Scripture: 1 Peter 1:1-16
Date: December 18, 2011
Speaker: Sean Higgins
There may be more “Christian” Scrooges than atheist ones, or at least the Christian Scrooges do more damage to Christmas than the atheists. “Bah, humbug” may not be our motto, but the permanent scowl on some of our faces from the middle of November until after Christmas makes it appear that way. We have all the high-road, spiritual arguments, and they all smell like rotten egg nog.
We see the commercialism, the overindulgence, the thorough selfishness that this season brings out in people and we want to run. From another angle, we see the superficial, oblivious, mindless shadowing that Christians do. This shouldn’t surprise us. Men are sinners, whether they are wicked like irreligious people or wicked like religious people. Christmas is another time for them to put wickedness on display, one way or another. But here is the worst irony about Christians and Christmas: our tendency to complain and/or run away is exactly the opposite point of Christmas! God sees sinners, and rather than moan about it or stay away, He sent His Son into it to save us.
How we respond reveals what we really believe about the incarnation. Our attitude about Christmas tells us what we really believe about Christmas.
Our usual reactions fit with our faith, or, as it turns out, what is really a lack of faith. Our tendency to disapprove and disconnect demonstrates our worldview and our worship. Namely, we think God isn’t happy about this world and wants nothing to do with it. Because of that, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that our rejoicing over things past was weak and our anticipating is always just a bit out of reach.
I’m glad for the Spirit’s conviction and a renewed desire for a better perspective. Now I’m seeing more and more soul-wetting and faith-building connections and am excited to talk about Christmas history and hope.
I’d like us to consider Christmas history and hope from an unlikely advent passage, 1 Peter 1. I only recently recognized the happy and holy holiday implications in a few of these paragraphs. Peter covers an eternity of history, expectations of hope, and how both history and hope change how we react and act now, even at Christmas.
The most radical swing on the timeline happens right away in verses 3-5.
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:
May grace and peace be multiplied to you. (1 Peter 1:1–2)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3–5)
This is really important, Trinitarian history. The Father chose; believers are elect…according to the foreknowledge of God the Father . The Son redeems with his blood , and the Spirit sanctifies. We participate in the plan by his great mercy that has causes us to be born again . That was His plan before creation and His plan extends into a forever future, giving us an inheritance that is too great to adjectivize except in the negative, what it isn’t, imperishable, undefiled, and unfading . We live and are guarded by faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time .
Christmas, the incarnation, is at the center of this plan.
Knowing God’s sovereign, merciful ordaining of salvation makes all the difference right now.
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:6–9)
During the present time, we cry, bearing up under a variety of heavy trials. The ESV’s grieved by various trials is alright, but the old KJV always gets it with in heaviness through manifold trials . Following the illustration into the next verses, we are currently under fire, and it hurts. But these afflictions don’t crush us, because with have faith.
Our faith enables us to rejoice in these trials, first because we know that God is for our salvation. We also rejoice because we know that the suffering is strengthening our faith, purifying our faith and preparing us for glory.
Right now we live by faith. You have not sees him and you do not now see him . That we don’t see him doesn’t stop us from loving Him nor does it stop us from rejoicing with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory . We also wait by faith for the ultimate, final salvation of [our] souls .
How can we live like this? Do we have any examples? Do we have any history for hoping like this?
Yes we do, and many of them wrote about it for us already.
Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. (1 Peter 1:10–12)
God’s Spirit moved in the Old Testament prophets to write about the coming of Christ. Some of what they recorded they didn’t understand, so they searched and inquired carefully about the sufferings…and subsequent glories of Christ. In other words, they studied their own stuff to learn more about the season and timing of the Savior’s birth, as well as His sacrifice.
Why does Peter insert this paragraph? A transition between verse 9 and verse 13 is easier to see without verses 10-12. Sure, the OT guys, along with the angels, longed to know what we know.
Peter says that it was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but us, those who’ve heard the good news . How is that possible, when now we know many of the things they didn’t, they couldn’t know? It’s because God wants His people to trust Him, and their is a whole history of hopers in things that had not happened in order to serve us, to prepare us to hope in the things that have not yet happened from our position.
Things weren’t good for them. They were often in desperate need of deliverance. Because of unbelief and disobedience, whole centuries went by in captivity. They also had the run of the mill daily stresses and sins to deal with and, all along, they had to keep looking for their Messiah.
The Old Testament prophets, and those who believed them, provide a pattern, albeit not a perfect one, of how to live while waiting. They served us as they lived by faith. Their eager expectations for Christ’s coming model for us how to expect His next coming.
We live a certain way now.
Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:13–16)
We were born again to a living hope (v.3), but living in hope takes work. Peter urged his readers to be preparing your minds for action or “girding up the loins of your mind”, which is especially important for running through a world of heaviness. The heaviness, however, can help Christians to set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ , when Christ comes again.
In the meantime, we live by faith, in hope, and in holiness. Part of what it means to keep looking to God is to see His character and, since we become like what we worship, we are to live holy because He is holy.
If holy conduct means avoiding all earthly things, then God is not holy, right? Being set apart can’t be only a distance from unholiness, otherwise God’s Son . Christmas, and Christ’s life on earth, also reminds us that living on earth isn’t unholy, having bodies isn’t unholy, eating and drinking isn’t unholy. How we live, how we respond, how we treat one another, how we party may be holy or unholy. But the reality of Christmas implies that living holy is possible on the planet. Jesus already did it.
Christmas time calls us to remember history, as far back as God’s gracious choice to save a people for Himself. His intention has been the same forever and He hasn’t given up on it yet. The incarnation, followed by His sacrifice like that of a lamb without blemish or spot (1 Peter 1:18-21), is the center of His historical work. His people looked forward to it by faith and now His people look back at it in faith. He’s purposefully working to stretch and strengthen our faith because He’s got us in fellowship with Him, until the time when we fellowship with Him face to face and our salvation is fulfilled.
We read the prophets because they told us what they were looking for, much of which has happened historically, that confirms God’s Word. They also, along with the apostles, tell us more about the events to come. Advent celebrations are crucial because the future is as certain as the past, as far back as the cross, to the manger, to God’s Triune counsels before creation.
Now, the advent/Christmas season, is a great time to practice. Kids lead us here, but this is a reason for us to repent. Sure, it is possible to blow Christmas in any number of ways. Maybe the worst way to blow it is by refusing, or at least waiting, to rejoice. I used to think, in light of all the abuses and shallowness of current Christmas behavior, good Christian men should hold off on their rejoicing until He comes.
That’s exactly the opposite of Peter’s description. Yes, it’s bad. Life is a multitude of heaviness and fire. We don’t see Him. Whoa are us. No!
We love Him! We rejoice in Him with joy inexpressible and full of glory! We live before Him, constantly reminding ourselves of His promises and His person, pursuing holiness while we wait, just as the OT prophets. And we have even better info to go on.
The worst Christian Scrooges are:
The way to fight commercialism is not by not watching commercials or not buying anything. The way to fight commercialism is buying and giving and receiving with contentment. The way to fight overindulgence is not by fasting, at least not always. The way to fight overindulgence is to feast without selfishness. The way to fight worldliness is not by retreating to a closet and humming in our heads. The way to fight worldliness is with joy that God became man, and demonstrate that joy among men.
We Christians can look like the world in two ways at Christmas: by mindlessly doing what everybody else is doing and by complaining about what everyone else is doing. We’ve got to stop complaining and get used to celebrating by faith.