1 Peter series – “Holding onto Hope in a Hostile World”

1 Peter 1:1-2

This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. ² God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. May God give you more and more grace and peace.

First we have to know who we are, second we have to:

2. Know Where you are

We must know where we are from. Verse 1 continues: “…I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners” Do you ever feel like a foreigner, like you don’t fit in? Look at all the different places these people lived? Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, that is where they were living but that wasn’t their life. I understand what it means to be a foreigner, by the time I was 16 I had lived in Africa, Europe the Middle East and North America, 4 of the 7 continents. Even now people will say to me “you are not from around here are you!” Peter reminds us of a truth many of us don’t like, that we are 

• Strangers in this world

We are strangers living in an increasingly strange land. Some translations use the word “pilgrim” which refers to a temporary resident in a foreign place. If you’re a Christ-follower then this world is not your home, heaven is, Philippians 3:20 says that your “true citizenship is in heaven.” Where are you heading, do you have a home waiting in heaven? Have you ever admitted your sin and asked Jesus to save you? Because if you are a Christ follower then you should feel like a foreigner. Unfortunately, many of us sink our roots so deeply into the soil of this life that we no longer long and look forward to our real home in heaven. We live like this is all there is, so we spend our time seeking stuff, we look to people, possessions, pleasures and other pursuits to give us satisfaction. 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.” The heroes of the faith listed in Hebrews 11 had this foreigner thing figured out, in verse 13 they freely confessed that they were foreigners and strangers on the earth. They didn’t waste their time, talents and treasures trying to fit in, they focused on a life of faith. What would happen if instead of spending your resources put down roots you used them to reach others? What if Christians came to terms with the reality that we are always going to be counter to the culture. If we don’t we will end up compromising or camouflaging our Christianity. Look this idea of being a pilgrim is not just a passing comment by Peter, he hits on this theme at least two more times. In 1 Peter 1:17 he says that we’re to conduct ourselves carefully “throughout the time of our stay here” and in 1 Peter 2:11 he pleads with us: “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against your soul.” It was when Lot stopped being a sojourner and settled down in Sodom that everything important to him went up in smoke. You don’t have to travel to a foreign country to feel like a stranger. When you are saved Christ changes your life,  nothing is the same and people will look at you as an odd ball. When you choose to pursue a path of purity people will label you as a looser. If you’re a Christian teenager and you strive to live for Jesus, you will be a stranger in your school. When you are faithful to your spouse because you follow Jesus people will call you a fool. They will tell you that you are going to miss out and you are, you’re going to missing out on a life of sin and suffering, but they are going to make it seem like you’re missing out on fun. You will either following Jesus and be a freaky foreigner or you will forever be trying to fit in. Look in many ways we are misfits, but I would rather be a misfits than be messed up. We need to stop trying to find our hope in this hostile world and remember where we are heading. Peter was preaching to those who were scattered because of persecution, today we tend to see persecution as a problem but persecution can be productive because it propel us to go and preach in places we normally wouldn’t go. In Acts 1:8 the believers were told to go with the gospel from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. They didn’t do so well with that assignment but in Acts 8:1 we read persecution pushed them out of their places of comfort and caused them to be on mission for God. You can spend your time whining about what the world is coming to, or you can spend your time witnessing about who has come into the world!