Wayfaring strangers
A study of 1 Peter
“By his grace”
1 Peter 1:3-5
Today we are going to continue our ongoing sermon series on the great book of 1 Peter
As we have seen over the last 2 weeks
The Apostle Peter, one of Jesus’ boys
And the unofficial leader of his rag tag bunch of Apostles
Has grown into the name Jesus gave him
Cephas- the rock
And has stepped up to help people grow in relationship with God
And learn how to live in a world that is sometimes hostile to the believers of Jesus
The first week was an introduction
Last week we looked at how God views us
How we are
Chosen
Set apart as Holy
Cleansed by the blood of Christ
Today
Through the words of Peter, to the first century Wayfaring Strangers
We will see exactly what it means to be born again
And more importantly why this is important
Please open your bibles to 1 Peter 1:3-5
3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, 4 and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. 5 And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.
Listen. Peter got excited about God’s word
I am excited about God’s word
And I want you to be excited about God’s word as well
How do I know Peter was excited?
He could have simply laid out the facts
He could have written in a monolog, matter of fact manner
He could have written in less than inspiring manner
He could have simply listed the points of his message
But he didn’t do that. Peter begins his letter with an explosive statement of praise!!!!
Look at verse 3a
3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
All praise to God
Hallelujah
Yea haw in cowboy terms
Peter was excited about what he was about to tell his listeners
He was speaking from his heart
Out of his love for Christ
The way he begins his letter tells us how we should read, study and proclaim the word of God.
With excitement!!!!
Biblical preaching should always touch the head and the heart.
It should educate
But it should also inspire feelings of great thankfulness
Joy, peace and so on
Listen
It is never enough for a preacher to say, “Well, at least I covered those four verses today.”
Covering scripture is important
We need to be students of scripture
But we must also convey the truth from the heart to the heart.
Get it from our heads to our hearts
This goes both ways
From the way I preach
and to the way you listen.
We must not be content with merely spewing out facts
Spitting out scripture, facts and figures and such
Using big words that we don’t understand
We must not be content simply to gain biblical knowledge.
The goal is life transformation through God’s Word in the power of the Holy Spirit
We should not be satisfied with anything less.
So, in an effort to apply God’s word
Anytime we listen to preaching or teaching we should ask these questions
Is the speaker, preacher, teacher speaking truth? If not you should RUNNOFT
Does the topic matter to the one presenting it, are they excited about God’s word, if they don’t care, if they are not excited why should we be
And
Why should I care
The first question is vital because preaching based on anything other than the truth of Scripture is dangerous and misleading.
Adding to the work of Jesus on the cross for salvation says the blood and death of my savior was not enough and that is unacceptable
Changing or misrepresenting scripture to promote your own personal views or doctrines is both irresponsible and dangerous
Listen
It is not my job to entertain, I pray that my sermons are engaging and even sometimes entertaining, but I am not an entertainer
My job is not to tell stories, I tell stories to enhance the scripture, to give visuals that we can relate to , but the stories should always enhance the material and apply to it , a joke or a story that does not apply to the word being taught has no place in a sermon
My job is not to give opinions, we all have opinions
You care for mine about as much as I care for yours it is God’s word that matters
My job is to teach God’s word
From his word
In context!!
The second
Is does the one speaking
Believe
Embrace
And apply
What they are preaching
If not
Move on
And Third,
We should make it clear why we
The listeners
should care about the truth the proclaim.
I told you all of this to tell you this
Peter says
Listen
“I am excited”
And
“this matters”
He is calling us to praise God because of what God has done for us.
So, in order to fully understand this topic or any topic in scripture
And to apply it to our lives
We must ask a couple of more questions
Personally
We must each ask ourselves
Do I want to know what God says? Or am I content being told what to think and believe
And
Am I willing to be changed by the truth I hear?
You see
Peter begins by saying “Blessed be God” because the truth has changed his life.
I want to touch briefly on the topic of preaching and worship before we move on
Preaching and worship go together.
They are both important parts of our service
The worship service – song service
I believe that we should worship God with all we have
Our hearts
Our voices
And even bit of twang
Worship- that Is the singing and listening to music
Prepare our hearts for the truth of God’s word
The songs cause us to look at ourselves
And get into the right mindset of worship
Everything we do from beginning to end is part of the worship service.
The prayers, the music
The preaching
I will go so far as to say the hugs and handshakes
The fellowship
even the coffee and donuts are an important part of our worship
We worship through singing the truth
And
We worship through hearing the truth.
It is possible to sing without worshipping
It is possible to preach or listen to preaching without worshipping God.
Listen
It’s good to say, “I went to church today
But the real question is but did you worship today?
William Temple penned this definition of worship:
“Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness, nourishment of mind by His truth, purifying of imagination by His beauty, opening of the heart to His love, and submission of will to His purpose.”
What he means is
Worship is the total response of who we are to all that God is.
Seen in that light, worship is not really a “service” we attend, it’s a way of life
A part of who we are in Christ
So why does all this matter?
“Are we making too much of just one verse, actually just part of a verse
My answer is no,
I’m not making too much of it because this is the way Peter begins his message, so it must be extremely important.
Praise is key to the whole book.
We know that I Peter was written to persecuted believers scattered far and wide across Asia
We know they were far from each other and far from Peter himself.
Living as strangers often even in their hometowns
We know they faced numerous trials and much persecution
And we know that all of it was about to get worse
But
Here is what I love
Peter does not start off talking about problems and solutions
He starts by talking about who God is
And
what God has done for them and for us
God comes first with Peter
God should come first with us
And when God comes first
We will praise his name.
When we start with God, we see our problems in proper perspective, but when we start with our problems, it’s often hard to find God at all.
Many ask
Where is God in all this trouble
I will tell you honestly
If you can’t see God in the trials and troubles
It aint’ God who moved
Get still, get quiet, get in the word
Take a hard look at your life
Your choices
And try discovering what God is telling you
Then address the changes that you and I need to make in our lives
If you do this, you will soon see that God has always been there
You simply lost your focus
And that brings us back again to Peter’s main point:
Verse 3 again
3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation
Praise God who caused us to be born again!
Everything else in verses 3-5 circles back to that main idea.
There are five things we should learn from this passage of scripture
1) We have experienced God’s mercy—v. 3a
2) We have been born again—v. 3b
3) We have a living hope—v. 3c
4) We have a guaranteed inheritance in heaven—v. 4
5) We are kept and protected by God’s power—v. 5
And all five points go back to the main idea of this passage
God “who has caused us to be born again.”
In the text Peter explains the great blessings that are ours through Jesus Christ.
And he wraps it around one phrase—"new birth.”
I can tell you honestly
There was a time n my life when I had no idea what that meant
In Jr. High -a time when lots of young people become aware of God
Aware of their need for salvation
I had no clue
I grew up in a church where such things were not discussed
My friends would ask me are you saved?
Are you born again?
I had no idea what they meant
So, there may be someone here who is dealing with those same feelings
What does this mean
God has given us new birth and now we are new people.
It really is simple
He has given us a new start, a fresh beginning, a do over, a reride in cowboy terms
Born again
Means we understand that we fall short of God’s desires for us
That we have asked Jesus to rule our lives
And we are forgiven of our past sins and mistakes
But I want you to notice how Peter puts it, because this is important
Verse 3b
“ It is by his great mercy that we have been born again”
That’s a very strong statement about God acting on our behalf.
We did not cause ourselves to be born again.
You didn’t “cause” your spiritual birth any more than you caused your physical birth.
Peter looks at our new birth and says
“God did it!”
It was him not us
Sometimes people want to take credit for their salvation by saying things like, “I had faith, so God saved me.”” I found God”
I, I , I
But that’s not the way the Bible puts it.
Ephesians 2:8-9
One of favorite verses reminds us that it is the grace of God that we are able to receive salvation
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Listen to me-- Even the faith to believe is a gift from God.
God gave birth to us. He “fathered” us by an act of his own will
John 1:12-13
12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
God acted on our behalf to rescue us while we were yet sinners and his enemies, estranged from him, going our own way, and rebelling against his holy decrees.
He did not save us because he had to
He saved us because he wanted to.
Because he loves us
So, he and he alone gets the glory for our salvation.
So, the question is
How do you know you’ve been born again?
When we ask people about their salvation we often get answers like
I was baptized ---
I went forward in church---
I prayed a prayer
I grew up in church or I go to church
My somebody was a pastor or elder or deacon or Sunday school teacher
I’ve always been a Christian
Listen.
All of these things are good
We should be baptized as an act of obedience
We should go to church as an act of worship
We should make a public confession of faith
And
If you are blessed to come from a Christian family- amen
But I need you to hear me on this
You could do all those things and still be unsaved.
The only real answer is this:
“I know I’m born again because I have the life of God in my soul.”
There has been a change in me!!!
Once I was blind, but now I can see.
Once I was lost, but now I am found.
Once I had no hope, but now I have a living hope.
Once I was guilty, but now I am forgiven.
Once I was an enemy, but God made me his friend.
Once I was a rebel, but now I am a servant of the living God.
Once I was dead, but now I am alive.
I am not who I used to be
And God did it!
As the old hymn states
Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul.
Thank you, Lord, for making me whole.
Thank you, Lord, for giving to me, Thy great salvation so rich and free.
If you think you accomplished your own salvation, you will no doubt feel good about yourself.
But if you think God caused you to be born again, your heart will be like Peter’s—bursting with praise.
It’s the difference between a self-made faith and a God-created faith.
Everything else Peter says in these verses flows from this truth:
Verse 3b
“It is by his great mercy that we have been born again
God caused us to be born again.
So
We have a living hope – verse 3c
“because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation,”
Because God saved us through the death and resurrection of his precious
One and only Son
We have hope
We have the expectation of eternity
We have the promise of eternal life
And
We have a guaranteed inheritance
Verse 4
4 and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.
We are saved though the power of God
Gifted with hope for the future and promised an inheritance from him
We are promised this inheritance because we are now in his family
We are children of God not children of the world
Because of what he has done
Not what we have done
And then
We are kept and protected by God’s power
Verse 5
5 And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.
We must always realize this
We are secure in our salvation by God’s power not our own
We can’t do anything to earn it and as a result we can’t do anything to lose it
If we do anything good, it is God who enabled us to do it.
If we accomplish anything great, it is only by God’s help and God’s grace.
So why does all this matter
Remember that I Peter was written to Christians facing open hostility in the first century. Because they didn’t go along to get along
Because they stood up for their beliefs
they were mocked
ridiculed
harassed
Some were imprisoned
Some were put to death.
Some in ways no human being should ever have to face
And this is Peter’s message to them and to us
Hard times are coming and in fact are already here.
Some of you are in the middle of a storm right now
You need to know, more are on the way.
But it is important to remember what God has done for you.
He caused you to be born again.
Your future is eternally secure because it rests on God himself.
No one can take from you what God has given to you.
If you know what God has done for you, everything else is just stuff
Around the world there is a great and growing divide between believers and the powers of this world
We are called to be salt and light in a world that does not understand us, often opposes us, and in some cases actively hates us.
Hard times are on the way for Christians
And now is the time to get your faith firmly planted in the right place.
Now is the time to stand on the rock called God.
Now is the time to put your faith into action.
We should not be surprised when hard times come.
That’s what we signed up for when we became a Christian.
Here is where we hang our hats
We have experienced God’s mercy.
We have been born again.
We have a living hope.
We have an inheritance in heaven.
We are kept and protected by God’s power.
Close from the heart
Pray
