1 Peter 1:1b-9
05/02/2012
Introduction
· Series - Living up to our calling in Christ rather than being controlled by fears, circumstances or sinfulness.
· Last week - importance of right authority in our lives. Principles we discover will help make the choices we face easier, but regardless of whether they are easy or hard, we must have a determination to choose to come under the authority of Christ rather than be controlled by fears, circumstances or sinful desires.
· This week we will explore some truths that are going to be very helpful in making right decisions - truths that centre around the sovereignty of God in our salvation.
1 Peter 1:1-9
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, 2 who have been 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.
Praise to God for a Living Hope
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. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. [1]
Handouts - as we go through you are going to be looking at some wonderful truths about God, particularly relating to His Sovereignty. We are also going to learn some wonderful truths about ourselves and the salvation we enjoy from Him.
Write them down! If you are not yet a follower of Jesus these truths will not yet be true of you - write them down anyway because I pray that as you discover God’s truth you will come to a place of receiving the wonderful salvation that we will be talking about today.
To God’s elect,
This isn’t in Peter’s letter, the translators of the NIV added it in so that the sentence would flow better in English.
strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia
The word “strangers” here is sometimes translated “aliens”. It was commonly used to describe people who came from other places and either settled down as temporary residents.
Philippians 3:17-4:1
17 Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. 18 For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!
Truth about Me: I do not belong here, I am a citizen of Heaven!
I wonder if any of you can finish the line from the first verse of a well-known hymn…
“Guide me, O thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land.”
That whole song is about the idea being expressed here - we are pilgrims from somewhere else on our way to somewhere else. We are just passing through.
And we’re not strangers in Perth, or Western Australia or Australia - we’re strangers in the world.
Here’s another song for you… “I still call Australia home”. Great song, not true for you if you’re a Christian!
Nowhere in this world is home for us. Home is where the heart is as the saying goes.
Colossians 3:1&2
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
If you want to be free from the control of fear, circumstance and sin you need to train your heart and mind to operate according to this truth - you do not belong here, you are a citizen of Heaven.
How does remembering that we are citizens of Heaven help us when we are struggling with fear and stress? How does it help us when our problems seem overwhelming? How does it help us when temptation seems to have an unshakeable grip on us so that we do things we know we ought not to do?
The answer is quite simple - it corrects our perspective. It helps us to see with the eyes of faith instead of by natural sight.
To explain what I mean, we need to get into verse 2:
…who have been 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:
We are citizens of Heaven because of God’s choice and God’s action in saving us.
We are saved according to God’s grace, not according to anything we have done to deserve it. The reassurance that Peter gives to us through this letter is that just as God saved us by bringing us into His kingdom by His choice and His action; so He continues to save us by His choice and His action. Our security is completely wrapped up in who God is and what He does - it never depends on us. Neither our security in the next life nor our security in this life is in our own hands, it’s in God’s.
If you are a stranger in the world, someone who has been chosen by God to belong to Him, you are completely secure in Him.
Some of you might be feeling a little bit uncomfortable by the whole “chosen by God” part. Didn’t you choose Him? Isn’t it up to you to decide to be saved, to “accept” salvation that He offers to everyone but which most refuse?
What does it mean that we have been “chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father”?
Does it mean that God chose to save those who He knew in advance would believe in Jesus?
That’s what I used to think when I was younger, before I’d studied this concept in detail.
No, it means much more than that. The best way to explain it is to look at the life of Jesus, and how this same word “foreknowledge” is applied to His life.
I want to read to you from Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost - the sermon in which Peter for the first time publicly used the “keys to the Kingdom of Heaven” that we talked about last week, by telling people how they could be saved and be part of God’s kingdom through faith in Jesus.
Acts 2:22-23
“Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.”
Here’s the concept that most of us struggle to get our heads around: even as humanity was carrying out the ultimate act of rebellion - nailing God the Son to a cross - we were still acting in accordance with the set plan and purpose of God. God was not powerless to intervene. God was not surprised, or a victim of circumstance.
If you look at the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ execution, there are a huge number of factors that were each critical in leading up to His crucifixion in order for it to occur and also for it to fulfil prophecy.
Let me list just a few:
- One of His disciples needed to be a betrayer.
- The rest of His disciples needed to abandon Him.
- The Jewish leaders needed to be corrupt.
- The Roman governor needed to be weak.
- The Roman soldiers needed to be excessively cruel.
- The execution needed to be by crucifixion and not some other method.
- Jesus’ bones must not be broken.
- The soldiers must gamble for His clothes.
- Jesus needed to be buried in a rich person’s tomb.
etc. etc. !
God made His control over these events obvious by revealing in the Old Testament precise details of how He would bring these things about. That’s what foreknowledge is talking about. It’s God knowing in advance how He would bring about His plan.
Proverbs 6:4 says
The Lord works out everything for his own ends—
even the wicked for a day of disaster.
Ephesians 1:11
“ In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will”
What’s left out of everything? Nothing! There is nothing that lies outside of the sphere of God’s sovereignty. He is moving everything toward His own ends.
That’s a staggering truth.
Truth about God: God works out everything for His good purposes.
As we go through life there are times that it gets pretty tough to see that.
There are times that we feel that God is either not that good or not that powerful… why would we be suffering so much otherwise? Surely a good and powerful God would do a better job of looking after us!
Surely He would hold back the tsunamis, prevent the abuse, cure the addictions, ailments and so on.
It’s much easier to like a god who wants to help but is held back for some reason - maybe it’s because he’s not powerful enough, or because he’s respecting our independence or whatever.
But that’s not what the Bible teaches about God.
He is Good, He is completely in charge, yet bad things still happen.
How is that possible?
The truth is that only God knows. We simply aren’t able to know how He is able to move a world which is under the curse of sin and spiritual darkness according to His purposes, while never Himself either doing evil or tempting anyone else to do evil (James 1:13).
What we do know is that someday it will all make sense to us.
When Jesus was about to go through the horrors of His arrest, torture and execution do you know what He did?
He got His disciples together and He told them the end of the story. He explained that His sufferings were necessary in order to bring about the glorious purposes of God - our eternal enjoyment of Him and His eternal pleasure in us. He told them of Heaven (John 14-16).
We need to know that whatever suffering we are going through, have been through or will go through, God is leading us to a wonderful destination, and every part of our pilgrimage here as strangers in the world has a purpose that is linked to eternity.
Truth about me: Every part of my journey in this life has an eternal purpose. I am part of God’s big story.
Illustration - the story of Joseph in Genesis - remember what he went through? Where was God in the midst of all those injustices?
Genesis 50:20
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
Principle - we need to enlarge our vision of God and of God’s story in which we are a part.
Illustrations
· we’re one character in a very large book!
· solar eclipse - God is much bigger than the things that sometimes block Him from our view. (Sun is 400 times wider than the moon, but also 400 times further away).
Application
· How can I rest in God's sovereignty so that I am free from the control of fear, guilt, doubt etc
· How can I tune in to the bigger picture of what God is doing for His eternal purposes instead of being caught up in the near-view picture of my problems and my priorities?
[1]All Scriptures from The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
