EASTER LENSES
Text: I Peter 1:17 – 23
1 Peter 1:17-23 If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile. (18) You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, (19) but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. (20) He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. (21) Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God. (22) Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. (23) You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God (NRSV).
This world is a dark place without the right lenses. A 2022 estimate of the National Network of Depression Centers concluded that 21 million suffer depression. No wonder with all the stresses of life in the 20s. The Pharmacy Journal reported in 2022 that antidepressant prescriptions had risen by 35% in the previous six years. https://www.sermonsuite.com/emphasis-preaching-journal/sermon-illustrations-easter-3-2023 We are only twenty-three years into this new century, and things are out of control where we live as pilgrims in “exile”. We have more technological advances in the last 120 years in transportation, communication, education, medicine, the internet, cell phones. The more technology grows the more the world moves away from God. The more we move away from God as individuals and as a nation the more confusion develops.
Peter gives us the good news that this world is not our home! “If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile” ( 1 Peter 1:17). Peter tells us how to use our Easter lenses as exiles. Today we examine reverent fear, obedience and love.
REVERENT FEAR
What did Peter mean by reverent fear?
1) Walking by faith: Did Peter mean that we should fear God so much that we are afraid to approach God? No! Peter meant that we should fear what it would be like to live a life without “a living hope in the risen Lord that nourishes our faith in Him” (1 Peter 1:7 - 9).
2) Hope set on God: Even though we do not physically see the Lord, we know that because He is risen we can have “faith and hope that are set on God” (1 Peter 1:21). This is an important view to have in a world with many who walk by their physical sight that limits them!
3) Nearsightedness: We have to remember that the world we can see with our eyes is temporary because the unseen world is eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18).
4) Reverential awe: Someone has called this lifestyle evangelism “Reverential awe [that] surrounds a believer’s desire to live a life of holiness and obedience even in the face of difficulties. Reverential awe forms the major backbone of a believer’s life.” (David Walls and Max Anders. Holman New Testament Commentary; I & II Peter, I, II & III John. Nashville, Braodmabn and Holman Publishers, 1999, p. 13).
How can anyone who is a believer be Christian in name only?
1) Confession and profession: Isn’t Peter telling us that our confession to God and our professing our belief outwardly go hand in hand? In verse 19 Peter talks about purity, obedience and mutual love. Therefore, if our words say one thing and our actions another, then how can anyone be influenced if we claim to be citizens of the kingdom of heaven and live like heathen?
2) Committed opposition: We have secular opponents who are committed, cancel culture cheer-leaders, who promote gas lighting, wokism and hostility to our freedom of speech that contradicts their point of view. People who want to shut us down, threaten violence or silence those of us who want to witness for our Lord.
OBEDIENCE
Does our obedience demonstrate our holiness?
1) Holiness: 1 Peter 1:16 says, “for it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy" (NRSV). Satan is going to try to temp us in the hopes that he can break us! We live in this world, but we are no longer of the world, because we are “exiles on a pilgrimage through this life to make a difference to those to those who go along to get along.
2) Compromise: “You have become spiritual adulterers who are having an affair, an unholy relationship with the world. Don’t you know that flirting with the world’s values places you at odds with God? Whoever chooses to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy! ” (James 4:4 TPT)
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3) Tolerance: Two theological students were walking along a street in the Whitechapel district of London, a section where old and used clothing is sold. “What a fitting illustration all this makes!” said one of the students as he pointed to a suit of clothes hanging on a rack by a window. A sign on it read: “Slightly Soiled—Greatly Reduced in Price.” “That’s it exactly,” he continued. “We get soiled by gazing at a vulgar picture, reading a coarse book, or allowing ourselves a little indulgence in dishonest or lustful thoughts; and so when the time comes for our character to be appraised, we are greatly reduced in value. Our purity, our strength is gone. We are just part and parcel of the general, shopworn stock of the world.” Yes, continual slight deviations from the path of right may greatly reduce our usefulness to God and to our fellowman. In fact, these little secret sins can weaken our character so that when we face a moral crisis, we cannot stand the test. As a result, we go down in spiritual defeat because we have been careless about little sins. Galaxie Software. (2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press.
Does our obedience provoke our enemies?
1) Witness stand: During a Sunday School lesson when I was in the ninth grade the Sunday School teachers asked a poignant question. What was that question? It was this: “If you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” That is the kind of question that will haunt you! To me that question was like asking does your faith provoke your enemies to harass or persecute you? Jesus warned us that others would not like us for being different! If we are salty and bright, then it is almost a guarantee that our witness will provoke our critics!
2) Witnessing to the lost: As D.L. Moody walked down a Chicago street one day, he saw a man leaning against a lamppost. The evangelist gently put his hand on the man's shoulder and asked him if he was a Christian. The fellow raised his fists and angrily exclaimed, "Mind your own business!"
"I'm sorry if I've offended you," said Moody, "but to be very frank, that IS my business!" Even if people reject the gospel, we still must love them. http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/w/witnessing.htm How can we witness to anyone without running the risk of offending someone whether they acquaintances, friends, family or even strangers?
3) Exiles: As exiles, we are called to be God’s holy ambassadors who are invading the unholy enemy’s territory. 1 John 4:4 says “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for [H]e who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (ESV).
4) Staying Pure: “In the forests of northern Europe and Asia lives little animal called the ermine, known for his snow-white fur in winter. He instinctively protects his white coat against anything that would soil it.
Fur hunters take advantage of this unusual trait of the ermine. They don’t set a snare to catch him, but instead they find his home, which is usually a cleft in a rock or a hollow in an old tree. They smear the entrance and interior with grime. Then the hunters set their dogs loose to find and chase the ermine. The frightened animal flees toward home but doesn’t enter because of the filth. Rather than soil his white coat, he is trapped by the dogs and captured while preserving his purity. For the ermine, purity is more precious than life”. Galaxie Software. (2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press. [HGB Our Daily Bread, April 21, 1997] We might not have hunters pursuing us for our skin, but we live in a world surrounded by impure and ungodly things and ungodly people with worldly ideals who want to get us dirty and mock us for it.
LOVE
Is love tied to obedience?
1) More than a feeling: Love is much more than just a feeling, it’s a decision! And it is very possible that we can rebel against God’s call for us to be loving! To borrow the words from a Bon Jovi song, God does not want us to “give love a bad name”! Jesus told us that others will know that we are God’s children by the way we love (John 13:34 - 35).
2) Reevaluation: In one Peanuts comic strip Sally was struggling with her memory verse for Sunday. She was absorbed in her thoughts trying to figure it out when she remembered, “Maybe it was something from the book of Reevaluation.”
She never did find the memory verse, but we should always read the Bible with the intent of reevaluating our attitudes and actions to make sure they are in line with the truth of God’s Word. https://www.ministry127.com/resources/illustration/the-book-of-reevaluation
Why is love such a big deal?
Jesus, the lamb of Gd without blemish (I Peter 1:19) started His ministry on the Sermon on the Mount, preaching about how to be counter-cultural in a godly way----- how to be godly in an ungodly world. Jesus spoke to us about how to live and love through the Sermon on the Mount. He started with the beatitudes and practiced what he preached about loving our enemies----those who crucified Him. Jesus prayed for those who plotted to have Him, crucified as well as those who flogged Him, beat Him, mocked Him, rejected Him, those who drove the nails through His hands and feet as well as those who taunted Him once He was crucified. He prayed for them, loving them even if they did not love Him back! Through Peter’s epistle, Peter reminds us that Jesus expects us to follow in His footsteps! His love was a big deal, because He shed His blood to make us clean---- the blood of the lamb(1 Peter 1:19)---the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29)! 1 Peter 1:22 -23: (22) Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. (23) You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God (NRSV).
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
