In this sermon, Pastor Tim opens our new series in the Book of 1 Peter be tracing the story of Peter through the New Testament and his greeting to the church of grace and peace in abundance!
OK, I want to read 1 Peter 1:1-2
- Let’s dive in… grab your bibles… you will find this Book towards the end of the NT
- Basically you get the 4 accounts of Jesus’ life, then the story of the early church in the Book of Acts…
- Then all of Paul’s letters to the early church, Hebrews, James and then Peter’s letters…
- So… let’s go!
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, 2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
Well, I really think this is going to be a great series… we are going to particularly focus in on the first 2 chapters
- And this is a letter from Peter whom we know so well from the gospels and the Book of Acts.
- We will get to his story in a second, but we are told at the beginning that it is from Peter and then at the end that Silas helped him write it too.
- The purpose being that they may “stand fast in the grace of God.”
- And we are told it was written to the exiles scattered through the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.
- This phrase exiles will come up again….
- But basically Peter saw those who belonged to Jesus as belonging to another kingdom…
- So they are currently living in those cities under Roman, or worldly rule… but their true citizenship is with King Jesus.
And I think that idea of God’s elect being exiles is really pertinent to the times that we live in now.
- Active, professing Christians who are trying to faithfully follow Christ and his Way…
- Because we are not the majority of Sydney…
- Indeed we find ourselves in a pretty similar situation to the first Christians…
- Maybe not facing the strenuous persecution that we will look at in coming weeks of the early church…
- But we definitely find ourselves as outsiders… swimming against the tide…
- Our obedience to Christ as it says in verse 2… means there is an unease.
- We are in this world, but no longer of this world…
There is a great CS Lewis quote in Mere Christianity where he says…
- “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”
- Well that is what the early Christians experienced…
- They were exiles because the world they found themselves in could no longer satisfy their new desires for Jesus, for holiness and for heaven!
- Maybe you sense that disorientation… as you have come to follow Jesus.
- As much as you love talking about property, schools and overseas holidays…
- Actually you are more interested now in the plight of the poor or the trafficked…
- As much as you love a good red wine, you are actually more interested in your friends knowing Jesus and living in the kingdom of light?
So that was who Peter was writing to… probably around the year 62 AD… with the persecution by Nero just beginning…
- You know the one… while Rome burned Nero played the fiddle… well anyhow, finding an easy scapegoat, he blamed Christians and started persecuting this new community.
- And these early Christians of course were surrounded with the immorality of pagan culture
- Where women had no value, slaves were treated like objects, foreigners were completely ostracized
- And contemporary pagan temple worship involved sleeping with prostitutes and trying to appease the gods…
- So with increasing opposition and feeling disoriented in a world that no longer felt like home…
- They lived as exiles of heaven… on earth… their destination secure, but their current lives still located in this world!
And in the midst of all that, Peter greets these exiles… these churches… these Jesus followers
- By saying Grace and Peace be yours in abundance.
- How good is that!
- No matter what they are facing… this is what God wants to keep pouring out and into the children of God.
Well as we start this series… I want to learn deeply from Peter and his letter to the churches.
Before I became a Baptist Minister I worked in the corporate world
- And to prepare for that I studied Business at UTS…
- I met a young adult last week who is doing the same degree… I said watch out… you may end up becoming a Minister!
- I thought that was funny!
- Anyhow it was an ok degree… I probably spent a bit too much time at Toga parties…
Anyhow the absolute best subject I ever did was the wrongly named course called Accounting for Small Businesses…
- I remember week one and this accountanty looking bloke walked to the front of the class…
- And I remember thinking… oh my, this is going to be sooooo boring.
- Anyhow he introduced himself and told a bit of his story….
- He had been an accountant…. But then one day at his son’s soccer game an electrician walked up to him and said I think I have invented something…
- Well long story short, he had, and they went into a partnership together and the thing took off…
- And so they made so much money, multiple millions of dollars, that he basically taught as he now didn’t have much to do….
And so the course was actually about entrepreneurship and how to start and manage and grow a business…
- Now why do I tell that story?
- Well we hung on his every word… I don’t think I have ever taken so many notes in a class…
- And why?
- Because here was a guy who wasn’t teaching by being one week ahead of the class…
- Here was someone who had done it… had experienced it… who spoke with the authority of an accomplished practitioner….
- And just a side note, I remember finding out he was also a Christian.
Well when Peter greets the people of God with grace and peace in abundance…
- I am going to listen…
- In fact this whole letter is soaked in the experience of someone who had been with Jesus, who had seen him crucified and risen from the dead…
- And someone who had experience the joy of the Holy Spirit and been involved in the growth of the church
- He had seen grace and peace spread through the ancient world… to the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia
- But he also knew what it was like to suffer and model Christ in the midst of this.
- This Peter is a great teacher… and we want to learn what it means to be exiles
- Citizens of heaven in the actual world where we dwell and live…
You know the story of Peter… it’s an amazing one…
- He was fishing one day with his brother Andrew when Jesus walked beside the sea of Galilee.
- This Jesus we hear had begun to preach repentance, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
- And he called out to Peter who was going by his Greek name Simon at the time.
- “Come, follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people.”
- Well I don’t know if it was a supernatural tug on the heart or what was going on, but we read that he and his brother left their nets and followed him.
- Immediately in Matthew’s gospel we read that he would have observed Jesus teaching, healing, casting out evil spirits and huge crowds following him!
- I mean talk about your life being turned upside down!
Well for the next 3 years, Peter travelled with Jesus and was even given authority to do the same things…
- And there are lots of famous stories about Peter…
- He is the one whose mother-in-law Jesus heals by touching her hand…
- He would have been there when Jesus said “come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”
- He was the one who Jesus invited to get out of the boat and join him walking on water. Of course it ends up being a lesson in faith and failure and trust!
- He was would have sat and listened to the sermon on the mount and all of the parables…
- He was the one who almost impetuously declared “Jesus, you are Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
- And he gets renamed from Simon to the Hebrew name Peter which means rock…
- This is the original Rocky!
- And Jesus says to him “on you, I will build my church.”
But this Peter who will greet the people of God with grace and peace in abundance knew what it was like to deny Jesus and be lovingly reinstated.
- In Matthew 26 Peter says to Jesus “I will never leave you.”
- But then, just as Jesus had said would happen, Peter disowns Jesus after he has seen him arrested and betrayed.
- “I” says Peter, “don’t know the man.” It happens 3 times…
- Then remembering Jesus predicting this and hearing the rooster crow…
- It says Peter went outside and wept bitterly.
Well it is pretty rough from there… at a distance he watches Jesus trial and the crowds shouting “crucify him”
- Then he watches Jesus be killed as a common criminal on a cross…
- A spear thrust into his side… Jesus saying “it is finished” and giving up his Spirit.
- I can only imagine the sense of self loathing at his act of betrayal and utter helplessness at seeing Jesus whom he had followed for 3 years, now being crucified.
- It must have felt over…
(pause)
Well just three days later, Mary comes to Peter with the news that the tomb is empty and the stone is rolled away!
- Peter runs! Now I get a real fondness for Peter at this stage because it says the other disciple out ran him and got there first… haha!
- I could play Peter in the movie… terrible runners unite!
- But he finds the tomb empty and the strips of linen that had wrapped Jesus just lying there
- Later that day, it’s his turn. Mary has already seen him… but now in the Upper Room
- Most likely the one where Jesus had washed Peter’s feet in the days before these events…
- Jesus stands among them, risen from the dead, and breathes on them the Holy Spirit and gives them his peace!
Well the in the next few days, Peter finds himself back fishing and Jesus appears again to them.
- This time Peter jumps out of the boat, into the water and goes ashore!
- It is obviously the excitement of seeing Jesus alive!
- But I can’t help but wonder if in his impetuous nature did thoughts then creep across his mind about his own denial of ever knowing Jesus!
- What kind of a reaction is he going to get from his Lord?
- Well I think it is a very tender moment… he is not judged or condemned. But he is asked by Jesus to feed his sheep….
- A reference to looking after the children of God… much like a shepherd looks after his flock…
- And in a moment reminiscent of their first encounter Jesus says to Peter; “Follow me.”
Well from there the story really heats up.
- Because just like Jesus had promised… the Holy Spirit, the presence, power and authority of Jesus is poured out on Peter and the disciples at Pentecost.
- Tongues of fire come to rest on his head and to outsiders it looks like they are drunk….
- But it’s something very profound is occurring. They are being filled with power in order that they may be Jesus’ witnesses in the whole world.
Well Peter gets up in front of a huge crowd. Same dude who had denied Jesus now fearless and filled with authority…
- He preaches an unbelievable sermon (you can read it in Acts 2) and it says 3,000 people become followers of Jesus that day.
- The church is born… the promise of Jesus to make him a fisher of men and a rock upon which he would build his church is being fulfilled.
- Next, Peter declaring the powerful name of Jesus over a lame beggar, a miraculous healing occurs. The guy gets up and walks…
- The same things Jesus did are now being done by Peter in the name of Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit.
Well what else, what else… I told you it was a rollicking tale…
- Well Peter does more preaching, there are more healings, he gets thrown in jail… he miraculously escapes…
- I mean it is just amazing…
- There’s the story of the gentile Cornelius’ conversion and receiving of the Holy Spirit under Peter’s ministry, that kind of blows open the doors to ministry to all the world…
And really what happens is Peter becomes the leader of the church in Jerusalem
- And then after Paul gets converted out of his persecuting, violent ways, Paul starts to take the gospel on these missionary journeys to the gentiles…
- And Peter kind holds down the home base.
- Well by Acts 13 the story moves on to following Paul…
- And we only hear of Peter one more time… where he graciously makes sure the church is a place of grace for all, both Jews and Gentiles in Acts 15…
So then we get this letter in our bibles, written around 30 years after these events from an older, wiser, weathered Peter…
- By now according to the letter, he has relocated to “Babylon”, which is code for Rome…
- And he greets them with grace and peace in abundance
- Man I love that…
- Hey… I walked with Jesus… I disowned Jesus… I was lovingly reinstated into my calling by Jesus. This is my story!
- And I saw his grace and peace spread through the world…
- Hey church… grace and peace be yours in abundance!
- Hey exiles… scattered in a world that no longer feels like home… grace and peace be yours in abundance!
- Grace… peace!
Well let’s finish with that greeting!
- As I said, I want to learn from people who are seasoned and experienced in what they teach.
- I really did love that business course because the teacher had done it… not just talked about it.
- Well as I said, this greeting is deeply soaked in the lived experience and reality of the writer!
- This greeting is Peter’s life.
Grace is the Greek word charis from which we then get words like charismatic…
- But in its simplest it just means gift! The undeserved, lavished gift of God at work in our lives…
- Peter greets them with this grace.
- It has been their common experience of the lavish love of God and forgiveness won by Christ on the cross that unites them.
- We will get to this verse next week, but he reminds them in verse 3;
- “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
- It is the gift (the charis) of Jesus’ mercy that gives us our living hope!
And then the Greek word for peace which is Eirene which is a translation of the Hebrew word shalom….
- This denotes not just an absence of war or division or trouble…
- But the actual presence of wholeness and reconciliation…
- This greeting, of which Peter wants them to know exists for them in abundance, again comes through the saving work of Christ in their lives…
- Peter who must have felt so broken and separated from Christ at his disowning
- Had been put back together by Jesus and reinstated into his calling to fish for men and women and be the rock upon which the church was built.
From his experience he greets them… charis and eirene… grace and peace be yours!
I don’t know about you, but often I think of Peter and at least personally I can relate to this guy
- Maybe you blow a bit hot and cold in your faith…
- Maybe you know you have a calling upon your life for all kinds of different things
- But maybe you also feel like you let Jesus down
- Peter wants you to know that what comes from God is an undeserved gift of mercy and a life that gets put back together and made whole.
- No matter how far the drift, no matter how far we don’t live up to our calling.
Well as we start this series in 1 Peter, I want to extend that offer of grace and peace to you today!
- When Jesus called Peter who was fishing he responded by following him
- When Jesus got reinstated, Jesus reminded him to “follow me.”
- When Peter preached it says they were cut to the heart and asked what shall we do….
- Peter responded “repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins…”
- We respond, and we receive…
Ministry…