Hope-fueled Obedience - Part 2 (1 Peter 1.13–21)

Peter continues his study of 1 Peter 1:13-21, emphasizing the importance of hope, holiness, and fearing God in the midst of suffering and persecution. He explains that when danger or difficulty arises, it is natural for people to prepare and seek resources to face it. Peter applies this principle to the specific context of the persecuted Christians, who are encouraged to set their hope on the future grace brought by Jesus Christ's return, pursue holiness, and fear God. Pursuing holiness helps to prevent immediate consequences of sin and provides protection against accusations. Peter reminds the readers that they have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, and encourages them to trust in God's provision and not fear threats. This morning, we are going to continue our study of 1 Peter, verses 1, again, 13 to 21. Last week, we began studying this passage, and we looked at only verse 13, and we mentioned something about verse 21. Now, last week, as I began this passage, I began with a picture of a person shopping after the pandemic, or when the lockdown was announced, and getting all the toilet paper, right? Some of you were struggling to find toilet paper. That guy on the picture was the one to blame. He took most of them. I couldn't find him. He hid them. But here's the thing. The point I was trying to make with this picture is that when danger is near, when difficulty, when a catastrophe is about to come, and you know, any person with their normal senses would do everything to be ready for that. It's a different thing when you don't know that the catastrophe is approaching. It takes you by surprise. There's not much you can do. But if you know it's coming, something is going to happen, you get ready. It's our human nature. When the market was going to crash, and several people knew it, they were taking out their money, doing different things. That's just our nature. When the pandemic came, and everybody was talking about the lockdowns and different things, people ran, and they thought, I need to get the most important thing. In my life, toilet paper. I never thought toilet paper would be so important. But those who didn't get to get enough know how important it is now. We get resources to face those difficulties. Well, this is exactly what Peter means when he writes verses 13 to 21. Sometimes you've listened to sermons of this passage, divorced or separated from the book of Peter. And you can preach this passage in that way, because what Peter is going to give us in these verses are general principles of things that Christians are to do, to pursue. Things as hoping in Jesus Christ, pursuing holiness, and fearing God. Those are the three things he says. You need that no matter what the circumstances of your life are. I hope as a Christian, you hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope as a Christian, you desire to be holy because God is holy. And I hope that you fear God. So you can preach these verses in a general sense. But, Peter writes these words in a specific context. A context of great turmoil, and difficulty, and suffering. Thus, Peter means these words to be a resource for the believer in the midst of trouble, in the midst of difficulty, in the midst of suffering. Particularly in the midst of suffering because of your faith. We should not forget what is the context of 1 Peter. These are Christians that have been expelled from their homeland. They are pilgrims, they are refugees, scattered across the Roman Empire where they are not welcome. And they are not welcome not just because of their social status of being refugees, but because of their faith. They believe in Jesus Christ. They believe in a monotheist God, and that's insulting to pagan Romans. That's insulting to many people. They don't like that. It is true that in this case, they are a minority group. Christianity is not the main religion. They're being ostracized, persecuted. Their things are being pillaged. And they're suffering. Now, Peter will deal in a few more verses. We will arrive in the second part of chapter 1. Then, more specifically, chapter 2. Peter is going to tell them what are the things they should do in the midst of suffering. How they should respond. But before he gives them some advice or some guidelines as to how they should respond to the direct attack and suffering and persecution, he's going to give them these biblical truths. Because they are general truths, resources. Not just for the situation, for the outside, but for the inner being. Because when you are in the most trying of situations, what you need the most is not so much to solve the problem, but to be strengthened and encouraged in your inner being. So, that's what Peter does. And therefore, he writes these verses. Which, by the way, not accidentally, but on purpose, begins with a description of our hope. He says, in verse 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. I said last week, and I will continue saying, and as a matter of fact, it's in the bulletin right there, so you don't forget. Our hope in God's grace results in obedience to God's word, which transforms us into His likeness. It's everywhere. Maybe we ought to make a poster, too, to put it every week on the walls, so you don't forget. Set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed. So, the first thing that Peter tells his readers is that, with vigor and alertness, hope in the future grace of God. Now, why in the world would Peter begin talking about the hope? These people are suffering. They are in great need. Probably what they need is to be given some sort of, not just encouragement, but some way to alleviate, to ease their pain. Why would he do that? Because that is the most important thing. A suffering person, particularly someone who suffers because of their belief in Jesus Christ, needs. They need hope. Some of you might have taken some biblical classes or something for counseling and things like that. There is a counseling program in some Christian institutions. Some of you, when you go to these counseling programs, the first thing you will be taught as a counselor, when you are counseling people, the first thing you need to do is to give them hope. That is the first, most important, basic thing. Give them hope. Usually, when people come to a counselor, they are in a crisis. Some of them have considered, have had suicidal thoughts. They think everything is crumbling down. They think there is nothing else they can be doing. The first way you begin is by giving them hope. But that is where Christianity is beautiful. Because the hope you are going to give to this person is not a sort of a wishful thinking, hoping to just make them feel better. It is actually a real hope. Something that we as Christians await. The hope that our Lord Jesus Christ is going to come. Which Peter words or packages this hope with the words of a future grace. Set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at His coming. It is grace. You know what the grace of God in your life is. You have been forgiven of your sins. And that in itself is hope. But He is going beyond that to tell us that there is more in store for you when the Lord Jesus comes. So He begins by giving them hope. And as Christians, our faith actually has its foundation in the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that is hope. Because He lives, we will live and He will come back. One of the most important doctrines of the Christian faith is the second coming of our Lord. As a matter of fact, if you don't believe in the second coming of our Lord Jesus, you are a heretic. Even the main religions of, if we talk of Christianity as a religion, believe in the second coming of Jesus. Catholics believe in the second coming of Jesus. Orthodox believe in the second coming of Jesus. It is one of the core doctrines of the faith. And it begins with our hope. If we are going to face this difficulty, persecution and all of that, we can only do it with knowing that we have been forgiven of our sins and knowing that our Lord Jesus is coming back for us to establish His kingdom. And after that, only after talking about this hope is that Peter challenges his readers to be holy. And he tells us that with obedience and knowledge, we must pursue the holiness of God. In verse 14, this is how he begins. As a matter of fact, as obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as He has called you is holy, so be holy in all you do. And if that is not enough for you, He is going to give us Scripture. For it is written, Be holy, because I am holy. Now, there is a lot of imperatives in this passage as you look at them. If you look at verse 13, it says, like, if you are reading a different version, it might say, Be alert, be fully sober, be obedient. And it looks like there are many commitments. But when you look at the original text, in this passage, there is only three commitments for Christians, three imperatives. The first one is, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed. The second commitment is, be holy. And the third commitment is, in verse 17, live out your life in reverent fear. So three commitments. All the other things are sort of statements that build up these commandments. So three commandments, set your hope in the coming of the Lord Jesus, be holy, fear God. Those are the three resources He gives us. But as I said, He writes a lot of other things around those commandments that are related if we're going to do them. In the second commandment, in the case of that we need to be holy, He begins by saying, ask obedient children. If you have been raised in a house where you have to follow rules, and you have to honor your parents, this text makes sense to you. It's not foreign. You know what children are expected by parents. In my house, my children know. I tell them constantly, my house is not a democracy. It's a monarchy where I alone, I am king. Well, the Lord Jesus is above me, but I am His core region, if you want to call it. I am king. It's not a democracy. You do what I say. But Dad, you make mistakes. That's right. You still do what I say. And so when they come, it's not fair. That's the typical discussion. I tell them, you don't get to decide what's fair or not. I'm king. I do try to be sensitive to their needs, and when they say they're not fair, I try to be fair. I am a sinner too, and when I make mistakes, I do ask for forgiveness. But you know what it means to be unobedient children. And that's the kind of attitude that Peter is writing of you to God. What you demand, and in the way that you demand of your children, God demands of you. This is not a democracy where you get to discuss with God the terms of how you get to behave, or what you get to do. He is king alone. He's not being presented here as king, though, but as father. And that is important, because he says, unobedient children, and then later, he's going to bring, when he brings the fear of God, which we'll talk about, he says, since you call on a father who judges, yes, God is judge, God is king, but above all things, he's father. Now why the importance of father? And this is where I bring together the thought that we just had when we sang the little song, Trust and Obey. Sometimes I use the illustration, the Bible uses the illustrations of God as a father whom you can trust. And for some people, this is a difficult metaphor, because their experience with their father has been nothing but terrible. I've met a girl when I was a youth leader who came to know the Lord, and she struggled with viewing God as father, because her father abused her constantly. And that's where we need to make a distinction to explain, God is not that kind of a father. God is a loving father. God is a loving father that is there to welcome you, to love you, to take care of you, to protect you, to provide for you. That's the kind of father God is. Some of you have had that kind of father. And for you, it's not hard at all to see God as a loving father. So it's important that we explain this. He's a father that cares, that loves you, and it's a person you could trust with blind eyes. I want to think my kids can trust me. I hope they do. I think they do. And sometimes that trust is so important because sometimes the commitments given by parents don't make sense to kids. But if you've built that level of relationship where there's trust, even if it doesn't make sense to them, they'll follow. I'll give you an example. I don't know if I should say this, but you will understand, and there is nothing wrong if you do something different. But years ago when we had Krista, she was little, and different things like that, we decided that in our house our kids were not going to be allowed to do sleepovers somewhere else. It's not because sleepovers are bad, and it's not because parents who do it are bad. No, you can do as you, if it's fine. But we decided that we were going to make our home a place of protection for all of them, any friends to come and to do that. And we were going to send our children to their friend's home and all of that to spend time to play, but not to sleepover, not to spend the night. And that worked so well for many years until my children became a little older, nine, ten, eleven, now twelve. Krista has cousins and a couple of cousins that live close by, very, very good friends. And they come, and they are even allowed to spend the night if they want with us. But then they asked Krista if she would come, and we told her no. And she doesn't understand. Now she's old enough that we could explain to her, but she didn't understand at the time when she was nine or ten, why, and all of that. But she trusted us, and she didn't push. I think it's unfair, I don't understand, but I understand. Now she's twelve, and we explained the reasons. And I had to give her some crass background. I didn't grow up in a Christian home, and some of the awful things happened to some of my siblings, my sister, myself, and things like that in the so-called sleepovers. And it doesn't have to happen all the time. But even if I know your best friend, I don't know who is in that house, and I have no control of that. I don't know of other people and different things like that. Now I don't say this to scare you or to make you think. That's some things that we decided to talk and to decide together as a family. You know, there's a lot of sleepovers. People do different things, and that's fine. But we decided that that was going to be a non-negotiable rule in our house. And we had to make it non-negotiable, because there were some exceptions where we were tempted to send our kids. We trust totally. But the problem is when we start making that exception, how do you explain here yes, not there, and all of that, and all of that? We just decided not to deal with the problem at all, and we made strict rule. And that remains still today. Again, that's what we decided. But she was able, and they are able to accept that because they trust us. Sometimes some of the things that God is going to tell us might not make sense, but we trust Him. That's why as obedient children, and there's two parts here in this commandment. The first one, obedience means that God's children renounce the practices of their former life. We used to live a certain way. We used to like certain kinds of sins that we cherish. We did that. Well, when we came to know Jesus Christ, we refused those things. We give up those sins, whether it be lust, whether it be promiscuity, whether it be pride, whether it be gossip, whether it be, you name it. We renounce. That's why He words the passage in the negative. Do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. There's another element of us obedient children too. My grandfather used to say, when I was raised by my grandfather, when I was about, even when I was a little kid, he would constantly tell us, remember the name. It's not that he had a fancy name and all of that, but remember the name. It was so important, his reputation. We were not allowed to stain his reputation. He worked very hard to build. We are God's children. His reputation is at stake when we do things or fail to do things. That's why it's negative there. Do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But like any commandment in the Scriptures, you can't just stop doing something and leave it there because it'll immediately get filled with something else. You have to replace things. These principles of the Scripture are used today even to console addicts when they are struggling with drugs. You just don't tell them, give up the pot or give up the cocaine. You tell them you give up and then you replace that with something. Whether it's exercise or change activities. And it's the same here. He says, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But what do you do instead? 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. You pursue holiness. You pursue holiness. Thus obedience means that God's children pursue the character of God. What is being holy? Holy means simply to be set apart. Separated. Separated from God. Separated from sin. Separated from the world. You set your life apart for God and only for Him. You pursue the character of God. You learn about His love. You learn about His righteousness. You learn about His grace. You learn about His truthfulness. And you pursue those things. That's why theology is important. That's why Peter began chapter 1 verses 3 all the way to 12 praising God and giving us these theological treaties of what God has done in His great mercy. And we strive to imitate God's character. And everything begins with our hope in Jesus Christ. That's why our hope in God's grace results in obedience to God's word which transforms us into God's likeness. Now, how is it that holiness functions as one of God's resources to strengthen us and to encourage us in the midst of suffering and persecution? Remember, I told you that we should not remove this passage from the context. He's given us this as resources that these believers are to take hold of to face the trials they are going through right now. So how does pursuing holiness help us, strengthen us, encourage us in the midst of suffering and persecution? You see, this is a question worth thinking about. Because for the most part, when people read these verses as being holy, they immediately think of God as this annoying father who just wants to mess up the party. You know, I just want to live this way, have fun, live life, enjoy. Why do you God have to mess up my party, be holy, do this? They look at it that way, which is the wrong way to look at this. Because these scriptures are not meant to mess up your party, but they are meant to strengthen you, to encourage you, to change you, to make you better. He already used the word refined gold, and he will use it again. He says, when he talks about fear God in verse 18, he says, 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, and all of these things. But before he talks about you being refined by these sufferings, God is not trying to mess your party. He is trying to strengthen you, to encourage you, to make you more into his image. So how does being holy then help us? Well, first of all, pursuing holiness prevents us from suffering the immediate consequences of our sin. This, of course, does not mean that we will not suffer unjustly. It does, however, mean that authorities won't have any grounds to accuse us of any wrongdoing. So it works as a general rule to give us protection from being accused of unrighteous things. If you go farther down, in chapter 3, verse 3, Peter is going to write, Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? Now, that doesn't mean that Peter is contradicting himself. He is aware that Christians are suffering, even though they are doing right things. But the general principle is that if you do good things, if you behave rightly, as a general rule, you will be more protected, you will do better. That's why he asks, Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear their threats, do not be frightened, but in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. In fact, he tells them that if you suffer because of sin, what good is there? If you read verse 18 to 21 of chapter 2, when he writes to the slaves, he says, Slaves, in reverent fear of God, submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering, because they are conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? Don't come here to complain to me, I'm suffering, you know, poor me, poor me, you deserved it. That's what he's saying. Yes, Christians are suffering unjustly. But he's saying, be holy because in a normal world, those who pursue a righteous way of living will not be, probably, be in much trouble with the law and different things like that. That's one way in which holiness encourages us and helps us in the times of trouble. Secondly, holiness enables us to live in peace with our own conscience, unless, of course, our conscience is a place of utter numbness. You see, I think it's much worse to be caged in a rotten conscience than to be caged in four walls in a prison. One of my favorite books, a classic, is Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. In that book, he talks about a person committing a crime, trying to kill this lady who was mean, everybody hated this lady and all of that. And this person was poor and, you know, so he ended up killing the lady. He never gets in trouble with the law. He never gets in trouble because everybody hated the lady. Ah, good that she's dead, gone, it's fine. But the punishment in the book for this person was his own conscience. He could not live with that, even though he got away with it. He never got away from God. And you see, that is another way in which holiness enables us to live in peace. You see, when you are constantly devoted to sin, there is a point in which you can no longer bear it. And thank God He gave us a conscience because it is at that point when you can no longer bear it that you come to His aid. But when you live victorious lives, holy lives, you feel good. You have peace. You know you're honoring God. It's encouraging. In chapter 2, verses 10 to 12, Peter writes, Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us. And that is another reason how holiness helps us. It brings other people to praise God, and it reduces the number of enemies you may have in this case. Finally, because of holiness, we will not experience the wrath of God. So these are ways in which holiness is a resource for our good. And finally, and with this I will close my sermon with the third resource. Peter challenges us that with reliance and reverence, we should fear the righteousness of God. Since you call on a Father who judges each person's work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. Fear. Do you fear God? Now again, he is compared as a father here. So we are encouraged here to call God. So we can call upon God and trust in His provision because He is our Father. He says, call on the Father who judges each person. Even though we have to fear God, He is actually encouraging the believers to call on God because He is righteous. He is fair. Yes, my children sometimes say, it's not fair. And sometimes they are right. But God is always going to be fair. He judges each person's work impartially. And you can trust in Him. But because of that, because you can trust Him, that He is impartial and righteous and fair, here comes the commandment. Live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. We owe God deep reverence as judge because He is our Father. Now if you are a person who likes to get away with things, then you better be afraid. You can trust Him. But you need to have a healthy fear of God. And I don't mean this just reverence. I do mean fear. As a matter of fact, the writer of Hebrews would write that it is a horrendous thing to fall in the hands of the living God. Sometimes we don't talk much about the fear that we need to have to God. You see, I have seen some of these experiments in some house where the dad wants to be just the friend, the buddy-buddy of their children. And it's nice. It works. But sometimes this friendship is pushed to a point that the children have no fear for their parents. No respect. Now I am not here to tell you how you should parent. I think the Scripture has principles and all of that. I encourage you to listen to them. But I've seen disasters where there is no respect. On the other hand, you have the extreme where the father is really a despot. And it's completely inflexible. And there is so much fear that there is no trust. You need both. But a child who does not respect or fear their parents is going to walk over him. We cannot do that with God. We need to truly fear Him. He's holy. We need to pursue holiness. He's righteous. We need to pursue His righteousness. And we owe God deep reverence because He has given us redemption. Again, that's a whole message so I won't say much. I'll just read the Scripture. He gives us the reason why we should fear God in reverence. 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. He basically tells us you need to fear God because He has saved you. Not only because He's His Father, because He has delivered you from your sins. Before we were forgiven by God, we were in a state of bondage to sin. But God saved us. And our redemption from bondage was made possible at great cost. It wasn't silver, it wasn't gold as much as you treasure those things. It was with something more precious than gold. It was the blood of Jesus Christ. It required a special kind of death, the spilling of blood. Our redemption was part of God's eternal plan. What else do you need to fear God and to hope in Him and to pursue holiness? As I said, our hope in God's grace results in obedience to God's Word, which transforms us in God's likeness. And everything is found its base on the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have hope because we have been redeemed. And because we have hope, we can trust God and fully obey Him as our Father and fear Him. And as we do, we become more in the likeness of His image.