1 Peter: What Does the Church of Faithful Exiles Need Most? (5:1-14)

Hi, I'm Pastor Creighton, and thank you for tuning into Newsung Churches Podcast.

We're a biblically faithful, gospel-centered Anglican church in Port Perry, Ontario, proclaiming the true and life-giving word of Jesus as we love and serve our neighbors.

You can learn more about us at Newsongportperry.ca.

May God bless you today through his life-giving word.

So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed.

Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.

And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders.

Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another.

For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.

Be sober-minded, be watchful.

Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Resist him, be firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all graces, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

To him be the dominion forever and ever.

Amen.

By Sylvanus, a faithful brother, as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God.

Stand firm in it.

She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son.

Greet one another with a kiss of love.

Peace to all of you who are in Christ.

The word of the Lord.

I have written briefly to you, Peter says, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God.

Stand firm in it.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, as we open up your word this morning, we pray that by your word and Holy Spirit, by your grace, we would bear much fruit.

That we would prove to be your disciples, that we would abide in your love, and that our joy would be full.

Because, Lord, you desire our joy to be full.

So, Lord, by way of your true and life-giving word, would you increase our joy this morning?

Would you guide us and direct us?

Would you encourage us?

Would you strengthen us?

And let the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.

Amen.

Please be seated.

What does the church need most?

I wonder if that's a question you've ever asked.

Pondered for yourself.

It's a question I ponder from time to time.

What does the church need most?

Maybe it's an occupational hazard, but often when folks find out at a party or at a dinner that I'm a pastor, they usually have some ideas of what the church needs and they want to make that known to me.

And some are quite good, you know.

You know, we need the church needs programs that reach the community, that make a difference, right?

The church needs discipleship that makes a difference in the lives of uh children and youth and and uh folks of every age and stage, right?

Very good ideas, you know.

And and I remember once um someone sharing, I think indirectly, but someone sharing, uh I think it was your old boss, Rachel, not to put anyone on the spot, was saying, you know, the the thing that the church needs is it needs to be all digital.

Just move it all online, right?

Close the doors, and that wouldn't that just be the most convenient way for the church to meet together and what what you know way to platform, et cetera, et cetera.

And you kind of go, yeah, you haven't been to church lately, have have you?

You know, it's you know, God bless you.

Um what does the church need most?

We probably have some version of an answer, right?

Um but our the answer we give is, I think, going to be relative to the um problem that that we we uh perceive.

Thank you.

Yes.

I'm just gonna pause from time to time and you can supply me the words to say.

There we go.

Whatever we think the problem is, we're gonna think the solution accordingly, right?

So so you know what what is it, what's the question that the church is answering here?

Well, first Peter, right?

We've been journeying our way through this letter that Peter is writing to Christians in modern-day Turkey, what was then uh the Roman province of Asia.

He's writing this letter, he says, verse 1, to those who are elect exiles, right?

Reminding us that we're not quite home.

In Christ, we share the heart of God for the world.

We are in the world, but not of the world, but for the world.

We are faithful exiles, right?

We are faithful exiles sustained, Peter says, by a living hope.

According to God's great mercy, he has caused us, that is the church, to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

It's this living hope that is the reality of the resurrection brought to bear on our day-to-day, week to week, month to month life.

It animates us, it changes the way we relate ourselves to the difficulties and trials that we face, because no matter what we face, Jesus is alive.

And therefore, ours is an inheritance that is unperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you and for me.

And that's why Peter goes on to say, In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials.

Exiles live in this space, this overlap between present trials and difficulties and sufferings, as well as the great glory that is about to be revealed when Christ comes again.

Here we live in the overlap of this Venn diagram, the already and the not yet.

Right?

The state of the church, I want to say, has not changed.

The church that Peter is addressing is a church of faithful exiles, animated by living hope, facing present trials and suffering, and so too is ours, isn't it?

Which makes me wonder this what does this church, today's church, of faithful exiles need?

If indeed we can agree that we too are faithful exiles?

Well, as Peter concludes his letter, he wants to make clear to us what the church of faithful exiles needs in his day and in our day as well.

And the answer might sound simplistic, but we're gonna we're gonna see together.

What does the Church of Faithful Exiles need?

It needs the gospel, right?

It needs Jesus, it needs the good news of Jesus, and it needs Jesus to be made known.

This is why churches exist.

We exist to be outposts of the kingdom and the communities that God has placed us.

The Church of Faithful Exiles needs to make Jesus known in three ways, Peter says.

Through caring pastors, through humble Christians, and through vigilant sufferers.

The Church of faithful exiles needs caring pastors, humble Christians and vigilant sufferers.

So open up the scriptures with me, if you will, to 1 Peter chapter 5.

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

That's going to be page 955, and the Bible's tucked into the chairs there.

Or you can open up your order of service to 1 Peter chapter 5, and let's discover for ourselves what this church of faithful exiles need.

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

What do we need?

We need caring pastors.

Let's look at the first four verses together.

Peter writes, So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed.

What's the exhortation?

Verse 2.

Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.

Okay, let's stop there.

What does the Church of Faithful Exiles need?

It needs caring pastors, right?

Peter's been writing through chapter three into chapter four, right?

Given the sufferings that we experience as those who follow Jesus, we need pastors to step in with uh who abide by a high standard of conduct, right?

And there's an urgency for faithfulness in ministry.

That's why Peter turns his attention to the elders who are caring, caring for these Christians, facing the suffering that they are.

And his exhortation comes as a fellow elder.

That's the real key word here.

This word elder is uh you could transliterate it as presbyter, right?

Or presbyteros in Greek.

And the idea is there, I think there's sort of three, you could identify sort of three Greek words that are kind of all overlap, that basically sum up what it means to be a pastor, right?

There's this word presbyteros, elder, the sense of leadership, the sense of ruling by way of teaching.

Uh there's overseer or episcopos, we get uh, or word bishop from that word.

And that's the idea of, well, overseeing the church, right?

Giving it oversight.

And then there's a third word uh which appears here as a verb, which is shepherd, right?

And that's the that's the image of a pastor, right?

It's that of being a shepherd, as a f as a shepherd cares and feeds and nourishes and leads its flocks, so too are pastors supposed to care for the congregation.

And this word, uh this verb used for shepherd here, you could also translate that as something like something like care or feed.

Okay.

The exhortation as a fellow elder, as a fellow presbyter, right, as a fellow pastor, Peter is saying, as a witness to Christ, a fellow partaker in glory, shepherd, care, teach God's flock.

That's the exhortation.

Care for God's flock.

Uh, you know, I think back to my own ordination, and we were just talking about the ordinal in our little Anglicanism class beforehand, weren't we?

It's the exhortation to pastors that uh remember what a great cost the church was bought with.

The very precious blood of Christ.

Like pastors are meant to keep that impressed upon their minds how precious the church is and what a privilege it is to serve the church.

I know I'm speaking to some uh pastors, retired pastors as well, right now as well.

But even if you're not serving as a pastor, please don't drown me out or tune me out, because I think this has great application for us as well.

What are pastors supposed to do?

Exercise oversight to care, to exercise servant leadership.

But Peter gives three very important qualifications.

Here's three not to do's and here's three to-do's, as you exercise oversight, pastors.

Not under compulsion, Peter says, verse two, but willingly, as God would have you.

To exercise oversight, to give leadership over compulsion, is kind of this idea of like, well, what else am I going to do, right?

Just by necessity, maybe for whatever reason.

Maybe it's by way of reputation, maybe it's by way of financial need or what have you.

But I just don't see any other reason to be in ministry.

I just I feel compelled to be in that.

You know who this is, by the way.

This is um this is Reverend Lovejoy from The Simpsons.

You ever watch The Simpsons?

You know the local pastor?

He's a heartbreaking character in some ways, but I I do, you know, I gotta say I find him funny.

Uh Reverend Lovejoy is kind of your um, he is a satire of the burned-out pastor, you know, and it's heartbreaking in many ways, but you know, he shares his sob story once with Marge.

He's self-he's self-pitying in a way that um he needs to recover the joy of the gospel, is what Reverend Lovejoy needs, right?

But he shares his story with Marge at one point, Marge Simpson.

He says, I came to Springfield ready to roll up my sleeves and help my fellow man.

Then he goes on to describe the ministry challenges, the burnout that he's faced, and he concludes this way.

He says, Finally, I just stopped caring.

Luckily, by then it was the 80s and no one noticed.

So says Reverend Lovejoy.

He's ministering out of necessity, under compulsion.

There's nothing else he knows how to do, so he's just doing this.

And that's no way to pastor.

That's no way to be a caring pastor, says Peter, right?

Not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, right?

And the way that God was willing to pastor us in Jesus.

There's something of that that's meant to reflect in the ministry of a pastor, right?

Not under compulsion, not with corruption either.

Not compulsion, not corruption.

Did you see that?

Not for shameful gain, but eagerly, Peter says.

Shameful gain, probably what Peter has in mind is financial gain, right?

I mean, it's not an uncommon practice in the first century, as in the 21st, to pay big money for spiritual insight, right?

So why wouldn't people try and cash out?

Not for shameful gain, Peter says.

The gospel comes free of charge, therefore, minister freely, right?

Uh but that shameful gain could take other forms as well.

I wonder if shameful gain, there's a form of shameful gain and notoriety, right?

Building your name up to be a brand name recognizable pastor.

You see your flock less as uh the flock of God's redeeming and more like rungs on the ladder to get climbed up, so to speak, right?

It's not for compulsion, not for corruption, but it's ministering eagerly, willingly.

I take it by way of contrast, right?

Have the right uh motives for pastoring.

That's what Peter is saying.

Not compulsion, not corruption, not coercion either.

And that's when Peter says, verse 3, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock, right?

Minister in the right manner, in a way that imitates Jesus and can be imitated as an imitator of Jesus.

Something like that.

And if you take all of that in, anyone might look at that, or at least Peter's uh audience might hear that and think, boy, why be a pastor at all?

If that's the case, that's a high calling.

Peter reminds us, verse 4.

And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

Okay, so there's an outcome to the pastoral ministry, and Peter gives some important reminders here.

When the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory.

That's a reminder.

A reminder that pastors are not the chief shepherd.

I am not the chief shepherd.

I'm not your chief shepherd, Jesus is.

And Jesus has to be our chief shepherd.

All pastors are our under-shepherds.

We care as shepherds who answer to the great shepherd, the good shepherd.

Which I think is important for us to consider, those of us who might have know what it is to be wounded by a pastor.

Because it's important to bear in mind, we pastors, frankly, I need to bear this in mind, we pastors are sinners too.

We need to be redeemed, we need to be sanctified, and we deal out sin and harm as well in ways that we should not.

We need to heed Peter's warning in verses two and three, not to exercise ministry under compulsion or corruption or coercion, which so often work their way into the human heart.

We are not Jesus.

We look forward to that day when Jesus will appear and his glory will be revealed.

But we're just here to point to Jesus.

We are here to point towards the good shepherd, the great shepherd, as his under-shepherds.

We are not the chief shepherd.

That's the reminder here.

But there is a promise that ministry has a glorious outcome.

That all together we will receive a crown of glory.

That sort of language is used of all of Christians together.

We will share in Christ's glory for all eternity.

And for those who have shared in Christ's pastoral ministry, there will be a there will be a sense in which we will share in the glory of our chief shepherd as his under-shepherds.

And that's a humbling promise.

So, friends, this is important, I think, for all of us to consider whether or not we're pastors or have served as pastors, because pastors are a necessary part of our Christian life.

And knowing the character of a godly pastor is so essential for our own spiritual life and growth.

We look to those pastors who point us towards Jesus and who are themselves pastored by Jesus.

The Church of Faithful Exiles needs the gospel of Jesus to be made known through caring pastors.

So for those of us who serve as pastors, have served as pastors, that's a reminder to continually examine our own motives.

Why am I doing this?

Do I feel compelled to do this?

I've lost the joy.

Well, maybe I need to go back to the gospel.

Do I do this out of a sense of my own shameful gain or domineering coercion?

The gospel corrects all of these things.

Pastors, we need to examine our own motives.

And then the people of God examine your pastors.

Hold us to account.

Hold us to account to the Word of God.

Hold us to account to the heart and mind of Christ.

We need it because we're sinners too.

The church needs caring pastors.

Church needs caring pastors, but not just pastors.

Let's zoom out the lens.

Let's look at all Christians.

What are we called to?

The Church of Faithful Exiles needs humble Christians.

Let's look at verse 5 and following.

Likewise, Peter writes, you who are younger, be subject to the elders.

Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Okay.

Be subject, Peter writes, to those who are younger in particular.

We've seen that imperative show up before in chapter three.

We were Christians are called to be subject to our governing authorities, right?

Christians, uh slaves are called to be subject to their masters, right?

We're meant to be mutually submitted to ourselves or one another in Christian marriage, right?

Humble yourselves is the idea here.

And the address is to those who are younger.

Be subject, right?

Humble yourselves to your elders.

Again, to your pastors.

Now, why would we single out younger folks particularly with this imperative?

Or why would Peter single out younger folks in particular?

I wonder if it's this.

I wonder if it's because there's something about being young and zealous and brazen that convinces us we have more to teach and less to learn.

I wonder if it's something like that.

This is what my long 34 years on this earth have taught me, by the way, the wisdom that I've gained.

No, I very much count myself in this category.

I've got to be careful, right?

One commentator writes that young folks can be easily tempted to unhealthy self-exertion.

There is a Christian maturity that comes not with asserting oneself, but by being willingly subjected to godly authority, right?

There's something about youth and brazenness that pushes against us.

You know, this is, I mean, there's so many, there's so much anecdotal evidence that has me really encouraged these days about young people rediscovering Christianity, coming back to church.

It's very, very exciting.

I hear these stories being shared by pastor friends of mine.

We see it happening as well.

And um, you know, and and at the same time, I see this kind of equal advent of Rachel likes to call them theology bro podcasts, you know, which I think is a very apt description, you know.

And it's not that that theology isn't worth loving, it is worth loving, it's worth studying.

But there could be an attitude we bring to our study of the things of God that is basically self assertion.

That's basically let's let's bash everyone who disagrees with us and prove everybody but ourselves wrong, you know, rather than this humble attitude of what do we have to learn from God's word together, right?

Not every theology podcast is a theology bro podcast, by the way, but I admire those teachers.

Who take the time to learn, right?

And that's what we're called to together.

So, not just addressing the younger among us who might be particularly inclined towards self-assertion, let's zoom out the lens and recognize we all of us have an obligation to be humble, right?

The end of verse 5.

Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, right?

Clothe or gird yourself.

The phrasing here is meant to evoke the image of Jesus tying a towel around his waist and kneeling down to wash his disciples' feet at the Last Supper.

Do you remember that scene?

Right?

It's a call to servant leadership.

It's a call not to exalt oneself, but to serve one another out of love.

This is the call of the Christian life.

And Peter grounds this in a biblical proof text, right?

Proverbs chapter 3 reminds us that God mocks the, pardon me, God mocks proud mockers, but shows favor to the humble and to the oppressed, right?

Proverbs 3 · chapter mention

There's spiritual physics to the Christian life, right?

Maybe you remember physics class in high school, right?

For every action there's an equal and opposite reaction.

Never really understood that, but that's why I didn't study physics, right?

Just like there's physical laws that govern the material universe, so too there are spiritual laws that govern our spiritual universe, right?

And we occupy both.

In God's spiritual physics, pride, what we think elevates us and exalts us over others, ultimately results in our own downfall and our own denigration.

Pride gets us nowhere.

Therefore, Peter has an application for us, right?

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so at the proper time, he may exalt you.

If I exalt myself at a time of my own choosing, I will ultimately find myself.

What's the opposite of exalted?

Humiliated?

Yeah, that's a good way of putting it.

Humiliated.

Either I humble myself or I'm humiliated.

How about that?

I just came up with that right now.

That's very exciting.

There you go.

Humble yourself so that God may exalt you.

Not myself, but God, right?

Casting all your cares on him.

Did you notice that?

For he cares for you.

I wonder if Peter detects a certain spiritual pride to keeping our anxieties to ourselves.

I wonder if I was, if we were to ask Peter, how do I begin humbling myself so that God can exalt me?

I wonder if Peter would suggest the place to begin is where your anxiety is the greatest.

You know, I hear very well-intentioned Christians say, I've heard this more than a couple of times, that I don't pray for myself, I only pray for other people.

It's almost, I don't want to bother God.

I don't want to take up his time with my own problems.

I just want to pray for other people, you know?

And I think, by the way, that that impulse to pray and to pray for others, very good, very important.

That's an exercise of love.

Continue that.

But I wonder if Peter would suggest there is a danger of spiritual pride that creeps in when we begin to think, I really don't have to pray for myself.

Because I really don't have any particular anxieties or needs that need God's grace or his provision.

We can begin to let spiritual pride creep in, right?

Convince us that we don't really have to go with him, but he cares for us is the reminder.

God desires us to make our anxieties, petitions, prayers known to him.

For others, yes, and for ourselves as well.

This doesn't promise a termination to our anxiety, as if casting our cares on him, we're just good and we'll never feel anxious again.

Every time we feel anxious, we have an opportunity to go back to God and see our anxieties reframed.

Not terminated, perhaps, but transformed in the light of the shore and outcome of the Christian life, right?

We go to him and surrender, even the pride of I can handle my anxieties for myself.

The Church of Faithful Exiles needs the gospel of Jesus to be made known through humble Christians.

Humility is not thinking less of yourself.

It's not making sure my self-esteem is as low as it possibly can be.

It's not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.

Right?

Loving your neighbor as yourself.

Okay, so we're tracking so far what is the Church of Faithful Exiles needs.

It needs caring pastors, it needs humble Christians.

And finally, Peter wants to remind us it needs vigilant sufferers.

Verse 8.

Be sober minded, be watchful.

The stakes are very high, Peter says.

Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Resist him, firm in your faith.

I'll stop there.

Be sober-minded, Peter tells us.

We've seen that imperative before in chapter four, right?

Be clear-headed, right?

Be watchful, be vigilant.

It's almost like Peter saying, it's time to be on duty.

You know?

We know what it's like to clock out and suddenly, you know, our brain can kind of just retreat into its own.

But being on duty means I'm present, I'm aware, I'm here, right?

Be on duty is what Peter's saying.

Be sober-minded, be watchful.

Why?

Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion.

What a fierce image that is.

Seeking someone to devour.

Satan's goal is to eat us for lunch, if he can.

That's why we need to be on duty.

And this language, this illustration, for those of us who remember our Sunday school lessons, should bring to mind Genesis chapter 4, right?

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

Cain and Abel.

Abel whose sacrifice was accepted because of his faith in God, Cain's who was rejected because of his lack of faith in his good God.

And God, in his grace, comes to Cain and He gives Cain an important warning before, you know, it's almost as God knows Cain's heart.

He knows the hate and resentment in Cain's heart, and he gives Cain a warning before he does something to his brother that he'll regret.

And God says to Cain, Sin is crouching at the door.

Its desire is for you.

It's like its desire is to consume you, but you must rule over it.

This is a pretty fierce picture, isn't it?

This is what our enemy desires to do to Christians wherever he can.

In fact, we've seen pastors who've fallen into any sort of scandal, perhaps those even just listed a few verses earlier, who've been eaten for lunch.

So what do we do?

Verse 9.

Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kind of sufferings are being experienced by your brotherhood around the world.

And after a little, after you've suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who's called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

The good news here is that resistance is not futile.

Resisting the enemy is not a futile exercise.

No matter how big our imaginations, or perhaps the ways the enemy whispers into our imaginations, how big and formidable he is.

We're promised in God's word that he can be resisted, so long as we are what?

Firm in our faith.

It's the two sides of one coin, isn't it?

If we are firm in who we are in Christ, if we know his grace and his goodness towards us, and that's where we take our stand, then we will resist the enemy.

Apart from Christ, we have no hope of resisting the enemy, do we?

But with Christ, we have everything we need and more to stand up to those temptations that he will throw at us, to the temptations that cause us to suffer.

And Peter gives us two encouragements to those of us who know what it is to suffer from the slings and arrows and temptations that the enemy throws at us.

The encouragements are these.

One, remember the solidarity you share with fellow suffering Christians.

Did you see that verse 9?

Knowing that the same kind of suffering that are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world, right?

The same suffering that you are experiencing today is being experienced by Christians in your church family.

It's being experienced by Christians in your community, it's being experienced by Christians around the world.

So don't let the enemy isolate you in sin.

Sin has a way of isolating us, doesn't it?

Sometimes the enemy likes to whisper to us, I think, that you are the only person who struggles with this one sin that you dare not reveal to anyone.

And that's a lie.

Remember that your sin, my sin, is being experienced.

That same suffering is being experienced by Christians everywhere.

Don't let the enemy isolate you in sin and temptation.

Instead, go to Jesus.

Right?

We can go to Jesus together and pray for one another.

Right?

Be encouraged in solidarity and be encouraged by the outcome here, verse 10.

After you've suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, and strengthen you.

God will do a great work of restoration in your life and in mine.

No matter what we've experienced, no matter what we've suffered, it will be raised to a greater glory that otherwise would never have been.

And God will enjoy the dominion forever and ever.

Amen.

So don't let sin isolate you, but don't let the enemy use sin and temptation to drive you away from Christ.

Because in your sin, in my sin and temptation, Christ wants to restore us and strengthen us and establish us.

So we run to Him and not away from Him.

Jesus' heart is for and not against sinners.

That's the heart of the gospel.

The Church of the Faithful Exiles needs the gospel of Jesus to be made known through vigilant sufferers.

So friends, we stay sober-minded.

We stay vigilant.

On this side of eternity, we are on duty.

We're the church militant, to use the phrase of the old prayer book.

And we stand militant against the world, the flesh, and the devil.

We resist the enemy by firmly planting ourselves in Jesus.

And friends, when we gather together as a church family, isn't that what we're doing?

Opening up his word, coming to his table, once again being rooted in the hope that will last.

This is what we need.

And the Church of Faithful Exiles needs it.

Caring pastors, humble Christians, vigilant sufferers.

Let me make a few final remarks before we conclude this letter together.

Peter concludes by acknowledging his scribe Sylvanus, or in other letters, he calls him Silas, fellow brother.

Then Peter says this his purpose in writing.

Stand firm in it.

Friends, God wants his grace to be known to us, especially to those of us who know what it is to suffer as faithful exiles in this life and to anticipate a greater glory to come.

So stand firm, persevere, press on to a greater glory that is going to be revealed.

And then Peter says a very interesting phrase.

He's using an image from biblical history.

Maybe you remember the people of Israel take possession of the promised land, but through their unfaithfulness to God, they're exiled as Babylon invades and displaces the people of Israel from their homeland.

They live in exile.

And they live wondering what will God do to bring this exile to an end and bring us back to this land that He's promised us.

And the ultimate answer to our spiritual exile that the Old Testament points to is Jesus.

So even if we live presently in Babylon, like those of the Old Testament who are displaced and live themselves in Babylon, we like them live in anticipation of what God is going to do to bring our exile to an end and to bring us to our greater homeland and see a greater glory realized that will resonate for all eternity.

Friends, stand firm in the grace of God, because the grace of God is sufficient to bring us to our homeland.

And one day we will see Jesus.

So stand firm.

Amen.

If you live in the area, we hope that you'll come and worship with us in person on Sunday at 10 a.m.

If you'd like to learn more about Newsong Church, we'd love to connect with you.

Please find our contact information at NewsongportPeri.ca and reach out to us.

Newsong's ministry is entirely funded by the generous giving of those who worship and journey with us.

If you feel called to support our ministry with a financial gift, please go to newsongportperry.ca slash giving to make your contribution.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.