We are reading from the book of first Peter, last post we started Chapter 1. We know a lot about Peter because he was around for Jesus’ ministry, and was always one to offer an opinion, ask a question, try to answer one of Jesus questions. When we read the first 4 books of the New Testament, we almost have a running commentary by Peter, because he always offered it. In his letter, he said he was writing to believers scattered around the region, so the letter wasn’t one that was super personal like Paul’s letters to specific churches. He had just finished writing generally about the Truth of the Gospel and what it means to believers. We are saved from our sins, have been foreknown by God; we were chosen to be sanctified by the work of the Holy Spirit of God, in order to receive the gift of a great salvation through Jesus Christ, We’ve been given a new birth, we have a living hope (hope in a living Messiah). And what’s more, Peter wrote that we will be protected by the power of God until the day of our salvation. We have promises of perseverance. And for those things we should rejoice. These truths were what Prophets studied intently to predict and tell God’s people. The integrity of this message throughout hundreds of years was maintained by intense study by prophets and at times even Angelic messengers were sent by God to instruct people what was happening or had happened. With all that being said we finally have a context to begin reading verse 13 where Peter begins with “therefore”

13 Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.

Because of this great salvation, the prophets have spoken of a coming grace. We shouldn’t just coast through this, or assume we fully comprehend the message. Our minds should be engaged when thinking of the Gospel. We need to engage our brains when studying God. Peter is saying we should approach the study of the Bible and reading God’s Word with great care. In the same way, we should approach Sunday and hearing the word preached with the same care. We should be ready to not just hear, but listen actively when there’s a sermon. The sermon isn’t just a time to zone out and consume. We should prepare our minds and our thoughts to hear God’s word through sermons at church. Make connections to other things, jot down thoughts! If the sermon is covering something you’ve read before, see if you comprehend scripture differently when it’s explained in this sermon. The pastor who wrote the message might connect it to a different area of scripture, or notice a different word or phrasing than when you read it alone. Every time I listen to a sermon, no matter what it’s about, I try to engage with the pastor’s thought process and approach it as an opportunity understand scripture a little better, or apply it more consistently in my life. To do this well, our minds need to be alert and sober. Sobriety means having self control and clarity of our minds and thoughts. Peter says we need to be alert and sober; he will repeat this later on in this same letter in chapter 5. He explains why there. “Your adversary, the devil prowls around looking for someone to devour.” The Devil thrives on your ignorance, he takes advantage of your zoning out, your inattentiveness, your carelessness. I always think its silly and kind of sad to think about the depiction of a stereotypical Christian church that relies on people’s ignorance. The slick salesman Pastor who has no real answer except for, “you just need more faith, trust me”. There’s an idea that the whole service is just a charade that only works when there’s blind faith and nobody questions anything. It’s sad because there are some churches like that. But a real Christian church should be full of people who ARE alert and sober: more aware, more woke, or more cognizant of reality. Peter wrote we have a living hope in Christ. Now Peter says to set our hope on the Grace that is to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. We have grace to believe in Christ, and there’s even more grace being brought to us when Jesus is revealed.

15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

We’ve spoken about how we were called, and that call is important because we need to understand how the Bible says salvation works. We didn’t choose God. We didn’t accept Jesus. We’ve been called, and we responded, because the call was something irresistible to us. God’s elect have no way to resist, because we’ve already been predestined and known by God. But It’s just as important to understand not just the nature of the call, but the source of that call. The source of a call will determine the result of the call, or our future. If my mother calls me, the future means there might be a half hour of talking, maybe a plan to go have dinner, or get together and meet somewhere. If my boss or coworker calls, my future will look different than if my mom called. If the source of the call is a coworker, something happened at work, and I am in for a different conversation. With any call, it means that the future we expect or anticipate will at the very least be interrupted and more likely the future may need to change significantly from our expectation. Now think back to a time in your life when you didn’t yet realize you’d been called by God. We’ve all been called from varying places. We had ideas about how our lives would look, or what we wanted from existence, or what was our worldview or MO. But then there’s the interruption, and it’s a beautiful interruption. It was a planned interruption from God’s perspective, but from our perspective it is truly unexpected. And what’s the source of the call? We’ve been called by God. This makes me think of the Blues Brothers, they keep saying “we’re on a mission from God”, and when they affirm that, it gives them resolve to keep going, they focus on God’s power, his steadfastness, the unstoppable nature of God’s plans. But when Peter mentions that the source of the call is God, the characteristic about God that Peter wants you to think about is that he is a Holy God. The Holiness of God is worth thinking about. God is perfection, he is different than us. Since we are humans, we have no capability to fully understand the mind or comprehend the workings of God. He is holy. What does Holy mean? Holy means Righteous, Good, Virtuous, Sinless, Pure, Perfect, The origin of Holy is Germanic but it has the connotation of being Whole, or having an integrity, lacking nothing. Peter tells us because God is Holy, and that means God is all Righteous, 100% Good, Totally Sinless, Entirely Pure, the source of all Virtue. He is Sacred. We understand those things but only on a relative basis, because we are in an imperfect world, surrounded by imperfect sinful beings. The dictionary also says Holy means dedicated or consecrated to God. Now, because we’ve been called by a holy God, we’ve been called to a Holy Purpose, to a Holy future. Right? If my mom calls, my future looks one way, if my boss calls, my future looks different, and neither of those might be what I was originally planning, but now God calls. God, who is holy, and he sets us apart, consecrates us, devotes us to a Holy purpose. It’s kind of like the Bible is saying, “Be dedicated to God, because He is Perfectly Good, Entirely Righteous, 100% sinless.” If we stop and think about it, our course needs to change, there’s no choice, because we’ve been called by a Holy God, and our ultimate destination is to be in his presence, so all of our futures look differently than we had been expecting, before we realized that we were known by God and Loved by God. In the End, you will be made holy, and until the end, you should become more and more holy. I am not saying it’s a direct and straight path. I am not saying we will be perfect on this side of heaven. In fact, the Bible Guarantees that we will not be perfect as long as we are still human. If we did become perfect, we’d no longer need Christ, but the truth is we all desperately need him, and will until the end. So The path of becoming more and more holy is called Sanctification. The big Christian word to describe the process. Other parts of the Bible explain that the Holy Spirit works in us to Sanctify us, we can’t brag about being sanctified, or growing in Christian maturity. That’s God’s work. So we are being Made Holy, and we are called to be Holy. That means your Future must change from what you were expecting. In Fact, The Purpose of your existence and your future actually needs to be dedicated to God. Peter says, “be Holy IN ALL YOU DO” . That is a severe statement. That’s profound. It’s a bit scary to me, because I think about things I do or think or say, or motivations, and they aren’t all always Holy. Be Holy in all you do! I’m not saying every Christian needs to become a pastor, or a religious zealot, knocking on every door to Preach or Evangelize. In fact, the way the Bible explains different gifts being given to different members of the Body of Christ, we would expect everyone’s lives to look very different. But you should be Holy in all you do! Everything! How is that possible? Paul gives the same instruction in his first letter to the corinthians. Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the Glory of God. That’s a LOFTY goal, but it’s worth thinking about. If you like playing Guitar, do it for the Glory of God. If you like reading, do it for the glory of God. If you are good at Math, do it for the Glory of God. If you like to care for people, or you care for animals, or you care about ecosystems, do it for the Glory of God. Let’s say I like business. I need to figure out a way to run a business for the glory of God. My products or services can’t dishonor God. The way I conduct my business can’t dishonor God. The way I treat my coworkers or customers can’t dishonor God. Right? At the very least, I don’t want to have any part in a business that Dishonors God. One of our Pastors, Franky, likes technology and HAM radios, he has a hobby, but finds a way to do it for God’s glory. Do we always end up Glorifying God in everything? No, are we holy in everything we do? No, but that’s the Goal. Peter liked to fish, Jesus told him to be a fisher of men, which is kind of a twist on what he was good at and he enjoyed. Saul enjoyed being zealous for the church and studying the Law, and he saw the Light of Jesus and God changed Saul’s persecution of the church to Paul’s edification of the church. It was the same gift as before, but was turned in a way that did it for the Glory of God. I like watching TV. How do I do that for the glory of God? This one’s a stretch. I can’t really.. Well there are shows that dishonor God. I should definitely stop watching those.. it’s a good start but hmm.. When I am sober and clear minded and analytical, I realize maybe I should watch TV a bit less, and spend more time doing other things! Be aware, and mindful of the things you do. Live with Intention, understanding we have a purpose, and are part of a bigger Plan. Going back to what Peter said earlier, we should be alert and Sober so we know whether or not we are living with the goal of being holy in all you do. Our lives will all look different than each others, but our goal should be to be holy in all we do. It’s ok if I like reading alone but you like people, and she likes animals, and he likes nature. We just need to do these things for God’s Glory and read on:

17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.

God is not partial! He judges each person’s work impartially. Your life that was lived intentionally for God’s Glory might not look anything like mine, but it’s ok. We both were motivated to give God Glory and to worship Him in our efforts, we will be rewarded in His Presence. We call upon God for help in and direction in our lives, we ask God to direct us towards obedience in whatever we end up doing. He’s impartial. But these lives will never be entirely comfortable. We should understand we are citizens of heaven, not earth. We should live here as foreigners with a reverent fear. What might be our reverent fear? We should fear our minds growing dull and losing our alertness, our sobriety that we’ve been called to. Because of Peter’s reminders and warnings, we should fear that we lose our understanding that our true citizenship is in Heaven not here. In the context of his command to be holy, maybe our fear is waste. That we spend time and take the precious life that God gave us, and waste it on doing things that aren’t Holy, things that aren’t done for God’s glory. Verse 18 says the reverent fear shouldn’t be that our lives aren’t profitable financially.

18 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 you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect

Money shouldn’t be a major driver in our life choices. We can be tempted to mistake financial success with spiritual success. But Peter says we weren’t redeemed by gold or silver or material things. But we have been redeemed from an empty way of life. The implication there is that Gold, Silver, material things are in the same category as an empty way of life. The pursuit of those perishable things does not solve the problem of emptiness in our lives. Contrast that emptiness with what Jesus says in John 10:10, when he explains to the Pharisees his purpose. He says he is the good shepherd and he has come so that his followers will have life, and have it abundantly. The Bible says that we were redeemed from an empty life, so we should have reverent fear that we don’t fill our lives with more emptiness when we’ve been given better. All those reverent fears that I mentioned have to do with making the most of our time on Earth. But the other big Reverent fear has to do with the after life. We might be afraid Because God is Perfect and to be revered and adored, and we are not perfect or even Good. We are destined to meet God, and we know we alone are never ready for this meeting. No matter how holy we grow, we won’t be holy enough to meet God, no matter how well or poorly we perform in this life, our works will be judged. Impartially, but we still face judgement. That’s a reverent fear, and it’s the same fear that kept the Israelites away from even touching Mount Sinai. But for us it’s not a terminal fear. Hear what Peter says: We were redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. He was a lamb without blemish or defect, so his Perfection is imputed and transferred to us, his blood cleanses us from our sins and our condemnation. We have been redeemed and brought back to God as a friend, as a Son! The relationship with God is one of sacrificial love. Perfect love, and perfect love drives out fear!

20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

Jesus Christ was chosen by God before time existed, before creation. He was foretold in the old testament. Then He became flesh, and spent his life teaching, rebuking, extending mercy, demonstrating forgiveness. He taught that he was sent for the purpose of giving us abundant life, and redeeming us to God. He revealed his majesty on the cross, and revealed his divinity when he rose from the dead. He will return and there will be another revealing, and a whole new level of Grace will be brought to us when that happens! It’s only through Christ and his Spirit that we believe in God, and it’s only through the Power of God that the dead are raised to life, and the Son is Glorified. Peter explains that when we have faith and hope in Christ, we have faith and Hope in God.

22 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.[b] 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

How do we become pure? We obey the truth of the Gospel, which means we acknowledge that it is not by our works, but Christ’s, it’s not our Glory but His. It’s not our boast, but it’s the cross. It’s not our money or accomplishments, but the Blood of the precious lamb. The only way to become pure is through Christ. And his life and death was the obedience we couldn’t accomplish, motivated by the Love that God had for us, and that sincere Love should permeate through our lives. Perfect love drives out fear, and because God has shown us that love, so we should love one another deeply. This Love is the nature of being born again, not of a perishable seed, but born of the spirit. Being born of the Spirit means being born into a life characterized and motivated by love for one another. We are driven by love. And that Godly love is imperishable, it is eternal. We are born again by the spirit of God, through the living and enduring word of God. It would be a paradox To say you’re born again, but you have no appreciation for the word of God. The word of God should affect us. Peter ends this chapter referencing the Word of God. He is writing from Isaiah 40:6-8

24 For, “All people are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.”[c]
And this is the word that was preached to you.

I remember we read this during worship a few weeks back. It is beautiful to think about. We are like grass and our glory is like flowers of the field. Don’t finish the verse just yet. Think about it. Grass is wonderful. And Flowers are beautiful. There’s nothing like walking barefoot on a soft lawn. The grass softly cushions the soles of your feet and the blades tickle between your toes. Has anyone seen a field of wild flowers, or smelled when everything is blooming? This time of year the cherry trees blossom, and everything comes alive; go down to kelly drive and see for yourself. There is glory in God’s creation. And as humans we share some of that glory. There’s nothing wrong with that glory, but it is Temporary. Now we can finish verse 24.

The Grass withers, the flowers fall. There’s nothing wrong with flowers falling or grass withering. That’s what happens. That’s how God created them. Our bodies were created the same way. With the same temporary frame. Ecclesiastes 3:11 explains everything is beautiful in its time, but eternity is set in the human heart. We desire permanence. That permanence cannot be found on Earth only Heaven. Permanence is something only God provides. The word of God endures forever. His love endures forever, his righteousness endures forever, His son has conquered death, so Christ endures forever. Christ’s bride, the church endures forever, and that means our spirit endures forever.