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March 23, 2003 |
"1 Peter" Series |
Pastor Brian Shimer
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"God's making Something Amazing"
1 Peter 1:13-2:10
I. There are difficult times. War. Fears. In today's Scripture, Peter speaks with understanding of difficult circumstances. He wrote from prison. He wrote to believers in situations much like the Iraqi Christians have been experiencing for years, where they are martyred for the faith. He wrote understanding something even Greater -- he wrote understanding God's work in each person's life no matter their situation.
II. You may remember the first part of chapter one dealt with the
greatness of salvation -- a salvation that is an expression of God's mercy, a promise of a great future, a sustaining reality through times of trial, a source of great joy.
Beginning in CH 1:13 -- Peter is saying, if our salvation is that great, what does it cause in our lives?
The answer is a series of 55 exhortations by Peter on how to walk our faith.
Some are negative exhortations, such as: "Do not conform to the evil desire you had when you lived in ignorance!" But most are positive: "Be self controlled!"
An exhortation is like a piece of very strong advice. A wise parent communicates clearly and in no uncertain terms to protect his or her child from danger: "Do not leave the store!" And a child is wise who heeds what is said!
God is equally clear with us.
So I was going to just walk through each exhortation with you this morning. But even in this short passage Peter has so many! Too many really to take one after another. We would all be weary.
Then I noticed that Peter lays out all these exhortations and then basically says WHY he has laid them all out there. It is all because of what GOD is doing in you and in me and among us, that Peter exhorts us to apply salvation.
III. Read ch 2:4-4 with me would you?
"As you come to Him (who is that?), the Living Stone -- rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him--you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."
"As you come to Him…" "Come to Jesus," Peter says, "God is going to do something in you."
How are you coming to Jesus in your life? In a word, the answer is:
BY FAITH
Faith in what Jesus did for us to redeem us By the imperishable blood of Christ
You have been set free from slavery!
Faith in God's work to take us from death to life.You have been born again by seed -The living, imperishable seed of the Word of God.
IV. Jesus, Peter says, is like coming to a living Stone --
He quotes old testament passages talking of Jesus as
"the cornerstone" upon which all is built.
And "the capstone" which holds everything into place.
We come to Jesus -- the Living Stone --
I wonder if Peter pulls out this picture of a Living Stone, because of how Jesus called him a rock -- Jesus seems to have invented a name of a regular word. As if a play on words. "You shall be Peter" Jesus said to Simon son of Jonah. Peter or Petros -- when the word for ROCK was petra.
Peter was hardly rocklike-- he was impulsive, quick tempered, sank into the angry waves when he tried to walk on water, denied Jesus -- but Jesus seems to have called him rock because of what Jesus would cause Peter to become. And when Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and became a great leader in the early church he was like a rock. He was a solid witness, a solid preaching, a man of holiness and humility.
If Jesus could call Peter a rock and make him into a rock-like leader, just think what Jesus might be able to do with you and with me. And Peter is saying we are like Living Stones, like Jesus is the Living Stone
V. If God had a Rock Quarry of all of humanity -- he comes and hewns out a rock, a living stone, from which to build something great.
But some reject God. As if says in verse 4: "rejected by men"
As a rock who says: "No you won't hewn me out of here! I like where I am!"
When Jesus is rejected by men, He becomes a stumbling block to them.
They are men walking in ignorance. Living futile lives.
To them, the cross is a scandal -- which is what the Muslem faith says.
They will not allow God to hewn them into something great.
VI. That's why in verse 8 Peter says: "They stumble because they disobey the message, which is also what they were destined for…"
The stumbling follows their rejection or disobedience. Stumbling is the destiny when you disbelieve. It is not God's desire for them, for Peter says:
God is "not wanting anyone not perish, but everyone to come to repentance."
2 Peter 3:9
And God has said: "I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?" Ez 33:11
HERE PETER IS TALKING ABOUT The great divide in humanity -- which cuts across all peoples in all places is between those who believe what God offers in Jesus Christ and those who disbelieve. There is no other division. Male and female, race, nationality, do not divide, but belief and unbelief do.
VII. And as unbelief, or rejection carries consequences - a continuation in death, ignorance, futility, stumbling and ultimate separation from God…
So, belief has a destiny…
"As you come to Him the Living Stone -- rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him--you also, like living stones, are being built into…
a spiritual house
God is building us it says into a spiritual house -- that is a loving family which brings blessing not cursing to others. Our mission points to that saying Our aim is to be a loving Family with that Loving Father.
God is building you and I into such a family…
I see it birthed here as people care for one another
Reach out to one another
Ask: "Hey, if you were having a hard week, call, I'll pray for you…"
Ask: "How are you?" and really want to know
Hear of a need and come and care for it… "I have this problem" someone will say, and someone else has the ability and gifting to meet the need.
As spiritually alive people, we each day choose to live in the salvation God has given. Peter has spent this chapter talking about choices… A pastor at a UMC in GA caught some kids who had broken into the church to play pool at the table they had in the youth room basement. The kids were sure they were in big trouble. The pastor knew they had broken in before, to escape the heat and find a way in. The pastor gave them a key. One of those young men is now a pastor.
Wow… God is doing the building!
"As you come to Him (who is that?), the Living Stone -- rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him--you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, …"
Jesus is making us HOLY:
A people set apart for God… that's why we live on earth as if we are strangers here. God is making us just like Jesus. "Be holy because I am holy" -- the source of us becoming holy is God -- Jesus is our model of holiness. Joyful, friend of sinner, loved, powerful witness.
*Not prune faced witnesses!
God takes us rough stones and brings us life and then shapes us together.
Holy Priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices--
The name has lost its meaning - today. It certainly does not mean what it meant when peter wrote it. But the priests were the worship leaders in Israel and the prayer leaders. They represented the forgiveness and access to God.
God is making you representatives of God wherever you go.
You pray for others and God hears those prayers. Prayers are spiritual sacrifices. And God answers prayers.
God is working - taking those once dead and in darkness, making them transformed people! God is taking you and me and working us into something magnificent. Peter says even a HOLY NATION. No longer divided by race or sex or national border - but all believers worldwide are one nation, a nation of light. A nation that proclaims the praises of God who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.
We are not the Americans battling the Iraqi people. For there are Iraqi people who love Jesus and are in the same nation under Jesus with us.
Our troops are battling a work of evil happening through a man who is one stumbling over Jesus because of disobedience.
Jesus is working the same in the lives of believers in Iraq as He is working in our lives. In each life Jesus is taking our faith, and our daily choices to chip away at the rough edges and make of us all together a living, dynamic ministering people -- who have received God's mercy, who are known as God's people.
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