Reservations Made in Heaven

Transcription

1 Reservations Made in Heaven 1 Peter 1:1-12 Wednesday, September 21, Peter 1:1 2 (NKJV) 1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied. When we read that opening statement - Peter, an apostle we think so highly of those original Apostles that we see this as Peter - the all important one, Peter - one of only 12 of the original followers of Jesus. That may be somewhat true but what Peter is saying is something like Hi, this is Peter an apostle, one of many sent ones, who have been sent into the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. To, pilgrims = temporary residents of this world, those who are just passing through this world to their homeland in heaven. Those who have been dispersed, scattered because of the intense persecution in Israel to places like Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia. The next few verses takes directly into yet another Biblical account of the Trinity. The Bible teaches the Trinity, we believe in the Trinity and each person of the Trinity has a direct part in our salvation. Never forget that you were #1.) (elect) or Chosen by God the Father according to His foreknowledge. Now why would God need or how would He use His omniscience or foreknowledge in choosing us? As I read a parallel passage in Ephesians 1:3-6 / Ephesians 1:3 6 (NKJV) 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. That s just as it states predestination - a choice of God s based solely on mercy and grace. Yet here, we find that God s choice is also based on foreknowledge. Let me just say, if I had that foreknowledge there are some choices in my past that I wouldn t have made. Just what was in that foreknowledge, we don t know. Some Page 1 of 6

2 would say that God chose you with omniscience knowledge that you would choose Him back. We know that it wouldn t be based on how good you would be, or what you could add to His kingdom. So the assumption seems to be a likely one to me. So here it is then taking both descriptions of His sovereign choice of someone to be born again. God predestined you to be adopted into His family of believers, purely and act of mercy and grace, based on His omniscient foreknowledge that you would yield your life to His will. As we discovered in our study through Ephesians that God s choice required the action of the Second and Third Persons of the Trinity. Peter jumps to the Third Person. #2.) the sanctification of the Spirit. sanctification Gk.. hagiasmos (hag-ē-ass-mōs) - to dedicate to the service of and to loyalty to God Now you understand why is says for obedience in that sentence. The 3rd Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit indwells all those whom God the Father chooses out of pure mercy and grace by foreknowledge. And with the indwelling comes empowering. An atheist would view Christianity as being stripped of independence. Yet a truly born again person realizes that Christianity doesn t take anything away from you it empowers you to do something that no other person on earth can do. What is that, you might ask. To obey and please God, for obedience. Next Peter identifies the work of the 2nd person of the Trinity in the process of salvation, one that we are perhaps most familiar with. We read, #3.) and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. We are not use to hearing about the blood of Jesus being sprinkled. Many churches today don t even mention His blood at all. Here s the reference. First Hebrews 9:22 says without shedding of blood there is no remission. Remember Peter is writing to those Jewish converts who had to leave Israel for their own safety. They had grown up in Judaism. This makes perfect sense to them. They knew that the high priest on the Day of Atonement would take the sacrificial blood with him when he went into the Holy of Holies, once there he sprinkled the blood seven times on the mercy seat. Jesus is BOTH the Lamb of God or The Sacrifice AND the High Priest. As the High Priest He takes the blood of the cross (His blood) and sprinkles it on the Throne of Judgment and transforms it into a throne of grace for all whom the Father has chosen in foreknowledge, and the Holy Spirit has empowered for obedience. 1 Peter 1:3 5 (NKJV) 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Page 2 of 6

3 What does it mean blessed be God? It boldly proclaims that we should be praising our Heavenly Father because He is worthy of praise. We have the tendency to want to give a praise report or to give God praise because of some recent intervention on His part in our life that made us happy. Well, He has already intervened in our lives by choosing us, redeeming us, empowering us and saving us from hell. The Greek word here eulogētos (yule-ō-gë-tōs), from which we get the word eulogy, means to celebrate with praises. This Sunday when we begin with worship songs, I want you to celebrate the Lord with your praises. He has begotten us again - we ve been born again by His act of (underline it) mercy or abundant mercy. With this new birth comes a living hope. This is an energizing hope that is not produced by the believer but it is a hope that is produced by the Holy Spirit IN THE BELIEVER. And this hope has a foundation, that being the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Romans 8:11 He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. With the combination of the Father s choice, the Son s redemption and the Holy Spirit s empowerment to obedience comes an inheritance which is reserved in heaven for you. You know something about reservations because you ve made them. You have gotten a reservation for yourself at hotel or a restaurant. Let s just say that you have mad a dinner reservation at a fancy restaurant for your anniversary. You wanted it to be by the window with a view, a single rose on the table and promptly at 7:30. Everything is going as planned. You are almost there, it s 7:15 and some guy walks in and wants a table. NO RESERVATIONS. He s told that it will be at least a 45 minute wait. He takes a hundred dollar bill out of his jacket pocket, hands it to the hostess and asks her to look again. Guess what. When you get there she says they are running late and it will only take another 30 minutes for your table in the back corner next to the kitchen. WELL, this reservation of your heavenly reward is incorruptible and undefiled and it is never going to somehow fade away. What if I mess up? You will! And loose my salvation? I m going to go to a couple of other places in the Bible and then come back to Peter on this one. FIRST - Jude 24 (NKJV) 24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy Next - Jesus said John 10:27 30 (NKJV) 27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father s hand. 30 I and My Father are one. Now back to Peter - kept by the power of God Page 3 of 6

4 Now look at this, through faith. So you either believe that He can keep you or you don t. You either have the faith that He will or you don t. No one is able to snatch That word is harpazō. It means to seize or snatch away by force. It s the same word used to describe the rapture of the church, by the way. We will be snatched away form here to meet Jesus in the air and to be taken away by Him into heaven. Nothing can keep you here, you will be taken, by Christ, from the clutches of this sinful world by FORCE. Conversely, there is no force that can take you out of the loving hands of God. Yet faith is key. Faith that He can and that He will. And a continued faith in Him. While there is no outside force that can remove you from His keeping hand, there is nothing to say that you can t reject His care and walk away. As a matter of fact Peter himself suggests that it can most assuredly can. He says in Second Peter - 2 Peter 2:20 21 (NKJV) 20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. 1 Peter 1:6 9 (NKJV) 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, 8 whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9 receiving the end of your faith the salvation of your souls. These people of the dispersion have lost everything. They left their homes with what they could carry to start a new life in a foreign land, a pagan land. Even though they grieve over their condition, their situation, their circumstances they can still GREATLY REJOICE. Why? How? Because of the In this 1) - In the fact that you have been chosen by the Father, empowered by the Holy Spirit to be obedient and that Jesus has transformed the throne of judgment into a throne of grace for you; 2) - because you have an inheritance of eternal life reserved for you in heave and 3) - because He who has promised you all of this is able to keep you until the day you receive it. Life is tough, sometimes tougher than others, sometimes simply unbearable. But the worst day on earth can t even cast a shadow on the born again believer s hope. Edward Payson Hammond, the noted hymnist and evangelist born in in 1831, sent this message to friends in August of 1898, two years before he would pass away. Believing the story to be true he writes I have been surprised to notice how many Page 4 of 6

5 children have died a martyr death rather than deny Jesus. I want to tell you about one of these young martyrs. In Antioch, where the disciples were first called Christians, a deacon from the church of Caesarea was called to bear cruel torture to force him to deny the Lord who bought him with His precious blood. While he was being tortured he still declared his faith, saying: "There is but one God and one mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus." His body was almost torn in pieces. The cruel emperor, Galerius, seemed to enjoy looking upon him in his suffering. At length this martyr begged his tormentors to ask any Christian child whether it was better to worship one God, the maker of heaven and earth, and one Savior, who had died for us, and was able to bring us to God, or to worship the gods many and the lords many whom the Romans served. There stood near by a Roman mother who had brought with her a little boy, nine years of age, that he might witness the sufferings of this martyr from Caesarea. The question was asked the child. He quickly replied, "God is one and Christ is one with the Father." The persecutor was filled with fresh rage and cried out, "O base and wicked Christian, that thou hast taught this child to answer thus." Then turning to the boy, he said more mildly, "Child, tell me who taught thee thus to speak? Where did you learn this faith?" The boy looked lovingly into his mother's face and said, "It was God that taught it to my mother, and she taught me that Jesus Christ loved little children, and so I learned to love Him for his first love for me. "Let us see what the love of Christ can do for you," cried the cruel judge, and at a sign from him the officers who stood by with their rods, after the fashion of the Romans, quickly seized the boy and made ready to torture him. "What can the love of Christ do for him now?" asked the judge, as the blood streamed from the tender flesh of the child. "It helps him," answered the mother, "to bear what his master endured for him when he died for us on the cross. Again they smote the child, and every blow seemed to torture the agonized mother as much as the child. As the blows, faster and heavier, were laid upon the bleeding boy, they asked, "What can the love of Christ do for him now? Tears fell from heathen eyes as that Roman mother replied, "It teaches him to forgive his tormentors." The boy watched his mother's eyes and no doubt thought of the sufferings of his Lord and Savior, and when his tormentors asked if he would now serve the gods they served, he still answered, "I will not deny Christ. There is no other God but one, and Jesus Christ is the redeemer of the world. He loved me and died for me, and I love him with all my heart. The poor child at last fainted between the repeated strokes, and they cast the torn and bleeding body into the mother's arms, saying, supposing that he was dead, "See what the love of Christ has done for your Christian boy now." As the mother pressed him to her heart she answered, "That love would take him from the wrath of man to the peace of heaven, where God shall wipe away all tears!" But the boy had not yet passed over the river. Opening his eyes, he said, "Mother, can I Page 5 of 6

6 have a drop of water from our cool well upon my tongue? As he closed his eyes in death the mother said, "Already, dearest, thou hast tasted of the well that springeth up unto everlasting life. Farewell! thy Savior calls for thee. Happy, happy martyr! for His sake may He grant thy mother grace to follow in thy bright path." To the surprise of all, after they thought he bad closed his eyes and had breathed his last, he finally raised his eyes and looked to where the elder martyr was, and said in almost a whisper, "There is but one God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent." And with these words upon his parched lips, he passed into God's presence, "where is fullness of joy, and to His right hand, where are pleasures forevermore. That was both the worst day and the best day of that little boy s life. But even the worst part didn t cast a doubtful shadow on the hope of the promise that he held to. Truly God kept him. Truly nothing and no one could snatch him out of his Heavenly Father s hand. He found that his table reservation was ready, on time, with everything that he had wanted and then some! 1 Peter 1:10 12 (NKJV) 10 Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, 11 searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 12 To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven things which angels desire to look into. Peter, referring to the Old Testament prophets, said they wanted to know to whom and when did this good news, the Gospel, apply. They came to realize that it would not be in their lifetime but in our. Page 6 of 6