This week, we're embarking on our fall sermon series in 1 Peter.
We believe that all Scripture is God-breathed, which is reason enough to attend to this book. But I believe there are especially compelling and timely reasons for our church to look at 1 Peter. The apostle Peter writes to encourage a church that has endured hardship. It faces misunderstanding and ostracism from the surrounding culture.
Peter holds out exile as a ruling metaphor for the church. We are an exile people. Yet the Lord promises grace "in abundance" to his people. Indeed, it is in the midst of suffering and hardship that God ministers his grace to needy saints. And 1 Peter constantly holds up the hope of glory for the Christ-follower who endures. It is my hope that we, as a church, might be encouraged in hope and grace for our own exile.
On that note, 1 Peter points to answers of how God's people should live faithfully in exile. What's our relationship to the government? Our employers? Our church leaders? Are we to abstain, abandon, or accommodate to our culture? What distinguishes Christian marriage?
In addition, Peter supplies a rich and Christ-centered ecclesiology - which is just a fancy way to describe our understanding of the church. The church is not merely a bunch of individuals voluntarily assembling together like any other social group. Rather, we are a "chosen race, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation." We are a people chosen by God, saved by God, and held together by God.
So let me invite you to both pray for our series and prepare to receive God's word. May God supply his grace to us. Amen.
Pastor Jesse