Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: 1 Peter 1:17-25

Theme: Peter instructed believers to live reverent lives as we remember that God is judge, and we are accountable to Him.

Date: 08/01/2022 File Name: 1_Peter_04 Code: NT21-01

How are believers to respond to our salvation that comes through Christ.

So far we’ve concluded that we are to respond in hope (1 Peter 1:13), and we are to respond in holiness (1 Peter 114-15).

In 1 Peter 1:16-25 we discover that we are to respond with reverence.

It is not an understatement to say that if the attitude of reverence was a animal species of some kind it would have been placed on the Endangered Species List long ago.

Americans have a growing problem with irreverence.

This is nothing new.

The 2018 hit musical film The Greatest Showman, staring Hugh Jackman, is the highly fictionalized story of P.T. Barnum’s rise from the slums to the apex of American success and society.

He really does become the “greatest” showman of his era.

In one scene Barnum has been invited to an audience with Queen Victoria of England and he brings with him his star attraction — Charles Sherwood Stratton — better known as Tom Thumb.

Stratton was, what we today call, a little person.

When Stratton was fully grown he stood a mere 2 feet 11 inches.

The meeting between Tom Thumb and Queen Victoria threatens to end in disaster when the Queen makes a remark about Tom Thumb’s height and gets from him the response “You ain’t exactly reachin’ the top shelf yourself, sister.”

(Queen Victoria was only 4 feet 11 inches).

Everyone in the room holds his/her breath waiting to see how the Queen responds to this irreverent remark concerning her person.

Will she be offended at the lack of deference to her state?

Will she ignore it?

Or will she be able to laugh at herself?

She does, they do, the audience does, and the film goes on.

More than anything else, though, this one line of dialogue is what distinguishes Barnum’s Americans from the British subjects in the scene.

Not attire, status or fame, but the attitude toward a person who is supposed to be and is accustomed to being treated with deference and even reverence by others in society.

The Brits were shocked at the American’s irreverence.

Irreverence seems to be a part of the American character.

Irreverence permeates our culture.

The problem is: at what point did this lack of reverence become a kind of contempt that is irredeemably socially corrosive?

In recent years irreverence has given way to full-blown contempt for institutions or beliefs or persons that ought to be revered.

Christians are to be a reverent people — reverent of God (of course) and reverent for the things of God which includes the basic institutions of society he has decreed ... the Family, the Church, and yes, even Government.

I. THE COMMAND TO LIVE IN REVERENCE

“Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.”

(1 Peter 1:17, NIV84)

1. inseparably linked to believers’ obligation to respond to salvation in hope and holiness is their responsibility to honor God

a. literally Peter writes, conduct yourselves in fear

1) but it’s not a fear from terror, but a fear from reverence that Peter is encouraging

2) indeed the verb is actually a command

a) the Apostle is commanding believers to be reverent of God the Father

b. hope and holiness produce a life of worship, which are the most foundational of spiritual virtues

c. fear produces a reverence for God and puts a desire in our heart to honor Him with our lives

A. WE CONDUCT OURSELVES IN REVERENCE BECAUSE GOD IS A LOVING FATHER

“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (John 1:12–13, NIV84)

“yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.”

(1 Corinthians 8:6, NIV84)

1. the Bible does not teaches the universal brotherhood of man, but the universal neighborhood of humanity

a. our neighbors consist of all people — men, women, Christians, non-Christians, Africans, Asians, Europeans, and so on

1) we must treat everyone with love and respect, not just those in our church (Luke 10:25–37)

b. at the same time, our brothers and sisters are only those who believe in Christ

1) to say otherwise is to deny the unique identity of the church

2. Peter begins this verse by stating the reason for our reverent conduct — God is our Father

a. in verse 17 Peter writes Since you call on the Father ...

b. the early Christians came to identify Yahweh, the powerful God of Creation, the God who had accomplished great and mighty acts on the behalf of His people, Israel, they came to identify Him as Father

1) this should be no surprise to us because that’s how Jesus referred to God, and it’s how he taught his disciples to think of God

““This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,” (Matthew 6:9, NIV84)

2) Paul writes that we cry, “Abba, Father” (Rom.

8:15)

2. the Fatherhood of God is one of the great blessings of being a Christian

a. by faith in Christ, believers have been adopted into God’s family, and as His children we have direct access to Him

b. in the language of the New Testament, Father literally means nourisher, protector and upholder

c. the Scripture presents these attributes of fatherhood in several ways:

1) headship — fathers generate and establish households

a) God has established His household, 1st, in the election of Israel as His chosen people, and 2nd, by adopting believers in Christ into His household and en-grafting us into His chosen people

b) none of us deserve such mercy, but it comes as part of the Father’s divine election of a people He chooses to call His own

2) feeding — fathers nourish and protect their offspring

a) God takes care of us

ILLUS.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told the crowds that for those who put their faith in Him, the Father, in turn, will meet all their needs.

Seek first the Kingdom of God, Jesus said, and all these things will be added to your life.

The all things Jesus referred to are the basic necessities of life ... food, housing and clothing.

b) that promise remains true

3) maintenance — fathers uphold that which they have established

ILLUS.

Again, Jesus told his disciples that the gates of hell shall not prevail against his Church.

God upholds that which He as established for and through His Son.

The Church may be persecuted and even eradicated in certain places.

But God’s church is like the game of Whac-a-Mole.

A dis-believing, hostile world may “wack” a church in one place only for another church to pop up someplace else.

The true Church will survive and thrive.

You can drive believers out of Jerusalem, but they just scatter and begin popping up in Judea, Samaria, and the far corners of the globe.

a) God upholds and daily increases the Church His Son came to establish and indwell through the Spirit

d. in other words, God is a God who takes care of His children in every way

3. this means learning to trust Him more and more and one of the ways we learn to trust God more is by discovering His character as revealed in the Scriptures

a. and the very best way to discover the character of the Father is to discover the character of the Son

“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, ... .”

(Hebrews 1:3, NIV84)

B. WE CONDUCT OURSELVES IN REVERENCE BECAUSE GOD IS OUR IMPARTIAL JUDGE

1.

Peter also tells us we are to be reverent toward God because — God is the judge

a. fathers have the right, even the duty, to judge the character and conduct of their children

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” (2 Corinthians 5:10, NIV84)

b. the New Testament speaks of two judgements that will include all of humanity

1) the Judgment Seat of Christ (2 Cor.

5:10) is for the commendation of believers,

2) the Great White Throne Judgment (Rev.

20:11-15) is for the condemnation of unbelievers

3) he result of the Judgment Seat of Christ will be eternal rewards, while the result of the Great White Throne Judgment will be God’s eternal punishment

2. God has the right to call us to account which is what the world judge means in this passage

a. the Apostle is referring to an ongoing process as well as a final event

b.

God considers His children’s behavior and judges fairly because He knows us thoroughly

1) God does not play favorites — even unconsciously

2) He is impartially — literally without respect of persons

a) when looking at our good works, God does not make distinctions due to social rank, or wealth, or nationality, but only the character of the work itself — was it done humbly, unselfishly, in the name of Christ and for the glory of God