1 Peter 3:8-22
Today is the last in our little series on discipleship. This week, we look at you and me as individuals and how we get to be an important and functional part of this unique thing we call the Church.
We have been focusing on the Church as one group, unified by Jesus to such an extent that we become one body, the body of Christ himself: nothing less than a royal priesthood. This is purely a work of God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and through God we are to lead honourable lives as good citizens, forgiving and loving those who trouble us.
Today all our bible readings dovetail in a way that enables us to look at what we as believers need to do to ensure we are truly the Church. It begins with you and me as individuals.
So today it’s back to basics and I am not addressing anyone specifically, but all people everywhere. But if you think God is trying to tell you something, he probably is.
Christianity is a unique faith. There is not a set of rules, like coming to church every week. Or actions, like making a pilgrimage or giving an exact percentage of our income, or any ceremony we need to participate in. No one can come to faith on our behalf.
The wonderful mystery is though, is that once we come individually to faith, we then live for others and God and in so doing, become the Church. Does that make sense?
So there are three things that happen to us individually that power the church as a unified body, all of which I have touched on in the last three weeks.
The first of these is repentance. In today’s reading from Acts, Paul is addressing an intelligent though unbelieving crowd in the Areopagus, a public square in Athens where people would come to listen to the philosophers preach their ideas and beliefs. In vv.23-24 he says, ‘I see you worship an unknown God, … I’m here to tell you about the God who made the world and everything in it, he is Lord of heaven and earth.’ Paul then goes on to say in v.30 that God now “commands people everywhere to repent.”
There are parts of the Church that need to repent (again, I say this generally, with no one person or groups in mind), not for moral failings, but for misrepresenting who God is. For worshipping an unknown God if you like.
God is neither anyone’s personal Aladdin, nor a remote, impersonal God uninvolved in our daily struggles. The true God is better than any magic, he is the Way the Truth and the Life and fully and deeply involved in every little part of our lives.
We are here to proclaim Christ, not to declaim him. Jesus said to the disciples in Mark 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything.” We are to be salt and light.
Once we, as individuals, repent of our worship of an unknown God, the Church, freshly salted and fully hemmed in by Jesus, powered by the Spirit, brings glory to the Father.
From this all things flow. To be a true member of the church, building up the body, that is all we need to do; believe and repent. Which are Jesus’ first words in Mark’s gospel (Mark 1:15). Through repentance of false worship, the church is strengthened and made pure.
So what happens to us as individuals once we repent and believe the good news of Jesus Christ?
What happens is the second thing I want to talk about. We become sanctified. Its sounds like a big theological word, but it is a remarkable thing.
Sanctification is the process of being made holy, and what happens to us as individuals causes it to happen to the church. Peter in v.15 of today’s reading urges us to sanctify Jesus in our hearts as Lord. That is to set Jesus apart. When we do that, God sanctifies us. God sets us apart for himself.
When God sanctifies us apart, our life is renewed. We participate in Christ through membership in the community that is his body, the church. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the power that gives us new life to walk this new Holy pathway; this new road we are on. By the power of the very same Spirit we walk in the light.
As you can see, this word ‘sanctification’ is a very big deal.
Now whilst this happens at a deeply personal level, this making of us to be Holy, this sanctification, is prepared in and for the community and involves all the practices that make up the Christian life, including prayer, worship, service to one another and mission to the world.
This is the reason we are sanctified. Its basis is the forgiveness of our sins by God through our repentance and its purpose is life in total communion with God and others. What starts with the individual, you and me, ends with God and others. That’s when we become the church.
This brings me to today’s final point. An Abundant life. We are free to live the abundant life as individuals yet also in and for God. As today’s psalm says in v.11, ‘… we went through fire and water, but you brought us out into a place of Liberty.’
And today’s Gospel, through this process of being made individually holy, we get to see Jesus, Jesus says in vv.19-21, “In a little while the world will no longer see me.” Which is why, to the unbelieving world, God is an unknown God.
He then writes these startling words, “but you will see me, because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in the father, and you in me, and I in you … those who love me will be loved by my father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”
This is the life of abundance; the very person who invented the whole idea of human life – gives us that life because we live in the Word that created it. We are free not to worry about our life – because we dwell in life itself. The life that can’t perish but lives for ever and ever. Not as some form of reward, but it is the very nature of our existence not to die, for we are in Christ who defeated death on the cross.
So the Church is Christ; living for the other, and by so doing, leading ourselves a life of absolute fulness, powered by the great love God has for us. A love that doesn’t seek to condemn us for every little thing, but forgives us, and has great plans for each and every one of us. All of us are born for a purpose and are given gifts to equip us to live that life, to the glory of our dear Father. Let me pray …