Scripture: 1st Peter 1:1-2
Structure:
- Introduction
- Sender
- Receivers
- Conclusion
Introduction:
Good morning everyone.
If you want your cooking to taste really good, you might add some stock.
Stock can be made in a variety of ways. For example, you might put a chicken carcass (bones and all) in a pot of water with some vegetables and salt and let it simmer for several hours.
During that process lots of flavour and goodness (like iron and marrow from the bones) is infused in the water. Once the simmering is finished you strain the bones and vegetables out and are left with the stock. Of course, that takes a long time, so we tend to use an Oxo cube instead.
Today we begin a new sermon series in the New Testament letter of 1st Peter.
Our focus this morning is on the first two verses. It might not seem like a lot but these two verses (and indeed the rest of the letter) are like homemade stock – not sweet, but rich in goodness, giving a depth of flavour and meaning.
From 1st Peter chapter 1, verses 1-2, we read…
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, 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.
May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.
There are two parts to today’s message. First we’ll look at the sender of the letter, Peter. And then we’ll consider the recipients – who were they, where were they, and why were they.
Sender
You may have heard me say on other occasions, that power is the ability to do something, while authority is the right to do it. For example, you may have the ability to drive a car but without a driver’s license you don’t have the right (or authority) to drive. Of course, having a license doesn’t give you authority to break the speed limit. Even those with authority must still submit to a higher authority, otherwise they lose their license.
Authority is not something that can be assumed or taken lightly. Authority is a weighty thing – it has to be earned. You do not have the authority to call yourself a doctor unless you have spent 7 or 8 years at university studying and passing exams to earn your degrees. Likewise, you don’t have the authority to teach others unless you have done the hard yards gaining some mastery of the subject yourself. Authority usually comes from personal experience. You can’t really tell others to recycle if you are not recycling.
The story is told of a mother who brought her son to Ghandi. She asked Ghandi if he could get her son to stop eating sugar. Ghandi told her to come back in a week’s time. So the woman went away and came back again with her son a week later. Then Ghandi simply said to the boy, ‘Stop eating sugar’. The mother was puzzled by this and asked why Ghandi had sent her away a week earlier? Why didn’t he just tell her son to stop eating sugar the first time she came? It would have saved her the trouble of going back and forth. Ghandi replied, ‘Before I can tell anyone to stop eating sugar I must first stop eating sugar myself.’ That’s authority you see.
The opening verse of 1st Peter tells us this letter was written by Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. In the New Testament sense of the word, an ‘apostle’ is a messenger sent with authority. By calling himself an ‘apostle of Jesus Christ’, Peter was claiming a special sort of authority. Peter’s authority came from Jesus himself and it came from Peter’s experience of Jesus.
This is the same Simon Peter who left his fishing business to follow Jesus around Galilee and Judea, listening to his teaching and seeing his miracles first hand. The same Peter who witnessed Jesus’ transfiguration, suffering and death. The same Peter who denied Jesus before the cock crowed. The same Peter who met the risen Jesus and was restored a few days later. The same Peter who spoke to the crowds in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was given. The same Peter who had once refused to set foot in the house of a Gentile but then later, under the guidance of the Spirit of Jesus, ate a meal and stayed the night with the Roman Centurion, Cornelius.
Peter’s words in this letter, are not something to be taken lightly. Peter’s words carry weight – they have authority because Peter had walked with Jesus in person. Peter could talk about forgiveness because he had failed Jesus and been forgiven himself. Peter could preach with authority about the resurrection of Christ because he had seen Jesus die and raised to life three days later. Likewise, he had authority to speak to both Jews and Gentiles because he had obeyed Jesus by accepting Cornelius’ hospitality. Peter’s personal experience of Jesus, together with Jesus’ mandate to Peter (to feed my sheep), made Peter well qualified to encourage and teach the Christian church.
The name ‘Peter’ means rock or stone. Jesus gave Peter this name in Matthew 16. When Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ Jesus replied,
Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Talk about authority.
Eugene Peterson makes the observation that Peter’s influence in the early church was enormous. He was easily the most powerful figure in the Christian community. The truly impressive thing about Peter, the thing that confirms his authority, is the way he handled himself in that position of power. He stayed out of the centre and maintained his submission to Jesus. Given his position Peter could have taken over, using his association with Jesus to promote himself. But he did not do that. [1] Peter kept Jesus at the centre. He pointed people to Christ and so we can trust him.
Okay, so Peter is the sender of the letter. And he’s not just any old sender. He writes with Christ given authority and humility.
Recipients
What about the recipients? Who were they? Well, the rest of verse 1 tells us they are God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.
This tells us that Peter’s letter is a circular letter. It’s not a letter written to a specific church in order to address some problem in that church. It is a letter to be circulated among the various house churches in that particular geographic region (what we know today as modern Turkey). So Peter wrote the letter, probably from Rome, and then had another Christian believer travel around Turkey taking the letter to the various congregations in Asia Minor.
Most likely Peter’s letter was read out loud in their gathered worship (sort of like a sermon) and those house churches (who could afford it) probably made careful copies so they could refer to it again.
Do you know what a horologist is? I’ll give you a moment to think, without using Google. [Wait]
That’s right a horologist is someone who makes and fixes clocks and watches.
A few weeks ago I mentioned the TV programme, The Repair Shop. It turns out I’m not alone in liking that show. Unfortunately, the very week after I mentioned it the series came to an end. Hopefully they make another one.
For those who have not seen The Repair Shop, the idea is, people bring in their beloved family belongings to a workshop of craftspeople who go about restoring the item to make it functional again.
The Repair Shop has a resident horologist as part of the team. His name is Steve. Several times someone has brought in an old clock to be repaired and Steve has taken it apart completely, put the various brass components in a special cleaning solution, fixed any broken pieces and then reassembled the clock, making it functional again. Incredible skill. I don’t know how he remembers where everything goes, especially when the clock comes to him already in pieces.
Peter describes the Christians he is writing to as God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered…
In some ways the recipients of Peter’s letter are a bit like the pieces of a disassembled clock – scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.
If this world is like God’s repair shop, then Christian believers are strangers in this world. The repair shop is not our permanent home. It’s a temporary place, where we are sanctified, before we are returned to our proper home, which is the kingdom of heaven.
To be sanctified is to be made holy – as in whole and functional. If we think of the church as a clock, then the Holy Spirit is like a horologist. The Holy Spirit sanctifies the clock of the church. He strips us down, removing all the corrosion by baptising or immersing our metal in the special cleaning fluid of God’s word. He fixes any broken parts and reassembles the clock.
Now we should not press the clock analogy too far. I’m not suggesting God is like a divine clock maker who winds up the world and walks away to let it tick by on its own. Nor am I suggesting that you are just a cog in God’s machine. You are far more valuable to God than brass. And unlike metal, we human beings feel things.
The point is, this world is not our home. This world is like a repair shop. It is a place of disorientation for us. The sanctifying work of the Spirit is not an easy process. It is strange and difficult and confusing for Christian believers to be taken apart in this world.
The recipients of Peter’s letter were suffering. Because of their faith in Jesus they were being given a hard time, socially ostracised. Slander and malicious talk undermined their relationships in the community. [2] Many scholars think that Peter wrote his letter sometime between 62 and 64 AD, during the reign of the Roman Emperor, Nero. Nero was the one who famously fiddled while Rome burned and then blamed Christians for the fire he started.
Peter is writing to encourage his fellow believers. It’s like he’s saying, “You are in the repair shop. You are being treated unfairly by the society you live in. You are misunderstood and maligned. It might feel like you are being taken apart right now but you need to remember who you are, where you are and why you are. Your time in the repair shop of this world is temporary. You will be restored whole and new again to your proper home, in the Kingdom of heaven.”
The word translated as ‘strangers’, in verse 1, can also be translated as sojourners or resident aliens or refugees. Abraham was a sojourner. I know that some of you, who are listening to this, have immigrated from different parts of the world, so you know what it is to be a sojourner. But all believers, whether they are born in the country they live in or shifted there, are sojourners in this world.
The word translated as ‘scattered’ is diaspora (as in dispersion). It is the term commonly used to describe Jews who were scattered through the world after the exile of 587 BC.
The intriguing thing here is that Peter uses typically Jewish terms to describe the recipients of his letter, even though they are not all Jewish. Some of them were Jews but a good proportion were Gentile. Peter (who was Jewish) is saying that Gentiles are now included in the people of God (they now belong) through faith in Jesus the Messiah.
Peter has come a long way in his thinking. He has gone from being a Jew who refused to associate with Gentiles to one who accepted people of all nations. Peter learned that Jesus is the key to belonging to the people of God.
The thing about being a stranger or a sojourner is that people don’t know you or understand your ways. It is difficult, lonely and isolating to be not known and misunderstood by your neighbours. And so, in verse 2, Peter says you have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.
The idea here is that even though their neighbours may not know them or understand their ways; even though their neighbours may in fact be spreading malicious rumours about them, God the Father knows them. He knows the difficult situation the followers of Jesus are in and he cares for them.
Returning to our analogy of the clock in the repair shop – God knows where every piece of the clock is scattered. He knows how long it needs to stay in the cleaning solution and where it fits when the clock is put back together.
But it’s not just that God knows certain facts about believers. God knows us with a personal, loving, fatherly knowledge.
In Psalm 139 David praises God for his personal foreknowledge saying:
You have searched me,Lord, and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughtsfrom afar. 3 You discern my going outand my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.
As any parent understands, knowing your children goes hand in hand with caring for them. In fact, you can’t really provide care for someone without knowing them. If you are preparing meals for people and you don’t know they have an allergy to peanuts, for example, care becomes harm.
There is one person in our house (who shall remain nameless) who cannot stand bananas. Possibly she had a bad experience with a banana sandwich when she was young and now she almost gags at the smell of a banana. If I did not know her I might bake a banana cake for her, thinking I was doing something kind. But my kindness would not be received. It would probably end up on the floor. Knowing her I would be better to offer a bag of chips.
Some of you may have picked up the reference to the Trinity in verse 2, where Peter talks about the foreknowledge of God the Father, the sanctifying work of the Spirit and the blood of Christ.
Peter says his readers are ‘sprinkled with the blood of Christ’. This is another Old Testament, Jewish stock like, reference. It is rich with meaning. When God made a covenant with the people of Israel in the wilderness, Moses sprinkled the people with blood. Therefore, Jesus’ blood (shed on the cross) makes us one with the people of God.
Likewise, Jewish priests were sprinkled with blood as a way of consecrating them in service to God and his people. Therefore, Jesus’ blood sets Christian believers apart as a royal priesthood. We have a special role in interceding for the world.
In a similar vein, when a leper was declared cleansed of their leprosy the priest sprinkled the person with blood. So too Jesus’ blood cleanses us from sin so that we are able to participate in worship.
In verse 2 Peter spells out quite clearly why God has chosen the recipients of his letter: for obedience to Christ. Our purpose is to obey Jesus – to follow his teaching and his call on our lives.
Conclusion:
Some people might think that because Peter was a fisherman he wasn’t that intellectual or cerebral. But that is a prejudice against fishermen and others who earn a living with their hands. Peter shows a real depth of wisdom in these two verses.
He knows he is writing to people who are scattered and doing life hard, through no fault of their own. What they need is to be reminded of who they are, where they are and why they are.
Who are they? That’s a question about identity. They are the God’s special people, known personally by him.
Where are they? That’s a question about belonging. They are not at home. They are in the repair shop of this world, temporarily. The kingdom of heaven is where they really belong.
Why are they? That’s a question about purpose. Their reason for being is to obey Jesus.
Last Wednesday Auckland went back to level 3, under COVID restrictions, and the rest of the country went to level 2. Consequently, we are not able to gather for Sunday worship. We are scattered in our house churches.
This raises a mixture of feelings for people. Some are thankful that the government have acted swiftly to prevent the spread of the virus. Others may feel frustrated or anxious or simply tired.
Whatever you are feeling, remember these three things:
Remember who you are. You are a child of God. We are the people of God.
Remember where you are and where you belong. You are a sojourner in this world but your home is with God in the kingdom of heaven.
And remember why you are. Your purpose is to obey Jesus, to be sanctified and made whole by the Holy Spirit.
May grace and peace be yours in abundance.
Questions for discussion or reflection:
What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
What is authority and where does it come from? Where did Peter’s authority come from? How did Peter use his authority?
Who were the recipients of Peter’s letter? What was there situation?
What is meant by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit?
What does it mean to be a stranger (sojourner) in this world? Where does the Christian believer belong? Where is our home?
What is the meaning/significance of being sprinkled with the blood of Christ?
Why are we? What is our purpose as the people of God?
Take some time this week to reflect on who you are, where you are and why you are? What implications does this have for your life?
[1] Refer Eugene Peterson’s introduction to 1-2 Peter in the Message Bible, page 2209.
[2] Refer Karen Jobes’ commentary on 1 Peter, page 58.
Tawa Baptist 