After a season of leadership retreats and conferences,
mission trips, and a vacation, it is great to be back at the church where I
serve. Summer is over half over and soon we will launch into a new school year
and then a new season of the year. And I am finding that the older I get, the
faster time seems to go by. I am also finding that the older I get, the faster
that the pace of change seems to be.
For example, did you know that,
for someone who was born after 1994, Kurt Cobain, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis,
Richard Nixon and John Wayne Gacy have always been dead? Those born after 1994 have
always lived in cyberspace; the internet has always existed. Those born after
1994 have lived in an era of instant stardom and self-proclaimed celebrities,
famous for being famous. Star Wars has always been just a film, not a defense
strategy. History has always had its own channel. The Twilight Zone involves
vampires, not Rod Serling. Lou Gehrig's record for most consecutive baseball
games played has never stood in their lifetimes. The Green Bay Packers have
always celebrated with the Lambeau Leap. Little Caesar has always been
proclaiming “Pizza Pizza.”
You see, we live in a time where
societal and cultural change occurs at a frequently increasing rate. And as
followers of Jesus, we feel this exponential change in culture most acutely
when it comes to how the culture views Christianity. In the last 10 years, we have
seen radical change in how the culture approaches such topics as sexuality and
marriage, the nature of the Bible, and the role of the church in culture.
For example, the Biblical sources
of terms such as “Forbidden Fruit,” “The writing on the wall,” “Good
Samaritan,” and “The Promised Land” are unknown to most people born after 1994.
Up from 17 percent in 2004, 22 percent of Americans now
say that they never go to church - the highest ever recorded by the General Research
Survey.
David
Kinnaman, a researcher for Barna research, conducted a survey of 16-29 year
olds that revealed the top six perceptions that Millennials have of Christians.
96% of Millennials viewed Christians as Anti-Homosexual. 87% viewed Christians
as judgmental. 81% viewed Christians as hypocritical. In addition those
surveyed viewed Christians as sheltered, politically motivated, and insecure.
It would seem that as culture and society continue to rapidly change, that
Christianity is being left behind. And as a Christian worldview is left behind,
Christians now find themselves feeling marginalized and isolated.
In many
quarters, Christianity is now mocked and criticized. And in many quarters,
those who claim to be Christians find themselves the object of ridicule and
slander for clinging to a religious belief system that is viewed as being
outdated and outrageous. And for many Christians, regardless of age or stage of
life, the change of how culture and society views Christianity can negatively
impact their social status, their family relationships, and even future career
advancement.
As a
result, many Christians, especially younger Christians begin to question, or
even doubt the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel. And even if
Christians remain true to the core truths of Christianity, many Christians,
especially young Christians, struggle when it comes to how to respond when
their faith in Jesus is ridiculed, criticized, or slandered.
So how
are we as followers of Jesus to respond to such a rapidly changing culture? How
are we as followers of Jesus to respond to our faith being minimized and
marginalized? How are we as followers of Jesus to respond when our faith
results in us being ridiculed, criticized, and slandered?
To answer these questions, we are
going to spend several weeks in a letter that has been preserved and recorded
for us in the New Testament of the Bible, called the book of 1 Peter, where we
will discover the power that hope has to answer to these questions. So let’s
jump into this letter and meet the
author together, beginning in 1 Peter 1:1:
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who reside as aliens, scattered
throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen 2
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of
the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and
peace be yours in the fullest measure.
The letter of 1 Peter begins by introducing its author,
the Apostle Peter. Peter was the undisputed leader of the twelve closest
followers of Jesus. Peter describes himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ. An
Apostle was someone who had seen Jesus after He had been raised from the dead
and had been given the unique role and gifting by Jesus to a foundational
leader in the early church and a primary messenger that would deliver a new
message from God to the world.
After introducing himself as the author of this letter,
Peter introduces us to the recipients of this letter as those who reside as
aliens. This phrase was used to refer to someone who is staying temporarily in
a strange or foreign place. These were Jewish followers of Jesus who had been
scattered throughout a region of the world that was known as Asia Minor, which
we know today as modern day Turkey. This was a region of Asia Minor that the
Apostle Paul did not travel to during his missionary journeys.
These early Jewish followers of Jesus were residents of
this region of the world either as a result of their ancestors being scattered
during the Babylonian invasion of the Jewish nation, or as a result of a
persecution against followers of Jesus that is recorded for us in Acts 8. In
addition, the new movement of Christianity began to experience persecution at
the hands of the Roman Empire. And it is in this context that Peter, in 65 A.D.
penned this letter to these Jewish followers of Jesus that found themselves in
Turkey.
Peter proceeded to describe these early followers of
Jesus as those who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,
by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled
with His blood. Peter here is revealing for us the reality that, as followers
of Jesus, they had been chosen and drawn by God to experience a relationship
with God by the predetermined plan of God. Peter's point was that God was
actively at work throughout history, according to His predetermined plan, to
bring these early followers of Jesus to the place where they would experience
forgiveness of their selfishness and rebellion and the relationship with God
that they were created for.
Peter then explained that these early followers of Jesus
were chosen and drawn by God to experience a relationship with God by the
sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Now the word sanctified is a fancy church
mumbo jumbo talk word that means to be set apart and dedicated to God. Peter's point here is that the Holy Spirit's
transformational power and activity in the lives of these early followers of
Jesus had set them apart as being dedicated to God.
Peter then stated the reason why these early followers of
Jesus were chosen and drawn by God to experience a relationship with God was to
obey Jesus Christ. Peter here is revealing for us the reality that these early
followers of Jesus were chosen by God the Father to live lives that reveal and
reflect Jesus to the world around them by the power of the Holy Spirit. Peter
then revealed that, in spite of their selfishness and rebellion, these early
followers of Jesus were chosen and drawn to God to be sprinkled with His blood.
Peter is painting a word picture of a sacrificial
offering that would be offered as part of the Jewish sacrificial system. In the
Jewish sacrificial system, there were two times every day that sacrifices were
made to God for the sins of the people, one early in the morning and one in the
in the late afternoon at 3 p.m. These sacrificial offerings involved animals
who were offered as a substitute to pay the penalty for acts of selfishness and
rebellion that had been committed against God.
Peter is pointing these Jewish followers of Jesus to
Jesus death on the cross in their place, for their rebellion that cleansed and
removed their sins. You see, Jesus death on the cross
provides salvation because Jesus death alone satisfies God’s right and just
response to the selfishness and rebellion of humanity and removes humanities guilt
that results from selfishness, sin, and rebellion.
And in the same way today, as followers of Jesus, we have
been chosen by God to experience a relationship with God as a result of the
predetermined plan of God and not because of our performance. As followers of
Jesus, we have been chosen by God to experience a relationship with God by the
transformational intervention and activity of the Holy Spirit who gives us a
new heart and a new spirit within us. As followers of Jesus, we have been
chosen by God to experience a relationship with God and to live lives that
reveal and reflect Jesus to the world around us by the power of the Holy
Spirit. And as followers of Jesus, we have been chosen by God to experience a
relationship with God through Jesus death on the cross, in our place, for our
selfishness and rebellion that satisfies God’s right and
just response to the selfishness and rebellion of humanity and removes the guilt
that results from our selfishness and rebellion.
After
describing how these early followers of Jesus were chosen by God to experience
a relationship with God, Peter extended a traditional greeting of grace and
peace. Peter hoped that these early followers of Jesus would experience God's
divine favor in their lives and a state of well being with God that was
continually increasing in their lives. Peter then makes a statement that reveals for us a
powerful and timeless truth when it comes to our relationship with Jesus.
Tomorrow, we will look at this statement…
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