Concept, Context, Cost of our Redemption

The point: Pass the time of your sojourning in fear, conditioned by the knowledge that God is both your accessible Father and impartial Judge, and that Christ is your Redeemer.

The account of Jesus recommissioning Peter in John 21, despite Peter's earlier denial, and Peter's eventual martyrdom, illustrates Peter's faithfulness in carrying out his commission to feed and shepherd Christ's sheep, even in old age.

Now in the familiar 21st chapter of John's Gospel, we're given that very moving account of how the Lord Jesus recommissioned His servant, the Apostle Peter. The very Peter who a short time before with oaths and with maledictions had sworn that he did not even know Jesus. That same Peter is now being drawn out, by the Lord Jesus, to make fresh affirmations of his love and of his loyalty in the presence of Christ. And in that setting, the Lord Jesus commands Peter both to feed and to shepherd his sheep and his lambs. Furthermore, in that same portion of the Word, we are informed that Peter would...

3:24 - 4:41 Read in full sermon

Driving home: redemption is my release from bondage by the payment of a price.

The analogy of dirty clothes in a hamper versus neatly folded clothes in drawers illustrates how many believers jumble distinct salvation concepts (redemption, propitiation, reconciliation) together without understanding their specific meanings, much like one wouldn't mix clean clothes indiscriminately.

And I fear that many of us treat these words not with the disdain with which we would treat our dirty clothes, but you're not at all concerned about how your dirty clothes are arranged in the hamper where you put them. Dirty undershirt, dirty socks, dirty shirt, dirty trousers, all go in the hamper. And then after they're washed and dried and folded, then they are put neatly in the various places where they belong in your dress or drawers. And no one of you I trust has his undershirt and his socks and his hankies and his pajamas all jumbled up like they are in the dirty clothes hamper.

13:24 - 14:06 Read in full sermon

Driving home: redemption is my release from bondage by the payment of a price.

The example of slaves or war captives being released by the payment of a ransom price helps to concretize the concept of redemption for the first-century audience, many of whom would have direct experience or knowledge of such practices.

And that is expressed in these differing words. So in these few moments as we focus upon the biblical concept of redemption, let me try to convey it in its distilled essence to you. When Peter picked up his pen and wrote, knowing that you were redeemed, and when these first century readers would have received that letter and heard it read for the first time or after a period of time received a copy of the letter and read it for themselves, given the terminology used by Peter in the context, they would have thought of redemption in terms of this very fundamental category of reality. To redeem w...

14:44 - 15:45 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sermon then explores the context from which believers are redeemed: a 'vain manner of life handed down from your fathers.' Martin describes this lifestyle as futile, useless…

The metaphor of ants chasing one another around the rim of a jar, going nowhere and accomplishing nothing, illustrates the futile nature of the unredeemed lifestyle.

They had an active life. But Peter says that lifestyle from which they were redeemed was futile. This word means useless, having no goal, no purpose, leading to no good end. Like ants chasing one another around the rim of a jar, going nowhere and accomplishing nothing, but wearing out their little ant legs.

26:33 - 26:59 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sermon then explores the context from which believers are redeemed: a 'vain manner of life handed down from your fathers.' Martin describes this lifestyle as futile, useless…

The story of prisoners in a concentration camp being forced to move rock piles back and forth for no constructive purpose illustrates the arduous and utterly futile nature of a life without noble goal or substantive purpose.

Perhaps some of you have heard that in the concentration camps during the Second World War there were many things done to try to break the spirit of those who were held captive. And I've read how that in one situation they would have people on one end of a enclosed area surrounded with barbed wire and guards. The people would have to pile rocks into a wheelbarrow and wheel that rock-filled wheelbarrow all the way across to the outer perimeters of that enclosed yard and dump their rocks. Then come back to another rock pile and fill their wheelbarrow and go back again.

27:17 - 27:56 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sermon then explores the context from which believers are redeemed: a 'vain manner of life handed down from your fathers.' Martin describes this lifestyle as futile, useless…

Dr. Van Til's illustration of a man made of water, in a bottomless, shoreless ocean of water, trying to climb out on a ladder made of water, vividly portrays the concept of futility and the impossibility of self-salvation.

They were engaged in this arduous activity that if Peter were describing it, he would call it futile. No end. No terminus. No goal. No purpose leading to no good end. Utterly futile. Perhaps the illustration that is stuck so in my own mind, and it may be because of the peculiar chemistry of my brain, Dr. Van Til used the illustration of trying to imagine a bottomless, shoreless ocean of water.

28:18 - 28:58 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He further elaborates on the character of the Redeemer, explaining that Christ shed His blood 'as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,' not merely in likeness to, but as…

The analogy of a hand casting a shadow on a wall illustrates the relationship between Christ as the 'substance' or true Lamb, and the Old Testament sacrificial lambs as mere 'shadows' or pointers derived from Him.

to the children to your people the only illustration that registered was that of my hand and I was hoping I could get a shadow on the wall I can't get a big one you get shadows on the floor you can't see the shadows on the floor there's one on the wall there's the shadow now what is substantive and what has reality is that shadow that I may try to reach out and grab does that have flesh and bones and sinews and blood vessels and tendons no it's a shadow the substance is this hand it has the bones it has the muscles it has the sinews it has the blood vessels it has the skins and the nervous sys...

47:01 - 48:31 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He further elaborates on the character of the Redeemer, explaining that Christ shed His blood 'as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,' not merely in likeness to, but as…

A conjectured anecdote about young Peter going with his father to find a blemishless Passover lamb helps to personalize and emphasize how deeply the concept of a spotless lamb would have been ingrained in Peter's Jewish mind, preparing him to recognize Christ as the true Lamb.

without blemish I wonder how many times Peter had gone with his dad as he's training him in good Jewish style to be a good leader in his Jewish home remember Peter could say I've never eaten anything unclean he knew how to separate kosher from non-kosher food his father reared him well in Jewish traditions how many times had Peter looked through someone's little group of lambs in the bazaar or in the market place and went over its entire structure looking for any abnormalities any sign that bones had been broken any spots upon the flesh until he found a lamb that he could say dad this looks li...

51:29 - 52:57 Read in full sermon

The point: If you would increase in holiness and be strong against the temptations to sin, view much and seek to know how much you can know of the death of Jesus Christ; consider often at how high a rate we were redeemed from sin.

A quotation from Bishop Leighton emphasizes that increasing in holiness and resisting sin comes from deeply contemplating the death of Jesus Christ and the high cost of redemption.

Rome saying well there are a number of basic doctrines that I need to introduce to these relatively young believers way out there in what is now Turkey and I think I'll say something about redemption no that isn't the way it works he has just exhorted them to a life of steadfast hope a life in the pursuit of universal holiness and now to a life of appropriate fear and he says that fear is conditioned not only by the reality of an accessible father who is an impartial judge but by the fact that you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold from your vain man...

55:52 - 57:19 Read in full sermon

The point: Learn to say this in your own struggles with sin in the world: 'Except you can offer my soul something beyond that price that was given for it on the cross, I cannot listen to you.'

Another quotation from Bishop Leighton provides a powerful response to sin's enticements: 'Except you can offer my soul something beyond that price that was given for it on the cross, I cannot listen to you,' highlighting the incomparable value of Christ's sacrifice.

at how high a rate we were redeemed from sin and provide this answer for all the enticements to sin and the world and God help us to lay hold of this in all my reading and preparation this was one of the most profound statements I found in human authors listen to what Bishop Layton says learn to say this in your own struggles with sin in the world this is what you say whenever sin makes a proposal the world bears its thigh and seeks to seduce you into spiritual adultery this is what you're to say except you sin or the world except you can offer my soul something beyond that price that was give...

57:19 - 58:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not conform to the world's ways, for it means forgetting who you are (a redeemed slave) and how you became what you are (by precious blood shed by incarnate deity).

A hypothetical story of concentration camp prisoners deluded into thinking their futile rock-moving was building a skyscraper, only to realize the delusion at death, illustrates the tragic self-deception of those living a vain life outside of Christ.

and how he became what he is a Christian cannot conform to the world's ways its ways are described as futile determined by mere human traditions molded and shaped by the God of this world and by the lust of the flesh and of the mind Ephesians 2 a Christian cannot conform to this world unless he forgets who he is and how he became what he is who am I I am a redeemed slave how did I become such because precious blood was shed for me by incarnate deity the Lamb of God who bore away the sin of the world remember the intimate connection between the doctrine of redemption and the summons to a life o...

60:17 - 61:46 Read in full sermon