How Exiles Live (1 Peter 1-2) - Harvest Kuala Lumpur

Resource by Eric Weiner

Old school – Bible; new school – mobile devices – 1 Peter. As a foreigner, the holiday season tends to be one of the few times I’m reminded that I’m far from home. This Christmas, there’s family I’m not going to see. There’s gatherings I’m going to miss out on.

As an international community, I’m sure a lot of us feel this way at least some of the time. Even for Malaysians in the room, if you didn’t grow up in KL you probably don’t feel like you’re home.

Maybe you miss the comforts of home. You miss mom’s cooking. You miss sleeping in your own bed. You miss the sights and sounds and smells of home.

Maybe you need a moment this Christmas just to speak to someone in your heart language. Sometimes, as a foreigner, doing basic everyday things requires more mental energy then it should and you just need a break. (ramen illus.?)

But just because you’re far from home doesn’t mean you forget why you’re here in the first place. That’s what Peter’s getting at when he writes in [v. 1] – “to those who are elect exiles…”

He’s writing to people who were literally kicked out of their home country. They’re far from home and far from each other. That’s why Peter had to write them a letter.

But I want us to pay attention to those words elect exiles. Exile just means foreigner. Someone who’s taken up temporary residence in a place that’s not their home. They’re not a tourist. Tourists come and go. They eat your food and take pictures around your city but have little interaction with the locals.

And exiles aren’t permanent residents. Immigration says you can be here for now, but not for long. Don’t get too comfortable.

Exiles feel that tension. They’re called to settle in and seek the good of the city while still longing for home. If you’re a Christian you’re an exile. That means your primary identity is no longer sealed by what country you find stamped on your passport, but by the Holy Spirit alive in you.

You’ve been adopted into God’s family. [v. 3] – you’ve been “…born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

God saves you, he blesses you, he protects you. Your citizenship is in heaven. You belong with him, and he’s excited for you to come home. But until that day comes, you’re on assignment. You were saved by grace through faith, but you were created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that you would walk in them (Eph. 2:10).

So when Peter says you’re an exile, don’t think of yourselves as ones who’ve been kicked out, but as ones who’ve been sent out on purpose. God has not forgotten you. And whether you enjoy it or not, he has put you in KL on purpose.

So what I want to do over the next 30 minutes is prepare you to lean into your calling as God’s elect exiles. Because Monday morning’s coming fast and you need to decide if you’re going to live like the resurrection of Jesus matters or not.

The thing about being an elect exile is that you’re a foreigner, even if you feel culturally at home. Even if you look the same, you don’t live the same. You’re different. Now, that might feel uncomfortable to you, especially if you’re new to this whole Christianity thing. But I want you to know it’s going to be okay. God called you to be different. He wants you to stand out on purpose. So lean into that.

Let me give you six ways God’s chosen exiles are called to live different:

We stay dressed and ready

Pick up with me [v. 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.

When foreigners look around, their surroundings make it obvious they’re not at home. But Peter’s not just talking about the physical world. You need to pay attention to your spiritual surroundings.

Stay alert because there’s spiritual darkness all around you, and the world says you can either join in or get out. So as you go out into your work week, you need to be dressed and ready for the occasion.

Sometimes when my kids get home from school I’ll take them to the pool. It’s a needed reprieve for my wife – who’s been around little kids all day – and my kids love it. We’re at the stage now where my oldest two can swim and my youngest wears a floatie that gives her a lot more freedom in the pool.

With young kids at a pool you have to stay vigilant. But the addition of a floatie gives me the illusion that I don’t have to be as watchful. That sometimes I can sit back and relax.

But just imagine if a bigger kid jumped in and accidentally landed on one of my kids. What if I’m not even dressed for the moment? My duty as dad requires that I jump in whether I’m ready or not. If I’m in khakis and a polo I can probably still get where I need to go, but it’d be a lot easier if I were already wearing a swimsuit.

Peter says we need to stay ready. We need to be sober-minded and if the encouragement is to sober up there must be something intoxicating us.

See, the temptation amid exile is to settle down. To make ourselves comfortable in the world. To relax and let our guards down. But that just doesn’t fit the moment.

Spiritual laziness is a slow drift toward compromise. The lines you once drew to guard against sin you become more comfortable crossing. The guilt you once felt when you gave in to temptation starts to feel dull.

But the way you stay dressed and ready to fight is by knowing the Word. That’s what prepares your mind for action.

1 Peter 3:15 says we should always be prepared to give a defense for our hope in Christ. But you won’t be ready to do that if you’ve never learned to handle the sword of God’s Word with the care and precision required.

You need to build your life on the Word of God. You need to know it. It’s the best resource we have available to discern the thoughts and intentions of our hearts.

That’s how you stay sober-minded and prepared for good works. You know the Word. You need to practice storing it in your heart and taking it with you wherever you go so that you’re prepared to give a defense for your faith even when it’s inconvenient or unexpected.

What are you going to say when your child asks you a hard theological question you don’t have a good answer for? This happens to us at bedtime…what happens when we die?
Or what about when your co-worker says, so why do Christians believe what they believe?
What are you going to say to yourself when that inner voice starts seducing you into lies and compromise and guilt?

You never know when you’re going to need the words of life to break through. But here’s what you can be sure of: You’re gonna need it.

We keep our eyes lifted

[v. 13b] – “…set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

We often talk about hope like our fate is random and up to chance. Like, if I had my way, here’s what I hope would happen. But biblical hope is not wishful thinking.

Biblical hope is a confident expectation that every promise God made will come true plus the courage to live like it’s already happened. Biblical hope knows God’s gonna do it even when he hasn’t yet. That’s why Christians live like our future has already been written because our names have been written in the Book of Life. We have eternal life with the Father. Our reservation has already been booked. The plans are settled. We just need to do the work until the appointed time comes.

Let me give you an example of this: [2001 Yankees illus.]

My dad was applying the biblical principle of hope onto someone who couldn’t hold the weight of his expectations.

But Christians set their hope fully on Jesus to give us eternal life with the Father knowing that he never fails. He hasn’t before. So why would he now? He won’t.

That’s why elect exiles need to learn to keep their eyes lifted to gaze upon our hope in God’s promises.

There are all kinds of things I hope God will do for me in this life. I hope that he’ll mature my kids, that he’ll provide for me, that he’ll give me good health, that he’ll make me effective in my job.

And while God is a good Father who knows how to give his children good things, those are not the things God calls us to hope in. A good job, financial security, and a healthy family are wonderful things, and Peter’s not saying those things aren’t important. But you need to set your sights on an even greater hope.

A hope that says when someone wrongs me, I can return good for evil because one day sin and death will be no more and I want to live like it now.

A hope that says I can endure even though I feel chronic pain because there’s a day coming when all my pain will be gone and all my tears will be wiped away. So while this pain may last in this life it won’t last forever.

A hope that says even though things aren’t going my way, I don’t need to be down on my luck because my heavenly Father sees me and he has an even greater reward waiting for me in my life with him.

And we walk in hope like this knowing that God is producing Christ in us as we suffer and endure and that one day we will be like him. Lift your eyes toward that hope!

We form new patterns

[v. 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.”

Coming to faith in Jesus Christ means at some point you had to make a decision. You had to decide if you were going to follow Jesus or not. But no one comes to Jesus without having to make changes in their life. Coming to faith in Christ demands that you abandon the passions of your former ignorance and put on the holiness of God.

It just wouldn’t fit the narrative to say I was formerly a sinner saved by grace but I never had to do anything about the sin. That would be like saying the church is the Bride of Christ but she has all these other lovers she decided to keep on the side. It just doesn’t work.

Coming to faith in Jesus means that a death took place. If you are a new creation in Christ Jesus, then the old self is gone. But it doesn’t just disappear. You have to labor to cut it off.

Before Sarah and I got married, we did pre-marital counseling. We set aside time to plan for all the ways our lives would change. Here’s how we’ll handle finances, how we’ll deal with conflict, how to think about sex. All these conversations that were meant to signal, hey your life is never going to be the same.

Our wedding day was a significant milestone in our lives because it was the day the former version of ourselves died as we became one flesh. But just imagine if after our wedding day we decided not to live together, to keep our bank accounts separate. We made all our decisions independent from one another. We still hung out on the weekends. We’d go on dates here and there. We buy each other gifts on special occasions. But that was it. You’d say it doesn’t sound like your married.

The same is true for the Christian who commits to Jesus but goes on living like nothing changed. See, when you come to faith in Jesus the old self dies and a new you is born. You become a new creation in Christ. It’s not that you become a better version of yourself. You become united to Jesus. You take on one flesh with him. His Spirit takes up residence in you.

So it’s time to start forming new patterns in line with Christ’s righteousness. You may wonder what makes Christians different from anyone else, but if you are really committed to sober-mindedness, if you’re learning to lift your eyes to our eternal hope and following the patterns of Christ for your life, you will find yourself out of sync with the world around you.

You’ll be out of sync in the way you spend your money

Current data estimates the global average for charitable giving is somewhere between 2-5% of a person’s annual income. Another study found that Christians are 40% more likely to make charitable donations than non-Christians and Christians who attend church are 75% more likely to give than Christians who don’t.

So if you attend church and tithe regularly, you’re spending habits are out of sync with the rest of the world. If you think of a tithe as 10% that’s double the global average, but the global average also accounts for Christian generosity.

From a worldly perspective, it looks like you’re disadvantaging yourself. Naturally, you won’t be able to afford the same things your peers can who make the same salary because where they’re choosing to focus on what’s temporary you’re choosing to give to what’s eternal. And that will only make sense if you’ve really set your eyes on your living hope in Jesus.

You’ll be out of sync in your approach to sex

JD Greear says the world tends to be promiscuous with their bodies and stingy with their money, but Christians are taught to live just the opposite. We’re promiscuous with our money and stingy with our bodies because we believe our bodies are a Temple of the Lord’s to be kept pure and undefiled and we trust that God will provide for our every need.

You’ll be out of sync in how you handle conflict

Most people don’t know how to deal with moral failures and public humiliation so we cancel them. We write them off. When someone offends us we end the relationship.

But if they’re a Christian, it’s hard to ignore someone who’s going to live forever. And if they’re not, Paul says in Romans 13:8, “Owe no one anything, except to love each other…”

So instead of gossiping about others we seek reconciliation.
Instead of going home to complain about the people we don’t like at work, we love them and pray for them.
Instead of choosing isolation we make peace through the forgiveness of sin.

The way you grow in holiness is by forming new patterns as you learn to walk with Christ and actively pursue a growing relationship with him.

We stand in awe

[v. 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…

Talk about being sober-minded. One day Jesus is going to return, and when he does we’ll all have to give an account for how we lived. Here’s what you can be sure of: He’s going to hold you to account and he will be fair in all his judgments.

If you pair that with what Peter just said, God wants you to be holy as he’s holy and he’s going to judge you according to his standard of holiness. If that doesn’t stir up fear in your heart then you probably don’t have a proper respect for the holiness of God. Chances are you can’t even live up to your own standards.

But when Peter says you should conduct yourselves with fear, he’s not talking about being scared of God he’s talking about growing in reverence of who God is through a knowledge of what he’s done for you.

This is what sets Christians apart. We don’t look ahead to the future fearing that God will deny us. He doesn’t judge us by our works alone. Instead we trust that he has been effective in ransoming us from our former life of sin and raising us to new life in Christ through the power of his Spirit. Our debts are paid and we now live on the other side of our forgiveness.

God stood in the gap for you and the way you grow in reverence to him is by looking at your sin and his holiness. That’s how you grow to appreciate just how wide the gap was that he was willing to bridge.

Here’s why you know you can stand in awe on the day of Christ’s second coming: Because he’s coming to prove that your trust in him wasn’t in vain.

You know, Christ came at Christmas time when things were dark and weary. He came to save people who were low and weak. Here’s the bad news. If you’re strong and confident in yourself. You think you have no sin and no need for God. Then, there’s no salvation for you. But for those who are weak and downcast. The one’s who struggle with sin and feel helpless. Well, there’s very good news for you. You’re just the kind of person Jesus came to ransom to save.

And do you know when you need to hear that most? Right when you’ve fallen back into that former way of living again. When temptation won the day again and you gave in to sin even though you told yourself you wouldn’t do it. When you’re at your lowest, when you’re at your darkest, when you’ve lied down in the pit of despair.

That’s exactly the moment you need to be reminded “…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…

A ransom is what gets paid to set a captive free. And God paid your ransom, not with gold and silver. He used the currency of Christ’s blood.

That payment tips the scales. It never gets exhausted. Your sin might be great, but his mercy is more.

There’s not a sin you’ve committed or will commit that wasn’t future to the Cross. And every single one has been covered by the blood of the lamb.

Stand in awe of God and the good works he recorded on your account. That’s what changes you. That’s what the gospel does.

We love like crazy

[v. 22] – Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;

None of these practices are meant to be taken in isolation. When you ready yourself with the truth, set your hope in Christ, pursue holiness, and stand in awe, you begin to walk in obedience to the truth and let God cleanse your soul.

And you do this so that you can love others like crazy. Wildly; excessively. Part of the reason why our love looks crazy is because it’s not as the world loves, but as Christ loves.

Worldly love is transactional. It seeks out other people because we need them to make us happy. But Jesus’ love was marked by unwavering commitment out of the overflow of his goodness.

Worldly love demands that you approve of me according to every desire of the flesh. But godly love graciously speaks the truth and patiently endures.

Worldly love is clumsy and temporary. People fall in and out of it all the time. But godly love lasts forever.

How do we grow in this love? By abiding in the Vine and letting him produce in us the fruit of the Spirit.

A lot of people are easy to offend and hard to please, but the fruit of the Spirit makes you just the opposite. You become easy to please and hard to offend. You don’t need to be so concerned with your happiness because your needs are met in Christ. And that gives you the freedom to love others.

In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul says there are three things that will last forever: faith, hope, and love—but the greatest of these is love. One day faith will be made sight. One day hope will be made light. But living in love is what starts to usher in those realities now. The way a dark and weary world sees evidence of Christ in the world today is by the way we love one another.

Have you ever been around mature Christians who love like this?

Mature Christians are easily edified by the Word. They patiently endure. They set aside a generous supply of grace in advance because they know how people work. They know people are going to offend them and sin against them. But love covers a multitude of sins and so they make themselves ready to spend a generous amount of grace to cover the faults of others.

But immature Christians are like newborn infants. That’s why…

We need to grow up

The Christian life is meant to by dynamic. We’re called to grow.

[v. 2:1] – So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Where are you at in your spiritual journey? Peter says if you’re a new Christian, you’re a spiritual infant. That’s great! That’s where we all start.

If you’re new to the faith, if you have tasted that the Lord is good, then desire the pure spiritual milk. Be hungry for more. Seek it out. Start doing the work of putting off the sins of your former life. Make the spiritual nourishment that comes from living in God’s Word and among God’s people a regular part of your diet.

Attending church is a great starting point, but don’t assume that church attendance alone will make you mature. There are people attend church all their lives who never grow up.

Maybe you’re not an infant anymore, but you still want to grow. Try sharing what God’s been teaching you with someone else. Practice praying out loud with other Christians. If you’re in a community group, step outside your comfort zone. Ask your group leader what they do to prepare for the study every week. Ask if you can help them some time.

If you are mature in the faith, that means you’ve learned to stop making everything about you. And I’m not going to either. But I will say that it’s impossible to be a mature Christian and not care about the faith of those around you.

And if you’re here this morning and you have no faith at all, I want you to know that Christians are called to live this way because we’ve come to know the surpassing worth of Jesus in his death and resurrection.

He’s the only one who forgives sin, who gives new life, and who offers promises that can help you withstand all your troubles. He’s a trustworthy guide when you feel lost, a sure support when you feel broken, and a worthy Comforter when you feel overwhelmed.

Maybe he’s calling you today. He can cause anyone to be born again to a living hope in Jesus. That’s what we’re going to declare right now, but before we do, let me pray for us.

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