Tanilba Bay Baptist Church
Worship
  • A New Commandment
  • God So Loved (Live At The Wheelhouse)
  • Jesus Be The Name
  • I Exalt Thee

      • 1 Peter 1:13–25ANGLNIV2011

  • A good deed

    In the 1800’s there was this boy named Edward. He’d had a pretty rough life. His dad had various run-ins with the law. The boy grew up in Victoria and on a summer’s day when he was a teenager he just so happen to see a ten-year old boy fall off his horse and into a swollen river. Edward was brave and despite the strong current in the river, he rescued this 10 year old boy and pulled him to safety. The family were so grateful to Edward for this courageous act, that they presented him with a green sash. This green sash would become one of his most treasured possessions.
    Despite this good deed, Edwards life was tough. He might have got caught up with a bit of mischief, but most often he was fighting against an injustice where he faced discrimination from the officials largely on the basis of his family history.
    He did break the law, but in his heart, Edward was trying to fight for a fairer system.
    While he was still in his 20’s, Edward was caught and hung in the year 1880.
    You all would have heard of this person I talk about, although we don’t know him by the name Edward. Does anyone know who I’m actually talking about? (Ned Kelly).
    I wonder if it surprised you to hear me put such a positive spin on his life.
    Or perhaps you’re family with the debate. You see, it’s often debated, was Ned Kelly a hero or a villain?
    Some people picture him a hero who was fighting against a broken system. A system whereby the lower classes were harassed, while the authorities could use their power for their own benefit.
    Others see him as someone with a disregard for the law, after all, police officers were killed and money was stolen in bank robberies. These are not minor misdemeanors.
    This morning, I’m not going to get into this debate about Ned Kelly - as fun as that might be, but it does raise an interesting question which I do want to explore. That is, what drives us to both do what is right, and determine what is right?
    You see, at first glace, it might seem like a really simple question. Of course we know what is right. If you’re a Christian, you know what is right because God told us. And we do what is right, because again, God has told us to.
    For the non-Christian, they’ll likely leave out the God bit, but their simple answer is almost the same - we know what is right because… well, we just do. And we do what is right, because, well, it’s the right thing to do.
    But, the fact that there is even a debate about whether Ned Kelly was a hero or a villian shows that this is not simple at all. Our own lives tell us that it is not simple.
    I perhaps want to suggest that what we actually do is perhaps less about what may or may not be inherently right, and much more to do with our gut feeling on a situation.
    From what I’ve read about Ned Kelly, he has his own set of principles, and his actions are borne out of a sense of what he believed was the right thing to do.
    I’m not going to justify his actions, but I will say, it does show the importance of getting a good base in which to form our principles.
    I actually think that the apostle Peter is going to agree with us here.
    You see, in today’s passage, we’re essentially going to have Peter to do the right thing, but he’s not going to state it in such simple terms, as in, just do it because God says so.
    Rather, these are going to be instructions based in God and what he has done for us.
    Now for the benefit of those who didn’t hear last weeks sermon, let me give you a recap, because it’s going to be important, particularly as today’s passage starts with a “Therefore”. In other words, in Peter’s mind, what he’s about to say is all as a result of what he has just said.

    Salvation

    Well, the main theme from the first half of chapter 1 was salvation. But as I looked last week, we need to see the bigger picture of what salvation is. Too often we simplify it to the fact that we are sinners and Jesus offered forgiveness. As I discussed last week, that is certainly part of it, but Peter describes it as being given new birth into a living hope and into an inheritance that can never perish spoil or fade. It’s this life changing experience that takes us through the tough times and now fills us with an inexpressible and glorious joy.
    It’s a salvation that comes through faith, and that is all we need to do to earn it - in fact, even saying we earn it by faith isn’t really correct - rather it is accepted through faith.
    Peter is describing this beautiful picture of salvation to believers that are living in an increasingly hostile environment - where people just don’t get what Christianity is, and can really make the life of the believer difficult.

    An ethical response

    Well, I just mentioned that this salvation is from faith alone, and I’m going to maintain that, but what we’re going to see is that because you have this most amazing salvation, we now have a framework in which we should respond.
    Remember, I mentioned that I said we usually act on a gut feel of what we feel is right. It’s this salvation that should be providing that feel we get.
    Well, as we dig a bit deeper into what Peter is going to say in these verses, I’m going to pick out four words that he uses that will help us form the bases for an ethical framework. So these four words are: hope, holy, fear and love.
    So let’s go through them now.

    Hope

    The word hope comes from verse 13. Here is says: “...with minds that are alert and fully siber,m set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming”.
    Now, when we think of hope, we might think of it in terms of the thing that keeps us going when things are pretty tough. We probably don’t think of it in terms of helping us form an ethical framework.
    But let’s think about it. When we have a hope, we usually try to work towards it.
    Actually, let me take Ned Kelly as an example. Now I don’t know if we can know exactly what was going through the mind of Ned Kelly, and I’m not exactly an expert on him, but from what I’ve read, I get the impression that he was battling for something better. He was working towards a better future. He had a hope of what that might be, and his actions were in accordance with that. Now, I’m not justifying his actions - far from it, rather I’m showing when you have a hope, it changes how you behave.
    Our hope is based on an inheritence that cannot spoil or fade. Our hope is based on being with God where there is no more pain or tears. Our hope is for the kingdom of God. Or as Peter describes is, our hope is based on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.
    What we do therefore should be working towards that aim. We establish kingdom values, because our hope is in that kingdom.
    Now, if you want a good list of kingdom values, I recommend you go to the sermon on the mount, and particularly the Beattitudes that you find at the start of Matt 5. Time won’t allow a full exploration of these now, but you’ll find things like meekness, mercy, being a peacemaker, having a hunger and thirst for rightousness.
    These values can be quite counter-cultural, but this is where we start to be directed when we live for the hope that we have.
    Now, it’s interesting to note the descriptor that Peter add before mentioning this hope. He talks about our minds being alert and fully sober.
    You can actually cultivate a good mindset, but it does take discipline.
    Now, when it comes to our hope for the future culmination of our salvation we have, there are two tendencies. One tendency is that our thinking of the future to come is all we can think about, and it starts consuming our mind such that we miss the reality we are in right now. I think the solution to this is a sober mind. That doesn’t just mean no alcohol, rather sober in the sense that we have a clear and orderly mind.
    The other tendency is that we don’t think about the future fulfilment at all and we just drift from one thing to the next. The solution to the is an alert mind.
    Therefore having a mind that is both alert and fully sober, helps us to be in a place where we can truly allow the hope we have to shape how we live.

    Holy

    Okay, so “hope” was the first word I wanted to pull out… the next is the word “holy”.
    This is the idea that we find in verses 14 to 16.
    Now, the concept of holiness can sometimes seem like an unattainable word.
    When I looked up a dictionary definition of the word “holy”, I found: “dedicated or consecrated to God or a religious purpose”.
    Now, when I read that definition, if we apply it to a person it almost seems like something you would say of just a few select people. But Peter talking about it for all believers. We’re all called to be holy.
    Perhaps a better definition actually comes in verse 14 - “do not conform to the evil desires”. As holy people, we are to be set apart… different.
    I know sometimes people say, we’re no different to unbelievers, other than that we are forgiven. That’s true to a degree, in that, even believer sin as well… but we actually are called to be different.
    Okay, so hopefully this gives you a better picture of what it means to be holy (set apart for God), but I’ve been trying to argue in this message that this is not just a Peter telling us to do something just because - rather he is grounding it in a bigger framework.
    And for this concept, he’s grounding it in the character of God.
    You see, because you’ve been saved, you know God.… you are connected with God… you get to be with him.
    If you’re going to be with him, then you want to be like him.
    You know, you actualy see a strange phenomenon in society. You’re probably familiar with the concept of the influencer these days, even if most of you aren’t influenced by these influencers at all. But effectively what happens is that these people are idolized by a certain section of society, to the point that they just want to be like them. They’ll buy what they buy. They’ll wear what they wear. They’ll do what they do.
    You can laugh at them, but we actually all start acting and behaving like those people we idolize. As believers, though, the one we idolize should be God. If he truly is the one we worship, then wanting to be like him should just be something that comes naturally.
    Be holy, becuase God is holy.

    Fear

    The next word I want to pull out is perhaps the one that we might have the most struggle with - it’s the word “fear”.
    Now the word “fear” is usually thought of in negative terms. If you fear someone, that is bad.
    But in verse 17, it actually qualifies the word fear, with “reverent fear”.
    I like that addition to the word because it adds a different dimension. This is not the type of fear you have of someone or something that is intent on harming you.
    Now, I want you to imagine a healthy family structure. Now I recognise that some of you might have strained relationships with your father for whatever reason. If your experience with your earthly father is problematic, try to envisage what a healthy relationship might be like.
    So in this healthy family environment, imagine father that loves you very much and there is no doubt in this. Also imagine that he has clear expectations about what you should do, and that these are well reasoned, even if sometimes your desires are for something else.
    Now imgaine your desires do make you want to do something contrary to your father’s expectation - and for the purposes of this thought exercise, let’s imagine you’re say a teenager who is still living at home.
    You could say, you do the right thing out of fear of your father. Now, it’s not a fear in the sense that you think your father is about to abuse you. The fear we’re talking about is one borne from respect.
    As we look at Peter’s writing here in verse 17, what I want you to note is that after saying to live with reverant fear, he doesn’t then go on to say because if you don’t, he’ll smite you down. Rather he says, we have this fear because God redeemed us with his blood.
    This concept might be much easier for those with a healthy father relationship, but even if you don’t, allow your meditation on your heavenly father reshape your view on this matter.

    Love

    The fourth word I have then is “love” and this comes in verse 22.
    It reads: “Now that you have purified yourselves by oberying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart”.
    Now, the way this reads - this is really the end product of all of this.
    When you have your minds set on the hope we have, and when you’re becoming holy like the one we worship, and when you’re living with reverant fear of a perfect father, then the end result is that we have sincere love for each other.
    You know, I hear it sometimes - I fine loving God - but loving other people is hard.
    You know what? Sometimes it is hard. Actually, sometimes it is very hard.
    But we can work on it. Now, just a word on this, we’re not called to be best friends with everyone. Some people we’re going to be closer with than others, and that is perfectly fine. But even people we are not close with, we can still love.
    Love is an attitude of the heart. Love is a posture we take towards them.
    Love means we don’t wish harm on them.
    1 Corinthians 13 gives us an amazing picture of love - and you’d do well to go and read that chapter again. It talks about love being patient and kind, and not envying or boasting or being proud.
    Think about someone you might say you struggle to love. Then read 1 Corinthians 13, and ask, can I say that I am living out that description in relation to that person?
    Particularly when it says: “it keeps no record of wrongs”, it might mean we have to delete that files in our brain that has kept a big list ready to get at someone.
    But again, we have this love because God first loved us. Verse 22 was the call for us to love, and this is followed by verse 23 which reminds us that we have been born again. We’re born again because God has given us new life, not because we deserve it, but because he loves us.

    Conclusion

    This whole passage should be a reminder that we act in a godly way, not because we’ve been told to, but because we’ve been given something so amazing.
    We’ve been given a hope. And this gives us something to work towards.
    We’ve been given access to a holy God. This gives us our model.
    We have a heavenly father that deserves our reverant fear. This shapes us.
    And we’ve been shown how to love. This is the end product.
    You know, I started by talking about Ned Kelly and his heroic act when he was just a teenager. I mentioned that when he saved the ten year old boy from the river, he was given a green sash for his bravery.
    Aparently, when the famous last stand happened at Glenrowan… that’s the one where he wears he iconic suit of armour including that tin helmet… well, under all that armour, it is said that he was still wearing that green sash.
    Now, this is not to suggest Ned Kelly was a good person. Personally, I don’t think you can justify what he did at all. But yet I wonder whether the wearing of that green sash actually was an indication of just how shaped he was by his ideals.
    We have something so much better which shapes us into something that is actually counter-cultural. The call today is not to just try harder. It’s to remember what you’ve been given, and allow it to change you.
    Let me pray...
Tanilba Bay Baptist Church
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