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Today's reading will be from 1 Peter 1, verses 1-2, chapter 2, verses 11-12, and chapter 5, verses 12-14.
Our reading from the first letter of Peter.
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to God's elect.
Exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.
Who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,
through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood.
Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.
Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong,
they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
With the help of Silas, whom I regard as a faithful brother,
I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God.
Stand fast in it.
She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you her greetings, and so does my son Mark.
Greet one another with a kiss of love.
Peace to all of you who are in Christ.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Good morning, Christ Church.
We, over the last few weeks, have been exploring the Apostle Paul
and talking about the nature of the church,
the New Testament vision on the purpose of the church
as the one body of Jesus Christ
and the way in which we are many different parts of that one body,
that we have different gifts from the Holy Spirit,
that we're to exercise for the building up of that body in love.
And we talked about the ways that we can be stewarding our time
and our talents and our treasures
to carry out the mission of God through his church.
And so today we're going to continue in this focus of what it means to be the church,
but we're going to shift from Paul to Peter.
And we are going to begin exploring over the next couple months
this great letter of 1 Peter.
Now you may be wondering, why 1 Peter?
Well, in the last few paragraphs of Martin Luther's preface
to his German translation of the New Testament,
which he did about 500 years ago in 1522,
Martin Luther said this.
He said,
Which are the noblest books of the New Testament?
From all of this translation that I've just given you,
you can now judge for yourselves
all the books and you can decide among them which are the best.
John's Gospel and St. Paul's epistles,
especially that to the Romans,
and St. Peter's first epistle
are the true kernel and marrow of all the books.
They ought properly to be the foremost books,
and it would be advisable for every Christian to read them first and most,
and by daily reading,
to make them as much his own as his daily bread.
For in them you find depicted in masterly fashion
how faith in Christ overcomes sin, death, and hell,
and gives life, righteousness, and salvation.
This is the real nature of the Gospel.
If you haven't read much Martin Luther,
that's kind of how he typically speaks.
Big statements like that.
But something to consider.
Why are we reading 1 Peter?
Well, it truly is a noble letter,
and I hope that you'll come to find that.
Now, who is Peter?
We have a slide here of Rembrandt's depiction of Peter
when he's an old man.
And if you're brand new to the Christian faith,
Jesus Christ made Peter the leader of his 12 disciples,
and he gave him this nickname, Petros,
which means rock or rocky or rock man.
That's what, when Peter says,
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
that's the nickname that Jesus gave him.
And we preach the Gospel of Mark
from Christmas to Easter,
and we said when we were preaching that Gospel
that Mark was the secretary and the translator of Peter.
And one ancient source says that Mark,
quote, wrote accurately all that Peter remembered.
So we spent months basically meditating
on the memoirs of Peter
and all of his memories about Jesus.
And so now Peter's an older man,
and he writes this letter to these Christians,
and he ends the letter summarizing his letter
in chapter 5, verse 12.
He says, stand fast in the true grace of God.
And that's what we're gonna be exploring together
in the coming months.
What does it mean to stand fast
in the true grace of God?
What is the true grace of God?
What does it mean to stand fast
in the true grace of God?
Now as Peter opens this letter today,
I think the message for us
is that our Christian identity
is apostolic, exiled, and elect.
Our Christian identity,
the things that our Christian identity
are based upon,
is that we are apostolic,
exiled, and elect.
And I'd like to just explore
these three themes with you
as we get to know this letter a little bit.
Our Christian identity, first of all,
is apostolic.
Peter opens and he says,
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.
Now God's grace had made Peter a disciple,
had made him a Christian.
It was by grace that God the Father
revealed to Peter who Jesus really, really is.
And Peter said,
you're the Messiah,
you're the son of the living God.
But it was Peter who was not only called
to be a Christian,
Peter was also called to be an apostle.
And what is an apostle?
An apostle is this special,
unique, particular calling
as a sent one.
That's what an apostle means,
a sent one,
someone who is sent.
And the meaning of this word
is so much bigger and richer than that
because it's one sent with a message
and a mission.
It's one sent to represent another,
one sent to serve as their delegate,
one sent as a trained
and authorized ambassador of the king.
And so Peter and all the apostles
are speaking for the Lord Jesus Christ himself,
speaking on his behalf.
An apostle is someone
who's been entrusted by Jesus
with his message and his mission
as fully authorized representatives
of the sender.
And what are the qualifications
of an apostle?
What are the essential requirements?
Well, no one could be an apostle
unless they had seen the risen Lord.
You had to be a witness
to the resurrection of Jesus.
And in the gospel of John,
John chapter 20,
we see Peter running to the tomb of Jesus
on that Easter Sunday morning
and it says that Peter saw
the linen cloths lying there,
this tight burial cocoon
that Jesus had been put in,
undisturbed, uncut,
and yet somehow empty
with Jesus' body no longer in it.
It's in the shape of Jesus' body,
but Jesus' body is not there.
And Peter,
later on on that Easter Sunday night,
he was there in the room
where Jesus showed up
in Luke chapter 24,
and it says this,
Jesus himself stood among them
and said to them,
Peace be with you.
And they were startled and frightened,
thinking they had seen a ghost.
And he said to them,
Why are you troubled,
and why do doubts rise in your minds?
Look at my hands and my feet.
It is I myself.
Touch me and see.
A ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you see that I have.
And when he had said this,
he showed them his hands and feet,
and while they still did not believe
because of joy and amazement,
he asked them,
Do you have anything here to eat?
And they gave him a piece of broiled fish,
and he took it,
and he ate it in their presence.
And then he opened their minds
so they could understand the Scriptures.
Peter, the apostle, was there.
He saw Jesus.
He heard Jesus.
He touched Jesus.
He learned from Jesus
that most extraordinary Bible study
on Easter Sunday night
with the risen Jesus.
Peter was there in Matthew chapter 28
when the resurrected Jesus said,
All authority in heaven and on earth
has been given to me.
Now go and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit,
and teaching them to obey
everything I've commanded you.
Peter is a trustworthy eyewitness
to the resurrected Jesus
from that first Easter day
all the way,
those 40 days,
to Jesus' ascension into heaven
at the right hand of the Father.
And the resurrected Jesus
gave his own authority
to his apostles
so that they would go out
and speak with the authority
of the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
Jesus gave them revelation and knowledge.
He gave them the authority
to preach and teach.
He gave them the authority
to lay down doctrine and ethics.
He gave them the authority
to establish people in the truth
that was not merely a human word
but was the very word of God.
And the resurrected Jesus
gave his apostles the authority
to write this uniquely
and divinely inspired New Testament
and all the letters of the New Testament.
Now why is this important?
It's important because
you cannot follow Jesus Christ
without following his apostles.
We cannot follow Jesus Christ
without following his apostles.
Many people say,
I love Jesus
but I'm not so sure about his apostles.
People say, you know,
there's parts of the letters
of Peter and John and Paul and James
that I have a hard time with.
I have a hard time
with their doctrinal truth
and their ethical demands.
And what I want to make clear today
is that that is not you
disliking and having a hard time
merely with the apostles.
That's you disliking
and having a hard time
with the resurrected Jesus.
They are the special chosen mouthpieces
of the resurrected Christ.
And he said in John chapter 16,
he said,
I have much more to say to you apostles,
more than you can now bear,
but when he,
the spirit of truth comes,
he will guide you into all the truth.
The Holy Spirit is going to come
and guide my apostles
into the deeper truth
they need to preach
and teach
and write the scriptures
and the New Testament.
And friends,
being a Christian
means that we are devoted
to the apostles' teaching.
So that when we want to find
the truth of Jesus,
we turn to what the apostles
have written down.
We are,
let me put it this way,
we are not being led
by the Holy Spirit
into Jesus-inspired
and Jesus-authorized truth
unless it is apostolic truth.
The truth of the resurrected Jesus
has spoken through his apostles.
And the reason I'm belaboring this
is because if we are not apostolic,
then what are we?
If we are not apostolic
as Christians and as churches,
then we are at the whim
of the worst idiosyncrasies
of strong personalities
and faddish social trends.
And if we are not apostolic,
then we are shaped
by powerful institutions
and ideologies
and influencers
with agendas
that curiously align
almost perfectly
with the political left
or the political right.
If we are not apostolic,
we are being formed
by the internet
and algorithms
and God forbid,
impersonal robots.
thoughts?
Yeah!
I mean,
if that's what you're going for,
I guess that's what you ought
to be excited about
being formed by.
But what I'm saying is
we need the objective standard
of the truth
that the resurrected Jesus
has given to us
through his apostles.
If you're exploring Christianity,
my question for you is
what or who
is your ultimate authority
for truth and life
other than yourself?
And if you're a Christian,
what is your daily intake
of the apostles' teaching?
And how literate
have you become
regarding the contents
of their letters?
And how much
of your thinking
and your priorities
in your life
is aligned
with the apostles' teaching?
I want to invite us today
as we begin
to explore this letter
and challenge us
to build our lives
on apostolic truth,
which is the one
sure foundation
that Jesus has given
for his church.
You with me so far?
Our Christian identity
is apostolic,
but more than that,
our Christian identity
is exiled.
Our identity
as Christians
is fundamentally
an identity
of being
an exiled people.
Here's what he says.
He says,
Peter,
an apostle of Jesus Christ
to God's elect,
exiles scattered
throughout the provinces
of Pontus,
Galatia,
Cappadocia,
Asia,
and Bithynia.
How does he identify
these Christians?
He says,
you are exiles
who are scattered,
or the Greek word
for scattered there
is the diaspora.
You're exiles
of the diaspora.
And then in chapter 2,
verse 11,
he says,
Dear friends,
I urge you
as foreigners
and exiles
to abstain
from sinful desires
which war against
your soul.
Live such good lives
among the pagans
that though they accuse
you of doing wrong,
they may see
your good deeds
and glorify God
on the day
he visits us.
What does he call
these Christians?
He calls them foreigners.
Sojourners.
Strangers.
Resident aliens.
Exiles.
Why is he using
this language of exile?
Why does he make this
the controlling metaphor
of his entire letter?
Well, Peter is revealing
to us
the nature
of Christian community
and our relationship
with surrounding cultures.
With this language
of exiles
and foreigners,
he's revealing
to us
the nature
of Christian community
and our relationship
with surrounding cultures.
We have a map
if we can bring
that slide up.
It's a map
of the ancient world
which is modern Turkey.
It's a vast area
the size of California
which the Apostle Paul
did not evangelize.
He evangelized
the southern part
and went along
the Mediterranean there.
But Peter is writing
to this central
and northern Turkey
which is known
for diversity
of ethnic groups
and diversity
of languages
and cultures
and a vast diversity
of religions.
And what you need
to know is that
Roman emperors
would basically
go on conquest.
They would annex
a region
like the ones
you see here
and they would
displace peoples there
to strengthen
the rule
of the empire
through a process
of colonization.
So Claudius
the Roman emperor
who ruled
from 41 to 54 AD
he established
colonial cities
in all five
of the provinces
that Peter names
and it was not
uncommon for Claudius
to deport groups
like Jews
and like Christians.
He would deport
groups to colonies
who were viewed
as troublemakers
back in Rome
and he would
basically send them away
and so these Christians
who Peter is writing to
were most likely
converted in Rome
and then they were
deported
because they were
being troublemakers
they were deported
to Asia Minor
and there they're now
living as displaced
foreigners
and dislocated
outsiders.
These are the exiles
of the diaspora
to whom Peter
is writing his letter
and these Christians
were not citizens
of the dominant power.
The cause
of their alienation
from society
is their faith
in Jesus Christ
and their refusal
to give allegiance
to the gods
of the empire.
And so the questions
these exiles
and foreigners
are asking themselves
is how do we relate
to these surrounding
cultures
that we're in now?
How do we live
in this society
that sees us
as incomprehensible,
that sees us
and our faith
as perhaps even
offensive and dangerous?
And now that we're
suffering because
of the ways of Jesus
how are we to
endure this disfavor
and this rejection
because of Jesus?
And Peter is writing
to show them
how to live
as exiles
and as foreigners
and he's basically
saying in this letter
let's get together
and let's think about
the story
of the Bible
and let's think about
how in much
of the Old Testament
the people of God
are living in places
other than their
native land.
Abraham and Sarah
were called by God
to leave their country
and leave their people
and leave their household
and Abraham,
Isaac,
and Jacob
lived as foreigners
in Canaan.
And then Joseph
we remember
and all of Jacob's
children
and eventually
his grandchildren
all the way down
to the generation
of Moses
they lived as aliens
and sojourners
in Egypt.
And then later on
the whole nation
of Israel
would be exiled
from the promised land
to live as strangers
in Babylon.
We think of the prophets
Daniel
and Jeremiah
and Ezekiel
and then later on
they were resident aliens
in Persia.
We think of Esther
and Peter saying
look the people of God
have been scattered
to surrounding cultures
with different beliefs
and different values
and different ideals
and different customs
and different mores
and different practices
and he's saying
to these Christians
your identity
and your experience
as displaced people
of God
the disliked people
of God
it's nothing new.
It's nothing new.
And so here I am
as an apostle
of Jesus Christ
to help you navigate
what it means
to be exiles
for Jesus' sake.
So let's think together
about these exilic communities
of the people of God
in Canaan
and in Egypt
in Babylon
and in Persia.
How did they live out
their differences
with all the other peoples
around them?
How were they
a counterculture
of non-conformists?
How did they
bear witness
to an alternative
way of life?
And how did they
in the words of Jesus
in John chapter 17
how did they live
as in the world
but not of the world?
Now the reason
we're preaching
this letter
is because
I think it has
incredible relevance
to Christians
and to churches
in North America
in election year 2024
among other things
that are happening
in this season.
We could probably
think of many examples
of unbalanced
and extreme relationships
that churches have
established
with the cultures
around them
can we not?
Because some churches
say you know
what we need to do
we need to transform
our culture.
Our culture is
clearly in decline
and so we need
to seek political power
and we need to
rectify the situation
by imposing
Christian beliefs
and Christian standards
on an unwilling
populace.
Let's transform
the culture.
And other people
come along and say
no, no, no, no
let's not transform
the culture
let's assimilate
to the culture
let's accommodate
ourselves
and let's embrace
these various
justice movements
and movements
of liberation
so that we can be
seen to be
on the right side
of history.
And then other churches
say no, no, no
let's not transform
the culture
let's not assimilate
to the culture
let's just withdraw
from the culture.
Let's retreat
into these strong
tight-knit
sheltered communities
with little connection
to the rest of society
so that we can avoid
being polluted by it.
And then people say
no, no, no
let's not transform
the culture
or assimilate
to the culture
or withdraw
from the culture
let's just ignore
the culture altogether.
We just need to build
up the church
and win people
to Jesus
and leave the culture
to take care
of itself.
And what we're going
to find in this letter
is that this apostle
of Jesus Christ
is encouraging us
to avoid
all of these
unbalanced excesses
of being defensive
against culture
of being relevant
to culture
of being purified
from culture
of being unconcerned
about culture
and instead of all
these things
he's saying
you as Christian exiles
you as Christian foreigners
should be distinctively
and faithfully
present within culture.
not defensive against
not relevant to
not purified from
not unconcerned about
but distinctively
and faithfully
present within.
Just as God
and Jesus Christ
became fully
and faithfully
present among us
and pursued us
and identified with us
and offered
his life to us
through his sacrificial love
despite the fact
that we were
other in his eyes
so this apostle
of Jesus
expects these
Christian exiles
to maintain
their distinctive
identity
as those who've been
chosen by God
to be an alternative
community
while also
provocatively
connecting with
and serving
their neighbors
rather than
coercing them
or disparaging them
or avoiding them
all without
assimilating
to the culture's ways
or compromising
the values
of the gospel.
And as you see
even when
what we've read today
he expects some
aspects of Christian
practices
some aspects
of the Christian
social project
will be both
highly offensive
and highly
attractive
to any
pagan culture
in which we reside
as exiles
and foreigners.
And he shows us
in this letter
how to be
for the city
which is part
of our mission.
how are we
to be
for the city
how are we
to seek
the peace
and the blessing
of the city
as exiles
and as foreigners.
And over the
coming months
we're going to
explore how
the Christian
community
is to be
distinctively
and faithfully
present
within our culture
so that we might
be the salt
of the earth
and the light
of the world
that Jesus
called us
to be.
Does that make sense?
So our Christian
identity
must be
apostolic
but it also
must be
exiled
and finally
our Christian
identity
is to be
elect.
And I'll close
with this
our Christian
identity
is to be
elect.
Peter
an apostle
of Jesus Christ
to God's
elect
who've been
chosen
according to
the foreknowledge
of God
the Father
through the
sanctifying work
of the Spirit
to be obedient
to Jesus Christ
and sprinkled
with His blood
grace and peace
be yours
in abundance.
Peter wants
them to know
that the reason
you're suffering
trials
as exiles
and as foreigners
is because
you're God's
elect.
Because you
bear this
special status
as His chosen
people.
And Peter
wants
he says
I want to
help you
know who
you are
before God
so that
you can be
who you are
in society.
If you know
who you are
before God
in this vertical
dimension
then you will
know how to
live in the
horizontal
dimension.
And what he
says is that
each of the
three persons
in the
blessed
holy trinity
were involved
in electing
you.
and this
means that
what most
fundamentally
defines your
identity
is not what
Caesar
Claudius
does to you
or not what
Caesar has
done yesterday
and we're
gawking about
on the front
page today.
What most
fundamentally
identifies you
is not how
your pagan
neighbors are
relating to you
or what they're
saying to you
in real life
or about you
in the media.
None of that
really matters.
What really
matters and
what fundamentally
defines your
identity is
that you are
in a relationship
with the
triune God.
And what's
most important
about you is
the fact that
you are objects
of his loving
concern from
all eternity.
He says you've
been chosen
according to the
foreknowledge of
God the Father.
That means that
you've been
intentionally,
deliberately,
and actively
chosen.
That he chose
you according
to and
consistent with
his plan
and purpose
of salvation.
And so
you are
in a relationship
with God
and with the
people of God
not because
of what you
are
or what you
have
or what you've
done
or what you
have decided
but simply
because God
before you
were aware
of him
decided
in his
purposeful
plan
to bring
you into
a relationship
with him
as your
Abba
Father.
Friends,
there's no
identity that's
deeper or
stronger than
that.
No matter
what your
present circumstances
are,
no matter how
people are
treating you,
no matter how
dislocated and
disoriented you
feel,
God took the
initiative to
draw you into
an intimate,
loving,
redemptive
relationship with
him to save
you and to
give you
access,
24-7 access
to his
fatherly
goodness
and grace.
You,
the people of
God,
have been
chosen according
to the foreknowledge
of God the
Father.
And he says
you've been
chosen also
through or by
the sanctifying
work of the
Spirit.
The Holy Spirit
is the means.
The Holy Spirit
is the instrumental
agency and
power by which
God the Father
takes hold of
us and
regenerates our
heart and
convicts us of
sin and
quickens our
grasp of the
gospel and
gives us faith.
The Holy Spirit
is the one who
makes the
electing foreknowledge
of the Father
operative in
our lives.
And the
question for us
is has the
Holy Spirit
acted on you
in this way?
And is the
Holy Spirit
dwelling in
you now?
Has he
sanctified you?
Has he set
you apart
to the
Father and
to the
eternal plan
that the
Father has
for your
salvation?
If the
Holy Spirit
has done
that,
what then
is the
goal and
the purpose
of the
Father's
plan carried
out by the
Holy Spirit?
He says
you've been
chosen according
to the
foreknowledge of
God the
Father,
you've been
chosen through
the sanctifying
work of the
Spirit,
and you've been
chosen for
obedience to
Jesus Christ who
sprinkled you with
His blood.
If your sins
have been
cleansed by the
blood of Jesus
that was shed on
the cross,
if you are now
part of the
new covenant
covenant because
of that great
sacrifice of
Jesus on your
behalf, then
Peter says the
only logical
deduction, the
only necessary
consequence is
that we must
obey.
We must be
obedient to
all that has
been commanded
of us by our
risen and
living Lord
Jesus.
Because if we
have this great
privilege of
being elected,
then we bear
that great
responsibility to
live in
accordance with
the character of
the one who
elected us.
So friends, do
you think of
yourself this way?
Do you think of
yourself as God's
elect, foreknown
by the Father in
all eternity, set
apart by the
power of the
Holy Spirit,
cleansed by the
precious blood of
Jesus Christ, and
chosen to be
obedient?
To obey, chosen to
be obedient.
Peter ends his
letter and he
says, stand fast in
the true grace of
God.
If you take your
stand in this
grace, this grace
of the triune God,
the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, if you
stand in that grace,
then you will know
how to live as
exiles and
foreigners, and you
will be the salt of
the earth and the
light of the world.
So stand fast.
Stand fast as God's
elect people, chosen
by him, foreknown by
the Father, sanctified by
the Spirit, sprinkled
with the blood of
Jesus, chosen to be
obedient.
it.
In the name of the
Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, amen.