Easter 4
1
Pet 2:11-20
4/26/26
In our text this morning, the
apostle Peter calls the Christians in Asia Minor – what is today Turkey –
“sojourners and exiles.” He began the letter by addressing them as the “elect
exiles” and in the previous chapter he described how they should live “throughout
the time of your exile.”
Now it is clear that the majority of
people whom he addresses are Gentiles. They are people who live in these areas
– they aren’t foreigners who have been displaced. They are from places like
Pontus, and Galatia, and Cappadocia, and Asia. That is their home.
Yet Peter calls them “sojourners and
exiles” because through baptism and faith they are now Christians. And this
means that they are different. They no longer fit into the world. They are now
separate and distinct as they belong to God. They don’t belong in the world,
and that is going to be seen in the way they live.
Peter’s words apply directly to you,
because as Christians you are sojourners and exiles in this world. Now we need
to be clear about what we mean by the term “world.” Peter is not saying that that we are
sojourners and exiles trapped in this physical creation. He is not saying that
our goal is to escape our bodily existence and this material world because
heaven is our real home.
God made this material creation and
declared it to be “very good.” He
created us as a unity of body and soul, and only in that way can be we what God
intends. The ultimate proof of this is the incarnation of Jesus Christ. The Son
of God became flesh – he became man and lived a bodily existence in this world.
He did this not only to give us forgiveness, but also to free us from what sin
had done to our bodily existence and creation itself.
Instead, the term “world” describes
the spiritual power that controls things. Since the disobedience of Adam this
has been a fallen world. It has been a world ruled by the devil – a place of
sin and death. All people are conceived as those who are spiritually dead and
enemies of God. We enter into this world as people for whom the devil is lord.
Yet in his love, God did not abandon
us and leave us there – trapped in sin and under the lordship of the devil.
Instead, he acted in his Son, Jesus Christ. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and
born of the virgin Mary, he is true God and true man. By his death on the cross
he freed us from sin. Peter says in the previous chapter that “you were
ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with
perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of
Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”
This action by God in Christ is his end time saving work. Peter says, “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”
We are celebrating during the season
of Easter that God did raise Jesus from the dead. In Christ’s resurrection God
defeated death and began the resurrection that we will experience when Jesus
returns in glory. Peter begins this letter by saying, “Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has
caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead.”
Through the work of the Spirit you
have been born again. Peter says that “you have been born again, not of
perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word
of God.” He did this through the preached word of the Gospel. And he did this through the water and the
word of Holy Baptism. It is to this action by God that Peter calls our
attention when he says bluntly: “Baptism now saves you.”
And so in the verses immediately
preceding our text Peter says, “But you are a chosen race, a
royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own
possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a
people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now
you have received mercy.”
That is what you are. You are a chosen race; a royal a priesthood;
a holy nation; a people for his own possession. God called you out of the
darkness of sin and the devil’s lordship. And now Jesus is your Lord. You belong
to him. He ransomed you from sin by his death and resurrection. His Spirit gave you the washing of rebirth
and regeneration in baptism.
And so, you belong to God. You are
his. To die is to be with Christ. If Christ does not return first, you will
die. But that will not be the end of your body. Instead, on the Last Day Christ
will return in glory to raise your body and transform it to be like his.
Because of Christ you are
different. And in our text, Peter lays out some of what this now means for
you. He says, “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to
abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against
you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the
day of visitation.”
Peter warns us to abstain from the
passions of the flesh. Certainly this
includes all disordered desires that are contrary to God’s will. A little later
in the letter we get a few more details about what this involved as he says,
“For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want
to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties,
and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not
join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; but
they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the
dead.”
Sex and alcohol are clearly in view
here. Then, just as now, they often went together. The apostle says that
Christians are going to be different from the world. It’s not surprising that
sexual conduct is a recurring topic of discussion in the New Testament.
Christ’s apostles proclaimed an understanding of sex that was completely
different from the Greco-Roman world.
Scripture does not teach that sex is
bad. Quite the opposite, it was part of the very good world God created. He made man as male and female. He formed Eve
from Adam as the helper who corresponded to him – the one without whom things
weren’t very good. Jesus taught that God instituted marriage as the one flesh
union of man and woman. We learn in Genesis: “Therefore a man shall leave his
father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
And in fact, God commanded husband
and wife to have sex. He
established the one flesh union of husband and wife to produce children and
said, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Sex is
good. It is the physical expression of the spiritual reality that exists before
God. We have learned that biochemically it serves God’s purpose of creating and
sustaining a bond between man and woman.
It is a necessary thing in marriage. And it serves the purpose of creating
life from that union.
But the fallen world takes this
blessing and perverts it in every possible way. In the first century world it
was considered completely normal that a man would have sex with his female
slaves. It was normal that he would have sex with a prostitute if we wasn’t
wealthy enough to have female slaves. It was normal for a man to use a boy for
sex. The only real limit was that it was shameful for a man to be on the
receiving end from another man. The claim that the ancient world widely
accepted homosexuality as it is practiced today – a sexual relationship between
two men who are equals – is nonsense.
In the face of this Christ’s
apostles proclaimed that sex was only to be shared by a husband and wife in
marriage. Only this was true to God’s will. And any other practice is sin that
brings God’s judgment. Paul told the Corinthians: “Do not be deceived: neither
the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice
homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
Peter reminds us this morning that
because of Christ and his Spirit we are sojourners and exiles. We are different
from the world and so we look at things differently from the world. Once again,
just as in Peter’s day, the world says that people can use sex however they
want. The world assumes that people who are dating will have sex. It assumes
that people will live together before they are married. It assumes the use of
pornography. It assumes that homosexuality is normal and acceptable.
And here things today are actually worse than the first century
because at least it did not accept homosexuality as it exists today. The first
century absolutely didn’t believe the absurdity that two men or two women could
be married. And it never would have imagined that a same sex couple would have
children as a “family.”
The world doesn’t just assume these things. It expects them. It promotes them in every possible means
through what we see, hear, and read. If you don’t act in these ways, you will
stand out. You will be the subject of jokes and mocking. If you speak publicly
the truth of God’s word about these things you will be attacked.
Peter addressed these words to the Christians in Asia Minor because
this presented a great challenge. We need to hear them because we face a great
challenge as well. So I say to all of you – but especially to the young people
– save sex for marriage. Don’t make sex part of dating, and don’t live together
before marriage. Not only is this sinful, but when you don’t do things the way
God created them to work it vastly increases likelihood that it will not turn
out well for you. There is so much research that demonstrates this. It’s really
hard to go against the way God ordered his creation to work.
I say to all of you – don’t use pornography. Jesus meant it when he
said, “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful
intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Pornography is
addictive. It rewires the brain. It will bring harm to you and to your
relationships.
The need to take actions that confess the truth about God’s gift of
sex occur in the setting of family. We cannot say that living together is
sinful, and then interact with the couple as if nothing is wrong. More broadly
we cannot say that homosexuality is sinful, and then attend a wedding for a
homosexual couple. And to bring this closer to home, we cannot say that living
together is sinful and then attend the wedding of a couple that is doing so.
Such a wedding does not do away with sin. Instead, having a wedding in the
normal fashion while living together says that there was no sin for which
couple needed to repent. And remember, where there is no repentance, there is
no forgiveness.
We do this because of what God has made us to be in Christ. Earlier
in this letter Peter says, “As obedient children, do not be conformed to
the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is
holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You
shall be holy, for I am holy.’” God has called us and made us holy in Christ.
He has free us from sin. But as Peter says in our text, “Live as people who are
free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as
servants of God.”
Living in God’s way and speaking the truth of his word will bring
the world’s rejection and disdain. Yet Peter offers encouragement as he says,
“But keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak
against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God
on the day of visitation.” The
world will condemn you now for doing what is right – for doing God’s will that
he has revealed in his word. But our perspective is always framed by God’s end
time action in Christ that we have already received, and which will reach its
consummation on the Last Day.
Peter tells us that we act in ways that are true so that as those
in the world see us doing this they will glorify God on the Last Day. They will be confronted by the truth of the
Gospel and the truth of God’s will. In an act of vindication they will have to
to glorify God because you did what was right.
This morning Peter tells us that as Christians we are sojourners
and exiles. We are different and don’t belong to a fallen world that is ruled
by the devil. Instead in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ God has
given us forgiveness and called us to faith through the work of his Spirit. God
has called us to be his chosen race chosen race; his royal priesthood; his
holy nation; the people for his own possession.
Because God has done this, Jesus is our Lord. We are different from
the world, and so we live in different ways – God’s ways. So abstain from
fleshly lusts that wage war against the soul. And walk in the ways of the Lord
for they are a blessing to you.
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