Sermons

Introduction

How should a Christian live in a secular world? This is a big question that believers must address daily. The Apostle Peter let Christians know from the beginning of his letter that they are different. In fact, their homeland is in another place. Their time on earth is just a temporal journey. Once believers recognize this truth, they can become effective is their mission as witnesses for God.


We are on a Journey Through This World

Our Trip to Western Canada
Before Timmy was born, Lori and I took Lydia on a trip through Western Canada. We had a family reunion to attend in British Columbia, so we decided to make it a three-week trip. I had never traveled in that part of the world, but since Canada is in North America, I figured that it would not be that different. They speak English, they share borders with us, we have free trade and travel between the countries. And the U.S. and Canada both have English heritage. But for sure we could see and feel the differences.
How was Canada different for me? Differences included vocabulary, pronunciation of words, ethnicity, French language signs, and money. 

But as different as they were to us, I am sure we were different to them. Perhaps our accent was alarming to them. The only difference was this: we were in their homeland-we were the travelers, the strangers, in a foreign land.

Christians Are Different, Too
The Apostle Peter tells us that we are on a journey too. In his letter we will be looking at for the next four months, he tells us that we are "Strangers in the world." The word used here for strangers has more of the connotation of a "Sojourner" or someone on a "Journey" in a foreign land.

The Apostle Paul puts it like this: Phil 3:20

20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ…

• Did you ever consider your life as a journey in a foreign land?
• Does living in the world feel more and more strange to you?

Western Canada seemed familiar at first, but the more time we spent there we found out how different we were culturally. In the same way, our world is familiar to us, but when we enter into God's family we have a new citizenship, a new homeland, and a new King. And as we better understand our new identity as a citizen of Heaven, we will see the differences we have from the world.

Being different is not easy, and God knew we would have to understand our identity and mission clearly before we could carry out our purpose in this land.

God as Father, Holy Spirit, and Son were all involved in the common goal of Saving those Chosen for this journey, the Christian Journey.

We who are believers are Chosen of God

The whole Trinity was involved in choosing us for this special journey:

The Father: according to the foreknowledge of God the Father

• Knowing before as a fact-God knew that we would be on this journey before time even began
• Knowing before as a relationship-God knew before time that He would have a Father/Son or Father/Daughter relationship with us. He looked forward to our coming into the world so that He could love us.
• Our daughter -When we first found out that she would be our child, we already desired to have a relationship with her. Our foreknowledge of her upcoming birth caused us to want to love her and be with her. 
• When God chose us as a Father, He desired for us to be part of His chosen people-His family, His citizenship, living with Him in Heaven.

The Spirit: through His sanctifying work

• Holy Spirit's work begins at the time we entered into God's family and continues until we pass to the next life.
• At this time He dwells in us to help us full-time.
• Sanctification: make holy, or set-apart. As chosen people, we are set aside as a completely as God's people. We should be identified as such.
• Spirit's Continuing Work
  - His initial work was to give us God's holiness so that we could be saved.
  - His continuing work is to help us be more and more freed from sin and live in the holiness that He has given us.

Now that we better understand that we have been brought into a new family and are being served by the Holy Spirit to teach us how to live a Set-Apart life…

What are we to do as we pass through? We are chosen for Obedience to Jesus Christ.
Obedience is not a foreign concept to us. As children and youth we are asked by our teachers and parents to be obedient. As adults we are to listen to our bosses, spouses, and even our children. The problem is that we often perform our duties out of OBLIGATION, rather out of LOVE. Then obedience becomes a burden and resentful.

In Pathfinders Fellowship we have just begun a series called, Inside Out: the Transformation of a Disciple. When you think about the essence of discipleship, it is learning from Jesus--

• His way of life we are to adopt as our way of life,
• What he thinks is important we should think is important, and
• His values should become our values.

In other words, disciples are good listeners and students. They are obedient to the teacher. The idea here though is that God does not ask us to do something we would not be fulfilled in doing. Obedience is just the normal every day life of the Christian who understands his place in this world. It will not be hard to abstain from sinful activity when we realize that we are NEW CREATIONS.

What if we fail to be obedient? There is a provision for us:

The Son: sprinkling by his blood (sacrifice of atonement)

The Apostle Peter reminds us that we as believers have been Chosen by the Sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus. Hebrews describes to us why the blood is so important:

Heb 9:14-15
14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance-- now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

Heb 9:21-22
21 In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies.
22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

There was the practice of sprinkling blood on everything. Otherwise there would be no forgiveness of sins. The only problem--the blood of goats and bulls could not cleanse the conscience.
If you have something on your conscience today, it is forgiven by the sprinkling of Jesus Christ.

And if we have never experienced the forgiveness of our sins before God, we need only ask Him to enter into our hearts.

John 1:12
12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- (NIV)

If you desire to do this right now, pray along with me: God, I know that my conscience is full of wrongdoing. And I know there doesn't seem to be any way to cleanse my conscience. But your Word says that the sacrifice of Jesus cleanses my conscience from sin. I take you at your Word when you say that if we receive Jesus by believing in what He has done, we are made clean and are your children. Thank you for what you have done for me. AMEN.

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