God Given Identity

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"who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood"

1 Peter 1:2

Main Readings: Exodus 24 & 1 Peter 1

Supporting Readings: Psalm 95 & Ephesians 1

I think it’s useful to you all at the start of any new ministry series to give you a good reason for why we’re turning our focus here – as opposed to somewhere else.

By doing that, I trust you will become invested in the series the same way I am. Because being invested in what we are doing will make a world of difference to the benefit you reap from the preaching.

As the elder of the church, I’m always looking to see where we are as a church and where we’re going.

And what I see right now is a church that is unified, hopeful, and applied. Which are all good things to be.

That doesn’t mean, though, that we don’t have our problems and shortcomings. And it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t expect challenges to come either.

What 1 Peter does is establish our individual identity as Christians first. Then, it builds our confidence in God. Then it shows us what we need to become, because of our identity. And, that, by the confidence that we’ve been given.

And then it progresses from the individual to the collective – that is, to the church. Showing what that should look like in the world – including suffering. Reminding us that suffering is God’s way of refining us. And then informing us, with the triumphal climax, that he will keep us to the very end – no matter what.

Now I think that that flow from identity, to confidence, to purpose. From individual, to collective. From suffering to triumph. Is just idealfor us right now.

We’ve had 6 months in Old Testament narrative which has been soothing and comforting and helpful. Now, 1 Peter is going to give us purpose, and resolve and courage to keep moving forward.

So that’s the reason for the series. The reason for this particular book. And I trust it will be instrumental in spurring us all on.

Please pray that it would be!

Well, the opening verses of the letter are a greeting – just like you would expect at the beginning of any letter.

We know, from these verses, who the letter is from. We know who it is for. And we know it’s ultimate purpose too – grace and peace to the recipients – in abundance!

But these two opening verses serve as so much more than just a greeting. They serve to make the Christian feel so valued and loved by God.

And the reason for that is so that we would know who we are. In other words, these verses are written for us to know our real identity.

And for us to know that that identity is better than any other identity we could ever hope to receive from this world!

Just think for a minute of all the diverse identities the world is promoting to us all the time.

I’m not even thinking in terms of gender and sexual preferences. Those are identity domains that the world is claiming and promoting for sure. And they are massively at odds with the God who established sexual identity and identity of the sexes.

Those are identity battle grounds for sure.

But I’m thinking much more subtle than that. Think of the identities the world promotes in terms of politics, or class, or clothing, or career path, or car, or football team, or a million and one other things.

Identity is being presented to us in advertisements, social media posts, youtube feeds, the apps we look at on our phones. Everywhere! All the time!

We are being urged by friends, colleagues, influencers, product designers, news outlets, politicians and more to conform to an identityof their choosing.

But the opening verses of this letter are reminding us that, as Christians, we have been given a new identity from God.

And we’re going to see that the identity we’ve been given is off the scale better than any other! It makes every other identity, quite frankly, look pathetic in comparison.

And therefore, we should have confidence, the letter is saying, to own this identity. To live this identity. To struggle to hold this identity above the swelling tide of competing identities.

So that’s what these opening verses are all about.

But Peter – who is the author – first of all, reveals to us why we should take all that new identity talk seriously.

I mean, ‘why should we listen to you, Peter, anyway?’

Well, because Peter is an apostle of Jesus Christ. That’s how the letter opens. Peter says, when he uses the word ‘apostle’: ‘I am not speaking on my own. I am speaking on behalf another – and that other is Jesus Christ’.

‘More than that! I have been appointed by him to speak on his behalf’.

So, whatever this letter says – whatever these first two verses say – they are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ to us.

Not first and foremost Peter’s words.

That’s important because the level of impact they will have on us will directly relate to the authority we recognise behind the words.

If it’s little authority, we’ll let them pass over us. If it’s massiveauthority, we’ll sit up and take note.

And, let me tell you, it is massive authority! You can’t get greaterauthority than Jesus!

So, Jesus is speaking to us this morning through Peter’s letter – with massive authority into our lives.

And that should give us great confidence to believe these words to us.

They are full of blessing to us if we receive them as from our own precious Lord Jesus.

Now, one of the defining characteristics of an apostle was that they had been with Jesus in the flesh. That’s why Paul regards himself as one born out of due time – because he came after Jesus’ ascension.

And yet even Paul had a personal encounter with the living Lord Jesus when he appeared to him on the road to Emmaus in blazing light.

And Peter is no different. He encountered Jesus face to face.

It’s an amazing thing, then, to be able to read a letter written by someone who personally encountered the risen Lord Jesus.

In chapter 5, Peter witnesses to the fact that he saw Christ’s sufferings first hand! So, this is not some third hand ‘hear-say’ kind of author we’ve got here.

He’s a firsthand, knee-deep, eyewitness of the Christ who now speaks to us in this letter through his chosen apostle, Peter.

So, let’s not lose sight of that.

But let’s also not lose sight of who this Jesus is either!

Let’s not lose sight of the fact that he is the resurrected Jesus, of chapter 3, verse 21. That he is the ascended Jesus, of chapter 3, verse 22.

That he is the ruling Jesus, also of chapter 3, verse 22 also. That he is the Jesus ready to judge the living and the dead, chapter 4, verse 5. That he is the Jesus ready to return, chapter 5, verse 4 – and ready to give us all, who believe, a crown of glory when he comes!

So, let’s not have a scanty view of Jesus. He’s not dead, he’s alive. And he’s massively active - progressively looking forward to a day of consummation, and vindication, and jubilation.

Well, as encouraging as that is, nevertheless, we live here below and it’s a hard place to live.

And Jesus knows that. He knows that by his own experience.

In fact, it’s precisely because he came as a human being that he was able to suffer. And in suffering he is now able to sympathise, Hebrews says, with Christians. We walk in his footsteps of suffering and hardship. And he’s not oblivious to it!

Take confidence, then, that he can help you because he has been where you are.

Just this week, I read on the BBC news that Chinese authorities are clamping down hard on Christians in China just now.

And the elder of one church wrote this heartfelt note to his members: ‘I dearly hope that none of our families shall ever again endure such a storm…yet as an elder appointed by the Lord to stand among you, it is my duty to remind you all to prepare yourselves before the storm returns’.

He doesn’t mean physically prepare. He means spiritually. ‘Be spiritually prepared for what might come against us next’, he’s saying.

That’s not the kind of hardship we’re facing. Many of you are bold with your faith and you don’t get much kickback for being bold with your faith.

But physical threat, or verbal assault are not the only ways our faith comes under attack as we live and move in this world of ours.

Out there in China the threat is very tangible. Here in the UK the threat might be much more subtle. But it’s there alright.

And it’s coming against us in ways that we can be totally blind to ifwe’re not switched on. But it is there!

Satan’s not going to leave us alone that’s for sure! Whether in China or in Wakefield!

Here’s one of the ways Jesus helps us. Jesus, through his apostle Peter, wants to make our confidence in God rock solid in the face of that kind ongoing opposition.

And he does it, on this occasion, by reminding us who we are. Andreminding us who’s behind who we are.

It isn’t Apple behind who we are! It isn’t Nike! It isn’t Tesla! It’s the Trinitarian God of the universe who’s behind who we are! That’s Peter’s message in these verses.

Our God makes Apple and Nike and Tesla look like ants – because that’s what they are in comparison with him!

Last week, as you know, we were in the Alps on holiday.

Having not been there in the winter for a long time, before we left, I researched and found we needed snow tyres for our car.

It was really costly to get them – to the point that I was a little sceptical I must admit.

But whilst we were there, we did have some snowfall one night.

Now, between our chalet and the ski resort all the roads were either first or second gear only type roads - they were steep!

And when we encountered them that morning in the snow, there was zero evidence of gritting or ploughing or anything to help you on your way.

They were just steep steep roads covered in snow.

But after that trip I’ll tell you, I did not doubt the value of snow tyres any more!

With our snow tyres on, we flew up those hills!

And not only that, but the driving experience was so good! There was real confidence on those steep snowy hills with these special tyres on!

And it’s like that with these verses on. They serve to give us the kind of confidence we need in the face of the world we’re walking through.

Now, Peter says, he’s writing to ‘God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the Roman provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia’.

And I want us to hear him say, when he writes like that, that he’s writing to us.

He’s writing to a predominantly un-Jewish people. He’s writing to people who are elect – by which he means chosen by God. And he’s writing to a people who are scattered.

And that means they’re scattered from somewhere. Now it’s possible that these people, in these 5 places he’s named, were people who had been dislocated from their home towns – whether Jews or gentiles. That is possible.

But given the nature of the rest of this letter, I think that at the very least, Peter is using ‘scattered’ to point to a more significant kind of scattering.

Namely, that because of the uniquely Christian identity of these people, they are scattered abroad in the world - from their new and true home which is heaven.

In other words, their Christian faith had made them citizens first and foremost not of an earthly home but of a heavenly one.

And now, having come to faith in Jesus and not yet having received their home in heaven with Jesus, Peter refers to them as exiles.

Peter points to this in chapter 2, verse 11: ‘Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage waragainst your soul’.

That’s not a geographical exhortation. That’s a spiritual exhortation.

He’s saying, ‘in this world where temptations abound, abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your souls’.

That’s not exhortation you need in heaven, right? There’s no sinful desire in heaven!

But it’s needed everywhere on earth – whether you’re in Pontus or Pontefract; Galatia or Horbury Bridge.

It just doesn’t matter – it’s the same everywhere.

But not in heaven!

And so, Peter says, ‘in Pontus or Pontefract, live as foreigners and exiles’.

‘Don’t get embroiled in sinful desires. Live like you will live in heaven – live like that here below’.

So, it’s clear, then, that he’s writing to us also when he says ‘elect, exiles scattered’, because that is what we are.

Is that how you see yourself? As exiled from heaven?

We are elect – chosen of God. We are exiles from heaven, scattered through the earth.

This is a letter, then, for you - elect exiles of Wakefield; of Huddersfield!

Now Peter could have said, ‘Peter, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia etc, grace and peace be yours in abundance’.

But he doesn’t.

Instead, he has this densely packed verse of doctrine in-between the opening and closing of his greeting.

And this dense verse is so crucial to us!

Because it is the basis of all the identity we are meant to take from this opening greeting.

Which in turn is designed to set us up for the rest of the letter.

So, we need to get all the goodness for our minds and souls from this verse now, so that we benefit like we should from the rest of the letter.

Now, then, is not the time to check out, now is the time to zone in. Because this is the marrow of the message right here.

Notice the word ‘chosen’ at the beginning of verse 2.

That word is linking us back to the word ‘elect’ in verse 1 because the word ‘elect’ means ‘chosen’.

So, we can see in verse 2 that we have been elect - or ‘chosen’ if you like - according to something – that’s the source of our election.

Through something – that’s the means of our election. And forsomething – that’s the goal of our election.

This is all being done for us. And it’s all for our benefit. God is the one who elected or chose us (verse 1), and he did it from something, bysomething and for something (verse 2).

So, let’s consider those in order, because they are all so precious!

They are all about God planning and acting to make us his very own.

What could be more encouraging and faith building than hearing how God made us his very own?!

First, then, he chose us according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.

The source of our election, Peter says, is the first person of the Trinitarian Godhead – the Father. That’s his role – he’s the first causeof our election.

And it’s a choosing that accords with the Father’s foreknowledge of us. What does that mean?

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8 that whoever ‘loves God is known by God’. So, this knowing is deeply affectional.

If you left election as it was expressed back there in verse 1 you wouldn’t know that love had anything to do with God’s choosing. But it does!

The Father foreknew us. It doesn’t mean he knew about us, it means he knew us - intimately.

When did he know us intimately? Look down to verse 20 and see when God chose Christ – ‘before the creation of the world’ it says.

So, it’s like this: not that the Father looked ahead of time and saw that we would love him and therefore chose us – that’s not it at all!

Rather, it is that he knew us intimately before the creation of the world. He set his love on us back then! And therefore, he chose us to be his very own, back then.

He didn’t do this for everyone. He didn’t foreknow all the people of the world. He foreknew some of them – that is, he set his love on some of them. And in so doing, he chose them.

It’s the love of the Father in eternity past that is the first cause and the source of everything else that follows.

Don’t ask me to explain how he knew me before I was conceived. But this verse says he did.

Don’t ask me why he chose me to love and not somebody else – I don’t know. But this verse says he did.

And don’t think for one moment that he foresaw something preferrable in me that he didn’t find in someone else.

No, he saved us not because of anything we had done but because of his own purpose and grace. And this grace was given us in Christ Jesus. When? – ‘before the beginning of time’ 2 Timothy 1:9 says.

I’m not saying we can know everything. I’m not saying God has revealed everything.

I am saying Jesus is telling us that God knew us and loved us before the foundation of the earth.

And he chose us to receive something and be for something.

And that’s where Peter takes us next.

Chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by or through the sanctifying work of the Spirit.

So, we had the Father’s role. Now we have the Spirit’s role. The Spirit does a sanctifying work in a person at a moment in history.

We’ve zoomed forward now - from eternity past to a moment in the life of the person the Father foreknew. So that, now, and only now, they are sanctified.

That means, so that they are set apart from the rest.

It means that no matter the love the Father fixed on us in eternity past, we would not belong to him had the Spirit not done an effectual work in our souls to make God, and his Son Jesus, look irresistible to us.

Our hearts would still be rejecting him; would have never given him a second thought – just preferred a million other things more than him! – were it not for the transformative work of the Holy Spirit on our spirits.

So that we, for the very first-time desired God.

If this didn’t happen, we would never receive Jesus and we would never come to God.

To be sure, the Holy Spirit does not effectually call anyone who the Father has not set his love on in eternity past.

But to be sure, not one of those the Father set his love on, comes to him unless the Spirit does this work of transformation in our hearts.

Would Lydia have come, had the Lord not opened her heart? Acts says she came because the Lord opened her heart.

‘No one can come unless the Father who sent me draws him’ Jesus said. How does he draw them?

Answer: by the work of the Holy Spirit setting them apart for Jesus. How do we know that? Because Jesus said so, what 19 verses later. He said, ‘the Spirit gives life’.

And we know that the Spirit is also the one, who after faith in Christ has taken hold, seals God’s people.

Seals them so that everyone knows, they belong to him. Seals them so that their family inheritance is guaranteed.

‘You were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance’.

So that’s two interventions by God now, to make us who we are.

He loved us before the beginning as the source of our election. He effectually called us prior to our faith, in time and space, as the meansof election – sealing us also as family members of God’s household.

And now finally, he makes the goal of our election known to us. Our election is for ‘obedience’ Peter says. ‘Obedience to Jesus Christ’.

This isn’t an optional extra. This is part three of God making us who we are. It’s as essential to our identity as the Father’s love and the Spirit’s calling.

The father chose us in love, the Spirit called us to life, so that we might be obedient to the Son.

You know, that’s not quite how we might expect it to go.

We might have expected the goal to be more like obedience to the Father. And the means to be more like, by the Son.

But it’s framed this way by Peter because he wants us to know that he has ‘The people of God’ in mind, right here at the outset of his letter.

The reason we read Exodus 24 this morning is because the pattern for making people into ‘The people of God’ there is: God chooses Israel; the people are consecrated or set apart; blood is sprinkled; and obedience is the result.

And Peter wanting to show us he has ‘The people of God’ in mind, is following the same pattern.

This is how people become ‘The people of God’: God chooses them; the Spirit sets them apart; Jesus sprinkles them with his blood; and the result is, they obey!

Now, you might be thinking to yourself, ‘we were going along so well: God was doing everything!

And now the word ‘obedience’. So now it comes down to us afterall’.

But that’s not right.

To be sure obedience is something we do. And we are called to do. And is necessary that we do.

After all it’s the goal!

But ‘no’ God’s work is not finished here yet.

Because, Peter says ‘God the Son’ sprinkles us with his blood. The goal is obedience to Jesus. But it is obedience made possible by the sprinkled blood of Jesus.

Peter says, it was from ‘empty ways of life’ that we were rescued by Jesus’ shed blood, verses 18 & 19.

In other words, when he spilt his blood for us, on the cross, it was sothat our lives wouldn’t be given over to empty ways anymore - but rather to righteous ways.

Every single one of Jesus’ good decrees, laws, directives, commands is a ‘way’ of righteousness. That’s what his spilt blood enables in us – righteous obedience - denial of empty ways!

So, it’s not raw will power that brings about the goal – it’s the power of the shed blood of Jesus that brings about inclination to obedience in our lives.

And for sure we must apply ourselves to that obedience. But that’snot Peter’s focus here. Peter’s focus here is to show us who we are.

We are sprinkled unto obedience.

We are foreloved by the Father. We are sovereignly called by the Spirit. We are sprinkled with the blood of the Son making us into obedient children of the living God.

All of this is grace to us. And all of this results in peace to us.

And they are abundant commodities. It is abundant grace to us that we belong to his household.

And it results in abundant peace to us.

So, as we live out our lives in the world. We are not first and foremost British. We are not first and foremost conservative. We are not first and foremost Architect or Caretaker. Manchester utd or Leeds utd.

We are first and foremost elect. Loved of the Father; called by the Spirit; sprinkled by the Son.

If you don’t feel thrilled by that, you either haven’t understood or else you haven’t experienced it for yourself.

It is utterly thrilling to think that the Father chose me before the foundation of the world. The God of the universe had me on his heart.

That the Holy Spirit moved and brought me from death to life so that I could see the beauty of Jesus. Thrilling!

That Jesus spilt his blood for me to redeem me from the utter emptiness of my life. Thrilling!

And, that now, I belong to God, and am a member of his household!

It should thrill us! Does it not thrill you?

The world I move through is nothing in comparison with belonging to God.

We’re meant to feel the vibrancy of belonging to God. And, by contrast, see every last offer to belong to something else, that exists in this wide-world, as drab and grey and empty.

Because that’s going to help us mightily to contend in the ways that Peter is going to show us in the rest of his letter.

Be encouraged by this awesome revelation of who you are, as a Chistian. And how mightily God has worked to make you one of his own!

And don’t forget your identity as we move through this letter.