Confession
Repentance flows from grief. But what kind of grief? Confession and repentance that lead to joy is driven by a grief over our sin and how we have rebelled against such a great and loving God. Confession driven by grief over a tarnished reputation and uncomfortable consequences leads to us trying to defend ourselves and constantly looking over our shoulders to see if anyone will notice just how bad we can be. True repentance trusts itself in who God is and not how good we are; it seeks cleansing of sin, not just a remittance of bad consequences; it shines the light of the Gospel on the heart to not just find that one sin, but all of the sins and false beliefs lie underneath it; and it seeks the joy that comes from sanctification and renewed love for our Savior.
Call to Worship
Our Call to Worship always stresses how great and awesome our God is, as this Psalm does. We see that this is a greatness that humbles us to serve Him, but that is so great still that we are unable and unworthy to approach God and worship Him as He should be worshiped. Only the pure in heart and those with clean hands can worship God, and only God is that pure and that clean. So God came to us and for us so that we could worship as we were created to do. Only Jesus could ascend the hill to worship on His own, and because He ascended the hill to the cross, we can ascend to the presence of God in worship through Him.
A Transforming Mission: Gospel-Driven Investment
Since the resurrection the church has had one mission: to be Christ’s witnesses both where we are and to the ends of the earth. That was the mission given to the apostles, the medievals, the Reformers, and the modern American church we are a part of. Will we devote ourselves to that mission? It’s humbling because it’s the same cause that God has called every church over the past 2000 years, but it is an honor to be able to participate in the radical renewal of all creation that stems from the throne of God Himself. Further, it’s the mission that caused someone to preach the Gospel to someone else who preached the Gospel to us. Will we devote ourselves to it?
A Beautiful Mess: Gospel-Driven Community
Researchers are finding that people feel lonelier and emptier than ever before. Social networks, extracurricular activities, and civic associations haven’t solved the problem because none of our circumstances or abilities can truly make us belong or feel united. We need to recognize that at every turn, our sin moves to divide us and the only thing that can actually sustain lasting community is the finished work of Christ on the cross. But what does it look like to build that beautiful community of the Gospel that we see in Acts 2, knowing that our sinful nature always drives us to the mess that we see in the rest of the New Testament?
Be Clothed in Humility
Peter ends this letter with a charge of humility: to the elders as they shepherd the flock and the church as it submits to the elders and readies itself for the sufferings and temptations that lie ahead. We must be humbled in the presence of God, remembering the truth from last week that judgment is coming in the household of God, recognizing the spiritual struggle we find ourselves in, and preparing for the suffering to come, but never forgetting the eternal glory in Christ it points us to.
The Gift of Joy Is Wrapped in Suffering
Everyone wants to feel joy and it is God’s desire for us to have joy. The New Testament speaks often of joy, however, this joy is always described in terms of suffering. Peter tells us to not be surprised when we suffer, but rather to rejoice when we suffer. Why? Because when we suffer, God is intentionally working in our lives to sanctify us, reveal His Son to us, and glorify Himself through us as we share in the sufferings of Christ. Our joy is in Christ and in His Gospel, and His Gospel hinges on the intense suffering of the cross.
Christ Our Hope
In what Martin Luther described as the most obscure passage in all of Scripture, a passage that he did not understand at all, Peter speaks to us again on suffering. Here, though, we are promised a blessing and a hope if we bless in our suffering. In the New Testament, joy is always mentioned in light of and throughout a period of suffering. What then is our blessing and our hope? Jesus Christ Himself. In suffering we have the opportunity to reveal Him as our hope, in not reviling despite being reviled, as He did. In that power to suffer well, we have joy in identifying with Christ and our suffering, when paired with bold proclamation of our hope in Christ, makes a strong witness to the Gospel transformation in our lives.
Fearless Submission and Understanding Headship
In our culture, gender roles are a delicate issue. Scripture does not affirm in any way—rather, it flatly denies—that either gender is inherently superior to the other. Men and women are equally valuable and both are made in the image of God, but they are not interchangeable. Adam could not image God well alone, he needed to be complemented by Eve. Just as the church submits to a loving a loving Savior, wives are to submit to their husbands. And as Christ gave everything for the church, husbands should lead their wives sacrificially. But after centuries of sin, the Gospel has been hidden by human pride. Adam and Eve’s complementary lives made to glorify and image God now image pride, corruption, and lack of trust in God more than anything else.
Sojourners and Exiles
1 Peter was written in a time when Emperor Nero had falsely accused Christians of burning Rome. Thus, Christians were being crucified, sent to the arena to be eaten alive, and burned to light the city at night. This is the context in which Peter calls us to serve and submit to authority, even in the midst of suffering. The same Peter who tried to fight the temple guards with a dagger tells us to lay down our rights to take the cause of the rights of others, for God’s glory and their salvation.
Jesus the Living Cornerstone
The most important part of any building is the cornerstone. It’s the first stone laid. It bears the whole weight of the structure. It sets the alignment of the entire foundation. In this section, Peter identifies Christ as our cornerstone and we are the stones laid around Him. This has several implications for us. First, our identity is to rest on and take its direction from Christ, our cornerstone. But also, our identity is found in community. We are not living stones sitting in a quarry, but living stones built on Christ to form a dwelling place for God, a temple. Do our lives reflect that Jesus is our cornerstone or do we try to rest all of our lives on an idol? Do we try to make ourselves our own cornerstone, trying to be a living stone by ourselves and resting on our own strength?