Grow Into Salvation?

A sermon based upon 1 Peter 2: 2-10

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, BA, MDiv, DMin.

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership, 

Sunday, Nov. 8th, 2020 (Growing In Grace)

A middle-aged man was on a Caribbean cruise enjoying his first real vacation in years.

 On the first day out to sea he noticed an attractive woman about his age who smiled at him in a friendly way as he passed her on the deck. This pleased the man greatly.

 That night he managed to get seated at the same table with her for dinner. As the conversation developed, he commented that he had seen her on the deck that day and he had appreciated her friendly smile.   When she heard this, she smiled and commented, "Well, the reason I smiled was that when I saw you I was immediately struck by your strong resemblance to my third husband."

At this he perked up his ears and said, "Oh, how many times have you been married?"

She looked down at her plate, smiled modestly, and answered, "Twice."

What motivates you to have Hope that tomorrow will be better than today?    As we all know too well, it’s not easy to have hope in a world that is transitory, temporal, and passing away. 

Today’s passage from 1^st Peter, comes to us in a letter that describes Jesus Christ as the bringer of a ‘living hope’ through his own ‘resurrection...from the dead’ (1:3). These words were written to a church undergoing great trials and suffering 1:6).  But in spite of all they were going through, Peter says there’s still something to be hopeful about. 

So do we.  We have hope in our difficulties and troubles too, don’t we?.   And the great surprise is that this ‘hope’ begins now.  We don’t have to wait to receive salvation in heaven.  We can receive this ‘indescribable’ hope right now.  We can start to ‘grow’ in our salvation right now, in this world, in our own times of trials and troubles.  Hope can grow as our salvation grows.

Now I bet you didn’t see that coming, did you?   How do we grow in our salvation? That’s certainly not how we normally think about it?  We talk about how we have been saved, not how we are being saved or will be saved or even how we can grow in our salvation.  “Brother, Sister, Have you been saved”.  Yes, Maybe, Not yet!  What kind of answer is that?  What does Peter mean, grow in salvation?   This is the what we want to reflect upon today as we continue to consider what it means to ‘grow in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, as we will see, also means growing in our salvation.    

LONG FOR... PURE, SPIRITUAL MILK (2)

First, let’s take a closer look at where this comes from.  Peter is writing to a people who could have lost all hope.   Their world had been pulled out from under them, like a dinning room tablecloth or like a rug under their feet.   After the Romans completely destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD everybody scattered.  The Jews scattered.  The Jewish Christians scattered too.   That’s who Peter is writing to—-the ‘exiled’ churches of the dispersion (1:1).

Most interestingly, Peter says that these unfortunate people have been ‘chosen’, ‘destined’ and ‘sanctified’ to be ‘obedient to Jesus’ (1:2) through this whole ordeal.

Now, who would want to be the generation ‘chosen’ to go through this?  Well who would have wanted to be chosen to go through the Great Depression?  Who would want to be chosen to go to war in Europe, in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan?   And who would want to be chosen to survive a terrible accident, or get cancer?  Who would want to serve a God who would even think of choosing you to grow and to be sanctified and made holy (1:15) through something like this? 

I was visiting our Music Leader’s Father in the Nursing Home recently and his roommate was a 47 year old man who had suffered a double stroke.  As he told me about his ordeal, he pointed up to heaven and thanked God for pulling him through.  Wow, what a testimony to faith.  And it’s understandable.  Who would not be praying when your on the edge of life and death.  He is.  I would.  You would too.  But what I didn’t hear him say specifically, is that he believed God had  ‘chosen’ him to be  ‘destined’ and ‘sanctified’ through something difficult as this. 

But that’s the very strange perspective Peter has in this little book.  Peter believes these scattered, struggling, and suffering believers have been  ‘chosen’ to find a ‘living hope’ that is a salvation they can grow up in, even in difficult times.  

This may sound strange to us,  but this suffering and struggling is the very reason they, and we too, need to grow deeper and stronger in our salvation.   When difficult times come we will hurt, hunger and hope for better days, but at the same time, we need, in those trying times, to learn to hunger for God, and to long for, like a baby does, the spiritual milk (2:2) that can nourish our souls and spirits so that we don’t lose hope.

One thing for sure, when hard times come, you can, and probably will lose hope, if you only have Hope in this life.  The life we have is now is tentative and temporary, no matter how permanent it might feel.  This is why we are encouraged to long for, thirst after, and develop a taste for the spiritual milk, as Peter names it.   We can develop a taste for many things, but only the spiritual is eternal, and can feed and nourish our souls.

I was on the phone with a college friend who helps me handle most of my retirement savings.  We were discussing how fast the markets were falling during the Coronavirus threat.   He say, it’s like being a biscuit in the oven, but we have to take the long view and stick it out.  As values fell I wondered was he meaning me or the biscuit.  Then, he said, aren’t you glad we don’t have our trust in money.  Hey, this was my stock-broker and financial advisor talking.

Going back to this idea of growing in salvation, this is what Peter means.  When life turns dark and difficult we had better have something that can and will nourish our spirits.

You and I had better trust in something else, and we’d better learn to grow in our salvation and long for the spiritual milk of God’s eternal, saving truth.

But how do we do this?  Especially when times are difficult, how do we drink from the spiritual milk that can nourish our souls?

COME TO HIM, A LIVING STONE (4)

Peter says can be nourished when we ‘come to him’, who is ‘a living stone’.   Wow, that’s a change of metaphors, isn’t it?  Peter recommends spiritual milk but then moves to speaking about a ‘living stone’.  

Of course the image of a ‘stone’ brings us Peter’s confident faith in Jesus Christ who is the ‘cornerstone’ (2:6) as the stone who is ‘precious in God’s sight’(2:4).   But is he still precious to them and to us?  As we know, Jesus is the ‘cornerstone’ who was ‘rejected’ by the ‘builders’ of the world then (2:7), and he is still being rejected even now, maybe even more so..  So, how and why should we ‘come to him’?  Why should we, especially in times of trouble and trial, trust that God is also at work through Jesus to bring healing, redemption and to help us find salvation or to grow in our salvation even in difficult times?  Isn’t this the question on our minds during the recent Coronavirus outbreak.  Does God really care?  Does Jesus make any real difference?  Why should we ‘come to him’ as our ‘living stone’?

I don’t think there is any argument I can make to convince anyone that should still ‘come to’ Christ and make him our living hope.  People today do what they want to do.  People think what they want to think.  I can’t make you, convince you, or argue you into coming to Christ, or staying with Jesus to make him your true Lord.  Even the word ‘Lord’ sounds archaic and overbearing in our world.  And as long we are healthy or have other things to do, what does hope in Jesus mean, except when you’re sick or dying?   Why ‘come to him’ when you can do it by your self?

Even though I have no word or argument to convince you, I do want to refer you to something that interesting that Peter writes.   In 1 Peter 1:10–12 (NRSV),  Peter explains that ‘this salvation’ who hoped for by ancient ‘prophets who prophesied’ about the ‘sufferings destined for Christ (the Messiah)’.   He’s referring to that great Suffering Servant passage in Isaiah 53, where it speaks of the one whose ‘punishment that makes us whole’ (53:5).  This was the great hope of Israel’s prophets, in the midst of Israel’s failure and sufferings that somehow, through someone, God would bring redemption and hope.   

That’s was the hope of the great prophets,  but when Jesus actually came, the Jewish world, for the most part, rejected him.   It was only a very small group who accepted his message.  It’ was only to a much smaller group that he appeared as a true teacher and as the resurrected Lord over death and life.   These were the few who saw Jesus in his full ‘glory’.   The rest of us, even today, can only receive the truth ‘by the Holy Spirit’ (1:12).  Only the ‘Spirit’ can ‘testify’ and ‘convince’ us of this hope they, and now, we all have been given through Jesus Christ.  The ‘angels longed to see this hope’, Peter says, but what about us.   We are made free to receive or to reject him.

The truth is, as Peter says, it was the same Spirit who inspired the prophets to hope for the Christ, who is at work to inspire us to receive this hope.   It is only by and through the Holy Spirit that any of us ever ‘come to him’.  The world of Jesus’ day was given a choice to make, by the Spirit.  Every since that day, up until our own, the world has been given this hope, to either receive or reject.  As the gospel of John says,  “He came unto his own, and his own did not receive him, but to as many as did receive him, he gave them the power to become children of God (Jn. 1:12).

We are free to receive, or to reject him!  Why is this so?  Why does God not ‘prove’ himself?  Why does Jesus not speak directly to us?  Why are we given such haunting freedom; so that we can not only known enough to trust, but we also don’t know enough so that we can so freely reject Jesus as the ‘living stone’ and ‘cornerstone’ of our lives?  Why are we allowed to go on living our own way?  Why are we able to see other options?  Why can we seem to get along just fine without him?  

Didn’t Peter answer that early on in this letter, when he wrote that the ‘genuineness’ of our ‘faith’ that is ‘more precious than gold?  It is genuine faith that God is after, because this what really matters; not winning debates, not scoring points, and not proven facts, but faith that is just as good for tomorrow as it is for today.  This is what links the Old Testament to the New and this is what links Faith from tomorrow to faith for today?  It must come from both the need and desires of our hearts.

Popular writer, preacher and teacher, Len Sweet spoke of once preaching at a large church and wearing one of those portable microphones so he could wander about and yet everyone could still hear.   When he started speaking, however, it became clear that the microphone wasn't working. After a few futile adjustment attempts, the pastor finally stood up and shouted to the back of the church, "Will someone please turn on Dr. Sweet?!"

What does it take to turn you on? What gets you going, what keeps you going, what pulls you onward every day?  Studies show that American are working more and more hours at their jobs, but that we are also spending more time participating in leisure-time activities. There are more community baseball, soccer, basketball teams than there have ever been. We flock to fancy, state-of-the-art, workout equipment gyms.  We want more, we do more and we demand more and more to stay engaged and to stay ‘turned on’. 

But it is hard to stay turned on, totally fulfilled, on-fire-for-life, by a baseball game or a new boat.  Looking for that long-range, never-lets-you-down ‘turn-on’ is what leads some of us to abuse alcohol, to turn-on with drugs, to keep moving from lover to lover, to get lost in the dream of a big score at the gambling casinos. As Dr. Sweet comments, ‘Sooner or later each of these turn-ons loses its power and leaves us financially reeling, physically careening, and frantically searching’ for something new to switch us on.

1 Peter acknowledges that there will be times in the lives of all Christians we will experience trials.  You can’t stay turned and tuned into everything, or you’ll experience overload and burnout.  And if you tune into all the wrong, useless things you’ll experience another kind of problem; a malnourished, starving, and unfulfilled soul.  But When you find your hope and joy what brings ‘indescribable joy’, then you find a eternal abundance ‘builds’ you up rather than tears you down.  In verse 8, Peter simply states: "Although you haven’t seen him, You love him, you believe in him (1:8), this the love that brings with it an indescribable and glorious joy.  And do you also see that this joy is brought on by the salvation of your souls, and your growth in this salvation right here and right now.

This joy comes now because Love turns us on, because Forgiveness turns us on.  Because Hope turns us on. Because Compassion turns us on and because Faith turns you on, and the outcome of our faith turns us on, and will not let us down.

Don’t you recall how down and out those disciples on the Emmaus road were, until they realized they were walking with Jesus all alone?  Do you realized how doubtful Thomas was until he realized by touching Jesus it really was Jesus?  And don’t you realize how all those disciples were frightful and confused until Jesus appeared and set them into the world, to preach and even to die.  They went forward, overcoming all there fears, not because they wouldn’t die, but they were ‘turned on’ and ‘tuned in’ to the Spirit of Jesus alive in them. 

What Spirit is alive in you? Will you tune into Jesus and let his Spirit turn you on to life in him?   Will come to him and let his joy guide and bless you with life?   A fifteenth century poem points to Christ’s power that comes and invites himself into our lives:

Thou shalt know him when he comes

not by any din of drums –

nor the vantage of airs –

nor by anything he wears.

Neither by his crown – nor his gown.

For his presence known shall be by the holy harmony

that his coming makes in you.    —Fifteenth century, anonymous

YOU HAVE RECEIVED MERCY (10)

Peter says this ‘holy harmony’ that brings Christ’s indescribable joy to us, is not only the ‘outcome’ of faith in heaven or in the eternal life that is still to come, but it’s in the quality of life that we are invited into now.  It’s not the ‘turn on’ of eternity, which seems to excite few today, but it’s the promise of who you can be and become today, right now, through faith in Jesus.  As Peter concludes in our text:  

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

10 Once you were not a people,  but now you are God’s people;

once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

(1 Peter 2:9–10, NRSV).

Here, Peter is reminding them, and us, what growing in faith finally means:  While many come to Jesus to get to heaven, we ‘grow in salvation ‘ when we ‘come to him’ because of what he does for us now, and for what we can do for him now.   

We are chosen, now. 

We are priests to each other, now.

We proclaim him, now. 

We understand that we have received his mercy, grace, and goodness, now!      

Do you understand what he has done for you, now?  Do you understand what you are, and who you are, right now?   This is why you ‘long’ for the Spiritual?  This is why you ‘come to him’ without any proof.  You long for him, and you come to him, because in and through Jesus Christ the loving foundation of life and the entire reason for the universe meets you in ‘cross-shaped’ love.  God calls us with his love, forgive us with his love, and he calls us to be God’s priestly people showing love and shining light in the world.  This is what’s supposed to turn us on, and give us even more hope, as we lead others to find hope and a name in him.

Years ago, a husky, healthy pastor retired at 62. He began to draw his pension and Social Security, but he grew restless and began looking for work. He answered an ad from the zoo. The zookeeper said, "We need a gorilla. Ours just died, and do you know how hard it is to get gorillas these days? We skinned our dead gorilla and made a suit with a zipper. It looks like it would fit you just fine."

The retired pastor liked the idea since he spent a lot of time entertaining children, so he gave it a try. He did well and soon was adept at climbing a tree and even swinging a little from the branches. One day he climbed too high and swung too hard and fell over the fence into the den where a lion was sleeping. The pastor leaped up and ran to the fence screaming for help. The lion said, "Oh, shut up. You're not the only retired pastor around here."

I sure hope I’m not the only one working around here.  That’s what ‘growing in salvation’ must mean, that we’re all ‘dressed up’ in ‘costumes’ of grace and working, showing, and shining our light around here.   We’re all surrounded by God's grace and love, and I hope I’m also surrounded by ‘priests’ in lion suits, trying to show and reflect the love that I want to reflect back to me.   This is what allows us, me, you, and others to continue to ‘grow’ in this wonderful salvation, given to us through Jesus Christ. Amen.