A Costly Faith
Notes
Transcript
I am going to really date myself. I remember as a kid even up until I was a teenager that my mother collected S&H Green stamps. Do you remember them? If you do, then you are old also!
Most stores and gas stations gave you those green stamps for your purchases. You got so many based on the dollar amount of your purchase. You would take them home and paste them into your savings book. When you got your book filled you could go to the S&H Green Stamp store and exchange your stamps for merchandise.
The year I went off to college my mom took me to the S&H Green Stamp store and she gave me all of her books that she had been saving her stamps in. She said I could redeem them for stuff that I would need in my dorm room. It was fun redeeming all those stamps. She had been saving for a long time.
There is a story that is told of a farmer who was being questioned by a lawyer during a trial concerning an accident. The lawyer asked the farmer, "Is it true, Mr. Jones, that when the highway patrol officer came over to you after the accident, you said, 'I feel fine'?"
Farmer Jones began to answer by saying, "Well, now, me and my cow Bessie were driving down the highway in my pickup truck when..." At this point the attorney interrupted, saying, "Please just answer my question with a yes or a no; did you say to the officer, 'I feel fine'?" Farmer Jones then tried to answer the question again. He said, "Well, now, me and my cow Bessie were driving down the highway in my pickup truck when..." The attorney stopped him again and this time asked the judge to intervene. He said, "Your honor, would you please instruct the witness to simply answer my question with a yes or a no." The judge said, "Why don't we just let him tell his story?"
So, Farmer Jones told his story. "Me and my cow Bessie were driving down the highway in my pickup truck. Bessie, of course, was in the bed of the truck. I heard a loud bang and knew that I had blown out a tire. The truck went flying off the road and landed in a ditch. I went flying out of the truck on one side of the highway and Bessie landed on the other side. When I woke up, the highway patrol officer came over to me and said that Bessie was in awful shape. He then went back over to Bessie, pulled out his gun and shot her dead. Then he came over to me and asked me how I felt and I said, " 'I feel fine, just fine.' - Source: Parables, Etc. (Platteville, Colorado: Saratoga Press), October 1991. Used by permission.
I think if I was in his shoes I would have said that I felt fine as well. Fear can cause us to do and say many things that we normally would not do or say.
The past few weeks we have been looking at the reality of hope that is ours because Jesus was resurrected from the dead. We do not have to live in fear, because we have a living hope. Recall for a moment what Peter wrote in verse 3:
Common English Bible Chapter 1
You have been born anew into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
You have been born anew into a living hope. Does that excite you? What an awesome thing that God has done for us. We have been redeemed.
That word redeemed means “The release of people, animals, or property from bondage through the payment of a price.”(Lau, 2016).
That definition is important to see because:
Redemption does not come through perishable things
Redemption does not come through perishable things
There was a price paid for our redemption but it was not paid for by perishable things. Look again at Peter wrote there in verse 18.
18 Live in this way, knowing that you were not liberated by perishable things like silver or gold from the empty lifestyle you inherited from your ancestors.
Peter says, live in this way. What way?
He is referring back to being obedient to God, living a holy life. We are not to settle down and live like the world around us, we are to live in reverence to God during our life here.
We are to live that way with the knowledge that we were not liberated, redeemed by perishable things like gold and silver.
God demanded a sacrifice. Gold and silver was not going to satisfy. The cost was way beyond some financial gift.
Peter writes that we were redeemed or liberated from an empty lifestyle. This concept of liberation reminds me of Jesus words in John’s gospel
36 Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you really will be free.
Jesus did not come to partially set us free, but to really set us free. That freedom is from sin and the guilt of sin.
Peter says that this freedom, liberation or redemption is from an empty lifestyle. The Message paraphrase puts it this way.
It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in
Prior to coming to faith in Christ we were in a dead-end, empty headed life. You see it in people who pursue all sorts of thing in order to find happiness. The sad thing about happiness is that the thing that makes you happy today might not make you happy next week.
The saddest thing is a person who claims to be a Christian who continues to seek after wordly stuff. The run from one church to the next. They try to incorporate things of the world into their lives. They live a miserable life and have no joy or peace.
They need to wake up to the fact that if Jesus sets you free, you really are free. You are free from that dead-end, empty-headed life.
The problem with much of the church today is that it has tried to incorporate too much of the world rather than including the things of Christ. The things of the world crowd out any true relationship with Jesus.
There is no true and lasting joy and satisfaction apart from a relationship with Jesus. That relationship is possible because of the Redemption that comes from Christ.
Redemption is made possible through Jesus Christ
Redemption is made possible through Jesus Christ
Peter wrote in verse 19
19 Instead, you were liberated by the precious blood of Christ, like that of a flawless, spotless lamb.
The cost of redemption was the blood of Christ. There was no other sacrifice that could set us free.
Peter says it was like a flawless, spotless lamb.
The Jews would have understood this. They would connect that with the Passover Lamb from Exodus 12.
1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month will be the first month; it will be the first month of the year for you.3 Tell the whole Israelite community: On the tenth day of this month they must take a lamb for each household, a lamb per house. 4 If a household is too small for a lamb, it should share one with a neighbor nearby. You should divide the lamb in proportion to the number of people who will be eating it. 5 Your lamb should be a flawless year-old male. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 You should keep close watch over it until the fourteenth day of this month. At twilight on that day, the whole assembled Israelite community should slaughter their lambs. 7 They should take some of the blood and smear it on the two doorposts and on the beam over the door of the houses in which they are eating. 8 That same night they should eat the meat roasted over the fire. They should eat it along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9 Don’t eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over fire with its head, legs, and internal organs. 10 Don’t let any of it remain until morning, and burn any of it left over in the morning. 11 This is how you should eat it. You should be dressed, with your sandals on your feet and your walking stick in your hand. You should eat the meal in a hurry. It is the Passover of the Lord. 12 I’ll pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I’ll strike down every oldest child in the land of Egypt, both humans and animals. I’ll impose judgments on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 13 The blood will be your sign on the houses where you live. Whenever I see the blood, I’ll pass over you. No plague will destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
They were to take a flawless lamb and and slaughter on the date and time that God directed. Some of the blood was to be smeared on the doorposts and the beam over the door. God said to Moses “Whenever I see the blood, I’ll pass over you.”
It was their obedience to God’s direction that spared the oldest child.
Did you notice how they were to eat the meat? They were to be dressed with their sandals on and their walking sticks in their hands. In other words, they were to be prepared to leave in a moments notice.
I wonder if Peter was thinking about that when he wrote back in verse 13:
13 Therefore, once you have your minds ready for action and you are thinking clearly, place your hope completely on the grace that will be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Jesus is going to come again and claim the redeemed.
Isaiah wrote:
7 He was oppressed and tormented, but didn’t open his mouth. Like a lamb being brought to slaughter, like a ewe silent before her shearers, he didn’t open his mouth.
Do you remember what John the Baptist said when Jesus came to him to be Baptized?
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
Jesus was the one flawless perfect lamb. His shed blood made redemption possible.
I have known a number of people who at one time professed to be a believer of Christ. They may have walked with him for a long period of time. Something happens and they return to worldly living. We have given a definition of that. We call it back-sliding. That sounds like a nice safe thing. In reality, the person walks away from Christ. The biblical word is Apostasy. That means:
Apostasy in Christianity is the rejection of Christianity by someone who formerly was a Christian. The term apostasy comes from the Greek word apostasia ("ἀποστασία") meaning defection, departure, revolt or rebellion. It has been described as "a willful falling away from, or rebellion against, Christianity. Apostasy is the rejection of Christ by one who has been a Christian. (Wikipedia)
The person who is tempted to walk away from Christ need to remember the Christ shed his blood to deliver them from that kind of life, that empty lifestyle. To become apostate, to reject Christ comes at a great cost, their salvation.
When Jesus died on the cross, shedding his blood, it wasn’t just for those who were alive at that time. His:
Redemption transcends time
Redemption transcends time
Peter says there in verses 20:
20 Christ was chosen before the creation of the world, but was only revealed at the end of time. This was done for you,
Jesus was God’s plan. There was no plan B, C, or even D. One author put it this way:
Believer’s Bible Commentary C. His Conduct in the Light of His Position (1:13–2:3)
In these last times—the world’s moral history was closed at the cross of Christ. It has shown itself fully and got to its end before God.”
This was God’s plan, that through the shed blood of Jesus that we could be redeemed. The redemption that Jesus paid on the cross is the same salvation that is available today. Paul alluded to this when he wrote
4 God chose us in Christ to be holy and blameless in God’s presence before the creation of the world.
Peter was there when Jesus was crucified. He was there at the empty tomb. He was there when Jesus walked and talked with them after the resurrection. Peter understood the power of the resurrection.
Paul Cedar wrote:
The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 34: James / 1 & 2 Peter / Jude Living Like Strangers Here on Earth
The deepest understanding took place on the Day of Pentecost when he was filled with the Holy Spirit even as Jesus had promised. The resurrection power of Jesus Christ flooded into his life. He was able to minister in the power of the resurrected Christ. Indeed, Jesus Christ had been resurrected in his life, and he was now ministering in Christ’s power. Jesus had told him that this would happen—and now it had
Jesus told him it would happen when he said:
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 I will ask the Father, and he will send another Companion, who will be with you forever. 17 This Companion is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world can’t receive because it neither sees him nor recognizes him. You know him, because he lives with you and will be with you. 18 “I won’t leave you as orphans. I will come to you.
The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 34: James / 1 & 2 Peter / Jude Living Like Strangers Here on Earth
The God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the same God in whom we believe. His power is available to us day by day as we trust in Christ Jesus and as we allow the Holy Spirit to live in us and through us.
This is the key to living this redeemed life. This call for holiness is not through obeying a bunch of rules. It began with God reaching out to us, to bring us into a relationship with him. We had no expectation that God would reach out to us, but he did through Jesus. How could we not live in complete obedience to him.
Lau, P. (2016). Redemption. In J. D. Barry, D. Bomar, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, D. Mangum, C. Sinclair Wolcott, … W. Widder (Eds.), The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.