1 Peter Chapter 1:1-21
I. A Heavenly Inheritance 1 Peter 1:3-12
II. Living Before God Our Father Chapter 1:13-21
Jesus came and showed us how to live a life of obedience to God through humility and humbleness of spirit. Jesus was willing to suffer personally for the ultimate will and glory of God. Even though He was The Son of God, He was also the Son of Man and He learned obedience through the things He suffered.
May we too display our faith in God through obedience, even in our pain, in our suffering and in our loss, so that a dying world may see and know the Hope we have in Christ.
1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
For followers of Christ, our hope is grounded and built on the foundation of the life of Christ. He is the person in which our Hope is anchored, He is the embodiment of our Hope. It is with a fixed and determined belief and confidence, that what He has promised He is able to perform. This is unlike the wild fancies that are conjured up by trickeries, lies and deceits of this fallen world, that all societies are exposed to through social norms or mass media. This often causes people to lose heart when their unrealistic dreams or wishes fail.
1 Peter 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, NIV
1 Peter 1:6-7 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, NKJ
This principle of testing and the trying of one’s faith was shown at the beginning in the garden. God’s abundant love for mankind had already been displayed when He gave them of every tree in the garden to eat, created them in His image and gave them authority over all His creation. The only exception was the tree of knowledge of good and evil and that was the test of their faith and obedience to God. Faith that is not tested it’s just a theory. It is not until our faith has been tried and proven that it becomes our reality.
Living Before God Our Father 1 Peter 1:13-21
1 Peter 1:17 If you call on Him as Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man’s work, pass the time of your living as foreigners here in reverent fear. WEB
Matthew 7:26-27“But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
Jesus told us to take His yoke and learn of Him. Jesus was humble and trusted God to be faithful to His word. We are to be as a good soldier, one who is about the business of their leader’s mission and not their own selfish desires.
Before the foundation of the world was laid, we were chosen by God to be in the family of God. Jesus paid the price for our sins and the treason we committed against God. Jesus brought us back into the family of God and brought His kingdom to earth. That is the Good News of Christ; the kingdom of heaven is now available to us on earth. The kingdom of heaven is mentioned more than any other subject in the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Jesus preached, the good news of the kingdom of heaven is at hand and is now available to all humanity. This is the gospel of Jesus that the kingdom of God has arrived on earth.
I Peter 1: 17-21 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
Jesus preached, “Repent,” which means, to turn or to change the way you think. Jesus is saying, because God’s kingdom has returned to mankind on the earth we can change the way we think about life, ourselves and how we conduct ourselves. Jesus tells us what the kingdom of God is like and how we are to operate in this new kingdom. Jesus taught in parables that most people did not understand and many still do not. But, for His disciples, those who sought and asked for the meaning of the parables, it was revealed to them. It is the same today. Jesus tells us to ask, seek and knock and when we ask for wisdom God will give it to us. God is ready to answer our prayers and the word tells us we have not because we do not ask God or we ask with the wrong motive.
Luke 11:9-10 So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
James 4:3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
Integrity- People of God 