All right, so this is First and Second Peter: A message for todays church from Peter the Apostle.
This is lesson number one in that series.
The title of this particular lesson "The Meaning of Grace: Part One".
And as far as the text is concerned today we're going to cover first Peter chapter one
verses one to 12, so you can be taking your Bibles and looking at that.
Before we look at the text of First and Second Peter I'd like to
provide a little bit of information about Peter the Apostle himself.
Of all the Apostles we probably know the most about him.
And then after this introductory
material we'll examine the main theme of the first letter which is
the true meaning and power of God's grace in Christ, in Christ Jesus.
So Peter is unique actually among the
Apostles because he had a diverse life for a man of humble origins.
There were four important phases to his life. The first was Peter
as the successful fisherman. He lived in Capernaum where Jesus
also lived as an adult. We know that from Mark 1:21. He and his
brother Andrew had a fishing business together he was married he had children.
We know this because he served as an elder, I Peter 5:1,
and his mother in law lived with him which was not unusual for that time.
Families lived together, extended families.
Also, he was Peter the successful fisherman, he was Peter the disciple of Jesus.
Peter knew Jesus because they lived in the same town,
and was introduced by his brother,
Andrew, to Jesus. And his brother Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist.
So there are the connections: his brother is a disciple of John the Baptist, John the
Baptist leads Andrew to Jesus. Andrew brings his brother, you know, it's all connected.
Peter had both high and low moments in his
life as a disciple of Jesus. He observed
miracles, he performed miracles. That's a pretty high point. He was present at the
transfiguration of Jesus. That's a pretty remarkable experience.
He saw unfortunately the death of Jesus but was the witness also to his
resurrection. Again a pretty high point in his life as a disciple, but he had low points as
well. He was reprimanded by Jesus for
suggesting even that Jesus avoid the cross, you know, "get thee behind me Satan". That
was a pretty tough rebuke for Peter. We
know also that he denied knowing Jesus. You know the betrayal three times he denied knowing
Jesus. Interesting that all four Evangelists mentioned Peter's
denial of Jesus. All four of them record that particular event, a very low
point in his life. So you've got Peter the successful fisherman, disciple of
Jesus, he was also a church leader. Paul says that along with James and John
Peter was a pillar or leader in the early church, he was the first to preach the
gospel, Acts Chapter 2.
And preach the gospel to many of the people who had, you know, actually been
complicit in Jesus's crucifixion. And so, you know, he had to
preach the gospel to them. First time he stood up to the Jewish leaders who threatened him in order to be
quiet and he didn't back down, Acts 3 and 4. He
also stood up to those in the church who wanted to keep the gentiles out of the church,
Acts Chapter 15. So you see him in his role as
church leader after the departure of Christ.
And then Peter as the author. He was uneducated in the sense
that he didn't have the kind of training that the scribes had. He
wasn't stupid but he didn't have that kind of training. He didn't go to rabbinical school.
His writing style is simple when compared to the others, but the ideas profound.
Some people believe that Mark's gospel for example is actually Peter's
account of his experiences with Jesus dictated to Mark
and Mark is writing down what Peter is feeding him and the net result
was the Gospel of Mark. He did write two
letters under his name (perhaps more) but we know of two that he wrote under his own name: First and
Second Peter. And he wrote them to the same group. Those people were
in Asia Minor. Today we call that country Turkey. Around
64/65 A.D. near the end of his life he
wrote these things. He died in Rome crucified upside down because he
refused to be crucified in the same manner as his Lord and so he they crucified him
upside down, 67 A.D. fulfilling Jesus prophecy
about him when Jesus talked about how he would eventually be martyred in
John 21:18.
It's interesting that many study the book of Romans for example or the book of
Galatians to learn about the subject of God's grace. And this is
OK since in these two letters the theory and the benefits of God's grace are
well explained in the book of Romans, in the book of Galatians.
But it is in the book of Peter, Peter's first letter especially that we
see what grace produces in a person's life. A life like
Peter's, that is a mixture of good and bad, success and failure.
You know your life, my life, you know, in Peter's writings we find
how grace affects the ordinary person. That's my point.
So hopefully by the end of our study
we will have a greater understanding not only of what God's grace
means, you know, unmerited favor and so and so forth the definition of grace,
but we're going to actually see what it produces in a person's life.
But before we do that we need to first deal with some incorrect and inaccurate ideas of
grace that a lot of people believe, unfortunately.
So we start with: what grace is not.
What it isn't. And when we mention the word
grace to people many times it conjures up different things to
them. Some of the things that they say or think about the subject
of grace are just not biblical. For example some
people see grace as a form of liberalism.
You know some things that grace means that you can do what you want to do because as a saved
person God will not let you be lost because you're under grace.
You know, you're under grace, you do what you want. Of course this is
unbiblical because Paul in Romans 6:1 says, "Shall we continue in sin that
grace may increase?
May it never be." So Paul says that grace is not an excuse to continue
sinning without guilt or consequence. Don't use grace as an excuse to just keep on
doing what you're doing. So those who are under grace
are not free to continue to sin because the Bible says the
wages of sin is death, or the wage of sin is death, Romans 6:23.
So grace is not liberalism.
Some people think that grace is permissiveness. People who believe that grace, means
that when it comes to you, God's child, God doesn't
care about sin. He is blind to your sin because of grace. In other words, grace
with this mindset it makes God into some sort of indulgent
grandfather who says, "Oh boys will be boys."
"Human beings are weak." He is a tolerant God.
But the Bible says, see that's the problem, when you hold up that idea and hold that up against the
Bible and you've got to go with what the Bible says. The Bible says,
"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. That each one may
be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done whether good or
bad." II Corinthians 5:10. Does that sound like a permissive God to you?
Doesn't sound like a permissive God to me.
So grace does not mean that God ignores or indulges
our sins. Not a single one. I knew a fellow once who was a,
you know, a pretty devout Christian. But he was a smoker.
And we talked about that, and I asked him about that
and he said that God permitted him this vice because he was under a lot of pressure.
I figure, you know, whatever works for you, you know. But that's how he justified.
You know, I mean God is gracious to me. He lets it slide. He
lets this thing slide, you know, because I'm under a lot of pressure. I got a lot of
work and this is the thing that helps me, you know, helps me get through,
relaxes me.
Of course it also poisons you, gives you cancer and so on and so forth.
But, you know, why quibble.
Number three: what grace is not, it's not worldliness.
Again some people think that grace is a special permission that they have from God to
to simply remain in the world. By grace they're going to heaven.
So in the meantime they can just be part of this world till it's time to go. In
other words, no effort at Holy living, no effort at spiritual growth, no effort at building the
Kingdom.
These are the people who just, you know, clock in, clock out, you know, church wise
prayer wise.
But the Bible clearly indicates that those who are saved by grace are
also transformed by that grace into something different.
And that's what Peter really talks about in his epistle. Paul the
Apostle says that Christians produce spiritual fruit.
Love and joy and patience and kindness and faithfulness, as well as
self-control so on and so forth.
So grace does not excuse us from living a holy and
pure and fruitful and faithful life. It actually promotes it and
permits it in our life.
And then the other one I like is pre-meditation. Well when I say I like...
The worst and most dangerous misconception about grace is that you can
play around with it and use it to your advantage.
Very dangerous.
The most dangerous gain in the spiritual world is
presuming on God's grace. In other words, thinking you can
sin now and enjoy that because later on God's grace will
cover your tracks, and actually having that mindset.
Grace is not something that we used to enjoy sinfulness.
When we do this we don't realize that the net effect of this type of thinking is that it hardens our
conscience to the point where we can't repent. We don't even know how anymore.
This is what the Hebrew writer is talking about in Hebrews 6, you know, verses 4-8,
where he ends up and he says where we can not be renewed again to repentance.
He's talking about hardening of the heart. People that play around with grace.
So liberalism and permissiveness
and worldliness and pre-meditation, these are some of the things that grace
is not.
So let's look at Peter's epistle and after reviewing his introduction we're going to see the
first thing that grace really is. So let's first of all read
verse one, First Peter 1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who
reside as aliens scattered through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia
and Bithynia, who are,
Who are chosen. Who are chosen. So
Peter introduces himself,
first. In those days letters were the reverse of what letters are today. Today
you go dear Joe. Blah blah blah How's it going, you know, your friend Mike. In those days
was the reverse. Hello this is Mike. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Hope you're doing well Joe. So they introduced themselves at the top
rather than at the end.
So he immediately establishes his credibility and authority as not just any
apostle. I'm not just any messenger he says, but I'm a messenger chosen
specifically by Christ himself. So, you know, that establishes
his authority for what he's going to be saying later on. The letter is directed to churches
that are scattered throughout Asia Minor. As I said today Turkey.
And would be passed around among them upon reception. Verse 2,
He says, "according to the foreknowledge of God the Father by the sanctifying work of the spirit
to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: may grace
and peace be yours in the fullest measure."
So he offers a blessing upon them. And he gives the reason why
they should receive this blessing. The blessing is that
grace and peace be upon them in full measure.
That's the blessing. Now the reason for them to have access to this
is four fold and I'll give it to you in reverse order OK. Four reasons.
Four reasons why they should receive the this blessing
completely.
First of all, Jesus died and shed his blood to wash away their
sins. Secondly, they obeyed the Gospel in repentance and baptism to
access this blood of Christ.
Thirdly, the Holy Spirit has filled them and continues to work in them. And fourthly,
God knew from the beginning that all those who would accept Jesus would have
these blessings. That's why they
should enjoy this blessing of grace and peace to its fullest measure
because of all these reasons: Jesus obtained it for him, they obeyed the gospel, the
spirit is inside of them, God knew that he would be blessing them. For all those reasons they should
enjoy that blessing. And interesting that he links the death of Christ to the
sprinkling of blood of the sacrifice by the high priest, right?
Have a branch of hyssop and the blood of the animal and everything would be
sprinkled with blood.
The altar, the everything would be sprinkled blood signifying a purification.
Well, he's saying we've been sprinkled with blood signifying our
purification.
So he prays that the blessings of grace and peace, as a result
of their salvation through Jesus, known and promised by God
would result in them experiencing the joy of grace
and peace. Now in the next verses he's going to explain that one
of the joys and meanings of this grace that he wishes upon them
is security. In other words, he wants them to experience grace. OK. He
wants them to experience grace and joy. And the question might be, "well what am I supposed to be
feeling?"
You know you want me to have this grace but could you break it down
for me? What exactly am I supposed to be feeling here?
And Peter says, "well what you're supposed to be feeling first of all is security,
assurance a feeling of being safe. That's one feeling that you should have.
If you have the grace of God." OK.
So in verses 3-5 Peter explains that since salvation and the grace that
flows from it comes from God, it is secure.
It's secure. So let's read verse three. He says "Blessed be the God and Father of Our
Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born
again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from
the dead." So it was God's plan to save us through the death, burial and
resurrection of Christ. We know that.
Then he says salvation and its accompanying grace is not a human
invention. It's a Godly thing. It's God's plan.
It's God's thing that he's giving you. We need to keep that in mind.
As we read verses 4 and 5 he says, "to obtain an inheritance
which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for
you who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to
be revealed in the last time." So
because it comes from God, the salvation comes from it, because it comes
from God. It is a powerful thing and it's a sure thing.
OK. The inheritance that he's talking about, if you want to break it down, what
is my inheritance? Well the inheritance is a glorified body.
When we resurrect we all have a different body. The Bible kind of refers to it
as a glorified body. That's the inheritance. That's the thing that we're going to
get. A glorified body and eternal life.
OK. Not only eternal length, you know, lengthwise eternal, but the quality of
it is going to be eternal.
This gift, glorified body, eternal life,
this gift given through grace, meaning because of God's favor
this gift is sure and will not be destroyed unlike a material
inheritance: a man or a woman or a man and a woman they work all their lives and they
work hard and they build up a business and they make a lot of money and so on and so forth,
millionaires, and they pass and they leave all of their money and all of the business and
everything, you know, they leave to their children. It doesn't always happen this way but we've seen
it happen right? And the children inherit the money and what do they do with it? They just go through it
like water in five years the whole thing is gone.
Well, Peter is saying here this inheritance, this glorified body thing
and this eternal life thing, this is an absolute sure thing. This will
not decay. Not only is it sure
but the quality of it is such that it can never be destroyed.
And this thing that you're waiting for will be revealed when?
Well, at the resurrection when Jesus returns. OK so now he says,
"I want you to really, you know, get a full measure of this grace and peace." And you
say back, "Well what am I supposed to be feeling?"
Well one of the feelings you're supposed to be feeling is security.
Security for what? Well, security in the knowledge that the
thing that you're going to get, your glorified body, your eternal life, is a sure thing.
It will never be destroyed and it's there waiting for you when Jesus returns. Why?
Because God is the one who has given it to you, that's why.
So we go, verse 6, he says,
"In this you greatly rejoice," right now that you understand what I've just explained to you.
He says, "in this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if
necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more
precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire,
may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him
now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and
full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your
souls. So this sure gift is the cause of
rejoicing and also the cause of your happy
anticipation. You ever see a little kid,
their birthday party is on Saturday and it's Monday? "My party is
Saturday!" And on Tuesday morning, "Mommy, my party is on Saturday!" Wednesday morning, "Mommy, when's my party?
Oh it's Saturday!" You know what I'm saying?
Happy anticipation. Well he's saying,
you know, this sure gift is the cause of
rejoicing and happy anticipation. However, he says, in the meantime there
may be suffering involved while you wait for it
and remaining faithful while you wait for this gift of grace
does several things.
First, it confirms the genuineness of your faith.
If a person endures while the going is rough it demonstrates that their faith is
real, not just talk.
You know, James 3:18 "you show me your faith by what you say.
I'll show you my faith by what I do."
So I'm anticipating and I'm rejoicing and I'm feeling secure that this thing
that God has promised me is going to come. I know it's going to come. Nobody can destroy it.
But in the meantime stuff happens.
My house burns down, I get a cold, you know, whatever.
Stuff happens.
And if I maintain that happy anticipation, if I maintain
that faith while stuff happens,
it's simply a witness that my faith is a real faith. It's genuine.
Secondly, it honors Christ. Your suffering and patience is a demonstration of love and
loyalty to the Lord, and this genuinely honors Him as your Lord.
What does Paul say Romans 12:1, right, what we offer?
I'm offering my friend's body as a living sacrifice.
No no. Paul says, "I'm offering what? My body."
Offer your body, my body as a living sacrifice.
Living Sacrifice. This is how we honor Christ.
Thirdly, he says it generates joy and love in you. Jesus said, "blessed or
happy are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
Matthew 5, verse 10. Well this behavior demonstrates that they really
belong. How do you know you belong in the kingdom? Well Peter
is saying well you know you belong in the kingdom when you suffer trials
and the trials that you suffer actually produce joy in you rather than despair.
That's how you know you're one of us.
The world, people of no faith, they don't get that. They're only
happy when good things happen. Christians manage to be happy when good things happen and they
manage to maintain faith and joy even when bad things happen.
Suffering righteously for the Lord produces happiness. Well that's
completely upside down.
Since when does suffering produce joy?
Well it doesn't except in the kingdom. In the kingdom suffering
righteously for the Lord produces happiness.
It is a natural reaction for the spiritual person.
Number four: He says it also guarantees salvation.
A proven faith results in a secure hope of salvation which produces
peace and joy in one's heart. And so Peter tells his
readers that grace means feeling sure.
How should I feel if I'm under grace? Well I'm not
feeling, you know, liberality to sin. I'm not feeling permissiveness. I'm not feeling
that I can be in the world without God. That's not what I'm feeling.
He says if you're under the power of grace and you're experiencing the grace of God in your life
the thing, the emotion you should be feeling is security.
I feel sure about my salvation even
though there are times when one's faith is tested continuing in faith will only strengthen
that hope and increase the joy.
You know how Christians say, "you can beat me up, you can whip me, you can throw me in
jail you can even threaten to kill me. I cannot deny what I know."
I can't deny what I know.
What I know is true. You can't beat it out of me. So if you're going to kill me
go ahead and do it.
Because it's impossible for me to deny the thing that I know.
So he finishes off verses 10-12. He says, "as to this salvation, the
prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you make careful searches and inquiries,
seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he
predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glorious to follow. It was revealed to them
that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been
announced to you through those who preach the gospel to you by the Holy
Spirit sent from heaven- things into which angels
long to look.
What's he saying?
Well he's saying in these last three verses of the section he
compares them, you know the people he's writing to, he compares them to two
other groups in order to show how secure they are in Christ.
He compares them first to the prophets who spoke from God, who did
miracles, who counseled kings, who saved the nation over and
over again. And he compares them also to angels who are mighty
beings who dwell at the throne of God. And his point is this:
Both these groups, the prophets and the angels, both these groups did
not receive the revelation about God's gracious plan to save men through
faith in Jesus Christ, and give them glorious bodies and allow them to
live forever with Christ in heaven. This thing that you have that is sure, the
glorified body, the eternal life,
Neither the prophets nor the angels were allowed to know this
thing. All they knew is that whatever they were doing they were serving
someone in the future and you are the ones, you are the
ones that they were serving.
So even though they were mighty servants who searched for the answers all they knew was that
God's plan was to serve people in the future. And you know
what? You ever wonder where am I in the Bible?
This is where you and me, this is where we are in the Bible. We are the people
that the angels and the prophets served.
Why? Because the gift has been revealed to us.
The glorified body the eternal life the promise that sure, we're the ones that have received
that promised in our generation today. So God's grace,
the author is saying, Peter is saying, God's grace it's no afterthought.
It was planned for and it was passed on carefully throughout the ages until the
right time to reveal it to the world.
So all could take advantage of it. So.
Peter begins his epistle by explaining that the grace of God is a sure
thing. And when we think of his grace
in other words his favor towards us. We can, you know, the thing
that we ought to be feeling and experiencing is security.
Grace equals security.
Because, one: it comes from God. When a promise of blessing comes directly
from God you can be absolutely sure that's security.
That's security. You know, when I was a kid my mom and dad said,
"If you get, you know, A's in spelling and so on, we'll buy you
a bike. We'll buy you a bicycle."
Well you know what. I didn't have the bike but it's like I had it already.
I was already thinking of the streamers you'd put in the handlebars. I was already thinking of
the streamers and I was always thinking I'm going to put a bell on it maybe and go crazy and put one of
those electronic buzzers, you know and I'm saying, remember you used to have to put batteries.
I mean it's like I had it already. When your mom and dad promises to do something,
I mean, it's like a sure thing. And then when the day
came in much to their surprise I did get A's in everything, they tried to talk me out of getting the
bike and tried to buy me off with money.
No! Because they were afraid, you know, a bike, he's going to be out in the street. He might get
hurt blah blah blah, you know. Oh no I was having none of it. You said you're getting a bike. I want a bike.
And they got me a bike. With God there is no last
minute wavering, there's no change of plans with it.
If he's promised us this thing we can be absolutely sure
that it will happen. Secondly:
This promise grows stronger this confidence grows stronger with adversity.
The promise of grace itself cannot be diminished by trials. The
harder you struggle to remain faithful the more it produces in terms of joy and
hope and security. It's really, it's the reverse of how things work in the world.
Thirdly: This promise has lasted
throughout the ages. Long ago angels and prophets handed it
down and passed it to us and we receive it today and the grace of
God and forgiving us and granting us eternal life is as fresh and
motivating as it was 4000 years ago when God announced it to Abraham.
We're still motivated by it. Grace means security.
Security in God's desire and His ability to
fulfill His promise to bless us now and to save us forever. So we
sometimes, you know, we sometimes doubt or we're afraid of the past or we're afraid of
the future, but God's grace has wiped away the past
with Jesus' blood.
And God has guaranteed us the future with Jesus' resurrection. You know, some people
say, "Well we need to live in the moment, we need to live in the now."
And people don't know how to do that. How do I live in the now?
How do I get there psychologically or spiritually? Well the way you get there is you
recognize that your past has been taken care of by the blood of Christ on the cross
and your future has been taken care of by his resurrection. That's why you
don't have to worry about the past catching up to you. And you don't have to worry about the
future not being what it was promised because Jesus rose from the dead.
So if I'm not concerned about the past and I'm not worried about the future I can live in the,
I can live in the now.
Well in the weeks to come we'll continue with other meanings of grace. But for now we're going to
remain with the idea of security. If you have received the grace of God through
Christ you can be absolutely sure of your eternal salvation.
Do not be afraid to go through whatever trials you need to in order to remain faithful
It will be worth it.
Remember what I said many times, Jesus' promise:
It won't be easy. But it will be worth it. That's our first lesson in First and Second Peter.
Thank you for your attention.