The 3^rd Sunday of Easter

SERMON

Text: 1 Peter 1:17-21

And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you 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.

In Christ Jesus, our beloved Savior and awesome God, dear fellow redeemed:

We have just finished singing, “How Great Thou Art.” That hymn is a Christian classic extolling the power and the grace of our God. It is sung regularly by millions of Christians all over the world. Our High School choir in their recent Spring Concert sang what has quickly become a modern Christian pop classic with much the same message. The song is entitled, “Our God is an Awesome God,” and its refrain goes like this, “Our God is an awesome God. He reigns in heaven above with wisdom, power, and love. Our God is an awesome God.” Millions of Christians, in particular younger Christians, listen to that song on their radios and CD’s. They hum along, and at times sing the words, but do they believe what they are singing? Do we believe what we have just sung—that our God is a great and awesome God?

Any objective observer of external Christianity in our day and even of our own congregation at times would certainly pause to question whether we really do. Many within Christianity seem to treat God as if He were an incompetent liar. They no longer believe His word, the Bible, to be true and applicable in their lives. They claim the Bible is filled with errors. They claim it is out of date. Some suggest that St. Paul hated women when he taught the principle that the husband is to be the head of the wife within marriage. Others maintain that it is politically incorrect to claim that faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved. While we here at Immanuel strongly confess that the Bible is God’s inspired and inerrant word, do we all always live like we really believe that? Do we truly believe our God to be a great and awesome God? If we do, why is it that over half of us choose to stay home from church each week? Why is it that we can learn the Ten Commandments and then at times blithely choose to ignore them, as if they do not apply to us? We misuse God’s name. We find ourselves despising our parents or failing to bring up our children, as we ought. We all too often abuse one another. We even commit fornication and at times choose to live like the fornicators out in the world. We steal, lie, and covet, and justify our actions because everyone else is doing it. Then we come to church and confess that we are sinful in thought, word, and deed. It almost seems as if we believe that everything will be all right if we tip our hats to God. Do we assume that God really does not care if we sin with reckless abandon? Are we not denying God’s majesty and scoffing at His grace when we fail to gladly hear, learn, and apply His word in our lives? My dear friends, OUR GOD IS AN AWESOME GOD!

I.

Let us not treat Him like a doddering, old fool. Rather let us stand in awe of His impartial and all-encompassing justice! That is what St. Peter urges us to do in the first verse of our text. He says, “If you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear.” Those first century Christians to whom St. Peter was writing were in danger of compromising their faith, if not giving it up entirely in view of the pressure society was placing on them. My dear friends, we face that same danger today! Our society wants to mold us and shape us into its image, which cannot but involve us in a denial of our Savior. We need to listen carefully to St. Peter. His words are powerful and urgent.

St. Peter reminds us that we are not here in this world on a permanent basis. We are only staying here for a time—a time appointed by our God. We do not know how long that time may be. Ten days ago I was talking to Marcella Schauer about various assisted living housing units here in Mankato, and when she would be leaving the hospital. Two days ago I was comforting her family and friends upon her sudden death. We are mortal. We are dependent upon our God, for He alone is almighty, while we grow increasingly frail as time passes!

St. Peter, secondly, reminds us that the God upon whom we depend and to whom we call is holy and just. He is aware of every word we speak and every action we undertake, and He judges us, St. Peter says, “without partiality…(and) according to each one’s work.” If that does not strike terror in your hearts, it should, for as the Psalmist asks, “If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” (Psalm 130:2) There is no one who can undergo the impartial and all-encompassing judgment of God without failing miserably, for as St. James reminds us, “Whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10). Were we to have to stand alone in the presence of God, we would stand guilty and condemned. The great blessing of the gospel is that precious truth that we do not have to stand alone, for our blessed Savior Jesus stands with us. Yet, knowing that God possesses an impartial and all-encompassing justice should be enough, St. Peter says, to move us to conduct ourselves while we live on this earth “in fear.”

That little word “fear” in Scripture can have two different meanings. It can mean "terror," such as the terror people feel when their lives are threatened. It can also mean an "awe" or "respect," in view of the glory or grandeur of its object. In this case, it can quite properly be viewed as meaning both as it applies to the Christian. Because we Christian still have our sinful flesh, the old Adam within us, which all too easily can be led to take God for granted, ignoring His will and defying His word, St. Peter says we should “fear” God. Our old Adam should be filled with "terror" at the thought of God’s impartial and all-encompassing justice! Our sinful flesh needs to be beaten down with the threats of God’s law. At the same time, our new man believes the gospel proclamation that God has in Christ reconciled the world to Himself and will not impute our sins against us. St. Peter speaks to our faith and encourages us to serve our God willingly and to view our God with an awesome respect! OUR GOD IS AN AWESOME GOD! Let us stand in awe of His impartial and all-encompassing justice!

II.

Let us stand in awe of His eternal and redeeming grace! The most beautiful portions of Luther’s Small Catechism, in my opinion, are his explanations of the three articles of the Apostolic Creed. He draws the words of His explanation to the Second Article from St. Peter’s words in our text. St. Peter writes, “You were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

In our responsive reading completed earlier in our worship service, we read together the words of the Psalmist, who declared that our souls are so very precious that no amount of earthly wealth could ever suffice to redeem them from sin. If it were possible in some way to pay for eternal salvation, God would have outlined the procedure in the Scriptures. It remains impossible, however, and consequently, God, in His great compassion for us, made the ultimate sacrifice by sending His Son into this world to give up His “precious blood” to redeem us and by faith to make us His dear children. How awesome is the grace of our God!

St. Peter, however, takes us one step further with his message, when he points out that, “He (Jesus) was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.” We, who can so easily forget God and fail to make His will a priority in our lives, have never been forgotten by God. We have always been the objects of His love. Before the world began, God loved us in connection with Jesus Christ, choosing us to be His children and arranging our salvation through Jesus.

My dear friends, God sent Jesus to die, but then raised Him from the dead, established Him at His right hand, and then revealed this entire wonderful plan to us through His word, so that we might come to know God by faith and receive by grace His blessings. Ten days ago as I visited with Marcella in her hospital room up at Immanuel-St. Joseph’s, I encouraged her to remember that the most important things she had were in her heart. She possessed the knowledge of her Savior, the assurance of the forgiveness of her sins, and the confidence that faith alone could give her that she was the object of God’s grace and would spend eternity in heaven! Little did I know at that time that I would be using those very truths to prepare her for death only four days later.

Our God’s creative power is awe-inspiring. Anyone who has seen the Grand Canyon, or Niagara Falls, or Mammoth Cave, or the Lake Superior north shore can attest to that. Our God’s eternal and redeeming grace, however, is much more awesome than that. Remember—“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Look at our world. How could anyone love our world, much less give up an only-begotten and beloved Son for it? Terrorists and suicide bombers, dope addicts and dope dealers, pimps and prostitutes, pornographers and child molesters, Satan worshippers and atheists, liars and cheats, blasphemers and false prophets. This is the world in which we live and we can all too often be affected by it—yet God with eternal and redeeming grace has reached out to claim us as His own. St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

What an awesome God we have revealed in our Bibles. He is a God who knows and loves us, a God who guides and blesses us, a God who one day will invite us into His presence forever or banish us into outer darkness. Which will it be, dear friends? Let us not follow the path of an undiscerning world, but rather recognize that OUR GOD IS AN AWESOME GOD! Let us stand in awe of both our God's impartial and all-encompassing justice and His eternal and redeeming grace! Amen.

—Pastor Paul D. Nolting