Holy Exiles

Thank you for reading this sermon from Christ Fellowship. I hope and pray that this sermon will be a blessing of grace and truth to you. With that said, let me encourage you not to use this sermon as a replacement for your local church. Christ Jesus did not establish his Church simply for us to consume content. Instead, He calls us to be part of a real, covenant family.

Every year, as residents of the Gulf Coast prepare for hurricane season, they are reminded by emergency officials that “hope is not a plan”. Doing nothing and hoping the hurricanes miss you is a bad idea. 

You need a plan. You should know your evacuation routes. You should stock supplies. You should know how to prepare your home. You still hope it misses you, but you’re prepared just in case. 

At the beginning of 1 Peter, he tells us about our great hope for the future. We have God’s mercy and grace. We have an inheritance secured for us in heaven. But in the meantime, we will face many challenges. 

And as the chapter continues, Peter encourages us to do something with the hope we have in Christ. Have a plan before the storms of life hit you. 

13 Therefore, (because everything we talked about last Sunday is true) preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 

“Preparing your minds for action” translated more literally is girding up your minds, like someone preparing for hard work or battle. Roll up your sleeves and make a plan. Be ready to act. But the emphasis here is on brain preparation.  

We saw this in James. We see it all over the Bible. If you lose the battle here [in your head], everything else will follow. 

Anyone who has ever tried to do something extremely difficult knows that the mental battle is usually the most difficult part of the struggle. Long distance runners will tell you that their internal voice is more of a challenge than the physical toil. 

Anyone who has ever struggled with an addiction knows that the battle isn’t with the bottle or the pill. It’s a battle with shame, cravings, and rationalization. There’s an inner voice that whispers, “You deserve this,” or “You can’t really change.” 

God knows this about us and so, Peter tells us to set our hope fully on what? Future grace. The grace that will be brought to you… but what does that mean? Let’s keep reading. 

14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,  

Don’t go backwards. Don’t go back to the lifestyle of temporary highs. Don’t go back to chasing happiness and stability. Don’t go back to feeding your selfish desires without regard for others.  

Don’t go back to living as if this world is all there is. If we believe this world is home and this life is the only one we get, then we will spend our time on our own passions. We will do what feels good. We will do whatever seems right to us at the moment. 

But if Peter is right… if this is not our home and this life is not all there is, then we can live differently. We can be different. 

15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,  

16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”  

The word “holy” means different from what is common. When the Bible tells us to be holy, it’s a command to be different. It means God has set us apart for a different purpose. 

Think about your toothbrush. Technically, you could use your toothbrush to also scrub the floor, clean your toilet, or wash the dog’s bowl. But you don’t do that. Why? Because it has been set apart for a special purpose – cleaning your teeth.  

Christians have also been set apart by God for a special purpose. What is our purpose? 

17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,  

18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,  

19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.  

Because God is our Father and knows what is best for us, we should trust Him when He tells us how to live. He wants us to be holy because he wants us to be like Him. He wants us to be like Christ. 

We should not be living as rebellious children trying to emancipate ourselves from our Creator. That’s how the world behaves, but we should be different. 

We should be different because we are extremely valuable to God. He proved that by ransoming us with the precious blood of Christ. 

“Ransom” is an important word here. Peter had heard Jesus say on several occasions that He would be giving His life as a ransom for many. 

In Bible times, a ransom was the price of release to release a slave or a prisoner. It was the purchase of freedom.  

We know from other places that Jesus ransomed us from the bondage of sin, death, and judgment. 

But Peter says we were ransomed from “the futile ways inherited from our forefathers.” 

In other words, God has delivered us from a false sense of freedom to a true freedom. 

This is the illusion of living in a sinful world. We convince ourselves that rebellion against God is freedom and that trusting God is bondage. 

The world says we should do whatever feels right in the moment and calls it freedom. Be true to yourself. Follow your heart. Do what you want when you want.  

The world promises sexual freedom, gender freedom, financial freedom, freedom from commitment… no limits. And it sounds great! But we become slaves to our passions, and it leads to death. 

Psalm 1 says that the righteous are like a tree planted by a stream of water, but the wicked are like the chaff that the wind drives away. 

Think of a tree. It’s stuck in one place. It’s completely dependent on things it cannot control… how much sunlight it gets… how much water. It can’t protect itself from fire, storms, or drought. But it’s alive. 

Now think of a tumbleweed. It seems to be free, but it’s also completely dependent on something it can’t control. The wind. And it’s also dead! 

Maybe you saw the Goethe quote at the beginning of the bulletin: “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” 

Jesus came to ransom us from this futility of thinking we are free when we’re not. 

20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you  

What is Peter doing here? He’s stretching our minds. Part of the problem with the way the world operates is that it focuses on the moment. At best, we focus on our own lifetime. What happened to me in my past… what might happen to me in my future… but usually it’s all about this moment. 

And Peter says, God has been thinking about you since before He even created the world! The Gospel is not a reactionary or a momentary grace. He didn’t pass you like a beggar on the street and throw a coin in your cup. 

This has always been God’s plan. He’s been planning to ransom you since time began! It was all for the sake of us, Peter says… 

21 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. 

Once again, Peter highlights the resurrection – a moment in space and time to which everything else is anchored. The promises of God are tied to that moment when the heart of Jesus started beating again. 

Now, think back to verse 13. Peter said to “set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” What does that mean? 

Past grace is what Jesus has already done at the cross, present grace is what the Spirit is doing in us now, and future grace is everything God has promised to give us when Christ appears in glory.  

That future includes our final rescue from sin, resurrection bodies, public vindication, and life with God forever, and Peter says to place our whole weight there, not partly on Christ and partly on money, comfort, or control. 

When your hope is set there, it changes how you live here. If this life is all you have, then of course you will chase your old passions and try to squeeze as much pleasure as possible out of the time you think you have left. 

But if future grace is real, you can leave the “futile ways” behind and pursue holiness, not as a prison but as the purpose for which you were set apart.  

You have been set apart by God for himself, and obedience becomes living according to that new, ransomed purpose. 

Peter anchors this in the price that was paid: “you were ransomed… not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.”  

I watched a video this week of a man in New York City. He went to a street where there are a lot of high-end jewelry stores late at night and vacuumed up the dirt between the cracks on the sidewalk. He took it home and sifted through it all. 

He found little diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and almost an ounce of gold! Thousands of dollars’ worth of gold and gems had fallen into those cracks, lost and forgotten. 

For the second time in chapter 1, Peter calls gold and silver perishable items. They have limits.  

Gold can buy a lot in this world, even physical freedom. But it cannot buy you freedom from sin and death; only the blood of the Lamb can break your slavery to sin and to a false version of freedom.  

Jesus did not just rescue you from punishment, he rescued you from a way of life that looked free but was actually bondage. We are like tumbleweeds blown around by the wind, pretending we are in control.  

But at the cross, God is saying that life with him, rooted like a tree by streams of water, is worth more than anything you leave behind. 

Peter also reminds us that none of this was last-minute or accidental. Your story does not begin with your failures or your storms; it begins with God’s eternal purpose to ransom you and bring you to himself through the death and resurrection of his Son.  

The God who has been planning your salvation from before creation, who raised Jesus from the dead and gave him glory, is the God who calls you to roll up your sleeves, prepare your mind for action, and live today as if his future grace is absolutely certain.  

So, when the storms of life hit—and they will—do not drift back to old patterns or temporary hopes; fix your mind and your habits on the grace that is coming, because in Christ it will be more than enough.