Property of the Trinity
Not From Around Here: The Complicated Life of a Sojourner • Sermon • Submitted
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When I was young I remember a missionary to Australia shared a very interesting cultural boo boo that he made when first coming to the field. He and his wife had just travelled for almost 24 hours in flights, buses, and layovers to get where they were going. The missionaries’ wife was not feeling well so he went to the first night of the national mission conference with out her. He explained, “My wife is a bit under the weather” The audience was a gassed...
He added “don’t worry, she is perking up now and will feel better soon”. With that there was an audible gasp groans and whispers… a national pastor pulled him aside. He was speaking English… but the terms were being misunderstood. In Australia, when someone is under the weather, they are falling down sloppy drunk. When someone is perking up they are vomiting. So without knowing, he communicated that his wife had gotten sloppy drunk on the trip and was now vomiting and would get better after that! He was misunderstood because he was not from around there… he was a stranger
As Born Again believers, we are strangers to this sin cursed world. We don’t belong here. We are just passing through. We need to remember that and live like it.
Tonight as we start a very detailed and in depth study into the Book of 1 Peter, we will learn from a book written to strangers and sojourners how to keep a pilgrim’s mindset and remember that we are not from around here.
Tonight as we look at this letter we will see that even though we do not belong here, we do belong to God, and He uses the entirety of the Trinity to keep us on track.
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
First of all, note his name: Peter, Petros, a stone. He is now the rock–man. The Day of Pentecost is behind him, and he knows what it is to take a stand for Christ. He has been arrested and put in jail. He has been threatened, and he realizes that there is crucifixion on a cross ahead of him. Peter is a man who knows what he is talking about.1
1 J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible Commentary: The Epistles (1 Peter), electronic ed., vol. 54 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991), 15.
And Simon he surnamed Peter;
And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.
To the strangers - those scattered, possible the scattered Jews
The Greek term diaspora—used in the ancient Greek ot called the Septuagint—originally described Jews or Jewish communities scattered throughout the world outside of Israel (see Isa 49:6; Psa 147:2; John 7:35 and note). Here it is used figuratively to describe the Christian sojourn in this age before arriving in the coming age.1
1 John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), 1 Pe 1:1.
These Christians in Asia Minor may be suffering through their dispersion, but Peter has some very positive things to say about them. Indeed, their very suffering points to the fact that they are God’s chosen people.
Throughout Pontus
May describe the clockwise route that Peter’s letter carrier takes, beginning in Pontus in the north and ending in Bithynia in the northwest
** Map Slides**
So in writing to these folks with no home, no roots, refugees… God’s word tells us that every part of the Trinity is involved in calling, directing, and protecting them, as He does every believer.
Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
**Verse Diagram**
Not A Stranger to God But Rather Elected By God!
Not A Stranger to God But Rather Elected By God!
According to His Foreknowledge
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Therefore strangers to this world
Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
There was a boy who did not have much athletic ability. Every time he and his friends would play some game he was always the last to be chosen. One day two new fellows came to play with them and were allowed to be team captains because they were older. The first team captain chose the boy who had always been chosen last before. Why? Because they were brothers, and he loved his brother.
So it is with God. He chose us not because of our abilities, but because he loves us
Not a Stranger But Sanctified By the Spirit
Not a Stranger But Sanctified By the Spirit
Set apart for the purpose and ability of obedience.
But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
Not a Stranger but Purified
Not a Stranger but Purified
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
WHERE CAN I GET A HEART LIKE YOURS?
Bill White of Paramount, California talks about being in Compton, California, working with volunteers from several different churches on a Saturday doing projects to serve the city. At lunch time, he was headed down a narrow side street when he saw dozens of church volunteers (maybe 50 in all), all dressed in yellow shirts, streaming out of one of the sites. They had just completed a makeover of a local house.
Bill was six or eight houses away when he passed a married couple working in their own yard. He paused to compliment the woman on her roses, and she asked him what they were doing down the street. Bill told her that they represented a band of churches united in their desire to serve the city. Then they continued to talk about how that neighborhood had been radically transformed by these Christians' simple acts of goodness.
When the woman's husband saw Bill's yellow "volunteer shirt," he turned off his weed-whacker, set it down and started walking straight towards his wife and Bill. Bill says, "I will never forget his words. After looking into my eyes," Bill says, "he nodded approvingly towards the renovated house down the street and then said, 'I love your heart. Where can I get a heart like yours?'"
Flabbergasted, Bill simply replied, "We got our hearts from Jesus, and he would be glad to give you one like his, too." And before he left, they had a great conversation about the unparalleled gospel of Jesus Christ and his power to change hearts, homes, neighborhoods, and cities.
That's how it's done, my friends. Simply BE who you are in Christ and reflect His love to a dark and broken world.