sun morning 23 1 2022 Sermon

Summary

The sermon examines the Christian’s calling through 1 Peter 1:1–2. The speaker presents the letter as a guide to Christian identity and life: calling, hope, joy, and a disciplined mind. The message focuses on how God calls Christians, what that calling involves, and how they are to live in response.

Peter as an Example of Calling and Change

Peter’s calling began when he encountered Jesus, recognized his own sin, and followed Him, leaving his fishing behind. The sermon emphasizes that Peter became focused on the One who gave the gifts rather than on the gifts themselves.

Peter later denied Jesus and returned to fishing, but Jesus restored him and renewed his commission to care for His people. This illustrates that God’s grace continues to work through human weakness. Peter’s later humility, reflected in his letters, contrasts with his earlier self-confidence.

The speaker also compares Peter’s growth with Paul’s. Paul’s later letters show tenderness and concern for the weak, contrasting with his earlier conflict with Barnabas over Mark. The lesson is not to define people by their past: God’s grace can change people over time.

Christians Share a Calling That Includes Suffering and Blessing

Peter’s readers are described as scattered strangers, and the sermon identifies several aspects of their calling:

• A calling to suffer: Christians follow Christ’s example of suffering. Peter himself initially resisted the idea of Jesus’ suffering and tried to avoid suffering when he denied knowing Him.
• A calling to respond to evil with good: Christians are told not to repay evil or insults in kind, but to give a blessing.
• A calling to inherit a blessing: Christians are called to live in a way that reflects this hope.

The sermon contrasts three ways of responding:

• Responding to good with evil is the satanic level.
• Responding to good with good is the ordinary human level.
• Responding to evil with good is the divine level.

Christians as Strangers and Pilgrims

The sermon develops the image of Christians as people whose true homeland is heaven. A stranger’s identity is recognizable through their way of speaking and dressing; accordingly, Christians should reflect their heavenly citizenship in both conduct and speech.

The speaker draws on biblical images of “putting on” virtues, including mercy, kindness, humility, patience, and love. Christian conduct should be fitting and consistent—not a mixture of outward respectability and inward pride or impatience. Christian speech, too, should be gracious.

The image of strangers also carries several practical implications:

• Care for fellow believers: Christians should fellowship with, support, and restore one another, especially when someone falls.
• Long for their homeland: They should direct their minds toward heavenly things and anticipate Christ’s return.
• Live appropriately in the present: Their conduct should reflect the citizenship and hope they claim.

God’s Election and Human Responsibility

Peter calls his readers God’s chosen people. The sermon presents election as reassurance for believers facing suffering: hardship does not mean that God has abandoned them or stopped loving them.

At the same time, the speaker says that election does not cancel human responsibility. People are still accountable for hardness of heart and refusal to repent. The sermon describes salvation as involving the work of the Trinity:

• The Father: Foreknows and chooses.
• The Son: Redeems through His blood.
• The Spirit: Sanctifies and brings about new life.

To illustrate election and human response, the speaker recounts an illustration attributed to Ironside: salvation’s door is open to anyone who will enter; those who enter discover they are among the elect. The sermon also attributes to Moody the idea that those who enter are elect, while those who refuse the invitation are not.

The Means and Goal of the Calling

The calling is received through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, together with the Word of God, through which people are born again.

Its goal is obedience. The sermon contrasts Christian obedience with Adam’s disobedience and recalls the people of Israel agreeing to obey God’s covenant. The blood of Jesus is presented as the basis that sustains believers on the path of obedience: when they fail, Christ’s blood cleanses them and enables them to rise again.

Grace and Peace

Grace is described as the atmosphere of the Christian calling: it accompanies believers throughout their lives, sustains them through suffering, and undergirds their hope. The result of the calling is peace with God.

The sermon closes with the assurance from 1 Peter that the God of all grace, who calls believers to eternal glory in Christ, will restore, establish, strengthen, and settle them after suffering.

Speakers and Sources Featured

• Sermon speaker: One unidentified preacher; no other audible speaker is indicated.
• Primary biblical source: 1 Peter, especially 1:1–2 and other passages across the letter.
• Other biblical sources cited or alluded to: Luke 5; Matthew 16; Mark 9; Acts 15; Romans 2; Deuteronomy 7; Exodus 24; Colossians 3; Philippians 1 and 3; and passages from Paul’s letters, including 2 Corinthians.
• Biblical figures discussed: Peter, Paul, Jesus, Moses, Adam, Barnabas, and Mark.
• Other sources mentioned: Ironside and Moody, quoted in connection with an illustration of election and salvation.
• Other person referenced: Pastor Youssef, whose sermon the previous Sunday is mentioned.