Identity Shapers
July 26, 2009 1 Peter 1:3-12
Intro:
So, last Sunday I gave you some homework! Now it is time for me to check up on your homework! But don’t let that make you feel anxious, I won’t put anyone on the spot… I asked you to read 1 Peter, and I’m wondering if anyone who actually did read it would like to share what they thought about it…
Identity:
We started to study 1 Peter last week because it has a lot to say about who we are as God’s people, and thus how we should live in the middle of our world. Last week we concentrated on how God has chosen us by His love to be His children. We continue this morning and next week with the next sections, 1 Peter 1:3-12 and then 13-25. I’m going to read the whole section this week and then concentrate on verses 3-12, and next Sunday read the whole section and concentrate on verses 13-25, from the NIV.
1 Peter 1:3-25 (NIV)
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
10Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 12It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.
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.
A Packed Doxology: vs. 3-9
Immediately after the prescript to the letter which we studied last week, Peter jumps straight into this incredible paragraph of praise to God. And he finds an awful lot to praise God for… and it is rich and deep and beautiful, and it forms us. If we’ll let it, words of Scripture like this, when we allow the Holy Spirit to speak through them into our very being, shape us, mold us, form us into the people that God has created us to be. So as we walk through them, listen not only with your ears, and your mind, but listen with your heart. Take these words in, embrace them, and let God form you and shape your identity through them. I’m going to just simply highlight some of the key phrases and ideas:
“great mercy”
You and I have done nothing to deserve it. We can’t earn it, buy it, manipulate it, or steal it. We can only accept it – God would be just if He chose to punish, but He found a better way – through Jesus and according to His “great mercy”. What a liberating concept! We are like the offender who cannot go back and undo the crime, though we may wish to with all our heart, who then are offered mercy instead of punishment. Let that shape you – in response to your sin, God offers “great mercy”.
“new birth”
Ever wish you could go back and start over? Rewind? Get a second chance? Take a mulligan on a decision? Peter’s way of expressing this is even more complete – the result of God’s “great mercy” is complete newness – not of circumstance or a single decision or just another chance, but a completely new identity. “new birth”. Let that shape you – through God’s “great mercy” He gives us a complete “new birth”, a new identity.
Born into “living hope” and “an inheritance”
Peter’s explosion of praise continues following this idea of new birth, and he gets a little more specific. This is not the place to concentrate on what we were prior to this new birth, because Peter is far more excited about what it is into which we are born. Two specifics, first, a “living hope”. What a beautiful phrase – our hope is not static or tentative, it alive because our hope is in Jesus who is alive. When the Bible speaks of hope it is not the way we speak of hope, like “I hope it gets a little cooler soon”. When God speaks of hope He is speaking of something real, tangible, assured, complete, but not yet experienced. God’s hope has no element of wishy-washy possibility – it is sure, certain, and as Peter says here, alive.
So we are born new into first a living hope, and second “an inheritance.” Some of you have received an inheritance at some point in your life, and have first-hand experience of what it means to receive something which you didn’t work for or earn, but rather were freely given because of a unique relationship with the person who gave it to you. And this inheritance we have from God is timeless and priceless – it “can never perish, spoil or fade”. And it is kept safe – “kept in heaven for you”. All that means this inheritance is secure: it can’t be destroyed, and it can’t be lost. This is one of those truths that really can shape us, if we’ll let it sink in: we are born new, into an inheritance which we didn’t earn or deserve, and which can neither be destroyed nor lost. If this is true, what is there to be anxious about? It is all in God’s hands.
Vs.5
Let’s move on to verse 5. Peter here describes something truly amazing: “who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time”. Let’s look first at what it says about us: we are “shielded”. This is an interesting word in the original language – a military word. It is one of those words that create a picture in your mind, and the picture is of us surrounded by a powerful, fierce, armed military guard. It keeps us surrounded, protected, shielded, both from an attack from outsiders also from any danger of those inside the circle of protection wandering away and getting lost. What an amazing truth that the Holy Spirit can use to shape us! As we live as these re-born people, God’s power shields and protects us. In the end of the last verse we saw that we can relax because our inheritance is kept secure for us, this promises that we are also kept secure for our inheritance.
The second half of the verse explains for what we are protected – the coming of salvation. Anyone listening closely enough for this to sound a little bit strange? Aren’t we already saved? Don’t we talk about the moment we “got saved”? When we are sharing our faith with others are we not explaining that they can be saved right now, and have assurance of salvation? Now isn’t this saying something different – all this talk of a future coming of salvation? The truth is that salvation is both – it is something we receive when we accept Jesus, so in that sense it is an experience in the past; but it is also something that we look forward to in the future – our inheritance, our living hope. It is not just that I was saved, but also I am being saved. That forming of our identity by the Holy Spirit I’ve been talking about all through, see the process here in verse 5? These are powerful words!! God’s power protects us as He saves us. What an amazing truth! It is all about God – He holds our inheritance secure, and holds us secure, while saving us.
But as much as the focus is (and should be!) all on God in the verse, we do have a part to play – a responsibility. It was right at the beginning of the verse: “through faith”. It is all about God, He does it all, but we have to respond in faith. Here is the specific act of faith I request of you right now: choose to believe these words. YOU are “shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” That is who you are – accept it by faith, and let the Holy Spirit shape you with those words.
Reality Isn’t All Rosy… vs. 6-9
Peter concludes this opening paragraph of praise to God for our salvation by talking about suffering. Maybe you were thinking it as I was walking through that last section – real life isn’t all rosy… this truth of being protected by God can be misunderstood to mean that God has this special bubble of “supersonic spirituality” and makes bad stuff bounce off, like maybe one of the “droidecas” from Star Wars… That is often how we think, and so then when “bad stuff” does happen we are left to conclude that either our “shields were down”, probably because we messed up and God left us unprotected, or that we aren’t really protected at all. This protection of God does not mean that we will never suffer; in fact basic New Testament Theology teaches us that we WILL suffer, just like Jesus did, and that we will suffer for a greater purpose. We see this most clearly in verse 7, but I need to switch to the NRSV for a much better wording: “so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.” Notice first how precious our faith is to God – we tend to think of it as small, not too important – God says it is more precious than the most precious thing the people of the day could imagine. The “greater purpose” – “to result in praise and glory and honour” to Jesus. Here again is the forming and shaping power of the Holy Spirit at work within us – our hearts are shaped even through suffering into the things for which the Kingdom of God stands: patience. perseverance. steadfastness under duress. forgiveness. blessing of enemies. a fixation on the living hope, the inheritance, to come. the lifting up of Jesus that others may see. a love that doesn’t quit, doesn’t waver, and that reflects God through every difficulty. And the result is praise to Jesus, which is the whole reason we exist in the first place.
So we walk through suffering in joy – that theme runs right alongside the theme of suffering all through these verses. The two concepts are back to back in verse six, and Peter returns to it at the end of verse 8. How do we have joy in the midst of suffering? We certainly are not happy about suffering! The joy is the result of the strength of our identity. We know who we are, we expect to suffer and have been shaped by God to expect it, we have the promise of protection by the mighty warriors of God around us, and we thus can allow God to shape us and mold us through the suffering, all the while holding on to the “living hope” and the “inheritance” to come.
How Great is this New Reality of Our Identity? vs. 10-12
This last bit we are going to look at today takes it even further. Peter talks about two groups, the OT prophets and angels, and what their perspective is on this salvation he has been talking about. Commentator Wayne Grudem summarizes this way:
The whole paragraph carries a strong flavour of the newness and the excellence of the church age. Peter tells his readers: ancient prophets predicted the grace that would be ‘yours’ (v. 10); you live in a great ‘time’ of ‘glories’ (v. 11) which was long foretold; the prophets were in fact repeatedly ministering for the benefit of ‘you’ (v. 12a); and world-changing events have ‘now’ been proclaimed to ‘you’ through the working of the Holy Spirit ‘sent’ in epoch-changing new power from heaven (v. 12b). Though the world may think such Christians insignificant and worthy of pity or scorn, angels – who see ultimate reality from God’s perspective – find them to be objects of intense interest (v. 12c), for they know that these struggling believers are actually the recipients of God’s greatest blessing and honoured participants in a great drama at the focal point of universal history, We too may rightly think of our Christian lives as no less privileged and no less interesting to holy angels than the lives of Peter’s readers. (1 Peter, Tyndale NT Commentaries, p. 73).
Conclusion:
Peter has a lot to say about who we are! And it truly is amazing stuff. Our true identity results in changed behaviour, which we’ll look at next week but here’s a quick preview: “be holy” (v. 15), “live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear” (v. 17), and “love one another deeply, from the heart.” (v. 22).
Last thought: lego. We like lego at my house. It starts as a big mess of pieces, all sorts of shapes and sizes and colors and functions. Then someone envisions an end product, and begins to form and shape and mold the pieces into something great. That is what God wants to do with us – with our identity and character, deep in our hearts. God wants to take these truths and sink them deeply within us, so that by the presence of His Holy Spirit within us we can be molded and shaped into exactly what He wants us to be. The end result is worth it!
