Scripture 1 Peter 2:1-23
You received eternal life from Jesus through the Word that
was preached to you…(Therefore)
1 Peter 2:1-21
Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy,
envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual
milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted
that the Lord is good.
4 As you come to him (Jesus), the living Stone* — rejected by
men but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones*, are being built into a
spiritual house (Mt 16:18 “On this Rock-living stone-I will build My Church”) to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to
God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says: (Isaiah 28:16) "See, I lay a stone in Zion (Jerusalem), a chosen and
precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to
shame."
7 Now to you who believe,
this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the
builders rejected has become the capstone," 8 and, "A stone that
causes men to stumble
and a rock that makes
them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message — which is also
what they were destined for. (Living
Stones VS Stone Tablets/10 Commandments [Law VS Spirit])
9 (The Jews were God’s chosen people in the OT – in the NT it Christ
followers) But you are a chosen
people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you
may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful
light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once
you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (Quoting Hosea 1:6 & 10 where the Jews
were now ‘not God’s people’ but would once again become His people – NT The
Gentiles were once not God’s people but through Christ are now God’s People)
11 Dear friends, I urge you,
as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war
against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans
that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and
glorify God on the day he visits us.
13 Submit yourselves for the
Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as
the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to
punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 15
For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of
foolish men. 16 Live as free men, but do not use your
freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. 17
Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God,
honor the king.
18 Slaves, submit yourselves
to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and
considerate, but also to those who are harsh. 19 For it is commendable if
a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of
God. 20 But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong
and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is
commendable before God. 21 To this you were called, because Christ
suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
Do
you remember the WWJD craze?
SLIDE 1
What Would Jesus Do?
The phrase "What would Jesus do?" (abbreviated WWJD)
became popular in the United States in the 1990s and as a personal motto for
Christians as a moral imperative to
act in a way that would demonstrate the love of Jesus through action.
WWJD—is associated with a
type of wristband which became a popular accessory for many Christian Youth. SLIDE 2 WWJD?
The Roman Catholic
Church emphasizes the concept of Imitatio Christi (imitation of Christ),
which is summarized in the phrase "What Would Jesus Do?"
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, in 1766 promoted a concept
of Christian
perfection, visible in outward good works and a rigorously moral
lifestyle – the idea being that we should live like Jesus lived - WWJD
Charles Spurgeon, a
well-known evangelical preacher in London, used the phrase "what would
Jesus do" in quotation marks several times in a sermon he gave on June 28,
1891. In his sermon he cites the source of the phrase as a book written in
Latin by Thomas à Kempis between
1418 and 1427, called “The Imitation of Christ”.
Charles Sheldon's 1896 book, “In His Steps” SLIDE 3 In His Steps was
subtitled "What Would Jesus Do?" Sheldon's
novel grew out of a series of sermons he delivered in his Congregationalist church
in Topeka, Kansas.
In the novel Rev. Henry Maxwell encounters a homeless man who challenges him to
take seriously the imitation of Christ. The homeless man has difficulty
understanding why, in his view, so many Christians ignore the poor: I heard
some people singing at a church prayer meeting the other night, "All for Jesus, all for Jesus, All my
being's ransomed powers, All my thoughts, and all my doings, All my days, and
all my hours."
It seems to me there's an awful
lot of trouble in the world that somehow wouldn't exist if all the people who
sing such songs went and lived them out. The Congregation members ask “What
would Jesus do?” when faced with decisions of some importance. This has the
effect of making the characters embrace Christianity more seriously and to
focus on what they see as its core — the life of Christ.
Janie Tinklenberg, a youth group
leader in Holland, Michigan, is credited for starting the
WWJD movement to help her youth get serious about living for Jesus.
Consider these scenarios:
• I'm hustling out the door to church with the family in
tow. Pulling out of the garage, I glance in the rearview mirror and see my
neighbor across the street. She's working alone to clear her yard of debris
from a recent storm. A thought races through my mind: Stop the car. Go
back inside, and change your clothes. Skip church today, and prove to your neighbor
you love her. What would Jesus do?
• I've been setting aside money for the construction of a
new ministry center at our church. We're reaching people for Christ, and the
expansion is necessary. But on the day I intend to write my check, I discover that
an unemployed friend is in danger of losing his house. What would Jesus do?
But WWJD is the wrong question – it should be WWJHMD? SLIDE 4 What Would Jesus Have Me
Do? What Jesus would do and what Jesus would have me do may be two
different things. What Jesus would have me do- will likely be different from
Jesus would have you do. If the need is financial maybe I can help and you
can’t. If it is time, maybe I can’t help now but you can.
So we need a bigger bracelet for more letters and a bigger
understanding of what peter meant when he said: 1 Peter 2:21 that
Jesus left us "an example, that [we] should follow in his steps."
These hypothetical situations presupposes we have already answered question:
What would Jesus Have Me do? If we don't know what
Jesus did in his life, how can we expect to guess what
he would do in ours?
1. He sought the
Father
Forty-five times the gospels tell us that Jesus went alone
to pray.
2. He embraced the
outcasts
Always eating at the home of sinners, or talking to the
Samaritan woman at the well, or coming into contact with people who have
leprosy.
3. He restored broken
lives
The deaf hear, the lame walk, the blind see the demon
possessed are made to live in peace.
4. He confronted
hypocrisy
Jesus demonstrated the heart of God by standing against
lifeless religion.
5. He taught God's
Word
Even though Jesus was the incarnate living Word he was
always directing them back to the written Word of God.
6. He served
At the last supper, he put on a towel and washed his
disciples' feet.
7. He equipped
leaders
Jesus demonstrated God's character by equipping leaders who
continued his mission and changed the world after his departure.
If we don’t know what Jesus did, we will just be guessing at
what he wants us to do with our lives. WDJD = What did Jesus do? Then you have
a great chance at living the best life possible by answering WWJHMD? = What
Would Jesus Have Me Do?
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