1 Peter 1:1-2 - Holy Pilgrims in an Alien World

Introduction to 1 Peter

Author

Peter

Date

62-67 AD

Themes

Suffering as Christ

Believers in Christ , both Jews and Gentiles, make up the covenant people of God

Purpose

There is a hope in suffering

The Power of Revival: Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Baptism in the Spirit, and Preaching on Fire A Succession of Revivals

The graph of the church’s history is one of up and down, up and down. That in itself proves that the church is not a human institution. If it were it would long since have perished and disappeared. It is the church of the living God. It is solely due to the fact that she is His and that He has graciously intervened from time to time for her preservation that she is alive.

We live as the covenant people of God waiting for the Second Advent

We live between the resurrection and the final judgment

As the covenant people of God we are aliens/foreigners in this world

Notes

Old Testament echoes fill the book

Potentially up to 41 quotes or allusions

However, the themes and language of the Old Testament are seen throughout

Intensity to the book as there are 30 commands

Diagnosis

1 Peter 1:1a - Author

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

Peter

Fisherman who became a disciple of Christ

Leader/spokesman for the disciples

Family

Father - John

Brother - Andrew

Following Christ

Matthew 4:18–20 ESV

18 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

Denial of Christ

Matthew 26:69–75 ESV

69 Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came up to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” 70 But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you mean.” 71 And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.” 72 And again he denied it with an oath: “I do not know the man.” 73 After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.” 74 Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the rooster crowed. 75 And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.

Leadership in Acts

Acts 1 - Peter is clearly the leader in helping to replaced Judas

Acts 2 - Peter preaches on the Day of Pentecost where 3,000 are added to the kingdom

Acts 3 - Peter is used by the Lord to heal a lame man

Acts 4 - Peter is arrested with John, Peter boldly proclaims the Gospel in front of the elders, scribes, and the high priest

Acts 5 - Ananias and Sapphira are killed by the Lord and people are healed by the Lord through Peter

Acts 8 - Verifies if the people in Samaria have really received the Gospel

Acts 9 - Heals a man who had been paralyzed

Acts 10 - Cornelius and the gift of the Gospel to the Gentiles

Acts 12 - Peter is miraculously saved from prison

Acts 15 - Jerusalem council affirming that God includes the Gentiles without other requirements other than by grace through faith in Christ alone

An apostle of Jesus Christ

Messenger sent on behalf of the Messiah

The words coming to those who receive them are words from the Lord

1 Peter 1:1b - The Elect Exiles

To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,

Those who are elect exiles

Elect - God has chosen some from out of the world to be His

Exile

Staying for a period of time in a strange or foreign place

Real home is not this earth, but citizenship in heaven

Of the Dispersion

Meant to remind the audience of the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles in the Old Testament

The word is used 12 times in the LLX as God sends Israel into the nations as an act of divine judgment

The purpose is not divine judgment upon the Church, but so that the Great Commission may be fulfilled

In Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia

Covers approximately 150,000-175,000 square miles

Mediterranean Sea northward to the Black Sea

1 Peter 1:2 - The Trinity’s Relationship to the Elect Exiles

2 According to the foreknowledge of God the Father,

According to the foreknowledge

Foreknowledge

Predetermination

Forelove - grace and love was upon us in eternity past

Of God the Father

Predestination/foreknowledge is an act of divine love by the Father

Fatherly care extended in eternity past

In the sanctification of the Spirit,

In the sanctification

Setting apart or consecrating

Set apart as a member of God’s covenant family

Romans 8:9 ESV

9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

Occurs in the receiving of the Gospel and purification throughout the life of a christian

Of the Spirit

For obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:

For the obedience to Jesus Christ

Listens and follows the instructions of Christ

Entire life of the believer

And for the sprinkling with his blood

Exodus 24:3–8 ESV

3 Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” 4 And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. 6 And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. 7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” 8 And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

We pledge our obedience to God and the covenant is sealed with the blood of Christ Jesus

May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

May grace and peace

Be multiplied to you

Doctrines/Uses

What is an Elect Exile?

As elect exiles, we are the chosen pilgrims of the triune God living in a foreign world who experience His covenantal love, grace, and peace - 1:1-2

Philippians 3:20 ESV

20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

Hebrews 11:13 ESV

13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

Hebrews 11:36–38 ESV

36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— 38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

Hebrews 11:16 ESV

16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

Devotional Questions:

Do you live as an elect exile at this moment? Do we look at the world around us and think - oh, this is just a temporary world - or do you hold on tight to the world?

A. W. Tozer

So it is with everything the world has to offer us. Some kind of pretty trinket. Some kind of a pleasing rattle to shake. Some kind of pacifier for the scene in which we live.

Pacifier - what is your’s and will you cast it aside for the pure spiritual milk of the Lord?

What is the Father’s Relationship with the Elect Exiles? 1:2

As elect exiles, we are foreknown/predestinated/fore-loved by God the Father

Ephesians 1:3–4 ESV

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love

Jeremiah 31:3 ESV

3 the Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

Geerhardus Vos

The reason God will never stop loving you is that He never began

Devotional Questions:

Does the eternal love of the Father move you this morning? Does it move you to a pilgrim’s joy? Or have we, like Israel, forgotten the great love the Father bestows upon us. This covenantal/eternal/everlasting love is not temporary like this world. It is from eternity past to eternity future

What is the Spirit’s Relationship with the Elect Exiles? 1:2

As elect exiles, we are set apart/consecrated by God the Spirit

What is sanctification?

The supernatural work of God whereby we are rescued from the power of sin and then conformed into the image of Christ Jesus - the process of salvation

The Spirit’s applies the work of sanctification!

Romans 8:12–14 ESV

12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

In this moment, the Spirit is working in your heart to conform you into the image of the Son

Devotional Questions:

Have you been sanctified by the Holy Spirit? Have you come to repentance in Christ? Have you seen yourself as Isaiah saw himself standing before the Lord God?

Isaiah 6:1–5 ESV

1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Where is the Spirit sanctifying you at this very moment? What sins are being mortified in your life? Do you know? Continue in that growth looking to Christ!

What is the Son’s Relationship with the Elect Exiles? 1:2

As elect exiles, were are saved by His blood for the purpose of being obedient to Him

Hebrews 9:11–12 ESV

11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

1 John 2:1–6 ESV

1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

Devotional Questions:

How is obedience to Christ going in your life this week? Are you walking in the good works that have prepared for you beforehand?

Conclusion