Live a Holy Life

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday, the 21st of May, 2023, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Our YouTube streaming channel is: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

When we speak of our risen Lord or say that Jesus has risen, we’re usually talking about when Jesus rose from the grave and defeated death by His resurrection.  But remember that just a short time after that remarkable and wonderful event, Jesus rose again.  While His disciples stood around Him, Jesus rose from this earth and ascended into heaven, to sit at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

Today is the first Sunday after Ascension Day, which was last Thursday, the day when Jesus our Redeemer, alive and in the flesh, went back to heaven.  So when we say our Lord has risen, we can also mean that Jesus still lives, in heaven, after leaving us here to carry on His work for Him.  And someday we too will be raised, from death and into heaven, alive again and in the flesh, to live with Him there.

The Lord is risen!  Praise to the risen Son!  Amen!

The Apostle Peter also mentions our risen Lord, in his letters to the early Christians who had scattered throughout the known world.  I’m returning back to those letters after our break last week to celebrate mothers everywhere.  By the time Peter wrote these letters, Jesus had already both risen from the grave and risen from the earth, now seated comfortably in heaven.

We began this study with Peter assuring us that our only reason for hope is in Jesus, and we left off with him telling us that the message about our Christ was meant only for us, even though the angels wanted to know more about it, too.  Please listen and follow along as Peter explains to us and those early Christians why we should live a holy life, continuing with the 1st chapter of the Apostle’s 1st letter, verses 13 through 25, and I’ll be reading from the New Living Translation of our Holy Bible this morning…

13 So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. 14 So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. 15 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. 16 For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”

17 And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of Him during your time here as “temporary residents.” 18 For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. 19 It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. 20 God chose Him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days He has been revealed for your sake.

21 Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because He raised Christ from the dead and gave Him great glory.

22 You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart.

23 For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. 24 As the Scriptures say,

“People are like grass;

their beauty is like a flower in the field.

The grass withers and the flower fades.

25     But the word of the Lord remains forever.”

And that word is the Good News that was preached to you.

--1 Peter 1:13-25 (NLT)

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for giving the message of Your Christ Jesus to the prophets of old.  Thank You for reserving that message just for us poor sinners.  Your word remains forever, unchanged and living.  You have given new birth, new life, to those of us who believe in Jesus as Your Son, Your Christ, and accept Him as our Lord.  Thank You, Father, for the wonderful gifts You bestow on us.  Thank You for the Gospel that has been preached to us.  Sadly, though, Father, there are still too many times when we are anything but holy.  Our acts, our inaction, our words, our thoughts, the feelings of our hearts too often betray our profession of faith and displease You and disappoint You greatly.  Please forgive us these lapses, Father.  Forgive us when we don’t put all our trust in You, putting too much trust in human wisdom instead.  Remind us that You are still in control, no matter what it may look like in the world around us.  And Father, please protect us from Satan, who deceives us in his attempts to pull us away from You.  Please shield us from those who are so willing to follow his commands.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, worship, and service, and healthy and safe in the days ahead.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Remind us that we are Yours, bought at a great price.  Help us to live a holy life, just as You and Your Son are holy.  This we pray in the precious name of Christ Jesus, our risen Lord.   Amen.

When we think of living a holy life, do we mentally picture monks in a monastery or nuns in an abbey?  Is it a boring life, filled only with prayer and contemplation?  

Renowned author and lay theologian C. S. Lewis adds, "How little people know who think that holiness is dull.  When one meets the real thing, it is irresistible."  Evangelist D. L. Moody tells us, "A holy life will make the deepest impression.  Lighthouses blow no horns, they just shine."  And then we have the insight given by the 19th-century Scottish theologian John Brown, who noted that, "Holiness does not consist in mystic speculations, enthusiastic fervours, or uncommanded austerities; it consists in thinking as God thinks, and willing as God wills."

Holiness isn’t about living a dull, austere life.  Not at all, or at least it doesn’t have to be.  In fact, if we are living a dull, austere life, then maybe we’re not living a holy life at all, because we’re not out there doing what Jesus commanded us to do.  We’re supposed to shine out into the darkness like a lighthouse, shine with the reflected radiance of God, warning those traveling in the dark of the danger that lies ahead.

Living a holy life is nothing more than thinking as God thinks, and willing as God wills.  He wills us to go into the world spreading the Gospel message, increasing His kingdom across the earth.  Jesus is our best example for holiness.  Look to how He lived, how He acted, and we can see how we should live to be seen as holy in God’s eyes.

Peter opens this morning’s passage by telling us to prepare our minds for action and exercise self-control.  In other words, we should think before we act.  And since speaking is a form of action, we should think before we speak.  We need to carefully, thoughtfully consider any consequences of our actions.  We should ask ourselves, “What would Jesus do, or say, in this situation?”.

We should live as God’s obedient children.  Think about that a second…  As small children growing up, for the most part we obey our parents and do what they tell us to do.  Why?  Because if they’re good parents, they’ll likely punish us in some way for any disobedience and reward us for good and proper behavior.

God is the very best Father.  The punishment He holds out for total disobedience is horribly severe, and the rewards He offers holy behavior are greater than we can even imagine.  And both are everlasting.  So the choice should be simple: be obedient and enjoy His rewards, or be rebellious and reap His punishment.

Living as God’s obedient child means staying holy in His eyes, not slipping back into our old, sinful ways where we are more concerned with satisfying our own desires rather than serving God.  We must be holy in everything we do because God is holy, and we are His.  He will judge each and every person by what we do, or don’t do, in this life, this temporary residence before moving on to our permanent, eternal home.  God paid a great price to save us from sin: the blood of His own Son Jesus.  So we should thank Him by living a holy life as He wills for us.

The author of the letter to the early Hebrew converts echoes Peter’s urgings to live a holy life and he stresses that we can do so by listening to God.  Now we don’t need to go up on a mountainside or look for a burning bush for God to speak to us through.  We can simply be still and pray, waiting silently, patiently for His reply.  He won’t speak into our ears, but into our hearts, through His Holy Spirit.  And we can listen to God’s voice by reading our Bible, His holy word saved through the centuries just for us.

Please listen to what the author of the letter to the Hebrews has to say about living a holy life, as written in chapter 12, verses 14 through 17 and 25 through 29…

14 Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord. 15 Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many. 16 Make sure that no one is immoral or godless like Esau, who traded his birthright as the firstborn son for a single meal. 17 You know that afterward, when he wanted his father’s blessing, he was rejected. It was too late for repentance, even though he begged with bitter tears.

25 Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking. For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven! 26 When God spoke from Mount Sinai His voice shook the earth, but now He makes another promise: “Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.” 27 This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain.

28 Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping Him with holy fear and awe. 29 For our God is a devouring fire.

--Hebrews 12:14-17, 25-29 (NLT)

Work at living at peace with everyone.  That’s a tough one for us, isn’t it.  We try to get along with other folk, but then someone comes along and sticks a pin in our balloon and we just go ballistic.  God wants us to live peacefully, and He will bless us for doing so, just as Jesus promised when He said, “Blessed are the peacemakers”.

And while we’re working on our peaceful approach to others, we should also be working at living a holy life, just like Peter told us.  But our author gives us the reason why: because those who are not holy will not see the Lord.  Now we need to understand that the word “see” in this text means to see our Lord forever, to live with Him in paradise.  Everyone will physically see the Lord at the end of the age when He stands in judgment of us all, good and bad, but not everyone will enjoy the sight.

Our author continues with ways that we can be holy in our day-to-day life.  As Christians, we can look after each other, encourage and strengthen each other so that we all receive God’s grace.  We must keep watch over how we react to life and the devil’s temptations, letting nothing grow and fester inside us that can strangle our faith.  Here we see the example of Esau, who gave up his birthright to Jacob for nothing more than his favorite meal, and then regretted it once it was too late to repent and gain his father’s blessing.

And then we get to the part about listening to God, who is still speaking to us, even to this day.  He speaks with that still, small voice in our hearts.  He speaks with the thunderous roar of the storm.  He speaks through His Holy Spirit, and He speaks through the words of our Holy Bible.

Listen carefully, for someday soon, the heavens and the earth will be shaken and all of creation removed and replaced.  Only the unshaken will remain, the Kingdom that God has reserved for His children.

Let us obey and worship our God by living a holy life.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for ransoming our souls at the great price of sacrificing Your Son on man’s cross so that we might be washed clean of our sin by His blood.  How can we truly thank You other than by living a life that is holy in Your eyes?  Like so much else in this life, Father, this is easier said than done.  Thank You for instructions, examples, and encouragement in how to be holy.  Please help us as we strive to do what is right.  Please forgive us when we slip and fail.  Forgive us those times when we act as rebellious children.  Forgive us of our acts of disobedience, when we outright ignore what You’ve told us to do.  Please, loving Father, help us remember that we are Yours and that we owe everything to You.  Help us listen to You and do as You will.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what the world throws at us or holds out before us.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, while You walked this earth, You were the perfect example of an obedient child doing everything our Father willed.  You gave Your all for us, just so that we might be spared eternal death and punishment.  Thank You, Lord Jesus, for showing us how to live a holy life.  Please help us live as You lived.  Help us think as God thinks, and will as God wills.  And help us be faithful and true to You, putting all our trust in You, all our hope in You.  

And Jesus, please heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another.  Help us remain as obedient children no matter what we go through.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.