Elected-Rejected-Ejected - 1 Peter 1:1b
Pastor Tim Brown, Calvary Chapel Fremont, Sunday June 28, 2009
Elected – Rejected – Ejected
1 Peter 1:1b
Peter is writing to those who have suffered persecution in the past (1:1)/about to have it intensify (4:12). Scattered in MAP – scattered because of persecution. He writes as one who knows that as circumstances grow increasingly bitter, Jesus Christ becomes increasingly sweeter. Morphine drips in hospital dispensed by button.
Circumstances are about to become increasingly bitter - Romans viewed Christians as antisocial. Certain charges would become common: Romans viewed Christians as “atheists” (for rejecting the gods), “cannibals” (for claiming to eat Jesus’ “body” and drink his “blood”), and incestuous (for statements like “I love you, brother,” or “I love you, sister”). A fire devastated Rome in a.d. 64/estates of Nero were untouched. Nero needed a scapegoat for his ills. According to 2nd century historian Tacitus, Nero burned Christians alive as torches to light his gardens at night. He killed other Christians in equally severe ways (e.g., feeding them to wild animals for public entertainment). He murdered thousands of Rome’s Christians. IVP background commentary
Peter writes: things are about to heat up. No NT author paints the life of following Jesus as a life of health/wealth/comfort. The authentic Christian life is a life of sacrificial love for God and others. It is a life of standing against the temptations of the devil/struggling against the passions of the flesh/striving against the influence of the world. It is a life that sets you at odds w/ people around you because you have a different value system. You don’t applaud the things they applaud and you support some of the things they detest. Living a life where you are swimming upstream against the dominant cultural values of the day is a difficult and challenging life. The authentic Christian life makes you an alien and a stranger to the culture you live in.
Peter knows that living the Christian life as it should be lived is the 2nd most demanding thing a person can do. The 2nd hardest thing you will ever do is to follow Jesus all the way. The hardest thing to do is to follow Jesus ½ way. The hardest thing you will ever do is to live the Christian life as an afterthought. (Illustrate w/ 25 lb. weight) By personal experience Peter knows that it is easier to follow Jesus all the way than ½ way. When it was dangerous to follow Jesus, he tried being a ½ way follower – to strike a balance between running from Jesus and running to Jesus.
After Jesus’ arrest Peter followed Him at a distance. He thought, “I’ll shadow Jesus, that’ll be safe. I’m following Him, but it doesn’t look like I am. I’ll strike a healthy balance between fanaticism and indifference.” It was a balance he couldn’t maintain. One of the messages of 1P is: don’t be a ½ way Christian – don’t try and maintain a balance – you’ll bomb. It’s a lot easier to walk w/ Jesus when you’re following closely than when you’re following far back.
Some of you are shadowing Jesus. Your faith in Him compels you to follow, but your fear of the crowd compels you to keep your distance. Your conviction pulls you after Jesus, but your cowardice pushes you into the closet. After shadowing Jesus, after living like this for a while you say, “I’m tired of living the Christian life.” And the problem is that you have never lived the Christian life. You’ve lived the ½ Christian life – and this will drive you from Jesus – like it did Peter. A faith that is ½ way, is a faith that never arrives. This book will challenge/encourage/strengthen you.
A note on word order in v1: ἐκλεκτοῖς (elected) παρεπιδήμοις (rejected) διασπορᾶς (ejected)}
The NASB places the word ‘chosen’ at the end of v1. In the Greek, it is the 5th word in the verse and precedes the word ‘aliens’. Chosen/ aliens/scattered... ESV reproduces Greek word order in English -
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion.. ESV
Let’s look at the truth each of these words convey to us.
Elected
Elect – does not give basis/purpose/means, just the fact - God chose you. The point of this important Bible truth isn’t that others aren’t chosen, but that you are. God selected you to know Him and follow Him. This makes you different. How so? You have been justified by the substitutionary death of Christ/regenerated by the Holy Spirit/indwelt by the Holy Spirit who comes to transform you. Justification/regeneration/transformation makes you different. You have a brand new life – old things have passed away/all things have become new 4 U. 2 others, U R strange/alien. There4, because U R elected, U R:
Rejected
Alien – 3 word compound: to be near those who are at home w/ one another. Meaning: you don’t belong/not native/you’re an outsider.
Christians were viewed as a social/religious minority and perceived to be dangerous. In Asia Minor/throughout the ancient Mediterranean world, natives reacted to strangers of all sorts with a combination of fear/suspicion/distrust. Natives had vested interests in the maintenance of local political/social/religious stability, and strangers, whose homes were elsewhere/had no roots in the local community, represented a constant threat to public well-being. Their eccentric beliefs/strange habits/worship of foreign deities put the civic loyalty of such aliens into grave question. Accordingly, restrictions were placed on their legal/social rights, and they bore the brunt of… social discrimination. To alleviate their oppression, aliens generally yielded to pressures urging social cooperation/cultural accommodation/religious conformity. The price of such conformity was the sacrifice of all traces of ethnic or religious distinctiveness so as better to blend into the social woodwork. Such was the predicament of the Christian community in Asia Minor addressed in 1 Peter.1
Blend in – Peter had tried that. There is great pressure for you to keep your distance from Jesus – follow Him ½ way, blend in. But remember, the further Peter got from Jesus, the more he became like the crowd. Peter writes: you are to remain alien. Don’t compromise/assimilate/conform – you have another destiny. You are chosen for something else!
Someone wrote a letter to Diognetus in the 2nd century that describes the Christian life: Christians are not distinguished from the rest of mankind by either country, speech, or customs…. They reside in their respective countries, but only as aliens. They take part in everything as citizens and put up with everything as foreigners. Every foreign land is their home, and every home a foreign land…. They find themselves in the flesh, but do not live according to the flesh. They spend their days on earth, but hold citizenship in heaven.4 2
In world, not of it – they didn’t blend in. Many of you have been rejected by friends/acquaintances who don’t share your faith. To them, you are an alien - root of alienated. You are in good company -
All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. Hebrews 11:15
Ejected
Because they were rejected, they were ejected. They were where they were because something had forced them out of where they had been. This is reference to Christians among the Diaspora/ persecution of Jerusalem believers had scattered them – cf. Acts 8:1
All this was governed by the 4knowledge of God. Not just chosen according 2 4knowledge of God, but aliens/scattered, too. Not just the good experience of election, but the hard experiences of rejection/ejection, also – according to the foreknowledge of God.
Is something being forced upon you right now? You can trust that God has known about it and will strengthen you in it. You are elect, therefore the world will reject you and eject you. Walk close to Jesus.
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Elected – Rejected – Ejected
1 Peter 1:1b
Peter is writing to those who have suffered persecution in the past (1:1)/about to have it intensify (4:12). Scattered in MAP – scattered because of persecution. He writes as one who knows that as circumstances grow increasingly bitter, Jesus Christ becomes increasingly sweeter. Morphine drips in hospital dispensed by button.
Circumstances are about to become increasingly bitter - Romans viewed Christians as antisocial. Certain charges would become common: Romans viewed Christians as “atheists” (for rejecting the gods), “cannibals” (for claiming to eat Jesus’ “body” and drink his “blood”), and incestuous (for statements like “I love you, brother,” or “I love you, sister”). A fire devastated Rome in a.d. 64/estates of Nero were untouched. Nero needed a scapegoat for his ills. According to 2nd century historian Tacitus, Nero burned Christians alive as torches to light his gardens at night. He killed other Christians in equally severe ways (e.g., feeding them to wild animals for public entertainment). He murdered thousands of Rome’s Christians. IVP background commentary
Peter writes: things are about to heat up. No NT author paints the life of following Jesus as a life of health/wealth/comfort. The authentic Christian life is a life of sacrificial love for God and others. It is a life of standing against the temptations of the devil/struggling against the passions of the flesh/striving against the influence of the world. It is a life that sets you at odds w/ people around you because you have a different value system. You don’t applaud the things they applaud and you support some of the things they detest. Living a life where you are swimming upstream against the dominant cultural values of the day is a difficult and challenging life. The authentic Christian life makes you an alien and a stranger to the culture you live in.
Peter knows that living the Christian life as it should be lived is the 2nd most demanding thing a person can do. The 2nd hardest thing you will ever do is to follow Jesus all the way. The hardest thing to do is to follow Jesus ½ way. The hardest thing you will ever do is to live the Christian life as an afterthought. (Illustrate w/ 25 lb. weight) By personal experience Peter knows that it is easier to follow Jesus all the way than ½ way. When it was dangerous to follow Jesus, he tried being a ½ way follower – to strike a balance between running from Jesus and running to Jesus.
After Jesus’ arrest Peter followed Him at a distance. He thought, “I’ll shadow Jesus, that’ll be safe. I’m following Him, but it doesn’t look like I am. I’ll strike a healthy balance between fanaticism and indifference.” It was a balance he couldn’t maintain. One of the messages of 1P is: don’t be a ½ way Christian – don’t try and maintain a balance – you’ll bomb. It’s a lot easier to walk w/ Jesus when you’re following closely than when you’re following far back.
Some of you are shadowing Jesus. Your faith in Him compels you to follow, but your fear of the crowd compels you to keep your distance. Your conviction pulls you after Jesus, but your cowardice pushes you into the closet. After shadowing Jesus, after living like this for a while you say, “I’m tired of living the Christian life.” And the problem is that you have never lived the Christian life. You’ve lived the ½ Christian life – and this will drive you from Jesus – like it did Peter. A faith that is ½ way, is a faith that never arrives. This book will challenge/encourage/strengthen you.
A note on word order in v1: ἐκλεκτοῖς (elected) παρεπιδήμοις (rejected) διασπορᾶς (ejected)}
The NASB places the word ‘chosen’ at the end of v1. In the Greek, it is the 5th word in the verse and precedes the word ‘aliens’. Chosen/ aliens/scattered... ESV reproduces Greek word order in English -
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion.. ESV
Let’s look at the truth each of these words convey to us.
Elected
Elect – does not give basis/purpose/means, just the fact - God chose you. The point of this important Bible truth isn’t that others aren’t chosen, but that you are. God selected you to know Him and follow Him. This makes you different. How so? You have been justified by the substitutionary death of Christ/regenerated by the Holy Spirit/indwelt by the Holy Spirit who comes to transform you. Justification/regeneration/transformation makes you different. You have a brand new life – old things have passed away/all things have become new 4 U. 2 others, U R strange/alien. There4, because U R elected, U R:
Rejected
Alien – 3 word compound: to be near those who are at home w/ one another. Meaning: you don’t belong/not native/you’re an outsider.
Christians were viewed as a social/religious minority and perceived to be dangerous. In Asia Minor/throughout the ancient Mediterranean world, natives reacted to strangers of all sorts with a combination of fear/suspicion/distrust. Natives had vested interests in the maintenance of local political/social/religious stability, and strangers, whose homes were elsewhere/had no roots in the local community, represented a constant threat to public well-being. Their eccentric beliefs/strange habits/worship of foreign deities put the civic loyalty of such aliens into grave question. Accordingly, restrictions were placed on their legal/social rights, and they bore the brunt of… social discrimination. To alleviate their oppression, aliens generally yielded to pressures urging social cooperation/cultural accommodation/religious conformity. The price of such conformity was the sacrifice of all traces of ethnic or religious distinctiveness so as better to blend into the social woodwork. Such was the predicament of the Christian community in Asia Minor addressed in 1 Peter.1
Blend in – Peter had tried that. There is great pressure for you to keep your distance from Jesus – follow Him ½ way, blend in. But remember, the further Peter got from Jesus, the more he became like the crowd. Peter writes: you are to remain alien. Don’t compromise/assimilate/conform – you have another destiny. You are chosen for something else!
Someone wrote a letter to Diognetus in the 2nd century that describes the Christian life: Christians are not distinguished from the rest of mankind by either country, speech, or customs…. They reside in their respective countries, but only as aliens. They take part in everything as citizens and put up with everything as foreigners. Every foreign land is their home, and every home a foreign land…. They find themselves in the flesh, but do not live according to the flesh. They spend their days on earth, but hold citizenship in heaven.4 2
In world, not of it – they didn’t blend in. Many of you have been rejected by friends/acquaintances who don’t share your faith. To them, you are an alien - root of alienated. You are in good company -
All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. Hebrews 11:15
Ejected
Because they were rejected, they were ejected. They were where they were because something had forced them out of where they had been. This is reference to Christians among the Diaspora/ persecution of Jerusalem believers had scattered them – cf. Acts 8:1
All this was governed by the 4knowledge of God. Not just chosen according 2 4knowledge of God, but aliens/scattered, too. Not just the good experience of election, but the hard experiences of rejection/ejection, also – according to the foreknowledge of God.
Is something being forced upon you right now? You can trust that God has known about it and will strengthen you in it. You are elect, therefore the world will reject you and eject you. Walk close to Jesus.
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