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And welcome to the ministry of
First Reformed Church of Aberdeen, South Dakota. Our worship services
are at 9 o'clock every Sunday morning. Now we join Pastor Hank
Bone as he brings us God's Word. Let's turn our Bibles to the
book of 1 Peter. We're going to be starting a
look at chapter 4, looking at verses 1 and 2, but I'm going
to back up and we'll start in chapter 3, verse 18, and then
read through the first six verses of chapter 4. In this section, Peter has been
encouraging us in terms of recognizing who we are, what our identity
is in Jesus Christ, and he's been pointing now to examples
of how we can make ourselves presentable in
terms of that identity that we hold as Christians. And so he
says in verse 18, for Christ also suffered once for sins,
the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being
put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit, by
whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who
formerly were disobedient when once the divine longsuffering
waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in
which a few, that is eight souls, were saved through water. There
is also an antitype which now saves us, baptism, not the removal
of filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward
God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone
into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities
and powers having been made subject to him. Therefore, since Christ
suffered for us in the flesh, Arm yourselves also with the
same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from
sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his life, the
rest of his time, in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for
the will of God. For we have spent enough of our
past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles, when we walked
in lewdness, lust, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties,
and abominable idolatries. In regard to these, they think
it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of
dissipation, speaking evil of you. They will give an account
to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For
this reason, the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that
they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live
according to God in the Spirit. And of course, our text for this
morning will be the first two verses of chapter four. Father,
as we have heard your word read, we pray that you may now grant
unto us through the working of your Holy Spirit the true sense
of this word, that it may encourage us in that calling that we have
to walk worthy of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we do pray.
Amen. Beloved congregation of our Lord
Jesus Christ, in the world we are surrounded by many voices,
many people speaking of their truth and of your truth, as though
truth is only relative to the individual. The world is splintered
into special interest groups with diversity in what many see
as competing interests. How do you explain all these
divisions? Well, the answer is simple. Sin. And specifically, the sin of
man's ignorance that they can be like God without honoring
God. The division into special interest
groups first began at the Tower of Babel. where the world was
united in their singular goal to overthrow the supremacy of
God in one united front. And so God confused their language
and scattered them based on differences in languages. You can read that
in Genesis chapter 10 and 11. From this, a principle is established
that groups are divided based on not being able to understand
each other or, to say it another way, they are united based on
speaking the same way. The principle is advanced in
not just speaking the same language, but in thinking the same way.
And that is true in the church. You know, it's bewildering why
there are so many different churches or denominations when Christians
are all supposed to have faith based on the same Bible. We are
to be united in Christ according to the Word of God. But it is
not enough to say, I believe the Bible in our day. One must
ask, but what do you believe the Bible teaches? The goal of
Every Christian is this. It's found in Paul's words in
Ephesians chapter 4, verses 4 and 5, where we read, there is one
body and one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of
your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father
of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. But
how do we get there as the church of our Lord Jesus Christ? Is
it to be of the same mind? And that is the subject of today's
sermon. We are to be of the same mind. And that seems so difficult. It's difficult even with our
own congregation, isn't it? But that's the nature of the
beast. It's called progressive sanctification. We grow in our
faith, and not all of us are at the same point. As we look
through this room, we have infants to older people, and we're all
at different points. We've all had this path of life
at different times, and we're growing in it, and we're moving
forward. As a member of the church, you
are called a Christian. which means a Christ-like one.
When you are united to Christ through the regenerating work
of the Holy Spirit, applying all of the benefits of Christ's
death on the cross to you, you become a partaker of His suffering,
death, and resurrection. Another way of summing that up
is that your life becomes bound up in the pursuit of being holy
as God is holy. And to that end, Peter exhorts
or encourages you to follow the example of Christ in pursuing
that holy life. So in 1 Peter chapter 4, verses
1 and 2, you will be challenged to see that in terms of the transformation
of how you think through the theme of this message, the Christian
calling is to equip oneself with the mind of Christ in doing the
will of God. That's a challenge before us,
that we are to put on the mind of Christ. in the pursuit of
the will of God. We're going to see this in three
points. First, we are to put on the mind of Christ. Second,
we are to pursue the will of God. And then third, you are
to promote a holy life, the holy life within you. So put on, pursue,
promote. So first, putting on the mind
of Christ. We open up the chapter with these
words. Therefore, since Christ suffered
for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind." The
center of this text is bound up in the command that you are
to arm yourselves. This isn't a suggestion. This
isn't maybe some whimsical kind of thing to think about. This
is a command from our God. You are to arm yourselves. I
don't think that's a second amendment right. I think that's an eternal
spiritual calling. He's not talking about guns.
He's talking about arming yourself with something far superior,
the mind of Christ. The word itself is a very fascinating
word. is a command that drives Peter's
teaching in the first six verses of this chapter, but I want you
to focus on the central idea of what you are to arm yourself
with. I'm gonna limit myself somewhat
this morning. The first thing that you should
note is that this is a command, not to individuals, but to the
people of God collectively. This is an aspect of our commission
or calling. You know, a good hymn at this
point would be, we're in the Lord's army. We're all to arm
ourselves and we're to view ourselves that way, right? And so he calls
upon us collectively and the force of the word is focused
on the process of gaining common understanding that aligns with
how our Lord Jesus thought. What was front and center in
the mind of our Lord and how he viewed the world and his role
in the world? And we'll answer that in the
second point. But for Jesus, it was always
tied to doing the will of God as his priority. Now, following
a little bit on the military metaphor of arming yourself,
I grew up in San Diego in the 60s. If any of you have been
in the service, you know what San Diego is famous for. Marine
training. That's where they train the Marines.
And you know what they do with the young 18-year-old out of
high school that decides he's going to take the world on and
be a Marine? They bring him in there, and
they tear him down to the point where I've seen young men come
back after training, after boot camp, and they look like zombies.
because they have to purge them of all the crazy, silly ideas
to then be able to bring them back into thinking as a single
mindset unit, military unit to fight together. It's a reprogramming that goes
on. And what we wanna see here is
that in some ways, There were great benefits to that, but there
were also great consequences to that. Those of you who have
served in the military know what I'm talking about. But in the
Lord's situation, he gives to us a new mind. He gives to us
the mind of Christ. And so Peter is advancing. his
thought here from chapter 3, verse 18, which states, for Christ
who suffered once for our sins, the just for the unjust, that
he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but
made alive in the spirit. In that passage, the thought
evolved around Jesus' death on the cross and leaving this world
to ascend into heaven. But he comes now into this chapter,
and he's advancing that thought. And he makes an application of
that truth of Jesus' suffering to advance the thought of reformation
of our whole person in this life, whereby we are equipped through
the working of the Holy Spirit to throw off the flesh of our
old nature and be conformed to the image of our Lord Jesus Christ. So as in the military, you purge
the civilian mindset, and you put on the military mindset.
So in the church, you are to put off the old nature, and you
are to put on the spiritual nature. And you become a different person.
You're not an individual. So we must pursue the question. How did Jesus think? If we're
to put on the mind of Christ, how did Jesus think? And the
answer to that question is that Jesus was the ultimate spiritual
man who was not infected by the sins of the flesh. Jesus, at
all points, was holy as God is holy. And this is obvious if
one has a grasp of the person of Christ as one who is not only
a true and righteous man, but also more powerful than us all. He was true God. One of the great
mysteries of the faith is that our Savior Jesus was not only
like us in every respect except for sin, but he was also true
God, equal with the Father in every way. Paul said that we
are predestined to be conformed to the image likeness of Jesus
Christ in Romans 8. But how are we to understand
that? It's a great mystery. But we believe it because God
says it. How can I then equip myself or
arm myself to think as the one who is the true God? And yet
in 1 Corinthians 2.16, Paul stated, for who has known the mind of
the Lord that he may instruct him? That's a rhetorical question,
right? Meaning the answer is obvious.
No one, none of us can instruct God. God is all-knowing, infinite
in his wisdom, power, and being. How may we instruct him? But
then Paul says this odd thing. He says, but we have the mind
of Christ. We have the mind of Christ. We
can understand the things of God. Two things must be understood
here. The first is that you do not
come to be of the same mind as that of Christ through your own
efforts alone. It's not something you can study
yourself into. This is an aspect of the Holy Spirit's work of
regeneration in us. We are given the mind of Christ
in the same sense of Romans 12, 2, where Paul calls upon you
to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The second aspect
is that you are responsible, engaged in this process of renewal. This cooperation, I think, is
expounded by Paul in a way of explanation in Philippians chapter
2. where he says in verses 12 and 13, therefore, my beloved,
as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now
much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling. For it is God who works in you,
both to will and to do for his good pleasure. It is never one
or the other, it's always both. God works in us, but we are doing
the work. I heard somebody once explain
it this way, that you work out your salvation as though it's
completely and entirely up to you, knowing that you're completely
and wholly dependent upon God to do the work. This putting on of the mind of
Christ is shaped by developing godly thought through patterns,
and what you think And what your priorities are will dictate what
you pursue in this life. We note, secondly, the pursuing
of the will of God. Because Peter goes on in verse
2 and he says that he no longer should live the rest of his time
in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. When we put on the mind of Christ,
we embrace even as Christ, in that sense, put away the flesh
and pursued the will of God. So the context of Peter's teaching
in this letter is caught up in the suffering that takes place
in this world. When Peter addressed the hearers of this letter as
pilgrims and sojourners, there was a kind of double reference
envisioned. The physical and the spiritual
realities of Peter's use of this identity must be borne in mind. We have to bear them in our minds.
In a physical sense, he writes to Jewish Christians who had
been driven from Jerusalem into foreign lands, and they were
physically now living among Gentiles as foreigners with whom they
had little in common and often found themselves suffering for
their faith. The spiritual sense, however,
is that your home as a Christian is a heavenly one. You are not
of this world, Jesus said in John 17, even though you are
in the world. You are the light of the world,
even though the whole world lies in darkness. We need to understand
that we are qualitatively different, even though it often doesn't
appear that way. The world sees death as an enemy that brings
life to an end and is an occasion of anguish and terror. Though
they seek to deny any final judgment, it looms over them so that the
ungodly approach death with dread. For the Christian, however, Death
is an entering into eternal life and an escape from the flesh
to realize the fullness of the spiritual life we have in Christ.
These bodies are not permanent, they're temporary vessels. It
is through persevering the suffering and sacrifice of this life and
doing the will of God that the Christian moves forward unto
eternal glory. in many ways. The spiritual,
when we start out, seems much harder, and the physical much
easier when we're younger. But as we get older, the physical
seems much harder, and the spiritual seems to become easier. We more
rely upon God. We more sense the presence of
God. Meanwhile, we struggle with our
bodies because our bodies are not meant to be permanent. We'll
be given new bodies, even as Christ himself was given a new
body. It's an amazing thing and we
have a challenge always before us to sort out how we understand
these things and we understand them in a sense in part now. Many times it becomes more a
matter of faith that we believe these things because God has
said these things, but we rest in them. The pursuit of the will of God.
was Jesus' life and ministry. And it sets before you the example
of living in Christian hope contrasted to being caught up in the lust
of the flesh. You know, the life of Jesus is
an interesting thing to think about. We're coming up following
Thanksgiving. I mean, I don't know where you're
at in your home. We always have this struggle
in our home where Patty says, well, it's the beginning of November.
Can you start bringing the Christmas decorations out? But she resists
putting any up until after Thanksgiving, unless somebody plays particular
Christmas music. And so there's always that struggle
right now, right? There's always that struggle
right now. We start thinking about Christmas.
But one of the points that I always make in terms of our reflections
upon the birth of our Savior is that Jesus, when he was born,
came into this world with the conscious path that he came here
to die. We think we're born to live.
Jesus came to die. so that in His dying, we might
live." An interesting thought. And as
we think about this, putting on the mind of Christ, who suffers
for us, even suffering the death of the cross, He sets before
us a pattern that He does that, He might bring us to God. So
that Jesus knows he came to die, not so that he would stay there
and remain there, but so that in his death, as we are joined
to him in his death, he then brings us to God in heaven. And we become partakers of that.
So that our death is being adjoined unto God. By the lust of the
flesh. has meant those things in the
world that appeal to our carnal nature. They take us in a direction
away from a greater understanding of God. The pursuit of the will
of God is contrasted with the lusts of men. Think about what
Paul says in Philippians chapter 3, verses 7 through 11. Philippians 3, 7 through 11.
He says, but what things were gained to me These things I counted
loss for Christ, yet I also count all things loss. All the things,
all the material fleshly things that appeal to my body, these
things I count as loss because what I really want, what really
is important to me, is I count those things at loss for the
excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. That's
what now has become important. Of all the possessions I can
gain in this world, the possession that I want most of all is something
that's not of this world. And then he skips down to verse
10, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection,
and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death,
if by any means I may obtain to the resurrection from the
dead. The world, the things around
him, the things that we labor for, the things that are necessary
to life, it doesn't mean he doesn't pursue them. Doesn't mean he
doesn't work, doesn't labor, doesn't seek to buy food and
have housing. You know, he did all those things,
because we have to, to sustain our lives. But he says, they
weren't important to me. What was truly important to me
was the pursuit of the spiritual knowledge of Christ to the end
that I would receive the resurrection from the dead. He lived for an
otherworldly goal. Peter's lesson for us is this,
to put on the mind of Christ begins and ends with a desire
to pursue the will of God in your life by rejecting the sinful
desires of the flesh and the world so that you might gain
heaven by living on a heavenly path in this life. Jesus is the
illuminating light for us to doing the will of God. When at
every turn, He explained that He came to do the Father's will
and not His own. Do you want to know what the
mind of Christ is? I did not come to do my own will,
but to do the Father's will. And as Christians, our goal should
always be not to do my will, but to do my Father's will in
heaven, to pursue the glory of God and to exalt the name of
Jesus Christ by the things that I do, by the way I speak, by
the decisions I make. The path he was called to was
one of suffering, even to the death of the cross, that he might
bring us to God. His life was one for the good
of others and not himself. But by pursuing the doing of
the will of God, he also gained what? The glory of heaven. For our Lord, to be in the flesh,
was a form of suffering in and of itself. because he had left
the glory that he had in heaven. He knows what he left behind
when he came into this world and took upon himself our human
nature and took upon himself a fleshly body. And so that's
why we confess that he suffered from the time he was born to
the time he died. There was a sense of his suffering,
his setting aside the glory he had with the Father to put upon
himself the frailty of human nature. The flesh or body that
has been corrupted by sin grows old and has problems, right? We all know that, don't we? We're
all struggling. Many of us here in this congregation
are struggling with things. It's part of the physical aspects
of who we are. The flesh is weak. and is not fitted for living
eternally to the glory of God. But Jesus' death released him
from the flesh." That's what Peter's saying. Jesus' death
released him from the flesh, and he entered into the eternal
residing in heaven. In this life, we are to pursue
the things of the life to come by seeking to be the light of
Christ to others so that we might be used to bring others to God,
even as Christ came to bring us to God. And so we know thirdly,
we are to be promoting the holy life. In verse two, where he
says that he no longer should live the rest of his time in
the flesh for the lust of men, but for the will of God, we see
their emphasis there, the emphasis there is on pursuit of a godly
life, promoting a godly life. The promoting of the holy life
or of living the pursuit of godliness in your life is the fruit of
the Spirit giving you a new heart that desires that which is spiritual,
a longing for it. When we are young, we tend to
focus on our physical bodies. But the time comes when all the
effort that you can muster cannot stop the process of growing old.
You know, it's interesting, when we're kids, we can't wait to
grow up. And when we grow up, we wish
we were kids again, right? How can I stay young? The body ages and is but a shell
that contains the true essence of who you are. And it is that
essence that we call the soul of man, and that is the real
you. At that point where the body
becomes more of an instrument by which you exist and your spiritual
essence becomes your focus, then your priorities move from feeding
the soul, move to feeding the soul rather than the body. The
process of arming yourself with the mind of Christ is one of
pursuing the truth of God through His Word, the promotion of faith
in Christ through divine fellowship. It is the recognition that time
in church is more important than time in the gym. Time in fellowshipping
with God through reading the Bible and prayer is more beneficial
than hanging out with your friends. Often there is a sense that one
is not able to understand the deep truth of the Word of God.
I know many of you feel that way. Oh, I just, I can't understand
it, Pastor. I'm afraid that I might say the
wrong thing. You know, I'm not sure I understand
completely. We all have that sort of insecurity. I'm just one who's too dull to
grasp the Bible. To which I say, shame on you
for thinking that. God's given you the Holy Spirit. You've been
given the mind of Christ. Don't underestimate that. What
Peter indicates in this passage is that you are really and effectually
supplied with the spiritual weapons to subdue the flesh, to overcome
that, to gain that knowledge of Christ. You know, Jesus opened
the Sermon on the Mount, which you find in Matthew chapter 5,
with the Beatitudes. Take some time today, or some
time this week, and turn to the Beatitudes, and ask yourself
what kind of people Jesus has in mind as he's teaching. Notice too, just think about
this, who did Jesus gather to himself to be his disciples?
Were they the university grads? the East Coast Ivy Leaguers? No, he went and got the, put
it in my language, beer truck drivers, carpenters, even hockey
players. He gathered to himself normal
people, not elitist. And as you go through Matthew
chapter five, and you ask yourself the question what kind of people
Jesus has before him in his teaching, Consider especially verse six,
which says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be filled. Does God ever say something that
isn't true? If you hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for knowing God, for knowing Christ, if you pursue
that in that sense of just hungering and thirsting, He promises you
you will be filled. Not all of us in the same way,
but you will be filled. You will gain that knowledge.
You will sense that intimacy with God. And when you consider
that, when you ask that question, then pray to the Lord and ask
if you have that kind of hunger and thirst that Jesus wants you
to have. And if not, then ask Him to give
it to you, to give you that desire. At the heart of this teaching
is the idea that we are all as the people of God to have the
same common faith that is consistent with the mind of Christ. We are
to move from trusting our own opinions to thinking God's thoughts
after God. In thinking about this, my mind,
it sort of drifted to the Christian's comfort in life and in death.
It's been a lot on my mind this week for obvious reasons. It
is that we do not belong to ourselves, but to our faithful Savior Jesus
Christ, who with His precious blood is satisfied for all our
sin and has redeemed us from all the power of the devil. Brothers
and sisters, we all share this common hope and comfort in Christ. This is the mind of Christ in
us. This is our common faith that
being in Christ, we are no longer under condemnation and equipped
to be the followers of the Most High God. That's an amazing thing
to think about that. That's who we are. That's our
identity. And that should fill us with
joy. That should bring a smile to our face. In some churches,
it would even bring a few amens from the audience. Well, the week ahead is one of
National Thanksgiving, but for the church, we are a people who
live out a daily Thanksgiving by offering our bodies as a living
sacrifice for the salvation we have obtained through our Savior,
Jesus Christ. Because we have this promise
from God in Scripture, for whoever calls on the name of the Lord
shall be saved. Amen?
Putting on the Mind of Christ
Series 1Peter, Aberdeen
The Christian calling is to equip oneself with the mind of Christ in doing the will of God.
- Putting on the Mind of Christ
- Pursuing the Will of God
- Promoting the Holy Life
| Sermon ID | 112424190514753 |
| Duration | 35:20 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | 1 Peter 4:1-2 |
| Language | English |
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