Caleb Walker

PowerPoint Download Here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/p03ge0nrzpn7wfxszb2ln/Our-Identity-I-Peter.pptx?rlkey=6alstfeuj9s50ubfpmhqkdomh&st=ge3ylrqf&dl=0

I apologize for providing this resource so late in the week, as I have been leading a Mission Team in Yokohama and Tokyo Japan this week, and return late Saturday evening.

Review: Last week we looked at the importance of having a mental resolution to pursue holiness for God’s glory in the midst of suffering. We do this because of our salvation and because of God’s worthiness and glory, as I Samuel 2:2, says “There is none holy like the Lord: for there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.” Also, our pursuit of holiness isn’t something we keep to ourselves, but impacts our brotherly love toward others. 

Title: Our Identity 

Session 3

Text: Please turn to I Peter 2:1-10

Memory Verse: I Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” 

Theme: Because of the new life Christ gives, believers are God’s own people who proclaim His praises. 

Introduction: In this week’s lesson we see that we all enjoy being connected with a group. Membership in the body of Christ is a blessing and calling where we have a vested interest in the well-being of one another. 

Opening Discussion Question (s): Like owning a home, ownership includes repairs that require responsibility. Peter wants his readers to know that their membership in the church carries with it huge blessings, as well as responsibilities. 

Discussion: Name an example of a blessing that brings responsibility. How might ignoring the responsibility diminish the enjoyment of the blessing? 

Context: The Asia Minor believers-as isolated exiles-were being persecuted from all sides, both by the pagan, idol-worshiping Gentiles and the Jesus-rejecting, law-keeping Jews. Peter reminds them to place their hope squarely on what Jesus has achieved in their salvation and future home. Fight temptations that diminish our walk with God. Replace ungodly vices with godly alternatives like spiritual disciplines. We should dwell in God’s word and read it and study it and memorize it and meditate on it and do it. The ones who do this are called “living stones” supported by Jesus the Cornerstone of our spiritual house, unlike the feeble, self-righteous religiosity of the Pharisees and religious leaders who rejected Jesus. Peter likens the situation of the church to that of the Old Testament Israelites. We’re called as recipients of mercy to be sharers of mercy. 

Main Points: 

1. Mature Believers (I Peter 2:1-3)

“So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. ² Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— ³ if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

• Peter is building this section on verse 23, which says, “since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;”
• “Put away” in the CSB is “rid yourselves.” There is an urgency that the believers forsake anything that hinders their love of Christ. 
• Peter addresses a series of sins in verse one that hinder unity among believers: 

Malice is evil behavior toward others. 

Deceit and hypocrisy: These range from lack of authenticity to full out lying that hurt others and create stumbling blocks in their walks with God. 

Envy leads to treating others with spitefulness and bitterness. 

Slander speaks of others in a demeaning way that makes others in the church family think less of them. 

• Peter uses the metaphor of newborn infants to encourage them to crave God’s word. 
• The word logikos highlights the need for the mind to be engaged to understand the word. 
• The condition of their prior experience of tasting of God’s goodness is given. Prior experience of God’s goodness motivates further pursuit of what God has for us. 
• Discussion: How would you describe someone who is spiritually mature? 
• II. Living Stones (I Peter 2:4-8)

“⁴ As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, ⁵ you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶ For it stands in Scripture: ‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’ ⁷ So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, ‘The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone,’  ⁸ and ‘A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.’ They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.”

• The term “living stone” connects the work of Jesus to the OT and highlights that we serve a resurrected, living Savior. 
• Peter masterfully draws from Psalm 118:22 when presenting Jesus’ rejection.
• Gospel: Jesus was rejected that we might be accepted. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus was given to live a holy life, die willingly, and rise on the third day defeating death and the grave. His death cemented humanity’s rejection of Him. 
• Believers are living stones, as they too are partakers in His resurrection power.
• As indwelled by the Holy Spirit, believers are a spiritual house. 
• Peter uses a paraphrased statement that comes from Isaiah 28:16, which says, “therefore thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I am the one who has laid^[a] as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’” 
• There is honor for those who accept this cornerstone and dishonor for His rejectors. 
• Discussion: What do we learn from the passage about our purpose as believers? How does understanding our identity in Christ help us to mature in Christ?
• III. God’s People (I Peter 2:9-10)

^“9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

• Key Doctrine: God’s Purpose of Grace

“Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the means in connection with the end” (p. 42). 

Ephesians 1:4-5, “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love ⁵ he predestined us^[a] for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,”

Romans 10:9-15, “⁹ because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. ¹¹ For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.’ ¹² For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. ¹³ For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ ¹⁴ How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?^[a]And how are they to hear without someone preaching? ¹⁵ And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’”

• Israel was God’s chosen people in the OT, and those who believe in Him are the same through the finished work of the Messiah. “Royal priesthood” and “holy nation” are both OT phrases. Like the OT priests connected people to God, we as a royal priesthood are called to connect people with God by His redemption. And Jesus is our High Priest, our ultimate go-between/Mediator. 
• We are His possession, and the ownership of our lives belongs to God, and no one can snatch us from God’s hand (John 10:27-30). 
• Alluding most certainly to Isaiah 43:21, Peter reminds these suffering Asia minor believers were a chosen race for the great purpose of His praise and gathering praise to Him from all peoples, as well. 
• In verse 10, Peter likens the mercy shown to believers to the mercy God showed His people, sinful, rebellious Israel, of old. Believers move to having their identity in Christ among His people. 
• God’s mercy moves those under His wrath into a place of undeserved place of worship-filled joy. 
• Discussion: What spiritual disciplines in your life help you live up to the identities that peter used for the church in I Peter 2:1-10?

Devotional: “I Peter 2:1-10, Mercy! Sweet Mercy! ”

      There is not one single human being who has ever lived who is not a sinner, and therefore no human being who has ever lived who is not in need of Divine mercy from the throne of God on high. Where shall the sinner find this refuge? From where shall this desperate need be met? Will the aching shame, regret, despair, and dark well of hopelessness be pierced with the divine light of forgiveness? There is an answer. There is a provision. There is a Divine well spring to rescue the sin-sick soul in the cross and resurrection of Jesus. 

     Come to Him and receive His mercy for sins past, sins present, and sins future. He, the all-knowing God of ages and eternity stands ready to receive you, welcome you, and draw you to Himself if you will only partake and plead the sufficient shedding of His very life’s blood. It’s for you, dear reader. 

     Mercy, sweet mercy is available to the one who will simply avail himself or herself of what Jesus—by His blessed sacrifice for sin—made available to you and to me. You need not—you must not—live one more day far from the blessedness of His salvation, His mercy toward you. 

How to Pray:

• Dear God, I need Your mercy. 
• Forgive me for all my sins, past, present, and future. 
• I believe in the sufficient work of Jesus Christ to achieve my salvation for me, when my faulty efforts at working for my salvation utterly failed. 
• I believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. 
• Please save me now, and thank You that You will never leave me. 
• Help me to remember that You will never leave me, and no one will pluck me from Your hand. 
• I love You with all my heart. 
• In Jesus’ Name I do pray, Amen.