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Please pray with me.

 

Lord Jesus, thank you for being the Light of the World that came into the

world to give us light. And you do light our path through your word. Your word

is true and we look forward to hearing your voice through your word this morning

so that we might be kindled and that we might be the light of your world in the coming

week. We bring ourselves before your word and anticipate hearing your voice this

morning. In your name, Jesus, we pray.

Amen.

 

Is this January?

 

Well, Christmas was a little different at the Kirk house this year. It was a little different at the Henderson home too because they took our five kids on Christmas morning for the whole day so that Amy and I could focus on the arrival of #6.

 

Having labored most of Christmas day, on the 26^th Amy gave birth to Chloe Faith.

 

So, she’s really cute! [Voice from congregation. “Just like her mother.”] Just like her mom. That’s right. You got it.

 

She and mama are doing really well, and our kids have done a great job of folding her into our family.

 

And, you know, every birth reminds me all over again just how crazy God is about us.

 

‘Cause if I can immediately feel such incredible love for a little life that I hardly even know, how much more the God of the universe who made us and who knows us better than we’ll ever even know ourselves? Amen?

 

It’s an amazing thing.

 

Now, we don’t keep having children to experience that though.

 

In fact, someone who visited us in the hospital said with a grin, “Pastor Kirk, do you keep having babies in order to have more sermon illustrations?”

 

For a lifetime preacher that’d be a pretty dangerous birthing plan, I think!

 

Ame and I just wanted to let you how that we are so thankful for you as a church family. Many of you have been praying and checking in on us and preparing meals for us and just being Jesus to us. And we are so grateful. Thank you.

 

You know, when you have a child, one of the immediate responsibilities is to give her something that she’ll carry with her into eternity and that’s a name.

 

I figure over the last decade of my life, I have spent about six months just reading baby name books!

 

Actually it’s really a privilege, though this one was actually the toughest, I think. Partially because we had people telling us that the pressure was on—that we had to keep the flow and the rhythm of Emma and Abby and Sophie. That’s out of order itself. Emma and Sophie and Abby and this one had to fit that flow.

 

I think it was also tough because we had more input than ever before.

 

All of our kids had their own ideas making it the dinner conversation for the last three months.

A while back, we couldn’t all agree, so we just went with Abby’s precious choice. She said, “We’re going to call her Princess Baby Girl.”

 

Caleb still hasn’t gotten Chloe down. He keeps calling her Princess. So that works pretty good.

 

Names can be significant. They don’t determine the trajectory of a person’s life, but Ame and I believe that they can give real shape to who they become.

 

We named our first Joshua, and we‘ve returned 100 times to the courageous leader in Israel who believed that the promised land could be taken because he believed in a mighty God who keeps His promises.

 

And we said even then that if God were ever to give us another son that we would name him Caleb, Joshua’s partner in faith. The Bible says that Caleb was a man who loved God wholeheartedly.

 

Amy sings that over him every night. And he echoes back, “I love God wholeheartedly!”

 

That’s certainly our prayer. And it’s true for each one of our kids.

 

And so we came to number six—a fourth little girl—and we finally landed on Chloe Faith. Chloe means blossoming or growing and, of course, faith is confidence in the living God.

 

And that’s our prayer for her: that she’ll come to faith early, and that her life will be characterized by a growing faith in our Lord, Jesus.

 

Chloe Faith is who she already is, and it’s also who we hope she will become!

 

And of course she’s a Kirk, so right out of the gate, she’s one of us! She belongs. She’s got a place around the table. She even has a little hook already on the 5 cubbies that I made. I have to make a 6^th cubby for Chloe.

 

Names can be powerful; they can tell us who we are, and they can also point us in the direction of who we are to become.

 

And, you know, I think the writers of the New Testament understood this!

 

John was just a guy named John until he became known as the disciple whom Jesus loved. You don’t think that impacted his life?

 

And Paul—he wasn’t Paul, was he? He was Saul—persecutor of the Church—until Jesus pursued him and found him and gave him a new name: a name that dramatically changed who he was and who he would become.

 

And Peter?—petros, rock. He wasn’t a rock. He was a fisherman in Galilee named Simon until Jesus pursued him and found him and gave him a new name: a name that dramatically changed who he was and who he would become—one of the earliest champions of Christ and a pillar of the early church.

 

We know their names mattered greatly to them because they start every one of their letters with their new names!

 

We don’t ever hear from Saul, the great Pharisee of Tarsus. We hear from “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus.”

 

And we don’t hear from Simon, the net casting champ of Galilee. We hear of “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ!”

 

A new name, new life, a new beginning, fresh direction: that’s what we hope we’ve given Chloe and that’s what Jesus gave them, and, I believe, that’s what Jesus intends to give us as well: new names, new life, and fresh direction.

 

You know so often we cross over into a new year with a new resolve to make ourselves different. It’s not all bad. But we miss everything if we don’t regularly allow Jesus to remind us of the change that he has already brought to us: the change that he intends to bring to us—calling us by name, giving us a new name, and shaping the trajectory of our lives forever!

 

Do you know that every letter in the NT begins virtually the same way? After the author introduces who he is because of Christ, he proceeds to remind the readers who they are because of the same Christ.

 

First things first: before we’re ever exhorted to live a certain way, we’re reminded graciously of the special gift of belonging that we’ve been given.

 

We’re reminded of God’s affection for us, of how He has lovingly pursued us and folded us into His family giving us a new identity in which we might rest and into which we might grow.

 

I mean let’s face it, most of our New Year’s resolutions bring cosmetic change that lasts for a little while. Discovering and being reminded of who we are in Christ impacts who we are forever!

 

And that’s what we want to do this morning, either for the first time or in a fresh way: who does God say you really are?

 

We could look at any letter. Let’s look at how Peter says it in his first letter: I Peter chapter 1 beginning in verse 1. I told the first service, “This week I’ve had the dickens of a time trying to find Peter.” He’s actually a lot later in the New Testament than I remembered him being. Then finally I realized that you could use one of these things. That’s what these are for. I’ve always wondered that. So, that’s been helpful. I Peter is actually after Hebrews and James. You’d think I’d know that! I Peter chapter 1 verse 1:

 

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

 

To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout 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, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood:

 

Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

 

Consistent with most first century letters, our letter begins with the author and then his intended audience.

 

The author is Simon the fisherman, yet he begins with his new name and his new vocation instead: Peter, an apostle of Christ.

 

Apostle means “one who is sent”—kind of like a modern day ambassador, and the emphasis falls on the one doing the sending: in this case, Jesus, the Messiah.

 

And this is the point: that while Peter is writing in his own voice, his voice carries someone else’s authority—the authority of Jesus himself.

 

In other words, he isn’t just giving his take on things. Peter is actually delivering as a messenger God’s take on things.

 

And so, for those with ears to hear, his human words are filled with divine power—his words intended not only to inform but to transform those who receive them.

 

Right out of the gate, Peter wants his readers to know that they are hearing from God Himself.

 

But who is he writing to?

 

Well, he could have said, “To Jews and gentiles living in Asia Minor—which is modern day Turkey: Pontus, Galatia, Capodocia, Asia and Bythinia.”

 

But that’s who they used to be.

 

I mean they’re still Jewish and some of them are still gentile and they still live in these areas, but Peter knows that they have a new name, a new identity!

 

Being Jewish or gentile no longer defines them, nor do the regions that they call home.

A dramatic shift has taken place, and now he calls them—eklektois—which means “elect” or “chosen ones”.

 

And he acknowledges that this new identity makes them, and makes us, strangers in the world.

 

This morning we’re kicking off a new six week series where we’ll be considering together how being citizens of heaven makes us strangers here on earth, considering what it means to be in the world but not of it, discovering the purposefulness of life lived out in this world as we await the return of our Savior from the next.

 

To get things going, we’ll zero in this morning on this little phrase: “God’s elect.”

 

The doctrine of election has been the source of great debate throughout church history. Some make it sound like we have no say in the matter, and others make it sound like salvation is all up to us.

 

I have no aspiration of solving this question this morning, but let’s wade in a little bit.

 

The notion of God choosing some to be folded into His family—though, I think, intended to be a source of great comfort—has for some been a source of discouragement because of its implication: if God chooses some, doesn’t that mean that He rejects others? And this feels unfair and unacceptable. And I get that. And I’ve probably spent a third of my life trying to wrestle this one to the ground. And, frankly, I don’t know how it all shakes out.

 

But I’ll tell ya this. I am increasingly confident—both because of the consistent teaching of Scripture and from my own experience as a Christian and as a pastor—I’m convinced of this: that God initiates relationship. God initiates relationship.

 

If someone comes to know the living God in a personal way, it is never because they have finally decided to close the gap between them and God as though God is hiding and all we have to do is find Him.

 

Certainly every Christian has a story of conversion—of a particular time when they first gave their lives over to Christ, and—in that sense—it seems to us that we choose him, but I’ve never met a Christian who describes this as finding God. It’s always the inverse: that when we finally stop chasing our picture of how life ought to be and we turn to God in acceptance, we find that He has been there all along drawing us to Himself.

 

And when we express our love for Him for the first time, it is in response to His love expressed in Christ and His love poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.

 

You know, when you consider Israel in the Old Testament enslaved to the Egyptians, they did not choose deliverance. They were delivered. And they weren’t delivered because they were the greatest or most worthy, but simply because God’s affection fell upon them. It’s all grace!

 

Moses puts it this way in Deuteronomy 7. He says,

 

“The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples to be His people. He didn’t set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, but simply because the Lord loved you.”

 

That’s it! It’s not really much of an explanation, actually. It’s more of a declaration. God Loves You!

 

You see, God made the first move. He chose to rescue Israel. He intervened. He initiated relationship.

 

Now we can question the fairness of that: why didn’t he choose Pharaoh and Egypt, or later Assyria? But the Scripture doesn’t go there. It just emphasizes time and again that for anyone to know God, God has to make Himself known in a personal way. He alone initiates relationship.

 

And the Scriptures suggest that when He does, it is the most marvelous thing of all! Like the shepherd who searches the hills for the lost sheep and celebrates, like the woman who searches the house for that precious coin and finds it and celebrates, like the father who searches on the horizon for his lost son and finds him. We don’t find God. He finds us!

 

Our role is to accept being found! Ours is to celebrate the wonder of God’s grace—the undeserved, wonderful favor of the living God! To receive grace and to invite God’s grace to do its saving work—its life-transforming work within us!

 

If it’s hide-and-go-seek that we’re playing, we are the ones hiding. Praise be! God is looking for us!

 

I think this clip of Wilberforce in “Amazing Grace” captures this well.

 

[Shows “Amazing Grace” movie clip]

 

It may feel inconvenient, but nothing is sweeter, right?

 

Wilberforce’s joy reminds me of when I would play hide-and-go-seek with Emma Grace when she was really young. She always gave away her spot because she was so uncomfortable being alone. And every time I found her, she always seemed so relieved.

 

It’s such a gift of grace isn’t it: to be found?

 

You know honestly, I think part of the challenge for us when we consider God’s election is that humanity tends to have a rosier view of itself than is true: that besides a few characters, it’s basically good and deserving of God’s love.

 

Yet the Scriptures offer a different picture: that left to ourselves, we’re actually dead in our sin, wandering in darkness, and actually are rebels whose hearts are bent toward self and hostile to God.

And so instead of being offended and putting God in the dock saying, “Why do You choose some and not others?” perhaps we should be asking with humble amazement, “Why on earth do You choose anyone? Why do You set your affection on any of us?”

 

None of us is worthy. Why do You care to draw any of us into Your eternal love?

 

He just does! And it isn’t intended to cause pride to well up within us as though somehow we’re more special than the next guy!

 

No: quite the opposite, actually! When you get grace—or better, when grace gets a hold of you—its fruit is humility and gratitude: an ever-increasing sense of your unworthiness and an ever-deepening experience of thanksgiving and worship!

 

Do you find those welling up within you?

 

Peter says, “I’m not Simon, I’m Peter. And I’m not a fisherman, I’m an apostle! And you’re not lost or rejected or overlooked or abandoned, YOU ARE CHOSEN! YOU ARE CHOSEN! That’s your name!”

 

God says, “You’re one of mine. You belong to me! I got a cubby all prepared with a little hook and your name across the top!”

 

I am convinced that no thought your mind could ever think or your heart ever believe could ever change your life more than that!

 

Peter puts it this way later in this same letter. He says, “You are a chosen people, a people belonging to God that you might declare His praises for calling you out of darkness and into His wonderful light! Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God.”

 

Every religion I know of suggests that you need to make yourself worthy of God’s affection. And God says, “No. No. I make you worthy by My affection.” Whew!

 

Well let’s unpack this a little bit more. In verse 2 Peter explains three aspects of our election tying them brilliantly to the trinity: the Father, the Spirit and the Son.

 

First he says, “You have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” Now, some have attempted to define foreknowledge as simply “knowing ahead of time,” and the idea would be that the Father looks into the future, sees who will choose Him, and chooses them. But the problem with this perspective is that it makes God responsive to our initiation, so that rather than our being His elect, He becomes ours. And I don’t think that’s what Peter is saying.

 

And, actually, scholars are in broad agreement on this: that the other uses of the word for know in the New Testament are actually very consistent and they speak of the purposefulness of God. Not just that God knows in advance, but that it is a part of His plan from all eternity!

 

And I believe it is intended to anchor the soul.

 

God isn’t indifferent about you. He isn’t indifferent about you. He isn’t indifferent about His people, His family. He doesn’t haphazardly draw some into fellowship with Him. No, the Father intentionally and deliberately sets His affection upon each one of His sons and daughters.

 

If you know God through Christ, take comfort in this. It is not an accident. It is not a fluke. You didn’t stumble into it and you won’t stumble out of it! You were caught up into the Father’s plan of love and grace. You were drawn to Him through His kindness and His mercy and His affection! His plan preceded you, anticipated you, and delights to include you. It is yours and mine to say, “Thank you! Thank you!”

 

That’s who you are: a chosen child of the Father’s love! But you’re not just chosen before time. You’re set apart in time by the Holy Spirit.

 

That’s what I think Peter means when he says that we’re chosen through the sanctifying work of the Spirit.

 

The word “sanctify” means to set apart, to make holy or sacred that which was common or ordinary.

 

Our pride has to take it on the chin, but before we were found by the love of God, we were ordinary. Like Israel, there’s nothing about us that catches God’s eye, that convinces Him to choose us. I mean, let’s face it, we’re not all that convincing.

 

But we don’t have to be. By His own Spirit and on His own initiative God takes the ordinary you and the ordinary me and He sets us apart for His extraordinary purposes making us His own and giving us a part to play in His unfolding plan of redemption.

 

Isn’t that awesome?

 

I mean that’s the beauty of election rightly understood. It’s a privilege, not a right, and it comes with eternal responsibility.

 

This is what makes the Christian life, I believe, so meaningful: that God chooses not only to include us in His family, but to also include us in the process of growing His family! We become recipients of His love and channels of His love at the same time securing our future and giving us purpose in the meantime.

 

Peter’s saying, “God has had His eye on you for a long, long time. And by His own Spirit, He sets His plan into motion folding you in, making you His own!”

 

And, of course, His Spirit is the primary mark of the true people of God—His Spirit bearing His fruit in our lives—namely, as Peter says here, obedience to Christ!

 

We’ve been chosen and set apart for obedience. If you belong to Christ, you will find a growing desire to obey within you. You will find inside of you a desire more and more to obey out of a sense of delight rather than out of a sense of duty and obligation.

 

So, you are chosen by the plan of God and set apart by the Spirit of God and, finally, cleansed by the sacrifice of the Son of God!

 

Peter says, “You have been chosen for sprinkling by His blood.”

 

Now, unfortunately we don’t have time to turn there this morning, but with these words Peter is drawing an amazing parallel back to the Old Testament.

 

In Exodus 24, God enters into covenantal relationship with Israel at Mt. Sinai and Moses calls Israel to obedience and they promise to obey two times. I think that’s why Peter draws on the word obedience here. They promise to obey. Moses takes the blood of a sacrificed bull and he sprinkles (the same word that Peter uses) half of the blood on the altar. And I believe that that represents God’s acceptance of this sacrificial offering in substitute for Israel. But then Moses does something amazing. He takes the other half of the blood and he sprinkles it on the people. And as he does this, he says, “This is the blood of the Covenant.”

 

Does that sound familiar? Jesus told his disciples at the Last Supper that his blood would be shed for the forgiveness of sin and that his blood was the blood of the New Covenant.

 

You see the Old Testament sacrifices anticipate as a sign. They point forward and anticipate the true, perfect sacrifice of Christ that would come in our place and on our behalf for our sin.

 

And Peter says, “That was the plan all along!”

 

You and I don’t deliver ourselves just as Israel didn’t. We get delivered. We can’t clean ourselves up; we can’t make ourselves acceptable to God. But we don’t have to.

 

We just have to accept being found and then receive the sprinkling of the only blood that saves: the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ!

 

In Christ, that is who you are!

 

You are God’s chosen ones: chosen in advance by the Father’s love, set apart by the Holy Spirit—God’s own precious presence residing within you and among us—and you are cleansed and forgiven by the blood of God’s own Son that we might become the obedient sons and the obedient daughters that He made us to be!

 

That’s our new name; that’s our new identity, and it transforms those who have ears to hear it!

 

Can you hear it? Have you received the Father’s love? Have you received the gift of the Holy Spirit? Have you received the cleansing sprinkling of the blood of Christ? Have you ever accepted being found?

 

If not, your soul will never rest until you do. This morning could be the day that you discover that God has chosen you. Are you willing to be found?

 

And if you’ve already been found, there’s simply no way better to begin a new year than to rest awhile with your new name, Chosen: chosen to allow the affection of your heavenly Father and the presence of His Spirit and the sacrifice of His Son to bring shalom to your heart, to inspire your worship, and to motivate your love.

 

Before you resolve to do anything this year, resolve to rest as God’s beloved! That’s who you are!

 

Amen. Amen.