God’s Vision for a Recovered People

1 Peter 2:1-12

No. 1 | 31.8.25

Today we’re going to be in 1 Peter chapter 2, a familiar passage to some and hopefully to each of us by the end of our time together.

We covered an earlier passage back of 1 Peter back on a Wednesday in July, so some are familiar with the context of the larger letter, but it’s worth mentioning briefly again here.

Peter is the author of this letter. The very same Peter that we’d consider the “leading” member of the 12 disciples of the gospels, and later the Apostles. The very same Peter we met in chapter 5 of Luke’s gospel as Jesus preached from his fishing vessel and had Peter cast his net out though Peter toiled all night for no fish. When Peter witnessed the clear display of divinity, he falls down before the Lord saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.”

The same Peter who would go on to witness all the miracles in Luke and the other gospels that we’ve been studying, but being an eye witness to all of these things. The Peter who walked on the Sea of Galilee with Jesus, who witnessed His transfiguration. The Peter who was rebuked by Jesus for opposing the necessary death of Christ, and later denying knowing the Lord 3 times. The same Peter who was restored to the resurrected Jesus at the Sea’s edge, witnessed Jesus’ ascension and established in Apostolic ministry on the day of Pentecost as he received the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Apostle Peter is writing this letter to a church in need of a hope-saturated reminder. A church in the midst of suffering. A church who Peter describes as exiles and who are fully feeling the weight of that feeling. Christians who are under the burden of being spiritual foreigners. The culture around them feels unfamiliar, they feel friction when living amongst people who do not love the Lord. They answer and subject themselves to an authority different from the people they live with, and not political authority. Peter actually tells them to submit to the human institutions. They answer to a different moral authority. A different purpose for their lives.

This sense of providing hope to a suffering people is a central purpose for this letter and one we can’t forget as we look at other passages within the letter. And going further with this theme, we know Peter is trying not lessen their discomfort of living distinctly from the non-believing people around them, but actually to rejoice in it. To press into it. To continue living holy lives, something that invites suffering at the hands of the unrighteous, but to bolster them with hope. Reminding them of the purpose our time here has in light of the coming glory of Christ when He returns.

Let’s jump into chapter 2 here.