Sermon
Redemption
October 2, 2005
Pastor Donald Sheley

I'm going to ask you to take your Bibles. If you're using your personal Bible it's First Peter, and for the last number of weeks now we've been concerning our thoughts and our minds the words of Peter. We recognize that when we started our study that there is a great dearth in writings concerning the person of the Peter. We notice in the Book of Acts that he is quite prominent as we move through the first 13 or 14 chapters, but then Peter moves to the sides and Paul takes the preeminence, and as a result, very little has been written about Peter.

Some weeks ago I had a gentleman come to me and he had a book; it was written by Michael Card. Michael is the man who wrote the chorus Emanuel, Emanuel, and many, many others. A Catholic gentleman, and some years ago he took interest in the same subject, What can I learn about Peter? And so he went to his priest and he was invited to a seminary library and researched it and tried to find something about the apostle Peter, and he was greatly disappointed because there's a tremendous dearth concerning Peter.

And so what he thought is I'll go to a Protestant seminary and I'll check out their library and see what can be found there, and again, he was greatly disappointed because he found very, very little. So the question has always been, What ever happened to Peter? If he disappears from the scene in the 15th chapter of Acts, How does he fit into early Church history? There's a great secret in the sense that we don't understand.

I, some weeks ago, received a set of films, two films to be exact, it was a research done by a major historian. It was well documented and it was very well presented, and in that film it suggested that - and it's only a suggestion - but that Peter became quite jealous of Paul because of Paul's success in his ministry and thus may have just backed away from ministry for a while and went on to his fishing, but in accordance with that documentary it was suggested that Peter, as he realized that Paul was in prison in Rome, decided to go visit Paul.

Now Paul was in prison as you know because Nero had come to the throne of the Roman Empire and Nero has burned down much of the city of Rome in order to have a building project. And because the reaction was so bitter by the people who lived in Rome, Nero decided that he was going to take and blame the Christians, and as a result, from A.D. 64 and onwards there was tremendous persecution and the Christians were being chased and killed for their faith. And so Peter, of course, writes this letter during that time, but Peter when he arrives in Rome, according to the documentary, Paul has already been beheaded.

Now in the Roman Empire, Romans were never crucified, only criminals from other nations, but if you were a Roman citizen the way of death was simply by beheading. And so according to the documentary Paul had been beheaded and then Peter arrives too late to meet with Paul, and as a result, Peter picks up the torch that Paul leaves behind and continues the ministry.

It's also interesting that personalities come out very strong. We sometimes read names in the Scriptures and think they're almost superhuman, but they're not, and history presents Peter as a man with very fluctuating emotions, and we notice that in his reaction to the situations in the Gospels, but it also depicts Paul as being a person with almost a temper beyond control at times. Now we know that he was a dynamic man, that he has a tremendous passion - speaking of Paul - for his ministry, but if someone crossed him he really let them know it.

You go to Galatians chapter 2 and Paul is up in Antioch and Peter is there also and then some friends from the Jerusalem church arrive in Antioch, and Peter immediately withdrawals himself from identifying with the Gentiles and that really irritates Paul, and so he lashes out at Peter and the record of that confrontation is found, I think, in about the 14th or 15th verse of Galatians 2. Paul had some very strong feelings, and it could have been suggested - the historians - that Peter took offense to Paul correcting him in front of the church up at Antioch and thus he withdrew himself, and those are the silent years we have about the apostle Peter and thus may be one of the reasons why there is little written about him.

This we do know...When Peter wrote the letters that are before us - there are five chapters in his first letter and then three in the second letter - the church is going through this tremendous persecution, and the reason why Peter writes his letters, he was writing to encourage the Christians as they were being chased and being persecuted. And so it's a letter written to encourage and a letter of hope, and a letter that explains very deeply what a Christian hangs on to in the depths of despair and the depths of persecution.

And so we've gone through the first 17 verses of this letter, so let's begin this morning in verse 18, first Peter verse 18, chapter 1: "...knowing that you were not redeemed (writes Peter) 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 your hope are in God.

Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because 'All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever.' Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you."

I have begun our lesson by adding some additional Scripture. Paul speaks and writes to the Ephesians these words: "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and He preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father."

And then the writer to Hebrews gives us these thoughts: "But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance."

Today I want to concentrate on this thought of redemption, Calvary's Cross, the shedding of blood, and the cleansing through the blood of Jesus Christ our Savior for these are the glorious subjects of our Christian faith.

History is nailed together. Literally it is. The story of man from its beginning to the present is so varied and disconnected that it had to be nailed together to give it continuity, and since the nail was driven, human history reads more smoothly.

We do not know the name of the man who drove the nail and used the hammer, but of the nail we are sure. A state employee, ignorant of his own vital role in history, drove the nail through the hand of a man and into the cross beam behind it. In innocence he drove the nail of history, and the sporadic graph of history reached its zenith in the year 27, which is the year of the Cross. This was the year that our nameless benefactor took his hammer and fastened together man's meaningless, disconnected story, the story of the Cross.

Now perhaps you do not see the cross as the center of history as I do. Other pieces of human events may seem to you to have deeper meaning for man's existence. You might name the Code of Hammurabi, the Decalogue, or the Magna Carta as of equal importance; I don't. The year 27 might not be to you as significant as it is to me, maybe other dates as 44 B.C., or 1066, or 1588, or 1941. Yet none of these events have been so fundamental to answering the human need as that of the cross.

For two thousand decades now, men have crawled out of every little corner of time to throw rocks at the cross. The philosophers have pelted it with laughter asking for its purpose, but the cross has answered them in the words of one of its greatest defenders: "...the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us who are being saved it is the power of God."

The logicians have cried that it is too unbelievable to the educated and the wise, and the cross has answered again: "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? "

And just as history's finest hour was the hour of the Cross, so your greatest moment will be that small quantum of time when you say: "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live!"

Pause - you sitting here today and worshiping with me, for many of you the meaning of the cross only took its effect in your life of recent days or recent months; someone came to you and shared the story of Jesus and the love of God as demonstrated there at the cross of Calvary, and because of that you responded and the cross took on a very deep and significant meaning. It was there at the cross we received our sight. It's there at the cross life began, and that's why I start our lesson by saying really history and the meaning of mankind was nailed together there at the cross, because the cross to me is the very center of history, and it's the very crux of our Christian faith. I'm at the top of page 3.

The crucifixion invites you to complete the cycle of human failure. You see every person is created by God, then without exception, every person moves away from the righteousness which God had created him to be. And the writer of Isaiah writes, "All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has made to light upon Him the guilt and the iniquity of us all."

And then comes the invitation, issued by the cross of Christ, to return to God by way of God's righteousness to fellowship with God and to enjoy everlasting life. It's the meaning of the cross. You see, no one who believes in Christ can get along without the cross, for it is the strategic reason anyone believes in Him in the first place.

Every virtue of Christianity is present in the cross. Forgiveness, reconciliation, peace with God, and freedom from sin's bondage...the cross is the source from which these blessings which you and I enjoy flow. Paul writes to the Colossians, "The Father has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in Whom we have redemption through His blood, [which means the forgiveness of sins."

There is an old story that comes out of an old book in a library, and I write it for you here: When midnight's moonlit veil hung low on the sea's heaving bosom, July 31, 1838, William Knibb gathered together ten thousand slaves on the island of Jamaica, for a praise meeting-and for the putting into effect of the Emancipation Act. An immense coffin was prepared. They filled that huge coffin with whips, branding irons, handcuffs, fetters, slave garments and all other memorials belonging to the horrid enslavement system when human beings were properties in human flesh-having no will but the will of their masters.

At the first stroke of the midnight bell, Knibb shouted: "The monster is dying!" At the twelfth stroke, he shouted: "The monster is dead!" Let us bury him!" Then they screwed the coffin lid down, lowered it into a twelve-foot grave, and covered it up-thus burying things which had made human lives a hard and bitterly painful bondage. That night when the beating of every pulse was quickened, every throat of those ten thousand liberated slaves shouted itself hoarse with the joy of freedom!

Ladies and gentlemen, now humanity's great Emancipator, the Lord Jesus Christ, by the price of His blood has obtained for all believers their freedom, and has buried their enthralling and galling and enslaving sins in His own grave. And thus man's part is to believe the gospel proclamation, claim His precious blood-bought liberty, and walk triumphantly through life-one of the Lord's freed men. This is the act which changes darkness into light. It's at the cross where death has turned into life. It's at the cross where condemnation is turned into justification.

And so Peter introduces our subject of redemption with these words, and I take this from the Amplified text: "You must know (recognize) that you were redeemed (ransomed) from the useless (fruitless) way of living inherited by tradition from [your] forefathers, not with corruptible things [such as] silver and gold, but you were purchased with the precious blood of Christ (the Messiah), like that of a [sacrificial] lamb without blemish or spot."

Dropping down a couple paragraphs: To understand the concept of redemption in the context of our Christian faith, we must go back to the beginning of God's dealing with the human race. You see, Adam's sin plunged the entire human race into sin and condemnation, and so humanity outside of Christ is described as dead in sin, without God and without hope.

Listen to Paul as he writes to the Ephesians: "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh-who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands- that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in this world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ."

And as sinners, we are destined for judgment of God and eternal condemnation. The writer to the Hebrews says: "And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of man. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation."

Now on page 5, I've included a large passage from the book of Romans, and basically at the heart of that here is what Paul's argument is. Man sinned and Christ then died to procure salvation from that sin. Because of the offense or because of Adam's death we are all sinners, but because of Christ's death on the cross salvation is made available to whosoever will who may come.

Now dropping down to the bottom of page 5 as we hurry along - Underlying the grim fact of sin's reality is the basic truth that God's justice requires punishment of sin and of sinners. The Bible says, "And the Lord God commanded the man saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.'" And Paul restates the same theme in Romans where he says: "The wages of sin is death."

Now here's the problem that we often are faced with in our present society, and that is that divine justice, the link between sin and punishment. Let me explain. Frequently I am asked these questions, and I've written them down, but I had a lady come to me some time ago and she said, Pastor, I don't believe in the God you believe in. And I said, Why? She said the God I believe in is a God of love. He doesn't punish anybody, and nobody goes to hell because of God. God is too much of a loving God and thus I disagree with your God.

And I, you know I was almost speechless, and I said to her I can only preach the God of the Scriptures. You can connive all kinds of concepts as to how you want to believe in a God, but the God of the Bible is still the God of the universe, the Creator God.

And here are some of the questions people ask: Could not God simply forgive us without sending His Son? Does He really need to punish the sinner? Does this teaching make Him less gracious than a forgiving person? Is not God primarily love and is it not the nature of love to pardon and forgive rather than to punish?

Those questions cross the minds of many, and they wrestle deeply with them. And so really at the heart of those questions is the main question - Why did Jesus Christ have to go to that cross and die? How necessary was the atonement? And when we use the word 'atonement' we are speaking of the death of Jesus Christ as He died there for our sins as our substitute.

Well the obvious factor that underwrites the necessity of Christ having to go to the cross is the very nature of sin itself. Now you and I when we hear the word sin we have all kinds of thoughts of things and actions that man does, but go with me to a little deeper level of definition. Go to the Scriptures. Look at what the Bible says. Sin is an assault on God. It is enmity against God. It is disobedience to His law. It is a human attempt to put ourselves in charge, to dispute the Lordship of our Creator; it is a contradiction of God's holiness.

Sin is simply living life without God or any desire for Him or rejection of Him. It's a contradiction to God's holiness. So God must punish sin, not out of any external constraint, but because of who He is and what sin is. If sin were to go unpunished it would be at the expense of God's holiness. Moreover, the justice of our salvation would be determined by a forgiveness that would then flow from the mere overlooking of sin rather than from a definitive and final settlement of it.

Christ went to that cross to settle the issue of the problem of sin. He paid sin's penalty for us, and in solving that penalty and resolving that penalty He makes eternal life available to all of us who believe.

Go on with me - At the heart of the biblical doctrine of the atonement, or Christ's death, is the idea of penal substitution. You say, Pastor, I've never heard that term before used in the pulpit. What do you mean by penal substitution as it is associated with the cross? Well let's read on.

When we say penal, we mean that Christ endured punishment. Today we use the term a penal institution, and what we're really saying it's an institution where one pays for the penalty of their crime. It's known as a penal institution. So when we use that word we're talking about Christ who was punished for us.

God's law has been broken and sin has been committed against Him, and God is the one who prescribes the penalty. And the penalty that God laid down in the early moments of man's history for sin, the man that sins, He will die. And thus God establishes the penalty. It's an exclusion from fellowship with Him for ever. And for human beings, this means eternal punishment or banishment from God's presence.

But Christ Himself willingly submitted to the just penalty which we deserved, receiving it on our behalf and in our place so that we will not have to bear it ourselves. He becomes our Substitute. He took the punishment for our sins at Calvary, and the death due to us from our transgression of God's law is an eternal death that involves everlasting exclusion from the presence of God. Christ died our death so that we might have the gift of eternal life.

Now you understand why I say the cross is the very center of history and it's the very crux of our Christian faith.

The next line is a heavy one - To fathom the depths of what Christ endured we would need to spend an eternity in hell because He paid that price for us. He was rejected by mankind. He was abandoned by God. There on the cross He said, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? He became subject to the full curse of the law and more beside, and all this was underserved for He had been uniquely obedient to His Father in heaven. He was sinless. He was righteous. He was pure love and wholesome goodness. He was equal with God and the Creator of all things.

And here's what Paul says: God made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God. But He, writes the prophet Isaiah, He was pierced for my transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; and the punishment that brought us peace, peace with God, was laid upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.

"But we see Jesus," writes the writer to the Hebrews, "who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone of us." He tasted death for us, paid its penalty, sin's penalty for us.

I'm at the top of page 7. Christ died for our sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but was made alive by the Spirit.

Now it's interesting to me that Peter, knowing that he's writing his letter to people who are under deep persecution and dying for their faith, why he includes in these opening thoughts this marvelous concept of redemption, this matter of forgiveness and cleansing through the blood of Christ. But I think Peter had this in mind: We live in a turbulent world where things happen around us and in those days they were fleeing and running to various provinces, and Peter wants to give them something you hang on to in life's deepest crisis, and that was a faith secured in God through the act of what Christ did on that cross.

You know, the Scriptures tell us that our salvation is secured. He that hath begun a great work in us will complete it, writes Paul in Philippians 1:6. I believe that Peter wrote this thought concerning redemption because sometimes when we get in the heat of life's battle we forget some of the great spiritual treasures we really do have, because life confuses us and the issues around us disturb us.

And you know, here's what I believe Peter was suggesting, when the going gets rough and the persecutions get tough, pause long enough to remember where your hope is secured and anchored - it's in God; it's in a Christ who died for you. You know salvation is not an it, salvation is a Him, the Lord Jesus Christ. If we think of it as just something that's in tangible, we'll always be wondering whether it will hold us in life's deepest and most troublesome times, but when it's the person of Jesus Christ, remembering that it was His great love for us that held Him to that cross, and He wants us to know that no matter what happens out here the soul can be secure and be at rest in the knowledge of a Christ who is the same yesterday, today, and for ever.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you are here today and you have not put your trust in the Christ of the cross, life can become exceedingly turbulent and there is no place to hang on to. That's why Peter says that's where our hope and our trust is in God, secured there by the Christ who hung on that cross. When everything else is shaking, when everything else is gone, the cross is still there. God's love is still there, and our Savior still loves us. And thus we bow our heads in life's difficult moments and say, Jesus, I know that there's one thing that's secure, and that's Your love for me which You demonstrated at Calvary.

Let's bow our heads...and just for a moment, maybe you're with us today and you say, Pastor, I've been on a spiritual search. I have really wanted to understand spiritual things, and today it's very clear that I now understand why the cross, and I understand what happened there at the cross. I understand that my sins were a part of the sins of all mankind for which Christ died, and I understand that if I put my trust in Christ my sins are covered and forgiven, and that amidst life's most difficult times I have a sense of confident hope that Christ will never leave me nor forsake me, and I really want that today.

Every head is bowed, and I appreciate that, and every eye is closed. Would you like to raise your hand to God? And by raising your hand you're just simply in the raising of the hand saying, God, my heart is wide open today. I want to receive Jesus Christ. I understand now why He died; He died for me, and I want to open my heart to His salvation that He's provided so I lift my hand to God.

This is a very sacred moment for these are people and persons who are looking for that anchor in life, and to learn today we can find that anchor in Jesus Christ and His cross. Is there anyone else? Just lift your hand. You are simply saying, God, my heart's wide open and I really want to receive Jesus Christ as my Savior.

Let's all say a prayer together. Would you repeat it? We'll say it with prayers for these that have raised their hands. You follow after me. Dear Jesus today I understand why You went to that cross. My sin sent You there, because the penalty of my sin was death, but You took my death on that cross, paid the penalty for my sin, so You could be my Savior. Lord Jesus, I open my heart to You today. By Your Holy Spirit come live within me. I want to follow you dear Jesus, and I want Your Holy Spirit to fill my being. Thank you for hearing my prayer dear Jesus. Please forgive me of all my sin and help me to turn from sin, because I really want to serve You, Jesus, with all my heart from this day forward. Thank you Jesus.

Lord Jesus, our prayers today You've listened to and You've heard, and my prayer is that Your Holy Spirit will just fill these hearts with Your presence and with Your peace, with the knowledge of Your forgiveness. Give them a great courage, a great strength, a great hope that anchors their soul today. Thank you Jesus for dying there for us, and we love You because of it. Thank you very much. And everybody said...Amen. God bless you folks.