1 Peter 1:1-2

You can put it on the email or something. I can email her the link after. Can you email me the one

I missed, the rest of Titus? Do you know which chapter you missed? I missed the last week's.

Okay. The last week of the class. Yeah, I'll email it to you. Whatever it is. Same email, the

Yahoo one, right? Yahoo? That's the one, right? Yeah, okay. Okay, we'll start with the prayer.

We'll pray for Carolyn, who's sick. Do you have any other prayer requests?

I still need a little bit more. To feel better, too? She needs a lot of it. Okay, yeah, okay.

We'll pray for Carolyn and pray for Diane. People are traveling this week, so let's pray for them, to Huffums and the

Michaels, they're traveling. Okay, let's pray. Father, we're grateful to gather here, our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Thank you for the opportunity to study your word. We ask that your spirit would open all of our hearts and help us to understand your word and help us to obey your word.

We also ask that you would heal Carolyn and Diane. Thank you that Diane can join us in person now.

We also pray for safety for traveling for the

Huffums and the Michaels. We pray that you'd protect them from every physical, spiritual, and even emotional attacks slash stressful situations that traveling may have, in Jesus' name, amen.

Okay, 1 Peter is a great book. I went over it just like two chapters in seminary, and then re -reading it and re -studying it,

I realized, man, I wouldn't agree with what he said. While learning it,

I was like, yeah, right? And then while reading it, I'm like, hmm, I don't, you know, it's like,

I don't know if that's what it is. And the main thing is, we're gonna discuss this, whether 1

Peter's written to the Jews or the Gentiles. And I'm going to share the options.

I was taught that it was written to the Gentiles, and then it's all metaphorical, like dispersion, you know?

But then now re -reading it, I'm like, there's not a ground to read it as a metaphor that they're in dispersion because Jews have been in dispersion for a long time, right?

So we'll go over this. So right now, I think 1 Peter's written to the

Jews, like Jewish Christians, right? They're still Christians, they're not unsaved, they're still

Christians, but Jewish background. So let's take a look.

So we're gonna go over the background information of 1

Peter, who wrote it, when was it, and all of that. So let's go over the first two verses.

Who can read the first two verses of 1 Peter? 1

Peter, go ahead, Dexter. Go ahead, Dexter. Verse one, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the

Father in sanctification of the spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.

Grace to you and peace be multiplied. Okay, in New Testament letters or epistles, same word,

I mean, same meaning, really, letter or epistle. The introduction is pretty important.

It really tells us who wrote it and kind of the summary of the purpose and to whom he is writing.

So we're going to unpack this. Who is the human author of this letter?

Peter. Yeah, Peter, right? Of course, the Holy Spirit is the divine author, right?

God is the divine author. And Peter here is the human author. And what title does he describe himself with?

Apostle, okay. Now we're going to unpack the meaning of the apostle because of this new apostolic, is it

Reformation or, yeah, the new heresy, the NAR, right?

Yeah, New Apostolic Reformation. So they would say, well, you know, the apostle doesn't always mean, you know,

Peter, Paul, John, James, right? Let's unpack that. So what does the title apostle mean?

Sent one. Sent one, yeah, the sent one. Yeah, yeah. The apostle, if you literally translate it, it means the sent one because the

Greek verb is apostella, which means to send, I send. So apostle is the sent one.

And depending on the context, it can just mean someone like a messenger, right?

And context determines the meaning of the word. So like, what do I mean?

Like in 2 Corinthians 8 .23, there's the word apostle used, but it just means messenger.

It doesn't mean one of the leaders of the church. 2 Corinthians 8 .23,

if anyone inquires about Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker concerning you.

Or if our brethren are inquired about, they are messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ.

So obviously these brothers are not big A apostles, right?

They're not Peter, they're not Paul, they're not James, John, right, Matthew. These are just messengers.

Or another way in which the apostle is used is the title for a commissioned church leader who is specifically sent by Jesus Christ himself.

That's why I call it the big A apostle, right? It's more than a messenger, right?

It's a special office, right?

As Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the pilgrims of the dispersion, which meaning do you think he's going with?

Sent? The sent one, just the messenger, or the big

A apostle commissioned by Christ? Reading the whole gospel. Yeah, the big A apostle, right?

And why do you think that he is using the title Christ commissioned church leader rather than just the messenger?

What gives us the context? Jesus Christ. That's right. Peter is directly taught from him.

Peter is directly taught from him, and we can see that in the gospel accounts. And also, notice an apostle of Jesus Christ.

An apostle of Jesus Christ. It's possessive. An apostle belonging to Jesus Christ, right?

What that means is this of Jesus Christ, Wayne Brudem, a systematic theologian, argues that the apostle is the only office in the church where of Jesus Christ is added to it, and it makes it specifically the commissioned church leader.

So when you have apostle of Jesus Christ, it has to be the special commissioned leaders who have seen

Christ and have been specifically sent by Christ. So it is a distinct honor.

There is nobody alive on earth right now who can call himself an apostle of Jesus Christ, right?

This is important. There is nobody alive on earth right now who can add to the

Bible a single word, okay? The canon is closed. The book is closed, right?

So it, yep. Yeah, I would say like a messenger.

Sure, like missionary. Yeah, because they're sent, right? In a sense of they are the sent ones.

Missionaries, right? And all of you, right? You are all sent to your community, your neighbors, your jobs, your colleagues.

We are sent. Yeah, not in the same way.

Not in the same way as Peter, Paul, Matthew, John. We're sent from Jesus.

Yeah, not in a physical, direct sense. That's right, yeah.

Physically, yep. That is one of the main categories used in Acts 1 to replace

Judas. Who was with us, right? Who was with us during Jesus's early ministry?

I think it's Paul. I think Paul is chosen in the unexpected time.

I think he's a special apostle to the Gentiles. But I think the 12th one is not

Paul. Yeah, Matthias. Yeah, I think it's Matthias. I think -

Jesus didn't actually choose him like he chose the other apostles. I think it's still

Paul. They didn't want to wait for something or they didn't. He just had the other,

Matthias just took over the duties, the duties to Jesus's duties.

I know that that's another interpretation of Acts 1. I think it's Paul. He came along later.

Paul's the one that, Matthias didn't really see Jesus, but Paul did. Well, Matthias did see

Jesus during earthly ministry, during his earthly ministry. So I think -

I think it's Paul. No, I think Paul's special. I think he is an apostle. I think he's one of the most impactful apostles.

But I think Matthias is still the replacement for Judas. Because Paul does say,

I'm a unique special apostle for this ministry, the Gentiles.

So we'll go over it when I preach through Acts, which would be in a couple of weeks.

But with that, yeah, of Jesus Christ, it's a distinct honor. Paul makes a distinction.

And in 1 Corinthians 9, 1, he says it's because he has seen the Lord and the work of God, right?

So seeing the Lord is a criteria for the apostleship. We're sent indirectly, right?

Jesus didn't come knocking at your door saying, I'm sending you out. We're sent through seeing the

Lord. We're sent through scripture, through the Holy Spirit, right? But Peter, John, James, the 12, right?

And Paul had been directly sent by Jesus Christ himself, right?

Jesus actually appeared to Paul. That's what makes him an apostle, right? That's his argument in Galatians, right?

Paul is an apostle. And there's no debate about Peter being an apostle. He's been there since the beginning.

Now, let's talk about this. So there are no apostles right now.

So this is Peter's son of Jonah, right? Peter, Simon, Peter, right?

He is one of the original 12. Now, if you talk to a liberal

Christians or liberal Christian or modern theologian who are not evangelical or like conservative or take the

Bible seriously, they'll argue that it's not written by Peter, but church history is not on their side.

First Clement opening, First Clement of Rome was historically discipled by Peter.

He quotes Peter's writings in his letters.

And he lived in the first century. Polycarp also alludes to Peter's writings and he lived and it's the writing is between AD 112 to 114.

That's pretty early on. Tertullian who lived from 160 to 240 actually cites verses from first Peter and attributes authorship to Peter.

So church history is on the side of scripture. Early church fathers all believe that first and second

Peter were written by Peter. So I know, but in modern theology, so many people believe

Paul didn't write Colossians. It's all jumbled, it's crazy.

That's why so many like good commentaries now, they like their initial chapter is on like authorship, who wrote it.

And even though it's pretty clear, it's Peter, they have to argue using church history.

Like actually like it's been believed to be Peter. So I'm just giving it to you now.

If you want like quotations, like I can give that to you too. Like I've found quotations of like polycarp and Clement, like quoting or alluding to first Peter.

Second, in the book of second Peter, Peter actually says, he refers to another letter, which means then these two letters are written by Peter.

So that's an internal evidence, it's in the scripture.

Land logically, if first Peter was not written by Peter, why did the early church keep it in scripture?

Right, why take the hard effort and costly too, right?

Letters, making letters costly, they didn't have printing press. Why spend all the effort and money to keep copying first and second

Peter, if they didn't think it was written by Peter? Because like the Holy Spirit told them to.

No, no, for sure. No, I'm not saying Peter didn't write it. I'm just saying the argument is against those people who are saying it's not written by Peter.

If people really thought it was not written by Peter in the first century, they wouldn't have kept it, right?

For the ones that were in charge of it, the Holy Spirit probably said something that the

Holy Spirit told them to keep it. Yeah, well, I'm assuming those who received first and second

Peter knew Peter directly and said, hey, it's from Peter, right?

I'm assuming the messengers who deliver these letters to what Pontus, Galatia, so on, came from Peter, right?

And these letters, these churches copy them down because they believe it was from Peter, right?

All right, to whom is Peter writing? Let's unpack this. What does it mean by elect here?

Elect according to, or anyone chosen, what does that mean?

The ones who believe. Yeah, they're believers, right? Those who reside have alien consciousness.

Yes, they are also aliens. Aliens, not as an extraterrestrial, they're scattered about.

They're in foreign lands, right? The word, it says pilgrims or aliens of the dispersion, right?

So although they are dispersed, they're all throughout the world. By the way, these cities,

Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, they're all in Turkey, modern day

Turkey. Yeah, yeah, they're all in modern day Turkey. Um, I think it was the southern part.

Let me take, I think it is the southern part of Turkey, but they're all like close to each other, like roundabout.

So like you could take the letter and then pass it on. Yeah. Yes, yes, that would be it.

Yeah, modern day Turkey. So they went there knowing that it was a favorable environment. So what probably happened was

Jews historically have been oppressed all the time, right?

Like Jews are taken from one empire to another, right?

And because of that, they're found like everywhere, right? In Africa and even

Asia, right? Like Turkey area, Europe, they're found everywhere. So what probably happened was from one oppression to the next and one exile to the next, they stayed there.

So their ancestry is Jewish, but they're stuck. And they have never really found a way to come back to the promised land because A, if you're established there, you have a family, you have a business, it's really hard to uproot and just go, right?

So they're stuck in dispersion. My view is as they're stuck in dispersion, and you can notice some of these cities,

Paul visited, you know, and other apostles visited, right? Heard the gospel, they became

Christians, right? But what Paul's, I'm sorry, Peter is saying is, although they're far away and they're dispersed and scattered about, these are specifically believers and they're chosen by God as God's people, right?

They're not just accidentally in foreign lands, right? God is not only aware of them, but have covenantally chosen them, right?

They're in God's covenant. That's, I think of chosen as covenant, right? Hey, God wanted them to be part of his people, right?

So God saved them, right? Even though they're far away.

And imagine how relieving that is for a Jew, right?

Because over history, the Jews, they're so covenantally tied to what?

Jerusalem, right? The land, they had to visit Jerusalem at least three times of three major feasts.

Oh, what if they're so far away? What if they're in Turkey? Well, Peter's saying, you're still of covenant, right?

You're still of the covenant. You're chosen. You're special. You've been redeemed by God, right?

You're still a believer. And I think that that is very comforting, right?

Even though you're far away, just as Israel is often called chosen people, right?

Like the chosen people ministry. I'm not sure. I haven't really looked into chosen people ministry, but I get emails a lot, right?

But Israel was chosen too. It's not because they were like, good. They're chosen because God promised that he would rescue

Abraham's descendants, right? So out of Egypt, God chose them out, right?

Entered into covenant together. So that's, I think it has that ring to it, right?

So it denotes a covenantal relationship. It denotes commitment, God's faithfulness, loyalty, and it's not transactional, right?

Hey, just because you're not in Jerusalem, it doesn't mean you're not part of God's people, right?

So dispersion. I did some studies with like, what does it mean to be of the dispersion or diaspora?

You might've heard of diaspora. Have you heard that, diaspora? Yeah, scattered, dispersion, same thing.

They're not truly at home. In one sense, these Jews are in foreign lands, right?

They're not truly at home. But Peter, he's the apostle to the, whom?

Jews, yeah, right? He, a lot of the time in Acts, Peter's really in Jerusalem.

Can you imagine if you get a letter from the apostle to the Jews? And he says, hey, to those who are in dispersion, the elect ones, like that's a comfort.

Although you might not have seen Peter in Jerusalem because you didn't really get to Jerusalem, you get a letter as a

Jewish man who's never really been to Jerusalem. I'm writing a letter to you from Peter, right?

It's like Paul went to the Gentiles. Gentiles, right, right. Paul went to the Gentiles, Peter went to the

Jews. Yeah, Peter went to the

Jews and Paul was to the Gentiles. Yes, and in another sense, these

Christian, Jewish Christians, they are away from home and it's heaven.

They're also, it's like two layers. One is like, yeah, they're away from Jerusalem. And then they're also away from the true home, right?

They're not meant to find permanent comfort wherever they are right now in the foreign lands, right?

Their citizenship is with whom? Yeah, God, right?

God's kingdom, Christ's kingdom. So that's what diaspora mean. Now, yeah.

I just mentioned something that says exactly in Galatians 9 -2 where Paul went back and was telling the church why he was preaching and what do you think?

And it talks about James and Cephas or Peter and John. Yeah. The ones who told Paul, you go to the

Gentiles. Right, right, right. In other words, he's there in Jerusalem and they're saying, and he doesn't say, we're to the

Jews, but he says, we are sending you to the Gentiles. That's right, that's right, yeah. Which kind of shows that Peter was with the

Jews and that was his ministry. Yeah, I fully agree. That's in Galatians 2 -9.

Right. Now, when was this written?

I believe it was written around 62 -63 AD, AD 62 -63.

The reason is, although it's not in the Bible, 64.

Yeah, the reason is, although it's not in scripture, it's believed that Peter died during Nero's reign,

Emperor Nero of Rome. And he was, I mean, historically people say he was crucified upside down.

It's not in scripture, so I'm not gonna like, hold on to that, but tradition, yeah.

So because of that, it's before Neronian persecution. So that's why

I put it early 60s. Now, the question we've been waiting for, is

Peter writing to the Jews or Gentiles? I want to say that, first of all, the recipients are all

Christians. They believe in Christ, they receive Christ. The question is, what's their ethnic background, right?

So I looked up diaspora dispersion, the word diaspora dispersion, and shows up three times.

Once is here, two other times, one is in John 7 .35. I'll read it for you.

Then the Jews among themselves, whither will he go that we shall not find him? Talking about Jesus.

Will he go on to the dispersed among the Gentiles and teach the

Gentiles? The idea of the dispersed here in John is that these are the dispersed

Jews, right? So it's the scattered ones who are Jews who are living with the

Gentiles. So in John 7 .35, dispersion means

Jews. James 1 .1, James, a servant of God and of the

Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes, which are scattered or dispersed, a broad reading.

When you see 12 tribes, is that Gentile or Jew? Yeah, Jew. Because of that,

I think it's most direct and clear to read dispersion as Jewish.

In fact, the word dispersion gets used in the Old Testament with the

Greek Septuagint, Greek translation. Deuteronomy 28 .25, it's actually a judgment that they are scattered for their unfaithfulness.

Hey, if you don't obey, you're gonna be dispersed. That's from God. And then

Deuteronomy 34, God says, but because he's merciful, I'll gather you back from your dispersion.

Same with Nehemiah 1 .9. So seems like the word dispersion applies to actually the

Jews, right? Furthermore, when you read 1

Peter and when we read it all together, you'll see a lot of Old Testament quotations. And I'm not gonna list them all, but 1 .16,

1 .24 .25, chapter two, verse three, six through 10, 22, chapter three, verse 10 through 12, chapter four, 18, chapter five, that's a lot.

And most likely, these people probably knew the Old Testament because they're

Jews. And also, when you turn to 1

Peter 2 .12, I do like the old translations because they don't smooth it out.

Having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works, which they observe, glorify

God in the day of visitation. There, it doesn't make sense to say that your conduct must be honorable among the

Gentiles unless they're not Gentiles. Right, yeah.

The word is the nations, right?

So why is Peter making a distinction between nations, right?

And nations and these people unless they're not part of the nations, right?

Because Gentile, there can be Gentile believers, right? But obviously here, that's not true.

So that distinction, I think, is that's what convinced me when I saw that.

It's like, why would Peter make a distinction of the Gentiles? Why can't he just say unbelievers? Right.

Unless these Jews are living among the Gentiles, right? Another thing is the argument from silence.

If you read like Galatians, Colossians, all these, when

Paul's writing to the Gentiles, what does he say? Whom does he write to? To people, but what does he refer them as?

Right, the church, to the church of, to the churches of, right?

Here, we don't get that. Here, we just get dispersion, right?

That's like, why? Maybe they don't call themselves, right?

The church, but rather they're Jewish Christians, right? Although they're part of the universal church, right?

No argument about that, but maybe how they refer themselves is not quite the same way as the Gentiles do.

Oh, maybe they, because they weren't, they weren't called Christians then. Was this written after Acts or before Acts?

This is written after Acts. Yeah. So this is still... So the Ethiopians, they already...

It's all done. They knew that they were Christians. Yes, yes. And maybe these guys didn't want to be called Christians.

Yeah, or their, their like ethnic identity is just being Jewish, right? So they're called the dispersed people, right?

And as Victor mentioned, Galatians 2, 7 through 8, Peter's role was he's apostle to the

Jews. I think the Roman Catholics, they try to brainwash history and whitewash it, make it seem like Peter was the bishop of Rome, but it's like, have you read

Romans? Who wrote that, right? It's like Peter didn't write

Romans, right? Peter probably just died in Rome. He was taken there, but he probably didn't minister too much in Rome.

Yeah. Now, just to be fair, I want to look at why people would say they're

Gentiles, you know, because like you want to be able to have a good conversation, right?

So what is the argument that they're Gentiles? Why would we read this metaphorically, right?

Like dispersion, as in like, it's a spiritual dispersion. It's not about land. You know, that's, that's how they would say it, right?

First Peter 1, 18 is what they say. Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers.

So it's this idea that, hey, you were redeemed by Christ from your really empty tradition, aimless conduct, right?

Empty conduct, vain things that you received from your fathers. So these people would say, see, that's, that's why you would say to a

Gentile, right? Why, why would you say about the Jews? Now here's the counter argument.

Jews also had empty traditions. Like without, Jesus had major problems with empty traditions of the

Pharisees, right? And if you read the Mishnah, that's like the

Jewish tradition, like, it really botches salvation by grace through faith alone, right?

It doesn't have that. It's very works -based. That's an empty tradition. Any tradition that misreads the

Bible and makes salvation based upon works, that is an empty tradition, whether Jewish or Gentile, right?

So that would be my counter argument to that. If they say, well, that's obviously Gentile because it's empty tradition.

But I would say, well, Jews also had, some Jews had empty traditions, right? Yeah, I would say after Christ has revealed and after he has died and rose from the dead, it could have become an empty tradition.

If we had made Gentiles become Jews in order to be saved. I think a lot of the empty traditions were the fact, which they say in the law that the people who wrote the law put their own words like beside it to the point where they created traditions far beyond what the

Lord had. Right, right, right, right. Like great examples like Mark 7, when the

Pharisees are like really angry at the disciples of Christ for not washing their hands before eating.

Nowhere in the Old Testament law do you have to wash your hands where it's unclean, right? Uncleanness is something different than washing hands.

Although we would say that's unclean, but that's not against the law. It's tradition. And then when

Peter didn't want to eat all that animal food that when he was hungry, I made him eat it clean.

Yeah, yeah, post Christ. Yeah, it's post Christ. You can't apply the law the same way as you did because you have to apply it in Christ.

How did Christ fulfill that, right? Well, you're made clean by his blood, right?

Not by what you avoid eating, right? So, yeah, empty tradition. Another argument they use is 1

Peter 4, 3 through 4. For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the

Gentiles when we walked in lewdness, loss, drunkenness, rivalries, drunk drinking parties, and abominable idolatries.

And they read idolatry and they're like, see, it has to be Gentile idolatry, right?

But what would be the counter argument to that? That's right.

Have you read the Old Testament, right? Idolatry is a continued theme in Israel, right?

In fact, they have so many idols. It's hard to even follow which gods they didn't worship for sure.

So I couldn't find the counter example counter argument to the argument to the

Jews. So I can't share that. But I was able to find the counter argument to those who claim that it's written to the

Gentiles. Yeah. So because of that,

I am going with 1 Peter was written to the Jewish Christians, like ethnically

Jews. Diane, you have a question? I can get back to you if you remember.

Yeah. Now, why did I spend so much time going over that? What's at stake?

Like, why does it matter whether it's written to the Jews or the Gentiles, right? In the end, it is written for us to apply to live godly lives in this world, even though we don't belong here, right?

Because we are spiritually sojourners here. Why does it matter? It's because of how do we actually read dispersion and alien and pilgrims?

Do we read it literally or metaphorically? That's the decision we have to make. And for me,

I don't find the ground that we can read this metaphorically. And if there's no context to read it metaphorically, that it's not wise to read it metaphorically.

Right. And then we also have the relationship between the church and the nation of Israel, that the ethnic

Jews is also in play here. If we don't, if we read it metaphorically, that play is gone, right?

The ethnic Jews and the church. Are they distinct? Although saved by Christ, same saviors, the same way belief in Christ alone.

The question is, was there a distinction in terms of how did

Peter make a distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles and how he ministered to them directly?

Right. So that's the thing. He certainly had a battle within himself initially about ministering to the

Gentiles. Right. Where the Lord let down what he was set to minister to the

Gentiles in Corinth court. Right. For sure. He said, I don't participate in those kind of things.

Right. And it brings down a sheep with all the things that Jews don't eat.

Right, right, right. And so I think he had a battle that the Lord had to deal with.

For sure. No, yeah. Initially. Initially, for sure.

And then he changed like Acts 15, Jerusalem council said, Gentiles don't have to eat like Jews, right?

Oh, a bigger picture is this idea of replacement theology. Has anyone heard of the replacement theology?

Yeah. It's an old one, but it's coming back in vogue, right?

It's becoming popular. It's this idea that every time you read Israel or, you know, anything like that in the

Bible, it's the it's the church. So I have a hard time with this mainly because.

Although they are both saved in Christ, right? Although they're both saved by the same God, same way, faith through grace.

Right. I think the Bible makes a distinction. Right. Between Israel and Gentiles.

So I think a lot of people who hold to the replacement theology, they want to read this metaphorically to say this is the

Gentile, right? When I was a child, my father was a pastor and they had people that would come and say, well,

I'm at that time, they would say, I'm a British Israelite. Oh. And so they would argue and their argument was this.

The Jews killed Christ, so he's done away with them. Right. Yeah, that's the idea. That's the idea.

So, right. Not so. Yeah. Yes, I think in I think in the end days, like the last days.

I think the last days, I think a lot of Jews will come to faith in Christ after the time of the

Gentiles. That's the Romans. Romans 11,

I believe is 9 through 11 really is about that. Right. I think we're getting like a glimpse of it.

Like some Israelites are like being they're coming to faith, but we're not seeing the fullness of it.

Yeah. Jews for Christ. One for Israel. Chosen people ministry. Yeah.

Yeah. Right.

Yeah. Yeah. A confirmation.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like I do not trust that they're spiritually dark, too.

It's not even just moral. I think there's spiritual Satanism there. So, yeah, because of that reason,

I hold that first Peter, just as it says, dispersion means the

Jews who've been dispersed. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Yes. Yes. They would say then these Gentiles are not like Gentile ethnically.

I mean, obviously, they would be ethnically Gentiles, but they would be unbelievers. Right. They would read that as unbelievers or pagans instead of as an ethnic term, even though the term itself just means nations, which we would have applied to Gentiles, non -Jew in any other way.

Yeah. That I think that's the one of the strongest one where like Peter specifically distinguishes the readers from the

Gentiles, then why wouldn't you? Right. But they metaphorically read that as non -Christians.

It's because I think it's driven by their theology. Yeah. Just like because elsewhere in the

New Testament or the Old Testament, they would read Israel as the church. And because of that, they can do it here.

You know, so. But you'll meet even like conservative

Christians who will hold to that, too. So you'll see that they're still saved if they believe in Jesus Christ.

But it's just I wouldn't agree with that reading. Right. Like like Presbyterians, they would read that.

Right. Israel's the church. Right. All right. Number two, elect according to the foreknowledge of God, the father in sanctification of the spirit for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.

Grace to you and peace be multiplied. Now. How is their election described?

What do you notice here? Yeah, for not what does the foreknowledge mean?

God knew it's and I think this is very comforting. Imagine if you're a dispersed

Jew, right? And it's just like, what am I to do with Jerusalem anymore?

Right. I don't I can't even track my lineage. But then Peter writes to you.

Hey, you're a part of the covenant. And God knew that you would be.

You didn't just accidentally get saved. All right. I think that's comforting.

Right. Hey, God's love for you is not an accidental whim. Right. God had a plan of redemption for you.

Right. That's the foreknowledge. Second, by the sanctification of the spirit.

What does it mean by sanctification? Holy, make it holy, set it apart. There are two different types of sanctification.

We normally think of sanctification as something we do, like not we do something. The Holy Spirit does to transform us as a process.

Right. We're not suddenly perfect. We become more and more like Christ. That's sanctification.

What we normally use. Another way sanctification can be is to set apart.

And it can be a positional sanctification. So God has set them apart.

They're not they're different from the world. So I think it is more like positional sanctification here that the spirit of God has set them apart.

For a purpose. Right. And what's the purpose? What's the result?

Tell the world about the gospel. Sure. But what does it say in verse two?

What's the result? What's the purpose? For obedience. To obey.

Yeah. And sprinkling of the blood. We're going to have to unpack that one. What is with the sprinkling?

But for obedience. That makes sense. Right. You're safe. You're part of the covenant.

God knew that you would be saved. You would be redeemed. He had a way for you.

Yeah. And the spirit set you apart.

Right. You're not of the world. And what's the purpose?

For obedience. So that you would obey. Now, let's talk about the sprinkling of the blood.

Uh. What does it mean to sprinkle blood?

Yes. It's sacrificial. Right. Sprinkling of the blood is cleansing blood.

It's covering of sin. Yeah. And it's also a covenantal initiation.

If you remember in Exodus 24. And it's crazy to think

Exodus was like two years ago for us. But it seems like it was just like a couple months ago.

I preached through Exodus like in 22. Oh, and 23.

But in Exodus 24. What happens is. God saves

Israel from Egypt. And he gathers them. And then he tells Moses. Hey, make this sacrifice.

And sprinkle the blood on the altar. And sprinkle the blood of them.

The Israelites. And Moses does so. So. And Moses took half the blood.

And put it in basins. And half the blood he sprinkled on the altar. That represents God. Then he took the book of the covenant.

Verse 7. And read in the hearing of the people. And they said. All that the Lord has said we will do.

And be obedient. I agree. Right. But that's.

But the context is this. It's the context is covenantal.

What are these dispersed Jews saved from? Well, they're saved from sin.

According to the foreign knowledge of God the Father. God the Father knew that they would be saved. He knew that Jesus would die on the cross.

Right. It didn't. It wasn't a surprise. Right. Sanctification. And he set them apart.

From the world. And the point is. For obedience.

Just like in the old covenant. They were set apart. With blood sprinkled on them.

For what? Obedience. So if they don't do the obedience. How about.

But take a look at this. Is it the animal blood they're sprinkled with? It's Christ's blood.

That's the difference. It's a different covenant. Yeah. It's one and done.

There's actually forgiveness. Right. Sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ is forgiving.

They're being pure. They're forgiven. So. What do

I. What does that mean? This. These Jews are not saved for nothing.

They're not saved just to be saved. They're saved to be obedient, faithful people of God.

And imagine the encouragement they must have received reading the introduction.

They thought they're just a bunch of nobody's forgotten. Cannot trace their lineage back to Jerusalem. And cannot visit

Jerusalem three times a year. Because it's so far. But Peter says. Not so.

For knowledge. God knew. God was going to redeem you. He loved you even before. Does God know who's going to be.

Who's going to obey and who's not. Like he probably does. Yeah. I think that's what for knowledge.

Yeah. He's omniscient. Now. In sanctification of the spirit.

They've they've been set apart. Yes, they're far away. They're far away from Jerusalem. But they're they're still.

God's people. Right. And he's disappointed that you didn't obey.

I think there's there's there's still grace. There's. Well, there's there's grace, right?

They're saved through grace. It's not based upon perfect obedience. It's just. It's faith in Jesus Christ that saves them, right?

Well, maybe that's why the Christ's coming is taking longer. Because he's hoping everybody gets saved.

Because it says so in there. God wants everybody to be saved. And so they he's hoping that everybody's.

A day and that's eschatology would be a different conversation. Maybe we can do that after.

But I think it is a real expanding on this chapter two verse nine.

Yeah. Yeah, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people.

That you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous life.

Right. Talking about salvation. Yeah. That's right.

Right. Amen. Right. Now, this is really cool. When you take a look at this introduction, who is involved in God's people entering into this covenant relationship with the

Lord? Who is involved? What characters do you see here in verse two?

Yeah, the spirit. Yeah, it's father, the son and the spirit.

Right. All three of them. The covenantal status of God's people is a trinitarian work.

Right. You enter into a covenant with a triune God. If you want to just simplify it.

The father foreknows the spirit sanctifies the sun cleanses. You could read that there.

I mean, it's a beautiful thing. And when people say you can't find Trinity in the

Bible, you know, it's like it's everywhere. It doesn't say the word. No, but the concept is there.

Right. Notice no angels are involved. Right. Notice no prophets are involved.

It's God, the son, God, the father and the God, the spirit. Ah, now it ends with grace to you and peace be multiplied.

And that's a very common greeting. But for Christian, it's it's a deep greeting, right?

Well, what's the what's so special about grace? Yes, God's riches at Christ's expense.

It's free. You're saved at Christ's expense. Right. And because you're saved at Christ's expense, there's peace that's multiplied.

There's peace between you and God. And that is the most important piece that the world needs this day.

Right. It's peace. And you can't get peace without Christ. Riches.

Yeah. And as we as we close, the purpose of this letter is to the scattered

Jews who probably are disheartened, maybe even feeling rejected, feeling out of place in a literal and spiritual sense, because,

A, they're in a foreign country and B, they just became

Christians. So who knows what kind of persecution they're facing, too, from even Jews, too. Right.

And these Christians probably were not really being shepherded because, you know, if you're a

Jewish Christian, you better be in Jerusalem. But they're in Turkey. But the apostle to the

Jews himself writes this letter to encourage and to shepherd them through the persecution that is starting.

Now, they're probably not getting killed at this point. It's too early. But they're still suffering. And social pressure is still hard.

If you're, you know, if you're a Christian and you're a new Christian, it is still hard. It is scary. And Peter wants to say, hey, endure in your new identity in Christ.

Yes, you're dispersed. But in that sense, you belong to another kingdom.

You're dispersed. Physical, social status applies spiritually, too.

You belong to a different king. You belong to a different kingdom.

Right. And with that, he opens with grace to you and peace be multiplied. All right.

Any questions or comments before we close in prayer? I don't know if that makes a difference or not.

Yeah. But are they the scattered exiles from Old Testament or recent?

It can be both. So like after the Assyrian Empire. So the

Northern Kingdom gets judged heavily first. And the Assyrian Empire takes them away from the land.

And they go everywhere because the Assyrian Empire is huge. Right. It's kind of like the big empire of that time.

So they end up everywhere. And a lot of them didn't go back. And they didn't go back because they settled down.

Right. And people who settle down normally don't go back. Right. It's kind of like Lauren's family can get to like Hungarian.

Right. Like her dad's like almost 100 % Hungarian. But hey, has

Steve ever gone back to Hungary? Yeah. Right. No, they came to the

Ellis Island and have settled down. And that happened to the

Jews. But over time, too, because it wasn't just the Assyrian Empire that did it. Babylonians did it.

Greeks, Romans, they all, you know. So yeah, they're dispersed throughout the time.

And they've just always been oppressed by one empire to the next. So yeah, I would say it's both.

Okay. Yeah. But they're still feeling out of place because if you're ethnically Jewish, you still kind of keep the culture of reading the

Old Testament. And then you read and you're like, gee, I never really go to the temple anymore.

You know, it's like, hmm, I feel out of place. But Peter says, no, you're chosen.

You're redeemed. You're sprinkled with the blood. You're cleansed. Right. Good, good question.

Any other questions here before we close? All right.

Thank you. Thank you, Dexter, for the suggestion because I'm learning. I feel like I'm learning more than when

I learned it in seminary. Let's pray. Father, we're grateful that we, too, don't belong to the kingdom of America.

We belong to the kingdom of Christ. We pray that you would help our hearts and desires and our minds to be set on the things of Christ and wait for the

King to come back. Help us to live honorably until that time. In Jesus' name, amen.