Elect 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.

Most of us are not from Horn Lake or Desoto County. Some of you aren’t even from the South. Most of us are from somewhere else. This is just where we live now. Somewhere else is “home”. 

I’m from Grenada. My grandfather was from West Virginia. My other grandfather was from Detroit, and his dad was a refuge from the Middle East. 

Over the summer, we are going to explore this concept in the Bible. We live in a world that is not our true home. We are exiles, and no one has more to say about that than the Apostle Peter. 

Peter spent the last few years of his life in Rome, a long way from Galilee. He wrote first and second Peter shortly before he was killed by the Emperor Nero, who hated Christians. 

Peter anticipated the persecution that was coming, the kind of suffering that some Christians are still experiencing today in places like Nigeria. Almost 400 million Christians live with violence or discrimination because of their faith. 

1 Peter is likely a great encouragement to those Christians. He would not have to convince them that they are exiles in this world. 

What about us? Do we think of ourselves as exiles? Does this world feel like home to us? 

Let’s begin reading God’s Word in 1 Peter chapter 1: 

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,  

These Christians are living in the eastern part of the Roman Empire, an area bigger than the state of Texas. But that’s where they live. It’s not where they are from.  

The word “dispersion” is a nod to the Jewish Christians who left their homeland, but the letter is written to Gentile Christians as well. 

Peter calls them all “elect exiles”. God has chosen you, but the world doesn’t want you. You are loved and claimed by God, but you are no longer welcome or comfortable in this world. 

Then Peter amplifies this claim in three ways. You are “elect exiles”: 

2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: 

May grace and peace be multiplied to you. 

Notice the Trinity here… the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all have a role to play in your status as an elect exile. 

The Father put you here. It’s not an accident. You’ve been set apart to live in obedience to Christ and under His covenant. And the Spirit is sanctifying you through it.  

This is also a clever connection back to the Exodus, when the people of God were wandering the desert. They promised to obey the Lord and Moses sprinkled them with blood. 

And so, the big picture here is that we now have peace with God by His grace, and that’s how the introduction to the letter ends: grace and peace be multiplied to you. 

Now we come to the heart of the letter: 

3 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, 

Say this with me church – “he has caused us to be”. (he has caused us to be) 

That’s the Gospel. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again. To a living hope. Through the resurrection of Jesus. 

This is something God did. This is something God wanted to do. It’s something God accomplished. Born again to a living hope. 

What’s a living hope? … Imagine someone you love has a medical emergency. The paramedics arrive on the scene and tell you their heart has stopped beating. They start CPR and as time starts to pass, you start to lose hope. 

But then, after a few minutes, they find a heartbeat again. And in an instant, your faint hope becomes a living hope!  

That’s what Peter is talking about – something certain and personal, because it is tied directly to the resurrection of Jesus. A heart that was dead for three days started beating again! 

Peter knew better than anyone what it felt like in that moment. He ran to the empty tomb when he heard the news. No one felt more hopeless than Peter after his denial of Jesus and no one felt more excitement at the possibility that Jesus was alive again! 

Everything changed because in God’s great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope, AND: 

4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,  

It’s kept in heaven, because there is nothing on this earth currently that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. 

This is why Peter calls us exiles. There’s nothing permanent for us here. This is not our home. And I love that he calls it an “inheritance”. 

How many people in this room will receive a life-changing inheritance? Statistically, it is a very small number. And in the world, the percentage is even smaller. Most people will never receive any kind of earthly inheritance. 

That makes Peter’s promise incredible. It means that God is our Father and we are His children. It means that Jesus is our older brother. It means we will share an inheritance we haven’t earned, no matter what we have had in this life! Rich or poor. And most are poor. 

It’s being kept in heaven for you, plural, so really, we: 

5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.  

We are being guarded by God’s power. The inheritance is being guarded, and we are being guarded for the inheritance. 

I think of this as a military convoy transporting precious cargo, sealed inside an armored car and guarded by armed escort.  

I think Paul means something similar in Romans 8 where he says that nothing will be able to separate us from God’s love in Christ – not death, or angels, or demons, or anything in all creation. 

This hope we have in Christ is certain. It can’t be lost. It can’t be taken. And Peter says it is ready to be revealed! That reminds me of the home makeover shows when they pull back the big curtain, and you get to see the finished project for the first time. 

There’s going to be a great reveal on the last day and it’s going to be amazing! 

All of this lays a foundation for how we respond to present challenges and struggles. 

6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,  

7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  

In other words, we hold on to our living hope even as we struggle, knowing that even the struggle is part of God’s plan to prepare us for that hope! 

He uses gold as an illustration, because gold is something we value that is also made better by fire. When gold is melted, it separates from impurities and becomes even more valuable. But even gold will eventually perish in a way that we will not. 

In the meantime, God is using trials to shape us more into the image of Christ. Whatever is left of the Christian at the end of their life will be more precious to God. And Peter says, in this we rejoice. 

8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,  

9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 

Peter had seen Jesus, before and after the resurrection. But Peter knows that most Christians at that time had not seen Jesus. And that has been true for every Christian since then. We love and trust someone we’ve never seen with our own eyes. 

Think of it like a family pursuing an international adoption.   

For months, maybe even years, they only have a file and a few photos: medical reports, letters from caregivers, maybe a short video. They’ve never held this child. They’ve never heard her cry. But they rearrange their finances, fill out endless paperwork, and prepare a bedroom—all for a little girl they haven’t actually met. 

By the time they finally step off the plane and see her in person, they already love her and have committed their lives to her good. Their love is not imaginary; it’s built on real information, real promises, real commitments, even if meeting her came last. 

In the same way, Christians build their love and trust in Jesus on the “file” God has given us… Scripture’s witness, the historical account of the cross and the resurrection, the Spirit’s work in us. And when we finally see him, it will not be the start of love, but the outcome. 

And it’s to the witness of Scripture that Peter turns our attention. 

10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully,  

11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.  

12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. 

Peter is teaching something very important here – something about the Bible. He’s saying that our salvation in Christ is the climax of a long story that has been woven together by God’s Spirit. 

Jesus used the prophets and the apostles to tell the story, and it is so magnificent that even the angels marvel at it.  

The angels have read the script. They know the director. And they’re all gathered in the theater to watch the most amazing movie anyone has ever written. 

But we’re actually living it! We are experiencing the benefits of something God has been doing for a very long time. 

More than likely, a lot of the early Christians reading Peter’s letter did not understand that, which is why Peter feels the need to say it. I’m not sure if we understand it either. 

To help put it into perspective, think about something as devastating as leukemia in children. 50 years ago, it was almost always fatal. No treatment. No cures. 

But after decades of hard work and countless trials, doctors have figured out how to treat many types of leukemia. And now many of those children can grow up, have families, and live normal lives. 

When it comes to childhood leukemia, our grandparents lived in an age of longing. We live in an age of fulfillment, medically speaking. Past researchers were not serving themselves, but future generations. We are receiving the benefits of their work. 

Peter is saying something similar about the Gospel. The prophets were handing down something that to them was only a faint hope. To us, it’s a living hope!  

We’re not looking forward to a cure. We have the cure! 

Church, if Peter is right—and he is—then this world is not our home.   

Horn Lake, Desoto County … as much as we may love this place, it’s not our final address. We are “elect exiles.” Loved by God, chosen by the Father, set apart by the Spirit, sprinkled with the blood of Jesus—and therefore no longer fully at home in this world. 

So. let me ask you again:   

Does this world feel like home to you?  Are you living as if this is all there is?   

Or are you living like someone whose name is already on a better address, in a better country, with a better inheritance? 

This isn’t wishful thinking. My hope is in a Living Person and my trials are not wasted. 

Some of you have heard about Jesus. You like or even respect the idea of Him. But you have not yet trusted Him. You have not yet staked your life and your future on Him. 

I would encourage you not to wait. The Gospel is being preached today. This is the better story. This is the great mystery of the universe that angels long to see.  

If you keep hearing it and you keep walking away from it, you’ll never come. 

But today we will pray that the God of mercy will cause you to be born again to a living hope… that you will join the ranks of the elect exiles, knowing this world is not your home.