2 Peter: Kingdom People

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Most Christians want to have a confident and compelling walk with the Lord, but simply knowing God's Word is not enough to create such a walk. We must remember daily the truth He has spoken through His Word, abiding in Christ and keeping in step with the Spirit and the day-to-day attitudes and decisions of our lives. How encouraging that as we make every effort to follow after Him, God is completing the work in us. He's teaching us to be kingdom people. Let's listen to this message from 2 Peter 1 10-11 titled Kingdom People. This is part three of the message, which was first preached on June 18th, 2023 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. This is what Paul intended for his readers of Colossians chapter 1.

He said this in Colossians 1. He has reconciled us in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him. If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, not shifting from it. So there's a continuance. There's a continuance. In other words, living as people who remember and then exercise, being diligent to confirm that calling and election, nurture and bring to outward expression the reality of that divine life within.

It requires regular exercise on our part. Another way that Paul put it when he was writing to the Roman church, he said he used the clothing terminology, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its selfish desires. That's what we're doing in this. We are putting on the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's becoming our new garments. That outward expression, the outward reality of the outward expression of the inward reality that indeed I am in Christ. I am forgiven. I'm made new.

All of that working its way out. The more you practice, the more confident you will become, the more stable you will be. As you are moving in a God-ward direction, you're becoming more and more Christ-like.

This is progress. And you're growing in this confident walk. So those who regularly exercise these spiritual disciplines manifest a confident walk.

Should be a good goal for all of us, shouldn't it? Number two, they manifest a compelling walk. Verse 11, for in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That requires some foundational understanding and con-biblical context, a theological context, and understanding that.

A compelling walk. First of all, let's remember what Peter said when he wrote in his first letter, to these people, to the Christians of the first century in Asia Minor. What did he call them?

Remember what he called them? First Peter 1, 1, to the elect exiles. Elect exiles. That's what we are. Remember, elect, God's elect, meaning what? Holy and beloved.

That's how God sees you. We are elect exiles. What does exile mean? We don't belong here. This is not home for us.

This is not home. So with that being understood, we recognize that because we don't belong here, we are actually marching to a different drumbeat. Our citizenship is where?

In heaven, Paul writes to the Philippians, our citizenship is in heaven. We belong somewhere else, but we're here temporarily and we're here for a reason. We're here on purpose, on mission. But we are here even though we don't belong here. All the more reason why we should understand that we don't just coast through it.

There's a very reason and purpose for us being here. But we are marching to a different drumbeat. And those who see us marching to a different drumbeat sometimes will not understand it, other times they will be threatened by it. And when they're threatened by it, sometimes they will ridicule it, other times they will be violent against it.

Many of our brothers and sisters around the world have to experience that violence every day. But we are members of another kingdom. Yes, there is the lower earthly kingdom and we should be good practicing citizens, stewards of our citizenship here, manifesting the character of Christ. But we belong somewhere else.

One of my favorite ways to describe that is how Paul does it again to the Colossian church. You've been rescued and you've been transferred. You've been, kingdoms, you've moved from one kingdom to another. We have been rescued from the domain of what? Darkness and transferred into what?

The kingdom of his beloved son. You were in the kingdom of darkness before you were in Christ. You have been rescued from that.

Think of a rescued POW. But you were held hostage by your own rebellion. You've been rescued from that and you have been transferred into the kingdom of the son of his love. You are a member of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. See yourself that way. This is what Peter is appealing to. And so we are called then to live as kingdom people, meaning we're living for the line, not just the dot. You with me on that?

Probably need to repeat that. If a line from that wall to that wall represents all of time and all of eternity, your life on that line is a tiny little speck that you can't even recognize. And we can become so preoccupied with what's happening in the speck that we lose sight of the line. We need to be living for the line because this kingdom, to which we belong in Christ, this kingdom will last how long? Forever.

Forever. Turn with me to Matthew chapter five. And we're going to read the words of the king. The one who will rule this kingdom, the one who is our king. And he is describing the character of the people of this kingdom.

He says, for those of you who belong to this kingdom, this is what your character looks like. Matthew chapter five, look with me at verse three. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is what?

The kingdom of heaven. Poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. We live in a broken world.

We see reality for what it is. And we mourn it. But that doesn't define, that mourning doesn't define us and it doesn't inhibit us.

It doesn't paralyze us. It motivates us. Verse six, verse five. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

That's the whole point, isn't it? Verse nine, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kind of evil against you falsely on my account.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Sounds counterintuitive, doesn't it?

But he's making a contrast. He's recognizing that we belong to two different kingdoms. There's a lower kingdom and there's a higher, greater, much more powerful and eternal kingdom. You and I belong to that one, but right now we're in this lower kingdom. And so as we're in this lower kingdom, we live as citizens of the higher kingdom. We live as people who remember that we are citizens of this higher kingdom. We march to that drumbeat, not the drumbeat of the lower one. That's why he says, verse 13, we know these verses well, you are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?

It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. That is kingdom character. And that is for people who are members of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. You say, Rich, what kingdom? We are members of it, but there is a kingdom, the actual kingdom is coming. And you and I will be an active part of it.

Right now, we are members of it, but an actual kingdom is coming. And this is God's plan for eternity. Here's how Paul put it in Ephesians chapter one and verse 10. They're a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. Everything united in Christ. In other words, he is literally Lord of everything.

Everything, all people. Think of the talents, the parable of the talents, how many parables that Jesus gives recorded in the gospels, right? The parable of the talents, Matthew chapter 25, the master goes away and he leaves talents.

And that's a monetary term. All right. He leaves talents to three of his servants.

Right. And he leaves ten to one serving, he leaves ten to one, he leaves five, another one, he leaves one. And he says, take this and use it and invest it, put it to work until I return. And eventually one day he does return in the man who was given ten talents, he had invested it and it grew and it flourished. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in him. The one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m..