1 Peter 1 Chapel Series
Notes
Transcript
Year Theme is “All in” (Mark 12:30)
Year Theme is “All in” (Mark 12:30)
Intro
Intro
*Introduce myself for those that don’t know me*
*Ask about everybody’s Christmas and New Year*
I am going to be going through 1 Peter with them for a few weeks. We are doing this because this is the best way for us to study scripture is to pick a book and go.
Background Info
anytime we want to study scripture we need to know who is writing and who it is written to. The apostle Peter who walked with Jesus and talked with Him and as you have more than likely heard the story of Peter denying Jesus three times the night Jesus was taken to be crucified wrote this book. We don’t know for sure who he was writing to but it was for certain other Christians with differing backgrounds. They came to know Jesus from different situations. Dispersion. Written to Christians to encourage them to keep pushing in the faith
The main theme of the book is hope in Jesus
Important Events: Nero’s city fires blamed on the Jews, the Roman gov’t realized Christianity isn’t a part of Judaism so they view it as a threat
*read the passage and pray*
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.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Run the Race With Hope
Run the Race With Hope
Peter starts with his greeting but then wastes no time jumping into his topic which is the Living Hope we have in Christ
Do you all know what hope is?
The word hope is similar to the word expectation, but it implies a desire for something to happen.
You hoped you got a new Xbox for Christmas; you hope someone falls when they lean back in their chair too far; you hope no one sees you when playing hide and seek
Hope can be a really exciting emotion to feel as you feel anticipation or suspense leading up to what you hope for
But have you ever had someone tell you not to get your hopes up about something?
You hate it because it feels like a let down and it feels discouraging
But the hope Peter is talking about is different than the hope we feel on a daily basis
This hope is filled with excitement and a security in something so sure and so true that many have laid down their lives for it
This hope is placed in the future of all those who place their faith and trust in Jesus Christ
It is hope that we will be given eternity with Jesus and an inheritance as verse 4 describes to be “imperishable, undefiled (untampered with), unfading, and kept in heaven for you.”
Something I want to add too is that we don’t just get eternity when we die. We are with Jesus, Himself. Our Creator, the whom we were always meant to be with.
And this is a promise we CAN and SHOULD get our hopes up for
Because God has not only promised all believers eternity, but through His power, Peter (through the guidance of the Holy Spirit) says that we are protected by Him until we join Him in Heaven
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 1:13-14 also tells us that when we are saved, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit, and this Spirit is the gurantee of our inheritance as His children until we are with Him, our Heavenly Father. (Illustration?)
This book was written by Peter to be an encouragement to the Christians as they press through this life.
Likewise Paul encourages believers in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 telling his audience that we are all running a race and it is not a race that should be ran aimlessly or without purpose
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
We are running to achieve an imperishable wreath, and we should hope that we will obtain it.
Transition: But it is not a race without obstacles
Our Faith Will be Tested
Our Faith Will be Tested
The season of life you all are in, is a time where you are making your faith your own. It is no longer your parents faith, but yours. Our Faith Will be Tested
Peter warns his audience in verses 6-7 that they will face trails. In this context though, these Christians were being hunted and killed for their faith.
The Roman emperor of the time was a man named Nero who is believed to have set the city in which he lived on fire which burned for 9 days straight, and it was all so he could build a bigger palace. This man did many MANY more heinous acts that I cannot talk about from the stage, but this was the man that was torturing and killing Christians.
We are blessed to not have to suffer these kind of trials and persecution, but we do still have trials.
We live in a world that is hostile to those that call themselves Christians. John 15:19
If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
But God uses these trials for a couple of reasons
The first reason we see here in verse 7 is that He uses it to prove our faith true
Peter compares the testing of our faith to the firing of gold in a furnace.
When it’s fired and heated up to these insane levels of heat, it doesn’t turn into something else, it’s still gold, it’s still this precious metal
Likewise, our faith when tried is not going to turn into something else. The one who truly knows Christ is going to cling to Him alone and trust in His power and control over the situation. True believers don’t just fall away. It may seem like they do because many walk away from the faith, but I would argue that they never hard it to begin with
But you guys also know that we don’t just pull 14k chains from the earth right?
When we harvest gold from the earth it’s mixed in with other gems, minerals, and rocks. So you fire it in the furnace, and when you do this the gold becomes liquid and all of the other stuff or impurities you don’t want rise to the top so you can scoop it out.
God is doing that with us. He is using trials to develop our character and purge out those impurities
James, the half brother of Jesus supports this thought when he writes in James 1:2-3
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
The Lord is using these trials to refine us and to help us to develop righteousness. We’re are all on a path of growth and development, and it’ll stay that way until the day we leave this world
Though we do not physically see Jesus with our own eyes yet, we have a hope and a love that we are striving for, and it is because of this hope that we embrace hardship
It is because of this hope that we can have joy inexpressable in the midst of the most extreme persecution!
Conclusion
Conclusion
Story: When I was much younger in my faith and attending the College Ministry here at Grace, I was confused one time after the lesson because I didn’t know where we went when we died, meaning do we go to be with Jesus in Heaven, do we kinda sleep until Jesus returns and we’re brought to the new creation. I went to ask the college pastor, maybe some of you know him, Pastor Mike Floyd what’s the end goal for us. Is it for us to be in Heaven or the New Creation, and he responded, “Jesus is the end goal.” I said “what?!” thinking he misunderstood my question. I said, “No, Mike, what’s the end goal for us like where do we end up, heaven or new creation? He said, “Jesus is the end goal.” at the time that made me so frustrated, but sometime later after thinking about it and maturing so much more in my faith, I started to realize that Jesus truly is the end goal of our faith.
He is what we are all striving for, and pushing towards. He is who we are suffering for, and it is with Him that we will spend eternity.
I know this year’s theme is being All In, so I ask you are you all in on Jesus? Is all of your hope placed in Him because you can’t get your hopes to high for what He has promised us? Are you clinging to Jesus in the midst of hardships and giving it to Him?
Gospel: There are some folks in this room who have not given their hearts to Jesus, who have not placed their trust in Him. I promise you, you can trust Him and be all in on placing your hope in Him. If that’s something you have questions about or a tug at your heart to do, find a teacher or even myself and let’s talk about that. He won’t leave you or forsake once He’s got you, and when those storms come, those trees shake, and that wind blows, He will be your solid ground.
Parent Engagement questions:
What is hope?
What are some hard things you’ve had to endure?
