The Word Is Alive First Peter

1. The Word Is AliveFirst Peter Chapter Two Narrated by Tony Gillon

2. Chapter Two • 1 Peter 1:3–2:12 - Called to Salvation as Exiles (continues/concludes)

3. Chapter Two • 1 Peter 1:3–2:12 - Called to Salvation as Exiles (continues/concludes) • 1 Peter 1:13-2:3 - Be Holy (continues/concludes)

4. Called to Salvation as Exiles • Summary of Chapter Two • The exhortation to holiness is continued.

5. Called to Salvation as Exiles • Summary of Chapter Two • The exhortation to holiness is continued. • Christians are to obey the civil authorities.

6. Called to Salvation as Exiles • 1Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,

7. Called to Salvation as Exiles • Therefore links Peter’s instruction back to the changes a believer has experienced by being born again that we saw at the end of Chapter One.

8. Called to Salvation as Exiles • Rid yourselves of all malice: • Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong. (Isaiah 1:16).

9. Called to Salvation as Exiles • Malice in a heart often leads a person to actively seek a way to do others harm but they will be discerned and dealt with. • His malice may be concealed by deception, but his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly (Proverbs 26:26).

10. Called to Salvation as Exiles • Deceit is opposite to all the qualities that a disciple of Christ is called to display. • Surely he recognises deceitful men; and when he sees evil, does he not take note? • (Job 11:11).

11. Called to Salvation as Exiles • Believers are to avoid hypocrisy. • Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbour, for we are all members of one body. • (Ephesians 4:25).

12. Called to Salvation as Exiles • Jesus warned his disciples about hypocrisy: • Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy (Luke 12:1).

13. Called to Salvation as Exiles • Envy is also something that is intolerable when we consider just how much God has so freely given to us. • Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple (Job 5:2).

14. Called to Salvation as Exiles • Envy is also something that is intolerable when we consider just how much God has so freely given to us. • Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple (Job 5:2). • A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones (Proverbs 14:30).

15. Called to Salvation as Exiles • Many are those who are my vigorous enemies; those who hate me without reason are numerous. Those who repay my good with evil slander me when I pursue what is good. O Lord, do not forsake me; be not far from me, O my God (Psalm 38:19-21). • If this is what it is like when an enemy slanders someone, then it so clearly portrays how bad it would be coming from a fellow brother in church.

16. Called to Salvation as Exiles • A believer should act in a way that will permit others to perceive what is truly in the heart. • Believers are called to do away with hatred and evil speaking. This also applies to our thoughts; for God sees and judges the heart, not the person.

17. Called to Salvation as Exiles • In comparing believers to newborn babies, Peter is not necessarily saying that they are immature in their faith, but that all Christians are to be like infants in their longing for pure spiritual milk, which likely refers to God’s Word (vv.23–25).

18. Called to Salvation as Exiles • I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready (1 Corinthians 3:2).

19. Called to Salvation as Exiles • I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready (1 Corinthians 3:2). • In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! • (Hebrews 5:12).

20. Called to Salvation as Exiles • But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil (Hebrews 5:14).

21. Called to Salvation as Exiles • But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil (Hebrews 5:14). • But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen. • (2 Peter 3:18).

22. Called to Salvation as Exiles • Just as true believers are born of the uncorrupted seed that was sown onto good soil, so too the uncorrupted milk of the Gospel will ensure the seed can grow into the person God intends them to be.

23. Called to Salvation as Exiles • The breasts from which we suck the milk are the church leaders. • My lover is to me a sachet of myrrh resting between my breasts (Song 1:13).

24. Called to Salvation as Exiles • Mary desired to hear the Word: • “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41-42).

25. Called to Salvation as Exiles • The cream of the Gospel is that Christ died for us and rescued us from sin, death and hell.

26. Called to Salvation as Exiles • The cream of the Gospel is that Christ died for us and rescued us from sin, death and hell. • Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house, when the Almighty was still with me and my children were around me, when my path was drenched with cream and the rock poured out for me streams of olive oil. • (Job 29:46).

27. Called to Salvation as Exiles • Now if we are children, then we are heirs — heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. • (Romans 8:17).

28. Called to Salvation as Exiles • “Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. “Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk”. (Exodus 23:19).

29. Called to Salvation as Exiles • “Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. “Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk”. (Exodus 23:19). • “Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. “Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk” (Exodus 34:26).

30. Called to Salvation as Exiles • Do not eat anything you find already dead. You may give it to an alien living in any of your towns, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. But you are a people holy to the LORD your God. Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk. (Deuteronomy 14:21).

31. Called to Salvation as Exiles • If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married (Deuteronomy 24:5).

32. Called to Salvation as Exiles • Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. • (Luke 9:23).

33. Called to Salvation as Exiles • Spiritual comes from Greek logikos, which echoes Word, Greek logos used in 1 Peter 1:23. • Word is also a direct link to the Christ: • In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. • (John 1:1).

34. Called to Salvation as Exiles • 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good

35. Called to Salvation as Exiles • 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good • Taste. Some of the human senses such as sight, hearing and smell can be achieved from a distance, but taste, like touching, requires close contact and describes a way in which we truly experience Christ.

36. Called to Salvation as Exiles • That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched — this we proclaim concerning the Word of life (1 John 1:1).

37. Called to Salvation as Exiles • Christians will continue to long for the Word if they have tasted that the Lord is good, which they did in conversion. • Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. • (Psalm 34:8).

38. Called to Salvation as Exiles • For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil” (1 Peter 3:10–12).

39. Called to Salvation as Exiles • Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. • (Psalm 34:12–13).

40. Called to Salvation as Exiles • Lord: • Peter uses the Greek word Kyrios that is standard practice for NT writers when referring to Christ. • In the LXX, i.e. the Greek OT, this same word is used to translate Yahweh, the Hebraic name of God the Father.

41. Called to Salvation as Exiles • Tasted that the Lord is good: • You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? (Continued).

42. Called to Salvation as Exiles • After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing — if it really was for nothing? Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard? (Galatians 3:1-5).

43. Called to Salvation as Exiles • Tasted that the Lord is good: • God is good and sent his only Son. • Christ is good for he fulfilled the Father’s will.

44. Called to Salvation as Exiles • When we understand the grace of God we can come to understand the full revelation of Christ. • He has filled the hungry with good things. (Luke 1:53a).

45. Chapter Two • 1 Peter 2:4-12 – • The Living Stone and a Chosen People

46. Chapter Two • 1 Peter 2:4-12 – • The Living Stone and a Chosen People • They are like living stones which together build up a spiritual house – the church, with Jesus as the cornerstone (vv.4–8). Believers are chosen by God to be his people (vv.9–12).

47. The Living Stone and a Chosen People • 4As you come to him, the living Stone — rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him —

48. The Living Stone and a Chosen People • As you come to him indicates a daily personal relationship with Christ. • Are being built into a spiritual house (v.5). • Just as his followers suffer persecution, Jesus also was rejected by men. Still, he is risen from the dead and hence is the living stone — the foundation of God’s new temple. He is God’s elect or chosen one, and as the exalted Lord he is honoured above all, i.e. precious to him.

49. The Living Stone and a Chosen People • The living stone would be a term readily recognisable by those readers who were familiar with Scripture, including those that Peter will shortly quote. • It would clearly denote Christ’s invincible strength and everlasting duration. It would also be a rock of offence to all enemies of these disciples, that is, enemies of God himself.

50. The Living Stone and a Chosen People • He is the living stone, having eternal life in himself, and being the prince of life to all his people. • He is disallowed of men, but chosen by God.