Holy Living
REVIEW
• Believers are first and foremost citizens of the Kingdom of heaven and not this world.
• Our salvation through the resurrected Christ can’t be taken from us! We are to rejoice!
• Trials and grief will come and those who keep a genuine faith will be praised by Jesus.
THEREFORE…WE ARE TO BE AND LIVE HOLY
1 Peter 1:13-16 -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.”
• Therefore = because of
o Because of our secured salvation through the resurrection…
o Because of trials and grief that give the opportunity to be proven genuine…
• Because we have received salvation (1:12) we are to have alert and sober minds
• We are to set our hope on the grace to be received when Jesus is revealed
• We are to be OBEDIENT:
o Do not conform to the evil desires of the world you used to live for
o Be holy – set apart
Set apart: observed as for something as something
• Doesn’t mean perfection – without sin
• Does mean with Jesus – forgiven
• Does mean living according to his will in his way – obedience
1 Peter 1: 17-21 -Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 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 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.
• God judges fairly and justly, THEREFORE:
o Live a reverent – aware – life as one not of this world
• It’s not perishable items that saved you from an empty life, but the blood of the eternal Jesus!
o Don’t choose perishable over eternal
o Jesus is eternal so our salvation is eternal – live like it
o A life lived without Jesus is an empty life- cannot fulfill and is temporal
1 Peter 1: 22-25 – Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one 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 word of the Lord endures forever. ”And this is the word that was preached to you.
• Purification – holiness – is achieved by being obedient to the truth of God’s word and will
• The reason for being holy is to have a sincere love for one another – that sets apart!
• If you have a sincere love- actually love one another deeply and from the heart
• Why love deeply? Because we have been born again by an imperishable word of God!
o Our personal, temporal, worldly glory will wither and fade, but the word – the truth – endures forever!
1 Peter 2:1 – 3 -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 on your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
• This life and the things in it will fade, but the word of the Lord endures forever, THEREFORE:
o Rid yourselves of sin – Make an effort to remove
o You have seen the goodness of Jesus – so crave pure truth – to grow up!
1 Peter 2: 4-10 – As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and, “A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
• Because of the physical sacrifice of the perfect Jesus we:
o Are holy and royal priesthood
o Our lives are spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
o Are to be a spiritual house – a family – a temple unto the Lord with Jesus as our cornerstone
o Jesus was rejected – and we may be too
o We are to declare and praise God for saving us!
1 Peter 2:11-12 – Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
• We are a people of God – exiles – having received his mercy, THEREFORE:
o Abstain from sinful desires
o Live good lives among pagans
They will accuse you of being and doing wrong
They MAY see your good DEEDS and glorify God when he comes.
CONCLUSION
Because of the salvation we have received through the resurrection of Jesus, his eternal promises and truths, the justice and mercy of God; we are to live sacrificial, holy, and set apart lives by being obedient to God’s word and his will, together as a royal priesthood and family that loves one another deeply from the heart and declares the praises of God in a lost and pagan world so that some may see that the Lord is good and turn to him. This is Holy Living.
QUESTIONS TO REFLECT AND DISCUSS:
Passages to consider: 1 Peter1:13-2:12
Icebreaker: What is something you crave?
Sermon Reflection – What insight did you hear from the sermon?
Questions:
1. Read 1 Peter 1:13-2:3. What are the reasons Peter calls Jesus followers to strive toward being holy? How would you define holiness?
2. What did Jesus do for us? What is our part in following him?
3. What are you in the processes of putting off and putting on as you choose Jesus to lead you? What helps you crave – seek out – things of God?
4. Read 1 Peter 2:4 – 9. What does this passage tell us, following Jesus, about who we are?
5. As summer approaches and rhythms change, what is your plan to stay connected to the ‘corner stone’, Jesus, and the other ‘living stones’ – fellow believers?
6. How have you seen people stumble over who Jesus says he is? Share together who you are concerned for. Pray together over those who you have concerns about stumbling over Jesus.
7. What praises about God would you declare? Who needs to hear them?
Next week: Focus for next week is 1 Peter 2:11-3:7. Read through 1 Peter at least once – try a chapter a day.
Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from the Holy Bible: The Amplified Bible. Copyright 1987, 2015 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved.