Born Again

This past Sunday our message was based on 1 Peter 1:13-2:3 (you can listen to it here).  The passage is a meditation on new life in Jesus Christ – a life of being purchased from slavery and born again as new people.  As these are the central themes of the Christian life, there’s no end of available material for illustration.  That being said, here’s a tremendous story of rebirth and life transformation that one of my favorite theologians, Ann Voskamp, referenced on her blog.  Check it out.

I'm Changing My Diet

Peter says the following in 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 in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Peter's telling the church to stop consuming spiritual foods that malnourish us.  In my message on this passage, I highlighted the fact that our life before Christ is driven by the conviction that this life is all we've got.  This in turn forces us to prioritize two things:

Survival – the need to extend our lifespans using any means necessary;

Success – the need to acquire for ourselves everything we can using any means necessary.

Peter identifies spiritual “foods” that serve these two priorities:

Malice –advancing our ends by hurting others.

Deceit – distorting the truth for selfish purposes.

Hypocrisy – falsely representing ourselves as better than we really are.

Envy – wanting to possess what someone else has.

Slander – making others look bad to make ourselves feel good.

When we resort to these, we may in fact extend our lifespans; we may even derive maximal enjoyment, prosperity and security for our 70 plus years of life.  But our lives will become self-fulfilling prophecies – there will be nothing left for us when our days on earth come to an end.

Jesus Christ offers his disciples a source of life that cannot be extinguished – the Spirit of God.  Peter reminds the church that they have received this life source, too.  The Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in them.  This being the case, says Peter, don’t malnourish it.  Don’t consume spiritual junk food.  Feed on “the living Word of God” (1:23), and live.  

What are you worried about?

Passage: Matthew 6:19-34

This week I’m preparing a sermon on 1 Peter 1:3-9 (as part of a series on the letters of Peter entitled “Holy”.  Find out more here).  Peter’s focus in this passage is “an inheritance that won’t spoil or fade”.  My preparation has brought to mind Jesus’ two-part exhortation in the Sermon on the Mount.  In this passage Jesus both reminds us of the fleeting nature of life in this world, and invites us to trust in a God who knows our needs and loves us immensely.  Above all, our faith directs our focus not to the worries of making today the best it can be, but preparing for an eternity that’s better than the best we can imagine.  Francis Chan, one of my favorites, puts it way better than I ever could.  Take five minutes to listen to what he has to say.