Easter, 2015 Experience the Passion Bought with the Precious Blood of Christ Opening Scripture: John 20:1-9 Patricia Demayer Introduction: Two weeks ago, I was sitting over on the right side of the sanctuary during the time of singing in our worship service. During one of the songs, Stuart had placed an image of the cross as the background to the lyrics. I ve put that picture on the front of your programs so you can see it. I happened to be sitting a row or two in front of Kurt Johanns and his young son, Eric. After the singing was finished and we were sitting, I heard Eric whisper, Dad, that cross had blood on it! I could tell he was a little frightened by it. A week ago, Carol and I went to an OsterMarkt at Ronneburg Castle. It was really more of a Middle Ages Festival than an Easter Market. There were booths with food and drink, jewelry and trinkets, costumes and period games of skill. The closest things I saw having anything to do with Easter were crosses. They were everywhere. There were crosses on people s clothing from knight s robes to biker s t-shirts. There were cross medallions, cross rings, cross earrings and crosses emblazed on children s toy shields. But they bore little resemblance to the cross of Christ. Nancy Guthrie wrote in Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross, Oh, what we miss out on when we rush past the cross of Christ. Oh the richness and reward when we stop to linger before it, when we take the time to consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself (Heb. 12:3). In a culture where crosses have become commonplace as architecture and jewelry, how we need to truly gaze upon the cross of Christ in all of its ugliness and beauty, in its death and in its healing, in the painful price paid there, and in its free gift of grace. Jesus, keep us near the cross. For the past couple of weeks we have been looking at Easter through the eyes of Peter perhaps the most familiar of the 12 disciples of Jesus. We ve seen how the events of that weekend were personally horrible for him marked by one failure after another form the failure to adequately prepare for the Passover meal as he had been instructed by Jesus, to his assertion to be the greatest during the meal, falling asleep in the garden, cutting off the ear of a priest s servant, and abandoning and denying his Teacher, Master and Lord. It was a terrible night! And that was not even taking into account the fact that on the next day that Friday, his closest friend and the One he had devoted his life to was violently and unjustly murdered in a cruel and vicious manner. And yet we have seen that when Peter looked back on those events, and wrote about them some 30 years later he had a different perspective. Today, on this Easter day, we are going to look at the bloody, cruel cross of Jesus through the eyes of Peter once again.
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance! Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
The Present: Our Position in the Cross of Christ (1 Peter 1:1-9) Peter explains first our position in before God as a result of the Cross of Christ. Notice that Peter tells us that the Trinity is involved in the cross. Christians believe in one God existing in three Persons: God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. All three Persons are involved in our salvation. Remembering this will help us escape dangerous extremes that either deny human responsibility and will or dilute the sovereignty of God. Both are taught in the Bible. In the Bible, to foreknow means "to set one's love on a person or persons in a personal way." God s love is uniquely focused on those who are saved. But the plan of salvation includes more than the Father's electing love; it also includes the work of the Spirit in convicting the sinner and bringing him to faith in Christ. Also, the Son of God had to die on the cross for our sins, or there could be no salvation. We have been chosen by the Father, purchased by the Son, and set apart by the Spirit. It takes all three if there is to be a true experience of salvation. And it involves my response to His work in my heart. God opens the eyes my heart so that I can believe. As far as God the Father is concerned, I was saved when He chose me in Christ before the world began. As far as God the Son is concerned, I was saved when He died for me on the cross. As far as God the Holy Spirit is concerned, I was saved in June of 1966, in a Sunday school class, when I heard the Gospel and trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior. At that moment, my entire being was washed in the blood of Christ, and the entire plan came together and I became a child of God. 1 Here in Peter s letter that instant is called the moment of my new birth Jesus said that unless a person is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Peter tells us that this new birth is into a living hope that we have through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and that as a result we have an inheritance an eternal, perfect reward that cannot be destroyed or diminished it is mine and yours if you have placed your faith in Christ. Peter tells us that this inheritance gives us joy in the midst of our trials. We are able to go through the struggles, disappointment, grief and all kinds of trials in this life because we know we have that life. Do you have that life in Christ? Have you asked Him to cleanse you and forgive you of your sins by His blood shed on that cross? Do you know the joy of knowing that you have eternal life because He defeated death and rose from the grave? Trust Him even today, and receive the salvation of your soul! 1 Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary New Testament, Volume 2. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1987), Logos Electronic Version, 391.
1 Peter 1:10-12 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.
The Past: A Proclamation of the Cross of Christ (1 Peter 1:10-12) Peter points out in this paragraph that the entire work of God among humanity from the creation of the world looked forward to the cross of Christ. In fact, from the Garden of Eden, where God promised the woman that one day, an offspring of hers would crush the head of the serpent, but that the serpent would bruise His heal. From that time on, the entire creation waited for deliverance. Peter tells us that the Old Testament writers spoke of the grace that was to come and has indeed come to those who believe. They searched intently, Peter says, looking forward to and anticipating the coming suffering and glory of the Savior, the Christ. The cross is at the center of all Christianity. But the truth is, the cross is at the center of the entire Word of God! From Genesis, through the Psalms, a the Prophets, we see Christ and the plan of God for the forgiveness of sins. A week ago, Crystal Din shared with Carol and I a sermon she had seen where it was demonstrated that the Book of the Prophet Isaiah can be seen as a 66-chapter summary of the 66 books of the Bible it was fascinating! And I can tell you that within that book of Isaiah, you can find one of the most heart-wrenching descriptions of the suffering of Christ and His ultimate victory - and it was written 700 years before Jesus walked the earth! But that past searching and longing for the Cross of Christ has been satisfied. Peter reminds his readers that they have received what those in the past longed to know! The Good News the Gospel has been preached by the Holy Spirit sent from God to us, and as a result we have been born again into a new life a life and an existence, Peter tells us, that event the angels of heaven are fascinated by! The writer of Hebrews tells us that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses heroes of the Old Testament who cheer us on as we walk with God and here Peter tells us that the angels are fascinated by the new life we have in Christ Are we as captivated, encouraged and amazed by the grace of God that we have experienced? Do we live and walk in the light of His grace? That is what Peter talks about in the next section.
I Peter 1:13-25 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. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: Be holy, because I am holy. Since you call on a Father who judges each person s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 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, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. 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. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever. [c] And this is the word that was preached to you.
The Future: Our Proceeding in the Cross of Christ (1 Peter 1:13-25) Notice the transitional words in this section: Therefore, Since, Now that. These words point to a future action based on the previous conditions. Peter makes it clear that the power of God at work in the Cross of Christ, long anticipated by the people of God for centuries past, and preached by the ministry of the Holy Spirit must result in an altered lifestyle. Christians live in the future tense; our present actions and decisions are governed by our future hope. Just as an engaged couple makes all their plans in the light of that future wedding, so Christians today live with the expectation of seeing and being with Jesus Christ. 2 In verses 13-16, He calls us to have our minds and thinking prepared for action. The words there imply that we will be calm and steady not blown off course by every discouragement that comes along. We are to keep our focus on the knowledge of our hope in Christ. Keeping our eyes on the future reality helps us deal with the temporary present circumstance. We are to resist the evil around us and be obedient to God living lives that are holy. The command to be holy in verse 16 is expanded in verse 17-19, when Peter tells us to live as strangers. The word holy in its most basic definition is, different. If we are going to call God our Father, ourselves His children, then we had better live lives that reflect that heritage. That means that we are going to be strange in the eyes of the world. We will have different values, a different definition of joy and love and peace. There is going to be a difference in our outlook that makes a difference in our output. We are going to be strange people, and that will cause some heat to be applied by the world. Peter tells us that that heat only serves to purify our lives like heat purifies gold by removing the impurities. In verse 22, Peter says that we must demonstrate this strange, holy and different lifestyle by loving one another deeply. The love we have for one another is to be sincere not fake or surface but deep and true from a pure heart. It s also to be a love that is fervent which was a word used in Peter s day for an Olympic athlete who strived with all their energy in the effort. All of this, Peter tells is, is available only to those who have been born again, of a perfect heavenly heritage and all through, what he calls in verse 19, the precious blood of Christ. It is my prayer that this amazing existence of living hope, eternal inheritance and inexpressible and glorious joy, is yours today, granted by the grace of God to all who believe. Have you believed it? If not, today is a great day to do so. If you have are you living in the life that proceeds from the cross of Christ? Peter tells us that it comes through the living, and enduring word of God. All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word that was preached to you even this day. 2 Ibid.