1 Peter - The Grace of Exile with Pastor Riley and Nate Holdridge

[00:00:05] Thank you for listening to the Calvary Monterey podcast. Please visit Calvary.com to learn more about our church and visit

[00:00:12] Nate Holdridge.com for additional Bible teaching from our lead pastor, Nate Holdridge.

[00:00:17] Nate, thanks so much for joining me today to talk about your book,

[00:00:27] First Peter, The Grace of Exile. I know you don't like to talk about yourself

[00:00:32] But if you just give me just like 30 seconds to say thank you for this book

[00:00:37] I remember when you taught these messages to the church

[00:00:41] It was during COVID

[00:00:43] We were outside. We're just trying to figure out how to do this whole thing with COVID

[00:00:46] We were meeting in little circles on the grass outside

[00:00:49] And we're asking all kinds of questions like what is up with this vaccine? Are these masks working?

[00:00:55] How do we love each other through this weird time? There's so much race stuff going on

[00:00:59] political stuff going on

[00:01:01] We're asking so many questions, but

[00:01:03] This teaching series this book snapped us back to I think the central question we have to ask which is

[00:01:11] What are we doing here? Like what's our whole purpose?

[00:01:13] Being here on this planet during this time

[00:01:16] And you're just like look do you first Peter talks about us being exiles?

[00:01:21] people who love God love his people

[00:01:25] Regardless of what's happening in this world and it just got us asking the right questions

[00:01:29] I just want to say thank you for that moment because it was confusing for a lot of us

[00:01:34] And it's a message that applied to us then it applies to us now

[00:01:38] It's a message that's evergreen. So thank you for that

[00:01:43] Just had to say it for sure. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you know with that one thing I was thinking about with this book is

[00:01:51] For Christians

[00:01:53] Maybe we're like not really familiar with that term exile like why would I be an exile in this world?

[00:01:59] You know, why is that message relevant today? It sounds kind of scary honestly in some ways

[00:02:04] But I want to ask you why do you think it's important for Christians to actually see themselves as

[00:02:09] Exiles what what's the purpose of that? Yeah, I mean there is a little bit of debate about that term and whether

[00:02:17] Western and especially American Christians can

[00:02:20] Co-opt that term to describe

[00:02:23] Themselves some people would say no, no we can't go that far

[00:02:27] I'm definitely not trying to say in these sermons or in this book that

[00:02:32] We are you know a most persecuted people or something like that. We have so much

[00:02:39] Freedom so much peace, you know, someone asked me

[00:02:43] The other day if we were in the Great Tribulation because of something they saw at Whole Foods and my answer was

[00:02:50] Just the fact that there is a Whole Foods should tell you something about whether we're in the Tribulation or not

[00:02:56] We have I have a very peaceful life in general

[00:02:59] But the term exile it comes from the Old Testament the people of Israel after

[00:03:06] centuries of disobedience

[00:03:09] had to experience the

[00:03:11] discipline that was

[00:03:14] Baked into the covenant that they were in with God

[00:03:19] From Mount Sinai

[00:03:21] God had said if you disobey me for a really long time one of the last straws will be that you will be put into

[00:03:27] Exile you'll be banished from the land

[00:03:31] That I promised Abraham so many centuries earlier and you will be in exile. You'll come back

[00:03:37] But you'll be in exile you'll be forced to make a life far away from the land and

[00:03:45] I

[00:03:46] Don't know that I would have done much with that unless Peter had come along and in his first letter to the church started out by

[00:03:54] writing to them and saying

[00:03:57] Calling them exiles, right? And then he concluded his letter

[00:04:04] Which to me is a description of this Christian

[00:04:08] Exilic life

[00:04:10] he concluded it by saying this is the true grace of God and

[00:04:15] To me the life that he describes

[00:04:19] It it really is a life that that that is a life where grace is manifested

[00:04:24] If you can figure out in a in a society that kind of doesn't doesn't like your Christianity

[00:04:31] So much of the pressure that they felt in first Peter. It's verbal its

[00:04:37] Attitudinal it hadn't yet crossed into physical forms of persecution

[00:04:44] And I think a lot of us can relate to that, you know being

[00:04:48] Riticuled or insulted or looked down upon for our Christian faith

[00:04:54] If you can endure that well with the Lord

[00:04:59] You're gonna experience a brand of his grace that you don't experience when Christianity is the favored

[00:05:06] mentality so

[00:05:09] For me the the reason why it's so important for a Christian to adopt an exilic mentality

[00:05:16] Is because without it?

[00:05:20] You just get thrown far too easily by the events of our time, you know

[00:05:26] Like you said a little bit earlier when I preached these originally the world was on fire

[00:05:30] And it's kind of like no less on fire now and it I don't think it's gonna be any less on fire in the future

[00:05:37] You know sometimes people talk to me about like well the founders of America they thought well the founders of America many of them

[00:05:43] Thought that everything was just gonna get better and better and better. That was their eschatological grid

[00:05:47] I don't necessarily think that way

[00:05:50] I think there's gonna be a reviving of God's people but also that you know people will call good evil and evil good

[00:05:57] So when we can adopt that exilic mentality

[00:06:03] We just do better, you know

[00:06:06] It helps us with sometimes all here Christians use the word we and our in the wrong way

[00:06:13] They will be

[00:06:14] And it's challenging because we're dual citizens. So like whatever culture we're part of that is our culture

[00:06:21] We are a part of it

[00:06:24] But to the apostles they didn't really think of like Roman culture as something that was that is our culture

[00:06:32] We are this they saw themselves as

[00:06:35] Exiles living in the midst of that culture. How are we going to form our Christian community in the middle of that kind of

[00:06:43] hostility so

[00:06:45] I think that the situation that Paul

[00:06:48] Excuse me that Peter was dealing with then is so perfect for our time today

[00:06:53] Amen, that's so true. I love what you said about there's a certain kind of grace that's manifested

[00:06:59] Absolutely

[00:07:00] There's something about I think just even like the word exile for a lot of Christians. It just sounds kind of scary

[00:07:06] It's like gosh, I don't want to be in exile. I didn't choose that necessarily. I love Jesus his message

[00:07:12] I love the gift of salvation. I want to be a disciple but exile like that sounds a little too intense maybe

[00:07:20] By love that you mentioned there is a grace to it. So I was curious if you can expound on that a little bit just

[00:07:25] For somebody who might be scared of that term

[00:07:28] Can you talk about in the book a lot like what how does that grace kind of?

[00:07:33] Manifest yeah, and why shouldn't we be scared? I think what I would say is I want you to be more scared of

[00:07:39] The word and I want you to be more scared of all the words that describe what Christians are

[00:07:44] I mean, I want you to be scared by the word slaves

[00:07:46] I want you to be scared by the word Christian which in its original means Christ like I want you to be

[00:07:53] Scared of the word disciple that means that you are

[00:07:57] Taking your cues from a rabbi a master who is teaching you and patterning you after

[00:08:03] Himself like I would love for you to be more scared by these words. I don't believe in a safe

[00:08:10] Christianity at all or a safe

[00:08:12] Jesus that doesn't demand anything or expect or want anything for our lives

[00:08:19] So I would hope you'd be a little scared by the word exile

[00:08:23] It does have that tenor to it of wow like I am

[00:08:29] Not in the favored majority that makes life a little bit challenging. It is easier when you are in the favored majority

[00:08:40] so

[00:08:41] I would say that I'm not going to try to make you feel unafraid of being an exile

[00:08:47] But I will comfort you with the reality that just as there was the invisible fourth character

[00:08:55] walking with Daniel's friends in the

[00:08:59] Fiery furnace so there is an experience of God and his nature

[00:09:04] That you cannot get outside of the fire

[00:09:08] Paul called it the fellowship of Christ's sufferings. There's a friendship with Jesus

[00:09:14] that is so rich and beautiful and

[00:09:18] Contains so much depth and satiation

[00:09:24] That you can get through experiencing a little bit of Christ's sufferings with him listen

[00:09:30] He went and died on a cross. It was brutal

[00:09:34] We might have someone say something mean to us on Instagram. It's very different

[00:09:40] it's just a little taste of

[00:09:43] What Christ?

[00:09:45] Experience the rejection and animosity that was hurled his way people insulted him verbally

[00:09:51] Well, he was pierced through his hands and feet. We might get assaulted verbally

[00:09:57] well, we are

[00:10:00] Leaving our comfortable church service or something like that

[00:10:03] So it's not an equivalent

[00:10:06] But it's a taste and there's fellowship with the Lord in that taste

[00:10:11] And I think that's what Peter meant when he said this is the true grace of God

[00:10:16] It's a false grace of God to say everything's happy clapping

[00:10:20] And that's those are the only conditions in which I feel like I'm good with God

[00:10:26] but man when you can go through the waves the fire the tumult and

[00:10:33] And

[00:10:34] experience the Lord in that

[00:10:36] Then it's like okay. I must be onto something

[00:10:39] I must be dealing with the true grace of God right now

[00:10:43] rather than a grace that is

[00:10:46] Attached to everything going my way

[00:10:49] Everything being just happening swimmingly and everything being peaceful. Those are great times

[00:10:55] We should thank God for those times and you can have them simultaneously to being in exile

[00:11:01] I mean that was the original mandate to the children of Israel

[00:11:04] You need to go to Babylon and you need to pray for the peace of Babylon

[00:11:08] You need to build houses and have families and be a blessing to that society and culture

[00:11:13] But make no mistake. You're not Babylonian

[00:11:17] Um, and I think that there's a grace that God gives us in that so don't be afraid. It's just the Christian

[00:11:24] Thing it's what we're called to but we talk about that a lot through the book

[00:11:28] It's just the idea that when this kind of marginalization happens to

[00:11:37] Especially believers who aren't used to being marginalized but are used to being like the influential voices

[00:11:43] in a society

[00:11:44] When that marginalization happens we either run away in fear, you know the

[00:11:51] Let's go buy a property

[00:11:53] Deep in Idaho all together and just run away and get away from the madness

[00:11:59] We

[00:12:01] will

[00:12:02] either do that or

[00:12:05] retaliate in

[00:12:06] Sinfully angry kinds of ways very unattractive and unappealing and unlike Jesus. You just don't see Jesus in that kind of

[00:12:15] response or

[00:12:17] We will buckle and just assimilate into you know, so okay. This is the new view that is culturally acceptable

[00:12:25] I'm going to try to find a way to just like twist and bend my bible and my christianity to like conform

[00:12:31] To that and listen, there's a whole lot of stuff that modern western christianity

[00:12:37] Holds to that isn't biblical. It's good for us to revisit our bibles and make sure that we're believing the right things

[00:12:45] I'm not talking about that stuff

[00:12:46] I'm talking about just the clear basics of the bible and of scripture that people are in our modern age

[00:12:53] twisting as

[00:12:55] Paul said to their own destruction

[00:12:58] Yeah, we don't want to respond in any of those ways retreat or anger or assimilation

[00:13:05] We want to have just a gracious

[00:13:08] calm boldness in the face of all that and

[00:13:11] Peter's stuff really helps us with that. I mean we took our time going through this books

[00:13:16] Through the book of first Peter's a 27 chapter book that you know, I've written

[00:13:22] Partly because there are just so much there that helps us in our modern time. Amen

[00:13:28] Dude, so good. I mean here you talk about it. I'm like, this is a pastor writing to the church, you know, so I know you have

[00:13:35] an understanding of scripture

[00:13:37] And you thought about how it applies to the church

[00:13:41] When you think about all we're talking about you know exile and sharing gods

[00:13:45] Christ suffering and his grace his his love and his pain the whole thing

[00:13:49] How do you see this impacting the church like you as a pastor? How would you like to see this?

[00:13:55] Impact the church of the future

[00:13:58] I think the main thing that I

[00:14:01] Really hope for is that the book of first Peter would help us be okay with being different

[00:14:10] and

[00:14:11] Be okay with not having the power

[00:14:15] But being okay being part of the Jesus kingdom

[00:14:20] There's a little section for instance in the middle because in the middle of the book Peter

[00:14:26] dives into like this

[00:14:29] sequential

[00:14:31] Series of

[00:14:34] Encouragements to submit so he talks about like submitting to governing authorities

[00:14:37] So we talk about what that means he talks about marriage and marital responsibilities husband and wife

[00:14:44] And so we did a thing for three

[00:14:47] Weeks which turn into three chapters

[00:14:51] Where I'm talking to first

[00:14:54] Yeah, I call it exile wives exile husbands and then we do exile dating because obviously not everyone in the church

[00:15:01] Is married or even called to be married, but a lot of people would like to be

[00:15:05] And so I wanted to take a look at like how

[00:15:09] If I if I'm a believer and if a believer does things

[00:15:12] differently and we don't take our cues from the culture or world that we're in

[00:15:18] then

[00:15:19] How do I do marriage? How do I do dating?

[00:15:23] So i'm hoping that people come away with a feeling that you know, it's okay to be different

[00:15:29] I love that being different

[00:15:31] Being okay being different being okay with being sold out for christ

[00:15:35] being okay with being

[00:15:38] In our life

[00:15:39] Nate as we finish it up

[00:15:41] Finish up this conversation

[00:15:42] Is there anything else you wanted just to share with the people about the book or

[00:15:46] Not dates or anything like that, but just like from you to them

[00:15:49] About this book about the message

[00:15:51] Any kind of thoughts you had for the people?

[00:15:54] Yeah, there's something about

[00:15:58] Seeing

[00:15:59] The word of god on

[00:16:02] A page and then wrestling with

[00:16:06] arguments

[00:16:08] Designed to help you understand the word that you've just written and that's what my stuff is. That's what these books are

[00:16:17] And so my encouragement

[00:16:20] To people who are interested in this would be just go slowly

[00:16:24] You don't need to power read this you can just if you get bored of it for a season

[00:16:28] Just set it to the side keep your bookmark in there because

[00:16:32] I think each passage in first peter has something for you

[00:16:37] So just slowly go through it let god speak to you

[00:16:41] There's some good study questions at the end of each chapter designed to kind of help you

[00:16:46] Think through how to apply it in your own life today if there is application

[00:16:52] And uh, yeah, thanks for reading and checking it out. I hope that it's an encouragement to you my goal with every book of the bible

[00:17:01] That I teach and write about is that when someone is done

[00:17:05] With me going on that journey

[00:17:08] My my hope is that that book of the bible will be a friend to them from that point forward in their christian life

[00:17:16] That they can return to uh, that it wouldn't be my words, but that my words will help you

[00:17:23] Understand the word so that

[00:17:26] The word can be there for you

[00:17:29] In the years to come so wow probably many of you have read first peter before and have been encouraged by it

[00:17:35] I think after wrestling with it with me. You'll probably

[00:17:38] Come away with a deeper appreciation for first peter and get more out of it in the years to come

[00:17:44] I love that just like a song or I got a smell can kind of take you back to

[00:17:49] A scene or some memory from the past

[00:17:52] I felt like that was first peter like it is a buddy of mine now because you taught us through it

[00:17:57] I'm looking forward to rereading this book again. So thank you, Nate for writing it

[00:18:01] For all of you who are watching on youtube listening on the podcast. Thank you for listening to this

[00:18:05] Pasternates book is available for purchase on sunday

[00:18:10] june 2nd

[00:18:12] On amazon you can check nateholdage.com for all those details

[00:18:16] But thank you for purchasing for reading and for being here with us today. God bless you. Thanks again