1 Peter - 2022

Okay. Please take your seats. We're gonna have our reading now. And then after that, Tom's going to come and preach God's word to us.

And we're reading from 1 Peter chapter 1, and we'll be reading the first 12 verses. And it should be coming up on the screen and at home you should see it on your screens as well. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to God's elect strangers in the world, scattered throughout pontus, Galatia, Capidocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through the sanctifying work of the spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ. And sprinkling by his blood.

Grace and peace be yours in abundance. 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. In this, you greatly rejoice. Though now, for a little while, you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

These have come so that your faith of greater worth than gold which perishes even though refined by fire may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. For you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Concerning this salvation, The prophets who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intensely and with the greatest care Trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.

It was revealed to them 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. Thank you for reading that to us, Chris. And welcome.

Good morning. My name's Tom. I'm 1 of the pastors here at the church, and it's great to have you and to welcome you. And a particularly warm welcome to Kirsten who is sat down there at the front is Kirsten's first time here, and we've been praying for her recently because she is the new primary school worker at Insight. And this is her first Sunday with us.

And I think Wednesday is when you're gonna be getting going with that work. So welcome to you. It's great to have you. She's moved into the Paul Simpson house, which is like a tardis, isn't it? It just swallows people up.

Particularly, insight workers at the moment, and that great. But you found somewhere that you're here, and we pray, you know you know God's blessing this week as you start your start your work. Very much looking forward to this new series. That we're beginning in 1 Peter. It's written by Peter, the same 1 from the Gospel that we know and love.

Who describes himself now as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this letter is written to Christians all over what is now Turkey, and they are having a very tough time because they are identifying with the Lord Jesus Christ. And 1 of the things that I love about this letter is that even though the audience is very broad, And the message is challenging in places, and the situation there in is tough. The tone is warm and pastoral. It's a very pastoral letter.

Have a look at this quote that I picked up about the letter. The Gospels all agree on the prominence of Peter, a born leader, impulsive, yet burning with love and enthusiasm. It was to him that Jesus said both the toughest and the choicest things. Whatever Peter's faults, a cold heart was not 1 of them. His warm, pastoral concern for others, glows in this letter.

In chapter 5 verse 1, he says to the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ's sufferings who will also share in the glory to be revealed. He is a fellow elder, he is with them in the trenches, and just like them, his hope is in the cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He understands their situation. When Peter wrote this letter, he was probably in Rome, which he describes as Babylon in chapter 5, And not long after this, just a few years later, church history tells us that he was martyred under the persecution of Nero. And so when he talks in this letter about conflict with the world and a fiery trial of persecution, He knows what he's talking about.

He is an apostle, he is an elder, he is a fellow Christian, he is 1 who suffers alongside them for Christ. He's with them, he knows them, and he cares. Now this morning, we're only in the first 2 verses. Just looking at that introduction, which as I hope we're gonna see is far more than just a Hello. It is rich with theological truth, and it's an introduction which sets the tone for the whole letter.

And so my aim and hope this morning is not that we would just say, I'm really looking forward to this series, but that God would minister deeply to us through the words of this introduction, which is just so rich and so important for understanding the letter. So let's pray, as we get into this introduction, let's pray that God would do that for each 1 of us this morning. Father, we thank you for this amazing letter, and we thank you for the privilege of being able to be here together and to work through it, to open it up in a language that we can understand, and we pray by the same holy spirit who sanctified us and set us apart that you would speak to us through this word. Police Lord, we pray that you would lift up Jesus amongst us this morning. That's the great need of this world.

It's the great need of restless hearts of aching heart like ours, to see Jesus, to be made like him, to love him, to treasure him more. So often we think that the answers to the problems and the longings that we have are in this world. And yet time after time, we feel flat, we feel disappointed, we feel unfulfilled, It takes us so long to learn that Jesus is all we need, and he is the answer to our heart's problems. Help us to see him, please, this morning, to love him, and we ask it in his name. Our men.

Our men. Well, have a go at this just in your just your mind. This song was released in February 19 88. No one's gonna get it from that, It reached number 51 on the UK singles chart, which is surprising because it was surprising to me, because it's 1 of his more well known songs, I think. The artist is English, but he writes about life as an Englishman overseas.

Is anyone Abri knows? Go on. Sing. Where was he? In New York.

That's right. Written by sting, This is the song Englishman in New York released February 19 88. I was but a mere few months old at that time. Actually, no. I was born September night.

I wasn't even born. I wasn't even born. There we go. And, Steve, and he wrote he wrote this song, Englishman in New York, about a friend of his who had moved to New York, but also describing his own experiences there. And he describes himself as a stranger in that culture.

There are customs that he doesn't like or agree with. I don't drink coffee I take tea, my dear. I have my toast done on 1 side. And if like me you didn't know what that was referring to, before the advent of the toaster. Apparently, toast used to be grilled on 1 side.

And the toaster is actually an American invention, which Brits viewed with great suspicion originally, and yet now we all know and love and could not do without. The double sided toaster, not sting. He wanted it done on 1 side. You can hear it in my accent when I talk. I'm an Englishman in New York, and then he uses the phrase legal alien to describe himself.

Not illegal. He's got his paperwork. He's legal but he may as well be a total stranger in the culture in which he lives. He's rightfully there but he feels completely un at home, legal alien. And I wonder if Peter would approve of that phrase for Christians.

Throughout the bible, we see that God's people live in this world, but they do not belong to it anymore. In chapter 1 verse 23, he says that we have been born again through the living and enduring word of God. We have been born into a new life, a new kingdom, a new world. In 1 verse 4, he says that we have an inheritance waiting for us now in heaven. It's been kept for us.

That's our home is where we're going. In Philippians 3, Paul says that our citizenship is in heaven, and from there, we eagerly await a Savior. But for now, we live in a world which doesn't share those convictions. So on the 1 hand, Kingston is very much our home, but on the other, we are total strangers here. And both of those things we must understand.

I know it's only a song and it's only a bit of fun, but Englishman in New York is helpful. Because in that sentence, he's telling us he knows both who he is, Englishman, and where he is, New York. He knows who he is, and he knows where he is. And Christians in the same way need to know both of those things, if we're going to live well in the time that we have here. We need to know both who we are, elect, and where we are scattered across the world.

And it's this double knowing, which is central to the introduction and to the letter. This double knowing who we are, where we are. Firstly then, who are these Christians? They are scattered exiles. That's the way he describes them.

Have a look with me in verse 1. If you've got a bible, look down with me because the verses from this passage won't be on the screen. So This is verse 1, to God's elect exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontos, Galatia, Asia, ambethinia. Now, that word scattered is a farming word, and it means literally to throw out the seed or to disperse the seed. And in the old testament, when God's people were taken off into exile, that was the language that was used about them.

It was a dispersion They were like a bag of seed that was taken and thrown into the pagan world. They were scattered, they were dispersed. So what? What does that mean for these hearers? Well, the audience to which Peter is writing would have contained Jews, but was mostly gentiles.

Gentle Christians are being addressed here. And Peter is using that language of dispersion which they may have known or heard about from the old testament, to describe them. So he's saying, I want you to know that that word doesn't belong just to 1 ethnic group, that belongs to the church now, Jew and Gentle, United to Christ full of the spirit. You are the people of God. That language which was just for them is now for you all.

You really are the people of God scattered dispersed throughout the world. And how encouraging that would have been to hear for them in the first sentence. In all their difficulties to know that they are the true people of the living God. But what about this word exile. Well, have a look at some of these other translations which shed a bit of light on it.

This is from the new King James version to the pilgrims of the dispersion picks up that dispersion would. New living translation, I'm writing to God's chosen people who are living as foreigners. And I think that comparison is helpful because sometimes when we think about exiles, we think just of forced banishment You know, exile is someone who's been driven out banished, go off to live in exile, but the sense of the word here is not really that. But simply a person who is not at home in this world. They are not at home in this world.

In Hebrews 11, the word is used again, and after a long list of faithful people, it says all of these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised. They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers. On earth. To be an exile then is to live by faith in a future promise.

Home is real, and it's really coming, but it's not here, and it's not now. The reason these people in Hebrews were commended is because they knew that, and they lived that, and they welcomed those promises from a distant They knew that their home was coming, and they welcomed, they greeted it from afar. That's how they're described. In 1 peter 1 verse 4, he says that we We have an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. And exile welcomes their home from a distance.

That's where I'm going. That's what Jesus is keeping for me. Not here, not now later then. And just as a by the way application, I saw this tweet this week. Which said, how I long and can't wait for the day, when what I need and what I want will be 1 and the same.

That is just 1 thing that Christian can look ahead to with confidence. Isn't that wonderful? So many of our problems are because the things that we want and the things that we need are not the same. But 1 day, everything that we need will be all that we want. Those desires will be aligned, and we'll be home.

But not now, and not here. The exile is not at home in this world. But also, the word exile has another meaning. It's actually only used 3 times in the new testament this word. 1 is in the introduction to 1 Peter, 1 is in Hebrews 11, And the second, is it third rather, is in 1 peter chapter 2.

And it says this. This is 1 peter 2 verse 11. Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles, there it is, 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. So what does it mean to be an exile?

Well, we're not at home in this world. What does it mean to be an exile? It means conflict. So think less, tourist on holiday, in a foreign land and more soldier behind enemy lines in a foreign land. That's more the way to think about an exile.

You see the battles he describes. I urge you as foreigners and exiles to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your soul. Gotta fight what comes out of here. Gotta fight what comes out of here, and the temptations all around me. And exile has an enemy, and the enemy is sin.

But also verse 12 lives such good lives among the pagans, that though they accuse you of doing wrong. And I'm not gonna impact all of that today, but we're gonna see how relevant that is throughout this letter. In 1 Peter, the type of persecution which is described, is not the fiery martyrdom that would come under Nero, but more like what we sort of experience today. It's when people in the office or people at university or people who you work on a hospital ward with accuse you of doing and being wrong just because you stand with Jesus Christ. And you identify with him.

You may not be judging them openly. You may not be preaching against them or challenging their way of life, but just because you have a new king, a different passport, and another mission. And just because when you're pressed, You are in the end gonna identify with Christ on the tough issues of the day, like human sexuality, gender identity, the tough issues of the day, you will if pressed stand with Christ just because of that, then they accuse you of doing wrong and being evil for just standing with him. Jesus had said to the disciples, if you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, Therefore, the world hates you.

That is an exile. They belong to another world and are passing through and therefore they face conflict and battles on every side both within and without. So who are they? They are scattered exiles, but that's only 1 half of their identity. They are also chosen and elect.

Verse 1, he says, to God's elect exiles, scattered throughout the provinces upon to Galatia, Capidonia, Asia, and Befinia. So what is going to encourage these Christians in their trials and in their journey as a pilgrim, what's he gonna reach for? The doctrine of election? That's where he goes. No apology, no explanation, just go straight to that doctrine of election.

Now, this is something that Christians have fallen out about for a lot of church history, and yet see how it's put here not to cause an argument, but to give warm practical encouragement to them. The doctrine of election is not just something to argue about, it is a warm practical help in the pilgrim journey. He says verse 2, who have been chosen elect, 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. In the Old Testament, Exodus 24, and other places, when a promise was made between God and his people, there was a sacrifice, and the people were sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice. And so this sprinkling language is to say that a new covenant has been established between you and God based on the blood of Christ, and it's certain.

It's been certified. You've been sprinkled with the blood of Christ, you're part of it. So just like the dispersion word, he uses the sprinkling word to say you really are the people of God just as much as they were. And when you put all of this together, it's a breathtaking introduction. Anyone who thinks that the doctrine of election and the doctrine of the trinity lack practical relevance must be blown away by this introduction.

We have no identity and no salvation apart from the father who chose us apart from the Holy Spirit who set us apart and empowered us to live a new life, and apart from the sun who shed his precious blood for our sins. All of this is of God. That's what he says. He chose you. He says, you are chosen according to what.

Why did God choose you if you're a Christian? Is it because he saw something in you that he didn't like in your non Christian neighbor? Is that why he chose you? Because of some reason in you, He says we're chosen according to the foreknowledge of God. The reason is in him.

He chose us. We've been sanctified by the spirit. We can't self sanctify. We can't self choose and can't self set apart, and we can't self justify either. The blood of Christ shed for us, and faith in him is what justifies us.

Who are we? Well, you could turn this whole letter think you could actually condense this whole letter into 4 words. Exile scattered, chosen elect. Exile scattered, chosen, elect. The rest of the letter is just unpacking either side of that.

So as we close in, thinking about applications. Can I ask Christian, do you know who you are? Thirdly, do you know who you are? Let's begin with the exile point. When he was interviewed about Englishman in New York and why he'd written the song and what experiences had led him to write the song.

He he said this writing about his his time in New York. He says, this is talking about the first few weeks. He says, I would go early on Saturday mornings to 1 of these English pubs. He just used to go from English pub to English pub. Apparently.

To watch live soccer. Why he calls it that? It undoes his whole point. I I think. The whole argument is blown to bits there.

So just forgive him for that. I mean, maybe it's ironic, I didn't know, but from England via satellite. There, you could drink English beer, enjoy a greasy fried bread and rub shoulders with Englishmen from Manchester to Liverpool London and New Castle. We are a superstitious and primitive tribe. And when the match was over, we'd fade back into the city like ghosts.

It's an interesting comment because he's saying he felt like an alien, and the way of coping with it was to retreat into a subculture. Took almost try to come out and remove himself from the world that he was in, just moving from 1 English pub to the next, from 1 fried breakfast to the next, trying to escape the world that he was in. Pretend he wasn't there. Can't be made to fit with this letter. Christians do belong to another world.

And we do have the culture in the sense that we have a church, but we are living with and working for people who do not share those convictions. You remember 1 Peter 2: He says, live such good lives among the pagans. That's the assumption. Live good lives among. That's where you are.

That's who you live with. That's who you work for. What you're among the pagans live such good lives. He says later on, be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. So, there is this expectation that as we live among the pagans, they will see that we live for a different home, and they will say something about it.

Sometimes to mock and accuse, Other times because they're genuinely interested, what reason do you have for the hope that I can see which is so markedly different from anybody around. 1 of the reasons we may not feel like exiles is not because we don't believe in Christ. But because if we're honest, we don't rub shoulders with anyone who could make us feel like 1. Or maybe you've heard something like this before, Well, look, I do I do like coming to church and I like the people here. And I occasionally find the messages helpful, and the coffee is okay, and I don't mind being here once a week.

But to be honest, I feel much more at home with my friends who don't love Jesus. I feel I can be myself with them. I feel that they get me. I feel that it's their company and it's their conversation. I just prefer it.

I just find myself more aligned to what they think than what Christians think. Now look, there might be reasons people say that. Maybe they feel hurt by Christians in the past who have overstepped the mark and been a bit judgmental. Maybe they feel a bit left out at church. But with those friends, they're sort of in the center, and they feel loved and that they're invested in.

And you can understand that. But if what we're saying is know what I mean is, that my priorities and my world view, and the things that I live for, I just find there more similar to those who don't know or love Jesus. I just I just find that I'm more at home with their way of thinking. I find I agree with them on the big issues of the day. I don't I don't really sort of sense at home amongst other Christians.

Then something is that's a red flag, isn't it? Something's wrong there. And it may be that we feel like that's simply because we haven't been born again. We haven't we haven't actually experienced the new birth and we don't have a taste for the things of heaven. Jesus isn't pleasant to us.

We don't like the taste of him. We don't really know his truth or look forward to being with him. We haven't been converted yet, or it might be that we just want the best of both worlds. I think about my interaction with my neighbors over the past few weeks, and I do think that under the surface, a lot of the time, I've got this desire to have a a a kind of Hovis best of both Christianity, where where what I really want in practice is to be both culturally acceptable to my neighbors, comfortable, and a Christian. And lots of the time in our world, that's sort of possible.

But if we are really going to identify with Christ and the Word of God. If we're really convinced that this world and all that it offers is not our home, then it just can't last. 1 of the reasons we may not feel like an exile is because we've bought into that best of both idea I just want to be both culturally acceptable to my neighbors, comfortable, and a Christian. That I just want the best of both. All of this talk of being an exile, does it resonate with your experience as a Christian.

That's the question. All of this, does it chime with your experience of being a Christian? Now having said that, and it is an important question. If we come away thinking, right, tomorrow, I've just gotta try harder to feel like an exile. I've gotta do stuff.

Makes me look like a stranger. You know, I've gotta do stuff which sort of offends people and annoys them. I've gotta sort of bring it on myself. I've gotta be the exile that I'm being called to here. You know, it it may work, but not in a great way.

Actually, the emphasis here, what he gives the words to. If you just look at the way the words have divided up, what he gives the words to is not feel like an exile, but see who you are, and then you will feel like an exile. Spend time meditating on all that God is, father son and holy spirit. He's choosing of you. He's setting you apart.

He's washing you with his blood. He's calling you to a new life. See who God has set his love upon, you know it, and you'll find yourself feeling more like an exo. That's the way round it goes. Don't ignore God, I've got to focus on being an exile, bathe yourself in the great God who predestined and loved and saved you, and then you're gonna feel like an exile.

The message, which is not a translation. It's a version. It's a version of the Bible. I think captures something of the of the of the meaning of it really nicely. I Peter am an apostle on assignment by Jesus the Messiah, Writing to exile scattered to the 4 winds, not 1 is missing, not 1 forgotten.

God, the father has his eye on each of you, and has determined by the work of the spirit to keep you obedient through the sacrifice of Jesus. May everything good from God be yours? As I say, that's not a translation. It's a version, but I think it captures the tone nicely. You might be in exile but there is not 1 forgotten, not 1 left out.

God has his eye on each and every 1 of you. He chose you in the beginning to belong to Jesus Christ, he sees you now, and he is determined to keep you until you get home. He's going to keep you until you make it home. The mighty power of Father, son and Holy Spirit is for you. If you get that, then you'll feel like an exile.

So you see, all of this goes together. The way to read it really is not is not God's elect exiles in the world. But God's elect exiles in the world. Sounds like messing around, doesn't it? But it's not.

It's not God's elect. Exiles in the world. God select exiles in the world. Why does that matter? Because when we wake up tomorrow and the next day, and we have the same battles against sin, and the same feelings of dislocation with the world, the same restlessness Eventually, we're gonna start to think, is this really is this is this it?

Is this really what it's gonna be like? Until I go to be with Jesus. Is this the life that I've been called to? Yes, it is. We're not God's elect accidentally exiles in the world.

We're God's elect exiles in the world. That is the life that we have been chosen for. And it's good news when we understand it. See, it's interesting. I think in our culture, if you listen out to the language of our culture, I think there's a sense in which people understand this language.

So when people talk about not feeling at home in themselves, there's a real me inside that is looking out through these windows, which are my eyes. This this is the me that I'm trapped in and there's a real me inside. That That idea of understanding us comes out all the time. Part of what's being expressed there is this feeling of alienation. I feel alienated in this world, dislocated from myself, a slight strain, not like I have a home in this world.

And yet the tragedy is There's no explanation for why that would be, and no answer to how it might be fixed. But the Christian can sympathize with that point and say, I understand something of what you're saying there. We are exiles. This isn't the home that we were ultimately made for. Seeing has got in the way and confused and messed up everything, but there is a home that we're invited to through Jesus Christ.

That's where we were made for. Trust in him, and I'll see you there. That's where we're going. And so to understand both of these things, chosen by God yet scattered throughout the world is essential for our health as Christians, and as we're going to see is the key to understanding this whole letter. So let's take a moment quietly, just to pray.

And maybe you'd want to close your eyes and bow your head and talk to the lord about anything that you've seen in his word this morning, and then we'll have a closing prayer together. Heavenly father, we thank you that each 1 of your children you chose, you elected, you set your love and favor upon before the foundation of this world. We would love to believe that you chose us because of something you saw in us, something good, which makes us better than others, just something about us that was worth having. But you chose us according to your foreknowledge. You freely in sovereign grace, set your love upon us.

And when the time was right, you set us apart by the work of the Holy Spirit, you made us alive, you gave us a new beating spiritual Christian heart, and you set us apart both to be obedient to Jesus. And to be sprinkled with the blood of his cross. We thank you lord Jesus that you paid with your life, our ransom. That you died our death, took our sin, and that we have in that very real sense been sprinkled by the blood of Christ. We belong to you.

We are your people in this world. And we thank you for those amazing truths. You deserve an admiration, and a praise, and a worship, which are dull hearts simply can't give. And yet 1 day we know we're gonna see you and love you and be like you, and we'll be home and what we want and what we need will be the same thing, and we'll be able to praise you forever. And yet, Lord, help us to understand not just that, but where we are now.

That we live scattered throughout the world in cultures and centers, which are hostile to you, where we might face persecution just for wanting to follow Jesus in this world, where we are at war against sinful desires where we're just simply not home yet. And help us not to see that as a strange or unusual thing, but the very life to which you've called us. That we would not grow disillusioned because actually we've seen in your word that that's what we are to expect. We are the chosen exile. On their way home.

Help us, lord, we pray, to apply these things to bear them in our hearts and our minds that we might live faithfully for Jesus while we're passing through, and we ask it in his name, amen.