Q&A: I Peter 1

[00:00:00] Introduction

Jason Harper: Hey everyone. Thank you for listening in to our first Q and A podcast for the sermon series here at Berean Bible Church. I’ve got pastor Jed with us.

Jed Gillis: I’m Jed Gillis. And I’m the teaching pastor at Berean Bible Church in Knoxville. And I’m looking forward to talking more about first Peter chapter one.

Jason Harper: And I’m Jason Harper. I am the digital content manager here just in charge of social media and all that for the church. We are excited to start doing a Q and a podcast on the series. We’re currently going through first Peter one. Jed , what exactly are your goals with this Q and A podcast?

[00:00:37] Purpose of the Podcast

Jed Gillis: Well, I think when you go through a sermon series, one of the big challenges is that you, you can’t say everything that’s in any one section of scripture.

And so there’s times when you’re working through a passage and you need to expand and maybe talk about an implication of the passage or an application into a specific situation. And in, in a sermon, you can’t say all of those things. So this is an opportunity to expand to some of those other things or to clarify. Sometimes, I’ll say something and someone comes and asks a question and I realized, I wasn’t very clear on the point I was trying to make.

So this gives an opportunity to follow up and clarify, and really to invite listeners into more of a conversation with God’s word. Sometimes we just come and sit on Sunday morning and hear as if that’s the end goal, but it’s really not. It’s to hear what God has breathed out and to sit before him and see how that applies into our lives.

And as we engage with it and think more about questions and wrestle with applications, that’s really the way that we want to engage with the text. And these answers may well raise other questions that would come up and just continue that conversation so that God’s word shapes us as he’s promised it will.

Jason Harper: Now we’ve got a number of questions for first Peter one. The questions came, it kind of concentrated on four key areas. The first one was around holiness.

[00:02:02] What does it look like to be holy?

Jason Harper: In first Peter one 15. It says. But as he who called you as 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. What does it look like to be holy as God is holy?

Jed Gillis: It’s challenging because of that second part, I think. “As God is holy.” That’s, what, what makes it really challenging for us to think well, what is our actual goal in this process? And the word holy has a really wide range of meanings in scripture. It talks about the holy spirit or the holiness of God or a holy priesthood, a holy nation, a holy commandment. There’s just all these things where holy is used to, to refer to a lot of different ideas.

And on one level, when you say God is holy. You’re really just saying, God is God. He’s unique. He’s separate from everything else. He’s infinitely valuable. And obviously we aren’t going to be unique and infinitely valuable in the same way. So I think we often hear two mistakes about holiness. We either define holiness by what we don’t do. We don’t do the bad things and so that’s what holiness is.

Or we define holiness on the positive side by I did these good things, so I must be holy. And to the first issue scripture says to be holy. It doesn’t say don’t be unholy. It doesn’t say it in the negative direction here. It doesn’t say don’t do these things and that’s what being holy is.

It says be holy as a positive direction. And if we tried to define holiness by a list of actions, you say here’s all the things I’m supposed to do. Well in your mind, if you think if I did all of those actions with the wrong heart attitude, would that be holy? And we’d all say no. It’s not holiness. If it’s only external in, for example, if you tried to follow the 10 commandments as well, that’s my standard of holiness. Well, but we’re told later that to summarize the law, it’s love God with all your heart, soul, and mind and love your neighbor as yourself.

So if you follow the 10 commandments without really loving, it’s not really holiness. So I think the simplest way to get at the gist of holiness is to say, holiness is the heart attitude that loves what God loves and hates what God hates. And it can include all the actions that flow from that attitude. So when you go, for example, JC Ryle and his book on holiness, he said something similar.

He said, holiness is the habit of being of one mind with God. According as we find his mind described in scripture, it is the habit of agreeing in God’s judgment, hating what he hates, loving what he loves. And measuring everything in this world by the standard of his word. So for me, I think. To just boil that quote down that definition down to hating what God hates and loving what he loves.

And I think in this text, we can see Peter is thinking a similar direction. When he talks in verse 13 and 14, he says, therefore preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded set your, hopefully on the grace that we 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. So the pattern right before this is you have something going on in your mind. Prepare your minds for action. That’s supposed to lead to an emotional response, set your hope fully on God’s grace. Which leads to obedience. And then he works at the other direction. He says, well, as obedient children, don’t be conformed to passions of your ignorance.

So emotions and mind, and instead, what are you supposed to do? Well, holiness is instead of being conformed to the wrong passions. You’re supposed to be conformed to the right passion. So I think Peter is tracking the same idea to say, holiness is about your passions, loving what God loves and hating what God hates.

[00:06:11] Should fear be a factor in our pursuit of holiness?

Jason Harper: When I think through how I grew up and my motivations for pursuing holiness, I don’t know if I was taught this or if this is just my own interpretation, but I always came at it as. a pursuit of loving God. But one thing that stood out to me here was Peter talks in verse 17 about conducting yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile. How much should fear be a factor in our pursuit of holiness?

Jed Gillis: That’s a great question, especially since that is the next thing Peter says in the text.

And in this context, I think that fear is not fear of being crushed by God, but fear that God has shown this great love towards me, and I, I might treat it as something that wasn’t important or good. So to treat Christ’s blood as if it’s worthless. That’s the thing he’s saying to fear specifically, but I also think if I really love the right things, and I really hate the things I should hate, that there is an element of it at least feels like fear. It could be described as fear when you really hate something. In one sense, if you really hate a certain kind of food, you’re not afraid the food’s going to come kill you. But there’s a sense in which you react like, oh, I don’t want that going in my mouth.

I really hate spoiled milk. If I take taste milk, that’s even a little bit spoiled. My wife laughs at me because I smell milk as I opened the new container to see if it’s still good. But there’s a sense in which it may seem like an irrational fear, but it’s kind of a fear response because I hate spoiled milk. And so I think that to say, Any kind of. Hatred of what you ought to hate. That then leads you to say. I don’t want to go there because of fear. If fear really drives me to holiness. I would say that’s not a bad thing. The problem is most of the time, what we think of as. Pursuing holiness because of fear, isn’t really driving me to holiness.

It’s just driving me to keep an external list. So if some element that feels like fear makes me love what God loves and hate what God hates. I don’t think that’s a bad motive at all. If fear. If I say, I want to be holy and I have fear. And that drives me to run away from God, to look somewhere else or to not trust him as a good and loving father.

Now, fear is not really driving me to holiness at all. So I think as long as we define holiness the right way, fear can be a motive towards holiness. But if we define it the wrong way as saying, for example, I don’t do these things. So therefore I’m holy well, fear doesn’t really drive me to that unless it’s fear of punishment from God, which we know shouldn’t motivate us because he says Christ took that punishment.

Ultimately. So I think as long as it’s fear driving towards real holiness, loving what God loves, hating what God hates. God may use that as part of the motive, but it’s not fear that God is an ogre who wants to crush me that wouldn’t be loving what God loves and hating what God hates. It’s the kind of fear that says. I hate drinking spoiled milk.

So I’m going to make sure this isn’t spoiled and I want to avoid that, or I hate sin. I hate lying. So there’s part of me that then, because I really hate it. I think I don’t want to do that. I’m almost afraid. It’s really a sense of fear to say. I fear line because it causes all these problems because this is all the stuff that happens. And it breaks my relationships and it dishonors God. So I think that you’re right to say there’s a fear that is the wrong kind of fear. But there’s a fear that drives me to God, because I really hate the things that he hates. And I really love the blood of Christ that he loves. So as long as it drives me to that holiness, I don’t think fear is a problem.

Jason Harper: Yeah, it’s interesting trying to think of fear as a motivational tool. And if it’s, like you said, if it’s pointing at the right thing and driving away from the right thing, but you also have that love on the other side. The love of God pulling you towards God. That it can be an effective tool.

Jed Gillis: As long as it’s spear and there, where you have fear pulling you towards, like you said, fear pulling you towards love.

That’s the part that I think is hard for us to get, but if I really love God, Then there’s a sense of fear of anything that would turn my gaze away from him and would love anything else. Just like, I, I love my wife and because I love her. There’s a sense of fear of anything that would harm that relationship.

It’s not because I’m afraid she will hurt me. It’s because I love this so much. I’m afraid of anything that gets in the way and breaks that. And so I think sometimes we run away from the word fear a little too much, as long as fear drives me to God in love. And helps me hate the things I should hate.

It’s not bad. It’s when I’m afraid of the eternal punishment that I think is going to come on me. And that’s really unbelief that it came on Christ instead. So as long as fear drives us the right place, I think it can be a good thing.

Jason Harper: Now, you’ve already mentioned that the pursuit of holiness is not just checking off a list or checking out the 10 commandments. But Peter talks a little bit more about obedience.

[00:11:45] Do we have a part in purifying our souls?

Jason Harper: Um, in verse 22 and 23, I’ll read both. Uh, 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’ve been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God. Um, there in verse. 22, he talks about.

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth. Do we have a part in purifying our souls or. Is that entirely on God’s part.

Jed Gillis: Sure. And I think the first thing to say is that God’s power is what is ultimately necessary to purify our souls. So, however you answered this question, scripturally, whatever role you say, humans play.

You have to say that the power to actually purify souls. Only belongs to God. You might say, well, what role do we play and how do we work towards purifying? But the ultimate power to do it has to be in God. And there’s a long history around this idea. It’s interesting. Really before the reformation, there were many within the Catholic church who advocated this idea.

It was. I don’t know if it was called this before the reformation. I know it was afterwards where it’s called preparation ism. And the idea was that an unbeliever can and must do certain things. To prepare their hearts and souls before God’s saving. Grace came to them. Sometimes that meant. Come to the church. Here these truths do these good works.

And it was, you have to come do that and then God may save you through faith. The Puritans also some Puritans, I shouldn’t lump them all together. They’re certainly not all the same, but some of them taught that. The first grade awakening, second grade awakening had some similar trends there where it was read the Bible.

Pray. Come to this service here, this thing, you have to do those things and then God’s saving grace. So it was really, the idea was put aside this sin, purify your souls through some actions. And what came across sometimes was now you’ve got to purify your soul so that God’s saving. Grace can come to you. And as you, as you work through that, again, the question is what we do play a part.

Clearly this text says there’s a sense in which we play a part in purifying our souls, but what is that part? And I think it’s important to keep the phrase. You purified your souls by your obedience to the truth. So to keep to the truth with obedience, I think is important. If you just say you purified your souls by your obedience, then it’s really hard to not insert human work and merit.

I’ve earned this by my obedience, have this purity. Once you say something else. And I think we know Peter is saying this because one, he says having purified your soul. So this is something that’s already happened. He’s not saying. Keep on purifying your souls. Now, are you saying this is something that has happened and he continues to warn them against sin later in the book.

So he’s clearly not thinking you’ve perfected yourself because I’ve still got things to tell you about how you need to live. That are different. So by the time we get back to that, it seems to me that this phrase obedience to the truth at its root is, is belief. When the truth comes, how do you obey truth? It’s not a command that you obey by just doing it. You say truth comes to you and now how do you obey truth?

Well, first you believe it. And second, you live in a way that shows you believe it. So he’s emphasizing the fact that true belief results in actions by calling it obedience to the truth. But he’s not saying you do these actions and your belief doesn’t matter. So really, I think he’s pointing back to faith again. How I look at these texts over and over is I want to see the context, where else does Peter talk about something like this?

And if you go back up to verse eight and nine, He says, no, you have not seen Jesus. You love him that you do not now. See him. You believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. So in that verse, you have love for Jesus, faith in Jesus and joy in Jesus. Verse nine, as you do those things, you are obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls, which is the other place.

And he mentioned souls one time in chapter two, but this is the first place. So when he comes down and says, having purified your souls, I think you’re supposed to go back to. Verse nine, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls and say, well, how did I do that? Well, by love for Jesus belief in Jesus and joy in Jesus, which really just faith and it’s outworking of love and joy. So I think when he gets down here and says, having purified your souls, he’s saying. You have placed faith in Christ. Because of that. Faith, your souls have been purified, different sections of scripture would say. You are a new creation. Or you’ve been given a new heart. There’s a purification that has happened because of faith here. And then he does say obedience to the truth.

So I don’t want to not include actions. He is saying that is going to result in actions. But the purification is based on love, faith, joy in Christ. True faith in Christ. And based on the next verse, which says that you have been born again. Not a perishable seed, but of imperishable. So because of the new birth that he’s already praised God for earlier in the chapter, and because of your response in faith, Then your soul, there’s been a transformation in your soul.

It’s been purified. And so that way we get to this point and going back to the original question, then do we have a part in purifying our souls? Yes, the power is ultimately in God who gives us new birth. And faith, which we’ll talk about in a minute. But we have a part to play. That part is not, I did good works that earned the purification of my souls. But God transformed me.

And my response in faith is. Part of working out that purification that he has worked in me already.

[00:18:00] What are we called to obey?

Jason Harper: You’ve touched on this a little bit. I was hoping you could expand a little bit more on. If we’re called to obedience. Obedience to what exactly, because when I think of obey, I think of the law. But the laws been fulfilled in Christ in Acts, they wrestled with the Gentiles are they supposed obey the law? And the ultimate conclusion was not really.

Jed Gillis: Sure.

Jason Harper: What are we exactly called to obey?

Jed Gillis: Yeah, it’s interesting because we could point to the summaries, which are, you know, love God with your heart, soul, mind, strength, love your neighbor as yourself. Which. When we say, well, , we’re no longer under the law. We don’t mean that the, the instruction to love your neighbor is not a good one. Of course it is. If we mean you’re not earning salvation through it. We mean, it’s been perfectly kept by Christ on your behalf. We mean certain things around it.

We don’t mean that that’s useless. So I don’t think it’s wrong for us to look and we have, we’d have to wrestle a whole longer conversation about, well, what pieces of the old Testament law are things we’re supposed to be following as new Testament believers and. What aren’t none of them are to earn salvation. But how we wrestled through that is kind of a separate question. But I think it is important to say. If we are transformed by faith, we are transformed for a purpose.

And part of that is to walk in and Hebrew or Ephesians two says. By grace we’ve been saved through faith. That’s not of ourselves as the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. So he’s very clear, like this is not about obeying to earn anything. But then he talks about the good works that God has prepared for his people.

So we’re obeying, that’s working out the good works. God has prepared for the people who have been saved and keeping that in the right order in our minds is, is difficult. So I think we can look at the summaries. We can look at scripture and carefully. We can look at old Testament questions and say, Nobody sits here and thinks we’re not supposed to obey the command to not murder. And it’s restated in the new Testament.

So you can go through those questions and. There are commands in scripture that we are supposed to obey. I think the point to keep the Galatians thread here, the point is that none of those commands earn me salvation. That is how I’m supposed to live. That’s part of loving what God loves and hating what he hates.

If I really love what he loves and hate what he hates, I’m not going to be running off saying I want to murder somebody. Because it is obedience, but it’s not obedience to earn anything. And here, like I said, since it does point to the truth. We don’t talk in these terms, but if I were to say, I need to obey the gospel.

It’s almost like those words don’t go together for us because there’s no command.

Like what do I obey? But I think that’s because we have a pretty small view of what obey means. Like obey means don’t murder. I didn’t good. I’m obeyed. And instead to say. Now the gospel has come to me, which says Jesus did this on my behalf. Obedience to that first looks like trust in it. I stopped trusting myself.

I trust in what Jesus has done alone. That’s going to naturally lead to love. And joy in him. That’s verse eight. And as it leads to those things, there’s also other actions. For example, in, in the gospels. Because we’ve been forgiven so much, we’re supposed to forgive. So do I forgive because I’ve been given a command that I must obey. Not exactly. Although it’s kind of true. But really, I believe the truth of what Jesus has done for me and the immense debt.

I’ve been forgiven now in obedience to that truth. Not so much to the command, but in obedience to that truth, because I believe it in rejoice in it I’d forgive. And that really is obedience, but it’s not obedience because just here’s a command it’s obedience to the truth, ultimately, because it’s rooted in. This belief and faith. I think that that helps us.

There’s still, there’s so much there. We could wrestle through. Sure. And one of the things you have to do as you go through scripture is wrestle with. How do I obey this section? How do I obey this section? To go to the old Testament and say, here’s some questions that we don’t. Think we’re supposed to follow these things.

Why not? And it’s not enough to just say, because I don’t want to. We have to wrestle through how is it that we’re really obedient to the truth in this. To give maybe an easy example. If you, if you go and. Pursue animal sacrifice now. Well, that was commanded in the old Testament. But I don’t think it’s obedience to the truth of the gospel. To go and have an animal sacrifice for my sins now, because the truth of the gospel says, Jesus is the ultimate and only sufficient sacrifice. So if I were to take that command. And say, I’m going to obey the old Testament command to offer an animal sacrifice.

I would actually be not believing the truth of the gospel. So in a weird kind of roundabout way, obedience to that command now would actually be disobedience to the truth of the gospel. And I think if we, if we can get those categories in our mind to say, I am supposed to obey the fact that the law is no longer. The way we pursue our relationship with God. Doesn’t mean there aren’t commands.

I should obey. It just changes all of the foundation for it.

Jason Harper: That’s a really clarifying example. I like that. Cause your call to obey the truth. The higher principle. So does individual laws change because our context is different. We’re past Christ. We’re past like you said, past the ultimate sacrifice.

Jed Gillis: Yeah.

[00:23:48] How is the Word living and abiding?

Jason Harper: Changing gears a little bit. Here at verse 23. It says since you’ve been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God. How is the word living and abiding and what does that look like in our lives?

Jed Gillis: It’s a great phrase that it’s living and abiding.

And if you think about the transformation that comes about in our lives, one of the only reasons I trust that, that I can grow spiritually, is that the power for that is not found in me. And it’s fascinating because here and other places, scripture, doesn’t only say the power to that comes through God, although it ultimately comes through God, but he points it to his word. And so specifically to say the energy and power for God’s working in my life is found in his word.

That’s what it means. It’s not dead. It’s living. It’s abiding, it lasts. And I think since it’s powerfully able to act not because it’s words on a page, obviously ink on a page, doesn’t change my life in itself. But. Timothy says that all scripture is breathed out by God. And it’s inspired by him since he has said these things, an infinite God spoke this way.

And you think about all the things in scripture God did with his word. He said, let there be light. And there was light. I mean, that kind of power. He breathed out these words and said, they’re going to be able to act to accomplish what. What it’s supposed to accomplish. If God’s word we’re not living, if it were dead. It would be the opposite.

Then we would come to it and we would make whatever we want to out of it. Like, we’d sit here and I kind of think it means this and this is what it means to me. And, and we, we could just piece together our own meaning. We do that all the time out of things that, you know, Shakespeare wrote and you might say, oh, I kind of like to think that he was communicating about this or some other thing. But here, we’re saying, no, this is living, which means God has a purpose for it.

And he promises to act. Through it, it has potential energy to accomplish something. And so, you know, you asked, what does it look like in our lives? I think that. The same power that worked to save me. Also continues to work in my life. Through God’s word, and I need the truth of the gospel. And he specifically says at the end of the chapter, This word is the good news that was preached to you. So in good news, there is just the word we get gospel from.

So he’s saying you need the truth of the gospel. For example, when we kind of already touched on it a little bit with obedience to the truth. But to say. I need the truth that I’ve been forgiven. Not on my own merits, but on Jesus. I need that every single day. And as I think on that truth, and as that truth works into my life, It produces results in me. It changes the way I forgive others, it changes the way I view myself.

It changes all kinds of things. And I need the truth of the gospel in my life. Not just when I first become a believer in Jesus, I need that truth over and over and over again. So it’s living in that. It has the ability to work in us and it’s a biding in that. It doesn’t only work at the beginning of our salvation, but it keeps on working day after day after day to transform us.

[00:27:22] What is an "imperishable" seed?

Jason Harper: I remember when you were preaching through this passage, the picture. that he brings up, stood out in my mind of an imperishable seed. I was trying to wrestle with, what does that even look like? Because , you know, especially in the agricultural setting. Seed dies. That is what it does. You throw it to the ground. It disappears, and a tree comes up.

So. I’ve been trying to wrestle with what does an imperishable seed look like and what does that picture mean for what the word of God is to us?

Jed Gillis: It’s a beautiful one. And he uses the word imperishable a couple times in the book and it’s always something he’s really emphasizing. And usually in contrast with the natural world, that’s where the metaphor, like you’re saying it, it stretches so much that it almost doesn’t make sense to us to say a seed that dies.

There is no imperishable seed in the natural world in some ways I think of it like a bulb of a flower that grows and blooms and then the plant dies, but that bulb is still alive. And the next year at the right time, it comes back up in some ways it’s kind of like that. That’s probably the closest natural metaphor. But just to say you have a seed. That gives life over and over and over again. I think that imperishable is not a comparison with the natural world. That word is a contrast with the natural world. Seed is the comparison with the natural world. Imagine if you were a subsistence farmer and you’re growing all of your own food. And you have to grow the food, but you’ve got to grow enough so that you have seed for the next season. So imagine the benefit.

If you said I can plant this seed once and then it grows a crop and it grows another crop and it grows another crop like that. That sense of value where you’d say, I don’t have to reply. I don’t have to save seed it’s there. And it just keeps growing. That’s what we’re supposed to do is say that’s how great God’s word is.

And the gospel specifically, it keeps on bringing this life in us. That’s why I think he points us to imperishable seed here is to say, This is even better than you could think, because if all we had was the gospel comes into our life. And gives us at that moment. A right relationship with God and future salvation.

That would be unbelievably good. But he’s saying it’s even better than that because it’s a seed that does that and then keeps on bringing this about. I think in terms of just practically what it looks like I was, I was thinking the other day I was speaking with somebody. An older believer has been a believer for a long time. And he was saying. This truth about the gospel has helped me grow in this area this week. That’s the imperishable seed is bringing this fruit again.

And it’s, it’s always coming back to the gospel. We don’t move past the gospel. It’s not like we have this seed and then we go on and live on our own efforts or go on and live on our sophisticated theological ideas or go on and live on anything else. The thing that brings life to us over and over and over again. Is the gospel. It’s the word that is the good news that’s preached to us and all of its implications, which we can grow in learning more and more about forever.

[00:30:48] How does God use faith to guard us?

Jason Harper: Going to verse five. I’ll, actually back up a little bit verse, three and four. You know, he talks about. He’s caused us to be born again. To an inheritance that is imperishable. There’s a word again. 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. How does God use faith to guard us? j

Jed Gillis: Kind of like with holiness, I think we have to be careful with our definitions. Mark Twain said something like faith is believing something when you know it. Isn’t true. Which is clearly not a biblical definition of faith, but I think we, we can sometimes think like that. We can say faith means I have no reason to believe it, but I believe it anyway, that’s not biblically what faith is.

In Hebrews 11, which is obviously a passage we often go to about faith. Faith is something like a spiritual version of site. It’s it’s almost like a spiritual sense. And you say, I can’t see it with my eyes. I can’t hear it with my ears. I can’t touch it with my hands. But I can. Faith it, if you could, we’d say believe, but, but we don’t.

And, and really in Greek, the word for faith and the word for belief are the same root it. We have two different words for them, but they’re the same thing. So. For example, Hebrews 11, 13 says it this way. These are the people who are at the beginning of the chapter who have trusted in Christ. These all died in faith. Not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. In other words, he’s not saying they saw them physically.

He’s using the picture of seeing something. As that’s what faith is. Like. I see something and I go it’s there. Faith is like a spiritual sense of sorts. It’s a belief that doesn’t go. I know this isn’t true, but I believe in any way it says no, I see. That’s really true. So with that as a framework, what God does is he opens our eyes and shines light so that we see spiritually. The reality. That same, right afterwards in Hebrews 12, it says, Jesus is the author and finisher or the originator.

And perfectors in other words, translate it of our faith. Like he opens our eyes, he shows us the spiritual reality of what is there. And so. So when it says, God guards us with faith, he’s not guarding us by a blind leap of something that we know isn’t true, or that we really think isn’t true. He’s guarding us by showing us by opening our eyes, to see the reality. To give a real specific example. If. I sometimes I will feel this way or I’ll talk with other people who say, I just know. God is good.

And they can tell me why they point to scripture. Here’s the truth. Here’s the truth. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it in his word. And right now it doesn’t look like it. Right now. Circumstances look bad. But they would say, we might say, I believe God is good. I have faith that God is good. What they mean is spiritually.

I see this reality. It’s true. And that guards them. Part of what we’d have to do then is we have to define faith. Then we have to say, What does it guarding us from? And the only, the only eternal danger is unforgiven sin. There’s nothing else. That’s ultimately dangerous because if you have no sin at all, there’s no punishment. If you have forgiven sin. Then you have righteousness in life and Christ.

So the only ultimate dangerous thing is unforgiven sin. And since there’s no for unforgiven sin, for one who believes in Jesus, then as long as we have faith, if God sustains our faith, we continue trusting in Christ. And what he’s done, we look to that as long as we have faith. Then we are guarded from the only thing that can ultimately harm our souls. Which is unforgiven sin.

[00:35:01] What happens if our faith is weak or shaky?

Jason Harper: If. If God guards us through faith for salvation, what does that mean when our faith is weak or shaky? Is God still guarding us at those points in our lives.

Jed Gillis: I love, I love that question because it’s so real. It’s just that that’s actually where so many of us walk, we can say all the good sounding things. And then we go, but I don’t know how much I feel that faith right now. When I preach this, I referenced this specific example and I want to go back to it. When Jesus is talking with Peter right after Peter has just made the biggest confession there to say, Jesus, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Not far afterwards, really a few verses Jesus tells Peter Satan has demanded to have you. But I have prayed for you. That your faith may not fail. When you have returned strengthened the brothers. So Jesus, in his infinite power says, I know this test is coming on. You. And Peter’s going to be like the ultimate example of weak and shaky faith.

He’s going to sit here and say, I’m not even sure that I want to be named in the same breath with Jesus. I want to see what happens. I want to be here, but somebody comes and says, oh, you’re with him. Nope, not me. I’m going to swear that I wasn’t like kind of the ultimate I want to see, but I’m not sure how this is going to work out.

Like we can shaky faith for sure. And at that moment, Jesus says, I’m praying for you that your faith won’t fail. And there’s no doubt because Jesus says right afterwards when you return, it’s not, I’m praying for you, but it might, I don’t know if it’ll work. And Jesus is saying I’m praying. And my father is going to keep your faith.

And I have confidence in that. So I say, when you return. Strengthen the brothers. If we think of faith again, our definition matters. If we think of faith, like a decision to believe something that we have no real reason to believe. Then the weaker, my faith gets. The more, I have reason to wonder if it’ll even work out at all.

If we think of faith, something more like spiritual sight. Well, there’s a huge difference between having bad eyesight and having no eyesight. So there may be a moment that if I take my glasses off and look around things, look blurry. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have site. That doesn’t mean that those things aren’t there.

I don’t question whether the bookshelf is there because it looks blurry. I know it’s there and I can still see enough. The same thing is true, really with our faith. There’s a huge difference between saying I have no faith. I don’t believe any of that’s real. I have no spiritual sense that God. And what he has said is true.

That’s a scary, dangerous place to be. When you sit here and say, I’m not sure what I see. I’m not sure how it works, but I’ve seen this truth and I see something. That’s weak and shaky faith, but it’s still faith. And that’s why when Jesus says, if you have faith like a mustard seed, His point is it, it doesn’t have to be huge faith.

You don’t have to have perfect spiritual eyesight and praise God for that because none of us do. But you get this just glimpse that says that’s real and it’s good. And it’s true. That’s faith. God sustains that he’s opened our eyes and he keeps it and keeping it he’s guarding us even with weak and shaky faith.

So God never promises. Equally clear, strong faith at every point in your life. He never promises that. In fact, he kind of at least implies that that’s not going to be the case. What he does promise here is that. One, he has opened your eyes and you’ve responded with belief. He keeps you in guard you so that however, weak and shaky that faith gets there still there’s an element of. But I know there’s something real here. I know I trust some, I might not understand how it works.

I may, right now feel like I’ve blown. It I’ve messed up. Peter felt like that. He said. I’m just going fishing. I’m not coming back to strengthen any brothers. And when Jesus comes back to him, And when he sees again, Jesus has opened his eyes again. And Peter Jesus says now, do you love me? Do you have faith?

Do you see this reality? And Peter says yes, but I mean, I’ve been weak and shaky and I messed it up. Jesus. Then feed my sheep, strengthen the brothers. Cause just like I prayed that you would have faith and that it would continue that’s happened. So I think it’s right for us when we feel weak and shaky to say, you know, Jesus has promised he guards my faith and I’ve heard people say, if you could see Jesus interceding for you before the throne of God, You would have a lot less of a feeling of shakiness and weakness around that.

You’d say I am weak, but Jesus is praying that this is kept and guarded. So, so it will be kept and guarded. We seen the song. He will hold me fast. It encapsulate some of these trues? Well, when I fear my faith will fail. Christ is going to hold me fast and I love how it says that and go well, that’s good.

But how do I know that? Well, because of the next verse and those, he loves are his delight. He loves you. He wants to keep you. And then because of the third verse, which says for my life, he bled and died, you say at the very foundational root, how do I know he’s going to keep me. Because he was willing to come and die so that I would see the reality of the gospel.

And if he’s willing to do that, he’s going to sustain and keep my faith. When I feel weak and shaky.

Jason Harper: I remember once a missionary telling a story that always stuck with me as a perfect illustration of faith, where he said he was somewhere in South America, going through the jungles. And they had to travel between villages and there’s a guide leading them. They’re on horseback. They come to this place with the steep embankment that was basically a cliff with a tiny path that was barely wider than the horses hoof to go down. The guide went down first and he was confident. He was relaxed.

He trusted the horse. And he went down. The missionary who has never done this before was scared out of his mind. His knuckles were white holding onto the reigns. But he also went down and he went with the horse and he was holding his breath the entire way. It was like, well, what’s one of those people had faith in their horse. They both did. The reaction externally was a bit different. One guy was relaxed, making jokes, laughing. The missionary was scared out of his mind. But he still trusted the horse.

Jed Gillis: That’s a good, it’s a good illustration.

And. This does not always the way it’s experienced, but sometimes even when we’re saying. I just don’t know if I trust God. Sometimes people say, you know, I just don’t know if I believe any of it. Maybe Christianity’s all a big sham and maybe I just don’t. I don’t believe any of it. I don’t believe God’s good. Sometimes we get to the point where we’re even say that. And I think it’s interesting.

I don’t know that every instance, this would be the reaction, but very often you can look at somebody who was a professing believer. Who’s saying that. And if you just say. Do you really believe that? Like, if you really think about it, do you really think the alternative and depending on which issue you’re talking about, do you really think this world came from absolutely nothing.

Life came from. Non-existence do you really believe all of these other auctions that you’d have to believe? And often. Even at the moment of weak and shakiness, we sit there and go. No, I don’t think that. I may not like the circumstances. I may struggle to know what God’s doing. There’s all kinds of reasons.

My faith feels shaky. That was Peter. He was shaky because he’s like, what are you doing? Jesus, you’re dying on the cross. That’s not what you were supposed to do. But there was still enough faith there that he said, I want to see what happens. He hung around to see this crucifixion. He didn’t go home and sleep. And when it came to someone say, Jesus is here, he’s alive.

He ran to the tomb. There was a sense there that he had seen something spiritually. He couldn’t deny.

Even when all the questions come. And I think sometimes that is it’s helpful to us just to pause and say as much as there’s all these other things I feel we can shaky about. Have I seen something of glory and good in the gospel of Jesus Christ and, and that’s, that’s the core of faith. And just to pastorally to help people when you feel like your faith is weak and shaky.

Sometimes I think our experience. Sometimes we feel passionate. I just love everything about God right now. Sure. Sometimes it’s not quite there, but we’re, we’re in pretty good place. Sometimes we think, you know, I just. I want to be there. Even that you want to be there because you’ve seen something real. Because there’s real faith there. Sometimes, I think we even get a step further and we say, I want to really want God. Even that that’s a heart that has been touched by God’s spirit. That says, I really want that because Bible says it.

You don’t want to, as an unbeliever, not really at the core, you want to run your own life. You want to say? No, I don’t think I need God to die for me. But the heart that says. I’m struggling. I’m weak. I’m shaky. But I really want to love Jesus like that, that desire is coming from maybe the weakest, tiniest little sprout of faith that we could imagine, but it’s a mustard seed. It’s it’s real faith. So I want us to end this question with just however we can shaky God guards us by giving us this site and giving us this vision of truth and glory and reality in him. And we’re kept by what we see there. We see this is worth living my life for this is the way reality is God has worked this way. And all the other things that make me feel we can shake.

He don’t change that site that says, I trust this. Even if you go Hebrews 11. If you go back and read through the examples that are given. They’ve got all kinds of weakness and shakiness. Not only that, but absolute sin and rebellion.

Jason Harper: That’s true.

Jed Gillis: But they’re held by the verse. I read. They died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them, they said, This is a real promise and I want it. I mess up all the time on the way I’m weak and shaky on the way, but this is real.

And I want that. And that’s what we’re, we’re driven to looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And we lay aside the weights and sins, which easily pull us aside and distract us. And we run the race set before us. We keep going. I want that thing, that reality that I’ve seen, I want that relationship and joy with God. Even when I’m weak and shaky along the way.

[00:46:01] Taking questions for I Peter 2

Jason Harper: Awesome. Well, Jed. Thank you. To our listeners, we hope this was a helpful conversation. It has been very helpful for me. We are currently taking questions for first Peter chapter two. The cutoff date for that will be August 25th. This is mostly intended for our local church congregation here, but if you’re listening online, feel free to email.

Pastor Jed. His email address is JedGillis@berean.me, J E D G I L L I S at Berean dot me. We also invite you to listen to the sermon series. We’ve been posting them on podcast platforms also on YouTube, just search for Berean Bible church, Knoxville, Tennessee, and you’ll find it.

Jed, again. Thank you. And do you have any final words or any final comments?

Jed Gillis: I would just say, thank you. Thank you, Jason. Thank you. Listeners as well. This is not every answer on these questions. We talk about big themes of faith and the word and obedience and holiness. you could spend the rest of your life diving into one of those.

So I hope that some of this will help you to think. I want to ask some more questions. I want to research more. What Peter says. I want to go to the word and see how God has put these truths together in his word.