We’re delighted that our good friend and brother, Simon Chase, has agreed to prepare a few “lockdown ponderings” for us! These are adapted from a series Simon is teaching at Gillingham Baptist Church, and which began when the UK went into Lockdown due to the coronavirus.
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1 Peter 1:1-3 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 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.
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.
In vv 6-9 Peter
explained that Christians are a suffering people. But there is a reason
– these ‘trials’ establish the ‘tested genuineness’ of our faith, which God
prizes. True faith is indestructible, unlike even gold. Christians who endure
trials bring ‘praise, glory and honour’ to Jesus Christ at the last day and for
eternity. So we can be a rejoicing people, even in our trials, for we
‘love’ the Lord Jesus, and are being saved for our ‘inheritance’ which is ‘kept’
for us. We will be ‘guarded’ until that time. Our blessed position, though
involving trials, is utterly Covid-19 proof and filled with hope.
So now, let’s
look at the beginning of the letter, where we also see a reality that we are
even more conscious of today. The reality is that we are, in this world, always
a scattered people.
1. WE ARE DETACHED v 1
We should take
great notice of this, for Peter the apostle is writing, and this is Scripture.
He is writing to ‘exiles’; really temporary residents, strangers here. Like
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob we are in a place, but not of it. We really belong
somewhere else.
Nor are we all
together; we are a ‘Dispersion’. Peter uses a term the Old Testament applies to
Israel. For example, Psalm 147:2 and in the New Testament John 7:35. The
church is the Israel of Israel; Israel
as she was always meant to be. But in this case too, dispersed while in this
world.
Under the new
covenant local churches are meant to be individual; consider the seven churches
of Rev 2-3. Peter’s letter is addressed to Christians spread across parts of
the Roman empire that covered most of modern Turkey. They could hardly know
each other, but despite distance they were a unity in Christ. Jesus does not
intend his church in the world to be building a great HQ with regional branches.
At present, now, the church has a scatteredness. So our inability to meet together
as the Lord’s people is not new. It doesn’t mess up God’s plan. Nor will this
current period of isolation destroy Christ’s church or Christ’s individual churches.
2. WE ARE DISTINCT v 2
Though
distributed, scattered, detached, we are united – in being different from the
world. God has made us distinct. But this distinctiveness from the world is
also a unity with one another. Even separate churches have between them a unity.
After all, Peter wrote one letter to this ‘group’ and in Revelation 2 & 3
each message is ‘to the churches’.
Now Peter
describes this unity. We are ‘elect’ exiles, united by the Father’s eternal
choice, for He ‘foreknew’ us. We are ‘sanctified’; made holy and being made
holy by the work of God the Holy Spirit. We are saved ‘for obedience’ as
disciples of the Lord Jesus. We follow and obey Him. We are ‘sprinkled’ by His
‘blood’; cleansed and purified, fulfilling Moses’ act at Sinai, Ex 24:8.
We are equipped
to live for God by the multiple, continual blessings of ‘grace’ and ‘peace’.
Despite being physically,
geographically scattered, we are one with each other, separate from the world. This
is the work of the Trinity – Father, Spirit, Son. We can be distinct for
we are distinct. Christians are Christians because of God’s choice.
Christians are forgiven sin! God has dealt with us and does deal with us not
for anything in us but ‘according to his great mercy’. God chooses to deal with
us on this basis. Mercy is the governing principle of our relationship. We
can’t sin our way out of this, throw it away, run out of steam or fall short – Jesus
saves.
3. WE ARE DOXOLOGICAL v 3
So how are we to
react to this astonishing relationship with God governed by mercy? We praise
God, just as Peter does here. ‘Blessed’ says Peter; ‘blessed’ say God’s people
in praise of God. When we bless God, we cannot do what he does in blessing us.
But we can acknowledge and praise his great goodness. We can utter ‘glorious
words’! That’s what ‘doxo-logical’ means (and that’s how I get my third D).
Why do we praise
God?
- Because ‘abundant mercy’ has been shown to us. We deserve judgement but rejoice in mercy.
- Because we are ‘born again’ – and this the act of God the Father. We have new life!
- Because we have the birth right to a ‘living hope’. A God-guaranteed inheritance awaits us.
- Because all this is founded on and flows from ‘the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead’.
So it all
revolves around ‘Easter’ – it all revolves around the first day of the week. It
all stems from cross, tomb and Jesus’ resurrection. From the death and
resurrection of Christ flows the power to provide and guarantee our hope. We
are third day / first day people for it is his resurrection life that is at
work in us.
This blessing we
give to God by thanksgiving and praise stops us being self-centred and this-worldly.
Thankfulness is a wonderful antidote to such faults.
Though
scattered, we’re nevertheless, and in every condition, detached, distinct,
doxological.
We don’t rejoice that we have trials, but
rejoice in our trials, with glorious grounds to do so.
