Sunday 05 • 12 • 19

Want to turn our attention to 1 Peter. We're starting a new series this Sunday, moving to 1 Peter. We're looking at 1 Peter for a couple of reasons. One reason is that I convinced Jeff Bradford that it was time for us not to do a hard hitting, soul crushing sermon series that looked at something really controversial and in-depth—you know, like sex or gender or all kinds of sin and every way, shape, and form sin takes place in our heart. Instead, we should maybe move towards something a little bit softer and a little bit more approachable, maybe encourage our people. And so he came up with 1 Peter, which is good. I think this is a great series.

We've been tracking with Peter a lot over our Easter week series with our Tenebrae service. We looked at Peter's denying of Christ, and then on Easter Sunday, we looked at Peter's restoration in the Gospel of John where, after he had denied Christ, Christ came to him and very lovingly restored him.

This book takes place about thirty years later. Peter is now in Rome. He's been dispersed, traveled all over the world, been a leader in the church. He's an established apostle, very widely respected amongst Christians, and he's writing to a group of dispersed Christians in Asia Minor—essentially in Turkey, modern day Turkey—in order to encourage them and direct them on how they should live the Christian life. This is an incredibly appropriate book for us to look at. Something that I think will be really helpful to us.

So let's look at 1 Peter 1:1-2. We're just going to look at two verses today. Last couple weeks, we've been reading it together, so we're going to continue that tradition. I believe Jeff kicks that off by counting to three. So I will do the same. We can get a three count and then we will all read this together. Are you ready? One, two, three.

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.

Let's pray. Lord Jesus, illumine your word to our hearts. Send your Spirit to transform us. Fill us with your grace and your peace. As your word says, may it be multiplied in our hearts and may we live as salt and light. May we be empowered to do that through this time. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

ET and the Christian Life

Thinking about this week, I went and saw Avengers. Don't worry, I'm not going to talk about it. But I was thinking this week about how much I love movies, and with today being Mother's Day, I was thinking back on the very first movie that I ever went to that I remember going to see. My mom took me to see ET. So, mom, if you're listening to the sermon, thank you. Happy Mother's Day. I loved ET.

You've probably seen ET. Some of you are a little young, maybe you haven't seen it. But ET is the story of an extraterrestrial, an alien who comes to Earth and winds up befriending some children who kind of adopt him. One of the scenes that I remember that stuck out to me even as a kid is where Elliot—the kid, the main kid who adopts ET—has a sister named Gertie, played by Drew Barrymore. She kind of takes ET into her room at one point and has a moment of dress up with ET. Maybe you remember this scene. She puts a wig on him, puts a dress on him, puts some makeup on him, and she's kind of hiding him in the closet. Elliot comes in and she says, "Look," and she opens it up and there's ET with a dress and a wig. You look at it and it's the most ridiculous thing that you've ever seen. It's hilarious because you have this pot-bellied, weird-looking alien dressed up like a human being.

The reason this relates to 1 Peter is because Peter is talking to a group of people who are like aliens. They have been reborn in Jesus Christ and they're walking around in a world that no longer recognizes them. We as Christians, when we come into Christ, we are reborn, we become a new creation, and to the world, we look like pot-bellied, bug-eyed aliens. We look super weird. And Peter is trying to encourage people like, "Hey, what does it look like to be the weird thing that you have become, this new creation, and live in this world?" The whole letter is concerned with that.

The first two verses essentially serve as a skeletal structure for the entire book. This morning, we're going to look very in-depth at three words that appear in these first couple of lines of 1 Peter and how they're described in this passage, because it's incredibly helpful to us as we consider what it looks like to live as Christians in this church in Raleigh.

So if you like outlines, here's the outline for this morning. We're going to look at three things: how we are exiles, how we are dispersed or scattered, and how we are elect.

Notice in verse one: "To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion." — 1 Peter 1:1

The whole rest of these verses kind of describe and unpack those three words. That's going to be our outline and where we're going.

Exiles

Let's look at exiles. The definition of an exile is a foreigner who's essentially out of their country and in another country. If we took a face value understanding of what an exile is, we think of someone who's been kicked out of their country and so they're in a foreign land. They may be strange, but they're not necessarily looked down upon.

For Peter, it's important to understand that there are Jewish overtones to this word. The exile for a Jewish person would have hearkened back to the Babylonian exile. You might remember that the Babylonians invaded, conquered the Jews, and carried them off into Babylon. Peter actually, at the end of this book, says that he is in Babylon, meaning Rome. He's tying into the Jewish theme of exile. He's getting this sense that as Christians, we are not only strangers in a strange land, but we are looked down upon. The Babylonians did not see the Jewish people as equals or as interesting foreigners. They saw them as slaves and ridiculous. They looked down upon them. They persecuted them.

So Peter, in pointing out that the churches he's writing to—that all of us—are elect exiles, he's hearkening to that. He's saying: we are aliens who are looked down on in this world. He's also capturing the increasing tension that exists for believers in that time and the Roman government. This letter was probably written sometime in the sixties AD. It was about thirty years after Peter was restored, and it was about five years after Peter wrote this that he would be executed by Emperor Nero. The Neronian persecution of Christians in the early church was one of the more intense persecutions in the Roman period. Things are kind of amping up. Tensions are increasing for believers who are scattered throughout the Roman world, and he's writing specifically to the ones that are in Turkey, in Asia Minor.

He's hearkening to their sense of exile. You know, even in the best of circumstances, Christians in this world are always exiles. Why? Well, here's why. No matter what situation we're in, no matter whether our government is friendly towards us or not, we have a king who is not the king of this world. We worship a leader and a ruler who is not the ruler of this world. The ruler of this world is Satan. This world is his kingdom. The ruler that rules our hearts is King Jesus. His kingdom is the kingdom of God, and it is expanding and advancing in this world. But this world is in direct opposition to it.

We will always be exiles because we don't share the same values as this world. We love grace and love and truth. The world loves lies and corruption and sin and greed and all the deadly sins that we talked about. All of the things that this world clings to are the exact opposite of the things that we cling to because of Christ and because of our transformation in him.

So even in the best of situations, we will be exiles in this world. But one of the things that has been a reality for me in my experience is that over time, I have felt—and maybe you've felt this too—that in the Western world, there has been the decline of something we call Christendom. Essentially, Christians and Christian thought and Christian values used to be very central in the Western world. They're starting to move to the margin. We used to be in control in a lot of ways, and we're starting to be more out of control. Things are changing.

One of the things that's challenging for me as a pastor is that whenever I'm talking to somebody, their first question is: "What do you do for a living?" And sometimes that's fine. When I say I'm a pastor, other times it's not.

When I was on a mission trip not too long ago to Rwanda, I noticed it's a place where there's a real high regard for Christians and Christianity still. In fact, when I went to the customs agent in Rwanda and pulled out my passport, they asked, "What is the purpose of your visit, mister Sutton?" I said, "I'm a pastor and I'm here on a missions trip." It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. They were like, "Oh, welcome pastor. Let us roll out the red carpet for you. Can we carry your luggage?" The customs agent literally offered to carry my luggage. I've never experienced anything like that. His total demeanor changed when I said I'm a pastor. That's what it's like in Africa.

Meanwhile, back in the United States, we had a new neighbor move in. We were taking care of some other neighbor's dogs and ran into her. I said, "Hey, I'm James. I live over there." We started introducing ourselves. She said, "I'm a realtor." I said, "Oh, great. That's exciting. This is a good time to be a realtor in Raleigh with all the property values going up." We had a nice conversation about real estate.

Then she asked, "What do you do for a living?" I said, "I'm a pastor." The response was totally different.

There's been a shift in our culture where Christians are starting to be marginalized. It used to be that when we were central and had power or were in control, there were a lot of benefits to being a Christian. You'd go to church to show everybody that you're a respectable citizen, and there were all kinds of social benefits to that. Now it's not so much the case anymore. Maybe a little bit.

The reason we feel that disconnect—and the reason I actually think it's good that we feel that disconnect—is that our alien nature, the sense in which we are a bunch of little freaky aliens running around in this world, gets brought front and center in our face. And that actually connects us more closely to the Lord Jesus Christ. Because let me tell you, Jesus Christ was an alien. He came from heaven, from kicking it with the trinity, being worshiped by angels, came down to Earth and was totally misunderstood and marginalized. He did all kinds of things that were bold and offended all sorts of different people. He was generous beyond what anyone would say was in his best interest—even to the point of offering himself as a sacrifice on a cross, and while doing that, praying for the people who were killing him. He was the weirdest thing this world has ever seen.

In so far as we come face to face with our weirdness, our differentness, as we feel the alien reality of our lives, we're more closely connected to Christ. The challenge is: do we live like that? Are we open about our alienness, or are we in the closet putting on a wig and a dress, pretending to be humans even though we're bug-eyed aliens?

I recently had an experience which was kind of telling to me. We developed a friendship with a guy in our neighborhood. He recently lost his job and didn't have a lot of income. He was kind of between places where he was staying, so he came by offering to do odd jobs at our house. We started hiring him for all sorts of things and developed a great relationship. He's a dear friend and has been really helpful.

One evening we were sitting on the front porch talking about all the things going on in his life. I have another friend who's an Anglican pastor down in Fayetteville, and he was in Raleigh for a conference and was going to spend the night at our house. My Anglican friend shows up wearing a black shirt with a white collar, as Anglicans do. My friend—whom I've known for about a year and who's been talking to me about the struggles of his life—sees my Anglican friend and goes, "Oh pastor, will you pray for me?" I was like, "What am I, chopped liver?"

My Anglican friend's like, "Oh, actually, I happen to have a vial of oil in my pocket. Would you like me to anoint you?" I was like, "You're so weird."

My Anglican friend's name is Elijah Lovejoy. That's his real name. He had a uniform—something that makes him stand out. I dress like this and often understate my role as a pastor and even my Christianity because I don't want to offend people.

Because I want them to get to know me and realize that I'm not such a freak before I tell them that I'm a freak. I want you to think about this and how this plays out in your life. I want you to start asking yourself a couple of questions—a couple of questions to come to grips with whether or not you're living out the exile in your life. Are you actually living like an exile?

Question One: Are You Okay with Being Despised and Rejected?

Are you okay with being despised and rejected? The early church at the time when Peter was writing this letter were facing a host of different misconceptions from the world around them. Some of the things that the Roman Empire and rank and file Roman citizens believed about early Christians are amazing.

For example, most Roman citizens at this time would have believed that Christians were cannibalistic—that they ate people. So if you were walking around in Roman times and you said, "Hey, I'm a Christian," they'd say, "Oh, you're a cannibal." The reason they thought that was because of the Lord's Supper:

This is my body. This is my blood.

The Romans heard that and were freaked out by it. So they thought, "You Christians are a bunch of cannibals."

They also believed that Christians were incestuous. How did they get that impression? Well, have you met my sister in Christ, Katie Sutton? She and I have had five children together. Romans heard that and they were like, "What? You're sleeping with your sister and having kids." I don't really know why the Romans were so freaked out about that because there's all kinds of freaky stuff going on in Roman times that the Romans were doing themselves.

Other things they believed: they thought Christians were atheists. They believed they practiced orgies. There were all kinds of weird things that the Romans believed about Christians that were misconceptions rooted in misunderstandings. These were things that Christians of that day would have had to face. And in fact, it was those misunderstandings that allowed the emperor Nero, when there was a fire in Rome, to point the finger at the Christians. "It's because these guys are such terrible people. Let's blame them for this fire." And the Romans bought it and they executed Christians in mass—including Peter.

There are misconceptions floating around today about Christians. I don't know if you've experienced that. Some of those misconceptions, let's be honest, we've done some things to earn them. Others are just outright wrong. But if you're going to openly proclaim that you're a Christian, you're going to have to be comfortable with the fact that you might be viewed as narrow minded, intolerant, unforgiving, legalistic, bigoted—the list goes on and on.

Do you feel that in society? Do you feel that tension where society views you in a negative way? And are you comfortable living that out publicly? Are you comfortable being despised and rejected in the same way that Jesus was despised and rejected? Are you committed to not being the things that the world says about you while still being okay with being accused by them?

Question Two: Are You Okay with Being More Generous and Compassionate Than Is Good for You?

Another situation in the early church: there was an emperor, a non-Christian emperor named Julian. He wrote once that the thing that really frustrated him about Christians was that they not only care for their own poor, they also care for ours as well. In short, he recognized that Christians were not just taking care of their own but were taking care of non-Christians who were in fact feeding them to lions. It's not in their best interest to care for our poor, and yet they did.

That's the sort of startling generosity—beyond our own best interest—that characterized the practices of the early church, and it mirrors the practice of Christ. Christ also was generous beyond his own good, even offering himself up as a sacrifice.

So these two questions are things to wrestle with. Are you doing these things? Because as you do these things, and the more publicly you do them, the more you will feel a life of exile and the more you'll be drawn closer to Christ. The more you'll be pushed to depend upon him.

The last question I want you to wrestle with is: are you doing either one or the other of these, or both, or neither?

There are some of you in this room that you're very comfortable being misunderstood and you have no problem being an outspoken Christian and telling everybody what we believe and how our values are and where they're wrong. You know they can believe whatever they want and it just doesn't bother you. I love you guys because I am not like that at all. I'm so thankful that you guys exist. Thanks.

But some of you in doing that, you are absolutely—you have no compassion for the other side. And when it comes to thinking about the good of Christians in this country, you are pressing for our good and not for the others. There are others of you who are like me: you are total bleeding hearts. Someone will come up to you and ask for anything and you're like, "Here's my wallet. Would you like my Social Security number and my credit card? What can I do for you?" You love the mess out of other people. But when it comes to owning the fact that you're a Christian or talking publicly about the things that you believe that might be offensive to other people, you fade into the bushes like that Homer Simpson meme, right? I mean, that's me, right? I'm to the point where I can know a guy for a year. He knows I'm a pastor. He doesn't ask me to pray for him but he asked my Anglican friend because he has a collar and some oil, right? I need to be more publicly visible with my faith. I need to proclaim Christ more loudly.

Now, here's the thing. You could be one or the other of these things, right? And a lot of us are. Others of us are neither. And here's the challenge: those of you who are neither, you're going native. You're trying to look like this world and you're actually fooling people. You're like ET in the closet full of stuffed animals. They're passing by. They don't see you. And they don't see Christ in you either. And you're hiding something beautiful and magnificent that has been given to you.

Brothers and sisters, we're exiles and we can't forget that.

Exiles of the Dispersion

Alright, our next point is tied to the word "dispersed." We're elect exiles of the dispersion. Again, the word here has some Jewish overtones—the diaspora. The Jewish diaspora was a result of the exiles of the Assyrians and the Babylonians and also the rule of the Greeks and the Romans. The Jewish people were scattered throughout the ancient world. And so Peter is tying the early church and Christians to that broader experience of the Jewish people in being scattered and spread.

And that was the case in the early church as well. If you read the book of Acts, you see that the church started in Jerusalem and then through persecution, they got scattered and spread throughout Samaria and beyond, and it keeps spreading like wildfire throughout the Roman Empire until you get to the end of Acts and Paul is in Rome, right? When this book was written, Peter is in Rome and he's talking about this dispersed effect. I don't have time to go into all the details about the early church and how it was dispersed, but here's some quick fire application for you: Are you comfortable being dispersed?

Because Peter doesn't complain about this. Paul never complains about it. He talks about how all of it serves the purpose of the glory of God and how God is using it. Paul and Peter both are a spreading, a dispersion of Christians all around the world. They are pushing the Great Commission that Jesus Christ commanded—to go and make disciples everywhere.

Are you comfortable being dispersed? Let me tell you: you're not. I'm not. We're not. We like our people, our safe pockets. We like our friends. We like our safe spaces. We do not want to be persecuted and have to move and share the gospel with people that we are not sure how they're going to receive it.

And the reason I know that's true of us is that I run community groups for this church. And it's a very common conversation I have with community groups that have swelled to like thirty people: "Hey, you probably should become two different community groups." And they're like, "I just don't know. We've just started getting to know each other. We're really experiencing great intimacy in our groups and I'm not sure we really should."

We're about planting churches in this church and we've started churches and we've tried to get people to go to new church plants and people are kind of like, "I don't know. I kind of like it here and the safety and the comfort of the relationships that I have here are important to me."

We've hosted a missions conference where we've talked about global missions and going overseas and doing crazy things like going to foreign countries where Christianity really is persecuted, and people are kind of like, "Well, that's nice. I'll pray for that." And there's not a lot of interest in going.

Now, I say all that and I know that's convicting. Listen, this is coming from a guy who has been in this church for almost twenty years, right? I wrestle with this. Maybe I need to be a little bit more comfortable with being dispersed. We all need to wrestle with that because the call is not for us to huddle together and to create little pockets of community that have walls around it that never go outside.

The question I want to ask you is: do you fear being scattered? Would you go?

Here's the thing. I know that this makes us all kind of uncomfortable. But we live in a time with such a global economy. There is almost no one in this room that is a native to Raleigh, North Carolina. You moved here either for a job or for school and some of you will move away for other jobs. You're very comfortable being scattered for money. Are we comfortable being scattered for the kingdom of God?

That's the kind of generosity that we're called to as exiles—to not be concerned with our own financial well-being, our own comfort, our own security, our own safety, but with the gospel going forward and reaching the nations because they need to be comforted with the hope of Christ. What would it look like if we became a church that was passionate about that? We might not see much of each other and that would be really sad. But here's the thing: our citizenship isn't here. This isn't our permanent home. We have a promise of a permanent home where one day we can scatter the mess out of ourselves. We can go and we will come back together and we will have the opportunity to sit around the warm glow of the Holy Spirit who will be there with us and Jesus Christ and the Father and all be one together and we can talk about the amazing thing that God did through us since we saw each other last. Wouldn't that be amazing? And then we could have an eternity to worship God for it.

That's what we're called to. That's what makes us different. That's what makes us bug-eyed, pot-bellied aliens to the rest of the world. And we should live like it.

Our Election

I want to talk about our election because that's the hope. That is the fuel for what I'm talking about. That is why we would do something crazy like be dispersed. That is why we would live like exiles.

Notice that Peter fleshes this out—what it means to be an elect exile of the dispersion. That word "elect" is informed by verse two.

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.

The picture there is that it's the holy trinity. Did you notice the Father? According to his foreknowledge, he elected you. This is a Presbyterian church. We don't believe that foreknowledge means that he looked forward to see how great you would be and then chose you. We believe that you are chosen unconditionally because of the love of the Father before the dawn of time.

Think about that for just a second. That choice gives you all kinds of power and freedom and peace to be rejected. You could be rejected by this world left and right, but God the Father picked you before the dawn of time. You're chosen.

And the Spirit is going to sanctify you. He's put his Spirit in you to transform you. If you're the kind of person that fades into the bushes like Homer Simpson—good news. The Spirit sanctifies you, which means he sets you apart and cleanses you. Which means you can't hide your alien nature because God is in you. He is going to make you into a pot-bellied alien. Nobody can deny that there's something going on in you. He loves you that much.

And then that last bit about being sprinkled with the blood of Jesus—that's what you're worth. God not only chose you, but he gave up his Son. He sacrificed himself to sprinkle you with his blood. That's quite a price to pay for you.

You can be rejected by all kinds of people. You can experience all kinds of lack of peace in this world. But in the Holy Spirit, you have a Godhead who has worked from the dawn of time in various different ways to bring about your salvation and to bring you home. This isn't your home. God is your home. This world is not your family. God is your family. That is what you're called to and that is what you can live out of—and what enables you to be an exile dispersed throughout the world.

My prayer as we go through this series is that we become transformed. We just built the skeletal structure and we're going to spend some time soaking in and putting some muscle on this. We're going to exercise this as a church. We're going to think about this. We're going to wrestle with it together. My hope is that we become transformed.

If you were feeling convicted at any point of this sermon, here's the good news. If I were preaching this sermon to Peter himself at the point in which he wrote this letter, he'd feel convicted. Because remember, Peter—when it came time to own Christ—faded into the bushes like Homer Simpson. And yet God transformed him to a point where five years from writing this letter, he did anything but fade.

He stood out in stark contrast to the world and was crucified upside down as a testimony to the hope that he had in Christ. What would it look like for us to be transformed that way? I don't know but I can't wait.

I want you to join me in praying. That's the application from this sermon. I just want you to pray. Here's why. Prayer is the weirdest thing in the world. Don't believe me? Find a non-Christian anywhere. Just find a non-Christian, walk up to him and say, "Hey, can we pray? Let me pray for you." And just watch them go.

If you start praying regularly, you're going to start to feel your exile because guess what? Prayer also connects you with your home. You have an intimate personal connection with the triune God who has saved you through prayer. You can soak in the reality of your salvation as you pray.

Application

So the application for this sermon—just an introduction. We're just getting started. I want you to join me as we go through this series of praying. Pray for non-Christians around you. Pray for this world. Pray for this church to be transformed. Pray for us to understand our election and the hope that we have in Christ. And rejoice and celebrate that in prayer together.

Let's do that now. Lord Jesus, we thank you and we praise you that you have saved us. That because of what you have done for us, we can be okay with being despised and rejected. We can be okay with giving beyond what is in our best interest. And Lord, we can scatter and we can feel displaced because we know that you're going to use our place for your glory.

Lord, be with us now as we come to the Lord's Supper. Help us to soak in the communion that we have with you. Be reminded of our worth and value. Help us to celebrate that and to rejoice in it together. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.