Sermons

This Advent season we’ve been tracing the promise of God running through the whole of Scripture: that He will send One to overcome our sorrow and shame. But a nagging question hanging over this promise is who is it for? Through this beautiful passage, God will make it very clear that He sends the promised One for all of us, and He invites us all to respond with joyful worship.

At the heart of the Advent season is a promise about Jesus. But promises are only valuable if they’re kept; if we put our hope in a promise, but that promise is broken, that can feel unbearable. It would be better to not trust that kind of promise to begin with. A lot of us experience our relationship with God that way, even in Advent. Through this passage, God will show us that we can have complete comfort in his promises because we know he will always keep them.

Life is full of promises. Promises offer confidence about the future; they offer us hope. In our modern era, we are promised that through human achievement, we’ll all reach a utopian life together. The Advent season reminds us of the truth that there is only one grand promise that will actually be fulfilled. It’s the ancient promise found in this all important passage, the promise that found its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, and the only promise you should bank your life on.

Living faithfully in everyday life has been, is now, and will be nuanced and complex. So, how does Peter expect us to discern what is good for us to do? How are we to be devoted to God but also mindful of our neighbor? Lastly, who has the final say on who we are and what we’ve done? Was any of it worth it? In 1 Peter 3:13-22, the Apostle Peter lifts our eyes to the great hope we have in every circumstance as we are in Christ so too do we share in his victory.

If you could ask Jesus to do one thing what would you ask Him to do? Most of us would ask Jesus to bring some kind of peace or healing in our lives. Part of the good news of the gospel is that Jesus can and will bring His renewing power to us. What can be lost on us is how He does that. Through this passage we will see that Jesus renews things not primarily through other-worldly signs and wonders, but by working in and through His disciples as we live a new kind of life: a cross-shaped life.

One of the most glorious and yet most difficult relationships in life is marriage. Some people, because of the difficulty, have grown jaded and calloused and given up. In this passage, Peter will lead us into the heart of what difference faith in Jesus makes in all this. A disciple of Jesus develops a cross-shaped life, and this life transforms marriage from a power struggle to a relationship of sacrificial love.

One of the challenges of understanding the Bible comes from translating ancient customs into modern life. But a reality that transcends time and culture is one that Peter introduced to us last week: life under authority. That theme continues this week but with a more everyday focus, and a more life-shaping outcome. How does being a disciple of Jesus shape how we live under authority, even under unjust authority? Peter will show us that our discipleship to Jesus will develop a cross-shaped life.

Politics and government might be the most heated topic of our shared life today, and it’s one we as Christians need to understand in the context of God’s Word. Of all that Scripture says, there isn’t much that directly speaks to government and our life as Christians under it, however this passage in 1 Peter is one of the clearest and most direct teachings. Peter says we should submit to all human authority as God’s free people, which isn’t difficult to understand, but hard to apply.

Is a Christian’s life supposed to change? If so, how is that change possible? What is life with God meant to look like here and now? In 1 Peter 2:11-12, Peter urges his listeners to live as redeemed people who reject their former ways and live in this world for God’s glory.

Guest Speaker Adam Jones

Relationships can carry a lot of extras with them. Extra people, extra priorities, extra experiences. For a Christian, there is no more important relationship than the one we have with Jesus. We know that our relationship and acceptance with Jesus is based solely on our faith, but once our faith is placed, are there any other extras that come along with this relationship? This week, Peter will help us see that indeed our relationship with Jesus does carry with it a few extras. Even though at first these extras might seem challenging or intimidating, in truth they are a great blessing. And as we see that, Jesus wants us to joyfully and wholeheartedly own them for ourselves.