The People of God in Exile: Introduction

1 Peter 1:1-2 The People of God in Exile (Introduction) Introduction: How should we live? As God’s people, how are we to live in the world; how are we to engage with society? What place does our faith have in our everyday lives? This is a question not only for the modern church but a question and an issue that God’s people have faced from the beginning. This is the main question that Peter tackle’s in this epistle. There are three dominant views historically held and practiced by the church: 1. Flee) (Examples: Monks, Anabaptist, Amish, Mennonite) This view comes from the idea that culture and society are bad and polluting therefore the church needs to keep herself clean so she separates herself from the world (culture/society) both spiritually and physically. 2. Fight) (Examples: Radical Anti-Abortionist groups, Christian American Politics) The History of American Politics has been dotted with this sort of maneuvering: from Christian activism in the prohibition of alcohol to the attempt to block the teaching of atheistic evolutionism in public schools, from fighting against international warfare to blocking abortion clinics and the attempt to lobby and influence major politicians through political rallies. 3. Conform) Examples: Many of the mainline protestant churches have forsaken the holiness aspect of the church and have become more humanitarian or should I say humanistic and hedonistic. What this looks like practically is the Church is only concerned about social issues and becomes soft or lenient when it comes to sexuality and morals, never calling sinners to repentance or salvation alone through Jesus Christ. These may or may not have worked historically, but Peter doesn’t encourage any of these, he actually tells us the opposite. But for a minute lets think about that question in our context - Santa Rosa, North Bay, California, USA. If you haven’t noticed already Christianity is on the margins. (much like Peter’s audience) Christendom is gone. We are no longer living in a “christian nation”, but society has become both more secular and pluralistic. (less Christian and more spiritual) Many of our attempts to engage culture and live in society as the church are still being thought through under the assumption that we live in a “christian nation” or local christian context where everybody knows who Jesus is, and everybody has a christian background, and if we just get them into church, and appeal to them through our great music and programs people will be saved and flock to our churches. This is an out of touch view with the current culture. 100 million people in the United States have no contact with a Church. Only 32.15% of Sonoma County residents have any religious affiliation. The evangelical percentage is much smaller than that. We have in many ways gone back to the world the New Testament faced, a world that was very secular and yet very “spiritual”. A world without the influence of the gospel. Therefore Peter’s letter is so very applicable to our current situation as we will see. The days of Christianity being the dominant religion of this country much less this county are gone, now we are forced to rethink that great question: How shall we live? Peter writes, sometime between 62-65 A.D, To Gentile believers living in what is today modern Turkey. These believers are encouraged to place their hope fully upon their eternal destination and to live in light of that identity, and destination. 1. Exiled for a Purpose. a. Peter begins like this: “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.” - 1 Peter 1:1-2 1. The Jews had used the term “Dispersion” or “Diaspora” to refer to their scattered communities outside Palestine ever since the Babylonian exile 2. It might not be obvious to all but the language that Peter is using to address the church is the very same language that the Old Testament uses for Israel. Peter seems to have in mind the letter that Jeremiah the prophet wrote to the nation of Israel while they were in exile in Babylon. a. He writes, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” Jeremiah 29:4-7 i. See the Jews were actually citizens of the nation of Israel but because of their disobedience they had been sent into exile in hostile Babylon. When they got to Babylon they believed that if they went into the city they would be assimilated and corrupted, so they had thoughts of staying outside the city, to keep from conforming, from losing their distinction. But what was God’s word to them while they were in exile? How were they to live in that pagan culture? Flee, fight, Conform? 1. God says, build houses, plant gardens, eat, drink, take wives for your sons, give your daughters in marriage, bear children, multiply, and seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you and pray to the Lord on its behalf. a. God says, don’t flee, don’t fight, rather cultivate. He says, steward, prosper, pray, speak, and seek that city’s peace. Be the distinct people of God, in Babylon. b. “Serve and love your new place of residence, rather than resemble it or flee from it” 3. Peter pictures these Christians in a very similar situation to ancient Israel, as the people of God in a foreign hostile land. a. Peter is writing to the church who is scattered throughout the Roman Empire. He refers to them as pilgrims, exiles, and sojourners. These three terms are all synonymous and refer to an individual or group who have temporary or ongoing residence in a country or region that is not their homeland their citizenship is somewhere else. Peter is not just telling them what is happening to them; he is defining the relationship between the christian and secular society. i. Christians are like immigrants, foreigners, temporary residents, refugees. We do not belong We do not have the rights of citizens. We are outsiders. We are living on the edge of the culture. (the government and culture are not in our favor, our christian way of life has no tolerance in the public square). ii. We may not be physically persecuted often, but we are marginalized. Faith in our culture is allowed to be privately engaging but is excluded from public life.. iii. Our society has no time for the message of Jesus, and our allegiance to Jesus as lord puts us on a collision course with the priorities of the culture 1. If you want to test this: a. Run for city council, and make it known that you are a christian. b. Apply for a teaching position at the JC or any of the public schools as a known christian. c. All that to say that being a christian actually hinders your career and social advancements in our society. iv. We are the people of God, the church, the new Israel, and we like Israel are in a place that is not our home, we are strangers here, sojourners. 1. Christians although they might have rights as citizens of their given country, they do not have rights from the government for their christian citizenship and status…. 2. Even if we cannot identify one kind of social exclusion (persecution) with another (prevention of career advancement), they remain generically the same: Christians often find that their faith jeopardizes elements and dimensions of their lives (physical, material, social, etc.) 3. “Peter’s letter is not an exhortation to minister to Cuban refugees, but a letter to Cuban refugees in hope that they will be able to learn from Peter how to live as Cuban refugees in their environment.” -Scot Mcknight 4. God says that throughout are stay we are to live life, we are to do all the things that all people do, work, play, eat, drink, marry, raise a family, prosper, cultivate. We are to seek the peace and prosperity of the place in which we are sojourning. 5. But how are we to do this? How are we to live amongst Society? 2. Elect for a Purpose a. Peter addresses these exiles, aliens, pilgrims, and sojourners as the elect. To be elect means to be chosen. We are a chosen people. So our exile is not just random chance it is by the choosing of God the Father. b. Peter’s greeting to these Christians involves the whole of the trinitarian Godhead. c. He says, elect exiles: i. By the foreknowledge of God the Father ii. In the sanctification of the Spirit iii. For obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood. 1. Many people are confused by the order that Peter lays out for us here. Some see it as a reference to the work of salvation. It could be. I believe what is more accurate is that again Peter has Israel of the Old Testament in mind. a. God had chosen Abraham and his descendants out of all the nations of the earth to be his chosen people, to accomplish his purposes on earth.They were the elect people of God “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery” Deuteronomy 7:6-8 i. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. -Deuteronomy 14:2 2. Chosen to be Holy a. God had chosen them to be holy- which means set apart, different, or distinct- as a testimony or witness to God’s coming salvation and kingdom. “For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” - Leviticus 11:45 b. The covenant that God made with Israel was entered into or inaugurated with the sprinkling of blood. i. “Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. 6 And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against 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.” And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.” 1. God said to the nation if Israel, you are my people, I chose you, and I chose you to be holy, to be different, to do my will, to bring glory to me. 2. God also has chosen us, to be his unique people, he has delivered us (like Israel) from slavery to sin and death. He has saved us (with a purpose)to be holy witnesses of his salvation and kingdom, and he has entered into this covenant with us by the sprinkling of Christ blood upon us. Conclusion: God’s desire for his chosen people is that we would be in the world, living distinctly holy lives, in every walk of life and that we would witness by word and deed to his salvation and his coming kingdom. Much different to Christianity’s history, Peter’s answer of how to live is: 1. Engage rather than flee. 2. Love and respect rather than fight. 3. Transform (through holy living) rather than conform. God’s will is not that we should flee - for how would people hear and how would they see? God’s will is not that we should fight -his kingdom is not brought about this way, the weapons of our warfare are not physical, but spiritual for pulling down strongholds, we don’t wrestle against the physical but the spiritual. God’s will is not that we would conform - his kingdom is different, it’s holy, it’s pure. God’s will is that as his elect, holy people, living in Santa Rosa, Ca in the year 2013 is that we would go into the culture and live the characteristics of our true homeland, that we would go out as ambassadors, and representatives of the kingdom of God! God loves people, and he has saved us to testify of that love through word and deed. Peter is going to show us how to live, he is going to show us how to be the holy, loving, people of God, in a hostile world where we are slandered and treated unfairly. He’s going to show us how we continually glorify God and witness to his salvation and coming kingdom in a world that does not accept us... What Peter presents us with is a “Christian Faith” that works itself out in everyday occurrences. He talks about being good citizens, model workers, wives, husbands, relationships with hostile unbelievers, community relationships, and God’s eternal purposes in these everyday occurrences.