The First Letter of Peter- 5

1 Peter 1:18-21.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, December 14, 2025.

We are continuing today in a section where Peter is describing what it means to be a part of this new spiritual people belonging to Jesus Christ.  So far, Peter has given them three main instructions.  First, fix your hope completely on the grace to be revealed at the Second Coming of Jesus.  Second, be holy as our Lord is holy.  Third, we are to conduct ourselves in the fear of the Lord while we live as pilgrims in this world.

It is this last command that is still in view in verse 18.  Part of what instructs our conduct in fearing the Lord is knowing just how we were and weren’t redeemed.

Let’s look at our passage.

Conduct yourself in fear during the time of your pilgrimage in this world (v. 18-21)

It is easy to think of how our redemption leads to joy and happiness.  However, Peter wants us to contemplate how it leads to a fear of the Lord.

Let me remind us of what the fear of the Lord means.  Anyone who is an enemy of God should be terrified of Him because He is holy and will not put up with our wickedness.  However, God is also merciful and desires to redeem us out of our wickedness and the consequences it brings to us and the people around us.

For the one who believes God, the fear of the Lord is the desire not to be separated from God anymore.  I fear life without the Greatest Good in the universe being favorable to me.  It also is the fear of rejecting the great love that God has given to us in Jesus.  I don’t want to live life without a love that would lay itself down for me even while I was a sinner.

What does Peter mean by telling us that we were redeemed?

Redemption is the action required in order to restore the things that have been lost for a person.  Sin has cost humanity dearly, and it has dearly cost each of us as individuals.  We lost an earthly paradise.  We lost a perfect union with God.  We lost an earth that was designed to cooperate with humanity. 

Even those who lived a life of faith in God would find themselves stuck in the grave (the holding place for human spirits who had died).  Though some people were clearly worse than others, all people were guilty of sin against God without exception.  In fact, the Bible does not hide the fact that the heroes of the faith were not perfect.

This created an impasse where God wants to save those who have trusted in Him despite their failures, and yet, it would be unjust simply to do so.  It would also be a problem for God’s nature.  He is holy.  How could He dwell eternally with sinful people, no matter how good they looked next to others?  He made us to dwell with Him, but we had lost that ability. 

This is where Peter reminds us that God did not redeem us with silver and gold, as is often the case among humans.  When he redeemed Ruth, Boaz had to cover the price of the land that had been sold (or more properly, leased).  Of course, he also married her in order to “raise up” a son for her dead husband whose line was in danger of being extinguished.

However, no amount of money, silver, or gold can remove our sins from us and the guilt that goes along with them.  In order to regain our lost status as the children of God, our lost relationship with God, and our lost dominion over the earth, we needed God to help us because we were in a position of helplessness.

The world today is full of men and women seeking to take dominion of the earth through their wealth (silver and gold).  On top of this, they seek to set themselves up as the gods of this world.  All of this is done in the face of the One True God.

Peter then mentions that we are being redeemed from the “futile way of life inherited from [our] forefathers.”  Thus, redemption is not just what we are getting back.  It is also about the powerless position that we leave behind us.  This is not just about the ultimate powerless position of being stuck in the grave after death but is also about the way of life that Adam and Eve enjoyed in the Garden, a life of fellowship, provision, perfect-imaging, dominion, and freedom.  Instead of these things, we have degenerated into a way of living that was handed down to us by our forefathers.

How can a person be broken free from the prison of futility that they inherited from their forefathers?  The Gentiles had inherited a religious system of worshipping the fallen Elohim as if they were gods.  This system was full of further ways to sin against the creator through sexual immorality, sacrificing humans (even children), and placing created things above the true Creator.  They had also inherited a political system that looked to special men to save this with the help of those weak, pretender gods.  They also inherited a system of social relationships that was built upon who had power and who didn’t.

Even Israel had taken the Law of God and encased it in a multitude of traditions that trapped them in futility (i.e., ways that are powerless to do anything of value).  Without God, we are trapped in a life of wasting away in a bondage that He didn’t make for us.  In fact, gold and silver (wealth) are often at the root of this bondage.

We are in the same position today without Jesus.  Our republic was built upon the foundation of faith in Jesus Christ, but over time, we have created ways of doing economics, politics, business, religion, and relationships, that are not God’s ways.  They are thus futile in the end.  Jesus is redeeming us out of these broken, human-made systems.

How can a person be broken free from their life of futility inherited from their fathers?  They can only do so by the grace of God.

Having spoken about what was not used to redeem us, Peter then points to the reality that God redeemed us with the blood of Jesus Christ, the precious, unblemished, and spotless lamb.

The blood of Jesus is precious because he is the only human who has perfectly imaged the Father and is worthy of receiving all that has been lost by humanity.  It is unblemished because he did not give in to the desires of his flesh, the desires of the world around him, or the temptations of the devil.  Peter is basically letting us know that Jesus is like a perfect, sacrificial lamb, spotless.  His death was a worthy sacrifice that was acceptable to God and made atonement, or a covering, for all our sin.

There is no other person who has ever lived who fits the above description.  The fact that Jesus, who is the perfect, worthy one, who is favored of God, used his life to be a sacrifice instead of conquering and taking over the earth is completely contrary to how most humans think.

This is what John the Baptizer was referencing in John 1:29, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”  This is what Isaiah meant in Isaiah 53:7, right after he said that “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way…”  Jesus was the one who “like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth.”  Even further back, it is what Abraham meant in Genesis 22:8 when he answered Isaac’s question about where the lamb was for the burnt offering.  “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”

This miracle child was to be placed on the altar and sacrificed to God.  How could God ask such a thing?  It is clear in the story that God was not going to let Abraham go through it.  Yet, notice Abraham’s answer to his son.  Is Abraham lying to his son?  I don’t think so.  He had a relationship with the God of heaven, and he spoke by faith.  He didn’t know how God was going to do it, but God would keep His word to Abraham through Isaac, even though Isaac may be put to death.  The writer of the Hebrews says that Abraham believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead if He had to do so in order to keep His promise to Abraham.

What Abraham did that day was to be willing to act out something that God the Father was going to do in the future.  It became a template that would help us understand what God was doing later.  Jesus was the Lamb of God that was sacrificed on our behalf in order to cover our sins.

Peter then states that this perfect Lamb of God, Jesus, was foreknown by God before the foundations of the earth were laid.  God knew that there would be a rebellion if he made sentient beings who had free will.  Before He created humans, He already knew that the Eternal Son would have to take on human flesh and do for us what we could not do for ourselves, redeem humanity from its fall into corruption and out of close relationship with the Father.

Why did God wait 1,000s of years before He sent Jesus, as Peter says, “in these last times”?  There is wisdom in God first giving us a choice.  Will you trust Me or do you want to experience the knowledge of what is good and what is evil?  Of course, our choice was that we wanted to know.  The word for knowledge here is not about head knowledge.  It is about the knowledge that comes from experience.  By the time Jesus came, humans had experienced the depths of the folly of that choice.  We would be more open to God’s solution to our problem at that point than if He had sent Jesus down right away.

Over time, if we are listening, we come to see that evil is not just something that is in that person over there, but it is also in me.  It is not something that I can cover by simply being “better” than another person.  In fact, if Jesus had been revealed at the very beginning, then our following sin would have been ever worse.  God’s delay was actually a grace that helped us to understand the necessity of Jesus.

In the face of 1,000s of years of rebellion, God was faithful to give us grace in the man Jesus.  Why does He wait 1,000s of years after the sending of Jesus to bring sin on this planet to an end, fixing all things?  It is the redemptive grace of God.  He is not willing that anyone should perish.  So, He delays the day of judgment.  In the face of all the evil that humans do to us and all the wickedness that fallen angels and demons may produce, we are shown that God can be trusted to overturn it.

Peter ends with the reminder that putting our faith in Jesus is putting our faith in God the Father.  In Jesus, we who were not believers in God, i.e., were not living according to His ways, have become believers in Him.  To embrace Jesus in faith is to believe God the Father.  However, to reject Jesus in unbelief is to reject the Father.

Peter describes God the Father as the One who resurrected Jesus from the dead.  This is not a contradiction to the statement of Jesus that he had power to take up his own life after death.  If you pay attention to the words of Jesus in John 10:18, you will notice that he says, “I have authority to take it up again.  This commandment I have received from My Father.”  Jesus is authorized to take up his life again, i.e., he has been authorized by the Father.  Thus, both are true.  Jesus takes up his own life, but he does so as the perfectly obedient Son.

The plan and operation of the Father has always been through Jesus as the source of life.  This is part of the glory that Peter says the Father gave to Christ.  He was given the glory of being the first to raise from the dead (firstborn from the dead).  He was also given the glory of the only one to sit at the right hand of the Father.  He is also given the glory of the King of kings and the Lord of lords.  He also has the glory of the one who has brought many children of God into glory with him.

Peter then states that our faith and hope are in God the Father completely when we embrace the Son of His love.  It is He that will send the Lord Jesus to take up the kingdoms of the world.  It is also He that will give us the right to be perfected in order to stand at the side of Jesus Christ in His presence.

Knowing all that God has done in order to save us ought to put a reverent fear within our hearts.  How can I rebel against such love?  How can I do anything but bow the knee in awe, asking of the Lord Jesus, “Save me, please!”

Spiritual People 2 audio

The Battle of the Mind- 1

Subtitle: Our Need for Renewal

Romans 12:1-2.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, June 1, 2025.

The most important battlefield of all time is in the minds of people.  By the time we become aware of it, we can be highly compromised by our enemy, the devil. 

A number of weeks ago, we talked about our three enemies: the devil, the world, and our flesh.  We might think of the flesh as the place where the battle is internal, but we should recognize that the attacks of the other two (the devil and the world) are generally upon how we think.

The real cultural battle is not so much at Cal Anderson Park, the site of a recent attack of antifa agents upon Christians worshipping God.  The real battle front is in the minds of people, whether at Cal Anderson Park or not, and whether on the antifa side or as a Christian.

The devil loves to use the tools of seduction, manipulation, fear, mental harassment, and many others.  The incessant attack upon the minds of humanity wears the best of men down until they become: collaborators with him, useful idiots to him, or simply despairing and hopeless before him.

If we only looked at this problem, we could easily give up.  Yet, God tells us in His Word that He does love us.  He did not make us to be enslaved by the devil and his world system.  Through Jesus (and in Jesus), He offers us a better way

Of course, there are some Christians that believe you will never have a bad day if you are right with Jesus.  They may moderate this by emphasizing that you will never have a bad mental and spiritual day.  However, this is not the testimony of the Scriptures and the godly through history.  Elijah is shown struggling with the desire to quit.  Jesus experiences the full brunt of the mental battle on the night of his betrayal.

We are going to have times when we do not feel like God is with us.  However, what does our Lord Jesus say?  “I will never leave you nor forsake you!”  He doesn’t guarantee that we will feel it, but rather, he guarantees the fact and reality of it.

Let’s look at our passage.

This world will conform us to itself (v. 1-2)

I want to focus on verse 2 first.  Paul is challenging the Christians in Rome to live in a way that is not like the world that surrounded them.  It is a negative imperative: Don’t be conformed to this world!

The Roman system was very powerful and had conquered the Mediterranean Region and beyond.  It was the worst of the beastly empires that Daniel foresaw and the Apostle John was shown in the book of The Revelation.

This beastly power dominated that area for a hundred years and would go on to dominate for many more centuries.  Such power is seductive to those who have the possibility to harness it.  This was precious few in the Roman system.  The vast majority of people who lived under the Roman system found it cruel and heartless.  Yes, Israel had to deal with the heavy Roman boot in their face, but so did the Gentiles and most Romans themselves.

The flip-side of not being conformed is the reality that the world is trying to conform you.  If we let it happen, we will be conformed into a proper cog in its system.  It is designed to conform you to be a good Roman, or a good American, Chinese person, a good Russian, etc.

However, there is a level of this pressure to conform that is deeper than self-serving governments, religions and social leaders.

The word behind “world” in verse 2 is literally the word “age.”  It is not so much about the globe and the natural things on it (political borders, powers, and such), as it is about the system of how things are set up and relate to each other.

From the standpoint of God’s redemptive work, this is an age of grace, an age of salvation, even the age of the Church (God’s calling out of a people).  However, Paul is looking at the world from the standpoint of the devil’s work.  He has deep-captured the world and built up systems of governance, religion, and operations that are all about continuing a rebellion against God and His Anointed, Jesus Christ.  This age, this world system, is really a continuation of what the devil began in the garden with Adam and Eve.  Particularly today, he works at odds to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

So, when we talk about the world and its systems, we are talking about more than what we see.  We are especially talking about the spiritual impetus that lies behind those natural things and weaves them into a coherent system that conforms people to the desires of the devil.  It is a spiritual battlefield.

On one hand, all nations have their own systems that work at odds to one another, or together for the sake of mutual benefit.  Yet, on the other hand, they are all spiritually united and joined at the hip.  They are all generally living and thinking in rebellion to God. 

This can even be while they are looking religious, or Christian.  The devil doesn’t care what your rebellion looks like, so long as you are antichrist.  You can be Caesar worshipping yourself, Herod doing the same, or a Greek worshipping Zeus, Caiaphas saying that he is worshipping Yahweh, or Judas following Jesus.  The devil doesn’t care.  He loves diversity as long as it is a diversity of rebellion against God and His Christ.  But, more on this later.

Second Corinthians 4:4 says, “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”  Even before Christ came, the devil was working to keep the world blind to the promise of God to send Messiah, a deliverer of humanity and its redeemer.

Now, the devil is not a true god.  But, he has deep-captured the world through temptation and sin.  The political, religious, and political systems that developed were ways of blinding humanity to the good plan of God that was revealed to Adam and Eve and to later generations.

Thus, a child who is born into the world doesn’t understand this.  There mind is not fully formed and is trying to make sense of everything.  Yet, the culture conforms them to a particular way of seeing things.  This blinding effect catches us all while we are young and unaware of it.  Being raised in a Christian home that teaches the Word can help mitigate this pressure to conform.

In the midst of all of this, God has not left us at the mercy of this system.  He has worked through Jesus to give truth to the world.  Christians are supposed to be an antidote to this blinding work of the devil.  We are to shine the light of the truth of Jesus to the world around us.

This helps us to understand why we need our minds renewed.  The world around us blinds our mind’s ability to perceive the truth.  Alongside of this, there is another reason in Romans 1:28.  “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting.”

This blind culture did not happen over night.  In the beginning, the first family had a clear understanding of the truth of God and the lies of the devil.  Yet, this verse points to the tendency of people not to retain the knowledge of God.  Little by little, one compromise after another, one generation after another, humans began to be deceived and drawn away from truth to more and more lies.  It is not by accident that the ancient false religions focus on things that satisfy the flesh, like sexual immorality.  As a judgment, God eventually lets us have our way, the fruit of our choices.  This is called a debased mind.

The word for debased comes from the area of coinage.  When a government is short on gold and silver, and have troops to pay, it was tempting and common to debase the silver coins by mixing in cheap, base metals.  The troops would think they were getting paid a full silver coin, but it had been debased, corrupted.  It was not really what it purported to be.  Eventually people would figure it out and the value of the currency would drop in relation to what it pretended to be.

When we think about a debased mind, we need to recognize that the value of a mind is its ability to recognize the truth.  God gave us a mind for a reason.  Yet, the conforming influence of this world can weaken the ability of our minds to see through its lies.  This is the natural condition of humanity without God.

In fact if you think about it, not to retain God is the same as not retaining the very basis, foundation, of all reality.  God is the absolute fundamental reality that all other things are dependent upon.  To reject the most basic aspect of reality makes it impossible to reason properly.  If we push aside reality and persist in living by fantastic perceptions, we will find ourselves causing great pain and trouble.  It would be like going to the bathroom in the middle of the night when you have kids.  You can refuse to recognize the reality that your kids probably left some things on the floor, and the reality that there are things in the way on which you do not want to stub your toe.  If you just push those things from your mind and traipse through the house, imagining that the way is clear, reality will rear its ugly head and you will feel pain.

We need God’s help, and He gives it through Jesus, the Word of God, through Christians sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The light of the world came and did a spiritual work that can change everything for us.  In Romans 12, Paul is writing to people who used to be trapped in the blindness of this world.  However, they have believed in Jesus and heard the truth.  They are no longer blind. 

To believe in Jesus is to follow the teachings of Jesus.  This is the unpardonable sin of this world.  The devil doesn’t care what particular form your life takes as long as it isn’t following God’s Anointed, Jesus.

Ephesians 2:2 says, “You once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.”  The devil loves diversity so long as it is contrary to the truth of God.  The one diverse thing the world will never tolerate is that of truly following Jesus.  If you wonder why people attack Christians so viciously, take some time to ponder this.

This past week, there was a group of Christians who met at Cal Anderson Park in Seattle to worship God and stand for protecting kids from the sexually immoral agendas threatening them today.  They were attacked by a bunch of antifa people.  When someone attacks you, it is easy to see them as the enemy.  However, the enemy is the devil and his world system.  Those doing the attacking are simply those who have been taken captive by the devil.  The battle in their mind has been lost, and they are doing the bidding of their master.  Yet, in verse one of Romans 12, Paul is calling the Corinthians to be a living sacrifice.  A living sacrifice is a person who dies to what their flesh and the world desire and choose to live for Christ come what may.  This brings us to the second point.

God transforms you into the image of Christ

Conforming to the world is what we are not supposed to do.  Whereas, what we are to do is to be transformed.  Though he doesn’t say “to the image of Christ” here, the sacrifice of Jesus is the backdrop to what he is talking about.  Instead of being conformed to the world and the devil, we are to be transformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is a difference between conforming to something and being transformed.  Conforming has to do with superficial changes.  Paul doesn’t say we are to conform to Jesus.  Judas conformed to being a disciple of Jesus, but something real was missing in his heart and mind.  He did not have faith in Jesus in the end.  He never allowed himself to be transformed by the Spirit of God that was working through Jesus.  The other disciples were not perfectly conformed to the image of Jesus, but they cooperated with the transforming work of the Holy Spirit.

We can change superficially, but the real change that we need is one that is in the heart and mind.  It is no wonder that there is a craze today to try and “change” one’s gender through surgery.  This is typically based upon feeling that they are trapped in the body of the wrong gender.  This, of course, is not reality.  Feelings are real enough, but they are not reality.  They are simply how we feel about reality in the moment.  They change based upon stimuli, life experience and the pressure of a society that is willing to conform you into anything but Jesus.

Conforming is like a chameleon taking on the markings of the environment around them, but transformation involves deep challenges of trust in Christ.  Transformation involves dying to the desires of the flesh and being helped to obey Jesus by the Holy Spirit.  Transformation involves repentance of going our own way instead of God and forgiving those who have harmed us.  Transformation is a deep spiritual change that changes how we live our life.  Conforming (Judas) will not persevere to the end, but transformation (Saul of Tarsus to the Apostle Paul) deeply affects a person to the core of their being, which leads to visible changes in their life.

Paul sees a critical part of this transformational process as a renewal of our mind.  When we hear or read the Word of God, and when the Holy Spirit touches our heart and mind, we can change from corrupt thinking to renewed thinking.  Just as repentance involves a change of mind about God and Jesus in particular, that change of mind draws us back from being debased and blind.

This spiritual change is in response to the Holy Spirit, versus a superficial change of style that is driven by self desire.  When we read the word of God, pray, and listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit, our mind will begin to see the many ways that this world is antichrist, anti-God, and not good.  It portrays a superficial good that is defined by the mind of man, rather than the mind of God.

It is good for us to have our minds renewed, but this does not immunize us to the battle for our mind.

The devil still bombards the minds of Christians through the culture in order to draw them back under his power.  He uses temptation, seduction, fear, anger, and any other leverage that he can use.  Of course, our victory is not that our flesh never responds to his tactics.  Our victory is in taking control of our flesh and saying “no” to it, and “yes” to Jesus.  Even when we fail, the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin and draws us back to repentance.  Thus, the renewed mind is not yet perfected, but it has been transformed by the Perfect One who is perfecting us.

Being a “living sacrifice” will prove the will of God to be good, pleasing and perfect.  Yes, you may fail from time to time, but your persistence in following Jesus and continual transformation will itself testify to the perfect love of God in Jesus Christ.  It is Jesus who is doing his perfect work in us imperfect creatures.  Yet, one day, we shall stand perfected before our Lord and before the rest of creation!

Battle of the Mind 1 audio

Follow Me

Luke 9:23-26.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on December 26, 2021.

We are finishing the year of our Lord 2021 and headed into 2022.  As we do this, it is good for us to do some self-assessment that recognizes any personal challenges of this year that we need to work on, and then focus our living for Jesus in the new year.

The Twelve disciples were called to follow Jesus.  Of course, for them, it began by actually following Jesus.  However, they too had to learn to spiritually follow Jesus and not just follow him around physically.  The day came when Jesus left and wasn’t coming back at least not during their lifetimes.  This is our challenge today.  We cannot see Jesus and yet, we can still “look” like we are following Jesus.  May the Holy Spirit help us to follow Jesus in word, and in deed this coming year.

Let’s get into our passage.

Following Jesus is not as easy as it sounds

“Follow me,” is an important theme in the Gospels.  Each of the disciples were called to follow Jesus, and this is specifically recorded of some of them.  We see it with Peter and Andrew who were fishing on the Sea of Galilee in Matthew 4.  It says that Jesus also “called” James and John, so it is most likely that he said the same thing.  We see it with Matthew sitting at the tax collection booth in Matthew 9.  We also see it with Philip in John 1.

There are those who balked at this command.  At the end of this chapter in verses 51-62, several excuses are given as to why people did not follow through on following Jesus.  Jesus had no place to lay his head, i.e., place to stay that was his or guaranteed.  To follow Jesus was no luxury for the flesh.  One man wanted to follow Jesus, but asked to bury his father first, and another man wanted to say goodbye to his family and friends.

Probably the most well know is the rich young ruler in Matthew 19, Mark 10, and Luke 18.  The rich young ruler wasn’t confident that he had eternal life.  Jesus pointed him to the 10 commandments and the man said that he had done those since he was a youth.  Why didn’t he trust that this wasn’t enough?  The answer lies in the area of relationship.  If the young man had a living spiritual relationship with God, then he would have never doubted God’s salvation.  Jesus tells him that he lacks one thing. 

It is interesting that Jesus tells him that he is missing something, but then tells him to sell all of his possessions and give the money to the poor.  He was not only missing something, but his material possessions were in the way of him getting it.  This man needed to get rid of his wealth so that he could find a real relationship with God through Jesus.

It is interesting that people will read these passages and focus on how harsh Jesus sounds when people give excuses.  We are told that Jesus loved the rich young ruler and was sad to see him go.  Listen, the emphasis is that there will always be something, it doesn’t matter what it is, that will get in the way of you and I having a relationship with God.  There will always be an excuse, an obstacle.  Following Jesus is not as easy as it sounds.

Our passage is addressed to those who desire to follow Jesus, to respond to his call.  He tells us exactly what a person needs, or must do, in order to follow him.  The first thing is internal, inside of us.  I must deny myself.  Following involves giving up the direction and the way of travel.  I will not always like, or agree with, where Jesus is taking me.  In fact, right before this passage, Jesus had told them that he was going to suffer many things, be rejected, and killed by the religious leaders of Jerusalem.  This is not what they wanted to hear, but it is exactly where Jesus was going.

Jesus is a man of peace, but he is also a man of Truth (he is Truth).  It is precisely this aspect about him, that will get you killed in this world.  Jesus knew that they would hate him, and kill him.  He knew that his disciples would be tempted to stop it, or stop following him.  They would be tempted not to stand with Jesus, and in so doing they would be choosing to stand with themselves, their thoughts, fears, and decisions.  If they wanted to follow him, they would need to fight this temptation to stand away from Jesus, and deny themselves.  In the crunch, Peter denied Jesus instead of denying himself.  Later, he would be restored and learn the lesson.  Your flesh will not, cannot, follow Jesus.  It will always balk when following Jesus becomes painful and difficult.  Jesus or me?  That is our question.  To follow Jesus is to say of yourself, “I swear that I don’t know that man!”

The second thing a person needs in order to follow Jesus is a cross.  Denying yourself represents an internal battle that must be fought and won, but picking up our cross is when that internal victory walks it out in life.  The cross can be literal.  The disciples all faced a world that eventually put most of them to death.  However, it is more than being willing to die for Jesus, to be a martyr.  You can see this by asking this question.  How can a person actually lay their life down for someone else?  The answer is that they have to have conquered the internal battle first, and then they readied themselves to do what they had to, even die.  The cross represents the very thing that my flesh is afraid of and is running from, or seeking to save.  It represents all the different ways that I am going to have to die to myself in order to keep following Jesus.  Regardless of whether I will be an actual martyr or not, I must learn to put myself to death daily, my purposes and desires, and then get up and do what it is Jesus is calling me to do (or not to do as is the case).

Once you have denied yourself, and readied yourself for daily dying, now you are ready to follow Jesus, and not a second sooner.

Many people have started following Jesus over the years.  However, not all have been willing to fight this battle, and take seriously that following entails giving up where you are going and how you will travel.

Only a person who has crucified themselves repeatedly, and is ready to do it again, can follow Jesus, because, in truth, he crucified himself out of love for the purposes of God the Father.  I know it sounds strange to hear it said that way, but that is what he said.  “No one takes it [his life] from me, but I lay it down of myself.”   Jesus simultaneously paid the price for my sins and showed me the path to salvation.  “Follow Me!”  Only Jesus can lead us to the Father and eternal life.  All other paths are dead ends, boxed canyons of self-destruction.

I am my own worst enemy

My worst enemy is not the Russians or the Chinese.  It is not the Democratic Party or the Republican Party.  It is not progressives or conservatives.  It is not even the devil himself, though he is a powerful enemy.  No, the worst enemy is myself.  I am my own worst enemy.

Jesus highlights this in verses 24-26.  The first thing we see is the problem of self-preservation.  “Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

This preservation can be physical in that none of us wants to die.  It is also metaphorical.  I worry about preserving a way of life, or particular things that I like such as: an economic station, social standing, positions of influence, fame, and the list goes on.  It is the fear that we have of losing something because we are following Jesus.  Jesus is both warning and encouraging us here.  You will tell yourself that you are saving your life by not following Jesus.  The irony is that our sinful self can’t save itself because the path of true salvation requires the sacrifice of self, the very thing that your flesh doesn’t want to do.  This is about holding onto things versus letting them go, and trusting God.  If you don’t trust God, then you will be lost eternally, but if you simply let it go…, then and only then will you find eternal life.  No one makes me selfish.  It is what I am by nature.  If I choose not to be selfish, it is because I have disciplined my nature and chosen something better.

In verse 25, we see that the fear of losing something is enhanced by our selfish-ambitions.  “What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?”  There are things that I desire for myself: things that I want to see, things that I want to experience, and things that I want to accomplish.  We see this in the disciples before the cross.  They often argued about which of them was the greatest disciple.  Jesus rebuked them for this and showed them the path of serving others.

In a way, this is a type of loss as well.  I am afraid of losing the potential of having the things that I desire.  It is not that we can’t follow Christ and have things.  It is not about the things.  It is about something inside of you, an ill-attachment to those things.  We can have things and do have things.  The problem is precisely when following Christ threatens something that we have, or hope to have.  I’m reminded of Baronelle Stutzman, the florist in the Tri-Cities of Washington State who refused to do the wedding of a homosexual couple.  She did not plan on having the Attorney General of Washington taking her to court and even seeking to take her personal assets.  She could have balked and said, “Fine, I’ll do it!”  Instead, she stuck to Jesus.  What is your ambition in life?  Be careful that it is not more important to you than following Jesus.

Finally, we see in verse 26 the issue of shame, which is a symptom of pride.  “For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory…”  There will always come a time when my pride will be threatened by following Jesus.  Today, it is things like these.  “You follow ancient teachings over modern enlightenment?”  “You don’t believe that this activity I am doing is moral?”  “You associate with the Church that is responsible for so much evil throughout history?”  Leaders and lay people of the Church have made plenty of errors, not to mention some who were flat out apostates.  They were not following Jesus.  However, that is precisely the issue.  Are we following Jesus, or are we following an institution, erudite scholars, and charismatic leaders?

For some odd reason, Jesus was not too proud to be associated with the Church.  Don’t get me wrong.  He will correct, and judge, those in his Church who abuse the station he has given them.  Still, he is working within and through his Church.  He is standing with us, but will we stand with him?  Let’s make the determination to stand with Jesus moving forward, by getting ourselves internally and externally prepared to lose some things because we are dead set on following Jesus.

Follow Me audio

What Are We Doing At Abundant Life? Serve Part 1

Romans 12:1-2; John 13:6-7, 12-17.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty on Sunday, May 24, 2020.

We have talked about connecting to Jesus and his people through whole-life worship, and also, growing spiritually to be like Jesus.  These are the first two purposes Christians should be fulfilling. 

Today, we are going to talk about serving.  Those who believe in Jesus are called to serve him. He is the Lord, the master, and we are his servants.  Let’s go to Romans 12 to explore this further.

We selflessly serve Jesus by presenting our lives as a living sacrifice

In verse 1, Paul is clearly using imagery from the temple sacrifices that would have been familiar to his Jewish audience.  Even the Gentile believers would have understood this imagery since their lands were filled with temples to false gods where people brought offerings and sacrifices to them.

Paul calls this a “living sacrifice.”  This is clearly an oxymoron and yet, it makes complete sense once it is explained.  Jesus is the only one who literally sacrificed his life so that our sins could be removed from us.  It has been said that, since he died for us, the least we can do is live for him.  This is simplistic and yet true.  Paul even refers to this as our “reasonable service,” which we will look at in a bit. 

So, what does it mean to be a living sacrifice?  It means that we are living for God’s purposes, and not our own.  It means that we sacrifice the desires of our flesh, and all the ways that we lived before we met Jesus, and pick up the desires and ways of Christ.  Of course, a person may lay down their life in martyrdom, but this is never seen as a means of removing sin.  Thus, even the martyr, who physically dies, goes to be with the Lord and is not really dead.  They are still living.

The word that is translated as “service,” at the end of verse 1, has a religious connection to the ceremonial duties Israel had in the temple.  For Christians, living for Jesus is presented as parallel to the work that priests did in the temple.  This connects to the New Testament concept that all believers are priests before God in the New Covenant.  What we do in this life and the purposes for which we do it requires sacrifice and serving the Lord Jesus.  I have added the adjective “selflessly” just in case a person doesn’t get what sacrificial living really means.

As a living sacrifice, it is important to present ourselves as a holy sacrifice.  This adjective ultimately means that we are declared as belonging to God, or set apart for Him and His purposes alone.  As believers in Jesus, we are to be following Jesus, not the culture of the world around us.  They continue to plunge into ever diverse ways of rebellion against God, but we are to restrain ourselves and live for Jesus.  Of course, this is easier said than done.

Thus, our holiness has two aspects to it.  Our identity as being holy is immediate upon our belief in Jesus and it is inseparable.  It is he who declares us to be one of his holy ones.  We live for him and not the world or ourselves.  In this sense, a person never becomes more holy.  You can’t be declared as holy to any higher degree.  It simply is what you are. 

However, the other aspect of holiness has to do with our practical holiness.  No one perfectly lives their life (both internally and externally) for Jesus and his purposes.  We call this discipleship and “sanctification,” (the process by which one better lives their lives for Christ alone).  In this sense, we can become more holy.  Yet, this should never be confused with salvation.  Our salvation gives us the identity of being holy and cannot be separated by the messy process of discipleship.  In fact, discipleship is a battle that we wage against our own flesh, and should be done in the power and with the help of the Holy Spirit.

May God help us to be secure in the knowledge that we are the saints (holy ones) of God, but may He also help us to be courageous in our battle against our sin and the pull of this world upon our hearts and minds.  Yes, we must keep our faith in Jesus for salvation, but we must also learn to trust in his commands and his example of how to live this life in order to please the Father.

Another concept that is added is that of being an acceptable sacrifice.  We should seek to live our lives as an acceptable sacrifice to Him.  This again relies upon the Old Testament sacrifice imagery.  A sacrificial animal had to fit all the requirements that God had placed upon it.  They were to be without blemish and in the way He commanded.  Without Jesus, none of us can be an acceptable sacrifice.  It can be easy to look at our discipleship performance and think that maybe we are not acceptable.  However, our acceptability comes directly from trusting Jesus for our salvation.  We are acceptable to God because we approach Him with a relationship of faith in His Son. 

This sets up a tension between knowing that we are acceptable because of our faith in Jesus, and the fact that true faith in Jesus will seek to be like him by cooperating with the discipleship process.  We should never deceive ourselves that we can be acceptable without both, and yet the foundation of our acceptance is Jesus, and not our ability to perform.

In verse 2, Paul moves away from the sacrifice imagery and speaks to our lives.  The life of a Christian is not to be conformity, but rather a transformational relationship.  Paul is talking about conforming to this world, but part of that world is the religious pretenders who only conform to an outward veneer of righteousness, and are inwardly one with the world system.  Church cannot become a machine that forces everyone to look, speak, and act like the pastor or the elders.  Jesus is our template, but also the inner source of our transformation.  The world teaches people to conform to the system in order to get ahead.  Many who are nonconformists may make a different way for themselves, but even this is part of the world system.  They have conformed to the world in a nonconformist way.  When we come to Christ, the Father will not accept an outward conformance to Jesus.  If the Church merely duplicates the conforming method of the world and simply uses it for its own purposes then it is not what Christ desires.  We would be relying upon the flesh rather than the Spirit of God.  People do not necessarily need to look a certain way.  There is no power in that.  What we really need is the Holy Spirit within us fueling and directing a change that is more than surface.  It is a complete transformation that is related to the word that we use today, “metamorphosis.”

Don’t settle for a life that isn’t changing to become more like Jesus, but neither settle for a life that only looks enough like Jesus on the surface to get you by.  Paul states that this transformation takes place as our minds are renewed.  The world has taught us all manner of things that are completely hostile towards the things of God.  We don’t often know all the ways that our mindset is actually antichrist, like Judas was.  God’s Word, His Holy Spirit, and the community of mature believers, surround us with the power to change our minds and thus to transform our lives.  This is not merely a power of the mind, but is a mind renewed by the working of God’s Spirit.

Ultimately, Paul says that we will end up proving that God’s will is perfect.  This is one of the ways that we serve Him.  We serve as His proof to the world and to the devil and his angels.  Satan has rebelled against God because he thinks his way is better.  May we live in such a way- you know, like Jesus- so as to prove the Father’s way right.  In fact, our transformation doesn’t stop in this life.  On the day of Resurrection, our transformation will be completed and we will stand beside our Lord Jesus as completed, adult Sons of God.  We will be a myriad of proofs against the will of Satan and those who follow him.

Now, let’s look at one more passage to talk about another side of our service to Jesus.

We selflessly serve Jesus by serving one another

In John 13, Jesus is interacting with his disciples in the last hours before he is arrested and crucified.  There is a duality throughout the first three purposes in which Jesus and his people are inseparable.  I can’t only connect to Jesus.  I also need to connect to his people.  I can’t only grow spiritually as an individual.  I also need to grow as a part of a group of people that are becoming more like Jesus corporately.  So, it is here.  We must serve Jesus, but part of that service is to serve one another with a selfless attitude. 

Jesus employs the washing of feet as a powerful picture to prove to us that he means business in this area of service. He took up a basin of water and a towel, and washed each one of their feet.  Think of it.  They had gone through dinner lying next to each other’s dirty feet.  Not one of them was willing to take the lowest place and wash each other’s feet.  In fact, they hadn’t even taken the time to wash their own feet.  This is important because Jesus did not rebuke them and tell them to wash their own feet.  Instead, he gets up and focuses their attention on serving one another.

Peter is surprised at what Jesus is doing.  Of all of the people there, he was the last one that should do such a menial task.  Peter protests, and, in so doing, becomes a picture of how our flesh protests learning to selfless serve others.  What Jesus was doing was so across the grain of Peter’s own mentality (if we are honest, ours too) that he doesn’t want to accept it.  Humility is not something that our flesh immediately embraces.  Humility simply means that there is nothing that is “beneath me,” when it comes to serving Jesus and serving each other.  When love sees that something lowly must be done, it rises up and goes to work without pride or arrogance.  Our flesh doesn’t like this.  We can only do it if a true transformation is happening in our hearts, minds, and lives.  You could say that it is a test to see if we will follow over the top of the protests of our flesh.

The noble motivation for serving one another is to have our hearts so transformed by the love of God that we now serve each other out of that same love.  However, love is not just a feeling.  It is a decision for a beneficial course of action that is mixed with the understanding that we are obligated by Jesus to serve each other.  Once Jesus took the lowest place, none of his disciples could ever again pretend that service of others was beneath them.  To refuse to serve each other is to demonstrate that we think we are above Christ.  In question form, it is this way.  If taking the lowest place to serve us was not beneath Jesus then how could it be beneath me?  It isn’t.  We either cling to our pride, and then perish, or we surrender it and follow Jesus.  Just like the cross is a hideous image to our flesh, so the basin and the towel are another image that causes our flesh to shrink back. 

Jesus drives the point home in verse 16.  The servant is not greater than the master.  None of us are greater than him, and he took the lowest place.  We can’t out do Jesus, but we can surrender and seek to become like him.

Jesus also calls this an example.  His intention is not to set up a ritual of foot-washing services, although they can serve the purpose of shocking us out of lethargy.  This was just one small area that was relevant to those 12 men in that moment.  Elsewhere in the New Testament, we see Tabitha making clothes for the poor, and others selling some of their possessions in order that widows could receive the care that they needed.  The key is not conforming to a particular act, but rather being transformed into a servant that sees the needs of people and serve them.

In the moment, Jesus washed their feet because his love for them compelled him to do it.  He knew that they would need this lesson in the trying times ahead.  May God help us to see each other enough to know how to use the gifts that He has given us in order to serve one another with humility.

Jesus ends the portion by telling us that we will be blessed by God if we do this.  This blessing is both as an individual and as a group.  Our families will be blessed when we serve one another, and our church will be blessed when we serve one another.

The blessing of God should not be seen as some kind of lucky rabbit’s foot that makes everything go well.  Instead, the blessing is the pleasure of God who walks before you, behind you and at your side.  Lord, we bless you today because you are the source of all blessings.  Help us to learn how to serve like you did.

Serve I audio