Sermon Title: The Path We Follow
Sermon Text: 1 Peter 1:10-13
Bethel Christian Church - Eddyville
Date: October 15, 2000
Scripture Introduction:
I am excited as we continue on in this first epistle of Peter. In the previous section we saw how even as long-time residents we can suddenly find ourselves strangers in our own land. Our choice of Christ over things of this world, sadly causes us to be shunned by many who have as their only hope, the message of the Good News of our Lord and Savior.
We look at the motivation of those not living for the Lord and wonder how they can possibly hope to extract the kind of comfort that we get from our Lord from things that will fail. We may well find ourselves tested from time to time, but we have our eyes set on a reward that is onward and upward, one that is imperishable, undefiled, and won’t fade away. We may know the difference between our heavenly reward and earthly rewards now, but that wasn’t always so and there may be some that haven’t found that path yet. Peter continues on in this letter to shed some light on what needs to be done. If you have your Bibles and wish to follow along with me please turn to 1 Peter 1:10-13.
Please join me in the reading of God’s Holy Word!
Scripture Reading: 1 Peter 1:10-13
10 As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, 11 seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven--things into which angels long to look.
13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Introduction:
Every endeavor of man follows with some type of process. Everyone has a point of illumination whether it be of a spiritual nature or otherwise that we label the LIGHT CAME ON stage. There has to be a vision. For some reason Thomas Edison comes to mind when he comes up with the idea of developing the electric light bulb. From there we enter the nuts and bolts stage where we take the vision and try to get it to work, we go beyond the blueprints and drawings and make the vision a reality. We begin the process of implementing our vision. This is the part of the process where we skin knuckles, stub toes and perhaps at various times even bite out tongues. This is the part of the process where we are apt to meet the most resistance. I think of Noah building an ark in a mountain region in preparation for something that the world has never before seen, and I can just imagine the heckling that might have taken place. Just what are we prepared to withstand after God has given us a vision of what we are to do? Now Noah went on to complete the ark and safely floated away as those around sank to their watery graves. Then I also think of what happens when we receive a vision of what we need to do and decide to become hard to get. Look at Jonah, God called him to deliver a message to the Ninevites, and Jonah had other plans. I’m sure that those plans didn’t include becoming the main course for a huge fish.
The point is, we are given a glimpse of something that we are to do, God supplies us with all that we need that we don’t have on our own, and we go to work, following what God wants us to do. We see what we are to do, we take the measures to ensure that it becomes fact, and then we watch as the vision becomes reality at last. It doesn’t matter where or whatever means God uses to give us His vision for our lives, only that we do what we can with what He equips us for. I can think of some visions that God has for each of us. He wants us all to love Him heart, soul, and mind. He wants us to love each other as we love ourselves. We are all commissioned to go forth and proclaim God’s message to those whoever they are and wherever they are.
Let us go to the Lord in prayer!
POINT 1: The Vision
Peter begins this particular section of Scripture by explaining to us of the vision of the prophets that we find in verses 10 and 11, 10 As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, 11 seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.
This brings to mind three questions:
What about the prophets should we take a careful look at?
What exactly were the prophets talking about?
Who was the message of the prophets for?
What about the prophets should we take a careful look at? First of all we read that the prophets searched and inquired about the salvation that was to come. Now what was it that they were searching and inquiring about? They had prophesied about the grace which was to come. This prophecy has two requirements, the mind of man must search and be prepared and the Spirit of God must reveal. Seems simple enough to see doesn’t it? If we are not prepared to receive what God has for us in terms of any kind of revelation, then we must be prepared.
Now the word revelation scares many people off. I know to some people begin to think of the supermarket tabloids and the headlines of certain people predicting the huge earthquake that will swallow California. Now don’t go out buying oceanfront property in Nevada quite yet. I think there are a lot of subtle revelations that we simply fail to overlook and as a result we miss out. One of the greatest experiences in this particular instance is when we are searching and praying about and through the Scriptures and all of a sudden a verse whose meaning has escaped us or we have never made any type of connection with any type of application or meaning suddenly makes sense to us. This is a revelation from God for us. The two factors for this to occur have been met. Our mind was ready – we were prepared and we were prayed up, the Lord revealed the meaning to us.
This section also tells us that the Holy Spirit has been working in the world long before the Pentecostal experience of the disciples in Jerusalem that we read about in the book of Acts. It just goes to show that where there are longings for God the Holy Spirit is also. When a nation seeks God and His direction we see visions and blessings and equally the opposite is true. The Nation of Israel in the Old Testament accounts is a prime example. What does that tell us about our nation? As this nation was founded seeking God for the most part we have witnessed His great blessings on all that it has done. This nation as a whole is no longer seeking God and His will and as a result, we will lose His blessings unless we turn this situation around. We need to look toward God, we need to turn toward God and we need to prepare ourselves for what He is for us in His will.
What exactly were the prophets talking about?
We read in the second half of the 12th verse, “things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven”.
This section tells us that preaching is the announcement of salvation. Now this has two particular sides to it. As those on the listening end there had better be attention given to the message because God wants everyone to be saved. This is made quite evident in the Gospel of John following what is probably the most famous and quoted verse, we read in John 3:17, “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him”. Not only are we to hear what is being preached, but we are to consider where genuine preaching is from, we read that the gospel is brought to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.
The opposite side of the coin is for those who profess to be anointed to deliver this message. What I deliver as a main point from this pulpit had better be thus saith the Lord and not so thinks Ralf. Can I give some general thoughts? Yes but I had better not try to pass it off as the word of God. There needs to be prayer and preparation for what the message is to be. As I prepare, I also need to search and enquire for that vision that God has for this time. In order to receive what God has for you, you also have to pray and be prepared and then set out to search and enquire.
I had a professor once tell a story about his mother who was attending a church with a pastor of questionable calling and talent in regards to feeding his sheep. Many times he asked his mother why she attended that particular church where others would be without a doubt more closely compatible to her years of steady Christian growth. Why was she staying at a church where her level of Christian understanding could not even come close to being met? Her answer was very simple, she prayed for her pastor daily and then asked the Holy Spirit to prepare her for what He had for her that Sunday service. You see she prayed and prepared and then searched and enquired. Regardless what others saw as a useless attempt at spiritual feeding, she was being satisfied because her mind was prepared and the Spirit of God then delivered.
Who was the message of the prophets for?
I look back at many Old Testament accounts and I see the various prophets set out with a message from God for a specific people. I like the story of Jonah, the unwilling prophet. It is probably unfair to pick on Jonah because I don’t believe his initial unwillingness to go forth with thus saith the Lord was all that uncommon. The message is for all. Look at all of the different accounts where people have been given a vision of things to come and a message for a plan to turn things around. Since I have been picking on Jonah, I will continue on using him as an example. Jonah finally arrives in Ninevah, after an unusual cruise and quite a hike with the message that they needed to turn from their wicked ways or within forty days, the city would be destroyed. The inhabitants of that city wasted no time turning from their wicked ways and as the story goes at least in this point in time, they were spared. This is what God would like to happen every time He sends someone forth with His message.
Now on an interesting side note to this story, I had an opportunity to do an in depth study of the book of Jonah and I came up with some interesting possibilities. For those that need scientific proof, I found several accounts where sailors in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s were swallowed whole by whales and survived, though some in not so great a state of mind at their rescue. The results of Jonah being in the belly of this fish for three days would be that his hair, skin, and clothes would have been bleached white by the stomach acids. Can you imagine the sight that this would have been and can you imagine how much more impact this must have had. A white as a ghost man raving at those around for the need to repent or else their city would be destroyed in forty days.
POINT 2: The Implementation
We read on in Peter’s letter in the second half of verse 11 and11b the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven--things into which angels long to look.
The Holy Spirit had filled the prophets just as the Holy Spirit can anoint each and everyone of us as we go forward with the plans that God has given us in the form of some type of vision, or to use the correct terminology through a divine revelation. We read that “things were announced to us by those that are Spirit filled”. Those things were that which pertains to our eternal salvation. Someone had a vision of spreading the Good News and we find ourselves as the end product or at least the product in the making.
We now must seek and find out what we are to do in order that the Good News is spread to others. In order for the teachings of Christ to continue on to whatever generations may remain, we must pass on what we know. In this process we need to follow what this Scripture tells us that we must do. We find ourselves as servants to others and not ourselves. That means the things of this world are not going to be our reward. We say yes to God’s will to spread the gospel and we have proclaimed a resounding NO to the things of this world. I’ve heard it said by some that you can tell the success of a pastor’s ministry by the car that he drives. I know what they mean by that and I would like to take that in a different direction. I consider the ministry that God has sent me on as very successful because I am satisfied with the vehicle that He has supplied for me and it bothers me not that some others drive fancy cars.
We read again, preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven--things into which angels long to look. As we have the torch passed on to us we need to consider this very seriously. There is no need for triviality in delivering a message. There needs to an excitement and anticipation as we deliver the words that God has laid upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit. This is what we have been given care of. This is the greatest responsibility that we could ever be given.
POINT 3: The Fruition
Now we reach the stage that we all like to see, the point where the vision becomes a reality. We read on in verse 13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. In many respects the magnitude of the task at hand is lost in this translation. Let’s look at this verse once again in the King James, we read in verse 13, Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; I like the phrase gird up your loins, because it gives us a very visual picture of what is going on when we understand the phrase in the context in which it is given. In the East the men wore long flowing robes which made any kind of quick movement next to impossible. If they were to give chase or need to make a hasty retreat they would pull their robes up through a belt or girdle and this would give them the freedom of movement that they required to execute their next move.
Now why would this kind of action be attributed to a stage where our vision becomes a reality? We find out that for our salvation to work we must continue to work at it. The phrase gird up your loins is the equivalent today of our saying that now we must roll up our sleeves. We have things rolling in the direction that we want and now its time to take off the jacket and maintain what we have. This is something that all need to do, so we find the executives in the same boat. It is time to loosen the tie and take off the coat, because it doesn’t matter how long you have been in that right relationship with Christ, if you don’t work at it you will lose it. We read in Paul’s letter to the Philippians 2:12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; We see our vision go from the stage of infancy to the planning and perspiration stage and finally the last piece falls into place and now comes the duty of maintaining that vision. We roll up the sleeves of our minds or gird up the loins of your minds, for whatever obstacles lie ahead. Peter then continues on and tells us, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Now there are the obvious definitions of being sober and there are some others as well, it means of course that we are to refrain from drunkenness literally but it can also mean there must be a steadiness of mind. This includes not only minds that are muddled through intoxication due to things we take in but also of intoxicating thoughts. What kind of things do we allow in our lives that muddle our minds? I think an easier way of looking at this is to look at what we can allow into our minds without muddling them. I have a favorite section of Scripture found in Paul’s first letter to the church in Thessalonica, [1 Th. 5:16-22] 16 Rejoice always; 17 pray without ceasing; 18 in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 19 Do not quench the Spirit; 20 do not despise prophetic utterances. 21 But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; 22 abstain from every form of evil. I like the phrase pray without ceasing, this is what we need to do to keep our minds from being muddled. In all things we must focus on God.
Our clearness of mind is what is of the greatest importance. We read in the first chapter of James about the effects of doubt on our focus, 6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. This brings us to the next point, fix your hope completely. We hear so often from many of our educators today that the reason many of our children have difficulties because of their inability to stay on task. In our effort to keep our children entertained we have taken away their ability to focus. This is equally true of our spiritual lives as well many times. We need to stay on task and look in a focused manner the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Is that your focus today?
Conclusion:
I’d like to share a story of when I was a kid. I had this friend of mine named Roy and we were always doing something that I would consider as being creative, these ideas all started out as visions. We built a robot out of a record-player one time to serve as a guard for his fathers garage. In essence, this robot was attached to the garage door by the means of a wire and the robot was plugged into an outlet of the garage. What we had basically done was to electrify the steel door of the garage. It actually worked because after we activated the robot, I realized that I had left my comic books, which were a source of many of our inventions, in the garage. I found out that the door was indeed electrified and our invention worked. It worked too well because not only would burglars be kept out but everyone else as well.
The one project that came to mind was the time where decided that we were going to build an airplane. As kids we were going beyond the standard transportation of the day, the automobile, we wanted to fly. So we had this vision of constructing an airplane out of the wealth of raw materials that my friends dad had in his garage. We had of course the little red wagon as the chassis, some sheets of plywood and 2X4’s which we later were told was to be paneling for his fathers remodeling project in his basement, and an old model A Ford engine. The vision was set as we surveyed the raw materials and began to plan how we were going to proceed. We had passed the mere vision stage and were now ready to begin implementing our building plans.
We cut and we drilled and we fastened the 2X4’s to the wagon and cut-up the paneling for the skin. By the time we fastened the wings we realized that his father would not be able to get his car into the garage when he returned home. Since his father traveled, we had a couple of days to finish our project. We were getting close to completion and realized that before we mounted the engine we would have to transport the plane to the airport. It was obviously to wide to take down the road being towed by a car so we decided that since this was Friday, we would surprise his dad by having the plane already to go, loaded on top of his Thunderbird convertible.
Now in our eyes we had implemented our vision and were ready to reap the fruits of our labor. Well we did reap fruits from all of this because his dad wasn’t nearly as impressed as we thought he would be. Luckily, my friends dad arrived home earlier than expected, before we dragged the plane up the 2X6 ramps that were on top of the cars trunk. I know my friend got his seat warmed nicely on the spot and I was not so nicely told to go home where I received the same punishment by my father when he arrived home from work later that evening. Now of course this isn’t the kind of progression that we hope to achieve when fulfilling the visions that God gives us, however, the steps should at least stand out.
Do you realize the Vision that God has in mind for you? As we go about all that we do, let us look at what God reveals in His many wonderful ways and then prayerfully ask Him for His guidance as we take that vision to the next level.
Just how far are we willing to take things as we begin the Implementation of the visions that God has given us? Are we able to maintain that clearness of mind as we seek to fulfill His will? So many times we see that there are worldly consequences that are less than desirable, we must pray for steadfastness of resolve and the resilience needed to weather the opposition.
Are we willing to see things to their Fruition? Are we ready willing and able to pull our robes up through our belts and run with God’s plan now in place? Let us all roll up our sleeves, loosen our ties, and take off our jackets and live God’s plan. LET US PRAY!
