Who Are Chosen - Draft

It’s truly an honor and a privilege to be standing here before you today. I’ve been given the very important and humbling task of presenting, teaching and preaching God’s Word to you, that we may all grow as His revelation to us penetrates our hearts. I possess a great expectation that you will leave here today not merely more knowledgeable, but convicted and encouraged to live your life differently, to see your circumstances in a new light, and to desire greatly progress in Christlikeness.

To begin, I’d like to ask you to open your Bibles and your bulletins to 1 Peter. Chapter 1, Verses 1 and 2. 1 Peter is a short letter, only 5 chapters long, and you can find it toward the back of your Bible immediately after the books of Hebrews and James…and predictably right before the letter of 2 Peter.

Now, it isn’t often that a preacher will intentionally choose for his sermon the introduction of a letter. Typically, the theological meat is located in the body of text and not at the very beginning. But the book of 1 Peter begins a bit differently, and I think it will be very helpful for us to examine what the author wanted to communicate to his audience right at the start.

Author

Unlike the books of Titus and Jude, 1 Peter is named after its author instead of its intended recipient. This is the same Peter who was called by Jesus to follow Him as a disciple. The Peter who walked on water with Christ, who vowed to die with Jesus before he would ever deny Him, the same Peter who only hours later repeatedly denied knowing Christ to protect his own skin. It is also the very same man whom Jesus restored to pastoral leadership before His ascension. It often helps me to remember that what Peter says and writes comes reinforced by 3 years of experience walking side by side with my Lord and Savior.

Context

Now, the occasion for this first letter from Peter was not a pleasant one. The Christian church, which had spread rapidly throughout the Roman Empire, was on the verge of incredible persecution under the reign of the Roman Emperor Nero. Being a Christian in the 1st Century was becoming increasingly difficult and dangerous…and things were going to get far worse before they got any better. And it is in this context of forthcoming persecution that Peter pens his letter to a group of churches located in modern-day Turkey, which means that when we read 1 Peter, we must first try to understand Peter’s words as they would have been understood by the original intended audience.

And how does Peter start his letter to a scared and increasingly desperate group of Christians facing potential pain, suffering, and death? Like this:

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 1

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen

2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.

Analysis

Think about that last sentence for a moment. May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure. It’s possible that the first readers of this letter had the same thought that I had, which is: What do you mean, Peter? How can you say that? Considering the deteriorating circumstances, how can you expect them to be at peace? Much less to have peace in the fullest measure?

Well, to understand how Peter can be so bold as to tell these people to have tremendous peace, we need to understand what he was actually saying in the sentences prior to this one.

And it is for this specific exercise that I’ve included for you in your bulletin a copy of these two verses. And I did this for a very important reason. I want you to get involved with the text. I want you to observe it. I want you to make markings on it. I want you to circle words, underline phrases, write down questions. You see the Word of God penetrates more readily and more powerfully when we see the Bible as more than just words that we gloss over with a cursory reading. It’s real. It’s alive and active. It begs of us to probe it and dig into it, to ask questions of it. So as I begin to discuss what these verses contain, challenge yourself to actively engage with the Scripture. Most Bibles are too small and have too little room to do this, so that’s why I put it in your bulletin, and why I gave you plenty of space to work with .

Let’s start from the beginning…”Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.” In the first century, it was standard procedure to introduce yourself as the author in the opening lines of the letter. That’s a bit different than how we do things today. Most often, we wait until the end of our letter to identify ourselves as the author. Ever get a card in the mail? And there is no return address listed on the envelope. When you open that card, what is the first thing you do…besides look for a check? You skip all the writing and look at the end of the message to see who the card is from? In my experience, it is usually the signature of one or more of the Melton’s. But see, Peter saves us this exercise. And his simple opening phrase actually serves two purposes: Yes, it identifies Peter as the author, but it also reminds the reader of who Peter is and the implications that a letter from him will carry.

Peter is an apostle, which in Greek means “One who is sent forth.” In Matthew Chapter 10 we see Jesus give his disciples authority over evil spirits and all kinds of diseases, and then He sends them out to preach His message, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” At this point in the gospel of Matthew, the disciples are now referred to as apostles. It implies being sent out with authority and with a message, and after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, they were again sent out, this time to spread the Gospel of Christ Jesus to the rest of the world. As a chosen and commissioned apostle of Christ, Peter spoke with authority. As Peter started his letter to fellow Christians, he wanted them to know that they could trust what he tells them. At the end of 1 Peter he writes, “I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it!” If Peter says it, then we can trust it. Why? Because he was a commissioned apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it!

“To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.” I want you to circle the word “aliens.” Peter chose this word in particular to express a very important idea. Christians are aliens. Not outer-space aliens, but foreigners, temporary residents here on earth. Dr. John MacArthur explains it this way, “The church is composed of strangers and pilgrims scattered throughout the earth, away from their true home in heaven.”

The church is composed of strangers and pilgrims scattered throughout the earth, away from their true home in heaven

And this brings up an critical point, one that certainly would have been noticed by the original audience. That point is that our lives here on earth are temporary. There is an eternity awaiting us in heaven. Peter is pulling the vision of these Christians away from the world and their circumstances in front of them and up to the God and the eternal reality above them. He’s intentionally reframing their perspective.

Now, the next eleven words are very, for lack of a better term, controversial. Not for the truth of the message they contain, but controversial to our pride. “Who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” What does that mean? What does it mean to be chosen? And what does it mean to be chosen according to God’s foreknowledge? These are extremely difficult questions. Particularly because the purposes of an infinite God cannot be adequately grasped by the minds of finite people. The answers to these questions inevitably make us uncomfortable. It attacks our pride. It attacks the idea of what we believe free will to be.

These are extremely difficult questions. Particularly because the purposes of an infinite God cannot be adequately grasped by the minds of finite people. The answers to these questions make us uncomfortable. It attacks our pride. It attacks the idea of what we believe free will to be.

And while these questions can’t be treated fully in the limited time that I have today, I’m going to give you my best, biblically-sound synopsis. It means God ultimately decided who will spend eternity in heaven with Him. And His decision on who is chosen and who is not was determined before the universe ever came into existence. And this decision was not a product of God looking into the future to see what kind of person you would be, or what decision you would make on your own about following Jesus, but the product of His own sovereign purposes. Purposes which we cannot fully understand this side of eternity. So foreknowledge here doesn’t mean a knowledge of what you or I would do when we came into existence, but it describes God’s predetermination to have a relationship with a chosen group of people. And it is God’s divine purpose that those chosen people will receive salvation through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and spend eternity in His glorious presence. These people are referred to in Scripture as the elect. And the doctrine of this truth is called “election.”

For many people, this brief explanation may be very troubling. Particularly if the doctrine of election is new to you. We are blessed that Pastor Virgil teaches the Word faithfully and has made this doctrine clear to us many times. It is my hope that for most, if not all of us, election makes sense. We may not be fully comfortable with it, but it makes sense. This biblical doctrine of God being sovereign and choosing, even in the salvation of His people, is confirmed over and over again in Scripture.

2 Timothy 1:8–9 NASB95

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 1

8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God,

9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity

Ephesians 1:4–5 NASB95

just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,

2 Thessalonians 2:13 NASB95

But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

2 Thessalonians 2:13

We can keep going. But I think the point is clear. Being elect, or chosen by God, is a blessed and incredibly encouraging distinction…for those who are chosen. But how do you know? How do you know if you were chosen by God? That’s what Peter discusses next.

“By the sanctifying work of the Spirit.” Those chosen according to the foreknowledge of God, are thus at some point in their lives sanctified by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. To sanctify means to set apart, to consecrate, to be holy. The Holy Spirit of God regenerates the heart, meaning He takes the natural, sinful, spiritually dead heart of the non-believer and transforms it to spiritual life, not by anything the person does, but solely by the work of the Spirit.

This transformation of the heart from unbelief into faith leads to the person being set apart from sin, and made progressively more and more holy, conforming more and more to the image of Jesus over the rest of their lifetime. That work is ultimately completed on the other side of eternity. Concisely stated, the process of sanctification, or being set apart to holiness, is the out-working of God’s elective purpose in the lives of his chosen people.

So Peter has thus far explained to his readers that God chooses who will be saved, and He has chosen them. They can know this because His Holy Spirit will have produced the transformation of their hearts from spiritual death the spiritual life. So what does the by-product of a saved life look like? Quite simply, it looks like obedience. Obedience to what or to whom? To Jesus! “To obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood.” Obedience to Jesus is the byproduct of election and sanctification. Those who are truly saved demonstrate a pattern of obeying the commands of Christ Jesus found in Scripture. We desire it. We want it. When we fail to do it correctly, we hurt over our sin and we repent and continue seeking to better obey from that point on. It’s a process. God chose us from eternity past. He initiates our salvation by regenerating our hearts and setting us apart from sin, and He does all this so that we may obey Christ Jesus. It’s incredible!

What about the next part, “and be sprinkled with His blood.” That’s kind of an obscure phrase, right? I mean, we obviously can’t be sprinkled with Christ’s blood in a literal sense. This has to be an allusion to something else. It’s a metaphor that Peter, a Jewish man would have been quite familiar with. And though his audience was probably primarily Gentile, there would have been some Jewish Christians in the church who would have immediately recognized the allusion. Here is where the metaphor comes from. Let me read to you from

Exodus 24:3–8 NASB95

Then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do!” Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. Then he arose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. He sent young men of the sons of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to the Lord. Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and the other half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!” So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

Exodus 24:4–8 NASB95

Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. Then he arose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. He sent young men of the sons of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to the Lord. Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and the other half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!” So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

When the people of Israel heard Moses recall the Word of the Lord given to him on the Mount Sinai, they pledged their obedience to it. Moses began the process of setting up an alter so that the people could further express their determination to obey God’s Law and symbolically seal the covenant agreement between God and Israel. After building the alter, Moses offered young bulls as burnt offerings and peace offerings to God. He put half of the blood from the bulls into large containers and sprinkled the rest of the blood on the alter.

Then Moses read again the Words of God and the people again pledged to obey everything God had commanded. Following their second pledge, Moses took the blood from the containers and sprinkled it on the people. The shedding of blood between two parties demonstrated that the commitment to the covenant was now binding. The blood that Moses sprinkled on the people symbolized their commitment to obey God’s law, while the blood sprinkled on the alter represented God’s commitment to reveal the law and forgive His people when they failed to obey it.

: 4-8

So what does that have to do with Peter’s reference in verse 2? Well, when someone accepts Christ’s sacrifice, His shedding of blood, as the atoning payment for their sins, they in turn are also committing to obey Christ as Lord. It is the shedding of Jesus blood that seals the New Covenant promises that Christ would redeem and justify sinners, while those are redeemed and justified would obey His commands.

Does it make more sense now? To be sprinkled with Christ blood means that we have entered into a covenant, the New Covenant, where we receive eternal life through the forgiveness of sins, past, present and future along with the perfect righteousness Christ, while He receives our obedience to His Lordship.

So now let’s go back and look again at the end of verse two. May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure. If we look at this statement now in the context of what we just went over, we might be able to understand a little better how peace can be attained, even in the most dire of human circumstances. For it is only by the grace of God that we can possibly have peace. This isn’t peace with the world that Peter is talking about.

Christians will never be at peace with a fallen world. But we can be reconciled to God. We can have the benefit’s of Christ atoning sacrifice repair the separation that our sins against God created. And if we are reconciled to God, and if we are in restored relationship with our heavenly Father, then nothing that the world can throw at us can break that resulting peace. Peter is praying that the Christians in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, as God’s elect people, may experience, to the highest degree, all the blessings that come along with being a Christ follower.

Application

So, how does this passage apply to us today? While we may not be on the door step of intense religious persecution, at least not the type of persecution that may cause torture or death, we still have a lot in common with the Christians to whom Peter was writing. We are under the same covenant. We worship and obey the same Lord. We are privy to the same blessings and benefits of being a Christian. So what can we take away from from ?

First, God’s purposes of election should not be a troubling concept to us. It should bring us great joy that God chooses anyone to be saved. No one deserves it. No one earns it. We deserve to suffer just punishment for our sins. But because God has sovereignly predetermined to be in relationship with a group of chosen people, we can be forgiven of our sins. Our punishment was placed upon Jesus. His righteousness was given to us. This should create a tremendous amount of joy in our hearts. And this joy should prevail, even in the most difficult struggles of life.

Second it should be comforting to know that the Holy Spirit has not, and will never stop working in our lives. He will continue to carry out his sanctifying ministry in us until that wonderful future day when we are ultimately glorified and His work is completed. We should be energized to cooperate with the Spirit’s work in conforming us to the image of Christ.

And last, we should love obeying Christ as our Lord. We should earnestly desire to serve him more and more each day. Even when we fail, we should be awestruck that our sins are forgiven and we should be increasingly grateful that God chose us to be His sons and daughters.

Closing

In closing, I want to reveal a little bit more about what Peter expected his readers to do in response to his letter. I encourage each one of you to go home and read the rest of 1 Peter so that you can see these things for yourself. But let me share with you some of the major points Peter subsequently makes. You may find these applicable to your current situation.

Peter wasn’t done discussing the benefits of being chosen by God.

Verse 4 of Chapter 1 tells us that by God’s mercy in salvation, we obtain a heavenly inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and will never fade away.

Verse 5 explains that our salvation is protected, not by our ability, but by the power of God. Endurance to the end does not depend on us, but ultimately on an omnipotent and perfectly faithful God.

In light of these things, Peter expected his fellow Christians to:

Rejoice, even in severe trials.

Maybe you’ve gotten a tragic diagnosis. Maybe you’ve lost your job. Maybe you’ve lost a loved one. Even so, despite how difficult it may seem, we can and must still rejoice because of what God has done for us through Christ.

Peter also expected his readers to prepare their minds and be alert so that they may not fall into the lusts of their pre-saved life, but they may be holy as Christ is holy. The same goes for us today. Those addictions, those weaknesses, those temptations of the past must no longer hold power over us. The indwelling Holy Spirit gives us the power to overcome any sin.

And finally, Peter expected the lives of his fellow Christians, particularly those in unjust and unfair situations, to resemble the model that Jesus Christ displayed as He was being unfairly tried and sentence to a death He did not deserve for a crime He did not commit.

Peter uses the example of a servant being submissive to his master, even if that master is harsh and unreasonable.

Anyone have a job they hate or a boss they don’t like? Chapter two is for you.

What about being married to an unbelieving spouse? How do we model Christ’s example in that situation. Check out chapter 3.

There’s even a message for Pastors. Chapter 5 reminds pastors to serve the flock with humility and to lead them by example.

Invitation

I hope that this message has been encouraging. I hope it has been challenging. I hope that it inspires you to go home, open up your Bibles and feast on the glorious Word of God.

For those you out there who are hearing these things for the first time, I hope you have a lot of questions. And I hope that in your heart you feel a very strong desire to get those questions answered.