P3 | WHAT IS A KINGDOM CITIZEN

Home Away From Home, Part 3

Have been given new birth Have a living hope Have an eternal inheritance Have joy regardless of their circumstances

Intro: US Football vs. Soccer


1 Peter 1:13-21 (NIV2011)
13 Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

In this passage, Peter points to another distinctive of Kingdom Citizens

Have been given new birth Have a living hope Have an eternal inheritance Have joy regardless of their circumstances Pursue holiness

Are already positionally holy

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV2011)
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Are already positionally holy Will be perfectly holy

1 John 3:2 (NIV2011)
2  Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

Are already positionally holy Will be perfectly holy Are progressively being made holy

2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV2011)
18  And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

The pursuit of holiness begins in the mind
“…with minds that are alert and fully sober…” (1 Pet. 1:13)

2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV2011)
…we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Example: What you consume determines your health

1 Peter 2:11 (NIV2011)
11  Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.

The pursuit of holiness is holistic
…be holy in all you do... (1 Pet. 1:15)
Application: Integrity

The pursuit of holiness recognizes future judgment

17  Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.  (1 Pet. 1:17)

I suppose in Peter’s days, as in our days, there were people that so fell in love with one aspect of the Divine nature that they had no eyes for any other; and who so magnified the thought of the Father that they forgot the thought of the Judge. That error has been committed over and over again in all ages, so that the Church as a whole, one may say, has gone swaying from one extreme to the other, and has rent these two conceptions widely apart, and sometimes has been foolish enough to pit them against each other instead of doing as Peter does here, braiding them together as both conspiring to one result, the production in the Christian heart of a wholesome awe. - Alexander Maclaren

2 Corinthians 5:10 (NIV2011)
10  For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

Example: Home renovation

The pursuit of holiness responds to our redemption

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Pet. 1:18-19)

Example: Orphan and house fire