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This is our second Sunday evening for welcoming you if you're a student newly arrived, or newly back, in town. And either way, this time of year throws two questions at you. And the first is: who are you going to be?

A few years back I got a phone call from the mother of a guy called Simon. And she said, 'He's coming to Newcastle to study and we wondered if you could look out for him when he first arrives. He's not hard to spot, because he's been re-inventing himself over the summer and now has blue hair.' So when he first came along to try us out, I walked up to him and said, 'This may sound a bit odd, but I just have the impression your name's Simon.' And he looked horrified and said, 'This isn't one of those churches where God tells you everything about people, is it?' So I said, 'No, only your name.' And he still looked horrified. So I said, 'That was a joke. Your mother rang me.'

But coming to uni does give you the chance to re-invent yourself, doesn't? Because all the people who know who you've been so far are now miles away. So who are you going to be – especially if, so far, you've been professing Christian faith? Is that who you're going to be now you're here?

The other question this time of year throws at you is: what are you here for? I wonder if you've had that moment yet, which I can still remember, when you get back to your room in the early days, not really knowing anyone or where anything is, staring at the sorry-looking attempt you've just made to cook scrambled egg – and thinking, 'What am I doing here?' I remember talking to another student at this time of year and he said, 'I basically feel the only reason I'm here is that it's the next stage of the education sausage machine – it's what's expected of you, it's what everyone else at your school's doing, so here I am.' And for a lot of people it's not just the next stage of the education sausage machine. It's the next stage of the life sausage machine: you get a degree to get a job to afford a house to find a partner to have some children to stuff them into the education sausage machine – and round it all goes again. But for what? Is that all we're here for – making human sausages? 'Well, no,' says the freshers' week committee, 'You're here to have fun' – and, by the way, the definition of 'fun' is: drink to excess and jump into bed with people. I guess (I hope) you've got better ambitions than that – like get a good degree, get a uni sports team place, make some lasting friends, and so on. But here's the whole point of what I'm going to say tonight: if you're a Christian, everything you do – work, play, friendship, the lot – should be shot through with God's over-riding purpose for your life, which is… that you get to know him better, live for him, and make him known.

So we're going to look at one of the Bible readings we had tonight because it's all about that over-riding purpose for our lives, if we're people trusting in Christ. And if you're not sure that's you – if that's the big area where you've still got to decide who you're going to be – then can I encourage you to keep coming along to church while you do that. Because year by year we have lots of people needing time and space to decide whether they really do believe what their parents believe, and to grow into their own convictions. So we won't assume anything of you. And if you just need to lie low and listen and think, that's fine.

So would you turn in the Bibles to 1 Peter 2.9-12, which we're going to look at under two headlines:

First, WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU HERE FOR? (vv9-10)

Well look at 1 Peter chapter 2 and v9. Peter has just been talking about the many people around us who live completely without reference to God, living in God's world as if God wasn't there. And then to Christians he says, v9:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his [God's] own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. (v9)

And if you're on the ball, that'll ring bells with the Old Testament (OT) reading we had from Exodus 19.1-6 – where God basically said to his people, Israel, 'Look, I made this world so I'm the rightful ruler of everyone in it. But actually, everyone's living as if they had the right to rule themselves and do as they please. So I'm choosing you to know me as human beings should, to live for me as human beings should and to show the rest of the world the way it should be for them, too.' He didn't quite put it like that – he said,

You shall be my treasured possession among all peoples… you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation…" (Exodus 19.5-6)

And those are the words Peter applies to Christians today:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim [him]…(v9)

Ie, God is saying, 'It's your privilege and purpose to know me – so you can make me known to others.'

Now partly that happens as we live differently. That's the point of that bit about us being a 'holy nation'. 'Holy' means 'set apart from other people to live God's way, as opposed to our own.' And if we do that (albeit imperfectly), that will point people to God. So, eg, I remember a student a while back who put her trust in Christ at a service here one evening. She'd been weighing that up for some time. And the big issue for her had been the boyfriend, whom she was sleeping with. But she finally realised it was infinitely more important to have Jesus than the boyfriend, so she committed herself to Jesus and went to tell the boyfriend that she wasn't going to sleep with him anymore. He said that was outrageous. So she said, 'Then we're not even going out anymore, either.' I met him the following Sunday at the back of church. He said it was his first time. So I asked him, 'What brought you along?' And he said, 'My girlfriend's just dumped me for Christianity and I want to know what on earth's got into her.' (To which the answer was: Jesus has.) I can't remember if he came to faith, but he certainly kept coming to church for some time. Being holy points people to Christ… but only if you let them know you're a Christian.

So a few years back, one of the Christian Unions here came up with this idea of 'service evangelism' – the idea being, 'We're going to tell people about Jesus just by serving them.' So, eg, they went round all the shared kitchens in halls and did all the washing up and cleaning – which is not unlike mucking out pigs: it's a godly, holy thing to do. But if that's all you do, people aren't going to make any connection to Jesus, are they? They may think you're nice, or weird, or both – but they're not going to think you're Christian, they're not going to find out about Jesus just through that. They need to hear about Jesus from us as well as see Jesus in us. So look at v9 again:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (vv9-10)

So people need to hear that to live in God's world without reference to God is not only to be in moral darkness – so that you end up hurting people left, right and centre, not to mention yourself – it's also unbelievably offensive to God, and puts you in deep trouble with him for when you finally meet him as Judge. But then, above all, they need to hear that God wants to love us more than he wants to judge us, and that he sent his Son to die under the judgement we deserve so that we could receive mercy, so that we could be forgiven back into the relationship with him we should have been in all along. That's what everyone around us needs to hear.

So if you're a Christian student, in your time here, or the rest of your time here, will you make it your over-riding purpose to make Jesus known? And whatever age and stage you are as a Christian, will you keep plugging away at that and not lose heart?

I know that's hard because a lot of people look very happy and confident without Jesus. But to be honest, most of that's just show. So, eg, under the surface you find girls like that student I just mentioned who don't feel happy about sleeping with their boyfriends, but used. And some of the most outwardly confident people I've met have been some of the most inwardly hurt or guilty.

And I know it's especially hard, in a new place or among new people, to know how you even begin in the business of making Jesus known. So, eg, my goddaughter has just started at uni. I was on the phone to her a few days in and she said, 'I'm a bit worried that I haven't actually mentioned to anyone that I'm a Christian, yet.' She said, 'I know my flatmates have seen my Bible out in my room, but I haven't done anything like sit them down and say, 'Oh, by the way, I'm a Christian' because that just doesn't seem very natural.' To which I basically said, 'Give it a month. I totally agree about not sitting them down and letting them have it. Just give it a month, and then ask whether they know you're a Christian. If you're open about the fact you're going to church, if the Bible stays out on your table, if you have friends back round from the Christian Union and they ask how you know one another, then they'll know in a month's time and will probably have started asking questions.'

But having said all that so far, here's one of the most important things to say tonight. Did you notice that this bit of the Bible isn't addressed to me individually and you individually – but to us: 'a people for his own possession'. And to get to know God better and live for him and make him known, each of us needs to be part of God's people in a local church. If you've just arrived as a student, I'd also encourage you to link up with the Christian Union on your campus. But your spiritual anchorage needs to be in a local church. We need that to grow in our conviction that the gospel's really true – and you may need to do much more of that kind of growing before you feel confident about talking about your faith. And we need that to stay encouraged to keep plugging away in the face of people saying, 'I don't believe it,' or 'I don't think I need it,' or 'I just can't be bothered.'

So that's, 'Who are you and what are you here for?' We're God's people and we're here to get to know him better, to live for him and to make him known. And if you're looking for a church to settle in, we'd love it if you joined us in trying to do that together. But then Peter talks about:

Secondly, HOW TO BLOW THAT, AND HOW TO SHOW THAT (vv11-12)

Look on to 1 Peter chapter 2 and v11:

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which war against your soul. (v11)

Now this church Bible we use is an accurate, word-for-word translation – but that does mean it throws up some things that aren't exactly everyday vocab – like, 'sojourners'. But that just means 'temporary residents' – and 'exiles' is getting at the idea that 'you don't belong here', 'this isn't home'. So this bit of the Bible is saying, 'Look, if you're a Christian, you belong to God. You don't belong to this God-rejecting world and its way of life.' So v11 is saying,

Beloved, I urge you as… ['non-belongers'] to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which war against your soul. (v11)

Just turn over the page to 1 Peter 4, v3, so that I can show you what a hopelessly irrelevant and out of date book the Bible is (just like many non-Christian people say):

For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you… (1 Peter 4.3-4)

Well, you tell me. Is that out of date? Or is that a snapshot of the freshers' week you've just been through? It's a picture of people swimming around – apparently happily – in this pool of passions (including the predictable ones like drink and sex) and calling out, 'Come on in, the water's lovely!' I don't know about you, but I'm a cold water wimp, and when I'm on holiday with friends and family and they plunge into the sea and say, 'Come on in, the water's lovely,' that gives me the ability to see through that – because we don't go to the Caribbean, we go to Ireland. And I know that if I follow them in, it'll be the most unenjoyable experience since last time I believed them. And the point is that, whether or not we're cold water wimps, God wants us to be 'sin wimps' – so that when we hear the non-Christian world saying, 'Come on in, the water's lovely,' we see through it and think, 'No way. I'm not going in there. All that will do is hurt me spiritually.' So back over to 1 Peter 2, v11:

Beloved [ie, God is saying this to us because he cares about us, not because he's out to spoil our fun], I urge you as… ['non-belongers'] to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which war against your soul. (v11)

And the first way to blow who we are and what we're here for is to jump into the pool with the world and be no different. And that's how Will the worldly blows it. There he is on the left hand side of the picture below:

Will is a Christian, and he wants other people to hear about Jesus. So he says to himself, 'That means I've got to be out there, doing what they're doing – otherwise they'll just think I'm weird and won't listen.' But doing what they're doing includes Will getting drunk – which means they don't see anything different about him, they don't see Jesus being Lord of him; and he's now ashamed to say anything Christian.

The next guy along in the picture is Pete the pious: there he is, floating somewhere off the planet, playing his harp. And he can see Will blowing it and quotes v11 at him. He says, 'Look, you belong to Jesus, not to the drinking culture, so get out of there.' And Pete's solution is to live in a bubble of Christian friendships and Christian meetings. But what he doesn't realise is that he's blown it as much as Will. It's not that he's failing to live differently for Jesus. It's that he's failing to be visible to anyone who isn't already a Christian. So the result's the same: no-one's being pointed to Jesus.

So next on the picture, meet Barbara the Biblical (trust the girls to get it right). And Barbara quotes both v11 and 12 to Will and Pete. So look at v11 again:

Beloved, I urge you as ['non-belongers'] to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which war against your soul. (v11)

So Barbara agrees that Pete has a point. But she says, 'You've got to read on into v12:

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honourable… (vv11-12)

Or as the NIV translation says, 'Live such good lives among the pagans'. So Barbara agrees that Will has a point, too – you've got to live among them. But you've also got to keep your holiness rather than lose it. It's easy to live the good life among the Christians, or to live the non-Christian life among the non-Christians. But what God has called us to do is to live the good life among the non-Christians we rub shoulders with every day.

Now what if you've already blown it the Will way – perhaps for the whole of the last year or two if you're a second or third year only now coming out of the woodwork as a Christian; or perhaps in your first week here in Newcastle if you're a first year? Well, the answer is: trust God's forgiveness and start again. What did v10 say? 'Now you have received mercy' – which means you now have God's commitment that he will forgive you every time you need it, on the basis of what Jesus did for you on the cross. So the answer is: trust God's forgiveness and start again.

I remember one Christian fresher, Ben, messing up badly in freshers' week. He got totally drunk and was utterly ashamed of himself. And I remember him telling me he'd blown all hopes of pointing his friends to Jesus. And I said, 'No you haven't.' And he said, 'But I got publically drunk in week 1 – how can I be any kind of witness to Jesus after that?' And I said, 'That depends what you do next. If you pretend to your friends that nothing happened, or that it doesn't matter, you're right, you'll have no Christian impact on them. But if you tell them what you've told me – that you're ashamed, and that this isn't what you want to be because you're a Christian – and if you show them, by getting going again, that Jesus forgives failures and give us as many fresh starts as we need, then I think they'll get the gospel loud and clear. He went on to be CU president and then a short-term missionary to Japan.

If you've blown it, you haven't Blown it with a capital 'B'. Trust God's forgiveness and start again.

Let's wrap up by finishing off v12:

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honourable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. (v12)

Ie, 'so that… they may come to glorify Jesus as their Saviour and Lord just like you do' – that's the hope of what our Christian witness will result in, isn't it? But make sure you get that middle bit – which says, 'so that when they speak against you…' Because the bizarre thing is that, even if non-Christian people around you respect the way you live and know deep down it's the right way to live, they'll still 'speak against you'. So they'll respect you for not getting drunk – but mock you for not being able to take your drink. They'll respect you for believing sex is for marriage – but mock you for not being able to 'pull'.

So let me end with this story. Ten years back we had a student called Tim. For two years he was the only Christian guy in a very non-Christian lads' house – and he had to contend with everything: porn, drink, drugs, girlfriends moving in, you name it. It was a jungle. Actually, 1 Peter 2 would say: it was darkness. And I knew from catching up with Tim from time to time how much grief they gave him for being a Christian and how constantly discouraged he was about whether his witness was having any impact on them at all. Well, at one of the last student suppers of Tim's final year, I sat next to this guy I'd never seen before, and I asked him who he was and what had brought him along. And he said, 'I'm Tim's housemate.' (And Tim was the other side of student supper, so he heard none of this.) And he said, 'I'm here because for two years I've just given Tim stick for what he believes. But I actually respect him more than anyone else I know – because he has real integrity and the rest of us have none. So I knew that before I left uni, I owed it to him to come along and hear what he believes.' Tim was totally disbelieving when I told him about that conversation, because he had no idea what was going on beneath the surface of that guy, beneath all the bravado and the 'stick' he gave. And that story's a reminder that, by and large, we won't know what's going on beneath the surface as we try to live out what we've heard tonight. And it's a reminder that this is a long game – sometimes very long, sometimes life-long.

But what a purpose to live for – that during your time here, and for the rest of your life, people might come to hear the gospel because of the impact you've made on them as a Christian. That's who you are. That's what you're here for. So settle with your brothers and sisters in Christ in a local church as soon as you can, and live out that purpose with them.