Strangers In A Strange Land Series

• Sent. Peter is an “apostle.” The word “apostle” means an officially commissioned messenger or one “who is sent forth from.” When attached to the phrase “of Jesus Christ,” we know he’s referring to the official office of an apostle. While there are not apostles today, in a real sense you and are I are the Savior’s sent ones. We’ve been called to gather, to grow, to give and to go with the gospel message. As we learned last weekend, because we’ve been told to go, we’re to live as ones who are sent.

Friend, do you know who you are? Next, we must know where we’re from.

2. We must know where we are from. Verse 1 continues: “…To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia…”

This week I Googled the word “home” and a map popped up saying that I reside in three different places. According to the all-knowing search engine, I live at Friendship Manor, State Farm Insurance and Rock Island Nursing and Rehabilitation Center! Interestingly, there were 1.6 billion hits for “home.” Do you know where your home is?

For three years our family knew what it meant to feel like foreigners. In 1996, when Emily was 8, Lydia was 5 and Becca was only 2, we sold our home and most of our belongings and moved to Mexico City where we served as missionaries for three years. As much as we tried to learn the language and the culture, it was abundantly clear that we were not Mexicans, especially when anyone would listen to how I slaughtered Spanish. We rented a home and lived there but we were not from there. Every six months when we had to renew our visas by making trips to the border we were reminded that we were temporary residents.

Our daughter Emily is now experiencing something similar. For two years she has served as a missionary in the Dominican Republic and his now coming “home” on Sunday night as she seeks a ministry position back in the states. I’m sure for her that the QCA does not feel like home. She knows that her home is in heaven.

• Strangers in the world. Friends, we are scattered strangers living in an increasingly strange land. The word “pilgrim” refers to a temporary resident in a foreign place. Here’s the deal. If you’re a Christ-follower, this world is not your home. You are not from around here. Philippians 3:20 says that our “true citizenship is in heaven.” It should always feel a bit like you’re on a guest visa because your true home is in heaven.

Unfortunately, some of us put our roots so firmly here that we seldom focus on our real home. It’s so easy to think that this is all there is. We get all up in stuff here as we look for people, possessions, pleasures and other pursuits to give us satisfaction. It will never work because we come from another place and we are made for another place. C.S. Lewis once said, “It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.”