Gospel

My Heart Under Injustice

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Scripture:  1 Peter 2:18-25

18Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. 19For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 21For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

 

Observations:

No love of slavery here.  But in thinking about where I am under authority:

Be in under your master with respect — to the good and unjust.

Do this without sinning.

Do this following the example of Jesus, our Lord, our Saviour, our Shepherd who suffered for our sins and brings our healing through His suffering.  vs. 21-25

Application:

No love of slavery here.

To bring this text into today we must think in the realm of employee / employer relations.  How to be holy in that setting?  In our free market we have much more freedom to just leave and find new work if we are being treated badly.  Often though people feel locked in by their situation and finances.

But this remains:  Can I persist in doing good when I am being treated unjustly?

See the example of Jesus.  Experience and reflect on His mercy toward you.

Prayer:

Thank you Heavenly Father for extending so much mercy towards me.  Help me persist in doing good even when there seems to be no pay off.  Help us persist in doing good even in the face of injustice.  May the glory of Jesus and His provision of healing for our hearts in such an unjust world transform our souls.  AMEN.

Freedom and Entitlement

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Scripture:  1 Peter 2:13-17

13Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. 15For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. 16Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 17Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

Observations:

  • “For the Lord’s sake”  — our relationships are informed first and foremost by our relationship with Jesus Christ the Lord.
  • Be subject — be properly responsive to authority:  to agents of the emperor or to the emperor.
  • an aspect of rule:  to punish those who do evil & to praise those who do good.
  • vs. 15  apparently some people were saying that followers of Jesus Christ were subverting authority and were dangerous to society.
  • vs. 16 Live as people who are free!  Our freedom is not a cover-up for evil behaviour, since we live as servants of God — the ultimate authority.
  • vs. 17 the movement in relationships as a person under authority yet free:  honour and love.

Application:

To be under the authority of God in Christ Jesus is to be free!  Free from the law of sin and death.  Free to love.  Free to forgive.  Free to serve.  Free to delight in the work of God.  Free to delight in the wonders of humanity at its best.  Free to press in fiercely for the life and blessings of God’s Kingdom in the world today.

Pride and its companions self-righteousness and entitlement will hinder the Gospel of Jesus and will poison our relationships so that honour and love depart.  When I act as if the rules and the issues of ethics apply only to everyone else and not to me, I poison my relationships.  A selfish, narcissistic, tyrannical ruler poisons his whole society.

I’m not sure we know how to honour rightly today.  Being subject to human authority and yet living free without dominating fear of oppression is an incredible gift in our Canadian society.  Who can I honour today?  Who can I show love to today?

Prayer:

Heavenly Father thank you for the freedom we enjoy.  Guard us from the fog of entitlement and help us steward this freedom well.  May my freedom in Christ not be used as a license to sin.  Instead may your Spirit generate immense love for Jesus and awe for the weight He bore at cross to deliver me from sin.  AMEN.

Be Holy. But How?

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Scripture: 1 Peter 1:14-16

14As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
Observation:

Vs. 14 — Peter gives us a contrast with a way of life when we were not redeemed and regenerated by Jesus.  “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.”

Now we are children of God, born of the Spirit and the Father’s will.

Now we have a capacity for obedience that we lacked before.

This capacity for obedience in our behaviour is enlarged as we experience the relationship with God that the Gospel now makes possible:  we are called into relationship with the Holy God.    vs. 15

For now by the Gospel we have been made holy.  vs. 16  “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

Application:  Be holy, but how?

Holiness has to do with relationships.  It is a quality of God that is reflected in His relationships.  He is without fault, uncleanness, or imperfection.  God is holy.

To be brought into relationship with God required the work of Jesus expressed in the Gospel.  Through this Gospel we are forgiven, cleansed, declared righteous, and brought into relationship with God through the work of Jesus Christ at the cross.

To be holy in my conduct, means that in my conduct in relationships begins to reflect the character of God.  The Law is helpful to let me see God’s vision for relationships.  However, the rules do not accomplish holiness in me.  It is the grace of God through Jesus’ love and power that establishes holiness.  Now “being” holy, is a product of relationship with God.

What He has worked into me, I must now work out.  The Spirit is empowering us to pushing back against the conforming mold of our sinful passions.

Prayer:     Oh Heavenly Father, Yes I agree with you! I know my sin and I am far from your holiness in my own strength.  Lord have mercy on me and continue your transforming work.  Without the Gospel of Jesus, I would be consumed by your holiness.  Instead you have forgiven me, and cleansed me.  Now by your power, let me BE holy!  Show me my relational patterns that are not holy and lead me in the way of Jesus.  AMEN.

Thinking Grace

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Scripture:   1 Peter 1:13-14

13Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

 

Observation:  

Peter recognizes that the Christian life is inclined toward action.  vs 13.

But, we must prepare our minds for action.  And we must be concerned about what kind of action we are giving ourselves to.

Sober-minded:  A kind of clarity and rationality.  NOT — drunk, unclear, foggy, or acting without wisdom.  We know what we are doing and we have considered the implications.

Our preparation consists on a kind of “Gospel-thinking” that considers the grace that is ours by the revealing of Jesus Christ.

Application:

Habits come in all shapes and sizes in our lives:  emotional, physical, mental, and social.  Their impact can be life-giving or deathly.  Habits by definition become “automated.”  In our life before receiving Jesus’ life-giving Spirit we may have lived without thought about the impact of some habits; they were our passions and we just responded without thought.

A new kind of thinking discipline is required.  Gospel-thinking moves us into a contemplation of our relationships informed by God.  We are realistic about the brokenness we experience in this world, but we are also extraordinarily hopeful because of the entrance of Jesus into our relationships–His humble birth, His ministry, His redemptive work on the cross, and His victory over death in the Resurrection.  Now by the power of His Spirit we glorify the Father by living through the perspective of the Cross in all our relationships.

This kind of thinking prepares us for action.  Action with Jesus is a grace-gift we live in now.  The Scripture proclaims “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind…” (See Romans 12:1-3.

Prayer:   Heavenly Father train me for action by guiding me with your Spirit to meditate on the glory of the Gospel of your Son.  Thank you for loving me.  Now by the grace given me may I act with love for you and for people.  AMEN.

Regeneration: “You must be born again.”

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It was the Passover and Nicodemus came to see Jesus at night.  In the quiet of that holiday season, surely there were spiritual sensitivities in the heart of Nicodemus.  It’s possible that Nicodemus might wonder if Israel would again (As they did when God rescued the people from the slavery and oppression of the Pharaohs.  As God did when He delivered them from His judgement of the firstborn in the land.) see the power of God on display to deliver them from their enemies.  How long would they have to wait this time? What would be required to again see God’s power on display?

Jesus rocked Nicodemus’s view of the world when He told him you “must be born again” to see and enter the Kingdom of God.  To Nicodemus this was not how the world worked when it came to being on the inside track for God.  Faithful obedience to the Law of God is what made it possible to be on God’s side.  Nicodemus must have found Jesus’ declaration disconcerting.

Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.t 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

In order to help Nicodemus, a teacher of the Law understand, Jesus makes a statement, makes an allusion, and gives an illustration.

Statement:  You must be born again.

Allusion:  Jesus reaches back to God’s message to Ezekiel (See Ezekiel 37 and the Valley of Dry Bones.) and the promise of God’s activity in raising up a people for Himself.  Flesh gives rise to flesh.  The Spirit gives rise to flesh.  God will put his Spirit within them and He will cleanse them.  He will be among them.

Illustration:  The wind.  Jesus says the wind blows where it will, we don’t see where it comes from, but we do see the effects.  So it is with people born of the Spirit.  We cannot see the internal work of the Spirit of God, nor are we in control of the Spirit; we cannot even limit the Spirit of God to borders and classes of people.

This sets up the incredible declaration and mind-expanding statement from Jesus about what God is up to in sending the Son of Man, “down” from heaven with all the wisdom and knowledge of being God:  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

God has come down into the realm of humanity in order to love us all.

Jesus disturbs the self-situated moorings of religion and any form of self-righteousness.   However, Jesus, the rabbi, is very kind to Nicodemus.  Teachers teach what they know.  Jesus has pointed out that being born again is an “earthly matter” (John 3:12) and in this matter, Jesus gently points out that Nicodemus doesn’t know about it.  Then he goes on to show that there is urgency in Nicodemus’ need for the healing virtue, salvation, and life available in Jesus the Messiah.  Judgement is a condition all people are in just  as Israel was when the poisonous snakes entered their camp in Numbers 25.  Healing and a prolonged life was available for all who were bitten if they looked on the bronze snake formed and lifted up on a stake by Moses.  But soon (relative to the night of this conversation with Nicodemus) the Son of Man, the form of God in Christ Jesus, would be lifted up (exalted) on an execution stake (the cross) for the healing of the nations.  And all who by the grace of God look upon Him in faith shall have eternal life–life now and for eternity in the Kingdom of God.