Wayfaring Strangers
A study of 1 Peter
Part 1
1 Peter 1:1-2, 6 John 16:33
Introduction
How many of you have been somewhere in your life?
Where you just did not feel comfortable
You did not feel that you belonged there?
Maybe it was a place, a bad situation maybe even a relationship
Maybe it was just that what ever was going on was not what you were into
I can tell you there have been many times in my life
Where I have found myself in this type of situation
I remember a few years ago
Several thousand miles from here
Standing outside
Looking at the Zambian sunset
Surrounded by friends who were there for the same reason I was
Surrounded by almost 2 million citizens of Lusaka
And feeling so alone
Why
Because
I was in a strange land
I did not understand the language
The culture
The customs
Quite frankly
As Deets asked Captain Call
When the rode into Wyoming
“Captain, why are we here- this ain’t our country”
As I stood in Lusaka
Waiting to head out to Chong Whey village
I felt like a wayfaring stranger
A foreigner in a strange land
An alien- not a monster from outer space
Although they did call me “the moon man” in Zambia
But someone who did not belong
This is where I want to go today as we begin a series on the book of 1 Peter
Today we are beginning a journey through I Peter titled” wayfaring strangers”
I encourage you put in a book mark, the little ribbon that comes with your bibles or whatever you use to mark your place
Because we’re going to be here for several months.
We’re going to go through this epistle verse-by-verse so that we can discover what God is saying to us today.
I also encourage you to read and study this little book in your own quiet times
It is my desire to teach you to become students of scripture
Not just readers or listeners of scripture
But it is also my goal to get each of you to be livers of scripture
1 Peter
It’s short
Only 5 chapters
Only 5 pages in a non-study bible
Only 105 verses
I Peter can easily be read in less than an hour by most people and if you are a slow reader
Certainty in a few hours.
I challenge you to read this great book for yourself
Think about it
Study it
And apply it to your life
If you do that
I can promise that you will get much more from this series
Than if you just show up here on Sunday and wait for me to tell you what it says
A Question that is often asked Whenever we start a new series through a book
Is why this book? “why I Peter and not any of the 65 other books in the Bible?”.
Here’s my answer:
We are going through I Peter because it is
Short
It is simple,
and it speaks to us today in this world
Right where we live
Peter wrote to scattered believers Jews and Gentiles to encourage them to live for Christ in a hostile world.
It is both a message of encouragement ---Hold tight- stay hooked
Don’t go back to the gate
And it is a warning that the Christian life is not and will not be easy
And a promise that obedience will be rewarded
In short
It will be hard
But it will be worth it
As I think about our own congregation
As a church, we’re no longer a truly local congregation.
We have members and visitors from Tyler to Emory
From Terrell to Big Sandy
Think about this
In the old days
Most people went to church inn the community that they lived in
Many living within just a few miles of the church
And those people interacted with their church family on a regular basis
In many aspects of life
Work
School
Shopping
Day to day life
That’s no longer true. Today we are a regional church with a congregation drawn from many different towns, cities and communities
Sometimes if you are not going to a church or a church -related event
You can go the whole week without ever seeing another person from Caney Creek
And because of this it’s easy to feel alone and disconnected.
So now simply take that situation and stretch it out to cover hundreds of miles, place it in ancient Asia Minor,
Turn the clock back to the first century
Add the hostile feelings from the non-believing world
Families
Friends
Acquaintances
Co workers
The Romans
The Jews
The pagans
And you can begin to place yourself in the shoes and lives of those who Peter originally wrote to
And then you can apply his teachings to your own lives and own situations
Today
It is my intent to introduce you to this great book
In the weeks to come
We will dig much deeper
But it is important to answer a few questions before we begin digging
The book itself answers the following questions in the first 2 verses
Please open your bibles to 1 Peter
Chapter 1
1 Peter 1:1-2 This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.
I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.[a] 2 God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.
May God give you more and more grace and peace.
Question 1 Who wrote this book
Verse 1 the introduction gives us this answer
“This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.”
In todays time we typically end by signing a note or letter
In the time of this writing it was common to begin a letter with a self-introduction
The Apostle Peter does just that
You all know Peter
He was one of Jesus’ first followers
A fisherman
A knothead I like to call him
Peter the one who walked on water
Cut off the ear of a man in the garden
Denied Jesus three times
Ran off and left him
And then was restored by Jesus himself
As one of the first disciples, he accompanied Jesus throughout his earthly ministry, and he was the informal leader of the Jesus’ boys
Jesus gave him the name Peter, which means “Rock.” And he writes like a man named Rock.
In the early days
Peter did not live up to this name
But now at this writing
He has been transformed into
The rock
He is the leader of the church
His words are blunt, honest, and straight to the point.
Always have been
But now they are seasoned with love
Wisdom
Experience
And an undying commitment to The good news of Jesus Christ
Peter was transformed into who he is in this writing
By the power of the Holy Spirit in the book of acts
The unqualified fisherman
Became the qualified rock of Jesus church
And he was equipped to fulfill his purpose and position by God
Some will say
Peter was not the writer
They say his Greek is too good
He does not write like a fisherman
To this I say Horse feathers
Whatever God calls us to do he will equip us to do
He just needs willingness and obedience
So the next question is
Who was Peter writing to?
Verse 1 tells us that Peter wrote to believers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.
1 Peter 1:1
I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.[a
These were areas in modern-day Turkey
Unlike other New Testament letters written to specific local churches, Peter wrote directly to the believers who were scattered far from him and far from each other.
Some were refugees that fled when the persecution began in Jerusalem in acts
Some were Jewish converts who were born in these places
Others were Gentile believers who left their pagan beliefs behind and accepted the gospel
Some were converts from the first missionary expansion of the church.
Some converts that suffered persecution in Israel and fled
First Peter is a letter to the mission field.
Next, we must ask when it was written
Some of you may not care
And I will tell you it is not imperative that you care or memorize the time
In order to understand the writing
But it is helpful
To know what was going on in the world at the time
So while no one knows for certain the exact dates of this letter
64 AD is a a good guess.
Better yet
As you learned in science class
It is a good hypotonus
Which simply means an educated guess
Why is this a good guess
64 AD
Is the year that Emperor Nero burned Rome and blamed it on the Christians?
This event touching off a wave of persecution that spread across the Roman Empire. And effected most if not all believers of that day
Up to that point the persecution had mostly been from the families of those who had converted
The Jews Who felt that the Christians were traitors
And heretics
The pagans who were losing money because the new believers refused to support their pagan based economy
And a few Romans who saw them as revolutionaries
But the persecution was not yet widespread
The next question is why did Peter feel led to write this letter?
We can find a partial answer in verse 2
2 God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.
May God give you more and more grace and peace.
Peter wants these wayfaring strangers to know that they are loved and chosen by God
That they belong to God
That they are made holy though the indwelling of the Holy Spirit
And that they are cleansed from their sins by the blood of Jesus
He writes to encourage them to remember these things in spite of the hard times
In spite of the persecution
In spite of the pull of their old lives
We also find a partial answer in verse 6
“So be truly glad.[b] There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while.”
As Christianity spread across the world
it encountered widespread opposition because the followers of Jesus constituted a direct challenge to immorality, idolatry, paganism and emperor-worship.
Christians became social outcasts as bizarre rumors spread from town to town.
Here is a principle we need to keep in mind:
What you don’t understand, you fear.
What you fear, you oppose.
What you oppose, you attack.
That’s where the early Christians found themselves.
They were misunderstood
They were feared
They were opposed and
Ultimately
They were attacked.
In Rome, Christians were tortured, covered with animal skins and attacked by dogs, thrown in prison, and made into human torches.
We are all familiar with the stories of the Christians and the lions
But they were also persecuted in smaller
Less violet ways
Oster cation from family
Loss of friends
Jobs
Homes
Peter has dealt with persecution first hand
Having been imprisoned and only spared from execution by divine intervention
And he sees the approaching storm
So, he writes to say that things are going to get worse before they get better.
But his words and his intent are more positive than negative.
He writes to encourage the scattered believers to stand fast in the grace of God
During the storms
But remember this
Peter is a letter for the here-and-now also
For us today
In Grand saline Texas
In Van Zandt County
His words could have easily been written in 2018
Next week we are going to dig in with a sermon titled
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
But I will give you a little preview today
Charles Dickens wrote a great book titled” A Tale of Two Cities,”
Many of you may have read this in High School English
It has been years since I read it myself
One day I intend to read it again
But Dickens wrote these unforgettable words:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
That is the meat of Peter’s message.
Because you are a Christian
You live in two different worlds at the same time.
The story of the Christian life is really a tale of two worlds
The world of God
And
The world of man.
Peter’s purpose for writing is to encourage
To warn
And to show us how to live as believers in a hostile unbelieving world
To show us how to improve our relationships
With ourselves
With the world and more importantly with God
So, he writes to “God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners”
Wayfaring strangers
Aliens
Strangers in a strange land
The key word here is foreigners
which is sometimes translated as “aliens” or “sojourners” or even strangers”
We think of those who come from another country but now live in this country.
Peter means that Christians are strangers residing on the earth whose home is in heaven.
Listen
Christians are residents of heaven
That is our home- that is where we belong
Who are temporarily living on earth, in this world
Very similar to the scene I painted you from my time in Zambia
If you are a believer you are surrounded by people
Who don’t think like you
Act like you
Talk like you
Or live like you.
They have a set of values you don’t share
But that’s only part of what Peter means.
He is also writing to people who were living in their hometowns.
The believers in Cappadocia had been raised there.
They spoke the same language
wore the same clothes,
ate the same food,
and shared the same culture.
But now these hometown folks had embraced the gospel of Jesus and everything had changed for them.
They had become strangers in their own hometowns
Peter says
The same thing happens today whenever the gospel penetrates
A nation
A city
A town
A community
A jobsite or work place
A classroom
A business
or a family.
Nothing is the same as it used to be.
Everything has changed because you aren’t the person you used to be.
Now you are a stranger to people who have known you for a lifetime.
That’s hard for some Christians to face.
Peter is saying
“There’s been a change in your life.”
You’ve changed brands
You used to ride for the world
For your self
And now you ride for Jesus
You didn’t move physically but you did move spiritually.
Salvation has made you a stranger in the world.
So, hang on tight
Don’t go back to the gate
And
Remember Jesus said in John 16:33
“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world."
Close from the heart
Pray
