Wayfaring Strangers A Study Of 1 Peter , Part 1 Introduction

Wayfaring Strangers

A study of 1 Peter

Part 1

1 Peter 1:1-2, 6 John 16:33

Introduction

How many of you have been somewhere in your life?

Where you just did not feel comfortable

You did not feel that you belonged there?

Maybe it was a place, a bad situation maybe even a relationship

Maybe it was just that what ever was going on was not what you were into

I can tell you there have been many times in my life

Where I have found myself in this type of situation

I remember a few years ago

Several thousand miles from here

Standing outside

Looking at the Zambian sunset

Surrounded by friends who were there for the same reason I was

Surrounded by almost 2 million citizens of Lusaka

And feeling so alone

Why

Because

I was in a strange land

I did not understand the language

The culture

The customs

Quite frankly

As Deets asked Captain Call

When the rode into Wyoming

“Captain, why are we here- this ain’t our country”

As I stood in Lusaka

Waiting to head out to Chong Whey village

I felt like a wayfaring stranger

A foreigner in a strange land

An alien- not a monster from outer space

Although they did call me “the moon man” in Zambia

But someone who did not belong

This is where I want to go today as we begin a series on the book of 1 Peter

Today we are beginning a journey through I Peter titled” wayfaring strangers”

I encourage you put in a book mark, the little ribbon that comes with your bibles or whatever you use to mark your place

Because we’re going to be here for several months.

We’re going to go through this epistle verse-by-verse so that we can discover what God is saying to us today.

I also encourage you to read and study this little book in your own quiet times

It is my desire to teach you to become students of scripture

Not just readers or listeners of scripture

But it is also my goal to get each of you to be livers of scripture

1 Peter

It’s short

Only 5 chapters

Only 5 pages in a non-study bible

Only 105 verses

I Peter can easily be read in less than an hour by most people and if you are a slow reader

Certainty in a few hours.

I challenge you to read this great book for yourself

Think about it

Study it

And apply it to your life

If you do that

I can promise that you will get much more from this series

Than if you just show up here on Sunday and wait for me to tell you what it says

A Question that is often asked Whenever we start a new series through a book

Is why this book? “why I Peter and not any of the 65 other books in the Bible?”.

Here’s my answer:

We are going through I Peter because it is

Short

It is simple,

and it speaks to us today in this world

Right where we live

Peter wrote to scattered believers Jews and Gentiles to encourage them to live for Christ in a hostile world.

It is both a message of encouragement ---Hold tight- stay hooked

Don’t go back to the gate

And it is a warning that the Christian life is not and will not be easy

And a promise that obedience will be rewarded

In short

It will be hard

But it will be worth it

As I think about our own congregation

As a church, we’re no longer a truly local congregation.

We have members and visitors from Tyler to Emory

From Terrell to Big Sandy

Think about this

In the old days

Most people went to church inn the community that they lived in

Many living within just a few miles of the church

And those people interacted with their church family on a regular basis

In many aspects of life

Work

School

Shopping

Day to day life

That’s no longer true. Today we are a regional church with a congregation drawn from many different towns, cities and communities

Sometimes if you are not going to a church or a church -related event

You can go the whole week without ever seeing another person from Caney Creek

And because of this it’s easy to feel alone and disconnected.

So now simply take that situation and stretch it out to cover hundreds of miles, place it in ancient Asia Minor,

Turn the clock back to the first century

Add the hostile feelings from the non-believing world

Families

Friends

Acquaintances

Co workers

The Romans

The Jews

The pagans

And you can begin to place yourself in the shoes and lives of those who Peter originally wrote to