Sermon Cloud

Introduction

The letter of 1Peter tells a tale of two cities: the city of God and the city of man.  The city of man is easily observable while the city of God is hidden.  It is God’s city hidden inside of man’s city.  In our case it is the Church hidden inside of the city of Portland.  God calls his people, as followers of Jesus Christ, to be citizens of both cities. This dual-citizenship causes great tension.  Because Christ-followers live simultaneously as citizens in two cities that have conflicting views of truth and the world, conflicting ideas of good and evil, of God and humanity, of power and progress, of purpose and influence.  The letter of 1Peter was written to a group of Christians who were facing suffering and persecution because of this tension that comes from living in both cities.  Peter wrote his letter to encourage them in the midst of this tension and suffering and to tell them how they ought to live in both the city of God and the city of man.  And though this letter is almost 2,000 years old it is immediately relevant to us because if we are followers of Jesus Christ we too live in this tension that comes from being citizens of two cities.  We too face suffering of all types.  And this reality of tension and suffering naturally brings up questions related to security. 

Security.  Whether we are citizens of the city of God, or the city of man, or both, all of us want security.  We want the security of knowing we are safe.  We want the security of knowing that the people and things precious to us are safe.  We want the security of knowing that our future is safe.  But the city of man and the city of God differ in how we understand what should be secured and how it should be secured.  The city of man offers us health security, financial security, job security, even national security.  The city of God does not claim to offer us those things.  It offers a different type of security altogether.  Because these two cities have two very different ideas of security those who are citizens in both cities are often most secure in the city of God when they appear to be least secure in the city of man.  That’s the case with Peter’s audience in this letter.  They are suffering.  They are being persecuted.  By the standards of the city of man their life and their future are anything but secure.  Yet Peter tells them that in the midst of the tension, the suffering, and the persecution they are far more secure than the most secure individual in the entire city of man.  Let’s read 1Peter 1:3-5.

A Secure Hope…

Look at that first sentence in verse 3, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!”  If we were to look at the predicament of Peter’s audience through the eyes of the city of man we would not see any reason to praise God.  If some of us were to look at our own lives through the eyes of the city of man we would not see any reason to praise God.  But Peter shows us that we ought to praise God because things are not what they seem.  He sees our predicament and our lives through the eyes of the city of God.  Peter sees what God sees. He sees that if we are followers of Jesus Christ we ought to praise God because we have a secure hope.  The hope he is talking about is an absolute and confident assurance that comes from being born anew.  This is what we see in verse 3, “in his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope.”

Before we talk about that new birth let’s talk about our first birth.  The reason why human beings are chasing security is because we are born into insecurity.  Every one of us is born at least once.  And that first birth is the same for all of us.  We are born into the city of man – it is even written on our birth certificate.  And we are born heading straight down a one-way track to death.  The rest of our life is devoted to securing our future as best as we can. But with all of our effort we know that our strength will eventually become weakness, our possessions will eventually become someone else’s, our loved one’s will eventually abandon us, and our lives will eventually come to a close.  There is nothing that can secure us from the inevitability of these things.  Our attempts at security don’t really secure anything.  At best, they only prolong the inevitable.  Every one of us is locked into this progression.  We are quite literally born to die.  And in a very real sense we are born to despair because even our finest attempts at security cannot provide us any lasting hope.  The only way to be freed from the inevitable death and despair of our first birth is to be re-born and experience a second birth.  This idea of a new birth sounds ludicrous to the city of man.  In the city of man it is acceptable to call yourself a Christian.  But, please, don’t call yourself  a “born again” Christian.  That’s just weird. And I agree.   But in the city of God this weird language is necessary language.

We are born into this world in a perpetual state of insecurity.  This is because we are born to die, born to despair.  The city of man has no explanation for this other than “that’s just the way it is.”  And because it has no explanation for the cause it has no lasting solution other than “make the most of it”.  The city of God, though, has an explanation for this and that is that we are born under God’s wrath.  The root cause of all of this goes  all the way back to the beginning.  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth – and he created human beings.  He created Adam and Eve to live in perfect relationship with him, and perfect relationship with each other, and perfect relationship with creation.  And they did.  In this environment God walked with them and talked with them.  There was no death.  There was no despair.  There was no insecurity.  Just life – intimacy with God, intimacy with one another, and with all of creation.  But this intimacy became hostility when Adam and Eve chose to transfer their worship from God to themselves.  They took a good thing and treated it as the ultimate thing.  And that was a bad thing.  Because at that moment they were removed from a proper relationship with the Creator.  They no longer had intimacy with God.  And once removed from a right relationship with the Creator they were removed from a right relationship with everything he created, including each other, including life itself.  Into the world came death, and with death, insecurity, and with insecurity, despair.  This is what every one of us is born into when our mother’s push us out into the doctor’s hands.  We are locked into this progression from birth to despair to death.  We can do nothing to escape it.  You don’t have to read the Bible to know this.  No matter how much health security, job security, financial security, or national security we have we are perpetually insecure because we are headed toward the un-avoidable loss of all security, the loss of life.  The reason we cannot escape from these consequences is that we cannot deal with the root cause.  We cannot escape from the rebellion and idolatry of Adam and Eve that disrupted the relationship between human being and God, human being and human being and human being and creation. We are powerless to escape it because we find ourselves involved in the same rebellion.  We are constantly turning good things into God things instead of worshiping God as the Ultimate.  

…Secured by Jesus Christ

Jesus taught us that there was one way to be freed from this inevitable progression.  In a late night conversation with a man named Nicodemus Jesus said we must be born again, re-born, born new.  I admit that this is an odd saying.  A Christian might write it off as a mere metaphor.  They might assume that when Jesus talks about being born again he is talking about living a new kind of life that is different from the way we lived our life previously.  If you’re not a Christian you might write it off as nonsensical “religious” language.  We might interpret it this way because the literal meaning seems impossible.  If it is literal then Jesus is saying we must do something we could never do.  None of us would be alone if we felt this way.  When Jesus said this to Nicodemus he responded by pointing out the sheer impossibility of what Jesus was commanding. “How can anyone be born when they are old?” he asked.  “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”  Jesus didn’t back down from this objection.  He didn’t respond by saying, “Well, of course, Nicodemus I’m being metaphorical.  I’m being hyperbolic.  I’m just spewing out religious mumbo-jumbo.” He didn’t say that and he didn’t back down from the literal sense of his statement.  Instead he made the point even stronger the second time.  Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.  Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to Spirit.”  

Jesus says that in order to break free of the inevitable progression of the city of man we must be re-born into the city of God.  But just as we had no power to make ourselves born the first time we have no power to make ourselves born the second time.  Jesus says we must be born by the Spirit.  Peter says the same thing in verse 3.  He says that it is God who gives us the new birth by his mercy.  The message sounds so strange to us because it is something we cannot do for ourselves.  And we have been taught in every sphere of our lives that our security is in our hands and we must work to obtain it and to keep it.  Even in Christian circles we are encouraged to work for our security by building a secure marriage, a secure family, a secure devotional life, a secure relationship with God.   But there is no security in this.  Our only security is in a new birth that we cannot secure for ourselves.  We cannot secure it because in order to be re-born we must die.  And I have yet to find a dead security officer guarding the entrance at Safeway.  Because dead people cannot secure anything.  We must literally die before we can be born again.  The message of Peter, of the Bible, of all of Christianity is that Jesus Christ has secured for us what we cannot secure for ourselves.  He has secured both our death and our new birth.  

This is what it says in verse 3, “he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”   Through the rebellion of the first Adam we have become enemies of God plagued by death, despair, and perpetual insecurity.  We are born into this when we are born into the city of men and we willingly continue in Adam’s rebellion.  But the Scriptures point to Jesus Christ as the second Adam.  He did not continue in Adam’s rebellion.  He lived every moment of his life in perfect relationship with God, and man, and all of creation.  Just as through one man all of humanity fell from a right relationship with God through one man all of humanity can be restored to a right relationship with God.  In his life Jesus became righteousness for us.  In his death Jesus became sin and received its punishment for us.  In his resurrection Jesus became life for us.  If our faith is in Jesus Christ he did not die alone – we literally died with him because we are in Christ.  If our faith is in Jesus Christ he did not rise from the dead alone – we literally rose with him because we are in Christ.  This is true security.  Jesus does not just make our new birth and our salvation possible or even likely.  Jesus makes our new birth and our salvation absolutely certain.  It is so certain that Peter calls it our “living hope.”  In the city of man to “hope” is to have a desire for something that may or may not happen.  This type of hope disappoints us all the time.  We hope for the spouse we never get, we hope for the job we never get, we hope for the success that never comes.  In the city of God to have a “living hope” is to have a confident and complete assurance.  Because of the righteous life, substitutionary death, and victorious resurrection of Jesus those who put their hope in Jesus have absolute and complete assurance that they have been given the new birth.  

Through this new birth those who were born into the city of man are re-born into the city of God.  Those who were born children of Adam are re-born as children of God.  Those who were born children of God’s wrath are re-born as children of God’s mercy.  Those who were born to die are re-born to live.  Those who were born in despair are re-born in hope.  Those who were born in perpetual insecurity are re-born in perpetual security.  Those who are in Christ are able to live in the city of man in a unique way.  Because Jesus has secured for us what we can never secure for ourselves we remain secure when we are face-to-face with tension, suffering, persecution – even death.  These things do not threaten our security or our hope.  Because of Jesus we know that this suffering is not our punishment and this death will not separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.  This frees us to willingly live in the tension between these two cities without being concerned about pursuing or protecting our own security.  Because our security has been freely given to us by Jesus who has secured our new birth for us. 

A Secure Inheritance…

This new birth gives us security in life and also in death.  One of the reasons the city of man is insecure about death is the unknown.  What happens when we die?  Do we cease to exist?  Are we re-incarnated as someone or something else?  Is there a God who will judge us?  Do we go to a place of eternal joy?  Or do we go to a place of eternal torment?  No one in the city of man can answer these questions with any confidence.  Life in the city of man is insecure because it inevitably leads to death and death in the city of man is insecure because no one knows where it leads.  In the city of God, though, both life and death are secured in the new birth.  Let’s re-read verses 3-5. 

The citizens of the city of God have been given a secure inheritance.  This inheritance is an eternal one that waits for us on the other side of death.  The popular word for this inheritance is “heaven.”  But this inheritance is nothing like the popular concept of heaven.  It is not a bunch of disembodied people sitting around on clouds doing nothing but playing the harp and flapping their wings.  The inheritance that has been secured for us is a physical inheritance.  It is a new and eternal city that will eventually inhabit a new earth where we will be given new bodies.  Here we will have face-to-face communion with the physically resurrected Jesus Christ.  Our inheritance is an eternal paradise where we are eternally restored to a right relationship with God, a right relationship with each other, and a right relationship with all of creation.  And this inheritance can never perish, it can never spoil, it can never fade.  It is incorruptible.  It is undefiled.  It is unfading.  It is eternally secured and is not threatened by anything.

It goes without saying that the city of man cannot provide us with anything that is this secure.  It cannot provide us with anything that will never perish, spoil, or fade.  As we said earlier, everything in the city of man is headed on a one-way track to death and decay and destruction.  But this doesn’t mean that the city of man doesn’t try to secure some measure of heaven on earth.  Take a walk down the magazine aisle at Fred Meyer and you will see that millions of people are trying to secure new and better bodies and a new and better earth.  Without knowing it the city of man longs for a taste of heaven.  It longs for new bodies and a new earth.  Part of this desire is healthy because it can motivate the city of man to take good care of God’s creation and it reveals an innate awareness of what should be.  But part of this desire is wicked.  It is idolatrous.  Because it wants “the new body” and it wants “the new earth” but it wants these things without the Creator and the redeemer of body and earth.   This is why I never, under any conditions, work out or purposefully exercise – because I don’t want to be an idolater!  That’s a good excuse, isn’t it?  I hope so, because I’m always looking for new excuses to not work out.   I’m mostly serious but of course I’m partly kidding.  But I’m not kidding at all about the city of man and its idolatrous approach to the human body and the earth.  It devotes endless energy to trying to create a new body.  But no matter how impressive that body becomes everyone knows it will perish, spoil, and fade.  The city of man devotes endless energy to trying to create a new earth.  But no matter how impressive our efforts everyone knows the earth will perish, spoil, and fade.  These things will always perish, spoil, and fade because apart from Jesus Christ who creates, sustains, and redeems them they will always be corruptible.  They will always be insecure.  But the citizens of the city of God have no need to feel insecure.  They may watch their bodies and the earth perish, spoil, and fade.  They may watch their possessions perish, spoil, and fade.  They may watch their very life perish, spoil, and fade.  But they are never insecure because they have been given a secure inheritance that will never perish, spoil, or fade.  That inheritance is secure because it is not secured by human effort or human will.  It is secured by God himself.     

…Secured by the Power of God  

Read verses 4 and 5 again.  “This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”  Our inheritance is kept for us, secured for us, in heaven.  Through our faith in Christ we are shielded, secured, by God’s power.  If your faith is in Jesus Christ then your new birth is secure, your inheritance is secure, your salvation is secure, you are secure, because you have been restored to a right relationship with God by his power.  You are not secure because you came forward at another altar call, you are not secure because you are prayed up, you are not secure because you read the Bible, you are not secure because you live a moral life, you are not secure because you “feel” close to God, you are not secure because you continue to ask for forgiveness for your sins.  If you are in Christ you are secure because God has saved you and he keeps your salvation in the palm of his powerful hand.  If your security depends in any way upon you then your security is no different than the security of the city of man.  As long as we live as though our security is found in any power or person other than God we will be perpetually insecure because every other power can be overpowered by someone or something else.  God’s power is the only means to true security because only God’s power cannot be threatened by any other power.   

And this is the comfort that Peter offers to his audience who is living in this tension between two cities and is facing suffering and persecution as a result.  This is the same comfort that is available to us if our faith is in Jesus Christ.  God has secured for us our inheritance and our salvation and he keeps these things secure by his power.  This means that nothing can threaten our security.  Nothing.  Not poverty.  Not sickness.  Not suffering.  Not persecution.  Not doubt.  Not even death.  Death is the ultimate insecurity for the city of man because in one instant it destroys everything that was supposed to keep us secure.  But death is no threat to the security of the city of God.  Instead of snatching all of our security in one instant it brings us, in one instant, into the secure arms of our loving Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Conclusion

I’m going to ask all of you to do me a favor.  Will you close your eyes, please?  With your eyes closed I want you to think of when you feel most secure.  Do you feel most secure when you have money?  When you have the approval of other people?  When you have good health?  When you have lots of friends?  When everything is going your way?  When you have a good job?  These things are not your security.  And if they are what makes you feel secure then you are committing idolatry.  If the lack of these things makes you feel insecure then you are committing idolatry.  You are trusting in a created thing to provide you with something only the Creator can provide you with.  Whether you came here today as a Christian or a non-Christian is irrelevant.  God is calling all of us to the same thing.  Through his Word, God is calling you and I to repent.  He is calling us to repent for trusting in lesser gods and lesser powers.  He is calling us to repent for finding our security in someone or something other than him.  He is calling us to trust him and worship him because he has secured our new birth, our inheritance, and our salvation for us. When God is our security we can give ourselves to securing the city of man instead of relying on the city of man to secure us (which it cannot do).