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Well, thank you so much for indulging me by allowing us to sing even a 19th century hymn. As Glen has said what troubles me as I go around the churches is that our range of hymns has become fairly limited even on this subject. So the greatest hymn perhaps in the English language when I survey the wondrous cross has almost become hackneyed so much

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do we use it and it would be good to give it a rest from time to time so that it can come back in its lovely and wonderful form to be a blessing to us. In order to give it a rest we need some more hymns and if we have to go I'm glad Glen referred to Thomas Kelly as a poet yes that is poetry he's given us there it may not be the greatest I think

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it's pretty good but you may not be the greatest well we don't we don't need more tunes myths I think we've got some of those we need more poets people who will actually write good lyrics for us and not just do da do da do da and sort of a religious set if you notice that that's no I won't go on. One of the great glories of Protestant evangelicalism

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is our corporate hymn singing our corporate hymn singing not music played for us but our corporate great hymn singing that's one of our glories and we lose it at our peril I think to sing the praise of him who died of him who died upon the cross it combines both intellect and emotion in a lovely way brings it together a lot of Bible references in that I don't know if

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you noticed but there's a number of Bible references that lie behind it in that particular one and if you know your Bible well enough you'll see how he's woven together some of the great passages in the scriptures and I think some of the best hymns and hymn writers do that. I'm not saying all modern ones are no good that's ridiculous I too think that Simon Town End is

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great and some of his hymns are terrific and other ones as well we've been blessed with them not against modern hymns and songs we have some terrific ones and people like Ruth Buchanan for example is written some marvelous music to make some of the old songs come alive again but do let's broad now range join in singing as one of the great things that we do as a body singing as a body

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don't let's be drowned out by enthusiastic musicians from the front and let's for heaven's sake and I use the words advisedly let's for heaven's sake at least pray and hope and seek out poets he'll be able to set our faith into the words that'll enlighten our intellects and delight our hearts so that we can sing the praises of God in a way that does honor to him and is a blessing

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to us wouldn't that be great well tell him make going to church easier and okay did I say something wrong I love going to church really now I do love going to church but some bits of it get I get a bit tired of and okay Peter and his keys now it's not me I mean Saint Peter the one who used popular imagination stands at the gate of heaven with these keys and allow some people in

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and some people out it all goes back to Matthew 16 as you doubtless are aware Matthew 16 where the Lord where Peter confesses you are the Christ the Son of the living God and verse 17 Jesus replied blessed to you Simon Barjona and he says I tell you verse 18 you are Peter and on this rocket I think it is the rock of Peter by the way on this rock I will build my church and the gates

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of Hades will not overcome it I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven he says now it doesn't say heaven that picture of Peter standing at the gate of heaven is a misunderstanding the keys of the kingdom of heaven keys to the rule of God keys to the you know if you're a Christian you're inside the kingdom if you're not a Christian you're outside the kingdom it's the kingdom

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of God or the kingdom of heaven whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven whatever you loose on earth will be loose in heaven as a striking promise to the apostle Peter and of course the promise came true it's not as though we're waiting for it to come true for it's by no accident that as we turn to the acts of the apostles we see Peter exercising his keys turning the keys in the

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lock he did it by preaching he did it by declaring the wonders of the coming of the kingdom of God he did it by declaring that if you have faith in Jesus then you are saved he opened the doors opened the gates of the kingdom of heaven and he did it through his preaching and he was given the assurance given the right as an apostle of Jesus did it clear that you are saved if you

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repent and to declare that you are not saved if you refuse to submit to the Lord Jesus so it's by the preaching and teaching of the apostle that he uses his keys and furthermore Peter occupies a special place because if you think of the first the opening chapters of the acts of the apostles read through the first 10 chapters and you'll get Peter preaching on the day of Peter cost

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what a privilege he had to preach on the day of Peter cost and then lo and behold Peter's story almost comes to an end in chapter 10 when he is given the immense privilege of preaching to the Gentiles Cornelius and opening the kingdom of heaven so that the Gentiles represented here by most of us I guess there should be some Jewish Christians here but most of us represented by

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that great vast throng of people who come in to the kingdom because the Lord put it into Peter's heart to go and preach the gospel to Cornelius the sort of a prototype Gentile and so Peter indeed does play a really pivotal role in the way in which the kingdom of God is launched into the world and hence I think that's the fulfillment of the promise given there now we're going to look at

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Peter tonight yes it is the apostle Peter it's not Saint Peter that's me it's the apostle Peter that's him and we are going to look at Peter and Peter's witness and testimony to the death of the Lord Jesus and Peter has some wonderful things for us to say about and to to Lumen and help us to understand the death of Jesus and frankly I'm immensely excited as we begin this exploration

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because he has so much to tell us that will illumine us and strengthen us and delight us about the death of pivotal moments in human history the death of the Lord Jesus Christ that is the end of the introduction Christine please note okay running argument I have with my wife first of all then fulfilling the word that's turned not to one and two Peter where you may think we would turn

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first of all but rather let's turn to the actual apostles because those first 10 or 11 chapters of the actual apostles Peter has a lot to say so let's turn to what the Peter says in the opening chapters of the acts of the apostles as he turns the key as he uses his key to open the kingdom of heaven to all believers now the interesting thing is and he has quite a number of speeches here

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in the actual apostles beginning public speeches beginning with the day of Pentecost of course turned to chapter 2 the interesting thing here is that there's not much theology in it we look and long for him to explain the cross he tends to simply refer to the cross rather than explain it your modern preacher couldn't stop as this preacher can't stop telling you what the

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cross is all about what signifies what it means Peter doesn't do that he more or less simply refers to the cross and to what happens in the cross so for example in Acts chapter 2 this is the great Pentecost speech he simply says men of Israel verse 22 listen to this Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles wonders and signs which God did among you through

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him as you yourselves know this man was handed over to you by God set purpose and foreknowledge and you were the help of wicked men put him to death by nailing him on the cross but God raised him from the dead now I would never have said that that wouldn't have been my sermon I would have said this man with with the help you were the help of wicked men put him to death by nailing him on the

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cross and there he became a sacrifice for our sins and I want to explain to you sacrifice at the moment and explain that it's a propitiation sacrifice and not an expiation say I would have gone off onto all the meaning of the death of Jesus he never did well not according to this record here he simply and it occurs again and again this is not an accident he simply refers to it he says

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you put him to death but God raised him from the dead freeing him from the agony of death it was impossible for death to hold him and he quotes a bit of the Old Testament in fact his sermon is full of quotes from the Bible one way or another well this is the way the acts unfolds most of it or very little of it appears to be given over to explaining the significance of the death of Jesus

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and indeed the same thing is true of the gospels in their own way next week we'll be looking at one of the gospels and seeing how it describes the death of Jesus and it too the gospels two seem to have little particularly the first three seem to have little in the way of explanation of the death of Jesus why is that well it's because we're looking for a certain explanation and we're missing the

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explanation they give which is in a sense at no more basic one it was the one they had to give first of all it's so obvious to us that we just jump over it and say well come on we'd like to get on to the second course here but the first course is pretty important and Peter Shaw isn't going to be explaining propiciation and redemption and all those words to us yet because he has an even more

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fundamental point to make and that is what I've called here fulfilling the word fulfilling the word you see again and again in those first four chapters the Acts of the Apostles when he tells the Jesus story he is telling the story of the great know and the great yes and take the bit we just had a look at for example Acts chapter 2 and verse 23 following he describes there the great know

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this man was handed over to you by God set purpose and foreknowledge and you with the help of wicked men for that read Pontius Pilate and the Romans with the help of wicked men put him to death by nailing him on the cross now if you think of who it was that put him to death by nailing him on the cross it was first and foremost the very nation prepared by God by covenantal instruments over

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the years the very cradle of Jesus the very nation prepared the very nation who in its scriptures had the sort of foreshadowing of Jesus the very nation that knew all about the sacrificial system that knew all about Isaiah 53 and the prophetic words the very nation that that had a sort of Jesus shaped whole in its expectations and this was the nation you with the help of wicked men nailed

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him to the cross so here was Jesus offered to them and they with the Bible in their hand didn't recognize him and actually utterly rejected him it wasn't just a no it was a resounding thumping great big no but not just it's no good saying that well that was Israel and if we'd been there would have done better because clearly it was by the hands of wicked men in other words the Romans who

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put him to death represent of the rest of us it was not just Israel that put him to death it was it was humanity it was the resounding no of humanity that said we do not want this man to be king over us you present yourself as the king in God's kingdom and we say no you're not and we're going to crucify you and mock your pretensions to be king furthermore as Peter says

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extending words here aren't they look at 23 again and just think of them this man was handed over to you by God said purpose and for knowledge the no of Israel and the no of the rest of us coincided with the no of God because God set this whole thing up and you are simply in a sense

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part of that unfolding plan of God that there be a great no over this man and again if you want to go back into your Old Testament into you Deuteronomy I think I'm right in Saint Deuteronomy 21 in fact I'm going to ask Glent I meant to get the reference I think it's Deuteronomy 21-22 cursed be everyone who hangs on the tree that'll set him going for a few hours

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you'll find it I don't doubt it cursed be everyone who hangs on the tree the Old Testament scriptures themselves really testified that anyone who was crucified or hanged or there was a put the death of a tree was cursed by God 21-23 thank you Deuteronomy 21-23 if you're making notes note that down because that's a that verse turns up several times as it was bound

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to do in the New Testament because how could you explain that how could you explain that anyone hanged on the tree is cursed by God and here you are busy promoting a Messiah who was hanged on a tree how could this be so here we have the coincidence of not the coincidence but the coincidence of the human and divine will in the great no how then does the Apostle finish his

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sermon and have a look at verse 36 therefore let all Israel be assured of this God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ how then does he come to the conclusion that this great no was only the beginning of a great yes over the life of Jesus and such a great yes that he is not simply resurrected from the dead I mean Lazarus was resurrected from the dead

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resurrection doesn't mean you're going to be resurrected from the dead it not going to make you Messiah or something we're all going to be resurrected from the dead according to the Bible so resurrection isn't what made Jesus Lord but resurrection was God's great yes to Jesus and then followed by his crowning of Jesus he has made him both Lord and Christ this Jesus

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whom you crucified so the divine plan certainly was that he should die but the divine plan went beyond the human plan the the human plan was that he should die and stay dead the divine plan was that he should die and be resurrected and become Lord and King of all that was the true divine word by resurrection now furthermore the Apostle is saying and this was all clear beforehand this

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does not catch us by surprise if you read your scriptures what we call the Old Testament if you read your scriptures you'll see that really all this was announced by God beforehand and that is why both in if you have a look at verse 25 David said about him I saw the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand I will not be shaken etc etc first 27 you were not abandoned

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me to the grave nor will you let your Holy One see decay he said look it was there already announced by God as to what he was paying to do likewise verse 34 where again he demonstrates the Lordship of Christ by an appeal to scripture and indeed the whole thing is is set in terms of scripture go back to verse 17 this or verse 16 verse 16 this is what was spoken by the prophet

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Joel this is that so to speak what you're seeing is that which was set out in advance God not only determined that he told us what he was going to do in the last days God said I will pour it my spirit on all people and so fourth verse 19 I will show wonders in the heaven above signs in the earth below blood and fire and billows of smoke the sun will be turned to darkness the moon to

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blood he's using the sort of typical apocalyptic language of the prophets to describe the death of Jesus really the great act that God has done in and through Jesus so really the key thing why the Apostle Peter wasn't busy explaining propitiation and redemption and and the intricacies of limited atonement or something like this as I might have done is that he's making the fundamental

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point that what you see in the death of Jesus has been planned by God it is part of God's work in the world hasn't caught by God by surprise it hasn't sort of been so opposed to God's will that he was against it and stood helplessly by but no in this evil work of human beings we see what they meant for evil God meant for good what they meant for evil God meant for good

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and it's happening right here and that was the point Peter made and it's still a very important point indeed now the second element of this is what I call the Gentile breakout the Gentile breakout and here of course I'm referring to Cornelius chapter 10 you could look at quite a number of other references I don't have time to look at them now but if you look at Peter's speeches now

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between Acts 2 and Acts 10 you'll see again and again a constant explanation of what has happened in terms of what the Bible already said would happen that was the point he had to make and then lo and behold the astonishing breakout towards the Gentiles Cornelius breakout chapter 10 and 11 have a look at chapter 10 as he explains the gospel to Cornelius chapter 10 verses 41 to 46

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chapter 10 41 to 46 it says we're witnesses to everything go back to 39 we're witnesses of everything Jesus did in the country of the Jews in Jerusalem they killed him by hanging him on a tree but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen he was not seen by all the people but by witnesses whom God had already chosen by those of us who ate and drank after he

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rose from the dead he commanded us to preach to the people and testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living of the dead and all the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name there you see it again the prophets have testified about him what we see is the fulfillment of prophecy occurring here and what we

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see is that all who believe in him will receive forgiveness what benefit does the death of Jesus bestow what comes to us from the death of Jesus well there are many benefits but particularly in the acts of the apostles what Peter says here is the key point forgiveness of sins the whole structure of the world's history runs towards a great judgment day we will be condemned or

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acquitted on the judgment day the death of Jesus secures for those who repent and turn to Christ forgiveness of sins whatever else the death of Jesus is about and it could be about a lot of things for example it could be about the way in which God himself understands suffering from the inside it could be about telling us that God is love it could be about giving us an example could be all

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those things but whatever else is about it is and must be about the forgiveness of sins that's what the death of Jesus secured for you well if you don't want it don't bother with it don't worry about Jesus don't bother to think about him any longer if you don't think you need forgiveness well there's nothing in Jesus for you but if you recognize that you are guilty not just feel guilty

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but are guilty that if you had to come up to the day of judgment on your own and try to argue your own case that it would be a failure if you realize that you have to make peace with your accuser while you're in the way as Jesus said then the death of Jesus is for you because it is only through the death of Jesus that the benefit of forgiveness of sins comes and the prophets told us

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so now the importance of that before I fly on to the next point well it's this how do we know how do we know that God is there how do we know that Jesus is truly the Son of God how do you know that your sins are forgiven well the fundamental in the Bible the fundamental structural way of you knowing this is that you see that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies

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you see that the Old Testament is pointing inevitably to Jesus that's our great portal to this day with many Jewish people they say no I say our Bible does not point to Jesus Christians say our Bible your Bible does point to Jesus that's why I'm a Christian in the end because I believe that the prophets of the Old Testament are fulfilled in what happened to

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Jesus that's why they were Christians that's why they believed and that was the point that Peter was making how could it be that the great no over Jesus was actually a yes well there was the resurrection but more fundamental than that there was the point that God had said that's what he would do and he did it you see the gods of the nations can't do that idols can't do that no one

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controls the future no human being no divine being controls the future only God controls the future only he can say I'm going to do this and then do it he does that and that's the structure of your Bible and that's the fundamental reason why we are Christians because we believe God has said something then he's done it and that doing of it is Jesus so that's why the actual apostles

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is teaching us this fundamental bit of atonement theology now let's turn to what Peter wrote in one Peter it's to the right hand end of the Bible in case you're not clear I always have trouble fighting it I know when I get to Hebrews I've gone I need to go further I never did learn I never did learn all the books of the Bible sometimes when I get bored in the airplane I say to myself

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right okay I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna say all the books of the Bible in order you know Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteron, they're the easy ones okay and I go through the New Testament first and eventually I get them in place as I know there's 27 but I often forget you know phileumen or something like this I struggle to go from 25 to 27 and then the old

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Testament I struggle from about 34 to 39 I know there's I know there's 39 but there's books I just I just always forget don't about you and I've never learnt them off my heart that's my trouble looking up the table of contents is always a good thing to do okay if you all got it now one Peter okay now in one Peter we see three emphases that I want in fact two Peter has one reference

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to the death of Jesus I'm not going to refer to that tonight I don't think but that's not so significant it's really one Peter and I'm gonna do it under these three headings here that you see following the Lord focusing the cross failing the Lord okay first of the then following the Lord and under that a b in c is that right if you got all that hope so well that's last we're

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hang on a minute I want to see what you've got now let's hear something nice that's pretty good okay right stop fooling around and get on with it okay what we saw Peter talking about in the actual apostles surprise surprise is what he talks about here it's the same person it ought into surprises so the first thing we see is that the death of Jesus is in accordance with God's

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plan made and announced have a look for example at chapter one verses 10 to 12 he talks about salvation the salvation of your souls verse nine then concerning this salvation the prophets who spoke of the grace that was to come to you searched intently with the greatest care trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the spirit of Christ in them was pointing

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when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories it would follow it was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you and they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven even angels long to look into these things so there you are the spirit of Christ interesting isn't it spirit

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of Christ there by the way I won't comment further on that but it's an interesting little point the spirit of Christ within the prophets was talking to them about the sufferings of Christ and they were intensely interested to know when those sufferings would occur because that was going to be the great pivotal moment in human history Peter is again talking about the way the

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word was fulfilled in the death and resurrection of course of the Lord Jesus or look at verse 20 he that is Jesus was chosen before the creation of the world that fits in again with the the pentecost chosen before the creation of the world but revealed in these last times for your sake and so forth or I have a look at chapter 2 verses 68 chapter 2 verses 68 now again a whole

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reference to some significant scriptures which are saying to us look the Old Testament scriptures had this Jesus picture ready for him to come see I lay in verse 6 see I lay in stone in Zion a chosen and precious cornerstone the one who trust in him will never be put to shame then go on a little further the stone the builders rejected the stone the builders rejected has become the head of the

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corner the capstone and again a stone that causes men to stumble a rock that makes them full now those little references there those particular scriptures are fairly frequently mentioned in the New Testament they are obviously part of what the Christians saw in the Old Testament as predicting Jesus the stone which the builders rejected has become the head they saw that he they saw that

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as Jesus the prophetic word about the Lord Jesus wasn't just Peter who used it though it is it turns up in several places in the New Testament so again he's he says to us if you want to understand the death of Jesus you've got to understand it through the Old Testament by the way interesting isn't it when we translate where would you if you had the job of translating the Bible into a new

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language where would you begin and where would you end well that's a I don't know if you've ever thought about that which gospel you know it gives away doesn't which gospel you would begin with the gospel wouldn't you begin with you wouldn't begin with one Peter perhaps you begin with a gospel I don't know which gospel you might begin with Mark I suppose that's the shortest Luke because

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it's the longest John because it's so theological and I don't know where would you begin you begin somewhere there but where would you end well unfortunately many of the translations into the world's languages have stopped with the gospels or they've stopped with the New Testament can you imagine reading your New Testament without the Old Testament you see it's inconceivable it how can you do it

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because again and again in the New Testament things are explained because through the Old Testament the two things are planned by God to hold together and I'll understand the death of Jesus you must know something about your Old Testament and so when we leave a tribe or a people with only a New Testament we are really making the New Testament almost unintelligible and making christianity

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very difficult for them but we do it frequently because we run out of time and energy and money even now I think I'm right in saying that only on the verge of having the first aboriginal language Bible published in his entirety am I right I think I'm right in saying that go to summer school I'm right yes I am right I've been affirmed they're quite correct now in order to understand the death

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of Jesus we understand it through what the Old Testament not only through but through the what the Old Testament teaches now God's man plan was made and announced beforehand God's plan produces God's people have a look at chapter one verses one and two there is dispute but I think this book of one Peter was probably written to Gentiles some people think they were written only to Jews

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I think probably mainly to Gentiles and have a look at how they described Peter and apostle of Jesus Christ to God's elect God's chosen ones strangers in the world because they belong to God scattered throughout Pontus Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithinia well that's modern day Turkey who have been chosen according to the four knowledge of God the Father through the sanctifying

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work of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by His blood grace and peace be yours in abundance we spent a long time on this very very interesting opening if it is as I suspect mainly a Gentile audience he's using words here reminiscent of or taken from your Old Testament to really say you are the people of God oh yes the Old Testament people were the people of God but now you are the

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people of God you have all the titles rights and privileges of being this people of God chosen according to the four knowledge of God not just that God knew in advance who there'd be but God chose them in advance just chosen God the Father so that God the Father chooses through the sanctifying work of the Spirit sanctifying there doesn't mean making you holy

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it really means setting you apart for God it is the spirit of God through new birth that makes you gods sanctify if you're a Christian you are sanctified namely you belong to God you are now the Holy One of God you are a saint that's why I'm Saint Peter because I'm a saint all Christians are saints because we have been sanctified by the Holy Spirit now we've all

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got a long way to go but fundamentally we are sanctified by the Spirit yes okay sanctified set apart through the Holy Spirit of God what for for what purpose well to make Jesus our Lord that's what becoming a Christian is for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood now he could have just said obedience to Jesus Christ and that would have been good enough

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but the sprinkling with his blood is out of there because you become the people of God through sprinkling of blood so what he's described here is not even us as individuals but us as a church us as a fellowship we who are the saints who are joined to God chosen by God drawn into God's fellowship and that the mark of that fellowship is obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ and we are

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sealed signed and delivered if I can put it like that through the sprinkling of Christ's blood have a look at chapter 2 I'll come back to that one but tap a look at chapter 2 verses 4 to 10 as well where the same theme is now expanded a bit and I won't spend as long as on that as you come to him the living stone rejected by men the stone image again taken he's got old testament things in mind

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here that living stone chosen by God precious to him you also your selves like living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ what I like about the New Testament authors they never mind having mixed metaphors and there's some very there's a strange mixture here isn't it first

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of all you're a stone you may feel offended at that but I've had to have Peter as my name all my life so you know I don't think you should be too offended so you're a living stone you're not a dead one thank goodness I don't know what a living stone is except he wants to make sure you don't think you're a deaden you're a living stone built into a temple a spiritual house you are you

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plural you are the temple of the Lord built up by the individual stones you excited about that well perhaps not except the temple of the Lord is the dwelling place of the Lord God when God's people meet remember the promise of the Lord Jesus we're two or three gathered in my name I am in the midst of them when you go to church you know sometimes roll over on a Sunday morning think

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you won't go well I tell you one person is always there the Lord Jesus he never misses so I'm not sure why you should he has less reason to be there if you think of it if you have high standards in your church and you look around you think why am I here with these people imagine imagine what the Lord Jesus thinks when he sees you coming through the door

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and as the church meets now it doesn't have to meet in a building it it is the building the church is the building and it's in dwelt by God it's in dwelt by the by the spirit of God it's in dwelt by the Son of God that's church church is not just a religious club it's not a sort of a religious version of a stamp association it is in dwelt by the spirit of God the the presence of the the

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Lord Jesus by his spirit so you are a temple of the Lord look again we're not only a temple of the Lord we're also a priesthood you can't that's what I say mixed metaphor we're not only the temple we are the priests and the idea of the Christian minister being a priest is wrong of course and the New Testament the Christian minister people like me are never called priests we're

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called elders presbyter and that's how our English word priest came into existence but we're never called priests because we're never called sacrificing priests we don't offer sacrifices to the Lord and that's where people get confused about altars in churches we don't have altars in our churches if we had altars we'd have priests if we had altars and priests we'd have sacrifices but we

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have only one sacrifice made once for all upon the cross yes so our church buildings are not meant to be temples they're meant to contain temples yes people they're meant to contain temples and they're not meant to be sacrificing places they'd be the idea is awful except in this sense a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices the sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving and obedience

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not bloody sacrifices not animal sacrifices not not that sort of not propitiatory sacrifices not the sacrifices by which we hope to get to heaven but the sacrifices of those who have been assured of heaven and are now offering up the sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving to God and blessing each other and looking after the widows and the orphans that's in the New Testament what our sacrifices

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are okay not some religious thing we do with an altar and a priest about sin because we have a priest called Jesus okay I hope that's clear I'm not too confusing but let's look again verse 5 living stones built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifice except for the God through Jesus Christ now verse 9 but you are a chosen people you the church a

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royal priesthood a holy nation a people belonging to God now all these as new Old Testament titles now ours that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light once you were no people you rotten Gentiles but now you are the people of God once you have not received mercy now you have received mercy and how so of course through the death of

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Jesus so God's plan produces God's people now God's plan is lived by God's people God's plan is lived by God's people that is to say the plan that produced God's people was through the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus the death of Jesus produced the people of God so to speak now we must live in accordance with God and in accordance with the cross have a look well he goes straight on

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doesn't he you have you verse 10 you had this you had not received mercy now you have received mercy dear friends I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from sinful desires which were against your soul so live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong they see your good works and glorify God on the day that he visits us etc etc but further

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more he says live like Jesus now have a look at 221 he told us how to live now he says to this you were called namely to even if you suffer unjustly he says to this you were called because Christ suffered for you leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps he committed no sin he had no deceit found in his mouth he was totally innocent but when they hurled their

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insults of him he did not retaliate when he suffered he made no threats instead he entrusted himself to him who judges justly he himself bore our sins at his body on the tree so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness by his wounds we have been healed he doesn't oh yeah he obviously doesn't mean they're healed of our sicknesses he means healed of our souls sicknesses

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we have been made righteous we have been set on the path of righteousness by the death of Jesus the Christian life is marked by the cross each day the example of the Lord Jesus Christ who was innocent but simply trusted himself to God even in the even in the face of adversity and and persecution his example is an example for us each day we take up our cross

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as Jesus himself said each day we take up our cross and follow him in the path of self-denial in the path of saying no to sin and no to temptation in the path of not retaliating in the path of obedience to the Lord the cross teaches us how to live you never graduate beyond the cross it's not as though you can take that on board and move on no the Christian life is a cross-shaped

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life or it is not the Christian life and the example of the Lord Jesus Christ is one that we should follow at every point because he is our Lord now the same point is made by the apostle in a number of other places now for example four verse one therefore since Christ suffered in his body arm yourselves with the same attitude because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin

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in other words just as the Lord Jesus suffered in the body dying in the death on the cross he did so so that you might be righteous now one of the great effects of the cross is forgiveness now another great effect of the cross is to show us how to live and how to live a path of righteous living the Christian life is a righteous life and I trust that you are thoroughly

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committed to a to a path of righteousness because you are following the Lord who is your Lord I trust following the Lord who to himself lived righteously when he was amongst us now Peter now gives us something of an insight into the meaning of the cross and I want to take that up under

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the heading of focusing the cross because he does now begin to develop a theology of the cross beyond the look Christ was fulfilling scripture this fundamental point that he was making go back to one two I said we would let's go back there remember God the Father elected the Holy Spirit sanctifies when he brings you by rebirth into the kingdom

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he does it in order that you may obey the Lord Jesus Christ and through sprinkling have you been sprinkled with the blood of Jesus and if so what's it mean and if you're a Christian you have been sprinkled with the blood of Jesus but why and what's it all about well the phrase I believe goes back to Exodus chapter 24 and that great I won't ask you to look it up now but in

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that great passage after the Lord has given the Ten Commandments and called Israel into a covenantal relationship with himself the elders of the people go up the mountain with Moses and they eat a meal before the Lord as a covenant meal before the Lord and sacrifice animal sacrifices occurred and they are sprinkled with the blood of the animal sacrifices literally sprinkled with blood

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as an outward invisible sign if you like of the making of the covenant the covenant relationship with God if you're not in covenant with God you haven't got a relationship with God a covenant relationship is one in which he promises you and you believe him a covenant relationship is the way in which the king comes into it makes you his subject he makes a covenant with you to make

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you his subject and he seals it with blood in the ancient amongst the ancient people as the blood of bulls and goats for us it's the blood of Jesus you are not a believer you are not saved you have nothing to do with Jesus you have no forgiveness of sins if you have not been sprinkled with his blood now how are you sprinkled with his blood when you're sprinkled with his blood as you put your

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trust in him and the blood of Jesus is sprinkled on you by God himself with the effect that you have entered into this covenant relationship with him you trust him you trust his death and as you trust his death for you so that covenant is ratified and the blood is sprinkled on you so integral to the teaching about the death of Jesus is sacrifice now this is not the only bit we'd

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have to look at the whole epistle of the Hebrews for example now to look at other teachings in the scripture as well to talk about the sacrifice and last week I mentioned one John and how he used the idea of sacrifice and the idea of propitiation in sacrifice this is a different sort of sense here this is a covenantal sense and yet the whole thing does hang together without a slightest doubt

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but here is a sacrifice made a sacrifice made through which you are saved interesting isn't it I don't know if you've ever seen a sacrifice most of us haven't some of us have traveled perhaps to barley perhaps to Africa we've seen sacrifice animals say I've never seen my myself might have seen a TV program it's interesting isn't it because sacrifices are almost universal human activity

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animal sacrifice human sacrifice find out about the Aztecs that would make your heart flutter a bit human sacrifice animal sacrifice has marked human existence it's as if people believe that in order to be in harmony with the universe they have to offer up something they have to give blood death has to occur if they have to be in harmony with the universe I think I'm right

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and saying the ancient Aztecs believe that unless human sacrifice occurred then the gods would be hungry not be able to continue their guarding the world I think I've got that right why have you never seen a say if it's such a universal human activity why have you never seen one of course there's only one answer to that somehow where the cross of Christ is known and preached

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and believed animal sacrifice comes to an end it's extraordinary the power of the death of Jesus in the cross of Christ I glory towering all the wrecks of time all the light of end of ancient story gathers around its head sublime where the death of Jesus is known and believed sacrifice and I believe that in our society as the death of Jesus is believed on less and less we will see

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sacrifice come back in in some form and to some extent it has I believe in some places the second word redemption have a look at one versus 18 and 19 now here again I think he's got the Old Testament in mind for you know that it was not with perishable things such a silver and gold the most perish the most precious things we have on earth but perishable you know not with perishable

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things such as even silver or gold were you redeemed there's that word redemption redeemed that means release set free you are slaves you have been released redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers that is the way of life adopted by the majority of people in Sydney the empty way of life handed down from your forefathers but with the precious blood of

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Christ you were redeemed a lamb without blemish or defect now I think he has the Passover behind him in this point I think that's what he's talking about here the Passover where the blood where the lamb was slaughtered and the blood was put on the lintel of the door and the angel of death passed over and those with the lamb's blood on the door were safe the the first born were not slaughtered

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and you were redeemed you were saved you were set free you were released from the evil forces that grip you by the death of Jesus Christ how could you not love him how could you not love his death for you how could you not let how how could you ever think that the death of Jesus is just another thing another incident in history how could you enter into a sort of a super spirituality

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which is way up here and fills you with happiness and joy and so forth and somehow leaves the cross behind you know it's true you know that in modern Christian music to refer to that again the death of Jesus has been left behind as people want to have experiences of God apart from the death of Jesus they don't sing about it they don't sing the praise of him who died of him who died upon the cross

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the sinners hope let men deride they don't sing that because I wonder if the death of Jesus is at the center of their religion but how could it be otherwise if you've been redeemed by the lamb that was slain redemption substitution look at 2 verse 24 sacrifice and redemption great images but there's still something mysterious about them both how is it that the death of Jesus can

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offer us such release as it does in fact how is it that the death of Jesus can be a sacrifice which will unite us to God in covenant how does it work 2 verse 24 or rather we'll go to 3 18 I think 2 24 or 3 18 till the same story we'll go to 3 18 for Christ died or spend time on this brothers and sisters send time on this very very this this to me is the most precious verse of all

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in the whole of one Peter for Christ died for sins once for all the righteous for the unrighteous to bring you to God that's the meaning of your life that's why you're here on earth that's the purpose of your life to come to God that is the purpose of human life to know God to come to God how do you come to God go backwards how do you come to God

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through Christ not just through Christ but through Christ when he died when he died for sins now he didn't die for sins did he he wasn't trying to save sins as son of school should often say that oh he died to save sins he never died to save sins that's shorthand he died to save us from our sins he died for sin means he bore the penalty for sin and that's why it says here the

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righteous for the unrighteous he bore sin which is the language in 2 verse 24 bearing sin means bearing the penalty of sin bearing the guilt of sin only to be understood in light of the doctrine of the Trinity let me say father son and holy spirit together not the angry God and the loving Jesus but together God so loved the world only to be understood in the light of the Trinity and

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indeed not to be thoroughly understood by any human brain we can't title down we're not dealing here with some sort of logical formula which we can easily just give out like that we're dealing here with one of the most profound of all possible mystery surely there's no human language I think which can thoroughly explain what goes on here but at the heart of what goes on here there

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is sin bearing another words there is penalty bearing for sin and note that phrase the righteous for the unrighteous Paul says it this way he died for the ungodly unless you count yourself amongst the unrighteous this verse is not for you unless you count yourself amongst the ungodly this is not for you but if you count yourself amongst those who who bear guilt and therefore will bear

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punishment for guilt then this verse is for you the righteous however has died for the unrighteous I believe there's no other way of reading that but to say he died as a substitute for the unrighteous he died in our place I believe the old him is correct in my place condemned he stood I don't think too many modern hymns get this right in my place condemned he stood sealed my pardon with his

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blood yes that's it now that doctrine is thoroughly hated by many people this teaching of the Bible is thoroughly hated now maybe hated for a number of reasons but I believe at the heart of that hatred lies this simple fact that none of us likes to be utterly we'd none of us like to utterly owe everything to another person we don't want to be completely indebted to someone else

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it puts us under them in their power it makes us their slaves if we belong entirely if our whole life belongs to someone else sometimes life savers on the beach tell us that after persons been saved out of the surf they don't say thank you it's as if they can't bring themselves to admit that they've been totally lost now found they've belonged entirely to someone else they

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couldn't save themselves that all they could do was lie still and be saved and now they can't admit it they'll scurry away as soon as possible so it is with the death of Jesus I believe a lot of the appropriate which comes to this teaching of the Bible is caused because human beings want to reserve some last semblance of dignity and you can't be a dignified Christian in the end that

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has to go and you have to say nothing in my hand I bring simply to thy cross I cling naked come to the address helpless look to the for grace foul eye to the fountain fly wash me saviour or I die he died for sins once animal sacrifices have ceased because of the sufficiency of the death of Jesus it covers everything of course we all try to get around that fact and half of the Christian

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religion is made up with attempts by human beings to somehow get around the death of Jesus that's why I think we reintroduce sacrifices into churches quick as we can to try to impress God somehow instead of simply trusting in the death of Jesus once for all upon the cross his death is utterly sufficient even for your miserable sins it was a man in our church who couldn't believe

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that he'd been a soldier in the second world war and he'd served in the northern deserts of Africa and although he would never tell us about it as many of those veterans can't there must have happened things then and he must have done things then so prayed on his conscience that he could never quite believe that the death of Jesus was once for all but righteous for

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the unrighteous that he could utterly trust Jesus to take away all his sins I believe he did belong to Jesus but I believe he was robbed of that assurance that he should have had because even whatever happened in the desert and I don't know what it was Jesus took away his sin well the very next verse speaks about the victory of Jesus

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in which he preached to the spirits in prison I think that refers to Jesus preaching his victory let me say in case we're wrong I'm not going to go too much further now but failing the Lord Peter's first betrayal of his famous of course when he denied the Lord Matthew 26 but there was a second betrayal of this very point the man who preached to the Gentiles and brought the Gentiles

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in we're told in Galatians chapter two stopped eating with the Gentiles and if you want to read Galatians you'll see that and we have no time to do this now but if you want to read Galatians the Apostle Paul laid it on the line in no uncertain manner Peter was doing it because some of his friends were being Jewish friends were being persecuted we can understand why he did it he understood that

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he had to sort of step back from talking to Gentiles and get the Gentiles to be circumcised and become Jews and then the persecution would stop we can understand why Peter didn't want any more to eat with the Gentiles it was to save his friends from persecution Paul said you have denied the cross Peter you failed the Lord again and Paul said that if you go on like you go

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on Peter then Jesus didn't really die for any purpose because she can be saved by your good works in the end he said you know Peter you know Peter you were justified by faith in the death of Jesus the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me that's all we had that's our only hope in life and death is the death of Jesus for me that's what Paul stood for in Galatians and we're

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Peter failed him again well in conclusion I've put in a verse of the greatest hymn in the English language well who knows what's the greatest but it's not a verse we sing very often is it it's a verse from when I survey the wondrous cross it's the verse we don't sing because it's a bit old fashioned and after all it uses the word globe and modern people wouldn't know what a

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globe was I suppose I think it's something you put in electric lights or something rather but you see it's Isaac what's attempt to say what Galatians 6 is where the apostle says to Peter who failed the Lord again may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world the globe has been sacrificed to me and I to the world

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and Isaac what's puts that in his hymn is a great shame that we leave it out here the death of Jesus means everything to you and it's your only hope or it means nothing to you if it means nothing to you it's almost certainly because you don't really want Jesus to be your Lord and Savior because it's all too complete

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his dying crimson like a robe spreads all his body on the tree that I am dead to all the globe and all the globe is dead to me that's pray now gracious Father and God we thank you once again for the death of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross we are stunned and amazed and awed by the love which you have the love of Jesus we stammer and stutter as we try to speak of it

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we fail to understand it yet we thank you that you have taught us what you have in your word and that we can see that it was a great sacrifice that it was a great redemption that it was a great substitution and that it was a great sin-bearing event oh dear God grant us move us to submit everything to Jesus to give him all things who gave

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for us his all grant that you will minister deep to our hearts if we have sins which trouble us we pray that you would bring them forth and we pray that the cross will deal with them we pray Heavenly Father that you would cleanse us through the death of Jesus so we commit ourselves into your gracious hands in Jesus name Amen