Jesus is the Lamb of God

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As we turn to this passage of Scripture we pray that the Lord would bless our thoughts and my feeble words to His glory, for we come to His Word with great reverence and joy, knowing that within its pages we can encounter the Risen Lord Jesus.

The Apostle Peter knew a thing or two about disloyalty and second thoughts. Christians around the world have recently marked Easter, and of course read the passages of Scripture toward the end of the Gospels that speak of the events of Good Friday through to Easter Day itself. And there, nestled in between all of the action, is a short scene where one of Jesus’ most loyal and bold friends betrays Him. (Luke 22. 59-61) Kenny, a few weeks ago, spoke on this from this very pulpit – he explained how bold and valiant Peter was shamed into silence, into disowning the Lord, by a little girl and an inquisitive servant, as he warmed himself by the fire. How far the mighty, thunderous Peter fell in those few short sentences. And yet how far he was raised up when, after His resurrection, the Lord Jesus earnestly sought Peter out, showing that past sins (not just Peter’s of course) had been reconciled, and that all was forgiven. (John 21. 19) Therefore, when Peter encourages people not to turn their backs on Jesus, he has form! He knows how it feels, and he wants to spare us that.

Peter was writing to an exiled group of people, (v1) to a group of Christians who have been driven out of their homelands and are in hiding in another place. We don’t know exactly when this was, although we can see right back at the beginning of Acts how, shortly after Stephen’s brutal murder, many Christians were driven out of their homes and had to disperse to the four corners. (Acts 8. 1) For these people, there would have been some constant battles raging in their heads – whether to hold firm to the faith that had resulted in their exile, or whether to renege on their faith, to turn their backs on their Lord, to disown Him and return to their former lives. This, of course, is not a dilemma restricted to people in the ancient world. Even today there are Christians in similar circumstances, perhaps Christians in other parts of the world, living under regimes that are intolerant of Christianity. Or perhaps even in this very Church tonight. People who have been transformed by an encounter with Christ, in a small or a big way, people who know the Lord Jesus died for them, and yet at this very minute are having to ponder whether to hold firm or whether to return to their previous lives. And of course the tensions can be many or few – from the physical dangers of execution or abduction, to the social stigma of being a Christian in a society that holds no place for religious values at all, save those that comply with the current zeitgeist. If this is you, then Peter has a message for you. And actually, even if you are sitting there this evening (as I hope most of you are) with no immediate plans to turn away from your Lord, then I urge you equally to listen to what Peter has to say, as you never know if or when you may need this encouragement.

In the previous verses of his letter, Peter has spoken about the prophets who came in Old Testament times, speaking of the coming Messiah. Many spring to mind, perhaps most poetically the words of Isaiah, with the Suffering Servant (see Isaiah 42. 1, 49, 50 and 52), or some of the later prophets with their particular words concerning the coming Lord. And of course, when I say ‘their’ words, I do of course mean God’s words, for the Prophets came bearing a message from Him. ‘One day the Messiah will come’, they collectively cry, as they look longingly to that (for them) future time when the imbalance is restored, and God’s kingdom can again be found.

As Christians, people who have encountered the Risen Christ in one form or another, we are especially blessed because, unlike the prophets who could only look longingly into the future, we are able to know Christ personally. We can read of His teachings and His life in the words of the New Testament, and we have been given His Spirit to help and guide us, to be our advocate and friend. (John 14. 26) You and I are in an incredibly blessed position: it is no wonder that Peter declares that the things we have seen and have access to are “things into which angels long to look.” (1 Pet. 1. 12)

The prophecies of the Old Testament told of the coming Messiah, and also what He would do when He came in glory. He was not coming as some visiting royal, to wave and open the new wing of a school, before returning to His palace. He came (as Kenny said this morning) with a mission, a purpose, and this purpose was to redeem us from our sins and restore our relationship with the Father. Peter therefore begins his letter, sets the scene if you like, by saying that the things which the prophets looked forward to, we should look back to. For although Christ is not dead and buried history (He sits at God’s right hand, after all), what He did on the cross was world changing, and to be forgotten at our peril.

Peter is very good at showing contrasts in his writings, showing his readers what things were like before and after an event, and this passage is no different. In her commentary on 1 Peter, the theologian and academic Karen Jobes offers us a comparison table of life before and after our conversion. She draws this information from Peter’s writings:1

Formerly Now Source
Ignorant of God Knowing Christ and, through Him, God Himself 1 Peter 1. 14 - “your former ignorance”
Not God’s people Adopted as God’s children 1 Peter 1. 14 – “As obedient children”
Controlled by our desires Controlled by obedience to God 1 Peter 1. 14 – “the passions of your former ignorance”
Living a futile life Living a life full of meaning and purpose 1 Peter 1. 18 - “the futile ways inherited from your forefathers”
Affirmed by society Misunderstood, maligned and shunned by society. 1 Peter 1. 1 – “elect exiles”

This is how Peter sees the readers of his letter. Indeed, this is probably how he saw himself. After all, he went through the same conversion experience that you and I have been through, in some way or another. One day, like every other, he woke up as someone who did not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and because of something Jesus did, he went to bed that evening having been converted. (Matt. 4. 18-20) From that day onwards, his life was different. He went to different places, he associated with different people, he held different beliefs, people reacted very differently to him. Peter clearly sees that this before and after pattern is symptomatic of a conversion experience in Christ: perhaps you can see something of your own lives in that table?

However what Peter goes on to say next is nothing short of amazing. Here he unpacks the central tenet of our belief, the sole reason that there is a before and after story at all. He explains how what Christ did for us on the cross brought our freedom.

In v18 of our reading tonight, the word that the ESV translates as ‘ransomed’, some other Bibles would translate as ‘redeemed’. For the purposes of this, however, we needn’t worry about the word used. For the message it brings is extraordinary. The word itself has its roots in the pagan freeing of slaves. In the Greco-Roman world, a slave could be freed from servitude if he (or someone else) paid for his freedom. Often, in pagan nations, this money was exchanged in the temple, and it was the temple authorities that paid it on to the slave owner. Thus the slave was said to have passed in to the ownership of the temple, which was as good as saying he was a free man. The money that changed hands was known as the timē (tim-ay).2 In explaining how the Christian is set free from his/her bondage, Peter employs a little play on words. Having made mention of the timē (tim-ay), the price of a slave’s freedom, Peter explains:

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. (1 Peter 1. 18-19)

Turning to the book of Acts, we can see that Peter held gold and silver (the materials used to pay for a slave’s freedom) in contempt. When asked for alms by the lame beggar, Peter replies:

I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk! (Acts 3. 6)

You see, friends, silver and gold are just elements. They’re just metals. They were created by God, yes, and indeed are very beautiful and precious materials, but they are corruptible, they are earthly, they are worthless compared to the name of Jesus Christ. The “precious blood of Christ”, (1.19) however, will never be corrupted, never be beaten.

Do you remember I mentioned a play on words? It is all to do with how Peter describes Christ’s blood. He uses the word that our Bibles translate as ‘precious’. The Greek word employed here is timios (tim-ee-oo), a word with a very similar root to timē (tim-ay), the price paid for a slave. Just as the slave’s freedom was bought at a price, so too our freedoms were paid for: on the cross.3

Those of you who were here a few weeks ago will have heard an excellent sermon on the subject of Christ’s blood from Rev. Michael Healy, who explained in far greater detail than I propose to this evening how and why Christ’s blood is so important, however what is crucial to remember in this passage is that, when Peter uses the idea of Christ’s blood, he is not just referring to the red liquid that pumped around our Lord’s veins, but rather is speaking about the shedding of that blood on the Cross. Had our Lord not gone to the Cross, His blood would not have the same significance. But because He shed His blood on our account on the Cross, we have freedom and forgiveness for our sins.

The old Anglican Book of Common Prayer, written by Thomas Cranmer in the 16th century, has a lovely way of explaining the Cross. It is found slap-bang in the middle of the communion prayer, and says:

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who of Thy tender mercy didst give Thine only Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the Cross for our redemption; who made there (by His one oblation of Himself once offered) a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world…4

Jesus Christ, having crossed that bloodstained Brook of Kidron (as we heard in this morning’s sermon – John 18. 1), hung on the Cross to make a full, perfect and sufficient sacrificial offering for our sins. On that day, nearly 2,000 years ago, Jesus atoned for your sins and mine. Not one of our sins slipped through the net. There is not one sin that this sacrifice was unable to atone for. For in Jesus Christ, who fulfilled the law for us on our behalf, we are set free.

The Apostle Peter began this evening’s passage with the word “therefore”, (v13), reminding us that what we read in this evening’s passage has everything to do with what came before. Before this passage, as we’ve considered, Peter had been explaining how the prophets longed for the day when the Messiah would come. Therefore, says Peter, you must prepare yourselves. The Authorised Version, instead of “preparing your minds”, uses the phrase “gird up your loins of your mind”.

You will have heard, I am sure, the origin of this phrase? It appears a number of times throughout the Scriptures, and relates to the style of Oriental dress that people wore back then. Clothing was long and flowing, which was great for shade from the sun, but less practical for running, for working, for fighting. For this reason, before battle, soldiers would gird up their loins. That’s to say, they would tuck their clothes in to their belt (perhaps the ancient-world equivalent to me tucking my trousers into my socks when I cycle – not the best look!), so they could run without tripping. We see this in 1 Kings 18, where Elijah “gathered up his garment and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel”. (1 Kgs. 18. 46) We see it again in Job, where the Lord demands that Job answer Him. The Lord instructs Job to “Dress for action like a man”. (Job 38. 3) Needless to say, both of these translated as ‘Gird up your loins’ in older translations. The point stands: just as Elijah had to prepare himself to run, and as Job had to prepare himself to answer the Lord, so here Peter is saying to his readers, to you, and to me, ‘Prepare yourself, get ready’.

I’ll be honest: we don’t know exactly what Peter was telling his readers to get ready for, as it isn’t written down in black and white. However, given that Peter tells them not to return to their former thoughts and ways (v14), we can perhaps assume that some of the people had backslid. After all, as I said at the beginning, these people were exiles, (v1) far from their homeland, almost certainly driven out for their faith in Christ. However, Peter continues by reminding his readers to behave as “obedient children”, (v14) reminding them of their sonship in God thanks to Jesus Christ. For once, they were (to quote Paul), “separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” (Eph. 2. 12)

Isn’t the same true of us here, friends? You and I, as we come to Church, know all too well that there is a before and after story in each of our lives. And, of course, if there are people here tonight who don’t know the Lord Jesus, this is what He offers you: a before and after. He offers you a new life in Him. For once I did not know Christ, and now I do. And, of course, being sons and daughters of God, we have to behave like part of His family.

I used to be a Boys’ Brigade Officer, and went on many BB Camps over many summers (first as a Boy, then as an Officer). As an Officer, particularly if you are on a joint camp with another Company, you would often witness Boys larking around, playing the fool, and at times breaking the rules. The Officers used to sit in their own Mess Tent, and from there look out over the Camp. If we saw a Boy from another Company breaking the rules, we would tut and perhaps mutter something about the behaviour, but wouldn’t normally get too worked up by it. However, heaven help the Boy from our own Company who was caught doing a similar thing! We knew that they knew the rules, and they had chosen to break them.

Perhaps parents here will resonate with this thought: it’s one thing for the child over the road to be naughty, but when it’s your own, that’s another story. That’s not how you brought them up, etc etc. The world around us is, sadly, full of people who do not follow God’s laws, either through ignorance or wilfulness. This is sad. But how much sadder for it is for us to see someone backslide when we know they knew the Lord, or knew His commandments, yet chose not to follow them. Again, as Kenny mentioned this morning, even some adults who come to the Lord for baptism still disown Jesus and go off living non-Christian lives. The people to whom Peter is writing clearly knew the Lord Jesus – after all, he names them the “elect exiles” (v1) – and so it was vitally important that they stayed on the straight and narrow.

The call on a Christian to be holy is, of course, a challenging one for us to hear. For you and I both know, deep down, that we do not live holy lives. We sin and fall short, every one of us, and try as we might many of us have those niggling sins in our hearts that we wish we could be free of. Hearing an instruction to “be holy in all your conduct” (v15) is, for us all, a jarring reminder of how far we are from holiness, perhaps even a reminder of how we have been unholy in our conduct over the last week. And yet holiness is still a virtue we should strive after.

It was the theologian, Leighton, who wrote that:

[God] hath severed you from the mass of the profane world, and picked you out to be jewels for Himself; He hath set you apart for this end, that you may be holy to Him… It is sacrilege for you to dispose of yourselves after the impure manner of the world, and to apply yourself to any profane use, whom God hath consecrated for Himself.5

This whole exhortation is an impassioned plea from Peter, a man whose life was changed for ever after his encounters with the Lord Jesus, and a man who would never forget the way in which he betrayed his Lord and backslid (even for a short time), to fellow Christians, whose lives had also been changed by an encounter with the Lord, urging and encouraging them to hold fast to their new lives and not be tempted to turn back. There are undoubtedly things in this world that will trouble us, just as there were things that clearly were troubling Peter’s readers, so all we can do is “set [our] hope firmly on the grace that will be brought to [us] at the revelation of Jesus Christ”, (v13) remembering that it was Christ Jesus alone who redeemed us from our sins and won for us a new life, and in the world to come life eternal. We are encouraged, therefore, to keep our eyes firmly fixed on Him, encouraged to live holy lives (not as a means of being saved, for Christ has done that already, but in response to our miraculous salvation), conforming our lives to His image, as we patiently await the future glory which is promised to all those whose “faith and hope are in God”. (v21)

Bibliography

  • Carson, D. A., and G. K. Beale. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Academic, Div of Baker Publishing Group, 2007.
  • Church of England. The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church According to the Use of the Church of England: Together with the Psalter or Psalms of David, Pointed as They Are to Be Sung or Said in Churches : And the Form or Manner of Making, Ordaining and Consecrating of Bishops, Priests and Deacons. Cambridge, U.K.; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
  • Jobes, Karen H. 1 Peter (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament). Baker Academic, 2005.
  • Mason, A. J. ‘Ephesians to Revelation’, Vol. 8. A Bible Commentary for English Readers. London: Cassell and Co., 1905.

  1. Karen H. Jobes, 1 Peter (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) (Baker Academic, 2005), 113. ↩

  2. D. A. Carson and G. K. Beale, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Academic, Div of Baker Publishing Group, 2007), 1018–19. ↩

  3. Ibid., 1019. ↩

  4. Church of England, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church According to the Use of the Church of England: Together with the Psalter or Psalms of David, Pointed as They Are to Be Sung or Said in Churches : And the Form or Manner of Making, Ordaining and Consecrating of Bishops, Priests and Deacons. (Cambridge, U.K.; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 255. ↩

  5. A. J. Mason, ‘Ephesians to Revelation’, vol. 8, A Bible Commentary for English Readers (London: Cassell and Co., 1905), 395. ↩