1 Peter - 2022

Let's have a seat. And if you turn again to your booklets and look inside, you'll see that there's a bible reading from a letter in the new testament called 1 Peter, and it just so happens that in our services We've been working our way through this letter together, and we've arrived actually at this section. So it's 1 Peter chapter 1, This is the same Peter who was a follower and a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, and now he's writing to these Christians later in his life. Who are scattered throughout the world.

And we're going to read from verse 13, sentence number 13, through to sentence number 3 of chapter 2, and then Pete the pastor of the church. Also, the only 1 to get every question correct in that quiz is going to come and and open up, explain wonderful words to us. So here's verse 13 then. Therefore, with minds that are alert, and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.

But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do. For it is written, be holy because I am holy. Since you call on a father who judges each person's working partially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors but with the precious blood of Christ. A lamb without blemish or defect.

He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him, you believe in God who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love 1 another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable through the living and enduring Word of God. For all people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the words of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word that was preached to you. Therefore rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind, like newborn babies, Crave pure spiritual milk so that by it, you may grow up in your salvation. Now that you have tasted, that the lord is good. Well, let me add my welcome to to you, particularly, to family members that have come to give thanks to the lord for these wonderful wonderful children.

As Tom said, we're we're working our way through this this book. That's what we do in the church. We we take a book of the bible, and we work our way slowly through just to see what it's ain to us how relevant it is today. It's it's a it's an amazing thing, the bible. And I'm really I'm glad you're here because there there is something very, very wonderful about well, it's it's it's wonderful and scary these events.

We never quite know what's gonna go on and what children are gonna do and what happens. But it is actually wonderful. Despite all the noise children bring and all the demands, they bring in our lives. It is wonderful to see children and to be very thankful to God for for these children. It's a a wonderful thing.

Because with new birth with with little ones, with children, it does give us sort of hope It gives us a sort of idea of of of of a future and potential life and the continuation of of life. And also just the the thing if you're involved with those little ones, the joy of of being involved with their learning and growing and all of that gives us purpose and meaning. Imagine a world without children. It would be hard. There is a really good book actually where someone did that.

P p PD James, the the writer. She wrote a book called The Children of Men. So it's a fantastic novel, if you like Dystopian novels. But in that, she she talks about a pandemic that went across the world. And it brought no children.

Everybody was infertile. From a point onwards from a date in the calendar, no 1 could give birth from that date on this sort of pandemic brought this. So there were no more generations to come And the last generation were the privileged ones, the young ones were the privileged ones. They were called the Omegas in her book. Which is the last letter of the Greek alphabet.

So they were the last ones to come, and they had all the the privileges, but those privileges soon began to run out because there was no hope for the future. So in the end, what's the point of filling in the potholes of the roads. What's the point? Because no 1 will drive on them. There's no 1 else coming up after And it went like that and it became a very bleak dystopian novel and there's a there's a film of it as well, not quite as good as the book but it's it's bleak dystopian novel and so Everything is ending.

All hope ends because there's no no new birth. It's very interesting. Then after a sort of years of waiting and dying and hopelessness, 1 woman in that novel finds herself pregnant. They're not quite sure how, but she finds herself pregnant. And not everybody is happy to know that there's a new baby coming into the world.

So there's a man called Theo. You need to listen with double ears sometimes. There's a man called theo who hides and protects this pregnant woman until until the baby is born. We'll come back to that in a minute. But it's a good book with good themes, but you get the picture, don't you?

Of what a dystopian world this would be. Without the sound of children or new birth or, you know, no generation, no life to follow your life. No life to follow your life. It would be an amazing thing. Death, just catching up.

Just ending everything, sweeping through. So that's depressed everybody. It's nice to be here, and it's nice to hear little ones, and even hear little ones crying. It is it it is good. Apparently, in the UK, the birth rate has gone right down during the pandemic, but it hasn't here in Cornerstone.

It's gone up. So I don't know don't know what that says. And yet with all of what I say is, all of the joy of new birth and all of the potential that you see in a little in little child and all the hope of for the future that brings. It is important to remind ourselves that that will not last. It is important.

It's not long before new life fades and dies. It's not that long. My mother died last year and last month me and my brother had to clear her house and I found a box of photos I'd never seen before. A whole tub, big tub of photos I've never seen before. There was my mother as a little girl sitting on my grandma and granddad's lap.

There was my mother on her grandma's lap. Extraordinary. Never seen these before. Young, fresh, full of potential, full of life and hope, pictures of my dad as a boy on his grandma's lap. It went right back almost to well, it did to Victorian days.

It's extraordinary. Yeah. I know I don't look that old, but, you know, he was. Pictures of my dad's class at school, all of the class at school when he was in Norwich. A picture of my dad and my mom when they first met.

First love, you could see it. A picture of them at their wedding day, a picture of them on their honeymoon stepping out So lovely pictures stepping out into new married life, a picture of their first house, an only house. They never lived in another house. A picture of their first car, a picture of friends and neighbors. Every single 1 of those people in those photos.

Has come and gone. Everyone. That's the haunting thing about old photos, isn't it? They're gone. All the life, all the potential.

Gone. And then another generation is born. My brother comes onto the scene, and then me, the better looking 1, and then babies full of life again, full of life and potential, and we're starting again. But it won't be long before we end it. Will it?

It's not long, not really, before the thanksgiving service for a new life. Is a thanksgiving service at the end of a life. It's not really that long, is it? And so therefore, it's really vitally important that we know what we're doing in this fleeting existence. We haven't got much time to find out what we do with this fleeting existence.

Will life be a shape be said, a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing, or is there something more Is there something grander and more beautiful than that? Will it be all the world's a stage and all men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, or is there something more to offer these young lives? I was told a story just this week. Someone told me this story about a dying a dying girl.

She was a daughter of an atheist father and a Christian mother. They were both very loving parents. It was a loving family home. And the little girl was dying. And those loving parents, the atheist father and the Christian mother, were holding her hands as she died.

And the girl asked her dad, whose teaching should I believe that? Yours or mothers. And the dad with tears in his eyes said, believe your mother's teaching my darling. Believe your mother's teaching. Now whether he said that out of genuine conviction and he had changed his mind, probably not.

But the reality is on the day of fading, what is the message people need to hear? What are we going to pass on to these dear children here? What are we going to tell them life is about? What are we going to say? What real hope is there in a world that's fading and dying?

And that's why. That is why you'll notice a lot of the promises that were read out are to do with getting the children into hearing the Word of God. There's nothing like the bible, and there's certainly nothing like the bible on death day, is there? Anybody called for Karl Mark to be read to them. I was at his grave the last yesterday.

We went past his grave. Anyone say, can you just read Carl Marx for me, please, but just before I die, or would someone read Psalm 23 to me? The Lord's my shepherd. I shall not want he leads me into fresh pastures. So my first point in this little passage is that all people are like grass.

I've already reminded you that. But just look at verse 24, the little numbers are the verse numbers. It's in the middle of your little booklet, the reading. If you open to the middle page, you'll see it there. And little number verse 24, it says All people are like grass.

All their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall. Grass comes, grass goes, all people are like that. Yeah? Flowers Maybe absolutely beautiful, but they fade and die.

They that's what happens. I I was in Florida a few years ago and where I was walking past this woman's house, was 10 in the morning and there was this incredible tree that I'd never seen before or even heard of before. It's called the queen of the night. And 1 night only once a year the tree just produces these phenomenal blossoms. They're beautiful flowers, but they die immediately.

They're gorgeous and then gone. And by 10 o'clock, the woman was standing there. By 10 o'clock, they were already dropping on the floor. They'd already faded. She said said you should have seen it a few hours ago.

The greatest human achievements, the greatest glory of men and women is only like grass. Only like the flowers, only like the queen of the night. They look beautiful for a while. They may affect us, take up senses. We may see them, smell them, enjoy them, but they're not permanent, they fade and go the greatest achievements.

Fashions, come and go. Furious, come and go, philosophies, come and go. Things get replaced, new ideas, soon become old ideas, certainties, affirmed, are denied. It's what happens. Words, memes, must haves, knowledge, They're always changing, they're always being replaced because people come and go.

And like a flower, They fade. All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of a field. The grass withers and the flowers fall. Just look around. Just look at old photos.

That's true. But this passage has a bit more hope than that. And here's my second point. There's 1 constant There's 1 eternal. There's 1 rock that doesn't change.

I don't know whether you noticed it. There is an everlasting word. A word that actually can bring new life that doesn't fade or die. So we're like grass, flowers of the field, So what do we need? We need something bigger and longer lasting than ourselves, outside of ourselves.

And it's called here the Word of the Lord. Look at verse 24 again, that little number. All people are like grass And all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall but. And thank goodness for this but.

But the word of the Lord endures forever, and this is the word that was preached to you. And then just go back to verse 23, little number 23, For you have been born again, not with perishable seeds but imperishable through the living and enduring word of God. When all has come and gone, the word of God, we're told. Endures and abides and is living. It doesn't grow old.

It doesn't fade. It doesn't lose its power. It doesn't lose its color. It doesn't lose its beauty. It's the Word of an everlasting eternal God.

And it's this great unchanging rock in the universe, ideas, philosophies, politicians, King's, Queen's, even powerful military leaders, they come, and they go. And in the end, they're largely forgotten But the bible, this word endures through the ages over the whole world. It's the best seller of the bible in the entire world. Did you know that? No book has been translated into more at languages than this book, all over the world.

It's the best survivor out of any book. People have hated the book, which is extraordinary really because it has the word of God in it. Burn it, bury it, edit it, laugh at it, mock it. Out of all books in the world, it's been mocked. Mocked and mocked and laughed at.

And even been seen to be old fashioned, we don't believe it. But it's always endured. We're looking at it now. It's always endured. It makes the biggest claims of any book thousands upon thousands upon thousands of times, it says, this is the word of God.

It's at least worth looking in if it is, isn't it? Biggest claims, lives have been changed by by this book, including my own life. Bad people have become good. Sad people have become glad. Empty people have found a purpose.

So it's this word that we need to listen to and it's this word we need to tell our children. But it's not just a word like good advice. There's something living about it. Look at verse 23 again. Did you see that?

But you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. It seems to suggest that there are 2 birds. There's the physical birth, and we will die. All the photos tell you that. But there's this need for this spiritual birth.

See, look, how were you born? Well, no. That'll be being too well, I mean, you know these things you're adults. The sperm, we can use a word like that, can't we? The sperm, the seed, the seed of the man, hits the egg, fertilizes the egg.

You're conceived. Then there's a period of gestation and then you're born. But that seed says this book, as we've already seen. That seed is perishable. And everything from that seed will perish.

The perishable can never produce anything but that which will die. As soon as life comes into you, you're already beginning to die. As soon as you're born, Everybody knows there's going to be a death day. You have a birthday and you'll have a death day. And that seed can only produce, that which is perishable.

That's what it's saying. But there's another word, there's another seed another word of life, another seed of life, and it brings spiritual birth. How does spiritual birth happen? How are you born spiritually? Well, through the living and enduring word of God, this imperishable seed.

It's by the word of God that life begins. New life gives us spiritual eyes to see things that physical eyes can't see. New life gives us spiritual ears that physical ears can't hear gives us motivations and desires we never had because it's new life. When the seed, when the word lands and grows in a person then verse 23, you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and enduring Word of God. Do you see it?

As these babies have physical life, they need spiritual life, and it comes through the enduring word of God. Which leads me to my third point. It's a redeeming word. Now, I'll explain I'll explain that word redeeming in a It's a redeeming word of love. Look at sentence 18.

Go back to verse 18. So the writer says, for you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you by your ancestors, But with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. There's a lot of stuff in there. But in many ways, that is the Christian message. That verse, if you wanna know what the Christian message is all about, that really is the heart of it.

It's an amazing amazing sentence because the word we see, the word of God is not just advice, it's not just rules, it's a person. And Jesus is called the Word of God in the Bible. This is an amazing center. So it says that it says we're redeemed from an way of life. Well, we've just seen that.

All of those photos of my great grandparents and all of the shops they owned and the things that they did and the cars they owned and the houses they own, all of those things. They cannot really buy me spiritual life. They don't change me spiritually. There's an emptiness about our life. It's why so many people turn to all kinds of things to try to fill their lives up.

We all do material possessions, the next holiday, money, job, family, the next wife, the next husband, There's an emptiness that comes that needs filling only with God And so we can be bought back and that word redeemed is a wonderful picture because it's a picture of a slave market. You people in slavery, being sold to slavery, but the picture in the bible of redemption is that God, the word Jesus comes to the slave market and pays the price for you a slave to set you free, not to make you a slave, but to set you free. Redeemed redemption, the redemption price. So here is 1, the Word of the living God who comes into this world, to bias freedom, or to bias from an empty way of life, to bias spiritual life. We'll redeem not with perishable things like silver and gold.

It's extraordinary how we teach children that money and things is what they need. It's extraordinary that we still do that. Amazing. Isn't it? I was watching I don't know whether you've seen it.

Antendex's latest show called Limitlist. I think it's finished now. I really enjoyed it as a quiz. I like quizzes, and it's a quiz where you can win limitless amounts of money. Has anybody seen it?

Just you and me, is it? Yeah. They're all out having fun on Saturday. You and me are watching Ant and Deck. And you can win, but But I I I I was really interested in 1 1 so 2 brothers came on to to take this quiz.

They're really nice brothers. They really liked each other. They explained about how they really are best mates even though they're brothers. And they've got lovely families at home but they're they're not rich, they hardly go on holidays, but they have lovely happy homes. They explain that.

Then it came to them winning 250000 pounds. An Antel Deck, I don't know which 1 is which, said said to them, what would 250000 pounds mean to you? And they said it would mean the world, it would change our lives. Well, we've just heard that they have happy lives. So do they want sad lives?

We are convinced that silver and gold will buy us something more. That's a lie that children shouldn't hear. That's a that's a lie of this world, but we're not redeemed with silver and gold because silver and gold doesn't last that long. You see, I am rich richer than Steve Jobs. I am much richer than him.

I have more money than he does now. Because you can't take silver and gold with you. And when Elon Musk dies, I'm gonna be richer than him. It's the same as I can dance better than Michael Jackson. I'm better looking than any of the actors.

I'm a better footballer than Is Pele still alive? Yeah. There we go. I'm a better footballer than Pele. I am better at football than Pele.

I'm richer than all, they've all gone. You can't take money with you. So we're redeemed with this word, with this Jesus, with this precious blood of a lamb. So you've got to go back and do some lambing and stuff. Here's a precious lamb.

And it's all the picture of a sacrifice. The lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, the lamb that dies in our place, the lamb that takes our place, and brings us and buys us from an empty life into God life. PD James in in her book, Children of Men. It's very interesting. At least the film goes like this.

I'm not sure if the book does, I can't quite remember. When Theo, which means God, who's been protecting the the mother and the baby. They assume it's going to be a baby girl born, but it's a baby boy and it surprises them. When the baby born boy is born, and Theo is introducing the baby boy to another member of his group. A blasphemy happens.

It's a brilliant blast for me. The bloke is so surprised when he sees the baby, the hope of the world. He says, Jesus Christ. Brilliant, isn't it? Because there's only 1 hope for the world.

Jesus Christ. Which leads me to my fourth point. Sorry. I've only got another 38 to go. Jesus sorry.

We should therefore teach our children to listen, to listen to the word of God, and to listen to the lord Jesus Christ. We should teach them to do that. And so often everything else gets in the way, and we're foolish. We've just seen that all men, even the wisest, even the greatest are like fading flowers. And the word of God endures forever, then why would you put an emphasis on the children hearing fading flower advice?

And not the enduring word of God. Why would why would we do that? Unless we're unbelievers, We don't believe the bible is the word of God. Back to the newborn babies. Look what he says in chapter 2.

We go from chapter 1 of 1 Peter to chapter 2, and it's where you'll see the bigger 2 right at the bottom and it says, Therefore rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, Crave pure spiritual milk so that you may grow up in your salvation now that you've tasted that the Lord is good. Back to babies. Babies want pure milk. You know a baby is alive and healthy when when he or she wants milk.

There's something wrong, isn't there? And you have to do all kinds of things to find out what going wrong if the baby isn't drinking milk. And they can you know, there's something seriously wrong. But you know a healthy baby drinks the milk and not only drinks it craves it. Doesn't just drink it when it comes is actually crying out for it.

That's what babies do. And in the middle of the night, suddenly, their tummy says, milk, Their head goes And that's what happens. Mom wakes up. Dad pretends to wake up. I'll make you a cup of tea love or something that's made a baby cry, and that's what happens.

You know the baby's alive, and 1 of the problems with new mothers is is the whole idea of worrying about children, isn't it at night when you leave them? You worry. You worry. And and there's something good actually hearing them in the night crying because, oh, yes, they are alive. They want milk.

They're alive. They're going to grow. Crave, crave spiritual milk, which is what? The word of God. It's the word of God.

If you want to grow spiritually, if you want to be in the kingdom that lasts forever. If you want to follow a savior that redeemed you, died on a cross and rose again and brought new life. If you want life that doesn't fade that only grows. If you want a good shepherd that will take you into new path when death hits. If you want that, crave spiritual milk.

And if you want that for your children, then crave spiritual milk for your children. It suddenly turns parenthood into something much more serious than just getting kids through life to get exams, to get a decent job to earn some money that fades. Your responsibilities, it seems to be saying in the bible, is that you get your children to hear the Word of God. And even better hear it and respond yourself. Crave.

Right babies. This milk that will make you grow up in salvation. And did you notice that last word? I mean, we could spend a lot on the in verse 3. You've tasted the Lord is good.

When you taste that milk and the lord is good, when you've tasted that. When you've been in the world and you've tasted lots of philosophy of his and lots of ideas and lots of things. And then you taste the milk of God, the word of God, and it affects your life. There's spiritual growth, spiritual life. Do you know that?

Because if you want your children to know it, Why not you know it first? I've been listening to some of you know that the the cornerstone church knows to an old blues gospel singer. It's called blind Willie Johnson. Brilliant. It's very interesting actually because I was listening to a whole load of blind willies.

There's blind Willie Johnson, a blind Willie Mactel, and then I was listening to blind lemon Jefferson, and then the blind boys of Alabama. And they're all singing about Jesus. And funny enough, in those box of photos, I don't know why I'm I wish I hadn't started this story now. In those box of photos was my old Uncle Willie. So it was quite interesting.

Blind Willie, Uncle Willie, and I hadn't seen these photos. My Uncle Willie. And anyway, that's totally irrelevant, but probably the only thing you'll remember. Which is discouraging. But ne nevertheless, Brian Willie Johnson has a great song.

Led Zeppelin did it, but they mangled the words to make it a little bit more acceptable to people not upsetting. But Brian Willie was in your face. He was a preacher and evangelist, and he took a guitar and stood in Texas on the street corners and sang as loud as he could. And here's 1 of his songs. Nobody's fault but mine.

Nobody is fault but mine. If I die and my soul be lost, nobody's fault but mine. I have a bible on my shelf. I have a bible on my shelf. If I don't read and my soul be lost, Nobody is fault but mine.

So these talks are meant to challenge you. It's in your face, isn't it? Will you come to spiritual life through the living word of God? Several a moment of thought and prayer and then over to Tom. All people are like grass and their glory is like the flowers of the field.

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the lord endures forever. Father, we thank you for reminding us of our humanity and of our frailty this morning. Yet we thank you for reminding us that in this world where everything in the end perishes or comes to an end, everything decays and runs down that there is something that endures, something that never decays, something that stands firm forever. And that is your Word, the living Word of God that endures forever. We thank you that as we've just heard that Jesus Christ is that Word, who is eternal who endures forever and who offers the hope of forgiveness of our sins, salvation, and new life.

And we pray for the children. We've already seen this morning and prayed for, and we pray for all of us here that we would lay hold of this hope of eternal life in Jesus' name, amen.