In preparing for my ministry with the church in York, I have began to fall in love with the book of 1 Peter. In preparing for my first sermon, God has shown me a lot of who He is, what that means for me, and how I should then respond. What I would like to share tonight is part of the sermon I am going to preach this coming Sunday morning. I have stated that I will not share sermon's on my blog that I have either preached or will preach in the future. But because I know that those who read this will not be there this coming week, and also because of the busy and fast pace of my life this week, this will help me formulate thoughts in my head as I prepare.
It only takes 5 small verse to start the letter that Peter wrote to the church to show and tell 3 amazing truths and principles. 1 Peter 1:1-5 teaches us 3 facts that every Christian should know and respond to in their lives.
So what did God do for us? God in His foreknowledge chose us for the work of His sanctifying Spirit to be cleansed in the blood of Jesus for a life that is a new birth. God loved us and knew us completely before we ever existed. This in itself is an amazing truth and a great comfort for us during this life. God chose us to this new birth because He foreknew us. Most Christian will get hung up on the part about God choosing and forget about the part that God loved us first and foremost before we ever existed. This means before we could ever do anything good or any act of praise God intimately loved us. God then in this foreknowledge and love for us sent His Son Jesus to die so that His blood could be sprinkled over us and make us clean and pure in His sight. Again what an amazing God we have that before we even existed He had a plan to redeem us and make us a holy creature in His sight. Then to top it off with what God did for us, He gives us the Holy Spirit to work our sanctification to lead us to live lives growing and maturing before God. And this is all called the new birth. Wow God did a lot for us and what an amazing God we have who did all this for us in His foreknowledge and His choosing.
What does it mean than that God did these things for us?So what does this new birth do for us in life? First the new birth gives us a living hope. This living hope is certain, sure, real, and secure. It is not a hope that is deceptive, empty, fake, or false. This is the kind of hope that will get us through life's circumstances no matter what they are. The persecution we face, trials of a broken world, or just a life that is not perfect, cannot stop this living hope. The new birth also gives us an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade because it is hidden in heaven and protected by God. God shields the inheritance from this broken world and from the devil so that is a secure and safe prize waiting for us in the life of salvation in God. God also not only shields the inheritance from the world, He also shields His children and those who have experienced the new birth in Him. I also love how Peter ends His greetings to start the letter because when he says grace and peace (shalom) he is reminding his readers that those who experience this new birth in God also have this grace and peace from God for a life that is as strangers in this world.
How should we then respond to this new life of hope and inheritance in Jesus? I see that the text points out 3 human responses to this new life and blessing from God. The first response is how Peter responds in verse 3 when he praised God and explodes in doxology. Peter praises God for 11 different things over the next 3 verse starting with God as the Father of Jesus and all of the amazing aspects and gifts that having God not only as Jesus' Father but also our Father. Peter praises God for living hope, the resurrection of Jesus, shielding His children, and the revealing of Jesus among other things. Praise must be the first response of us. The second response is highlighted by Peter early in verse 5 when he talks faith. The new birth must brood a faith in God who foreknew us and loved us and sent His son to purify us. Salvation is by faith alone, shown by a life of obedience. Peter highlights this 3rd response when he says that we were chosen for obedience in Jesus. So a believer in Jesus, someone who has experienced this new birth that was given by God and then gets to experience all the blessings that that means would respond by praise, faith, and obedience. Is that how we respond to the work that God does for us and blessings He gives us?
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