Grace Before Glory 1 Peter 1:13-21

 

    

Grace Before Glory
1 Peter 1.13-21

    https://youtu.be/IbFtr2RuF_Q?si=Qdsg0mOrZpKc5nMB

Introduction

     We human beings naturally desire glory. We want all things to be good, beautiful and heavenly. We want to win, not lose. We want to succeed, not fail. We want love, not hate. We want happiness, not sadness. There are different ways to pursue these goals. Most of them have some good in them. But today we see how faith in the Easter miracle of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead tops them all and will always remain the essential gift of God that gives us ultimate glory. 

Paths to Glory

     What are some common “paths to glory”? Let’s begin with a good work ethic. The Bible says that we should “…aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind (our) own business, and to work with (our) own hands” (1 Thes 4.11). We teach children to make their beds and pick up their toys. We hope this will lead them complete their assignments in school, show up for work when they get a job, and lead a productive life. In this way they can take care of themselves and others. Next, we can add being a good person and following the Golden Rule, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” which is found six times in the Bible (Le 19:18; De 5:14,15; Mt 7:12; Lu 6:31; Ro 13:9; Ga 5:14). A third important path to glory is marriage and family unity. David said, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” (Ps 133). Marriage and family are the foundations to life. Where these fail, life will fail. A fourth path to glory would be good government. Peter says in the next chapter of this letter that good governments are sent by God “…for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good” (2.14). Without good government, the coarse crimes against life would plunge us into chaos and destruction. God commands all these paths to glory, and we should always pray for these paths of glory: Work Ethic, The Golden Rule, Marriage and Family Unity, and Good Government. 

The Reason These Paths Fail

     Everything I have just said is really common sense. These four paths to glory are commanded in the Bible, but you don’t need the Bible to know them. They are deeply imbedded in nature itself. Benjamin Franklin, one of the founders of our country, wrote about them in his Poor Richard’s Almanac. They are good paths, but by themselves they won’t lead to glory. Why? Because none of them can address and cure the problem of sin that is just as deeply imbedded in our hearts. 

     We may start on the path of good work ethic, but soon laziness and covetousness will tempt us especially when we see others are succeeding more than us. We begin to think we are victims and that life isn’t fair. We may strive to love our neighbors as ourselves, but it becomes all too easy to pick and choose our neighbors. Is it the drug addict that needs our help?  Is it the unborn baby that just wants to live that we need to protect? Is it a starving person in another part of the world? No one wants a troubled marriage or a disordered family. But we get on each other’s nerves and say and do those things that drive us apart. Everyone wants good government, but when sinners govern sinners, there are bound to be problems. We have a temptation to turn away from civic duty in disgust and pass those problems to the next generation. The real problem with these paths of glory is that they are all missing God’s grace. Therefore, they lack the power to get control of sin. 

     The Bible consistently teaches us that sin and separation from God is the cause of all misery and unhappiness in this world. No matter how well you know the paths to glory and pursue them, sin will catch up and pull you back down. Worse than that, much of the world now denies the paths of glory and deliberately. They avoid work but want all its benefits. They redefine the meaning of “good,” so they glorify their base desires. They have practically destroyed marriage and family and deny that it is even necessary. They use government not to commend the good but to defend and promote evil. 

Grace Is the Key to Glory

     Peter was well acquainted with this world as we are. He was a hard-working fisherman, but he could see that hard work and striving for goodness would never lead to glory. The sin within and without would eventually destroy everything. It seemed hopeless. Then one day he met Jesus. It wasn’t Jesus’ intelligence, or wisdom, or power, that impressed Peter the most. It was His holiness. When the fishing wasn’t so good one day, Jesus told Peter to cast his nets on the other side of the boat. The nets were filled, and Peter realized Jesus was different; He was holy. He said, “Depart from me O Lord, for I am a sinful man” (Luke 5.1-11). But Jesus didn’t depart. He stayed. He stayed with Peter and the other disciples. He stayed with this world all the way to the cross so that He could bring the one thing to them and to us that is the key to glory – His divine grace. This is what he was saying in 1 Peter 1.13-25.

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

          Pastors have rightly said, “GRACE is God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.” As Easter Christians we now have the true path to glory. We have the grace of the precious blood of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. This is the hope to which we constantly cling. Every day as we walk those paths to glory, we now have Jesus, the Son of God walking with us. Peter says that we “gird up the loins of our minds.” This means that we prepare ourselves mentally and spiritually for all that we do. Our week begins with Jesus in worship. Each day should begin and end with Jesus in word and prayer.  We don’t just go to work. We don’t just assume we are being good each day. We don’t just get married and have a family. We don’t just vote, advocate, and serve for good government. Our walk is with Jesus, and thus our daily life, is a holy walk. When we work, when we interact with other people, when we live at home with our spouse and children, when we speak to or about our politicians, we are always catching those sinful lusts and desires that crop up like weeds but need to be dug up and thrown out with repentance and faith in Jesus. More than that, our walk with Jesus is always pointed toward Judgment Day. We “conduct (ourselves) throughout the time of (our) stay here in fear.” This is not a fear of being condemned, but it is a serious realization that we have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. Therefore, our walk isn’t “aimless” and destined for destruction. Our walk is destined for the glory of the resurrection of Jesus and the resurrection of our own bodies on the last day. 

Conclusion 

     When the Emmaus disciples were walking on the day of Christ’s resurrection, they were sad because they had hoped Jesus would “redeem Israel” (Luke 24.21). They knew those paths of glory since Jesus has spoken of them. But they hadn’t realized the one thing that was necessary for us to walk the paths of glory successfully – that it was necessary for “the Christ to have suffered these things and (then) to enter into His glory?” (Luke 24.26). God’s grace, His redemption through the life and death of Jesus, was the key to His glory and ours. This week, as you go about all your normal activities, remember the hope of God’s grace, His redemption, the gift of forgiveness, and holiness, so that you will live a holy life of faith and realize His glory. Amen. 

Brought to Jesus - John 1.42

 

"Brought to Jesus" John 1.42

 One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus. Now when Jesus looked at him, He said, “You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas” (which is translated, A Stone).

Introduction

     During the Christmas season we remember the way God came into the world. The Son of God was born of the Virgin Mary. During the Epiphany season we remember the way Jesus was revealed and made manifest to be the Son of God to the world. Since we are all by nature sinners, we do not seek God. Instead God seeks us. God said through the prophet Isaiah, "I was found by those who did not seek Me" (65.1). Throughout the Bible we see this again and again. When Adam and Eve first sinned, they hid from God, but He found them and brought them back. God found Abraham when, as the Bible says, he was "a wandering Aramean" (Deuteronomy 26.5). One by one, every believer was found by God and brought to God. All the apostles were found by Jesus and He drew them to Himself (John 12.32). That is how we become Christians, we are brought to Christ. As we shall see that is both a great comfort to us, and it is the key to living the Christian life and bringing others to Christ. 

Jesus Is the Messiah

     After Jesus was baptized, God revealed to the world that He was His own Son. Immediately people were being drawn to Him. In our Gospel lesson today from John chapter one we see how the first disciples were brought to Jesus. Our featured disciple this morning is Andrew, he is one that we don't hear much about in the New Testament. But what he did is something we should all remember: He brought his brother Peter to Jesus. 

     Andrew was blessed to be brought to John the Baptist. He heard John proclaim that Jesus was the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Why did John call Jesus a "lamb." That's not a mighty animal at all. Are there any football teams called "The Lambs"? If there was, people would laugh at a name like that. But John knew what he was talking about. Jesus was "The Lamb of God" because Jesus was the lamb of sacrifice for all of us sinners. God, who knows all things, knew that the only salvation from the horrible problem of sin was love, sacrificial love. Sin is full of anger, hate, and violence. On Judgement Day God will deal with sin in that way. Romans 1.18 tells us that God's wrath is "revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness." But to deliver us from that wrath, God first came to the horrible problem of sin in love, through Christ, the Messiah, His Annointed One. 

     Last Sunday I mentioned the four ways we know Jesus is the Messiah. The first is through the prophecies of the Old Testament. All of them tell us that the Messiah will take away sin and bring righteousness, not by more rules, but by grace, by forgiveness. This forgiveness will be earned by His suffering and dying. The second is through Jesus' teaching. The Gospels give us a one sentence summary of His teaching: Jesus preached, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand" (Matthew 3.2; Mark 1.15). The third way is through His miracles which were all given to save lives from the effects of sin. The fourth way is through His resurrection from the dead. In His resurrection Jesus proved that sin, death, and the devil were defeated. 

Four Wrong Ways

     This so important for us to know and believe. But we don't know it and believe by nature. Our nature is the opposite. Let's think about the three ways that human beings deal with sin. 

     The first and most ancient and common way is to Compensate. All other religions are based on the idea that we can oversome sin by trying to be good. The answer to sin is rules. Pray, give offerings, and force yourself to be a better person. Paul lived this way for many years as a Pharisee. But he finally had to admit that he was still a "wretched man" (Romans 7.24). No amount of good works can compensate for or removed the guilt of sin. That is just being honest. 

     The second way is to Compare. "Well, I'll admit I'm a sinner, but there are a lot of people worse than me." This person thinks that because others sin worse, God will somehow overlook their sins. But if God overlooks sin, He becomes a sinner Himself for He has commanded in James 2.10 "Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it." Pointing to the sins of others is just a deflection. You can't just break a window a little. If you break it, you break the whole thing. 

     The third has become very strong in the last decade. This is the temptation to politicize sin. Karl Marx taught that there are oppressors and the oppressed. Although baptized in the Lutheran Church, Marx rejected God and interpreted everything in terms of the material world. In this view, even if a person does something wrong he blames it on his economic circumstances. Only the oppressors are bad, and all the evils of the world are blamed on them. But the Bible warns against this very thing. "Give me neither poverty nor riches— Feed me with the food allotted to me; Lest I be full and deny You, And say, “Who is the LORD?” Or lest I be poor and steal, And profane the name of my God" (Proverbs 30.8-9). The rich and poor can both be sinners, and neither should excuse themselves because of their political and economic circumstances. 

     The fourth way may not be that popular, but it is growing. Some people think they can overcome the problem of sin by saying there is no such thing as sin. Driven by their worship of science and denying any place for God, the spiritual world, and the soul, they say all things are determined by our molecules. ALL THINGS. NO OTHER ASPECT OF LIFE. Since it's all just biochemistry, no one is guilty of anything because we are either born that way or conditioned to be that way. This is the moral insanity that fuels all mass murderers. The Bible is clear about this: "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no god'" (Psalm 14.1).

Saved

     Joel Chandler Harris was from Georgia. In the 1800s he went around and talked to former slaves to hear their stories. He put them together in a book titled "Uncle Remus Stories." If you want some good hearty laughs, please read this book. One story is about Brer Fox who was frustrated that Brer Rabbit kept tricking him. So he made a doll out of tar and set it up by the road. Brer Rabbit comes along and greets the Tar-Baby. When the Tar-Baby doesn't respond, he gets angry and starts punching and kicking it. Sure enough he gets completeley stuck to it. I'm not going to give away the end of the story, but I'll stop here to show how sin is like that Tar-Baby. We can't fight it ourselves. The more we do, the more we get stuck to it. We have to be pulled from it. We have to be cleansed of it. 

     I would like you to think about how you have been pulled and saved from the tar-pit of sin. Paul said, "By grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2.8). I was saved by my parents who brought me to Christ in baptism, prayers, Bible stories, and the catechism. Even after that God brought other people in my life who pulled me back from sin and temptation. If someone asks me how I became and Christian, I have to honestly say that God called me to faith by the Gospel that was given to me by many different people. My becoming a Christian was not my natural choice. It was God's choice as Jesus said, "You did not choose Me. I chose you" (John 15.16). Every day I thank God that, like Peter, I was brought to Jesus. 

For What?

     It doesn't end there. I said earlier that being brought to Jesus is a great comfort (it doesn't depend on us), and it is the key to living the Christian life and bringing others to Jesus. When you realize that you are a poor miserable sinner and cannot escape from sin, but that God rescued you from it anyway - what a great joy that is. Now, doing what God wants us to do is not a burden or chore. It's a blessing. I don't keep the commandments because I'm trying to save myself. I'm doing them because I'm already saved. I'm doing them out of thanksgiving to God. 

     I mentioned that Andrew is not the most well-known disciple. There's very little we know about him. But this little thing that he did is mentioned here in the Gospel for a good reason. God is telling us that everything we do as a Christian saved from the guilt of sin is important to Him. Let me emphasize that: EVERY LITTLE THING. 

     This is one of my favorite examples of that. One day an unhappy man was walking along a railroad track in India. As he walked he saw a cigarette butt that had some writing on it. Being bored as well as sad, he picked it up and unrolled it. Apparently someone had taken a Christian tract and used it for a rolling paper to make a cigarette. It was mostly burned up, but the few words that were left were these: "Whoever calls upon the Lord will be saved" from Romans 10.13. Well, this sounded okay to him. Maybe he should look into it. When he got to the next village, he began asking people about these words. Someone told him it was from the Bible and that he should go talk to the pastor in that village. He did, and when he heard the full Gospel, he believed and he was brought to Christ. This is also a good example of a small act of Christian love that brought someone to Christ. It might have seemed like a waste. Someone gave some money to a Christian tract society. They printed the tract and sent it to India. Someone brought in the train and hopefully read it. But someone else didn't care about it turned it into a cigarette. But God wasn't done with the small act of Christian love. The sad man picked up the butt and was brought to Christ. 

Conclusion

     Everything we do by faith in God has that same potential. Your coming to worship this morning makes a difference. People notice. When someone speak evil of you and love them anyway, people notice. When you do wrong and apologize instead blaming and playing the victim, people notice. When you live as a person who has been brought to Christ, that brings other people to Christ as well. God bless you this week as you remember this little passage about Andrew: "And he brought Him to Jesus." May it be a comfort that you were brought to Jesus, and may that comfort bring others to Jesus. Amen.