You've Received Mercy Series

You’ve Received Mercy

Part 3 of A study through Peter

June 25th 2023

We are in the book of 1 Peter and will be throughout the summer. 1 Peter will lead into…2nd Peter (good guess!) So you know where we’re headed in the weeks ahead.

In a spare moment this week (and there were few) I happened to catch a short video of a pastor who shred a thought that I completely agree with. When it comes to teaching the Word, that’s what we are to share; the Word, the Bible, the Holy Scriptures. Church is not to be dependant on the pastor but dependant on the Word of God. If the pastor was not to show up on Sunday morning because he or she was ill, was called to minister elsewhere in an emergency or was called home by the Lord, would the church be lost? No, not if they are dependant on the Word and not the pastor, or any other leader for that matter.

Sharing/teaching/discipling is not about my life and my story and my experiences, but about what God wants to speak into our lives, corporately and individually. If this is all about the earthly leader, then we are not being led by the right Leader… get me? And if we don’t focus on the Bible, then we have no real reason to gather. It’s not about feelings, it’s about hearing from God Almighty.

So we journey through the scriptures, book by book, verse by verse, no skips, all of it is good! Whether it’s a Gospel, an Epistle (letter to the church), prophecy, wisdom, Psalm, historical, or any other type of book – we go through it. Because THIS is one of the most important ways GOD speaks to us!

So I hope we all take this time as we focus our thoughts on what the Holy Spirit wants to say to us today, and every time we gather, that we will indeed hear from the Lord and will grow more and more into the image of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, Saviour, Redeemer and the Head of the Church – AMEN!

I’ve titled this series that we are in right now ‘Where Angels Long to Look’ as we consider things that we have come to know in life as followers of Jesus, Who died so that we can have life. Angels don’t know what it is to be saved from sin. Jesus did not die for them on the cross; He died for us, His creation here on earth that fell into sin and needed saving. We’ll be able to share what that is like with angels one day!

Another thing they have no knowledge of is something we have come to know as ‘mercy’. And as we look into the next portion of Peter’s letter to new believers and followers of Jesus, we will see that we have been given a simply amazing gift, something we did not have before Christ. But now we do – the question will be this, ‘What are doing with the mercy we’ve received?’

1 PETER 2:1-12

2 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

• Because we are told to be holy (why? Because God is holy) obviously we cannot be mean, lying, jealous, people-smearing followers of Jesus, right? None of those qualities describe a person who has surrendered their life to the One Who gave His life for him or her.

• We are to be LIKE newborn infants – not that we are crybabies over our circumstances, no, in that we are like babies who really want to be fed. We LONG for, CRAVE, DESIRE, NEED to be fed with the things of the Spirit.

• The world and the one who thinks he rules it (Satan) would feed us all kinds of lies so that we are distracted from what is real, and good and right for us

• Feeding on God’s Word, we grow – we grow up into the salvation that has been purchased for us by the blood of Christ.

• How old are you in the Word? How much have you grown up into the character of Jesus? We don’t stay infants, but we still crave more of the Lord LIKE infants. Hebrews 5:11-13 speaks to this as well.

4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture: