the first epistle of peter
Living Stones being the people of God in the world
zion church adult fellowship community
why are you reading this? there’s nothing here. move along.
the first epistle of peter Living Stones being the people of God in the world zion church • afc 2 • winter 2012
The title for this class is taken from the text below, drawing on 1 Peter’s central metaphor for God’s people who are a new-creation construction project in the midst of old creation. We as living stones are both God’s temple, His dwelling on earth, and God’s priests, His sacrificing-ones for earth; we are modeled on the Living Stone who was God dwelling on earth bodily and whose life is the sacrifice that saves the nations. 1 Peter 2.4–10 ESV As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 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. 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.” 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,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 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. 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.
living stones • ii
class schedule* Week 1
Jan 8
Course, Context, Content
Week 2
Jan 15
1 Pet 1.1-12
Week 3
Jan 22
1 Pet 1.13-25
Week 4
Jan 29
1 Pet 2.1-10
Week 5
Feb 5
1 Pet 2.20-25 and Summary
Week 6
Feb 12
*
* there will likely be a congregational meeting in the middle; if not, we will go for six weeks and the last two sessions will be altered
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1 Peter Outline Proposal
I. Salutation: A Book for Priests in Exile, 1.1-2 II. Introduction: Coming Salvation, Present Situation, Ancient Scripture, 1.3-2.10 A. Salvation and Suffering, Anticipated and Expected, 1.3-12 1. Salvation Anticipated Later: A Living Hope, A Permanent Inheritance, A Ready Salvation, 1.3-5 2. Suffering Expected Now: The Joy of Refining in Various Trials, 1.6-9 3. Salvation Anticipated Before: The Savior's Prophesied Suffering and Glory, 1.10-12 B. Christian Conduct meets Prophetic Word in Eschatological Living, 1.13-25 1. Ultimate Hope and Imitated Holiness, 1.13-16 2. Saintly Behavior and Sanctifying Blood, 1.17-21 3. Brotherly Love and Lasting Word, 1.22-25a 4. Hope, Live, Love: This is the Gospel, 1.25b C. Christian Mission meets Prophetic Word in Eschatological Dwelling, 2.1-10 1. Putting off and Growing Up: The Good God and His Transforming Word, 2.1-3 2. Priests and Temple: The Living Stone and His Holy Nation, 2.4-10 III. Living Stones: Living in Exile, Looking like Jesus, 2.11-5.11 A. Introduction: Set Apart and Slandered; Good Deeds for Glory, 2.11-12 B. Life in Exile: Test Cases for Suffering to Redeem a Broken World, 2.13-4.11 1. Living regarding the State, 2.13-17 2. Living regarding Masters, 2.18-20 3. Looking like Jesus: Redemptive Suffering, 2.21-25 a. The Exemplary Model of Christ, 2.21 b. The Innocence of Christ, 2.22 c. The Submission of Christ, 2.23 d. The Substitution of Christ, 2.24 e. The Redemption of Christ, 2.25 4. Living regarding Marriage, 3.1-7 a. Wives: Winning without Words, 3.1-6 b. Husbands: Honoring as Heirs, 3.7 5. Living regarding Antagonists, 3.8-12 6. Looking like the Christ: Suffering for Righteousness, 3.13-22 7. Conclusion of the Test Cases: Persevering in Suffering unto the End, 4.1-11 a. Exiles Suffer rather than Sin, 4.1-6 b. Exiles Serve unto the End, 4.7-11 living stones • iv
C. Life in Exile: A Community that Looks like Christ, 4.12-5.11 1. Living in a Hostile World: Shared Suffering and Coming Judgment, 4.12-19 a. Sharing in Christ's Suffering, 4.12-13 b. Mocked in Christ's Name, 4.14-16 c. Vindicated in Christ's Judgment, 4.17-19 2. Living in a Holy Community: Selflessness and Humility, 5.1-5 a. Elders: Selfless Shepherds, 5.1-4 b. Young Men: Submissive Servants, 5.5a c. Everyone: Humility in Community, 5.5b 3. Living in a Spiritual War: Entrusting unto the End, 5.6-11 a. Trusting in God's Powerful Care, 5.6-7 b. Resisting the Accuser with the Brothers, 5.8-9 c. Trusting in God's Restoring Care, 5.10-11 IV. Closing: Exiles in Babylon, 5.12-14 A. Written in Community, 5.12 B. Written from Babylon, 5.13 C. Written for Community, 5.14
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Course, Context, Content an introduction to 1 peter
Course: Why? What? How? What for? Why? Deuteronomy 31 (1) (2) (3)
What?
How?
What for?
Living Stones • Zion Church • Notes, Jan 8, 2012 / 1
Context: Peter the Rock
Content: 1 Peter’s Message
Living Stones • Zion Church • Notes, Jan 8, 2012 / 2
Course, Context, Content an introduction to 1 peter
Content: 1 Peter’s Message All excerpts below from 1 Peter, Joel Green (Two Horizons; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007).
On God’s People and the World “Pivotal questions surface in 1 Peter – pivotal for God's people then and now, and indeed in all times this side of the eschaton. What to do with Rome? What to do about Rome? What to make of Rome?” (Green, 1). It's a helpful thought, this. Basically, Green is saying that 1 Peter deals with the question: how is the new creation community to operate as such in the midst of and in relation to the old creation which surrounds it and which it is supplanting? Green acknowledges that “Peter understands that the problem is not Rome per se” (ibid.) and thus calls Rome Babylon. He continues, “‘Babylon’ was a cipher for a world hostile to God, and, for Peter, this is what Rome had become. Peter thus highlights emphatically the problems of Christian life and witness in the presence of a world system not only out of step with God's purpose but actually set against it. … This reference to Babylon pulls back the curtain on the real context in which Peter's audience made their lives, focusing attention on the systemic character of harassment and the institutionalization of evil in patterns of sanctioned behavior and organizational structures that legitimate and propagate such behavior,” (ibid.). 1 Peter, then, focuses on how God’s people are to live in the middle of a system that is organized to actively and hostilely oppose them and their God. Green goes on to discuss 1 Peter's options about what to do with Rome. “Among the available options, we might think of withdrawal into a kind of alternative community in which faithfulness to God is exercised in relative anonymity within the empire; or moving to the margins of populations centers, to the underground, from which to execute attacks on the Empire, whether secretly or openly; or moving persons into position of leadership of the cities, perhaps as esteemed benefactors, in order to participate innocuously in Roman society,” (1-2). Green also helpfully discusses how our ecclesial positions influence which of the three choices we make (2-3); refer to his commentary if you wish to read it.
Living Stones • Zion Church • Quotes, Jan 8, 2012 / 3
Content (excerpts) continued… Green then makes an excellent point
of the way the world really is? What if, instead, we
concerning our usual attitude toward “Rome”
were to read this letter from the perspective of its
versus 1 Peter’s position that is helpful in
primary temporal orientation, the End – that
pondering our own ecclesial position. He writes,
actualization of God's purpose, the judgment, the
“The typical options we entertain do little or
vindication of the faithful, which undermines the
nothing to address the most basic of concerns here.
claims of Babylon (in all its guises) to its own
This is because our tendency is to imagine that,
ultimacy or importance?" (4).
whatever tactics we formulate, we can execute them by putting the politics of Rome to work for us. We will use the same instruments of influence,
1 Peter and God’s People “The homeless people of God comprise God's
but we will use them better, and for a good and
household under construction, and a priesthood
worthy cause,” (3).
whose vocation it is to mediate God's presence
1 Peter and the World “1 Peter is about God and the ramifications of orienting life wholly around him. This entails refusing the conventions of honor and status that
wherever they find themselves. As they journey through suffering in hope of eschatological honor, they bear witness in the present to the coming new age,” (4). “Peter describes his audience as ‘aliens’ and
constitute Roman politics in favor of the valuations
‘strangers in the world,’ foreigners in this sense:
and judgment of the merciful God who has chosen
their commitments to the lordship of Jesus Christ
and honored what the systems of this world have
have led to transformed attitudes and behaviors
dismissed. To read 1 Peter is to be told not how we
that place them on the fringes of their
might think about God, but what God thinks of us.
communities,” (6).
Here in 1 Peter is an invitation to adopt God's way of seeing things and to live accordingly …” (3). “Because 1 Peter does not name tactics of
“1 Peter was written to address Christians in such circumstances as these – not so much to resolve the enigma of the suffering of God's people
resistance in terms explicit and recognizable to our
as to give significance to their distress and to
ears, we may be tempted to imagine either that
articulate how best to engage a world set against
Peter counsels sectarian withdrawal from society
those allegiances, attitudes, and actions that are
or proposes optimism toward Babylon. What if,
consistent with God's agenda,” (6).
instead, we were to read this letter from the
“Together with the Book of Revelation, 1 Peter
perspective of its central icon, the passion of Christ
is unrivaled among NT documents for its concern
– that visible and horrible manifestation of what
with questions of Christian identity, constitution,
happens when life is lived according to God's view
and behavior in a hostile world,” (11).
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