1 Peter 1:1-2:16 July 27 2025 Kevin MacLean
It seems to me that when we set out to hold a memorial service it should also be a celebration of life and of faith, of God’s faithfulness and the faith of the those who passed over. Starting from the cloud of witnesses surrounding us as given in Hebrews 12 , Memorial is an expression of the race of faith, encouraging of running the race, through laying aside every encumbrance. The apostle Peter tells us in preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded helps lay aside encumbrances.
Let us come into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Let us prepare our hearts to pray.
Lord Jesus, Son of God, Son of Man have mercy on us sinners!
It is a privilege to encourage you given what it means to this and future generations; to bring to mind the remembrance of those who came before us. Turn if you will in the scriptures to 1 Peter 1:1 and we will be reading to 2:12.
Thanks be to God
Today we are gathered to worship and to bring to mind those friends, family and even family friends who have passed over before us; in a sense to recognize and honour their lives, their work and legacy. The work that we ourselves would have a hard time doing, nevertheless we are pleased enough to receive it.
So it is fitting in thinking of those buried in Kilmaurs who passed this way before us; to host a memorial of who they were and now are, their struggles or as Peter puts it trials.
People who struggled, went through hardships and joys; some were even tested in faith. Let us recall ALL of those from before us regardless of faith. Later today we might take time to recount to each other some tales of their struggles and their joys. Especially joy from the Lord in their salvation as children of God, joy in family and children and from an agrarian viewpoint – joy in new fields or new livestock and harvests. It might be that they had joy in their success in raising even more generations.
St. Andrews Presbyterian Church is evidence of how well they got on. The Kilmaurs church is a place where salvation is proclaimed through the atoning sacrifice and resurrection of the Son of God, where the righteousness of the believing saints is celebrated and where the gates of hell will not prevail!
So we can say then – what Peter tells us in v12-13. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
And else where we look to the fields and pastures, at the grass under our feet and accept the scripture that says, “People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the LORD is forever.
Or man is but, a puff of smoke or a morning mist – so too is our time before we too are planted in the ground.
While we are here to honour them through this memorial we should note the mentioned cloud of witnesses; It’s not that the faithful who have gone before us are spectators to the race we run. Rather, it is a figurative representation and means that we ought to act as if they were in sight and cheering us on to the same victory in the life of faith that they obtained. We should look forward to when we all join together to celebrate the life that God gives; now we celebrate it by doing the work God has for us all; in believing in the one He sent, it is in the giving of Jesus Christ that we will be gathered in righteousness. As it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”
Still perhaps we see those we wish to remember in our mind’s eye as witnesses to faith.
The witnesses or the testimony is all around us, in this community and over the things and traditions of this land.
We will reckon some of them who were before us, strived to lead Christian lives; they built buildings to hold churches to glorify the Lord not pyramids but churches to help people to find salvation and abide with the Lord.
Society today is heavily influenced by this heritage and even those who freely chose not to believe however were strongly influenced to live in a like manner; it brings to mind the words from Psalms 72:8 chiseled in the stone walls of the parliament buildings. “His dominion is from sea to sea!”, and some of us may know the Latin of which is the motto of Canada. Our forefathers chose to proclaim His right to this land.
As we dwell on this shouldn’t we ensure we raise up the next generation so we shall not be put to shame when we speak with those who disagree and with our enemies at the gate, especially with the trials and troubles facing our society today. We remember people whose time had come and what they built or the dreams they had for their generations and even to those of us who remain. I suspect that includes some of us here now.
Moving to Lanark and learning of that society I recall sections in the Lanark Era weekly print paper that talked of things 25 yrs ago today, 50 yrs ago today and 100 yrs ago today, showing a bit of what this society is like and its heritage.
We know they were here perhaps they believed in the one God the Father sent, who died on a cross as the sacrificial lamb to satisfy God’s wrath, as an atonement for my sins, my failure to meet God’s standard and don’t be fooled for your failures too. We all fall short of the Glory of God but His blood now covers the sins of those of us standing here, who call on His Name.
However, those that rejected God’s love and denied the gift of the Lamb will not stand here; they will stand somewhere else; in a lake of fire – gnashing their teeth at God and wailing in regret because they left it too late. Too late to accept the gift of eternal life, which is in Christ Jesus. Recall the teaching in the parable of the Rich man and Lazarus on Abraham bosom.
Now turn left if you will to Daniel 12:2-3 (Let us aloud together ) Many of those who sleep in the dusty ground will awake—some to everlasting life, and others to shame and everlasting abhorrence. 12:3 But the wise will shine like the brightness of the heavenly expanse. And those bringing many to righteousness will be like the stars forever and ever. By doing this we call out those who bring many to righteousness.
We can see our gathering as a celebration of the life of those who are now eternal, whom we remember or lament as the case maybe. As we reflect on this, let us also reflect on how we live, how we follow them and how to build upon what they left to us; to build with gems, gold and silver not with wood or straw that so easily burns away. They left us a place with traditions and parts of their dreams. How do we dream or measure our dreams? What will we leave? What is the value proposition of our generation? What will the resulting societal impact be?
So let us listen to Paul, apostle to the gentiles who told Titus to train older men to be temperate ( I would like us to accept that the mention of men means our forefathers and mothers, the women without whom the men would not have established a good life here).
In the UK and throughout Europe, hundreds of thousands of young adult islamic males are migrating but the women have not yet come to these places. Either they want what faith in the one true God has built or they hope to tear it down. And I was talking to a delivery driver this week about what is happening, it seems to me he wants to tear down. Some seem open to the Word of God some are not, they are kept in bondage to the evil one.
So we are to build as those before us had, we should be looking for the grace of God to energize men and women that are temperate. Whose society builds in faith on what has been and worked so far.
Well, as you turn back to 1 Peter 1:13, we see from God’s word that God is looking for us to train a generation of sober- minded men and women. And the blessings that follow from it, by describing what God is looking for. We’re going to look at just one of the old ways today because God wants men to lead and model Christ righteousness in the midst of an intoxicated debauched world.
What is the temperance the Word speaks of, it is the sober-minded lifestyle we should be looking for. It encompasses the idea of being sound-minded, self-controlled, temperate, and discreet. To emphasize a state of mind characterized by clear thinking, emotional balance, and the ability to resist temptations and passions. We are exhorted by the Apostle likewise.
Sometimes we’re not aware of the level of spiritual intoxicants that are around us. Far more than physical ones are the mental intoxicants, the things that keep our minds from being able to focus on Christ. To have the mind of Christ as we wait.
You know they call physical intoxication driving under the influence. Suppose God ticketed all the believers who are ‘thinking’ under the influence; where our minds get intoxicated by the philosophies and by the errors and by the strong desires of this world; dependence on social media and cell phones to distract and entertain, to intoxicate us and our children, those who before us, that were, know all about what children mean to a family, to a house, to a farm, to a livelihood – they are not just the labour – they are the future. They are to be the generation that they will say look what our fathers did, how they relied on God to provide and defend them,
And that is what we see, it is what Peter speaks to. God wants men not to succumb to the intoxicating influences that will dull their minds. Now, think of this. Any desire that is unrestrained by God’s grace can become an intoxicating idol. Before anyone gets offended or indignant please note I am one of the worst intoxicated ones here. My connection to the world is a cell phone that is nearly an idol supplanting God in my life, time wise, and by His grace I will pull back from. For thirty years it was my profession and its reliance on electronic means. I would sit with my Grandchildren or my wife and rather than teach them I check the news or the war in the middle east or my investments well you get the idea
Remember some of the final words that the Apostle John wrote is, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” It is the intoxicating influence of the desires that take God’s place that control our minds. And so things as harmless as comfort or convenience or security or work or sports and amusements, if they’re unrestrained by God’s grace, those harmless things that are a part of our life, they can become as deadly and powerful as addictions to alcohol or drugs or any form of immorality. Any thing can intoxicate us if that part of our life is not restrained by God’s grace.
Now if you are still in 1 Peter 1, look at verse 13. The apostle Peter exhorts us as God’s people we are called to be separate in our minds from those who are not God’s people. We are not to think like they think. We are not to walk like they walk. We are not to be anxious as they’re anxious. We are not too long after the things that they long after.
We are to be holy minded in an unholy thinking world. We’re to live in each generation of Christ’s church according to the standards of our high and of our only king who is Jesus Christ. Peter calls us just as Paul affirms to live a balanced life. And to be ready to explain this life of balance in an unbalanced world, Peter surrounds this word temperate in the ESV it is translated as sober-minded. It’s right at the beginning of the 13th verse with a series of commands. And Apostle Paul says, “Teach the older men to be temperate.”
Peter takes that word and he puts it in a framework with two imperatives and with three attending participles that all blend together to give us a wonderful picture of what exactly God wants us to do as we become balanced, temperate men and women who are sober minded for God. And thereby to be free of encumbrances and ready to be an example to our generations.
1 Peter 1:13 NKJV. Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind. Now here’s our word. Be sober. And that’s what Paul says, tells Titus. That’s the word we’re meditating on, the word temperate. Put your finger there and make a left turn to Titus.
Titus 2:2-4 Be sober and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. So Sober-mindedness, balanced minds gives us strength.
In one translation Peter says it this way, as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lust. All those desires that used to captivate you. He says, don’t let that conform you as in your ignorance. Verse 15, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Not just church, not just Sunday school, not just in the flock, not just your home group, but in all of our conduct. The apostle says, I want to come under the supremacy of Christ, the lordship of Christ, the holiness of Christ. Verse 16, because it is written, be holy, for I am holy. And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves through the time of your stay here in fear, knowing that you are not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct, received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
He indeed was fore ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested in these last times for you. Verse 21, who through him believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible through the word of God, which lives and abides forever. Because all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever. Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.
Now you are thinking where is this going? Oh yes “the encumbrances” and how can we get rid of them. The text continues – Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby. If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, coming to him as a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
This is what our forefathers who lived here before would tell us who are buried here – use your lips – the fruit of our lips, giving those testimonies to him. Those are those precious acceptable sacrifices.
Now turn a little to the right, still in 1 Peter but look at chapter 2: verse 6, therefore it is also contained in the scripture, behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect precious, and he who believes in Him will by no means be put to shame. Therefore, to you who believe, he is precious. But to those who are disobedient, the stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone and a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense. (Remember the gnashing of teeth and wailing I mentioned.) They stumble being disobedient to the word to which they also were appointed. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Who once were not a people but are now the people of God who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. Then his concluding longing plea to us. Verse 11, “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lust which war against the soul. “
So one day we too will lie in the ground and maybe if we are wise to stand in that great assembly – the congregation of God and witness our children’s children’s effect in society
In closing turn to the right, a little more; to 1 Peter 3: 8 – 21.
Finally, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, affectionate, compassionate, and humble. 3:9 Do not return evil for evil or insult for insult, but instead bless others because you were called to inherit a blessing. 3:10 For the one who wants to love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from uttering deceit.
3:11 And he must turn away from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it.
3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer. But the Lord’s face is against those who do evil.
3:13 For who is going to harm you if you are devoted to what is good? 3:14 But in fact, if you happen to suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. But do not be terrified of them or be shaken. 3:15 But set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts and always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks about the hope you possess. 3:16 Yet do it with courtesy and respect, keeping a good conscience, so that those who slander your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame when they accuse you. 3:17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if God wills it, than for doing evil. 3:18 Because Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust,
to bring you to God, by being put to death in the flesh but by being made alive in the spirit.
3:19 In it he went and preached to the spirits in prison, 3:20 after they were disobedient long ago when God patiently waited in the days of Noah as an ark was being constructed. In the ark a few, that is eight souls, were delivered through water.
Let us thank the LORD our God for His faithfulness and lovingkindness.
Let us – Praise His name!