New Birth, New Love

What’s a hobby? Something you do for fun.

Sometimes people ask me, What are your hobbies? And I say, I like to read. And they say, That sounds awfully close to your job! And maybe so.

Hobbies, in contrast to one’s job, are things you do for enjoyment, and if you stop enjoying them, you stop doing them without serious consequence. You can’t do that with a job. You can stop working if you can stop eating, but that won’t last very long.

Hobbies come and go. Gardening, painting, hiking, dancing. You may do them a couple of times a month, a few times a year, and it’s ok.

Others approach it like a tradition. Something of religious importance to your family becomes of cultural importance to you. Coming to church, bringing your children up with some sort of faith, becomes a tradition to you.

Others approach Christianity as a self-help tool. You stumbled across Christianity when you were down and out and might’ve said, Maybe I ought to give this God thing a try.

The reality is that most, if not all, of us stumble across Christianity with a poor understanding of what it actually is. Hobbies, traditions, and self-help tools have a place, but they’re not radical enough to describe what the Christian faith is.

The Christian faith in our passage today is described as a new birth. And few things are as radical as new birth.

And so, as we begin our series in Peter’s First Letter, we’re going to look at things that will be true of us if the new birth has happened to us. With the new birth . . .

1 Peter 1:1–2
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, ² 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: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

We’ve called the series Exiles in our Land because Peter calls the Christians he’s writing to exiles. He says, To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.

He’s writing to Christians in the region we today call Turkey, and he calls them exiles.

Having spent the last few months in Isaiah, where he was addressing the exiles in Babylon, it should be easier for us to see what Peter is doing here.

The exiles were God’s people who’d been taken from Jerusalem into Babylon in the 6^th century BC. As exiles, they were far from their land and scattered in a foreign culture. Peter is now applying this rich symbolism to the entire Christian community.

But there’s a big difference in the sense of the word exile as Peter is applying it to Christians. Israel’s exile was an exile of sin (they were exiled from their land because of sin). Christians experience the exile of faith (they become exiles in their own land because of their faith in Jesus).

So in what sense were the Christians exiles and scattered?

As we will go on to see, by virtue of their new birth in Christ, Christians have a new identity, a new citizenship. They live in the same cities and regions as other people in the Roman empire (Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia), but those cities are not their home. Yet they are scattered in these places by God and with a mission from God.

The word translated scattered is the Greek word diaspora, which refers to the dispersion of Jews from the land of Israel, most notably at the time of the Babylonian exile.

Peter picks up these rich words and says, God’s new people, Jews and Gentiles, are his chosen people, exiles in their own land, scattered everywhere for the purpose of making Jesus known.

Why is it significant that if you have new birth in Christ, you are an exile?

One of the things I love about our church is its cultural and ethnic diversity.

As most of you know, we translate the Sunday sermons into five languages (Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese) because people from all these countries and cultures live and worship in our midst. Of course, we also have a wonderful Indian community.

When you attend a gathering from our ethnic communities, the food stands out. Instead of hamburgers, hot dogs, and chips and salsa (which is itself an ethnic food that has become mainstream), you may find chicken biryani, rice, beans, plantains, sushi, kimchi, egg rolls. Not brownies or apple pie, but desserts made with pistachios and other things I don’t know the name of. All yummy. All fun.

Food is one of the main ways that people from a different land keep a cultural connection to their homeland.

Time is another one. Standards of timeliness and lateness vary among cultures. Right? I thought we were meeting at seven. (Yes, but it’s not seven yet in my country!)

Clothing varies.

So whether it’s the food, the clothing, the accents, the customs, the physical features, people from a different land feel very much like sojourners, exiles, in America.

Here’s why this is a big deal. Here’s what you do not see. When you’re speaking with someone who grew up in another country, you’re not confused. Something will make it clear. I’ve been in the States for 30 years; I don’t sound like a naturally born English speaker. I am an American citizen, but I will always have distinct features from Colombia.

So here’s the challenge for all of us. (And this may be a bigger challenge for you to grasp if you are from America and have always lived in America. But the challenge is for all of us.) If we’ve had the new birth in Christ, we are exiles in the world.

Every Christian should have an accent. By what we say and how we act, people around us should be able to tell, You’re different. You’re not quite from here! (and by “here” I mean America, but bigger than that, the world.) Peter will make this point repeatedly.

The challenge for us is that we’ll want to blend in, be mainstream. We’ll want to be chips and salsa. If the NFL is on, there will be chips and salsa. We won’t even blink. But chips and salsa are a Mexican thing. If soccer were on, then chips and salsa makes sense. But the Lions and Tostitos—what’s up with that? What’s up with that is that chips and salsa have lost their ethnic flavor and have become mainstream.

Nothing wrong with that when we’re talking about food. But there’s something profoundly wrong with a Christian losing their exile flavor.

So I ask again, Why is it significant that if you have new birth in Christ, you are an exile?

Because being an exile is not a hobby, a tradition, or a self-help tool. Being an exile is an identity that you can’t put on or take off when you feel like it.

A spiritual exile, a Christian, does not have a homeland in this world. We will always have an accent. And we’re going to see in Peter’s letter that this accent is how God makes the world aware that he has a better country for those who love him.

What’s our accent?

Our conduct. Our beliefs. Our values. Peter will address all of these in the verses that follow.

But for now I ask you, have you had the new birth in Christ? You may say, Geez, I don’t know. Well, are you an exile?

Or is the Christian faith merely a hobby, a tradition, a self-help tool to you? Those things are not radical enough.

When I first came into this country, everywhere I went, people could tell, You’re not from here. And it got old. I wanted to blend in.

We as Christians want to blend in so bad, that we don’t share Christ and our values, beliefs, conduct, and speech are not distinctly Christian.

Peter challenges us right from the first verse of his letter. To God’s elect exiles.

With the new birth . . .

1 Peter 1:3–4
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. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you.

Peter in these first nine verses immerses us in what’s so distinctive about our identity as God’s people.

He’s full of praise. He says, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Why is he so full of praise? Because In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope.

Our new birth is a gift. It flows out of God’s great mercy. What the Old Testament calls his hesed, his loving kindness, his steadfast love. This new birth is something God gives us. Do you see that? In his great mercy he has given us new birth.

New birth is not something that you give yourself. Just as your first birth was not something you gave yourself. Every birth I’ve seen, in real life and on a screen, the mom was doing all the work. Even the doctor doesn’t do much at all when things are going well.

I remember when Anna was giving birth to Rayne, our first child. I thought, She’s going to be in there with the doctor, and the doctor is going to be doing all kinds of things to get this baby out. Nope. He was a great doctor, but he was standing about five feet away from Anna, kind of against the wall. And Anna would be pushing her essence out. Her face red and sweaty. And she would stop, exhausted. And then, he’d say, “That was good. Let’s do that again.”

And I remember thinking, Let’s? Let’s means “let us” do that again, and you’re not doing anything. I better not see a bill for your services!

Mom does all the work. Baby doesn’t do jack.

Likewise, when God gives us new birth, he does the work by his Spirit. Jesus says, in John’s Gospel (3:6), flesh gives birth to flesh (that’s your mom giving birth to you), but the Spirit gives birth to spirit (that’s the Spirit of God giving birth to your spirit, so that you become alive to God).

Perhaps this was your experience. I’ve heard people who grew up in the church say something like, I grew up in the church, but I never heard the gospel. Then I went to college or to another city for work, and I started attending this new church and I heard the gospel for the first time. And I understood that Jesus died for me, and that he loves me, and that he forgives all my sin. It was the best thing that ever happened to me.

OK. A couple of things could be going on here. It could be the case that that person grew up in the church, and they really did not preach the gospel there at all. That does happen.

But more often, something else was going on. The gospel was being preached in the church where they grew up, but they never heard it with the ears of faith because they did not have the new birth. They were dead in their spirit.

But then they came alive to Christ by the Spirit. And just like when a baby is born they start crying and you know baby’s alive, so also when a person is born of God’s Spirit, they start crying and the cry sounds like the person I just mentioned. I love Jesus. He died for me. He really did die for me because I needed his atoning death to pay for my mountain of sin. Praise. Praise. Praise his glorious name!

My prayer and hope every Sunday that I preach is that some of you will have that experience. I don’t care if you’ve been here a thousand times before, but it’s all just been Jesus noise. So I long for the day when some of you will come alive to Christ and you’ll know, Jesus died for my sins. My life will never be the same. Would you join me in that prayer? There are people right here who are dead to God. They need the new birth.

The new birth is part of a whole packet of salvation that Peter mentions in these verses. Let’s walk through four of his descriptions (by no means exhaustive of salvation.)

He begins with election. To God’s elect. . . chosen according to the foreknowledge of God.

When Scripture talks about election, it’s not so people wonder whether they’re chosen or not. Those are unprofitable controversies.

In a Roman world with a strict hierarchy, with the gods and elites and the emperor at the top, and the masses at the bottom—commoners, slaves, immigrants, and criminals—the message that the God of the universe took a special interest in you, you commoner/slave/criminal, from way before he created the world and chose you to be his very own, that message was fire.

It lifted people to new worth.

Then Peter goes to the trinity. He doesn’t call it that because the word would not come into use until much later.

He says, 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. God foreknew you. His Spirit sanctifies you, makes you like God. His son sprinkles you with his blood. Why do we need to be sprinkled with his blood? So that we can obey him.

Then he says, grace and peace be yours in abundance. There was no grace in the Roman system.

It was, you do your part and maybe you’ll get lucky in life. There was no peace in the Roman world, only the illusion of peace through heavy taxation and ruthless war.

By contrast, grace and peace is what Christianity offered. Grace meant God is for you at your worst. God is with you in your darkest hour. God gave his son for you while you were his enemy.

Peace meant rest from striving, restoring what’s broken, healing in your soul.

Finally, he orients us to the future. He says, In his great mercy [God] 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.

We are born into a living hope. He calls it “living” because it’s based on Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. All other grounds for hope fizzle and die. If we say, My hope is strong because I am young, rich, liked, successful, loved, good, our hope is weak and we should feel hopeless. And maybe that’s why so many in our culture feel hopeless. They feel hopeless because they should feel hopeless, given what their hope is based on. But if you say, My hope is strong because Jesus is alive, you will never be hopeless.

We are also born into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. Think about this. Most Christians Peter is writing to were commoners, slaves, immigrants, poor. They had little to begin with, and by bearing the name of Jesus they had even less. Imagine the power, the hope, when they hear not only that they now had an inheritance but one that would never perish, spoil, or fade.

Everything you and I work for so hard in this world will perish, spoil, or fade. Unless we work hard to store treasure in heaven, as Jesus instructs us to do.

These are some of the benefits of the salvation that Jesus offers. Do you have this salvation? Have you experienced the new birth? With the new birth . . .

Peter says three important things about faith in these verses.

Faith connects us to God’s power.

1 Peter 1:4b–5
This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

We spoke briefly about our inheritance, which is kept in heaven for us, meaning that we’ve not received it yet. Same for our salvation. We have tokens now, dividends of grace and peace, but the fullness of our salvation and inheritance will be revealed at a later time.

Here’s what he says about faith in this connection. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power.

Through faith we are shielded by God’s power.

As exiles for Christ, we will always invite curiosity and scorn. But God’s power is always there ready to protect us as a shield. But we need faith. Faith is what connects us to God’s power.

When Jesus met people who needed his help, he often asked them, Do you believe that I’m able to do this? (Matt 9:28, Mark 9:23) When the answer was Yes, he displayed his power. When the answer was No, he did little of power. His power was there all along, but what made the difference in whether people received it or not was their faith.

Faith connects us to God’s power.

Faith must be tested.

1 Peter 1:6–7
In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Peter acknowledges that the Christians may face all kinds of trials and such trials bring grief.

Now, everyone goes through trials in life, but Peter gives an added dimension for the trials of Christians. He says that these have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith . . . may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Trials test our faith, and our faith must be tested. You don’t want to show up to your appointment with Jesus Christ, the one that seals your destiny, thinking you belong to him, and have him tell you, You don’t belong to me. Away from me, you evildoer.

How do we avoid that horrible surprise, that sinking feeling of doom? By having our faith tested today.

You see, faith is less like a diploma and more like a skill. A diploma is something you receive, you hang it on the wall, and it’s always there saying you’re a doctor, or a teacher, or an engineer. A diploma says, Done!

A skill is something that gets better or worse. It’s organic. You’re always becoming more or less skillful.

And that’s how faith works. Faith can be strong or weak, mature or newborn, proven or untested.

So when a trial comes (always in the form of loss, loss of security, money, relationship, reputation, pleasure, health), your faith gets activated. And it either emerges victorious, stronger: Jesus is enough for me, or it is shown to be weak or non-existent.

There are trials I’ve not gone through yet, and as C. S. Lewis said about losing his wife, my faith could be shown to be a house of cards. I beg the Lord to strengthen my faith every day until I take my last breath and my faith results in praise, glory and honor when the Savior returns.

Is your faith worth to you more than gold?

Faith has a goal, the salvation of our souls. (I love these last verses)

1 Peter 1:8–9
Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹ for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

We don’t have faith for faith’s sake. The reason faith matters greatly in this life is that it is the instrument that unites us to Jesus and all that he is for us.

One day we will not need faith at all. Our faith shall be sight, meaning, God’s rescue project will be completed. The world will be remade. The only true and righteous king will sit on the throne. And all will be well. Forever. We will be with him, and he will be our God, and we will be his people.

That’s why faith now matters, because it’s the train that delivers us to the station of final salvation.

Until then, faith is the eyes that give us the assurance that Jesus is real. It’s why Peter says, Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.

Joy doesn’t mean we don’t feel sadness or grief. Oh no, in many cases Christians feel these things more deeply than those without faith. Joy means, rather, that we know that Jesus’ love for us is stronger than our sadness and grief.

The Christian life is a life of joy because we love the lover of our souls.

We believe in him. We have seen him with the eyes of faith. We’ve been sprinkled with his blood. We’ve been born into a living hope by his resurrection from the dead.

Let’s not talk about him like he is an idea, like he’s a stranger we’ve heard of who lives in a distant land, like he’s a man who died long ago. HE LIVES. He’s here with us. He has swallowed up by his death the darkest in us, the most shameful, the despicable and disgusting, and enveloped us in his love. And so, we love him. We’ve not seen him with these eyes but we’ve seen him with the eyes of faith, and we love him, and our hearts are filled with joy inexpressible and glorious.

Yes, we are exiles in our own land. We are weird, strange. But we can’t help it because we’ve been born of his Spirit. And once you’re born, you cannot be unborn. You can die, but you can’t be unborn.

And when we die, we will receive the end of our faith, the salvation of our souls.

Do you love him?