1 Peter 1:1-2 (Exiles on Purpose)

Introduction

Almost 50 years ago (in 1976) a public intellectual (named Francis Schaeffer) published a book titled “How Should We Then Live?”. His aim in the book was to diagnose what he perceived to be the decline of Western thought and to offer Evangelical Christians in the West a prescription for recovery.

Schaeffer reasoned: “If the Christianized culture that historically produced Western civilization (including Western Europe and later America, Canada, and Australia; though, of course, these all have their own distinctives)… if the historically Christianized culture is declining, then how should Christians live in order to recover it… or at least to be faithful witnesses amid the decline?”

Many people thought Schaeffer was onto something back then, but it seems that most considered his work more of a thought experiment than a vigorous call to action. Fast-forward to today (50 years later), and the alarm Schaeffer was sounding has become earsplitting. Western culture is a parody now, it’s a mockery of what it once was, and it’s a self-deprecating shell of a civilization that seems (maybe) to be lost to history… many westerners just don’t seem to realize it yet.

And it’s not just Christians today who lament the decline of Western civilization. Even the famed atheist Richard Dawkins (who has aggressively derided and attacked Christianity for decades)… even Dawkins has recently said that he’d much rather live as a “cultural Christian” in a Christianized society than anything else… One of the four-horsemen of the New Atheists would rather live as a pretend Christian (in a Christianized culture and society) than to lose all of the benefits Christianity has bestowed upon him.

Friends, this is clear evidence that everyone lives in God’s world, including those who deny His existence… God’s world is designed to work the way He intended it… And any deviation or rebellion will eventually suffer the consequences… but that’s a sermon for another day.

Today, we’re going to begin studying through a book of the Bible that seeks to answer Schaeffer’s question from 50 years ago – “How should we then live?”.

You see, the decline of civilizations didn’t begin 50 years ago, and Christians have had to live through the rise and fall of all sorts of social and political epochs. Last year we studied our way through the book of Revelation, and we heard the constant refrain that this present world is largely hostile to God and to His Christ or His Messiah (see also Psalm 2).

That final book of the Bible (which is the final prophetic word for Christians throughout the ages)… it warns Christians that hardship and persecution and tribulation are a reality for the people of Christ in the world – such things are always a threat, and more often than not, Christians have endured them.

The book of Revelation urges Christians to “hear” and to “keep” the “word of God” and the “testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 1:2-3, 22:7, 18-21)… It calls Christians to live faithfully while they remain in this world… And this is the major theme of our letter this morning.

1 Peter is all about faithful Christian living in a world that is not hospitable to genuine Christianity. And our first passage (just the first two verses) set the stage for all that is to come throughout the remainder of the letter.

There is a lot packed into our short passage this morning, and I pray that the Lord will help us to be comforted by what we read here as well as challenged and motivated to live as He has called us to do.

Scripture Reading

1 Peter 1:1–2 (ESV)

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,

2 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.

Main Idea:

God – Father, Son, and Spirit – intends Christians to live right now as exiles in the world, set apart for obedience to Jesus Christ.

Sermon

1. An Apostle of Christ (v1)

In the Minter household, when we begin reading a book of the Bible together, we find it helpful to start by reading the sort of information you’ll find in most study Bibles – the date of the book, the author, the audience, and some helpful background notes on the setting or the occasion. All of this is especially helpful when we’re reading through the books of the Bible that are “letters.”

“First Peter” is named this way because it’s the first letter from the Apostle Peter to Christians scattered about in the world (probably written in 62 or 63 AD). The NT has two of Peter’s “general” letters, and they are often called “general,” since they were not written to a particular church.

Most of the NT letters were addressed to specific local churches (e.g., Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians) or to individual pastors (e.g., Timothy and Titus). But Peter, James, and John (all three) wrote one or more letters that had an intentionally broader context and audience. As you read these “general” letters, you’ll notice that they don’t necessarily address specific problems or people (like the church letters do), but they read more like good common practices… and reminders of what is true for all Christians everywhere.

Of course, I’m painting with broad brushes here… there’s a lot of overlap, and all of the NT books were written for common Christian consumption… but, hopefully, you get the idea… Peter wrote this letter to Christians all over the ancient Roman world – Christians in “Pontus,” in “Galatia,” in “Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (1 Pet. 1:1). These were not towns but regions of the Roman empire, collectively spanning about 300,000 square miles, geographically located across what is today the nation of Turkey.

And Peter opens his letter with a cluster of profound theological claims – this is no common greeting. The first theological claim is that he is himself “an apostle of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:1).

Peter’s apostleship belongs to Christ; it is Christ’s to give.

Peter’s apostolic commission is from Christ; Jesus gave it to him.

And Peter carried with him all the weight and authority of a genuine Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.

If we want to know what it means to be a capital “A” Apostle, then one of the places we need to look is Acts chapter 1.

It is there that Luke recorded Jesus’s last words to His disciples before He ascended to His heavenly throne – “you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit… [and] you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come… and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:5, 8).

And it is in Acts 1 that Luke tells us who were the capital “A” Apostles and what qualifications they had to meet. It was Peter himself (Luke says) who named the requirements: an Apostle…

had to have been with Jesus from the time of His “baptism [by] John until the day when he was taken up from us” (Acts 1:21-22).

He had to be a “witness” of Jesus’s “resurrection” from the dead (Acts 1:22).

And he had to be “chosen” and commissioned by the risen Christ (Acts 1:24-26).

These NT Apostles were expressly set apart by Christ to be His spokesmen in the world. And in some ways, they were the same as other Christians – they weren’t sinless, they weren’t super-human, and even Peter had to be rebuked at least once for behaving badly as an Apostle). But capital “A” Apostles also had a unique role at the beginning of Christianity.

They lived during a time period when God worked miracles in the world to confirm His messengers and to verify their message.

They made authoritative decisions about the who and what of the gospel.

And they even spoke and wrote the words of God.

Friends, the Apostles did their job (they filled their role), and we have their words with us still today. We are not looking for any modern-day Apostles. What we are doing now is aiming to know and to live in keeping with the apostolic words that we already most assuredly have from God.

The first theological claim Peter made in the opening of his letter was that he himself was “an apostle of Jesus Christ,” and so the reader ought to receive these words as “from God” or “from Christ” (1 Pet. 1:1).

But what did God say through Peter? What is the authoritative word from Christ that Christians need to hear – Christians scattered about then… and Christians in the world now?

Well, that leads us to the next big theological claim in our short passage this morning – Peter’s letter was written to “elect exiles” (1 Pet. 1:1).

2. Elect Exiles (v1)

I know we’re only covering two verses this morning, and I know that this is the opening greeting of an ancient letter, but there is a full truckload of theological freight here. Both the second and the third of Peter’s theological claims are tied up together in this phrase “elect exiles” (1 Pet. 1:1), but let’s focus our attention on the concept of “exiles” for right now.

This was a familiar concept to ancient Israelites. When the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah both fell (in 722 and 586 BC), many of the Jewish people were scattered or dispersed in the world. Especially during the sixth century BC, this was called the “Jewish Diaspora” – these were the Judaeans who lived in Babylon and Egypt long after the Persian king (Cyrus) sponsored a rebuilding of ancient Jerusalem.

This has made some people think that Peter must have been writing to Jewish Christians scattered throughout the regions mentioned in our passage. Peter literally calls them “those who are elect exiles of the diaspora” (1 Pet. 1:1).

But this is highly unlikely… for at least four reasons. Peter does assume that his readers would know a bit of OT history (he makes reference to the OT and biblical characters in his letter without an explanation), but he also speaks or writes to them distinctly as Gentiles. Let me point out four ways Peter does this.

He says that their “former” ways were defined by “ignorance” of God and His law (1 Pet. 1:14), not by rejection of the law and the prophets.

Peter says that their “forefathers’” conduct or way of life was “futile” (1 Pet. 1:18), which indicates Gentile paganism (Eph. 4:17).

OT Jews were often accused of “transgressions” and “infidelity,” but not “futility.”

Peter says that the recipients of his letter were “once… not a people” (1 Pet. 2:10), which was the opposite of the Jewish status.

The Israelites were the people of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob… the people of Moses and God’s covenant from Sinai… the people of David and all the apparently national promises God had made.

And Peter says that other “Gentiles” were “surprised” when the recipients of his letter “do not join them in the same flood of debauchery” which is common to Gentiles (1 Pet. 4:3).

All of this makes me believe that Peter was writing to a largely Gentile audience. The regions mentioned in v1 were certainly majority Gentile and not Jewish, and nothing in Peter’s letter addresses a distinctly Jewish concern for Christian living in the world.

What, then, do we make of Peter calling a bunch of Gentiles the “elect exiles of the diaspora” (1 Pet. 1:1)?

Well, it seems to me that what Peter is doing here is the same thing that James does at the beginning of his general letter (using the exact same word – “diaspora”)… These NT authors were taking an OT reality and applying it figuratively or spiritually to a NT reality.

OT reality:

The people of Judah were really exiled and dispersed in the world around the time Judah was destroyed (in 586 BC).

Those ancient Israelites were the people of God under the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants, and they were living in exile –

away from their promised land,

away from the dwelling place of God (i.e., the tabernacle/temple),

and away from the societal and political structures which centered all of life around the true worship God and the right obedience of His law.

NT reality:

Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ haven’t actually been exiled from anywhere in particular, but they are dispersed in the world (that was true in Peter’s day, and it is even more true today).

Christians are now the people of God under the New Covenant (in Jesus Christ), and they are now living in a kind of exile –

Christians are now living away from their promised land (the New Jerusalem that will come down from God and pervade the whole of creation when Christ returns).

Christians are away from the dwelling place of God (though they are presently inhabited by God’s Spirit, who is actively building them up into a dwelling place for God… a work that will be completed on the last day).

And Christians are away from societal and political structures which center all of life around the true worship God and the right obedience of His law.

Christians in the world live as exiles in a foreign land, a land that is naturally quite hostile to true worship and right obedience.

This is what (it seems to me) the Apostle Peter meant when he wrote to first-century Christians scattered about in the Roman empire and referred to them as “elect exiles of the diaspora” (1 Pet. 1:1).

In Hebrews 11, the Bible praises faithful believers from the OT, and it says, “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth… seeking a homeland… a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Heb. 11:13-16). And these are the same as the “elect exiles” Peter is talking about in our passage today – the phrase is appropriate for believers from both testaments who are seeking a heavenly homeland.

Brothers and sisters, I wonder if you live this way.

Do we live as exiles in the world?

Are we seeking a better country that will only come when heaven and earth unite in the end?

Or is our love and hope and desire for this world overshadowing the world to come?

Peter’s second theological claim in this passage is that Christians (both Jew and Gentile) are the people of God in the world now… living as “exiles” (1 Pet. 1:1). But this begs the question: “Is this an accident… or is it by design?”

This leads us to our third theological claim this morning – the triune God intends… or has purposed… that it be this way.

3. God’s Intention (v2)

Our third theological claim is grounded in v1, but it is described and explained in v2. The Apostle Peter wrote this letter to “elect exiles” in various regions (1 Pet. 1:1), and he says that both their “election” and their “exile” was “according to” something, “in” or “through” something, and “for” something (v2).

In other words, both their “election” and their “exile” are on purpose.

Now, friends, we are going to lift our eyes upward this morning to look at some high theological truths from God’s perspective. It’s the sort of thing we can’t learn from our own experience or by reasoning it out from what we already know.

Some truths (many truths!) about who God is, what He’s like, how He saves, and why He does what He does are only knowable to us if God decides to tell us. And when God does that – when He reveals something special about Himself, about us, about what it means to be saved – when he does that, He means for us to be humbled by it… He means for us to praise Him for it… He means for us to be comforted and corrected and conformed to Christian maturity.

But this is no sugary treat here… I’m serving up a giant steak dinner in these two short verses today… so get your fork and knife, and let’s dig in and consider three features of God’s intention or purpose here.

First, Peter points to the distinctive contributions of the three persons of the Trinity in the “electing” and “exiling” of Christians.

Those first-century Christians (and all other Christians since then) are “elect exiles…

according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,

in [or “by” or “through”] the sanctification [or “consecration”] of the Spirit,

for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood” (1 Pet. 1:2).

We’re taught throughout the NT that God the Father knew and loved beforehand those He sent His Son to save and to bring into the family and kingdom of God (Rom. 8:28-30).

We’re taught throughout the NT that God the Spirit is the One “by” Whom (or “through” Whom) comes the action of “sanctifying” or “consecrating” or “setting apart” (1 Cor. 6:11).

The emphasis here is not the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit, where He shapes and forms the believer into the image of Christ…

but the instant and punctiliar work of the Holy Spirit, where He applies the electing love of the Father to the sinner in a real moment of time… setting the sinner apart as holy or consecrated or devoted unto God.

And we’re taught throughout the NT that God the Son is the One who took on flesh, who became the man (Jesus of Nazareth), who lived righteously under God’s law, and who died brutally as a condemned sinner… not because He was guilty, but for the sake of or in the place of those guilty sinners He came to save.

It is those for whom Christ died that are “sprinkled with his blood” (v2), which is OT imagery that refers to both cleansing and forgiveness.

Friends, we are to learn here (by special revelation from God) that the reason any sinner is converted and now living as a saint in the world is because the triune God of the Bible has intended it to be so.

This should humble us.

This should provoke us to praise and thank God for His gracious grace.

And this should spur us on to spiritual growth and maturity as we keep on coming to a better knowledge of what this means.

Friends, don’t avoid thinking about high theology (like the doctrine of the trinity or the concept of God’s election)… it’s usually that stuff up there that sustains and encourages and preserves us best… in both good times and bad.

Second, Peter makes it clear that God (Father, Son, and Spirit) intends Christians to live right now as exiles in the world.

All of these modifiers connect directly with both descriptors – “elect” and “exiles” (v1).

Christians are “elect” … “according to the foreknowledge of… the Father, in [or “through” or “by”] the sanctification of the Spirit, [and] for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood” (v2).

And Christians are “exiles” … “according to the foreknowledge of… the Father, in [or “by”] the sanctification of the Spirit, [and] for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood” (v2).

Friends, if you believe God is in charge of your present circumstances, then it will shape the whole picture you have of them.

Instead of spending all your time and anxiety trying to figure out how to get out of your situation, you can start to devote at least some of your thought and effort to learning or repenting or growing according to God’s good intentions for you.

Here we are taught that God intends us to feel (at least in some sense) out of place, uncomfortable, and strange in this world.

Third, Peter at least implies (I think it’s explicit) that the immediate purpose – the reason God has “elected” and “sanctified” and “sprinkled” His people with the “blood” of Christ – is so that they would live as “obedient” citizens of the heavenly kingdom even as they are living right now as “exiles” in the world.

That phrase (in v2) – “for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood” – is a difficult one to translate and understand. I’m not going to walk out in the weeds here, so I’m just going to tell you what I think Peter is saying.

I agree with Tom Schreiner here. Peter is saying that “the foreknowing work of [the Father] and the sanctifying action of the Spirit result in (1) human obedience and (2) the sprinkling of Christ’s blood.”

Of course, it is Christ’s obedience that has earned our righteousness before God (if we are turning from sin and trusting in Him). But that does not seem to be what Peter is talking about here – not about Christ’s obedience.

Peter has focused on Christ’s work of shedding His “blood” so that it would be “sprinkled” on those the Father “foreknew” and those the Spirit “set apart” or “sanctified” as devoted unto God (1 Pet. 1:2).

Therefore, the “obedience” Peter is talking about here is that “obedience” which is to be lived out by those who are numbered among the “elect exiles” – they are to be obedient to Christ while they are living in this strange world.

This is the major theme of the whole letter – God intends Christians to live right now as exiles in the world, set apart for obedience to Jesus Christ.

Through the rest of chapter 1…

Peter says that “trials” and “grief” will prove “faith” to be “genuine” as Christians persevere in obedience (1 Pet. 1:6-9).

Peter says that Christians are to live as “obedient children” of God, striving for holiness, because God (our Father) is Himself “holy” (1 Pet. 1:14-19).

Peter says that “obedience” springs out of true spiritual life and that it “purifies” the “soul” in anticipation of that final day when Christ shall come to claim His own (1 Pet. 1:20-25).

And that’s just through the end of chapter 1!

Brothers and sisters, do you live as though God has set you apart for a life of obedience to Christ? How often do you read about or talk about or meditate on Christ’s commands? Don’t you know that Jesus saves sinners in order to bring them under His good and kind and right rule?

So many people today think they know and believe the gospel because they’ve heard that Jesus saves sinners… but they haven’t considered the fact that the same Jesus who saves also commands… and Christ’s commands are for the good, for the perseverance, for the witness, and for the glory of those He saves.

Friends, all of this – the electing, the exiling, the foreknowledge and sanctification, the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, and the obedience of Christians – all of this is the intention and purpose of God.

God intends it all to be this way.

God intended creation to glorify Him from the beginning.

God intended Adam and Eve to fall in the garden.

God intended the rise and fall of Abraham and Noah and Moses and David and the whole nation of OT Israel.

God intended the arrival and ministry of Jesus Christ.

God intended Jesus’s death and resurrection.

God intended His Spirit to come and bring new life to those He loves.

God intended Christians to rest entirely in the finished work of Christ.

God intended Christians to obey their Lord and Savior.

God intended Christian obedience to be their way of life during exile.

And God intended obedient Christians to bear witness to His glory and His grace in a world that is not their home.

Friends, the sovereign God of the universe means for His people to live as obedient exiles in the world… But He has not left Christians alone or deserted or forgotten in their exile… And this leads us to our fourth and final theological claim today – God’s blessing is upon those who are “elect exiles.”

4. Blessed in Exile (v2)

Our profound two-verse greeting in this letter concludes with a short prayer of blessing. Peter wants the “elect exiles” who receive this letter (who hear it read aloud in their churches on the Lord’s day)… he wants the “grace” and “peace” of God to be “multiplied” or “increased” or “grown” among them (1 Pet. 1:2).

The fourth theological claim for us to consider (as we finish our time together this morning) is that “exile” and “blessing” are not incompatible… but rather they are complementary for Christians who live between Christ’s first advent and His final return.

If you’re like me, then this feels a bit contradictory. Peter has just said that the Christians he’s writing to are “exiles” in the world, and Peter give absolutely no indication throughout this whole letter that this status will change – they ought to expect to always be exiles.

It seems to me that this does not sound like a blessed status, but a negative one, a bad one, an undesirable one. Exiles or strangers or foreigners are not at home, they are not usually welcome, and they often have a hard time understanding and acting according to the customs and laws of the land.

With this in mind, we might hope to hear Peter pray that the exiles would become the majority. We might wish that the blessing would prove to advance the status of Christians in the world. And we might want to hear a bit more about how Christians will gain ground, win victories, and take charge.

This, however, is not what we read in 1 Peter. It’s not what we read anywhere in the NT (at least I haven’t seen it).

We just finished studying our way through the book of Revelation, and the repeated story we got there is one of trials, persecution, and all manner of affliction and hardship… until Christ returns to make all things new.

But this does not mean that Christians have to live defeated lives. We do not have to walk around with sad faces and discontent on our hearts and in our mouths.

No… even in exile, we are blessed… and Peter prays here that this blessing would only increase while Christians live in exile.

Brothers and sisters, Christians are blessed in exile because we are the elect of God – foreknown by the Father, sanctified by the Spirit, and sprinkled clean by Christ’s blood.

Christians are blessed in exile because even our time of exile in this world is part of the gracious plan of God to bring about His glory and our good.

Christians are blessed in exile because it is precisely here that we are commissioned to live as obedient servants and witnesses of Christ.

And Christians are blessed in exile because God intends to multiply His grace and peace to us while we are here…

Not yet what we ought to be…

Not yet where we will be…

Not yet enjoying the fullness of all that God has promised believers in the gospel of Christ…

But nevertheless… standing now in the grace and peace of God… and growing in it… until one day we shall experience it in full.

May God help us to believe this word of encouragement to Christians in exile this morning… May God help us to trust in His sovereign plan as it unfolds in our lives… May God help us to be obedient to Christ for as long as we are here… and May the grace and peace of God be multiplied to us.