March 1, 2009 – Bought and Paid For - 1 Peter 1:17-21
What is a life worth? What price can be put on a person’s soul? What about your life, what is your life worth? If we were to try and put a dollar figure on what it costs to purchase a soul, could we do it? Several studies have been done to calculate the cost of raising a child to adulthood. The figures vary depending on where you live, the lifestyle of the family, and other factors, but on looking at several of these, I found that the ‘average’ cost in North America to raise a child from birth to 18 years old is about $220,000. Now if that child goes to post-secondary school, add more, if they live at home after that add more, and if they’re still dependant on you…well maybe it’s time for them to get a job.
But those are just physical costs; food, clothing, shelter, entertainment, etc. And that’s only till they’re grown up. What about the cost of their actual LIFE? What does THAT cost?
`Today, we continue in our study of the book of 1 Peter. Two weeks ago we talked about being ‘prepared for action’ and living holy lives. This week, we’re going to look more deeply at WHY we should choose to live our lives for God. Turn in your Bible to 1 Peter 1:17-21. It’s page 857 in our blue pew Bibles. I’ll be reading from the New International Version.
17Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. 18For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. (NIV)
Pray: calling on our heavenly Father…
‘Father’, a name which can bring up all kinds of thoughts about the man we call our earthly father. He may be or have been a wonderful father, a real man; someone we are proud to call our dad. He loved us, supported us, taught us, and yes even disciplined us, but he did all these things out of love, and so we love him, we respect him, we honour him. Or perhaps the term father brings up different emotions, different memories that we are not so proud of. Dad wasn’t there for us when we needed a shoulder to cry on. A hand that should have protected us instead was raised in anger. What should have been an example of love was not that at all, and perhaps dad wasn’t there at all, we never knew him. And so we feel differently towards him, and our image of ‘father’ is tainted, stained and sad.
Whatever image we have of our earthly father, do not place that upon God, our Heavenly Father. Even if our dad was perfect in our eyes, he still pales in comparison to God who gives us life. And it is only when we really know God as FATHER that we can truly understand who He is, what He is really like, and how much He cares for each of us. So when Peter says we ‘call on a Father’ he is telling us that we need to have that kind of relationship to God; WE ARE HIS CHILDREN! 1 John 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (NIV). God loves His children perfectly. He made each one, He cares for each one, He has a plan for each one, He makes each one unique, He gives gifts to each one, and He longs for each one to love Him in return.
Sometimes we may hear a child, or maybe even ourselves, say something like, ‘Dad loves my brother/sister more than me. He likes what they do, not what I do. He treats them better than He does me…’ Have you ever said that or thought that about your siblings? Well guess what? God will never do that. He judges each one of us on an individual basis on what we do, not comparing us to anyone else; He is impartial, says Peter. God does not look at my work compared to yours, or his to hers, or his to his, or me to my brother or sister…it’s what I do, and how I do it. What do I do for the Lord? What is my attitude towards God? He knows it, and He judges me on my actions without comparing me to anyone else, whether they be a great spiritual leader, or a lying, cheating, murderous thief. We are judged impartially. Is that fair? I was sent a little sermonette on the ‘glorious inequity of grace’ written by John Fischer, and I wanted to read just a portion of it.
There is relatively little difference between the most ungrateful, wicked people I can think of and me, and I had better be deeply grateful that God is, in fact, "unfair" in this way, because otherwise there would be no hope for me. I know this is what Jesus is saying because the very next verse (Luke 6:36) is: "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful [to you]." And that is followed up with: "Do not judge and you will not be judged." See where He’s going with this?
When you look at it this way, it changes the whole picture.
Love your enemies and be kind to those who, like you, have received the kindness of God when you didn’t deserve it. And if you are ever tempted to think of God as being unfair, then go all the way and rejoice in the glorious inequity of grace that has made unlikely room for you and me, and in that same spirit of "unfairness," make room in your heart for others.
Have you ever heard the song, ‘This World is Not My Home’? It goes like this, ‘This world is not my home, I’m just a passin’ though. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.’
This world is not our home. Yes, it’s where we live now, and we should take care of it. After all, God put us in charge of doing just that. In Genesis 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." (NIV).God made us, God made this earth, but He does not intend to have us live here forever; no God plans on something completely different for us. He will destroy this old world one day, and make a new heaven and a new earth. And we are going to live there forever, for we are God’s children, and God wants to have His children living with Him. Interesting thought; God doesn’t want to help us grow up and then boot us out of the house to live on our own, like is the plan of many parents today…No God WANTS us to live with Him…forever! We are strangers in this old world. We were not created to be apart from God, Just as in the Garden of Eden, God wants to walk and talk with us. He wants to be near to us. He wants to live with us, He wants to be Father.
And our Father wants our respect. That is the reference to ‘reverent fear’. We are to show God the respect He deserves. After all He’s God, not a coin-operated-prayer-answering-gift-giving-only call ya when I need ya-machine! He is GOD. The One who speaks and worlds are formed, the One who sustains life, the One who holds the keys of heaven and hell, and is able to send a soul to either place…He is the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and we better respect Him, honour Him, and live our lives like He is with us every second…because He is!
And this most powerful being whose throne is heaven and whose footstool is the earth, loves us, each and every one of us. He treats us as children, not as slaves. Have you ever thought of what slavery could be like? Have you ever pondered the buying and selling of men, women and children. Have you considered what the slaves in the 18th and 19th century, and even the slaves of today, must go through when they are torn from their homes and families and are shipped off to be treated as property, not people?
I want to show you a short video clip to make us think about that for a moment. It’s from the movie Amazing Grace. (amazinggrace_madagascar_480x272.wmv)
People, people different than we are, people who don’t live like we do, look like we do, people who don’t have what we have; are they really any different than us? Should they be treated any differently, thought of differently or judged differently? Or can we treat them as property to be bought and sold?
In the days of slavery in England and America, they were. In the slave trades that still exist today all over the world, including the US and Canada, they are. People are bought and sold and treated as slaves. Pay the right price, and it can be done. And the cost of life in the human trafficking that continues today is staggering. Whether the victims are teenage soldier-slaves in Uganda, entire families forced to work in South Asian factories without pay or child prostitutes in Thailand; human trafficking enslaves 27 million people around the world and generates $30 billion annually. (humantrafficking.org)
Before we come to faith in God, faith in Jesus Christ, we are slaves to sin. We are slaves to our own selfish desires, as innocent as they may seem to us at the time. We are in bondage not with physical chains, but with chains of hopelessness, lack of purpose, fear of death, greed and want, and a lack of moral absolutes. Our lives are empty, our future is empty, our path in life is unsure and unsteady.
But someone has bought us; someone has paid the price for us. Not to take us on as their slave, but to purchase our freedom and give us eternal life! Jesus Christ, God made human, God with us, came to us and lived with us and taught us about the Father, taught us about heaven, taught us how we can and ought to live for Him, and told us about the Kingdom of Heaven and how He wants us to be there with Him. And then He was arrested, beaten, tortured and then He died for us, on a cross 2000 years ago.
Before Christ came, God taught us about the cost of sin, the price for breaking God’s laws. He said that for the sins we commit to be forgiven, a dove or a goat or a bull or a perfect little lamb must be offered to be slain; it’s blood spilled, it’s body burned, all so that sin could be forgiven. Blood must be shed. It costs a life. Not gold, not silver, not a cheque or cash, not servitude or works, not being good and promising never to do it again, not hoping time will heal all wounds and God will forget…blood, a life must be given.
And so for many years, sacrifices were made. How many lambs were offered? How many bulls were slaughtered? How many doves were cut in two? And all of it a precursor to what God intended to do for us on the cross at Calvary. He gave His Son, into the hands of the people He intended to save, and they killed Him. They spilled His blood, they took His life. A life He willingly lay down so that we might be forgiven. He bought us with His blood. He paid the penalty that we deserve, every one of us. He gave up His life, to give us hope. He was buried in the grave so that we could stand before the Father. And He rose again, so that we can one day meet Him in the air, and be free from this old world, free from the shackles of sin forever, free to live with Him for eternity. We are bought and paid for; the only choice we have to make is accept His offer of eternity with Him. We can be free today…will you accept Him?
COMMUNION SERVICE.
