A house of hope – Part 2: Living as strangers and exiles in the world

 1 Peter 2:11-17

Big idea: Christians are to be the beacons of truth and hope within our local community

1. How to live as strangers and exiles in this world (v.11-12)

2. How to live as strangers and exiles under human authorities (v.13-17)

Greetings

Good morning, brothers and sisters!

My name is Peter, I’m one of the ministers here at St Paul’s Kogarah. A warm welcome to you if you are new to our church, and it is a great joy to have you with us this morning.

Before we open God’s word, let us pray.

Dear Heavenly Father,

We give you thanks and praise that your son willingly entered our world and yet was treated like a stranger and enemy, just so we can be saved from the dominion of sin. This morning, as we open your word, please help us appreciate not just what it means to turn away from sin, but help us rejoice as your chosen exiles, so that we may live joyfully as beacons of truth and hope in this world.

And in his name we pray, amen.

Introduction: This is not home.

Many of you know that before God called me to full-time ministry, I was working in hotels.

And in the hotel industry, we want our guests to feel welcome, feel respected, and feel special. And most of all, we want our guests to feel at home.

We want our hotel to be their ‘home away from home’.

We want to serve them so well that perhaps they will even mistake our hotel for their real home. And indeed, many of them feel more at home with us than with their families.

Now, what’s interesting is that the world that we live in today also wants us to feel at home.

This world is indeed beautiful, and the city that we live in is fabulous, and the people here are great!

We have exotic animals, amazing beaches, a supportive medical and welfare system, great coffee, food from all cultures and the freedom of religion.

Life is great, and this is the reason why many of us made Sydney our home.

But as a Christian, is Sydney really our home?

Is this world really our home?

Our passage this morning reminds us that we are not home. This world is not our home.

Our home is when Jesus returns and invites us into the new creation, the kingdom of God.

Peter calls us strangers and exiles, because as God’s people, we are longing for and hoping for the eternal home that God has prepared for us.

But, how are we to live today as we await Jesus’ glorious return?

Well, Peter tells us that as Christians, we are to be the beacons of truth and hope within our local community.

In our passage today, the apostle Peter first provides the general principle of living as strangers and exiles in this world, and second, how we ought to live under human authorities.

And those will be our two points this morning.

1)    How to live as strangers and exiles in this world (v.11-12)

2)    How to live as strangers and exiles under human authorities (v.13-17)

How to live as strangers and exiles in this world (v.11-12)

So keep your Bibles open in front of you and we begin our first point, how to live as strangers and exiles in this world.

In the context of this letter, Peter is now beginning a new section from verse 11 onwards, and Peter signals that with the words, ‘Dear friends.’

And from here on, Peter will first explain how God’s people are to live in light of Jesus’ return with verse 11 and 12.

And then Peter provides more specific strategies as we engage in different relationships in this world.

Similar to what Paul does in Ephesians 5 and 6, Peter gives clear instructions to the Christians as they learn how to conduct themselves as lawful citizens, as masters and slaves and as husbands and wives.

And we will be looking at the first of these three relationships in our second point.

But now, we will spend a fair bit of time on verses 11 to 12 and look at the guiding principle, the overarching principle that Peter applies to all of those other relationships.

So let’s turn to our Bibles and come with me to verse 11:

¹¹ Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul.

From the very start, you see Peter’s heart for God’s people, he calls them: dear friends.

This is also translated, beloved, as you will find in the ESV and the Chinese Union Version Bible.

It is out of love that Peter writes these words, and he urges them, as strangers and exiles to stop sinning.

Peter tells them, we are not at home, and we must not make this world our home.

This is what the devil wants, and this is what the world wants.

This is a theme in Peter’s letter, and once again, he reminds us that we’re not permanent residents and certainly not citizens of this world.

Now I know that many of us moved to Australia from other countries.

I myself moved to Australia back in 2019. And since then, I have applied for permanent residency and then applied for citizenship.

And I must say, as a Christian, the citizenship ceremony was very underwhelming.

I remember sitting there with my Bible on my lap, ready to make my oath.

And I thought to myself, what would be the citizenship ceremony be like when we are welcomed into the heavenly kingdom.

And so I began to imagine what it might look like.

I could see the clouds parting, a choir made of multitudes of angels, I could hear them singing with trumpets playing at the back, and then there in the middle of it all, I saw Jesus coming down from the sky, dressed in white and glowing with glorious light. He is so bright that I need to put on my shades and sunscreen.

And behind him, I see the kingdom, the home that we belong to, and I think I saw Hungry Jack’s too.

Friends, I’m not a very imaginative person, but from what I can gather from the Bible, it will be at least that, if not much more glorious and magnificent.

It is with this image, this longing, this hope in mind, that Peter writes, as strangers and exiles, stop sinning, because the kingdom of God is waiting for us.

In verse 11, he writes, abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul.

The word abstain is stronger than stop, but it means to have nothing to do with sin. There should not be the slightest stain of sin in you, as God’s people and as his chosen exiles.

If that glorious kingdom is where we belong, then that is what motivates us in our day-to-day.

Our desires are not towards sin, but towards God.

In fact, the words ‘sinful desires’ can be translated ‘passions of the flesh’.

And Peter says that these fleshly desires are constantly at war with our soul.

As Christians awaiting the return of Christ and awaiting our resurrection,

Peter reminds us to guard our soul.

Jesus says the same to his disciples in Matthew 10:28:

²⁸ Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

We don’t just have the belly buttons that remind us we are of the flesh, but somewhere, we have spiritual belly buttons that remind us that we are of the Spirit!

Therefore, we must guard our souls, our heavenly inheritance. That is where we belong, that is where we must go.

And as we move to verse 12, we find that Peter has more than just the believers in mind, but also those who have yet to believe in Jesus.

Look at what Peter says in verse 12:

¹² 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 he visits.

Notice Peter didn’t say: Conduct yourselves honorably before God so that when the devil accuses you, Godwill see your good works and glorify you with his Son, even though this is absolutely true.

This is because Peter knows better than anyone else that God is building his church here on earth. God is not happy with just twelve or thirteen disciples. God desires all to be saved. Jesus came so that we, and many others, may realise that we are strangers and exiles in this world.

Peter urges us to conduct ourselves honourably among the Gentiles, among those who are not yet followers of Jesus.

Why? So that, when they slander us as evildoers, they will observe our good works and glorify God on the day of his visit.

And so the Bible tells us two things: that the non-believers will say bad things about Christians, and this has been true since the very beginning.

But more importantly, our good works will bring people to Christ.

That’s part of the reason why our church motto has both Hear the gospel and See the gospel.

Recently, I was introduced to an American theologian, Francis Schaeffer. He gave a speech almost 50 years ago, arguing that all churches must embrace the “two orthodoxies”: one of doctrine and one of community.

He stresses that if a church only teaches sound doctrine from the front, and that the same doctrine, the same grace of the gospel, is not lived out and cannot be seen in the church community, then that church is heretical.

What Francis says echoes what Peter says in verse 12.

Surely there is a time and place for a verbal defence of our faith, but Peter says our conduct must match what we believe.

Because what’s at stake is not just the destiny of our souls, but also the souls of those whom God longs to save and invite to his heavenly home.

Christians are to be beacons of truth and hope within our local community.

And for those of you who have been here on Wednesday to attend our dear brother, Mr. Zhu Weiguo’s funeral, then you will have seen how both

God’s truth and hope shine through even his lifeless body. What a reminder for those of us who are still living for Jesus.

Because of Mr. Zhu’s godliness, many are moved to take the next step towards Jesus. Now I so not know all of Mr Zhu’s friends, but his family have seen his good works, and they will certainly be welcomed and known by

Jesus on the day of his return.

Now I must apologise for this long exposition for the first two verses but understanding them is critical as we move to our second point and seek to apply them in a more specific setting.

How to live as strangers and exiles under human authorities (v.13-17)

So, let’s move to our second point as we look at how we are to live as strangers and exiles under human authorities.

Now, verses 13-17 can be divided into three parts:

1)    First, verses 13-15, tell us why we should submit to human authorities

2)    Then in verse 16, Peter reminds us that we must not abuse our freedom as God’s slaves.

3)    And finally, in verse 17, Peter offers a helpful tip for living lawfully when it is difficult.

So let’s look at them in turn, and come with me to verses 13 to 15:

¹³Submit to every human authority because of the Lord, whether to the emperor as the supreme authority ¹⁴or to governors as those sent out by him to punish those who do what is evil and to praise those who do what is good. ¹⁵For it is God’s will that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good.

Verse 13 says that Christians must submit to every human authority.

And I think in the context, ‘human authority’ is referring to civic authority, which for us it would be government officials, local councils or police.

Peter says we submit to them because of the Lord.

Then in verse 14, Peter, similar to what Paul writes in Romans 13, explains that these authorities are ordained by God to punish evil and to encourage good.

Finally, in verse 15, it says that by doing good, by our submission to the laws and civic authorities, those who do not believe, and perhaps those who slander us, may be silenced.

And so, these verses follow on from the previous verse, where Peter still has the Gentiles, or the non-believers, in view.

Again, Peter’s focus here is on the salvation not only of ourselves, but also of the non-believers.

Because if we take verse 15 positively, it means that when Christians obey the law, those who do not believe will not just be silenced, but they will recognise the goodness of God by our good behaviour.

Because the end goal is not just to be a good citizen on earth, but it is so that we may be beacons of truth and hope in this world.

And so being a law-abiding citizen is not enough; it is just the bare minimum for a Christian. Don’t the non-believers and those who hate God also follow the law?

And so Peter says in verse 16, that Christians must go beyond what the law demands of us.

We are not to confuse the freedom that we enjoy in this world with the freedom that Christ has won for us.

That is, we have been freed from the chains of sin, which bound our souls in hell, into the chains of life and hope, which endlessly lift and pull our souls into God.

Christians are to submit to every human authority not because we have the freedom to do so, but because we have been freed from sin to serve God.

We are God’s slaves, who willingly and joyfully serve him.

Now, some of you, when you read verses 13 and 14, you might have thought to yourself, what if the government is not punishing what is evil and not encouraging what is good in God’s eyes?

Well, Peter gives us a helpful tip in verse 17, when things get confusing and difficult.

Peter says,

¹⁷Honor everyone. Love the brothers and sisters. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

Notice that Peter has categorised the world into three distinct and ordered categories.

At the top is God, whom we must fear and respect above all else.

Then there are the brothers and sisters, whom we must prioritise and love.

And finally, it’s everyone else, and we must honor and respect them.

However, notice that Peter also put ‘the emperor’ in this final category.

If we go back to verse 13, the words ‘human authority’ in the original language are actually ‘human creature’ or ‘human creation’.

It means that any legal system on earth is but a human creation, and all

Christians should respect and honour it.

But nonetheless, this does not and will never elevate the emperor or the prime minister above God the creator, nor above the church, which is a spiritual creature created by the blood of Christ.

Therefore, in other words, if there is a conflict between obeying the law and fearing God, we ought to fear God above all else. However, given Peter’s previous teaching in verse 13 to 15, the default position for the Christian is to obey the law until it is absolutely not possible.

The Christian must not rebel against civic authorities under the banner of Christ or in the name of righteousness.

Let us not forget that Jesus, Paul, Peter and the others all willingly submit to the authorities even at great cost to themselves, knowing that God is doing everything for the good of his church and his people.

And so it is through their obedience to the law, and ours, that the truth and hope of God shine through most clearly to the world around us, and into our local communities.

Three questions for this week:

1. Why might it be difficult to conduct honourably when you are slandered (verse 12)?

2.⁠ ⁠When does suffering for doing good bring favour with God? (Verse 20)

3.⁠ ⁠⁠The Bible commands us, “Honour Everyone”. What does it look like for you to honour: a) your parents? b) your boss? c) your elders?

Conclusion

But now, as we finish, let us ask God for his help, to remind us always that this is not our home and to remind us of the glorious kingdom that awaits us as we seek to be beacons of truth and hope in this broken and fallen world.

So let us pray together.

Our heavenly father, please help us today as we seek to be beacons of truth and hope in our local communities. We thank you that through Jesus, you have revealed to us that we do not belong here but to the home you have prepared for us. And so Father please help us live faithfully and boldly as strangers and exiles in this world. So that our good conduct will not only save ourselves but also those around us.

In Jesus name we pray, Amen.