The Exile Resolutions

Hey, Summit, we are in a series called Together We Endure, a study through Peter's first letter to the church. So if you've got your Bible, I want you to grab it and open it there or turn it on or open up a new window and search 1 Peter or whatever. When you get there, will you just throw it in the chat?

Found it like a digital sword drill for those of you that are missing VBS already. Now in 1 Peter, Peter is encouraging this scattered group of believers whose worlds have been turned upside down to grow up in their faith and to be the kind of believers that can endure in a hostile and chaotic world. We're going to pick up in verse 11 of chapter 2 where Peter is going to urge two crucial changes of perspective that we must have if we're going to thrive in this kind of chaotic world. I want to give them to you as two resolutions I believe that we need to make.

Only two, only two this weekend. The first one is this, verse 11. Dear friends, dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles.

That's going to be important context. As strangers and exiles, you need to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul. Here's resolution number one. I will die to my need for instant gratification. Our sinful desires, Peter says, they wage war against our souls. They literally kill our faith. The apostle John is going to tell us the same thing in his letter to the church. First John 2 15, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

Those are not from the father, but they're from the world. He goes on, if any of us love the world, John says, the love of the father is not going to be in you. Now understand, neither John nor Peter believes that the world is all bad, that pleasures are bad, that Christians ought to be ascetics or prudes or monks or kill joys who refrain from all pleasures.

I know some Christians who are like that, but that's not Peter and John. God loves the world. John taught us and he created the world for our delight. And when we enjoy his creation, he is glorified. What Peter and John are warning about is a love for the world that replaces a love for God. John in his letter mentions three things.

You saw them in that verse that are in the world that, that are always competing with God to be our master. The first he said was the lust of the flesh. The lust of the flesh tell us feel good. Now, whatever the cost gratification of your physical desires is the only way to be happy, whether that comes from, from food or sex or creature comforts or whatever. The second thing he says is the lust of the eyes. The lust of the eyes tell you for life to be good. You've got to have X, the car, the house, the clothes, the second home that causes us to look out in envy at what others have that we don't because we felt like if we had that, the lust of the eyes and I'd be happy. The pride of life says to have worth, you got to be superior to others.

You got to be the best at Y or you must accomplish Z because then people will, will look up to you and admire you and you will be important. Those three desires, those lusts, those drives wage war, Peter says, against your soul. They literally murder your relationship with God. John says, if any man loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. The two cannot go exist.

We'll see, here's the problem. You and I are raised in a world that tells us that one of those three is the path to the good life. You gravitate toward at least one of them.

Which one probably depends a little bit on your personality. Some of you are all about feeling good right now. I have that instant gratification monkey is always right there and he's calling out to you to do whatever, whatever makes you feel good in the moment. Relax, have fun, enjoy yourself, engage in the pleasures of food, sex, drink, leisure, creature comforts, whenever and wherever you can.

Right? That's, that's what John means by, by people who are drawn along by the lust of the flesh. Others of you, you're less driven along by the, by the lust of the flesh, by the impulses of the moment. You can say no to those impulses, but, but you're driven by something you want to obtain in the future. The degree, the job, the income, the victory.

So you'll study hard now or train hard now or save your money now, live meagerly now so that you can get those good things later. Well, that's what John is talking about when he says the lust of the eyes and the, and the pride of life. Maybe you can say no to the, um, to the, to the lust of the flesh, but man, that thing that your eye wants, you're going after or that, that's that status of superiority.

You're going after that. Let's just be honest. Let's have a little honesty time.

Okay. I'm gonna give you one minute to discuss which of those three you tend to identify with the most. I realize you gotta be open and honest, but just talk about which ones you see manifesting in your life. To all three groups, Peter tells us to lift our eyes away from the world altogether. In verse 11, he says, you're strangers and exiles. You don't belong here. The place you ought to be finding your satisfaction, your home, your refuge is not here anyway. Interestingly, Peter seems to expand our understanding of instant gratification from simply the, um, the desire, the impulses of the moment to being driven by anything on earth in our quest for happiness.

He's going to think of instant gratification as, as whatever you're living for down here that, that causes you not to embrace your identity as a stranger and an exile. I've told you before about the infamous marshmallow test done in the 1970s at, at Stanford university. It actually wasn't marshmallows. The participants, um, were 32 children between the ages of, I think three and five. The children were led into this room. Um, one by one, it was empty of all distractions. There was a treat of their choice.

It was either two animal cookies or five pretzel sticks, no marshmallows, and they were placed on a table. The researchers told the children that they could eat the treat if they wanted, but if they were, could wait 15 minutes without eating, they would be rewarded with a second treat. Then they left the room and they, and they watched the kids through a camera. The ones that wanted to wait, they would develop these coping strategies to, to get their mind off of the temptation. Some would w w would cover their eyes with their hands.

Some would get up, walk around the room. Some refuse to even look at the treat. One kid even got down, they said, and licked the table beside the treat as if the, somehow the tastes of the, the treated transmogrified into the wood. They didn't track these, these children for the next three decades and found out that the children who were able to wait longer for, for their preferred reward tended to have better life outcomes in almost every category.

As measured, for example, by SAT scores, educational attainment, physical health, marriage satisfaction, and a whole host of other things. By the way, I've seen recently on social media, how a similar challenge has been going around is called the gummy bear challenge. And let me just tell you the results I've seen on social media from some of your children do not give me much hope for the future of our civilization. I'll just leave that there.

Okay. I think in our hearts, we're all kind of a, the treat grabber. Um, but obviously it's best to be able to delay gratification. We get that it's the athlete who pushes himself or herself when everybody else is relaxing, who succeeds. It's the student who studies, um, when others are partying, they gets the job.

It's the businessman or woman who, who goes that extra mile to stay ahead of the market, who, who obtained success. Learning to say no to instant gratification is key. And again, what Peter is telling you to do here is to expand your, your definition of instant gratification. Don't just say no to comforts and pleasures and impulses. Now to, to be able to get some other earthly reward later in your life, like a good job or degree or car to win. Learn to say no to being driven by anything on earth, anything, any reward in your life and find your reward in God. As a stranger in exile, find your reward in your heavenly country. As strangers and exiles, make your treasure there.

Look for your affirmation from him. He's your home up there is where you seek your reward. I don't, I don't think many of us realize how dangerous and pervasive those three things are. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Our world is, is proudly and unashamedly driven by them. At any point you and I are, are driven by one of them and they're, they're killing our faith.

So let me say it plainly. If you're driven by the desires of the flesh, you just want pleasure or just want to feel good. Or if you're driven by the lust of the eyes and you're driven by something you hope to obtain in the future, or you're driven by the pride of life, that desire to make a name for yourself, your relationship with God is being eaten away and your soul is being destroyed.

These things wage war against the soul. At every point in your life, you're either driven by God or you're driven by one of those three things. I love how JC Ryle, the British pastor of the 19th century used to say it, being ruled by the desires of your body will murder your soul only, only by constantly finding these things, by dying to these things and the power of the gospel will you live.

Are you doing that? You know, many people I find think that coming to Christ means mixing in a little religion, a little morality into your life, but coming to Christ means dying to those old ways of living, dying to looking at physical gratification or material attainment or worldly acclaim as your source of happiness and instead finding all of those things in God, your home and in heaven, your eternal country. You see, by the way, this is why we fast and it's why we give. Through occasionally depriving ourselves of food, for example, we're trying to break the hold of instant gratification on our hearts through generosity. We're trying to break the hold of material acquisition, the lust of the eyes as the captivating drive in our lives. Through doing those things like fasting or generosity and the power of the spirit, we're training our hearts to give God more weight than our impulses or our earthly ambitions. There's nobody who is more miserable than the half committed Christian. Freedom and joy in the Christian life is found only by surrendering all of yourself completely with abandon to Jesus. There's a great song that we love to sing here that expresses that. It's called Withholding Nothing.

What if we just stopped and all just sang that together as a church? And you made that your prayer of commitment right now. Withholding nothing, with holding nothing, I surrender all to you. Everything I give to you.

Withholding nothing, with holding nothing. Come on, help me sing the I surrender. I surrender all to you. Everything, Lord. Everything I give to you. Withholding nothing, with holding nothing.

I surrender, I surrender all to you. Everything, everything I give to you. Withholding nothing, with holding nothing.

Withholding nothing, with holding nothing. I give you all of me. I give you all of me. I give you all of me. I give you all of me. I give you all of me.

I surrender it all. I give you all of me. I give you all of me. I give you all of me. I surrender it all.

I give you all of me. I give you all I say forever, forever and ever, I give it all, I give it all. Say it again, children, say, King Jesus. I say forever, I give it all, I present my body, a living sacrifice, only an acceptable Jesus. I say, King Jesus, I say, I say forever, I give it all, I give it all, I give you all of me, I give you all of me, I surrender all to you, everything I give to you, withholding nothing, withholding nothing, withholding nothing, I'm withholding nothing.

Okay, resolution number two. I will replace the question of what impact does this situation have on me with how can I glorify God and amplify the gospel? Look at verse 12.

Peter says, conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day that he visits. Now, Peter in the next few verses is about to walk us through three difficult relationships that believers in his day found themselves in. The first was being subject to the leadership of non-Christian and sometimes unjust rulers. The second is being in the employment and under the control of an unjust master. And third, being married to an imperfect person.

We'll get into the particulars of those more next time. I know that you'll have some questions about those, but I just want to give you the big idea today that he introduces in verse 12. Peter says in verse 12 that we need to change our perspective on what the point and purpose of our lives is and what the goal in these relationships is. We are here, Peter says, to glorify God and amplify the gospel. For somebody who is a resident of this world, of course, what matters is that they get the recognition, the justice, the reward that they deserve here. But for somebody who is a citizen of heaven, what matters is how their situation prepares us and others for that home that is our real home.

Let me call back an example I often use to illustrate this. I say, imagine if your life were a movie. If your life were a movie, who would the main character in that movie be? I mean, in every movie, of course, there are major characters and there are minor characters.

What happens to minor characters is not as important because the story is really about the major character. I've seen advertisements recently for the new Top Gun and I am more than a little excited because Top Gun was one of my absolute favorite movies from the 1980s. The main character of Top Gun was who? Well, Maverick, of course. Tom Cruise is the main character in every movie he's ever played in. Goose, in my opinion, was actually a better character.

He's a better guy. But Goose's whole role in the movie is to die so that Maverick can develop convictions of his own and become the man his dad always thought he could be. Goose's story is tragic, but his story contributes to a larger story, and that story is one that turns out quite well. So ask yourself this, if your life were a movie, who would the main character in that movie be?

You say, well, duh, me. And for most of us, that's true. But see, if you're the main character in your movie, then that means you're going to evaluate everything that happens in your life by its effect on you. How did this situation help me? Did it make me stronger? Did it make my life easier?

Did I get what I deserve? But see, if Jesus is the main character of your story, then in everything that happens to you, good or bad, you ask, how can this contribute to his story? The point is not how things better benefit me or you. It's how do they help us tell his story better, in riches or in poverty and prosperity or in pain? The question is, how can I use this to glorify God and amplify the gospel?

When something bad happens, you might say, well, this is not very good for me personally, but how can this point people to the gospel and how can I direct people's admiration to the Heavenly Father? You say, well, why would anybody want to switch out themselves as the main character of their movie? Well, here's why. Because one day, the curtain on your life is going to close and the credits will roll. And if the story was all about you, well, then it's over. But see, if your story was bound up in his story and surrendered to his story, then that means that even after you leave this earth, you're going to get to participate and rejoice in a story that goes on forever and that always ends in victory. As strangers and exiles, Peter says, view your life through the lens of God's story.

In all things, you should ask, how do I use this to glorify God and point people to the gospel? Look at verse 12 again. When they slander you, Peter expects us to be slandered and mistreated as an evildoer. And this was literally true for Christians in Peter's day. The early Roman world that Peter was a part of did not understand Christians and they felt threatened by them.

And so they did what people do a lot. They just made up lies about them. They believed that Christians were superstitious because they believed in miracles. They called them atheists because they denied the existence of dozens or hundreds of Roman gods. They called them incestuous. They accused them of incest because they said they marry their brothers and sisters because of how Christians referred to each other.

They taught that they were cannibals because they would talk about in their worship services, eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Jesus, talking about communion. Christians became the preferred scapegoats for societal problems. When Nero, for example, burnt Rome to the ground, he blamed it on the Christians.

Later, when the Visigoths attacked Rome, they blamed the Christians and said it was their fault. Peter says, listen, you ought to expect this. This is what they did to Jesus. And he showed you how to respond. Look at what Peter says down in verse 21 for a minute. He says you were called to this.

You were called to this because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. Verse 23, when he was insulted, he did not insult in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten but entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree so that by his wounds you have been healed. A quote from Isaiah. Peter is asking you, what did Christ do when he experienced opposition?

First, he was patient under it. Listen, you need to get rid of this idea that if you live right, that nothing bad will ever happen to you, that no lies will ever be told about you, that vindication will always quickly come. Good guys ultimately win in every situation. Well, it didn't happen that way with Jesus and he was the ultimate good guy. If you think living rightly ensures that you will avoid injustice and suffering, well, honestly, I'm not sure what savior you're following. Jesus suffered unjustly and he left that example that we should follow in his steps. Second thing Peter shows us is that Jesus committed himself to to him who judges justly. In other words, he waited for vindication from his heavenly father and for a reward in his heavenly country.

If he if he never got vindication or reward here, that was okay. He was a stranger and an exile and his real home was his heavenly country so he was willing to wait for that. Third, Peter shows you, he kept doing good even when he was being slandered. He kept doing miracles. He kept forgiving people even when they were nailing him to the cross. He took the the long view of vindication, letting his good works speak for themselves.

Peter says that's what that you and I must do also. Keep doing good works and let those good works vindicate you. Look, verse twelve, by your by your what? By what will you silence ignorant people? Not by your social media post.

Did you hear me? By your good works, Peter says. Listen, stop complaining that evangelicals are treated unfairly by the media and start taking care of the orphans in our city. When the foster services have no more kids to place and we're the only people at the table, well, let that change everybody's perspective. Stop arguing the fact that Christians aren't judgmental and instead invite a homosexual couple over for dinner at your house. Stop trying to prove that Christians aren't racist and invite into your life people who don't look like you.

Try to get to know them, feel their pain, and carry their burdens like you would your own. You see, the more we display the gospel, the more that you and I will have opportunity to declare it and that's what Peter is saying here. I experienced this a few years ago. A really liberal theology professor in our city here wrote a scathing blog about me and our church and said a lot of just frankly untrue things, unkind things about us. Basically saying that we were what is wrong with the world. Well, I got a little fired up as I do from time to time and I wanted to write a response blog, which I feel like I'm, you know, pretty decent at, but my wife told me she said, no, no, no, just you need to let God defend you in this. So, as hard as it was, I did.

I didn't respond. In fact, after several weeks, I called up the professor, introduced myself, and asked if I could take her to lunch. And yep, it was as awkward as it sounds, but during that conversation, she had a different spirit about her and eventually about halfway through our lunch, she told me, she said, you know, I got to tell you something that happened last week that's really been bothering me. She said, there's a poor single woman who lives in my neighborhood and she's really gone through a rough time recently. And she told me that if it weren't for people in your church, she may not have made it.

Members of your church have been there at every step to help her with her financial needs, with her kids. And she said, I realized that if this was how you take care of people, then what I said about you and your church probably wasn't true. Now, that's a pretty good defense. Amen. That's what Peter is talking about. So Jesus, even when being slandered, he just kept doing good. He kept doing what he knew to be the right thing. The fourth thing that Peter points to in the example of Jesus was that with Jesus' patient suffering under injustice, get this, was the means by which he saved us. Peter quotes Isaiah here, prophesying by his wounds, he will heal us. Jesus' wounds were not some unfortunate byproduct of our salvation. Jesus' wounds were the very means by which he purchased our salvation. And in some mysterious way, Peter says, just like Jesus purchased salvation for us through his wounds, so we will extend that salvation through our wounds. Paul said the same thing in the book of Colossians. He said, I am filling up in my body what is lacking in the wounds of Christ. What an amazing phrase, filling up in my body what is lacking in the wounds of Christ. How could anything possibly be lacking in Christ's wounds? I mean, didn't Jesus say it is finished?

And if it's finished, then how could it be lacking anything? Well, yes, of course, the work of salvation is finished, but what is not finished is people hearing about the offer of salvation. And salvation is not complete until people hear the message and respond.

It's like Martin Luther said, it wouldn't matter if Jesus died a thousand times if nobody ever heard about it. People have to hear the message and believe it in order to be saved by it. And it's by our wounds, Peter and Paul say, and how we respond to those wounds that people will best hear and believe. As we endure with hope, as we forgive those who treat us wrongly, and as we love those who don't love us or treat us rightly, the world sees the truth about the gospel and they understand the message about Jesus.

By our patient endurance under unjust wounds, we follow in Jesus's steps and we complete what is lacking in Christ's suffering. By the way, interesting word here that's used in Greek, for example, the word Peter uses, for example, verse 21 is the word hupogrammas. Grammas means to write. It's where we get our word grammar from. Hupa means under. Hupagrammas means to trace or to copy something written under that you copy on the sheet above that.

Greek parents teaching their kids to write with jot out letters on a page, and then they put a thin little see-through sheet over what they had written so the little Greek children would trace what they had written and in that way they would learn to write the letters correctly. That's what we are to do with our suffering. Lay down Christ example in our hearts and then trace his response with ours. So let me ask you to consider, where might God be calling you to respond this way like Christ to some wound that you are enduring right now? To a friend that has wronged you that you need to reach out to with forgiveness? To somebody who's treated you unjustly that you need to reach out to in love and forgiveness like Christ reach out to you?

Where do you have a broken relationship? Is there somebody you're supposed to respond to with goodness like Christ did to put on display the gospel? Is there somebody that you need to put away your desire for vindication or vengeance with them and just love the person like Christ loved you? When Christ died on the cross it was 100% our fault, not his fault, but he kept loving and he kept coming toward us.

Where do you need to do that with somebody else? Where do you need to bear patiently somebody's wounds towards you and just pray like Jesus did? Father forgive them because they don't really understand what they're doing. You see, maybe God right now is trying to tell a story through you. A story not about you, a story much more important than you or me. Your story, no matter how good, it can't save anybody. But Jesus' story can and what greater honor than to have our little lives contribute to his eternal story, to have your story point somebody to his story to find eternal salvation. Our wounds and how we respond to those wounds or how God displays the gospel best. By the way, I always want to say this when I talk about these things, I never mean by this and neither would Peter, I don't mean keeping yourself in an abusive situation.

If that's where you are, then you should reach out for help. What Peter means is constantly loving and never ceasing to forgive those who have wronged and mistreated us. So to conclude, the Strangers and Exiles, Peter says, we set our sights on different goals than the world. We want different things out of life and we define success in different ways.

What is your ultimate goal in life? Now, I was reminded this week of one of my favorite missionary stories that I think perfectly illustrates the change of perspective that Peter is calling for here. It's a story you might never have heard yet, yet this guy's life impacts you in incredible ways that you may not even realize. His name was Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf. I told you that you'd never heard of him. Anybody name your kid after Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf?

If you did name your kid Zinzendorf and they're in the room with you right now, mute this video for a minute and apologize to them, okay? Old Nick. Old Nick was born into a noble family of privilege in Dresden, Germany in the early 1700s. As a count, he was expected to take over his family's wealthiest state one day, which basically meant that he would do very little and get lots of money for it.

His life was destined to be one of leisure, pleasure, and prestige. But shortly after his 20th birthday, Zinzendorf was visiting a really famous art museum in Dusseldorf where he was gripped by a painting called Ecce Homo, which is Latin for Behold the Man. The painting depicts Jesus just moments before the crucifixion, beaten, bloodied, wearing a crown of thorns. In the painting below Jesus, the painter Domenico Fetti had put these words into the mouth of Jesus. All this I've done for you.

What have you done for me? Zinzendorf wrote about being profoundly struck by that statement and that painting. He was gripped by the brevity of life, by what Jesus had actually done for him, and the urgency of the gospel. In that moment, Zinzendorf knew that he could no longer pursue a life of leisure and call himself a faithful follower of Jesus. So he began to use his massive estate to train and send out what became hundreds, even thousands of young twenty-somethings from around Germany to carry the gospel around the world.

Eventually, he would give away the vast majority of his fortune. One night in 1727, a small group of them prayed all through the night for God to start a movement through them that no one could ever stop. And then they literally never stopped. I mean, literally morning came and they began to pray in shifts around the clock. That night in 1727 birth, what became known as the hundred-year prayer meeting around the clock prayer chain that continued for more than a century. From that prayer movement, God raised out thousands of young missionaries to plant churches and established gospel communities all around the world. They called themselves Moravians because that was the region of Germany where most of them were from. A few Moravians even moved to the place where I would one day grow up, Winston Salem, North Carolina, to establish a gospel community there in 1753.

Their gospel impact would not only shape the community I grew up in, it would lay a foundation for evangelism and church planting all over the southeast for the next 200 plus years. And that's why I say his life and his faith and his sacrifice impacts you today. Zinzendorf, as a young man, wrote words that define the movement, words that I feel like could have come right out of this letter of 1 Peter. Zinzendorf said, I have but one passion. It is he.

It is he alone. The world is the field and the field is the world and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ. I desire only to preach the gospel, to die, and to be forgotten. As a stranger and a pilgrim, I desire just to preach the gospel, to die, and to be forgotten. Are you ready for that to be your life motto?

See, here's why you can say that with confidence. Peter ends this chapter, verse 25, by saying, you were like sheep going astray, but you've now returned to the shepherd and the overseer of your souls. In other words, you're going to be okay because you're safe with Jesus. I mean, after all, he came after you when you were lost and he'll never leave you or forsake you now that you're his child. As Pastor Curtis showed us a couple of weeks ago, the one bedrock thing Peter was sure of was that in all things good and bad, high and low, Jesus was there. His love never failed and his presence would never leave. With him, Peter says, you can not only endure all things, you can overcome them all.

Can I ask you a question? Are you ready to abandon your hopes in this world and tie yourself exclusively to Jesus and his kingdom? Have you even started this journey? Listen, if not, you can do so right now through repentance and faith. Jesus is ready to be the shepherd of your soul and to give you hope beyond the grave. You see, the gospel is that though you and I stood guilty of sin, our choice to do what we wanted instead of what God wanted.

God loved us enough that Jesus, his son, came to take our place on the cross and suffered that punishment in our place. If you receive him, if you will receive him, he will save you. If you've never done that, you can do it right now by bowing your head and asking Christ to save you. Listen friend, if that's you and you've never trusted Christ to save you, say, Lord Jesus, I surrender to you as my shepherd and my Lord. I receive your offer to save me. Hey, as they're praying that if you know that you've already received Christ, why not ask God in this moment how to help you live as an exile?

How to help you die to your need for instant gratification and teach you to be willing to wait until eternity for vindication and reward? Why don't you pray that right now? Father, I thank you for those that have prayed to receive you right now. I pray for those that, God like me, are asking you to give us the wisdom and strength to see ourselves as exiles and to live with you as our home and free your kingdom to be our kingdom. God guide us in these days, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Hey listen, as always, if you prayed the prayer to receive Christ, we want you to let us know either in the comments or send us a note to prayer at SummitRDU.com. Let's all now, wherever we are, whether you're by yourself in front of a computer or you're in a living room with the family and maybe some friends, why don't we join our hearts and let's worship together the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.