1 Peter - Living Letters
✨ Summary
1 Peter - Exile Survival Guide
Big idea
- Because God has given us a living hope, we live holy, honouring lives as exiles. Hope. Holy. Honour.
Hook
- Local Facebook pothole rants mirror our temptation to outrage. 1 Peter trains us not to hide or to rage, but to be holy. Beauty beats volume.
Setting
- Author: Peter, writing from Babylon (Rome), mid 60s AD.
- Audience: scattered believers in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia.
- Tension: How to live publicly for Christ when you are not in charge or liked.
Identity: elect exiles (1:1-2; 1:17; 2:11)
- Exiles socially and theologically: on earth, but passport says God.
- Identity is received, not achieved.
Born into a living hope (1:3-5)
- New birth by God's mercy through Jesus' resurrection.
- Hope is living, not wishful; believers are kept by God for an imperishable inheritance.
- Already not yet: saved now, inheritance revealed later.
Cross: pardon and pattern (2:21-24)
- Jesus bore our sins so we die to sin and live to righteousness.
- He suffered as our example. We follow in his steps.
Holy family, royal priesthood (2:9-10)
- Chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, God's people.
- Holiness is family resemblance, not cosplay.
- Growth pattern: born again (1:23) → crave pure milk of the word (2:2) → taste the Lord's goodness (2:3).
Honour as our accent (2:12, 17)
- Keep conduct beautiful so slanderers see good deeds and glorify God.
- Honour everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honour the emperor.
- Concrete: speak truth without slander; pay taxes; cooperate with authorities; if laws block obedience to God, obey God with respect.
Suffering: humble and firm (4:12-13; 1:7; 3:14-15; 5:6-11)
- Trials are expected and refine faith.
- Suffer without revenge or slander; give a reason for our hope with gentleness and respect.
- Humble yourselves; throw anxieties onto God because he cares.
- Be watchful; resist the devil; after a little while God will restore, confirm, strengthen, establish.
How to suffer Christianly
- Pray anxieties, do not post them.
- Keep doing visible good.
- Give reasons for your hope respectfully.
- Refuse retaliation; entrust outcomes to the Just Judge.
- Stay with the brotherhood; isolation feeds the lion.
- Choose costly obedience over quiet compromise.
Memorable lines
- Beauty beats volume.
- Identity is received, not achieved.
- The cross is both our pardon and our pattern.
- Hope. Holy. Honour.
Takeaway this week
- Do not add to outrage threads. Add beauty.
- Post a prayer, write a thank you, do a good deed so they see and glorify God.
Key texts
- 1:1-5; 1:7; 1:23
- 2:1-3; 2:9-12; 2:17; 2:21-24
- 3:14-15
- 4:12-13
- 5:6-11
📝 Final Sermon Bullets
1 Peter - when reading I'm reminded of the local Facebook Groups talking about the potholes
- There are so many rants on those Facebook groups. And the comments are full of outrage, sarcasm
- And I have this real bad habit of wanted to join in, and bait people… Which I dont do obviously because I'm a Christian.
- 1 Peter is so helpful with this - we are not here to hide or to join the outrage. We are here to be holy.
PRAY
Intro - SLIDE
Think of 1 Peter as the Exile Survival Guide
- 1 Peter is your manual for a culture shift.
- Peter writes from "Babylon" (Rome), mid 60s AD - right before he was crucified upside-down for his faith
- Audience: exiles across Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia.
Picture this: Scattered house churches throughout Asia Minor. Ordinary believers copping it for following Jesus. They're under social heat, slander, local injustice.
- Big Tension: How do you live publicly for Christ when you are not in charge and not always liked?
- 1 Peter doesn't approach this like a Doomsday Prepper. INSTEAD = Pressure cooker discipleship.
- He doesn't say bunker down; he says brighten up. Beauty beats volume.
- Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion (4:2 - scattered Christians) 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.
IDENTITY = Exiles: theological and social. We belong to God and therefore do not quite fit the age (1:1; 1:17; 2:11).
- In 2:11 Peter calls us Pilgrims and Aliens
- temporary residents
- you may live in 2317, Salamander Bay but your Passport says "God"
- Homeland=God
Big Idea: Because God has given us a living hope, we can live holy, honouring lives as exiles.
- Our Identity as exiles can be summarised in three words: HOPE. HOLY. HONOUR.
- You are not home yet. Don't get hostile. Don't be hidden. Be Holy.
The overarching theme is: Suffering gracefully.
- Suffering with hope
- Suffering while living Holy
- Suffering but still Honouring everyone
Born Into a Living Hope
3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again…
- Born again = spiritually reborn
- Christianity isn't just a philosophy but a transformation as radical as a new birth.
3….be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
- "living hope" = grounded in Jesus' resurrection
- Not like dead/Static hope of world - Living Hope = alive/active/enduring
- 1 Peter = "living hope"/believers are like "living stones"/"living and abiding Word of God"
- Our hope isn't merely a wish, but a living reality guaranteed by Christ's life;
- our relationship with God is like being born into a new family;
- and the Word of God is not a lifeless text but an enduring, life-giving force.
Born again to what?
4. to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
5. who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
- This is why Peter calls us Exiles.
- We are in the the Already but Not Yet. We are born again but have an inheritance.
Born Again = Ontological change (nature change)
- A new, spiritual life is regenerated inside us
- Our mind, desires, and choices turn toward God
- Spiritually, we are united to Christ.
- Our sin no longer rules us.
Sin hasn't been done away with, but our inheritance is that our sinful flesh will be made new
- New, resurrection body like Jesus (1 Cor 15:42-44; Phil 3:21).
- Life with God face to face, no death or pain (Rev 21:3-4; 22:4-5).
- A renewed world made right (2 Pet 3:13; Rom 8:19-21).
- Lasting honour and joy with Jesus (1 Pet 5:4, 10).
But in the meantime: HOPE. HOLY. HONOUR.
One main key is this: Identity is received, not achieved.
22. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
23. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
- Christ suffered for us, leaving an example to follow.
- He bore our sins so we might die to sin and live to righteousness; by his wounds we are healed.
The cross is both our pardon and our pattern.
Altar Call
Identity: Earthly Exiles, Holy Family
Identity is received, not achieved.
- What that looks like: HOPE. HOLY. HONOUR.
- But Peter goes further:
9. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
10. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
- Earthly Exiles - Heavenly Family
- Born again + adopted into a heavenly family
Lore Drop:
- Isaiah 43:20-21 - Israel = "my chosen people"
- Exodus 19:6 - Israel = "kingdom of priests and a holy nation", "my treasured possession"
We have received an Identity. Through Christ:
- Believers have become God's "holy nation" and "people for His possession."
- Every Christian is part of a royal priesthood = direct access to God
- Like Israel was chosen to represent God among the nations = church is to "proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light"
Imagine how this would encourage these churches.
- Despised by society - precious to God.
- Identity is received, not achieved.
What this means: Holiness is not some sort of cosplay (dress-up), it's family resemblance.
- Imagine a baby, they are part of the family… but they also learn family rules.
- We are born again into a family, and we begin to resemble to family.
- So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
- Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation -
- if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
- This is what being born again into the family looks like.
- Born again
23….you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
- As spiritual children, we crave the pure milk
2. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation -
- What's milk? It's the preached/read/meditated upon Word that makes Christ known and grows our faith.
- This milk results in experiencing the goodness of God
3. if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
- This is why reading the word of God is so important.
As we HOPE in Christ, we begin to resemble our HOLY heavenly family, and that outworks in us HONOURING everyone.
- HOPE. HOLY. HONOUR.
13. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
- Keep your conduct beautiful so they see and glorify God.
- Essentially, as God's HOLY people, our actions and language resemble our Heavenly Home, and our accent is Honour.
This should guide us.
- HONOUR means to ascribe worth to someone.
- Because every person is made in the image of God, they have valuable, God's will is that all would be saved.
- In order:
- Treat all people as if they were valuable to you.
- Love (Agape) your fellow Christians - selflessly give of yourself for the good of another.
- Give God alone your ultimate allegiance - obey him above all else
- Treat those above you with value and respect
Hilarious has to specifically reference the Emperor ("even him"?)
- Yes, even the politician or prime minister you think is an idiot. Honour him.
Honour is our accent. Let's make this as concrete as I can.
- Christians speak truth, but never slander.
- Even that person who stole your car park. Even that online troll who is attacking you on facebook.
- We can attack dumb ideas, but never people.
- We pay taxes and cooperate with our government, even if we disagree.
- If our government's decisions impede our ability to love and obey God, we obey God first but remain respectful.
- For example, in NSW there are laws that prevent pastors from praying for certain people because it is a "conversion practice". If you need prayer, we will pray because we fear God first.
We can be tempted to join the outrage and the volume, but we are to be Honourable. Why?
12. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
- Beauty beats Volume. Honour beats hostility.
HOPE. HOLY. HONOUR.
- Because God has given us a living hope, we can live visibly holy, honouring, humble lives as exiles.
- The problem with this type of life is that it will be tested.
Suffer Humble and Firm
12. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
13. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
- 1 Peter has more references to persecution, trials, and grief than any other New Testament epistle.
- At the time of writing, AD64, there was a massive fire that devastated Rome. Most historians believed that Emperor Nero himself started it, then he pinned the blamed on the Christians.
- Peter = watching the flames and the blame, links it to Christian suffering.
7. 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.
- For the Christian = suffering is not without purpose.
- Peter teaches that Suffering is unjust but not unexpected - it is a refining fire for our faith.
- Peter links it all to Christ. Just as Christ suffered unto death, so also we will experience suffering. But just as Christ rose again into eternal life, so also will we.
This is the great predicament of Christianity - we live in the "Already. Not-Yet."
- Already righteous. Already new creation. But not yet living in a sinless Creation.
- What do we do in the meantime?
- HOPE. HOLY. HONOUR.
- We remain in Hope. Living Holy. And treat all, even those causing suffering, with Honour.
14. But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled,
15. but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
- The pattern is that we suffer in Jesus' way: no revenge, no slander, active trust in God.
- Already living free from sin. Not yet free from the effects of sin.
6. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,
7. casting all your anxieties on him (forcefully throw them at God), because he cares for you.
- God is not distant. He is not indifferent. He cares.
- No anxiety is too small or too big to entrust to the Lord who truly cares.
8. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
9. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
10. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
11. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
- We have a living Hope.
- Yes, there will be suffering, yes there is a real enemy, yes there is resistance. But "after a little while" God will restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish.
- Notice that our only role is to remain "firm in our faith"
- We suffer humbly, and firmly. HOPE, HOLY, HONOUR.
How to suffer Christianly (concrete):
- Pray your anxieties; do not post them (5:7).
- Keep doing visibly good works in public view (2:12).
- Answer attacks with a reasoned hope and a respectful tone (3:15-16).
- Refuse retaliation; entrust outcomes to the Just Judge (2:23).
- Stay with the brotherhood; isolation feeds the lion (5:9).
- Choose costly obedience over quiet compromise (3:17).
Identity is received. Not achieved.
- We are exiles with a living hope.
- Because God has given us a living hope, we can live visibly holy, honouring, humble lives as exiles.
So, this week when the pothole posts fire up, do not add to the noise.
- Add beauty.
- Honour beats hostility.
- Post a prayer, write a thank you, do a visible good deed.
- Let them see your good works and glorify God.
PRAYER
BENEDICTION:
10. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
11. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.