Prepare for Action! 1 Peter 1:13-25
Be prepared…how often do we hear that these days. Be prepared…in case of an earthquake, have your 72-hour emergency supplies prepared in advance. Be prepared…in case you get into an accident, make sure you have on clean underwear (Bill Cosby, Himself). Be prepared… ‘whatever comes through that door, you are men of Gondor, and will stand your ground!’ (Gandalf, Lord of the Rings, the Return of the King). Be prepared…if today is the last day of your life, do you have your will ready? Scar in The Lion King sang of being prepared for the rise of his own kingdom, as he plotted to kill Moufassa. And we, as Christians prepare for the return of the True King when Christ returns one day as King of kings, and Lord of lords!
All of these are things to prepare, things to expect, things to concern ourselves with. Our passage today deals with the preparation of our minds, the way we think, for action! Turn with me to the book of 1 Peter, chapter 1. Page 857 in the blue pew bibles.
Be Holy - 1 Peter 1:13-25 (NIV)
13Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."
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.
22Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24For,
"All men are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
25but the word of the Lord stands forever." And this is the word that was preached to you.
This is one of those continuing studies from a previous message. Only thing is, it’s not continued from last week, but last year…I spoke from 1 Peter 1 in April of 2008, and am now going to continue that study through the book. We just completed 2 weeks from the book of Jude, which has a lot of commonalities to 2nd Peter, and in reading those references, along with portions from his 1st letter, I was drawn to read both together again. So here we are today. And I’d like to focus this morning on those first few verses, 13-16.
We left the last message talking about the living hope we have through Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, into an everlasting inheritance…heaven. That is the hope Christians have when all the world seems to go wrong. That is what gives us an inner joy when we are surrounded by sorrow and suffering. And this hope is where our faith is built upon, proved genuine, and results in praise, glory and honour through Jesus Christ!…awesome stuff, yes?
All that to say what the ‘therefore’ is there for. Therefore, prepare your minds for action. When someone is preparing for action, I automatically think of getting themselves, their bodies, ready in some way. Perhaps we need to get in shape, you know, do some exercise, eat right, and get good rest. Perhaps we need to get the right equipment for whatever ‘action’ we’re getting involved in. An athlete needs good shoes for running, a good stick for playing hockey (gee the Canucks could use that…), a good car to race in the Daytona 500 in (which is happening right now by the way…got the VCR going). And they prepare for their events, practice, practice, practice. It all makes for a better performance by the individual or team.
But Peter is not talking about our bodies here, he is talking about our MINDS. He’s talking about the way we THINK. Our brain is one of the most complex things known to man. Billions of nerve cells, countless electrical connections, myriads of messages travelling across and through and around inside our skull; all of it happening without our ‘thinking’ about it. Memories of days gone by, thoughts of what may happen tomorrow, favourite songs, your phone number, and the thought of whether or not I turned the coffee pot off before leaving the house this morning, all stored inside and spinning around in our head, accessible at just a thought. Our mind is a wonder of creation, God’s creation. God gave us our mind. He knit us together in our mother’s womb, says the Psalmist. We are fearfully and wonderfully made.
God gave us our mind, how we choose to USE it, is entirely up to us. Peter says to prepare for action; get your MIND ready to go to work. A mind left to do nothing is pretty useless. Remember the ads; a mind is a terrible thing to waste? It’s so true! Our minds have such huge capacity for doing things, for creativity and design and problem solving and caring and compassion and art and music and love and caring…that to waste that ability is such a shame. What do we think about? What do we dwell on? What thoughts are going through our minds right now? Are we thinking about going out and doing some good, or about when we can catch a few more zzz’s? Do we think about work, or think about how we can get out of doing work? Both involve our mind, but the latter is not very productive. As Bill Cosby once said, ‘it takes a lot of work to keep from doing a lot of work.’
What should we be thinking about? Philippians 4:8 tells us whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (NIV) There’s too much junk out there that we could fill our minds and thoughts with. God asks us to think about things that are actually worth thinking about. Why waste time and energy on thoughts that are useless and harmful, when we could be focussed on much better things?
We are called to prepare for action. And so how do we do that? How do we do mind-preparation? Peter gives us a quick check-list of things we ought to do, and things we ought to remember.
First he says to be self-controlled. We are not puppets on a string. We are not remote-controlled robots. God gave each of us the free will to make our own choices about how we think, and how we live. Aren’t you glad? But there are influences out there in the world that want to have a bit, or a lot, of control on our lives. Just listen or watch any commercial, they, the advertisers, are trying to change the way you think so that you will believe that their product is the best one for you to buy, even if it is just the same as every other product out there, and possibly twice the price. They want us to think BRAND ‘A’, when ANY brand will do; if we even need that thing to begin with.
Our actions need to be controlled, not hap-hazard, wheel spinning, I don’t care what happens to others, get out of my way actions, but controlled, focussed, intentional, Spirit-lead actions that we take responsibility for. A person who says what they’ll do and then does what they say is a much more likely to be respected than someone who says one thing and then does another. Be self-controlled, not out of control. Don’t careen through life with no sense of where you’re going, but take responsibility for your actions.
The Peter says to ‘set our hope fully on the grace to be given when Christ is revealed.’ When people see our lives, the way we conduct ourselves, what we strive for in this life, what do they see? Do they see a bunch of bored people sitting around with no goals, no joy, and no hope? I hope not! I hope when people see us they see people of purpose, people with focus, people with real joy in their lives, and people with hope. Because when people see Christians they should see Jesus. Christ is revealed to the world through us, through you! The revelation that our sin can be forgiven and our souls can be saved and are worth saving, that grace is there for all who will receive it, is to be shown in the way we set the course for our lives.
When a captain of a ship is travelling and loses all the instruments on board for direction, they will set their sites on a fixed point and keep heading in that direction, as long as they have something to aim for, they can steer towards it. We need to set our sites on Jesus, and steer our thoughts and actions towards Him and His purposes for us. To take our eyes off of Him could lead to disaster.
I think of Peter during the time when Jesus was with the disciples. In Matthew chapter 14, after Jesus fed the 5000, the guys were out in a boat crossing the lake when Jesus came walking across the water towards them in the middle of the night. They all freak out, thinking it’s a ghost, when Jesus calls out, ‘Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.’ Peter asks Jesus, ‘if it’s you; call me to come to you on the water.’ Now, think about that for a moment. It’s dark, you’re in a boat, the wind is blowing, the waves are bouncing the boat around, you see someone (at least you think you see someone) walking on the water, and you want to go out there too?! Seems a little nuts? Perhaps, but Peter had faith in his Lord. He trusted Jesus. So he steps out of the boat, onto the water. Not into the water, but ONto the water. What a feeling that must have been! Kind of squishy, but firm enough to keep him on his feet, at least it was while he had his eyes fixed on Jesus, fixed on his goal. You see, as soon as Peter looked away from Christ, and saw the wind and waves blowing around him, he became afraid, and started to sink. Water started doing what water usually does, and Peter’s ankles started getting wet, then his knees, and then…he called out to Jesus, ‘save me!’ And Jesus grabbed Peter by the hand, and pulled him up back onto the surface and they walked TOGETHER back to the boat. Set your point of reference in life as Christ, and then stay focussed on Him. Don’t look around at what’s blowing around you, Christ is there, in the midst of any storm, right there to be with you. Set your hope and life on Him and Him alone, and you will not sink, but stand firm.
Verse 14, as obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. As parents, we try to each our children how to behave so that as they grow up, they will be able to look after themselves, make good decisions, and be a success. We try to teach them things so they don’t get hurt, like don’t touch the element on the stove or you’ll get burned. Don’t slam your 2-year old brother’s fingers in the car door, he doesn’t appreciate that. Back in Manitoba, Mom had brought Andrew & I to the store to do some grocery shopping in the station wagon. When we got home, she carried a few bags of groceries to the house and asked me to stay in the car and watch Andrew until she came back for the rest of the bags. Well, I wanted to help Mom so she didn’t have to do all that work alone, so I grabbed a bag, shut the car door, figuring my little brother would be fine for the few moments until Mom or I returned. What could happen in 20 seconds? I walked up the sidewalk and turned to look back at him, just in case, and saw he was crying, really crying, with his face pressed up against the window of the door I had just closed. Being the concerned brother, I walked back to the car to see if I could help him feel better by making faces at him through the window. He must just feel lonely. And I can’t hear him, the glass is too thick. All I saw was his open mouth, and flowing tears. It was only when Mom came back and opened the door that we realized that Andrew was press up against the window because he couldn’t move away from it; his fingers were sealed in the door that I had closed on them…He was okay, and still is, but the lesson I learned is that when Mom says stay in the car with your brother, it means to stay in the car with your brother. I disobeyed, even with the intention of doing good, I disobeyed, and Andrew got hurt.
Are we obedient children of God? Do we listen and obey what He tells us to do and what not to do? An obedient child listens to the instruction of their parent and respects them and honours them in the Lord. Peter says not to conform to the evil desires we had when we lived in ignorance, before we knew Christ. Before we accepted Jesus, our desires, our thoughts, were focussed on us, and on doing things WE want, not what God wants in our lives. As believers, we need to be, we must be, different, set apart, separate from worldly thoughts, and set on things above. We are called to be holy. Why, because God is holy, and if we are part is family, we are to be holy too. We are separate from the world, set apart, we have purpose set by God, we are to be used by God and therefore must be holy. Peter refers to Leviticus 11:44,45; 19:2; and 20:7.
When the world looks at us, they should see that God has made a difference in the way we live, the way in which we conduct ourselves at work, in our conversation, in the way we raise our children, how we relate to our spouse, in the way we deal with our finances, our priorities and goals, even how we drive. Every aspect of the way we live should be defined by Who we live for. Do we live for ourselves or do we live for God?
We are called to action; we are called to act in holiness. And so my question for us to think about his week is this, ‘If I believe God is holy, and if I have given my life to God, then am I being holy in all that I do?’
Let’s pray.
