God’s Big Plan For You

Intro

God loves you, and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Let’s pray. (kidding)

Many of you (like myself) may have grown up hearing this common Christian phrase, which was popularized by Bill Bright’s gospel tracts with his 4 Spiritual Laws that were handed out during the Campus Crusades for Christ back in the early 50s. Now, this phrase is true in a lot of ways, but most people have ran away with the phrase rather than the massive truth behind the phrase.

For one, it can give an overly “positive” view of the gospel. For instance, people usually associate “God loves you” with John 3:16 without quoting verses 17-21 about the light of the world coming in judgment. Evangelist Ray Comfort wrote a book titled God’s Wonderful Plan For Your Life with the book cover illustrating Acts 7 and Stephen getting stoned—which was to emphasize that God’s wonderful plan may not be the kind of “wonderful” that you expect.

On the other hand, this phrase also leads to people quoting Scripture out of context. People have usually associated the “wonderful plan for your life” with Jeremiah 29:11 without quoting verses 1-10 that talk about God’s plan to prosper these exiles from Jerusalem will only come after 70 years of captivity in Babylon— or the abundant life in John 10:10 and wrongfully thinking that it means a life of prosperity today.

And the language “for your life” tends to minimize this big gospel to a person being saved rather than a people being saved. While God’s plan includes you, God’s plan is much bigger than just you—but it’s still for you. So it’s not less than that, but it’s so much more than that.

And that’s what today’s passage is all about—God’s Big Plan For You (which is what I titled this sermon). We’ll break this down to two main sections, but the first observation under 1) God’s Big Plan is the first three words: He was foreknown.

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   God’s Big Plan

   1. 
      He was foreknown

      The most basic way to understand foreknown is to break down the word in reverse—known before. In other words, he [Christ] was known before. Now, the first question to ask is: Christ was known before—by who? If you look back at verses 1-2, Peter uses this same language when he talks about how these exiles were elect (or chosen) “according to the foreknowledge of the Father” (1 Peter 1:2).

      As in, these exiles were known before by God in such a personal way when he elected (or chose) to love them by entering into a covenant relationship with them, as we gleaned from that particular sermon (https://ebcnipawin.ca/sermons/1-peter/dear-exiles/).

      So here in verse 20, Peter must then be saying that Christ was known before by the Father in such a personal and loving way. But this begs the next question: Christ was known by God the Father before what? And the answer is: before the foundation of the world.
      

• • • • • • • • 
                Before the foundation of the world

                
                Before the creation of the heavens and the earth. Before Genesis 1:1. Which means that Christ was known by the Father before the beginning—before time even existed!

                We get a glimpse of this pre-existing relationship from eternity past in John 17 when Jesus prays to the Father before he was about to die on the cross: “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:5). Not only was Jesus eternally existing with the Father, but he had this eternal glory with the Father before the world existed!

                A couple verses later in John 17, we find out more about this glorious relationship when Jesus prays for his disciples: “Father, I desire that they… [would] see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24).

                Here’s what Peter is saying in 1:20—Christ was personally known and loved by God the Father before the foundation of the world, when they enjoyed the glory that they had with one another before the world (time and space) even existed—but was made manifest.
                

1. 1. 1. 
         But was made manifest

         This almost feels like an interruption—or a plot twist, as if something bad were to happen. But according to Peter’s flow of thought, this is all in line with God’s big plan from eternity past.

         In other translations, “made manifest” is worded as “appeared” or “revealed.” In connection to this glorious relationship between the triune God before the foundation of the world, Peter is saying that Jesus was made manifest—to the world that was founded or created.

         This means that God’s big plan in foreknowing Christ from eternity past included Christ leaving his perfect home in perfect glory—to come down to this created earth and take on a human body in order to be made manifest to the world.

         But now, the question is this: For what purpose was Christ made manifest to the world? Peter sheds light on this in verse 11, when he talked about how the Spirit of Christ in the prophets “predicted the sufferings of Christ.”

         God wasn’t surprised that the crafty serpent showed up in the garden (Genesis 3). Nor was he surprised when Adam and Eve were tempted and fell to sin. Because the Father foreknew Christ and that he would be made manifest to the world, and the Spirit predicted that Christ would suffer for the sins of the world.

         From Christ’s birth to his death on the cross, where his precious blood would be shed as a perfect ransom for man’s sin, Christ was made manifest to the world in order to suffer.

         And this was all part of God’s big plan—Christ was foreknown by the Father in their glory before the foundation of the world to be made manifest to the world to suffer as the Spirit of Christ predicted by shedding his precious blood as a ransom for sin.

         And when did this happen? Peter says that he was made manifest in the last times.
         

• • • • • • • • 
                In the last times

                Since the previous idea was that Christ was made manifest to the world, then we can understand this phrase to be “in the last times of the world.” Literally, we can read it as “in the last of the times” or the end of time—as the world (where time began to exist) knows it.

                Specifically, if Christ was made manifest to the world in the last times, then we can know that the last times of the world began at the coming of Christ. So Peter is saying that Christ’s manifestation to the world ushered in the beginning of—the last times of the world.

                In fact, many different translations actually phrase this as “in these last times,” which emphasizes the present tense of this phrase (cf. Hebrews 1:2).

                Because these last times will end when Christ comes back a second time, which Peter alludes to in verse 5 when he talks about this future and final salvation that is “ready to be revealed in the last time [singular, different words in the original language]” (1 Peter 1:5).

                Until then, we are in these last times including today—so whenever you see that phrase “last times” or “last days” in your Bibles, you can think of that time frame beginning with Christ’s first coming and ending with Christ’s second coming (or return).

                I hope you’re seeing how truly big this plan is. From eternity past (before the foundation of the world), God foreknew Christ to be made manifest and suffer in these last times.

                But how does verse 20 even connect to what Peter has been saying in this section? So far, Peter’s main command in verse 17 is to conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile (that is, in these last times, throughout this life outside of your true home in heaven with God), knowing that you’ve been ransomed from your sinful past by the precious blood of Christ.

                So what does God’s big plan add to Peter’s argument? To connect Peter’s flow of thought, he is saying that you must live in fear of the Lord today, because 1) you’ve been ransomed/redeemed from sin, specifically from your sinful past, and 2) at such a great cost.

                Then Peter adds the third and final reason in verse 20: because this big plan of redemption was no afterthought—this was God’s big plan all along.

                So here’s God’s big plan: that the pre-existent Christ would be foreknown by the Father in such a personal and loving way before the foundation of the world to come down from his perfect home in heaven, where he enjoyed perfect love and perfect glory with the Godhead, to humbly put on a human body and live as a perfect human to die as the perfect ransom for man’s sin—thus, being made manifest to suffer in the last times.

• • • • • • • • And not only was this God’s big plan, but Peter strengthens his argument for the final reason as to why we should live in fear of the Lord—because this was God’s big plan for you—which is our second big idea, evidenced by that last phrase in verse 20.
                

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   For You

   1. 
      For the sake of you

      Let that sink in for a moment. God foreknew Christ before all time and creation to be made manifest and suffer in the last times—for you. Now, before you start feeling bad or undeserving about this reality, note that is what Peter has been trying to say this whole time.

      Recall verse 5 when Peter talks about this living hope that God is keeping in heaven for you. In verses 9 and 10, Peter talks about the very same thing when the prophets of old prophesied concerning this plan of salvation—which is the salvation of your souls, or this grace that was to be yours. And in doing this, the prophets were serving not themselves, but you.

      Think of verse 13, when Peter says that you must think of and set your hope fully on [this] grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, knowing that you were ransomed (1:18). “You" included the Christian readers of Peter’s day, as well as Christian readers in our day—which is you (plural, you and I). Peter hasn’t left his point here—he really wants you to understand that God pre-planned this hope, salvation and grace for you.

      Now, to clarify: I am NOT saying that “Jesus thought you were worth dying for,” as some false teachers unfortunately emphasize. When Christ died for you, yes he was like a rose trampled on the ground; yes, he took the fall; but no, he did not think of you Above All (as that all-too familiar song teaches).

      Rather, Christ was foreknown by God the Father and was manifested to die in obedience to the Father, so Christ thought of the Father’s plan above all—for your sake (in that order). And Peter clarifies this in verse 21, when he fleshes out who “you” refers to with a clear order of operations. For the sake of you who through Christ are believers in God.
      

   2. 
      Who through Christ are believers in God

      By saying this, Peter clarifies who acts after who. First, you (who are believers) only do the act of believing in God after Christ died for you, after God foreknew Christ before creation and that he would die for you. To put it the other way around, God took the initiative in sending Jesus to die so that you would believe in him—that’s how it becomes for your sake.

      As Jesus says in John 14, “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). This is why in 1 Peter 1, Peter says: You call on him as Father (1:17a) [who ransomed you] with the precious blood of Christ (1:19).

      So God’s big plan through Christ and his death was for you to become believers in him. Yet, his big plan didn’t end at Christ’s death, so Peter expands on his statement: God’s big plan is for you who are believers through Christ in God—who raised and glorified Christ.
      

• • • • • • • • 
                In God who raised and glorified Christ

                See how truly big God’s plan for you is. Think of verses 2-3: “According to the foreknowledge of God the Father… [and] according to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).

                But why does Peter feel the need to specify God raising and glorifying Jesus right after telling his readers that they are believers in God through Christ?

                And Peter’s answer is because it is through Christ and God’s work through Christ, specifically, God’s work in foreknowing him, making him manifest to suffer and die, raising and glorifying Christ—that God makes you believers in Him.

                In saying this, Peter is then implying that what God all did for Jesus—he will also do for you! To be specific, Peter is saying that God’s big plan for you—who through Christ are believers in God—also includes you being raised from the dead and being glorified with Christ!

                Now this might sound good and true, but this seems to be a harder pill to swallow for many believers today.

                When I preached on verses 6-7 in September, I received many questions afterwards (and I was happy to receive them) regarding the idea of the believer’s faith being “found to result in praise, glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ” as opposed to the praise, glory and honour being reserved for Jesus alone.

                So is the glory given to Jesus or the believer?

                And the short answer is yes! Here, in verse 21, Peter clarifies the order of operations when he states that God raised Jesus from the dead and gave him glory—that is, at his ascension when he was taken up to heaven after 40 days on earth post-resurrection (which was super important for the faith of believers as we have been seeing in adult Sunday school) in order to be seated at the right of the Father, where he is right now (pun intended).

                And one day, Jesus is coming back in glory (because he’s already received it) in order to share this glory with the “purified people for his own possession” (1 Peter 2:9; Titus 2:14)—which is the prize for which Christ died! Paul prays in Ephesians 1, “that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:18).

                In short, Christ was raised and glorified first as “the firstfruits” (1 Corinthians 15:20) so that you may also be raised and glorified with him on the last day—which is his glorious inheritance.

                Yet, Peter redirects us back to the architect of this plan. God was the one who was behind all of this, since he has pre-planned this before all time for your sake. God is the one who makes you a believer in him through Christ, since God is the one who raised and glorified Christ—so that your faith and hope are in God.
                

1. 1. 
      So that your faith and hope are in God

      In essence, Peter is defining who believers in God are—those who have faith and hope in God. Bu there, the emphasis is on the fact that God took the initiative in all of this—so that your faith and hope would be in Him! He gets all the glory, and even greater glory!

      Think about it: If the triune Godhead was perfectly happy in the glory that they had with one another before the foundation of the world, then what could be more glorious than that?

      Well, the Father foreknew before the beginning of time that His Son would step down from that perfect glory to be made manifest in the last times and live as a perfect human and become the perfect sacrificial lamb as the ransom for man’s sin.

      In order that he might be raised from the dead in his human body and be given glory with a perfected human body in ascending up to heaven as the perfect God-man—which is 1) good news for sinful man because His Spirit descended as a guarantee of resurrected, perfected bodies (2 Corinthians 5:5) for those who through Christ believe in God, thus 2) giving greater glory to Jesus on the last day when he comes to make his people like him.

      So, God’s big plan for you who though Christ are believers in Him results in Him receiving greater glory in the resurrection and glorification of Jesus, who by his Spirit (or by his power, 1:5) is now guarding this glorious inheritance through faith so that his people—you—might be glorified with Christ on the last day! And that was the purpose of this big plan after all—so that your faith and hope are in God!

      This is God’s big plan, that Christ would be foreknown before the foundation of the world to be made manifest in the last times—for you, who through Christ are believers in God—who resurrected and glorified Christ so that your faith and hope are in God. So what does this look like for us today?
      

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   God’s Big Plan For You Today

   1. 
      Think Big, Live Large

      Now, before you throw your apples at me, the fact that you might want to throw apples means that  you know what this phrase is associated with. When our culture says “think big,” it generally means to think about what you want to do with your life and do what it takes takes to get there, which is to “live large.”

      I thought about this when I was driving around town this week and saw some people renovating their newly-purchased house. In our North American culture today, to think big is to land a good, steady job that you hopefully enjoy, then go to work each day and work hard (maybe even put in overtime hours) in order to get that fat paycheque at the end of each month and buy what you need (and want) because you deserve it.

      This might mean purchasing your dream home and maybe renovating it to the perfect home for you, or maybe taking some money out of your fat savings account that you’ve been tirelessly putting into each month to take a week or month to travel around the world because you deserve a break and you’re not necessarily hurting your RESPs or RRSPs. Think big, live large.

      And some of these things may not even be “bad” in and of themselves, but the problem is when thinking big is capped by these big dreams for living large in this life. And I am not just talking about unbelievers here—many Christians today, maybe even some of us in this room this morning, might still be hanging on to these “futile ways” from our heritage that we’ve been bought from as we were exhorted from last week’s passage.

      In fact, here’s what I’ve noticed about my own culture and heritage. Filipinos who emigrate from a third-world country to North America also tend to develop this North American “I deserve it” attitude. Why? Because you didn’t get much in a third world country—but now you have dollars instead of pesos and you think big and live large by getting what you didn’t have back then and all your dreams for your family and your kids are all largely centered on their future here on earth—“where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal” (Matthew 6:20) as Jesus says. And sadly, I see this attitude within my own family/relatives who label themselves as “Christians.”

      But if you, who through Christ are believers in God, you and I (regardless of your culture, since you’ve been ransomed from their futile ways) must think big and live large along the lines of what Peter is saying in our passage today.

      This means that we need to think about how before time even existed—the Father, Son & Spirit were eternally existent in this perfect love relationship with each other and enjoyed their glory together—yet, they chose to share this love and glory when they said to one another: “Let us make man in our image” (Genesis 1:26).

      The triune Godhead chose to do this out of love and grace even though Christ was foreknown—that is, that the pre-existent Christ would be the incarnate Christ, humbled and made manifest in the last times as the spotless sacrificial lamb who left his home and glory in heaven so that his blood would be the ransom for our sin.

      But it doesn’t even end there, because God’s big plan is even bigger than we can think of.

      So think big, not according to the futile ways of your culture that you’ve been ransomed from, but according to God’s big plan for you—who through Christ are believers in God and will one day be glorified with him when this grace that was to be yours will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, who will commend you himself and reward your faith and hope that are in God.

      Think big about this big plan that was put in place by this big God, and set your hope fully on that—and in doing so, you’re living large. Because then you’re not just living for what this world has to offer—you’re living for something much bigger than this ball of water called earth can give you.

      And when you think big and live large in this way, this life will start to look way smaller. This will lead to you making this little life on earth count for the bigger and never-ending life that awaits you on the other side of heaven—living large!

      This means that reading your Bible and learning about God’s big plan for you and responding to that in prayer suddenly becomes a greater priority than checking the notifications on your phone or getting to work first thing in the morning because “heaven and earth will pass away, but [his] words will not” (Luke 21:33).

      Suddenly, the way you budget and think about distributing your money becomes less about your own satisfactions and more about other people’s needs—whether it’s supporting your physical family or your brothers and sisters in Christ since generosity is the mark of a Christian (be it regular and systematic giving to support the mission of your local church or missionaries out there, or random and spontaneous giving to supply the current need of those around you).

      This is all because we are all ransomed believers together on the same mission to tell people about God’s big plan for them.

      Suddenly, the way we think about spending our time becomes less about us and more about others because God the Father, Son and Spirit who enjoyed perfect love and glory with one another chose to share that—not out of need but grace—with mere human beings even though he knew that they would sin against him.

      Thinking big and living large in this way means that we don’t just spend all our time with close family and friends who are easy and enjoyable to hang out with, but that we actually and intentionally step out of our comfort zone and spend time with fellow believers who want to learn more about God’s big plan for them or with your neighbours who need to find out about God’s big plan for them in the first place. Or maybe even stepping out of your country to bring yourself or your family to go and tell an unreached people group about God’s big plan for them.

      And any or all of these options require big faith and hope in a big God—because we need to think big about this big plan and live largely in reverent fear of this big God who can do big things.

      And God’s big plan has many implications for the ransomed believer—staring with fact that you’ve been ransomed form this futile way of thinking and living—so that you might move towards holy living. Be holy, for I am holy.

      God’s big plan for you requires you to have a big view of the Christian life. Justification (or being ransomed) is just the beginning of the this glorious plan for us—not the end!
      In fact, there is no end to this because we’re thinking big as in eternity! So we can’t just relax and say “I’m saved, I crossed the line through Jesus so I get to go to heaven now.”

      But that’s not what a big view of the Christian life is according to Peter. It means being ransomed from your futile ways to God’s holy ways. This is why John Owen famously says “be killing sin before it kills you.”

      This is why Peter can say that suffering is only “for a little while” (1:6-7), because this life is so small. As opposed to staying on the line of salvation—where you can easily go back and grab a hold of your sins that you’ve been ransomed from—God’s big plan for you means that you need to kill sin and walk towards holiness.

      This is why Peter says in his second letter, “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:10-11).

      So think big and live large according to God’s big plan for you. Think of the specific, futile ways in your life today that you’ve been ransomed from, and consider how you can take steps forward to holiness as we take a moment of silence shortly, and as we sing these words as a response to God’s big plan for us together as believers:

      Teach us Lord, to number our days on earth
      Give us more wisdom in the secret heart [that is, truth in our inward being—Psalm 51:6]
      As you display amazing grace
      though Jesus Christ for us.