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1 Peter 1:13-21
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action,1 and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
If you have your bible, go ahead and turn to, first Peter or, one Peter for Phil, if that is helpful for the Australian. First Peter will be in chapter 1. First Peter, chapter 1, verses 13 through 21. And let's listen carefully, for this is the word of God. Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. And if you call on him as father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourself with fear throughout the time of your exile, Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers. Not with perishable things, such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:Like that of a lamb, without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for your sake, who through him are believers in god, Who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and your hope are in God. Pray with me. God, we need to hear from you. We're desperate to hear from your truth.
Jeffrey Heine:And so, spirit, we ask that you would lead us now, That you would guide us, that you would speak to us, that you would stir in our hearts, spirit, that you would confront us with the truth of god. That we would be transformed to look more like our savior, our only hope. The one whom we need every hour, every minute of that hour, every second in that minute. Lord, we need you. And we ask that you would teach us and change us now.
Jeffrey Heine:And not just for our own benefit, not just for our own joy, but for your kingdom in the world. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen. There are often events in the national scene, the national news, that remind us of the brokenness, the twistedness of evil, sorrow, and suffering. We've seen that from the Penn State news and the shootings in Colorado and the shootings in Tuscaloosa and news clip after news clip after news clip.
Jeffrey Heine:And that was just the last couple weeks. And there's going to be next week and the week after that. And the news will keep coming of suffering and pain and evil. And it's not just on the national scene. It's it's in it's in your news stories that that's never gonna make the front page.
Jeffrey Heine:It's not gonna be trending on Twitter. It's not going to be on CNN and Facebook and Fox News. It's it's not going to be on all of that. But but it's it's your suffering. It's your pain that you are in right now.
Jeffrey Heine:And the stories of those around you. The story of the person sitting next to you that you don't even know. Because when Adam fell, when when humanity fell in Adam, Adam didn't just break rules. Humanity was broken by the breaking of rules. And there's a question that kind of rises up in the suffering and the confusion.
Jeffrey Heine:And it's a it's a big and loaded question. And that is, what do you hope for? What do you hope in? What do you hope will happen? What do you hope will change?
Jeffrey Heine:What what do you hope for? And and it's really a question that kind of divides history, culture, society, this room. What what do you hope for? Paul, Peter. See, we spend way too much time in Paul, don't we?
Jeffrey Heine:Peter is writing here to these well, he calls them the elect exiles. The people of God in exile. And and he's writing to them, they're they're in what's modern day Turkey and they're going through suffering. It's it's Roman power is upon them. It's probably at least around the time or the the coming soon of Nero and his authority and his power and the persecution that will be under him.
Jeffrey Heine:And they were fearful, and they were scared because safety was not promised. Safety was not assumed. Suffering was real for them. Confusion was real for them, and it is for us. And so with Peter's audience, we ask this question, well, what do we do?
Jeffrey Heine:What do we do with this fear, and what do we do with this confusion? And he says this in verse 13. Prepare your minds for action. Prepare your minds for action and be sober minded. Now, what he's talking about here actually, some of the older translations would have said, gird up the loins of your mind.
Jeffrey Heine:There's an image. Gird up the loins of your mind. And what he's talking about is, back then, with with the robes and the cloaks and all that fancy, garb, if if you were going to get to work, you needed to get ready for it. You know, they didn't just have bib overalls. They had to gird up the loins of their clothing.
Jeffrey Heine:They need to pull up their robe and either tuck it in or tie it off somehow and get ready to work. It reminds me of, when I was in seminary, Brian Johnson graciously gave me a job as his assistant when he would, shoot weddings. And you all you all know this picture of a of a bride in her wedding gown. And you you need 10 girls around you. You need bridesmaids just to get around.
Jeffrey Heine:Like, they need you need some people on one side and some people in the back and then, like, the train and the veil. And you you need all these people around to help you. No one goes to work wearing a wedding dress. Like that Models for wedding dresses only. But no one else wears a wedding dress to work.
Jeffrey Heine:You can't get around. And then, like clockwork, half hour before the ceremony, 20 minutes before the ceremony, bride has to go to the bathroom. And that's when the bridesmaids, they don't they're engineers at that point. They've got rope and pulley systems and angles figured out. They're charting.
Jeffrey Heine:You can't you can't get around it. You you have to gird up the loins, is what Peter is saying here, of your mind. Now what is he talking about there? That in our minds, in our thinking, we're cluttered. It's crowded.
Jeffrey Heine:We we we we have we're fumbling around. And so the first thing that he says is, prepare your mind for work. And so that that's actually what I'm gonna ask for all of us to do in this time. Like, let's let's pay attention. Let's let's give our attention to this and let's get to work.
Jeffrey Heine:And be sober minded. This is something that John Calvin calls a spiritual sobriety, a clarity of thinking. Disentangle ourselves from the world and think properly. So then after that, if we're gonna if we're gonna be aware and attentive, the next thing, set your hope. Fix your hope.
Jeffrey Heine:And what do you fix your hope upon? The grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. So if we are clear thinking, if we are sober minded, if we are at attention and ready to work, the first thing that we need to do is fix our attention and fix our hope on the grace that is coming to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Don't put your sights on what you can do or who you who you can be. Don't get focused on your strengths and your weaknesses.
Jeffrey Heine:And don't look to your name or your abilities. Don't look to your status or your potential. Set your hope fully, completely on grace. Some translations say, set your hope till the end. Fully, completely, all the way through on the grace of God.
Jeffrey Heine:And about this grace, the grace that you so desperately need and I so desperately need, the grace that we cannot live without, the grace that we need to hope to the end, Notice here, he says, that is brought to us. God knows so intricately, so completely our need for his grace, that not only does he provide that grace, not only is there a provision of grace, but he applies it to us in that he brings it to us. The grace we so desperately need, God brings it to us. It's not a grace that we ascend to. It's not a grace that we work our way to.
Jeffrey Heine:It's a grace that comes to us. John Calvin says this, you have no need to make a long journey that you may attain the grace of God. For God anticipates you in that he brings it to you. So how? How does he bring it to you?
Jeffrey Heine:It says that he he brings it to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And really, there there are 2 ways that we can understand this. 1, the revelation of Christ in the gospel. That in the gospel, there is this revelation of Christ and God brings grace to us. And then there's a second way, the revelation of Christ in the second coming, the future hope.
Jeffrey Heine:And I think that, primarily, that's what that's what Peter's really pressing at. Because he's talking to these people that are suffering and confused, and they're scared. And he says, I I know you're scared. Pay attention. Alright?
Jeffrey Heine:You know, I I do this. June is very small. My daughter's very small, but but I do this when when she's kinda having one of those freak outs, one of those many freak outs, you know, and and you don't really know what's wrong. You you don't but I I try to focus her attention. I try to get in her eyesight.
Jeffrey Heine:I try to get in front of her. And that's what Peter is doing here. He's saying, fix your attention. Fix your hope on the grace that's coming. And that grace is coming at the coming of Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:This is a this is the apex of hope, the fullness of the kingdom of God, hope in him, All that he brings, in particular, the grace that God brings to you. So first, hope in God. Don't look away from that trust. And now, obey him. Now, this is this is crucial because, as we talked about at the coffee house, a week and a half ago, this is an issue of motivation.
Jeffrey Heine:Alright? Because if your hope is not set you see the order here. If your hope is not set on this grace, you will believe a lie. And that lie is this, that your hope is your obedience. Your hope is built on how well you can do these things.
Jeffrey Heine:So the order here is very, very crucial. Set your hope on the grace that's coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. But then we move to this command to be holy. In verse 15, be holy in all of your conduct. You see, if our hope is not set, then when this call comes, this command comes, our obedience will just be a train wreck.
Jeffrey Heine:Set your hope. Pay attention because your hope determines your motivation. If your hope is the grace of God coming at the revelation of Jesus
Joel Brooks:And
Jeffrey Heine:And here's why obedience is just so important, and this is going to be kind of the premise that we're going to walk the rest of our time through. Okay. And it is this. Our obedience affirms and confirms our certain hope. Let me say that again.
Jeffrey Heine:Our obedience affirms and confirms our certain hope. To say it another way, it affirms, it expresses agreement, and it confirms, it acknowledges assurance. So agreement and assurance, affirmation and confirmation. Our obedience affirms and confirms our certain hope. And Peter lays out 3 things that we have this certain hope in.
Jeffrey Heine:1st is our hope and our adoption, Our hope and our adoption. Secondly, our hope and our redemption. And thirdly, our hope and the greatness of God. Adoption, redemption, the greatness of God. Our obedience affirms firstly, it affirms and confirms our certain hope in our adoption.
Jeffrey Heine:We see this in verses 14 through 17. Look with me. As obedient children, do not be confirmed conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy.' 17.
Jeffrey Heine:And if you call on him as father, if you call on him as this Abba father, if you have this child parent relationship with god almighty, who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile. Peter is saying here to the reader, if you are a child of god, be an obedient child of god. Don't look back to your former ignorance. Peter uses this repeated call, from the old testament book of Leviticus for the people of God to be holy as God is holy. And Peter says, your old fathers, your forefathers left you in futile ways.
Jeffrey Heine:They left you in in futile ways, but God has brought you his grace, and he has called you to holiness. So how is this possible? Well, now we can we can borrow from our good friend, Paul, in Ephesians chapter 1, where he says in chapter 1 verse 4, god chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him. It is in Christ. It's in Christ that we have this holiness, we have this righteousness, but it is also our hope for holiness is Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:And we obey, we pursue holiness out of this hope. Let me say that again. Our hope for holiness is Jesus, and we obey out of this hope. We run headlong into this obedience. We run headlong into following the commands of Christ out of this hope.
Jeffrey Heine:In verse 17, Peter says to conduct yourselves with fear. Now, this isn't, worrisome fear or or being scared. It's reverence. It's not this fear as worry. We see this, John talks about it in 1st John chapter 4 verse 18.
Jeffrey Heine:For there is no fear in love, for perfect love casts out fear because fear has to do with punishment. So, that kind of fear, the fear that has to do with punishment is cast out because that punishment was on the cross. So, we we don't we don't have to tangle with that kind of fear anymore. It's reverence. And when we do that, when we revere God in our pursuit of holy living, we do that remembering and knowing the second thing.
Jeffrey Heine:Our obedience affirms and confirms our certain hope in our redemption. Verses 18 through 19. Look with me. Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. You see, our our obedience expresses an agreement and an an assurance that we were ransomed out of the futile ways of our fore forefathers.
Jeffrey Heine:And it wasn't just a ransom with silver or gold. It wasn't just these precious metals. It wasn't cheap redemption. It wasn't 30 pieces of silver. It wasn't cheap grace.
Jeffrey Heine:It was ransom paid with the precious blood of Christ. Linger in that phrase. The precious blood of Christ. The word that Peter uses here is usually used to speak of jewelry or treasure. And I ask this question to you, is this how you view the blood of Jesus?
Jeffrey Heine:That that's a that's a real question. I I want you to actually answer that inside of your own heart and mind. Do you see the blood of Jesus like this? Do you treasure it? Is it more valuable than anything you can imagine?
Jeffrey Heine:Or would you rather have riches and respect and renown? This is a world changing question, and I don't ask it lightly. But I do ask you to answer it for yourself. Do you see the blood of Jesus as precious? Not admirable, not tragic, not inspirational, but precious.
Jeffrey Heine:Peter says it's precious because it was perfect. It was that without spot, without blemish. It was perfect. And it's precious because it ransomed you from sin and death. This work of redemption displaying the graciousness and greatness of God, our obedience testifies to this greatness, which is the third thing.
Jeffrey Heine:Our obedience affirms and confirms our certain hope in the greatness of God. Look at verses 20 and 21. He, meaning Jesus, was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you. Who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and your hope are in God. Christ was co eternal with the Father and the Spirit before the foundation of the world.
Jeffrey Heine:And by the greatness of God, he was made manifest. He was, that's the incarnation. The word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. The greatness of God displayed in the incarnation. And the father raised him up from the grave and gave him glory.
Jeffrey Heine:Why? For the sake of you. Because through him, you are a believer in God. There are a lot of people that like the, this just the general language of believing in God. Do you believe in God?
Jeffrey Heine:I believe in God. I don't believe in God. All of those different things and everything in between. Peter is saying something very specific here. If you believe in god, it's through Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:If you don't believe in god, there's there's no way to him except for Jesus. So so we're kind of at a standstill here. If there is a belief in God, and that is the triune God of the scriptures, Father, Son, and Spirit. If we believe in him, we believe in him solely through Jesus Christ. And the father raised him up from the grave and he gave him glory.
Jeffrey Heine:Why? So that your faith and your hope would be in God alone. See, that it's good news that you don't have to hope in yourself anymore because you were doing a really terrible job. And so this good news comes that you don't have to hope in you anymore. So stop and hope in him.
Jeffrey Heine:In the life, passion, death, resurrection, ascension, and promise return of Jesus, the greatness of the triune God is declared. And we testify to this greatness in our obedience. And this is the mark of the Christian that we hope in God. And Peter cautions, don't go back to the way you used to think, but be holy in all that you do. Run headlong into holiness.
Jeffrey Heine:Put sin to death. Flee from immorality because you are ransomed from ignorance. You are ransomed from futility, not with gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Jesus. Not with the perishable, but with the precious. Now you can set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:If your obedience is not rooted in the hope of the grace of god, you might be living properly in your conduct, but you're not being obedient. See, we're being prideful and arrogant and self righteous. And if we neglect holiness, if we neglect obedience, we refute the hope that with that we were redeemed unto. We refute the grace that is brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Peter calls us prepare your mind.
Jeffrey Heine:Be sober minded. Set your hope. Fix your hope. And affirm that hope. Confirm that hope by your obedience to God.
Jeffrey Heine:Hope in him. And in that hope, obey him. Let no other trust in truth. Set your hope on Jesus. In one of his sermons, Charles Spurgeon, he was a minister, a pastor, and preacher in London, late 1800.
Jeffrey Heine:And he had a sermon called Immeasurable Love. And he used this phrase, and I just kind of want us to to walk through it and just reflect on this. In talking about trusting in Christ, he said this, don't allow a ghost of a shade, of a shadow, of a confidence in anything that you can do or anything that you can be take place of looking alone to Christ. So not not a ghost of a shade, of a shadow, of a confidence. None of that.
Jeffrey Heine:But fix, set all of your hope on Jesus. See, I know I know that we get a little skittish when obedience and commands and all that comes up. I know. And like we talked about at the coffee house, sometimes it's because of these errant views on if I do that, all of a sudden I'm going to become a legalist. But part of that freedom, that freedom that Phil was talking about, is that we we don't have to be afraid that our obedience is going to lead us astray.
Jeffrey Heine:Because right obedience to Jesus leads us to Jesus. It's empowered by Jesus. It's strengthened by Jesus. It's directed to Jesus. So we don't have to be afraid.
Jeffrey Heine:We don't have to walk in that fear anymore. We don't have to walk in that confusion anymore. We set our hope on the grace that God is bringing to us. Because I take great comfort in knowing that God cares about all of this more than I do. God cares about the success of all of this, me living and walking by the spirit in obedience to his glory.
Jeffrey Heine:God cares about that more than I do, which gives me confidence to grow in my desire for that. And when Spurgeon ended his sermon, he he said these words. Oh, may the sweet spirit of god lead you now to trust in Jesus. And that's that's my prayer for you. That's my prayer for me.
Jeffrey Heine:As we are reminded that God calls us into this living hope, That we can walk in obedience, an obedience that that offers and exercises this affirmation that God is who he says he is. And God does what he says he does. And we can live in that obedience. We can live in those commands. Maybe in a sense of duty, but that duty is toward delight.
Jeffrey Heine:Okay? There there are all kinds of things that we do in life that it's because we we find a duty to do things, but but that doesn't mean it's bad. We we can make that bad. We can pervert that and make it bad, but this call to holiness, to put sin to death, to flee from immorality, to run headlong into obedience to Christ, This is the abundant life that Jesus promises us. And when we when we neglect that, when we when we turn away from that because of fear or because of confusion or self absorption, then we are neglecting to testify to, to affirm and confirm the certainty of our hope, our hope in our adoption, our hope in our redemption, and our hope in the certain greatness of god.
Jeffrey Heine:Oh, may the sweet spirit of god lead you now to trust in Jesus. Let's pray. So, God, we look to you. We hope in you. Lord, stir up in us the desire to obey you, Desire to worship you.
Jeffrey Heine:Lord, give us the strength to trust you. And, lord, let no other trust intrude, not not even a ghost of a shade of a shadow of a confidence. Nothing. But nothing intrude in our hope, in your grace. And, Lord, in our hope, help us to obey you.
Jeffrey Heine:For Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again. Amen.