November 17, 2019 - FIRST PETER SERIES, Blessed to be a Blessing

NOVEMBER 10, 2019 The smaller groups in our church community are inside our homes where we go deeper, build friendships, and walk out the Christian life with each other. HOME CHURCH GUIDE + “Breaking the Ice” question (group facilitator) + CHECK-INS: Introduce, check-in + CARE: Needs in the group + COMPASSION: What is the group planning? Are you inviting your neighbours to join in? + GROUP ANNOUNCEMENTS Church-wide, group-only + DIG IN: Discuss questions as a group + END AND HOMEWORK: Final questions, prayer huddles for personal requests. Consider breaking into small groups (huddles) of 2-4, by gender, if large enough. DISCUSSION questions: 1. Why do Christians tend to gravitate toward either “sinking without a trace into the surrounding culture” or “adopting a stand-offish, holier-than-thou approach” rather than maintaining a balance? 2. What are the spiritual priorities Peter highlights for wives and husbands? 3. What do you think of Peter’s words to married believing women about “winning over” their husbands to faith? Do you know of stories of a partner become a believer through their spouse or future spouse? 4. Inner beauty vs. outer beauty, there are a lot of ways this can go wrong. Name a few, but then ask how does one apply this today? 5. The Greco-Roman world viewed women as confused, ignorant, and uneducable. Peter urges them to break this mould. What stereotypes affect relationships today? What prejudices colour your regard for people different from you and your gender? 6. How does Peter take this “married advice” and apply it to all Christians generally? 7. Humility was not a virtue in this ancient context? Do you think it is our time? What could it look like for you/us? 8. What should be our attitudes towards those outside the faith? 9. Why do you think paying evil for evil is easy and it’s difficult to bless someone who is acting in destructive ways? In prayer huddles - share one or two people who are challenging for you and that you need God’s help (and group encouragement) to bless...make it real (not the neighbour’s dog). Prayer Requests: The problems ancient Christians faced living in a society that opposed them are present again to us in the post-Christian West (or anywhere, really). Peter gives local advice to new Christians whose family and society see them as a problem. Let’s learn what this advice looks like and how we are called to bless unbelievers without compromising on Jesus! KEY VERSE: 1 Peter 3:1-12 (NET) Wives and Husbands In the same way, wives, be subject to your own husbands. Then, even if some are disobedient to the word, they will be won over without a word by the way you live, when they see your pure and reverent conduct. Let your beauty not be external—the braiding of hair and wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes— but the inner person of the heart, the lasting beauty of a gentle and tranquil spirit, which is precious in God’s sight. For in the same way the holy women who hoped in God long ago adorned themselves by being subject to their husbands, like Sarah who obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. You become her children when you do what is good and have no fear in doing so. Husbands, in the same way, treat your wives with consideration as the weaker partners and show them honor as fellow heirs of the grace of life. In this way nothing will hinder your prayers. Suffering for Doing Good Finally, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, affectionate, compassionate, and humble. Do not return evil for evil or insult for insult, but instead bless others because you were called to inherit a blessing. For the one who wants to love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from uttering deceit. And he must turn away from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer. But the Lord’s face is against those who do evil. A MORMON STORY 3:1-6 The Witness of Christian Wives “Also we know that women in all the provinces mentioned in 1 Peter 1:1-2 had opportunities to engage in private businesses, serve in some public offices, have prominent roles in religious cults, run their own households, have some property rights, and gain some education in a degree that was NOT true in Peter’s native setting, the Holy Land” (B. Witherington III, 161). 3:7 The Witness of Christian Husbands Dennis Edwards states, These household codes were modified to help advance the message of Jesus. They don’t function that way today. To use them as if we are in Roman territory makes no sense. We look for the stated mission or purpose. “Today unilateral-type submission and obedience of a wife toward her unbelieving husband, adorned by her addressing him as “master/lord,” generally fails to fulfill the mission statements within the Biblical text” (Edwards, 136; William Webb, 107). 3:8 Attitudes That Foster Unity 3:9-12 Behaviours That Counter Hateful Attacks REMEMBER AND APPLY “The act of adopting a common identity that supersedes all other identities is a daunting, even painful one. However, research shows that it is the key to true unity. It is consistent with Jesus’ teachings that the household of God is to take precedence over all other households… To embrace our identities in this new, common family, we must engage in the difficult process of lessening our grip on the identities that we have idolized and clung to for far too long. In many ways this process will jar our souls, wreaking havoc on the satisfyingly homogeneous existence in which we were rooted. At first, it will feel painfully unnatural because we have lived outside of our true identities for so long that truth seems wrong” (Christena Cleveland, Disunity in Christ, 2003, 190; Edwards, 148). Sources: Others, The NIV Application Commentary, By Scot McKnight; Anchor Biblical Commentary, John Elliott; IVP NT Commentary, I. Howard Marshall; Life Lessons, Max Lucado; Baker Exegetical Commentary on the NT, Karen H. Jobes; Daily Bibe Study Bible Series, William Barclay; NIV Biblical Commentary, Norman Hillyer; Believers Church Commentary, Erland Waltner; Story of God Bible Life Commentary, Dennis R. Edwards; Letters and Homilies for Helenized Christians, Ben Witherington III; NICNT, Peter Davids; Applications Commentary.