1 Peter Revisited
by David E. Howell
July 10, 2011
1 David 1
1-2 This letter is from David, a disciple of the Savior. I have been encouraged by the Holy Spirit to send this to you, the members of the body of Christ in New Castle. God is fully aware of each one of you and what is going on in your lives. No one is left out. Not one of you is misplaced or forgotten. God the Father and God the Holy Spirit have determined together to have you be obedient children enabled by the sacrifice of God, the Lord Jesus. God has so much good that is ready for you. I pray that it may all be yours.
It's All About New
3-5 God, the Father of our Lord Jesus, is a truly wonderful God! He watches over us so carefully. It is important for you to realize how fortunate you are and to be thankful. Our old miserable purposeless life is gone. Because Jesus was raised from the dead we have a brand new glorious life to enjoy and not just in heaven sometime in the future, but also while we are still here on planet Earth. Be patient. It won't be long and our whole life will be fully healed and perfectly complete.
6-7 It gives me a lot of joy to know what this means to you already. It is also true that you are having to put up with much that is difficult while you wait. Just as a hot fire can make a metal lose its impurities and become pure, troubles can do the same thing by making our faith into the real thing. When Jesus brings everything on Earth to an end, your tested and true faith will be on display in heavens trophy room.
8-9 You never met the Lord face to face, but still you love Him. You look and don't actually see Him, yet you trust Him. The joy in your relationship with Him brings a smile to your face and a song to your heart. Full salvation surely follows such a determined faithfulness.
10-12 Those men long ago who gave us messages from God wondered about this good news themselves. The Holy Spirit let them know some of it, especially the part about the suffering of Christ and then the following glory of the Savior. Even the angels in Heaven tried to figure out what was going on. These prophets long ago were only told that they were acting on the behalf of us in the future. Heaven gave orders through the Holy Spirit to let us know about the fulfilled prophecies and what it all means and how it all works out even in the end. We are more privileged than the angels.
God is The Future
13-16 So, knowing what we now know, let's get ready for the return of Christ. Let your whole life and purpose revolve around all that is to be there for us when the Lord comes. Don't be like so many that receive all this great news and then yawn and go back to the way they were. You know better now. There is no longer any excuse for you to be disobedient and looking the wrong way when He comes. God's Holy Spirit has the power and is in us and is ready and willing to shape our lives into the kind of life we were created by this most Holy God to have. Our life can even now be bursting and glowing with holiness.
17 Just as God is the best at everything; He is the best at being a Father to you. He's always ready, even before you ask to help you when you need it, and then He does help. But like a most diligent Dad he will not tolerate you being careless and irresponsible. It's important to Him that His children are successful at living right and doing well.
18-21It is of the uttermost importance that as we live out our lives here, that all along the way we have a real consciousness of what God wants and is doing. The value of this constant awareness cannot be overestimated. For us to reject such a costly gift and go back to our mundane and lost condition is absolutely beyond stupidity and extremely offensive to our Creator God. Our freedom to finally be able to lead holy lives cost the lifeblood of Christ, the Lamb of God, Himself. This magnificent costly plan was always in the works for us, even before creation itself. Christ was to suffer and die and rise again and be glorified all for you. So you would trust God and be convinced of your future with Him.
22-25And now that you've got the right idea about all of this. Now with the Truth guiding you and you are living out your new life from God, love each other to the extremes of service, as if nothing else mattered. Now you are enabled by God Himself to live a God designed and God empowered life. As this writer says,
Any other life is a lost life,
A futile life, a waste of breath.
Any other life is a lamented life,
A failed life, a living death.
1 David 2
1-3Before you can be filled with God you must be emptied of you! Everything must go. Holiness fills the whole house or it does not dwell there at all. All that is evil must go. Like much needed rain to dry wilted corn, the ‘moving in' of the Holy Spirit God will have us drinking deep of the goodness of God and producing fruit that will cause the world to notice the new us and give glory to God.
The Stream
4-8Welcome to the living water, the source of life. Do not reject what God has chosen to raise up and honor. Make yourself available as a channel of this living water to a thirsty dying world. Consuming the living effervescent water will refresh and produce abundant living in the most dried out shriveled up life.
There is now a saying:
Look! I'm producing a spring in the wilderness,
a wellspring in the driest of deserts.
Whoever drinks from this living water
will never have cause to regret it.
This fresh flowing stream
is the only source of life and hope.
For the untrusting it's undrinkable,
a river blocking their way.
They turn away and die of thirst because they refuse to obey, just as God knew they would.
9-10 God has chosen your career for you. You are to be holy priests telling the lost how you were found. You are to tell the hopeless how you now have hope and how they can have hope too. You are the body of Christ on Earth to do what Christ does among the lost and dying.
11-12Like a dog scratches and turns around in circles on a rug to try and make itself comfortable, we scratch and turn round and round on the earth. That will never make us contented here. It's not about us and if we live like it is, it will cost us our souls. If we only tell about the life of Christ and don't live it, no one will believe it. “Be” Christ-like and many will believe and then they will be with us when celebrate together with Christ in Heaven.
13-17 It is important to the Lord that we honor and respect those in authority over us. God put them there on our behalf. God's way of teaching others what is right and good is by having His people actually do what is right and good. Think of it this way. God expects us to keep the rules, treat officials with dignity and show respect for the government.
Real Life Living
18-20 Those of you who have jobs, be good workers—not just to bosses who are easy to work for, but also to bad ones. It's important that you do a good job for God's sake even when you're treated unfairly. There's no real meaning in looking for sympathy in putting up with reprimands that you deserve. But if you're treated badly for good work and continue in spite of it to be a good worker, that is what counts with God.
21-25 The kind of attitude and response to life that Christ had is the kind of life you should live. He didn't just tell you how to live; he lived the right way perfectly under the worst of conditions and circumstances so you would know in whatever situation you were in that the ‘beatitude lifestyle' was possible for you too.
One of the most important things He showed us by His own perfect living was to let God be completely in charge of everything. He had plenty of opportunities to do things for himself. But he showed us that the best thing for us is to let the One who actually knows what is best and has authority over everything that is going on be in charge of our lives.
He was reviled, persecuted, humiliated and debased. But he didn't try to deal with it. He let God the Father handle everything. That makes perfect sense even knowing the little that we know about God. If Christ had lived for Himself He could not have saved us. He lived perfectly so we who could not live perfectly could be counted perfect, guiltless and could live without sinning. We who were wounded and lost have been healed by Him and shown the way home. If He had lived selfishly…?
1 David 3
It's All About What's In
1-4 Our motive for all we do should be to accomplish what is important to Christ. One way wives can do this is to treat your husbands in a way that will support them in their spiritual walk or even win them over to the Lord and His ways. External beauty is fleeting and though it seems to have great power, the power of inner beauty has a far greater and more beneficial result.
4-6Develop a calm, pleasant, gracious inner loveliness that is pleasing to your creator God.
7Husbands will please God and themselves by honoring their wives. Be aware of and respect the differences between men and women remembering that all are equal in the eyes of God. Men, your prayer life depends on your treating your wife as God sees her.
Suffering and Blessing
8-12Be a blessing to everyone whoever they are. It's not about you, it's about God. And as far as God is concerned, it's about others. Treat others as you would like to be treated and you will be surprised how much easier life becomes for you. If you decide that you want the good Godly life, it's not that hard. Control your mouth. Run from evil. Think of good things to do and do them. In all situations, set peace as your goal and don't give up until you reach it. God really likes this and will be there to help you achieve much more that you think you can.
13-18 Give it all you've got with everything you've got and good will be achieved. Stay focused on Christ and continue to do what is good even if you suffer for it. The effect your constancy will have on others will achieve the purpose for which you are here. Christ is the perfect example of continuing on to achieve a high purpose regardless of the cost. Opportunities will arise to tell about your reason for the way that you are living and that will be an opportunity to bring honor to Christ.
19-22 Christ coming here to live, living here to be an example, going to the cross to die and then being resurrected from the dead was all about salvation. When we are buried in the waters of baptism it has nothing to do with cleaning our dirty bodies, but it is about being buried and then rising again like He did from the grave so we can have access to his shed blood and be innocent before God. God was pleased and satisfied with the work of Christ and placed him in charge of everything and a position at his right hand.
1 David 4
Think His Thoughts
1-2 It's absolutely not about us. Jesus showed us that if we are to pursue the best that there is, we must find out what God is after and go after that. Suffering can help us take our minds off of ourselves.
3-5Quit wishing you could live in the past. The past was pretty bad and as a new creature in Christ who we were is just not who we are anymore. That is over… thanks to Christ. It was killing us. You may be the only one moving in the right direction, but remember, it is the right direction no matter where everyone else is going. You don't answer to them. And they must answer to God.
6 Immerse yourselves in the saving Word.
7-11 We don't know when the end will come, but be assured that just because there was a today doesn't mean there will be a tomorrow. Pray like crazy. Take care of each other. Help those who need help, not just those who can help you. God has given much to you to share, not to keep or hoard. Be generous with the words of God. Live to make Christ famous.
Glory Ahead
12-13 If life is easy for you, you're not paying attention. We don't pray for faith, we jump into the middle of what God is doing and hang on to His promises and faith grows and grows. The more we need faith the more we have it. The more we depend on faith the more there is of it.
14-16 If you're not being abused or if everybody everywhere is being super nice to you, you're not in the game. Put on your gear, get out of the bleachers and onto the field. “Christians! Christians! Rah Rah Rah!” Oh, and be proud of it.
17-19 God is going to judge us Christians first. If we're nervous, think of the ones that Christ is not going to rescue at the last moment. Whew!
Is it tough sometimes to do what God says? Yes, but it's okay. He can be trusted. He's got your back. And sides. And front. And top. And bottom. He can't be beat and He'll never quit.
1 David 5
Promotion Promise
1-3 To those in the church who have the lead in different areas, you may have to endure more that you would if you selfishly decided to just watch out for yourselves. Just keep in mind that although you may have to put up with more now, you will share in the glory of Christ when the time comes. Be a kind caring shepherd, but only if you're doing it to please God. Lead by leading, not by pushing and shoving.
4-5 Be a caretaker of the Lords people for the right reasons and, at the right time, God, the ideal shepherd, will see that you are well rewarded. Those of you who are not leaders or just not yet a leader, listen respectfully to those who do lead and follow their good example with a desire to be helpful—
God has little patience with people who are out to feed their own egos, but He enjoys being in the company of those with humble spirits.
6-7 Where ever you are in the service of the Lord do your best, grateful for a chance to serve. God is working with you and will reposition you when the time is right. Do with joy what He has for you to do and be assured that God is taking very good care of you as you do.
The Last Word is His Word
8-11It's important that you maintain a calm yet vigilant spirit. We have a powerful enemy who watches for and delights in discovering opportunities to destroy your usefulness in the Kingdom. Stay awake and in communication with the Lord. He is working with others who are also under many trials. Be often in the Word and exhibit a valiant faith for we are winning even now and the reward He has for your constancy is fabulous beyond imagining and never ever ends.
12 I'm have read this brief letter to you myself, as I want to be certain you are aware of all that is in it. I have the highest regard for you. These things are of primary importance and value to you. Hold on to all that is true with all your might.
13-14 Remember to pray constantly for your brothers and sisters in the church both here and all over the world. Hold onto each other in a way that brings honor and affirmation from the Lord.
Do all in your power to maintain peace and harmony among all who are in the body of Christ.
Posted in Sermons by David E. Howell on (edited on by David E. Howell)