A PILGRIM'S LIFESTYLE

Alan Pihringer

Progressing as Pilgrims • Sermon • Submitted a year ago

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Notes

Transcript

Introduction

-{1 Peter 1}

-I was reading an article the other day about rules and protocols that the British royal family have to follow just because of the position they hold. There’s rules that seem silly to us because we are not part of that world, but it’s just par for the course for someone who is born into that lifestyle. Like the rule that only women over the age of 18 in the royal family can wear tiaras, and only after 5 p.m. at royal events (unless it’s a wedding before 5 p.m.). Not something most anyone else has to think about. At certain events, the royals have to enter into a room according to royal rank—they can’t just all walk in willy nilly.

~But it’s not just what seem like silly rules to us. There are certain protocols they follow about making speeches and appearing in public and how they conduct themselves even in private. There is a certain lifestyle that is expected of them because of the position that they are in.

-As we continue our study in the epistle of 1 Peter, we find that there is a certain way we are to conduct ourselves because of the position that we hold. Peter has reminded us that this world is not our home. We are Christian pilgrims, we are elect exiles dispersed throughout the world—we have been given new life in Christ and we now belong to Him. And because of who we are, there is an expectation of how we live our life.

-So, what I want us to take away from our study today is that because of our position and privileges as Christian pilgrims, our lifestyle is different from the rest of the world—and I want us to consider what that looks like.

1 Peter 1:13–21 ESV

13 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. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17 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, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 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.

-{pray}

-v. 13 begins with the word THEREFORE indicating that what he is about to write is a consequence of what has come before. He is saying that because you are Christian pilgrims with certain blessings, you therefore also have certain responsibilities. If you have new life in Christ then your lifestyle is going to reflect that truth.

-But I want it made clear that this lifestyle is a result of gaining new life in Christ, you don’t receive new life by trying to life the lifestyle. You can’t clean yourself up enough to be saved any more than you can run around the entire world in less than a minute. You first come to faith in Jesus Christ, He gives you a new life (a life that is no longer compatible with this world), and then you start living it out. And this new lifestyle is described in the verses that we have read.

-Now, something that I’ve noticed in Peter is that he throws a whole lot of truth at you all at once, and it’s sometimes hard to find the main things that he’s trying to convey, and that hold true here. Not to get too technical with grammar, but there are three commands in this passage, and then there are a bunch of words that describe what’s going on with those commands. That’s what we want to highlight. So, what are the marks of a lifestyle of the Christian pilgrim? First...

1) Our thinking is set on future hope (v. 13)

-v. 13 begins by saying that Christians take on a mindset that is based on the future hope that they have in Christ. Peter tells us that we need to determine within ourselves that we will not put our hope in worldly, earthly things to provide for us, to protect us, or to deliver us. Instead, when we need encouragement, when we need hope to carry on during our journey here on earth, we don’t look to our family or jobs or possessions. We look to who we are in Christ and what we have in Christ. We look to our ultimate future in heaven with Christ.

-It’s interesting that in ages past the one thing that kept people going was the promises of heaven and eternal life. People would actually believe and look forward to being in heaven, walking streets of gold, being free from sickness and death. Christians clung to these wonderful Bible promises. But we have become so worldly, where the things of earth catch all of our attention, that we don’t even give eternity a second glance. We are so busy looking down at our phones that we don’t put the effort into looking up into heaven. And then we wonder why we are so hopeless and helpless. IT’S BECAUSE OUR MINDS AREN’T WHERE THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO BE.

-Imagine if a basketball player was on the court in an important division rivalry game. And the entire time he is out on the court, his mind is on his girlfriend or his car. What’s going to happen? He’s going to miss shots. He’s going to miss blocks. He’s going to miss rebounds. All because his head isn’t in the game.

-Christian, we’ve got to get our head in the game. We’ve got to stop excusing ourselves from using earthly distractions to ignore the stress, and instead get our mind on the only answer to the stress. Our hope isn’t in our social media sites, movies, or favorite songs. Our hope is in Jesus Christ and the promise of eternal life. I want to consider two aspects of this mindset. When we set our hope to our future glory, we find that...

a) We are teachable and prepared

-v. 13 says that setting our minds on our future hope will prepare our minds for action (ESV). When our mind is set on our heavenly hope in Christ, it is ready to receive from the Lord whatever lesson we need to learn from His Word and from life in general. We become teachable because our mind is right. And then we are prepared to put into action whatever it is that we learn from the Lord.

-If you’ve ever coached kids in sports, you can tell which ones have the right mindset as they’re listening intently and they are ready to do in the game what you build into them at practice.

-When we set our hope in our life in Christ, we are teachable and prepared to live it out. And it is also found that...

b) We are disciplined and self-controlled

-v. 13 talks about being sober-minded. It means that, in our minds, we are well-balanced and self-controlled. When our minds are set on the future hope in Christ, our minds are disciplined to look at the world and the events of the world from a biblical worldview. We are in control of our thinking and the actions that spring from that thinking. We don’t become irrational and act the fool.

-You could say that it is a call to not let our emotions be what drive us and move us and determine our course. It is a call to let our minds be settled in Christ and to live according to His truth, knowing ultimately what our end is going to be.

-So, this is part of the lifestyle. Our thinking is set on future hope. But then, secondly, we see that...

2) Our conduct is based on expected holiness (vv. 14-16)

-vv. 14-16 discuss the fact that Christians are to live holy lives. We hear that quite often—maybe so much so that we’ve tuned it out. Or maybe we’ve just turned it into a cliche that we choose to ignore. But being a Christian is a call to a holy life.

-But what do we mean by being holy? The term itself means to be separate or set apart. It means that you are not like everybody else, so you aren’t supposed to act like anybody else. You’re different (in a good way) and you’re lifestyle reflects that difference.

-What it means specifically for us is that since we have been given this new life in Christ, and we are Christian pilgrims (elect exiles), we may be in the world, but we are not of the world. We may be in the world, but the world is not in us. We are to be different from the world and the world system and powers that run it. That means we think differently from the world, we act differently from the world, we make choices differently from the world, all because we are separate and set apart from the world. The world has no influence on us.

-D. L. Moody pictured it this way. A ship lives in the water; but if the water gets into the ship it’s going to sink to the bottom. A Christian may live in the world; but if the world gets into them they’re going to sink to the bottom.

-If the way the world thinks and acts influences you more than God and the Spirit and the Bible, then you are not living in holiness. If the wickedness and evil of the world and the ways of the world and the decisions of the world do not grieve your soul, but they are things that you find guilty pleasure in, then you are not living in holiness. And the Bible says that no one sees God without holiness.

-Last week the Grammy Awards took place—where a bunch of worldly, hell-bound celebrities pat each other on the back. During the show “artists” Sam Smith and Kim Petras did a performance of a song called “Unholy”, and in it Smith was dressed as the devil, the stage was filled with all-red lighting, dancers in skimpy outfits dressed as horror movie characters and danced in cages, and they were surrounded by a bunch of transgender people. It was literally a Satan worship service out in the open.

-If you watched it or heard about it and were not completely and utterly disgusted by it or grieved by it, then you are not living set apart from the world. That was the exact opposite of holiness. But holiness is obviously more than just rejecting such large, blatant evils. It’s also choosing to live apart from the world’s values and ethics, and choosing to live according to biblical ethics no matter how unpopular it seems. And Peter gives us two specific descriptions about this holiness that marks our lifestyle...

a) We’re not conformed to our past

-v. 14 tells us not to be conformed to the passions of our former ignorance. What he’s saying is not to live according to the path you walked and values you held before you received new life in Christ. Don’t return to what your life was like before you were saved.

-The people in the churches that he’s writing to were pagan idolators that had its own form of worship, and he’s writing to them that they are not to return to those idols or to the worship of those idols. For some of us that might be the most literal take if you followed a false god before coming to Christ. But for most of us it means that whatever we held as having the most value before we came to Christ, whatever it was that was the center of our obsessions, and whatever actions and attitudes came with that idolatry, we are not to return to that. That’s just like a dog returning to its vomit. Whatever you did in your life before Christ that is not pleasing to Christ, don’t go back to it. You need to make a clean break and move on. Instead of giving in to the ways of the flesh, now be led by the Holy Spirit. And Peter also notes that holiness means that...

b) We’re conformed to God’s character

-In v. 16 Peter quotes Leviticus 11:44 to describe the holiness we are called to—we are to be holy just as God is holy. God is completely set apart and separate from everything else because He as Creator is completely different from His creation. But what it tells us is that God Himself is the standard that determines what holiness is. God’s standard is Himself—His own being and character. Everything that makes God God is what determines what holiness entails. God has to be separate from sin and wickedness and evil, because He is perfectly just and righteous and pure. Be holy as God is holy.

-That being said, when we consider this standard we might get a little overwhelmed, because that is an impossible standard for humans that are still in the flesh. We have no power in ourselves to come anywhere near that level of holiness. But that doesn’t mean that God lowers the standard. The Bible says we are to be holy as He is holy, and God can’t go against His own holiness. He isn’t going to lower the bar for us. We are to be holy as He is holy.

-But God has given us salvation in Jesus Christ for when we fail to live up to that holiness, which is all the time. And God has given the Christian His Holy Spirit to infuse the holiness of God in us and then to empower us to live that holiness out. In this life, it won’t be perfect, but it will be desirable and to a certain point obtainable. Our lifestyle is marked by holiness—we are separate from the world and its ways. Then we also see within the lifestyle of a Christian pilgrim that...

3) Our motivation is found in divine honor (vv. 17-21)

-In v. 17 we are told to conduct our lives with fear throughout the time of our exile. While we are one this earth, we are to live in the fear of God. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. Both Old and New Testaments call the people of the earth to fear God. It is not a fear of abject terror. It is a fear of honor and reverence and respect that is due to the eternal God who is perfectly holy and will not compromise on that holiness. The fear of God is what motivates us to live a lifestyle of holiness and yet, through Christ, has given us the only hope there can be.

-When I try to think of a way to grasp the concept of the fear of God, I think of a dialogue between characters in C. S. Lewis’ classic novel, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In the book Susan and Lucy are getting ready to meet Aslan the lion, who is representative of Christ. Two talking animals, Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, prepare the children for the encounter. "Ooh," said Susan, "I though he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion." "That you will, dearie." said Mrs. Beaver. "And make no mistake, if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knee's knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."

"Then isn't he safe?" said Lucy. "Safe?" said Mr. Beaver. "Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the king, I tell you!"

-When God is perfect and we’re not, God is not safe. He is to be feared, but He is revered and honored because He is good. And this really is a good segue into the two reasons that Peter gives about why He is due this honor...

a) Because of who He is

-In v. 17 Peter points out two specific roles that cause us to fear and honor God. He is first Father to those who know Him through Jesus Christ. While there is no doubt that a father loves his children, a father also has the power of discipline which is for the child’s own good. And that also needs to be in the back of the child’s mind—while my father loves me more than anything, he also will discipline me if I disobey. Scripture attests to God’s discipline of His children many times. He will not let His children just get away with stuff. He will not overlook what His children do, because it’s for their own good that they are corrected. But if you are not disciplined by the Lord, then you’re not His child—you don’t belong to Him.

-But then Peter also points out the fact that God is also judge. You don’t ever approach an earthly judge with mere nonchalance. There is a healthy respect for the authority that the judge wields. How much more honor is due the heavenly judge. Everyone is going to be judged one day. The believer will be judged for reward, but the unbeliever will be judged for condemnation. God is both Father and judge and is due reverence, not only because of who He is, but also...

b) Because of what He’s done

-vv. 18-21 tell a wonderful truth of what God did for humanity. It says that God ransomed us, that is, God paid the price to buy us back from our life of lostness, when we were idolators and separated from Him. Some translations might say He redeemed us. God paid the price that set us free from the penalty and power of sin. What price did He pay? He didn’t use anything worldly. The things that we think are so valuable like silver or gold are nothing to God. God paid for us by the most valuable thing in existence—His own Son. We were bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

-Jesus Christ, whom the Father foreknew throughout eternity, who, before the foundation of the world, was already set to be the Savior of the world, died on the cross, but then was raised from the dead. And because of His obedience to the Father, Jesus is given glory, and He is the object of our faith. We fear God because He did not spare His own Son, but willingly sent Jesus to save us. Will we treat this act of God with reverence, or not give it a second thought? There is no other means of being in relationship to God. God is feared because of who He is and what He did through Christ.

Conclusion

-Many years ago there was a TV show called LIFESTYLE’S OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS with host Robin Leach, that looked at how celebrities, athletes, and the wealthy lived. Their lifestyles were often marked by hedonism, worldliness, and arrogant elitism. As Robin Leach would describe it, it was a life of champagne wishes and caviar dreams. Their lifestyle was reflective of who they were: lost, worldly people whose god was their riches.

-But we are Elect Exiles. We are different. Our lifestyle is having a mindset where we hope in our future deliverance, we live in holiness because God is holy, and we fear the God who did not even spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all. This is being a Christian pilgrim.

-Christian, if this is not your lifestyle, then you need to come to the altar and pray for Holy Spirit power to live the lifestyle of someone who has new life in Christ.

-But if you have never believed in Jesus, your life is of the world and your end is your destruction. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ today...