Introduction to 1 Peter

Introduction

Good Morning Church,

Today we are going to start a new group of messages through the book of 1 Peter.

1 Peter has several crucial, and spiritually impact full messages for us.

This study will spiritually change your outlook on life, sin, trails, salvation, and God.

God has a lot he is leading us to in this study, but there are a few things you need to do to maximize this study.

What do you need to do.

You need to be faithful in attendance. it is crucial that you get the entire book from start to finish.

Plan Ahead to be here each Sunday. Make it a priority. You need to be in the House of God when the doors are open. There may come a time when the doors are no longer open and then you will talk about the times you could’ve and should’ve came.

You need to be attentive. You need to dedicate this time to take the words of God seriously. Not because I am saying them, but because this is the very word inspired by God. This is the most important thing we could be doing each Sunday morning.

You need to be praying about the messages each week. You need to prepare your individual heart for these messages.

You need to take notes, you need to read your notes and memorize parts of this book, and be prepared to grow from it.

You need to be commited to growing in Christ. You need to make a plan on how you will grow closer to God this year then you ever have.

Before we go into our study lets take a moment to allow God to straighten out our hearts in prayer.

If you have your Bibles turn with me to 1 Peter.

We are going to work our way through 1 Peter, we are going to read every verse, every word, and break down each part.

1 Peter Chapter 1 Gives us the opening of this important letter.

1 Peter 1:1 “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,”

We start of course with Identifying who wrote this letter and to whom it was intended.

We have the Apostle Peter, and we know Peter pretty well.

Probably the second most well known person in the Gospels behind Jesus of Course.

Peter was one of the first disciples called by Jesus.

Peter was with Jesus throughout his ministry of signs and wonders.

Peter followed Jesus the night of his trial

You’ll remember Peter Denied Christ near where Jesus was being tried at.

Peter was one of the first to see Jesus after he resurrected.

People was the one who walked on water with Jesus until he stopped looking at him.

Peter was the one that Jesus said “If you love me feed my sheep.”

Peter was part of the inner circle of Jesus and his disciples.

Often times when Jesus would go away and take a few disciples Peter was one that went with him.

After Jesus ascension , Peter was one of the founders of the early Church.

Peter preached the message in acts where around 3,000 souls received the good news.

Peter was an important part of the early church and even an important part of Paul’s ministry.

Peter was greatly used by God, despite the flaws or shortcomings in his attitude.

From the things we read about Peter, he had kind of a temper. He liked being the first to jump up and say or do things. God used peter to build his church.

Do you notice how Peter starts this letter he calls himself an Apostle.

Now when Paul starts his letters, many times he would give a qualifier about being an apostle saying something like “An apostle by God.”

Peter gave no such qualifier, why? Because he had walked with Jesus. He was very easily recognized as a follower of Jesus.

There was not doubt about Peter’s apostleship.

Who is Peter writing this letter to?

He is writing to Christians in various areas of modern day Turkey.

This letter is what is known as a “General Epistle”

This is general because it was not written to a certain church group or a select group of people.

This type of letter would often be circulated to different followers. Maybe Peter wrote one copy and it would be passed along to those who needed the encouragement.

There is one more word in this verse I want to focus on. Strangers.

Peter says to the Strangers scattered throughout.

Other versions say “Exiles”, Temporary residents, sojourners.

This is all to say, brothers and sisters, this is not your home.

Peter is reminding them that they are not permanent citizens of this world but truly just strangers.

He is starting his letter by reminding them of their eternal home, which will be a theme in this letter.

This is what I would remind you this morning. This world is not your home, it is not your final resting place, this is not where you will spend eternity.

Verse 2 says

1 Peter 1:2 “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.”

Verse two Starts out with calling them the elect.

Elect is just another word for those who are Christians.

We have been elected into the family of God. This doesn't mean we are special, just that we are forgiven and free from the dominating force of sin.

I love this next section here because he shows us in this verse the Harmony of the trinity.

You’ll recall I’m sure the trinity being God the Father, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus Christ the Son of God.

All parts of the trinity play a role in salvation.

First we have God the Father who has fore knowledge of those who will be saved.

God knows every single person that will be saved and spend eternity with him.

He knew this way before , he had this knowledge from the very beginning.

Then the Spirit works in the life of this person and sanctifies them, or sets them apart form the world.

You see we are set apart here, it says by obedience.

Obedience is what we must have when it comes to God’s word. The Holy spirit guides us into obedience to God and separation from the world.

The Holy spirit draws us to Christ before we are saved. The Holy spirit gives us the desire to be saved. He separates our wants and desires from the worlds and gives us a desire to know God.

Third we have Christ who gave his life and his blood so we would be saved.

We easily recognize this aspect of salvation as this is the justification step. This allows us to be forgiven of our sin and be seen as having our sin dismissed and paid for by Christ.

This is the work of the trinity in salvation. God the father has knowledge who will be saved, the Holy spirit separates this person through their obedience, and Jesus Christ provides the sacrifice necessary for our salvation.

This is one of the more clear pictures we have of the work of the trinity.

All three parts working in harmony to a desired outcome.

God the Father, the Holy spirit and Jesus the Son all working to provide us with a means of salvation.

The final part of this verse Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.”

Simply put, this is a means of encouragement. Peter was wishing them great grace and peace and that it grows in them.

Those first two verses really set the stage for us theologically. He paints an amazing picture of salvation and the work that God does on our behalf.

Because of this thought it immediately leads peter into praise.

1 Peter 1:3-4 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,”

1 Peter 1:5 “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

In verse three, we see Peter starting a time of Praise.

Some scholars claim this may have even been a song that Peter had written to praise God.

When we think of what God has done for us, it should lead us into a time of praise and worship over him.

We need to spend more time reflecting on what God has done for us, and more time singing, or thanking him for what he has done.

Truly not a day should go by without us thanking him for what he has done.

He says Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Peter knew Jesus Christ personally.

He had a friendship with our Lord.

He was mentored by our Lord.

He knew Christ Jesus, and he knew him to be the Son of God.

In Matthew 16:16 Jesus asks his disciples who do you say that I am “And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Peter knows who Jesus is. He starts his time of praise reminding his readers that Jesus is the Son of God.

He reminds us of the Hope that we have in Christ.

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

The word Hope used in Peter and in Hebrews is about evidence. It’s not the way we think of hope in the world today.

We may say :I hope I get a raise, I hope it doesn't rain, I hope McDonald Ice cream machine isn't broken.

Hope in that sense is Just means a wish.

In the Bible, Hope means so much more.

When Peter says God has begotten us to a lively hope, he means a certain future. We will have evidence for the things that we believe, the things that we know to be true.

This isn't like just something we wish for, this is something we can be sure and certain about.

We have this future, this hope, this certainty because of God’s abundant mercy and through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Another thing to spend time praising God for.

1 Peter 1:4 “To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,”

1 Peter 1:5 “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

The lively hope he has given us here is an incorruptible, untouchable, inheritance that can not fade away.

Nothing can take away your salvation.

There are many verses that support this, the idea of eternal security, but this one here is very clear, very plain.

You, those of you that repented of your sins, that are Christians following the will of God, your inheritance is locked away in heaven, reserved for you , can not be corrupted, can not be degraded, can not be touched, and will never fade away.

This is the hope we have, not a hope as in a wish, but a hope as in one day you certainly will have a home in heaven with rewards that we do not even begin to understand. All because of the abundant mercy of God the Father.

Verse 5 says who are kept by the power of God through faith.

Folks once you are saved by God, nothing can change that.

John 10:28 “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”

This is the very inheritance of God that you become a beneficiary of once you part of the family of God.

Nothing can take you out of the hand of the father.

Verse 5 ends by saying Ready to be revealed in the last time.’

This is when we will truly see the full mystery of Salvation. Our salvation isn’t complete until we enter eternity.

Eternity is part of the final Revelation of salvation.

When he says to be revealed in the last time this this is it. This is the finale of all the work of Salvation.

Our salvation culminates in our grand finale when we enter eternity to have the secrets of God’s work revealed.

God is ready to reveal those things to us, in his perfect unwavering time.

1 Peter 1:6 “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:”

1 Peter 1:7 “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:”

Friends rejoice over this inheritance,

Find great joy in something that can not be taken and destroyed.

So many people try to find joy in temporary things, but just like those things that sense of joy can be taken away.

Find joy in your inheritance in christ because that can never be touched.

Peter transitions a bit here into talking about various trials.

The trial of your faith, or they trying of your faith, or the testing of your faith, is much more precious then gold.

Gold again is temporary. Gold disintegrates, loses its value, loses it color, eventually will even lose it’s meaning.

But the proving of your faith, is more precious then gold.

When they bible says trying or testing or trails of your salvation, it simply means proving.

Testing that proves your faith.

A good test of who you are as a person is what do you turn to when things get difficult.

What do you turn to bring you comfort, to bring you answers, to bring you peace.

A lot can be revealed about a person through watching them in a time of testing.

We show our faith through trials and testing.

We show that we love and truly believe God when we turn to him, when we do not waiver in our faith, when we remain steadfast in him.

How do we do this? We stay faithful to his word. We continue following his words. He keep sin out of our lives, we find a body of believers to serve along side. We continue down the path of righteousness.

Do not let anything keep you from God’s word.

Peter says let your faith be so strong that when hard times hit the only option to return praise glory and honor to Christ.

You have to be strong in your faith so when hard times come, you don't negotiate your faith, but your faith in Christ guides you through the storm.

Imagine with me you have a house that continually is hit and messed up from storms. Eventually instead of caring for the house you just give up, one day a storm comes by and then destroys everything.

This is like faith, you need to keep building on your faith in Christ. Continue to read his word, allow it to change you. When you see a storm coming you need to feel sorry for the storm, because you know that this will only prove your love for God.

You may be hit with storms, and more then likely you will, but do not fall to the storms, allow them to prove your faith in Him.

Conclusion

Your faith in Christ can be stronger then it ever has been just by exercising your faith. Just like you have to exercise your muscles to keep them strong, you can exercise your faith by studying the scriptures, memorizing verses, attending church, and spending tome alone with God. God allows trails in our life, he doesn't give them temptations but he allows them so we can prove our faith and grow stronger. In heaven is an inheritance untouched by man that can never be destroyed. Keep your eyes and hearts on things of God, and not of the world, and you will continue to grow stronger until the Lord takes us home.