Living Life with Christ-Centered Purpose
1 Peter 1:17-21
Rev. Rich Stratton, Family Equipping Minister
Henderson’s First Baptist Church
October 21, 2012
What is my purpose? Have you ever been tempted to ask this question? The truth is we all struggle at some point in our lives with figuring out just why why we are here. We struggle with figuring out what it is we are supposed to be doing. When we are young we wonder what our purpose will be and when we are old we wonder if we still have a purpose.
In a few minutes we are going to look at how the Bible answers this question but as I pondered it this week I thought about how many people today might approach finding the answer. And so I did what I am sure a large percentage of the younger generations today would do.
I Googled it. When I typed into my search engine “What is my purpose?”
One of the top results of the search was an article entitled “How to Discover Your Life Purpose in About 20 Minutes.” Well that sounds interesting doesn’t it? And I know you are all on the edge of your seats to find out more about this amazing article so in order not to disappoint you let me share with you this marvelous technique to discover your purpose in life.
This is what the author writes:
So how to discover your purpose in life? While there are many ways to do this, some of them fairly involved, here is one of the simplest that anyone can do. The more open you are to this process, and the more you expect it to work, the faster it will work for you. But not being open to it or having doubts about it or thinking it’s an entirely idiotic and meaningless waste of time won’t prevent it from working as long as you stick with it — again, it will just take longer to converge.
Here’s what to do:
Take out a blank sheet of paper or open up a word processor where you can type (I prefer the latter because it’s faster).
Write at the top, “What is my true purpose in life?”
Write an answer (any answer) that pops into your head. It doesn’t have to be a complete sentence. A short phrase is fine.
Repeat step 3 until you write the answer that makes you cry. This is your purpose.
The author then goes on to share his life purpose which he discovered made him cry after repeating step 3, 105 times.
Here was his final answer: to live consciously and courageously, to resonate with love and compassion, to awaken the great spirits within others, and to leave this world in peace.
Now, I’ll be totally honest. That makes me want to cry too. Not because I think it is beautiful, or wonderful, or meaningful but because it is completely sad that there are people out there that believe and buy into the idea that our purpose is so self-centered or that we can discover it by writing something 105 times.
The truth of the matter is that we can only find purpose in one place and that is in Jesus Christ.
Take your Bible and turn with me to the book of 1 Peter. A few weeks ago, our pastor, Bro. Todd began a short study through this very practical little letter written by Peter, one of Jesus’ original twelve disciples. And this morning we will be looking at 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 17-21. And what we will be looking at today is “Living Life with a Christ -Centered Purpose.”
So as you find your place in 1 Peter, which by the way begins on page 814 of the church Bible, I invite you to stand as we read from the Word of God.
17 And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your sojourning here in fear;
18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers,
19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 20 He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you
21 who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
Pray
As we think about purpose this morning, we want to think about it from the right perspective. We must ask ourselves the correct question which is not “What is my purpose?” but instead “How do I live with a Christ-Centered purpose?”
You see these two questions are completely different. The first question implies that life is all about us. It implies that everything is about our needs and our wants. The second question indicates that our lives are focused on Christ and that we understand that He must occupy first place in our hearts, minds and actions.
So our passage today gives us three things to do in order to insure we are living with a Christ-Centered purpose.
The first thing the text shows us we need to do is…
Take care to have a Christ-Centered purpose. (vv. 17-18)
If we are going to live with a Christ-Centered purpose we need to have a Christ-Centered purpose. I know this sounds pretty simple but the truth is that this is where we often times get off track.
We know this and Peter knew this as well. You know I like to think that the reason that this little book is so practical is because God used a man to write it that knew what it was like to personally struggle with many of the issues covered in this book.
Peter knew what it was like to be focused on himself rather than on Christ. He knew what it was like to start sinking beneath the waves when he took his eyes off Jesus. He knew what it was like to feel like a failure after denying he even knew Christ just as Jesus said he would. He knew what it was like to act or speak before thinking about what Christ would have him do or say.
And so we see here, Peter, a man who is experienced in loosing focus, telling us we must take care to HAVE a Christ-Centered purpose if we are going to live for Christ rather than for ourselves.
Let’s take a look at verses 17 and 18 to see how Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tells us how to have a Christ-Centered focus.
Verse 17.
17 And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your sojourning here in fear;
Verse 17 begins with the phrase “and if” which translated that way indicates a sense of uncertainty which is not at all what the original Greek would indicate. The NIV begins verse 17 a little differently and in a way that more accurately captures what Peter is trying to say.
The NIV says “Since you call on the Father”. Not if. There is no sense of uncertainty here, there is instead a direct understanding.
Peter is saying to believers, Since you call yourself a follower of Christ and not only a follower, but also a joint heir, one who along with Jesus shares in common THE FATHER then there should be certain conduct that should follow.
Conduct that should be influenced by the fact that our heavenly Father is also our judge. Not a judge like an earthly parent that judges with partiality. Because we as earthly parents make judgements not based on the action itself but on who was involved.
We tend to either judge too lightly our children’s actions because they are our little angels and say it most certainly must have been someone else’s fault that they acted up. Or we judge our children too harshly because we feel they should have known better.
Peter is saying that God is not that way. He does not look at the person in order to make His judgements, He does not take into account character witnesses. He instead looks at each person’s work, actions, or conduct and makes His judgement based off of such conduct. He never winks at the conduct and says “boys will be boys” or “they were just having a bad day” or “they are just going through a phase.”
Peter is saying that there is a certain expectation to Christian living. He is not saying that we still have the penalty of our sins hanging over our heads because we do not. Christ took care of that with His death on the cross. But as children of God there is now a certain expectation upon us to live in a way that brings glory to God.
Look again at the second part of verse 17, Peter says…
conduct yourselves throughout the time of your sojourning here in fear
He says two things here. First, he says that believers should live their lives on this earth as if we are merely visitors here. That is what that word sojourning means. It means that we do not belong here, it means we are living in a foreign land.
Peter is saying that if we are going to live with a Christ-Centered purpose then we must not live in such a way that the things of this world become more important to us than the things of the next.
That means we do not live lives where it is our purpose to “get ahead” in this world, we do not live lives where we are focused more on our career or our possessions than we are upon our Savior. It means we do not raise our children to believe that being successful in this world is their goal.
It instead means that as we grow in our understanding of the Christian life the things of this world–money, success, power, glory–all these things become increasing less important as Christ becomes more important.
The second thing Peter points out in the second half of verse 17 is that we should live in fear of a holy God. Now that does not mean that we are afraid of Him as if He were some sort of monster or some sort of abusive parent. Instead it means that we are to live with a reverent fear of Him and not really even fear of Him but in fear of displeasing Him.
We should fear disappointing God as a child fears disappointing or displeasing a parent.
I can remember as a child the first time my parents left my brother and I at home alone. The first time they trusted us to stay by ourselves. We were probably around 10 and 12 years old and they were only going to be gone for about an hour but we felt like we had arrived. We felt like we were grown ups. That is until our parents had been gone for about 5 minutes and we got into a fight which resulted in our tearing down a set of bifold doors.
For the next 55 minutes we worked together as we had never worked together before trying to repair the damage we had done. Why because we were afraid. Yes, we were afraid of the spanking that was most likely headed our way because for some reason silicone caulking was not working to glue wooden doors back together. But we were even more afraid of the disappointment we would see on our parent’s faces.
That is what Peter is talking about here. He is saying live in fear of not pleasing the God who loves you.
Peter builds on this idea of having a Christ-Centered purpose in verse 18.
18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers,
Conduct yourself in fear knowing that you were redeemed from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers.
Peter is saying that as Christians, paid for with the righteousness of Christ, we have no business acting the fool through aimless conduct.
What is aimless conduct? Anything that is not Christ-Centered. We could list any number of sinful activities here, we could list any number of ways that we may be guilty of wasting the time that God had blessed us with, we could list any number of ways that we fail at being good stewards of the material blessings God has given us. But the truth of the matter is that aimless conduct is anything that keeps us from having a Christ-Centered focus.
You know it can even be things in the church or things that are religious that keep us from focusing on Christ. That is what Peter means by tradition from your father. We can even allow the business or traditions of the church to get in the way of being Christ-Centered in our living.
So what is the first step in living a Christ-Centered life? It is having a Christ-Centered purpose. It is putting aside the pressures and desires of this world and focusing on the next. It is living in such a way that we want more than anything else to please God our Father. It is putting aside our aimless conduct and traditions to follow Christ.
So to live a Christ-Centered life we must take care to have a Christ-Centered purpose.
But we must also…
Take care to appreciate the Precious Savior. (vv. 18-19)
Look at verses 18 an 19.
18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers,
19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
Back in verse 18 Peter says we have been redeemed not with corruptible things like silver and gold.
How many of us would routinely consider silver or gold to be corruptible? Now I don’t mean do riches sometimes corrupt good people and that is not what Peter is talking about here either.
What I mean is how many of us think of silver and gold as things that are temporary, Things that pass away easily? Most of the time that is not the way we think of precious metals or rare gems. We think of them as investments or as heirlooms that will last for a very long time.
Right now many people are investing in gold and silver as a way to hang on to their money during uncertain economic times. When I used to work in a jewelry store we had a wealthy customer who would occasionally ask us to order several large emeralds that he could invest in because they would maintain their value even if the dollar did not.
But what Peter is saying here is that even these precious metals, even these things that have a great staying power are only temporary when compared to the value and staying power of the eternal sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
He is reminding us that as believers we have been redeemed, or purchased with the most precious of commodities. We have been purchased by the “lamb without blemish or spot.”
What this means is what we so often talk about here at Henderson’s First Baptist when we talk about the Gospel. What this means is that our sin has been taken away from us. It has been taken and nailed to the cross of Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:14). Our sin was taken away from us and laid upon Christ who paid the price for it with his death and his blood. And then His righteousness, His sinlessness, that is what Peter means when he says the lamb without blemish or spot. That sinlessness was taken and laid upon us, that when God looks upon us He does not see us but He instead sees the precious blood of His Son Jesus Christ.
Folks, if we are going to live a Christ-Centered life we must truly appreciate the precious nature of the blood that was shed on the cross. Each drop of that blood is of more value that all the gold, silver, precious gems, and every other created thing. Yet it was shed in order that we might have the love of God.
We Must appreciate the precious savior.
And the third third thing we must do in order to live a Christ-Centered life goes hand-in-hand with appreciating our precious Savior. And that is, You must…
Take joy in your Predestined Salvation. (vv. 20-21)
Look with me again at what I think is one of the most beautiful and telling pictures of God’s Great love in all of Scripture.
Verses 20-21
20 He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you
21 who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
Did you see that in verse 20? It says He, that is Jesus, was foreordained before the foundation of the world. Do you know what that means?
It means that God planned for the cross. It means that long before God even embarked on the creation of the world and universe as we know it. It means that while Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were enjoying the perfect fellowship they have eternally possessed, God planned for the sacrifice of his beloved Son in order that yet uncreated mankind could be given forgiveness for their willful sin against Him.
It means that God knew even before He created us that we would sin and be in need of a savior. It means that He knew that when He created us with the ability to make choices that we would make the wrong ones. Yet it also means that He loved us enough to create us anyway, knowing that He would have to make the greatest sacrifice ever made to redeem us.
Folks, what this means is that the death of Jesus on the cross was a divine appointment. It means that the cross was not some terrible accident. It means that when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden God did not say “OOpps, now what am I going to do!” It means that the cross of Christ was God’s plan all along.
It even brings new depth to John 3:16–For God so loved the world (even before He created it) that He gave (He even planned it out ahead of time) His only Son (His unique one of a kind Son) that whosoever (not even created yet) believes in Him will not perish but will have eternal life.
That is one amazingly beautiful passage of Scripture. And look at how it plays out…
20 He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you
21 who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
It says this Jesus who was the always planned means of our salvation followed through and died on the the cross in the last times for us.
He did this so that when we believe in him, when we believe in the fact that God raised Him from the dead and seated Him in the glory of Heaven we can have a faith and a hope that are real and true.
That is the kind of God we serve. That is the kind of God we follow. That is the kind of God that should be the very center of our lives.
So let me leave you with three questions to meditate on this week. Three questions that might be helpful to you in living a Christ-Centered life.
1. Do my actions bring glory to God?
2. Do my actions indicate that I understand how precious Jesus is?
3. Do I understand the eternal nature of my salvation?
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