1 Peter Summary

The Dominion of God Over Suffering

All right, it is time to, in short order, flying as fast as we can, grab hold of the main things from 1 Peter. We have been studying through the book of 1 Peter, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, taking our time through, but now is the opportunity to wrap it all up in a bundle, package it up, put a handle on it, grab hold of it and take it with us wherever we go.

These 10 things are the main ideas of 1 Peter. So you picture Peter when he was waffling and immature, chopping off ears, denying Jesus in front of a little girl, to 30 years later when he's a mature man, willing to be crucified upside down to demonstrate his love for his savior, Jesus Christ.

What happened during those 30 years? Well, he grew up, he matured, he became his name, the Rock, Peter. Cephas means rock. He became solid in his faith, solid as a rock. So what are the 10 things that we need to hold onto after studying this book?

Number one, dominion. Jesus Christ has dominion over all things, dominion meaning he's sovereign. He is king, he is Lord, he has everything in his hands, including our suffering, including our suffering.

He is a sovereign God who holds the whole world in his hands, he's working all things together for good. A few verses, grab your Bible, we're just gonna be brief with each one, but you're gonna need to flip through.

Chapter one, verse one, we're elect exiles, he's chosen us for this exile. Verse six and seven talk about our suffering, saying if necessary, you have to suffer trials. Well, what do you mean if necessary?

If necessary, according to God's will, according to his plan, it's necessary, meaning he's the one that's accomplishing something, he's the one with a plan, he's the one with a purpose, he is the one who's sovereign.

He has dominion over everything, including the evil choices of men, including the suffering and the pain that comes into my life. This is a God who's not surprised, who doesn't have to tweak or adjust his plan when something bad happens.

No, this is a God who has the plan, and this suffering that I'm enduring is according to his plan. It's accomplishing a purpose of his in my life. So you're saying it's God's will? Yeah, what do you mean?

How could sin or evil be God's will? Well, there's two wills in God. There is a revealed will, and there is a secret will. Revealed and secret will. The revealed will of God is like the 10 commandments, for example, it's revealed to us, thou shalt not murder.

It's revealed, secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed, Deuteronomy 29, 29, belong to us and to our children forever. What's revealed to me is that I shouldn't kill you.

That's his revealed will, is that I shouldn't kill. But there's a secret will in God. Secret things belong to him. I don't know these things, they're secret. It's a point of calling it the secret will of God, but it includes suffering.

He has a purpose and a plan for everything that happens. That's why the lamb is slain from before the foundation of the world, according to Revelation. That's why when Pontius Pilate and Herod and the Jews and the Gentiles, the Romans, all conspire against Jesus to crucify him and to do the most wicked thing that was ever done in the history of the world, sinful things, things that are unspeakably evil, to crucify the Lord of glory, that these things happened according to the predetermined plan of God.

It's what his hand and plan predestined to occur. Well, how could I say that? Well, because Acts says that, chapter four, verses 28 and 29. It was God's plan that was being worked out, even in the willful, sinful decisions of men for which men are responsible and morally accountable for, and God is not.

He's sovereign over these things, but he's not the one who is the author of sin. He's not called the author of sin. He's not held to account for his secret plan because he's working all things together for good, for those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

And ultimately, his purpose in all things is the glorification of himself, and that's good. So I'm getting crazy here on this first point. I need to just wrap it up, bundle it up. Listen, look at these verses in the scriptures and hold onto this teaching.

Chapter three, verse 17, chapter four, verse 19, speak of the secret will of God. Chapter four, verse two, speaks of the revealed will of God, but the secret will of God, chapter three, verse 17, includes suffering.

And we'll close with this point here and move on to the next point. For it is better to suffer for doing good if that should be God's will than for doing evil. So God has dominion even over suffering.

That point is huge. Don't miss that from Peter, because if you can accept that, your outlook on life will shift 180 degrees. Remember talking recently to a brother and we were saying, how do we teach this group of men who are prone to fall back into a certain addiction or into a certain thing that when the hard times come, they don't fall back?

You know, they go strong for a while as a Christian, but then temptations come and before long, they're back in the same cycle that got them where they were in the first place. Is there some silver bullet?

Well, there's not a silver bullet. You can't just give them a Bible verse. What rather needs to happen is that I, as a person who's prone to stumble, need to grow up into this robust theology of God, recognizing his sovereignty over all things, that he has dominion so that when a hard time comes, I see it as a trial from him to test the genuineness of my faith, and it doesn't rock my boat, rock my world, so that I spin off out of control.

In other words, I have to grow in maturity through the counsel of God, understanding this principle being a starting point, and to really grasp it and put my mind around it will strengthen me for those trials.

That's just point number one. The dominion of God over all things, including suffering. Number two, about suffering, it's only for a little while, but glory is for eternity. Chapter one, verse four, our inheritance is kept in heaven for us.

It's imperishable, unfading. Chapter one, verses 13 and 24 speak to this, and chapter four, verse 13, and chapter five, verse 10. All say, in effect, that the suffering that we go through in this life is for a little while, but the glory to be revealed is for eternity.

When we get our minds around that time difference, it helps us to suffer well. The word suffering comes up in all five chapters of the book of 1 Peter. And this idea that it's only for a short time, when you compare the little bit of suffering that we have during this life to the thousand years in heaven, the millennium, which is a heaven on earth, and then a thousand years after that, and 10 ,000 years after that in the eternal state for millions of years, billions of years, eternity sharing and experiencing the glory of God where there is no more tears, no more pain, no more suffering.

The suffering of this life is for a little while, but glory is for eternity. That's a huge point in the book of 1 Peter. It will help us to be mature. Number three, holiness is not an option, but is a command, a necessity, and a joy.

Chapter one, verses 13 to 21 is this pericope that speaks to holiness. And in that section, we're given reasons why holiness matters. Because we are commanded to be holy. Be holy as I am holy, says the Lord.

We are exhorted because God is a father. And what do fathers do for their children? They love them so much that they discipline their children. And we should fear because the God who judges the living and the dead will punish.

Well, even if you don't use the word punish, discipline us. So there's a difference between condemnation and discipline. He won't condemn us, Romans 8 .1. There's no condemnation in Christ, but a loving father will bring discipline into our lives.

We should fear that. We should fear the discipline of our God. He's God. And when we rebel against him, and we don't pursue his holiness, we chase after the passions of the flesh, we should be afraid.

Moreover, though, even more than that motivation, which is kind of like a stick scaring us, there's that carrot. There's that love. There's that motivation of valuing Christ and his sacrifice more than the thing that's tempting us.

And that's why we're told that the thing that redeemed us was the precious blood of Christ. It's more valuable than silver or gold. And the blood of Jesus was put on the wood of that cross to save us.

That's a motivation to be holy as he is holy. And this idea of holiness pops up at least two other places, chapter two, verses 11 and 12, and chapter four, verses one through six. It's an important theme that runs through 1 Peter.

We are called to be holy as he is holy. But we're not only called to be set apart from the passions of the flesh and from our former ignorance and from the things of this world and they're going to think we're strange and we don't plunge with them into that same flood of debauchery.

We're not only called to be holy, set apart from that, we're also called to something. Away from that, but to something. And that's the fourth point, love. We are called to love the brother. We're purified from our old ways to a brotherly love.

Chapter one, verse three, chapter one, 22 through 21. We'll read that one real quick. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.

This theme pops up again in chapter three, verses eight to 12, four, eight, nine, five, 14, closes the book with a holy kiss. Now we don't have to practice that cultural form of the holy kiss. Maybe if we were in Europe, we might be a little more comfortable with the kiss on the cheek, but the principle applies universally.

And that is when you see your brother or sister in Christ, you should greet them with warmth because you really love them. You really care for their good. You really want them to succeed. You want them to flourish.

And there should be not only a separating from the world that makes us look different, but a separating to love that's just amazing to the world. They will know we are Christians by our love, the way we care for each other, the way we're there for each other, the way we think of each other and call each other up and encourage one another in the Lord.

Love is an important theme in the book of first Peter. Number five, growth. Growth in knowledge and godliness need to follow the new birth. So in first Peter two, two and eight, it says crave the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into your salvation.

We're not called just to be born again and remain babies, but by receiving the pure spiritual milk, which is the word, we're to grow up. So the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of the Lord lasts forever.

That's this context of the word of God. And by this word, we grow. Next, number six, what is an elect exile? Well, an exile is someone who doesn't belong in a land. They're there for a time and in that space, but they belong somewhere else.

And in this time, we are here in this world, but we are here as foreigners, as aliens, as exiles. We're elected for this time to be here, but to belong for eternity somewhere else. We're elect exiles.

We are waiting for the return of our king. So this idea of the second coming of Christ, when his glory will be revealed, when he will rescue us from this place and take us out is huge in first Peter. Look at first Peter one, one, we're called elect exiles.

Look at chapter two, verses nine to 12, when the language of Israel as a holy nation, a chosen people, a people for God's own possession is now applied to the church, includes the true Israel. And now Gentiles grafted into that branch.

We are called to be his possession. Why? To proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light, his marvelous light. Chapter four, verse seven, while we're waiting on him, we're doing these things.

We're exercising our spiritual gifts. Chapter five, verse four says, and when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. We are waiting on the return of our king while we're here.

We're elect exiles. Number seven, maturity. Maturity is suffering well. It's easy to obey Christ when things are smooth sailing. It's easy to parrot back what you hear somebody else say and mean it, but the test of maturity is not how well we can recite the facts of the Bible.

The test of maturity is when a hard time comes and we respond to it according to the revealed will of God. When according to the secret will of God, he allows a trial to come into our lives, he has a purpose for it, but we living by the revealed will of God, to love, to uphold and maintain our integrity, even in the midst of temptation, the word for temptation and trial in the Greek is the same word.

When that temptation comes, when that trial comes, will we suffer well or will we crumble? Maturity, I picture it as being solid as a rock. A rock, just picture the strong, firm thing and it's hard and it holds together.

Even if you hit it a little bit, even if you pound on it, it holds together versus a handful of sand pressed together. What happens as soon as you start poking at it or punching at it or jabbing at it?

You get stabbed in the back, you get slandered, you get gossiped about and what happens? Do you crumble? Do you lose your integrity? Do you fall apart or are you like that rock? Firm, secure, steadfast, strong, that even when the hard times come, you're the same thing.

You are who you are, even in the hard times. That's a picture of maturity and that Peter paints for us 1 7, 2 12 and 15 and 19, chapter three, verse one. So in chapter two, you have this imagery of Christ being the cornerstone.

He's a stone and who are we? We're living stones and we're fitted together to form a spiritual house for him and raised up with him to represent him. That's a picture of maturity. That's what Peter's after, that we would be as he became, Peter, rock, solid.

Baptism as a Picture of Salvation and Wrath

Next, baptism. Baptism in chapter three, verses 18 through four, six, becomes an image for us, a symbol. And I wanna just mention that baptism there does not save you in the literal sense, but the language says baptism now saves you.

Why? Well, it pictures for us the salvation we have in Christ, not the washing away of sin in that act, but the appeal of a pure conscience before God. It's the faith that brought you into the water and will bring you through the water.

Well, so what is that water? It's a picture of God's wrath. I want you to think about this. When Noah preached the gospel, the spirit of Christ was preaching through Noah to the people for 120 years. First of all, when was Noah saved by faith?

Before he started to build the ark. His work to build the ark didn't save him, he was saved beforehand, just like Abraham. Abraham chapter 15, verse six, believe God credited to him his righteousness, then he worked.

The faith worked. Noah believed, was saved, and worked, preaching. So what happened then? After the 120 years, the water fell from the sky and burst from the earth, and probably within a matter of minutes, the people of earth were destroyed.

Is that the fullness of the wrath of God? No. The wrath of God is even more fully displayed in the fact that those spirits who died then are still in prison even to this day. The wrath of God is that they're waiting in isolation, in horror, awaiting the great white throne judgment.

And that the great white throne judgment tells us that they will be cast into a lake of fire that lasts for eternity. The wrath of God is eternal. It's not just the mere minutes of physical death. We are spared from the wrath of God.

We're saved when we confess Christ, we believe in him in our heart, we're born again, made new, but then however many days later, whenever later, we go under the water and are raised back up, and that pictures escape from the wrath of God.

And just like the ark brought Noah safely through, the waters of baptism picture for us being resurrected out of, that water, the wrath of God was appeased once and for all on the cross. The ark points to it, baptism points back at it, but ultimately it was the cross of Christ that saves.

And so the teaching there is clear. Two things I'd like to say about it. Number one, that you need to be baptized. Romans six draws on baptism as a picture of our being crucified with Christ and resurrected with him to newness of life.

If you haven't been baptized, how do you have that memory of going under and coming out to be made new? It's part of how we mature to have that memory. Need to be baptized. But number two, even though the language particularly says baptism now saves you, it's not the act itself, that's the placeholder or the picture of the spiritual reality of baptism that you've been born again.

In your heart, the appeal of a pure conscience before God saves you. Baptism is that outward symbol of what happened on the inside, which happens first. Just like for Noah, salvation happens first through the renewal of the spirit.

Spirit baptizes you into the body of Christ and then the outward picture comes after. So it does save you in that metaphorical sense. Peter was right when he wrote what he wrote. Finally, two more points, stewardship and elders.

We in this time of our exile need to steward our time well. Steward it well. We have a certain amount of time, use it well. Life is short, you got to live it well. I think it was Switchwood that said that.

Spiritual gifts, use them. Chapter four, verses seven to 19. Be serving in the church. If you've been given a gift, use it to serve others. And if you have a speaking gift, use it to speak. Use that voice that you're given to speak.

And trials even are part of our stewardship. So again, this idea of suffering appears in all five chapters of the book of 1 Peter and that is a stewardship. How will you suffer? When that trial comes, will you uphold the glory of God?

Will you maintain your integrity? Steward that trial well. And number 10, lastly, elders have a special word spoken to us to oversee but to do so humbly. Not domineering, not eager for gain, not under compulsion, but humbly.

And all of us, elder or not, are called to this humility. It's kind of the final thought that Peter wraps up with, to be humble. That's why we cast our anxiety on Christ because we humbly recognize we can't carry or control anything anyway.

So we need to be humble and cast our anxieties on him. And he cares for us, so he'll carry them. So it wraps up then by saying, I've written briefly, and this is the true grace of God. Peter has told us the truth.

This is the grace of God at work in our lives. These words are life to our bones. Receive the book of 1 Peter, hold onto it and take it with you, meaning open it from time to time, often. Read it. I know a couple of people, two people in our congregation who have this book memorized.

I'm jealous of that. I would like to say I can commit to doing that right now, but I don't know that I can. I'm gonna do my best to learn it better, to take it with me. We've heard the word. We need to apply it.

That's my goal, is to take these words and apply it to my life. I encourage you to do the same, to be mature, growing, strong, solid as a rock. Solid as a rock. This is the true grace of God.