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since I finished last quarter in Mark I thought the next obvious place to go would be first
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Peter if you'd like to turn there with me I found it uh somewhat amusing that uh last week Chuck quoted Peter's statement which he's
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quoted quite often that Peter says in Paul there are things quite difficult to understand and then Chuck said and in
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Peter there are things quite difficult to understand and we will find that we will have to deal with those things
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but this morning I'd like to begin with the introduction I'm going to read the first five verses of First Peter chapter Peter chapter 1 Peter Apostle of Jesus Christ to those
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who reside as aliens scattered throughout pontis galatia capadia Asia and bethenia who are chosen according to the forn knowledge of God the Father
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by the sanctifying work of the spirit that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood May Grace and peace be yours in fullest
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measure blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his great Mercy has caused us to be born again to a Living Hope through the
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resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and defiled and will not fade away reserved in heaven for you who
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are protected by the power of God through faith for a Salvation ready to be revealed in the last time let us
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pray Our Father we do again Ask as has been prayed that by your Holy Spirit you would open our minds our hearts to understand and to me meditate on these
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things that we might be built up in the Most Holy Faith that we might become who you have set us aside to be and we might
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glorify you in all that we do and say we ask in Christ's name
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authentic their authentic their authentic identity but mostly in our world today and apparently in Peter's Day in human
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terms as I thought about this question and I I was not a fan of the 1970s rock group The Who and once I
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studied the lyrics to their song called who are you um it's creepy Crick cringy confusing
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cringy confusing language but what I get from it is the person the writer composer is not asking who you are but he's looking into to
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himself what is my identity who are you who who he asks over and over who who are you I really
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want to want to know some would answer that question by giving a us their nationality their ethnicity some would give us their job
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title some would tell us their socioeconomic status or the status of their emotional abilities or perhaps
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disabilities and the past few years have brought weirdness to this question of identity has they not men identifying as
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women and vice versa or I've read about teens coming to class identifying as kitties or
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kitties or puppies someone on a Blog wrote and I don't know who they are because they didn't identify didn't identify themselves but I think it captures the
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modern idea of identity the identification seems to be necess AR to try and place oneself in a category one is not
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in a sort of self othering that seems to be our society but the basic idea is the same who who
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am I how do I identify myself and the modern selfhelp steps are are one discover your discover your potential choose your life
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purpose and then look for opportunities to practice and carry out your your your potential and your
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purpose and they stress the importance of this you need a sense of belonging you need to have
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well-being you need to have self-confidence and I would add and this is what I think is what people are after
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is ownership ownership of their own life I want to identify who I am and own that but that but also ownership of how you want others to
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look at you the late author and Dutch Catholic priest and Harvard Divinity School professor and I it's
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dutch so I'm going to try to not angle it too bad on no apparently in one of his lectures
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identified three identity three identity lies ways in which lies or identity lies to people for which most of us uh we fall for
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fall for them I am what I have I am what I do I am what others think of of
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me and from the brief Wikipedia biographical sketch new and seems to be desperately needing others to affirm and
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approve who he thinks he is but while these three identity lies are
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lies are true I think there is a forth lie that the human view of identity holds so holds so dear I am the
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determiner of my first letter speaks authoritatively to the
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issue of Christian identity and I think it's the foundation on which this letter exists there are those who think that it's actually two
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letters and we'll discuss some of these things as we go along but there are some who believe there are two letters up through verse 10 of chapter 4 and then from that point on and that somebody
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brought them brought them together but unless we understand our identity as identity as Christians I don't know that we can go on to the other I don't know that we can
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do what Peter is asking us to do and and and Peter doesn't look back at their ancestry he doesn't say come you know
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who are you and let's write those down and then let's tell you what I think about those he he doesn't deal with their ancestry he doesn't deal with
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their moral background he doesn't look at their social status or their socio economic status he does not even refer to their
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old identity he takes them straight to their new identity their identity in Christ Thomas Shriner wrote about the
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opening these first two verses that we'll look at this morning in 1 Peter chapter 1 he says quote the opening greeting in First Peter is hardly a
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customary hello it is theologically rich and densely packed with themes and we're going to try to unpack a few of those things time allowing but
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in these first five verses of First Peter we have a salutation we have a theology we have a benediction and a doxology all in five verses so the word
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he used there Pat is what we used to refer to as packed to a neutron density
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short book Peter brings us first to look at our identity as Christians who are you Peter Begins by saying Peter
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introducing himself Apostle of Jesus Christ there there there's no articles in this first uh verse in the Greek our
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translation put an apostle maybe calling us to think of he's one of the of the 12 but Peter I think is establishing his
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authority to write this letter again there are many people who think that someone else wrote the letter and put Peter's name on it and I don't know that I need to talk about that too much but
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if you write something or paint something or do some kind of artwork and put somebody else's name on it that's a
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forgery do you really believe that the holy spirit will allow us in the canonical theology to raise
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up our hopes on a forgery Peter it's the name that Jesus Christ gave Christ gave him Simon
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him Simon barjona specifically given this name by Christ to signify his new role as an apostle as a messenger of Jesus Christ a
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foundational member of the church and so Peter identifies himself as apostle of Jesus Christ clearly saying I am a
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messenger I have authority I have a commissioning by Christ Jesus himself and and his message is not going to be you know there there I want you to feel
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good about all these things that are I'm going to tell you are coming upon you yes there's plenty of Trials and testing and suffering that Peter goes into but that's not where he
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starts again because he wants us to ground Us in who we are before we can begin to understand how to live with our
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identity it's not feel-good advice but it is binding Apostolic truth from God Peter Apostle of Jesus Christ
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is what he is establishing his message on an authority to Bear the authentic message and testimony of the life and Ministry of the man that he followed
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closely for three years Jesus Christ he has a confidence in what he's presenting if you want a theme or a a purpose of the book go to ch 5:2 12 he says I have
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written to you briefly exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God stand firm in it this is a a book
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yes about testing and trials and sufferings but it is first of all a book of God's of God's grace what he has given you who he has
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made you to be so Peter in the very beginning of his letter introduces the concept of of Christian identity that is based on our relationship to
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relationship to God but also our relationship to the
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world because he calls us strangers but he defines us as chosen strangers Peter addresses these recipients here in verse one from the
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Old Testament tradition of of Covenant language he he talks about the election you you are chosen
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you are the elect he talks about aliens or we could translate that Exiles or strangers he talks about the diaspora
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scattered dispersed scattered dispersed abroad words that would have been familiar or are familiar to us as as we read about Abraham as we read about
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Moses as we read about the Exile as we read about the The Exodus and and many scholars look at these words in the chapter one um we
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might translate aliens as as foreigners or strangers in verse one or over in Chapter 2 he talks about Resident aliens
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and strangers they look at them as metaphors for for the Christian relationship to the world after their new birth as we've
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read here you have been born again and I believe that's right but I believe their emphasis is wrong because
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they look at that metaphor as strangers and aliens in one of three ways the Christians are just pilgrims
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passing through this world as foreigners we we're awaiting Christ's return that that we have this transitory life we
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happen to be here now and and we're kind of wandering lonely through the the deserts of this world and you may feel like that sometimes but I don't think
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that's where Peter is going some people believe that Christians that Peter is speaking of Christians who have witnessed a social
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political upheaval in their lives there are many people again is the the question of the dating of of Peter when he wrote where he was um where he
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ministered when did he die and many people believe that it has to be a very late letter because they had to have undergone the the Roman persecution
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where there the various Emperors and some of you are hisor torians in here so I have to be very careful because I'm not a not a historian but looking at the different
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Emperors and their persecution of Christians particularly Nero and saying that had to have happened that's why he addresses them as aliens they've been
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marginalized they've been banned from their original residences that's why they're Exiles that's why they're aliens and that may be the case but again I
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don't think that's where Peter is directing us and some people and I don't know how they get it but think that Peter is calling us to withdraw from the
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world get thee to a nunnery go to a Convent Monastery withdraw you should you are in the world but you're not of the world and that
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means you're isolated from the world but again I don't think that's where Peter is going what is an exile Exiles are people who do not hold
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citizenship in the place of residence they don't enjoy the rights and Privileges and responsibilities of the citizens where they
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live but they're also suspect they're also held as well you don't do what we do you don't
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seem to follow the Customs that we follow and so they're suspect they might be subversives be subversives you don't hold our values you don't
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follow the customs of our culture and Peter references the scattering or the diaspora the terms again from the Old
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Testament it's a technical term for a Jew living outside of Palestine since the Babylonian exile and in the Old Testament it is always as far as I can
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tell associated with sin and Disobedience of the people of Israel what commentator calls the Covenant
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failure that they did not live up to the Covenant that God had set with them and what does it do it results in God's judgment and then subsequent Exile from
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the land of promise but again I don't think that's where Peter is going with us and I say
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us because I think this is a very Universal book he is speaking to Gentiles perhaps some Jews mixed in but these are Gentile regions these are ones
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who are called Christians they have been born again he is speaking to the Christian population here in these
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regions and Peter could be referring to some of those things but I believe believe his illusion is illusion is this he is showing us that God still has
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his chosen his chosen people he's indicating that the sufferings and trials are not the result
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of Disobedience but in the words of Lutheran scholar Frederick Daner quote the sufferings of the new community come about not because of
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Disobedience but in spite of obedience it's because of their relationship to Christ that their relationship to the society in which
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they live is troubled Edmund Clowney writes they are foreigners by faith because by faith they are citizens of the city of God in
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other words they are Exiles because they are chosen are chosen they are chosen strangers they were chosen and they have become strangers to
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the society around them and so they are scattered as we are scattered there are Christians all over the world we are scattered around we are
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the diaspora We Are The Chosen and we are in our society Exiles and strangers and I do like the phrase ways in Chapter 2
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aliens and Peter I think Peter understands the disoriented feeling and again I think that's why this book has such a universal and
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Lasting appeal and draw for Christians is that Peter gets us because I think Peter struggled with who am
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I you I you remember in the gospels after Jesus died and rose again and then was out of their midst
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for some time before the Ascension what did Peter say that he was going to do I don't know about you guys but I'm
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going fishing that's who he thought he was that's who he identified as that's where Jesus had found him fishing
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but then I think he realized and remembered what Jesus had told him but I will make you aisher of men I think he went through this process of understanding his
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identity and he says to us all Christians regardless of where you live are foreigners and Resident aliens our values our customs the
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culture that we have Clash es with those around us there there is and you you feel it do you not your neighbors your co-workers even
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your own family there is a sort of an estrangement Peter in defining the relationship between Christians and
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unbelieving Society seems to say you are the chosen who are also foreigners you have a vertical relationship ship you are chosen by God
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but you live in the world and you have horizontal relationships you are chosen with respect to God but you're foreigners
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with respect to the commentary captures where Peter is going with
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this she writes this dual attachment to the society in which they live and to the Christian Community in which they were reborn calls for a strategy of
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living well in both he's not calling us to withdraw he's calling us to live well where we are because of who we
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are and Peter grounds this in this theology it's this what some people call the trinitarian ordo solutus the sequence of salvation of God the father and the Holy Spirit bringing us to
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obedience in Jesus Christ there are things here to to give us hope to give us encouragement and we don't have time to
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totally unpack everything that is here be but it's a blockbuster verse verse two according to the forn knowledge of God the God the Father by the sanctifying work of the
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spirit that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood now the development of the Trinity doesn't come till NAIA 3:25 ad right so we can't it
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would be an acronis to to say this is Peter introducing to us and teaching us all about the Trinity but nonetheless it
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is here God the father and his forn knowledge God's Eternal forn knowledge
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directing and Sovereign over the circumstances of History period not simply knowing about us having information about us or or as
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some say you know seeing that we would believe he chose us in a consistency with his own will and purpose
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and he adds God the Father there there is instantly this Cosmic forn knowledge of God and an intimacy God the father and it comes
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about in two places God in verse three the father of our Lord Jesus Christ and then reminding us several
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places in the letter Peter says you were born again born again again you have a new father you have God
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as your father there's an intimacy along with the with the authority the forn knowledge of God the Father the God who chose them to be in
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relationship with him has supreme authority over
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spirit there is divine initiative here again we've talked about the spirit some in Sunday school but but but here is the person of the spirit he's the instrument
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by which God makes his choosing operative and we know from the scriptures it's by consecration he sets us apart but as Peter is going to tell us yeah you've been set apart but you've
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been set apart for this to be holy as your lord your God is Holy and it's revelatory by the preaching of the word
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but it's transformative because he's conforming us to the likeness of Jesus Christ do you see the the power that's here the the the forn knowledge of God
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our Father and the sanctifying work of the spirit and what is it for Peter says for The Obedience and sprinkling of the
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blood of Christ the the sanctifying work of the spirit doesn't bring us into this uh what some would view a a a generic
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spirituality that oh you know I feel better about better about myself no he brings us into a new covenant he brings us into a new
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relationship the illusion that he's making where he's looking back at the Old Testament is to Exodus and to Mount Si in chapter 24 of the book of Exodus and
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we don't have time to read all of that but in chapters 22 and 23 and 24 what's going on in the background is an earthquake and the smoke
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and Moses bringing the law to the people and Gathering
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them the newly formed Nation people God's possession Israel there at the base of Mount Si in the hearing of the word of God pledges
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themselves in themselves in obedience to God the Father I'll read these
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words Moses took the book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people and they said all that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient so Moses took the blood and
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sprinkled it on the people and said behold the blood of the Covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words Peter is putting us in that
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Covenant and yes we we may laugh at the people you you read how many times in that passage the people say we will obey we will obey the earthquake and the
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smoke and the authority of Moses you we might laugh at them or just say these people are ridiculous they keep promising
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this but on this side of the Cross what Peter is saying to us that Covenant that was established with the People by God
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was not just a Feelgood thing it's to to show you that now the Covenant means your obedience because you've been
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sprinkled and I'm getting ahead of myself but you know the passage with the imperishable with the supremely rich and powerful
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we are made in the image of God and there is an Impulse to be what he created us to be as feeble and frail and fickle as we may
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be and Powerless that we are to actually do it this is what he presents to us Martin Luther wrote I believe that by
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my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him that's us but Peter is telling us by the for knowledge of God
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the father and by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit you were created for obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of
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Christ and some Christians naively say you know all of this stuff is just too hard it's too heavy just tell me what to do and what not to do and to be sure Peter has his virtue
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list and his vice list in his book but what I've discovered is most of them have to do with our relationship
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with others with the world and with our Brothers and Sisters in Christ he's focusing on who you
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are but I think Peter would actually say that the title my sermon is wrong I've titled it who are you but I think we'll discover as we go
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through Peter that the real title is who's are who's are you knowing and embracing our identity in Christ is of first importance to
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Peter because he's going to tell us know who you are or know who you are but he's also going to get to be what you
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are but he has to establish our identity first and we have to embrace it and many people look at troubles in life situations or Confusion by their
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life circumstances or they're tempted to doubt God's goodness and fullness but I think Peter says no no you're you're going to face that in chapter 4 he says
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well you know if Temptations and trials and sufferings come and in chapter 5 he says they're going to come get ready so it's
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coming but he says if you are in Christ you have to know whose you are and your father knows you and he is
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in control in fact Edmund Clowney writes this Christians indeed are not the real aliens in God's world
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ironically these wandering pilgrims will inherit the earth while those who think they can claim the world as their own
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ownership will lose it in God's judgment let us
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ask that you would renew our minds renew our hearts our spirits that we might understand these things we might meditate upon them but we also might walk in them as your
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children and children and rejoice that we have been made for obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of blood of Christ by your for
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Mis misunderstood but misunderstood but wonderful sanctifying work of the holy spirit thank you for these things thank you that you have given us
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this opportunity to gather around your table to celebrate the Lord's Supper that you've given us the the bread and the cup to remember
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the broken body of Christ to remember the shed blood of Christ to remember that remember that death and that victory that came from
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the resurrection we ask that we would truly participate together in this and rejoice in what you have done in Christ's name
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we pray we pray amen just a reminder that in the
