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Arm Yourselves; 1 Peter 4:1-6 This Is a Letter Written by the Apostle Peter

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Arm Yourselves; 1 Peter 4:1-6 This Is a Letter Written by the Apostle Peter Arm Yourselves; 1 Peter 4:1-6 This is a letter written by the Apostle Peter. Peter was one of Jesus’ disciples, which means everywhere that Jesus went, Peter went, and at all times, Jesus was teaching Peter and the other disciples all about the Kingdom of Heaven and what it looks like to live here as an ambassador for the Kingdom that is to come. After Jesus left to ascend into Heaven, Peter became the leader of the ever-increasing and expanding church of this Kingdom and Peter has travelled to plant and visit churches all over the Roman Empire including the area he mentions he is writing to in V.1, “Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia…” So these are people he knows and loves dearly. Why is he writing to them? Somewhere around 64AD, Emperor Nero started killing Christians; having lions come to eat them alive and burning them alive as a torches for the night as colosseums of Roman citizens watch the circus unfold (Photo). Peter is writing from the capital city, Rome, and scholars believe that about three months after writing this, he would be crucified. These are potentially the last things that Peter will ever get to say to his brothers and sisters, and he knows it. He knows his death is coming. Peter, so submissive to the will of God, so poised and composed in the literal face of death, wants his friends to stand firm in the true grace of God, despite all of the persecution that is coming and that is most likely already happening to them, he wants them to stand firm in the true grace of God and to explain what that looks like, he writes them this letter. Peter writes them, “Suffering in this way, for doing good, is a good thing. Jesus suffered in this same way! We are like our Savior when we suffer wrongly! So in this, remember your identity in Christ, your safety in Christ, that you are a royal priesthood, a holy nation… One day, and it is coming soon for me, we will be with Jesus in glory. Have this mind!” And in our text today, Peter says to them, “Arm yourselves with a way of thinking.” Fight, but not with weapons… Fight with a way of thinking, a mindset. A mindset of what? A mindset of Who. Arm yourselves with the same way of thinking as Christ’s thinking. Why would Peter write this? Let’s read: (1 Peter 4:1-6) Arm yourselves with Christ’s way of thinking so as to live. What is Christ’s way of thinking? In our text, we see two ways: 1) Cease From Sin and 2) Live According to the Will of God. Arm yourselves with Christ’s way of thinking so as to live. 1) Cease From Sin (3) Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking… Here is our main point. Arm yourselves with the same way of thinking… About what? In this context, the present suffering. The utter hell that you are hearing about your brothers and sisters in Christ, the dispersion that you are a part of because of something you were blamed wrongly for, even the death you may have to endure… Think about it the way Christ would think about it. Don’t dilly around with it, arm yourselves, gather the weapons of this mindset in your brain. Why? …for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin… This is about Christ. Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking… Why? For whoever suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. The whoever can only be Jesus because only Jesus has ceased from sin. But this is the mindset, the intent, that we are to arm ourselves with: To the extent Jesus put sin to death, we do the same. To cease from sin is a Greek perfect tense verb, which means at one point in the past, an event happened that has ongoing and continual results. It’s how we know this is about Jesus. This was Jesus’ effectual and lifelong ceasing from sin in order to live a life of perfection before God in the flesh. This past event has ongoing results because it is Christ’s suffering and death that we identify as our own now, in Jesus, and so we die to sin the way Jesus did. Peter’s argument is, since Christ gave Himself to deliver us from the sin which would destroy us, why go back to live in it? In arming ourselves with Christ’s mind, in realizing our new identity in Christ Jesus, we have now therefore, like Christ, in Christ, died to sin. Romans 6: Do you not know that all of us owho have been baptized pinto Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were qburied therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as rChrist was raised from the dead by sthe glory of the Father, we too might walk in tnewness of life. 5 For uif we have been united with him in va death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that wour old self1 xwas crucified with him in order that ythe body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. The question arises, “If we died to sin’s dominion, why do we still struggle with sin in our daily lives?” 1 John says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” So, let’s start with acknowledging this and confessing it before God. Nothing surprises God, so it only serves to deceive ourselves if we remain isolated. If we have given our life to Christ and we know that His death on the cross cancels our sin, then even our sin and sinful hearts are not deal-breakers for God, even though we continue to struggle and fail with sin. It is actually our commitment to trying to work it all out on our own that keeps us from walking with him. The gospel truth is that while God knows our sinful hearts, he deals with us as though we are perfect because of Jesus. We will not begin to deal with our sin if we do not first believe in the gospel of Jesus covering us. But since he has, and he has for those who would believe, we can grow in ceasing from sin. Being completely victorious over all sin will only come in glory and sanctification is a process, but in the power of the Spirit that makes us alive, we can and should see growth in ceasing from or dying to sin. Romans 8: For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you dput to death the deeds of the body, you will live. We arm ourselves with the mind of Christ… Why? Verse two: so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. One of these we die to, one of these we live to. Why? Because one of these leads to guilt and shame and death, and one of these leads to joy and satisfaction and life. What leads to death? Living only for human passions. What are human passions? 3 For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. There was a time that these things were sufficient for them, there was some life to these actions… Peter’s audience has this as their background, they were sexually immoral, drunk, idolaters who worshipped their own pleasure and comfort. But the time is past for these things to bring any worship. Once we believe in Jesus, then whatever it is that unbelievers want to do, whatever it is that unbelievers say brings them life, we are to die to, not because we are following a list of fuddy-duddy rules, but because there is a true and better joy that comes from forsaking these acts. God doesn’t take away our joy in bringing us to faith, but promises us a better joy and pleasure and comfort and life than all of the sin in the world could ever bring! Jesus will be more and do more for us than sin ever could. Arm yourselves with the thinking that Jesus had when it comes to sin. Think of the men and women reading this letter… They are utterly sinful, just like you and I, yet they are reminded of the gospel of Jesus, that the work needed to save them is finished, that they can rest in Jesus. And this is the point of arming ourselves: to strive, to fight, to arm ourselves, to battle for… rest… in Jesus’ finished work on our behalf. The good news of the gospel is not a call for us to strive toward any work to be saved, but to strive to remember the work of Jesus to save us and then live in light of it again and again and again. It is war because we love sin, we don’t want to kill it. The way we kill sin, the way we successfully strive and work to put sin to death is by doing whatever it takes to be more satisfied in Jesus, more restful in Jesus, more content in Jesus than in sin.
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