"Saint Peter", c 1445-1450 by Michele Giambono @ The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.
This is the third post in my series on the Book of 1st Peter. The resources used in this series are sermons from Jamie Rasmussen (Senior Pastor @ Scottsdale Bible Church), Dr. Wayne Grudem's The First Epistle of Peter: An Introduction and Commentary
Here is the link to Jamie Rasmussen's video and/or audio file for this particular sermon.
This past Sunday was a very special day at Scottsdale Bible Church. Hundreds of people came to know the Lord Jesus Christ through a spiritual rebirth and/or made decisions to recommit their lives to the things of Christ.
Weeks ahead of this service, the staff had asked prayer teams to seek God and ask that He would move, in a powerful way, in this particular service. On the day of the service, my wife and I, along with scores of other members of the church were in the choir room praying as Jamie was delivering the message.
At the end of the 8:15 service, generally the smallest service of the day, we were witness to perhaps 100 people who came forward to accept Christ or recommit their lives to Him.
It was a wonder to behold and I am certain that all of heaven was cheering! Please take time to listen to this powerful message.
Please read on to find my notes, from the Book of 1st Peter, on Salvation...
mNotes from Jamie's message:
1.) Salvation is the act of being "born again" by faith in the resurrected Jesus.
1 Peter 1:3 (ESV) "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."
Jamie goes on to explain the difficulty that our culture has with the phrase "born again". Jamie reminds us that Jesus Christ was the author of this phrase in sharing with Nicodemus how to obtain eternal life.
John 3:2-6 (ESV) "This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born again when is is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is forn of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
Jamie goes on to explain that being born is life experiencing life in a new and wondrous transition. Contrary to our culture's behavior, when a baby is in the womb, it is alive. It is a life! The birth process is not new life, but that of a life making the incredible transition to new life.
So then, Jamie contends, this life after birth must once again be born into the spiritual realm through Jesus Christ. Do you see? The Bible teaches that there are two births. One physical and one spiritual.
So how does one experience this new, spiritual birth?
1 Peter 2:24 (ESV) "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed."
Jesus, took upon himself, the sins of the world so that we might experience this new spiritual birth.
Once again, our culture has great difficulty with the idea of Atonement (make restitution for) because our culture doesn't think that sin is a problem. Many believe that they will get to heaven because they are basically good.
The problem, however, is that God has already set the standard. Absolute perfection. God is a holy and just God and can not deal with sin. He must, because of His nature, judge sin. Christ bore this judgment, in our behalf.
Jamie does a wonderful job pointing out to us that we all have sinned and fall short, far short, of the glory of God. The Bible contains over 6,468 commandments. If we break but one, we are toast without the saving grace of God.
How do we obtain eternal life and experience the new birth?
God has laid out a pardon, for all of mankind. We must not simply believe, but accept this pardon (believe in Christ), confess our sinful nature, turn from our sinful ways and seek to live, as Christ would have us, in new life. The new birth.
