Changed Forever :: 1 Peter 1:13-25
Jesus’ resurrection changed everything. It changed everything about THE WAY of the Emmaus disciples. It changed everything about the preaching of Peter. It changed everything about the life of three thousand souls on the Day of Pentecost.
The resurrection of Jesus changed everything ... for you ... for me.
He is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia!
There is not an event in history more telling than this one. Jesus was raised from the dead for your justification. As we heard in Acts, then awe came upon every soul.
Did you wake up this morning and remember this truth, joining our psalmist, singing out: I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. (116:1) ... When I was brought low, he saved me (116:6). ... He delivered my soul from death.
I certainly pray you did. Because Jesus’ resurrection has changed everything.
He is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Brothers and sisters in Christ, God has redeemed you and set you free through the life, death, and resurrection of the Son. God has given you new birth and new life from above through the Holy Spirit. And God has given to you a new clarity, a new joy, a new hope, a living hope of eternal life with the Father, who has transferred you from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of his light.
This is the joy that Easter highlights.
Even in the midst of our darkest days, our biggest trials in life, even as we struggle with unemployment, and disease, we can now join all the heavenly host singing that ... I know that my redeemer lives. What comfort this sweet sentence gives! He lives. He Lives, who once was dead.
THE RESURRECTION HAS CHANGED EVERYTHING.
In today’s epistle reading, I invite you to join me and Peter in reveling in this truth, the truth of what the resurrection means for you and me. If Christ had not been raised from death, our faith would be in vain, our preaching but a waste of breath, our sin and guilt remain. ... But now our great redeemer lives, through him we are restored.
Hear Peter’s testimony to this truth ...
In the precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and unstained ... (you know, the blood) of Christ ... He was revealed in this last age on account of you, who through him are faithful in God, who raised Jesus from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope might be in God.
The resurrection has changed everything.
So now why is it so hard for us to recognize this truth?
The fact is, you are a sinner who sins. You can’t escape the truth of how ... to use Peter’s words ... we inherited a useless way of life from our fathers, turning to a different Gospel, a different Word, a Word of a world that is in panic, the word of a world that cries out that you need to look out for Numero Uno. Let’s face the truth: We love to fall back on our works, on our way of life, thinking that what we say and do is going to save us ... and preserve our life and make us happy.
Original sin is coloring this image for you. Original sins colors everything you think, say and do, and what you don’t think, don’t say, or don’t do. We have been cursed with this inherited uselessness. This is one of the thoughts Peter is getting at when he talks about the corruption of our fathers, that is, the useless way of life. We repeat the same mistakes. Most notably, we excuse ourselves, excuse our sins, keep track of the sins committed against us. We relish in the futility of trying to exalt ourselves.
We deny that sin ... especially our silent private sins, the ones we do in privacy ... is even part of our lives. So Peter reminds us of this truth.
Yes, All flesh is indeed like grass and its glory like the flower.
The grass withers, and the flower fades (v 24; Isa 40:7).
There are indeed beautiful people in your life, beautiful people who bring smiles to your faces and joy to your days. But the tragic fact is that all the flowers of mankind will wither, dry up, fall to the ground, and die.
So ... what shall we do about it?
Peter answered that question in our first reading. Because the resurrection had changed everything in Peter’s life, he set out to proclaim the good news. What shall we do? And Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized, everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:37-38).
That’s why you’re here isn’t it, listening to this sermon now, worshipping with us online now? The resurrection has changed everything for you, hasn’t it? God has called you here, hasn’t he?
2. How did this happen?
You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot (vv 18-19). You have received the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Ransomed is a beautiful word for us to hear today. Ransomed means debt free, set free. Yes, you ... all of you ... have been released from futility and death. You are no longer a slave to the bondage passed down to you through time. Christ has set you free.
He has purchased this freedom for you not with silver or gold, but with his own precious blood. If money could have ransomed us, we might have been able to pay it. But freedom from sin and death requires something none of us had: pure righteousness. It is the righteous alone who will live forever. And it is Christ alone who is able to take away the sins of the world. Remember, he is the blameless Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. That’s why you had him crucified.
The world will continue to tell you that the death of Jesus was the most futile thing ever. No one, without the aid of the Holy Spirit, ever looked at our Lord hanging on the cross as anything but futility.
But brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus didn’t just die for you.
He is risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia.
Thanks be to God, now, in the light of the resurrection, our worldview has changed. Not only did the blood of Christ redeem us, paying our debt to sin in full, he bore the full wrath of God for all rebellion, for all of your sin, for the sins you committed yesterday, today, and tomorrow. And now you who confess this truth will be saved (Rom 10:9). Because the resurrection has changed everything.
3. This is the beating heart of today’s Epistle.
God raised Jesus from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. This is our living hope.
And it is our living reality. Death has no power over us any longer.
You who are baptized in Christ are saved. Your souls have been washed clean in the obedience of the truth ... that is, in the Gospel ... in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, who hasn’t abandoned you. He is in you, and you are in him (Gal 2:20). He saved you through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on you generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:4-5).
This inheritance is yours now. Today. Forever.
The resurrection has changed everything.
God has made all of this possible. As Paul reminds us in Romans: Jesus delivered over to death and raised for your justification. Now, death can only frighten us, concern us, stalk us. But in Christ Jesus, death is not able to harm us. It cannot separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.
Because we have been united with him in his death and his resurrection. Remember, we were buried with him in baptism and just as surely will be raised, too.
God did this for you.
This word is the good news that was preached to you (v 25), first by Paul and now by Peter. It is near you and in your heart and in your mouth. Tell everyone about it.
This word of forgiveness is giving you life. The Word of the Lord proclaims Jesus ransoming blood and saving resurrection, so your freedom and new life in Christ cannot fail. Knowing this now, hear Peter's encouragement that having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.
Before, we were trapped because of inherited sinfulness of perishable seed, but now, in Holy Baptism, you've been born again of imperishable seed. The name of our Lord was planted in you, sin was washed away, and Jesus’ resurrection became your own.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, don’t ever forget that you are now free ... free to live your life in loving service to your neighbor, free to bear the fruits of your heavenly father.
What blessed comfort Jesus’ resurrection gives!
His eternal life has changed everything forever for you.
He is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!