Exiles Guide to Living: 1 Peter 2:11-12

Jun 5, 2016 by: Sam Hestorff| Series: Exiles Guide to Living
Scripture: 2 Peter 2:11–12

We are in the middle of our study on 1 Peter. A letter sent to a group of churches in Asia Minor who were experiencing the cost of following Jesus. You see, it was a time that bearing the name Christian was a difficult thing to do. It brought great challenges and suffering and tremendous persecution every day – just because they were called Christians.
It wasn’t always this way, at first Christians were kind of neutral in the Roman Empire. There were a lot of different god’s they worshipped so no one really cared that there was a god of Christianity as long as they didn’t cause any problems.

But in the 60’s there was this guy named Nero; who became the emperor of Rome and he set a fire that destroyed the city of Rome essentially because he had a plan to rebuild the city the way he wanted it.

And when people got wind of his plan, he realized that maybe it wasn’t a good plan because they were beginning to reject him and so he needed to find someone to blame. So he blamed the Christians.
And from that point, Christians became the enemies of the Roman Empire.
That’s not good.
So think about this, you’re new church in Asia Minor and everything is fine. You’ve got a good reputation, you’ve got a good standing the community, you’re free to worship Jesus, and then all of a sudden everything changes.
You walk down the street and people are looking at you funny. You go to work and people are messing with you, family members who are not Christians don’t trust you, and you get singled out and profiled in the airport just because everybody thinks that you are responsible for the burning of Rome.
And that was just the beginning . . . soon Christians were being tortured and killed in some of the most gruesome ways.
And in the midst of all of this suffering, they starting thinking to themselves, maybe I should just dump this whole Christianity thing because it’s going to be a lot easier if I just stopped following Jesus and started acting like everybody else.
And some were even thinking that their suffering was some kind of cosmic act of God because God was mad at them or he had forgotten about them.
And that's when Peter steps in and writes this letter of encouragement; letting them know that they are not alone, God hasn’t left you, God isn’t angry with you. He’s as close to you now in your suffering as he’s ever been.
In fact, God has chosen you . . . by his grace; he has set you apart as a Holy people.
• People of Grace, who have been redeemed and restored through the sacrifice of his son, Jesus
• People of Grace, in whom God’s Spirit dwells.
• People of Grace, who have the hope of a future resurrection.
And it is in the midst of God’s grace; this grace that has come and a grace that is yet to come that Peter says that God is doing something spectacular with us.
He takes each of you, who are followers of Jesus ,and he places you side by side, living stone, next to living stone, and he make something fantastic, something incredible. He builds you up into a spiritual house, a place where God's holiness is revealed.
He's not creating a monument. He's not creating a museum. He's creating a movement made up of people who are to interact with one another differently; authentic, putting down our masks and getting real with one another, loving each other deeply, praying, encouraging, and just doing life together with all of its ups and downs because together, we reflect the Glory of God.
What Peter has been telling them up to this point is, "I know life is tough and you're really struggling and you just want to give up but don't lose perspective. This time, this place, these circumstances are all part of God's plan to bring about restoration and salvation for all people. You're suffering isn't something to run from, it's something to embrace because in your suffering he will build you up together, as a church, and it will give you an opportunity to reveal God's glory to the world."
After laying out this theological framework, Peter makes this transition as to how this works out in our lives and in our relationships with those who are not Christians.
And in light of what he just said, you'd think that Peter would suggest that they should shelter themselves from the hostile world around them.
• If you’re at work and you’re experiencing abuse because of your faith, it’s time to find another job.
• If your friends don’t understand your commitment to Jesus, then you might want to find new friends.
• If your spouse or significant other isn’t a Christian, then you should trade them in for one that is.
They might have hoped that Peter said, "Protect yourself from the world around you by huddling with other Christians."
But Peter says, essentially, that Christians are "foreigners and exiles”; they're different from the surrounding culture, but they're not called to abandon the surrounding culture.
Instead, they're to engage with culture, with a robust faith.
If we're honest, withdrawal is a real temptation for us. We have Christian bookstores, Christian schools, Christian friends, and even Christian dating sites where you can find God’s partner for you. You can even get a Christian yellow pages so that you can only use Christian plumbers and Christian auto mechanics.
There is nothing wrong with any of these things in themselves, but there's a danger that over time we become less and less connected with the world and more insulated, more out of touch with those who see the world differently from us.
And Peter is saying, “Don’t do that . . . You need to stay connected with those who aren't like you because it will give you the opportunity to reveal God’s glory.”
So if you’re supposed to stay connected to the world around you then you’d think that Peter would have given them a strategy for changing these people. I mean, they are clearly in the wrong, aren't they?
So having a plan to change them would be really helpful.
Peter does have a strategy, but it's not so much a strategy about them. The minute we focus on them, we've lost sight of the real challenge. The real challenge is us.
If we want to show the Glory of God, Peters says don’t just live with each other differently but live your lives in the world in such a way that those who are cynical and hostile look at you and say, “Wow, there is something so different about them; so much love and peace that I want to know what it is that makes them so different so I can have that in my life.”
Two areas he mentions in particular.
The first is how we handle our sinful desires. The word is a little bit stronger than it seems. It's talking about our passionate longings, the things that we know are wrong but that we really want to do. You know what I'm talking about.
Those things that, when Jesus came into our lives, and we were so pumped up and you make all sorts of commitments about how your life is going to be completely different and then all of a sudden those things that you promised God that you’d never do again crawl right back into your life and you’re like, “where the heck did that come from”.
This is especially an issue when we're under pressure; when you’re so stressed out and so you go to that thing again . . . because you believe it will bring you comfort.
Peter is writing to people who are under pressure, and the danger is that they will react with a desire to act in ways that are self-absorbed and focused on their own well-being.
So Peter says, stay away from those things because those people who are hostile and cynical toward Christianity are watching your life. They see how you live. And before you start pointing out their brokenness, you’ve got work on your own.
The second area Peter mentions is how well we measure up to culture. He's already told us to be holy, but that's not what I think he's talking about here. These people are working as slaves, or they're in marriages with unbelievers. Peter's not just telling them to be holy; he's telling them to be the best slaves possible, the best spouse possible.
The result, he says, is that "though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God.”
Next week, Greg is going to unpack this more for us.
Imagine if we turned our focus as a church on one area only: on becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ who took our discipleship so seriously that people could see that, because of the Gospel, we were prevailing in our own war against sin, and that Christians were known to be the best employees, the best neighbors, the best students that you could ask for. Imagine if our lives spoke the Gospel.
Some have suggested that we don't need to make outreach our primary goal. Instead, our real challenge is inreach - to turn those of us within the church into lights that can shine in a darkened world.
Our challenge, really, is to become disciples in every area of our lives so that the world around us will see the Glory of God revealed.
But we can’t do that alone, we need each other, we need authentic community. Because when the gospel takes root in our lives, it’s going to bring up some stuff that we need to deal with and even when we think that stuff is dead and gone, it somehow has a way of rising up out of the grave and we’ll need each other to get through it.
That’s what the church is all about. It’s not a building, it’s not a place . . . it’s a people.
A Holy people whom God has intentionally placed together. And as the world sees how we interact with one another and with the world, they’ll want to be a part of it.

 

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