Called To This Rock
Text: 1 Peter 1:1-2
Introduction
1. Today we are beginning a new series on the Book of 1 Peter that I have entitled, "Living Right Side Up In An Upside Down World."
2. Peter was expertly qualified to speak about living right side up.
a. He was a follower of Jesus almost from the very start, and in fact, was one of Jesus closest friends.
b. He walked with Jesus and understood first hand what it meant to live like Jesus.
c. He also understood what it was like to disappoint Jesus because he regularly stuck his foot in his mouth by saying the wrong things at the wrong time.
d. However, he also was the one who proclaimed Jesus was the Christ, and he was the one who preached the greatest sermon, outside of Jesus, on the Day of Pentecost.
3. Furthermore, Peter also knew what it was like to live in an upside down world.
a. He saw first hand what they did to Jesus when he was crucified.
b. He experienced the persecution and harassment of the world for being a follower of Jesus.
c. He also saw first hand what an upside down world we live when he was martyred (show slide of Peter's cross).
4. So as we begin this letter Peter tells us...
a. We Don't Belong Here, but...
b. We Have Been Called Here
5. Let's stand as we read together 1 Peter 1:1-2
Proposition: Even though this world is not our home, Jesus has called us to be his witnesses while we are here.
Transition: The first thing we learn from 1 Peter is...
I. We Don't Belong Here (1)
A. Living As Foreigners
1. Many people in the ancient world regarded Christians as strange, superstitious, and disloyal to Roman society.
a. They gathered in secret, practiced strange rituals (such as the Lord's Supper, widely misunderstood as involving bloody sacrifice), and practiced a countercultural lifestyle...
b. This refusal to go along with the prevailing culture created tensions even more than it does in the modern world.
c. Christians were often discriminated against and accused of misbehavior and were even brought into court on trumped-up charges
(NLTStudyBible).
d. It was this situation that Peter addresses in this letter.
2. He begins by saying, "This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ."
a. Peter's salutation is one of the richest greetings to open a letter in the New Testament.
b. It contains pastoral warmth and theological sweep. Whereas some salutation orient themselves around Christology, salvation, or the church, and others are "bare bones greetings, Peter's salutation contains both a penetrating description of the audience and a theological explanation of how they became Christians.
c. Peter was an "apostle of Jesus Christ." An apostle is one who was personally called by Jesus to a special ministry of founding the church; the corollary of that calling is that an apostle represents, as an ambassador does a president, the one who sent him.
d. Peter, like the other apostles, was a personal representative of Jesus, and how people responded to Peter reflected how they responded to Jesus (McKnight, The NIV Application Commentary – 1 Peter, 43).
e. By identifying himself as an apostle, Peter gives his credentials and authority to write a letter which will convey the promises and commands that God has given to his for his people.
f. He was personally commissioned by Jesus Christ as a missionary, and this carries with it authority to convey his message to the church (Marshall, IVPNT: 1 Peter, 29-30).
3. Now that he has identified himself as the writer, Peter now addresses whom he is writing to. He says, "I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia."
a. First, Peter identifies his audience as "God's chosen people."
b. chosen: to make a special choice based upon significant preference, often implying a strongly favorable attitude toward what is chosen
(Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Symantic Domains, 361).
c. Peter wanted them to know that they did not follow Christ by accident, but that Jesus himself had chosen them and called them to follow him.
d. He said they were chosen by God, but that for the time being they were living as foreigners.
e. living as foreigners (literally exiles of the dispersion): An exile had been uprooted from his or her homeland and taken to live in a foreign country.
f. Peter uses the concept metaphorically to remind Christians that they are living in a world dominated by anti-Christian values and ways of life (NLTStudyBible).
g. The NIV gives us a little clearer understanding of what Peter was saying. It translates this verse as, "God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia,"
h. He identifies them as people who were scattered throughout various locales. Scattered translates diaspora, from which root another English term, dispersion, derives (John MacArthur, MacArthur New Testament Commentary – 1 Peter, 14).
i. The reason for their dispersion was persecution both political and religious.
j. Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia were Roman provinces in what is now Turkey. They might be listed in the order of the route that a messenger would have followed while carrying the letter to the various churches (NLTStudyBible).
k. Peter addressed such a wide audience because the Roman persecution of Christians had swept across the Empire.
l. Believers in every place were going to suffer.
m. The apostle wanted those believers to remember that, in the midst of potentially great suffering and hardship, they were still the chosen of God, and that as such they could face persecution in triumphant hope (MacArthur, 16).
B. Citizens Of Heaven
1. Illustration: Song writer Larry Norman, known as the Grandfather of Christian Rock music, in his song "Readers Digest," wrote, "What a mess this world is in. I wonder who began it? Don't ask me, I'm only visiting this planet! This world is not my home. I'm just passin' through!"
2. This world is not our home; we are citizens of Heaven.
a. Philippians 3:20 (NLT)
But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.
b. Like Peter's original audience, we are only here temporarily.
c. Like Peter's original audience, we are foreigners, strangers, and aliens in this upside down world.
d. Like Peter's original audience, we will face persecution, ridicule, and be ostracized by a world that does not understand us because they do not know our Jesus.
e. This world is not our home; we're just passing through!
3. But take heart, because Jesus has not abandoned us!
a. Romans 8:35, 37 (NLT)
Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?...37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
b. We may face difficulty in this life, but it will only make us stronger.
c. We may face persecution in this life, but it will only draw us closer to the Lord.
d. We may face trouble in this life, but we have a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
e. We may be strangers, we may be aliens, and we may be misunderstood, but we have victory in Jesus today!
Transition: We are not from here, but...
II. We Are Called Here (2)
A. Knew You And Chose You
1. In the fist verse Peter brings out the fact that this world is not our home. We are foreigners and strangers in this place. However, in the next verse he brings out the reality that we are called to this place for just a time as this.
2. He says, "God the Father knew you and chose you long ago..."
a. When God knows a person, it means that he chooses that person. He chose to enter into relationship with his people before they knew him (NLTStudyBible).
b. God’s “choosing” of believers has generated fierce doctrinal differences among Christians; most of these differences come from theological and philosophical points of view about what the Bible means.
c. God alone originates and accomplishes our salvation because of his grace. We do nothing to earn it.
d. Being “chosen” does not remove the necessity for people to choose to follow him.
e. The fact that God knows all events and decisions beforehand, even ordains them beforehand, does not mean that he forces the actions of his creatures, leaving them no choice (Barton Life Application New Testament Commentary, 1103).
f. That they were chosen does not mean that God chose them because he knew in advance that they would respond to him, but rather that he chose them before they had done anything to deserve it (Marshall, 31).
3. Peter further explains the grace of God's calling by saying, "...and his Spirit has made you holy."
a. When Peter talks about the fact that the "Spirit made you holy," he is referring to the theological term sanctification.
b. Sanctification: The work of the Holy Spirit that separates believers from sin and evil and dedicates them to the worship and service of the lord. There is an initial act of sanctification at conversion and a continuing process of sanctification as we cooperate with the Holy Spirit in putting to death wrong desires (William W. Menzies and Stanley M. Horton, Bible Doctrines: A Pentecostal Perspective).
c. The believers in Asia Minor are what they are "by the sanctifying work of the Spirit."
d. Both theological reasoning and spiritual experience confirm that God prompts us to believe through the convicting and regenerating work of his Spirit.
e. The process of sanctification, a word drawn from Old Testament tabernacle and temple worship, involves God's setting his people apart and the lifelong work of his Spirit to effect God's will on earth (McKnight, 53).
f. The term refers to three features of Christian existence: the initial separation from sin, the hard work of growing in holiness throughout life, and the final act of God when he makes his holy people completely holy for eternity.
g. Peter is referring here, then, almost exclusively to the first dimension of our sanctification: God's gracious act of turning sinners into his people (McKnight, 53).
h. Again, it is nothing that we did, but entirely what God did for us.
4. Peter then shows the consequence of the work of God by saying, "As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ..."
a. These believers have been chosen by God so that they may be obedient, that is, so that they may respond to the demand of the gospel and become children of obedience and pure children of God.
b. The use of the word "obedience" for the initial response to the demand of the gospel is found elsewhere in the New Testament (cf. Rom. 1:5; 6:16; 15:18; 16:26; 2 Cor. 7:15; 10:6; 2 Thess. 1:8; 1 Peter 1:22 with 2:8; 4:17).
c. And these people were chosen so that they could be sprinkled with the new blood of the covenant established by the death of Jesus (McKnight, 54).
d. The obvious result is that the believers obeyed. The constant cleansing from sin available to us because of Christ’s sacrifice enables us to obey God faithfully (Barton, 1103).
5. Peter then ends his introduction to the scattered foreigners with an overwhelming word of encouragement. He says, "... May God give you more and more grace and peace."
a. God’s special favor refers to his grace—given to undeserving people.
b. Peace refers to the peace that Christ made between sinners and God through his Son’s death on the cross.
c. Peter wanted these believers, scattered as they were across the empire’s provinces, to be united in their experience of God’s favor and peace in their daily lives.
d. Even as these believers faced persecution, they could remember God’s grace and continue to live as God desired.
e. Not all believers are persecuted for their faith, but everyone faces times of stress, discouragement, or despair.
f. Peter’s words echo through the centuries, reminding us of God’s grace and sovereignty over all of life, encouraging us to glorify and live for him (Barton,1103).
B. Called
1. Illustration: When I am conscious of the fear of failure holding me back, I go through a kind of personal checklist: 1. Does this fear come basically from pride, a fear that I will not live up to my own expectations or to those of others? 2. Do I remember that God has called me first to faithfulness, then to efficiency? 3. Do I trust that the Holy Spirit is working before me, with me, and through me? 4. Do I remember that I am called to be neither more nor less successful than Jesus Christ was? 5. Do I remember that God does his greatest work when I seem to be weakest? Isn’t that, after all, the mystery of the cross? (Leighton Ford, Good News is for Sharing, p. 65).
2. This world is not our home, but it is our calling.
a. Matthew 28:19 (NLT)
Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
b. We are citizens of heaven, but our King has called us to be his witnesses in this strange place.
c. He has called us to share his love.
d. He has called us to share his truth.
e. He has called us to share his salvation
f. Even with people who will not understand or treat us kindly.
3. While we are in this place we have God's promise that He will not abandon us.
a. Matthew 28:20 (NLT)
Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
b. Even when if seems like the world around us is against us.
c. Even when it seems like situations in life are against us.
d. Even when it seems like everyone has abandoned us.
e. God has promised that he will always be there for us.
f. He will never leave us or forsake us.
Transition: Take hope this morning my friends because God will never let us down. He will always give us the strength to go on, even in the midst of difficulty.
Conclusion
1. Peter begins this great letter by telling us...
a. We don't belong here
b. We are called here
2. Do you feel this morning like life is against you?
3. Take courage, Jesus will never break his promise to be with us always.
