Living Hopeful - Sermon Series - 1 Peter

Introduction (What we have learned so far)

Christians live a life of hope in this world, rooted in the truth of the resurrection of Jesus and his promised coming again, to bring us home to God’s glory.

We discover the blessing of grace and the meaning of a life lived in faith with its grand and glorious promise and assured inheritance.

Because of the new birth experience, we are adopted into the family of God, set into a community of loving and holy priests, who share in the worship and praise of God, and have been chosen by God to be his people to glorify Him.

(Slide) Living Hopeful in A Community of Believers - Our Setting

We as this community of believers reflect his holiness in our lives, we sincerely love one another, and live to serve him in the priesthood of believers.

Here is where I serve best with you with those who are his church and people.

This is were I feel safest and see the wonderful riches of his grace expressed in the fellowship of the table.

Here with you is where my faith is strongest, is strengthened, and is satisfied.

No matter how bad, sinful, cruel, or defiant the world becomes against God. I can trust and find acceptance with those of you to whom--I am built up into this spiritual house as we each are living stones joined together. For by God’s power we are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

(Slide) Living Hopeful in A Community of Believers Setting

English Standard Version (1 Pet. 1:3)

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

English Standard Version (1 Pet. 1:4)

4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,

English Standard Version (1 Pet. 1:5)

5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

English Standard Version (1 Pet. 1:13-15)

13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

English Standard Version (1 Pet. 1:9-10)

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

(Slide)Living Hopeful In Pagan World 1 Peter 2:11 - 3:12

(Slide)

1 Peter 2:11 - 12 (ESV)

11 Beloved (agapetos - brethren, believers one of another, to love one another as Christ loved God) I urge you as sojourners and exiles (in the same way the Abraham was a sojourner and foreigner ((Eph 2:19; Heb 11:13)) in a land not his own) abstain ( to hold off from; to keep your distance as a ship from the shore because of the shallow seas, the rocks, and the waves) from the passions (the desire, lust, sinfulness in ones desires for unlawful objects for the reason of gain.) of the flesh (“having the nature of flesh,” i.e., sensuality, controlled by animal appetites, governed by human nature, instead of by the Spirit of God,) which wage war (serving as a soldier in a spiritual war) against your soul (the spiritual side of you, your existence before God). 12 (you have the means too:) Keep your conduct (your living, your conduct, your behavior, your conversation) among the Gentiles (Gentiles, pagans, the non-Jews or in this case non-believers) honorable, (kalos - fair, beautiful, fair in appearance) so that when they speak against you as evildoers (they accuse you of being workers of evil; trying to gaslight you), they may see your good (kalos - fair in appearance, beautiful,) deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

(Slide)Living Hopeful in the Worldly Environment

(Slide) Being a Christian in a non-Christian World

We as Christians live and contend with many unbelieving forces in a non-Christian world. We must live lives of a beautiful spiritual character that can be recognized for its godly nature, even by non-Christians.”

The believers living in Asia Minor of whom Peter writes, live in an extreme politically unstable situation. Multiple battles have been fought in these places.

Greeks vs Romans, Local people against Greeks, Romans, Persians, Gauls, Diaspora Jews.

Military rule and justice would be harsh and deadly.

Constant governmental changes. New laws, new regulations, taxes constantly being assessed, cities changing names, and the list goes on.

Religious superstition, a multiplicity of gods, beliefs, rituals, sacrifices from animals to people. Greek and Roman capricious gods, idolatry, paganism, etc.

Infant mortality rate was high, in Roman families a mother or her servant maids took care of meals, cleaning the house, bearing children, educating children to ages of 12 to 14, etc. (That’s not to say that occasionally women didn’t hold a public office, or lead a community civic or political organization. Women did serve as priestesses and serve in other such roles.

We see in Paul’s travels through Asia Minor that many women of high standing among the Greeks came to believe and many women of high standing would become part of the antagonism toward the believers.

I say all that to say this; During the early days of Christianity and the growing Christian church it was difficult to be a Christian and not face suffering, persecution, harsh treatment, being despised or shut-out from your community for your faith and practices.

The world of the Christians in Asia Minor, Palestine, Roman Provinces, and Hellenistic cultures are a very different world than the world which you and I live.

(Slide)We live in a different time and it’s not always easy to differentiate the cultures and norms of the past, in different parts of the world, and with different governments and such.

How do we correctly apply and understand scripture in our time, in our culture, and in our current social interactions with an unbelieving world?

We know that God’s moral goodness does not change.

Malachi 3:6 “I the Lord do not change.”

1 Pet. 1:24-25 “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

We do have to be wise and discerning in our understanding of scripture and what God is calling us to do in our culture and in our time. The word of God is relevant in every age, in every time, and in every place. That is part of its enduring quality.

Scripture, most especially in our conduct, actions, relationships, and social interactions have the same overall purpose but might be practiced or accomplished differently according to the culture and the times.

The Jews in regard to the letter of the law kept it strictly. At times they built hedges around the law in order to legalistically keep from breaking the law, but they failed to understand the precepts and the spirit of the law.

Peter does not mention a modern Christian’s responsibility for social or political change, but that doesn’t mean a Christian doesn’t have that ministry or responsibility as long as one understands the spirit of what is intended and lived out in whatever particular situation and circumstance one might exist.

Peter does not directly talk about evangelism and missions in 1 Peter. They are implied, but not directly discussed, but that doesn’t mean that we are not to be evangelistic or mission minded.

(Slide)So as we take a look at these particular social relationships Peter is discussing.

1. Be Honoring (in Christ) to Human Authorities - 2:13-17

2. Be Honoring (in Christ) to Your Human Employers (Masters) - 2:18-25

3. Wives Be Honoring (in Christ) to your Husbands - 3:1-6

4. Husbands Be Honoring (in Christ) to your Wives - 3:7

5. Everyone Be Honoring (in Christ) of Everyone - 3:8-9

(Slide) What I must realize as I study these social interactions in the world today:

Peter is talking about your conduct, you, your spirituality, not what you think somebody else should be and do. We don’t live by the faith of somebody else. We aren’t saved by grace through the faith of another person, I am gifted grace through the faith I have in Jesus Christ.

Debby doesn’t need me to tell her and point out to her every time I think she is not being the gentle and quiet spirit Peter intended in 1 Pet. 3:4. Debby’s faith grows by her seeing, learning, and living the kind of life God intended for her through her faith.

If I break this down as a set of rules and regulations through which I force on other Christians, it becomes a burden about works-based righteous, rather than faith-based righteousness.

We are discussing cultures that are different from ours. Sin is sin, but moral issues are not always about what’s absolutely wrong and absolutely right. It is more about what is right for that time, that circumstance, and how application or godliness is most achieved in a world in which we are strangers and aliens.

The exact social circumstance may not apply to us in a current culture. How might I use the examples in 1 Peter to a similar or like situations in my time? The servant/master relationship to the employee/employer relationship.

We must be careful that we don’t create something more strict and binding than what is actually there. That’s hedge building.

Jesus said this to the teachers of the law and Pharisees in Matt. 23:13-14  “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.  “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.”

We must first approach these social interactions in the same way that Jesus relates and encourages us. -Grace First-

(Slide)Conclusion: The Woman Caught in Adultery - John 8:1-11