Highlands Fellowship EXILES: Following Jesus in a Fallen World: Hope in the Fire Transcript
0:01 Well, hey, everybody, and welcome to Highlands Fellowship. It's so good to have all of you with us in Bristol, Marion, here at our Abingdon campus, online, and on TV. It's just wonderful to get to worship our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ together and to hear from His Word. Today we're actually starting a new series called Exiles, and over the next 5 weeks we're gonna be looking at the book of 1 Peter. Now, I love teaching through books of the Bible because it forces us to wrestle with what God's Word teaches. But here's what's exciting about this series.
0:32 Even though we're walking through this book of the Bible that was written thousands of years ago, these messages couldn't be more relevant to where we are living today. Because let's be honest, I mean, there are a lot of people who feel like things have changed, right? Culture is changing around us. The values that we live by are changing around us. The definition of truth seems to be changing every single week, and sometimes it feels like the world is just speaking a completely different language than followers of Jesus Christ. And maybe you've felt that tension, right?
1:07 Maybe you've felt that. And you try to honor God at school, and you try to honor God at work, and people don't understand. You raise your kids according to biblical convictions, and people think you're old-fashioned. You choose integrity over compromise, and generosity over greed, and forgiveness over revenge, and purity over pleasure, and suddenly you realize that you're swimming upstream. I mean, have you ever felt like that? Have you ever felt like you just don't fit in anymore? Well, Peter says, "Exactly. That's because you were never supposed to."
1:43 So if you have your Bible or a Bible app, go ahead and open those up to 1 Peter Chapter 1, and I think Peter does a great job of describing a follower of Jesus. So let's look at 1 Peter Chapter 1 verses 1 and then the first part of verse 2. This is what it says. "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God's elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit." Now, I absolutely love what Peter says here.
2:17 I love what Peter doesn't say too, you know? He doesn't say they're victims. He doesn't call them forgotten. He doesn't call them outsiders. What does he call them? God's chosen people who are living as exiles, and an exile is someone who lives in one place but belongs somewhere else. Well, that's us, right? We live here. We work here. We raise our families here. We love our neighbors here. We serve in our communities here. But this world is not our permanent home. Our citizenship is actually in heaven. Our king is Jesus. Our hope is eternal. Our home is still ahead of us, and that's why Peter calls us exiles, and here's why that's important.
3:04 If you misunderstand your identity, you'll misunderstand your expectations, and if you think this world is your home, then every hardship feels like something has gone terribly wrong. But if you remember you're in exile, then hardship doesn't surprise you. It reminds you that you're just not home yet. Well, Peter is writing to believers who were suffering. Their faith was costing them something. Many had lost their homes, and some had lost their jobs. Families had actually been divided. Persecution was increasing under the Roman Empire. I mean, life wasn't easy, and even with all of that, Peter's very first message isn't fear.
3:47 It isn't panic. It isn't anger. It isn't despair. It's hope, because followers of Jesus may walk through the fire, but we never walk through the fire alone. And that's the big idea that I want you to leave with today. Because this world is not our home, we can endure the trials that we face because we have hope. We have hope in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So with that idea in our minds, there are a few things that we have to understand. The first is that as exiles, we ought to expect trials. Exiles expect trials. Listen to what Peter says about this in 1 Peter Chapter 1 verse 6.
4:31 He says, "In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials." Notice Peter doesn't say, "If trials come." He says, "You may have had to suffer." In other words, trials are part of living in this broken world, and following Jesus doesn't exempt us from those hardships. Sometimes, actually, following Jesus invites hardships into our lives, and I know that's not a popular message today. And I also know that there are voices that say if you love Jesus enough, you'll always be healthy, you'll always be prosperous, you'll always be successful.
5:15 But Peter knew nothing about that kind of Christianity, right? Neither did Jesus. Jesus Himself said in John Chapter 16 verse 33, "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." Notice Jesus didn't promise a trouble-free life. He promised His presence in the middle of the trouble. And sometimes we think that becoming a Christian means life just gets easier, but sometimes that doesn't happen, right? Peter even says no, it's not like that. Life is different, yes. Your sins are forgiven. Your eternity is secure. The Holy Spirit lives inside of you, but you still live in a fallen world.
5:57 People get sick. Relationships break. Dreams don't always come true. Loved ones die. Storms still come. Being in exile doesn't keep you from the storms. It changes how you walk through the storms. I think one of the biggest reasons people struggle during trials is because they had expectations of God that God never promised. You know, I've watched people walk away from church. I've watched people walk away from God. I've watched people say, "You know, I tried Christianity, and it didn't work." And most of the time they didn't lose faith, but they lost a version of faith that was never biblical in the first place.
6:40 And Peter is exposing 3 false faiths that actually collapse when life gets hard. The first one is this: a borrowed faith. You know, some people have inherited their faith. Maybe their parents believed or their grandparents believed, that they've always gone to church. And if somebody asked them, "Are you a Christian?" They'd say, "Of course." Then you say, "Why?" They'd say, "Because that's what my family has always done. That's what we've always been." But somewhere along the way, guys, borrowed faith has to become a personal faith. Your parents can't believe for you.
7:17 Your spouse can't believe for you. Your pastor can't believe for you. Like, there comes a moment when your faith has to become your own. I've seen this happen with students. You know, they grow up in church and they know the Bible stories. They can answer all the questions. And then they leave, and they go off to college, and suddenly everything that they believed gets challenged. Some stay strong while others walk away. Why? Because they had a borrowed faith but had never developed a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And trials have a way of exposing that because when life falls apart, borrowed faith isn't enough.
8:03 You need your own relationship with Jesus Christ. The second false faith is that it's a comfortable faith, right? A comfortable faith. And this kind of faith says, "I'll follow Jesus as long as life goes my way. I'll serve as long as it's convenient. I'll trust God as long as I understand what He's doing." But comfortable faith doesn't survive discomfort. And Jesus never invited us into a comfortable life. He invited us to take up our cross. That's what He did. Comfort isn't the goal. Christlikeness is the goal. And God loves us too much to leave us in a comfortable position.
8:48 Sometimes He allows things into our lives that stretch us, not because He's punishing us but because He's growing us. You know, if you've ever worked out before, you know, if you've ever gone to the gym, you know that muscles don't grow by staying comfortable. They grow through resistance, right? And faith is very similar. God develops spiritual strength through spiritual resistance. That's why Peter doesn't tell suffering believers to panic, but he tells them to persevere because God is doing something bigger than they can see. And then the third false faith is this: a transactional faith.
9:30 This is the mindset that says, "If I obey God, then God owes me an easy life." It's almost like we have this invisible contract with Him. "God, I'll go to church, and I'll read my Bible, and I'll tithe, and I'll try to be a good person. Now, you keep my family safe, and you protect my finances, and you fix my problems, and you keep everybody healthy." Then something painful happens, a diagnosis, a divorce, a job loss, a funeral, news that just absolutely stuns you. And suddenly people ask, "God, well, I've done everything right. Why would you let this happen to me?"
10:15 And can I lovingly say something this morning? God never made that deal. God never made that deal. Following Jesus is not a transaction. It's actually a relationship. God doesn't promise we'll avoid suffering. He promises that He'll never leave us in it, and those are 2 very different promises. Peter isn't telling suffering Christians, "Don't worry, you know, God will remove every problem." He's saying, "Remember who you are. You are in exile. You're passing through this world and this life. This world isn't your final destination." And that changes absolutely everything.
10:58 Because when your hope is actually rooted in Heaven, you can endure what this world throws at you. So let me ask you a personal question. What happens to your faith when life doesn't go according to your plan? Does your faith disappear? Does it grow cold? Or does it drive you closer to Jesus? Because here's the truth. Trials don't create your faith. They reveal it, and that's exactly where Peter goes next. Number 2 is this. Exiles are refined by trials. As Peter continues in chapter 1, this is what he says in verse 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."
11:59 Did you catch that? Peter says these trials have come, not by accident, not because God lost control, not because He stopped paying attention, but they have come so that something can happen. In other words, your trial has a purpose. I know that's easy to say when you're not the one that is hurting. It's much harder to believe that when you're the one sitting in the hospital waiting room, or when you're the one who's just buried somebody that you love, or when your marriage is hanging on by a thread, or when you've prayed for months or maybe even years and you feel like God is silent.
12:40 But Peter says that God is still at work. He doesn't say that every trial is good. He says that God can bring good from every trial. And again, there's a big difference, 'cause God isn't the author of evil. Like, we live in a broken world where sickness, pain, loss, and suffering are very real. But our God is so powerful that He can actually take what the enemy meant for evil, and He can use it for His glory and for our good. That's the God we serve. And Peter, he compares our faith to gold. I mean, think about that for just a minute. Gold doesn't become valuable because it avoids the fire.
13:24 Gold actually becomes purer because it goes through the fire. When gold is heated to an incredibly high temperature, amazing things happen. The impurities rise to the surface, and the refiner then skims those impurities away, and then he keeps applying heat, and more impurities rise. He removes them again and again and again until eventually the refiner can actually look into that molten gold and see his own reflection. Now, isn't that a beautiful picture of what God is doing in us as well? God isn't trying to destroy you. He's removing what doesn't belong.
14:07 Pride, self-reliance, fear, bitterness, control, false security, the sin that's in our lives. And all of those things begin to surface in the fire. And little by little, God removes them until we begin to see the image of Jesus reflected in our lives. That's why Peter says your faith is more valuable than gold, because gold won't last forever, but your faith will. And so often we pray, "God, get me out of this, get me out of this," and sometimes He does, and praise God for that. But sometimes He says, "I'm going to use this before I remove it." Because God is far more interested in shaping your character than He is in protecting your comfort.
14:57 We all want comfortable lives. None of us wake up in the morning and pray to the Lord, "Lord, please give me a difficult day." None of us do that. Nobody prays that. We pray for a smooth day. We pray for easy conversations and healthy families and financial stability and there's nothing wrong with praying for those things. But if comfort becomes our highest priority, we'll miss what God is trying to produce in us. God's highest priority isn't that you become comfortable. It's that you become like Jesus Christ. And sometimes those things go together.
15:36 But many times they do not. Think about Peter. Peter isn't writing these words as somebody who's just read about suffering in a book. He's lived it. He's experienced it. And maybe no story illustrates this better than something that Jesus said to Peter years before this letter was ever written. In Luke chapter 22, Jesus looked at Peter and He said His name was Simon at the time. "Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat, but I have prayed for you, Simon." That your faith may not fail. And I love that passage so much because it teaches us something that we don't naturally expect.
16:19 Notice what Jesus didn't say there. He didn't say, "Peter, don't worry about, I'll make sure that Satan never touches you." He didn't say, "I've canceled the trial. It's not gonna happen." Instead, He said, "I've prayed that your faith won't fail." Think about that. Jesus didn't remove the trial. He strengthened Peter for the trial. And can I tell you something that's helped me over the years? Sometimes the miracle isn't that God changed your circumstances. Sometimes the miracle is that He changed you in the middle of your circumstances. Sometimes the greatest answer to prayer isn't a changed situation, but it's a changed heart.
17:08 Peter was about to experience one of the biggest failures of his life. You know, he was the bold disciple who said, "Even if everybody else leaves you, Jesus, I never will." And he would deny Jesus not once, not twice, but 3 times. I mean, can you imagine the shame and the regret, the disappointment? I mean, Peter thought that he was stronger than he really was. Then the fire exposed him. But here's the good news. That failure wasn't the end of Peter's story. Jesus actually restored him, forgave him, commissioned him. He filled him with the Holy Spirit, and the man that once denied Christ became one of the boldest leaders and teachers in church history.
17:59 Why? Because God used the fire to refine him. God didn't waste Peter's failures, and He won't waste yours either. Maybe you've been asking, "Why am I going through what I'm going through?" And that's a natural question. But perhaps a better question is, "God, what are you trying to produce in me through this?" Because trials have a way of exposing what or who we trust. When everything is going well, it's easy to say, "Well, I trust God." But what happens when that doctor's report isn't good, or when your child is making choices that absolutely break your heart?
18:42 When the job disappears or when the future feels uncertain, that's when your faith is revealed. And it reminds me of what we learned as we were going through the Book of James when he said in James 1:2-3, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance." James doesn't say that we'll enjoy the trial. Nobody enjoys suffering. He says consider it joy, though, because God is producing something through it. Perseverance, maturity, dependence, faith, character.
19:24 And these are the things that God can teach us in the valley that we may never learn on the mountaintop. Now, I've found that some of the deepest seasons of growth in my own life didn't happen when everything was just going well. No, they happened when I had nowhere else to turn but to Jesus. Have you noticed that? When life is easy, you know, it's amazing how self-sufficient we become, and we tell ourselves, "I've got this. Don't worry." Then life falls apart and suddenly we're praying again, and suddenly we're reading our Bibles again, and we're depending upon God again.
20:03 And sometimes God lovingly allows us to reach the end of ourselves so that we can discover He's more than enough. Guys, I don't want you to misunderstand me. I'm not saying that every hardship comes directly from God. I'm saying that God refuses to waste our hardships. Nothing enters the life of a believer that our Heavenly Father cannot redeem for His purposes. Romans 8:28 reminds us, "And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." Not that all things are good. Cancer isn't good, divorce isn't good, death isn't good, sin isn't good, loss isn't good.
20:51 But God is so good that He can work through even those things to accomplish something meaningful in our lives. That's what Peter wants these believers to understand. The fire isn't proof that God has abandoned you. The fire is actually proof that God is refining you. So don't waste your pain. Bring it to Jesus. Ask Him to strengthen your faith. Ask Him to make you more like Jesus Christ through it. Because one day you'll be able to look back and say, "I would never have chosen that season, but I wouldn't trade what God did in me through it." And that's why exiles can keep going, not because the fire is easy, but because they know the refiner is faithful.
21:43 The third thing is this: exiles learn to trust what they cannot yet see. We've gotta learn to trust what we cannot yet see. Let's continue reading in 1 Peter 1:8-9. Here's what it 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, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls." You know, I love these verses because Peter is reminding these believers and us of something incredibly important. They had never seen Jesus.
22:22 I mean, think about that. Peter had. Peter walked with Jesus. He heard Him teach. He watched Him heal the sick. He saw Him calm the storm. He watched Him feed thousands of people with a little boy's lunch. I mean, Peter watched Jesus die, and then Peter saw the empty tomb. Peter ate breakfast with the risen Christ. Peter had seen it all. But the people receiving this letter, they hadn't. They had never physically seen Jesus. Yet Peter says, "You love Him. You believe in Him. You rejoice because of Him." Now that's faith. Faith is trusting somebody that you've never seen because you've come to know their character.
23:09 Let's be honest. Most of us like certainty, don't we? We like answers. We like knowing what's next. If you're taking a trip, you probably want the GPS on before you leave the driveway, right? We like to know the route. We like to know how long it takes, where the traffic is, when we're gonna arrive. But following Jesus doesn't always work that way. God rarely gives us the entire map. Instead, He asks us to trust Him one step at a time. We often want God to show us the destination, and thankfully He does show us our final destination. But rarely throughout life does He do that.
23:49 God says, "Just trust me with your next step." That's what faith is. It's choosing to trust God's character when you don't necessarily understand His plan. Have you ever been there? You've prayed, but the answer hasn't come. You've asked God for direction, but He seems quiet. You've begged Him to heal someone, and instead the situation gets worse. You've wondered, "God, where are you?" And maybe you're there right now today. And can I encourage you with something? Here's what I want to encourage you with. The absence of visible evidence is not the absence of God's presence.
24:36 Just because you can't see Him doesn't mean He isn't working. You know, one of my favorite reminders comes from the Old Testament. There was a young man by the name of Joseph, and God gave him dreams as a teenager, dreams that one day God would use him in an incredible way. Then everything fell apart. His brothers betrayed him. They threw him into a pit. They sold him into slavery. He was falsely accused, thrown into prison, forgotten by the very people that he had helped. And for years, nothing made sense. And if Joseph had judged God's faithfulness on his circumstances, he probably would've just concluded that God had abandoned him.
25:20 But behind the scenes, God was positioning him exactly where he needed to be. Years later, Joseph looked back and he told his brothers, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good." God was working the whole time. Joseph just couldn't see it yet. I mean, isn't that how God often works? Rarely do we understand His purposes in the moment. Usually it seems like we understand it as we're looking back on what took place. There have been some seasons in my own life where I've asked, "Lord, why? Why didn't that opportunity work out? Or why did that door close?
26:02 Or why is this taking so long?" And then years later, I could see what God was protecting me from or preparing me for. His timing made sense, just not in the moment. That's why Peter says, "Even though you do not see Him yet or now," and that implies something, all right? It won't always be that way is what it implies. One day our faith will become sight. One day every question will be answered. One day every tear will be wiped away. One day we will stand face to face with Jesus Christ. But until then, we walk by faith and not by sight. We say things like this all the time, "I'll believe it when I see it."
26:54 But following Jesus turns that upside down. Faith says, "I'll trust Him even when I can't see what He's doing." Let's be clear. Faith isn't pretending everything is okay. Peter isn't telling these hurting believers to fake a smile and deny their pain. Earlier he acknowledged that they were experiencing grief and all kinds of trials. They were hurting, and Peter didn't minimize that at all. Following Jesus doesn't mean you stop grieving. It means that you grieve with hope. The Bible never tells us to ignore our emotions. It invites us to bring them to God.
27:40 Followers of Jesus still cry. We still wrestle with questions. Even Jesus wept when His friend Lazarus had died. But here's the difference. Our confidence isn't built on our circumstances, but it's built on the character of God. If your joy depends on everything going your way, you'll always be on an emotional rollercoaster. You know, a good day, hey, we're praising God, right? A hard day, you're wondering if He's even there. Peter reminds us to build our lives on something that never changes. That's Jesus Christ. Hebrews says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
28:21 That's why these persecuted believers could experience an inexpressible and glorious joy. Their joy wasn't rooted in an easy life. No, it was rooted in an unchanging Savior. So if today you can't see what God is doing, don't stop trusting Him. Keep praying. Keep opening His Word and reading it. Keep taking the next faithful step. Exiles don't live by what they can see. They live by faith in the one who sees the end from the beginning, and that's why they can live with hope even in the fire. And that brings us to our final point: Exiles live with future hope.
29:10 Peter has one final reminder, and don't let today's trials cause you to forget tomorrow's promise. Earlier in 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 4 he said that we have an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you. I love that. Everything in this world wears out. Cars break down. Homes need repairs. Our bodies age. Money comes and it goes. Even the things that we treasure the most in this world are temporary. But Peter says that there is something waiting for every follower of Jesus Christ that can never be lost, never be stolen, never be broken, or never be taken away.
29:55 Our inheritance is secure because Jesus secured it. That's why exiles have hope. Not because life is easy, not because every prayer is answered the way that we want it to be answered, not because we understand everything that God is doing, but we have hope because we know how the story ends. And suddenly, every trial we've ever endured will seem small compared to the glory that we will experience in His presence. That's why Paul could write in 2 Corinthians 4:17, "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all."
30:42 Peter wants us to remember exiles don't just survive hardships. They endure it because they know where they're going. So let me ask you, what is your trial revealing about your faith? Is it exposing a faith that's built on comfort, or is it exposing a faith that's anchored in Jesus Christ? Maybe today you're in the fire. You're tired. You're discouraged. You're wondering why God hasn't changed your circumstances. And can I remind you of what Peter has been telling us all morning? You're not forgotten. You're not abandoned. You're not home yet. If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are God's chosen child, and you are living as an exile in a world that is not your final home.
31:44 So don't judge God's faithfulness by today's circumstances. Judge it by an empty tomb. The same Jesus who conquered sin and death is walking with you through whatever you're facing today. And because He lives, there is always hope. Because as exiles, this world is not our home, and we can endure the trials that we face because we have hope in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Would you pray with me today? God, we thank you so much for how you continue to encourage us and challenge us in your Word. How much you love us, how much you care for us, and really how much you desire to have a relationship with us.
32:36 And every time I think about this idea of you wanting a relationship with me and with every human being, it makes me think about the sin that's in my life and the struggles that I go through and that I've brought on myself, and I've sinned, and I've fallen short of your glorious standard. But you teach us that your desire is that none of us should perish, but that all of us should come to the saving knowledge of what you did through your Son, Jesus Christ. And so my prayer today is that if there's somebody who has never given their heart and life over to Jesus Christ, that today would be the day, and there would be this recognition that I can't do life on my own.
33:23 I can only do it through the power that comes through a relationship with Jesus Christ. And yes, whenever we give our hearts and lives over to Jesus, it looks different. We don't look like culture. We don't look like the world. We're in the world, but we're not of it. And it's hard. It's challenging. But we have to understand that we are not in our permanent home. We're just passing through. But we have purpose in this life as we go through it, a purpose that you've called us to, and we want to fulfill that purpose, and we will never be able to fulfill that purpose unless we give our hearts and lives over to you.
34:13 So if you feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit in your life today, and you feel like you need to give your heart and life over to Jesus Christ, I would say do it today. Don't wait another minute, because we don't know what tomorrow brings. But we do know that God gives us this moment right now to choose, what am I gonna do with Jesus? Am I gonna deny Him and not live for Him, or am I gonna give my heart and life over to Him and follow Him with everything I've got? We can make that decision. I would encourage you to make the decision to follow after Jesus.
34:51 It isn't an easy life, but man, it's a great life, full of significance and purpose. So you can pray this prayer. God, I believe that you sent your Son, Jesus Christ, to this earth to be God with us, to live among us, and you lived a perfect life. You were tempted, and you were tried, but you lived a perfect life, and you were the only one that could be the sacrifice for my sin and the sin of the world, and today I recognize that. I admit that I'm a sinner, and I fall short, but I want to give my heart and life over to you because I believe in your Son, Jesus Christ, and the free gift of grace that you give through Him.
35:29 He has paid the price for my sins, and because of His shed blood, I can be washed clean. And so today I give my heart and life over to you, and I want to follow you with everything in my life. If you prayed that prayer, I want to say welcome to the family of God. Don't do it alone. The church is the body of believers, and we come together to encourage and challenge each other, to walk beside one another in the good times and the bad, so that we can follow after Christ and become more Christ-like each and every day. God, I'm thankful for our time together today.
36:06 We love you, we trust you, and we want to follow you well for our lives. It's in Jesus' name we pray, and everybody said amen.