To the Elect Exiles
Download MP3I invite you to open your Bibles to 1st Peter 1, where you can look in your worship guide, 1st Peter 1. Tonight we're going to begin a new study through this epistle. This should take us all through the summer. This is going to be quite a change of pace, for what we've been used to going through Daniel with all of Daniel's long narratives. This is much more short.
Joel Brooks:It's much more dense, theologically packed and rich. Peter packs a whole lot in just a few words. As a matter of fact, when I see that at the start of this letter, when in just the first sentence, Peter pretty much explains who we are as God's people and our calling as a church. 1st Peter chapter 1 verse 1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.
Joel Brooks:To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion, in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bythinia, according to the foreknowledge of God the father, and the sanctification of the spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ, and for sprinkling with His blood. May grace and peace be multiplied to you. Pray with me. Lord, I ask that in this moment You would speak Your words. It wouldn't just be lifeless words written in black ink on white pages, but Lord, through Your Spirit, we would hear You calling us to Yourself.
Joel Brooks:We would hear You speaking. Lord, in this moment, I pray that my words would fall to the ground, and that they would blow away. But Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in a strong name of Jesus. Amen.
Joel Brooks:So why are we studying this letter? Of all the books we could look at, why this letter at this time? One of the reasons that I chose to go through this letter is because Peter is writing to a group of churches, new churches who are in the midst of the culture that was rapidly changing around them. It was a culture that was becoming increasingly hostile towards the church and towards the gospel. And I think that translates to our culture.
Joel Brooks:During the time that Peter wrote this, Christianity was growing, but it was being misunderstood. People were noticing all of the good works that the Christians were doing, but at the same time, they were very highly suspicious about Christians, about what Christians believed, what the motives behind these Christians were. And so the result at this time was that laws were being made. They were being passed that made it harder, really, to to share your faith. Harder, nearly impossible for them to to meet in public without persecution.
Joel Brooks:And so that the wheels of persecution are just beginning to speed up. And this is more than just friendships being lost, or more than just family relationships being disrupted. People were losing their businesses for being a Christian. People were going to jail for being Christians, and people were even losing their lives. This was a time of unprecedented persecution to the church, and Peter during this time, he wants to remind us of the church's glorious calling, and that this is expected.
Joel Brooks:It's expected. And God wants to preserve his church through this and actually use this situation to glorify his name. And so the letter is so full of hope. It was written around 64, 65 AD, right after the great burning of Rome. If you could put yourself back in your high school history class that you slept through, you might remember July 19th, April 64.
Joel Brooks:That was the year that was the date that Rome caught fire and burned a great deal of the city. The streets were very narrow there, and it burned through many of the homes, through the businesses, through a lot
Jeffrey Heine:of the
Joel Brooks:temples. A lot of the ancient landmarks that have been around for centuries burned to the ground. And the people, of course, during this time were outraged, and many people thought Nero, the emperor, did it. Actually, many of the historians at the time thought Nero was the one who set fire to this, and that would fit with his psychotic personality, which we'll look at later. And that Nero was just merely clearing land for his building projects that he loved.
Joel Brooks:But at this time, the people were furious, and they were pointing their finger at Nero, and so Nero needed a scapegoat. And so he went to the Christians. And he said it was the Christians. I mean, there was already a lot of anti semitism there. People did not like the Jewish people, and now all of a sudden you get this this set of Judaism coming out that was very mysterious.
Joel Brooks:There was already these rumors going about that these weren't just, you know, weird Jews. These were really, really weird Jews. They met in secret. They drank somebody's blood, and they ate somebody's body. They're they were always disrupting family relationships, and they were calling one another brother and sister.
Joel Brooks:And remember, they were talking always talking about the judgment of the world, and how God was gonna burn this world through fire. So Nero pointed the finger at the Christians, and the mobs, and the Romans all blamed them. And so the persecution began. Nero killed so many Christians during this time. We cannot fathom the level of persecution.
Joel Brooks:He would. He got bored of just simply killing Christians by, by the sword or by crucifixion. So we had to come up with with ways in which he could torture Christians. He would roll them up in tar, and he would put them in cages and hoist them up on poles to light them like torches, just to keep his gardens lit up at night. And then when he would get bored of that, he would think of other ways that he could torture Christians, and so he would, he would actually sew them up in animal skins, and he would release them in the circus so that they could be torn by wild animals.
Joel Brooks:He was sadistic and the people were glad for it because they wanted that scapegoat. And so to be a Christian was to invite hostility. To be a Christian was to be persecuted. And so this is the situation to which Peter writes. Let's dig in a little, a little more.
Joel Brooks:Look at verse 1. Peter. We're gonna stop right there. I told you, we're gonna take our time through this letter. Peter.
Joel Brooks:At first, when when you read that Peter's the one who wrote this, you're like, well, this is an unlikely person to kind of talk about, being strong in the midst of persecution. Persecution. I mean, because Peter didn't exactly you know, he wasn't the strong guy in the midst of persecution. Peter you know, we all love Peter because he's just one of the guys, and he had great successes, and he had even bigger failures. And and you would see that through his whole life after Jesus called him from from being a fisherman to being a disciple.
Joel Brooks:He would have these huge highs in which Jesus would ask Peter, who do you think I am? And he would say, you're the son of God. And Jesus would go, blessed are you, Peter. Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my father in heaven, and you are gonna be the rock on which the church is built. That's that's pretty big.
Joel Brooks:Then about a moment later, just a sentence later, when Jesus brings up persecution, appears like, no, no, no, no. We're not we're not going to go down the road of persecution. And Jesus says, get behind me, Satan. He goes from being the rock on which the church will be built to being called Satan. He goes from places like the mount of transfiguration and seeing Jesus in all of his glory to one who falls asleep next to Jesus in the garden, not even able to keep watch for an hour.
Joel Brooks:Then, of course, he failed most miserably during Jesus's arrest and Jesus's trial. Jesus is having a trial, and He's before Pilate. He's before the leaders of His day. Jesus is courageous. Jesus doesn't falter.
Joel Brooks:And at that same moment, Peter is having a trial out in the courtyard, and it's not with the leaders of the day. It's just from bystanders, curious bystanders. He he he doesn't want to be associated with Jesus. He doesn't want to get whatever persecution is coming that way. Peter failed miserably when it came to standing firm in your faith, being strong in the midst of persecution.
Joel Brooks:So how can a man like this write a letter to a people like this saying, stand firm? We get to answer for this after the resurrection. I love it. After the resurrection, Jesus is appearing to people, and He appears to Peter. And can you can you imagine the initial joy that Peter feels?
Joel Brooks:I mean, his his heart's gonna be bursting with joy. Jesus actually is alive, but I met I bet immediately after that it was hit with guilt. He's alive, and I doubted him. He's alive, and I turned my back on him. He's alive and I ran away.
Joel Brooks:I failed him when I said, even if everybody else falls away, I will not. And so he had to be consumed with guilt. And so Jesus appears to him, and it's this great story in the gospel of John, in which Peter, even after Jesus rose from the dead, Peter actually goes back to fishing. He goes back to his old profession because he doesn't feel worthy of being a disciple anymore. He has failed Jesus.
Joel Brooks:And Jesus comes along the shoreline and sees Peter out catching fish or trying to catch fish. And so Jesus says, well, cast your nets on one side. And Peter does, and we know the story. He he brings in this huge hall. The gospel of John actually says that he brought in a 153 fish, which I love that because that means that this really stood out.
Joel Brooks:They counted. I mean, you picture, they put it down there. They're counting. This is a lot of fish. And then Jesus meets Peter there, and he asked Peter the question, do you love me more than these?
Joel Brooks:And I think in the context here, Jesus is not talking about, do you love me more than the rest of the disciples? I think that's why John counts the fish and has the fish poured out front of him, 153 fish, catch of a lifetime with with your old profession right here in front of you. And you're saying, Peter, do you love me more than these? Do you love me more than your old profession? Do you love me more than your old life?
Joel Brooks:Or is this what you wanna go back to? Peter says, Lord, you know I love you. So Jesus says, feed my sheep. And he asked Peter this 3 times, and Peter gives the same response each time. Lord, you know I love you.
Joel Brooks:Jesus says, feed my sheep. And I don't think Peter ever forgot those words. Being restored like that. Being brought back in and not just being able to follow Jesus, but being pointed a place of leadership, being appointed as a shepherd. He never forgot that, and he never forgot Jesus's next words.
Joel Brooks:John 21, he says this, Peter, truly, truly I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you, and will carry you where you do not want to go. This He said to show by what kind of death Peter was to glorify God. And after saying this, Jesus said to Peter, Follow Me. So at the end of this restoration of Peter, Jesus looks Peter in the eye.
Joel Brooks:He says, Peter, you used to be able to do whatever you want, and you did do whatever you wanted, but not anymore. I'm calling you back to myself, but you know what happens now to those who follow me, and you're gonna be led where you don't want to go. But Jesus ends His conversation Peter the exact same way He began it 3 years earlier, Peter, follow Me. But now Peter follows with his eyes wide open. He knows that to follow Jesus means incredible suffering.
Joel Brooks:He knows it will mean his crucifixion. So Peter is writing this letter to Christians in Rome knowing full well what awaits Him and what likely awaits all of them. Let's look at the people to whom Peter actually addresses his letter. He, he calls the church. He calls them the elect exiles.
Joel Brooks:To the elect exiles of the dispersion. Perhaps your Bible says the chosen aliens. Either one's a good band name. It's it's an unusual term. But both of those words, elect, exile, are of crucial importance in understanding our call as a church.
Joel Brooks:Peter doesn't just say, to the church of Galatia, or the church of Gap Cappadocia, or the church of Asia. He doesn't just say that like all the other letters begin. He he parts from that, and he parts from it for a reason. Instead, he says, to the exiles, but not just to the exiles, to the elect exiles. Why does he do that?
Joel Brooks:Being in exile means that you're an alien or you're a foreigner, and what he means by that is although you are living here in this world, you are not a citizen of this world. So so we here were actually foreigners, and that means that the way we act, the way that we speak, the things that we love or the things that we hate, those are going to be misunderstood by the world. It's not going to really make sense to them because we are foreigners to them. We're not citizens of this place. So when Peter is calling the Christians exiles, or he's calling them aliens, what he's saying is that everybody's going to see you as different.
Joel Brooks:And you need to remember that since you are not a citizen of this place, you do not enjoy the same privileges, the same rights, or the same freedoms as the citizens of this place enjoy. Now you you have a whole different set of rights and freedoms and privileges that you enjoy as a citizen of heaven, but you don't get to enjoy those rights that this world enjoys. You're a foreigner. So you can expect to be denied certain freedoms. It shouldn't be a a surprise to you when you're denied something, or when you're mistreated, or or when you're You're a foreigner.
Joel Brooks:But he says, you're not just a foreigner. You're not just an exile. We here are elect exiles. So right off the bat, Peter throws that loaded theological word elect out there. It's not something he is ashamed of.
Joel Brooks:It's not something that the rest of the Bible tries to hide or is ashamed of either. This is a term that he thinks is of absolute importance for us to understand our place in this world and how we can reach it. This doctrine of election for these people here would have been a source of incredible comfort because they're wondering, why has all this happening to me? It's like it's like, because God chose for this to happen to you. God has placed you in this place.
Joel Brooks:And so he he's he's giving this word election to them because he doesn't want them to so much concentrate on how they're being rejected by people. He wants them to concentrate how they are being chosen by God. That's what he wants the emphasis on. You have been chosen for this. You've been chosen to be in that business place.
Joel Brooks:You have been chosen to be in that neighborhood. You have been chosen to be around that person who hates you. You are chosen for this. It's not just random. You were handpicked by God himself.
Joel Brooks:And then Peter goes on to explain the the when of when you were elected or how you were elected or for what purpose you were elected. That's the next three things there. And I want us to look at all three of these things. You'll see them in verse 2. Look at verse 2 again.
Joel Brooks:Peter says that we were chosen according to the foreknowledge of God, the Father. We were chosen in the sanctification of the spirit, and we were chosen for obedience to Jesus Christ for the sprinkling with His blood. Let's look at all three of these. 1st, we were elected, or we were chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the father. Now this does not mean that God the father can just foresee something, that he that he can look into the future, and he's he's looking, and he can foresee people who are going to choose him.
Joel Brooks:And then when he for sees that that event is going to happen, then He chooses us. That's that's not what this means. Jesus chose us, and that's the only reason that we choose Him. It's something that you see over and over throughout Scripture. To foreknow does not mean to foresee.
Joel Brooks:There's just there's way too many places in the time that we have for us to go through all the scripture about this, but I do want us to at least hit a few. And so I'm just gonna kind of do it a shotgun approach here a number of different verses that deal with this. Verses in Acts 1348. In this passage, Paul is preaching to the Gentiles, and many of the Gentiles respond and are saved. They believe.
Joel Brooks:We read this, and when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord. And as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. So as many as were appointed or as many as were chosen to eternal life believed. Not the other way around. Not as many who believed were then chosen.
Joel Brooks:God's choosing of them came first. You look at John 6. When Jesus says, All that the Father gives Me will come to Me. He doesn't say, all that come to me, those are the ones that the father will give to me. He says, no.
Joel Brooks:All that the father gives to me, those will come to me. John 15, he says, you did not choose me, but I chose you. John 10, you would have my sheep hear my voice. Not the other way around. You don't hear God's voice and then become his sheep.
Joel Brooks:He's appointed you to be a sheep, and that is why you hear his voice calling you. One more. Ephesians 1. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. That we should be holy and blameless before Him.
Joel Brooks:In love, He predestined us. It's a pretty clear cut passage there. And I love the phrase, in love, He predestined us, because that phrase, in love, really gets to the heart of foreknowledge. Because when, when God says that He foreknows these things, that He elected us according to His foreknowledge, He's not just talking about a mental understanding here. The word know in the Bible has a intimate connotation to it.
Joel Brooks:So Adam knew Eve. David knew Bathsheba. There's talking about a very intimate, loving relationship. So what we read here is that when God's foresaw us, it's saying He foreknew us before the world was even made. I set my affection on you, and I determined that I would love you.
Joel Brooks:I chose you to Myself. So that was the win before the foundations of the world. Let's look at the how. Next Peter says that we are elected in the sanctification of the Spirit. This isn't the typical way that we think of sanctification.
Joel Brooks:That word, sanctification we usually think of is like our progression of holiness. You know, you become a Christian, and then, you know, every day with Jesus sweeter than the day before. You know, you just kind of grow, grow, and become more and more holy. That's that's not what sanctification is here. This is sanctification when it comes to in terms of our salvation.
Joel Brooks:It's it's the the general meaning of it, which is just to be set apart. It's basically saying the spirit of God set us apart for election. So he says that before we ever knew God, God's spirit had set us apart somehow and was in the process of drawing us to Himself, was sanctifying us. And so when you look back on your life and you, and you think of what brought you to Jesus, what you're going to see is you think back, you're going to see it was the spirit of God all along pulling you, dragging you, wooing you to himself. The spirit of God was irresistibly drawing you to him.
Joel Brooks:That's how we look at our own conversion. Christianity was something that happened to you, and no one here just woke up one morning and just said, you know what? Today, today I'd like to just kind of all sudden this heavy have this heaviness and awareness of all my sin. I kind of hope that happens to me today, and I realize I'm an incredible sinner, and I hope that I then will just come to repent of all that, and I hope I will meet the Son of God, and that He will shed His light into my heart, and that He will change me. I I you know what?
Joel Brooks:I think I'm gonna make that happen today. It doesn't happen that way. What happens is just like we see in Genesis, where the spirit of God is hovering over the waters, hovering over the darkness and the chaos. Preparing to speak his word and life begins. And that's what God has done in our lives.
Joel Brooks:He's hovered over it, waiting for that moment where he would speak and life would come in us. And God's the one doing that. It's something that happened to us. I look at my own conversion. I was 9 years old.
Joel Brooks:I'm at a church and I'm filling out the little church offering thing, you know, putting in a quarter or something. And, you know, they have the check marks, read your Bible every day, you know, giving, all these gone to Sunday school. And the first one was Christian. And so I would mark Christian, and my mom would take it, and she'd erase it, and she'd give it back to me. And I was like, really?
Joel Brooks:I mean, what what are you doing? And and she had done that many times. And this time she raced it, she gave it back to me, and all of a sudden, it just hit me. I'm not a Christian. I'm not.
Joel Brooks:It actually hit me as much as it can hit a 9 year old. I actually am a pretty awful kid, and I really do need Jesus. And so I went and I just talked to my parents, and that night my dad and my mom, they knelt knelt down on each side of me, and and Jesus saved me. Now, I didn't go looking for that. That's something very profound that happened to a 9 year old.
Joel Brooks:What it was was the spirit of God just grabbing me and drawing me in. And I bet if you look at your own conversion, you would say the same thing. You know, it's maybe there was a key conversation, or maybe there was a a timely book given to you, or you just happened to be some place where the gospel was preached, and it just happened to click. What what Peter is saying is, do you think when that happened, do you think that maybe God planned that to happen? Do you think that just maybe God planned for you to bump into that person?
Joel Brooks:That maybe he planned for that person to have the book to give to you, or or was God just doing that on the fly? And if God planned for that conversation to happen at that moment, do you think maybe He planned for that to happen a few seconds before? Maybe a few 1000 years before? So God said His affection is love on you before there was time, and He is through His Spirit been drawing you into Himself. Alright.
Joel Brooks:Let's look at what we are chosen for. We are chosen for obedience to Jesus Christ and for the sprinkling of his blood. So if you're a Christian, you were chosen to obey Jesus. That's it. You're you're you're chosen to have a holy life.
Joel Brooks:Now, now just real quick, if you're wondering, like, am I chosen? Am I not? Is the spirit of God really drawing me in? Or is it really not? Just let me say a couple things.
Joel Brooks:1, as Christians, we don't know. We're we are not the ones who look at people and say, oh, there's there's an elect. Oh, there's not an elect.
Jeffrey Heine:That is God's business. We
Joel Brooks:we share the gospel to all, but if you're here wondering, I wonder if the spirit of God really is drawing me in. Take comfort. You would not be thinking of these things if he wasn't. He's he's wooing you and he's drawing you, and he's saying, I want you to be my child, and now I want you to live a holy life. I want you to obey me.
Joel Brooks:I want you to have a life markedly different from those around you. The language here is unusual if you haven't grown up in church circles. It says, For obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with His blood. Now, if you're a Christian, you're familiar with the Bible. We have no problem talking about this sprinkling with blood.
Joel Brooks:If you're in here and Christianity is somewhat foreign to you, you're wondering what the heck are we talking about? Alright. I mean, what what is all this stuff with sacrifices and blood that, haven't we evolved past that? I mean, we should be 1,000 of years past those primitive civilizations that thought we needed all these sacrifices. So so what is this all about?
Joel Brooks:The biblical word that I would say when we look at the sprinkling of the blood is the word atonement. Atonement. And I guess the best way I could explain our need for atonement and our need for sacrifice is this. If if, if I hurt my wife verbally, if I say something negative to her in word, then there's been a break in our relationship. You know, I'm trying to think of something, you know, I could say something really critical.
Joel Brooks:I If I were to say that, I can't just later pretend like nothing happened and be like, hey, so you wanna, you know, you wanna go walk? You wanna go get some pizza? I can't just act like nothing happened because there's been a fracture in our relationship that needs to be dealt with. I I hurt her verbally, and what needs to happen is there needs to be a verbal restoration. I need to verbally say, I am sorry that I said this.
Joel Brooks:I was wrong. And I need to at least do that before we can be restored. If there was something physical there in which maybe, you know, I grabbed, I wouldn't do this. I can't imagine it, but grabbing a plate and smashing it, I wouldn't do it because I don't get angry. I just wouldn't want the waste and have to buy something.
Joel Brooks:But imagine I did that, and it was it was one of Lauren's precious dishes. Well, then I can't just say, I'm sorry. Do you wanna go get pizza? You wanna go walk? You know, whatever.
Joel Brooks:Just act like nothing happened. There's there's been a fracture in our relationship. It's not right. And, therefore, since it was a physical violation, there has to be something physical to make up for it. I need to go buy her a new plate to show her, like, no, I I do love you.
Joel Brooks:I I need to make atonement. It's just at a very base level here. Alright? Now what if as a human, you have created or you have done cosmic sin against your creator? That you have violated Him and His law in ways you cannot even fathom.
Joel Brooks:How do you make that right? We need, we need a cosmic sacrifice. We need the Son of God Himself to come. And since we have violated God in every possible way, it needs to be of our whole being. But since we violated Him in an eternal way because He's an eternal God, Only He can provide the sacrifice.
Joel Brooks:Only He can make things right. That's what atonement is. That's why we use this language of sprinkling of blood really because we violated God in a way that demands our life for eternity and payment. But we see how Jesus has met that for us. So that's why Christians are always talking about the blood, the blood of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:That's why Peter is talking about it here. But, but he's talking about it in a unique way. He's not just talking about atonement. He's actually alluding to a story in Exodus 24, which is after the Israelites have just been freed from bondage in Egypt. They've just been saved and passed through the Red Sea.
Joel Brooks:And now they are led to, Mount Sinai. And God gives them His law, and He's making a covenant with them. And He says, alright, I want all the elders, and I want all the leaders to come halfway up this mountain. We're gonna eat together, and we're gonna ratify this covenant. And they made a sacrifice, and it says, Moses got the blood, and He poured it on them all.
Joel Brooks:He sprinkled it on them. We read this in Exodus 24. It says, Then He took the book of the covenant, and He read it in the hearing of the people. And they all said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. We will be obedient.
Joel Brooks:That's what this passage in first Peter is about, being obedient. Says, and then Moses took the blood and he threw it on the people. It says, behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all your words. That's the image that Peter wants in our head. What he is saying is that just like Israel, as the people of God you're being called to a life of radical obedience, But Israel didn't have a chance.
Joel Brooks:They didn't have a chance, But you have not just been sprinkled with the blood of rams. You've been sprinkled with the blood of Jesus, and that is transformative redemptive power in that. And He has actually given you the ability now through His Spirit to obey Him. You're part of a better covenant. You have been washed of your sins.
Joel Brooks:So your life now needs to be lived in radical obedience to Jesus Christ. That's the image that Peter wants to put out there. I don't realize I've thrown a chunk your way. Some of y'all look a little, you know, like I've thrown a chunk your way, and you're trying to digest that. I told you Peter was packed, but I want to say just a couple more things as to why Peter reminds the church of their election and why it's so important.
Joel Brooks:Practical things for us. First is this, election was their comfort. I mean, the exiles help them understand their position in the world, but election was their comfort in being an exile. Because when the whole world is falling apart and they're being persecuted, they're thinking, how can I know I won't fall away? How can I know that I won't flee?
Joel Brooks:And Peter reminds them, you won't because God's hold on you is far greater than your hold on Him. God is the one who chose you, and He is the one who is orchestrating this. I mean, that was Peter's comfort. I mean, think, Peter's faith had failed him. Peter denied his Lord.
Joel Brooks:Peter wanted to return back to his old profession. Peter wanted to go away, but Jesus says, no. I have chosen you, and I'm gonna pull you back, and you will be my disciple, and you will be the rock. I know you didn't choose me, but I have chosen you, Peter, and I won't let you fall away. And second, when you understand your own election, it is going to give you the humility, and it's going to give you the strength you need to reach a world that does not understand you.
Joel Brooks:You're gonna you're gonna be so much more understanding and merciful to the world when it shows its hostility to you. You're not going to be surprised by it. It's it's going to make perfect sense, because you're gonna look at these people and
Jeffrey Heine:you're gonna think, that's me.
Joel Brooks:That's where I was. That that that's that's where I should be. I should be just like them, but God took me out of that, and He put me over here. I can't look down on them. I can't condemn them.
Joel Brooks:I can't judge them, because I'm simply who I am by the grace of God. He is the one who has saved me. And so we we can't look at somebody and say, you know what? You need to just pull yourself up by your bootstraps. You need to just turn over a new leaf.
Joel Brooks:You need to just start thinking straight. You need to just start doing the right things. We we can't say that to people, because that's not how we were saved. Peter understands this. Peter once thought He was so different than everybody else.
Joel Brooks:Jesus, I'm not like these other people. I really can follow You if I want to, by sheer willpower. I'm gonna follow You even if everybody else falls away. And then he denies Jesus. Now Peter knows He is no different than anybody else, except that God said, I'm not going to let you go.
Joel Brooks:And He pulls into Himself. And now this gives Peter such incredible humility to deal with a world that is just breathing fire at him. He doesn't get angry. I mean, later in this book, he's gonna say that you should honor the emperor. The emperor that is throwing Christians into the arena and killing them, torturing them.
Joel Brooks:He's like, yeah, we need to honor this person. How can he do that? Because he realizes he is no different. Election has given him the strength and the humility he needs to deal with a hostile world. It's what the gospel does to us.
Joel Brooks:Let me just end with these words from Peter. As we understand the gospel, I pray that may the grace and peace be multiplied to you. Pray with me. By the grace of you, Lord, we are who we are. That's what we want to acknowledge and say.
Joel Brooks:That we would be utterly lost apart from You. Not one person here could look at their neighbor and say that they are better. Lord, we are dead. We were in our sins, and you have breathed life into us. You have called us through your spirit and drawn us to yourself.
Joel Brooks:Your spirit hovered over our dark chaotic waters and breathe, spoke life. And we give You thanks. And Lord, I pray that You would speak that life and that hope to us in this place. That as we are in a culture that is becoming increasingly hostile towards you, we would understand our roles as an elect exile. Lord, I pray that you write that in on our hearts, and we pray this in the name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen.
