Introduction: We have been talking about holiness under pressure, and Peter has been preparing these saints for a time of intense persecution. We are dealing also with hard facts on the ground, with rival interpretations of those facts battling it out. And those rival interpretations could not be farther apart than when dealing with two …
As a Lamb Among Wolves
The apostle Paul once said that he filled out the sufferings of Christ (Col. 1:24). Clearly, he did not mean that the atonement was somehow lacking—when Jesus cried that it was finished, it really was finished. So what did He mean? The complete atonement established the body of Christ, and because of the completeness and …
The Head of the Table
As the apostle Paul begins the eleventh chapter of 1 Corinthians, let us assume that he is not guilty of a radical lurch as he changes subjects, deciding finally to come back to the subject of the Lord’s Supper in v. 17. The culmination point of Christian worship is the Supper, and every disorder in …
That He Might Bring Us to God/1 Peter 3
Introduction: In Christ, every aspect of our lives is woven together. The demeanor that receives the salvation offered to us is a demeanor that relates to husbands, wives, and everyone else in that same way. The spirit you have toward God is not turned off when you face your fellow man. Your spirit in dealing …
Inexorable Life
The crucifixion was not a bad dream. It really happened. Jesus Christ really was flogged, His beard pulled out, nails driven into His hands and feet, and a spear thrust into His side. It was not something that His disciples thought had happened, only to discover their error and that Jesus was still alive. No, …
A Pious Cocoon
The apostle tells us to do whatever we do to the glory of God. We cannot really understand this unless we have been disciplined by His Table. Whatever you eat, whatever you drink, he says, whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. But this comes at the end of a detailed …
The Christ Stone/1 Peter 2
Introduction: Remember the broader context of this epistle, which is the need to cultivate holiness under pressure. And as we begin to see, that pressure is not insignificant. And whether you will be able to do this as instructed will depend entirely on your relationship to the Christ Stone. The Text: “Wherefore laying aside all …
A Post-Situational Encounter
God gives us stories throughout the Scriptures, and He does not do this for purposes of entertainment. God tells us the stories of our fathers—in the Garden, in the ark, in Egypt, in the wilderness, in the promised land, in the empire, in exile, and in the return, so that we might know how to …
Fence the Tables
The apostle Paul does not draw the kind of antithesis we might expect between the Table of the Lord and the food we eat throughout our daily lives. In this passage from Corinthians we have been considering, he talks about the Lord’s Supper as a sacrament, the manna and water of the wilderness, meat eaten …
Joy Unspeakable and Full of Glory/1 Peter 1
Introduction: The point of this epistle is to encourage believers to live lives of personal holiness during a time of persecution—that is, during a time when the challenge of personal holiness is beyond inconvenient. If God had wanted His people to be extraordinarily holy, the argument might go, He would have given us more help—times …