"Receiving the Prize"

Scripture: 1 Peter 1:1-12
Preacher: Rev. Ross Purdy
Date: October 8, 2006

This morning we begin a new study.   I Peter is a letter penned to God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout the east.   But it is also a letter penned for us, strangers in the world, not fitting in with the ways of everyone else; We, who are swimming upstream toward the Kingdom while going against the flow of much of culture.   This letter is dictated by the great Apostle Peter.   He was, perhaps, the closest person who ever was to the Master.   Upon Peter's shoulders, you might remember, would be given the burden of taking care of all the other sheep.

Of all the general Epistles, this one is the best known and loved and most read.   It is written to people who suffer.   But Peter also knows that the Christians who suffer now are only getting ready for the persecution that is soon to be.   Do you ever feel as though you suffer?   You'll enjoy and appreciate the words that Peter says so eloquently.   Join me during these next several weeks as we see what he has to say to the Church.   But join me also in learning what his words mean for each of us.   We are the church.   It is our time to step up to the plate.  

As we begin our series, I would like to invite you back to my childhood for a moment.   Don't worry.   I had a safe and pleasant one.   Let me share an experience with you that I think sets the tone for our study of this letter.

When I was a cub scout there was a wonderful event I used to look forward to year after year.   It was called the Pinewood Derby.  

Every year I would be given a small block of wood.   Out of that wood I was to create a car that would rush down a small track in a race to cross the finish line.   The winners, first, second or third prize, would receive a trophy. I imagined my trophy sitting proudly upon my parent's mantle.

The very first year I had grand plans.   As an eight-year old boy I really believed that I could create a masterpiece, something that would make everyone jealous of my great gift of woodcarving and ability to make something out of very little.   I imagined the image of the finished block of wood, a racecar so beautiful that all the other boys would look upon me with envy.   I took the block of wood, drew a fine sports car with a pencil then proceeded to whittle away until its shape was revealed.   When the car was finished, I put the axles on and carefully measured its weight to make certain it met the official requirements.  

I had created the most beautiful car in the world, or so I thought until I took it to the event.   Compared with the other cars I can now admit that mine was a block of wood with wheels. But maybe the beauty of the car, I thought, would be unnoticeable once everyone saw its speed as it crossed the finish line in front of all others!  

The first race...I stood there with anticipation as I heard the countdown.   Then the gate opened and the gravity pulled each block of wood down to the end of the racetrack...all the cars, except for mine.   As soon as they crossed the finish line the announcer paused, waiting for my car to make it to the end...."And the winner is...the winner is....ladies and gentlemen, as soon as car number eight makes it down, I'll announce the winner."   With all eyes watching, my car finally made it to the end of the tracks.   Then, to my embarrassment, the block of wood hit the end of the runway and exploded everywhere.   Weights and wheels blew off in all direction.   I found myself looking all over the field for each part so I could continue in the next heat.  

What a disappointment!   Last Place.   No trophy.   No words of commendation.   No cheering crowd.   But I finished the race and although I must have put that car together 10 to15 times I went home encouraged that it was only my first year.   In my mind I began to design the next year's car.   Certainly then I would have a trophy to put on my parent's mantelpiece.

The next year was the same...last place.   The year after that was pretty much the same...last place.  

Then came my final year in the derby.   I was a little more than 10.   With great care I carved my block of wood.   I put the wheels on and fixed the weights underneath.   I filled the axles with graphite and I was ready.    Certainly I could count on a trophy this year to sit on my parent's mantle.  

The derby came.   All day I went from heat to heat.   I came in last place.   There was little chance for a trophy.   But then about half-way through the event a man came up to me and said, "That's a fine looking car!   I think you might be able to win if you loosened the wheels a quarter turn."   I took out a screwdriver and tried it.   The next heat came and I watched in amazement as my car, my beautiful care sped by everyone.   The next heat came and I won again...then again.   As the hour went by I saw my name rise from the bottom of the board up and up.   But, right as I made it to fourth place, the meet was over.   I had found the secret too late.   No trophy on this, the last of my pinewood experiences.

However, with all that I had learned, I had three younger brothers.   I set out to teach them my secrets from my experience.   Year after year, each of them won a trophy.   For the next decade a Purdy boy always held first place.   If there was another brother in the event, he would make second, another third.   No other boy in my hometown was allowed into any position for the first-place trophy.   Lined along my parent's mantelpiece were trophies, squeezed in barely able to fit on the shelf.   But, none of those trophies were mine.   I never received the prize.  

I found a great pride in the fact that my experience trail-blazed the path to victory (my counselor says I need to say that for my pinewood derby healing process to set in).   It brings me great joy to think that although my name is not etched into a plaque, those I passed on my experiences to were the beneficiaries.   They had received the prize and they made me proud.   No trophies for me - dozens of trophies for them.   They were fortunate.  

I tell you this story this morning to draw an analogy from Peter's words we just read.   The letter of Peter to the Church begins with this type image.   If you understand that many have sacrificed the prize so that others could obtain it, you will begin to understand Peter's message throughout his letter.

Let me say this as clearly as I can: YOU are not the losers.   You are the winners.   You have a trophy that is far beyond any description.   It is Jesus.   He is the promise of God that many people throughout all of history, thousands of years, long to obtain, but couldn't.   It is my hope that during this message you will come to see this most precious gift you have that bears your name upon it.  

There were many others who came before us.   None of them received the prize.   Their life, their sacrifice, their experiences hasve made it possible for us to hold this prized possession. But this message of Peter is no pinewood derby.   It is greater.

• Noah longed to see the salvation of God, but he died only seeing the saving power of God through a flood.   He would have given up everything to have obtained Jesus and His presence.
• Abraham went to the deeps of hell in his race.   He was ready to sacrifice his son to win but it was not to be.   His life and testimony set the story for our understanding of a Father who would give His precious Son.   But Abraham did not hold the prize of "the" great Son.
• Moses spent his whole life preparing for the prize.   His last years were painful and agonizing as he tried to lead the people to the finish line.   But they refused to go...and Moses was not allowed to make the finish line either.   He would give instruction on how one could win the race, but he did not receive the victory of the prize.   He didn't enter the promise.   He didn't hold the trophy.
• David ran his race with passion.   He sang about this great day that would come.   He slew a giant who dared to interfere with God's plan.   He loved his people and hoped they would win the race.   But they didn't either.   David's legacy was only a shadow of the trophy to come.

And we don't have time to talk about Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi...All of these came before the prize.   All of these gave their life to proclaim the end of the race and the winners.   All of these people gave their lives so the way could be prepared.   All of them became examples for us who would receive the prize.   None of them had anything as precious as you have.   They preached.   They prophesied.   They longed for the day when the prize would be given.   But none of them saw that day.

You did.   You have received.   You hold within you so great a trophy that if you just understood a little more of the reward that is yours, you wouldn't be sitting still within your seat right now.   If I understood a little more of this great prize within me I couldn't stand before you speaking with such a calm voice.   You would be walking up here and shaking me out of my sleep.   I would be coming down there and shaking you out of yours.

But isn't that the human condition?   When God appeared as a baby in Bethlehem, on a hill outside the village sat some shepherds near a fire.   In one moment, God had entered the race.   The baby sped past all others in an attempt to grasp the first place, then to give away that prize to all who would receive.   The first heat was a landslide.   The second and third were certain to come.  

But to those shepherds an angel appeared.   As that angel began speaking the news of the great event, the dark sky burst forth in light as thousands upon thousands of angels filled the air shouting, "Glory to God in the highest...Glory to God in the highest...Do you know what God has done?"

The angels were crying out to us humans, "WAKE UP!"   Do you not know who is in your midst?   And they are still singing that today.   Can you hear them?

Listen to what Peter says, "It was revealed to the preachers and prophets that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the Gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.   EVEN ANGELS long to look into these things."

Even angels long to look into these things.   They don't understand the prize that was given to us.   But they know full well that prize's worth.   We, who have received Jesus Christ, understand the prize of salvation that is given.   But we don't know the prize's worth.  

I'll say it as clearly as I can.   There can be no trivialization of our message that the prize has come.   His name is Jesus.   For all who would receive Him, their name is proudly etched upon him by the Father; a Father who is not ashamed to call us sons and daughters; a Father who proudly displays our names upon his mantelpiece.  

Yet though our names are etched on the trophy, we don't realize how great this is.   We are winners.   Through the death of God's Son on a cross, we have inherited the fullness of life, the salvation of our very beings.

Therefore Peter shouts in his letter:

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!   In His great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade - kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time."

We have been given eternal life through the death of God's Son.   Jesus has risen from the dead.   And now He is coming again to take us to the Father's house. Jesus is coming again...this is Peter's message in this letter.   And when Jesus comes, he will take us home to see that on God's mantle is a trophy with your name upon it.   God is so very proud of you.

And yet, in this meantime in which we live, we don't realize that we've won.   We spend our lives in the mediocrity of this world, playing the victims.   "Woe is me...I can't do this...I can't amount to anything...I can't, I can't, I can't.   I'm always being victimized.   Look what they're doing to me...the world isn't fair..."

Stop!   The world isn't fair...so get used to it.   But stop using those excuses and change your world.   You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.   Start believing in the promises of God and the power of God's Spirit who is at work within you and around you.

God remind us again of the great prize that has already been given.   Help us to be thankful for those who didn't receive, but blazed the trail so we could receive.    Shatter our perception that we are victims and awaken within us the perception that we are more than conquerors; that there is no force upon this earth that can overcome us...so why do we keep letting them?

What is the focal point of your life?   What is the very statement at the core of your being? "Woe is me" or "Look at the greatness that God has given me?"   As we begin our study of First Peter, keep asking yourself that very question.   But I want to warn you, this book is not for people with a "victim" mentality.   It is for those who suffer...and it is for winners who find themselves in first place only because the Master passed on the trophy.   You didn't win the prize.   It was given to you.   But for heaven's sake, honor it above all else.

Amen.