(1 Peter 1:3-25)

Laser focus

Back in 1985, I travelled with a basketball team to the Philippines. We played basketball all over the country, telling the story about Jesus at halftimes and encouraging churches along the way. Much of our travel throughout the islands was by boat. Those boats were mostly seaworthy. During my two summers there, we never had an issue with a boat. But one of our team members, Roy, told us the story of one boat he was on during a previous trip. The boat was nearing the island where they had a game scheduled the next day. It was night. And a few hundred yards from shore, the engine on the boat gave out. The sandbar was shallow, so the team was told they could walk to shore. The guide pointed to a light off in the distance on the beach where they were told friends would be waiting. They begin to make their way toward shore, and that sandbar becomes a little less shallow. A couple of team members becomes concerned as the water begins to creep up toward their necks. This goes on for a few minutes… much of the team is now chatting about the depth of the water. Finally, the sandbar is shallower again. But as they get closer to shore, the team is concerned. Hundreds of lights dot the shoreline. The new fear is not the water. The new fear is being lost in a city they do not know. But one team member, in the confusion shouts, “I know which light is ours. I’ve never taken my eyes off of that one...”, and he’s pointing to the light that leads them to their friends. Later he told the team, “I never took my eyes off of that light. Because I can’t swim.” Roy was laser-focused on the light that would keep him safe.

A world of distractions

We live in a world of distractions. Media and phones constantly demanding our attention. Crises in our lives that seemingly crop up out of nowhere and threaten to swallow us. We are overwhelmed with shrinking bank accounts and broken relationships that have spun out of control. We fight all day to maintain focus on whatever we are supposed to be doing. It feels as if the entire world is adhd. So much noise, so much distraction. How many times do we find ourselves wondering how we started off so well, and ended so poorly? If you’re like me, you ask yourself, “How did I end up here?” Lack of focus. Distraction. One pop culture philosopher in the 1980’s famously quipped: “Life moves pretty fast.” Life moves fast and we’re constantly trying to focus.

And when we are focused, we’re focused on things that don’t help. I missed a flight once because I was totally immersed in a book, and not paying attention to the line boarding the plane. That almost happened to me again last week… immersed in a great book, only to notice things were a little too quiet and the sign said “Corpus Christi” instead of “Harlingen”. My plan had changed gates while I was reading. I was focused. But I was focused on the wrong thing.

Christians in exile

The passage we read this morning is all about focus. These verses from 1 Peter were written by one of Jesus’ best friends. Peter. You talk about someone who had a hard time staying focused, and when he was focused, he missed the point. Peter is Mr. Impulsive. Saying whatever comes to mind. Easily distracted. In fact, on the day that Jesus goes up a mountain and talks to Moses and Elijah, two great Old Testament prophets, Peter’s blurts out, let’s build tents up here and stay awhile. He was focused… but he was focused on the wrong thing. But this is years later and Peter is writing to Christians who are scattered throughout the Roman Empire, especially in what we now know as modern Turkey. And because they are Christians, life has become chaos. Focus is hard to come by. Many of them are suffering unjustly, through no fault of their own, other than they belong to Jesus.

When everything is being thrown at you, when life is not only throwing you curveballs, but the curveballs hurt and cause a lot of pain and brokenness, what’s your focal point? How do you stay focused when life gets crazy? How do you stayed focused on the right thing and not miss the plane flight?

Drawing grace from Christ’s future

That answer is found in 1 Peter 1. Peter begins his letter reminding Christians who are gathered just like we are this morning that their identity isn’t in what they do, it isn’t in their ethnic heritage, it isn’t in their economic position in life. Their identity has been given to them in Christ’s resurrection. Through our new birth… in baptism no less.

1 Peter 1:3 “Because of God’s great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

God gives you a new birth. It’s not anything you’ve done. That resurrection life of Jesus has been given to you in the new birth. That’s your identity.

After reminding them of whose they are and the hope that they have been given, Peter says this:

1 Peter 1:13 “Set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Peter brings up hope again. And he says “set” or “fix” your hope completely. Be laser-focused in your hope. A laser is a light that has a single beam or single color. To be laser-focused is to be focused on just one thing, to not be distracted by anything. When Peter says “fix your hope”, he is saying your hope should be laser-focused, and that hope is laser-focused on grace, grace that will be ours completely when Jesus appears at the final resurrection. Grace. We talk a lot about grace here at The Table, but just what is grace? Grace is getting something you don’t deserve AND don’t work for. If it has strings, it’s not grace. We have been given grace now in our new birth. We continue to get grace through the means of grace, those places where Jesus meets us to give us more grace, such as the preaching of this Word and our feasting at this Table.

But if that’s all the grace we get, we don’t really have the grace we need for all of life. There’s more grace coming, a grace that is something beyond anything we’ve ever known. We will be given grace at Jesus’ final appearing. In fact, we could read it this way… that appearing of Jesus that we long for and hope for is grace itself. That will be our grace.

The unblemished lamb

And this grace is guaranteed. It has been guaranteed by the death of a spotless lamb. The wording here calls to mind that great night in Israel’s history when God rescued Israel from Egypt in the dead of night. We also read this a few minutes ago. God was going to pay a visit to Egypt where his people were being held in slavery. And God would visit as a death angel. A lamb was to be killed and the blood sprinkled on the doorpost of the house. Where the blood was on the doorpost, the firstborns in the home lived. That’s exactly what happened. Israel rescued through the Red Sea through the death of a lamb. Hundreds of years later, the spotless lamb who is also a firstborn dies, guaranteeing grace and hope for undeserving people. Laser-focused hope isn’t fixed on some legend. It’s not blind faith. Laser-focused hope is fixed on grace that comes to us in the death and resurrection of the Lamb and grace that will be given to us when we finally see that unblemished and spotless lamb face-to-face.

Be holy in all your conduct

The question then becomes, what do we do in the meantime? How does that help us in the here and now? That sounds like a nice pleasant thought, but this is the real world, with real problems, and a lot of noise that keeps us either constantly distracted OR totally focused on all the wrong things.

Peter says this… set your hope on the grace that will be given to you… then, he reaches back to the Old Testament, and a command that had been given to Israel after they were rescued from Egypt.

1 Peter 1:14-15 “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance. But as the one who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct;”

As the One who called you is holy, be holy in all your conduct. This is how you are supposed to live, not only in light of the grace that you have been given, but in anticipation of the grace that you will be given when Jesus appears again. “Be holy” means to “be set apart”, to “be completely different.” What Peter is saying is live like the new birth you’ve been given. Live a life of grace, live a life of forgiveness, live a life of empathy, live a life of integrity, and peace and justice. That’s what holiness meant in the Old Testament. That’s what it means for Peter’s audience.

As you wait for Christ’s appearing with laser-focused hope on Christ’ grace, be different than others around you in the way you conduct your life. When you feel the urge to retaliate, give grace. When you feel the need to get even, give love. And what’s fascinating about this call to live lives that are different, is that it comes with its own promised. Be holy because Jesus is holy. And oh by the way,

1 Peter 1:16 “since it is written, You will be holy, because I am holy.”

You will be holy, because I am holy. I will make sure of it and I have made sure of it. By dying as an unblemished and spotless lamb for you. What God has done for us in Christ through our new birth, now becomes realized in the way we live with each other and our neighbors throughout the week.

Living as Strangers

That sets the tone for living as people who are on a journey to eventually see Jesus. Peter summarizes it this way:

1 Peter 1:17 “Conduct yourselves in reverence during your time living as strangers.”

How is it that we have laser-focused hope when our world gets chaotic? How do we conduct ourselves as Christians when so much is going on that we have trouble thinking? We remind ourselves that we live as strangers in a foreign land. Our motives are different. Our outlook is different. Our values are different because our hope is in a grace that is in the future. Our destiny is different. Our destiny is with Jesus. Peter has already reminded us that our inheritance, what Jesus has obtained for us in his death and resurrection, is itself imperishable, just like his death.

We belong to a different age, one that is incorruptible. We say this all the time here: this world and all of its material trappings, isn’t all there is.

1 Peter 1:3-4 “He has given us new birth...into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.”

All of this is temporary. All of this is fleeting. The chaos. The disorder. The noise. The material stuff we spend so much time working for. It’s all temporary. What is really real, is our salvation. Our inheritance, which made up of heavenly stuff that doesn’t fade or break down. What is really real is Jesus. That’s the stuff that lasts. We’re strangers here. We’re different. We act differently. Christ has given us a new birth that marks our entire life. There’s nothing wrong with temporal things, material things. Those material things, though, can be a distraction. It is always a temptation to begin acting like the rest of our culture, with the gossiping, backstabbing, lack of love or forgiveness. Nothing to set us apart from those things that are perishable. I do this all of the time. I get distracted with looking out for number one. “Be holy” goes missing in my selfishness and fear and desire for control.

Laser-focused hope

Before Noelle was born, Emily and I attended those lamaze-classes that are offered by hospitals for new parents. Those classes are really “how to help your wife through a very difficult part of her life.” One piece of lamaze was a bit interesting. Fathers were encouraged to find some item that would be familiar to mom and provide comfort for mom. It was called, by the lamaze experts, a focal point. Have Emily focus on this while she is in labor. She will focus on this and this will help take her mind off of her pain and anxiety. So we chose a stuffed sheep, I think. I asked her last night if we still had that thing. What’s funny is when the time came for Noelle, I had the sheep. Here, focus on this. Emily didn’t want the sheep. She wasn’t having any of the sheep. She didn’t want that focal point. Instead, she wanted me to hold her hand. She wanted to hear my voice. My presence became her focal point.

Peter sets the focal point for his audience, the same Focal Point who constantly had him refocus:

1 Peter 1:18-19 “For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb.”

When the world goes nuts, when things break down, when there is suffering, when there are distractions, where is your focal point? Where is my focal point? What is it that keeps me going? How do I stay headed in the right direction? The unblemished and spotless lamb who died for us. The One who is For You. The One who suffered in a world of constant distraction. The one who was laser-focused on saving us from our sin. That Lamb is where we fix our eyes.

That Lamb secures that grace that is ours now and that grace that is ours when he appears again. Jesus has done all of this so our salvation will be secure. Peter says as much at the end of this paragraph:

1 Peter 1:21 “Through Jesus you are believing in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”

He ends this section talking about holiness and fearing God with the same way he began it. God raised Jesus from the dead specifically for this purpose. Not to prove that Jesus is God (though he is). God raised Jesus from the dead so that your faith would be in Him. So that your hope would be laser-focused on the grace that will be brought to you when Jesus appears again. Jesus was raised so that our hope would be laser-focused on him. Not a hope that is like “I hope the Reds end their losing streak today”. This hope is guaranteed. When the world gets crazy, our laser-focused hope is on the Only One who can save us, the Only One who can make sense of all the suffering.

1 Peter 1:13 “Set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Living as strangers in a world that is passing away, conducting ourselves in ways that talk about our heavenly destination, our hope is to be set like a laser on the Lamb unblemished and without fault.

Let’s Pray.

The Table

The grace that is ours to come is ours today at this Table. What is ours in the future is already ours in the present. This Table makes our future grace absolutely certain. This is grace that we can see, feel, smell, and taste. This meal is otherworldly, giving us forgiveness, life, and salvation. Grace. We don’t deserve this. It’s all grace. Grace from the future for us right now.