Elect Exiles

Introduction

Good morning please open in your Bible’s to 1 Peter chapter 1: 1-2. That is 1 Peter chapter 1:1-2 which is on page 1014 if you are using a Bible that is scattered throughout the chairs. That is page 1014. Today we begin a study of the book of 1 Peter. This is a book written by a man named Peter who walked with Jesus and continued to lead in the early church after Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to God the Father. He writes this book approximately 30 years after the life of Jesus.

In that thirty years the good news about Jesus has spread throughout the world and new churches have started and grown to the point that the outside world is taking notice. Christianity began in Jerusalem and has spread now to modern day Turkey, the regions listed in verse 1. And as this has happened the early Christians had begun to experience the displeasure of the non-christian world around them. Peter writes this letter to encourage these Christians to trust God in the midst of suffering. They are to understand that they are exiles, strangers to this world, because they belong to God. They cannot belong to the world because they are God’s and therefore the world is rejecting them.

I believe we have a lot in common with the recipients of Peter’s letter. They were primarily Gentiles, that is non-Jews by birth, but they were at least somewhat educated in the Old Testament as Peter uses a lot of Old Testament allusions throughout the letter. As Gentiles they were well acquainted with the pagan world around them and probably had many friends and family that would still be a part of that world. The persecution they faced wasn’t sanctioned by the government and doesn’t seem to be physical. However, they were ofter verbally abused and discriminated against because their belief in Jesus. Something that is ever increasing in our present world.

It for this reason that Peter opens his letter in 1 Peter 1:1“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, These were not people who were exiles or foreigners by physical birth or citizenship. They probably lived in these regions their entire life. They are exiles and a part of the dispersion spiritually. They converted to Christianity. They left their old way of life, and now they live in a new way. The dispersion was a term often used of Jews who lived outside of Jerusalem, but throughout the letter it seems the Peter is writing to not just Jewish Christians but all Christians in these regions. Peter in chapter 2 makes it clear that the people of God are no just the Jews, but all who believe in Jesus Christ. These Christians are dispersed or scattered in a figurative since because they are living in a world in which they do not belong.

This is a circulatory letter meant to passed or circulate from church to church throughout each region listed which ironically takes you in a circular path around modern day Turkey and as such is a reminder to us that their experiences of suffering for the sake of the truth is not a localized event. But rather is something the Christians all over the world experience. A truth that Peter will explicitly remind them of in chapter 5.

These recipients and us hold this in common: we are elect exiles. That is we are a chosen people by God, and because of our chosenness we are exiles, sojourners, foreigners in this world. I pray as we study this letter together that we would be reminded that this world is not or home. That we would learn what to hold tightly: the gospel, our holiness, our love for one another and we what to hold loosely: the opinions of others, temporal pain, our personal pride. May God change us!

Let’s read 1 Peter 1:1–2 “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.”

Foreknown By God

Peter has addressed these Christians as elect exiles. He modifies this phrase, elect exiles, with three prepositional phrases “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood.” We are going to spend our the rest of our time today working through these 3 phrases. What does it mean to be an elect exile? It means we are foreknown by God, Sanctified by the Spirt, and Obedient to Jesus.

These elect exiles or chosen exiles are foreknown by God. This word foreknowledge throughout the New Testament carries with it the idea of God’s knowledge throughout eternity past. In 1 Peter 1:20 Peter speaks of Jesus and says, “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you” God has chosen these exiles before the foundation of the world according to his foreknowledge. This is not just stating that God knew about the future events, but rather foreknowledge is equated with the idea of a personal knowledge of the people of God. In 1 Peter 1:20 God didn’t just know Jesus would exists and die for the sins of the world. He knew Jesus, His son, in a loving and covenantal way. He had a specific plan for Jesus to die for the sins of man and raise from the dead. In fact, Luke puts this word in the mouth of Peter in Acts 2:23 as Peter preaches, “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.” Again, we see the direct connection to the foreknowledge of God and the plan of God. God is not simply aware of the future. God plans the future, and he knows those for whom he plans according to his fatherly love.

Even in this text, we are elect exiles according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Peter could have said God the ruler, God the Sovereign, God the King and they would all be true. But when he speaks of God, he speaks of God as a Father. The chief term used to describe 1st person of the Trinity is Father. Foreknowledge, predestination, election all words used frequently in the Bible can never be separated from God’s fatherly love for his people.

These people in 1 Peter are not elect because they are exiles, but rather they are exiles because they are elect. They are chosen by God according to the foreknowledge of the Father. A Father that loves his people. Early in the book of Exodus God tells the people of Israel that He will be their God and they will be his people. It is a beautiful and intimate promise. But what does it mean to be a people’s God? What kind of God is our God? Well later in the book God makes a declaration about himself. Listen to how God describes himself. Exodus 34:6 “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,”

God elects because God loves. He foreknows us. That is to say he knows us as his covenant people whom his loves. The God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness chooses us to be his according to the love. Ephesians 1:3–5 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,”

Why does God predestine us to be his? Why does God chose before the foundation of the world? He does it in love as an adoptive father. Often times the love of God our Father gets diminished because we are uncomfortable with idea of predestination or election. So, some choose to look at these passages and say that God just generally knew that some people would become Christians and for those who became Christians he has predetermined that they would become holy and blameless. That God’s election isn’t of specific people but rather this is just referring to His plan for Christians in general.

But how can He love those he doesn’t know? He predestines in love… And he loves those whom he foreknew. If I were to ask the parents in the room if they believed that God knew that they would have children they would say yes. If I asked do you think God would know that you would have children generally or do you think that God knew that you would have the specific children that you have. I bet you would say God knew I would these children with their specific personalities and quirks, their names etc.

If I asked you do you think God knew that me and Brittany would adopt two children, I bet you would say yes. If asked do you think God planned for Brittany and I to adopt two children in general or do you think God planned for me and Brittany to specifically adopt Judah and Vera? If in love planned for me to adopt my two specific children then I believe that God in love predestines us, not a general group of Christians, but specifically me and you and every individual who would come to faith in Christ to be his spiritual children.

We are elect exiles according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. That’s incredible news. He loves you as a Father and made you his own.

And as a Father he will see us through our “growing up” as Christians as he sanctifies us in the Spirit.

Sanctified by the Spirit