Ecclesia Princeton
Ecclesia Princeton
Community of Truth: Holiness- Ian Graham
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Pastor Ian Graham directs us to look at 1 Peter 1vv13-18 a the command, invitation, promise to "be holy" as God is holy.
Unexpected Holiness at the Rodeo
Speaker 1At Glacier. Pastor Ian Graham, I'm here in my office on a Monday. Last week we had a little difficulty with the recording, and so it's important to me to have some form of a record of our life together through this podcast and through the sermons, and so thank you for all of you who follow along from afar, whether you were part of our community at one point and you've moved, or you've just never met us and you found us somehow. Please don't hesitate to reach out and say hello. But I wanted to capture what we talked about in our ongoing series called the Community of Truth and then get into the sermon for this week. So I'm here in my office and it's a joy to be with you. In some strange way, I had an unexpected holy moment a couple weeks ago.
Speaker 1Our family has developed an annual tradition of going to the Cowtown Rodeo in South Jersey. Now, I grew up in Oklahoma, and one of the questions I get often about Oklahoma and my life growing up there was did you grow up on a farm? And I'm adamant, I'm like no, I live way closer to farms here in New Jersey than I ever did in Oklahoma. I grew up in the suburbs and for me, rodeo culture, country music no shame if you are into country music, it's just most of it's not for me, just kind of doesn't strike me as something that I am going to be completely into. So when my wife, courtney, suggested that we go initially I was quite skeptical and I have to say I was so wrong. The rodeo is incredibly fun and we've had a great time as a family doing it once a year and every rodeo has an MC who tells the crowd what's going on and entertains them while they're setting up the next next events, talks to the rodeo clown who always tells these very long, protracted jokes that often don't have the payoff that the build-up would lead them to, but that's kind of part of the deal. And the rodeo MC as he's sort of gathering everybody there's you know 4,000 people in this bowl watching this rodeo. It's a perfect night, the sun is setting, it's beautiful, and he says we're going to start tonight with a prayer and he says you can pray to whatever God you pray to, but we're going to pray to our God. And again, similar to the kind of the rodeo in general, I was skeptical Any kind of smoothing off of the edges of different religious expressions and trying to almost act like they're all the same always strikes me as a bit cheap.
Speaker 1It cheapens the story and the versions of the story that all the different faiths are telling. They're not all telling the same story and any attention to the details of any of the specific stories would tell you the same thing. And so I was like okay, here we go. You know a prayer to you know some unknown God. And then the man starts to pray and I have to tell you I was deeply moved. He prayed for the protection and for the participants in this very dangerous spectator sport. He prayed for those watching for their journey home at the end of the night and he prayed. He said thank you for giving us the gift of life and, most of all, giving us life with you. And I gotta say I was tearing up at the rodeo and what I encountered in that moment, however fleeting, however much of a glimpse and however narrow a glimmer, was something weighty, something bigger, something I would identify as holy.
What Holiness Really Means
Speaker 1Holiness is not a common noun in our cultural vocabulary. We speak readily of things that are sacred, but it's as though that word sacred can traverse a lot of faith, traditions and mysticisms without offending anyone. Holiness often feels narrower, more defined. The Old Testament word that we translate holy is the Hebrew word kadash, meaning to cut, to set apart. The most common New Testament word is agios, which primarily has the connotation of being different. The world is common, standard, but there are moments, places, people that are different, sanctified holy. The New Testament's favorite designation for the people of God is agios, is saints, the holy ones, and I know so often we don't assess ourselves as being saintly, but this is the high calling to which you have been given by Christ Jesus and what he's done for you. Yes, we are not holy in our own regard, but God has made us different, made us holy, and, throughout the scriptures, holiness is not just an attribute describing God. It is the very essence of Father, son and Spirit and it's an interesting tension that we have to embrace.
Speaker 1I find so often when theologians, when pastors, talk about the holiness of God, there's almost this lashing out that is being contained, and I know why that is. There are stories, especially in the Old Testament. There's one specific story that comes to mind, where these gentlemen are carrying the Ark of the Covenant, and this Ark was carried on these poles and they're almost like pallbearers. They're carrying this Ark. At one point they sort of stumble and slip. This guy touches the Ark of the Covenant and he falls down dead. It begs the question what sort of holiness is this that is so dangerous, so full of potential, is so dangerous, so full of potential? And so I understand these expressions and perspectives on holiness. I want to take that into account as we talk about what it means to be holy. But so often we have this tension of God is holy, god is joyful, god is loving. And how do we hold all these things together when it seems like holiness, is this like dangerous otherness in God? And when we account for God's love and his joy, it feels something much more comforting, much nearer.
Speaker 1And when theologians describe God, they're always trying to get us to see that he is an integrated unity. He is one. His holiness is an expression of his love. His love is an expression of his holiness. All of these things are not different parts of a schizophrenic God. They are an expression of the oneness of the one true God.
Speaker 1Theologians have called this the simplicity of the divine. And simplicity doesn't mean simple, it just means that every expression, every revelation of God is an integrated revelation. The theologian David Bentley Hart, describes simplicity this way. He says he is instead the infinite, to which nothing can add and from which nothing can subtract, and he himself is not some object in addition to other objects. These are words from Scripture, going on with heart, that he is the source and ground of all things. All finite things are limited expressions, graciously imparted, of that actuality that he possesses in infinite abundance. We want to take that dense philosophical concept and turn it into. How do we express, how do we experience holiness? We don't just perceive God as holy. God is holiness through and through.
Speaker 1When Isaiah is in the temple. In Isaiah, chapter 6, he sees a glimpse of the triune God as the train of his robe fills the temple, angelic seraphs are soaring, singing Holy, holy. Holy is the Lord Almighty, the whole earth is full of His glory. And Isaiah responds. This glimpse of holiness undoes him, unravels him internally, and he says in verse 5, woe is me. I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty. Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said See, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.
Speaker 1And today, as we talk about the truth of who God is and what that means for us, we're going to glimpse holiness as, yes, this striking and stark otherness of God, but this stark otherness that we have been invited to partake in, that we have been invited to express in the world. And how do we do that? In light of the God who reveals himself as holy, yes, as loving, as joyful, as bountiful, how do we be the holy people that God has called us to be? We're going to turn over to 1 Peter, chapter 1. And Peter has this beautiful sense of the holiness of God, and I almost love juxtaposing Peter's sense of what it means to be the royal priesthood with the actions that we see throughout Peter's life. It's a beautiful exposition.
Called to Be Holy as God is Holy
Speaker 1Peter, is it all a familiar character to you? I invite you just to hold his history in your mind as we read these words, beginning in verse 13 of 1 Peter, chapter 1. Therefore, prepare your minds for action, discipline yourselves, set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed Like obedient children. Do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct, for it is written yourselves in all your conduct, for it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy.
Speaker 1The call here is so stark. Peter here is quoting one of the fundamental covenantal promises of the people of God from Exodus 19, leviticus 11, you shall be holy as I am holy. I mean, let the weight of that sink in here for a moment. Here Peter says discipline yourselves. Later, in 1 Peter, chapter 4, peter will say it this way the end of all things is near. Therefore, be serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of your prayers.
Speaker 1And I don't know about you, but when I think of holiness, the first sort of category and thought world that comes to mind is this idea of discipline, of limiting, of asceticism. And what we see here in Peter's quoting of the Old Testament and Peter's describing what the reality of the saints, of the holy ones, looks like. In this call to be holy as God is holy, is we have some confluence of command, of invitation, of promise that we will be holy as God himself is holy. We have a command to a heart posture that our hearts would respond with willingness, with obedience. We have an invitation. As we'll see, holiness is not just a limiting, not just a narrowing. It is beautiful, it is expansive. It is an invitation to be fully human. And we have a promise God will see that which he has begun to completion. We will be holy as he is holy. We will be like God. This is a stunning claim and I think so often we start only with the command be holy as God is holy. That then thrusts a lot of the weight and a lot of the pressure on us. Okay, how do I do this? How do I be holy as God is holy? But Peter doesn't leave us there.
Speaker 1Peter has more words to say to us. First Peter, chapter two, beginning in verse four come to him a living stone, though rejected by mortals, yet chosen and precious in God's sight. And like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. He goes on in verse 9, you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, god's own people, in order that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you would not receive mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you, as aliens and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul.
Speaker 1Sanctification is the journey of becoming holy, as God is holy, and for us it's easy to fall into the pattern of looking at sanctification as a project, much like a new diet plan, a new workout regimen or some other self-improvement endeavor. But sanctification is a yielding Saying yes to God's invitation to be holy, to be separate, not to separate ourselves from the world, but to love it more rightly as those not hopelessly tied to it with scripts of achievement, shame and doom, as we talked about a few weeks ago. Dietrich Bonhoeffer had this concept of a better worldliness, and what that concept involved was not elevating things that are penultimate or not sufficiently ultimate to the position of the ultimate. And when we do that, we can receive with thanksgiving the good gifts that God has offered to us. Giving the good gifts that God has offered to us, we can receive with faith even the trials that are put before us, because we know that all of these are subsequent to a greater and more ultimate reality, and so we are trying, in our holiness, to access a better worldliness. Yes, there is no sanctification without discipline.
Speaker 1But notice what Peter says. He doesn't say build yourselves into a house that God can live in. No, the verb is not active, it is passive. We are allowing ourselves, by our yielding, to be built into a house where God is dwelling. It is yielding the soil of our lives to the nourishing care of the everlasting gardener. Jesus says it this way to his disciples in John, chapter 15, I am the true vine and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
Speaker 1I remember when I first became a follower of Jesus. It was early 2000s. At that point in my life I had a book full of CDs that was always in my car and it was filled with three genres at that point 90s and early 2000s R&B, 90s and early 2000s hip-hop, and 90s and early 2000s rock. And I had this moment, when I surrendered my life to Jesus, that I felt this overwhelming and compelling, what felt like the texture of a command to get rid of all that music. So I took it and I threw it all away and I started looking for music that was labeled Christian and I put that almost in air quotes. I found a couple bands that I began to listen to on repeat the David Crowder band and another band called Third Day and I played those albums over and over again. It was literally the only music I was listening to and this was my story for a time Just these Christian songs, and I was always trying to find more stuff, but I found a lot of it to be for me just kind of corny.
Speaker 1But as I got into college I started getting back into some of my old music. Some of it I never went back to. It was, frankly, quite dark and I just never had any desire to go back into that darkness. But others of it seemed more neutral and, frankly, I still listen to a lot of it today. Now the question is, was I backsliding? Had I accessed a higher level of holiness through the accumulation of time that I had gently smoothed off and began to step back into my old ways? Maybe. But what I think was happening was that God, in my response, in my limiting, in my obedience to him and frankly, friends, I'm telling you a story where I did maybe something well, and I could tell you a million more where I didn't do that well but in that response God developed a maturity, a wisdom in me that could again, in Diedrich Bonhoeffer's words, approach these things with a better worldliness, a more wise and mature worldliness. I needed to fully remove myself from those things for a time so that myself could fully receive a truer and fuller self from Jesus. And in receiving that gift of self there was wisdom, and I could listen to some of that music.
Speaker 1Paul talks about these categories in 1 Corinthians. Essentially, there are things that are neutral, and if our consciences are not telling us we should not participate or partake in these things, then it's genuinely okay. And if we're not offending our brothers or our sisters by our participation in these matters, then there's a sense of like. It's okay in God's eyes, and so my experience with this very specific situation was that God had developed a different posture, a different approach to me, and music is so much a part of my life with God and I'm grateful to be able to see some of these songs in a new light, to find the composer of all the music, the one who called creation into being, and to see that Jesus is growing and sanctifying my life. Now again, I don't know about you, but this tends to be my only sort of category for holiness Discipline, abstaining, fasting, and, as we see in Peter's words, those are important elements of God's invitation and promise to be holy as he is holy. But if we look closely, there is a wider, more expansive and more integral holiness that we are all being invited into.
Speaker 1Let's go on in 1 Peter, chapter 1. Let's go back just a little bit, verse 17. Since you call on a father who judges each person's work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. You know that you were ransomed from the futile conduct inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb, without defect or blemish. He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. Peter invites us into the relationality of a child with their good and loving father. He then invites us to live in light of the Proverbs the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Now, that fear is not a cowering fear, it is not a terrifying fear. It is a fear of reverence and awe.
Speaker 1Peter then invokes the imagery of the Passover Christ, the Passover lamb. If you know the story of the Old Testament at all, you know that the Passover is the fundamental and foundational story of the people of Israel, the Passover God's liberating of his covenant people from slavery in Egypt and establishing them as a nation. It's a miraculous thing, not just the walking through the water, but this emergence of a people who were previously slaves as a singular and sovereign nation. Exodus 12, verse 5, tells us this about the instructions for celebrating the first Passover your lamb shall be without blemish, a year old, male. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. It is the Passover of the Lord, verse 11. Verse 12. I will pass through the land of Egypt that night and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from human to animal and on all the gods of Egypt. I will execute judgments. I am the Lord. The blood shall be assigned for you in the houses where you live when I see the blood. So there's this solemn assembly that's taking place and the blood that is spread on the doors is a sign of covenant response. God is saying graciously I'm going to do this, this is my act of liberation. And the people who spread the blood from the lamb that they're going to eat in a feast on the doors are marking themselves as a part of the recipients of that covenant.
The Joy and Beauty of Holiness
Speaker 1And as Exodus 12, verse 48 clearly spells out, the Passover, even though it has all of these solemn and somber implications and these questions that it raises about God and that we won't go into today, but they're very valid questions. Even though it has all these connotations, it is truly and fundamentally a feast, a celebration. Look at Exodus 12, verse 48. If an alien who resides with you wants to celebrate the Passover to the Lord, all his males shall be circumcised. Again, if you read throughout the Old Testament, circumcision is a mark of covenant identity and faithfulness. It's saying we belong to this people. So these people who are not by birth. Jewish Israelites are marking themselves as participants in this covenant people by responding with this physical act of faithfulness. All right, he goes on, then he may draw near to celebrate it. The word there is very, very prominent.
Speaker 1To celebrate this feast, holiness, then, is not just about what we take away. It is being set apart for an even greater, liberating joy. Jesus expresses the unity of God's holiness when he eats with sinners, when he attends weddings, when he tells stories, when he speaks with friends, when he goes to the synagogue. We severely underestimate the joy of holiness and, again, if you're like me, tend to only see it in categories of loss and missing out.
Speaker 1I think we get a glimpse of this in the extravagance with which God undertakes to build the tabernacle where he will dwell with the people as they roam through the wilderness. Did you know that the first people that are said to be filled with the Spirit of God in the story of the scriptures are Olia and Bezalel, and they're two artists charged with overseeing the work and constructing the tabernacle, the portable tent that was set aside as a holy place for Moses and the Levites to meet with God and to minister and worship and intercession? We see this in places like Exodus 35. Now, the tabernacle is a famously holy place and its holiness prescribes that it be set apart from the wider population. Not just anybody could go into the tent of meeting. We see, first it's preserved only for Moses and then extended to the Levites.
Speaker 1Why would God, in all of his holiness, prescribe such extravagance and attention to detail for a place that would only be experienced by a select few? Sure, because worship is costly? Yes, because God demands our best, of course. But also, could it be that the reason that the first people in the scriptures that are filled with the Spirit of God, the reason that all of this extravagance is undertaken to design and to construct the meeting place between God and humanity, is because God himself is beautiful and that we encounter him in all of his holiness, in his beauty? We see throughout the scriptures that the meeting places that are designed for, for the meeting of the human creation and for God the creator, there's so much attention to detail, so much beauty attended to in those places. If we scroll ahead from the tabernacle, we have this roaming place of meeting.
Speaker 1We then land on a settled place of meeting that is thought of by David and Solomon. David has the ambition to build a house for God. Now, if you read the story closely, god never asked for a house, but there's some sort of peer pressure that David feels as a king. As he looks around at the other nations, he sees that their gods all have temples devoted to them. Nations. He sees that their gods all have temples devoted to them, that the temples are a sign of the gods' presence and care for that nation. And David wants to build a house for God so that they can be like all the other nations. Now, again, god doesn't ask for a house, but he graciously acquiesces to dwelling in the house. It turns out that David is not the one to build the temple, but his son, solomon, is the one who oversees and completes the construction of the permanent tabernacle, the temple.
Speaker 1In 2 Chronicles, chapter 2, we see a glimpse of, again, the extravagance undertaken to build this house, this temple for the Lord. So now, send me an artisan skilled to work in gold, silver, bronze, solomon says, and in purple, crimson and blue fabrics, trained also in engraving, to join the skilled workers who are with me in Judah and Jerusalem, whom my father, david, provided. Send me also cedar, cypress and algum timber from Lebanon, for I know that your servants are skilled in cutting timber. My servants will work with your servants to prepare timber for me in abundance, for the house I am about to build will be great and wonderful. Again, there is this ambition, this scale that is coordinated with this building of this house.
Speaker 1At the completion of the work on the temple and the dedication ceremony, the glory of the Lord descends upon the place. The priests fall on their face as the glory of the Lord fills the house Again, this house that God didn't ask for but he graciously inhabits as a sign of his covenant faithfulness to the people. And this precipitates a revival and a party that lasts for weeks. Look in 2 Chronicles 7, beginning in verse 8. At that time, solomon held the festival for seven days and all Israel with him, a very great congregation. On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly. So I mean, we're just doing the math here. They have a party for seven days. On the eighth day they're like, hey, we've partied pretty hard here, let's scale it back a little bit. For they had observed the dedication of the altar seven days and the festival seven days. On the 23rd day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their homes joyful and in good spirits because of the goodness that the Lord had shown to David and to Solomon and his people, israel. I mean, there's just this giant festival and party that breaks out because of the revelation of the glory of God, because of the completion of the work in the temple, because God and His people are meeting together, and there's something so vital about the connection between the holiness of God and the places that he meets with his people.
Speaker 1In the Old Testament, if we scroll ahead through the story, we see that God's dwelling place is not tabernacle, is not temple, these places of wood and timber that will eventually be eroded and destroyed. God's ultimate dwelling place, as 1 Peter, chapter 2, reminds us, is our hearts inhabited by the Holy Spirit. Let yourselves be built into a spiritual house for God. God has always been drawing nearer. First it was within the confines of the camp, first it was at the center of the city, but it was at the center of the city, but now it's at the center of our very lives, our human hearts.
Love as the Highest Expression of Holiness
Speaker 1Cs Lewis tells us we do not want merely to see beauty, though God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words, to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. To be united with beauty to become a part of it. This is to be holy, as God is holy. Peter then concludes in 1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 21,. Through him, you've come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your trust and hope are in God. Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth, so that you have genuine mutual affection, love one another deeply from the heart. Peter gives us the gospel. We can trust God because of the resurrection of the Son and the covenant, faithfulness and the story that that gathers up into its wings. He brings us good news, blessing, promise and hope that will never fail. Our call in response to the announcement of this good news is to obey the truth and to exhibit this obedience in genuine mutual affection. The greatest commandment love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, your soul, your mind and your strength. And the second one being, like it, love your neighbor as yourself.
Speaker 1We fail too often to think of holiness as neighbor love In 1 Corinthians. Paul is describing the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 12-14, things like speaking in tongues, prophesying healing words of knowledge. But he's telling them hey, if you think these impressive manifestations of the power and presence of God in your midst are impressive, let me tell you the most world-shaking evidence of God's power here 1 Corinthians 13. I'm going to read the whole thing for you, because it is an expression of the holiness of God and it is a way that we obey the call to be holy as God is holy.
Speaker 1Paul says it this way if I speak in the tongues of humans and of angels but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude, it does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable, it keeps no record of wrongs, it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Speaker 1Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end. As for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, it will come to an end, for we know only in part and we prophesy only in part. But when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see only a reflection, as in a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part. Then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope and love remain these three, and the greatest of these is love. We first receive love and then we give it away. Love is holy and we declare the mystery of God and worship him by his holiness.
Speaker 1Peter concludes you have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living, enduring word of God. And part of our response to that command, that invitation, that promise, is to simply join our hearts with that desire. Peter tells us you weren't bought with gold or silver. You were bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, his desire expressed in his extravagance. And for us to join our hearts with that desire.
Speaker 1God says be holy as I am holy. That's His design and His desire for us. And to that we say Lord, make me holy as you are holy. Tell me the truth about my shame and my sin that has been lifted by the precious blood of Christ on the shoulders of the one who carried the world on the cross. Tell me the truth about the ambitions you have for my life to be built into this extravagant palace, this mansion where God will dwell and delight in, where he adorns the walls with his faithfulness. Tell me the truth about the joy of holiness, the fullness of life that awaits. Make me holy as you are. Holy grace and peace to you, friends.