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Union Church
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Sermons and content from Union Church in Prescott, Arizona.
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2 Peter 1:10-15 - Last Words
1w ago00:40:04Tap to summarizeListen along as we continue through 2 Peter. Notes//Quotes: 2 Peter 1:10-15 - Jorgen/Larry Title: Last Words “In this sense holiness refers to a state of being separate, set apart from the ordinary or mundane and dedicated to a particular purpose or use. The Hebrew adjective for "holy" (qadosh) literally means "separate," since it derives from a verb meaning "to cut off" or "to separate!" Together with its cognates it is used to designate particular places (especially the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies), objects (e.g., Aaron's garments and the Sabbath day, and persons (e.g., the priests and Levites) as specially set apart or sanctified to the Lord. An example is found in Exodus 13:2: "Consecrate to me all the first-born; whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine." Similarly, the holiness of God signifies his separateness from anything impure.” - Millard Erickson “those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…” (1 Cor. 1:2) “The term sanctification does not appear in the Synoptic Gospels at all. To convey the idea that our lives are to be pure, Jesus emphasized instead that we are children of God. We belong to God and consequently should show a likeness to him. We should share his spirit of love: "You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy! But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 5:43-45a). To Jesus, his brother and sister are those who do God's will (Mark 3:35). Paul shares this conception that our status before God is to result in holy living. For example, he urges the Ephesians, "I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called" (Eph. 4:1). He then goes on to specify a life of lowliness, meekness, patience, and forbearance. The fact of belonging to God is to issue in moral attributes reflecting such a status.” - Millard Erickson “Our reckoning with purity culture is good and necessary. It's helped many Christians rediscover a God who loves wounded people, not perfect performances, but I fear that in the process of tearing down purity culture, we may have kissed purity itself goodbye. And that's a problem. My generation is porn addicted, drug dependent, dopamine sick, irony poisoned, attention fractured, and spiritually starved. We've traded repression for indulgence, and the result isn't freedom-it’s decay. It turns out the Christian sexual ethic once derided as prudish is one of the last coherent frameworks for love, dignity, and belonging. Purity, rightly understood, isn't about fear. It's about reverence. It's not about suppressing desire but directing it.” - Luke Simons “15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God…” (Romans 8:15&16)
Transcribe →2 Peter 1:1-9 - End of Life Concerns
2w ago00:33:08Tap to summarizeListen along as we begin our series through 2 Peter. Notes//Quotes: 2 Peter 1:1-9 Knowing God is more than knowing about Him; it is a matter of dealing with Him as He opens up to you, and being dealt with by Him as he takes knowledge of you. Knowing about Him is a necessary precondition of trusting in Him, but the width of our knowledge about Him is no gauge of the depth of our knowledge of Him. JI Packer “Participating in the divine nature” is, then, a great and precious privilege: Through our union with Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we share in something of God’s own holy nature, separated from the corrupt world around us. And it is precisely “for that reason” (v. 5) that we called on to progress in holiness and godliness. But the very fact that Peter goes on to encourage us to make such progress shows that participating in the divine nature does not bring us into a state of sinlessness or even into a situation in which we can lay back and simply enjoy our new status.” Douglas Moo Christian faith is the root from which all these virtues must grow, and Christian love is the crowning virtue to which all the others must contribute. In a list of this kind, the last item has a unique significance. It is not just the most important virtue, but also the virtue which encompasses all the others. Love is the overriding ethical principle from which the other virtues gain their meaning and validity. Thus the author of 2 Peter sees that some of the ethical ideals of pagan society should also be Christian ideals, but only if they are subordinated to and reinterpreted by the Christian ideal of love. - Richard Bauckham Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action. Grace, you know, does not just have to do with forgiveness of sins alone- Dallas Willard I am learning from Jesus to live my life as he would live my life if he were I. I am not necessarily learning to do everything he did, but I am learning how to do everything I do in the manner that He did all that he did. - Dallas Willard
Transcribe →1 Peter 5:6-14 - Challenging Times Now, Better Times Ahead
3w ago00:44:11Tap to summarizeListen along as Mike Gaston wraps up our series through 1 Peter. Notes//Quotes 1 Peter 5:6-14 - Mike G Teaching Slide 1 Big Idea Our faith in God allows us to navigate challenging times now, as we await better times ahead. Slide 2 Challenging times now (vs 6-9) We are called to humility before God We have an adversary Suffering is part of life Slide 3 “You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary.” Jonathan Edwards Slide 4 “Peter recognizes that a great barrier to putting others first and thinking of them as more important is the legitimate human concern, ‘But then who will care for me?’ The answer is that God himself will care for our needs. He is able to do so far better than we are (his hand is ‘mighty,’ v. 6), and he wants to do so, for he continually cares for his children. Therefore casting all your anxieties on him is the path to humility, freeing a person from constant concern for himself and enabling him or her to truly be concerned for the needs of others.” Wayne Grudem Slide 5 “… because he cares for you.” Slide 6 “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.” CS Lewis, Preface to The Screwtape Letters Slide 7 “But he gives more grace. Therefore it says ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” James 4:6-8 “If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.” Isaiah 7:9 Slide 8 Better Times Ahead (vs 10-11) The description of God The promises of God The timeline Slide 9 God will have the last word! Slide 10 “Mark, my son”
Transcribe →1 Peter 5:1-5 - Pastors, We Have a Problem
4w ago00:39:31Tap to summarizeListen along as we continue through 1 Peter. Notes//Quotes 1 Peter 5:1-5 - Faith 1 Peter 5:1-5 The vocation of pastor(s) has been replaced by the strategies of religious entrepreneurs with business plans - Eugene Peterson “By all our ministry activity to mistakenly be like God, we’ve actually made it hard for people to see or hear him.” John Calvin Matthew 20:25-28 “It is possible for ministry leaders to desire greatness in ways no different from anyone, anywhere in our culture. Attaching Jesus’s name to these desires doesn’t change the fact that they look just like the cravings of the world.” - Zach Eswine John 21:15-19 It is possible for ministry leaders to desire greatness in ways no different from anyone, anywhere in our culture. Attaching Jesus’s name to these desires doesn’t change the fact that they look just like the cravings of the world. - Zach Eswine Ezekiel 34:1-16
Transcribe →1 Peter 4:12-19 - Suffering and Stories
Jun 2100:35:01Tap to summarizeListen along as we continue through 1 Peter. Notes//Quotes: 1 Peter 4:12-19 John 16:33 Romans 5:1-5 James 1:2-4 Certainly there is unanimous teaching among the NT writers that there is no condemnation for those who believe in Christ and that they will be delivered from the destiny that is coming to those who disobey God by rejecting the redemption he provides in Jesus Christ. But there is ample teaching that Christians will nevertheless be judged and that it is their standing with Christ that will bring this judgment to a good end. Those who profess Christ are the first ones to be tested in God’s judging action, and it occurs during their lives and throughout history. Karen Jobes 1 Cor 3:10-17 “While other worldviews lead us to sit in the midst of life’s joys, foreseeing the coming sorrows, Christianity empowers its people to sit in the midst of this world’s sorrows, tasting the coming joy. Suffering can refine us rather than destroy us because God himself walks with us in the fire. God will allow evil only to the degree that it brings about the very opposite of what it intends.” Tim Keller
Transcribe →1 Peter 4:1-11 - Lock In
Jun 1500:39:21Tap to summarizeListen along as we continue our series through 1 Peter. Notes/Quotes: Jon reading Title: Lock In “We prefer a gospel in which God gives us healthy bodies and bulging wallets. And we too readily think that material blessing is the entitled reward of the gospel. To put it bluntly, the democratized West expects Jesus, comfort, ease, and acceptance from the world.” - David Helm “Indeed the only way in which I can make real to myself what theology teaches about the heinousness of sin is to remember that every sin is the distortion of an energy breathed into us—an energy which, if not thus distorted, would have blossomed into one of those holy acts whereof “God did it” and “I did it” are both true descriptions. We poison the wine as He decants it into us; murder a melody He would play with us as the instrument. We caricature the self-portrait He would paint. Hence all sin, whatever else it is, is sacrilege.” - C.S. Lewis
Transcribe →1 Peter 3:13-22 - The Pilgrim's Path
Jun 700:36:11Tap to summarizeListen along as we continue through 1 Peter. Notes//Quotes: 1 Peter 3:13-22 Title: The Pilgrim's Path “8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh…16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-11, 16-18) 28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. (Matthew 10:28-30) “A wonderful text is this, and a more obscure passage perhaps than any other in the New Testament, so that I do not know for a certainty just what Peter means.… I cannot understand and I cannot explain it. And there has been no one who has explained it.” - Martin Luther “The exegetical questions basically come down to these: Where did Christ go? When did he go? To whom did he speak? What did he say? Different answers to each of these questions can be found, resulting in a labyrinth of exegetical options, each of which has no clearly overwhelming claim to certainty, [with one] calculating 180 different exegetical combinations, in theory.” - Karen Jobes
Transcribe →1 Peter 3:8-12 - Character, Calling, Promise
May 3100:29:13Tap to summarizeListen along as we continue our time through 1 Peter. Notes//Quotes: 1 Peter 3:8-12 - Anthony reading “This is the mission of God: to restore the creation and the life of humanity from the ravages of sin. The church’s function in this story is to participate in God’s mission; we are to be caught up in God’s own work of restoration and healing. This defines the identity and role of the church.” - Mike Goheen “How can Jesus expect me to love my enemies when I don’t even like them?” “Loving” in modern culture refers primarily to an emotional attachment of a greater intensity than merely “liking.” But Peter clearly interprets Jesus’ command to love to refer not to emotions but to acting rightly toward one’s adversaries, regardless of whatever emotions may or may not be involved.” - Karen Jobes When you come to Christ for mercy and love and help in your anguish and perplexity and sinfulness, you are going with the flow of his own deepest wishes, not against them. - Dane Ortlund
Transcribe →1 Peter 3:1-7 - The Way Home
May 2400:39:31Tap to summarizeListen along as we continue our time in 1 Peter. Notes//Quotes: Faith: 1 Peter 3:1-7 Title: The Way Home “Submission is not something being taken from me, but is something I’m choosing to give. The truth that Jesus, being fully God, willingly entered into this world, becoming fully man and submitting His will to God the Father and giving His life to justify us as well as the Spirit’s role of illuminating and pointing people to Jesus is proof that the differing roles God has for men/women and husbands/wives is not about value or worth. Submission actively happens in the Trinity. If Jesus submitted even unto death, how can I stand on my “rights” and ultimately demand to always be the one in authority?” - Kathy Keller “Renounce yourself, take up your Cross and follow Me. To recognize one's own nonentity and discover the secret of the Kingdom is not enough: the King of Love must be enthroned in our mind and heart, take undivided possession of our will and make of our very bodies the Temples of the Holy Ghost. This small particle of the Cosmos, which is our soul and body must be conquered, freed by a lifelong struggle from enslavement to the world and to the devil, freed as if it were an occupied country and restored to its legitimate King.” - Anthony of Sourozh, Sayings of the Desert Fathers
Transcribe →1 Peter 2:13-25 - Providence and Politics
May 1701:15:36Tap to summarizeListen along as we continue through 1 Peter. Notes//Quotes: 1 Peter 2:13-25 - Jack 1 Peter 2:13-25 There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine! - Abraham Kuyper Romans 13:1-2 “The cross is not a sign of the church's quiet, suffering submission to the powers-that-be, but rather the church's revolutionary participation in the victory of Christ over those powers. The cross is not a symbol for general human suffering and oppression. Rather, the cross is a sign of what happens when one takes God's account of reality more seriously than Caesar's. The cross stands as God's (and our) eternal “no” to the powers of death, as well as God's eternal “yes” to humanity, God's remarkable determination not to leave us to our own devices.” - Stanley Hauerwas, Resident Aliens “Peter writes “Honor all people.” It is hard to imagine a more devastating critique of the Roman way, for with the pairing of these two directives Peter has flattened the status pyramid of the Roman world. He has just made one’s response to the slave next door no less than one’s response to the emperor. Without saying so explicitly, Peter has thus cast his Christian audience as imitators of the Father who exercises impartiality in judgment.” Joel Green “The Bread itself was hungry, Fullness itself was thirsty, Power itself was made weak, Health itself was wounded, and Life itself was mortal. So that our hunger would be satisfied, so that our dryness would be watered, our weakness supported, our love ignited. What greater mercy than that which presents to us the Creator created; the Master made a slave; the Redeemer sold; the One who exalts, humbled; the One who raises the dead, killed?” - Augustine
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