Sermon Tone Analysis

1 Peter 1:3-7 “3 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, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

If you were writing to someone who was suffering, what would you say?

I don’t know if we can grasp the horror of what the early Christians were going through

Caesar Nero was born right around the time that Jesus left this earth and came to power at the age of 17 when his father, Caesar Claudius died.

This was right around the time that the early church was beginning to flourish, and Nero’s name is synonymous with the persecution of the early Christians.

The persecution that he inflicted on the early church wasn’t as widespread as some of the later Roman Emperors.

Diocletian, for example

But Nero was a twisted, evil man, and I won’t go into the details of his life, And the ways that found to persecute and put to death the early Christians were horrible.

Painting Christians with tar and using them as torches.

Throwing them to wild animals.

What would be your response, living in a kingdom where this could happen to you?

What would your life be like?

How would you face your days?

And if you were writing a letter to someone who was living in the Roman empire during this time, what would you say to them?

It’s one thing to be with those who are suffering.

You can convey comfort through your facial expressions,

Through a hug

Just being with someone who is suffering is a means of comfort.

But sometimes, when you are reaching out to someone and the only means that you have at your disposal is to write them a letter or an email,

words alone seem to not be sufficient.

At least for me, anyway.

I feel like “They are just words”.

They lose meaning when you can accompany them with facial expressions or physical gestures.

And what do you say, anyway?

“Hey, I’m sorry to hear what you are going through”

“Man, a real bummer what happened to you.”

“Sure hope things turn around for you”.

Words don’t seem sufficient

But that is the task at hand for Peter here.

His goal is to encourage Believers who are being persecuted and facing potential death.

And I think Peter does it masterfully.

He begins with words of praise

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

Peter is considering what he wrote in verses 1 and 2.

That we have been elected or chosen according to the foreknowledge of God

Elected to be holy and blameless.

Elected to be part of God’s sovereign plan to unite everything in heaven and on earth under Jesus Christ (eph.

1:10)

When Peter considers this, his mouth can’t help but utter praise to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ

When I think of what Peter and the believers are going through, and I see how he starts his letter, I am convicted.

Because when things are tough, I forget to praise.

Even though I have sung the song “Blessed Be Your Name” many times, I still forget to praise.

in that song, we make a declaration.

Every blessing You pour out I’ll turn back to praise (easy, right?)

When the darkness closes in, Lord, still I will say

“Blessed be the name of the Lord, Blessed be His name”

And I think I mean it when I sing it

And then when life seems tough, what is the first thing that I tend to do?

Shake my head and say, “Man, things are hard right now!

“Why are things so hard?”

When is this going to end.

Instead of, like Peter saying, “Blessed (praised, worthy of adoration) is God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In times of hardship and suffering, we lift our eyes to God and praise Him.

Why?

Firs and foremost, Because He is absolutely worthy to be praised in all circumstances

Because our God has great mercy

According to His great mercy, (vs. 3)

Where would we be without the great and matchless mercy of God?

Do you ever stop to think about that?

The more that my spiritual eyes are opened, and the more that He reveals to me His holiness, and my sinfulness, the more that I realize that the fact that He has lifted me up from my natural and spiritual condition (death)

And granted me a place beside Jesus in the Heavenlies is almost too wonderful to imagine

The fact that I fall so often, yet He looks on Jesus and pardons me (as the song says), is amazing!

We praise God, because of His great mercy

We praise Him because he works and acts according to His great mercy.

There’s that word, “according to” again.

that means in agreement with.

His great mercy is part of His character.

And He always stays true to His character.

His mercy will never fail because God will never fail!

You can take it to the bank that God’s mercy will always be true

We praise God because He has caused us to be born again

here we are again bumping up against the little controversy that we touched on last Sunday.

Those who weren’t here can watch the sermon on Youtube

But this whole idea of a new birth, of salvation, of transformation, this whole thing.

This is GOD’S idea.

It is HIS plan.

and He CAUSED it to happen

“Yeah, but I was told that I should ask Jesus into my heart and decide to make Jesus Lord of my Life”

I would challenge us to find any of that language in the Bible.

What we do find are statements like this.

God caused us to be born again

When we were dead, God raised us up

and many more

Now, does there have to be some “buy in” from us?

Does there have to be some agreement from us?

Well, I still think that there does

But way more than I used to be, I am convinced of and amazed at God’s power in salvation

And I am ever more convinced of our powerlessness in doing anything to save ourselves and get ourselves out of our sinful state

We praise God, because He has caused us to be born again

What are we born again to?

We praise God the Father because we are born again to a Living Hope

Wow, is this message needed today.

A living Hope!

You know, this word “hope”,

The way that we use it today is sort of like when things seem out of control and not likely to happen

I hope the Hawkeyes win the national championship

I hope it rains today (we have no control over that)

I hope my investments do well

If someone is going into the doctor because something is wrong, we say, I hope he gets a positive report