Crisis in the Churches of Northwest Asia

• The Christians throughout the Empire are suffering severe persecution.
• Peter has received word that the churches in northwest Asia are suffering massive attacks.
• They are distressed and in great need of encouragement.
• The persecution has become so bad that the Gentile Christians are being tempted to revert to their past pagan lifestyles to lessen the heat.
• Some believers are rebelling against local authorities because of the mistreatment and slander they are receiving from them.
• There is conflict in the home; husbands and wives are bickering.
• In some of the churches, the elders are exercising too much control in their attempt to keep the believers faithful during the pressure.

PETER WRITES 1 PETER

• Year: A.D. 65
• From: Rome
• To: The churches in northwest Asia: Pontus, North Galatia, Cappadocia, and Bithynia.
• Provocation: Peter encourages his Jewish and Gentile brethren in their suffering, which is being shared by their fellow Christians everywhere (5:9).
• He exhorts the Gentile brethren not to revert to the lifestyle they lived as pagans.
• He exhorts the church to yield to their local authorities and gives practical instructions to family members about how to treat one another.
• Peter also charges the elders to lead by example rather than by force.
• Throughout the letter, Peter uses the general Greek word for suffer (pascho) twelve times—more than in any other NT letter.
• Given its excellent Greek style, the letter was scribed by Silas (Silvanus), who was with Peter in Rome.
• Peter is a Galilean fisherman. While he no doubt could speak and write a little Greek for business purposes, his Greek writing skills were minimal.
• Peter closes the letter by sending greetings from John Mark and the church in Rome.
• He calls Rome by its code-name “Babylon.”
• Peter sends the letter with Silas who reads it to each of the churches.[1]

 
GREETING
1 Peter 1
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ:

• Peter had quality time with Jesus.
• He was able to watch Jesus live and teach.
• This is the prerequisite for being an apostle.
• Even Paul, who never knew Jesus during His earthly ministry, is considered an apostle because he met Christ on the Damascus Road.

To those chosen,

• The letter of 1 Peter was circulated throughout various Christian churches or various groups whom God chose.
• Here, Peter is not speaking of election in a Calvinistic sense where God chooses some individuals to believe and others for eternal punishment.
• He is generally speaking about the church being God’s elect group. The New Testament clarifies that this group includes Gentiles (see also Romans 9:30). 

living as exiles dispersed abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, chosen 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,

• God had a plan for salvation before time began. Peter has this in mind with his use of the term “foreknowledge.”
• He is not speaking of an individualistic view of election or foreknowledge.
• God had a plan of redemption, a foreknowledge of what He would do and what would happen.
• This foreknowledge was a call for all to obey Jesus.
• Christ by receiving the Gospel.

through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient

• In this context, obeying Jesus Christ is believing in the Gospel.
• All who believe are sanctified, or set apart, by the Holy Spirit for God.
• Believers are reserved to display God’s grace.
• This would be an encouraging truth for these believers to think about during the persecution they were experiencing under Nero. 

and to be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ.
May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
 
A LIVING HOPE
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

• Believers are cleansed from their sins by the death of Christ but made new creations through the resurrection of Christ.
• Because of the resurrection, we are given new natures completely compatible with God (see 2 Peter 1:3-4).
• If the resurrection is not central to our theology, we will only have half of the Gospel.
• We will understand that Christ died for our sins, but we will not understand that the life of Christ saves us.
• Our inherent regeneration happens because of Christ’s resurrection.

4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

• Christians cannot lose their salvation because it is inherently imperishable.
• Christ’s work was so perfect that nothing we do can make it void.
• Furthermore, Christians have a new heart that inherently believes in Jesus (see Romans 6:17).
• As a result, our salvation is reserved in Heaven.

5 You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

• God protects His children, though not always physically.
• While we face trials and tribulations during life on earth, persecution that may even lead to our deaths, our spirits are kept safe and will be preserved into the afterlife.

6 You rejoice in this,

• Joy is the natural outcome of understanding God’s grace in Christ.
• If our beliefs are not producing joy, then we are misunderstanding the Gospel or forgetting our cleansing from sin (see 2 Peter 1:9).

even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials

• Christians are not immune to the negative impacts of the world.
• Christ did not die and rise again to somehow obtain earthly victory for His children.
• Instead, Christ gives us salvation forever untouched by persecution and other worldly trials.
• As we focus on this, we will find joy in our lives during the most distressful times.
• Peter is giving us a place to go in faith, allowing us to process life emotionally in light of the truth. 

7 so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

• The evidence and outcome of true faith is priceless.
• It may not amount to much in this life, but has eternal value and will result in praise, glory, and honor at Christ’s return.
• This is especially pertinent to Peter’s context.
• The church was experiencing a great deal of persecution, some of which resulted in death.
• In fact, Peter was likely killed under this persecution from Nero.
• Therefore, the Christians were to keep a heavenly perspective during earthly turmoil and find joy in the truths of the Gospel, which are forever untouched by the ways of the world. 

8 Though you have not seen him, you love him;

• Notice that Peter is not telling these believers to love God.
• He is recognizing that they have an inherent and natural love for God.
• This is the result of Christ’s resurrection and our new righteous natures.
• So, Christians do not need to love God more- we already love God from the cores of our beings.
• This is the beauty of the New Covenant.
• The people were not faithful to God under the Old Covenant, so God fixed the problem. 

though not seeing him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy,

• The joy produced by the Gospel is inexpressible because human words fail to express the amazing truths of God.
• Even the Bible, God’s written word, is written in human languages.
• Therefore, we need power from the Holy Spirit to grasp the grand nature of God’s love in Christ. 

9 because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

• The salvation of our souls is the outcome of our personal faith.
• This is the plan God had before the foundations of the earth.
• He has elected the world to hear the Gospel.
• Our place is to respond and obtain salvation.

10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who prophesied about the grace that would come to you, searched and carefully investigated.

• The prophets from the Old Testament who prophesied of the grace to come were seeking wisdom from the Holy Spirit to know the details of God’s plan of redemption.
• They sought to know when the Savior would arrive and precisely how this Gospel would impact people.
• There were glimpses of the New Covenant in the Old Testament (see Ezekiel 36:26-27; Jeremiah 31:31-34), but not until the death of Jesus did the New Covenant become a reality (Luke 22:20).

11 They inquired into what time or what circumstances the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating when he testified in advance to the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.

• Most believe, based on the big picture of Scripture, that the Spirit of Christ came upon Old Testament saints but did not live in them permanently.
• Not until Pentecost did the Spirit of God dwell permanently within believers.
• Therefore, Peter is likely talking about not a permanent indwelling in the Old Testament but a temporary dwelling or anointing.
• The preposition within can be translated as both in or on.
• It makes sense, therefore, that in the Old Testament the Spirit of Christ was on people but not indwelling.

12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you. These things have now been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—angels long to catch a glimpse of these things.

• The prophets were announcing that which was fulfilled in Christ.
• The prophets spoke of the New Covenant, something so beautiful that angels long to look at it.
• Thus, there was an immense amount of anticipation among the prophets and the heavenly beings for unleashing God’s grace upon the world.

 
A CALL TO HOLY LIVING
13 Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

• Grace is not simply a unique movement of God.
• It is the movement of God.
• Grace is not merely about being saved; we live by grace as saved individuals.
• It doesn’t matter what book of the Bible we study.
• Each book is pointing us to Jesus Christ and nothing else.
• This is what Christians are to focus on.
• We are to not return to our lifestyles pre-Christ.
• Instead, we are to live from Christ by focusing on grace.

14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance. 15 But as the one who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; 16 for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy. (Leviticus 20:7)

• The word holy is used primarily in two different ways.
• First, it speaks of believers as people.
• All believers are holy.
• We have all been sanctified and set apart at faith in Christ.
• But here, Peter has in mind a second use of the term.
• Christians are to be holy in behavior because we have been saved and equipped to live righteously.

17 If you appeal to the Father who judges impartially according to each one’s work, you are to conduct yourselves in reverence during your time living as strangers.

• God, our Father, is the judge of the universe.
• He will evaluate whether something is a work of the Spirit or the flesh.
• However, this does not mean that He will judge Christians.
• Peter is not encouraging believers to live as if they will be judged but rather in light of their Abba, who accepts them perfectly as judge of the universe.
• This is a genuinely humbling reality.

18 For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold,

• God’s enduring word, the Gospel, purifies the souls of all who believe in Jesus.
• This salvation creates a sincere, indwelling love for the family of God.
• Peter is also clear on the permanence of this salvation: It is imperishable.
• The salvation accomplished by Jesus and perfected in all who believe can never be lost.
• Whereas that which is of earth eventually fades and dies, that salvation which is of Heaven endures forever.

19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb.

• Because God is the judge and has saved us in Christ, we can relax when we show up to the judgment.
• The precious blood of Jesus forever speaks in our defense.

20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was revealed in these last times for you. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
22 Since you have purified yourselves by your obedience to the truth, so that you show sincere brotherly love for each other, from a pure heart love one another constantly,

• Christians have been washed and cleansed from all sin and set free from its power.
• Therefore, we are to live lives of love towards one another with God's same love for us in Christ.

23 because you have been born again—not of perishable seed but of imperishable—through the living and enduring word of God.

• The world cannot touch our salvation and cannot be interrupted by our actions.
• We are born again of unperishable seed, God’s seed.
• Because God is the author of our salvation, we can rest securely in all He has done for us in Christ.

24 For
All flesh is like grass,
and all its glory like a flower of the grass.
The grass withers, and the flower falls,
25 but the word of the Lord endures forever. (Isaiah 40:6-8)
And this word is the gospel that was proclaimed to you.[2]

• God’s truth endures into eternity.
• In the context, Peter has in mind the Gospel.
• The Gospel is the eternal truth of God revealed in Christ.

Because the eternally finished work of Christ saves us, our salvation is permanent and secure.[3]

[1] Viola, Frank, The Untold Story of the New Testament Church. Destiny Image, Shippensburg, PA, 2004. 166-167.
[2] Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[3] Farley, Andrew. www.BibleCommentary.com. 1 Peter.

1 JOHN 5
1 Everyone (universal invitation) who believes that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah; the heart of the problem for the false teachers) has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves the one born of him.

• Jesus or other believers?
• This encapsulates John’s arguments thus far.
• John has repeatedly said that all who obey God’s commands (1 John 3:23) are born of God.
• These commands are to believe in Jesus and love fellow Christians.
• Those who believe in Jesus love the Father and consequently love His children.

2 This is how we know that we love God’s children (reality test… reality show): when we love God and obey his commands.

• Not sentimentally but action.

3 For this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden,

• Love goes both ways: we obey & His commands are good for us.
• Old Covenant – The Law formed the basis of the relationship between God and man.
•  New Covenant – The law flows out of the relationship between God and man.
• Skittles Illustration
• John’s problem with the false teachers is that they either had no rules (antinomian) or too many rules (legalists).
• Christmas vs Xmas
• The Old Covenant law was burdensome because it could never be kept perfectly.
• But in the New Covenant, God has rigged the system.
• He has made the commandments centered on Christ.
• This does not mean that there is not crossover between the Old and New Covenants.
• The crossover is the nature and character of God, not every specific law.
• Therefore, in the New Covenant, we express the character of God who lives within us as opposed to following external laws.

4 because everyone who has been born of God conquers the world.

• Human society acting apart/independent from God

This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.

• Overcome=Nikos- Nike – goddess of victory
• Believers are on a specific trajectory that cannot be stopped.
• God will carry our salvation to completion.
• We can fail to experience the beauty of the New Covenant to some degree if we choose to live law-based lives.
• But this does not remove us from the path that we are on.
• Our faith has overcome the world.

 
THE CERTAINTY OF GOD’S TESTIMONY
5 Who is the one who conquers the world but the one who believes (trusts) that Jesus is the Son of God?

• The Gospel is simple: We need to believe that Jesus is the Son of God to be saved.
• This means we do not need to perform for God for salvation.
• We experience transformation through faith in Jesus.

6 Jesus Christ—he is the one who came by water and blood, not by water only, but by water and by blood.

• He experienced a life-giving birth and a death-killing death. Not only birth from the womb, but baptismal birth of his ministry and sacrificial death – The Message)
• There are two views of this.
• John could be speaking of Jesus’ water baptism and his crucifixion.
• However, another view is preferable.
• John is likely speaking of Christ’s physical birth being born of flesh and water.
• This makes sense in light of John arguments against the Gnostic belief that Jesus was only spirit and lacked physicality.
• Jesus was born of both a woman and the Spirit.
• Therefore, Christ is both fully man and fully God at the same time.
• This means that God’s divinity is compatible with our humanity, and our humanity is compatible with his divinity.
• This is why the Gnostic rejection of Christ’s humanity is so problematic.

And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

• John 16:7-15 -Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment: 9 About sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; 11 and about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
• “I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will also declare to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. 15 Everything the Father has is mine. This is why I told you that he takes from what is mine and will declare it to you.[1]
    1) Reveals the Gospel/Truth
    2) Convicts the world of sin
    3) Leads to Christ
    4) Baptizes into Christ
    5) Forms Christ in us
• I… as your pastor… am not responsible for you!

7 For there are three that testify:, 8 the Spirit (the dove at Jesus’ baptism), the water (the actual immersion), and the blood (the crucifixion) —and these three are in agreement. 9 If we accept human testimony (the false teachers), God’s testimony is greater, because it is God’s testimony that he has given about his Son.

• Matthew 3:17 - And a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.”[2]

10 The one who believes in the Son of God has this testimony within himself (the internal Spirit or the Gospel of Truth).

• We often worry about having more faith and needing to somehow keep our faith alive.
• And yet God has poured His testimony into our hearts.
• We know God at the cores of our beings and nothing can interrupt this.

The one who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed

• Personal indictment on those who are unredeemed – How is one redeemed? Belief

in the testimony God has given about his Son. 11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

• God’s testimony is that all who believe have eternal life.
• This means that we can’t lose our salvation.
• We may feel like we lost our salvation, but our salvation is not based on our emotions.
• Our salvation is based on God’s testimony.
• There is no eternal life apart from Christ.
• Salvation is not a ticket to heaven or a thing: Salvation is the Son of God.
• If we have the Person of Christ living within us, then we have salvation.

12 The one who has the Son has life. The one who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

• John 17:3 - This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent—Jesus Christ.[3]
• One cannot be in fellowship with the Father without personal faith in the Son![4]

13 I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

• Assurance of salvation
• 1. Believers have eternal life.

14 This is the confidence (boldness or freedom) we have before him: If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

• John is not talking about naming and claiming in prayer.
• He is not concerned with material items or health and wealth.
• To the contrary, God gives us according to His will.
• God’s will is not an ambiguous concept.
• He desires for us to believe in Jesus and express Jesus.
• Therefore, God’s will is ultimately a person who is our salvation and our eternal life.
• If we ask God for salvation, He will deliver it to us in Christ and come to live within us.

15 And if we know that he hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked of him.

• 2. God hears believer’s prayers
• 3. God answers believer’s prayers
• Psalm 37:4 - Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.[5]

16 If anyone sees a fellow believer committing a sin that doesn’t lead to death, he should ask, and God will give life

• abundant life… not referring to eternal life.

to him—to those who commit sin that doesn’t lead to death. There is sin that leads to death.

• John is speaking of the unbelief in Jesus.
• God will not forgive unbelief because salvation is tied to the person and work of Jesus Christ.
• Consequently, John states that we are not to pray for people to believe because God will not make someone believe.
• He does not force His union but rather stands at the door and knocks.

I am not saying he should pray about that. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin that doesn’t lead to death.

• 2 Peter 2:1-10 - There were indeed false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their depraved ways, and the way of truth will be maligned because of them. 3 They will exploit you in their greed with made-up stories. Their condemnation, pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep.
• For if God didn’t spare the angels who sinned but cast them into hell and delivered them in chains of utter darkness to be kept for judgment; 5 and if he didn’t spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, when he brought the flood on the world of the ungodly; 6 and if he reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes and condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is coming to the ungodly;, 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, distressed by the depraved behavior of the immoral 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day by day, his righteous soul was tormented by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)--9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, 10 especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority.[6]
• John could be referring to sins that deal with:
    1) Fellowship with God
    2) Fellowship with other believers
    3) Fellowship with the world

 
CONCLUSION
18 We know that everyone who has been born of God

• 4. Believers are born of God
• All who believe in Jesus are born again.
• Therefore, while believers can still make mistakes they will not be characterized by these sins.
• We are no longer compatible with sin which means we cannot perpetually celebrate and continue in sin.

does not sin, (continue in the practice of sin) but the one who is born of God keeps him, (Christ sustains us) and the evil one does not touch him (cannot condemn). 19 We know that we are of God,

• 5. Believers are of God

and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one.

• Satan controls the entire world.
• However, he does not hold control over believers.
• All who believe in Jesus have been delivered from the power of the evil one. [7]

20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true one.

• 6. Believers know the Messiah has come and given us understanding

We are in the true one—that is, in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

• 7. Believers know the True One – Either the Father or the Son

21 Little children, guard yourselves from idols.[8]

• sin… false teachers.

 
Assurance has become a denominational issue
1. John Calvin based assurance on God’s election. He said that we can never be certain in this life.
2. John Wesley based assurance on religious experience. He believed that we have the ability to live above known sin.
3. Roman Catholics and the Church of Christ base assurance on an authoritative Church. The group to which one belongs is the key to assurance.
4.      Most evangelicals base assurance on the promises of the Bible, linked to the fruit of the Spirit in the life of the believer (cf. Gal. 5:22–23).[9]

[1] Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[3] Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[4] Utley, R. J. D. (1999). Vol. Volume 4: The Beloved Disciple's Memoirs and Letters: The Gospel of John, I, II, and III John. Study Guide Commentary Series (238). Marshall, Texas: Bible Lessons International.
[5] Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[6] Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[7] Farley, Andrew. www.BibleCommentary.com. 1 John 5.
[8] Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[9] Utley, R. J. D. (1999). Vol. Volume 4: The Beloved Disciple's Memoirs and Letters: The Gospel of John, I, II, and III John. Study Guide Commentary Series (239). Marshall, Texas: Bible Lessons International.