Stump, Root, and Standard (Isaiah 11:1-12:6)

Trouble and fear are nothing new, and sometimes this time of year magnifies them.  Sometimes the lights, the festivities, and the insistence on joy simply underscore a sense that not everything is “merry and bright.”  We might sing about keeping our troubles “out of sight” or “miles away,” but they keep creeping back in, don’t they?  We need something better than just covering our eyes and pretending.

In Isaiah, through chapters 7-10 there has been plenty of trouble.  Judgment is fast approaching, and currently strong kingdoms have set destruction dates (the “within 65 years,” of 7:8, for instance).  There will be a son called Immanuel (7:14), Counselor, God, Father, Prince of Peace (9:6), but in the meantime wickedness devours and Assyria looms as God’s chosen tool.

But there is hope: the Lord promises starting in 10:20 that the surviving remnant will learn not to count on their unfaithful neighbors, but on the Lord GOD of hosts.  In 10:24-25, this Lord will gather the remnant and destroy the destroyers.  And then chapter 11 brings Judah ultimate hope, a hope that they looked ahead to and that we have seen in all of Christ’s fulness: The LORD announces that one from David’s line will rescue his people, bringing righteousness and peace and ensuring that not a single one will be lost.

Jesus is the Rod of Jesse who brings righteousness and peace (Isa. 11:1-9).

Isaiah says that David won’t stay cut off (11:1).  The tree is cut down—King Ahaz and later Manasseh were too vile to overlook.  When Assyria and Babylon lead Israel and Judah into captivity, when Zedekiah’s sons are killed and they lead him away blinded and in chains, it looks like the promise to David has failed; only a stump (v. 1’s “stem”) is left.

The Lord had spoken through Nathan the prophet in 2 Sam. 7, announcing that rather than David building the Lord a house (in the sense of a temple), the Lord was going to build David’s house (in the sense of dynasty).  We hear the promise echoed in Ps. 89, as Ethan the Ezrahite begins to sing of the mercy and faithfulness of the LORD to David.  Verses 19-37 go into rich, awe-struck detail about how the LORD had sworn to keep and protect David and his descendants, even if those descendants disobeyed.

I will make him My firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.  My mercy I will keep for him forever, and My covenant shall stand firm with him (Ps. 89:27-28, NKJV).
If his sons forsake My law and do not walk in My judgments…then I will punish their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.  Nevertheless My lovingkindness I will not utterly take from him, nor allow My faithfulness to fail.  My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips (v. 30, 32-33).
Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David: His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before Me; it shall be established forever like the moon, even like the faithful witness in the sky (v. 37).

But Ps. 89 was written in the wake of the judgment Isa. 7-10 promised.  Listen to Ethan’s anguish, starting in v. 38:

But You have cast off and abhorred,
You have been furious with Your anointed.
You have renounced the covenant of Your servant;
You have profaned his crown by casting it to the ground.
You have broken down all his hedges;
You have brought his strongholds to ruin.
All who pass by the way plunder him;
He is a reproach to his neighbors.
You have exalted the right hand of his adversaries;
You have made all his enemies rejoice.
You have also turned back the edge of his sword,
And have not sustained him in the battle.
You have made his glory cease,
And cast his throne down to the ground.
The days of his youth You have shortened;
You have covered him with shame (v. 38-45).

But the LORD tells Isaiah there will be new growth.  He had not forgotten his promises, and he did not change his mind.  This promised one is not simply son of David, but a new David, a son of Jesse.[1]  Like a tree growing back from a stump, there would be new life from what had been cut off.  Remember that long list of names in Matt. 1?  The stump still lives.

And this Branch is filled by the Holy Spirit (v. 2).  “The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him”—this could mean, at minimum, an Old Covenant sense of the Lord equipping and strengthening him for service, as he did with David.  But the New Testament says there’s more.  In Luke 1:35, the Holy Spirit overshadows Mary at conception.  In Luke 4:1, Jesus is “full of the Holy Spirit” as he enters the wilderness.  In Luke 4:18, Jesus reads from Isa. 61:1, “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me…” and says that the verse is fulfilled by Jesus walking into the room.  And in Acts 10:38 Peter says, “You know of Jesus the Nazarene, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

The God-Man Jesus is filled by the Spirit of wisdom and understanding—he is the one greater than Solomon.  He is indwelt by the Spirit of counsel and strength—Christ knows what to do, and he is able to do it.  He is inseparable from the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD—he knows the Father intimately and obeys his every desire. 

And because he is the wise, Spirit-filled, LORD-fearing offspring of Jesse, this coming one is the faithful King (v. 3-5).  Like David at his best, he brings justice, making decisions not by people’s appearance or their slick speeches, but based on what is true and right, what lines up with his Father’s view of the universe (v. 3-4).  He upholds the weak and lowly and defeats those who hate God and His people (v. 4).  His weapon is “the rod of His mouth…the breath of his lips” (v. 4)—the same breath that spoke his enemies into existence.  From the Living Word who creates by his word in Gen. 1, to the sharp sword that comes from his mouth to strike the nations in Rev. 19:15, this King’s word is law in a way that no dictator can match—and his every word is faithful and true.  He is dressed in righteousness; Alec Motyer points out that a belt pictures readiness for action,  and what the promised King is ready for is righteousness and faithfulness.[2]  That’s why, when Paul talks about opposing Satan’s schemes that would deny and discredit the gospel, Eph. 6:14 refers to girding our waist with truth—the word the Greek OT uses here for faithfulness.[3]   We fight Satan, not by magical words or special postures, but by imitating our King.

And even as our King wages war against injustice and ungodliness, he brings peace—not by brokering a deal, but by breaking the curse (v. 6-9).  At one level, this fully comes true in the new heavens and the new earth, as sin and death become past tense.  But it starts happening now within the church.  This Christ tears down long-standing barriers—walls between Jew and Gentile, between rich and poor, between male and female, between cultured and uneducated, between Russians and Ukrainians, Palestinians and Israelis, Republicans and Democrats.  If this gospel is true, we have more in common with our brothers and sisters on the other side of any international border you care to name than we do with non-Christians that speak, dress, and vote like us.  And the divisions that (at least to some degree) still lurk in the back of our minds, the ones we grew up with, the ones that may shock us when we realize they aren’t as gone as we meant them to be, remind us that the Christ whose kingdom has come is still in the process of remaking us to fit that kingdom.

But peace will reign, because the Prince of Peace has crushed the serpent’s head at the cross.  It happens because, “having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1).  Every time we meet someone that we used to hate (I mean, that we used to just not get along with, and it was totally their fault; we wouldn’t hate anyone…), and we find that the Spirit has taught us to forgive them, and perhaps has brought both of us into Christ so that instead of an enemy we see a brother or a sister, we announce to a watching world that this Jesus really does bring this kind of impossible, unimaginable peace to a world at war with its Maker and itself.

And as the new David, sprung from the cut-off stump of Jesse’s family tree, rules with wisdom and power, we see that his kingdom is broader than the Twelve Tribes.  Isaiah reveals that

Jesus is the Root of Jesse and the Banner for the Nations who gathers his people (v. 10-12:6).

This stump of Jesse is also the root of Jesse.  He’s not only the son of David, not only the new David, but he’s the “Son of the Most High” that we read about in Luke 1:32, the one who made David.  And like David of old, our King Jesus not only delivers his people, but he teaches us to worship the true God well.

This Branch is a Banner—a signal (v. 10, NASB), a standard (v. 12, NASB).  People from all nations flock to him (v. 10) as he gathers true Israel from out of every land (v. 11-16).  He recovers the survivors out of Assyria and Egypt, Pathros and Cush, Elam and Shinar, Hamath and the islands of the sea (v. 11)—from all the places where his judgment had scattered them.  In the end, there are no “lost tribes” of Israel—his sheep hear his voice and come at his call.

Jesus removes enmity and jealousy (v. 12-13), compels Gentiles to obey (v. 14), and ensures that Gentiles, too, shall seek Him (v. 10).  It’s what Simeon prayed in Luke 2:29: “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation which you have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel.”  Jesus is being revealed to demonstrate the glory of God for both Jews and Gentiles.  We aren’t waiting for a different Messiah—we may not share Abraham’s DNA, but we have been given Abraham’s faith.

What does it look like to seek this Root of Jesse?  It starts by seeing that we didn’t start out with him.  Like Israel of old, our disobedience means that we are under judgment, far from God and at war with him.  By nature we were not filled with “wisdom and understanding;” we didn’t show “knowledge and…the fear of the LORD.”  We didn’t delight in who God is or what he’s like; we didn’t love him or his ways.  Left to ourselves, Jesus’s righteousness is not good news, because the promise that he has come to judge with righteousness means that we stand guilty and worthy of judgment.

But because Jesus has become a man, has stepped out of heaven to walk as one of us, and because at the cost of his own life he has taken on our sins for every person that will trust him and come to him, because by his death he has purchased the peace that Isaiah describes here, there is now the “resting place” that v. 10 talks about, and it—He—really is “glorious.”

And if you come to him, you will find that he has been stricken so that you may be saved—there is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because he saves to the uttermost!  Just as Yahweh struck Egypt and led Israel through the Red Sea on dry land, v. 15-16 pictures the LORD’s mighty hand at work again, recovering those scattered into Assyria and beyond the Euphrates with earth-shaking power.  And it is no less astonishing when he takes spiritually dead sinners, waiting for hell with a dread of death deep in our hearts, and brings us near to him, teaching us to call him our beloved, redeeming Father.

And so our refrain, as we see the Christ, the stump and root of Jesse, is found in chapter 12:

“O Lord, I will praise You;
Though You were angry with me,
Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me.
Behold, God is my salvation,
I will trust and not be afraid;
For Yah, the Lord, is my strength and song;
He also has become my salvation.’ ”
Therefore with joy you will draw water
From the wells of salvation.
And in that day you will say:
“Praise the Lord, call upon His name;
Declare His deeds among the peoples,
Make mention that His name is exalted.
Sing to the Lord,
For He has done excellent things;
This is known in all the earth.
Cry out and shout, O inhabitant of Zion,
For great is the Holy One of Israel in your midst!” (Isa. 12:1-6, NKJV).

Our hope is not that “we will be together if the Fates allow,” or that we can have a one-day vacation from our sorrows and fears.  Our joy comes because the Son of David, the Rod of Jesse who shepherds and protects us, has come, has brought us a righteousness and a peace without waiting for us to somehow earn it, and will never forsake us.  And so we sing, this day and all the others, “Great is the Holy One of Israel in [our] midst!”

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It was a delight to be with Gospel Life Baptist Church in Keyser this morning. Audio of this sermon is available at https://www.gospellife.us/media/4m5mxq4/the-incarnation-jesus-as-the-stump-root-and-standard.

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[1] So Alec Motyer, Isaiah, An Introduction and Commentary, TOTC, (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1999), 103.

[2] Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary (Downers Grove: IVP, 1993), p. 123 (Logos ed.).

[3] Peter T. O’Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians, Pillar (Grand Rapids: Eerdman’s, 1999), 473.

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Why Do We Rejoice? (Sermon on 1 Peter 1:6-12)

Christians are not immune from suffering and sorrow.  In fact, Jesus promised that we need not borrow trouble from tomorrow, because there will be plenty for today (Matt. 6:34).  And yet, even as Peter writes to those he calls “the Dispersion,” aliens and outcasts (1 Pet. 1:1), he says that Christians rejoice in the face of all kinds of trials because of the Father’s generosity, the Son’s anticipated appearing, and the Spirit’s kept promises.

When we read verse 6, what may stand out to us is the expectation that we will face trials—even “all kinds” of trials.  But the main idea in this sentence, the verb that tells us what’s happening, is “you greatly rejoice.”  Notice Peter doesn’t say we rejoice because of trials—he leaves that to Jesus and James and Paul (Matt. 5:11-12, James 1:2-4, Rom. 5:3-5).  But even these don’t say to rejoice because trials are such fun, or because they make up for past sin, or because they give us spiritual super-extra-bonus points in heaven.  Jesus says to “rejoice and be glad” in the face of persecution, because it shows that we are part of the same line of faithfulness as the Old Testament prophets—we’re on the right track!  James says to “count it all joy” because God uses trials to shape us and make us “perfect and complete” (that is, like Christ).  And Paul says “we…exult” because tribulations will be used by God to create Christ-like character and a Spirit-created hope that counts on the love of God to see us through trials and keep us in every circumstance.  In other words, to the extent that we rejoice in suffering, it isn’t because we like it to hurt, but because we trust God to use even the worst circumstances to make us like Christ.  And that’s where Peter goes, even more explicitly.

First, Christians rejoice in the Father’s gift of living, lasting salvation, even in the face of all kinds of trials (v. 6-7).  Peter recounts the Father’s great and undeserved mercy, giving us a living hope, accomplished through Jesus’s resurrection (v. 3).  He thinks back to the Father’s lavish gift of an unending inheritance—not only heaven, but Christ himself (v. 4).  And he recalls our attention to the Father’s gift of a lasting salvation, in which he keeps us to the end by giving us a saving, keeping, obeying faith (v. 5).

When a Christian thinks on how kind the Father has been and is, pouring out on us what David Powlison has called counter-conditional love that is the exact opposite of what rebels against God have reason to expect, that changes the way we think about trials.  If he has been so good to us, we will trust him that these troubles really are necessary for our ultimate good, even if we don’t understand their purpose just now, and the twin promises of eternal inheritance and the Father’s faithfulness in keeping us remind us of the relative brevity of even the longest of our heartaches (v. 6).  And as we learn (and as we remind each other) to cling to this reality, those trials become, not our undoing, but the demonstration of true, saving faith—the very faith promised as a gift back in verse 5!  And even though we can take no credit for God’s faithfulness in keeping us faithful, when we see Christ face to face, he will top all of his other kindnesses by rewarding us with the “praise and glory and honor” which only Jesus has earned, but which he joyfully shares with those he calls brothers and sisters (v. 7)!

And as Peter considers this Jesus Christ who will be revealed, he says, not only do we rejoice because of the Father’s gift of salvation, but more specifically, we rejoice in Christ, the one who brings salvation (v. 8-9).  Peter freely admits that so far we haven’t seen him.  But the emphasis in this verse is not on the “you have not seen.”  The focus is “you love.”  We have believed on him, and we love him, because we have heard him in the Scriptures, as we have read the eye-witness reports (1 John 1:1; 2 Pet. 1:16).

And as we believe, we rejoice—not because of our circumstances, but because of Christ.  This isn’t a half-hearted rejoicing, but “with joy inexpressible and full of glory.”  That doesn’t necessarily mean whooping and hollering.  Some get more visibly and vocally excited—that may have more to do with personality than piety.  But as we think about the hope we have in Christ and the certainty of his coming, there is a delight that sometimes we can’t find the right words for.

Again, Peter’s in the indicative here; he’s describing what is true about Christians.  There’s no command to stir up a certain emotion or put on a show.  And emotions come and go; exhaustion and physical illnesses may leave us feeling drained, and sometimes our feelings don’t match our thinking as closely as they might in an unfallen world.  But Peter’s drawing a picture of the ordinary Christian life—a joy that looks ahead, that enjoys Christ already, without waiting for our eyes to catch up.

And as we rejoice in the Father’s good gifts, as we rejoice in the Christ we trust, sight unseen, we also rejoice that all of the Spirit’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ (v. 10-12).  Peter says this salvation isn’t something that just showed up out of blue.  The Old Testament prophets spoke of this Savior who would come.  The woman’s Seed would crush the Serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15).  Abraham’s Seed would bless all the nations (Gen. 12:3).  A prophet like Moses would come—and this time the people would hear and obey (Deut. 18:15).  David’s Son would rule a never-ending kingdom (2 Sam. 7).  And the Lord himself would come into his temple (Mal 3:1-3)!

But even with every word foreshadowing, promising, raising questions that create a longing for Christ, there is much left unclear.  How does a passage like Isaiah 49:1-7 about a Mighty King who inherits nations fit with a passage like Isaiah 53, where a Suffering Servant is cut off for the sins of ungrateful, runaway sheep?  Isaiah didn’t know!

And so the prophets themselves dug down deep, trying to understand—and they found that their words would be finally fulfilled, not in their lifetimes, but centuries later, when the Son of God himself would take on flesh and fulfill every promise (v. 12).

But the details would not all be seen until Pentecost, as the same Spirit who breathed out the Scriptures came to dwell in his people and explain the Scriptures.  This side of Pentecost, you and I understand more of how the promises would play out than Moses, David, and Isaiah did!  How could we not rejoice in this?

And how astonishing—these are “things into which angels long to look” (v. 12)!  Gabriel and Michael have no experience of what it is to be saved by grace.  The seraphim shouting “Holy, holy, holy,” could biblically define God’s grace, but they’ve never received it.  The cherubim have never had a single sin forgiven—all they can do is stand in awe!

And so it’s left to us to live out this good news of undeserved grace, as we look around and see a family, a living temple, that is an ongoing picture of this living hope, this sustaining and keeping faith.  That’s why we rejoice.

The audio of this sermon, which was preached at Grace Chapel Baptist Church, Kingwood, on Sunday, October 16, 2016, may be listened to below, or it may be downloaded by right-clicking and “Save Link As” here.

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Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow (Sermon on 1 Peter 1:3-5)

Isn’t it amazing how the same words can have such different meanings, depending on our tone?  We all know about the kind of “fine” that means “it isn’t fine, and never will be fine.”  And then there’s “Bless your heart.”  In the South, it tends to mean “You’re too dumb to know better, and now I know what I’ll be talking about for the next several weeks, always prefaced by ‘Bless his heart, but…’”  But with another tone, “bless your heart!” expresses gratitude, humble thankfulness, even awe at another’s kindness.  And as Peter writes his first letter to Christians scattered through what is now Turkey, this awe-filled gratitude is exactly the tone he has as he considers all that the Father has given His people in Christ: an awe that leads us to praise the Father whole-heartedly, and a joyful gratitude that leads us to trust and obey the Father constantly in Christ, come what may.

In the opening verses, Peter calls his readers “elect exiles” (1 Pet. 1:1, ESV)—chosen “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father”—we’re not in this strange, sometimes hostile place by accident, but by the wise, loving, all-sovereign plan of the Father, which moves us to confidence.  Christians are chosen “in the sanctification of the Spirit”—set apart for a life of service and worship, which moves us to Christ-like holiness.  And we are chosen “for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood”—brought into Christ’s new and living covenant through trusting the gospel message, marked as Christ’s by his own blood, which moves us to ongoing obedience to our King.

And as we reach the main body of the letter in verse 3, Peter calls us to think on the greatness and goodness of the God and Father of Jesus Christ, and to bless the Father who has blessed us with a living hope, a lavish inheritance, and a lasting salvation.

First, bless the Father who has blessed us with a living hope (v. 3)!  Notice that he did so “according to his great mercy.”  He didn’t rescue us out of obligation—we who were made to know and love God instead have rebelled against him, and the only things we deserve are death and hell.  If he has rescued us at the cost of his own Son, it’s not because of us, but because of the kind of Father he is.  He is full of abundant mercy, and there is none beyond his reach—if you are far from him, don’t despair, but come and trust his promises!

And he has “caused us to be born again.”  Peter reminds us how we got here—we didn’t give birth to ourselves.  As the apostle John put it, “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).  If we are in Christ, he has given us life, just as surely as he first gave us breath and a heartbeat!  And that’s good news—because we can be sure he didn’t birth us only to abandon us!  As the Lord said through Isaiah, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, and have no compassion on the son of her womb?  Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.  Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands!” (Isa. 49:15-16).  And so he has—with iron nails driven into olive wood!  He will not forget and abandon those whom he has bought as long as his scars remain.

He has caused us to be born again “to a living hope,” making rebels into sons and daughters forever.  Where before we had only the promise of death and judgment, we have been given life and family (Eph. 2:12-14, 19; see also 1 Pet. 2:9-10).  And he has done so “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”  Is it easy to come to Christ?  In one sense, yes: “Whoever comes to Me I will never cast out” (John 6:37).  In another sense, it is impossible—“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).  We didn’t want to see!  It is only when the same Lord who spoke into physical darkness and created light speaks into our spiritually dark, God-rejecting hearts and creates light so that we see him as he is that we turn and follow him (2 Cor. 4:3-6).  And the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead makes us spiritually alive and guarantees that we are welcome in God’s presence (Eph. 1:18-2:7).  Do you know this life-giving, hope-giving Father?  Praise him!

Second, bless the Father who has blessed us with a lavish inheritance (v. 4)!  He has made us to be coheirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17).  This is an imperishable inheritance—it will not rust, will not rot, will not ruin.  It is an undefiled inheritance—it is pure and holy, and he is remaking us to be pure and holy to receive it.  It is an unfading inheritance—when we see him face to face, it will not be for a short time, but forever!  This inheritance isn’t simply heaven, as good a gift as heaven is.  This eternal, pure, unending inheritance is Christ himself—his presence and his love for us forever!  Jesus says it’s safe not to worry, not because there’s nothing scary in our lives, but because the Father is a good, generous Father, who knows our needs, provides for our needs, and delights in giving us what we never knew we needed until he came to us—himself (Luke 12:22-34)!  Do you know this generous, lavish Father?  Praise him!

And it is a reserved inheritance—held onto by the Father for us, kept in heaven where none can steal or ruin it.  And that brings us to our last point: bless the Father who has blessed us with a lasting salvation (v. 5)!  Who is this inheritance reserved for?  Notice that v. 5 doesn’t describe the inheritance being kept—“who are” refers back to v. 4, “for you.”  If we belong to the Father through Christ by the work of the Spirit, we are “protected by the power of God.”  Our confidence that we will finish well doesn’t finally rest on how good and faithful we are.  And if that doesn’t strike you as astonishingly good news, might I suggest that you don’t know yourself very well?  We’re still weak, prone to stumble, prone to let our eyes drift from Christ to the dying, deadly delights of this world.  But as our brother Jude says, he is “able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy” (Jude 1:24)!  He will not let us fall and stay down—the indwelling Spirit will convict us of sin, but also restore us and urge us on through the Word and through brothers and sisters.

What does this keeping look like in practice?  We’re kept “through faith.”  Being kept by God looks from our side of fence like someone clinging to Christ in faith and obedience.  Saving faith (which itself is a gift of God, Eph. 2:8) is the means by which God keeps us to the end.  When you’re tempted to give up, to despair, to go back to your old life, don’t expect the Father to keep you by physically dragging you out of bed to gather with the church, by making the computer blow up at the critical moment, or by making you suddenly feel a certain way.  His keeping will be as you put one foot in front of other, as you stand firm by the power of the Spirit when you feel like running, as you obey when you don’t want to.  It will be by intentionally spending life with brothers and sisters who will remind you and be reminded by you.

And notice we are kept “for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”  This is what we were made for, what we were saved for, and what we will be given!  We’re already saved from sin’s punishment, brought into the Father’s love.  But we’re still in a broken, messed up world, and we still experience reality of sin—as Romans 8 puts it, we who have firstfruits of the Spirit, who are adopted, still groan as we wait for our full adoption and redemption.  But the living hope within us reminds us that the day will come when there is no more sickness, no more sin, no more death, no more weeping, no more fear.  He will finish what he has begun.  Do you know this keeping, saving Father?  Praise him!

So what are we to do, seeing how the Father has given us life, has given us an inheritance, and is keeping us to the end?  Peter tells us—from v. 6 to the end of the book!  Seven big ideas, very briefly:

• Rejoice in the face of all kinds of trials, knowing that the Father will use them to bring us into our inheritance when Christ appears as He has promised (v. 6-12).
• Imitate our holy Lord, recognizing that he has given us new life and new hope (v. 13-2:3).
• Live as monuments to the Father’s grace, living stones and priests in Christ’s temple (2:4-12).
• Fearlessly, joyfully honor and submit to those in authority, even when they fall far short of the God they were created to reflect (2:13-3:6).
• Fearlessly, joyfully love and be patient towards those whom Christ has put around us, even when they are difficult and wrong-headed (3:7-12).
• Be prepared to suffer as Christ suffered, living out our living hope in hard places, ready to tell all who ask why it is we can face the unthinkable (3:13-4:19).
• And finally, live out this good news of hope, enjoy this inheritance, together—humbly serving and being served within the body of Christ, bringing our fears and our temptations to the one who loves us and who will bring us safely home (5:1-14).

 

The audio of this sermon, which was preached at Grace Chapel Baptist Church, Kingwood, on Sunday, August 21, 2016, may be listened to below, or it may be downloaded by right-clicking and “Save Link As” here.

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