Peter…
1. Peter was an Old Testament Jewish guy transformed by revelation of God.
2. Peter was an eyewitness of God in the flesh and then Christ in the Word.
3. Peter was one of the first of the “New Men” and one of the most influential.
This letter is so profound almost every word in this first chapter is packed with meaning and depth. We aren’t going to get past the first two verses, but I hope this introduction will prepare you to receive the word of God
Everybody likes a photo album. Let’s examine Peter, and look through a few of his snapshots like a picture album:
Simon means: “Hears” “He who hears”
Andrew, his brother, met Jesus of Nazareth through John the Baptist when he said, “Look, the Lamb of God.” (John’s Gospel) Andrew went and got his brother: “Bro! We have found the Christ of God.” Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon, son of Jonah, you shall be called Cephas.”
Jesus gave Simon a new name: Peter – rocky, stone
Reading between the lines a little: Andrew says, “…we have found” He was looking. He got his brother > they were looking. What were they looking for? Simon must have been exited, skeptical. Did he know all the prophetic sayings of who Christ would be and what were His credentials? Or did he just know that Messiah, the savior, the Prophet would be a miracle worker.
(Luke 4: 38) Jesus healed Simon’s mother-in-law, then everybody else until the end of the day. He heard him teach: Chapter 5: 4, then the miraculous catch. Look at Peter’s response: ‘Depart from me, I am a sinful man.’ Jesus casts the vision: “Come on, I’ll make you a fisher of men!” Peter dropped his nets. (Then water turned to wine…) It must have been wild! Peter had both feet in, and on the ground floor.
Then 3 years of jaw dropping adventure and amazement. The miracles, the ministry, the intimacy, the mastery of Jesus over men and nature. Multiplication of bread, Mount of Transfiguration, Lazarus; the Triumphal Entry. Then the Passover; the garden, Malchus’ ear and confusion, crucifixion, the empty tomb.
An Apostle… One who is sent/ On a mission.
Not the bumbling, foot-in-mouth disease, failure-guy who sold out his messiah, anymore. That guy, the Old Testament guy had his formulated ideas and agenda. This is Peter: Rock; New Testament eyewitness – now leader of the Called of God, the Church… transformed by the overflowing indwelling of God the Holy Spirit. He preached an awesome sermon and 3,000 became believers and were baptized.
30 + years later – now the Church was spreading and with trouble inside – persecution outside. Same miraculous, but now the whole world is turned upside down and all the nations are coming under the cross.
Acts 4:13 – “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.”
To the Pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia (Sojourners scattered). Some of these regions are places Paul was thwarted by the Holy Spirit when he attempted to visit there, but now there are churches in Asia Minor. Different peoples, different languages, one Body.
This letter is likely before 70 AD, the church in Jerusalem, of which actually James was the leader, scattered by pressure from the Temple, the Capital, and famine. Peter probably is in Rome. Paul had possibly been killed by Nero, and is the possible reason for the letter.
What empathy. What gravity and truth is immersed in this letter. What depth of reasoning and powerful effect is here.Peter the Apostle represents assurance/comfort/authority – He is Peter, rock.
elect…
Peter, New Testament guy, calls an anxious, fearful church, mixed with Jews and Gentiles – Elect of God – certainly an Old Testament concept. Was he writing to Jewish believers? Or both?
I think one of the saddest places in the Scriptures is John’s Gospel Chapter 1: 11 “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.” When He came and showed all the signs that He was the promise that was given to Abraham, Moses, and David, the more signs He did in fulfillment, the more He was rejected: as foretold.
“Let his blood be on us and on our children” they cried out… (Matthew 27:25)
Chosen according to the foreknowledge (prognosis) of God the Father…
God knows how to pick winners. God sees the heart.
1 Samuel 16:7 “But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
Peter is just a man: (chapter 1, verse 24-25) Daring to, desiring of, dreaming of glory with the Messiah… but aware of his own humanity (depart from me, for I am a sinful man…) Now his goal is to glorify God. Still a man, but a “New Man” > Chosen.
“What sort of freak (chimera) then is man! How novel, how monstrous, how chaotic, how paradoxical, how prodigious! Judge of all things, feeble earthworm, repository of truth, sink of doubt and error, glory and refuse of the universe!” Who will unravel this tangle? Nature confutes the sceptics, and reason confutes the dogmatists. What, then, will you become, O men! who try to find out by your natural reason what is your true condition? You cannot avoid one of these sects, nor adhere to one of them. Know then, proud man, what a paradox you are to yourself. Humble yourself, weak reason; be silent, foolish nature; learn that man infinitely transcends man, and learn from your Master your true condition, of which you are ignorant. Hear God. Blaise Pascal, Pensees section vii, #434
I know I’m just a man…
Psalm 33: 13 “The LORD looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually;
He considers all their works.”
1. You and I are transformed by revelation of God.
In sanctification of the Holy Spirit… (Sanctifying work of the Spirit)
The Holy Spirit doing the work that we can’t do ourselves. The Holy Spirit of God is not only in the Holy-of-Holies anymore but had made human repositories where he could dwell. Not only meeting with a priest once a year in ritual.
Hebrews 9:9 – 14 “…But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
2. You and I are transformed by Christ in the Word.
For obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ…
Obedience and sprinkling. Peter making a direct reference to Mount Sinai when the people of Israel pledged their obedience:
Exodus 24: 3 – 11 – And he rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel.Then he sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the LORD. And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the LORD has said we will do, and be obedient.” And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you according to all these words.”
If you’ve been chosen by the Father’s all-knowing, sanctified by the Spirit, and sprinkled by the blood of Jesus, then your part is obedience… and willingness.
1 John 5:1 – 3 “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.”
3. You and I are “New Men”, and influential by obedience.
Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
The rest of the letter is preparation for suffering. Peter anticipating his, and helping the people to embrace theirs. Both letters of Peter are a great place to review and meditate on with the uncertainty that we face at the beginning of the 21st century.
Questions:
1. How has the revelation of God transformed you?
2. What does it mean to be an eyewitness of Christ in the Word?
3. What name (reputation, character) does God want to give you?
4. What signs are you looking for, as you anticipate the Lord’s return?
5. In what way should your life in Christ be an adventure?
6. How do people perceive that you have been with God?
7.How would it change your life to walk with God as a “winner”?
8. Where do you connect with the Spirit for Him to sanctify you?
9.What does it mean to be obedient and sprinkled with the blood of
Christ?
