(1 Peter 1:3-6) Praising God For Saving My Soul (2)

INTRODUCTION:

We all have someone in our life who deserves praise for their impact.

Sometimes it is our football or baseball coach.

Sometimes it is a teacher.

Sometimes it is a boss who helped us get started in our trade.

Often our parents are our first role models who shape us.

Fathers are often humbled,

when our kids pray that they would be as big, brave, and strong as their daddies.

Mothers are humbled,

when their kids pray that they would be as sweet and wise as their mommies.

Perhaps you can think of someone in your own life who shaped you.

Everyone of us had somebody who truly had an impact on who we are today.

They did not simply teach us something, but they shaped us.

And to even greater extent,

our testimony as Christians is that no one has shaped us more than God.

God as the

creator,

sustainer,

and savior of the World

… has done far more to shape us than any other person in our lives.

Our text this morning reminds us of just how life changing salvation in Christ is.

1 Peter 1:3–5 ESV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Our text begins with the declaration:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”

What is the meaning of Blessed? (1:3)

What is the indirect command of Peter when he says God the Father is “blessed”? (1:3)

Blessed and praise are closely related ideas

To say something is blessed, is also to say that something is worthy of Praise.

God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is worthy of Praise.

Certainly, everyone of us who are believers in Jesus Christ believe we ought to give praise to God the Father.

But according to Peter,

what makes God the Father worthy of praise?

For what does God the Father deserve praise? (1:3)

First, and foremost, it is because of His Mercy.

The text in v. 3 says

our praise should be “According to his great mercy”.

From this text,

We ought to Praise God because of His work in Salvation.

This text gives us 4 reasons why we should praise God.

This early section in 1 Peter will remind us how salvation makes God worthy of Praise and just how much God shapes us through salvation in Christ.

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PRAY

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First,

We should Praise God because of:

1) The New Birth. (1:3)

1 Peter 1:3 (ESV)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

The first reason that God deserves praise is for making us born again.

This is a phrase that is often floated around,

You have heard people say - I am a born again Christian.

But what does it mean.

Peter is referencing a teaching he learned from Jesus, as His disciple.

This teaching is recorded in John 3:3-7.

John 3:3–7 ESV

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

The emphasis in this text is, “who enters the Kingdom of God”.

Entering the Kingdom of God is the same thing as asking the question,

Who get’s saved?

To be in the Kingdom is to receive salvation.

Jesus taught that to receive salvation,

one had to be born again.

What does it mean to be born again?

What does it mean to be born again? (1:3)

Every saved person must have two births.

The first birth human being receives from their mother. It is how we receive life. This is what Jesus meant by being “born of water”. To be born by a human mother.

However, being born into this world means we carry the sin nature of this world.

We are born not as innocent, good people;

but as wicked sinners.

Thus, every person has a sin problem.

What do you do, when you are born with a sin problem?

This is why you need a second birth.

2. The second birth every human needs is to be “born of the Spirit”.

Our hearts are desperately wicked, therefore we need something that will change our heart.

The prophets spoke of this in a number of places including Ezekiel 36:25-27.

Ezekiel 36:25–27 ESV

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Scripture related to the New Birth: John 3:3-7 and Ezekiel 36:25-27.

Essentially, the new birth is related to God changing our heart in what is called regeneration.

Everyone of us who are truly believers in Christ have this SECOND birth - we are born again believers.

New birth is God changing our hearts in what is called regeneration.

To praise God properly for this,

we need to remember why this is important.

Before we were born again, we had no ability to obey God

or even treat those around us in a loving way.

ILLUSTRATION:

There are many relationships in which the average person would say it should be characterized by love.

But are those relationships always characterized by love?

How does the new birth effect our choices?

How does the new birth effect our relationships?

How about our marriages?

Marriage apart from God is often ruled by selfishness and mutual benefit

rather than united by a common goal of obeying and loving God.

It certainly is not characterized by selfless Christ like love.

How about our parenting?

Again, often the parent-child relationship is pictured as precious.

Yet, apart from God parenting is ruled by dictatorship.

Either the dictatorship of the parent or the dictatorship of the child.

It is amazing how much selfishness is displayed by parents and children in the family. It is certainly not united around the love of God or the display of Christ like love.

I remember being in the military commissary picking up some groceries. As I went about I watched a senior Air Force officer arguing with his kid.

> It’s the classic 10-year old wants Ice Cream, but the Dad says no.

> The kid looked at the Father, said in a forceful voice, “we are getting this ice cream”. He put it in the cart and walked off leaving the very angry father behind to follow.

> A Colonel just got overruled by a 10 year old kid.

This is what a family without Christ looks like. It is self-centered fist fight.

This would be everyone of our realities, except as believers we are born again, having hearts transformed by the Gospel.

We should praise God for saving our souls … because in his mercy he gave us the new birth.

Peter makes this point, God deserves praise because he has given us new hearts through the new birth.

Why does Peter describe God as deserving praise for our new birth?

We should Praise God because of:

2) The New Hope. (1:3)

1 Peter 1:3 (ESV)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

This new birth has created for us a living hope.

What does it mean, “a living hope”?

What are we hoping in?

How do we doubt the hope in Christ?

ILLUSTRATION:

Many times hope is underrated.

Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Hope

hope is pessimistically defined as the little boy did when he said: “Hope is wishing for something you know ain’t gonna happen.”

Why would a boy define hope in such hopeless way.

Because many times parents give children false hope.

- We tell them they can do something and then say no latter.

- We tell them maybe when really we mean no.

So as children we grow up with bashed hope.

We carry that on as adults holding back from life, because after all;

Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Hope

“Hope is wishing for something you know ain’t gonna happen.”

But understand this is not the kind of hope we are given in Christ.

In Christ, we are given “a living hope”.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 1:3

Here “living” means that the believer’s hope is sure, certain, and real, as opposed to the deceptive, empty, false hope the world offers

So often in this life … we lose hope.

People fail us.

Life stops us.

But that is because that hope is based on human strength.

The hope Peter is pointing us to rests in the surety and reliability of all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-wise God.

> As the God of Heaven and Earth, he is able accomplish everyone of his promises.

> Therefore, every hope that is bound up in the Messiah, Jesus Christ, will come true.

We have a “living hope”.

Perhaps, you are sitting here today wondering what hope you have in some situation.

Remember, Christ promise to believers.

English Standard Version Chapter 28

I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

There is no situation in which Jesus Christ will not see you through it.

As believers,

we have a living hope.

We should Praise God because of:

New Birth

New Hope

And thirdly,

3) The Resurrection. (1:3)

Peter has told us that we have been:

born again.

That we have Living Hope.

But how can we be sure that we have been born again?

But how can we be sure that we have been born again?

How can we be sure we have a hope that is reliable?

How can we be sure that what we are hoping in is reliable?

We can be confident in the work of God because of the resurrection.

We can be confident in the work of God because of the resurrection.

1 Peter 1:3 (ESV)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Our new birth and hope are are accomplished and bound up in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

There are many places in Scripture which point to the Resurrection as the single most significant reason to believe in the work of God.

In fact, Peter used the resurrection to show that Jesus was the Son of God in Acts 2:22-24.

Acts 2:22–24 ESV

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

Remember he is saying this to people who would have personally saw Jesus death and Jesus resurrection.

The reality of the resurrection demonstrates why we should believe. But there is another word in 1 Peter 1:3 text that should catch our eye.

Look for the word “through”

1 Peter 1:3 (ESV)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

ESV translates this word “through”, but it could also be translated “by”.

In my mind it is easier to understand Peter’s point when we say “by the resurrection”.

“By” tells us how this is accomplished.

It was not by my work.

It was not by any other person’s work, my parents, my pastor, my Sunday School teacher.

>>> Those people might fail us.

The text declares we were born again into hope “by the resurrection of Christ”.

We can be confident in the work of God because we are bound up in the life of Jesus Christ, his death and his resurrection.

ILLUSTRATION:

We all have heard the word “Martyr”, but where does the word come from?

http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1-300/death-of-justin-martyr-11629602.html

“Justin and six of his students came to the attention of the Roman prefect, Rusticus, around the year 165. When the Christian believers refused to sacrifice to the Roman gods as demanded, they were condemned, scourged, and beheaded. Standing a firm witness to Christian truth even in death, Justin gained the name "Martyr" by which he is still known.”

What made Justin Martyr so bold that he was willing to die in worshipping Christ alone?

Partly, He was confident in the Resurrection.

Perhaps a related question, Why should we place our eternal souls in the Gospel?

The resurrection is a definitive proof that Christ is fully capable to of doing what he has promised.

God deserves praise for the resurrection because it is the ultimate proof for the reality of our salvation.

Why is the resurrection important for believers faith?

How is the resurrection a hope for those who are persecuted?

We we ought to praise God because of

The New Birth

The New Hope

The Resurrection

And finally,

We should Praise God because of:

4) Our Enduring Inheritance. (1:4-5)

ILLUSTRATION:

Let’s say this morning you got a phone call from a lawyer, you just received a massive inheritance.

You happen to be the only living relative of a Spanish oil tycoon.

> You unexpectedly are set for life.

> That would be great news and imagine a few of us would be pretty excited about it.

However, what is the true value of such an inheritance?

What is the value of a vast earthly inheritance?

You may have all the wealth you want in this lifetime, but what happens to it after you die.

It gets passed to someone else. You can’t take it with you.

In contrast to the wealth of this world,

Peter reminds us that we have an eternal enduring inheritance as son’s of Jesus Christ.

Look down at your text and read with me.

1 Peter 1:4–5 ESV

to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Part of the hope that we have is a future inheritance.

Part of the hope that we have is a future inheritance.

How is our Spiritual inheritance different from our earthly inheritance?

What is the inheritance that Scripture is describing?

What is our inheritance?

There is some vagueness in Scripture regarding exactly what this is.

We know for sure that it includes freedom from death and decay (imperishable),

from uncleanness and immorality (undefiled),

and freedom from the natural ravages of time (unfading).

We know it includes salvation and it’s benefits.

But understand, how incredible of promise that is.

ILLUSTRATION:

Who needs a great sum of money if they have the almighty God as their Father.

His store houses are always full and ready to provide for his children.

Psalm 50:10-12 reminds us that as the Creator, everything belongs to him.

Psalm 50:10–12 ESV

For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.

How should our inheritance change our priorities in this life?

1 Peter 1:4 has just promised us … that we have inheritance, kept by God, waiting for us in Heaven.

Think about what that means!

ILLUSTRATION:

Many of you are familiar with the missionary story of Jim Elliot, who died trying to give the Gospel to Indians in Ecuador.

His journal entry for October 28, 1949,

expresses his belief that work dedicated to Jesus was more important than his life (see Luke 9:24 in the Bible).

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."

Which is very close to a saying of the English nonconformist preacher Philip Henry (1631–1696) who said

"He is no fool who parts with that which he cannot keep, when he is sure to be recompensed with that which he cannot lose".

We ought to praise God,

because through Jesus Christ he has made us richer than a king.

CONCLUSION:

So back to the question, who has shaped you more than God?

So back to the question, who deserves more praise than God for our lives?

If you are a believer today, than recognize the incredible gift God has given you.

He has given us the New Birth.

He has given us incredible Hope.

He has accomplished our Salvation through His Resurrection.

He provided a generous and vast inheritance, eternally secure with God.

I ask you this morning - who has shaped your life more than God?

If the first thought in your head wasn’t God,

than I want to challenge you … that for the Christian … Salvation in Christ should be the greatest life changing event we ever experience.

If that is not your confession today, than I challenge you truly consider the great mercy of God.

And for all of us,

I challenge us to be in awe at the great mercy of God.

Everyday I ought to be waking up … praising God for saving my soul.

According to 1 Peter 1:3 … a believers life should be defined by praise for the God who saved their soul.

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Responsive Questions:

(a) Have you forgotten what God has done for you?

(b) Does your life consist of praise for the person who has done more for you than anyone else?