Date: 15 May 2022 | Pre­a­cher:
Series: | Bible text: 1 Peter 1:15–16
Hint: This ser­mon has been machi­ne trans­la­ted. Plea­se note that we can­not accept any respon­si­bi­li­ty for the accu­ra­cy of the content.

Our annu­al the­me CREATIO inspi­res me! The exami­na­ti­on of the ori­gin of the world, the ori­gin of huma­ni­ty, the ori­gin of all being – ques­ti­ons ari­se about the mea­ning and value of our exis­tence. God has an idea con­cer­ning this world and our life. He is the Crea­tor and He stands at the begin­ning of ever­y­thing. We want to sur­ren­der to His ways.


The Good Gospel

«And God bles­sed them and com­mis­sio­ned them: «Be fruitful and mul­ti­ply, popu­la­te the earth and take pos­ses­si­on of it. Rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air and over all ani­mals on earth» (Gene­sis 1:28 NLB).

The gar­den was a per­fect pro­to­ty­pe for the cul­ti­va­ti­on of the earth. Man was given the task not only to mana­ge the gar­den, but also to cul­ti­va­te the rest of the earth accor­ding to its model. This inspi­res me! Whe­re the­re is life, the­re is growth and deve­lo­p­ment, not sta­gna­ti­on. God has not com­mis­sio­ned us to main­tain the sta­tus quo, but to crea­te and be crea­ti­ve in His image! As a tech-sav­vy per­son, I can very much iden­ti­fy with this aspect of our ori­gi­nal man­da­te. I belie­ve it is this ori­gi­nal dis­po­si­ti­on that breeds inno­va­ti­on and pro­gress. The cor­re­spon­ding pat­terns are still visi­ble in huma­ni­ty today.

The curse

How is it that our world is curr­ent­ly in such a pre­ca­rious sta­te? Man as God inten­ded him to be is only a shadow of his for­mer self. The sin of pri­de and rebel­li­on has cor­rupt­ed us – alre­a­dy in para­di­se. Man­kind ente­red into a pact with the devil, and he has been tur­ning the divi­ne idea into the oppo­si­te whe­re­ver he can ever sin­ce. Man’s best and see­mingly most hono­ura­ble efforts have always ended in cha­os and des­truc­tion. When we ele­va­te our­sel­ves to the sta­tus of god in order to build a new para­di­se, we actual­ly install hell on earth. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, human histo­ry pro­ves this all too cle­ar­ly. As an exam­p­le, let us mention:

Tower of Babel, colo­ni­sa­ti­on in the 17th & 18th cen­tu­ries, instal­la­ti­on of com­mu­nist forms of govern­ment, the Third Reich, deve­lo­p­ment aid of the last cen­tu­ry, through
Con­su­mer eco­no­my cau­sed oppres­si­on and explo­ita­ti­on, mur­der of mil­li­ons of unborn.

Man invol­un­t­a­ri­ly plays the arche­typ­al role of the tra­gic hero; he usual­ly wants the good, but crea­tes the evil – and peri­s­hes as a result. The cur­rent zeit­geist in par­ti­cu­lar makes us belie­ve that we can impro­ve the world by our own efforts and decla­re it a new para­di­se. Howe­ver, we are not awa­re of our own depra­vi­ty and run in pri­de and rebel­li­on against God.

The breakthrough

We all agree that the world needs rene­wal and sal­va­ti­on. But for the world to actual­ly beco­me new, man must first beco­me new. Through their rebel­li­on against God, the first humans led the world into ruin. Jesus Christ, howe­ver, crea­tes a new huma­ni­ty and thus breaks the cur­se of self-des­truc­tion! He calls for uncon­di­tio­nal disci­ple­ship and pro­mi­ses new life! That is the good news – that is the Gospel!

«But you are no lon­ger ruled by your sin­ful natu­re, but by the Spi­rit of God, if God’s Spi­rit lives in you. But whoe­ver does not have the Spi­rit of Christ does not belong to Christ»(Romans 8:9 NLB).

Do you belie­ve in lite­ral­ly new life? Do you belie­ve that God is ali­ve and makes life fun­da­men­tal­ly new? That is the true hope for this world – new­ly crea­ted and sur­ren­de­red peo­p­le. That is exact­ly what Jesus pro­mi­ses. And that is exact­ly the chan­ge Chris­ti­ans are com­mit­ted to.

«For all crea­ti­on waits eager­ly for that day when God will reve­al who tru­ly belongs to his child­ren»(Romans 8:19 NLB).

A life of holiness

In order to gain new life through Christ, we give our­sel­ves 100% to His ide­as – for He calls us to uncon­di­tio­nal disci­ple­ship. Only when we fol­low him to the cross and lea­ve our old life behind, do we beco­me tru­ly new peo­p­le. Are we real­ly rea­dy for that? The offer to join Jesus stands at any time. But it is all or not­hing, hot or cold, hea­ven or hell. We call the pro­cess of con­ver­si­on rep­en­tance. Even if this word seems out­da­ted and dus­ty: I belie­ve it is indis­pensable for true free­dom. Only when I lea­ve sin behind can I be ful­ly on the way with God and draw from his strength. Some­ti­mes decay creeps back in – but then we know what to do: back to Jesus, back to res­to­ra­ti­on, and back to puri­ty. I belie­ve that after every honest rep­en­tance, God sees me as new and pure – and enables me to resist sin from then on.

«But now you are to be holy in ever­y­thing you do, just as God, who cal­led you, is holy. For he hims­elf has said: «You shall be holy becau­se I am holy»!» (1 Peter 1:15–16 NLB).

A life of holi­ne­ss and obe­dience is desi­ra­ble and not impos­si­ble – thanks to Jesus Christ! In histo­ry, count­less peo­p­le have com­mit­ted them­sel­ves to this life, and God has work­ed magni­fi­cent­ly through them! Examp­les are: Diet­rich Bon­hoef­fer (Con­fes­sing Church), Cor­rie ten Boom (Saviour of the Jews), John Wes­ley (fight against slavery), Mother Tere­sa (cha­ri­ty in India).


A life of holi­ne­ss is an ade­qua­te qua­li­ty assu­rance for true world impro­ve­ment. It should the­r­e­fo­re be our hig­hest goal to fol­low Jesus and give our lives com­ple­te­ly to him. I chall­enge you as an indi­vi­du­al and us as a church to make a who­le new thing with God again and again. God gave man­kind in para­di­se the task to go into the who­le world, to cul­ti­va­te it and to deve­lop it fur­ther. In the same way, Jesus gives the new man the mis­si­on to go into all the world and to call peo­p­le to fol­low him.

«The­r­e­fo­re, go to all nati­ons and make disci­ples of them. Bap­ti­se them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spi­rit, and teach them to keep all the com­mandments which I have given you. And I assu­re you: I am with you always, until the end of time.» (Matthew 28:19–20 NLB).

A life for more. More than luxu­ry, more than pure sal­va­ti­on, more than self-rea­li­sa­ti­on, more than acti­vism. A life of com­ple­te sur­ren­der and holi­ne­ss – that is what we are cal­led to.

 

 

Possible questions for the small group 

  1. Which aspect of the ori­gi­nal man­da­te to huma­ni­ty appeals to you per­so­nal­ly? (God’s man­da­te to man to ste­ward the earth)
  2. What do you see as the cor­rup­ti­on of huma­ni­ty? To what ext­ent do you see traits of it in your own life?
  3. How lite­ral­ly do you under­stand Jesus» pro­mi­se to give new life?
  4. Does a life of holi­ne­ss appeal to you? What keeps you from it?
  5. Whe­re do you see peo­p­le (pre­sent or past) through whom God has work­ed in a spe­cial way in this world?