Pilgrims and Citizens

Pilgrims and Citizens

Pray.

Has anyone here ever walked into a room, took a look around, and immediately thought, “I don’t belong here”?

Have you ever showed up to a formal event dressed casually?

Have you ever attended a something like a wedding or a party and felt awkward because you knew NO ONE?

Humans are social beings, we want to “fit” into our surroundings, and it’s not pleasant when we don’t fit in.

Well, in our passage today found in 1 Peter chapter 2, verses 11-17,

we find that the “I don’t belong here” sensation is actually a normal experience for Christians.

Two weeks ago in verses 4-10, we saw how Peter defined the Christian identity.

We are living stones that collectively make up God’s spiritual house, the global Church.

That we are God’s chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession… His beloved bride.

Our verses today builds on that message, that Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords,

And all earthly rulers and allegiances take second place to Him.

Because of our new identity in Christ, we will see Peter will encourage us for a way of life that is consistent with our new identity and our new convictions.

And I just want to warn you right now, this passage is difficult!

There’s some tough truths here.

I’ve taught Bible studies on this topic before, and I always seem to get the same reaction— we tend to repel away.

But, taking these principles to heart is so important, and I hope to show you why today.

So on that cheery note, let’s go for a ride!

Let’s start by looking at verses 11 and 12:

11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

Peter appeals to us by saying, “Beloved (loved by God), as sojourners and exiles…”

Peter is reiterating the fact that, as Christians, we are never fully at home in this world.

Sojourners have no permanent residence.

They’re wanderers.

And exiles are outcasts of society.

People that don’t fit in and don’t belong.

And you know, this isn’t exactly a new thing!

Even if we go as far back as Abraham, even he called himself “an alien and a stranger” in the land of Canaan (Gen. 23:4).

Being aliens in the world has always been the status quo for God’s people.

There’s something else I want to point out about this:

Remember, these Christians that Peter wrote this letter to were Gentile believers (non-Jewish), and they were living in a Gentile region.

For all intents and purposes, they should have fit right in with their culture.

How could they be aliens among fellow Gentiles?

Well, it’s the same reason that we Christians today also don’t fit in among our own culture.

When we confess that we have sinned against a holy God, and we repent of that sin and trust in Christ alone for salvation,

we are born again into our new life, suddenly belonging to a new nation,

one without borders, one determined by neither race nor nationality.

Believers are no longer part of the world’s nations, we are God’s nation.

It’s natural for us to not feel at ease, even in our own culture.

Take an honest look at our culture right now and ask yourself, “Are these really my people? Is this really my land, my culture?”

So first of all, be encouraged that the feelings of not belonging or feeling unwanted by the world aren’t just felt by you.

ALL of God’s people throughout history are right there with you.

Notice, however, that Peter doesn’t tell us to despair over this, nor does he tell us to run away and hide.

What does he say?

He gives us two responses to the challenge of living in a world that first tempts to seduce us into it’s wickedness, and then mocks those who resist it:

First, we fight.

He says in verse 11, “to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.”

I don’t think I have to tell you that we are bombarded by sinful desires that come from the outside, as well as from within, every single day.

And as aliens in our culture, we must strive to abstain from the sinful paths that our culture presents to us.

Consider this illustration:

In his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin writes that when he was young, he was a vegetarian, refusing all kinds of meat.

Then one day he was on a boat, and the wind died away.

With nothing else to do, the sailors decided to trying fishing, and they caught a number of cod.

They fried up the fish, and the delicious smell, coupled with his increasing hunger, tempted Franklin.

His vegetarian principles and physical desires began to battle with one another.

He also noticed that as they prepared the fish, they found smaller fish in the bellies of some of the larger ones.

And a thought occurred to Franklin:

If fish eat one another, why can’t people eat fish?

Satisfied with his logic, Franklin sat down and ate.

This experience drove him to write this in his memoirs:

Quote, “So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.” End quote.

Put simply, this is what Franklin was saying, “I love being able to reason because I can always think of an excuse to do whatever I want to do.”

This was the principle he lived by his whole life, and the details of his personal life reveal that he indeed had many,

shall we say, “extra-curricular activities” that weren’t exactly praise-worthy.

You didn’t hear about that in school, did you?

Sadly, this kind of rationalization is common to all mankind.

But Peter is telling us that this SHOULD NOT be us!

We must aim to neither rationalize self-indulgence nor to readily surrender to temptation.

We must fight because we are certainly at war!

That’s the first response.

Then Peter gives us a second response in verse 12:

We live honorably.

Peter tells us that when we keep our conduct honorable while living in this fallen world, it brings glory to God!

…even though the world may still accuse us of being evil.

And this happens all the time, doesn’t it?

Perhaps one of the most famous examples from history is the Roman emperor Nero.

According to Roman historians, Nero blamed Christians for the great fire of Rome because they were, in his mind,

“hated for their abominations” and adhered to a “harmful, foolish superstition.”

After the fire, Christians were arrested and killed in some really sickening ways,

and these were the charges brought against them:

Historians recorded this: It was “not on the count of arson but for their hatred of the human race.”

Can you believe that?

Because these Christians refused to conform to the world as the Romans thought it should be,

they were accused of hating the human race!

Here’s the unfortunately reality, Church:

The world is going to hate us.

Why?

Well, Jesus tells us why in John 15:18-19:

18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

But, here is the point that Peter is making:

Even though being hated is inevitable, we should strive to live so well that the world can make no valid accusations against us.

A life that is centered around living for Christ shines as an alternative to worldly ways.

The Greek behind the phrase “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable” in verse 12 could be translated,

“have a beautiful lifestyle.”

Peter’s term for “honorable” (kalos) is typically translated as “beautiful” or “attractive,”

rather than something that is just “morally good.”

Church, the point is that the Christian life entails more than law-keeping.

It’s not about just having a set of rules to follow.

Peter is encouraging us to live our lives in a way that will attract people to its beauty.

A beautiful life transcends law, personality, and manners.

Non-Christians friends might notice that we have a good time and laugh hard without first needing a substance to obliterate our inhibitions and our judgment.

At a restaurant, our server hears us talking about our faith, and she notices that we treat her with dignity and respect,

which unfortunately is something servers don’t get much of these days.

There is a beauty in the way in which some godly, charitable women always seem to have a friendly meal for the hungry or an open ear to listen.

There is a beauty in the life-affirming response that so many Christians have when they learn that their unborn child has, say, a genetic abnormality.

Medical personnel often offer such parents “options” for that “unfortunate” pregnancy.

I don’t know about you, but it’s at times like those that I am GLAD to be just a pilgrim passing through.

I am GLAD belong to another homeland, one that has another code, a code that extends love to every person.

All these things are beautiful, even though we might not always recognize it, since it is often more visible to others than it is to us.

There was a great English architect named Christopher Wren, and he was once tasked with designing a great cathedral.

One thing he insisted on was having the workers polish the back of the heads of the statues that were attached to the cathedral near its top.

Someone asked him, “Why all this work for something that no one will ever see?”

And Wren answered, “God will see it.”

Peter promises that our good life will be recognized, even if not in this life.

As he says in verse 12, the unbelievers may glorify God for us “on the day or visitation”

(or, literally, “the day of inspection”), which refers to judgment day.

Then the Lord will review mankind and reveal all that we have done and all that it means.

The unbelievers might glorify God for the beautiful lives of Jesus’ followers before then, but at least it will happen on the last day.

Living a beautiful life will NOT go unnoticed, and it will NOT be in vain.

So strive for it!

Then, Peter gives us an example of how we can be “good” sojourners and exiles during our earthly walk.

Look at verses 13-15:

13 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. 15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

This is it.

This is a tough pill to swallow.

We have a big election coming up, and regardless of who wins, there will be a lot of people who will be upset.

So the question is, if you are a Christian and your candidate loses, what do you do next?

Well, Peter doesn’t mince words.

He makes it abundantly clear that we honor every human authority appointed over us.

Ok, now I can practically hear some of you growling under your breath!

So let me try and explain this the best I can.

First, I’m going to ask you a question:

Is God sovereign, meaning is He in complete control?

Yes, of COURSE He is!

He is in complete control of everything, whether it be the stars, the moon, the weather, even a political election.

He ordains this world’s authorities, so we should submit to the human authorities that He brought into power by His own hand.

We submit to ALL authorities:

first to the emperor (president), for he is the highest human authority.

We submit to governors; local authorities.

We must even submit to commissioners who rule the roads, commerce, the military, markets, even parking.

This includes your boss at work, or to all you students out there, your authorities in school.

Peter doesn’t say you have to like them, but you do have to respect the authority they have,

because it was given to them by God Himself.

Now I know what some of you are probably thinking:

What about evil rulers?

Surely if we lived in Germany in the 1940s, we would be exempt from having to honor Adolf Hitler’s authority, right?

Well, here’s a fun piece of trivia for you:

Guess who the Roman emperor was at the time Peter wrote this.

It was Nero!

The same Nero we just talked about a few minutes ago,

who was DESPERATELY wicked and did unspeakable things to Christians during his rule.

You would be hard-pressed to find a more wicked ruler than him.

Beyond his cruelties, he ruled poorly for most of his reign and demanded to be worshipped like a god.

If Peter could command the church to submit to Nero, we can certainly submit if our leader takes a stand that we consider to be wrong.

At a minimum, we respect the office and we pray for them.

Pop quiz: When was the last time you prayed for our leaders?

Church, are you anxious about our upcoming election?

Granted I’m not very old, but I don’t think I have EVER seen an election that was so heated and surrounded by so much malice and anxiety over the results.

Well, regardless of what happens, I’ve got some good news for you:

I would bet the title for my truck that whoever wins, they aren’t going to be NEARLY as bad as Nero!

If Christians could submit to HIS authority, we can submit to either our new President or our continued President.

And you know what?

Even if our president WERE to be as bad as Nero, what does that change?

PAUL WASHER QUOTE

Now I am aware that you probably still don’t feel any better about this.

Well, there’s something in the passage I want to point out that may comfort you a little.

Let’s talk about that phrase, “be subject to.”

The word for “subject” is the Greek word “hupotasso.”

Hupotasso carries with it the idea of arranging one’s life under the authority or guidance of another.

In other words, a person who, hupotasso, submits,

still has some freedom because he or she decides how to follow the leader.

In Scripture, the believer’s submission to human authorities NEVER calls for blind obedience.

Early Christians practiced civil disobedience “when the demands of society” threatened to override “the demands of the Lord.”

The Christian is always, in principle, ready to rebel, ready to say “No” in the face of a wicked command,

for “we must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

If our rulers are asking us to do something that would be sinning against God, then no,

you don’t have to obey that law, because you have a higher authority.

Let me give you a few examples:

If our lawmakers passed a law tomorrow saying that anyone with blonde hair must be killed, then obviously,

you don’t have to obey that.

That would be murder, which is strictly forbidden by God, the highest authority.

But what if they passed a law saying that every American citizen must wear a purple shirt on Thursdays.

Does that violate God’s law?

No.

Sure, it's ridiculous, but there’s no Biblical reason we SHOULDN’T do it, so we should obey the law.

Here’s something else that may raise a few eyebrows:

Government is actually a blessing from God.

Now before you roll your eyes at me, hear me out.

Or, perhaps I should say, hear Peter out, because that’s kinda what he’s getting at here.

It’s universally accepted that the government must maintain public order by punishing crime.

God ordained government to carry out punishment for evildoers.

If I were to ask you to pick one of the most oppressive governments in the world right now, what would you say?

I don’t know about you, but the first one that comes to my mind is North Korea.

They have some pretty harsh restrictions on their citizens, however, even in North Korea,

they punish murders. They punish thieves.

Even a wicked government is usually better than no government at all, because it punishes evil doers and keeps order.

Even though there are people who think it would be a good idea, we don’t want anarchy.

We don’t want a society where every person is given free rein to do whatever they want, whenever they want, without any consequences.

Furthermore, even wicked governments often praise those who do good in society.

They praise citizens who help the needy, citizens who volunteer their own time to serve the community.

Likewise, Peter calls us as Christians to “do good” in ways small and large.

He tells us to use our time and resources wisely by serving our community, loving the people,

helping those in need, let the light of Christ shine through you to the world!

Show them that there IS something different about you!

You’re not like the rest!

You are a new creation with a new identity in your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Let them see it!

No, the accusations will never go away, but make it difficult for them to find reasons to ridicule you, because you represent God!

And WHY do we do all this?

WHY should we subject ourselves to all human authorities and live beautiful lives?

Peter says it in the beginning of verse 13:

Do it for the LORD’S sake.

So even if I can’t convince you that government is indeed a blessing from God,

then submit to your government anyway…

because you’re doing it for God, the one who ordained that government in the first place.

Because, NEWS FLASH, He knows what He’s doing!

He has a purpose for all of it, even if our feeble 3-pound human brain can’t perceive what that purpose is right now.

Then finally, verses 16 and 17:

16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

Here, Peter kind of anticipates what some people may say in response to this command.

Many object that the demand of submitting to human rulers robs us of the freedom that believers have in Christ.

They might say, “But I am a free, liberated by Jesus. Why should I and how can I submit to human rule?”

To this Peter replies, “Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.”

Those who are in Christ are free from sin, from the law, and from death, but that is no excuse for insubordination.

Martin Luther put it this way:

“A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.”

Luther is saying that BECAUSE we are free, we do have the freedom to choose who we subject ourselves to.

Because, think about it— that’s the opposite of slavery!

Slaves don’t have a choice of who to be subject to.

But free people do have a choice!

We could refuse and be insubordinate if we so choose, or, we can choose to submit.

And according to our passage today, it is our duty as God’s people to exercise our freedom by willingly submitting to the rulers God has appointed over us.

And if this still sounds unfair, look at Jesus.

Was it not Jesus Himself who said in Mark 12:17, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s?”

Or how about when He willingly let Himself be delivered over into the hands of the Jews and the Romans to be tried and nailed to cross for crimes He didn’t commit?

If anyone had an excuse to NOT submit to the authorities, it was Him.

He challenged their sin, yes, but He still humbled Himself, and subjected Himself to their authority,

even though He was the one who CREATED them!

Church, there are many ways to abuse freedom.

But as the apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, though they we are free in Christ, not everything is beneficial.

Church, we must use our freedom correctly:

to love our neighbors and to serve God.

He brought us out of slavery for something more than self-indulgence and pride.

And we do this, for the Lord’s sake, as Peter says in verse 13.

For the Lord’s sake, we do what verse 17 tells us to do.

First, we “honor everyone,” treat everyone with a respect they deserve, even if it’s only because they bear God’s image.

Even the most wicked person on the planet still has SOME level of dignity because they bear the image of God.

Second, we love our brothers and sisters in Christ, showing affection and offering aid to all within the family of faith.

Third, we fear God, which is to say we give God the awe and reverence He rightly deserves.

We revere the Almighty.

Fourth, we honor the emperor, or in our case, the elected president.

To rebel against our leaders is to rebel against the one who made them leaders, who is ultimately God Himself.

The church of Christ is a force in this world, even if we never fully belong here.

Better yet, we are a force precisely because we have a dual citizenship.

We are kind of like people living in a foreign country on a work visa.

And one day, our visa will expire, and we’ll go home.

So let us give honor, respect, justice to all,

always submitting to the Lord Jesus first, and then to every human authority as we are able.

In this way we silence slanderers, live as servants of God, and honor the King of kings, Jesus Christ.

Pray.

Benediction:

1 Corinthians 15:58

“My beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”