Sermon Tone Analysis

1 Peter 1:1-2

I’m not a fan of roller coasters.

From my point of view, it seems crazy and risky to ride them.

In recent years, however, I’ve slowly overcome this fear (or hesitation) by riding them as I have opportunity, including my most recent ride on the Sponge Bob Rock Bottom Plunge at Mall of America.

How did I gain this confidence?

By thinking objectively about the safety and security of doing so.

Though coasters may feel life-threatening and outrageous, millions of people get on and off them every year, happy and unharmed.

The National Safety Council (NSC) published an injury survey in 2013 which revealed that people face only a 1.5-in-a-million chance of being injured, and deaths are incredibly rare.

The same thing is true of following Christ.

When we follow him by faith, we – like him – will experience hardship and suffering as a result, hardship and suffering which we would not suffer if we chose to not follow him instead.

“To this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.”

(2 Pet 2:21)

Just as I look at a roller coaster, feeling afraid and hesitating to get on, do you feel the same about following Christ?

Are you discouraged by the unknown prospect of suffering, loss, or major life changes?

Afraid and overwhelmed by some particular form of suffering or trial that you are heading into or are in the middle of right now?

This letter, called 1 Peter, will help you conquer this fear, encouraging and equipping you to follow Christ’s steps into the future, knowing that no matter what loss or suffering you endure for his sake, you will triumph through that suffering and come out more fruitful and victorious than before.

As Peter opens this letter, he says some things which should immediately increase our sense of complete security in following Christ and should lay a foundation for everything else he will say later on.

Let’s take a look.

This letter is a message from Christ himself.

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ

Peter introduces himself as “an apostle of Jesus Christ.”

Apostle means a “sent one,” someone who was formally and officially sent by another person to do what that other person wanted them to do and to say what that other person wanted them to say.

We have no apostles today.

These were people who had both seen the resurrected Christ and been sent by him to provide foundational service and, in some cases, revelation for the church in that first century following Christ’s ascension back to heaven.

According to Eph 2:20, the church is a “household” that is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.”

So, these apostles relayed to us what Christ wanted them to say and we continue to repeat, teach, and apply today what they provided at the beginning.

When we read and study this letter, then, we are reading and studying the very message and truths which Christ intended for Peter to pass along to us.

Peter makes this very clear in his second letter, called 2 Peter.

“No prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”

(2 Pet 1:20-21)

As we go this this letter together, we must take what we learn as seriously as though Christ himself were speaking to us.

To the degree that I am able to explain and apply this letter accurately and faithfully, we will understand Christ’s purpose and teaching for our lives, and we must submit to him because he is both our master and savior.

Though Peter was the leader and spokesman of Christ’s original twelve disciples, an aggressive, bold, eager, and outspoken, he was not a natural-born spiritual hero.

In his earliest years (later teens/early college-age) of following Christ, he frequently forgot, spoke out, contradicted, or even attempted to correct what Christ would say.

In particular, Peter resisted Christ’s teaching about suffering.

Whenever Christ hinted or taught that people who followed him would suffer or that he would suffer, Peter often spoke up – forcefully at times – to deny or reverse this idea.

He didn’t want Christ to suffer because if Christ suffered, then he and Christ’s other followers would also suffer.

One notable example occurred in the upper room, as Christ observed his final Passover meal with the twelve disciples.

As Christ foretold his betrayal and crucifixion, he also foretold that Peter would turn away from following him and publicly deny him three times.

“The Lord said, ‘Simon, Simon!

Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.

But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren.’”

(Luke 22:31-32)

As we read this letter, we read the words of a man who had once resisted himself suffering for Christ.

We are also reading words from Christ himself, since Peter tells us what Christ wanted him to say, so we too can learn to follow Christ through any suffering.

This letter speaks to Christ’s chosen followers throughout the world.

To the chosen pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia

Now, we should notice that this letter was not only written by a “sent one” – someone whom Christ himself had called to write this letter, but it was written to “chosen” people, as well.

Just as Christ chose his original twelve disciples, so all of his followers throughout the centuries which have followed to this day have been chosen as well.

Knowing that you are chosen by God to follow Christ should not be the cause of endless argument and debate, nor should it be the cause a feeling of arrogance, elitism, or pride.

Just as a bride should feel the confidence and security of having been chosen by her husband, so we should feel the confidence and security of being chosen by God.

When we follow Christ and walk then suffering, we can feel as though we “got ourselves into this mess,” but we didn’t.

We suffer for Christ because we’ve been chosen to do so.

That God has chosen you should give you courage and confidence not to run from suffering but to persevere through it, instead.

Not only are those who follow Christ chosen by God, but they are chosen to be pilgrims, a word which describes people who are “temporary residents” in some place.

When we follow Christ, we should realize that we walk through this life for a brief and limited time.

The old gospel song, written by Jim Reeves in 1992, expresses this well:

“This world is not my home, I’m just a-passing through, my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue; the angels beckon me from heaven’s open door, and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.”

The original people to whom Peter wrote were followers of Christ who had been forced to uproot and move to places away from their homes and families, a change which had been caused by persecution and hardship of some kind due to following Christ.

Peter will later describe this hardship as a “fiery trial” (1 Pet 4:14).

Like these early followers of Christ, our lives may often require moving and change, sometimes of a dramatic nature.

We should be okay with this – especially because we know that we, like Christ and like Peter, have been specially and lovingly chosen by God.

In this beginning to his letter for us, Peter emphasizes the deliberate and intentional nature of God choosing us as followers of Christ who will suffer for him.

He does this by showing how all three members of the Godhead – the Father, Son, and Spirit – are involved in our conversion, or in bringing us to faith in Christ.

By explaining God’s role in choosing us this way, Peter makes it very clear that we did not walk into our relationship with Christ by accident or due to some fleeting moment of ill-advised curiosity or passion.

Of course, nothing Peter says here contradicts or discredits the genuineness of our own personal choice to follow Christ.

God does not force us to believe on Christ nor does he refuse to give others the same opportunity.

At the same time, no true follower of Christ has followed Christ because he chose to do so on his own.

His choice to follow Christ is both entirely genuine and the sure result of the special choice and activity of God.

There is nothing capricious or uncertain about becoming a follower of Christ.

God the Father had foreknown them.

Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father

First, Peter tells us that we become followers of Christ “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.”

This statement emphasizes the role of the first person of the Trinity, the Father.

Since he is called “Father,” we should recognize that he (a) provides, cares for, and protects us like a father does for his family – only far better, (b) loves us like a father loves his children – only far deeper, and (c) deserves our undying submission, obedience, and respect.

“According to foreknowledge” tells us that our decision to follow Christ (or our relationship with Christ by faith) is rooted (or more accurately begins with) something more ancient and timeless than our choice to do so.

It tells us that before you know Christ as our Lord and Savior, you were known by God the Father as his child.

Because God is sovereign, timeless, infinite, and eternal, he has always know you as his child and we cannot change what God has always and already known.

This word means more than mere prescience, which imagines God “peeking ahead” into the future to see who would follow Christ and responding to that decision ahead of time.

In Amos 3:2, God said to Israel:

“You only have I known of all the families of the earth.”

This word known does not mean “know about,” as though God didn’t know about any other nations or people groups in the world.

Known refers to a personal, special, relational knowledge.

While he knew about other nations, he only knew one of them – Israel – in a special, personal, and committed way.

That’s what foreknowledge means.

It means that God didn’t just “know about” you in distant eternity past, he knew you as a follower of Christ, as his child.

He has always known you this way.

Now that’s security for you.

God the Spirit had set them apart.

[Elect] in sanctification of the Spirit

In addition to God the Father’s longstanding, relationship knowledge of them, followers of Christ should also find confidence and security in knowing that God the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead sanctified them.

The word sanctify frequently refers to a process of behavioral, personal, and spiritual change which occurs to followers of Christ after they initially believe on him.

This happens as we live out our lives in reliance upon God, learning more about what his Word says, and conforming our lives to his will.

By doing so, we become more spiritually complete and mature in our mindset and lifestyle.

Here, however, sanctify refers specifically to the earliest moment of this process.

Here’s how it works.

At the moment we choose to turn away from our false religious beliefs and sinful lifestyle to place our full trust in Christ alone for forgiveness of sins and eternal life, we become a follower of Christ forever.

In that moment, something else is happening which you cannot see with your eyes.

The Holy Spirit of God is separating you from the multitudes of godless, unbelieving people and placing you in a new position and relationship with God.

He is placing you into God’s family, empowering you for godly living, and equipping and enlisting you for God’s service.