What will be the defining hour of your life? Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus continually refers to His hour (2:4; 4:21; 7:30; 8:20; 12:23,27; 13:1; 16:32; 17:1). In this hour, He will be glorified and will bring glory to God the Father. In John 12 we come to the passage of Scripture which is commonly called the triumphal entry. In this passage Jesus rides into the city of Jerusalem to shouts of praise and the waving of palm branches. The story of His ministry seems to come to its climax. The promised Messiah rides into Zion during the celebration of Passover. The King of the Jews has come! Jesus’ disciples must have imagined that this was the hour of which He spoke; the hour of glory. What more could they expect? However, His disciples were wrong. His triumphal entry was not His defining hour. What we will see in our text is that the defining hour of Jesus’ life was not worldly triumph but rather the humility of the cross. As one who is called to follow Christ, how might His humility affect the way you judge your own defining hour? To come prepared for the sermon, take time this week to read and to meditate upon John 12:12-36, Psalm 118, Zechariah 9:9, Matthew 4:8-9; 16:21-25 and Westminster Confession of Faith 8.4.

What does it mean to live a beautiful life? In our passage for this coming Sunday, the Apostle Peter calls all Christians to keep their conduct "honorable" among the unbelieving world. The word translated "honorable" has a broader meaning of "beautiful" or "well ordered." Conduct which is honorable is sound and whole and beautiful. The life of a Christian should be one that is attractive to the disordered world. As we seek to become more and more like our heavenly Father, the beauty of His holiness should begin to shine forth in our lives and draw unbelievers to glorify His name. To live a beautiful life is to live a life that reflects the beauty of God’s character to a dying world. To come prepared for the sermon, take time this week to read and to meditate upon 1 Peter 2:11-12, Leviticus 25:23-24, Matthew 26:10, Ephesians 5:25-27, Titus 2:14, James 4:1-10, and Westminster Confession of Faith 16.

n our passage for this Sunday, the Apostle Peter tells us who we are as God’s people. Through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ we have become precious to God the Father. In response to our special position, we are told how to live and are reminded how we became the people of God. So come prepared to worship this Sunday as we ponder what God has done for us and the mercy that He has extended to us in Christ. Reading: 1 Peter 2:9-10, and in preparation read Exodus 19:5-6, Hosea 1:9, Mark 10:20-21, and Jude 22.

In our passage for this Sunday, the Apostle Peter exalts Jesus Christ as the living stone, the cornerstone, and the precious stone chosen by God. To the world, Christ is the stone that the builders rejected and the stone that causes men to stumble. Yet to us Christ is the One Whom we worship and pursue. And through our verses, Peter affirms that He is building us up like living stones into His spiritual house. Reading: 1 Peter 2:4-8 and ponder “spiritual sacrifices acceptable God” (v. 5) by considering Acts 10:4, Romans 12:1, Romans 15:15-16, Ephesians 5:1-2, and Hebrews 13:15-16.

In our passage for this Sunday, the Apostle Peter calls all Christians to be like “newborn infants.” This command is similar to one the Lord Jesus gave when He said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). However, in other places we are called not to continue in the ignorance of childhood. As Christians, we are to grow up and mature in our knowledge of the Lord (1 Corinthians 14:20; Hebrews 5:12). In what ways then are we to be like infants and in what ways are we called to be mature adults? Are we to long for the pure spiritual milk (1 Peter 2:2) or are we to move on from the milk to the meat (Hebrew 5:12)? What we will see in our passage for this week is that we need not choose between these two commands. While it might seem paradoxical to us, the path to maturity in Christ is not independence but rather greater levels of dependence upon the Lord for all things. That is to say, the more we become like infants in our dependence upon the Lord, the more we become mature in our faith. Reading: 1 Peter 2:1-3, Psalm 34, Psalm 42:1-2, Matthew 18:3-4, and Westminster Confession of Faith 16.2-3.

Over the last few weeks we have seen the importance of holiness in the life of a Christian. As those who have been adopted into the family of God through the new birth, we are called to be holy as our heavenly Father is holy (1 Peter 1:16). Last week we saw that the hope we have to become holy is not in our efforts toward this goal, but rather our hope is in the shed blood of Jesus Christ alone (1 Peter 1:18-19). This week we will see what the true mark of holiness is in the life of a believer and how Christians are to measure their personal growth in holiness. We will come to see that the true mark of holiness in the life of a believer is love. In particular, Peter says that holiness is marked by an increasing love for God’s people (1 Peter 1:22). Reading: 1 Peter 1:22-25, Deuteronomy 7:7-8, Matthew 22:37-40, John 13:34, 1 John 3:14, 4:7-12, 5:2, and Westminster Confession of Faith 26.1.

The Word of God is clear that all Christians are called to be holy, set apart and ready for every good work (2 Timothy 2:21). As the Lord Who called us is holy, we too must be holy in all of our conduct (1 Peter 1:15). However, I would venture to guess that most of us would look at our own lives and fail to see what we would call holiness. In what we say, feel, think, and do we continue to struggle to display the holiness of God in our lives. This struggle might lead us to the conclusion that there is no hope for holiness in this life. Missionaries, monks, ministers, or saints might be able to achieve holiness, but how can an average Christian come close to reflecting the character of God in their life? In our passage for this week, the Apostle Peter explains that every Christian has been given the hope of holiness through the blood of Jesus Christ. The weakness that we perceive in our own lives should not cause us to despair but rather to trust more deeply in the work of God to make all His elect exiles holy. Reading: 1 Peter 1:18-21, Exodus 6:6, Psalm 34, Romans 6, Hebrews 7:26-28, and Westminster Confession of Faith 8.4-8.

English Puritan William Gurnall once wrote, “Say not that you have royal blood in your veins and are born of God, except you can prove your pedigree by daring to be holy.” Holiness is the true mark of divine sonship. In the first twelve verses of 1 Peter, a foundation has been laid upon which Christians may rest their hope and confidence of their salvation. Peter explains that we have been born again according to God’s mercy and not our own works (v. 3a). He has explained that this future blessing has been secured by the work of Christ and not our own (v. 3b). He has shown that Christians are being guarded by God’s hand of providence so that they will surely come to their full salvation (v. 5). And he has rooted this salvation in the eternal word of God spoken throughout the ages (v. 10). Salvation is truly of God’s grace. And all who are born of God will be brought safely to their eternal home. Nevertheless, those who are born into the family of God by the grace of God will grow into the likeness of God. Holiness is the family resemblance into which all Christians must be conformed (vv. 15,16). As we continue in our study of 1 Peter, we will see that Gurnall was correct. We cannot claim to be born of God if our new heritage has not given us a desire to be holy. The root of salvation is the grace of God alone, but the fruit of salvation is holiness of life. Reading: 1 Peter 1:14-17, Leviticus 18:1-5; 19:2, Matthew 5:20, Romans 6:11-14, 1 John 3:9, and Westminster Confession of Faith 12-13.