First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi Morning Service

First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi Recently Added Resources First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi Recently Added Resources https://www.fpcjackson.org/resource-library The Unseen Battle Ed Hartman Sun, 21 Jun 2020 00:00:00 -0500 https://www.fpcjackson.org/resource-library/sermons/the-unseen-battle https://www.fpcjackson.org/resource-library/2/4838 The Unseen Battle The Unseen Battle The Unseen Battle Audio of The Unseen Battle Jephthah of Gilead Cory Brock Sun, 21 Jun 2020 00:00:00 -0500 https://www.fpcjackson.org/resource-library/sermons/jephthah-of-gilead https://www.fpcjackson.org/resource-library/2/4839 Jephthah of Gilead Audio of Jephthah of Gilead Stories of Faithfulness Episode #13 Aaron Halbert Thu, 18 Jun 2020 00:00:00 -0500 https://www.fpcjackson.org/resource-library/podcast-episodes/stories-of-faithfulness-episode-13 https://www.fpcjackson.org/resource-library/15/4836 Stories of Faithfulness Episode #13 Stories of Faithfulness Episode #13 Stories of Faithfulness Episode #13 Audio of Stories of Faithfulness Episode #13 The Firstfruits of the Spirit David Strain Our passage today, Romans 8:17-25, is all about that. It’s all about suffering and finding hope. It’s about understanding the design of God in suffering, seeing beyond our suffering, and learning to wait in patience in the midst of suffering for the glory that is yet to be revealed in us. So this is a passage, in my judgment, that we really need in these days. There are tools here that we’ve got to learn to use as we try to make sense of the days in which we are presently living. And to help us get at Paul’s teaching, we’re going to think about suffering and glory under two broad headings. First of all, suffering and glory in union with Jesus Christ. Suffering and glory in union with Christ. ]] Sun, 14 Jun 2020 00:00:00 -0500 https://www.fpcjackson.org/resource-library/sermons/the-firstfruits-of-the-spirit https://www.fpcjackson.org/resource-library/2/4831 The Firstfruits of the Spirit The Firstfruits of the Spirit Our passage today, Romans 8:17-25, is all about that. It’s all about suffering and finding hope. It’s about understanding the design of God in suffering, seeing beyond our suffering, and learning to wait in patience in the midst of suffering for the glory that is yet to be revealed in us. So this is a passage, in my judgment, that we really need in these days. There are tools here that we’ve got to learn to use as we try to make sense of the days in which we are presently living. And to help us get at Paul’s teaching, we’re going to think about suffering and glory under two broad headings. First of all, suffering and glory in union with Jesus Christ. Suffering and glory in union with Christ. ]] The Firstfruits of the Spirit Audio of The Firstfruits of the Spirit An All Too Common Story David Felker Please turn with me in your Bibles to the Old Testament book of Judges, Judges chapter 8. This summer on Sunday nights we’re in a sermon series in the book of Judges, and tonight we are looking at the conclusion of the narrative of Gideon. It’s a sad story; it’s a tragic story, this pathology of decline. It’s an all too familiar story, and so we’ll be considering Judges chapter 8, verses 22 to 35.  ]] Sun, 14 Jun 2020 00:00:00 -0500 https://www.fpcjackson.org/resource-library/sermons/an-all-too-common-story https://www.fpcjackson.org/resource-library/2/4832 Please turn with me in your Bibles to the Old Testament book of Judges, Judges chapter 8. This summer on Sunday nights…

Our passage today, Romans 8:17-25, is all about that. It’s all about suffering and finding hope. It’s about understanding the design of God in suffering, seeing beyond our suffering, and learning to wait in patience in the midst of suffering for the glory that is yet to be revealed in us. So this is a passage, in my judgment, that we really need in these days. There are tools here that we’ve got to learn to use as we try to make sense of the days in which we are presently living. And to help us get at Paul’s teaching, we’re going to think about suffering and glory under two broad headings. First of all, suffering and glory in union with Jesus Christ. Suffering and glory in union with Christ.

If you look at the text with me for just a moment, I want you to see Paul highlighting three aspects of our adoption in particular. Verses 14 through 17, three blessings that are entailed in the fact that we have become the children of God. First, verse 15, he says because we are adopted children of God we enjoy the blessing of access. We have access. We can come boldly to God and call Him Abba Father. Access. Secondly, in verse 16, because we are adopted children of God we can enjoy the blessing of assurance. The Holy Spirit testifies with our spirits that we are, indeed, God’s children. And then finally in verse 17, because we are adopted children of God we enjoy the blessing of a glorious future inheritance. We are heirs of God and coheirs with Christ since we are God’s children now. Access, assurance, and inheritance - because we are the children of God. 

And as we turn our attention this morning to verses 12 and 13, I want you to see that Paul is beginning now to draw some preliminary conclusions. He is applying at this point all that he’s been saying so far. Notice how verse 12 begins, “So then, brothers.” “So in view of everything I’ve been saying, given all of these glorious truths, brothers, here are the implications.” And he structures his encouragement and exhortations to us around two controlling metaphors. Do you see them in verses 12 and 13? First of all he says, “If everything I’ve been telling you is true, we need to understand that Christians are debtors.” That’s the first metaphor - Christians are debtors, verse 12, “So then, brothers, we are debtors.” Then secondly, the next metaphor he says, “If everything I’ve been saying is true, we need to understand Christians must not only be debtors, they must also be executioners.” Verse 13, “If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” So do you see those two metaphors? We’re going to simply use those to structure our message this morning. Christians are debtors and Christians must be executioners.

This time, we’re going to focus on verses 9 through 11 where Paul elaborates on what it means to have the Holy Spirit come into our lives. And we can sum up the teaching of these three verses very simply in just three words. First in verse 9, Paul talks about residence. The Holy Spirit comes to dwell, to reside within us, and we’ll need to unpack that together in a few moments. Residence. Then verse 10, regeneration. That is, when the Spirit comes to dwell in us, He gives us new life in union with Jesus Christ. He regenerates us. Residence. Regeneration. And finally in verse 11, resurrection. The Spirit who resides in us, having regenerated us, will, God promises us, one day raise our bodies according to the pattern of Christ’s own glorious resurrection from the dead. 

This week, in verses 5 through 8 where our attention will fall, Paul is unpacking the basic contrast with which he has been working - the contrast between the flesh and the Spirit. He wants to make particularly clear that the whole world falls into one of these two categories. Either we live according to the flesh or according to the Spirit.

This week, we turn our attention to verses 3 and 4 which are really a continuation of Paul’s argument about our transformed lives, about how we are being sanctified. He wants us to understand how it is that God has done and is doing that great work - the grounds and basis for our sanctification. And if you look at verses 3 and 4 with me for a moment you’ll notice immediately that Paul structures his teaching here around the doctrine of the blessed Trinity. 

Today, as we turn to the second verse of Romans chapter 8 the metaphor changes. We’re no longer thinking about a judicial sentence pronounced over us. Now, we’re thinking about freedom from the bondage and the shackles of cruel slavery and that changes the entire trajectory of our lives. Verse 2 says we have been “set free from the law of sin and death.” So verse 1 is about justification. Verse 2 is about sanctification. Verse 1 is about God’s gracious verdict with regard to our legal standing before Him. But verse 2 is about God’s gracious work within us with regard to the way we live before Him. Verse 1 happens in the courtroom of heaven. Verse 2 happens, as it were, in the slave market of our own hearts. Verse 1 is about removing sin’s damnable pollution. Verse 2 is about destroying sin’s debasing power.

Well let me invite you now please to take a Bible in hand and turn to Romans chapter 8; Romans chapter 8. We are beginning a new series working our way through this great chapter. As I thought about what might speak comfort and encouragement to our hearts during this strange, uncertain time, it seemed to me there are very few places in Scripture that offer more help to us than the eighth of Romans. It is rightly beloved because it surveys, doesn’t it, the entire landscape of Christian blessing - from our justification, as we’ll see today, our right-standing with God, through sanctification and adoption, to glorification and on even to consider the new creation at the end of the ages. Here in Romans 8 our drooping heads are lifted, our fearful hearts are comforted, our doubting minds are assured, and we are reminded of the riches that are ours forever in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

But into that situation of weakness and neediness, God speaks a word of grace through the lips of the apostle Paul to needy Christians in Philippi. “My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” And this morning I just want you to see four things very quickly. I want you to see who the supplier is. I want you to see that He supplies. I want you to see the supplies from which He supplies your needs. And then I want you to see the Savior. 

The Corinthians were asking, “What if the dead are not raised? Would it really make that much of a difference to us?” So Paul teases out the disastrous consequences of rejecting the doctrine of resurrection. And then in verses 20 through 28, he deals with an “In fact.” So, “What if?” -12 through 19; 20 through 28, “In fact.” In fact, Christ has been raised, and so he goes on to tease out for us the implications of that glorious fact.

Would you look at the passage with me again for a moment? First of all, Peter reminds us there is grace in the Word of God, verse 12. There’s grace for you in the Word. Secondly, he says there is love in the Church of Jesus Christ. That really comes out in all three verses, though it’s explicit in verse 14. There’s grace for you in the Word. There’s love for you in the Church. And finally in verse 14, there is peace in Jesus Christ. There is peace for you in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well do please take your copy of God’s Word in hand and turn with me to 1 Peter. We’re working our way through 1 Peter on Sunday mornings. This is the penultimate message from 1 Peter, so we’re in chapter 5 and we’re looking at the second half of verse 5 through verse 11. Peter has said a few words to elders, to shepherds of the flock. We saw that last time in the first five verses. Now, he has a word for the whole congregation; how we are to treat one another and live under God’s hand in challenging days. 

We’re going to think about it under four headings. We’ll think first about the elder’s office. In our contemporary scene, not every church has elders. You may even never have been in a church that has elders before, so is this just a quirk of Presbyterian churches like ours or is it a Biblical office? So we’ll think briefly about the office of the elder. Then, we’ll think about the elder’s work. What is it that they are supposed to be doing? If this is a Biblical office, what is the task entrusted to our elders? Then thirdly, the elder’s reward. You’ll see that in verse 4. Peter offers some encouragement and some motivation to pursue the work in the way that he challenges us to do. And then finally in verse 5, the elder’s reception. How should we receive the ministry of our elders? The elder’s office, work, reward, and reception.

We could sum up the themes of our passage this way then. We could say it is first of all about responding to suffering. Responding to suffering. Then secondly, it’s about remembering sovereignty. Responding to suffering. Remembering sovereignty; the sovereignty of God amidst our trials. And thirdly, it’s about resting on the Savior. Responding to suffering. Remembering sovereignty. Resting on the Savior. Actually, I would argue those three themes together provide us a kind of tool kit to face down these dark days with bright hope and a resolve to love others well with the Gospel. Responding to suffering. Remembering sovereignty. Resting on the Savior. 

Well would you take your hymnals out and we’re going to turn to page 835 in our hymnals this morning. The Psalms are found in the back of our hymnals in a way that we can read them responsively. And this psalm has a refrain that runs throughout it and is actually the same refrain as a popular gospel song. It’s, “Lord, You are good and Your mercy endureth forever.” And so we’re going to turn to Psalm 136 today because we need these old truths. We need to remember that God is good and that His mercy endures forever as we seek to live out today and all of our lives for His worship and praise.

But McQuilken asks, “How do you measure how you’re doing in mission?” And his answer is - here are the metrics - “100, 50, 10 and 5.” They’re not drawn from specific verses in the Bible; they’re drawn from the whole sweep of New Testament teaching on the spread of the Gospel. One hundred is 100% of our people are praying faithfully for the spread of the Gospel around the world. Would that be you? Fifty, 50% of all the money that comes into this church goes right back out for the spread of the Gospel across the world; 50%. Ten, 10% of our people leave to take the Gospel to places that the rest of us don’t have access. And five, 5% growth every year of new people coming to faith in Christ by profession of faith and they are baptized because of the faithful witness of people in this church. 

We’re going to read this morning from Exodus chapter 3, and this is the story of the burning bush. It’s one of the great stories of the entire Bible, and especially the Old Testament. The question is, “Who is God?” and we learn two things from God here about who God is. And the first is that He is the God who comes down to find. And secondly, He is the God who comes and reveals Himself. 

Peter is offering a final word on a series of reflections we’ve been examining together for some time now on the reality of suffering in the Christian life. And as we study it together, I want to highlight four themes, really four apparent paradoxes, that describe in verses 12 through 19 the Christian’s response to and engagement with suffering in their lives. The first apparent paradox - joy in the midst of suffering. Joy in the midst of suffering. Secondly, verse 14 - blessing in the midst of insult. Thirdly, verses 15 and 16 - worship in the midst of stigma. And then 17 through 19 in the fourth place, the final apparent paradox - trust in the midst of judgment. So there’s the outline of the passage. Joy amidst suffering. Blessing amidst insult. Worship amidst stigma. And trust amidst judgment. 

Last time, in the first six verses, we noticed that Peter gives some instruction on how the church, Christians, are to relate to the world. And he brackets his instructions between two poles. In verse 1, he talks about Christ who suffered and provides an example that we are to imitate. But then in verse 5 and 6, he speaks about Christ’s return at the end of the age to judge. And between those two poles, here is how we are to relate to the world around us. And picking up on that note about the return of Jesus, Peter continues on in verses 7 through 11, our passage this morning, to speak to us about how we are to relate to one another within the fellowship of the church; in light of the end of all things with which he begins his discussion in verse 7, here is how we are to live. Jesus is coming. So what? 

There simply is no way to live in obedience to Christ and in conformity to the world at the same time. And that one hard reality is very much at the forefront of Peter’s thinking as he pens the passage before us at the beginning here of 1 Peter chapter 4. He wants us to understand and to embrace the character, the cost, and the calling of Christlikeness. 

We’ve been working our way steadily through 1 Peter together here at First Church on Sunday mornings, and one of the major themes we’ve been considering has to do with living for Christ when doing so will bring suffering, opposition, hardship. We’re going to tackle it under four headings. First, in verse 18, we learn about Christ our substitute. Christ our substitute. Then in verses 19 and 20, in the second place, we’ll learn about Christ our preacher. Christ our preacher. Then verse 21, Christ our rescuer, in the third place. And finally, again in verse 21 - excuse me, verse 22 - Christ our victor. Christ our substitute, Christ our preacher, our rescuer, and our victor. 

Now if you would take a Bible in hand and turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 3 on page 1016 of the church Bibles. We have been working our way through 1 Peter together on Sunday mornings. We’ve come to 1 Peter chapter 3, verses 13 through 17. Peter has given us some counsel on how to navigate opposition. He wants to help us face the possibility of suffering for the sake of the Gospel, and he continues to reflect on that theme in our passage this morning. 

And if you look at the passage, verses 8 through 12, you’ll see it focuses on Christian behavior in three directions. First, Peter has counsel for how we are to live toward one another within the local church. There in verse 8, do you see that? “Finally, all of you” - he’s writing to the church - “all of you who hear this letter read or read it together, have unity of mind,” and so on. How the Christian is to relate within the local church. Then verse 9, secondly, how we should relate to those outside the church, to the world, especially those who oppose the Gospel and persecute believers. “Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless.” How the church is to live toward one another. How Christians are to live toward the world. How Christians, in the third place, are to live - verses 9 through 12 - toward the Lord. He takes everything he’s said in verses 8 and 9 and brings it into the larger context of living under the gaze of God and in relation to the Lord. How we live toward one another in the church, how we live toward the world, and how we live toward the Lord.

The reality of time as God has created it will propel us forward into 2020, whether we want it to or not. Both, they and we, are bounded by God’s promise to do good to those who belong to Him. With that in mind, I want to look at three things from our passage as we prepare to read it. One is, “What does the passage teach us about faith? What does our passage teach us about unbelief? And what does the passage teach us about our responsibility to one another?” 

And that means of course that we are, today, at verse 8 where we’ll think together now about “The Cost of Christmas.” “The Cost of Christmas.” It takes us, verse 8 takes us from the manger all the way to the cross. And that may seem to you to be an unusual move for the Sunday before Christmas to be talking about the thirty-three year old Jesus hanging on a Roman gibbet on Golgotha instead of talking about the infant Christ nursing in Mary’s arms, laid in a manger in Bethlehem. But it could not be more important. It could not be more important for us to understand that while the nativity scene is, no doubt, more picturesque, more romantic, more Christmasy, that the nativity really makes no sense, none, apart from the cross.

And now this week as we turn our attention to verse 7, we’re going to look at the very heart of Christmas. The words of verse 7 take us into the core of the Christmas story, into the heart of the Gospel, and the glories contained there. And we’re going to unpack them under three headings, really three apparent paradoxes that you’ll find in verse 7. If you’ll look at it closely, you’ll notice the first we’ll call “subtraction by addition,” the first paradox; “subtraction by addition.” You see that in verse 7? “He emptied himself” - that’s subtraction. “He emptied himself by taking the form of a servant” - that’s addition. “Subtraction by addition,” the first paradox. The second paradox, “the Lord became a slave.” The Lord became a slave. The one Paul says is “in form God,” is found in form a servant. And then finally the third paradox, “the Creator is born a man.” The Creator become a creature, born of the virgin and laid in the manger.

Well this morning we continue in our Advent series looking at Paul’s use of Philippians 2:5-11. We began looking at this together last time. You remember it is sometimes called “The Carmen Christi,” “The hymn to Christ,” used in the churches during Paul’s day, and Paul is quoting it here in Philippians as an apt summary of the significance of who Jesus is and what He came to do. 

And to guide our thinking, we’ll be working our way line by line through Philippians 2:5-11. It’s a famous passage, sometimes known as the “Carmen Christi,” the “hymn to Christ.” It was probably sung or used in some way in the apostolic churches, and Paul is quoting it here in the context of his letter to the Philippians as an apt summary of the message about Jesus’ person and His work - who He is and what He came to do. And our plan over the next several weeks is simply to take one line at a time so that, God willing, over the course of the next four weeks we will tackle “The Call of Christmas,” that’s today in Philippians 2:5, then verse 6 next week, “The Plan for Christmas,” then on the fifteenth of December, verse 7, “The Heart of Christmas,” then on the twenty-second, “The Cost of Christmas,” then finally on Christmas Eve we’ll look at verses 9 through 11 and consider “The Point of Christmas.” 

This morning we’re turning to Leviticus chapter 7. Leviticus is unfamiliar territory for many of us. We are thousands of years away from these regulations. We’re not accustomed to grain and animal sacrifices and the cultural differences between this culture and our culture may seem like more than thousands of years. But my hope is from this passage as we think about the thanksgiving sacrifices that it would give us a fresh angle on Thanksgiving and it would teach us something of what it means to live a life of sacrifice and a life of thanksgiving. And so our two points to help us understand this passage will be “A Thankful Sacrifice” and “A Sacrificial Thanksgiving.”

We have been working through 1 Peter together as a church on Sunday mornings and we come to one of those passages that preachers often dread, and you’ll see why in due course. Peter is engaged in a practical section of the letter. He began by outlining for us the main contours of the Christian Gospel and now he is applying those truths to a number of practical areas. First, how the Christian should relate to civil government, then secondly, what do you do if you are a slave without any way of earthly redress or deliverance from your circumstances, and now that you follow Jesus it has set you on a collision course with your pagan master and now you are suffering for Christ’s sake. And now today we’re considering the dynamics of a Christian marriage, wives and husbands. 

And I want us to think through Peter’s answer under three headings. He essentially says three things about how to live for Christ in difficult circumstances. He says first we need to learn to live under the gaze of God. We need to learn to live coram Deo, “before the face of God,” to live for His smile and His blessing and not the approval or good opinion of any earthly human being. That’s verses 18 through 20 - live under the gaze of God; verses 18 through 20. Then secondly he says we also must learn to live in imitation of Christ. The servant is not greater than the master. “If they persecuted Me,” Jesus said, “they will persecute you also, so take up your cross and follow Me.” This is the path of the ordinary Christian life - obedience in the context of suffering. And so we must learn to live in imitation of Christ, verses 21 through 23. And finally we must learn to live in light of the cross. Obedience to God in the context of suffering is not only His command, but it is His promise for which Christ died to supply us the grace we need in order to do it. And so live under the gaze of God, live in imitation of Christ, and live in light of the cross. 

But 1 Peter 4:10-11 do have something to say to us about our stewardship. We’re going to think about the teaching of the passage under five headings. First, the perspective that we need. The perspective that we need. Then, the presupposition that we doubt. Then, the purpose we must pursue. Fourthly, the pattern we must follow. And the priority we must maintain. The perspective we need. The presupposition we doubt. The purpose we must pursue. The pattern we must follow. And the priority we must maintain. 

And here in chapter 4, we join the laborers in the city on the building site as they work on the walls. And they are surrounded, as we are going to see, by enemies on every hand. And if you’ll look at the text, you’ll see the chapter divides very simply into two main sections. One through 14 talk to us about the opposition facing the people of God. Fifteen through 22 focus on the response. Our headings might be “the difficulty of the work” and “the dedication of the workers.”

Through verse 12 of chapter 2, we’ve seen Peter give us, you might say, general theological and practical principles. And now, beginning in our passage this morning, he’s going to press some of those principles into the particular areas and contexts of our Christian lives. He will speak, for example, as we’ll see in a few weeks’ time, about slaves and masters, husbands and wives. Here, in verses 13 through 17, he’s going to speak to us about how Christians should relate to the civil magistrate, to civil government. And that of course makes 1 Peter 2:13-17 immediately relevant and full of some urgent contemporary significance. 

We have a really great story from the Old Testament this morning and 2 Kings chapter 5. It’s one of the great stories of the whole Old Testament, I think, and it’s happened around 850 BC and it’s about a Syrian general named Naaman who goes to look for the prophet of Israel, Elisha, in order to be healed. And at the center of it really is what it means to be clean, to be made clean; that the only way to become truly clean is from the inside, out. That’s the message of the story that we’re going to read. So this is 2 Kings chapter 5.

Look at verses 11 and 12 with me just a moment before we begin and notice the central concern of the apostle Peter in these two verses. He wants to promote the practice of Christian holiness. That’s his burden in verses 11 and 12. He tells us first negatively, verse 11, “abstain from the passions of the flesh.” And then positively in verse 12, he wants our conduct to be “honorable among the Gentiles” and he wants us to do “good deeds.” So you see both negatively and positively his concern is for a life of Christian holiness. That’s the central concern of these two verses and as we consider it together, I want you to notice that Peter uses not quite two metaphors but two themes to structure his discussion. And so in verse 11 he’s going to tell us that the pursuit of holiness is war. The pursuit of holiness is war. Then in verse 12 he’s going to say the pursuit of holiness is also witness. It is war and it is witness.

First of all, the passage before us is going to call us to come to Jesus. Come to Jesus. Secondly, come to Jesus by faith. Third, come to Jesus continually. Fourth, come to Jesus corporately; come to Him together. Fifth, come to Jesus to be like Him. Sixth, come to Jesus to praise Him. Seventhly, we are to come to Jesus to proclaim Him. And then eighthly, come to Jesus for mercy.

And if you’ll look at verses 1 through 3, I want you to notice that Peter says essentially two things. If you’re going to live for Christ in a dark world, you need to do two things. He says you need to dress the part. You need to put on a new wardrobe. And he says you need to eat right. You need to cultivate an appetite for the right kind of food. You need a different diet. Do you see that in verses 1 through 3? First he says we need a new wardrobe. “Put away” or “Put off” - like worn out old garments, these vices that he lists; remnants of our old life. You need a new wardrobe. Then verses 2 and 3, we need a new appetite for a new diet. We are newborn infants, he says, so you need to long for the milk that will help you grow. We need a new wardrobe and a new appetite. We need to dress the part and eat right if we’re going to live for Christ in difficult days. 

So there are five stages to this journey back to the source of the river that we need to follow. First is brotherly love. Second is the question of the purification that took place in their lives. Third is obeying the truth, conversion. Fourth is the new birth. And fifth is the means God uses to effect the new birth - the ministry of God’s holy Word.

And so, Peter, in verses 18 through 21, our passage for this morning, is turning the diamond of the ransom, of the redemption, of the price paid for sinners at the cross by Jesus Christ so that we can see it, that godly fear may grow and flourish in our hearts and we may live for His praise and honor. We’re going to notice four things about the ransom that has been provided for sinners like me and you by the Lord Jesus Christ. First, we’re going to think about in verse 18 what we’ve been ransomed from; what we’ve been ransomed from. Then in verses 18 and 19, what we’ve been ransomed with. Then in 19 through 20, who we’ve been ransomed by. And finally verse 21, what we’ve been ransomed for. 

And as we consider Peter’s “therefore” and these implications of the grace of God in verses 13 through 17, I want you to notice with me that Peter is essentially inviting us to look in three directions. He wants us to look in three directions. First in verse 13, he invites us to look forward. He invites us to look forward to the coming of Jesus Christ at the end of the age. The key word here is “hope.” He wants Christians to have hope, though now they are experiencing trials of many kinds he says, there is hope - Christ is coming; look forward. Then, he wants us to look backward in verse 14. He reminds them of their old lives before they were Christians. He speaks about the passions of their former ignorance and he is here reminding us of how we are to name our old life and our old ways. It’s ignorance, because he wants to awaken in us an appetite for holiness rather than a return to the passions of our former ignorance. The key word is holiness. And in order to facilitate that holiness, he invites us to look thirdly, to look upwards. To look up to God who is the holy One, and not only our Father who loves us, but our just Judge before whom we are to live during these days of our exile in reverent fear. The key word this time, verses 15 through 17, is fear. So look forward in hope, look back at your old life as you seek motive for holiness, and then look upward to God who is the holy One and learn to tremble before Him in fear. 

We’re going to consider verses 10 through 12 by noticing there are three groups of people engaging with God’s Word, responding to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in verses 10 through 12. And we’re simply going to think about how each responds. First, you’ll notice there are the prophets. The prophets’ search. Then there are the preachers. We’ll think about the preachers’ message. Then thirdly, the passage mentions the angels. So we’ll think about the angels’ longing. The prophets’ search. The preachers’ message. And the angels’ longing.

Verses 3 through 9 rehearse for us our great Gospel privileges. In 3 through 5, the apostle Peter lists those privileges; he outlines them for us in a marvelous summary of the riches of God’s grace and blessing in our lives. And then in 6 through 9, he applies those blessings to the particular context of Christian suffering. You might say in 3 through 5 Peter says our privileges are a landscape - beautiful, exquisite, breathtaking - a landscape to look at that makes us praise God for its beauty and for the riches of His grace. A landscape to look at. And then in 6 through 9, he says those same privileges are also a lens to look through.

We are only going to look at verses 1 and 2 today by way of introduction to the letter, but I want you to notice in these two introductory verses that Peter already is setting forth two themes that will be architectonic; they’ll be shaping and foundational for everything else he will say in his letter. First in verse 1, he talks about the Christian in relation to the world. The Christian in relation to the world. How does the world see us and how are we to be oriented toward the world around us? And then in verse 2, he begins to talk to us about the resources of grace available to us as we live in that way for God’s glory in a hostile world. He talks about the Christian in relation to God. So verse 1, the Christian in relation to the world. Verse 2, the Christian in relation to God. 

First, in verse 1, we’ll spend some time thinking together about the crisis of mercy ministry; the circumstances that gave rise to the institution of the diaconate. The crisis of mercy ministry. Then in verses 2 and 3, the call of mercy ministry. Mercy ministry is the burden and calling actually of the whole church and every Christian, so we need to think about that and the role of the deacon in relation to the church and in relation to mercy ministry. The crisis, then the call, then in the third place, the qualifications for mercy ministry. If we’re going to have deacons, we need to know what sort of men they ought to be and the passage has some help there for us as well. And then finally in verse 7, the consequences of mercy ministry. There’s remarkable blessing that comes to the church in the wake of the apostolic faithfulness in appointing deacons to serve the church in the way that they do. So the crisis, the call, the qualifications, and the consequences of mercy ministry. 

As we finish our series on the means of grace this morning by looking at the Church, there are three key areas that I want us to be thinking about together. First, I want us to think about the King of the Church. Secondly, I want us to think about the unity of the Church. And thirdly, I want us to think about the purpose of the Church. Or another way to think about it is, we’re going to look at the Head of the Church, Jesus, the body of the Church, God’s people, and the feet of the Church - what is it that we are to be doing? King or Head, unity or body, purpose or feet.

And you know, that makes sense on this side of eternity because the Bible says a whole lot about baptism and the Lord’s Supper, both through shadows and literally in the New Testament. And there are spectrums and nuances and angles and allegories and all sorts of things that are tricky to capture. And this is not surprising because the word “sacrament” in itself means “mystery.” It has the nuance of mystery - that the sacraments are deep mysteries. Just listen to 1 Corinthians 10:2 where Paul says this - “The Israelites were baptized into Moses.” What does it mean to be baptized into Moses? That preposition doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in modern English - “into Moses”? And so we can expect, before Christ comes again, that we’ll have all sorts of ways of looking at this. But we need to come to the Bible and grapple with what God says about baptism. Because as the old theologians used to say, “Baptism is the beautiful divine gift of God to the Church.” 

 “Taking the Lord’s Supper seriously is something that deep down most of us simply do not do.” That’s the way J.I. Packer begins the last chapter of his book, Taking God Seriously. Well we’re in a series this July on the means of God’s grace. These are the ways that God uses to grow us, to mature us, and to persevere us spiritually. We’re talking about taking God seriously. And taking God seriously means that we will read His Word and we will pray and we will observe the sacraments and we will gather together as the church. As Christians, we should be doing these things. And as we rely upon the grace of Jesus Christ and rest in the work of the Holy Spirit, God promises to bless us in these things. 

For the next several Lord’s Days, some of our assistant ministers will be examining what we call “the means of grace,” that is, the means that God has given us for our use in spiritual growth - the Word of God, both in preaching and teaching and personal devotion, prayer, the sacraments, that is, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, corporate worship. These are the tools that God has given to us for our growth in grace, for our coming closer to Him, and His coming closer to us. They happen to be the very tools that God uses to grow us. So our growth in grace isn’t a willy-nilly, maybe so-maybe not random experience. If we use these means, we’ll grow spiritually because He’ll bless our use of them. And if we don’t use them, we won’t grow, and our spiritual formation will be weak and sickly, we’ll never be strong, never be able to bear up under the trial of difficulty inevitably God sends to us, never be able to experience the fullness of the joys that He sends as well. Without our using the means of grace, we’re not spiritually healthy. If you quit eating today, didn’t eat that large wonderful lunch that’s waiting for you in just a few minutes, if you quit eating today your body would wither. Spiritually it works the same way. If we don’t use the means that God has provided for our spiritual health and nourishment, spiritually we wither; our souls wither.