Exiled and Set Apart
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
To begin today, I want to return to something we glossed over two Sundays ago in our sermon on the first 9 verses of 1 Peter.
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
“To the elect exiles…”
elect, of course, referring to the people of God, but what I want us to focus on in this passage is “exiles.” This is a theme that Peter returns to throughout the letter. He refers to Christians as exiles. This is how we are to understand our lot in life. This is how we are to understand our call.
Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
Last week, we spoke of not taking our hope for granted. You’ll see that theme continued through this passage, too.
In it, Peter wants his hearers to understand their calling as exiles, that they should refuse to be conformed to their former ways of life, and instead pursue the set-apart life.
For us today: Be prepared, for we are exiles of this world, called to a set-apart life.
Be Prepared
Be Prepared
Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
The phrase here is, in the greek, literally to gird up the loins of your mind. This was a particular action in the ancient world in which if you had to do strenuous labor or if you had to run, you would take the hems of your robe, wrap them around your legs, and tie them off so as to get the robe out of the way of your legs so you could do what you needed to do unhindered.
Peter is telling you that if you are going to do this thing called the Christian life, you must be mentally ready! Don’t come into this thing hindered and hampered by things that will simply get in the way of following Christ.
Okay, so Peter says here to prepare ourselves for hard work! For strenuous activity! So why is it that so many of us get saved and then kick back like nothing ever happened?! Why do we swap spiritual fervor for a slacker’s lifestyle?
So what does it mean to prepare our minds for action? To gird the loins of our minds? I think of of Jesus, Who set His face like flint, as Isaiah tells us… Meaning he was determined! He set His face like flint to DIE in our stead.
Isaiah prophesies:
I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.
In this, you see a picture of what Jesus would face. Reminder that before ever even going to the cross, Jesus would be beaten and cruelly wounded. He knew this. And yet still He had determined to live His life in such a way that He would face this fate on behalf of all who would believe in Him. He did this for you and for me. He determined before He was ever even born, that He would die for us.
As our ultimate example of determination in the face of opposition, Jesus had prepared His mind for action. He was sober-minded and has His focus set solely on the Hope He would give us.
So for us today, we come to this example and this text, and Peter tells us to be focused. To set our hope fully upon the grace that will be given to us. And you see where it talks about the revelation of Jesus Christ, and yes, he is speaking of the events of Revelation when Christ will return. This is the hope upon which we set every bit of confidence in this life. This revelation is what we await in order to make all of the things we endure in life make sense.
And why should we be focused? Why should we be prepared for action and sober-minded? Because the world will challenge your view and tempt you to chase after unholy things. You must be ready!
And I guess i can’t really just leave this part alone, I’ve got to go meddling here… Christian, are you truly prepared for the Christian life? Are you prepared to do as God is calling you to do? Are we as a church body prepared to reach this town for Jesus? Or are we all just satisfied to come to church, tell the preacher and the singers they did a good job, go to the cafeteria, take a Sunday nap and forget everything we heard? Where is your head, Christian? As your coach used to say, “get your head in the game!”
Set your hope FULLY on Christ. But fair warning… if you do this… You are radically changing the course of your life!
MORE HERE?
T: But, you know, it’s hard to be Sober-Minded when your’e too busy being Drunken-Hearted.
Do Not Be Conformed
Do Not Be Conformed
You see, we tend to fall back into the ways of who we were. Satan wants to remind us of our former selves, and to be trapped by those former selves. He wants our hearts to consume all kinds of things that can cloud our spiritual judgment, to the point that we are what I will call, “Drunken-Hearted.”
This is exemplified perfectly in:
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,
He follows this command to do something with a command to stop doing something else. He affirms us… Look, be obedient children… Don’t be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance!
He’s encouraging his hearers to stand resolute in the face of desire for sin. James tells us that when desire gives birth to sin, sin, when it is fully grown, brings death. Sin doesn’t just want your attention. It wants to conform you. It wants to make you into its image. It wants all of you, and if you are not wary of your sin, one day you will wake up, look in the mirror, and become unrecognizable from yourself.
So Peter says don’t play with that. Don’t let your former sinful ways conform you, because that’s certainly what your enemy would have for you!
There are outright sins, but there are also latent, sinful attitudes we can have in life, too. And this is what it means to be drunken-hearted. We spoke about this Wednesday night in our series through the Book of Ezra: our hearts are so easily crowded with worthless idols that take our minds off of the things of the Lord.
Paul talks about it like this:
Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
And this drunken-heartedness gets in the way of all kinds of things in this life.
And you know it comes in the simplest of ways… Whether watching TV, scrolling the phone… We get lost in a mind-numbing stupor. Dads, especially, listen up. The Kingdom of God does not need you to follow the old Homer Simpson trope of being a dumb, lazy dad. You have a call from God to lead your family well! Refuse to conform to your former ways of life. Refuse to become the world’s punching bag! Stand up, men, and be the spiritual leaders your God is calling you to be! I am tired of seeing mommas dragging husbands with hangovers into church! Wake up, men! Prepare yourself! Be alert! Set your hope on Christ, not the bottom of a bottle.
If you’re going to do that, it’s going to require some things of you…
We talked about this Wednesday night, too. Choosing to leave behind your former ways will cost you many things. It can cost you friendships, job opportunities, all kinds of things. But be not dismayed. Your reward at the end of all things is worth it.
Because, at the end of the day, that is where our citizenship really lies…
We Are Exiles in This World
We Are Exiles in This World
but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
Much of Christian preaching today has foregone the call to holiness. “That’s legalism!” they’ll say. But any reading of the Bible will lead believers to understand that a call to follow Christ is a call to holiness, because the God we serve is a holy god! We are brought into His family. And as a member of the family of God, we have a certain code of conduct.
But not only are we called to be holy… We are also MADE holy through the blood of Jesus Christ!
But here, Peter returns to this idea of being in exile. And he uses it in the same breath as he uses the word, “holy.” Do you understand what holiness means? Let me demystify it for you… Holiness is not some magical state of being. It literally means to be set apart. And we are God’s people, set apart for a special purpose. When you go about setting something apart, you are doing so that it sits under a protective distance or barrier. It’s like the china cabinet. You set apart the fine china for a nice meal, not just any old meal. God has a purpose for His people, so He expects that we remain holy for His special use.
And that special use for the church is to shine as a city on a hill, proclaiming the good news of Christ to a lost and dying world.
Brothers and sisters, God can and will use any vessel He deems necessary to accomplish what He wishes, but there is a particular purpose for the people of God to proclaim the prophetic Gospel to a people who are perishing!
This changes everything regarding the ways we go about life. This is why he says to be holy in all our conduct! Because there is a watching world! So I ask you, Christian!
Are you holy in all things? In your business dealings? In your work? In your marriage? In your parenting? What does your conduct say about the God you claim to worship?
I think about what our words say, for example, about the God we worship…
With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.
It’s a sad state of affairs when Christians cannot be bothered to control their tongues.
Football just started yesterday. I think of a particular famous NFL quarterback who once proclaimed his faith in God! And yet, if you watch other things this quarterback would say and do, you find that he’s got a filthy mouth, he had a baby with his girlfriend before they were ever married… And look, I’m not doubting the guy’s salvation, but I am saying that your public conduct MATTERS, when your identity is known as a Christian. There are too many phonies and fakes and liars and clout-chasers who shine poorly on Christ.
But all of this behavior is based upon the mighty work of the Gospel: the Work that Christ has done for us on the cross!
Where Does Your Hope Come From?
Where Does Your Hope Come From?
That’s where all of this comes from. Look with me at 20 and 21.
He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
You know, over and over again, in the Scriptures, God makes it clear that His commands don’t come as a list of demands with conditions attached to them. Do this or you’ll burn… We see this pattern all over the Scriptures. God does not just demand things of us. He gives us the power and ability to accomplish it! And He gives these commands not as a condition of salvation, but as a result of salvation.
From my reading this week, a scholar named Tom Schreiner wrote: “God’s commands are always rooted in His grace.”
Like a plant that produces fruit, it is impossible to do so without a root!
Notice that your faith and hope are not found in your works… they are found in God! So for the Christian who has repented of sin and trusted in Christ for forgiveness, there is no hem-hawing around whether or not you will find yourself in Heaven. There is only assurance. Why? Because you are trusting Christ for your righteousness, not anything of your own!
The moment you begin to get some form of spiritual pride and think that anything regarding salvation has anything to do with your efforts, you are sorely mistaken! When you arrive at the seat of judgment, you will have but ONE plea, and that is Christ.
Christ was made manifest for us. Today. Have you placed your faith in Him? Or when you sit before the throne of God, will you begin listing out your accomplishments?
Isaiah is clear… Our righteousness is like filthy rags before the Lord. We have nothing to offer in that regard.
But yet, while were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
I cannot preach the Gospel any better than the apostle Paul…
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
Conclusion
Conclusion
You cannot hear the Gospel without responding… Your response is one of a few things:
Rejection
If you’re a believer, affirmation.
Repentance.
If you have not been saved by the blood of Christ today, what is your decision? Do you reject Christ? Or will you repent and trust Christ?
If you’d like to trust Christ as Savior today, and know that you will spend eternity with Him, I invite you, come and tell me you need Jesus. I’d love to introduce you to Him.
Perhaps your decision is of a different nature. Maybe you want to join together with our church fellowship through membership. Perhaps you need prayer.
Whatever decision you need to make today, don’t let it wait. We’re going to stand and sing. Don’t stand and hesitate. Get moving straight to the front. Christ invites you today.
Let’s pray.
