The Results of Holiness

Brandon Petras

Set Apart • Sermon • Submitted 8 months ago • Presented 8 months ago

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Transcript

Intro

As most, if not all of you know, before I was a school administrator I used to be a teacher. More specifically I was a technology education teacher.

I taught anything from robotics and engineering to traditional wood and metal shop depending on the need each school year.

If you want raise your blood pressure a little, might I suggest putting 25, fourteen year olds in a room with power tools and cutting them loose.

It was stressful because as the teacher I am responsible for their safety. The last thing you ever want is a student getting hurt on a saw or a drill or some other piece of equipment.

So you have the risk of the actual equipment to consider. Add to that, the limited experience this kids have with using this equipment and you have a high level of risk.

As the teacher, my goal was to mitigate that risk as much as possible through good safety training, close proximity and observation, and using different techniques that made it safer for everyone.

One of those techniques was the use of patterns and fixtures.

Patterns were typically finished pieces that students would either trace, or use as a guide to mirror after.

The idea was to make it easier, and safer for them to make the right piece because it was design to mimic the pattern.

This not only saved time and prevented wasting material due to bad measurements and cuts. But it also made it safer for the students.

The pattern was what we based everything on. If they didn’t follow the pattern, then the piece would not fit properly and it had to be thrown out.

Patterns aren’t just helpful in woodworking, but they are also useful in all areas of life when we are learning to do something new.

Throughout the month of September we have been looking at a pattern given to us in 1 Peter chapters 1 and 2.

It is a pattern for a very different way of living than what most are used to.

It is a pattern for living what the Bible calls a set apart life. Or, a holy life.

A life that unlike the rest of world, is one where the one living chooses to die to self. One that isn’t self centered or self focused.

One that says it isn’t about our rights or our privileges or our will.

Its a life that says its all about Jesus and following his example or pattern for serving God.

Jesus’s life was set apart and as his followers we called to follow his pattern or example and do the same.

But we have to remember why we do it.

It isn’t about following rules to prove how holy we are

It certainly isn’t about trying show how much better we are than others

It isn’t about legalism or trying to earn our salvation

Rather, we live holy set apart lives because of what Jesus has done for us. Our free gift of salvation cost us nothing, but it cost him everything on the cross.

Beware of a false gospel

But we can know this and if we aren’t careful we can find ourselves buying into or believing in a false gospel.

A gospel that says, Jesus did it all, just have faith. If you do, then you will never struggle again. You will never be sick, never be poor, and never suffer again.

If you do, then the issue isn’t with your theology, it’s with your faith. You just don’t have enough.

This is the prosperity gospel at its core and it is one of the most effective and destructive false gospels Satan ever came up with.

Because the prosperity gospel does an amazing job at taking the believer’s reliance off of God and putting it directly on themselves.

After all, it is my faith that unlocks power from heaven, not God’s sovereignty.

Just have faith. But you know what you will never hear from a prosperity gospel preacher’s pulpit? Be holy.

Be set apart. Be obedient to the word of God. Follow the pattern of Christ?

Why won’t you ever hear that? Because if we follow the pattern of Jesus then the prosperity gospel can’t be true.

1 Peter 2:18-21 NLT 18 You who are slaves must submit to your masters with all respect. Do what they tell you—not only if they are kind and reasonable, but even if they are cruel. 19 For God is pleased when, conscious of his will, you patiently endure unjust treatment.

20 Of course, you get no credit for being patient if you are beaten for doing wrong. But if you suffer for doing good and endure it patiently, God is pleased with you. 21 For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps.

Up to this point in Peter’s letter he has been telling us that as followers of Jesus we must live differently.

Why? Because of what Jesus has done.

How? By making Jesus the foundation for everything we build our lives on.

For what purpose? So others will see how we live and that while yes, it will offend some, but for others, it will draw them to want the same thing we have; a reconciled relationship with our heavenly father.

But Peter also wants us to understand something. And that is that leading a holy life will not prevent us from suffering, especially suffering from persecution. But it will help us look more like our patter, or example Jesus.

Follow the Pattern

Peter here is using a social context that his readers would have understood. Slavery was a normal social construct in the ancient world.

There were millions of slaves living within the Roman empire. Slavery was an industry that was woven throughout the very fabric of society.

Peter and his audience lived their entire lives within this world. Peter here is not condoning or condemning slavery, if he did that would have brought the Roman government down on him even harder than it already was.

Instead Peter is trying to explain how as Christians we need to live in our society, even one where slavery is normalized.

In fact, many of the new Christians that made up the early Church were slaves. So it only makes sense that Peter would address their new way of living in the context of their current lot in life as slaves.

The broader context of what Peter is saying here applies not only to slaves but to all Christians. We know this because this is preceded by what we read last week on respecting authority and fearing God.

Peter just adds to it by saying, not only do you need to respect authority, but even when that authority causes you to suffer, understand that this is your opportunity to be different.

To do good, not matter what. But not just for the sake of doing good, but because Jesus also suffered and he is our example.

Some have said that Jesus suffered because of God’s special will for humanity. That somehow that doesn’t mean we too may be called to suffer for doing good.

To believe that is to ignore what scripture teaches.

1 Peter 2:21 NLT 21 For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps.

The word example here is the greek word hypogrammon. This was a word that Peter’s audience would have understood to be a play on words.

A hypogrammon was actually a book of Greek letters that a teacher would give a student to learn to write with. They would start by copying the letter from the hypogrammon in their own writing.

The hypogrammon was their example that all of their writing was patterned after.

By Peter calling Jesus our hypogrammon he is quite literally saying that in the same way Jesus suffered, that is how we are to suffer.

In our social media age, we can “mute” or unfollow people we don’t like. If they don’t treat us well, we can delete them from our lives.

Peter calls us to a different type of life. He calls us to love and respect those who treat us poorly just as we should love and respect those who treat us well.

Don’t misunderstand me this morning. Peter is not suggesting that we should put up with abuse in any form.

He isn’t saying that in order to be Christ-like we must endure beatings and verbal assaults and simply deal with them

He isn’t saying that defending one’s self is wrong.

What he is saying is that retaliation isn’t the answer. Retribution and vengeance is not a right that we have.

Rather, in the face of this kind of suffering, how we respond is what makes us set apart or different.

People who get caught up with revenge and demanding a right to self are people who are too caught up in this temporary life.

They fail to see that the suffering we experience in this life pails in comparison to the glory that awaits us.

Romans 8:18 NLT 18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.

They fail to see that God will not commend us simply for suffering, but for how we suffer.

In the same way Jesus responded to his persecutors, that is how we should respond.

In the same way Jesus lived a set apart, holy life, that is how we should live a set apart, holy life.

Next, Peter starts quoting and paraphrasing Isaiah 53.

1 Peter 2:22-25 NLT 22 He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone. 23 He did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly.

24 He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed. 25 Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls.

Application/Closing

Peter goes through here and highlights how Jesus demonstrated everything he is calling these believers, and by extension, us to do.

Peter is showing that Jesus never sinned. All he knew was good and yet he was insulted and abused.

But in his abuse he never retaliated. Why? Because a person who wants revenge or retaliation is one who ultimately doesn’t believe God is in control.

Think about it. If God is truly in control, then one day every wrong will be made right. Every injustice will be corrected.

But if God isn’t in control, then the only way that is going to happen is if we make it happen.

Instead, as Peter tells us, Jesus trusted his case in the hands of God the Father because he knew that one day, all would be made right.

Peter goes on to describe how Jesus personally carried our sins to the cross and died for them there so that we could then die to sin and live for what is right.

Because of his torture and suffering, we are healed.

Finally, Peter says that once we were like sheep and wandered away.

That is what sheep do. They need a leader or someone to guide them.

Sheep for the most part will just follow the sheep in front of them whether that sheep is leading them to safety or to danger.

Peter understands the human heart and its proneness to wander. Because in our sin, we are like lost sheep. Sheep who simply follow the pattern of the other sheep around us.

Even if that pattern is destroying our souls.

But our hypogrammon, our pattern, Jesus has become our shepherd. One that we can follow and trust to lead us to safety.

One who not only will lead us to safety, but will be the protector or guardian of our soul.

The one who will fight off the wolves and drive out the predators that attempt to hurt us.

The one who will defend us, protect us, and provide for us.

In our pursuit of holiness, we must embrace that call to follow our shepherd Jesus, even when it leads to suffering.

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