NHCC Sermons & Teaching PodPoint

Galatians 3:27-28, …for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Peter was very much in touch with reality. He knew that marriages couldn’t be realized as a “heaven-on-earth” manifestation. Marriages, similar to other institutions, suffer from the adverse result of mankind’s fall. Because every marriage will experience suffering and groaning, Peter assumes that even the marriages of Christians who live godly lives will endure suffering. As a result of this fallen world, and our sinful nature, Christian marriages are susceptible to the same ailments found in non-Christian marriages.

1 Peter 2:13-17, Be subject (submit) for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

Back when many of us were kids, a fun time or playful wrestling would often end up with someone in a “submission hold” with no way to escape than to cry, “Uncle,” to signify that the one being held was giving up or surrendering. But where did this practice begin?

A plausible explanation dates back to the days of the Roman Empire. When young children of that era were attacked by bullies, they wouldn’t be set free until they uttered "Patrue, mi Patruissimo," or "Uncle, my best Uncle." At that time, the brother of one’s father was accorded almost the same level of status and power as one’s dad, so declaring the bully to be your “Best Uncle” was tantamount to granting him a title of respect and submitting to him.

On this Mother’s Day, we are blessed to honor our mothers who will be there in attendance. We also get excited about calling our moms who aren’t nearby. The extra blessing some of us enjoyed was an example of faith first seen in our mothers. Of course, we know that isn’t everyone’s story. That is why it is so important for the moms of NHCC to recognize that they have an extra responsibility to be an example of faith to the younger Christians in our church.
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Obviously, faith is not simply limited to the moms of the church, but on this Sunday, please remember as we honor our moms, we collectively worship the Father for He is certainly worthy of our praise.
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Join us this Sunday as Frank shares a message that honors the faith of our mothers, but more importantly, worships that one in whom they have their faith.

1 Peter 2:9-12, But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
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As we begin to look at the second chapter of 1 Peter, we recognize that we are called to grow in salvation. We begin as infants. From there we “are being built up” into a spiritual house. The implication is that we should grow in Christlikeness, by learning to put aside sins.
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What a high and holy calling we have in Christ! It’s amazing, that God can take often misguided and clueless people like us, yet dress us as living stones, and make us a part of this global spiritual temple that He’s been erecting for 2,000 years.
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We should frequently revisit and recite these truths Peter teaches about our identity (for the enemy of my soul often comes and flails with lies about our identity.) But we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood and a holy nation—even though in our time on earth we are but strangers, sojourners, and exiles.
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The sobering truth we must face is: if we will be living as royalty in eternity, then it would be wise to start attempting to live that way now.

1 Peter 1:14-16… 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, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

Verse 15 and 16 can seem daunting, at first. The command to be as holy as God seems like an impossible task. But God isn't giving us a hopeless requirement. It's helpful to look at the passages Peter is quoting from to better understand what the word "holy" means to God.

God's desire for His people was to be like Him, and He is holy. That's still His desire. The holiness commanded here is found in what Peter has already written in this letter. That is, God has already made us holy in Christ. He has already set us apart and saved us. Now he calls us to make choices that reflect who we already are.

In other words, Christians are called to change our conduct to fit our identity. As holy people, we shouldn't be "okay" with our sin. We shouldn't accept falling into the old patterns. We are to act as holy people act. Will we make perfectly sinless choices in this life from here forward? No. We still rely on God's grace and forgiveness.

James 4:14b, What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

At the beginning of 1 Peter, the author, one of Jesus’ disciples, reaches out to a community of believers spread throughout the known world. It’s likely these believers were Gentiles and citizens of the Roman Empire, but Peter calls them “God’s elect exiles.” They are God’s chosen foreigners who have been scattered and dispersed throughout the Empire and, their other shared experience was that they had been enduring all kinds of hardship.

Every believer in Jesus is an exile. No Christian has citizenship in this world because God has chosen to give us a Kingdom in Him. Peter adds we’ve been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for both obedience and sprinkling with blood (1 Peter 1:2). Each of those phrases is another way to tie Gentiles into the story of God’s chosen people.

Because of these things, it is inevitable that we will face different kinds of hardship, but those hardships themselves can serve a purpose in our pursuit of holiness. The sobering truth is that if we never deal with hardship, we may not be pursuing a life of holiness strenuously enough.