Hope, Holy fear and Hollow Inheritance
Big Idea: Steer your thoughts on the hope of Christ, and live in holy fear of the Father, for Christ’s redeemed you from a hollow inheritance.
1. Steer your thoughts to Christ, our only hope
2. Live your lives with a holy fear
3. Christians are redeemed from a hollow inheritance
Three questions:
1. How are you steering your mind to the hope of Christ
2. Who helps you to live a holy life? How?
3. How does your father’s inheritance contrast with your Heavenly Father’s inheritance?
Different people can have very different views on the same situation.
Some people are optimists; they like to see the good side of things, and they usually have a bright outlook in life.
Some are pessimists; they see the worse side of things and they usually have a gloomy view of the future.
One way to show the difference between these two types of people is to see how they describe a glass partly filled with water.
How would you describe this? Half full or half empty?
All the optimists say, “half full” and all the pessimists say, “half empty”.
And the physical scientist says, “it’s full. It’s half filled with water and half filled with air.”
And the sceptic says, “Is it really water?”
What would a Christian say?
One thing we hear a lot from the Bible is that Christians have hope.
Are Christians optimists then, always having a bright outlook on life?
How will a person with Christian hope do with the glass partly filled with water?
Today, we’re going to look at what the Bible says about what Christians ought to do with the hope that they have in Jesus.
Please open up your Bible with me to 1 Peter chapter 1 beginning from verse 13.
We’re going to see three things:
1. Steer your thoughts to Christ, our only hope
2. Live your lives with a holy fear
3. Christians are redeemed from a hollow inheritance
But before we look into it, let’s pray, “Father, by your Holy Spirit, please renew our minds as we hear from your word today, that we may obey Jesus, in whose name we pray, Amen.”
1. Steer your thoughts to Christ, our only hope
Last week, we read that we’re chosen exiles and given a new birth in Jesus.
That’s the hope we have in Jesus!
What are we to do with this Christian hope?
We’re to steer our thoughts to Christ, our only hope.
Look with me at chapter 1 verse 13, “Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
We’re to steer the thoughts inside our head for action.
The verse translated here is literally gird up the loins of your minds for action; if you have the Chinese Bible you’ll see this translation in a little bracket)
What does it mean to gird up the loins of your minds?
In the Ancient Near East, the men used to wear long robes.
If the men suddenly need to go into a fight or a battle, they lift their robe and tuck it into their belt.
With the robe out of the way, they’re now ready for battle.
In a few weeks’ time, our new assistant minister Peter Chan will be ordained at St Andrew’s Cathedral.
On that day, he, along with all those getting ordained and all those in the official party, will be wearing a robe.
Now imagine there was some sort of emergency at the Cathedral and the Archbishop Kanishka says, “Ordinands, protect the Cathedral!”
And then, Peter, along with all the ordinands, gird up their loins, that is, to tuck the robes around their waist, so that they can move quickly and follow the archbishop’s order to protect the Cathedral.
That’s what Christians, both men and women, are to do with their minds.
Our minds are to get ready to run! They need to be ready for action!
We’re to set our minds, steer our thoughts, completely, totally, on the hope of Jesus Christ.
The world we live in is full of distractions and information overload.
So many things want to stimulate us and grab our attention.
With so many things going on, our minds can get numb and overwhelmed.
There are so many things that want to distract us from following Jesus.
As Christians, we must stay focused, we must work hard to keep our thoughts on the coming of Jesus.
Someone once said that Christians live in the future tense.
That is, Christians live according to what they know about the future.
We know that Jesus is coming, and that the grace that God brings us that day will be greater than anything we’ll experience in the present.
It’s the knowledge of that great day of Jesus that gets us through the challenges of each day.
And so, be sober-minded.
We know that getting drunk on alcohol can lead to mindlessness and loss of control.
The Bible talks about avoiding getting drunk on wine, but here, it’s talking about another kind of drunkenness, an even more serious kind.
We’re to avoid getting mental intoxication by not getting drunk on the things of the world.
Don’t get drunk on the world’s pleasures, for they will cause you to lose our love and faith in Jesus.
Don’t spend most of your precious thoughts on what the world says gives you hope and happiness.
Don’t let your mind wander to filthy thoughts; instead set your thoughts on Jesus Christ.
There are people all around us who don’t know Jesus; they’re ignorant of Jesus.
Some won’t have an intellectual knowledge of Jesus, that is, they’ve never heard of him.
But even if they have an intellectual knowledge of Jesus, they don’t know him in the sense that they don’t have a relationship with him.
If you call yourself a Christian, don’t live your life like someone who doesn’t know Jesus.
Don’t desire the same things as someone who doesn’t know Jesus.
Obey God as obedient children, not as entitled ones.
Whether you’re a child, a youth or an adult, don’t live disobedient, entitled lives.
Don’t live a life that conforms to the world’s ways.
Instead, be different! Steer your thoughts to live in obedience to God with gratitude.
Different people have different ways of keeping their thoughts in check.
Some people write down notes when they listen to Bible talks, and that’s me.
I don’t necessarily read them again, but they help me stay focused and avoid distractions.
How do you keep your mind focused on the hope of Jesus?
Work hard to steer your thoughts because thoughts, even little ones, are powerful.
The Christian author CS Lewis was quoted to have said, “Sow a thought and reap a deed; sow a deed and reap an action; sow an action and reap a habit; sow a habit and reap a character; sow a character and reap a destiny.”
And this is what we want to help each other do at Church.
We want to help each other steer our thoughts on the hope of Christ.
We do that as we come together as a congregation at Church.
We do this as we meet after church and in Growth groups throughout the week.
The world is constantly trying to influence our children and adults, so we need to make sure we’re intentionally focusing on our hope in Jesus Christ.
And we do this together, not just as individuals, but as groups.
That’s why in checkpoint 2, we want to put groups together where we have a disciple-maker along with five other fellow disciples to help one another steer their minds to the hope that we have in Christ.
As a group, the disciple-maker leads the group so that we can all serve our Lord Jesus better together.
By ourselves, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and wander away from our hope. But with someone who loves us enough to say, ‘Hey, steer your mind, get ready to take action, check on your desires,’ we can stay on track.
And so, how does a person with Christian hope view this glass?
They will see that whether the glass is half full or even a quarter full, their mind’s focus is not on how much water there is in the glass.
Their mind’s focus is on the hope of Christ; his coming is more important than how much water in the glass, or how many things they have in their lives.
2. Live your lives with a holy fear
Our thoughts lead to actions.
And so, our thoughts set on the hope of Jesus will lead to a holy life.
Look with me at verses 15-16, “But as the one who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; 16 for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy.”
We’re called by a holy God to come out of darkness into his wonderful light.
God’s chosen us and called us to save us, to give us hope.
As a people called by a holy God, we are to be holy.
Holiness is the trademark of God’s people.
When people see us living out our lives, they ought to see holiness.
One of the great things we see in an intergenerational Church like ours is that we see parents and their children at the same time.
And there are some children who look and even move like their parents.
It might be little traits like the slight movements of their head, the way they talk, and sometimes even the way they dress.
They’re almost exactly the same.
As Christians, we ought to be holy, just as God is holy, for God’s family trait is holiness.
When we think about holiness, we usually think about rituals, ceremonies, and traditions.
But here, Peter is talking about having holy conducts.
We are to be holy in the way we behave.
The way we live ought to reflect God’s holiness.
And so, live in a way that honors God and not ourselves.
To reflect God’s holiness means living with integrity and honor, and we treat others with love and grace.
Since that’s how God acts towards us.
As his obedient children, we want to live in a way that reflects who He is.
God is indeed a loving Father, but He’s also the judge of how we live.
God judges fairly - if you’ve done wrong, he couldn’t just pretend that it didn’t happen.
God will not be an unfair judge; he will judge impartially according to each one’s work.
But that doesn’t mean that our salvation us based on doing good works; instead, we do good works because we are saved.
As people who are saved, we have even more reason to live holy lives, not less, because we know who God is.
We know how God takes sin seriously; we will live in holy fear of Him.
This holy fear of God is based on our love for Him.
It’s because we love Him, that we are afraid to let Him down by the way we live.
We are afraid of living at life that disappoints him because we love God and more importantly, God loves us.
We are afraid of living a filthy, unholy life because what he thinks of us matters.
We’re on our way to see Him, our Father and our Judge.
In fact, we do come before him in prayer, asking Him to do the right thing.
How can we do the wrong thing even as you ask Him to do the right thing?
How can we ask God for any mercy when you actively or mindlessly disobey Him?
No, as a stranger travelling through an unholy world to the home of the Holy God, we’re to live in holy fear, a fear that we owe Him.
As children of the Holy God, live a holy life.
A story was told about a man who came up to his minister and said,
“Minister, you won’t believe this.
I’ve been working in the factory for twenty years and I only found out today that another guy whom I’ve known since we’ve started is a Christian as well!”
To which the minister replies, “My fellow, both you and your friend need to be saved.”
The man and his friend lived lives that are so much like everybody else’s that neither they nor those around them could they that they were Christians.
Their lives were conformed like those around them, instead of being conformed to their calling to be holy.
Checkpoint 1 of what we want to see happen at our Church is this: We want to see 500 households who live within a 10-minute radius of us to come to our Church over the next 10 years.
Today, we’ve got 38 households here.
Our goal is to still 462 households away.
However, over the week, we minister to our community in different ways as well.
Every month, we serve around 8 households in St. Patrick’s Green by bringing the word of God to them and celebrating the Communion with them.
We’re also reaching out to 30 more households at the Children’s Centre each week with KOGWorx as well as over 200 students in Specialist Religious Education in various schools.
Our community all around us see us, but will they see God’s holiness in us?
Or are we like the factory workers who are completely indsinguishable from the rest of the world?
If what we hope for is like them, if what we chase after are like theirs, then why should they come?
My prayer is that when they do see us, they’ll see that we live with honor and integrity, love and grace.
They will see that we live holy lives; holy lives that don’t point out how good we are, but how God is.
Will they see our family trait? Will they see God’s holiness in us?
And so, how will Christians view this glass partly filled with water?
They’ll see it as a gift that God’s given them and they’ll carry it according to his will.
They will carry it carefully, living in holy fear, in order to bring honour and glory to God’s name.
3. Christians are redeemed from a hollow inheritance
Christians are children of the heavenly Father, precious to Him. Contrast this with our earthly fathers’ inheritance, an empty way of life.
Look with me at verses 18-19, “For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb.”
Here I have this massive coin.
Here’s $1 and it’s this size. Here’s a massive dollar – it must worth a lot more!
No it doesn’t worth much at all!
It is just an empty mints tin from the Royal Australian mint.
Just like this empty gold coin themed mint box, the inheritance we received from our fathers is empty and hollow.
While cultures, honesty, integrity, and fairness can be good, they are ultimately futile without Christ.
They are a poor substitute for hope for they are hollow and empty.
That doesn’t mean that we now stop being Australian, or Chinese, or Indian, or whatever culture we grew up in.
Our culture is part of who we are and I hope that you do appreciate the culture you grow up in as well as the cultures of those around you.
But as good as our cultures are, they are ultimately empty without Christ.
God redeems us from our culture, saves us from the hollowness of our culture.
Not matter where you and I are from, our culture is one that we need saving from
Shockingly, the Bible reveals that our upbringing is empty because it fosters sin and rebellion against God.
Since our culture and our upbringing lead us away from God, we need to be saved from it
And God’s done it by redeeming us, by paying the ransom price to bring us back to him.
In Peter’s time, a slave had to come up with a ransom price so that he can be “purchased” from his master, becoming a free person in society.
God didn’t use silver or gold to redeem our souls; He used the precious blood of Christ, the unblemished Lamb of God.
He paid the price to redeem us from our sinful nature and our sinful nurture, filling our hearts with holiness where there was once hollowness.
Unlike the inheritance our fathers are handing to us, God prepared his inheritance for us before the creation of the world.
Before there was even a flicker from the very first star, Jesus was foreknown, and He’s now revealed to us during these last times.
It’s through Jesus alone that you come to believe in God.
He rose from the dead so that you can trust and love God.
Jesus is our Great Substitute.
Whereas the inheritance of our fathers is a poor substitute for hope, Jesus substituted with us, who ought to have died with hopelessness and despair and gave us true hope instead.
Jesus our Great Substitute died the death that our empty way of life would’ve given us.
And He also rose from the dead, and gives us true hope through His resurrection.
Now it just so happens that in this month’s issue of the Southern Cross, the Archbishop Kanishka writes about the Christian hope in 1 Peter chapter 1.
I didn’t read this until I almost finished my sermon, but it’s incredible to see we even shared the same words to express the same idea.
It’s as if it’s a family trait or something.
Of course, he does it a lot better!
Here’s an excerpt from this article, “In so many ways, Sydney is a place of transient trinkets, hollow promises and glittering voids. But everywhere there is havoc, destroyed lives and despair; epidemics of gambling, loneliness, immorality and exploitation. But by the mercy of God, there is new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead into an imperishable inheritance.”
Friends, if you are in Sydney, we have inherited the transient trinkets and the hollow promises.
It’s from these that God has redeemed us from, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
By all means, love the people of Sydney and their cultures, but point them to something far better; point them to Jesus.
. Tell the story about how God has loved the world, people of all culture so much, that he paid for their redemption with the precious blood of the Lamb, His Son Jesus Christ.
Who’s the next person you need to share this living hope with?
What will a person with Christian hope do with the glass partly filled with water?
Those of us with a Christian hope will have a mind steered to the hope of Christ.
We will have hope whether there’s water in the glass or not because our hope is bigger than what’s in the glass, or what’s in our lives.
Our hope is in Jesus.
Those of us with a Christian hope will live a life of holiness for the Father.
We will live in holy fear of the Father because He is holy
And finally, those of us who have a Christian hope will leave the hollowness of our wordily father’s inheritance behind.
We know that instead of life of hollowness, God has filled our lives with hope, faith and love by redeeming us in Jesus.
Our cups, our glasses, now overflow because of his mercies towards us in Jesus.
Steer your thoughts on the hope of Christ, and live in holy fear of the Father, for Christ’s redeemed you from a hollow inheritance.
Here are the three questions for this week:
1. How are you steering your mind to the hope of Christ
2. Who helps you to live a holy life? How?
3. How does your father’s inheritance contrast with your Heavenly Father’s inheritance?
Friends, steer your thoughts to hope, live in holy fear, for Christ has redeemed you from hollowness.
Let’s pray, “Lord Jesus, nothing in my hands I bring, simply to your cross I cling. Let us turn away from the hollow promises of the world and hold on to the hope that you shed your precious blood to give us. By your Spirit, help us to live holy lives that bring glory to our Father, to you, our Lord and to the Holy Spirit. Amen.”