Today we begin a journey through this wonderful letter of 1 Peter. It is a rich piece of Scripture that has valuable teaching that will be very helpful for us as we live out our lives as Christians in the world today. I think we’ll see just how much it applies to us as we get deeper and deeper into it.
These two verses contain what is probably the highest concentration of Christian doctrine in all of Scripture. He hits on election, omniscience, sovereignty, sanctification, the atonement, the Trinity, maybe ecclesiology (study of the church) and maybe even more.
It will take us some time to get through this letter, perhaps several months, as we get to know the man who wrote it, and go through his teachings about Jesus Christ and how a life in Christ sustains us and helps us and gives us hope in this life.
When someone encounters Jesus Christ, he or she is changed. Last week we talked about what it means that Christ is alive and not in the tomb. We celebrated the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Once you have an encounter with Jesus Christ and come to believe in Him, that He is the Son of God and that He went to the cross to pay for your sins and that He died a substitutionary death in your place, and that He was resurrected from the dead and is risen, your life is changed. Your eternal destination is changed and the way in which you view the world is changed. You begin to hate the things you used to love and you begin to love the things you used to hate. Now instead of chasing after sin, sin begins chasing after you. Your old self has passed away and you are a new creation.
We’re going to get to know a man who had a tremendous change of life as a result of His encounter with Jesus Christ. His name is Peter.
THE MAN
Peter’s name is mentioned well over 200 times in the New Testament; more than Paul and more than all the other apostles combined. He was one of the inner circle, the three who were closest to Jesus; Peter, James and John.
In all the passages in the New Testament that lists the apostles; in Matthew, Mark, Luke and Acts 1, Simon Peter’s name comes first in the list. His given name was Simon and he was renamed Peter by Jesus Christ, so he’s often referred to as Simon Peter. Simon is his Hebrew name, Peter is the Greek name given to him by Jesus and Cephas is the Aramaic name. Peter and Cephas both mean rock. Peter the rock! Petros!
But he wasn’t a rock right away, was he? Peter made many mistakes along the way and fell short of who he was in Christ many times. We are never who we are in Christ’s eyes right away. He knows us and knows what we will become. He knows what we will become in Him. He is patient and loving and leads us and brings us along to become the people He has ordained us to be. When He regenerates us, we are assured of being perfected in Him in the time to come, but in the mean time, we have some sanctifying to do! None of us is perfect in our present condition, but like Peter was, we are being perfected day by day in Christ.
Peter was a native of Bethsaida, a village on the northeastern tip of the Sea of Galilee. He was a Galilean. His father was named John or Jonas and his brother was Andrew. And they were all fishermen. Andrew first followed Jesus and introduced Peter to Jesus.
Sometime after his marriage, he moved to Capernaum where he lived with his wife and her mother. (Matthew 8)
Peter walked with Jesus during Jesus’ ministry. He watched Him do healings and miracles. And he is perhaps best known for his ‘fly-off-the-handle’ kind of behavior. He would say things and react to things without thinking. He was the first to step out of the boat onto the water in the middle of the sea to meet Jesus. He drew his sword and cut off the ear of the temple guard when they came to seize Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Along with James and John, he was with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration when Jesus met with Moses and Elijah. And Peter is perhaps best known for denying Jesus three times when Jesus was arrested on the night before His crucifixion.
Peter, who walked with the Son of God and saw the love and the power of Jesus, denied Him in Jesus darkest hour, and had to live with that as he watched Jesus be crucified. He must have felt like such a failure.
But then, we see a totally different Peter as we read this letter he sent to the believers in the regions listed.
Listen how Peter opens his letter: “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.” It wasn’t “Peter, a three-time denier of Jesus Christ”. It wasn’t “Peter, the one who acts without thinking”. It wasn’t “Peter, the ignorant fisherman and failed disciple”. No, he referred to himself as “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.” That is bold. That one sentence says so much about what Christ can do in our lives. Word certainly got around that he was the disciple who denied Jesus during those last few hours before the crucifixion, but he was a new man now. The Holy Spirit has gotten hold of him and he is a “sent out” one, and apostle.
That’s what we can expect too. Many of us have been failures in our lives. We have acted stupidly, made all kinds of mistakes. But God can take a broken, torn and tattered failure like us and turn us into something new and whole and useful and powerful for His work and for the kingdom. Isn’t that exciting? We may not be given an apostolic calling having such a great influence as Peter, but we have been saved and given gifts in order to accomplish God’s purposes here in our world.
This man who denied Jesus almost to His face, in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit comes, gets up and gives probably the most powerful and effective sermon of all times during Pentecost when 3000 souls were added to the kingdom.
What made the change? It wasn’t education because in Acts 4:13, we read that “Peter and John were uneducated, common men”. But they had been with Jesus and now the Spirit of Jesus is in him and upon him.
Not everybody who becomes a believer shows such a change. Personally, before God got a hold of me and called me to Himself and gave me a spirit of repentance and a new heart, I was a pretty good kid…on the outside…though inside I was a monster of iniquity in God’s eyes. But when I was saved, you wouldn’t necessarily see a drastic change.
I’ve known some people, maybe a few of you, who were changed immediately once you were saved. I’m reading to a class on Wednesday for Community Reading Day. It’s from the book “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand. It’s about Louis Zamperini. He was a WWII POW who became a lost cause due to alcohol and wild lifestyle, but when he was saved, everything changed at that very moment of his conversion.
THE LETTER
So that’s a very brief look at the man. Now let’s look at this letter that will be the focus of the sermon series for the next few months.
Peter, writes this letter to these five regions that are listed, Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia; which are all regions in what is modern day Turkey. It is believed to be an encyclical letter, which means it went from church to church. It would have been read to the believers in one region, then the next and so on. These are areas where the believers have been scattered. It’s believed he wrote this letter sometime around A.D. 60-68. Although no one is sure, it’s believed that he wrote it from Rome which he refers to as “Babylon” toward the end of the book.
He refers to the readers as the “exiles of the dispersion” (in my translation). Other translations use strangers scattered, aliens scattered, temporary residents, etc. All are good translations. Peter is reminding his readers that they are just passing through and where they currently are is not their home.
And we know this is true of ourselves as well. Do you realize that when we became believers in Jesus Christ and were saved by His sacrifice on the cross, everything changed. Not the least of which is our permanent home of record.
For those of you who were in the military, you were often asked, “What’s your permanent home of record?” If you were stationed in Japan or Greece or Iraq, you were not a citizen of that country, you were a temporary resident.
(Like military sleeping in the mud in Iraq – they know that home awaits them and that keeps them going.)
Well when we were saved, we were no longer citizens of this world. Our citizenship was purchased by Christ and now we are citizens of His heaven. That makes us exiles or temporary residents, strangers in this land. We are “other worldly”. Do you remember that term came up often during the sermon series in the Sermon on the Mount?
We have to remember that our permanent home is not here on this earth. Don’t you feel sort of like a stranger in this world? You should! If you’re truly saved and have been given a new heart, a heart that is designed to be in fellowship with God, then you should feel out of place in this present age. We shouldn’t fit in here. We should go against the grain. We are “other worldly” and a “counter culture” as Christians. This world’s system should be uncomfortable to us.
Not to say we can’t enjoy some things here, but we are not made for this place. Like you, I like a lot of things on this world. I like the food. I like the scenery. But I don’t like the worldview and the way the people live on this world.
So why does Peter refer to the readers as exiles or travelers? He is reminding them that they are not living their best life now. They are going through all kids of trials and persecutions and they have been displaced from the central location of their faith, Jerusalem. The exiles of the dispersion are anyone who is not in their religious center of Jerusalem. And we are exiles until we get home to the New Jerusalem---heaven!
The main purpose of this letter of 1 Peter is to encourage the believers, the Christians, to stand fast in their faith and to trust in God, and to persevere because they will one day get home to heaven. The readers of the apostle Peter’s letter were confused and discouraged by the persecution they were encountering because of their faith.
Perhaps this is why I’ve been led to preach from 1 Peter. Maybe we need encouragement and exhortation to stand fast these days because our world is falling apart around us. Maybe we’re feeling confused and discouraged as we live out our faith in this world.
We may not be facing severe persecution yet, but we Christians are certainly being marginalized and even ridiculed and it’s getting worse and worse. The trend is towards greater persecution, not less.
And not only does Peter refer to them as exiles, or strangers, or travelers, but he also calls them “elect” exiles. I don’t know how Peter can get so much doctrine in so few words, but he does it here.
Believers in Jesus Christ are known as “the elect”. Believers were believers because they, and we, individually, have been chosen by God to be His people and to show the world the love of God in Christ Jesus.
We have been sovereignly chosen by God to be His elect people, for His own possession out of all the people on the face of the earth. In 1:16 (which we’ll see in a few weeks), we are to be holy, for He is holy. We are separated for holiness from an unholy world to be a witness for God.
Election is a highly debated doctrine in Christian theology, but no one can get around verses like this one or 1 Peter 2:9 or 2 Timothy 2:10 or Ephesians 1:4, or many other passages, even back in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 7:6) that talk about election or being “chosen”. Peter is reminding the readers that they are God’s chosen ones and that their home is not where they are residing, but in heaven with God.
As we grow in our faith and in our likeness to Christ, we grow more discontent and even disgusted with the ways of this world. I hadn’t thought about it that way until I began reflecting on this passage that it’s a good sign that we are so fed up with the way the world is going. It shows that we are distancing ourselves from this world and drawing nearer to Christ. But we always have to remember that God is sovereign and always in control and we need to trust Him.
If you are living comfortably in this world and enjoying the ride and aren’t feeling any friction or unease, then there may be a question about your salvation. Or else you are so far backslidden that you need to straighten up and get right with God again soon!
We are elected, or chosen by God for a purpose. We are to live in this world and be a light that shines in the darkness. “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works and glorify your God who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16). We show the world that there is a loving God who is reaching out to them. “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” (John 15:8) We don’t know who the elect are, so we broadcast God’s message, showing love and sharing His gospel to all, and trust that His elect will hear and respond. Are we doing that?
Peter continues his greeting: His readers are elect exiles of the dispersion according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. He reminds his readers that God knows beforehand who He will chose. That they are chosen before the foundation of time to be His people. And all that happens to them…and to us…is known by God and is not a surprise to Him.
I don’t know about you, but I find a tremendous amount of comfort knowing that nothing that happens in my life is a surprise to God. He is omniscient and sovereign. He is a God of order and not confusion.
(I’m zipping through these really quick. There is a fine balance when doing a series. You don’t want to get so deep that you get lost in the forest. If we were doing an evening service or a Bible study, we could get a little deeper. I could, maybe should to a sermon on God’s foreknowledge, then His Sanctification, then obedience and the trinity.)
In the sanctification of the Spirit, we see the close cooperation between the Father and the Spirit here. The Father chooses or elects the people, the Holy Spirit sanctifies them…us...to bring us to obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood (a term relating to the forgiveness of sins taken from the Old Testament).
So Peter is even bringing light to the doctrine of the Trinity here. Father, Sprit, Jesus Christ.
He ends the greeting with this short prayer of blessing: “May grace and peace be multiplied to you.” Grace is God’s loving, unearned favor towards sinners in Christ.
I found probably the best definition of peace that I’ve come across so far. Peace is the condition of the heart when grace has done its work. Nobody can have true peace until we have been touched by God’s grace. And conversely, nobody can be without peace in their heart if they have been touched by God’s grace. So Peter prays that the grace and peace be multiplied to them. Great prayer he prays for the people. Isn’t that really all we need? God’s grace and peace in our hearts? What more is really necessary? If you know Christ and if He knows you, then claim it. Grab hold of the peace that comes as a result of His grace. It’s ours to claim. He has given it to us.
