Holy like him
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1 Peter 1.13-21
1 Peter 1.13-21
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 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.
Intro:
Intro:
Welcome
America’s slow (or maybe fast) move away from accepting Christianity as valid.
Much of the world already does not accept a person for worship Jesus.
For the early church, they were not welcomed or accepted either.
Up until now, Peter has been telling the elected exiles (1 Peter 1.1) how God has saved them. Before they know how they are to respond to hostility they need to be grounded in the gospel. That they have been reborn through God’s power and they have a future inheritance waiting for them.
In this passage, he now he transitions to telling them how they are to live in a place that is hostile towards them.
Whether we experience outwardly or not, our culture and time is becoming more hostile to Christianity, and these words are Peter’s instructions how to make it through.
TIME magazine (https://time.com/4385755/faith-in-america/)
Supreme Court decision overruling Texas’ restrictions on abortion clinics and the mandate that employers provide access to contraception, have added to the sense that religious expression is under attack.
the teacher in New Jersey suspended for giving a student a Bible; the football coach in Washington placed on leave for saying a prayer on the field at the end of a game; the fire chief in Atlanta fired for self-publishing a book defending Christian moral teaching; the Marine court-martialed for pasting a Bible verse above her desk;
Anti-Christian activists hurl smears like “bigot” and “hater” at Americans who hold traditional beliefs about marriage and accuse anti-abortion Christians of waging a supposed “war on women.”
Some secularists argue that Christian schools don’t deserve accreditation.
Atheist Richard Dawkins and others have even called homeschooling tantamount to child abuse.
Student groups like InterVarsity have been kicked off campuses. Christian charities, including adoption agencies, Catholic hospitals and crisis pregnancy centers have become objects of attack.
Studies have shown employer's and academics are 20% more likely to not hire someone who is an evangelical.
There is hostility in our world toward Jesus followers. And it makes sense. Our allegiance is not to the world but to him. But, we still have that question of how are to live? 1 Peter 1.13-21 gives us our instructions.
In those instructions Peter has 3 imperatives for us or three commands. We are going to carefully look at each one.
they are 1) to set our hope on Jesus 2) to be holy like he is holy 3) to conduct ourselves with fear.
Pray
1 Peter 1.13
1 Peter 1.13
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Hope and Holiness correlation
Hope and Holiness correlation
OUR HOPE SHOWS US WHAT WE WORSHIP - WHAT WE WORSHIP DICTATES OUR ACTIONS
What happens when life gets hard? We want to find something to make life better. If you are facing financial difficulties, you can hope for a better education to get you out.
If you are sick, you can hope in the medical system to develop a cure.
If you’re lonely, you can hope for marriage.
If you are living in a hostile world, what do you hope for? Peace, change, power?
What ever is your difficulty, you can hope for the thing you belief will give you what you need and want to escape your circumstances.
None of the things I just mentioned are bad things, cures, education, marriage, peace, but when they become our greatest goal or our greatest hope those things become a functional god or savor to us. Where we place our hope, shows us what we worship.
And this is even more true when we are facing difficulty and hostility.
So Peter wants to start with our hope.
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
All that Peter is about to say is grounded in what came before it. What is “THEREFORE” referring to?
To OUR BEING BORN AGAIN and TO OUR INHERITANCE, to God’s faithfulness to keep us through trials. 1 Peter 1.3-4
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,
Because of what God has done, is doing, and will do, we are to do something. What are we to do?
We are to hope. Remember i said there are three commands in this passage. This is the first one.
The command to hope.
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
But, what are we to hope in? A better education? A spouse? A healthy life?
No, we are to set our hope fully on the grace that will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Do you understand how unique this is? For other religions, the idea is that they must do things to be accepted, but Peter is saying hope in what Jesus has already done for us. He has saved us already, and we will experience it fully one day. This day is not uncertain. Peter wants us to know that this day is coming and he wants us to look forward to it with Jesus will come again and we get the inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.
So believer, set our hope fully on the gospel. The grace that will bring us into eternity with Jesus.
But, HOW DO WE HOPE FULLY?
WE USE OUR MINDS TO THINK CLEARLY AND ACTIVELY
(emphasis on slide)
Peter says, prepare your minds for action, which actually is gird up the lions of your minds.
That’s not something we typically do in 2020, but knowing this year, maybe we should try it.
Gird up the lions is what happens when you are wearing a long robe, and before he could run, he’d have to pull up his robe and put it into his belt.
Maybe today, the analogy to today is before you work out you’ve got to stretch. I’ve pulled to many muscles to know that you’ve got to prepare before you exercise.
Peter is telling us the to set our hope fully, isn’t an emotional command. It’s actually a mental one. Peter is saying for us to have the hope he wants us for we must use our minds and be disciplined in thinking.
That’s his next point, he says, prepare your minds, and be sober minded.
What does drunkenness do? It distorts everything. It clouds our judgement, it slows our reflects, it lowers our self-control and we do things we wouldn’t do. Far too often we are drunk on the promises and philosophies of this world. We don’t think clearly because we were to drunk on the what the world says
Peter says for us to hope, we must do it sober-minded, meaning we are able to judge things accurately, we are to be see God clearly, and engage our minds.
Christianity is not just an emotional faith. To follow Jesus means that we must engage our minds and think hard about the truths of Scripture.
We normally get this backwards, we often believe that our emotions control our actions and emotions dictate what we think.
This passage teaches us the very opposite.
OUR MINDS DIRECT OUR EMOTIONS. It is the mind that determines our emotions and actions. It we are disciplined in our thinking, that will help us have the hope we need.
Peter is saying THINK HARD FOR YOUR HEART! If you are lazy with your mind, or you fill your mind with things that will distort it, then you can’t HOPE FULLY on God. If you think hard for your heart, if you think actively and clearly, then you will be able to set your hope fully on God.
And when you do this you can actually do the things God asks us to do. Which is where Peter goes next.
1 PETER 1.14-16
14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
We are now God’s children. Remember Peter has said we have born again, born again by the Father. Our identity has changed, our old heart, identity is gone, and we are now sons and daughters of God.
So since we have a new father, our desire should be to be like our father. So Like the saying, like father, like son. God is Holy, we are to be holy too
This is the second command. Be Holy.
Peter takes this as a quote from Leviticus and is saying, the same reason that Isreal was to be holy, that they were to be holy because God is holy, this also applies to us.
It is important that we take a few minutes and talk about holiness.
You may be asking, isn’t God the only one who can be holy? Yes, and no.
We know that only God is holy, in that God is different from all else. He alone is distinct from all else. Only in him is there no darkness, He alone is totally pure, righteous and good.
But the Old Testament like I mentioned called for the nation be be holy. So what did that mean?
Because God is holy, meaning he is perfectly pure, perfectly clean, totally infinite in value, anything that is impure or unclean can’t be in his presence. God would have to make something or someone clean or pure before coming into his presence. So when the Old Testament talks of the nation of Isreal being holy, it is taking about this process by which God calls the people of Isreal, and gives them instructions for how to be clean and made pure. For Isreal this meant they would have customs and laws that were different from rest of the world to display that they were called to serve God only.
This meant that there diet would be different, their clothing, ethics, their relationships, their worship would all be different.
So when we read 1 Peter 1.14 this is the understanding we have to have. Peter is saying the children of God, whom God has caused to be reborn are to be set apart from the world to obey and serve God only.
Our former way of living is done and gone. “do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance” and we are to be holy in all our conduct. “he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct”
So what should that conduct look like? We are no longer under the old covenant made with Isreal, so our holiness is not reflected in what we eat or wear, but if we are worshiping and serving Jesus our King and Lord.
Our holiness is connected to our obedience to Christ.
So in a hostile world towards Christians we live holy lives.
This means we live lives of sexual purity even if the world calls us silly. We serve God with our money and our time even when it costs us. We love our enemies who make fun of us, argue with us, demeen us or hurt us. We are eager to serve the poor and needy. We make time for people by inviting them to our homes and we get to know them and ask them questions even if they look different than us or would disagree with us. We work hard, and are dependable and faithful. We are generous with our resources. We are committed to making disciples of Jesus. This is what it means to be holy as he is holy.
But, what’s important here to notice is the link between what we think, what we feel, and what we do.
I think these verses are showing us the pattern in which we operate.
Things start in our head, move to our heart, and flow out to our hands.
How we think, affects how we feel, how we feel affects what we do.
If we are to be Holy like God is, that’s the action, thats the hands. That means we need to change what we feel, or the things our heart hope in. We need to have our heart hope in Jesus, or “do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.”
To change what we hope in, we need to start thinking different.
Dave Hawkins has used this analogy of a train. Our head is the engine, our heart is the passenger car, and our hands is the caboose.
Application:
So I want you to right now think about an area of life that you struggle to obey God. Maybe it’s lust, maybe it’s greed, maybe it’s anxiety and worry, maybe it’s laziness. It can be anything you struggle with.
I want you try to discern how your thinking might be affecting what your hoping in or for with that struggle. And how that wrong placed hope is affecting your behavior and actions in that struggle.
I want to challenge you to ask How can you think differently, hope differently, and act differently?
Transition: The reality is though, we aren’t always able to do this. Often times our faith is weak, and we can’t think straight, we place our hope in the wrong places, and we don’t live the holy lives we are meant to.
1 PETER 1.17-21
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.
HOLY FEAR
God cares about our faith. Remember a couple of weeks ago, he is guarding us or protecting us, so we do not lose faith. God uses a variety of means to do that.
One of the ways God guards our faith and moves us toward holiness is by asking us to remember his promises. But, he also uses warnings.
God knows that in a hostile world, it’s easy to lose focus and to wonder, and to become like the world. So God reminds us of the consequences of sin and his coming judgement.
He begins v17,
17 “And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds,”
Want I want to point out here is that God is both Father and Judge.
Can we approcah God like a loving father? Yes absolutely.
Do we have to be aware that God will also judge every man and women? Yes, absolutely.
And just in case we might think that God is partial because we might think we’ll he’s my father, so we won’t judge me as severely, this verses, nope. God is impartial. He judges by each ones deeds.
And so because of that. here is the last command of the passage.
“conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,”
Now a couple of questions arise from this?
who or what should we fear? I think it’s saying fear God, who judges impartially.
But, wait, didn’t we just hear that we should set our hope on his grace found in Jesus? Why should we hope, but also fear?
I think we get the fear of God mistaken a lot. I think the fear of God is more than just an awe and reverence. I think that is part of it, but it’s also a true fear. A fear of a holy, living, all powerful God who knows all and sees all.
We want to tame God, we want to make him how we want him to be, but God is holy. And sin against infinitely holy God, requires in infinite punishment.
In this specific case, Peter is saying watch how you live your life, because you need to be afraid if your life reflects a disrespect for the precious blood of Jesus.
Look at v17 and 18.
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,
I want to you to imagine a family. This family has a daughter who is kidnapped and the ransom is set for 1 million dollars. The family doesn’t have a million dollars, so they sell their cars, they sell the house, they give up all that they have to get a million. They are finally able to gather enough and they set up a time and place to pay the ransom to get their daughter back. As they make the exchange, the money for the daughter. The daughter looks at them says, actually no thanks. I don’t want to be in your family anymore and runs back to her kidnapper.
The daughter rejects her parents ransom and rather than run free, she runs back to her slavery.
I think Peter is saying here, fear that you would treat God’s ransom for you like that. How much more valuable was his ransom, more valuable than silver or gold, it was precious perfect blood.
Peter’s encouragement is to fear treating the blood of Jesus like worthless trash because if you do, it’s evidence that your hope, your faith, your trust, your love is not on God. It’s in something else.
When you are weak, and sin is tempting, and your hope fading and you want to follow your old ways of life, the fear of God is meant to act as a warning for us. For if we keep living like we are not Christians and not living as holy, you will not have a future inheritance.
This kind of thinking, this kind of sober mindedness will lead to a life of self control and holiness especially in a hostile world.
BE HOPEFUL, BE HOLY, BE FEARFUL
Peter offers us 3 commands in how we should live in a hostile world. He says be hopeful, be holy, and be fearful.
But, he doesn’t want us to forget that this all flows out of the gospel. He ends this section with a summary of the gospel.
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.
Our salvation is not an afterthought for God, his plan was not in response to something he wasn’t expecting, in fact, Peter is saying not only did God know who will be saved, but he knew how he would save them. He would save them through Jesus. All that we might have faith and hope in God.
This gospel, this good news, is the primary motivation for our holiness as we sojourn in a hostile world during the time of our exile. Because God is holy, he will judge sin. We deserve such judgment. But instead of judgment, we receive mercy because God has purchased us with the blood of Jesus. Because we have been delivered from the bondage of our former ways, we are now to display our Father’s holiness during our time on the earth. When we meditate on this gospel and continue believing this gospel, we will be warned by God’s judgment and motivated by God’s grace to walk in holiness—to become more like him as we journey toward the day when we meet him—not only as our King, but as our Father.