(North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who is regarded as a ‘god’ by the North Korean people, greets Korean People’s Army pilots during a visit to the summit of Mt. Paektu on April 18, 2015, in this photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency. Courtesy Christian Today, 15 August 2015)

By Spencer D Gear

I. Introduction

In the January 2006 newsletter from Open Doors, a ministry to the persecuted church, it focussed on one of the most persecuted groups of Christians in the world. This is what is happening to the church in communist, North Korea:

It’s hard to imagine how a Church can survive in North Korea. Yet right now, some 400,000 Christians are living in this country. . . and they desperately need your prayers and support.

North Korea is the most oppressive nation in the world. There is no freedom of thought, speech, expression, movement or religion. It is the utmost restricting and punishing place on the planet.

Being a Christian in North Korea is extremely dangerous and difficult to conceal. One in three people [is a] government [spy]. If you don’t regularly bow down to a statue of Kim Il Sung, it’s noted.

Some 200,000 prisoners are serving life sentences in labour camps. . . Prisoners work for up to 18 hours a day. Anyone who talks risks 8 days in solitary confinement in a 0.6m x 1.1m cage. . . Torture, executions and experiments occur daily.

Many thousands of prisoners are Christians. “Christians are the most severely abused,” testifies Soon Ok Lee, a former prisoner. “In seven years I saw many believers die, yet they never denied Jesus.”

Among the North Korean refugees to China, many turn to Christ. They are so full of joy that they want to return to their country to evangelise, despise the risk of imprisonment or death.

“I cannot keep the Gospel to myself!” they say. “Our family, friends and all North Koreans must know this! Our end is not in the camp or in starvation, but in eternal life with Him. [2]

What is it that keeps these persecuted North Korean Christians (400,000 of them in a country of 23 million) firm in their faith? It’s the same kind of faith you will need when you are ridiculed for your faith in Australia. It’s the faith that you need when the going has been tough – and it has been for me during the last 12 months.

In I Peter we find why Christians don’t chuck it in when the going gets tough.

We hear so little of what is happening to the small Christian church in Iraq. I read recently “that Christians and churches are being seriously affected by the internal turmoil across the country. Not only are foreigners being hijacked, but indigenous Iraqi Christians are also disappearing. [Open Doors] contacts stress that in most of these cases, the kidnappers are not Islamic extremists, but more often are young people trying to make some easy money.” [3]

We find it difficult to identify with this kind of persecution. However if you are a

committed Christian here in Australia and you speak up for Christ, persecution will come sooner or later. This is from the mouth of Jesus: “Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours” (John 15:20 ESV).

Today we’ll be dealing with I Peter 1:3-5:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time (NIV).

A. Why did Peter write this first epistle?

It is a very warm pastoral letter with lots of encouragement for Christians who are scattered and persecuted. I Peter 5:12, ” I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it.”

Peter wrote this epistle to believers who were experiencing trials that were severe:

• 1:6, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.”
• 2:21, “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.”
• 3:13-14, “Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened.”
• 3:17, “It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.”
• 4:12-16,” Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.”
• 4:19,” So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.”

Peter wrote this epistle so that these early believers would “see their temporary sufferings in the full light of the coming eternal glory. In the midst of all their discouragements, the sovereign Lord will keep them and enable them by faith to have joy.” [4]

This is a very practical and relevant message for Christians who live in China, North Korea, North & South Vietnam, Cambodia, any Muslim country, and here in Bundaberg, Qld. in the 21^st century – where the Christian comes under regular attack for his or her beliefs.

As we look closely at I Peter 1:3-5, we are taught to

II. HOLD FIRM IN YOUR FAITH because of the blessings you have received (vv. 3-5)

These are the blessings that are yours in Christ.

As a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, through God’s “great mercy” you have received blessings beyond anything your boss could offer. Marriage will not give you what God has given. A businessman’s multi-millions of dollars will look like chicken feed when compared with the blessings of the people of God. Nothing bar nothing that you could ever get in this world will compare with the blessings that are yours in Christ.

It’s appropriate that Peter begins v. 3 with an exhortation to “praise.” Richard Lenski says this: “There is too little contemplation of God, too little praise of him in our hearts, especially in our earthly distress.” [5] Would you agree or disagree? Do we praise God enough? Do we know how to praise Him?

The psalmist did.

Psalm 103:1 Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

2 Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits —

3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,

4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,

5 who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

6 The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.

There is so much to praise God for. Let’s not be slack about it. Peter calls us to praise: The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Peter is singing the true glory of God when he meditates on God’s great salvation through Jesus Christ. When Peter thinks on the blessings of salvation, He has nothing but praise for God the Father.

Would some of you take a moment to think about how you ought to praise God? Remember, we are talking about God, praising our Almighty God. Anybody prepared to verbalise praise of God?

You may have a family member who is:

• Threatening suicide;
• Has attempted suicide;
• Rebellious kids who pull knives on parents, abuse them in other ways;
• Sexually, physically & emotionally abused teens;
• Parents who are guilt-ridden because they can’t control their kids, kids on drugs, stealing, vandalising, pumping 100s of dollars through the pokies, etc.
• Adultery, broken families, talk of homosexual marriage;
• Youth with outrageous anger problems;
• How do you survive as a Christian in such circumstances.

You don’t have to be going through such extreme circumstances. You may be persecuted for your Christian convictions. For you, this first epistle of Peter has some exceedingly good news.

Just in case you haven’t remembered what God has done for you through Christ, Peter summarises some of the blessings for us. Surely these are enough to convince you to hold to your faith firmly.

Never forget these blessings:

A. YOU HAVE BEEN CHANGED FROM THE INSIDE OUT.

“He has given us new birth” (“caused us to be born again”). This language is so familiar to many of us that we just gloss over it. Please don’t. What has happened to you, if you are born again, is like going into your mother’s womb again and coming out a totally new person, from the inside out. The image baffled Nicodemus (John 3:3-9). It still puzzles those who have not experienced it. You are born again because the life of God has been implanted in your souls. This is the whole Trinity in you to give you a new life and a new view of the world. Your heart is filled with new powers, new motives, new thoughts, and a new desire. You are not the same.

When we give birth to children whom we love, we shower them with gifts; our kids are our heirs; they receive our inheritance. That’s how it is with God the Father when we are born again. What an incredible blessing it is!

It is ours because of God’s “great mercy.” God saw us in filth, need and rebellion. He was moved with compassion. Eph. 2:4 says He is the God who is “rich in mercy.” Mercy is God’s compassion for the helpless that results in action to bring them relief. “Mercy is a word specially used in the New Testament of God’s kindness in bringing in the outsider and the unworthy, the Gentile and the sinner, to share in His salvation, and in the glories or riches of His Christ” [6] (Read further about it in Rom. 11:30-32; 15:9; Eph. 2:1-7; Titus 3:5). Jesus was moved with compassion when he saw the hungry crowd. But he did more than that. He provided them with the bread and the fish to eat (Matt. 15:32). That’s mercy.

God saw our wretched state, aliens who would rather shake our fist at God than move towards him. We were rebels. In mercy, he offered us new birth through Christ’s death.

It is a new birth that gives us:

1. A living hope (v. 3)

This is a “no hope” world. If we want to put a person down, we call him a “no hoper.” Just think of what has happened to hope during the last century. Two world wars, Hitler’s gas ovens and the deaths of 6 million Jews, the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the atomic age ushered in with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Vietnam War; the killing fields of Pol Pot’s Cambodia. The slaughter in Rwanda, Zaire, Port Arthur, and now the war in Iraq.

Some of the young people I’ve counselled over the years, who are contemplating suicide, tell me they see no hope in the future.

Dr Brendan Nelson is the federal minister of education. He is the former president of the Australian Medical Association. In a letter he wrote to The Australian newspaper back in 1997, he said this:

“The thematic currency of youth suicide is our failure to transmit a sense of belonging and meaningful purpose to young people. . . We have created a culture in which young people frequently feel they have nothing other than themselves in which to believe. The mesh of values that held Australian society together 30 years ago — God, king and country — has been systematically dismantled. . . leaving only a vacuum. . . The price of our shallowness is being paid by our children.” [7]

The hope that people had in the optimism at the beginning of the 20th century is dead in the ashes of wars, crime and violence, high unemployment, etc. When you glory in what human beings can do and achieve, you will be bitterly disappointed, even shattered.

For the believer we have a “living hope.” The opposite, “a dead hope,” is what we would call hopelessness. For the Christian it is a living hope because it is in what God has done. Verse 3 makes it clear what God has done. It is a living hope ONLY…

2. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

What’s the big deal about the resurrection? If there was only Calvary, we would have a dead Jesus, rotting in the grave. It is because of the resurrection that we have a living Saviour and you can become a new person in Christ. It is a hope that will not die because of the one who conquered death.

Because Jesus lives, we shall live also. As the Bill Gaither song puts it so well:

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.

Because He lives, all fear is gone.

Because I know who holds the future

And live is worth the living just because He lives. [8]

This is the living hope. If Jesus did not rise from the grave, there would be no valid basis for believing in life after death. A person said to me the other day, “I’m going to live it up for all I can get now because I’m going to be dead a long time.” He was dead wrong! You’ll be alive a mighty long time—for eternity—but where you will be, heaven or hell, will be determined by how you respond to the resurrected Jesus in this life.

For what do we hope? What are we looking forward to?

B. AN INHERITANCE (v. 4)

This was familiar language for Jewish readers. They had heard lots about the inheritance that God had for his people. Canaan, the Holy Land, was just for them. They were wanderers in the wilderness after coming out of slavery in Egypt. They looked for the Promised Land. After being brought back from Exile in Babylon, they were looking for their inheritance in the Land God had provided.

But the “land flowing with milk and honey” didn’t fulfil Israel’s hopes. They were soon into idolatry; there was strife between tribes; the land was overrun by invaders. Surely there was something more than this for an inheritance! Was there any lasting hope?

We have seen lots of great things in the Lucky Country of Australia. We have wealth beyond measure. Our natural resources are something to behold. The technology in the land is amazing. The sunburnt country has so much beauty. We have one of the best welfare systems in the world.

But in the midst of this splendour, there is so much ugliness. Surely there is more to yearn for than this!

Australia or Israel is not the inheritance the true Church is expecting. Verse 4 says it is an inheritance that

1. Can never perish

Moths and rats will not eat it up. It will not rust. Thieves will not break in and steal it. No destructive force, natural or man-made, will injure it or take it away. [9] “Unlike any inheritance in this world, it is not exposed to destruction.” [10]

It is an inheritance that

2. Can never spoil

No stain or stink of sin will be there. It is so pure and lofty. Imagine an inheritance that is worth more, much more, than gold. No contamination from anything related to sin. There will be no brothers and sisters fighting over the will to get their share. It will be unspoiled wealth. The believers’ inheritance cannot be “defiled from outside.” [11]

This inheritance

3. Cannot fade

The idea behind this word is that it is

“imperishable, never withering, (never) disappointing, (never) becoming old and worn. The delight of it will never lessen or grow stale. . . Our inheritance will never lose anything through age or sickness on our part or through any damage to itself; it will never be marred by impurity; and it will never lessen in delight because it has been enjoyed for so long.” [12]

Unlike a physical inheritance in this world, it cannot “decay from inside.” [13] But there is more. What makes this inheritance even more remarkable is that the security system is out of this world.

4. It is “kept in heaven for you.” (v. 4)

Literally, you have always been kept and are presently being guarded and will be kept there until you reach glory. God is guarding you. He keeps you safe. What a blessing this is!

Please note that this inheritance is:

5. For you through faith (v. 5)

Faith is not to be thought of as some way for earning your inheritance. Never! However, faith in Christ must surely be our response to God’s mercy and love.

While our inheritance is kept in heaven for us by God, we, as faithful believers, are living on earth, according to v. 5:

6. “Shielded by God’s power” (v. 5).

Did you get what I just said? Your inheritance is “shielded by God’s power.” God has not left the church without protection in this hostile world. God continuously “guards” the church. Yes, even this church. The church is “shielded.” It’s an old military term meaning “to garrison.” [14] A garrison is a military post that is permanently established and stays on guard 24 hours a day.

Extraordinary missionary to India, E. Stanley Jones of the 20th century, “often repeated the prayer of a little girl who was the daughter of missionary friends in India:

“God bless Mama and Papa, my brothers and sisters, and all my friends. And now, God, do take care of Yourself, for if anything should happen to You, we’d all be in the soup.” [15]

The church is guarded by God’s power every moment of every day. There are enemies of the church all around us who want to rob the church of her inheritance. They want you to fail. God says, “You are guarded by my power every moment of every day.” The psalmist reminded Israel: “[The Lord] will not let your foot slip—he, who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.” (Ps. 121:3-4); Psalm 34:7, “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.”

The power of God guarded Daniel in the lions’ den; Shadrach, Meshach and Abednigo in the fiery furnace; it set boundaries around Job when he was afflicted; it freed Peter from Herod’s prison; it preserved Paul when he was surrounded by dangers, hardships and persecutions. The faith hall of fame in Hebrews 11 tells us that, through faith, God guarded those who “were tortured and refused to be released… Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned” (vv.35-37). However, others were guarded until God took them to heaven: “They were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated” (v. 37).

What is being guarded for us? v. 5

7. The coming of salvation: ready to be revealed in the last time (v. 5)

We have salvation now that makes a radical personal difference in our lives. But Peter is reminding the church of the final deliverance that will come at the end of the age. There could well be horrible persecution and sorrow in the days ahead for us in Australia from Satan’s final assault — and just prior to the return of Christ.

Revelation ch. 12 speaks of Satan being cast out of heaven and filled with fury “because he knows that his time is short” (Rev. 12:12).

Famous theologian, H. Richard Niebuhr, was on the streets of New York City when he was approached by an evangelist with this question, “Are you saved?” Niebuhr always took people seriously. He paused a moment and gave this thoughtful reply, “I was saved by what Christ did; I am being saved right now; I shall be saved when the kingdom comes.”

We don’t know what the evangelist said. But Neibuhr stated so well what Peter is trying to get across to us: “Salvation spans time. It is grounded in the past; it is experienced in the present; it culminates in the future.” [16]

Without a doubt, we, who believe, have begun to experience a true and great salvation now (Luke 19:9), thanks to Christ’s death on the cross. The joys of salvation come through our daily discipleship (2 Cor. 6:2). However, the absolute wonder and the full dimensions of salvation will not be known until the crowning day of our salvation when Jesus comes again.

When Jesus returns, the church will receive the great deliverance. Salvation will be accomplished then. I pray that “In a little while, the great curtain shall be drawn aside, our entire salvation shall be revealed.” [17]

What a God we have and what a blessing to know that we are guarded by the power of God in this way—in life and through death.

After listening to all this heavenly emphasis, maybe you are tempted to say what Karl Marx said. This is pie-in-the-sky stuff. Religion is the opiate of the people! Isn’t Christianity the religion that is the drug that the ruling classes are using to keep the under-privileged satisfied with their lousy lot? Isn’t this keeping your heads in the clouds so that you don’t have to become involved in solving some of the problems of today’s world?

Of course, this Christian hope can be abused and misunderstood—and it has been. However, it has been the Christians whose hopes have been in heaven who have made a dynamic impact as the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world.” Where would we be without committed, evangelical Christians such as William Wilberforce who helped to eliminate slavery from the British Empire. It was George M?ller who helped the orphans in England and lived by faith to receive funding for his ministry.

Another John Howard, besides our Prime Minister, influenced by the Wesleyan revival, brought about prison reforms in England. Elizabeth Fry continued his work.

William & Catherine Booth founded the Salvation Army and its ministry to the needy has a continuing international reputation.

David Wilkerson went to New York City to work with the junkies and help them be delivered from their drug habits through Christ and established Teen Challenge. Today, John Smith and his team work on the streets of Melbourne with those we call unlovely. Peter Lane and his colleagues of Liberty International work with individuals and groups of homosexuals leading them to salvation through Christ and to a change in their lifestyle. Where would the welfare of our country be today if the church withdrew its ministry to the hurting people of our society?

Those who have a living hope and know their inheritance is in heaven, never to be spoiled, have most often got their hands dirty in the real world of people and their problems.

Even in this letter of First Peter, Peter has some urgent things to say about life in the present. In chapter 2 he deals with how we are to relate to government and our bosses. Marriage and family come into focus in chapter 3. Chapters 3 & 4 deal with how we should respond to suffering if we suffer for doing good. This is very down-to-earth stuff for those who are chosen people and a holy nation.

It has often been said that many Christians are so heavenly minded they are no earthly good. That’s not biblical Christianity. Here in I Peter, those who are sure of their inheritance in heaven and have a living hope that longs for their eternal reward, are most actively involved in this present world — through evangelism and practical ministry. You might ask, “Should we focus on this world or the next?” I think the question is wrong. Rather, it should be, “Does your future belong to a human being’s pride and resources or to God’s grace?” Since our future belongs to God’s grace, our lives ought to demonstrate “Christianity with its sleeves rolled up” to the needy – wherever and whenever.

III. Conclusion

Let us draw some practical applications from this encouraging passage of God’s Word:

1. Notice the overall thrust of this passage for those who are experiencing severe persecution. It is just as relevant to those who have difficulties on the job or at home. These verses, and the entire book of I Peter, do not focus on the extremely difficult circumstances. They focus on God:

• “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!” What should we praise God for?
• His great mercy;
• Given us new birth;
• A living hope (for a hope-less world);
• We have an inheritance that is out of this world – “can never perish, spoil or fade”;
• Your inheritance is not in a Kerry Packer lifestyle of billions of bucks. “It is kept in heaven for you.”
• We praise our wonderful God because we, “through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”
• When we have to deal with difficulties in our lives, we come to this wonderful Lord. The last 18 months have been rugged for me, but if I focused on the bad things that have happened to me, I would not be preaching this morning. I am so grateful for the lessons I have learned from I Peter. Be God-centred; exalt Him; make Him the centre of my desires. We have an inheritance that “can never perish, spoil or fade” – thanks to our wonderful Lord.

When the difficulties come, and they will, run to Him, not just for a few moments on your knees, but to meet all your needs. Remember God’s mercy, salvation, our future in heaven – an inheritance that is out of this world.

2. Another application: It is so easy to take for granted the new birth that you  have received. Are you living in the reality of this “living hope” in a hopeless world? What is your attitude towards those who live next door, your school mates, your friends concerning this “living hope” that you know and experience every day? Do you share Christ with these people who have an attitude of hopelessness? If terrorism comes to your suburb, if Sept. 11 comes in another form to Bundaberg, how will y our life be a demonstration of the “living hope” that Christ gives. You need to live that life now. Evangelism and discipleship should be a normal part of our lives. It is not for the specialists. We will never get the job of reaching people done unless all of us who know Christ live a life of “living hope” in our daily lives.

A North Korean Christian said that “through the Gospel, North Korean society will change from within.” [18] This is in a land that has 400,000 Christians in a population of about 23 million. [19]

3. Third, over the last fortnight we have been faced with plenty of media coverage of the death of one of Australia’s richest men (Kerry Packer). The Sydney Morning Herald of 28th December 2005, published this statement.

THE LAST time Kerry Packer died [or had a near-death experience], 15 years ago, he quickly took the opportunity to pooh-pooh the existence of an afterlife. “I’ve been on the other side and let me tell you, son, there’s f—ing nothing there,” he was fond of saying. [20]

I say: He will know for certain now. How much went with him? You may be as poor as a church mouse, but you have an inheritance that is out of this world. First Peter says that it is “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.” Where is this inheritance kept? In the National Bank of Australia?

“Kept in heaven for you.” Life is worth the living because, in Christ, your inheritance is gained in heaven. We believers need to be forever heavenly minded so that we will be of earthly good. But also we are heavenly minded because that is where our lasting treasure is “that can never perish, spoil or fade.”

We must never get our view of life after death from any person’s views, and certainly not from a person’s near-death experiences. God alone knows what lies beyond death and it is to Him in His Word, the Bible, that we go for accurate information of what lies beyond the grave. God’s views are radically different from those of Kerry Packer.

4. Finally, based on this message of I Peter 1:3-5, when we come to worship, don’t you think that we should come to praise and worship our wonderful Lord? How do we know about how we ought to worship? Through the Scriptures.

Psalm 96 tells us how we ought to sing to the Lord. This is how God tells us we ought to worship Him in our singing:

Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all the earth.

² Sing to the LORD, praise his name;
proclaim his salvation day after day.

³ Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples.

⁴ For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise;
he is to be feared above all gods.

⁵ For all the gods of the nations are idols,
but the LORD made the heavens.

⁶ Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and glory are in his sanctuary.

⁷ Ascribe to the LORD, O families of nations,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.

⁸ Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come into his courts.

⁹ Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth.

¹⁰ Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns.”
The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity.

¹¹ Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
let the sea resound, and all that is in it;

¹² let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them.
Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy;

¹³ they will sing before the LORD, for he comes,
he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples in his truth (NIV)

Compare the psalmist’s exhortation to praise our God with how we come with a me-centred approach like:

Just let me say how much I love You
Let me speak of Your mercy and grace
Just let me live in the shadow of Your beauty
Let me see You face to face . . . [21]

That may be OK in our private devotions and praise to God, but when we meet together to worship, is it too much to ask that our focus by on the Triune God alone?

What do you think inspired Isaac Watts, the hymn writer, to write our

IV. Concluding hymn: Blest Be the Everlasting God (tune of Amazing Grace)

Blest be the everlasting God,
the Father of our Lord
be his abounding mercy praised,
his majesty adored.
When from the dead he raised his Son
to dwell with him on high,
he gave our souls a certain hope
that they should never die.
There’s an inheritance divine
reserved against that day,
It’s uncorrupted, undefiled,
and cannot waste away.
Saints by the power of God are kept
till the salvation come;
we walk by faith as strangers here,
till Christ shall call us home. (Words: Isaac Watts (1674-1748) [22]

Notes:

2. Open Doors, Australia, “The most punishing place on the planet – North Korea,” letter, January 2006. Available from PO Box 53, Seaforth NSW 2092; www.opendoors.org.au; email: opendoors@opendoors.org.au

3. The Door Openers Club, Frontline, June 2004, Open Doors Australia, P.O. Box 53 Seaforth NSW 2092. Website: www.opendoors.org.au

4. Edwin A. Blum, 1 Peter, in Frank E. Gaebelein (gen. ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary (vol. 12). Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1981, p. 213.

5. R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of the Epistles of St. Peter, St. John and St. Jude. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augsburg publishing House, 1966.30.

6. A.M. Stibbs, The First Epistle General of Peter (The Tyndale New Testament Commentaries). London: The Tyndale Press, 1959, 75.

7. The Weekend Australian, January 11-12, 1997, 20.

8. Words and Music by William J. Gaither; Recorded by William and Gloria Gaither; ©1971 BMI All Rights Reserved. Words available at: http://www.alighthouse.com/lives.htm [24th August 2004].

9. Lenski, 33-34.

10. A.M. Stibbs, The First Epistle General of Peter (The Tyndale New Testament Commentaries). London: The Tyndale Press, 1959, 75.

11. Stibbs, 75.

12. Lenski, 34.

13. Stibbs, 75.

14. A.T. Robertson, Word Studies in the New Testament, Volume VI (The General Epistles and the Revelation of John). Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman Press, 1933, 83.

15. In Ruth A. Tucker 1994, The Family Album: Portraits of Family Life through the Centuries, Victor Books, Wheaton, Illinois, p. 206; taken from E. Stanley Jones 1968, A Song of Accents: A Spiritual Autobiography, Nashville, Abingdon, pp. 346-347.

16. Lyman Coleman and Richard Peace 1988, Study Guide for the Book of 1 Peter (Mastering the Basics). Littleton, Colorado: Serendipity USA, 22.

17. Lenski, 3

18. Open Doors Australia newsletter, January 2006, available from PO Box 53 Deaforth NSW 2092, Australia. Internet address: www.opendoors.org.au ; email: opendoors@opendoors.org.au [8 January 2006].

19.  Infoplease: North Korea, available from: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107686.html [6 May 2007].

20. Available from the Sydney Morning Herald [Online], 28 December 2005, “Media colossus pushed the boundaries of family empire,” with John Huxley, at: http://www.smh.com.au/news/obituaries/media-colossus-pushed-boundaries-of–empire/2005/12/27/1135445573138.html [8 January 2006], Or HERE

21. “Just Let Me Say,” Word and Music by Geoff Bullock, Hillsong Australia, available from: Praise Universe at: http://praiseuniverse.com/pages/sg200448 [7 January 2006].

22. Words available from: http://www.oremus.org/hymnal/b/b148.html [7 January 2006].

Copyright © 2007 Spencer D. Gear.  This document last updated at Date: 14 October 2015.

CCO Public Domain

By Spencer D Gear

What would happen if you did not water and fertilise plant sugar cane?  It would die or be badly stunted in its growth.

What happens if you don’t give a new-born baby the correct food?  He or she will become malnourished and may even die?

What do you think will happen if you don’t provide baby Christians with the correct spiritual food?  A deformed, immature or malnourished believer will result.  It’s the same for all of us who believe and need to mature in Christ.

Peter (if I say Paul instead of Peter, you’ll know I mean Peter, won’t you?) began chapter 2 with an appeal: “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good” (2:2-3).

To these persecuted believers, Peter wants them to grow up in their faith.  To mature in the faith, he teaches all new-born believers 4 things in vv. 4-8:

1. Come to the living stone (v. 4);

2. Know how you, as living stones mature (v. 5);

3. You will never grow up in the faith unless your foundation is solid (vv. 6-7);

4. Unbelievers stumble at this very point of the foundation (v. 8).

Throughout this passage the “you” to whom Peter speaks is not to “you” as individual single believers but to “you” (plural, collectively) as the people of God.  This is important because we Westerners are so individualistic and we must get rid of such thinking if we are to mature as believers.  You and I need one another – the body of believers.

We think that we can survive on our own.  That is not Christian thinking.  We need each other and we will never grow up at the people of God without the loving discipleship and care of the whole body of believers.

It’s a big ask to move us in our thinking and actions from individuals to the whole people of God.  It would happen very quickly if we were in a persecuted society like China, North Korea, the Muslim world (Christianity is entirely forbidden in Saudi Arabia), Burma, the Sudan, you would quickly learn that you will never ever survive in your faith if you think that Simon & Garfunkel sang the truth: “I am a rock, I am an island” (Simon & Garfunkel n.d.)

Peter uses some down-to-earth images to describe life for the believer:

• Newborn babies craving milk (2:2);
• Stones to build a house (2:5);
• A capstone rejected by builders (2:7).

These are not literal statements; they are figurative images.  They refer to everyday things but point to some spiritual message, just like this first expression.

A. If you are to grow up in your faith, you need to come to the living stone (v. 4)

This is obviously speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ but it is a paradox to speak of Him as a living stone.  Stones are dead objects.  What’s the point of this kind of language?  It’s figurative.  We see this elsewhere in the Bible:

• When Jesus told the parable of the landowner, the vineyard and the tenants, he referred back to Psalm 118:22-23, as we see also in this passage: “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone.”

• This same verse from Ps. 118 is quoted in Acts 4:11 when Peter spoke to the Sanhedrin rulers, elders and teachers of the law, including Annas the high priest, in Jerusalem.

What is Peter trying to get across? To grow in your faith, you must have your foundation correct.  That is,

1. Christ, the living stone (2:4)

Peter’s name, petros, means “rock” but Christ is “the stone” in this verse, but he is the stone and the rock in v. 8.  As we will learn soon, not just any old pebble, but the cornerstone, the foundation stone.

If you want a solid foundation for life and its many challenges, you don’t want shifting sand for your foundation.  I saw a photo on the Internet of a 4-wheel vehicle that had been left on the sand on a Fraser Island beach?  The owner returned to this newish vehicle and it was on its side with the salty water flowing in and around it, and half covered in sand.

To grow up in the faith, you need Christ, the stone, for your foundation.  No ordinary sand or soil will do.  Obviously I’m speaking figuratively about Christ, the stone.

But Christ, the stone, has an adjective of qualification.  He is “living.”  The stone is alive.  The NT refers to him as “living water (John 4:10-11) and “living bread” (John 6:51).  Here he is the living stone because of His resurrection from the dead.  He’s the foundation of our lives but he’s no dead Saviour.  He’s alive, through his resurrection from the dead.

However, this living stone, the foundation of new life for believers

2. Rejected by people

This is utterly tragic.  The one who is to be the foundation of all of life and especially of the Christian life is utterly rejected by the unbelieving world.  There is unbelievable hatred towards Jesus among Aussies.  If you don’t believe me, try raising the subject of Jesus as the only way to salvation and heaven among your secular friends and see what you get.  Some not only reject Him, but also abusively treat Jesus with some of the most blasphemous words and acts.

BUT, in spite of the way they humiliate Jesus and you, this living stone is

3. God’s chosen one & precious

Peter repeats the wonderful Christian teaching of election (being chosen by God).  Do you remember what these believers were called in I Peter 1:1?  God’s elect!    God’s chosen people!  Here, Jesus, the crucified and risen Lord, was not killed by some plan of Judas Iscariot and Pontius Pilate.  Oh yes, they were involved.

But Jesus, the living foundation, was a member of the Godhead from eternity, but he went to death for our sins and was raised for our justification, not by some plan of the Roman Empire or the Jewish authorities, but Jesus was chosen by God to take the royal road to death and resurrection – for our sake.

And that is precious!

  4.  Let’s tease out some applications of this point:

a.         Since Christ is the living stone and He lives in every believer (“Christ in you, the hope of glory”, Col. 1:27), how can you relate to the living Stone?  How can you get to know Him better?

There are at least 3 ways:

(1) Through prayer.  Do you spend time in prayer with the living Stone daily?

(2) Heb. 4:12: “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”  If you want to know the living stone, you must spend time with God in reading and listening to God through the Bible.  Do you have a regular plan of spending time in God’s Word and listening to Him – really listening?

(3) Remember Elijah on Horeb, the mountain of God, when the Lord appeared to him (I Kings 19:11-12):

The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by”.

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. (NIV).

Have you heard the “gentle whisper”, the still small voice of God?  God speaks this way when we are in prayer; sometimes when reading the Word, sometimes when we are open to God’s direction.  Listen for the still, small voice of God.

b.         One other application here: When you share the Gospel with unbelievers, there will be some who respond in faith, but do not be surprised when many reject.  The living Stone, Jesus, chosen by God, is rejected by people.

If you are to grow in the Christian life, this passage teaches us a second way:

B. If you are to grow up in your faith, you are to be like living stones being built into a spiritual house (v. 5)

Peter is still talking about stone, but the imagery has changed.  He has moved from Christ, the solid foundation to believers who are

1. Living stones

Will you please come back to the English class room for a moment?  Dare I invite you to come into the English grammar class with my English teacher, Johnny Baird, at Bundaberg State High School?  He would tell you that you need to clearly know the difference between the active voice and the passive voice of a verb.

For example, if I were to say that “I built the house” that’s a verb in the active voice.  I am the one doing the building.  But if I say, “I am being built into a house” it is the passive voice of the verb “to build.”  With the passive voice, something is being done to you by something/someone else.

This is important here because 2:5 says you, as new Christians, are having something done to you by someone.  You, the living stones, have God as the agent and He is building the spiritual house with God working on you (Kistemaker 1987, p. 86).  This has led to the New English Bible translation, “Come, and let yourselves be built, as living stones.”  NRSV, “Let yourselves be built into a spiritual house”(similarly in the RSV, ESV, GNB, Phillips).

The life-giving principle in believers comes of Jesus who is alive and well and living in and among all Christians.  “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27).

Did you get a hold of that?  You are living stones because of Christ being in you.  Is your hope eternal glory?  I hope so!

Peter describes believes not just as living stones but also as

2. A holy priesthood

I’ve heard some unfortunate comments from evangelical friends of mine towards the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Eastern Orthodox churches who call their clergy, priests.  Is it correct or not to speak of a pastor as a priest.  Are these other churches biblical or not in calling preachers and pastors, priests?  We’ll get there in a moment.

In the church, we use the phrase, “the priesthood of all believers.”  Some call it “every member ministry.”  Ministry is not limited to pastors and Bible teachers.  By this we mean that “every true Christian is a priest in the household of God” and is thus able to minister in the gifts that he or she has received from God.

John Calvin wrote this: “It is a singular honor, that God should not only consecrate us as a temple to himself, in which he dwells and is worshipped, but that he should also make us priests” (Calvin n.d.).

Every person who is truly a Christian believer is a member of this “holy priesthood.”  Thus, it is wrong to say that only the clergy of certain denominations are priests.  All true Christians are priests and members of “a holy priesthood.”

Why holy?  All priests are “dedicated to God and separated from the world” (Kistemaker 1987, p. 87).

What is this “spiritual house” of the holy priesthood?  Again it’s a metaphor where Peter speaks not of physical stones “but the individual members form the household of God (Eph. 2:19-22; I Tim. 3:15; Heb. 3:6; 10:21).  This metaphor conveys the idea of a community of believers who as a holy priesthood present living sacrifices” (Kistemaker 1987, p. 86).

What is the ministry of this holy priesthood?  See v. 5.

3. To offer spiritual sacrifices

• Acceptable to God
• Through Jesus Christ

What does that mean?  Think of the OT priest of Israel.  The NT believer (the holy priesthood)

has no need to offer sacrifices to remove sin and guilt, for ‘Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people’ (Heb. 9:28).  A member of the priesthood of all believers, then, offers sacrifices of gratitude to God for the redemptive work of Christ.  That is, he [or she] presents to God “a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name” (Heb. 13:15) [Kistemaker 1987, p. 87].

What else does a priest do?  Live a life of holiness that reflects what Paul said to the Romans, to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice, offering thankful service to God (Rom. 12:1).  Such sacrifices to God are only possible through Christ because we need to be righteous in Christ because all of our own good works as like filthy rags (Isa. 64:6).

4. Let’s apply this to us!

Please pause with me a moment: What spiritual sacrifices did you make last week?  I am not talking about refusing to go to the pub, the pokies, drinking alcohol or visiting the movies.  That’s the farthest thing from my mind.

• What thankful service have you given to God?  In praise of Him?  In ministry to somebody in need?
• How have you denied yourself this last week?  What have you denied so that you can worship and minister to the Lord?
• Where have you been able to minister in Jesus’ Name last week?

There is only one kind of Christian who will stand against the opposition and persecution of a secular society.  They are the “living stones” who are built on the foundation of The Living Stone, Jesus Christ Himself.

Do you love Him?  Are you embarrassed to own Him in public?  Will He know you when you meet Him at death or the Rapture as one who is a “living stone” who offered Him spiritual sacrifices throughout your Christian lives?  Will these “living stones” in this church gathering be known for how they offer “spiritual sacrifices”?

Firstly, this passage teaches that if you are to grow up in your faith, you are to be like living stones being built into a spiritual house (v. 5)

Secondly,

C. You will grow up in your faith if you stand firmly on what the Scriptures teach (vv. 6-7)

Peter, as an inspired writer of Scripture, could have written this Scripture, based on the fundamental authority that God told him through a divine revelation, and Peter wrote Scripture that was “breathed out” by God, according to 2 Tim. 3:15-16.

But that’s not what Peter did.  God directed him to tell us exactly why Peter gave us these instructions.  In vv. 6-8, Peter lays out the scriptural foundation for what he has just given us.

Note the words: “For in Scripture it says . . .” (NIV).  “It is contained in the scripture” (KJV).  Peter quotes from Isa. 28:16:

For in Scripture it says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame.”

It should go without saying that when we want accurate information about life and salvation we should go to the Scriptures.  Many don’t.  They think there is more value in secular psychology.

There’s a definite trend against knowing and living according to the Scripture in the liberal church (we’d expect that).  But I’m deeply concerned about the entertainment level in some flourishing evangelical churches that is drawing people and preachers away from preaching the Word.

It’s so important what Peter did.  To lay the foundation for Christian growth he went to the Scripture.  For him, it was the OT and he would not have been able the carry a nicely bound KJV or NIV under his arms.  Imagine what it would have been like to have to read and carry papyrus (a dried mat made from a reed) and velum, made from animal skins!

When Peter turned to the Scriptures for an example from Isaiah 40:6-8, he found a figure to emphasise that “Christ is precious [there’s that word again] and tested cornerstone” (Clowney 1988, p. 84).  Edmund Clowney explains:

In the building technique from which the figure is drawn, the cornerstone of the foundation would be the first stone to be put in place.  Since both the angle of the walls and the level of the stone courses would be extended from it, the cornerstone must be square and true.  Large and precious stones were cut for the foundation of Solomon’s temple (Clowney 1988, p. 84)

In the OT Scripture, it states that God

1. Lay a stone in Zion (2:6 here)

We have learned that the “stone” is Jesus Christ, so Isaiah 28:16 was a Messianic prophecy, predicting the coming of Jesus.  This stone, Jesus, was laid in Zion.  What does that mean?  What is Zion?

Since the day of Christ, Zion (or Sion in KJV) could represent:

• “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” as in Heb. 12:22;
• It can refer to the people of Israel in quotations from the OT (Rom. 9:33; I Peter 2:6);
• The physical city of Jerusalem (Matt. 21:5; John 12:15); or
• The literal mountain on which Christ and his followers will stand when Christ returns (Rev. 14:1) and Christ will go forth from this mountain to rule forever (Rom. 11:26; cf. Ps. 132:13-14).

Christ was born in the Jewish race, so Zion in I Peter 2:6 probably refers to the people of Israel.  Christ will be a stone amongst this people.  What kind of stone?  V. 6 says in the NIV that he will be a

2. Cornerstone

• Chosen

• Precious

Jesus, the foundation cornerstone, from whom we gain the direction for life, impacts believers differently from unbelievers.

3. For believers who continue to trust in Christ

Note 2 things for them in vv. 6-7:

Firstly, they will never ever be put to shame.  Do you mean to say that there could be the possibility of shame when people face Jesus one day?  There most certainly will be for unbelievers who will be shamed, but for those who continue to trust in him they “will never be put to shame.”

The ultimate shame would be to face God when a person dies and be shamed by being send to hell forever and ever.  There is so little preaching on hell these days.  Please note what Jesus said when he spoke about separating the sheep from the goats at the end of the age.  Matt. 24: 46, “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” Eternal punishment, hell, for the damned is as long as eternal life for the righteous believers.  Eternal!  Forever and ever.

Believers who continue to trust Christ alone for salvation will never be put to shame by being sent to hell.

Secondly, to believers, Jesus, the stone is precious.

Please note something very important here at the beginning of v. 7 in the NIV.  It’s a simple statement: “Now to you who believe.”  The KJV reads, “Unto you therefore which believe.”

Sounds ho hum to us, but in the Greek language it means: “You, you who continue believing” (Kistemaker 1987, p. 89).  Or to put it in Aussie colloquial language: “Hey you!  Listen I’m talking to you!  This is not for those who make a once off decision and then forget about God.  This is only for those who continue to live the Christian life until God takes them to glory.  Do you get it?”

To those who continue to believe throughout their lives, the stone is precious.  How come?  Precious means “respect” or “honor.” (Arndt & Gingrich 1957, p. 825).  If you don’t respect Jesus, if you don’t honour Him, if you don’t consider Christ’s life, death and resurrection are not precious for the believer, something is wrong with your Christian life.

This is why I cringe inside me whenever Jesus Name is blasphemed or profaned.  When people use His name in vain and treat him as a commoner who can be used as abused, something inside of me rears up against such degradation of my Saviour.  Why?  He is precious to me – because of my relationship with Him and because of what he has done in saving, justifying, propitiating, redeeming, this wretched sinner.  Do you love Him?  Do you honour and respect this Jesus Christ?  Is He precious to you?

If he’s precious to you, you’ll want to tell others about him, proclaim His gospel and defend the cause of biblical truth.

There’s a flip side to what I have just been preaching.

4.       For unbelievers who reject Christ, the stone

• The Christ becomes  a capstone of rejection (v. 7), AND
• The stone of stumbling offence

On 8th July, it was the 265th anniversary of the preaching of one
of the most famous sermons of all time.  God used this sermon to
start the New England Great Awakening in the USA.  It was in 1741
at Enfield, CT, and was preached by the colonial American 
theologian Jonathan Edwards.  The sermon was titled: 'Sinners in
the Hands of an Angry God.' In it he preached: "It is nothing but
[God's] mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment
swallowed up in everlasting destruction. However unconvinced you
may now be of the truth of what you hear, by and by you will be
fully convinced of it" (Edwards 1741).

     Firstly, the Christ becomes a capstone of rejection for
unbelievers.  V. 7 is a quote from Psalm 118:22.  The NIV
translates as "capstone"; the KJV "head of the corner." 
The KJV is the literal translation.  Christ is the chief
cornerstone of the foundation of the building but when
unbelievers reject him, what happens?  See v. 8
     For unbelievers Christ becomes a means of stumbling
and a rock that makes them fall.  This is unusual language
but the message is straightforward:

Peter is Peter Drucker who was a secular, Jewish management guru.  This led the Editor of the Northern Landmark Missionary Baptist magazine (August 2006) to comment, “In other words, the purpose of Warren’s visit was to help Jewish Rabbis to learn how to build membership in their religion which rejects Christ as Saviour. Is this an appropriate role for any Christian minister of the Gospel ?” [3] saying “that we either put our faith in Jesus, the foundation stone, or we dash our foot against it” (Kistemaker 1987, p. 90).

• Why do they stumble and fall?  Simple.  They disobey the message.  What message?  The Gospel!  Simon Kistemaker puts it beautifully:

The reason for their stumbling is that they have chosen to disobey
the Word of God.  Their disobedience arises from a heart that is
filled with unbelief. 
     In other words, the sequence which Peter delineates is unbelief,
disobedience, and downfall which eventually lead to ruin. 
Unbelievers, then, meet God in Christ as their enemy because they
have chosen to be a friend of the world (James 4:4) [1987, p. 90].

Please note the concluding phrase of v. 8: "Which is also what they
were destined to do."  Note the sequence Peter gives here in vv. 7-8:

• In v. 7, Peter contrasts the differences between believers and unbelievers;

• Then, he states that unbelievers reject Christ, the stone;

• From a human perspective, this verse stated that unbelievers disobey Christ’s message, but finally . . .

• From God's perspective, these unbelievers were destined to treat Christ this way.

5. How can you put this into practice this week?

a. What is your view of the Bible?  Is this a largish book that is important to some people in the church, but it’s just another piece of literature?  Is it just 1,653 pages to wade through (length of my NIV)?  Or do you know, believe and live by what the Scriptures say?  Is this your commitment to the Word: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 1so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17)?

b. Is Jesus Christ the true cornerstone of your life – the foundation stone by which all other constructs are judged?  Do you know what this means?  When it comes to understand the violence in our world, you go to Jesus Christ for the only diagnosis and solution.  What about social evils like abortion and euthanasia?  Are you going to the civil libertarians or feminists for your understanding, or do you depend wholly on what God says?  What about how we treat one another in marriage?  Marriage?  Aren’t defacto relationships better?  Who are you serving?  You will grow in your faith only when you stand firmly on what the Scriptures say.  How do you treat the elderly in your family, in our community?  What’s God’s view?

c. Continue to proclaim Jesus as the only way to eternal life, remembering all along that there will be many unbelievers who find the living Stone, Jesus, a stumbling stone.  Expect rejection of the Gospel in evangelism, but don’t give up witnessing.  How long is it since this church ran a deliberate evangelism outreach to this town and community?  I’m thinking of something like Christianity Explained [2]; Two Ways to Live [3]; Introducing God [4]; or Evangelism Explosion [5].  Does reaching people for Jesus really matter to this church?

d. What do you plan to do to help people grow in their faith?  How will you disciple new Christians?  What’s your plan?  I see too much of “anything goes” in the church, when it comes to the need for discipleship and how people grow.

e. We face another problem.  Too many of us are in a rut and comfortable with our Christianity.  Imagine what would happen if the financially and socially disadvantaged started coming to our church.  It just might lull us out of our lethargy as we helped them meet their financial, social and living needs.  What would happen if a couple of outspoken homosexuals came here?  Would we reject them or love them into the kingdom, making sure that they understood the gospel and the need to grow in faith?  Are women who have had abortions welcome here?  If families come with unruly children, what will you do?

D. Conclusion

So, how are Christians to mature, to grow-up in Jesus?

1. Come to the living stone, Jesus, rejected by people but He’s precious to God.  He’s precious because there is no other way of salvation that God has provided.  Acts. 4:12, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”  Why is this?  Your sins condemn you to hell and you need a blood sacrifice of eternal worth to God to provide forgiveness for your sins.

Muhammed won’t do it; neither will the Mormon Joseph Smith; nor Charles Taze Russell of Jehovah’s witnesses; nor any other religious leader.  Only one person shed his blood for our redemption and was raised again for our justification.  He was the one and only Jesus Christ.

2. You will mature when you as a group of believers live as living stones, offering spiritual sacrifice to God.  You offer sacrifices of praise and gratitude to God in thankfulness for the once-for-all sacrifice for sins by Jesus.

3. You will mature as believers when you stand firmly on the authoritative, inerrant Word of God which proclaims that Christ is the foundation cornerstone.  He is precious to you.

4. For believers, the Christ who is precious to them is a stone of stumbling to damnation for those who refuse to believer the Gospel and are destined to damnation.

Next time, we’ll consider what that means, from 2:9-10:

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy (NIV).

Notes

[2]  Available from: http://www.christianityexplained.com/ [9 July 2006].

[3]  Available from: http://www.matthiasmedia.com.au/2wtl/ [9 July 2006].

[4]  Available from: http://www.introducinggod.org/ [9 July 2006].

[5]  Available from: http://www.eeinternational.org/ [9 July 2006].

References

Arndt, W. F. & Gingrich, F. W. 1957 (transl. & adapt. W. Bauer), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago (limited ed., Zondervan Publishing House).

Calvin, J. n.d., transl. & ed. J. Owen, Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles, Christian Classics Ethereal Library, Grand Rapids, MI, Available from: http://www.ccel.org/c/calvin/comment3/comm_vol45/htm/iv.iii.htm [cited 8 July 2006].

Clowney, E. P. 1988, The Message of 1 Peter: The Way of the Cross, Inter-Varsity Press, Leicester, England/Downers Grove, Illinois, USA.

Edwards, J. 1741, ‘Sinners in the hands of an angry God’, July 8, Available from:  http://www.ccel.org/e/edwards/sermons/sinners.html (Accessed  8 July 2006).

Kistemaker, S. J. 1987, New Testament Commentary: Exposition of the Epistles of Peter and of the Epistle of Jude, Evangelical Press, Welwyn, Hertfordshire.

Rosemond, J. 2001, John’s Weekly Column, December 2, ‘Unearned praise leads to Mediocrity’, Available from: http://www.rosemond.com/ [cited 8 December 2001].

Simon and Garfunkel n.d., “I am a rock,” LyricsFreak “S”, Available from: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/s/simon+and+garfunkel/i+am+a+rock_20124809.html [cited 8 July 2006].

Copyright (c) 2007 Spencer D. Gear.  This document last updated at Date:  14 October 2015.

(public domain)

By Spencer D Gear

We who live in the 21st century are at an incredible advantage when it comes to knowing Christ.  How come?  If an all-knowing God exists who knows everything, he knows the future – all of the future.  If this God exists, it is possible for him to make predictive prophecy about the future.

In fact, one of the strongest pieces of evidence that the Bible is inspired by God is its prophecy about the future.  The Bible is like no other book.  It “offers a multitude of specific predictions – some hundreds of years in advance – that have been literally fulfilled or else point to a definite future time when they will come true” (Geisler 1999, p. 609).

Bible teacher, the late J. Barton Payne listed “1817 predictions in the Bible, 1239 in the Old Testament and 578 in the New” (Geisler 1999, p. 609).

A young converted Jewess, daughter of a New York rabbi, tells this story:

My father taught me to read the Bible in Hebrew when a young child. We began at Genesis. When we came to Isaiah he skipped the fifty-third chapter. I asked him why. He said it was not necessary for Jews to read that chapter. I became more curious. I asked him who it was for, and he said Christians. I asked him what the Christian Bible was doing in our Bible. He became very angry and told me to keep quiet. He said again it was not necessary to read it.

I wondered why God would put unnecessary things in the Bible. I copied the fifty-third chapter on paper and carried it in my stocking for two years until I came to America—the free country. I looked at it at night and every chance I could without being seen. I took better care of that paper than people do of money.

Through reading this wonderful chapter I was led to accept Christ as my Saviour. I was walking in New York one day and heard a lady reading this chapter. She explained that it referred to Jesus Christ. It satisfied me completely (Sunday School Times, n.d.).

What’s so special about Isaiah 53?  Here are verses 4-6 from that chapter:

Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.   But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.  We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

I want to link a passage like Isa. 53:4-6 to I Peter 1:10-12 because Peter states that this wonderful salvation that we experience today was predicted long ago by Old Testament prophets and was fulfilled in Christ’s death.
What is “this salvation”?  We have read about it, using many different terms in the first 9 verses of 1 Peter.  Peter speaks of:

• God’s elect, chosen (vv. 1-2);
• Sprinking by his blood (v. 2);
• New birth (v. 3);  Living hope (v. 3);
• Inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade (v. 4);
• Salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (v. 5);
• Your faith – of greater worth than gold (v. 7);
• You believe in Christ “and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy” (v. 8);
• “You are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (v. 9).

What does this passage say about the OT prophets and their predictions about “this salvation”?

I. First, the prophets of the OT spoke of the grace to come (v. 10).

This passage doesn’t tell us which prophets spoke about this grace to come.  We’ll look at those prophets in a moment.  Still in v. 10:

II. Second, these prophets of the OT searched intently.

The NIV translates that they “searched intently and with the greatest care.”

The KJV: ” have enquired and searched diligently.”

The ESV translates: “searched and inquired carefully”

Literally:

• “Earnestly sought” (generally);
• “Earnestly searched” (specifically) [Lenski 1966, p. 44].

These OT prophets not only spoke to the people of their day, but they spoke of the time when the Messiah would come.  In predicting the future, they did not clearly understand exactly what they were predicting. Daniel 8:27 explains: “I, Daniel, was exhausted and lay ill for several days. Then I got up and went about the king’s business. I was appalled by the vision; it was beyond understanding.”
Daniel 12:8: “I heard, but I did not understand. So I asked, ‘My lord, what will the outcome of all this be?’”

Remember what Jesus said to his disciples in Luke 10:23-24: “‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.  For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.’”
The prophets of the OT longed to see what we have experienced.  The disciples saw it and upon us this mighty prophesied salvation has been outpoured.

III. Third, the prophets of the OT tried to find the time of Christ’s sufferings and glories (v. 11).

The NT used two Greek works for time: chronos and kairos. Chronos refers to chronology – day after day, month after month.  Peter was NOT saying that the prophets were wanting to find the exact date of Christ’s first coming 2,000 years ago.

Here Peter refers to kairos time: “What kind of period the Spirit in them was indicating” (Lenski 1966, p. 11).  The prophets were pointing to an era, a dispensation.  “With the life and especially the suffering and death of Jesus, the old age has passed away and with the . . . present time of true divine righteousness (Rom. 3:26) a new epoch, the fulfillment of the times, has dawned” (Hahn 1978, p. 837).  It was this “period of time characterized by some feature . . . a ‘time charged with opportunity’ . . . the salvation of the Messianic age” (Selwyn 1947/1981, p. 135).

There are “29 prophecies from the Old Testament, which speak of the betrayal, trial, death, and burial of our Lord Jesus Christ, [which] were spoken at various times by many different voices during the five centuries from 1000-500 B.C., and yet all of them were literally fulfilled in Jesus in one twenty-four-hour period of time” (McDowell 1972, p. 58).

While the OT prophets are not mentioned by name here in I Peter, we are told that these prophets  “predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow” (v. 11).  To what prophecies could Peter be referring?

A. Those that predicted Christ’s sufferings:

Let’s look at a few examples of Christ’s sufferings that were prophesied:

1.  Psalm 41:9, “Even my close friend, whom I trusted,he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me” (Ps. 41:9).  This was fulfilled in Jesus’ betrayal by Judas (Matt. 26:49-50);

2. Isa. 53:7, ” He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. He did not open his mouth before his accusers” (fulfilled in Matt. 27:12-19);

3. Isa 53:5, ” But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”  Zech. 13:6 states, “If someone asks him, ‘What are these wounds on your body?’ he will answer, ‘The wounds I was given at the house of my friends.’”  Fulfilled in Matt. 27:26.

4. Isa. 50:6, ” I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.” (also in Micah 5:1; fulfilled in Matt. 26:67)

5. Ps. 22:7, ” All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads” (filfilled in Matt. 27:39-43).

What about the prophecies that indicated the glories of Christ?

B. Those that predicted Christ’s “glories.”

What could that be referring to?  Please note that this is not the singular, “glory,” but the plural “glories” of Christ.  On the Road to Emmaus, after Christ’s resurrection, Luke 24:26 records this: “Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”

What are these glories that were prophesied?  These are referring to the glory of Christ’s resurrection, the glory of the ascension, the glory of Christ’s second coming (Kistemaker 1987, p. 42).

Where do we have OT examples of

1. The Resurrection of Christ

Ps. 16:10, “because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay” (Paul discusses the fulfillment of this verse in Christ’s resurrection in Acts 2:27).
Another prediction about Christ’s resurrected glory is in Ps. 30:3: ” O LORD , you brought me up from the grave; you spared me from going down into the pit.”

Where do we have OT predictions of

2. The Ascension of Christ

Ps. 110:1 states, ” The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’”  This is acknowledged as a fulfillment of Christ’s ascension in Acts 2:34.

What about the glory of Christ’s Second Coming?  Was that predicted by the OT prophets?

3. Christ’s Second Coming

Yes it was.  Take a look at verses such as these:

Daniel 7:13-14: “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”

Zechariah 14:4-5, 9: “On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. . . Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him. . .  The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD , and his name the only name.”

This is referring to Christ’s Second Coming.  Peter goes on to tell us that

IV. Fourth, the prophets of the OT discovered this: They were not serving themselves but us (v. 12)

Isn’t this amazing?  It ties the OT and NT together.  These OT prophets did not fully understand the circumstances and the era to which they were referring, but this they knew: “We are not serving ourselves.”  They knew they were writing for another generation.  They were servants of us.
One of the things that has really struck me this week is the profound unity of the Bible.  Both OT and NT are tied together by a wonderful prophetic bond.  It has also provoked me to do more preaching on the OT.  In my preaching ministry I have concentrated on preaching the NT.  But OT and NT are a unity.  If I don’t preach adequately from the OT, two-thirds of the Bible is neglected.

The Jesus who came to die on the cross, rise again, and ascend into heaven, is coming again to reign in righteousness over the whole earth.  It is an everlasting kingdom and King Jesus will be King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

I also want us to note that . . .

V. Fifth, these things have now been preached in the gospel.

“through the Holy Spirit sent from heaven” (v. 12).  See the sacred thread!

The OT prophets spoke

• to their own generations,
• but they prophesied about a future era when
• the Messiah would come to earth,
• die a criminal’s death for our sin,
• rise again,
• ascend into heaven, and then
• with the promise he is coming again.

There’s one other fascinating point in these 3 verses:

VI. Sixth, of these things, even the angels are ignorant (v. 12)

“Even angels long to look into these things.”  What could this possibly mean?

Let’s state something very clearly.  The Bible is clear about the existence of good angels.  What’s an angel look like?  As a general rule, you won’t be able to see them.  Bible teacher, Wayne Grudem, gives this basic definition that I think is consistent with what the Bible says: an angel is “a created spiritual being with moral judgment and high intelligence but without a physical body” (Grudem 1999, p. 479).

Briefly, what’s the place of angels in the purposes of God? [2]  The ministry of angels falls into some well defined areas.

A. They ministered to Christ.

During the lifetime of Jesus, there was extra angelic activity.  For example, they

1.  Predicted Christ’s birth (Luke 1:26-33);

2. They announced His birth (Luke 2:13);

3. They protected him as a baby.  When the Magi had left, Matt. 1:13 tells us that “an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream” telling Joseph, Mary & Jesus to flee to Egypt;

4. Angels strengthened Jesus after his temptation (Matt. 4:11);

5. When Jesus was arrested just prior to the crucifixion, he stated that his heavenly father could “at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels” (Matt. 26:53), but he did not use them;

6. They strengthened him in Gethsemane (Lk. 22:43), and

7. They rolled away the stone from the tomb and announced His resurrection (Matt. 28:2, 6).

B. What’s the ministry of angels to believers?

1. Angels serve us, according to Heb. 1:14, “Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?”  They are engaged “in their ordinary activities of guarding and protecting us (Ps. 34:7; 91:11; Heb. 1:14)” (Grudem 1994, p. 397).  Ps. 34:7 states: “The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.”  It’s an unseen, but profound, ministry of angels to those of us who are believers.  You won’t see them doing this ministry, but we can be assured that angels are ministering to us who believe.

Who knows how many times you have been protected from dangers and even death by God’s angels who surround you!

2. Angels are involved in answering prayer (Acts 12:7).  This was Peter’s miraculous escape from prison: “Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. ‘Quick, get up!’ he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.”

3. Angels give encouragement in times of danger.  When Paul was threatened from a severe storm at sea on his way to Rome, Acts 27:23-24 records: “Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’”

4. Angels care for believers at death.  Remember the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:22, “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side.”  See also Jude 9.

C. Angels have a ministry to the nations of the world.

In Revelation, chs 8-10, angels are involved in judging the nations.

D. There’s a ministry of angels to unbelievers.

1. In Acts 12:23 angels are involved in judgment.  It states: “Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.”

2. In Matt. 13:39-41, in the parable of the weeds (wheat & tares), it states: “and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.”

So, what does it mean here in 1 Peter 1:12, “even angels long to look into these things”?  The verb, “long to look” means “to stoop over to look.  It implies willingness to exert or inconvenience oneself to obtain a better perspective” (Blum 1981, p. 222).
Angels are continuously giving this salvation a close examination.
Let’s apply this to ourselves today.

VII. Applications

All right, God predicted the life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, hundreds of years before they happened.  So what?

1.  First, J. Barton Payne, in his Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy

stated  that “it has been calculated that 27 percent of the entire Bible contains predictive prophecy.  This is true of no other book in the world.  And it is a sure sign of its divine origin” (cited in Geisler 1999, p. 617).  God’s prophecies about Jesus and everything else demonstrates his omniscience (his knowledge).

“The Old Testament written over a 1,500 year period contains several hundred references to the coming Messiah.  All of these were fulfilled in Christ and they establish a solid confirmation of His credentials as Messiah” (McDowell 1972, p. 147).

Peter Stoner considered the fulfillment of “48 prophecies” concerning Christ and looked at the probability of those being  fulfilled in ONE person.  He concluded: “We find the chance that any one man fulfilled all 48 prophecies to be 1 in 10¹⁵⁷“.  That’s a chance of 1 in 1 followed by 157 zeros.

This shows that God is a God of truth – absolutely.   You can depend on his accuracy.  Use this fact when you are witnessing to others.

2. Second, if God knows what will happen hundreds, even thousands, of years before it happens, what does that mean about what God knows about you – to the minutest detail?

After 27 years of youth and family counselling, this I know: I am staggered at the length children and their parents will go to keep facts from others – to lie about the details in their lives.

But there is absolutely nothing you can hide from God.  When you face him one day as Saviour or Judge, you will get a 100% accurate assessment of who you are and what you have done with Jesus and with your life.
I urge you to be open and honest with your children, parents and spouses.  God hates lies.  Live in the light of eternity.

You can hide nothing from God.  What are you trying to hide from him today?  Where are you in your relationship with him?

3.  Third, Peter says that the prophets, gospel preachers, and the angels, are all concerned about “this salvation.”  Are you?

Michael Green, British evangelist, states that

whenever Christianity has been at its most healthy, evangelism has stemmed from the local church, and has had a noticeable impact on the surrounding area.  I do not believe that the re-Christianisation of the West can take place without the renewal of local churches in this whole area of evangelism.  We need a thoughtful, sustained, relevant presentation of the Christian faith, in word and in action, embodied in a warm, prayerful, lively local church which has a real concern for its community at all levels (Green 1990, p. ix).

For evangelism to be real, it needs to come from this local church.  Evangelism is proclaiming Christ AND your presence in this community as a born-again community.

That great Baptist preacher and evangelist of the 19th-century, C. H. Spurgeon, maintained that evangelism “is one beggar telling another beggar where to get bread” (in Green 1990, p. 8).  I like that definition because it places the emphases on the needs of the people living in this region (they are deprived spiritual beggars) and it places an emphasis on the generosity of you and me, the givers.  We have spiritual bread to give and this community desperately needs it.

What will this church do, from this local church, to change the spiritual and moral climate of the Kolan Shire?  You know that this church will die if you don’t evangelise.  But even worse is that this community will be in spiritual darkness, the moral climate will decline, crime and violence will only worsen – if you don’t evangelise.

Have you experienced the good news?  How dare you keep it to yourselves?

VIII. Conclusion

I was reading my local newspaper, Bundaberg NewsMail, on Feb. 5, 2005, in which there was an article about a “psychics true words” that swayed a “major sceptic” of a journalist (that’s how he described his views) into being a psychic believer of sorts.

What did the psychic do?  She told him things about his family life, his height, his wife’s height, and the colour of his wife’s hair.  She even told him the number of children (male and female), and even told him which child was the “really stubborn one.”

But why did this journalist go to interview the psychic?  She “has helped search for missing Sunshine Coast boy, Daniel Morcombe.”  That’s a tragic situation for Daniel’s family.  I pray that Daniel will be found or his parents know what happened to him.

Have a guess what?  This psychic might have been able to tell the journalist cute things about his family, BUT she was an utter failure when she came to finding the whereabouts of Daniel Morcombe.  When push came to shove, her psychic abilities did not locate Daniel.  Daniel is still missing.

That’s not how it is with God Almighty.  He predicted the life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Christ, hundreds of years before they happened.  Have a guess what?  They all came true, right down to the minutest detail.

God has also predicted Christ’s second coming and it will happen just as he has stated – right down to the details he has prophesied.  God keeps his promises – accurately.  He is not like a hit and miss psychic.  He is the living God who tells the truth, all the time, and in prophecy.

That’s why leading Bible teacher and theologian, Norman Geisler, has stated that “one of the strongest evidences that the Bible is inspired by God . . . is its predictive prophecy” (Geisler 1999, p. 609).  God predicts with 100% accuracy.

Works consulted

Blum, E. A. 1981, ’1,2 Peter’, in F. E. Gaebelein (gen. ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary(vol. 12), Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI.

Geisler, N. L. 1999, ‘Prophecy, as Proof of the Bible’, in N. L. Geisler, Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, Baker Books, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Green, M. 1990, Evangelism through the Local Church, Hodder & Stoughton, London.

Grudem, W. 1994, Systematic Theology, Inter-Varsity Press, Leicester, England/Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI.

Grudem, W. 1999 (ed. J Purswell), Bible Doctrine, Inter-Varsity Press, Leicester, England.

Hahn, H. C. 1978, ‘Time’, in C. Brown (ed.), The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology (vol. 3), Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Kistemaker, S. J. 1987, New Testament Commentary: Exposition of the Epistles of Peter and of the Epistle of Jude, Evangelical Press, Welwyn, Hertfordshire.

Lenski, R. C. H. 1966, The Interpretation of The Epistles of St. Peter, St. John, and St. Jude (Commentary on the New Testament), Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, MASS.

McDowell, J. 1972, Evidence That Demands a Verdict, Campus Crusade for Christ Inc., Arrowhead Springs, San Bernardino, CA.

Ryrie, C. C. 1972, A Survey of Bible Doctrine, Moody Press, Chicago.

Selwyn, E. G. 1947, 1981, The First Epistle of St. Peter (Thornapple Commentaries), Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Sunday School Times (date unknown), available from “Illustrations,” at:  http://elbourne.org/sermons/index.mv?illustration+4252 [10 March 2005].

Notes:

2.         The following is based on Ryrie 1972, p. 90f.

Copyright (c) 2007, Spencer D. Gear.  This document last updated at: 13 October 2015.

(clker.com)

 

By Spencer D Gear

 

I was at a church recently where a man about my age (in his 60s) said to me: “I find it very difficult to believe in Someone I can’t see.”  He was speaking of God.

In October 1997, I drove past Bundaberg Toyota (Qld., Australia) and on the front window was this advertising slogan: “New Camry is here: seeing is believing.” [2]  This was the theme of that Toyota advertising campaign for the Camry: “Seeing is believing.”

If you go to the intersection of Maryborough and Bourbong Streets, Bundaberg, you’ll see a sign on the front of a real estate agent’s business: “Seeing is believing.”

Do you have to see to believe?  Or do you need to believe to see?

When I turn to the Bible, I read

I Peter 1:8-9

Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls (NIV).

These two verses are dynamic in teaching us that all true Christians MUST LIVE  BY A LAW THAT BAFFLES THE WORLD.  The world says: seeing is believing.  God says: “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who diligently seek him” (Heb. 11:6).

So is seeing believing?  It maybe so for the new Camry or when buying real estate, but in God’s economy, believing is seeing.

Let me tell you where I am going in this sermon.  I Peter 1:8-9 teaches us that:

1.         Believing what you do not see is something you do all the time.  We do it in many practical things every day.

2.         This is a very reasonable and necessary position.  If you had to see before you believed many things in life, you’d be up the creek.

3.         Believing is seeing is the law of faith.  You must live by it to be a Christian.

4.         These verses and others in the N.T. teach us that even though you can’t see Jesus physically, it’s better that you can’t see him.  You have proof of his existence:

a.  From the Bible; and

b.  The Holy Spirit lives in you and it’s His job to reveal Jesus to you.

5.         You have faith in Jesus;

6.         You love Him;

7.         And you have a joy that you can’t express in words, because of

8.         The salvation you are presently receiving–not just the salvation you will receive when you meet Jesus at death or at his second coming.  You are receiving that salvation NOW.

Let’s get involved with this magnificent text.

Do you believe in anything you cannot see?  Please tell me some of the things you believe in that you can’t see.

! Can you see the wind?  You can see what it does.  It blows the trees.  I was sitting in a fishing boat at the mouth of Oyster Creek when dust settled down on the river.  A car travelling along a nearby road made the dust and the wind blew it, but I could not see the wind.  I only saw the dust.  You believe in something you cannot see—the wind.

! Every boy and girl, Mum and Dad, that I see in this building today is alive.  How do I know that you are alive?  You are breathing, moving, talking.

What makes you alive?  Your heart?  Well, that is the physical thing that beats to keep you alive, but what kick started your heart to get it going?  You have a principle of life within you that keeps you alive and you can’t see it.  The Bible calls it your soul or your spirit.  You can’t see it.

! What about your conscience that tells you that you have done wrong.  Can you see it?  But it’s real.  You feel guilty.

! Let’s think about God.  Can you see Him?  No!  Because He is Spirit. How

do you know there is an almighty God?  The evidence is all around us.

• Look at the magnificent gum tree!  What a beautiful design!   I find it impossible to believe in a gum tree without knowing that God, the great designer, designed it that way.

• How can you take one passionfruit seed, plant it in the dirty ground with some mucky cow manure, give it some water and a plant grows that bears fruit.  Each passionfruit has dozens of seeds inside it that are so sweet to eat.  And when I eat all of those seeds, not one of those seeds grows inside me.  God, the great designer, made it that way.

• Take a brand-new baby.  Just think of how babies are made.  What an incredible way God has planned for it to take a sperm to unite with an ovum.

• Have you stopped to think of how all the cells of your body link with the brain, the central nervous system, the stomach, the bowels, urinary tract, heart and lungs, what it takes for an eye to see, a tongue to talk, feet to walk on, and arms to do lots of things.  No wonder the Psalmist in Psalm 139:13-14 could say of God: “for you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

• Some birds are able to navigate by the stars.  Even if they are hatched and raised in a building without windows; if they are shown an artificial sky, they immediately are able to orient themselves to the proper place and migrate to it.

• The archer fish is able to fire drops of water with amazing force and accuracy, knocking insects out of the air.

• The bombardier beetle produces two different chemicals.  When these chemicals are released and combined, they explode in the face of an enemy.  Yet the explosion never happens too early and never harms the beetle itself.  No wonder Psalm 62:11 says, “You, O Lord, are strong” (in Macarthur Jr. 1991, p. 79).

• But what about this monstrous world that we live in?

I can see what God does all around us.  Yet I cannot see God.  But I know what He is like.  He is mighty powerful.  In fact, the Book of Romans 1:20 reads:

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that [people] are without excuse.

Using the old measurements (non-metric),

The earth is 25,000 miles in circumference, weighs 6 septillion [1 followed by 24 zeros], 588 sextillion [1 followed by 21 zeros] tons, and hangs unsupported in space.  It spins at 1,000 miles per hour with absolute precision and careens through space around the sun at the speed of 1,000 miles a minute in an orbit 580 million miles long. . .

To travel at the speed of light (ca. 186,281 miles per second) across the Milky Way, the galaxy in which our solar system is located, would take 125,000 years.  And our galaxy is but one of millions” (MacArthur 1991, pp. 80-81).

So, do you have to see to believe?  Or do you need to have faith (believe) to see.

If you call yourself a Christian,

A.    YOU LIVE BY A LAW THAT BAFFLES THIS WORLD

This is the law of faith.  God says: believing is seeing.

1.       “Though you have not seen him” (v. 8)

This is Peter speaking.  The one who was a disciple of Jesus. ! He walked and talked with him.
Jesus took Peter, James and John to the mountain of Transfiguration where Jesus’ face shone like the sun, his clothes became white as light.  Moses and Elijah appeared before them, speaking with Jesus.  And then there was the voice of God from the cloud saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.  Listen to him!” (Matt. 17:5).

Yet, when Jesus was arrested before His crucifixion, Peter didn’t want to have anything to do with Jesus.  Peter denied he knew Jesus three times (Matt. 26:69f).

He was there for Jesus’ death and resurrection.

After the resurrection, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Do you truly love me?” (John 21:15f).  He asked him three times.

Jesus gave Peter and “the apostles… many convincing proofs that he was alive” (Acts 1:3).

Then they (Peter included) saw Jesus taken up into heaven before their eyes (Acts 1:2).

It is this Peter who says to the early Christians scattered throughout the world and experiencing terrible persecution and trials:

“Though you have not seen him” (in the past)–v. 8;

“Even though you do not see him now”–v.9.

What do you do?

• “You love him” (v. 8).  Agape is the kind of love that comes from your heart because of “the preciousness of the person loved” (Wuest 1942, p. 28); and
• “You believe in him” (v.9); and
• You “are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy” (v. 8).  The old KJV translation said it beautifully: “Ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

This is crazy thinking by the world’s standard.  You can’t see Jesus, but you have

• “a deep unconditional agape love for him;
• you have faith in him;
• and you don’t have ha-ha happiness, but a joy in the Lord that is impossible to express.

Peter must have had in mind what Jesus said in John 20:29: “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

How can this possibly make sense?

2.       “You love him” (v.8) even though you can’t see him.

I love my wife deeply and celebrated 38 years of marriage in 2006.  But I can see her and put my arms around her.  You may love your children, your husband or wife, your parents and other people, but you can see them.

How is it possible to love somebody you can’t see?

a.  First, He has written us a BIG love letter, called the Bible, that tells us what he is like.  In fact, Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen me, has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

I loved my wife more and more, the more she wrote me love letters.  This showed me her deep love for me.

If you want to know what God the Father is like, take a look at Jesus as he reveals himself in the Bible.

•   In this BIG love letter to us, God tells us that Jesus had compassion on people and fed them, healed them, cast out demons that were tormenting them;
• Do you know the reputation of Jesus?

“The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, `Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and `sinners’” (Matt. 11:19).  Jesus associated with the scum of the earth–the worst possible sinners–and they were changed by him.

Jesus put it this way, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31).

• Of course, Jesus cared for the rich and the religious. 

He told Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish ruling council, that he needed to be born again (John 3).

• In this BIG love letter, Jesus tells us how to live forever.  Atheist philosopher, Bertrand Russell, said, “When you die you rot.”  Not so, according to the big love letter.  Death is not the end.

Where will you be one minute after you die?  My last birthday gift from my mother—three weeks before she died in 1997—was this book, One Minute After You Die: A Preview of Your Final Destination (Lutzer 1997).

When you die physically, you continue to live–either in heaven or hell.  If it is to be  heaven, this is what Jesus said in the BIG love letter: “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3).

I have read about a cemetery in Kirbyville, East Texas, USA, that has an old tombstone with this message on it:

Pause, stranger, when you pass me by
As you are now, so once was I
As I am now, so you will be
So prepare for death and follow me (Seniors-Cite.com, 1996-1997).

An unknown person who went past that tomb, read the words and underneath scratched this reply:

To follow you, I’m not content
Until I know which way you went (Lutzer 1997, p. 11, but Lutzer cited it in Indiana).

In this BIG love letter, Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25).

Erwin Lutzer, the author of One Minute After You Die, puts it this way, and in line with what Jesus said: “One minute after you slip behind the parted curtain, you will either be enjoying a personal welcome from Christ or catching your first glimpse of gloom as you have never known it.  Either way, your future will be irrevocably fixed and eternally unchangeable” (Lutzer 1997, p. 9).

Do you realise that the people you work with, joke around with, marry, reject, are not ordinary people.  They are people who will live forever and they are what C.S. Lewis described as “immortal horrors or everlasting splendors” (cited in Lutzer 1997, p. 9). [3]

I picked up the Bundaberg News-Mail on Friday, 15 May 1998, and read the death notices.  I learned that my Mum’s first cousin, Harold Lobegeier, had died.  Harold was secretary of Bundaberg Baptist Church when I attended there many years ago as a teenager.  I know from Harold’s relationship with Jesus and God’s love letter to us that Harold has gone to where my mother is–in heaven.  It’s guaranteed because Harold trusted Christ as His Lord and Saviour many years ago and served him faithfully.

How is this possible?  In this BIG love letter, we are told why Jesus was put to death by that excruciating form of capital punishment–crucifixion.

In 1 Peter 2:24, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness.”  You deserve to die for your own sin (“the wages of sin is death”), but Jesus took your place and died for your.  He was your substitute for sin.

You ask me why I love Jesus, whom I have never seen physically?

First, He has written us a BIG love letter, called the Bible, that tells us what he is like.

There’s a second reason you can love somebody you can’t see.

b.  There is not one Jesus physically on the earth, but Jesus has sent His representative to live in you personally and among the people of God, to make Jesus known to you.  Christ lives in every person who believes in Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, and lives in every group of Christians (the church) by His Spirit.

It would be impossible for all people in all of history to have seen the physical Jesus while he was on earth.  So this is what Jesus has done for us and it’s far better than his being on earth physically.

John 14:15-16:

“If you love me [Jesus is speaking to the group of disciples], you will obey what I command.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever” (NIV).

[This is another of the same kind as Jesus and the Father, i.e. The Holy Spirit/Counselor is God.  The word for Counselor–parakletos–is one called alongside to help, but in the sense of a legal friend, an Advocate, a solicitor for the defence.  Comforter or Counselor is not a really good word to describe the parakletos.  The NRSV’s use of “Advocate” is closer to the real meaning.  He’s a legal friend who is] (Morris 1971, pp. 649, 662), John 14 says:

the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (vv. 15-18 NIV)  [the “you” right through these verses is plural.  He’s speaking to the disciples and to us, the church].

This was Jesus speaking before he was crucified.  Jesus is telling his disciples that when He leaves this earth, He is not going to leave us as orphans without a father and mother.  The Holy Spirit will come to you and will be live in you.

Now, Jesus again, from the BIG love letter, in John 15:26,  “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.”

Let’s get this very clear so that even boys and girls can understand.  It is absolutely unnecessary for the physical Jesus to be on earth.  Why?

1.         Jesus is sending the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, from the Father and where will this legal friend live?  Inside every Christian and among the community of believers.

2.         When did this Holy Spirit Lawyer become available to Christians?  Jesus said, “I will not leave you as orphans.”  So the Holy Spirit came when Jesus went away physically from this earth.

3.         What kind of Spirit is he?  These verses say He is the Spirit of Truth.  The Holy Spirit who lives in you personally and among the church, will never ever tell you a lie or misrepresent you.  He can’t.  He must always tell the truth.  That’s his nature.

4.         The Holy Spirit solicitor lives in you.  What do these verses say about what his job is.  Jesus said in John 15:26: “He will testify about me.”  So the Spirit’s job, when he lives in you, is to tell you about and represent Jesus.

John 16:7-11:

“Jesus says, “But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away.  Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you.  When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.”

What’s the Holy Spirit’s job in you as believers?  John’s gospel (esp. chapters 14-16) tell us:

(He is with Christians continually and is in them (14:16f);

(John 14:26 says He is our teacher and reminds us of all that Jesus has said.

(He testifies about Christ (15:26);

(What’s his work in unbelievers (the world)?  To convict of sin, righteousness and judgment (16:8).

(The Spirit can only come when Jesus goes away (16:7).  This obviously means that the work of the Spirit in the believer is totally related to the saving work of Christ on the cross (based on Morris 1971, p. 663)

Will you note something with me that’s very special.  In John’s Gospel, the functions assigned to the Spirit are given to Jesus.

• Read John 14:20; 15:4-5 (Jesus is in the disciples).
• John 7:14; 13:13 (Jesus is the teacher).
• John 8:14 (Jesus testifies on his own behalf).

But we have already noted that this is the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  No wonder John 14:16 calls the Holy Spirit Counsellor another Counsellor (another of the same kind). This is all tied up in the mystery of the Trinity.  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–one God, but three Persons–and sometimes with overlapping function.

This has all been to help us understand our text in 1 Peter 1:8-9.

! We haven’t seen Jesus.

! We don’t need to because we know Jesus through the massive love letter that He has written to us–the Bible.

! We know Him through the Holy Spirit who lives inside every believer, and among the gathering of believers.

! And as a result, we love Jesus with an unconditional agape love.

Not only do you love him, but v. 9 says:

3.       “You believe in him.”

You have faith in him.  Not a leap of faith into the dark, but faith in the one who has revealed himself carefully and accurately in the Bible and through the Holy Spirit who lives in you.

The Bible is under a lot of attack today.  This is not a book of fables that credulous Christians believe like a magicians trick.

I want to give just one example of the accuracy of the Bible.  You can absolutely depend on the authenticity and credibility of this book.

Sir William Ramsay was regarded as one of the greatest archaeologists of all time.  He was so influenced by the theological liberals [of the German historical and critical school] that he did not believe the Book of Acts was written in the first century.  Instead, he originally claimed, it was written in the mid-second century after Christ.  So, the Book of Acts was not a trustworthy document of the facts of A.D. 50.  How could it be when it was written by somebody 100 years later by somebody who did not live at the time of the incidents described in the Book of Acts?

In his archaeological research on the history of Asia Minor (Turkey), Ramsay paid little attention to the N.T.  However, being an honest archaeologist, his investigation “eventually compelled him to consider the writings of Luke [the human writer of Luke’s gospel and the Book of Acts].”  What did he find?  This is what Ramsay (1915, p. 222) concluded:

The meticulous accuracy of the historical details, and gradually his attitude towards the Book of Acts began to change.  He was forced to conclude that `Luke is a historian of the first rank…  This author should be placed along with the very greatest of historians’ (cited in McDowell 1977, p. 43).

Because of the accuracy of the most minute detail, Ramsay finally conceded that Acts could “not be a second-century document but was rather a mid-first-century account” (cited in McDowell 1977, p. 43).

Take this Bible in one hand and look at the world around you and you have a perfect picture of what’s going on in this world.  But it’s historically accurate because the God who gave it to us is the God of truth.  Not just truthfulness, but the God whose truth matches reality.

I work in a white hot world where I am trying to help parents whose youth are raging out of control, with hatred that seethes.  I’m working with youth whose parents couldn’t give a hoot about them, abuse them, marriages bust apart and people are emotionally splattered in the process.

Sexual abuse, drug abuse, youth suicide, poor parenting skills, youth rebellion.  If I didn’t have God’s BIG love letter to us, I would be blaming poor families, selfish and destructive youth.  I’d go looking for some medical problem, a dysfunctional family or bad background that makes these people victims.  VICTIMS!  VICTIMS!

But when I turn to the BIG love letter, I read in Matt. 15:18-19,

“But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man `unclean.’  For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.  These are what make a man unclean” (Matt. 15:18-19).

Christian: You are living by a law that baffles the world.  Seeing is not believing, but believing God is seeing what is happening in your life and telling you what will happen to this world.  Saddam Hussein will not end history.  Neither will the new President of Indonesia, or the Indian bomb, or Bill Clinton, or John Howard.

This world is not going around in cycles of capitalism, socialism, mystical New Age karma and reincarnation.  This world is heading towards God’s grand conclusion with the second coming of Jesus Christ, new heavens and a new earth.  How do we know? Believing God is seeing.

What does all this do for the believer?

4.       You “are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy” (v.9).

You don’t just have some joy.  You are filled with it and it boils over so that you find it impossible to express.

This beats the best psychiatric institute in Australia.  No matter what trials you go through (and you could be there right now), the Holy Spirit will never leave you or forsake you.  Even if your husband or wife leaves you (and that hurts badly); even if your children rebel and cause you heart-break; even if nuclear bombs explode in your back yard–you can have a joy that overflows in your life to the point where you will not be able to express it.

This is real Christianity.  Heb. 6:5 says we “have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age.”

Why is it happening?

5.       V. 9: You are “receiving the goal of your faith.”  What is that?  “The salvation of your souls.”

Not that you will receive the goal of your faith only when Jesus comes again.  You are receiving some of that goal right now.  What is it?  The salvation of your souls.  This is not the soul as opposed to the body,

as though the soul is finally saved; the word [“soul”] designates the person, the real being that is saved, and not merely a part of it.  When the soul is saved, the body, too, is saved and will in due time join the soul (Lenski 1966, pp. 43-44).

This is the Bible’s way of saying that your whole personality is being saved.

I John 5:9 says, “We accept man’s testimony, but God’s testimony is greater…”

We trust other human beings even though people can be untrustworthy.  We trust human beings every day of our lives.

• When we drive across a bridge, we trust that the bridge will hold us up.  We trust the engineer who designed it, the people who built it, and the inspectors who guarantee its safety–even though we may never have met them.  We have faith.
• I trust that the bus driver will take me from Bundaberg to Brisbane–that’s what the sign on the front says.  I trust that the driver is an employee of, say, McCafferty’s; I have faith.
• I buy a ticket to the state of origin match, having faith that the players will show up and the match will be held as advertised, and that the ticket will gain me admission.

We have faith in all these other human beings who are often untrustworthy.

When God calls us to believe in Christ [whom we have never seen], he is calling us to do the most sensible thing we can ever do.  He is asking us to believe the word of the only being in the universe who is entirely reliable (Boice 1986, p. 410).

I John 5:9 states “that if we can do this with other human beings who are often untrustworthy, we can do it with God.  Indeed, we must.  For God commands faith, and the salvation of our souls must express itself through responses to his offer” (Boice 1986, p. 411).

This is what God wants to teach us: 2 Cor. 4:16-18;

2 Cor. 5:7, “We live by faith, not by sight.”

Believing is seeing.  Robert Jastrow has extraordinary credentials as an astronomer.  He is the former director of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies in the USA and wrote a book, God and the Astronomers.  He is talking about the Genesis and Science question, but he is addressing this issue of faith that baffles the world.  He said:

The details differ, but the essential elements in the astronomical and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same…

This is an exceedingly strange development, unexpected by all but the theologians.  They have always believed the word of God.  But we scientists did not expect to find evidence for an abrupt beginning because we have had, until recently, such extraordinary success in tracing the chain of cause and effect backward in time…

At this moment it seems as though science will never be able to raise the curtain on the mystery of creation.  For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream.  He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries (Jastrow 1978, p. 105, cited in Zacharias 1990, p. 133, emphasis added).

Christian: You live by the law of faith.  It makes absolute sense in the everyday world.  It will take you to heaven.  But it baffles the world.

Notes

2.         I saw it on 18 October, 1997.

3.         The full quote is: “There are no ordinary people. . .  It is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors” (Lewis, 1980, pp. 18-19, cited in Lutzer 1997, p. 9).

References

Boice, J. M. 1986. The Foundations of the Christian Faith, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois.

Jastrow, R. 1978, God and the Astronomers, Warner Books, New York.

Lenski, R. C. H., The Interpretation of The Epistles of St. Peter, St. John and  St. Jude, Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Lewis, C. S. 1980 (rev. and exp. ed.), The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses, Macmillan, New York.

Lutzer, E. W. 1997, One Minute After You Die: A Preview of Your Final Destination, Moody Press, Chicago.

MacArthur Jr., J. 1991, Romans 1-8 (The John MacArthur New Testament Commentary), Moody Press, Chicago.

McDowell, J. 1977, More Than a Carpenter, Kingsway Publications, Eastbourne.

Morris, L. 1971, The Gospel According to John (The New International Commentary on the New Testament), Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Ramsay, W. 1915, The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament, Hodder and Stoughton, London.

Seniors-Site.com 1996-1997, ‘Tombstone epitaphs,” Available from: http://seniors-site.com/funstuff/epitaphs.html [9 July 2006].

Wuest, K. S. 1942, First Peter (in the Greek New Testament–Wuest’s Word Studies),Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Zacharias, R. 1990, A Shattered Visage: The Real Face of Atheism, Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc., Brentwood, Tennessee.

Copyright © 2007 Spencer D. Gear. This document last updated at Date: 21 December 2015.

ChristArt

By Spencer D Gear

Do you believe that Christians ought to be different in their attitude and behaviour to that of unbelievers?  Does God want Christians to show by their lives that Jesus really does make a difference in how we treat one another in the family, at home, in the church gathering, on the job, and whatever we do and wherever we go?  Do you believe that Jesus does cause people to change in the way they treat one another?

These Christians that Peter was writing to, were going through the toughest of times.  1:1 says they were “strangers in the world.”  1:6, for a little while they may have to suffer grief through various trials.  4:12, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (ESV).

For all believers, including those being persecuted for their faith, Peter, in this passage of the infallible word of God, tells us that our behaviour is based on three things:

• Who we are as believers (v. 9);
• Our purpose while on earth (vv. 9-10);
• And then he gets to the specifics of how we are to behave (vv. 11-12).

What kind of person you are, will always determine your actions in life.  So your overall and specific behaviours paint a true picture of your inner being.  Remember Jesus’ words to the Pharisees:

“You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. 35The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.” (Matt. 12:34-35 NIV)

Firstly,

A.  Christians, your behaviour will be based on who you are as believers (v. 9)

This is language that is drawn from the OT: Exodus 19:5ff; Isaiah 43:20ff.  All Christians are a . . .

1. Chosen people/race

This language comes from Isaiah’s prophecy in Isa. 43:20-21, which reads: “The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.”

In the OT, who were God’s chosen people?  Israel!  But in the NT, Israel’s titles are “taken over by the Christian church: for the Church is the new Israel, the true heir and successor of the old” (Cranfield 1950, p. 48).  Because the Messiah has come and sacrificed His life for the New Israel, the Christian church is “the chosen people.”

It is important to note that “there is but one people of God from the days of Abraham, a people with one continuous life, one history, for the saints of the Old ‘Testament also lived by faith in the Christ to come, in expectation of Him and in the strength of God’s promises.

“As Israel was God’s ‘elect’ (or chosen) race’, so is the Church, heirs[s] alike of the privileges and the obligations of God’s chosen people” (Cranfield 1950, pp. 48-49).

Another description of who believers are, is

2. A royal priesthood

This means you are “a priesthood belonging to the King, to Christ” (Cranfield 1950, p. 49).  Please note that this emphasis is on you, plural; the entire church is “a royal priesthood.”  This is not talking about clergy being called priests.  In fact the NT word for church leaders is presbuteros, elders.

“There is no priestly caste to fulfil the Church’s priestly functions; the whole Church, not a part of it, was to be a priesthood.  The priestly service of the Church was something in which every member was to share.  That is the scriptural meaning of the phrase ‘the priesthood of all believers'” (Cranfield 1950, p. 49).

So all Christians are priests, members of “a royal priesthood.”  We are all ministering to God, the body of Christ, and to our community with the gifts God has given.  This is the function of “a royal priesthood.”

Believers also are a

3. Holy nation

This is the language of Exodus 19:6, “you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”

Remember back to I Peter 1:15-16 “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.'”

To be holy is not to be sinlessly perfect.  If you are to be without sin as a holy nation, not one of us would be eligible.  To be “holy” is to be “set apart for the service of God” (Kistemaker 1987, p. 92).  However, remember back to 1:15, “be holy in all you do.”  So, to be “holy” means to be separated to serve God, but it also means a holiness in the way we live.

This is who we are as believers, “a holy nation,” but as 2:9 states, we are also

4. A People Belonging to God

Or, “a people for [God’s] possession.”  This is another marvellous statement about who we are in Christ.  It parallels what Paul wrote in Titus 2:14: “[Jesus Christ] who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”

Yes, we are God’s special people, possessed by and belonging to God. Praise the Lord!

Put these 4 descriptions together and this is who Christians are:

• A chosen people;
• A royal priesthood;
• A holy nation;
• A people belonging to God.

But this is never a reason to exalt ourselves or pat our spiritual chests and say, “What good Christians we are to be regarded like this by God.”  That would be the height of arrogance.  Commentator R. C. H. Lenski put it well: “It would be a mistake to suppose that we can be all that Peter states and at the same time sit down quietly and contemplate our honor and our excellence” (1960, p. 102).

Instead, God moves from who we are to the purpose he has set in place for the people of God – all Christians, not as individuals, but as a group of God’s people (the church).  Because this is who you are.

B.  Christian, your behaviour is based on your purpose for being on earth (vv. 9-10)

What are we here for?  I want to pause for a moment to briefly examine a trend in the church that is sweeping the evangelical world.

What’s our purpose for being on earth as believers?  There has been a lot of talk these days about the Rick Warren programmes, The Purpose Driven Church, The Purpose Driven Life, 40 Days of Purpose.  Rick Warren believes that “God’s five purposes for each of us” are:

1. We were planned for God’s pleasure, so your first purpose is to offer real worship.
2. We were formed for God’s family, so your second purpose is to enjoy real fellowship.
3. We were created to become like Christ, so your third purpose is to learn real discipleship.
4. We were shaped for serving God, so your fourth purpose is to practice real ministry.
5. We were made for a mission, so your fifth purpose is to live out real evangelism” (Warren 2002-2005).

This purpose driven model of Rick Warren sounds good and godly when outlined like this, but some of what comes with the teaching is far from sound doctrine.  For example, in The Purpose Driven Life (Warren 2002), he states that:”Gideon’s weakness was low self-esteem and deep insecurities” (p. 275).

Let’s get a wee-bit controversial.  Please fill in this blank for me:  “The best style of worship is ———.”  Rick Warren states that “the best style of worship is the one that most authentically represents your love for God, based on the background and personality God gave you” (p. 102).  Really?  My biblical understanding of “the best style of worship” is one that brings glory to God, not based on my personality, but based on who God is.

As the Psalmist put it, “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; for he is our God  and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care” (Ps. 95:6-7).

Or Psalm 96:7-9,

“Ascribe to the LORD, O families of nations,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come into his courts.
Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth.”

Our worship is based on who God is and exalting His worth.  It has nothing to do with our personality and background.  He is the Lord, our Maker, our God, the Holy One; we tremble before Him because of who He is.

According to The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, 23 June 2006, the editor-in-chief, Rob Eshman, wrote of Rick Warren:

As I sat listening to him speak at Sinai Temple’s Friday Night Live Shabbat services last week, I thought of the only other person I’d met with Warren’s eloquence, charisma, and passion — but Bill Clinton carries a certain amount of baggage that Warren doesn’t.

Warren spoke at Sinai as part of the Synagogue 3000 program, which aims to revitalize Jewish worship. . . .
There are two aspects to [Rick] Warren’s success, and both were on display Friday night. First, he is an organizational genius. His mentor was management guru Peter Drucker.
“I spoke with him constantly,” Warren said, right up until Drucker died last year [2005] at age 95. [2]

It is Drucker’s theory of “management by objectives” that Warren replicates in every endeavor — translating long-term objectives into more immediate goals. Here let’s pause to consider that Jews are learning to reorganize their faith from a Christian who was mentored by a Jew (Eshman 2006).

Peter Drucker was a secular, Jewish management guru.  This led the Editor of the Northern Landmark Missionary Baptist magazine magazine (August 2006) to comment, “In other words, the purpose of Warren’s visit was to help Jewish Rabbis to learn how to build membership in their religion which rejects Christ as Saviour. Is this an appropriate role for any Christian minister of the Gospel ?” [3]

Why have I used this example?  Because this section of I Peter is about God’s purpose for you, and I want to urge you to be discerning with teaching that uses Christian language but there might be core aspects of it that are not driven by biblical Christianity.

Just two more quotes to give you some idea of the theology of Rick Warren & his purpose-driven model.  In The Purpose Driven Life, he wrote: “[God] uses circumstances to develop our character.  In fact, he depends more on circumstances to make us like Jesus than he depends on our reading the Bible” (2002, p. 193).

When Rick Warren spoke at the Jewish synagogue in Los Angeles, this is another part of the report from The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles:

“He’s built a giant church that attracts people of all ages,” said Sinai Temple’s Rabbi David Wolpe. “There is something in his message that touches the contemporary spirit — and perhaps he can help us learn how to do that” (Klein 2006).

Do you understand the paradox here?  Today’s Jews reject Jesus, the Messiah, the Saviour.  Yet, this Jewish Rabbi believes that because Rick Warren’s “message . . . touches the contemporary spirit. . .  Perhaps he can help us learn how to do that.”  How can an evangelical Christian leader teach Jews who reject the Saviour how to bring a message that “touches the contemporary spirit.”  We do get a clue from another article in The Jewish Journal of the Greater Los Angeles:

The other secret to [Rick Warren’s] success is his passion for God and Jesus. Warren managed to speak for the entire evening without once mentioning Jesus — a testament to his savvy message-tailoring.  But make no mistake, the driving purpose of an evangelical church is to evangelize, and it is Warren’s devotion to spreading the words of the Christian Bible that drive his ministry.

Good for him and his flock — and not so bad for us either. His teachings apply to 95 percent of all people, regardless of religious belief. As he put it to a group of rabbis at a conference last year — using a metaphor that might be described as a Paulian slip: “Eat the fish and throw away the bones” (Eshman 2006).

Rick Warren told Wolfson his interest was in helping all houses of worship, not in converting Jews. He said there are more than enough Christian souls to deal with for starters.

I hope that you’ll see from what I preach today from I Peter 2:9-12, that God uses His Word, the Bible, “to make us like Jesus.”  We need God’s Word in our heart and mind to enable us then to live according to God’s ways.  Circumstances will not tell you God’s standards for living.

There is no denying that God uses circumstances to mature us, but the content of Christian living is not found in circumstances, but in the living and abiding Word of God.  What does the Bible say in Ps. 119:11? “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (NIV)?  Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

To make us more like Jesus and not sin against God, one of the primary ways is to hide or “store up” (ESV) God’s Word in your heart.  It is God’s “living and active” Word that “judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” so that we will be more like Jesus in our thinking and living.
Notice the wording in I Peter 2:9.  The NIV reads, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare . . . ”  The KJV: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth.”
Here is a conjunction (I’m using a term of English grammar), a conjunction, that begin a purpose clause and it is critical that we understand our biblical purpose for living.  It is the word, “that,” meaning “in order that,” or “with the purpose that.” This word introduces part of the purpose for our existence on earth.  Why are we here?  Briefly, your purposes for being on earth are:

• To “declare his praises” (v. 9).  Elsewhere, the Scriptures give this primary purpose for the believer is “in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:12).  Rev. 4:11, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”

According to I Peter, some of what that means is that He is the one who has ….

• Called you out of darkness.  You are to praise the one who calls all true Christians to leave their lifestyle of darkness.  What a God, who can change your dark lifestyle.  Change it into what?

You are brought into his marvellous light.  What a God we serve!

He can turn the thief into a person of integrity.  He takes a swearing, cursing farmer and makes him into a person whose language demonstrates clean and holy words.  He takes the people who are into civil religion and makes them totally committed to the King of Kings.  You are to praise the one who turns the darkness of human beings into His kind of light.  What a God who changes rebels into saints!

Also, you once you were not a people of God, but NOW you are God’s people (v. 10).  Those who lived for themselves are now members of God’s people.  This is our purpose in life to proclaim what God’s people are all about.  I’m going to give a personal example.  I have been promoted in my employment and we are selling up in one city and moving to another  However, until we sell our house, I had to find accommodation at the new city of my employment.  I was given the name of a Christian man and his wife whom I had only met briefly many, many years ago.  When I spoke to this brother on the phone and told him my circumstances (he knew my sister and brother-in-law), he offered for me to board with them until we sell up.

Please understand that I was not standing face to face with this person.  It was a phone conversation.  I had provided no references of my honesty and integrity.  He knew I was a Christian believer.  I knew he was a person “belonging to God.” He and his wife accepted me on that basis.  I don’t know of any other group in the world that would so readily accept a person with that kind of telephone contact.

Peter reminds us why this is so.  Part of our purpose is to show that “you are the people of God.”  What difference is there between this group of Christians, who are the people of God, and the local football club?  The Rotary Club; girl guides, the CWA, etc.?

There’s something else that causes you to have the purpose of declaring his praises:

• “Once you had not received mercy.”

• “Now you have received mercy.”

We need to know the difference between God’s justice and God’s mercy.  As rebel sinners, before we committed our lives to Christ, we deserved God’s justice.  That’s called hell, and it will be the eternal destination of all who do not repent and seek God’s forgiveness through Christ.

However, mercy is one of the key attributes of God Himself.  “God’s mercy means God’s goodness toward those in misery and distress” (Grudem 1994, p. 200).  In Exodus 34:6, God revealed His name to Moses: “The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (ESV).  According to 2 Sam. 24:14, “Then David said to Gad, ‘I am in great distress. Let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.'”

Once we believers were in “misery and distress” because of our sin.  But then God showed his goodness to us, miserable and distressed sinners, by extending his grace to us through Christ’s death and resurrection, and making salvation available to the unlovely.  Jesus, who came through the Jewish race, extended his mercy to us – Gentile sinners.

In our praises of God, our purpose includes showing how once there was no mercy for us, but now we have received mercy in Christ.  Praise His Name!
Does God’s mercy ever grip your heart to praise Him?
In vv. 9-10, Peter uses the word, “people,” four times: “A chosen people”; “a people belonging to God”; “not a people”; and “the people of God.”  Peter is reflecting what God has stated elsewhere in both OT and NT.  Take Lev. 26:12, “I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people” (NIV).  Rev. 21:3, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.” [4]

When God’s people really live as a special kind of people, the world will notice the difference.

(1)  Yes, Christians are a special people; they are “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God” (v.9).
(2)  They have a special purpose; they are to “declare the praises of him [God]” (v. 9)
(3)  But they must demonstrate a special performance.  How, then, shall we live?

C.  The special performance is through behaviour that glorifies God (vv. 11-12)

The NIV introduces v. 11 with, “Dear friends.”  That is much too weak.  It is literally, “beloved,” which is based on the verb, “to love.”  This implies that these persecuted believers are loved by God, loved by the writer, Peter, and what these believers must do: love one another and love their enemies.
Note that these are not only the “beloved,” but v. 11 calls them “aliens and strangers in the world.”  These two words, aliens and strangers, are very close in meaning.  Lenski translates them as “outsiders and foreigners” (1966, p. 105).

As “aliens,” these are people “who live in a foreign country but who keep their own citizenship. . .  They do not possess the same privileges and rights as the citizens of the country in which they live” (Kistemaker 1987, p. 95).  You do not belong or feel at home as citizens of this world.  Why?  You are aliens to this worldly system because your new relationship with God has made you an outsider.

More than that, Christians are “‘strangers’ in a world that is foreign to them; they live on this earth for only a brief period; they know that their citizenship is in heaven” (Kistemaker 1987, p. 95), as Phil. 3:20 tells us.  We would put it this way: “We are in the world, but not of it; children of light for the time being, living as strangers in the darkness” (Cranfield 1950, p. 53).

From v. 11 onwards, we are introduced “to a whole group of sections which deal with the Christian’s obedience in various relationships” (Cranfield 1950, p. 52).

How are Christians to live in an ungodly world.  Remember four words that describe the way you are to live:

• Abstain;
• Conduct;
• Accuse;
• Glorify. [5]

1. Firstly, abstain from passions of the flesh (v. 11)

If you are to be Christian in an ungodly world, you will need “to abstain from sinful desires.”  What are sinful desires?  Back in 1:14, they are called “evil desires.”  Help!  From what must believers abstain?
Note something about these “evil desires” in 2:11.  The NIV, KJV and ESV state that they “war against your soul.”  The soul is sometimes used in this sense of the inner being — the person.  “Evil desires” play havoc with your inner person.  They mount a warlike campaign to capture your desires, to enslave you, and even destroy you.

It is not wrong to have desires, but it is wrong for Christians to have “sinful/evil desires.”   But what are these sinful desires that wreak havoc on your soul?  In 2:1 we have already been introduced to some of these: “Rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.”  “Hypocrisy” is one of these evil actions, that come from evil desires.  One of the things that gets up the noses of non-Christians is hypocritical Christians.  These are people who say one thing and do another.  Get rid of all hypocrisy among you.   I Peter 4:3 in the ESV gives more examples of evil desires: “living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.”  If we want a longer list, we have it in Gal. 5:19-21:

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (ESV).

Do you get the picture?  All of these activities will make war on your inner being.  You must abstain from them if you know and love Jesus.  And if any one of you sins against another person in this way, Matt. 18:15ff tells us what to do about it and we are not to remain silent about it.  Matt. 18:15-18 states:

If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’  If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector” (NIV).

I had a very convicting experience at this point of preparation of my message.  I will not give you the specific details except to say that a few other Christians and I were about to engage in a church-related project.  The Lord so convicted my heart that what I was doing would cause strife, dissension and division that I withdrew from the project.  If I had engaged in that project, I would have been doing things that would pamper my “evil desires” and make “war against my soul.”  I quit such thinking and action.
Brothers and sisters, do not even start them; abstain from all “evil desires.”  Now there’s a positive side to your behaviour.

2. Secondly, keep your conduct honourable (v. 12)

Or, “live such good lives among the pagans” (NIV).  Or, as the ESV puts it: “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honourable.”  How can you live good, honourable lives?  Your conduct among non-Christians must be kal?, “morally excellent, noble, the adjective conveying the thought that it is even admirable in the eyes of those pagans who have any moral sense left” (Lenski 1966, p. 107).

In spite of your living godly, good, and honourable lives . . .

3. Thirdly, they will accuse you of doing wrong (v. 12)

Remember what Jesus said, as recorded in John 15:20, “Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’  If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.”   Also Matt. 5:16:  “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

Throughout the history of the church, Christians have had to suffer slanders from unbelievers.  Dr. Cranfield puts it so well:

False accusation is always a favourite weapon of the Church’s persecutors, and there is a long story of the slanders made against Christians, from charges of cannibalism and incest in the earliest days down to those of misusing the pulpit for political purposes, being unpatriotic, committing currency offences and espionage.  But there are also the less spectacular charges that are made by those who are hostile, but can hardly be called persecutors, charges of hypocrisy, of being kill-joys, and narrow-minded.  Many are the prejudices and misunderstandings, which help to keep men away from the Church (1950, p. 55).

How are we to overcome such false accusations of doing wrong?  “They may see your good deeds” and what may happen?  Your Christian life before them is to be of such a godly nature that something amazing will happen.

4.    Fourthly, they may glorify God because of your good conduct (v. 12)

This is such an important call in the age in which we live, because Christian living is being assaulted so that the Christian’s life often looks little different from the non-Christian person’s.

The call is urgent:

• Abstain from living according to sinful desires;
• Live good, honourable lives;
• So that even if they accuse you falsely, they will scrutinise your behaviour and be so convicted by your lifestyle that they will glorify God.  What does it mean to “glorify God”?

To give God the glory, means to honour and acclaim God; to give him vocal reverence as the creature for the Creator and Judge (Rev. 14:7).  If you give God glory, you honour his majesty and perfection (Rom. 1:23; 3:23).  To glorify God is to bow before Him and acknowledge Him for all that he is.

When will these non-believers give God the glory because of the Christians’ conduct?  V. 12 says: “On the day he visits us” (NIV), or “in the day of visitation’ (KJV, NASB, ESV) – the latter is the literal meaning of the Greek.  But what does it refer to?  It is

denoting a time when God intervenes directly in human affairs, either for blessing (Luke 1:68, 78; 7:16; 19:44) or for judgment (Isa 10:3; Jer 6:15). This phrase may be a quotation from Isa 10:3, in which case judgment is in view here. But blessing seems to be the point, since part of the motive for good behavior is winning the non-Christian over to the faith (as in 3:1; also apparently in 3:15; cf. Matt 5:16) [NET Bible 1996-2005, n33 for I Peter 2:12].

Here most probably “the visitation takes place when God looks upon a person with grace and mercy (v. 10b)” [Lenski 1966, p. 109] and the non-Christian accepts the offer of Christ’s salvation and in thankfulness glorifies God.  This harmonises well with Matt. 5:16, “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

D.  Application

It is a travesty to the Christian witness that our lives too often give a very different message from Peter’s exhortation.  You and I may have known of people attending the same church who do not one another, or they deal angrily towards each other.

There is too often a competition among Christian denominations.  What about church business dealings?  Some are doubtful and questionable.  This should not be.

All Christians are called upon to live exemplary lives of godly goodness, that so impact a secular world that they will want to serve and glorify your God.
What is your attitude towards Christians in this congregation?  Are some of you at odds with one another?  What should you do?  Go speak with the other person.  Make sure that it can be said of us, “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us” (v. 12).

References

Cranfield, C. E. B. 1950, The First Epistle of Peter, SCM Press Ltd., London.

Eshman, R. (Editor-in-Chief) 2006, ‘Jesus’ Man Has a Plan,’ The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles [Online], Available from: http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/searchview.php?id=16029 [10 August 2006].

Grudem, W. 1994, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, Inter- Varsity Press, Leicester, England/Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Kistemaker, S. J. 1987, New Testament Commentary: Exposition of the Epistles of Peter and of the Epistle of Jude, Evangelical Press, Welwyn, Hertfordshire.

Klein, A. 2006, ‘Acts of Faith’, The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles [Online], 16 June,  Available from:
http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=16012 [12 August 2006].

Lenski, R. C. H. 1966, Commentary on the New Testament: The Interpretation of the Epistles of St. Peter, St. John, and St. Jude, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Mass.

Morrison, M. 2005, ‘Peter Drucker’s Monumental Legacy’, November 14, BusinessWeekOnline, Available from:
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/nov2005/nf20051114_2199_db042.htm  [11 August, 2006].

NET Bible 1996-2005, Biblical Studies Press [Online], Available from:  http://www.bible.org/netbible/ [12 August 2006].

Warren, R. 2002, The Purpose Driven Life, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Warren, R. 2002-2005, ‘The Book’, Available from: http://www.purposedrivenlife.com/thebook.aspx [10 August 2006]..

Notes:

[2]  BusinessWeekOnline reported:

Peter Drucker’s death on Friday, Nov. 11 [2005] ended a remarkable 70-year career as thinker, visionary, author, consultant, and professor. Drucker defined many of the modern management principles taken for granted in today’s corporations. Decades ago he was pushing the concepts of customer-focus, employee empowerment, and innovation that are bullet points in every CEO’s playbook today” (Morrison 2005).

[3]  Northern Landmark Missionary Baptist magazine (August 2006).

[4]  This emphasis was suggested by Kistemaker (1987, p. 94).

[5]  Outline from Kistemaker (1987, pp. 95-96).
Copyright (c) 2007, Spencer D. Gear.  This document last updated at:  14 October 2015.