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Good Monday to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
For many years a particular genre of fictional entertainment…movies, TV and books in particular, have stretched our imagination to consider… there may be ‘alien’ forms of life on other planets who come and live here on earth among us. Normally they are undetected until some type of crisis provides them the opportunity to demonstrate their unusual characteristics and often rare powers. I realize I don’t normally comment on such things in “Walking with Jesus”, and I have not seen or read such fictional entertainment for many years, but listen to how the Apostle Peter begins his first letter in the Bible: “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. To God’s elect strangers (aliens) in the world…” (1 Peter 1:1)
This week we’re going to spend an entire week digging deeply into Peter’s very powerful statement in 1 Peter 2:9-12. He begins with this dramatic declaration: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of HIM who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now, you are the people of God!“ Now both of those statements from Peter are aimed at people just like you and me, who have trusted Jesus Christ to save them from their sin, and are therefore could be viewed as “aliens living among us”!! WHY?
During the years which followed Jesus’ resurrection and His return to heaven, the Gospel, the good news story about Jesus, moved from Jerusalem throughout Israel, then across the Roman Empire, primarily taken by those disciples Jesus had commissioned to be Apostles, and those Jews who had experienced the miracle of Pentecost, (Acts 2) as they returned to their homelands to tell the Gospel story to all who would hear them. Peter and Paul are the two highest profile of these early missionary Apostles leading small groups of Christ followers from city to city, taking the Gospel to places Jesus was unknown. The Bible book of Acts gives us much of their story from the years about 30-68AD or so.
All the while great persecution against anyone who was known to be a follower of Jesus was building, first in Jerusalem and then all across the empire, primarily from two sources. Jewish leaders, Pharisees, Sadducees and others, hated the fact that Jewish people by the thousands were turning to Jesus as their long anticipated Jewish Messiah and trusting Him as Yeshua Hamashiach to save them from their sin condemnation. Today we know these brothers and sisters in Christ as “Messianic Jews” and they are a great movement around the world, where-ever Jews are living.
It’s important we remember THEY were the first Christians. It was some years later when the salvation of Gentiles was considered legitimate (Acts 15) and they were ‘grafted in’, and together Jesus formed the unified people of God without division or prejudice. Paul wrote an entire chapter in Ephesians 2 about this very important reality.
Roman leaders were very concerned that this ‘Jesus movement’ may cause a political revolt against the Caesar, so Roman brutal persecution against all followers of Jesus was ferocious. As a result thousands of Christ followers fled their hometowns, their jobs, their families in search of some peaceful place to live but few such places were found. The later half of the first century was a terrible time to be a follower of Jesus, Jew or Gentile, anywhere in the Roman Empire.
While the Apostle Paul, the former Pharisee turned evangelist, was greatly respected as a well educated teacher as he took the Gospel fearlessly and passionately across the empire, the Apostle Peter was revered as the most famous of all those disciples, a fisherman who had ‘walked those years with Jesus’. Paul wrote many letters, Peter wrote only two.
Let’s look at Peter’s words of great encouragement, especially to Messianic Jews, but also the Gentile Jesus followers, who had scattered in response to widespread persecution: “You have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by His blood.” (1 Peter 1:2) Do you hear Peter’s efforts to encourage these suffering Christians with an overwhelming sense of PRIVILEGE in their true IDENTITY? This is one of many verses which speak of the unique Trinity of God: God the Father, God the Son Jesus, God the Holy Spirit. One Almighty, Holy, Eternal God in three distinct persons. This statement of unique identity and common experience rooted in the Triune God, is part of why these early Christians were viewed as ‘aliens among us’.
Do you remember Jesus had said “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.” (John 6:44) Do you see Peter was encouraging these early Christians to realize THEY were who Jesus was talking about! They had been drawn by God the Father, to Jesus Christ the Son, and His shed blood was sufficient atonement payment for their sin. And in response to their repentance, God the Father had applied Jesus’ blood to their sin debt, forgiven them of their sin, and the Holy Spirit was doing a cleansing, sanctifying work in them, which made them righteous, and gave them a deep desire and courage to follow Jesus obediently, even in the face of horrible, life threatening persecution! In some cases brutal torture and execution.
Often these Christians sang worship songs, or quoted Scripture and prayed as they were tortured and killed. Often in their agony they rejoiced and declared that Jesus was ready to raise them up to heaven in their time of death! Such outrageous dying behavior caused them to be branded ‘aliens among us’. Who were these strange people who followed Jesus so passionately and courageously that they would die fearlessly rather than recant and renounce Him? Where did their courage in the face of hungry lions, or blazing torches or slicing swords come from? What power was this Holy Spirit of God who lived within them?
Here’s part of the answer…listen to Peter: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for you who through faith are shielded by God’s power…” (1 Peter 1:3-5) The resurrection of Jesus was of supreme importance to them. Jesus’ resurrection proved Jesus’ identity as God the Son, their Savior, and they were confident He would bring them safely to heaven in their death.
They were also confident a glorious inheritance awaited them in heaven. Finally, they were confident that God’s power would shield them… not from the lion’s claws and teeth, nor from the blazing fires which burned them to death, or the swords which sliced and beheaded them. But God’s power would shield them from the taunting devil and his demons and their hell, from which Jesus had rescued them!
Now, with persecution of Christians rising all over the world, including America, it’s fair to ask… are there ‘aliens among us’? Are there men and women, teens and elderly folks among us, who are just like those to whom Peter was writing? Is it us… you and me? Have we experienced in us the work of God, just as Peter described it? Do those words apply just as much to us today as they did to those remarkable, courageous, followers of Jesus in the first century?
May I invite you to ponder that, until we can meet together again tomorrow for a close look at more of what Peter wrote?
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Click to read today’s chapter: I Peter 1; I Peter 2:9-12. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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