Third Sunday of Easter April 26, 2020 |
Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19 Luke 24:13-35 |
Sermon Text 1 Peter 1:17-23 |
Sermon “Being Born Anew” |
1 Peter 1:13–25 describes how Christians—those God has caused to be born again—should live now.
1 Peter 1:17-25 New International Version (NIV)
17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.[a] 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For,
“All people are like grass,
And this is the word that was preached to you.
Footnotes:
17 You call out to God for help and he helps—he’s a good Father that way. But don’t forget, he’s also a responsible Father, and won’t let you get by with sloppy living.
18-21 Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ’s sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb. And this was no afterthought. Even though it has only lately—at the end of the ages—become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you. It’s because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God.
22-25 Now that you’ve cleaned up your lives by following the truth, love one another as if your lives depended on it. Your new life is not like your old life. Your old birth came from mortal sperm; your new birth comes from God’s living Word. Just think: a life conceived by God himself! That’s why the prophet said,
The old life is a grass life,
This is the Word that conceived the new life in you.
23 You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.[d]
Gathering Prayer
God, you call us out of our fear and distress and into the light of a new day and a new hope. Through their encounter with the risen Christ, the apostles found their voice and proclaimed your truth even at the risk of their very lives. Let us never forget their commitment and courage. May we stand for the right of all people of faith to worship safely as they choose. For we know that we are truly free when all are free. Our faith should not be taken for granted. We have decided to follow Jesus. There is no turning back. Amen
Responsive Reading (Based on Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19)
I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my supplications. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. O Lord, I am your servant; you have loosed my bonds. In the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!
Introduction to the Word (1 Pet 1, Luke 24)
Listen for the word that stands the test of time.
Listen for the word that lives and moves among us.
Listen for the word that God is speaking to us this day.
You have been born anew, Your new life is not like your old life, For you have been born again, I want to spend a little time on this 1 Peter text while most of the church will be reading the Acts Text This morning and celebrating the Sermon of Peter I wanted to take a very obscure text and unpack one of the most powerful Christian doctrines. New Birth, Being Born Again, Being Born Anew and it became apparent that this concept and Doctrine would need to be stretched over more than one Sunday so I looking to develop a three-part presentation of the New Birth.
So, this morning I want to deal with the first few verses of the small preoccupy 1 Peter 1:17-25 and focus on verse 17, 18
Peter, the apostle of Jesus, writes a letter to Christians facing persecution to comfort them with the truth of who they are in Christ—children of God with every reason to rejoice in their salvation and future glory in eternity.
Next, he urges them to live like the holy ones of God they already are by obeying God now, loving each other earnestly, and placing all of their hope in the endless life to come.
Context Summary
We must mentally engage in setting all of our hope in God’s future grace for us. We must choose to act as those who are God’s own people, rejecting the evil desires that drove our actions before we knew better.
Move 1: Our choices matter.
I love the way the Message Bible You call out to God for help and he helps—he’s a good Father that way. But don’t forget, he’s also a responsible Father, and won’t let you get by with sloppy living. We have all in having faith called on God. Our Calling on God indicates we have a belief and understanding that God is A higher Power. In other words, we cannot or should not do this all on our own. You see Life is not a solo venture in life we learn very soon that we need help to get by and who you choose to help you is very important. During Quarantine we have learned just how much we appreciate and depend on others. My mother used to say be careful how you treat that student in your class that is struggling you never know if they are going to be the very EMS worker that picks you up when you have a stroke or the very nurse that takes your blood. The text points out you can choses ancestors who have missed the mark as we will see later in this text or you can choose God. I tell you during this time of fear and anxiety we need to learn who we choose to help us matters. Spoiler alert the correct choice is God.
Move 2: Our God placed a high value on our lives, paying for them with the blood of Christ. It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. Can I talk a little about payment do you know we need to pay what you owe? The universe is ordered in souch a way that each of us is responsible to pay what we owe. I have these evil vile student loans for 7 years of higher education I collected about $180,000 in student loans because of the lone amounts and bad habits in re payment however with all the for-Lows and charge offs and the consolidations in (Personal stress alone) the loans have to be paid off, no I don’t think you get it if you use you lights in your house and don’t pay the bill they cut the lights off and because you didn’t pay when you go to get the lights cut back on you have to pay a penalty. And In some places if you have had your lights cut off and you don’t have good credit, they will put you on a Pay as you go plan. God is not about a pay as you Go plain God loved us and loves us so we when go to the light company of life our record has already been paid in full.
Move three Since God has made us New, we must now strive to earnestly give love to each other. Lastly, we have been Born from heaven and or rebirth is a powerful cycle is suggesting that we are called to do things differently with our new lives and new empowerment. The old self has been pushed away and our new self has been called to a higher lifestyle no more silly living for silly stuff.
Could that also be what God is staying now in the mist of the Pandemic that there is no room for silly living in the battle of faith.
By silly I mean is what we see in the definition : exhibiting or indicative of a lack of common sense or sound judgment b: weak in intellect c: playfully also d: TRIFLING, FRIVOLOUS and while it is not as bad a word as some the fact of the matter we are living in a time where life has to be taken serious and for the most part the church the country and the world need to grow up and start taking on the needs on the lest of these the needs of the poor for real!.
Where is your faith when people are hungry,
where is your faith when children are undereducated,
where is your since of truth and truth telling when the needy are left by the wayside.
I close with this understand if you are playing silly games and not taking the time to engage faith you have missed what it means to be born again. Church Grow up and Grow up in God. One of the definitions of silly in the urban dictionary says a way of avoiding saying I love you when someone announces they love you can say oh you are silly instead of professing your love for that person. Well church a lot of us have done that with God and Our Salvation we have announced to God that he is Silly and not done they grown up work of salvation.
Benediction
Easter people raise your voices, for the fear of death can no more stop us from our pressing here below. For our Lord has empowered us to triumph over every foe. May the encounter we have had with the risen Christ give us strength to live as people who no longer fear death as we speak the truth to power and spread the good news of God’s unfailing love. Go in peace and change the world.
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