June 6, 2004
Service Theme - "Our God Is Holy"
1 Peter 1:13-2:3
Holiness for Dummies
I. Introduction
A. Illustration - Several years ago a book came out that spawned a whole line of similar books. That book for computers was (NEW SLIDE) "DOS for Dummies." Anybody remember it? Now you can get "Windows XP for Dummies," "Internet Explorer for Dummies," "Microsoft Word for Dummies," and there's even a book called "Bible for Dummies." All of them assume that you know absolutely nothing about the topic they cover, so even a beginner can easily figure out how to do what they say as they walk you through step by step.
B. Context - Most of us could say that we are not novices when it comes to the Christian faith. But there are aspects of our faith that we do struggle with, such as holiness. That's why Peter has written the passage that we're looking at today, to help anyone and everyone to know how to live a holy life. In fact, I'm sure that if Peter lived in our time, he'd entitle this passage "Holiness for Dummies." So let's read 1 Peter 1:13 through 2:3, and I'm reading from The Message.
II. Scripture Passage
A. 1 Peter 1:13-2:3 (from The Message) - (NEW SLIDE) So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that's coming when Jesus arrives. Don't lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. (NEW SLIDE) You didn't know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God's life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. (NEW SLIDE) God said, "I am holy; you be holy." You call out to God for help and he helps - he's a good Father that way. But don't forget, he's also a responsible Father, and won't let you get by with sloppy living. Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. (NEW SLIDE) It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ's sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb. And this was no afterthought. (NEW SLIDE) Even though it has only lately - at the end of the ages - become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you. It's because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God. (NEW SLIDE) Now that you've cleaned up your lives by following the truth, love one another as if your lives depended on it. Your new life is not like your old life. Your old birth came from mortal seed; your new birth comes from God's living Word. Just think: a life conceived by God himself! (NEW SLIDE) That's why the prophet said, The old life is a grass life, its beauty as short-lived as wildflowers; Grass dries up, flowers droop, God's Word goes on and on forever. This is the World that conceived the new life in you. 2 (NEW SLIDE) So clean house! Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy and hurtful talk. You've had a taste of God. Now, like infants at the breast, drink deep of God's pure kindness. Then you'll grow up mature and whole in God.
III. Holiness Isn't Rocket Science
A. Peter starts out by bringing us back to what we talked about last week - that Jesus died to give us a new life on earth and an eternal future with Him in heaven. He's already told us how great we have it, even when we're in the middle of tough times. Then he says, "Because of this, get with the program." He tells us to get to work putting our minds in gear. The Greek has an interesting phrase for this. It says, "Therefore, girding up the hips of the mind of you being sober (which denotes self-control and clarity of mind) unreservedly set hope upon the grace that is being brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." Long phrase, but The Message gets the gist of it right. Peter tells us to get to work getting our minds in gear so that we'll be completely ready to receive our total salvation when Jesus comes back. (NEW SLIDE) So the first step in "Holiness for Dummies" is this: to focus our minds on living like Jesus has called us to. That's the s first step in living a holy life - focused minds.
B. Then Peter gives us a warning in verses 14-16: (NEW SLIDE) Don't lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn't know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God's life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, "I am holy; you be holy." Peter is pointing out that we are called to be holy in both our thinking and our behavior. It's hard to give up old habits and those old patterns of thinking, no matter how bad they are for us, and no matter how they hurt us spiritually. But Peter is more than just appealing to our good intentions to get us to listen. He points out that (NEW SLIDE) holiness is part of God's self-identified character. And holiness is part of His character that He wants to build into us. That's a big step for us, but when we recognize that God loves us so much that He wants to lead us into His way of living, we can begin to understand that it's in our best interests to go along with Him. (NEW SLIDE) So the second step in "Holiness for Dummies" is this: to begin to allow God to build His holiness into our hearts and lives by allowing Him to change the way we think and act. If we try it on our own, we'll fall flat on our faces. We know that, because we've done it many times. But by allowing Him to do it by the power of the Holy Spirit we will experience His holiness in our hearts and lives.
C. In verse seventeen Peter reminds us of God's help in all this: (NEW SLIDE) You call out to God for help and he helps - he's a good Father that way. But don't forget, he's also a responsible Father, and won't let you get by with sloppy living. Peter tells us that all we have to do when we need help in living this new life of holiness is to cry out to God for help. That implies a couple of things: first, that we want His help, and second, that we will let Him help us. And those are tough to do, because we like to be independent and able to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, and because we like to help Him help us. Know what I mean? It's like we allow Him to begin to help us but then begin to tell Him how we want it done. Neither of those practices work. We can't stand on our own two feet and pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps because God created us to need each other. God created us to live out biblical community. And God doesn't need our input in order to help us. He knows us better than ourselves. He knows we're prone to wander around and avoid those parts of our lives that truly need transforming. That's why Peter added, But don't forget, he's also a responsible Father, and won't let you get by with sloppy living. (NEW SLIDE) What would the third step in "Holiness for Dummies" be? To cry out to God for help, and then get out of His way, allowing Him to begin to transform those parts of our lives that need transforming. Then we'll start to experience life in all of God's fullness, and that's good news!
D. Transformation is the goal of a Christian's walk with God, but we also have to remember that it is a process toward that goal. Continuing in verse seventeen: Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ's sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb. And this was no afterthought. Even though it has only lately - at the end of the ages - become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you. It's because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God. In many ways it's hard to think of this walk with God as a process. If it was up to me, I like God to just zap me and instantly I'd be totally transformed. And there have been moments in my life when God has helped me make quantum leaps in my walk with Him. But just as it takes time to build relationships here on earth, it takes time to build a relationship with God. (NEW SLIDE) When we strive to know God more and more and to become more and more like Him throughout our lives, our journey is filled with a deep consciousness of God. Peter reminds us of what it cost God to redeem us, and that He planned all the way along to pay this high price for us. Jesus died for us, spilling His precious blood and rising from the dead, so that we can have a future with God. (NEW SLIDE) So the fourth step in "Holiness for Dummies" is for us to do everything we can make sure that every moment is lived with a deep consciousness of God. On our own we can forget it, but when we cry out to God for help in doing this, He will help us live with a deep consciousness of Himself by the power of the Holy Spirit.
E. Let's review for a minute. So far our steps have been: 1) to focus our minds on living like Jesus has called us to; 2) to begin to allow God to build His holiness into our hearts and lives by allowing Him to change the way we think and act; 3) To cry out to God for help, and then get out of His way, allowing Him to begin to transform those parts of our lives that need transforming; and 4) to do everything we can make sure that every moment is lived with a deep consciousness of God. That seems to be a pretty complete list, but Peter gives us more of what we need. Verse 22: Now that you've cleaned up your lives by following the truth, love one another as if your lives depended on it. Your new life is not like your old life. Your old birth came from mortal seed; your new birth comes from God's living Word. Just think: a life conceived by God himself! That's why the prophet said, The old life is a grass life, its beauty as short-lived as wildflowers; Grass dries up, flowers droop, God's Word goes on and on forever. This is the World that conceived the new life in you. It almost sounds like Peter was in cahoots with John on this love thing. But it is so important to the Christian walk that Peter went on to describe it in terms of life and death. He says that it's not enough to follow the first four steps so that our lives will begin to reflect God's holiness. He says that holiness is incomplete without love. (NEW SLIDE) We've been given a completely new life. We now have the God-given capacity to love as God loves by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's what the filling of the Spirit does in us. We've been reborn through God's living Word by the power of the Spirit. Peter says that it's about time we live that way by loving each other as God loves. Or, as The Message puts it, "as if your lives depended on it." When we die, God will look at how completely we have loved one another with His love. Our eternal lives do depend on this, because if our love for each other grows cold so will our love for God. (NEW SLIDE) So the fifth step in "Holiness for Dummies" is to allow the love of God to flow through us onto others by the power of the Holy Spirit so that we will receive life. That's tough to do, because we have to set aside our preferences and prejudices when it comes to loving people. But that's what God is commanding us to do.
F. Peter isn't quite done with us yet, though. Chapter two verse one: (NEW SLIDE) So clean house! Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy and hurtful talk. You've had a taste of God. Now, like infants at the breast, drink deep of God's pure kindness. Then you'll grow up mature and whole in God. What's Peter trying to say? That if our relationship with God doesn't overflow into our relationships with others, we don't really know God. This walk with Christ is all about relationships. When we don't have good relationships with others, we don't have a good relationship with God. We tend to be a bit like that new show on TLC "Clean Sweep." They help people with incredible clutter problems. The homeowners have to sort their junk into three piles, "keep," "toss," and "sell." And we try to be like that in our relationships. We want to keep our assumptions about people, toss anything that doesn't fit into those assumptions, and sell short anyone who tries to get us to see the truth. We all do it! The problem is that with Christ it's all "toss." He's telling us to get rid of anything and everything that stands in the way of our relationship with Him AND our relationship with others. God has given us a taste of what relationship with Him is like, how good and kind and gracious He is. He wants us to drink deeply of that relationship so that we'll grow up mature and whole in Him. How do we grow up? Not just by knowing God more and more, but by sharing His goodness and kindness and graciousness with one another. By building God-honoring relationships with each other. (NEW SLIDE) So the last step Peter lists here in "Holiness for Dummies" is this: to get rid of any stumbling blocks in our relationships and move on together to know Him and follow Him and serve Him. It took a while for Peter to get that message. Remember: he was the one who tended to ask "But what about him?" But praise God that Peter got it, and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit passed it along to us. We don't have to be rocket scientists to be holy like God is holy. We just have to follow and obey out of love for Him and each other. And if we follow Peter's steps wholeheartedly, we will get there.
G. Illustration - Wanda Vassallo writes, A gem dealer was strolling the aisles at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show when he noticed a blue-violet stone the size and shape of a potato. He looked it over, then, as calmly as possible, asked the vendor, "You want $15 for this?" The seller, realizing the rock wasn't as pretty as others in the bin, lowered the price to $10. The stone has since been certified as a 1,905-carat natural star sapphire, about 800 carats larger than the largest stone of its kind. It was appraised at $2.28 million. It took a lover of stones to recognize the sapphire's worth. It took the Lover of Souls to recognize the true value of ordinary-looking people like us (as cited on PreachingToday.com). (NEW SLIDE) We are of incredible worth to God, and that's why He wants us to experience all He has for us in life. Holiness is what He wants to build in us so that we can experience His life here on earth. All we have to do is ask and obey, and it's ours!
IV. Conclusion
A. Please bow your heads and close your eyes out of respect for God and for each other's privacy. Let's spend a few quiet moments listening to what God is saying to our hearts.
B. If you would like me to pray for you this week that God will help you be holy even as He is holy, circle the "H" at the bottom of your communication card and put it in the offering. Let's pray together.
