Sermon Series on 1 Peter
Hope, in a world that is not our home
1 Peter 4
December 12, 2021
In chapter 4 of 1 Peter, Peter challenges us to shift our thinking about life in this world as a follower of Jesus. He conveys three surprising principles: 1. Christians who have died to their sinful passion will not fit in with the world around them. (1-6) 2. Every believer is given a spiritual gift for the good of the body and for the glory of God. (7-11) 3. Christians embrace suffering as an inevitable part of living for God in this world; this suffering leads us to a greater trust in our faithful God. (12-19) The Big Idea we discovered was that God calls followers of Jesus to live in a world they will never belong to, to help a community He gifts them to serve, and to suffer trials as those who have put their trust in a faithful God.
1 Peter 3
December 5, 2021 • Dr. Peter Radford
In chapter 3 of 1 Peter, Peter is driving home the idea that Christians need to live in a counter-cultural way. The culture pulls us away from Christ, but (here’s the Big Idea) being an elect exile means embracing a life-transforming faith that causes believers to swim against the current of the culture. Peter examines this concept in several arenas including marriage, the church, and living in a world that is hostile to Christians.
1 Peter 2:18-25
November 28, 2021 • Dr. Peter Radford
In today’s text, Peter challenges his readers to follow the example of Christ as they face suffering. He presents Christ as a faultless example of selflessness and suffering for doing what is right. He challenges us to follow Christ’s example in three ways: 1. Believers follow the example of the suffering Savior by enduring suffering for righteous actions. (18-20) 2. Believers following the example of our Suffering Savior by copying Jesus’ selfless example. (21-23) 3. Believers follow the example of our Suffering Savior by dying to sin and living to righteousness on the basis of his sacrifice. (24-25) The Big Idea was pretty clear: God wants our lives to reflect the self-sacrificing example of our Suffering Savior
1 Peter 2:11-17
November 21, 2021 • Dr. Peter Radford
In the text today, Peter helps clarify what it means to live as sojourners and exiles in a hostile world. He talks about our relation to the other people in the world and our relationship to those in governmental authority. We discovered two principles along the way: 1. When believers live honorably before a hostile world, the world is drawn to Christ. (11-12) 2. When believers willingly show honor to a hostile government, objections to the gospel are silenced. (13-17) The Big Idea of the text is as follows: God ordained us to live honorably and to show honor in a hostile world opposed to Him and His message.
1 Peter 2:4-10
November 14, 2021 • Dr. Peter Radford
This week’s text is all about our identity: who we are as believers and who we are not. When taken in the context of the book of 1 Peter, these verses provide a powerful reminder that when we face difficulties, we need to remember who God made us to be. Our identity can be summarized in three components: 1. Don’t forget who you are not (7-8, 10) 2. Don’t forget who you are (5-6; 9) 3. Don’t forget what God designed you to do (5, 9)
1 Peter 2:1-3
October 31, 2021
In this week’s text, Peter presents a simple yet profound formula for spiritual growth. He describes two parts of the process that are essentially two sides of a coin: Side One: Putting away sins against others and God Side Two: Deeply desiring the transforming word of God (v. 2-3) We can summarize the text as follows: When we turn our hearts away from sin, God’s word can flood in and cause us to grow! The challenge of this message is to consider whether we are pursuing this in our lives.
1 Peter 1:22-25
October 17, 2021 • Dr. Peter Radford • 1 Peter 1:22–25
In today’s passage, Peter provides believers with a roadmap to Christian love. He lays out all the specifics including who, how, and why to love. In addition, he presents two ideas about how this love should function in the first century (and today: • Love like this is countercultural. • Love like this binds the body of Christ together to face persecution. All of this reinforces the Big Idea of the text that God saved us so that we would show love to other believers.
1 Peter 1:13-21
September 26, 2021 • Dr. Peter Radford
Following his grand presentation of God’s saving work through the ages and the assurance of our hope for the future, Peter challenges followers of Christ to live in this world like they don’t belong. He provides three steps to lead us in this lifestyle: 1. Live with Hope (13) 2. Live in Holiness (14-16) 3. Live in Reverence (17) The passage concludes with a description of God’s saving work for us through Jesus. We used this concept to challenge ourselves about making God our center. (18-21).
1 Peter 1:3-9
September 12, 2021 • Dr. Peter Radford
This text details for us how God wants us to have a Living Hope, which comes in two varieties: • True believers in Christ have hope for the future (3-6) • True believers in Christ have hope for today (6-9) The message this week outlines three reasons why each of the above statements is true and culminates in the following Big Idea: God wants you to live your life in a settled hope for the future and for today.
1 Peter 1:1-2
September 5, 2021 • Dr. Peter Radford
This week we focus on the unique name that Peter gives his audience: elect exiles. We consider the following three questions in our study: • What is an elect exile? • How does one become an elect exile? • How do we live our lives as elect exiles? Our Big Idea for this week is: God chooses us out of this world, to live in this world temporarily, as citizens of a different world.
Introduction to 1 Peter
August 22, 2021 • Dr. Peter Radford
This week, we'll spend some time introducing the book of 1 Peter. After a brief (and somewhat academic) overview of the book, we will consider a challenge from Peter’s life and a short passage in 1 Peter 1. When Peter decided to go back to fishing in John 21, it was a step away from what Jesus wanted. Through Jesus’ encouragement, Peter redirects his trajectory back toward serving Jesus. We find traces of this decision in Peter’s command in 1 Peter 1:13: “Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” These words challenge usto consider what we are living for, this life or the next one.