spot or blemish, was all it took to ransom the world.
Peter says church… your God is majestic, mighty, worth of worship, worthy of reverent fear. A low view of God is destructive. What do I mean about a low view of God? Well, a low view of God is when we project our thoughts about our circumstances or culture onto God’s character. It’s when we try to bring God down to our level instead of putting in the effort to get to know God. A low view of God leads to the us refusing to trust in God and normalization of sin. When we have a low view of God, we don’t trust God’s provision and we handle everything ourselves. Ultimately, we settle for what we can control and miss out on the opportunities and blessings he wants to put in your life. When we have a low view of God, God becomes our bro and Jesus becomes our homie. We bring him down to our level so that our struggle with sin become less of a big deal. If God is my bro, he won’t care if I’m doing something wrong. If Jesus is my homie, then he’s like me and he understands how hard life is anyways. He’s cool with whatever, as long as it’s not really bad stuff. As I reflect, Israel was an example.
- Exodus 16: Israelites in wilderness
V.2-3: they grumbled for food.
V.19-20: they tried to keep leftovers
V.26-28: they searched for more on the Sabbath
Pastor Steven Lawson couldn’t have been more accurate when he preached this introduction to one of his sermons:
“The topic that has been assigned to me is A Puny God. Those two words just do not even do together. This has to be the ultimate oxymoron. A total contradiction in terms. A puny God simply does not exist. But tragically many people have crafted a puny god in their own minds.
Some have a god that does not see or know the future. Some have a god that is just passively an observer of the occurrences on earth. Somehow the God that does not overcome man’s resistance. Some have a God that approves of every lifestyle. Some have a god without a sovereign free will. Frankly such a god is not to be praised, but to be pitied. “
Have you ever met someone that goes to church every week but:
· Constantly uses foul language?
· Cheats clients at work?
· Never shows up to volunteer events?
· Doesn’t actually spend any time in the Word or prayer?
A low view of God sounds like this:
· Of course, I believe in the Bible but not ____. (examples)
· I don’t believe the church is necessary. It seems more like a business.
· I just can’t believe that God would see ____ as a sin.
· Surely a loving God wouldn’t send people to hell.
· One political party or another are God’s people.
“A low view of God is the cause of a hundred lesser evils. A high view of God is the solution to ten thousand temporal problems.” - AW Tozer

Ransomed SO THAT

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.

3. You were ransomed: SO THAT your faith and hope are in God.
Do you realize that everyone is a servant to something? Every person on the planet is a slave to something. I know some of you are looking at me now with doubt. You’re no servant or slave to anyone. Well, yes you are. If you have sinned, you are a slave to sin.
In the gospel of John, Jesus says:
English Standard Version (Chapter 8)
Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.
And thankfully, Peter says in verse 20, that problem was known ahead of time (foreknown). From the very beginning (the alpha) God knew you and I would have a problem with sin. He knew the problem from day-one and so God, being the loving and merciful God that he is, gave us an escape plan from that slavery... just as he did with his chosen people enslaved 400 years in Egypt. For them, it was the blood of a lamb on their door posts that freed God’s people from Egyptian slavery, but for us, it is the blood of Jesus that frees us from our slavery to sin.
You see, God’s plan from the beginning was to be in fellowship with you. We even read in Genesis that God would walk with man in the cool of the evenings. Fellowship! When Adam and Eve failed in Genesis 3 … YES; sin and death entered the world, but God had a plan to make broken things right again. His plan was always Jesus. Jesus was not a plan B. Jesus was not a last ditch effort. Jesus was THE PLAN for redemption. And just exactly as planned, when the time was full, a perfect sacrifice was made.
Let me put it this way: what Peter is saying here is quite convicting, I believe. Peter is saying that Jesus blood on the cross redeemed you from your futile ways, it freed you from that slavery so that you can now choose which master you want to serve. Whether we love the idea or not, we were freed from servanthood to become servants. But this time, you get to choose. You will choose. Jesus asked Peter what his choice was. Do you remember their conversation in Matthew 16:13-16?

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Peter was the first to answer that question. “Who do you say that I am?” You’re going to have to answer that question. It may be soon. It may be years down the road. But make no mistake, every person in this room is going to answer the question “Who do you say that I am?” You see, you weren’t born into a sinful life that you were trapped into. Peter is clear… you were redeemed. We were redeemed. We have a choice to make now. If today were your day to answer that question, how do you respond? And if you respond like Peter, “you are the Christ”, then you are saying that Jesus is your Lord. You’re choosing servanthood. Does your life look like servanthood? Based upon the way you are living your life, based upon your social media posts, based upon your Instagram and snapchat picture, based upon your interactions at your work, would I know you are a follower of Christ without having to ask you?
That question is worth pondering today. It may very well be the most important question you ever answer. And Peter reminds us of the price that is at stake… the blood of the very man we say we serve… Jesus.
What is your view of God? Let me end with a story that Lawson shares. Years ago, the pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Donald Gray Barnhouse, was asked to come to Princeton Seminary to preach at Chapel to the student body. He came that day to the Chapel, on the front row was the faculty, some of the greatest minds at the time. One particular professor that sat there, Robert Dick Wilson, was a brilliant bible scholar and professor. He knew the languages. Barnhouse stood to preach, knowing the pressure, and about five minutes into his sermon, Professor Robert Dick Wilson stood up and walked out. Barnhouse was blown away, almost unable to continue. As soon as the message was over, nervous and concerned, he walked straight to Professor Wilson’s office. He walked in and asked the Professor what he had done that was so wrong.
The professor said: “Young man. You have not fallen short. I only come back to hear my former student preach one time and all I want to know is are they a “big God’r” or “small God’r”. Do they know a big God that towers over the affairs of history or do they have a puny God?”
Professor Wilson said: “You sir, have a big God and I only needed to hear you preach for five minutes to know that you are faithful to the glory of God.”
Church…Do you have a big God? Are you a big God’r? Is the God you follow one that ransoms his own with fifty dollar bills and bags full of diamonds? Or do you follow a God that ransoms the whole world with the blood of his one and only son.
References:
https://shanegarrison.org/2014/03/17/the-biblical-gentiles-were-all-pagans/
https://faithalone.org/blog/redeemed-from-futility-1-peter-118-19/
https://www.tvinsider.com/933154/netflix-statistics-quarantine-viewing-habits/
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/10/15/64-of-americans-say-social-media-have-a-mostly-negative-effect-on-the-way-things-are-going-in-the-u-s-today/
Steven J. Lawson: A Puny God https://youtu.be/6hRvOg4G81o
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