Chosen Strangers - 1 Peter 1:1-2 Series

1 Peter 1:1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the elect, strangers [in the world], scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, 2 [chosen] according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance. 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

Introduction: Your Place in this World

In the grand scheme of things, where do you fit? What is your place in this world? As you look around, all the countless things that are going on around us are not accidents. They are all components of a grand design. They are pieces of a giant puzzle that, if you could stand back far enough to see the whole picture, would fill you with joy and wonder at the beauty and complexity and perfection of it. But in this life we cannot stand back that far. We are like one little cog inside a massive machine, and all we can see around us is a giant complex of gears and pieces of the machine that seem to turn and act on each other in random chaos.

We know from God’s Word that the machine is wonderful and beautiful and perfect, but my question for you today is this: what is your role in the machine? Where do you fit?

One of the main reasons Peter wrote this letter was to answer that question. And he is so eager to answer it that he cannot even wait for himself to begin the letter. The way the Apostles said hello at the beginning of a letter was by saying, “Grace and peace to you,” or some variation of that. Peter says it in his opening greeting at the end of verse 2. But before he gets around to saying that, he discusses election, foreknowledge, predestination, the Trinity, sanctification, obedience, and the sprinkling of Christ’s blood. When all that comes out before a person gets to “hello” in his greeting, you know he has something urgent on his mind. All he is doing is addressing the letter, and he spills all the beans. Verses 1-2 are what you write on the outside of the envelope as you address the letter. Peter includes all that massive load of doctrine on the outside of the envelope. He is so eager to make sure his readers understood their place in this world, that he just blurts it all out right at the beginning before he even gets to “hello” in his letter. So he starts out with, “Dear friends...who, by the way, are elect, chosen, aliens and strangers in the world dispersed all over the place and who are chosen, dispersed, aliens on the basis of the foreknowledge of God the Father, and who came to be in that condition by means of the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit for the purpose or goal of obedience, and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ....greetings! Everything Peter wants to say to them in this book hinges on our understanding of that information - our identity and the how and why of our identity. So let’s take a careful look at this description.

Description of our Identity: A Chosen, Alien Dispersion

In the Greek word order, the very first word after Peter identifies himself is the word “chosen” (or “elect”). Here is a literal translation:

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the chosen strangers of dispersion of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia

What a phrase that is - chosen strangers of dispersion. That is our identity.

Strangers (Aliens)

The word stranger refers to someone who is living in a place that is not his home. A temporary alien, a foreigner - someone who is residing in a place where he is not a citizen, not a part of that culture.

Dispersion

The word dispersion is a very interesting choice of words. The NIV translates it “scattered.” It is the Greek word diaspora, and for hundreds of years before Jesus’ time the Jews had used that word as a technical term to refer to Jews who had left Israel and where living in Gentile territory. Because of wars and various other reasons millions of Jews had left their homeland and were scattered around the Gentile world. And that situation was commonly referred to as The Dispersion. So here Peter steals that term from Jewish culture and refers to Gentile Christians as the new Dispersion.