After a break of a few months, Valley Worship resumed in St Swithun’s in Martyr Worthy yesterday morning and was enjoyed by a good congregation gathered for it. At this service Nicky Barber drew on various passages from 1 Peter in her talk (please see verses below); the next several Valley Worship services in the coming months will also concentrate on this book and expand on the themes she introduced (the next service will be on Sunday, 24thNovember at St Swithun’s).
We were joined yesterday by a guest worship leader, Rollo Hope, who led us beautifully in song and by his wife, Anna, who gave a moving testimony about her long-term faith in God in an Every Day Lives interview. Alfie Walker and Fraser Noble concluded the service with superb prayers that they had crafted entirely by themselves.
The recording of Nicky’s talk can be accessed here:
In her talk Nicky referred to a good friend, Richard Garnett, who recently died after a 10 year battle with a rare form of cancer. She quoted from his extraordinary account of his journey with Jesus through all the pain of terminal illness, particularly focusing on his anticipation of Heaven and on his constant emphasis on gratitude and generosity despite the adversity he faced. If you would like to listen to his account, which is highly recommended, it can be viewed via this YouTube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGZ5bU9tF0E&t=705s
Should you be interested in hearing Richard’s full testimony, via an extended interview, this podcast is also highly recommended:
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/inspired-with-simon-guillebaud/id1564089451?i=1000666964164
The readings (well delivered by Malcolm Hogg) were as follows:
1 Peter 1:1-4:
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, 2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.
1 Peter 2:5:
You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2: 9-10:
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
1 Peter 5:12b
I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it.
The text of Nicky’s talk can be read here:
1 Peter VW series part 1 (October 2024)
Eulogy – Ever done one at a loved one’s funeral? Easy or hard to find the right words to describe them and the impact they had on you and on others? Need to know them well to do it. How do you write one for someone you know well who died but then rose again?
Looking today at something similar to a eulogy, a letter the apostle Peter wrote about 30 years after Jesus died and rose again.
We are going to see what we can learn from his letter over the next 6 VW services. But, can we trust him and what he says? Is he what we would call a “credible witness”?
We know from all the gospels that Peter was one of Jesus’s inner circle during his 3 years of ministry and was also present at his crucifixion, saw him die, met him after his resurrection several times, saw him taken up into heaven and was then filled with his holy spirit in a life transforming way at Pentecost. Now (5:12 at top of service sheets) he says
“I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it.”
What is this grace that Peter wants us to stand fast in? In the bible the word grace refers to the extraordinary, underserved, generous, loving kindness of God. This includes the free gift from God of what Peter calls “salvation”, several times in this letter. By his grace, by his loving kindness, God saves us.
He saves us from something – from the penalty of sin which creates a barrier between us and a holy God, separating us from him
He saves us by something – by Jesus’s death and resurrection which redeems us and pays that penalty for our sin, removing it from us
He saves us for something – to be restored into a right relationship with God for obedience to Jesus (1:2)
So, by God’s grace those who are separated from God by their sin are now able to enter his holy presence. So, when God looks at us, he doesn’t see who we have been or the mistakes we have made, he sees what his son has already done on our behalf.
Before we focus on some other things Peter tells us about the true grace of God, lets zoom back out from this letter and put it in context.
Peter was a Jew, writing to people who are mostly not Jewish. As a Jew who knew the OT (Jewish Bible) well, he often quotes from it in his speeches and letters and he refers back to that special relationship the Jewish people had with God. They were God’s chosen people, his special nation, his presence came to rest in their temple where their priests ministered to him. They belonged to him in a way that no other nation on earth did. Everyone else was excluded, shut out of God’s presence.
Bearing this in mind, what Peter says in 2:9-10 of this letter is extraordinary. As you can see, he says that we (the Gentiles) are now a “chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession ….. those who were once “not a people” are now the people of God”. In other words, everything that had previously only been given by God to the Jews is now available to everyone – Jews and Gentiles.
It is as if he is saying to us – you who were separated from God by your own wilful disobedience and sin, you can now be included in God’s people. You who were outsiders now belong.
This is true grace. No-one can earn it, buy it, deserve it, inherit it from someone else. It can only be received as a gift.
Have you ever not been chosen to be in the team, been left on the sidelines or watched the coach leave for the match without you or, been the one not invited to the party everyone else seems to be going to?
God says to each of us “I have chosen you to be mine.” Chosen not on the basis of race, geography or ancestry but simply on the basis of belief in and allegiance to Jesus. That is worth far more than being on any earthly team or social gathering.
But this grace is not just about being invited to be in God’s family, in 2:5 Peter says that God is building himself a new temple. Not made out of lifeless stones like the temple in Jerusalem or even like this beautiful church building we are worshipping him in today. The temple he is building is made out of living stones – his people. We are being built into a temple or spiritual house in which God lives by his spirit.
Now we can begin to see why Peter is so excited by the true grace of God. The door to God’s presence has been flung wide open – it is no longer restricted to just a few and instead of having to travel to one place to worship him temporarily, now he comes to dwell permanently in the hearts of those who belong to him so we can worship him anywhere, anytime, not just in a church, cathedral or temple or only on certain days of the week.
This is such a huge turnaround that Peter even uses the words “new birth” (1:4) to describe the radical change that happens when someone accepts the Father’s invitation to be saved, to become one of his people.
Do you ever wish you could wind your life back and start again? Here it is – the invitation to do that, to have a fresh start, a new beginning, a new identity and even a new citizenship.
John was born an American but has now renounced his citizenship there and become a British citizen. He can still visit America and travel through it but his real home is now England, Martyr Worthy to be exact.
We were all born into this world initially, but when we become Christians, those who are “in Christ”, then our home is where he is, which is heaven. That is where we will spend eternity and that is where we should be trying to put down roots now instead of wasting time and effort investing in things which will have to stay here. On this earth we are just temporary residents, passing through this world but not settling here – we are to be in this world but not of it.
Elsewhere in this letter, Peter describes this as being exiles, strangers, foreigners in this world. God is keeping a special inheritance for us in heaven (1:4) – for now we should be trying to travel light, not to weigh ourselves down with too much clutter which we won’t be able to take with us when we die, when we move into our forever home.
In 5:12 Peter said we have to “stand fast in” in this grace. How do we do that:
Just as our salvation can only be received by faith as a gift, so, continuing in our salvation, standing fast in it, can only be done by faith and received as a gift. 5:10 says that God is the one who will make us strong, firm and steadfast. We saw in 1:2 that it is God’s holy spirit who sanctifies us to be obedient to Jesus. Or as the writer to the Hebrews said in Hebrews 12:2: “Jesus is the author and perfector of our faith”. Jesus, not us. Our bit is to keep our eyes fixed on him, believing and trusting in him and being obedient to him. (1:2)
Peter learnt this in a very practical way. You may remember the story in Matthew 14 when Jesus asked him to walk across the water to him. He started to do so but then made the mistake of looking at the wind and the waves and began to sink until Jesus reached out his hand and caught him.
Paddle board – keep looking ahead, never look down, however choppy the waves become.
We have to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and not allow the frightening things of this world to distract us from watching him.
Peter has taught us a lot about God’s true grace and how to stand in it. It is as if God is writing a personal invitation to each of us –
Will you come and belong to me and receive the gift of eternal life from me?
Will you keep allowing the blood of my son to cleanse you from all your guilt so that you can stay in my holy presence?
Will you invite my Holy Spirit to live in your heart and teach you how to be obedient to Jesus in every area of your life?
Will you continue to trust me and live as if heaven not earth is your true home?
While we are pondering how we might each respond to that invitation, let me tell you about our friend Richard who died a few weeks ago.
About 10 years ago Richard developed a nasty tumour in his lung and was given a year to live. He decided to invest as much as he could in God’s kingdom on this earth while he was still alive and amongst other things gave huge amounts of money away. He also started posting photos on Instagram every day of moments he was grateful for. There are now 6,850 of those photos on his Instagram page. Before he died, he said how grateful he was to God for the extra 9 years he had been given but also how ready he now was to go home to his heavenly Father. He said:
“How do I feel? At peace. What comes next? I don’t know – I have never died before. What I do know is that a long time ago, Jesus made a promise to his friends that he would never leave them or forsake them and he has kept that promise to me ever since I became a Christian and I trust him to continue to do so, whatever happens next.” “I’ll take his word for it” he said, “It’s the onboarding bit I am not really looking forward to.”
A podcast he did recently has already had over 2 million views. (there is a link above).
The more at home and invested we are in heaven, the easier it is to cope with the nasty things that this life throws at us and the scary stuff we see on the news.
How are we each going to respond to God’s invitation to us today?
Maybe we realise that we need to take that first step and receive his salvation personally
Maybe we have done that a long time ago but we feel as if we have lost sight of our true home, have been caught up instead in the things of this world and are now wearied by its challenges
Or perhaps we started well, accepted God’s free gift of salvation but somehow along the way we have let go of that grace and slipped back into trying to earn his approval, to do things to make ourselves more acceptable to him, or to other people.
Let’s pause and consider with God if there are any steps he wants us to take today, any changes he wants us to make.
What might it take for each of us to say an unqualified yes to whatever God is asking us today? It might mean humbling ourselves, it might be costly in all sorts of ways, it might mean there are things that have to change in the way we are living. But is it worth it?
Peter and Richard, I think, would both say a resounding yes, as would Christians down the ages.