Impractical Christianity Part 1

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith.

Alone.

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.

Our reading for this Lenten season, we will be working our way through the epistle of 1 Peter. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with His blood.

May grace and peace be multiplied to you. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to His great mercy. He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in the things that have now been announced to you, through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit, sent from heaven, things to which the angels long to look.

Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.

But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy. And if you call on Him as Father, who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you, who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God, having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love.

Love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. All flesh is like grass, and all of its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers, and the flower falls. But the word of the Lord remains forever, and this word is the good news that was preached.

To you.

This is the word of the Lord, in the name of Jesus, Amen. Impractical Christianity is going to be our theme for this Lenten season. And here's the basic idea behind it, is that the faith once delivered to the saints really doesn't seem all that practical and relevant for people who are all about, well, experiencing the best that this life has to offer.

Think of it this way. In many of the megachurches, there are pastors and megachurch pastors who overtly, overtly eschew this idea that Christianity is about, well, primarily about what we receive, and that's our salvation when Christ returns.

And in their way of thinking, if being a believer in Jesus doesn't result in your life getting better and really making things in the here and the now really awesome for you, then there's no point in being a Christian.

And so this is the major focus of all of their sermons. They say that, oh man, once you've crossed the finish line of faith, that God's going to reveal to you your unique purpose, and you can then apply biblical principles to your life in order to make your marriage better, to make your children better behaved, to climb the ladder corporately and socially so that you can make a difference and really make it so that you can live your best life presently.

But the faith once delivered for the saints isn't for those who, well, are all about living their best lives now or experiencing all that a life well-lived has to offer in this temporal and cursed creation.

Instead, the basic idea of Christianity, biblical Christianity, is that this is a religion that isn't for the living, this is a religion for the dying. And that's really the point of what Peter is getting at as he opens up this first letter of his found in our New Testament.

And so listen again from the back end of this chapter, all flesh is like grass, all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And see, that's kind of the thing, is that, well, we aren't getting any younger.

And whenever I think about tiny little newborn babies as cute and precious as they are, I always have that little dark thought in the back of my mind that they're already born with one foot in the grave, with one foot in the grave.

And yet as Christians, we recognize that in our baptisms, we have been united with Christ in his death and his resurrection. And so because we have been united with him in his death and his resurrection, we can honestly say we've already got one foot out of the grave.

It's a totally different paradigm altogether. But consider then what Peter, the apostle Peter, this is a fellow who suffered much as a result of his confession of Christ. He was one of Christ's apostles, one of the 12, the great apostle Peter, who walked on the water, by the way, not because of his great faith.

When you read the account as to why Peter walked on the water, it's because he doubted.

It was Jesus.

Lord, if that's you, let me come out to you on the water.

It's not great faith.

Jesus had mercy on him despite his doubts. This is the same fellow who, by the way, after the fire in Rome, Nero blamed the Christians for the fire in Rome. And although there's some people who speculate that maybe he had something to do, that Nero had something to do with the fire, because Nero, by the way, I don't know if you all know this about the late Antichrist emperor of Rome, Nero, he had his own competing venue for chariot races, his own hippodrome.

And so a competing venue for his venue was called the Circus Maximus, and it was in the grandstands of the Circus Maximus that the great fire of Rome started. And so just keep that in mind. And so, of course, as things kind of heated up after the fire, pun intended, the Christians got blamed for the fire, and they were rounded up and experienced all kinds of exquisite tortures and martyrdoms.

And Peter and Paul lost their lives, both of them lost their lives in that Neronian persecution. But Peter, who was not a Roman citizen, he got to experience crucifixion, not only him but also his wife.

His wife was crucified the day before he was crucified, and his parting words to his wife as they were getting ready to nail her to her own cross, her parting words, as recorded by the church fathers, was, remember the kindness of our Lord, remember the kindness of our.

Lord.

Peter, the next day, he was crucified in the center part of what was called the Circus of Nero. And as he was approaching his cross, he protested and said he was not worthy to experience the same death that Christ experienced, that Jesus experienced.

And so they obliged him and they crucified him upside down. And on the first day while he was being crucified, because it took him three days to die that way, on the first day that he was being crucified, Nero competed in chariot races while he's being crucified.

It's just absolutely surreal when you think about this. But understand this then, that his faith was not in a life that would be fantastic and great and influential and affluential and the best life lived now kind of idea.

No, in fact, Christ himself makes it clear that confessing him as Lord would potentially split up your family. You know, father against son, daughter against mother, mother-in-law against father. It's just a, it's a mess.

And that Jesus promised in this lifetime, not your best life now and well-behaved children and a purpose and all this kind of, he promised sufferings and persecutions. And so this is the faith that Peter is preaching and writing about.

This faith where it's, it's a dangerous thing to confess. And because of that, we have to keep our eyes on the thing that really matters. And the thing that really matters is not in the present. It's in the hope that we have to come.

So Peter says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his great mercy. And listen to these words, because this flies in the face of much of bad preaching today. He, God, he has caused us to be born again.

Yeah, I remember when I was an evangelical, I was told, well, so what you got to do is you got to pray the sinner's prayer and ask Jesus into your heart. And then when you do that, you will be born again.

It's all up to you. You've got to make the decision. You've got to pray the prayer. You've got to come to the altar. No, no, no, no. Scripture says that God has caused us to be born again and born again to, listen to this, a living hope, a hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading.

And we can say this about everything on this planet. There's nothing on this planet that human beings have touched or created that is imperishable. Everything we've created is perishing or has already perished.

Just look at the old clothes in your closet. Look at your own body. Look at the great edifices that we've built. They're all getting older and need to be refurbished and things like that. And then of course, you think of the great pyramids in Egypt.

They're not so great anymore. I mean, they're big, but they don't have their same glory that when they were first made. So everything is perishable here. But we have a hope to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, and it is presently being kept in heaven for you, you, you who by God's power, you are being guarded through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

Not now.

It ain't ready to be revealed right now. No, it'll be revealed in the last time. So in this then you rejoice, though now for a little while if necessary, and boy, it seems to be necessary more and more, right?

You have been, if you've been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire. And did you hear that?

That faith that Christ has given you that, that faith that God has given you, whereby you trust in him for the forgiveness of your sins. This according to Peter is more precious than gold. And yet the world would tell you that this is just silly.

This is nonsense. This is not valuable. This has no value at all. Why would you believe that? Yet we learn from scripture how to think the way God teaches us to think, that our faith is even as weak as it is, is more precious than gold.

And the idea then is that these trials then test our faith so that we may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Christ. And though you have not seen him, Peter says, you love him.

You say, well, Peter has seen him. He had seen him, but we haven't. And though you have not seen him, you love him. And though you do not now see him, you believe in him. Yeah, I've never had coffee with Jesus.

Haven't had the opportunity to meet him face to face. That day is coming. But although I have not seen him, I love him. Though you have not seen him, you love him. And so we believe in him and we rejoice with a joy that is inexpressible and filled with.

Glory.

And then listen to this, obtaining the outcome of your faith. And what is the outcome of your faith? Finding your purpose, achieving your dream destiny?

No.

The outcome of your faith and my faith is the salvation of our souls. It's not very practical for the here and now. Doesn't give you advice on how to make things better for you presently. The reality of this, the whole point of this impractical Christianity that Peter is telling us about, its outcome is the salvation of our souls.

And see, it's concerning this salvation. If you don't think this is a big deal, I mean, so many times I hear people say, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's, that's a, stop telling me about pie in the sky and the by and by and I, we, I need something that's going to help me right now.

Listen, listen, listen, listens. Scripture says that this is a vital thing concerning this salvation. The prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours. I love the pronoun there. Yours, yours and mine.

You see the prophets, they searched and inquired carefully inquiring what person or time the spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you in the things that they have now that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit from heaven, things to which the angels long to look.

Have you considered that this impractical faith, the one about which you receive forgiveness and mercy and the outcome of which is the salvation of your souls regarding this very salvation, the prophets like Jeremiah, Isaiah, Amos and Zechariah and others that they, they long to look into these things to figure out when all this was going to go about.

And it was revealed to them that in the books that they wrote for us in the old Testament, that they were not serving themselves, but they were actually serving you, you. That's what the text says. In fact, the very things that they had written down and the salvation that so many despise and think is just so worthless that it is not only more precious than gold, but even the angels themselves long to look into the mystery of these things.

Hmm. This impractical Christianity all of a sudden begins to sound like it's quite important. And the reason it sounds important is because it is. And so therefore, because of this, Peter says, preparing your minds for action, being sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Listen again, set your hope fully.

You see, how do they say it?

Oh, you Christians, you're so heavenly minded. You're no earthly good. Peter is literally telling you, keep your mind, keep your faith, keep your hope, focus on that grace that will be brought to you when Jesus returns.

And so as obedient children do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. And here again, we hear that recurring theme that sin rises up from within us. It's out of the heart that sin has its genesis within us.

And this is oftentimes twisted and malformed versions of the appetites and passions that we have according to our body. So don't be conformed to your sinful passions anymore. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in your conduct, since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy.

And here's the reason for this, because you were ransomed. You were ransomed from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers. And listen, what you were ransomed with. You were ransomed, not with perishable things, money or gold or things like that, you know, such things as silver or gold.

But instead, you were ransomed, you were bought off the slave block, and you were set free and adopted into the family of God by the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

You see, Peter can't even go all that long without telling you about the cross again, because the cross is everything. You were purchased, you were ransomed with the very blood of Christ. You see, it is through him then, we are believers in God.

And since you have been born again, and notice how he says that, already you have been, you're not hoping to be, you have already been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God.

Then because of that, well, having purified your souls, you know, through obedience to the truth, love one another earnestly, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, a heart that has been made pure by Christ.

So as we consider this Lenten tide, examine our lives in light of God's word, consider that repentance is both contrition and sorrow over our sin, as well as a firm and confident belief that we have been reconciled to God by what Jesus has done.

Let us then reflect on these things. And as Peter has taught us, let us believe in this impractical Christianity, the one that tells us to keep our hope focused on what will be revealed when Jesus returns, because Jesus hasn't promised you a rose garden now.

He hasn't promised your life to be easy now. In fact, being a Christian is quite dangerous. It could cause you to suffer, to be maligned. It could tear up your family, destroy your relationships. It could cause you to be imprisoned or even to lose your life.

Well, so be it. Keep your eyes focused on the prize. The prize is Christ and he is coming soon and his redemption and your inheritance are with him and it will all be revealed when he shows up. This is our hope, our hope given to us because we have been forgiven and reconciled to the.

Father.

We don't need to fear his wrath when Jesus comes. Instead, we can look with anticipation and hope and that hope will get us through even the worst of circumstances, circumstances even as bad as watching your wife be crucified or even being crucified yourself in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

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