One Foot In Heaven, One On Earth Series

One Foot in Heaven, One on Earth

1 Peter 1:1-2

• As Jesus’ disciples, we live in two worlds.

• One of those worlds is characterized by foolishness, incredulity, darkness, despair, and evil, and leads to hell.

• The other is filled with wisdom, belief, light, hope and good, and it leads to heaven.

• One foot in heaven, so to speak, and one foot on earth.

• Since we must, at least for a time, live in both worlds simultaneously, it leads to all kinds of problems that have no easy answers.

• What we’re going to cover over the next few months in 1 Peter is that finding a lasting solution to those problems begins with answering two questions:

1. Which world is my true home?

2. How did I become a citizen of that world?

• We’ll start this week by answering both those questions this morning.

• But first, let’s take just a few moments to consider the context of Peter’s letter that we’ll be studying.

• I’ll be brief here because we have so much to cover this morning.

• Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 1 and follow along as I read the first two verses:

(1 Peter 1:1-2 ESV) Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you. (Prayer)

• We can see that the writer claims that the author is Peter.

• There is relatively little debate that Peter actually wrote this letter.

• What little doubt there is generally arises due to the classical style of Greek employed in the letter which some claim would not come from an “unlearned” fisherman.

• There is far more evidence to support his authorship.

• Peter identifies himself as “an apostle of Christ”.

• As we’ve discussed before, the word “apostle” is used in the New Testament in two different ways; in the general sense, and in the specific sense.

• The word “apostle” means “one who is sent”,

• it sometimes describes the responsibility of every disciple of Jesus to be His ambassador here on earth and share the gospel with others.

• So certainly, Peter was an apostle in that sense.

• But the word “apostle” was also used to describe an authoritative office in the New Testament church.

• Only the 11 who had been with Jesus, some say add Matthias, who was chosen to replace Judas, and for sure Paul, held that position for the Gentiles.

• The qualifications of an apostle are, you had to see Jesus, be called by Jesus, and be able to perform miracles like Jesus.

• That disqualifies any who would claim the office of Apostle today.

• It is likely that Peter is using the term in that sense here.

• This is a serious book, and he wanted the readers to take it seriously.

• This letter was probably written around 65 AD during a time of tremendous persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire.

• The Roman Emperor, Nero, had set the city of Rome on fire, and then blamed it on the Christians.

• They were already hated because of their association with the Jews and because they were considered to be hostile to the Roman pagan culture,

• So, it’s not surprising that vicious persecution of Christians spread throughout the Roman Empire.

• There are many parallels to our world today.

• The details and the reasons for the persecution may be different.

• Nonetheless, the attack on Christianity is present and growing today.

• That is why it is so appropriate and relevant for us to study this letter.

• Peter and his audience, like us, lived in a culture which was literally on its way to hell because of its love for this world and its rejection of God’s kingdom.

• So, there is much for us to learn from his letter about how to live for heaven during that kind of culture on earth.

• In just these two verses, Peter clearly lays out the two worlds in which we live as disciples of Jesus.

• Paul calls the people the “elect”, signifying their heavenly Kingdom.

• He calls them “Exiles of the Dispersion”, pointing to their earthly existence.

• In the Old Testament, The Exiles of the Dispersion, or Diaspora, were those who were taken away from Israel into the captive lands to work as servants.

• Remember Daniel was one of the young men taken to Babylon. (Daniel 1).

• Nehemiah was a Cupbearer of King Artaxerxes as part of the Diaspora, but returned to rebuild the wall.