WAC2BL: Redeemed
Scripture Text: 1 Peter 1.17-23
INTRODUCTION
Someone asked-a-question: “What’s a WAC2BL?” ~
For starters, …it’s the theme for the next-several-weeks. But, more-than-that, …WAC2BL is a question… …It’s a question that-arises out-of-a sense-of-confusion. And the confusion - or uncertainty - it stems from a clash ~ …a clash of ideas, …a clash between tradition and innovation, …clashes between wealth and poverty, …clashes between generations, …and clashes between likes and dis-likes. And there’s not a single-one-of-us that’s immune to these clashes, …and the consternation that settles-in, as-a-result.
WAC2BL is a question. And the question is this: What’s a Church to Be Like?
When you look at the landscape, …there is so-much variety when-it-comes-to churches! In any-given-community, …the variety is almost-staggering: …some are Main Street, …while others are backwoods; …some are known for their programs and productions, …while others are known for pot-lucks; …some are kid-friendly …and others appeal to the older-crowd; …some congregations are liturgical, …while others are “free”; …some are highly-involved in their community, …while others keep to themselves; …some have stained-glass-windows and towering-steeples, …while others meet in school-cafeterias.
I’m not sayin’ anything new, here ~ …you’ve noticed all-this before! But it begs-the-question: …with all this incredible variety, …and all the differences that exist between churches, …is there anything that we share; …anything that holds us together; …such-that we can truly look at one-another as brothers and sisters?
TRANSITION
But, more-to-the-point of this series-of-sermons: …in-terms-of-our-congregation, what are we supposed to be like? ~ Is there something that binds us together?
Far-too-often, we’ve focused on things that divide: For decades the church has argued over the style of music, …some battle over pews-vs-chairs, …and some throw-out-tradition, in favor of what-ever-the-new-trend is.
We-Christians get bent-outta-shape about all kinds-of-stuff ~ …stuff that-really-isn’t that-big-o-deal, in the grand-scheme of things. In fact, a lot of divisions and arguments that congregations-go-through would-dissolve if they would-celebrate those-things that hold us together, …instead of getting ourselves all-tied-up-in-knots over trivial-matters!
BODY
I. Who We Be
Which brings-us right back to where we began… What’s a church to be like? ~ It all begins with knowing who we are. We are the redeemed children-of-God. Peter says:
“it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life… but with the precious blood of Christ”. (1 Pe 1.18-19)
How many times have you been asked to introduce yourself to a new group of people? It’s an uncomfortable-experience for many-people... You might tell your name, …where you’re from, …what you do for a living. But… how do you introduce who you are, …at the core-of-your-being?
How do you introduce yourself ~ …telling where you live, …what your hobbies are, …what you do for a living, …maybe you-mention some outstanding accomplishments…
But the problem with these things is that skirts-the-issue: It focuses on outward-things; …but… Our identity is not based on outward things, …but-instead on what’s inside. You can’t judge a book by its cover! ~ That’s the old-saying! Do you know what I’m sayin’?...
We’re so-used-to lookin’ at the cover-of-the-book, and jumpin’-to-conclusions about who-and-what they are, based-on what we see.
But, in the first-chapter-of Peter’s letter, …we find God telling us that things really-move in the opposite-direction: …that what-is-visible on-the-outside should arise-from what’s already-in-place on-the-inside!
Who you-are is not based on what you do ~ …nor on your titles or degrees, …position or accomplishments. Rather, …who-you-are is based on an inward-reality. And the inward reality is: You are a redeemed child-of-God. And that’s got nothin’-to-do with your actions or accomplishments or achievements. It-is what-it-is, …based solely on what God did for you through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. He redeemed you. He redeemed me. In-fact, …we’re all a bunch-of-sinners, rescued and redeemed by the grace-of-God. That’s who we are. It’s our identity. In your heart-of-hearts, …at the center of your self-image, …this should be the echo that grabs your attention: “I belong to God! “He snatched me out of the ‘pit’, …out of the ‘miry clay’; “…and-now, I am redeemed, all glory to His name!”
This fact: that I’m a sinner saved-by-grace, …redeemed out of the clutches of sin, …this fact should-stand at the heart of every-Christian’s picture-of-himself.
And-while the Bible uses lots-of-word-pictures to describe our identity-in-Christ (who-we-are in our heart-of-hearts) ~ …in chapter one, Peter calls us “strangers”. He says:
“live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.”
The New Living Translation says-it-this-way:
“you must live in reverent fear of him during your time as ‘foreigners in the land’”.
Strangers… Foreigners… Aliens: This world ain’t our home. In the words of the old-gospel-songs: …we’re just a travellin’ through!
In the New Testament Book of Romans, we read that Christ died “while we were still sinners.” And in the New Testament Letter to the Corinthians, we are encouraged to, “Think of what you were when you were called.”
Since you came to Christ, …since you accepted His mercy and forgiveness, …since you received the gift of salvation, …you’ve been changed! The Bible calls this experience, “the new birth”. It also describes it as ‘adoption’ ~ which means we’re given a new-name, …brought into a new family, …given a new-identity! And all-of-this is God’s-doing! It’s nothin’ we do for ourselves. He does-it-all for us. We just-receive it by faith. It’s like-a-gift that is held out for us; …a gift that’s-offered, just-because that’s what God-is-like; …we don’t have-to-earn it; …can’t-bargain-for it; …the gift can’t be bought because it’s not for sale.
Redemption. Salvation. Rescue from sin. And when you receive this gift by-faith, …you ain’t the same. You were a sinner; …now you’re a child of God. You were lost; …now you’re have a place in the family. You were dead; …but now your spirit is given new-life through Christ. You were bound-up and enslaved; …now you’re free-to-worship and free-to-love the Lord! Something’s-changed in your heart; …something’s-changed in the core-of-your-identity. This is who-you-be! You are redeemed. You are saved. This is who-you-are! It’s not-about the hair-color or the tattoos, …it’s not-about the car-you-drive, the jeans you wear, or the music you listen-to! This is who you are: a redeemed child of God!
II. What to Do with Who We Be!
Now… since we are redeemed through the work of Jesus, …what do you do with the gift you’ve been given?, What do we do with the change that’s been-made?, What do we do with the new-life that’s been born in our heart?...
This is the concern… These are the questions… This is the main-focus of what God-wants to communicate through this-part of Peter’s letter. God wants us to see that we have a moral and spiritual responsibility to respond to the gift-of-redemption. Through the life-and-death of Jesus, we have this awesome gift!... Through this gift, we are new-born in the power of the Holy Spirit. But now-what!?! Now that we’re redeemed, …saved, …rescued from the clutches of sin, …what do we do with our new-status, …our new-identity, …this restored-relationship with our Father in Heaven?
Peter says there’s three-things… …three-ways to live-out of our new-identity… The first is: Live as strangers in this world. Are you living like a “stranger”?...
Folks like George Barna say that increasingly, there’s very-little difference in the attitudes or the beliefs or the behaviors of those who profess to be Christian, …versus those who do not! I don’t know if that disturbs you, or not, …but that’s very-troubling from the stand-point of Scripture. Peter says:
“…live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.”
I know that there’s a part-of-us that just-wants to blend-in. We don’t want to make waves. We don’t wanna draw attention to ourselves. We just want to live peaceful, quiet lives.
That’s o.k… not everyone is a bombastic-trend-setter, like the Apostle Paul. But, here’s the thing, …the danger we’re slipping-into is-in-becoming too-comfortable in this world. Instead of quietly living-out-our-faith, …we’ve quietly slipped-on the garments-of-the-world… So-that we don’t look-any-different than the people-of-the-world! Attitudes, …values, …perspectives, …behaviors ~ …the danger-is that we’re lookin’ more-and-more like the world-around-us.
When God tells us to live as strangers in this land, …He is reminding us that we are citizens of another kingdom ~ …the kingdom of God. This world ain’t our home. You may have a driver’s license from the state. You may own a deed and pay annual property taxes. You probably have a voter’s registration card ~ …but, if you’re redeemed, …if you’ve received the gift of salvation, …then what-you-need-to-remember is that your primary-citizenship is in the everlasting, eternal kingdom-of-heaven. This world, …this place, …this culture is passing. It won’t be around long ~ …especially when-compared-to the length-of eternity. So don’t get sucked-in! Don’t bite-the-bait in the mousetrap. Live your life according to the priorities-and-values of God’s kingdom ~ …and not according-to the kingdom of Madison Avenue, …or the kingdom of Hollywood, …or the kingdom of the Rich-and-Famous, …and not the kingdoms of presidents and big-companies that are governed-by the all-mighty-dollar. Live your lives as strangers here, for you have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, …and you are citizens of an eternal kingdom!
Peter says there’s three-things… …three-ways to live-out of our new-identity… The first is: Live your life as-a-stranger. The second-way to live, is-to-live a pure life. Peter says it this-way:
“you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth”.
This has got some-pretty-big-words in it: …purify; …obey; …truth.
These are three words that our modern-world has problems with. First-of-all, …our society says there’s no-way to live a pure life. It says that you can try-your-best, …but you’re always gonna make-mistakes, …and mess-up, …and come-up-short. “Purity might-be-a-lofty-goal, “…but don’t waste your time on it, ‘cause it’s just-not-possible!” ~ …well, that’s what the world says!
But Scripture tells us that our lives are ‘purified’ when we obey the truth revealed through Christ Jesus. And the truth is that we can live-according-to-Jesus’-example! With-the-help of the Holy Spirit – …we can love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, …and we can love our neighbor as ourselves. The truth is: this is what we’re made for. The truth is: this is what makes life rich-and-fulfilling. The truth is: life is weakened and diminished when we don’t live-according-to the truth revealed through Jesus!
You have been redeemed ~ saved from a pitiful, “empty way of life”. You have been redeemed so that you can live-the-good-life, …life the way it’s intended to be lived, …life that’s in-concert-with, …in-harmony-with God’s-plan and God’s-will. Live pure lives. Our lives are purified by-obeying Jesus. We obey Jesus when we do-as-He-taught-us-to-do: Love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
So, what’s a church to be like? According to the passage we’ve read, …the church is a group of people who’ve been redeemed; …and because of their new-status as God’s children, …we live as ‘strangers’ and-as ‘foreigners’ here-in-this-world because we belong to God’s kingdom. It also means that we live pure lives, as we love God with all-that-we-are and from the depths-of-our-heart.
But Peter says there’s a third way to live-out our identity as the redeemed people-of-God: Love your church family.
Is this the hardest-one for-you?.. To some-degree, this is hard-for-everyone. There are people that just rub-us-the-wrong-way. There are people that we’ve been-disappointed-by. And when we brush-shoulders with those-people, …there seems to be tension in-the-air!
Personally ~ I wonder if this is one-of-the-reasons why people flock to the humongous, mega-churches! When you’re worshipping with more-than-a-thousand-people, …it would be easy to avoid the-ones that you don’t-get-along-with! In the mega-church, …you can get lost in the crowd; …you can maintain surface-level relationships; …nobody has to see your junk, …and you don’t have to see others’ junk ~ …and it’s just-a-little-easier to love people when the junk isn’t cluttering-up the relationship!
But, that’s not-really what love is all about, is it!?! No… God loves us, …junk-and-all! And God wants us to love one-another, …just as He has loved us!
In reading the first verse of Peter’s letter, …we discover that he wrote to a constellation-of-congregations. And in the first-hundred-years following Jesus’ death-and-resurrection, …almost all congregations met in people’s homes. Now… the reason that’s important is because it tells us that these congregations were relatively-small. It-tells-us that the people in those congregations knew-one-another very-well. They knew each-other’s-stuff. They sat in each-other’s living-rooms. And-I’m-sure, …they had times of disagreements and differences-of-opinions and personality-conflicts.
Listen, Jesus wasn’t kiddin’ when He said that the second-great-commandment is like-the-first! “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength” ~ that’s numeral-uno!; …and the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself”! Peter picks-this-up in his letter when he says:
Now 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. (v.22)
In John’s letters, we’d find stuff like:
We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. (1 Jn 4.19-21)
Is this hittin’ home-yet!?! Love ~ within-the-church, Love ~ between Christian brothers-and-sisters, Love ~ flowing-out-of our identity as the redeemed people-of-God… Love is what the church is to be like! Love doesn’t gossip. Love doesn’t nip-pick. Love doesn’t hold-grudges. Love doesn’t try to even the score. Love doesn’t take pot-shots. Love doesn’t harden-one’s-heart toward another person. Love doesn’t miserly hold onto one’s surplus while another hungry, cold, or alone.
Rather, …love is generous. Love is long-suffering. Love is forgiving and merciful, …patient and protective. Love seeks to build up, …never to tear-down. Love is sacrificial. Love your church-family sincerely, deeply, from the heart…
CONCLUSION
Authentic-lives is what God wants us to live ~ authentically loving. Ironically, Authenticity is what our world is hungering for.
