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This New Life New Identity - Exiles Lesson 2 1 Peter 1:1-2; 2:9-12 050519

Introduction 1 Two Sundays ago, on Easter, we looked at how the resurrection of Christ changed Peter’s life and last Sunday we began a new series aimed at discovering how the changes our lives. 2 The sums up that that change with the word “new.” Paul tells us in Romans 6 that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life (Romans 6:4). Christ’s resurrection is the means by which we experience new life. 3 But “this new life” is not simply a moral reformation, turning over a new leaf or becoming religious … but rather an entirely new way of living your life … a whole new paradigm for living. 4 And that’s just the way the angel described it to Peter in Acts 5. a Not long after Peter’s encounter with the resurrected Jesus on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, he became one of the prominent leaders in the early church and subsequently was arrested and put in jail for proclaiming the gospel along with the other Apostles. b But Acts 5 says … during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. 20 “Go … and tell the people the full message of this new life.” Acts 5:19-20 5 Long before was called Christianity the angel called it, “this new life.” And that is the origin for the name of our new teaching series … “This New Life.” 6 And who would be more qualified to explain it to us than Peter … and he does so in his first letter which we began taking a look at last week. And in summary, what we learned last week was that this new life begins with a new birth into a living hope and that changes everything about our lives. a And we will discover this morning that part of that change is a change in the way that we relate with the world around us, the way we interface with culture. b New Life produces a new identity not only with respect to God (we become his children) but with respect to the culture we live in (we become outsiders).

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• The moment you believe in Christ you go from being an insider to being an outsider. • You go from being at home in this world to being away from home • You go from living as a resident to living as a temporary resident. • You go from being a friend of this world to being a stranger in the world.

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout , Galatia, , Asia and , 2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father … 1 Peter 1:1-2a 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. :9-12

9 Now in both of these passages we have a repeated phrase, “strangers in the world” It is used in 1:1 and 2:11. a The phrase is actually from the Greek word that means exiles or resident aliens or temporary residents. b The word means that you are living in a place that is not your home. You are a temporary resident. It is home, but it’s not home. You are away from home. You are living as an exile. c Now this is one of the major themes that runs throughout the whole Bible and we need to understand it to get what Peter is saying in these verses about our identity in this world as believers in Jesus Christ.

1 We are exiles 2 How to live like exiles 3 The power to live like exiles

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[1] We are exiles 1 To be an exile is to be away from home. And the first time we see this happening in the Bible is in the Garden of Eden. a Adam and Eve lived together in harmony with each other, their Creator, and the rest of creation. b But through their sin, they were exiled from the Garden. But with the exile came the promise of a Redeemer who would one day call home humanity from exile and bring us back to the Garden of God. 2 Years later that Redeemer is promised to come from the lineage of a man name who God calls to leave his land and relatives and live as an exile in a land that was not his but would one day become the Promised Land (Heb 11:9). 3 This promise is passed down through his son Isaac to his grandson son named Jacob who along with his 12 sons are eventually exiled into Egypt and years later are enslaved. a Fast forward a few hundred years and God raises up Moses to deliver the Israelites from exile in Egypt and bring them into the Promised Land. b A generation later under Joshua they enter but fail to possess the land. 4 Fast forward a few hundred years and God raises up David as Israel’s great king to finally possess the Promised Land but only for a short time. a David’s grandsons lead the people astray, the kingdom is divided and the northern 10 tribes are exiled in Assyria and 200 years later the two southern tribes are exiled to Babylon. b Eventually the two tribes of the southern kingdom return to the land to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple which had been destroyed by the Babylonians. c But because of their continued disloyalty to God they never again completely possessed the Promised Land and lived as subjects to foreign rulers. What should have been their home never become their true home. They lived as exiles in their own land. 5 But once again with exile comes the promise of restoration. Old Testament prophets all spoke of a day when a greater Moses-like deliverer and a greater David-like King would renew the Promise Land and make it a permanent possession for all of God’s people, both Jew and Gentile.

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6 This Redeemer-King of course is Jesus Christ who will one day regenerate all of creation and all who have believed in him will live forever in a new body, under and new heaven, on a new earth, in a new Jerusalem. No more exile. 7 Summary: a Adam and Eve were exiled from the Garden. b Abraham lived as an exile in the Promise land. c Jacob and his sons lived as exiles in Egypt. d The Israelites lived as exiles in Assyria and Babylon. e One of the themes that runs throughout the Bible is that we are not home yet. God’s people have never really been home. 8 Now that is but a brief explanation of the exile theme that runs throughout the Old Testament and is found here in the in Peter’s letter.

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, strangers (exiles) in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia … 1 Peter 1:1

9 Peter is probably writing this letter from Rome around the time the Neronian persecutions were about to crank up throughout the Roman Empire. So, the letter has to do with persevering in persecution. a It’s written to believers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia (which is basically modern-day Turkey).

b Now the phrase “scattered throughout” is the Greek word diaspora which was a term used to describe the Jews who dispersed or exiled from their homeland by the Babylonians several hundred years before Christ. c Peter uses the word diaspora here, not to describe the Jews, but to describe Christians in the sense that all of us are away from our homeland. We are all away from our ultimate home. We are all exiles. That is our status in this life. d So how should that affect the way we live? It’s easy to say this world is not my home but how does that affect the way you live in our culture.

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[2] How to live like exiles –

#1 We are to be invested but not assimilated. 1 In the natural sense an exile is like a “temporary resident” or “resident alien.” a A resident alien lives and works in a country in which they are not citizens. They know the language, have relationships, have careers and are a functioning part of society … but their citizenship is in their home country. b A resident alien is invested in their host country but they are not completely assimilated into the culture. They have not bought in to all the customs and values of their host country which makes them a bit different from everybody else. c But they retain that difference because they have another home and do not plan on staying in their host country forever. They plan on going home. 2 Now the moment your born again and believe in Christ you get a new life with a new home. This world is no longer your home. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. John 17:16 a We are no longer of the world. This world is no longer our home. Our home is in heaven. So, in a sense we become resident aliens. b We are, by virtue of faith in Christ, away from our ultimate home and that makes us exiles. One day we will go home but, in the meantime, we are living as … “strangers in this world.” c But while we’re living in this world, we’re living … we’re invested in it, but we are not assimilated by it. Peter says it like this: 11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. 1 Peter 2:11-12 • We’re invested … we live among, not separate, from the pagans but we are not assimilated in that we abstain from sinful desires. • Paul says don’t conform to the pattern of the world (:2). We don't buy into the values and practices that are common in our lives before we believed.

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d This of course puts us at odds with culture and causes non-believing friends and family to frown upon our new way of living and think we are a bit strange. In chapter 4 Peter says this is normal and part of living as a sojourner or pilgrim who is on their way to their ultimate home. 3 Now, you’ll never really understand your life as a believer in Jesus until you understand this. In a profound sense, this world is not your home. a And the more you grow in the gospel the more you start to develop an affinity for things above and become more disenfranchised with things below (Col 3). You begin to feel out of place in this world. You just don’t quite fit in. b On top of that you don’t feel completely satisfied with this life. You realize that the deepest longings of you heart are not fulfilled by the natural world and that there must be something more. c There is joy and peace in Christ but there is also a sense of incompleteness … that we don’t have all that we are supposed to have. There is an inward groaning for final redemption (Romans 8:23). Why is that? Because we’re not home yet. We were made for another world … a world that is yet to come. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come (Hebrews 13:14). 4 But while we are looking for that city, we are not to abandon the people of this world. We are not to assimilate, but we are also not to abandon people for whom Christ died. a The reason we stay invested in this world is to be able to share the gospel with people and to advocate the values of the kingdom of God within our culture. b But there is a certain way we are to do it which is the second way we are to live as exiles. We are to be

#2 We are to be offensive but attractive Live such good lives among the pagans (ethnos= the people =unbelieving neighbors NLT) that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. 1 Peter 2:12 1 Now the question here is how does a good life, an exemplary life filled with good deeds that help people and glorify God bring the accusation of doing wrong?

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2 The answer to that is that the “doing wrong” is not really doing wrong. It is doing something right in God’s eyes but wrong or offensive in the eyes of our culture. a Peter is not talking about someone who’s shooting their mouth off, getting some flack and then claiming persecution. b He’s talking about somebody who is living out the gospel, lovingly advocating the values of the kingdom of God through serving others but is being accused of doing wrong or being out of step with culture. 3 This is the biblical concept of living by truth and grace and it is what changed the world in the first three centuries. E.g. What should be my posture towards the promotion and exaltation of same sex marriage in culture. a Scripture clearly states that homosexuality is a sin. It also states that all people are created in the image of God and because of that have dignity and value. Likewise it also says every human being is a sinner loved by God who sent His Son to die as a substitute for our sins. b Therefore, in the spirit of the Gospel of truth and grace, it should not be unnatural for a Christian to spend their life to serve the cause of ministering to AIDS patients and finding a vaccine. They know they will be hated and accused of being wrong but in that I they be like their Savior. c And as they serve, they serve with the prayer that God would so open people’s hearts that they would find their ultimate worth and identity in Christ and not their sexuality and because that will glorify God on the day he returns. d They are not going to accommodate, assimilate or try to dominate culture. Rather, they aim to serve culture in love with truth and grace. That is both offensive and attractive. • As cultural exiles, we are to live out the virtues of God’s coming kingdom in a world that is hostile to it in the hope of saving some. • Jesus said it like this: let your light shine before others (Matt 5:16). Allow the humility of serving those who hate you to be a light in the darkness, so that others would see the light and turn to God for salvation. This is the idea that Peter is communicating when he says, Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. 1 Peter 2:12

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4 Now what I have observed when it comes to being both offensive and attractive, is that it is very hard to be both. a See on the one hand you have Christians who are more offensive than attractive. They are like Jesus denouncing the money changers in the Temple. He was bringing down the truth. b On the other hand, there are those who are more attractive than offensive. They are like Jesus eating dinner with the sinners. He was offering up mercy. 5 So how are you doing with this balance of truth and grace, offensiveness and attractiveness? a Do you ever get persecuted for the truth of God’s Word? Do you ever take one on the chin for Jesus? Do people know that you are a believer? b On the other hand do people open up to you about their problems. Do they feel they can talk to you about God because they sense mercy and grace coming from your life? c What do you lean more towards? Are you more offensive and less attractive or are you more attractive and less offensive? Or are you neither? The way to become more of both is to embrace the identity of an exile. d So, we are to be …. • Invested but not assimilated. • Offensive but attractive

#3 Joyful but broken-hearted 1 New life through the new birth produces a new kind of joy and happiness. a The forgiveness of sin, peace with God, adoption into God’s family, the assurance of eternal life and the promise of a new heaven and new earth … all of that produces within us humility, gratefulness and joy. b Christ has saved us and become the center of our lives and because of that we can actually enjoy life, enjoy His creation instead of idolizing and it and being a slave to it. c Our hope for satisfaction is no longer in created things but rather in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment (1 Timothy 6:17). 2 But all the common graces that we enjoy in this life are only a foretaste of what is to come. And when we think about that we can’t help but think about those who are not on the journey with us. They are not headed home

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because this world is their home. They will perish without the very same gospel that transformed our lives. a And when we consider how many there are around the world that have yet to hear it causes an ache in our hearts. b Equally disheartening are the many in our own culture who have had ample opportunity to hear the gospel but still reject Christ as the Way, the Truth and the Life. They are bent on their own destruction and that breaks our hearts. 3 The present nosedive of our culture towards Sodom is grievous. But because we are exiles does not mean that we should be indifferent or cynical towards it. a This is nothing new. It is the way it was at the beginning in Ephesus, Corinth, Athens and Rome. And like the early exiles we do not say, “Well since heaven is my true home just let this world rot away.” b No, we are the salt of the earth and called to preserve where we can. And where we can’t, we grieve. We are called to be the light of the world and so we labor to illuminate but not dominate. 4 We are exiles. We are outsiders. That doesn’t limit our influence, it simply takes the swagger out of it. a The goal of living as a cultural exile is not success but service. We are not called to win or lose but rather be a witness to the glories and beauties of Jesus Christ. b And we do that best by serving our culture with brokenhearted joy, investing but not assimilating, being offensive and attractive.

3 The power to live like exiles 1 The power to live as an exile is found in understanding something that Peter says just before he urges us to live as exiles, as strangers in the world. 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1 Peter 1:2; 2:9-10 2 Peter says four things about you through in verse 9. I will only touch on the first and last … we are a chosen people and we are a people belonging to God.

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a Both of those phrases are borrowed Deuteronomy 7 and are about God’s relationship with the Israelites. Peter informs us that now, because of the gospel, these things are true for believers in Jesus Christ (Jew or Gentile). b And when you really let them sink in to your heart they give you power to live as an exile. 3 First, we are a chosen people. In Deuteronomy 7 God says to Israel I chose you for no other reason than I chose you. In Christ we are chosen for no other reason than God chose us. We are a chosen people. a Now that does not mean we are a choice people. Choice people are virtuous, righteous, upright, honorable people and therefore are loved and accepted. b Chosen people are entirely different. Chosen people are those who for no reason of their own are loved and accepted by God for no other reason than God choses to love them. That is sheer grace. c God chose to love you simply because he chose to love you. That means his love is not based on anything that you do. That means his love cannot be lost by anything you do or don’t do. That unconditional love is ultimately expressed and secured in Christ. God so loved the world he gave his son (John 3:16a). 4 Secondly, Peter says that we are a people belonging to God. a The NKJV says we are God own special people. The original verse in Deuteronomy 7:6 says, The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. b In Exodus19 God basically says although the whole earth is mine you will be my treasured possession. Peter says that true of us too. • We are not only chosen by God out of sheer grace, we are chosen to be God’s treasured possession. • That’s like God saying I own billions of galaxies but none of them means as much to me as you. You are my treasured possession. 5 Do you realize how love by God you are? He chose you for no other reason than he loved you. And although the galaxies are his you alone are his treasure, his prized possession. 6 You need to realize how loved you are because until you do, you’ll never be secure.

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a Everything you do in life will be to feel good about yourself … even denying yourself and serving other people. b If you don’t know your God’s treasured possession everything you do in life will be to feel treasured to have value to have worth. 7 You say how can I more deeply know that love? It starts by realizing Jesus was the ultimate exile. a For all eternity He was home, in perfect fellowship and joy with the Father and the Holy Spirit. b But then He left home and came to earth. Although God he made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant (Phil 2:7). 8 He was exiled from his home in heaven, and even here on earth, he wandered as an exile. He said, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head. Matthew 8:20 9 But then came the ultimate exile. a On the cross he was even exiled from His Father’s presence. He cried out my God, my God why have you forsaken (exiled) me? b He was exiled for us so that we could brought home forever. And there is the power to live as an exile.

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