Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:
Preface: Why are we looking through this book?
Unlike the letter of James, this book is written to a Jewish / Gentile Christians who are scattered across various provinces that are outside their ideal world. In the last two weeks we have been looking at what it means to live as people who love God. Today and the weeks to follow, we will look at how this is meant to be worked out as people living among other nations.
Written by Silvanus (he is the typist) - probably Silas along with Mark
From "babylon" .. well babylon did not exist in that time as an important place. It was a code, a code for what Babylon stood for. Enmity to God - Where was the enemy? in Rome - Who was the enemy -
Introduction
To understand this we need to first understand why the epistles are important.
See It is all just Paul or Peter's opinion? (https://toancientofdays.blogspot.com/2021/10/it-is-all-just-paul-or-peters-opinion.html)
The next step is to understand the Author.
Peter: Lets turn to John 1: 44 - Peter is from Bethsaida a fishing village, raised a Jew with the basic understanding of the laws and prophets and awaiting of the messiah. He was a fisher man and was married and lived near or in Capernaum. His brother Andrew was a disciple of John the baptiser John during his time in the desert saw Jesus coming (John1:29) and said behold the lamb of God who takes away the suffering. Andrew follows Jesus and invites Simon to follow Jesus. Brothers, so are some of you. You know and see the good news, you cannot hold it in and you invite someone who is going to be more influential than you. (See John 1:41) . It was the first thing Andrew did. Call his brother. I wonder if it is a reminder for all of us to do the same.
Jesus saw Simon and calls him Cephas which means Rock. As Peter's ministry continues, the Gentile church call him Peter which is greek for Rock (Petros).
But its only after a little while both the brothers follow Jesus. There is the great miracle of the fishes. Peter sees this and understands who Jesus is and then he and Andrew leaves all they have and follow Jesus.
Lets read two portions:
Isaiah 1:4 and John 6:66-69
Peter is the one to admit that Jesus is the "Holy One" and there there is no life elsewhere.
Peter along with John and James see Jesus in his full Glory on the mount of transfiguration, here he sees Jesus's Godly authority and then at the garden of Gethsemane Peter is shown helpless attacking the servant of the High priest when he sees Jesus covered with sweat of blood, helplessly being taken away.
We see Peter later sneaking in, frightened by the servant girl, denying his association and knowledge of Jesus. All known by Jesus who told Peter "before the Rooster crows 3 times, you will betray be" implying that even before the Jewish day (Evening to Evening), Peter would not be able to keep his alliance. We are going to see this in the letter of Peter. Bothers, Peter talks about grace and mercy in such fatherly manner because he was a recipient of Grace.
Where do we see that?
The disciples did not bury Jesus. Only the women went to perform the burial duties on the 3rd day. SO when the women said that Jesus rose, who ran to see it ? John and Peter. John 20:6 Peter went in. Peter loved Jesus. He wanted Jesus, he wanted to see Jesus. Brothers, Peter knows the guilt he carried around. He wanted his Lord. He wanted forgiveness. Peter could not allow himself to wait. This is the passion, this is his zeal. Brothers, grace is a stain that leaves a mark. Those who have seen grace will pour grace. They want grace. Look at Peters action, he ran , failed yet run into the tomb. Why? He wanted the Lord.
Brothers, run, run to the Lord for peace.
The reconciliation of Peter.
Jesus later after rising from death, came to John and Peter. Peter was avoiding the topic. Judas betrayed Jesus and hung himself. Peter stood around. Did Peter believe in the Love of God? He surely did. He waited with the apostles. Jesus askes him the question that Peter wanted to ask Jesus. "Do you love me"? Each time Peter said "Yes, I love you", that was the truth. But the 3rd time , Peter knew what Jesus meant. Peter received the forgiveness. Jesus tells Peter about the way he would die. John knew this had happened by the time the book was written.
The new Peter
After the ascension of Jesus, Peter became the leader of the apostles. They waited for the Holy Spirit and Peter was the first one on the day of Penetecost to speak up. In a week he was back in the Temple courts with John healing a lame man and defending the Gospel. Peter took it up to share, explain and declare the Gospel where he went. Remeber a few weeks ago when we prayed the prayer of Peter. This is the Peter we see, who was there when Annanias and Saphira tried to trick the church. He was not sitting in his chair, he went out, he went to the samrians, then to Lydia, then to Joppa raising Tabitha from the dead. Rember brothers we too belong in this linege.
Peter was the first to take the gospel to the gentiles - remember the strange dream and Cornelosus prayers. Yet, he was flawed when he sat away from the Gentiles and Paul had to correct him. The next we hear is that he is in Rome.
Peter landed in the land of Nero. He lead the church there. That is why Peter is said to be the bishop of Rome Who hated Christians. Nero was a Roman king. The letters were written in Greek. The Christians read their Scriptures in Greek and not Latin. AD 64 was the time Christians were first officially persecuted. The Jews persecuted them earlier through Paul and others, but this time it was the King.
Peter is known to have said that he was not worthy to be crucified like Jesus - and was crucified upside down - but whether it is true or not, he was crucified. The words of Jesus came true. We do not know what happened to his wife or family. His brother Andrew was said to be crucified on an X shaped cross - hence the X on the Scottish flag. . Those who love iconography, the symbol of catholic church and Bremen, Peterborough to name a few are after the statement - Keys of heaven.
Apostle: That is the word meaning emissary. Peter was among the apostles or people send to declare the Kingdom. To set the captives free, To liberate the lost. We too have his calling. We are not like those apostles, but live in with their The Apostles were send out to run the hard race. It closely means missionary. The role Peter did carried weight more than any missionary because he walked with Jesus. This is why we trust him to deliver the truth.
Where does it lead us now?
Find things that touched Peters life
See how Grace embraced a radical
See how passion and Zeal was lost though hardness but won through love
See how humility plays a part of his life.
God bless you all.
Comments