Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.highlandparkbaptist.net/sermons/95047/1-peter-introduction/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] What we're going to be looking at this winter and fall and winter is 1 and 2 Peter.

[0:24] ! Beginning with 1 Peter, obviously.! And I've not taught those. The Apostle Peter was the acknowledged leader of the 12 original disciples.

[0:48] We should see 11 of those men in heaven someday. I'm excluding the betrayer, Judas Iscariot, who has gone to that terrible place reserved for him from eternity, where he will remain forever.

[1:13] And we should remember that when the Lord told the 11 true disciples that one of the 12 was a betrayer, all 11 in their hearts, in their minds, and most of them utilizing their vocal cords said, is it I, Lord?

[1:48] They all saw within themselves the capacity to be the betrayer that the Lord was talking about.

[2:00] I say that myself. Many times. Many times. Is it I, Lord?

[2:12] Lord? Peter was introduced to the Lord Jesus Christ by his brother Andrew.

[2:26] Together they ran a fishing business. They came from a really small village called Bethsaida. Later moved to a much larger community that was, went by the name of Capernaum.

[2:45] We are told in two of the gospel accounts that their fishing business was very successful. So they moved to Capernaum and bought a large residence.

[3:00] And families tended to live together. They still do in the Middle East. Not just Israel, but the Arab world. And I've been over there many times. And you'll see this big, almost palace.

[3:15] And you'll have five generations or four generations living in that residence. Some of you know the name Vasu, the engineer here. And he had a son that was a doctor.

[3:26] And he owns a big place out west of town. And he had three or four generations living. You're a plum out there. Yes, I am. Have you? He had a big, big home.

[3:40] And that was back in the days in Israel and in the Arab world. Where when you had a son, or he got married, you added rooms to your house.

[3:52] And so they had a palatial estate in Capernaum. A successful business of catching fish.

[4:04] They would have never hired me, I can promise you. We know that Peter was married. Well, we say, well, how do we know he's married?

[4:16] Well, Jesus healed his mother-in-law. I don't know what Peter thought about that, but he healed his mother-in-law.

[4:30] And actually, we learn from one of the Corinthian letters that Peter's wife accompanied him on some of his missionary journeys.

[4:43] Traveled with him. Pretty amazing. At birth, Peter was given the name Simon.

[4:54] That was a very common name in that part of the world. In the New Testament, there were at least eight men referred to as Simon.

[5:07] At the first meeting that Jesus had with Peter, the Lord gave him an Aramaic name.

[5:19] The name of Cephas, which means rock. Peter is the Greek equivalent of that Aramaic name.

[5:33] Following the Lord's resurrection... Peter grew tired of waiting for the Lord to appear. He told him, I'm coming back. And he grew tired of it.

[5:49] So he said something really dramatic. And if you ever teach on this, make sure you look up those words in the Greek language. Because it's usually translated, I'm going fishing.

[6:09] But more specifically, what he said was, fellas, I'm going to return to my previous life of fishing.

[6:21] I'm going back to the fishing business. And the rest of the disciples said, well, we'll go with you.

[6:32] We'll return as well. Now, Judas didn't say that. He was never a fisherman. And by now, he was dead from suicide. But the rest of the disciples said, we'll go too.

[6:51] Well, Jesus had other ideas for the eleven. And it didn't include fishing. Except as it relates to the fishers of men.

[7:03] They became the great evangelists of their time. But they went out that night and they fished.

[7:16] That was very common. First of all, the weather was conducive. It was nice, cool breeze. They're out there fishing. And they fished all night.

[7:29] And they didn't get a bite. Now, Mike's never experienced that, but I sure have. I guarantee you I have. They have a big grunet than I have. Yeah, I did.

[7:47] The next morning, they were coming in toward the shore and they looked. And one of them says, that's the Lord. This is the resurrected Jesus.

[8:01] He said, that's the Lord there on the shore. There was a fire. And probably you could smell it, but He was baking bread, fresh bread.

[8:13] And He was cooking fresh caught fish. So they knew what that smell was. This is the same meeting that the Lord had with Peter, and you'll remember that.

[8:28] And we'll study it in detail. Where He asked Him repeatedly, Peter, do you love me? You remember that?

[8:38] And Peter kept answering Him. Lord, You know I love You. I said, I said, okay. You know, Peter, do you love me? You know, He kept repeating it.

[8:51] He said, yes, Lord, You know I love You. We'll look at that in some detail. Well, a few weeks later, something really dramatic happened.

[9:08] The Holy Spirit descended on Peter and the other ten apostles.

[9:20] By now there may have been eleven because they elected, I think it was Matthias that got the vote. And it was at that point that Peter took the leadership role that he would be remembered for.

[9:44] He was a very strong leader. And Jesus wanted a strong leader. He also never interrupted Jesus more than any other of the apostles.

[9:57] Peter was always putting his foot in his mouth, always interrupting the Lord. But he became the undisputed leader. For one thing, he, as a leader, he went out and he found a replacement for Judas Iscariot.

[10:17] And it always bothered me that they had a vote for that, but I think that's the way they did things. Sounds very Baptist, you know. They went out and formed a committee.

[10:30] On the eighth day, God made committees. Peter became the fearless preacher of the gospel of Christ and a successful preacher.

[10:45] First time he ever preached, 3,000 people got saved. It was amazing. Peter performed many bold and miraculous healings.

[11:02] Even his shadow would be cast on an invalid and the person was healed. It's amazing to track his life and his ministry.

[11:18] And Peter never hesitated if it was necessary to confront the Jewish authorities.

[11:32] And he really put them on the spot. He'd say, well, which is better, for me to obey God or you? I mean, what do you tell a guy? Or what does he tell you if you put it to him that way?

[11:45] But Peter didn't hesitate to confront the Jewish authorities. Peter was known to discipline sinning church members.

[12:01] He followed the method and the manner laid down by our Lord, but he wouldn't hesitate to discipline sinning church members. One of my favorite, and we'll be looking at that, was when he confronted Simon the magician.

[12:21] You remember that charlatan? And we've got a lot of them on television today. But Simon the magician saw the power that the Lord had given Peter and he said, what would you charge to give me some of that?

[12:45] I want to buy some of that power. And I guess for all, in our language today, Peter probably said, you and your money can go to hell.

[12:57] It was pretty graphic. But he confronted Simon the magician because he thought he could purchase the power of the Holy Spirit.

[13:15] We've got guys doing that today, boys. You know, if you'll donate enough money, I can give you the Spirit.

[13:25] I can give you healing power. Unless we forget, it was under Peter's leadership that the doors of the church were thrown open to the Gentiles.

[13:45] We'll probably spend a little time in the book of Acts because there we see the Jerusalem Council. And James and Peter were leaders in that.

[13:58] And those doors were thrown open. We also will probably study the story of Cornelius and how the Lord took Peter to the home of Cornelius, a Roman centurion.

[14:20] And Peter said, Lord, I've never gone to a Gentile home. I'll be unclean. And then Cornelius offered him a meal.

[14:36] He said, I've never eaten anything like this, Lord. Unclean animals. And the Lord said, stop calling unclean what I've made clean. And Cornelius and his household, including we suspect slaves and servants, were all baptized.

[14:56] Peter stayed with them a few days. That was amazing revelation for Peter. Just an amazing revelation. Peter was never the same.

[15:14] And the church was never the same. And the Gentiles are still not the same. That's us. And we're going to be covering all of this and a whole lot more.

[15:34] It's very interesting where Peter, first Peter starts. The Holy Spirit who penned those words starts with the doctrine of election.

[15:48] That's amazing. the most feared and hated doctrine in the Bible. Unless you're one of the elect. Then you're grateful.

[15:59] But in writing this wonderful epistle, Peter addressed it to Christians residing in Pontus and Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

[16:19] And those were all parts of the Roman Empire that are now a part of the modern day nation of Turkey. And I've been to Turkey.

[16:34] It's also where we have the seven churches of Revelation. Remember the horseshoe of the seven churches? That's the old Roman postal route. And you start way down here in Ephesus and you end in Laodicea.

[16:48] And it forms a horseshoe. And Turkey's an interesting nation that used to be very moderate. Muslim nations is getting more aggressive with their Prime Minister Ergadan.

[17:05] He's rather tough. As far as all parts, as far as dating this writing, it most likely occurred just before the very intense persecution that broke out under Nero.

[17:28] No doubt you guys have studied Nero at some point in your high school or college. And you remember Nero was an emperor. Nero, he's the one that set fire to Rome and then fiddled while Rome burned.

[17:46] He's a pyromaniac. He liked to watch things burn, I guess. And it nearly destroyed the city of Rome. You can go to the Roman ruins now and you get down to a certain level and you see charred rocks and walls.

[18:05] That happened in the summer of AD 64, by the way. So why did Peter write this letter? What was his desire for his readers?

[18:18] He wanted us in every age to stand firm in the true gospel of God especially as they faced increasing persecution.

[18:42] And fellas, if you don't think that persecution isn't increasing in our day, gosh, please get your head out of the sand and get a hold of VOM. They'll put you on their mailing list free of charge, by the way.

[18:56] And many of their magazines are down in our classroom, the multi-purpose room. You can take as many as you like. But persecution and suffering was increasing and Peter wanted them to have the strong gift of the grace of God.

[19:19] And he begins that by reminding them of their election in Christ. It's an amazing way to start a book. They were all going to have a heavenly inheritance.

[19:36] Peter instructed them on how to act and react in a world that was growing very hostile to Christ. And boy, it is growing hostile now to the Lord.

[19:52] God. And this study will stand as good instruction for our day. We can break this epistle, the first one, down really in three categories.

[20:10] First of all, we'll be looking at suffering Christians, and they should remember of their great salvation.

[20:24] When persecution comes, when you suffer for His name's sake. Now, sometimes, you know, we're obstinate and we deserve to suffer.

[20:36] But I'm talking about that comes at us externally. we remember our great salvation and how it was purchased by the blood of the Lamb.

[20:51] And we should also remember, we as suffering Christians, should remember their example before men. And then finally, suffering Christians should remember that the Lord's going to return someday and take them home.

[21:12] Living up in the country where I live, barely a day goes by that I'm not outdoors doing something, and I look up toward the east, and I'm looking to see if there's something miraculous happening in the clouds.

[21:35] Or with my limited hearing, I listen for the trump of God. It's an amazing time that we live in.

[21:48] And I don't know when the Lord's coming back. I have no clue. But the time is short. John wrote 2,000 years ago, these are the last times.

[22:03] If we were in the last times 2,000 years ago, what are we now? What are we in now? Well, Peter's going to really help us weave our way through.

[22:17] And when we get to 2 Peter, it's going to get very prophetic about the last days. So we're looking forward to this study.

[22:28] I hope you guys will enjoy it and benefit from it. God hear God hear will! He will the!

[22:38]  will the God be him to