The Kingdom's Exiles

Call to Worship: 2 Corinthians 4:6 // Prayer

Adoration: Father, you have delivered us from our fears and sins through your Son. Your glory shines through him and fills our hearts

Confession: Yet, though you have comforted us through your Son, we still often practice the very sins you saved us from. Father, help us to see the horror of our sin; and forgive us, for we have sinned against you.

Thanksgiving: And we ask that you comfort us once again with the glory of your love in the face of your Son. And we give you praise, for by your Son’s death, you have qualified us to share in the inheritance that we can never lose.

Supplication: Please give us opportunities, and give us boldness, to shine the light of your gospel in our families, neighborhoods, and workplaces—to testify to this reconciliation and life that we have found in Jesus // and we ask for those who are our brothers and sisters, but who have fallen out of the habit of gathering with your people—please gently convict them, and lead them back into fellowship, and prepare us and other gospel-preaching congregations to receive them // we ask for your congregations in Iraq + Syria, that you would protect them from spiritual and physical danger, empower them to be lights in the darkness, given them boldness to preach the gospel // we pray for our state senators and representatives, that you might bless and protect them, and cause them to choose justice in their lawmaking, and to pass no law that hinders the spread of the gospel // to the word… give us grace as we consider what your Word says about who we are as exiles in this age...

Family Matters

Small group signups (back table)

Christmas decorating: Nov. 29th (Wed) @ 6:30, w/ appetizers + desserts

Christmas Eve services: no Sunday School, 11 am service, 7 pm carol sing, etc.

Again, welcome of feedback and discussion...

Benediction

Ephesians 6:23–24 ESV

Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.

Sermon

Read: 1 Peter 1:1-9

Intro:

How is a believer supposed to relate to his nation and to his government? That’s the question we’re considering in this sermon series titled, “The Kingdom vs. The Nations.”

Did you know that when ships are designed, they are designed to rust? I mean, you’re not going to put a giant iron vessel into a saltwater ocean and not see rust. And so, year by year, the hull gets thinner as it rusts. That’s what determines how long you can use the ship: build the hull with a certain thickness, and you’ve got, say, 30 years of safe use before it’s become thin enough that it needs to be scrapped.

But then, how do you get maximum years out of the ship? By keeping it painted. The paint, in theory, keeps the saltwater from touching the iron hull. And so, you’ll find some poor sailor, tasked by the bos’ns mate chief, blasting away at a spot where the paint was bubbled and rusty. If he does it right, he’ll remove the paint, remove the rust underneath, and apply a fresh coat. But the joke was, maybe some day he’d blast through the paint and find that there was no metal left—just more layers of salty paint underneath.

But the reality is, at some point, the hull is thin and rusty enough that it’s no longer worth new paint. The ship is about to crack and sink, though no man knows the exact day or hour. Is our world like that? Not worth efforts to preserve, as the 2nd coming of Christ draws near? That is one possible viewpoint: try to do good to your neighborhood or nation, and you might as well be painting a sinking ship.

Another viewpoint holds the opposite, and it goes something like this: “As believers, we must hear what Jeremiah told the Jewish exiles in Babylon: to seek the peace and prosperity of the city they found themselves in... So, as citizens of both the city of man and the city of God, we must work for the for the betterment of all.” It’s something like that. And I remember reading church website from this viewpoint that said that the church has two parallel, equally important missions: (1) to preach the gospel, and (2) to work for the betterment of society. Equally important missions. And so, according to this viewpoint, if the church does what the church is supposed to do, the neighborhood will be redeemed. And if enough churches catch on, the nation—even the world—will be redeemed.

So which is it? Is society a sinking rust-bucket, where working for good is pointless? Or on the other hand, is it redeemable, if we are diligent and smart enough to save it? Again, the question is: how are believers supposed to relate to their society and their government?

Last week, we began to answer this question by seeing that nations and governments are a mixed thing: they are a gift from God, and yet, by their very nature in this fallen world, they are always a mix of good and evil. And by the way, if you weren’t able to gather with us last Sunday, I’d encourage you to go back and listen to that message, since this sermon series will build upon itself.

So, we now know what a nation is—it’s a mix of good and evil. But remember, our core question for this series is: How does the Church relate to the nations she lives in? So, there’s a second thing we need to understand before can answer this: What is the church? What is her nature in this present age?

And this morning, we’ll get part 1 of the Bible’s answer: The Church is a community of Exiles living among the nations. And we’ll consider this in three steps:

First, we’ll consider what God did in history to establish the Church, and why that makes us exiles

Second, we’ll consider what life as exiles looks like

And third, we’ll think through some political implications

The History of Redeeming Grace

[Pt. 1: Israel’s Rise and Fall Among the Nations] So first: how God established the church as a community of exiles—

Last Sunday, we saw that God’s covenant with Noah did not promise redemption, but did promise to preserve the natural world in spite of human evil. And this promise to preserve the natural world created the time and space for redemption to happen

What came next? The first redemptive covenant in the Bible, where God promised to bless the nations through Abraham’s offspring.

After that, the children of Abraham multiplied into a nation, but were enslaved in Egypt. God redeemed them from slavery, and made another covenant with them through Moses. In this covenant, they would be blessed only if they obeyed the good law which God gave them as they lived in the land which God gave them—the promised land.

And then, as Nation in the promised land, they received a third covenant: their King, David, received a promise that a line of kings descending from him would last forever, and that a Son of his would have an eternal throne.

And so, Ancient Israel was the one geopolitical entity which has ever truly been “One nation under God.” Yes, nations can be more or less honoring to God, more or less influenced by biblical ethics. But only one nation was ever formed by a covenant with God—Ancient Israel. The US was not.

So far, so good, at that point in history. It really looked as though the world might be redeemed through the nation of Israel.

But there was a problem: Israel may have had a good law… but their hearts were infected with the same sin as the hearts of the peoples around them—

The result? Their sins piled up until they lost the blessing of the land—they were kicked out by God’s judgement against their evil. They became Exiles among the nations.

God did bring them back to their land after 70 years—but they never saw the same national glory as under king David and king Solomon, and they continued to be defeated by the sin in their own hearts—they continued in spiritual exile.

Yet, the faithful among them continued to trust God’s promise that he would send his Messiah and redeem them from all that.

[Pt. 2: The Church Among the Nations] And what happened next? The Messiah came, and redeemed his people.

Explaining this, Peter wrote that we are elect exiles, “in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood.” That’s from 1 Peter 1:2

So how were we redeemed? According to Peter, the Spirit sanctified us in two ways:

He enabled us to begin obeying Jesus

He applied the blood of Jesus to us, to remove all the stain of our sin

Brothers and Sisters: this redemption in Christ is the New Covenant. The covenant made with Israel through Moses failed because of human sin. But this did not nullify the promise God made to Abraham to bless the world, or the promise made to David for an eternal king. Jesus is that Son of Abraham and that Son of David through whom we have been blessed and saved. These redemptive covenants are fulfilled in him. That is what created the church.

But notice, according to 1 Peter 1:1, this New Covenant has made us into exiles. This is unexpected!

Go back to the days right after Jesus had been raised from the grave—sin, death, and Satan had been decisively defeated. We might have expected the next step to be re-establishing the nation of Israel under the New Covenant. But that’s not how it went!

Do you remember the question the disciples asked Jesus right before he ascended to heaven?

Acts 1:6 ESV

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

It was a reasonable idea: Israel’s worst enemy, sin, had just been defeated. Time for Israel 2.0. But here’s Jesus’ answer:

Acts 1:7–8 ESV

He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

So would the kingdom be restored to God’s people at that time? Jesus’ answer was, “no, but yes”—you are about to receive kingdom power, and to become kingdom witnesses. But you will do this as a kingdom living among the nations—starting in Jerusalem, and going to the end of the earth. And that’s exactly the picture that unfolds in the book of Acts.

And what do you call a group of citizens with a King but no land? Exiles. The Church is a community of exiles living among the nations as witnesses. That’s who we are!

Maybe you’re used to that idea. Don’t let the strangeness of it be lost on you. God’s people in the OT had land. But here we are with a better covenant, and we don’t have land. Yes, there’s a good explanation for it. But at least at first glance, it’s quite strange! We are exiles.

And you might be tempted to romanticize the idea, but it is really very uncomfortable. You’ve seen exiles in the news, living in tents, suffering poverty and grief as they long for their true homes. And that is the spiritual reality that cross of Christ created for the people of God.

Now, look back at 1 Peter:

vs. 1: “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles”

Again, how strange! What are we? Elect exiles—and elect here means, “chosen.” So, as believers in this age, we have been chosen by the Father to be his… what? Honored kings among the nations? Not quite. At least, not yet. Instead, we are his exiles among the nations.

Now, there are those today—I mean among true believers—who will try to take the edge off what Peter wrote here. And to be clear, many of these folks really are careful and sincere believers, who preach a solid gospel. But according to their view: sure—believers were exiles in the first century, and the second, and the third. But as time goes on, the world is being Christianized, and so we become less exiles and more citizens of the world. And so the task we have, as exiles in Babylon, is really to turn it into Zion. Or you could say, turn America into the New Creation. The task of Christians is to turn every aspect of every country into something explicitly Christian. That’s our mission in the world. That’s our mission to our own country: to make it a Christian Nation.

Well, we need to hear that viewpoint out, and not just react against it. Is that a reasonable way to understand Peter’s words here? Might our status as exiles wear off over time, as the world is brought more and more under the Lordship of Christ?

Let’s pay attention to how Peter unfolds our exile status in verses 3-5:

1 Peter 1:3–5 ESV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! 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, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

So, what is the living hope we are re-born into, as believers? An inheritance, Peter says in verse 4. What does that mean?

Well, the NT is to be understood on the basis of its OT foundation. These realities of “Exile” and “Inheritance” are based on OT types and shadows. For OT Israel:

Inheritance = you had a plot of land, a piece of Israel’s national life, and the right to approach God through the priests in Israel’s temple worship.

Exile = you lost all that, though God was still with you as you longed for home.

So Peter is saying, “as they were exiles, we are exiles—we belong to God, but we don’t live in his completed kingdom. Our inheritance coming in the future.”

And Peter gets very specific about exactly when we will receive the inheritance.

Where is the inheritance right now? Verse 4, it is “kept in heaven for you.” We do experience it now, in some ways. But it is a heavenly reality, not so much an earthly one, in this age.

And when will it be revealed? Verse 5: it will come through “a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” We’ll receive it when Jesus returns, and not before then!

This teaches that our status as exiles among the nations is a constant in this present age—it won’t change until the age itself is changed when our king returns

So then, the bottom line is this: as citizens of God’s kingdom—as the church—we are exiles among the nations.

Life in Exile

OK, so, based on all this, what does our life as exiles look like, on a practical level?

Earlier I told you about a viewpoint which teaches, from Jeremiah 29, that the job of an exile is to “work for the good of the city. And that that’s at the core of our mission.” When I first heard this idea, I got excited. It sounded so spiritual and good. Then, I read the chapter in context.

It’s another OT passage taken badly out of context and applied to the church. If you read the context, Jeremiah commanded those exiles to work for the good of Babylon simply for their own survival and fruitfulness—not to redeem the city. That’s it. The passage is not about redeeming Babylon.

In fact, to read it that way takes the biblical analogy of exile—which is supposed to limit the degree of attachment that we feel toward our nation or city—and makes it do the opposite. And that’s really unhelpful for us as believers trying to find our biblical stance toward the world.

So, does that mean that the “don’t paint a sinking ship” view is the biblical view? Not quite.

If we really believe that, however sin has messed things up, this is still God’s glorious creation, and we were still created to live well in it

If we take Jesus’ command seriously to love our neighbors be salt and light in the world…

And if we desire to commend the gospel to our unbelieving neighbors by the way we live...

We can’t take the “rusty ship” view either… and simply retreat from society. That’s not the biblical pattern.

So then, how should we live, in light of our status as exiles?

Well, now I’m going to do a quick exposition of the book of 1 Peter. This will only take a couple of hours…

Actually, I just want to give you two big things about living as exiles:

First, exiles of the coming kingdom live faithfully among the nations. Our lives among our neighbors are to reflect the character of our kingdom and our King. We are not to withdraw, but we are to live as salt and light (Matt.5:13-16)—as good influences, and as witnesses of the gospel.

And second, exiles embrace a cruciform life. Cruciform, meaning, “cross shaped.” Paul wrote about Jesus:

Philippians 3:10 ESV

that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

What was the pattern of Jesus’ life? “Birds of the air have nests and foxes have holes, but the Son of Man had no where to lay his head.” Jesus lived and died as an exile for our salvation, and afterwards, was received into glory.

Our status as exiles means also means suffering and rejection, just as he suffered and was rejected. And this prepares for us a weight of eternal glory beyond measurement

So then: faithfulness in the world, and suffering like Jesus: that is our lives as exiles among the nations

Political Implications

OK. So, what does that mean for our engagement with American politics?

Does it cancel patriotism? No, not quite. But belonging to a Heavenly Kingdom does limit out earthly patriotism.

On a personal level, I say this to you as someone who folds the flag at veteran funerals on a weekly basis. I honor my earthly country, and I think it’s good. And in most of these funerals, the flag-folding ceremony is simply a chance to remember something significant in the life that has passed. But sometimes… something’s not quite right. A couple of weeks ago, standing outside a church building after a funeral, a gentleman remarked to us that the flag folding ceremony was the best part of the service.

Really? How tragic! If that man actually was a Christian, then he had just been received into the presence Christ himself! Compared to that, Old Glory means almost nothing! But somehow, even for some true believers—I’ve been guilty of this—our country’s flag (the symbol of our earthly nation) has more mystique and transcendence than baptism or the Lord’s Supper, which are symbols of our eternal King and his kingdom. May it never be!

This is called idolatry.

So it is good to love the country you live in—but that love has very definite limits.

Does our identity as exiles mean that we stay out of politics? No. We DO engage in politics, as wisdom and opportunity allow. But we engage as citizens of a future Kingdom, who desire to be salt and light in this present age, in faithfulness to our King. So, we DO work for our country’s good. But our ultimate hope is not in political or cultural victory.

Brothers and sisters, we’ve been around for 2000 years. We’ve seen a lot of nations rise and fall. And until Jesus returns, that pattern will continue. But we will remain, and the gospel will spread, until the moment is right for Jesus’ return.

All authority in heaven and earth has been given to him. Our hope is in his gospel. And unlike America, that hope won’t disappoint.

So, as exiles, our hope and joy are not in earthly political success, which comes and goes. But our joy is in the gospel of grace—that by the death of our king for us, we wretched sinners have been made into children of God. Our sins have been forgiven. Our hearts have been made new. Our citizenship has been established in that city which is to come, whose builder and architect is God.

And if that is not you—if you have not been saved by this gospel—then we urge you to turn your hope away from the nations and political theories of this world, all of which are less than nothing compared to God, and to trust in the king who redeems sinners. He will grant you fellowship with himself now, and citizenship in that better country which is to come.