This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Hi, this is Pastor Tom and I want to welcome you to the start of our study of
the letter of 1 Peter. The first thing you notice about 1 Peter is that it was
written by Peter. This is a letter that was written by the Apostle Peter.

And as we start studying this letter, I can't help but think about, and you
might want to think with me about the experiences that Peter had with Jesus.
Which of those experiences would he have said was the greatest if you sat down
and talked with him? Maybe the day that Jesus called him from his fishing
business to start following him.

Maybe it would be the day on the Mount of Transfiguration where he saw Jesus
shining bright white and he saw Elijah and Moses there with Jesus. Maybe it was
the day that he saw Jesus walk on water and he stepped out and he walked a few
steps on water with him. Maybe he would have said it was the day of Pentecost
with the exciting events in the upper room, the Holy Spirit coming upon the
disciples and then Peter preaching out in the streets and 3,000 people being
saved.

Or maybe it was the day that God called Peter to go and talk to a man named
Cornelius and the Gentiles began to be brought into the kingdom of God in a
brand new way. I'm not sure what Peter would say, but I have a guess based on
the reading of 1 Peter. When you read 1 Peter, you realize that nothing, none of
those events affected Peter so much as the day that he met Jesus for breakfast
on Galilee's shores.

You might remember it was after Jesus was resurrected, the disciples were in
Galilee, Peter wasn't sure, I guess, what direction his faith was going to take
him. So he went fishing, he's out in the boat fishing and they see Jesus on the
shore. They go in, they have breakfast with the resurrected Jesus, they talk
with the resurrected Jesus and then Jesus has a personal conversation with
Peter.

You might remember that's the conversation where he asked him three times, "Do
you love me? " But do you remember what Jesus asked Peter to do again and again?
Again and again in that conversation, Jesus says to Peter, "I need you to feed
my sheep, my people, my sheep.

I need you to feed my sheep. " And that is exactly what Peter spent his life
doing, feeding the sheep, feeding the people of God. 1 Peter is written in
response to that command that Jesus had given Peter so many years ago.

He is writing to some of the sheep in Asia Minor and he's giving them some much
needed spiritual food. So 1 Peter chapter 1, the first couple of verses say
this, "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to God's elect, strangers in the
world, scattered throughout Pontius and Galatia and Cappadocia and Asia and
Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father
through the sanctifying work of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and
sprinkling by his blood. Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

" As we start reading this letter, you notice right away that he calls those who
he's writing to strangers, he talks about them being scattered in this world.
The truth is at this time, they were facing increased persecution for their
faith in Jesus Christ. Christianity at the beginning was somewhat protected
under Judaism and at this time, the courts were beginning to rule in different
ways so that instead of being protected, Christianity was being pointed out for
persecution.

The date of this letter, we're not exactly sure, but maybe around 64 AD, during
the beginning of Nero's persecution of the Christians, and Peter is writing here
to a mixture of Jews and Gentiles, people who are feeling lonely in an
increasingly hostile world. If you've ever felt that way, lonely in an
increasingly hostile world, hostile to faith, you understand who he's writing
to. They were feeling like strangers.

They were feeling like outcasts. They were sensing how really different they
were from the world around them. Now I don't know how these people that Peter's
writing to here first heard the good news, but it is interesting that Cappadocia
and Pontius and Galatia that he mentions here, they are also mentioned in Acts
chapter 2.

There are some of those who were in Jerusalem that day who heard Peter's first
message and who first came to faith in Jesus Christ. Now we don't know that some
of them might have come back and some of them might have shared the good news.
Some of them might have been baptized that day by Peter, come back, shared the
good news and been the start of the churches in these areas.

There's nothing to tell us in Scripture that that's a fact, but it's a
compelling thought that Peter might be writing to a few of those who were saved
the first day of the church. And he writes to them and he calls them strangers.
And as he does this, he's telling them, he's telling you, he's telling us to
embrace the truth about who we really are.

Embrace the hope in the fact that you are different. That is our hope. Stop
trying to blend in and decide to stand out, he's saying to them.

The fact is, in this world we're not meant to fit in. In this world we are
strangers because we have a different home and we fit into eternity. You can see
this truth, this truth of not blending in but standing out, this truth of being
different in a world that needs to see the difference all throughout this
letter.

This is really a letter about how to live a cut above in this world below. And
in fact, as you walk through the letter, there are eight specific ways that
Peter talks about how you and I are to do that. It's what we're going to look at
together during this study.

Eight specific differences in your life because of Jesus Christ. First in
chapter one verses two to five, he says you have a different hope. In the world
below, hope is just wishing.

But we live a cut above. We have a hope that's living. We're going to look at
what that means later this week.

Later in chapter one he says we have a different faith. In the world below,
faith is doing or feeling. But the cut above kind of living is faith is
trusting.

Trusting in God. And then at the end of chapter one he talks about how we have a
different character. The character of holiness.

The world below character is defined by what you're conformed to. Being like the
people that are around you. The cut above kind of living is determined by how
you're transformed by Christ.

By being with him. When we get to chapter two, there's another difference. We're
a different people.

We're not living for pleasure or popularity or power. We're living for God's
purposes. And then you go on through the letter, we also have different
relationships, Peter's going to point out.

In the world below, relationships are governed by selfishness. In the cut above
kind of living, relationships are governed by submission. A word that we're
going to take a deeper look at as we walk through this letter.

It really has to do with unselfishness. In chapter three we come across the
truth that we have a different message. The message good news.

World below, bad news messages. You hear them every day. The cut above, the
heavenly kind of life is good news messages.

We've got the good news. Chapter four is all about living with a different
response to suffering. In the world below you try to defend your life, but in
the cut above kind of living, you're willing to give your life.

Because you know that this life on this world is not all there is. That we're
looking forward to eternity. And then in chapter five, Peter talks about a
different kind of leadership.

And it can be defined by the word humility. The world has selfish leaders, but
in Christ we become servant leaders. That's what this letter is all about.

It's all about how to become a hopeful and holy people. It's all about how to
become a submissive and serving people. Suffering with the confidence of victory
and leading with the humility of a shepherd.

It's all about how that can happen in your life. It's all about how you can
become more hopeful and live with more holiness in your daily life. It's about
how you can become more submissive and serving throughout your life.

It's how you can suffer whatever you may have to suffer in this life with the
confidence of the eternity of victory. And it's how you can become the kind of
person who leads in your job, your work, your family, wherever you have to live
and lead with the humility of a shepherd, of a servant. Lead with the humility
of Jesus.

So I want to pray together as we start our study of this letter that God will
change my heart. God will change your heart as we study this letter together.
Would you pray with me?

Our Father, we come and we pray together that you change our hearts as we study
your word. You didn't write this just for our interest, although it is
interesting. You wrote it to change us.

And so Lord, help us to see how different you've made us in Christ and begin to
rejoice in those differences in new ways. Help us to see that you want to make
us more hopeful, more holy, more unselfish. You want to help us to see that even
when we endure suffering, it can be with the spirit of victory and that we can
lead with the humility of a servant.

Lord, let those things happen in our lives that we pray. Let the truth of your
word empower those things to happen in our lives. We ask it in Jesus' name,
amen.

Tomorrow we're going to look together at how we live with a different hope.