Chosen 1 Peter 1:1-2
1 Peter • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 12 viewsNotes
Transcript
I want to remind you of my Quiz bowl championship this morning.
While at College of the Ozarks, I was a part of the championship quiz bowl team.
I was asked by a friend to join their quiz bowl team because they needed one more person to join their quiz bowl team in order to compete they needed 5 people.
I became the 5th man.
I have never participated in a quiz bowl and I am not good with tv, movies, sports stars, or interesting useless facts.
I showed up because a friend needed me to participate. When I got there I learned that I had been drafted to the best quiz bowl team.
Why was it the best?
We had the campus librarian on our team. She was a reader and I was not. She knew everything.
Little did I know that when I was asked to participate in the quiz bowl that I had been picked or drafted to the best quiz bowl team.
This morning we start the book of 1 Peter. This morning flows very well with the last two weeks we have been meeting together. The first week we looked at life in the dessert and God’s plan in the dessert. We saw God’s faithfulness to the Israelites in the dessert. We noticed the complaining spirit of the Israelites and God’s faithfulness.
Last week, we looked at the story of Joseph and God’s faithfulness in Joseph’s life to accomplish God’s desire. God used Joseph to spare the Egyptians and God used the Egyptians to spare the Israelites. God is faithful.
God is faithful, God is faithful, God is faithful.
In an effort to be obedient to the Lord, we want to look at 1 Peter. I shared before Christmas that this is where we would go next and I am excited.
I want to again remind you the importance of reading the word of God and invite you to join me on reading the Bible this year. I am using the Bible project reading plan from youversion.
Life will be easier to interpret if you read your Bible more. Scripture will be hard to understand if you read your Bible less and pay attention to current events more.
Here is an introduction to the Book of 1 Peter from the Bible project.
(Play Video)
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ: To the temporary residents dispersed in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, chosen
2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and set apart by the Spirit for obedience and for sprinkling with the blood of Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
3 Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
Pray
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ: To the temporary residents dispersed in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, chosen
The word apostle was used occasionally before the New Testament and the general meaning of ‘messenger’.
Jesus gave this term a richer meaning when he designated the 12 of his disciples as apostles in
13 When daylight came, He summoned His disciples, and He chose 12 of them—He also named them apostles:
Peter opens that he is an apostle of Jesus Christ. Peter opens and reminds his audience that he is an apostle of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ: To the temporary residents dispersed in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, chosen
English Standard Version Chapter 1
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
Peter describes his audience to which he writes as
Elect exiles or temporary residents dispersed.
Elect: Persons Chosen by God
Peter’s readers would immediately recognize this as an Old Testament term that is used to refer to God’s chosen people.
I want to share a couple of these with you this morning
Exodus 3
The King of Egypt ordered that Hebrew boys were to die. God spared Moses when his mother put him in a basket and placed in the Nile and Pharaoh’s daughter found him.
Moses is chosen by God. Moses commits murder and flees. He meets his wife in exile and then the Lord choses Moses to deliver the Israelites from bondage
1 Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
2 Then the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire within a bush. As Moses looked, he saw that the bush was on fire but was not consumed.
3 So Moses thought: I must go over and look at this remarkable sight. Why isn’t the bush burning up?
4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called out to him from the bush, “Moses, Moses!” “Here I am,” he answered.
5 “Do not come closer,” He said. “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”
6 Then He continued, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.
7 Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of My people in Egypt, and have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I know about their sufferings.
8 I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey —the territory of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
9 The Israelites’ cry for help has come to Me, and I have also seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.
10 Therefore, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead My people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”
11 But Moses asked God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
12 He answered, “I will certainly be with you, and this will be the sign to you that I have sent you: when you bring the people out of Egypt, you will all worship God at this mountain.”
13 Then Moses asked God, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them: The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ what should I tell them?”
14 God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.”
15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the Israelites: Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever; this is how I am to be remembered in every generation.
King David is chosen by God
1 The Lord said to Samuel, “How long are you going to mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem because I have selected a king from his sons.”
2 Samuel asked, “How can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me!” The Lord answered, “Take a young cow with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’
3 Then invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will let you know what you are to do. You are to anoint for Me the one I indicate to you.”
4 Samuel did what the Lord directed and went to Bethlehem. When the elders of the town met him, they trembled and asked, “Do you come in peace?”
5 “In peace,” he replied. “I’ve come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
6 When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and said, “Certainly the Lord’s anointed one is here before Him.”
7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or his stature, because I have rejected him. Man does not see what the Lord sees, for man sees what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart.”
8 Jesse called Abinadab and presented him to Samuel. “The Lord hasn’t chosen this one either,” Samuel said.
9 Then Jesse presented Shammah, but Samuel said, “The Lord hasn’t chosen this one either.”
10 After Jesse presented seven of his sons to him, Samuel told Jesse, “The Lord hasn’t chosen any of these.”
11 Samuel asked him, “Are these all the sons you have?” “There is still the youngest,” he answered, “but right now he’s tending the sheep.” Samuel told Jesse, “Send for him. We won’t sit down to eat until he gets here.”
12 So Jesse sent for him. He had beautiful eyes and a healthy, handsome appearance. Then the Lord said, “Anoint him, for he is the one.”
13 So Samuel took the horn of oil, anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and the Spirit of the Lord took control of David from that day forward. Then Samuel set out and went to Ramah.
43 He brought His people out with rejoicing, His chosen ones with shouts of joy.
5 so that I may enjoy the prosperity of Your chosen ones, rejoice in the joy of Your nation, and boast about Your heritage.
Elect or chosen
English Standard Version Chapter 1
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
Exile: refers to a temporary resident in a foreign place
It is ‘those who reside as aliens’.
The idea here is temporary residence away from one’s homeland or sojourners.
This term is used in Hebrews the great heroes of the faith chapter.
13 These all died in faith without having received the promises, but they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth.
This is not speaking for where they are physically but in a spiritual sense.
We live in the United States of America and we are citizens of the United states of America.
Paul here says yes you are dispersed in the provinces but Spiritually speaking you are a sojourner on this Earth. You are a temporary resident for this Earth is not your ultimate citizenship but your citizenship is in heaven.
20 but our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is essential that you keep this in perspective today. If Jesus is the Lord of your life, then you are a temporary resident here.
1 Peter: An Introduction and Commentary 1. Salutation: Peter the Apostle to Sojourners in God’s Eternal Care (1:1–2)
Yet they are ‘chosen’ sojourners, ones whom the King of the universe has chosen to be his own people, to benefit from his protection, and to inhabit his heavenly kingdom.
2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and set apart by the Spirit for obedience and for sprinkling with the blood of Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
Not only are they chosen but they are chosen according to God’s foreknowledge
This refers to God knowing people with a personal, loving, fatherly knowledge.
That is according to God’s fatherly care for you before the world was made.
Everyone knew the Librarian was the best choice for the quiz bowl team. I think her team was the raining champions for like 10 years in a row or something.
They picked me up because they thought I would know sports answers. I think I answered one sports question maybe.
I was not picked because of foreknowledge.
You are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father
1 Peter: An Introduction and Commentary 1. Salutation: Peter the Apostle to Sojourners in God’s Eternal Care (1:1–2)
according to the foreknowledge of God the father’. This implies that their status as sojourners, their privileges as God’s chosen people, even their hostile environment in Pontus, Galatia, etc., were all known by God before the world began, all came about in accordance with his foreknowledge, and thus (we may conclude) all were in accordance with his fatherly love for his own people. Such foreknowledge is laden with comfort for Peter’s readers.
Their status was known by God and he chose them.
God is not shocked by your current status or the world in which you live. He chose you with his foreknowledge and this should bring great comfort.
The foreknowledge is past
set apart or Sanctification is present. This unseen, unheard activity of God’s Holy Spirit surrounds them like a spiritual atmosphere in which they live and breathe, turning every circumstance, every sorrow, every hardship into a tool for his patient sanctifying work.
obedience to Jesus Christ
as chosen sojourners in their native lands: their lives should be leading toward increasing obedience to Christ
Sprinkling with the blood
Sprinkled blood in the Old Testament was a visual reminder that life had been given, a sacrificed had been paid. It was usually applied to the alter or mercy seat.
1 Peter: An Introduction and Commentary 1. Salutation: Peter the Apostle to Sojourners in God’s Eternal Care (1:1–2)
In only three cases was blood ceremonially sprinkled on the people themselves: (1) in the covenant initiation ceremony at Mt. Sinai when Moses sprinkled half the blood from the sacrificial oxen on all the people (Exod. 24:5–8; Heb. 9:19; and perhaps Isa. 52:15 [Aquila, cf. Theodotian]); (2) in the ceremony of ordination for Aaron and his sons as priests (Exod. 29:21; probably also Heb. 10:22); and (3) in the purification ceremony for a leper who had been healed from leprosy
Sprinkling with blood for the purification from leprosy.
6 He is to take the live bird together with the cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop, and dip them all into the blood of the bird that was slaughtered over the fresh water.
7 He will then sprinkle the blood seven times on the one who is to be cleansed from the skin disease. He is to pronounce him clean and release the live bird over the open countryside.
7 Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
1 Peter: An Introduction and Commentary 1. Salutation: Peter the Apostle to Sojourners in God’s Eternal Care (1:1–2)
This ‘sprinkling with blood’ fits 1 Peter 1:2. Although God intended these ‘chosen sojourners’ to live ‘for obedience to Jesus Christ’, they were frequently ‘defiled’ by sin. Peter reminds them that their future includes continual sprinkling with the blood of Christ, that is, continual restoration of fellowship with God and his people through the sacrificial blood of Christ figuratively sprinkled over them, a continual reminder to God that their sins are forgiven and that they are welcome in God’s presence and among his people (cf. 1 John 1:7 for the idea of continual application of the blood of Christ in the Christian life).
Obedience and continual cleansing.
Be obedient daily and accept the forgiveness of God daily.
