Following in His Steps: A Journey Through 1 Peter

If you win your Bibles this morning, turn to 1 Peter chapter

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

2, and we begin our series in the book of 1st Peter.

So we'll be covering this book over the next several weeks and of

course there'll be some interruptions with stewardship and

other special speakers, but we'll begin on our theme verse is

found in verse 21, 1 Peter chapter 2, and verse 21.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

For even to hereunto were ye called because Christ also suffered

for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow in his steps.

So there's where our theme comes from, that ye should follow

in his steps who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth,

who when he was reviled, reviled not again when he suffered,

he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth

righteously, who his own self bare our sins in his own body on

the tree.

That we being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness by

whose stripes ye were healed, for ye were as sheep going astray,

but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, Lord, we come to you tremendous already message

through songs that we've heard.

And Lord, we're so thankful again for the example that your son

set for us that we might follow in his steps.

And Lord, may we see the practical application of that in

our lives throughout this year.

We'll thank you.

In Jesus name, amen.

It was in 2008, I came across a book, and actually it was my mom,

I believe, who I saw this at my mom and dad's house and I mentioned

something to my mom, and my mom was an avid reader, and she said,

that's a great book.

You ought to read it.

And so I grabbed it and I kept it.

You take stuff from your mom and dad's house.

If I find tools and everything, I'll call and say, hey.

Or I'll text the whole group, hey, I cannot find my tool, whatever

it is, fill in the blank.

And usually they come back and say, well, I don't have it.

And then the other son will say, I don't have it.

And the other son will say, I don't have it.

And then a couple hours later, one of them will fess up.

I found it in, you know.

Yeah, that's how it goes.

So anyway, my mom gave me this book.

And so in 2008, I pulled it off the shelf and I read it.

And it just really did have a profound impact on my life at that

moment.

And it really is about, what would Jesus do?

Charles Sheldon was a Pastor and he began a series of messages

on in his steps how we are practically to apply the principles

and the life of Jesus Christ in our everyday life.

And he wrote it in a way that it's like a novel.

And so we have several copies back there.

Encourage you if you would like to.

That's not a whole lot of money.

Seven or eight dollars, I believe.

And you can buy these on Amazon as well.

In his steps by Charles Sheldon.

One of the most sold books in the world.

Probably if it's not the second most book, it's the third.

And so the Bible's number one.

I'm so thankful for that.

Most published book in the world.

And then Pilgrim's Progress is probably number two.

And this is number three.

Over 30 million.

It's just amazing.

It's a good book.

It's an easy read and first time I read it.

So Charles Sheldon wrote this in 1896.

He preached the first one to his congregation.

And it was like a story.

And the story were again ethical, moral stories that followed

the principles found in the word of God.

But it was practically laid out so that it hit home, you know,

what does it mean when the Bible says thou shalt not steal?

And he would tell a moral story about that, a biblical story

or a moral story, and then apply it to the congregation.

And of course the kids loved it.

And the word of God was preached and the house was packed

and the church, in fact, it was overflowing.

And even in the time, just within a few weeks after the series

was done, 100,000 copies were sold.

He ended up not owning the copyright, received zero money from

it.

Sixteen publishers published it, even back in the early, early

1900s.

And he, as a pastor later told a particular news organization, I'm

glad I didn't own the copyright.

Had I owned the copyright, one publisher would have published it.

It would have been a minimal publication.

But because I didn't own the copyright, 16 publishers published

it.

And again, millions and millions of copies were sold around

the world.

Had a profound impact.

What would Jesus do?

And really, that phrase, and though I'm sure has been used since

the time of Jesus, but really Charles Sheldon is kind of given

the credit for using that in publication.

You know, maybe even for the first time.

What would Jesus do?

I'm thankful this morning, I know that religion does not save.

Religion is a set of rules, and a set of rules does not save.

You cannot work your way to heaven.

You cannot keep this law and that law and this law and make your

way to heaven.

The Bible Says we're all sinners.

We all cannot, we cannot, we will not keep the law without fail.

And because of that, we're sin.

And the Bible says the wages of sin is death.

But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

And so I'll go into that a little more in a minute.

But we know that Christian, the word Christian means Christlike.

They were called Christians first at Antioch.

That's found in Acts 11, verse 26.

Acts 11:26

Christian.

The word Christian.

The name Christian means an imitator of Christ.

And we, as born again believers are to imitate Jesus Christ,

we are to again follow in his steps.

But what does it mean to imitate Christ?

And though here at our church we do say that a lot, and we make

sure we say it a lot because we believe Christianity is Christ,

it is Christ, and that our lives ought to be lived around the

life of Jesus Christ.

But Peter helps us to know exactly what that looks like.

And we'll be covering that throughout the year as we follow

and as we study his particular epistle.

It's to live righteously in the midst of adversity.

It's to live a life that's mirrored in the life of Jesus Christ.

It's to keep Christ in view as we traverse through this life, his

character and his conduct.

Again, Christ being our example of how we are to respond

to adversity and evangelize the lost.

Our lives are made up of big things and small things.

Usually the big things in life are minimal.

Three or four or five big things in our life, and then a thousand

little things.

A thousand little things.

We think about the subject of the family, how important life and

our family is a part of our life.

We think about our job in connection with our family, because

we need a job in order to take care of our family.

And then if you go down the list, we think about food.

Of course, every sermon of mine has to include food, and food

is important for life.

But in order to feed our family, we have to have a job, to

make money and in order to provide food for our family.

And then, you know, a bed, a bed for our family, for our kids

to have a bed and a place to sleep.

And we have to buy a mattress and we have to buy sheets, and we

have to maybe buy a pillowcase for them if it'll stay on.

I'm just saying the little things we think about, the little

things are connected to the big things in life, but the big things

really are minimal.

And when it comes right down to it, how many Big things in life

that, that we have that again, all the thousands of small things

are underneath those main priorities.

And how were we to conduct ourselves when it comes to not only

the big things, but all of these small things.

We studied.

And one year our theme was one thing out of Philippians, this one

thing I do.

And we made the statement many times that we are pulled in all directions

when it comes to life.

Man, you have this pulling you a job, pulling you family, pulling

you church, pulling you on and on and on, all these priorities pulling

on you.

And you're just.

You want to please everybody or you're trying to please everybody,

but really you only got to please one.

This one thing I do, and that's to please Jesus Christ.

If you'll please the Lord, everything else will fall in place

if you put him.

Priorities.

Seek those things which are above.

Set your affection on things above.

Out of the book of Colossians.

Then everything else will fall into place again.

The big things will take care of the little things.

Priorities in life.

We could sit down and talk, and I could for hours talk about

all the laws that are found in the Bible, all the principles that

are found in the Bible.

And we could make a list.

And we do make a list.

And I think it's important that we understand that a preacher

ought to get up every.

And he ought to, at many points, point to the list.

Now there's not shy away from preaching against something or preaching

for something.

Amen.

Especially the day and hour which we live in.

In fact, in Peter it will address in chapter two and also in

chapter one how our relationship to our government should

be.

And by the way, it makes it very clear in 1 Peter 1 and 1 Peter

2 and 1 Peter 3, it brings it up again that we ought to obey those

who have authority over us.

Yeah.

Somebody tells you a policeman tells you to stop, you know, tells

you to, you should.

Pretty common sense to me.

Amen.

The Bible makes that clear.

I'm not talking about.

I'm saying I'm kind of being whatever because of what's going

on in our country.

But we're to obey those submit to the authority that's over us.

What if they're wrong?

It doesn't say that anywhere in there.

It just says, obey them.

It's tough.

So we could come up with all the do's and don'ts in the Bible.

But the overwhelming driving force, the Christian life should

not be the do's and don'ts.

As far as how I conduct myself, no.

The overall driving force should Be in my own life is the focus

that I have on Jesus Christ.

And the overall focus on him drives every area of my life.

What would Jesus do?

And I know that's a popular.

And sometimes it becomes a little, you know, it's used so much,

it doesn't have quite the teeth it used to have, but it's absolutely

biblical.

Would Jesus go where I'm going?

Would Jesus say to my spouse what I just said?

Would Jesus treat my children as I just treated them?

Or would he talk to my boss the way I talk to my boss?

Or on and on and on?

What would Jesus do?

How would he do it?

What would he say?

And this is the theme this year that we, as Peter has said,

should follow in his steps, following the steps of Jesus Christ.

First off, we see that Christ suffered for us.

Look at the verse.

Look back at the verse, verse 21.

For even hereunto were you called, because Christ also suffered

for us.

He suffered for us.

He was our example.

Peter, one of the apostles who wrote this book, was a fisherman.

He was passionate.

All of us would agree to that.

He had foot and mouth disease.

Remember, in Matthew 16, we quote the verse all the time.

Verse 16, chapter 16, verse 18.

Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.

Jesus said to him, what does it say before and after?

Well, Jesus asked the question, whom do men say that I

am?

And Peter stood up and said, thou art the Christ, the son of the

living God.

And Jesus said, flesh and blood hath not revealed that unto

you, but my Father, which is in heaven.

And Peter, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.

He talks about the keys.

But then just another verse down, he begins to explain in verse

21, Matthew 16, that he was going to die.

Jesus began to say, I am going to go to Jerusalem.

I am going to die.

Peter said, thou shalt not be unto thee.

In other words, no, you're not, Lord.

No, you're not.

And what did that mean?

We're just talking three or four verses down, and in the same

area of conversation, the same conversation they were having, where

Jesus said to him, flesh and blood have not revealed this unto

you, Peter, but my Father, which is in heaven.

And then in the three verses down or four verses down, he says,

get thee behind me, Satan.

As he points to Peter, that was Peter.

He.

He had foot and mouth disease.

Peter, get thee.

Because Peter said, no, no, Lord, you're not going to go die.

In another area, another scripture, Peter said, you're not

going to die on my Watch.

No, no, no.

He said, I would die.

I'll die for you.

I'll do it.

I mean, I will.

And then we know that he denied Jesus three times there at

the trial.

So Peter again was passionate.

He was he again.

Big highs and some big lows.

And as you read.

As you read the Gospels and you see the life of Peter in the

Gospels, you realize that Peter just didn't quite grasp what

was really going on.

By the way, none of the apostles did, maybe except John.

No, no, Jesus was going to die.

But Peter's understanding of Christ's death and his suffering

was limited.

But now as you read the book of first Peter, he understands.

He understands the reality of what Jesus did.

And then you read for even hereunto were you called because

Christ also suffered.

It doesn't end there.

What does it say?

Say it, class.

What is it for us?

Say that together for us.

Say it.

He suffered for us.

Imagine Jesus Christ, the greatest teacher of all time, being

killed by man.

Being killed by man.

The passionate teacher, the tender teacher.

The teacher who was kind and gracious and gentle and healed the

sick and the lame and all these great things he did.

And they killed him.

Man killed him.

God allowed it.

If that's all there is to it, that would seem ludicrous and certainly

not right.

Right.

But you add on the word the little statement for us, it changes

the whole thing.

No, he didn't just suffer.

He suffered beyond any man who's ever suffered.

That's what the Bible says.

He died the death, even the death of the cross.

He did not suffer just all that physical suffering.

He went through the, the whipping and the spitting and all

the.

In fact that they could not even recognize him as a man.

Didn't have the strength to carry his cross up the hill.

No, it was more than the suffering that he went through physically.

The Bible says that God the Father laid on His Son the iniquity

of us all see, the suffering we cannot see and they did not see

is far more than what the physical anguish and pain that he

went through.

It was the rejection of God the Father, not of Jesus, not of

His Son, but the sin that was laid upon him.

So much so that God his Father turned his back on him there on the

cross.

Paul in his writings dwells a lot on the death of Christ and Peter

does too.

But Peter's more so leans towards and emphasizes the suffering

that Jesus went through.

It's amazing how we can assent to the physical death of Jesus and

sometimes not even bring an emotional response from us.

But if you describe the suffering he went through, the lashing

on his back by the Roman.

By the Roman soldier, all the things that he suffered, the crown

of thorns on his head.

And I wish I was better at describing it.

I wish I was a better storyteller.

Man, I've heard pastors who can do that, and, man, they go through

the suffering and people begin to cry in the audience.

If you describe the suffering, because it moves you emotionally,

especially moves you emotionally if you're a little older

and you've experienced loved ones who've died and how many of

y' all getting that way as you get older?

It affects me more.

In fact, I'll tell you, it affects me a lot more.

Greater understanding of losing a loved one, especially one

who suffered as he suffered.

And so Peter deals with more so the suffering of Christ than the

death of Christ.

Again, the key here is he died, he suffered for us.

Oh, I love that old hymn.

Oh, the love that drew salvation's plan.

Listen now closely.

Oh, the love that drew.

If you could draw a picture of salvation's plan.

Oh, the grace, unmerited favor not earned that brought it down from

heaven to man.

Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span.

What gulf?

The gulf between God and man.

Where?

At Calvary.

At Calvary.

That's the love of Jesus.

And that he would give his life and suffer anguish and agony,

not just physically, but emotionally, relationally.

His father turns his back on him, and yet he looks through time.

He saw his seed.

He prolonged his days.

He stayed on the cross for us.

For us, for you, for me.

He died, he suffered.

He gave his life for us.

To do What?

Well, verse 24.

Look with me.

First Peter, chapter 2, verse 41, 24. Who his own self bare our

sins in his own body on the tree.

Again, our sins laid upon him.

Not just your sins, not just my sins, but the sins of the whole

world, past, present and future, were laid upon him.

That we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness, by

whose stripes ye were healed.

By the way, it's quoting the verse I just quoted from Isaiah 53.

He suffered and died for us.

He died, paid the penalty for our sins in our place.

So he suffered for us.

Why?

That he might give us an example.

That he might be an example.

Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example.

I think about again, the example of Jesus Christ.

Again, all the principles and presets found in the Bible are good.

In fact, God said to Israel, I have given you all these rules for

your good.

We give our children Rules for their good.

Can I get a witness?

Some of our kids need to be reminded of that.

Love you.

No, we give them boundaries for their good.

We're protecting them.

And God gave rules to the children of Israel.

And by the way, rules to us to protect us, whether it's to do something

or not do something.

But again, more so than that, in the New Testament, we have this

example to follow, more so than drawing out and listing every

do and every don't.

In the Bible, we can follow the example of Christ.

We can follow his life, his gracious words, his gentle deeds,

his wisdom, his tenderness.

Man, the life of Jesus, what an example.

Our lives should be molded and shaped by his life.

The word example there, the definition is a thing to be retained.

How many of y' all used the Big Chief tablets in school?

Yeah.

Good.

Yeah.

In fact, I was still part of that era.

So Big Chief Tablet and the Big Chief tablets would have in the

front of them or whatever.

They would have all the Alphabet.

Remember that?

And what did your teacher tell you to do?

You had to trace the A and you had to trace the B.

You wrote over the top of the letter.

You traced it, you traced it, you traced it, you traced it, you

traced it and you traced it and you traced it.

And I had add.

And so it just became so mundane and so boring.

Then you would turn it in and you'd get a grade on how well you

traced it, how well you followed the line, how well you followed

the angles, how well you made the corner, right?

And you got, you know, whether you got a feeling grade or you got

a 80.

I mean, they used to get grades and those little grades.

And now, anyway, we do it.

We do it.

Heritage, but hca, just messing with y' all now.

But you traced it and you traced it and you traced it and you

did it over and over.

And you turn it in again, and the teacher would say, oh, that's

a little better, Eric.

That's a little better.

Maybe you can do a little better.

Try again, and you do a little better.

It's kind of like when you try to teach your kid to color.

And you're trying to stay within the lines, Billy.

That's what you're supposed to do.

You stay within the lines, and you're trying really hard to stay

within the lines.

It's tracing over the picture.

Tracing on top of retaining that image.

That's what our life is supposed to be in.

Jesus Christ.

We're supposed to mirror him.

We're supposed to look like him.

When you look at our life and how we live our life.

It should look like what he would live in every area of our lives,

retaining the image of Jesus Christ.

We were being conformed by the Holy Spirit into the image of Jesus

Christ to make our life exactly the same as Jesus Christ,

who is our pattern for life to follow in his steps.

I was trying to think of the different times in which somebody

has told me, you know, hey, walk behind me, following my steps.

And I have too many illustrations of it.

And all of you could think about something in your life where

you've been told to follow somebody's steps, maybe in the snow

or the ice, or maybe it was on a rocky precipice.

One time I went Boulder hiking at night at youth camp.

We snuck out, and I'm the preacher's kid, too, so it's a bad

deal.

I was influenced by the deacons kids, and by the way, half

the workers of camp went with.

They're the ones leading us.

And we went through the Boulder hike up in Colorado.

Some of y' all been up there years ago, and just big old boulders

piled on top of each other.

We did it at night.

And the guy who worked for the camp said, you follow me, do exactly

what I do.

I will tell you exactly what to do.

And it wasn't just about following steps.

It was about putting your back up against this rock and you had

to shimmy across this little area.

But he said, you follow everything, you'll be fine following.

You follow the guide.

You follow in the steps of the guide who's already been there, who

already knows the path, who already knows every crack, every

crevice, every nook and cranny of where we're going.

If I follow him and do what he says.

There's safety in that.

There's comfort in that.

I would tell you, humanly speaking, I was still scared.

But aren't we as well in the Christian life, too?

Though sometimes we shouldn't be.

But Jesus Christ already knows what's around the corner in your

life.

He already knows what's going to happen tomorrow in your life.

And we're to follow in his steps where he is to be our guide.

And in that guide, unlike a human guide who may make a mistake,

God never makes a mistake.

Christ never takes the wrong step.

And if we'll just.

He made a pattern for me there, you know, he already went

6 inches in the snow.

He knows what's underneath there.

And now he's.

And I just follow him.

There's comfort.

There's comfort in that.

There's care in that, there's safety in that.

And then lastly to follow in his steps.

Unlike other religions, by the way, there's a lot of good teachers

out there.

By the way, there's good teachers in other religions.

In other words, you could say, well, he is a good example of how

I would want to live.

There's other religions that have that as well.

Other people who would say, well, I'm following this example,

I want to be like this person.

But there is a huge difference when it comes to Christianity.

See, all those other religions will give you a set of rules and

a pattern to follow, but no power to keep it.

No power to do it, by the way.

No power to want to do it.

What's so amazing about a life with Jesus Christ and a life given

to Jesus Christ and a life that's following in the steps of

Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ is that when I get saved, when I accept

him as Savior, he suffered for me, he suffered for us, he died for

us.

He gave his life for us.

And when we reach out to him and when we accept him as our Savior

and he rescues us from sin and he rescues us from the penalty of

sin and we are passed from death unto life and we begin to follow

the Savior, he gives us a new want to.

The things I used to do, I don't want to do them anymore.

When I got saved, there was a great change since I've been born

again.

And I can read this book and it does have a lot of biblical principles

and it does use the Bible in many, many places.

But can I tell you this book and its stories have no power?

No, no, no, no.

The Bible, the Bible says it is powerful and sharper than any

two edged sword.

Power.

It's dynamite.

It has the power to give you the strength and grace you need to

follow in the steps of Jesus.

Others may inspire, other books may inspire.

I've watched some good movies, Facing the Giants and many other

good movies that inspired me.

But there's no power in those movies.

There's no, there's no, by the way, there's no will to do in those

movies.

But there is here.

When I got saved, I received a new nature.

I became a partaker of the divine nature of God.

The Holy Spirit resides in me.

The Bible says the Holy Spirit lives in you.

The Bible says Christ lives in you.

The Bible says God lives in you.

Realize that the Trinity and again the Holy Spirit is there to

comfort us and help us and encourage us and strengthen us.

Give us the power we need to live out the Christian life again.

Jesus Christ paid for our sins, suffered for us that he might

be in our example.

What does that mean?

Well, selfless example, living a selfless life, being selfless with

our spouse and being selfless with our kids and being selfless

in our workplace, being selfless with our neighbor, treating

others as we want to be treated, following in the steps of

Jesus.

It's copying the letter and copying the letter and copying and

just keep copying it, keep copying it.

You'll never get perfect at it.

There'll always be one little jot or one little this not exactly

on the line.

But I'm going to keep at it.

And I'm thankful I have the Holy Spirit who strengthens and guides

me and helps me.

And the longer and the more I follow in the steps of Jesus, relying

upon him, relying on the Holy Spirit, the more I will be conformed

into his image.

Salvation makes a change in us.

Truly ought to ask the question, as you live throughout

this year, what would Jesus do?

What would he do?

What would he do in the situation you may be in today, how

would he handle it?

What would he say?

That's what you should do.

You say, well, I'm not sure.

I'm not sure.

I'm not sure.

Well, pray, Lord, show me.

Show me what to do, Lord.

Help me to say the right thing.

Help me to live, talk, care like Jesus.

Help me to follow in his steps.

Let's all stand.