Dear 52 Greatest Chapter Friends,
We are down to the final stretch of finishing our year together, surveying the whole Bible.
These are exciting days to watch the world events and see them through the window of the Scriptures.
This week starts God’s plans for us living at the end of days.
Next week will be amazing as we look at the un-creation of the entire Universe by God in 2 Peter 3, and then the re-creation of the Universe by God into the New Heavens and the New Earth of Revelation 21.
What an exciting time to study the Bible as we see God’s plan for our lives TODAY!
This is lesson #47 HOW TO ENDURE DANGEROUS TIMES OF HOSTILITY & PERSECUTION
The world in which Peter served the Lord was a terrible time in history. Some of the most memorable pages of the History of Christ’s Church are the years between AD 60 and 70. For half those years, Nero’s hatred and evils led to the random acts of fierce persecution of Christians.
Across the city of Rome, believers were killed from the arenas to the prisons. For his evening dinner guests Nero would have the followers of Jesus dipped in tar and burned alive in sticks as torches in the Imperial Gardens. For the bloodthirsty masses at the games, Christians were wrapped in animal skins and chased to death by wild beasts.
Have you pondered how hard it must have been to be a Christian in those ten years? Yet in that dangerous time to even be a believer, Peter boldly wrote to the Roman World’s saints about hoping to the end in Jesus. As he did so, Peter had become the “Most Wanted” man of the day. Peter demonstrated the holy boldness Christ can bring into the lives of His children.
First Peter 2
Title: How God Grows Me (2). God lays down the pathway for spiritual growth for believers.
Lessons:
1—1 Peter 2:1a—SPIRITUAL GROWTH IS A CHOICE: Spiritual growth demands some hard choices based upon the work of the Gospel “therefore”. Spiritual growth is based on, and only possible for those who are genuinely saved by redemption (1 Peter 1:18-21); have purified souls (1 Peter 1:22), and born again by the Word of God (1 Peter 1:23).
2–1 Peter 2:1b—FORSAKING SIN IS A BATTLE: I must choose to lay aside, throw away, abandon, and avoid all signs of lostness. Thus, spiritual growth starts when we repent of evil and hunger for God’s Word.
3–1 Peter 2:2a—HUNGER FOR THE WORD SHOWS SPIRITUAL HEALTH: I must want to eat up my meal of God’s Word.
4–1 Peter 2:2b—I NEED THE WORD TO GROW: Growth only comes via God’s Word.
5—1 Peter 2:3—GRACE IS SO SATISFYING: I can taste God’s grace that draws me back for more.
6–1 Peter 2:4-8—GOD HAS GREAT PLANS FOR OUR LIVES: each of us is a part of the Church, yet especially unique, but all together, to build up the offering, of spiritual worship. OT priests and NT believer-priests share nine characteristics… The main privilege of a priest, however, is access to God. to offer up spiritual sacrifices. Spiritual sacrifices mean God-honoring works done because of Christ under the direction of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of the Word of God. These would include:
1) offering the strength of one’s body to God (Rom. 12:1, 2); 2) praising God (Heb. 13:15); 3) doing good (Heb. 13:16); 4) sharing one’s resources (Heb. 13:16); 5) bringing people to Christ (Rom. 15:16); 6) sacrificing one’s desires for the good of others (Eph. 5:2); and 7) praying (Rev. 8:3) (MSB).
7–1 Peter 2:9-10—GOD DESIGNED ME AS HIS PRIEST: we are chosen to be priests.
(FTGC-47; 220607)
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