A Better Kingdom

Awesome. Awesome. All right. At this time, we're going to go ahead and dismiss kids to little district. And for the rest of us, go ahead and grab your Bibles. Uh we're going to be jumping into First Peter.

So, we're starting a new series today called Bold. Um and uh learning what it means to live in a better kingdom in the kingdom that we're actually in currently. And so today again, we're going to be observing the book of First Peter, a letter written to believers who were learning how to live faithfully in a world that did not share their beliefs, their values, or their allegiance to Jesus. And and I use the word observe because again, it's the same word um that was used in the great commission when Jesus calls his disciples to go out and make disciples um teaching them to observe all that he has commanded. And so to understand what we mean by observe, sometimes we'll say things like, "Hey, we're going to dive into a sermon series. We're going to study this for a certain amount of time."

I don't want it to just be intellectual ascent. I don't want it to just be let's learn. Let's grow in our knowledge of what it is. No, no. We want to observe it. The word used for observe there is to attend to carefully and to keep it.

And so it's it's deeper than just looking at it and learning. All right? This is this is diving yourself into and submitting yourself to whatever he is teaching them and whatever he's commanding of them. We are to keep it. We are to observe it. It it should change us by the time that we have learned what the original message is.

And so that's why I say when we walk through a book of the Bible, we are observing it. All right? Because that's the same word that Jesus has given to them. But I also want to ask you a question. Why should we observe the word of God? Like why should we preach book by book or verse by verse through the Bible?

Why should we uh give such careful attention to know it and obedience to keep it? Well, again, Psalm 1 says this, "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked." Blessed. I mean, I think every one of us in this room would say, "I'd love to be blessed. I I would love to be able to live under that posture. I want to be blessed.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the seat or the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. And on his law, he meditates day and night. All right? So, that's not just, let me listen to it on Sunday. That's not just a 10-minute quiet time throughout the week. I mean there's deeper devotion, careful attention to and a keeping and observing of the word of God that is greater than most of us can be honest about looks like what our normal daytoday is.

Someone who has this type of observance, someone who keeps the word in this type of way. Verse three in Psalm 1 goes on to say, "He's like a tree planted by streams of water its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither in all that he does. He prospers." I mean that that should be just a prayer that we have all the time. He goes on to say, "The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. The Bible only ever gives us two categories of people. That's it. It gives us two categories of people. Those walking in the way of the righteous and those walking in the way of the wicked. Those walking in the way of the righteous prosper.

Those walking in the way of the wicked perish. That's it. That's it. And the difference between the two is the Christ has accomplished for you on your behalf and then called you to observe it and live in it. That's the only thing that separates us from anybody and everybody else. And so, the reason why I bring that up and point that out as we kick off First Peter is that these Christians receiving Peter's letter, they were living in lands with laws that demanded several things.

one, religious tolerance, two, secular conformity, and three, emperor worship. Like that's the context in which they are living in, which as you'll see is the way of the wicked. It's the way of the wicked. The Lord knows the way of the righteous will prosper and he knows the way of the wicked will perish. Now, why is that important for us today to bring that out? Well, as Mark Twain once said, history doesn't repeat itself, but it often times rhymes.

It rhymes. And so we've seen this happen before. We've seen this play out and it just continues to play out over and over and over again. The three things you need to know about the first century Roman Empire that I believe rhymes with today's culture and society. And if we don't recognize the plays being run, then we won't know which is the way of the righteous and which is the way of the wicked. We need to know both.

And the three things that are continuing to be run maybe just repackaged. One is religious tolerance. Believe what you want. Believe whatever you want. Religious tolerance. Their culture in first century Roman Empire, their culture didn't believe in the one true God, but in a pantheon of gods.

And if you didn't believe in all the gods, then you were considered an atheist. Second thing is secular conformity. Affirm everyone's lifestyle. I'm still talking about first century. All right. Don't think I'm talking about our culture.

Affirm everyone's lifestyle. Their daily religious practice included the pressure to participate in public sacrifices to and to abstain from them meant disapproval of their lifestyle. resulting in you getting blacklisted or cancelled from society and trade guilds. Which meant if you wanted any opportunity to make money, you need to make sure that you approve of everyone's lifestyle and participate in the sacrifices that they would offer to the pantheon of their gods. Again, I'm still talking about first century. The third thing was emperor worship.

It was declared and decreed for them to refer to Caesar as Lord. As Lord. Again, this is allegiance to the imperial cults which deified in their day emperors. In other words, heads of state were the saviors of the people. Heads of state were the saviors of the people. Now though they were self-described as tolerant, if you did not adhere to the state sponsored imperial cult of emperor worship, if you did not adhere to secular conformity, if you did not adhere to religious tolerance, at best you were seen as suspicious and at worst you were labeled hostile and a threat to Roman culture and society and therefore you could be put to death.

you could be put to death. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that our ultimate purpose in life is to submit to God and to enjoy him forever. To submit to God and enjoy him forever. That's why God created us. That's our ultimate purpose. We were designed for this worshipful experience in relationship with God.

and then rightfully in that relationship steward the institutions in which God created and ordained for society and human flourishing. And those three institutions, you can really break break them down into these three things: state, church, and family. And if someone doesn't have a church background, they'll just put it as state, uh, religion, and family or relationships. Those are the three institutions that God ordained and created in order for us to steward under the submission of our relationship with God. But listen, when God is not your ultimate submission, then you will, because you have no other choice, you will move down to the worship of the three institutions God created for society, state, religion, and family. They become your gods if you're not submitting to the ultimate God.

And here's why I say that. Because politicians then become your saviors. Politics become your religion. Political parties become your church. Laws become your lifestyle. And campaigns become your evangelism.

And people who disagree with you become the demonic opposition that need to be silenced or suffered. And this is exactly what happened to the Christians in the dispersion. When they did not adhere to what the society proclaimed or declared, then they were demonized. Where people are not bending their knee to Christ as king. Where people are not filled with the Holy Spirit, where people are not submitting to and enjoying God as father. It's not that they are just left alone to their own devices.

They are being led by an antichrist spirit. They are filled with and following an unholy spirit and they are submitting to Satan, the father of lies. We need to know the play that's being run throughout history that just continues to rhyme over and over and over again in order for us to understand our setting. Those who follow Jesus are walking in the way of the righteous that leads to prosperity. Those who follow Satan are walking in the ways of the wicked that will lead to perishing. I don't make up the rules.

That's just what the word of God says. And listen, it's hard to follow the way of the righteous. It's hard. And it's one of the reasons why first Peter, why Peter writes this letter to Christians who are exiles of the dispersion. And I'll get to that here in a minute of what that means. It's hard.

And it's why I believe Paul writes to the church in Ephesus in Ephesians 6:10-12, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Again, if we're not bending our knee to Christ, we're bending our knee. We might think it is just, well, we're living how we want to live. We're following society. We're doing whatever we want to do.

We're atheists. We don't believe there's a God or anything. You're still, whether you think it's there or not, you're still bending your knee to the schemes of the devil. And therefore you put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. This is going to be really important as we walk through first Peter especially as I do bring us into 21st century.

One of the biggest issues we have right now is that we are pitting ourselves against humanity that in their ignorance don't realize that they're actually bending their knee of the schemes of the devil. And therefore, we're demonizing humans instead of having a brokenhearted compassion for them and a burden for them. And to even declare over them, Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. May we have a heart like Jesus did on the cross. May we have a heart like Stephen did when they were stoning him. Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.

Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but it is against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. So we have to realize we have to understand our setting has spiritual forces behind it behind the scenes pulling the strings and it is either God the father when we bend our knee to him who as I'll show you here in a moment is pulling the strings behind the scenes and he has a plan and his plan cannot be thwarted and we trust him we follow him. We observe everything that he's commanding us and teaching us. At the same time, when you're not in submission to him, there is another counter that is pulling strings behind the scenes, that is scheming and that is influencing. And we need to know the plays that are being run in order to dive into the world, not be of the world, but let them know that there's a better way, there's a better king, and there's a better kingdom.

As Colossians 1 says, we really are in a domain of darkness, and it's Jesus who comes into it and delivers us to the kingdom of the beloved son. That's what we're doing. But the reality is that in that domain of darkness, there are schemes of the devil that are playing out. And it rhymes year over year, season over season, era over era, and we need to understand it so that we can fight against it. If you don't want to perish but prosper, then we need to lean in and hear what the one true God has to say to us through his word. meditate on it day and night.

Hide it in our heart and keep it at all costs. At all costs. So, as we open up First Peter, Peter does not begin this letter with strategy. There's going to be a lot of strategy. You'll see as we walk through it. But he doesn't begin with strategy.

He does not begin with politics. He he begins with identity. who you are and who'sse you are. That's important for us to know who you are and who'sse you are. So listen to his opening words. First Peter 1, we're going to cover the first two verses.

Peter, an apostle of Christ Jesus, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontis, Galatia, Capacia, Asia, and Bithnia, according to the fornowledge 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, church. This is not a greeting card that says get well. We're thinking about you. Although half our church right now is on their bed at home because they need to get well and we're thinking about them. We're praying for them.

Peter doesn't start out that way. This is not just like, "Hey guys, I know y'all are dealing with a hard time. I went to Hallmark and got a card and sent it to you and signed it and you know get well. This is a theological declaration to them. It's a theological declaration to them. Peter's saying three countercultural truths right out of the gate to them.

You're chosen by the father. You're being shaped by the spirit. and you live under the reign of King Jesus. So if there if they were if there was any concern on their part, he's reminding them who they are and who's they are. And therefore, your life is not to be shaped by the values of the world, but by the lordship of Christ. That's the point of this book.

Your life is not shaped by the values of this world, but by the lordship of Christ. And I want you to see this. And so, let's begin pulling this apart. I love barbecue. Um, because I'm from Tennessee, and my dad's name is Robbie, and he makes Robbie Q. Um, I love it.

But when it first comes out, it just looks like a big chunk of meat. And in order for it to be pulled pork, you got to get in and pull it apart in order to take bite-sized pieces of it. That's what we're going to be doing as we walk through this. We're putting it in front of you, but we are going to pull it apart so that we can consume what he has for us. And so, look at verse one. The first point that we're going to be talking about is he gives us two things.

He gives us author and audience. And we need to know the author and the audience because the worst thing you can do is open up your Bible, read a verse, and then ask the question, "What do I think this means to me?" It's the worst thing you can do. If you've ever been in a Bible study, and they open up and said, "Read a verse and let's go around and and answer the question, what does this verse mean to you?" Just get up and walk out. It's the best thing you could do for your for yourself.

But if they open up the word and say, "Who wrote it and what did it mean to its intended audience?" Stick around. Stick around because that's what's important. Peter introduces himself as the author, Peter, an apostle of Christ Jesus. And then he identifies his readers to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion. We have an author and we have an audience.

I'll speak more about the author as we continue through the text. But speaking of the audience, two powerful words that he uses here. Elect and exiles. Elect meaning chosen. We're not going to beat around the bush. Chosen.

They're not elect by accident. I think it's one of the reasons why we use that when we talk about choosing a president for the United States of America. It doesn't get up and say, "By accident, I got my job." They get up and say, "You chose me for this position. By election, it happened." He's telling them, "You're not who you are by accident or by circumstance or you just happen to be in a place or a position where you heard somebody preach the word."

No, no, no. He's saying it's by design that you are who you are. You are elect. You are chosen. You are also exiles, which means they are displaced. They're loved, but they're not at home.

They belong to God, but they're aliens in their culture. And Peter anchors their identity in this one phrase, elect exiles according to the fornowledge of God the Father. So good. So good. I would hate for it to say elect exiles according to the circumstances of your current culture. Yeah, absolutely.

Not a place I want to be in. But if I know that I'm in the position I'm in because it's according to the plans of God the Father, that allows me to sleep a little bit better at night, even if the circumstances are dire and difficult and hard. But if it's according to the fornowledge of God the Father, then praise God, bring on whatever the circumstances are because I know that you that you have me, that you've elected me, that you're keeping me, that you're providing for me, that you're sustaining me, that you're going to give me whatever I need to accomplish and get through whatever it is I get through, even if that means someone beheads me. This does not mean God merely knew about them. Oh yeah, I've heard about them. It means God set his knowledge and his loving purpose upon them before they ever knew him.

Uffering is not accidental. Their scattering is not random. Their faith is not luck or coincidence. God's providence. It's God's providence. And Peter of all people knows this personally.

Going back to the gospels, the story of how Peter met Jesus. Peter was not looking for Jesus. Jesus came looking for Peter. That's important. We need to understand the pursuit of God. The when when you when you sing Emmanuel at Christmas time, God with us, it is an invasion of God coming to earth.

pursuing us. Not because any of us ever wanted to invade heaven. Not because any of us ever wanted to pursue God. Not because any of us were ever looking for him. But because he came to us and that should well up gratitude in our hearts and in our souls. Peter was a fisherman.

He was cleaning nets. He's preparing for another ordinary day. He's just building his career. He's just doing what he knows how to do in first century Roman Empire culture. And Jesus walks up to him and says, "Follow me. Follow me."

And Peter being chosen by Jesus leaves everything and observes it and keeps it and says, "All right, I'm coming with you." It was not after Peter proved himself. It was not after Peter fixed his life. Jesus didn't walk up to Peter and say, "Let me see your resume. Let me check off some boxes. Let me see if you're can speak.

Let me see if you have any education at all." Like the way in which Jesus went about establishing the the the would-be pastors of the first church is not the way that we go about finding pastors today. Jesus to Peter ever chose Jesus. You are elect exiles according to the fornowledge of God the father. That moment between Peter and Jesus on the shore was not coincidental interruption. It was the fulfillment of God the father's fornowledge.

In other words, the father had set his love on Peter long before Peter ever dropped his nets. And that's good news for us. And that's good news for your friends right now who don't know Jesus. And you have the opportunity to share the gospel with them. It's quite possible that God has set his love on them and is just waiting for you to share the gospel with them so that by faith they can follow him as Peter did. Here's the wonderful thing about God's fornowledge and election.

God never loses what he chooses. He never loses what he chooses. Years later, Peter would deny Jesus three times publicly, painfully, so public that we know about it 2,000 years later. That's how public it was. Yet Jesus came back to him on another shore and restored him with the same call. Follow me.

So when Peter writes to Christians about their relationship with God the Father, Peter knows what it means to be chosen not because he was faithful, but because God was and will always be. So you can almost feel it in the heart of Peter right out of the gate when he's telling them elect exiles who are dispersed. He's like, I know what it's to be what it's like to be dispersed. My dispersion was because of my denial and yet he still came after me. And so as you are dispersed, which was due to suffering, as you are dispersed, don't think that God has abandoned you or that God has left you out. Peter knows what he's talking about.

And so when he calls these believers elect exiles, he's not speaking theory. He is speaking testimony from personal experience. Church, this is your story, too. You did not find God on your own. God found you. God found you.

And we need to have confidence in that testimony. You did not choose him. He chose you first. And that's the most comforting statement in all of Christianity because what God chooses again, he never loses. The world may call you mad, but God calls you mine. The world may call you crazy, but God calls you chosen.

He calls you chosen. You are elect exiles of the dispersion, chosen people living in a foreign land. Listen, your address right now might say Indianapolis. It might say Westfield or Caramel or Fisers or Noblesville or Greenwood. Literally, we have people in all of those places. But your true address is heaven.

You are citizens of God's kingdom and Christ is your king. And this book, First Peter, is going to help us learn to live as aliens in this current culture. Because the father has authored your story, your life is not shaped by the culture of your earthly kingdom, but it's shaped by the calling of Christ's heavenly kingdom on you. And so, election is not the end of the story. It's the beginning of your transformation. It's the beginning of it.

And we need to know that the father chooses us. And then it says the spirit changes us. Which brings us back to Peter's next phrase in the sanctification of the spirit. Again, we're just pulling this apart here. This brings us to the second point, closeness and conformity to Christ. Right now, we've got a group of men that meet on Thursday mornings at 5:30 because again, someone's at one point said, "God meets men in the morning and believed it to be true."

I'd prefer it to be at 10:00 at night, but we meet at 5:30 in the morning. And we're walking through a book, Spiritual Disciplines, and in it, it's it says basically the goal is godliness. Like, we do spiritual disciplines. And there's lots of spiritual disciplines, but primarily reading your Bible, praying, fasting, the spiritual disciplines that we see and deduce from the scriptures. The goal of it is godliness. But the question is, what is godliness?

What do we mean by that? Godliness is summed up in two things. Closeness to Christ and conformity to Christ. Closeness to Christ and conformity to Christ. So when you hear me use language like sanctification of the spirit or being shaped by the spirit, there's a goal to it. It's not ethereal.

It's not, well, I hope I just become something better one day. No, no, no. It is intimacy with Jesus and becoming like his image, becoming like Jesus. It means to be set apart, to be made holy, to be shaped by love for Christ and likeness to Christ. This has always been the spirit's work in God's people. This is what he is doing in you right now.

As you hear his word, as you observe his word, as you keep his word, he is drawing you closer to Jesus and to become more like Jesus. That's why Romans 8:29 says, "Pulling these two things together, the fornowledge of God and the work of the Holy Spirit, for those whom he forneew, he also predestined. He determined beforehand, before you ever were born. He determined for you to be conformed to the image of his son." That's his goal for you. That's his design for you.

And so often times we we want to have, you know, I want a vision statement for my life. God's already given you one. Be close to Jesus and be like him. That's that's your vision for your life. God's goal is not merely to just forgive you. It's to form you.

To form you. That's why it's so important that we don't just see church as go and make converts. Is to go and make disciples. disciples who become like their master. And again, Peter knows this by experience. This is the same Peter who once again denied Jesus around a charcoal fire.

The same Peter who hid behind locked doors in fear. The same Peter who was afraid of a servant girl. The same Peter who even later after receiving the spirit of God probably at one time operated like many of us do who say well I'm saved I've got my ticket to heaven I'm good to go but it's okay for me to not continue to be formed or sometimes go back into my own ignorance and he was prejudice and the Apostle Paul had to come and call him out on it publicly that's a day in which Peter was not being filled with the Holy Spirit ongoing being shaped and formed. So what makes the difference for Peter? Well, Pentecost came. Acts 2 tells us that the Holy Spirit filled him and the man who once trembled now stood in public and preached Christ boldly.

Boldly. What changed? It wasn't his education. He didn't all of a sudden in 40 days get a seminary degree and now is able to get up before people and preach a message where 3,000 get saved. What changed? It wasn't his personality.

It wasn't his circumstances. The spirit sanctified him and continues sanctifying him. The fisherman became a fisher of men. The prejudice became a preacher. The fearful man became a faithful witness. And this isn't just for the characters of scripture.

This is for you. This is for you, for each one of us. This is what the spirit does. The spirit of God transforms you to have love for Jesus and likeness of Christ. That's his role. And we got to thank him for it.

Jesus promised this in John 16:13. And he says, "When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth." The truth of your love for Jesus and the truth of your likeness of Jesus. Paul says this in Galatians 5:16, "Walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh." Maybe part of our problem is we don't walk anywhere anymore. We we we got to drive by the these days.

Maybe I should drive by the spirit more because I have road rage. But we need to walk by the spirit. I don't remember who said it, but someone said um the the speed of God is 3 miles per hour because that's how fast we walk. We need to slow down and understand what the spirit of God is doing in our lives every single moment of every single day. So when a headline hits, should we be quick to speak and slow to listen and quick to become angry? No, I don't think that's what James says.

Quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry. More on application of our culture later. The spirit pulls us away from the values of the world and toward the character of Christ. Again, you're either going to bend your knee to culture and become like it, or you will bend your knee to Christ and become like him. The spirit is teaching us to be transformed. This is why Romans 12:2 says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

church. The same spirit working in them is doing the same work in us. The same work in us. The spirit's not making us better citizens of this world. He's making us faithful citizens of heaven that are in this world. And this work continues every single day.

And the spirit has very strategic tools in which he uses to transform you through the word. John 17:17 says it this way. Jesus is praying to the father. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. So I'll tell you this.

If you're not in the Bible every single day, then you are stunting the work of the Holy Spirit sanctifying you and growing you and conforming you to the image of Christ. It's just true. Just like if we have kids and we tell them if you don't o if you don't eat then you don't get to grow up and be strong. It's reality. The spirit works through conviction. The spirit works through obedience.

The spirit works through suffering. The spirit works through so many things in our lives to make us more like Jesus. Closeness to Christ always produces conformity to Christ. So the father chooses us. The spirit shapes us and all of this moves toward one ultimate purpose, obedience to Jesus Christ. Which brings us to the final point.

Christ is king and he has a kingdom. Peter writes, "All of this is happening for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling with his blood." Everything God has done choosing us and sanctifying us moves toward obedience. It moves toward obedience. Again, this is it doesn't move towards now that God has found you, saved you, forgiven you, you're free to go. Go live however you want to live.

No, no, no. Don't hope that just reveals you never understood anything and you're continuing to walk in the way of the wicked. Instead, he's found you. He's forgiven you. He's saved you. He's bought you by the blood of Jesus and he is now sanctifying you to be obedient to all that Jesus Christ commands of us.

Going back to that Matthew 28 great commission. Go and make disciples, baptizing them of the name of the father, son, and the holy spirit. Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. A disciple that does not obey Jesus is not a disciple of Jesus. A disciple that does not bend their knee to the lordship of Christ is not under his rule. Everything God has done choosing us and sanct sanctifying us moves toward obedience.

Again, this is not obedience as burden but obedience as allegiance to a good king. Jesus is not merely savior. He is king. Jesus himself said in John 14:15, "If you love me," and that's not a like prerequisite. If you do everything that I want you to do, then you love me, then you'll keep my commandments. No, no, no.

This is a if you love me in the sense that someone has already received what I've provided for them and therefore loved me as response to it. Those who are in that category will keep my commandments. Obedience is not the way we earn his love. It's evidence that we already have it. That's what we need to understand. I want to do everything Jesus tells me to do because I am the object of his love.

He has already came and pursued me and found me and granted to me the work of his salvation, the work of his righteousness. He has uploaded to my life. And because of everything that he has accomplished for me that I did not deserve, nor did I gain like in doing anything myself, nor did I put any merit in it or effort in it, but because I freely received it by God's fornowledge according to the to the father, because of all of that, how crazy [snorts] would I be to say, "Thank you, but I actually don't want anything to do with That's insane. Thank you. But I actually still think that the ways of the world, the ways of the wicked, the ways of the culture, what they're telling me to do, sounds fun, sounds enticing, sounds like a good time. And so I just want to continue doing those things rather than what you would have for me.

All it does is it reveals that I don't know anything about Jesus and I don't know anything about the work that he has accomplished for me. Obedience is not the way we earn his love. It's evidence that we've already received it. And Peter learned this the hard way. He once promised Jesus, "I'm never going to deny you." And then he denied him three times.

But after the resurrection, Jesus met Peter again by a charcoal fire and asked him three times, "Do you love me? Do you love me?" Again, guys, this doesn't mean that we won't ever have moments where we mess up. and we temporarily forget who we are in Jesus and that we still look to the ways of the world and say maybe this will help me in my current status or this will help me with my anxiety or this will help me with my work or this will help me with my pleasure or this will help me with whatever fill in the blank. There are still moments where we will struggle and fumble and stumble. The question is always going to be, do we come back to Jesus as he is continuing to pursue us and come to us and meet us where we are?

And oftentimes that's going to feel like that conviction that rolls up. And you're like, hold up second isn't producing for me what I thought it was going to produce for me. I feel bad about engaging in this. I don't like it. What's going on in my soul right now? There's a war going on inside of you where Jesus is telling the schemes of the devil, stop it.

And he's also preaching to your soul, you're not for that anymore. You're for me. And I'm reminding you of who you are. That you actually don't want that. And that's why you feel bad about it. You want this because you're becoming like me.

You're you're conforming to my image. You're about what Jesus is about. And so you're about worship of him and not worship of this. And in that moment, he's coming to us just like he did Peter on the shore and he's saying, "Do you love me?" Not in a reearn it, but in that same way of him saying, "Have you received the grace that I've already given you? Have you received my love?"

And in that moment, we're reminding ourselves, you're right. I I do love you more than this. I love all of you. I want you. Why am I doing this? I mean, you could see this even with Paul when he's wrestling with himself.

He's like, "The thing I want to do over here, I don't do because I'm still struggling with things over here. The things I hate, I continue to do, wretched man that I am." But the grace of God continues to meet him in that moment and conform him to the image of Christ. So that as we continue to grow in closeness to Jesus and conformity to Jesus, literally guys, as you grow and as you sanctify and set apart from the world, that does look like a life that sins less and worships more. We need to allow ourselves to believe that. It doesn't mean that you're going to be perfect before glory, but it does mean that there is a progressive sanctification happening.

And I don't mean progressive in a liberal ideology. I mean progressive in the fact that you are becoming from one degree of glory more and more like Jesus. So that eventually in your life you look back and say, "Man, the things that I used to struggle with, hogwash, don't even care about it anymore. have no desire for it anymore. Just give me Jesus. Peter learned that obedience flows out of restored relationship with him.

Later when authorities commanded Peter to stop preaching Jesus, literally remember his command, "Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?" He said three times to him, "Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep."

Peter later learned [snorts] this in practice. They came to him. the authorities, Roman culture came to him and said, "You need to stop. Stop preaching Jesus." Remember the same Peter who the first time that they came to him and said that he said, "You're right. I don't know him.

I don't want anything to do with him. I don't know him." Second time around, they came to him, "Hey, you need to stop." He said, "We must obey God rather than men." Acts 5:29. In other words, Peter's trying to help them understand because of what Jesus has done for me, the love, the pursuit, the choosing of me, the forgiveness extended to me, I can't help but obey him and preach Christ to the nations.

So, you do what you got to do, but I'm going to do what I got to do. And so, if you're going to silence me for preaching Christ, then silence me for preaching Christ. Paul echoes that for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. If you're going to let me live, I'm going to preach Christ. And if by preaching Christ you kill me for it, to die is gain. I get to go be with Jesus.

You're literally just helping me get to him further and quicker. So, thank you for that. Again, Peter learned there's a higher throne than Caesar, a higher authority than culture, a higher command than comfort. Because again in first in Colossians 1:13, Paul declares, "He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son." We no longer live under the rule of the world. We live under the reign of Christ.

And so regardless of which political party is in charge, regardless of which laws are being created and telling us what we should think by virtue signaling, we must remember that we are first and foremost aliens of the world and citizens of heaven. Caesar is not Lord. The government is not God. Christ is king according to the fornowledge of God and the sanctification of the spirit and obedience to Jesus Christ our true and everlasting prince of peace. We got to believe that. We got to know that.

We got to have confidence in that. I mean you go back 30 years maybe even maybe even closer than that 20 years. What was what was an alternative lifestyle? drinking, doing drugs, practicing homosexuality, rebelling against family, faith, society. That was alternative lifestyle. You fast forward today, that's what's celebrated.

That's what's celebrated. That's what's normal. You want to know what a rebel is today? Read your Bible. That's rebellion. Read your Bible.

Go to church. Get married. Have babies. Work hard building a career. Obey Christ in all things. That's an alternative lifestyle in today's culture.

And it was an alternative lifestyle in first century Roman Empire. And then Peter adds this sprinkling with his blood. This reaches back into Exodus 24 when Moses sprinkled the people with blood and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you. He's made it with you." Blood meant you belong to God. You are bound to you are marked as his people.

It was a setting apart. You are going to look different than all the other nations because God is covenanting this with you. And you are then to go out and be a light to the other nations so that they can get in on this covenant that God has provided to the people. Same thing is with us today. Hebrews 9:14 puts it this way. The blood of Christ purifies our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

We obey not to earn salvation. We obey because salvation is already been purchased for us. As Titus 2:14 puts it, Christ gave himself for us to redeem us and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. This is all the work of Jesus in what he's accomplishing for us to purify for himself a people from all peoples. Go and make disciples of all nations. Of all nations.

So if you see someone who pops up on social media and they're saying Jesus is only for white people, again KKK is not gone. still running and still stupid. Israel, cut this out if the government's listening. Israel is not the chosen people. They're not. They're the people from which the chosen one came.

And once he came, he is to be a blessing to all people. So, thank you Israel. You served your purpose. Christ is now the one creating a people from all peoples, the church. So that when we get to Revelation, from all tongues, all tribes, all colors, all languages, we are all declaring the same thing. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

So when you see things that get popped up on social media like what happened this last week, we damn it. We don't just pick sides and say the left is right, the right is right. We are a chosen people living in a culture as aliens and our first allegiance is not to a political party. Our first allegiance is to Christ in the kingdom that he is building here. Now that should influence the institutions that he has created, state, family or state, church and family. We'll talk about that as we work through first Peter with the applications of it.

But we must first realize that regardless of what our allegiance is to on earth from a political stance, when they get it wrong and it's anti what the Bible is teaching, we call it out. We call it out. Let me conclude before I get too angry what Peter says here. May grace and peace be multiplied to you. May grace and peace be multiplied to you. Again, not earned, not achieved, multiplied.

We come to the table where this love becomes visible for us. May grace and peace, the sprinkling of his blood, the shedding of his blood is what marks us as a people. We always say when it comes to baptism, if you're wondering what this hot tub over here is, it's our baptismal. It is when one person comes and is baptized and united with the many that is the church. When we come to the communion, the Lord's supper, it is when the many come to be united to the one Jesus Christ. And that's what we celebrate.

That's why we do this every single week is because we need to be reminded of the work that he accomplished for us, not the work that we are trying to accomplish ourselves. That the way in which he sanctifies us every single day is by reminding ourselves every single week that Jesus is the one working this out for you. He's accomplishing everything you need in order for you to accomplish what he's called of you and commanded of you to observe. And so at this table, we remember that the father put this into motion before you were ever born. We depend on the spirit to set us apart when we receive the broken body and shed blood of Jesus Christ. It marks us as Christians.

It marks us as the church. It marks us as the people of God amongst all peoples of the earth. and that we submit to the son who is willing to serve us by breaking his body and shedding his blood. And we submit to that. The bread tells us he b his body was broken. The cup tells us his blood was spilled.

We come as elect exiles. We come as spiritshaped people. We come as citizens of Christ's kingdom, not an earthly one. And so, would you go ahead and stand with me? When you get the elements this morning and come back to your seats, when you get them, I want you to be reminded that your life is not lost, but it's found. Your life is not lost.

It's found by Jesus. You don't belong to culture. You belong to Christ. You don't serve society. You serve Jesus. And he has a way for you to serve society.

And so I'll just ask one silly question for you to ponder [music] after you get the elements and bring them back to your seats. Have you been brainwashed by culture or have you bent your knee to Christ? Have you been brainwashed by culture or have you bent your knee to Christ? If you've bent your knee to Christ, come get the elements and bring them back to your seats and we will partake together.