Called to Holiness #5

WHAT MAKES HOLY PEOPLE DIFFERENT?

We have talked a great deal about holiness these past few weeks. Holiness is that peculiarity about Christians -- that quality and behavior that makes us stand out from the rest of society.

            The Apostle Peter has written that holiness is single-minded devotion to the Lord; that it is required of Christians because God himself is holy; and that it is a God-conscious fear (love and respect) reflecting the precious blood of Christ. But if that were all holiness was then we would be a very strict, joyless, and rules-oriented people. Holiness is more than living correctly.

            What is it that truly makes holy people different from those who do not acknowledge Christ as Lord?

            On the night before Jesus was crucified, he held a dinner for his closest companions. Peter, the writer of the letter we are studying, was there. And it was Peter who objected the strongest to the strange act that Jesus performed – Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. But Jesus told him, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me,” (Jn 13:8).

            We could call this act the template for Christian service. We could call it a model for humility that all believers should emulate. What Jesus called it was “love.” Jesus was showing his disciples that he loved them and would do anything for them because of that love.

            Jesus then explained his actions as an example for them. He said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another,” (John 13:34-35).

            Peter heard these words and had a lot of time to practice them before writing this letter. I believe these words of Jesus reverberate in 1 Peter 1:22-25. As Peter wrote about holiness he knew that the crown of holiness is love. Holiness must work itself out in love for fellow Christians.

1. True Holiness produces Christian love

The command is simple: “Love one another.” The example is perfection himself: “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” Carrying out the command and living up to the example are much more demanding.

            When is it hardest to love others? When things aren’t going so well. Christians in Peter’s day were suffering for their faith economically and socially. They were persecuted for being followers of Christ. Suffering turns small irritations into conflict between those who normally love each other. Our problems and burdens have a way of dampening the flame of love for others. Self-care takes over and we put our efforts into solving our own problems. When the problems are all solved then we can care for everyone else.

            Peter recognized this tension and reminded them of Jesus’ command in his own words. He wrote, “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart,” (22). This is no light suggestion but a holy command.

a) Christian love comes from obedience – Love is not a feeling; love is a decision. Feelings are fickle and depend on circumstantial factors – how good we feel; how the other person makes me feel; timing, etc. No, love is a decision based on the highest character of God.

            Peter wrote that we have purified ourselves by obeying the truth. The truth is that God loved us so much he sent his Son to die for us so that we would not have to cease to exist, but live with God forever. That love was not meant to be hoarded or dammed up, but allowed to flow like a river to us and through us. (like a carbonated beverage)

            The high importance of Christian love is strongly repeated in the NT. Paul commands it in Romans, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love,” (12:10). And Peter repeats himself in this letter, “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins,” (4:8). Frankly, we would not have a NT if not for the deep love the apostles had for the church.

            But note this; both Paul and Peter limit this love to the church, just as Jesus did. They call it “brotherly love.” For the sake of gender inclusion (women and men), I have called it Christian love. And Christian love is first and foremost for the family of believers, not for the world. Not that we shouldn’t love the atheist, Muslim or the rest, but the prime target of our love is sister or brother in the Lord. We have to love each other in the church, or love falls apart in the eyes of others.

b) Christian love is sincere – Therefore, Christian love must be sincere. Peter’s word “sincere” means “without hypocrisy.” Love does not wear a mask. If you have ever worn a mask you know the amazing transformation that takes place. You can hide your feelings. You can be someone else and act a part because no one knows you really are under that mask.

            Peter said, “Don’t fake it,” be real in your love for others in your church. If love is a decision, you will act towards others in a way that benefits them, even if you don’t feel tender towards that person. That sounds like hypocrisy. It doesn’t have to be, not if you confess it to the Lord and to a friend, even to the person you are trying to love. I have heard time and time again how deciding to love has kindled a loving feeling towards those who have previously been antagonists.

c) Christian love is fervent – Christian love is “fervent” or deep. Fervent love lasts and lasts and lasts. Outside of the NT the word is used for galloping horses. In Acts 12:5 it describes the manner in which the church prayed for Peter when he was in prison. Fervent love implies effort and emotion.

            While love begins as a decision there is a heart-felt aspect to love that involves feelings. Love requires effort and the effort invokes passion; passion is based on our hope. The power to love comes through hoping in God. If we are not a hope-filled people, we will not be a loving people. So the hope we have in Christ to transform our lives compels us to love the brother or sister in the Lord, no matter where they are in their faith journey.

            While Christian love is unique to the family of faith, that does not mean it cannot be seen in others who are not of Christ. I believe the world has learned Christian love from the church and genuinely copies it, even if they don’t acknowledge its source. I read in the Free Press this week the story of the individuals who ran to help the honor guard (Cpl. Cirrillo) who was shot in Ottawa. They rushed to his side to tend his wound, speak words of love and encouragement to him, and try to save his life. (One woman, a former Navy medic, heard the shots and, rather than run away, ran towards the sound of gunfire. She heroically used her skills to try and save him). He died. But the love they showed to this man they didn’t know was deep.

            Christian love is rooted in the love of Jesus and is sincere and fervent. When there is trouble in this church family, we should be the first ones to run to the trouble.

2. Christian love is the mark of your new nature

The reason behind the command to love one another is the reality of our new nature in Christ. Jesus said, “All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.” Love is the mark of the new nature and everyone will know there is something different about us if we love each other. Peter says three things about this reality:

a) When you love you demonstrate the new birth – Peter connects “love one another deeply” to his reason for loving with “For you have been born again…” (23a).

            To be “born again” is to know and understand love in a radically different way than Hollywood portrays love. Almost beyond rescue, the word “love” today is largely perceived as “how you make me feel.” And we think this way in the church sometimes too. People often say “they don’t feel loved in the church,” when what they really mean is they were not “loved” the way they thought they should be loved. Sometimes it’s a failure to read someone’s mind – a very difficult task.

            Salvation is living in the way of love. That does not mean a warm, fuzzy feeling nor friendships around a coffeepot after worship (though love is present there). Love refers to righteous relationships with each other based on God’s character, which Christian behavior reflects. God’s love disciplines the sinning believer; God’s love corrects; God’s love goes the extra mile; God’s love serves; God’s love sacrifices; God’s love is wise and wisdom in action.

            When we love like God loves we show that we have been born again. And we might not get applause for that.

b) When you love you show where you come from – Peter emphasizes the new birth by referring to our new genetic code. He wrote that we are born again “not of perishable seed, but of imperishable,” (23b). When you are born of someone’s seed you take on the character of that person’s seed. It constitutes your nature. You have the DNA of that person. The seed that created us to be born again was the Word of God that is imperishable, living, abiding and eternal. That is who we are. We are a forever people.

            With eternity born in our hearts we have a different perspective on the world around us. Disappointment and failures, suffering and rejection are all seen differently by Christians. People without hope find these things to be the end of their world. We see them as temporary. Having an eternal hope frees us from dwelling on temporary pain and disappointment so that we can look beyond the pain that is caused by others to love them in view of eternity.

c) When you love you proclaim the eternal Word – The inclusion of this final word from Isaiah appears out of place in our subject of love. What Peter suggests by including “All people are like grass…but the word of the Lord endures forever,” is that while trials and suffering tempt us to turn away from God, is that God is faithful to his promises. God’s promises are forever. He has promised to deliver us from this present struggle with the return of Christ. As we believe in this hope, we reveal that we are God’s people. And just as God’s promises are eternal, we are eternal people. If we live like eternal people we are free to love. And through our love we proclaim the eternal Word of God.

            It really is a matter of perspective. How do we look at life? How do we view our world? We can endure a lot of garbage for Christ’s sake and glory if we grasp the truth of what Peter has been saying about holiness and love.

 In Ernest Gordon’s true account of life in a World War II Japanese prison camp, Through the Valley of the Kwai, there is a story that exemplifies holy love. It is about a man who through giving it all away literally transformed a whole camp of soldiers. The man’s name was Angus McGillivray. Angus was a Scottish prisoner in one of the camps filled with Americans, Australians, and Britons who had helped build the infamous Bridge over the River Kwai. The camp had become an ugly situation. A dog-eat-dog mentality had set in. Allies would literally steal from each other and cheat each other; men would sleep on their packs and yet have them stolen from under their heads. Survival was everything. The law of the jungle prevailed...until the news of Angus McGillivray’s death spread throughout the camp. Rumors spread in the wake of his death. No one could believe big Angus had succumbed. He was strong, one of those whom they had expected to be the last to die. Actually, it wasn’t the fact of his death that shocked the men, but the reason he died. Finally they pieced together the true story.

The Argylls (Scottish soldiers) took their buddy system very seriously. Their buddy was called their “mucker,” and these Argylls believed that is was literally up to each of them to make sure their “mucker” survived. Angus’s mucker, though, was dying, and everyone had given up on him, everyone, of course, but Angus. He had made up his mind that his friend would not die. Someone had stolen his mucker’s blanket. So Angus gave him his own, telling his mucker that he had “just come across an extra one.” Likewise, every mealtime, Angus would get his rations and take them to his friend, stand over him and force him to eat them, again stating that he was able to get “extra food.” Angus was going to do anything and everything to see that his buddy got what he needed to recover.

But as Angus’s mucker began to recover, Angus collapsed, slumped over, and died. The doctors discovered that he had died of starvation complicated by exhaustion. He had been giving of his own food and shelter. He had given everything he had -- even his very life. The ramifications of his acts of love and unselfishness had a startling impact on the compound.

            “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12).

As word circulated of the reason for Angus McGillivray’s death, the feel of the camp began to change. Suddenly, men began to focus on their mates, their friends, and humanity of living beyond survival, of giving oneself away. They began to pool their talents -- one was a violin maker, another an orchestra leader, another a cabinet maker, another a professor. Soon the camp had an orchestra full of homemade instruments and a church called the “Church Without Walls” that was so powerful, so compelling, that even the Japanese guards attended. The men began a university, a hospital, and a library system. The place was transformed; an all but smothered love revived, all because one man named Angus gave all he had for his friend. For many of those men this turnaround meant survival. What happened is an awesome illustration of the potential unleashed when one person actually gives it all away. (Tim Hansel, Holy Sweat, 1987, Word Books Publisher, pp. 146-147.)

            Christ gave it all away. Holy love compelled him to die for us. The badge he wanted his followers to display to show that they belonged to Jesus was love for one another. How much do we need to love each other in KEMC? How much is enough? Peter said, “Love one another deeply, from the heart.” That’s a lot of love.

                                                            AMEN

Called to Holiness #4

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE HOLY?

What does it mean to be holy?

            The light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection. The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in frustration, as she missed her chance to get through the intersection, dropping her cell phone and makeup.

            As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a holding cell.

            After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects. He said, “I’m very sorry for the mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the “What would Jesus do?” bumper sticker, the “Choose life” license plate holder, the “Follow me to Sunday School” sticker, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk, so naturally – I assumed you had stolen the car.”

            We all have perceptions of holiness. Some view holiness as being serious all of the time; some see it as never laughing or making jokes. You may see this person as stewed in vinegar and so pious he is always talking about religious things. Then we see this person lose it like the lady in the story and decide that if this is what holy means, we want nothing of it. Holiness, we think, is beyond our reach.

            What does it mean to be holy? Holiness is not being so heavenly-minded we are of no earthly good. Holiness is the pursuit of godly character. Holiness is being like God.

            Peter wrote to a people who were already sticking out like a sore thumb and challenged them to be more conspicuous yet. In view of their salvation through Christ, Peter called them to live a life of response to God’s grace. That life is called “holy.” What does this mean?

1. Holiness begins in the mind

If we think that holiness is dull, we don’t really know what it means. People seeking to be holy are people that draw us in with their love and their natural godliness. They have a contagious joy about them.

            The OT refers to holiness as “beautiful” (1 Chron 16:29). There is something beautiful about a holy person because “holiness” means “wholeness.” This is a real person. This person is single-minded, has his or her eye on the goal, is so focused on the person they are following, so keyed in to that person that anything that does not relate to that person doesn’t interest them.

            This is what Peter describes in v. 13. He says that holiness begins in the mind. It is a conscious decision to prioritize one’s life into primary, secondary and tertiary categories, with all things Jesus being primary. Peter describes this dedication in three parts:

a) Get ready to run – Reflecting on the salvation described in the previous verses, Peter writes, “Therefore, prepare your minds for action…” (13a). Literally, he says, “gird up the loins of your mind.” But what does that mean? To us? Not much.
But to OT and NT men who wore long flowing robes with a belt around the waist, it meant to pull up your loose ends and tuck them in your belt. This made it easy to run fast or move around. We might say “roll up your sleeves” and get to work.

            The mind easily wanders. If we let it, the mind can go places it should not. Spiritual trouble always begins with a lazy mind, a mind that is used to getting its way. If you want to be holy, you need to control your mind. Be on guard; get ready to run; be alert to the mind that wants to think negative thoughts, that allows doubt to seep in; that is prone to believe the lies of Satan.

b) Sober up – Then Peter calls for sobriety. Some translations call this “self-control.” The Greek term, however, means to be “wine-less.” There is no questioning or justifying this meaning. Peter means that Christians need to be free from the clouding influence of alcohol or other stimulants. Alcohol can drag us away from God by clouding our spiritual and moral judgment, causing us to lower our standards and compromise our values. This can be applied more broadly to the many influences of our culture – anything that consumes our time and attention (i.e. gambling).

c) Aim for the prize – Finally, Peter says, “…set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming,” (13c). Sometimes the slightest distraction can be disastrous. When I was eleven and twelve I attended a Junior Sportsmen’s Rifle Club. I like it better than CSB because I was better with a rifle than a hockey stick. I was quite a good shot. There were six lanes where we lay in a prone position. I took the last lane for less distraction. But one time I aimed through my peep sight, held my breath and squeezed. I didn’t realize till we retrieved our targets that I only had nine shots on my target. Then the instructor looked at my neighbor’s target and found eleven. I had shot perfectly…at the wrong target.

            The same thing can happen to us spiritually. We can be very religious in our weekly rituals and think ourselves disciplined in all things Christian. But we can focus on the “works” going about our day without a single thought that Jesus might come today. How that would change our day. And why not live everyday in that mindset? We would be a lot more careful how we live in this world.

            Get ready to run; sober up; remember the goal. Prepare your mind for single-minded devotion to Christ.

2. Holiness becomes a lifestyle

Holiness begins with a mental decision to be different in one’s thinking. As we begin to think holy thoughts and to order our minds on what is holy as opposed to what is profane, our lifestyle follows suit. It’s still a decision, however, how you will live.

            Peter said, “…do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance,” (14). Remember the way you used to live when you were without Christ in your life? Don’t go back to that, he says. (think Romans 12:2) Don’t slip back into your old way of life. When you “got saved” your life felt different, you gave up habits and declared some things to be Unchristian. Over time we began to think, “Was it really so bad?” and we compromise our values a little bit, and then a little bit more. We pretend that we are enlightened in our spirituality. We are really playing with fire.

            We need to watch how we live for the sake of holiness. When we adopt the habits, speech, dress and traits of the unholy, we are covering up our identity as God’s children. We are masquerading in the costume of the world. Our outer life needs to match the inner life that Christ has changed.

            Be holy. “…just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy,’” (15-16). Now there is a standard by which we can measure holiness. Peter quotes the OT, Leviticus 11:44-45. God called his people, Israel, to be different, to be set apart, to be unique in the world. God himself was and is unique: there is no god like him in his grace and love and righteousness. Peter takes this OT mandate and makes it a Christian standard. We too are to be different in how we live in this world. This is not a set of rules; being holy is about God – it’s about being like God. It’s about having a God-consciousness every day. God when I wake up. God in the shower. God at breakfast. God on the way to work. God in every thought. God in every deed. God in my private moments. God with my friends. God when I am happy. God when I am sad. God in the good times. God in the bad times. God in my faith. God in my doubts. God when I succeed. God in my failures. God above me. God below me. God before me. God behind me. God around me. God with me. God while watching TV or surfing the internet. You get the idea.[i]

            This is true holiness. This is our purpose as believers. And without God, I have no meaning, no purpose, and no reason for being here. Be holy, God says, because I am holy.

3. Holiness behaves with reverent fear

Holiness is a lifestyle, and an essential ingredient of this lifestyle is a healthy fear of the Lord. “Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as strangers here in reverent fear,” (17).

            We come to a place in the Christian story where God’s love is emphasized over and above his justice. Many want a God who is approachable and accepting. They don’t want to feel that God is like some angry grandfather with a penetrating gaze that undresses you. Fear itself carries a connotation of irrational phobia. That is not what reverent fear is.

            Reverent fear of God is described abundantly in the book of Proverbs. “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom…” (1:7); “To fear the LORD is to hate evil…” (8:13); “The fear of the LORD is the fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death,” (14:27). This kind of fear has a positive result: we want to do well for fear of disappointing our employers, our benefactors, our coaches or our teachers. This is especially so when they believe in us and encourage us and place some charge in our hands. We could call this “loving respect.”

            There is a fear-factor in holiness that is meant to be scary as well. In Isaiah 6, the prophet had a vision of the LORD in his throne-room and angels singing “holy, holy, holy.” They weren’t singing “love, love, love,” by the way. And when Isaiah saw the LORD and the holiness that is God he felt that he would die because of his sin. Sinfulness should make us afraid in the presence of God. We should want to be rid of it as fast as possible. The angels before God came and touched Isaiah’s lips with a coal as a symbol of forgiveness and cleansing. Isaiah could do nothing to remove his sin and he was afraid. The same is true of our sin – we can do nothing about it and we should be afraid. Our sin must be dealt with in the holy blood of Jesus. That should make us tremble.

            Now God who judges each person and their work, he is the God we live and play and work and love before. We are ever in his presence so that we work out our salvation in fear and trembling.

4. Holiness honors the cost of redemption

You and I were slaves to our sins. Redemption is a word that applies to slavery in ways we have no way of understanding in a first-person experiential way. Yet the fact remains: we were slaves to sin and wickedness. Redemption is the word that is used when a slave is purchased and then set free.

            So Peter counts this cost as precious. He wrote, “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 your from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect,” (18-19). For this transaction, money is worthless. Money is unstable. One week I bought a block of New Bothwell cheese for ten dollars; the next week it was fifteen. But here is a currency that never loses its value – the blood of Jesus.

            Joseph Parker, a 19th century London pastor, wrote (in Preaching Through the Bible [Baker], “The Precious Blood of Christ” [1 Pet. 1:19], p. 294), “Where there is no conviction of sin--conviction amounting to the very anguish of the lost in hell-- there can be no felt need of so extreme a remedy as is offered by the outpouring of the blood of Christ.” He goes on to point out that when a man feels that he has not sinned deeply, he is in no mood to receive what he considers the tragic appeals of the gospel. But, when he feels that he has sinned and is deserving of hell--lost, damned-- then his need can be met by nothing other than the “the sacrificial ... personal ... precious blood of Christ.” It took nothing less than that precious blood to redeem us from bondage.

            The blood changes everything.

            Some time ago a boy fell in love with golf. His parents gave him a club and a harmless whiffle-type golf ball which he could hit around the back yard. But one day, thinking his parents weren’t home, he was overcome with the temptation to feel the click of a real golf ball against the club. He teed up and gave it a hard whack. But the ball was not hit properly. It hooked from its intended flight and went directly through one of the windows on the house with a loud crash. Even worse, the crash was followed by a piercing scream.

The boy ran for the house, burst into the living room and, to his horror, saw his mother standing in front of the broken window with blood streaming down her face. He cried out, “Mother, I could have killed you!” His mother hugged him and said reassuringly, “It’s all right. I’m okay!”

The boy, later a seminary student said, “When I saw my mother bleeding, there were some things I could never do again in the back yard. I could never so much as carry a golf club across the lawn of our back yard. The sight of her standing there with blood flowing down--blood that I had caused--changed my behavior forever.”

            The blood of Jesus changes everything – how we think, how we live, how we view God and how we worship.

Hebrews 12:14 says, “…without holiness no one will see the Lord.” We are called to be holy because God is holy. He is our Father and he wants us to be like him.

            What is distracting you from holiness today?

            There are some people you ought not to be friends with.

There are some books you ought not to read.

There are some TV shows you shouldn’t watch.

There are some places you shouldn’t go.

There are some movies you shouldn’t watch.

There are some Internet sites you shouldn’t visit.

There are some people you shouldn’t date.

There are some relationships that are no good for you.

There are some jobs you shouldn’t have.

There are some habits you need to break.

There are some songs you shouldn’t listen to.[ii]

            To tell you which ones these are is to promote legalism. I can’t tell you what friends to avoid or programs to turn off. Holiness is about your relationship with God. And you know the truth about the things that disrupt your holy life because the Holy Spirit is living in you. Listen to him. And be holy because God is holy.

                                                            AMEN

---

[i] Ray Pritchard, Get your mind in gear, sermon, 2004

[ii] Pritchard

Called to Holiness #3

WHAT HOLY PEOPLE ARE THANKFUL FOR

Happy Thanksgiving! What are you thankful for today?

            Thanksgiving is an interesting holiday. Its origins are found in the intentions of pious and godly people who wanted to give thanks to God for the physical blessings they had experienced. The governments of the U.S. and Canada have made it a national holiday to give thanks, to be grateful for our life in these good countries.

            Good intentions can be misinterpreted however. Many people are inclined to say, “I’m thankful for…” and rattle off a list of benefits they have experienced. But thankful to who? They don’t say. It is not fashionable in today’s society to be thankful to God, so we’re just thankful. Thus the things we are thankful for can be quite trivial or even temporary.

            I received an email this week that proclaimed “One more reason to give thanks this holiday.” Do you know what it was? Knives! Safeway wants to make my holiday a cut above the rest…with knives. So this afternoon when we sit around the turkey and fixings, I am going to thank God for knives. If it weren’t for a sharp knife I would have to pull turkey with my fingers. Thank you, God.

            What are holy people, that is, people who are chosen out of the world to be God’s people, thankful for? Remember, we are a peculiar people who don’t fit into the societal mold, so we are strange folk. What do strange folk, who know that God is the giver of all good gifts, thank God for?

            1 Peter 1:10-12 isn’t really a thanksgiving-based passage. And yet, Peter does begin this piece by saying, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…” Praise and thanks go naturally together. What do holy people thank God for? Peter wants his readers to give thanks to God for the eternal plan of salvation through Jesus Christ conceived of long before the world began and now revealed to we privileged few.

            I have broken this thanksgiving down into four parts.

1. We thank God for Salvation

“Concerning this salvation…” In the preceding verses, Peter briefly described this salvation. He noted that God the Father is the instigator and Jesus the agent of our new birth into a living hope. Through Christ’s death and resurrection we receive the inheritance of eternal life. This is the salvation to which Peter refers.

            But “salvation” has become a word that few outside the church can grasp. It is “Christianese,” a foreign language to the unsaved or the unbeliever. The word “salvation” implies being “saved” from something. What are we saved from?

            Fortunately, Peter’s letter is all about this salvation. He wrote to these suffering believers to encourage them that salvation was worth the pain. Peter not only reminded them what they were saved from but what they were saved for as well. Note first what we are saved from:

·         We are saved from our sins (2:24). Sin is a disease from which we need healing. Christ died to save us from the death sin brings.

·         We are saved from separation from God (3:18).Sin separates us from God; Christ’s work on the cross reconciles us to God opening the way for relationship.

·         We are saved from judgment (4:17). God is judging the sinner right now and will judge him or her on the Final Day. We are saved from that final judgment.

·         We are saved from the devil (5:8). Satan is looking to devour anyone who does not belong to Jesus. Followers of Jesus can imitate Christ and are protected through self-control.

Note also that we are not simply saved from these terrible consequences of the sinful nature; we are saved for a purpose. Being saved from sin only is like having someone pay for your university education only to end up busking on Portage Avenue. When we say “God has a plan for your life” it is more than wishful thinking (who you will marry, etc.). Peter outlines this plan by telling his readers what they were saved for:

·         We are saved for the Shepherd (2:25). He loves us and wants to bring us home. Someone said the world can be like a hotel or a prison. If the happiness of this life is all you have, the world can seem quite limited and confining. If we hope in our eternal home, the world is like a hotel: it’s a nice place to visit, but we know we don’t live here permanently.

·         We are saved for our inheritance (5:4). I confess that I don’t know what the inheritance will be like, only that it will be good, far beyond my imagining.

·         We are saved for sharing in Christ’s glory (5:10). This glory will be revitalizing. When we receive this glory you will think you haven’t lived till that point.

·         We are saved for everlasting joy (4:13). If we can know joy in the midst of suffering, think of the joy we will experience when Christ comes again. We will have been practiced and conditioned to recognize joy. Our purpose is to find joy now in Christ.

This is the essence of our salvation. It is full and overflowing with meaning. Are you thankful for this salvation?

2. We thank God for the Prophets

Peter moves on to talk about how we came to know this salvation beginning with the prophets of old. He wrote, “Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow,” (10-11).

            When Peter speaks of the prophets he refers to the OT. This summer we were in a sermon series to discover Christ in the OT. Aside from the obvious passages we tore into some difficult references where Jesus was not so obvious. When we tackled those difficult passages I was amazed to find him there and all over the OT.

            Something we should be aware of when it comes to the prophet’s job in the OT is that they preached sermons to their own people. They weren’t necessarily predicting future events. Prophets were there to correct and rebuke the people of Israel and get them to turn back to God. If they did not repent, the prophets told them, God would visit a judgment on them in the future.

            What the prophets were only vaguely aware of was that couched in their words to the people in front of them were words with a deeper meaning. Take Isaiah: he spoke of a virgin being with child. He must have paused and thought, “What did I just say?” God told him to say it, but he must have wondered about the implications. Was it a metaphor? Isaiah also spoke of the Lord’s Servant suffering. That was perplexing. What could it mean in real terms?

            So three aspects of their work stand out in Peter’s summary of prophecy:

·         They predicted Christ’s coming. They knew that Messiah was coming, a David-like king who would restore the kingdom.

·         They did not understand the prophecy but pursued its meaning. They searched “intently” for what these prophecies meant. These prophets ached to see it happen but could not grasp how it would come about.

·         They faithfully described Christ’s sufferings. Charles Spurgeon noted that even the devil did not understand prophecy, and especially the sufferings of Christ. If he had he would never have stirred up the rabble to have Jesus crucified. Even though it must have seemed odd to the prophets to say what they said, they preached that the Messiah would suffer. Psalm 22 speaks in detail of how Christ would die. Isaiah 53 tells of his suffering and agony and his purpose in it all.

The prophets did not understand what they said but they laid a foundation for those who would. What this implies is key for us today: Jesus was not God’s last hope. Jesus was God’s hope for humankind from the beginning. That is why the OT is full of Jesus if you look for him.

            We know that Jesus told parables and by them confused his hearers. He knew some would get it and some would not. After one parable he told his disciples, “…blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it,” (Matt 13:16-17).

            We know what we know of salvation because of the prophets. But we would not know if not for the Apostles.

3. We thank God for the Apostles

It was the apostles, those men who followed Jesus while he was here on earth, who continued the thread of salvation from the OT to the NT. They could not have done this except by the Holy Spirit.

            Notice that in verse 11 that it was the Spirit of Christ who pointed the prophets to the time and circumstances of Christ’s sufferings. Calling him the “Spirit of Christ” is a way of saying that the Holy Spirit’s purpose is to highlight Jesus. It is this same Spirit who enabled the apostles to preach about Jesus from the OT. “…they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit from heaven,” Peter wrote (12a, b).

            The reason that the prophets could not see how and when Christ would come is because they started from an OT perspective. That is, they could not see the Scriptures in the light of the cross. We, on the other hand, have the words of the apostles, the NT (and please check this out: the letter of Peter is filled with OT references). So we read the OT from a NT perspective. We live on this side of the cross and have a better grasp of salvation because of it.

            The Bible, the OT and the NT, was written by 40 different men over 1600 years. Yet its unity of thought is amazing. No book contradicts another but in fact tie together. It is a progressive revelation of God’s plan of salvation with each part building on what was spoken before. No other collection of human writings can claim this amazing thread of unity of thought and cohesiveness.

            We thank God for the prophets and the apostles for their faithfulness in communicating God’s thoughts and plans. For this reason we know what it means to need and receive salvation from the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

4. We thank God for curious Angels

Peter concludes with a strange declaration: “Even angels long to look into these things,” (12c). The phrase “to look into” is used in one other place – John 20:3-5. Peter and John run to the tomb of Jesus having been told it was empty. John outruns Peter and yet stops outside the entrance, stoops, and peers into the empty room. John studied the bare resting place, the cold and silent walls, pondering what took place.

            In the same way, the angels are stooping and peering into this strange world and studying the goings on. That they long to look into these things does not suggest that they want to but cannot. It means that they want to but are outsiders to the drama of sin and redemption. Angels do not sin and therefore cannot experience the salvation we have come to know. But they love to watch the great work of God’s salvation unfold in our lives and in the history of the world. As Jesus said, these beings cheer and celebrate when one of us repents from sin and confesses that Jesus is Lord (Lk 15:10).

            For this reason they stoop and peer into our world, into our very lives, to study the things of God. These angels are curious to know why their King would leave heaven’s throne and condescend to our existence. They are fascinated by the incarnation prophesied in Scripture; they are intrigued by the hand of God in world events; they were horrified at the death of Jesus their King; they exulted in his resurrection.

            Brothers and sisters, if the angels long to look into these things to know them as we do, shouldn’t we have the same appreciation, the same desire, and the same passion to study the Bible? Thank God for curious angels who by their curiosity imply that there is more to discover in God’s Word.

            Shortly after Vietnam fell to the Communists in the 1970s, Hien Pham was imprisoned for allegedly helping the Americans during the war. His jailers tried to indoctrinate him against democratic ideals and the Christian faith. He was restricted to communist propaganda in French or Vietnamese, and the daily deluge of Marx and Engels began to take its toll. ‘Maybe,’ he thought, ‘I have been lied to. Maybe God does not exist. Maybe the West has deceived me.’ So Hien determined that when he awakened the next day, he would not pray anymore or think of his faith.

            The next morning, he was assigned the dreaded chore of cleaning the prison latrines. As he cleaned out a tin can overflowing with toilet paper, his eye caught what seemed to be English printed on one piece of paper. He hurriedly grabbed it, washed it, and after his roommates had retired that night, he retrieved the paper and read the words, ‘Romans, Chapter 8.’ Trembling, he began to read, ‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him. . . for I am convinced that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ Hien wept. He knew His Bible, and knew that there was not a more relevant passage for one on the verge of surrender. He cried out to God, asking forgiveness, for this was to have been the first day that he would not pray. . . . After finding the Scripture, Hien asked the commander if he could clean the latrines regularly, because he discovered that some official was using a Bible as toilet paper. Each day Hien picked up a portion of Scripture, cleaned it off, and added it to his collection of nightly reading. . . . What his tormentors were using for refuse — the Scriptures — could not be more treasured to Hien.

            We thank God for salvation; we thank God for the prophets (OT); we thank God for the apostles (NT); and we thank God for the angels. I thank God on this Thanksgiving Day weekend and every day for the Bible. My parents gave me this Bible when I graduated from high school in 1986. I pledged myself to wearing it out and preaching from it for as long as God permits. No other book captures my attention like the Bible. It is the only book that can explain God’s plan of salvation.

            This is what holy people are thankful for…

                                                            AMEN