Reading: 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 18-21.
Ill:
• In the 1800’s there was a well known American Baptist preacher;
• Called Dr. A. J. Gordon.
• One day as he walked down a street in Boston;
• He met a boy carrying an old rusty bird cage,
• Inside the cage were several little birds;
• And the boy was swinging the cage in a very spiteful and cruel way.
• Dr. Gordon said, “Son, where did you get those birds?”
• The boy answered, “I trapped them out in the field.”
• The preacher asked “And what are you going to do with them now?”
• The boy replied:
“I’m going to take them home and play with them and have some fun with them and when I’m bored I’ll give them to my cat to play with and eat!”
• Dr. Gordon then asked the boy how much he would take for the birds and the cage;
• The boy not believing his look replied; “Two dollars”.
• “It’s a deal”, said the preacher;
• And the two of them exchanged goods.
• The next Sunday Dr. Gordon took the empty bird cage to the pulpit;
• And used it in illustrating his sermon - He said:
“That boy said that the birds could not sing very well, but when I released them from the cage they went singing away into the sky, and it seemed to me, that they were singing, “Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed.””
Honestly, I don’t know how those birds felt to be freed:
• We can only imagine how it feels to be caged up;
• With the possibility of death fast approaching.
• But I know what is to be freed from sin that leads to death!
• Question: Don’t you?
• Our passage this evening gives us the low-down on what it means to be freed by God.
• The key word that best describes this liberation is ‘Redeemed’.
To the people who first received this letter – the word ‘redeemed’ was very relevant
• There were at that time probably 50 million slaves in the Roman empire;
• Many in this local Church were probably slaves.
• A slave could purchase his or her own freedom;
• If they could collect sufficient funds;
• Or if someone else was willing to purchase them and set them free.
• Whenever this happened the slave was said to have been ‘redeemed’.
• Set free by paying necessary price.
• Redemption was a very pertinent and precious thing in those days.
Notice from verse 18 what has NOT redeemed us:
(1). Not REDEEMED WITH MONEY.
“For 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”
Ill:
• An employee asked for a pay rise;
• Telling his boss that several companies were after him.
• When asked which ones, he told his employer,
• “Well, there's the electric company, the phone company and the gas company.”
Quote:
• “Money will buy a bed but not sleep;
• books but not brains;
• food but not appetite;
• finery but not beauty;
• a house but not a home;
• medicine but not health;
• luxuries but not culture;
• amusements but not happiness”
• a cross but not a saviour,
• a ticket to everywhere but not to heaven.”
Interesting that Peter calls money (silver & gold) perishable things:
• Yet humanly speaking they are some of the most lasting things that remain;
• ill: Ship sinks the treasure remains in tack.
• ill: Whether at the bottom of the ocean or buried underground;
• Silver & old have an enduring quality about them.
And yet like everything else in this world:
• They will pass away!
• They have some use but that use is limited.
• Silver and gold fail in so many ways.
• Because they perish when it comes to meeting our real needs.
Ill:
• It was reported that eleven millionaires went down on the Titanic.
• Major A.H. Peuchen left $300,000 in money, jewellery, & securities in a box in his cabin
• "The money seemed a mockery at that time,"
• He later said. "I picked up three oranges instead."
• All his gold and silver could not save him in this life;
• Never mind in the life to come!
(2). But by precious blood of Christ.
Quote: verse 18-19 (NLT Translation)
“For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. 19 It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. 20 God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but he has now revealed him to you in these last days”.
Ill:
• When eight-year-old Little Johnny came home it was obvious he had been in a fight;
• He had a black eye, a bloody nose, and torn clothing,
• It was obvious he had been in a scuffle and lost.
• While his father was patching him up, he asked what happened.
• "Well, Dad," he explained;
• "I challenged Danny to a duel.
• I even gave him his choice of weapons, just like you taught me."
• "That seems fair," his father replied.
• "I know, but I never thought he’d choose his eleven-year-old sister!"
I think something similar to that happened in the heavenly realms.
• In a sense, the devil challenged God to a fight;
• But he had no idea that God would choose someone else to defeat him - His own Son!
ill:
• Mentioned David & Goliath this morning.
• Two champions fought on behalf of others (nations);
• The winner took the victory and the spoils of war.
Ill:
• A young Hindu came to the house of a missionary and they started chatting.
• In the course of the conversation, the Hindu said:
• “Many things which Christianity contains are found in Hinduism,
• But there is one thing which Christianity has and Hinduism has not.”
• “What is that?” the missionary asked.
• His reply was striking: “A Saviour.”
The difference in our faith and that of many others is that we have a Saviour.
• The God of the Bible never asks us to save ourselves – that would be impossible!
• ill: A man drowning man cannot help someone else who is drowning;
• They both need a rescuer and not each other!
Ill:
• In planning for a city wide mission in a large city,
• The famous evangelist Billy Sunday wrote a letter to the mayor;
• In the letter he asked the mayor if he knew for the names of individuals;
• Who had spiritual problems and needed help and prayer.
• How surprised the evangelist was when he received a parcel from the major’s office;
• In the parcel was the cities telephone directory.
• In other words, everyone needs a saviour;
• Everyone needs redemption!
A saviour who is willing to pay the price of redemption:
Ill:
• Missionary – “Does your God bleed?”
• He shed his blood as an ‘atoning sacrifice’.
Quote:
• The atonement is mentioned in the Bible about 1,300 times.
• Think about that - 1,300 times!
• The love of God is only mentioned around 300 times.
• Atonement is recorded around 1,300 times.
• This tells you the importance that God placed upon the blood of His Son.
• This subject is so important;
• Because it is the only way for a person to be made right with God.
• There is no other way to come to God;
• Other than through the blood sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ
The word "redeemed" means "set free."
• The question has to be answered,
• Question: "From what are we set free and to whom is the payment made to set us free?"
• Answer: Jesus did not die to pay the devil,
• He died to defeat the devil and meet God's demand for a perfect life for sinners.
• Question: From what are we set free?
• Answer: We are set free from death and sin.
• Paul called it being a slave to sin.
• Sin is a disease of the soul. It separates one from God.
• The only way to be brought into a right relationship with God;
• Is to come by way of the blood.
• Sin to a lost person is like a man in the water with a heavy weight strapped to his body.
• He is going down, down, down!
• Yet Jesus Christ has the power & authority to lift you us up,
• Remove that weight and put us on dry land where you are secure and safe!
• To be saved is to say in those famous words,
• "Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I am free at last."
That word "redeemed" That is a very important word.
• It is the Greek word ‘lutroo’ (loo-tro'-o);
• Which means "to have been released on receipt of ransom."
• It is a passive past tense verb signifying that we were captive (to our sinful nature);
• And were set free through a ransom payment.
• We didn't escape through our own wise scheme or plan or negotiation with our captor.
• We were removed from captivity through no action of our own.
• It was done for us,
• But there was a price and it was paid by another.
"Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe,
Sin had left crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow."
Ill:
• In 1912 John Harper was the newly called pastor of Moody Church in Chicago,
• Was travelling on the Titanic with his 6 year old daughter.
• After the ship struck an iceberg and began to sink,
• He got his daughter Nana into a lifeboat but apparently made no effort to follow her.
• Instead, he ran through the ship yelling,
• "Women, children and unsaved into the lifeboats!"
• Survivors report that he then began witnessing to anyone who would listen.
• He continued preaching even after he had jumped into the water;
• In the water he had to cling to a piece of wreckage;
• Because he had given away his life-jacket to another man.
• Harper’s final moments;
• Were recounted fours years later at a meeting in Hamilton, Ontario,
• By a man who said:
• I am a survivor of the Titanic.
• When I was drifting alone on a spar that awful night,
• The tide brought Mr. Harper of Glasgow, also on a piece of wreck, near me.
• He said, "Man are you saved?"
• "No," I said, "I am not." He replied,
• Harper responded;
• "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."
• The waves bore him away,
• But a little latter they brought him back.
• Once again he asked; "Are you saved now?"
• "No”, I said, "I cannot honestly say that I am."
• Once again he pleaded,
• “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."
• Shortly after he went down; and there, alone in the night,
• With two miles of water under me, I believed. I am John Harper’s last convert!
• Saved not by silver or gold – just ask the 11 millionaires that drowned that fateful day!
• But by something far more valuable and lasting!
