1 Peter 1 Gods Pilgrims Jan 05
Thesis: Christians are only pilgrims in this world which is not our home.
Introduction: Someone said the word Bible can be written out, using each letter, B-i-b-l-e, to mean Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. 1 Peter is a guide for Christian pilgrims. This epistle or letter was written about 65 AD just two years before Peter was executed upside down on a cross by the Roman Emperor Nero. As Peter writes to those believers that he calls the Diaspora (meaning dispersed), He greets them as Gods pilgrims scattered around what is today modern Turkey.
Perhaps Peter could see on the horizon the distant clouds of a storm of persecution gathering for these believers. It is no different for us. Jesus warns us in the book of Matthew that as the day nearer for the judgment of God to be unleashed on this world, that evil will intensify. Just last evening someone remarked that all of the things we see happening today may be Biblical signs of the approaching end of the age. We are not certain of that, but one thing that we can be sure of is that as we live in this world, we will endure difficult seasons and days in our lives. Just like those ancient Christians scattered around Asia, we are also only pilgrims passing through this world of woe. So Peter writes and tells us….
I. We Are The Pilgrims of God (1-2)
This epistle was written to at Christians in at least 5 different areas of the ancient world. Peter calls these Christians ‘pilgrims’ or ‘sojourners’ or ‘strangers’. I believe Peter addresses these believers in this manner, not because they are not living in their own native land, but because they, like you and I, are not yet home. In chapter two Peter again addresses these believers by saying, ‘beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lust which war against your soul.
You and I are also, in the language of the Bible, sojourners and pilgrims. We are not yet home. We must be careful of thinking of this present world in which we live as all there is. We are either living for this world or living for the next. What world are you living for? You need to know that this world is going to go down in flames someday. James strongly speaks to those who love this present age more than God. In James 4:4 the Bible says, ‘Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.’ To love this age, this world above God is to be unfaithful to God.
The pilgrims that Peter speaks to are not just any pilgrims on just any journey. They are a special lot. They are Gods elect pilgrims. What does it to be elect? It means to be chosen by God. It means simply that in eternity past God, knowing all things, choose for His own those whom He foreknew would trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. He knew who His elect would be, but He also know the circumstances of our lives and where we live and He sends us comfort and encouragement.
Who are these elect? You are, if you are a child a God. You belong to Him. You are His chosen. 1 Peter 2:9 says ‘But you are a special people, a holy nation, priests and kings, a people given up completely to God, so that you may make clear the virtues of him who took you out of the dark into the light of heaven.’
Three things are true about Gods elect pilgrims.
1. God the Father is at work in your life. He is the one who foresaw you and your need of a Savior. In the mind of God in eternity past God planned to provide your redeemer.
2. The Spirit of God is at work in our lives as the elect pilgrims of God. The Holy Spirit of God is at work in our lives sanctifying or making us holy. There are two things you need to know about sanctification. One you were sanctified when you were saved and two you are still being sanctified. In other words at the moment you were saved, God set you apart for His glory, and then day by day the Holy Spirit of God is at work in your life shaping you into the believer God wants you to be. No matter how old or young you are as a believer, He is at work in your life.
3. The Son of God is at work in your life. It is through His blood that you have been saved and washed from the guilt of your sin. The phrase ‘sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ’ refers back to the OT practice of sprinkling a leprous person. Leprosy was a terrible, disfiguring disease that left a person not only physically sick but also a social outcast. Whenever a person would be identified as a leper, he or she would have to shout ‘unclean’ ‘unclean’ anytime anyone approached them. The only social contact they had was with other diseased lepers. It was if the leper was for all intents and purposes dead to the world. When a leper was cleansed from his disease, the priest would sprinkle the blood of a sacrifice over him in order to symbolize his purification.
Leprosy came to symbolize sin in the Scripture. Here is the picture that Peter paints for us. We were unclean for our sin, separated from God and heaven. But even in our uncleanness Christ shed His blood for us while we were yet sinners and has cleansed us from our sin. Having been cleansed we have the Holy Spirit of God at work in our lives conforming us to the image of His dear Son.
II. We Should Praise God (3-5)
Thinking about what God has done for us Peter begins to praise the Lord in verse 3. He says ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ While we cannot add anything to our God, we can praise Him. What does Peter praise Him for? Look at these things with me.
1. We can praise Him because in His abundant mercy God has begotten us again. What does it mean to be begotten again? This is the same thing Jesus said to us in John 3 where He said ‘you must be born again’. To be begotten again is the same as being born anew. It speaks of our spiritual birth.
2. We can praise Him because in His abundant mercy God has begotten us again to a living hope. It does not say just hope or no hope or a little hope but a living hope. What is a living hope? A living hope is a hope that cannot be extinguished. Have you ever heard someone say their hopes and dreams went up in flames? The certain future that we have in Christ Jesus is never going to die. It can never be extinguished by circumstances. It is a living stream of hope that will never run dry.
3. We can praise Him because we have an inheritance reserved in heaven for us. This inheritance is described as incorruptible. It is reserved in heaven where nothing that defiles will enter in. It will never pass away. The Greek word to describe the unfading character of our inheritance is the word amarantos. We know what an amaranth plant is. It is often a weed and it seems weeds never die. The word amarantos was used to in Greek poetry to symbolic immortality.
Riches in this world are uncertain at best. There are any number of factors that could erase any hope of a monetary inheritance. Illness, economic failure, fraud or a number of other things could cause you to lose everything. I once read where Sam Walton lost several million dollars in a stock market failure. Walton’s response was ‘it was paper when I started and it will be paper when I’m finished’. The inheritance reserved in heaven is safe from the ravages of any failure.
What is our inheritance? Someone defined it as ‘That inheritance is his favor here, and eternal life hereafter.’ As pilgrims we press on knowing our inheritance is waiting for us in heaven.
III. We Depend on the Power of God (5)
How can we be sure our hope in Christ will never be extinguished? After all doesn’t all good things come to an end? How can we be certain that the inheritance that is reserved in heaven for us will there when we arrive? How can we be sure that we will arrive! (Robert Cushman) It is because we are kept by the power of God. The word is in the present tense which means that God continually and forever protects us. There is never a moment we are not under the guardianship of Almighty God. The word ‘kept’ is a military word which means to guard. This verse says the sentry standing watch over our souls in God Himself. ‘The meaning is, that they were weak in themselves, and were surrounded by temptations; and that the only reason why they were preserved was, that God exerted his power to keep them. The only reason which any Christians have to suppose they will ever reach heaven, is the fact that God keeps them by his own power.’
For the Christians in Peters day, each day was filled with uncertainty. The cry of Rome concerning the Christians was ‘to the lions, to the lions’. They didn’t know when they woke up in the morning whether or not that would be the day Emperor Nero would sent soldiers to have them arrested and thrown to the lions. They needed to know that whatever happened to them in this world they were kept by the power of God. We need the same assurance? Our days are as filled with uncertainty as those ancient people.
Faithful till death said our loving Master,
A few more days to labor and wait;
Toils of the road will then seem as nothing,
As we sweep through the beautiful gate.
When we see Jesus coming in glory,
When He comes from His home in the sky:
Then we shall meet Him in that bright mansion,
We’ll understand it all by and by.
IV. We Trust the Promises of God (6-9)
The last thing I want us to see in these verses is that not only do we have assurance that God is able to keep that which we have committed to Him, but we can trust Him because He will keep His promises. Someone wisely said, ‘You can’t break God’s promises by leaning on them!’
We may be in some bind in this life but the one thing that gives us hope and joy and keeps us floating above the flood waters around us is the promises of God and His faithfulness to them. We must remember that the various trials we encounter in this life are for a purpose. Here in verse 7 we are told that the trying of faith, which is more precious than gold, will be to the praise, honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
We haven’t yet seen Jesus face to face but we know that one day as God has promised He is going to come for us and we shall receive the consummation of our faith. Some of us here have encountered some tremendous trials of faith in this life, but one day we will walk up those steps toward the gates of heaven, our hearts racing with anticipation, our eyes trying to capture every sight and our ears every sweet sound. As we pass those pearl white gates and bask in the glow of the golden streets, our hearts will overflow with unbridled joy. Our emotions will spill out as the tears pour down our cheeks as we behold the indescribable heaven and then with joy that cannot be expressed with words even in the glorious galleries of heaven, we will see our Savior and we will receive the end of our faith, the fulfillment of all we have hoped and longed for. During the American Civil War, General William T. Sherman was driving his troops on his decisive march to the sea. He had left behind in a fort on Kennesaw Mountain a small contingent of men to guard the rations. General John Bell Hood of the Confederate Army attacked the fort, and a fierce battle followed. One-third of the men were killed or wounded, and J. M. Corse, the general in command, was severely injured in the fighting. Just as he was about to hoist up the white flag and surrender, a message came through. General Sherman was within 15 miles of the fort and had sent the message: “Hold fast. We are coming.” The fort did not fall. Lets hold the fort, Jesus is coming!
